Cover Story
Downtown’s patron saint
Much of what you see when you catch a glimpse of the city’s skyline is part of Larry Glazer’s real estate empire. Glazer’s company, Buckingham Properties, either owns, co-owns, or manages nearly 13 million square feet of real estate space, including some of downtown Rochester’s most iconic buildings: Midtown Tower, Xerox Square, and the Bausch…
Study says nurse visits can prevent premature deaths
A new medical journal article says programs like the Nurse-Family Partnership may help prevent premature deaths among mothers and their first-born children living in “highly disadvantaged urban neighborhoods.” Nurse-Family Partnership is a national program, but it operates in some New York counties, including Monroe. Under the program, registered nurses make regular home visits to low-income,…
State tells students: Don’t write about Brown v. Board of Ed
If you were taking the United States History and Government high school Regents exam on Tuesday, June 17, you would have found that Part I of the exam consisted of 50 multiple choice questions. The questions covered everything from the events that led up to the Civil War to the exploration routes of Lewis and…
WEEK AHEAD: Metro Justice canvassing; College Town job fair; petitioning begins
The social and economic justice group Metro Justice will conduct a canvassing drive in the Highland Park neighborhood this Saturday, July 12. A press release says that group members will knock on doors to tell people about Metro Justice and its mission, and to hopefully get people to join. Group members will meet at 10…
Film Review: “Snowpiercer”
The concept of the apocalypse and especially its aftermath never ceases to fascinate science fiction writers and filmmakers. Whether it comes with a bang or a whimper, the end of the world makes for exciting cinema, but the day after doomsday provides the most promising subject for literature and film. Writers and directors employ a…
Memorial Art Gallery names new director
Jonathan Binstock has been named the next Director of the Memorial Art Gallery, the University of Rochester announced Monday. University President Joel Seligman and Memorial Art Gallery Board of Managers Chair Jim Durfee made the announcement following a seven month search to replace outgoing director Grant Holcomb. Binstock comes to Rochester from New York City,…
“True Blood” Season 7, Episode 3: “Fire in the Hole”
I literally moaned, “NOOOOOOOOOO!” multiple times during Sunday night’s episode. I guess that means the showrunners are doing something right. I am invested, OK?! I thought I was totally ambivalent about this dumb show but there were two moments there that REALLY hurt. It was also an awfully preachy episode. I felt like it should…
UR gets START-UP NY approval for Eastman Business Park buildings, tech incubator
Three buildings with links to the University of Rochester are now part of a state program, START-UP NY, that will essentially turn the buildings into tax-free zones. The UR’s application for inclusion was approved by the program’s board yesterday. One of the buildings is High Tech Rochester’s Lennox Tech Enterprise Center in Henrietta, which is a…
No turning back now on East deal
Many people have been following the negotiations between the Rochester City School District, its unions, and the University of Rochester concerning the plan to turn around East High School. And you can be sure that some were betting that the negotiations would break down. But that didn’t happen. After several weeks of rushed and…
UR-East deal still on
After several weeks of rushed and sometimes tense negotiations, the University of Rochester and the Rochester school board have agreed on a plan that turns management of East High School over to the university. An executive summary of the plan is on the UR’s website, http://www.rochester.edu/pdfs/RCSD-EPO-executive-summary.pdf. If the plan is approved by the State Education…
ROCK | Televisionaries
With a blend of psychedelic surf tone and gritty punk rock, Televisionaries are a band that makes you want to dance. Instead of chunking on chords, entire songs are flat-picked melodies that are infectious and moving. It’s a classic sound on the surface, hailing images of beach parties circa 1960. But just when you think…
ROCK | Pat Benatar
I don’t know how Pat Benatar’s music videos were perceived back in the 80’s but watching them now I can’t help but laugh. They are some kind of awful (see “Love is a Battlefield”). Benatar’s music is anything but that though, and going through her catalogue one will find it teeming with timeless hits, like…
ART | “Intersections: Form, Space, Time & Color”
“Intersections: Form, Space, Time & Color” is a collaborative series from two painters who couldn’t be less likely to collaborate. Carol Douglas is a prolific oil painter who draws influence from a variety of themes that exist both in and outside of her devout Christian faith, from traditional landscapes to the representation of women. Stu…
ROOTS ROCK | Drive By Truckers
I struggled with the genre a bit on this one. I guess it depends on your focus. If you focus on the songs, it’s alt-country; the pedal steel, then it’s straight up country; the three guitar frontline attack, well then, it’s Southern rock all day. Founded in 1996 in Athens, Georgia, The Drive By Truckers…
SPECIAL EVENT | 16th Annual Day of Remembrance
The Maafa Celebration Committee will hold its 16th Annual Day of Remembrance on Thursday, July 3, honoring the African lives lost during the Middle Passage. Situated along the Durand-Eastman Park shoreline, the Day of Remembrance was first held 15 years ago to provide attendees with history and information on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. This year’s…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Between Loves”
Florencia Gonzalez “Between Loves” Zoho Music Florenciagonzalez.com “Between Loves,” the title of tenor saxophonist Florencia Gonzalez’s new the new album, refers to more than romance. Her music reflects both her past, growing up in Uruguay, and her new life in the United States. After studying at Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory in…
SPECIAL EVENT | Independence Day Celebrations
Each year, Independence Day serves as an opportunity to both reflect upon and celebrate the nation’s history. Throughout the Rochester area, various organizations will host events to commemorate the special day. These are only a few of the many opportunities for July 4 fun in the Rochester area. For information, and a larger list of…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Outset”
Itamar Borochov Quartet “Outset” Realbird Records Itamarborochov.com Picture this: four of the hottest jazz players in the city have been playing together for a while and the music is getting too good not to capture. So they head downtown to the studio where seven original tunes are recorded live in all their glory. New York…
