Family valued 2.9.05
Slave to the wave What’s the deal with snow tubing? In my day, we used wooden sleds or maybe silver saucers if our parents were really progressive. But a tube? What if it leads to hard-core winter sports? Thankfully, snow tubing at Polar Wave in Batavia is so much fun, your kid won’t need…
Jazz Italian style
The jam session at the Rochester International Jazz Festival was just heating up one night last June when a man with a tenor saxophone stepped on stage to join the Bob Sneider Trio on “Stella by Starlight.” I was skeptical. He looked more like a businessman than a performer. But when he put the…
500 tortillas and chorizo that rocks
There are phrases you almost can’t use because their meanings are so particular to the receiver. “God” is like that, or “Scott Norwood.” A food writer has to be careful saying “Mexican cuisine.” To some, it engenders visions of giant, flour tortillas stuffed full of rice and other fillings. For those who’ve traveled in Mexico,…
Whole-wheat football
Super Bowl XXXIX featured no fake mooning incidents, no Desperate Housewives and, most important, no wardrobe malfunctions. I didn’t see a single gratuitous cheerleader shot. Come to think of it, I barely saw any women, which has prompted me to demand the FCC launch a full-scale investigation into whether the Fox telecast was directed by…
Opening the door to everybody’s worst fear
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…
The more taboo the subject, the fuller the theater
We’re all grown-ups here, so I’m going to be blunt: There’s really only one reason anyone would go see a controversial film in which a hot French model and Italy’s most famous male porn star spend four nights sans clothes at a remote waterfront chateau. Yeah, you could argue with me and claim that you’re…
City’s choice: film
You shouldn’t expect to find so much possibility hidden in a severed human ear. But when that ear’s a prop in a David Lynch film, there’s nothing stopping it from becoming the key to hell. Much has been made of Lynch’s 1986 movie Blue Velvet (Wednesday, February 9, Dryden Theatre, 900 East Avenue, 8 p.m.,…
Don’t fear the backbeat
In some narrow circles the backbeat has been given a bad rap. It has been misappropriated into some of the worst music ever — though it shows up in some of the best. It has been frowned upon as lowbrow and pedestrian. Yet the backbeat provides the rhythm for virtually all music. Don’t fear the…
Record Review
Jolie Holland escondida Anti Jolie Holland sings songs that sound as if they just got off the train in the big city. Whether it’s rooted in Appalachia or somewhere in the Delta, Holland’s music moves with an unwavering confidence, wonder, and charm. Her voice is full of honeyed tones and narcotic phrasing that exude haphazard…
The XX Files
The woman on the line sounded liked she was in her late 50s. She seemed nice, maybe a little tired. I’d later learn why. She said she was conducting a poll about health care for New York State. I know people are chosen at random for polls. But it doesn’t feel random. Especially since…
The invisible elephant
Now that the inauguration is over, the confetti has been swept up, the temporary seating and fancy bunting has been put away for another four years, we can finally ask the forbidden question: Was this election on the level? Big media, with its overarching saturation of gee-whiz coverage, seems to be saying a resounding…
‘Don’t close my school’
This is an emotional time in Rochester neighborhoods. The school district, facing a continual drop in enrollment and a tight budget, is going to close several elementary schools. They’ll come from a list of 16 schools whose buildings qualify because of their enrollment, physical condition, and some other criteria. The school our children attended,…
Twinkle winkle dreams
An inscription in Mike Filippello’s children’s book, Miratambo Moonsong, reads, “This is just the beginning…” It’s not a general statement; Filippello is a committed man. He published the 39-page Moonsong, the first in a trilogy set on the imaginary planet Twinkle Winkle, in 2004, through PublishAmerica, a print-on-demand service. It followed Tales of Twinkle…
Reader feedback 2.9.05
WOMEN STARS When I saw the headline “Get Schooled” on the cover of City (January 12), I hoped to read about why I should care about my local hoops teams. As I read the article, however, I became increasingly discouraged and disappointed by Mike Doser’s lack of respect for and failure to mention any local…
Car Zen: the art of mechanical meditation
If a mint-condition, 1958 Silver Cloud Rolls Royce cruising down a Rochester street isn’t enough to turn your head, then its license plate — “One Zen” — is going to grab your attention. The car’s owner, Doug Seibert, is a retired heating and air-conditioning contractor who started repairing bicycles as a kid and now spends…
Body count 2.9.05
The totals: 1,440 American soldiers, 172 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 15,654 to 17,884 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to February 6. American soldiers killed from Feb 2-6: Private First Class Stephen A. Castellano, 21; Long Beach, California | Specialist Michael S. Evans II, 22; Marrero,…
