Here's what's going on this week: Thursday, January 23

• Starting this evening at 7 p.m. is the Rochester Movie Makers' Mind2movie 72 Hour Film Challenge starting at the RCTV Studio. Completed 5-minute films are due on Sunday at 7 p.m. Go! (Well, okay, most of you won't be making a movie, but the screening is on February 10.) [source: Rochester Movie Makers website, 2014-Jan-20]
• Tonight from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Flying Squirrel, is Peg Millett and the Evan Mecham Eco Terrorist International Conspiracy. Peg Millett will be there for a discussion.
  

  During the late 1980s, a "mysterious group" took to sabotaging developments that were threatening grounds held sacred by American Indians of the Grand Canyon region. Peg was profiled and targeted through the FBI's "THERMCON" program, where agents used romantic coercion and entrapment to build a case against environmentalists. She was sentenced to three years in prison, but not before a ski resort, a nuclear power facility and a uranium mine were sabotaged.

  [source: Facebook, 2014-Jan-20]

• Tonight at 8 p.m., the Dryden is screening Blue Velvet (David Lynch, U.S. 1986, 120 min., 35mm).
  

  Perhaps Lynch's best known and most provocative work, Blue Velvet paints a dark, deeply disturbing portrait of idyllic small-town America and probes the lurid evils living beneath its facade. Kyle MacLachlan stars as Jeffrey, a naive college student who, after investigating a mysterious severed ear he finds in a vacant lot, plummets into a depraved world of voyeurism, violence, and vicious sexual appetites. Isabella Rossellini costars as Dorothy Vallens, a shadowy lounge singer tormented by the malevolence and sadomasochism of Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), with whom Jeffrey finds himself irrevocably entwined. Lynch's talent for creating an engrossing, terrifying atmosphere is on full display here, as Blue Velvet takes hold and refuses to let go.

  [source: Dryden website, 2014-Jan-20]

Friday, January 24

• Tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., on Sunday at 2 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday next week at 7:30 p.m., the MuCCC will host performances of The Lion in Winter by James Goldman.
  

  Grab your ringside seats now for this battle of wits between two of history's great heavyweights—Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. As old age advances, Henry has his eyes on the future; he wants his kingdom to stay united after his death, but his three sons—Richard, Geoffrey, and John—each want to rule. Henry favors the youngest John, while Eleanor favors the eldest, Richard. Middle son Geoffrey hopes to play both ends against each other and come out on top. Henry would like to have another heir by his mistress Alais, but that would only add to the confusion. Uneasy is the head on which the crown lies, and uneasy the truce between a matchless king and queen.

  [source: MuCCC website, 2014-Jan-20]

• Tonight from 7:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the Zeppa Auditorium at the German House is another in the Rochester Original Music Series (ROMS) with music by good bar-rock band The Heroic Enthusiasts, Woody Dodge, and The Dan Eaton Band. [source: Facebook, 2014-Jan-20]
• Tonight at 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 5 p.m., the Dryden will screen La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, Italy/France 2013, 142 min., Italian w/ subtitles, 35mm).
  

  Journalist Jep Gambardella (the dazzling Toni Servillo, Il divo and Gomorrah) has charmed and seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades. Since the legendary success of his one and only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city's literary and social circles, but when his sixty-fifth birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.

  [source: Dryden website, 2014-Jan-20]

• Tonight at the Lovin' Cup starting around 9 p.m. is Rochester Chip Night featuring music by Auxcide, great one-man-band with chiptune vocoder BC Likes You, Shrimps, and good, bright, slick chiptunes band Faking Amnesia. [source: Lovin' Cup website, 2014-Jan-20]
• The Little will screen the Unrated Director's Cut of Day Of The Dead (George A. Romero, U.S. 1985, 103 min.) today at 9 p.m.
  

  Zombies rule the world, except for a small group of scientists and military personnel who reside in an underground bunker in Florida. The scientists are using the undead in gruesome experiments; much to the chagrin of the military. Finally the military finds that their men have been used in the scientists' experiments, and banish the scientists to the caves that house the Living Dead. Unfortunately, the zombies from above ground have made their way into the bunker.

  [source: Little Theatre website, 2014-Jan-20]

• Tonight at Monty's Krown starting around 10:30 p.m. is the Mad Cow Tippers, and The Televisionaries. [source: WBER Concert Schedule, 2014-Jan-20]

Saturday, January 25

• Today from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church is the Metro Justice 2014 Annual Meeting. [source: Metro Justice event page, 2014-Jan-22]
• Today at 1 p.m., the Little will screen Monty Python's Life of Brian (Terry Jones, U.K. 1979, 94 min.) followed by Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, U.K. 1975, 91 min.) at 3 p.m. [source: Little Theatre website, 2014-Jan-20]
• Starting around 4:30 p.m. at the Flying Squirrel is the monthly Community Dinner. [source: Flying Squirrel website, 2014-Jan-20]
• Starting tonight at 8 p.m. and again tomorrow at 2 p.m., the Dryden will screen the Wild World of Looney Tunes (Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Robert McKimson, U.S. 1949—1958, 90 min., 35mm). Unfortunately, this has nearly the same description of the terrible selection presented in March, 2013, except it cites "One Froggy Evening" instead of "What's Opera Doc?" and, peculiarly, spells out "twelve" instead of "12".
  

