December 2020

NEWS. ARTS. LIFE. | DECEMBER 2020 | FREE | SINCE 1971 URBAN DEVELOPMENT

COMMENTARY

STEAMY SIPPING

GRABBING BULL’S HEAD

BY THE HORNS

DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST JALIL MUNTAQIM

A BEVY OF HOT BEVERAGES TO KEEP YOU COZY & WARM

HOW NEW YORK’S PROPOSED CBD REGULATIONS COULD KILL THE SMALL HEMP FARM roccitynews.org

CITY 1

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DECEMBER 2020

IN THIS ISSUE OPENING SHOT

Painters work on "I Am Speaking," a mural featuring a young John Lewis, at 49 State St. in downtown Rochester. PHOTO BY MAX SCHULTE

NEWS

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DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST JALIL MUNTAQIM

Monroe County is on the wrong side of history prosecuting this parolee.

ARTS

LIFE

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Rochester hasn't seen another conceptual artist like him.

BY DAVID ANDREATTA

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A CODE OF CONDUCT STANDARD FOR COPS?

The public defender and Rochester's police union president debate.

ON THE COVER

SEE YA LATER, BUD

How newly proposed state rules could crush smokable CBD and the small hemp farmer.

PUBLIC LIVES:

CONOR DWYER REYNOLDS IS COP WATCHING

The director of the new Police Accountability Board talk shop.

BY JEFF SPEVAK

BY GINO FANELLI

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BY TIMOTHY DONAHER AND MICHAEL MAZZEO

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JOHN BOREK'S PAGE-TURNER OF A LIFE

BOY JR. HITS BIG ON TIKTOK

Erica Allen-Lubman has perfected her schtick on the social media platform.

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BY GINO FANELLI

THE GIFT OF MUSIC

You always remember your first.

First kiss. First car. First musical instrument.

BY FRANK DE BLASE

Pop-ups pairing with pizzerias?

I can die happy now.

BY CHRISTOPHER THOMPSON

BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

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POPPIN' UP PIZZAS

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CITY 3

INBOX WANNA SAY SOMETHING? NEWS. ARTS. LIFE.

CITY wants to hear you rant and rave. Your feedback must . . . . . . be no more than 250 words . . . respond to CITY content . . . be engaging

December, 2020 Vol 49 No 4 On the cover: Photo by Max Schulte Design by Ryan Williamson

CITY reserves the right to edit for accuracy, length, and readability.

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

Send your rants and raves to: feedback@rochester-citynews.com

CITY, 280 State St., Rochester, NY 14614 (ATTN: Feedback) ABOUT TRUMP’S CHARACTER The Editor’s Notebook, “The election was about character — our own,” in the November edition of CITY chastising President Donald Trump’s character was well taken, and many of his followers would probably agree in many cases. Trump is definitely unusual as far as politicians go.

But then, he really isn’t a politician is he? He was elected because many people were sick and tired of the same old political rhetoric from the mouths of professional politicians who have made a career of being on the public dole and have lost touch with the ordinary citizen. Trump offered an alternative and the electorate said, “Why not give him a chance?”

Was he perfect. No. Your editorial made that perfectly clear. But you must admit, like it or not, that he was hounded from his first day in office by a media that could not wrap its head around the fact that he won and diligently followed Hillary Clinton’s marching orders to “RESIST” for the next four years.

Trump was his own worst enemy in many cases. Nevertheless, even his harshest critics must admit he accomplished more with brashness and cajoles than most past presidents would have dared or tried. Not bad considering a hostile media, endless and expensive investigations leading nowhere, and a silly and spiteful impeachment that could have been fodder for a Fellini movie.

The Editor’s Notebook referenced Clinton’s 2016 campaign ad, “Role Models,” which asked voters to 4 CITY

DECEMBER 2020

PUBLISHER Rochester Area Media Partners LLC, Norm Silverstein, chairman

‘BOMB TRAINS’ BOMBED I have been a long time reader of CITY, but Jeremy Moule’s article in the November edition about trains carrying liquefied natural gas was the first to make me question the validity of the publication (“‘Bomb trains’ may be coming to a railroad crossing near you”).

The article speaks about trains carrying fuel that could explode in the extremely rare chance of a derailment, and why we should be afraid. Yet, the article notes that the Fire Department isn’t worried and that trains that carry fossil fuels already run through Rochester. So what is the point of the article? It felt like boring fear mongering.

I am a fan of Moule’s writing, but this piece was frankly a waste of two pages. This year has already been so horrible, with so many awful but newsworthy stories that should be covered. A train carrying fuel that has a miniscule chance of exploding, calling them “bomb trains,” and saying they are going to destroy our suburbs is not one of them.

Erin Brache, Penfield imagine how a Trump presidency would shape a child. How do you suppose her husband’s behavior in the White House shaped the lives of children whose parents had to explain to them the mysteries of oral sex?

Bob Tacito, Webster Regarding the Editor’s Notebook, “The election was about character — our own,” I applaud your views. I, like many others, cannot figure out why more than 73 million Americans voted for Donald Trump after living through four years of his presidency.

What happened to Americans’ sense of decency and inclusion?

I sincerely hope we can get back to what America is really about — welcoming the oppressed and being kind and caring to each other.

Thank you for your insights and the new great look of CITY. Karen Herman, Fairport

TRUE JUSTICE AT STAKE The failures of our justice system have resulted in mass incarceration, punitive legislation, and an adversarial process. The latest criminal case against Jalil Muntaqim, a 69-yearold man recently paroled after it was established that he is substantially rehabilitated and poses no threat to his community, is an example.

Mr. Muntaqim is accused of registering to vote, a privilege that requires the governor’s consent for people on parole. This man served 50 years in prison for a serious crime. Do we believe in rehabilitation? Do we accept that people can change between their late teenage years and senior years? It is far past time for our society to invest in true justice instead of increased punishment and incarceration. The entire system requires review and reform.

Kathleen FitzPatrick, Pittsford FitzPatrick is the co-chair of the Rochester Alliance of Communities Transforming Society Justice System Task Force

FOUNDERS Bill and Mary Anna Towler EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT themail@rochester-citynews.com Editor: David Andreatta News editor: Jeremy Moule Staff writer: Gino Fanelli Arts & entertainment editor: Rebecca Rafferty Music editor: Daniel J. Kushner Music writer: Frank De Blase Calendar editor: Kate Stathis Contributing writers: Ron Netsky, Vince Press, Jeff Spevak, Chris Thompson CREATIVE DEPARTMENT artdept@rochester-citynews.com Creative director: Ryan Williamson Designer/Photographer: Jacob Walsh ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT ads@rochester-citynews.com Sales manager: Alison Zero Jones Advertising consultant/ Project mananger: David White OPERATIONS/CIRCULATION Operations manager: Ryan Williamson Circulation manager: Katherine Stathis kstathis@rochester-citynews.com CITY is available free of charge. Additional copies of the current issue may be purchased by calling 585-784-3503. CITY may be distributed only by authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of CITY, take more than one copy of each monthly issue.

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, 2020 - 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.

@ROCCITYNEWS

WELCOME

Saying goodbye, and good riddance, to 2020

W

hat a fucked up year.

I apologize for the language. I do. You expect more from a wordsmith. I know. But there’s really no other way to sum up 2020.

Not even the masters of language, the lexicographers at Oxford Languages, the maker of the Oxford English Dictionary, could settle on a single word or phrase, as they do every year, to define the chaos of the past 12 months.

In 2019, their phrase was “climate emergency.” In 2018, it was “toxic.” Those words, ominous by definition, now sound as hopeful as a pet Cocker Spaniel waiting at the front door.

Consider that Oxford reportedly measured the frequency of the word “climate” gathered from media sources around the planet and found that use of the word plunged by almost 50 percent in March, as the pandemic took hold.

Half the people in the English-speaking world stopped talking about the biggest threat to human existence in a single month! That’s how fucked up this year was.

The pandemic reshaped our world and our language in 2020. Use of the word “coronavirus” was on par with “impeachment” in January, according to Oxford’s annual Word of the Year report, but by April had become one of the most common nouns in English, overtaking “time.”

Words and phrases related to racial injustice, like “Black Lives Matter” and “systemic racism” and “allyship,” also surged. But their increased usage was overshadowed by pandemic-related terms.

“Flatten the curve” and “quarantine” and “lockdown” became household terms.

That went, too, for “social distancing,” which I loathed because it implies losing touch when what we really want to do in a pandemic is just keep our physical distance from one another.

We excelled at that this year. Oxford noted that for years the most common words that frequently went with “remote” were “control” and “island” and “village.” This year, they became “working” and “learning.”

How depressing. You can only roll out of bed and spend the day in your pajamas pretending to be “working from home” for so long before you realize that you’re a sponge getting paid with Paycheck Protection Program tax dollars to do nothing. Then again, maybe that’s just me.

Even the most upbeat of Oxford’s report — the short list of blended words, like 2017’s word of the year “youthquake” — was downcast. There was “Blursday” (meaning how the days and weeks in a pandemic just seem to blend together), “doomscrolling” (need I say more?), and “covidiots” (those people who cried “FREEEEEDOMMMMMMM!” like William Wallace on the rack with every plea from scientists they don’t want to hear to wear a mask).

“The English language, like all of us, has had to adapt rapidly and repeatedly this year,” Oxford wrote in the report.

We sure did. At CITY, we adapted by rebranding ourselves a monthly magazine.

Many of us, like many of you, are still tripping over the word “newspaper” when we talk about CITY. But at least we’re still talking about it. Whatever you call us, we thank you for sticking with us and look forward to bringing you news, arts, and life coverage about our community that both informs and entertains in the new year.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for one.

David Andreatta, Editor

Columbia Care Medical Marijuana Dispensary in Rochester now offering ground flower NEW PATIENT SPECIAL: Receive 20% off your first purchase

Home Delivery Available

Find us

www.col-care.com/location/rochester New York Medical Marijuana ID required to make a Medical Marijuana purchase.

Thoughts about the new CITY? Tell us at feedback@rochester-citynews.com roccitynews.org

CITY 5

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

Drop the charges against Jalil Muntaqim

BY DAVID ANDREATTA

@DAVID_ANDREATTA

DANDREATTA@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

E

verybody makes a bad decision once in a while.

Anthony Bottom made one in 1971 when he took part in the shooting deaths of two New York City police officers outside a Harlem housing project.

He and two other men, all members of the Black Liberation Army, an underground militant offshoot of the Black Panther Party, were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years-to-life in prison. He was 19 years old at the time of the crime.

Sandra Doorley, the Monroe County district attorney, made a bad decision in October, when she charged Bottom with felonies related to him illegally registering to vote. Continuing the prosecution will only make it worse.

Not that Bottom, who lives in Brighton under the name he assumed in prison, Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, didn’t attempt to register to vote. He did. He filled out the paperwork on Oct. 8, a day after he was released from prison on parole.

The problem with his timing was that parolees in New York are allowed to vote only upon receiving a conditional pardon from the governor that restores their voting rights — and Muntaqim hadn’t received that pardon.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has issued such pardons as a matter of course on a monthly basis since 2018, when he signed an executive order directing the commissioner of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to submit to the governor each month a list of every felon newly eligible for parole, with each name to be “given consideration for a conditional pardon that will restore voting rights.”

Anyone on the list would be eligible for a pardon as long as they weren’t flagged for any specific concern. Most parolees receive their pardon within four to six weeks of their release. The pardon doesn’t expunge their record or restore other rights stripped from them, such as the right to own a gun.

Cuomo denied Muntaqim a pardon when his name came up

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DECEMBER 2020

Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, aka Anthony Bottom.

PROVIDED PHOTO

for consideration in November, spokespeople for the governor and the Department of Corrections said.

By then, Muntaqim had already been arraigned on felony charges of tampering with public records and offering a false instrument for filing, which carry maximum penalties of seven years and four years in prison, respectively.

If convicted, Muntaqim will likely return to prison and die there. He is 69 years old.

Not that Muntaqim’s fate matters much to a lot of people.

The concept of disenfranchising felons dates to colonial days, when certain criminals were stripped of rights in a practice known as civil death. Later Americans applied their own uniquely racist twist to the practice after the Civil War, when many states used it to deprive Black men of the vote they had recently gained. Today, the impact of these laws still falls disproportionately on poor people of color.

The Supreme Court interprets the Constitution in such a way that upholds these restrictions, which are a confusing patchwork of laws that vary by state.

Forty-eight states prohibit current inmates from voting and 30 keep parolees from the polls, according to the Sentencing Project, an advocacy group for criminal justice reform. Indeed, if Muntaqim resided in 20 other states, he

wouldn’t be in this predicament.

A national movement to restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated people is gaining steam, though.

Advocates say restoring voting rights to former felons helps them shed the stigma of criminal conviction and empowers them to be responsible citizens with a voice in their community.

But many conservative groups oppose the movement. They point out that supporters often make no mention of restoring other rights, such as the right to own a gun, suggesting that the push is really just about getting the votes of felons.

They have a point. The movement to expand access to the vote has become a political hot potato, with Republicans opposing it and Democrats tending to support it, in part because they stand to gain the most from it.

Perhaps not surprisingly, then, it was the head of the Monroe County Republican Party, William Napier, who alerted Doorley to Muntaqim’s registration, which was filed under his birth name. Napier even called a news conference for the occasion.

The case was a gimme for Doorley, who is also a Republican. That Muntaqim attempted to register to vote is so clear it doesn’t require the qualifier “allegedly” here.

Whether he did it with intent to defraud, which is required for the charges to stick, is another matter, however.

It is absurd to think that a man who spent nearly 50 years behind bars would be so hellbent on casting a ballot in a single election as to jeopardize his newfound freedom on Day One. It seems obvious that Muntaqim didn’t know what he was doing when he filled out that form.

Muntaqim and his lawyer, a public defender, wouldn’t comment on his circumstances. But his mother has cast his actions as “a mistake,” saying the voter registration form was in “a packet of papers that was issued to him to help him assimilate himself back into society.”

Friends of Muntaqim said that packet was given to him by the county’s Department of Human Services, which helps newly released prisoners acclimate. Those packets include everything a former inmate might need — information on Medicaid, food stamps, child care, becoming an organ donor, and a voter registration form.

“I don’t think he was trying to game the system” by signing the form, said James Schuler, who has known Muntaqim since they met as inmates at Auburn Correctional Facility in 2000. “One thing he wanted to be more than anything was a productive member of society. They gave him paperwork to do that and he signed.”

Schuler, 52, described Muntaqim as “a leader” and “a peacekeeper” in prison, where he earned college degrees and mentored inmates.

After nearly 50 years of incarceration, Muntaqim corrected his bad decision to the extent he could. The New York Board of Parole recognized that when it deemed him ready to return to society, having taken into consideration his disciplinary record, personal growth, and the severity of his crimes.

Doorley said in an interview that her charges against him have nothing to do with his criminal past. She said they were about answering allegations of voter fraud in the weeks before the election and that Muntaqim’s case seemed straightforward.

“Is it a major thing?” she asked of the charges. “No.” Not to her, but the stakes for Muntaqim are life-changing at a time when the nation is changing to recognize the implications of disenfranchising people who look like him.

Asked if she would consider dropping the charges, Doorley replied, “I don’t think we’ve ruled anything out.

It’s not like we’re rushing to a grand jury.

Obviously, we may consider making some plea offer.”

Now it’s Doorley turn to correct her bad decision.

roccitynews.org

CITY 7

NEWS

TWO VIEWS

The time for a standard code of conduct for police is now

BY TIMOTHY DONAHER

P

olice officers are charged with upholding the law, and have significant authority and discretion when interacting with the public to stop someone, arrest a person for a minor offense, or to use force – including deadly force – to defend themselves.

Because these interactions have potentially serious repercussions, police officers are often the subject of a complaint of misconduct. Some have no merit — but some do.

What is common to all complaints, however, is that they are adjudicated not by an independent body, but by the police department where the officer is employed. This raises significant concerns as to whether police departments can fairly handle complaints against one of their own, and impose appropriate punishment where warranted.

Indeed, in recognition of the difficulties, both real and perceived, with a police agency reviewing misconduct claims against its officers, New York recently began requiring that any use of force by police resulting in death be investigated by the state Attorney General. That is happening right now with the officers involved in the fatal arrest of Daniel Prude.

Police agencies promote professionalism among their collective staff. But the true mark of a professional is dedication to a uniform code of conduct and being subject to oversight by an independent body.

Attorneys, for example, are bound by ethical rules. Complaints about violations of those rules in New York are not handled by the law firm employing the attorney, but by an independent entity known as the Attorney Grievance Committee that is comprised of attorneys who are unaffiliated with the subject of the complaint and non-attorneys.

These committees are regional, with oversight over multiple counties, and are supported by a full-time staff of investigators and prosecutors employed by the courts.

8 CITY

DECEMBER 2020

Similarly, judges in New York are overseen by an independent entity, the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct. The commission also has staff that investigates complaints made against judges and recommends whether punishment should be imposed.

Physicians have a similar system in the Office of Professional Medical Conduct, which investigates complaints made against doctors and presents its findings to an independent body for determination as to whether the case has merit and warrants punishment.

