Cover Story
A good time for peace on Earth
We say it every year, but we hope you take some time to relax and enjoy the holiday season. So much is crammed into a short two months — Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Solstice — and we know holiday overload and burn-out is real. Still, we’re sure you can find 20 minutes for yourself in…
No city loan to Morgan
City Council rejected a proposal yesterday for a $1.5 million loan to developer Robert Morgan for a residential project at 103 Court Street at South Avenue. In a 5-to-3 vote, Councilmembers Loretta Scott, Jackie Ortiz, Matt Haag, Molly Clifford, and Carolee Conklin voted against the measure. Voting for it: Elaine Spaull, Dana Miller, and Adam…
Smugtown wants you to consider the mushroom
The world of mushrooms is vast and diverse, yet it remains relatively unknown to many American consumers, says Olga Tzogas, founder of Smugtown Mushrooms. Tzogas says that most people are familiar with just a few types available in the produce aisle, such as white button, cremini, and portobella. Incidentally, all of those mushrooms are different-sized…
ART | ‘Good Things…come in small packages’
A celebration of small ceramic work, “Good Things…come in small packages” opens at Flower City Arts Center this week, providing a great opportunity to tick some names off your gift list while supporting makers. Each piece in the show measures no more than eight inches long, high, or wide — it’s a given that there…
JAZZ | Nathan Kay Group
When you hear trumpeter Nathan Kay and his excellent quintet rip into a jazz tune, you would never suspect that all five of these musicians are students. And the tunes are so strong, you might think you’re hearing an obscure standard. But it really shouldn’t be surprising; Kay is an excellent composer, and Eastman School of…
Brockport’s Danscore, marking 50 years, keeps its contemporary reach
The College at Brockport’s Department of Dance has a long history of hiring teachers who are professional artists with years of experience performing and choreographing modern dance. The department celebrates its 50th anniversary this week with its annual Danscore performances. According to the department interim chair James Hansen, the landscape for dance in higher learning…
INDIE POP | Laura Wolf
Fans of singer-songwriters with classical music predilections will find a lot to like in Laura Wolf. Part-cello exploration, part-folksy rumination, the multi-instrumentalist’s songs, like the excellent “Body Part,” feature dense but inviting textures, with plenty of percussive flair. Wolf’s debut EP will be released later this month. If you like national acts like Sam Amidon,…
A winter blues playlist
Seven Rochester songs for a different kind of holiday mood
BLUEGRASS | Evie Ladin & Keith Terry
This ain’t your daddy’s folk outfit. Evie Ladin and Keith Terry play a very percussive style of old time music that incorporates a mixture of Appalachian clogging and hambone to accent the duo’s otherwise traditional approach to traditional music. It’s fresh and clean and original while somehow remaining classic. It’s infectious. Evie Ladin & Keith…
Activating goodwill
Practical and personalized volunteering tailored to Rochester issues
METAL | Survival of the Fittest Fest
It’ll be a hellaciously hard and heavy night of music with this year’s Survival of the Fittest Fest. The show features local mavens like Diluted, Rip Open The Sky — don’t get it confused with the Christian rock album by Remedy Drive — one of my favorite hardcore bands, A Fitting Revenge, Undead Messengers, Plagues…
Adam Savage and Michael Stevens spread curiosity in ‘Brain Candy’
“Brain Candy Live,” an educational show, combines two big names in science entertainment. Adam Savage, the editor-in-chief of Tested.com and former co-host of “Mythbusters,” and Michael Stevens, creator of award-winning YouTube channel Vsauce, have created a live stage show that’s billed as “a two-hour play date with Walt Disney, Willy Wonka, and Albert Einstein.” The…
CLASSICAL | ‘British Buddies’
In the provided information about First Muse’s next concert, “British Buddies,” Artistic Director and violist Melissa Matson is pretty direct in describing the program. “The genesis of this concert was my desire to collaborate with tenor Anthony Dean Griffey,” she says. Griffey, a Grammy-winning vocalist, recently joined the Eastman School of Music as a professor…
The lighting crew
For these creative, industrious people nothing – not even a Rochester winter – can dampen their enthusiasm for building holiday displays
ROCK | The Tombstone Hands
The Tombstone Hands is a slow churn of rock ‘n’ roll burn dedicated to preserving the rock of ages. The trio plays like it’s the last garage band on Earth, always kicking it off with Link Wray’s “Rumble,” in honor of the man who first revved up his electric guitar. Established in 2009, The Tombstone…
The small things
From repurposed circuit breakers and maps to punk buttons, check out these five artists and online shops for interesting stocking stuffers
OPERA | ‘Mrs. President’
As trailblazers in the American fight for women’s rights go, Victoria Woodhull is likely the most underrated. An indispensable historical figure, Woodhull was the first woman to run for the office of United States President — all the way back in 1872. And yet school textbooks and other documentary narratives have by-and-large neglected her story.…
