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IF YOU APPROVE ERRORS WHICH ARE ON PROOF, THE PUBLIC CANNOT BE CHECKTHIS COPY CONTENT THIS PROOF, THE PUBLIC CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE. PLEASE EXAMINE THE AD 2, 2015 � CHECK IMPORTANT DATES ISSUE NO. 55 | DECEMBER HELD RESPONSIBLE. PLEASE EXAMINE THE AD THOROUGHLY EVEN IF THE AD IS A PICK-UP. THOROUGHLY EVEN IF THE AD IS A PICK-UP. � CHECKTHIS NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE PROOF MAY ONLY BE#,USED FOR Eat. Drink. Be Social. THIS PROOF MAY ONLY BE USED FOR PUBLICATION IN THE PUBLIC. for reservations please call or & WEBSITE PUBLICATION IN THE PUBLIC. visit us @ theprovidencesocial.com NEWS: DuPont closes, Silver FILM: � PROOF OK (NO CHANGES) �

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convicted, Kearns stymied, and much more…

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THE GRUMPY GHEY: Why it’s totally okay to hate the holiday season.

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ON THE COVER PAT KEWLEY, whose comics and podcasts have frequently appeared in this publication, is included in part five of the Hallwalls Amid/In Western New York survey. Read more on page 10.

EVENTS: The best of what’s happening in the week to come.

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200 jobs but one of its riskiest polluters and otherwise dangerous plants with the announcement Tuesday that the Chemours Company is closing its plant on Buffalo Avenue the end of next year. The plant was operated for years by DuPont before it spun a portion of the operation off under Chemours, which is eliminating 400 jobs companywide in a move that will save an estimated $50 million annually. In June, Investigative Post analyzed federal Environmental Protection Agency that showed the Buffalo Avenue plant poses the second greatest risk to public health of any manufacturing plant in Niagara County because of its release of chlorine. The plant accounted for 27 percent of the risk score in Niagara County, second only to Goodyear’s facility off 56th Street.

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“The changes at the Niagara Falls plant are part of the Chemours five-point transformation plan that was announced early August 2015 aimed at reducing structural costs, growing market positions, refocusing investments, optimizing the portfolio, and enhancing the organization,” said company spokeswoman Robin Stemple Ollis. —DAN TELVOCK, INVESTIGATIVE POST

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Indeed, for consistently attracting crowds, the frozen faux canals are second only to the Thursday night summer concert series, which there was some discussion last month of moving, perhaps to the Outer Harbor, in response to complaints from Marine Drive residents that the music was too loud, the crowds too raucous and drunken. The Buffalo Common Council took the part of Marine Drive residents; nearly everybody else championed keeping the concerts where they are. Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation president Tom Dee told Jim Fink of Business First, “We have no plans to move them. Not at this time.”

And since 2006, Dupont has had nine serious violations with fines that total $34,435.

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The Buffalo Avenue plant is scheduled to close in December 2016.

The facility was was established in 1896 before DuPont purchased it in 1930. The plant manufactures sodium and lithium.

For example, in July 2004, OSHA cited the company when it failed to record the injury of a worker who inhaled enough chlorine gas that he missed a month of work.

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The worker was covered in molten lithium and his protective equipment ignited, according to the OSHA report. On the same day, the company also was cited when an employee fell through a hole onto a concrete floor five feet below.

The company declined interviews for our June report, but did send a prepared statement from Joe Hausler, the plant manager, that stated, “environmental management at the site is accomplished with pollution prevention as the key focus.”

In addition, an Investigative Post analysis of Occupational Safety and Health Administration data found the Niagara Falls plant had the worst worker safety record of any of the dozen plants in Niagara County we looked at.

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One of the citations included an incident on December 27, 2013, when a worker sustained firstand second-degree burns on most of his body.

CANALSIDE AND THOSE SUMMER CONCERTS:

Chemours’s chlorine emissions rank 16th highest out of 261 companies nationwide, based on the most-recent EPA data. At low exposures, the chemical comes with a host of health risks such as skin irritation, breathing trouble and blurred vision. At higher doses, it can kill by asphyxia.

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BY DAN TELVOCK + GEOFF KELLY + JON LENTZ + JUSTIN SONDEL DUPONT TO CLOSE POLLUTING NIAGARA FALLS PLANT: Niagara Falls is losing not only

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The Dupont plant on Buffalo Avenue in Niagara Falls.

