From WXXI news I'm Leah Stacey and this is connections.

Our connection this hour was made more than a decade ago when City Newspaper began doing an annual issue called the Rochester Ten.

Well, I did contribute to a few of those issues in the past.

I confess, I don't know where the idea really began, but when I landed here at city, I knew we should bring it back.

We first did so in August 2023, and now we are on our third consecutive Rochester ten issue on stands now, I would like to clarify that the Rochester ten isn't a top ten or best ten list.

It's more like a gratitude list.

Our way to thank a group of people making the city a better place to live, work and play.

College degree doesn't matter.

Age doesn't matter.

Demographic doesn't matter.

What matters is that the individual is doing good for the greater community.

As we selected this year's Rochester ten cohort.

A quote from beloved PBS show host Fred Rogers came to mind.

Look for the helpers in this month's pages, you'll find ten such helpers, people who are contributing time, energy, and passion to make our city and beyond a better place.

From creating art in community building to putting food on tables and wielding the power of words.

This cohort is making an inarguable impact.

And as in years past, they were chosen through nominations from both staff and contributors.

The 2025 Rochester ten is Victor Antonetti Jr, Quinn Bui, Adam Todak, David Corbin, Marie Adelina de la Feria, Timothy Long, Kathryn Marino, Lavon Sheppard, Julia Tedesco, and Mitch Thomas.

Each profile features photos by Roberto Philippe to look at us with art direction and design by Jacob Walsh.

The profiles were written by Kellen Beck, Sydney Burrows, Gino Fanelli, Patrick Hoskin, Justin Murphy, Jessica Al Pavia, Rebecca Rafferty, Helena Shumway, myself, and Veronica Volk.

You can pick up a copy on stamps now to read all these stories, or you can read them online.

And today, we're in conversation with two of the city team members who made this issue happen in big ways behind the scenes.

And I say this because I was out of town for like a solid week of this at a conference, which was, I don't know, the worst timing ever.

And it happens every year.

But we're going to chat with them and I'm going to introduce them in just a second.

After the break, we're going to also hear from a contributor who pitched a very creative story for this issue.

And I'm going to let him talk much more about that.

So my guest this hour, Roberto Philippe Lagares, I don't say that like Evan does.

Multimedia reporter for city.

Welcome.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah.

I feel like you need to reset your name because it just doesn't have the flare.

When I say it to Philippe.

Like this.

There you go.

I feel better.

Jacob was art director for city.

Hello.

I got your name down.

I got the Irish name.

So I'm gonna.

And joining us after the break will be Matt Rogers, founder of The Lost Borough and contributor to City Magazine.

If you're in the Finger Lakes, you can listen in under Geneva Station was 89.5 FM.

If you'd like to join the conversation.

Otherwise, you can email us at connections at Z dawg.

Or you can call 844295825 5 or 5 852639994.

And we love to hear from you.

This is going to be a very behind the scenes type of show.

Sort of pulling back the curtain on not only how we put the issue together, but, maybe picking up a few things for the coming year, because we're going into what I like to call our busy season with arts preview stuff coming up.

And we have a city social this week, so we'll talk about that.

But let's kick it off with the two of you, because I have talked enough.

This is one of your favorite issues to design.

I know that it is.

And I feel like you even took a bigger role this year.

Yeah, totally.

Yeah.

Walk us through your process on this issue.

This issue is, like you said, one of my favorite issues to do every year.

I think of the 12 issues we do on a yearly basis, there are two that kind of completely break the format of what we do, and kind of switch up the way the book is built.

So for the Rochester ten, I am given a lot of, a lot of runway to sort of do a custom style for the book.

And that's exactly what you'll find if you pick up the August issue of city.

The entire back half of the book is entirely dedicated to these ten folks in our community.

And, yeah, we we did all of the photos in-house this time around.

So it was easier for me to, like, get really involved with Berto and sort of plan it together, which was great.

And, yeah, I think we were really intentional about how we wanted to do it.

Like there was always there was nothing that was really left up to chance between the two of us.

I don't think.

Right, unless there was no I agree.

There's always there's always a pivot or two in this business.

Yeah.

Can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration of the cover and then just the through line with all the design?

Totally.

The thing about this issue is that the subject matter is more or less the same every year.

The people are different, but the idea and the spirit of the thing is the same, which is kind of a blessing and a curse for someone with my job, because you are either kind of struck by inspiration, or you really need to pull it out of yourself.

And this year, I'll admit, I was in the latter camp.

I needed to figure out something that would work for not.

I don't want to call it a generic issue, but something that is essentially I am styling ten containers for things.

So I was thinking back to like what's going on in, what's going on in my life visually right now?

Like, what can I tie together and find a through line for and then sort of apply it?

Fundamentally to like what the Rochester ten means.

And, I will pull these three threads together right now and just, like, fully pull the curtain back, I, I was drinking a lot of Shirley Temples this summer, so there's a lot of red in my life, and there's a lot of, there are a lot of circles in my life because I've got jars of maraschino cherries in my fridge, and, ginger ale or ginger beer or whatever has, like, carbonation.

So I was thinking, like red, orange grenadine cherries.

August.

And it's going to be sort of hot outside, like warm.

So I'm thinking of that.

