Jeff Spevak
WXXI Arts & Life editorJeff Spevak has been a Rochester arts reporter for nearly three decades, with seven first-place finishes in the Associated Press New York State Features Writing Awards while working for the Democrat and Chronicle.
He has also been published in Musician and High Times magazines, contributed to WXXI, CITY newspaper and Post magazine, and occasionally performs spoken-word pieces around town. Some of his haikus written during the Rochester jazz festival were self-published in a book of sketches done by Scott Regan, the host of WRUR’s Open Tunings show.
Spevak founded an award-winning barbecue team, The Smokin’ Dopes, and believes Bigfoot is real. His book on the life of a Lake Ontario sailor who survived the sinking of his ship during World War II was published in April 2019 by Lyons Press.
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As he retires after 43 years of renovating houses, Norm Abrams is celebrated in his own biographical documentary, complete with highlights from his years with “This Old House” and “The New Yankee Workshop.” The hour-long “The House That Norm Built” premieres 9 p.m. Monday on WXXI-TV, with an encore at 5 p.m. on Oct. 8. -
Bandaloop was a part of the first two Rochester Fringe Festivals. It returns for the event’s 11th year, with two shows each on Friday and Saturday on the side of Five Star Plaza. The shows are free, and easily visible from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park.
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“Spamalot” runs Sept. 9 through Sept. 25 at Blackfriars Theatre, with Tom Deckman directing.
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Tav Falco’s Panther Burns is finally touring again, with a Sept. 13 date at Photo City Music Hall, 543 Atlantic Ave.
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“Prelude: The Legacy of Garth Fagan Dance” debuts at 7 p.m. Sept. 8 at The Little Theatre, sandwiched by talks with Fagan, among others. Then a series of airings begins at 9 p.m. Sept. 16 on WXXI-TV.
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Spoiler alert: “Merch Table Blues” is probably not a true-to-life, unacknowledged autobiography of Peter Conners as a young man. But the drug-laced tale of a young writer who follows a counterculture band is deeply enriched by Conners years following the Grateful Dead and his experience writing about the band and its followers.
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The 100th anniversary of Eastman Theatre, jazz guitarist John Scofield, the strings of The Ying Quartet and a performance by the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine in the shadow of the Russian invasion of its home country, are among this season’s Eastman Presents shows.
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Katie Morey and Cammy Enaharo are talented musicians, no doubt. But what's with the name?
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The Fleshtones return to Rochester for a 10 p.m. show on Aug. 19 amid the gothic extremes of Lux Lounge.
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Joywave releases a live album Friday, and it presents us with two Joywaves. Stereo Joywave, if you will.
