by Michael Tisserand

I love New Orleans. But after anchoring myself there for half my life, I still don’t understand it all that well. If this city has a soul, I think I’ve only caught fleeting glimpses of it.

by Peter Koch

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Amherst has always preached ecological sensibility. Now it’s putting its money where its mouth is—literally—by purchasing wind energy to meet all of its electricity needs.

by Peter Koch

Following Erie County’s fiscal meltdown last fall, Albany created a “soft” advisory control board to fix our finances. Since August, the seven financial experts of the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority have urged the Legislature to cut costs and pare down county government. It was set to become a “hard” control board on Oct. 1, pending the Legislature’s ability to pass a four-year financial plan. The Legislature, although unable to agree on which taxes to increase, narrowly passed a plan that increases the sales tax by half a cent and property taxes by 16 percent. While that move staved off a hard control board (capable of rejecting labor contracts, freezing wage increases, setting spending levels and forcing other economizing measures), it didn’t solve the problem of over-spending, nor did it rectify the fact that the Legislature will need two more votes for the same plan to pass come budget time. Is the Erie County Legislature finally taking control of its own destiny, or is this just more of the “same old, same old?”

by Alexis Deveaux

A passionate writer and political activist, Thomas Glave is the author of the highly acclaimed collection, Whose Song? and Other Stories (City Lights, 2000). His work has garnered numerous awards and honors, including an O. Henry Fiction Award; and he is recognized as a dynamic, emerging voice in contemporary literature. Assistant Professor of English, General Literature, and Rhetoric at SUNY Binghamton, Glave describes himself as someone who travels between cultural and geograhic spaces. He visits CEPA Gallery this Tuesday, October 11 (National Coming Out Day) to share his perspectives on democracy, imperialism, gay rights, and human rights struggles in the United States and abroad.

by Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell

What’s going on with Buffalo sports fans?

by Lauren N. Maynard

Why you should know who she is: Photographer and teacher Ann Peterson has been taking photos since she was five, when she spent an entire hour and a roll of film shooting one small frog near a forest stream. Since then she has captured the world with her lens several times over. A well-seasoned traveler and currently a Spanish teacher at Canisius High School, Peterson has spent years on a student visa bouncing between Buffalo and Europe, Central America, and the UK. She has visited, lived or taught in places like Costa Rica, Spain, Cuba, Central America, Ireland and, most recently, the Galapagos Islands. She photographs landscapes and cities in a way that “captures the essence of the country. I like to find that simple moment that reflects the culture, like the light, the people, the colors,” she says. Peterson will be on hand to discuss her most recent work, photos of and about Buffalo, this Sunday from 1 to 5 pm at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center as part of the Museum Store’s Fall Artist Showcase. The series features a different artist and his or her work every Sunday through December 18.

by Kevin Thurston

Walking into the gallery space at Buffalo Arts Studio you are immediately hit with Amanda Wojick’s best drawing, “Big Orange Band-Aid Drawing.” The strength of this work captures her project at its best: a mixture of both fine art and everyday materials used to create landscapes ripe with unnatural colors (fire-engine red and other fluorescents abound). At first you notice many colored, striped ink markings suggesting worms and/or night crawlers, but then after stepping back, the Band-Aids actually begin to create an archipelago coming into the frame from the lower left-hand side. She judiciously, and perhaps unnecessarily, brings the point home with ink work taking the shape of exaggerated cattails and other swamp grasses, primarily placing them along the upper-left perimeter of the archipelago.

Executive Director of the Carnegie Art Center, Ellen Ryan figured out years ago that you have to provide something special in order for your audience to make the trek from downtown Buffalo to North Tonawanda, and she hasn’t failed us yet. This year’s collaboration, “Eyes and Ears: Sound Needs Image,” brought film and video makers together with The Open Music Ensemble. The project was co-conceived by filmmaker Joanna Raczynska, who is also Media Arts Director at Hallwalls, and percussionist Will Redman, who is also a co-founder of the Open Music Ensemble.

by Cynnie Gaasch

If you are up for a trip worth the drive, check out the Castellani Art Museum in Lewiston this Friday, October 7 at 5 to 8pm, for a handful of exceptional exhibits. “The Exquisite Corpse in Glass: Contemporary Flameworkers Play A Surrealist Game” is an unusual creation by guest curator and glass artist, Marshall Hyde. Fantastic glass figurines have been mismatched providing fanciful, multiple personality beings at about 14 inches high each. Edward Bisone’s exhibit opens this Friday as well, although the official reception for the artist is in November. An exhibit of Mini Kites opens this Sunday from 2-4pm with activities for children, just in time for the International Kite Festival in Niagara Falls this month (details are in the “See You There” section of this issue).

