Cover Story
Dark Nemesis rising
Though he generally comes off as a happy guy, for the last two decades or so, Rochester musician Eddie Nebula has spewed buckets of beautifully biographical vitriol. Wearing his bleeding black heart on his sleeve, Nebula has accosted the anger head on with punk energy, metal speed, and the jaded insight of a young man…
Brownfields program nears expiration
The state’s brownfield tax credit program will expire at the end of the year unless lawmakers can agree to a fix. And if the recent past serves as any indication, that agreement may be hard to come by. Under the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, developers can receive tax credits for cleaning up and reusing contaminated…
Fewer students to transfer buses at transit center
In a strong response to the ongoing problem of youth disturbances at the new Regional Transit Center, the Regional Transit Service and the Rochester City School District will significantly reduce the number of students who will be able to stop downtown and transfer buses. Concerns about student and customer safety and customer satisfaction are cited…
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 7, Episode 4: Spoof!
*Yawn* — Sorry, I dozed off for a bit after this week’s snore of an episode. Until the very end (and what an ending), it was just same old, same old. Was Violet difficult? Yes. Did Pearl appear barely conscious for most of it? Yes. The queens were split into teams again for the Maxi…
New theaters may be in the works for Rochester
This is a corrected version of this story. The concept of adding multiple new venues to Rochester’s performing arts scene seemed to die with the Renaissance Square project in 2009. But it has come back strong. Rochester Broadway Theatre League wants a 3,000-seat theater downtown, and the city has taken the first steps toward getting…
Foreclosures continue to hurt Rochester neighborhoods
For some time now, government reports have painted a fairly upbeat picture about the winding down of the foreclosure crisis and the rebound of the real estate market. But that’s taken from a national overview. An analysis from Empire Justice Center, “Eye of the Storm: Why the Threat of Foreclosure Damage Continues,” gives a sobering…
Week Ahead: For the week of Monday, March 23, 2015
A report on the school-to-prison pipeline, and the next installment of the Reshaping Rochester series are happening this week.
Lose thy bearings
Denton Crawford’s work finds a playground in the tension between the impossibility of utopia and our everlasting striving toward it. His current solo show, “You’re Not Here,” which closes tonight at Joy Gallery (498 West Main Street), includes older mixed media paintings and drawings, as well as new installations. The space has been transformed into…
Education reforms take a bite out of Cuomo’s approval rating
Resistance to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s education reform agenda seems to be gaining steam. Cuomo has weathered several controversies, and though he won re-election, it wasn’t an overwhelming victory. And frankly, some of his statements about public schools and his relentless attacks on the teachers unions haven’t made a lot of sense politically or in terms…
Sheppard wins Democratic committee endorsement
Former Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard will run for Monroe County Legislature with the backing of the 23rd Legislative District Democratic Committee.
RBTL announces 2015-16 season
The Rochester Broadway Theatre League announced its 2015-16 season Wednesday evening. The energetic six-show lineup opens with “Newsies” on October 6, and includes “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” “Matilda” on its first U.S. tour, the soulful “Motown,” and “White Christmas” making a holiday appearance. “Dirty Dancing” will end the season beginning May 10, 2016. Also…
ALT-COUNTRY | Future Thieves
Nashville’s Future Thieves graze on the same grass as The Bottle Rockets or The Drive-By Truckers. It’s a tug–o-war between the country sweet and rock ‘n’ roll power that’ll get ya. The relatively new outfit has a new record slated for release as well as three singles. Catch them while you can. Future Thieves plays…
JAZZ | Denzal Sinclaire
Canadian jazz singer Denzal Sinclaire has plenty of style of his own when he takes on a standard. But this weekend he’ll use his soulful baritone to pay tribute to one of the greatest song stylists of the 20th century, Nat King Cole. Jeff Tyzik will conduct the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and to make sure…
JAZZ | Harold Danko
The title of Harold Danko’s upcoming concert, “Solo Piano Improvisations and Contrafacts” may cause a bit of head scratching. It’s well known that Eastman professor Danko is a keyboard master who has played with Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, and Chet Baker, so the solo piano part needs no explanation. But some may wonder, what’s a…
GOSPEL | The New Gospel Times
With plenty of fire, conviction, and soulful harmony, The New Gospel Times puts a classic R&B touch to gospel. It’s a mix that will hit you deep and get you moving. The group has been around since 1988, and has produced three captivating, energetic albums that could play well in a church or on a…
DINING REVIEW: Ox and Stone
Ox and Stone is a great example of a restaurant that works well within the space that it occupies. The beautiful brick mansion features a neutral colored main dining room with dramatic, rolling arched ceilings and a feel that strikes that balance between relaxed and refined. Ambiance isn’t the main driver for why I decide…
ART | “Flourish”
“Flourish,” an upcoming exhibit at Genesee Pottery’s Firehouse Gallery, is the handiwork of artist Joanna Poag. Poag’s work doesn’t consist of pottery in the functional sense — mugs, bowls, and the like — but would be more accurately described as sculpture expressed through clay and glaze. Looking at Poag’s past exhibits is less like looking…
Foregrounding artifice