This type of oversight structure — uniform rules of conduct and an independent entity to investigate complaints — is not limited to the traditional professions. New York’s Division of Licensing Services issues licenses in 35 professions to over 800,000 persons and businesses.

It also has a professional staff of investigators who investigate complaints and impose punishment.

When it comes to oversight of police, legitimate concerns as to whether a police agency can police its own has led some communities to establish some form of civilian review board. The success of these community efforts has been mixed at best.

Recently, the city of Rochester attempted to establish a Police Accountability Board (PAB) comprised of civilian members with the power to investigate and discipline police officers. This initiative led to litigation that ultimately rendered the PAB toothless.

Other communities have established civilian oversight boards, but without any investigatory or discipline authority. Those boards can make recommendations to the police chief, who can ignore them.

Even in communities that manage to create viable civilian oversight boards, they are often under-resourced, lacking a full-time professional staff.

Smaller communities do not have the resources to implement effective

Monroe County Public Defender Timothy Donaher. PROVIDED PHOTO

civilian review boards, or lack the political will to do so.

Given the challenges faced by these boards, it is time to consider a new oversight model for police, one in which police officers are licensed, follow a uniform code of conduct, and complaints about them assessed by an independent body.

That police agencies implement rules of conduct for their officers is standard practice. However, there is no uniform, statewide code of conduct for police officers. Not all rules of conduct can be uniform throughout the state. But there are rules of conduct that can — and should — be uniform. For instance, the permissible use of force by a police officer should be uniform no matter where that officer is employed, as are rules that prevent discriminatory conduct by police officers. The New York Division of Criminal Justice Services is wellequipped to promulgate these uniform rules, as it already mandates how police officers are trained.

Establishing a set of uniform rules of conduct that all police officers in New York must follow makes creating regional, independent offices to investigate allegations of police misconduct possible. Professional staff would investigate these allegations and either exonerate the officer or determine that a violation occurred. Any possible punishment would be determined by an independent body comprised of police officers and citizens.

This model would require state legislation to implement, and state funding to make effective. But the investment in these resources would provide New York citizens with the assurance that police officers are being uniformly trained, abiding by a uniform code of conduct, and subject to independent oversight — just like the tens of thousands of other professionals in New York.

Timothy Donaher is the Monroe County Public Defender.

A standardized code of conduct for cops faces huge hurdles

BY MICHAEL MAZZEO

T

his year heralded a near global call to re-imagine policing and the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve. A culmination of activist efforts across the country have demanded changes to police oversight, contending that the police cannot police themselves.

To reform something, though, you first have to identify what is broken. What is flawed in policing can be attributed to indifferent police management and ineffective policy.

One school of thought suggests that national standards for hiring and training should be developed.

This has been a goal of the police labor movement, and it has only been marginally successful in unionized states thanks to collective bargaining rights. Police chiefs and political leaders often speak of setting standards until it comes to paying the cost of implementing them, including hiring, recruiting, training, and continuing education. For far too long, police executives have dodged needed changes by unfairly disciplining or terminating an officer for an incident that raised any level of public criticism. By dismissing the problem as an individual failure, they completely avoided the need to examine what role policy, training, or a lack of resources for the officers working the streets played in the incident in question.

A national uniformed police code of conduct is an idea that sounds good on paper, but comes with many hurdles. Perhaps the largest among them is setting a standard that defines an appropriate use of force. The 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Graham v. Connor established that determining whether reasonable force was used “must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.” That standard has stood the test of time.

How would a code of conduct for use of force be different? Chief Justice

Rehnquist wrote in that decision, “The test of reasonableness is not capable of precise definition or mechanical application.”

In 2015, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, created “30 Guiding Principles” for police use of force. The guidelines proposed that force should be based on “proportionality.” In other words, the use of force should be proportional to the threat and totality of the circumstances.

Researchers challenged officers to ask, “Will my actions be viewed as appropriate by my agency and by the general public-given the severity of the threat and totality of the circumstances?” The question suggests that the opinion of the general public, whoever or whatever that means at any given time, would eventually determine whether force used by an officer was acceptable.

Police executives around the country embraced the principle and incorporated it into their internal reviews of officers. What they did not embrace, however, was PERF’s recommendations for additional training to accompany that change.

Nor did they consider educating the public and elected officials on police training and use of force.

In the legal profession, oversight is handled by independent bodies comprised of attorneys and nonattorneys. These panels review complaints against lawyers and determine if there is probable cause to investigate or dismiss the allegation. They can make a nonpublic determination, or, in more serious matters, publicly release its findings and punishment. The medical profession has similar oversight.

There are benefits to considering a similar process for policing.

In both the legal and the medical professions, though, what information about individual lawyers and doctors becomes public is considerably less than what was

Rochester Police Locust Club President Michael Mazzeo. FILE PHOTO

has come to pass in New York with the recent repeal of a section of Civil Service Law known as 50a. Those professions, and others, also allow for varying degrees of discipline.

In policing, the primary outcome of a disciplinary action is either a suspension or a termination. Why not remedial training or educationbased discipline? Why not explore ways to help officers reduce stress or introduce behavioral health resources to address and correct undesirable actions?

Some hospitals are known as “teaching hospitals,” which implies that the medical professionals there have varying degrees of experience and are in the process of learning.

Well, a police department is a “teaching department.” Every department has new recruits and veterans with various levels of experience. Should a new recruit, recently weaned from his or her training officer, be expected to know exactly how to respond

in every stressful, highly-fluid situation, some of which they will be encountering for the first time?

Of course not. Yet every police officer accused of misconduct is investigated in the same manner and is judged publicly, regardless of how little relevant experience or training they have had.

If change is going to happen, labor must be at the planning table, not to prevent reform but to ensure that policies are fair and safe for officers and the community.

Improving the way we police requires changes that make good cops better and sharpens the focus on precisely what needs policing. Until meaningful policy change occurs, we should not expect police reform to be the solution to, or the blame of, all our problems.

Michael Mazzeo is the president of the city’s police union, the Rochester Police Locust Club.

roccitynews.org

CITY 9

SEE YA LA The unmistakable aroma of cannabis is in the air long before the rows upon rows of deteriorating hemp plants at Growing Family Farm in Spencerport that are its source come into view. Once lush and vibrant green and stretching for acres, the stalks have begun to brown and shrivel under the cool autumn sky.

They have already been picked over for their most precious resource — their buds rich in cannabidiol, commonly called CBD, the extract that is being added to everything nowadays from hand cream to sparkling water to toothpicks — and will soon be turned to compost.

“I touched every single one of these plants at least a half a dozen times before we even started harvesting,” Zach Sarkis, a partner in the farm and a founder of NY HempLab, a nonprofit incubator for the state’s fledgling cannabis industry, said on a stroll through the stalks. “There’s such intimate care.”

This crop of hemp may be the last to be cultivated at Growing Family Farm and at other small hemp farms like it. That’s because newly proposed rules to regulate the production and sale of CBD hemp products in New York announced in October by Gov. Andrew Cuomo would ban the sale of hemp buds — also known as "flower" — which is the most profitable part of the plant.

Right now, hemp farmers like Sarkis are free to pick off buds and package them for smoke shops, where consumers can buy them, roll them into joints or pack them into bongs, and smoke them. For small farmers like him, that’s where the money is.

Despite the infusion of CBD into a multitude of products, smoking the bud remains the most efficient and cost-effective way to consume CBD. But under the new regulations, farmers would no longer be allowed to sell their buds for resale as a smokable product. Rather, they would have to sell their plants in their entirety to a person licensed to crush them down into an oil extract.

The trouble with that scenario for hemp farmers is that the whole plant, when sold for processing, has a fraction of the value of that of the buds when they are sold as a standalone, smokable product.

The proposed regulations have been widely considered a precursor to what Cuomo has suggested will be a push by the Democratic-controlled Legislature in 2021 to finally legalize the recreational use of marijuana, both as a means of New York stemming a budget deficit and getting with the times as more and more states take the plunge.

Many in the state’s cannabis industry are applauding the proposed regulations as a way to help hemp farmers and processors meet the growing demand for their products. But they also contend the provision that bans bud sales is counterintuitive for a recreational cannabis market on the cusp of legalization, and they are using the window of time they have before the proposed regulations become permanent to push back.

The New York Cannabis Growers & Processors Association, for instance, has called the proposed regulations “an important step for New York state as it becomes a global leader in the hemp extract market” and a potential death knell to small hemp farmers like Growing Family.

“If not removed from the proposed rules, it may essentially push the small and craft farms out of the industry,” said the association’s executive director, Nicole Ricci.

Sarkis said if the ban becomes law, Growing Family would be better off planting tomatoes and greens.

“It’ll cripple the craft industry. As of right now, one in 10 farms actually succeeds,” Sarkis said. “Me, I’m a partner on this, I’ve been working six days a week since March without a paycheck. Did you just nullify everything I just did?”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

10 CITY DECEMBER 2020

HOW NEW YORK’S PROPOSED CBD REGULATIONS COULD KILL THE SMALL HEMP FARM

BY GINO FANELLI PHOTOS BY MAX SCHULTE

ATER, BUD

Zach Sarkis surveys the hemp crop at Growing Family Farm in Spencerport.

roccitynews.org CITY 11

Zach Sarkis dismantles stakes after harvesting the hemp crop at Growing Family Farms.

A SQUARE’S GUIDE TO THE LEGISLATION

The uninitiated can be forgiven for being confused by terms like “hemp,” “bud,” and “cannabis.”

The cannabis industry is in flux and complex. Consider that the same plant (cannabis) is considered legal in New York if bred one way (hemp), and illegal if bred another (marijuana).

There is a misconception that hemp and what many people know as marijuana are different species of cannabis. They are not.

What separates them is their content of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in pot that gives users a “high.”

Cannabis with a concentration of 0.3 percent or less of THC is hemp.

CBD can be extracted from hemp buds, or flower, and turned into oils, teas, and breath sprays. But, like the flower of its cannabis cousin, the marijuana plant, hemp flower can also be smoked, and therein lies the 12 CITY DECEMBER 2020

rub with the bud for the Cuomo administration.

The proposed regulations, dubbed the Cannabinoid Hemp Program, aim to set standards in the CBD industry that regulate quality control, licensing, and what products can and cannot be sold.

CBD is found in all cannabis plants and is widely used for a bounty of reasons, such as treating headaches, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain.

The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp under federal law, but it preserved the authority of states and Native American tribes to regulate the production of hemp.

The proposed regulations in New York would greenlight the sale of products like CBD-infused tinctures, edibles, ointments, and vaporizers — items that are already on supermarket shelves under federal law — and ban the sale of hemp buds, which are commonly sold in packages in smoke shops and gas stations.

Many farmers sell bud directly to customers and had hoped the new regulations would allow them to expand their business. Smoking the bud is by far the most popular, and cheapest, way to consume CBD — just as it is to consume marijuana.

“I think if this law stays, you’re going to see a lot of people exit the

industry,” said Steve Van de Walle, who owns Tiva CBD and runs a small hemp farm in Mt. Morris in Livingston County. “Any time you add more layers of regulation it scares people out of the industry.”

Consider the potential lost revenue to the small hemp farmer if the proposed regulations stick and farmers are restricted to selling the whole plant instead of harvesting the buds for sale.

Small batch hemp flower sold at retail can easily fetch $1,000 per pound. At wholesale, as in sold to a person who is going to turn it into extract, the average value was about $160 per pound earlier this year, according to Kush.com, a cannabis industry advocacy and retail site.

“Every row of plants will pull in value over the course of a season,” Sarkis said. “It’s just not worth putting in eight months of time in order to get a fraction of what it’s worth.”

UP IN SMOKE

Jill Montag, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health, said concerns about smoking fueled the bud ban, much like it did the state prohibition on flavored e-cigarette products imposed earlier in the year.

“In line with the Department of Health’s efforts to reduce tobacco and smoking consumption for all New

Yorkers, the proposed cannabinoid hemp regulations prohibit the sale of hemp flower by licensed cannabinoid hemp retailers to discourage the use of this product form due to the negative health effects associated with combustible products,” Montag said.

Industry advocates see the position as being at odds with the future of the cannabis industry in New York. Last month, Cuomo told North Country Public Radio that legalizing cannabis could help shore up the state’s budget deficit.

“I think this year it is ripe because the state is going to be desperate for funding. Even with Biden, even with the stimulus, we’re still going to need funding,” Cuomo said. “I think we’re going to get there this year.”

Will the state extend the bud ban to marijuana plants when recreational cannabis becomes legal? If that were the case, New York stands to leave hundreds of millions of dollars in taxable revenue on the table. Buds are the biggest part of the marijuana market, according to Grand View Market Research, which valued the market at $9.1 billion last year.

“They will not do that, and they didn’t ban cigarettes,” said Mary Kruger, president of the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

“I do not support cigarettes, they kill hundreds of thousands of people every year, but they didn’t ban them, so why are they banning flower?”

While hemp regulations and recreational marijuana are two separate things, neither exists in a vacuum.

Jason Klimek, an attorney who heads the cannabis law practice at Boylan Code, said the regulations are effectively laying the groundwork for New York’s recreational cannabis policy.

“Think about the timing on the recreational side, Cuomo’s been pushing it hard that we’re going to get it into the budget this year,” Klimek said. “When you read these regulations, you can almost take out ‘hemp’ and put in ‘recreational cannabis’ and they almost completely work.”

THE FUTURE OF SMALL FARM GROWTH The public comment period for the new hemp regulations is open until

Jan. 11, but growers believe stopping the ban is an uphill battle. If the ban sticks, they say, the hemp industry will simply revert buds to the black market.

“Them saying ‘no flower’ is not going to stop the product,” Sarkis said.

“It’s not going to stop people from getting this brown, probably has mold, shitty quality product that came from Colorado two years ago.”

Klimek said the regulations are effectively framing who can participate in the cannabis industry, at least in the near future. Priority, he said, is clearly being given to CBD processing licensees, of which there are only a handful.

“Try to find an application for a CBD processor license,” Klimek said. “They don’t exist, I went onto the Department of Health website, I couldn’t find them, and it’s not regulated under the Department of (Agriculture and Markets) anymore.

Effectively what they’re saying is, ‘We’re going to go with the processors we already have.’”

For the consumer, bud is typically the most affordable CBD product, with a gram, enough for a hearty joint, usually running less than $10.

Compare that with small bottles of tinctures that can run from $30 into the hundreds of dollars, depending on concentration.

“They discriminate against flower in all of their legislation, and they always compare it to tobacco,” Kruger said.

“New York state does not have research that shows marijuana smoke is the same smoke that causes cancer. It does not exist.”

To Kruger’s point, the American Cancer Society points to several studies which demonstrate CBD smoking can work as an effective tool to control nausea and support pain management in cancer patients.

As Sarkis wound down his labor in the field at Growing Family, moving moldy stalks off the drying racks and pulling posts out of the ground, he looked to the future with uncertainty.

He worried about the industry and how cannabis will be regulated in months and years to come. Mostly, though, he feared his dream of living off growing cannabis may be on the verge of going up in smoke.

“The farm put 25, 30 grand into this, not including time and labor,” Sarkis said. “And now, are we criminals?” roccitynews.org CITY 13

NEWS

FEELING BULLISH

A lone city-owned building on Brown Street shows the desolation characteristic of the Bull's Head neighborhood. PHOTO BY JEREMY MOULE

Grabbing Bull’s Head by the horns The Warren administration has gobbled up vacant lot after vacant lot and is now courting developers to reimagine Bull's Head as a retail and residential hub

BY JEREMY MOULE

A

@JFMOULE

miel Mokhiber was driving around the city scoping out potential locations for the sub shop he wanted to open when his eyes fixed on a building at the corner of West Main and Brown streets in the heart of the Bull’s Head neighborhood.

The first thing he noticed was the steel turret on top of it, the second was the robust foot and vehicle traffic around the intersection, an essential for a business that would depend on walk-

14 CITY DECEMBER 2020

JMOULE@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

in customers. He soon opened Amiel’s Jumbo Submarines there, and it did so well that after the first year that he bought the building from his landlord.

“It was Main Street,” his son, Amiel Mokhiber Jr., recalled in recounting the story of his father’s business. “When don’t you want to be on Main Street?

Back in the day, Main Street anything was the place to be.”

But that was in 1963, when Bull’s Head was a thriving commercial center. Now, vacant lots outnumber

businesses in the West Main, Brown, and Genesee streets corridor. By the 1970s, the forces of suburbanization caused businesses to move or fold, and the following decades weren’t much kinder. Amiel’s closed its Bull’s Head shop at the end of the 70’s, though Amiel Mokhiber Jr. still runs locations in Henrietta and Victor.

For two decades, various city administrations have attempted to generate investment in Bull’s Head, working with residents and civic leaders

to develop revitalization plans, to no avail. In the absence of private capital being sunk into the neighborhood, the city quietly over the course of years gobbled up vacant parcel after parcel with an eye toward implementing a master plan, a grand vision, of Bull’s Head as a retail and residential hub.

That process was recently completed under the administration of Mayor Lovely Warren, which took control of the final 12 acres at a cost of roughly $10 million. Most of the properties

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are within or adjacent to a misshapen pentagonal block bounded by West Main, Brown, York, and Kensington streets, although the city also spent an additional $1 million to buy Bull’s Head Plaza at the corner of West Main and Genesee streets.

