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MUSIC FEATURE: Green Day
A Green Day show is simply spectacular, but without too much emphasis on spectacle and fluff. Green Day just digs in and goes, plugs in and peels out. The band — singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, drummer Tre Cool, and guitarist Jason White — has re-defined, or at the very least dominated, pop/punk…
Lake Ontario water levels still low
Low water levels in Lake Ontario persist, with the water depth measuring approximately 5 inches below average at the end of March, says the International St. Lawrence River Board of Control. The board, a sub-group of the International Joint Commission, oversees and manages water levels in the lake and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Simply put,…
Daily Choices: What to do on Wednesday, April 3
Theater: Something wicked this way comes. And no, we’re not talking about that stupid “Wizard of Oz” prequel that’s still playing at the multiplex. We’re talking about the real deal: “Wicked” – the moneymaking, record-breaking, world famous musical –
RPO court hearing postponed, again
A planned court hearing in a lawsuit against the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra has been postponed until Thursday, April 11. This is the second postponement for the hearing, which was originally scheduled for March 28. Attorney Eileen Buholtz is suing to invalidate the RPO board’s January 23 annual meeting, including the results of board member elections.…
Was the Atlanta education scandal inevitable?
The cheating scandal in the Atlanta public school system has shocked the nation, though it’s a little unclear why. Educators and parents concerned about overemphasis on high-stakes standardized tests have been predicting this kind of thing for years. Late last week we learned that Atlanta’s former superintendent, Beverly Hall, had been indicted on racketeering charges.…
Hansen’s retirement from NASA could be climate movement’s gain
A development at NASA yesterday may prove to be a pivotal event in the fight against the Keystone XL oil pipeline: high-profile NASA climate scientist James Hansen announced his retirement. Why? He says he wants to devote more time to climate change activism. And news reports say that may include an active role in legal…
Concert Review: Green Day at Blue Cross Arena
It was a two-hour rock ‘n’ roll slugfest Monday night as Green Day came out swinging to a frenzied and frozen crowd at the Blue Cross arena. Some kids wrapped in blankets had camped out overnight and looked like frostbitten refugees as they stumbled about. The place warmed up and filled up slowly to a…
Daily Choices: What to do on Tuesday, April 2
Literary: Area authors Peter Connors and Albert Abonado will make their voices heard at the Little Theatre (240 East Ave.) for this month’s Authors Aloud! reading series, a collaboration between the Little and Writers & Books. The authors will read and discuss their work in this free event, which starts at 8 p.m. in the…
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 5: Adios, my nutty auntie
Que lastima! What a tragic ending to another wonderful episode. The Final 6 queens — Alaska, Alyssa Edwards, Coco Montrese, Detox, Jinkx Monsoon, and Roxxxy Andrews — first had to emote during “The Crying Game” (she’s a man!). Then they put their (over)dramatic skills to use in telenovela scenes opposite a somnolent Wilmer Valderrama, whose…
Musicians wanted for City Newspaper’s Best Busker Contest
MUSICIANS WANTED for CITY Newspaper’s 4th Annual Best Busker Contest! Thursday, May 2, 5-9 pm in Rochester’s East End
![[UPDATED] Week Ahead: RCSD and city budget hearings, Cuomo cancels, RPO lawsuit proceeds](https://i0.wp.com/www.roccitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1364826315-teacher2_sidebar.webp?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1)
[UPDATED] Week Ahead: RCSD and city budget hearings, Cuomo cancels, RPO lawsuit proceeds
The Rochester school district will hold a public hearing on Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s proposed $728 million spending plan for the 2013 to 2014 school year. The budget has been criticized by parents because it includes closing School 30. Parents are also concerned about implementation of the new core curriculum and its impact on rigorous programs…
[UPDATED] Mayoral challenger Lovely Warren changes course on marriage equality
This blog has been updated to clarify that incumbent City Council member Dana Miller did not get the designation of the 24th District. He’s the only incumbent Council member to fall short. Incumbent Mayor Tom Richards won the endorsement of the city’s 24th Legislative District committee this afternoon on the march to the Democratic primary…
Daily Choices: What to do on Saturday, March 30 and Sunday, March 31
Comedy: Think improv comedy is hard to do for just an hour or so? Try doing it for twelve years. Nuts and Bolts, Rochester’s longest-running improv comedy troupe, will celebrate its 12th anniversary with a special show at the Downstairs Cabaret Theatre Center (540 E. Main St.), starting at 8 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are…
Legislators wrap up the state budget
The state budget is done, save the governor’s signature on the final legislation. Late last night — or early this morning, to get all technical about it — the Assembly passed the last of the budget bills. The Senate passed the legislation earlier this week. Once Governor Andrew Cuomo signs the legislation, New York will…
Daily Choices: What to do on Friday, March 29
Dance: Want to feel what it’s like to be submerged underwater without, you know, actually being submerged under water? The Aquatexture dance show this weekend at the Yards (50-52 Public Market) will give you a pretty good sense of that oceanic feeling.
