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NEWS: LITTLE LORD LORIGO VS. THE SYRIAN REFUGEES

COMMENTARY: BRUCE JACKSON ON PARIS AND ITS AFTERMATH

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LORIGO VS. THE SYRIAN REFUGEES

was learning details of the slaughter in Paris the night before, Erie County Legislature Majority Leader Joe Lorigo took to social media to lend his diminutive voice to the chorus of conservative xenophobes around the country: “In light of the horrific terrorism in Paris,” Lorigo tweeted, “I call on CE Poloncarz to reverse his stance on accepting Syrian refugees into Erie County.” He was referring to plans by federal agencies to resettle as many as 300 refugees from the civil war in Syria in Western New York, part of the Obama administration’s commitment to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year. (More than four million Syrians have left their homes snce 2011.) Lorigo kept up the Twitter offensive all evening and eventually got what he wanted: coverage on TV, on the radio, and in the Buffalo News, and a stream of benighted responses on social media, the lowlight of which may have been an angry, middle-aged white man promising Poloncarz that, should the man’s family come to harm at the hands of one of these refugees, “I WILL come after you.”

Poloncarz has embraced the possibility of Syrian refugees settling in Western New York but he has nothing to do with it, no say in whether they come here or where they will live. There are nine agencies that have contracted with US Department of State to help to resettle the Syrians at 400 sites across the country. State governments receive federal funds to pay for the attendant programs; in the case of New York State, those funds flow through county social service agencies and local nonprofits. Erie County administers federal policy as an arm of state government; it has no say in the policy itself. Neither do individual states, really, as is surely understood by the 27 governors (all but one of them Republican) who so far have declared their unwillingness to accept Syrian refugees in the wake of the Paris disaster. The federal government has plenary power to determine who is allowed residency in this country and in the dispensation of refugee status. It is beyond the power of governors to say that this or that legal

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This is a typical scene, taken in about 1960, of a healthy, walkable neighborhood. Here, looking at the southwest corner of Genesee Street with Spruce Street, is an intact neighborhood main street, only a � CHECK COPY CONTENT TOfrom ADVERTISER few blocks from downtown. In theMESSAGE background, left to right, are the Club 291 restaurant, Genesee Thank you and for atadvertising Self-Service Laundry, and Erhardt Hardware, the northwest� corner, Paladino’s FoodDATES Market— CHECK IMPORTANT Please four of 49 businesses that existedwith at theTHE time inPUBLIC. the four blocks between Michigan Avenue and Hickory � CHECK NAME, ADDRESS, review Imperial—designer your ad and check Street. In the foreground, a 1959 Chrysler Virgil Exner’s “Forward Look” styling with PHONE #, &The WEBSITE anyapparent—is errors. The original tail fins and “gunsight” taillightsfor clearly parked along Spruce Street. same Jetsons layout instructions haveat work one block north, where confantasy mindset that informed the automobile design was also � PROOF OK (NO CHANGES) been followed as closely as struction was underway on the Kensington Expressway. The expressway was designed to absorb Genpossible. THE PUBLIC offers � Clinton, PROOF OK CHANGES) esee Street’s commuter traffic—as well as that of Broadway, Sycamore, and(WITH William—and allow services two motorists to jet from downtown design to suburbia, skippingwith over inconvenient neighborhoods in between. proofs at no Here, the expressway dealt a double blow—not onlycharge. divertingTHE about half the traffic to the highway, but is not responsible Advertisers Signature cutting Genesee Street retailers PUBLIC off from residential customers in the Fruit Belt. Ten years later, this for any error storefronts, if not notified scene would principally be composed of vacant and today, is a mix of vacant lots, a few within hours of receipt. ____________________________ lone brick survivors, and a couple dozen24 plastic palaces, built by a city that, in the 1980s and 1990s, The production department apparently had no better ideas available. -THE PUBLIC STAFF must have a signed proof in Date: _______________________ order to print. Please sign CY / Y15W46 and fax this back or approve Issue: _______________________

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His position is also inhumane: Were political CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 Lorigo toIN win the PUBLIC. day, they’d THIS PROOF MAY ONLYopportunists BE USED FORlike PUBLICATION THE resident of the United States, based on ethnicity, may not reside in their states. The only power they have is to refuse the federal funds that would support refugee resettlement programs, though it seems impossible that they could refuse just some of that money—they could not say, for example, “We’ll take the money for Burmese and Sudanese but not for Syrians.” Such a policy could not withstand a legal challenge. The whole position is absurd fear-mongering, in any case: The vetting of refugees to this country, already intense, has been heightened for incoming Syrians. They are fingerprinted and photographed, their names run through databases maintained by numerous security agencies; they are then interviewed in person to determine that they are who they say they are. The whole process takes 18-24 months, sometimes longer. In the history of this country’s refugee resettlement programs, there has never been a case in which an ill-intended refugee has slipped through the vetting process and done violence. The US has already settled Syrian refugees and none has turned out to be the ISIS warrior that Joe Lorigo fears will terrorize his district’s shopping plazas should Poloncarz fail to condemn the federal refugee resettlement program he does not control. There are far easier ways for a criminal to get into this country than through the federal refugee resettlement program. That is perhaps why all but one of the known Paris attackers were homegrown threats, citizens of France and Belgium. (Do Lorigo and his supporters imagine we should prohibit the French and the Belgians access to the US?) One of the attackers was identified as a refugee. He did not pass through the US vetting system. We know nothing when, where, or why he became willing to murder civilians. Lorigo’s position betrays a complete and utterly unsurprising lack of understanding of—and curiosity about—the refugees he is discussing.

be signing virtual death warrants for tens of thousands of Syrians. It also demonstrates that he is a lazy thinker: Not only is there no credible threat attached to accepting refugees, there is a tangible benefit, especially for a region whose population continues to diminish. Germany is taking in far more Syrians than the US, and not just because they feel morally obliged to do so. The Syrians who are able to flee tend to be educated; they are people you want to welcome into your community if your region’s birth rate is stagnating (as it is in Germany) or if you have a problem retaining your youth (as we do in Western New York). Lorigo owes his office to his father, Ralph, who runs the Erie County Conservative Party and hosts a weekly Saturday breakfast Daisy’s in Lackawanna where politicians and their operatives gather to chat, petitioners beg favors, and sycophants kiss the elder Lorigo’s ring. It is no doubt at one of those tables on Saturday morning that the little lord of the Conservative Party was fed this puffery: Stupid and small-minded as the position is, he is nonetheless unlikely to have arrived at it on his own. (Lorigo’s landmark accomplishments as majority leader are bans on legislature staffers wearing jeans and fiddling with cellphones while in chambers.) He has reached the pinnacle of his abilities, though probably not of his career in public service: He is exactly the kind of mediocrity whose family connections this region’s political establishment will one day reward with a judgeship. In the meantime, he will muddle along as a county legislator, made nearly invulnerable to an election challenge by fear of his father and the formidable advantages of incumbency. I hope that he will be remembered for this stance: a small man, small-minded and ill-informed, trying to win valueless political points on the back of a tragedy, while denying strenuously that the vile ideas he is parroting are racP ist, xenophobic, and stupid.

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Cheektowaga officials are moving forward after last month’s clash with state regulators over how to fix the town’s sewer overflow problems. The Town Council will propose a law that would require home inspections to check for prohibited connections to the sanitary sewer system from downspouts and sump pumps, said Councilman Timothy Meyers. The inspection would be required when a home is sold. n

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Downspouts and sump pumps illegally connected to the town’s sewer system are a big reason why the town leads the state in the number of reported incidents of sanitary sewer overflows. These illegal connections send rainwater into a sewer system that’s not designed to handle it. In fact, the state Department of Environmental Conservation wrote in its September 29 letter rejecting the town’s engineering plan that reducing the amount of rainwater that is penetrating its sewer system by 50 percent “would virtually eliminate Cheektowaga’s sanitary sewer overflows.” That’s quite the statement considering that the town was about to spend millions on relief sewers, which the state points out may not be necessary. A public hearing for the proposed law is expected in the next few weeks, Meyers said. That’s good news for local waterways. The town spews almost a half-billion gallons of sewage mixed with stormwater into creeks and rivers each year, most of which reach the badly polluted Scajaquada Creek. In addition, the DEC is requiring the town to present a series of public events to educate residents about how to check if their downspouts and sump pumps are not connected to the sewer system. The first event was Tuesday night at Cleveland Hill Fire Department. n UPCOMING EVENTS: • A happy hour panel discussion that seeks to answer the question: “Is Buffalo really getting its mojo back?” Tuesday, December 1 at 7pm at Allen Street Hardware, 245 Allen Street. Participants include Newell Nussbaumer, founder and editorial director of Buffalo Rising; Henry L. Taylor, a professor and founding director of the Center for Urban P Studies at the University at Buffalo.

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DAILYPUBLIC.COM / NOVEMBER 25, 2015 / THE PUBLIC

NEWS COMMENTARY

PARIS Planes in the air, boots on the ground, automatic weapons in the hand: They won’t fix this.

PHOTO COURTSEY OF SHEPARD4711 /WIKICOMMONS. PARIS PEACE SYMBOL BY JEAN JULLIEN.

THE PUBLIC / NOVEMBER 25, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

COMMENTARY NEWS THE BEST TV COVERAGE I FOUND OF THE

slaughter in Paris on Friday was Al-Jazeera America. Diane Christian and I had it on all night. Occasionally we cut to the other channels, but Al-Jazeera America was best for on-the ground, moment-by-moment coverage. Hardly anyone knew anything, but most of the US channels pontificated. Al-Jazeera America admitted it; they just put up what their cameras saw and what their correspondents knew. Diane and I have many friends in Paris; we’ve both worked there a lot; we know those neighborhoods. We had a lot of email traffic here that night with many of our friends in Paris, most of whom knew no more than we did, most of whom were getting their news of the slaughters online, as we were. The best subsequent TV commentary we have seen thus far has been John Oliver (HBO, Sunday, November 15) in which he used the words “asshole” or “assholes” 18 times in my watching. Maybe I didn’t get the count quite right but he made the point: He said something like, if you are pitching this against the culture of France, you lose. What point are you guys trying to make? Who killed all those people and why? The current notion is ISIS did it and the places they hit were comfortable middle-class, mostly young targets. It was a fuck-you hit. The main point was disturbance. “You think you can be comfortable in your world? No, you can’t. We have guys with suicide vests to make you uncomfortable.” We don’t even have Western characters for their name. They call themselves ISIS or ISIL—the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant—but they are neither. They are not a state and they possess no territory. Their imagination of statehood goes back to the seventh-century caliphate. In the present, it exists only where they outgun the locals. The Obama administration and the French government are currently using for them the name many Muslims use, Daesh, a word which, according to the London Times, “sounds similar to the Arabic words Daes (‘one who crushes something underfoot’) and Dahes (‘one who sows discord’).” US Secretary of State John Kerry uses that word whenever he speaks of them, pronouncing it “dash,” like someone on the run. It may be an acronym. It may mean nothing. They are at least 15 years old. They’re not something new on the scene. But they were nothing of power before our bogus war in Iraq destabilized that entire region and enabled them to flourish. The George W. Bush administrations made them possible. We went into Iraq to take care of “weapons of mass destruction” that did not exist, and accomplished only that perfect destabilization of the region. What was there were some situations we didn’t like; what we’ve got now are situations we cannot abide and with which we cannot deal. What happened in Paris is horrible but is not isolated. What does make it special is it is one of the few such horrific events in the past decade or so to which we have paid attention. Here are some most Americans haven’t noticed or haven’t gotten cranked up about or haven’t changed their Facebook page to commemorate (a lot of my FB Friends are blue, white and red today), some by organizations, some by individual true-believers: —November, 12, 2015, the day before the Paris slaughter, Daesh-linked terrorists blew themselves up in Beirut, taking 43 civilians along with them and wounding another 239. —A year ago, the Tehrik-i-Taliban (a coalition of Pakistani groups which is opposed to the Pakistani state, not to be confused with the Afghan Taliban, which supports it), killed 141 people, 132 of them children. —On July 21, 2011, a right-wing extremist, Anders Behring Breivik, killed eight people with a bomb in Oslo, then 69 others, mostly teen-agers, with an automatic weapon, at a summer camp. —On July 7, 2005, four coordinated suicide attacks at rush hour on three underground lines and a bus in Britain resulted in 56 dead and 700 wounded. —On March 11, 2004, in Madrid four shrapnel bombs on four commuter trains killed 191 and injured 2,000. —In October 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a member of a far-right party in Israel, a physician, wearing his Israeli army uniform, killed 29 people and wounded 125 while they were at prayer in the Mosque of Abraham in Hebron.

Nobody has a lock on the bloody lunacy. But Daesh is really up there. They slaughtered more than 1,500 police trainees in Tikrit a year ago, then posted a graphic video of the shootings: some of men in a ditch, being shot in the head, one by one; some of men at water’s edge, also shot in the head, one by one. They posted another video, as well-made as an American TV commercial, of 21 prisoners in orange walked along a shoreline by 21 men in black, masked. The men in orange are Coptic Christians. The masked men in black are Daesh killers. We see heads being sliced off, and heads parked atop the backs of bodies. A man in a different costume occasionally faces the camera and speechifies. Then it goes back to the head-cutting. The last shot is the surf, red with blood. It really is a commercial, and it went viral. These guys use current media well. They perform for it. They kill for it. They die for it.

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In May, Daesh slaughtered 400 (mostly women and children) in Palmyra, Syria. There is lots more, but you have the point. One problem for us, for Paris, for everybody, is that ISIS or ISIL or Daesh isn’t a place, a nation. If you’re going to destroy it, as former CIA director James Woolsey and so many American politicians now running for high office say we should do, what is your ultimate target? If they are a nation without a place, how do you blow it up? How do you know when you’ve succeeded? Another is the jingoism it encourages. According to the New York Times, 25 governors (all but one Republican) have pledges to block any Syrian refugees from entering their states. Donald Trump, who wants walls built across all our borders and who has said immigrants from the south are rapists and drug dealers, is no doubt ecstatic. It also goes local: Erie County Legislator Joseph Lorigo (Conservative, West Seneca) chimed in over the weekend, saying Erie County should not accept Syrian refugees. He’s not the only silly person out there. Daesh is a consequence of a century of history— this mess maybe started when the West redrew the boundaries of the Middle East at the end of the First World war. The regional enmities are far older than that.