The Warren administration is now taking the most significant steps to date to court a developer who officials hope can make a resurgent Bull’s Head a reality.

“It really was a strong, vital hub for the community and it’s really lost a lot of character now,” Rick Rynski, the city’s Bull’s Head project manager, told potential developers during an informational session in August. “The community really wants to bring that back.”

The city is in the process of selecting that developer but has not disclosed who is in the running for the award.

Bull’s Head has its roots in a cattle market from the early 1800s, before Rochester was even incorporated as a village. Many of the people herding their cows to the market stopped at the Bull’s Head Tavern, which became popular enough that it gave the area its lasting moniker.

As the decades passed, the area evolved into a cluster of businesses, shops, restaurants, and offices. In 1932, one of the first Wegmans stores opened at Main and Brown streets, complete with cutting edge refrigerated display windows and vaporized water sprays for produce. From 1952 to 1967, Dorschel Buick sold cars on Genesee Street, where a section of Bull’s Head Plaza now stands.

But that’s what Bull’s Head was.

The question now is how will the city remake it?

Dana Miller, the city’s director of business and housing development, told prospective developers during that August informational session that the city expects any firm awarded rights to the city-owned property to build a mix of retail and commercial space, housing, and some buildings for some health-related uses to complement nearby Unity’s St. Mary’s Campus.

Miller declined interview requests for this story, citing the city’s ongoing master developer selection process.

Under the city’s urban renewal plan for the area, Bull’s Head Plaza would likely be redeveloped to look less like a strip mall and more like urban commercial space. Officials

The city's plans for Bull's Head include reconfiguring some streets. MAP PROVIDED BY FISHER ASSOCIATES

have vowed to help any business or office displaced by the city’s project to relocate in Bull’s Head.

The city also plans to address the chaotic traffic patterns around Bull’s Head by reconfiguring some of the streets. For example, Brown Street would be redirected so it doesn’t intersect with West Main and instead feeds into a roundabout connected to an extension of Genesee Street. The change, combined with the apparent elimination of Kensington Street, would create additional development opportunities.

The city didn’t just pull its vision for Bull’s Head from its back pocket.

It incorporates several years’ worth of input from neighborhood leaders, residents, and business representatives.

They asked for amenities that would make the area more inviting, such as lighting, landscaping, and banners, and goods and services, particularly a grocery store, which Warren has said is something the city is pursuing. A Tops supermarket is just shy of a mile away on West Avenue.

They also wanted housing for the elderly or for residents to age in place.

Dawn Noto, president of the Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood Association, supports building senior housing at Bulls Head. She noted that aging residents with deep connections to southwest neighborhoods often don’t have housing options that enable them to continue living in their communities into old age.

“We need to talk about it more because that’s the social network,” Noto said.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

roccitynews.org CITY 15

Warren, too, has pointed to a lack of single-level senior housing in the city, and officials are talking to potential master developers about making senior housing part of the Bull’s Head plan.

There is one aspect of the plan that could prove controversial: a new police station positioned either at the rear of the Bull’s Head Plaza property or on a side street of West Main Street.

Through years of meetings, residents consistently asked for a greater police presence. But that was before the deaths of George Floyd and Daniel Prude at the hands of police, and national conversations about policing that have followed.

Those conversations upended plans for a police station on East Main Street at the other end of the city. The City Council repealed legislation providing funding for the station after pressure from activists. City and Rochester Police Department leaders are also in the midst of reviewing potential reforms for the police department.

“When the dust settles on that, it’s my hope that there will be a community-oriented police presence at Bull’s Head,” said John DeMott, a 19th Ward Community Association member who helped organize Bull’s Head input sessions for the city.

Universal Heating and Cooling has called Bull’s Head its home since 1973. Manager Chadd Haskins began working at the business on West Main Street, which his father owns, in 1987. He and his father have resisted the city’s attempts to acquire their property, but Haskins said he believes they’ll be able to stay. He said they like where they are because it’s a central location.

“We have a lot of customers in this area,” Haskins said.

Despite the city wanting their land, Haskins supports much of what the city wants to do at Bull’s Head, particularly plans to reconfigure some of the streets. He believes the neighborhood is well positioned for a commercial resurgence.

“There’s not a lot here to begin with, so you could put in almost anything,” Haskins said.

There are signs that efforts to revitalize Bull’s Head may be primed for success, among them that people and organizations are putting their faith in the surrounding area.

16 CITY DECEMBER 2020

Universal Heating Co., which opened in Bull's Head in 1973, is one of few remaining businesses in what was once a thriving commercial area.

PHOTO BY JEREMY MOULE

Rochester Regional Health's St. Mary's Campus is an anchor in Bull's Head.

PHOTO BY JEREMY MOULE

Flower City Habitat for Humanity hopes to complete its 100th house in the adjacent JOSANA neighborhood next year, according to Ethel Duble, a spokesperson for the organization.

The group committed in 2007 to building 100 owner-occupied houses within a half-mile of School No. 17 on Orchard Street.

When Warren announced the

city’s new Revitalize Rochester Fund in August, she chose to set her news conference at a vacant lot at West Main and Kensington streets. The fund is to provide loans and grants to entrepreneurs who want to start or expand businesses in select parts of the city, one of which is Bull’s Head. In her remarks, Warren acknowledged that Bull’s Head has seen troubled times and

has suffered from disinvestment, but she also pitched it as a place of opportunity.

“Bull’s Head today is a foundation for entrepreneurs to build their vision,” Warren said. “This area’s about to go through a dramatic change and we’re looking for people who want to be a part of that change. And the Revitalize Fund will invest in their vision in Bull’s Head and other neighborhoods.”

DeMott, who has watched the project unfold through several administrations at City Hall, draws optimism from another project that happened at West Main and Canal streets. That was where Home Leasing developed the Voter’s Block apartment community, constructing new duplexes and single-family houses, and what is now the 1872 Cafe — an homage to the area where Susan B. Anthony and 15 other women cast a ballot in 1872. The company also renovated a historic building across the street from Voter’s Block, retaining street-level retail.

“To me, they’re an example of the kind of developer who could come to Bull’s Head and take part of it and make both the commercial and the residential stuff happen,” DeMott said.

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ARTS

THEATER

Experimental theater producer John Borek presenting an offbeat version of Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" at MuCCC. PHOTO BY ANNETTE DRAGON

JOHN BOREK REFLECTS ON A PAGE-TURNER OF A LIFE

BY JEFF SPEVAK

I

@JEFFSPEVAK1

t took a while for John Borek, onetime bookstore owner and a selfdescribed quiet man, to become an open book himself. But once he did, the pages turned swiftly.

Rochester hasn’t seen a conceptual artist like Borek – a typical-looking, 70-ish white guy who refers to himself as The Professor of Rap, once released an album with songs about Michael Jackson’s monkey, and finds as much meaning in his failures on stage as a theater producer as his successes.

He planned to take his battle with leukemia to the KeyBank Rochester

18 CITY DECEMBER 2020

JSPEVAK@WXXI.ORG

Fringe Festival in September in a spoken-word piece called “The Book of Leuk.” But that was before the disease raged out of remission.

The pages continue to turn until we come to this: the one-time book peddler has written a book. Pulled from a year in Borek’s life a half-century ago, “The Club Van Cortlandt” is a charming, 132-page tale of a 19-year-old Rochester kid coming of age in a New York City flophouse. The Van Cortlandt Hotel, 1968.

“It was the year that defined who I was no longer,” Borek says. “And who I was to become.”

Now, he’s a 71-year-old man living in his 19th Ward home, which is cluttered with artistic curiosities that he and his wife Jackie collected over the years. Except Jackie is no longer here.

She died in May, after a long fight with a rare neurological disease.

There is only Bill. Bill — a friend who asked that his last name not be used here — has known Borek for decades. Bill appears in “The Club Van Cortlandt.” Retired, divorced, his kids grown, Bill moved in with Borek when he learned of Borek’s illness. It is an open-ended, temporary gig that

consists of helping Borek with trips to the hospital for blood transfusions and physical therapy, and planning for a hoped-for bone marrow transplant to stave off the leukemia.

Borek chronicles his illness on the nonprofit social networking site CaringBridge, which allows patients undergoing medical treatments to update friends and relatives on their condition. The posts were intended to be the substance of “The Book of Leuk,” but for now act as a living, noholds-barred memoir, sparing readers no detail.

“The biopsies are traditionally done in the hip because the spongy bone marrow exists in larger bones and the hip is accessible. First, fluid is extracted from the marrow…”

Borek is no stranger to such literary tools. He wrote “The Club Van Cortlandt” on his cell phone while sitting in waiting rooms while Jackie was undergoing treatment.

“The Club Van Cortlandt” is limited to his freshman year at Columbia University, which spanned 1968 and 1969, two formative years in the history of the country.

“My personal history and my country’s history sort of intersected and blew up,” Borek says. “I was by appearances a suburban kid, but I was really the child of a couple who had survived the Depression and World War II. And my parents had spent most of their lives creating a safe zone for the family — I’m an only child — for me, the family, that would protect me from the harshness and indignities of life.”

He was accepted into several Ivy League schools, but chose Columbia because he wanted to live in New York City.

“I was the affirmative action of the 1960s,” he says. “I was not only an unusually good student, but I was Polish, so I had an ethnicity. I was Catholic, so I had a reviled religion. I went to a public school, and I had no relatives who ever went to college, so I was a perfect choice for affirmative action that the Ivys were beginning in the 1960s, although now it seems ironic and ridiculous.”

He would find work at the legendary New York City bookstore The Strand. “It turned out to be my career path,” Borek says.

Borek returned to Rochester and in 1973 opened The Village Green Bookstore, which he named after a song by The Kinks called “The Village Green Preservation Society.” The song has a line, “God save little shops.”

“That’s what we used to keep us going,” Borek says. “And we needed a lot of blessings to keep going for that long.”

Until 1996, when he sold it, The Village Green on Monroe Avenue was more than a store. It was a community space. It had popcorn and tea. Authors such as Martha Stewart, Gloria Steinem, Jimmy Carter, and a cranky Kurt Vonnegut came for signings.

Borek performing in his show "Pope It Up" at MuCCC. PHOTO BY ANNETTE DRAGON

“That kind of reader-author attachment seems to have all but disappeared now,” Borek says. “Selling of books has been neutralized.”

Now, he acknowledges being addicted to book-buying on Amazon, a habit he calls a “betrayal of the bookstore industry.” At the same time, he throws up his hands and points out, “You can’t rely on conventional infrastructure anymore.”

“The Club Van Cortlandt” takes a subtle poke at that infrastructure in its listing price. It can be had on Amazon, of course, for $4.32, a price that Borek says he set to match the retail cost of a premium cup of coffee.

That kind of thinking is in line with Borek’s seemingly inexplicable emergence, at age 58, as a conceptual artist. His moment arrived in 2008 when he directed and produced a staged reading of the notorious Broadway flop “Moose Murders” at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center.

His effort to revive the play, not as a play, but as an art project that paid homage to a play so bad that it has become shorthand in the theater world for anything that goes tremendously and precipitously wrong, got the attention of The New York Times, which sent a reporter to town to catch the reading.

“I want it to be just about the joy of performing,” The Times quoted Borek as saying. “I want as little professionalism as possible to come out.”

“In that regard,” The Times reporter wrote, “It was a success.”

Borek’s career as theater mogul soared

from there. He spent 10 years as the artistic director at the Multi-use Community Cultural Center, a theater space fashioned out of a former church on Atlantic Avenue that affectionately goes by the acronym MuCCC. One of his shows was “Dinner Theater,” an improvisational piece in which he had friends of his, selected for their wit, to sit at a dinner table and gab. There was no Agatha Christie-style murder for the audience. Instead, the audience got cookies and watched eight flights of wine and an eight-course meal prepared by the restaurant Good Luck served to eight actors on stage who . . . just talked.

“I’d never seen such an outraged audience in my life,” Borek says. “It was breathtaking, the anger at . . . I guess it was, I don’t know, class structure.

The fact that they had to watch people being treated in a way that they are not being treated. But there was this bizarre explosion and anger in the theater.

“And in fact, a year and a half after I did the show, I was in Wegmans and a woman I had never CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

roccitynews.org CITY 19

PHOTO BY ANNETTE DRAGON

seen, who apparently was in the audience that night, walked up to me and said, ‘Are you the person who did “Dinner Theater?”’

And I said, ‘Yes.’ And she screamed at me, ‘You robbed an evening of my life!’”

So “Dinner Theater” was, Borek says, “an effective work of theater.”

There could be many, many more chapters to Borek’s story — chapters of more substance than conceptual art indulgences such as running for pope after the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI, or his obsessive collecting of autographed celebrity photos, all of which he insisted have the salutation, “Dear John.”

There could be a chapter on the five years he spent as a financial advisor and stockbroker after selling The Village Green, an experience he says “made me a lot louder.” There was also his entry into the political realm, as president of the 19th Ward Community Association. He ran community advisory programs at the University of Rochester, and spent 15 years as a legislative aide for former City Councilman Adam McFadden.

If there is a connection between the stockbroker and the fake pope to be found in the young man at the Van Cortlandt Hotel, Borek says, it was “a sense of my wider view of life, and that carried through for the next 50 years.

“I learned that no matter what one’s life circumstances are, or may be, one is still alive and all the people I met in the hotel, the Van Cortlandt, were very much alive, they were very spirited, they were very active, they were very committed to political causes, to art, to just helping people.”

So it was with John Borek and Jackie Levine. They met at The Village Green. She came in asking for Ignazio Silone’s novel “Bread and Wine” and the poems of Rabindranath Tagore.

Borek hired her. They married.

They had no children, except for the handful of young people they mentored and welcomed into their home over the years, and whom Borek and Levine affectionately called their “non-children.”

20 CITY DECEMBER 2020

Mentoring came naturally to them, especially Levine, who directed the University of Rochester’s study abroad program.

Borek figures she sent 8,000 students overseas and marvels at the thought of how she would know half of them, and what they were up to today, if they walked into the coffee shop at the Rochester Public Market while she was working on her New York Times crossword puzzle.

Levine raised an eyebrow at “Dinner Theater” and other productions of what Borek calls his “shadowy theater career.” But Levine was also the narrator of “Moose Murders.” They played off each other for 44 years.

One chapter closes. The next one opens. Levine edited “The Club Van Cortlandt,” the little book that Borek typed on his phone in hospital waiting rooms while Levine was undergoing treatments, and Borek dedicated the book to her.

“My feeling about memoirs is that none of them are true,” Borek says. “All of them are what I call autobiographical fiction. Nobody writes a book 50 years after events and can claim that they’re telling the truth.”

He recalls an interview Oprah Winfrey did in 2006 with James Frey, whose memoir of his battle with addiction, “A Million Little Pieces,” was a bestseller.

“She had him on her show, and then attacked him for making large parts of it up,” Borek says. “I thought that was absolutely fascinating. And she destroyed him, she destroyed the book . . . And yet, the book helped hundreds of thousands of people overcome addiction. So what good did it do to discredit it?”

In Borek’s mind, autobiography and memoir are flawed concepts. So was there really a dead man in the shared bathroom of the Van Cortlandt Hotel?

“I would say everything happened to me, in some form or other, that’s in the book. But I would be foolish to say that it’s accurate.”

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VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS [ Opening ]

The Black House, 215 Tremont St., Door 3, Suite 300. The Black House

Narratives: WTF AmeriKa (Dec 3-14); Ode to Black Joy (Dec 18 - Feb 1). Dec 19, 3-6pm: Long Table Conversation.

Reservation required; events will also be online. FB: BlackHouseROC. 235-2767.

Image City Photography Gallery, 722 University Ave. Holiday Show 2020. Dec. 1-23. 271-2540.

International Art Acquisitions, 3300 Monroe Ave. Sam Paonessa: The

Nutcrackers. Dec. 1-31. 264-1440.

Rochester Contemporary Art Center, 137 East Ave. 30th Annual Members Exhibition | A Voice to a Voice. $2. rochestercontemporary.org.

[ Continuing ] Art Exhibits

ArtSpace36, 36 Main St. Canandaigua.

FLCC Student Portfolio Show & Auction.

Through Jan. 29. flcc.edu/artspace36.

Bertha VB Lederer Online Gallery, SUNY Geneseo. Leslie Stroz: Between

the Moors & the Sea | Carol Heft: The Changing Landscape: Motion & Memory (both to Dec 12) | The Misogyny Papers: Apology by Victor Davson (to Apr 1). geneseo.edu/galleries.

Arday. thegeiselgallery.com.

Geneva Historical Society, 543 S Main St. Geneva. Rightfully Hers (to

Dec 31) | Those Who Served: Items from the Clothing Collection (to Jan 3) | An Educated Citizenry: Education in Geneva (to Apr 30). $3 suggested. genevahistoricalsociety.com.

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22 CITY DECEMBER 2020

George Eastman Museum, 900 East Ave. eastman.org. Gathering Clouds:

Beyond Addiction: Reframing Recovery | Felix Gonzalez-Torres: “Untitled” (L.A.).

Thursdays-Sundays. cityartspace.rit.edu.

