Cover Story
Should we rewrite New York’s constitution?
New York’s government has problems and a constitutional convention may, or may not, provide a way to fix some of them.
MAG announces major media commissions
The Memorial Art Gallery today announced a new series of media art commissions by three international artists and inspired by the city of Rochester. The three-part series, “Reflections on Place,” will be presented individually beginning in the spring and will become part of the gallery’s permanent collection afterward. MAG’s consulting curators of media arts, John G.…
Preview: High Falls Film Festival 2017
When it comes to the treatment of women in Hollywood, hopefully the tides are finally beginning to change. In the wake of explosive stories earlier this month from the New York Times and the New Yorker that investigated decades of sexual assault accusations against producer Harvey Weinstein, the systemic sexism of the film industry and…
Film review: ‘Mark Felt’
As deputy associate director of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, career G-Man Mark Felt (Liam Neeson) always believed himself to be next in line for the top job. But after Hoover’s death, he was passed over and forced to remain on as second-in-command. Then, Nixon’s White House became embroiled in the Watergate scandal just…
VOCAL | ‘A Splendid Grandeur’
Born in New Hampshire after the Civil War, Amy Marcy Cheney made her debut as a piano prodigy in 1885, the same year she married and took the last name Beach. In 1892, Boston saw the first performance (at age 25) of her Grand Mass in E-flat. Many notable compositions followed, including the first major…
State of the children report shows gains, struggles
Compared to last year, more City of Rochester 4-year-olds are enrolled in pre-k programs, more 3- year-olds have received comprehensive early intervention screenings, and more city high school students have applied for college financial aid. These are some of the gains highlighted by ROC the Future’s annual State of the Children report. The coalition tracks…
INDIE ROCK | Roz and The Rice Cakes
While its disarmingly sweet name may call to mind the surf rock bands of yesteryear, Providence, Rhode Island’s Roz and The Rice Cakes is not a group to take lightly. Led by enigmatic singer and multi-instrumentalist Roz Raskin, the band’s latest single, this year’s “Do You,” smuggles a wonderfully Caribou-esqe rhythm through deceptively simple loops…
‘Martyrs’ focuses on victimhood, not persecutors
Bill Viola’s high definition video series, “Martyrs,” is the latest exhibit in the Memorial Art Gallery’s Media Arts Watch program. In the darkened room dedicated to the program, four narrow, flat-screen monitors surround the viewer, each installed on one of the four walls. Brief, bright dramas play out in sync, requiring the viewer to continuously…
HARDCORE | Bodysnatcher
Fully rejecting the nuance and up-tempo groove of more traditional hardcore, Florida beatdown upstarts Bodysnatcher sound like a 10 car pile-up in slow motion. It takes less than a minute into the band’s debut record, “Abandonment,” for front man Kyle Medina to break free from the seemingly infinite breakdown behind him and bark “YOU KNOW…
With international readership, Chickpea keeps a full plate
As one of just two people behind Chickpea Magazine, Cara Livermore always has a full plate. The Rochester-based vegan quarterly publication — which Livermore runs with her partner, Bob Lawton, who handles sales and shipping — is a collection of recipes, stories, and articles from people around the world. But it’s Livermore that pulls the…
Landmark Society shines a spotlight on porches, a roundhouse…
Older buildings can give a neighborhood and an entire city or village a unique character that new developments don’t have – especially when there are a lot of older buildings, as there are in the Greater Rochester area. And preserving the buildings is important, not just because they’re nice to look at but also because…
Album review: ‘Wasting Time’
The Tragedy Brothers “Wasting Time” Self-released tragedybrothers.com The Tragedy Brothers open up its second album, “Wasting Time,” with a casual lope that’s more on the roll side of the rock ‘n’ roll idiom. The rock isn’t necessarily neglected, but it’s used sort of as an afterburner to add push and punch when required. Overall, “Wasting…
HIP-HOP | The LOX
Hip-hop legends The LOX have been in the game for more than 20 years now, bursting on the East Coast rapper scene around the same time Notorious B.I.G. blew up. The New York City-based trio — Jadakiss, Sheek Louch, and Styles P — came out of a 12-year hiatus in 2013 with an epic surprise…
John Nyerges orchestrates a life in jazz
If you’ve seen pianist John Nyerges in concert over the last three decades, chances are you were in Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theatre. Nyerges has occupied the jazz piano chair in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s Pops concerts for 27 years. But when Nyerges takes the stage at Lovin’ Cup on Saturday, he’ll be playing…
INDIE ROCK | Bogues
Vineyard Community Space has long been a refuge for bands that skirt the lines between indie rock and emo influences. For musicians like Tennessee-based solo artist Bogues, the result is mature songwriting with a post-emo sheen. Devoid of the abject whining and histrionic tendencies that plagued much of emo music in the aughts, Bogues’s post-emo…
THEATER | ‘The Agitators’