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But nothing I’ve heard from anyone in charge or anyone wanting to be in charge answers them either, and that is what scares me. Planes in the air, boots on the ground, automatic weapons in the hand: They won’t fix this. I’ve heard no one presently running for or occupying high office say anything that addresses the depth of this mess. Years ago, the poet John Berryman was at our place and said one of his older poems, “World-Telegram.” It was about the headlines in a now-extinct newspaper on a single day, May 13, 1939. I still think about the final lines of that poem:

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Even if you can kill off all the present villains, how do you forestall the next resurgence? Is it like Alien: an infinite series of subsequent aliens because we are just dealing with eruptions or symptoms? Can the fix ever be another round of bombs, whether delivered by planes or drones or superheroines, or going back to zero and starting over? Can you start over? Is this intractable? I don’t know the answers to any of those questions. Neither do you. That’s okay: People like us don’t have to answer them.

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Stop trains, break up the city’s food supply, And perfectly demoralize the nation. John Berryman is dead and gone but the stuff of the world he wrote about is not. And, unlike that voice in his poem, we do have to take these things quite seriously. They involve our friends in the night, writing us in real time, a continent a way, knowing no more than we what is going on, what is happening next, what anyone with the power to do something real is bothering to do. Bombs aren’t it. Bruce Jackson is chevalier in France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Ordre National du P Mérite. He teaches at UB.

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Sara M. Zak’s paintings Advertisers Signature and prints at Canisius College ____________________________

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Issue: ______________________ SARA M. ZAK’S ARTWORK CURRENTLY ON SHOW at Canisius CY /ColY15W44

MISHAP contained

lege comprises complex but lucid and lovely paintings on woodcut blocks, WORK BY SARA M. ZAK IF YOU APPROVE ERRORS WHICH ARE ON and woodcut prints prior to the painting, about technology—which is complex but lucid ultimately—and bureaucracy—which THIS often PROOF,labors THE to PUBLIC CANNOT ANDREW L. BE BOUWHUIS LIBRARY @ CANISIUS COLLEGE be opaque. HELD RESPONSIBLE. PLEASE EXAMINE THE AD 2001 MAIN ST / BUFFALO / LIBRARY.CANISIUS.EDU On one wall aerial-perspective landscape paintings of terrains ranging

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from spectacular—snow-capped mountain peaks, a chain of inland THIS PROOF MAY waONLY BE USED FOR ters—to ordinary—what looks like scrub farmland, fields overgrown with PUBLICATION IN THE PUBLIC. small trees and brush—to nondescript—possibly a view over water, possi- ther details about these dual-fatal “mishaps,” as the military bureaucracy bly at sundown, amid layered horizons of orange to red to golden fading somewhat blandly describes them. Just what happened? Just what caused daylight. That on closer inspection turn out to be on woodcuts, that is, on the crash and fatalities? Not information for public consumption. The woodcut blocks line-carved with imagery that is hard decipher under the implicit question the exhibit poses: Why not? No answer from the milpaint but is more clearly presented on the opposite wall in monotone blue itary. prints—they look like ordinary blueprints, but with a deliberate hasty or preliminary work quality—taken from the woodcuts prior to the paint ap- One painting of a mountainous terrain is on a woodcut drawing of the plication. The woodcut imagery comprises technical drawings and data— fuselage and main structural components of an F-111, in a way that seems as if from a maintenance or operator’s manual—on the F-111 Aardvark to show the plane on imminent crash course into the mountains. None of fighter and bomber jet that was used by the Air Force from the late 1960s the other painting and woodcut image combinations is quite so dramatic. No connection between the woodcut images—mostly just airplane comthrough the 1990s. ponent parts or systems and technical data charts—and landscapes. Or The landscape paintings represent areas where an F-111 crashed in a landscape coordinates. Plus further minor disconnects in the photo-negtraining accident. The titles of the paintings are identification numbers ative and reverse-image aspects of the blueprint imagery. of the plane that went down in the depicted area. Titles like 66-042. Locations are not designated. Whereas the titles of the woodcut prints are Art about disconnects and frustrations. Visually very beautiful—brushy latitude and longitude coordinates of a crash location, plus the last names impressionistic landscapes with underlay imagery, and handsome if hasty of the two airmen who died at that location. Titles like 36° 11’ 43.1” N 6° work woodcut prints—but verging on overcomplicated for the point it 08’ 35.5” W, Rudiger/Pitt. Whereas moreover the woodcut prints indicate seems to be trying to make. Or what exactly is the point it is trying to nothing directly about the accidents, but merely present technical infor- make? That bureaucracy sucks? Political revolutions have overthrown mation on the airplane. But by matching up oil paintings with their mate governments, but not their associated bureaucracies. Bureaucracy is a litwoodcut prints—by deciphering enough of the woodcut carving under a tle like the weather. Everybody complains about it, but what actually to painting to be able to match it to the print made from the same woodcut do about it? One thing—this art project suggests—expose it. But an art on the other wall—you can match depicted landscapes with latitude and project that seems to hover between complexity for the sake of depiction of a labyrinth and complexity for the sake of complexity. Very beautiful, longitude coordinates. but simplify, simplify. Not much information—and a rather roundabout way to get at it—but P pretty much all the artist was able to discover when she tried to learn fur- The Sara M. Zak exhibit continues through November 27.

IN GALLERIES NOW = ART OPENING 640 Gallery (640 Ridge Road, Lackawanna, NY 14218, 716-823-5124): Search for Sanctuary, paintings by Jeff Freier on view through Dec 21. Opening reception Fri, Nov 20, 6-8pm. Mon-Fri 10am-4pm. 1045 Elmwood Gallery for the Arts (1045 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222, 716-228-1855, photographics2.com/store/welcome-to-our-studio1045-gallery-store): Southwest Six, New Mexico-inspired show with work from Karen Foegen, Eileen Graetz, Carole Kauber, JoAnn Mileham, Susan M. Miller, and Maria Thompson. On view through Dec 31. Thu & Fri 1-5pm, Sat 11-4pm. Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222, 882-8700, albrightknox.org): Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Ecologies of Drama, moving image installations on view through Jan 3 2016, Looking at Tomorrow: Light and Language from The Panza Collection, 1967–1990 on view through Feb 7, 2016. One of a Kind, emerging artists from Autism Services, in Education Wing on view through Nov 22. 10am-10pm free admission. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm, open late First Fridays until 10pm.

THE PUBLIC / NOVEMBER 25, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

Art Dialogue Gallery (5 Linwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14209, wnyag.com): Very Buffalo, a selection of photographs by Len Kagelmacher, on view through Jan 8, 2016. Opening reception Fri, Nov 20, 7-9pm. TueFri 11am-5pm, Sat 11am-3pm. Artists Group Gallery (Western New York Artists Group) (1 Linwood Ave, Buffalo, NY 14209, 716-8852251, wnyag.com): 21st Annual Artful Gifts—The Fine Art of Giving (and Collecting). Opening reception Fri, Nov 20 7-9pm. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 11am3pm. Benjaman Gallery (419 Elmwood Avenue Buffalo, NY 14222, thebenjamangallery.com): Man of Extremes: A Survey of the Work of Wes Olmsted. On view through Dec 19. Thu-Sat 11am-5pm. Betty’s Restaurant (370 Virginia Street, Buffalo, NY 14201, 362-0633, bettysbuffalo.com): Currently on view: Buffalo Architectural Prints by Dan Galas. On view through Nov 22. Big Orbit (30d Essex Street, Buffalo, NY 14222, cepagallery.org/about-big-orbit): Appetites/Anxieties: multi-disciplinary installation by Liz Lessner. FriSun 12-6pm. BT&C Gallery (1250 Niagara Street, Buffalo, NY 14213, 604-6183, btandcgallery.com): The Forest Electric,

painting and drawings by Amanda Besl, on view through Nov 27. Fri 12-5pm or by appointment. ¡Buen Vivir! (148 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, 14201 buenvivirgallery.org): The End of the Game–The Last Word from Paradise Revisited; photos by Orin Langelle. Tue-Fri 1-4pm, Fri 6-8pm, Sat 1-3 pm. Buffalo Artspace Gallery (1219 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14209): Let Me Show You What I Saw, 25-year retrospective of Elizabeth Spiro-Carman. Sat & Sun 124pm. Buffalo Arts Studio (Tri Main Building 5th Floor, 2496 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, 833-4450, buffaloartsstudio.org): BAS Annual Resident Artists Exhibit and Sale, on view through Jan 8, 2016. Opening reception Sat, Nov 21 3-9pm. Tue-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 10am-2pm, Fourth Fridays till 8pm Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens (2655 South Park Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14218, 827-1584, buffalogardens.com): Mon-Sun 10am-5pm. Buffalo & Erie County Central Library (1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY 14203, 858-8900, buffalolib. org): Milestones on Science: Books That Shook the World! 35 rare books from the history of science, on second floor. Mon-Sat 8:30am-6:00pm, Sun 125pm.

IN GALLIERS NOW ARTS Burchfield Penney Art Center (1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222, 878-6011, burchfieldpenney.org): Squeaky Wheel: 30th Anniversary Exhibition, on view through Jan 24, 2016. Through These Gates: Buffalo’s First African American Architect, John E. Brent, on view through Mar 27, 2016. Mystic North: Burchfield, Sibelius & Nature and Fluidity In Form: Selections From The Dean Spong Collection, The Artist’s Legacy, on view through Dec 4; Inquisitive Lens: Richard Kegler/P22 Type Foundry: Charles E. Burchfield (The Font Project), on view through Jan 10; Body Norms, selections from the Spong collection; Artists Seen: photographs of contemporary artists by David Moog; Charles E. Burchfield’s Gardenville Studio. Tue, Wed, Fri (Second Fridays until 8pm), Sat 10am-5pm & Sun 1-5pm. Admission $5$10, children 10 and under free. Burchfield Nature and Art Center (2001 Union Road, West Seneca, NY 14224, 677-4843, burchfieldnac. org): Photography Contest Exhibit, on view through Dec 27. Opening reception Fri Nov 20, 7-9pm. MonFri 10-4pm, Sun 1-4pm, see site for upcoming classes. E.H. Butler Library Circulation Gallery (Buffalo State College, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222): Prismatic Saturation: Textile Works by Emily Beresford. On view through Nov 23. Café Taza (100 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14201): One of a Kind, emerging artists from Autism Services, satelite exhibition to Albright-Knox Canisius College Andrew L. Bouwhuis Library (Canisius College 2001 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14208, 888-8412, library.canisius.edu): MISHAP contained, work by Sarah Zak. On view through Nov 27. Castellani Art Museum (5795 Lewiston Road, Niagara University, NY 14109, 286-8200, castellaniartmuseum.org): Highlights: The Castellani Collection, through January 17, 2016. Tue-Sat 11am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm. CEPA (617 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, 8562717, cepagallery.org) Fire and Ice: photogrpahs by Alan Friedman and Douglas Levere. Opening reception Sat, Nov 21 7-10pm. Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 12-4pm. The Neil and Barbara Chur Family Gallery (Roycroft Power House, 31 South Grove Street, East Aurora, NY 14052): Clufffalo: Autumn 2015, Charles Clough. One painting, painted on by 59 participants in 27 sessions and completed by Clough. On view through December 31. Collect Art Now (Virtual gallery, collectartnow.com): Featured artist: Craig LaRotunda. Dana Tillou Fine Arts (417 Franklin Street, Buffalo, NY 14202, 716-854-5285, danatilloufinearts.com): The Old and the New: 180 Years of Painting and the Arts. Opening reception Fri Nov 20 5-8pm. Wed-Fri 10:30am-5pm, Sat 10:30am-4pm. Dolce Valvo Art Center (NCCC 3111 Saunders Settlement Road, Sanborn, NY 14132, 614-5975): Of Niagara: Works from the Gerald Mead Collection. On view through Nov 20. El Buen Amigo (114 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14201, 885-6343, elbuenamigo.org): Hispanic Christian folk art exhibit. Mon-Sat 11am-7pm, Sun 11am-5pm. Enjoy the Journey Art Gallery (1168 Orchard Park Road, West Seneca, NY 14224, 675-0204, etjgallery.com): Small Work, exhibit by the West Seneca Art Society. On view through Nov 28. Tue & Wed 11-6pm, Thu & Fri 2-6pm, Sat 11-4pm. Hallwalls (341 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14202, 854-1694, hallwalls.org): Amid/In WNY Part 5 with work from Laura Borneman, Mickey Harmon, Kyla Kegler, Pat Kewley, Mark Lavatelli, Julian Montague, Eileen Pleasure, J. Tim Raymond, Peter Sowiski, and Marissa Tirone. Tue-Fri 11am-6pm, Sat 11am-2pm, Closed on Sundays & Mondays. Hi-Temp (79 Perry Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, 8525656, 10am-4pm Mon-Fri, call for appointment): Group show with work by Nick Sardynski, Andrew Rafanowicz, Steve Siegel, Richard Christian, Chris Main, Andy Russel, George Gilham, Eric Johnson, George V. Miller, Nate Hodge, Todd Lesmeister, Norma Joy, John Schweikhard, Brittany Rose, and Jonathan Rogers. iPrintfromHome Gallery (2630 Elmwood Avenue, Kenmore, NY 14217, (800) 736-8652, iprintfromhome. com): Recordamos a los Muertos, Porque los Vivos son tan Olvidable (We Remember the Dead, Because the Living are so Uninteresting); wheat paste and paintings by Christopher C. Galley. On view through Dec 5. Karpeles Manuscript Library (North Hall) (220 North St., Buffalo, NY 14201): Robert Fulton and the United States Navy, on view through Dec 31. Tue-Sun 11am4pm. Karpeles Manuscript Museum (Porter Hall) (453 Porter Ave, Buffalo, NY 14201): Maps of the United States. Tue-Sun 11am-4pm. Lockside Art Center (21 Main Street, Lockport, NY 14094, 478-0239, locksideartcenter.com): Group exhibition from members of the Niagara Arts Guild. Fri-Sun 12-4pm and by appointment. Manuel Barreto Furniture (430 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14202, 867-8937, manuelbarreto. com): Paintings by Alixandra Martin. On view through Dec 18. Market Street Art Studios (247 Market Street, Lockport, NY 14094, 478-0248, marketstreetstudios. com): Whalen: A Legacy, paintings by Joseph Whalen on view through Nov 14. Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-4pm. Meibohm Fine Arts (478 Main Street, East Aurora, NY 14052, 652-0940, meibohmfinearts.com): Fantasy Worlds, work by Agnes Robertson and Francis Toole. On view through Nov 21. Tue-Sat 9:30amP 5:30pm.

