Here's what's going on this week:
Thursday, March 20
- Tonight at 6 p.m., Jeffrey Wolin will present a Wish You Were Here lecture titled Jeffrey Wolin—Photographs and Text in the Dryden Theatre.
Through image and text, Jeffrey Wolin links person and place with the passage of time. Often focusing his lens on individuals who have experienced hardship, he creates portraits that are distinctly honest and human. He will discuss his recent work, including the series Pigeon Hill Portraits: Then and Now, named for a low-income area of his hometown of Bloomington, Indiana. A graduate of RIT, Wolin is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He is represented by June Bateman Fine Art in New York and Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago.
[source: Eastman House calendar, 2014-Mar-17]
- Eastman Chamber Jazz performs in Kilbourn Hall tonight at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2014-Mar-17]
- The Dryden will screen Funny Face (Stanley Donen, U.S. 1957, 103 min., 35mm) tonight at 8 p.m.
Audrey Hepburn is Jo Stockton, a Greenwich Village bookshop clerk interested in philosophy. A chance encounter brings fashion photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) to her doorstep, with the opportunity to be the focus of an entire new line of clothing. Jo refuses until she's told that the job requires a trip to Paris, where she might have the possibility of meeting Emile Flostre, a philosopher she admires. Given the beautiful Hepburn to work with, Edith Head worked her magic on a series of beautifully designed dresses and gowns.
[source: Dryden website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Tonight from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Bernunzio Uptown Music is My Plastic Sun "Unplugged". [source: Bernunzio Uptown Music website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Dreameaters, Sky People, and Eyeway perform at the Bug Jar tonight starting around 8:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Mar-17]
- Todd East and Hot Sweets perform at Sticky Lips BBQ Juke Joint tonight at 9 p.m. (Remember seeing him play at Fast Eddies and the Brickyard?)
Blind since birth, Todd started playing the piano and singing at the age of three. He began his professional career at 15. Now, at 45, Todd East is recognized as one of the most talented piano players and singers ever to come out of this area. His music and vocal skills have been compared to the likes of Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel. His band mates will tell you that Todd never does the same song the same way twice and that all of his performance comes straight from the heart and soul.
[source: Sticky Lips website, 2014-Mar-17]
Friday, March 21
- Abilene is hosting a 6th Anniversary Celebration with "the hot Americana and alt-country sounds" of Kraszman and Fishwife starting around 6 p.m., then "the super-talented, super soulful groove" of Danielle Ponder and The Tomorrow People around 8:30 p.m., then fantastic, heavy, electric, lounge-folk from Auld Lang Syne starting around 11:45 p.m. [source: Abilene website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Tonight through Sunday at 7 p.m. are performances of Death Takes a Holiday at the First Unitarian Church (220 S. Winton).
In this delightful musical set in an Italian villa soon after the end of World War I, the spirit of Death appears as a Russian prince seeking to understand what it is to be human, and more specifically, what makes life so precious that people are always so reluctant to leave it. Based on a movie from the 30's, also called "Death Takes a Holiday", on which the movie "Meet Joe Black" is also based.
[source: Facebook, 2014-Mar-17]
- The Baobab will screen Homegoings (Christine Turner, U.S. 2013, 51 min.) at 7 p.m.
Through the eyes of funeral director Isaiah Owens, the beauty and grace of African-American funerals are brought to life. Filmed at Owens Funeral Home in New York City's historic Harlem neighborhood, Homegoings takes an up-close look at the rarely seen world of undertaking in the black community, where funeral rites draw on a rich palette of tradition, history and celebration. Combining cinéma vérité with intimate interviews and archival photographs, the film paints a portrait of the dearly departed, their grieving families and a man who sends loved ones "home."
[source: Baobab website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Musica Nova performs in Kilbourn Hall tonight at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2014-Mar-17]
- Tonight at 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m., the Dryden will screen My Dinner with André (Louis Malle, U.S. 1981, 111 min., 35mm).
Playwright Wallace Shawn and theatre director André Gregory sit down and have a conversation in a top-tier New York restaurant, covering everything from experimental theatre to the nature of life itself. Seldom seen by general audiences, My Dinner with André has been endlessly parodied and referenced in popular culture as an archetypal "art film"—although it is nothing of the sort. Malle and writers Shawn and Gregory display a great deal of skill in their rendering of the conversation, opening onto something far greater than the sum of its parts. What results is a work of cinema that is wholly original and endearing.