“American Idol” 2013: Results (Top 8 to Top 7)
First, and most importantly, WHAT WAS LAZARO WEARING? It looked like “Day of the Triffids” attacking his shoulders. The Top 8 opened the show with a group sing of “Old Time Rock N Roll.” The boys just shouted. The girls fared better. I noted that Lazaro and Amber were the only two not given solo…
“American Idol” 2013: Music from Detroit (Top 8 Perform)
It was Detroit night on “Idol,” which I initially interpreted to mean Motown, but it was actually much broader than that – we even got some Madonna in there. Smokey Robinson was our guest mentor. He seems like a nice man. I wish he would stop doing things to his head. Candice Glover opened the…
Is the Rochester mayor’s race lacking ‘real’ Democrats?
I noticed something I thought was strange at last week’s meeting of three east-side Democratic committees. The committees were making their endorsements for mayor, City Council, and City Court. A couple of the ballots in the mayor’s race between incumbent Tom Richards and challenger Lovely Warren came in blank. Why bother to turn them in…
City schools and the Rochester mayor’s race
The mayoral race is officially under way and if past elections are any indication, be prepared for plenty of heated debate about the city school district. Though the situation is far from perfect, the district and the city have been working more collaboratively over the past two years than at any other time in recent…
Senate veers from Cuomo’s proposed IDA reforms
When Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a series of reforms for the state’s industrial development agencies, IDA representatives and local elected officials protested. The governor essentially wanted to restrict the agencies’ ability to grant exemptions on state sales tax, but local officials said that would rob them of a useful economic development incentive. Well, perhaps predictably,…
Daily Choices: What to do on Thursday, March 28
Dance: As part of the In Studio performance series, which celebrates its 25th anniversary season, Rochester City Ballet (1326 University Ave.) will perform choreography from “Lumavoce,” a recent work from artistic director Jamey Leverett, at 6:30 p.m. The performance will be followed by an open discussion with Leverett and composer Stephen Kennedy. The show is…
RPO legal hearing postponed
A planned court hearing in a lawsuit against the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra has been postponed until Friday, April 5. The hearing in state Supreme Court was originally scheduled for Thursday, March 28. Attorney Eileen Buholtz is suing to invalidate the RPO board’s January 23 annual meeting, including the results of board member elections. Buholtz ran…
Out for same-sex marriage
David was more than a friend. He was family. We met in New York City shortly before he made the decision to leave teaching in public schools in the Bronx to enter Columbia University’s law school. He was probably the most optimistic person I’ve ever known: a rainbow-flag-waving activist back in the late 1970’s when…
Perinton town races could open up Lej seats
Two Perinton-based seats in the Monroe County Legislature seats could go vacant after the November elections. Mike Barker, who’s served in the Legislature since 2004, announced earlier this month that he plans to run for Perinton town supervisor; incumbent Supervisor Jim Smith isn’t seeking re-election. Barker was endorsed by the Perinton Republican Committee last week.…
Daily Choices: What to do on Wednesday, March 27
Art: What does life look like through the eyes of today’s teenagers? Well, you could probably spend a few minutes perusing images on Facebook or Instagram to find out. But if you’re looking for more enlightening and intelligible perspectives, you can see the work of Rochester’s teenage artists at this year’s Through the Student Lens…
On the streets where you live
Monroe County is about as diverse a community as you can find: a mid-size city, rural areas with orchards and farm markets, suburbs with 20th-century tract houses and shopping malls, and quaint, Victorian villages. The Genesee River and the Erie Canal bisect the county, more or less vertically and diagonally, so geology and history are…
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL | Gregory Townson
Fresh from a tour Down Under as a jet-set, masked, guitar-slingin’ luchador in Los Straitjackets, Rochester native Gregory Townson returns to what has made every endeavor he tackles — from The Essentials to The Hi-Risers — so goddamn sweet: the man and his songs. That’s not to dismiss the fleet-fingered fret frenzy Townson unleashes on…
CHOW HOUND: East End story
Empty nesters embrace their newfound freedom in different ways. Some take up golf. Some tackle the stock market. And when Kathy Christa’s kids headed off to college, she immersed herself in the study of classical French pastry techniques. Now she’s putting that education to delicious use as the pastry chef of her new restaurant, Fraîche…
The people’s buildings
The best American public buildings are open and accessible. Even in a nation worried about security, we enter them largely without fear or even concern. They meet the tests of function and beauty, not only for the rulers and the rich, but for all of us. Frank Lloyd Wright wrote, “The mother art is architecture.…
