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Rochester Fringe Festival 2015: Preview
Rochester Fringe Festival 2015: Preview
Dems want Monroe County to ban the beads
Democrats in the Monroe County Legislature want to ban the sale of personal care products containing microbeads within Monroe County. Legislator Dorothy Styk of Perinton introduced the legislation, which will be considered by the Legislature’s Agenda/Charter Committee on September 30. Erie County has passed similar legislation, and Albany and Chautauqua counties are considering bans of…
Latin music station coming to Rochester
Ibero-American Action League will launch the first 24-hour Latino-operated radio station in Upstate New York. WEPL 97.1 FM will make its first Spanish language broadcast sometime in November, says Gladys Pedraza Burgos, Ibero’s COO. WEPL’s format will lean heavily on Latin Tropical – salsa, merengue, bachata — and Latin pop to reflect the listening interests…
To improve schools, de Blasio goes after parents
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio may have borrowed from Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s playbook. The mayor, who controls the nation’s largest school district, recently organized a door-knocking campaign. But unlike Vargas, who has organized routine searches for chronically absent students, de Blasio’s is aimed at parents who are not engaged with their…
Week Ahead: Events for the week of Monday, September 14
The Rochester People’s Climate Coalition and the League of Women voters will hold a candidate forum on climate change from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, September 16, at the Harley School, 1981 Clover Street in Brighton. The forum is open to candidates for Monroe County executive, County Legislature, Rochester City Council, and town…
The City Seen: September 11-13
Each weekend, City Newspaper will venture out of the office and onto the streets to capture a few of Rochester’s many events. And on Monday, we will give you a recap on what we have seen firsthand. Last Friday, City stopped by the People’s Party at Richmond’s Tavern for music, art, and spoken word. Saturday…
Incumbents, endorsed candidates win Dem primaries
Last night was a good night for incumbents and, for the most part, the Democratic and Republican parties’ endorsed candidates.
Finger Lakes council backs projects
The proceedings of the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council have, over the past few months, been a little confusing. It was bound to happen: the council has been working on several different-but-intertwined plans and efforts meant to guide state investment in the region. Each year, the council develops a list of priority economic and…
Renée Fleming named ESM Distinguished Visiting Artist
The Eastman School of Music announced today that award-winning soprano Renée Fleming has been appointed a Distinguished Visiting Artist at the school. As a Distinguished Visiting Artist, Fleming will offer master classes, coaching sessions, lessons, and open talks and presentations for the students on a recurring basis beginning this academic year. Fleming received her Master…
Latinos’ growing influence
Learning how to turn growing Latino consumer and political power into action is the main goal of the annual “Upstate Latino Summit,” which is being held in Rochester this year on Wednesday, September 16. The one-day event of workshops and panel discussions is expected to draw Latino leaders from around the state to the Rochester…
FOLK | Honor Finnegan
What do you get when you mix a voice that is part blues depth and part angelic coo? Honor Finnegan. She’s been to Broadway, she’s been to Ireland, and now she and her ukulele live in the Big Apple. Finnegan sings sweet and plain with gentle humor. Lullabies for those who are awake. Honor Finnegan…
Solar city
The largest solar power system in the City of Rochester is tucked unobtrusively behind the Bausch + Lomb building on North Goodman Street. The 3,600 glass-and-metal panels at the corner of Northland Avenue and Lyceum Street sit at the end of a quiet neighborhood and are partially shielded from view. The Bausch + Lomb system…
ROCK | Restorations
Restorations are masters of balance. Loud, guitars-at-11 anthems are matched by vulnerability and big-hearted ideas; lead singer Jon Loudon’s gravelly voice wagers between sentimental softness and yelling with power; and the band borrows from some of the best ideas in mid-2000’s punk while crafting a rock sound that’s unique. There’s a pleasant nostalgia to the…
Roots in Pittsford
“Organic.” “Local.” “Sustainable.” There are certain buzz words that pop up for pretty much every restaurant that opens these days.
