Life Goes On (Without Me).

Americans have no manners. Even with the biggest film festival in North America about to start only three hours away, we still can’t resist making everything about us. So rather than close down Rochester’s cultural offerings for 10 days – which would really be the decent thing to do – I’m going to miss a whole bunch of amazing Rochester stuff while in the Great White North. Here are the top seven:

1. The Clothesline Art Festival at the Memorial Art Gallery. If you’ve never gone, check out Clothesline – you’ll be hooked. (Get it?)
2. The opening of Contagion by Steven Soderbergh (also opening in an IMAX version, which bothers me a little bit) and Warrior, with gonna-be-a-big-star-any-minute-now Tom Hardy. (You’d be surprised how invisible new releases become during TIFF.)
3. The Image/OUT Festival Fair, an event at the Planetarium that presages Rochester’s upcoming gay & lesbian film festival.
4. The brilliant zombie satire Shaun of the Dead and Tex Avery shorts at the Dryden Theatre this weekend.
5. The RIT Big Shot: Painting with Light, an original documentary about an amazing photo project, premiering at 8pm Thursday on WXXI. Yeah, it’ll be on again. But still.
6. The intriguing doc Gasland over at the Little Theatre for one night only on Thursday, Sept. 8; and Miranda July’s The Future, opening for a regular run the following day.
7. Terry and Jones. (What? It’s my blog, and I’ll miss them. What of it?)