Cover Story
Rapper Moses Rockwell is still discovering himself
There’s a bit-o-mystery to Moses Rockwell and the things he does … even to the man himself.
Teachers contract sidesteps work on student discipline, advocates say
The Rochester City School District and the Rochester Teachers Association have negotiated a tentative new contract and some of the deal’s contents are catching people by surprise. A section concerning personal injury benefits, in particular, is receiving a lot of attention: “Crimes committed in schools will be pursued as crimes committed elsewhere to the extent…
Reilich goes to war with Irondequoit
All poor Bill Reilich wanted to do was take a cheap shot at Irondequoit Supervisor Adam Bello.
Crossdale selected as new human services commissioner
Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo has tapped the director of the New York State Office of the Aging, Corinda Crossdale, to serve as Monroe County’s new human services commissioner. Crossdale must be confirmed by the Legislature, but Republicans control the chamber and it’s unlikely they’ll reject Dinolfo’s choice. Crossdale served as the county’s Office for…
Week Ahead: Events for the week of Monday, March 21
The American Association of University Women and the League of Women Voters will hold a discussion on the issues and impacts of paid family leave
![[UPDATED] Irondequoit Supervisor Adam Bello tapped for clerk](https://i0.wp.com/www.roccitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/news4-1-e1755017560369.webp?resize=159%2C240&ssl=1)
[UPDATED] Irondequoit Supervisor Adam Bello tapped for clerk
Governor Andrew Cuomo has appointed Irondequoit Supervisor Adam Bello, a Democrat, to serve as Monroe County clerk. (See reaction from local Republicans below) Cuomo made the appointment this morning, says Jamie Romeo, chair of the Monroe County Democratic Committee. The vacancy was created when Republican Cheryl Dinolfo, who had been county clerk since April 2004,…
Panel offers hard truths for Rochester
It’s not easy to hear an outsider’s appraisal of your faults. In Rochester’s case, the evaluation comes from members of the Rose Fellowship, which brings officials from different parts of the country together to essentially size up each other’s cities. The fellows studied three areas of downtown Rochester: Main Street between Plymouth Avenue and Chestnut…
Classical review: RPO performs “Four Last Songs”
The RPO continues its mastery of Barber while presenting fascinating new music.
Geva announces 2016-17 season
Season will see 12 major productions and events as well as newly renovated lobby and cafe areas.
Two tech companies coming to Rochester
The state will invest approximately $75 million to bring two technology companies to Rochester. Photonica and Avogy will use a state-owned clean room facility at Canal Ponds Business Park for research and development work and will establish manufacturing operations at Eastman Business Park, Governor Andrew Cuomo said this morning. Cuomo and other state and local…
City of Rochester querying arts patrons about downtown PAC
The City of Rochester is surveying arts patrons regarding a possible new performing arts center downtown. The city is currently studying the feasibility and economic impact of a downtown PAC. Two sites are under consideration: the former Renaissance Square site at Main and Clinton, and the old Midtown site in the heart of downtown. The…
Sonja Livingston on discovery through memoir
Sonja Livingston’s “Queen of the Fall: A Memoir of Girls and Goddesses,” is this year’s selection for Writers & Books “If All of Rochester Reads the Same Book” city-wide reading challenge. City talked with the author mid-way through her reading tour, which continues through March 19. City: The essays in "Queen of the Fall" blend…
KIDS | “ZooZoo”
Portland, Oregon-based Imago Theatre’s “ZooZoo” is a whimsical, family-friendly show that blends the circus and the zoo. The show is built of short vignettes in which imaginatively-costumed performers play penguins engaged in a game of musical chairs, a cat trapped in a giant paper bag, insomniac hippos, and anteaters working as waiters. The performance lasts…
FASHION | Sewn Seeds Fashion Show
Ask any Rochester fashionista, and they’ll tell you Sewn Seeds is a “must attend” event each spring. The sartorial show, which is spearheaded by Park Avenue boutique Peppermint, spotlights local emerging designers. The fourth annual Sewn Seeds will feature Tanvi Asher, Josean Vargas-Rodriguez, and Sofie Cerankosky. The trio will debut both formal and ready-to-wear collections.…