The font choice is as a font called Violetta, which to me looks a lot like, the, the font that you'll find on, like, fancy, fancy cherries, like nom Luxardo cherries, but like Italian cherries that are, kind of soaked in their own, like, cherry juice.

So that's, that's kind of the font.

And then, a lot of the times when I'm looking for something to just sort of like shake up my brain a little bit, I will go to Savers and Webster and look through the used books, because they don't make them like they used to.

And I will look through all of these, trade paperbacks and, coffee table books, and I'll go home with a lot of them.

And one of them that I picked up recently was a book about modernism as an art movement.

And a lot of the, a lot of the stuff that was featured within that book, besides the large, like, brutalist statues that were, put in place by governments in the 20th century was also like beautiful vases and vessels.

And the second, the word vessel entered my head, I like had everything that I needed.

It was like, what am I drinking?

What's the weather like?

I bought a book, and that is kind of how the style for this whole thing came together, because, if you look through the book, you'll see a lot of seemingly arbitrary shapes.

Those are, those are vessels that I found in this book.

Vases and vases, I guess.

Vases and vase.

I think it's an amphora.

Right.

Amphora.

Yeah.

That so I was showing some on the cover and there is like a name for this type of face, and it goes back.

Has Greek origin.

Oh and it's amphora.

What kind of fun every day is a school day.

Yeah.

And that's.

Yeah.

So that's, that is kind of what I was going for here.

You'll see them behind the portraits, that Bourdeaux took of all ten of our rock.

Ten.

And then you kind of see them all ganged together, on the front with this, with this typeface, which, by the way, the font is called Violetta.

And the, the typeface, the specific type is called Violeta Jardin era, which is the biggest chunky iest version of this text.

I love this font.

And I made a bunch of different gradients.

Based on what I would see when I closed my eyes and stared at the sun last month.

So there's a lot of my stupid brain in this.

But I do think that it kind of coalesces around an esthetic that, that Berta and I talked about from the beginning.

And, and he was very, very gracious with his photography to, to like, set me up, to, to keep layout in mind, like, from the beginning.

Yeah, yeah.

And he can talk about, about that because that was all in the studio and that's, that is Alberto.

I realize I've talked unbroken for like five minutes about Berta Tucker.

It's interesting.

And I think so.

Berta, this is your first year working on the Rock-Tenn issue?

Yes, because you have only been with us since October, which is crazy, because I feel like it's been longer.

In a good way.

But you, the two of you spent a lot of time in one place with a few field trips, which I'll let you talk about.

Yeah.

So.

Yeah.

How did taking the portraits shape up this year and how did that process go?

And where where did you do it?

Yeah, for the most part.

So for the most part, I have to shout out Rochester Photo Space, which is an analog photo space, studio in the Anderson Arts Building.

The let us use their studio, which is it was incredible.

Because one thing we talked about was trying to establish a very uniform look, but we also had to keep in mind that we are dealing with ten people doing great things, which usually means they are busy.

So, like coordinated summer, it is literally.

Yeah, it is the, the busiest ten people you can probably, choose from our city right now and saying, hey, in the next two weeks, we need to we need to get you all together.

So we did our best to do that.

Rochester photo space really allowed us to have, like, that central location.

And also allowed us to have, like, consistent lighting, consistent setups and whatnot.

So, aside from two portraits, you know, we just made some accommodations to make sure that everybody, was photographed and comfortably so, so, yeah, I mean, we were able to establish that consistent look.

So that way the theme, wasn't compromised.

And it was great.

I mean, I you probably couldn't tell, you know, where these were shot, which is kind of the point, and knowing that we wanted that clean look.

And you prompted them with a couple things, right?

So when, when you initially reached out to them, there was sort of.

It's funny because so much goes into this, like people's schedules, there's emails, there's the writers coordinating with them.

So talk about what you asked them to sort of prepare for this.

Yeah.

So first things first, at least for me, it's always wardrobe.

It's like, hey, there's the backdrop.

Please don't wear, you know, too many, usually it's like, I would say stripes are probably, like, the biggest one.

Mainly for a video.

Yeah.

And then also, you know, hey, don't wear white because it, like, will be a light backdrop.

So that's like number one.

So coordinating that with people again, ten people, ten different styles.

You're hoping that they have something in their wardrobe that's going to work out.

We also asked them to bring a prop.

And that kind of all comes into just like maximizing everyone's time, you know, you don't really know, like, we have the general idea, but we also like, know that we're only going to have these people for a short amount of time.

How do we like, maximize it?

So we don't have to, you know, circle back, as my team's chat would say.

Yeah.

And so we're like, hey, bring a prop.

Also, we're going to ask you three questions on video.

Also, it's going to be a little warm.

Yeah, yeah.

That was, that was yeah.

How how how warm was it.

That was the undersell of the century that it was going to be a little warm.

Little warm.

Yeah.

It was the hottest week of the year.

Yeah.

Everyone handled it like a champion.

Everyone was really, really gracious with their time.

And about how long did you two one take if you were going to average it out?

Oh my God.

25 minutes pro 20, 25 minutes in an hour.

Yeah, yeah.

So talk about what happens like somebody walks through the door.

I also want to hear about some of the props that people brought.

I mean, you can see them.

Yeah in the pages here.

