To most, pingpong is just a game to play in a friend’s garage or backyard on a warm summer day. To Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet), the fast-talking hustler at the center of Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” it’s a chance to prove he is great at something and can be better than anyone else he’s matched up […]
Articles
Posted inCulture
The search for truth among America’s trees
In his new book, Trent Preszler remembers cutting down a Christmas tree with his father on a snow-drifted South Dakotan prairie. He’s seven or eight years old, yet the memory remains vivid. He recalls that “the young pines stood motionless, waiting to learn which of them would die.” That moment, quiet and severe, opens “Evergreen: […]
Posted inMusic
REVIEW | ‘Pinnacle Hill’ by Comfort Object
Where can we put our rage when it becomes too heavy? Where shall we get the release our emotions crave? Local emocore band Comfort Object provides a safe space for those who are fed up with these questions on its latest release, “Pinnacle Hill,” making the case that music is a hobby to some and […]
Posted inCulture
Michael Fambro turns to grief to art as a tribute to her beloved father
In December 2020, Michael Fambro walked out of the hospital for the first time in three days to find her car buried in snow. After she cleared it off, she climbed inside and sat in a daze. Her beloved father, world-renowned musician Miché Fambro, had just died. The only thing Fambro could think to do […]
Posted inTheater
REVIEW | ‘End of the Rainbow’ at JCC CenterStage chronicles Judy Garland’s final months
In Celtic folklore, the end of the rainbow signifies the end of a treasure hunt, a triumphant place where one finds the leprechaun’s pot of gold. Of course, science is always here to dash whimsical lore — because rainbows are simply an optical illusion created by light refracting through raindrops, there is no actual ‘end […]
Posted inCulture
Three Black millennial women launch a members-only dining and social venue downtown
Behind an unmarked door on East Main Street in downtown Rochester, a staircase leads down into a lit 3,000-square-foot space. Half of the room is a stocked bar; the other half is a dining area. Welcome to Exclusively Members Only (EMO), a membership-based social club opened by three Black millennial women. And while the historic space […]
Posted inMusic
REVIEW | ‘Are We There Yet’ by Katy Martin
Though goals and results drive modern society, it’s only after struggle and pain that we learn the journey is the destination. Local singer-songwriter Katy Martin’s latest solo album, “Are We There Yet,” captures this wisdom in eight indie folk songs that play with bright, twee sounds while tackling an ever-present heaviness. Martin, half of the […]
Posted inCulture
After 12 years, Rochester Brainery has a new owner
As Rochester Brainery founder Danielle Raymo contemplated ending her decade-plus tenure with the business, she wanted to go out the right way. She didn’t want to just close down, leaving the teachers of so many experiential classes without that revenue stream or unique marketing opportunity. She also didn’t want to hand it over to someone […]
Posted inTheater
REVIEW | ‘Rumors’ at Blackfriars Theatre is nonsense — but good for a laugh
When Neil Simon’s “Rumors” premiered in 1988 it was unlike anything Simon had ever written. Indeed, it would be unlike anything he would ever write again. The play is Simon’s only farce, which is hard to believe considering his vast body of acclaimed work and that he honed his comedic chops early in his career […]
Posted inCulture
Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School relocates from the hill to the heart of downtown
For nearly a century, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School sat like a sentinel above the city, perched on the hill at 1100 South Goodman St., its Gothic towers peering over Highland Park. Designed by James Gamble Rogers, the same architect who left his mark on Yale and Columbia, the campus radiated a stately stillness that […]
Posted inTheater
REVIEW | ‘& Juliet’ at RBTL
What would happen if you combined Lisa Frank, a Disney amusement park and a 90s music video? Probably something in the same aesthetic ballpark as the unabashedly over-the-top jukebox musical “& Juliet,” which is turning the West Herr Auditorium Theater into a nostalgic dance party through December 14. Set in a remixed Y2K version of […]
Posted inMusic
REVIEW | ‘Between Strings’ by Suen-Kam Duo
Is physical media dead? Or is it having a comeback? If the latter is the case, let’s have more unusual physical forms, like the guitar-shaped USB drive on which you can find the Suen-Kam Guitar Duo’s debut album, “Between Strings.” Guitarists Shiuen-Huang Suen and Kenneth Kam met through the Eastman School of Music as graduate […]
