Here's what's going on this week:
Thursday, September 19

• Updated: In the Carlson Auditorium at RIT, Dr. Barnes will discuss the American Decorative Art 1900 Foundation, "a private foundation that works independently and in collaboration with museums across the United States to foster understanding and appreciation of American decorative art from the period around 1900" as part of the CLA William A. Kern Lecture Series tonight at 6 p.m. [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2013-Sep-19]
• Tonight at 7 p.m. at the MuCCC is The Mythology Cycle.
  

  The Mythology Cycle is a collection of four one-act plays from Rochester native and current Berkeley graduate student Truc Doan. The plays focus on the mystery of identity, the search for truth, and the nature of reality.

  [source: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival website, 2013-Sep-16]

• Over at the Strong Auditorium on the UofR Campus from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. is The Onion.
  

  The Onion is America's Finest News Source. It is the last bastion of unbiased, reliable, and definitive news in a world dominated by superficiality, mediocrity, and non-Onion news outlets. And! They are coming to campus for a satirical event that gives insight to how they do what they do and, of course, mercilessly mocks the left and the right, the powerful and the weak, the deserving and the utterly innocent.

  [source: UofR website events calendar, 2013-Sep-17]

• Tonight at the Bug Jar is Free Speech Rocks:
  A Benefit For BWT with Fiona Corinne, and Amy Schramm.

  Rock out to Fiona Corinne and Amy Schramm while supporting the free speech efforts of Bread and Water Theatre. All the funds raised will go towards BWT's legal fund for a possible legal challenge to Rochester's entertainment center licensing law. This law adds restrictions for businesses and organizations that have live performances at their venues stifling the creativity of the community and making it impossible for new creative voices to be heard.

  [source: Bread and Water Theatre e-mail, 2013-Sep-16]

• Starting at 8 p.m. tonight with shows at 9 p.m. tomorrow, 8 p.m. Saturday through next Saturday, and at 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sunday is Cirque du Fringe in Spiegeltent (at the corner of Main & Chestnut).
  

  Think sassy, sexy, funny. A little bit of burlesque, a little bit of cabaret and a lot of edge — not to mention a twist of Vegas on the side. National artists perform aerial displays of daring, skill, grace and strength, as well as unimaginable feats of juggling, magic, balance and flexibility.

  [source: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival website, 2013-Sep-16]

• Tonight at 8 p.m., the Dryden is screening I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Robert Zemeckis, U.S. 1978, 104 min., 35mm).
  

  February 9, 1964: The Beatles are set to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show for their first US appearance. Four teenagers from Maplewood, New Jersey, set out for the Big Apple to see the Fab Four in person. Led by the soon-to-be wed Pam, the group includes Grace, hopeful to advance her photography career; Rosie, intent on meeting her soul mate Paul; and Janis, who happens to find their music dangerous and distracting. Together they hope to infiltrate the hotel where the Beatles are staying. Zemeckis's debut film captures the frenzied and exciting time when Beatlemania captivated the world.

  [source: Dryden website, 2013-Sep-17]

• Pete Anderson performs at the Lovin' Cup tonight starting around 9 p.m.
  

  Pete Anderson is a multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning Producer and groundbreaking guitarist, who melds blues and country to forge a style all his own. Known as a pioneer in the roots-rock genre and an early champion of the Americana movement, he had a hand in introducing the world to artists such as Michelle Shocked, Lucinda Williams, Jim Lauderdale, Rosie Flores and perhaps most famously, his musical partner of 20 years, Dwight Yoakam.

  [source: Bop Shop website, 2013-Sep-16]

Friday, September 20

• The Baobab will screen I Am (Tom Shadyac, U.S. 2010, 78 min.) this afternoon at 2 p.m.
  

  I Am is the story of a successful director, Tom Shadyac, who experienced a life threatening head injury, and his ensuing journey to try and answer two very basic questions: "What's wrong with our world?" and "What we can do about it?"

  [source: Baobab website, 2013-Sep-17]

• Tonight at 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and tomorrow at 12 midnight are screenings of Man of Steel (Zack Snyder, U.S./Canada/U.K. 2013, 143 min.) in Hoyt Auditorium on the UofR Campus. [source: University of Rochester Cinema Group website, 2013-Sep-17]
• Tonight at RAPA at 6:30 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m. is The Way I Am.
  