Rochester Museum & Science Center, 657 East Ave. (rmsc.org). The

Silver Lake Brewing Project, 14 Borden Ave. Perry. Genesee Valley 100: A

Will Wilson’s AIR: A Conversation with the Artist. Wed., Dec. 2, 6 p.m.

Community Painting Project.. Through Dec. 31. On display at the brewery as well as the GVC website. 969-4238. geneseevalleyconservancy.org.

The Village Gallery, 3119 Main St.

Caledonia. 4th Annual Community Art Exhibit. Fridays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

294-3009.

Virtual Genesee Country Village & Museum, Online. Mumford. Explore the

Collection. Ongoing. gcv.org/explore/ online-collection.

Virtual George Eastman Museum, Online. Eastman Museum at Home.

Ongoing. eastman.org.

Virtual Memorial Art Gallery, mag.

rochester.edu. Explore the Collection.

Ongoing.

Yates County History Center, 107 Chapel St. Penn Yan. A Dangerous

Freedom: The Abolitionists, Freedom Seekers, & Underground Railroad Sites of Yates County. Tuesdays-Fridays. By appointment only. yatespast.org.

Film

Virtual Cinema Theater, cinemarochester.com. Daily Virtual Screenings. Ongoing.

Virtual Dryden Theatre, eastman.org.

Daily Virtual Screenings. Ongoing.

Main Street Arts, 20 W Main St. Clifton Springs. Small Works 2020 | The

Through March 28, 2021.

& Accountability Initiatives in Rochester from the Portable Channel Archive.

Ongoing. An online playlist of digitized videos produced by Rochester-based media activists Portable Channel between 1971-75.; Andres Janacua: A Whisper in Lieu of a Scream (Un Susurro en Lugar de un Grito). Dec. 1-22.

Mill Art Center & Gallery, 61 N Main St. Honeoye Falls. Annual Members

Call for Artists

Exhibition. Through Dec. 31. Open Thursdays, Fridays, and by appt. 6247740.

NTID Dyer Arts Center, 52 Lomb Memorial Dr. Palettes of Nature.

Ongoing. A collaborative exhibit with deafgreenthumbs. rit.edu/ntid/dyerartscenter.; Black is Black: Blackity AF. Ongoing. rit.edu/ntid/dyerarts-center.

Pat Rini Rohrer Gallery, 71 S Main St. Canandaigua. Holidays at the Gallery: Small Works Show. Through Dec. 31. prrgallery.com.

Pittsford Fine Art, 4 N Main St. Pittsford.

Holiday Small Works. Through Dec. 31. pittsfordfineart.com.

12-5 p.m. Rochester Contemporary Art Center, rochestercontemporary.org Back-to-back 10-min talks from artists participating in the 30th Annual Members Exhibition, live on FB.

Reshape: Graphic Design Capstone

Virtual Little Theatre, thelittle.org. Daily

Memorial Art Gallery, 500 University Ave. 276-8900. Season of Warhol.

Days the Artists Spoke. Sat., Dec. 12,

Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World. Through May 16, 2021. W/ museum admission: $14/$16. rmsc.org/changemakers.

Photographs from the Nineteenth Century and Today (to Jan 3) | James Welling: Choreograph (to Jan 3) | History of Photography (to Jan 3). $5-$15.

Cup, The Mug. In-person viewing by appointment only. Both exhibits may be viewed online. MainStreetArtsCS.org.

Art Events

Virtual Screenings. Ongoing.

Visual Studies Workshop, 31 Prince St. vsw.org. A History of Police Brutality

Call for Art: Last Year on Earth.

Through Dec. 19. Rochester Contemporary Art Center, 137 East Ave. RoCo is calling on more than just artists to participate in a juried exhibition reflecting on this crazy year, seeking 2D, 3D, and video works created by locals. Submissions are due Dec 19 for a February 2021 exhibition. Perhaps by then, the events of 2020 will be so last year rochestercontemporary.org.

Readings & Spoken Word Rage Hezekiah: Stray Harbor. Thu., Dec. 10, 7:30 p.m. Virtual Writers & Books, wab.org .

Fall 2020. Fri., Dec. 4, 6-8:30 p.m. graphicdesign.cad.rit.edu.

Virtual George Eastman Museum, Online With UR professor Janet Berlo & GEM associate curator Heather A. Shannon.

Registration required eastman.org.

The Yule Ball DeTOUR. Thu., Dec. 10, 6 p.m. Memorial Art Gallery, 500 University Ave. 276-8900 Space is limited; masks are required $12.

Comedy

Talent’s Comedy Takeover. Sat., Dec.

5, 6, 8 & 10 p.m. RIT Inn & Conference Center, 5257 W Henrietta Rd. Limited seats available; mandatory masks & distancing. Call to reserve & confirm $40 or 2/$70. (914) 308-9251.

Dance Events //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

axomhome.com 661 south ave

Geisel Gallery, 2nd Floor Rotunda, Legacy Tower, One Bausch & Lomb Place. In Hiding: Recent Works by Don

RIT City Art Space, 280 East Main St.

Rochester City Ballet: The Nutcracker. Through Dec. 24.

Livestream, online. $12.99. rochestercityballet.org.

The family holiday tradition of watching a performance of “The Nutcracker” lives on despite the pandemic’s resurgence. Rochester City Ballet’s annual performance of the classic began streaming on Thanksgiving Day and will continue through Christmas Eve. The stream features a 2018 RCB performance on the stage of Eastman Theatre’s Kodak Hall, viewable from the comfort and safety of home. Even the smallest of fans can enjoy the adventure and cheer of the two-act show — presented by a company of 17 professional dancers and more than 100 local children — without having to brave inclement weather, then drift off to dreams of the Sugar Plum Fairy twirling to the lilting notes of Tchaikovsky’s score (as performed by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bach Children’s Choir). — BY REBECCA RAFFERTY

Theater

A Christmas Carol. Dec. 11-

13. Livestream, online. $12 & up genevatheatreguild.org.

Recognition Radio: An Audio Play Festival Celebrating Black Voices.

Through Jan. 3, 2021. Livestream, online.

Four modern plays written and directed

by Black artists have been reimagined as radio adaptations for a GEVA Theatre season reimagined for 2020:. “Feeding Beatrice: A Gothic Tale” “The Bleeding Class” “we are continuous” “The Resurrection of Michelle Morgan” (starts Dec 8). $17. recognition-radio.com.

Social Distancing: A Monologue Play. Ongoing. JCC Hart Theatre, 1200 Edgewood Ave. 461-2000.

31 THINGS TO DO THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

DECEMBER HIGHLIGHTS

1

Check out the Sweet Creations Gingerbread Display at Eastman Museum through December 13.

4

Learn how a WWII corporal from Rochester brought Christmas back to a small Luxembourg town in THE AMERICAN ST. NICK, December 21 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

7

See what happens when Nature Cat is visited by the spirits of Nature Past, Present and Future in A NATURE CAROL, December 24 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

Visit WXXI.org/holidaytodos for more information

2

Tune in to WXXI Classical 91.5 FM for THE EIGHT NIGHTS OF CHANUKAH, December 10-18 at 1 p.m.

5

Take a tour of the last family owned matzo factory in STREIT’S: MATZO AND THE AMERICAN DREAM, December 14 at 5pm on WXXI-TV.

8

Don’t miss FIESTA! LATIN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS CAROLS on December 24 at 10 p.m. on WXXI Classical 91.5 FM.

3

Go ice skating at Manhattan Square Park.

6

Watch a movie at the Virtual Little Theatre (thelittle.org).

9

Celebrate the first day of Hanukah with HANUKAH LIGHTS, December 10 at 1 p.m. and 10 p.m. on AM 1370. roccitynews.org CITY 23

WXXI-TV • THIS MONTH Journeys Through The Finger Lakes Friday, December 4 at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 6 at 1:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV From Susan B. Anthony and the women’s rights movement, to Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad, to spotlighting a proud and resilient Native American culture, WXXI takes you on a journey through the vibrant history, lush topography, and seminal moments that make up this extraordinary place. A co-production between WXXI and the Finger Lakes Tourism Alliance, this film is dedicated to John Adamski, who worked tirelessly on behalf of the Finger Lakes and the Finger Lakes Museum.

10

HomeStage at The Little Friday, December 11 at 8:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV

Become a WXXI Member!

Last October Danielle Ponder and the Tomorrow People, Herb Smith and the Freedom Trio, Maybird, and the rap and hip-hop collective of Moses Rockwell, Brendon Caroselli, and Gary Lamaar each recorded a live session, audience-free, on stage at the newly restored Little Theatre in Rochester’s East End. Experience the magic that happens when musicians finally come together to play once again.

Visit WXXI.org/homestage to learn more.

Support Public Media in Rochester by becoming a WXXI member.

Visit WXXI.org/support to join.

11

Record a StoryCorps interview with a loved one and it will be preserved at the Library of Congress. Go to WXXI.org/storycorpsconnect.

WXXI-TV l DT 21.1/cable 11 + 1221 CREATE l DT 21.3/cable 1276 24 CITY DECEMBER 2020

WORLD l DT 21.2/cable 1275 WXXI-Kids 24/7 l DT 21.4/cable 1277

12

Check out PBS.org/food for great holiday recipes.

13

Visit the Genesee Country Village and Museum for their Yuletide Open House through December 20.

14

15

Check out the Season of Warhol exhibit at the Memorial Art Gallery. (photo credit: Max Schulte)

16

Enjoy Holidays at the Public Market, Sundays December 6 & 13 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

17 WXXI Live Forum: COVID-19 Vaccines on the Horizon Thursday, December 17 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV

Take a magical journey with PETER, PAUL, AND MARY as they share their repertoire of children’s songs, December 13 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

Enjoy ELLA WISHES YOU A SWINGIN’ CHRISTMAS, December 15 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

18

Make a holiday wreath!

Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca recently announced their COVID-19 vaccines appear to be highly effective in preventing COVID-19 and could be available starting at the end of the year. Hosted by Evan Dawson of WXXI’s News’ Connections, this live forum – in partnership with the University of Rochester Medical Center - will discuss what you need to know about the vaccines and the latest in COVID-19 research and treatment. We will also address distribution plans, how to ensure the vaccines reach underserved populations, and more.

You can ask the panelists questions during the broadcast or by submitting them in advance by calling 585-209-3180 or emailing forum@wxxi.org. Questions can also be submitted via Twitter and Facebook, tagging @WXXINews. This forum will also simulcast on AM 1370 and stream on WXXINews.org and @WXXINews on Facebook Live. This forum is made possible with support from Excellus BlueCross BlueShield.

Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas Thursday, December 24 at 11 a.m. on WXXI-TV Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat are having a wonderful time getting ready for Christmas. There’s only one dilemma - neither of them can figure out what to give the other for a present! In the end, both gift-giving predicaments are simply and beautifully resolved, revealing the true spirit of the holiday season.

roccitynews.org CITY 25

TURN TO WXXI CLASSICAL FOR MUSIC PERFECTLY TUNED TO YOUR DAY Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Tuesdays at 8 p.m. beginning December 8 at 8 p.m. on WXXI Classical 91.5 FM

19

Host Jim Cunningham and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra captivate audiences with works from the standard repertoire, as well as by new composers in world premiere performances.

Enjoy Handel’s Messiah on December 10.

Join WXXI Classical and the Greater Rochester Choral Consortium for a HOLIDAY PRISM LISTENING PARTY & VIRTUAL HAPPY HOUR, December 18 at 6 p.m. on FM 91.5 and online.

20

5

Learn FIVE THINGS OF NOTE about WXXI Classical host Mona Seghatoleslami (See to the right).

21

12 Days of Ludwig Monday, December 7 - Friday, December 18 on WXXI Classical 91.5 FM In celebration of the 250th birth anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven, WXXI Classical hosts and staff will be sharing their favorite works by Beethoven. The celebration will culminate with the complete airing of Beethoven’s massive Symphony No. 9, known as the Choral symphony, which includes the beloved Ode to Joy on Friday, December 18 from 1:45 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Five Things of Note about Mona Seghatoleslami WXXI Classical afternoon host

Make paper snowflakes.

22

1. First job in radio? It was as the Music Assistant at WFIU in Bloomington, Indiana. I cataloged recordings, wrote for our classical quiz show called “Ether Game,” produced interviews, edited the program guide, helped with operations, occasionally did a little bit of announcing, and as I gradually did more and more around the station, I realized that this job I had picked up just to get through school was becoming my main interest. Instead of going to work in a music library, I went on to my first full time job in radio at West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

2. Favorite place in Rochester? Outside: The Erie Canal Trail and Turning Point Park.

Inside: Dryden Theatre at George Eastman Museum and The Hochstein School.

3. Three things you can’t live without? Music, books, my bike (and movies. and breakfast sandwiches.) My husband points out that I should mention him and our cat here, and of course they are essential too!

4. If they made a movie of your life, who would you want to play you? If it were a classic Hollywood movie: Merle Oberon or Olivia de Havilland. Or if time travel is not possible: Sheila Vand.

Listen to Madrigalia and the Rochester Bach Children’s Choir perform traditional carols in CHRISTMAS WITH MADRIGALIA, December 25 at 6 p.m. on FM 91.5

23

Make a donation to Foodlink.

26 CITY DECEMBER 2020

5. Favorite thing to do during the holidays? Try to catch up on reading all the New Yorkers from the past year!

A Rochester Festival of Lessons and Carols Wednesday, December 24 at 11 p.m. on WXXI Classical 91.5 FM We’ll celebrate the holiday season with traditional readings selected by King’s College Dean Eric Milner White in 1918, and music by Paul Manz, Kim Andre Arnesen, Charles Villiers Stanford, Morten Lauridsen and John Rutter. This concert was recorded in December 2019 at the Third Presbyterian Church under the direction of organist and choirmaster Peter DuBois.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Fische

AM 1370, YOUR NPR NEWS STATION + WRUR-FM 88.5, DIFFERENT RADIO

24

Meet WXXI News’ Noelle Evans (See to the right).

25

Submit a work of art to Rochester Contemporary Art Center’s Call for Art: Last Year on Earth through December 19

26

Roast chestnuts on an open fire.

Christmas Spirits High and Low Thursday, December 24 at 1 p.m. and 10 p.m. on AM 1370 We want Christmas to be merry and bright, but sometimes the season can be challenging. Our two stories, presented by guest host Cynthia Nixon, do deliver good cheer in the end. In Laurie Notaro’s “O Holy Night, or The Year I Ruined Christmas” there’s a hideous Christmas tree, and a demanding parent with a long memory. In Jeanette Winterson’s luminous “Spirit of Christmas” a married couple set off for their holiday with frayed tempers and too much stuff. They wind up with nothing but a miracle.

1. NEWS FOCUS: I cover immigration, Indigenous stories, matters impacting migrant workers, Black Lives Matter... I don’t have one particular beat; I go where I’m called.

2. WHERE DID YOU GROW UP: Pittsburgh, PA: a city full of character and grit. There I was an ultimate Frisbee champion of the first junior girls’ league and the two-term color guard captain of a championship-winning marching band. And once upon a time, I was Christopher Robin in the South Park summer stock theatre.

3. COLLEGE + DEGREE: I received my M.A. in international journalism from Cardiff University in Wales with thanks to a BBC grant and the university’s USA Excellence scholarship.

4. SPARE TIME ACTIVITIES: I play the rajão and ukulele, occasionally with foot drums. This year I released an album under the stage name of Turnip Heart titled “To Exfoliate a Calloused Heart.” Lately, I’ve been training with my husband to prepare for the next WFDF Ultimate Frisbee World Championships with the Venezuelan open and women’s teams.

5. THREE THINGS YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: Love in all its forms, my rights, and homemade arepas.

27

Hear a multi-denominational, multicultural jubilee by Pink Martini in JOY TO THE WORLD – A HOLIDAY IN PINK, December 21 at 8 p.m. on WRUR-FM 88.5.

Tinsel Tales Friday, December 25 at 12 p.m. and 9 p.m. on AM 1370 Audie Cornish, Ken Harbaugh, Nina Totenberg and other voices from NPR’s past and present tell stories of the season in this hour-long special. Some tales are funny; some are touching; some are insightful or irreverent or nostalgic or surprising. Hosted by Lynn Neary.

The Big Tiny Desk Holiday Special Tuesday, December 22 at 9 p.m. on WRUR-FM 88.5 Celebrate the season with amazing holiday performances from The Tiny Desk Concert series including Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Steve Martin, Hanson, The Polyphonic Spree and more! Hosted by NPR Music frenemies Bob Boilen and Stephen Thompson.

(Photo credit: Jun Tsuboike/NPR)

roccitynews.org CITY 27

28

Bake some holiday cookies.

29

Shop The Little The Little remains temporarily closed to ensure the safety of our staff and guests during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are ways to still show support for your friendly art house theater. You can rent a film via The Virtual Little (thelittle.org) or purchase gift certificates, dinner and movie passes, along with our 90-day popcorn pass at shopthelittle.org.

Make a list of your favorite holiday movies and binge them.

30

The Little on

Take a nighttime walk through your neighborhood and look at the holiday lights.

31

Become a Little Member!