[source: Dryden website, 2014-Mar-17]
Saturday, March 22
- Today starting at 10 a.m. is a Life Sciences Field Trip of Winter Tree Id with Ken Wolf at Hopkins Point in Mendon Ponds Park near 100 Acre Pond. [source: Rochester Academy of Sciences Calendar of Events page, 2014-Mar-17]
- Today from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Peace Luthern Church (125 Caroline St.) is an In-Person Sign-Up and New Member Orientation for Peacework Farm CSA. [source: Facebook, 2014-Mar-17]
- Frank DeBlase will be at the Record Archive for a Book Signing of his latest book, Busted Valentines and Other Delights from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. [source: Record Archive website, 2014-Mar-17]
- The Dryden will screen Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, U.S. 1950, 110 min., 35mm) tonight at 8 p.m.
With Sunset Boulevard, Edith Head created one of the most iconic images in all of cinema: Gloria Swanson in leopard. Down-on-his-luck screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) gets in over his head when he stumbles upon a decrepit mansion and decides to hide out there, only to discover its sole inhabitant is forgotten silent film star Norma Desmond (played by real-life silent film queen Swanson). Agreeing to write her comeback picture while working on a project of his own, he begins to realize the suspiciously possessive way Norma latches onto him. From the opening shot of a gutter on Sunset Blvd. to the final devastating scene, Billy Wilder's multi-layered noir tale of Hollywood's cruel short-term memory is as pointed today as it ever was.
[source: Dryden website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Good acoustic soloist Nick Young performs at Sticky Lips BBQ Juke Joint tonight starting around 10 p.m. [source: Sticky Lips website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Summer People, Attic Abasement, Porches, and Del Paxton perform at the Bug Jar tonight starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Mar-17]
- The Crabapples, and Gun Trouble will be at Monty's Krown starting around 10:30 p.m. [source: Facebook, 2014-Mar-17]
Sunday, March 23
- Today in the Rundel Auditorium on the 3rd floor of the Rundel Library Building is a screening of Shoulders To Stand On: The LGBT History of Rochester starting at 1:30 p.m. with executive producer Evelyn Bailey.
Viewing the local documentary Shoulds[sic] to Stand On: The LGBT History of Rochester with a pre-screening talk by the film's Executive Producer Evelyn Bailey. Before the 1970s the fear of losing jobs and family kept many gay men and women underground, living double lives. Local Meeting places and watering holes were scrutinized by police; raids and payoffs were common and unchallenged practices of the day. In 1969, the Stonewall Riots in New York City sparked a nationwide gay rights movement that swept through Rochester, setting the local lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community on a journey from oppression to liberation and, ultimately, equality. This documentary, sponsored by the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley, chronicles that journey.
[source: Monroe County Library website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Tonight starting around 7 p.m. at the Lovin' Cup is The Djangoners CD Release Show. [source: Bop Shop website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Yip Deceiver, Aminal, People Can Be More Awesome, and Greenhouse Heart will be at the Bug Jar tonight starting around 9 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Mar-17]
- Over at the Meddlesome Lab is Hurricanes of Love, very good, experimentally-daring acoustic soloist Seth Faergolzia, Shuan & Colleen, and Space Gramma starting around 8 p.m. [source: Facebook, 2014-Mar-17]
Monday, March 24
- Tonight at 4 p.m. in front of the Federal Building is A Vigil to Remember: the 34th Anniversary of Archbishop Oscar Romero's Assassination by School of the Americas (SOA) Graduates.
Since 1946 the SOA/WHINSEC (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) has trained Latin American [soldiers] and in turn graduates from this facility have committed human rights abuses throughout Central and South America funded by your U.S. tax dollars. We want the SOA/WHINSEC closed and a congressional investigation conducted to document its record of human rights violations. Two of the three individuals responsible for Archbishop Romero's murder were trained at the SOA!
[source: Facebook, 2014-Mar-17]
- Tonight at 7 p.m. in the Ireland Room of the Chili Public Library, Preston Pierce will present The History of The U.S. Postal Service.
