They’ll fight their hearts out
There’s a certain smell to freshly mowed grass on a high school football field, a mixture of chlorophyll and dew and mud that wafts into a player’s nose and triggers a release of adrenaline and testosterone that carries him through the picturesque violence that will consume his mind and body and soul for a quartet…
Hallowed Ground
7 p.m Wednesday, March 30, 2005: 17-year-old DeMario Moore, walking home in the northwest section of the city after playing basketball, stops to talk to a girl he knows from school. They don’t talk long, but when Moore walks away, he is shot in the back by the girl’s boyfriend. Moore is dead before the…
Keep it on ice
Not too many things have lasted for 50 years in Monroe County, but the Rochester Americans have. Since the Amerks were founded a half-century ago, the demographics of its hometown have completely changed, Kodak has withered away, and countless other American Hockey League teams have come and gone. In fact, the Amerks are one of…
Decorating thoughts
Albers, de Kooning, Hoffman, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Pollock: Though many of these artists’ works are nearly 100 years old, they are still quite often misunderstood and even more often disliked. Still, older works as well as many contemporary examples of abstract art are the focus of a major exhibition at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Extreme Abstraction.…
Satisfy your inner nerd
The autumnal re-opening of school doors calls us back inside to the world of books. Summer paperbacks with sand trapped between the pages get shelved. The cooler season goes better with the sound of book spines cracking and of heavyweight paper turning; the squeak of highlighters against textbooks’ lines; the smell of preserved paper trapped…
Inbox 9.21.05
Remarkable correspondence from the consistently unremarkable world of email Try and imagine the following excerpts written in scrawled cursive with No. 2 pencils on lined notebook paper with generous smears and eraser smudges. Send your essays on favorite actresses to inbox@rochester-citynews.com. — Michael Neault From: Harmony Button To: Abby McCarthy Subject: Writing that is Wrote…
Turn on the reading light
Well, the Rochester Arts and Lectures series is already sold out. If you don’t have tickets, you may be able to get standing-room-only tickets to hear Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)and Alexander McCall Smith (The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, The Sunday Philosophy Club) — both worth it. And there are still chances to catch…
Stop smothering me
In my possession is a movie still that I’ve been magnetting to various refrigerators for some time now. It depicts an enraged stick-figure woman with a That Girl flip… well, just look to your right. Until last week I had no idea that this primitive-looking image is a scene from Don Hertzfeldt’s clever 1995 short…
Let them entertain you
It’s time for the local theatrics to gear up and people to start dancing. You will have your pick of performances to attend, from community theater shows in school gymnatoriums to visiting blockbusters — along with a matching range in ticket price — but here’s what we’re excited about. We start out with a Mamet,…
Running guns all over the world
Despite the apathy of the wealthy nations, including the United States, and the sporadic attention of the news media, it apparently takes the film industry to recognize the deplorable suffering of millions of people in Africa. A number of recent movies, including such varied titles as Tears of the Sun, Beyond Borders, Hotel Rwanda, and…
How’d you get so lucky?
When people stumble upon my not-so-secret identity as a movie critic, they often start chucking questions at me. Most believe that getting paid to give your unsolicited and subjective opinion sounds like a dream, and I do spend a great deal of time pinching myself. But when the clock strikes midnight and I’m trying to…
The legend of Blüdwülf
Blüdwülf is a metal band full of punks… or a punk band full of metal heads. Frontman Reverend Sinn doesn’t really sing. He bellows. He rants. He spews. He’s a punk. But the precision freight-train thrash of the longhairs behind him shrugs off stock punk shackles. “As long as there’s a teenage boy and a…
The best of all grapes
Late this summer there were at least two terrific “Winemaker” dinners at Ravines Wine Cellars overlooking Keuka Lake — Chasing Pinot: In Search of the Perfect Pinot Noir and Meritage: The Art of Blending. “Meritage”? Is that another one of those snooty French terms? Actually, meritage is an American neologism that combines the words “merit”…
Stove-piped and shaggy
John Mayall was kind of a tool the last time I met him, but given his legendary status and all I decided to give him a second chance when he returned to Milestones on Saturday, September 10. Mayall’s band, The Bluesbreakers, was mirror-slick and totally in the pocket. It was Bluesbreaker guitarist Buddy Whittington (who…
Of particular note
The opening of the concert season is a cause for celebration any time, but this year is particularly noteworthy. Resident musicians — in the Rochester Philharmonic and smaller classical groups, from the Eastman School’s outstanding faculty, and in churches and other venues — will continue to provide exceptional performances. And the 2005-2006 season includes a…
Our very own storm
I don’t want to overreach with this, but there are lessons for Rochester in Hurricane Katrina — and I don’t mean the dangers of natural disasters. As it was tearing off the roofs of houses and destroying neighborhoods, Katrina was also exposing the enormous divide between New Orleans’ poor and not-poor. And if you don’t…
What’s so great about Mozart?
