Here's my selection of events in Rochester this week:
Thursday, December 4

• This morning at 6 a.m. at the corner of Mt. Hope and Elmwood is a Strike Support for the Fight for $15, then at 11:30 a.m. is the main demonstration at Elmwood and South.
  

  After just two years, the Fight for $15 is now unstoppable. The movement that began two years ago with 200 fast-food workers in New York City walking off the job has spread to 150 cities across the country. This week, the fight for $15 will continue to grow. On December 4th, fast food workers in at least 150 cities nationwide will walk off the job demanding $15 per hour and the right to form a union. This Thursday, fast food workers in Rochester will bring the fight against low wages home. These companies profit in the billions while leaving hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S. in poverty. It's time working people for a fair share of the wealth they create.

  [source: Rochester Red and Black e-mail, 2014-Dec-3]

• At 2 p.m. at the Charlotte Branch Library is a Local History Series with Bill Sauers discussing "Come Along and Ride This Train"—The History of the Manitou Trolley.
  

  Bill Sauers, President of the Greece Historical Society, will tell us about this all but forgotten transportation route that ran for eight miles along the lakeshore, connecting Charlotte to Manitou Beach. The trolley ran during the summer months between 1891 to 1925 during the height of the resort era in Charlotte. Come listen to this fascinating program!

  [source: Monroe County Library website, 2014-Dec-1]

• In the Robbins Library of the Rush Rhees Library on the University of Rochester Campus is a Ford Lecture with John Guillory discussing Monuments and Documents: Panofsky and the Object of Study in the Humanities from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. [source: UofR website events calendar, 2014-Dec-1]
• Today from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. is the annual Park Ave Holiday Open House. [source: Facebook, 2014-Dec-1]
• Laura McPhee will deliver a Wish You Were Here lecture titled The Elusive Meaning of Place in the Dryden Theatre at 6 p.m.
  

  Laura McPhee will speak about the evolution of her landscape photographs made over the past thirty years. McPhee's photographs have long been concerned with conflicting ideas about landscape in America and with our values and beliefs with regard to the natural world.

  [source: Eastman House calendar, 2014-Dec-1]

• Neal Van Dorn plays at Sticky Lips BBQ Juke Joint this evening from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. [source: Sticky Lips website, 2014-Dec-1]
• From 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. there is a Rochester Police Department Reorganization Meeting in the Cafeteria of the Aquinas Institute (1127 Dewey Ave.) [source: City of Rochester website, 2014-Dec-3]
• The History Reading Group will discuss The Presidential Election of 1864 at Writers and Books tonight from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. [source: Writers and Books website, 2014-Dec-1]
• Marlon Wayans performs at the Comedy Club (2235 Empire Blvd.) tonight at 7:30 p.m. and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2014-Dec-1]
• Zadie Smith will deliver a Rochester Arts and Lectures speech tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Downtown United Presbyterian Church (121 N. Fitzhugh St.)
  

  Novelist Zadie Smith was described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as "not merely one of Britain's finest younger writers, but also one of the English-speaking world's best chroniclers of race, class, and identity in urban confines. Smith remains fearless, and there are moments that astonish. Her ambition and talent continue to awe." Her first book, White Teeth, is a portrait of contemporary multicultural London, told through the story of three ethnically diverse families. It won several awards including the Guardian First Book Award, the Whitbread First Novel Award, and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize. Smith's second novel, The Autograph Man, won the Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize for Fiction and her third, On Beauty, won the Orange Prize for fiction. Her most recent novel, Nw, was named one of the New York Times "10 Best Books of 2012. Newsweek says, "Smith has an astonishing intellect. She writes sharp dialogue for every age and race." Smith also teaches creative writing at New York University.

  [source: Rochester Arts and Lectures website, 2014-Dec-1]

• From 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at St John's Lutheran Church (800 East Ridge Rd., Irondequoit) is a meeting of the Irondequoit Historical Society where Michael Keene will discuss his book, Abandoned: The Untold Story of Orphan Asylums. [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2014-Dec-1]
• Tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. and on Saturday at 2 p.m. are performances of The Drowning Girls at the MuCCC.
  

