Cover Story
Breaking boxes
Depending on who you ask — or when you ask the question — you’ll get a variety of explanations of what the Sound ExChange Project really is: A local contemporary classical ensemble; a chamber group; an artist collective; composers; curators; educators; community-investors.
Groups again pushing for legislation prohibiting toxic chemicals in children’s products
Environmental groups and some local leaders are again pushing for state lawmakers to pass the Child Safe Products Act. The legislation would ban certain toxic chemicals and heavy metals — arsenic, mercury, lead, cadmium, and benzene — from children’s products including clothing, toys, car seats, and furniture. The Assembly passed the legislation by a wide…
Privileged perspectives
Two free upcoming lectures spotlight Americans’ relationships to the cosmos, offering unique perspectives on the space race and space travel. It’s a well-known consideration that the people who make the isolating, stressful, and dangerous journey to space must be fit for the trip in every conceivable way. But what about the families? The next lecture…
An expanded Lilac Festival for 2015
The 117th edition of the festival runs from May 8 through May 17 at Highland Park.
Apartments, townhomes planned for Charlotte Street in East End
A series of city-owned vacant lots on Charlotte Street in Rochester’s East End will be developed for apartments and townhomes. Charlotte Square will also include a fitness room, bike storage, pocket park, and a soundproof practice room for students of the nearby Eastman School of Music. Mayor Lovely Warren, at a press conference this afternoon,…
Week Ahead: For the week of Monday, April 6
A news conference will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 8, to announce a new performing arts venue in the City of Rochester. The event will be held at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, 440 East Avenue. Rochester Lyric Opera is reportedly buying the church for performance space. Constantino’s Market opens in…
First Friday offerings for April 3
The weather’s gorgeous, but won’t last. Maximize it tonight with a little art trek. Here are a couple of suggestions, but you can check out more options at firstfridayrochester.org. Rochester Contemporary, 137 East Avenue, celebrates bike culture with “Ride It: Art and Bicycles,” which runs from April 3 through May 15. It feature a diverse…
I Scene It: A Pony Named Olga at Abilene
A Pony Named Olga. The barkeep was raving extreme tossing out guarantees for free. Step right up. I concluded I had to go. Dodging the raindrops, I came upon the scene at Abilene to a thunderous giddy-up coming through the joints pores and doors. I can think of better names, but I can’t think of…
Pence drama illustrates core GOP problem
Blame the liberal media and dig in. That’s the basic strategy for many conservative politicians when the public spotlight gets too bright: stand firm and let Fox News and talk radio mop up and smooth things over. But that approach hasn’t worked for Indiana Governor Mike Pence after signing the controversial religious freedom law. Pence…
Group wary of McDonald’s benefits plan
For a long time, McDonald’s has been synonymous with minimum-wage work. That doesn’t mean that every worker at every McDonald’s makes minimum wage, but a lot of them do, particularly starting employees. McDonald’s corporate office apparently wants to get away from that image. Yesterday, it announced it’s going to give workers starting pay that’s $1…
Concert Review: Stephanie Blythe at Kilbourn Hall
I can’t remember an evening filled with more vocal joy than Tuesday night’s Kilbourn Concert with mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe. And I’m not alone: Given the volume and enthusiasm of its applause, the audience might have been echoing the plea of one of the songs on Blythe’s program, Jacques Brel’s “Ne Me Quitte Pas” (“Please Don’t…
Fast talk
Comedian Tom Arnold spouts about fatherhood and Sin City, but wouldn’t tell us his Steven Seagal stories.
