Halloween at the Riviera

by Anthony Chase

If you have never seen F.W. Murnau’s classic 1922 silent horror classic, Nosferatu, or Rupert Julian’s 1925 silent horror classic, The Phantom of the Opera, the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda is providing the perfect occasion and the perfect setting. Built as a silent movie house in 1926 and still home to its original Mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ, the Riviera was literally made for films like these. This Halloween, the Riviera returns to its roots with screenings of these classic films with accompaniment by organists Ivan Docenko and Bruce Woody on the Mighty Wurlitzer.

Last week on Bush’s weekly radio address he assured the nation, “our goal in Iraq is clear and unchanging: our goal is victory.” Is this a mantra? If we repeat it enough will something wonderful happen? There has never been a clearly stated goal from the beginning: a beginning of a war that was to last no more than six months and is now approaching the length of time we spent in World War II. Wasn’t that the reason Bush could not face Cindy Sheehan and tell her what “our noble cause” was? Are we just to ignore the carnage now taking place in Iraq and the civil war that is fermenting and growing day by day? Are we, as a civilized nation, to ignore the loss of life of our troops as well as hundreds of thousands of Iraqis? Do we just ignore the fact that this seems to be a war without end? Don’t think: just keep repeating victory!

by Chuck Shepherd

■ Campaign Roundup: (1) In her joyful 2004 autobiography, Sandy Sullivan, 65, the Republican candidate for secretary of state in Wisconsin, recalls her friskier days as a 1960s Green Bay Packers fan, including interludes with Hall of Fame running back Paul Hornung. (2) Donovan Brown, the Democratic nominee for a Florida state House seat, resumed campaigning in October after a two-week involuntary stay at a mental health facility after his mother took him in for evaluation. (3) Palm Beach County, Fla., whose Democratic voters’ confusion over the “butterfly ballot” may have cost Al Gore the presidency in 2000, will now see if its Republicans will be confused by a state law that requires them to vote for their recently resigned congressman, Mark Foley, if they want to register votes for his Republican replacement.

by Rob Brezsny

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You’re ready for take-off. It’s time to taxi to the launch location and prepare to go airborne. I suggest you do what birds and airplanes do, which is to fly directly into the wind as you leave the ground. As long as you’re forcefully propelling yourself forward, that will give you maximum lift. Oh, and flap your wings gracefully, not frenetically. Don’t stare at the ground right beneath you, but rather fix your gaze on a distant point high above you. Halloween costume suggestion: eagle, jet, hang-glider, dragonfly.

An Orphan of History

by Todd Natti

Every day residents of Buffalo pass by the city’s historic structures unaware of their existence and past. Within these buildings are stories that indirectly shape the city’s present incarnation. They are histories that have been forgotten; stories that are untold. They hide in parts of Buffalo that people either do not know about or to which they do not wish to venture. They are orphans of time, neglected by the public, waiting to be rediscovered.

So Satisfying

by Marla Baykan

Between smart advertising and expert service night after night, Hutch’s is—and I believe will remain—one of the most well known and loved restaurants in Buffalo. When people come into town, you take them to Hutch’s. It’s our city crowd, our city restaurant.

by Anthony Chase

Plays open in waves in the Buffalo theater community. This Friday marks the second wave of the season with several auspicious openings.

Go Big or Stay Home

by Jim Corbran

I know I’ve used this space in the past to harp on gas-guzzling oversized SUVs. And I’m sure I’ll do it again. But even I will admit—there’s a market out there for them. I’ll even go further and admit that some people who buy them actually have a need for them. Businesses, for example, who may need to haul seven or eight people around at a time. Or maybe haul a trailer. And I’m sure you’ve noticed many government officials who’ve taken to riding around in these things instead of a limo. They’re roomy (for doing whatever it is government officials feel the need to do in the back seats while being driven around at our expense); they’re durable; they’re relatively safe; and in four-wheel-drive mode they can go where many Lincolns and Cadillacs may fear to tread.

The Green in Ireland

by Albert Chao

Ireland, once considered the most impoverished of European nations, now has the second highest per capita income in the European Union. The founders of Bucholz McEvoy Architects, Merritt Bucholz, a native Western New Yorker, and partner Karen McEvoy, a native of Ireland, will be coming to Buffalo early November to discuss their work and recent projects. Between architectural practice, teaching and creating discourse and collaboration, they have actively engaged Ireland’s unique changes between urban and rural with a strong environmental consciousness.

Pictures at an Extradition

by George Sax

At several intervals in Mat Whitecross and Michael Winterbottom’s film about the US government’s confinement of three young Pakistani-Englishmen at the Guantanamo, Cuba prison facility for alleged “enemy combatants,” the brute stupidity of the American captors threatens to seriously challenge their common brutality as the dominant characteristic in their treatment of the prisoners. In one scene, a civilian interrogator begins to question one of them with the assistance of an Arabic-speaking interpreter. For a few moments the young detainee from outside Birmingham, England responds in Arabic, but he eventually startles this intelligence specialist by asking in English why they’re doing this. “You speak English?” she asks, nonplussed.