Cover Story |
Good News in Midtownby Geoff KellyOn a recent July evening, the strong wind carrying an unkept promise of rain, Chris Hawley stands in a city-owned vacant lot adjacent to 19 Coe Place, surveying a pile of debris—tree limbs, parts of a tree trunk more than three feet in diameter, rocks, twisted tin, construction trash. The debris is backed up against a metal fence that separates the backyards of Coe Place’s south-side houses from the parking lot of Belmont Shelter Corporation, the independent, nonprofit, affordable housing agency that took possession of 19 Coe Place in January. |
Letters to Artvoice |
Mexico’s recent presidential election, hailed as free and fair by the Bush administration, is revealing a Pandora’s black box of vote manipulation tactics like massive “vote spoiling” and “vote suppression” in districts favoring left-wing candidate, Lopez Obrador. The ruling PAN party even placed an opposition (PRI) leader, an ex-president, under house arrest during the election to intimidate voters. While Republicans haven’t resorted to this extreme yet, investigations by journalists like Greg Palast, as featured in a recent Artvoice article, have revealed an assortment of dirty tricks and theft used by Republicans to steal votes in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Sadly, it took a recent cover story in Rolling Stone magazine, by no less a celebrity than Bobby Kennedy Jr., to draw a national bead on this vital issue. Palast and his ilk were deemed bad news bears by a mainstream media too preoccupied with good looks and bad behavior to waste time and space on distractions like stolen national elections. |
Free Will Astrology |
by Rob BrezsnyCANCER (June 21-July 22): A literature professor told me an amazing fact: Many of Emily Dickinson’s poems can be sung to the tune of the traditional folk song “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” (Try it with the poem that begins “The soul should always stand ajar,” which you can read at www.snipurl.com/sjrh. To hear the music, go here: www.snipurl.com/sjla.) I like this unexpected resonance between high art and rustic style, between subtleness of mind and earthy feelings, between elite ideas and populist execution. Furthermore, I recommend that you yourself try similar blends in the coming week. |
Streetvoice |
Bouncers or Bust?by Brian W. WrightAfter recent batterings involving bouncers in downtown bars and nightclubs made the news, city officials are playing with the idea of regulating all bouncers by making them go through a licensing certification program. City officials say that such a program will help to curb the violence that news reports say is rampant in downtown bars—but they also recognize that these licenses will cost the city money and plenty of man-hours. Moreover, there are plenty of bar patrons who believe that this is just a load of media hype fomented by a few isolated incidents. So the question must be asked: Is the media searching for a problem that doesn’t exist, or is this a real issue that should be taken care of before it gets too far out of hand? |
News of the Weird |
by Chuck Shepherd■ Ron “King Suki” King won the US checkers championship in June in Medina, Ohio, claiming the $6,000 first prize by emerging from a field of 41 competitors whose intensity generally rivals that of more popular and complex games. King, the world “free style” champion, is known as the Muhammad Ali of checkers for trash-talking his opponents. Also competing was another world champion (in a form of checkers in which the first three moves are always at random), Alex “The Mad Russian” Moiseyev, who assured an Agence France-Presse reporter that, as in chess, the top players have to think 10 moves ahead. |
Getting a Grip |
Petrotreasonby Michael I. NimanMiddle Eastern oil is generally a thin, easy-to-pump liquid. Hence, for generations, when oil was selling for less than bottled water, oil companies turned to producers like Saudi Arabia for their oil. The Saudis took the billions we gave them and pumped the money back into the US economy, basically buying up the country. Today they own an estimated seven percent of the entire US economy. It’s like having your crack dealer or your favorite tobacco company buy the house you mortgaged to feed your addiction. After years of fueling our economy on cheap Saudi oil, the House of Saud now owns a pivotal chunk of our country. |
The News, Briefly |
|
Sitting, Waiting, Wishingby Peter Koch |
|
O Albany!by Geoff Kelly & Matthew Holota |
|
Not So Fastby Peter Koch |
|
Poetry |
|
The Shore You Reachby Loren Keller |
|
Shopping Cartby Ryki Zuckerman |
|
Book Reviews |
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations… One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relinby Karen A. DepalmaThree Cups of Tea is not a great book but rather a compelling story told well by journalist David Oliver Relin and Greg Mortenson, upon whose life it is based. In the fall of 1993 Mortenson, a former US Army medic and platoon leader, emergency room nurse and mountaineer was part of an expedition to summit K2, the world’s second-highest peak. |
Play Ball! |
Trouble in the Heartland?by Andrew Kulyk & Peter FarrellIn the 1980s the dream of MLB expansion for Buffalo was very close to happening. Back then Rich Baseball Group bought and operated a network of minor league teams at each level, with teams here in Buffalo (AAA), Wichita (AA) and Jamestown (A). |
Film Reviews |
|
Homecoming Queenby M. Faust |
|
The Architecture of Egoby George Sax |
|
Film Clips |
|
A Scanner, Darklyby M. Faust |
|
You, Me, and Dupreeby M. Faust |
|
Iron Islandby George Sax |
|
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chestby M. Faust |
|
See You There |
|
Mad Decent Tour 2006: Diplo/Bondo do Role/CSSby K. O'Day |
|
2006 American Accordionists' Association Festival & Competitionby Buck Quigley |
|
Articles of Impeachment: A National Teach-Inby Peter Koch |
|
Deadboy and the Elephantmenby Donny Kutzbach |
|
Left of the Dial |
|
The Alison Piptone Band: Tigerbabiesby Geoff Kelly |
|
Tracy Morrow: Morning Is the End of the Dayby Matthew Holota |
|
La Cacahouetteby Donny Kutzbach |
|
Bandwidth |
Burning ParisAnything else you would like our readers to know about the band…Burning Paris is made up of former members of Seven Day Faith, Lucid and Hanabi. Veteran lineup that came together to write great hooky contemporary rock mixed with all of our different influences. |
Calendar Spotlight |
|
Lifetimeby Michael A. Colucci |
|
The Thirdsby Buck Quigley |
|
Rasputinaby Kat Brady |
|
Aaron Piepsznyby K. O'Day |
|
Divine Machine |
|
Hurtby Michael A. Colucci |
|
Peter Framptonby Buck Quigley |