6/16/2003 12:00:46 PM|||Brian Fending|||

BROADWAY AIN'T JAZZ
Well, not usually. I'm in the middle of All Night Strut at the Lancaster Opera House, a 40's musical review. Heavy on tunes, no dialog; everything from As Time Goes By to Praise the Lord & Pass the Ammunition. Yikes on the broadway sense of variety is right, but it's a good bunch of folks and worth seeing if you're in the area.

MUSIC: OTHER
I'll also be appearing with a jazz trio (Jason Beaudreau, Tim Mroz) at The NACC on Tuesday, 20030617, 5:00-7:30pm. It's a benefit for Planned Parenthood.

NEW ATWOOD NOVEL
I just finished the new Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake) on Rachel's recommendation. I hereby recommend it to anyone who (a) subscribes to Wired or (b) is concerned about introduction of genetically modified (GM) products into our society. I qualified on both fronts before reading the novel, but now I REALLY qualify, if that's possible. Wowzers, was that an eye-opener.

WEDDING PICTURES ETA
I must say, Alec at Ultimate Images was fantastic that day and the images are a wonderful collection. As soon as we decide which ones to scan and put up, you'll all see a mini-album here.

THE CAKE
Many may not know the story of The Cake. It's a lesser known Brian & Rachel wedding fable, though very memorable and more factual than many other fables. A particular Rochester baker (Calabrese Bakery) came highly recommended, so we strode into the acclaimed bakery, designed a cake, plunked down a deposit, and said we'd be back in with a caketopper a week or two before the wedding. As they say on LoveLine, "perfectly healthy, perfectly normal."

Two weeks before the wedding, we are in Rochester to finish up details like paying for the rest of the cake, dropping off the caketopper, meeting with the organist, etc. We go to Calabrese Bakery, get in line, are told to wait for the owner, wait about twenty minutes more, and finally speak to the owner or a duely appointed look-alike. If I'd been him, I would have hired a fall guy.

Our first words (Rachel's, I believe) were, "Hi. We don't have a lot of time, we just needed to drop off this caketopper and pay the balance for the cake. We were concerned that it might be too heavy for the top tier..." The response: "I don't think that'll be a problem." Chaos ensued. Their decorator took another job. "SOMEBODY" from the bakery had "tried to call." It's two weeks before the wedding. We're going to be late for the organist appointment. Savoia's Bakery was mentioned. I suggested that he try to farm it out and get the cake delivered since he'd taken the deposit so long ago. No dice. We impressed upon him our disappointment. We got a check for the deposit amount. We were too nice.

We met with the organist, which was a lovely time in itself. (No, really - I never had so much fun hearing someone practice!) Eastman PhD candidate, magnificent touch, all that and more.

Out to lunch, then back to The Cake Affair.

Everything else is a blur. We found the bakery, strolled into the short line near the wedding cake displays, found a wonderful cake for LESS than Calabrese was charging, paid for it in full, and walked out saying, "Why the hell didn't the other guy just call Savoia's, save us the hassle, and make some money on the deal?" I will NEVER understand business decisions like that.

We arrived home that night to discover a message on the machine FROM THE OWNER that we'd sat and talked to earlier that day, closing with, "I'm sorry. You'll need to make other arrangements." Time stamp: during the twenty minutes we waited for him to come to the front of the store. The irritation was becoming infected. (Sorry for the graphic content.)

So the substitute cake from Savoia's was great, I only had one tiny bite of it at the wedding, and all was well. That, my friends, is the cake story. Don't let anyone, including my wife, tell you I can't tell a story.

MICROSOFT ON SAFARI
In a recent Wired article, many (myself among them) discovered that Microsoft would be discontinuing development of IE/Mac with version 5.0. I really don't like being pushed into a new OS by Microsoft, let alone for my Mac (how did this HAPPEN???), but I guess I have to take the plunge sometime since the now-standard Apple Safari browser comes bundled with OS X. Anybody selling a used Mac tower or laptop (with OS X)? Advice in this arena is welcome, since I haven't been keeping up with the Joneses and am running well behind the pack (of Joneses, we can assume) with my G3/450 Powerbook.

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