CITY October 2023

ARTS. MUSIC. CULTURE.

OCTOBER 2023

FREE | SINCE 1971

Death

6 CULTURE WHEN LOVED ONES OF THE DYING ARE AT A LOSS, DEATH DOULAS TAKE THE REINS.

BY REBECCA RAFFERTY

10

ARTS THREE LOCAL THEATER PRODUCTIONS SPOTLIGHT THE AFTERLIFE.

BY JEFF SPEVAK

14 ARTS THE DEATH OF A DANCE CAREERS

BY SYDNEY BURROWS

20

MUSIC THE ROCHESTER PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA STAYS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT FUTURE DONORS.

BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

56 CULTURE A GRAVEYARD FOR GRAVESTONES

BY GINO FANELLI

48

CULTURE DEATH TO THIS DISH: HOT TAKES FROM OUR STAFF ON DEARLY BELOVED (?) STAPLES.

BY CITY STAFF

ARTS. MUSIC. CULTURE.

280 State Street Rochester, New York 14614 feedback@rochester-citynews.com phone (585) 244-3329 roccitymag.com

PUBLISHER

Rochester Area Media Partners LLC, Norm Silverstein, chairman

FOUNDERS

Bill and Mary Anna Towler

EDITORIAL

Editor: Leah Stacy

Senior arts writer: Jeff Spevak

Arts writers: Daniel J. Kushner, Rebecca Rafferty

Contributors: Sydney Burrows, Gino Fanelli, Jeremy Moule, Matt Passantino, Lauren Petracca, Mona Seghatolaslami, Narada J. Riley, David Streever

CREATIVE

Director, Strategy: Ryan Williamson

Art director: Jacob Walsh

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Project manager: David White

OPERATIONS/CIRCULATION

Operations manager: Ryan Williamson

Circulation manager: Katherine Stathis kstathis@rochester-citynews.com

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CITY (ISSN 1551-3262) is published monthly 12 times per year by Rochester Area Media Partners, a subsidiary of WXXI Public Broadcasting. Periodical postage paid at Rochester, NY (USPS 022-138). Address changes: CITY, 280 State Street, Rochester, NY 14614. Member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and the New York Press Association. Copyright by Rochester Area Media Partners LLC, 2023 - all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, photocopying, recording or by any information storage retrieval system without permission of the copyright owner.

58 CULTURE WHEN A HEARSE GOES BY AND YOU GET THE FEELING...

BY LAUREN PETRACCA

LIVE IT UP WITH MORE ARTS, MUSIC, AND CULTURE INSIDE!

On the cover:

WXXI Members may inquire about free home delivery of CITY including monthly TV listings by calling 585-258-0200.

Photograph by Lauren Petracca

Dearly beloved

BY LEAH STACY @LEAHSTACY

I won’t be able to write from the grave so let me tell you what I love:

oil, vinegar, salt, lettuce, brown bread, butter, cheese and wine, a windy day, a fireplace, the children nearby, poems and songs, a friend sleeping in my bed— and the short northern nights.

This poem from Fanny Howe always leaves a lump in my throat.

It speaks to the simplest joys we have on this earth; of taste and touch and sight. Of friends and family, those who love us and give us purpose. There’s nothing about work or ambition here.

While I love my job and the adrenaline of work, I’ve been spending time lately thinking about my mortality. It began with a long-awaited trip to Ireland in August. As I drove through the narrow island roads and explored friendly villages with my sister and brother-in-law, it was the quietest my mind has been in some time. Like Fanny wrote, there was brown bread and butter and windy days.

And for some reason, there was a constant reminder that life is so fleeting. Maybe it was the juxtaposition of the new and old there. The scent of a crumbling stone barn mingled with the salty sea air. Anywhere I stood, someone else stood hundreds of years ago. Someone young and full of dreams.

And I kept thinking, ‘this is all we get. Make it count.’

When the CITY team mulled the idea for this issue at a meeting, it seemed a little morbid. The Death issue? Does anyone want that, especially as the leaves decay and we head into six months of colder weather?

But I can’t tell you how proud I am of this end result. The team absolutely rose to this challenge and created profound, beautiful, oftlighthearted content around a topic our culture generally avoids.

Dearly beloved, death comes to us all — so let’s talk about it.

EDITOR'S LETTER

The Cliffs of Moher as seen from O’Brien’s Tower. PHOTO BY LEAH STACY

Staff epitaphs

BY RYAN WILLIAMSON @PIXELHATEDESIGN

Part of what makes CITY stand out from other legacy news publications is our everevolving art staff and visual designers. We hear from time-to-time just how sharp our print product looks. (Thanks. We think so, too...)

But of course, we’re always looking to improve and refine, which you may notice from time-to-time, but this time, we wanted to point it out because we do take pride in how this magazine looks and hopefully we’ve made the reading process enjoyable and easy on the eyes. We get to have a lot of fun doing this part of the job (there are other parts that aren’t so much fun. Looking at you, budget season.) mostly because the content sings and lets us play in concert with the words and stories on the pages.

Here’s some changes you may notice:

Our new byline portraits are a fun way to illustrate the team and give you a little peek at our personalities. Thanks to Justyn Iannucci for the portraits.

The table of contents page has been reworked a bit as well. We needed a new home for our masthead as well as a place to label the theme for the month. You might not find all of the stories in the magazine on this page, but hopefully it acts as a sort of roadmap preview to making your way through this month's magazine.

We’ve given the story template an overall facelift. Some of it will seem familiar. Some of it needed to be better defined in accordance with our mission and focus on arts, music and culture. Some of it was changed just because it was time. Keep it fresh.

Thanks for reading. Reach out if you have suggestions or comments.

The horsepalewhisperers

BY REBECCA RAFFERTY @RSRAFFERTY

Emily Benner’s mother, Elizabeth, died at home in the afternoon. That evening, Emily sat next to her mom’s body, gently holding her hands and feet by turns as she painted her nails a bright, pinkishred. Then she did her makeup.

Earlier in the day, Emily and other members of the family had helped wash Elizabeth’s body, applied special oils, dressed her, and for the next two days periodically changed out the melted ice from beneath her body while she laid where she wanted to linger, before her burial at Mt. Hope Cemetery.

“I was very uncomfortable,” said Emily, now a 32-year-old artist living in Paris. “I’d never seen a dead body, never touched a dead body. So that was very weird for me to have to do.”

It could have been a scene from centuries ago, but this was in April 2020. Emily and her family were, to the best of their abilities, following the wishes of Elizabeth, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She fought the disease until going into hospice services at home in late 2019. There was a brief crest of hope before the following spring. Long before then, she knew she wanted a home death, and not to be immediately spirited away by strangers.

When loved ones of the dying are at a loss, death doulas take the reins.

“My wife was much more alternative than I am,” said Tom Benner, 68, of his Elizabeth, noting both of their children were born with the assistance of midwives. “But I’m a supportive husband. So that was the essence of it — my job was merely to do what my wife wanted.”

It would be fair to think, nothing could have prepared this family for these tasks, but someone did. While alive, Elizabeth had enlisted the support of Lauren Sample, a Rochester-based home funeral guide and end-of-life doula, or ‘death doula,’ for short.

Sample, 59, doesn’t love that title, but at the moment there isn’t any softer language to readily communicate what the role entails.

“It’s not defined easily, because we sort of weave our way in and out of the places where people

are finding themselves needing support,” she said.

Death doulas are not social workers or hospice nurses, and they don’t offer medical care. They help the dying and their families navigate practical matters surrounding their last weeks or days of life, and step in to assist with those matters immediately after death. Just as birth doulas provide support when families usher in new life, death doulas are there at the other end of our time on earth, providing support to fulfill the requests of the dying, especially when those requests are outside of what we consider to be ‘normal’ death and funeral arrangements.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

“Having a funeral at home makes the death more real. But it can be helpful to have some people around who aren’t torn apart by grief.”

Lauren Sample sings the words, “Go now in peace,” as she sounds a singing bowl at the spot where her daughter Nora is buried in a meadow at White Haven Memorial Park in Pittsford. Sample became an end-of-life doula after the passing of her daughter so that she could help other people find beauty and peace even in the hardest of moments like she was able to.

PHOTO BY LAUREN PETRACCA

Tom and Emily Benner hold a photograph of their wife and mom, Elizabeth, as they pose for a portrait at their home in Chili. PHOTO BY LAUREN PETRACCA

THE DEATH DIVISION

Before the 20th century, it was common for American families to keep their dead and prepare them for their final rest. Between 1865 and 1920, there was a boom in funeral home businesses, with about 25,000 of them established nationwide. Relying on their services has only

become more commonplace.

In a culture that doesn’t have as intimate a relationship with death and dying as we once did, it can be a big ask for bereaved families to forego the funeral home and take on the responsibilities of preparing a body for burial, navigating regulations, and all other practical matters.

Each dynamic is unique, and requires different supports. Families might need help figuring out how to have a home death and funeral. A person who is dying may also need assistance with household chores, errands, or respectfully rehoming their belongings and pets after their death. Sample can help with most things people can imagine having to deal with, and so many things they can’t. That’s very much the point.

She’s also adept at being a

sounding board for exhausted people who are grieving and grappling with mixed feelings when their loved one is actively dying.

“It can be confusing and quite isolating when someone feels impatient that it’s taking so long to die, but also angry that death is coming so soon,” Sample said.

In some cases, as with Elizabeth Benner, it’s the person facing their own death who is making plans with the doula. But there was the point, of course, when Elizabeth was dead, and the family was confronted with the daunting gravity of putting those plans in motion.

Tom Benner said that was the space of time he felt the most helpless. But Sample sprang into action.

“When my wife died — what do I know? Between that time and burying

her? Nothing,” he said. “And even if you explained it to me, I wouldn’t know what to do. First of all, it’s not really a happy time for me, there’s just swirling emotions. But what to do practically? I was useless.”

Sample organized Elizabeth’s family and guided them through the bathing, changing of the ice packs, and other tasks.

“We needed someone like Lauren to be the boss,” Tom said, especially since COVID had thwarted the family’s wider circle’s ability to help as much as they would have otherwise. “She was there to say, ‘This is what we do and this is how we do it, do this and that,’ so I could just grieve.”

FROM LOSS, LEADERSHIP

Sample has been sought out because of her expertise in navigating the fine,

Lauren Sample poses for a portrait in her dining room near a photograph of her late daughter, Nora. PHOTOS BY LAUREN PETRACCA

gritty details of home deaths and home funerals. Her own experiences have added to her sensitivity.

In 2016, Lauren lost her daughter, Nora, at age 15. While she was in utero, doctors had identified that Nora had trisomy 18, a condition Sample was told was “incompatible with life.” She was warned Nora might be stillborn or live just a few minutes, hours, or days. Despite the odds, Nora survived for 15 beautiful years, Sample said — years she would repeat in a heartbeat.

“Before her birth, I would have done just about anything to keep death at arm’s length,” Sample said. “I was weirded out by it, I found it really distressing to go to a funeral home, where the body looked strange.”

But Sample was forced to begin the process of reconciling herself with her child’s death before she was even born. She gently acquainted her other two young children with the idea as well, instilling resilience in them for the inevitable.

Conversations about what they would do with the baby — “we’re going to read to the baby, sing to the baby, wash the baby” — continued after the devastating news. “I thought, ‘I don’t know how, but we are going to hold this baby,’” Sample said. “And we’re going to love this baby and sing to this baby.’

When Nora was born, Sample’s people were there for her. “If I had said, ‘I need you to put on sneakers and walk to Vermont and get me a cup of tea,’ somebody would have done it,” she said, adding, as a former birth doula, “it was a village I didn’t know could exist around death.”

By the time Nora was 15, she’d had many brushes with death. During a hospital stay in April 2016, it became obvious her body was shutting down, and the Sample family decided to bring her home to die.

“We just piled into bed with her, and told her stories about her life,” Sample said. Nora passed peacefully that night, surrounded by her parents and siblings, who attended to her and spent quiet moments grieving and saying goodbye for three days. They bathed and dressed her, decorated her casket, and buried her in a meadow at White Haven Memorial Park.

“The distance we have from death, it’s not just this physical and emotional and psychological distance that we have from our loved ones,” Sample said. “It’s also the distance of time. When we have more time with them, there are so many more connections to be made. Even when it feels like everything has ended, there is still time for something more.”

ANSWERING THE CALL

Just one month after Nora died, Sample served as an end-of-life doula for Alyce Adams’s mother.

Adams, a 52-year-old Brighton resident, lost her mother, Ellen, at age 92 to a heart condition brought on by old age. Her mother died at home, but also planned to donate her body to the University of Rochester Medical Center through its anatomical gift program. That meant her loved ones had less time — only about 12 hours — to spend at home with her after she passed.

“It was really important to make use of the time that we had,” Adams said. But she and her family still struggled with the idea of releasing her body to

the care of strangers so quickly.

Sample came up with an idea for a special send-off. She brought a length of pale cloth, laid it out in Adams’ driveway, and had family and friends write out memories and messages of love and warmth. They wrapped Ellen’s body in the signed shroud. That would be the first impression the medical center workers would have of this person when they unzipped the bag.

The homespun ritual created a focal point and a balm for the family’s grief, Adams said.

She likened Sample’s presence to a shadow, a background figure who helped facilitate a more complete experience of saying goodbye.

“We’re all children when we lose someone,” Adams said. “We all need this concrete help.”

Sample and Adams both acknowledged doulas can be most useful in the case of “anticipated deaths” — ideally, people will get a doula involved before someone is actively dying.

“I’m a firm believer that it’s never too early to contemplate what we might want,” Sample said. Toward that end, she offers services — like working with elders to downsize their belongings as they transition to senior living, for example — to help establish a relationship in advance. “That way I’m not a stranger getting involved,” she said. “I’m just Lauren.”

It’s not uncommon for people who have worked with end-of-life doulas to become advocates for the experience.

“Having a funeral at home makes the death more real,” Adams said. “But it can be helpful to have some people around who aren’t torn apart by grief.”

