Cover Story
The Rustix shake off nearly 50 years of dust
Darlings of blue-eyed soul, The Rustix, reunite for Rochester Music Hall of Fame induction.
Report finds support for military school
A new report seems to make a strong case for opening a military-style academy in the Rochester City School District.
Legislature won’t probe I-Square debacle
The Monroe County Legislature will not investigate the chain of events that led to one of the clumsiest political squabbles in recent local history. A Legislature committee rejected a proposal to create a committee to investigate remarks made by Bill Reilich, chair of the Monroe County Republican Committee, regarding the I-Square development in Irondequoit. The…
Report measures region’s health
Mortality rates are down in the nine-county region, as are median home values. Violent crime continues to decrease throughout the state, but in the City of Rochester it increased by 9 percent from 2000 to 2014, according ACT Rochester’s annual community report card (see below). The group released its latest assessment on Tuesday. It looks…
Week ahead: Events for the week of Monday, April 25
The Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative at United Way will hold a town hall meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, at the Adams Street Recreation Center, 85 Adams Street. The initiative aims to reduce poverty in the Rochester-Monroe County region by 50 percent over the next 15 years. The initiative will update the community on…
Noam Chomsky gives talkback about decline of American dream
Noam Chomsky was present on Friday for a screening of his “Requiem for the American Dream” and a talkback at the Little Theatre. This event followed two evenings of the linguist, writer, MIT professor emeritus, and social critic giving lectures hosted by the University of Rochester last week. This Rochester screening was Chomsky’s first viewing…
I Scene It: John Mellencamp and the Rochester Music Hall of Fame
Frank De Blase spent a couple of nights in Kodak Hall over the weekend, where he learned he was a secret John Mellencamp fan, but just ended up let down by Cherie Currie.
Soccer team HQ moves into Neighborhood of the Arts
The pro women’s soccer team, the Western New York Flash, has moved into a vacant storefront on University Avenue. The team’s HQ used to be in Erie County.
Revel in the Details: “World without Pain”
For our series “Revel in the Details,” artists Noma and Jim Bliss talk about the physical and emotional pain that inspired their new work.
Keaton to get George Eastman Award
The “Birdman” actor will be in town to collect his award on June 9.
Smash the control machine
Punk-metal icon Wendy O. Williams will be inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame on Sunday. Plasmatics guitarist Wes Beech and Rod Swenson, the band’s creator and Williams’ life partner, talk about the legacy of the singer.
CLASSICAL | Cordancia Chamber Orchestra
Cordanica will give a French-inspired concert this weekend with a program combining a roster of French composers with a gently nostalgic Brit and a raucous American. Cordanica will be conducted by Rachel Lauber. The truly French items include a delicately witty serenade by Jean Francaix, and “The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower,” a surrealist extravaganza…
CLASSICAL | Carmina Burana
The Genesee Chorale — led by its Music Director Ric Jones — will perform Carl Orff’s choral epic, “Carmina Burana,” along with the ubiquitous song “O Fortuna,” this Friday. While the Rochester Oratorio Society performed Orff’s 20th century masterpiece with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra last June, Jones and company will collaborate with pianists Doug Hanson…
ROCK | Cello Fury
Utilizing a cellos-and-drums instrumentation, the Pittsburgh-based quartet Cello Fury combines classical virtuosity with head-bangin’ rhythms and the kind of relentless energy you expect from your favorite metal bands. Boasting original compositions from its two albums, 2011 self-titled debut and 2013’s “Symphony of Shadows,” Cello Fury’s sound is both brawny and brooding. The band — cellists…
METAL | Amon Amarth
At the intersection of death metal, grandiose songwriting, and Norse warfare and Viking mythology is Sweden’s Amon Amarth. If anything, the name — meaning “Mount Doom” in one of the fictional languages used in J.R.R. Tolkien’s canon — should tell you where the band is coming from thematically. The brutal riffs, precise chugging drums, and…
ALBUM REVIEW: “At War With The Night”
The Cage Kings “At War With The Night” Self-released facebook.com/thecagekings What separated the heavy rockers from those that were too heavy in the late 1990’s was an adherence to discernibility — things you could actually comprehend, you dig? It was a cleaner, more concise sound that emerged from the grunge that emerged from the hair…
RIT exhibits master photocomposer
Polish artist Ryszard Horowitz was creating visions of fantastical realities through photography since before the age of Photoshop. He is recognized as a pioneer of special effects photography who developed boundary-stretching analog techniques and was early to incorporate digital technology into his work. An exhibition of Horowitz’s images currently fills RIT’s University Gallery, and showcases…
DANCE | “Lost Paradise”
There’s an upward trend of immersive live performances in the international theater and dance worlds, and Rochester will join that trend by hosting NYC-based Ekilibre Dance Company at Visual Studies Workshop on Sunday, April 24. Ekilibre is a contemporary troupe that travels and educates internationally, and performs the choreography, scenic designs, and musical scores of…
