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Literary Feature

Interview with Greg Ames, author of novel Buffalo Lockjaw

by Geoff Kelly

Greg Ames left Buffalo for Brooklyn 10 years ago, having spent his 20s here in much the same way many Buffalo artists spend their 20s: on barstools and in coffee shops, at parties and in galleries, among like-minded people, all of them hard at work on finding a medium and a voice. Back then, this paper was among the first to publish his writing—usually very short pieces of fiction, 500 words or less, that earned a gamut of adjectives: surreal, snappy, funny, hardboiled, touching.

The News, Briefly

West Side activist stows chickens in secret location, pleads with city to make them legal

A deli owner retracts story about Brian Davis' bad check- but only when shown a photo of it taped to the wall

News

Nothing is Ever Settled

by Bruce Fisher

Mark Zandi, the chief economist of the news service operated by America’s biggest bond-rating agency, testified before Congress on January 27 that spending money on food stamps, unemployment insurance, and infrastructure repair is a much smarter idea than handing out tax breaks for capital gains.

Getting a Grip

Don't Drink The Electric Car Kool Aid

by Michael I. Niman

This is the cake we can eat all day and never get fat: a bling ride that’s certified clean and “green.” Auto sans exhaust. Just what the doctor ordered: easy-to-swallow medicine for a feverish planet. Just plug it in, charge it up, and off you go saving the planet at 100 miles an hour. How cool is that?

Framed

James Koenig, Moving up The Ranks

by Dean Brownrout

Buffalo-born artist James Koenig (1925-1998), husband of artist Catherine Koenig (see “Framed,” Artvoice 1/14/09), was an accomplished painter. Though neither as revered nor collected as his wife, Koenig has in recent years found a renewed interest in collector’s circles.

Puck Stop

This is Just a Tease

by Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell

It’s been a feel good week, hasn’t it? The comeback win against Florida, the beatdown of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and then the dramatic, six-round shootout victory in Montreal once again gave beleaguered Sabres fans new hope.

Theater News

Stagefright

by Javier

The legendary Arthur Laurents (pictured) is back on Broadway this year, having directed and updated his book for the current revival of West Side Story. Laurents also directed the Angela Lansbury (1974), Tyne Daly (1989), and Patti LuPone (2008) revivals of Gypsy.

Theaterweek

WOYUBU, Blithe Spirit, 33 Variations, and Impressionism

by Anthony Chase

The Buffalo Quickies at Alleyway Theatre are unabashedly at the lowbrow end of the Buffalo theater spectrum. There is always a casual spirit of quasi-amateurism in the proceedings. The title “Quickies” refers to the brevity of each sketch. These aren’t “one-acts”; they’re “short works,” and the spirit is decidedly irreverent.

Left of the Dial

Prince - Lotusflow3r/MPLSound

by Donny Kutzbach

Mastodon - Crack the Skye

by Donny Kutzbach

Food For Thought

Pasta Primavera, and Other Springtime Variations

by Joe George

Despite its Italian-sounding name, pasta primavera, like its culinary cousin, spaghetti and meatballs, is an American invention, and a relatively recent one at that. A search for its recipe in a pre-1970s cookbook will result in nil. I’m sure this wasn’t the first recipe for mixed spring vegetables and pasta with cream sauce, but it was the first to be recorded and named such.

Events

See You There!

Artvoice's weekly round-up of events to watch out for the week, including our editor's pick, the Walt Disney Weekend, with events taking place Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend.

Film Reviews

Sunshine Cleaning

by M. Faust

Adventureland

by M. Faust

Listings

On The Boards Theater Listings

Movie Times (Fri. April 3 - Thurs. April 9)

Film Now Playing

Literary Buffalo

Lucille Clifton at Kleinhans

by John Kryder

William Lobdell at Center for Inquiry

by Tom Waters

Offbeat News

News of the Weird

by Rob Brezsny

The venerable 17th-century astronomer Galileo Galilei was honored at a gallery in Florence, Italy, in February to mark the 400th anniversary of his transformative work, which was widely discredited at the time (as contradicting the Bible) and which subjected him to vicious slanders. The exhibit includes Galileo’s only preserved body part: one of his middle fingers.

Horoscopes

Free Will Astrology

by Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): There’s plain old everyday lightning, which travels about five miles, and then there are superbolts—strokes of lightning that are a hundred times stronger than a normal flash and that can travel over 100 miles.

Advice

Ask Anyone

Lately, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to maintain normal relationships with people my age. (I happen to be in my early 30s.) Perhaps it’s due to the technological era we live in and the fact that cyberspace is causing modern-day adults to become infantilized.