  Bessie, Margaret, and Alice have a bone to pick—with their husband, their society, and maybe even with themselves. The Drowning Girls recounts the true story of "The Brides in the Bath" who were married and then murdered by the same man. In the play, the three victims return to play out their wooings, their marriages, their insurance agreements, and their deaths in a touching, haunting, and socially relevant choral mélange. As they deliver their joint elegy, the women portray all the people in their lives—from their landladies to their murderous husband. And, they do so in the location of their deaths—the bathtub.

  [source: MuCCC website, 2014-Dec-1]

• Tonight at 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Far from the Madding Crowd (John Schlesinger, U.K. 1967, 171 min., 35mm).
  

  Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Peter Finch, and Terence Stamp star in this lush, emotionally rich adaptation of Thomas Hardy's classic novel. Christie is the beautiful, willful, and enigmatic Bathsheba Everdeen, who kindles the passions of three extremely different men with tragic results. Hardy's complex characters spring to life through this remarkable cast and Schlesinger's deft direction.

  [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-1]

Friday, December 5

• This morning from 7:30 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. in the Eastman House Cafe and Store is an Eastman Young Professionals (EYP) Breakfast with Jeremy Cooney.
  

  EYP Circle invites you to a conversation with Jeremy Cooney, Chief of Staff for Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren. Cooney was appointed as Chief of Staff on January 1, 2014. The Chief of Staff is the senior advisor to the Mayor and oversees the operation of the Mayor's Office. The Chief of Staff also leads the City's intergovernmental affairs agenda and has direct oversight of the Department of Recreation and Youth Services and the Rochester Public Library.

  [source: Eastman House calendar, 2014-Dec-1]

• One might think bookstores would be the last group to support public libraries, but things are so bad, it's true! If you buy books at the Pittsford Barnes and Noble all day from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., they'll donate money to the Highland, Monroe, and Winton Branch Libraries. With music by "a cappella sinning[sic] group" Cut Off at 8 p.m. [source: Monroe County Library website, 2014-Dec-1]
• Today from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. is the 33rd Metro Justice Alternative Fair at the First Unitarian Church (220 S Winton Rd.) with "fair trade and hand crafted gifts by local artists." [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2014-Dec-1]
• Tonight from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. is the First Friday Reception for the 24th Annual Members Exhibition at RoCo. [source: RoCo website, 2014-Dec-1]
• Bernunzio Uptown Music will host a Holiday Jingle tonight from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. featuring "the loyal musicians from our monthly jams and workshops including the The Intermediate Bluegrass Jam, The Beginner Old Time Jam, The Rochester Ukulele Orchestra and Steve Greene's Saturday Blues Workshop." [source: Bernunzio Uptown Music website, 2014-Dec-1]
• Starting around 6 p.m. at Abilene is Happy Hour with "the rumba-flamenco, latin jazz sounds of" Scirocco followed at 9:30 p.m. by Talking Under Water, Ginger Faye Bakers, and effortlessly tight, fast, hard-pop-rock from Routine Involvements. [source: Abilene website, 2014-Dec-1]
• Mugwump Soul performs at Boulder Coffee on Alexander tonight starting around 8:30 p.m. [source: Boulder Coffee calendar, 2014-Dec-1]
• The Dryden will screen Hai shang hua (Flowers of Shanghai, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan/Japan 1998, 113 min., Cantonese and Shanghainese w/ subtitles, 35mm) at 8 p.m.
  

  Set entirely in a Shanghai brothel during the late nineteenth century, Flowers of Shanghai explores the myriad relationships of the courtesans and their clients, their complicated histories, and the rituals and traditions of the house. Hailed by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum as one of the best films of the decade, Hou Hsiao-hsien makes full use of his trademark long takes to engage his audience in this powerful examination of love, trust, and the unpredictable nature of memories.