  In a world full of people who judge you and your choices, you need to find the one person who accepts you the way you are. Rising star and Rochester native, Eva Kantor, brings her critically-acclaimed, one-woman show from New York City to her hometown. "Ms Kantor will remind you of a better Amy Adams…hard shoes to fill, yet Ms. Kantor belongs in this category."—times Square Chronicles

  [source: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival website, 2013-Sep-16]

• Starting at 7 p.m. is the Free Beginner Swing Dance Lesson preceding The Roaring 20s Ball at 8 p.m. at the Tango Cafe Dance Studio (Third Floor Ballroom). "Dust off your top hats and canes, perfect those finger waves and pouty red lips, because Groove Juice Swing's Roaring Twenties Ball is sure to bring you back in time!" [source: Groove Juice Swing website, 2013-Sep-17]
• Tonight from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. is the 5 Year Anniversary Party of Surface Salon with art by Mr. Prvrt, and foxhound. [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2013-Sep-17]
• Tonight from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Community Darkroom is Social Reportage: Raw, "photographic essays touching on poverty, homelessness and social issues in the urban setting." The works by Arleen Hodge and students will be on display through November 2. [source: Genesee Center for the Arts website, 2013-Sep-17]
• BANDALOOP performs at Manhattan Square Park tonight at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 4 p.m.
  

  A pioneer in vertical dance movement, San Francisco's BANDALOOP returns to the Fringe and the 21-story One HSBC Plaza after enthralling more than 10,000 spectators last September with two breathtaking performances. The internationally-renowned company turns the dance floor on its side by seamlessly weaving together dynamic physicality, intricate choreography and the art of climbing.

  [source: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival website, 2013-Sep-16]

• Tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. at the Joke Factory Comedy Club in the Holiday Inn Airport (911 Brooks Ave.) is Michael Winslow, and MC Bill Moran. [source: Freetime website, 2013-Sep-17]
• Tonight at 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m., the Dryden will screen Les femmes du 6ème étage (The Women on the 6th Floor, Philippe Le Guay, France 2010, 104 min., French and Spanish w/ subtitles, 35mm).
  

  Much like the British series Downton Abbey that would follow closely on its heels, this film examines how differing social classes living under the same roof can affect each other's lives and beliefs. Jean-Louis is introduced to the Spanish domestic workers living in one of his Paris properties through his new maid, Maria. Taking an interest in their plight, Jean-Louis becomes more involved in their lives and politics, using his resources to help them. When his wife kicks him out and Jean-Louis is forced to take a room in the property himself, his feelings for Maria bloom . . . and his life will never be the same again.

  [source: Dryden website, 2013-Sep-17]

• Tonight at the Lovin' Cup starting around 9 p.m. is WITR Chip Night featuring chiptunes and guitar from Danimal Cannon, good chiptunes rock band Chip's Challenge, good, bright, slick chiptunes band Faking Amnesia, and excellent Gameboy and saxophone SBTHREE. [source: Lovin' Cup website, 2013-Sep-16]
• Tonight at 9 p.m., the Little will screen Crocodile (100 min.)
  

  Set in a typical suburban town in upstate New York, this film follows 17-year-old Ernest, a slightly awkward high school senior who suddenly finds himself involved with Sasha, the new girl in town. As Ernest falls head-over-heels, he learns that his new girlfriend has more complexities than she initially let on. Ernest is soon faced with the challenges of life's unfortunate realities in the midst of his own desire to grow into manhood.

  [source: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival website, 2013-Sep-16]

• Tonight at 10 p.m., Wednesday at 8 p.m., and Friday the 27th at 10 p.m., Acanthus Café will host 12 Dollars. "A misguided young man wants a favor from an older one, but why? And what is he looking for? This short, intense drama explores ideas about honesty, dependency and what we really owe to whom." [source: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival website, 2013-Sep-17]

Saturday, September 21

• In the Curtis Theatre of the George Eastman House is a performance of The 39 Steps — A Live Radio Play starting at 2 p.m.
  

  Hitchcock and hilarious merge when the bored Richard Hannay meets a baffling beauty who just happens to be a spy trying to save Britain from a mysterious foreign power. A suspect in her murder, Hannay becomes the target of a nationwide manhunt while trying to prove his innocence. Presented by Screen Plays, this 1940s-style radio play uses vintage equipment from A.W.A. Wireless Museum.

  [source: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival website, 2013-Sep-17]

• At 2 p.m. in the MuCCC is a performance of Finding My Place: One Man's Journey through the Middle Ages.
  