Much like photography, accounts of the past have a tendency to project a sense of authority. We may absorb each as bare fact, instead of what it really is: an account, a version, a distortion through an individual or cultural lens. The current exhibit of David Levinthal’s photographs in the Eastman House’s Project Gallery explores…
COMEDY | Marc Maron
Some may remember Marc Maron from the last time he was in town, during the 2013 Fringe Festival, where the comedian and acclaimed podcaster headlined several performances. Maron started as a stand-up comic, but attracted a large following several years ago when he started “WTF,” an interview and monologue-format podcast known for its gyration between…
Feedback 3/18
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. Frat fails…
ART | Circuition
The Nazareth College Art Department will feature “Circuition: Recent works by Jessica Joyce” this weekend at the Colacino Gallery. Joyce’s skill and interest in metalworking, jewelry making, and photography has resulted in interesting interdisciplinary works. Images mounted on metal bracelets, and dreamlike, atmospheric photo juxtapositions populate this show, which showcases a collision of fine art…
THEATER | “Peter/Wendy”
This Friday, curtains go up on “Peter/Wendy,” a student-acted show directed by Leah Stacy and Shawnda Urie. In this sparsely-staged, atmospheric adaptation, playwright Jeremy Bloom draws from the original source material for Peter Pan — J.M. Barrie’s “Peter and Wendy” and “The Little White Bird” — to create an interpretation with familiar names, places, and…
Long way around
Nathan Willett doesn’t take success for granted. In music, the obstacles facing a band are understandably difficult no matter the noble intentions beginners may hold. Making it at all is unusual; lasting a decade into band-hood — as Willett’s band, Cold War Kids, has — is rare. “The original four guys and how we started,…
SPECIAL EVENT | Maple Weekend
As part of Maple Weekend — a statewide program spotlighting maple producers in New York — the Genesee Country Museum will host its annual Maple Sugar Festival for the next two weekends. The Maple Sugar History Trail provides a window into maple sap collection and processing techniques from the 19th century, complete with a log-built “sugar…
ALBUM REVIEW: “From The Garage”
Cammy Enaharo “From The Garage” Self-released facebook.com/CammyEnaharoMusic What immediately catches you on this new CD is Cammy Enaharo’s smoky voice as it weaves about her pretty, mostly minor-keyed salvos. The songs are well-suited for this Rochester singer and the percussive chop of her ukulele. It does however make me wonder what Enaharo would sound like…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Crossing Paths”
Tarantino/Terefenko “Crossing Paths” Infinite Records alexatarantino.com In the history of jazz there are many notable pairings of pianists with saxophonists (Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Stan Getz) but most, including the above mentioned, involve a rhythm section and are not strictly duets. Still, they are meetings of distinct musical personalities designed to…
Another milestone for gay marriage
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is on the brink of a fundamental change. Individual presbyteries, which are the regional governing bodies of the church, are voting on whether to change the church’s constitution to redefine marriage from being between a man and a woman to being “between two persons, traditionally a man and a woman.” The…
THEATER | “A Body of Water”
Beginning Thursday, Geva Theatre Center will host “A Body of Water,” a production by Ithaca-based The Kitchen Theatre Company. In “A Body of Water,” a long-married husband and wife wake up in a beautiful summer home on a manicured green lawn, surrounded by an immense body of water. The couple have no idea where or…
Universal health care for ailing New York
It wouldn’t take much to convince most New Yorkers — both employees and employers — that they will pay substantially more for health care coverage in 2019 than they do today. But what would it take to convince them that the state could save $45 billion annually in health care costs, while providing all New…
ELECTRONIC | Amtrac
Caleb Cornett, also known as Amtrac, is a producer, songwriter, and DJ who’s been remixing, collaborating, and pumping beats since 2010. He’s based in Louisville, Kentucky, of all places and is signed with the Miami-based Super Music Group. On his most recent release, “Hyperspace” (2014), Amtrac collaborated with Los Angeles-based beat maker, Kastle. This is…
Urban Action 3/18
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Teachers rally against Cuomo agenda Members of New York State United Teachers and their supporters will hold a community rally and public forum to protest Governor Andrew Cuomo’s education agenda at 7 p.m.…
CLASSICAL | Publick Musick
Period-instrument ensemble Publick Musick will be joined by Boston-based soprano Shari Alise Wilson and organist Edoardo Bellotti for two performances as part of the Memorial Art Gallery’s Third Thursday Concert series with Eastman’s Italian Baroque Organ. The program of works from the early Italian Baroque period features beautiful and expressive solo motets by Alessandro Grandi, and…
COUNTRY | Margo Price and the Pricetags
Tammy and Loretta may come to mind, tonally, but singer Margo Price, though an equally gifted singer, is a bit saltier. Known for her work with her hubby (Jeremey Ivey) in Buffalo Clover, Price is one of the many insurgent artists keeping country music’s purity and grit. Her current band, The Pricetags, is a revolving…
Film Review: “Cinderella”
Diverging from the blatant revisionism of Disney’s recent live-action fairy tales, director Kenneth Branagh brings a pleasingly straightforward adaptation of the “Cinderella” fable to the screen. Though inspired by Charles Perrault’s classic telling, Branagh is clearly using Disney’s beloved 1950 animated version as a template, following that film’s model quite closely (right down to Ella’s…
The boys on the bus: hate with a smiling face
In the seclusion of the fraternity house and en route to an off-campus party, blatant racism was acceptable behavior.
