Here's my selection of events in Rochester this week:
Thursday, February 26

• Updated: Today at 6 p.m. at the Downtown United Presbyterian Church (121 N. Fitzhugh St.) is a Coalition for Police Reform Meeting. [source: Facebook, 2015-Feb-26]
• Today at the Mental Health Association (320 N. Goodman St.) from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., learn what to do when Nothing Works. "Do you feel that no discipline methods work? This class offers a variety of techniques for parents to use with their children." [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2015-Feb-23]
• Aprille Byam hosts Rochester Stories today from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Writers and Books.
  

  Aprille Byam, aka Storychick, shares stories gathered from Rochesterians across the city in a unique performance format. The people of our city have great stories—come hear them! A chance to get to know your neighbors and strengthen the bonds in our community.

  [source: Writers and Books website, 2015-Feb-23]

• Starting at 7 p.m. at the Memorial Art Gallery is an Alternative Music Film Series screening of The Blue Black Hussar (Jack Bond, U.K. 2013, 98 min.) [source: MAG website, 2015-Feb-23]
• The Eastman New Jazz Ensemble performs at Kilbourn Hall tonight at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2015-Feb-23]
• Tonight at 8 p.m. at the Dryden is the John and Faith Hubley Centennial Retrospective featuring numerous shorts by John Hubley, and Faith Hubley from 1957 through 1970 (80 min. total runtime).
  

  Pioneering animators John Hubley (1914—1977) and wife Faith Hubley (1924—2001) were known for their experimental animation styles that were both playful and innovative. This centennial tour highlights some of their very best work and features the voices of the Hubley children—emily, Georgia, Mark, and Ray—as well as music from Benny Carter, the Oscar Peterson Trio, and Quincy Jones. New 35mm prints courtesy of Artists Public Domain/Cinema Conservancy and Hubley Studio, Inc. Adventures of an *, Tender Game, The Hat, Eggs, and Urbanissimo preserved by the Museum of Modern Art with support from The Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Fund. Moonbird and Of Men and Demons preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

  [source: Dryden website, 2015-Feb-23]

• Very good medium-tempo progressive rock from Sirsy, Buffalo Sex Change, and Blue Falcon will be at the Bug Jar tonight starting around 8:30 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2015-Feb-23]

Friday, February 27

• This afternoon at 5 p.m. is a McDonald's Rally at McDonald's (3300 Monroe Ave.) by Rochester's Fight for $15, and the #blacklivesmatter Movement.
  

  Last Month, former McDonald's workers in South Boston, Virginia filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the McDonald's corporation after a local franchise owner fired 10 black and latino workers. Employees had reported managers saying that there were "too many black people" working at the store and that they needed to "get rid of the n*****s and the Mexicans." When workers took their complaints to McDonald's corporate offices the company refused to take action, telling workers that they "should take their concerns to the store owner" — the same person who had just fired them.

  [source: Rochester Red and Black e-mail, 2015-Feb-20]

• From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in The Sibley Building (228 East Main St.) is the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance and Opening Reception for Balloon Manor.
  

  Dance the night away, or stand awkwardly in a corner while you relive your prom night at our Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. We'll rock around the Sibley clock, and explore all 5 stories of the incredible Balloon Manor: The Amazing Air-filled Undersea Adventure sculpture built from over 40,000 balloons.

  [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2015-Feb-23]