“I’ve become intro-level passionate about death now because I saw how well it went with my mom,” Emily Benner said. “I say to my friends who have parents who are older or sick, ‘have you talked to them about what they want?’”

The aftermath of her mother’s death was hard to get through, but Emily is grateful she had those tender, intimate moments with her mom while painting her nails and doing her makeup, just the two of them in her parents’ bedroom. “It brought so much clarity and, I think peace, because we knew we were doing what she wanted.”

Emily Benner shows a picture on her phone from 2020 of her holding her mom’s hand as she died at their family home.

PHOTO BY LAUREN PETRACCA

Season of death Three local productions spotlight the afterlife.

ARTS

BY JEFF SPEVAK @JEFFSPEVAK1

If death ever takes a holiday, that holiday is in October, and Halloween. This is when Rochester’s theater season will grow dark, with three stage presentations in particular.

The Company Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” has an Oct. 13-29 run at The Temple Theater; “Frida… A Self Portrait,” runs at Geva Theatre Center Oct. 17 through Nov. 12; and local playwright Samantha Marchant’s “And the Last Four Things” runs Oct. 26 through Nov. 4 at the Multi-use Community Cultural Center.

“We’re all leaning into the weird,” said Marchant, whose decidedly un-weird daytime job is working as an executive assistant and office manager with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

Written and performed by Vanessa Severo, who is from Kansas City, “Frida… A Self Portrait” is the story of Frida Kahlo, whose paintings could be seen as surrealistic, or perhaps realistic; that line isn’t always well-defined. The Mexican artist’s body of work was indeed bodies: specifically, hers. A body wracked by polio as a child and wrecked in a bus accident as a teenager. Kahlo’s art is often strange, and sometimes disturbing.

Marchant’s vision in “And the Last Four Things” is played

Vanessa Severo in “Frida...A self portrait.”

PHOTO BY MIKKI SCHAFFNER

out by an angel, the devil, and a dead man (who does, indeed, have speaking parts). A prolific playwright – her résumé includes a previous piece performed at MuCCC – Marchant describes “And the Last Four Things” as a blend of the nightmarish paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and … Dr. Seuss? She quotes the children’s writer:

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

She points out that the stage directions include the phrase “beautifully grotesque” and calls the work “appropriate for October and Halloween time, but it’s not a horror play.”

And, Marchant concedes, to pile on the incongruities, her show is maybe a dash of Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

It is an exploration of what might – a fantastical ‘might’ –happen following death. Dark humor abounds: the corpse is a dead music critic (not taken personally by this writer). “I think it’s a reflection back on what he was working toward in life,” Marchant said, “having that 20-20 vision now that he’s dead.”

And shouldn’t the mission of theater include 20-20 vision?

“It’s definitely questioning authenticity in life and art, and what makes something matter to someone else,” Marchant said. “Authenticity is searching and hope.”

In death, her characters see authenticity.

Contrasts also help define The Company Theatre’s production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Director Carl Del Buono speaks of the story as a chiaroscuro, “the contrasts of light and dark, life and death, love and hate.”

In this production of “Romeo and Juliet,” Del Buono does concede that a little modern music – and flashlights – might sneak onto stage. But for the most part, The Company Theatre is “trying to avoid wearing anything too anachronistic, like Converse or Doc Martins,” he said. “Everything’s going to have sort of a lush, velvety, highly saturated, jewel tone texture to it.”

And swords. Lots of swords. Early rehearsals for the play include practice in more contrasts, swordplay and dance.

The Temple Theatre plays a role as well. “It looks like The Globe,” Del Buono said, referring to the iconic London theater that once played host to Shakespeare’s works. “Ornate, polished wood. Built-in balcony. It almost looks Renaissance.”

Del Buono sees “Romeo and Juliet” as death, but it is the death of immaturity and childhood. “They get what they need to become adults,” he says. In death, they are “taking ownership of their personhood.”

The story opens with the Montague and Capulet families in the midst of an ancient grudge. Through the deaths of the young couple, “those wounds are kind of healed. And the two families actually come together at the end, and forgive each other and find common ground.”

It’s Shakespeare, evolving into Greek tragedy.

“I think that there’s hope to be found in their deaths,” Del Buono adds. “It’s tragic, but that’s why we pay attention to stories like ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ like Orpheus and Eurydice, and ‘The Iliad’ and the Trojan War and the fighting over Helen. Achilles and Patroclus.”

And again, out of darkness comes light.

“It gives the living kind of a gift,” Del Buono said, “and lets us know that we need to cherish the people around us.”

Life pivot

BY SYDNEY BURROWS

Ashley Campbell always knew she wanted to impact others. As a child and teenager, she did this through dance, working professionally with some of the most well-known companies in the business. When Campbell started her undergraduate studies at the University of Rochester, she danced as an apprentice with Garth Fagan Dance. But the dance community in upstate New York didn’t have the same feel as her hometown of Washington, D.C., and she couldn’t reconnect with her former career as a professional dancer.

Though Campbell still has a passion for dance, she has now shifted how she influences her community. Most recently, Campbell worked as the Director of Equity and Inclusion Research at the University of Rochester. Today, she is the Chief Impact Officer at United Way and also teaches regularly at California Institute of Integral Students.

When she danced professionally, Campbell loved the connection she made with the audience through her storytelling. At United Way, though she no longer shares stories through movement, she credits dance with her ability

ARTS

Three local artists reflect on the death of their dance careers.

Maggie Rickel.

PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

Ashley Campbell.

PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

Deijohn Kiner.

PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

to meaningfully connect with others. “I love that I can utilize that humanistic component from dance,” said Campbell. “I get the opportunity to engage with humans differently.”

Like Campbell, Maggie Rickel dedicated her childhood to dance. For the first 24 years of her life, she was known by her friends and family as “the dancer.” Her days were packed with class and rehearsals, while evenings were frequently dedicated to performances. At age 18, Rickel dove straight into the world of professional ballet, dancing for the New York State Ballet and apprenticing with the Rochester City Ballet.

Rickel’s world shifted when the pandemic hit. She had already been struggling with the immense pressure her career was placing on her mind and body, and with the addition of COVID-19, she decided to stop dancing professionally. While Rickel considered her next career move, she taught dance classes at a local studio and unexpectedly found that her artistic energy and passion for dance transferred perfectly into teaching. She is now studying business at Monroe Community College and hopes to open her own dance studio one day.

“(For) dancers who have gone professional, your entire life is based on this one dream,” Rickel said. “So when that career dies, you have to reinvent yourself and

find out who you really are as a person.”

Rickel’s former dance partner, Deijohn Kiner, came to Rochester in 2016 to fill an opening at the New York State Ballet—and after an injury during his senior year of high school limited his audition

opportunities, he jumped at the invitation. Kiner danced with NYS Ballet for a few years before realizing a professional dance career no longer felt like the right fit. Although he left the studio, Kiner transferred the outgoing, sociable characteristics he had

developed through dance to his new life. “In an audition you want to stand out, and I still keep that same air about me,” he said “That confidence has helped me in my current career a lot.” When his contract ended, he took a job as a barback at one of his favorite Rochester joints on a whim. Kiner fell in love with the fast-paced, energizing environment and worked his way up to his current position: kitchen manager at Swan Dive. Just as he had with performing, Kiner continues to bring joy to others, whether he’s saying hello or sending out some of his house made desserts to a table. “I love the interaction,” he said. “I have that gratification of putting a smile on someone’s face.”

PHOTOS BY JACOB WALSH

Still life and death

ARTS

BY REBECCA RAFFERTY @RSRAFFERTY

Death is a common theme in art, though its presence isn’t always obvious. But meditations on mortality and remembrance are the subject of innocuous-seeming artworks everywhere. Like paintings of beautiful young women admiring their own reflections — but if you squint, the whole scene becomes a skull. Or a lush still life of vibrant, over-ripe fruit and flowers — but there in the corner is a moth floating on a doom-trajectory toward a flame. Or an hourglass, or a candle nearly burned out. A beautiful bracelet of intricately woven brown strands which turn out to be the hair of a departed family member. And so on.

Rochester’s art institutions are rife with these kinds of works, and some of them are on display this month.

At the Memorial Art Gallery, Curator of American Art Jessica Marten said some works currently on view in the MAG’s 19th-century gallery fit the bill. Take Rochester artist Helen Searle’s 1871 painting “Still Life with Goblet and Fruit.” Set on a pristine white cloth, globes of ripe peaches, plums, and grapes are swollen with juices, their forms reflected in and by the curve of a green goblet filled with some unknown elixir — picture satyrs and nymphs blissfully cavorting off-frame. But this Dionysian celebration of the deliciousness of life is adulterated by the tiniest allusion to rot,

with Searle’s inclusion of a single black fly, which the curatorial text states is a symbol of death, decay, and a reminder of the brevity of life. It’s subtle, but nagging and ruinous.

This showcase includes many similar works — pictures of vibrant abundance with small visual reminders that death awaits — as well as James Carroll Beckwith’s entirely unsubtle 1878 painting, “Fame.” He painted a simple scene: a skull with its mouth eternally agape in laughter or awe, surrounded by

a void of subdued hues and wearing a crown of laurels. A stark and straight-tothe-point work, asking when even legacy is as fragile as a shivering leaf, what remains but our remains?

The George Eastman Museum collection also includes artworks about death and bereavement, including many photographs of the dead. It may seem morbid today, but it was once a fairly common practice to have a photograph taken of or with someone who had recently departed.

PROVIDED

Notably, Eastman also has some Victorian mourning jewelry — intricately knotted weavings from the hair of a loved one. In one particular item from 1850, a bracelet made from hair includes a charm, a small Daguerreotype image of the departed. See this item and more in Eastman’s newest iteration of the ongoing “Selections from the Collection,” which was refreshed at Eastman’s Collection Gallery in late September.

From ‘memento mori’ paintings to jewelry made of hair, local galleries

are exhibiting art about death, dying, and the departed.

FACING THE FALLOUT

By the time children returned to school this fall, the number of Rochesterians claimed by gun violence in 2023 neared 200. Mayor Malik Evans’s Gun Violence State of Emergency — originally put in place in July 2022 due to the staggering levels of gun deaths that year — has been extended multiple times throughout 2023, most recently on Sept. 14. Yet the deaths keep coming.

In early August, Rochester Contemporary Art Center launched a new public art installation on its East End exterior: a three-panel artwork bearing portraits of gun violence victims as well as handwritten letters to them, many from mothers to sons, with space for more images to be added.

“For me, one of the key aspects of this issue is the question of how we could — and I think some people would say, already have — become desensitized,” said RoCo’s Executive Director Bleu Cease.

The chilling title of the exhibit, “Who Will Be Next?,” speaks to the pervasive scourge of American gun violence in a way few discussions surrounding the issue have — it urges viewers to think of the lives that haven’t yet been lost, but inevitably will be while little progress is made to prevent those deaths from happening. It also asks members of the public to spend time with victims’ names and faces.

The installation’s images and words are line drawings, tracings made by members of the public from photos and letters sent to the project by people who have been affected by gun violence. It’s what the artists have referred to as an accessible, ritual act of community mourning.

“What we’re going for is for people to not just be a statistic,” said Martin Krafft, one of the artists behind the project. He added that public remembrance helps assuage some of the shame associated with this manner of death, whether homicide or suicide. “I think the missing component in that conversation is access to guns makes these situations much more deadly than they would otherwise be,” he said.

Amplifying the voices of people affected by gun violence is something that Krafft, of Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, and his collaborator, Elena Makanski of Tucson, Arizona, have tackled since 2017 when they began collaborating with anti-gun violence groups to collect names, photos, and stories.

Locally, they connected with Rise Up Rochester and Moms Demand Action. Members of those groups spoke about personal loss and the role of community support in healing at a vigil held at the RoCo installation in August.

Krafft is continuously collecting images and stories to add to the project. He’ll be back in town this fall to add drawings of local faces and letters to the empty spaces on the mural panels. Until then, visitors to RoCo can stop at the tracing station and lend a hand to the project.

The installation and opportunity to participate continues through Nov. 12. Another vigil will be held on First Friday, Nov. 3. rochestercontemporary.org

- BY REBECCA RAFFERTY

CALL FOR CREATIVES

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS AND EXHIBITION PROPOSALS Rochester Contemporary Art Center

RoCo welcomes general and video submissions for future exhibition seasons. Submit a letter of intent, up to 20 images or short video files on a flash drive with checklist, artist statement and resume. More details online. Materials will be kept on file for future reference and consideration. rochestercontemporary.org.

Deadline: Postmarked by December 31.

GRANTS Equipment Access Grant for Filmmakers

Recipients will receive up to $1,000 worth of equipment usage and facilities time, and a free 1-year Squeaky Wheel membership. Anyone in Western New York is eligible, and BIPOC, women, queer, trans and gender non-conforming people are especially encouraged to apply. squeaky.org/accessgrant.

Deadline: Rolling

RESIDENCIES UVP Residential Commission

An opportunity for media artists to come to Syracuse and make new video/electronic work for public exhibition at the projection site on the facade of the Everson Museum of Art in 2024. Residencies occur in 2-4 consecutive weeks. Commissioned work will be exhibited during the program year following the period of residency. Residency comes with a commission fee of $10,000, accommodation in the Light Work AIR apartment, complimentary Light Work membership, and 24 hour access to lab facilities. lightwork.org/uvp-commission.

Deadline: Jan. 8, 2024.

OPEN CALL FOR WORK Main Street Arts

Main Street Arts in Clifton Springs is looking for submissions from artists located in upstate New York working with all media. Submissions are reviewed twice annually. All artists who submit work will hear back within one month of the deadline date. mainstreetartscs.org/artistopportunities/open-call.

Deadline: December 31.

