Cover Story
It’s a plastic planet
Plastics are everywhere, from shopping bags to cutting-edge medical devices. But as they’ve become more pervasive, they’ve also become more troublesome.
![[UPDATED] Encampment holds off possible eviction attempt](https://i0.wp.com/www.roccitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/jfm_8603.webp?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1)
[UPDATED] Encampment holds off possible eviction attempt
Activists are now having an eviction watch at the homeless encampment along South Avenue after what appeared to be an attempt by the property’s owner to clear out at least part of the tent city.
The F Word: Sing, sing, sing
The F Word. An online column for Frank De Blase to pontificate, ruminate, placate, and salivate. We’ll have reviews and previews, we’ll discuss trends in local and national music scenes, and we’ll try to do it as reverently as possible. Yup. Let’s get started. For this week’s F Word, we’re coming up with songs that…
The Decemberists find new waters
The Decemberists, out on tour for its new album, are performing at The Smith Center in Geneva on Monday, so CITY reached out to multi-instrumentalist Chris Funk with a few questions
Distinguished educator will not be coming to RCSD
Ken Eastwood won’t be a consultant studying the Rochester City School District after all, according to a statement today from the New York State Education Department. Commissioner MaryEllen Elia rescinded his appointment to the job, “after he could not come to an agreement with the school board on the terms of his contract,” Elia’s statement…
City launches traffic ticket agency
Beginning Monday, April 23, city residents and visitors will have a chance to contest a traffic ticket, negotiate a payment plan, or plead guilty to a lesser offense. City officials say Rochester’s new Traffic Violations Agency is about fairness, since suburban communities already provide drivers with this opportunity. “A traffic ticket is meant to deter…
Poverty is still a major problem, ACT Rochester reports
ACT Rochester, which tracks the basic well-being of the nine-county Greater Rochester area, released its latest “Community Report Card” this morning. And while the report contains a bit of good news, much of the news in the report is negative. The Rochester region has a very serious problem with poverty and issues related to it.…
Helen Sung is on a lifelong jazz journey
After graduating in 1997 from the Thelonious Monk Institute at New England Conservatory, pianist Helen Sung has performed with greats like Wayne Shorter, Wynton Marsalis, and Clark Terry. She won the Kennedy Center’s 2007 Mary Lou Williams Piano Competition and has played all over the world. Sung, who brings her trio to The Penthouse on…
Fresh Cut: ‘Control’ by Komrads
Industrial darkwave duo Komrads is expected to release a new album from its mechanical grip in May. The album’s first track, “Control,” is a sonic rollercoaster ride that leaves the listener gripping their seat
ART | Jason Tennant ‘Evanescent’
Sculptor Jason Tennant carves elegant forms from domestic wood that he forages from the forest. His main subjects are birds, whether splayed-feathered wings emerging from a gnarled log, or the face of a cackling crow lit up with mischief. The Gallery at More Fire Glass Studio this month will present “Evanescent,” a solo exhibition of…
FILM | ‘Last Light of a Dying Star’
Filmmaker, curator, and Ohio State University professor Roger Beebe’s experimental film projection performances draw from found images and blend levity and gravitas as they grapple with American capitalism’s late stages. His work tackles a wide range of subject matter, from exploring the materiality of film to Las Vegas suicides and the forbidden pleasures of men…
Rochester district faces new charter openings
The State Education Department’s Charter School Office has given its initial approval to applications for two more charters in the Rochester district.
LECTURE | ‘How to be an Antiracist’
Historian, author, and American University Professor Dr. Ibram X. Kendi argues that ignorance and hate aren’t what informs racist policies, but that it’s the policies — created out of economic and political self-interest — that influence and encourage racist attitudes. He also maintains that we need to better understand and stand against these policies that…
Federico Solmi’s video paintings stun at RoCo
The current exhibit at Rochester Contemporary puts viewers in the same deer-in-headlights state that the political spectacle has had us in as of late.