But I want to hear from you.

So like, was there anybody that walked in with a prop and you're like, all right, let's go 1,000%.

Oh, let you say it.

Yeah.

I mean, everyone had great props, of course, but the, the, the first one was actually Catherine Rochette.

Yeah.

And yeah.

And it was awesome because like, you know, we weren't sure what was like, what she was going to bring and what we didn't know what anyone was bringing first of all.

But you knew what she did was we knew what she did, which is so we spoilers should we make.

Yeah.

You could.

Oh, okay.

This is this is a preview.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No spoilers.

Yeah.

Spoilers.

All right.

You pick up the magazine, though.

Yeah, yeah.

She's an artist.

Better in person.

She's open a space.

Yes.

And she founded co-founded the first ever clowning festival here in Rochester Rock.

Haha.

Which makes me laugh every time.

It's awesome.

Which is probably the point.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so she comes in and she's got hats.

Not one, but multiple.

And it was so great because, you know, there's that break in period.

You've got 2020 five minutes to like warm up to people.

You've never.

Yeah.

Build rapport.

Yeah.

That is no easy feat.

Yeah.

And honestly like though it's 2020 five minutes like we we did the the hard work early.

So that way it's hopefully as like seamless of a 2020 five minute span for everyone walking in.

And I hopefully they can speak to that.

Yeah.

And then we saw the hats and it started with like kind of just brainstorming like what do you want to what do you want to do with them.

And then once we kind of got warmed up, it was like, what if I did this?

And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that it was it was very cool how it all unfolded, because I'm kind of I'm in the room for all of these.

I'm not doing anything.

I was like letting people into the building, offering them water, offering them very key photo assist roles.

I love being a PA.

Yes, absolutely.

I love the logistics.

There's also the I feel like you brought this dynamic because it's not then just them and Berto.

Right?

Right.

It's like there's other people and you have a very engaging way.

You both are very engaging, very easygoing, like easy to be in a room with.

And so I think that probably was helpful.

And then you were helping prompt with some of the video stuff too, right?

Yeah, totally.

There was, I think, to speak to something that you were touching on to maximize our time with everybody.

There's a part of my brain that and I think it's a part of my personality that kind of works its way into, like, how we do stuff around here, which is like, I want to make sure that everybody is, like, knows exactly what they're in for.

Like everything's on the table.

And also to just, you know, without any sort of judgment, just be like, hey, this is kind of weird.

Like, especially if you are, you know, someone who is being recognized for their work in the community and is largely unrecognized otherwise by, like, the media or like a lot of people.

So to like to take these folks who are I would say there's a level of humility to everyone that is nominated for like for the Rochester ten, because they are not spotlight folks, in any traditional means.

So, like, who knows if you've been photographed before, like, who knows?

You know, what's going on and, I think it's, I think that the, the work that we did, like upfront, which you mentioned earlier, was very much like a part of my brain that is like, I don't want to surprise anybody, especially because they're being vulnerable and allowing us to take pictures of them and like, they're they're going into a room with like, two dudes that they've never met before.

So like, that can be very intimidating or strange or awkward or whatever.

And especially for something like this where folks are like, oh man, maybe I'm not used to being photographed, or maybe this is not something like normal for me.

Granted, there's on camera talent in this.

Like, yeah, it's comfortable like, yeah.

And many of yeah I would say warmers.

But you're right.

There is a handful of them who this is not their therefore it's not their normal back.

Yeah.

They're not always doing this right.

And I think a lot of that was like let's get all the details ironed out to the point of like, here's the door.

You go in, here's my phone number.

If you have any questions like, let me know, we can talk about it.

And then that kind of would bleed into the photo session too, of like, you know, I would put on I would put on music and we would just sort of try to like, make it as casual as we could.

Yep.

And then, Berto is a very tactful photographer, and it just kind of would.

It's one of those things where it just kind of starts.

It's like when you're getting a shot, you're like, oh, that's it.

Like that's the end.

Oh, wow.

And then it's over.

And I think, I think, that speaks to your mastery of like taking pictures of people.

And, it was great.

It worked really not to pat us on the back, but it went really.

It went really well.

Yeah.

Very smooth.

And also, like, not having to worry about, the small details because we had two brains working on it.

Really helps.

So like when I'm checked out and I'm, like, focusing on gear or settings or just making sure certain things aren't out of place.

They're comfortable because they have someone there who's paying attention to them, talking to them.

And then we kind of like go in and out of that.

So it's just a really good, team effort.

I mean, it was great.

Yeah.

And then there were a few that you actually went to them.

Yeah.

So, so talk about, like, how do you land in someone else's space?

Let's talk about Midge's space, because I think that's a good example.

You had very different lighting situation.

So just like from a technical aspect, you know, you you are shooting with this sort of end goal in mind.

But how do you land in someone's space?

You're the newbie and you have to build rapport and you have to troubleshoot the tech issues.

How did that go?

That's actually part.

So that's actually part of, how the first sessions kind of like helped.

And also kind of that whole like two brain scenario where we could go into a space, which allowed us to come into her home, and, you know, figure it out.

And we did like, again, all that prep work and also the experience of already doing, I think it was like 5 or 6 of them already at that point.