Native American Museum of Art at Smokin’ Joe’s (2293 Saunders Settlement Road, Sanborn, NY 14123, 2619251) Open year round and free. Exhibits Iroquois artists work. 7am-9pm. Nina Freudenheim Gallery (140 North Street, Buffalo, NY 14201, 882-5777, ninafreudenheimgallery.com): Selections from a Private Collection, work by Gloria Banning, Max Bill, Stanley Boxer, Alexander Calder, Charles Clough, Claude Conover, Susan Crile, Piero Dorazio, David Gilhooly, Friedensreich Hundertwaser, James Kuo, Avra Leodas, Sam Ogden, Jules Olitski, Sally Potenza, Tim Prentice, Christy Rupp, James Suzuki, Graham Sutherland, Victor Vasarely, Martha Visser’t Hooft, and more. On view through Nov 25. Tue-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Mon open by appointment only, and closed on Sundays. Pausa Art House (19 Wadsworth Street, Buffalo, NY 14201, 697-9069 pausaarthouse.com): Butterfly Effect, works by Chuck Tingley. On view through Dec 19. See website for events and hours. The Phoenix (269 Amherst Street, Buffalo NY 14207, 447-1100 thephoenixbuffalo.com): Café Series, by Mary Begley. Wed-Sat 5pm-10pm. Prism (MyBuffaloPride, 224 Allen Street, Buffalo, NY 14201): The Amoore Project, works by Ari Moore. Thu & Fri 4-8pm, Sat & Sun 3-7pm. Queen City Gallery (617 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, 868-8183, queencitygallery.tripod.com): “One Last Night in Allentown” at Atrium 124 (124 Elmwood Avenue, Autism Services bldg.) Work by Neil Mahar, David Pierro, Candace Keegan, John Farallo, Chris McGee,Tim Raymond, Eileen Pleasure, Eric Evinczik, Barbara Crocker, Thomas Bittner, Joshua Nickerson, Susan Redenbach, Barbara Lynch Johnt, Michael Mulley. Show then moves to Main Street location. Tue-Fri 11am-4pm and by appointment. River Gallery and Gifts (83 Webster Street, North Tonawanda, NY 14051) Buffalo-Niagara Art Association—Fall Exhibition. Wed-Fri 11am-4pm, Sat 11am- 5pm. Sports Focus Physical Therapy (531 Virginia Street, Buffalo, NY, 14202, 332-4838, sportsfocuspt.com): Paintings and Photos by Glenn Kroetsch, on view through Nov 30. Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. Spot Coffee (1406 Hertel Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14216): Celebrate Buffalo, paintings by Stephen Coppola. On view through Jan 2016. Squeaky Wheel (617 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, squeaky.org): STILL/Moving: Works from the Gerald Mead Collection. Work from Cory Arcangel, Colin Beatty, Sylvie Belanger, Michael Bosworth, Lawrence Brose, Diane Bush, Max Collins, Allan D’Arcangelo, Jax Deluca, Marion Faller, Hollis Frampton, Courtney Grim, Tom Holt, Deborah Jack, Cletus Johnson, Douglas Kirkland, Jody LaFond, Barbara Lattanzi,Robert Longo, Esther Neisen, Jonathan Rogers, Cindy Sherman, and Craig Smith. On view through Jan 9, 2016. Tue-Sat 125pm. Stangler Fine Art (6429 West Quaker Street, Orchard Park, NY 14127, 870-1129, stanglerart.com): Open Wed-Fri 12-5pm Sat 11-3pm Studio Hart (65 Allen Street, Buffalo, NY 14202, 5368337, studiohart.com): 2015 TOY STORE Invitational Exhibit, work by Bruce Adams, Bob Collignon, Linda Collignon, Cynnie Gaasch, Barbara Hart, Ani Hoover, Billy Huggins, Candace Keegan, Bethany Krull, Amy Luraschi, Ruth McCarthy, Gerald Mead, Esther Neisen, Deborah Petronio, Joe Radoccia, Elizabeth Switzer, Richard Tomasello. On view through Dec 24. Tue-Fri 11:30am-3:30pm, Sat 12-4pm. Sugar City (1239 Niagara Street, Buffalo, NY 14213, buffalosugarcity.org): One For All: Art Exhibiton by Rebecca Gay and IDVJ. On view through Nov 20. Open every Fri 5:30-7:30, during all events, and by appointment. TGW@497 Gallery (497 Franklin Street, Buffalo, NY 14202, 981-9415): Altar Paintings and Inscapes, work by Jane Bergenn. On view through Nov 28. Wed-Fri 12-5pm, Sat 12-3pm. UB Anderson Gallery (1 Martha Jackson Place, Buffalo, NY 14214, 829-3754, ubartgalleries.org): A Tribute to David K. Anderson, opening reception Sun Nov 22. Cravens World: The Human Aesthetic, on view through Dec 31, 2016. Wed-Sat 11am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm. UB Art Gallery (Center for the Arts, North Campus, Amherst, NY 645-6913, ubartgalleries.org): Splitting Light, work from Shiva Aliabadi, Anna Betbeze, Amanda Browder, Erin Curtis, Gabriel Dawe, Sam Falls, Nathan Green, John Knuth, David Benjamin Sherry, and Hap Tivey. On view through Jan 10, 2016. Re:res: Contemporary Interpretations of the Cravens World Collection; work from Skylar Borgstrom, Caitlin Cass, AJ Fries, Kristine Mifsud, Carl Spartz, Marc Tomko, Kurt Treeby, and Necole Zayatz. On view through Dec 12. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 1-5pm. UB Libraries Poetry and Rare Book Room (420 Capen Hall, Amherst, NY 14260, (716) 645-2918, library. buffalo.edu/specialcollections): Artifact, works from the UB Libraries Special Collections, on view through Jan 15. Mon-Fri 9am-4pm. Wrafterbuilt Furniture (119 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14201, 913-5313, wrafterbuilt.com): Drawings and sketches by Jaime Schmidt.

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The Torn Space production of Nora, Ingmar Bergman’s adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, plays the Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle through December 6. PHOTO BY MARK DUGGAN

PLAYBILL APPROPRIATE (written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins): This script, 2014’s Obie winner the by burgeoning Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins, wrestles with the big inevitabilities—death, taxes, family—and the disappointments therein. The Lafayette family gathers to divide the Arkansas estate of their recently deceased patriarch. Expect family secrets and bad behavior to a degree you might find it hard to say anything good about the living. Scott Behrend directs Lisa Ludwig, David Mitchell, Aaron Krygier, Lisa Vitrano, Kelsey Mogensen, Dan Urtz, Renee Landrigan, and Simon Mysliwy. Road Less Traveled Productions. Running through November 22. at Road Less Traveled Productions’s new home, 500 Pearl St. (716) 629-3069; roadlesstraveledproductions.org. BOTH YOUR HOUSES (drama by Maxwell Anderson): Deep from the files of Drama 101, Kavinoky Theatre revives this 1933 saga of earnest but inexperienced Alan McNeal, a school teacher elected to the US Senate representing Nevada. Of course, this is a time when Nevada was a dusty electoral territory rather the megastate we know today. The upcoming national election seems a fine time to consider how much—and how little—DC politics have changed. In addition, a large and impressive cast—Chris Evans, Peter Palmisano, Norm Sham, Aleks Malejs, Christian Brandjes, Jessica Wegrzyn, Kevin Craig, Kurt Erb, Anne Gayley, and others— makes this production an appealing prospect. David Lamb directs for Kavinoky Theatre. Inauguration on November 13; end of term December 6; at Kavinoky Theatre, Porter and Prospect, on the D’Youville College campus; (716) 829-7668; kavinokytheatre.com. HARVEY (comedy by Mary Chase): The Dowd family are part of a starchy small-town aristocracy. Elwood, the middle-aged scion, upsets the clan with his delusional ways. The delusion is named Harvey and unseen by everybody except Elwood. Harvey and Elwood wreak confusion at home and in town to a point where everyone winds up at the gates of the local insane asylum. Conjecture all you want about sanity, stuffiness, insanity, and love, just sit back and enjoy the laughs in this vintage comedy. Richard Lambert, Tammy Hayes McGovern, David Lundy, Caitlin Coleman, Nicholas Lama, Sharon Strait, Nicholas Lama, Betsy Bittar, Fraklin LaVoie, and others appear under the direction of Tom Makar. Opening night is November 20, closing is December 20. At New Phoenix Theatre.; 31 Johnson Park; (716) 853-1334; newphoenixtheatre.org JOE HILL’S LAST WILL (solo show by Si Kahn): Singer-actor John Profeta takes on the role of singer-activist Joe Hill in this musi-

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Photo by Michael W. Thomas from the Torn Space original performance STOREHOUSE

THEATER ON STAGES

cal solo show. Profeta, channeling the real life Joe Hill, describes the rough-and-tumble years of labor organizing. In an energetic career of only a dozen years, Hill connected with miners, foresters, farm hands, and others working throughout the Western US by setting popular, catchy music with lyrics about wages, hours, and working conditions. Director Jeffrey Coyle is at the helm. Presented by Subversive Theatre Collective; opens November 5, closes November 28; at Manny Fried Playhouse; 255 Great Arrow Avenue (third floor); (716) 408-0499; subversivetheatre.org. LEGALLY BLONDE (music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, Book by Heather Hach): Yes, a stage musical based on a movie franchise. California blonde heads east to pursue the preppie she loves. On a whim, she enrolls in Harvard Law, proving law can be cute. The essential question: Elle Wood—chick stereotype for the 21st century or girl power heroine? Presented by SUNY Buffalo Department of Theatre & Dance; opening on November 19 through December 6. Performed at Center for the Arts Drama Theatre, Theater Arts Building, located next to Moot Hall on the Buffalo State College campus; (716) 878-3005; theater.buffalostate.edu. THE MOTHERFUCKER WITH THE HAT (script by Stephen Adly Guirgis): A romantic comedy of sorts about Jackie, junkie and convict who is cleaning up his act and his life for the love of his childhood sweetheart, Veronica. And he does love her and he promises to stay clean, and Jackie is definitely an open-hearted guy. But there is this hat, a man’s hat left behind in Veronica’s room. Love, sobriety, reputation, and life itself are on the line. New faculty member Aaron Moss directs for Casting Hall Productions. Opening on November 10, performances through November 21. Donald Savage Theater of the Theater Arts Building, located next to Moot Hall on the Buffalo State College campus. (716) 878-3005; theater. buffalostate.edu. NORA (Henrik Ibsen classic adapted by Ingmar Bergman): Theatergoers in the US will likely have a fixed idea About A Doll’s House and its heroine. She is housewife who starts the plays as childishly submissive but transitions through three acts to exit as a door-slamming proto-feminist. However, for this Torn Space production, director Robert Waterhouse uses a script adapted by filmmaker Ingmar Bergman in 1981, about 100 years after Ibsen created the play. By reports, the characters and their respective psychologies are more vivid in the adaptation. True to Bergman, the adaptation sweeps lingering sentimentality out of the story— even more than the dusty emotionality that swept out on Nora’s skirts when Ibsen sent her out the door 140 years ago. The show opens November 12 and the door slams shut on December 6. Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle, 612 Fillmore Ave.; (716) 812-1733; tornspacetheater.com.

12 DEC 06 NOV

COMING SOON… A CHRISTMAS CAROL (the Dickens favorite adapted for the stage by Neal Radice): From “Marley was dead” to “God bless us, every one,” Alleyway Theatre’s production is a thorough and economic telling of miserly Scrooge’s reformation on Christmas Eve. The Christmas treat is larded through with holiday song and dance. Besides anchoring Alleyway Theatre for more than 30 years, it is the fifth longest produced version of Dickens’ novella in the US. Radice also directs David Mitchell, Joyce Stilson, and carolers Stephanie Bax, Melissa Leventhal, Roger VanDette, and David G. Poole. Opening on December 10 and closing on December 20. at Alleyway Theatre, One Curtain Up! Alley. 1 Curtain up Alley, (716) 852-2600; alleyway.com. THE SANTALAND DIARIES (solo show scripted by Joe Montello, based on the writings of David Sedaris): The most bitterly ironic minimum-wage worker takes Christmas gig at Macy’s then lives to kvetch about it. Kevin Kennedy steps into the pointy-toes slippers of an elf named Crumpet for the annual revival of this bile-laced egg nog. Sardonic, Sedaris-style laughter assured. Bring your own cigarettes. Staged by Doug Weyand for Road Less Travelled Productions Road Less Traveled Productions presents; premiering December 4 and running through December 13; at the company’s new home 500 Pearl St. (716) 629-3069; roadlesstraveledproductions.org. UH OH! HERE COMES CHRISTMAS (by Robert Fulghum, Ernest Zulia, and David Caldwell): Robert Fulgham, the guy who stopped learning after kindergarten (or whatever), put together a bunch of stories that were adapted for the stage by Messrs. Zulia and Caldwell. If you find the reindeer games of Christmas commercialism to be franctic, the over-scheduled festivities to be manic, the forced jolliness of the season just too much, you will find sympathy in this show. Of course, this adds another holiday obligation to your calendar. Just bite down on the mistletoe and Santa up to the challenge. Joey Bucheker directs for O’Connell & Company. Opens on November 27 and closes on December 20 at Park School Auditorium, 4625 Harlem Rd. (Snyder); (716) 848-0800; oconnellandcompany.com. Playbill is presented by:

Information (title, dates, venue) subject to change based on the presenters’ privilege. Email production information to: theaterlistings@dailypublic.com P

Nora

Adapted by Ingmar Bergman from Ibsen’s A Doll’s House Directed by Robert Waterhouse • November 12 - December 6 At the Adam Mickiewicz Library & Dramatic Circle 612 Fillmore Avenue, Buﬀalo, NY • Tickets $25 • Discounts available

GET YOUR TICKETS AT WWW.TORNSPACETHEATER.COM

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OUTSIDE MULLINGAR (script by John Patrick Shanley): An absolute truth of romantic comedy is that the two characters in Act One who are least suited to each other will fall—hard—by the final curtain. The grudges tumble between neighboring Irish farmers, Anthony Reilly and Rosemary Muldoon, amidst ambient misty rains, muddy Wellingtons, amazing sweaters, and family noodging. This is the light side of playwright John Patrick Shanley. (Remember Moonlighting?) Fortunato Pezzimenti steers Kate LoConti, Patrick Moltane, Pamela Rose Mangus, and Guy Wagner. Presented by Irish Classical Theatre; through November 22; at Andrews Theatre; 625 Main Street; (716) 853-ICTC; irishclassicaltheatre.com. PAGEANT (brainchild of Robert Longbottom, Albert Evans, Frank Kelly, and Bill Russell): If this show were reality TV show it might be called Testosterone and Tiaras. But it is a musical spoof for the stage so it requires a punchy marquee title. Men in gowns and wigs and such cavort as if they were regional contestants in a national beauty contest. MusicalFare resuscitates this 2001 audience favorite, with many of the belles from that cast. Premiere on November 4, closing December 6; at MusicalFare Theatre on Daemen College; 4300 Main (Snyder); (716) 839-8540; musicalfare.com. STOMPIN’ AT THE SAVOY (written by Ron Stacker Thompson with music from the jazz-swing era): If you crave an evening of swing, you might wander to the Paul Robeson Theatre for this cabaret-style musical, a revival of a buoyant audience favorite from 2003. If your own Savoy is a jumping ballroom in Harlem, a luxe hotel in London, a smart boîte on Elmwood Avenue, this show is a tribute to friends, drinking, and the music you love. Directed by Mary Craig with musical support from Frazier Thomas Smith and choreography by Robin Barker, for Paul Robeson Theatre Company. November 13 through December 6. At African American Cultural Center; 350 Masten Ave.; (716) 884-2013; aaccbuffalo.org.

