Cover Story
On the rise and shining
Each year, CITY spotlights four young artists who are creating engaging work but are still in the early years of their artistic careers. Our 2018 selections are Will Cornfield, G. E. DeGroat, Ashley Ludwig, and Alexandria Mockbee.
City presents options for Highland’s reservoir
City officials are again trying to decide whether they need to cover the reservoirs at Highland and Cobbs Hill Parks, and they held the first of a series of public workshops on Highland on Monday night. The reservoirs are a popular visual feature of both parks, but the water in them is part o f…
Golisano cancels funding for RBTL theater
[UPDATED] Philanthropist Tom Golisano has canceled his pledge of $25 million for a new theater for the Rochester Broadway Theatre League. Golisano announced the change in a press release this morning. “I originally made this decision to support the Performing Arts Center in 2016,” he said in the statement. “Now two years later, the project…
ROCK | Bob Dylan
Folk icon Bob Dylan is a genre unto himself. As a prolific songwriter, he’s been hailed as the voice of a generation and its counterculture for more than five decades. Songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin'” were anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements in the 1960’s and…
INDIE FOLK | Amigo The Devil
Mixing heavy metal concepts and traditional folk instrumentation, Danny Kiranos’s solo project Amigo The Devil has been surprising audiences with genre-bending brutality since its debut release in 2010. Amigo The Devil paints dark pictures about love with gory imagery and situational irony, wrangling up the essence of Texas country heat in its instrumentation. Kiranos tells…
METAL | Cannibal Corpse
Cannibal Corpse’s music has been banned in Australia, banned in Germany, and banned in Russia for its gruesome content and gory cover art. Still, Cannibal Corpse is the top-selling death metal band of all time, with two million combined sales of all its albums. Originally from Buffalo and now based in Tampa, Florida, Cannibal Corpse…
OLD-TIME JAZZ | Useless Cans
Useless Cans are a beautiful and fun – “funiful” – Django-esque, swing-folk-punk outfit from the Albany area, where there aren’t a lot of Django-esque, swing-folk-punk outfits running about. The sound is quirky and endearing, summoning 1920’s jazz as if around a campfire. Just ask Matilda: it’s perfect for waltzing with your loved one, or the…
ART | ‘Face It’
Ceramic artist Nancy Valle will this month open her Anderson Alley studio to two other artists. The exhibition “Face it!” features works from John Kosboth and Richard Harvey, who have each used portraiture to delve into their emotional responses to our current social and political atmosphere. Kosboth digitally manipulates the photographic medium to challenge the…
THEATER | ‘Bravura’
You might be familiar with Rochester’s Hochstein School of Music & Dance, but what do you know about its namesake? Born in 1892 to Jewish immigrants, David Hochstein grew up on Joseph Avenue and graduated from East High School. Considered a violin prodigy, Emily Sibley Watson and George Eastman were patrons to his education. And…
Feedback 11/7
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. Taking offense:…
Urban Action 11/7
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Post-election assessing Rochester NOW, Indivisible Rochester, and Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York, as well as individual activists, will hold “Now What? A Post-Midterm Election Strategy Session,” on Thursday, November 8.…
Residents of troubled Thurston Road complex get a win
The owner of a beleaguered low-income apartment complex on Thurston Road has agreed not to force out any residents for now. Residents and housing activists have been vocal about poor conditions at 447 Thurston Road and have been pushing for Thurston Road Realty to make major repairs.
RIT center focuses on gun violence and retaliation
Since 2000 there have been nearly 3,000 shootings in Rochester, resulting in about 3,655 shooting victims. And only 20 percent of the shootings resulted in an arrest, according to police records. Rochester’s shooting rate is not dramatically different from other cities, says Irshad Altheimer, director of the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Public Safety…
KIDS | Diary of a Worm, a Spider, and a Fly
TYKEs (Theatre Young Kids Enjoy) opens its 15th season this week with the musical “Diary of a Worm, a Spider and a Fly.” Based on the clever, colorful New York Times best-selling book series by Doreen Cronin and The New Yorker cover illustrator Harry Bliss, the family-friendly performance is recommended for kids age 3 and…
FILM | ‘House of Stronzo’
Rochester-based filmmaker Matt White’s new documentary, “House of Stronzo,” tells the story of Pete Cecere, a devout collector of folk and outsider art from the Americas. Cerere has spent more than 50 years amassing more than 5,000 pieces of art, all of which he stores in his home, dubbed “House of Stronzo.” The fate of…
ART | ‘Grounded’
“Grounded,” an exhibit featuring the work of regional artists Helen Santelli and Virginia Cassetta, opens this week at Nu Movement Gallery. Each artist creates abstract landscapes with mixed media including oils, pastels, wax, and encaustics. In keeping with the holistic wellness goals of Nu Movement, the work looks to explore a deeper spiritual understanding through…
JAZZ | Joe Policastro Trio
No one bridges the worlds of pop and jazz better than the Joe Policastro Trio. According to Policastro, the band plays music for listeners who are “jazz-curious.” Its repertoire couldn’t be more eclectic: Prince’s “1999,” Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” “America,” from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” the theme music from “Twin Peaks,” and more. The…
CLASSICAL | RPO’s ‘Hungarian Harmonies’
Ever since Ahrim Kim became principal cellist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in 2015, she has been a leading light, helping to craft the ensemble’s cohesive sound. This Thursday and Saturday, Kim will seize the spotlight when she performs as soloist in the RPO’s performance of Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A Minor. Led by…
RBTL by the river: the next big thing
Moving RBTL’s theater from Parcel 5 to the riverside solves some problems, opens up new opportunities, and raises questions.
Flavors of the world at Atlas Eats
The Irondequoit restaurant’s every-changing, global cuisine-focused menu makes it a great spot for a regular date night. Atlas Eats is currently serving Mexican-inspired fare, and will soon switch to an Autumn in New England theme.
Album review: ‘That Was Then…This Is Wow!’
The 8 Balls Youngstown ‘That Was Then…This Is Wow!’ Self-released cdbaby.com/cd/8ballsyoungstown I usually stick to Rochester bands when reviewing records, but I liked this CD from The 8 Balls Youngstown so much that I simply had to pull on your coat for a minute. The 8 Balls Youngstown formed in the beginning of the 1980’s…
Review: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
The film boasts a wonderful lead performance from Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, but its clichéd narrative and sloppy, safe storytelling let down the larger-than-life figure at its center.
LITERATURE | Cornelius Eady
Rochester native and award winning poet and musician Cornelius Eady is now based in Southampton, New York, where he teaches poetry in the MFA program at Stony Brook University. He has produced eight volumes of poetry, won the 1985 Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and has been a finalist for both…
Album review: ‘Little Big’
Aaron Parks ‘Little Big’ Ropeadope aaronparks.com In the 10 years since his highly acclaimed debut album, “Invisible Cinema,” pianist Aaron Parks has recorded a few more CD’s, but he’s spent most of his playing time serving as a sideman for Kurt Rosenwinkel, Lage Lund, and many others. In these settings, he has always enhanced the…
Theater review: ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’
Wallbyrd Theatre Co. departs from its usual Shakespearean-themed offerings with Edward Albee’s play about a frustrated middle-aged couple.
Interview: Josh Groban
Josh Groban has been a household name in music for 15 years. In a recent phone interview, Groban talked about his vocal sound and delivery, his new album “Bridges,” and how he broke free from a constricting public image.
Film review: ‘The Happy Prince’
Chronicling the tragic last years in the life of Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, the melancholy biopic is poignant in its depiction of a gay life cut down by the whims of “polite society.”
