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COMMENTARY: BRUCE JACKSON ON A DOWNTOWN STADIUM

CENTERFOLD: CAITLIN CASS’S RATHBUN RETURNS

ART: JULIA WALD’S COLLAGES OPEN AT DREAMLAND

FILM: FILMMAKER MIKE LEIGH ON MR. TURNER

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THIS WEEK ISSUE NO. 12 | FEBRUARY 4, 2015

LOOKING BACKWARD: The Lehigh Valley Terminal was the western terminus of the “Route of the Black Diamond” connecting Buffalo to New York through Philadelphia.

NEWS: The Board of Education punts and parents demand action and the Buffalo News comes late to a story. Plus, a drug-sniffing dog named George III.

PUBLIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Actor Ray Boucher bares his soul.

ART: Andrew Sanders’s NYC subway sketches at Art Dialogue Gallery.

BOOKS: Michael Crummy’s fourth novel, Sweetland.

SPOTLIGHT: Meet Baila Salsa’s Fanny Olaya and Calvin Rice.

THE PUBLIC STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF GEOFF KELLY

ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER SPECIAL ACCOUNTS EXECUTIVE CY ALESSI

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR CORY PERLA MANAGING EDITOR AARON LOWINGER

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COLUMNISTS WOODY BROWN, ANTHONY CHASE, BRUCE FISHER, JACK FORAN, MICHAEL I. NIMAN, NANCY J. PARISI, GEORGE SAX

EDITOR-AT-LARGE BRUCE JACKSON

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SEAN HEIDINGER

CONTRIBUTORS JEANETTE CHIN, TINA DILLMAN, ALICIA GRECO, PAT KEWLEY, ED GRANT, SHANE MEYER, JONNY MORAN, VANESSA OSWALD, KELLIE POWELL, JEREMIAH SHEA, CHRISTOPHER JOHN TREACY

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COVER ART JULIA WARD

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STORY NEWS Clockwise from top: The ad hoc sledding hill, the Larkin Group’s Leslie Zemsky, and the Bill Fenzel Trio at Hydraulic Hearth.

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LARKINVILLE ON SUN-DRENCHED ICE BY NANCY J. PARISI Buffalo loves festivals. And with extant festivals already feting local gardens, far-flung chicken wings (regional and national), virtually every ethnic group, the arts, and music (to give but a sweeping survey), it was time for one ultra-elementally-named and focused festival. This new event means jotting one more onto an already-rich public events calendar: It’s a worthy celebration of wintry hardiness. The premier Ice Festival, a celebration of snow and its slippery underpinnings, happened at three sites in Larkinville on Saturday, January 31. It was an afternoon event and the sun shone that day, resulting in a vivid azure sky and deep shadows around snowmen and the ad hoc “sledding hill.” The Ice Festival was created by community activists Seamus Gallivan and Leslie Zemsky, founder of The Good Neighborhood community network/billboard and the Larkin Group’s director of special events and projects, respectively. Both spoke of the quick manner that the event came together. “Two or three weeks ago we realized that there was a buzz about this so we added more fun to it, the snow lounge that Leslie and I made last night, kids crafts, and the sledding hill. My criteria for a good event is that parents can have a beer while their kids are having fun.” Gallivan, walking around with a mug in hand containing “nothing scandalous,” would later point out a dad, “two beers in,” watching his kids flying down the hill, shrieking with joy—or fear. Zemsky says the event was a “way to welcome Flying Bison to the neighborhood, and BFLO Distilling Company, the next Larkinville resident.” Frank Weber of BFLO Distilling and Carl Schmitter of Chateau Buffalo served

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tastes of their wares in the appropriately named Filling Station. Chateau Buffalo had three choices on table, including Perry, a pear cider, named for illustrious Battle of Lake Erie hero Commodore Perry, who stands guard over Front Park. Community Beer Works co-founder Ethan Cox, “talking about history and having fun” throughout the day, signed copies of his book Buffalo Beer: The History of Brewing in the Nickel City. His fans lined up after a brief talk. Nearby, Talking Leaves Books sold several Buffalo-centric books that would appeal to history enthusiasts and hopheads alike, including Cox’s. Flying Bison, a short walk along Seneca Street, was busy pouring all day long and a full-sized bar made of carved ice was created for the occasion. Mid-festival, standing outside and wearing a hat resembling an igloo, Leslie pointed out that “for the first time there is foot traffic going down the street” since Larkinville’s inception. The 15A Southgate city bus, the sipand-work-out Buffalo Pedal Tours contraption, and light car traffic all crept by. The Bill Fenzel Trio (Bill on accordion, Paul Schmid on stand-up bass, and John Allen on sax) played Dixie jazz in Hydraulic Hearth during the restaurant’s standing Saturday brunch. Artist and illustrator Mickey Harmon (The Public’s centerfold artist last issue) was having a fest-within-a-fest: the opening for the (716) GAL-LERY micro-show A Pie-Eyed Night With Peggy O’Neil, on view through April 30 in a converted phone booth. The chapbook of the same name, with text by Margaret Finan, was available throughout the sunny festiP val for keeps.

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NEWS COMMENTARY

Buffalo’s history of architectural contradiction: lovely buildings and public spaces destroyed or diminished by wrongheaded or corrupt planning.

THE IMPECCABLE DYSFUNCTION OF A DOWNTOWN STADIUM BY BRUCE JACKSON

THIS IS AN ARTICLE ABOUT WHY I THINK A DOWNTOWN STADIUM IS A PROFOUNDLY BAD IDEA IN ALL REGARDS: ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND CIVIC. BUT BEFORE I GO THERE I HAVE TO RECOUNT SOME HISTORY. THIS AIRY BILLIONDOLLAR PROPOSAL NEEDS TO BE SEEN IN CONTEXT, BECAUSE, IN VARIOUS FORMS, WE’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE. THIS MAKES SENSE ONLY IF YOU HAVE NO MEMORY. 4

BACKGROUND Buffalo is a town of astonishing architectural contradictions. They city has buildings by all the important early 20th-century architects: Frank Lloyd Wright, Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Stanford White, and others. And we have the greatest and most complex work of public landscape architecture by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux: the city’s complex park and parkway system. At the same time, we have a history of the city and corporations working assiduously to destroy all of that. Wright’s Larkin office building was torn down to make space for a parking lot; the Richardson psychiatric center was derelict for decades; Sullivan’s Guaranty Building was almost torn down and was saved only by the efforts of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the Hodgson Russ law firm. Buffalo has had the worst city planning of any city I know, save Austin, Texas, which doesn’t have any city planning or any zoning. In Austin, anyone can do anything anywhere he or she has the money to do it, and they do. In Buffalo, you have to get contracts, convince people, buy politicians. As former Sabres owner Tom Golisano and his managing partner, Larry Quinn, once responded to a question I asked them about buying a city council or a city hall: They shrugged their shoulders. Nada, that’s what it takes.

CHEWING UP THE CITY Buffalo is a small city. Save for our 10 minutes of rush hour in the morning and evening, you can get from anywhere to almost anywhere else in 10 or 15 minutes. The city fathers, in years past, thought it was a good idea to chew up Frederick Law Olmsted’s grand boulevard design to create speedways that would make it easier for people to work in the heart of the city but live somewhere else.

THE PUBLIC / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

The Kensington Expressway (NY 33), for example, totally destroyed several viable neighborhoods, made suburban exodus from the city easier, and destroyed a key segment of Olmsted’s Buffalo parkway system. What official in City Hall (or what well-compensated scoundrel in City Hall) thought that was an improvement? Likewise the Scajaquada Expressway (NY 198), a four-lane truck route that perfectly bisected Olmsted’s north-south vision for Delaware Park and Forest Lawn. The park used to be whole; the cemetery used to be contiguous to it. The 198 ended that. You can’t get from one side of the park to the other now without a long hike or crossing four lanes of traffic. The S-curves: They look nice, but they’re a four-lane roadway with a median, the creation of which required dumping of a huge amount of landfill into Delaware Park Lake (now Hoyt Lake), obliterating five acres of rare urban public waterspace. The beat goes on. Buffalo State College occupies half the parkland Olmsted designed for the Richardson complex. So what was once contiguous parkland running from Grant Street to Parkside, from Forest Lawn to Nottingham, has been chopped and sliced and made less and less accessible. Delaware Park’s great meadow, once similar to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park, a place where people could walk and families could picnic, has been turned into a mediocre golf course, a place you picnic and walk at your own risk. The largest office building in Buffalo, One Seneca Tower (formerly One HSBC Center), which is nearly entirely vacant, straddles Main Street, blocking the light, obliterating the horizon. The Convention Center wipes out a key segment of Joseph Ellicott’s brilliant radial street design: Genesee Street now ends at a door, disappears for three blocks, then resumes, a radial totally without function.

I’ve heard a lot of noise about how shutting down traffic on Main Street killed downtown. Nonsense. That suffocated a few blocks of downtown. What really killed downtown were those three roads that made it easy for people to work in the city, but live and play elsewhere: the Kensington, the 198, and the Scajaquada, plus the downtown extension of the Thruway, the I-190, which successfully isolated almost the entire city from its waterfront. Some cities are attacked and crippled by outside invaders. We didn’t have to go outside. We had City Hall.

THE BUFFALO NEWS AND ITS DOWNTOWN STADIUM And now there are three possible plans for a downtown stadium. The Buffalo News has hyped those plans in articles that are ostensibly news, but they’ve been page one, above the fold, again and again in recent weeks. That’s how the Buffalo News does it: They present something as fact again and again on page one, above the fold, big, then there’s an editorial responding to that series of page one articles, as if the editorial were responding to issues raised by someone else. But who would profit from a downtown stadium? Not the construction industry: They’ll get jobs wherever a new stadium is built or if the Ralph is ratcheted up to NFL demands. (More about that later.) All three downtown locations would require destruction of neighborhoods, one of them Larkinville, one of the great success stories of urban development in this area in decades. What idiot would want to crush that for a facility that had maybe 10 games in fall and winter and at most a dozen concerts in spring and summer? How many artists have been here in recent years for whom our successive hockey arenas haven’t sufficed? How many artists can fill a football stadium in Buffalo?

COMMENTARY NEWS

LOOKING BACKWARD: LEHIGH VALLEY TERMINAL

THE OSTENSIBLE CANADIAN FOOTBALL FANATICS

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One of the arguments for a downtown stadium is that it will make Buffalo football more attractive to Canadian football fans, who will in ever increasing numbers drive across the Peace Bridge to spend money in the Buffalo area. I don’t buy this and I doubt anyone seriously thinking about it does either.

“The Lehigh Valley Railroad has given Buffalo its first modern passenger station.” —Buffalo Morning Express, August 31, 1916. The Lehigh Valley Terminal, 125 Main Street, was the western terminus of the “Route of the Black Diamond” connecting Buffalo to New York through Pennsylvania. When it opened in 1916, the Lehigh Valley was one of four downtown railroad stations, alongside the New York Central and Erie on Exchange Street and the Lackawanna at the foot of Main Street. The four-story structure, designed by architect Kenneth M. Murchison, was dubbed a “beauty house for the public” and “monument to Buffalo’s expansion.” Beyond its gray Indiana limestone facade with eight great columns was a white marble-clad waiting room, at the time the largest and highest room in Buffalo. The terminal featured a ticket office, barber shop, smoking room, restaurant, and invalids’ room. Modern facilities included an air-washing plant, baggage checks by pneumatic tube, and a sloped tunnel connecting the terminal to the headhouse below Washington Street. The terminal was in use for only 36 years, the Lehigh Valley shuttering the station in 1952 in favor of a new facility at South Ogden and Dingens streets. A proposal by Councilman-at-Large Peter J. Rybka to reuse the Lehigh Valley as an intercity bus station did not advance beyond the idea stage. The Thruway Authority, having acquired the Lehigh Valley’s 4-track mainline for the construction of the I-190, demolished the station in 1960. The Donovan State Office Building was built on the site, and today it is the location of Phillips Lytle LLP and a Courtyard by Marriot. –THE PUBLIC STAFF

For starters, a few miles make no difference to serious football fans. MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Giants and New York Jets, is located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the other side of the Hudson River. Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, is in Santa Clara, 40 miles from downtown San Francisco. Have you ever been on the New York Thruway on a home game day and seen the traffic coming and going from and to Rochester and beyond? Twelve miles makes a difference if you’re walking, maybe, but not if you’re in the SUV loaded with coolers for the tail-gate festivities.

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Furthermore, if we’re interested in Canadian visitors dropping a few bucks while they’re here, Orchard Park is still the best bet, since they go right by the Galleria. Put a stadium downtown and what’s to buy on a Sunday afternoon—a logo hoodie?

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CONGRESS MUDDIES THE GAME There is one more serious problem about using increased Canadian game traffic as a reason for a new billion-dollar downtown stadium: The current Republican Congress wants to make crossing the northern border far more difficult than it has ever been. They want biometric ID for everyone making the cross into Canada, which will back up traffic for miles even on regular days. If you have been in a traffic jam at the Peace Bridge, it is nothing in comparison to what the Republicans have in mind for visitors now. If they’re successful, Canadian traffic is going to drop to a trickle no matter how close to the tollbooths the goal line is.

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SO WHO GETS SERVED BY WHAT? My brother-in-law Jimmy, a devoted Bills fan, lives in Rochester. What would a move to downtown to do his Buffalo visits? It would take him more, not less time to reach the stadium, and getting back home would be worse than it now is. Moving the stadium downtown serves a few people moving into all those new condos well—they could walk—but hardly anyone else, other than the people getting to spend all that public money. Peripheral economic boost? Forget it. There is no evidence that any urban stadium has created economic heat. This is like the foolishness bruited about several years ago when the Senecas planned a grand hotel with several bars and restaurants on their downtown Buffalo site and City Hall bragged, “Oh, look at all that development.” But that wouldn’t have been development at all: The people boozing it up or having dinner before hitting the slots would have been the same people not boozing it up or having dinner at local restaurants. It was worse than zero-sum, because the Senecas wouldn’t have been paying taxes. Look at all the “development” in Niagara Falls since that casino went in. Other than the casino there isn’t any. Likewise a downtown stadium. If there were one, and if it had the amenities it ought to have, where do you think those diners and drinkers will be shifting their spending from? It’s not like we’re going to get a new audience for downtown. It is merely, as several outside observers have already noted, moving the pieces around. Some astute local observers have picked up on that. One of them is Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz. Jerry Zremski (who usually reports from Washington but for the stadium issue seems to have been shifted to the sports desk), in a long page-one, above-the-fold article in this past Sunday’s News, quoted Poloncarz as having said: “There really is no economic spinoff that results if it’s just a stadium. That’s been proven again and again.” Which is to say, this makes money for the owners, for the NFL, but the taxpayers foot the bill.

