Here's what's going on this week:
Thursday, May 8
- The Bertrand Russell Society meets tonight from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Writers and Books, hosted by Phil Ebersole. [source: Writers and Books website, 2014-May-5]
- The Dryden will screen The Public Enemy (William A. Wellman, U.S. 1931, 83 min., 35mm) tonight at 8 p.m.
Director "Wild Bill" Wellman launched James Cagney to stardom with this Pre-Code gangster classic. Inspired (as was the 1932 Scarface) by the exploits of Al Capone, Wellman directs Cagney as Tom Powers, an energetic and pugnacious petty thief on the way up through the ranks of the gang. Many films would follow in the format of a World War veteran caught up in the illegal side of prohibition (Cagney himself re-visited it in The Roaring Twenties), but none could quite capture the raw immediacy evinced in the original. The film's most iconic scene, in which James Cagney grinds a grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face, is apparently taken from a legendary incident in an actual gang.
[source: Dryden website, 2014-May-5]
Friday, May 9
- The Lilac Festival runs 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily from today through May 18. [source: Lilac Festival website, 2014-May-6]
- This week's 7 p.m. movie at the Cinema (presumably digitally projected) is 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, U.S. / U.K. 2013, 134 min.)
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
[source: Cinema coming soon page, 2014-May-7]
- Dan Levenson presents an Evening of Old-Time Music at Bernunzio Uptown Music from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Dan Levenson has been a musician most all of his life so far. He was born to and raised in a musical family where his father called square dances and his mother sang and played piano and guitar. Dan's parents even met at a square dance themselves. This evening you hear his story told of and through music. More than one story actually, and about more than one person. It is the stories of folk music, of growing up, of travel and life on the road. It is Dan's story but is also at once your story. It is history and entertainment; education and art; friends and family; school, work, life and play.
[source: Bernunzio Uptown Music website, 2014-May-5]
- Tonight at 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m., the Dryden will screen Raising Arizona (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, U.S. 1987, 94 min., 35mm).
Following the strange critical and box-office flop Crimewave, the Coen brothers hit their comedic stride with Raising Arizona. Finding a unique blend of satire, slapstick, and screwball, the Coens manage to riff on some of comedy's best moments, recalling greats such as Preston Sturges, Howard Hawks, and Frank Capra. The story is pure screwball gold: retired stick—up man H.I. (Nicolas Cage) and his infertile ex-cop wife (Holly Hunter) decide to forcefully "adopt" a child and ultimately get more than what they bargained for. Boasting great performances and dazzling cinematography, Raising Arizona seems to strike all of the right chords, rightfully earning its status as a cult hit.
[source: Dryden website, 2014-May-5]
- This week's 9:15 p.m. movie at the Cinema is Bad Words (Jason Bateman, U.S. 2013, 89 min.)
A spelling bee loser sets out to exact revenge by finding a loophole and attempting to win as an adult.
[source: Cinema coming soon page, 2014-May-7]
- 5Head performs at the Dinosaur tonight starting around 10 p.m. [source: Dinosaur Bar-B-Que website, 2014-May-5]
Saturday, May 10
- Today from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Writers and Books, Sign A Story.
Saturday, May 10: Come sign a story at Writers & Books! Susan Rizzo of RocCity Signers LLC will read Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and The Napping House and teach American Sign Language signs. Enjoy hot chocolate and writing prompts after the reading. This event is recommended for children ages 3-8, but all are welcome.
[source: Writers and Books website, 2014-May-5]
- This evening at 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Pokazatelnyy protsess: Istoriya Pussy Riot (Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, Russia / U.K. 2013, 88 min., Russian w/ subtitles, Blu-ray).
On February 21, 2012, five members of a feminist art collective named Pussy Riot protested the Russian Orthodox Church's support of Putin by performing on the altar of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior donning their signature colorful ski masks. They were chased off by church security guards, but footage of the performance became a music video and just days later, three of the members were arrested and charged with trespassing and disruption of order and accused of hatred for the church. Held without bail, they were eventually imprisoned for two years, while the case garnered attention from activists and musicians worldwide. Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer tells their harrowing story with exclusive interviews and never-before-seen courtroom footage.
[source: Dryden website, 2014-May-5]
- Starting around 10:30 p.m. tonight at the Bug Jar is the Weezer Blue Album 20th Anniversary Show featuring Skirts, Department, and Secret Pizza. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-May-5]
Sunday, May 11
- Starting around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar is Jeremy Jay, Light Feelings, and Passive Aggressive Anonymous. [source: Facebook, 2014-May-5]
Monday, May 12
- Starting at 7 p.m. on the NextStage at Geva is a Hornets' Nest reading of Detroit.
Ben and Mary have a fragile hold on the middle class lifestyle. When new neighbors move into the deserted house next door and come over for a barbecue, that hold becomes even more tenuous. The quintessential American backyard party turns quickly turns into something more dangerous – and filled with potential. With the economy still on shaky ground, entire cities declaring bankruptcy and the middle class slowly disappearing, do the tenants of the American Dream (that hard work will be rewarded with a steady job and a home in a respectable neighborhood) still apply? Is there enough room in these troubled financial times to reinvent yourself?