COMEDY | Ralph Tetta & Friends at The Comedy Club
Rochester comedian Ralph Tetta and special guests will take the stage at The Comedy Club in Webster to celebrate Independence Day a day early. Their self-proclaimed “Fundependence Day” will feature performances by Tetta and fellow comedians Douglas Berryhill, Chris Alan, Jimmy LeChase, Thomas Bottoms, and Todd Youngman. Tetta, a stand-up veteran of over 25 years,…
KIDS | Catskill Puppet Theater
On Friday, July 4, family event organizers Cool Kids! Green Kids! will host its annual Catskill Puppet Theater. The event, co-sponsored by the Brockport Kiwanis Club and the Brockport Lions Club, features large mechanical puppets that are used to tell a story and teach a moral to children in attendance. The puppets are accompanied by…
SPECIAL EVENT | Chil-E Festival
Chili’s 25th Annual Chil-E Festival, a clever play on the town’s frequent and unfortunate mispronunciation, is taking place on the Fourth of July this year. The Chil-E Festival, which attracts more than 15,000 people each year, is offering a wide variety of attractions and entertainment options to festival goers, including food and craft vendors, a…
An Evening of Dance and Performance Art
After a decade engrained in the Rochester dance scene as a teacher, choreographer, and performer, William Evans, 74, is retiring from The College at Brockport and relocating to Providence, Rhode Island. He has accepted a teaching position at The School of Dance at Dean College. On Saturday, July 5, Evans will present a farewell concert…
CHOW HOUND: Let’s do lunch
If you’ve been downtown during the lunch hour then you’ve undoubtedly witnessed the increased pulse of our fair city. Plop down on a bench with a sandwich and you can watch the law office couriers rush past you, or see the worker bees who have removed their cubicle shackles to take a walk and get…
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
When Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” first printed in 1600, it was already a hit; the title page noted that it had been “sundry times publickely acted” before then. After a 1662 performance, Samuel Pepys described it in his diary as “the most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw.” But that’s a minority opinion:…
Feedback 7/2
Even though the published literature on the proposed Business Improvement District (much of which has been published by City) talks as if it’s a done deal, it’s not. Taxpayers have a right to read about the potential positive aspects of such a program, and I applaud all those who have worked so diligently to collect…
“Transformers: Age of Extinction”
If nothing else, the latest addition to one of the most successful contemporary franchises demonstrates once again that Hollywood can build a movie, whatever its quality, on the most unlikely foundation. Novels, short stories, plays, comic books, songs, even most recently a painting (“Belle”) provide the sources for hundreds of films, but the “Transformer” series…
Urban Action 7/02
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Free meals available for children More than a dozen organizations including the City of Rochester, the Rochester school district, Foodlink, and the Rochester Area Community Foundation began their summer meals program for Rochester…
“They Came Together”
Thus far, it’s been an exceptional summer at the movies. We’ve been lucky enough to have week after week of crowd-pleasing, smart blockbusters of every variety, from family films (“How to Train Your Dragon 2”) to sci-fi (“Edge of Tomorrow”) to superhero (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”) and comedy (“22 Jump Street”), but that non-stop…
Downtown rising?
Do I say this every year? The Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival gives us a nine-day glimpse of what we could be. It’s not just the massive crowds in front of the outdoor stages for the free performances, or headline acts that sell out in minutes. It’s the hour-plus lines to get into Kilbourn and…
“We Are the Best!”
There’s an exclamation point added to the title of Swedish auteur Lukas Moodysson’s exuberant coming-of-age comedy, “We Are the Best!” — about three adolescent girls who decide to start a punk rock band — and the signifier couldn’t be more deserved. Set in Stockholm in the early 80’s, the film follows best friends Bobo (Mira…
CSI: invasive species
The Erie Canal revolutionized transportation and commerce by giving farmers and merchants a cheaper, easier way to move goods across the state. The present-day canal is primarily a recreational waterway, though it might also be taking on a new, undesirable role as a pathway for the spread of aquatic invasive species between some state waters,…
JAZZ | Rich Thompson
Drummer Rich Thompson has toured with the Count Basie Orchestra and played with greats like Clark Terry, Marian McPartland, Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie and Bobby McFerrin. As Associate Professor at the Eastman School of Music, he teaches percussion and directs the Jazz Lab Ensemble. But he hasn’t stopped going on the road with top musicians…
The hidden price of replacing schools
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas has been clear that he doesn’t like phasing out low-performing schools in favor of new schools as a way to improve academic achievement. He doesn’t like the approach, he says, because it doesn’t work. And recent graduation data reinforces his opinion, he says. Nine schools that began phasing out under…
CLASSICAL | Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Independence Day Concerts
The Fourth of July and classical music have gone together, with or without fireworks, almost since 1776. Thursday, July 3, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra offers its annual “Salute to America” concert conducted by Michael Berkowitz, including the obligatory “Stars and Stripes Forever” and “1812 Overture” (it’s not about our War of 1812, but don’t blame…
Webster plans upgrades to critical corridor
The decision to open a second location of her bridal shop, Heart to Heart Bridal, in the Village of Webster a few years ago was based in part on demographic factors, says owner Janice Burkhart. That includes area incomes, she says, and the number of people nearby who might get married. And she found an…
CLASSICAL | “American Treasures” at Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival
On Sunday, July 6, the Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival presents smaller-scaled “American Treasures,” performed by a string quartet from the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra. No fireworks, but you can hear Dvorák’s “American” Quartet,” as well as tunes by Gershwin, Copland, Duke Ellington, and other American greats. Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival presents “American Treasures,” Sunday,…