POP | Outasight
Outasight — the moniker of singer-songwriter Richard Andrew — floats through hip-hop, dance, and top-40-style exuberance without a second-thought. There’s a tinge of classic soul to Outsight’s grand pop, and a grandness to Outsight’s sound. These are songs that sound like they should be on big stages with a blinding light show. Outasight plays Wednesday,…
Crossing the edge
Edge of Jupiter’s first show was opening for Wrist Rocket in 1999. Its last show was in Boston in 2013; after a solid run, Guy Higgins, the band’s leader, had put the Edge of Jupiter to rest. However, a little over a year ago, Higgins went in to the studio to demo ideas with Chris…
Inside the fringe
Rochester has embraced its fringe side. Now in its fourth year, the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival has grown to be one of the largest multi-arts festivals in New York State, and one of the best-attended fringe festivals in the nation. Debuting in 2012, the festival drew more than 32,000 attendees across 5 days. The…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Young & Vain Vol. 2”
MD Woods “Young & Vain Vol. 2” Self-released mdwoods.bandcamp.com For an exceedingly earnest album, MD Woods’s latest EP, “Young & Vain Vol. 2,” starts on an ironic note. Lead singer Nick Moore sounds neither young nor vain when he sings, “And I don’t believe in fate, I don’t believe there’s just that one / But…
2015 Fringe Festival Headliners
Grounded Aerial To call Grounded Aerial just a dance performance is akin to referring to a Lamborghini as just “a car,” or Mount Everest as “big.” It may certainly be technically accurate, but at the same time, those descriptions barely scratch the surface. Featuring performers formerly of STOMP, Cirque du Soleil, Blue Man Group, Pilobolus,…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Big Ditch”
Big Ditch “Big Ditch” Ditch Digger Records reverbnation.com/bigditch The children, they ask me every now and then: “Frank, is there a Rochester sound?” To which I respond, after I realize they were speaking to me: “There was.” Nowadays, it’s all over the map with a multitudinous melting pot of genres, sub genres, and a sort…
Downton downsized
With its multitude of characters and intricate plot lines, Downton Abbey can sometimes be difficult to follow. But when Luke Kempner takes the appropriately august Kilbourn Hall stage to perform “Upside Downton,” you will only have to focus on one man. Of course it’s not quite that simple. Mr. Carson, Lady Mary, Mrs. Hughes, the…
Spatial preoccupations
Rochester Contemporary worked with The Memorial Art Gallery and Robert Henry Contemporary to present “Brooklyn Bridge,” a show connecting Rochester audiences with the work of five New York-based emerging artists. “The works in the exhibition range from 9-foot-tall sculptures to fine, delicate drawings, yet are aesthetically connected and linked,” says Bleu Cease, RoCo executive director.…
CRITICS PICKS: Adam Lubitow
2015 RIT Student Honors Show Don’t be intimidated by the five-hour chunk of time the 2015 RIT Student Honors Show takes up on the Fringe schedule. Presenting outstanding short films from both graduate and undergraduate students of the RIT Film and Animation program, it’s a long show, but absolutely worth it. Plus, since the films…
ART | “Mythological Taxidermy Show”
Brenda Killackey-Jones creates faux taxidermy sculptures of cryptozoological marvels. Her menagerie includes the mounted heads of dragons, werewolves, and yetis; their fierce faces made from fur, foam, fabric, resin, clay, glass, and wood. Through Halloween, you can check out her handiwork at Nox (302 North Goodman Street, in Village Gate). The small grouping of her…
CRITICS PICKS: Casey Carlson
BIODANCE Missy Pfohl Smith’s Rochester-based company BIODANCE returns for its fourth season at Fringe with “BIO/DANCE & Social Justice,” a program that examines a diversity of inequality and justice in today’s world. Three of the pieces are from national guest artists; one is from Smith. Her piece is part of a program she has been…
COMEDY | Andrew Dice Clay
Long before Jersey Shore, there was Andrew Dice Clay. Best known for his crass caricature of a macho Italian-American greaser, Clay earned the ire of women’s rights groups with his satirical, sexist stand-up and has historically been banned from TV and radio shows for his unrelentingly filthy mouth. In 1987, Rodney Dangerfield introduced this chain-smoking,…
CRITICS PICKS: Daniel J. Kushner
Daniel J. Kushner Matt Witten, percussion — “Himmels-Tür” Twentieth-century composer Karlheinz Stockhausen was a titan of the avant-garde, and his willingness to unabashedly explore sounds while pushing the boundaries of concert music is what makes his iconic compositions endure. Now Rochester music lovers will be able to hear his piece “Himmels-Tür” — “Heaven’s Door” —…
ART | Clothesline Festival
Almost like a kickoff party to the Rochester arts community’s 2015-16 season, the Clothesline Festival will fill the Memorial Art Gallery’s 14-acre ground with more than 400 artists. The festival is Rochester’s largest fine art and crafts festival, and will mark 58 years this weekend. Along with artists selling their works, Saturday will feature performances…
CRITICS PICKS: Rebecca Rafferty
