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NecronomiCITY News
Welcome, our dear CITY readers, to the terrifying conclusion of Best of Rochester 2017
Cady McClain wants women to see themselves in film
The High Falls Film Festival kicks off this Thursday, celebrating its 16th year of spotlighting women in film. On opening night, the festival will screen “Seeing is Believing: Women Direct,” Cady McClain’s documentary about the experiences of female filmmakers. Through interviews with several notable women directors, McClain explores the challenges they face thriving in a…
Classical review: Pegasus marks Monteverdi’s 450th
Pegasus Early Music kicked off its 2017-18 concert season in grand style on Sunday, with a program featuring the madrigals and sacred song settings of Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi — widely considered the father of opera — marking his 450th birth year. The concert also featured instrumental music by his contemporaries Dario Castello, Biagio Marini,…
Round 2 for city voters in the race for mayor and Council
The Monroe County sheriff’s seat is on the ballot today, as are a slew of suburban seats and a question about whether New York should have a constitutional convention. View this article for links to the rest of CITY’s election coverage.
Best Answers 2017
Off-the-cuff, sometimes off-color responses to our Best of Rochester 2017 Primary Ballot
THEATER | ‘Dracula’
On the surface, Bram Stoker’s gothic horror “Dracula” presents a battle between good and evil. But shades of gray lurk and tug at the mind — the damned vampire is a seductive creature if a terrifyingly alien one, and the book is rife with moralizing ideas about women’s purity. In the 120 years since Stoker…
Best Arts & Entertainment 2017
Best Local Original Band Joywave. @joywavemusic; joywavemusic.com Runners up: Danielle Ponder and the Tomorrow People | Harmonica Lewinski | Junkyardfieldtrip Best Local Solo Musician Teagan Ward. facebook.com/teaganwardmusic; teaganward.com Runners up: Cammy Enaharo | Roger Kuhn | Nick LeDuc Best Local Hip-Hop Act Tugboat. facebook.com/theofficialtugboat Runners up: Ishmael Raps | Level 7 Experience | MdotCoop Best…
ART | ‘Tree Hugs’
Pen and ink artist Kristina Hutch Matthews’ lovely new body of work depicts anthropomorphized arbor. At a glance the finely detailed illustrations appear to be portraits of gnarled and knotty trees, but they quickly become dryads, folding their limbs around one another in tender embraces, firmly rooted and adorned by vine diadems, flowers, and leaves.…
FUNK | Big Mean Sound Machine
Big Mean Sound Machine is back for its yearly Halloween costume bash, this time themed as “Cirque Du Big Mean.” The larger-than-life, instrumental band is artfully designed with multi-genre facets to keep the moving body going. In one measure, you’re dancing to Afrobeat; at the next, you’re swinging to Funk or Latin groove. This year,…
THEATER | Festival of New Theatre
Geva’s annual Festival of New Theatre is a good opportunity for Rochester theater lovers to get a peek behind the playwright’s and actor’s processes, and have a first look at new works — and maybe even contribute to a play’s development. Running through Sunday, November 5, FONT 2017 will host play readings, playwright discussions, a…
CLASSICAL | Greece Symphony Orchestra
This Sunday, the Greece Symphony Orchestra will be joined by not one, but two soloists in a wide-ranging concert of music that boasts broad appeal. Violinist Anyango Yarbo-Davenport (pictured), an Eastman School of Music alum, will be the headliner, playing Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. While that performance alone would merit attention, the program will also…
THEATER | ‘Echoes’
N. Richard Nash’s “Echoes” is a fairly bare production: The story is written for three actors and usually performed with meager setting. That stripped-down nature, though, prompts the audience — along with its characters — to question the reality and illusion within the play. A young man and woman are confined to an asylum, and…
METAL | Tyranitar
