Catching a buzz
It’s pretty early on a Thursday night — just 10:30 p.m. — but East Avenue at Alexander Street is already jumping. People are everywhere: The Old Toad, BarFly, Whiskey, Coyote Joe’s. By midnight, elbowroom at the hottest spots and any hope of decent parking are long gone. Cross over to the other side of…
Waste management
Where there’s water, there’s life. If the water is threatened, however, so is the life. That’s the message environmentalists have been trying to get across for years concerning the Great Lakes basin, which, in the later half of the 20th century, has taken a huge hit from development and misuse. Finally, the message may…
Slashing Section 8
While the rich are getting tax cuts, the neediest amongst us may literally lose their roofs. Included on the list of social services being gutted by the Bush Administration is Section 8, a federal housing program that provides aid to about two million low-income families. Mostly through vouchers, the federal government allocates funding to…
Rock out with a transsexual dynamo and her band
Water Street Music Hall is presenting its first fully staged rock musical, a sensational production of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch. But you can bet this won’t be its last. Produced here in Rochester — mostly by Syracuse theater artists and Rochester musicians — this exciting production is…
Tap roots
If you happen to pass by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on a Monday evening, you may hear a thundering, percussive noise. If it piques your curiosity, you might walk over to the steel grates and look down through the window into an old basement gymnasium. There you’ll find the answer to the age-old question:…
Climate out of control
In addition to all the millions spent on the familiar publicity blitz and the subsequent stories and interviews in that coalition of the willing known as the media, in the movie business, context still counts. In the decade leading up to the year 2000, the apocalypse that never arrived (remember the disappointment of certain segments…
Also Playing…
“I know I’m really lucky. I think I’m really happy.” So declares Natalie (Natalie Picoe, pictured) in the opening voiceover of Nosey Parker, John O’Brien’s sweet slice of life. But even the most novice moviegoer will know something is rotten in the State of Vermont (played here by itself, in all its shameless autumnal glory).…
Another look at classic movie bombs
How did Ishtar (1987), director Elaine May’s fourth and final feature, come to be the ultimate shorthand for cinematic failure? While it’s far from perfect, Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman eventually manage to wrangle some chemistry out of their time together on-screen, and the film is often quite funny. So what happened? The film…
Blood and guts
Trying to classify guitarist James Blood Ulmer just doesn’t work. The best term I’ve seen to describe his music had to be invented: avant-gutbucket. Ulmer came into prominence in the avant-garde jazz scene of the 1970s when he was closely associated with saxophonist-composer Ornette Coleman. But Ulmer’s brand of free jazz had generous portions…
They’ve got fiddle rhythm
The new album by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Bon Rêve, has been called “the Sgt. Pepper of Cajun music.” After beginning as a traditional Cajun band 15 years ago, Riley and the Playboys veered into experimentation. Riley acknowledges that the previous two albums “jumped all over the place, but this one is pretty…
Bridging the generation gap
Frances Wilson, a retiree, holds a baby named Elijah in her arms as she waits for their turn to play a game called “What’s in the sock?” Both are grinning. Wilson and Elijah are part of Generations, a care center at 234 Coldwater Road in Gates. Its special twist: Kids and elders are cared…
Readers feedback 6.2.04
Library transfers, art critics critiqued
East Avenue Wegmans: keep it ‘special’
I was shocked and dismayed to read of your proposal to demolish buildings on East Avenue extending from your store to Winton Road. The parcel contains a number of small structures that are assets to the community and could be an asset to your expansion project if they were saved and cleverly incorporated into…
Body count
To honor the war dead and fill an information gap in US mass media, City Newspaper will run weekly lists of American/”Coalition” soldiers and Iraqi citizens killed during the ongoing occupation of Iraq. The totals: 810 American soldiers, 111 “Coalition” soldiers, and approximately 9,000 Iraqi soldiers and 10,750 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq…
