Over the past fifteen years, Rochesterians have become accustomed to hearing great jazz for ten days in June as the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival brings to town some of the genre’s biggest names and rising stars. But when the temporary venues have been dismantled and the last of the artists have headed for their …

David Byrne and St. Vincent Roger Hodgson Peter Frampton From June 21–29, The Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival will a typically quiet downtown into a thriving ecosystem of jazz.  It can also transform a casual fan into a hard core explorer of the jazz universe. Attending a concert or two is like looking at the festival …

The radio transmitter had already signaled that the pregnant mare was lying down. Closed circuit video cameras in the stall at Carlland Stables in Avon displayed the activity in the house just a few yards away but Sue Carlson was already with her mare.  With a sweaty flank and lots of heavy breathing, the mare …

I’m hanging upside down, suspended from a fifteen-foot ceiling by shining, silky fabric. My head is two feet above the ground, and I can see a bobby pin springing from my piled hair. There’s a large wall of mirrors in front of me, allowing me to watch my slowly-reddening face. Chilling out jungle-style isn’t a …

A parade of new shops and eateries is lining up along the South Wedge and Zeppa Bistro leads the way—despite being nearly hidden in the back corner of the historic German House on Gregory Street. The restaurant is reminiscent of cozy Italian eateries in cramped New York City basements or Old-World taverns hiding down Venetian …

A barroom crowd of maybe forty gathers around tables and chairs discussing Rochester’s potential to nurse startup businesses into existence. Students and professors from RIT and Syracuse University, freelance journalists, successful entrepreneurs and others who don’t know what to try, as long as it’s something.  The discussion takes a pessimistic turn. Investors are tough to …