Why, over two centuries after Mozart lived, is he still such a fixture in our cultural consciousness? Why, as we near the 250th anniversary of his birth, is a worldwide celebration mounting, with orchestras clamoring to produce concerts of his music, tourists tracing his footsteps in Austria, and Steinway and Sons giving away an all-expenses-paid…
Metro Ink 9.21.05
It’s the inside that counts “Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter.” Man, they just don’t name tomatoes like that any more. They don’t grow them very often either, and there’s a good reason for that, I suppose. Tomatoes like Radiator Charlie’s, known as heirlooms, have short shelf-lives, thin skins which bruise and split easily, and they tend…
Sounds good to me
Leon Redbone September 21 Water Street John Hammond September 22 Montage Grille Garnet Rogers September 23 Harmony House Tarbox Ramblers September 24 Milestones Acoustic Alchemy September 25 Milestones Danielia Cotton September 29 Montage Grille Hot Tuna September 29 Water Street Michael Smith September 30 Harmony House Gavin DeGraw September 30 St John Fisher Dashboard Confessional…
Reader feedback 9.21.05
Military in the schools, noise on the streets
The learning never stops
School is great, but why stop there? There are plenty of museums offering kid-friendly exhibits and events to keep the structured (but fun!) learning going all season. Strong Museum is opening a new exhibit called Think Tank (opens October 8), where kids can solve riddles, try brain games and mind teasers, and build a bridge.…
Drug money
Tony Zito had been battling long-term depression when he ran into trouble several months ago. Zito, 57, takes the anti-depressants Prozac and Wellbutrin but doesn’t have any health insurance. He was finding that he couldn’t afford to pay for his prescriptions, which cost hundreds of dollars a month out of pocket. “It would be [medications]…
Family Valued 9.21.05
Munich on the Lake Does it qualify as a cultural event if you can enjoy a cold one while supervising the kids? You bet! Just ask the crowd transfixed by the German folk dancing of Bavarian Verein Alpengruen at Irondequoit’s 18th Annual Oktoberfest. It’s a family-friendly atmosphere. Like a huge wedding reception, everyone between 2…
Postmortem for a primary
It’s less than 48 hours after the Democratic primary for mayor — the party’s most contentious primary in over a decade — but you wouldn’t know that from a glance around the party’s headquarters. The furnishings are still Spartan at the spacious new digs off University Avenue, but a rack of campaign literature has already…
Fiz 9.21.05
Gear, doggy doggy You’re old enough to own and care for your own dog. So why does having a virtual pet feel almost as much fun? Nintendogs, one of the latest (and the few) games Nintendo has released for its handheld DS console, is all the joy of owning an adorable real-life puppy without the…
Cost of war 9.21.05
The totals: 1,898 US soldiers, 197 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 24,891 to 28,154 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to September 15. As of September 13, 14,479 US soldiers have been wounded in action. American soldiers killed between September 7 and 15: Staff Sergeant Christopher L.…
Fall Guide 2005
A big autumn embrace Jewel-bright leaves trapped between sheets of wax paper. Apples, pies, pumpkins, pumpkin seeds. Five-subject notebooks and packs of #2 pencils. The pwhip-pwhip sound of corduroy pants. Walks, just because. Season tickets. The game on TV. Little paper bags full of apples. School plays and recitals. Homework on the kitchen table while…
It’s the season for eating well
“It is a time when every cook wishes time could stand still and the bounty of the fall last forever.” So says Max chef-owner Tony Gullace, and you’ll get no argument from the dozens of food-loving friends who jumped to say what they like best about food in the fall. Tony sees a time for…