During this extended closure, support for The Little has been incredible. Truly. The Greater Rochester area contains some of the smartest and most passionate film lovers around, and it shows.

If you’re able to, you can support The Little through donations (thelittle.org/donate), or by becoming a member (thelittle.org/membership).

Have questions about any of this? We’re happy to chat!

Email scott@thelittle.org with any comments or questions.

28 CITY DECEMBER 2020

The Little content you crave is available via YouTube. Catch past filmmaker conversations, short films from The Little’s creative team, and more, at youtube.com/thelittletheatre.

Coming soon: Jack Garner Theatre at The Little A late Rochester arts legend will be the first person to have one of The Little’s five theaters named after him.

The Jack Garner Theatre — previously Theatre 5 — will formally be introduced in 2021.

Garner, a longtime film critic for Gannett News Services, died July 5. He was 75. Aside from his prolific writing career, Garner was also a fixture at The Little, often watching films, giving concert/movie introductions, and leading panel discussions.

To support The Little, along with the new Jack Garner Theatre, individuals can visit thelittle.org/campaigns.

If an individual gives a gift of $200 or more before Dec. 31, 2020, that supporter’s name will be added to a plaque honoring Jack Garner. There will be a ceremony for the Jack Garner Theatre at a later date.

Worship Services

Wonn’t you join us?

Wo

MERRY CHRISTMAS From Christ Church Rochester

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service December 24th 11:00pm

Advent Lessons & Carols Christmas Eve 12th Night

What better way to connect with the real meaning of Christmas than to start Christmas Day at church?

Plenty of room for social distancing.

Please contact us for the most up-to-date information about seasonal events and liturgies

No reservations required, all are welcome.

We'll save you a seat...

141 East Avenue • (585) 454-3878 christchurchrochester.org www.facebook.com/ChristChurchRochester

Salem United Church of Christ 60 Bittner Street 14604 www.christinthecity.com

Irondequoit United Church of Christ Worship with us LIVE Sundays at 9:30 a.m.

An Independent Catholic Church Where All Are Welcome Mass Schedule Every Sunday • 9:30am Christmas Eve • 4pm, 9pm & 11pm Christmas Day • 10am Watch online or register to come in-person spirituschristi.org

Or worship virtually at irondequoitucc.org We are an Open & Affirming and Just Peace congregation.

Centrally located & centered on Christ, we are ready to be your new spiritual home.

644 Titus Ave 544-3020

First Universalist Church of Rochester

Join us for holiday celebrations via Zoom!

Winter Solstice

Sunday, Dec. 20 • 10:30am

Christmas Eve Service Thursday, Dec. 24 • 7pm

Find more info at uuroc.org!

Nurture the Spirit and Serve the Community roccitynews.org CITY 29

ARTS

TIKTOK TUNES

Erica Allen-Lubman, aka Boy Jr., has used TikTok to release clever mini-music videos and gain a broad online audience. PHOTO BY RYAN WILLIAMSON

BOY JR. MAKES IT BIG WITH TIKTOK MASH-UPS

BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

I

n her latest TikTok hit, Boy Jr. asks what the song “Backyard Boy” by Claire Rosinkranz — the cutesy pop songstress who sings about crushes and feelings — would sound like if it were written by Jack Stauber — the alternative electro-pop musician known for his experimental, ’80s-esque videos filmed on VHS cassettes.

Then, Boy Jr. proceeds to assume all the traits of Stauber — the “wobbly” bass guitar, the cheesy synthesizers, the deep vocals, the cassette-tape audio fidelity — and sing “Backyard Boy.” As the music plays, the video cuts between footage of Boy Jr. playing a single note on a keyboard as she deadpans to the camera, dancing with a bedsheet over her head, and a crudely drawn cardboard cutout of her bopping around to the beat.

30 CITY DECEMBER 2020

@DANIELJKUSHNER

DKUSHNER@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

The effect is not only a hilariously bizarre mash-up of two budding musical sensations but a showcase for her talents as a performer in her own right. It is a TikTok formula that Erica Allen-Lubman, the 24-year-old songwriter behind the one-woman band Boy Jr., has perfected.

Her pithy videos — loaded with musical hooks and carried out with world-conquering, childlike conviction — are equal parts parody and performance art and routinely garner tens of thousands of views. The mash-up of Rosinkranz and Stauber drew 140,000 sets of eyeballs in two days. Not quite viral numbers, but astonishing for an artist working from her Rochester bedroom.

“I’ve made funny videos since I was

really young, and I’ve always wanted to have that be a core part of what I do and what I make,” Allen-Lubman says.

When she was a girl, she recalls, she watched The Disney Channel and dreamed of wearing cool outfits and singing about her feelings in a pop band.

Her TikToks make that much clear.

Part of the allure of Boy Jr.’s videos is the nostalgia they evoke. It is the sort that is part fondness for a time past and part longing that people in their 20’s, now and always, begin to feel for their childhood.

That wistfulness is front-and-center in her TikTok titled “It Still Fits (My Pikachu T-shirt)” a synth-pop nugget that got over 180,000 views and would later become a full-fledged tune on her recent full-length album “Starter Pack.”

“I’LL ‘SELL OUT,’ IF IT’S NOT ANYTHING EVIL.” She uses her channel @boyjr.69 on the social media platform not merely as means to promote her music, but as the primary vehicle and creative spark for her ideas, which she later expands into complete songs, EPs, and albums. For example, Allen-Lubman capitalizes on Boy Jr.’s success by featuring some of her most popular creations on the new EP “Costumes,” released in November.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

NEW MUSIC REVIEWS

ALBUM REVIEW: “ALWAYS LOVE”

BY MARIA GILLARD TRIO With “Always Love,” local acoustic musician Maria Gillard winds up and let’s fly with a new, 10-track CD full of wry wit and easy-going Americana that swings a bit. The music variously comes off as melancholic and clever.

To simply call it folk music is dismissive: Whenever trio member Perry Cleaveland steps in with his mandolin and makes with the rhythm changes, he exudes just a hint of southern charm.

Bassist Doug Henrie holds down the bottom end of the rhythm like a hug from a teddy bear that just got out of the dryer, and on “In Case You Haven’t Noticed,” the harmonies between Gillard and guest performer Rita Coulter are full of comfort.

“How Did We Get Here,” the song Gillard contributed to the concert showcase If All Rochester Wrote the Same Song, is also worth highlighting.

“How Did We Get Here” is a poignant poem that asks, “Where did it all go?”

Well, it’s all right here on “Always Love,” an album overflowing with Gillard’s songwriting talent.

— BY FRANK DE BLASE

ALBUM REVIEW: “YOU’RE IT!” BY THE MIKE MELITO/ DINO LOSITO QUARTET When it comes to straight-ahead and hard-bop jazz in upstate New York, you’d be hard-pressed to find better musicians than drummer Mike Melito and pianist Dino Losito.

A familiar fixture at the Rochester International Jazz Festival jam sessions, Melito has played with Benny Golson, James Moody, Eric Alexander, and many others. Losito has worked with greats such as Houston Person, Dave Liebman, and Wallace Roney.

On their new album “You’re It!” Melito and Losito are joined by veteran Philadelphia saxophonist Larry McKenna and New York City bassist Neal Minor.

Melito is not a showy drummer; when he solos on “Blondie’s Waltz”

by George Coleman, it’s a precise exercise in punctuating the rhythm with intelligence and taste. The same can be said for Losito at the keyboard.

Rather than show off with pyrotechnics,

he explores the possibilities offered by each chord progression with a subtle touch. An excellent supporting player, Minor takes a fine solo on Bill Carey and Carl Fischer’s “You’ve Changed.”

McKenna is the third star here, playing each tune with gorgeous tone and phrasing, reminiscent of Stan Getz. McKenna contributes the title tune, an instant classic in the hard-bop tradition. The album’s other eight tracks consist of fresh takes on well-known standards such as María Grever and Stanley Adams’s “What a Difference a Day Makes” and some lesser-known but equally strong tunes including Wes Montgomery’s “Fried Pies.”

— BY RON NETSKY

EP REVIEW: “BETTER DAYS”

BY THE SIDEWAYS Having just released its second collection “Better Days,” close behind its debut “The Upright EP,” the nine-piece pop band The Sideways are clearly on to something. The group is one of a slew of young, jazz-inspired outfits with bold brass sections and heavy doses of soul and funk that have emerged locally in recent years — The Saplings, Nancy, and The Recall among them.

What sets The Sideways apart is its primary songwriter and frontman Joe Stehle, one of the more charismatic male vocalists you can find in Rochester. With singing that marries smooth melodies to precise intonation and a gritty vocal quality, Stehle sounds young enough to crow about his youth, but seasoned enough that you believe what he’s singing.

The second track on “Better Days,” entitled “Common Ground,” articulates this blend of innocence and experience expertly, as Stehle seeks genuine romantic connection without labels — backed by guitars in overdrive and bigband bombast.

The Sideways aren’t reinventing the groove here by any means. In addition to settling into the proven musical idioms of jazz and soul, elements of ‘90s ska and alternative rock are easily identifiable. Listening to the title track, it’s impossible for me to not hear the piano rock chord progression of Ben Folds Five’s song “Underground.”

But Stehle and company know what they’re about, and they have the musical chops to back it up. Don’t sleep on this outfit.

— BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER roccitynews.org CITY 31

A TikTok she released in August, in which she covered a snippet of the Sufjan Stevens’ song “Mystery of Love” in the style of electro-pop duo 100 Gecs, garnered more than 610,000 views. The complete version of the song became the EP’s opening track. A month later, her take on Britney Spears’ late-’90s megahit “...Baby One More Time,” reimagined as a song by Gorillaz, amassed more than 1 million views, and became the closing song on “Costumes.”

Each video typically begins with a formulaic thought experiment. In “What if Billie Eilish wrote ‘Last Nite’ by The Strokes?” the Rochester multi-instrumentalist quickly breaks down the musical ingredients she mixed together to create the mash-up: “Samples for drums. Creepy geetar.

Creepier build up. Monster backup vox. Super close lead vox. ASMR adjacent. LAYERS.” What follows is a brief clip of Allen-Lubman performing the resulting cover as Billie Eilish, complete with the pop star’s signature dyed-green hair, and an oversized T-shirt to match.

Kristina Kaiser, of the local art space The Yards, has hosted live Boy Jr. gigs on multiple occasions, and has been impressed with Allen-Lubman’s approach to performance.

“I was just really taken by her style, and just her ability to be a one-woman show and really be able to do it all,” Kaiser says. “She just has an incredible stage presence and playfulness, and I was really captivated by her different levels of creativity. I mean, she’s not only a musician but also puts a lot of thought into costuming and what sets are going to look like.”

Watching Boy Jr. on TikTok, it’s easy to let her tongue-in-cheek deliveries, outlandish costumes, and jarring cross-cuts distract from the underlying talent at play in her work.

Her videos are a tutorial on modern studio production aesthetics that reveal a trained ear for music and an eye for images. Put simply, she knows what works for her audience.

“I think overall, it’s just made me a more educated producer and writer,” she says of how TikTok has influenced her creative process. “I think it’s helped me get my ears in gear. I think that’s kind of a mental muscle you can work.”

The daughter of musicians — her mother is a flute teacher and her father is a professor at the Eastman School of Music — Allen-Lubman studied 32 CITY DECEMBER 2020

Screenshots from Boy Jr.'s TikTok account, @boyjr.69. Some of her posts get hundreds of thousands of views.

studio composition at SUNY Purchase, a school known for its quirky musical alumni in Regina Spektor, Dan Deacon, and Rochester’s own Seth Faergolzia.

While Allen-Lubman’s music and videos carry their own distinct oddball vibes, she welcomes going mainstream.

“I think that I particularly identify with wanting to be a pop musician ’cause I want to have commercial success,” she says. “I’ll ‘sell out,’ if it’s not anything evil.”

The gift that keeps on giving:

Local, independent journalism.

Treat yourself or a loved one to a CITY Champions membership this holiday season and enjoy free home delivery, exclusive perks, and more.

Visit roccitynews.org to get started.

ARTS

THE BIG PICTURE

Rochester native Ephraim Gebre (inset) led a team of painters to complete the mural "I Am Speaking," honoring the legacy of the late John Lewis. PHOTOS BY MAX SCHULTE

AN ARTIST COMES HOME

BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

R

ochester’s newest mural looms large on the north-facing wall of 49 State St. and speaks volumes. The 3,000-square-foot painting, titled “I Am Speaking,” depicts a young John Lewis, the late civil rights leader and U.S. Congress member whose activism was pivotal in the fight for racial equity. His legacy remains an inspiration in current battles over systemic racism and social injustice.

34 CITY DECEMBER 2020

@DANIELJKUSHNER

DKUSHNER@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

The mural’s location — across the street from Corinthian Hall, where abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave his groundbreaking 1852 speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” — makes its message all the more poignant.

“I want it to stop people in their tracks,” says Ephraim Gebre, the 21-year-old artist and Rochester native who led a small crew of muralists to complete the massive oil

enamel painting in less than a week in November.

Gebre was joined by fellow artists Darius Dennis, Jared Diaz, and Dan Harrington, all of whom work fulltime for Colossal Media, a prominent, Brooklyn-based advertising company specializing in hand-painted outdoor murals. But “I Am Speaking” is more of a nonprofit labor of love than a capitalist commercial.

The painting is the third in an

ongoing series of images — joining “I Am a Man” in Chicago and “I Am Singing” in Louisville — all created to document Black Americans’ struggle for equal rights and to celebrate righteous defiance against forces that would dehumanize people of color.

Over the last 10 years or so, Rochester has become a city of murals — a public art exhibition writ large over the walls of thriving businesses, abandoned industrial buildings, and

Ephraim Gebre (left) and his mentor Shawn Dunwoody (center) work on "I Am Speaking."

PHOTO BY MAX SCHULTE

structures of community significance.

In 2011, the “art and community intervention project” that would become the annual summer mural installation WALL\THERAPY was kickstarted. In 2015, both Shawn Dunwoody’s Fruit Belt Project — designed to help revitalize and instill pride in the JOSANA neighborhood — and the City of Rochester’s Roc Paint Division were launched to empower young artists to create professional and commissioned murals under the tutelage of established local artists and mentors.

Ephraim Gebre, then 15 and a student at World of Inquiry School No. 58, was one of the students hired for the Fruit Belt Project.

He had been walking the school’s halls when he passed a classroom in which a man dressed in a brightly colored suit was jumping on top of a desk as he spoke to a group of seniors. Struck by this oratory display, Gebre slipped into a seat at the back of the class as the speaker talked about the Fruit Belt Project and its importance in light of JOSANA’s status as a food desert and a crime-ridden neighborhood. The man was Dunwoody.

Gebre promptly introduced himself to Dunwoody and stayed in touch, pursuing a spot on the project. That persistence eventually paid off, and the Fruit Belt Project became his first job.

“Shawn is the dude that started it and lit the fire,” Gebre says of his career as an artist and the man he considers a mentor.

Gebre worked with Dunwoody in

the summer of 2015 and even went with him to complete a project in Brazil, before taking a job working on houses with College Pro Painters at the age of 16 and quickly becoming a job site manager. Gebre recalls making the commute to work in Pittsford from the downtown bus station, which also included a 30 to 40-minute walk. At times after work, he would walk home two hours to St. Simon’s Terrace, near Genesee Brewery.

Having graduated high school early, he would later work with Dunwoody again between the ages of 17 and 18, helping to complete a multi-surface Frederick Douglass mural at J.P. Duffy School No. 12 on South Avenue. It was that experience, Gebre says, that instilled a passion for community engagement and encouraging a “sense of ownership” in the students who helped with the project — much like he did with the Fruit Belt Project.

But Gebre knew that he wasn’t going to stay in Rochester, and that he wanted to travel.

“I never bought a round-trip ticket, ever,” he says. “I always buy one-way.

One-way tickets — who knows if I want to stay or I want to go?”

At the age of 17, his travels took him to Paris, France, the island of Malta, and the United Kingdom. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he pursued a career in real estate and leased apartments downtown.

Eventually, he found a job listing as an artist at Colossal Media, but he had no experience in figurative painting yet.

“Even though I felt like an impostor,”

PHOTO BY MAX SCHULTE

he says, “I knew I would get it if I kept on trying.”

After rigorously searching phone listings for the company’s upper management and establishing contact after many incorrect numbers, his tenacity and sheer will to succeed landed him a job as the youngest employee in the company, at the age of 20.

“One of the [reasons] that I started to do public art was I wanted people to see a person like myself create the art, and I wanted to be what I wanted to see at 15,” Dunwoody says.

“So to see that come back full-circle with Ephraim and his crew — three black men engaging and creating black images in the community — is powerful, and it’s needed.”

Gebre was born into a family of refugees that first came to America in 1983 to escape war in their native Eritrea — an East African country then fighting for its independence from Ethiopia.

As the eldest of four children raised by a single mom, he realized in middle school that in order to get what he wanted in life, he would

have to work for it.

“I’m the only person I can depend on for the things that I want, the things that I need,” he says. “I can’t wait for anybody to give me an opportunity. I also wanted to be my best.”

Despite his assertive and independent personality, Gebre credits Dunwoody — who refers to Gebre as “my son” — for providing him with direction.