- COMPILED BY REBECCA RAFFERTY

roccitymag.com

CITY

Playing dead

MUSIC

BY RYAN WILLIAMSON @PIXELHATEDESIGN

Idon’t have many themed playlists. A couple that I made my now-wife, Nora, while we were courting (playlists are the new mixtape), a few “vibey” playlists for chilling by the pool or fireside. But definitely not many that are holiday-specific. Except for spooky season. There’s just so much to pick from that’s ripe with dark and twisted imagery, just how I like my music. I’m not super proud of the name my immature ass picked (‘Spooked my pants’) but I am pretty excited to share some cuts I think are surprising or a fun throwback. There’s the obvious staples of Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, “Thriller,” and “Monster Mash,” but I hope you find something new or unexpected to bump at your next séance or human sacrifice. Check out some highlights here, in no particular order, and follow along as I justify my spooky picks:

Baby, you're a haunted house.

WE’REWOLF by EVERY TIME I DIE

Buffalo neighbors Every Time I Die may not be a band anymore, but they'll forever live on in this playlist. Fast, heavy, shredding party music:

“It's a full moon, denim is tight

And my flannel shirt is freaking out Run for your life, cover your eyes”

CREATURE LIVES by

MASTODON

Of course we have to include our (once) local boys in Mastodon. From their 2011 album “The Hunter” this track features drummer Brann Dailor in his debut on vocals for the band. It's unlike any other Mastodon song with its synthesizer layers and sing-along style.

GRINDER by

JUDAS PRIEST

I'm not a huge Judas Priest fan, but Art Director Jake Walsh is, and he turned me on to the British rockers. I immediately added this track to this playlist. The song is actually a commentary on governments exploiting workers for their evil means. Spooky.

“Grinder

Looking for meat

Grinder

Wants you to eat”

THE FREAKS COME OUT AT NIGHT by

WHODINI

I'll be honest. I found this song from a candy commercial. But it still slaps.

NO ONE SURVIVES by NEKROGOBLIKON

To me, one of the greatest musical gimmicks is to hear goblin vocals coming out of an, uhh...actual goblin. Seriously. This metal band is fronted by a goblin. That should be enough for you to listen.

WE ROT by WHITE RING

Ambient, etheral, haunting electronic pop. Play it for the trick-or-treaters this year.

DRACULA by GORILLAZ

Not to be confused with the other vampire themed reggae-ish song on this playlist, Gorillaz might be attempting to conjure Dracula just by repeating his name in the chorus of this song off their selftitled 2001 debut.

SCAN HERE TO OPEN THE PLAYLIST IN SPOTIFY

MY BODY'S A ZOMBIE FOR YOU

by DEAD MAN'S BONES

It seems this track shows up on quite a few playlists of this style lately. And why wouldn't it? Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields plus a chorus of children singing about zombies is ‘Kenough’ to make it on any spooky season list.

WAREHOUSE

by DAVE MATTHEWS & TIM REYNOLDS

Bet you didn't have Dave Matthews on your Halloween playlist bingo card. But this ominous song with all of its wailing, will surely make you uncomfortable.

VAMPIRE

by PETER TOSH

Reggae music is known to be very spooky, right? Well in any case this song has it all, vampires, zombies, screaming and werewolves.

MURDER INK

by DR. DRE

Hard-hitting horror hip-hop over the iconic film 'Halloween' piano line. Save this one for after the kids go to bed.

GHOST TOWN

by THE SPECIALS

I did not realize how much reggae/ska was on this playlist but I guess my musical taste is showing. Only after watching the phenomenal zombie movie “Shaun of the Dead” did this become a Halloween song to me.

BABY YOU'RE A HAUNTED HOUSE

by GERARD WAY

This song from My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way continues the lyrical blueprint from his days in the Black Parade but if his backing band was “The Oneders.”

EVERYONE I KNOW HAS FANGS

by HE IS LEGEND

Good old-fashioned high-energy, post-hardcore heavy rock with dark raspy crooning from these North Carolina spooky boys.

WAKE UP DEAD

by MEGADETH

WARNING: Overexposure to face-melting guitar solos from Dave Mustaine may result in waking up dead.

KILLING YOURSELF TO LIVE

by BLACK SABBATH

The architects of metal music (plus the guy who bit the head off a bat) make some pretty spooky, yet motivational songs.

“What is this crap?”- MY WIFE

Financing the next 100 years

MUSIC

BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER @DANIELJKUSHNER

This year, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is celebrating a century in existence — and ensuring the cultural institution’s legacy for the next 100 years is now a top priority.

Questions of financial health and survival loom large, not only for the RPO, but for American orchestras as a whole. In 2016, the League of American Orchestras (LAO) reported that these groups were now receiving more income from donations than from ticket sales. Ticket sales have continued to be an issue since the pandemic, with orchestra ticket sales plummeting 67 percent between November 2020 and October 2021, according to a report by the data and analytics firms TRG Arts and Purple Seven.

And while a forthcoming TRG Arts study in conjunction with the LAO finds that ticket sales have returned to prepandemic levels and individual donations made to American orchestras this year are up 12 percent, the revenue from individual donations has decreased four percent since 2019.

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra stays optimistic about finding future donors.

RPO CEO Curt Long believes a proactive approach is needed to maintain support in the community. “American orchestras are used to thinking we can take it for granted that we are one of the pillars of the community,” he said, “and people are going to give us money just because they think having a great orchestra is a sign of a great city.”

Long added that perspective is antiquated. “If all we do is serve affluent, educated, suburban, old, white audiences, the case for philanthropic support for many philanthropists is not as compelling as other pressing needs of the community,” he said.

Donations are integral to the vitality of the RPO, enabling the orchestra to present concerts and programs that don’t bring in as much revenue from ticket sales, including community events, educational initiatives, and bolder Philharmonics concerts.

RPO Director of Development Rob Dermody agreed donors can’t be taken for granted. Donations are less certain than they were even a decade ago, and Dermody said fewer American households give philanthropically after the pandemic, with orchestra subscriptions also on the decline.

And while top donors are important, Dermody said they comprise only 12 percent of the orchestra’s 400 donors on the rolls. It’s vital to maintain a broad

donor base and convince those who make $100 contributions to invest in the RPO.

But securing investments is about cultivating long-term relationships that begin with ticket purchases. Zuza Kwon, a 41-year-old RPO board member who is also a donor, said people between the ages of 20 and 40 are typically raising families or actively pursuing their careers and are not ready to make major donations. But it’s not too early to reach out to them.

“I think it’s most important to make those people audience members, to make them appreciate and realize what an incredible thing the RPO is in the community,” Kwon said. “And as they become subscribers or as they just become frequent ticket buyers, that’s when you grab them as a larger donor

in the future, when they’re in a position to give more to the RPO financially.”

The RPO is also creating a young professionals group, which will hold its first event in November. The RPO’s donors, who account for 60 percent of its revenues, have seen a gradual net increase each season since 2021.

And to that end, Dermody remains optimistic. “It’s long been the story that the orchestra — it’s old people, they’re dying, the orchestra is going to go away,” he said. “Well, for 100 years it’s been said. It was in a Time magazine, in the ’50s, that exact story. And here we are, 75 years later. You look at 9/11, you look at the 2008 market crash, you look at COVID, we’re still here.”

“If all we do is serve affluent, educated, suburban, old, white audiences, the case for philanthropic support for many philanthropists is not as compelling.”

Brutal bands

BY GINO FANELLI @GINOFANELLI

Welcome to the days of rot and decay, when summer’s bright days yield to the creeping grays of winter wrapping their clutches around the earth. When the crows gather in the perches high above the city streets, and the concrete’s sunsoaked warmth turns stone cold, ’tis the season for death metal!

Something in the waters of the Genesee River has birthed a vibrant culture of some of the most brutal, crushing metal you’ll find anywhere. From international superstars to bar venue mainstays, pure sonic mayhem to melodic crossover mavens, there’s something for everyone.

Here’s some stuff to bang your head to.

Undeath

We can’t compile a list of Rochester death metal bands without giving a shoutout to our globe-trotting hometown boys in Undeath. The band’s first two releases, 2020’s “Lesions of a Different Kind” and 2022’s “It’s Time...To Rise from the Grave” cemented Undeath as stalwarts in a new era of death metal.

Guitarist and lead songwriter Kyle Beam is a riff-crazed madman, and his catchy leads are punctuated by vocalist Alex Jones’s guttural rendition of lyrics about building chandeliers out of human bones or turning a corpse into a biomechanical superweapon.

If it sounds goofy as all hell, it is. Undeath’s brutal, yet highly

MUSIC

Undeath. PHOTO PROVIDED

Rochester is a haven for death metal; headbang to these five crushing bands.

self-aware music fuels shows that are more akin to a beer-soaked house party than a rumination among gravestones. This is a group of stoner gamers making some of the tightest death metal around, and to that we say, “Hell yeah.”

Top tracks: Necrobionics, Bone Wrought, Kicked in the Protruding Guts

Necrostalker

There is an incessant, impenetrable groove to Necrostalker’s debut 2018 EP “Bloodstained” that one can’t help moving their body to as it careens along its sonic track.

Sulaco

For the more than two decades it has been on the scene, Sulaco has become something of a liveaction love letter to the extreme music genre.

This is a band which absorbs subgenre influences like a bloody sponge, employing them to create something both familiar and wholly fresh. It’s no surprise Sulaco has served as a sort of touchpoint of modern metal—guitarist and vocalist Eric Burke’s earlier band Lethargy broke up in the late 90s when drummer Brann Dailor and guitarist Bill Keliher departed to join influential noise metal band Today is the Day, and later form a little band called Mastodon. Burke, meanwhile, has at one time performed in live shows for grindcore titans Napalm Death.

From Sulaco, expect crushing death metal mixed with elements of beatdown hardcore and the occasional forays into prog noodlery, resulting in high-energy blasts of pure metal potpourri.

Note: Drummer Chris Golding works in production at WXXI.

Top tracks: Warning Signs, The Road, So Be It

That’s largely owed to bassist Oz Asbjorn and drummer Alex Zillioux, who are tightly socketed together. Guitarist Aaron Nicholson constantly toys with cacophonic pinch harmonics and rhythmic chugga-chugga goodness, riffing with controlled dissonance. It serves as a backdrop to vocalist Jonathan Tavares’s brutal growls. (Beers on me for whoever can interpret what the hell he’s saying.)

It all forms a perfectly executed exaltation of old school death metal bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Carcass, or Nile.

Top tracks: Into Black, Cuts Deep, Demon Inside

as Slayer or early Megadeth. The lightning-speed riffs favor melodic leads over galloping grooves, while the vocals fluctuate between a shriek-andscreech style and guttural howls. It’s fast-paced metal begging for you to grab your skateboard and launch off a quarter pipe.

Vicious Intent has only released a demo and a live album, but if anything they’ve got in store is half as good as that material, we’re in for a treat.

Top tracks: Flesh-eating Serpent, Exiled Heathen, Saviors of the Sea

Vicious Intent

If there’s any band on this list fit for absolutely crushing a Cream Ale to, it’s Vicious Intent.

Vicious Intent bills itself as “blasphemous thrash metal,” but the influence of death metal icons like Obituary or Cynic are just as apparent

Gutted Alive

If ever there was a fitting name for a band, look no further than Gutted Alive.

This is a band that knows what it wants to be and lives up to every single expectation. It’s true, uncut, no-bullshit brutal death metal. Vocalist Ryan Michael offers up crushing gutturals and pig squeals atop a punishing groove which picks up its pace as easily as it descends into abyssal breakdowns. While Gutted Alive takes cues from bands like Deicide and Gojira, the closest parallel I can draw is a slightly more simplistic version of one of my personal all-time favorite death metal bands, Necrophagist.

In fact, Gutted Alive’s 2019 album “Killing Desire” reminds me quite a bit of Necrophagist’s 1999 album “Onset of Putrefaction,” save for a slightly more conservative approach to show-off guitar work. They both rule.

Top tracks: Purveyor in Filth, Unspontaneous Human Combustion, Post-Mortem Explosion

Processing pain through poetry

MUSIC

BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER @DANIELJKUSHNER

Canandaigua musician Andrew Cloninger seemed to have life sorted out. He and his wife, Mary, had a six-year-old son, Noah, and Cloninger was making a living doing industrial work in warehouses and factories. He had occasional shoulder pain, but he brushed it off.

In 2018, he was chopping wood on his uncle’s property in Michigan when he suffered a debilitating spinal injury that changed his life forever. An MRI indicated he had sustained a bulging disk and nerve damage.

Five years later, Cloninger has processed the trauma through haiku. His debut book of poems and illustrations, “C6-C7,” is out October 3 via Atmosphere Press, a small publisher based in Austin, TX.

Physical and occupational therapy have helped to improve Cloninger’s quality of life, but things aren’t the same. He has to rest frequently during the day, and can only lift up to 20 pounds at a time.

“I couldn’t even play guitar when the accident happened, and that was absolutely devastating, because it’s your therapy as a musician,” said Cloninger, who

When a neck injury upended Andrew Cloninger’s

life, the musician turned to words to make sense.

PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

now plays a monthly residency at Red White & Brew of Rochester with cellist Melissa Davies in the ambient post-rock duo Wren Cove. “This is something that you’ve been working your whole life to perfect in your own way, and it’s identity in some ways, too. And that’s something that I had to face: ‘Who are you without this thing in your life?’”

Cloninger’s wife, Mary, says there was a mourning period of sorts, as if someone had died. She recalls that Andrew’s pain was so severe, he slept in his chair downstairs for two years and wouldn’t take part in activities outside the house.

“It was kind of like letting go of all your hopes and dreams with this person,” Mary explained. “What is life going to look like now? And will life look like this forever, or will he slowly improve? I thought he was going to die in his chair at one point.”

But something clicked for Cloninger in summer 2020, when he spent a weekend on Lake Ontario with his family and began to write the poetry that would become “C6-C7.”

The second poem in the collection, titled “A Day in the

Life,” captures the cataclysmic moment:

The dust lifts as the ax swings A flash in my head Questions as my neck gives way

Mary has noticed the poetry’s benefit. “It has been huge for him, being able to process from start to finish the different emotions and the different stages of the injury and recovery,” she said.

