A letter to the queen: I hate to say I told you so
Dear Queen Latifah, Have I turned into some sort of Tinseltown power broker? About a month ago I mentioned in this space that I would like to see Djimon Hounsou (In America, Constantine) as the love interest in a romantic comedy, and now we’ve got Beauty Shop! I can’t help but conclude that you saw…
MC Beneficial shows how Rochester does it
If commitment made record contracts, MC Beneficial would be rich by now. The young rapper’s first CD dropped last week. Called Great Expectations, it took a year and a half to put together. And with all that work, he made sure it looked and sounded right. “A lot of people, they just record in somebody’s…
Off the hook again
“Dead wrong”: Don’t you just love the words? The information that led the United States into war in Iraq — the information that is said to have led the United States into war in Iraq — was dead wrong, according to the presidential commission investigating the pre-war intelligence. That, apparently, will be the end of…
Social security: lies, lies, and damn lies
Adolf Hitler wrote in Mien Kampf “The people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.” The key is to keep repeating it over and over. For the second time in three years, the Bush administration is using the Big Lie Technique to advance its agenda. The first Big…
Out of the rat race
Sally Howard, one of the organizers of this year’s Alternatives in Living conference, is particularly excited about a track called “renewing citizenship and community.” “I think it is an incredibly important time for us to not retreat into our caves,” she says. “With all of the adversity that came out of the last few years…
Reader feedback 4.6.05
Pesticide notification, the school district’s failure, gender-neutral options|gender-neutral bathrooms|federal budget
Body count 4.6.05
The totals: 1,536 American soldiers, 177 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 17,316 to 19,696 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to April 5. American soldiers killed from March 30 to April 5: Private First Class Samuel S. Lee, 19; Anaheim, California | Specialist Eric L. Toth, 21;…
Pipes wrench: an RIT debate on extremism
Daniel Pipes, a conservative academic and über-pundit on all things Middle Eastern, will be speaking April 14 at the Rochester Institute of Technology, as part of the school’s Gannett Lecture Series. And back in December, Pipes was declaring on his website that his appearance was “already generating more heat than light.” Pipes’ shtick relies…
Family valued 4.6.05
Scout registration: all together now When my son came off the school bus six years ago all amped up to join Cub Scouts, I was hesitant. But I’ve learned it’s possible to love the Boy Scout program even if you don’t agree with every policy. Since he joined, my son — once quiet and passive…
Free wheelin’
It’s a few minutes before 8 a.m., and Tony Burgio and Dean Contreras are eating nearly identical breakfasts. Burgio has already polished off a bowl of grits before a server brings plates crowded with an omelet, home fries, and a buttered bagel. Another plate of doughnuts eyes them from the middle of the table. They…
Second look at a local original
Trend starters are often not trend setters. David Bowie and Alice Cooper didn’t invent Glam Rock, but has anyone heard of the New York Dolls? I’m thinking about “gourmet” pizzas, those individual-sized, thin-crusted pies topped with everything from mango chutney to truffles. The trend-setter in our area might have been Ciao, and places like Benucci’s…
Suburban agony, bourgeois melodrama
Film distributors often fill the odd intermezzo between the late-year Oscar shoehorning and the explosive appearance of those sure harbingers of warm weather, the blockbuster action flicks, with some small, sometimes unclassifiable pictures. The late winter dumping time may explain the considerable quantity of favorable publicity surrounding Mike Binder’s new picture, The Upside of Anger.…