“Shawn Dunwoody is my blueprint for who I am, who I am today,” Gebre says. “I studied him like a frozen caveman.”

Dunwoody, who helped with the creation of “I Am Speaking,” said the project on State Street brought his relationship with Gebre back to where it started.

“To have that mission and drive within him to come back to the community — I mean he’s traveled all over the country, all over the world, painting — and for him to come back to Rochester, it’s a rewarding feeling, and so it’s great to be the student,” he says.

“He is now my teacher, and I consider him my mentor.” roccitynews.org CITY 35

ARTS

ONLINE ARIAS

A camera preview of Alexandra Rose Hotz recording “Once Upon a Time,” from the opera “Tania” by Anthony Davis, directed by Stephen Carr. PHOTO BY JOSH LAU

FIGARO, FIGARO, FIGURING OUT ONLINE OPERA Eastman Opera Theatre presents "Our Voices," its first-ever virtual production

BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

P

erforming live opera in a theater has been impossible during the pandemic. The risks of audience members packed closely together and aerosolized particles flying from the singers’ mouths proved to be an insurmountable challenge for opera companies.

But that doesn’t mean opera has been silenced. Rather than cancel productions altogether, several companies and academic institutions 36 CITY DECEMBER 2020

@DANIELJKUSHNER

DKUSHNER@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

have turned to virtual mediums such as Zoom meetings, podcasts, and pre-recorded videos to innovate the centuries-old art form.

Finger Lakes Opera started releasing a monthly podcast in May. In late September, Binghamton’s TriCities Opera presented “Miranda: a Steampunk VR experience,” a new opera that audiences could interact with through a virtual reality headset or watch on YouTube Live. This fall,

10 different creative teams and nine separate American Opera companies formed the Decameron Opera Coalition to produce “Tales from a Safe Distance,” a series of 11 scenes inspired by the 14th-century author Giovanni Boccaccio’s Black Death stories comprising “The Decameron.”

“It’s a whole new skill set to create a drive-in movie theater, to create a virtual-reality digital opera experience, to learn how to broadcast to your

community from your living room,” says Marc Scorca, president and CEO of the national organization OPERA America.

“It’s been a huge learning curve, and a set of new skills that will not desert us once we’re able to go back safely into a theater,” he went on. “I think the exciting thing for the future is how many of our opera companies CONTINUED ON PAGE 38

MUSIC //

With evolving NYS guidelines for live music, events are highly subject to change or cancellation.

NEW MUSIC REVIEW

It’s wise to check with individual venues to confirm performances and protocols.

ACOUSTIC/FOLK

Live at Lunchtime: Nathan Davenport.

Cobblestone Arts Center, 1622 NY Route 332. 398-0220. Fri., Dec. 11, 12:1512:45 p.m.

Virtual Sing Around. Golden Link Folk Singing Society, Online. goldenlink.org.

Tuesdays, 7:30 p.m.

AMERICANA

Livestream, online. bopshop.com/ live. Fri., Dec. 4, 8 p.m. Local music store Bop Shop Records has been a live music oasis in the COVID desert, regularly presenting virtual concerts via livestream. On Dec. 4, Rochester roots band The Crawdaddies will bring its take on deep Delta blues and heartwarming Americana. With a formidable lineup that includes banjo player Ben Haravitch, bassist Jay Chaffee, and washboard player Dave Paprocki, the band makes it easy for the listener to sink into its down-home sound. The Crawdiddies’ most recent studio release, “All I Got and Need,” features country blues guitarist and vocalist Raedwald Howland-Bolton.

— BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

CLASSICAL

Deborah Fox: At the Court of the Sun King. Pegasus Early Music, online.

pegasusearlymusic.org. Fri., Dec. 11, 7:30 p.m. and Sun., Dec. 13, 4 p.m.

Eastman@Washington Square. esm.rochester.edu/community/ washingtonsquare. Thurs, 12:15-:45 p.m.

Dec 3: Blaire Koerner, Bassoon.

Dec 10: ECMS Flutists Katie Uetz and Hayley Grainger.

Dec 17: Letitia Jap, violin and E-Na Song, piano.

ECMS Winterfest. Eastman School of Music, esm.rochester.edu/live. Dec. 1820. Eastman Community Music School’s annual showcase of student musicians will livestream from multiple performance halls throughout the weekend.

danperforms.com. Wed., Dec. 2, 7 p.m.

Virtual lecture by Daniel Vnukowski with live music performance.

Happy 100th, Hochstein! hochstein.org.

Wed., Dec. 9, 7 p.m.

Joe Blackburn, Aeolian pipe organ.

George Eastman Museum, 900 East Ave. eastman.org. Sun., Dec. 6, 3 p.m. & Sun., Dec. 20, 3 p.m. $7-$18. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Front Row at Bop Shop Records: The Crawdiddies.

Forbidden Music: The Forgotten Composers of the Interwar Period.

Live from Hochstein. WXXI, Classical

91.5FM. hochstein.org. Wednesdays, 12:10-12:50 p.m. Dec 2: Bach & Beyond with Natalie Spehar. Dec 2: Madrigalia. There is something particularly magical about the sound of a chamber choir performing live — a rare combination of communal synchronicity and intimate expression. On Dec. 2, Rochester choral ensemble Madrigalia returns in a virtual performance as part of WXXI Classical 91.5’s “Live from Hochstein” series, hosted by Mona Seghatoleslami. For this concert, Madrigalia presents “A Physically Distanced Cup of Good Cheer,” in which the choir will be broken up into solos, duets, and quartets performing holiday-themed repertoire. Led by Artistic Director Cary Ratcliff, the ensemble excels at warm harmonic textures and rhythmic precision.

— BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

Our Voices: Immersive Composer Collaborations. Eastman School of

Music, esm.rochester.edu/live. Dec. 16-20. Eastman Opera Theatre. Dec 16, 7:30pm: “The Greatest Liberty” with selected arias by Anthony Davis. Dec 17, 7:30pm: “Heart Melodies” by Ricky Ian Gordon. Dec 18, 7:30pm: “I Shall Not Live in Vain,” music of Lori Laitman. Dec 19, 2pm: “This World Within Me,” with selections from Songs from the Uproar

by Missy Mazzoli. Dec 19, 7:30pm: “The Journey Towards Freedom,” with selected songs and arias by Ben Moore. Dec 20, 2pm: “The Journey to Here,” with songs

by Errollyn Wallen.

Steve Kelly, Aeolian pipe organ. George Eastman Museum, 900 East Ave. eastman.org. Sun., Dec. 13, 3 p.m. W/ museum admission: $7-$18.

Student Degree Recitals. Eastman

School of Music, . esm.rochester.edu/ live. Mon., Dec. 7 and Tue., Dec. 8. Dec 7, 7:30pm: Jacob Taylor, organ. Dec 8, 1:30pm: Bradley Vogel, organ. Dec 8.

9pm: Dalanie Harris, double bass.

JAZZ

Front Row at Bop Shop Records: Trio East. bopshop.com/live. Fri., Dec. 11, 8

p.m. Featuring Harold Danko, piano.

Laura Dubin & Antonio Guerrero.

Ongoing, 8:30 p.m. Live on FB. Wine Down Wednesdays. The Penthouse, 1 East Ave, 11th floor. 7752013. Wednesdays, 6 p.m. Includes a Bites Box of choice by The Hideaway.

Dec 2: Daniel King. Dec 9: Chris Potter.

Dec 16: Bill Tiberio Band. $20.

SEASONAL

Front Row at Bop Shop Records: Bill Kirchen’s Holiday Honky Tonk Show. .

bopshop.com/live. Fri., Dec. 18, 8 p.m.

Front Row at Bop Shop Records: John Viviani Quartet Plays the Music of Vince Guaraldi. bopshop.com/live. Sat., Dec. 19, 8 p.m.

Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy: A Celtic Family Christmas at Home.

Livestream, Online. www2.naz.edu/ events. Dec. 5-25. $20.

Remembering Elvis: The King’s Holiday Tunes & More. OFC Creations Theater

Center, 3450 Winton Pl. ofccreations. com. Fri., Dec. 18, 7:30 p.m. and Sat., Dec. 19, 3 & 7:30 p.m. Limited seats; online ticket purchase only. $25-$35.

RPO Holiday Streaming. Livestream, Online. rpo.org. Sun., Dec. 6, Sat., Dec. 12, Sun., Dec. 13, Sat., Dec. 19 and Thu., Dec. 31. Dec 6: Gala Holiday Pops. Dec 12: Brass Quintet. Dec 13: Low Brass & Friends. Dec 19: Holiday Classics. Dec 31: New Year’s Eve Special.

Tiny Tuba Christmas. Livestream, online. Sat., Dec. 5, noon. Live on FB: StAnnsCommunity.

VOCALS

Stars & the Moon: The Songs of Jason Robert Brown. JCC CenterStage Theatre,

Online. jccrochester.org/centerstage. Dec. 5-20. $20 & up.

ALBUM REVIEW: “MEDICAL RECORD’ BY TYLER WESTCOTT & DR. JAZZ Isn’t it great to be alive in 1920?

I can wind up my Victrola, put the needle down on “Medical Record” by Tyler Westcott & Dr. Jazz, and do the Charleston all night long.

Wait a minute - it’s 2020? Well, you wouldn’t know it listening to this wonderful, time-warping collection of tunes. With a 40-year age difference, Buffalo-based musicians Westcott & Dr. Jazz (Brian Bauer) might seem like an odd couple. But the combination of Westcott’s old-timey banjo, guitar and voice with Dr. Jazz’s phenomenal multi-woodwind excursions makes for a perfect match.

Fats Waller and Alex Hill’s “I’m Crazy About My Baby” opens the album, setting the pace for Westcott’s raw vocals and Dr. Jazz’s wild solos.

On Spencer Williams’s “Blue Spirit Blues” (a hit for Bessie Smith) Westcott channels Cab Calloway while Dr. Jazz provides appropriately spooky accompaniment.

A medley of Sidney Bechet’s “Viper Mad” and J. Russel Robinson and Andy Razaf’s “Reefer Man” (a hit for Calloway) features a question and answer session, with Dr. Jazz speaking by squeaking through his clarinet.

The medley also features some of Westcott’s flashiest banjo playing.

— BY RON NETSKY

roccitynews.org CITY 37

The ensemble cast of Lori Laitman’s program “I Shall Not Live in Vain” onstage at Kilbourn Hall (directed by Steven Daigle). PHOTO BY JOSH LAU

will become more hybridized in terms of offering live performance and continuing to offer exciting digital content.”

Eastman Opera Theatre follows suit with “Our Voices” — a virtual presentation of six performances, each featuring the work of a different living composer — available as a video stream from Dec. 16 through 20.

Each performance will be followed by a 15-minute Q & A session with the director and composer.

For the project, Eastman Opera’s Artistic Director Steven Daigle asked composers Anthony Davis, Ricky Ian Gordon, Lori Laitman, Missy Mazzoli, Ben Moore, and Errollyn Wallen to each help curate 30-minute presentations of their own work, which in turn will be presented as individual virtual performances by Eastman School of Music singers.

Opera traditionally depends on collaboration between singers, composers, and directors that comes from face-to-face interaction. Physical distancing makes that challenging.

Oberlin Opera Theater, in Ohio, faced those obstacles when it presented a

Volunteers needed: E-cigarette users

Earn $100 by participating in our study!

Two visits ($50 per visit).

The second visit will be 6 months after the first. There will be lung function test and blood draw (two tablespoons), saliva, breath condensate and urine collection at each visit.

Call our Research Coordinator at 585-224-6308 if you are interested or if you have questions. Thank you!

Are you age 60 or older and feel lonely?

UR researchers need your help to promote healthy aging and social connections.

We HOPE you can join us! For more info, contact the HOPE Project at 585-273-1811 or HOPE@urmc.rochester.edu 38 CITY DECEMBER 2020

PHOTO BY JOSH LAU

virtual double bill featuring Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Telephone” and Francis Poulenc’s “La voix humaine” in early November.

“We were out to make an opera that felt like an opera, that just happened to be filmed,” the director Jason Aaron Goldberg says.

Goldberg discovered that the key was to make sure the video used plenty of fixed shots and used few cuts, filming in one take as much as possible.

Both the voices and the piano accompaniment were recorded

separately from the video, with the singers lip-syncing to the pre-recorded audio. The reason for this choice was a budgetary one, Goldberg says, but it had a poignant, if unintended result.

“This had an interesting effect for film that made it feel like theater, which is that they were able to act in ways that they wouldn’t have been able to act if they were singing,” he says.

In order for Eastman Opera Theatre to safely create its performances, the composers first met extensively with the students and creative teams over Zoom.

Missy Mazzoli sees this means of collaboration continuing beyond the pandemic, when live opera performances return. “We have more ways to communicate now,” she says. “We’ve proven that, and so let’s use that.

“I long to get back in the rehearsal room with people. I don’t think anyone’s going to want to see a total virtual opera that’s 100 percent on Zoom ever again after this, but there are aspects of this that we can bring into the future.”

The opportunity for the students to collaborate with current composers only heightened their sense of engagement, Ricky Ian Gordon says.

“These singers have to bring their whole selves,” he says. “They’re not singing music by a dead composer.

They’re singing for me, and I’m the one telling them what I meant, and I’m the one talking them through the poetry.”

Eastman vocal coaches worked with the singers to establish a distinct musical interpretation of the songs, and then pre-recorded the piano accompaniments. For five of the six performances, the music was then played through monitorspeakers that the performers sang to, in costume and in front of a green screen on which the digital set designs could be projected for the final edit of the videos.

“What we always wanted to do with this project was to make the collaboration something different, based on this environment,” Daigle says. “Instead of getting rid of it, to try to reinvent it.”

The absence of a live performance component and the thorough

integration of digital and virtual elements makes for somewhat uncharted territory — not just for Eastman Opera theatre, but for the opera world at-large.

But when the prohibitive effects of COVID-19 on the performing arts subsides, and opera companies return to presenting works in front of live audiences, the paradigm for how productions are made is likely to have shifted.

“There are so many very, very interesting projects going on right now that are opportunities for composers and librettists to create new work, for directors to think differently about how to make opera work on the screen and not necessarily on the stage,” Marc Scorca says.

“So there’s a lot of experimentation going on, but I think it expands the creative opportunities for artists who are willing to think more broadly about what the next opera might be.”

Eastman Opera Theatre presents “Our Voices” from Wednesday, Dec. 16 through Sunday, Dec. 20.

For more details and to watch the performances, go to esm.rochester. edu/EOT/ourvoices.

roccitynews.org CITY 39

ARTS

THE GIFT OF MUSIC

YOU ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR FIRST

BY FRANK DE BLASE

Y

FRANK@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

ou always remember your first. First kiss, first car, first drink, first . . . you know.

The same goes for musicians and their first instrument. For them, that thrift store guitar or off-the-rack drum kit or second-hand saxophone was a skeleton key to a new world and the salvation that lay within.

Some youngster somewhere this month will receive what might be their skeleton key

wrapped in a bow on Christmas morning, or on one of Hanukkah’s eight nights, or for Kwanzaa.

Typically bankrolled by well-meaning parents or a bachelor uncle who thought giving the drums he won in a poker game to his tween nephew would be the perfect way to get back at his brother who has it all, the instruments will either be played until threadbare or sit in a corner gathering dust.

A few of those youngsters may grow to take

JIMMIE HIGHSMITH JR. It was Christmas 1982. I was 15 years old.

A day I will never forget. I had already been playing sax a little more than five years.

The school year prior, I impressed my classmates and parents by playing a solo, “Rise” by Herb Alpert, for the school talent show. At that moment, my parents realized my commitment to my music.

That Christmas morning, I got a brand new Professional Yamaha 62 Alto Sax. The rest is history.

Highsmith is a critically acclaimed, award-winning saxophonist who has shared the stage with some of the biggest names in music, including Najee, Alicia Keys, and Wynton Marsalis. He has recorded 10 top-selling smooth jazz albums, among them “The Anthology of Sound,” which was nominated for a Grammy.

40 CITY DECEMBER 2020

over their parents’ basement or garage and become the next big thing on the Rochester music scene and beyond.

We chatted with Rochester musicians about their first instruments. Some spoke of them with the sentimentality reserved for a long-lost lover, recalling the ones that got away, the ones they abandoned for a shinier and newer version, and the ones with which they’ll never part.

BOB GRECO

(NIK AND THE NICE GUYS)

I had already known at a very young age that music was everything that I loved.

And I really loved the trumpet. I loved the sound of it, the look of it, everything.

And then, when I tried out for the jazz band at North Street Middle School in Geneva, where I grew up, one of the teachers said that my embouchure (the tightness of the mouth on the mouthpiece) wasn’t right for it. But I decided to do it anyway. It was a great decision. I loved it. Years later, I ended up winning a couple of contests in high school jazz festivals and played every day. It was like an extension of me for a long time.

Luckily I had parents who encouraged me and backed me to stick with music.

They bought me a really nice trumpet, even though it was a little expensive and out of our price range, and I played that daily.

When Bob Greco isn’t fronting the endless party that is Nik and the Nice Guys, or blowing hellfire from his horn in The Bob Greco Band, he lines up the zingers and one-liners as a comedian. The 56-year old trumpeter was 8 when his folks broke down and got him his first trumpet.

