Seeing possibilities in mansions and cupboards
There is much to adore in Mark Siwiec’s 6,000-square-foot house, but his second favorite room (after the porch) is a cupboard under the stairs that he has converted into an audio closet — with shelf upon shelf of CDs and a stereo whose speakers are tucked away into corners of the living and dining rooms.…
Learning to speak Southern
When I taught a hilarious play, The Nerd, in a comedy course, several people told me that Larry Shue, who wrote only a few plays before dying young, wrote an even funnier farce called The Foreigner. Blackfriars Theatre is producing a rollicking version of The Foreigner that proves their point. Not as polished and…
There was treasure beneath the Marlite
Even after all the work Philip and Harriette Greaser put into unearthing, stripping, and cleaning the woodwork in their house, they are very forgiving of the people who at one time tried to cover it. “It was the style,” Philip says. “You just didn’t want wood in the house.” The wood — red birch…
Italy of the American imagination
While most authors dream of literary success followed by cinematic success, most film producers attempt to exploit the public awareness that a best seller creates along with its built-in audience. The right combination of a blockbuster book with a profitable counterpart in film represents a publicist’s dream, a marriage made perhaps not in heaven, but…
Home sweet homes in the making
Bill Owen, a graduate student living in Rochester between his semesters at Goddard College in Vermont, wanted to put music on his walls. Instead of buying posters of favorite bands or concerts, he bought records. “I thought it would benefit the world to have one fewer copy of these records in circulation,” Owen says.…
Black and White and great all over
Leave it to edgy indie auteurs Richard Linklater (director of Waking Life) and Mike White (screenwriter-star of The Good Girl and Chuck & Buck) to take a genre that’s been completely rubbed into the ground and left for dead by hack after hack and make it into something fresh and exciting, not to mention really…
The schedule
Friday, October 3 Little Theatre Laughing Matters, 6:30 p.m. (with reception) SOLD OUT! (second screening added October 11) Latter Days, 9:15 p.m. (with reception) SOLD OUT! Saturday, October 4 Little Theatre Rated TG (documentary program), 12 p.m. Dear Gabe (documentary program), 2:15 p.m. Class Queers, 4:15 p.m. Madame Satã, 6 p.m. Robin’s Hood, 8:30 p.m.…
Still searching
Jack Casady is one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most definitive, innovative, oft-imitated bass players. It was in San Francisco that he made his initial mark as a founding member of Jefferson Airplane and later Hot Tuna. He is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, yet it has taken until 2003 for him to…
Stringing us along
Back in the late 1990s I was driving in my car when a tune came on the radio that grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. An electric guitar was cruising along faster than I was, playing an irresistible, soul-inflected melody. It was “Sweet Georgia Peach” by Russell Malone. A guitar hero was born. Malone,…
ImageOut Film Festival
Read more of City Newspaper’s coverage on ImageOut by clicking here! After going for broke with last year’s big 10th anniversary blowout, ImageOut scales itself back a bit this time around. There aren’t as many films and shorts, but that doesn’t mean the quality has suffered. You’ll find 40 programs of varying length and very…
A hardboiled egg in a world of cinnamon buns
“I’d like to point out that it took five gay men to replace Martha Stewart,” quips comedian Kate Clinton, one of four subjects featured in ImageOut’s opening-night documentary, Laughing Matters (see review in this issue). She’s talking, of course, about Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the recent ratings juggernaut and water-cooler favorite. “I think…
Queen for a night
Charles Busch might be the biggest drag diva this side of RuPaul. But unlike Ru, Busch has a legitimately impressive résumé, which includes critically acclaimed work on the stage, a memorable run on the most underrated television show of the last 20 years (HBO prison drama Oz), and a pair of feature films adapted from…
Outrage at the outrageous in our little town
Our president continued to thumb his nose at the world, his attorney general continued to flex his muscles, and Kodak unleashed another round of bad news. But the really big story in Rochester this past week was Bob Lonsberry. Being outrageous is nothing new for Lonsberry. He and WHAM, which has been airing his…
News Briefs 10.1.03
Kodak breaks eggs for omelet Eastman Kodak’s big news broke too late for us to outline the company’s “Digitally Oriented Strategy to Accelerate Growth” last week. But we’d already carried the story in essence. (See City Newspaper, September 24-30, “Hocus Focus: Will the Company Town Lose Its Magic?”) Now we all wait for Kodak to…
Reader feedback 10.1.03
Questioning the Rhinos stadium and the Wegmans closing
Bob feeds the elephant
You’re afraid of Bill Johnson. You’re afraid, Pittsford, that Bill Johnson wants to put city kids in your schools. You’re afraid, Fairport, that Bill Johnson wants to steal your wallet and give its contents to the city. You’re afraid, Chili, that a city mayor can’t possibly have the interests of the suburbs…
Boxing outside the think
One line in county executive hopeful Maggie Brooks’ platform will probably not be quoted much. It’s too abstract and unforthcoming at first blush. But it does get the mind moving. “Do we really want to turn our community into a laboratory, a place to experiment and tinker with our future?” asks Brooks. Well, do…
Uniters, not dividers: the towns evolve
Is “bi-lithic” a word? The play on “monolithic” may not be in the dictionary, but it should be available for this year’s elections. The word would neatly describe the city-versus-suburb dynamic that undergirds various contests — county executive, district attorney, and even some town supervisors — making this locality appear like two stone fortresses…
In with the old
It’s possible that the rumors are true: They just don’t build things like they used to. As you’ll see in the following pages, people are restoring old homes, reclaiming old records for art, picking up old furniture from the side of the road, and essentially tossing that whole “new is better” thing out the window.…
Reversing time
The ticks and whirs of dozens of clocks — a gentle but bustling presence — follow you as you walk through Fran and John Sadden’s 1830 cobblestone house. When asked how many there are, Fran looks around and sighs: “a lot.” John repairs antique clocks for a living, and together the couple sells antique clocks…
