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Valentines Day

The Perfect Date

Every Valentine’s Day, the same question returns: What to do, what to do? A dinner reservation? A show? A quiet dinner at home?

Valentines Music

Lover's Rock 2009

by Donny Kutzbach

Struggling for that something special to give on February 14? Here’s one of the cheapest but most thoughtful gifts going: a playlist! You can burn it to a CD to hand off with a smooch or email it to a loved one across the world.

The News, Briefly

The blue-collar Americans who fought back

Common Council report

Opening up on Syaed Ali

Delano takes the stand

Getting a Grip

Between the left and right lies the middle

by Michael I. Niman

The motto at WNED, our local National Public Radio news station, is “Somewhere between the left and the right lies the truth—that’s where you’ll find us.” I’ve always been annoyed by this trite bit of self-aggrandizement.

Puck Stop

Oh, how we missed Rick Jeanneret and MSG!

by Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell

Just days before the NHL All-Star break, the Buffalo Sabres announced that their upcoming four game road swing out west would be “radio only.” To add to the bad news, legendary play-by-play man Rick Jeanneret would be taking an extended vacation, which his contract allows, and the microphone would be turned over to a bevy of guest announcers.

Music Feature

Remembering Lukas Foss

by Jan Jezioro

As this article was about to go to press, the news of the unexpected death of Lukas Foss in his New York City home on Sunday, February 1, reached the composer’s many colleagues, friends, and admirers here in Western New York. The composer’s death adds a special poignancy to the concert of his music by A Musical Feast, at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center this coming Sunday afternoon.

Theater

Theaterweek

by Anthony Chase

Theatre of Youth has ventured back into territory for teen audiences with Linda Daugherty’s The Secret Life of Girls. Originally produced by Dallas Children’s Theatre, the script is the latest in the category of overtly topical plays for young people, sort of the live equivalent of the old after-school specials.

Theater

Stagefright

by Javier

TV star James Denton , who plays sexy plumber Mike Delfino in Desperate Housewives, recently returned to his theatrical roots, starring in the new play How Cissy Grew presented at a theater in North Hollywood. Denton started as a stage actor in Chicago, where his first role was Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Literary Feature

A conversation with author Geraldine Brooks

by Maria Scrivani

There is an undercurrent of hope in novelist Geraldine Brooks’ writing. It is the subtle silver lining behind such dark-cloud settings as the American Civil War, the Spanish Inquisition and World War II.

Art Feature

Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art 1940-1976

by K. O'Day

On Tuesday, AV got a preview of one of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s most expansive, stylistically comprehensive, and culturally thoughtful exhibitions in...well, read on.

BOOM!

Battle of Original Music: Second Round Quarterfinalists

CONGRATULATIONS Marlon Brando, Pocahontas & Me! You collected the most votes this past week, so you proceed to our live quarterfinal at Nietzsche’s on February 13. With your win, you join The Nepenthe, Paul’s Grandfather, and Fashion Expo 1990 in the second of four live battles of original local bands.

Food for Thought

How to Make Dough

by Joe George

Here’s a statement about myself that some may already know: I like to make dough. While this can easily be interpreted to imply that I like to make lots of money, it (unfortunately, I suppose) means exactly what it states. I’m of course referring to the foodstuff, not cash, and it seems I’m much better at making the former than acquiring and retaining the latter.

Film Reviews

Coraline

by M. Faust

He's Just Not That Into You

by M. Faust

Listings

On The Boards Theater Listings

Movie Times (Fri. Feb. 6 - Thurs. Feb. 12)

Film Now Playing

Events

See You There!

Artvoice's weekly round-up of events to watch out for the week, including our editor's pick: Editor's Pick: Otis Taylor at the Stuart Steiner Theater on Saturday, February 7th.

Letters to Artvoice

Mayor Brown's Fund to Advance Buffalo

by Aaron Siegel

Jim Kelly's Good Side

by Jill Morgan

Offbeat News

News of the Weird

by Chuck Shepherd

Saudi Arabia is host to several camel beauty pageants each year (condemned as religiously fatuous by Muslim clerics), but the country’s first goat beauty pageant was held in September in Riyadh, with the distinctive Najdi breed, featuring high nose bridges and silky, shaggy hair, taking top prizes.

Literary Buffalo

Write Thing: Three Writers, Two Xs

by Ted Pelton

Flash Fiction

by Skip Fox

Gaywatch

PRISM: One Community, Many Perspectives

by Bryan Whitley-Grassi

Art has always played a central role in LGBT culture and life. As a community, LGBT people tend to have a penchant for the arts. This is why in 2007, the Pride Center of Western New York began producing its annual art show featuring the best in local LGBT artists in a one-of-a-kind show.

Horoscopes

Free Will Astrology

by Rob Brezsny

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “What is a weed?” asked Ralph Waldo Emerson. “A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” Your assignment, Aquarius, is to identify a weed-like thing in your life whose rich possibilities have not yet been fully realized.

Advice

Ask Anyone

I’m not a one partner kind of guy. I feel like I’m too young to be pinned down right now, and I’m not ready to commit. Generally I’m happy playing the field. But it makes holidays difficult and frankly kind of lonely. Right now I’m seeing a couple people regularly and another person from time to time, and I don’t want to give any of them the wrong idea by spending Valentine’s Day with one of them.