Cover Story
Degrees of debt
Melissa Nicholson had a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in education, and zero job prospects. “I discovered I couldn’t get a job just being certified to teach elementary school,” she says. “But I thought, ‘Even though I’m swamped in loans already, there’s no way I can turn back now that I’ve come this far.'” Nicholson,…
Daily Choices: What to do on Wednesday, February 20
Spesh: Rochester Winos will hold a Wine and Food Pairing tonight, 6:30-9 p.m., at Joey’s Pasta House (1789 Penfield Rd., Penfield). Tickets are $30, and registration is required. For more information, visit rochesterwinos.com.
Concert Review: Passion Pit, Matt and Kim, Icona Pop at Main Street Armory
Passion Pit has always been about mixing the light and the dark. The songs on the band’s first two albums, “Manners” (2009) and “Gossamer” (2012), obsessively dwell on kill-me-now topics like depression, self-loathing, bankruptcy, suicide attempts and frontman Michael Angelakos’ struggles with bipolar disorder. But these grim lyrics are always hyped up with bubbly, blindingly…
Cuomo prepping abortion rights legislation
Abortion rights opponents are pressuring Governor Andrew Cuomo to publicly release an abortion rights bill he plans to propose, says an article from Gannett’s Albany bureau. That is, if he has a bill, they stipulate. During his State of the State Address last month, Cuomo called on the legislature to pass a Women’s Equality Act.…
Daily Choices: What to do on Tuesday, February 19
Art: Check out “Timeless,” Kurt Feuerherm new show of mixed media landscapes, today at Phillips Fine Art (248 East Ave.). The gallery is open today 12-6 p.m., and the show continues through February 28. Admission is free. For more info, call 232-8150. Feuerherm is also featured in Rochester Contemporary Art Center’s “Makers and Mentors” exhibit,…
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 5, Episode 4: Faux pas de deux
It was fitting that an episode that focused on ballet would signal the end of Act 1 of “Drag Race” Season 5. This week’s episode really moved things along to the next stage. The remaining chaff got wiped out brutally. The frontrunners were solidified. And now that the Alyssa/Coco drama has seemingly settled (if it…
Concert Review: Nick Finzer, The Stylistics, The Swooners
Out at Lovin’ Cup, the patrons taste their beer, they don’t just guzzle it. On Wednesday, February 13, the crowd of beer aficionados shunned the Bud and wrapped their buds around some tasty Smutty Nose treats to the solid strains of some sweet jazz. While all this tasting and testifying was going on, trombonist/composer/Rochester ex-pat…
Week ahead: another I-Square vote; a talk on race in America
On Tuesday, the Irondequoit Town Board will once again vote on a resolution regarding tax incentives for the I-Square project. (The resolution starts on page 44 of the board’s meeting packet, which is available here.) The board will be voting whether to support a payment in lieu of taxes agreement between I-Square and the Monroe…
Daily Choices: What to do on Monday, February 18
Music: Michael Angelakos, a.k.a. the mastermind behind Passion Pit, has risen to fame with songs that sound light and exuberant, but have dark lyrical themes of bipolar disorder, financial collapse, and romantic devastation underlying the dance beats. Whether you want to feel for Angelakos or just dance along to your favorite tracks from 2009’s “Manners”…
Concert Review: RPO “Classic Bond”
This weekend the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra presents music from 50 years of James Bond films. If you managed to totally screw up Valentine’s Day, or just want a sexy, swinging night on the town, this is a program that will hit the target. Guest conductor Carl Davis, anything but undercover in flashy attire, including a…
Daily Choices: What to do on Saturday, February 16 and Sunday, February 17
Dance: Shen Yeng performing arts group brings more than 5,000 years of Chinese music and dance traditions to life with shows at the Auditorium Theatre (885 Main St. East) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets range from $85 to $212 and can be purchased through rochesterboxoffice.com.
