Cover Story
Main Street reborn
if all goes as planned, the revitalization of the Main Street corridor, coupled with another major project – a complete redesign of Charles Carroll Plaza, the park that hugs the west side of the river – will dramatically change the way Rochesterians experience downtown.
Musicians fight back: protest songs from the first year of Trump
It’s been a long year since election night 2016, but musicians across the country have been saying “fuck that.” Check out a playlist of protest songs curated by alt-weeklies
Filmmaker Signe Taylor hopes change is in the air
The documentarian talks about her film “It’s Criminal” and a change in conversation about women in the film industry
Opera review: Eastman Opera Theatre’s ‘L’incoronazione di Poppea’
Eastman Opera Theatre continues to impress with presentations brimming with excellent singers and professional production values. This time around, it was Claudio Monteverdi’s final opera “L’Incoronazione di Poppea.” Performed in Italian with English supertitles, this production of “The Coronation of Poppea” at Kilbourn Hall was also notable for its use of period instruments, and for…
Peter Yarrow brings 50 years of folk history to Hochstein
If you came of age in the 1960’s, folk singer Peter Yarrow was probably a part of your life. Before you knew the name Bob Dylan, chances are you heard Yarrow sing Dylan’s most famous song, “Blowin’ in the Wind.” As a member of Peter, Paul and Mary, Yarrow helped usher in a new age…
ELECTRONIC DANCE | DJ Kahncept
While originally from Rochester, DJ Kahncept has established himself as a Brooklyn-based DJ, holding residencies at several NYC productions and venues as well as developing several collaborations. He will be back in Rochester on November 2 to share a set with electronic producer, Roland Owens. Kahncept began DJing in the 90’s, and has spun as…
ART | ‘Screen Saviors’
Rochester artist Shane Durgee is the guest curator for a short-run exhibit that will completely transform The Yards Collective art space. “Screen Saviors” features the multi-media work of Denton Crawford and Jackie Spaventa, including a psychedelic painting in a lose-your-ego scale and immersive video installations. Spaventa is an RIT graduate who works in photo and…
CLASSICAL/KIDS | RPO OrKIDStra
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s opening OrKIDStra concert last month, a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Iolanthe,” took its audience on a trip to Fairyland, complete with wands and wings. This weekend’s show, “A Tour of World Flutes with Orchestra,” covers pretty much the entire globe, as represented by 13 different flutes, from pennywhistle to shakuhachi…
KIDS/LIT | Rochester Children’s Book Festival
This year’s Rochester Children’s Book Festival — an annual literature wonderland for kids — is slated for Saturday, November 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Monroe Community College’s Flynn Campus Center (1000 East Henrietta Road). Forty-five children’s authors and illustrators will be there signing books, and participants will give presentations and readings in…
Album review: ‘Stubborn Comfort’
Anamon “Stubborn Comfort” Self-released anamon.bandcamp.com It used to take a minimum of two notes to make a minor chord. It’s just simple theory; it’s the rules: a single note is neutral. That is, until it’s part of a scale or chord pattern — or until Anamon came along with “Stubborn Comfort,” its brand new, 12-song…
SPECIAL EVENT | South Wedge Record Fair
Collectors, audiophiles, lightweight fans, and heavy weight collectors will all gather for the fall edition of the South Wedge Record Fair. It’s swap meets, conventions, and fairs that fill the need in music to have something tangible to touch and to hold. As CD sales slide into the digital and download realm and toward pending…
Album review: ‘Endless Field’
Jesse Lewis and Ike Sturm “Endless Field” Biophilia Records endlessfieldband.com As a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Ike Sturm is well known in Rochester jazz circles as a superb bassist. Since moving to New York, he’s played with Wynton Marsalis, Donny McCaslin, Bobby McFerrin, and many others. But on his latest release, “Endless…
LITERATURE | Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon is one of those genuinely wonderful writers that makes it difficult to say, “Start with this book.” Of course, “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” — Chabon’s 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel set during the Golden Age of comic books — is a high recommendation, for good reason. But then there’s his engrossing…
Beer’s best friend, part two
In this occasional round-up series, CITY is trying its own food and beer pairings at brewpubs in and around Rochester. In the first part, published in September, we scoped things out at Roc Brewing, Swiftwater, and the Rohrbach Beer Hall, all close to the center city. In this segment, we expanded the radius a bit…
Margaret Explosion has a Marshall plan
The neon flashed “Vacancy” after guitarist Bob Martin packed a grip and skedaddled west to Chicago, leaving a hole in the Margaret Explosion the size of space. The Margaret Explosion is known for its atmospheric, borderless seek and find, and Martin was an integral component. It is the perfect music, really; a narcotic moment in…
2 Loud Cows turns an acre and a barn into DIY space
When artist Aaron Delehanty relocated from Chicago to Rochester last autumn, he immediately wanted to get acquainted with other makers in the art scene. Though his bread-and-butter occupation was familiar — he had been an artist on staff at Chicago’s Field Museum, and moved to take a job as a staff artist at the Rochester…