Self-proclaimed “bardic metal” trio Tyranitar sources its songwriting material from the most “metal” subject there is: world history. Sure, it’s hard not to love metal’s undying affinity for stoned wizards and metaphysical Satanism, but those topics can also be relatively low-hanging fruit from a creative standpoint. With lo-fi black metal theatrics shot through with folk…
Album review: ‘Wildfire’
Madeleine McQueen “Wildfire” Self-released madeleinemcqueen.com Singer-songwriter Madeleine McQueen packs quite a wonderful wallop on her newest EP release, “Wildfire.” You can hear her strength and resolve over the disc’s entirety. McQueen has a heartbreaking belt and sustain, and here she sings spot-on and flexibly gentle with a voice that first caught me completely off guard…
JAZZ | ‘A Century of Jazz’
Known for her interpretations of the Great American Songbook, Rachelle Fleming (pictured) has performed with Fred Hersch, Shelly Berg, and Cuban ensemble Tiempo Libre. On Sunday night, Fleming joins pianist Tony Caramia as special guest for “A Century of Jazz: Celebrating the 100th Birthdays of Jazz Icons.” Turns out 1917 was a banner year for…
WORLD MUSIC | Sandcatchers
World Music has produced some unlikely and wonderful instrumental marriages, but few are as strange and beautiful as Yoshie Fruchter’s oud and Myk Freedman’s lap steel guitar. Add bassist Michael Bates and drummer Tim Keiper and you’ve got Sandcatchers. The band couldn’t be any tighter, and bandleader Fruchter’s tunes are as adventurous as they are…
Album review: ‘Around Your Neck’
Pink Elephant “Around Your Neck” Self-released pinkelephant.bandcamp.com Do you remember when the word “indie” meant independent of limits and associations and not a shortcut for calling something “weird”? If you don’t, then please let Rochester’s Pink Elephant explain by way of its new album, “Around Your Neck.” With just the right amount of chaos and…
SPECIAL EVENT | ‘Heroes: A Video Game Symphony’
A good soundtrack is key to a good video game — and just like in film, when a score is great, it can easily stand alone and is immediately recognizable. The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, over the last few seasons, has shown how well great video game soundtracks translate to the stage, with concerts tackling the…
Cthulhu and Krampus and Kaiju, oh my
When Matt Roberts proposed a monster-themed group show to some of his art homies, “unadulterated overkill” was the aesthetic directive he gave them. The resulting exhibit is a week-long pop-up show at Makers Gallery and Studio Space. The show is bookended by an opening party, which took place last Saturday, and a closing reception and…
Forty years on, The Dead Boys still loud and snotty
The late-1970’s was huge for punk as it raged against corporate rock and its own conception, and was blasted into the mainstream. Bands like Iggy and the Stooges, the New York Dolls, and the Ramones were getting picked up by major record labels, and the media began to notice. Amid a year of seminal album…
Feedback 10/25
Send comments to themail@rochester-citynews.com or post them on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com. We edit selections for publication in print, and we don’t publish comments sent to other media. Politics, sports, and the flag The NFL’s national anthem demonstrations have proved, once again, that politics and sports are often inseparable. In 1936, Adolf Hitler saw the Olympic…
Were you there? Photos from the 2017 Best of Rochester party
Photobooth provided by BreakThrough Entertainment
Urban Action 10/25
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Exploring ties between Jews and Muslims Nazareth College will present “Jewish and Muslim Relations: Past, Present, and Future,” a talk by Reuven Firestone, on Thursday, October 26. Firestone, a professor at Hebrew Union…
Best Goods & Services 2017
Best Bike Shop Park Ave Bike Shop. 600 Jay Scutti Boulevard, 427-2110; 3400 Monroe Avenue, 381-3080. parkavebike.com Runners up: Full Moon Vista | Tryon Bike | Towpath Bike Best Fitness Trainer Molly Flaherty at M/Body. 1048 University Avenue. 434-2608; mbodyrochester.com Runners up: Ethan Jamison (Lion & Luxe) | Michelle Krenzer (The Physical Forum) | Matthew…
Public can learn about bus study
Regional Transit Service is holding a public information session on its Reimaging RTS initiative at 6 p.m. Wednesday, October 25, at the SUNY Brockport MetroCenter, 55 St. Paul Street.