[source: Geva Theatre ticket website, 2014-May-5]
- Tonight starting around 9:30 p.m. at the Bug Jar is costumed Japan-rock band Peelander-Z, gritty punk from Envious Disguise, and Sexy Teenagers. Recall that on August 14, 2003, Peelander-Z was supposed to play but that was the night of the big power-outage across the northeast so, obviously, they might very well be cursed. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-May-5]
Tuesday, May 13
- Today from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in Room 3-6408 (K307) of the University of Rochester Medical Center is a Healthbites discussion titled Caring for Lilacs.
Rochester is known for its lilacs and the lilac festival. If you've ever been through Highland Park at peak lilac time, you probably fell in love with the lilacs and bought a shrub. Now…how do you care for it to ensure years of blooms? Learn how to plant, feed, prune, and generally maintain your lilacs from Cornell Cooperative Extension.
[source: UofR website events calendar, 2014-May-5]
- Today at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall is a Public Hearing to Ban the Box in Rochester.
One out of every four adults has an arrest or criminal record. 70% of employers currently ask in their job application whether an applicant has been convicted of a crime. If an applicant replies "yes", regardless of their skills and qualifications, in most cases, they will never be considered. Such discrimination not only decreases economic opportunity and public safety, but also violates New York State law and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) fair hiring recommendations.
[source: Facebook, 2014-May-5]
- Updated: Today starting around 7 p.m. at the Cinema is a screening of the 2014 Rochester Bicycle Film Festival. [source: Facebook, 2014-May-13]
- Tonight from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Fisher Meeting Room of the Pittsford Community Library is Gardening in the Shade.
Instead of thinking of shade as a problem, discover plants that need shade to look their best. Garden designer Carol Southby will discuss types of shade, explain ways to group plants, and show plants to grow for spring flowers and interesting foliage throughout the season.
[source: Monroe County Library website, 2014-May-5]
- Updated: Tonight at 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Burden of Dreams (Les Blank and Maureen Gosling, U.S. 1980, 95 min., 16mm) with filmmaker Harrod Blank.
Blank's most widely recognized film, Burden of Dreams focuses again on Herzog, whose desperation to complete his ambitious epic Fitzcarraldo nearly drives him mad, eerily mirroring the descent of his film's titular character. With lush cinematography, Blank frames the amazon jungle as both a muse and a source of stifling frustration. More than just a "making of" documentary, Burden of Dreams is about the lengths to which people will go to achieve creative realization, and the extremes to which they are willing to push themselves, their cast, and their crew.
[source: Dryden website, 2014-May-5]
- Starting around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar is Rust Belt Lights, Mace Ballard, gritty punk from Envious Disguise, The September Campaign, and Hideout. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-May-5]
Wednesday, May 14
- Today from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. is the beginning of the exhibit The Digital Page in the Rush Rhees Library.
The Digital Page, a Humanities Research Lab at the University of Rochester, is designed in conjunction with two seminars in media studies and media history at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Both seminars explore the idea of medium and media. All media (the human voice, books, paint, electronic files, etc.) shape their content (words, pictures, sounds, etc.), along with their authors and audiences. Through a series of collaborative projects, The Digital Page lab explores different forms of digital textual encoding as tools for research, analysis, and scholarly communication.
[source: UofR website events calendar, 2014-May-5]
- Tonight starting at 6:30 p.m. in the Learning Center of the Brighton Memorial Library is a screening of Comfort Zone (Kate Kressmann-Kehoe, Sean P. Donnelly, Dave Danesh, 2013, U.S., 70 min.) [source: Monroe County Library website, 2014-May-5]
- From 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Writers and Books is Satire Circle with Leah Wescott. [source: Writers and Books website, 2014-May-5]
- The Gandhi Institute will screen Mutluluk (Bliss, Abdullah Oguz, Turkey / Greece 2007, 105 min.) tonight at 7 p.m.
After Meryem has been raped, she is unable or unwilling to name her assailant. The village elder orders her death to restore the honor of her family. When Cemal the young man assigned the task cannot follow through the young couple run off together into a new life in a new world.
[source: Gandhi Inistitute website, 2014-May-5]
- The Dryden will screen Viva Las Vegas (George Sidney, U.S. 1964, 85 min., 35mm) tonight at 8 p.m.
One of the greatest box office smashes of 1964, George Sidney's Elvis Presley vehicle Viva Las Vegas came at the midway point of the King's remarkably prolific, albeit short acting career. Working with several major Hollywood studios, Elvis churned out back-to-back leading performances and albums for over a decade, with Viva being one of his most iconic. Although Viva has endured as one of Elvis's most popular films, the writing of its title track proved difficult. Eventually, several fruitless recording sessions yielded another catchy single, which has gone on to become both a fan favorite and an anthem for Sin City.
[source: Dryden website, 2014-May-5]
- Starting around 8:30 p.m. tonight at Abilene is Michael Hurley.
Michael Hurley, known by friends as the Snock, Hi-Fi Snock and Elwood Snock, has resided at the outer realms of the folk music scene for over 40 years. In 1965 her [sic] recorded his first collection of songs for the small Folkways label in New York City; in 2004 he recorded Down in Dublin for the small Blue Navigator label in Ireland.
[source: Abilene website, 2014-May-5]
- Starting around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar is Alex Kostka, Hughie Stone Fish, Eyeway, and Hannah Wiedner. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-May-5]
