One Piano, Four Hands

by Jan Jezioro

Amy Williams is coming back to Buffalo, and that’s a good thing. No, make that a very good thing. Williams is one half of the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, along with her duo partner, Helena Bugallo. The duo hasn’t performed in town since 2000, and their return is long past due.

by Chuck Shepherd

■ The Kibera neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Dahravi section of Mumbai, India, are two of the planet’s most appalling slums, but residents have recently discovered well-off international visitors roaming their toxic, fetid urban hells as voyeurs on travel agency-arranged tours. “(T)hey want to come and take pictures…tell their friends they’ve been to the worst slum in Africa,” lamented one resident of Kibera (which has one toilet for every 1,440 people), speaking to a Reuters reporter in February, but a March Smithsonian magazine piece quoted a Dahravi tour entrepreneur as promising to show “the positive side of (the) slum” (for instance, the community spirit that discourages street beggars, in a nation otherwise teeming with them).

by Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Hundreds of years ago, the Native American tribe known as the Seneca had a rule of thumb about when to sow corn seed. You had to wait until the weather was warm enough to lie naked in the dirt without discomfort. I believe a similar principle applies to your plans to start a certain new enterprise, Aries. Hold off on the launch until you’re able to take off all your clothes in a natural setting and stretch out on the ground without shivering.

The Albright-Knox Decision

by Bruce Jackson

Last Friday morning New York State Supreme Court Justice Diane Y. Devlin threw out the lawsuit brought by five Buffalonians who wanted to block the auction of slightly over 200 objects the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy (which operates the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) had decided to sell.

Michelle Johnson

Michelle Johnson is a long-time advocate for local housing issues. Last year she co-produced the documentary Flipped, which examines how the practice can lead to a greatly decreased quality of life for targeted neighborhoods. She acts as a housing court liason for the Fillmore District and sits on the Board of Buffalo ReUse. Until recently she was a ember of the mayor’s Anti-Flipping Task Force. Now she has another title to add to her growing resume: internet radio show host.

Ford Re-Focuses

by Jim Corbran

For a company that long seemed to have put all of its eggs in one basket (the F-150 pickup…okay, maybe two baskets—throw in the Explorer SUV), you’ve got to give credit to the Ford Motor Company for at least knowing when to say “uncle.”

Product Follows Process: Atelier '07

by Albert Chao

The annual Atelier ’07 will take place throughout the architecture studios in UB’s Crosby Hall on Main Street the week of March 26. Work will displayed in impromptu fashion. Unfinished models and drawings will be on display in halls and studios. Undoubtedly, anyone walking through will also see coffee cups, food from vending machines and students fastidiously working out models and ideas over their desks.

The Real Deal

by Marla Crouse

Two things happened as I left Vino’s for the first time: I was planning my return and wondering if, on the other side of the door, Buffalo had magically been transformed into Brooklyn. Vino’s is one of the best kept secrets in Buffalo, appealing to both our Italian-food-loving population and those who crave good, honest, fresh cuisine.

Holy Orders

by Thomas Dooney

Uh-oh. Detention. For too much laughter.

by Anthony Chase

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels may not be as familiar a title as others on the Shea’s lineup, but it should be. The show opened during the busy 2005 Broadway season and had to compete with a litany of wonderful musicals, including the blockbuster hit Spamalot; the clever and adorable 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; and the highly regarded Light in the Piazza. All of these shows would go on to tour.

Some Bets Pay Off

by M. Faust

If you can drive past those billboards proclaiming the current level of the MegaMillions jackpot without wondering what you would do with that much money, you are a much more focused person than I am. (Especially when it gets into nine figures.)

SXSW 2007

by Donny Kutzbach

The last couple years I was starting to feel like I might have had enough of the annual Austin, Texas music festival SXSW, a massive global gathering of thousands of bands and tens of thousands of music industry folk and fans to see them. The sprawl of Sixth Street and Red River was getting to me. All the people and music and booze was too much to take. I would come home each year and need three weeks to recover from one week away.

by Amy Alkon

Are all guys who aren’t gay gross slobs? So often, when a guy’s invited me over after the second or third date, I’ve discovered such a disgusting disaster area that I wish I’d worn hip-high wading boots. The specifics: dirty, wadded-up towels on the floor, a week’s worth of dirty dishes in the sink, decades of crud on the fixtures and a bathroom so vile that I put off using it until my bladder’s ready to burst. Do guys simply not see this stuff? Do they see it and just not care? And does it not occur to them that a woman might be turned off by such slovenliness and filth?