Events in Rochester, NY for Thursday, January 1, 2015 through Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Here's my selection of events in Rochester this week:
Thursday, January 1

  • From 8 a.m. to around 8 p.m., the MuCCC is hosting a New Year's Film Festival featuring shorts and features screening throughout the day. [source: MuCCC website, 2014-Dec-29]
  • The Dryden will screen Remember Last Night? (James Whale, U.S. 1935, 81 min., 35mm) this afternoon at 2 p.m.

    This boozy, raucous mystery comedy from Frankenstein helmer James Whale follows the aftermath of a debaucherous anniversary party, whose host is apparently murdered during the night. The party's hungover attendees attempt to recover their lost memories of the alcohol-fueled evening. Whale's film attracted much unwanted attention from censors before it could be released in 1935. Among other elements, the word "hangover," a thirty-second kiss, and considerable on-screen drinking fell victim to the censors' editorial apparatus. However, enough survived so that the film retains much of Whale's wonderfully perverse humor overcast with a genuine sense of depravity.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-29]

  • Starting around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar is Harmonica Lewinski with Guest DJ El Destructo [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Dec-29]

Friday, January 2

  • From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Cat Clay (Hungerford Building, 1115 E. Main St., Suite #242) is a Winter's Warmth Soup Benefit.

    Donate $20, and get a hand-made bowl and package of Healthy Sisters' soup mix. Then graze to your heart's delight on delicious apps and desserts. Doors open at 5. But don't delay, dawdle or dillydally – come early to pick a bowl made by your favorite artist. 100% of proceeds are donated to Healthy Sisters Soup and Bean Works. After the benefit, we're open 'til 9 for other First Friday visitors! We'll still gladly accept donations for yummy food.

    [source: Facebook, 2014-Dec-29]

  • From 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. tonight and tomorrow is a screening of Once in a Good Many Million Times (Jacob Beil, Daniel Doran, U.S. 2014, 24 min.) at Swiftwater Brewing Company (378 Mt. Hope Ave.)

    Dr. David Little was called to a rich man's home to examine his young, unmarried daughter. When Dr. Little emerged, he broke the news that the man's daughter was pregnant. A few years later, the girl died during an epidemic of yellow fever, never having given birth. After her death, the doctor took his slave Moses to the graveyard. They dug and Doctor Little performed her final autopsy. Inside the girl, he found something that would change his life forever.

    [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2014-Dec-29]

  • This week's 7 p.m. movie at the Cinema is Horrible Bosses 2 (Sean Anders, U.S. 2014, 108 min.) "Dale, Kurt and Nick decide to start their own business but things don't go as planned because of a slick investor, prompting the trio to pull off a harebrained and misguided kidnapping scheme." The 8:50 p.m. movie is Art and Craft (Sam Cullman, Jennifer Grausman, U.S. 2014, 89 min.) "When one of the most prolific art forgers in U.S. history is finally exposed, he must confront the legacy of his 30-year con." [source: Cinema Theatre e-mail, 2014-Dec-30]
  • The Dryden will screen Good Morning, Vietnam (Barry Levinson, U.S. 1987, 121 min., 35mm) tonight at 8 p.m.

    Robin Williams gives one of the most raw and personal performances of his career as Adrian Cronauer, a manic, unfiltered disc jockey on the Armed Forces Radio in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Williams received an Oscar nomination for this role, which is especially remarkable considering he improvised much of it. In his review of the film, Roger Ebert suggested that, "Good Morning, Vietnam is not so much about war as it is about stand-up comedy." In fact, the war is but a backdrop for this story of a gifted entertainer confronted with the immediate political implications of his art.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-29]

  • Starting at 8:30 p.m. at the Lovin' Cup is a CD Release Party for the nice, well-executed jazzy swing of Bobby Henrie. [source: Bop Shop website, 2014-Dec-29]
  • Starting around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar is Trashwave Review No. 10 featuring Televisionaries, The Flashing Astonishers, awesome, wild, blue-collar rock from Handsome Jack, and The Highest Leviathan. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Dec-29]

Saturday, January 3

  • Tonight at 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, Ukraine/Netherlands 2014, 133 min., Ukrainian w/ subtitles, DCP).

    Lauded Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa (director of In the Fog and My Joy) returns to his documentary roots in this exploration of the historic protests and ensuing insurrection staged at Kiev's Maidan, or Independence Square. Maidan is not a conventional documentary; its aims are in many ways more cinematic than informational. Rather than resort to talking heads, descriptive imagery, or voice-over narration, Loznitsa portrays the mechanics of a revolution in a series of static long shots which put the viewer squarely in the middle of the demonstrations.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-29]

  • Very good, experimentally-daring acoustic soloist Seth Faergolzia, and Bowlegged Gorilla perform at Skylark starting around 10 p.m. [source: Facebook, 2014-Dec-29]

Sunday, January 4

  • Today from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. is a meeting of the Rochester Athiest Community at the Flying Squirrel. [source: Flying Squirrel website, 2014-Dec-29]
  • Starting at 2 p.m. at the Dryden is The World According to Garp (George Roy Hill, U.S. 1982, 136 min., 35mm).

    Based on John Irving's best seller, this eagerly anticipated screen adaptation did not disappoint. Robin Williams is a standout in the role of T. S. Garp, a serious writer with serious issues. With strong support from Glenn Close as his mother, Jennie Fields, and a stellar cast including Mary Beth Hurt, John Lithgow, Hume Cronyn, and Jessica Tandy, Williams is the grounded center of the film. His sustained performance as an only child, raised by an iconoclastic and famous mother, who discovers the joys and tragedies of life mainly through his female friends and family, revealed Williams's depth and breadth as a serious actor.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-29]

Monday, January 5

  • Angel Du$t, Big Mouth, Druse, and Coming Down perform at the Bug Jar starting around 9 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Dec-29]

Tuesday, January 6

  • From 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Strathallan Hotel is (585) magazine's Jan/Feb Launch and Happy Hour. [source: Facebook, 2014-Dec-29]
  • The Dryden will screen To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, U.S. 1944, 100 min., 35mm) tonight at 8 p.m.

    This film owes its impressive literary pedigree to two great American authors. Working from Ernest Hemingway's book, William Faulkner helped pen the screenplay of a small-time charter boat captain who gets mixed up with guns, espionage and double-crossings during WWII. In an intoxicating screen debut, 19-year-old Lauren Bacall does her own singing as Marie 'slim' Browning, whose onscreen romance with American expatriate Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) sizzles with real chemistry. To Have and Have Not marks the first pairing of Bogie and Bacall, and gives us the unique chance to watch these two Hollywood legends fall for each other before our eyes. Just put your lips together and blow.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-29]

Wednesday, January 7

  • At 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Baby Face (Alfred E. Green, U.S. 1933, 76 min., 35mm).

    Sexy Barbara Stanwyck stars as gold-digging Lily Powers in one of the most notorious films made in pre-production code Hollywood. A tough bootlegger's daughter, depression-era heroine Lily triumphantly conquers a series of men (including John Wayne) on her way to the top of a financial empire! This restored version from the Library of Congress features five minutes of jaw-dropping footage that was never shown to the public after being rejected by New York State censors.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-29]

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