All endeavors are precarious, and those that seek to last must weather the ebb and flow of cultural shifts, prosperity, and community needs. Even a space based on history must earn its place in the passage of time, and in doing so over the course of the past 100 years, the Rochester Museum and Science […]
Cover Story
Posted inNews & Opinion
Great Lakes: progress and problems
The Great Lakes are much better than they used to be in terms of the presence of toxic pollutants like mercury and DDT. New laws and a healthy amount of public awareness have helped restore the lakes. But challenges still exist; the Great Lakes face an evolving list of environmental threats and problems.
Posted inCulture
Resolutions 2013
So that whole Mayan Apocalypse thing didn’t quite work out a few weeks back. I bet you’re regretting those holiday binges and end-of-the-year spending excesses even more than usual. But put that all behind you. We’re alive, and we have a brand new year in front of us. For 2013 City is bringing back its […]
Posted inMusic
Rubblebucket’s un-quiet riot
Face it — there’s no pure rock ‘n’ roll anymore. But it could be argued that there never was any in the first place; that the genre was the bastard offspring of mismatched parents looking for kicks in the backseat of America. Even the purest forms of rock music, by anyone’s definition, are mash-ups or […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The economic arms race
It’s a mixed metaphor of major proportions: the country’s headed for the fiscal cliff, with the debt ceiling closing in. And Robert H. Frank, professor of economics at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, says we might have to go off that cliff before Republicans realize they’re holding a losing hand.
Posted inCulture
Dodging the digital bullet
If you see a new movie in a big-screen chain theater today, what you’re seeing is likely being projected digitally, the information embedded in a hard drive. In Rochester, our local independent cinemas are ready for this major shift, and area film professionals debate digital’s impact on artistry, archiving, and business.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Vargas’s grand plan for the RCSD
Rochester school district Superintendent Bolgen Vargas rarely talks about increasing the district’s graduation rate or raising test scores, the standard promises of most new superintendents. From his first days in office as interim superintendent, Vargas has instead approached the district’s many problems from the outside in: unabashedly declaring that nothing will get fixed if the […]
Posted inMusic
Busk a move
The Pickpockets is a beautifully rag-tag busker outfit straight out of Tin Pan Alley, boasting a faded sepia romanticism and nostalgic charm. The instrumentation is stark yet achingly beautiful. It’s the blues of hobos riding the rails, the sound of dwindling optimism and migration found in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Though it […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
[UPDATED] Women of a lesser God
To say that the Rev. Roy Bourgeois is a thorn in the Vatican’s side is probably an understatement. Bourgeois is a Roman Catholic priest with a long history of social activism, but it is his support for the ordination of woman, in particular, that could get him excommunicated from the church. Bourgeois will be in Rochester on Tuesday, November 27.
Posted inCulture
Wheels that deep fry, keep on turning
After the phenomenal success of this year’s two Food Truck Rodeos at the Rochester Public Market, at this point it’s fair to say Rochester officially has a scene. The problem now is that, due to licensing and zoning issues, very few opportunities exist for the food trucks to operate downtown.
Posted inNews & Opinion
America for sale
By one estimate, this year’s federal elections could cost as much as $6 billion. That’s a projection from the Center for Responsive Politics, the organization that runs the campaign finance tracking website Opensecrets.org. The number may be shocking, but it’s not spontaneous or arbitrary; it’s been decades in the making. And the Supreme Court’s 2010 […]
Posted inCulture
Next to paranormal
Ghost hunting isn’t just for movies and TV — real people do it, and they do it in Rochester. Get to know three area ghost-hunting groups
