Cover Story
Forfeiting bail
Bail by its very nature is inequitable. People who have the cash to post it are able to buy their freedom — even if it’s temporary — while people of limited means have to stay in jail. Examples of the disparity aren’t hard to find. On July 18, a man was booked into the Monroe…
GateHouse and Gannett agree to merge
GateHouse and Gannett are on the verge of becoming the biggest newspaper company in the US. GateHouse announced Monday that the two companies have agreed to merge, meaning that the Democrat & Chronicle, the Rochester Business Journal, the Canandaigua Daily Messenger, the Daily Record, and USA Today will all have the same owner. GateHouse —…
Judge strikes down city’s RCSD referendum
[ UPDATED ] State Supreme Court Justice Scott Odorisi has ruled that a city-backed referendum on a state takeover of the Rochester City School District should not appear on the November ballot. Odorisi issued his decision this morning on a school district lawsuit aimed at stopping the referendum, and he sided with the district. He…
School board referendum decision coming Friday
The judge who’s hearing a Rochester City School District lawsuit against the City of Rochester says he’ll issue a decision at 10 a.m. on Friday. The district’s lawsuit aims to stop a referendum on a temporary state take-over and removal of the school board. In June, City Council approved Mayor Lovely Warren’s request for the referendum,…
FILM | “Wally Got Wasted” Screening and Q&A
The Cinema Theater will host a one night only showing of indie stoner comedy “Wally Got Wasted” on Saturday night. A madcap comedy in the “one crazy night” genre, “Wally Got Wasted” follows three friends who inadvertently kill a bad guy while out for a raucous night on the town. After somehow managing to screw…
LITERATURE | Lauren Acampora reading
Writers & Books will host a reading and book signing for author Lauren Acampora’s debut novel “The Paper Wasp” (published this year by Grove Atlantic), which has been named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, and received praise from Oprah Magazine and TIME Magazine, which calls…
KIDS | ‘A Novel Weekend: Lewis Carroll’
New to the Genesee Country Village & Museum this weekend is the first in a series that will highlight 19th century authors. “A Novel Weekend: Lewis Carroll” will be held on Saturday and Sunday in celebration of the author’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” The family-friendly event includes a tea party with the Mad Hatter, the…
FESTIVAL | Dansville Chalk Walk & ArtsFest
This weekend Dansville ArtWorks’ will host its signature summer event, the Chalk Walk and ArtsFest. A jury-selected set of community artists will create 101 feet of continuous sidewalk chalk art, ranging from recreations of Old Masters’ paintings to original designs. This year’s featured artists are Derek Crocker, Rebecca Crocker, Cheyenne DeMarco, Cindy Provenzano, and Zoe…
New York renters get new protections
Rochesterians who rent their homes, like renters throughout the state, now have important new protections, thanks to action last month by the state legislature and the governor. A group of new laws – described by industry analysts as the toughest of any state in the country – increase legal protections for the state’s 8.2 million…
ART | ‘The Recollector’
Visual artist and musician Jeff Suszczynski has been creating hand-cut and -assembled photomontages and collages for 10 years. Sourcing his materials from flea-market magazines, he uses remixed imagery from the past to explore ever-relevant issues of identity, isolation, and the search for meaning. His work is featured this month in a solo exhibition, “The Recollector:…
Climate coalition eyes utilities’ rate case
Rochester Gas and Electric and NYSEG want state regulators to let them raise their gas and electric rates. They need the additional revenue, they say, to cover things such as infrastructure investments, increases in operational costs, energy efficiency program costs, and the rollout of smart meters. But the Rochester People’s Climate Coalition sees the rate…
CLASSICAL | Skaneateles Festival
In its 40 years celebrating chamber music, the Skaneateles Festival in the small town southwest of Syracuse has become a source of “world-class music by the lake,” to quote the festival’s motto. This year’s season kicks off in high style, with the up-and-coming, Grammy-nominated Aizuri Quartet (pictured) performing on August 1 and 2. The string…
JAZZ | Don Menza
