Racing against the clock
The new Denzel Washington film, Out of Time, suggests something about how far Hollywood and American popular culture have traveled in a generation. The writer and director may very well have intended simply to make a taut, exciting thriller celebrating the heritage of classic film noir. However, their movie, inadvertently or not, provides a curious…
Quivering over Quentin’s queasy comeback
First, let’s put some of the rumors to bed: Quentin Tarantino always envisioned Kill Bill as a two-volume opus — he just didn’t spring the idea on Miramax until things were nearly finished. Volume 1 actually lends itself to episodes better than, say, The Matrix Reloaded or either of the first two Lord of the…
Mourning the Blonde Bomber
Tuesday, September 30, marked the end of an era for me. I’ve been faced with some challenges lately, but none more heartbreaking than the loss of my dear friend and hero, Ronnie Dawson. Ronnie was 64 and had been battling the big C down in the big D. It won. I played my last…
Digital cubism
Music made on a laptop computer? It’s nothing new in the Rochester underground music scene. And now you can add Brad Lubman to the mix. “Confrontational, severe, meditative, ambient-electro-acoustic [music]” is how the classically trained conductor, composer, percussionist, and Eastman School of Music professor describes his Clear Housing, part of a sound and visual installation…
News briefs 10.8.02
Pulling out the stops EROI: That’s Italian for “heroes,” and Genessean for the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative. The definitions harmonize. For one thing, the Initiative is about making Rochester an international center for the most heroic of instruments — assembling here “a collection of new and historic organs unparalleled in North America.” For another,…
Sleight of hand
It’s not so much a feeling of desperation; that implies a certain quickness — a racing, clinging quality. No, the mood in the St. Paul waiting area is slower, somehow. Men sleep. People wander in and out, checking the jobs-posting boards — nearly empty at 3:30 p.m. on this particular Friday — and to…
Medicaid: costs as benefits
Here’s one about a gift that keeps on taking. Last month Citizens for Justice released a study of federal tax cuts and their effects over the next six years. New York, says the group, stands to gain $78.2 billion over that period from the cuts, more than $4,000 per capita. But because the cuts force…
Reader feedback 10.8.03
DissingLonsberry, loving Tom, endorsing Johnson, critiquing the transit center
Time to grow up: RoCo comes of age
<pIn 1977 a new cultural institution, the Pyramid Arts Center, opened in Rochester. After 27 years, seven locations, and a name change to Rochester Contemporary (RoCo), its mission remains basically unchanged: to encourage the redefinition of contemporary art in Upstate New York. As the arts center prepared for its big re-opening on Friday, October…
Funky tongue
There’s Pimping Sam and Konky Mohair. There’s the Mighty Dolomite, Stackerlee, and Toledo Slim. There’s Piss-Pot Pete “with eighteen pounds of red-hot meat.” There’s Mr. Shine, who fights off sharks with one hand, Cocaine Shorty, and even a black-skinned Jesse James. They swagger endlessly. They fight and swear and use their sex appeal like…