Rebecca Rafferty “Conscience” When Rochester activist Emily Good earned international attention after her 2011 arrest (for filming a cop during a traffic stop), not many Rochesterians realized that Good comes from deep socially-conscious stock. During the Vietnam War, her father, Bob Good, was charged with raiding a Camden, New Jersey, draft board as a member…
SPECIAL EVENT | Roc-Con
This year is the 5th anniversary of Roc-Con, Rochester’s own comic and pop culture convention. This year’s festival will take place Friday, September 11, through Sunday, September 13, at Kodak Theatre on the Ridge (200 West Ridge Road). The location offers four floors of sci-fi, comic book, gaming, and anime fun, with vendors, authors, artists,…
CRITICS PICKS: Frank DeBlase
1916 Like its Rochester brethren, The Sisters of Murphy and the much-missed Flour City Knuckleheads,1916 proudly celebrates its Irish with a raised fist and a raised pint. The band’s songs are exuberant punk rock-fueled bits of sonic shrapnel, as they deliver the goods fast and loose. It’s raunchy, loud fun soaked in sweat and beer…
SPECIAL EVENT | Irondequoit Oktoberfest
The 28th Irondequoit Oktoberfest will take up two weekends at Camp Eastman (1558 Lake Shore Boulevard, Irondequoit): Friday, September 11, and Sunday, September 12, and September 18 and September 19. Along with breweries pouring their Oktoberfest beers and fall seasonals, Hilby, the “skinny German juggling boy,” and an all-female German beer hall band, Die Bayrische…
VOCAL | Megan Hilty
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2015-16 Pops series opens in style when Broadway actress Megan Hilty takes the stage with the orchestra — led by Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik. Hilty first garnered attention when, while serving as a standby for Glinda in Stephen Schwartz’s hit musical “Wicked,” she made her Broadway debut performing alongside Idina…
SPECIAL EVENT | Rochester Craft Beverage Trail Event
The Rochester Craft Beverage Trail, a collection of the region’s craft breweries, distilleries, and wineries, will host its first tasting event on Saturday, September 12. The event, at Sahlen’s Stadium, will give attendees the opportunity to taste products made by some of the trail’s participants, such as Black Button Distilling, Rohrbach, Roc Brewing, Iron Smoke…
METAL | Road to Knotfest
This weekend at Water Street Music Hall, local metal bands will fight for a chance to melt faces at the annual Knotfest music festival in San Bernadino, California. In the two-day event, put on by The Entertainment Collective, more than 15 bands — including Voice of Valor, Beneath Hell’s Sky, Unwill, Black Magic, After Earth,…
Feedback 9/9
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. Rochester lacks…
FOLK | Turtle Hill Folk Festival
The Golden Link Folk Singing Society will host 3 days of concerts and workshops this weekend, as well as jammin’, dancin’ and eatin’. Maria Gillard, Hey Mavis, and John Kirk & Trish Miller will pluck and croon Friday night and through the weekend. The event also features a New Voices Emerging Artists stage, showcasing the…
Urban Action 9/9
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 Rochester’s economy The Rochester Downtown Development Corporation will present “State of Rochester’s Economy,” a panel discussion and luncheon on Tuesday, September 22. Speakers include Gary Keith, vice president of M&T Bank;…
PUNK | Goddamn Gallows
I love coming up with new, mixed-up, mashed-up ways to describe a band’s sound like, say, “hobobilly.” Now I didn’t come up with this one, the band did, but it’s fairly accurate when describing the uber-transient, forever transplanted road dogs in Goddamn Gallows. This band comes on like a hobo camp overrun with rabies (that…
Waiting for Hillary – and worrying about her chances
Many voters want someone they can trust. And poll after poll says this is Hillary Clinton’s biggest handicap.
Theater Review: “A Few Good Men” at Blackfriars
A close look
Film Review: “The Look of Silence”
In 2012’s Oscar-nominated "The Act of Killing,” documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer gave audiences a troubling, indelible glimpse into the depths of man’s capacity for evil. In 1965 Indonesia, a military coup led to genocide, as anyone opposed to the new regime was accused of being a communist and immediately put to death. All told, more…
Film Review: “Jimmy’s Hall”
Based on a true story, the charmingly old-fashioned period drama “Jimmy’s Hall” chronicles the life of amiable political agitator Jimmy Gralton (Barry Ward), whose individualist beliefs got him deported from Ireland in the 1930’s without benefit of a trial. Returning to his homeland after 10 years in America, Gralton reopens the community center he helped…
Film Review: “Meru”
I understand the idea of mountain climbing; the draw of an incredible once-in-a-lifetime view, the desire to go where only a select few have gone before, and the admirable need to push oneself to the limits in order to see what’s possible. But the practicalities of the sport (and the unimaginably high risk of injury…
Film Review: “A Walk in the Woods”
Adapted from travel writer Bill Bryson’s 1998 memoir, “A Walk in the Woods” follows Bryson (Robert Redford) as he teams up with his estranged buddy, Stephen Katz (Nick Nolte), to hike the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail. Along the way, the pair reconnect, meet colorful characters, and learn some vaguely life-affirming lessons about nature and getting older.…