by M. Faust

As a duo, their popularity has steadily risen since the public discovered their ingenious antics in the 1980s. The big one talks a good deal, at least partly because he enjoys the sound of his own voice. He’s clever, if not quite as smart as he thinks he is. His shorter sidekick doesn’t talk at all, and may in fact be the smarter of the two, though it’s hard to imagine either one without the other.

by M. Faust

There are two primary reasons why you might want to see the low-budget independent film Proud, opening this weekend at the Market Arcade.

by George Sax

Both Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2002 novel Everything is Illuminated and the new movie adapted from it by actor Liev Schreiber deal with a very atypical trip abroad by a young Jewish American in search of information about his family’s Ukrainian origins and its members’ fates during the Holocaust.

by George Sax

At first blush, Roman Polanski may seem an unlikely choice to film Charles Dickens’ famous novel of harrowed childhood, Oliver Twist. A cinematic provocateur, a creator of ominous and deranged psychological environments, he is also prone to exhibit a bleak humor.

by Mark Norris

MTV’s days as a vehicle for breaking new artists are over. It is doubtful that statement will come as a shock to anyone. While seeing a video on the channel at all might come as something of a surprise, catching a clip from a band that you’ve never heard of before falls somewhere between the “highly unlikely” and “get the hell outta here” categories. Even the music conglomerate’s splinter stations –MTV2 et al– have largely stopped showing music videos in deference to reality TV programming about cars, dating and plastic surgery.

Beginning with its debut recording two years ago, Apollo Sunshine has become one of indie rock’s best-kept secrets. With a sound that ranges from avant noise rock to straight ahead power pop, Apollo Sunshine sound almost like what the Beach Boys would have become if Brian Wilson finished Smile in 1967 instead of 2004. Adding pedal steel, samplers, bizarre percussion and keyboards to the standard “guitar, bass and drums” routine, the group’s songs often start out innocently enough before launching into unimagined stratospheres. With its debut album, Katonah, Apollo Sunshine garnered rave reviews, scored a stint on “Last Call With Carson Daly” and earned an invitation to jam with Leon Redbone. The group’s new self-titled album on Spinart Records shows off such experience with confidence. Within a mere 40 minutes, each song becomes more innovative and complex than the last and is sure to rank them alongside such cult luminaries as Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control. When performing live, Apollo Sunshine is ready and willing to use three part-harmonies, play more than one instrument at a time and recreate its often difficult studio arrangements with a perfectionist tone.

Long ago, in what is now Niagara Falls, it was decided there should be a bridge to cross the expanse separating Canada and the U.S. The proposed building method (historically credited to Leonardo Da Vinci) was to fly a kite across the gorge, thus creating the first line. Many attempts were made before success was had by an unlikely candidate: 10 year-old Homan Walsh launched his aptly named kite, “Union,” across the Niagara Gorge, paving the way for the construction (using steel cables, not kite lines) of the first bridge between the two countries, and earning himself a whopping $10 in the process. The Niagara International Kite Festival, set for this weekend on both sides of the border, is a celebration of this event—and of kites in general. Friday brings the Homan Walsh 1848 Kite Contest Re-Enactment at 10am in Queen Victoria Park, Ontario, and Prospect Park in Niagara Falls, USA. Opening day will end with the stunning Night Fly Show on Goat Island—with the Falls as a dramatic backdrop. Saturday’s and Sunday’s festivities will be hosted by Artpark, with more kite flying, workshops, demonstrations, exhibits, and more. Also on Sunday, the Castellani Art Museum presents a Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit, “Mini Kites: World on a Thread,” with kite-based activities from 2-4pm. For more info visit www.niagarakite.com.

by Bill Mahoney

Very few artists who work in the electronic music genre can claim both career longevity and lasting influence. Kraftwerk and techno luminaries Carl Craig and Richie Hawtin are some of the very few who come to mind, but in the world of drum ’n’ bass, English-born DJ and producer Grooverider may be the most significant legend there is. As early innovations in the style can be directly traced to Grooverider’s work (some would even argue that he created it), the DJ has earned the unofficial title “Godfather of Drum ‘n’ Bass” from appreciative fans and followers. Surprisingly, Grooverider has never played in Buffalo—where drum ’n’ bass has become the dominant brand of underground electronic music in area clubs—and his local appearance comes as even more of an honor considering the producer’s current gig on BBC Radio 1 rarely allows him to tour outside of the UK these days. On Friday (October 7), Grooverider spins the wax at Opium Lounge with support from Toronto DJ Mr. Brown and vocal support from resident MC Valiant.

