Cover Story
Who’s worrying about the water?
Much of California is coping with a severe, multi-year drought. The state’s water supplies and reservoirs are depleted, urban residents are now required to limit their water use, and many farms in the state are losing their crops. By comparison, the Rochester region is hydrologically gifted. Lake Ontario provides people, farms, and businesses with massive…
Arts events: Rachel Sussman “Wish You Were Here” photography lecture
When I walk among very old trees, I feel the same sort of peaceful emptiness brought about by examining pictures of the breathtaking cosmos. By peaceful emptiness, I mean the emptying of the stressful crush of human concerns, while contemplating the eternity in which our struggles barely register. The feeling derived from great expanses of…
Less water being taken from the Great Lakes
A US-Canada treaty that greatly restricts large-scale water withdrawals from the Great Lakes is working, says a new study prepared for the International Joint Commission. The commission is a bi-national organization that oversees water bodies shared between the United States and Canada. The IJC is accepting comments on the study through June 30. You can…
State makes some progress on tracking zombie properties
The state has reached an agreement with 11 large mortgage lenders to better maintain foreclosed properties. The lenders make up 70 percent of the mortgage market in New York, according to a press release sent out yesterday by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Office. The mortgage companies have promised to make sure that the properties under their…
Film Review: “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten”
A mashup of traditional sounds and Western pop, Cambodia had a fertile music scene from the mid 50’s to the mid 70’s, supported by a monarchy devoted to the arts. When capitol city Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge in 1975, however, that all changed. Communist dictator Pol Pot brutally stamped out self-expression, and…
WEEK AHEAD: Events for the week of Monday, March 18
The state board looking into the wages of fast-food workers meets this week in Buffalo. Metro Justice plans to bring a bus full of people to the meeting. The bus leaves from Metro Justice, 803 West Avenue, at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, May 20, and returns to Rochester at 2 p.m. the same day. Metro…
The Reckless and the Brave
Right now, the sky’s the limit for All Time Low. The four-piece pop-punk giants are just achieving one milestone after another. The band’s new album, “Future Hearts,” hit number one on the Billboard Rock chart and was the number 2 album on the Billboard 200, making for the All Time Low’s highest charting and selling…
Pittsford board members quit over Westport project
Four of the five members of the Village of Pittsford Planning Board have resigned, citing objections to the way that the village’s Board of Trustees handled the proposed Westport Crossing project. The members are Remegia Mitchell, Meg Rubiano, Joe Maxey, and Jill Crooker. The resignations are effective immediately. The controversial Westport project calls for 167…
Is Blossom-Winton right for Aldi?
The discount grocer Aldi has work to do to convince some North Winton Village residents and City Hall that a store belongs on the corner of Blossom and Winton roads in southeast Rochester. Paperwork from the city’s planning and zoning office says that the project as originally presented would need at least 15, and possibly…
Your weekend in art: May 16-17
Consider some cultural events for your weekend wanderings. Here are a few of City’s suggestions; for more events, check out the listings in our calendar. “Every great drink starts with a plant,” says Amy Stewart, New York Times bestselling author of “The Drunken Botanist.” “Sake began with a grain of rice. Scotch emerged from barley.…
City budget would fund body cameras, freeze tax levy
Rochester Mayor Lovely Ann Warren has proposed a $502-million budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year that reduces spending by more than $2 million and keeps the tax levy flat at approximately $172 million. The levy is the total amount that the City of Rochester collects in taxes. Warren said at her budget presentation this morning…
RTS and RCSD reach summer busing agreement
The Rochester City School District and the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority have reached a deal to provide bus service for summer school students. The details are still being worked out. In a letter to Bill Carpenter, CEO of RTS, schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas said that he will seek an additional $350,000 in state aid to…
RTS looking into ‘vanpooling’
