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Students of all stripes
CITY U: A guide to Rochester for students in and out of the classroom
Developers lay out Skyview on the Ridge plans
Medley Centre is no more. Now the idle, empty, former mall on East Ridge Road will be known as Skyview on the Ridge, and developers plan to convert it into ultra-flexible mixed-use space. The name change is an obvious marketing tactic, but it’s a necessary one. Angelo Ingrassia, Frank Perticone, and Robert Morgan — the…
Developers will release Medley Centre plans this week
The long saga that is Medley Centre, formerly Irondequoit Mall, will begin a new chapter on Tuesday. A team of local developers will brief the media on their plans for the dead mall at 11:30 a.m. in one of its parking lots. Angelo Ingrassia, a former owner of Irondequoit Dodge, bought the property for $100,000 in…
Insta-ROC
Get out and explore Rochester. Here’s nine Instagram-worthy locales that make a beautiful grid
COMEDY | Queer Queens of Qomedy
Three Queer Queens are coming to Rochester for a night of comedy. Erin Foley, the show’s headliner, has appeared on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” “Conan,” the “Arsenio Hall Show,” and “Chelsea Lately,” not to mention her numerous performances at the Montreal Comedy Festival. Comedian Poppy Champlin, the show’s producer, has appeared on…
Feedback 8/23
Send comments to themail@rochester-citynews.com, or post them on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com, our Facebook page, or our Twitter feed, @roccitynews. We edit selections for publication, and we don’t publish comments sent to other media. Our City Council endorsements CITY did its usual due diligence in examining a wide crowd of City Council candidates. Then you erred…
ART | ‘Acrylic Acuity’
Rochester artist Valerie Berner’s latest exhibit, “Acrylic Acuity,” is open for its final week at the Geisel Gallery. Berner’s solo exhibition features acrylic paintings of swamp, desert, ocean, and forest settings, but each piece is left open to interpretation through the juxtaposition of sharp, thick lines and bold colors with each painting’s unstructured mood. Berner…
Urban Action 8/23
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Hearing from the candidates for city posts In the September 12 Democratic Primary and November 7 general election, voters will choose key local government officials, and several organizations are holding public forums featuring…
THEATER | Sankofa Theatre Festival
The Sankofa Theatre Festival (also formerly known as the Sankofa Evening of Theatre and Jazz) has for the last nine years staged works by Rochester African-American and Latinx playwrights, and is now entering its 10th year with more than 40 original one-acts and six full-length plays under its belt. The event has long held a…
Makeshift barrier was a statement
Plungers can make one heck of a point if used creatively. And so they did on Exchange Boulevard, where some someone stuck a bunch of them on the outer edges of the bike lanes on either side of the road, creating an ad hoc barrier to buffer bikers from drivers.
Christine Lavin goes everywhere and meets everyone
Christine Lavin is a wonder. The 65-year-old singer-songwriter’s performances are fresh and interactive, and whether she’s playing the coffee house circuit, a festival, or rocking out on the front porch of her sister’s house in the Highland Park neighborhood, Lavin sandwiches her shows in between rounds of knitting and fancy napkin folding with her fans.…
Activists track local hate movement
Members of Metro Justice and Eastside Antifascists are tracking the actions of local individuals who participate in regional and national white nationalist and white supremacist rallies and are spreading racist ideologies on far-right message boards. Metro Justice’s organizing director, Colin O’Malley, says in the last year he has received word of individuals planning Rochester meetings…
Album review: ‘Polka Dot Swing’
Yarms “Polka Dot Swing” Self-released yarms.bandcamp.com On his new solo album, “Polka Dot Swing,” Ryan “Yarms” Yarmel comes across less as a singer-songwriter and more as a straight-up storyteller. And that’s a good thing. Rather than cling to the conventions of indie folk, Yarmel reaches back into the archives of American music, drawing from jazz,…
Maplewood and North Clinton in transition
Last in a series on Rochester neighborhoods and the fall city elections. Sam Spoto has lived in the Maplewood neighborhood since the 1940’s, and remains one of its most ardent cheerleaders. “I remember when we had two movie theaters, grocery stores, lots of restaurants, and some major employers within walking distance,” says Spoto, who heads…
Album review: ‘Unraveling’
Maybird “Unraveling” 30th Century Records/Columbia Records maybirdmusic.com Earlier this summer, Maybird released “Unraveling,” a brisk, four-song EP produced by The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney. “Unraveling” further establishes the rock group’s existing sound while bringing it to a wider audience via Danger Mouse’s 30th Century Records. The layered, folk-psychedelic sheen on which Maybird has built its…
Which side are you on? Trump, morality, and us
Racial, ethnic, and religious hatred in this country aren’t new. They predate the founding of the nation. So Donald Trump didn’t create the sentiments that the white supremacists and racists and anti-Semites spewed out in Charlottesville, Virginia, August 11 and 12. But he embraced those sentiments and the people who marched with torches and shields…