  Judah Leblang is a storyteller, NPR commentator and Boston-based writer. His show, One Man's Journey Through The Middle Ages, is a humorous look at what happens when "man plans, and God laughs," and has been performed across the Northeast in cities including Boston, New York City, Cleveland, and Buffalo. The book is based on Leblang's memoir, Finding My Place, which will be available for purchase at the show.

  [source: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival website, 2013-Sep-17]

• On NextStage at Geva is a performance of Almighty God Bierce today at 2 p.m., tomorrow at 6 p.m., Tuesday at 8 p.m., and finally on Saturday the 28th at 5:30 p.m.
  

  In Almighty God Bierce, Civil War veteran, political satirist, writer and journalist Ambrose Bierce tells tales of his life on the eve of his departure for "the battlefields of his youth, and Mexico." Rochester actor Roger Gans brings Bierce to life in this one-man show by local author Ed Scutt. Hear Civil War anecdotes as Bierce battles religion, politics, hypocrisy, and the Pacific railroad barons of the nineteenth century — always with humor, if at times a bitter humor.

  [source: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival website, 2013-Sep-17]

• At 6 p.m. at Writers and Books, really interesting spoken word/a cappella music/phoenetic effects performance group F'loom will perform SpeakFathom: A Language-Musical Cabaret.
  

  SpeakFathom is a 60-minute potpourri of serio-comic pieces that celebrate the fertile realm where voice-as-language meets voice-as-music. Drawing stylistically from European cabaret, American vaudeville, French Grand Guignol, Lithuanian Circus of Ecstasy, and Buddhist emptiness, SpeakFathom will take listeners on a tour of the underbelly of psycholinguistic reality.

  [source: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival website, 2013-Sep-17]

• Tonight at 7 p.m. in the Conservatory at George Eastman House is the Pulling Out All the Stops Organ Concert. "Be among the first in over sixty years to experience surround sound at Eastman House at the Pulling Out All the Stops Benefit Concert to commemorate the Eastman House Aeolian Pipe Organ Renewal Project." [source: Eastman House calendar, 2013-Sep-17]
• At 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Paradies: Hoffnung (Paradise: Hope, Ulrich Seidl, Austria/France/Germany 2013, 100 min., German w/ subtitles, DCP).
  

  The final film in the Paradise trilogy, Paradise: Hope is a surprisingly calm conclusion. Melanie (Melanie Lenz), Teresa's daughter and Maria's niece, is forced to spend her summer at a rural camp for overweight teens. As Melanie matures over the course of the summer, Seidl portrays her coming of age in manners both grotesque and tender, her quest for fulfillment growing increasingly complicated. From humiliating weight-loss exercises, to late-night underage drinking, to Melanie's infatuation with the camp's doctor, life's banal moments are framed with candor verging on comedy. Paradise: Hope is an empathetic bookend to a dark, complex series.

  [source: Dryden website, 2013-Sep-17]

• The Handmade Orchestra performs at 10 p.m. at the MuCCC tonight.
  

  "Music you have never heard on instruments you have never seen" is the credo of The Handmade Orchestra. It is a group of musicians from professionals to beginners who have built instruments out of their imaginations.

  [source: MuCCC website, 2013-Sep-17]

Sunday, September 22

• Today from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Eastman House is the First North Organ Public Performances. "Join us for the Dual Pipe Organ Premiere Weekend to celebrate the Eastman House Aeolian Pipe Organ Renewal Project. Surround sound-style organ music will be played on the original Aeolian pipe organ and new north organ chamber in unison." [source: Eastman House calendar, 2013-Sep-17]
• Updated: This afternoon at 5:30 p.m. is a Vegan Potluck followed by a lecture at 7 p.m. where Melanie Joy, Ph.D. will discuss Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows at Brighton Town Park. [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2013-Sep-19]
• Tonight at 7 p.m. at the MuCCC, John W. Borek and Infusion Action Theatre present Jackie by Elfriede Jelinek.
  

  Be prepared, as the Kennedy "Camelot" myth is dismantled and shattered. Ms. Jelinek said her goal with the play was to "both decipher the myth and to give back the figure her history. My characters are not real human beings, but figures made of speech, stencils punched out of the nonstop talking all around. They live as long as they speak, and when they stop talking they disappear.

  [source: MuCCC website, 2013-Sep-17]

Monday, September 23

• Tonight at Writers and Books at 8 p.m. is The 24-Hour Plays.
  

  A team of beloved local actors, writers, directors and producers create, rehearse and tech several short original plays in just 24 hours, climaxing in an off-book performance. Can they write a play, direct it, memorize it and perform it in a single day? Watch as they risk their sanity and reputation in six short plays written in a single day! Join us for theater at its most raw and immediate.

