News briefs 9.18.02
Love in the fast lane Rochester’s singles scene is treacherous territory. Blind dates, personal ads, escort services, Paradise Alley — they all have more cons than pros (and in some cases, more convicts than professionals). Enter QuickMatch Rochester, a new dating service designed to help unattached people find someone to attach themselves to without having…
Reader Feedback 9.18.02
Supporting police, praising McCall, helping schools, fighting the budget cuts
School buses: take a deep breath, or not
The wonderfully named author Jerry Mander tells an anecdote about the environmental effects of air travel. A Boeing Corp. physicist told him that “the pollution from the take-off of a single 747” is like “setting the local gas station on fire and flying it over your neighborhood.'” A sobering image, especially when you consider there…
Rhinos and Red Wings and Rattlers, oh my
As any African guide will tell you, it’s not a good idea to taunt a Rhino. But it seems the members of the Greater Rochester Sports Authority haven’t been on a safari in quite some time. And if they don’t placate both Rochester’s Rhinos and Red Wings, there could be a stampede out of town.…
Full steam ahead
Buoyed by an influx of state funding, fast ferry service between Rochester and Toronto is now on the horizon. Thanks to $14 million in state loans and grants — $4 million more than ferry proponents had previously expected to receive — the project is moving forward even without funds from Canadian officials. “To launch…
More dispatches from Toronto
Let us pick up where we left off last week at the 27th Toronto International Film Festival, which came to a close September 14. As with last week’s round-up, release dates, where available, appear in parentheses. Day Five (Fractured Family Tales) A Leave It To Beaver feel these films had not. Moonlight Mile (November 4)…
Not your mother’s Mork
The small, unusual new movie One Hour Photo provides its star, Robin Williams, who’s awfully busy these days, with yet another opportunity to play against type, personality, and history. At virtually the same time that his one-man Broadway show, which consists of his patented brand of wildly improvisational stand-up comedy, plays on HBO; and very…
Me,me, me
I’ve always admired Rochester women for their fortitude, their pulchritude, and their attitude. After a recent break-up, a friend of mine pawned all the jewelry she’d gotten from the ex and bought a stack of Charles Bukowski books. She’s available, and soon she’ll know all our secrets. “Be a model or just look like…
The bull fighter
Last week, on the anniversary of September 11, religious organizations all over the United States commemorated the events of last year with prayer services. But in a modern building in a suburb of Buffalo, a small group gathered for a secular commemoration. The Center for Inquiry in Amherst, with its multiple offshoot organizations and…
Geva cooks up a mouth-watering blues musical
“You go to the theater night after night, hoping that something magical will happen,” my guest said to me as we were leaving Geva Theatre on Saturday, “and tonight it did.” Everybody knows what a tough business it is to try to produce new theater, especially a new musical show. But I don’t think I’m…
Speak like a child
In the same week that heightened Homeland Security forced Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes to postpone his upcoming Rochester concert, the Swedish improv-experimental music duo Sudden Infant was making its own plans to penetrate our borders. And, as far as we can tell, Sudden Infant has been successful. If it seems strange that Valdes,…