DANCE/MUSIC | “Aquatexture”
I just love it when talented people combine their skills in a collaborative creation. Musical group The Quadratic Trio have composed an original work, “Aquatexture,” inspired by the sounds and feelings of great bodies or water. With the use of a quadraphonic sound system, the group will transport audiences to a watery wonderworld, promising to…
Daily Choices: What to do on Monday, March 25
Kids: The young ones are on break and probably driving you crazy. Keep them busy today at The Strong National Museum of Play (1 Manhattan Square) with Puzzler’s School-Break Week. The museum will offer a bunch of challenging activities, including the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle and other brain teasers. Admission is $13 (free to members…
The stuff of Rochester
There is no shortage of affection for Rochester. Despite the heartbreaks this city has endured — lost landmarks, miscarried projects, fallen corporate keystones — hope is still the holdout. Relics remain and invoke certain nostalgia for our storied past. But more than that, Rochester souvenirs and their many collectors bespeak a belief in this city’s…
SPECIAL EVENT | Gilda’s Club Bachelor Auction
It’s not often that you have the chance to benefit a great cause by scooping a date with a hottie. That’s exactly what you can do at the annual Bachelor Auction Fundraiser for Gilda’s Club, an organization that provides a cancer-support community for those who are ill as well as their loved ones. On Thursday,…
All creatures great and small
Rochester is probably no more pet-conscious than any other city, but we definitely have plenty of resources for any kind of furry friend you may have, or want to have. Once you’ve welcomed him or her to your home, Fido or Puff can live the life of Riley in the Flower City: healthy, well-fed, spiffed-up,…
KIDS | Spring Break Week
Kids in Rochester are lucky to have plenty of fun choices for how to make the most of their upcoming spring break. If you’re feeling up for a challenge, put your mind to the test at Puzzlers School-Break Week at the National Museum of Play (1 Manhattan Square), which starts on Friday, March 29 and…
The young and the restless
To some people, networking is a dirty word. It brings to mind a bunch of rich men in suits getting together to drink scotch and hire each others’ nephews. The word is intimidating. There is an idea that networking is for people who are already successful, who know the big wigs, or who were born…
RECREATION | Corporate Challenge Training Program
The J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge, held every year at the Rochester Institute of Technology, is coming up on May 21. That may sound like it gives you plenty of time to prepare. But you know how this whole exercise thing usually turns out: it’s too cold outside today, you’re too busy tomorrow, too tired over…
Pick up the pace
Running seems like the simplest form of exercise: just get off the couch, put on your shoes, and get going. But around Rochester, things are not that simple. Would you rather run straight down a paved track, or all around a wilderness trail? Are you up for a weekly triathlon, or just the occasional jog?…
SPORTS | MMA Fighting Tournament
If the term “mixed martial arts” brings back memories of being forced to imitate Tae Bo superstar Billy Blanks while still looking semi-cool during high school gym class, fear not. The Gladius Fights III Live MMA Fighting, to be held this weekend at the Main Street Armory (900 E. Main St.), won’t give you a…
How Pinteresting
Given the image-saturated nature of Pinterest in our image-literate culture, there’s great potential for artists and art dealers to benefit from the use of this emerging social media platform. The site boasts roughly 25 million unique monthly visitors, many of whom help link-bearing images go viral by re-pinning them. City spoke with social media-savvy local…
THEATER | “City Lights”
There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home. That’s what four Rochester actors learned after venturing down to catch a big break on Broadway, and living to return to Rochester and tell their tales of frustration and fame. Downstairs Cabaret Theatre veterans Nicolette Hart, Tom Deckman, and Mark Bradley Miller — along with…
Maximum rotation, maximum joy
It ain’t fair, it ain’t fair! I know that asking people to pick their five favorite records is limiting and frustrating. Imagine the torture it must have been when I posed these questions to those who sling vinyl for a living. I thought their heads would explode. In all fairness, I did it to myself…
Feedback 3/27
Send comments to themail@rochester-citynews.com, or post them on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com, our Facebook page, or our Twitter feed, @roccitynews. Comments of fewer than 350 words have a greater chance of being published, and we edit selections for publication in print. We don’t publish comments sent to other media. Policing the city In “Paging Officer Friendly,”…
Feed your calendar
UPDATED 3/29/13 to correct the date for the Park Avenue Summer Arts Festiva. No matter if it’s spring, summer, fall, or winter, there are so many events going on in Rochester on any given week that it’s almost impossible to keep track of them all. It’s a little bit like a constantly updating Twitter feed.…