BOGUS HISTORY The two most mindless laments I’ve heard since I came here are a) UB should have moved downtown rather than going to Amherst, and b) we should have built a domed stadium down-

town rather than that open-air stadium in Orchard Park. There was, in fact, no real room for UB to move downtown, not unless the university displaced hundreds of families and small businesses and, in the process, destroyed viable urban neighborhoods, as the Kensington Expressway did. Have you ever visited UB’s North Campus? Imagine plopping that downtown. What happens to the houses, the people, the businesses underneath? It’s like a Monty Python sketch: Remember that big foot coming down, squashing everything? Expansion of the Peace Bridge plaza has been tied up for a decade by a few people justifiably fighting to preserve their small neighborhood. What do you think would have happened if UB planners had decided to destroy 20 or 30 times as much inhabited space? There was a possibility and a plan for UB to have expanded onto the golf course across Bailey from the Main Street campus. UB had even acquired a large parcel of land in Amherst to trade so UB could have stayed within the city line and Buffalo would still have a golf course. But at the last minute, the City balked. It wasn’t UB that moved out of the City; it was the City saying you’re just not that important. This sorry narrative is detailed in William R. Greiner and Thomas Headrick’s 2007 book, Location, Location, Location. The argument about relocation of UB was in process when I came here in 1967. There’s a lot of rumor about why the decisions were made as they were, but few facts. I think the Greiner-Headrick book is as close as anyone has come to getting at what the real history was. Likewise the downtown stadium. Before the Orchard Park stadium was built there was a big argument going on about whether we should have an open-air stadium in the suburbs or a covered stadium downtown. People argued but there were two very real problems that no one, to my knowledge, ever confronted at the time: The money for a domed downtown stadium was never there, and what about all the people and businesses that would have been displaced by a downtown stadium (and its huge parking lots and access roads), covered or not? Those questions remain unanswered now.

Nothing in the public sphere ever costs what they say it will when they’re making the promises up front. Not a jet fighter, not a university research center, not a publicly funded football stadium. The heavy-lifting on this bill will be born by the public, not the owners of the team, not the other NFL owners who want us to have a bigger stadium with more box seats so they can share more money. The NFL and the owners will pay some of it; we’ll pay the bulk of it. Us. The taxpayers. In a town that can’t afford a decent school system and can’t afford to fix its potholes. Economically, it would, if the experience of other cities mean anything, do virtually nothing for Buffalo that the Ralph doesn’t do already— particularly with the huge improvements to the place already in play, paid for by public money, all of them designed to do make food services more accessible, make toilets more accessible, and have more high-end box seats so the owners can make more money.

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SO WHY DO IT? Socially and aesthetically, a downtown stadium would rip out of the heart of a newly vitalized downtown; it would coagulate a huge area that would otherwise integrate with the life of the city. Why destroy the Cobblestone District for this? Why destroy Larkinville? Wasn’t the Buffalo Seneca Casino enough foolishness for one decade? If we’re going to pour a billion dollars, most of them public dollars, into downtown, how about we pour it into infrastructure, into the arts, into education, into trees? Not into a huge complex (the structure, more parking lots, more access roads) that will be used maybe 20 or 24 days a year and which will require the demolition of some of the few things of value we’ve built downtown in the past 20 years. The lesson you’re supposed to take from the mistakes of the past is that you try to do it differently next time, not that you do the same dysfunctional things all over again. Bruce Jackson is SUNY Distinguished Professor and James Agee Professor of American Culture at P U.B. He is also editor-at-large for The Public.

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NEWS LOCAL

SCHOOLS REPORT After BOE delays vote, parents demand action BY SHANE MEYER The latest Buffalo Board of Education meeting turned out to be a tease. The BOE was scheduled to vote on the turnaround plans for Lafayette, MLK, East, and Bennett, but instead delayed the vote until February 11 (5:30pm at PS 95 Waterfront Elementary). Nevertheless, there was a strong showing of support for the re-design plans voiced during the public comment section. Eve Shippens, a parent, teacher and member of the MLK re-design team, said she was happy for the delay, noting that it meant BOE members would have time to actually read the plan her team had drafted: “I was very hurt on Monday night after the charter meeting [two nights earlier the BOE was presented proposals from charter schools for the four out-of-time schools]. I talked to two board of [education] members and they admitted that they had not read my plan. And I want to thank [Superintendent] Ogilvie for giving them two more weeks to review the hard work that we have put it.” She also called out board member Jason McCarthy, for whom she had particularly pointed words. “I would also like to call out our North District member. We are very interested in having a conversation with you. You have the opportunity to be a hero to the students, parents, teachers, and community. We are going to be calling you. We would like to set up a meeting to discuss how important keeping public schools public…is to the community. We will be calling you tomorrow. Please set up that meeting, because we will be watching, and we do not forget.” Rumor has it that McCarthy is eyeing a Common Council run, and thus may be the member of the board majority whose ears are slightly more sensitive to the voices of the community. He’ll be the member to watch on February 11.

The Board of Education’s Jay McCarthy.

Crystal Barton, principal of McKinley High School, also addressed the accusation that some board members had not read the redesign plans: “We hear a lot of things out in the community. People say, ‘Well, the minds are made up,’ and then I hear you haven’t really had the opportunity to go over these plans.” She also addressed the clear message sent to the BOE by the community: “I want you to take a look around. The community really does mean something…it’s the board’s responsibility to listen to the people, and the people are speaking.” John Emerling spoke in favor of the Bennett re-design plan, while offering a challenge to Phil Rumore, head of the Buffalo Teachers Federation: “The Bennett plan is designed to reach the needs of the children, the teachers, and the community. The governor has mandated the union to sign a memorandum of understanding [MOU] to be included with the board’s proposal, yet they continue to hold our children hostage by not supporting the Buffalo Public School system and not signing this declaration, all the while claiming to support the Bennett plan. Mr. Rumore says he brought the document tonight. Mr. Rumore, I challenge you, I dare you, to have the courage and the professionalism to walk to

THE PUBLIC RECORD:

PIGEONS & K-9s BY GEOFF KELLY

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST: ON THE PIGEON INVESTIGATION This past Sunday, the Buffalo News published a story by political reporter Bob McCarthy about an investigation into the workings of Western New York Progressive Caucus, a political action committee that took part in the local 2013 election cycle. The details of the story are familiar the readers of The Public: We wrote about it before Thanksgiving, after interviewing several people who had been questioned by state investigators working for New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

To reiterate: Under the direction of veteran Democratic political pot-stirrer Steve Pigeon and the PAC’s treasurer, former TV politics talk show host Kristy Mazurek, Western New York Progressive Caucus spent at least $262,000 on county-level races in 2013. Mazurek and Pigeon were accused of coordinating expenditures with the candidates the PAC supported, a felony, and of disguising the provenance of the PAC’s funds, as well as the dirty politicking (attack mailers making specious claims) typical of our region.

(Not that you’d know we were first to the story by reading McCarthy’s story. The News is not in the habit of acknowledging others’ reporting. But let’s leave that be.)

The investigators focused on the PAC, but also asked some questions about expenditures by the Erie County Democratic Committee, headed by Chairman Jeremy Zellner, which has been at war with Pigeon and a group of affiliated party factions for several years. There were also

the board right now and give them the MOU.” Rumore, second to last among the public commenters, was game for the challenge: “If you want us to do an MOU based on [the re-design plans submitted] by the schools—good, that’s it, that’s final. But don’t try to change it, because we’re not playing any games.” All the pieces are in place: The plans have the support of students, parents, alums, and the teachers’ union. Do they have the support of the BOE? Bianca Morales, a senior at Riverside (which is currently undergoing the out-of-time process), characterized as cynical the short-term thinking on behalf of the board majority: “You see, it’s a cycle: punish the schools, cut the funding, watch them struggle more, and then hand them over to private entities…The problem is that you’re not seeing the whole picture. You’re not seeing the long-term, the cause and effect. You’re not being idealist or understanding enough to factor in the small details and then look at the big picture. The closing and privatization of our schools is pure greed.”

questions about a string of dummy companies allegedly used to obscure the origin of donations to the candidates. There were questions about Mayor Byron Brown, as well as Brown’s former deputy mayor, Steve Casey, and Casey’s decision to leave City Hall last year to head up a big West Seneca real-estate development with connections to Pigeon and Erie County Conservative Party Chairman Ralph Lorigo. The name Jack O’Donnell also came up in the interviews. O’Donnell, the son of Democratic politicians John and Denise O’Donnell, is Pigeon’s protegé and ally in local and state politics. (His political consulting companies have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Pigeon-directed campaigns and committees in recent years.) In two of the interviews, there was some talk about real-estate transactions. At least six people were interviewed. For more, you can read our original report or a recent, more exhaustive piece by The Public’s Alan Bedenko, both at dailypublic.com. The only new substance the News story adds to the discussion are some denials from Pigeon, which are to be expected and may even be the raison d’être for the piece: Pigeon is a steady source for McCarthy’s columns, and McCarthy affords him plenty of self-justifying quotes. There is also some snark from Pigeon’s ally, Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III, directed at his former employee, Mark Sacha. Sacha drafted the complaint that led eventually to Schneiderman’s investigation. Sedita fired Sacha from the DA’s office after Sacha publicly accused Sedita and his predecessor, Frank Clark,

of protecting Pigeon from an investigation into campaign finance irregularities surrounding the 2007 Erie County executive race. Since his firing, Sacha has dogged Sedita and county DAs statewide for failing to pursue political corruption. They can’t, Sasha says, because they are creatures of the local political ecologies they are meant to patrol. In his defense, Sedita held up his 2014 prosecution of Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority Commissioner Joe Mascia for failure to file campaign finance reports. Mascia pled guilty, because he was, but his prosecution was itself politically motivated. The provenance of Mascia’s prosecution was a lengthy brief written by an ally of Mayor Byron Brown and Sedita, Adam Perry, an attorney at Hodgson Russ, which does a great deal of lucrative outside legal work for BMHA. Mascia is a relentless critic of the mayor’s appointed commissioners at BMHA, as well as BMHA’s administration. He has complained about the fees BMHA pays to Hodgson Russ and other law firms. There are many elected officials in Western New York whose campaign finance filings, or lack of them, deserve to be investigated. In the past, Sedita has said his office doesn’t prioritize political corruption and election law cases because they are difficult to prove and the punishments are negligible. Mascia’s prosecution was political punishment for his orneriness, pure and simple. If anything, Sedita’s prosecution of Mascia undercuts that claim: He’s got time to investigate and prosecute a political enemy, but never his friends and allies.

KING K-9… Buffalo’s Common Council recently gave approval to the Buffalo Police Foundation to accept a $12,376 from the Hyde Foundation to purchase, train, and house a new drug-sniffing dog. The only condition the Hyde Foundation placed on the grant is that the dog be named George III, “after its benefactor, George H. Hyde, Jr.” A regal beagle. A hound of distinction. A monarch in shepherd’s clothing.

THE PUBLIC / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

PUBLIC QUESTIONNAIRE THEATER

FINAL PERFORMANCES

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...outstanding ... memorable performances by a sterling ensemble ... an electric night at the theatre .

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THE PUBLIC QUESTIONNAIRE:

RAY BOUCHER

A WORLD OF THEATRE WITHIN REACH.

ANDREWS THEATRE

625 MAIN STREET • BUFFALO 14203

SEASON SPONSOR

BY ANTHONY CHASE Ray Boucher is one of Buffalo’s go-to actors for a wide range of roles. He’s appeared at Jewish Rep, Alleyway, New Phoenix, Irish Classical Theatre, and Shakespeare in Delaware Park. Lately, he’s most often to be found at Buffalo Laboratory Theatre, for whom he is currently appearing in Build Your Own Adventure: The Mystery of the Silver Chalice by Taylor Doherty at 710 Main. This is an interactive play in which the audience determines the outcome. Boucher would seem to be a great choice for this playful sort of venture. On stage he can project an impish sense of mischief, and is never afraid to make bold choices. According to the press fodder, in The Mystery of the Silver Chalice, “Robert has never been very good with the ladies—in fact, he’s borderline pathetic. But now, thanks to a silver chalice and a magical new friend, Robert might have one last chance at love…but he needs YOUR help! Using the latest in theatre technology, the audience uses small audience-response remote controls to direct the choices Robert makes throughout the show! Will he pursue the beautiful bombshell, the girl-next-door or the edgy artist? What should he wear on his date? Will you take her to a poetry reading or a nightclub? The audience chooses a hysterically different path each and every night! With eleven possible endings! Can you help Robert make the right choices and win the girl of his dreams? Or will you guide him into romantic disaster? It’s up to YOU!”

Made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Made possible in part by the County of Erie and the City of Buffalo.

Step inside the feverish mind of Walt Disney – violent, virulent, and desperate for immortality – as he and his brother Roy set the record straight about the Happiest Place on Earth.

Well, that sounds like fun, but for now, with The Public Questionnaire, it’s up to Ray! (For the record; he doesn’t play Robert. He’s the other guy). What word would your friends use to describe you? Smart-aleck (though they

don’t use the word “aleck”).

What quality in your current character is most unlike your own personality? He is

800 years old; I am slightly younger.

What quality in your current role is most like your own personality? Oh, he’s a bit

snarky…and I’m just a bit snarky my own self. When and where were you the happiest?

What trait do you most dislike in others? What do you most value in your friends?

An ability to enjoy life. What quality do you most value in a good director? Clarity of vision. What is your guilty pleasure? Beer, though

I’m not that guilty about it. Who is your favorite fictional hero?

What is your idea of hell on earth? Sartre

Who is your real-life hero? My father.

says “Hell is other people…” but that seems a bit mean…so, stuck in a car in a blizzard with Justin Bieber and at least two Kardashians… so, in that case, Sartre was right. What is your greatest fear? Oh, the real

ones: health and well-being of my family being threatened…and, of course, being stuck in a car with Justin Bieber and two Kardashians. Which talent do you most wish you had?

The ability to play an instrument… any instrument. What superpower do you most wish you had? Omniscience. What would you change about your appearance? Maybe taller…maybe

hair…maybe taller hair.

Arthur Dent (Hitchhikers Guide…).

BY LUCAS HNATH

What do you consider to be the most overrated virtue? Wealth.

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On what occasion do you lie? To avoid

inconvenient conversations. What was the subject of your last Google search? How to spell “Bieber.”

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If you come back in another life, what person or thing would you like to be? I’d

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like to be a pterodactyl…that’d show ’em. What role, in which you will never be cast, is perfect for you? Willy Wonka. What is your motto? “One day you are

going to die…but not today.”

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DAILYPUBLIC.COM / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 / THE PUBLIC

ARTS REVIEW

IN GALLERIES NOW: BY TINA DILLMAN = ART OPENING

“Evidence of the process, visual tension, economy of means and design,” Sanders said of the often unfinished lines in his drawings.

