Week ahead: Events for the week of Monday, September 12
The seven-member Rochester Joint Schools Construction Board meets at 4:30 today (Monday, September 12). During the meeting, the board will re-take a vote on whether to include a Project Labor Agreement in the second phase of a hugely expensive overhaul of buildings in the city school district. The board previously voted against the PLA 4…
Assembly member Bill Nojay has died
Nojay was running for re-election and faced a primary challenge from Honeoye Falls Mayor Rick Milne. The election is Tuesday.
Film review: “The Innocents”
Inspired by true events, “The Innocents” is a somber tale of spirituality in crisis set in post-World War II Poland. As the film opens, Mathilde (Lou de Laâge), a female doctor with the French Red Cross, is beckoned by a desperate nun from the nearby village. Brought back to the nun’s convent, Mathilde finds one…
Film review: “Morris from America”
“Morris from America” is a sweet, coming-of-age story of an American teenager and his father trying to make a new life in Germany
Fringe Information
Get the run down on venues, tickets, parking, and the extras you should know about.
On the fiber fast lane
Monroe County and the City of Rochester are poised to hire a Denver-based firm to study their fiber networks and to help them figure out whether they could open the systems to outside users. Magellan Advisors has worked with several cities — from Riverside, California, to Hudson, Ohio, — to assess the state of their…
2016 Rochester Fringe Festival Headliners
STREB Celebrating its 30th anniversary, STREB is an experimental dance company created by choreographer Elizabeth Streb (a Rochester native), that has evolved into a daring and pulse-racing group of performers who do the impossible and make it look easy. Billed as a “fusion of slam dancing, wild action sport, and falling from height,” STREB celebrates…
Fight over schools project highlights divide
Questions over who got work on a hugely expensive project to overhaul Rochester’s aging school buildings have culminated in a lawsuit that some say threatens the whole deal. Politics, longstanding grudges, and racial tensions add fuel to the fire. The first phase of the $1.3 billion project surpassed hiring goals for women and people of…
A thoughtful slice
Comedian Patton Oswalt discusses philosophy, comedy, and how stand-up will always be his mainstay
Mad Hatter moves to new location and expands bakery
Mad Hatter Restaurant and Bakery, formerly known as Mad Hatter Tea Room and Café, has moved from its Webster location to the former French Quarter Café space at 176 South Goodman Street. The name and location are just a few of the changes that owner Kristina Dinino-Jeffords has made. The new location has enabled an…
CRITICS PICKS: Adam Lubitow
“Ruts! The Oregon Trail Experience” If you’re anything like me, you’ve got fond memories of whiling away the hours in your elementary school’s computer lab, avoiding homework and playing The Oregon Trail. Fording rivers, hunting for squirrels, and doing everything you could to avoid dying of dysentery; good times. So I’m hoping for a wagon…
FOLK | Turtle Hill Folk Festival
Heartfelt storytelling, talented musicians, and (crossing our fingers) beautiful weather, it’s enough to drive any folk fan wild. Golden Link Folk Singing Society will host its 45th Turtle Hill Folk Festival this weekend on the Rotary Sunshine Campus. The festival opens on Friday with performances by Robert Jones and Matt Watroba, Gathering Time, and headliner…
CRITICS PICKS: Leah Stacy
“The Kiss” One of Rochester’s most experimental theater companies, WallByrd Theatre Co., will present not one but two shows during this year’s Fringe. One is a theatrical reading of a new “Dracula” adaptation; the other is “The Kiss” by award-winning playwright Murray Watts. The two-person show centers on a mysterious meeting at a park bench.…
SPOKEN WORD | Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch’s career as a provocateur includes a succession of anarchistic bands: Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Beirut Slump, and 8 Eyed Spy. Lunch and her cohorts took the punk aesthetic to another level in the late 1970’s by embracing nihilism, and she was a key figure in the No Wave movement, a noisy, dissonant…
CRITICS PICKS: David Raymond
“Dangerous Theatre: Hallie Flanagan” As director of the government’s Federal Theatre Project, Hallie Flanagan gave opportunities to such politically minded artists as Orson Welles, Marc Blitzstein, and John Houseman, with results that were controversial and, to some, unpatriotic. “Dangerous Theatre” dramatizes Flanagan’s 1938 testimony to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee – a minatory slice of…
VOCAL | Perpetual Anticipation
The phrase “perpetual anticipation” is bandied about a good deal in the lyrics of the musical “A Little Night Music.” Now it is the name of a quintet of local singers which started out in a Pittsford Musicals production of that Stephen Sondheim work. Sopranos Myriah Marsh and Kristin Mellema, mezzo-soprano Allyn Van Dusen, and…
CRITICS PICKS: Frank De Blase
“Flatfoots, Floozies & Murder” Set in 1920’s Chicago and overflowing with hot music, gin mills, and gangsters, the audience is invited in to help Dick Tracey solve a murder — or add to the confusion. This is classic fun with the era starring as a character itself, interspersed with language and style that is beautifully…
ROCK | The Martin Barre
Ian Anderson may have provided the voice and distinctively breathy flute playing, but he wasn’t the only great musician in Jethro Tull. From the group’s second album on, Martin Barre contributed a guitar sound that ranged from a subtle Renaissance picking to epic rock ‘n’ roll. Barre and Anderson played together in Jethro Tull for…
CRITICS PICKS: Rebecca Rafferty
“Confessions of a Prairie B;+@h” As a pre-teen, Alison Arngrim excelled at exaggerated petulance in her role as “Nasty Nellie” Oleson on TV’s “Little House on the Prairie.” Now 54, Arngrim brings her one-woman show, “Confessions of a Prairie B;+@h,” based on her book of the same name, to Rochester’s Fringe. Through standup and multimedia…
ALT-GRASS | The Vine Brothers
The Vine Brothers use bluegrass as a root to loftier things. The instrumentation — mandolin, guitar, upright bass — is certainly a rootsy strain of wood and wire along with an old time approach to the music. But there is also the pervading lilt of Gypsy jazz along with soulful lyrics that skirt the twilight…
