Simply exceptional sisters
“Love is simple,” says Garance in Marcel Carné’s Les Enfants du Paradis. The film then spends three-plus hours ruminating on the subject. Food, another favorite French topic, could also be called simple. Chef Paul Bocuse, in a college instructional video, prattles on about success being guaranteed when you start with “les bonnes choses fraîches.” Indian…
White men can jump
“[Basketball] is a black man’s game, and it will be forever. I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African-American.” — Larry Bird, June 2004 Joseph Graves, Jr. might as well be talking to the wall. For years, the professor of biology and African-American Studies at Arizona State and Embry-Riddle University has dismissed…
The arachnid versus the giant mollusk
By its very nature, the summer blockbuster so beloved in Hollywood demands not only amplitude and grandeur but also a hero of a commensurate stature, who will not be dwarfed by the spectacular context of his story. Borrowing heavily and recklessly from Homer, the makers of Troy attempted to glorify the pivotal decision of their…
Jewish film from all the unfamiliar places
It all started with Shoestring, and the 2004 installment of the Rochester Jewish Film Festival, July 11 through July 18, means that festival season is officially underway. Over 100 films were considered in the festival’s fourth year; 16 made the final cut. The majority of the selections are documentaries that look at the Jewish experience…
Also playing…
If you see only one set of opening credits this year, make it the credits of Napoleon Dynamite. If you want to stay for the film, go ahead, but you’ve already seen the best of what the movie has to offer — especially if you’ve seen the trailer, which doesn’t show the best parts so…
He’s out
He’s out Add one to the list of victims in the US War on Terrorism:Ansar Mahmood. The 26-year-old Pakistani is being deported after spending close to three years in a Batavia detention facility. Barring any miraculous last-minute appeals, it appears Mahmood will be heading back to Pakistan as soon as his travel papers are in…
Reader feedback 7.7.04
Casino critics, pro-choice Republicans, Fahrenheit highlights
Body count
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: 861 American soldiers and 120 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to July 2. More…
Big needs, big rewards… big costs
About this series Throughout the spring, the Rochester school district struggled to close a large shortfall in its 2004-05 budget. It also struggled to fight off critics’ charges that the district spends too much money — that its per-pupil cost is too high, that its costs are rising dramatically, despite its declining enrollment. In…
Win? Lose? Draw?
Mall magnate Tom Wilmot made his proposal for a downtown Rochester casino official last week, in an article published by the Democrat and Chronicle. And tucked away amidst the glitzy renderings of a drastically altered Main Street was an independent assessment of the casino’s social and economic impact. Prepared by the Center for Governmental Research,…
Family valued
Memorabilia from within Some critics say that in Southern literature, the one continuous theme is Place — the love of the land, of its people, and their goodness (or badness). Writers in our corner of the world would probably argue against any categorization, for their works are diverse, universal, relevant, historical, and apropos for scholar…
