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Buffalo Infringement Festival 2007

Buffalo Infringement Festival 2007 Survival Guide

by Thomas Dooney

Musical Fringe Benefits

by Buck Quigley

How to Find AV's Theater Editor

by Anthony Chase

Something to Say

by Peter Koch

On and Off the Wall

by K. O'Day

The Fringe of Infringement

by Geoff Kelly

An Unabridged Calendar of Events

Free Will Astrology

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): You’ve arrived at the recreate-yourself-from-scratch phase of your cycle. To celebrate, I’ve gathered three apt pieces of advice for you to scrawl on a piece of paper that you’ll put under your pillow. (1) “Almost everything comes from almost nothing.” —Henri-Frédéric Amiel. (2) “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” —Peter Drucker. (3) “Leap and the net will appear.” —Zen saying.

News of the Weird

by Chuck Shepherd

■ Some parents feel “unprecedented levels of angst” to pick cool enough names for their kids, with some even hiring consultants, according to a June Wall Street Journal report. Baby-book authors charge clients $50 for a list of “special” names, and half-hour phone consultations go for $95. Another adviser charges $350 for three calls plus a comprehensive linguistic history of the selected name, and one California mother paid $475 to a numerologist to “test” the name Leah Marie for “positive associations.” The Journal blames the problem on too much information about names (from the Internet), as well as parents’ fear of dooming their child for life by insufficiently distinguishing their kid from others.

Letters to Artvoice

As a staunch supporter of both Mayor Brown and the candidacy of Jessica Maglietto (or, as Mr. Kelly refers to her in his infinitely well-informed article, “Jennifer” Maglietto), I feel compelled to respond to Geoff Kelly’s repugnant piece, the “The Bully’s Pulpit” (Artvoice v6n29).

The News, Briefly

Dumped

by Buck Quigley

Robbed by the One-Armed Bandit

by Peter Koch

The Land that Time Forgot

by Geoff Kelly & Lou Ricciuti

Common Council Report: Star Power

by Geoff Kelly

Streetvoice

Defiant Art, Daring Fans?

by Cara Gallivan

Offering itself up as a venue for just about anything you can imagine (and some things you almost certainly couldn’t), Allentown will soon be overrun with the controversially creative art that Buffalo’s Infringement Festival is known and loved for. Canvases and cabaret will give life to street corners as Buffalo opens its arms to local and visiting artists, not just braced for but embracing whatever might come along. And in spite of the handy calendar on the festival Web site (infringebuffalo.org), one is never sure what is coming next. As the artists make their final preparations, we wanted to see what kind of crowd they might draw. We asked a few Buffalonians strutting the streets whether they know about the Infringement Festival and the sort of art they are interested in. Here’s what they said:

You Auto Know

What's In a Name?

by Jim Corbran

Luckily for Volkswagen, most people don’t base their vehicle purchase based solely on its name. Tiguan? I dunno, either. All I do know is that I found it much easier when VW’s car names were…well, when they were actual words I recognized. Beetle. Bug. Squareback and Fastback. Even the Karmann-Ghia name made sense once you realized Karmann was the coachbuilder (body fabricator) and Ghia was the designer.

Book Reviews

The Book of Ocean by Maryrose Larkin

by Laura Polley

Numbers. Language. Gadgets. Science, technology, identities, clothes: is human essence enhanced by culture? Does civilization satisfy the yearnings of the spirit? The Book of Ocean’s instinctive answer to such questions is a wistful and plaintive “no”—but not for the reasons one might expect. These poems dwell on human fabrications because they must, being fabrications themselves. Myth and history, religion and inquiry—in Ocean, all become shadows blocking memory’s light. As a result, Maryrose Larkin’s first book is a prism of paradox, a poetry aware of its own disguise.

Flash Fiction

Melanoma

by Jasmine Sawers

The end of the world is the freckle you hide with seventeen dollar concealer, a shade too dark, sitting just above your lip, fixed there like a windblown sailor on a doomed ship.

Film Reviews

Sunspotting: Sunshine

by George Sax

Underachieving Overachievers: The Simpsons Movie

by M. Faust

Welcome to the Jungle: Rescue Dawn

See You There

Goo Goo Dolls

by Buck Quigley

Comedian Bill Burr

by Peter Koch

James "Slim" Hand

by Buck Quigley

Elvis Perkins in Dearland

by Donny Kutzbach

Calendar Spotlight

The Besnard Lakes

Pilar Alvarez and Claudio Hoffman

Milish

Rock 'N Roll Triple Play Ballpark Tour

The Remus Lupins

The Advice Goddess

by Amy Alkon

My boyfriend of eight months is a vegetarian, and believes all animals are created equal, and that we, as animals, don’t have a right to eat other animals. I’m very much a carnivore, and feel my body needs the protein, although I agree with him that eating meat is morally wrong. When we first met, he said he didn’t care if I ate meat. Now, when we eat out, and I mention that my food smells wonderful, he launches into a tirade about how I’ve made an animal suffer a horrendous death because of my eating habits. Consequently I’ve stopped ordering meat when we’re together, and I’ve also stopped enjoying going out to dinner. Still, he’s a gentle, thoughtful man, so maybe dietary sacrifices are worth it. It’s amazing that eating habits can be such a problem.