News Briefs 12.18.02
Buried Treasures Pass the leberkäse Eating at the Swan Market (231 Parsells Avenue) is always like walking into another world, but this past Saturday was something else. Founder Gunther Schwahn and owner Barry Fischer threw a 100th birthday party for Joseph Gosert, who came to Rochester in 1927 from Idar-Oberstein, Germany. A diamond-cutter, Gosert had…
Alien body double
More than three decades ago, the television show Star Trek first chronicled the voyages of the starship Enterprise as it ventured through distant galaxies and strange seas of thought — “boldly going,” as the voice-over stated, “where no man had gone before.” Those journeys almost always included a confrontation with an alien species or civilization,…
Reader Feedback 12.18.10
Disgusted! Delighted! Readers assess the mammary cover.
The Gang’s all here — let the Oscar race begin
Gangs of New York, the year’s most eagerly anticipated film (aside from the one following this review), plays like a who’s who of AWOL Hollywood heavyweights. Director Martin Scorsese hasn’t been seen in theaters since Kundun in 1997 (I like to pretend Bringing Out the Dead never happened). Ditto for stars Daniel Day-Lewis (1997’s The…
Thou shalt not kill
Shortly after the September 11 attacks, a few figures in Rochester’s Christian community recognized a void in the local response to the tragedy. As the country cocked its collective fist and prepared to exact bloody revenge on a global scale, several secular organizations in the area had quickly released statements urging restraint. “Some of…
Running away from life’s troubles
There are an alarming number of mediocre movies that have grand designs on educating moviegoers about important historical events. As a critic, I’m put in a weird situation in which I’m obligated to point out a picture’s weaknesses, but do so at the risk of incurring the wrath of readers for whom whatever real-life event…
Cinderella’s coach rolls again
If folklore, oral tradition, and the Brothers Grimm hadn’t transmitted the Cinderella tale down through the years, surely Hollywood would have invented it. Centuries of stories and generations of movies about a poor, but worthy, young woman who falls in love with a man of higher station, overcomes the obstacles of isolation and oppression, and…
Rape me
It is a little weird, when you think about it, how we ignore people’s privacy when they’re dead. Anything they might have said or wished concerning their legacy gets overlooked, as if the living know better what to do with the deceased’s mental remains than they did. When Kafka was on his deathbed, he asked…
Music Reviews 12.24.02
The Cynics Living Is The Best Revenge Get Hip Recordings C’mere junior, let daddy show you how it’s done. After seven long years, The Cynics are finally back with Living Is The Best Revenge, easily their best album ever and my pick for top 10 of the year. OK, OK, so maybe that’s a little…
Biz wants Doyle out
Rochester-area business leaders want County Executive Jack Doyle to not seek re-election next fall. Officially, the reason is the “personality clash” between Doyle and Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson. But it’s clear that members of the business community are deeply concerned about Doyle and his effect on the community and its economy. They made…
Lifting up Liftline
In recent years, Rochester’s Liftline service has gotten a black eye in the media and the court of public opinion, usually for reasons beyond the hard-working employees. Whatever the negative press, Liftline is truly one of Rochester’s hidden gems — a gem that with some polishing could shine brightly. Contributing to the seemingly never-ending…
Reader Feedback 12.24.02
The love of music, mammary monologues, Doyle Like Us
Of questionable utility
Time was, if you wanted the scoop on Rochester Gas and Electric, you could look in your own backyard — not only at the poles and wires near your home, but also the corporate headquarters on East Avenue. But today you have to travel, figuratively, to Ithaca, where RG&E’s corporate owner is headquartered. The…
News Briefs 12.24.02
The bells, THE BELLS! Mistletoe, bells, the scent of pine, bells, snow, bells, lists of who’s been naughty and nice, and the ringing of bells all around as you shop this holiday season. And these bells have been ringing in front of red kettles in Rochester since 1900. “The whole red kettle concept started…
Playing Medi-tag: the price of long term care
“I cried for three months,” says Nova Robbins. The 74-year-old Fairport resident had helped her husband, Robert Robbins, get necessary long term care after a paralyzing stroke. But the crying that Robbins mentions here was connected to other terrible difficulties: the paperwork she needed to wade through, and the money she needed to…
Record Review
Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz Jazz Alliance When I’m on the road, I feel especially lucky if I find a radio station carrying Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. For 25 years, McPartland has hosted one of the most engaging shows on the airwaves, interviewing and playing spontaneous duets with jazz greats. Her personality is so engaging that…
Excavating the obvious
Andy Warhol once said, “If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am.” If you want to know all about Joy Episalla, you’ll need to do exactly the opposite. You need to dig. The subjects of her photographs,…
The XX files
Think globally, shop locally
Here comes a regular
“You say tomato, I say f*** you.” [Asterisks added.] Welcome to the Park Bench. I read that little (micro, really) witticism on a bumper sticker stuck beneath one of the TVs above the bar of “The Bench,” as the regulars refer to it. I reprint it here, concerned reader/advertiser/Wegman, because it’s an enlightening example…
Breaking up the party
As far as state election officials are concerned, the Green Party no longer exists in New York. Of course, the 30,000-odd New Yorkers enrolled in the party may beg to differ, but state election law is clear: If an officially recognized party’s gubernatorial candidate fails to get at least 50,000 votes, that party loses its…
Stonehenge Twinkie pilots
The song goes, “Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat!” But when is the last time you had a goose during the holidays? My family’s tradition was beef fondue on Christmas Eve. Mom would dice up some nice tenderloin, and dad would get the hot oil going. Mom would spread out condiments from which…
