Rochester’s most famous son in the movie business (besides George Eastman himself) is Robert Forster, apparently, as he seemed to follow us around yesterday, from his narration of the audio tour at the George Eastman House (check out the elephant in the conservatory) to his introductory membership appeal clip at the Little Theatre, where we went to see Dear Frankie last night.

We started yesterday with a nice tour of the Eastman House, which was interesting in its own right and because it provided a little preview of where I’ll be in a few months, as we watched people carting film cans around, and coming and going from the rooms of the archive wing. The museum had a great collection of familiar Kodak cameras on display, some terrific photos, and a photobooth, appropriately enough. The gardens were being prepared for an imminent opening, so they were empty but perfect.



After the tour, we headed to Spot Coffee for some great sandwiches, though we could have done without the theatrical “order up” announcements. You hear it once, it’s amusing. You hear it twice, hopefully it’s for your sandwich, and it’s informative. You hear it for the rest of lunch, and it’s really distracting. And people, all the orders are “at the side bar.” You don’t need to say “at the side bar” every time.

We had an appointment to meet with a realtor in the afternoon, and we took a look at three places around the East Avenue / Park Avenue area, all within a ten minute walk of the Eastman House. They were all decent, and none of them was particularly outstanding, but it was useful to get a good idea of the kind of places that are available. We’ve got another appointment tomorrow, and we’re planning to come back in June when more August rentals become available.

For our dinner location, we chose the Martini Grille on Goodman and Park, where we enjoyed a nice dinner and some unique martinis with the requisite plastic animals dangling from the rims. We stopped in at 2 Vine for a very different scene before heading to the Little Theatre for our movie. I can’t get a sense of how big this whole area is, and how much there is to do, but I’m excited at the possibilities.