RIDING THE NYC SUBWAY Sketches by Andrew Sanders at Art Dialogue Gallery BY JACK FORAN

THE APPARITION OF THESE FACES IN THE CROWD; PETALS ON A WET, BLACK BOUGH. The title of the little poem by Ezra Pound is “In a Station of the Metro.” I wonder if artist Andrew Sanders thought of it when he was drawing his subway series sketches in the New York City underground. But then I think, no. It’s not like he’s conforming to any literary or other model in these sure-handed ink-on-notebook-paper drawings. Yet the Ezra Pound poem is a near-perfect analogue, as to subject matter, as to minimalist form. The subway drawings are little imagist poems. Direct, unadorned, reduced to essentials. Poems a few lines in length. Incomplete, one could consider. Fragmentary. Part of a facial profile here. Part of a more complete figure there. A man holding a newspaper in front of him, the flap of his overcoat—all you see of the bottom half of the garment, the bottom half of the man—trailing downward in a single squiggly line. A girl wearing a flower. Just her head and shoulders, and the flower. Subway riders seated and standing, in oblique perspective often, viewed from the side or the back. Sometimes with a humorous note. A man with his anatomy half in the aisle, half in his half of a double seat, to accommodate the possibly extra-large-volume woman occupying the other seat and then some. We only see her head and neck above the seat back. I have often thought a significant inspiration source of the imagist poetry school that developed in the early 20th century must have been the more or less concurrent scholarly discovery and appreciation of relatively large amounts of pre-Classical-era Greek lyric poetry—school of Sappho, et al.—which was usually in fragmentary form. Incomplete lines and verses, in some instances just a few words, in others a single word. But because of the patent excellence of those ancient poets—based on extant less-fragmentary examples and the high repute in which they were held by readers nearer Classical times who had a more complete corpus of the poems and in more complete versions—whatever remnants turned up were treasured and pored over and interpreted, to the point that often some sense could be made of them. And in the process, a general appreciation grew concerning fragments. How bits and pieces of text lacking context could still yield meaning. Maybe in various ways, various directions. But all the more poetical for that. In the quality of ambivalence, ambiguity. Several dozen of Sanders’s subway series drawings are currently on view at the Art Dialogue Gallery. Sanders, an artist in several media who had extensive Western New York connections—he was a member of the Buffalo Society of Artists and Western New York Artists Group and exhibited over the years at numerous local galleries—died in 2010 after a long struggle with cancer. In the late 1990s he made a famous photographic series on the last blacksmith shop operating in Buffalo, on South Park Avenue in the Cobblestone District. Operated by blacksmith Edmund Rudnicki. The subway series drawings are from the decade 1960-1970. In a mag-

THE PUBLIC / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

azine interview, Sanders once talked about his aesthetic rationale for the sketchy unfinished character of this work. “There are several reasons for the incomplete areas,” he said. “Evidence of the process, visual tension, economy of means and design. In my totally complete line drawings I began to notice that the final result looked as though it had been effortlessly achieved. When a section of the drawing was left undrawn, a degree of the difficulty required to complete the drawing became apparent.” So much for ars est celare artem. The Sanders exhibit continues through March 13. In the adjoining gallery space—the Western New York Artists Group space—is the group’s members show. Including a wonderful oil-on-canvas still life with peppers and tomatoes by Ann Stievater; two skeletal figures amid dense red surround abstract by Joan Fitzgerald; single-figure painterly semi-abstract by Bruce Philip Bitmead; a through a scrim curtain brightly effect depiction of a forest of birches in winter under a full moon by Susan Quaintance; and Bill Krause’s solid monotone areas and black outlines Girl With Red Hair, among other fine work. The members show continues through P February 6.

4464 Local Art Gallery & Gifts (464 Amherst Street, Buffalo, NY 14207 464gallery.com): Residential Property, resident artist group exhibition, till Feb 8. Wed-Fri: 12-6, Sat-Sun: 12-4, by event or appointment. 1045 Elmwood Gallery for the Arts (1045 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222, 716-228-1855-call for open hours photographics2.com/store/welcome-to-our-studio-1045-gallery-store): Valentines Day, February 14, 4-7 pm: Ceramic artist Sarah Cozzemera (Everyday Earthware) teams up with Vegan Pathways in creating an all vegan soup extravaganza. Ticket price of $20 (plus sales tax) includes: Select your bowl (hand thrown deep dish bowl), enjoy a specially created vegan soup for the evening (choice of three) as well as a cup of tea (in hand thrown tea cup of your choice). Visit website to purchase tickets. Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14222, 882-8700, albrightknox.org): Imperfections by Chance: Paul Feeley Retrospective, 1954-1966, on view till Feb 15; Giving up One’s Mark: Helen Frankenthaler in the 1960s and 1970s, on view till Feb 15; Arturo Herrera: Little Bits of Moderism, on view till April 5; David Adamo in the Sculpture Court, on view through May 17: Robert Heinecken: Surrealism on TV, on view till May 31. Tue-Sun 10am5pm. Open late First Fridays till 10pm. Art Dialogue Gallery Custom Framing (5 Linwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14209. artdialoguegallery. com): Riding the NYC Subway, Sketches by Andrew Sanders, circa 1960-71, up till March 13. Wed & Thu 11am-5pm, Fri 11am-4pm, Sat 11am-2pm. Artists Group Gallery (Western New York Artists Group) (1 Linwood Ave, Buffalo, NY 14209, 716885-2251, wnyag.com): 2015 Non-Juried Members Exhibition, on view till Feb 6. Tue, Wed, Fri 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-6pm, Sat 11am-3pm. Artspace Buffalo Gallery (1219 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14209): Candy Coated Darkness, artworks by Tanya Chutko, Darlene Garcia Torres, Ashley Smith. Sat & Sun 12-4pm. Benjaman Art Gallery (419 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222, 886-0898, thebenjamangallery. com): Rotating selected works from collection. Thu-Sat 11am-5pm, Sun-Wed by appointment. Betty’s Restaurant (370 Virginia Street, Buffalo, NY 14201, 362-0633, bettysbuffalo.com): Catherine Shuman Miller: Works on Paper on view till March 22. Big Orbit (30 Essex Street, Buffalo, NY 14222, cepagallery.org/about-big-orbit): Members show on view till Feb 22. Fri & Sat 12-6pm. BT&C Gallery (1250 Niagara Street, Buffalo, NY 14213, 604-6183, btandcgallery.com): Opening Millie Chen: stain, Thu Feb 5, 6-9pm. Fri 12-5pm or by appointment. Buffalo Arts Studio (Tri-Main Building 5th Floor, 2496 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, 833-4450, buffaloartsstudio.org): Tommy Nguyen: Me PLUSH You Long Time and Dennis Barraclough: Recent Works. Both shows on view till March 6. Tue-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 10am-2pm. Fourth Fridays till 8pm. Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology (1221 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14209, 259-1680, buffaloartstechcenter.org): Opening reception Fri Feb 6, 6-9pm, Graham Mitchell Sears, on view through mid April. Mon-Fri 10am-3pm. Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens (2655 South Park Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14218, 827-1584, buffalogardens.com): Michael Haderer, Arcangel Gallery Exhibit, on view till March 15, included with admission. Mon-Sun 10am-5pm. Burchfield-Penny Art Center (1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222, 878-6011, burchfieldpenney.org): Judy Olson Gregory: Taking Tea, till Feb 22; Exalted Nature: The Real and Fantastic World of Charles Burchfield, on view till Feb 22; Inquisitive Lens: Marion Faller, on view till Mar 29; Discovering Deco: Photographs by Bruce Jackson, on view till Mar 29; When the Self Is Not: David Moog, on view till Mar 29; Alexander O. Levy: American Artist, Art Deco Painter, on view till Mar 29; Phillip Stearns: A Chandelier for One of Many Possible Ends, on view till Mar 29. Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat 10am-5pm, Second Fridays till 8pm, Thu 10am-9pm, Sun 1-5pm. Admission varies, visit site for more information. Burchfield Nature and Art Center (2001 Union Road, West Seneca, NY 14224, 677-4843, burchfieldnac.org): Opening Sun Feb 8, 2-4pm, Cheektowaga Art Guild Exhibit Feb 5-March 1. Castellani Art Museum (5795 Lewiston Road, Niagara University, NY 14109, 286-8200, castellaniartmuseum.org/): Gary Sczerbaniewicz: High Strangeness, on view till May 3. Byron Rich: Protista Imperialis on view till Feb 8. Tue-Sat 11am5pm, Sun 1-5pm. CEPA (617 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, 8562717, cepagallery.org): Patti Ambrogi: The Rebel Forest, Valerie Kasinski: Together We Are, Lukia Costello: As I Wake, I Cry: Revisiting Ukraine, on view till Feb 28. Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 12-4pm.

GALLERIES ARTS

Millie Chen’s show stain opens Thursday, February 5 at BT&C Gallery. Opening reception 6-9pm. Dreamland (387 Franklin Street, Buffalo, NY 14202, facebook.com/dreamlandarts.buffalo/ timeline): Julia Wald: Collages, opening Sat Feb 7 7-11pm, on view till Feb 21. Fargo House Gallery (287 Fargo Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14213, thefargohouse.com): Caitlin Cass: Benjamin Rathbun Builds Buffalo, opening Feb 6, 7-10pm. On view through the spring. Enjoy the Journey Art Gallery (1168 Orchard Park Road, West Seneca, NY 14224, 675-0204, etjgallery.com): Opening Fri Feb 6, 7-9pm, Be Inspired:, West Seneca Academy of Visual Art.

Flying Anvil Metalworks (51 Botsford Place, Buffalo, NY 14216, 308-0825 flyinganvilmetalworks. com): Work by Mollie Atkinson and Kenny Kash, on view till Feb 13. Tue-Fri 12-6pm and by appointment. GLOW Gallery (224 Allen Street, Buffalo NY 14202): ELAB Celebrates Five Years, opening Sat Feb 7, 6-10pm at Glow Gallery. Tue-Sat 1-5pm. Hallwalls (341 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14202, 854-1694, hallwalls.org): Amid/In WNY, survey of local and regional contemporary artists, through Mar 6. Tue-Fri 11am-6pm, Sat 11am2pm, Closed on Sundays & Mondays.

Impact Artists’ Gallery (Tri Main Building, 2495 #545, Buffalo, NY 14214, 835-6817, impactartistsgallery.org): Beyond Reality: Fantasy Art Exhibit, though Mar 13. Artists reception Feb 27 5:30-8pm. Wed-Fri 11am-4pm, Sat 11am-2pm. Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo Bunis Family Art Gallery (2640 N Forest Road, Benderson Family Building, Amherst, NY 14068, 6884033, jccbuffalo.org): Jerome Greenberg: Our Buffalo, photographic retrospective of Buffalo during the 1940s and 1950s, on view till Feb 27. Mon-Thu 5:30am-10pm, Fri 5:30am-6pm, SatSun 8am-6pm. Jewish Community Center of Buffalo, Holland Family Building (787 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY, 14209, 886-3172,jccbuffalo.org): Richard Huntington: Whereabouts Unknown, a series of reinterpreted artworks that were lost of destroyed during World War II, on view till Feb 27. Mon-Thu 5:30am-10pm, Fri 5:30am-6pm, Sat-Sun 8am6pm. Kenan Center House Gallery (433 Locust Street, Lockport, NY 14094, 433-2617 kenancenter.org/ arts/gallery.asp): MANmade Art: A Cross-Generational Survey, including work by local artist Gerald Mead, on view till Feb 22. Mon-Fri 12-5pm & Sun 2-5pm. Karpeles Manuscript Library (North Hall) (220 North Street, Buffalo, NY 14201, 885-4139, rain. org/~karpeles): The Wright Brothers Documents. Tue-Sun 11am-4pm. Karpeles Manuscript Museum (Porter Hall) (453 Porter Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14201, 885-4139, rain. org/~karpeles): Maps of the United States. TueSun 11am-4pm. Lockside Art Center (21 Main Street, Lockport, NY 14094, 478-0239, locksideartcenter.com): Made by Hand, sculpture exhibit, opening reception Sat Feb 7 2-4pm. Fri-Sun 12-4pm. Manuel Barreto Furniture (430 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14202, 867-8937, manuelbarreto.com): Selected Works by Matthew John Pasquarella, on view till Feb 28. Tue/Wed 11am5pm, Thu-Sat 10am-6pm. Native American Museum of Art at Smokin Joes (2293 Saunders Settlement Road, Sanborn, NY 14123, 261-9251) Iroquois artists work. 7am-9pm. Niagara County Community College Dolce Valvo Art Center (3111 Saunders Settlement Road, Sanborn, NY 14132, 614-5975): Menagerie: Paintings and

Woodcuts by Polly Little, through Mar 6. Opening Thu Feb 5, 5-8pm; artist’s talk Thu Mar 5 11:30am. Mon & Tue 12-5pm, Wed & Thu 12-7pm, Fri 12-3pm, Sat 11-3pm. Nichols School Gallery at the Glenn & Audrey Flickinger Performing Arts Center (1250 Amherst Street, Buffalo, NY 14216, 332-6300): Kurt Treeby: Traces on view till Mar 30. Mon-Fri 8am-4pm. Queen City Gallery (617 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14203, 868-8183, queencitygallery.tripod.com): Rotating members work on view. Tue-Fri 11am4pm and by appointment. RO (732 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222, 240-9387, rohomeshop.com): Hosts shows of local artists on a bi-monthly rotation. Tue-Sat 11am-6pm, Sun 11am-4pm. Squeaky Wheel (617 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, squeaky.org): Sang Jun Yoo: Distant Light, media installation opening Fri Feb 6, 6-8pm, on view till Mar 21. Tue-Sat 12-5pm. Stangler Fine Art (6429 West Quaker Street, Orchard Park, NY 14127, 870-1129, stanglerart.com): 6 Ways: 6 Women Artist 6 Different Mediums. Mon-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 11am-3pm. Studio Hart (65 Allen Street, Buffalo, NY 14202, 536-8337, http://studiohart.com/): Matt Kenny, till Feb 29. Tue-Fri 11:30am-3:30pm, Sat 12-4pm. First Friday 6-9pm. UB Art Gallery (North Campus, Project Space) (201 Center for the Arts, Buffalo, NY, 14260, 6456913, ubartgalleries.org/): P.P. SHEET, works by Harumo Sato and Amber Sliter. Tue-Fri 11am5pm, Sat 1-5pm. Villa Maria College Paul William Beltz Family Art Gallery (240 Pine Ridge Terrace, Cheektowaga, NY 14225, 961-1833): Student work from the Animation and Fashion Design and Merchandising programs, on view till Feb 6. Mon-Fri 8am-8pm, Sat & Sun 10am-5pm. Western New York Book Arts Collaborative (468 Washington Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, 438-1430, wnybookarts.org): Katherine Sehr: Small Obsessions, on view till Mar 13. Wed-Sat 12-6pm. Wine on Third (501 Third Street, Niagara Falls, NY 14301, 285-9463, wineonthird.com): Call for show information. Mon-Wed 4pm-12am, Thu P 4pm-1am, Fri & Sat 4pm-2am, Sun 4-10pm.

At SEM, academics are rigorous, trust is intrinsic, and creative, independent thinking is valued. Our humanities and STEAM curricula, arts, athletics, and clubs are available to all girls with our 5- and 7-day boarding.

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BOOKS REVIEW

The Fog Warning by Winslow Homer.

