Events in Rochester, NY for Thursday, May 15, 2014 through Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Here's what's going on this week:
Thursday, May 15

  • At 4 p.m. at the Lilac Festival Center Stage is wicked fun, saxophone-driven, percussive groove-rock band The BuddhaHood followed at 5:30 p.m. by Moho Collective, then Rusted Root at 7 p.m. [source: Lilac Festival website, 2014-May-13]
  • Today from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. is a Rochester Police Department Reorganization Community Input Meeting in the RPD Patrol Division East Office (630 N. Clinton Ave.) [source: City of Rochester website, 2014-May-14]
  • This evening at the Flying Squirrel at 7 p.m. is a discussion with Dr. George (Sandy) Lawrence titled Climate Disruption is Real, is Now, is Affecting All of Us.

    The state of our agriculture, weather extremes, heat, cold, drought, floods, hurricanes, sea level rise, migration of flora and fauna, these are only some of the many changes that are slowly happening right now. These effects are no longer speculation or "sometime in the future", they are happening right now. What are the facts? What are the options that we face? How can we make a difference?

    [source: Facebook, 2014-May-13]

  • The Dryden will screen Scarface (Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson, U.S. 1932, 93 min., 35mm) tonight at 8 p.m.

    This Pre-Code gangster classic stars Paul Muni as the ruthless Tony Camonte, an Italian immigrant who sets his sights on ruling the crime world of Prohibition-era Chicago. Loosely based on the life of Al Capone, the film follows Camonte's rise to power as he viciously takes out anyone who stands in his way of becoming the criminal kingpin. But after making enemies on both the right and wrong sides of the law, his lust for power faces the ultimate challenge. A truly definitive film of the gangster genre, the original Scarface has been internationally recognized as a bold milestone in its controversial, grim depiction of the American Dream.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-May-13]

  • Updated: Starting around 8:30 p.m. tonight at Star Alley Park is The Televisionaries. [source: Facebook, 2014-May-15]

Friday, May 16

  • Today from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, Mayor Lovely A. Warren will present the Release of the 2014-15 City Budget. Also on Time Warner Cable channel City12, and streamed online at https://www.CityOfRochester.gov/mayorwebcast. [source: City of Rochester website, 2014-May-14]
  • At 7 p.m. at the Memorial Art Gallery is an Alternative Music Film Festival screening of Portishead—Concert Privé (France 2008, 79 min.)

    In May 2008, Portishead, the legendary band from Bristol, England, played to a private audience in La Plaine Saint-Denis, outside Paris. The concert, which was broadcast on French TV, was the band's first gig since its 2005 Tsunami Relief benefit concert with Massive Attack. The set list spanned all three of Portishead's previous studio albums and included songs from their upcoming release Third, which had been a long 11 years in the making.

    [source: MAG website, 2014-May-13]

  • Today and tomorrow at 8 p.m. at the MuCCC is the MuCCC Spring Dance Sampler. [source: MuCCC website, 2014-May-13]
  • Tonight at 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m., the Dryden will screen Miller's Crossing (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, U.S. 1990, 115 min., 35mm).

    The Coens effectively tip their fedoras to the Hollywood gangster genre in this violent, operatic prohibition drama. A pitch-perfect period piece that gracefully balances art house introspection with pulpy Chandleresque dialogue, Miller's Crossing is wholly original and engrossing. Like much of the Coens' early work, the film bombed at the box office but has since resurfaced as a fan favorite. Featuring stellar performances by Gabriel Byrne and Coen regular John Turturro (in one of his most memorable supporting roles), Miller's Crossing influenced some of today's most popular gangster tales such as Lawless and the HBO hit Boardwalk Empire.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-May-13]