  [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-1]

Saturday, December 6

• Today from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. is It's A Wonderful Life In The South Wedge Holiday Festival and Parade, centered around Star Alley Park. [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2014-Dec-1]
• From 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Genesee Center For The Arts and Education is the Wintercraft Open House and Holiday Sale. [source: Genesee Center for the Arts & Education e-mail, 2014-Nov-24]
• From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Community Darkroom Galleries is the Opening Reception for Rochester's Refugees, on display through January 9, and featuring works by Michele Ashlee, April D'amico, Lucas Marchal, Julie Oldfield, Ken Tryon, and Arleen Hodge Thaler.
  

  Students from Community Darkroom's "Social Reportage" class, under instruction from social documentary photojournalist Arleen Hodge Thaler, have spent months documenting the lives of Burmese, Somalian, Bhutanese, and other refugees who have made Rochester their home.

  [source: Genesee Center for the Arts website, 2014-Dec-1]

• Starting at 4:30 p.m. is the Liberty Pole Lighting and Family Fun Day, including a Holiday Parade. [source: City of Rochester website, 2014-Dec-3]
• At 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Diplomatie (Diplomacy, Volker Schlöndorff, Germany/France 2014, 88 min., French and German w/ subtitles, DCP).
  

  Paris, 1944. Germany is losing the war, and Hitler is determined to make tabula rasa of all the art treasures of the French capital. When the cathedral of Notre Dame is about to be dynamited by order of Dietrich von Cholitz—the Nazi military governor of occupied Paris—swedish consul Raoul Nordling makes a desperate overnight attempt to avoid the catastrophe. With riveting performances from his cast, German master Volker Schlöndorff, director of the classic The Tin Drum, brings to the screen the acclaimed 2011 stage drama by Cyril Gely.

  [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-1]

• Tonight at Bernunzio Uptown Music starting around 8:30 p.m. is Guitars In The Round with Bob Sneider, Petar Kodzas, and talented singer-guitarist Kinloch Nelson. [source: Bernunzio Uptown Music website, 2014-Dec-1]
• The Mad Cow Tippers, and Kraszman and Fishwife perform at Skylark Lounge tonight … probably starting around 10 p.m. [source: Skylark Lounge calendar, 2014-Dec-1]
• Hank and Cupcakes, The Rice Cakes, Scope and Figure, Jujajuba perform at the Bug Jar starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Dec-1]

Sunday, December 7

• Starting at 2 p.m. at the MAG is a Golden Legacy Lecture with Karal Ann Marling titled How Golden Books Changed the Course of American Modernism. [source: MAG website, 2014-Dec-1]
• The Dryden will screen Big Fish (Tim Burton, U.S. 2003, 125 min., 35mm) today at 2 p.m.
  

  Lyrical and lush, full of Burton's fantastical visual imagery, and oddball characters (like conjoined Chinese vocal sister act Ping and Jing, among others) Big Fish relates the whoppingly eccentric life of Ed Bloom (Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor share the role) whose tall tales once entertained his now estranged son Will (Billy Crudup). Hoping that reality will finally prevail, Will tries one last time to engage his dying father and sort out the truth from the fiction.

  [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-1]

• From 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Sibley Building is A City Sings for the Season featuring The Rochester Oratorio Society (ROS), and The Baptist Temple.
  

  Heartwarming readings, music for strings and youthful voices, a full Gospel Choir and the majestic ROS combine in Rochester's historic Sibley Building for a concert your family will long remember. The price of admission is your charitable donation of a non-perishable food item or personal hygiene item, to be collected at the door. The Baptist Temple will distribute these much-needed items to Cameron Community Ministries and to the Rochester Area Interfaith Hospitality Network.

  [source: City of Rochester website, 2014-Dec-3]

• From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at St. Monica Church (831 Genesee St.) is a Lights for Lima [Peru] Climate Vigil.
  

  A strong international agreement is a key part of the fight against climate change. This December, representatives of the world's governments are meeting in Lima, Peru to build towards such an agreement in the coming year. Time is running out for a strong climate agreement. We need to show world leaders that people of all faiths and spiritualties support their efforts to reach such an agreement.