Best Local Color 2017
Best Local Activist Group Gay Alliance of Genesee Valley (now the Out Alliance). 100 College Avenue. 244-8640; gayalliance.org Runners up: B.L.A.C.K. | Metro Justice | Rochester Food Not Bombs Best Source of Rochester Pride Wegmans. @wegmans; wegmans.com Runners up: George Eastman Museum | Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley | Red Wings | Susan B.…
Reimagining Charlotte
Even plenty of sunshine and unseasonably warm weather wasn’t enough to draw more than a dozen or so people to Ontario Beach Park in Charlotte during a recent afternoon. Seagulls well outnumbered cars in the Port of Rochester’s huge parking lot. And that’s just fine with some people who live and spend time there. The…
Best Food & Drink 2017
Best Pizza Pontillo’s Pizzeria. Many area locations. pontillospizza.com Runners up: Mark’s Pizzeria | The Pizza Stop | Salvatore’s Best Burger Bill Gray’s. Many area locations. billgrays.com Runners up: The Gate House | Restaurant Good Luck | Swillburger Best Barbecue Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. 99 Court Street. 325-7090; dinosaurbarbque.com Runners up: Good Smoke | Sticky Lips | Texas…
ROCK | Hedersleben
I hated this band the minute I first heard it. Yup, hated it. Hedersleben was all prog-rock, opaque confusion; thinking man’s rock. It was worse than Emerson, Lake and Palmer. But I kept listening and was pleasantly surprised as the band ramped up the energy into Edgar Winter territory. It was then that I went…
Best Nightlife 2017
Best New Bar/Club Radio Social. 20 Carlson Road. 244-1484; radio-social.com Runners up: Comedy @ the Carlson | Silk District Pub | WhichCraft Brews Best Bar for Beer Tap and Mallet. 381 Gregory Street. 473-0503; tapandmallet.com Runners up: MacGregor’s Grill & Tap Room | The Old Toad | Stoneyard American Beer Hall & Grill | Three…
Passions for coffee and beer collide at Fifth Frame
In bowling, the fifth frame is commonly referred to as the beer frame; whoever has the lowest score buys the next round. When Jon Mervine, Wade Reed, and Jarred Foster were looking for a name for a new venture combining their passions for coffee and beer, the name Fifth Frame Brewing Co. seemed like a…
Readers’ Picks 2017
During our primary ballot, we asked, “What is your favorite thing in Rochester and why?” and we got a lot of great answers. Here are our top five reader submissions. “My favorite thing is Wegmans. I moved back here from Denver to be near Wegmans. I left my boyfriend for Wegmans.” “Rexpo: Species diversity, they…
BLUEGRASS | Blind Owl Band
The Saranac Lake-based Blind Owl Band is a “freight train Adirondack string” band of four long-haired, bearded mountain men. The instrumentation is wildly aggressive and lively, while the vocals tend to have an old-timey rasp. With three albums under its belt — “Rabble Rousing,” “This Train We Ride is Made of Wood & Steel,” and the…
Critics’ Picks 2017
Best locally created national sensation Bru-Bag Imagine the love-child of beer pong and cornhole and you’ve got Bru-Bag. While it sounds like something you’d get from a quirky Amazon seller, it’s actually made in Rochester by two laid-back guys. The “classic” set includes two game boards, two sets of bags, a carrying bag, and a…
Ah, Amazon
Do we want Amazon to build its new headquarters here?
Film review: ‘The Florida Project’
Sean Baker’s latest film is a sometimes funny and often sad story set among the “hidden homeless” of Orlando, Florida, as seen through the eyes of a 6-year-old.
Film review: ‘Breathe’
“Breathe” is a breezy period romance recounting the true story of plucky Brit Robin Cavendish, who at 28 was stricken with Polio, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe on his own.
Theater review: ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’
The reinstated Greece Theatre Company stages a next-level production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” at the Lyric Theatre