So we kind of understood the workflow and it was like, okay, we both I've identified what the problem is going to be, and in this scenario is like, okay, we're not fitting a 20ft long like backdrop, just like in the middle, right, like room.

And so like you have to pivot and you know, him being able to, you know, communicate with everyone there while I'm like kind of sitting back and pulling my, like, Blue's Clues hat out and like, trying to figure out, like, how are we gonna how we're going to solve this, like, I know that a few things.

So.

Yeah.

You know what?

I'm Blue's Clues.

No, no, I don't think so.

Nick junior.

Viacom.

Yes.

Your zoom hat, if I do that.

There you go.

Yeah.

And I'm solving that, like, technical problem.

And, knowing that, like, the biggest thing was like, okay, where am I putting my key light?

I know exactly where I'm going to have that.

The equipment was kind of set up for to be portable.

And also we like we never went into any of the spaces, with all of our equipment.

That's true.

It was, it was very much like.

Let's just go in first.

Yeah.

Normal greeting.

Oh.

Like, first touch was never.

Yes.

Here's our.

It's like there's all of us here.

Yeah.

Let's see it first and then we can figure out do we need to haul this stuff out of the car?

There was our back.

But when we were at Miss Thomas's house, I saw the wheels turning.

You were like, how are we going to get the seamless in here?

And I was like, we're not doing that.

Yeah, it's very much someone's home.

Yeah.

The second I think we both spoke it out loud, I was like, okay, cool.

So we're just going to shoot this against a wall.

We don't need to worry about bringing the sandbags, the seamless, like all that stuff like, no, no, no, that's, that's and that's honestly the best part of having like the post-production, pre-production and then also work.

We're doing all three things together.

Yeah.

Being able to kind of like use you as a sounding more like, hey, I'm going to shoot this like this.

Do you think you can is this going to work in post?

Totally for you, for what we're going to do.

And, you know, being able to kind of do that without having to say that out loud, which is probably the best part.

Yeah.

And you, you can't tell that it's shot in a different space.

Like, if you showed me all of these side by side, and I didn't know which ones you had shot in different spaces, I mean, you you guys really did it.

Well it worked.

That's that was.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah we did.

So tell tell us about what we can expect because you, you captured a lot more than just portraits.

So what other content is, is coming up for people from these sessions.

What can people expect to see and where can they find it?

So first and foremost, if you're not following Rock City mag on Instagram or following our Facebook page, you should be, and then that's because that is where you're going to find it.

But we did, like, just brief, interviews.

I guess you could call them, right?

Yeah.

It was like a short Q&A.

Yeah, yeah.

A few various questions that will be revealed in those videos.

And just kind of like getting a little insight to who each of them are as a person, but it's one thing to read about them, but it's another thing to hear right from them.

So yeah.

I think that's that was really fun.

And I it was a lot of I mean, honestly, that's where most of the, the candid moments, and even the, the now up intro video, that's kind of what came out of that was being able to kind of show hopefully how comfortable they were.

And I felt that that was kind of like, evident in that.

So totally.

That was that was my favorite part of the whole thing was like, well, we are gathering these people because of their personalities and because of who they are.

And we started each session with that part, like the with the video portion and the interview portion of just like, let's, let's get to know this person.

Let's kind of try to shake off the stiffness a little bit.

Not to say that anyone was stiff, but like if I was in this seat, I'd be stiff.

Like, what's going on here is a perfect icebreaker.

Yeah, you're already going to do the banter.

I do that like in every, almost every shoot there's, there's banter.

But to use it as a way of like opening up.

And then also you have like direct questions that they can answer, and, you know, you, you get them to like, realize like, hey, everyone was struggling on this answer.

Like, this is not like, you shouldn't have this ready to go.

No one should have this ready to go.

Yeah.

So, and just being able to kind of laugh about that together and then, you know, the best part, I think you mentioned, one of our, one of the last shoots was like, this is so great.

We just get to meet like, ten of, like, the most interesting people.

Totally.

It's a it's a huge privilege to have the job of, like, hey, there's the ten coolest people in the city.

You get to do it once a year.

You meet ten a year.

It's amazing.

I don't know, it's a huge honor.

These are these are very inspirational and aspirational people.

And it's there's there's no shortage of them.

You know, we'll we'll probably never stop doing this issue.

If I had to guess.

I don't think so.

It's it's funny because, originally this year we thought, well, it's 2025, maybe we'll do Roger Stone 25 and then I that was on the table for a little too long.

I was like, what are we going to, like give in to the office?

Like what, a month ago?

No, probably six weeks at this point.

And I said, I woke up at three in the morning and I had a panic about doing we're not doing that.

And the funny thing is, because it was my first one, I'm over here.

I'm over here like, well, yeah, that's that's a great idea.

Let's do it.

We could do that.

Oh, no, this was Ryan's idea.

Oh.

What's it really?

Yeah.

Ryan, you're on notice.

And you're listening there because I was at my YouTube comment.

That's what I put my, ignorance to.

It all was like in absolutely, very new guidance.

And it's optimism.

You refresh also I will say that freshness I will we will we would have pulled it off.

It would have been something we always make it happen.

But there was I think I would have taken a month, I think quality over quantity in this case and I, I think you're right.

It's, it's always ten really amazing people.