• From 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. is a Building Leadership and Community Knowledge (B.L.A.C.K.) meeting at the Flying Squirrel. [source: Flying Squirrel website, 2015-Feb-23]
• Ben Rossi And Friends perform at Skylark Lounge today starting around 6:30 p.m. [source: Skylark Lounge calendar, 2015-Feb-23]
• Starting at 6:30 p.m. at Bernunzio Uptown Music is An Evening of Discussion moderated by Natasha Alford, and A Celebration of Black Music presented by Verdis Robinson and with performances by The Dr. Charles T. Lunsford School #19 Strings for Success Violinists: K-Lon, Shaun Flaimz, Banke the Author, Jalonda Hill, Cammy Enaharo, Majahzi, and Lujar Art. "The evening will feature presentations and discussion regarding the origins and expropriation of black music, as well as entertainment from community musicians, artists, and performers, and raffle with prizes donated by local businesses. [source: Bernunzio Uptown Music website, 2015-Feb-23]
• Today at Record Archive at 7 p.m. is an In-Store Performance by Fringe. [source: Record Archive website, 2015-Feb-23]
• This week's 7 p.m. movie at the Cinema is Wild (Jean-Marc Vallée, U.S. 2014, 115 min.) "A chronicle of one woman's 1,100-mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent catastrophe." The 8:55 p.m. movie is Cake (Daniel Barnz, U.S. 2014, 102 min.) "Claire becomes fascinated by the suicide of a woman in her chronic pain support group while grappling with her own, very raw personal tragedy." [source: Cinema coming soon page, 2015-Feb-25]
• Tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 p.m. are performances of American Skin at the MuCCC.
  

  Through a series of monologues created by local writers and musical performances, an ensemble cast of thirteen characters shares pivotal and poignant moments indicative of their experiences in America. Both celebratory and critical, the show views crucial events in the past one hundred years of American society through the eyes of individuals who represent the diversity and complexity of this country.American Skin v3inspired by, and featuring, the music of Bruce Springsteen, American Skin explores what it means to be—or to aspire to be—an American citizen, and the privileges and struggles that it entails.

  [source: MuCCC website, 2015-Feb-23]

• The Eastman School Symphony Orchestra performs in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre tonight at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2015-Feb-23]
• Tonight at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., and Monday at 1:30 p.m. for the Senior Matinee, the Dryden will screen The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Norman Taurog, U.S. 1938, 91 min., 35mm) preceded by The Sultan's Jester (Roy Mack, U.S. 1930, 9 min., 35mm).
  

  The third Hollywood adaptation of the classic Mark Twain novel (and the first in glorious Technicolor!) sees the mischievous boy going through all his iconic pranks: the ingenious fence-whitewashing episode, the courting of Becky Thatcher, rafting down the Mississippi river, attending his own funeral, saving the local drunk from the gallows, and finally a daring escape through a gorgeously designed cave. In all aspects very much a brainchild of its producer, David O. Selznick, the film initially flopped at the box office, but resonates today with a nostalgic blend of naiveté and wickedness lost to contemporary Hollywood. Preceded by The Sultan's Jester, an early Technicolor Vitaphone short that was recently restored by George Eastman House in collaboration with Warner Bros.

  [source: Dryden website, 2015-Feb-23]

• At tonight's Mondo Movie Series screening at 10 p.m. the Little—"movies so bad they're good"—is Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, U.S. / Hong Kong / U.K. 1982, 118 min.)
  

  Visually spectacular, intensely action-packed and powerfully prophetic since its debut, Blade Runner returns in Ridley Scott's definitive Final Cut, including extended scenes and never-before-seen special effects. In a signature role as 21st-century detective Rick Deckard, Harrison Ford brings his masculine-yet-vulnerable presence to this stylish noir thriller. In a future of high-tech possibility soured by urban and social decay, Deckard hunts for fugitive, murderous replicants – and is drawn to a mystery woman whose secrets may undermine his soul.

  [source: Little Theatre website, 2015-Feb-23]

Saturday, February 28

• Today at 11 a.m. at the Little is a screening of To Light a Candle (Maziar Bahari, 2014, 80 min.)
  

  The Baha'is are a religious minority in Iran. They are systematically imprisoned, tortured and killed by the Iranian government. The Islamic regime bans the Baha'is to study or teach in Iranian universities. But the Baha'is do teach, and they do study. Since 1987 the Baha'is started Bihe, an underground university with hundreds of students in Iran, and dozens of teachers in Iran and around the world. Through powerful interviews, exclusive secret footage shot by citizen journalists, rare archival material and dramatic letters written by a Baha'i prisoners currently in jail in Iran, To Light a Candle shows how a small minority has defied the brutal systematic religious persecution through non-violent resistance and educating their youth.