by Cynnie Gaasch

A totally non-science-based conjecture might state, “as the price of gas goes up, the money for the arts goes down.” I’m not sure if it would be provable, but it does paint a picture of some current trends. Arts organizations are getting more creative in generating income to serve their organizations and pursue their visions. CEPA Gallery and the Arts Council in Buffalo and Erie County have stacked up a couple of fundraisers (literally) in the three floors of galleries in the Market Arcade Center. CEPA’s “Visions of Greater Buffalo” put cameras in the hands of area celebrities and power brokers to create 100 photographs to be auctioned off at their Gala and Silent Auction this Saturday. Nicely framed and matted, you could own an image by Irv Weinstein or Barbra Kavanaugh. While you’re there, be sure to check out the Arts Council in Buffalo and Erie County’s “An Exhibition of Regenerate Art” (pictured) on the third floor of the Market Arcade. The Arts Council is selling 1,000 low-cost prints (courtesy of Printing Prep) of artworks made for the exhibition by regional artists. The show runs through October 14.

by Eric Boucher

Named after haunting German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, Rainer Maria has been one of the most influential underground bands of the last ten years. Formed in 1995, Rainer Maria’s transcendent mood pieces shift between dream pop and post-hardcore, and while it isn’t easy to pigeonhole the group’s music, it is their vocals and lyrics that truly set them apart. Past albums such as Look Now, Look Again and A Better Version of Me (both on Polyvinyl) earned high praise from such publications as CMJ, Spin and Alternative Press and high placement on various critics’ year end best of lists. Although it has been two years since its last album, Long Knives Drawn, Rainer Maria has been working hard on a fifth album to be released this fall. Working with Malcolm Burn, who has produced records for Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris and Patti Smith, the still untitled album promises to be fuller and more experimental. On Sunday (Oct. 11), Rainer Maria performs with Knife Crazy and The Heaven and Hell Cotillion, a new side project of Clearmotive.

by Mark Norris

If there is any doubt on the subject, fans of Ben Chasny’s group Six Organs of Admittance can rest assured that their prolific hero is in no danger of losing his muse anytime soon. In the past year alone, Chasny has written and recorded one of the year’s most critically hailed CDs, Six Organ's experimental folk opus School of the Flower (Drag City), worked in the studio and on the road with riff rockers Comets on Fire, and recently issued a recording with Japanese underground music stalwart Hiroyuki Usui under the moniker August Born. For Six Organ’s upcoming show at Soundlab, the band will focus on some of the heavier aspects of its soon-to-be-released new album while also performing the quieter material from past recordings. While that new album is scheduled for release in early 2006, there is still three months left on the calendar. Who knows, perhaps Chasny will have more to say before the year is done. For this tour, Chasny is joined by Sunburned Hand of the Man drummer John Moloney and Hush Arbors bassist Keith Woods. Hush Arbors and Bare Flames share the stage.

by Rob Brezsny

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Many people who live in countries steeped in the Judeo-Christian tradition look down on voodoo, considering it a mishmash of superstition and sorcery. But in her book Vodou Visions, Sallie Ann Glassman argues that Vodou (the preferred spelling among its practitioners) is an authentic religious tradition worthy of respect. She does acknowledge that some of its beliefs may seem odd to polite society. For instance, Vodou’s calm, gentle, sweet spirits are not always forces for good, while some of its hot, turbulent, revolutionary spirits are not necessarily bad. Be open to the possibility that there’ll be similar principles at work in your life in the coming week, Libra—whether or not you have any connection to Vodou.

by Chuck Shepherd

■ Fire officials in Warrnambool, Australia, continue to investigate a Sept. 15 incident in which the carpet of a downtown business burned in several spots, following loud crackling noises, as Frank Clewer, 58, walked on it wearing woolen and nylon clothes. Fire official Henry Barton said the garments tested to over 30,000 volts of static electricity, and a lecturer in electrical engineering at Sydney University said that, given the weather and indoor temperature, such a buildup was possible, especially if the carpet had been cleaned with flammable substances. Pieces of the carpet, with coin-sized scorches, were sent to the university for further examination.