THEATER/KIDS | ‘The Wonderful World of Oz’
The performing arts department at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf this week will produce “The Wonderful World of Oz,” accessible to deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing audiences. But the show won’t simply have ASL interpreters off to the side translating the story; the actors themselves will perform in both…
DOOM METAL | The Skull
Arising from the ashes of Chicago metal mavens Trouble, The Skull takes metal from creepy heights to a slow apocalyptic grind. I’m not positive but it sounds like there’s some drop-tuning going on here mixed in with the solid push and pull of the band’s dynamic material. The vocals are mesmerizing and riveting. Relentless and…
LECTURE | ‘A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time’
While Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony are Rochester’s most well-known social reformers, the region’s history as a hotbed for abolitionists, suffragists, and justice-seekers means there are countless stories of people who lived a life worth learning about. Julia Wilbur led a courageous life. Born in 1815, Wilbur was a part of a Quaker family…
COUNTRY | Margo Price
If there’s any question that real country music is alive and well, the proof is in singer-songwriter Margo Price. Nashville’s adopted daughter put in more than a decade of hard work leading up to the success of her debut solo album, “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter,” out on Third Man Records. Price’s songs often comment on forgotten…
Feedback 4/18
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. For our print edition, we select comments from all three sources; those of fewer than 350 words have a greater chance of being published, and we do edit selections for publication in…
Album review: ‘Letters’
Gary Lamaar “Letters” Self-released garylamaar.bandcamp.com Hip-hop generally uses vocal patterns that find themselves thrust upon our consciousness by its driving, underlying, and in most cases, unrelenting beat. This internal beat, and the bed of music where it resides, helps drive home the message, whatever it may be. Rochester musician Gary Lamaar deftly applies this with…
Urban Action 4/18
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Film highlights anti-fracking leader The Little Theatre’s One Take Film Festival and Rochester Pachamama Alliance will show “Unfractured,” on Sunday, April 22. The documentary film follows Sandra Steingraber, an Ithaca-area biologist and author…
JAZZ | Lucian Ban and Alex Harding
Transylvanian pianist Lucian Ban has some of the fastest fingers a keyboard is ever likely to encounter. Of course that would mean nothing if Ban didn’t somehow hit all the right notes in his stunning solos. Detroit-born Alex Harding has a similar command of the baritone sax, coaxing cascades of raspy runs out of the…
Grassroots group plans arts series at Parcel 5
A new arts-focused, grassroots campaign wants to put a community vision for Parcel 5 into practice. The Parcel 5 Community Programmers, spearheaded by arts activist Ray Ray Mitrano, will collectively organize and fund a series of monthly events at the controversial downtown space. The idea is to gather together a group of individual city residents…
DANCE | ’50Live’
SUNY Geneseo is celebrating 50 years of dance with a performance that will bring together former students from across four decades for a program of original works by alumni, faculty, current students, and guest artists. Alumni from 1976 through 2017 will join the Geneseo Dance Ensemble for “50Live: Dancing Past to Present Celebrating 50 Years”…
YOU NAME IT | Record Store Day 2018
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: The smell of vinyl and anticipation is thick in the air, food trucks are offering up street meat, and record labels and artists release rare, limited run records just for the fans and collectors. There is a ton of live music scheduled as well. Dig it. Record…
THEATER | ‘Natural Shocks’
In an act of theater activism against gun violence, playwright Lauren Gunderson (who at 36 is already the most produced playwright in the US) has organized a nation-wide campaign of royalty-free readings of her unpublished, new play “Natural Shocks.” By the end of March, more than 50 readings were already planned, most intentionally taking place…
Nazareth’s adjuncts join the labor movement
After a year of planning, adjunct faculty at Nazareth College recently filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to join Service Employees International Union, SEIU Local 200United.
CLASSICAL | ‘Fanfare and Filigree’
The 1720’s were a significant decade in Western music — the decade included the premieres of such mighty masterworks as Bach’s “Saint Matthew” and “Saint John” Passions and Handel’s “Julius Caesar.” Composers of the era also produced volumes and volumes of less ambitious but still delightful music, whose attractions are summed up in the title…
VOCAL | ‘Cathedral Classics’
If your favorite sound is that of a large chorus singing in a cathedral-like space, Rochester Oratorio Society has the concert for you this Friday at the grand surroundings of Asbury First United Methodist Church. The group’s 100 voices, led by Eric Townell, will join in Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem (with soloists Eric Kesler, baritone, and…
Album review: ‘Don’t Be Surprised When You See Us Bears’
The Bicycats “Don’t Be Surprised When You See Us Bears” Self-released thebicycats.bandcamp.com Lighthearted and a whole lot of goofy is what smacks the listener in the mug during the initial spin of The Bicycats’ “Don’t Be Surprised When You See Us Bears.” The band is essentially Rochester expat Zachary Bernstein, now living and writing in…
SPECIAL EVENT | Rochester Music Hall of Fame Induction
The Rochester Music Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony, each year, is a good reminder that there’s a lot of music history in the area to be proud of, and the event always ends up being an education packaged in a rockin’ showcase. The 2018 ceremony will induct percussionist, composer, and Eastman School faculty member John…
Who produces our news? Does it make a difference?
There’s a wealth of news available – far more than 30 years ago. But we have to look for it. And we’re impatient.
CityVerse debut: ‘Study Abroad’ by Chen Chen
In honor of National Poetry Month, we premiere our occasional poetry column, which features unpublished poems by local, national, and international writers.
Film preview: One Take Film Festival
After a successful first year, the team behind the One Take Film Festival has no intention of falling prey to the sophomore slump. They’ve added new venues and partnerships to turn the celebration of documentary filmmaking into four packed days of great movies, music, cocktails, and conversation. Held this Thursday through Sunday (April 19-22), the…
Mary Gauthier finds the deeper meaning of service, sacrifice, and love
Every track on Mary Gauthier’s new album, “Rifles & Rosary Beads,” is a gut-punch. The album is rife with the sound of genuine heartache. And while this singer-songwriter has an amazing grasp of the darkness that we are all susceptible to and the inevitable yet elusive light on the other side, she didn’t cut this…
Downtown hotels step up their restaurant game
Hotel restaurants haven’t exactly been a destination for Rochester food enthusiasts. The Hyatt Regency and Rochester Riverside Hotel want to change that by catering to not only hotel guests but also to those who live in the area.
