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News Analysis

The Book on the Libraries

by George Sax

The scene in the small conference room on the second floor of the Buffalo and Erie County Central Library one afternoon late last week was calm and, for the most part, there was a friendly, business-as-usual tone as the county library system’s board of trustees met.

News Analysis

A Time To Rally

by Bruce Fisher

Erie Canal Harbor wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t been for a couple of hundred volunteers showing up one spring morning with snow shovels, rakes, garden spades, and fearsome-looking red and yellow plastic sandbox tools to demand that an appointed state board restore the original Commercial Slip, which is the actual terminus of the Erie Canal, instead of a fake, “replica” canal-like structure with a bit of water and no reality.

Obituary

Hank Mann: Farewell, Great Heart

by Anthony Chase

It is impossible for any obituary, or even for a book length biography to contain the sum of a man. That is certainly true of Horace “Hank” Mann, who died this week, less than a month short of his 89th birthday.

Week in Review

Seven Days: The Straight Dope From the Week That Was

by Geoff Kelly

Scorecard: The Week's Winners and Losers

by Zachary Burns

Holiday Gift Guide

25 Answers To Your Question

You’ve got one month before Christmas. Hannukah will be upon you even sooner. Not religious? As if that will help you decide what gifts to buy for whom this year.

Holiday Gift Guide

The Art of Giving

by Jennifer Mogensen

In this world of increasingly impersonal communication, perhaps it’s time to reach out this season and make a very personal connection. This year, eschew the big-box stores with their mass produced and generally generic fare and opt for art instead.

Holiday Gift Guide

The Craft

by Vanessa Oswald

Everyone starts to sweat when they realize it’s the day after Thanksgiving and they haven’t even begun to make a dent in their shopping list. This year, sweep those worries away by simply spending a few bucks and getting a little creative.

Holiday Gift Guide

Day Tripping

by Jill Greenberg

It takes a certain level of selfishness to concoct a gift that you can enjoy just as much as the recipient will. Lucky for you egocentrics out there, we’ve done the conniving for you!

Holiday Gift Guide

Giving Away The Farm

by Jennifer Mogensen

When it comes to gift-giving this holiday season, many ideas may take root but not enough of them—fruitcake aside—involve food. Picking the perfect present is not as easy task.

Holiday Gift Guide

No Turkey, Thank You

by Brian Pietrus

What can I make you? What will you eat?” These questions commonly get passed around the dinner table when a family member mentions that they’ve decided to stop eating meat.

Holiday Gift Guide

Wrapping The Grape

by Jennifer Mogensen

Ice wine, or eiswein, as it is called in Germany, its birthplace, has been around for centuries. Germany has a long and somewhat mysterious love affair with the sweet wine.

Holiday Gift Guide

Seven Golden Rules

by Donny Kutzbach

Thanksgiving is a holiday that means at least one day off work, feasting on a massive banquet, and being subjected to the high-pressure situation of holiday shopping. In other words: What you need to go along with this is a drink, or possibly many.

Holiday Gift Guide

Rare Finds

by M. Faust

It can be hard to buy gifts for a movie buff. He wants a copy of The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, or maybe the Chet Baker documentary Let’s Get Lost. She’s a big Eddie Izzard fan and would love his new live DVD, and she’s been wanting to own a copy of the original Sleuth for years. Yet all the brick and mortar stores seem to sell are Family Guy and Harry Potter sets.

Holiday Gift Guide

A Musical Holiday

by Jan Jezioro

There are many pleasures associated with the holiday season, and one of them is the annual opportunity to see and hear a wide variety of Christmas music performed by favorite artists.

Holiday Gift Guide

Virtual Gifts

by Cory Perla

The age of the Internet and the app may mean the end of wrapping paper as we know it. Sooner or later every Christmas gift will just be beamed straight into your brain. It hasn’t come to that yet, but this year, you might find far fewer physical gifts under the tree and many more awesome, virtual gifts to download, upload, and reload on Christmas morning.

Art Scene

China Syndrome

by Jack Foran

For those of us who only know him as the area’s chief philistine, it may come as a surprise to learn that Erie County Executive Chris Collins, when he isn’t cutting life supports to struggling arts organizations, is a collector of local origin historical fine china.

Theater Week

Murder Squared at Ujima

by Anthony Chase

As I speak to playwright Gary Earl Ross, he is transporting a dead body to the theater, driving his car on a rainy night. Not to worry, he assures me. “It’s a hands-free phone.”

Film Feature

Immovable Object, Irresistible Force

by M. Faust

Do I really want to watch this?” I asked myself as the lights went down in one of the spiffy theaters in the Bell Lightbox, new home to the Toronto International Film Festival. It was the height of this year’s TIFF and I was about to watch 127 Hours, one of the most anticipated movies of the year.

Film Review

Faster

by M. Faust

Was anyone out there still holding any hope for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s future as a movie star? Between third-rate action movies and lame family comedies parodying his image (how much can they possibly have paid him to star in The Tooth Fairy?), it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the charismatic but ill-managed former pro wrestler would be back in Vince McMahon land.

Listings

On The Boards Theater Listings

Movie Times (Friday, November 26 - Thursday, December 2)

Film Now Playing

Featured Events

See You There!

Artvoice's weekly round-up of featured events, including our editor's pick for the week: The first Artvoice B.O.O.M! Quarterfinal show, featuring The Etchings, Autopunch, Lower Town Trio, and Social Scientists, at Nietzsche's this Saturday the 27th.

You Auto Know

Wolf in Jeep's Clothing

by Jim Corbran

Well, maybe the new Grand Cherokee isn’t really a wolf in the Little Red Riding Hood sense—although, upon spying the 20-inchers stuffed under the fenders of the new Overland model, you might just find yourself saying: “My, what big wheels you have!”

5 Questions With...

Dennis Delano: Ex-Detective, Future Town Justice

Dennis Delano was booted from his job as a cold case detective for the Buffalo Police Department after he’d won national attention for his role in securing the releases of Lynn DeJac and Anthony Capozzi, both wrongfully convicted of murder.

Letters to Artvoice

Ideas For the Waterfront and Beyond

by Raymond C. Vaughan

A Modest Proposal For Education

by Ben Perrone

Offbeat News

News of the Weird

by Chuck Shepherd

Librarian Graham Barker, 45, of Perth, Australia, casually revealed to a reporter in October that his hobby of 26 years—harvesting his own navel lint daily, just before he showers—has now won acclaim in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Horoscopes

Free Will Astrology

by Rob Brezsny

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): It’s Experiment with Your Self-Image Week—a time when it would be invigorating to shift and play with your identity. During this reinvention phase, you might find you can change yourself on the inside simply by rearranging yourself on the outside.

Advice

Ask Anyone

The night before Thanksgiving is supposed to be the biggest bar night in Buffalo. I’ve lived here all my life, but a lot of my friends have moved away. Still a lot of them come back every year for Thanksgiving. This year, I’m getting a bunch of Facebook messages from them, saying they have plans to go out Wednesday night, but at several different bars.