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF PERFORMANCE

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THE RAVENS by Amanda Besl, whose current show at BT&C Gallery (1250 Niagara Street), The Forest Electric, runs through November 27.

EVENTS CALENDAR Judah Friedlander PUBLIC APPROVED

8pm Helium Comedy Club, 30 Mississippi St. $17-$32

IN PRINT

STEVIE WONDER: SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE THURSDAY NOV 19 A RELATIVE TERM

The Quiet End of the Space Age (LP) Recommended If You Like: Mutual Benefit, Damian Jurado Buffalo folk artist Mark Longolucco released his delicate new album of contemplative, ambient folk in early November. The record features contributions from Vox Humana’s Vic Lazar, violin virtuoso David Adamczyk, and many more.

common rituals form (EP)

RIYL: Washed Out, Memoryhouse, Love Scenes The lo-fi electropop act out of Rochester shared its understated and wistful debut EP at the beginning of the month.

CADAVER COUNTRY

8PM / FIRST NIAGARA CENTER, 1 SEYMOUR H KNOX III PLZ / $36-$126 [POP] While there have been numerous other “important” double albums, Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life remains unmatched in both its musical and ideological scope. Yet it almost never happened. By the middle of 1975, Wonder was fed up with living in the United States and felt the country was in decline. He’d repeatedly expressed an interest in emigrating to Ghana, where he planned to work with handicapped children—indefinitely. This was not intended as a temporary hiatus from recording, but rather a complete detachment from the music industry and an end to his recording career. A farewell concert event was apparently in the initial planning stages when he changed his mind. He signed a new deal with Motown in August 1975 for an unprecedented $37 million that would cover seven albums in as many years. Songs in the Key of Life was the first of these. Wonder channeled his aggravation into making a funky masterpiece of socio-political import. The seven-minute opener, “Love’s in Need of Love Today,” portrays a struggle between good and evil (in this case, love and hate) in the simplest terms, illustrating a growing lack of compassion between fellow men that he found troubling (and that is perhaps at the root of all our conflicts). “Have a Talk with God” immediately follows, suggesting a spiritual coping mechanism that trumps all others. From there he tackles myriad issues: Racism, poverty, social justice, spiritual bankruptcy, first love, lost love, fleeting love, childbirth/parenting, and gender roles all figure their way in, while the soundtrack traverses the lines between soul, jazz, and funk. Magically, he also makes short detours into prog, fusion, world beat, and classical. Originally titled Let’s See Life How It Is, Wonder had established an ingenious contrast between song lyrics that discussed divisions and delineations, set against a musical landscape that unapologetically crisscrossed genres. Somehow he did it all without giving in to schmaltz. Despite a certain hokey quality to “Isn’t She Lovely” (which, by the way, was never officially released as a single despite having reached #23 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart), the sprawling set remains mostly serious in tone without ever seeming weighed down. Work on Songs in the Key of Life had already begun before Wonder renewed his contract; recording had commenced in 1974. The resulting 85-minute-and-21-second suite arrived on September 28, 1976, as an ambitious double-LP set with an additional four-track EP included—21 songs in all. It’s considered the swan song of his most creatively fruitful period, which also includes Talking Book (1972), Innervisions (1973), and Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974). Many fail to realize that Wonder had sustained a nasty car accident in 1973 that robbed him of his olfactory senses and also made him temporarily unable to taste anything, in addition to his blindness. Some folks believe that these additional sensory deprivations, essentially rendering him a thinking pair of ears for a while, helped him perfect his craft during this creative 1970s peak. Whatever the case, Wonder’s pride in this particular project led him to hold a listening party in Massachusetts at Long View Farms, to which he invited (and paid to transport) more than 200 media personalities. That pride sustains and is no doubt the fuel behind his current string of Songs in the Key of Life performance dates. The three-hour-plus show fully recreates the original album’s sequence with some extended jams—a musical tour de force coming to the First Niagara Center on Thursday, November 19 that’ll truly make you weak and knock you off your feet. -CHRISTOPHER JOHN TREACY

Vain Brain (EP) RIYL: Jeff Mangum, The Bowerbirds, Lord Huron Pine Fever’s Jacob Verghese released his debut collection of endearing freak folk. Vain Brain features the multi-instrumentalist on banjo, pump organ, and more throughout the EP’s six tracks.

LOCAL SHOW PICK OF THE WEEK SIDEWALKING PLAYS PSYCHOCANDY MOHAWK PLACE / 47 E MOHAWK ST WED, NOV 18 / 7PM / $5

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WEDNESDAY NOV 18 Dopapod 8pm Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main St. $16-$18 [ROCK] Boston-based and Berkley-bred quintet Dopapod peacocks their capacity for music theory by way of intricate instrumental compositions and unparalleled execution, but it’s the way they ride the hell out of a groove that’s positively jaw-dropping. Not even a decade since their 2007 inception, and they’ve managed to explode across the Northeast with improvisational sets that are as intricate as they are hypnotic. Catch Dopapod with the Nth Power at Tralf Music Hall on Wednesday, November 18. -KELLIE POWELL

14 THE PUBLIC / NOVEMBER 25, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

THURSDAY NOV 19 Open to the Public: Providence Social 5:30pm Providence Social, 490 Rhode Island St. free [HAPPY HOUR] Get warmed up for The Public’s anniversary weekend with all your friends, neighbors, and co-conspirators at Providence Social‘s Open to the Public happy hour this Thursday, November 19, 5:308:30pm. There’ll be drink specials, Buffalo Zoo trivia, and what you’ve been waiting for your entire life after years of practicing by beating your sister mercilessly in lopsided scores: an air hockey tournament. -AARON LOWINGER

[COMEDY] Judah Friedlander is the world champion—world’s greatest athlete, martial artist (extra-dark black belt), sexually desired by all women, a role model to children, remarkably humble. Hailed by Tina Fey as “one of the all-time great weirdoes,” Friedlander is beloved by comics and audiences for his hilariously unique swagger. With an unparalleled flair for original material, Friedlander is truly a visionary, whether he is sharing his true passions, writing horror novels for children (ages one to three); dropping one-liners, or pitching his future presidential initiatives (which include moving the best states—New York, California, and Hawaii—closer together). He also makes his own hats (though not his "world champion" hat, which was awarded to him along with matching shirt and windbreaker). Starring in NBC’s Emmy-winning series, 30 Rock, Friedlander has made hundreds of film and television appearances, but his heart is forever devoted to standup. Never performing the same show twice, he grills his audience, interjecting to emphasize his superiority (“I could probably kick this whole crowd's ass with my left nut, and that’s the weaker of my seven nuts”). Nor is Friedlander above educating the lesser of the species, having penned How to Beat up Anybody, a manual on advanced fighting techniques to combat opponents of all sorts, from Big Foot to dinosaurs. Catch Judah Friedlander at Helium Comedy Club on Thursday, November 19 through Saturday, November 21 -KP

FRIDAY NOV 20 Knox Farm Holiday Art Festival 6pm Knox Farm State Park, 437 Buffalo Rd. $20 [FESTIVAL] East Aurora is celebrating the upcoming holiday season at the Knox Mansion. The Knox Farm Holiday Art Festival will feature local artists and craftspeople showcasing their pieces for purchase on Friday, November 20 through Sunday, November 22. You can view a brief list of the artists attending the event online. Admission for opening night is $20 and $5 for the duration of the event. -CORINNE MCCARTHY

Papadosio 7pm Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. $17-$20 [ELECTRONIC] Papadosio is part electronica, part jam-band, and 100 percent fresh to death. Since their 2006 inception, the Ohio-based quartet has been on a mission to create a powerful sonic sensation that captivates. They’ve succeeded in spades, flaunting a live show in the same vein as a Pink Floyd spectacle. On their latest release, Extras in a Movie, their eclectic palette and flair for glimmering melodies and haunting harmonies is heavily articulated. Coupled with Papadosio’s dazzling LED lights and colorful stage art, these jams are guaranteed to be an explosive auditory and visual circus in the live arena—a full-frontal assault on the senses. Catch Papadosio at the Town Ballroom on Friday, November 20 with Thriftworks. -KP

Peter Yarrow with Mustard's Retreat 7pm Asbury Hall, 341 Delaware Ave. $30$35 [FOLK] Known to some as the “first name” in folk music, Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary) has enjoyed a career that’s stretched across five decades and counting. The ace singer-songwriter’s steadfast commitment to gorgeous sound quality has facilitated and empowered such classics as “Puff the Magic Dragon,” “Day Is Done,” “Light One Candle,” and “The Great Mandala.” Don’t miss Peter Yarrow with Mustard’s Retreat at Asbury Hall on Friday, November 20. -KP

CALENDAR EVENTS PUBLIC APPROVED

PHOTO BY DAISUKE YOSHIDA

PEELANDER Z THURSDAY NOV 19 8PM / MOHAWK PLACE, 47 E MOHAWK ST. / $8 [PUNK] I’d say “only from Japan,” meant with the utmost love and affection for zany artistic sensibilities, but someone would probably call me racist. And, despite being an all-Japanese punk outfit, Peelander Z actually formed in New York. This, however, hasn’t stopped them from being one of the most unusual spectacles to fall under the heading of “musical act” in recent memory, but the term the band prefers is “Japanese Action Comic Punk.” The punk is pretty straightforward, but the show is mighty unusual, incorporating elements of wrestling (complete with faux chair assaults), human bowling, and impromptu piggyback rides, all perpetrated by a group of dudes in brightly colored suits (which they insist are skin and determine their identities—Peelander Yellow, Peelander Blue, etc.). Despite a number of lineup changes in recent years, the Peelanders haven’t missed a beat, continuing to tour and releasing new music as recently as 2013. They’ll definitely bring the antics to Mohawk Place on Thursday with Super Killer Robots and Jamie & the Debt. Maybe avoid wearing anything you really care about just in case it gets messy. -CHRISTOPHER JOHN TREACY

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'80s Party for the Food Bank 9pm Handlebar, 149 Swan St. $5 donation or a non-perishable food item [PARTY] It’s the no-man’s-land between Halloween and Thanksgiving, which means it’s too early to have a holiday party, but too late to have a costume party. What to do? Well Handlebar has the solution: Combine them. The bicycle-themed cafe will host a 1980s-themed party that will be a benefit for the Food Bank of Western New York on Friday, November 20. That means you can dress up and get yourself into the holiday spirit by donating to people who really need it this time of year. Bring your $5 donation or a nonperishable food item.

SATURDAY NOV 21

Sleepy Hahas 8pm Dreamland, 387 Franklin St. $5 [INDIE] Sleepy Hahas have garnered quite a reputation for themselves, unleashing torrents of feedback that materialize into soulful anthems. It's the kind of cleverly crafted indie-pop that has artful angst stamped all over it, the kind of outlet we all seek once in a while. This Saturday, November 19 catch them at Dreamland alongside earthy electronic songstress Space Cubs, vintage technicolor-pop artist Moody Cosmos, and sonic wanderlust shoegazers, Tomoreaux. -JEANNETTE CHIN

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 DAILYPUBLIC.COM / NOVEMBER 25, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 15

EVENTS CALENDAR

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PUBLIC APPROVED

Buffalo Fitness Games 8am Harborcenter, 100 Washington St. $135 per team

THIS WEEK'S AGENDA WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 18

[FITNESS] Join IMPACT Sports in the HARBORCENTER for the first ever Buffalo Fitness Games. This intense, high-speed event will showcase local athletes in an array of events: sled pushes, medicine ball curl-topress exercises, a Versaclimber sprint, hurdle jumps, plate pushes, a treadmill sprint, and a sled pull. Teams of three can register in one of three divisions and will have the chance to compete for prizes. Cost is $135 per team and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. -CM

Hyper Glow featuring Laidback Luke 8pm Rapids Theatre, 1711 Main St. $40

OUT FOR BUSINESS 5-7PM at Bourbon and Butter, 391 Washington St.

Buffalo’s premiere networking event for LGBT professionals, hosted by Pride Center of WNY. Enjoy a relaxed atmosphere with food, drinks and raffle. First 50 people receive a drink on the house.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 20

[ELECTRONIC/DANCE] Famed DJ Laidback Luke comes to the Rapids Theatre on Saturday, November 21 for a special kind of electronic dance music experience. The tour is called Hyperglow and it’s billed as “America’s largest touring EDM glow experience.” I’m not sure how many EDM glow experience tours there are out on the road right now, but if this is the largest, then it sounds like the one to go to, if you’re into that kind of thing. What puts the glow in Hyperglow are the special “Ultra Violet Glow” lighting gear that will illuminate artists covered in body paint and live art. -CORY PERLA

The Cadillac Three

AMBUSH #37 5:30PM-Close at Coco Bar & Bistro, 888 Main St.

