Cover Story
Train your brain
Various groups and organizations are beginning to pool their communal knowledge and offer it to one another at little or no cost, and in turn, individuals and groups are beginning to shape the future of this city in a very do-it-yourself manner.
Daily Choices: What to do on Wednesday, May 29
Workshop: Learn a new trick or two at the Easy Appetizers workshop, held tonight at Rochester Braniery (274 N Goodman St.) at 7 p.m. The class will learn how to make stuffed mushrooms, spanikopita and baked brie. Registration is $30; visit rochesterbrainery.com or call 730-7034.
Week Ahead: Monroe Community Hospital’s new advisory board meets for the first time
Monroe Community Hospital’s new advisory board meets for the first time at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, according to a report by the Democrat and Chronicle. FILE PHOTO Maggie Brooks. County law requires MCH to have an advisory board, but for unknown reasons, the board disbanded sometime in the early 2000’s. The board is being reactivated…
Daily Choices: What to do on Tuesday, May 28
Special Event: Cinema Theatre (957 S. Clinton Ave.) will host a screening of “Praying with Lior” as part of the Reel Mind Film and Theatre Series tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 and include a Q&A with filmmaker Ilana Trachtman and Lior Liebling via Skype. For more information, visit reelmindfilmfest.com.
Daily Choices: What to do on Monday, May 27
Special Events: The city of Rochester’s Memorial Day Parade takes place at 10:30 a.m. today, beginning at East and Alexander, and then moving west onto Main and Plymouth. For more information, call cityofrochester.gov.
Daily Choices: What to do on Saturday, May 25 and Sunday, May 26
Recreation: Take part in the Red White and Blue Balloon Rally, to be held at the Letchworth State Park (1 Letchworth State Park, Castile) this week.
Daily Choices: What to do on Friday, May 24
Special Event: If your happy hour is too tame, check out ZooBrew tonight, 5-9:30 p.m.,. at Seneca Park Zoo (2222 St. Paul St.).
Brooks delivers State of the County speech
County Executive Maggie Brooks didn’t use this year’s State of the County address to introduce major new programs or make bold pronouncements. She stuck to many of the usual topics: economic development, partnerships the county has, the crushing burden of state mandated spending, and public safety.
Concert Review: Nikki Hill at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que
Wednesday night the sky looked like one big black eye as I moseyed the grey ghost downtown. I had heard word from my buddy Jason (he’s the one who turned me onto Morphine) that North Carolina knockout Nikki Hill simply had to be seen. I dove into the fracas she was creating at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que…
Sheppard, Warren events stress dire need
Corrected version. I’ve spent some time in the West Main Street-Chili Avenue area over the last few days, first to listen to Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard talk to residents gathered at Junior’s Barber Shop & Unisex Salon on West Main, and then to observe a Lovely Warren campaign event at the Iglesia Educational Center…
Senate Dems push for fracking moratorium
Democrats in the New York State Senate are pushing for legislation to enact a moratorium on shale gas drilling in the state. The Assembly has already passed moratorium legislation, which would ban drilling through May 2015. Yesterday, Senate Dems called on the chamber’s ruling coalition to allow a vote on legislation. A press release sent…
Daily Choices: What to do on Thursday, May 23
Special Event: The Roc City Ribfest runs today, 5-11 p.m., through Monday, May 27, and includes live music, the YMCA kids zone, food and retail vendors, a variety of cook-off competitions featuring teams from across the nation, and even Canada, and the World Bacon Competition.
Richards’ campaign off to a slow start
When is Mayor Tom Richards going to join this campaign? Lovely Warren, City Council president and Richards’ likely opponent in a September primary, is active on Twitter at #lovelyformayor, and Facebook. She’s making appearances and holding events; she has two scheduled for Thursday, one to talk about education and an evening fund raiser at a…
Gay games during Pride celebration
Could Rochester become a hub for gay sporting events?