And if you are listening in or watching on YouTube and you are curious about how to become a Rochester ten or nominate a Rochester ten, you can email me Leah at Rochester City News.com.

And you can nominate someone.

You can nominate yourself if you, are in touch with anyone who freelances for us.

They also do quite a few nominations every year.

And anyone else on our staff or in the larger company get in touch with us.

We had nominations come in right after the issue last year.

I held on to at least one of those, and at least one of those people is in this issue because they were such a great fit.

So we love the nominations.

We don't, we don't want to pick all ten.

We want them to come from different sources.

We want them to come from different voices in the community and to represent those different voices.

And I'm really happy with how this cohort does that.

So I wish I could have been at every shoot.

I yeah, I'll tell you.

That's it was it's an enviable thing.

Yeah I it's a good time.

It was a really good time.

Yeah.

It was a lot of fun.

Great.

And to any of you listening, I hope you had a good time as well, because we did.

I know, but we're going to take our first hour and our only short break of the hour.

And when we come back, more from our guests.

And also, Matt Rogers will be joining us, and we will see you back here in just a few minutes.

I'm Evan Dawson, coming up in our second hour, we bring back a recent conversation about how we talk about cancer, how we talk about serious illness in the wake of the diagnosis of President Biden's prostate cancer that has metastasized into his bones.

It's a conversation with experts in the field about how we have those conversations with providers, but doctors and with our own family.

That's next hour.

Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Bob Johnson, Auto Group, proud supporter of connections with Evan Dawson, believing an informed public makes for a stronger community.

Bob Johnson Auto group.com.

And we are back talking about City Magazine's August issue, which is the 2025 Rochester ten.

Joining us on the line is Matt Rogers from The Lost Borough.

Hi, Matt.

Hi.

Thank you very much for having me.

We're so happy to have you and so happy to have you contributing to city.

I, I can't remember who reached out to who, but I remember cornering you at fringe Festival last year, after your show.

And I think there are not enough people familiar with your work.

So can you talk about what the Lost Borough is and, how that got started?

Sure.

Back in 2013, I was kind of trying to figure out what I wanted to do with, having a formal graphic design degree and always being that kid in the corner, sketching things from school and also being a really big history geek and for very, very weird reasons, focusing on public realm of all things.

And with Rochester being the smallest city in the world, ever have a functioning subway system and then abandoned it all of these different points kind of met.

And I started, making T-shirts that celebrated different aspects of Rochester history.

And that has just exploded into walking tours and posters and fringe festival shows.

And now, turning on my writing brain and doing articles for you guys.

But I am forever, history geek who just happens to be good at art.

And, I try to tell as many stories as I can to showcase our little slice Paradise.

I love that.

Are you from here?

I am, I am born and raised here.

I like to tell people as icebreaker is I was born in a hospital that no longer exists.

I am a millennial, but that little factoid makes me feel ancient.

And, for those curious, there's one of there's two options.

And to give you a hint, I am not Catholic, okay?

That I don't actually know what it was like.

I was gonna say Saint Mary's.

No, I wasn't Catholic until I got married.

I, I was born at Genesis.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

Yes.

So you pitched a very interesting story for this issue.

And it was something that once I read your pitch, I was like, oh, this makes so much sense as just very on theme, but it was something that somehow we had never thought of and no one else had ever thought to pitch.

So we called it a Rochester ten retrospective.

And you picked you narrowed it down to ten will say individuals and or groups that were these past lives that really made a mark on Rochester.

And I am ashamed to say I did not know of half of this list.

And I am also from here.

So, oh, no worries that it's something that like, by virtue of what I do, I do a lot of local art festivals, and I set up my booth and I talk to people who are, you know, much younger than me or who have lived in Rochester longer than I've been alive.

And it is one of my biggest, joys is to share stories that people that, you know, remember when Wegmans actually had more than one city grocery store and they didn't know about a fact that I was sharing with them, or people that teach me stuff I never want to come across that I know everything, I definitely don't, and, you know, one of my biggest sources of info for creating, you know, stories is from talking with fellow Rochester areas.

And I know that we are not the only city to have pride in in where we come from, but it is sort of unique that Rochester areas have this incredibly passionate nostalgia to talk about their backgrounds, their upbringings, things that remember reminiscing.

And it's very easy to, you know, get into that and then start crafting stories based off of it.

Do you think there's always a Rochester connection?

You've heard this.

It's it's something that, you know, whenever I travel outside of, you know, the city, outside of the state, outside the country, I am that guy that will wear something Rochester themed.

And, it's I try to be subtle and, you know, the stuff I make doesn't only a couple times in, like the 90 shirts I've designed has it actually said Rochester.

But, there always seems to be a person that recognizes the graphic or the illustration or the name or something, and that's the Rochester connection.

I have had it all across the country, East coast, West coast.

Even when I was in London, it there was someone that stopped me and we talked.

Yeah, there seems to be a Rochester connection just about anywhere you go.

That's so fun.

So how did you select this list of ten?

Was it hard?

Did you have to narrow it down from much larger?

I'm hoping you'll say yes, because I want you to do this again.

Yeah.

100%.

Yes.

It was incredibly hard because, there's just it it there's so many people.

