No problemo? Rochester and the decline of cheap oil
When James Howard Kunstler’s first book, “The Geography of Nowhere,” came out in 1994, talk about running out of oil was akin to talk about that fake moon landing. Crackpots, oil executives, and every undergraduate geology student in the county knew we were approaching the peak of worldwide oil production, but most people had better…
Big and beautiful
Usually when you throw “stream of conscious” and “guitar player” in the same sentence or on the same stage, folks like Adrian Belew come to mind. New England guitar slinger — well, I suppose it’s not really slinging if you’re sitting on a stool — Johnny A played whatever came to mind Thursday night within…
Cost of war – 4.5.06
The totals: 2327 US soldiers, 209 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 33,821 to 37,943 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to April 3. 3091 Iraqi police and guardsmen have been killed since January 2005, according to an estimate compiled from news reports. American soldiers killed between March…
Found! The solution!
Well, city taxpayers, get ready to start celebrating. Forget about begging Albany for more money. The good people of the Town of Brighton, backed by the Brighton-Pittsford Post, have come up with a way to help solve the city’s financial problems: Get tax-exempt properties to pay for the services they use. Monroe Community College is…
A farewell
With this issue, City Newspaper says goodbye to a valued staff member, Erica Curtis, who later this spring moves to Oregon with her husband. In her three years with City, Erica has made enormous contributions. Some of them — beautifully crafted features — bear her name. Others are less obvious. For two of those three…
The county’s tax grab
Right from the beginning, nobody thought he could be serious. Or at least they hoped he wasn’t. LastmonthCounty Legislature President Wayne Zyra proposed using the local share of the sales tax to cover the county’s Medicaid costs first, then dividing the rest among the city and the other municipalities. You could almost hear the collective…
Metro ink – 4.5.06
LEFT RAIL Jumpin’ Joe McCarthy! The prospects for New York’s Republican Congressional candidates must be shakier than we thought. How else to explain the Republican press release on Monday headlined: “Reds Come to the Aid of NY Dems”? The fax says the Communist Party’s People’s Weekly World magazine has praised several Democrats who are running…
Bacci ball
Rochesterexpats pack houses with a blend of hip-hop and jazz
Reader Feedback – 4.5.06
Debating Roe, the Danish cartoons
Family valued – 4.5.06
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown Now, if we had an ounce of sense here at the Family Valued Popcorn Counter, we’d be telling you how great the Rochester Children’s Film Festival has been and will continue to be for the next couple of weeks. Problem is, the younger members of our target-market family really wanted…
179 Cobbs Hill Drive
Tucked Behind the Hill Most residents of Rochester’s Eastern neighborhoods have become accustomed to the iconic views of Cobbs Hill’s western face, with it’s tree-covered slope, extensive urban park, and Lake Riley. It is here where the masses play softball, walk their dogs, and hike up to the reservoir. A different setting presents itself adjacent…
Fiz – 4.5.06
Wrestling? Twist my arm. Jake “The Snake” Roberts — an’80s vintage WWF baddie — has seen better days. How do I know? I saw him on Wrestlevision. Wrestlevision is a locally produced show devoted to Western New York wrestling. It combines wrestling matches, comedy sketches (often parodies of TV shows like Cheaters or Live with…
The extremes of “extreme”
Claire Schneider, curator of the Extreme Abstraction exhibition at the Albright-KnoxArtGallery in Buffalo, recently pointed out that the word “extreme” may be the word of our time. For example, reality TV shows like Fear Factor show “ordinary” people jumping from tall buildings, laying among snakes, and/or eating all sorts of strange things all in the…
21st century soul man
James Hunter sings that sweet soul music. And once again, a decidedly American music form, forsaken by American artists for whatever flavor of the year, is picked up by a British artist who turns around and frankly does it better. “We go into…
Wings and a prayer
Rochester Red Wings General Manager Dan Mason calls the rival Buffalo Bisons “the Yankees of the International League.” Whether that’s a compliment or a slam is open to interpretation, depending on your feelings about the Bronx Bombers and their absurdly humongous payroll. But as a statement of fact, Mason’s evaluation of the Bisons is pretty…
Your trench or mine?
World War I was considered “The Great War,” with a cost of more than 14 million military and civilian lives, but it remains one of the more puzzling modern-day conflicts, lacking the obvious good vs. evil distinction attendant to its horrifying sequel. It’s this ambiguousness that no doubt led to the Christmas Truce of 1914,…
The second time around
For fans of Sharon Stone, the 14-year hiatus between Basic Instinct — where the actress wowed audiences with one of the most famous shots in recent film history — and the imaginatively titled Basic Instinct 2 must seem an eternity. Whether the wait for the long-promised sequel was worthwhile remains to be seen, but the…
