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Cover Story

Empty Parcels, Emptying Cities

by Bruce Fisher

The scariest story in Buffalo originates in Omaha, Nebraska. That’s where Buffalo News owner Warren Buffet lives. That’s where Buffalo News publisher Stan Lipsey hails from. The scary news for Buffalo is that Omaha, Nebraska, is thriving as a regional economic hub city in part because Omaha has a regional government.

News

Raze The Roof

by Geoff Kelly

On Tuesday evening, close to 100 people gathered in Buffalo’s Common Council Chambers to urge Mayor Byron Brown’s administration to look beyond demolition of abandoned buildings as a means to stabilize deteriorating city neighborhoods.

News

Patterson Sounds the Alarm

by John McMahon

On Tuesday, New York Governor David Paterson said in a speech that he will call the New York legislature back on Augut 19 in order to respond to what he considers to be a budgetary emergency. He said that the state’s deficit is now pegged at $6.4 billion and called on lawmakers to cut state spending just as New Yorkers are cutting their own budgets due to higher costs.

AV Profile

The Underdog

by Buck Quigley

Suddenly, he was plummeting through the frigid wind at 100 miles an hour, thousands of feet above the rugged Alaskan interior near Fairbanks. His eyes traced the serpentine Chena River, taking in the cold, November landscape spreading out to the horizon beneath him.

Offbeat News

News of the Wierd

by Chuck Shepherd

In July, the new smoking ban for bars and restaurants in the Netherlands took effect, but it won’t curtail patrons’ right to smoke marijuana in Amsterdam’s coffee shops (where they can buy up to 5 grams a day to smoke on the premises).

Vine byLine

Wines of Mendoza

by Paula Paradise

For many wine enthusiasts, just discovering the wines of Argentina, it may come as a surprise to learn that Argentina is the fifth largest wine-producing country in the world and possesses a history of winemaking that dates back to the mid-16th century.

Left of the Dial

Spiritualized - Songs in A&E

by Donny Kutzbach

June 16, 1997 is a fascinating date in musical history. At the surface, it goes down in the books most famously as the day the Oxfordshire quintet Radiohead issued their third album, OK Computer. OK Computer was a sprawling concept album plumbing isolation and dystopic lows through Thom Yorke’s meditations on modern disdain,which still reached highs of sonically blissful vistas and sweeping guitar panoramas.

Music Feature

All Beethoven

by Jan Jezioro

The 10th season of the Niagara International Chamber Music Festival got off to a strong start last week in Niagara-on-the Lake. The full house at the gala opening night in St. Mark’s Anglican Church heard the Festival Stings along with the Gould String Quartet and the Philharmonic Quartet in an eclectic selection of music, ranging from Vivaldi to contemporary Canadian composer Peter Tiefenbach and the Russian Igor Raykhelson, a leading composer of the contemporary Neo Romantic Movement.

Art Feature

Writing With Light

by J. Tim Raymond

Currently on exhibit at CEPA Gallery is Writing With Light, work by students from three Buffalo public schools—Native American Magnet, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Highgate Heights. Writing with Light is a joint venture between CEPA Gallery and Just Buffalo Literary Center, in which students gain practical experience in the literary and photographic arts.

You Auto Know

The Times They Have A-Changed

by Jim Corbran

Finally. Finally. It took gas prices reaching the dreaded four-dollar-a-gallon mark to make North American auto manufacturers realize…realize what? That we North Americans will only buy things we really don’t need as long as we can still afford them?

Film Reviews

Brideshead Revisted

by George Sax

Encounters At The End of The World

by M. Faust

Reprise

by M. Faust

The Wackness

by M. Faust

Listings

On The Boards Theater Listings

Movie Times

Film Now Playing

See You There

AV Pick: Benefit for Baby Nik (August 2)

Till & The Wall (August 1)

Greg Klyma CD Release Party (August 1)

The Melvins (August 7)

Calendar Spotlight

Pfaff, Flood, and Gorman (August 1)

The Infringiement Festival Continues

Mates of State with Judgement Day (August 6)

Looking Ahead . . .

Horoscopes

Free Will Astrology

by Rob Breszny

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I would love to see you walking down the street dressed in a feathered headdress and white boots and leopard-print cashmere pants, plus maybe some scarlet velvet gloves and a silk t-shirt that says, “You don’t scare me.” To present yourself in such a bold and forthright manner would be in perfect alignment with your astrological omens. If that particular form of expression doesn’t feel right to you, please find an equivalent that does.

Advice

Ask Anyone

I got this friend, see? And he’s getting a little older. He’s not old, you understand, but he’s got this young girlfriend. Look, I feel dumb asking you this, but you know those commercials you see on the TV? With the man and the woman sitting in separate bathtubs outside, holding hands? The ones for the E.D., they call it?