Geva Theatre’s most recent production, “The Agitators,” sweeps audiences back to mid-19th century America and chronicles an unlikely friendship between two famous Rochesterians, Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. Through abolition, the Civil War, and votes for women, the duo challenged one another — and the nation — to change the course of history. Geva…
INSTRUMENTAL | David Klinkenberg
Violinist David Klinkenberg is the kind of versatile crossover artist that makes genre distinctions completely unnecessary. The immensely talented instrumentalist is adept at everything from classical music to Celtic tunes and bluegrass — as his live performances can attest. Klinkenberg has reached audiences from such high-profile platforms as PBS and Lincoln Center, and now the…
COMEDY | ‘Halloweenprov’
Picture this: You and your friends are huddled around a campfire, surrounded by creepy woods and the vast night sky. There is only a single flashlight, and plenty of spooky stories. Also, there’s an improv troupe. That is the basic concept behind Geva Comedy Imrpov’s “Halloweenprov: The Campfire-ing.” The cast will re-enact classic horror stories…
CLASSICAL | ‘Monteverdi’s 450th’
Pegasus Early Music gets its 2017-18 season off to a splendid start with a musical birthday party for one of the great figures in Western music: composer Claudio Monteverdi, born in 1567 and died 1643. Pegasus Artistic Director Deborah Fox calls the program “an unabashed personal selection of some of my favorite pieces by my…
THEATER | ‘Faust’
For centuries, “Faust” has been synonymous with a specific brand of hubris: ambition that far outstrips wisdom. The tragically thirsty German protagonist has appeared in countless literary and artistic works, most notably by Christopher Marlowe and Goethe. This month, The Kingfisher Theater Company revisits Faust’s folly and fate in a new version of the story,…
Album review: ‘Orpheus Unsung’
Steven Mackey with Jason Treuting “Orpheus Unsung” New Amsterdam Records newamsterdamrecords.bandcamp.com Released on October 6 through New Amsterdam Records, “Orpheus Unsung” is a wordless post-rock opera written by composer-guitarist Steven Mackey and composer-percussionist Jason Treuting, an Eastman School of Music alumnus. Mackey and Treuting’s music is just as wild and mercurial as the hero’s journey…
SPECIAL EVENT | Celebrate the 90’s IRL Speed Dating
“In Real Life” is a speed-dating service that aims to bring singles together over mutual interests, and presents hyper-specific events for dog lovers, entrepreneurs, and video game enthusiasts. The model takes some of the pressure off of finding common ground with a complete stranger, and at the very least lends itself to making new friends.…
FILM | Home Movie Day 2017
Those home movies your parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, or friends shot while you were growing up carry a lot of value to them. There’s always something sentimental about those personal movies, but even further, they’re small cultural capsules of a time and place. We get a glimpse of every day life; a snapshot of…
ART | Mythological Taxidermy
Artist Brenda Killackey-Jones takes some of the best creatures from fiction and brings them to life — or to the recently expired, mounted to the wall “life.” Killackey-Jones’s third annual Mythological Taxidermy is currently on display at Nox Cocktail Lounge, with mixed media sculptures of magical creatures from Harry Potter, “Game of Thrones,” and “The…
Feedback 10/18
Send comments to themail@rochester-citynews.com. Those of fewer than 350 words have a greater chance of being published; we edit selections for publication in print, and we don’t publish comments sent to other media. Here’s a way to combat poverty and racism The writer of the letter “The Silence of Our White Leadership” describes her frustrations…
Urban Action 10/18
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Experiencing poverty and social injustice The Social Welfare Action Alliance Rochester Chapter will hold a Fall Reality Tour on Saturday, October 21. The organization sponsors the tour to share stories about economic injustice,…
Local summit aims for action on climate
For several years, climate and environmental activists have been calling for New York to take serious, aggressive action to transition the state to 100 percent renewable energy. The state has made progress. It now requires utilities to get half of their electricity from renewables by 2030. And earlier this year, New York and some other…
City group seeks tough action on drugs
A group of city residents is asking state and local law enforcement to take a much tougher approach to eliminating illegal drug sales and use in Rochester, which they say is out of control. An organization called Many Neighbors Building Neighborhoods, which has also opposed some recent development projects in their areas, held a meeting…
Film review: ‘Professor Marston and the Wonder Women’
“Professor Marston and the Wonder Women” gives the Amazonian princess her second origin story of the year, this one focused on the life of her independent-minded creator
A theater for Parcel 5?
A strong argument for the theater: If you increase the number of people walking around downtown, you increase people’s comfort level.
Film review: ‘Marshall’
There are generally two types of biopics: those that attempt to condense the entire life of a notable figure into a single film, and those that pick one specific incident to build a narrative around. “Marshall” is the latter, tackling a single chapter in the life of legal pioneer Thurgood Marshall. The first African-American to…
