Cover Story
Winter Guide: You’ve got (outdoor) options
What’s the point in complaining about Rochester’s winter weather? This season has been relatively mild so far (fingers crossed, of course), and this is our home, so we might as well enjoy it and take pride in the seemingly innumerable outdoor recreation options available to us.
City pitches La Marketa as business launch pad
If everything goes according to plan, the international public market and recreational space will open this fall.
Accused of harassing court staff, Justice Matthew Rosenbaum officially resigns
“The matter against Judge Rosenbaum was of such magnitude that, notwithstanding his resignation, it was important to make sure he would never return to the bench.”
CHORAL | St. Olaf Choir
Few collegiate choirs have the history and reputation that precede St. Olaf Choir. The 75-member chorus from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota has been in existence since 1912, has maintained its signature sound since its beginning. Led by Dr. Anton Armstrong — only the choir’s fourth conductor in its 100-plus years — the ensemble…
A plein air playlist
10 songs for venturing outdoors this winter
JAZZ | Ibeji Quartet
When they are not working on their advanced studies, you’ll find two Eastman School of Music doctoral students playing at The Little Theatre Café in the Ibeji Quartet. The band is named after the Yoruba word for twins because of what can only be described as a mutual admiration society. American jazz pianist Ted Perry…
Going whole hog
Casual French-American bistro The Peppered Pig celebrates rustic, down-to-earth French classics like cassoulet, Croque Monsieur, and the humble roast chicken, as well as American mainstays with a French twist.
ALT-COUNTRY | Rhett Miller
Rhett Miller is the king of the murder ballad, the prince of melancholy, the champion of the love song. Best known from his position leading the charge of the alt-country darlings Old 97’s, Miller is one of the precious few who legitimately can call his music Americana and mean it. In a sense, Old 97’s…
Film flurries
Seven films to get your blood pumping
JAZZ | Mike Kaupa & Gordon Webster
Trumpeter Mike Kaupa seems to be on every bandstand in town. One night he’s playing with Chet Catallo, the next with Annie Wells. And that’s when he’s not occupying his long-standing trumpet chair in the Dave Rivello Ensemble. When the stars have visited, Kaupa has brought his gorgeous tone to the music of Ray Charles,…
Snakes in the snow
Ganondagan’s Native American Winter Games event presents historic sports
The Snow White effect
With a little patience, birds will eat from your hands
Snow spots
A roundup of key locations for skiing, skating, sledding, and more
ART | SUNY Design Invitational
Whether it’s signage or seating, design is all around us and shapes the way we experience life. Good design can be invisible until you stop to appreciate it. The SUNY Design Invitational opens this week at The College at Brockport, presenting new work from SUNY faculty members statewide, who are both actively creating good design…
CLASSICAL | Pegasus Early Music: ‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’
The 17th and 18th centuries were enlivened by some persistent and talented women composers and performers, all of them more or less erased by history until recently. This weekend’s Pegasus Early Music concert features a potpourri of instrumental pieces, songs, and opera excerpts by five such women: Barbara Strozzi, Antonia Bembo, Isabella Leonarda, Julie Pinel,…
FILM | 90-Second Newbery Film Festival
One of the defining talents of today’s youth is a fluency with the short film genre — check out TikTok if you don’t believe me. The 9th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival challenges young people to fit a classic Newbery-winning children’s story into a minute and a half, and the results are outrageously creative. This…
JAZZ-JAM BAND | Jazz Is PHSH
Created by drummer Adam Chase and his brother, guitarist Matthew Chase, Jazz Is PHSH is more than your typical tribute band. Rather than simply presenting the music of popular jam band Phish with similar or identical arrangements, Jazz Is PHSH repackages the improv-rich music in tight and succinct jazz arrangements. There’s also plenty of funk…
DANCE | ‘Shifting Navigations’
Returning this week to the stage at Geva is electricGrit Dance, presenting an evening of new and recent works by Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp and Anne Harris Wilcox. The dance theater performance includes Wilcox’s “Nanosecond,” which premiered at last year’s Rochester Fringe as part of a series of collaborations between University of Rochester Dance faculty and…
Cool Calendar of events
