Artvoice: Buffalo's #1 Newsweekly
Home Blogs Web Features Calendar Listings Artvoice TV Real Estate Classifieds Contact

Cover Story

Stumped

by Buck Quigley

Up to 90 percent of the city’s trees sustained damage during last October’s freak snowstorm—officially known as Lake Storm Aphid—which dumped snow weighing nearly 10 pounds per square foot over much of the region. The trees were still covered with bright, green leaves that caught the weight of the snow and later were crushed underfoot as pedestrians climbed over downed limbs that blocked roads to vehicular traffic. The green slush in the road was another strange component to the storm’s immediate aftermath.

Free Will Astrology

by Rob Brezsny

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Your patron saint of the week is Beatrice Wood (1893-1998), whose association with surrealist artists and her bohemian life as a painter and actress earned her the title “The Mama of Dada.” At the age of 92, she finished her autobiography, which was entitled I Shock Myself. Your first assignment, Gemini, is to do three things in the coming week about which you’ll be able to say, “I shock myself.” Your second assignment is to imagine that you’re 92 and looking back with pride at the top ten smart things you did to shock yourself into a heightened state of awareness in the years between now and then.

News of the Weird

by Chuck Shepherd

■ People can develop intimate, romantic relationships with objects (beyond mere fetishism, which produces only short-term arousal), according to one of Germany’s most renowned sexologists, Volkmar Sigusch, interviewed for a May report in Der Spiegel. A reporter claimed to find individuals infatuated with a Hammond organ (and who feared infidelity when a technician performed repairs), New York City’s Twin Towers (whose lover bathed with a miniature version), and the Berlin Wall (which a woman ceremoniously “married” in 1979 and legally changed her name in acknowledgment). Sigusch said this objectophilia was another indication of society’s increasing “neo-sexuality.”

News

Lion's Tooth

by Peter Koch

Dandelion: a widely distributed weed of the daisy family. Genus Taraxacum, family Compositae. Origin late Middle English: from French dent-de-lion, translation of medieval Latin dens lionis, or “lion’s tooth,” for the jagged shape of its leaves.

Literary

Mad Bomber Melville, Part Two

by Leslie James Pickering

It’s 1969. The Vietnam War has been raging for years and the news flashes images of the carnage while tallying the mounting death tolls. The kids you knew that signed up back in ’65 either come home dead or something maybe even worse than dead. It seems that every day you hear about friends getting called down for their physicals, and you’re stressing over tomorrow’s mail.

Book Reviews

Resilience by Marjorie Norris

by Linda A. Lavid

The cover of Marjorie Norris’s new book Resilience says it all, for inside lies a profusion of poems that, like poppies, stretch, bloom and feed every sense. Using evocative, vivid language, Norris paints ordinary moments with extraordinary color, depth and detail. This is shown in “Tangerine,” where “each orange moon falls wide like happiness/…that sits lunar/…in sweet eclipse.” And in “Love, What is It?” where “…when love works/It smells like vanilla.”

Poetry

by Marjorie Norris

Heart

They say the heart learns nothing, bends over rice and macaroni and steams.

Good for the heart’s complexion, increases pressure and joie de vivre,

This egoless zen steaming, this light dreaming, and then the words weave.

The heart fast forwards to find herself, slows to learn of her rejection.

Theater

Chautauqua: Instituting Change

by Thomas Dooney

For more than 130 summers, visitors to Chautauqua Institute have sampled lectures, the arts, study groups and special interest programs. Geek vacation? Maybe. Methodist founders felt the combined study of religion, discussion of secular matters and exposure to the arts created a well rounded citizen and a better society.

The Artie Awards 2007

The Year's Best Dressed

by Jimmy Janowski

First things first. Lisa Ludwig rates a perpetual spot on any best-dressed list. After having to excuse herself from hosting duties at this year’s Artie Awards because of another commitment, “La Ludwig” pulled an Elizabeth Taylor-like surprise entrance to announce the final award of the evening in a stunning, steel-blue ball gown with jeweled bodice by Jimmy-Lee. Now that’s theater!

Stagefright

by Javier

The fabulous Julie White (pictured above) won this year’s Tony award for Best Actress in a Play for her magnificently cynical performance in Douglas Carter Beane’s comedy The Little Dog Laughed, which was also nominated for Best Play. White plays a fierce agent who is trying to keep one of her clients, a gay film actor, in the closet. White originated the role in the off Broadway production at Second Stage Theatre, winning an Obie Award for her performance.

Art

China: Future Primitive

by Lucy Yau

Frame by Frame

by Gerald Mead

You Auto Know

Pass the Sunblock

by Jim Corbran

Those of you old enough to remember that the first cars to hit the road were of the “open cockpit” type, congratulations. That would make you over 100 years old! Back when Henry Ford, Ransom Olds and all those other chaps who were handy with a set of tools first hit the road with their horseless carriages, they were all open to the weather, as the top hadn’t been invented yet. The closed car was at least a few years down the road from the dawn of the automobile age, and purveyors of umbrellas, hats and scarves probably made out almost as well as mechanics and gas station attendants.

Film Reviews

Fishing in Muddy Waters: Jindabyne

by George Sax

A lot of people are reported to be upset and perplexed with The Sopranos creator David Chase for the inconclusiveness of the HBO series’ recently aired final episode. Let me tell you, Chase has nothing on Aussie film director Ray Lawrence in that regard. His first film to play in the US, Lantana, ostensibly a moody police procedural, didn’t tie things up or pin them down. And neither does his latest, Jindabyne.

See You There

Big Art Show

by K. O'Day

Queen City Football

by Geoff Kelly

Brush Up Buffalo

by Laura Masters

The Great Train Robbery

by Geoff Kelly

The Advice Goddess

by Amy Alkon

I’ve been in a relationship with a wonderful man for three years. Last year I met a really great co-worker, “Brian,” who’s also in a serious relationship. We hit it off from the start. We talked about our stressful work environment and quickly began hanging out outside the office—getting coffee, going to lunch and happy hour. We’ve discussed our mutual attraction, and, on occasion, have flirted past the point of friendship. However, we want to stay friends and not jeopardize what we each have at home. How do I tell my boyfriend about my friendship with Brian without hurting his feelings? I believe honesty is always the best policy, and I’m afraid if I start hiding feelings or keeping secrets from my boyfriend it could lead to other bad behavior on my part.