NEWS BLOG: Richards on the Malgieri, Ansbrow hires
For Rochester Mayor Tom Richards, it may be a case of be careful what you wish for. Richards said in an interview today that he encouraged Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas to find a high-quality person to manage the district’s finances so Vargas could concentrate on other things. Richards said he even tried — unsuccessfully…
NEWS BLOG: Romney, Ryan, Medicare, and risk
I dunno; maybe some political reporters are sensing something I’m not. I keep reading stories and blogs hinting that Mitt Romney has taken a risky – possibly fatal – step in choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate. The reason: Ryan’s hope to partially privatize Medicare. In their Politico post this morning, for instance, Alexander…
VIDEO GAMES: Nintendo unveils 3DS holiday line-up
> With summer winding down, Nintendo has released its upcoming holiday handheld release schedule. The biggest hitter, “Paper Mario: Sticker Star,” will be arriving on the 3DS on November 11, marking the first time the RPG paper-art series has hit a handheld console. Also of note, puzzle gamers will be excited to hear that “Professor…
NEWS BLOG: The Ryan Choice
Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan has certainly livened things up. And for a while on Saturday, I agreed with the commentators saying it’s a good choice: good for the country. Their reasoning: now we can have a national debate over substance. But after spending much of yesterday reading about Ryan and thinking about what…
CONCERT REVIEW: George Thorogood, The Veins
George Thorogood roared thoroughly bad-ass to almost 8,000 fans at the final installment of the 2012 Party In The Park series Thursday night. At 62, the Deleware Destroyer still has it, switching from lowdown, gutbucket bluesman a la Hound Dog Taylor to a flashy showman reminiscent of Little Richard. Thorogood offers nothing new, but honestly…
NEWS BLOG: Malgieri contract under fire – and so is Vargas
Since being named Rochester schools superintendent in April, Bolgen Vargas has been extremely popular with most school board members. But the honeymoon is over. In a special meeting last night, the board went into executive session to discuss Vargas’s decision to hire former deputy mayor Patricia Malgieri. And it didn’t go well. Malgieri has been…
CD REVIEW: The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band: Between the Ditches
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band is nothing short of an enigma. The three piece combines Reverend Peyton himself on finger style slide guitar, his wife Breezy on washboard, and Aaron Persinger on drums, creating a unique blend of fast and furious stomp-blues that is phenomenal live, still standing as one of, if not the…
NEWS BLOG: Does it matter if a minority recruit comes from the city?
While most everyone has been celebrating the indisputably good news that minority participation in the Rochester Police Department is up, I remembered a fact I learned not long ago: that many, if not most, of the RPD’s minority recruits traditionally come from the suburbs, not the city. That’s true of the current recruit class. Sixteen…
NEWS BLOG: The lies politicians tell
Do Democrats and Republicans really have this little respect for voters? The exaggerations, lies, and slurs seem to get worse by the day. Mitt Romney’s recent insistence that President Obama plans to “gut” the welfare-to-work program is absurd. As the Times noted this morning, several Republican governors have asked for the waivers that the Obama…
EDUCATION: Vargas confident in Malgieri hire
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas says he hired Patricia Malgieri because of what he’s heard from parents almost daily during the last year. “They’re saying their children have less opportunity today than they did a decade ago,” he says. “It saddens me daily that we have thousands of children who have difficulty even getting into…
REVIEW: Wrapping up the 2012 Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition
Saturday night at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, five finalists took the stage with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in the final round of the 2012 Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition. Two hours and considerable applause later, the first prize was awarded to Leonardo Colafelice of Italy (age 16), whose final round performance was the…
NEWS BLOG: State audit mildly critical of some Rochester practices
The state Comptroller’s Office has released an audit report on the City of Rochester containing mild criticisms over the awarding of contracts and potential conflicts of interests of City Council members. The report says city officials did not solicit competing offers before awarding a $600,000 construction contract in the 2010 to 2011 fiscal year. The…
NEWS BLOG: Your spree-killing survival guide
The new millennium’s “duck and cover” is here except this time, the threat is within. The City of Houston has produced an unsettling six-minute videoon what to do if someone starts shooting in a public place. And, to my surprise, soiling yourself isn’t one of the steps. Neither is shooting back – so we know…
