The Nature of Nature

by Gerald Mead

Art professors take pride in the accomplishments of their former students and, conversely, artists frequently acknowledge a teacher who significantly influenced or inspired them. For example, photography art star Cindy Sherman credits Barbara Jo Revelle, her Buffalo State College photography instructor, with introducing her to the tenets of conceptual photography, an experience that “had a liberating effect” on Sherman in the earliest stages of her career.

Join us on Fat Tuesday for the 12th annual Artvoice Mardi Gras Parade! Please register your ideas for a parade float or decorated vehicle. All are welcome, groups and individuals. Promote yourself, your business, club or organization.

Gallery Show

Still Life gallery show on view Jan. 10th through Feb. 3rd at College St. Gallery, 244 Allen St. Opening reception on Jan. 18th at 7pm.

Common Council Report

by Geoff Kelly

On Tuesday, Buffalo’s Common Council unanimously approved a $7.2 million settlement to a group of lawsuits brought by residents of the environmentally contaminated Hickory Woods neighborhood.

Hillary Wins

by Jackson Baker

NASHUA, N.H.—Barack Obama’s coronation will just have to wait a little longer. In fact, the Illinois senator may be compelled in the end to hand over that crown to Hillary Clinton, who, against all the conventional wisdom and pundits’ certainties (including our own), won the New Hampshire primary—by enough of a margin, in fact, 39 percent to 36 percent, to be decisive. (Third place went to former Senator John Edwards, with 17 percent.)

I heard and saw the bad news. Mr. Collins went over to the Seneca Gambling Corporation. The TV images showed him and Mr. Johns together, then the glitzy casino image, then Joel Rose who opposes.

by Chuck Shepherd

■ Lee Myung-bak was elected president of South Korea in December, with experts in “poonsgoo” (similar to the Chinese feng shui) attributing the victory in part to the favorable location of his ancestors’ graves, which is an important predictor of good fortune. Candidates not so lucky spent part of the campaign moving their ancestors’ remains to better sites. Former president Kim Dae-jung is said to have learned the hard way, losing an earlier election with poor burial location, then winning after moving some dead relatives around, according to a November Reuters dispatch.

by Javier

TV and stage star Jason Alexander (pictured above) will be starring in a reading of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple opposite Martin Short, at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles as part of the Reprise! Broadway’s Best series. Widely known for his work on TV’s Seinfeld, Alexander made his Broadway debut in the original cast of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along back in 1981. He later appeared opposite Chita and Liza in The Rink, and won a Tony award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. Both Alexander and Short starred in the Los Angeles production of The Producers.

The Art of Lying: Atonement

by George Sax

Much of the critical response to the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel, Atonement, has focused on the film’s epic scope and the intensely but tragically romantic story it tells. There has even been some comparison with James Cameron’s Titanic.

by M. Faust

Disappearing China

by Lucy Yau

When George Morlock and his wife Danielle decided to travel to China last year, they didn’t want to explore the typical tourist traps. Instead they wanted to immerse themselves in the daily lives of the people they would encounter and gain a perspective of a culture entirely different and yet similar. The photographs they took are a social documentary of a way of life quickly disappearing as modernization rapidly overtakes traditional values, as rural areas and agrarian means of living give way to the relentless machinery of industry and urbanization.

One Beautiful Sunset

by Patricia Watson

Imagine being 26 years old, sitting in your new restaurant, gazing out at the evening sky and translating its beauty into your restaurant’s name. Add in having been a professional basketball player, coming back to your hometown, and forming the corporation in honor of your mother. This is the life of Leonard Stokes, former star basketball player at Turner-Carroll High School and alumnus of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and Washington Wizards. Now he is the owner of one sunset, the new incarnation of the infamous Locker Room sports bar and the late, much missed Lotis.

Buffalo, You Should Be Proud

by Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell

A little more than a week has gone by, yet everyone is still talking about it—the NHL AMP Energy Winter Classic. The event arguably is the biggest sports spectacle ever to happen here in Western New York.

by Rob Brezsny

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The Wind Horse is a mythical creature in Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Symbolizing vigorous life force, it embodies the quick, cleansing power of the wind and the primal vitality of the horse. In accordance with your astrological omens, Capricorn, I nominate this archetype to be your ruling metaphor in the coming weeks. Visualize yourself being accompanied by a Wind Horse everywhere you go. See yourself riding it, feeding it, playing with it. Call on its inspiring presence as you align yourself with the natural beneficence of the universe. Ask it to help you sweep obstacles out of the way as you attract a flow of opportunities to open your mind and heart.

Love Hurts

I am in love with a girl. We were together off and on for about three years until a few months ago when she said she’d had enough.