  [source: ColorBrightonGreen.org, 2014-Nov-24]

Monday, December 8

• Today from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Downtown United Presbyterian Church (121 N. Fitzhugh St.) is a celebration of Human Rights Day in Rochester.
  

  Come on down for a night of discussion and fellowship centered around human rights awareness right here in our community. The night will begin with a potluck (bring your own dish) and will be followed with directed discussion by a panel of speakers.

  [source: Gandhi Inistitute website, 2014-Dec-1]

• Tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the Fisher Meeting Room of the Pittsford Community Library is a Film Movement Series screening of Grigris (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Chad / France 2013, 101 min.)
  

  Despite a paralyzed leg, 25-year-old Grigris dreams of being a dancer, but his dreams are dashed when his uncle falls critically ill. To save him, Grigris resolves to work for petrol traffickers.

  [source: Monroe County Library website, 2014-Dec-1]

Tuesday, December 9

• Today from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in the Kate Gleason Auditorium of the Bausch and Lomb Library Building, Jack Garner will discuss his new book From My Seat on the Aisle: Movies and Memories. [source: Monroe County Library website, 2014-Dec-1]
• The Eastman Chamber Orchestra performs in Strong Auditorium on the University of Rochester Campus at 8 p.m. [source: UofR website events calendar, 2014-Dec-1]
• The Dryden will screen Modern Love (Arch Heath, U.S. 1929, 65 min., 35mm), and The Caretaker's Daughter (Leo McCarey, U.S. 1925, 20 min., 35mm) tonight at 8 p.m. with live musical accompaniment by Philip Carli.
  

  Leo McCarey's The Caretaker's Daughter stars Charley Chase in a bewildering ballet of mistaken identities and disguises meant to conceal a slightly questionable marital mixup. In Modern Love, his only extant starring feature, Chase is a newlywed who agrees to keep his marriage a secret to protect his wife's job as a fashion designer. This film was rediscovered in the Universal Studios vaults after a fire several years ago caused Universal to re-inventory its films, and has been recently restored after being unseen for eighty years.

  [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-1]

• Starting around 8:30 p.m. at the Lovin' Cup is Open Mic Night. [source: Lovin' Cup website, 2014-Dec-1]

Wednesday, December 10

• This afternoon at 4 p.m. in the Dyer Arts Center at NTID on the RIT Campus, Eric T. Kunsman discuss his Thou Art . . . Will Give . . . exhibition, on display through January 21.
  

  During his 362 visits to the site, Eric T. Kunsman, a lecturer in NTID's Visual Communications Studies Department and adjunct professor in RIT's School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, photographed America's first penitentiary in a revealing essay featuring 100 large format photographs on display in an exhibition spanning 11 years of work.

  [source: NTID website, 2014-Nov-21]

• From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Odd Fellows Lodge (357 Gregory St.) is An Evening of Food, Drinks, Music and Friends.
  

  Main dish will be provided by Orbs Restaurant and Bar. Please bring a small dish to pass (preferably one that showcases your business!)

  [source: Southwedge website, 2014-Dec-1]

• From 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Fisher Meeting Room of the Pittsford Community Library is a TED Talk Discussion on The Source of Creativity.
  

  PCL's TED Talk Discussions invites you to watch and discuss selected TED talks. Watch or listen to the following talks in "The Source of Creativity" series: "Sting: How Do You Get Over Writer's Block?" and "Charles Limb: What Does a Creative Brain Look Like?" The series is available at NPR.org. A third talk will be viewed before discussion.

  [source: Monroe County Library website, 2014-Dec-1]

• The Eastman Brass Guild performs in Kilbourn Hall tonight at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2014-Dec-1]
• At 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen My Darling Clementine (John Ford, U.S. 1946, 97 min., 35mm).
  

  John Ford told of knowing Wyatt Earp in his early days in Hollywood, and yet, when it came time to tell the story of Earp's shining moment at the O.K. Corral, Ford chose to take liberty with the story. Remember, this filmmaker later had a character say, "When the truth becomes legend, print the legend." The results are fabulous; this is one of Ford's most lyrical and evocative films, and a Henry Fonda gem.

  [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-1]