Archives
Three huge TV screens loomed above the stage. A basso TV announcer voice boomed throughout the arena. Fireworks exploded, competitive stadium chants roared out, spotlights raked the ceiling as though this were an opening night in Hollywood. A worship leader exhorted the crowd to "Give it up for the Lord!" There was even a
Archives
When I asked my kids how they discovered Mike and Matt Chapman's website, homestarrunner.com, I was surprised to learn they'd heard about it the old fashioned way: on the school bus. As a dutiful parent, I had to check it out; I've seen too many Web cartoons featuring animals interacting with common household appliances.
Archives
I'm reflecting on the Bills' 29-24 season-finale home loss to Pittsburgh, which kept Buffalo from the playoffs, and no song is more appropriate than The Hives' Hate to Say I Told You So. Incidentally, this column coincides with The Hives' song, just as Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon allegedly coincides with TheWizard
Archives
His profound love of the cinema and his broad knowledge of its history, displayed brilliantly in his several documentaries on film, obviously provide a major inspiration for Martin Scorsese's work. Despite a deserved reputation for originality, he has committed both sequels and remakes, and of course, happily acknowledges his debt to the dense and glittering
Archives
Here we are, firmly ensconced in January, and now that the holidays are over you want to relax with a movie. You've already nibbled on some Oscar bait (The Aviator, Closer) and you're patiently awaiting the next course (Million Dollar Baby, House of Flying Daggers). So you look in the paper... hey, how about Spanglish? The
Archives
Down in the night-life trenches where the real bands slug it out, exposure is the filthy lucre doled out by club owners in lieu of cash --- or respect. If you've ever ventured into a nightclub clutching an instrument, with a song in your heart, stars in your eyes, and nothing in your pockets,
Archives
After the presidential election, a lot of Democrats insisted that the red-blue divide was really an intelligence gap: that no well-educated person could have voted for Bush. Balderdash; plenty of smart people voted for him. Plenty of smart people support the war in Iraq. Plenty of smart people agree with Bush on tort reform. But now comes a
Archives
In the 1940s someone made candy at 4 Elton Street. But since September, Jake Glasgow, Brad Johnson, and six other instructors have been making music there. inTune Contemporary Music & Production has four private lesson rooms, two classrooms, and a studio. Glasgow and Johnson renovated it from the dank warehouse it was; now the brick
Archives
TIME'S BUSH With Time magazine's recent incomprehensible selection of George Dubya as "Man of the Year," it is an interesting mental exercise to imagine the sort of Letters to the Editor such an act might generate. Just think: If the mainstream media mavens really were "liberal" and publications such as Time (and locally the Democrat
Archives
To honor the war dead and fill an information gap in US mass media, City Newspaper will run weekly lists of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians killed during the occupation of Iraq. The totals: 1,333 American soldiers, 151 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 15,038 to 17,240 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq (a recent survey published by
Archives
There are some bragging rights you'd just as soon avoid, some things you wish you were wrong about. Rolf Pendall has as much right to say "I told you so" as anyone, except maybe Buffalo Bills naysayers. But like a prescient Bills fan, he's not in an enviable position. Pendall, who's a city and regional planning
Archives
(Second of two articles.) The growth of vineyards and wineries here, on the shores of the Finger Lakes, is not about the great views, but about the lakes and rolling hills. Paraphrasing from the book Culture in a Glass, by upstate vintner Richard Figiel, the lakes act as radiators. They emit temperatures cooler than the surrounding
Archives
Gerard Stembridge's funny play, That Was Then, now getting its American premiere at Geva Theatre Center, makes an interesting point about the everlasting battle between the Irish and English: Their roles have been reversed. Ireland is enjoying an economic and population boom and replacing its agricultural industry with high tech industry and its dependence
Archives
The first time Kristin Peterson's husband hit her, she was asleep in their bed. She awoke that night a split second after Joshua's fist smashed into her face and ran, terrified and crying, to the bathroom to wipe the blood spurting from her nose. When she stuck her head back into the bedroom, there he
Archives
Framed prominently on the wall behind Tom Cray's desk is an excerpt from Tim O'Brien's novel The Things They Carried. The quotation describes what Vietnam soldiers carried, ranging from the mundane to the monumental, the literal to the figurative: "They were afraid of dying, but too afraid to show it. They carried the emotional baggage of men
Archives
During last year's presidential election, many political analysts felt the dialogue sometimes seemed unable to break free of issues surrounding the decades-old conflict in Vietnam. Perhaps that's because our nation hasn't finished wrestling with the ghosts of that controversial war. And now that struggle is defining the way we react to Iraq. Just ask anyone who works with
Archives
Get thee to the RMSC The Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC) is always a great family destination. In addition to the standard exhibits, there are usually special events going on. This week, there are two that sound particularly appealing. If you're a space junkie, you might already know that the European Space Agency's Huygens probe
Archives
Big Media has eroded local sports. These days, if an event isn't shown on ESPN or a national broadcast network --- if people aren't talking about it on The Jim Rome Show --- it's widely considered minor league, unimportant nationally and locally. Many Rochesterians let national media coverage determine how they feel about this city.
Archives
According to his own oft repeated account, Kevin Spacey labors under something of an obsession with the singer Bobby Darin, whose life and career inspire the new movie Beyond the Sea. After several years, a number of false starts, and some pre-production difficulties, Spacey ended up collaborating on the script and directing the picture,
Archives
"If the cops are around, something good must be happening." Charles Bukowski says this with a twinkle in his eye, but knowing what we do about him, he was probably serious. The acclaimed writer, unapologetic alcoholic, and failed misogynist is resurrected in John Dullaghan's Bukowski: Born Into This (Friday, January 14, 8 p.m., Dryden Theatre, 271-4090),