Feedback 11/1
We welcome your comments. Send them to themail@rochester-citynews.com or post them with articles on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.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. ‘No’ to ConCon On the November 7 ballot proposal…
Urban Action 11/1
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Activists host discussion of justice issues The advocacy group Roc/ACTS will hold a public meeting on Thursday, November 2, to provide an update on several issues the group is working on. Among them:…
Revving up electric-car interest
Most drivers haven’t been behind the wheel of an electric car or plug-in hybrid, and the vehicles’ most ardent supporters say that’s an obstacle to getting more of them on the road. Participants in the initiative known as the Rochester Electric Vehicle Accelerator see a way to address that issue. Over the next year, they…
Integrated school still far off
Will Greater Rochester ever embrace a racially integrated public school? For the past five years, the advocacy organization Great Schools for All has been seeking ways to reduce racial and economic segregation in public schools. Its efforts have culminated in a proposal for magnet schools that would serve students from the city and the suburbs.…
It’s war in Henrietta
Local elections can be pretty messy, and they usually hinge on some pretty local stuff: unpopular development projects, taxes, and political grudges. Typically, the contests don’t receive much attention outside of the town or village they happen in, due to their backyard politics. But this fall, people across Monroe County are watching the contest for…
Suburbs see plenty of election action
In some of Monroe County’s towns, years pass without contested elections. There’s no one reason why that happens. Sometimes the voters in a community may be predominantly loyal to one party. Sometimes they’re just satisfied with the leaders they have (it does happen). But this year, a dozen towns and one village have competitive races.…
FOLK | Peter Yarrow
If you came of age in the 1960’s, Peter Yarrow was probably a part of your life. As a member of Peter, Paul & Mary, Yarrow combined activism with music, bringing songs like “Blowin’ In The Wind,” “Where Have All The Flowers Gone,” and “If I Had A Hammer” to the masses. He wrote or…
SOUL | Broca’s Area
Low-slung, polyrhythmic group Broca’s Area is a sincere epitome of how the younger generation will come to appreciate the fathers of contemporary jazz and R&B. Singer Mary Corso’s vocals are deeply soulful and intimate, which accentuates the hip-hop instrumentation and jazz cuts. J Dilla, Hiatus Kaiyote, and the Blue Note Records catalog are just a…
‘The Agitators’ explores the friendship of Fred and Sue
Outside the Susan B. Anthony House on Madison Street, there’s a life-size statue created by Pepsy Kettavong depicting Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony having tea. The two were only a few years apart in age and, in true Rochester fashion, of course they knew one another. Through November 12, Geva Theatre Center is staging…
BLUEGRASS | Yonder Mountain String Band
Colorado’s Yonder Mountain String Band has taken a new, bolder form in the last two years. “New Yonder” is now a five-piece jam-grass band after Jeff Austin departed the group in 2014 — the band has since added Allie Kral (fiddle) and Jacob Joliff (mandolin). The band has eased its hesitant, long-time fans into the…
THEATER | ‘Red Herring’
Michael Hollinger’s “Red Herring” certainly gives you your money’s worth. This film noir farce, set in the rip-roaring, Red-baiting year of 1952, juggles three love stories among American and Russian spies, assumed identities, a murder mystery, a nuclear espionage plot, and (to be sure) the identity of a red herring — just to cover the…
ROCK | The Big Drops
Goddammit, I’ve apparently been wasting precious time listening to bands that have been trying to sound like New Jersey whiz kids The Big Drops. The band cuts a big swath of atmosphere that reverberates off of itself as it swirls and whirls approaching a controlled infinity. The band’s new album, “Time, Color,” is sweetly psychedelic,…
THEATER | ‘Little Miss Sunshine’
Michael Arndt’s 2006 Academy Award-winning, quirky comedy film “Little Miss Sunshine” had audiences rooting for the unflappable, precocious Olive, played by the Abigail Breslin. The story follows a family that, despite its dysfunctions, takes a cross-country trip in support of the young girl’s ambition to win a beauty pageant. The screenplay was adapted into a…
ConCon offers a chance to reform NY government
This will likely be the last chance in my lifetime to vote to bring real reform and democracy to New York State.
Preview: Polish Film Festival 2017
Now in its 20th year of celebrating Polish culture in its many forms, the Rochester Polish Film Festival kicks off on Tuesday, November 7, and continues through Sunday, November 12. Things get started with its opening night film, “Afterimage,” showing at the Dryden Theatre, and the party keeps going at The Little Theatre for the…
Film review: ‘Goodbye Christopher Robin’
Offering a glimpse into the creation of Winnie the Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood, “Goodbye Christopher Robin” aims to be a darker-than-expected look into the origins of a childhood classic. But the film doesn’t quite have the courage to see its objective through to the end. Suffering from PTSD after returning…
