Cover Story
Three chords and the proof
Rochester musician Tommy Brunett keeps whiskey in the glasses and rock ‘n’ roll in the gut
Rochester scores major tech win
Vice President Joe Biden was in Rochester earlier today talking about the region’s winning effort to host a photonics hub.
WEEK AHEAD: Events for the week of July 27, 2015
This post has been corrected The Rochester school board will hold a public hearing on the Contract for Excellence, which provides state funds for programs intended to improve student performance. The hearing is at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28. The superintendent’s plans for extended school days and All City High School are examples of…
Biden coming for optics announcement
Vice President Joe Biden will visit the Rochester area on Monday to officially announce that the region will be home to a Department of Defense photonics institute. According to a report by Gannett’s Albany Bureau, Biden will make the announcement at Canal Ponds Business Park in Greece. The business park is home to a former…
Film Review: “Infinitely Polar Bear”
In general, the movies have a pretty spotty record for portraying mental illness; for every nuanced take like “Two Days, One Night,” there’s a "Silver Linings Playbook," treating its characters’ emotional disorders as an obstacle that can be overcome if they’re just plucky enough. Falling somewhere in the middle is writer-director Maya Forbes’ semi-autobiographical drama,…
State board recommends $15-an-hour minimum for fast-food workers
A state wage board has recommended that the minimum wage for some fast-food workers increase to $15 an hour, eventually. The board, which was convened by Governor Andrew Cuomo, approved a package of resolutions this afternoon calling for the wage increase. The state labor department commissioner will ultimately decide whether to order a higher minimum…
Photonics institute coming to Rochester
The Rochester region has been selected by the Department of Defense for a new photonics institute.
Backward and forward vision with Jeff Soto and Maxx242
California-based artists Jeff Soto and Maxx242 finished their collaborative mural, “Love is Sacrifice,” at the Rochester Public Market early on Tuesday. Afterward, Maxx put up a second, more traditional graffiti-style piece at Hudson Avenue and Dayton Street of just the title script from the first painting. “It represents the sacrifices we make, when we become…
Feedback 7/22
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. Comments of fewer than 350 words have a greater chance of being published, and we do edit selections for publication in print. We don’t publish comments sent to other media. Much to…
THEATER | “Bette Davis Ain’t For Sissies”
Bette Davis, with her signature cigarette in hand and blunt, often cynical acting style, is remembered as one of the most influential actresses of all time. An infamous, and sometimes aggressive perfectionist, another side, little known to the public, is captured in Jessica Sherr’s one-woman show “Bette Davis Ain’t For Sissies.” Taking place on the…
Theater math
Talk of a new performing arts center, of course, has been around for decades. But politics and finances have prevented a project from ever getting off the ground.
A life’s work, but still not enough
Mention James Lawrence, the former longtime editor of the Democrat and Chronicle’s opinion page, and you’ll likely get a wide range of reactions. Lawrence, who retired from the D&C six months ago, became something of an iconic media figure in Rochester. Almost every high-level city, county, school district, and community leader in the area met…
Urban Action 7/22
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. Anti-drone vigil The Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars will hold “Drones Fly, Children Die: a Vigil of Compassion for the Civilian Victims of Weaponized Terrorism,” on Sunday, July…
Comment dites-on ‘Plant Powered’?
French cuisine is not usually vegan. Pates, tartares, cheeses? It’s just a tasty, Gallic parade of well-prepared animals and their byproducts. But Vive Bistro and Bakery asserts that food can be both French and vegan. While the preparation might not be completely faithful to its French lineage, the food remains satisfying. The bistro’s pates are…
ROCK | Shakey Graves
The sheer power and seduction in Shakey Graves’s music is staggering. And he’s one guy. Graves plays minimal drums — tambourine and kick using his feet, while his digits dance the fret floor. His songs are stark, yet provocative calling to mind the late Chris Whitley in his approach and anything and everything cool in…
First views
Each year, hundreds of films are released into theaters in the United States (nearly 700 in 2014, according to the records at Box Office Mojo), encompassing everything from giant blockbusters to micro-budgeted indie releases. As Rochesterians, we’re pretty lucky to have some fantastic independent movie theaters which are dedicated to bringing arthouse films to local…
PSYCHEDELIC PUNK | Yonatan Gat
Yonatan Gat was the guitarist for Israel’s Monotonix, one of the most insane, in your face bands I’ve ever seen. When the band played the Bug Jar, the audience held the entire band aloft, over their heads. When the band was on the floor with the crowd it set its drums on fire. Not sure…
ART | Implied Science at NTID
Glass artist Michael Taylor, whose work will be featured in a dual exhibit in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Hall at RIT, says he is “fascinated with the mechanical complexity and visual abstractions of scientific apparatus that are within my grasp to simulate.” Taylor, who once led RIT’s glass art program until his retirement in 2000,…
