I recently bought Duran Duran’s new album, Astronaut, and I feel ripped off. It’s not very good. I should have known better. For the past 22 years, I’ve been buying Duran Duran albums, hoping the music will somehow live up to the band’s 1982 masterpiece, Rio. In 1986, when I was 14, I bought Notorious, […]
Mike Doser
Posted inArts & Entertainment
East High rocks the house
It was two days before last Sunday’s Class AAA high-school football final between East and Penfield. East carried an 8-0 record into the game against the 4-4 Patriots of suburbia, but one Monroe County coach didn’t think much of the Orientals. “Who’d they play?” he asked, suggesting that the City-Catholic league’s competition is completely inferior […]
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What in the world?
If the Boston Red Sox win the World Series, they will have solved the Curse of the Bambino. And they will be world champions for the first time since 1918. Think about that: The tiny little city of Boston, the 563rd largest city on Earth, champions of the world! It would be an even greater […]
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Voting Yankee
I read The Week magazine the other day, and it featured a suave-looking Osama bin Laden caricature on the cover wearing a John Kerry T-shirt and a Kerry-Edwards pin. The cartoon had bin Laden passing out Kerry campaign literature with a tagline underneath, “Who would he prefer? A vote for Kerry, says the GOP, is […]
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Those Buffalo blues
The Patriots sacked Drew Bledsoe seven times — five on Buffalo’s last two desperation drives — during the Bills’ 31-17 loss on Sunday. New England scored the game-clinching touchdown when it sacked Bledsoe, forced and recovered his fumble, and ran it 68 yards to the end zone. The play epitomized the long season Bills fans […]
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Boys vs. girls
The Olympic gold medal-winning US women’s soccer team, featuring superstar and Rochester-native Abby Wambach, plays Iceland on Saturday night, September 25, at Frontier Field as part of a 10-city “Fan Celebration Tour.” Iceland is ranked 17th in the FIFA world rankings, and obviously needs a spark, like Björk showing up in a swan suit to […]
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Oooh, I feel the power
Bills fans should take one positive from Buffalo’s 13-10 opening-day home loss to Jacksonville. It was nothing like last year’s 31-0 Week 1 thrashing of the Patriots, which set up weighty expectations that Buffalo ultimately crumbled under. This time, there shouldn’t be any surprises. I like Mike Mularkey’s temperament. He’s even-keeled, and doesn’t allow emotion […]
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Of anger and chocolate milk
Some sports fans are disgusted when players fight, but they really ought to appreciate its significance. When Montreal’s Nevio Pizzolitto punched Rochester’s Lenin Steenkamp in the face as they headed to the locker room during the Rhinos’ 2-0 win on August 27, it indicated passion. I don’t care whether Pizzolitto cheap-shotted Steenkamp, or Steenkamp provoked […]
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Where is the love?
During a training camp session on a sauna-like day, running back Travis Henry spots a photographer shooting pictures of him from about 40 feet away. He smiles, points, then flashes the thumbs-up sign. The 25-year-old is cheerful and relaxed, exhibiting little concern that former University of Miami superstar Willis McGahee is starting for him while […]
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I’m so happy
The mass media might make you feel as if the planet is doomed. But that’s just egotistical paranoia. Earth has been around billions of years, and I’m certain it has endured seemingly catastrophic times like ours before. Believe me, we’re nothing special. Life is the same as it ever was. Obstacles confront humanity, and people […]
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Back from the bigs
The Twins called up Red Wings shortstop Jason Bartlett on July 27 for his first big-league stint when utility infielder Nick Punto broke his clavicle. Bartlett, 24, played in two games against Anaheim but he struggled, going 0-for-5 and committing two errors. Minnesota sent him down on August 6. In Rochester, Bartlett hit .339 before […]
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Dealing with drivel
When he was interviewed by Jerome Holtzman for No Cheering in the Press Box in 1973, former Chicago Tribune sportswriter Ed Prell said, “The sportswriters today depend too much on quotes from the dressing rooms. They’ve become nothing more than messenger boys.” Thirty-one years later, they’re still messenger boys. Unfortunately, that’s what sports journalism […]
