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Cover Story

2012: The Year in Review

The Year in Verse

Looking Ahead: Wishes and Prognostications

Week in Review

The Acquittal of Nate Buckley

by George Sax

Speaking of Judge McLeod...

by Buck Quigley

Air-Quality Monitoring at the Peace Bridge Plaza and Elsewhere

by Jack Foran

News Analysis

Intellectuals and Community

by Bruce Fisher

When the late Wayne Chambless came to Buffalo in 1960 to study English literature, he was leaving the segregated South for one of the triumphantly progressive places of America. Buffalo was then the home of a great new public university. The already-renowned art gallery was being expanded. The great public library system—home to the most significant Mark Twain manuscripts, especially Chambless’s favorite, Huckleberry Finn—was just opening its new downtown headquarters.

Getting a Grip

13 Safe Bets for 2013

by Michael I. Niman

Republican elected officials will continue to soil themselves and expect the rest of us to clean up after their messes. Republican governors and Republican-controlled statehouses will distinguish themselves with crackpot legislation mostly targeting the rights of women, wage-earners, the sick, the poor, and the weak, all while their states go to hell.

Art Scene

Abstract and Back Again

by Jack Foran

A major exhibit of Carl Chiarenza’s photographs at the UB Anderson Gallery reveals how his work progressed from initially pictorial semi-abstract to full-scope abstract, then back to semi-abstract, but of a much more specifically photographic character than the original pictorial work.

Theater Week

2012: The Year in Theater

by Anthony Chase

The New Year assessment of the Old Year can make little sense in Buffalo. Unlike New York City, where a successful show from 2012 is still likely to be running in 2013 and even beyond, Buffalo theaters operate on a September-to-August calendar, with few shows lasting more than their scheduled three-to-five-week run—no matter how successful.

Classical Music Notes

Catherine Parker Remembered

by Jan Jezioro

The Buffalo Chamber Players and friends will honor the memory and celebrate the life of artist Catherine Parker, on Saturday, January 5 at 11am, at St. Joseph University Church (3269 Main Street) in Buffalo.

Artvoice B.O.O.M!

Round 1, Week 3: Nelson and the Heaters vs. Blue Ribbon Bastards

Congratulations to Super Killer Robots for collecting the most online votes last week. With that win, they join Randle and the Late Night Scandals in the live showcase scheduled for January 26 at Nietzsche’s.

Sports Feature

2012: The Year in Sports

by Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell

It’s that time of year again… time to look back on the past 12 months and pick out our favorite sports stories from the headlines.

Film Review

Hyde Park on Hudson

by George Sax

If Hyde Park on Hudson proves nothing else, it does show that Bill Murray is no Ralph Bellamy. After years as a motion picture supporting-actor and B-movie lead, Bellamy began an adjunct career portraying Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Listings

On The Boards Theater Listings

Movie Times (Friday, January 4 - Thursday, January 10)

Film Now Playing

Featured Events

See You There!

Artvoice's weekly round-up of featured events, including our editor's pick for the week: Jeff Mangum, who performs at Asbury Hall on Wednesday, January 9th, with opening acts Tall Firs and Briars of North America.

You Auto Know

Fran's Fine Ford Fusion

by Jim Corbran

This week we’re doing this a little different. I got a call a while back from old friend and Riverside resident Fran Bushardt, telling me he’d just ordered a new Ford Fusion, and we decided that when it came in we’d take it for a YAK test drive. Well, as things often go in the real world, there was a long delivery delay, and Fran’s Fusion just arrived a couple of weeks ago.

Letters to Artvoice

A Resolution: Keep an Open Mind

by Matthew Crehan Higgins

Scary

by Joe Gerken

Doing What's Right

by Joseph Ciarlo

Don't Demonize Video Games

by Steve Breslin

Defending the Right to Bear Arms

by Dan Hoffman

Offbeat News

News of the Weird

by Chuck Shepherd

A cosmetics company in Gaza recently began selling a fragrance dedicated to victory over Israel and named after the signature M-75 missile that Hamas has been firing across the border. “The fragrance is pleasant and attractive,” said the company owner, “like the missiles of the Palestinian resistance,” and comes in masculine and feminine varieties, at premium prices (over, presumably, the prices of ordinary Gazan fragrances).

Horoscopes

Free Will Astrology

by Rob Brezsny

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In Tom Robbins’ book Skinny Legs and All, one of the characters, Ellen Cherry, has a conversation with a voice in her head. The voice gives her a piece of advice: “The trick is this: keep your eye on the ball. Even when you can’t see the ball.”

Advice

Ask Anyone

I’m so tired of coming up with New Year’s resolutions for myself, and then breaking them, that I’ve decided to start making resolutions for other people instead. This way, when those resolutions go unfulfilled, I can hate other people instead of myself.