  [source: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival website, 2013-Sep-17]

• The Eastman Wind Orchestra, and The Eastman Wind Ensemble perform in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre tonight at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2013-Sep-17]
• Gate, Tom Carter, something like semi-melodic fast-paced noise from Pengo, and Crush the Junta perform at the Bug Jar starting around 8:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2013-Sep-16]

Tuesday, September 24

• Today from 12:12 p.m. to 12:52 p.m. in the Kate Gleason Auditorium of the Rundel Library Building is Books Sandwiched-In with Dr. Anne Kress reviewing College (Un)Bound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students by Jeffrey J. Selingo. [source: Monroe County Library website, 2013-Sep-17]
• Tonight from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Memorial Art Gallery is a Sischy Lecture with Paul Griner presenting Patient Stories: Lessons from Plato, Bill Cosby, and Others. [source: UofR website events calendar, 2013-Sep-17]
• The Dryden will screen City Girl (F. W. Murnau, U.S. 1930, 77 min., 35mm) at 8 p.m. with live piano accompaniment by Dr. Philip C. Carli.
  

  Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, director of legendary German films such as Nosferatu and The Last Laugh, was brought to Hollywood by William Fox, for whom he made three films: Sunrise, the now-lost Four Devils, and this transcendent tale of rural/city conflict. Charles Farrell goes to the city as his father's agent to sell wheat from the family farm and falls in love with waitress Mary Duncan. After Farrell and Duncan impulsively marry and return to the farm, father David Torrence's disapproval and the farmhands' behavior toward the new bride rapidly make a tense situation hellish. Murnau's humanity and romanticism permeate this production, one of the very last American silents, sweepingly photographed by Ernest Palmer.

  [source: Dryden website, 2013-Sep-17]

Wednesday, September 25

• The Rochester Improvement Society meets at the Little Café tonight from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. [source: Rochester Improvement Society e-mail, 2013-Sep-13]
• From 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Penfield Public Library is a program titled Get To Know Your Antiques. Antiques expert H. Price Prazar will "offer a verbal appraisal of your special family heirloom or treasure during this program." Bring only one item for appraisal, and "no firearms or rugs please." [source: Monroe County Library website, 2013-Sep-17]
• Tonight at 6:30 p.m. the Little will screen Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, U.S. 1958, 129 min.) as part of their Alfred Hitchcock Classic Films Series. [source: Little Theatre website, 2013-Sep-16]
• Tonight at 7 p.m. at the MuCCC is Carrie Schreiner: From Stillness To Motion — My Life As A Living Mannequin.
  

  Carrie Schreiner has been a mannequin model for over 30 years. Her unique style of modeling combines traditional freeze modeling with robotic movements set to music. As a free-lance model she has done work for many retailers including Macy's, Estée Lauder, Caché, White House Black Market and Lord and Taylor. She has been featured at various local and out-of-town promotional events including those put on by Eastman Kodak, Dress for Success and Eastview Mall. See Carrie perform and hear how her life as a living mannequin has evolved.

  [source: MuCCC website, 2013-Sep-17]

• The Eastman School Symphony Orchestra and the Eastman Philharmonia perform in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre tonight at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2013-Sep-17]
• At 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum, Volker Schlöndorff, West Germany/France/Poland/Yugoslavia 1979, 163 min., Hebrew, Italian, German, Polish, and Russian w/ subtitles, DCP).
  

  Armed with a toy drum and a voice that can shatter glass, young Oskar Matzerath (David Bennent) navigates pre—world War Ii Germany from the eyes of a child. Repulsed by the passiveness of society and raging against the hypocrisy and reckless behavior of the adult world, he miraculously prevents himself from aging past the age of three. A successful, surreal adaptation of Günter Grass's groundbreaking novel, the Palme d'or-winning The Tin Drum will be screening in an extended version prepared by the director that restores more than 20 minutes of footage cut before its premiere at Cannes.

  [source: Dryden website, 2013-Sep-17]

• Tonight at 9 p.m. at the MuCCC, electronic, quasi-noise musicians and humanizing performance artists The Bloody Noes, and Auger present Potluck.
  

  Potluck is the field document of young sociology students who uncover a self-help group or new religious movement of "Mem" worshipers. Through madcap raw footage the viewer is granted access to the wisdom and obsessions of the "cult" members and their preferred method of generating "Mem energy": bloody human sacrifice. Not for the faint of heart.

  [source: MuCCC website, 2013-Sep-17]