THE KING OF THE WORLD Michael Crummy’s fourth novel will break your heart—beautifully BY WOODY BROWN

SWEETLAND BY MICHAEL CRUMMEY LIVERIGHT, 2015

In one of the many eerie recollections in Sweetland, the fourth novel from Michael Crummey, Moses Sweetland helps wildlife officers transport two dozen bison onto the tiny island that bears his family’s name. The goal was to determine if there was any disease risk to the local wildlife, after which the animals would be moved onto the Newfoundland mainland. The episode is described deftly, with a unique kind of economy: “Staggering into the open with a stunned air about them, shaking those big rig shoulders and prancing drunkenly up away from the water.” The final bison cow “becomes unhinged” and shatters the box that had held each animal on the small boat. She falls into the water as Sweetland lunges to grab her tail. “She went down slowly at first, submerging like a boat taking on water. But once she was under she sank like a stone, as though she was on a line and being dragged down from below. That dark face staring up at Sweetland on the surface, eyes wide, bubbles streaming from the massive nostrils. He could see her descending through the clear water for a long, long time.” It is a stunning image, and I wondered how Crummey achieved feats of immediacy like this every time I turned the page. He paints each person, each animal, each gust of seasalt wind that ever touched Moses Sweetland’s eponymous island in vivid greys, greens, blues, and blacks with a confident hand. The result is a heart-rending novel of intimate beauty, a portrait of the life of a dying world and lives of the people who died in it. Sweetland has fewer than 50 residents when we arrive, all of whose families have lived there for generations. They are almost completely isolated from the outside world except for several plausible modern pinpricks: the internet, for instance, which Moses uses to play online poker sometimes and which his nephew Jesse uses to watch Titan-

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ic over and over. The lighthouse, which Moses used to operate, has been automated. The island has a helipad that is rarely used. Someone mentions Osama bin Laden in the barbershop. These fingerprints of the contemporary dot the novel’s unique landscape, which is otherwise constantly besieged by the indomitable will of the elements. Sweetland’s numbers have been steadily dwindling for decades, however. Most have gone in search of work to places like Fort McMurry in Alberta or Toronto. The Canadian government would like to be rid of the liability posed by the remaining stragglers and the cost of providing utilities to the island, so it makes them an offer: Each household will receive $100,000 if and only if every resident agrees to leave. Moses, who has spent almost his entire life on the island, and whose parents and grandparents did as well, refuses. He soon receives threatening letters and finds the rabbits caught in his snares mutilated grotesquely. The small cast of characters who could be behind these menacing gestures is made even smaller by the fact that Moses has known each of them his whole life. A dark, electric sense of paranoid foreboding descends upon the novel and Moses’s solitary life. Death, too, is shadowing his every step. Jesse, who is a young autistic boy and the last of Sweetland’s blood, speaks constantly with Hollis, Moses’s brother who died well before Jesse was born. He carries on one-sided conversations with the thin air Hollis occupies in his mind. Despite the specter looming at the corners of Moses’s field of vision, he continues the hard labor of life on the island. Crummey has an interest in the clever work of existing on the frontier of the civilized world. He, like Hemingway, rejoices in the uncomplicated pleasure of being warm in bad weather or eating a good meal when you’re hungry. Like Cormac McCarthy, he writes the poetry of the patois, which he uses to great effect in both his characters’ speech and the omniscient narration.

And like Faulkner, he has an abiding interest in life’s eldritch limbo, the space in which the leviathan tides of the world might unbury a coffin or introduce a young boy to a dead man. The novel’s second half, titled “The Keeper’s House,” bears the following epigraph, from Revelations: “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it…” Moses stows away on Sweetland as all of the others depart and embarks on his life’s striking coda. In the silence after the community’s dissolution, the reader appreciates anew Moses’s monosyllabic wisdom, his realistic senses of right and wrong and duty and humor. He is 70 years old and alone in the middle of the Atlantic, a real old man and the sea. His beautiful struggle to stay alive is like a written interpretation of Winslow Homer’s The Fog Warning, a painting that depicts a lone man in a dory with his day’s catch of halibut. The seas are choppy and his face is turned to the sky, which is filling with an approaching fog bank that will leave him stranded in the roiling ocean. The final third of the novel is a heartbreaking elegy to a way of life that will, like all things, die. “There was the sway of things, Sweetland knew. There was fighting the sway of things or improvising some fashion of riding it out. And then there was the sway of things beyond fighting and improvisation. It was almost impossible to know the difference between one and the other, but he felt close to making a call on the line.” I taught Faulkner’s “The Bear” to a high school English class once. As I reread it and discussed it with the students, the story did not collapse into its disparate parts under the gaze of analysis. Rather, it seemed to bloom into an unending proliferation of metaphor, each figure standing for himself and for the world, for history and life and growth and death. Sweetland does that. It breaks your heart in the process, and in the most beautiful way. P

SPOTLIGHT DANCE

BAILA SALSA BY VANESSA OSWALD

One night in 2008 at La Luna nightclub on Chippewa Street, the sounds of merengue reverberated throughout the space as the band played song after song, inspiring couples to step out on the dance floor. Fanny Olaya often came to this bar because she loved to listen to the music. Calvin Rice, one of the band members, had just left his place on the stage to take a break when his eyes caught sight of Fanny. “Would you like to dance?” he asked her. “No, thanks,” Olaya said. “Really, why not?” “I don’t dance.” Rice was persistent and asked a few more times that night. It paid off, and the two ended up dancing—they’ve been dancing together ever since. La Luna is now closed, but Olaya and Rice have kept salsa alive with Baila Salsa Dance Company, which they founded together in 2010. Olaya, who is from Peru, grew up listening to Latin music. At 11 years old she was exposed to salsa dancing and became eager to learn the moves. “We loved music in my house,” Olaya said. “My dad is a collector, so I was always exposed to good music. My friends started dancing and I was like, ‘I don’t know how to dance that,’ so I started learning the basic steps.” In 2004 Olaya moved to Orlando, Florida with her sister, although it didn’t take long before she relocated due to some nasty weather.

always open til 4am

“Unfortunately when I was living there, there was a bad hurricane and I was very scared,’” said Olaya. “That’s why I moved here because I have some relatives and they called me and said, ‘Buffalo is beautiful and you’re going to love it.’” Rice, who is a native of Buffalo and has a bachelor’s degree in music performance and education from Ithaca College, has played in salsa and merengue bands over the years. As far as dancing goes, he has always done it for fun. “I was out every weekend playing at La Luna,” Rice said. “You got to watch everybody dancing and I found it exciting and fun. That’s kind of what inspired me to start learning seriously how to do it. I didn’t want to be on the dance floor looking silly.” Soon after they met, Olaya and Rice began taking salsa classes together and after awhile attended annual salsa congresses where they began educating themselves about the dance style. A salsa congress is usually a four-day event where dancers take workshops from 9am to 5pm each day, followed by watching performances from the professionals, and ending with social dancing at night where they can meet the instructors. “We’ve been fortunate to meet some of the people we look up to from around the world and take lessons with them,” Rice said. Once they became confident in their dancing, Olaya and Rice began teaching their own classes. At first they didn’t have a name, but once their reputation grew, they decided on the “Baila Salsa,” meaning “dance salsa.” “My sister and Calvin kind of helped me a little bit because I wanted to figure out a name that meant something in Spanish and related to the music, and my sister was like ‘No, that’s too hard. Nobody will understand.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, something more like get-to-thepoint.’ What we love the most is salsa. We dance other Latin dances too, but salsa is our main thing.” Every Sunday Olaya and Rice teach Salsa Level I (12pm), Salsa Level II (1pm), and Bachata All Levels (2pm) at the Latin American Institute located at 141 Elmwood Avenue. They also offer private lessons, and coming soon is a Ladies Styling class, which starts in mid-February and is taught by only Fanny. The ages in their classes range from 11 to 82. In addition to their classes, they host a weekly event, “Noche de Salsa,” where they teach class at the Pucho Olivencia Center located at 261 Swan Street on Wednesdays at 7pm followed by social dancing. Admission for this event is $5 and there’s a stocked open bar. They have also organized an event, “Dancer’s Night Out–La Noche del Bailador,” which is a salsa night on Fridays from 10:30pm to 4am at Epic restaurant located at 431 Elmwood Avenue. No cover is required. Natasha Perkins, 31, heard about Baila Salsa about five years ago and has taken several classes they offer. “A friend of mine and I would always go out and we would see Fanny and Calvin dancing together and it’s just completely mesmerizing,” Perkins said. “Every guy wanted to be him and every girl wanted to be her. I got so curious, I was like, ‘Okay. Where are they taking classes? Who are they?’

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House Smoked Pastrami

And I want to

look like that.”

Perkins, who has a Cuban background, grew up listening to a lot of salsa music, occasionally dancing at home and attending different parties she knew were playing Latin music. However, it wasn’t until taking salsa classes at Baila Salsa that she started feeling a true sense of community from dancing. “It’s therapeutic and relaxing,” Perkins said. “It’s like that ice-cold beer after a long day. It feels good to be with likeminded people who want to dance and they play some of the best music, so that always helps.” Olaya and Rice, who are planning to get married this year, enjoy teaching dance classes together in the area and seeing their students progress from week to week. “I really enjoy when people come to me after a few weeks and say to me, ‘My life has changed. This brings happiness,’” Olaya said. “And you can tell from their behavior—when they come they’re shy, they don’t want to dance with anybody and they’re in the corner. A few weeks later they’re friends with everybody, they come every week, they socialize. Dancing makes my life very happy and changed my life, so if I can see that little bit in somebody else, I’m like, ‘I feel good now.’ When I hear that it makes P me very happy.”

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HICKORY SMOKEDBURGERS & RIBS UNIQUE SAMMICHES HOUSEMADE PASTRAMI & CORNED BEEF SNACKATIZERS . VEGETARIAN KITCHEN HOURS

MON-SAT 11am-1am SUN 3pm-1am take-out available or call ahead & pick up!

7TH ANNUAL ESSEX ST. PUB

BUFFALO BEARD COMPETITION MARCH 17

10 CATEGORIES/10 TROPHIES

MONDAYS @ 10PM TUESDAYS @ 10PM

ATTACK OF THE BUFFALO´S VINYL MONDAYS BEST KARAOKE

530 RHODE ISLAND ST

883-2150 | ESSEXSTREETPUB.COM DAILYPUBLIC.COM / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 / THE PUBLIC

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THE RISE AND FALL OF BENJAMIN RATHBUN by local artist Caitlin Cass is the subject of an exhibit opening this Friday, February 6, at Fargo House. Find more of Cassâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work at greatmomentsinwesternciv.com. DAILYPUBLIC.COM / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 13

EVENTS CALENDAR PUBLIC APPROVED

IN PRINT

ALPHA HOPPER “85315” (Song)

Recommended If You Like: Pissed Jeans, A Place to Bury Strangers, METZ

Alpha Hopper, a newish super-group of basement stalwarts featuring members of Hot Tip, JOHNS, and others, recently dropped its new single, “85315,” led by Irene Rekhviashvili’s driving chants. The track is set to be included on the West Side foursome’s forthcoming debut LP later this summer.

THE GILDED MASTERS OF ACID HOUSE

PHOTO BY GERARD HENNINGER

The Gilded Masters of Acid House (EP)

RIYL: Fashion Expo 1990, Trainspotting Soundtrack, 90’s house

Despite ditching the Fashion Expo moniker, electronic musician Miles Kirsch of Difficult Night continues to dig up his formerly buried (albeit digital) takes on early 1990s house music at an impressive clip. The latest four-track EP was mastered by Brandon Schlia of Steak and Cake records.

ROBERT ZINNI & THE SHITTY BALLOON My Night Eye (LP)

COSMIC GATE FRIDAY FEB 6 10PM / LIFT NIGHTCLUB, 257 FRANKLIN ST. / $20 [ELECTRONIC] Longevity in the music industry is quite a feat. Since 1999, Claus Terhoeven (Nic Chagall) and Stefan Bossems (DJ Bossi) have been

producing and performing as Cosmic Gate. The two sparked their career together in Germany and have since become internationally known and praised by loyal followers. From intimate club settings to arenas and festivals, Cosmic Gate has seen it all and will bring their talents to Buffalo on Friday, February 6, to perform at Lift Nightclub, presented by Factory Nightlife. Chagall and Bossi perpetuate the vibe of progressive trance with their emotion-centric productions and space-transcending aesthetic. Emphasizing organic performances, Cosmic Gate won’t perform pre-recorded sets. The authenticity of their work ethic may be one of the major factors that has kept them in the game for more than 15 years. With the 2011 release of their album Wake Your Mind, Cosmic Gate created their label, Wake Your Mind Records. The duo stemmed off of that even further with the creation of a radio station of the same name and Wake Your Mind Sessions, a compilation album. Get to the venue earlier to experience the liquid motion dancefloor and opening sets from local talents Jesse Aaron and Jillie Wags. -ALICIA GRECO

RIYL: Pavement, Early Modest Mouse, Red Heat

The Buffalo filmmaker ex-pat dropped a surprise album, My Night Eye, last week. The release is a collection of nervy punk rock and distant spoken word described as a “typical overcast night out on Allen… easily losing yourself at every bar until 4am.”

ROYAL TONGUES “Rollin’ On” (Song) RIYL: Passion Pit, Humble Braggers

After hitting over 120k hits on soundcloud for the debut single, “The Balance,” local synthpop duo goes high on the falsetto on the infectious followup track, “Rollin’ On.”

LOCAL SHOW PICK OF THE WEEK MALARCHUK W/ THE EVIL THINGS MOHAWK PLACE FRI, FEB 6 / 8PM / $5

WEDNESDAY FEB 4 Wrenched 7pm Burning Books, 420 Connecticut St.

[SCREENING] Known as one of the godfathers of environmental activism, Edward Abbey helped guide the movement as it began to blossom in the late 1970s by penning novels like The Monkey Wrench Gang. Wrenched, a film from director ML Lincoln, claims to capture “the passing of the monkey wrench from pioneers of eco-activism to the new generation, which will carry Edward Abbey’s legacy into the 21st century.” Wrenched will be screened at Burning Books on Wednesday, February 4. -CP

THURSDAY FEB 5 Machine Head 7pm Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. $22-$25

[METAL] It’s rare that a metal act hits the road on their own these days, but this Thursday, February 5, Buffalo will get an evening all to themselves with the almighty Machine Head at Town Ballroom. While the

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band is certainly worthy of mention among the greats, they are often glossed over. The band is based in California, and frontman Robb Flynn, brings that West Coast thrash a la Testament, Exodus, and Metallica. Just about any metalhead out there can appreciate the variety in their sound. Formed in 1991, Machine Head’s first album Burn My Eyes is looked at as a historic release, yet still sounds relevant today. -JEREMIAH SHEA

Millie Chen: stain 6pm BT&C Gallery, 1250 Niagara St.