Cala vs. Cuomo on education
Governor Andrew Cuomo didn’t get everything he wanted in the state budget in terms of education. The state will develop yet another teacher evaluation system, and it will take four years for teachers to become eligible for tenure instead of three. But that’s quite different from Cuomo’s starting position. And the impressive pushback against Cuomo’s…
Lilac Festival announces 2015 music lineup
The Rochester Lilac Festival announced the music lineup for its 117th edition, with 65 free shows that will feature a mix of well-known headliners, up-and-coming acts, and regionally-based bands. The 2015 festival will take place Friday, May 8, through Sunday, May 17. “It’s always a delight to plan the musical lineup for the Rochester Lilac…
The stirrings of life
Oxford Gallery’s current show, “The Heart’s Unrest,” features the cheerfully colorful work of Buffalo-based artist Charles Houseman and Rochester artist David Dorsey, and provides the perfect mental escape while Rochester’s weather decides if it’s springtime or not. Gallery director Jim Hall says he pulled the show’s title from a quote by Austrian physicist and philosopher…
Urban Action 4/1
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Neighborhood meeting on Brighton project Residents in the Clover Downs neighborhood of Brighton will hold a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 9, to discuss a large development project, Palazzo Plaza,…
ELECTRONICA | Big Data
Big Data is the brain child of producer Alan Wilkis. You may recognize him from his single “Dangerous” featuring Rochester’s own kings of the atmospheric pop frontier, Joywave — the single went to number one on the Billboard alternative charts in August 2014. Big Data has produced numerous singles and digital downloads but only recently…
ROCK | Haggard
Damn, if this ain’t an honest to badness real, rock ‘n’ roll band. With a peppermint twist and a laconic pitch, this Philadelphia band delivers the cut for your strut, the dance to lose your pants. I love it. There’s a hint-o-soul in there like The Reigning Sound with a beautiful hesitation that the band’s…
FUNK | Big Mean Sound Machine
Captivating in full colorful credo, Big Mean Sound Machine is thunderously intricate. With as many as 11 musicians adding to the sound in a given show, BMSM’s sound could be muddy, but it isn’t. Since its inception in 2009 and multiple album releases later, BMSM has done a tight job at effective layering with ample…
METAL | Oceano
Oceano will give you a sonic pummeling. With deep, chest-rattling growls that exhaust themselves over machine gun kick drums and guitars sprinting through down-tuned riffs, the Chicago-based band will beat your senses to a bloody mess and leave you winded. Oceano came out fists swinging in 2009 with the brutish, deathcore staple “Depths,” but the…
JAZZ | Benny Golson
It’s not often you get to see a bona fide jazz legend. Saxophonist Benny Golson fits the profile. A member of jazz’s greatest generation, Golson played with Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, and Benny Goodman. If that’s not enough, he wrote “I Remember Clifford,” “Whisper Not,” “Killer Joe,” “Blues March,” “Stablemates,” and many more…
CLASSICAL | Diocesan Boys’ School String Orchestra
The Diocesan Boys’ School — a prestigious private boys’ academy in Hong Kong — has become renowned for its music programs. The DBS Orchestra is one of the oldest youth orchestras in Hong Kong, and its conductor-less String Orchestra has won 11 consecutive Strings Orchestra championships in the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival. The DBS…
Jazz | Omar Tamez & Angie Sanchez
Jazz aficionados are very much aware the Latin jazz that entered the American music scene by way of Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo in the late 1940’s. Since then, as the whole world has embraced the music, many more hybrids from south of the border have emerged. In a concert titled “Jazz meets Mexico and…
Island spice and rice
During our seemingly endless winter, I looked forward to some Jamaican food to nourish my soul and brighten my spirits. Natural Vibes Jerk Hut II, which opened in 2012, is an offshoot of the original Natural Vibes, now at 975 Chili Avenue in Rochester’s 19th Ward. This one, in Rochester’s Beechwood neighborhood, serves up authentic…
ART | “Made in NY”
As the title suggests, Schweinfurth Art Center’s “Made in NY” show is an annual juried art exhibition featuring artists from the furthest reaches of the Empire State, including several from the Rochester area. Seventy-three pieces from 56 artists will be on display, touching on almost every visual medium imaginable: photography, sculpture, ceramics, painting, drawing, fiber,…
Feedback 4/1
We welcome your comments. Send them 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 do edit selections for publication in print. We don’t publish comments sent to other media. Pittsford officials…
KIDS/THEATER | “Merry Wives of Windsor”
Of all the fond and lofty thoughts associated with Shakespeare’s plays, rarely do mannequin actors on rolly wheels, audience interaction, and two-character single-actor dialogue fit into the description. This performance of the “Merry Wives of Windsor,” performed by the Rochester Shakespeare Players, is an abridged and more accessible adaptation intended for younger audiences (or anyone…
COMEDY | Tom Arnold
From stand-up he came, and to stand-up Tom Arnold has returned. With a long (very long) list of movie roles under his belt, Arnold still retains a modicum of humor about his Hollywood career: A quote from his website describes him pithily as “The star of more than one hundred movies, and three good ones.”…
Unchained melodies
At the age of 11, Mary Halvorson was growing in Boston and studying violin. It was the early 1990’s but Halvorson and her friends were enamored of music from the late-1960’s, groups like The Allman Brothers Band and the Grateful Dead. When she heard Jimi Hendrix that was it. She put down her violin. “I…
