With nineteen stages, more than 1500 artists, and more than 200,000 people in attendance, it should come as no surprise that my pick of the week is the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, which began Friday, June 23 and will end Saturday, July 1. This summer’s Jazz Fest has featured exactly what’s made this event such …

Certain phrases are learned and practiced so often that they become an unconscious habit, performed without even noticing, like saying “excuse me” if you bump into someone on the street, “hello” when you answer the phone, or “I’ll take a beer” when a bartender asks what you’d like to drink. While I still encourage the …

Welcome to summer, folks. We cooks have long awaited the chance to dig into our CSA boxes and see what they will become for dinner. One of the season’s most bountiful crops is the glorious fresh tomato. You know, the aromatic and plump kind of heirloom that just begs to be eaten raw with some …

Sandra Doorley’s gaze is a hot laser of truth that cuts through and compels you to confess not only every evil you’ve done in your life, but any you’ve ever entertained doing. It’s penetrating, knowing, and—thanks to her now shorn scalp—lacks anything to diffuse it.  The lack-of-hair-do is a memento she may or may not …

This afternoon, we’re making nightlights. The children’s class at the Studio is just the right kind of pause in a day full of stimulus and sophisticated beauty, some which has sailed over the heads of this group of youngsters. The facilitator offers us a square glass tile in our choice of four colors, some angular …

Before we can talk about low-ABV summer sippers, we should probably define the term. ABV, or alcohol-by-volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage. Some great examples of low ABV spirits are sherry, vermouth or fortified/aromatized wines, amari, and aperitifs/aperitivo/potable bitters.  But what …