[ART] In using art to provoke questions and dialogue around the human condition, and the functionality of the collective memory, Millie Chen’s new installation, stain, is inspired by her recent visit to Tuol Sleng Cambodia, a site of genocide from 1975 to 79. Utilizing photographic imagery that is digitally collaged along with gouache and watercolor, an 80-panel wall piece composed of 13”-by-13” uniquely created individual works will be exhibited, along with new and old wall drawings inspired by human hair. Millie Chen has exhibited her work internationally and is an art professor and associate dean at UB. See stain in person beginning this Friday, February 6 through

March 27 at BT&C Gallery. The gallery is open on Fridays 12-5pm, and by appointment. Call 716-604-6183. -TINA DILLMAN

Douglas Kearney 8pm Western New York Book Arts Center, 468 Washington St. free

[POETRY] The UB Poetics program is starting its 2015 calendar with a bang, hosting poet/performer/librettist Douglas Kearney for a double billing of town and gown readings this Thursday. Kearney is a dynamic performer, blending narrative and lyric work with theatrical experimentation that often breaks into concussive language fragments revealing a meta-narrative of suffering, hostility, and beauty that exists in most of his work. Douglas Kearney’s most recent poetry collection is Patter (Red 2014) which examines the themes of miscarriage, infertility, and parenthood. His second book, The Black Automaton (Fence Books, 2009), was a National Poetry Series selection. He has received residencies/fellowships from Cave Canem, The Rauschenberg Foundation, and others. He teaches in Valencia at CalArts. Kearney will read at 12pm in the Poetry and Rare Book Collection on the 4th floor of Capen Hall and later that evening at WNYBAC as well. -AARON LOWINGER

CALENDAR EVENTS PUBLIC APPROVED

LIVEMUSICEVERYNIGHTFOROVER30YEARS!

WEDNESDAY

FEB 4

Houston Gardwell Collective Baczkowski/McNeill Duo 9PM FREE

THURSDAY

FEB 5

The Card Cheats The Soul Butchers, Luanjie 9PM $3

HAPPY HOUR: A Band Named Sue 6PM FREE

FRIDAY

FEB 6

MISSION IMPROVABLE FRIDAY FEB 6

The Good Neighborhood Presents:

The 4th Annual Johnny Cash Birthday Bash

8PM / WASTELAND STUDIOS, 700 MAIN ST. / $10-$15 [DANCE] The Buffalo Contact Improv Community hosts the third annual Mission Improvable, an evening of thought-provoking dance, led by

Boston-based artist Neige Christenson. Joining her will be dancers from various places, including Toronto, Rochester, Michigan, and California. The pieces showcased in the event include a contact improvisation trio informed by Christenson, “Light Solo” by Mariah Maloney, and “Spirals” by Ashley Vita Verde. These dance presentations will explore a wide range of elements through dance, challenging the boundaries of audience and performer, exploring the nature of human reaction and engaging in physical conversations with gravity, architecture, breath, and other variables. East Aurora native Bob Sowyrda has composed music for two of the performances. Mission Improvable: Your Presence Is Requested goes down on the 6th floor of Wasteland Studios at 700 Main Street on Friday, February 6 at 8pm. Sponsors of this event include Pick of the Crop Dance, BCIJPG, and Buffalo CI Community. -VANESSA OSWALD

Comedy Central’s Comic Groove), the show will feature Faizon Love (Friday, Elf, Couples Retreat), and Capone (HBO’s Sex Chronicles, Amateur Night at the Apollo Theatre). This unabashed trio is esteemed amongst fellow comedians for their perceptive, down-toearth outlook on reality, their rib-tickling use of foul language, and the fact that they’re outlandishly hilarious. They’ll perform two sets, first at 7:30pm and then again at 9:30pm. -KELLIE POWELL

9pm Buffalo Iron Works, 49 Illinois St. free

Caitlin Cass: Benjamin Rathbun Builds Buffalo 7pm Fargo House, 287 Fargo Ave.

[ART] Uncovering historical events of Western New York that some deem embarrassing and desire to be forgotten, local illustrator Caitlin Cass depicts these moments through a satirical lens with a heightened sensibility for line, color, and storytelling. Her new series, Benjamin Rathbun Builds Buffalo, which appears in our centerfold for a third time this week, depicts the rise and fall of Buffalo’s greatest capitalist, Benjamin Rathbun. As the folklore goes, he built the building in which he ended up being imprisoned. Come check out her new drawings and comics that recreate the past with a keen eye for humor on Friday, February 6 at Fargo House. Her witty take on history is worth the read, again and again. -TD

Stephane Wrembel & His Band 9pm Sportsmens Tavern, 326 Amherst St. $20

[ROCK] Sportsmen’s Tavern used to be one of Buffalo’s best kept secrets, always booking quality acts in rock, blues, jazz, country, and more. The small club located on Buffalo’s West Side is a true gem and this week will be no different as they play host to Stephane Wrembel & His Band on Friday, February 6. While you might ask who these guys are, the better question is how does Sportsmen’s continuously land such great acts? Blindly buy the ticket and enjoy a Friday night surprise. The group oozes talent and embodies an eclectic aesthetic, led by acoustic guitarist Wrembel. In one quick listen, you can get flavors of flamenco and blues to jazz and rock, tastefully blended into a colorful, textured, and indulgent palette. -JS

Friday Night Laughs 7pm Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main St. $30

[COMEDY] On Friday, February 6, check out Friday Night Laughs at the Tralf Music Hall. Hosted by Rob Stapleton (BET’s ComicView,

10PM $5

SATURDAY

FEB 7

WEDNESDAY

FEB 11

with

Bob Marley’s Birthday The Neville Francis Band 9PM

The Kevin Gaynor Experience 9PM FREE

WEEKLY EVENTS

Soul Patch

FRIDAY FEB 6

The CPX, Ten Cent Howl, Stoneflower David Michael Miller Jim Candytree & Megan Brown

[TRIBUTE] A white Ford Bronco speeds down the 33. No, it’s not who you think it is; it’s just Buffalo’s favorite 1990s cover band, Soul Patch. Led by Keith Buckley—better known as frontman of Buffalo hardcore rock band Every Time I Die—Soul Patch delivers perfectly executed 1990s covers, from Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” to the Flaming Lips “She Don’t Use Jelly,” with a rakish attitude. The band comes to Buffalo Iron Works for a free show on Friday, February 6. -CP

Fred Klaits: Life for Life

EVERY SUNDAY FREE

6PM. ANN PHILLIPONE 8PM . DR JAZZ & THE JAZZ BUGS (EXCEPT FIRST SUNDAYS)

EVERY MONDAY FREE

8PM. SONGWRITER SHOWCASE 9PM. OPEN MIC W. JOSH GAGE

EVERY TUESDAY

8PM. RUSTBELT COMEDY

10PM. JOE DONOHUE 11PM. THE STRIPTEASERS

4pm Hallwalls, 341 Delaware Ave. free

[TALK] The Scholars at Hallwalls series sponsored by the UB Humanities Institute endeavors to create an intellectual salon on select Friday afternoons UB Anthropology professor Fred Klaits will be giving a talk based on his homegrown scholarship entitled “Life for Life: Tithes and Blessings in Buffalo’s African-American Churches,” investigating the cultural role of tithing and spirituality in Buffalo’s African-American community. Klaits works on issues of religion, healing, and inequality and in the past has explored the efforts of healing churches in Botswana to sustain relationships of care and love in the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. -AL

EVERY WEDNESDAY FREE 5PM. TONY DEROSA

EVERY THURSDAY FREE 5PM. JOHN & BILL

(ACCORDIAN & SAX)

EVERY SATURDAY FREE

4:30-7:30PM. CELTIC SEISIUNS (TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY)

248 ALLEN STREET 716.886.8539

NIETZSCHES.COM

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 DAILYPUBLIC.COM / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 15

EVENTS CALENDAR CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

Moonstruck Opening Reception

PUBLIC APPROVED

6pm C.G. Jung Center Gallery, 408 Franklin Street Side Entrance

[ART] On Friday, February 6, the Carl Jung Center will host a solo exhibition featuring the works of Buffalo-based artist Kaitlin Frisicaro. Sensual, earthy, playful, and evocative, Frisicaro’s work evokes a sense of how the imaginative subconscious would appear on visual display, often featuring subjects suspended in a symbolic tapestry of colorful patterns congealed into elements of nature. Upon noticing the frequent appearance of a moon throughout her body of work, Frisicaro chose to incorporate the emblem on a deeper thematic level. The result is a collection of paintings and mixed-media pieces which explore the connections between celestial bodies and the natural world, through which mysticism, nostalgia, and bare femininity run their course. -JEANETTE CHIN

Johnny Cash Birthday Bash 10pm Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen St. $5

[TRIBUTE] “He rises high above all, and he’ll never be forgotten, even by persons not born yet—especially those persons— and that is forever.” Bob Dylan said it perfectly: Johnny Cash is amongst the most dignified in the pantheon of music gods. From his cutting, pathos-laden songs, to his mastery of every genre he stepped into (even in the face of a debilitating illness), Johnny Cash’s grandeur is unparalleled. Which is why on Friday, February 6 Nietzsche’s will host the 4th Annual Johnny Cash Birthday Bash—presented by The Good Neighborhood—to celebrate The Man in Black’s birthday in the bestpossible way: four hours of nonstop Cash between two stages. The bash will follow Buffalo’s Band Named Sue’s 6pm show, which will also feature Cash classics as well as some originals. Newcomers Stoneflower, Jim Candytree (of Whiskey Reverb), and Megan Brown (of Dirty Smile) will accompany annual favorites The CPX, Ten Cent Howl, and David Michael Miller. The bash guarantees a night of great music with no repeats. Proceeds will go to Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper. -KP

SATURDAY FEB 7

FLY YOUNG RED SATURDAY FEB 7 10PM / THE STUDIO AT THE WAITING ROOM, 334 DELAWARE AVE. / FREE [HIP HOP] In May, the Huffington Post published an article titled “Is Fly Young Red’s Newest Track Revolutionary?” The conclusion: kind of. The track in question is called “Throw Dat Boy Pussy,” and it’s about gay sex, specifically between black men. It’s certainly not the first track by a gay rapper; rappers like Zebra Katz and Big Freedia (who some may remember held a twerk-a-thon on stage at Soundlab before most people worked the word “twerk” into their daily vocabulary), but it does, as writer Bryson Rose put it, “say a lot about the intra-community politics of gender, sexuality, and sexual behavior,” topics that you’d be hard-pressed to find flowing from the lips of many other rappers. Critics argued that the song objectifies gay men, while others argue that it helps to liberate gay men in the hip hop sphere, which historically has not embraced gay artists. Decide for yourself on Saturday, February 7, when Fly Young Red comes to the Stuido at the Waiting Room for a special event presented by Evergreen Health Services of WNY as party of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. DJ Yama opens the show. -CORY PERLA

PUBLIC APPROVED

PHOTO BY KRISTIN BARLOW

CHRIS JANSON WITH THE HERITAGE SATURDAY FEB 7 7PM / HOWDY’S, 8166 MAIN ST. / $7-$10

Boy Scouts

[COUNTRY] Country music is nothing to fear, especially when it’s done well. Chris Janson and The Heritage both do it well. The Hometown

8pm Mohawk Place, 47 E Mohawk St. $5

Throwdown this Saturday, February 7 at Howdy’s might change the way some people feel about the genre. Saturday’s show featuring Buffalo’s the Heritage and national act Chris Janson will showcase an unmatched progression of country hits and a tight-knit local fanbase ready to shuffle all over Howdy’s spacious dance floor. If you imagine that Howdy’s will be filled to the brim with booze-infused, passionate country music fans decked out in Western getup, you will be absolutely right. What you might not anticipate is that the environment will be electric. Everyone will be there for the same reason: to hear some top notch country music. Chris Janson, a national recording artist from Perryville, Missouri, has recently worked with the likes of Tim McGraw and Justin Moore, two of country’s biggest names. The Heritage—featuring Scott Militello and Christian Kramer—have been performing passionately tailored sets to sold-out crowds along the East Coast for years. Country rock duo Beautiful Remedy open the show.

[PUNK] Three gals—Eva, Robin, and Shen—on bass, drums... and horn. Yup, horn. This relatively new local trio’s guitar-less brand of “feminist punk” (their words) might remind you of Erase Erata or Eagle & Talon—scrappy, super-pitchy, lo-fi fun with a defiant spirit— well matched for this Saturday’s gig at Mohawk Place with Jamie & the Debt. -CJT

-SEAN HEIDINGER

16 THE PUBLIC / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

CALENDAR EVENTS PUBLIC APPROVED

12 ANNUAL THE CURE VS. THE SMITHS DANCE PARTY SATURDAY FEB 7 9PM / BUFFALO IRON WORKS, 49 ILLINOIS ST. / $5

Julia Wald: Opening Reception 7pm Dreamland, 387 Franklin St.

[ART] When viewing the work of artist Julia Wald, it might not be immediately evident how the artwork was made. Her pieces—psychedelic collages—may make use of a few large cutouts to create a flowing piece, or hundreds of tiny pastes to create an intricate treat for the eyes. Wald will display her work at Dreamland on Saturday, February 7. Fredonia alt rock band Albert The Fish will perform an acoustic set at 9pm. -CP

SUNDAY FEB 8 Difficult Night 2pm Northrup House, $3

[FOLK ROCK] Difficult Night‘s contemplative tone is focused on the songwriting of guitarist Shane Meyer, who employs a speak-sing aesthetic to deliver melancholic musings on the modern world (and its loss of core values). The tracks often have subtly placed, melodic pockets of prettiness, something keyboardist Miles Kirsch offers up in contrast to the largely overcast sound. See how it strikes you at this special afternoon gig, Sunday, February 8 at Northrup House. -CJT

[DANCE PARTY] They’re both big whiners for sure. But with The Cure vs. The Smiths dance party coming up this Saturday at Buffalo Iron Works, we’ve got a good excuse to revisit the “mope rock” kings (queens?) and see if we can discern a top contender for the biggest mope of all. In 1984, Morrissey called The Cure’s Robert Smith a “whingebag” in the defunct UK rock rag The Face. Collins Dictionary tells us a “whingebag” is someone who constantly complains about everything or anything. Oh, the irony. So began an ongoing feud and, to be quite frank, the Mozzer comes out looking like the bully. Five years later, in an oft-cited interview for the Brit magazine NME, he fired off that the Cure had added “a new dimension to the word crap,” to which Smith—his over-dyed, Einstein-inspired bird’s-nest achieving never-before matched, finger-in-socket heights—replied: “At least we’ve only added a new dimension in crap, not built a career out of it.” Combing through their respective writings, however, what’s clear is how differently they go about articulating their misery. Morrissey is a literal writer with a witty edge…he may mince across a stage, but he doesn’t often mince words. Robert Smith, on the other hand, is a much more impressionistic scribe. Reading through his body of lyrics is liable to leave you queasy, as if it’s all happening in an underwater dream state (the possibilities with his hair providing endless fun for the imagination). Smith tends to describe scenarios more symbolically, giving his work added romantic flair, but he’s also prone to sudden, childlike outbursts of enthusiasm and is given to falling back on hackneyed metaphors about death… and kissing. A lot of kissing. Endless kissing. Finding parallels in their songwriting proves challenging, but here are some examples of how their respective approaches differ: DISDAIN: M: “I’ve come to wish you an unhappy birthday / Because you’re evil and you lie / And if you should die / I may feel slightly sad (but I won’t cry)” R: “You’re just a waste of time / You’re just a babbling face / You’re just three sick holes that run like sores / You’re a fucking waste / You’re like a slug on the floor / Oh! you’re useless and ugly”

PLAYING DRESS UP

DEATH: M: “Oh, Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head!” R: “Time slips away / And the light begins to fade / And everything is quiet now / Feeling is gone”