GREG TOWNSON (LOS STRAITJACKETS, THE HI-RISERS) When I got my first instrument at 15, it put me that much closer to the heroes I was worshipping at the time. I guess it would have been Dave Davies of The Kinks or Roddy Radiation of The Specials or something. I’m wearing a Specials shirt in the photo.

It also made me feel like I could write songs. I put two chords together on that guitar through my amp and suddenly I thought I had written a song. I also automatically started searching around to put a band together. I was a super shy kid, but the guitar gave me the confidence to reach out to people. The amp in the photo is still the same amp I use today.

Townson is a founding member of The Essentials and The Hi-Risers. The 56-year-old musician currently circles the globe, playing guitar for instrumental sensations, Los Straitjackets. He just wrapped up a tour backing up Rockpile’s Nick Lowe.

RICK WHITNEY (THE BUDDHAHOOD)

I had an interest in guitar since the age of 6, and I had learned to play guitar at 10 on other people’s guitars or cheap toys because we didn’t have much money. So when I opened my Christmas present from the cardboard box and saw that green Kimberly with the whammy bar, I was ecstatic. I believe my mom bought it from the House of Guitars when I was 12 in 1979. With the flat-handled bar, I used to be able to position it over all the strings and smack it over them, sounding like a machine gun. It had switches that controlled the pickups but also shut them off, so I could do manual tremolo effects. I still have it, but it’s so banged up by many years of abuse — but pure joy.

Rick Whitney currently plays with The Buddhahood, where he holds the bottom end together as the band’s bassist.

DAN SNYDER (FIVE HEAD)

My first drum kit was a 1960s Stewart in blue sparkle wrap. It originally belonged to my Uncle Pat, and any time we visited him in Pittsburgh, I would beg to play. Then I would pound on them until I was begged to stop.

Uncle Pat had a serious diving accident, leaving him paralyzed, and he graciously gifted the drum set to me when I was around 9 years old. That kit endured terrible renditions of Peter Criss, Phil Rudd, Ginger Baker, John Bonham, Neil Peart, Stewart Copeland, and more.

At 16, I replaced them with a set of Yamaha Recording Customs that stayed with me through all of my Dog’s Life years and the first wave of Five Head. I gave the Yamahas to my friend when his band started to play out and record. I’m glad the Yamahas are still with him — but I’m more nostalgic over the Stewarts. They were terrible drums, but amazing teachers. Wish I still had them.

Snyder, 53, has been a fixture on the city’s music scene, playing drums in Dog’s Life and for the Ska-pop punkers, Five Head, and strumming the guitar in The Quitters. roccitynews.org CITY 41

LIFE

Conor Dwyer Reynolds is the new director of the Police Accountability Board.

PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

42 CITY DECEMBER 2020

PUBLIC LIVES

BY GINO FANELLI

@GINOFANELLI

GFANELLI@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

CONOR DWYER REYNOLDS ON POLICING THE RPD

B

eneath High Falls Garage on Commercial Street in a vacant ground-level office with trash piled in a corner, Conor Dwyer Reynolds pulled up a chair near one of a handful of unused wooden desks strewn about the place and made himself comfortable.

The City Council had a week earlier unanimously confirmed him as the executive director of the city’s new Police Accountability Board and the modest space was to be the board’s new home. The office didn’t look like much, but Reynolds saw in the board the most progressive tool in the nation for civilian oversight of policing.

“When I saw what this city was doing, I was pretty skeptical, to be honest,” Reynolds said. “A lot of what we see in cities is mandates that look nice, but don’t do much.

Then I had a chance to read the legislation, and I was just stunned.”

Reynolds, who is all of 30 years old, is a Rochester native and lawyer who previously co-led Yale Law School’s Environmental Protection Clinic and brims with youthful charisma. His spectacles and fastidiously trimmed mustache frame a friendly smile he flashes frequently.

He speaks with a conviction and deliberateness atypical for someone of his generation. Answers to tough questions are prefaced with a wave of his hand and the caveat, “Just so we’re clear,” a mannerism that recalls the president under whom he once worked. Reynolds was a communications strategist in the Obama White House.

But that was a lifetime ago, before Reynolds earned his law degree from Yale in 2017 and made his way south, where as a clerk for a federal judge in the Southern District of Mississippi he was exposed to matters of police accountability that would help prepare him for his latest role. His judge, Carlton Reeves, recently wrote an opinion calling to end qualified immunity for police that

included a rundown of deaths of people of color at the hands of officers.

“When I was working in the federal courts, we saw a lot of officer misconduct cases,” Reynolds said. “But we also saw a lot of discrimination against officers within departments, whether women, people of color, Black officers. We were seeing how that trauma was happening to officers, and there was not, at least down in Mississippi, support from the unions, support from the administration. They were isolated.”

Reynolds holds fast to the idea that the Police Accountability Board, as envisioned by the city and overwhelmingly approved by voters last year, has the capacity to improve the lives of police officers and the city residents they police through a commitment to transparency in the officer discipline process. He also sees the board as an avenue for officers to bring concerns about policy and procedures.

It is here that Reynolds’ notions about the potential for the Police Accountability Board intersects with those of the board’s chair, Shani Wilson. A physician assistant at Trillium Health who has worked as an EMT, Wilson believes officer trauma perpetuates systemic racism in policing.

“There is a continuous perception of fear, that certain people do certain things in certain situations,” Wilson said. “That can contribute to post-traumatic stress and fatigue. That carries trauma, and that will affect their lives, and it will affect our lives.”

The Police Accountability Board was created to take a sweeping look at policing. Its powers were to include the ability to issue subpoenas, make operational recommendations to the Police Department, establish a “disciplinary matrix” to guide punishment when misconduct is found, and to discipline offending officers.

The latter has been embroiled in litigation for months. In May, state Supreme Court Justice John Ark ruled the board can neither discipline officers nor conduct hearings on disciplinary matters.

His decision effectively rendered the board as toothless as the Civilian Review Board it was intended to replace. That board was limited to reviewing Internal Affairs investigations and making nonbinding recommendations on discipline.

The City Council has appealed Ark’s ruling, which was the result of litigation brought by the police union, the Rochester Police Locust Club. A decision on the appeal is expected next year.

“People need to understand that it could take some time, even if the powers come back, it could take some time,” Reynolds said.

“It’s a long time to be in a sort of limbo, but thankfully, there is so much more the board can do, and must do, during this period of uncertainty.”

Among the board’s most pressing matters is meeting Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mandate to reinvent policing. Under that order, issued in June, every municipal police department in the state must submit a reform plan by April 1, or risk losing state funding.

The Police Accountability Board is one of four organizations providing input on the Rochester Police Department’s submission, alongside the Racial and Structural Equity Commission and United Christian Leadership Ministry.

While the board has been hobbled, its members have continued to work, including hiring Reynolds as executive director from a pool of more than 150 applicants.

His appointment was not without controversy, however. One former board member, Miquel Powell, called it “insane” that the board would hire Reynolds over qualified candidates of color, considering alleged victims of police

misconduct are disproportionately non-white.

Wilson said Reynolds’ background made him an ideal candidate to get the board rolling, but acknowledged some concern with a white executive director taking direction from a board primarily made up of people of color.

“We chose him because he was the best person for the job, but we also needed to know that he could take direction from leadership who didn’t look like him,” Wilson said.

“We’ve seen it all the time, and it’s not necessarily done that well. We needed to make sure it worked well, and we’re all very pleased.”

Reynolds has taken up racial justice matters before. He has studied and written extensively about exclusionary zoning, particularly in his native Penfield, and he was a lead author on a much-publicized research paper published over the summer that revealed how a wide range of private and public landowners in Monroe County placed restrictive covenants on property deeds in the early 20th century barring Black people from ownership.

He has caused his own stir, though. During his City Council confirmation hearing, Reynolds submitted a memo asserting the board’s independence from City Council. Councilmembers disagreed, arguing that the board was only sovereign of the Rochester Police Department.

Fully affirmed in his position, Reynolds chalked up the tumult to growing pains and pledged to foster communication between stakeholders in policing.

“It’s going to take some time,” Reynolds said. “It’s going to take conversations between our folks and City Council, and I think everyone is committed to having those conversations.”

roccitynews.org CITY 43

LIFE

WHAT ALES ME

Nate Kester, the head brewer at Irondequoit Beer Company, pours a taster of an unreleased beer. PHOTO JACOB WALSH

TRADITION AND INNOVATION CLASH

BY GINO FANELLI

A

@GINOFANELLI

t Sager Beer Works, a small brewery tucked away in a business plaza off University Avenue, owner Paul Guarracini pours a small cup of his new West Coast IPA. Once a defining beverage of the craft beer scene, it’s not a style that draws much attention anymore.

The same can be said about much of Sager’s roster, which includes traditional styles like the English dark mild and other time-tested varieties that are rare nowadays.

“As a brewer, I’m looking at barley, hops, water, and yeast,” Guarracini said. “The challenge for me is to see what kind of new flavors I can get out of just those four ingredients.”

In today’s craft beer scene, excess is king. Sour ales, for example, have 44 CITY DECEMBER 2020

GFANELLI@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

burst into the mainstream through pioneering breweries like Pennsylvania’s Imprint, Avon’s Mortalis, and Indiana’s 450 North, with takes defined by being less beer and more alcoholic fruit puree. Meanwhile, IPAs have turned as murky as swamp water, juicy sweet, and in a constant fight to pack as much hop flavor as possible into each glass.

There is merit to those opulent styles, but for brewers like Guarracini, there is something lost in translation.

He dubs himself “a classicist,” the sort of brewer who cherishes traditional formulas, some of them centuries-old mainstays from Europe. The trouble is, they don’t always sell.

He’s not alone. Many brewers find themselves at a crossroads of what they want to brew and what is going to keep the lights on.

At Fifth Frame Brewing, owner Jon Mervine has made a name for himself with his decadent lemonade IPA series “Rural Minutes,” as well as with ultrahazy IPAs. But among the beers he treasures most are his light lager “Classic,” his Italian Pilsner “Dolo,” and his Franconian Lager “Autograft.” Those beers are not flying off shelves, however, and taking the leap on more time-intensive traditional beers like farmhouse ales is often a risk.

“During COVID especially, you can’t be spending your time on something that might work, or might sell, you have to go for the sure shot,” Mervine said. “2020 is the year of the cashflow.”

There’s myriad reasons traditional beer styles do not get as much

attention in the craft beer world as the newer styles, not the least of which is social media. Ultra-fruited sours are vibrant in color, perfect for an Instagram post. Their often fleeting nature, with breweries constantly tweaking fruits and other additions, also make for a bit of exclusivity. You either buy it, or you miss out on the fun.

“Sex sells, you have to look good, you have to have good labels, you have to make a beer that’s thicker than another,” Mervine said. “There’s this sense of beer superiority, where people are now trying to cram as much fruit into a beer as possible.”

That culture of excess is deeply ingrained in American brewing. In the bygone heyday of West Coast IPAs, breweries found themselves in a

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWERS PUZZLE ON PAGE 50. NO PEEKING!

DRINK THIS NOW EZRA’S LITTLE BROTHER from Sager Beer Works 46 Sager Dr. Suite E, Rochester At a modest 3.5-percent alcohol, this English dark mild packs a stunning amount of flavor. Easydrinking and fit for a full day of liberal sipping, expect notes of cocoa, toffee, caramel, and touch of roast.

EQUINOX Irondequoit Beer Company head brewer Nate Kester. PHOTO JACOB WALSH

bit of an arms race to create the most bitter beer possible. The same is now happening with fruit.

The difference between then and now is that the bitter IPAs of old turned some casual beer drinkers off, while the addition of excess fruit has attracted nonbeer drinkers. In business, more is good, and therefore, those fruited sours are a near requirement for the modern brewery.

The head brewer at Irondequoit Beer Company, Nate Kester, found that out first hand. When Irondequoit opened last year, Kester had no plans to make a fruited sour, and hoped to produce mostly traditional styles.

The brewery now has two fruited sours on tap. His personal favorite beer, a Belgian dark ale dubbed Fantome, is also among the brewery’s least popular.

“I think it’s important that the industry continues to progress and push ourselves forward and try things,” Kester said. “But I think it’s funny that what was once ‘trying something new’ has become the standard.”

Kester, Mervine, and Guarracini don’t want to see the new style of beers vanish. Rather, they hope that there is room for everything on the table, and the traditional styles don’t fall on the wayside to new innovation.

“I’m not sure if it takes education, or it takes curiosity,” Guarracini said.

“But I think people need to be willing to try things, to explore new flavors, and be open to new experiences.”

from Irondequoit Beer Company 765 Titus Ave., Irondequoit This twist on a traditional German Marzen adds a heftier dose of caramel malt, pushing it close to an amber lager. Not overly bready with a wealth of malt sweetness, this beer finishes with a lovely herbal hop bitterness which leaves your palate yearning for more.

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A N T S E A S T M A H E S L S E S T A T H O U H A R L A L T L E P A N O T T E T O T E O P E D T R Y S O N S H T A O A Y P O L A I R E T E E N

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D E D U D E O U S E C O T F T A O S O L O W I T E P I B A L A R O W L O L A B O D E E M O N D A R D A N E D I N A S A N C E P A L E S T E A

M A M A A V A N P A R T I D O G L I N E N A S E E R O N S E U S S T E A T H R W I T E N P D F C A G E O P E R N E S T R A P L A R O A L L D E

S T Y L E C E S T T E S S A S W A N

CRICKETS from Other Half Brewing 6621 State Rte. 5 & 20, Bloomfield While known for their decadent IPAs, Other Half ’s brewing team has shown a talent for masterfully brewing many different styles.

Crickets is no exception — a light, nuanced, and endlessly crushable pilsner.

MUNICH DUNKEL from Genesee Pilot Brewery 25 Cataract St., Rochester Brewmaster Dean Jones is a devotee of traditional German beers, and his take on a Dunkel is nothing short of a love letter to Bavarian brewing. Slightly dark, this beer packs malt sweetness with balanced hop bitterness.

roccitynews.org CITY 45

LIFE

STEAMY SIPPING

Jessica Stroud and Peter Sapia, owners of Café Sasso, sample hot alcoholic drinks at their sidewalk table. PHOTOS BY RYAN WILLIAMSON

GET ‘EM WHILE THEY’RE HOT

BY VINCE PRESS

W

@VLPRESS

hen Rochesterians tout the benefits of distinct seasons, particularly our long winters, we generally don’t give proper due to how hot cocktails make the cold that much more bearable . . . er . . . enjoyable. We embrace the change, like when the hot mulled apple cider of the fall gives way to toasty winter mug drinks. Comfort comes in all flavors, whether sipping eggnog by the fire during the holidays, thawing out in the ski lodge with a Thermos of something cocoa, or fighting a cold with a “prescription” Hot Toddy.

46 CITY DECEMBER 2020

Boozy, steaming drinks are undeniably enchanting.

The origin of hot libations most popular this time of year can be traced to European cultures. The Romans served spiced, mulled wine in communal proportions dating back as far as the 1300s. A few hundred years later, the British applied their own riffs to warmed wine, bestowing catchy monikers on the concoctions, such as the Smoking Bishop, a Victorian-era sweet, spiced red wine punch. Recall that it was over that drink that a

reformed Ebenezer Scrooge proposed to change the fortunes of his put-upon clerk, Bob Cratchit, at the conclusion of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

The manifestation of the famed Hot Toddy, another classic that has stood the test of time, transpired almost simultaneously in Europe and the Americas in the late 18th century. The therapeutic drink, consisting of Scotch whiskey, hot water, lemon, often honey, cinnamon, and star anise, was served as a remedy for the ailing (whose perfectly healthy caretakers took a nip, too!). Tea,

which dates back millennia to China, was later used to regionalize the drink in parts of Europe. In the States, Scotch was often replaced by rum or other whiskey derivatives.

The early 19th century ushered in perhaps the most popular American Christmastime drink you may have never heard of — the Tom & Jerry. Once a wintertime staple served in taverns across the United States, it languished

in relative obscurity until only recently.

The cocktail was for many years credited to the grandfather of modern mixology, “Professor” Jerry Thomas, due in no small part to his insistence during his lifetime that he invented the drink. But cocktail historians — yes, they exist — have since unearthed enough pre-Jerry Thomas references to the Tom & Jerry to sufficiently discredit Thomas’s claim.

Based on a true batter, with its copious rations of sugar, butter, vanilla, spices, cognac, rum, and simmering milk it’s almost more of baker’s a bailiwick than a mixologist’s. No fewer than a dozen Buffalo-area watering holes offer the sweet and sticky hot cocktail this time of year, but it’s much more difficult to find in Rochester. We have our share of seasonal standbys, though.

The pandemic has us mostly hunkered down, but there’s no place like home to cozy up with one (or three) warming drinks.

For some easy-to-make recommendations, I turned to Jessica Stroud and Peter Sapia, owners of Café Sasso on Park Avenue. Their hopping corner coffee shop doubles as a comfy cocktail lounge with a menu that has featured eight hot cocktails ($10 each) since opening 2015 (plus some killer chilled ones, too). You’ll have to grab a sammie, salad or pastry with your drink as per New York’s new rules.