  • Starting around 8 p.m. at the Lovin' Cup is very good medium-tempo progressive rock from Sirsy and Pearl Street Station for Rock the Cure: A Benefit Concert for Diabetes Awareness. [source: Lovin' Cup website, 2014-May-13]
  • Starting around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar is the 2nd Annual Girls Rock Cover Night. "Girls Rock Rochester will be putting on a cover night here at The Bug Jar. Proceeds go to Girls Rock! Rochester to support 2014 camp session and help us purchase instruments for campers." [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-May-13]
  • John Rybak and Friends (formerly South Central) perform at The Beale Grille tonight starting around 9:30 p.m. "[A]n impromptu night of acoustic roots and blues with Mark Stewart on mandolin, Ryan Griffith on bass + Christi Rain Johnson on keys. [source: band e-mail, 2014-Apr-3]
  • Starting around 9:30 p.m. at Abilene is "acoustic folk/Memphis blues" of The Queens Of Everything followed by great classic rock/soul band Anonymous Willpower. [source: Abilene website, 2014-May-13]

Saturday, May 17

  • Today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. is an Open House at Pedego Electric Bikes Erie Canal (65 Elmgrove Park, Spencerport). [source: Facebook, 2014-May-13]
  • Today from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Mount Hope Cemetery North Gatehouse is a Cranks, Catalysts and Collisions with History Tour with Dennis Carr. "A collection of people you probably never heard of that greatly influenced major events in American and global history." [source: City of Rochester website, 2014-May-14]
  • Photographer Susan Dobson will be at the Dryden Theatre today at 2 p.m.

    Canadian artist Susan Dobson has focused her camera on the architecture of the suburban environment. In her latest series of photographs, Sense of an Ending, Dobson uses digital technologies to manipulate her images of familiar suburban environments into scenes from an imagined future that is ominously overcast and unpopulated. Dobson's work is among those featured in our current exhibition, Of Time and Buildings.

    [source: Eastman House calendar, 2014-May-13]

  • At 2 p.m. in the Kate Gleason Auditorium of the Bausch and Lomb Library Building is a screening of Logan's Run (Michael Anderson, U.S. 1976, 119 min.) [source: Monroe County Library website, 2014-May-13]
  • Today at Joe Bean is their 3 Year Anniversary Party from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. [source: Joe Bean e-mail, 2014-May-14]
  • This evening at The Yards from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. is the Opening Reception for EMPIRE: An exploration of progress by Jesse Nelso, on display through May 31. [source: Facebook, 2014-May-13]
  • Nuts and Bolts Improv Comedy perform tonight at 8 p.m. at The Space. [source: The Space website, 2014-May-13]
  • This evening at 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (Sophie Fiennes, U.K. / Ireland 2012, 136 min., DCP).

    With his trademark bombastic enthusiasm and expansive passion for pop culture, Slavoj Žižek breaks down cinema in a way only he could. In this sequel to 2006's The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, philosopher, psychoanalyst, and cultural critic Žižek focuses on the ideologies reinforced by the films he speaks of and reveals connections, insights, and underpinnings that may not be apparent on first viewings. Films such as Taxi Driver, Jaws, The Dark Knight, The Sound of Music, Zabriskie Point, Titanic, The Searchers, and They Live are put through the Žižek test to reveal an interesting depth of study that is usually isolated to college campuses.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-May-13]

Sunday, May 18

  • This morning at 8 a.m. is the Highland Hospital Lilac Run 5K followed by the Highland Hospital Lilac Run 10K at 9 a.m., both at Highland Park. [source: Medved Lilac 10K And 5K Family Fun Run website, 2014-Apr-30]
  • From 9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. at the Downtown Presbyterian Church, Chris Hartman will present the Sunday Forum on Food Justice: The Good Food Collective, "on working with farmers to build a sustainable, quality food system for Rochester." [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2014-May-14]
  • Today from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Roundhouse Pavilion at Genesee Valley Park is the Rochester Seersucker Social Ride 2014. [source: Facebook, 2014-May-13]
  • Today from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Flying Squirrel is Turnon Central NY.

    We play three communication games that will challenge you to consider questions like 'what are your relationships like?' 'what does Orgasm mean to you?' and 'what's one secret desire you have?' Questions like these encourage vulnerability. And, what happens when you get vulnerable? It creates intimacy… which is what we're all searching for!

