Inbox 10.19.05
Matt is an artist living in San Francisco. Selling art has been a considerable task for him, especially when clients treat him as one did in the following note. We’d love to hear from you, send us a line at inbox@rochester-citynews.com. — Michael Neault From: Alan B. To: Matt R. Subject: hi matt Date: August…
If 2 Live Crew has taught us anything…
It was, I’m sorry to say, a consensus. The guys in my row all agreed that the only reason they didn’t abandon the screening of the new Keira Knightley action flick Domino was the possibility that breasts might suddenly manifest on the screen. Apparently, a little skin can go a long way. And since patience…
Playing misty for us (again)
The new remake of John Carpenter’s 1980 horror flick, The Fog, demonstrates once again the routine self plagiarism that provides so much of the film industry’s contemporary product, as well as the questionable practice of repeating a movie with no other apparent motive beyond profit. The original, a deftly crafted, efficiently scary, and intelligently reasoned…
Alice at 40
You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant. Even 40 years later. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Arlo Guthrie’s folk classic “Alice’s Restaurant.” The song is a humorous tale based on events that happened in Massachusetts in 1965: A man gets arrested for littering while trying to help out a friend on…
Shhh, we’re in church
The Memorial Art Gallery’s Fountain Court has been transformed into a chapel with the addition of a recently restored 18th-century baroque organ. It sounded as majestic as it looked on its October 8 debut. Paul O’Dette directed early music ensembles Tragicomedia and Concerto Palatino (revivalists of the cornetto, the baroque trombone, and the chitarrone —…
Metro Ink 10.19.05
Stone by stone MCC students Shannon Stewart and Samuel Bradley have two buckets, 1.1 million stones, and $300. | But they want $550,000. | Stewart is president and Bradley is treasurer of the Holocaust Genocide Studies Project. | They take their buckets of stones (one stone to represent each person killed in the 1994 Rwandan…
Reader Feedback 10.18.05
Covering cover bands
The Seligman plan: moving from ‘good’ to ‘great’
The future of Rochester’s economy will be increasingly linked to health care and education, says Joel Seligman, the University of Rochester’s new president. And his goal — to take the university from being a “good institution” to being one of the most prominent educational centers in the country — could impact the region’s economy. “I…
Looking for signs of life in the Lej
Last year, the prestigious BrennanCenter for Law and Justice at New YorkUniversity branded the New YorkState legislature the most “dysfunctional” in the United States. The phrase stuck. Even people who’d never read the report hopped on the Albany-bashing bandwagon. The momentum the BrennanCenter generated carried past the splash of the initial press coverage and, improbably,…
The Lej roundup: power and possibilities
For the first time in its history, the entire county legislature is up for grabs
Cost of war 10.19.05
The totals: 1971 US soldiers, 199 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 26,568 to 29,922 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to October 10. American soldiers killed between September October 5 to 10: Specialist Jeremiah W. Robinson, 20; Mesa, Arizona | Lance Corporal Carl L. Raines II, 20;…
Family Valued 10.19.05
Pink lemonade and polar bears Daniel Pinkwater has been writing books for 35 years: picture books, young adult novels, adult novels, essay collections, and dog training manuals. During that time, he’s also become a familiar voice on NPR. If you randomly select a 9-year-old from within your household, he will probably be familiar with Pinkwater’s…
Fiz 10.19.05
Ghastlies, ghosts, ghouls, and gators Be afraid! Be very, very afraid! Ghastlies, ghosts, and ghouls are the order of the season. All right, maybe not. Let’s face it: Scaring people isn’t so easy anymore. If nothing else, we’ve become acclimated to fear. Natural disasters abound and horrific stories grace our television screens all day long.…
The way we see the world
In 1839, two new processes for capturing “reality” were announced, thereby changing forever the way we would see the world. William Henry Fox Talbot presented to the public in London photogenic drawing, or what he first called the paper image, while across the channel in Paris, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, through the French Academy of…
Onstage 10.19.05
A feast that cannot satiate When Noel Coward died in 1973, one of his hundreds of lyrics was quoted by hundreds of writers all over the world: “I believe that since my life began / The most I’ve had is just a talent to amuse.” Except for Coward’s many endlessly revived plays, I honestly don’t…
Suspense
It’s so gray, it’s hard to tell it’s 10 in the morning. And we’re surrounded by mist, as if a micro-sprinkler in the vegetable aisle were hanging overhead. In the trailer on Exchange Street, we gear up in hard hats, safety glasses, and bright orange vests before heading over to the barges parked on the…