THEATER | “Grease”
Hot on the heels of FOX’s live TV broadcast of “Grease” in January, the Rochester Association of Performing Arts (RAPA) presents its own version of the 1950’s love story. In this classic musical, the Burger Palace Boys and Pink Ladies of Rydell High bop and sing along to favorites such as “Summer Nights,” “It’s Raining…
LECTURE | “From Mathematics to Sculpture”
Stony Brook University’s George Hart will present “From Mathematics to Sculpture” at RIT’s Webb Auditorium (1350 James Booth Hall, Lomb Memorial Drive, Henrietta) on Thursday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m. Hart will discuss examples of his mathematically-informed sculptures, for which he applies computer technology for their creation. Hart often uses laser-cutting, plasma-cutting, or 3D-printing technologies…
METAL | Ringworm
As long as there’s rock ‘n’ roll, there will always be bands like Ringworm — bands who love what they do. Established in 1989, the Cleveland-based act blurs lines building a solid punishing wall of noise. Frontman Human Furnace lives up to the moniker while his band is unrelentingly furious, creating a barroom blitz that…
AMERICANA | Rivers and Rust
After working together for eight years, Matchbook Twenty guitarist and Nashville knob-twiddler Kyle Cook paired up with vocalist Sheila Marshall to make it official and forged Rivers & Rust. It’s some mighty cool soulful rock with a Texas twist that comes out the other end, all pleasant and tenacious, bare boned and bold. Although the…
BLUES | Harper
Harper calls it world blues fusion: a polyrhythmic jam of blues and primitive beats. Switching off between the didgeridoo and blues harp, Harper and his band have been known to frenzify a crowd into primal splendor. His harp wails salty; his didgeridoo drones ominous. It’s all so solid, sweet, and savage that you won’t be…
JAZZ | Eastman Chamber Jazz with Justin Flynn
Saxophonist and flutist Justin Flynn was once a ubiquitous presence on the Rochester jazz scene, leading The Jazz Prophets and playing in myriad groups around town. Now living in Brooklyn, Flynn has not slowed down. He leads a quartet, a quintet, and an octet in addition to the Tower-of-Power-like Heavy Duty Horns. He’s also performed…
Zoo, state partner on butterfly conservation
The monarch butterfly needs help. Pollinators such as bees and butterflies are struggling, and scientists blame habitat loss and increased pesticide use. But monarchs are in full-on decline. The monarchs migrate to Mexico each fall, but the number wintering there has decreased by 90 percent over the past 20 years. The Seneca Park Zoo has…
CLASSICAL | Eastman Trumpet Festival
If you’re a trumpet player, a trumpet teacher, or simply a fan, your event has arrived. The Eastman Trumpet Festival is a two-day extravaganza devoted solely to concerts, master classes, and lectures featuring and pertaining to the versatile brass instrument. Notable artists who will be performing and providing their expertise include former Metropolitan Opera Orchestra…
OPERA | “Rising Stars of the Metropolitan Opera”
For the closing event in the Kilbourn Concert Series this season, it’s all about the future with “Rising Stars of the Metropolitan Opera.” Esteemed artists such as Rochester native Renée Fleming, Stephanie Blythe, and Thomas Hampson were once ascendant newcomers with burgeoning careers. Who knows what’s in store for the next crop of young talent to…
Hidden history: An RIT professor helps recover ancient texts
If the revolutionary knowledge contained in works by legendary Greek mathematician Archimedes had been available earlier, many scholars say, it could’ve altered the course of modern science. Instead, the works disappeared into a void for about 1,000 years. The newly recovered works show, among other things, that Archimedes anticipated calculus, the basis for modern engineering…
ELECTRONIC | RIPROC presents
RIPROC — a group of DJs, electronic musicians, and fans who host local underground shows — has a massive set at the Bug Jar Friday night. The show will feature hour-long sets by regional acts Hoogs (drum ‘n’ bass, dub), and True Risen (jungle, dub) with support from Dr. Stockman, Matt 4star, Sita, and Bizmuth.…
The City Seen: March 20
