Cover Story
The economic arms race
It’s a mixed metaphor of major proportions: the country’s headed for the fiscal cliff, with the debt ceiling closing in. And Robert H. Frank, professor of economics at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, says we might have to go off that cliff before Republicans realize they’re holding a losing hand.
Daily Choices: What to do on Wednesday, December 26
SPECIAL EVENT: Explore the holidays this year by attending different Kwanzaa events. At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, December 26 visit the Boabab Cultural Center for A Kwanzaa Celebration. 728 University Ave. RSVP by calling 563-2145 or visiting thebaobab.org. On Friday, December 28 check out the Memorial Art Gallery’s Kwanzaa Celebration from 2 p.m. to 4…
Daily Choices: What to do on Tuesday, December 25
MUSIC: Most place might be closed tonight, but the Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave., bugjar.com) is still a-hopping: Tonight you can head down to catch The UV Rays, Rational Animals, and Crimson Cadets. Music starts at 9 p.m., cover runs $6. RECREATION: After sitting around sipping hot chocolate and opening presents up all morning, join…
Daily Choices: What to do on Monday, December 24
SPECIAL EVENT: Enjoy classic holiday tunes from favorites like the Mannheim Steamrollers, Vivaldi, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra while watching exciting light displays at RMSC’s Holiday Laser Show. 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. $6-$7. 657 East Ave. 271-4320. rmsc.org. MUSIC: Looking for a place to enjoy a Christmas Eve meal and some music to wash it…
Daily Choices: What to do on Monday, December 24
SPECIAL EVENT: Enjoy classic holiday tunes from favorites like the Mannheim Steamrollers, Vivaldi, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra while watching exciting light displays at RMSC’s Holiday Laser Show. 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. $6-$7. 657 East Ave. 271-4320. rmsc.org. MUSIC: Looking for a place to enjoy a Christmas Eve meal and some music to wash it…
Concert Review: RoarShark, Moon Zombies at Monty’s Krown
Though Friday may have been one of the first snow-flurry-filled nights of Rochester’s winter season, inside Monty’s Krown the musical temperature was anything but low. RoarShark opened up the night with a set of surefire surf rock, filled with that genre-defining wet, splashy reverb and tonal riffs that call to mind everything great about the…
Daily Choices: What to do on Saturday, December 22 and Sunday, December 23
KIDS: With no homework to do, take advantage of the National Museum of Play’s Let’s Move! School Break Week. Mountaineering, dancing, shopping for colorful veggies and more. Presented in conjunction with the Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens Initiative launched by First Lady Michelle Obama and the Institute of Museum and Library Services to fight childhood…
The downside to the college bubble
RIT students feel “stuck” on campus
Gimme pizza: considering the student diet
The College Blog is a partnership between City Newspaper and Rochester Institute of Technology Assistant Professor Dr. Hinda Mandell. Each week City will post blogs from several of Mandell’s journalism students, who will write about what concerns Rochester-area college students, both on and off campus. When new college students first move into their on-campus housing,…
New owner for power plant
The utility system at Eastman Business Park has a buyer, and that buyer will make upgrades to the park’s dedicated power plant.
Daily Choices: What to do on Friday, December 21
SPECIAL EVENT: What better way to embrace the end of the world than by listening to some good music? A variety of local joints will offer special events, so be sure to party like it’s your last day on earth. DJs at Grotto Nightclub (7 Lawrence St.) at 8 p.m. Call 739-5377 for more information.…
Daily Choices: What to do on Thursday, December 20
MUSIC: What Mannheim Steamroller lacks in the harder Christmas rock provided by groups like Trans-Siberian Orchestra, it more than make up for in 80’s-style keyboards and wardrobe — which certainly has its own appeal and amusement value. Mannheim Steamroller is coming to town for its yearly flattening of Rochester, and as usual is bringing a…
Region gets top economic development award
The Rochester-Finger Lakes region is getting $96.2 million in economic development funding and incentives.
