Cover Story
The Lake Effect
Darienne — given name Gregory Meyer — has been performing in the Rochester area for 22 years. And now, at age 41, Darienne is poised to hit the big time as she makes her debut as a competitor in the sixth season of Logo TV’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
What We’re Spinning: February 25
Maybe it’s a New Year’s resolution. Maybe we want to dispel the myth that newspaper editors live in a bubble and aren’t living, breathing people like everyone else. Or maybe we just want to share more music with the world. Whatever it is, City is proud to launch a new weekly feature, “What We’re Spinning,”…
High Falls Film Fest gets new executive director
Mary Manard Reed is the new executive director of the High Falls Film Festival. She succeeds Mary Howard. Reed, of Penfield, previously served as senior director of global branding and marketing communications at CooperVision, a medical device manufacturer. She was also marketing director for Kodak’s Motion Picture Film division, based in New York City. While…
Legislator wants schools representative on COMIDA board
Over the past year or so, the Monroe County Industrial Development Agency has approved tax-incentive packages for businesses over the objections of local school district officials. Most recently, COMIDA’s board approved an incentive package for an expansion at Marketplace Mall over the objection of the Rush-Henrietta school district. In June 2012, representatives of the Greece…
Concert Announcement: 2014 Jazz Fest announces additional headliners
In addition to the already sold out Steve Martin and Earth, Wind, and Fire shows, today the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival has announced three additional headliners for this year’s festival. Show details are as follows: [ R&B ] XRIJF: Janelle Monae Friday, June 20. Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, 26 Gibbs St. $55-$95. 8…
School improvement committees will report recommendations on Wednesday
Tomorrow afternoon, the public will get to hear the results of more than a month’s brainstorming concerning the Rochester City School District. Shortly after school board President Van White took office, he formed four committees that were charged with coming up with ideas to improve city schools. The four committees – improving student achievement, increasing…
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 6, Episode 1: Meet Your Queens (Well, Half of Them)
Whew, Mother Ru was really putting us THROUGH it! The wait for Season 6 was excruciatingly long, and the show had done such a masterful job building the anticipation with the cast reveal, social-media content, and killer trailers. I was honestly a little worried. Could the premiere live up to my insanely high expectations? But…
Railroading New York
High-speed rail boosters have long argued that faster, more reliable trains would provide the state with economic and environmental benefits.
WEEK AHEAD: Fracking lawsuit, county charter review, RGRTA ‘special announcement’
A panel of state Appellate Division justices will hear arguments today on a fracking-related lawsuit. The Village of Painted Post and SWEPI, a Shell subsidiary, are appealing a previous ruling that halted the village’s plan to sell public water to a private company for fracking. In 2012, the village agreed to allow SWEPI to withdraw…
Film Review: “3 Days to Kill”
If nothing else, the new movie “3 Days to Kill” demonstrates once again that filmmakers should be grateful for the mere existence, as well as the checkered history, of the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA provides the subject for countless thrillers, and in the future no doubt will continue to attract the interest of directors…
Theater Review: Limelight Productions’ “God of Carnage”
Rochester seems to be growing theater groups left and right, and many of them have adventurous ideas about programming. Good local actors get substantial roles to play, interesting plays get revivals or first local showings, and audiences win. Limelight Productions’ current show, Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage”, is an excellent example — a celebrated, if…
Film Review: “Pompeii”
Director Paul W.S. Anderson has made a career out of making capably directed, but critically reviled, effects-driven B-movies. He’s responsible for the entire series of “Resident Evil” films (and just signed a deal to direct the sixth, and supposedly final, installment) as well as “Event Horizon” and “Mortal Kombat,” both films with devoted cult followings.…
A public input session without public input
Sometimes, no news is news. Let me explain: Last night, the county’s Charter Review Committee held a public input session at Gates Town Hall. The committee is reviewing the set of laws that spell out how county government operates and is organized. But the only substantial thing said during the meeting came from committee vice…
Group says Cuomo should ditch tax cuts, boost school funding