MEAT

M: “I say Charles don’t you ever crave / To appear on the front of the Daily Mail / Dressed in your mother’s bridal veil?” R: “Dressing up to kiss / Dressing up to touch all this / I’m dressing up to dance all week / I’m dressing up to sleep / Dressing up to kiss / Dressing up to be all this”

M: “…and the flesh you so fancifully fry / Is not succulent, tasty or nice / It’s death for no reason / And death for no reason is murder” -CHRISTOPHER JOHN TREACY

PUBLIC APPROVED

TUESDAY FEB 10 Dirty Smile 9pm Buffalo Iron Works, 49 Illinois St. free

[ROCK] The last time Dirty Smile brought their red-hot energy to Buffalo Iron Works, they filled the venue, sharing songs off their latest EP Love Songs for the Damned: Volume 1, amongst others. The EP’s single, “Siren” offers a seemingly accurate depiction of the entire seven-track EP—a driving, full-bodied rhythm, Megan Brown’s rich vocals (recalling a toughened-up Norah Jones), and detonated with boundless possibility. Catch Dirty Smile at Buffalo Iron Works on Tuesday, February 10 after the Sabres’ game. -KP

Joe Donohue III 10pm Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen St. free

[POP] Joe Donohue’s bouncy vocals fill the City of Buffalo with ethereal poise and a swagger tough as nails. Best known as the vocalist and keyboardist from the Albrights, his omnipresence in Buffalo’s music scene includes starring in MusicalFare’s production of the Who’s Tommy, and playing multiple piano solo (and often other instrumental) sets in various bars across town. Catch Joe Donohue at Nietzsche’s on Tuesday, February 10. -KP

PHOTO BY MAARIT KYTOHARJUD

ATOMIC SUNDAY FEB 8 8PM / HALLWALLS, 341 DELAWARE AVE. / $10-$20 [JAZZ] Those who have such mastery over an instrument that they’re able to effortlessly improvise often describe a state of clearmindedness or lucidity

that is experienced in the midst of an especially consuming jam. That the Norwegian/Swedish jazz band, Atomic, chose to name their upcoming album Lucidity, indicates that they are quite familiar with this state of mind. For listeners, it’s a different story. The band’s music, especially on their 2013 release There’s a Hole in the Mountain, can often be discordant and chaotic and might send the listener into more of a delusional state. But for the musicians, it’s crystal-clear rationality brought on by their intense focus. On Sunday, February 8, ATOMIC comes to Hallwalls in support of Lucidity, which is set to be released in March on Jazzland Records. The band’s bassist, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, is no stranger to Hallwalls; he’s played there recently under a few aliases, including Young Mothers. Some might know him from the jazz trio the Thing, but Atomic is his oldest ongoing project. Pianist Havard Wiik also plays a key role in Atomic, as the group’s looping, hypnotic tentacle and co-composer along with saxophonist Fredrik Ljungkvist. Wiik is also known for his project Motif, which angles more toward musique concrete or experimental rock than improvisational jazz. When the quintet, which also includes trumpeter Magnus Broo and drummer Hans Hulboekmo finally comes back together to focus on Atomic’s P captivating brand of polar jazz, though, it’s always a special treat. -CORY PERLA DAILYPUBLIC.COM / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 17

COMEDY INTERVIEW

ILIZA SHLESINGER IS A PARTY GOBLIN The comedian comes to Helium for a three-night stand BY JONNY MORAN

People who made it a point to see Iliza Shlesinger perform in Buffalo last year probably knew her as the only woman to win NBC’s Last Comic Standing or as the host of Excused, a syndicated dating show that now airs exclusively in Norway. A lot has happened in a year. When she returns to Helium Comedy Club this Thursday through Saturday for five shows, Shlesinger will draw in new audience members who saw one or both of her recent appearances on The Tonight Show. Her second special for Netflix, Freezing Hot, premiered last month and focuses mainly on the relationships between men and women, adorning hysterical observations with vivacious characters. Shlesinger is making Buffalo the very first stop on her 2015 tour. This week we spoke to her about her growing success, her onstage characters, and the messages she imparts to her audience.

IT ISN’T AS IF I’M UP THERE RAGING AGAINST THE MACHINE, SAYING “I DON’T WANNA BE HEALTHY, I DON’T WANNA LOOK PRETTY”…THIS IS ME SAYING “HEY! I GO TO THE GYM, I GET MY HAIR HIGHLIGHTED, I WEAR YOUR MAKEUP, AND YOU STILL ARE SAYING THAT I’M NOT GOOD ENOUGH?” 18 THE PUBLIC / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

Why start your tour in Buffalo? Helium is a great franchise. I think they do a great job with their audiences. My mother attended the University at Buffalo, but I’d never been prior to last year. The way I look at it is this: If the audiences were good and nothing happened—if I can’t remember not liking it—then I’ll go back. If you say a city to me and the first thing that pops into my head is “Oh my god, everyone was just great until someone yelled at me,” I don’t go back. I don’t go back at this point in my career if it’s a pain or if it’s going to be painful. But I had a great time in Buffalo. When I talked to you last year, you said that things were going well, that there were days the phone didn’t ring but you took every day as it came. What’s life been like since then, besides doing two spots on The Tonight Show? Well, we just came out with my latest Netflix special Freezing Hot. Hilarious. Thank you, that’s been great! Really well received, better than the first album, which is always what you strive for. In Freezing Hot you say that one drink releases your party goblin. Well, I wanna be clear, the party goblin strikes at any time. We’ve all had those nights where you keep drinking and you’re not getting drunk, or you’re bored. It’s like lightning in a bottle—if it’s a certain night, at a certain time, with just the right kind of alcohol, the party goblin wakes up. You never know when she’s going to be summoned. I do enjoy partying, but I don’t drink alone and I don’t typically drink with strangers. Especially as a girl on the road, you know, going out drinking with a bunch of dudes you just met is a great way to go missing. I loved that you brought back the creepy pharmacist character from War Paint. It’s a callback a year in the making! The audience immediately responded to it. You’ve said before that sketch comedy has had more of an influence on you than standup, and that really shows with your characters. What are your favorite characters to perform? I love that voice, the pharmacist, the creepy witch—I like that character because it really gives you the chance to get into the body of a character that’s so foreign. I think people delight in the voice change. I obviously love doing the “girl voice” because, clearly, when I start doing the voice it just takes

ILIZA SHLESINGER FEB 5 - 7 / $15-$30 CHECK WEBSITE FOR TIMES: HELIUMCOMEDY.COM HELIUM COMEDY CLUB 30 MISSISSIPPI STREET

over; like whatever she says is hers. It’s almost like a trance. And I like doing my guy voice because I think the guys that I do are endearing. You know, I don’t try to make guys look like assholes. They never say anything terrible. If there’s a voice coming out of my mouth, I love doing that character. When you comment on social issues on stage, like the barrage of negative messages directed toward women in advertisements, it doesn’t come off preachy. A lot of comedians have trouble pulling that off. Do you have to put extra thought into jokes that carry some kind of social commentary, like “How do I make this point without losing anyone?” Well, first of all, I appreciate you noticing that. I am angry that so much is put on women, but I think because I am a woman, and that joke is geared toward women, and we’re on the same side—it isn’t as if I’m talking to those makeup makers or magazine editors in the audience and I have to get them on my side. That is to say, it isn’t as if I’m a Democrat yelling at Republicans trying to get them to see what I’m saying. The audience agrees with me because it’s definitely not wrong and, more importantly, it’s funny. No matter what you’re saying, as long as it’s funny, people will listen to you. So even if they don’t necessarily agree with the point, it’s okay as long as it’s funny and backed by intelligence. And I think with girls the objective of that joke is to say “Hey, I’m pissed off too. PS, it is ridiculous, all the stuff that’s thrown at us.” I think also part of it is—I don’t know if it has anything to do with the way I look—but it isn’t as if I’m up there raging against the machine, saying “I don’t wanna be healthy, I don’t wanna look pretty.” I obviously do my part to keep myself looking decent, so this is me saying “Hey! I go to the gym, I get my hair highlighted, I wear your makeup, P and you still are saying that I’m not good enough?”

FEATURE FILM

Mike Leigh directs Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner.

WORKSHOPPING HISTORY Filmmaker Mike Leigh talks about Mr. Turner and the goals and methods of storytelling BY ED GRANT Mike Leigh is best known for his compelling, quietly emotional tales of everyday life in modern England, from a stirring series of character-driven telefilms made in the 1970s and 1980s to Another Year (2012). His latest film, Mr. Turner, which opens Friday at the Amherst Theatre, is only the third period piece he’s made in a career that spans four decades. (The others were Topsy-Turvy and Vera Drake.) The film is a meticulously crafted portrait of the artist—painter J. M. W. Turner—as an old curmudgeon. Star Timothy Spall sadly didn’t get an Oscar nomination for his work as the 19th-century landscape artist but was named Best Actor at Cannes. Leigh and his regular cinematographer, Dick Pope, have been working on the film since 1999, when they first discussed a film on Turner’s life after finishing their Gilbert and Sullivan movie, Topsy-Turvy. I spoke to Leigh when he was in Manhattan in December to promote Mr. Turner. He has a reputation among journalists as being a “difficult interview.” One British reporter declared that speaking to him “fits somewhere between a job interview and a trip to the dentist.” However, my encounter with him was cordial and informative—perhaps because I mentioned my nervousness before asking him a series of questions he was all too happy to answer. Leigh maintains direct eye contact as he speaks and is prone to honing his thoughts by inserting tangential ideas that clarify what he is trying to say (then returning to complete sentences that he had left unfinished). He is an artist who juggles emotion and intelligence as he talks about his work; he is also perhaps the best dissector of interview questions that I’ve encountered. Mr. Turner is the first “picturesque” Leigh film, thanks to the beautiful imagery crafted by

Pope, who is nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar and received a technical prize at Cannes for the film. (Among Pope’s many credits, he was the original cinematographer for Buffalo 66 before he had a disagreement with Vincent Gallo.) Leigh underscores Pope’s importance to the project: “Dick Pope has shot everything I’ve done since Life Is Sweet in 1990. We spent years talking about this film and looking at Turner’s work. They were very generous at the Turner Bequest in London at the Tate Gallery, where you can see all of his sketchbooks; his handmade color charts are particularly interesting. We did all that so that we could make a film that was informed by the spirit of Turner.” When asked about the ways in which Mr. Turner stacks up against standard Hollywood biopics about “the tortured life of a great artist,” Leigh speculates about what a more conventional version of Turner’s life would be like. “First of all,” he notes, “you’d get a fat baby, then you’d get a fat little boy who looks like Timothy Spall and who could draw, then you’d get a pimply teenager. But this is not interesting.” His interest in the subject of Turner, he stresses, is markedly different from that of filmmakers who make certain that each event in the subject’s life is “significant and symbolic.” He is interested, he says, in making “films in which you don’t have to explain everything. Life explains itself. You walk past somebody on the street or you sit on the subway and hear a snippet of conversation for which you don’t get three chapters’ worth of explanation…You just hear something and immediately get it. You contextualize it under your own steam. That’s how I like to tell stories. It’s just real.” Leigh’s justly celebrated “rehearsal” period

for each of his films includes several weeks in which he works with his actors, having them create back-stories for their characters and act out scenes from their lives that aren’t meant to appear in the film. This “workshopping” process is inevitably the most-discussed topic in any interview with Leigh, since the approach is so nearly unique. ( John Cassavetes is one of the few other filmmakers to have worked this way.) When asked if this improvisatory process is any different when he is making a film based on real people, he quickly responds that it isn’t. “It doesn’t change at all. The only difference is that you obviously read and absorb and research, and that feeds into the process. Look, here’s the thing: You can read until you’re blue in the face, you can read a million books. You can research for a thousand years. But that doesn’t make it happen in front of the camera. You’ve still got to have flesh and blood people, living and breathing and being their three-dimensional selves in front of the camera. “The work we do is character work, improvisation work, and work about how people behave, and how they talk and speak and move. All of that has to happen anyway. So all you do is absorb what you’re going to by research, and then you do all that work. The difference is, of course, that when I’m doing one of my ‘regular’ films, so to speak, we’re completely making it up from scratch, without reference to anything. In this case we’re dramatizing real events or people.” The other key collaborator here is of course Spall, whom Leigh has directed in five previous films. (Americans may best remember him as Wormtail in the Harry Potter movies.) Spall has created a striking portrait gallery of characters for Leigh, including a bumbling restaurateur in Life Is Sweet

(1990), an understanding photographer in Secrets & Lies (1996), and a frustrated cabbie and family man in the underrated All or Nothing (2002). Leigh never considered another actor for the role of Turner. He calls him “an extremely versatile character actor, indeed,” and credits Spall’s process as the key to his talent. “Although he’s very much an actor that taps into his own emotional and life experience resources, he isn’t playing himself. He’s exercising that muscle of versatility. And he’s very sensitive to the 19th century—he’s read a lot of Dickens and is very good at playing 19th-century characters. Quite a lot of the actors in Mr. Turner are. It’s just something they can get, something in their received collective memory.” Leigh asked Spall to be involved in the film years before it was in preproduction, going so far as to ask him to take painting lessons in the interim. But he doesn’t want his actors to “live their roles” off-camera, as many of the most dedicated stage and screen actors have been known to do. “Timothy wouldn’t want to go home as Turner, not at all. What I do about character acting is to make certain that people are not playing themselves. When an actor plays a part, she or he is in there, of course, they’re drawing on their own resources. People once thought that David Thewlis became the character of Johnny [in Naked] and that Brenda Blethyn became Cynthia [in Secrets and Lies]. But if you can imagine trying to make a film with somebody who was Cynthia, or didn’t come out of character, you’d never get the bloody film made! “This is part of the discipline of what actors should and shouldn’t do. It’s not healthy to be

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

DAILYPUBLIC.COM / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 19

FILM REVIEW

IN CINEMAS NOW:

Glen Campbell in Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me.

BY M. FAUST & GEORGE SAX

PREMIERES GLEN CAMPBELL: I’LL BE ME—Documentary following the singer on his last tour in 2012, after he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Directed by James Keach (Waiting for Forever). Reviewed this issue. Eastern Hills JUPITER ASCENDING—Sci-fi fantasy from Andy and Lana Wachowski, who you wouldn’t think would ever get to direct another movie after the megabomb Cloud Atlas, but that’s the movie biz for you. Starring Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne, and Sean Bean. Area theaters MR. TURNER—From Mike Leigh (Naked), a biography about the difficult late years of 19th-century British landscape artist J. M. W. Turner. Starring Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Paul Jesson, Marion Bailey, and Lesley Manville. See the interview with Leigh this issue. Amherst SEVENTH SON—Medieval special effects extravanagza featuring, of all people, Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore, from Russian arthouse director Sergey Bodrov (Mongol). Area theaters THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE OUT OF WATER—The title seems pretty self-explanatory to me. Directed by Paul Tibbitt. Area theaters

ON THE ROAD FOR THE LAST TIME GLEN CAMPBELL: I’LL BE ME BY M. FAUST You don’t have to be a fan of Glen Campbell, singer and guitarist, to be moved by this documentary about his last tour. In fact the more of a fan you are, the harder it may be to watch.

putting a human face on a hellish affliction that slowly and inexorably strips away a person’s memory and personality. As Kim says at one point with blunt understatement, “This is not a fun illness.”

