Cover Story
America for sale
By one estimate, this year’s federal elections could cost as much as $6 billion. That’s a projection from the Center for Responsive Politics, the organization that runs the campaign finance tracking website Opensecrets.org. The number may be shocking, but it’s not spontaneous or arbitrary; it’s been decades in the making. And the Supreme Court’s 2010…
Daily Choices: What to do on Wednesday, November 14
ART: Check out interesting work by noted black artists at “Contemporary African American Printmakers,” the exhibit currently on display at Nazareth College Arts Center Gallery (4245 East Ave.). The show features pieces by 13 living, renowned artists and will be on display through December 21. Gallery hours today are noon-5 p.m. For more information call…
Brooks proposes $1.2 billion budget for 2013
Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks has proposed a $1.2 billion budget for 2013 that she says makes no significant changes to county programs or services. She presented her budget proposal tonight before a meeting of the County Legislature. The budget increases the cost of zoo admissions by about $1, and also raises the amount taxpayers…
Brooks presenting county budget tonight
Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks will present her 2013 budget proposal to the County Legislature tonight.The presentation is at 6 p.m., which is when the Legislature meeting is scheduled to start. The county budget typically comes in at approximately $1 billion. And the tax rate will probably stay at $8.99 per $1,000 assessed value; every…
Allure for neighborhood schools
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas wheeled out some charts, at a meeting this morning, to help explain his proposal for modernizing city schools. His plan for the next phase of the more than $1 billion remake of the district’s buildings recommends closing five schools. In a relatively short period of time, Vargas has become deft…
US on track to become top oil producer
During the presidential campaign, Republican Mitt Romney made some noise about how President Barack Obama was, more or less, standing in the way of increased domestic energy production. The campaign is over, Romney lost, and media outlets are finally picking up on reports that the United States is on pace to pass Saudi Arabia as…
Daily Choices: What to do on Tuesday, November 13
MUSIC: There is no shortage of dazzling slap-happy bassists on the scene today, but I have never seen one as wedded to the instrument as Victor Wooten. In every performance, he simply becomes one with the bass and there’s seemingly nothing he can’t do. Not since JacoPastorius has there been a bassist who coaxes such…
Caring for caregivers
Some of my favorite childhood memories involve hiking in the Genesee River bed near Mt. Morris with my mother. We would spend hours looking for arrowheads, studying rock formations, or tracking deer. I still get a chuckle when I’m reminded of how unconventional she was compared to my friends’ mothers. Now much of my time…
Week ahead: Truancy funding vote, Pittsford development discussion, Brooks’ budget plan, Vargas ‘conversations’
Rochester City Council will decide on Tuesday night whether it’s willing to chip in $15,000 for a new, cooperative truancy effort with the Rochester school district and the United Way. The measure faced a rough ride through Council’s Public Safety Committee last week — the last stop before a vote of the full Council. The…
Concert Review: Celebrity Organ Recital Series feat. Ken Cowan
It was an organ concert to show off the vast array of available sounds of the newly restored Skinner Organ at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church — all 55 stops, 68 ranks, and 4,596 pipes — and organist Ken Cowan brought his unique approach to the job. Throughout Sunday’s concert, a camera displayed Cowan on a…
Daily Choices: What to do on Monday, November 12
MUSIC: Full bill of local Rochester and Syracuse bands up to bat tonight at the Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave., bugjar.com), featuring The Setbacks, Destroy Nate Allen, Dance The Hempen Jig, Envious Disguise, and Mouth Full. Music starts at 8:30 p.m., and at only $5-$7, this show isn’t going to set you back that much,…
Daily Choices: What to do on Saturday, November 10 and Sunday, November 11
Lots of things to do this weekend, check them all out!
Mayor has to win over Council on truancy effort
There were a few oddly intimate moments during yesterday’s City Council committee meetings. Council has to decide whether it’s willing to chip in $15,000 for a new, cooperative truancy effort with the Rochester school district and the United Way. Mayor Tom Richards supports the program, but had a tough time convincing two of the three…
Concert Review: RPO: Copland, Bernstein, and Tyzik
Last night’s concert by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Jeff Tyzik was fabulous, and you shouldn’t miss the program when it is performed again this weekend. The concert had all the right elements: a cohesive program, modern American composers, an amazing soloist, a world premiere work, and Tyzik at the podium with the RPO.…
City Council advances land bank legislation
When City Council meets next Tuesday, it’ll take up legislation to form a land bank corporation. Last night, a Council committee voted unanimously to advance the legislation. No members asked questions on the proposal. Land banks are new to New York State, but several are now up and running, including one in greater Buffalo. The…
Daily Choices: What to do on Friday, November 9
COMEDY: Beloved comedy great Billy Cosby will perform stand-up tonight, 8 p.m., at Auditorium Theatre (885 E. Main St.). Tickets are $52-$82 and available by calling 800-745-3000 or visiting tickmaster.com. For more information, visit rbtl.org. MUSIC: Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells might seem, judging by name alone, like an early holiday diversion. But don’t be misled…
Daily Choices: What to do on Thursday, November 8
MUSIC: Philly-based alt-hip-hop band G Love & Special Sauce will be grooving it up tonight at Water Street Music Hall (204 N. Water St., waterstreetmusic.com, $22-$25), so if you want to try its flavor yourself, check it out. Local group Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad will open up with an acoustic set, music starts at…
TEDxRochester 2012 and the Butterfly Effect
Common threads in this year’s TEDxRochester talks, held Monday, November 5, at Geva Theatre, included risk taking, technology in education, and ways we might shift toward more effective approaches to education, transportation, and connecting with others in our communities. Each and every one of the nearly 20 presentations was captivating and inspiring, but here are…
Post-election analysis
Analysis and insight from the City news staff on Tuesday’s elections results.