Rather than write in the conventional haiku form, Cloninger uses a modified 7-5-7 syllable structure, with the middle line providing the connective tissue between two more complicated ideas. He has found catharsis in the writing process, and hopes the book can help others dealing with their own traumas

“I believe you can deal with trauma and you can deal with hard things in your life in short increments,” he said. “And I feel like haiku does that in a way that’s so efficient and so poignant, because it’s almost like ripping the bandaid off.”

“RUNNING WITH SCISSORS” BY

ELI FLYNN

Rochester audiences are well acquainted with Eli Flynn as a current member of the bands Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, Upward Groove, and The Able Bodies, and on the stylistically diverse “Running With Scissors” — his debut solo album — there’s never a dull moment.

“Easier” demonstrates Flynn’s prowess as a rock vocalist as he snarls his way through the melody with a limber range and soulful swagger that recalls the aplomb of Gavin DeGraw on his 2003 breakthrough album “Chariot.”

“Every Word Is a Mountain” borrows from The Able Bodies’s playbook of danceable ’90s pop that grooves, but mixed metaphors about “my love in a sling” and “broken logic hanging from a silver chair” distract from the song’s natural charms.

Flynn’s words regain focus on the very next track. “There was a time in the beginning when devotion kept me spinning but that time is past,” he sings with calm wisdom on “Hell in a Handbasket.” Slide guitar and a Fender Rhodes organ sound meld over a loping tempo that flows like a lazy river: “Have you ever met your demons, took their advice without reason? Well I have.”

Flynn understands the value of a concise pop song that leaves the listener wanting more. Four of the tracks are little more than two minutes and 30 seconds long. “Two Graves” and the title track, in particular, benefit from guitar hooks as catchy as they are pithy.

Throughout the record, occasional wisps of soul and funk refresh the natural charm of Flynn’s charismatic tunes. The music was entrusted to sound engineers Lincoln All and Aaron Lipp, whose supervision of mixing and mastering, respectively, gives the album its polish.

Eli Flynn plays the album release show for “Running With Scissors” on Saturday, October 28, at Three Heads Brewing, with the doors opening at 7:30 p.m. and Garth Clark playing the opening set. $10.

— BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

“BREATH & FIRE” BY FIVEBYFIVE

In some ways, fivebyfive’s new album, “Breath & Fire,” out October 17, feels like a new era for the group. It’s the second of the group’s recordings to feature electric guitarist Ken Luk, but the musicians really seem to have settled in with one another.

“Dreadlocked” is the ideal opener: a minimalist rock track that makes the listener question what makes something classical and what doesn’t — if instrumentation is the distinguishing factor, and not the music itself, does that make genre distinctions arbitrary?

Marc Webster, the ensemble’s in-house audio engineer, contributes B3 organ riffs to mesmerizing effect. When paired with Luk’s guitar, the result is unrelenting prog vibes that mix surprisingly well with piano and woodwinds. The bombastic energy of “Dreadlocked’’ is sure to be popular with live audiences.

On Sarah Kirkland Snider’s “Pale as Centuries,” the melodies in the flute and clarinet travel jagged peaks and meandering pathways through the valleys below. Underneath this desolate beauty of high and low sounds are hypnotic ostinatos that make for an unsettling, but captivating listen.

Fans of ambient music will likely find a gem in “Öldurót,” or “Ocean Waves” by Ólafur Arnalds. Fivebyfive bassist Eric J. Polenik’s entirely acoustic arrangement captures the same undulations and ephemeral grace of the original 2016 electroacoustic track.

My favorite composition on the album is the last, “Tamboreño,” by Miguel del Águila. The swirling rhythms and pinprick riffs from guitarist Ken Luk are endless fun. It’s not often I consider a classical work to be danceable in the conventional sense, but “Tamboreño” is an exception. It also showcases the quintet’s superb chemistry. Fivebyfive continues to impress as Rochester’s leading contemporary classical band. And although the album’s track order gets stuck in a predictable pattern of calm-chaotic-calm-chaotic, the compositions themselves are rendered fresh and engaging.

— BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

roccitymag.com

Wren Cove performs at Red White & Brew. PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

todo DAILY

Full calendar of events online at roccitymag.com

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1

CELEBRATION

Hispanic Heritage Day Celebration

Memorial Art Gallery, mag.rochester.edu

This family-friendly celebration at the MAG includes music, dance, costumes, crafts, storytelling, and film. This year’s focus is on Chile, with special presentations exploring this country and its cultures. Other highlights include Peruvian dance performance, a drumming workshop, music from The Mambo Kings, and screenings of “The Boricua’s Dilemma” by Sebastian NazarioColon, a filmmaker studying at RIT. Free admission also includes the galleries, so if you have a bit more time you can explore the current exhibits, including the collages and films of multidisciplinary artist Crystal Z Campbell and “Represent: Great Women Artists at MAG.”

Noon 5 p.m. MONA SEGHATOLESLAMI

week ahead. Sunday nights at 9 p.m. through April; free and open to all.

LEAH STACY

MONDAY, OCTOBER 2

MOVIE “The Devil’s Backbone”

The Little Theatre, thelittle.org Guillermo del Toro is at some of his haunting-beautiful best with this Gothic cinematic tale set in an orphanage in Spain at the brink of its Civil War. A young boy confronts the ghosts of the past in a strange present, with a literal ticking bomb at his feet. This melancholic and understated movie is well-suited for those who appreciate imaginative art, even if “scary” movies aren’t normally your thing. And if you’re a fan of “Pan’s Labyrinth,” del Toro’s betterrecognized effort from a few years later, this movie is especially not to be missed tonight at The Little at 7:30 p.m. MS

follows Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf as they sing all your favorite tunes from the film, plus 12 additional new songs by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. “Frozen” in person is sure to delight the whole family and cause sing-alongs all the way home.

7:30 p.m. $46-$99.

DANIEL J. KUSHNER

whom we might disagree. Presented by the Levine Center to End Hate, the “Concert to End Hate” will feature Smith collaborating with his original jazz group Freedom Trio and a 10-piece string ensemble. School 19’s Strings for Success program and the Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra will also perform, although the musicians will be playing from various locations throughout the Bourbon Street room at Artisan Works, as opposed to a central stage. The program runs from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission is $25, but ticket scholarships are available. DK

FILM “Uncharitable”

The Little Theatre, thelittle.org

After three of the most dynamic and successful U.S. charities were shut down by conservative charity watchdogs, many of the top influencers in the field knew something had to be done to overhaul the nonprofit sector. Dan Pallotta, whose record-breaking TED Talk on the subject has inspired top philanthropists and changemakers, leads this documentary to expose the dark side of philanthropy and introduce a radical new way of giving. WXXI’s Evan Dawson will moderate a post-screening discussion with panelists Rochester Area Community Foundation President & CEO Simeon Banister, Empreinte Consulting President & Founder Marc Misiurewicz, and Urban League of Rochester President & CEO Dr. Seanelle Hawkins on October 3 at 7:30 p.m.; the film screens again on October 7 at 3:30 p.m. Tickets are $7 for members, $11 for general admission. LS

Flying Object presents “Wanna Believe Wednesdays”

MUSIC Compline

Christ Church, christchurchrochester.org

This 30-minute weekly candlelit service performed by the Eastman School of Music’s Schola Cantorum is part community tradition, part one-credit class. ‘Compline’ draws its name from the Latin word meaning ‘completion,’ and is meant to be a service of rest at the end of the day. In this case, it’s the perfect reset for the

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3

THEATER “Frozen”

West Herr Auditorium Theatre; rbtl.org

The story of “Frozen” quickly became a hit as a Disney movie when it came out in 2013, and fans haven’t been able to “Let It Go” ever since. This touring production of the musical

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4

MUSIC

Flour City Station, flourcitystation.com Although the roots reggae band Thunder Body is no longer active, its concert series “Medicine Wednesdays” reverberates in the memories of the music lovers who attended those energetic, fun-loving shows at Abilene and Flour City Station. The former group’s frontman Matt O’Brian is resurrecting the concept of the four-part residency at Flour City with his new band Flying Object, which includes Mike Martinez, Dirty Blanket frontman Max Flansburg, and Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad drummer Chris O’Brian. You can bet the music will be soulful and danceable, and expect different musical guests each week. “Wanna Believe Wednesdays” takes place 9 pm to midnight on October 4, 11, 18, and 25. Entry to the 21-and-over shows is $10. DK

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

Artisan Works, endhateroc.org

Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s third trumpet Herb Smith headlines this multi-genre concert designed to encourage empathy for those with

“Concert to End Hate”

MUSIC

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5

FOOD + DRINK

Alcohol-Free Tasting Cruise with AltBar

Sam Patch Cruises, cornhillnav.org

AltBar Rochester, a dedicated nonalcoholic pop-up, kicks off their Sober October events with a 90-minute evening Sam Patch Cruise on the Erie Canal. Passengers will sample zero proof cocktails, non-alcoholic beer and wine, and after the tasting, the drinks will be available to purchase as they savor the scenery. All ages; tickets are $30 for seniors, $32 general admission. Check altbarroc.com for the full listing of Sober October events. LS

GAMING Minecraft Club

Gates Public Library, facebook.com/ gatespubliclibary

If you have a kid between the ages five and 15, you’re probably familiar with the video game phenomenon known simply as Minecraft. Players can build their own homes, fight zombies, and yes, mine in an openended world, in which creativity is the endgame. The Gates Public Library offers a free hangout for Minecraft players every first and third Monday, and even provides laptops and tablets for those who don’t bring their own device. Players can also join the library’s Minecraft server remotely. Registration is required. Visit the library’s Facebook page for more information. 5 to 6 p.m. DK

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6

FESTIVAL

NY Harvest Festival & Freedom Fair

Trumansburg Fairgrounds, ny-harvestfest.com

Likely the closest we’ll get to experiencing GrassRoots Festival in the fall, the Harvest Fest runs through October 9. The four-day celebration of music and cannabis features talks from activists and educators, wares from vendors and artists, and of course, music from the likes of Immortal Technique, Sophistaphunk, and multiple tributes to the work of the Grateful Dead and the Jerry Garcia Band. Weekend passes, which include camping, are $133. Tickets for Sunday only, including camping overnight, are $53. RV parking is available. DK

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7

ART

“Exploring Animation: Phenakistoscope Discovery Project”

George Eastman Museum, eastman.org

This special exhibition features the work of international students who are learning English, and in some cases have never studied art in any formal capacity. The show features the aspiring artists take on the early animation technique called phenakistoscope, the antiquated equivalent to a GIF and a precursor to film. The disks contain a series of images that give the illusion of movement. Visitors to the museum can also learn how to make their own phenakistoscopes. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. $7$20; tickets are free for children 4 and under as well as members. DK

CONTINUED ON PAGE 37

WXXI launches a whole new season of Indie Lens Pop-Up, a neighborhood screening series that brings people together for community-driven conversations around films from the award-winning PBS series. Held monthly at the Little Theatre (240 East Avenue, Rochester), these free screenings are followed by lively panel discussions to encourage dialogue on social issues. Seats are first come, first served.

Through its roster of five documentary projects this season, Indie Lens Pop-Up presents a range of topics impacting communities around the U.S., including the Muslim American experience, climate gentrification, and race and gender equity in mainstream media. This season’s topics also aim to expand perspectives through deeply personal stories, like what it means to live with Parkinson’s disease, and how the Deaf and hard of hearing community redefine what it means to listen. Each film will make its television debut on INDEPENDENT LENS, PBS’s award-winning documentary anthology series on WXXI-TV, and will be available to stream on the PBS App.

The season kicks off with “A Town Called Victoria” by Li Lu, screening on Monday, October 23 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at The Little. A mosque in South Texas erupts in flames. After the cameras turn away and the narrative slips from the headlines, the town of Victoria must overcome its age-old political, racial, and economic divides, and begin the hard work of changing itself for the better.

A Town Called Victoria

Screening Monday, October 23 6:30 p.m. at The Little Theatre

OTHER FILMS IN THE SERIES INCLUDE:

“Razing Liberty Square” by Katja Esson Liberty City, Miami is home to one of the oldest segregated public housing projects in the United States. Now with rising sea levels, the neighborhood’s higher ground has become something else: real estate gold.

“Breaking the News” by Heather Courtney, Princess A. Hairston, Chelsea Hernandez, and Diane M Quon

Frustrated by the lack of representation in the media, a group of women and LGBTQ+ journalists launched The 19th*, a digital news startup whose work is guided by elevating the voices often left out of the American story.

“Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s” by Anna Moot-Levin and Laura Green

Three people—a political cartoonist, a mother-turned-boxing coach, and an optician— navigate their lives with resourcefulness and determination in the face of a degenerative illness, Parkinson’s disease.

“The Tuba Thieves” by Alison O’Daniel

Between 2011 and 2013, tubas were stolen from high schools across Southern California. Against this backdrop, hard-of-hearing filmmaker Alison O’Daniel generates new sensitivity to sound and meaning in an unconventional documentary experience.

For dates and times of these screenings, visit WXXI.org/indielens

American Masters

“Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes”

Friday, October 6 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV

Explore the extraordinary life and musical career of the legendary drummer, composer, and social activist. The film follows Max Roach’s career and personal struggles and triumphs, across a series of masterful musical innovations and artistic reinventions. His creativity and unshakable sense of mission kept him at the forefront of music and activism across seven decades.

Nature “The Platypus Guardian”

Wednesday, October 18 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV

When photographer Pete Walsh stumbles across a bizarre creature in an Australian urban waterway, he does not know his life is about to change forever. Witness the incredible bond between man and platypus.

Little Bird

Sundays at 7 p.m. beginning October 15

Bezhig Little Bird was adopted into a Jewish family at the age of five, being stripped of her identity and becoming Esther Rosenblum. Now in her twenties, she longs for the family she lost and to fill in the missing pieces. Her quest lands her in the Canadian prairies where she discovers that she was one of the generations of children forcibly apprehended by the Canadian government through a policy, later coined the 60s Scoop.

