Three Men in a Room

by Geoff Kelly

“It was said of the Bourbon kings that, individually and collectively, they neither forgot anything nor learned anything…”

by Rob Brezsny

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing,” said motivational author Dale Carnegie. Those should be your words to live by for the rest of 2006. It’s time for you to become almost ruthless in your intention to enjoy yourself as you carry out your life’s work. I’m tempted to go so far as to say that you should disentangle yourself from any commitment in which duty overshadows pleasure. Your drive to do good deeds and be of use to people will ultimately fall short unless you love what you do.

by Chuck Shepherd

■ Seriously Bi-Cultural: Tariq Khan, 12, of New York City, bubbled with enthusiasm (to a New York Times reporter in August) about his love of the Grand Theft Auto video game and the hip-hop music of Fat Joe, T.I. and 50 Cent—a month after becoming a prestigious hafiz by having memorized the entire Koran in Arabic (which he doesn’t understand all that well). He finished the regimen in less than two years of 40-hour workweeks, and if he retains his knowledge, he and 10 people of his choosing eventually get express passage to paradise.

Mr. Walter Simpson’s recent letter to Artvoice, “Israel’s Invasion of Lebanon Was Not Justified,” (Artvoice, v5n35) is beautifully written, reflective and full of insight—everything that one would want in, for example, a public radio commentary. But the accompanying editor’s note reveals that WBFO refused to broadcast a version of this letter because it “was no longer going to air commentaries critical of Israel’s conduct in the recent war in Lebanon,” since “callers had complained about a previous commentary critical of Israel.” And although Simpson has been a featured commentator on WBFO for years now, his “regular monthly WBFO commentary has also been canceled.”

Summer of Hate

by Michael I. Niman

Drug gangs, drive-bys, executions, revenge killing, automatic weapons, funerals, prayer vigils and “Stop the Violence” rallies—these are the headlines for summer 2006 in most American cities and countless small towns. We’re awash in blood as an endless stream of senseless murders dominate our evening newscasts. Using words like “insanity” to describe the wave of killings, besieged communities are calling for forces ranging from God to the National Guard to come save us from our own children. With hands t shrust helplessly skyward, community activists at their wits’ ends want to know what the hell is going on.

The Devil Is in the Details

by Peter Koch

For the past 40 years, the tiny Town of Ashford has had a rich—or perhaps enriched is a better word—nuclear history. Located about 40 miles south of Buffalo on the road to Ellicottville, the state’s Office of Atomic Energy, in partnership with the federal government, chose that bucolic location for a commercial nuclear waste reprocessing center, called West Valley Nuclear Center. New York State acquired 3,345 acres of land in 1961 and leased it to a private company, Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. (an offshoot of Davison Chemical Company), who began accepting shipments of nuclear waste in 1963. Three years later the reprocessing began, which meant taking military wastes and fuel rods from nuclear power plants, and pulling out the uranium and plutonium to be reused, mostly in military stockpiles.

Ladakh Revealed

by Albert Chao

On September 13, the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning will host a lecture by Francesca Galeazzi. A sustainability consultant for Arup Associates in London, UK, Francesca has been a part of the Druk White Lotus School (DWLS) in Ladakh, India (referred to as Little Tibet), which has garnered international recognition for sustainable design.

Renaissance Manny

by Peter Koch

Emmanuel “Manny” Fried is one of Buffalo’s best-known authors and playwrights. He’s also an actor and director, not to mention a social critic and university professor. He fought in the “Great War” and spent years as a labor organizer and suspected Communist while married to Buffalo’s upper crust. You might say Fried’s done it all, and you’d probably be right. A Renaissance man of the old order, Fried is a modern-day Mark Twain or Oscar Wilde, easily crossing genres and leaving a lasting impression on each of them. An on-and-off Buffalo resident since the age of five, he’s captured the courage and despair of Buffalo’s working class for 78 years in novels, short stories and plays that are largely autobiographical. Even today, at the ripe age of 93, Fried doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Along with continuing work on three novels, a memoir and a new play, he is teaching part-time at Buff State, conducting the WNY Playwrights Workshop, and acting in and directing local theatre productions. “Other than that I’m not doing much,” he says.

Theodore Bikel at Canisius

by Anthony Chase

A performance by Theodore Bikel is a historic occasion in and of itself. On Saturday, September 16 at 7:30pm, Buffalonians will have a chance to see the legendary actor in a concert reading of The Disputation, a historical play by Hyam Maccoby performed in the Canisius College Montante Cultural Center. Buffalo actors David Hyde Lamb and Anne Gayley are also featured in the cast.

by Anthony Chase

The theater community and especially those at Niagara University were deeply grieved to learn of the death of longtime NU faculty member Tim Ward on Sunday, September 3, 2006. Tim, who had been ill for a long time, passed away peacefully at home according to NU Theater Department Chair Brendan Powers. A celebration of Tim’s life is planned for Monday, September 11, 2006 at 7pm in the Niagara Falls High School Auditorium, 4455 Porter Road. This service should last about an hour and will be followed by a reception down the street at the Niagara University Theatre Annex, located in the shopping plaza with Valu Home Center, right off of exit 23 on the 190. Those who wish to contribute a one- or two-sentence remembrance for possible use in the service can email jchris427@earthlink. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Niagara University Theatre for the establishment of the Tim Ward Memorial Scholarship.

by Javier

Actor/writer/producer Laurence Fishburne (pictured above) has come back to the legitimate stage with a vengeance. In June he starred in Alfred Uhry’s new play Without Walls at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. He is currently starring opposite Angela Bassett in August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences at the Pasadena Playhouse. Fishburne made his Broadway debut in 1992 in another Wilson play, Two Trains Running, winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor. Coincidentally, Bassett also made her Broadway debut in a Wilson play, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, back in 1988.

Tribe's Formula for Success: Promote from Within!

by Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell

TORONTO—One has to wonder what the Cleveland Indians brain trust are thinking.

by M. Faust

Pop Tones

by Donny Kutzbach

I recently found myself in a debate about the UK rock scene of the 1980s. I ended up sparring with a guy whose opinion I value but who shocked me when he said that the 1980s acts from the Isles lacked a rock bite of those who’d shaped the previous decades. He made his point asking, “Where were the bands like the Stones, the Beatles, the Who? I guess the ’80s was the price to be paid for such early brilliance…the Decade of Mope.”