Democracy in the house
There’s good news in the battle for local access to the public-media news program Democracy Now! (see “Democracy… later?” City Newspaper, June 9-15, 2004). You can still listen to the show over the Internet — or you can watch it. Since the first of the year, the television version of the daily program has been…
Reader feedback 8.25.04
Who’s paranoid? Who’s lying?
Body count 8.25.04
To honor the war dead and fill an information gap in US mass media, City Newspaper will run weekly lists of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians killed during the occupation of Iraq. The totals: 961 American soldiers, 131 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 11,660 to 13,663 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning…
City school district tackles the budget — again
It’s a position no one would envy. For the second time in this year’s budget cycle, Rochester school district officials are having to cut their budget, and more jobs and programs are on the line. Critics, including Mayor Bill Johnson, State Assemblyman David Gantt, and some business-community leaders, have repeatedly charged that the…
Say what?
It’s gone from hot topic to footnote in a matter of weeks. Mall magnate and Wilmorite CEO Tom Wilmot’s proposal for an Indian-run casino in downtown Rochester seems dead in the water. First, Governor George Pataki told the media he wasn’t even considering a Rochester location. Then news came out of Albany that all land-claim…
Family valued 8.25.04
Wear your baby The world’s parents have used cloth to carry babies for millennia, and it’s hard to improve on a good thing. I’ve used (and liked) more hardware-laden carriers, but there’s nothing so elegantly easy as tying on your baby. I can use five yards of cotton gauze ($1-$7/yard) to carry my baby in…
Because they’ve got nothing else
It’s a Tuesday night at The Bug Jar and The UV Rays aren’t even trying to be sneaky. They’re sipping Pabst Blue Ribbon out of cans. The Bug Jar doesn’t serve PBR in a can. But when you’re a broke — or a near-broke — musician, you have to economize and improvise: BYOB. The UV…
Bringing back the age of Atari
How ironic: As a society we consistently become lazier, but our video game controllers keep adding buttons. And joysticks. And vibrating packs that are supposed to make your hands feel like you’ve actually been shot, or hit by a car, or snuck by a gargoyle, or something. Playing today’s popular video game systems is less…
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…
Back to the origins of evil
When William Friedkin’s adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel, The Exorcist, first appeared in 1973, it immediately established itself as a classic, opening up a new area of exploration for the horror flick and exerting a powerful influence on the genre. Stressing the religious component in horror, only vaguely touched upon in the past, the…
Also playing…
Unpleasant and bewildering in a way that seems somehow unfortunately worthwhile, Animal Love is like the grimy flipside of a warm and fuzzy Animal Planet show. Austrian director Ulrich Siedl lobbed this into the squirming public’s lap all the way back in 1995, but it’s just now finding its premiere in Rochester (maybe being banned…
Also playing… tonight, on a very special film
Back in the ’80s, at the last game the New York Jets played at Shea Stadium before moving to the Meadowlands in New Jersey, a frustrated fan held up a sign that read, “Jersey Smells.” The much-maligned state of New Jersey is used to such insincere criticism. First-time writer-director Zach Braff, made semi-famous by the…
Renaissance Square’s a pig in a poke
Well, maybe Governor Pataki will save us from ourselves. Late last week, Pataki said he would veto the budget approved by the state legislature earlier this month. There’s a move afoot to override his veto, but that’s iffy. And among the things at risk now: $18 million for Renaissance Square in downtown Rochester. …