Photo: Esther (Darla Contois), Golda (Lisa Edelstein) Credit: Courtesy of Steve Ackerman

POV: Aurora’s Sunshine

Monday, October 23 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV

At 14, Aurora Madriganian survived the Armenian Genocide and escaped to New York, where her story became a media sensation. Her newfound fame led to her starring in Auction of Souls, one of Hollywood’s earliest blockbusters. Blending storybook animation, video testimony, and rediscovered footage from her lost silent epic, Aurora’s Sunrise revives her forgotten story.

Photo credit: Bars Media Film

Photo provided by PBS

Photo: Pete Walsh in Hobart Rivulet, Tasmania, Australia Courtesy of © WildBear Entertainment

TURN TO WXXI CLASSICAL FOR MUSIC PERFECTLY TUNED TO YOUR DAY

Live from Hochstein

Wednesdays at 12:10 p.m., beginning October 18 on WXXI Classical

Live from Hochstein, the longest-running live broadcast concert series in Western New York, is back with a whole new season that features the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Yi-Wen Chang, Eastman Horn Choir, Madrigalia, and many more. Broadcast live from The Hochstein School (50 North Plymouth Ave. in Rochester), each concert runs from 12:10-12:50 p.m.

WXXI Classical’s Mona Seghatoleslami hosts. Enjoy this free lunchtime concert in person, on the radio, or online at WXXIClassical.org.

Support public media.

Whether it’s television, radio, online, or on screen, WXXI is there with the programs, news, and information — where you want it and when you want it. If you value PBS, NPR, PBS Kids, WXXI News, WXXI Classical, and so much more, consider becoming a member.

Visit WXXI.org/give to choose the membership that works for you. There are many giving levels with their own special benefits, including becoming a sustaining member.

Become a

WFMT Opera Series

Saturdays at 1 p.m. on WXXI Classical

WXXI Classical's opera Saturdays continue with Handel's Jephtha on October 7th, Pizzetti's Assassinio nella cattedrale on October 14th and Rossini's Le comte on October 28th.

Deutsche Welle Festival Concerts

Tuesdays at 8 p.m., beginning October 17 on WXXI Classical Host Christina Burack takes you through some of Germany’s best classical music festivals for diverse performances from the Baroque to the 21st century, including the Bach Festival, Beethoven and Mozart Festivals, and the Bayreuth Festival.

Photo courtesy PRX

More Perfect

Sundays at 9 p.m. on WXXI News

Tune in for this series that looks at how the Supreme Court got so supreme.

Clarence X – October 8

The staunch conservative’s Black Nationalist roots.

The Viability Line – October 15

The abortion debate, a legal compromise, and the nightmare that came next.

No More Souters – October 22

How a surprisingly moderate justice paved the way for today’s precedent-busting Court.

The Supreme Court v. Peyote – October 29

When do religious people get to sidestep the law.

Connections with Evan Dawson

Weekdays from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. on WXXI News

Evan Dawson talks about what matters to you! Be part of the program with questions or comments by phone at 1-844-295TALK (8255), or online on Facebook or X at @WXXINews or send an email to: connections@wxxi.org.

Do you have a story that needs to be shared? Pitch it to Connection by visiting: bit.ly/ConnectionsPitch.

Spend Friday nights with Scott Wallace and Doug Curry

Rejuventation from 6-9 p.m. & Blacks and Blues from 9 p.m. to Midnight

Kick off Friday nights with Rejuvenation, where Scott Wallace shares his incredible collection of R&B, soul, and funk music and his knowledge of the music. Then it’s on to Blacks and Blues with Doug Curry, who connects the dots between the evolution of the blues and the larger forces of Black culture from which the music is nurtured.

ghouls to ghastly gargoyles, The Little’s Spooky Season is here to fill your October with harrowing, haunting films and events! From classic horror to modern family-friendly fare, international frights to 90s-witchy-vibes, celebrate the most wonderful time of the year in The House of Silent Shadows!

Highlights include:

• The generation-traumatizing classic “The NeverEnding Story” (Oct. 1)

• The Black Cinema Series presentation of “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster” (Oct. 4)

• A Staff Picks showing of “The Cabin in the Woods” (Oct. 9)

• Ari Aster’s “Hereditary” (Oct. 16)

• “Nosferatu” with a live original score performed by Katie Morey, Ben Morey, Karrah Henahan Teague, Brandon Henahan (Oct. 30)

• Saturday Night Rewind throwback hits including a “Halloween” double feature (Oct. 28)

• “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” (Oct. 21)

• “Casper” (Oct. 29)

• “The Exorcist: Director’s Cut” on Halloween night (Oct. 31). Full lineup at thelittle.org/spooky.

7:30 pm

Tuesday, Oct. 3

(with a panel discussion) 3:30 pm

Saturday, Oct. 7

Opens Oct. 13

Tickets at thelittle.org

The cultural phenomenon continues on the big screen! Immerse yourself in this once-in-a-lifetime concert film experience with a breathtaking, cinematic view of the history-making tour. Taylor Swift Eras attire and friendship bracelets are strongly encouraged!

Opens October 20 | Trailer at thelittle.org

After three of the most dynamic and successful U.S. charities were shut down by conservative charity watchdogs, destroying lives and cutting off precious resources, many of the top influencers in the field knew something had to be done to overhaul the nonprofit sector.

Led by Dan Pallotta, whose recordbreaking Ted Talk on the subject has inspired top philanthropists and changemakers, this feature documentary exposes the dark side of philanthropy and introduces a radical new way of giving. In an emotional call to action, Uncharitable demands that charities be freed from the traditional constraints, so that they can truly change the world. Details and tickets at thelittle.org

The legendary Martin Scorsese returns with a “Best Picture”

Oscar favorite starring Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Jesse Plemons.

When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one—until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.

Based on David Grann’s broadly lauded best-selling book, “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

DANCE/MUSIC E-YAH-PAH-HAH:

Native American Concert of Music and Dance

Seneca Art & Culture Center at Ganondagan, ganondagan.org

E-Yah-Pah-Hah is a Quapaw word meaning “town crier,” and I’m happy to bring you the word that you can experience Native American music and dance in a program for Indigenous People’s Day at Ganondagan this afternoon at 3 p.m.

The ECMS Woodwind Quintet led by Kae Wilbert (Cherokee) will perform music by contemporary and recent Native American composers Louis W. Ballard (Cherokee/Quapaw), Dawn Avery (Mohawk, Turtle Clan) and Charles Shadle (Choctaw), with original choreography by Daystar/ Rosalie Jones (Pembina ChippewaCree) and a company of four dancers. Daystar Dance Company will also perform dances inspired by the cultural storytelling of the Northwest Coast and of the Great Lakes Region, the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee. Free admission, with donations welcome to support the artists. MS

MONDAY, OCTOBER 9

CULTURE

Apples, Apples, Apples!

Genesee Country Village & Museum, gcv.org

It’s the last day of the regular season at Genesee Country Village, and it’s also peak-apple harvest time. On top of that, kids 12 and under get in for free, making a visit to GCV the ideal fall family activity. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. you can check out the apple

pressing station, grab some tea and cake, and experience numerous talks and activities. Museum members and active members of the military also get in for free. All other tickets range from $16.50 to $19.50. DK

TUESDAY,

FILM

OCTOBER 10

ImageOut of the Archive Double Feature

The Dryden Theatre, imageout.org Queer culture and Halloween combine for a distinctive double screening, presented as part of the 2023 ImageOut LGBTQ+ Film Festival. The evening starts at 7 p.m. with a 35mm screening of the Oscarwinning 1998 biopic “Gods and Monsters,” starring Ian McKellen as James Whale, the openly gay film director famous for the horror classics “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein.” It’s followed up by the latter movie, which has been interpreted by many critics to have gay undercurrents. $10 for seniors, $12 in advance, and $15 at the door. DK

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11

MUSIC Scott H. Biram

Bug Jar, bugjar.com

Scott H. Biram is one of the leading lights of the current outlaw country scene. A prolific songwriter, Biram has released 13 full-length albums since 2000. Also known as The Dirty Old One Man Band, he embraces elements of the blues, country, and lo-fi punk for an authentic roots sound. Irving Klaws opens the 9 p.m. show. $17 for patrons 21 and over, $22 for patrons 18 and over. DK

MUSIC Stephane Wrembel

Lovin’ Cup, lovincup.com

Jazz guitarist Stephane Wrembel makes his annual pilgrimage to Rochester with another four-night run at Lovin’ Cup. The virtuosic musician specializes in fluid, swift-moving melodies a la Django Reinhardt and pleasant waltz-like rhythms. If you’re nostalgic for 1930s jazz, you owe it to yourself to hear Wrembel live, and you’ve got four opportunities to do so — from October 12 through 14 at 8 p.m. and on October 15 at noon. Single show tickets are $35. Four-day passes are $107. DK

THEATRE “The Rocky Horror Show”

OFC Creations Theatre Center, ofccreations.com

‘Do the time warp again’ with OFC Creations as they mount a production to celebrate 50 years of the cult classic musical “The Rocky Horror Show.” Garrett Clayton, bestknown for playing Link in NBC’s “HAIRSPRAY LIVE!,” as well as one of the leads in Disney’s “Teen Beach Movie” franchise, will make his upstate New York debut in the role of Frank N Furter alongside a cast of local actors. Clayton’s casting is part of the ‘Broadway in Brighton Series,’ six musical productions under the

direction of Eric Vaughn Johnson that will feature equity and professional actors this season. The immersive experience will be held in the OFC’s The Old Farm Café, and runs through October 31. Tickets start at $42. LS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13

MUSIC The Sideways Album Release Party

Three Heads Brewing, threeheadsbrewing.com

Keyboardist Joe Stehle and his dynamic brand of big-band pop have been a mainstay of the Rochester scene since his group The Sideways first emerged in 2017. Six years later, the band’s debut album “Fair Weather” is on its way, and Stehle and company are celebrating in style with an album release party. Fueled by infusions of funk and soul, The Sideways boasts technical prowess for days on songs like the irresistible single “Sugar.” In addition to the music, Three Heads is rolling out a new brew just for the occasion. The doors open at 7:30 p.m. $10. DK

COMEDY

Lewis Black

Kodak Center, kodakcenter.com

Comedian Lewis Black is everybody’s favorite curmudgeon, the unbridled id of anger aimed squarely at the ample targets of insanity and stupidity. He broke onto the national standup scene in the mid-’90s, and has remained a fixture in the cultural consciousness, having lent his vitriolic talents to projects as diverse as the 2006 teen comedy “Accepted,” the 2015 Pixar film “Inside Out,” and countless appearances on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” Black doesn’t shy away from politics in his act, so he’s bound to provide plenty of salient commentary. The show, titled “Lewis Black: Off the Rails,” starts at 8 p.m. $49-$61. DK

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12

“Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood”

The Little Theatre, thelittle.org

It’s always a little disappointing when it’s Friday the 13th of the spooky month and there’s no new movies starring Jason Voorhees. But this screening is a nice salve. While Part VII is the worst of the original eight Friday the 13th films, it’s still a ton of fun. It’ll make you jump, it’ll make you squirm, and it’ll make you laugh. It’s also part of that wave of ’80s horror movies where kids and teens with telekinesis reanimated dormant super-killers or used their minds to do all manner of other things. Your Friday night slasher fix starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $7-$11. JEREMY MOULE

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14

MUSIC Be Kind Festival

Three Heads Brewing, thelocalsoundcollaborative.com

A daylong benefit concert for The Local Sound Collaborative, which educates young musicians, provides grants to artists, hosts benefit shows and concerts, and uses music as a community-building tool. The music lineup will feature A Girl Named Genny, Senoj from the ROC, and more. VIP tickets include access to the backstage area of Three Heads Brewing, food catered by Lovin Cup Bistro, a brewery tour from a Three Heads staff member, and designated and private seating for the festival experience. The festival is 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. $25, all ages. LS

Daniel Sloss

Kodak Center, kodakcenter.com

Scottish comedian Daniel Sloss is only 33, but he’s already been doing stand-up for 16 years and released five specials. He made his reputation as a clever stand-up with a knack for pointing out social absurdities during several successful runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Sloss combines an affable demeanor with an incisive delivery and unexpected punchlines. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show start at $36. DK

COMEDY Steve Hofstetter

Water Street Music Hall, waterstreetmusichall.live

Stand-up Steve Hofstetter has made a name for himself online with his inexhaustible series of “Heckler Owned” videos in which the comedian skewers obnoxious audience members. Hofstetter is as quickwitted as they come, and he takes no prisoners. If you’re heading to the Water Street show, it could get prickly, but it’s bound to be fun. The 18-andover show starts at 8 p.m. $30-$62. DK

CONTINUED ON PAGE 40

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15

ART FAIR

Skully’s Magical Mercantile of Oddities & Curiosities

Iron Smoke Distillery, ironsmokedistillery.com

Pop-up craft fairs are ubiquitous during the holiday season, as long as the holidays in question happen in December. Halloween markets are harder to come by, but Iron Smoke has you covered. From 2:30 to 6:30 p.m., this free event includes the chance to get your hands on some bone art, horror-themed, knitted figures called amigurumi, macabre ceramics, and other products from more than 20 local sellers. Tarot readings and flash tattoos are also available. DK

MONDAY, OCTOBER 16

MUSIC

Paperface Zine

Presents: Optic Sink and Sastrugi

Little Shop of Hoarders, shophoarders.com

Catch some vintage synthesizer sounds amidst the vintage clothes with synth-driven post-punk music out of Memphis from Optic Sink and the catchy lo-fi grooves of Rochester’s Sastrugi (Sam Snyder, Matt Treadwell, Benton Sillick, Joe Parker). Adding to the spooky-sleazy-retro atmosphere, classic Italian exploitation/mystery/ horror “giallo” films will be projected behind the bands. Doors at 7 p.m., music at 8 p.m. with a suggested $7 donation for this all-ages show. MS

MUSIC

“Knight of the Lute”

Downtown United Presbyterian Church, pegasusearlymusic.org

Did you know that one of the best lute players in the world can be found right here in Rochester? In this absolute treat of a solo concert, Paul O’Dette will be playing the United States premieres of music from a long-lost Italian manuscript, only just recently found in a villa in Italy. Feast your ears on this music from 16th and 17th century Italy at 4 p.m., with a chance to learn more about the history of this music with a pre-concert chat at 3:15 p.m. Tickets are $30 and $10 for students. MS

FESTIVAL EcoFest

Rochester Public Market, greentopia.org/ecofest

Everything climate-related is seeming a bit more urgent these days, to say the least. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by it all, head to the market today from noon to 5 p.m. for a host of eco-focused vendors, non-profits, businesses, and more to learn how to incorporate planetmindfulness into your life, and about the good work some groups are doing that you can help support. There will also be art, live music, food, and workshops. It’s free for all and familyfriendly.