Regional Transit Service is looking into the concept of vanpooling, and the agency is asking local commuters to take a survey to help inform its efforts. The survey is available here. Under a vanpooling program, RTS or an outside company would provide a vehicle — probably a van, as the name implies — to a…
Theater review: RBTL presents “Kinky Boots”
Arriving in Rochester amid a storm of glitter, sequins, and throbbing bass, the crowd-pleasing musical “Kinky Boots” will be on stage at the Auditorium Center through Sunday, May 17. Marrying joyous, high energy production numbers with a heartfelt story about acceptance and staying true to oneself, the show is adapted by Harvey Fierstein from the…
Village Gate is growing
Three new buildings are coming to Village Gate on North Goodman Street in Rochester’s Neighborhood of the Arts. The buildings will house retail and office space, says Gary Stern, owner of Stern Properties, which owns Village Gate. “We’re working on the design now,” he says. The buildings will be located behind Village Gate, Stern says,…
UR takeover of East nears
In a little over a month, the University of Rochester will be handed the keys, so to speak, to East High School. The State Education Department approved the UR-East deal last year in an attempt to turn around one of the state’s lowest performing schools. There are few delusions about East. The school — with…
Urban Action 5/13
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Mothers group discusses oil trains Mothers Out Front will host “Bakken Oil Trains,” a public forum at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 17. The trains carry hazardous materials from the North Dakota region…
Ink plots
For such a young artist, Rochesterian Justyn Iannucci is hella methodical. And it’s paid off with some impressive clients, including Playboy Magazine and Complex Media. The way the 26-year-old describes his process is like a bit of a memory theater, or what BBC’s “Sherlock” referred to as a “mind palace”: “When I think of drawing,…
ROCK | Meg Myers
Meg Myers is raw, visceral alt-rock. There’s an angst, a ferocity, and a delicate femininity somehow all wrapped up in her songs. Her lyrics feel like they want to brood, then yell, then intimately share. She’s backed by some catchy, heavy tracks — which is often recreated by a live band on tour. She released…
THEATER | “Deathtrap”
Sidney Bruhl is a successful writer of Broadway thrillers who has hit a dry spell; when one of his writing students comes up with a script that could be a hit, he and his wife hatch a plan that soon turns into an exercise in cat-and-mouse suspense. That’s the basis of “Deathtrap” by Ira Levin,…
ROCK | The Caulfield Cult
Singapore-based band The Caulfield Cult is a hard-working bunch. Last year, the emo-punk quartet performed in almost two-dozen countries and released a couple of records that are tough and melodic in all the right places. I’m digging “Everyone But Me,” a number that rocks out with snot pounding riffs. Then there’s the breakneck energy…
THEATER | “Orestes 2.0”
The ever-adventurous Bread and Water Theatre’s exploration of Aeschylus’ “Oresteia” trilogy, which began with “Agamemnon” and “The Libation Bearers,” comes to a close with a contemporary take on the ancient Greek story: “Orestes 2.0” by Charles Mee, this time based on Euripides’ “Orestes.” In a modern setting, veterans of the Trojan War return home, only…
FOLK | Steve Katz
He was in two of the greatest bands of the 1960’s and he’s got plenty of stories to tell about it. After forging a reputation with The Blues Project, guitarist Steve Katz was a founding member of Blood, Sweat & Tears. He won’t be bringing all those horn players with him to Lovin’ Cup but…
FESTIVAL | Finger Lakes Celtic Festival
The Finger Lakes Celtic Festival will hold its 4th annual Highland Games and Heritage Festival this Saturday, May 16. The day-long event seeks to capture and embrace Celtic culture and society in the Rochester area. Festivities include traditional Celtic music and dance, Clan and Historical Group gatherings, and various workshops and competitions. Also featured at…
CLASSICAL | “Fanny in May”
Pianist Diane Walsh, violinist David Brickman, and cellist Stefan Reuss — a trio that hasn’t performed together for First Muse since 2013 — will close out First Muse’s 2015 season with a warm welcome to spring. “Fanny in May” will feature Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s “Piano Trio,” a world premiere of Mark Harris’s “Romance for Violin…
KIDS | Tenth Annual Teen Book Festival
One way to encourage young readers and writers in their interests is to expose them to the working authors who are writing stories specifically for them. On Saturday, May 16, the 10th Annual Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Nazareth College Shults Center (4245 East Avenue). Guest…
METAL | Hatebreed
