Change comes to the School Board
Although it’s received less attention than City Hall, there’ll be big differences on the Rochester School Board starting January 1. Newcomers Cynthia Elliott and Tom Brennan will replace two veterans on the seven-member board: Jim Bowers and Rob Brown. The board will remain completely Democratic, but that doesn’t guarantee peace. There’ve been no big, public…
Cost of war 11.16.05
The totals: 2063 US soldiers, 200 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 26,982 to 30,380 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to November 12. American soldiers killed between October 31 and November 4: Petty Officer 2nd Class Allan M. Cundanga Espiritu, 28; Oxnard, California | Sergeant Daniel A.…
Larry Stid
Rochester lost one of its most outstanding public servants on Sunday with the death of Larry Stid, the city’s deputy commissioner of community development. A 27-year City Hall veteran, Stid had served as a city planner, headed the city’s planning bureau for 16 years, and was appointed deputy commissioner in 2003. In those positions, he…
Reader feedback – 11.16.05
The health-care answer; the liberals’ dilemma
Final cut pro
By now you’ve probably seen that new The Shining trailer making the rounds on the Internet. Someone’s put a different spin on the Kubrick horror classic by reassembling a few snippets from the film and mixing them with drippy pop and a saccharine voiceover. Instead of Jack Nicholson playing a man who terrorizes his family…
All the normal girls hung on
At the dawn of the 21st century it seemed as though Robert Downey Jr. would be remembered as a cautionary example, just another instance of immense talent needlessly squandered due to an inability to cope. As 2006 looms, however, Downey is at the top of his game. His refined performance in George Clooney’s Good Night,…
Maybe you can fight fate
In the great tradition of the thriller, the new movie Derailed depends, at least initially, upon the notion that mere chance governs the universe, that men and women live and die according to no discernible rules and perhaps for no particular purpose. It also suggests, somewhat paradoxically, that a kind of fate flows from some…
Holiday Guide 2005
The order of the articles in this year’s Holiday Guide doesn’t necessarily reflect the order in which you should heed them. For example: You might want to start with Frank De Blase’s guide to new, souped-up Christmas CDs just to set the soundtrack and get the eggnog pumping through your veins. Then you could pick…
Happy Sawzall-idays
I felt it long before I ever saw it. Every day the house shook with a deep rumbling that made my ribs thud in my chest as workers tore off the back wall and roof for a kitchen bump-out. What was that monstrous tool they were using? The groaning of wood and unearthly crunching of…
Inbox 11.16.05
Overwrought customer service, in my opinion, is just icky. You know, that phony the-customer-is-always-right-even-when-the-customer-is-a-total-idiot mentality. But there are still some retailers out there who are bastions of the indie mentality: those who treat customers fair, but will stick to their guns if a customer tries to take advantage of the situation. The following exchange is…
Soundtrack for the slaughter
If you’re like me, you hear anything with sleigh bells prior to Christmas Eve and cringe. And jumping the gun before the pumpkins are done rotting isn’t my only peeve. It’s the same goddamn music over and over and over. Not so long ago I used to dig Nat King Cole’s “Christmas Song,” Bobby Helms’…
Heady aromas and the taste for salt
It’s interesting how experience in one business translates into behavior in another. Ristorante Grappa owner Anthony Valenti ran a DJ business for two decades before trying his hand at a restaurant. Good DJs have a sixth sense for pleasing people. Valenti brings that quality to being a restaurateur, and it’s a perfect fit. He greets…
Wishlist woes? Here, give ’em this.
Only the heartiest among us can weather the holiday shopping season well. The barrage of catalogs, canned musical cheer, sale announcements, and store displays comes on so early and so hard that by the time you actually need presents, you’re probably ready to saw off your own feet with a rusty cookie cutter rather than…
The grid speaks
Patricia Wilder’s photographs could not have looked more at home in the Dyer Arts Center on the RIT campus. Her exhibition, Forms and Surfaces, is a striking presentation of nearly 90 photographs. But the title of the exhibit could have included the space itself. The elegant modernist space is all about forms and surfaces. Towering…
Holiday Calendar 2005
On stage The Capitol Steps Sat, Dec 31. comedy, Nazareth College Arts Center, 4245 East Ave, 6:30 and 10 p.m. $45. 389-2170, www.naz.edu A Christmas Carol Fri-Sun, Nov 25-27, Dec 2-4, Dec 9-11; Sat, Dec 17. musical, A Magical Journey Thru Stages, UpStage3, Auditorium Center, 875 E Main St. $22, $20 seniors, $18 students. 935-7173,…
String theory
Of all the genres spawned by blues and folk music in the 1960s it would be hard to find one more inventive than that of the acoustic guitar instrumental. It was unmistakable on free-form radio: the bright, full, ringing chords, the impossibly complicated finger picking with the occasional harmonic chimes, backed by a throbbing bass…
Holiday fun — it’s a gas
Sure the holidays mean spending time with the family. But you can still have fun, too. With these low-cost events, you’ll even be able to pay your fuel bills. Metro Justice’s Alternative Fair happens at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, 220 South Winton Road, on Friday, December 2, 5 to 10 p.m. and Saturday,…
Bows to the rafters
Dar Williams has always been a tad too pleasant for me. Thoughtful, insightful, and guitar proficient are usually not quite enough. I need grit. I need entropy. I was thrilled when Williams praised New York’s trees for satisfying her need for things deciduous. It was a bit abstract but warmed me to her a little…
Family Valued 11.16.05
‘Zathura’ Chris Van Allburg is a wildly imaginative illustrator, but he doesn’t usually provide the kind of cogent, sustained narrative a feature-length film requires. The bloated Robin Williams star vehicle, Jumanji, made few happy, and the recent Polar Express was both flat and dumb. Zathura is the third Van Allsburg book to make it to…
After the party
Celebrating the returns: Democratic Party Chair Joe Morelle, School Board President Darryl Porter, and Mayor-elect Bob Duffy. There was no single moment when the excitement started brewing at the Democrat’s election-night party at the CrownePlaza. But by the time Mayor-elect Bob Duffy made it to the stage for his victory speech, the term “fever pitch”…
Fiz 11.16.05
Hoodwinked It’s unclear whether Jeff Root believes that idle hands are the devil’s playground. But while you or I might fritter away holiday downtime at the folks’ house with a little TV or a big nap, a couple Christmases ago a bored Root decided to monkey around in the Kendall studio of his mom, an…
Metro Ink 11.16.05
Cool cars Cars may be one of the leading sources of greenhouse gases, but in a few years that will be a little less true of New York’s. Starting in 2009, the state will require all cars sold here to meet California’s tough new emission standards for gases that are linked to global warming —…
