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Cover Story

Shadows & Fog

by Lucy Yau

The first thing you’ll notice about Christina West’s sculptures is that they feel a little off-kilter. Although they are sculpted realistically, their color and size will immediately put you off balance.

News

Andres Garcia

by Matthew Quinn

Watch footage of Tuesday's contentious meeting of the Buffalo Common Council's Legislative Committee, which considered Andres Garcia's proposed appointment as executive director of the Commission on Citizens' Rights and Equality. Garcia's opponents accuse him of deriding gay employees while an executive at Kaleida, using the coarsest possible language. His supporters say he's never been that kind of guy and that the accusations were never investigated.

News

Dulling the Impact of War

by Peter Koch

Last November, just before Veterans Day, a sobering statistic was released at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association: Approximately 25 percent of the first 100,000 returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were given mental health diagnoses by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The message was crystal clear: With the total number of troops deployed exceeding 1.5 million and VA facilites already swamped, the situation can only get worse.

News

Making Ralph Relevant

by Bruce Fisher

Ralph Nader is running for president on a platform that includes a call for a national, single-payer healthcare system similar to Canada’s.

Getting a Grip

Hillary W. Bush's War

by Michael I. Niman

Try this one out on your friends and family. Ask them to name all the wars that we’ve fought or funded since they were born. Few Americans can do this. Think about it. So many wars and so few concerns. Why do these wars start? How do they end? Do they end? Who gives a damn? Britney’s trying to have a baby.

Letters to Artvoice

I’d like to respond to some of what Peter Koch wrote in his article about Artspace (“Space for Improvement,” Artvoice v7n7).

News of the Weird

by Chuck Shepherd

■ The divorce of Anton Popazov and his wife, Nataliya, is about to go through, but the couple are still contractually committed to the Moscow State Circus, where their act includes Nataliya’s shooting an apple off of Anton’s head with a crossbow. The Times of London asked Anton during a show in Sheffield, England, in February whether he was afraid. “I still trust her because Nataliya is very professional,” he said. “(T)he show must go on.”

See You There

Song of Peace Project

by Eli George

Terrapin Station's 20th Anniversary Bash

by Geoff Kelly

Love Parade CD Release Show

by Lara Reden

Keller Williams & The WMDs

by K. O'Day

Calendar Spotlight

Big James Montgomery & the Chicago Playboys

SIRSY

ARMCANNON

Headlights

N*E*R*D

Dub Trio

Theaterweek

Studio Arena's Next Act

by Anthony Chase

There was no gasp of surprise when Studio Arena board president Daniel Dintino announced that the theater would be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As details of their financial woes became increasingly public, it seemed unlikely that a hero would be arriving on the horizon any time soon.

Listings

Now Playing

Movie Times

On the Boards

Film Reviews

The Other Boleyn Girl: It's Good to Be the King!

by M. Faust

The umpteenth version of the story of Anne Boleyn, the woman whom King Henry VIII was so determined to marry that he sundered England from the Catholic church, The Other Boleyn Girl is lurid, preposterous trash with at best an inconsistent connection to the historical characters who inspired it.

Film Clips

Penelope

by George Sax

Semi-Pro

by M. Faust

Music

Conduct Becoming

by Mike Shanley

By the time Lawrence “Butch” Morris takes the stage on Friday night, he’ll have spent four days rehearsing with the Buffalo Improvisers Orchestra. Yet the sound of “Leap,” the name of the piece Morris will direct that night, won’t be known to the composer or the collective of 19 regional musicians until it happens. This is the whole concept behind conduction, an approach Morris has used for 23 years. Without any notated music, it requires the musicians to respond to a series of gestures from Morris, such as sustain or repeat, which represent ideas on how to play. The musicians are left to decide what pitch or register to play.

Left of the Dial

Michael Jackson: Thriller, 25th Anniversary Edition

by Joe Sweeney

Gary Louris: Vagabonds

by Donny Kutzbach

Book Reviews

Bang Crunch by Neil Smith

by Matthew Miranda

Dismantle your genome and you’ll find you have the same building blocks as that rat…What differs…is the pieces chosen and the order they’re stacked in.”

Flash Fiction

Gotham City Rent Party

by Stephen Boyd

Maybe due to their bird connection, the Penguin was the only villain who made the event. He had seen the announcement in the Vigilante Voice: “Benefit for Superhero in transition, 8pm until whenever.” The chain-smoking cynic, more curious to see who would show up than anxious to help out a former associate, came disguised as a robot chicken , but his umbrella gave him away. Waddling through an array of supportive fans, male and female, young and old, he eventually caught Robin’s eye.

Poetry

Let's Break Free From Circles

by Sara Ries

Paper Boats

by Katrina Sutherland

Vine by Line

The Sweet Smell of Success

by Paula Paradise

Recently, during a deluge of Saturday shoppers, a harried customer solicited my assistance, asking, “Can you help me? I’m looking for six bottles of sweet-dry red wine.”

You Auto Know

There Will Be Stares

by Jim Corbran

You immediately get the idea that the smart fortwo is out to save you money—check out that all-lower-case name. Everyone knows capital letters cost more! Another clue is its “half-a-car” size. I’ll tell you one thing, though: Prepare to be looked at—big time—when driving this fun little car. For once people were looking and pointing at me without my fly being down.

Free Will Astrology

by Rob Brezsny

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In the coming week, you should try to experience, or at least visualize, scenes like the following: an apple pierced by an arrow that’s lying on a bridge near a half-crumpled Valentine card; wind rattling through an old tree in such a way that you hallucinate there being an angel perched in its branches; an accordion floating down a stream trailed by two quacking ducks; a stranger who’s simultaneously crying and laughing in a cafe while writing frenetically on white paper napkins. And why is it important to commune with scenes like these? Because they will energize your soul in ways you can’t rationally understand. They will remind you that deeply meaningful events can be utterly mysterious.

Ask Anyone

An uncle of mine recently passed away. We were always very close and he served as a surrogate father to me after my biological father was killed in an elevator accident when I was a toddler. He spent lots of time with me, up until my mom remarried. My stepfather drank a lot and he didn’t like my uncle competing with him for my respect, as he described it. It also drove him crazy that my uncle always seemed to have plenty of money even though nobody ever really knew what he did for a living. Things worsened to the point of violence. Both my mother and I lived in terror of my stepdad, and for years we tolerated his harsh words and fists. The day before my uncle died I visited him in the hospital. He gave me an envelope that held a key to a locker in the Greyhound bus station downtown. He told me that if he’d ever had children, he’d wish them to turn out just like me. He made me promise never to tell a soul about our conversation and to never, ever look back. The next morning I went to visit him at the hospital and found that he had slipped away in the wee hours of the morning. On the way home from the hospital, I stopped at the bus station and found the locker that matched the key he’d given me. Inside was a large duffel bag stuffed tight with stacks of crisp, $50 bills. It’s a really big amount. I realize that I should probably report the money to the authorities, but that’s not going to happen. Here’s my question: Should I spend at least part of the money on hiring a thug to beat up my stepfather?