Feedback 5/22
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. For our print edition, we select comments from all three sources; those of fewer than 350 words have a greater chance of being published, and we do edit those selections. We don’t…
“Star Trek Into Darkness”
Decades after the famous TV show and its several sequels, after numerous feature-length adaptations, after wearing out generations of crew members, including the most famous captains, Kirk and Picard, the “Star Trek” franchise continues to boldly go where it has gone many times before. For the latest addition to the franchise, “Star Trek Into Darkness,”…
ROCK | New Archery
If you love Joywave, and have seen the band perform at least once within the past couple of years, you are likely to recognize the members of New Archery, previously known as Doctors. The two bands have played side-by-side in many past local line-ups. However, the recent name-change has ushered in an entirely new identity,…
“At Any Price”
When we first meet Henry Whipple, the farmer and seed salesman played by Dennis Quaid in Ramin Bahrani’s “At Any Price,” he’s crashing a funeral with his reluctant son, Dean (Zac Efron), in tow, hoping to take some land off the hands of the dead man’s poor, bereaved family. It’s not the sort of introduction…
AMERICANA | Miss Tess and The Talk Backs
She’s swung sweetly with a gentle sepia coo for so long that all the antiquity is washed away. Though this Big Apple chanteuse’s sound is that of Tin Pan Alley on a Saturday night, it’s not a borrowed aesthetic from long ago — it’s her sound. She owns it. Miss Tess ably chops though the…
Rock-n-Roll Social Club
It was a lopsided split when local band Boneyard disbanded last year. Cloud-busting singer JJ Lang went one way, while guitarist Mick Ditko, bassist Doug MacDonald, and drummer Brian Donnelly went another. Lang went on to form The JJ Lang Band and keep with his former band’s heavy, Southern gothic grind and wail. The other…
POP/ROCK | Alkaline Trio
True to its name, the foundation of Alkaline Trio consists of three musicians, albeit taken in different formations over the years. Despite different members having rotated in and out, frontman Matt Skiba remains the consistent force urging on the outfit. Formed in the mid-90’s, the punk rockers anchored Vagrant Records during its perch at the…
Emerald county
With camping season set to begin, it’s time to talk firewood and its role in preventing the spread of the emerald ash borer, a destructive invasive species that has been found in Monroe County. Members of the Monroe County Emerald Ash Borer Task Force are trying to reinforce a simple message: don’t transport firewood from…
DUB | Marto
If ever it was a night to get your dub on, this will be it. Marto is bringing us the finest and freshest trap step Ontario has to offer, as well as all the DnB and dub we could ever want along with Ghettotronics and Bittle. Even better, now that the weather is holding out,…
Lej fights intensify
The relationship between Republicans and Democrats in the Monroe County Legislature was strained before, but now the two sides are engaged in open warfare. The latest salvo was fired by the GOP, which wants to chop funding for the Democratic office by 10 percent. By Republicans’ logic, the funding should reflect the makeup of the…
ROCK | Mickey Hart Band
It’s still hard to believe that the Grateful Dead is history. Following Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995, the Grateful Dead dissolved. The band’s remaining members toured as The Other Ones and The Dead, or formed new groups including Furthur, RatDog, and Phil Lesh & Friends. Ex-Dead drummer Mickey Hart is no exception, and has kept…
From shepherd to Fulbright scholar
One of Nangyalai Attal’s earliest memories is of watching foreign aircraft bomb the Afghan countryside. “I remember the people running and screaming,” he says. “I don’t remember if it was being done by the Soviets or the mujahideen who were trying to expel them. But I can still remember the horror of it.” And while…
DJ/ELECTRONIC | DJ Energon’s Super Hero Showdown
You thought Spider-Man was finished with Rochester? You couldn’t be more wrong. Don those skin-tight suits and grab those bright capes; DJ Energon is celebrating his birthday with another Cosplay Friday; this event in the series focusing on your favorite doers of good deeds, savers of planets, and fighters of justice. Comic book, movie, or…
Merger news
Planned Parenthood of the Rochester/Syracuse Region will merge with the western New York affiliate. The new organization will be called Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York. | The merger should be effective on January 1, 2014, pending approval of state officials since Planned Parenthood’s facilities are treated under law basically as hospitals, says…
CLASSICAL | Celebration of the Piano
Let’s see. If it’s two hands, that’s 10 fingers. That’s 8.8 keys per finger. That’s…that’s too many unplayed notes! The work-around is to add more pianists, and that’s exactly what the piano faculty at the Hochstein School of Music & Dance will do in its 2nd Annual Celebration of the Piano. Performing music for two…
What if we’re investing in the wrong education?
