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Cover Story

Buffalo Rising

by Jamie Moses

Some people seem to have a clear roadmap for life before they reach the sixth grade: finish school, have a nice wedding, buy a home, have kids, work hard, retire, die and have a nice funeral.

Green Energy Feature

Here Comes the Sun

by Peter Soscia

“It’s not easy being green,” a motto of Kermit the Frog and environmentally conscious homeowners looking to switch from fossil fuel utilities to green energy alternatives. However, in recent years homeowners have been able to change their tune as advancements in technology and government incentives have made residential solar energy more efficient and affordable than ever.

Garden Feature

Back to the Garden

by Jeff Czum

What if you could grow enough organic produce, flowers and herbs annually for an entire community on less than one acre of land? Sound Impossible? There are community gardens sprouting up all over the city doing just that.

Getting A Grip

Maiming the IRS

by Michael I. Niman

The IRS is the agency Americans love to hate. For generations it’s been lambasted in songs and served as low hanging fruit for comedians. It’s workforce, which is about two thirds women, generally work in nondescript offices to avoid attack by terrorists such as Andrew Joseph Stack, the Oklahoman suicide pilot who in 2010 flew his plane into the side of a building housing an IRS field office, murdering one worker and injuring 13 others. Stack died on the spot, but newly empowered Republicans soon took the anti-IRS fight to congress.

Guest Essay

Bourgeois Concerns

by Wayne Alt

For the past 28 years, Dr. Thomas Potts, a dentist, has dedicated much of his time and effort in travelling to southern Mexico to developing a very successful dental clinic in Chenalho, located in one of the southern states(Chiapas) of Mexico. This clinic services up to a dozen small villages in the immediate area. Potts has organized a local dental committee made up of people from the area of Chenalho. Recently they have developed a relationship with a dental college which has sent interns to work at this clinic.

Playball

The Red Hot Bisons

by Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell

Don’t look now. But the Buffalo Bisons are off to a fast start to this 2015 season. Coming home from a superb road trip this past Sunday, the team stood at a league leading 12-5 record as they began play at home this past Monday.

Investigative Post

Yokels and Yahoo!

by Charlotte Keith

Everyone in these parts has heard of the Buffalo Billion. Overlooked is another government subsidy program that could be called the Lockport Half-Billion.

By any standard, the incentives granted Yahoo to build a data and call center in Lockport are generous.

Beer Feature

Growing Terroir

by Dr. Bob Johnson

The French have long referred to the influence that a region’s soils, water and microclimate imbues to wines and agricultural products as “terroir.” The concept is now appreciated throughout the world and is evolving into a more complex understanding of the interactions of both the physical and biological factors of a region.

What's Brewing

Presented by Consumer Beverages

by Paul Marko, Chris Groves

Lagunitas Nighttime & Hamburg Brewing No Lux, TAPNY

Artvoice B.O.O.M!

Round 4, Week 3: The Naturalists vs. The Get Money Squad

Welcome to the ninth installment of Artvoice’s Battle of Original Music—a contest we call BOOM, for short. Visit boom.artvoice.com to listen to this week’s contestants, The Naturalists and The Get Money Squad.

Classical Music Notes

The Return of the Impresario

by Jan Jezioro

For the final event in this year’s series, the Friends of Vienna will host a song recital by Valerian Ruminski, accompanied by pianist Matt Marco, on Sunday May 3 at 3:30pm in the Unity Church, 1243 Delaware. While opera may be his main focus nowadays, Ruminski also has a passion for song recitals. His performance of works by Brahms, Mahler, Herbert and Vehar this Sunday will be his first local full recital program in years.

Theatrically Speaking

James Bond and the Gal with the Golden Voice

by Anthony Chase

Debbie Gravitte is very easy to talk to. The singer’s magnetic charm and relaxed manner leaps through the telephone, and you quickly feel as if you are speaking to an old friend, not the celebrated concert performer and Tony Award winner that she is.

Film Review

The Salt of the Earth

by Jordan Canahai

Although most acclaimed as the director of such classic films as Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire, German filmmaker Wim Wenders, like his contemporary Werner Herzog, has also staked out an impressive body of work as a documentarian, focusing particularly on other artists equally concerned with the transcendent as he is.

Film Review

Avengers: Age of Ultron

by Erica Ladd

The much-anticipated sequel to 2012’s The Avengers, The Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters this weekend. Once again helmed by writer/director Joss Whedon, the film features a cast which includes the six returning Avengers: Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce Banner/ the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and former S.H.I.E.L.D. members Maria Hill (Colbie Smulders) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).

Featured Events

See You There!

AV Hit List: Top Event Picks for This Week

Listings

On The Boards Theater Listings

Movie Listings (Friday, May 1 - Thursday, May 6)

Film Now Playing

Graphic Traffic

WE3

by Carolyn Marcille

Outcast

by Joe Tell

Offbeat News

News of the Weird

by Chuck Shepherd

Tough Love: A Catholic priest (unnamed in news reports) in Taranto, Italy, was removed recently after reports that, while attempting to minister to an unemployed laborer, he arranged for online role-playing in which the man was Judas and the priest dispatched him to gay orgies to be punished (for betraying Jesus) by members of the Vatican security force.

Horoscopes

Free Will Astrology

by Rob Brezsny

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): eBay is a multi-billion-dollar e-commerce business that has been around for almost 20 years. But it had an inauspicious beginning. The first item ever sold on the service was a broken laser pointer. Even though the laser pointer didn’t work, and the seller informed the buyer it didn’t work, it brought in $14.83.