[ SAT., FEBRUARY 1 ] Bird-Friendly Chocolate Tasting & Snowshoe 1-3 p.m. Montezuma Audubon Center, 2295 State Rt. 89, Savannah. Registration required. $10-$20. (315) 365-3580. Saturday Snowshoeing 1-3 p.m. Helmer Nature Center, 154 Pinegrove Ave. $3/$5; $15/family. 336-3035. Winter Weekend Wild Walks 11 a.m., Saturdays through March 14. Cumming Nature Center, 6472 Gulick Rd. $7.…
ART | ‘Alejandro Cartagena: Photo Structure / Foto Estructura’
Opening this week at George Eastman Museum, Alejandro Cartagena’s new exhibition is a meditation on found images. The artist, who is based in Monterey, Mexico, has salvaged thousands of discarded images from landfills near Mexico City. These photos have been subjected to reconfiguration using a blade, yielding haunting frames where central subjects are transposed or…
Album review: ‘Play Doh’
Carmen Sandim ‘Play Doh’ Ropeadope Records carmensandim.com If the title of pianist Carmen Sandim’s new album, “Play Doh,” suggests something malleable, it couldn’t be more appropriate. Like the children’s “clay,” jazz begins with a structure, but it’s up to the individual players to shape it, often spontaneously, into myriad forms. Sandim — who began piano…
FILM | ‘Finding Fela’
Fela Kuti was a defining figure in 20th century music, and the best-known pioneer of the Afrobeat genre. He used his visibility as an artist to advocate socialism, Pan-Africanism, and to fight against government corruption in Nigeria. A tireless activist, Fela Kuti was arrested more than 200 times during his career. Academy Award-winning director Alex…
Album review: ‘Master Volume’
Teymur Phell ‘Master Volume’ Self-released teymurphell.com In the mid-1970s, Jaco Pastorius revolutionized the electric bass and brought it into the spotlight. Four decades later, emerging artists like Teymur Phell continue to expand the instrument’s range. On his debut album, “Master Volume,” Phell plays a six-string bass with a dexterity and fluidity more often associated with…
Tree to table
New York State’s delicious maple syrup business by the numbers
South Australia benefit show adds up to New Math reunion
Deb Jones has lived in Rochester for two decades, but is a native of Australia, where the landscape has been ravaged by fires since late July. She’s assembled “Songs for South Australia Bushfire Relief”; the January 31 show at Lovin’ Cup features the reunion of New Math.
For the children
Arts & Crafts from Swiftwater Brewing Company and Arts for All from Three Heads Brewing are two tasty new beers in town, with sales that support summer music and arts courses offered to city students
Would-be City Council aide challenges drug test for pot
Would-be City Council aid Jasmin Reggler, views the city’s policy on marijuana use as unusually strict for the Warren administration, given the mayor’s support for cannabis legalization.
The woods are your classroom
Not all learning takes place in the classroom. Forest schools in Rochester and Naples offer an alternative to traditional educational programs — through free play, student-driven activities, and independent thinking.
Good things, small packages
Opening this week are the Oscar Nominated Shorts Programs, the popular annual showcase of the animated, live-action, and documentary short films nominated for an Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards.
Postcards from the Left ease liberals on the edge
Postcard Fridays at Soul Coffee and Jazz at Village Gate is one of many postcard parties that have popped up around the country since the 2016 presidential election. The group has written nearly 56,000 postcards.
Cuomo’s new cannabis bill is a mixed baggie, advocates say
Where revenues from cannabis will go remains among the biggest sticking points to the legislation.
Susan B. at the symphony
This year’s observances of Susan B. Anthony’s 200th birthday celebration and the centenary of the 19th Amendment are momentous events, but at first glance they may not seem to inspire musical celebrations – but the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is prepared to prove otherwise this weekend and next.
Tweaks to East Main resurfacing project roil residents
Bike lanes are to be added to a one-mile stretch of East Main Street, but tweaks to the plan has rankled some neighborhood residents and cycling advocates.
Commentary: Bankruptcy won’t cure RCSD, but it could help
Sometimes bankruptcy courts can accomplish what no one else can because they can get stakeholders on the same page.
Feedback 1/29/20: Felon on the PAB, the 27th Congressional District, critics of Tom Tomorrow be damned
This week’s letters take aim at the upcoming 27th Congressional District special election, the Police Accountability Board, and critics of Tom Tomorrow.
