Congratulations, Dali's Ghost!

by Buck Quigley

We'd like to thank all the bands, fans and sponsors who made it a great night at the Tralf. Check back soon for video of the event.

Finishing in the Money

by Michael I. Niman

It’s Clinton (the media likes to call her Hillary because she’s a girl) and Obama neck and neck at the first turn, pulling away from the pack. Obama’s out front by a nose. It’s Obama by a head. It looks like Obama’s got it. But wait—here’s Clinton on the outside neck and neck with Obama in the final turn. Now she’s pulling ahead at the wire. And it’s Clinton, our winner by a Diebold nose. Wow, what a race. And what a smart dresser she is.

Ron Rienas: "We Were Never in Front Park"

by Bruce Jackson

Last week, Ron Rienas, general manager of the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority, laid out part of his argument for the current proposal for expansion of the Peace Bridge plaza. Specifically, he talked about the failure of the shared border management plan that would have allowed all plaza operations to be situated on the Canadian side of the bridge; he argued that diesel truck engine emissions will be greatly reduced by the time the proposed new plaza is completed; and he discussed the compensation program offered to those who lose their homes.

by Anthony Chase

The original Broadway 1979 production of Sweeney Todd, with its industrial set by Eugene Lee and often operatic score, was famed for its enormity. Since that original outing, however, the material has lent itself to more intimate production with great success, including Broadway revivals in 1989 and in 2005. Intimacy is the concept being followed for the current MusicalFare production directed by Randall Kramer with set design by Chris Schenk. This Sweeney unfolds as if from a magic box, and spins the tale as if it were being told by the fireplace on a rainy night.

by Javier

After the original opening date was delayed due to the Broadway stagehands strike last year, Disney’s The Little Mermaid officially opened on January 10, to not-so-good critical response. Sierra Boggess (pictured above) is making her Broadway debut playing the little mermaid, Ariel. The show is running at the Lunt Fontanne, which was home to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast until it closed last July, after having run for 5,461 performances. Disney’s two other Broadway shows, The Lion King and Mary Poppins, are still going strong. As a matter of fact, the lavish Mary Poppins has recovered its investment and has already announced a national tour, which will kick off in Chicago in 2009. The London production just closed after a three-year run.

My Left Eye: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

by M. Faust

Though I’ve owned a copy of it for years, I’ve never been able to bring myself to watch Johnny Got His Gun, the 1971 film directed by the once-blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. It’s an anti-war tale about a young man who enlists in the army during World War I for all the wrong reasons, and ends up an armless, legless, faceless and speechless hulk in a hospital bed, unable to communicate enough to let his tenders know that he is still conscious. (You may have seen snippets of it in the Metallica video “One.”) It sounds depressing as hell, especially because it touches on a real fear we’ve probably all thought about: How would it be to spend the rest of your life in an outwardly vegetative state, conscious on the inside but presumed brain dead and kept alive, perhaps indefinitely, by machines? Would you want to die, would you go insane, or would the mind adapt?

Music to Warm the Soul

by Jan Jezioro

Music Director JoAnn Falletta will be on the podium in Kleinhans Music Hall this Saturday evening, January 26, and again on Sunday afternoon, leading the Buffalo Philharmonic in a program consisting of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in B-flat major, K. 207, with violinist Joan Kwuon as soloist, and Anton Bruckner’s mighty Symphony No. 9 in D minor.

American Poets in the 21st Century: The New Poetics

by Kate Soto

Defining the current moment in poetry is no easy task; more so for the fact that poetry has entered a constant state of redefining itself. The marked resistance to a dominating aesthetic makes this era particularly difficult to pin down. And with apocryphal proclamations (“poetry is dead”) being as common as formal innovations, the task of understanding where today’s poetry fits in literary history and who is writing it is incredibly loaded.

Tom Golisano, Where Are You?

by Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell

We have been covering your team here at Artvoice for three seasons now, since the lockout ended. We have been fans of the team and season ticket holders for far longer than that. We cheered on the Sabres from our seats in section 11 in the blues for many a season at the Aud, and switched over to section 113 in our new digs in 1996, where we have been ever since.

by Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year,” said essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. That’s my first suggestion for you this week, Aries. Now, while you’re at the energetic peak of your astrological cycle, is a good time to cultivate a knack for identifying the specific gift that each day has to offer you. You will also resonate well with the cosmic rhythms if you make use of another Emersonian gem: “Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm.” Where does your purest enthusiasm lie? And how will you use it to fuel your ascent to a series of great and commanding moments?