REBECCA RAFFERTY

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17

MUSIC

The Gateways Music Festival

Multiple locations, gatewaysmusicfestival.org

Since 1995, Rochester has been home to a festival celebrating classical musicians of African Descent, bringing amazing musicians here from around the world to collaborate and share their art. As the festival is now expanding to NYC, Chicago, and Atlanta, Rochester is still its home. In this year’s chamber-music focused fest, things start tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Hatch Recital Hall with a concert by the Gateways Brass Collective. The festival continues through Friday in Rochester, with concerts, talks, and screening of the movie, “Chevalier,” about 18th century Black classical composer and conductor Joseph Boulogne. MS

THEATER “Frida… A Self Portrait”

Geva Theatre, gevatheatre.org

Few artists have built a mythos around themselves quite the way Frida Kahlo died. This one-person play from Vanessa Severo explores the life behind the myth with passion and engaging storytelling. The opening night show starts at 7:30 p.m., and the production runs through November 12. $30-$62. DK

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18

HEALTH & WELLNESS Medicine Music Yoga

True Soul Yoga, Honeoye Falls, parkersoldtimefarm.com What could be better than a productive Vinyasa yoga session in a gorgeous barn loft? Adding the live

music of Rochesterians Alexander Fals and Hayley Dayis to the experience. The duo’s acoustic, ambient sound includes the use of the African harp known as the ngoni. The yoga session, which runs from 6 to 7:15 p.m., is led by instructor Hayle Parker. Email hayleyparker6863@gmail.com to RSVP. $25. DK

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19

THEATER “Romeo and Juliet”

The Temple Theatre, thecompanytheatreroc.org

The Company Theatre is the ‘new kid on the block’ of Rochester stages. The troupe continues to put on intriguing renditions of well-known works with what might be Shakespeare’s most ubiquitous play, “Romeo and Juliet.” Carl Del Buono directs the tale of the doomed young lovers at the Temple Theatre. The Company’s casts regularly feature local talent who inject new life into beloved plays. 7:30 p.m. $25-$28. DK

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20

GAMES

ROCovery Dungeons and Dragons

ROCovery Fitness, rocoveryfitness.org

This community of people committed to sobriety and an active lifestyle also has a monthly event dedicated to the legendary fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. If you’re a newcomer to the game and you’re interested in learning, this free event is a great place to start. Dungeon Master Cody will take you through it, but seasoned players are also welcome. The event is open to anyone with at least 48 hours of continuous sobriety. First-timers are encouraged to fill out the membership questionnaire on the ROCovery Fitness website. 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. DK

MUSIC

Chris Forsyth’s Evolution Band

Lux Bar, lux666.com

Philadelphia guitarist Chris Forsyth is a purveyor of dynamic sounds, ranging from classic rock and the avant-garde to retro-’80s pop and back again. His sonic approach borders on the symphonic, and his scope is far-reaching. His latest album, 2022’s “Evolution Here We Come” has psychedelic aspirations. Lux is less known for its reputation as a rock venue than its standing as a hotspot for all manner of social interactions, but the dive bar knows how to throw a rock ‘n’ roll shindig. Local artist Will Veeder and his band play in support. The 10 p.m. show is 21-and-over and the $5 cover is an absolute steal. DK

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21

MUSIC/CRITTERS

Wildlife: A Symphonic Celebration

Greece Baptist Church, cordancia.org

Spiders, birds, tubas, and harps – oh my? This creative chamber orchestra and the Seneca Park Zoo have teamed up for a show that is part concert, part science lesson. During the concert, a Seneca Park Zoo naturalist will share the real stories of animals featured in the music, which includes Alec Wilder’s Effie Suite, celebrating an elephant who lived at the Oakland Zoo, featuring tuba player from the Eastman School of Music’s faculty, Justin Benevidez.

Soprano Tyler Cassidy-Heacock sings works inspired by animals and nature, and Sunshine Quan will play Rochester composer Sean William Calhoun’s “A Thickness of Birds.” Experience this musical menagerie at 7 p.m. at Greece Baptist Church (1230 Long Pond Road) or catch the second performance Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word (597

East Ave). Tickets are $20, students/ seniors $15. MS

COMEDY

Dario Joseph

Records An Album

Salena’s event space, eventbrite.com Dario Joseph — podcast host, writer, producer, comedian, and occasional freelancer for CITY — started performing standup comedy in 2011, following a failed audition for Geva Theatre’s Improv troupe. After winning Funniest Person in Rochester in 2014, Dario moved to NYC to pursue comedy further. During his time there, Dario trained at the famous Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater and was selected to multiple festivals, including the Brooklyn Comedy Fest and the Cleveland Comedy Fest. In 2019, Dario returned to his hometown, began producing monthly shows locally, toured the state as a headliner, and started a food and bev podcast, “Refined Taste,” which was voted CITY’s 2021 Best Of Podcast. He will record his first live album during 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. shows in the private event room at Salena’s Mexican Restaurant. Tickets are $10. LS

MUSIC

Cat Clyde

Skylark Lounge, theskylarklounge.com Skylark doesn’t host nearly enough shows. The bar’s open floor plan is perfect for live music, and the music itself is never boring. Cat Clyde is a talented singer-songwriter who trades in indie-country tunes with bluesinflected vocals. Clyde has released five studio albums since 2015, including this year’s unpredictable “Down Rounder.” Fans of Mikaela Davis and Ben and Katie Morey will dig Clyde’s sound. 8 p.m. $23-$25. DK

CONTINUED ON PAGE 44

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22

MUSIC

“

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24

Old & New: Sephardic Reflections

”

Temple Beth-El, fivebyfivemusic.com

Sephardic music has its roots in the musical traditions of the Jewish communities in medieval Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Two musical groups in Rochester dedicated to very old (Pegasus Early Music) and very new (fivebyfive) have joined forces to present reflections on this tradition from throughout the centuries, including Clarice Assad’s “Sephardic Suite” and a new setting of three Sephardic songs by Eastman graduate Keane Southard. Alongside music, Lynne Feldman’s original tapestries celebrating Jewish life will be shared as part of the performance at 3 p.m. at Temple Beth-El (139 S. Winton Road), with a pre-concert talk at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 or pay what you can. MS

MONDAY, OCTOBER 23

MUSIC

Dropkick Murphys

Buffalo RiverWorks, buffaloriverworks.com

Ship up to … Buffalo … for American Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys, featuring openers The Interrupters and Jesse Ahern. Raise a dirty glass at Buffalo RiverWorks and go out in style with this all ages concert. Tickets $49.50 advance, $55 day of show. LS

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25

MOVIE “

Sante Sangre”

The Little Theatre, thelittle.org

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s lushly cinematic surrealist horror film is definitely not for the faint of heart or those squeamish about violence, but a good bet for fans of David Lynch and the weird world of the subconscious and dreams. This psychological portrait of good and evil co-existing in a troubled circus performer is a true spectacle from the director of “El Topo,” “Holy Mountain,” and a legendary adaptation of “Dune” that never came to be. The screening starts at 7:30 p.m. Note: this movie is rated NC-17. MS

MUSIC Mudhoney

Photo City Music Hall, photocitymusichall.com

Back in its heyday, grunge took a few different forms. You had bands like Alice in Chains who were on the darker side of things and ones like Pearl Jam that sounded closer to Neil Young and Crazy Horse than many of its Seattle peers. And then there was Mudhoney. They took the thick, fuzzed out guitar sounds from ’70s psychedelic rock and paired it with punk speed and sensibilities. Look up the album “Piece of Cake” on the streaming service of your choosing and listen to “Suck You Dry” and you’ll get the idea. The band is touring to promote its new single, but also to commemorate the 35th anniversary of its album “SuperFuzz BigMuff” (both are names of legendary fuzz pedals).

Tickets are $36.78, doors at 7 p.m. JM

SPOOKY BREWS

Night of the Living Wedge Pub Crawl

South Wedge neighborhood, southwedge.com

It may not be acceptable to go trickor-treating as an adult, but you can still dress up in a costume and head out on a station-to-station trek. The South Wedge’s annual pre-Halloween pub crawl returns tonight, featuring a $100 cash prize for best costume, raffles, and more. Things kick off at 6 p.m. at Swiftwater, followed by stops at John’s Tex Mex, Boulder, Old Stone, Caverly’s, and wrapping up at Lux Lounge. If you have kiddos, the event has a trick-or-treating circuit that takes place from 4 to 6 p.m., with nine (and counting) participating businesses. RR

A Night with Edgar Allan Poe

Genesee Country Village & Museum, gcv.org

There is no historical literary figure more quintessentially Halloween than Edgar Allan Poe. Visitors to the Genesee Country Village & Museum can celebrate the author with expert Chris Lynn by exploring the haunting works that have made Poe a legendary writer. There are two options, 6:30 and 8 p.m. $12-$15. DK

THEATER

“John & Jen”

Blackfriars Theatre, blackfriars.org

An intimate story about a woman and the connection she shares with her brother and son — both named John — this musical by Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald details in turns both tragic and touching how one woman handles loss and navigates change. Scott Scaffidi directs. Tonight’s show is at 8 p.m. “John and Jen” runs through November 5. $20-$39. DK

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28

MUSIC Andreas conducts Mahler

Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, rpo.org

The RPO’s performance of Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection” at the end of last season was one of the most thrilling performances I’ve heard from the orchestra. Delfs and the RPO are back with more of Mahler’s music, both his Symphony No. 5, with its harrowing funeral march and meltingly sweet “Adagietto” (famously played at Robert F. Kennedy’s memorial), and the haunting, poetic “Songs of the Wayfarer.” Bass-baritone opera star Eric Owens, often found on the stage of the Met Opera and at Glimmerglass, joins the RPO for the songs on the stage of Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre tonight at for this concert starting at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $30. MS

MUSIC

Spooky Halloween Party

Radio Social, radio-social.com

The city’s favorite bowling alleymeets-craft cocktail bar-meets-fine dining destination throws a helluva New Year’s bash already, and this year they’re adding a Halloween weekend party with a triple header: Animammal, Bad Bloom, and Fuzzrod play at 8 p.m. Costumes are encouraged, and there’s no cover, but attendees must be 21 and over without a parent or guardian. LS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29

MUSIC The Knights with Chris Thile

Bailey Hall at Cornell University, cornellconcertseries.com

The chamber orchestra known simply as The Knights has been an integral part of the New York City music scene since 2007. As one of the leading proponents of the indie classical movement, the ensemble plays wideranging repertoire and collaborates with artists from diverse stylistic and cultural corners of the world. This concert features a cameo from mandolinist and 2012 MacArthur Fellow Chris Thile, best known as a

member of the progressive bluegrass bands Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek. Thile himself has admitted that the mandolin and an orchestra are not a natural fit, but he’s made it work by writing not one but two mandolin concertos. My guess is one of them will be on the program, in addition to works by J.S. Bach, Antonín Dvořák, 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, and The Knights’ co-artistic director Colin Jacobsen. $3 p.m. $39$54. DK

MONDAY,

OCTOBER 30

MUSIC Eastman School of Music’s Chamber

Jazz Ensemble

Hatch Recital Hall at Eastman School of Music, esm.rochester.edu

It’s easy to take the Eastman School for granted. But as a local cultural resource, it’s an incomparable training ground for the next generation of great jazz musicians, poised to join the ranks of such notable alumni as Steve Gadd, Maria Schneider, Chuck Mangione, and John Hollenbeck

among its graduates. The up-andcoming musicians in the school’s Chamber Jazz Ensemble will take the spotlight for an intimate concert at Hatch Recital Hall. Audience members at this free show can expect some jazz standards, and perhaps a few surprises as well. 7:30 p.m. DK

TUESDAY,

OCTOBER 31

FILM/MUSIC

The Dryden Theatre, eastman.org/dryden-theatre Survive the night in a spooky house,

“The Cat and the Canary”

without getting murdered or losing your mind – those are the conditions to inherit a fortune. Easier said than done when a murderer might just be on the loose. All classic elements for horror and suspense, as director Paul Leni plays up the eerie atmosphere and a bit of comedy. Leave the last of the candy out in a bowl, and head to the Dryden Theatre to experience this 1927 silent classic with Philip Carli playing the piano and setting the scene with a pre-film chat, starting at 7:30 p.m. MS FILM

“The Exorcist”

The Little Theatre, thelittle.org

This is the way to see the best horror movie ever made — on the big screen where it is more intense, more absorbing, and scary as all hell. It’s far more than young Regan MacNeil spitting pea soup at the two priests battling a demon for her soul. As viewers get to know the characters they become emotionally invested, leading toward a mutual terror. And that’s before anyone even mentions possession, demons, or the Roman Ritual. The screening is at 8 p.m. and tickets are $7-$11. JM

Death to this dish

CULTURE

BY CITY STAFF

What started as a casual chat around our conference table a few weeks ago quickly spiraled into a friendly, albeit heated discussion about local cuisine. What dishes do we return to, and what could we kiss goodbye forever? Where do we send newbies for a good meal, and what should they avoid at all costs? Stand back and read on, because a few of the CITY staffers are about to serve up their hot takes:

DEATH TO: PLATES

Before you light these pages on fire, hear me out. Some cities are known for bagels. Some cities are known for deep dish pizza. Regardless of its incredible food scene, Rochester is known for a takeout container layered with processed meats, some variety of poorly fried potatoes, cold mayosoaked noodles, canned beans, more processed protein in something they call meat hot sauce, and usually topped with the most repellent food of all: raw white onions. (Sounds worse when you write it out like that, eh?) Not to mention it’s roughly 3,000 calories. In the words of Gen Z, plates give me the ick. Hangover cure? Pass. Give me a greasy spoon diner breakfast instead.