Peppermint’s “Sewn Seeds: Annual Fashion Showcase” was a sold out, packed event last Sunday afternoon at Restaurant Good Luck. Peppermint opened the show with its latest spring collection followed by Josean Vargas, a Sewn Seeds regular. His cocktail wear collection was filled with mini skirts, angular black and white pieces, and pops of bright cyan…
Bills seek public defense funding
New York has a patchwork system for providing defense attorneys for poor people charged with crimes. Some counties hire attorneys in private practice to represent the clients, though at far below their usual rates, while the larger counties have their own staffs of full-time public defenders, whose caseloads are often far heavier than they should…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Freddie’s Extra Teeth”
Von Zimmer “Freddie’s Extra Teeth” Tasty Treat Records vonzimmer.bandcamp.com Hailing from the cornfields of the South Dakota plains comes this sweet and low-fi tasty treat from Von Zimmer. With hints of garage rock, indie, and anti-folk, this 10-tune platter initially sounds like a fistful of demos in their rough and ragged tone — it doesn’t…
Roux turns to the French classics
Although the foundations of modern restaurant cooking — especially in the fine dining world — rely on French techniques, restaurants that focus heavily on that style are a rarity in Rochester. And I tend to lack interest in a lot of typical French bistro-like fare; the idea of encroaching on new territory and exploring less…
ALBUM REVIEW: “All My Yesterdays”
The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra “All My Yesterdays” Resonance Records resonancerecords.org Big band music was the most popular form of jazz in the 1930’s and 1940’s, but by the 1950’s the genre was fading. In the 1960’s, it took a force of nature to revitalize it: The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. Listening to “All My…
Rochester Reads features ‘Queen of the Fall’
Sonja Livingston’s second novel, “Queen of the Fall: A Memoir of Girls and Goddesses,” is this year’s selection for Writers & Books’ annual “If All of Rochester Reads the Same Book…” city-wide challenge. Livingston is currently visiting Rochester on a reading tour. An interview with the author can be found here. The work is an…
SPECIAL EVENT: City Newspaper’s 2016 Best Busker Contest
City Newspaper’s Best Busker contest is turning 7 years old!
COMEDY | Steve Lemme and Kevin Heffernan
If you were a college student at any point in the 2000’s — or if you just like comedy that follows in the footsteps of the National Lampoon greats — Broken Lizard is almost a house-hold name. The team — the five Broken Lizard guys share screen-writing, acting, and production credits for their movies —…
Feedback 3/16
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. ‘Mockingbird’ let…
SPECIAL EVENT | Maple Sugar Festival
The Genesee Country Village & Museum (1410 Flint Hill Road, Mumford) kicks off its two-weekend Maple Sugar Festival this Saturday, March 19, and Sunday, March 20. The special, spring-heralding event features a pancake breakfast with real maple syrup served each day of the festival from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; hikes through the sugar-tapped trees…
Urban Action 3/16
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. All are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Book discussion at Central Library Friends and Foundation of the Rochester Public Library will present the book discussion “Between the World and Me” from 12:12 p.m. to 12:52 p.m. on Tuesday, March 22.…
Film review: “10 Cloverfield Lane”
For a movie whose very existence was a secret until two months ago, “10 Cloverfield Lane” has a lot of expectations to live up to. Before a trailer for the quasi sequel to the 2008 found-footage monster flick, “Cloverfield,” popped up in January — seemingly out of nowhere — no one had a clue the…
The Corner Store attack
In the dark of night last week, somebody lashed out at one of our neighbors, hurting him, and shocking us all.
Theater review: “Proof” at Blackfriars
Every thoughtful, well-planned theater season should have a family drama in the lineup: a play with a small cast, a compelling plotline, and (preferably) a strong female character. While “Annapurna” could have filled the quota in October, Blackfriars presents another sagacious selection with David Auburn’s “Proof.” “Proof” debuted at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2000…
