Cover Story
Our choice for Rochester mayor: Lovely Warren
The City of Rochester is a fragile thing, with tremendous resources and seemingly great potential. But, like many cities in the US, it is facing enormous challenges. Poverty, unemployment, loss of business and industry, low academic achievement, violence, tension over police oversight and community relations, racism: No mayor and no City Council can solve those…
Film review: ‘The Trip to Spain’
British comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon follow up “The Trip” and “The Trip to Italy” with a third installment of one of the strangest franchises currently going. “The Trip to Spain” finds the two men on (as the title suggests) an odyssey through Spain as they once again dine on mouth-watering food in some…
COUNTRY | Claudia Hoyser
It seems like the universe is embracing local singer Claudia Hoyser with open arms. Hoyser declares, “I’m gonna love you” on her single “No Matter What It Costs,” and the resulting karma has landed her song much coveted airplay on country radio stations nationwide. The charismatic Hoyser can certainly steal your heart away with her…
Imagining a downtown
What’s your vision for downtown Rochester? Some of the candidates we’ve talked with this summer have brought up that issue, and it’s a good time to talk about it. What do we want for this essential part of the city? Rochester’s downtown has changed dramatically over the past several decades, and it’ll likely never again…
AMERICANA | The Avett Brothers
Fifteen years and nine studio albums in, The Avett Brothers is still tearing up the stage — fading in and out of ferocious, punk-esque tracks and slow moving ballads about love and death. The Southern-fried musicians accentuate its country-orchestra vibe with cello, violin, and piano, but at the heart of the music is a simple…
FOLK | Bella Hardy
Over the course of seven solo albums, Bella Hardy has proven to be a gifted and adaptable singer and fiddle player. The English musician was awarded “Folk Singer of the Year” during the 2014 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and has been recognized for her ability to rework traditional folk music and make it her…
CLASSICAL | Alexander Kobrin
Eastman School of Music doesn’t just attract some of the most gifted student musicians from all over the world, it also brings professors who are supremely talented performers to Rochester. Russian-born pianist Alexander Kobrin — who joined the Eastman faculty earlier this year — is one such musician. A 2005 Van Cliburn Gold Medal winner,…
ART | First Friday Roundup
September 1 is First Friday, that most magical of evenings during which galleries and art spaces coordinate simultaneous openings. There is always a lot going on, but if you have to choose, CITY recommends these events; for more, visit firstfridayrochester.org or our calendar of events at rochestercitynewspaper.com. All events take place 6 p.m. to 9…
CULTURE | Seneca Heritage Day
The family-friendly 26th annual Seneca Heritage Day will take place on Saturday, September 2, featuring traditional Seneca singing and dancing, and children’s activities. Additionally, the event will celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New York State, noting the influence that the societal agency of Haudenosaunee women had on American women’s fight for equality.…
SPECIAL EVENT | Kink BMX Block Party
Kink, the Rochester-based BMX bike company, is getting a bunch of friends together for an end of summer blow out. The free, afternoon-long block party will have a riding demo with members of the Kink teams — including pros Sean Sexton, Tony Hamlin, and Chris Doyle — a best trick contest (rider registration opens at…
SPECIAL EVENT | Hop Harvest Festival
Oktoberfest season is here. Keep an eye out for those seasonal brews on the shelves, bratwurst and sauerkraut on every menu, and local Oktoberfest and German celebrations popping up throughout September. The Genesee Country Village and Museum is going all in on Monday, September 4, with its Hop Harvest Festival and German Heritage Day. The…
Tom Hanney schools us on the harmonica
Tom Hanney and his harmonica prowl the stage and the classroom with a cool nonchalance. As a member of several bands — The White Hots jazz combo, acoustic outfit The Fog, and rock ‘n’ rollers Open G — as well as a senior lecturer at RIT, Hanney has developed a fascination for the blues harp,…
Album review: ‘Positively Phototactic’
