"Goodbye Flour City, Goodbye Flower City" (Rochester, NY); Music by Brian Keenan & Proud Simon

Leaving home.

Rochester's fortunes have played out much like the Merchant of Venice. The city, a tragic comedy in itself, once proud and boastful now grievous and disillusioned.

When Rochester was founded around the mighty waterfalls of the Genesee River, the power of this water drove millwheels grind wheat into flour, and gave the city it's first nickname from our title.

After westward expansion to the Plains mitigated Rochester's flour-making, a burgeoning seed and nursery industry made for the convenient swap of "Flour City" for "The Flower City".

GOODBYE FLOUR CITY

Our journey begins in Scottsville, NY... my hometown... everybody's hometown really. A dollar store, a couple pizza parlors, and one stoplight- Scottsville is apple pie.

From there the gray mass that blankets Western New York 8 months out of the year drives us through the slushy suburban sprawl of Henrietta all the way to the city limits and the brown-and-cream landmark in the center of posh Park Avenue, Berkeley Street.

GOODBYE FLOWER CITY

Berkeley was the place where the music was born. It was where we all got a little silly, where we grew a little closer, and where we all said goodbye.

From the after hours strip on Monroe, to a decaying downtown and High Falls district, and up Lake Ave to mighty Ontario, we revisit the full scope of what once was (Kodak), what now is, and we're left with no shortage of wonderment of what will be.

The song is "Hands Full? Feet First!" by Brian Keenan & Proud Simon, an Indie-rock outfit born in Rochester, NY and raised in Brooklyn. Please check out their website at http://www.proudsimon.com , or if you like it enough, support the cause by getting the song on iTunes.

My thanks to my mom and Grandpa for standing in the cold to wave, Simon Fletcher for being the wheelman (and being ice cold when we got pulled over), and everyone still in The Roc for making it still feel like home.

This video is dedicated to Betty Keenan- Rest in Peace Grandma.

"Let music sound while he doth make his choice; Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end, Fading in music."

1 February 2010, All Rights Reserved.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Flour
• City
• Flower
• Brian
• Keenan
• Band
• Proud
• Simon
• Shoestring
• Universe
• Hands
• Full
• Feet
• First
• Western
• New
• York
• WNY
• Monroe
• County
• Rochester
• NY
• Scottsville
• Wheatland
• Chili
• School
• Fletcher
• Jazz
• Henrietta
• Brighton
• 390
• 490
• 590
• Berkeley
• Street
• Park
• Ave
• Fest
• Kodak
• Xerox
• Bullwinkle
• CVS
• Police
• RPD
• Traffic
• Ticket
• Frontier
• Field
• High
• Falls
• Genesee
• Beer
• Genny
• Amtrak
• Lake
• Shore
• Limited
• Charlotte
• Ontario
• Hojack
• Swing
• Bridge
• Chicago
• RIT
• WITR
• George
• Eastman
• nyc
• train
• goodbye
• Brooklyn
• Indie
• Americana

[mymellofello]

Thankyou for filming this video. I was born at St. Marys hospital in 1950. I attend #35 and #44 school. I left rochester in the 1960's. Never had much luck in my home town of Rochester. But I do like this Video reminding me of that time.

[CultofAdonis]

@mymellofello thank you for the nice compliments!

[BOXMAN666666666]

what no

Nick Tahous

Carbones

the Penny Arcade

Abbots

[screwmaster404]

Gotta get some sun.

[mermayd711]

how fragile... stark and beautiful... 

[AmandaMoo27]

This came out beautifully Char. I love it. And Brian you sound amazing. Miss you guys.

[yrletter]

loved it, so many places and memories captured in there it's hard to know where to begin. great footage. simon is a professional driver. track worked great in there. great job char.

[ovondrak]

This is a really cool video! So much Rochester squeezed into 11 minutes! But no Nick Tahou's?