—LEAH STACY

DEATH TO: CHICKEN FRENCH

Let me begin by saying: I do not aim to be a hater. I want to love all foods. As a youth, I proudly (and successfully!) tricked myself into liking pickles and olives, because I didn’t want to grow up to be a picky eater a hater. I want to experience joy in food, and a pan-fried chicken cutlet delivers, to me, a joyous food experience. Do you know where that joy stops, though? When you douse that gorgeously-fried, perfectly-seasoned piece of chicken in a murky, floury, unimaginative lemon goop. Am I against using citrus to cut through the heaviness of fried food? NO! I am not a newborn baby. Calamari without a squeeze of lemon is no friend of mine. But dumping lemony muck on an otherwise beautiful, crispy piece of chicken and telling me it’s good and that I should be proud of it because we were born in the same place? Excuse my French, but get the f*ck out of my face with that nonsense. Or, better yet, please tell me where to go so I can properly enjoy this dish - I am willing to give it 1 million more chances, because like I said, I do not aim to be a hater.

—JACOB WALSH

DEATH TO: BUFFALO WING SAUCE

Stop. Read that again. Before you take your pitchfork out of Leah’s garbage-plate deficient corpse, let me make it clear that I love a good chicken wing. Stop. Read THAT again. A GOOD chicken wing. I’ve had gigantic chicken wings that were still squawking and I’ve had airport chicken wings that are probably closer to tiny pigeon wings. Also you need financing to buy them. Ten is the new dozen. Cool! And it’s hard enough to get these things cooked through correctly while still leaving them crispy on the outside, now you want to dump hot butter sauce on them? The actual Buffalo sauce is what I have a problem with. It’s uninspired and rustbelt-y. There are better options. Why do you think there are so many different sauces? Because they made Buffalo Wing sauce first and said “we can do better than this, right?” Give me garlic parmesan, bee-sting, Carolina gold, thai curry, caribbean jerk, cajun gold. The list goes on. Give me sticky and sweet, not burnt and runny. Anything but Frank’s Red Hot and butter. Extra bleu cheese, please.

—RYAN WILLIAMSON

DEATH TO: FANCY BURGERS

Aren’t we all sick of fancy burgers? You know the ones I’m talking about. They cost $16. Want fries with that? That’ll be an additional $8. And, of course, it’s not made with anything as pedestrian as ground beef. No, this ‘proprietary blend’ of ‘pure sirloin and chuck’ is ground in house. Add ‘chef’s sauce’ - AKA mayo and mustard - as a final touch to ensure your one-of-a-kind delight tastes like every other burger. I won’t even try new ones anymore, no matter the office buzz. Yes, even if it’s gigantic and feeds four. I’m sure it’s good, but who wants to negotiate burger toppings with three friends? Somehow they’ve taken over restaurants across Rochester and the nation and I’m sick of them. You know what I miss? Beef and onions on a poppy seed bun, the burgers at Contoi’s in New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood were absolute perfection. They’ve gone legit after 89 years — they pay taxes now and have a permit — but for $8 cash, you’d get a Bud on draft and a burger that reminded me of my grandpa’s. I’m not asking for much, but if you can’t give me the warm embrace of unconditional love, at least include some french fries.

—DAVID STREEVER

DEATH TO: ELEVATED CUISINE

In “The Divine Comedy,” Dante declares the eighth circle of hell as reserved for fraudsters, while the ninth the final home for the treacherous. Somewhere in between is the haven for the culinary auteur who decided to charge $20 for a cheeseburger—fries extra—because he had the absolute vision to mix gochujang with mayonnaise.

Look, there is no shortage of chefs in Rochester thinking outside the box to create utterly unique culinary experiences, and I’m willing to shell out the cash to support them. But there is an ever-thinning line between creativity and pretension, and the worst offenders are the elevators.

I’m talking about restaurants charging premium prices for a cheese quesadilla because it’s on a bespoke, misshapen homemade tortilla. A place that thinks its aglio e olio is worth its weight in gold because it’s served on a square plate. An eatery that thinks it’s reinventing the wheel by creating a forced marriage of cultures inside a bowl of something, against all reason, ethics, and morals, called phở.

These are all experiences I’ve had at various Rochester restaurants. (I’ll leave it to you to guess which, although I’ll say one rhymes with “litter money.”)

These dishes are ubiquitously overpriced, the servings small, and the flavors rarely noteworthy. But the worst offense? These upscale takes on rustic cuisines are just simply boring. They’re forgettable meals that tread ground already well-traveled. On some occasions they offer something completely new— usually not by ingenuity, but because it never should have been done to begin with.

I’m of the belief that a truly good dish is thoughtful. It is built intentionally from the ground up, with a final vision of how the flavors should meld. A good chef with that mindset can elevate any dish into something high-end and special. I think of Velvet Belly’s divine deconstructed meat-and-potatoes take on beef tartare, Good Luck’s unexpected-flavor-bomb golden beets, or Rooney’s best-in-Rochester-and-it’s-not-even-close crabcake. These dishes were doted over, and it shows. Too often though, hubris is mistaken for art. I’m always on the lookout for a dish that surprises, fruitfully bonds odd flavors, and makes me rethink a meal I’ve had a thousand times. Too many chefs struggle to do that. To them I say: put down the culinary foam and just get me a goddamn burger.

—GINO FANELLI

You know what they say about opinions.

In the dark

BY MATT PASSANTINO

As the leaves change in Rochester, so do movie offerings. The summer months brought their share of forgettable bombast—and one unforgettable double header in “Barbenheimer”— and now it’s time to move into spooky season, which offers horror movies and creepy thrillers, new and old. Our city is fortunate to have several different locations that offer repertory screenings throughout the year, and October’s schedules are catering to the ghoulish.

There are plenty of new offerings at the multiplexes throughout October, from the sequel “The Exorcist: Believer” to “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” but The Little Theatre, The Dryden and Roc Cinema allow the movie-going community a chance to see older films for the first time (or again!) on the big screen. And it’s always exciting to see a movie from the 1970s projected for the first time, especially horror films, which are best served in a communal environment with other gasps following the jump scares

Here’s a quick roundup of classic spooky season films to see:

Spooky

season brings classics to the big screen.

“Nosferatu.”

Dryden Round Table: Trends in Horror Films Over the Last 50 Years

Dryden Theatre | Saturday, October 21 at 2 p.m. |

The Dryden Theatre has been offering roundtable discussions, which is a great way to interact with fellow movie lovers. Their discussion on horror films will feature Dryden’s Curator of Film Exhibitions Jared Case, Kendall Phillips and Will Scheibel from Syracuse University, and Ben Scrivens, Founder and President of Fright Rags. Free for members, $10 non-members, $5 students with ID or 17 and under.

“Scream” | Roc Cinema | 6 p.m. and 8:10 p.m.

See Wes Craven’s seminal slasher, which has a devoted fan base, in Rochester this October. Ghostface has been haunting movie-loving teens and 20-somethings since 1996, and the iconic mask has solidified its place in popular culture. There’s no better time than Halloween to catch this movie on the big screen.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 52

PHOTO COURTESY FILM ARTS GUILD

“The Addams Family” | Roc Cinema | October 25 | 6 p.m. and 8:10 p.m.

The creepy, kooky family makes an appearance during the spookiest month of the year. Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1991 film starring Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston is a staple of weird cinema and a great choice for a more lighthearted option amongst the slashers and gore other seasonal films provide.

“Halloween” and “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Meyers” Double Feature | The Little Theatre | October 28 | 6:30 p.m. It’s not Halloween season without John Carpenter’s excellent and influential 1978 classic “Halloween.” The Little Theatre will pair Carpenter’s film with “Halloween 4” (directed by Dwight H. Little) on 35mm film, for a fun double bill of Michael Meyers’s unrelenting terror.

“Casper” | The Little Theatre | October 29 | 7:30 p.m. Nineties kids and families have a chance to see everyone’s favorite friendly ghost, larger than life on the big screen. “Casper” is a definitive movie of many childhoods and

getting to share that with others IRL is a real treat — how many hearts will be once more won over by the words “Can I keep you?”

“Nosferatu” | The Little Theatre | October 30 | 7:30 p.m. Not only is F.W. Murnau’s 1922 “Nosferatu” an important piece of cinema history, but audience members will also be treated to a live score performed by Katie and Ben Morey, Karrah Henahan Teague, and Brandon Henahan. Bring your own garlic. THANK

“The Exorcist” | The Little Theatre | October 31 | 8 p.m. The Oscar-nominated classic’s screening is sadly quite timely, as director William Friedkin passed away in August 2023. “The Exorcist” has haunted moviegoers for decades; a great opportunity to spend Halloween night getting spooked while honoring a great director’s legacy.

“The Cat and the Canary” | The Dryden Theatre | October 31 | 7:30 p.m.

Paul Leni’s 1927 film will screen with live piano music by Philip Carli. The movie takes place at a mansion, where relatives gather for the reading of a millionaire’s will long after he had passed, and Leni’s film promises a chilling atmosphere for Halloween night.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWERS

“The Addams Family.” PHOTO COURTESY PARAMOUNT PICTURES

What to do with the body

BY REBECCA RAFFERTY @RSRAFFERTY

When we talk about what to do with our earthly remains, just two options are usually discussed: burial or cremation. Oh, and then you can have your ashes scattered, kept in an urn on the mantle, or interred at a cemetery. While there’s nothing wrong with a traditional burial, there are many ways to get creative with your earthly send-off. Why not think outside the casket? Some of the final resting options out there may surprise you. Read on as we explore meadows, diamonds, and watery graves.

A BARRIER-FREE BURIAL

There are a handful of places in Rochester where you can have a so-called ‘green’ or ‘natural’ burial, which typically means no embalming (or embalming with organic, formaldehyde-free products), and being buried in sustainable, biodegradable clothing, shrouds or containers. The goal is to fully allow the body to return to the soil naturally, causing no interruptions to the surrounding ecosystem.

Headstones are usually not allowed — graves are usually marked with flat rocks, trees, or other plants — and green burials

CULTURE

When it comes to handling your earthly remains, you have more options than you may realize.

take place in a designated section of the cemetery. Each of the following places has a dedicated green burial space, with slightly different regulations:

Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (2461 Lake Ave.) - The first Catholic cemetery to be green burial-certified in New York State. Its green burial space, and the one it oversees at Ascension Garden Cemetery (1900 Pinnacle Rd., Henrietta) near the rolling hills of Mendon Ponds, has trees, flowers, and footpaths to keep visitors from disrupting the ecosystems.

Mt. Hope Cemetery (1133 Mt. Hope Ave.) - Mt. Hope offers green burials at the Garden of Renewal, which is filled with old trees and within the grounds of the hilly historic cemetery.

White Haven Memorial Park (210 Marsh Rd., Pittsford) - Your remains will feed the wildflower meadow, which feeds pollinators, which enable so much more growth and life. And it’s a Audubon International designated site, where bluebirds nest each spring.

SHINE ON, YOU CRAZY DIAMOND

Picture this: You’re sitting in a café and someone admires your diamond stud earrings. Your reply? “Thank you! They’re my mother.”

Lonité, a Swiss company specializing in ashes-to-diamonds services, has an office in Buffalo where you can bring a loved one’s cremains or hair and start the process of making grandma sparkle forever.

Lonité’s high-tech lab recreates the natural process by which the earth’s heat and pressure converts carbon into its crystalized form. Nine to 12 months after you hand over the ashes, you’ll have a gem that can be set in the jewelry of your choosing. (Talk about a family heirloom.)

The service requires at least eight ounces of ashes, 10 ounces of cremated bones, or 0.4 ounces of hair, each of which would yield a quarter-carat diamond. Depending on the amount of cremains available, you could order more than one stone — so siblings don’t need to fight over diamond-dad.

Expect to pay from $1,400 for a quarter-carat in the natural amber color (other colors including colorless for $2,500) up to $40,500 for a 3-carat diamond, and that’s after you’ve paid cremation fees elsewhere. You can also choose many different cuts, and for an additional fee, have your diamond set in jewelry.

SLEEP (ETERNALLY) WITH THE FISHES

If being in, on, and around water is your first love, you might consider an at-sea burial. That’s right, it’s entirely legal to be ‘buried’ at sea. If you don’t mind being fish food, and, subsequently, fish poop. It’s The Circle of Life, Atlantis version.

I learned about this from an Instagram reel by Lauren the Mortician (@lauren.the. mortician), who provided a head

start on research. There are, of course, regulations. No, it’s not legal to just dump a body in a body of water. You’ll have to go through a funeral home — shop around and you’ll find one that will link you to the services.

First, you need to get the (free) permit from the EPA. Then, head out at least four nautical miles from shore (nearly five miles, in landlubber speak), and drill holes in the casket. It’s also recommended to weigh the box with sandbags or bricks inside so it sinks quickly. There’s a minimum depth requirement of 800 feet of water — sorry, that rules out our beloved local lakes, and you can’t go over High Falls in the style of a Viking funeral (but can you imagine?).

Contact a funeral home, say you want this, and let them find it for you. You’ll pay between $2,500 to $5,000 to accommodate a crew and a ship (in addition to funeral home costs).

Bonus points if you’re sent off in a mermaid tail (just use a fabric or sand-based silicone one, because regular silicone isn’t biodegradable).

