Is physical media dead? Or is it having a comeback? If the latter is the case, let’s have more unusual physical forms, like the guitar-shaped USB drive on which you can find the Suen-Kam Guitar Duo’s debut album, “Between Strings.” Guitarists Shiuen-Huang Suen and Kenneth Kam met through the Eastman School of Music as graduate […]
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Posted inMusic
REVIEW | ‘Montréal’ by The Thriffs
Until recently, Rochester band The Thriffs went by a more typical tag: The Thrifts. But due to the existence of another band of the same name, this moody yet energetic quartet modified its name. The change-up suits the music, a rare blend of insular post-punk infused with blasts of extroverted personality. On The Thriffs’ debut […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Local arts organizations lost federal funding in 2025. What’s next?
Out of the many uses for the letterpress machines at Flower City Arts Center, this year has seen a rise in protest posters. The Trump administration’s myriad executive orders, immigration crackdowns and weaponization of the Department of Justice have galvanized artists and other community members to push back. Executive director Kristin Rapp said the machines […]
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Macaulay Culkin, the original meme, embraces his ‘Home Alone’ roots
Few people can lay claim to being a meme before the term reached widespread usage. After all, what did a meme in 1990 even look like? The answer is Macaulay Culkin. As a nine-year-old boy, he effectively conquered the world when the unusual yet heartwarming holiday film “Home Alone” reached major global commercial success. There […]
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REVIEW | ‘Happy Dreamy’ by Painless Painless
The Rochester band channels decades of indie rock on two laid-back EPs.
Posted inMusic
REVIEW | ‘Flight Manifest’ by Einstein’s Dreams
‘Environmental indie-folk’ gets imbued with the power of flight.
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REVIEW | ‘Yin’ by Siena Rose
The artist’s ethereal dreamscape was written in Rochester and recorded in one live performance.
Posted inMusic
Laraaji transforms Asbury First church into an ambient wonderland
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture, as the saying occasionally attributed to visionary artist Brian Eno goes. But what about a performance that centers the venue itself almost as much as the sounds? That’s half the fun of the concert series called Ambient Church. The shows blend live audio with highly ornate lighting […]
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REVIEW | ‘Works for Piano Trio by Schubert & Rihm’ by Trio Brontë
This international trio takes its name from the literary sisters, inspired by their passion for fervent storytelling.
Posted inCulture
As sober-friendly and non-alcoholic options expand, a new kind of Third Place emerges
If bootleggers famously cooked up speakeasy hooch in tubs, where might non-alcoholic cocktails be mixed a century later? Shelley Elkovich and her husband, Jeff, found a former vanilla extract factory on Rochester’s northwest side this year for their business, For Bitter For Worse. It helps that the building has possible ties to Prohibition-era booze. “It […]
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Rochester Community Players celebrates 100 years of local theater
Eight hundred words couldn’t possibly do justice to 100 years of history. That’s why the full tale of the Rochester Community Players — the oldest community theater group in the city (and the second-oldest in New York State) — rests partly in the hands of Karen Olson. Olson, a past RCP board president who now […]
Posted inCulture
Apples may get all the glory, but cabbage remains foundational to New York agriculture
Betsy Brightly’s daughter plays college basketball alongside some team members from Spain. The foreign students don’t like coleslaw — or they thought they didn’t. Then Betsy made them a homemade batch. “They love it,” Brightly said. “I have to make them bowls of it for the holidays because they don’t go back to Spain.” It […]