And, you know, I was very, you know, I made a point to emphasize, you know, in the, in the kind of intro of this article that, you know, these are ten people of many, many more that have contributed on the regional, state, national and international level.

These are just ten that kind of first came to mind and kind of were kind of an icebreaker that, you know, I I'm always limited by how many words you can put on a page.

I know, you guys.

I'm preaching to the choir.

But I'm hoping that people will read these about these ten individuals, and that's just breadcrumbs that they'll continue, discovering about them.

And, you know, 100 words is not enough justice to fully appreciate all the contributions of these ten and then, you know, there's even more.

So it's it's a it's a wonderful challenge.

But it is definitely a challenge.

Yeah.

And so if people do want to learn more, where where do you send people?

You send them to the library, send them to the library.

Where's where's the best place to do a little bit more digging on your own?

That I do, you know, I, I do have events, on my page where I will do lectures and I'll do walking tours.

And, you know, the fringe show.

I'm doing a new one this year.

And I try to, you know, if people are interested.

It's the lost Procom.

And there's an events page there that I try to keep updated.

The biggest place that I send people is the second floor of the Rundle Library.

The local history division.

Everyone I have worked with in there is more passionate about local history than I am, and they are awesome at helping.

There was one instance where I came to them with literally a sentence of an urban legend that I had heard from a guy who knows a cow, who knows a guy, and I said, I just, I can't find anything on this.

Can you help me?

And they came back with a book excerpt and two articles from different newspapers over, like 100 years old, and fleshed out the entire urban legend for me.

And then I included that in a presentation I've given, so they are awesome resources.

I can't recommend them enough.

And they're right, you know, right on the river in the old part of the, city library.

Yeah.

The I actually feel like that's the part that is very haunted.

That might been, they there was a print show in there when.

You're right.

Yeah, there's there's, there is a legend that the lower level of the library where the, Oh, I forget what they call it, but it's basically where most of the books used to be kept.

The stack is at the stacks.

Yes.

Yep, yep.

The stacks.

And apparently, it used to be you go into the library and would help you, and if you needed a volume of something, they would have.

I. I genuinely think the, the people that worked in the stacks were called stack rats.

I'm not making that up.

I believe that's what they were.

And they would pull volumes for you and send them upstairs.

Apparently there is a haunting, there.

That area was haunted, and there's been a couple of the ghost, TV shows that have come to Rochester and specifically done tests and investigations.

So I.

You're not far off.

I know what we're doing for our one.

My one year work, a versary.

Oh my God, another ghost story.

You don't just want to, like, go off for drinks or something, you know, paranormal investigate something.

I think I've set a precedent here that your friend show last year was about parcel five, right?

Yes.

And it was.

Yeah.

We sat there and you talked about.

I'm going to I'm going to let you I was going to say it was very murdery, but I'm going to let you give a more official description.

I just remember sitting there with my mouth kind of open the whole time because I was like, did that really happen?

Yeah.

It's, so parcel five and Liberty Pole Plaza.

I told I it was a listening experience.

It's called the unluckiest corner.

And it goes back to the very beginnings of human settlement in the area and talks about all of the crazy stuff that happened.

And the twist is it's all true.

And you're, you know, to quote Hamilton, you're in the space where it happened.

So I talk about Sibley, I talk about Midtown and what Lee is referring to was Rochester's first official murder happened right at the Liberty Pole.

It was, it was a railroad clerk who was coming home, and there was a, gentleman who was looking to rob him.

And, he ended up shooting him, killing him.

And he robbed him and left, and he was quickly apprehended.

And, he was convicted and he was executed.

But the and there coincidentally, they're buried almost next to each other at Mount Hope Cemetery.

The twist is the guy, the railroad clerk had, like a couple hundred dollars in bills and coins in his pockets.

But his job as a clerk for one of the railroads and his Tonawanda Railroad was to pay the workers, and he had all of the wages that he was going to go back and pay the next day, hidden in his hat, which came out to about $5,000, at that time that the robber had missed.

And that's just one of the stories, you had a there were rumors of a Native American burial ground right where the Liberty Pole is.

There was a haunted inn and tavern that was called The Farmer's In.

Again, you had the rise and fall of Midtown Plaza.

Rise and fall of Sibley's, ton of stuff happened there.

And I'm doing that again this year.

But it's a new spot, and it's a new story.

It's called the Sights and Sounds District.

And it'll be at the Austin Stuart Plaza, called Charles Carroll Plaza.

And a ton of history happened there.

So it's, really excited to share, you know, more stories that people don't realize happened.

You know, you walk down the street, you walk through a park, you may not realize all the awesome and crazy stuff that happened there.

Yeah, awesome.

Can't wait to come to that show.

Thank you so much, Matt.

We're so glad again to have you contributing.

And thanks for all of the work that you do to to remind us the roots of this city.

It's it's really important stuff.

Yeah.

No, thank you again for having me and, giving me the opportunity to, write for you guys and.

Yeah, it's it's my absolute pleasure to share stories.

And anyone that is interested in listening, I try to make it as, info taining as possible.

I think it was.

It was me that coined infotainment.

And, you know, educational, entertaining and engaging because, you know, I will always defend Rochester, that we are a mid-sized city that punches well above its weight.

And there's a lot here to be proud of.