The ladies of Buffalo’s guerrilla lesbian bar are still going strong, taking over a different straight bar for happy hour and late night every third Friday of the month. Food, drinks and dance with DJ Rika and Johnny Pink.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 20

9pm Buffalo Iron Works, 49 Illinois St. $20 [COUNTRY] The Cadillac Three might wear mesh trucker hats and aviator glasses, but under their worn leather jackets you’ll probably find Dead Kennedys t-shirts. The self-proclaimed “country fuzz” band brings an edge to their poppy-country tunes, like their latest, “White Lightning,” which was released earlier this year by Big Machine Re

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE PUBLIC FRIDAY NOV 20 6PM / FIVE HUNDRED SENECA, 500 SENECA ST. / $5 [CELEBRATION] Only a year ago our staff of seven was crammed into its first office: a windowless bunker on the fourth floor of John McKendry’s Hi-Temp Fabrications in the Cobblestone District. The unheated room was filled with ephemera from Harley Spiller, the famed collector of Chinese menus, among other things, and it took some trials-by-error to figure out which space heater could be plugged in to which outlet without catastrophically shutting down our computers and server. A year later, we’re excited about our direction and about the future of alternative media in Buffalo. Nearly 200 writers, artists, and illustrators have contributed to our publication. We made an editorial partnership with City & State early this year, and we couldn’t be more proud to be Investigative Post’s print partner. There’s a lot to celebrate. This Friday, November 20 in the third-floor atrium of 500 Seneca, The Public will host its First Birthday Party. There will be food (Allentown Pizza, Curly’s Grille, Feel Rite, the Black Sheep, Hot Mama’s Canteen, Ashker’s, Providence Social, the Lunch Box, Butterwood Deserts, Hydraulic Hearth, Cream & Sugar, Breadhive), drink (Lockhouse, Tommyrotter, Buffalo Distilling, Public Espresso, Undergrounds Coffee, Bootleg Bucha, Community Beer Works), informational tables (Explore Buffalo, Investigative Post, BuffaloveNotes, Savarino Companies, Food Bank of WNY, City Dining Cards, the Martin Group), art (Norris Clifton Aerial Photography), and music (DJ Dovey and Steve Balesteri). Bring some canned goods for the Food Bank and we'll knock $2 off your admission. When the happy hour's over, check the map on page 22 for other spots to visit in and around Larkinville, including the official after-party at Hydraulic Hearth, where we held our launch party back in December. -AARON LOWINGER

THE BPO PERFORM ELGAR'S ENIGMA FRIDAY NOV 20 PUBLIC APPROVED 10:30AM / KLEINHANS MUSIC HALL, 3 SYMPHONY CIRCLE

UNDERGROUND BURLESQUE ANNIVERSARY SHOW 10PM-2AM at Underground, 274 Delaware Ave.

The bars burlesque beauties celebrate their two-year anniversary, with hosts Atasha Salad and Trixi Firecracker. It so happens to be Trixi’s birthday too! Drink specials all night. Shows at 11 p.m. and midnight. No cover.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 22

WINTER GOODS DRIVE 6PM at Underground, 274 Delaware Ave.

Imperial Court Crown Princess Natasha Michael presents a special show to benefit the Lakeshore Behavioral Health Homeless Division. Tip the performers with hats, scarves, gloves and other warm clothes. Any other monies raised will be used to purchase more winter accessories.

LOOPMAGAZINEBUFFALO.COM

[CLASSICAL] Violinist Jennifer Koh, who solos with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under Music Director JoAnn Falletta this Friday morning, November 20 at 10:30am and Saturday evening, November 21 at 8pm at Kleinhans Music Hall, is a native Chicagoan who began her undergraduate studies at age 16 at Oberlin College as an English major, which may account for her literary approach to the work she performs this weekend, the relatively seldom heard Violin Concerto by Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931). She was introduced to the concerto when she was 15, and soon after she read Shakespeare’s The Tempest. She detected a close relationship between the concerto and the play. Her affection for Nielsen was immediate: the sense of humor in the last movement balancing and resolving the stormy drama of the first. Moreover, she became aware of a parallel structure between the concerto and The Tempest. “It starts out very stormily let loose by Prospero’s magic, and eventually has a sweet and happy ending with Miranda getting married. As I was studying the piece I was reading The Tempest and was shocked by the form, because it was so dark and dramatic, filled with longings for revenge in the beginning. There are intimations that it could be a tragedy. But it evolves into this very simple ending, instead of everyone dying, like in Macbeth or Hamlet. I believe in this piece. I do love this piece.” Koh’s performance of the Nielsen is only the second time it has appeared in the BPO’s repertoire, and it has been over two decades since it was last heard. Edward Elgar’s (1857-1934) Enigma Variations, the concert’s finale, has enjoyed a much different fate: This will be the 14th time the BPO has performed this arguably most popular of Elgar’s works. And to start, Tintagle, a tone-poem by Arnold Bax (18831953), the first work of his to achieve any popularity. It takes it name from a castle on the Cornwall coast. That area was inhabited since Roman times, but the castle, situated on an island and built in the 13th century, is now mostly ruin. Arthurian legends are tied to the place, and it is the disembarkation point for Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. But Bax eschewed any specific program for the work, eliciting instead the echo of events long forgotten as the Atlantic’s wind and waves crash against the castle’s perch. -DOUGLAS LEVY

16 THE PUBLIC / NOVEMBER 25, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

CALENDAR EVENTS cords, a label that has released music by pop and country superstars like Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw. Think a younger, hipper version of Rascal Flatts. The Cadillac Three come to Buffalo Iron Works on Saturday, November 21 with Eric Van Houten. -CP

PUBLIC APPROVED

Buku with JR From Dallas 10pm The Waiting Room, 334 Delaware Ave. $15-$20 [ELECTRONIC/DANCE] There’s no doubt that Pittsburgh’s Buku knows how to craft a tone. The round bass drops and zipping synth sounds that whiz through his bouncing productions, especially on his latest EP Might Be, are like the artisanal cheese’s his hometown is known for—handcrafted and sharp. He’ll bring his friend, JR From Dallas to the Waiting Room on Saturday, November 21 for a special two-room event featuring Big Basha, Rufus Gibson, Eyes Everywhere, and John Patrick, presented by MNM and Igloo Music. -CP

Buffalo Afrobeat Orchestra 9pm Nietzsche's, 248 Allen St. [AFROBEAT] Made popular by artists like Fela Kuti (and bandmates like Tony Allen), Afrobeat music is a heavily percussive jazz/ funk fusion. The Buffalo Afrobeat Orchestra, a local supergroup of musicians including Preach Freedom of One World Tribe, Zoe Scruggs, DJ Milk, and members of the Rockaz and 12/8 Path Band, will put the music of Fela Kuti and others on display at Nietzsche’s on Saturday, November 21 with support from a 16-piece ensemble. -CP

Hector Olivera Plays UB's Fisk Organ 7:30pm UB Slee Hall, UB North Campus $10-$15

[CLASSICAL] For those of us—and by “us” I mean anyone who was in their 20s in the 1970s—who recall the record Virgil Fox: Heavy Organ Live at the Fillmore East, you may remember, after taking a couple of tokes, cuing up a disc that you expected to sound like the usual San Francisco fare who played that citadel of rock and roll. Instead, you got the massive sounds of a Rogers Touring Organ pumping out this incredibly complex and loud music performed by a zealot of an organist (who was also prodigiously talented) whose reason for being there was to prove that the composer “Bach has the red blood. He has the communion with the people. He has all of this amazing spirit…” to be absorbed by the unsuspecting throng with the aid of a light show. The audience went wild. Classical crossover had arrived with a vengeance. Something like Fox’s Baroque Psychedelics, but without the lasers, comes to Lippes Concert Hall at UB’s Slee Hall (Amherst campus) this Saturday, November 21 at 7:30pm. Hector Olivera, an Argentine child prodigy, has an international career, a near fanatical fan-base, and the musical chops to bring any thing—light or heavy, classical or pop or improvised—to life with an infectious élan that gets audiences standing on their seats. This concert is co-presented by the UB Department of Music and the Buffalo Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Nothing like it is expected to come this way again anytime soon. -DL

WEDNESDAY NOV 25 Second Trip 8pm Mohawk Place, 47 E Mohawk St. $5 [ROCK] Psychedelic rock band Second Trip are closing out the crowdfunding campaign for their first full-length album, and they’re doing it in style with a night-before-Thanksgiving show on Wednesday, November 25 at Mohawk Place. Joining them will be Malarchuk, Deadwolf, and Rochester’s Fox 45. The band, which formed 13 years ago, have finished recording the record, but are asking for fans to help them bump up their budget to market the album. -CP

LIVEMUSICEVERYNIGHTFOROVER30YEARS! WEDNEDAY

NOV 18

THURSDAY

NOV 19

NATE RUESS W/ SURFER BLOOD SATURDAY NOV 21

FRIDAY

NOV 20

7PM / TOWN BALLROOM, 681 MAIN ST. / $31 [INDIE] Lionized by the success of FUN, whose sprawling singles dominated radio airplay for longer than you can possibly recall (“We Are Young” and “Some Nights”), it was a shock to fans when Nate Ruess announced in 2014 the band would go on hiatus as he pushed his musical vision solo. In close collaboration with producers Jeff Bhasker (Kanye West, Beyoncé) and Emilie Haynie (Lana Del Ray), a handful of fledgling musical ideas—some melodies recorded on a phone—were brought to life. The product: a debut solo album. Last June’s Grand Romantic featured contributions from Jeff Tweedy, Josh Klinghoffer, Lykke Li, and Beck. In usual Ruess fashion, the album teems with ripe orchestration and bellowing, grandiose sentiments laced with a good dose of campy theatricality (think: Freddie Mercury, Mika). “I feel like, as a human being, I’ve grown so much in the process of making this album, and this needed to happen,” Ruess recounts to Rolling Stone. “I’ve never had a better time doing anything in my entire life.” Needless to say, as an artist whose signature quality is his robust and expressive tenor, Ruess is the kind of wear-his-heart-onhis-sleeve performer who’s best experienced live—and this Saturday, November 21 you can catch him at Town Ballroom where West Palm Beach outfit Surfer Blood will be opening and setting the mood with undeniably crisp indie anthems. -JEANNETTE CHIN

Kathryn Koch 9PM FREE

The Nursery / Dirty Smile 9PM $5

Jony James 6PM FREE

Yace Booking Presents:

Sixties Future (EP Release Show) Aircraft / Skirts / Cooler 10PM $5

SATURDAY

NOV 21

WEDNESDAY

NOV 25

Buffalo Afrobeat Orchestra 10PM $10

Thanksgiving Eve Rock N Roll Feast

The Irving Klaws Soul Butchers Harmonica Lewinski 10PM

PUBLIC APPROVED

THURSDAY

NOV 26

FRIDAY

NOV 27

thanksgiving: tba 10PM

Jony James 6PM FREE

Folkfaces / Jacob Peter Band / TBA 10PM $5

SATURDAY

NOV 28

Intrepid Travelers Imperial Brown / GRAVY 10PM

WEEKLY EVENTS 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

GEORGE CLINTON & PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC SUNDAY NOV 22

EVERY TUESDAY

8PM. RUSTBELT COMEDY 10PM. JOE DONOHUE 11PM. THE STRIPTEASERS $3

EVERY WEDNESDAY FREE 6PM. TYLER WESTCOTTS PIZZA TRIO

7PM / TOWN BALLROOM, 681 MAIN ST. / $30-$35 [FUNK] The origins of the classic funk band Parliament Funkadelic can be traced as far back as the 1950s. In his hometown of Kannapolis, North Carolina, funk legend George Clinton formed a doo-wop band called the Parliaments in 1955. Since then, the band has taken on various names and has included hundreds of members (collectively known as the “Funk Mob") but the common thread that has twisted through each incarnation of the group has been Clinton. In 1997, 16 members of Parliament Funkadelic, including classic members such as William “Bootsy” Collins, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. More recently, Clinton has collaborated with artists such as Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Shabazz Palaces, and Kendrick Lamar—artists who have all been highly influenced by the funk-maker's prolific career. When Clinton returns to Buffalo to play the Town Ballroom on Sunday, November 22, it will be as George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. Expect to hear all of Parliament Funkadelic’s many hits and a maybe even a medley P of deep cuts too. -CORY PERLA

EVERY THURSDAY FREE

5PM. THE AFTERNOON TRIO W. JOHN, PAUL, & BILL

EVERY SATURDAY FREE

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

248 ALLEN STREET 716.886.8539

NIETZSCHES.COM

DAILYPUBLIC.COM / NOVEMBER 25, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 17

COMEDY SPOTLIGHT

Chris Williams, Pat Williams, and Michael Miosi.

THE ATTIC Wayne’s World meets SNL in The Attic in Buffalo BY CORY PERLA THERE’S AN ATTIC IN BLACK ROCK where

some of the region’s most interesting musicians, comedians, and artists congregate to shoot a Wayne’s World-style TV show. The TV show is appropriately called The Attic in Buffalo, and it’s hosted by Pat Williams and produced by a group of his friends, some of whom share the rest of the apartment with him, and some of whom contribute from across the state in New York City. If you didn’t know otherwise, one might assume the attic backdrop is a studio and that the whole show is professionally produced, but in fact the whole thing is produced by a crew of DIY artists on their own dime. “The idea came out of the middle of nowhere,” says Williams sitting in the control room of the attic. It’s funny to say, but yes, the Attic has a control room, complete with a recording studio and video screens to monitor the shoot. “The attic gave us the idea; it was the selling point of the apartment. I knew I wanted to do something with fine arts, kind of like Wayne’s World meets Later…with Jules Holland but include poetry and comedy or anything that somebody can express, and give them a platform.” The show’s crew varies slightly from episode to episode. It’s based mostly on who has the free time, energy, inspiration, and dedication to work on the project. The crew includes 28-year-old Williams, who acts as producer, director, and host of the show. His younger brother, Chris Williams, also works on the show as associate producer, camera operator, and occasional resident DJ under the alias Roboroc. Keith Barker, the show’s lead editor, is from Clarence but lives in New York City, working as a producer and editor at CBS Interactive. Director of photography Micheline

THE ATTIC YOUTUBE.COM/USER/THEATTICINBUFFALO THEATTICINBUFFALO

Veluvolu also works as a photographer for the Buffalo Sabres and the Rochester Americans. Other positions include art director Brandon Bryant, assistant director Justin Walker, production assistant Steve Buonanno, Al Polanski (also known as DJ Pizza Pizza, who wrote the show’s theme music), and art director and motion graphics designer Michael Miosi, who moonlights as DJ Miosi and lives in one of the apartments connected to the attic. “I used to stay on the couch, but I’ve upgraded to a room,” says 24-year-old Miosi, who sits on a ledge in the control room swirling a glass of whiskey, straight up. He tells me that he learned some of his video editing and Adobe After Effects skills making frag videos of his kills in the video game Counter Strike. He’s a graduate of SUNY Buffalo State with a degree in communications, and aside from working on the show, he has a day job and makes money making lyric videos for people over the internet. Chris Williams also lives in the apartment now. He went to UB and Fredonia, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting. “My brother got me into doing a DJ gig over at Noir and that took off. We did that for two years. My main focus has been on music and music production,” says the younger Williams, who has helped construct the space with his brother. They built the stage in the back of the attic, lit by an impressive lighting system and surround

18 THE PUBLIC / NOVEMBER 25, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

The cast of Episode 6 of The Attic in Buffalo.