Preston Pierce, archivist for the Rochester Regional Library Council, will present the history behind our United States Postal Service! The program will focus on the various documents and collectable artifacts that provide us with historical information about the postal system that has served the nation for 200 years, as well as the development of the picture postcard. Registration is required and begins March 3.
[source: Monroe County Library website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Tonight at 7 p.m. at the Little is a special screening of The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, U.S. / Germany 2014, 100 min.) as part of the RIT Faculty Speaker Film Series 2014 Series with David Sluberski. [source: Little Theatre website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Tonight from 7:15 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. is a Forum and Discussion of The 2014 Draft New York State Energy Plan at The First Baptist Church of Penfield (1862 Penfield Rd.) with Jessica Azulay reviewing "the Plan's accelerated expansion of natural gas infrastructure, and other issues, and what the plan means for climate change and New York's environment." [source: R-CAUSE e-mail, 2014-Mar-18]
- The Eastman Wind Orchestra performs in Kilbourn Hall tonight at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2014-Mar-17]
Tuesday, March 25
- Today from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in Kate Gleason Auditorium of the Bausch and Lomb Library Building is another Books Sandwiched-In featuring Van Henri White reviewing Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools by Diane Ravitch. [source: Monroe County Library website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Updated: At 6 p.m. at the Cinema is an ImageOUT Best-of-the-Fest screening of Reaching For The Moon (Bruno Barreto, Brazil 2013, 118 min.) followed at 8:30 p.m. by the Best of the Fest Shorts Program. [source: Facebook, 2014-Mar-24]
- Tonight from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Rochester Brainery, Make a Short Film with Neeti Fidurko. [source: Facebook, 2014-Mar-17]
- At 7 p.m. at The First Unitarian Church of Rochester (220 Winton Road South) is a screening of La malédiction du gaz de schiste (Drill Baby Drill, Lech Kowalski, France / Poland 2013, 84 min.) [source: R-CAUSE e-mail, 2014-Mar-5]
- From 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Flying Squirrel is a screening and discussion of These Streets Are Watching (U.S. 2003, 53 min.) [source: Facebook, 2014-Mar-17]
- The Eastman Chamber Percussion Ensemble performs in Kilbourn Hall tonight at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2014-Mar-17]
- The Dryden will screen Les demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of Rochefort, Jacques Demy, France 1967, 125 min., French w/ subtitles, 35mm) tonight at 8 p.m.
Jacques Demy pays tribute to the Hollywood musical yet again in his follow-up to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Two sisters, dancer Delphine and piano teacher Solange, are looking for "Mr. Right." Maxence is an artist trapped into serving his duty to his country. Simon owns a music store. As each character goes about their lives they narrowly glide toward and away from each other, missing the perfect opportunity to meet their perfect mate. Starring Catherine Deneuve and a still-sparkling Gene Kelly, this vibrant classic is guaranteed to leave you in a state of wonder.
[source: Dryden website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Starting around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar is Bonzo Terks, Grey Light, Homeless, and Fiona Corinne. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Mar-17]
Wednesday, March 26
- The Eastman School Symphony Orchestra performs in Kilbourn Hall starting at 8 p.m. tonight. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2014-Mar-17]
- At 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Up in Smoke (Lou Adler and Tommy Chong, U.S. 1978, 86 min., 35mm).
Iconic stoner-comedy duo Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong star as a pair of renegade potheads on the run from their parents, the law, and anything that harshes their mellow in this hilariously heady cult classic. Chong stars as Anthony "Man" Stoner, a deadbeat drummer who picks up Pedro de Pacas (Cheech) on the California highway, kicking off a series of marijuana-fueled adventures that finds the pair with an overzealous police sergeant (Stacey Keach) hot on their trail. This staple of '70s comedy was wildly successful upon its release and is perhaps the most seminal "stoner film" in all of cinema.
[source: Dryden website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Tonight from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Tap and Mallet is the Bobcat Challenge 5.0. [source: Tap and Mallet website, 2014-Mar-17]
- Elemantra, and Ten Days of Rain perform at the Bug Jar starting around 9 p.m. tonight. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Mar-17]
Hi Jason:
My friends and I are about to release an app that focuses on building the local experience. We want to figure out a way to integrate bloggers into the app. You can google "CityWhisk" to learn more about us. I'd love to talk with you about my ideas.
Jonathan