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Valentine's Day Issue

Valentine's Day

With the likely exception of Flag Day, no holiday is given shorter shrift than Valentine’s Day. If it even is a holiday, and not merely a sales tool for chocolatiers, florists, and restaurateurs in the slowest of the late-winter months.

Valentine's Day Issue

The AV Ultimate Valentine's Day Mixtape

James Blake takes the already heart-tugging melodies of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case Of You,” replaces the tinny guitar tones with sparse piano flourishes, and sings lines like “I remember the time you told me Love is touching souls/Surely you touched mine” in his naturally sad but beautiful voice. The result is a devastating and genuine reimagining of this well-known folk song for a new generation.

Week in Review

Local Attorneys Seek Federal Leonard Peltier Documents

by George Sax

Fixing Niagara's SPCA

by Buck Quigley

Brookings Report Lists Buffalo Per Capita GDP as 19th Largest in the World

by Jay Burney

The Would-Be Comptrollers' Coming-Out Party

by Geoff Kelly

Scorecard: The Week's Winners & Losers

by Zachary Burns

News Analysis

Being Right and Wrong About Buffalo

by Bruce Fisher

Just west across the Niagara River from Buffalo is a place where the income tax rate on individuals is higher than in New York or any of the other 49 United States. It is a place where national and provincial taxes on consumption are higher, and where there are more public employees per capita than in Buffalo. Comprehensive land-use and infrastructure planning there restricts development to specific corridors, in sharp contrast to the free-for-all, every-town-for-itself ways of Western New York.

Art Scene

Channels: Stories From the Niagara Frontier

by Jack Foran

In 1968, a US Department of the Interior report described the Buffalo River as a “repulsive holding basin for industrial and municipal waste.” It stated that the river was “devoid of oxygen and almost sterile. Oils, phenols, color, oxygen-demanding materials, iron, acid, sewage, and exotic organic compounds are present in large amounts.”

Food Feature

Park it on Amherst Street

by Jennifer Mogensen

Though Mother Nature is kindly holding those fluffy white flakes at bay, finding street parking in Buffalo during the winter months can still be a hassle.

Classical Music Notes

Belfast to Buffalo

by Jan Jezioro

If you were asked what is the most often performed classical music piano concerto in the United States, you probably wouldn’t be very far off the mark if you guessed that it was the Tchaikovsky Concerto No.1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23.

Theater Week

Feeling Special

by Anthony Chase

One of the most fabulous musical performances of this season is, without question, happening up at MusicalFare. From the moment the sultry, sassy, and voluptuous performer begins to undulate her way down the center aisle, singing her signature tune, “Special,” we are mesmerized. She pauses her steamy saunter to interact with various men in the audience.

Artvoice B.O.O.M!

Round 3, Week 4: The Absentee Projects vs. Big Tree Road

Congratulations to the Freeeek for winning last week’s online contest. With that win, they secure a spot in the next BOOM live show, coming up on Saturday, February 25 at Nietzsche’s.

Film Feature

Dirty and Down

by M. Faust

He was named best actor at the Venice Film Festival, but Michael Fassbender’s performance as an emotionally troubled man disabled by sexual compulsions was apparently either too subtle or too disturbing for the Oscar folk, who declined to nominate him for his work in Shame, opening this week at the Amherst Theater.

Film Clips

International Women's Film Festival

by M. Faust

Oscar-Nominated Short Films

by M. Faust

Midnight Beacon Film Series

by M. Faust

Listings

On The Boards Theater Listings

Movie Times (Friday, February 10 - Thursday, February 16)

Film Now Playing

Featured Events

See You There!

Artvoice's weekly round-up of featured events, including our editor's picks for the week: The 3rd Annual Powder Keg Festival, taking place in Niagara Square this weekend.

Autos Feature

A Really Big Show

by Jim Corbran

In more than 60 cities across the country, the annual auto show is to car buffs as the Super Bowl is to football fans, the World Series is to baseball fans, and the presidential debates are to comedy buffs.

You Auto Know

I'll Take What's Behind Door Number Three

by Jim Corbran

You’ve got to admire Hyundai. Once the laughingstock of the American car market, they’ve now got top-selling Toyota looking over their shoulders. And for good reasons: the Elantra, the Sonata…

Letters to Artvoice

Help Keep Occupy Buffalo Alive and Growing

by Terry Bisson

Loves Animals, Eats Meat

by Matt Kosloski

Ron Paul Rules

by Paul Castagnini

Offbeat News

News of the Weird

by Chuck Shepherd

“Dementiaville”: Swiss health officials have authorized construction of an assisted-living “village” of 1950s-style homes and gardens designed to “remind” patients with Alzheimer’s and similar afflictions of surroundings that they might actually recall and with which they might be more comfortable and secure than they are with modern life.

Horoscopes

Free Will Astrology

by Rob Brezsny

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Jeep vehicles always feature seven slots on their front grills. Why? For the manufacturer, it’s a symbolic statement proclaiming the fact that Jeep was the first vehicle driven on all seven continents. Let’s take that as your cue, Aquarius.

Advice

Ask Anyone

I’m a local photographer who has been at it for over a decade. I used to be on top of the world. I had my own public studio, I had tons of models lining up to pay to work with me, and then after stepping on a few toes in the local industry trying to break new ground, I’ve found my career stuck on pause. I was no longer in demand.