Cover Story
The UR’s #MeToo Moment
An investigation into sexual misconduct charges at the University of Rochester criticized the behavior of Professor Florian Jaeger’s actions but found that university officials acted appropriately. For the university and everyone in its community, though, the story is far from over.
Amazon puts Rochester on Rejected Suitors list
Many of Amazon’s Top 20 are truly metropolitan. Almost all are either relatively big cities themselves or they’re very close to one.
Fresh Cut: ‘Never Grow Up’ by Left-Handed 2nd Baseman
Singer-songwriter Fran Broderick makes a joyful noise on the new Left-Handed 2nd Baseman cut “Never Grow Up”
Students, faculty press UR over misconduct
[Updated 01/24] Following the January 11 release of a report on sexual misconduct charges at the University of Rochester, faculty and students have been pushing for accountability at the university. The controversial report detailed an investigation into how the university handled sexual misconduct charges against Professor Florian Jaeger. The report, conducted by Debevoise & Plimpton…
Groups press for thorough Vacuum Oil cleanup
For decades, the vacant Vacuum Oil refinery on Flint Street has been a drag on the Plymouth-Exchange neighborhood. The hulking building with boarded-up entrances and broken-out windows sits on land that’s seriously polluted with petroleum and other refining-related pollutants. DHD Ventures bought the property a few years ago and intends to redevelop it for residential…
Classical Review: In ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ program, RPO plays the infernal and the impressionistic
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra started 2018 by inviting Marcelo Lehninger, the Brazilian-born music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, to guest conduct this week’s program. The RPO performed last night and will repeat the concert on Saturday. Lehninger is offering an unusual but intelligently balanced program: Russian emotional rawness tempered by French Impressionism, and…
No Amazon HQ2 for us
Awww…. Amazon announced the 20 finalists for its Headquarters 2 location this morning, and the Rochester-Buffalo area isn’t one of them.
ZYDECO | Black Rock Zydeco
When I moved to Western New York from Louisiana a few years ago, I thought I was tearfully waving goodbye to good Cajun and Zydeco music. I didn’t expect to see a washboard anywhere above Tennessee. I’m happy I was wrong. There’s a healthy little Zydeco scene in the region — it still baffles me…
CLASSICAL | ‘Night on Bald Mountain’
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra begins the new year with a guest conductor and an interesting program juxtaposing French and Russian composers. Marcelo Lehninger, the music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony, is the guest conductor, and has put together a concert that begins and ends quietly, opening with Ravel’s delicate “Mother Goose Suite” and closing…
JAZZ | TMT Trio
Pianist Cat Toren won the 2013 JUNO Award for Best Instrumental Album of the Year. Saxophonist Angela Morris leads everything from a pop group to a 17-piece big band. When the two musicians came together in the Brooklyn apartment of versatile drummer Anthony Taddeo, they found the musical chemistry to form the avant-garde TMT Trio.…
Urban Action 1/17
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Protecting women’s rights Rochester NOW, Planned Parenthood of Western and Central New York, and the First Unitarian Church will present “Roe v. Wade 45th Anniversary: Protecting our Reproductive Rights,” on Monday, January 22.…
BLUEGRASS | O’Connor Band
Led by renowned country and bluegrass musician Mark O’Connor, this truly is a family band — with his wife Maggie and daughter-in-law Kate joining him on fiddle along with son Forrest on mandolin. In the three years since the O’Connor Band began, the accolades have poured in, with a Grammy win for Best Bluegrass Album,…
Brooklyn Ramen brings the broth
When Michael Goode was handing out tickets at MCC as a parking enforcement officer, he never would have imagined that within a few years he would be standing behind a counter making ramen for the masses. A chance visit by his mother to a ramen shop in New York City was the beginning of the…
SPECIAL EVENT | ‘Snap Ya Fingers’ Open Mic
Open mics can be ideal venues for performing artists to cut their teeth and sharpen their skills. Record Archive on Tuesday will provide that opportunity for musicians and poets alike with “Snap Ya Fingers.” Collaboration and networking are highly encouraged — a meet-and-greet is built into the evening. Spoken word artist Symphonie will also perform.…
John Valenti perfects a suave persona on Passive Aggressives Anonymous’s ‘The Mauve Album’
When John Valenti sings, he sounds like a man who perpetually walks around with cocktail-in-hand as he haunts some candlelit speakeasy.
