Cover Story
You’re getting warmer
Dismissing climate change is not an option if the human race is serious about survival.
WEEK AHEAD: Events for the week of Monday, December 19
Rochester City Council will hold a public forum on Mayor Lovely Warren’s proposal to eliminate the city’s red-light camera program. The forum is at 5:15 p.m. today (Monday, December 19) in Council chambers at City Hall, 30 Church Street. The forum was originally scheduled for Thursday, December 15, but was postponed due to a snowstorm.…
Council forum on ending red-light cameras is Monday
Rochester City Council has rescheduled its public forum on a proposal to eliminate the city’s red-light camera program. It’s at 5:15 p.m. on Monday, December 19, in Council chambers at City Hall, 30 Church Street. The forum was originally scheduled for Thursday, December 15, but was postponed due to a snowstorm. Mayor Lovely Warren has…
Film review: “Peter and the Farm”
The innocuous title is a bit misleading. Tony Stone’s documentary “Peter and the Farm” is less an educational peek into the life of the American farmer than a darkly existential character study about a broken man coming to grips with his own mortality and the legacy he leaves behind. Peter Dunning is the sole owner…
Warren, an elector, supports briefing on Trump’s Russia ties
Dozens of electoral college members have asked for an intelligence briefing on the president-elect’s ties to Russia before they cast their votes on December 19.
GOP punishes city residents, workers for political gain
The county GOP decided to punish County Clerk Adam Bello for his popularity by denying city residents and workers a downtown DMV.
Key photonics site picked
The New York State Photonics Board of Officers has chosen a site at Eastman Business Park for a major manufacturing facility. During a meeting this morning, the board picked ON Semiconductor on Lake Avenue to host the AIM Photonics testing, assembly, and packaging facility. The company makes a variety of electronic devices, including power management systems…
Album review: ‘Taylor Street’
Carol Robbins “Taylor Street” Jazz Cats carolrobbins.net It’s not a sound you would expect to hear on a jazz album: the glistening notes of a harp. But Carol Robbins is not your typical jazz musician. Growing up in Los Angeles, she had a rare opportunity to study with pioneering jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby. Now at…
Album review: ‘Solstice’
Frank Kimbrough “Solstice” Pirouet Records pirouet.com With all the frenzied activity of this time of year, not to mention turbulent national events, you might find yourself in need of some meditative musical moments. Frank Kimbrough’s “Solstice” delivers an exquisite selection of well-chosen compositions that couldn’t come at a better time. Over the past three-and-a-half decades,…
RIT presents Norman Ives retrospective
At a glance, Norman Ives’s artwork is both straightforward and enigmatic. That balance is key to good design — it should command your attention without making you hate its effort. It should tug seductively at your focus more than hit you over the head. A new retrospective of Ives’s oeuvre, concurrently hosted in the Bevier…
Standing Rock: The fight’s not over
The Dakota Access pipeline is not dead and there’s no guarantee that it’ll even be routed away from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. And that’s why the thousands of Water Protectors encamped on the reservation haven’t budged, even though the US Army Corps of Engineers recently issued a decision that puts a…
ART | “American Voices”
In times of disaster and strife, it’s wise to remember the words of Fred Rogers: “Look for the helpers.” And that’s exactly what artist and art teacher Todd Stahl is doing as we march forward to meet the new presidency with trepidation. On December 16, Stahl’s show “American Voices” will open at Makers Gallery and…
Trauma at center of gangs
Many black and Latino gangs operated in the housing projects near Father Gregory Boyle’s church when he started working in East Los Angeles 30 years ago. He was warned not to walk through the neighborhood. “I remember early on a police car pulled over next to me because I was this white guy walking in…
DANCE | “The Nutcracker”
Flower City Ballet founder Wayne Blatt died on November 15 after a two-year battle with cancer. You can read CITY story on Blatt’s life and the future of FCB in our November 9 issue. While mourning its mentor, the company will perform the holiday favorite — and a FCB tradition of 11 years — “The…
New programs, new look for the Public Market
The Rochester Public Market is much more than a place to buy tomatoes the size of softballs; it’s the social and cultural heart of the city. On a single Saturday in peak season, the market may get 25,000 to 35,000 visitors. New programs and an $8.2 million renovation project will guarantee that the Public Market…
ART | “Crystal Blue America”
When you look at the landscapes and scenes in Marcella Gillenwater’s paintings, it’s easy to get swept back to personal memories. A new exhibit of Gillenwater’s work, “Crystal Blue America,” is no different, channeling serene scenes of American countrysides that will resonate with many. “With the infinite possibilities of paint, I reach for the ‘language…
JB’s Smokehouse makes barbecue its own way
It’s simple: Bill Schnupp is cooking the food he likes to eat. Schnupp, along with partner Justin Washington, opened JB’s Smokehouse (211 Main Street, East Rochester) in June, with a menu that has all of the meats you’d expect from a quality barbecue joint — cooked in a style that isn’t quite Texas BBQ nor…