In 2011, as he was preparing to tour to promote his album Ghost on the Canvas, Campbell was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It came as no surprise: He had been having memory problems for a few years by that point. Rather than cancel the tour, the decision was made to go ahead with it after publicly announcing the star’s condition so that audiences might be prepared for occasionally erratic behavior.

As willing as family and friends are to contribute to the film (famous faces who pay tribute include Vince Gill, Kathy Mattea, Brad Paisley, Bruce Springsteen, the Edge, Blake Shelton, and Paul McCartney), the one voice missing is the man at its center. Much of what makes this documentary so moving is the difference between Campbell at his best onstage (whether or not you’re a fan of his brand of country pop, the man was a hell of a guitarist, going back to his days as a top session musician in the early 1960s) and his increasing incapacity off it. He deflects attention from his lapses by making jokes about them, a tactic that becomes more poignant as the disease progresses.

If you’re of a cynical bent, this might strike you as the worst kind of exploitation. As Campbell’s son (one of three of his children in his touring band) says, “We were aware that there might be people coming out for a NASCAR show, hoping to see a wreck.” And there were more than a few difficult moments during the 150 dates of the tour, as this documentary does not flinch from presenting. But I’ll Be Me overcomes any doubts as to the intentions of Campbell’s family as they guided him through these past years. His wife Kim, who acted as a general manager, kept a camera with her at all times, both on and off stage. And if there are a few moments that feel like “too much information,” they’re forgiveable in the service of a film that succeeds at

It might have been hoped that this film could have done more to document Campbell’s place in the history of popular music, which is not inconsiderable. But for what it is, I’ll Be Me is a palatable but powerful plea for attention to a disease that is likely to explode in coming years with the aging of the baby boomers. It’s hard to shake the lyrics of his final recording, “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” in which he sings “You’re never gonna see it in my eyes / It’s not gonna hurt me when you cry.” P

MIKE LEIGH, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19 the character all the time. It’s very healthy to be the character all the time when you’re in character. And the paradox of this discussion is that you can see all sorts of actors in films who are not in character when they’re supposed to be in character.” To viewers outside Britain, Leigh’s films seem to offer a “snapshot” of the times they were made in. With Mr. Turner, we see instead a very pungent snapshot of the early 19th century. Leigh is aware of this aspect of his work but maintains that he doesn’t struggle to achieve it. He says that’s “it’s a given” in his work. “With my contemporary films I’m implicitly and un-self-consciously plugging into the zeitgeist, capturing the zeitgeist, the moment we’re in. “But, of course, I’m not concerned to do that. I’m not concerned to make films about England or Englishness or whatever you call it. I think the subject matter of my films, without wanting to sound in any way pretentious, is universal. Because actually my films are about living and dying and work and relationships, family and children, having children and not having children, sex, all the things that are universal. The milieu, the tapestry, is where we are, which is in England. But when I’m making something I don’t think, ‘ah, now I’m capturing the zeitgeist…!’ “

A key scene in the later part of Mr. Turner finds the artist in the audience at a vaudeville show in which he and his work are mocked in a comedy sketch. Leigh says that he didn’t include the scene to reflect on the fact that every artist has to deal with going in and out of fashion. “It never occurred to me at all,” he declares. “That happened in the film because that’s what happened to Turner. And that vaudeville sketch that you see in the film, I wrote it myself, but it did actually happen. Queen Victoria was rude about him, she hated his stuff. And that’s what you see in the movie. Other people were rude about his stuff. The film is all about what happened to Turner, really.” Although his best-known films are all dramas, even his most serious films—including the uncharacteristically sentimental Secrets and Lies and the uncharacteristically grim Naked (made back to back)—boast sequences that are extremely funny. In his new film, the humor emerges from Turner’s behavior: he grunts more than he speaks and is prone to blending the colors in his paintings by spitting directly on the canvas (even when the work is already hanging in a gallery). Leigh is quite direct about the audience reaction to his pictures, whether it’s laughter or tears.

20 THE PUBLIC / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

“People ask me, ‘When do you decide where it should be funny and where it shouldn’t be funny?’ I don’t. It looks after itself, because life itself is comic and tragic. That’s how it comes out of the scene; you mine it out of the soil.” Does he think about the audience throughout the creation of his pictures? His answer is characteristically direct. “I don’t know how you would make a film if you weren’t constantly in a state of preoccupation with the audience, because that’s what my job as a filmmaker and a storyteller is. I am the representative of the audience. I’m there to say, ‘Do they get this? Would it be better if it was like this? Should we reverse the order of those shots?’ “ Most filmmakers stridently avoid the question of what their films are “about,” but Leigh makes no bones about the general theme found in all his films. “I make films that are about freedom,” he says. “Throughout my films there’s a running theme about the ‘done thing,’ you know, about conforming or not conforming, on all sorts of different levels. “The one thing I don’t do is make films that leave you with anything other than a highly ambivalent and complicated set of things to P think about.”

ALTERNATIVE CINEMA DEAD AGAIN (1991)—Kenneth Branagh directed and stars in this satisfying Hitchcock pastiche/tribute as a private eye who helps an amnesiac (Emma Thompson) uncover her relation to a woman murdered in the 1940s. With Andy Garcia, Derek Jacobi, Wayne Knight, and Robin Williams. Fri-Sun, Tue 7:30pm. The Screening Room “I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING!” (Great Britain, 1945)—A woman on her way to marry a rich man is stranded on a Scottish island where she falls in love with a dashing naval officer in this beautifully photographed romance by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Red Shoes, A Matter of Love and Death), Starring Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey; look fast for a teenaged Petula Clark. Presented by the Buffalo Film Seminars. Tue 7pm. Amherst Theater THE LUNCHBOX (India, 2013)—Am office worker on the verge of retirement and a neglected young housewife fall in love without ever meeting in person in this independent comedy-drama set in Mumbai. Delicately written and directed by first-time filmmaker Ritesh Batra, it displays a gentle wisdom that keeps you watching even when it looks like it might sink into an unlikely happy ending. Starring Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur. Sun 4pm. Hubbard Film Society, Parkdale School Auditorium, 141 Girard Ave., East Aurora. roycroftcampuscorporation.com THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA—From Japan’s Studio Ghibli, an Oscar nominee for Best Animated Feature. Directed by Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies). Sat 11:30am (subtitled version); Sun 11:30am (dubbed version). North Park

IN BRIEF:

2015 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS—Two programs featuring the nominees for best live action short film and best animated short film. As always, both programs are filled with satisfying work from veteran animators and emerging live-action filmmakers. –MF Eastern Hills AMERICAN SNIPER—Clint Eastwood’s adaptation of the memoir of Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), who as a Navy SEAL sniper killed between 160 and 250 targets in Iraq, is hardly the only recent film “based on a true story” to play fast and loose with the facts. But the goal here seems to be less dramatic shaping than hagiography, a disappointment given Eastwood’s more nuanced films of recent years. The script doesn’t only ignore Kyle’s human failings (which is understandable if unfortunate); it erases most of what might have made him interesting as a character. Eastwood remains the consummate craftsman, but the film serves no real point. With Sienna Miller, Jake McDorman, and Luke Grimes. -MF ANNIE—Latest remake of the musical adaptation of the 1930s comic strip—or was it a radio serial first? It’s been a long run. Starring Quvenzhané Wallis, Jamie Foxx, Rose Byrne, and Bobby Cannavale. Directed by Will Gluck (Friends with Benefits). BIG EYES—Tim Burton’s biopic about Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), the artist whose kitschy portraits of distressed children were a national sensation in the early 1960s. In the days before Andy Warhol, he turned the art world on its ears, earning a fortune (mostly from prints and posters) even though critics loathed his work. Except, as the film tells it, the paintings were actually made by his wife Margaret (Amy Adams). It’s as close to a mainstream film as Burton has ever made; he confines his visual interest to recreating the hipster paradise of San Francisco in the late 1950s (where the Keanes lived) and in such other flourishes as a visit to Hawaii awash in blue and pink pastels. The first half is an enjoyable lark as the Keanes enjoy their unexpected success, but it turns sour with the couple’s break-up and ensuing legal battles. The paintings themselves are weird artifacts of the time, but there’s no real story in them: They’re only a MacGuffin for a story about two sad people. With Krysten Ritter, Terence Stamp, Jason Schwartzman, and Danny Huston. -MF BIRDMAN—Too much and not enough. Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s “meta-movie” stars Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson, a once famous actor whose career took a downturn after he stopped playing the superhero character he was famed for. In need of a comeback vehicle and artistic validation, Thomson mounts a Broadway play as a vehicle for himself, a troubled production that forms the basis of this film’s

PLAYING NOW FILM the center of this film, but he’s presented as part of an increasingly diverse and populist campaign in this movie’s unusually clear and sophisticated narrative. Its one lapse is in exaggerating President Lyndon Johnson’s (Tom Wilkinson) resistance to sending a voting rights bill to Congress, which was actually based on his assessment of the timing and political opposition. With Cuba Gooding Jr., Tim Roth, Giovanni Ribisi, Carmen Ejogo, Martin Sheen, and Tom Wilkinson. -GS

The Tale of Princess Kaguya

STRANGE MAGIC—Assorted goblins, elves, fairies, and imps battle over a magic potion in this Disney animation advertised as being “From the mind of George Lucas,” in the apparent belief that that still means something. Directed by Gary Rydstrom. TAKEN 3—It may have the same star (Liam Neeson) and production team as previous Takens, but there’s no kidnapping this time. Instead, the story is lifted from The Fugitive: Retired CIA operative Bryan Mills scours Los Angeles for the men who framed him for murder while evading police detective Forest Whitaker (in the Tommy Lee Jones part, but without any of the snappy dialogue). There’s plenty of action, all filmed in a way likely to induce seizures—hand-held cameras, editing that cuts so much you can’t get a grip on what your seeing. Worse, there’s nothing in the by-the-numbers story that makes you in any way interested in what you’re seeing. It’s slickly made product ordered up by executives just because they need a third film in order to be able to market a Taken Trilogy DVD box set next Christmas. With Dougray Scott, Famke Janssen, and Maggie Grace. Directed by Olivier Megaton, a name that just dares reviews to make cracks about “megaton bombs.” -MF

increasingly wild proceedings. It’s certainly challenging, dynamic, and technically fluid. But it’s also erratic, lurching from scenes of banal domestic confrontation and confession to deliberate comic excess to surreal flights. In the end it’s too much structural complexity for one film to handle. Co-starring Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, and Andrea Riseborough. –GS

work finds the White Council (Gandalf, elf king Elrond, Lady Galadriel, wizard Saruman) on a parallel quest to solve the mystery of the Necromancer, setting up the reign of evil Sauron in Lord of the Rings. This padding out of The Hobbit’s relatively simple storyline is the equivalent of George Lucas’s Star Wars prequels, though fans are less likely to mind its inclusion. At the end of the day, Jackson and his army of collaborators have achieved something remarkable with this series, but I’m glad it’s over and Jackson can concentrate on other endeavors. This final entry feels like the last half hour of a traditional feature, stretched out to five times the length. Starring Martin Freeman, Orlando Bloom, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen, and Christopher Lee. -Greg Lamberson.

BLACK OR WHITE—As a story of a family dispute generated by racial differences—a mixed-race girl is fought over by her white (maternal) grandfather and black (paternal) grandmother, who both want custody—Black or White arrives at a perfect time to add something to the freshly simmering debate about race and civil rights in America. But it brings little to the table, either substantively or aesthetically. It’s a rather plodding, insufficiently focused effort, uninformed by real insight or narrative facility. It mostly resembles Kramer vs. Kramer, succumbing to a melodramatic conclusion that resolves nothing. Starring Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer, Jennifer Ehle, Anthony Mackie, and Bill Burr. Directed by Mike Binder (Reign Over Me). -GS

THE IMITATION GAME—The story of English mathematician and logician Alan Turing, who was instrumental in breaking Germany’s Enigma code during World War II but was later driven to suicide for being gay. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Turing as a kind of comic but poignant genius in a clever and vivid performance. Britain’s stringent secrecy laws kept Turing’s role in the Allied victory a secret until the mid-1970s, since which point Turing has become both a hero of the code-breaking program and as a martyr of the oppressive, sometimes vicious treatment of homosexuals in the British Isles. Although the movie’s dramatic arc is consistently entertaining, it bears only a limited general resemblance to the more complicated story told in Andrew Hodge’s long, dense 1983 Turing biography, credited as a primary source. Exaggerating and invention are hardly uncommon in biopics, but the filmmakers choices here are dramatically conservative and audience-oriented. Co-starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Charles Dance, and Mark Strong. Directed by Morten Tyldum (Headhunters). -GS

THE BOY NEXT DOOR—Thriller starring Jennifer Lopez as a teacher who regrets a moment of passion with the neighbor kid (Ryan Guzman) when he turns out to be a psycho. With Kristin Chenoweth and John Corbett. Directed by Rob Cohen (Alex Cross). CAKE—Was Jennifer Aniston denied an Oscar nomination here because she campaigned too hard for one? Maybe, but the film as a whole seems crafted for the sole purpose of showing off her performance as a woman driven to consider suicide by chronic pain following the accident that killed her young son. The self-congratulatory screenplay parcels out hard evidence about her backstory as a way of simulating drama. It may be most notable for its parade of supporting roles and cameos by actors whose moments seem to have passed them by: Oscar nominees Felicity Huffman and Anna Kendrick (can you name the films they were nominated for without going to imdb. com?), Avatar’s Sam Worthington, and Chris Messina. Directed by Daniel Barnz (Won’t Back Down). -MF

THE LOFT—Remake of the 2008 Dutch drama (by the same director, Erik Van Looy) about a group of married men who share an apartment for extra-marital affairs, until a corpse turns up and they realize that one of them must be the killer. Starring Karl Urban, James Marsden, and Matthias Schoenaerts. MORTDECAI—The aspects of Kyril Bonfiglioli’s comic novels, about an aristocratic British art dealer and his occasional criminal escapades, that won them a cult following in the 1970s are also what made them unlikely to work as movies: the wordplay (openly indebted to P. G. Wodehouse) and the spur-of-the-moment plotting that seems leftover from faux psychedelic British films of the 1960s. With a Hercule Poirot moustache and a Terry-Thomas accent (and teeth to match), Johnny Depp works hard at this eccentric character. But the script is atrocious, weaving random elements from Bonfiglioli’s books into a bland Hollywood template. Disappointing but not surprising. Co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Olivia Munn, Ewan McGregor, Paul Bettany, Jeff Goldblum, and Ulrich Thomsen. Directed by David Koepp (Premium Rush). -MF A MOST VIOLENT YEAR—The new film from writer-director J. C. Chandor is a must see for fans of urban crime dramas from the likes of Sidney Lumet, David Mamet, or Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather films. That it has little in common with Chandor’s previous work—Margin Call, All Is Lost—only confirms that he is one of the most promising young filmmakers of our time. Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) stars as a Russian immigrant who has worked his way up to the head of a heating oil delivery business. The film (set in 1981, when New York City’s crime rate peaked) details his efforts to stem a series of hijackings as he is trying to expand his business and deal with a criminal prosecution for shady practices. Co-starring Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, Alessandro Nivola, and Albert Brooks. –MF