Yes, we do have our dark spots, and I, I try very hard to recognize and not shy away from it.

But there's a lot more positives here, and that's what I try to focus on.

That's great.

Thank you again.

We'll talk to you soon.

Yeah.

Thank you again.

Have doing so again.

You can find Matt's work at the Lost Borough Dotcom and you can find him hopefully for many more issues in our pages.

And we're going to check out that show though the last one was so great.

Oh yeah.

There was a very hot evening that I was sitting out there, but I was just in trance by what he was talking about.

So good stuff.

Yeah, yeah.

The professional sports history in Rochester specifically is baffling to me.

Yes.

Yeah.

We had we had we're an NBA championship winning team, from Rochester.

Granted, it was like in the 40s.

Yeah.

And then and then Matt touches on the New York Black Yankees and the Brooklyn Tigers as well on page nine of of city this month.

It's so cool.

Also, libraries just like throwing that out there.

Yeah, a free public utility library.

Well, libraries are awesome topically.

Today we have an op ed about the Nighthawks in this issue.

And today the Seneca Nation announced that they have purchased the Nighthawks, which is a pro lacrosse team.

It's actually our most pro team, which I learned editing this op ed and they yeah, they announced the Seneca Nation announced today that they bought them and they will be staying in Rochester.

So that's our sports history continues sporting which is cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

So in our last few minutes I just I want to hear from both of you.

You know we're rounding out the year.

We're about to do what we call our staff retreat, which is where we pick the themes for next year.

And I would love to hear from the two of you.

What are you excited to work on this year?

We're going into arts season's opening everywhere.

We're going into Fringe Fest.

Jake, what design wise, what are you looking forward to?

I love, first of all, as I said, a little bit earlier in the show, I, I'm, I love being prepared and I love being intentional.

And to that end, we have started work already on the best of Rochester.

It is August and we're talking about the best of Rochester.

Everyone's favorite food.

Yeah, it's it's brutal.

It becomes.

Yeah, it becomes and I say this in a positive way, honestly, because I think we're building it as we go.

Even though it's kind of this institution as we see it.

Yeah.

It's becoming a bigger and bigger to do every year.

Which I think it, it should be.

And I'm happy it's becoming that way.

And we're getting an earlier start on it this year than we normally do.

And to that end, I am, going right from like, one blue sky design challenge to another because it is a very similar thing where it's like deja vu.

Truly, I spent all of July with Berto doing this, and then I took, one breath.

I got a tattoo from my friend Graham, and now it's time to work on another blue blue sky.

Shout out to Graham.

Another blue sky design opportunity or design challenge rather, because the best of Rochester is it's the same thing every year.

It's the best.

You guessed it of Rochester is your tattoo like, like a preview of the best of design?

Or it could be that, you know, it's it's it's the secret.

It's no less valid than me drinking Shirley Temples and then making a red book.

Yeah.

You got a can you show your can you show your tattoo for you?

It's on my thigh.

I wish I could say so, but it is a it is worth it saying no thanks for saying no thanks.

Thanks a lot guys.

Really appreciate it.

I wasn't going to in the no fly zone.

Yes.

Truly.

Yeah.

No it's a it's a it's a black panther.

It's right on my left thigh.

And, I'm thrilled to have it.

But, yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to.

I really love doing the best of, the best of Rochester every year.

And, literally as soon as I, as soon as I hang up the microphone, I'm going back up to my, to my little booth, and I'm, I'm just exploring ideas with, with our creative director, Ryan and, and we're going to see we're going to see what happens.

It's always one of those things that is high stakes, low stakes, because I'm not going to do it wrong.

But it is going to be very visible.

So I'm always thinking about that a little bit.

So, if you have any ideas, let me know on.

We'll be open to getting we'll be opening nominations for the best of awards very soon.

Yeah, yeah yeah, keep an eye keep an eye out for that.

And you'll notice the brand that I'm talking about right now, whenever you hear about that stuff.

Yeah.

And then that technically is our January issue.

So I feel like January is the end of our editorial year in a weird way.

But that's our January issue.

So it's a it's always a kind of rah rah way to kick off the year or two.

Yes.

But yes, the party is going to be a bigger deal this year.

We're working on some stuff around that, and we're just trying to make this more of a chance for people to get their flowers from the community because, again, this is a completely voting based award system.

We don't use any of it.

We curate it, as we like to say.

So, yeah, get rally your community now so they can vote for you and nominate you and all that good stuff.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

Berto, what are you looking forward to?

You're about to hit one year.

I am, I think we're two months out.

What's the day?

When is it a tober first.

Oh, first.

Wow.

Cool.

He started right after fringe.

Like he's never been different.

Never been the fringe.

Keep an eye out for that.

Yeah.

That was.

It's always been something I've been like, curious about because I. I've just never been able to put my finger on it.

And I've asked people and they're like, gotta go.

Yeah.

Can't explain it to you.

I'm like fringy.

It's a time.

Okay.

All right.

You got it.

So yeah, I mean, I am excited for for that because I just, I just like going to new things.

And I'm always partial to, like, food and beverage.

Like the food beverage you.

Am I wrong?

You assume we have a home.

We have a home issue in October.

So yeah.

So yeah, that's a great thing to talk about.