LITERATURE: “Into the Beautiful North”
This year’s selection for the city-wide book club, “If All of Rochester Read the Same Book…” takes readers on a journey from a rural Mexican town in trouble, across the border into an America we see through fresh eyes. “Into the Beautiful North,” which was also selected for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big…
ELECTROPOP | Hank & Cupcakes
I’ve been digging Hank & Cupcakes for a couple of years now. The married musical couple — Hank (bass) and Cupcakes (vocals, drums) — used to shake butts on the Israeli music scene prior to moving to Cuba and eventually Brooklyn. With a publishing deal from BMG Germany and fans all across the globe, something…
Olympus Has Fallen
Some viewers may recall “Independence Day,” the 1996 movie about a massive attack on the Capitol, the White House, and the most famous monuments of Washington, D.C. That picture inspired a curious delight among the usual right-wing haters, because they regarded it as an appropriate fulfillment of their endless litany of violent anti-government hysteria, and…
INDIE-ROCK | Desert Noises
With the amaranthine onslaught of bands like Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, and Bon Iver inspiring the resurgence of the folk-music flag, it would seem almost impossible for a group from a small indie label in the Utah Valley to raise eyebrows in a densely populated genre market. But, Desert Noises has done just that. At…
“Stoker”
The less you know going into “Stoker,” South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s stylishly macabre horror-tale-cum-family-drama, the more fun there is to be derived from sitting back and letting its mysteries unfold. The film marks the English-language debut of the notoriously bloodthirsty filmmaker behind “The Vengeance Trilogy” (which includes the cult-classic “Oldboy”) and the vampire thriller…
CELTIC | Enter the Haggis
It may take a strong stomach to dare to eat haggis, but Toronto’s world/Celtic rock band Enter the Haggis will go down much easier than the Scottish specialty. Its last album, “White Lake,” saw the group branching out and toning it down, with jazz-like and mellower offerings to complement its already strong back catalogue. Its…
METAL | Otep
Imagine if Jim Morrison had a love child with Lemmy and Trent Reznor. The result could sound like Otep Shamaya, the eponymous lead vocalist, activist, and one-quarter of L.A.-based group Otep. Since forming in 2000, Shamaya’s self-described art-core band has been a bright spot in alternative music. Otep defies labels, although most would put its…
RIT spins cooking oil into gold
The campus dining services at Rochester Institute of Technology will use approximately 4,000 gallons of cooking oil this year. And every time a fryer is emptied or a skillet is drained, that goop has to go somewhere. How about into a gas tank? Over the past two years, RIT researchers, through a partnership with Monroe…
SINGER/SONGWRITER | Alejandro Escovedo
Commercial success can be kind of a back-handed compliment. Texas punk outfit Rank and File remains an underground go-to on a lot of people’s desert-island picks. And as a solo artist, one of its founders, Texas troubadour Alejandro Escovedo, has evaded true commercial glory, perhaps because he’s too pure. (After he heard that George W.…
Budget hopes
In his proposed budget, Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas lays out a unique vision to tackle the district’s most persistent problems. | The roughly $728 million budget is the same as the current year’s amended budget, but includes expanded instruction time in core subjects at the elementary level. And Vargas would lengthen the school day…
ELECTRONIC | DIGDUGDIY Space Camp
Do you have dreams of outer space? DIGDUGDIY is back with a whole new groove, and a pressing need to know. In fact, this group would descend the deepest moon crater to find out. Headlining this foray out is The Archaeologist, who, while still leaning in a distinctly mid-tempo electronic direction, has gone all Daft…
Choosing a mayor in a challenging time
For anyone who follows Rochester politics, there was little doubt that City Council President Lovely Warren would run for mayor. The only question was when. Last week we found out: it’s now. And so we will have incumbent Tom Richards, a 69-year-old white male lawyer and former corporate executive, and Warren, a 35-year-old African-American woman…
Annual Manual 2013
For this year’s Annual Manual, we took inspiration from popular social networks and techy applications — Pinterest, Instagram, Spotify — and used them as a way to frame the various aspects of Rochester.
CLASSICAL | Women in Music Festival 2013
Approximately half of the world carries two X chromosomes, but when you look at the world of classical music, it’s the Y-based composers that hog the spotlight. Now in its eight year, Eastman School of Music’s Women in Music Festival helps shed light on female contributions to classical music. This year’s guest composer-in-residence is Philadelphia’s…
Urban Action 3/27
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Lecture on diversity Nazareth College will present the lecture, “Diversity in America: Challenges and Opportunities for Educating Citizens in the Global Age,” by James Banks at 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, March 28. Banks…