Hatebreed is throwing a show in June for its 20th anniversary — a milestone that’s almost unheard of for most bands — in its hometown of New Haven, Connecticut. The band helped define the metalcore subgenre in the late 90’s, and across the six studio albums it’s pummeled out, has fine-tuned that hardcore aggression and…
LITERATURE | Amanda Jacobs with the Jane Austen Society
This weekend, Jane Austen fans can get an inside look at summer life in Austen’s village when Amanda Jacobs, the producer and writer of “Pride and Prejudice: a Musical,” gives a lecture on her time spent at the Chawton House. The house — an Elizabethan manor home in Hampshire, England — was formerly the home…
AMERICANA | Amy LaVere
Like Eddie Cochran said: “She’s somethin’ else.” Singer-songwriter and bassist, Amy LaVere has been produced by Jim Dickinson (who produced The Replacements’ “Pleased To Meet Me,” among a billion others), worked at the rock ‘n’ roll Mecca, Memphis’s Sun Studios, slaps the doghouse bass as if it just pinched her ass, and has broken my…
DANCE | “Identity Awakens”
Unidentified Dance — a new movement company led by co-artistic directors Margaret Moreno and Trevor Van Oden — will premiere its first public work, “Identity Awakens,” this Saturday. Moreno and Van Oden met while apprenticing with FuturPointe Dance and found that they shared similar views on the value of dance in communication and self-discovery. “Identity…
POP | Grey Light
Grey Light strikes me as an experimental band that got it right with the first try. At the top of the list of compelling, undeniable qualities are Alicia Ault’s vocals as they float bell-like in the bands well-rooted ether. And speaking of rooted, the band got its start while its members were studying at the…
Chekhov’s fun
Before contemporary playwright Christopher Durang penned “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” farcical comedy and Anton Chekhov rarely occupied the same sentence. But “Vanya” — the 2013 Tony Award winner for Best Play — succeeds in comically commandeering names, imagery, and themes from the much anthologized work of the Russian playwright and short-story author,…
Feedback 5/13
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. Fanning flames…
Inspiring comfort food
When I pulled into the parking lot of El Pilon Criollo, I knew that it was a special place. Even if the food was bad (and it isn’t), I was excited to write about the background of owner Zury Brown and the restaurant she and her family created. The free standing building that houses El…
Harp attack
I wouldn’t call it so much a smirk but more of an all-knowing impish smile that always seems pasted on Charlie Musselwhite’s mug. And between gregarious grins, the legendary bluesman still blows away at the electric harmonica — the Mississippi saxophone, the tin sandwich. Whatever you want to call it, Musslewhite is one of its…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Call Me Insane”
Dale Watson “Call Me Insane” Red House Records dalewatson.com It’s probably unnecessary to carry on about the lack of country in country music. Suffice it to say, contemporary, self-appointed country has lost its edge. But brothers and sisters there stands a savior in our midst. Austin, Texas, troubadour Dale Watson has got a new batch…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Brand New Start”
Roger Kuhn “Brand New Start” Self-released Twenty-one tracks, count ’em, 21 chances to dig bluesman Roger Kuhn’s howlin’, acoustic, dixiefried, buskerfied blues on the cat’s new CD, “Brand New Start.” His pig-sticker boots firmly planted on the sidewalk, Kuhn bleeds hot and cool, switching off between dreadnought and dobro. The recording ain’t fancy but it’s period…
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 7, Episode 11: Hello Kitty Girl
For being as late in the game as we are, I expected more from last night’s bore of an episode. There were only five queens left, and both the mini and maxi challenges made me want to flip the channel to “Dancing with the Stars.” Just kidding — I’ll never watch “Dancing with the Stars.”…
What can we do about our high poverty rate?
There’s no one solution to concentrated poverty. And nothing we have to do will be simple.
Film Review: “Félix and Meira”
When it comes to tales of forbidden romance in the movies, audiences tend to expect a certain amount of passion. They want sexy stories about couples whose desire for one another burns up the screen, so we never question that they must be together no matter what the cost. But French-Canadian director Maxime Giroux’s somber…
Party in the Park announces 2015 lineup
Fun in the summer sun, baby … and it’s downtown, too. Mayor Lovely Warren and assorted sponsors and friends got together Tuesday to announce the entertainment lineup for the 19th Windstream Party in the Park. And it’s a good un.’ All shows are at Dr. Martin Luther King Park and start at 5 p.m. with…
