Heads Explode

by Bud Navero

Long a politically provocative, technically virtuosic and slyly witty catalyst on Buffalo’s photography scene, Diane Bush returns to town with a show worthy of the time we’ve spent awaiting her re-arrival. Her new show, including Warheads and Talking Pictures, is at the Burchfield-Penney Arts Center through July 12. Bush also recently published a substantial book of the Warheads images with KuDa Editions.

by Rob Brezsny

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Since it’s my birthday this week, I decided to take a break from business as usual. That’s why I outsourced the writing of our Cancerian horoscope to an astrologer in Bangladesh, Farhana Rasel. Here’s what she came up with: It is an auspicious time to use the good will you have accumulated through your generous deeds. You should ask for favors from people who have enjoyed your favors and coast along on the currents of the good karma you have set in motion. Luck will be on your side if you permit yourself an excursion into the naughty mysteries of enlightened narcissism. You will be given more slack than usual, especially if you have the nerve to demand it.

Rising Crime: What's To Be Done?

by Nikki Gawel

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The balmy summer is finally here (the good times) but crime is ever present and, according to newly released statistics, on the rise(the bad times). From 2004 to 2005, Buffalo’s city streets have become steadily less safe. Violent crime, for example, rose 3.5 percent over that period, outpacing the national increase of 2.5 percent. Robberies shot up 12 percent. In 2006, however, there have been some improvements—fewer murders than last year and fewer reported rapes. But robberies have increased dramatically compared to 2005. Buffalo Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson has said high crime is the price a job-poor, economically downtrodden community pays. What does all this mean? What do we do about it?

by Chuck Shepherd

■ A 5-year-old boy in Broward County, Fla., preparing to enter kindergarten, is believed by gender-identity experts to be the youngest kid in the country whose family supports his decision to live completely as the other sex (according to a May profile in New Times Broward-Palm Beach). The parents doubt that the unnamed now-girl (dubbed “Nicole Anderson” in the article) is “just going through a phase,” because of “her” early, constant, and insistent female preferences and comments, e.g., “I want the fairy princess to come and make my penis into a vagina.”

Buffalo Calling

by Eric Johnt

"Pearl" by Mary Gordon

by Jill Froebel

Pearl is a daring novel, written in a complex, gutsy style that reaches toward the sublime with a conscientious, inquisitive style and lofty subject matter. Ultimately, though, it falls flat. The novel’s attempt at stream of consciousness prose and a heavy-handed reliance on rhetorical questions, pseudo-psychological drama and unlikable characters creates a morose rather than interesting environment, and actually finishing the novel becomes more of chore than the escapist act summer reading, by all rights, should be.

Outlawing the Wind

by Michael I. Niman

There is a plus side to soaring energy costs—a sort of silver lining to an otherwise bad news year. The Earth Policy Institute reports that wind-generated electricity in many US markets is now cheaper than natural gas generated electricity. If one of the objectives of the Iraq War was, as BBC investigative journalist Greg Palast argues, to disrupt the flow of oil—he calls it “blood for no oil”—and drive up both energy prices and energy industry profits, then this sudden market embrace of alternative energy threatens to derail that evil plan. With the emergence of now cheaper alternatives to fossil fuels, it seems that the free market may temper runaway energy prices while maybe saving us from environmental mayhem. Of course, a sane society would have done this on its own a generation ago, so don’t count me among the free market idol worshipers.

The News from Overseas

by Geoff Kelly

In November 2000, the BBC sent journalist Greg Palast to Florida to cover that state’s haywire election. Palast documented the purging from the voter rolls of more than 90,000 eligible voters, mostly African Americans and minorities—people predisposed to vote for Democrats—based on lists of ex-felons that were at least 97 percent wrong. He discovered that shoddy voting machines guaranteed to render ballots unreadable were sent to voting districts that trended Democratic, while Republican districts received new, more reliable and accurate machines. He uncovered a whole arsenal of vote-gaming techniques employed by the Republican administration of the State of Florida, led by Governor Jeb Bush and Florida Secretary of State Katharine Harrison (who now serves in the US House of Representatives). The deceit and neglect were intentional and widespread, as Palast reported for the BBC and London’s Guardian newspapers. No US media outlets would run his stories, however, so he wrote a book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (originally published in 2002, reissued by Plume in 2004), which quickly climbed the New York Times best-seller list.

by Rose Mattrey

This weekend’s Peace Has No Borders: A Festival of Resistance brought together generations of people who oppose the war in Iraq. Veterans of World War II, Vietnam and both wars in Iraq joined with Vietnam resisters, Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan and several Iraq war resisters who are currently living in Canada. The event was organized by Vietnam war resister Bruce Beyer and Iraq veteran Geoff Millard, both from Buffalo. All called for an end to a war that they consider illegal and immoral, and asked for Americans to support all soldiers who oppose the war—those who have served in it and those who choose not to. The bond and love between all of these men and women was obvious. They have become an extended family of brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. Cindy Sheehan received warm hugs from the young men seeking refuge in Canada. She tearfully wished that her son Casey had joined these soldiers in Canada rather than going to Iraq, where he was killed five days into his tour of duty. While Casey will never be replaced, it seems that Sheehan now has an army of sons.

A Diverse Palette

by Cynnie Gaasch

Witness the diversity of Western New York’s visual arts scene in three group exhibitions this month. Art Dialogue Gallery offers their 10th Annual Members Exhibition, including painting photography and sculpture by some of the area’s most established artists. Buffalo Arts Studio provides a thorough look at work by five emerging artists who keep studios there in a show titled So Far. Spirit at Insite Gallery features inspiring works in mixed media, clay, fiber and water media by five women artists. The compilation of these artists’ works is a thorough survey of the quality we can expect to witness in the region’s galleries.

Alan Bennet Monologues

by Anthony Chase

The Irish Classical Theatre Company has used the leisurely pace of the early summer to offer two marvelous monologues by Alan Bennett on the stage of the Andrews Theatre. Best of all, they are performed by two of Buffalo’s most accomplished actors, Gerry Maher and Jeanne Cairns, making for a splendid evening of sheer theatrical pleasure.

Rider and Horse As One

by Jim Corbran

It seemed appropriate, with summer actually upon us, to take a look at a “summer car”—you know, one which lets the wind muss up your hair; one which lets the sun burn your forehead to a crisp; one which lets the bugs get right in there between your teeth. Only a convertible really fills the bill here. So why not turn to the best-selling two-seat convertible ever—Mazda’s MX-5.

SkyMall Edition

by David P. Kleinschmidt

Flying to a conference in Little Rock, I drummed my fingers on the tray and stared out the window at the rural patchwork below. I was worried. How could it be that after writing for only six months, I’ve already broken every marginally interesting gadget in the house in the name of journalism? I sipped my tomato juice and rummaged through the seat-back pouch. There, between the airsick bag and the safety instructions, I found my salvation: SkyMall (http://skymall.com).

Our Town, On Screen

by M. Faust

“Location, location, location” are, as everyone knows, the three most important things in buying real estate. But when you want to make movies in a city as far from Hollywood (both literally and metaphorically) as Buffalo, it assumes a different meaning.

Siriun Geometry

Anything else you would like our readers to know about the band…We just want you to come out to our shows and have a killer time. Also, on June 26, we’ll be giving away some Guitar World 2007 Buyer’s Guides because we’re in that mag. We’ve had so much love and support from friends and fans so far and, to them, we say thank you.