Holiday events
As more holiday events are announced, we’ll continue to update this guide. Have an event you’d like to add, send us an email at calendar@rochester-citynews.com. Ongoing [ ART ] Glass Wonderland. Family-friendly holiday showcases and activities throughout the museum. Nov. 16 through Jan. 2. Included with museum admission. Corning Museum of Glass, One Museum Way,…
RECREATION | Star Party
The crisp, cold air that’s finally arrived in Rochester may not be welcome to some, but it’s perfect weather for stargazing. At RMSC’s after-hours Star Party, amateur astronomers and extraterrestrial enthusiasts alike will get to use telescopes to get a clear glimpse of the Milky Way, Summer Triangle, and thousands of stars. Experts will be…
LITERATURE | Book Signing and Fundraiser for Haiti
At a time when so many refugees in America are facing an uncertain future, one man’s story may offer them hope. Born into Haiti’s poorest class, Jocelyn “Josh” Apo was just 20 years old when he and 60 others crammed onto a makeshift boat and set out on a 17-day overseas trek to the United…
There’s a long road behind DakhaBrakha
DakhaBrakha has found the Holy Grail in world music. The Ukrainian band of multi-instrumentalists — Nina Garenetska, Olena Tsybulska, Iryna Kovalenko, and Marko Halanevych — performs traditional Ukrainian songs in nontraditional ways, making compelling tunes by stitching together its native folk melodies with a grab bag of unexpected styles from all over the globe. The…
THEATER | ‘Fun Home’
When it opened on Broadway in April 2015, “Fun Home” was already making history as the first musical to feature a lesbian protagonist. The production, which is an adaptation of the 2006 graphic novel of the same name by Alison Bechdel, chronicles the author’s relationship with her closeted gay father and her own coming out…
Feedback 11/15
We welcome your comments. Send them to themail@rochester-citynews.com or post them with articles on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com. Those of fewer than 350 words have a greater chance of being published; we edit selections for publication in print, and we don’t publish comments sent to other media. Lower poverty? We’ve found ways to do it On…
GOP budget would hurt urban revival efforts
As Republicans wrestle with tax reform, much of the public attention has been on things like corporate taxes, middle-income taxpayers, and deductions for mortgage interest and state and local taxes. Lurking in one of the reform proposals, though, is a change that would have a major impact on Rochester and many other cities: elimination of…
ART/TECH | Rochester Mini Maker Faire
The Rochester Mini Maker Faire returns this week for its fourth annual showcase of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness, spotlighting not just the shiny end results, but also the process and the learning along the way. The first Maker Faire was founded in 2006 in the San Francisco Bay Area by the editors of “Make:” magazine,…
Monroe Dems get a taste of victory
Monroe County Democrats can win countywide and suburban races after all. Todd Baxter is now sheriff-elect and will take over for from Republican Patrick O’Flynn come January. He’ll be the second Democrat in countywide office, joining County Clerk Adam Bello, who was elected a year ago. Democrats had some big wins across the country last…
Urban Action 11/15
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Ulrich discusses ‘Midwife’s Tale’ The University of Rochester’s Humanities Project will present “Reflections on Writing a Midwife’s Tale,” a lecture by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich on Friday, November 17. Ulrich is a history professor…
East students find that friendship is round
It’s just before 8 a.m. at East Lower School, and the hallways of the sprawling school are fairly quiet. East Lower is the junior high school the University of Rochester created at the former East High in 2015. About a dozen students in teacher Amanda Donovan’s sixth-grade class begin their day with a peace circle,…
Roy Moore, US culture, and the state of our politics
It’s good that these stories are making the news, but there’s a danger that they’ll skew public perception about sexual assault.
Dinolfo releases her 2018 budget
County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo’s 2018 budget is a bit of a knuckleball. Every year for the past several, as Dinolfo and her predecessor, Maggie Brooks, have prepared to release their budgets, advocates would ramp up efforts to pressure the execs into boosting funding for programs that help vulnerable children. Child care funding has been a…
Film review: ‘Lady Bird’
Movie audiences have recently gotten a number of great coming-of-age stories, and now “Lady Bird” takes a place at the top of that heap, delivering an unfailingly honest, hilarious, and warm-hearted depiction of growing up in California in the early aughts. Making her solo directing debut, actor Greta Gerwig tells the story of Christine McPherson…
Film review: ‘Murder on the Orient Express’
Director Kenneth Branagh attempts to reinvigorate the splashy, old-fashioned whodunit with “Murder on the Orient Express,” the latest adaptation of the classic Agatha Christie novel (Sidney Lumet’s 1974 version, starring Albert Finney, being the most famous). Branagh has crafted a lush, solidly made film, though it doesn’t otherwise do much to distinguish itself. While the…