White Haven Memorial Park. PHOTO PROVIDED

ILLUSTRATION BY JACOB WALSH

Graveyard of gravestones

CULTURE

BY GINO FANELLI GFANELLI@WXXI.ORG

Aheart-shaped slab of marble lies in a slow state of decay in an untended wooded pocket of Riverside Cemetery.

It bears the marker of Lorraine Dyer, a 71-year-old mother and grandmother. Her gravestone features a cross at the bottom, flanked by growing strands of ivy etched into the stone. A single word sits beside the cross — “mother.” At the stone’s center are the marks of her birth and death: February 18, 1931, and August 27, 2005.

Only Lorraine Dyer did not die in 2005. She died in 2002. This mistake in the making of Dyer’s gravestone led to it meeting the same fate as dozens of other stones marred with error over the years: they’re dumped in the graveyard of gravestones.

The spot of graveyard follies is akin to a “Where’s Waldo” of mistaken identities and dates. Some may have misspelled a name and attempted fruitlessly to edge the stone into a different character, leaving only a deeper fracture. Others have misguided dates, and others made syntax errors in the marker’s insignia. All of them, from the most basic granite rocks to intricate marble

Where epitaphs go to die.

monuments, are dumped in the woods.

The graveyard of gravestones presented a classic dilemma for journalistic pursuit: is there really a story here?

After multiple newsroom conversations, there was an agreement this is undoubtedly interesting. So, I decided to pursue it, earnestly seeking to find what impropriety or misdeed had led to the abandonment of a small army’s worth of headstones.

I called Barbara Pierce, the head of communications at the city of Rochester. I started the conversation with, “I’ve got a weird one for you.”

“Huh,” she said, after I filled her in on the details. “That’s really interesting.”

A week later, we had our answer to what had happened in this wooded corner: the stones are typically laid in the field at the request of the family who spotted the error.

They are later broken down in the same way as old curbs. A large outcrop of bulldozed dirt and sand near the gravestones contains

bits of cement and marble rubble, if you’re able to dig deep enough. Other crumbled bits are hauled away. New headstones are erected where the mistaken ones were removed.

It wraps everything up neat and clean. There’s no real scandal, no misdeeds to expose, no accountability that has not already been taken.

So why does it feel so odd?

Like something misplaced

and unbelonging despite a clear logic to its presence. Akin to a single butterfly wing floating on the surface of a still pond or the remnants of a chrome fender left to rust in a shaded ravine, it’s somehow tragic as much as it is beautiful. A reminder that something happened here, and even if all reason tells us what, it retains a haunting air of mystery. Moreover, it’s interesting.

PHOTOS BY JACOB WALSH

Ride in peace

WORDS

BY LAUREN PETRACCA

On a recent summer evening, Chris Marron scrubbed a vanity plate reading “BAGNTAG” on a vehicle he once only dreamed of owning: A 1988 Cadillac Superior Sovereign hearse.

“I didn’t want a Corvette, or a Mustang, Camaro,” said the 30-year-old Greece resident whose interest in the vehicles first began when he saw his teacher driving one to his high school.

“When I’m driving, your head can be on a swivel and everybody’s staring at you,” said Marron. “This is an attention piece that everyone is going to be turning their head and going, ‘What is that? What is going on?’”

Marron was washing his hearse in preparation for the End Of Summer Car Show & Motorcade hosted by the Town of Greece, where he would be meeting with six other members of the R.I.P. (Ride in Peace) Funeral & Formal Auto Society to show off their cars.

The club was formed by husband-and-wife and hearse owners John and Patricia Peckham as a way to build community between people who owned funeral and formal cars. “He was a couch potato until he bought that car,” said Patricia about her husband.

Now, about 25 active members between Rochester, Buffalo, Ithaca, and the Southern Tier meet with their vehicles throughout the year for car shows, benefits, picnics, and various Halloween-related events.

“I’m living a dream,” said Marron. “Some say it’s a nightmare,” he joked.

CULTURE

PHOTOS AND

ride or die culture of local hearse owners.

Upcoming events where you can find the R.I.P. (Ride in Peace) Funeral & Former Auto Society:

October 6 & 7: Dark Matter Scream Works, Greece

October 7: Hamlin Scream Fest

October 13 & 14: Housel’s Haunted House, Canandaigua

October 20 & 21: Nightmare Manor, Henrietta

October 27 & 28: Joe’s Fright Farm, Brockport

cigarette.

PHOTOS BY LAUREN PETRACCA

my way when I’m driving it.”

Top inset, Pat Peckham smokes a

Peckham and her husband John founded Ride in Peace Funeral & Formal Auto Society, an auto club dedicated to the enjoyment of hearses, ambulances, flower cars, and limousines. Left, Stephen Miller of Buffalo sits in the back of his hearse with a prop skeleton. “My first car was a hearse,” said Miller. “I love the attention and people get out of

Top, Chris Marron poses for a portrait in his 1988 Cadillac Superior Sovereign hearse during a car show hosted by the Town of Greece. Bottom, hearses line up for the End Of Summer Car Show & Motorcade on Saturday, August 26.

chow ound

BITE-SIZED NEWS

HYDRA, a new café from the owners of popular hots joint dogTown, opened in early September at 701 Monroe Ave. It’s the first coffee shop to hit the avenue since the Oxford and Monroe Starbucks closed in spring 2021. Hydra serves Joe Bean coffee, espresso drinks, and teas, along with a menu of breakfast, lunch, and bakery items. The shop offers indoor seating on two levels and a walled outdoor garden area with planter-bench seating by Rochester landscape artist Suzi Brenner. Inside and upstairs you’ll find a landmark postcard-style mural by artists Billy T. Lyons and Hannah Stollberger — gotta love a small biz that hires local artists. Open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. hydracoffehouse.com

AMBERLY’S EATERY, located at 489 South Ave., closed in early September. RIP to the crispiest hash browns in town (Rafferty is in actual despair about this). But the owners have alluded to another restaurant taking over the spot, and say the French press coffee will still be available under the new ownership. Stand by!

Also shut down as of early September is Asian eatery FLAVORS OF ASIA, AKA “Flasia,” AKA “Lunchtime Gossip Stop.” The bomb eatery not only featured delicious menu items that spanned Chinese, Japanese, and Thai cuisines, but also provided a sacred source of townie gossip via a beloved, yet indiscreet member of the waitstaff. We hope he lands somewhere he can continue the good work of spreading hilarious overheard dirt. flavorsofasia. weebly.com

Longtime local favorite HAN NOODLE BAR has left the cozy house it

occupied for years at 687 Monroe Ave. and moved to a new location just down the street. Find the full menu at 600 Monroe Avenue now, in the former Avenue Diner (before that, it was all-night diner Gitsi’s). For millennials and Gen-Xers who remember fueling up at Gitsi’s after Bug Jar dance nights: rejoice, you can now get a noodle and nostalgia fix in one stop. hannoodlebar.com

IRON SMOKE DISTILLERY, in a partnership with the New York State Distillers Guild, will present the first-ever Hoochenanny Whiskey Festival October 20 and 21 in Geneseo. The event will highlight distillers from across the state in The Rickhouse Rendezvous, a one-ofa-kind educational whiskey tasting experience; panel-style educational sessions from Fee Brothers, Vendome Copper and the New York State Distillers Guild; and live music performances from The Struts, Los Straitjackets, Sam Grisman Project, and Public Water Supply. Tickets start at $29.99. hoochenanny.com

Popular food truck and Flour City Station pop-up TACODERO LA STREET TACOS has opened a brick and mortar at 1174 Brooks Ave., across from the Greater Rochester International Airport. Fans of the birria, loaded fries, and street corn can find the former pop-up more than once a week now: it’s open 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. every Tuesday through Saturday. tacodero.com

WHET YOUR PALATE

Eric Rozestraten, a partner in Elemental Hospitality Consulting and longtime social media coordinator for Nosh and Old Pueblo Grill, purchased the former

Jack Ryan’s Tavern building at 825 Atlantic Ave. and will re-open it as JACK’S EXTRA FANCY this month. Dan Herzog, formerly of Cure, will run the bar program, with Kelly McDonald, formerly of Good Luck, Vern’s and Fifth Frame Brewing, will run the kitchen. The website promises “a little disco, a little dive, a little Irish.” Sign us up. jacksextrafancy.com

Burger and hockey haven BILL GRAY’S is opening a tap room at 964 Ridge Road, the Webster location formerly occupied by family owned grocery store Hegedorns Market for 70 years. (Bill Gray’s also owns the building, and the Hegedorn family owns more than a dozen Bill Gray’s and Tom Wahl’s restaurants in the area.)

FORNO TONY, a wildly popular Roman-style bakery pop-up that operated out of an East Avenue storefront next to Ristorante Lucano until recently will open at 1344 University Ave.; the same location as the new Black Button Distilling. The owners are currently building out the new space and hope to open by November. fornotony.com

KETTLE RIDGE FARM, a honey and maple syrup operation in Victor, plans to open The Backwoods at Kettle Ridge Farm, a seasonal venue with an 8-by-20-foot shippingcontainer bar, outdoor seating, a food truck, and live music. kettleridgefarm.com

FOR THE LOCAVORES

Farm-to-table catering company, weekly meal delivery service, and event space FARMHOUSE TABLE opened a retail shop on Dewey Avenue and St. Paul Boulevard in Irondequoit. Stop by for homemade breads, cookies, baked goods and salads, plus grocery items like eggs and cheeses from local producers. farmhousetablefood.com

Artfest On The Avenue Sun. Oct. 22 nd 9am-5pm

Temple B'rith Kodesh

2131 Elmwood Ave. Brighton NY

The place to buy unique gifts for yourself and your family or friends. Ceramics, Jewelry, Children’s / Women’s Clothing, Mixed Media, Paintings, Photography, Wooden Items, Bath & Body Products, and more!

PLUS: A silent auction!

$2

7 Annual

www.artfestontheavenue.com

- COMPILED BY REBECCA RAFFERTY AND LEAH STACY

Group project

BY S.J. AUSTIN & J. REYNOLDS

ACROSS

1. Put _____ on (limit)

5. Classic BBC sitcom, in fans’ rhyme

10. Jouster’s weapon

15. _____ Valley, CA

19. Zombie’s attack

20. Get ready for a photo

21. Run off together

22. Opening word of a Christmas poem

23. ** Funky, soulful safety exercise?

27. Fancy shindig (from the French for “evening”)

28. Ingredient description for diet cola

29. Start of a playground choosing poem

30. Police dept. figure

32. _____ Bo (1990s exercise video craze)

33. Hotel amenity

35. Body part that one might “lend”

38. Like the climate of an African desert

41. Peak

43. British “bye-bye”

47. ** Much-loved indie film about a sad mollusk?

51. Gonzalez in 1999 Little League news

52. One of Alexander Hamilton’s papers?

53. Residences that may have groundskeepers

54. Oft-broken golf accessory

55. Pantyhose problems

56. Suspicious credit card activity, sometimes

58. Possessive pronoun commonly misspelled with a superfluous apostrophe

59. Eyebrow makeup?

61. Waste allowance (archaic)

62. Fleur-de-_____

63. Actress Chaplin of “Game of Thrones”

65. Suffix for teen

bands etc d2

67. Withered and dry

68. The act before the headliner at a concert-or a clue to the beginnings of the answers to the starred clues

71. Dairy aisle purchase

75. Weightlifter’s count

77. Caesar’s rebuke to Brutus

78. Sound of a bleat

79. Not give _____ (care not)

80. Alda and Turing

83. Diretor DuVernay

84. Actor Shore

86. Commercial follower of “-o-”

87. Grumpiest of the Three Stooges

88. Intermediate math subj.

92. One of at least two (hopefully) on toilet tissue

93. Emphasizing rhyme for “super”

94. ** Special discount periods at the nudist beach bar?

98. Long-running singing competition, to fans

99. Zeus’s sister

100. @ on social media

101. Go out with

102. Trees on the National Mall

104. Professional whistleblower?

105. Marie et Thérèse: Abbr.

107. Message written on a cake in “Alice in Wonderland”

110. Siobhan Roy of “Succession,” e.g.

114. Opening words of “Send in the Clowns”

118. ** Boxed dinner on the tour bus during the “Rumours” tour?

122. Custardy dessert

123. Proverbial saying

124. Swap

125. Gives weapons to

126. The “S” of GPS

127. Sorts, as chicks

128. Gurus

129. Smooch

DOWN

1. Fivers

2. Italian “bye-bye”

3. “The Bell of _____” (Longfellow)

4. Chem lab dish

5. “In the language of my people”

6. Weight-to-height ratio, for short

7. Twain title character

8. Designer Gucci

9. Shine bright in show business

10. Horizontal protrusion

11. _____ Romeo (luxury car brand)

12. Gritty film genre

13. Medical technique administered by an EMT

14. Wide shoe size

15. Avenue crossers

16. “Checkmate”

17. Landlocked west African country

18. Dot in the ocean

24. Muppet creator Jim

25. Subtle difference in meaning

26. Lexicographic bit, in brief

31. Acid test papers

33. Splinter group, perhaps

34. Vehicle spindle

35. “Roger _____ Book of Film”

36. Powerfully attractive quality

37. Spoiler

39. “Relax, soldiers”

40. Eyedrops brand name

65. Data examination

66. Aussie greeting

69. Great Basin state

70. Enchanted trinket

72. Budgetary visual aids

73. Mature reproductive cell

74. Few and far between

76. “Pardon the Interruption” network

80. Prefix meaning both

81. Laundry unit

82. Dynamic start?

83. Taiwanese tech giant

85. “Let’s put ____ in that idea for now”

89. Obama chief of staff Emanuel

90. Squeezes (out)

91. Tool for Ansel Adams

93. Right wing conspiracy theorist D’Souza

95. Honda SUV discontinued in 2010

96. Flaws

97. Placards, e.g

103. Allow

104. Layers of frost

106. Go furtively

107. Letters before gees

108. Partner

111. Upper hand

112. Singer Bareilles

115. Actress Hatcher or Garr

116. Ideologies