Signs missing at intersections with red-light cameras
Each one of the 31 red-light cameras in the City of Rochester is supposed to have an accompanying sign posted nearby, warning motorists of the presence of the cameras. But at a meeting yesterday, City Council members Adam McFadden and Elaine Spaull said they’ve noticed red-light intersections without signs. “We were told they all would…
Daily Choices: What to do on Friday, February 15
Film: Did the world really need another “Die Hard” movie? Either way, it now has one, as the Bruce Willis franchise’s fifth installment, “A Good Day to Die Hard,” arrives in theaters just in time for, uh, Valentine’s Day. This week’s new releases also include the supernatural love story “Beautiful Creatures” and the latest Nicholas…
“American Idol” 2013: Hollywood Week, Part 4: The Top 40 revealed, kind of
After Wednesday night’s semi-baffling all-girl group rounds the ladies were shaved down to 20 via final solo auditions. Some of these were quite impressive, and the show is definitely pushing the, “Is it time for a girl to win the competition again?” line. Hell yes, it’s time! Stop sabotaging all your top female talent and…
Finding college art in the big city
The Rochester Institute of Technology has a very large art population. The school features majors such as Photography, Graphic Design, Illustration, Glass work, Metal Crafting, Ceramics, Film and Animation, and even Furniture design, amongst many others. So how are student artists preparing to enter the “real-world?”
Eating Healthy on a Budget
In a busy day full of classes, the last thing on my mind is figuring out what to cook for dinner. Sometimes, the furthest thing from my mind is eating healthy when fending for myself. I try to shop for $20 or less by sticking to buying frozen veggies and generic brand products.
The truth about Greek life
The first fraternity in the United States to adopt Greek letters, Phi Beta Kappa, was started in 1776. A couple hundred years later, there are more than 150 different fraternities and sororities throughout the U.S. Some are socially-oriented, while others are service and career-oriented.
College Students and Caffeine
For me, a day without coffee is like a sky without the sun. Considering we don’t actually get a lot of sun in Rochester, maybe that’s a bad metaphor and something you’re used to. Scratch that. If I don’t have coffee, I’m miserable. Not in the cliché, “Oh-my-gosh-where’s-my-iced-latte” kind of way but more like the…
Video Games: Happy Valentine’s Day Nintendo Direct
Valentine’s Day. A day for relationships? A day to spend with people? Chocolates and hearts and all that stuff?
Nah. Not if you’re Nintendo.In a Nintendo Direct this morning, Nintendo unleashed
“American Idol” 2013, Hollywood Week, Part 3: Girls just want to implode
After the guys were whittled down to 20 semi-finalists last week (well, kind of), this week it’s all about the ladies. There were a few cuts in the Sudden Death round, but most of the action focused on groups. So I’ll do the same. After Sudden Death 72 girls remained for group round. As we…
Daily Choices: What to do on Thursday, February 14
Special Event: Valentine’s Day is here! If you need an emergency date idea, check out our V-Day choice events listing right here. And watch out for flying arrows!
State releases Hemlock-Canadice management plan
The State Department of Environmental Conservation has released a draft plan outlining how it will manage the land around Canadice and Hemlock Lakes. The DEC will accept comments on the draft unit management plan through April 15. And it has scheduled a public information session on the plan for 6:30 p.m. on March 14 at…
High school teacher cautions college profs
I have to admit I’m torn on the issue of high-stakes testing. In a recent article for the Washington Post, Valerie Strauss aptly describes it as a national obsession in education thanks to No Child Left Behind. Her piece includes a column by Kenneth Bernstein, an award-winning teacher and education blogger. Bernstein, who is now…
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 5, Episode 3: Drag is for the children!
Sorry this blog is going up a day late. I was crazy sick, y’all. This week’s episode of “Drag Race” delivered several things fans have been waiting for: Alaska finally stepped up her game, the Alyssa/Coco rivalry came to a head, and RuPaul finally confirmed that Michelle Visage is an extremely believable ventriloquist doll (with…
MCC move looks increasingly certain
Last night, the Legislature agreed to let Monroe County buy space from Kodak for a new Monroe Community College city campus. But Legislature Democrats, all of whom voted against the legislation, and Mayor Tom Richards say the county unnecessarily rushed the deal (Richards’ statement is at the end of this blog). The county plans to…
SPECIAL EVENT | Valentine’s Day Events
There are plenty of reasons to dread Valentine’s Day on Thursday, February 14. If you’re in a relationship, you have to worry about making the right reservation, buying the right gifts, and upping the ante from last year. If you’re single, you might just feel like staying in bed for the day. But there’s no…
LECTURE | TEDUARY 13TH: WHAT TURNS YOU ON?
