Reader feedback 4.13.05
Schiavo and hypocrisy, a Ren Square albatross, UN fantasies
Body count 4.13.05
The totals: 1,542 American soldiers, 177 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 17,355 to 19,740 Iraqicivilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to April 12. American soldiers killed from April 6 to 12: Lance Corporal Jeremiah C. Kinchen, 22; Salcha, Alaska | Sergeant First Class Robbie D. McNary, 42; Lewistown,…
Prosecution or persecution? The story of Steve Kurtz
Art and government policy have never co-existed comfortably in the United States. And you don’t have to look far for examples of the discord. There’s the so-called NEA Four, a group of controversial performance artists whose National Endowment for the Arts grants were summarily vetoed in 1990. Or Andres Serrano, who had a photo of…
Family valued 4.13.05
Spring break survival tip Offering kids bribes for good behavior is positively Dickensian. But there’s nothing wrong with a little incentive. Fortunately, there are plenty of enticing events next week. The Rochester Museum and Science Center hosts a Polka Party and Polish Dance performance in its Eisenhart Auditorium on Sunday, April 17, from 2-6pm. One…
Original prints by American greats
This Friday and Saturday, in conjunction with the exhibit The Art of the Print at Rochester Contemporary, master printer Bill Goldston of Universal Limited Art Editions will show and discuss original prints by contemporary artists like Jasper Johns, Elizabeth Murray, Robert Rauschenberg, Lisa Yuskavage, James Rosenquist, and others. The discussion and exhibition are presented by…
Hamlet holds up the mirror
From the beginning of Mark Cuddy’s Hamlet at Geva Theatre Center the production’s clear priority is theatrical artifice. The purpose of playing, Hamlet says, is to hold a mirror up to nature; this Hamlet holds the mirror up to the stage. We begin with the Players, who show up in Shakespeare’s text some seven scenes…
These songs are crammed with emotion
Take the elevator to the third floor of the Auditorium Center and see Portraits Friday or Saturday; there’s no more time left. This revival of a show bountiful in musical pleasures and local talents will surprise, please, and satisfy you. The surprise is that, with few production values and no storyline, a full-length musical of…
Living large: supersizing the American home
By now most of us are familiar with the effects of suburban sprawl; living in Greater Rochester, it’d be almost impossible not to notice them. We’ve heard about the burdens that uncontrolled growth creates: more traffic, more reliance on cars, longer commute times, more expensive public water and sewer systems. We know that the…
Bankrolling the Rhinos
The Rhinos have entertained Rochester for nearly 10 years. I’d say the actual on-field product is like a Mercedes-Benz. But at the end of the day, I have visions of management parking the Benz outside a broken-down mobile home, not inside the heated garage of an Ambassador Drive mansion. I just don’t think the team…
No signs of life in another wooden Woody
In the halcyon days of the past, a new Woody Allen movie generated excitement in the hearts of countless viewers, especially hip urbanites, who believed the writer-director spoke to them in their language, addressing the seriocomic neuroses of their time and place. A generation and some 30 films later, many of them simply repeating with…
Lessons in the lost art of subtlety
The best actor prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival didn’t go to an international critics’ darling like Javier Bardem or Gael Garcia Bernal but to a 14-year-old boy named Yagira Yuya. His subtle, heartbreaking performance anchors Nobody Knows, the latest film by talented Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. Inspired by events that occurred in late…
City’s choice: film
In 1990, the Motion Picture Association of America invented the NC-17 rating to slap on Henry & June (Saturday, April 16, Dryden Theatre, 8 p.m., 271-4090, $6), Philip Kaufman’s look at the stormy and steamy relationship between writers Anais Nin and Henry Miller and their muse, Henry’s wife June. Not explicit enough for an X…
Porn appreciation, an introduction
By most accounts, Julie Buck has established a successful career. After years of schooling, she’s now working at Harvard University’s Film Archives preserving materials on the verge of utter extinction. But it’s what she’s most widely known for — her work preserving and presenting vintage porn — that has made her career a taboo subject…
Our real crisis
The big Social Security crisis the Bush administration is keeping in the headlines is serving as a big distraction. The real crisis resides with Medicare/Medicaid. Yet the administration hardly ever mentions this fact. We wonder why. Given the mendacity of Bush and the mentality of his top advisors, it should not be hard to figure…
A fresh coat of paint
There’s a saying that goes, “Do what you love and the money will follow.” Most artists hope the adage is true, but it neglects to mention the necessary elements to get a person from the beginning of that statement to the end of it: talent, opportunity, and luck. Michael DeLuca is one of the fortunate…