SOUL | Roc the Park
The first night of Rochester’s 2015 Roc the Park concert series is themed “A Night of Neo-Soul,” with a hefty roster headlined by singer Drea d’Nur. D’Nur’s record, “Day of D’Nur,” which is available on Bandcamp, is largley self-written and passionately sung. D’Nur’s set at Roc the Park will be supported by a Tamra, Will…
FESTIVAL | The Waterfront Art Festival
This year’s Waterfront Art Festival will take place at North Ponds Park in the town of Webster, leaving behind its host city of the last 41 years. The relocated festival will circle North Pond Park’s front pond with booths along the same path. Alcohol tasting and a food court will also be on hand, as…
ROOTS | Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project
Canadian-born banjo master Jayme Stone has built his career around exploring music from every corner of the world. With a variety of instruments and voices Stone’s Lomax Project recreates the early music of America first captured in the landmark field recordings of Alan Lomax. From sea shanties to work songs to Appalachian ballads, the Lomax Project…
THEATER | “Somewhere Under Wonderland”
Dream/Visualize/Create, DVC for short, is a collective of Wilson Magnet High School students, alum, and local artists, currently in its 15th year of bringing thoughtful, socially conscious theater to Rochester. The collective’s latest effort, the musical “Somewhere Under Wonderland,” opens at MuCCC on July 24 for a three-show run. Written by Mario J. Savanstano and…
JAZZ | Mark Kellogg and Tony Caramia
You may know Mark Kellogg as principal trombonist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra but he also has extensive jazz experience, having shared the stage with Clark Terry, Wynton Marsalis, and many others. Fellow Eastman School of Music professor Tony Caramia, a pianist specializing in the Great American Songbook, has been featured on Marian McPartland’s Piano…
FILM | “Coast of Death”
Spanish director Lois Patino’s “Coast of Death” is a film reveling in visuals far above plot or characters. “Coast of Death” focuses on the eponymous coastal region of Galicia, named for the infamous number of shipwrecks caused by the rocky landscape and stormy weather that plagues the region. The film itself is an experimental documentary,…
CLASSICAL | University of Rochester Carillon
One of Rochester’s essential summer sounds is the University of Rochester’s Hopeman Memorial Carillon, which has pealed out from the top of Rush Rhees Library for the last 42 years. (The 50 hand-cast bronze bells came from the Netherlands, and replaced the original bells from 1930.) When it’s not striking the hours, it is playing…
FESTIVAL | Native American Dance & Music Festival
Going into its 24th year, The Native American Dance & Music Festival celebrates the culture and life of America’s indigenous people. Rocker Keith Secola, backed by a trio of local musicians and hoop dancers, and California blues duo Twice as Good will perform. Secola, a member of the Anishinaabe from Cook, Minnesota, has been dubbed…
JAZZ | Webster Jazz Festival
Still longing for more jazz this summer? The Webster Jazz Festival has got you covered with five local groups. Among these are the Webster Schroeder Jazz Combo at 4:45 p.m.; the 10-piece brass super group Prime Time Funk at 5:40 p.m.; Walter Chatmen at 7:05 p.m.; soulful rhythms from Afro-Cuban quintet The Mambo Kings at…
ALBUM REVIEW: “New Song”
Omer Avital “New Song” Motema omeravital.com After being blown away by the wondrous music of Omer Avital at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, I had to check out “New Song” to see if the energy of the group’s live performance could translate to a recording. This joyous album overwhelmingly proves that it can. With…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Axis Armada”
Axis Armada “Axis Armada” Self-released axisarmada.com Everyone goes bananas over genre-busting bands. But what about those that identify with nothing but their own sound? Bands that are secure in their tone and attack to the point that apparent or obvious influence simply rolls off their backs. Rochester’s Axis Armada falls between the cracks while celebrating…
I Scene It: Peter Frampton and Cheap Trick at CMAC
The rain juked me, goddammit, and I missed the P-Funk show at MLK Jr. Park on Thursday. I did manage to catch The Goods at the aftershow at the Dinosaur BBQ, though. I walked in as the quartet was taking a stab at Steely Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne.” Known for its sky-scraping jams and polyrhythm, the…
It’s politics as usual: Bill Reilich’s class act
Either the local Republican Party’s leader doesn’t believe that his Democratic counterpart is ill or he doesn’t care.
WALLTHERAPY early progress
WALL\THERAPY 2015 opened on Friday night, July 17, with a reception for “IMPACT!,” an exhibition of work by each of this year’s featured artists at 1975 Gallery (89 Charlotte Street). And though the heat has been pretty oppressive during the early portion of the nine-day festival, a few of the artists have banged out one…
A study on symbiosis with Onur & Wes21
The two Swiss artists talk collaboration and envision nature taking its revenge.
Film Review: “Ant-Man”
As the Marvel Cinematic Universe grows ever larger (and if “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is any indication, more unwieldy) it comes as something of a relief that the latest chapter chooses to take a step back from all that world-expanding to tell a relatively small-scale story. With “Ant-Man,” Marvel deviates ever-so-slightly from their house style,…
Film Review: “Trainwreck”
It’s Amy Schumer’s world now, people, and it’s about f**king time.
