Metro Ink 7.27.05
The Underground What? That was like a hundred years ago.
Poverty and potential: Rochester in 2005
On July 21, 5-year-old AJ Gibson died in inner-city Rochester. Police say they are investigating “apparent injuries” to his small body. His mother is in jail, charged with first-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. This is the face of the City of Rochester. So is this: New housing development nearing completion downtown.…
Reader Feedback 7.27.05
Sex addiction, crime issues
Poverty and potential: Rochester in 2005
On July 21, 5-year-old AJ Gibson died in inner-city Rochester. Police say they are investigating “apparent injuries” to his small body. His mother is in jail, charged with first-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. This is the face of the City of Rochester. So is this: New housing development nearing completion downtown.…
‘What would a safe community look like?’
For starters, here’s what a safe community wouldn’t look like: a 12-year-old gunned down walking home from a friend’s house; a 2-year-old hospitalized after an illegal handgun went off unexpectedly in her home; a troubled 13-year-old nearly killed by a police officer she charged with a kitchen knife. But this summer, these have been the…
It’s the economy, stupid
They’ve obviously done their homework. The three major Democratic candidates for Rochester mayor have consulted the polls, and they agree on what you seem to be telling them are the big issues: crime, education, and economic development. Find a solution for all three, and they’ll get elected. And, maybe, save the city from its slow…
Robert Sobieszek
It is with deep sadness that I write that Robert Sobieszek, former senior curator of photography at the George Eastman House, died July 15, at age 62. Sobieszek left Rochester in 1990 to head the photography collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It was a short time after his arrival in Los…
Jeff Carlson
Hard driving, dedicated, sensitive, funloving: Rochester Deputy Mayor Jeff Carlson was, as Mayor Bill Johnson puts it, “a very interesting mixture.”
Pop quiz: a test for the wannabes
How much do the Democratic candidates for mayor know about the city they want to lead? During our campaign coverage, we’ll be testing the candidates — no prior notice, no research allowed. (Want to suggest questions? Write to themail@rochester-citynews.com. Subject line: pop quiz.) Questions: 1. How many homicides were there in Rochester in 2004? 2.…
Heir apparent
Another one was getting out. Rock ‘n’ roll troubadour Joff Wilson was finally pulling up Rochester stakes to hang in the Big Apple. The cat had exuded Bowery all along anyway. Fans, friends, and fellow musicians gathered at Monty’s Krown recently to send Wilson off, hoist a pint, and wish him well. The Krown was…
Cost of War 7.27.05
The totals: 1,775 American soldiers, 194 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 22,938 to 25,980 Iraqicivilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to July 23. American soldiers killed from July 17-23: Sergeant 1st Class Ronald T. Wood, 28; Cedar City, Utah | Staff Sergeant Jorge L. Penaromero, 29; Fallbrook, California…
It’s all how you frame it
A woman encounters a child. Encounter is an image photographically captured by Bob Gates, and one of 53 works of art included in the 60th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition. Yet, what is a seemingly simple title for an equally simple action is actually a complex interplay between images and our way of seeing them. Who is…
Inbox 7.27.05
We’ll let the recipient of this week’s email set the scene. We changed several proper nouns in the following exchange to protect the “innocent.” Send your list of demands to inbox@rochester-citynews.com — Michael Neault Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005From: Davey N.To: Various recipientsSubject: Davey N. presents: “An Ode to Instability” Friends, Some of you may remember…
It’s a Bird! It’s a Trane!
After seeing The Lords of Dogtownlast week I’ve decided to grow my hair… and stop combing it. With everyone sporting high-‘n’-tights these days and even dippin’ digits into the greasy kid’s stuff, long, unruly hair may actually be returning to the counterculture middle finger it once was when kids dug The Sweet, the Nuge, and…
A science fiction fable for our time
Unlike Steven Spielberg’s essentially unimaginative version of War of the Worlds, Michael Bay’s new and less heavily hyped picture, The Island, engages some of the important matters that traditionally supply the themes of science fiction literature and cinema. Again unlike Spielberg’s most recent work, this movie in fact contains enough action and character for two…
Onstage 7.27.05
Making characters human This season at Stratford artistic director Richard Monette completes his presentation of the entire Shakespeare canon — as well as continues his expansion of the contemporary repertoire. Jonathan Goad, whom I have admired as an excitingly developing young actor, brings Dostoevsky’s passionate Dmitry to pulsing life in Jason Sherman’s The Brothers Karamazov.…
Better late than never
Some of my friends revel in pointing out what they consider to be my horrifying lack of qualifications for this job (apparently never having seen The Goonies is a transgression on par with puppy kicking and grandmacide). Admittedly, there are a couple of gaps in my cinematic education, and the more I write about film,…
Music Reviews 7.27.05
James Blood Ulmer | Platinum Pied Pipers
Are sports dying?
Alarmist TV news anchors constantly sucker me into watching newscasts with their ridiculous, five-second primetime teasers: “Can pineapples kill cancer? Watch at 11.” But they work, so I figured I’d use the technique too. Sports have pandered to television since the ’50s. TV has made every major pro sport and the NCAA unbelievably wealthy. Prior…
Hot news, cold news
Do you ever wonder how some stories in the news get covered extensively; others, seemingly more important, get little coverage, and still others get no coverage at all? Here are a few examples of what I mean by COLD NEWS. These are stories that are “out there” but there is little or no follow-up. •…
Family valued 7.27.05
Awesome cuteness As members of Rochester’s Seneca Park Zoo, my daughter and I have visited frequently this summer to see the awesome cuteness of the three new tiger cubs. The male and two females Amur tiger cubs were born May 21 to mother Kira (her third litter). The kittens are out quite a bit, but…
Are sports dying?
Are sports dying?
Fiz 7.27.05
Godzilla vs. retirement The Dai Pool at Toho Studios has been demolished and an era has ended. You probably don’t recall this huge, shallow pool, but its pop culture rating is somewhere between 50 and 400 meters high because this was the frothing sea that birthed Godzilla, that ill-used avatar of nuclear apocalypse. The terrible…
