Hollywood’s trying to wink at us
I have two smiles. One comes from seeing a good movie. The other comes from seeing a funny movie. Neither smiles made a special guest appearance during my screening of Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! This is a picture we’re supposed to swallow as satire; the filmmakers think this two-bit, hare-brained, fleabag of an…
Whole lotta Low Ton
A band is a kinetic thing. It is motion. It is emotion. It is the sum of souls with something to say. You love them. You hate them. You see their picture before hearing the music, and that snap says something about them. It draws you in. Low Ton is a heavy progressive rock…
State of the bunion
One day last week, Albany and Washington tag-teamed for a pair of events. And it sounds like little will be done to heal America’s injuries. That’s the message that came wrapped in George Pataki’s 2004 state budget address and George W. Bush’s annual State of the Union speech. If you listened to both…
Kodaked again
It was the fall of 1965, and a busload of us freshly-minted college kids passed through the gates on Ridge Road and into another dimension. The tour guide said Kodak had everything for everyone, not just company bowling lanes and such, but something we youngsters barely grasped: lifetime employment. And the plant was so…
Payback billionaire?
You could have seen it coming. Back in November, WXXI Public Broadcasting aired a locally produced documentary that, according to promo material, explores the life of Paychex billionaire and free-spending ex-gubernatorial candidate Tom Golisano. The documentary, which “highlights his achievements,” was WXXI’s first in-house production to be shown on WXXI-HD 21.1, the station’s high-definition channel.…
Check your gut
What is the price for disloyalty in Steve Minarik’s Republican Party? Maybe he has you replaced as local party chair. Maybe he revokes a promised county job offer. Maybe he vows not to support your next bid for higher office. Maybe. “I want to tell you something: 12 years, being…
Seeking Son House…
When the Beatles first visited America and were met at the airport by the media hordes, they were asked what their plans were. Paul McCartney’s answer included, “I’d like to see Muddy Waters.” A reporter asked, “Where’s that?” McCartney responded, “Don’t you even know who your own famous people are?” This apparent…
The pin (and) ball wizard
Once upon a time, there were two Greek painters, Parrhasius and Zeuxis. Zeuxis was considered the greatest painter of still life in the ancient world. In a competition between the two artists, Zeuxis chose to paint an arrangement of grapes and placed the painting outside. It was so realistic that birds flew down to…
Understanding the life of a painting
Although the movies naturally love painters, they frequently tend to concentrate on the more familiar names and the more flamboyant lives, which explains Charlton Heston painting the Sistine Chapel in The Agony and the Ecstasy and Kirk Douglas lopping off an ear in between painting sunflowers in Lust for Life. In Girl With a…