A couple of weeks ago, I quoted data from the grim new report, “The State of Black Rochester.” The book, published by the Rochester Area Community foundation, lays out the growing crisis in the city’s black community: the poverty, the abysmally low achievement in school, the incidence of illness, the incarceration rate, all of which…
ART | “Mortal: A Portfolio of Woodcuts by Kiki Smith”
Meditations on mortality gain gravitas when we are faced with the finite nature of our mothers and fathers. The decline and death of a parent truly brings home the bittersweet fleetingness of our time here together. This is the driving theme in a body of work by American artist Kiki Smith, which will be shown…
Urban Action 5/22
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Lobby for fair elections MoveOn, Citizens Action of NY, and Fair Elections NY are coordinating a trip to Albany for a fair election lobby day on Wednesday, May 29. A van will leave…
LITERATURE | Lou Gramm book signing
I was enjoying a lively night at a local bar with friends recently when “Hot Blooded” shuffled on to the bartender’s eclectic playlist. One of our number, who is not from around here, made a face at the transition and hollered, “What is this music?” Without missing a beat, and as-cold-as-ice, the bartender quipped back,…
THEATER REVIEW: “Steel Magnolias”
Robert Harling’s “Steel Magnolias” has remained consistently popular since making its stage debut in 1987. Bolstered by a successful, star-studded film adaptation a few years later, the play continues to be staged at numerous theaters across the country and just last year was adapted again for a made-for-TV movie featuring an all-African-American cast. The play’s…
SPECIAL EVENT | ZooBrew
If you think your typical happy hour with your pals is a wild night, check out the ZooBrew monthly series, held at Seneca Park Zoo (2222 St. Paul St.) on select Fridays throughout the summer. The first event of the season kicks off on Friday, May 24, 5:30-9 p.m., and will feature food and adult…
THEATER REVIEW: “Venus in Fur”
“Venus in Furs” is not pornography. We are told this several times by Thomas, the playwright appearing in the play “Venus in Fur” (note the singular), now playing on the Geva Theatre Nextstage. In Geva’s “Venus,” Thomas is the writer and director of a theatrical adaptation of the controversial 1870 novel “Venus in Furs” by…
SPECIAL EVENT | Roc City Rib Fest
Many people usher in summertime with the heat of the grill. The annual Roc City Rib Fest is back this week, celebrating all things meaty, juicy, and barbequed, and shifting the city-wide party from the Lilac Festival at Highland Park to the meat-loving spectacle at Ontario Beach. This year, the festival runs Friday, May 24,…
RECREATION | Red White and Blue Balloon Rally
I’m not afraid of heights, I just don’t particularly enjoy moving too quickly too far above ground level (rock climbing and motorcycles are just fine, go figure). That’s what I tell my buddies when they try to get me to join them for a day of riding rollercoasters. Never mind that flying in airplanes doesn’t…
THEATER | “Talk/Radio”
The creators and several cast members of the successful production “Hide the Moon: Based on Salome,” which debuted at the premier Rochester Fringe Festival in 2012, are reuniting with a new show on Friday, May 24. MuCCC (142 Atlantic Ave.) will host one performance of “TALK/RADIO,” a music and theater performance project by Eastman School…
CHOW HOUND: The ol’ College Town try
Well, a crucial chunk of the Inner Loop is off-limits for the next few months, traffic circles are apparently the new cupcake, and where Mount Hope and Elmwood avenues meet is being hacked to bits so that College Town may rise. But no amount of minor inconvenience is going to keep a true Rochesterian from…
