Arts & Culture

Abandoned motels, lonely gas stations, rusting cars, weary houses shedding paint. Jason Lee’s photographs captures a rural Texas landscape that is disintegrating before our eyes.

Yes, he says: Isn’t that what’s happening to our country today?

Lee discusses these images in his new book, A Plain View, followed by a book signing, at 6 p.m. Thursday at the George Eastman Museum. These are photos that he took throughout 2017 all across Texas, where he now lives. A catalog of lonesome, desolate spaces – people are almost non-existent – that he says is inspired by films such as Paris, Texas.

A Brooklyn-based nonprofit is using billboards to display art rather than ads around the country, and they’ve added a piece in Rochester.

Travis Rix is the co-founder and executive director of SaveArtSpace, and says the idea sprung from seeing billboards go up over murals around his neighborhood in New York City.

"These billboards and other advertisement spaces are in the public space, so we believe everyone should have a voice as to what goes on these public platforms."

SaveArtSpace is a donation-based organization, and Rix says they use that money to lease the billboards for artwork nationwide.

He says any artist, at any age or skill level, can submit art with a small application fee to be a part of the project.

Long Acre Farms in Macedon will be celebrating a couple of anniversaries this year.

Cooperstown, New York means one thing to baseball fans  - the Hall of Fame, And another thing to opera fans – The Glimmerglass Festival, held every summer.

One of the operas on stage this year is Silent Night – based on a true story of a legendary cease-fire during World War I.

At Fifth Frame Brewing on St. Paul Street in downtown Rochester, Carolyn Stiles starts talking to me about her favorite beer.

"I really enjoy a good pilsner, like, a well brewed pilsner," she tells me.

Stiles is part of an ever-growing group of craft beer enthusiasts across the country.

Rochester alone has over a dozen breweries experimenting with different malts, hops, and yeasts to make hundreds of local beers. With this rapid growth, Stiles saw an opportunity to start a beer education and appreciation group – just for women.

The death of singer Aretha Franklin has touched a lot of people including a Rochester musician who actually played with her.  Herb Smith plays trumpet both with the RPO and with his own jazz trio. He is also an adjunct professor at RIT and is conductor of the RIT Jazz Ensembles.