RECREATION | Snow Cheap Trail Race
The winter season can be a tough time to stay motivated to exercise. For many, the cold air is much more conducive to drinking hot chocolate by a warm fireplace, rather than getting out into the elements to get the blood pumping. Fleet Feet Sports’ Snow Cheap Winter Trail Series is aimed at amping up…
ROCK-A-BILLY | Mark Gamsjager & The Lustre Kings
This Albany-based combo has been delivering sonically induced spiritual experiences to droves of dedicated fans for close to a decade. The Lustre Kings and their special brand of “rockabilly gospel” are guided by Mark Gamsjager, a wickedly wailing, hollow-body Gretsch guitarist who draws influence from every branch of that huge family tree called roots rock.…
RECREATION | | Skate With Santa
Although many indoor rinks offer ice skating year round, the activity feels more festive and appropriate around the holidays. Enjoy the spirit of the season on Saturday, December 22, at Genesee Valley Park Sports Complex’s “Skate with Santa” event. In the last few days leading to Christmas, what better way to get excited for his…
HOLIDAY | RPO Gala Holiday Pops
If you’re already singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” why not do it to the sounds of the Rochester Philharmonic Pops in an arrangement by conductor Jeff Tyzik? The RPO POPS will be in concert with the Festival High School Chorale this weekend, performing favorite works like “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Hark! The Herald Angels…
THEATER | “Greater Tuna”
Sometimes Rochester may feel like a small town, but it’s nothing compared to Tuna, Texas. Through Saturday, December 22, Downstairs Cabaret Theatre will introduce the public to this quirky town in “Greater Tuna.” Throughout the show, the audience will witness two actors characterize the entire town in this “tour-de-farce.” Small-town morals paired with lightning-speed costume…
HOLIDAY | A Very Bug Jar Christmas
The weather outside may be frightful, but this year’s line-up for the Bug Jar’s annual Christmas show is delightful. The Isotopes (pictured) are an instrumental surf-rock band that’s light years ahead of the rest. The group has been on a reverb-fueled sonic adventure since 2000 and includes a cool stage show with special effects and…
THEATER | “The Desk Set”
Technological developments move us forward with production and communication, but we can also argue that our increasing reliance on machines makes some human-run occupations obsolete and compromises some specific individual skill sets of the past. This is the central theme in “The Desk Set,” which is the first theatrical production of “Screen Plays: Hollywood’s Golden…
HOLIDAY/ELECTRONIC | Mannheim Steamroller
What Mannheim Steamroller lacks in the harder Christmas rock provided by groups like Trans-Siberian Orchestra, it more than make up for in 80’s-style keyboards and wardrobe — which certainly has its own appeal and amusement value. Mannheim Steamroller is coming to town for its yearly flattening of Rochester, and as usual is bringing a potent…
THEATER REVIEW: “Handle With Care”
A misplaced package forms the central conflict of “Handle With Care,” a new romantic comedy from writer Jason Odell Williams about love, communication, fate, and the importance of GPS-enabled tracking devices. It is currently receiving its off-Broadway premiere at the JCC Centerstage. The play opens in a motel room in Goodview, Virginia, on Christmas Eve,…
INDIE-SOUL | Sports
Whether you’re running out a fly ball, executing an elegant bicycle kick, or swinging to the sounds of this Rochester-based band, Sports make you sweat. This quirky quintet has been pumping out three-and-a-half minute, high-energy dance anthems since its inspired inception in 2010. These precise pop compositions are tied together with a bit of mid-60’s…
MOVIE REVIEW: “Save the Date”
With the film market more competitive than ever, indie film producers are increasingly turning to on-demand services from satellite and cable providers (like Time Warner), and web-based companies like iTunes and Amazon, as alternative methods of distribution. This can mean either the films show up ahead of their release in theaters (called an “ultra” release),…
ROCK | End Of The World Fest
Who can say no to a staggering line-up of 29 bands over three shorts days? For all you heavy-leaning rock fans who like your guitars loud and your drums and bass louder, you’ll be able to check out the likes of Hate Machine, The Silence Broken, Mercia, Beyond Solomon and Saturn, Ghostfeeder, Krystal Synn and…
Urban Action 12/19
