While the world stood by
A decade ago, the news trickled in, accompanied by images of unparalleled savagery, of massacres in a country few people in the West had ever heard of, on a continent few cared about, and involving class, tribal, and ethnic tensions almost nobody comprehended. In the midst of one of those messy and complicated civil wars…
Thank you, Kevin Bacon, thank you, Ramones
If I pick up a thank-you note to send to Kevin Bacon, would you guys sign it? It really is the least we can do, seeing as he might be the most underappreciated actor around (now that Johnny Depp has caught Oscar’s eye, anyway). His gut-wrenching turn as a prisoner in Murder in the First…
Ringing true
You might have to go back as far as John Coltrane’s Stellar Regions (1967) to find an album with as vast a concept as Stefon Harris’ TheGrand Unification Theory. Then again, Harris is not what you’d call a one-dimensional musician. Having placed second to vibes legend Bobby Hutcherson (and first in the Rising Star category)…
The XX Files
I’m way above the fray up here in this SUV. I’m head and shoulders above you and your car and I like the view. You can’t mess with me up here. You can’t get at my children. What, kids? You felt a bump? That was probably some little car down there, or maybe a pedestrian.…
The test of your life
Isabel Rosa, Duncan McElroye, and Ebonee Johnson want everyone to get tested. And they can’t say it enough. “We want to get them tested,” McElroye says. “We can’t say what number, but any number. Just to start the ball rolling.” The three work at Action Front Center, an HIV/AIDS outreach center on Chestnut Street, and…
Body count 2.2.05
The totals: 1,423 American soldiers, 171 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 15,612 to 17,842 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to February 1. American soldiers killed from Jan 26-Feb 1: Sergeant Leonard W. Adams, 42; Mooresville, North Carolina | Staff Sergeant Jose C. Rangel, 43; Saratoga, California…
The state of Monroe
When County Executive Maggie Brooks declared at the outset of her first-ever State of the County Address that “the state of our county has greatly improved,” she said she did so “with a clear vision for our future.” But what exactly that vision is was unclear: Very little of what Brooks addressed was new. There…
Reader feedback 2.2.05
Buying the news, the case against Gonzales, women’s pro sports
Family valued 2.2.05
Georgia on your kid’s mind When is Georgia only 60 miles from Rochester? When her paintings are on exhibit at Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Georgia O’Keeffe and New Mexico: A Sense of Placeruns through May 8. O’Keeffe’s landscapes hang next to photographs of the scenes, which makes this exhibit very accessible. Rather than copy desert…
Crime at the museum
As you approach the entrance to the gallery, you can hear Law & Order: Crimes Scenes before you can see anything. It is only after you enter the gallery from the hallway that you immediately encounter six television screens, each continuously playing and replaying the teasers for six different episodes. A couple walks down the…
Leap of faith
Walking into the lobby of HOPE Initiatives’ Anson Street offices, there’s little to identify the place as home to a religious group. Faux-marble paneling frames a receptionist’s window, and off to the side sit a few chairs for visitors. The room’s walls are devoid of the symbols that often distinguish religious groups from their secular…
Belly up
I find the Super Bowl to be an almost sickening celebration of corporate excess and gluttony. And I even covered the game a few months after September 11, 2001, when the festivities were supposed to be more subdued. I didn’t see anybody going without. People stuffed their faces at the pre-game Super Bowl brunch, at…