HOLIDAY | La Cumbre Latino Holiday Celebration
La Cumbre is highlighting Latino celebrations next Wednesday with a holiday fundraiser. The advocacy group for Latinx engagement in the Rochester community will host dance performances by Latinos De Corazon Dance Company and Grupo Cultural Latinos En Rochester; fresh, authentic food from El Pilon Restaurant; easy-to-follow salsa lessons; and tunes from the popular Broadway musical…
HOLIDAY | Santanalia Pageant
The Santanalia Pageant, presented by local noise duo Bloody Noes, is a conglomeration of live music, entertainment, and the ancient story of Santa Claus. This celebration, a developing holiday tradition helmed by Bloody Noes for the last 10 years, was created in Rochester. This full-scale performance of the story of Santa Claus and his rise…
JAZZ | Charlie Lindner
Pianist Charlie Lindner has gone through many incarnations: from blues to jazz fusion; from funk to electronica. But when he occupies the keyboard chair at the Bop Shop, he’ll be playing a holiday show featuring several selections from “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and other favorites, like “My Favorite Things,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” and…
THEATER | “Ripcord”
The Hourglass Play Reading Series continues its 2016-17 season with “Ripcord,” a recent work by Pulitzer-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire. In the play, the difficult Abby believes she has the prime set up in her sunny room on an upper floor at the Bristol Place Assisted Living Facility. But when she’s forced to share her room…
HIP-HOP | Young Thug
Atlanta-based rapper Jeffery Williams, better known as Young Thug, has become the rock star of the swag-rap, pop-trap game since 2010, breaking away from a traditional rapping style and lyricism. By contorting wide-ranging tones into abstract rhythmic slurs and often indecipherable mumbles, the rapper creates catchy hooks that don’t really need words. Young Thug released…
THEATER | “The Marvelous Wonderettes”
In a tribute to the songleader squads of the 1950’s and 60’s, “The Marvelous Wonderettes” uses the biggest hits of those decades — including “Mr. Sandman,” “Lollipop,” “Heatwave,” “Son of a Preacher Man,” and more — to tell the story of big dreams and big crinoline skirts. In the first act of the jukebox musical,…
CLASSICAL/POPS | RPO’s Gala Holiday Pops
Another Rochester holiday tradition, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra will present its annual Gala Holiday Pops concert this weekend, with four performances across three days. Now in its 23rd year, the holiday program will be conducted by Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik (who also originated the show), and features the 200-voice Festival High School Chorale, co-directed…
Feedback 12/14
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. Feedback on…
ALT-COUNTRY | Hunu Christmas Show
Local band Hunu is back for a seventh winter of rocking around the Christmas tree with a concert that benefits the Center for Youth Services. If you’re hooked on alt-country, ugly sweaters, and feel good events, I imagine this would be your kind of show. Hunu displays a genuine affection for performing front and center…
Urban Action 12/14
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. Film shows perils of climate change Citizens’ Climate Lobby of Rochester will screen an episode of National Geographic’s series “Years of Living Dangerously” on Wednesday, December 14. The episode features the work of…
HOLIDAY | Emmet Otter Jug Band
This oughta get you into the Christmas spirit. Some of this town’s most top flight musicians will band together to play the Christmas music of Emmett Otter’s Jug Band. Slated to appear: members of Maybird, The Moho Collective, The Honey Smugglers, The Niche, The Isotopes, Pleistocene, The Swooners, and The Ruckus Juice Jug Stompers. The…
POST-ROCK | Pray for Sound
Post-rock, with all its grandiose trappings and sonic maximalism, can actually be a remarkably succinct listening experience. By focusing solely on instrumentation and atmosphere, free from the burden of traditional vocals and lyricism, the best post-rock bands can, in a single song, cut right to the emotional core of any given topic. Boston’s Pray for…
CLASSICAL | Upton Quartet
Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was a creator of powerful, political symphonies and formidable operas that double as social criticism. Yet among his most affecting works are his visceral string quartets. With commentary by host Stephen Armstrong, the Upton Quartet will perform the composer’s third string quartet on Sunday at the George Eastman Museum as part…
The Black Lillies are there to please
Knoxville, Tennessee, band The Black Lillies is a twangin’ modern primitive. Goosing its alt-country ruminations with a wide spectrum, from bluegrass to soul and rock ‘n’ roll, this band serves to soothe the same savage it fuels in its audiences nationwide. The band’s latest, “Hard to Please,” couples the lyrical introspection familiar on the band’s…
Lovely Warren’s right about red-light cameras
We shouldn’t try to reduce poverty with one hand and have public policies that increase it with the other.
Film review: “Collateral Beauty”
“Collateral Beauty” should come with a warning label. It’s trite melodrama sprinkled with holiday magic, and then drained of character, nuance, and any shred of reality