SPECIAL EVENT: Firehouse Chili Cookoff
Nothing whets my appetite for chili more than being trapped indoors on a cold, wet day. With the way the weather’s been raging in Rochester lately, the 9th Annual Firehouse Chili Cookoff can’t come soon enough. Hosted at the historic firehouse home of the Genesee Center for the Arts and Education at 713 Monroe Ave.,…
Urban Action 11/7
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) McMickle to give talk Friends of Educational Excellence Partnerships presents “Everybody Needs Somebody Sometime,” a talk by the Rev. Marvin McMickle, president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday,…
RECREATION: Hash House Harriers
For many of us, exercise can require some — or, let’s be honest, a great deal — of motivation. Flour City Hash House Harriers, also known as “HHH,” “H3,” or “The Hash,” seems to have the motivation factor down to a science. The local branch of this worldwide club describes itself as “a drinking club…
New York, New York
Each day brings more news of the pain lingering in the Greater New York area: more than 100 dead, countless homes and businesses destroyed, tens of thousands of people displaced. Scientists have been careful about linking the storm itself to global warming; an individual storm can’t be linked to long-term climate changes. But scientists haven’t…
SPECIAL EVENT: Anniversary of Canandaigua Treaty
Two-hundred and 18 years ago Colonel Timothy Pickering made history when he signed a peace treaty between the United States and the Six Nations Confederacy that established the Native American tribes’ sovereignty. To commemorate this day, on Sunday, November 11, members of the Six Nations will gather on the front lawn of the Ontario County…
League on the lake
SUNY Brockport professor Joe Makarewicz will discuss the Great Lakes ecosystem at 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 8, at Brighton Town Hall, 2300 Elmwood Avenue. | Makarewicz’s presentation is part of a Rochester League of Women Voters event examining a position on Great Lakes protection developed by the League of Women Voters of Michigan. He’ll…
ROCK: The Violet Lights
L.A. by way of Green Bay, Wisconsin, rock and raunch duo The Violet Lights pays so much homage to Britpop, you’d swear this band was from Blighty. There’s Mancunian guitar tremolo on some tracks, and Glasgowian choruses on others, giving debut EP “Sex & Sound” an across-the-pond vibe. Joel Nass (vocals, guitar) and Amber Garvey…
Rob after addiction
With his stocky build and all-around good looks, Rob (last name withheld) could be the college kid next door. It’s easy to picture him passing a football, cramming for an exam in the library, or delivering pizza for some extra money. And those might have been snippets from Rob’s life if it hadn’t been interrupted…
Daily Choices: What to do on Wednesday, November 7
SPECIAL EVENT: If you need help getting into that holiday season mood, check out George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) today, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. In addition to the current exhibit, which focuses on photography from the 1960s, GEH has the “Sweet Creations Gingerbread Houses” and Festival of Trees on display through December 12. The exhibits…
CLASSICAL: RPO – “Copland, Bernstein — and Tyzik”
You may have seen him wandering recently through the Memorial Art Gallery. Tallish. Glasses. Downstate accent. Both relaxed and hip at the same time. But you may not have realized that he was looking at art and hearing his own music. “I thought it was an interesting concept: that I would select certain pieces of…
AMERICANA: MiZ
Mike Mizwinski was given his first guitar when he was only 2 years old. At 9, his father took him to his first Grateful Dead concert. It was then that he knew what he wanted to do with his life. As a teenager, Mizwinski joined his first band and began writing his own music. In…
MOVIE REVIEW: “Flight”
In most of his movies Robert Zemeckis displays both a penchant for unusual special effects and an instinct for an easy emotional appeal. In “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” for example, he combined live action with animation; in “Forrest Gump” he integrated archival newsreel footage with his fiction; and in “Polar Express” he employed that trendy…
JAZZ: John Stowell
When Portland, Oregon, jazz guitarist John Stowell takes a solo, he aims high. Literally. Stowell’s guitar sits on his lap at a 45-degree angle, aimed at the stars. This may be unconventional, but it seems to allow the fingers on his left hand to zoom over the fret board with stunning dexterity. Stowell is a…
MOVIE REVIEW: “Wreck-It Ralph”
By now, at least one generation of children will have grown up in a world where characters like Pac-Man, Mario, and Sonic the Hedgehog are just as iconic and beloved as Mickey Mouse was to their parents and grandparents. So in a way it’s rather fitting that Disney is the studio to bring a film…
CLASSICAL: 12th Annual Rochester Early Music Festival
Musica Spei presents and performs as part of the 12th Annual Rochester Early Music Festival. Musica Spei performs a cappella style from a vast repertoire of rarely performed, sacred choral masterworks of the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Also performing will be Pegasus Early Music, the Amadeus Chorale, Eastman Collegium Baroque Orchestra and Viol Consort, Baroquen…
MOVIE REVIEW: “The Imposter”
