Rochester Pride Parade
You’re standing downtown at the corner of East and Scio and a fire truck is inching by. There’s a man to your right wearing short shorts and dancing the pony with a huge rainbow flag. An eight-foot bottle of hair product rolls past, escorted by a man (see the moustache?) with an impeccable blond bob,…
How a foodie enjoys his salad days
Seven months ago, the sad fact of the matter became apparent: My foodie lifestyle had become a hazard to my health. This wasn’t just a matter of clothes not fitting, or lagging self-esteem, but rather a look at mortality through the lens of medical statistics. Overweight men closing in on 40, with a family history…
Bledsoe is not today’s QB
Last week I took Secrets of an NFL Scout, a book by the late Tony Razzano, and gave you Part 1 of a scrumptious soufflé of insights into the specific qualities that make good NFL players. It focused on defense. This week, I focus on offense and examine five Bills, just in time for training…
Bledsoe is not today’s QB
Last week I took Secrets of an NFL Scout, a book by the late Tony Razzano, and gave you Part 1 of a scrumptious soufflé of insights into the specific qualities that make good NFL players. It focused on defense. This week, I focus on offense and examine five Bills, just in time for training…
The necessary thriller for a culture of paranoia
Both Richard Condon’s ingenious novel, The Manchurian Candidate, and the subsequent film adaptation confronted some controversial subjects in the America of the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly in the destructive dialectic of the Cold War. Both works deal with Communism, McCarthyism, and a peculiarly American version of the Oedipus complex, the concept that Phillip…
The end of heaviness as we know it.
Flash back to last year’s Bug Jar festival: It’s a picture-perfect summer day on the lawn near the Highland Park bowl. Between acts, audience members toss Frisbees, hacky sack, drink beer, and mingle. As local trio Sulaco sets up, guitarist-vocalist Erik Burke, sounding barely awake, says: “We are the heavy metal portion of this event.…
Small minds, small ideas
So now we’ll do city planning by opinion poll. The Democrat and Chronicle, WOKR TV, and WXXI had the polling company Zogby International ask MonroeCounty residents whether they want a casino, and the answer, apparently, is a fairly strong yes. A slight majority — 51 percent — want one. Only 38 percent don’t. The rest…
Street-corner politics
Two weeks ago, Bleu Cease stretched an orange extension cord across the pavement of Liberty Pole Plaza and wondered who pulled the plug on his mobile TV. The whole purpose of his self-proclaimed “propaganda box” was to spark political dialogue rather than let it be snuffed out. So after plugging back in, Cease resumed showing…
Reader feedback 7.28.04
Helping Sudan, debating Iraq action, strengthening HighFalls
Also playing…
Time of the Wolf, the new film from French director Michael Haneke, begins with the same simple, unassuming style of credits that begin his other films. It’s a signal that you’re back in Haneke’s lab. He has a habit of playing with his viewers, forcing them to construct meaningful associations between random, prosaic moments in…
Body count 7.28.04
To honor the war dead and fill an information gap in US mass media, City Newspaper will run weekly lists of American soldiers killed during the occupation of Iraq. The totals: 907 American soldiers and 121 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to July 26. More…
Never before seen in Italy
The Venice Biennale, which goes back to 1895, is the granddaddy of all biennials. To that august artistic pantheon, others have been added, like the Whitney Biennial in 1932 — which focuses on American art — and in 1962 the Sao Paulo Biennial debuted in Brazil (although its roots go back another 40 years to…
Water watch: striving to keep the Great Lakes ours
Who owns the Great Lakes? Or perhaps more to the point, who gets to use them, and who decides that? Last week, the Council of Great Lakes Governors (the governors and Canadian premiers of the Great Lakes area) released proposed agreements that tackle those questions. The documents — part of an international agreement known as…
Moving with grace from jig to waddle
John Haldoupis, artistic director at Blackfriars Theatre, recently introduced a showing of May God Strike Me Dead… (If I’m Telling a Lie)! with: “We’re thrilled to have a little-known performer — perhaps you’ve heard of her — Adele Fico.” The audience twittered in knowing anticipation. Patrons who for years have enjoyed Fico’s acting and comedy…
Family valued 7.28.04
Seabreeze One of my favorite places to go in the summertime in Rochester is Seabreeze. Seabreeze is an amusement and water park. It’s a great place to cool off or just have fun. There is even a little water park for younger kids. I usually cool off under a huge bucket of water. There is…
Great theater: bad ideas, miscastings, and all
Several hundred amazingly respectful school kids attended the matinee I saw of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and seemed to really enjoy it, despite the wrongheaded production. Stratford’s eye-popping, elaborate stagings, performed by some of the world’s best-trained, most gifted classical actors in these state-of-the-art theaters are likely to be the best you will see,…
Movin’ on out
New York’s Empire Zone legislation expires in a few days. Republicans and Democrats alike want it extended, but critics find numerous problems. Articles on this subject: Movin’ on out ‘They level the playing field’
Movin’ on out
Between the towns of Malta and Stillwater, just northof Albany, local developers have been itching to get their hands on an Empire Zone designation for years. They see a neat set of computer-chip fabrication plants, or “chip-fabs,” in part of LutherForest. SaratogaCounty was granted an Empire Zone in 2001. The zone does not include any…
‘They level the playing field’
New York’s Empire Zones have fierce defenders and fierce critics. While the zones are intended to boost New York’s sagging economy, there’s little evidence that they have. Defenders say things would be worse without them. Critics say they’re doing more harm than good. The City of Rochester and MonroeCounty each have an Empire Zone, but…