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2014-15 budget proposal includes some tax cuts for businesses and New York homeowners, but those measures come at the expense of other important programs, says a group of local union leaders, community activists, and faith leaders. The local coalition is part of a statewide group that’s pushing back against Cuomo’s proposed tax…
High schools stuck in the last century
Early childhood development and reading proficiency by third grade have all but dominated education policy making for the last 10 years. High schools, other than handwringing over increasing graduation rates, have taken a back seat. How US high schools operate hasn’t changed in 50 years, writes Maria Ferguson, executive director of the Center on Education…
The no-win dilemma of oil trains and pipelines
New York certainly hasn’t been immune to the oil train boom, particularly in Albany where a company’s plan to enhance its crude oil transfer terminal has generated a lot of controversy. And the Rochester area, too, has crude oil-carrying trains coming through it (see “Rochester’s crude awakening” in this week’s edition of City). This morning, the New York…
CLASSICAL FEATURE: Ying Quartet with Leon Fleisher
When I wrote up my 2013-2014 classical season preview for City last summer, I selected the Ying Quartet’s concert with Leon Fleisher as my top pick. The concert sold out weeks ago. The Ying Quartet, of course, sells out every concert on its own. Pairing The Ying Quartet with legendary pianist Leon Fleisher could easily…
ART | “Photographs Re-Imagined”
It’s no secret that many artists are inspired by the works of other artists; some creators learn to create through imitation. But what happens when an artist uses a single artwork as thematic or aesthetic inspiration for a new work? Through March 28, Spectrum Gallery (100 College Ave.) will present “Photographs Re-Imagined,” a collaboration between…
ALBUM REVIEW: “The Astronaut”
Wax Fang “The Astronaut” DON’T PANIC RECORDS http://waxfang.com/ When I heard that this album was a space-rock opera, my intrigue trumped my apprehension and I dove in. I’m glad I did, as I was catapulted into an ecstatic and cinematic dreamscape. Wax Fang’s “The Astronaut” is indeed otherworldly, but not the least bit odd. It…
DANCE | BIODANCE & Present Tense Dance
Two of Rochester’s most interesting dance troupes will be collaborating to present four concerts of whimsical and gestural movement. BIODANCE and Present Tense Dance will each be premiering a new work, as well as sharing repertory work, in “Hot Off the Press.” BIODANCE will premiere “Solo Countersolo,” as well as reprise “On the Illusion of…
SPECIAL EVENT | RIT FreezeFest feat. John Oliver
British satirist and contributor to “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” John Oliver will be performing stand-up comedy at this year’s FreezeFest at RIT. Oliver has been nominated for both Emmy and Writers Guild awards over the years and has a recurring role on the NBC sitcom, “Community.” He has also been quoted as saying…
The roots of addiction
I’ve debated whether I should write something about this since shortly after Philip Seymour Hoffman died. To some readers, it may seem childish to complain about an editorial in a competing publication. But this is still bugging me, so here goes. The subject is an editorial that ran in the D&C shortly after Hoffman’s death.…
FILM | Black History Month Films
In honor of Black History Month, several film screenings will be held this week, exploring the range and depth of the experiences of humans of African descent. The Little Theatre (240 East Ave.) will host the first four listed here, at $5 per screening. For more information, call 258-0400, or visit thelittle.org. Thursday, February 20,…
Feedback 2/19
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…
THEATER | “Me & Ella”
The most enthralling beauty sometimes soars out from the depths of great pain. Rising from an early life of poverty and hardship, jazz siren Ella Fitzgerald charmed and enthralled audiences from the moment of her singing debut at the Apollo Theater at age 17. This enamored fan base included young singer Andrea Frierson, now a…
Fights: Vargas’s latest challenge
The last few weeks have seen Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas dealing with one troubling incident after another. First, there was the vote of no confidence against him by the Association of Supervisors and Administrators, the union that represents school administrators. That was followed by an envelope sent to the Democrat and Chronicle containing personal…
SPORTS | Native American Winter Games
For most of us, winter is time to hibernate and avoid the cold at all costs. But 300 years ago, the Seneca people spent this time preparing for spring and occupying themselves with various entertainments to pass the time. In honor of that, Ganondagan State Historic Site presents its Native American Winter Games and Sports,…
Rochester’s crude awakening