In 1994, 13-year-old Nicholas Barclay disappeared without a trace while out playing basketball in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. More than three years passed — just long enough for Nicholas’ family to abandon all hope of ever finding him alive — and then, in October of 1997, they received a phone call from the…
SWAMP METAL: Black Tusk
Swamp metal reminds me of zombie films; it’s slow and terrifying and still manages to overcome you no matter how fast you run. The music is intense and deceptively fast within its slow grind. Enter Black Tusk from the swamps of Savannah, Georgia, a brutal three-piece band that is as much thrash metal as it…
Greek peek
In this day and age, an online presence should be a priority for any business, especially a new restaurant hoping to persuade curious customers to spend their hard-earned money at an as-yet-unfamiliar place. Opa! Authentic Greek Koozina, which opened recently in Henrietta’s Frontier Commons, posted its impressive menu a few weeks before its projected debut,…
JAZZ: Victor Wooten
There is no shortage of dazzling slap-happy bassists on the scene today, but I have never seen one as wedded to the instrument as Victor Wooten. In every performance, he simply becomes one with the bass and there’s seemingly nothing he can’t do. Not since Jaco Pastorius has there been a bassist who coaxes such…
Feedback 11/7
Send comments to themail@rochester-citynews.com, or post them on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com, our Facebook page, or our Twitter feed, @roccitynews. We edit selections for publication in print. City’s coverage of the candidates I look forward to reading your paper every week, because it is the only publication that does such a great job of covering local…
SKA: Pietasters
D.C. dancehall darlings The Pietasters are an eight-man ska-sational onslaught that has been tasting pies and igniting dance floors full of piestompers since the early 90’s. The band’s brass-tastic, flipped-beat, rhythm-driven frenzy is back-breakingly beautiful and bombastic. Don’t try to fight the urge. “All Day” is the new album, and the band’s first of new…
MUSIC PROFILE: Declan Ryan
It’s Declan Ryan’s lyrics that get you first. This Rochester singer-songwriter still searches for the appropriate genre in which to focus his insight, but his interim sound — his default strain, if you will — allows for his words to burn unfettered with a stark, undeniable hipster cool. The 23-year-old’s enigmatic lyricism and bare-bone guitar…
ART: Otterness sculpture complete; MAG sculpture park proceeds
Over the past few months striking progress has been made on the Memorial Art Gallery’s Centennial Sculpture Park, as well as the ArtWalk Extension project that has transformed the surrounding neighborhood. Sections of the forbidding iron fence that previously surrounded the gallery’s grounds have been removed, and the at-one-time boiling controversy over the large-scale sculptural…
Sleigh Bells
Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells might seem, judging by name alone, like an early holiday diversion. But don’t be misled by the moniker. The pair pumps out a loud, raucous brand of noise pop/rock, awash in reverb and infectious riffs. The group’s 2010 debut “Treats” was a darling of year-end best-of lists, and while most recent…
CD Review: Anat Cohen “Claroscuro”
Since her move from Israel to New York in 1999, Anat Cohen has dazzled audiences on a variety of reed instruments including clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax, and tenor sax.
ART: Contemporary African American Printmakers
Visitors to the “Contemporary African American Printmakers” exhibit at the Nazareth College Arts Center Gallery (4245 East Ave.) will gain something more than a pleasant afternoon of art viewing. Presented by Deborah Ronnen Fine Art, the exhibit focuses on 13 living, renowned African-American artists who regularly incorporate printmaking into their artwork. While visitors will see…
Negroni’s Trio “On The Way”
Pianist Jose Negroni has had a rich and varied career as a music teacher at a conservatory in his native Puerto Rico and as Director of Sony Music Publishing. But over the last 10 years he’s put his knowledge into practice, playing festivals around the world with his wonderfully rhythmic trio. No small part of…
COMEDY: Bill Cosby
Most famously known as the beloved, sharp-witted father on “The Cosby Show,” Bill Cosby has repeatedly proven his ability to win over the hearts of Americans across the nation. Not only has he made a name for himself as an actor and comedian, Cosby has also participated in a variety of concerts, recordings, and educational…
KIDS: Children’s Book Fest
With daylight hours waning, pleasure reading seems more and more alluring as an evening activity after school or work. A great way to learn more about as-of-yet undiscovered books, authors, and illustrators is to bring the family to the Rochester Children’s Book Festival” On Saturday, November 10, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. authors, illustrators,…
Libraries, e-books, and the freedom to read
Public libraries are champions of books and defenders of your freedom to read. They provide a wide variety of reading materials and access for all. It’s an important role, because a free society depends on freedom to read to ensure universal access to information, new ideas, different opinions, learning through books, and knowledge. These activities…