Auld Lang Syne “Positively Phototactic” Self-released auldlangsyne.bandcamp.com “Positively Phototactic” is the latest album from the extraordinarily mellow Auld Lang Syne since 2015’s “Last of the Honey Bees,” and the band has emerged with a slightly meaner sound this time. Start to finish, “Positively Phototactic” has the band’s sights on a path to oblivion. It does…
Album review: ‘Science’
The Majestics “Science” Self-released facebook.com/majesticsreggae Pure reggae, not the simile that the jamsters toy with or what the punks add with too much cream and sugar, but the straight-ahead, relaxed, one-drop of The Majestics on its new LP record, “Science” — that’s what I want, man. This Rochester band has been a giant on the…
Feedback 8/30
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…
The life and work of Arthur Singer is on view at University Gallery
In a celebration of the stunning diversity of life and the art that captures it, RIT’s University Gallery, through October 28, is hosting “Arthur Singer: The Wildlife Art of an American Master.” The extensive exhibition displays dozens of Singer’s original illustrations and paintings, but the exhibit also serves as a celebration of an individual life.…
Activists push district to hire more teachers of color
The New York State Department of Education released English and math test scores for grades 3-8 last week, and once again the Rochester school district’s scores were the lowest among the state’s Big Five urban districts. Although Rochester students showed a slight improvement over last year’s scores, only about 7 percent met proficiency standards in…
COUNTRY | Dale Watson
You can call it country. You can call it honky-tonk. Or you can quit with the semantics, slap some glue in your ‘do, check your sleeve for the ace, and listen to one of the best crooners alive, Dale Watson. Though he’s worthy of Wembley Arena-sized crowds, this Texan positively shines in little juke joints.…
A renovated Dicky’s reopens and returns to the family
Residents of the Highland Park neighborhood, many of whom grew up there and decided to raise their own families in the area, are well familiar with the green building on the corner of Meigs and Caroline Streets. The building was built in 1880 and purchased by the Salvaggio family in 1922. Richard “Dick” Salvaggio opened…
INDIE ROCK | Blue Smiley
At times noisy and at times more introspective, there’s something psychedelic about the music of Philadelphia band Blue Smiley: the electric guitar’s lo-fi, high-energy distortions sound as if Johnny Marr were on hallucinogens while playing with The Smiths. Meanwhile, the vocals are barely audible above the din, embedding in the instrumental texture rather than asserting…
Collins takes shotgun approach to gun laws
New York has a long history of regulating guns, from the 1911 statute that created the state’s pistol permit requirement to the sweeping 2013 SAFE Act. And practically every one of the measures has met opposition from the gun industry and gun rights supporters. Representative Chris Collins, an Erie County Republican who represents a small…
GLAM METAL | Wicked
These guys have got it down: the leather, the heels, the ozone-eradicating amounts of Aqua Net. Without a shred of irony, Utica-based Wicked is what you’d get musically if you blended Motley Crue with Ratt. And aside from all the window dressing, the band lays down a solid glam metal groove. Looks that kill again…
Preview: Rochester Labor Film Series
A joint effort of the Eastman Museum’s Dryden Theatre and the Rochester Labor Council’s Pettengill Labor Education Fund, the annual Rochester Labor Film Series screens a program of contemporary and classic films that celebrate workers of all stripes from around the world. The selected films encompass a wide range of issues and topics, from unions…
Film review: ‘Patti Cake$’
The irresistibly charming “Patti Cake$” follows the eponymous character — a white, plus-sized young woman from New Jersey — as she fights to make her dreams of hip-hop stardom come true. Like many underdog stories, the plot sticks to a tried and true formula, but it forges through any rough patches on the strength of…
Film review: ‘Ingrid Goes West’
We meet Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza), the rather unstable protagonist at the center of the cringe-inducing social media comedy “Ingrid Goes West,” at a particularly low point. Camped outside a lavish wedding she wasn’t invited to, Ingrid sits raccoon-eyed and sobbing, scrolling through the picture-perfect Instagram photos rolling in from the event. Finally she works up…
