All About Eastman

I've noticed that there are lots of people in Rochester who aren't that familiar with Eastman School of Music.  Since our world sort of revolves around Eastman, I'm always happy to tell them anything they want to know (and usually a whole lot more...).  Eastman is one of the best music schools anywhere!  Newsweek rated Eastman as the "Hottest School for Music" in 2008 (not to reveal any personal bias, but they were probably referring to the attractiveness of the grad students).  

Here's the amazing thing: ALL of Eastman's student recitals and concerts are free! (they do charge for visiting artist recitals and for operas).  It costs $20-50 to see Rochester's professional orchestra (the RPO ) but Eastman's two symphony orchestras each perform once a month (on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday night) and it's free!   You can also attend concerts by Eastman's wind ensemble, percussion ensemble, new music ensemble, chorale, and individual student recitals.  These events are great for dates or for kids over the age of 8.  The concert calendar is posted online.  After 7PM, parking in the East End Garage (which you can enter from Main Street or Scio) is free.

Rent your cart, buy your bag

Aldi is a quirky little grocery store.  The selection is limited, but the price is right!  Aldi claims that its store brand products are often made by the same manufacturers that make regular national brands.  For instance, we think that their tomato soup tastes like Campbell's, but it costs a lot less.   Here are some other things that we like from there (with very approximate prices):

1) Tortilla chips for $1.

2) Cheap baking supplies & spices (generally less expensive that Wegmans/Walmart)

3) Bags of fresh spinach for $1.30.

4) Sour cream, butter, cream cheese for...cheap (I can't remember)  

5) Diced canned tomatoes for 45 cents 

6) Frozen ground turkey for 1.80/lb

7) Apple juice concentrate for 90 cents

 

If very low prices make you nervous (is this really turkey?) you should read their explanation of how they cut costs.  One way is to have you pay a quarter to rent your cart (you get it back!) and bring your own bag (or you can buy one for 6 cents).   The whole cart-deposit/use your bag model is a very European thing to do...which is why you should feel very chic and cosmopolitan when you shop at Aldi.