“Combining our barista skills with bartending chops came natural to all of us,” Sapia said.

While most bars and restaurants report nosediving sales, Sapia and Stroud said the booze side of the business has remained steady.

“We’ve certainly seen more day drinking since COVID-19 hit,” Stroud said. “Anyone can conspicuously carry out a cocktail at 9 a.m. if they want, take it with them, and go work from home.”

Their cocktail menu spans sweet to herbal profiles — from the Hot Toddyesque Flower Power, to the balanced Caramel Chameleon, to the dessertlike Sweet Tooth, and Irish-influenced Molly’s Hatchet.

Sapia said Café Sasso will remain open for take-out drinks and food, even if dine-in ends up shutting down again due to rising infection rates. If you can’t make it in, here are a few easy to replicate recipes to get you through the holidays and beyond.

CARAMEL CHAMELEON *Served in 16oz Latte Mug w/ Saucer + Demitasse Spoon

In bottom of mug combine: - ½ Shot Bailey’s Irish Cream - ½ Shot of Kahlua Coffee Liqueur - Double shot of espresso - 2 Count of Monin caramel syrup - Steam milk* and pour like a latte.

- Artfully decorate the top with caramel sauce

MOLLY’S HATCHET *Served in Irish Coffee Glass*

In bottom of glass combine: - ½ Shot Jameson Irish Whiskey - ½ Shot Bailey’s Irish Cream - Double shot of espresso - Fill remainder of glass with hot coffee - Top with whipped cream and powdered cinnamon

FLOWER POWER *Served in 16oz Latte Mug* w/ Saucer + Demitasse Spoon

In bottom of mug combine: - 1 Teabag of hibiscus tea - 2 Count of clover honey - 2 Lemon wedges - 1 Shot of Bulleit Bourbon - Fill with hot water

SWEET TOOTH *Served in 16oz Latte Mug* w/ Saucer + Demitasse Spoon

In bottom of mug combine: - ½ Shot Ketel One Vodka - ½ Shot of Frangelico Hazelnut Liqueur - 2 Count of dark chocolate sauce - Steam milk* and pour like a latte - Artfully decorate whipped cream top with caramel and chocolate sauce drizzle - Top with Maraschino cherry (because you deserve it!) *Milk can be replaced with skim milk, almond milk, soy milk, oat milk or even egg nog.

roccitynews.org CITY 47

LIFE

A ROUND DIET

Luis Perez with a couple of Neapolitan pizza pies outside his Peels on Wheels Piaggio Ape. PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

POP-UP PIZZERIAS FOR THE PEOPLE

BY CHRIS THOMPSON

@CHRONSOFNON

PEELS ON WHEELS

PEELSONWHEELS.COM CONTACT@PEELSONWHEELS.COM (585) 991-9811

DOUGHBOYZ PIZZA

INSTAGRAM: @DOUGHBOYZROC

T

wo things I love are good pizza and pop-up restaurants — and Rochester is a cradle for both.

Besides the stalwart pizza shops that have exploded into local chains, new outfits have emerged in rebellion against the tired slice of pepperoni under the heat lamp. Chicago-style and Detroitstyle specialists have found homes here.

48 CITY DECEMBER 2020

So, too, has the city embraced the pop-up, in which chefs all but invade an underused kitchen, whether it be in a bar or a private dining room or a dorm room, for a few hours until their ingredients run out. With their limited time and limited audience, these kitchen takeovers give diners not only the thrill of an improvised meal but of a sense of urgency. They’re like a flash mob, with less choreography and more food.

Imagine my joy, then, when I learned that two pop-ups in town are catering to pizza lovers.

Peels on Wheels is a mobile pizzeria specializing in fast-baking

Neapolitan-style pies for pop-ups and private events. You may have seen it around town. The operation is a refurbished red and white Piaggio Ape P601 (pronounced AH-peh) equipped with four Gozney Roccbox portable ovens that between them are capable of churning out as many as 30 pies an hour.

Transforming an Ape, a threewheel mini-truck whose name translates to “bee” in Italian and is ubiquitous in the boot-shaped land of fantastic boots, into a pizzeria was the brainchild of Luis Perez. He imported it from Naples, Italy, to lend an air of authenticity to the dining experience.

I felt lucky to find Perez recently at Three Heads Brewing. I had a Margherita with Brussels sprout shavings ($13) that I reluctantly shared with friends. It was piping hot, with the house-made mozzarella relaxing onto the basil-scented fresh tomato sauce, and its tiny charred dough bubbles were a perfect sharp accent to complement the cheese and sauce.

Perez, a native of the South Bronx, where pizza was the daily bread for him, “opened” Peels on Wheels in July 2019 after spending nearly half his life — about 15 years — working in restaurants, primarily pizza shops. Enthusiasm for pop-ups was gaining momentum locally

Jim Zobel serves pizza at a pop-up location in Greece. Inset, collectively Zobel, right, and partner Anthony Yockel, left, are known as Doughboyz. PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

Part food truck, part scooter, the Peels on Wheels Piaggio Ape is pure Italian.

PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

then, but the pandemic put a stop to popping up everywhere.

To weather the shutdown, Perez made DIY pizza kits that enabled anyone to make his pies. He estimated selling 150 each week during the dog days of quarantine. He ventured out with his truck when venues began

reopening, but has suspended poppingup for the winter season amid a resurgence of the novel coronavirus.

Peels on Wheels wares can still be had, though, by way of the DIY kits. Perez has also partnered with the Rochester Brainery to host online classes on pizza making.

Though his first two classes filled up quickly, more are scheduled for Dec. 18 and Jan. 8. Classes are $36 and come with the pizza making kits that Perez.

The other new pop-up pizzeria to flourish in 2020 despite the odds was a duo calling themselves Doughboyz.

I thought the name was an homage to Ice Cube’s “Doughboy” character in “Boyz n the Hood,” but it turned out to be the moniker for longtime friends Anthony Yockel and Jim Zobel, who developed a talent for making delicious dough during their time in and around the local restaurant scene, including Branca. Yockel still makes dough for the Swan family of restaurants. If you’ve had Swan Dive’s Wutang or Vern’s Red Pizza, you have Yockel to thank.

When restaurants closed in March, Zobel bought a pizza oven to make food at home. He invited Yockel to lend a hand, and they posted their creations on Instagram.

The popularity of their work on the social media network led to the Doughboyz popping up out of Zobel’s home. Customers pre-ordered pies on Instagram throughout the day, and the Doughboyz were selling out within 20 minutes of “opening” at 6 p.m.

Once restaurants re-opened, and the state imposed its mandate that alcohol be served with food, Yockel and Zobel saw an opportunity to pop up and out of Zobel’s home.

I caught up with Doughboyz at their collaborative pop-up with Madeline’s Catering at Artisan Works, and their $13 pie was well worth the short wait. Yockel’s sourdough was a perfect match for the garlicky red base, and the huge basil leaves cut the sharp tang of tomato. These pizzas are made to eat right away, and that is what I did. This time, I didn’t have to share with anyone. My friend got a pizza with purple potato, smoked gouda,

pork belly, parsnips, all on a light blanket of mozzarella over cream sauce and basil oil for $15. His fast work of it was a testament to its tastiness.

Doughboyz maintains a weekly pop-up schedule that they share on Instagram, and all orders are taken over the platform as well, so if you want a taste you’d be wise to follow their account (@doughboyzroc).

They partner with Mortalis Brewing in Avon, Livingston County, often and have made culinary collaborations with Chick’n Out. Though they have a commissary kitchen per state regulations, they don’t plan to have a brick-andmortar shop any time soon. The pop-up model works for them and is reciprocal — attracting customers to their brand while helping local businesses stay open during the pandemic. I would not have thought that pop-ups could survive the pandemic, but they seem to have hung on in Rochester.

The pair of them in Peels on Wheels and Doughboyz is a garlic-oiled lining to the dark cloud of 2020. Catch them when you can. Here’s to the chase! roccitynews.org CITY 49

LIFE

ROC BEFORE & AFTER

Across

9. Wrote some Javascript, say 14. Papas’ counterparts 19. Greek letter X 20. By land ___ 21. Practice piece for a Julliard student 22. ___ garde

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27. Behar, to Goldberg 29. 1946 Nobel laureate for literature 30. Bed for a cadet 31. “Mony Mony” singer

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32. Motown or Elektra 34. Ride, in a way or the thing being ridden

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38. Midlife crisis convertible

84

46. Elizabethan pronoun

90

47. They that ___ in tears shall reap in joy (Psalm)

94

54. Trendy furniture store for a literary arachnid?

57. Moon, e.g., poetically 58. Pertaining to the mouth 59. Decision time on “Survivor,” familiarly 60. Pseudonym for Geisel 61. Vintage car inits.

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48. Kid’s response to “Get off the iPad right now!”

53. Danson and Nugent

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36. “Think Different” or “Got Milk?”

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45. Dominated, as in a first person shooter

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Puzz

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24. Superspreader event at Kodak founder’s mansion?

Dai

PUZZLE BY S.J. AUSTIN & J. REYNOLDS

1. Wood used in most baseball bats 4. Willie Mays or Eli Manning

Answers to this puzzle can be found on page 45

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108 114

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Across 16 1.14 Word 15 that follows the start of each 22starred answer 5. On the ocean 10. "...hear ___ drop" 26 14. Pound of poetry 15. Tips 31of 16. Russo "Outbreak" 17. Chop ___ 37 18. *** Edward Teach, familiarly 20. Asia's ___ Sea 21. Dark time for 48 50 poets49 22. Lets up 23. Many four-doors 25. Billionaire Bill 28. The Braves, on 60scoreboards 30. Middle of many German names on ..."

65 31. "Go 66 34. March 17 honoree, for 71 72short 38. Close to closed 40. Mine, in 81 Marseiille 41. *** Cold comfort 89 44. Ones born before Virgos 93of "Dark 45. Jessica Angel" 46. "___ Johnny!"

97 47. Hosp. areas 48. ___ Jeanne d'Arc 49.

Stimpy's cartoon 101 pal 51. Some college 109 students 53. Greets nonverbally 116 58. Popular typeface 61. Gallery display

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66. “Let it stand,” editorially 67. Cindy Lou and her fellow villagers 69. Heavenly being 71. Promise made upon taking office

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73. Depend (on) 75. Recently steeped beverage

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63. Rough breathing 64. *** Place for miscellaneous stuff 67. Baja's opposite 68. "If all ___ fails 82 ..." 83 69. Vow taker 70. Farm sounds 71. Beliefs 72. Common thing?

73. "Green Gables" girl Down 1. Tablelands 2. Blue shade 3. "___ you loud and clear" 4. Eric Clapton love song 5. Optimally 117 118 piece 6.

Mah-jongg

78. British political party, to Americans 81. “Well-bred insolence,” according to Aristotle 84. ___ year (annually) 86. Carved emblems 88. Off-putting chemical?

89. Suffix with ethyl 90. Peak named for a 45-carat jewel?

125. Buenos ___

9. Decennial headcount

97. Homes for hamsters

126. Early: Prefix

98. Wears

127. Home of Sen. Doug Jones

10. Noncommittal option on a multiple choice question

100. Eddy inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994

128. One of 16 in “The Crucible”

101. Performance sometimes viewed through glasses

130. Signal to Rickey Henderson

102. Course for a sweet tooth?

106. Turn (off) 108. Feeds 110. Go ___ great length

Down 1. “Highway to Hell” band

111. First word of many city names

2. Beat it!

113. One of many buildings converted to polling places in 2020

3. Dorky hairdo for a Scotsman?

116. Bra parts

4. Turns 5. Seeing red

93. JPEG alternatives

119. Provocative job title for a proud American patriot?

94. What you will

123. Statute

95. Test

124. Teammate of Robert and Danny

50 CITY DECEMBER 2020

131. Place for bear cubs or thieves

6. Fool 7. Neighbor of Belg.

8. Domesticated

38 42

96. Ingredient in old fashioned biscuits

129. Adolescents

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62. Minty cocktail 64. Lined up

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12. Cabinet dept. led by DeVos 13. Spanish colonizer of the Americas 14. Zoo handout 15. Be of use 16. Tuesday in Paris 17. Bruckner or Chekhov 18. Fashion 25. Crime measured in degrees 26. And others, bibliographically 28. Pulitzer finalist born in Lockport 33. Deadly 35. Lasso’s former sport (and his new one) 37. They run in the family

66

7. Wh 8. Ab 9. Inq 10. Fi 11. Po 12. A 13. B 19. "_ 24. D 26. Pe 27. A 29. Se 31. M 32. __ 33. Pa 34. Pr ev 35. B 36. M 37. C 39. Tr 40. "W bu

38. Convenient addition to a rowboat 39. “If ___ Your Woman” (1971 soul hit) 41. Formation composed of clay minerals and quartz grain 42. Only non-U.S. M.L.B. team 44. Pinky ___ 47. Children’s author Robert Lawrence ___ 49. “Give it ___!”

50. Iceberg below the Mason-Dixon Line?

51. Massachusetts motto opener 52. “___ la vie” 54. What might be done to an empty can, or printed on it 55. Craft for squares?

56. West Bank inits.

58. Spanish eye 63. Dressmakers’ guides 65. Went to court?

68. Banzai, Shenzi, or Ed from “The Lion King” 70. Wanting 72. The “A” of MoMA 73. Colosseum locale 74. Son of Seth 76. Native Nebraskan 77. From ___ bottom 79. Decorate 80. On ___ knee 82. Deduce 83. Actress Thompson of “Dear White People” 85. ___ drop of a hat 87. Acknowledged a military officer 91. Publisher William Randolph __ 92. Goat sound 93. Assignment in English class 97. Asset for a pitcher 99. Patronize, as a hotel 100. Coercion 102. Toys you can dress 103. 1940s computer 104. Printer company mispronounced

by Michael Scott 105. Co-star of Pesci and Culkin 107. Guitar virtuoso Eddie Van ___ 109. “___ little silhouetto of a man” 112. Mayberry tyke 114. Dozes 115. Subj. of many med school flashcards 117. Ashen 118. Word with dive or song 120. Canadian whiskey

ABOUT TOWN Lectures

3 Billion Birds Lost: The Disappearance of North American Birds and What We Can Do About It. Thu., Dec.

10, 7 p.m. Livestream, online. Ken Rosenberg, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. rochesterbirding.org.

Life on Venus of All Places. Tue., Dec. 8, 3 p.m. Livestream, online.

Steve Fentress, RMSC Strasenburgh Planetarium Director. Registration required penfield.libraryweb.org.

Rochester’s Olmsted Parks. Wed., Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m. Livestream, online. libraweb.org.

Understanding Media: Assessing News, Misinformation, Disinformation, & Deepfakes. Mon., Dec. 7, 6 p.m.

Livestream, online. Dr. Andrea Hickerson, University of South Carolina. Presented

by Irondequoit Public Library. Registration required libraryweb.org.

Holiday

32nd Annual Artful Holidays. Dec. 4-13.

Genesee Valley Council on the Arts, 4 Murray Hill Dr Mt. Morris gvartscouncil.org.

Decking the Halls to Shopping Malls: American Christmas Traditions & How They Grew. Tue., Dec. 8, 11 a.m. Virtual Strong National Museum of Play, Online Part of the Stories About the Stuff series $10. museumofplay.org.

Ganondagan Virtual Native American Winter Arts Market. Dec. 1-6. Virtual

Seneca Art & Cultural Center, Online ganondagon.org.

Holiday Laser. Through Jan. 3, 2021.

Strasenburgh Planetarium, 657 East Ave $9/$10. rmsc.org.

Holidays at the Market. Sundays, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. and Thu., Dec. 17, 6-9 p.m Rochester Public Market, 280 N. Union St. 428-6907.

Things Associated With Christmas. Thu., Dec. 10, 7 p.m. Livestream, online. A talk by Walter Gable, Seneca County Historian, presented by the Antiques Club of the Finger Lakes. Registration required

by Dec 9 genevahistoricalsociety.com.

Wreath Display & Silent Auction (Nov 4-29) | Sweet Creations Gingerbread Display (Nov 6-Dec 13) | Tabletop Tree Display & Silent Auction (Nov18-Dec 16). Tuesdays-Sundays George Eastman

Museum, 900 East Ave. eastman.org W/ museum admission: $7-$18.

Yuletide Open House. Saturdays, 12-6 p.m. and Sundays, 12-4 p.m Genesee Country Village & Museum, 1410 Flint Hill Rd Mumford Pancake breakfast: 11am. noon, & 1pm (Reservations required, $8/$10) $15/$18. gcv.org.

New Year's

Family Game Day. Thu., Dec. 31, 2-3

p.m. Livestream, online. Hosted by Penfield Public Library libraryweb.org.

Kids’ New Year’s Celebration. Wed., Dec. 30, 11 a.m. Livestream, online. Hosted by Seymour Library libraryweb.org.

Noon Year’s Eve. Thu., Dec. 31, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Seneca Park Zoo, 2222 St. Paul St Timed ticket purchase required 336-7200.

121. Item sought in a mine, or in Minecraft 122. The Cavs, on a scoreboard roccitynews.org CITY 51

52 CITY DECEMBER 2020