SPOTLIGHT COMEDY ed by production equipment. The two of them also refurbished the control room and studio in the attic. “Nobody is getting paid, everybody is volunteering their time and money and equipment. That’s why we’ve only done five episodes in 12 months, but I hope to find a way to make this self-sustainable,” says Williams. They also can’t shoot in the summer because it’s an attic and it can get pretty hot up there. The short-term goal of the show, says Williams, is to create enjoyable content. They’ve done that by booking some great bands, including PA Line, who appeared on Episode 5, which was released on November 5. The episode also features DJ Roboroc, comedian James Kurdziel, poets Brandon Williamson and Team (Irvin) Finks, artist Mark Adamusik, and a comedy sketch featuring Linda Nolan and Hot Garbage Comedy. The sketch is an SNL-style faux commercial for a made-up service called Band Mom—a spoof on Angie’s List. Oddly enough, the actress who plays Band Mom is Linda Nolan, mother of Taking Back Sunday guitarist John Nolan, who Williams met during a shoot in New York City, where he worked for three and a half years. While working in New York, Williams made a living doing lighting gigs and working as a production assist on shows like 30 Rock. “The first day Tina Fey said hi to me but I couldn’t say hi back—the starstruck feeling goes away quickly, though. If you treat them like humans they’ll treat you like a human,” says Williams ,who studied audio and radio at SUNY Fredonia. After three years working overtime, Williams longed for some free time and space to express some of his passions in life, including playing the drums, which was nearly impossible in New York. He moved back in June 2014 and was immediately inspired to launch his own DIY web TV show. “Buffalo is a major producer of creative people and it’s a city with a lot to offer,” Williams says in the introduction to the first episode of the series, released in October 2014. Since then the team has created four more episodes, all released over the past year. Guests have included a slew of local artists, comedians, poets, and DJs. They recorded their latest episode just last Sunday during a three- or four-hour shoot. Most episodes take place primarily in the attic, with the exception of some of the skits, but for this episode they partnered with 103.3 the Edge to record a special musical segment with local band the Trews in the Edge studio. The production of each episode begins with Williams writing an outline for a script with intro and outros and slots for music and skits. Once the outline is created, they start booking the acts. Finally, they invite their friends and friends of friends to sit in as a studio audience for the live recording. They usually host 10 to 15 guests per shoot. “We keep it low-key. We have to protect the property so we don’t really advertise where we do this,” says Miosi. “Also, we all own guns,” he adds, laughing. Exploring the attic a little more, it seems like a fun place to watch a taping. The guys see the space as an intimate and exclusive venue for their audience.

THE DONALD L. DAVIS LECTURESHIP FUND & UNIVERSITY LIFE AND SERVICES PRESENTS

An Evening of Speaking, Q&A, and Songs with Piano

JOHN LEGEND Academy Award-Winning Songwriter, Singer, Musician, Producer, Philanthropist & Entrepreneur

DEC 3

8:00PM UB ALUMNI ARENA SA STUDENT CHOICE SPEAKER SERIES SPONSOR

“The energy in here is insane. We had this guy Micha on for a show, and this room was just perfect for him, and everyone was just slackjawed after his performance,” says Williams. The future of the show becomes clearer as they proceed. Right now, they’re content with the show existing as its own entity, driving traffic to their YouTube channel, but they’d like to seek a local media partnership. Perhaps a weekend TV slot on a local TV station.

To learn more about the speakers and ticket info visit: buffalo.edu/dss or facebook.com/ubdss AFFILIATE SERIES SPONSORS

LECTURE & CONTRIBUTING SERIES SPONSORS

Williams would also like to find a host to replace him so that he can focus on directing and producing the show. “So I can do more,” he says. “Write more, shoot more, act in skits. If I could remove myself from that and create more of a product for people to watch and have a quicker turnover, I’d rather do that. I want a host people can like and relate to.” At the end of the day, Williams says, “It’s about the feature artists and the people working the P episodes every time we shoot.”

UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE

Student Affairs

Centers for Entrepreneurial Leadership & Executive Education

Minority Faculty & Staff Association

DAILYPUBLIC.COM / NOVEMBER 25, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 19

FILM FEATURE

CHURCHGATE: A NEWSPAPER & CARDINAL SIN SPOTLIGHT BY GEORGE SAX ELECTION CYCLES SEEM TO REV UP POPULAR RESENTMENT of the Fourth Estate, something we’ve witnessed in the recent complaints about reporting of questions regarding the accuracy of presidential Ben Carson’s autobiography. These spikes in protest and condemnation should be considered as examples of much of the American public’s longstanding suspicion of and disrespect toward mainstream journalism. It regularly ranks low in surveys of the degrees of popular esteem in which various professions and institutions are held. The advent of personal digital connectivity has only exacerbated people’s disapproval of and indifference to the media, especially on the right. It’s probably too much responsibility to lay on Tom McCarthy’s engrossing, excellently wrought Spotlight to expect it to cause a significant recalibration in that adverse opinion, but the movie could serve as a corrective for the fair-minded.

Spotlight is one of the very best movies ever made about the working press (as opposed to the preening entertainment personalities, opinion pushers, and bombastic bloggers who now pass themselves off as journalists). In incisively selected details and tension-building fashion, it tells a hell of a story, illustrating along the way what a major news organization with its great resources can do to challenge and at least temporarily reduce the disparities in influence, information, and authority between the powerful few and the rest of us. (That this happens much too infrequently is a story for another day.) The movie’s title is the name of an investigative unit at the Boston Globe, and Spotlight is about its efforts in 2001-02 to uncover and report on the sexual predation on children and adolescents by Roman Catholic priests in Boston, and the diocese’s long-running coverup of this illicit and illegal activity by its clergy. The Boston church maneuvered to keep the victims an their families silent, and the faithful, along with almost everybody else, ignorant. Its secretive in-house response s include church-approved “treatment”; transfer of offending priests, private undisclosable payoffs, and even, on occasion, visits to complainants by Cardinal Bernard Law (played with a kind of chamber of commerce unctuousness by Len Carious). Except it wasn’t really an entirely closely held secret. Some members of the clergy and Catholic lay establishment, including members of the bar, knew enough to try to protect themselves from recognizing the magnitude of the corruption and injuries. As lawyer Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci) observes, “It takes a village to raise a child, it takes one to abuse him.” It’s one of Spotlight’s persuasive elements that it doesn’t hold the Globe blame-free. Somewhat embarrassingly, the paper’s earlier carelessness had led it to ignore tips and solid information about this potential large-scale scandal. It’s a newly installed editor from out of town, Martin Baron (Liev Schreiber, very nicely low key), who brings the topic to the attention of the Spotlight crew: leader Walter “Robbie” Robinson (Michael Keaton), Mike Resendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), and Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James). As much to humor Baron as anything else, they start looking into the matter. Soon enough, they’re deeply intent on finding out the facts in a complex, expanding, and daunting story. When they identify a possible fourth guilty priest, Robbie and his reporters are chiefly triumphant, but they don’t know what they have or where its leading. Through dogged, systemic investigation,

IN CINEMAS NOW BY M. FAUST & GEORGE SAX

PREMIERES OPENING FRIDAY NOVEMBER 20 THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY—PART 2—Teen dystopian sequel. Starring her, him, the Ozzie, stoner dude, beardo, baldie with a toup, the dead guy, and that chick your dad thinks is hot. Directed by someone, I guess. Bet it’s playing at the mall! THE NIGHT BEFORE—Three friends search Manhattan for the ultimate debauched Christmas celebration. And yet Starbucks gets shit for putting coffee in a red cup. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie, and Lizzy Caplan. Directed by Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies). Area theaters. SECRET IN THEIR EYES—An unsolved murder from 13 years ago brings together three people with other unresolved issues in this loose remake of the 2010 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film. Starring Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dean Norris, and Alfred Molina. Directed by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass). Reviewed this issue. Area theaters SPOTLIGHT—Based on the true story of the Boston Globe’s investigation into the local Catholic Archdiocese’s cover-up of pederast priests. Starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, and Stanley Tucci. Directed by Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent). Reviewed this issue. Area theaters

ALTERNATIVE CINEMA

HUSH…HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964)—Southern gothic with an emphasis on the southern in director Robert Aldrich’s follow-up to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, with Olivia de Haviland taking over for Joan Crawford as a foil for Bette Davis. Co-starring Joseph Cotton, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway, Victor Buono, Mary Astor, and Bruce Dern. Sat & Tue 7:30pm. Screening Room THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS (2009)—Heath Ledger died during production of this Terry Gilliam fantasia, causing Gilliam’s to finish shooting by having Ledger’s friends Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell completing his scenes, an idea that actually worked out quite well. With Christopher Plummer, Andrew Garfield, Lily Cole, Paloma Faith, and Tom Waits as the Devil. Presented by the Buffalo Film Seminars. Tue 7pm. Amherst (Dipson)

THE LOOK OF SILENCE—In a follow-up to Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary The Act of Killing, about the unpunished men who helped kill a million people after Indonesia’s military junta in 1965, an optometrist who identified the murderers of his brother in that film seeks them out with Oppenheimer’s help. Reviewed this issue. Tue 9:30pm. North Park MEET THE PATELS—Comedian Aziz Ansari is getting a lot of press lately for bonding with his Indian émigré parents by casting them on his Netflix show Master of None, but actor Ravi Patel beat him to the punch with this documentary about his parents’ attempt to find him a bride in America using traditional Indian methods. Along the way we learn a lot about why the tradition of arranged marriage endures, how it operates in 21st century (yes, the internet is used), and about the traditions that Ravi clings to even though he’s as American as can be. It’s a warm-hearted and very entertaining film. –MF Fri 7:30pm, 9:30pm, Sat 5pm, Sun & Wed 7:30pm. Screening Room THE ORIGINAL THREE TENORS IN CONCERT—Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and José Carreras rattle the rafters. Sun 11am. Amherst SUPER 8MM FILM POETICS—Former Squeaky Wheel staffer Stephanie Gray, now an awarded and widely exhibited experimental filmmaker, returns for a show of her work accompanied by musician Pam Swarts. Sat 7pm. Squeaky Wheel

IN BRIEF THEATER INFORMATION IS VALID THROUGH THURSDAY, NOV 19 BRIDGE OF SPIES—Steven Spielberg isn’t the most intellectually or aesthetically penetrating director of the last three decades—not nearly—but given good, exploitable material, he can expertly tell a story, and does so here. Tom Hanks stars as James Donovan, a New York lawyer of the 1950s who takes a pro bono case to defend a Russian man accused of spying against the United States. Because of this he is enlisted to negotiate with the Soviets for the release of captured American spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers. Scripted by Joel and Ethan Coen with Matt Charman, this is a big, large-spirited movie that relies on small scenes of human interaction. With Mark Rylance, Scott Shepherd, Amy Ryan, and Alan Alda. –GS Maple Ridge (AMC), Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

20 THE PUBLIC / NOVEMBER 25, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, and Mark Ruffalo in Spotlight.

and some luck and inspiration, they eventually find themselves with a list of at least 70 suspects, and hundreds of cases of abuse. Spotlight isn’t really about this reporting feat, or at least not only about it. Baron has told the team to focus on the institution, the church: That, he says, is the real story. And Cardinal Law’s primarily responsibility for the cover-up and replication of the abuse becomes increasingly obvious. Early on, Baron pays a courtesy call on the cardinal and the Jewish editor is given a left-handed gift to help him acclimate himself to his new surroundings: a Catholic catechism guidebook. It’s also, of course, a kind of soft-pedaled warning. As Robbie notes at one point, 53 percent of the paper’s readership is Catholic. One of the film’s implicit points is that it took an outside to discern what the real story was. McCarthy and his co-writer Josh Singer also briefly but importantly acknowledge that the corruption often impacted kids and families who were already among the most unfortunate, lending the story as aspect of class exploitation. This is preceded by a subdued but tellingly effective pre-credits sequence set in 1976. The picture dramatizes real-life events that had moral consequences, but the film isn’t overburdened by a sense of its own seriousness. It’s consistently involving, probably a lot more so than many people will expect, given its detailed focus on journalistic investigation and its historical soundness. Its characters, principal and subsidiary are sympathetically and persuasively rendered. The Globe’s Spotlight unit worked as a team and the movie gives us an ensemble of performances that work individually and together. This is a film about people; it keeps a humane focus even as it generates P drama. McCarthy keeps things pacey with cross-cutting and skillful shaping of scenes.

AT DAILYPUBLIC.COM: GEORGE SAX REVIEWS LARRY ABRAHAMSON’S ROOM, AN UNSETTLING AND IMPROBABLY SUCCESSFUL FILM ABOUT THE RECEPTIVE SUGGESTIBILITY OF A SMALL CHILD AND HIS CONSTRUCTION OF A LITTLE WORLD.