The amount of crude oil being hauled on the nation’s freight rail lines is on the upswing. The oil and rail industries say that’s because of surging oil output from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale formation as well as a lack of pipeline capacity. A December article from the American Association of Railroads says crude oil…
ROCK | Richie Ramone
Richie Ramone’s legacy isn’t founded purely on guilt by association with The Ramones. Whereas drummers that moved in and out of the legendary band’s ranks stuck to the high-speed, 4/4 format and played what they were told, Richie Ramone wrote songs (“Somebody Put Something in my Drink”), sang, and pushed the band into new directions…
The end of antibiotics
Popular media has been promising the world a pandemic for some time now. But here’s a frightening thought: What if the real threat isn’t a genetically engineered superbug or an ambitious avian virus that makes the jump to humans? What if, instead, something neutralizes our most basic defenses so that, for example, strep throat becomes…
ROCK | Sirens & Sailors
I’ve always considered Sirens & Sailors a young band, despite the fact that it formed all the way back in 2005. Maybe that’s because the band keeps it fresh in a genre overrun by exaggerated histrionics and hysterics. This is brutally heavy music that fortunately doesn’t succumb to its own largess. There is a shit-ton…
Watershed moment
A lawsuit over the Village of Painted Post’s plan to sell public water to a company to use for fracking will be back in court on Monday, February 24. A panel of state Appellate Division justices will hear an appeal of a previous decision. The case goes back to a 2012 agreement between the village,…
PUNK | Black Ribbon
Local band Black Ribbon makes its own brand of pop punk, drawing influences from bands like Descendents, Green Day, and Alkaline Trio. Black Ribbon’s music encompasses all the important qualities of pop punk — including a knack for melody, palpable energy, and a rebellious attitude. The band refers to its genre as “90’s punk rock,”…
Urban Action 2/19
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Film discussion on civil rights First Baptist Church of Rochester will show the documentary film “LuLu and the Girls of Americus,” by Travis Lewis at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 23. And LuLu…
BLUES | Charlie Parr
Charlie Parr may be an early 21st century bluesman, but he looks and sounds like a vagabond riding the rails in the 1930’s. His finger-picking technique is superb; that is to say, it’s got just the right ragged edges. And his voice summons the spirits of blues singers from a bygone era. Maybe that’s because…
DINING REVIEW: Osteria Rocco
In a few months, winter will be a fading memory. The cold, biting winds will be replaced with gentle spring breezes; snow will have melted and made way for verdant grass; shoes will be stained with mud, not sidewalk salt. Until the thaw, I won’t mind warming my bones and spirit at Osteria Rocco, the…
JAZZ | Eric Reed
Eric Reed is perhaps best known as the pianist of choice for a variety of Wynton Marsalis’s ensembles in the early to mid-1990’s. But he has also worked with Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, and many others. In recent years he has specialized in the music of Thelonious Monk on three albums: “The Dancing…
Shantay, you stay
While Rochester’s Darienne Lake is getting national attention on “Drag Race,” our own local drag scene remains stocked with many talented, gorgeous, funny queens. Below find an introduction to some of the other first ladies of Rochester drag. Be sure to check out slideshows from drag shows at Tilt Nightclub and 140 Alex at the…
CLASSICAL | Edoardo Bellotti
Playing as part of the Rochester Celebrity Organ Recital Series, organist Edoardo Bellotti will put on a program of works by J.S. Bach, Pachelbel, Buxtehude, and others. Pieces will be performed at Christ Church, using both the Craighead-Saunders Baroque organ and the Hook & Hastings Romantic organ. Bellotti is an associate professor of organ, harpsichord,…
CLASSICAL | Itzhak Perlman
If you missed the sold-out performance of violinist Itzhak Perlman with the RPO in 2012, now is your chance to hear him with the Eastman School of Music’s Philharmonia. Neil Varon will conduct works by Dvorak and Brahms. The performance with Perlman will be of Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 26 in G…
Reggae | Iration
The members of this Golden State quintet all met while growing up in Hawaii, but didn’t start their musical journey together until crossing paths again in Santa Barbara. Iration combines elements of indie rock and pop with a funky island vibe — the product is a truly alternative take on reggae. The group’s rastafied rhythms…
Pop/Rock | Bleeding Rainbow
Rob Garcia and Sarah Everton grew up in Philadelphia as fans of Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Nirvana, and, apparently, Levar Burton. The married couple started performing as a duo in March of 2008 under the moniker Reading Rainbow. This initial incarnation embraced the burgeoning lo-fi revolution, producing minimalistic indie rock imbued with heavy reverb.…