  [source: Little Theatre website, 2015-Feb-23]

• Today at 12:15 p.m. at the George Eastman House is a Focus 45 lecture with William Green discussing his selections for the History of Photography Gallery. [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2015-Feb-23]
• At 2 p.m. in the Kate Gleason Auditorium of the Bausch and Lomb Library Building is a screening of Miracle at St. Anna (Spike Lee, U.S. / Italy 2008, 160 min.) as part of the Black History Month Film Festival.
  

  Spike Lee's World War II film Miracle at St. Anna begins in 1983 with Hector Negron, a veteran of that war, unexpectedly shooting a customer dead. Police discover that the suspect, a quiet postal worker, kept a statue head worth millions of dollars in his apartment. An eager young reporter (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) interviews Negron in his cell about the mysterious artifact. While serving in the all-minority 92nd "Buffalo Soldier" Division, Negron and three comrades managed to sneak deep into enemy territory in Italy. One of the men, Sam Train (Omar Benson Miller), picked the head up while they were serving in Florence and believes it brings him good luck.

  [source: Monroe County Library website, 2015-Feb-23]

• Starting around 4:30 p.m. at the Flying Squirrel is the monthly Community Dinner. [source: Flying Squirrel website, 2015-Feb-23]
• Starting around 6 p.m. at Skylark Lounge is Brian Clancy, and Joe Appleby, "an early evening of classic Irish tunes." [source: Skylark Lounge calendar, 2015-Feb-23]
• Tonight starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Visual Art Works Studio (31 Prince St.) is the 2015 Date Night Auction. [source: Rochester Black Young Professionals website, 2015-Feb-23]
• Starting at 8 p.m. at the Dryden is a screening of Point and Shoot (Marshall Curry, U.S. 2014, 83 min., DCP).
  

  Point and Shoot follows Matt Vandyke, a timid 26-year-old, who left home in Baltimore in 2006 and set off on a self-described "crash course in manhood." He bought a motorcycle and a video camera and began a three-year, 35,000-mile motorcycle trip through Northern Africa and the Middle East. While traveling, he struck up an unlikely friendship with a Libyan hippie, and when revolution broke out in Libya, Matt joined his friend in the fight against dictator Muammar Gaddafi. With a gun in one hand and a camera in the other, Matt fought in—and filmed—the war until he was captured by Gaddafi forces and held in solitary confinement for six months.

  [source: Dryden website, 2015-Feb-23]

• The Crooked North, and The Crawdiddies perform at Bernunzio Uptown Music starting around 8:30 p.m. [source: Facebook, 2015-Feb-23]
• Starting around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar is a Devo Tribute with a great stage show and excellent surf-based rock from The Isotopes, The Grinders, Nod, New City Slang, Televisionaries, and Pleistocene. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2015-Feb-23]

Sunday, March 1

• Today at 4 p.m. in the VSW Auditorium, Mark Toscano will discuss Archiving the Avant Garde.
  

  For the past twelve years, film archivist and curator Mark Toscano has specialized in the conservation and preservation of experimental films, working in Los Angeles at the Academy Film Archive. In this visit, he will talk about the challenges of working on independent artists' films, and present a short program of restored work by artists including Thom Andersen, Suzan Pitt, David Rimmer, Nina Menkes, and others. All films will be shown on original format: 16mm and digital. [source: Visual Studies Workshop website, 2015-Feb-23]

• The Eastman Chorale perform in Kilbourn Hall tonight at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2015-Feb-23]

Monday, March 2

• Updated: Tonight at 7 p.m. at the Flying Squirrel is a March Monday Mayhem on Data Security, an Open Conversation and Skill-Share.
  

  Bring A USB Flash Drive! March 2 at 7pm, we will be hosting a conversation about the role of data security in the lives of activists and journalists. There is no scheduled speaker, but many of us have some experience or informed opinions about encryption, electronic security culture, and the social impact of electronic surveillance. Hopefully the discussion will transition into a skill-share, where those with knowledge can teach others how to keep their IDs and interests safe online in an age where we post events like this on Facebook.

  [source: Facebook, 2015-Feb-26]

• Eastman's Musica Nova performs in Kilbourn Hall tonight at 8 p.m. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2015-Feb-23]

Tuesday, March 3

• Today from 12:12 p.m. to 12:52 p.m. in Kate Gleason Auditorium of the Bausch and Lomb Library Building is a Tuesday Topics discussion on Baseball in Rochester with Naomi Silver, and Gary Larder.
  