Few musicians have had as rich a career as Buffalo-born tenor saxophonist Don Menza. Over the past six decades, Menza has toured with the bands of Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones, and others. You might have caught his solos on television during his long tenure with Doc Severinsen’s NBC Orchestra. If that’s…
GARAGE POP | Frankie Valet
Frankie Valet combines classic new wave instrumentation with current shoegaze songwriting, forming a cohesive mix of acoustic and electronic textures. Hailing from Saint Louis, Missouri, the quartet released its debut album, “Stop Apologizing,” in 2018 via It Takes Time Records. The band delivers a spacey mix of slowcore, garage rock, and lo-fi indie pop containing…
COUNTRY| Dale Watson & His Lone Stars
Austin-based singer-guitarist Dale Watson is a well-traveled musician, maintaining a rigorous touring schedule of more than 300 gigs per year. He’s had dozens of studio releases since 1995, including his newest album, “Call Me Lucky.” With a low baritone voice and southern drawl like that of fellow Texan Willie Nelson, Watson performs with his straight-shootin’…
OPERA | Finger Lakes Opera presents ‘La Bohème’
Conductor Gerard Floriano recalls that Puccini’s “La Bohème” was the first opera he ever saw. He finds it an ideal introduction to the art form, as well as one “that even opera fans never get tired of,” he says. So Puccini’s romantic masterpiece is an ideal cornerstone for the summer 2019 season of Finger Lakes…
Urban Action 7/31
This week’s call to action includes the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.) Remembering Hiroshima Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace will hold its annual Hiroshima Day Candlelight Vigil on Tuesday, August 6, commemorating the day the US dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan. The attack…
THEATER | ‘The Taming’
William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” has been reimagined many times in contemporary culture, from the 1948 Broadway Musical (and 1953 film adaptation) “Kiss Me Kate” to the 1999 film “10 Things I Hate About You” (which deftly addressed the story’s problematic misogyny). Taking looser inspiration from the Bard’s story is award-winning playwright Lauren…
In the RCSD-city fight, the children are losing
An ugly battle is heating up between City Hall and the school district, and nobody’s looking very good in this.
Album review: ‘This Land Abounds with Life’
Fabian Almazan Trio ‘This Land Abounds with Life’ Biophilia Records fabianalmazan.com Cuban native Fabian Almazan crossed the Mexican border with his family at the age of nine in 1993. Over the past two decades, he has become one of the top pianists in jazz. His new two-CD set, “This Land Abounds with Life,” is a…
Album review: ‘Ámbar’
Camila Meza & The Nectar Orchestra ‘Ámbar’ Sony Masterworks camilameza.com When Camila Meza moved from her native Chile to New York City a decade ago, she brought with her a wealth of folk tradition and a gorgeous voice. Since then, she has absorbed the best of New York’s musical culture and steadily risen in the…
Review: Eastman’s moon photography and ‘Woven’ exhibits
In a way, the exhibits are macro and micro mirrors of one another, representing order and chaos, growth and entropy. And all of life as we know it is suspended between the two, ultimately helpless.
Film preview: ‘The Farewell’
Exploring the complexities of cultural identity, “The Farewell” circulates with grief, love, regret, and guilt. It tells a warm, heartfelt, and often funny story about the bonds of family and the ways we work to stretch them as far as we can; across continents if we have to.
Interview: Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper’s life has been a strange journey that almost parallels a biblical story. The rock icon grew up in the church, abandoned it, almost died, and came back to embrace Christianity. He’ll be rolling in to Greater Rochester area on August 7 for a show at CMAC.
In search of Butter Boy
It’s no secret that Rochesterians are obsessed with Wegmans. But when our dining writer Chris learned about the phenomenon of Butter Boy through a Wegmans-worshiping meme page on Facebook, he had to find out what the fervor was all about.
Film: reflecting on Rutger Hauer’s work
Dutch actor Rutger Hauer passed away in his Netherlands home on July 19 at the age of 75. With a prolific and versatile career, Hauer was an actor with the unique ability to make a movie better simply by being in it. He mastered the art of delivering legitimately great performances in even the schlockiest…