September is our sort of arts preview every year.

That one does not rotate.

October rotates.

We've done the death issue.

And then what was last year we did the law is the law issue.

Thank you.

That's my I was like what I came in.

Yeah but it had already been finished.

Yeah.

So that was your.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then this year yeah we'll be home and we'll be looking at that in a very interpretive way.

So won't be like home interiors only we might have some of that but a sense of home.

Yeah.

And then November is our food and barbecue and December is always winter guide slash some holiday ish things.

Yeah.

And then best of and then we start a whole new year with themes TBD.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I mean, that's kind of what I'm excited for is just like kind of that, that tail end of, of issues because I just, I don't know, those are all our topics that I enjoy and like it's like our back to school.

Yes.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Like we're sharpening our pencils.

We're getting ready to dig into the fall.

Yeah.

I'm also like just eager for fall in general.

But that's besides the point.

And I kind of not loving this 90 degree weather.

I have way too many hoodies to be sitting here in shorts.

I know this is a lot.

That is too much for me.

When it gets to be August, I'm.

I'm cooked.

I'm done.

Yeah.

And we are going to have to go outside tomorrow.

For what?

Because we have a city social.

Oh, of course I love that.

I was like, Stevie, he's.

He like teeing this up for me.

So I totally do that.

I'm in the moment for it.

I forgot I'll be there.

So we'll be out radio social tomorrow for the the Rochester ten cities.

So show we have not been doing these monthly, but we have been doing them sort of quarterly.

Or June 1st unfortunately got canceled.

And so this is the first one we've done, I think since March.

It's been a while.

I think the Irish issue was our last city.

So, so yeah.

So we will be doing this.

Yeah.

Radio social 5 to 7.

We'll have a special drink called The Helper topical.

And some proceeds of that will get donated back to City Champions Fund.

And then we'll have our Rock ten there.

If you want to meet them in person, mingle with them.

Our team will be there.

And the zoo is also having an event there that night.

So they're doing like trivia after our event.

But during our event, they're gonna have some critters on site.

So if that's sort of your thing.

I did not know this.

Yeah.

Tell me more about the, like, and so I, I don't know what they're going to bring you, but I, but I heard the, it's, like the zoo mobile or whatever that rolls around, and they just bring some things from the zoo.

Oh, cool.

I will be hard to find, but this will be later.

It'll be.

He'll be on a Canadian with the zoo mobile.

Yeah.

Cool.

And then we'll have snacks.

Yes.

Can't go wrong with some radio.

Hummus, I love this.

Yeah, so should be a good time.

And.

Yeah.

Anything else you guys want to mention that's coming up?

Yes.

Well, it's not too early to talk about this every year.

Syria has Syria, JJ's city has a trivia night at Fringe Festival that I think.

Are we talking about?

Not too early at all.

Not too early at all.

In past years, we've done a sort of silent disco style, and I've had, like, a little bit too much fun wielding the power of the microphone and, like, talking directly into people's heads because everyone's wearing headphones for these trivia nights, and everyone seems to have a good time.

It was kind of a riot last year.

Like it was people were.

People were going a little kooky there.

We had, Gino wrote a bunch, do you know, finale from WXXI?

I wrote a bunch of, news related trivia questions and got him on the mic and, to to, like, you know, it's it's cool if you're, if you're a Matt type and you love Rochester history, you may excel profoundly at, at, Trivia City, which happens at fringe every year and will likely be hosted by me again if nothing bad happens.

I mean, unless you say you don't want to do it, but yeah, that right now that looks like it's going to be September 17th.

Yeah.

And the time has not exactly been confirmed.

I think we can safely say it'll be at night.

It will be, yes, it will be.

It'll be even it won't be one of those classic Kraken trivia sessions.

Yes.

And it will be in at one French place, which is sort of kitty corner from Gibbs Street every year.

And we'll be probably outside the Spiegeltent under under the Speckle Garden tent.

It's fun.

I can't it is.

It's a lot of fun.

It's a fun time coming to my first friends.

Trivia, please.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, we got to get you to do something, too.

Yeah, maybe you be right in question.

Cohosts.

Oh.

Co-host.

Energy.

Oh, man.

We got a lot to raise.

We got a lot to nail down.

We got the whole visual language for best of you.

And I have to figure out how to do co-hosts.

Which will be easy because we did that for rock-tenn. Yep.

Cool.

Wow.

We've got our marching orders.

It's going to be a busy fall.

Yep.

Yeah.

Matching outfits.

We're already doing it.

If you're watching the video stream we got.

Yeah, two dudes wearing pink shirts.

I feel left out.

And the thick necklaces.

Yeah, yeah, well, Berto has a bigger change that.

All right, this is going off the rails.

We gotta let people get back to their Tuesday.

But thank you so much, both of you, for being here.

Thank you for having us.

And, yeah, we're going to hang up our microphones.

Headphones.

They're never invented.

And get back to work, but please come out if you're free tomorrow.

5 to 7 p.m. at Radio Social, 20 Carlton Road, right here, downtown Rochester.

We will be there.

Our Rochester ten.

At least a handful of them will be joining us.

And, we always love to hear your feedback from each issue.

So find us on social.

Send us an email.

We're here.

We're listening.

Thanks so much.

Oh.

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