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Cover Story

Back: Scratch

by Donny Kutzbach

For passionate fans of music, a record store is far more than a place to pick up the latest releases, or to scrape through bins, hunting down classics and obscurities. Record stores have always been hubs. They are meeting places. They are places to soak in knowledge. They are a refuge.

News Analysis

Giving in Florida, Taking From New York

by Bruce Fisher

Here in Buffalo, the Benderson Development Corporation has a contract with Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation that gives Benderson exclusive rights to develop more than 500,000 square feet of leaseable space on at least an acre of public land in the proposed Canal Side development.

Week in Review

Seven Days: The Straight Dope From the Week That Was

by Geoff Kelly

Scorecard: The Week's Winners and Losers

by Zachary Burns

Art Scene

The Inscrutable Clyfford Still

by Jack Foran

The art of Clyfford Still is about as tough as it gets. But see enough of his paintings at one time, in one place, and they start to make sense.

Classical Music

Cue The Cadenza

by Jan Jezioro

Live opera has been making something of a comeback in Western New York. Leading the way, the Nickel City Opera, under its artistic director Valerian Ruminski, delivered a pair of warmly received, well attended performances of Verdi’s Rigoletto in the Riviera Theatre to open its second season this past June, and it is preparing Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, a Christmas season favorite, for an early December production.

Theater Week

All Shook Up at Artpark

by Anthony Chase

All Shook Up, a musical fable that uses Elvis Presley’s hit songs to tell the inevitable story of a bad boy who shows a dull town how to have fun, is entirely charming on the Artpark stage. The last in a litany of Broadway jukebox musicals, this one is best remembered in New York for making heartthrob Cheyenne Jackson a Broadway star and for not being as awful as Good Vibrations, which flopped in the same season.

Food for Thought

Tomato Time

by Joe George

Recently while standing in my tiny urban garden, on a relentlessly steamy days, I found myself in awe. Despite the recent devastation my tomato plants endured from Jurassic-sized hornworms, they still yielded a fair amount of fruit. I plucked a perfect crimson orb from its vine, inspected it, and ate it where it grew, in my front yard.

Film Feature

Kids With a Scythe

by M. Faust

The Kids in the Hall are back, and they’re better than ever. Or at least they’re as good as ever, and when you’re talking about the most consistently inventive and hilarious ensemble since Monty Python, that’s more than enough.

Film Reviews

Mademoiselle Chambon

by George Sax

Restrepo

by George Sax

Nanny McPhee Returns

by M. Faust

Listings

On The Boards Theater Listings

Movie Times (Friday, August 20 - Thursday, August 26)

Film Now Playing

Featured Events

See You There!

Artvoice's weekly round-up of events to watch out for the week, including our editor's pick: DIY band Glossary, performing at Mohawk Place on Saturday the 21st.

Play Ball!

Buffalo Guys Helping Mets

by Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell

If you want to look at the most noticeable difference between the 2009 and 2010 Buffalo Bisons, just take a look at the players who are making it happen at the big league level.

5 Questions With...

Larry Beahan: Conservationist, Physician

In retirement, Larry Beahan is more active as a writer and committed conservationist than men one third his age. He’s the author of My Grampa’s Woods: The Adirondacks; Allegany Hellbender Tales; North Country; and Adirondack Pulp Fiction, and sits as the Conservation Chairman of the Sierra Club Niagara Group.

Letters to Artvoice

Nuclear Weapons and the Way We Think

by Winslow Myers

Two strategic goals of the US are an apparent desire to control Middle East oil and the expressed commitment to help keep Israel safe. This requires the US to refuse the laudable vision of the Middle East as a nuclear weapons-free zone, which would demand that Israel dismantle its nuclear arsenal. Instead, news reports indicate that Israel may be gearing up for a pre-emptive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Offbeat News

News of the Weird

by Chuck Shepherd

After surveying 374 waitresses, professor Michael Lynn, who teaches marketing and tourism at Cornell University, concluded that customers left larger tips to those with certain physical characteristics such as being slender, being blond or having big breasts. Lynn told the Cornell Daily Sun in May that his study was important in helping potential waitresses gauge their “prospects in the industry.”

Gaywatch

Listings and Resources

Buffalo has a large and diverse gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. For further information about its numerous organizations and activities, visit Gaywatch at Artvoice.com, call the Western New York Pride Center (852-7743), or email WinterDanny@AOL.com.

Horoscopes

Free Will Astrology

by Rob Brezsny

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): For the people of Finland, the word sisu describes a quality they regard as integral to their national character.

Advice

Ask Anyone

I separated from my husband about a year ago. Until recently we remained cordial and I’ve kept good relations with his family, with whom I am very close.