OPERA | “Bastianello”
Last month, Rochester welcomed composer Steve Reich. This week, composer-pianist John Musto comes to town as part of a five-day residency co-hosted by Nazareth College and Rochester Lyric Opera. In a visit that includes a composer’s forum on Thursday, April 21, at 4 p.m. on the Nazareth campus (free and open to the public), the…
Warren’s schools plan rips open old wound
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren’s announcement last week that she is seeking a pivotal role in the rescue efforts for the city’s most troubled schools is the bold declaration that many people have anticipated since her election. Warren ran her 2013 mayoral campaign in large part on education, but action had been conspicuously lacking until her…
SPECIAL EVENT | Roc City Tattoo Expo
This weekend, LoveHate Tattoo will present the 8th Annual International Roc City Tattoo Expo at the downtown Holiday Inn (formerly the Crown Plaza) at 70 State Street. The show features more than 200 artists in the “skin trade” from all over the US, Canada, Europe, and Japan, showcasing a variety of techniques and styles. Visitors…
Project looks at perils of low-wage work
Work affects people’s health in many ways. Consider, for example, the increasingly clear connection between sedentary jobs and obesity, or the benefits people get from forming bonds with their coworkers. But the impacts can vary from job to job; a CEO works in a much different environment, with different hazards and stresses, than a factory…
DANCE | “Origin”
The Nazareth Spring Dance Concert, “Origin,” will offer two evenings of fresh dances by professional and student choreographers at Nazareth College Arts Center’s Callahan Theater (4245 East Avenue). The show will highlight new works by guest choreographers Eran Hanlon and Mariko Yamada; repertory by Sarah Coolidge; new faculty works by Allison Bohman, Paige Cummings, and…
CoreLife Eatery makes clean eating simple
If you’re trying to follow a special diet, whether it’s Paleo, Weight Watchers, macrobiotic, microbiotic, symbiotic (okay, the last two aren’t real diet plans) going out to eat is a challenge. When ordering you might as well just say, “Can you strip this entrée of anything that gives it flavor?” The partners at CoreLife Eatery…
SPECIAL EVENT | Flower City Comic Con
The 2016 Flower City Comic Con will take place Saturday, April 23, and Sunday, April 24, at Rochester Riverside Convention Center (123 East Main Street). The convention’s lineup is packed with special guests, including Karan Ashley and Walter Jones (the Yellow Power Ranger and Black Power Ranger, respectively) and voice actor Jim Cummings (Darkwing Duck,…
THEATER | “Dancing Lessons”
“Dancing Lessons” is the latest production to open on Geva Theatre’s Fielding Stage. The play by Mark St. Germain (who also penned “Freud’s Last Session”) follows an injured Broadway dancer who is teaching her downstairs neighbor, a high-functioning young man with Asperger’s Syndrome, how to dance. The only catch? He has a “no-touch” rule. The…
Fast Forward Film Festival focuses on second year
The Fast Forward Film Festival is back for a second year of locally made, five-minutes-or-less films about the environment. And like its inaugural season, the festival is a juried competition with films chosen from open submissions, rather than a traditional curated festival selected without community input. But according to Festival Director Becca Delaney, its sophomore…
Feedback 4/20
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. Public transit…
BLUES | Jane Lee Hooker
They call it the blues, but it ain’t. New York City’s Jane Lee Hooker is a rockin’ bar band that comes out of the gate already blasting at 11, but it might be too vanilla to be the blues. When the band leans into the rock side of things, though, it sounds more sincere and…
Urban Action 4/20
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. All are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Activists show “Dirt” doc The First Unitarian Church will show the documentary film “Dirt” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20. The film will be followed by “Transforming Dirt Into Soil and What…
ROCK | John Mellencamp
Here’s a little ditty about John Mellencamp who rocks like his long-since discarded middle name. This multiple Grammy Award-winner has released 22 albums including 2014’s “Plain Spoken.” Nobody (well, perhaps maybe the Boss) has maintained a down-home honesty, appeal, and accessibility like Mellencamp. He’s an American barroom rocker to the bone. John Mellencamp with Carlene…
JAZZ | Stick Men
From rhythmic tapping to classical bowing, Tony Levin gets extraordinary sounds out of his 12-string Chapman Stick. Markus Reuter coaxes a veritable symphony out of the touch-style guitar he designed himself. And Pat Mastelotto has expanded his percussion repertoire to encompass a wide array of loops and samples. Levin and Mastelotto serve as the rhythm…
Clinton, Trump win New York & Monroe
Trump sails. Clinton wins handily overall, but has trouble in Slaughter’s district.
A realistic, proven plan to create better schools
Great Schools wants to set up primary and secondary magnet schools that would cross existing school district lines, each with a limit on the number of poor children it enrolled.
Film review: “Miles Ahead”
It’s been only a matter of weeks since the release of “I Saw the Light,” a film that once again demonstrated the creaky limitations of the biopic template, and we’ve already got another tale of tortured musical genius on our hands with “Miles Ahead.” In the film, Don Cheadle creates a fascinating, if not wholly…
