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Film

The Northern Lights

by M. Faust

These were the big films the first year I came to the Toronto International Film Festival—or, as it was known at the time, the Toronto Festival of Festivals: Dead Ringers, Earth Girls Are Easy, Far North, Miles From Home, Memories of Me, Criminal Law, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Madame Sousatzka.

Letters to Artvoice

When is it okay for Buffalo to turn down $1.2 million?

When political self-interest is placed ahead of the community (of course). The latest proposal to develop the vacant railroad land in North Buffalo threatens to destroy property values and an opportunity for Buffalonians to get more exercise. A bike path for this area has funding, $1.2 million for Buffalo and $1.4 million for Tonawanda, and community support. Instead of a bike path, we get the same lame rehash of old plans that have already been overwhelmingly rejected by the community. Adding more housing, when Buffalo already has 10,000 to 20,000 decomposing and vacant structures, is the definition of stupid. New housing without new residents (we all know the numbers regarding population loss in Western New York) results in vacant and abandoned structures.

Getting a Grip

Apocalypse Now?

by Michael I. Niman

It’s been a few years since Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 set box-office records ablaze but failed to generate enough popular resistance to keep the Bush junta from seizing a second term in the White House. Then there was a mélange of amateurish anti-Moore videos that hardly met the high production and accuracy standards of YouTube. While successfully proving theories that lower primates can indeed operate video cameras, none of these filmlets adequately responded to the points presented in Fahrenheit 9/11.

News of the Weird

by Chuck Shepherd

■ Brian Blair, now a county commissioner in Tampa, Fla., asserted in a 2002 lawsuit that he had been forced into retirement from his previous career as a professional wrestler after he tripped over a tray of dishes and hurt himself at a Carrabba’s restaurant. Blair announced in August 2007 that a settlement had been reached with Carrabba’s, and thus he would not explain (according to a deposition cited by Carrabba’s attorneys) how the “career-ending” injury allowed him to keep lucrative wrestling dates in Japan months after he fell, or how he registered a .089 blood-alcohol reading that evening even though he admitted to only one sip of wine, or how a sober professional wrestler accustomed to being thrown across a ring could be hurt so badly by a simple fall, or how a politician who generally abides a pro-business, anti-lawsuit philosophy could have initiated such litigation.

News

Primary Receivers

by Peter Koch

According to Jimmy Griffin, one of his objectives in running for county executive is to prove that “money’s not the most important factor in running for office.” Griffin apparently forgot to inform his Democratic opponents, Paul Clark and James Keane, of that fact. At this point, with just under a week left before the Democratic primary on Tuesday, September 18, Keane has raised a whopping $923,000 and Clark has accumulated $682,000. (Griffin has raised just $11,000.) But this is, after all, an important race. With Republican candidates currently out of favor on every level of government, and Democrats far outnumbering Republicans in Erie County, there’s a good chance that whoever wins this primary will go on to win the general election in November.

You Auto Know

Something for Everybody

by Jim Corbran

Let it not be said that I favor any one price range when it comes to reviewing the new 2008 models. This year I’ve decided to cover the gamut from cheap (sorry, inexpensive) to ridiculously out of any normal person’s range. I’ve even thrown in a work truck—hey, Artvoice readers work just as hard as anybody out there!

Design Matters

What Do You Want, Rubber?

by Albert Chao

World-renowned architect Louis Kahn famously desribed a conversation between a builder and his material: “…you say to Brick, ‘What do you want Brick?’ And Brick says to you ‘I like an Arch.’”

Stagefright

by Javier

The fabulous Christina Applegate (pictured above), who made her Broadway debut in the revival of Sweet Charity back in 2005 (and got a Tony nomination for it), will be back on network television this fall. Applegate is the star of the new sitcom Samantha Who?, which will air Mondays on Channel 7. The show also stars Jean Smart, who last appeared on Broadway in The Man Who Came to Dinner with Nathan Lane. She received a Tony nomination.

Theaterweek

The Trivial Matter of Curtain Up King & Queen

by Anthony Chase

At the request of Studio Arena’s Kathleen Gaffney, who seems decidedly dedicated to tradition for such an unconventional artistic director, Artvoice will revive our formerly annual King and Queen of Curtain Up! contest on Curtain Up! night. And, as in years past, we will do it in a trivial way.

Book Reviews

Allah Is Not Obliged by Ahmadou Kourouma

by Julianne Phillips

Cries in the Drizzle by Yu Hua

by Matthew Miranda

Film Reviews

Beat Up the Brat: Punk's Not Dead

by Wheez Von Klaw

Dirty Harriet: The Brave One

by George Sax

See You There

BOOM III

by Buck Quigley

Kruno Spisic with Babik

by Brad Deck

Grizzly Bear

by Donny Kutzbach

India.Arie

by Caitlin DeRose

Music

The Wild-Eyed Boy Called Freeland

by Donny Kutzbach

Since his untimely death in June following a long, secretive battle with throat cancer, it’s been de rigeur for the iconic Buffalo rock-and-roller and artist’s friends, fans and colleagues to share their tales of how this beautiful freak came into their orbits.

Calendar Spotlight

Rachel Ries

Rotten Jack's Creep Show

Mystery of Two

Obituary

Jack and Jim Show