  Please check your anvils, dynamite, and pianos at the door and join us for a wacky evening with the greatest "wabbit" alive, Bugs Bunny, and the whole Looney Tunes gang! Overflowing with their trademark chaos, these twelve short cartoons follow Bugs on his many madcap misadventures with the likes of Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Elmer Fudd, and more. A snapshot of the various animators and voice actors at the height of their career, the program includes One Froggy Evening—often cited as the greatest Looney Tunes shorts of all time. A complete program listing will be distributed at the screenings. Th-th-th-that's all folks!

  [source: Dryden website, 2014-Jan-20]

• Tonight at the Bug Jar starting around 10:30 p.m. is the Post-Christmas Shitty-Weather Punk Extravaganza featuring The Results, The Anti-Bodies, House Majority, Sexy Teenagers, and Ivy's Panic Room. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Jan-20]
• Muler, complex, multi-faceted, musician's rock-band Ian Downey is Famous, and excellent, deceptively mellow, complex rock-and-roll from Hinkley perform at Monty's Krown tonight starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Facebook, 2014-Jan-20]

Sunday, January 26

• Starting at 2 p.m. at the Memorial Art Gallery is a Lecture on Redefining the Multiple: 13 Contemporary Japanese Printmakers titled Setting the Stage by art historian Lucy Winters Durkin in which she "speaks on the aesthetics and evolution of 20th-century Japanese printmaking." [source: MAG website, 2014-Jan-20]
• Tonight from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Flying Squirrel is a Solitary Confinement Workshop.
  

  The New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC) would like to hold an organizing workshop. CAIC has been trying to build a statewide campaign challenging the use of solitary confinement in NY's prisons and jails. This workshop would be an opportunity for NYC CAIC members to learn more about local organizing efforts in Rochester around solitary and broader issues connected to mass incarceration, to share some about what our campaign is doing, and brainstorm about potential ways of collaboration (specifically for how the statewide campaign could support local efforts and/or how people in different regions could plug in to the statewide campaign). In addition, we will be discussing strategies in how to engage in local lobbying efforts around solitary confinement and/or how to join with a lobby day in Albany CAIC is planning in late April.

  [source: Flying Squirrel website, 2014-Jan-20]

• Starting around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar is Buckets, Cottage Jefferson, Lamby, Skirts, and Cult Classic. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Jan-20]

Monday, January 27

• The Little Blue Cheese Shop will present a Discussion on Cheese at the Highland Branch Library this evening from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. [source: Monroe County Library website, 2014-Jan-20]
• The Eastman Wind Orchestra performs in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre tonight starting at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2014-Jan-20]

Tuesday, January 28

• Tonight at the Dryden at 8 p.m. is a screening of A Film Unfinished (Shtikat Haarchion, Yael Hersonski, Germany/Israel 2010, 88 min., German, Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish w/ subtitles, DCP).
  

  In 1942, the Nazi propaganda machine used film cameras to "document" the life of the residents in the Warsaw Ghetto, only months before they engineered the residents' extermination. This footage, an unfinished film, was discovered after the war ended and was endlessly studied as a glimpse into the past of people that were no more. But in the 1980s, an additional reel of the footage was found, a reel that puts into question all assumptions made about the conditions of the ghetto and its inhabitants. As much about film preservation and the truth of what we see as it is about history, this film will make you consider what effect media really has on our lives.

  [source: Dryden website, 2014-Jan-20]

Wednesday, January 29

• The Eastman Wind Ensemble performs in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre tonight starting at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2014-Jan-20]
• The Dryden will screen Love and Death (Woody Allen, U.S. 1975, 85 min., 35mm) tonight at 8 p.m.
  

  Master of parody Woody Allen takes on the entire canon of Russian literature in this hilarious, pseudo-philosophical comedy. Taking cues from Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, the film follows Boris (Allen), a puny aristocrat forced into military service during the Napoleonic Wars, and his never-ending quest for Sonja (Diane Keaton), his star-crossed love. The on-screen chemistry between the two is comedic gold, sparkling with snappy repartee and Allen's self-deprecating neurosis perfectly balanced by Keaton's compassion and intelligence. Although often viewed merely as the forerunner to Annie Hall (which would win Keaton an Academy Award), Love and Death marks a truly funny and uniquely nuanced achievement in the long on (and off) screen relationship between Keaton and Allen.

  [source: Dryden website, 2014-Jan-20]

• Starting around 9 p.m. tonight at the Bug Jar is Emma Ate the Lion with Blue Lazerz. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Jan-20]