Sisters are doing it for themselves
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX If you only paid attention to the promotional materials, you might think — as I did — that “The Calamari Sisters’ Big Fat Italian Wedding” is a campy, broadly comic, song-and-dance-filled trifle based around ethnic and gender stereotypes. And, hey, it is all of those things. But what might surprise you — as it…
Urban Action 8/8
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) The Rochester Institute of Technology presents “Walking Toward Conflict,” a talk by Dominic Barter, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, August 15. Barter is the director of training for the Brazilian Restorative Justice program,…
Boy Scouts, gays, and the company we keep
“Prejudice is prejudice, regardless of how respectable its face. And it is an ugly, dangerous thing.” We are such a deeply divided nation. And while we occasionally make great strides – electing a black president, permitting openly gay Americans to serve in the military, passing laws permitting same-sex marriage – the divisions persist. And at…
Spoon fed
Eight hours. That’s how long it took Chhaya En, the owner and chef The Soup Spoon in Victor, to make the broth that fills the bowl in front of me. Eight hours of intense labor, starting with not much more than beef bones, vegetables, and water, and ending with a soup that is richly fragrant…
Feedback 8/8
We welcome your comments. Send them to themail@rochester-citynews.com, or post them on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com, our Facebook page, or our Twitter feed, @roccitynews. Comments of fewer than 350 words have a greater chance of being published, and we do edit selections for publication in print. We don’t publish comments sent to other media. St. Paul…
Past and present, memory and dream
The remarkably productive and inventive Phillip K. Dick explored some of the most unusual territory in all of science fiction, blending futuristic technology with complex inquiries into brain chemistry, the process of cognition, and the very meaning of reality. His ingenious work inspired some highly unusual movies — “Blade Runner,” based on the novel “Do…
Vanishing ravioli
Of course these kinds of lists are wildly subjective, but before it served its final meal in July of last year, elBulli had been voted the world’s best restaurant five times in the pages of the British magazine Restaurant. Located in Roses, Spain, on Catalonia’s stunning Costa Brava, elBulli, under the direction of Ferran Adrià,…
He’s not Pat
Four-time Grammy winner Pat Benatar may be a real tough cookie with a long history of breaking little hearts like the one in me, but the diminutive diva with the big voice was only half of a duo that penned hits like “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “Heartbreaker,” “You’d Better Run,” and “Love Is…
The sizzle remains
There is no mistaking the power of New York City’s Helmet, the now-legendary heavy outfit fronted by its lone original member, guitarist-vocalist Page Hamilton, and featuring a constantly revolving cast of other members. This in-flux line-up has never been a problem for Page, as I’ve seen Helmet three times now and his attack is still…
Gantt moves to increase influence
The leader of at least one city Democratic committee appears to be the target of some intra-party maneuvering by State Assembly member David Gantt. The situation centers around an arcane bit of party activity: selecting who will sit on city legislative district committees. Typically, the legislative district leader nominates people to serve on the committees.…
Gun ad on bus offends some
TOPQUOTE: Some people are offended by breastfeeding ads, and those displays are often stolen or mutilated. The largest user of RGRTA’s bus ad space is the state Department of Health, and people are sometimes offended by those ads, including public service announcements about safer sex. There’s a public bus driving around Rochester with an ad…
The almighty Dollar
Pullquote: “If they were on East Avenue, these homes are half-a-million dollars.” Dawn Noto. Circular pockmarks where the white paint has peeled to reveal the red brick underneath make the former Westminster Presbyterian Church on West Main Street seem spotty with open sores. Once undoubtedly a place of celebration and community, the historic church is…
Overhaul begins
City officials are considering changing the approval process for tearing down historic buildings. Some preservationists worry that the administration plans to weaken the protection of those buildings. But Marcia Barry, the city’s director of planning and zoning, says the protections will remain and that the changes would simply make the process clearer for everyone involved.…
Back to bases
“Striker to the line!” A well-dressed man in a suit, tie, and flat-brimmed black hat strides toward a small pile of dirt. Standing to one side of a whitish line of flour is a man wielding a hefty wooden bat. His worn, swollen fingers wrap slowly, but firmly, around the timber. He brushes a small…