BURNT—Gordon Ramsay co-produced this familiar story starring Bradley Cooper as a chef who resembles the famously grumpy Ramsay in everything but name. Down on his luck, he seeks to regain his former glories (and a third Michelin star) by taking over a London restaurant, if he can keep from alienating all of his staff along the way. It’s awash in images of gastronomic delight, but dramatically it’s as predictable as macaroni and cheese. Which means there’s nothing in the story to distract you from fantasizing about building a new kitchen, the only possible point of the movie. Co-starring Sienna Miller, Daniel Bruhl, and Emma Thompson. Directed by John Wells (August: Osage County). -MF Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria CRIMSON PEAK—The first third of Guillermo del Toro’s new movie is set in Buffalo at the turn of the 19th century, when it was the model of up and coming America. He didn’t actually shoot here, making do with some digitally-incorporated photos of local landmarks, but it’s still nice to see the Queen City reflected in its first glory days. Aside from that, Crimson Peak is less of a horror movie than a Victorian melodrama with some CGI ghosts and an absurdly violent finale. As always with del Toro, the production design is spectacular, which does a lot (thought not enough) to distract you from how threadbare the story is. Starring Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, and Jessica Chastain, who should have been allowed to go the full Dame Judith Anderson with her sinister character. –MF Regal Elmwood, Regal Walden Galleria GOOSEBUMPS—You can’t blame the producers of this light horror fantasy based on the work of children’s author R. L. Stine for trying to cram in references to as many of his books as possible: A movie that might attract even a small fraction of the readers who have bought an estimated 400 million copies of his books is clearly a gold mine. On the other hand, he’s written about 420 books. Jack Black stars as a reclusive writer named R. L. Stine who must help when hundreds of monsters escape from the printed page to terrorize a small Connecticut town. Stine had no hand in the script, and adapters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski cram in endless references to other horror favorites (mostly Gremlins and Jumanji)). The result is a balancing act that won’t wholly satisfy either parents who grew up on Stine’s books or modern kids, but will probably be acceptable to all for family Halloween entertainment. With Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Amy Ryan, and Ken Marino. Directed by Rob Letterman (Gulliver’s Travels). –MF. Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge (AMC), Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

GRANDMA—No one is better at snapping off a sarcastic retort than Lily Tomlin, and she gets plenty of them here in this trim comedy-drama. In what was presumably written as a vehicle for her, she plays no one’s idea of a traditional grandmother, a feminist poet who at the film’s beginning is breaking up with her much younger girlfriend. The plot contrives to have her look up a lot of old friends and lovers and uncover buried secrets, along the way providing acting workouts for Sam Elliott (who is particularly good), Marcia Gay Harden, Judy Greer, and Orange Is the New Black’s Laverne Cox. Written and directed by Paul Weitz, one of Hollywood’s more interestingly uneven auteurs (About a Boy, Being Flynn); Buffalo native Andrew Miano is one of the film’s producers. –MF McKinley (Dipson) THE INTERN—Robert De Niro puts little of himself into his enervated performance here as a harmless sweetheart, a quietly avuncular retiree aiding a stressed corporate executive (Anne Hathaway in a tense, ill-conceived performance) through personal and professional difficulties. A comedy with pretentions with social commentary that it doesn’t earn. Nancy Meyers’s soggy, uninventive film is old-fashioned in the worst senses of the word, ditching its odd couple premise to become a sentiment-coated domestic-crisis dramedy built on small, easily-surmounted problem situations. Co-starring Rene Russo and Anders Holm. –GS Four Seasons, Lockport Palace, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria THE LAST WITCH HUNTER—There’s something to be said for low expectations: I enjoyed this supernatural thriller more than I expected to, because I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it at all. As an unwillingly immortal witch hunter now based in Manhattan (he’s employed by a church cabal of anti-witch activists) Vin Diesel is not entirely lacking in charisma. But the flashes of wit in the script are buried under an undistinguished story and endless digital effects. With Julie Engelbrecht, Michael Caine, Elijah Wood, and Isaach De Bankolé. Directed by Breck Eisner (The Crazies). -MF Four Seasons, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Walden Galleria LOVE THE COOPERS—Difficult family re-bonds on Christmas Eve. Everyone out there who thinks it’s time to start watching Christmas movies raise their hand. Anyone? That’s what I thought. Starring Olivia Wilde, Amanda Seyfried, Marisa Tomei, Ed Helms and June Squibb as “Aunt Fishy.” Directed by Jessie Miller (I Am Sam). Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge (AMC), Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria THE MARTIAN—It makes sense to update science fiction variants on the Robinson Crusoe story every so often to take advantage of both new technology and

REVIEW FILM

LOCAL THEATERS AMHERST THEATRE (DIPSON) 3500 Main St., Buffalo / 834-7655 amherst.dipsontheatres.com AURORA THEATRE 673 Main St., East Aurora / 652-1660 theauroratheatre.com EASTERN HILLS CINEMA (DIPSON) 4545 Transit Rd., / Eastern Hills Mall Williamsville / 632-1080 easternhills.dipsontheatres.com FLIX STADIUM 10 (DIPSON) 4901 Transit Rd., Lancaster / 668-FLIX flix10.dipsontheatres.com FOUR SEASONS CINEMA 6 2429 Military Rd. (behind Big Lots), Niagara Falls / 297-1951 fourseasonscinema.com HALLWALLS 341 Delaware Ave., Buffalo / 854-1694 hallwalls.org HAMBURG PALACE 31 Buffalo St., Hamburg / 649-2295 hamburgpalace.com LOCKPORT PALACE 2 East Ave., Lockport / 438-1130 lockportpalacetheatre.org MAPLE RIDGE 8 (AMC) 4276 Maple Rd., Amherst / 833-9545 amctheatres.com MCKINLEY 6 THEATRES (DIPSON) 3701 McKinley Pkwy. / McKinley Mall Hamburg / 824-3479 mckinley.dipsontheatres.com NEW ANGOLA THEATER 72 North Main St., Angola / 549-4866 newangolatheater.com NORTH PARK THEATRE 1428 Hertel Ave., Buffalo / 836-7411 northparktheatre.org REGAL ELMWOOD CENTER 16 2001 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo 871–0722 regmovies.com REGAL NIAGARA FALLS STADIUM 12 720 Builders Way, Niagara Falls 236–0146 regmovies.com REGAL QUAKER CROSSING 18 3450 Amelia Dr., Orchard Park 827–1109 regmovies.com REGAL TRANSIT CENTER 18 Transit and Wehrle, Lancaster 633–0859 regmovies.com REGAL WALDEN GALLERIA STADIUM 16 One Walden Galleria Dr., Cheektowaga 681-9414 regmovies.com RIVIERA THEATRE 67 Webster St., North Tonawanda 692-2413 rivieratheatre.org THE SCREENING ROOM 3131 Sheridan Dr., Amherst / 837-0376 screeningroom.net SQUEAKY WHEEL 712 Main St., / 884-7172 squeaky.org SUNSET DRIVE-IN 9950 Telegraph Rd., Middleport 735-7372 sunset-drivein.com TRANSIT DRIVE-IN 6655 South Transit Rd., Lockport 625-8535 transitdrivein.com

A DISH BEST LEFT OFF THE TABLE SECRET IN THEIR EYES / THE LOOK OF SILENCE BY M. FAUST

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Julia Roberts in Secret in Their Eyes.

IF THERE’S A GENRE THAT I TRY TO AVOID, it’s the revenge movie. Not so much a film like this summer’s The Gift, in which a wronged person plots a psychological payback, but the whole Walking Tall genre in which we’re shown a monstrous person or persons committing heinous acts in order to get us to relish a similar level of violence being directed at them. You would be forgiven for thinking that’s the kind of movie that Secret in Their Eyes is. It certainly seems heard in that direction in the opening sequence, which intercuts several actions including the brutal rape and murder of a young woman. (Taking your seat five minutes after the film starts is not a bad idea.) But while this is a movie built around the desire for revenge, it certainly doesn’t present it as something to be encouraged, nor for the audience’s vicarious bloodlust. Liberally adapted from the Argentine film that won the 2010 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (so liberally that I didn’t recall I had seen the original until I got home from the screening and checked my notes), Secret in Their Eyes unfolds in two time frames, 13 years apart. In 2002, Ray (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Jess ( Julia Roberts) are working for an anti-terrorism task force in Los Angeles. It’s four months after 9/11, and paranoia is high that LA is the next target. New to the team is Claire (Nicole Kidman), their supervisor in the DA’s office. Their routine is broken when single mother Jess’s teenaged daughter is found murdered in a dumpster next to the terrorist cell they have been secretly monitoring. Jurisdictionally the case is a mess, and the powers that be are more concerned with finding terrorists than investigating a murder (a choice I would explain but it involves giving away too much of the plot). As this unfolds we also see the trio in the present day. We understand that the original investigation led to nothing. Ray moved away to Manhattan, but continued investigating on his own. He returns because he thinks he has found the killer, which is not news that anyone is prepared to hear. Secret in Their Eyes is not one of those thrillers that keeps a laser focus on its target. For a while it seems to be drawing parallels between social and personal quests for revenge. It’s thickened by our growing realization that there is something unsettled between Ray and Claire. In the end, a lot of these threads

turn out to be red herrings; coming the week after the recent events in Paris, the movie is likely to disappoint some audiences who will be concentrating on the aspects of it involving the hunt for terrorists. Unwieldy as the story eventually turns out to be, it’s engrossing as it goes along to a climax that you probably won’t be expecting. The camera gets a lot of mileage out of peering at Ejiofor, who may have the most empathetic face in modern cinema. (Denzel Washington was the producer’s first choice for the part, which leads me to assume that they specifically wanted an African-American actor for the part; why is something you can discuss among yourselves.) *** Revenge is more forcefully denied in the documentary The Look of Silence. Its backdrop is the aftermath of the military junta in Indonesia in the mid-1960s, when as many as a million people were massacred by thugs and vigilantes working for the government. A CIA report ranked it with the excesses of Stalin, Hitler, and Mao. Yet there has never been an accounting; the events were swept under the rug of history and the killers kept their places in their communities. In 2012 filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer collaborated on The Act of Killing, a perverse documentary in which some of the worst of the surviving killers were invited to re-enact their deeds as movie scenarios. It’s a movie that chillingly illustrates the phrase “History is written by the victors.” A companion piece to Act, Look follows Adi, an optometrist whose brother Ramli was killed in the genocide. Under the guise of examining their eyesight, he meets the killers and speaks with them. The results are, at least on the surface, much more sedate than Act, but no less horrifying. As troubling as the details of Ramli’s death are (unfolded over the course of Adi’s conversations), worse are the unrepentant attitudes of the killers, who have been given no cause to examine their consciences in the ensuing 50 years. Adi and Oppenheimer take a non-judgmental approach to their interviews, which results in answers of excruciating casualness. Presented by Cultivate Cinema, The Look of Silence will have one screening next Tuesday night at 9:30pm at the North Park. The time is a bit inconveP nient, but it’s worth the effort.

new knowledge. And the armchair survivalist will be engrossed by at least the first half of this adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel starring Matt Damon as the can-do science guy stuck on Mars. But scripter Drew Goddard, who has given us such logically wobbly films as The Cabin in the Woods and World War Z, is less interestThe North Park has scheduled nothing ed in illustrating Weir’s problem-solving than the more but revivals for the five days leading up to familiar stuff about NASA mounting a rescue operaThanksgiving: tion. The overall result would be more enjoyable on a popcorn level if the first half hadn’t put you in a logical THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980) mode that the second half abandons. (The disco music Fri 9:30PM, Sat 2PM, 9:30PM is particularly idiotic—as if a mission to Mars in even the A FISH CALLED WANDA (1988) near future couldn’t come equipped with at least as Sun 2PM, Mon 2PM, 4:30PM, 9:30PM much music as you or I could fit on a thumb drive right now.) With Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, MEAN GIRLS (2004) Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Pena, and Sean Bean. Directed Sun 4:30PM, 7PM, Tues 2PM, 7PM by Ridley Scott (Prometheus). -MF Flix (Dipson), Maple PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES (1987) Ridge (AMC), Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Sat-Sun 11:30AM Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria REVENGE OF THE NERDS (1984)—Sun 9:30PM, MISS YOU ALREADY—Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette Mon 7PM as lifelong friends whose relationship is tested by marriage, family and illness. Co-starring Dominic Cooper, TRADING PLACES (1983)—Fri 4:30PM, 7PM, Sat Paddy Considine, and Jacqueline Bisset. Directed by 4:45PM, Tues 4:30PM Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight). Eastern Hills WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989)—Fri 2PM, Sat 7:15PM MY ALL AMERICAN—Sports drama. Starring Finn Wittrock, Sarah Bolger, and Robin Tunney. Directed by Angelo Pizzo. Flix (Dipson), Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria Hamburg Palace, Maple Ridge (AMC), Regal Elmwood, OUR BRAND IS CRISIS—Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Thornton as American political consultants bringing Walden Galleria their VISIT methods DAILYPUBLIC.COM to a war-torn South AmericanFOR country. MORE FILM LISTINGS & REVIEWS >> The name and the rough outline of the plot come from SPECTRE—The 24th official James Bond movie is a leta much better 2005 documentary (directed by Rachel down after Skyfall, though still better than any of the Boynton). But instead of taking dramatic license to satBonds of the 1980s and 1990s. (A low bar, that.) Concludirize the shabby state of the modern political process, ing his term as 007 in a series that essentially rebooted which could have put this in a class with Thank You For the franchise, Daniel Craig makes his reported unhappiSmoking or Used Cars, producers George Clooney and ness with the character part of his performance. But the Grant Heslov go for the lowest common denominator. script struggles to weave the previous Craig films into a You’d have to be awfully naïve to be surprised, much less common storyline, while preparing for a future that will shocked, by any of the dirty tricks on display here. Difeature bigger roles for team Bond—M (Ralph Fiennes), Q rected by David Gordon Green (Manglehorn). -MF Regal (Ben Whishaw), and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris). With VISIT DAILYPUBLIC.COM FOR MORE FILM LISTINGS Transit, Regal Quaker Christoph Waltz as the villain of the piece, Léa Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, and Jesper Christensen. Directed by THE PEANUTS MOVIE—Charles Schultz’s beloved comic (Skyfall). -MF Aurora, Flix (Dipson), Maple Sam Mendes strip characters in a 3D animated feature scripted by his Ridge (AMC), Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal son and grandson. It’s as faithful as can be to the spirt of Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria the original comic strip and TV cartoons, so adults who grew up with Charlie Brown, LInus, Lucy, and Snoopy SUFFRAGETTE—Docudrama following women working the won’t find a fond childhood memory assaulted. Directed get the vote in early 20th century London who turn to by Steve Martino (Horton Hears a Who). Flix (Dipson), civil disobedience after decades of peaceful campaign-

