Darryl Ballard says he knows he’s lucky that he’s not in prison. A short young man with a slight build and dreadlocks pulled back from his boyish face, Ballard says that, two years ago, he cussed out a Rochester police officer while the officer was engaged in an altercation with Ballard’s best friend. Things got […]
Cover Story
Posted inNews & Opinion
The holy war next door
Aided by August’s scorching heat, the sienna- and iodine-colored images of dismembered fetuses seem to sear into the sidewalk in the 100 block of University Avenue. Anti-abortion advocates, some carrying signs, others holding religious objects like crucifixes and rosary beads stand on both sides of the entrance to Planned Parenthood’s Rochester office. When a blue […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Fall Guide 2013
In our annual fall arts preview, City’s cultural critics sound off on their picks for the most exciting art exhibits, theater shows, dance performances, music concerts, and films coming in the 2013-14 season.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Unholy alliance
After retiring from his position as a New York State Family Court judge, Anthony Sciolino has published “The Holocaust, The Church, And The Law Of Unintended Consequences: How Christian Anti-Judaism Spawned Nazi Anti-Semitism.” The book paints a scathing picture of the Catholic Church’s anti-Jewish bias over many centuries, a bias that Sciolino says helped create the conditions that allowed the Holocaust to happen.
Posted inMusic
Where have all the cowboys gone?
Country music is huge. Yet the appeal seems to drop off sharply when it comes to country music on a local level. Where are the bands? Where are the country-music fans the other days of the year that megastars like Chesney aren’t here?
Posted inSpecial Sections
Warren vs. Richards: One city, two visions
The Lovely Warren who walked to the front of the room in early May to ask her fellow Democrats to support her bid for mayor is not the same Lovely Warren who’s on the campaign trail today. There has been an observable transformation. Those first rough, nervous steps have been replaced by confident strides. Candidate […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The speed wars
When Time Warner Cable announced recently that it’s raising cable Internet rates, customer complaints were inevitable. And once the grumbling started, it became clear that many customers believe that they are going to pay more a month for less-than-stellar Internet connections. “Other people around the world do not pay close to what we pay for […]
Posted inCulture
History told by the survivors
UPDATE: The groundbreaking for the Seneca Art and Culture Center will be held on Monday, September 16, at 11 a.m., and the public is invited to attend. One lasting effect of the actions of empires is that it can be difficult to locate the voices of the underdog, unmitigated by the interests of the victor. […]
Posted inMusic
MUSIC FEATURE: The Fox Sisters
It was no big deal; just another night of rock ‘n’ roll in the Flower City. The smart set had shoehorned itself into Abilene on a Friday night in March for headliners 5Head and an unknown support act. You could’ve spread the energy with a spatula. It was palpable within the crowd-powered steam heat when […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Tim Mains: ‘I was the gay teacher’
Tim Mains was still new to teaching in the early 1970’s when he walked into his class in the Greece school district one day to find the word “faggot” written on the blackboard. That and a series of other events led him to come out of the closet to his students and peers at a […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Trash talk
In five years, Monroe County’s Mill Seat landfill, which takes waste from the county and the City of Rochester, could be full. But county officials want the Riga landfill to last another 25 years, so they’ve applied to the Department of Environmental Conservation for permission to add 118 acres to the current 95-acre landfill. County […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Worlds collide on walls: WallTherapy 2013
Symbolically, walls stand to divide space, to enclose people and property. But for Dr. Ian Wilson and the network of medical professionals, artists, and volunteers he has organized around Rochester’s annual Wall\Therapy street-art festival, and the medical-philanthropy organization Impact, walls stand for something other than themselves. Through those initiatives, walls have the capability to unite […]
