What I’m reading: Frank Rich on American Exceptionalism
Frank Rich’s long column was always the first thing I turned to in the Sunday New York Times, so I was dismayed when he left the Times, citing long years of weekly deadline pressure. He’s found a terrific home, though, at New York Magazine, where he’s writing less frequently but at greater length, and with…
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 3: Jocks in Frocks Recap
As noted drag connoisseur Charles Dickens once wrote, last night’s "RuPaul’s Drag Race" was the best of times, it was the worst of times. This season has certainly bounced back from that dreadful cake episode a month or so ago, and the last three or four episodes have been wildly entertaining. Last night was no…
Colorado’s run on guns
At this point, it’s well documented that mass shootings cause people to buy guns. This was pointed out in an Atlantic Wire article published yesterday. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that, starting Friday morning — immediately following the tragedy in Aurora — Colorado saw increased gun-buying activity. An article published Monday in the Denver…
McFadden: Police accusers need advocate
A committee investigating the police oversight system in Rochester is preparing to present its recommendations, says City Council member Adam McFadden. The 15-member committee has been meeting since last year to help reform a system that critics say lacks objectivity and transparency and takes too long to get results. The committee is co-chaired by McFadden…
What does the future hold for Bolgen Vargas?
There is a possibility that the Rochester school board will revise Interim Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s contract. Vargas was hired in May at an annual salary of $175,000, with the understanding that he would stay until a permanent superintendent is found. But that was when the search was expected to take only three to six months.…
Passing it down
Rich Thompson will never forget the time when trumpeter Clark Terry’s quintet visited his high school in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It was his first taste of world-class jazz and he absorbed all he could from the veteran players. “I was blown away,” says Thompson. Two decades later, he was drumming with the Count Basie Orchestra, a…
Monroe to lead sustainability effort
A $900,000 state grant will fund the development of a sustainability plan for the Rochester region, and Monroe County officials will lead the effort. The plan is part of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s Cleaner, Greener Communities program. The idea is to get local governments and communities thinking about energy issues…
Facing facts on violence
Rochester is more than a decade into an epidemic of violence – a specific kind of violence: young black men shooting at, and too often killing, other young black men. Can we talk about this? If we can’t, we’ll never address it effectively. From January 1 through June, Rochester had 22 murders. Most of them…
The Mt. Morris miracle
Mt. Morris is no stranger to hard times. The “Best Town by a Dam Site” was once a thriving community with retail shops, restaurants, and its own movie theater. But by the 1990’s, Mt. Morris, like many small towns in Western New York, was gripped by a slow, steady decline. Main Street had so many…
Dazzleville or bust
I have no idea why Anne Harvey’s hair is so short, but I can guess. This close-cropped, tattooed, 1,200-horsepower — the engine on her old motorcycle — get-on-or-get-out neighborhood warrior is transforming Beechwood, one lot at a time. Hair is for wusses. “I’m a visionary,” she says. “I can’t dance or sing. I can’t act.…
PROFILE: Roger Ballen at the George Eastman House
Everything we experience in the waking world sticks with us; it tiptoes or rages about inside, or travels deep into the psyche only to be drawn out nightly in dreams and daily in unexpected reverie. Our brains work continuously to make sense of things, even things we might rather ignore. Dream-sense can be unsettling in…