INTERSTELLAR—That Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus, about the search for a planet capable of supporting human life, is the most argued-about movie PADDINGTON—The beloved “short but polite” talking of the year has less to do with reaction to its content bear of children’s books comes to the big screen in than with its inconsistency. Your own opinion likely a good-natured movie that will be beloved by Angloto hinge on what you most want in a movie, visual philes of all ages. Combining computer effects with effects, provocative ideas or fleshed-out drama. The animatronics and voiced by Ben Whishaw, Paddingideas are there, though whether they’re plausible or THE GAMBLER—Even if you haven’t seen the 1974 film ton’s story stays close to the books as he journeys merely fantastical is likely to be over the heads of on which this is based, this glossy remake is a facfrom “darkest Peru” to London in search of a home. most viewers. Nolan and his co-scripter brother Jonile waste of time, retaining most of the macho posFor dramatic structure the movie borrows from 101 athan alternately withhold information that you want turing from the original but none of the plausibility. Dalmations in the form of Nicole Kidman as a Cru(about the demise of our planet in the near future) Done up like a slumming rock star, Mark Wahlberg is ella De Vil-ish taxidermist in a snakeskin jumpsuit. It while rushing science at you too quickly to digest. hard to take seriously as a literature professor (his was co-written and directed by Paul King, but don’t Matthew McConaughey’s performance demonstrates self-aggrandizing lectures are hilarious) with a gamexpect anything as anarchic as The Mighty Boosh, the that it’s possible to overact quietly, though he’s still bling addiction that seems born of a death wish. The cult comedy show he’s best known for: Special effects effective in the occasional tear-jerking moments. It’s script by William Monahan (The Departed) is ripe with aside, it’s as traditional as a cup of hot chocolate. The worth seeing (if you have the patience for a threewriterly dialogue, much of which is entertaining, esincludes Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey’s Earl VISIT DAILYPUBLIC.COM FOR FILMbut LISTINGS REVIEWS >> as cast hour movie), don’t expect& anything as dazzling pecially as delivered by Michael Kenneth Williams andMORE of Grantham), Sally Hawkins, Peter Capaldi, Julie WalThe Dark Knight or Inception. With Anne Hathaway, John Goodman (who has a classic speech on earning ters, and Jim Broadbent, along with other faces you’ll Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Matt Damon, John the right to say “Fuck you” that is almost as good probably recognize if you’re a Britcom fan. -MF Lithgow, Casey Affleck, and Topher Grace. -MF as Monahan thinks it is). But director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) gives it a superficial PROJECT ALMANAC—Michael Bay production about INTO THE WOODS—This long-anticipated adaptation of sheen that doesn’t make any sense. And its treatment time-traveling teens, originally known as Welcome to the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine musical paroof gambling is shameful—any virtues the film has are Yesterday when it was supposed to be released a year dying traditional fairy tales and their ancient themes negated by a bullshit ending. With Jessica Lange, Brie ago. Starring Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D’Elia, and is likely to play best for the choir of the already conLarson, and George Kennedy. -MF Amy Landecker. Directed by Dean Israelite. verted. Sondheim’s work is as ever clever but not really mass market-friendly, a problem that director THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES—The last of SELMA—Detailing the events leading up to the 1965 DAILYPUBLIC.COM LISTINGS & REVIEWS Rob Marshall FOR (ChicagoMORE ) addressesFILM by amping up the Peter Jackson’s six J. R. R.VISIT Tolkien’s adaptations is the march from Selma to >> Montgomery, Alabama, the show’s periodic infusions of wise-guy show-business shortest but feels like the longest. After perfunctorily capital, to protest the denial of the vote to the great sass (sometimes at the expense of the generally darkdispensing with the dragon Smaug, the remainder of majority of the state’s African-American residents, er mood). But he keeps the turning, incurving plot the film becomes a sword and sorcery take on The director Ava DuVernay’s film ranks among the very moving gracefully, and the songs are almost always Treasure of Sierra Madre, with dwarf leader Thorin few respectable and involving American movie treatdelivered with verve and emotive skill, particularly by Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) refusing to share the ments of historical characters, forces, and events. Meryl Streep. Co-starring Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, treasure with his now homeless Middle Earth neighMartin Luther King (David Oyelowo), both the great bors. A subplot inspired by references in other Tolkein Johnny Depp, Chris Pine, and Christine Baranski. -GS public leader and symbol and the private man, is at

CULTURE > FILM

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING—As an Oscar contender, this biography of Stephen Hawking, based on a memoir by his first wife Jane, is a model of restraint and inoffensiveness: it’s a shoo-in for the The King’s Speech voters. Hawking’s work takes a back seat to his slow debilitation from ALS and the history of his marriage. But while we go into the film knowing it will end in divorce, the factors driving the couple apart feel elided. It’s as if the filmmakers didn’t want to be disrespectful to a man who is considered one of the great scientific minds of our era. But in that case, why make the film at all? Even the irony that, as presented here, all that ended the marriage of a man so obsessed with the nature of time was time itself seems unintended. With fine but unostentatious performances by Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones as the Hawkings. Co-starring Harry Lloyd, David Thewlis, and Emily Watson. Directed by James Marsh, best known for documentaries like Man on Wire. -MF UNBROKEN—The true story of Olean native and Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini (adapted from Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 book) focuses on the horrifying experiences of his young life: As a lieutenant in the Air Force during World War II, he spent 47 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean after his plane was shot down, only to wind up in a Japanese POW camp where for two years he was tortured by a corporal who became obsessed with him. These painful scenes may be unparalleled in a movie intended for a mass audience. And by ending with Zamperini’s rescue from the camp, the film oddly avoids terminates the more satisfying dramatic arc that would have been provided by the rest of his life. Director Angelina Jolie does fine work in the opening scenes of the plane being shot down, but at 137 minutes most audiences are likely to be very uncomfortable with the movie’s brutality. Starring Jack O’Connell, Finn Wittrock, Domhnall Gleeson, and Miyari. Joel and Ethan Coen were among the scriptwriters. –GS THE WEDDING RINGER—The ubiquitous Kevin Hart as an LA hustler who makes a good living hiring himself out as a hip best man to guys who have no real friends to turn to for their weddings. His skills are challenged when financial executive Josh Gad comes to him in need not just of a best man but seven groomsmen as well—and in 10 days. The directorial debut of Jeremy Garelick, who rushes through all the best material in his own script. (Maybe it was his way of not having to cut anything?) It’s not well tailored for Hart’s strengths, allowing Gad to steal most of their scenes. The humor isn’t as crude as other wedding comedies of recent years, which is a plus or a minus depending on your perspective. Nor is the bromantic aspect adequately fleshed out. It’s not an awful movie, but neither is it memorable. Co-starring Affion Crockett, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, and Ken Howard. -MF WILD—Novelist Nick Hornby wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s memoir of her 1994 hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, which extends for 2,663 from Mexico to Canada. Strayed (played by Reese Witherspoon, who also co-produced the film, in an effective act of image-adjusting) was not an experienced hiker, and she doesn’t seem especially well prepared for such an arduous trek. But she undertakes it as an act of will and self-punishment, to confront and exorcise her demons. As unveiled in flashbacks, they don’t seem all that awful, especially when we compare the film to Into the Wild and 127 Hours, both recounting much more distressing wilderness journeys. Wild is at its best not when it’s trying to persuade us how bad Strayed’s life was but when it focuses on the alternately grim and dull slog of a three-month walk—now there’s a triumph. With Laura Dern, Thomas Sadoski, and Michiel Huisman. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club) -MF THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2: ANGEL OF DEATH—There’s no Daniel Radcliffe, nor anyone else you’re likely to have heard of in this sequel to the 2012 horror movie. The same secluded haunted house is used forty years later to house children and two schoolteachers escaping the World War II bombing of London, and the same trouble spirit causes more trouble. There are more shock moments than any one film should have, though in general it’s a relatively old-fashioned spook movie. But if you haven’t seen the original you’re going to be lost as to what’s going on. Starring Phoebe Fox, Helen McCrory, and Jeremy Irvine. Directed by Tom Harper (Peaky Blinders). -MF P

CULTURE > FILM

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ACROSS

60. “Meet John ___,” Gary Cooper film

30. Plant swelling

61. 19th in a Greek series

10. “Law News Now” journal publisher: abbr.

31. School-governing body, for short

62. Alp. e.g.: Abbr.

34. Like the Lafayette, e.g.

13. Blue Monk order

63. “Do the ___” (ad slogan)

14. Embarrassing journey, esp. the morning after

64. Part 4 of quote

35. What the proposed sports structure would be

15. “Boardwalk Empire” airer

DOWN

16. Easy pitch

1. “Doctor Who” villainess, with “the”

17. Local wine region

2. Arrived at O’Hare

19. Pierce Arrow building theater

3. A wife of Jacob

20. Scale measure; abbr. 21. Part 1 of 2006 quote that sounds appropriate for today

4. Former Korean currency 5. “The office” 6. “Vidi,” translated

36. “... and Memories of ___”: Poe 38. Part of www 41. Kazoo museum locale 43. “Beloved” author Morrison 46. Words after a drumroll, maybe 47. Flicka’s foot

7. 1979 Iranian exile

48. “The Sopranos” actor Robert

8. “Di” or “da” preceder in a Beatles song

49. Kit ___ (Hershey bars)

9. Alternative to grounding

50. Sound from a monitor, perhaps

33. Paula’s order

10. What the recent feasibility study has got people

51. Auckland Zoo animals

34. Peters or Flack

11. What buoys do

37. Is plucky?

12. Chooses not to choose

39. “Copperhead Road” singer

18. Elmwood pizza entrepreneur, presuambly

40. Alter a skirt

22. Abbr. before a cornerstone date

23. “Be Prepared” org. 25. Part 2 of quote 32. Grocery chain named for two oceans

24. Brews

44. Canadian sports channel, for short

25. Dances in the end zone, maybe

45. Part 3 of quote

26. “Is this too big a chance?”

55. Bills’ Brooks 57. ___ Time Warner 58. Robin’s creator 59. Sheepish female?

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42. Some recent bar talk, perhaps

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52. “Meadows” locale 53. --’acte 54. Noticeable amount of progress 56. Have a mortgage, e.g.

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27. “Spare tire,” essentially 28. Demilitarize 29. “The mouse ran ___ clock... “

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HOROSCOPES BY SHEEBA INCAVIGLIA AQUARIUMS (Jan 20/Feb 18)—It’s a month to really embrace family, even the scary, dirty hill people on your mother’s side. Even though most of them work in tire shops, you can still show your love with a few extremely cheap shiny gifts. They’ll think the world of you. Lucky numbers tonight are 8, 17, 94 and 5. PISCES (Feb 19/Mar 20)—A chance meeting with an exotic foreign man could lead to romance. That is, until you go to meet him at his apartment building and you find his name written idiotically on a mailbox in the debris-filled lobby. There will be a machine in one corner that dispenses small cartons of milk but someone has tipped it over. You will try the elevator—the “up” button will ding but nothing further happens. Know when to cut your losses. ARIES (Mar 21/Apr 20)—A great week to work on improving your physical appearance. Dress up a bit—wear a pin on your lapel that depicts a bear playing with balloons. Pick up some of those sheer toe pantyhose packaged in the funny white egg containers. Buy a bunch of them so that they jiggle around in the bag as you walk through the mall. There’s something comforting about that sound. TAUTUS (Apr 21/May 21)—Getting very little on Tautus the week. Not sure what the problem is—I jiggled the crystal ball up and down a BUNCH of times but nothing happened. Probably need to have someone come out, have a look at it. Maybe some problem with enabling cookies or something. GEMINUS (May 22/Jun 21)—You’ve got your finger on the pulse this week which not only helps you come up with modern, cutting-edge solutions but also allows you to bring joy to the infirm. Tell them all about how you’re on the cutting edge—they’ll appreciate it, since, being infirm, they probably haven’t been on the cutting edge for a long time, if ever. Know what I’m saying? CANCERS (Jun 22/July 22)—Put things in perspective by spending a lot of time looking at space. Get a telescope and marvel at the comets or the giant asteroids pounding together like a couple of giant space boobs creating cosmic chaos. All your cares will melt away. LEO (July 23/Aug 23)—Could be a good time to consider a change of scenery. After all, that pumpkin fire that’s been raging behind your house shows no signs of abating. The realtor said, “Oh, that. That’s going to go out any day now. It’s just a bunch of pumpkins” but clearly, after four years it’s just getting stronger. You wouldn’t think pumpkins could burn like that but there you go. The choice is yours. VIRGO (Aug 24/Sept 22)—Your enthusiasm for all things luscious is contagious! You’ll want to experience it all but remember, be budget-conscious. Luscious things are really expensive and they never appear on the second-hand market. No need to work up a sweat tonight—it’s not worth the time. LIBIS (Sept 23/Oct 23)— Mania begins to creep in this week. Cut it off at your “mind pass.” Push it to one side like you’d shove an erupted beanbag chair into a trashcan. Next thing you know, you’ll be looking at a beautiful beach scene at dusk. You’ll hear the sound of the surf and those birds they have. Your lucky numbers are 10 and maybe 45. SCORPIONS (Oct 24/Nov 21)—Sure, you’re practical, determined and steadfast. But there’s another side of you too—that kind of weird side that reads lewd pamphlets in bus stations while eating dry cereal out of a heavily-dented plastic container. Embrace both. Tonight, make sure your love is more than words. Right? Get it?

SAGITTARIAN (Nov 22/Dec 21)—You will like your date this week instantly—unfortunately, he will become nervous, agitated even, and to make up for his discomfort, he will construct a small model farm out of scrap wood on your restaurant table. He will build a barn, a house, some chicken coops and a covered bridge. Long after you have left (he is com-

pletely unresponsive) and the night passes into morning, he will paint each structure and then, using some old electrical insulation made of paraffin, create some ersatz stones to place along a running creek powered by a train engine, that he builds of open PVC tubing. Still, you should give him another try. There could be a future in all this.

CANDY CORNS (Dec 22/Jan 19)—Birth, in one form or another, is the theme. Could be the birth of a child or could be the beginnings of that cat-related crafts business you’ve always dreamed of starting. Stuffed cats can be made to resemble all sorts of famous pop stars. It’s a slam dunk, really. P Sheeba appears courtesy of the Lankville Daily News.

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Closing soon— on view at The Center through February 22, 2015. Don’t miss the opportunity to experience Charles Burchfield’s luminous interpretations of the natural world in Exalted Nature, featuring more than 50 masterworks never before seen together.

For additional information, please visit www.BurchfieldPenney.org.

Charles E. Burchfield (1893–1967), Oncoming Spring (detail), 1954; Watercolor and charcoal on joined paper, 30" x 40" Burchfield Penney Art Center; Purchased in part with support from the Western New York Foundation and the Olmsted family in memory of Harold L. Olmsted, 1990.