ART | “A New View”
For a single evening, “A New View” will be on display at Cat Clay studio. The show features landscape photography by Gregory Eddi Jones, a well-traveled local artist, writer, and publisher. Apart from pursuing his own imaging, Jones is the founding editor of In the In-Between, a digital journal platform that features artists working “at…
ALBUM REVIEW: “California Heat”
Cold Sweat Roc “California Heat” Self-released Facebook.com/coldsweatroc Seen around town making the scene and playing the blues in assorted gin mills and dives, Cold Sweat Roc forgoes the histrionics of other blues bruisers to deliver “California Heat,” a well-balanced collection of blues burners and rockers. Laid-back and rootsy in spots, and balls-to-the wall in others,…
ART | “Dead End City III”
The Art Museum of Rochester is opening a new multi-artist gallery exhibition in April. Titled “Dead End City III,” this show will feature the artwork of Talia Gonzalez, Rachel Coyne, Jason Coyne, AIREN, El Destructo, Grace Docherty, Laura Fernandes, Dave Dow, and Rachel Dow. The work will be displayed at AMOR through the end of…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Out & About”
Andy Galore “Out & About” Motema Music Andygalore.com The jazz world has no shortage of cerebral and experimental albums to ponder, but sometimes you just want a great groove and catchy melodies. “Out & About,” the new CD by veteran electric bassist Andy Galore delivers brilliantly on both counts. And it does so with a…
FILM | Rochester International Children’s Film Festival
Now in its 10th year, the Rochester International Children’s Film Festival is a free annual program of award-winning shorts that highlight the best of family-friendly filmmaking from around the world, with an emphasis on non-violent and socially conscious messages. From potato-shaped aliens to escaped toys and street-sweeping elephants, this year’s films are sure to capture…
Mind the skills gap
The Buffalo Billion led to some big money, high-profile economic development projects in the Buffalo area. But the region’s leaders say that the effort has also helped workforce development. As the leaders developed detailed plans for investing the state money, they learned that key industries in the region faced shortages of qualified workers. They studied…
SPECIAL EVENT | “Days of F.I.R.E. and Birth of a Hip-Hop Nation”
Eldred Harris of the Cornell Hip-Hop Collection’s advisory board will speak on Saturday at “Days of F.I.R.E.,” a Rochester community event exploring the social and economic factors surrounding hip-hop’s beginnings and how urban poverty and “the creation of the prison industrial complex is connected to the development of this powerful music form.” The talk will…
Whole Foods fight
Some Brighton neighbors are organizing against a large development project proposed for Monroe Avenue, saying that it would compound traffic problems and alter the character of the area. The Daniele Family Companies wants to redevelop approximately 10 acres along Monroe, including the sites of Mario’s Italian Restaurant and Clover Lanes, into the high-end Palazzo Plaza.…
On view: Neal McDannel
The current show at Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 at Finger Lakes Community College (3325 Marvin Sands Drive, Canandaigua) is “A Panoptic Survey” of the work of Class of ’81 FLCC alumnus Neal McDannel, who returned to making art after a 13-year hiatus. The exhibit features McDannel’s expressive, realist drawings, paintings, lithographic drawings, and photography. McDannel’s subjects…
Eastman announces its next season
The Eastman School of Music has announced the performers for two of its three guest-artist series for next season – the Eastman-Ranlet and Kilbourn Concerts – and a special recital. It’s a rich, diverse offering, with outstanding musicians in both traditional and contemporary classical works and jazz. Both series are held in Kilbourn Hall. (The…
Yet another challenge for the anti-poverty folks
To ‘eradicate poverty’ in the City of Rochester, we’ll need to create jobs. But we’ll have to do much, much more.
Film Preview: The Little Underground Film Series
If you’ve found that even the independent film scene has gotten a little too mainstream for you, the Little Theatre has your back. In the first edition of what will hopefully become an annual event, The Little Underground Film Series will present a two-day program of eclectic and under-the-radar films “celebrating visionaries, agitators, and revolutionaries…
Blackfriars Theatre announces 2015-16 season
Blackfriars Theatre has announced its 2015-16 season, the first under new Artistic and Managing Director Danny Hoskins. John Haldoupis, who has operated as the theater’s artistic director for 35 years, will retire on June 30, at the end of the 2014-15 season. Hoskins will take over on July 1. Blackfriars will host a farewell event…
Film Review: “A Thin Wall”
In her lyrically non-linear documentary “A Thin Wall,” local filmmaker Mara Ahmed focuses on the lingering effects of the partitioning of India in 1947. Filmed on each side of the border — in both India and Pakistan — the deeply personal production allows Ahmed and co-producer SurbhiDewan to examine their individual histories, assembling the recollections…
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 7, Episode 5: The DESPY Awards
After last week’s shocker of an episode I didn’t know what to expect for this week. Apparently most of the ladies felt the same way and expressed their shock at seeing Trixie Mattel sent packing while barely awake Pearl got to stay. Judging by the tears on the runway, one would think that Pearl was…
Film Review: “Serena”
Now that we’re firmly entrenched in the 24-7 information age, ubiquity can often be a byproduct of a successful acting career. Keeping that gravy train on track requires work, and since her Oscar-nominated breakthrough in 2010’s “Winter’s Bone,” Jennifer Lawrence has appeared in about a dozen films. Add to that the perpetual self-promotion of talk…