Words of wisdom
CITY tossed a few questions to “experts” to ask them about that scary first year in college
Cocktail bar Nagle’s Observance sets up amid Midtown growth
Tucked behind Fuego Coffee Roasters on the corner of Euclid and Atlas streets, the recently opened craft cocktail bar Nagle’s Observance wants to contribute to the growing Midtown scene. Through metal double doors (just to the right of a colorful wall mural of the cover of Joywave’s 2017 album, “Content”) there is a low-lit, minimalist…
U are here
Small facts about Rochester’s universities
Poems and paintings pair together in Makers exhibit
Leading up to Monday afternoon’s Great American Eclipse, I visited Makers Gallery and Studio to see the current show, “Schemes,” which consists of eight collaborative paintings and poems arranged in artful installations. I had been reading some articles about how the sky show would affect minute animal life on Earth, so my dome was already…
I’m with the banned
Profiling Rochester’s international student community
BLACK METAL | Nokturnal Hellstorm
All things will inevitably come to an end. No musical subgenre is better versed in that concept than black metal, with all its apocalyptic doomsaying and end-times sloganeering. However, while universal entropy and our eventual destruction are foolish to denounce, that doesn’t mean we can’t mourn the great bands we’ll lose along the way, and…
College isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay
No one told me that I had to go to college. It was a self-inflicted obligation; an expectation I think most high school graduates face. At the time I graduated, I was working a weekend job, and spending the rest of my time consuming energy drinks, playing video games until 3 a.m., and driving aimlessly…
PUNK | Whoopi Sticks
The deliciously unhinged Boston-based punk band Whoopi Sticks pulls no punches whatsoever on its new EP, “Surprising Squirts.” The music is unapologetically brash, loud, and foul-mouthed — and that’s just the contribution from drummer and lead shouter Lindsey Warning. The sound is so lo-fi, the guitars are as crude and noisy as rusty hacksaws. Whoopi…
University schedules
Keep up with all of the music, art, film, theater, dance, and special events going on in and around Rochester with CITY’s calendar section, always available online and in print every Wednesday. August August 28 NAZ/RIT/BROCKPORT/GENESEO: Fall Semester Begins August 30 ESM/UR: Fall Semester Begins September September 5 FLCC/MCC/FISHER: Fall Semester Begins September 14-16 NAZ:…
JAZZ | Erik Lawrence
Grammy-winning saxophonist and flutist Erik Lawrence may be best known for his work with the Levon Helm Band and the Spin Doctors, but he is also a student of the saxophone’s stylistic evolution. At the Bop Shop, Lawrence will perform a solo concert celebrating the birthdays of two of the greatest sax players in jazz…
INDIE POP | Thelma
Thelma frontwoman Natasha Jacobs is a veritable chanteuse whose evocative voice brings to mind a kind of modern-day, indie dith Piaf. With the moody set of seven songs that make up the Brooklyn band’s atmospheric self-titled album, Thelma puts out a sound that’s an irresistible amalgamation of indie pop band Eisley, folk singer-songwriter Basia Bulat,…
FUNK | Holy Hand Grenade
Brooklyn-based band Holy Hand Grenade blends a mix of jazz, soul, and hip-hop to make a “new music collective inspired by world-grooves and memorable melodies,” as the band itself puts it. The group employs both tenor and soprano saxophones and a prominent, soulful bassline for an exciting, tight jam. The group’s self-titled debut EP ranges…
SLUDGE METAL | EyeHateGod
For a band with almost 30 years of activity under its belt, it’s nothing short of inspiring that New Orleans sludge metal pioneers EyeHateGod are still full of surprises. After a string of increasingly caustic records, from 1990’s “In the Name of Suffering” to 2000’s “Confederacy of Ruined Lives,” the band entered a lengthy dark…
THEATER | Amy Stiller: ‘Just Trust’
Amy Stiller, the sister of Ben Stiller and daughter of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, has developed her show, “Just Trust,” into a semi-autobiographical exploration of a non-famous woman trying to survive in a famous family. The one-woman-show examines topics like family and childhood in a world that worships celebrity. Stiller herself is actually reasonably…
VOTE NOW: Best of Rochester 2017 Primary Ballot
The primary ballot is now closed. Check back on Wednesday, September 20, for the Best of Rochester 2017 final poll
Film review: ‘The Only Living Boy in New York’
After the perfectly enjoyable melodrama “Gifted” earlier this year, director Marc Webb returns with “The Only Living Boy in New York,” a coming-of-age narrative that cobbles together its story from a collection of familiar elements and tropes, then renders them completely ineffective in the process. Following the lives of well-to-do Manhattan writers, artists, and various…
Film review: ‘Good Time’
It’s always fascinating to watch a performer’s career progress after they find stardom through a singularly iconic role. Both Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe have been able to transition into a career beyond “Harry Potter,” and post “Twilight,” Kristen Stewart has transformed into an unlikely critic’s darling with terrific performances in indie dramas from “Certain…
