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Artvoice Weekly Edition » Issue v6n33 (08/16/2007) » Section: See You There


Tour de Neglect

If you’re looking for all the scandal of the Tour de France without the spandex and champagne sipping, then Saturday’s Tour de Neglect is just the thing for you. The Tour comprises a winding 8-mile loop through Buffalo’s East Side with the express purpose of seeing, and learning the stories of, the crumbling, neglected grand old buildings there. A short list of sites that the tour will visit includes Central Terminal, Transfiguration Church, the German Roman Catholic Orphan Home (pictured), Simon Brewery and Sacred Heart. Activist David Torke leads the tour at a leisurely pace, covering the entire circuit in approximately three and a half hours. This bike tour is pure Buffalo, and while it highlights neglect and decay in the city’s once-great neighborhoods, Torke’s narrative is one of “opportunity and hope.” No pre-registration is required for the tour. Just be at Delta Sonic’s Sonic Café at noon with your bike, a lunch, plenty of water and a helmet. If you miss this Saturday’s Tour, there will be one more chance to go this year on Sunday, September 9. The neglect of so many architectural treasures in Buffalo’s “Forgotten City” can only be described as criminal. This tour is a must-see, and should come with a warning label: “May inspire feelings of civic duty and moral outrage.”



T. Graham Brown

Singer T. Graham Brown is blessed with a voice that turns heads in a room. Even if you’re unfamiliar with his early hits like “I Tell It Like It Used to Be” and “Hell And High Water,” you’ve probably heard his voice before. And you’d be right if you guessed it was on one of the jingles he’s done for Taco Bell, Budweiser, Dodge or McDonald’s. Since arriving in Nashville in 1982 from his native Athens, Georgia, Brown has distinguished himself as a hardworking and successful journeyman by belting out a gritty brand of blue-eyed soul with his band the Mighty Rack of Spam. Spam drummer Mike Caputy has local roots. He played with Buffalo legends Rick James and Stan Szelest before moving on to work at the legendary Muscle Shoals studios, along with frequent session work in Nashville. Brown is cut from similar cloth as great country bluesman Delbert McClinton, and precious few tickets remain for his show tonight, which promises to be another rollicking chapter in the ongoing “Private Party Series” at this Black Rock honky tonk.



Gusto at the Gallery: Beyond/In Western New York

Several artists have been busy installing their work at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in preparation for this Friday’s opening of the biennial, city-wide exhibition Beyond/In Western New York 2007. Ambiguous sculptures by Alfonso Volo, 400 small drawings by Simone Mantellassi and an outdoor piece by sculptor Shayne Dark have been installed in different areas, and these are just three among the 14 artists whose work will be displayed at the Albright-Knox alone: When the entirety of Beyond/In Western New York is unveiled (during the weekend of September 14-16) there will be over 50 artists’ work on view at a dozen galleries. The exhibition features artists from all over Western New York and southern Ontario—and includes two artists from Ohio—working in various media from traditional painting and drawing to multi-media and performance art. This weekend’s opening coincides with the Albright’s weekly Gusto at the Gallery event. A curator’s tour of Beyond/In Western New York will be conducted by Claire Schneider, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, at 6pm. There will be art activities for kids from 5-7pm, a screening of Sydney Pollack’s 1985 film Out of Africa at 7pm and a performance by the bluegrass band Creekbend—with square dancing, too—from 7-10pm. For information on the artists, or about the grand opening weekend in September, visit http://www.beyondinwny.org.



Waking Up: Laura Jean CD Release Party

Masseuse by day, musician by night: Such is the double life that Laura Jean Castelluzzo leads. A young woman who is very much in tune with herself and her surroundings, Laura Jean sings about inner peace and harmony, which comes as no great surprise—as a licensed massage therapist, she relaxes others for a living. She will be celebrating the recent release of her first CD, Waking Up, along with her band, La Trinita Dei Priestess (Italian, more or less, for “The Priestess Trinity”) which includes Laura Jean on sax, guitar, vocals and keyboard, K. Cornelius on percussion and Katie Ashwill on cello. The CD features twelve original tracks written by Laura Jean herself and a slew of special guest musicians, many of who will be performing at the release party as well. Special guests for the evening include Stuart Fuchs (lead guitarist for Babik), Odell Northington (bass and trombone), Andre Killian (saxophone), Karen Kohlhagen (flute) and Master M’Baye Rama Diagne (Senegalese hand drums). The band will be onstage all night, but will also share the spotlight for the evening as they play background to Spirit Wind Dance and dancer Aaron Piepszny. Hip-hop artists My Name is Alex and XNow will open and close the show, respectively.





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