This Is Not Your Grandmother's Bingo

by Marcus L. Wise

Despite 30-degree weather, 285 people brave the winter wind to stand on line to play bingo. Only 225 make it in. Finding a good seat within earshot of your friends is chaos, but a good seat is key to enjoying the cabaret show that unfolds at Buffalo Gay Bingo.

It's Hush Money, Baby

by Michael I. Niman

If the American economy had a dashboard, all the gauges would be oscillating wildly—the engine overheating, the fuel tank empty, the speedometer pinned and the door ajar light blinking.

Thank You

Thank you from everyone at Artvoice for making Mardi Gras 2008 a huge success! Extra special thanks to…

by Chuck Shepherd

■ Five of the 10 best-selling novels in Japan in 2007 were originally composed, and serialized, on cell phones, thumbed out by women who had never written novels, for readers who mostly had never before read one. The genre’s dominating plotlines are affairs of the heart, and its characteristics, obviously, are simplicity of plot and character and brevity of expression (lest authors’ sore thumbs and readers’ tired eyes bring down the industry). Said one successful cell phone writer, for a January dispatch in The New York Times, her audience doesn’t read works by “professional writers” because “their sentences are too difficult to understand.”

by M. Faust

by Lucy Yau

by Katrina Sutherland

Sounds of the Auto Show

by Jim Corbran

Walking around this year’s Buffalo Auto Show got me thinking how things have changed over the years. Particularly the sound systems available in some of the new cars. Memories took me back to one of my first auto shows, which my dad took me to, held at the Masten Avenue Armory, where I think I sat in every car and took home one of every brochure offered—as any car-crazy 12-year-old would.

by Rob Brezsny

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Astrologically speaking, this would be a perfect time for you to get a brain implant that would allow you to google your own unconscious and surf the Web with your mind alone. Unfortunately, the actual technology to do that isn’t available yet. But variations on this theme could soon impact you. You’re primed to make innovations and play with possibilities that the rest of the world isn’t ready for. My advice is to go ahead and try them anyway. People may be prodded by your pioneer spirit into helping you conjure up the fresh-from-the-future resources you need.

Last night, my partner and I watched Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House—classic movie, Myrna Loy and Cary Grant. It’s pretty good, except at the end: The closing shot is of the family’s black housekeeper, done up like Aunt Jemima—it’s like something straight out of a minstrel show.