  Known as the Hustlers, Bronchos, Brownies, Colts and Red Wings, Rochester professional baseball teams have been an important part of our community for over 100 seasons. Just in time for spring, hear about the business of baseball, its history and future from local leaders, including the daughter of the man responsible for the '72-Day Miracle' that saved professional baseball in Rochester.

  [source: Monroe County Library website, 2015-Feb-23]

• From 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Genesee County (420 East Main St, Batavia) is a Garden Talk on New Plants for 2015. "We will take a look at a sampling of the new annuals, perennials, vegetables and shrubs that will be hitting the market this year." [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2015-Feb-23]
• At 6:30 p.m., the Little will screen Thinking Money: The Psychology Behind our Best and Worst Financial Decisions (Tom Feliu(?), U.S.(?) 2015(?), 90 min.), a propaganda film from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) followed by a discussion with Lynette Baker, Andrea Colline, and Chad Rieflin. [source: Little Theatre e-mail, 2015-Feb-25]
• At 7 p.m. in King's Bend Park Lodge (170 W. Jefferson Rd., Pittsford) is a discussion of Our Daily Personal Care Routine: How it Affects your Home, Family, and the Environment with Kate Winnebeck.
  

  Learn about how toxic chemicals in our cosmetics and cleaning products can affect our health and pollute our water and air; how to read labels and what chemicals to avoid, and green products to buy and make at home.

  [source: Color Brighton Green website, 2015-Feb-16]

• Tonight at 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, U.S. 1966, 131 min., 35mm).
  

  Edward Albee's play about a pair of dysfunctional academics held a dark mirror to the boozy, brawling marriage of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton—the "it" couple of the international jet set whose turbulent private life had become harrowingly public. Broadway wunderkind Mike Nichols's brilliant screen adaptation marked an unexpected leap forward for both the first-time film director and Elizabeth Taylor in a shockingly raw, Academy Award—winning performance of her lifetime."I love to take actors to a place where they open a vein. That's the job. The key is that I make it safe for them to open the vein." —Mike Nichols

  [source: Dryden website, 2015-Feb-23]

• DIVORCE., California Cousins, Lighters, and Bloomer perform at the Bug Jar tonight starting around 9 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2015-Feb-23]

Wednesday, March 4

• Tonight at 6 p.m. is an Artist Talk with Sean McFarland at the VSW Research Center about his work titled Glass Mountains. [source: Visual Studies Workshop website, 2015-Feb-23]
• From 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Bop Shop is a A Master Class For Everyone with Joel Harrison, and Steve Greene. [source: Bop Shop website, 2015-Feb-23]
• Tonight at 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen 20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, U.K. 2014, 97 min., DCP).
  

  20,000 Days on Earth is an inventive, lyrical ode to creativity and an intimate examination of the artistic process of musician, novelist, scriptwriter (The Proposition, Lawless), and cultural icon Nick Cave. In their debut feature, directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard fuse drama and documentary, weaving a staged day in Cave's life with never-before-seen verité observation of his creative cycle. It features those who have affected his life, including wry tales from the road shared with his regular collaborator, the multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis; actor and friend Ray Winstone; and Kylie Minogue, who shared a duet with Cave in the breakout hit "Where the Wild Roses Grow." These voices from the past revisit Cave in daydream-like scenes as he sits behind the wheel driving through his adopted hometown of Brighton, England. Neither a music documentary nor a concert film, 20,000 Days on Earth still contains electrifying performances. Audiences see a song grow from the tiniest of ideas to an epic performance at Sydney Opera House. This category-defying film—that really should be experienced on the big screen!— pushes the form into new territory, exploring universal themes about artistry and celebrating the transformative power of the creative spirit.

  [source: Dryden website, 2015-Feb-23]

• Medicine Wednesdays returns to Abilene starting around 9:30 p.m. with good, crowd-pleasing reggae from Thunder Body. (Alas, Abilene opted to turn their events page into one gigantic, copy-and-paste-proof image, so you won't see much from them here until that's fixed.) [source: Facebook, 2015-Feb-23]