The disappearing GOP
No incumbents? No problem. People just shaking off the last bits of holiday reverie might be surprised to find that the person representing them in the county legislature is not who they elected to serve. Nearly a third of the 16-member Republican caucus will consist of appointees before too long. The slow leak…
Winter Guide 2004
It’s just too easy to sit around and lament Rochester’s winter weather. We all live here; we know how cold and snowy it is outside. We know the feeling of slush in our shoes. We know what it is to scrape the car off every time we park it. Enough already. If you’ve forgotten…
Going to great speeds to enjoy nature
It wasn’t a smart decision, and deep down Darrell Dietrich had to know that. But the idea of snowmobiling for a few days at his family’s campsite was just so alluring that no ferocious snowstorm — not even one that dumped four feet of snow in a matter of hours — was going to cancel…
Killing Bill, Christ, and many more
We’re going to break from movie preview dogma a little bit here. Usually, I refuse to write about sequels or remakes. But one of each will be discussed in the following. I don’t know what to call Quentin Tarantino’s second installment of Kill Bill, since it’s both a sequel (technically) to Vol. 1 and…
Listen and you will hear
Eastman School of Music Eastman Wind Ensemble, Fri, Jan 23, Jim Pugh, trombone, Mark Davis Scatterday, conductor. | Sun, Jan 25, Zvi Zeitlin, violin, Barry Snyder, piano, the Amernet String Quartet, 3 p.m. Tix: $5. | OSSIA, Mon, Jan 26. | Tues, Jan 27, Steven Doane, cello; Barry Snyder, piano. Tix: $5. | Sun, Feb…
Winter blues? Stuff it.
I know I’m not alone in my post-holiday hangover, a mixture of queasiness brought on by the credit card bills rolling in and stress from all the extra stuff I now have to find room for. Despite the fact that fifty-four percent of consumers started the season paying off credit card debt, polls showed that…
Six ways to celebrate winter
Our winter scene breeds Scrooges if left to its own devices. Prizes like the Golden Snowball Award, an unofficial prize given last year to the Upstate city with the highest snowfall, bring only a small smile amidst snow heaps, icy winds, and flu strains. Thankfully, there are festivals. That’s right: Some hard-working and happy-go-lucky…
There’s a whole wide world out there
The calendars in City Newspaper will keep you apprised of event details and updates on a weekly basis. But here is an outline of important winter happenings to help you sketch out in advance your personal must-do and must-see lists. Mark days on the calendar, scout out tickets, and look forward to a season ripe…
Martha Stewart run amok
In 1971, Ms. Magazine ran a satire by Judy Syfers titled “Why I Want a Wife.” In the now-classic piece of feminist humor (and as this play points out, feminism and humor are not incompatible), Syfers discussed how a male friend of hers, recently divorced, was looking for a new wife, and the author realized…
Like you need to be cooler
If Owning Mahowny wasn’t a real story of a gambling-addicted, bad-luck protagonist who was ultimately incarcerated for embezzlement, its sequel might have been The Cooler (opens Friday, January 16, at the Little). This one is about a former casino junkie who parlayed his monumental bad luck into a gig where he’s paid to stand near…
Ghost stories
“I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience where your eyes are shut but you can still see through your lids?” Lydia Samuel-Hanselman is telling the story of one of her scariest encounters with a spirit. Late one night, several years ago, a figure approached her bedside and attacked her. As it closed…
Governor Talkative
Governor George Pataki began his State of the State with a mild joke on himself. He warned that people “who have sat through the previous 9 hours and 46 minutes” of his SOTSs “know they tend to be long.” No kidding. This year’s masterpiece ran way past 8,000 words. The guv could have…
The first daughter on the lam
Sometimes the serious contemplation of contemporary cinema leads one down the dark and winding path of depression and despair. The release of Chasing Liberty, a movie apparently intended as a vehicle for the alleged pop singer Mandy Moore, prompts a measure of that contemplation and certainly a good deal more than a modicum of melancholy.…
News briefs 1.14.04
Sledding scene 101 Carrie Fessner, a senior at Virginia’s George Mason University who grew up in Greece, has been sledding at Durand Eastman Park for years. Now that it’s seasonably cold, she and her friends are ready to pile into a disorganized carpool and hit the slopes once more. They never considered themselves renegades.…
Reader feedback 1.14.04
Broadcast fairness, review attack, Iraq debate
Renaissance man
The idea of a Performing Arts Center in downtown Rochester is not new. And Rochester Broadway Theatre League Board Chairman Arnie Rothschild has been a key player in arts-center discussions since the beginning. The initial idea — developed in 1997 by a broadly based task force — was to build a complex with several…
Titanic Tuesday: campaigns sink or swim
To state the doubly obvious: The national Republican Party is united around its 2004 presidential candidate, George W. Bush, who may be elected or re-elected, depending on how you look at it. And the national Democratic Party is divided nine ways as the primary season opens, with (in alphabetical order) Wesley Clark, Howard Dean, John…
Johnson on Renaissance: city was excluded
Typically, when a multi-million dollar development project in the heart of a city is announced, the mayor of that city knows all about the project before the news hits the papers. But that wasn’t the case last week when Governor George Pataki pledged his support for a Renaissance Center — combining an arts center,…