Quick! What’s the sexiest organ in the body? If you really think about it, it’s definitely the brain. Whatever your relationship status this Valentine’s Day, it’s the mind that matters most. Treat yourself to a little mental stimulation at TEDxFlourCity’s first TEDSalon, which promises the same intellectual enthusiasm as the day-long talks in an intimate…
SPECIAL EVENT | ROC CITY BREWFEST
There is a traditional Irish blessing that goes: “May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.” Whether you’re at your happiest or saddest on Saturday, February 16, you’ll find plenty of comfort at the Roc City Brewfest at the Main Street Armory (900 E. Main St.).…
CLASSICAL: Alarm Will Sound
They’re calling it a “Rochester homecoming” on the Alarm Will Sound website. Indeed, for founding members of the ensemble, Alan Pierson and Gavin Chuck, the February 19 concert is precisely this. Pierson and Chuck graduated from the Eastman School of Music in 2006, and the years in between have been a rapid climb to the…
CHOW HOUND: It’s what’s for dinner
If you’ve ever tried to corral your nearest and dearest for a restaurant meal, then you already know that factors like dietary restrictions, moral choices, and personal tastes can make deciding on someplace a total chore. Paula Catalano comes from a huge family that enjoys going out to eat, and she found that more often…
CLASSICAL CROSSOVER | “Re:Percussion”
If you’re like me and you’ve had it up to your ears with grey skies, get up off your sofa and turn your cabin fever into foot-stomping, body-moving percussion fever. This weekend composer and percussion guru Ivan Trevino leads Rebecca Gilbert, flute, Melissa Matson, viola, and Kathleen Murphy Kemp, cello, in a concert that includes…
Feedback 2/13
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. Dissidents group isn’t ‘small’ The RPO board’s arrogant referral to the RPO Community Supporters as a “small group” is just as ridiculously inappropriate as calling the New York State delegation…
ROCK | The Results present Valentine’s Day
If you’re looking to spice up your plans for Valentine’s Day, Tala Vera offers a line-up of three groups that are bound to wow your music-loving boo. The Results (pictured) rock the continuum between typical band and super-awesome guitar-bass-drums combo. The quintet’s grooves are subtle while its tempos are energetic and the guitar solos blistering.…
MOVIE REVIEW: “Side Effects”
Foreign visitors who notice all those pharmaceutical advertisements on television often remark that Americans seem a sickly people. The innumerable diseases that afflict our population — in Hamlet’s words, the thousand ills that flesh is heir to — apparently however meet their match in those glossy commercials, which promise treatments for such problems as allergies,…
SOUL/R&B | The Stylistics
Philadelphia soul sensation The Stylistics came together in 1968 after members of The Percussions and the Monarchs joined forces. With lead vocalist Russell Thomkins, Jr.’s nasally falsetto, the group let out a string of unforgettable gems including “Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart),” “You Are Everything,” and its biggest hit, “You Make Me Feel Brand…
MOVIE REVIEW: “Identity Thief”
There’s a scene late in “Identity Thief” in which Diana, the titular brassy, loud-mouthed thief, played by Melissa McCarthy, gets herself spruced up with a salon makeover, and we’re meant to marvel at how nicely she cleans up, and what a pretty woman she is underneath the clown-like makeup in which she shellacks herself. The…
CLASSICAL | Brass and Bagpipes
Joining forces in a single concert event are the University of Rochester Brass Choir and the Rochester Scottish Pipes and Drums. The big sounds of the concert will include fanfares, marches, hymns, and traditional pipe band selections like “Scotland the Brave” and “Amazing Grace.” The UofR Brass Choir is led by founder and director Josef…
MUSIC FEATURE: Pink Elephant
Like a fat lady in skinny jeans, bands spend a great deal of time forcing themselves into genres, shoehorning the music into classifications that don’t fit, or shunning genres altogether. Nobody wants to be pigeonholed; they want to be unique, creating their own music with their own custom caption. Rochester ‘s Pink Elephant could be…
ELECTRO POP | Little Spoon, Eyeway
With breathy vocals and interesting synthy bits, Little Spoon will dig a little hole in your ear and nest there. It’s chill and slow, true, but solidly in the same vein as Pictureplane, plus all the dreamy keyboards you could ever hope for. If you’re all stuffed up, all the better to get your cough…
Clock ticking for RCSD?