Four printmakers thrive ‘Under Pressure’
Last Friday’s opening of “Under Pressure” at Rochester Contemporary marks a new collaborative series between the art center and The Print Club of Rochester, taking place annually for at least three years. The four artists featured in this go were selected for the striking ways they each push the media specific to their work, says…
SOUL | Thunder Body
It’s hard to believe that despite the blood and love relations that runs between them, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad and Thunder Body have never shared a bill. But that’s the claim. Though they share an obvious love for the one drop, both bands have their own sound. Giant Panda has opened its embrace to…
DANCE | “Slightly Sinful”
Rochester City Ballet will open its 2016-17 season — its first full season under Artistic Director David Palmer — with “Slightly Sinful,” a three-piece program that includes renowned Flemish choreographer Danny Rosseel’s work of the same name. Rosseel, the former resident choreographer of the Royal Ballet of Flanders, set his “Slightly Sinful” to the music…
FOLK | Christine Lavin
When Christine Lavin played at CBGB many years ago, she asked the stage manager if it was safe to leave her purse in the dressing room while she was onstage. The stage manager caught his breath and after laughing his head off replied, “The only safe place for your purse during your set is right…
SPECIAL EVENT | Irondequoit Oktoberfest
Beer, dancing, and lederhosen: Oktoberfest, the 206-year-old German celebration, has found its way to Irondequoit for the 29th year. Across two weekends, Oktoberfest will celebrate German tradition — with a little Irish culture on Sunday, September 10. Seasonal beers from local breweries and national sponsors will be sold as attendees party under the big tent…
Pleistocene thinks outside of the blanket
Rochester’s Pleistocene is a band that embodies a simplistic beauty born of pop sweetness and a sonic wash of atmospheric curiosity. There’s an indie salute given between the lines as well. Katie Preston is at the heart of it all, writing and performing songs that possess a casual surrender of excess attitude and posture. It’s…
SPECIAL EVENT | Antiquarian Book Fair
The Rochester Area Booksellers Association — which strives to protect the role of books in the community and provide locals with quality collections — while host the 44th Antiquarian Book Fair this weekend. RABA and the RIT Press will join together for the third year to provide a space for booklovers to meet with dozens…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Louddy Jack”
Louddy Jack “Louddy Jack” Self-released cdbaby.com/artist/louddyjack There’s precious little about this band online. In fact, I couldn’t find a damn thing. Nada. So let’s look at what we do have, namely the band’s self-titled disc that came across my desk. The album is a classic, mid-tempo head-banger combining a serious bump and drive with plenty…
ART | “Units”
Pixilation in photography is generally considered undesirable in the age of high-definition everything. But the group of artists showcased in “Units,” currently on view at Visual Studies Workshop (31 Prince Street), flip the focus from the whole to consider the parts. Each employs the syntax of images — the pixels, frames, bits, dots, and grain…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Experience”
Ed Iseley “Experience” Self-released ediseleyexperience.com With a plaintive guitar approach and a beautiful baritone that could easily be suited for a lullaby, Rochester singer-songwriter Ed Iseley looms large with his new album, “Experience,” amid his own reflections and ruminations. And as serious as his lyrics spell each song’s story out, Iseley seems to start with…
Feedback 9/7
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. WWII vet:…
ART | “To Deafhood with Love”
Though Rochester has a considerable deaf population due to the presence of various institutions and resources (Rochester School for the Deaf and NTID, to name a couple), the deaf and hearing communities don’t interact as much as they arguably could. Help assuage that reality and learn more about the experiences particular to deaf people at…
Urban Action 9/7
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. Discussion on child care and the economy The Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce will present “Early Care and Learning is Economic Development,” a breakfast meeting and discussion at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, September…
VIDEO: In the Studio with Wendell Castle
While Wendell Castle has incorporated modern technology into making his sculptural furniture, the storied artist still starts with pencil and paper. Short film by Alex Freeman.
Rochester Fringe Festival 2016: Preview
With more than 500 performances taking place Thursday, September 15, through Saturday, September 24, there’s a lot to take in. We’ll help you get started.
Housing dispute prompts EMMA revolt
The East Main, Mustard, and Atlantic Avenue Neighborhood Association has pulled out of a major neighborhood revitalization program because of a disagreement over a planned $17 million housing project on East Main Street. Connected Communities, Inc. is a recently formed nonprofit whose primary mission is to steer revitalization of the EMMA and Beechwood neighborhoods; both…
A depressing campaign nears its bitter end
Americans need to find a way to heal the divisions in this diverse and bitterly divided country.
Theater review: “Assassins” at Blackfriars
There really isn’t a moral to the story. And it doesn’t need one. “Assassins” is part history lesson, part black comedy, and wholly enjoyable.
Three upcoming events stretch animation’s possibilities
Despite practically a hundred years of evidence to the contrary, animation is still burdened with a reputation for being “kids’ stuff,” simple cartoons meant to keep children occupied and out of their parents’ hair for a couple hours. But anyone who has bothered to broaden their definition beyond the latest mainstream release from Disney or…
Photography great Nathan Lyons has died
Internationally renowned photographer, curator, educator, author, and editor Nathan Lyons died Wednesday after succumbing to pneumonia. He was 86. Throughout his life, Lyons made enormous contributions to photography as well as to the discussion surrounding the medium. He exhibited his work extensively, and his art is collected by numerous institutions around the world. He is…