    [source: Flying Squirrel website, 2014-May-13]

  • Starting around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar is Signals Midwest, Reverse The Curse, Del Paxton, and Sexy Teenagers. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-May-13]

Monday, May 19

  • Today from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Rush Rhees Library Friedlander Lobby is the opening of an exhibit titled Beyond Rochester's '64 Riots: 60 Years Seeking to Make One City Out of Two, on display through October 5.

    "Race Riots Rock Rochester: Curfew Imposed" This Times of India headline on July 26, 1964 typifies hundreds throughout the world that announced startling news from a city known largely for its close-to-idyllic quality of life. The news stories reported that on a hot July evening, a small street dance party suddenly transformed into an angry mob scene of several thousand citizens countered by all available Rochester law enforcement.

    [source: UofR website events calendar, 2014-May-13]

Tuesday, May 20

  • Today from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Cure is the WALL\THERAPY Indiegogo Party & Fundraiser. [source: Facebook, 2014-May-13]
  • Tonight at 6 p.m. at Lux is Toasty Tuesdays, Rochester's Burning Man Happy Hour. [source: Burning Rochester Meetup page, 2014-May-13]
  • Tonight at 8 p.m. at the Dryden is a screening of All in This Tea (Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht, U.S. 2007, 70 min., DigiBeta).

    Les Blank's final completed work, All in This Tea was also his first foray into digital video. With a newfound sense of freedom, Blank roams the globe with his lightweight camera, accompanying renowned tea expert David Lee Hoffman to the remotest reaches of rural China in search of handmade tea. Remarkably intimate, All in This Tea takes viewers on an unprecedented journey into the finer points of tea tasting, and is at once educational and compulsively watchable. A modest bookend to a quietly brilliant career, All in This Tea is a calming effort from a filmmaker in his twilight years.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-May-13]

Wednesday, May 21

  • This evening from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. is another of the Imaging Talks at the RIT Photo Store with Jenn Libby discussing Past is Present: the Wet-Plate Revival.

    Local artist Jenn Libby will give a talk on the resurgence of interest in the wet-plate collodion photographic process. Invented in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer, the process usurped daguerreotypes and calotypes, and along with albumen prints, dominated the field of photography for several decades. The name of the process references the fact that each photographic plate must remain wet during exposure and be developed immediately afterward, which necessitates a darkroom in the studio and on location.

    [source: Facebook, 2014-May-13]

  • Tonight at 6 p.m. in the Dryden Theatre is a Symposium on Religion and Community in Modern Life with Rabbi Asher Yaris, Chabad Lubavitch, and Joanna Heatwole, moderated by Nora L. Rubel. "In conjunction with the exhibitions A World Apart and Another America, Eastman House presents a symposium that will address an overarching view of how religion plays a role in daily life and communities on a local and global scale." [source: Eastman House calendar, 2014-May-13]
  • Tonight at 7 p.m. at the Gandhi Institute is a screening of Ruz-egar-e ma (Our Times, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Iran 2007, 75 min.)

    This documentary is particularly relevant because of the difficult economic situation in Iran right now and the election of Hassan Rouhani to the Presidency. It contrasts the election of Mohammed Khatami, an enormously popular liberal cleric, with the life of a young single mother, living in Tehran with her mother and daughter.

    [source: Gandhi Inistitute website, 2014-May-13]

  • The Dryden will screen The Way We Were (Sydney Pollack, U.S. 1973, 118 min., 35mm) tonight at 8 p.m.

    Already a massively successful recording artist, Barbra Streisand made her leap to the big screen in the late 1960s, setting off a string of performances that brought her accolades nearly matching those she received as a singer. By the time she made The Way We Were, Streisand's acting career was in full swing. With Robert Redford co-starring, the film was destined for box office success. In an era when sentimental romantic dramas were a dime a dozen, Pollack's film shined—undoubtedly boosted by its soundtrack, which eventually sold over a million copies. The film received heaps of praise, with Streisand also sitting comfortably at the top of the charts.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-May-13]

  • The Bug Jar hosts Little Big League, Pony Hand, Trophy Lungs, and The Branch Davidians tonight starting around 9 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-May-13]

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