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s warning in his recent State of our Schools speech that the community faces its “last chance” to turn around the city’s troubled district left many people wondering what, exactly, he meant. In an interview after the event, Vargas said he wasn’t trying to be provocative when he made the comment.…
GARAGE ROCK | Absolutes
Rochester’s The Absolutes keep this town’s garage-rock tradition alive with killer stomp and rave. With a dash more pop than The Sonics and a less live mayhem than The Chesterfield Kings, this young band has mastered the sound’s relentless throb and wail. This is music to be experienced live to begin with, and the Absolutes…
Historic boost for Rochester’s 19th Ward?
Four areas in Rochester’s 19th Ward may become National Historic Districts, which would make certain homeowners eligible for tax savings. These would be the first such districts in the neighborhood. “From an economic development perspective, we see the 19th Ward as a neighborhood that’s ripe to take advantage of the Homeowner Tax Credit because they’ve…
AMERICANA | Michaela Anne
This self-managing, self-promoting folk siren currently hails from Brooklyn, but grew up as part of a globetrotting military family. Despite changing addresses as much as she changed her socks, Michaela Anne still found time to satisfy her musical appetites by studying the violin, piano, and guitar. This combination of landscapes, physical and auditory, has informed…
Utilities deal under review
When Recycled Energy Development agreed to buy and operate the utilities at Eastman Business Park, many local business and government leaders were relieved. Local and state officials consider Eastman Business Park a key economic development asset. And the utility system — especially the cheap and plentiful electricity generated on the site — is a large…
R & B/SOUL | Mitty & The Followers
Someone told me recently that if you live in Rochester, and you’ve never heard of Mitty & The Followers, then you just haven’t been paying attention. Believe me, I am all ears. Eric “Mitty” Moore—a.k.a the Ambassador of Soul—leads this powerful, energetic R & B outfit with solid, sophisticated bass lines and a staggering vocal…
Looking to land bank
City officials have asked the state for permission to form a land bank to help address vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties. | Last week, Rochester Mayor Tom Richards announced that the city had submitted a formal application to Empire State Development, the state’s economic development agency. The application proposes creating the Rochester Land Bank, a…
ART | “TOTEMS AND OTHER TRIBUTES TO THE EARTH: CERAMIC WORKS BY PETER GERBIC”
Last week, the Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 at Finger Lakes Community College (3325 Marvin Sands Drive, Canandaigua) opened a show of work by Middlesex artisan and former FLCC ceramics professor, Peter Gerbic. The show, “Totems and Other Tributes to the Earth: Ceramic Works by Peter Gerbic,” consists of elegantly formed mini-monolith works of earthy tones and…
Urban Action 2/16
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Bourgeois returns to Rochester Upstate New York Call to Action will present “Priest Speaks His Conscience: the Struggle for Justice and Gender Equality in the Catholic Church,” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, February…
DANCE | INSPIREDANCE FESTIVAL
Philadelphia-based hip-hop dance troupe IllStyle & Peace Productions will perform its “Impossible” show at the University of Rochester’s third annual “inspireDANCE Festival” this weekend. The festival, which will take place Thursday, February 14, through Tuesday, February 19, will offer nearly 30 workshops and a variety of performances. Illstyle & Peace Productions is a multicultural dance…
Our stressed city
It’s not a coincidence that the City of Rochester has the state’s highest poverty rate, a high murder rate, and schools with tragically low graduation rates. Nor is it a coincidence that Rochester has a serious financial problem. And last month, Mayor Tom Richards made the obligatory annual trip to Albany to ask for money.…
KIDS | FEBRUARY BREAK EVENTS
It’s tempting to sit around and do nothing when you get a break from school. But kids can choose instead to spend this February break learning about film, science, or transportation at two special museum events. Beats nothing, doesn’t it? Starting on Saturday, February 16, the Rochester Museum and Science Center (657 East Ave.) debuts…