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Workshops on race Asbury First United Methodist Church will host “Facing Race, Embracing Equity,” the first in a series of work sessions on race that begins on Wednesday, January 9. This event, which…
Feedback 12/19
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 in print, and we don’t publish comments sent to other media. After Sandy Hook On Monday millions of parents were fear-filled as their children left for school. We determined that the…
Our legal WMD’s
Unimaginable pain… unimaginable horror: Reporters and commentators have struggled for words to describe last week’s tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. And yet if it’s unimaginable, it’s only because we still won’t face gun violence head on. These killings are not rare, not in this country. A blog on The Nation’s website notes 16 multiple shootings in…
A pre-session push on campaign finance reform
Ted O’Brien isn’t seated in the State Senate yet, but he’s already joining fellow Democrats calling for campaign finance reform. Specifically, he’s backing Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal, which is essentially a conceptual plan that includes public financing of campaigns. Last month, O’Brien defeated Republican Sean Hanna for an open seat in the Senate. The contest…
Hydrogen hopes
A team of University of Rochester professors may have found a way to improve the process of using light to produce hydrogen. The secret: a common metal and miniscule chunks of a semiconductor material. Chemistry professors Richard Eisenberg, Patrick Holland, and Todd Krauss aren’t the first researchers to generate hydrogen using light; that’s been happening…
The push for pre-K
When Latesha Green first walked through the door of School 22’s pre-kindergarten classroom, she seemed shy and unsure of herself, says teacher Mellissa Asenato. But now she’s an entirely different person, Asenato says. Green is reading at about a fourth-grade level and her writing skills have improved, too. But Latesha Green is not a pre-K…
Sustainable Rochester
A consortium of counties and planning agencies in the Rochester area expects to finish a regional sustainability plan by the end of March. | Project planners are gathering data and developing baselines for several things, including greenhouse gas emissions, water quality, and energy use, says David Zorn, executive director of the Genesee/Finger Lakes Regional Planning…
ART REVIEW: “Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 3”
Endless clichés are encountered when a dominant culture casts only a vague glance at a dominated culture, and these clichés serve the purpose of keeping a little-understood situation tucked into two convenient dimensions. The current show in the Grand Gallery of the Memorial Art Gallery explores the ways in which contemporary Indigenous artists from the…
MUSIC INTERVIEW: Double the beat
The three main characters in Abandoned Buildings Club strike me as the kind of musicians where, if you define what they do by one quirky element, they’ll eliminate said quirk and move on. Frankly, it’s not really a quirk; it’s more of an emphasis with more bang for your buck. Abandoned Buildings Club has two…
FILM | “Scrooged”
Some thespians excel at acting with their eyes, telling us everything we need to know with little more than a hard stare or a raised brow. Bill Murray in particular is an adept at the Epic Eye Roll, the Enraged Eye Bulge, and the Soul Piercing Death Stare. You might find that these moves will…
CHOW HOUND: All the whey
Thanks to our local grocery giant, we Rochester kids grew up understanding that cheese was something special. Where the rest of the supermarket felt utilitarian, with lighting more suited to an operating room, the international cheese section was hushed and moody, a posh little grotto in the middle of freaking Wegmans. And now that we’re…
SPECIAL EVENT | Spectacle Of Lights
If the season of festive lights thrills you, and you take unnecessary car rides just to peek at different dazzling neighborhoods, check out the “13WHAM Spectacle of Lights” held each Friday-Sunday through December 30. New this year and held at Camp Eastman (1301 Lakeshore Blvd., Irondequoit), the family-friendly, interactive event includes amazing light displays, holiday…
MUSICAL COMEDY | Matt Griffo
I’ll admit that musical comedy can be a hard sell to fans of both individual genres. If a person is really good at an instrument, why do they need to be funny? If someone is really funny, why bother with an instrument? All are valid questions I myself have made at one time or another,…
