This is my first blog entry, so I thought I’d jump in with some stuff of personal interest.

The corner of Gregory & Cayuga Streets can now officially be declassified as a “coffee house.” Originally known as Daily Perks and more recently The Mez, this formerly very cool local hangout in a very historic old building and renowned for it’s great Greenwich Village style ambience, is now the Tango Cafe. Being a nice day today, I took a walk through my southwedge neighborhood and landed at this location and peered in the front windows. The stage is gone and so is most, if not all, of the ambience. At the other end, there is a small coffee bar and a small allotment of tables and chairs. The event schedule on the front windows shows almost all events are tango dance oriented. There appear to be two holdovers: a spoke word/poetry slam event the first Tuesday of the month(apparently an off-shoot of the former Free Speech Zone at The Mez) and Songwriters in the Round, a former monthly weekend event at The Mez. I used to attend and eventually hosted the (at times) raucous Comedy Open mic back in Daily Perks days. Last year I tried to revive comedy at The Mez, with something called Comedy Underground, my ambitious, if not unrealistic attempt at an “alternative” to other comedy shows in the area and which out of desperation, reverted to a mostly poorly attended Open Mic. Perks/Mez had a great vibe to it, but apparently never had enough customers to be profitable. The great vibe is gone and now it’s a dance studio, but best of luck to the new owners. Hopefully they can succeed where Daily Perks and The Mez failed. I know the landlord sure hopes so.

Another place I spent some time at, though not nearly as much as I wanted, was The Anti-War Storefront on Monroe Avenue. It also closed recently I’m not the right person to write a detailed report on all the local anti-war efforts that originated at this little storefront, but I know they did some great work. I volunteered there a few times and paid a few visits at others times. I also organized and hosted a couple of comedy show fund raisers for The Storefront. Like Daily Perks/The Mez, the realities of paying a hefty monthly rent can get in the way of the best of intentions and that’s an unfortunate fact. And again, while I’m not the most qualified person in town to report on this, it appears much of their activities may still be living on at a new place. This new place also hosted poetry last night and has a pretty cool stage area on the second floor. And I’m told they are the sole owners and have no landlord to deal with.

I’m referring to the newly opened Flying Squirrel Community Space at 285 Classisa Street(at one end of Corn Hill). This will apparently be home for many progressive groups and activities in Rochester and IMHO is truly a great idea. Formerly a deserted Elks Lodge, I’m told FSCS owns the building. FSCS just got a conditional C of O(certificate of occupancy) from the city and had it’s grand opening, a Halloween Party, a week ago saturday(10/31). I showed up a bit late, but nonetheless had a good time meeting up with some friends and acquaintances I haven’t seen in awhile. FSCS is also very cool, though in a different way from the old Perks/Mez hangout. Very dark and maybe a bit charmingly dreary, the downstairs has this great bar and the upstairs has a great wide open performance area, complete with a small stage area. For more information, join them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/FlyingSquirrelCommunitySpace/100000140036866.

Rochester Free Radio, of which I am, in all due modesty, the founder, is hoping to finally get things going. Like The Flying Squirrel’s desire for a community space, we feel there is a need for a community radio station. It is our hope that in a medium dominated primarily by corporate interests, people without a voice can finally have a voice. I’m a former commercial radio announcer and I have no voice. One can only imagine how difficult finding a voice on the airwaves is for groups or individuals with no radio background or knowledge of current FCC rules and regs. No, unfortunately we have no license to broadcast on the airwaves at this present time. The closest we can come to that is a legal, ultra low power transmitter I’m experimenting with at 1700AM, direct from my backyard in the southwedge. For the time being, our main source for reaching the public will be our internet stream, which we hope to have running soon. Yes, we’re working on getting studio space. Our eventual goal is to obtain an FCC license to operate a 100 watt low power FM broadcast, as part of a fairly new service called LPFM(low power FM). Unfortunately, before it even got off the ground in the late 90s, corporate media lobbyists made sure congress passed a law to restrict LPFM broadcasts to mostly rural areas. There is a new bill before that just got out of the house committee and folks in the know feel it has a strong chance of becoming law in the near future. If/when expanded LPFM becomes reality, we then have to apply and receive a license from the FCC. Still, we are hopefully. RFR does have a website. Not much on it right now, but our url is: www.RochesterFreeRadio.org.