RECREATION | Cumming Nature Center
Getting out of the house to enjoy the fresh air can be a great way to break through the winter doldrums, and a great way to embrace the current weather is skiing or snowshoeing. Rochester Museum & Science Center’s Cumming Nature Center has you covered — with more than 900 acres to explore, you can…
Album review: ‘The Old Family Farm’
Brian Mulligan and The Lonesome Angels “The Old Family Farm” Self-released brianmulliganlonesomeangels.com “The Old Family Farm” is so pleasant, warm, and inviting it’s as if it were recorded on flannel. Brian Mulligan and The Lonesome Angels’ new album plays out like yesteryear without getting too stuck in the syrup. It all kicks off with some…
DANCE | inspireDANCE Festival
The inspireDANCE Festival returns to the University of Rochester for its eighth year, starting this Saturday and running through Friday, January 26. The weeklong celebration of offers numerous opportunities for local dancers to hone their craft with more than 30 master classes. The range of classes — encompassing varied movement styles and techniques — covers…
Questions dog Cuomo tax gambit
Governor Andrew Cuomo has railed and railed against the federal tax overhaul that took effect this month. It’s an “all-out direct attack on New York state’s economic future,” he said during his State of the State address recently. Cuomo’s heavily criticized the law’s $10,000 cap on the amount of state income tax and local property…
MUSEUMS | Museum Selfie Day
Once upon a time, you’d get scolded for taking photographs of artwork in museums and galleries. That was, of course, before social media became what it’s become and art houses had the revelation that snap-happy visitors were actually helping get the word out about their exhibits and collections. These days it’s not uncommon to see…
Album review: ‘Reverso — Suite Ravel’
Ryan Keberle and Frank Woeste “Reverso — Suite Ravel” Phonoart ryankeberle.bandcamp.com “Reverso — Suite Ravel,” the new album by New York City trombonist Ryan Keberle and French pianist Frank Woeste, is a decidedly contemporary take on Maurice Ravel’s musical ideas. The notion of top jazz players drawing inspiration from the music of Ravel is payback…
ART | ‘Dreaming in Color’
It may be difficult for most people to recall or conceive of a time before color film graced the silver screen. But we can peep artifacts from the early years of cinema and the transition to color technology, thanks to Italian film historian Davide Turconi, who preserved frames of 35mm films — made in the…
A year of Trump: activists see fatigue, but stay hopeful
A year ago next Sunday, around 2,000 people turned out for the People’s Solidarity Rally in Rochester’s Washington Square Park. Simultaneously, millions of people around the world — an estimated 500,000 in Washington, D.C., alone — participated in Women’s March protests the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. Organized and led by women, the national movement…
LECTURE | ‘Let’s Talk About Intersectional Feminism’
Is your brand of feminism inclusive of all women, or do they have to have a certain skin tone, be of a certain class, or fit a certain standard of respectability? Do you uphold the equal rights and treatment of trans women? Do you know that sex workers can be victims of sexual violence? Women’s…
Theater review: ‘The Other Josh Cohen’ at Geva
The performance begins before patrons even sit down. The house lights are up; people are streaming down the aisles, some fidgeting with wrapped candies (which should always happen before, not during, a show), and others balancing their plastic tumblers of wine as they check and double check their seat numbers. It isn’t until most of…
INDIE | Ramona Córdova
Ramona Córdova makes the kind of atmospheric, enigmatic music that mesmerizes. The electro-pop sound is so beautifully layered that it’s hard to believe it’s all made with only a Casio keyboard and a digital delay pedal. On Córdova’s latest album, “On Paper,” the vocals float through the synthesized landscape a la Jónsi or Graph Rabbit.…
HEAVY METAL | Black Death Resurrected
The tale of Black Death, arguably the first heavy metal band with all African-American members, is a wonderfully lascivious one littered with seedy venues and mountains of cocaine. Despite the historic nature of the project, however, frontman and mastermind Siki Spacek toiled in rust belt obscurity alongside his motley crew of speed-metal troubadours from ’78…
R&B/Soul | Aaron Neville
How can one man sing so pretty yet look so mean? I mean, he’s got a dagger tattoo … on his face. Regardless, Neville is one of the more recognizable members of the Neville Brothers dynasty. Since his first hit single with “Over You” in 1960, he’s gone on to four Platinum-certified albums, four Top…
FOLK/BLUES | Robert Jones and Matt Watroba
Robert Jones and Matt Watroba mix a whole pocket full of cultures and their subsequent musicality over a plaintive folk background. There’s room for crowd participation — it’s highly encouraged, apparently, as the band goes through and educational tour of American music, from field hollers and Leadbelly to Motown. Check out the duo’s keen hip-hop…
ELECTRONICA | CD-ROM
With some Sports and Green Dreams in its blood, CD-ROM plays with a casual brutality that is so much more than just good, old fashioned anger. This five-piece Rochester band is letting off more than a little steam. Think Romeo Void if you can reach back that far. This is the prefect mash of antiquated,…
Martin Luther King and Donald Trump
Racism is rampant in the United States, and not just in the hearts and minds of the rednecks of the red states.
Film review: ‘Call Me By Your Name’
“Call Me By Your Name” is a vividly-drawn coming-of-age story that captures both the exhilaration and melancholy ache of first love. It’s one of 2017’s most purely pleasurable films.
Film preview: ‘Phantom Thread’
The eighth film from director Paul Thomas Anderson is a masterfully told love story, one that’s as sweet and strange as you’d expect from the maker of “Punch Drunk Love.” Set in 1950s London, “Phantom Thread” tells the story of renowned (and impeccably named) high-end dress designer Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis), and the woman with…
Film review: ‘I, Tonya’
In chronicling the rise and precipitous fall of notorious figure skater Tonya Harding (played by Margot Robbie), director Craig Gillespie’s “I, Tonya” tells a quintessentially American story of class, cycles of abuse, and sensationalist tabloid culture, wrapped up in a barbed, darkly funny, and wildly entertaining package. “I, Tonya” traces Harding’s hardscrabble life from childhood…