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CULTURE > FILM

ing get them nowhere. It’s about as accurate as any other historical drama out there these days, but perhaps because there so much more pertinent tension in 2015, this British drama fails to work up audiences the way it ought to; it seems almost quaint that the abused laborers here put so much faith in the vote as a way to improve their lives, especially to audiences who can barely bother to go to the polls at all. Starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Meryl Streep, Romola Garai, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson. Directed by Sarah Gavron. –MF Amherst (Dipson), Eastern Hills (Dipson) THE 33—Drama based on the 2010 Copiapó mining accident in Chile, in which 33 men were trapped underground with little hope of rescue. The fact that the incident is so recent robs it of a lot of the tension it might have had for audiences who remember the outcome. Nor does it help that the men who came out of that mine agreed to keep secret certain difficult moments some of them had at the worst parts of their ordeal. What’s left is a movie that’s somewhat less compelling than the Wikipedia entry on the same disaster, featuring the risible spectacle of otherwise able actors cast as Chileans speaking English with thick Mexican accents. Starring Antonio Bandaras, Rodrigo Santoro, Lou Diamond Phillips, Gabriel Byrne, and Juliette Binoche. Directed by Patricia Riggen (Under the Same Moon). –MF Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge (AMC), Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria TRUTH—Based on the memoir by former 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes, Truth recreates the events that led up to her firing and the forced resignation of CBS news anchor Dan Rather in 2008. The issue was a story casting doubt on the military record of President George W. Bush, at the time running for re-election. The film plausibly demonstrates that the story was accurate, even if the facts marshaled were not up to 60 Minutes’ standards. But in trying to find someone to blame for feeding the team false evidence or pressuring CBS owner to censor >> them, debuting scripter-director & Viacom REVIEWS James Vanderbilt founders, falling into the very trap that Rather complains about: “People want to talk about conspiracy theories because that’s what they do these days, and the truth gets lost in the scrum.” Starring Cate Blanchett as Mapes and Robert Redford as a dignified Rather; with Topher Grace, Dennis Quaid, and Stacey Keach. -MF Eastern Hills (Dipson) P

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7 MARINARO’S LARKIN TAVERN / 131 VAN RENSSELAER ST Cozy, neighborhood joint in the shadow of Larkin Square. Marinaro’s has never been hip but it’s always been pretty great. 22 THE PUBLIC / NOVEMBER 25, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

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THE GRUMPY GHEY out with booze. That only worked in the moment: I could get wasted enough to have carefree sex, but the anxiety made up for its medicated lapse by coming on twice as strong in the harsh light of day. Here’s the real clincher. I discovered after I got sober that I still had a hard time enforcing condom use—on myself, on partners. It didn’t seem to matter which one of us should be wearing the thing, they weren’t getting used. I could no longer blame it on the booze: So-called safer sex was awkward and dissatisfying enough to me that it just became easier to stop pursuing sex altogether. That was never a conscious decision I made. It just happened. I forfeited. Cue sad horn. Additionally, without drugs and alcohol, negotiating encounters had become an unpleasant ordeal—too much hassle, too much judgment, too much shallow posturing, and too many uptight guys. In hindsight, however, the irony is glaring: Fear of HIV had resulted in an uptight sexual culture which, in turn, had rendered me uptight about having sex at all. I went through several one- and two-year stretches without a single sexual encounter. In between, scattered hookups were so lousy and unfulfilling that they just reinforced my lack of interest. So, that’s the cynical frame of mind in which I initially greeted PrEP.

I’M DRINKING THE KOOLAID Truvada won’t solve your intimacy issues, but it might prevent you from contracting HIV. Isn’t that enough? BY CHRISTOPHER JOHN TREACY

REMEMBER SEEING the screen name “Truvada Whore” go past me online. Initially I thought it referred to a new sugar substitute. It remained stuck in my head for a few days, so I typed the term into a search engine and discovered that Truvada is a medication for HIV which had recently been approved for preventative use and had even been successful when used as a sort of emergency morning-after pill. So-called Truvada whores were guys apparently using the drug to bareback like meth-addled rabbits. I

This was a couple years ago. My dad had just died. I was miserable in Austin and fixated on extricating myself from my circumstances there. Having sex was very low on my list of priorities, which is actually where it had been for years. Despite this, I found myself wondering why such an amazing AIDS-related breakthrough hadn’t been bigger news. Was it too good to be true? Was that why we weren’t screaming from the bathhouse balconies? I ran it by an HIV positive friend, who agreed that it should be better publicized. He said that, to his knowledge, the statistics about Truvada as a preventative medication were excellent and that his guess was that people feared side effects or some associated stigma. Also, he said, it was expensive. Very expensive. Fast forward to 2014. I’d relocated to Buffalo. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his campaign to end AIDS in New York State, which, not having thought about Truvada in a couple years, sounded ambitious to me. But when I interviewed Evergreen Health Services president Ron Silverio late that fall, he reminded me about Truvada, saying that daily use of the drug as something called pre-exposure prophylaxis (a.k.a. PrEP) was a major component in the governor’s game plan. Silverio had been appointed to Cuomo’s Ending AIDS Task Force, and he explained that negotiations were underway to make the drug more affordable for HIV-negative individuals who were wlling to admit to engaging in high-risk behaviors.

tion to PrEP was lame. I even posted a snarky Facebook status: “Load after load, PrEP’s got you covered so you can bareback with confidence. “#notconvinced,” it read. For shame, oh Grumpy One, for shame. What I didn’t understand at the time, which also goes far to explain why so many people are still in the dark about PrEP, is that the drug company that makes Truvada, Gilead Sciences, isn’t investing in a traditional marketing campaign. Gilead’s sales force is focused on HIV specialists who prescribe Truvada as a post-exposure treatment for HIV (always used in concert with other drugs, dating back to 2004), not primary care doctors who regularly see HIV-negative gay men who could benefit from using it as PrEP. Gilead spokeswoman Cara Miller is on record saying the company “does not view PrEP as a commercial opportunity and is not conducting marketing activities around Truvada as PrEP.” Instead, the California-based pharmaceutical entity puts money into various community organizations around the country, subsidizing related educational efforts. The bottom line is that any PrEP marketing you may see in your travels is provided by local health organizations—in our case, Evergreen Health Services. There are no TV ads urging you to ”ask your doctor if PrEP is right for you.” On the one hand, it’s reassuring that Gilead isn’t looking to exploit the fear of HIV as a commercial opportunity. On the other, it smacks of something unsettling. Are they keeping something from us? It’s like they’re saying, “No, that’s all right, we’ll take a pass. If you want to market this drug as a preventative measure, you’re on your own. Here’s a little start-up dough as a token…” Getting back to my snarky Facebook post, I’d mistakenly assumed the ads were the product of a pharmaceutical conglomerate attempting to profit from gay promiscuity. That they’re the work of a local health service changes the tone significantly, but acknowledging my knee-jerk negativity is still important since it illustrates how far I’d veered off course regarding my sexuality.

Cuomo’s strategy now seemed more promising to me. Offering a preventative medication, for which HIV screening is required in order to gain access, would encourage folks to update their status. From there, they could go on a drug regimen either to prevent or to treat infection, depending on the outcome of the screening.

The shocking reality was that my gay identity had become sexless. It’s strange to find oneself a card-carrying member of a culture defined by a sexual behavior that you barely engage in any longer. I certainly had an identity, and it had plenty of components that could be construed as gay. But sex wasn’t really one of them.

Despite this, when I started seeing billboard-size ads strewn around town with the slogans “PrEP for Tonight” and “PrEP for Love” this past spring, I waxed cynical. It wasn’t my finest moment, but I won’t lie: My initial reac-

Unraveling how this happened put me back in touch with growing up during AIDS, which I’ve covered her before. My sexual education was fraught with tones of danger, which I then spent most of my 20s trying to drown

Six months later, I remained mighty skeptical about whether it worked. Despite reassurances from my friend in Texas (a skeptic in his own right) and knowing the governor was advocating its use in his campaign, I couldn’t seem to buy it. A drug that could prevent me from contracting HIV? Bitch, please. I realized that I’d never really felt like I could trust anyone when it came to sex. We’d been taught not to. Maybe 20 years ago, I used to daydream about a miracle that would halt the spread of AIDS. But time had broken my spirit. I’d given up hope. Now confronted with the possibility of a breakthrough, I couldn’t fathom it as truth. Plus, large pharmaceutical companies and politicians aren’t particularly trustworthy. I needed a doctor to explain it to me in scientific detail. I wrote an article about the science of PrEP for Loop Magazine, which afforded me the occasion to talk with an infectious disease specialist for an hour about how Truvada works (and how it doesn’t work when not taken as directed). We discussed the evolution of PrEP and the future of HIV treatments, both pre- and post-exposure. Around the same time, I began meeting people who were using Truvada for PrEP. I got to ask them for firsthand accounts of side effects and candid thoughts about whether they stood by their decision to try the drug and how it had impacted their sexual behavior. Additionally, I discovered that the funding Silverio had mentioned had been secured and that PrEP was actually an option for me rather than something that only wealthy gays could afford. I made the appointments and I filled the prescription. Suddenly, I felt like someone had thrown me a lifeline. Never before had it been so clear: I’d made it. I’d always figured I’d end up with HIV. It wasn’t so much a matter of if as when. Now, at 45, for the first time ever, I could almost trace the path of a future without it. To say it was a liberating sensation barely scratches the surface. Someone else I know who started PrEP around the same time I did sent me a text that read “#drankthekoolaid.” It was a clever way of surmising the mix of hope and skepticism we both felt. There are naysayers running around, saying that PrEP will destroy condom culture and ignite a new degree of carelessness within our community, leading to rampant sexually tranmitted infections and even resistant strains of HIV. I can understand those concerns: PrEP isn’t foolproof. But for me, it’s not about throwing caution to the wind or making up for lost time. To make the most of the opportunity, I can’t waste too much energy worrying about all the ways that other guys might ruin something I’ve essentially been waiting for my entire adult life. Truvada is not here to co-sign for hedonistic sexual binging, nor is it going to solve all of your longstanding intimacy issues. Taken as prescribed, however, it will probably keep you from contracting HIV. Isn’t that enough? It sure as hell is for those of us who came of age during the height of AIDS. For myself and others like me, PrEP presents us with options we may not have considered before. I can now sometimes choose to have more intimate encounters without worrying that I’ve made a life-altering mistake. It’s reminded me that sex was never meant to be about illness and death. Fetishes notwithstanding, it was also never meant to be about fear. A long time ago, I remember thinking that sex was about intimacy and pleasure— maybe a little mischief. It’s a hazy memory that I’m just getting back in touch with. Maybe I get to finally enjoy a P little of that. It’s about time.

DAILYPUBLIC.COM / NOVEMBER 25, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 23

n DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER n WHAT IS INVISIBLE STAYS THAT WAY n STILL LOVED BUT DEPRIVED OF GRACE n WHEN A GOAT LIKES A BOOK, THE BOOK IS GONE n IF WHAT I THINK IS HAPPENING IS HAPPENING, IT BETTER NOT BE n IT’S A WONDER THAT WE DON’T BURST INTO SONG n THE MOUNTAINS ARE CALLING AND I MUST GO n THERE ARE

Year One

STRANGE THINGS DONE IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN n YOU DON’T OWN THE WORK, THE WORK OWNS YOU n IF IT WAS RAINING SOUP, THE IRISH WOULD GO OUT WITH FORKS n A DAY WITHOUT SUNSHINE IS LIKE, YOU KNOW, NIGHT. n WOULD IT ASTONISH YOU TO HEAR THAT HE IS NEARLY HALF A BICYCLE? n THERE’S SOMETHING ON YOUR LIP…NO, IT’S STILL THERE… n TAXES ARE WHAT WE PAY FOR CIVILIZED SOCIETY. n I ROAM THESE MEAN STREETS LIKE A VILLAIN, A VAGABOND, AN OUTCAST… n WE HAVE TOO LONG FORGOTTEN THE MAGIC POWERS OF NATURE. n WHAT DAY IS CINCO DE MAYO? n NOT ONLY NOT GUILTY, BUT INNOCENT n IF YOU DON’T LIKE WHAT IS BEING SAID, THEN CHANGE THE CONVERSATION n THE WORLD IS GREATER THAN ITS WORDS n EDDIE SEEMS TO KNOW A LOT ABOUT THE LAW n OPULENCE. YOU OWN EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING IS YOURS. n HOW MANY MARINES DO YOU THINK YOU’LL NEED? n I’M

CELEBRATE WITH US!

GLAD THE END OF THE WORLD IS WORKING OUT WELL FOR SOMEONE n MORE THAN 1,000,000 SERVED! n IS THAT WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO WEAR? n LIVE EVERY WEEK LIKE IT’S SHARK WEEK

11.20.15

$5 AT DOOR

n IT’S JUST BARBECUE SAUCE n BE COOL. DON’T BE ALL, LIKE, UNCOOL. n I’M A LIBERTINE, BUT IT’S NOT MY SPECIALTY n I LOVE YOU, BINGO BRONSON n PLAY THE AGE AS COMEDY IF

FOR DISCOUNTED ADMISSION

PLEASE BRING A MUCH FURTHER n AUTUMN IS A SECOND SPRING WHENNONPERISHABLE EVERY LEAF IS A FLOWER n IF YOU’VE FOOD ITEM FOR THE

6-10

GOT A TRUCK, WE’RE GOING TO TOUCH PM IT n NEVER WRESTLE WITH PIGS. YOU BOTH GET DIRTY AND THE PIG LIKES IT. n HIS MIND HAD NO HORIZON—AND HIS SYMPATHY HAD NO WARP n

BUT WE COULD MAKE IT WORK n AN ACCIDENT WON’T ARRIVE WITH A BELL ON ITS NECK n I HIT A GAME-WINNING SHOT ONCE. HOW ABOUT YOU? n FROM FULL, HIGH-HANGING BRANCHES A WINDFALL STAR n WE ALL GO A LITTLE MAD SOMETIMES. HAVEN’T YOU? n METAL ALWAYS

B U F FA LO

DOES BETTER WHEN THERE’S A REPUBLICAN IN OFFICE n BEAUTY FADES, DUMB IS FOREVER n

H OT M A M A’S CA N T E E N

MAN, THERE WERE TWO PIZZA LOGS WHEN I LEFT HERE n IT’S A FIXER-UPPER OF A PLANET

A L L E N TOW N P I ZZA

500 SENECA ST.

YOU WANT TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER n THIS IS JUST LIKE TELEVISION, ONLY YOU CAN SEE

FEEL RITE

T H E B L AC K S H E E P

BUTTER WOOD DESSERTS

COM MUN I T Y

BREADHIVE DJ DOVEY

STRANGE n I GOT A LOT OF PROBLEMS WITH YOU PEOPLE n ANY SEASON, IN THIS FRESH TIME…

FO O D BA N K O F W N Y

STEVE BALESTERI

TIME IS A FLAT CIRCLE n SOMETHING GO BOOM? n ALL THINGS COUNTER, ORIGINAL, SPARE,

SAVA R I N O CO M PA N I ES

CREAM AND SUGAR ICE CREAM CAFE

n THERE’S ALWAYS MONEY IN THE BANANA STAND n IT’S GOLDEN HERE IN THE SNOW n

D I ST I L L I N G

HYDRAULIC HEARTH

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