Steamed snapper and civil reggae
“What I wonder,” says Casava owner Tony Price, “is how long it took the Chinese to be successful.” How ethnic cuisines catch on is an interesting question. Take-out Chinese is nearly as popular as pizza. Thai food has become common, as has Indian. So, what about Jamaican? Rochester has a number of small places…
All mobbed up all over
Despite the reiterated assertions from policemen, prosecutors, and the media that the Mafia no longer exercises enormous power, or even exists in any recognizable incarnation, the gangster movie, bless its tough little heart, maintains its devotion to the Mob. That organization provides the model for the history, the myth, the ethos of the form, suggesting…
Bondage, sex, and monsters
Whenever a prestigious juried film festival invents a special prize, everyone should take notice. Michael Moore’s Bowling For Columbine was the first documentary allowed to play at Cannes in over four decades, and it was so impressive, the jury created an award for it to win. In other cases, special award recipients have much darker…
Paul Mark and The Van Dorens come to dinner
The blues has become too derivative. It’s a lampoon. But Paul Mark isn’t mad about that, he’s just a little sick and tired. “One of the reasons I got into this to begin with was to build little stories, not just mimic old acts,” Mark says via Bat-phone from Gotham. “There has to be…
Get well, Casz
Not too long ago, if your sorry-ass band needed a sorry-ass bar to play in front of more sorry-asses guzzling Cream Ale, you needed to look no further than Friends And Players (corner of South Clinton and Goodman). And the only reason your rock ‘n’ roll racket ever made it in the door in the…
Urban journal
The time for protest is just beginning Numerous Democrats — including our own two senators — disgraced themselves last week by caving in on Iraq. With their help, the president has the authority to start his war any time he likes. In the week before the vote, an anti-war protest in downtown Rochester drew…
The body politic
I paid $50 to think about my vagina for two hours a couple of weeks ago. This is more time than most women spend in their lives thinking about it, according to The Vagina Monologues, so I guess it was money well spent. The evening was like a hilarious graduate seminar run by three…
News Briefs 10.16.02
Marching on to war New York’s Democratic senators sided with President Bush last week, giving him the authority to wage war against Iraq when he wants to. But three Rochester-area members of the House of Representatives put up a fight. Both Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer voted yes on the joint resolution to…
Reader Feedback 10.16.02
A sampling of “Regents Math”: Start with the finest teachers that the Rochester schools can attract, given budget constraints. Then add a whole bunch of kids from populations typically at risk for failure: from households of poverty; where English is a second language; minority families; and kids with special learning needs or abusive or…
Bingo!
Frank De Blase gambles with your grandma
Outside of the box
As soon as an idea shows up as a bumper sticker, you know it’s dying. Certainly “diversity” has become a tired buzz word. Yet, sometimes the old slogans (like “freedom” and “peace”) retain a trace of significance. Flooded with cliché-mongers, the world of literary fiction still occasionally allows a new writer to tackle these…
Still misbehavin’
What becomes a legend most? Revival. For what must be the biggest theatrical touring venture in Rochester’s history, Downstairs Cabaret Theatre is producing a 63-city tour of the legendary Fats Waller musical Ain’t Misbehavin’. The original award-winning show opened in February, 1978, off-Broadway, as a cabaret show, but quickly moved to Broadway for 1,604…