The ice opened last week at Canalside to tremendous crowds of skaters and curious visitors milling about, all taking advantage of lovely weather and the holiday to enjoy one of the waterfront’s most popular public attractions.

Not at this time. Remember Dee’s slight hedge next fall, after another successful concert series has pumped up the annual visitor count that ECHDC uses as evidence of its successful stewardship of the Inner Harbor and to attract potential investment. We’re told that ECHDC would

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like to put out a request for proposals in 2017 for the development of the parcels on which the concerts take place, on the water side of the Skyway. The target likely will be retail shops and restaurants.

A DFS representative indicated to Kearns on the phone that their list had about 200 properties when they spoke in October, he said. “They’ve only got 200 properties,” Kearns said. “How in the hell can I have 2,000?” —JUSTIN SONDEL, CITY & STATE

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ed the conversation this year. When it comes up MESSAGE TO ADVERTISER again, it’ll be driven by ECHDC’s desire to see

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Thank you for advertising with THE those open spaces built up, per the site’s master PUBLIC. Please review your ad and plan—beginning not along Main Street’s lightcheck for any errors. The original layout rail line or elsewhere on the land side of the Skyinstructions have been followed as closely way, but along the wharf. —GEOFF KELLY as possible. THE PUBLIC offers design services with two proofs at no charge. THE KEARNSisSTYMIED ON INFO ZOMBIE PUBLIC not responsible forABOUT any error if PROPERTIES: Assemblyman Kearns not notified within 24 hoursMickey of receipt. The is hoping todepartment compare datamust on “zombie production have a signed properties” withtothe Department of and fax proof in order print. Please sign Financial Services, butbyheresponding hasn’t this back or approve to this had any luck in getting them to email.

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Kearns is in the middle of a � CHECK IMPORTANT DATES campaign to shame banks in his district by placing � CHECK NAME, ADDRESS,lawn PHONE #, & WEBSITE signs identifying the financial � PROOF OK CHANGES) institution in (NO front of derelict properties they either own � PROOF OK (WITH CHANGES) or are in the process of taking through foreclosure and is pushing legislation that would make banks Advertisers Signature more accountable for the condition of the property during the foreclosure process. ____________________________ He asked DFS to share their list of properties _______________________ gathered in a registry the agency is compiling as part of CYan/agreement Y15W48with 11 major banks Issue: ______________________ struck in May—Governor Andrew Cuomo was involved in the negotiation of the pact—that will IFseeYOU APPROVE ERRORS WHICH ARE them voluntarily adhere to set of ON best practicTHIS PROOF, in THE PUBLIC CANNOT BE es outlined the deal. Date

HELD RESPONSIBLE. PLEASEverbally EXAMINE THErequestAD But Kearns was rebuffed when THOROUGHLY EVEN THE AD IS AinPICK-UP. ing requesting the IFdocuments early October, he said. THIS PROOF MAY ONLY BE USED FOR PUBLICATION THE PUBLIC. “They won’t IN give me the list,” Kearns said, indignation inflected in his voice. “I had to FOIL it.”

Kearns filed a Freedom of Information Law request with DFS and the state Attorney General’s office October 10, asking for the lists of addresses collected for vacant, distressed, abandoned, foreclosed, unoccupied or zombie properties submitted to either office.

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The Attorney General’s office replied saying they did not have such a list. A spokesman from the office told City & State in an email that the office is not responsible for the registry agreed to in the agreement. George Bogdan, the records access officer for DFS, in a letter Kearns’ office dated OctoMESSAGE TOtoADVERTISER berThank 15, acknowledged the receipt the request you for advertising withofTHE and wrote that the review office would respond PUBLIC. Please your ad and within 20 days. check for any errors. The original layout instructions have been followed as closely

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AsTHE partPUBLIC of the agreement the data was is not responsible forsupposed any toerror be shared state and local officials. if notwith notified within 24 hours of department must “I receipt. should beThe ableproduction to get that information,” Kearns have a signed proof in order said. “I’m a friggin’ legislator.” to print. Please sign and fax this back or approve

Kearns has been compiling a list of his own as by responding to this email. part of his push to prevent homes from falling � disrepair CHECK COPY CONTENT into during the foreclosure process. His list, admits is DATES imperfect, part of the � which CHECKheIMPORTANT reason he was looking to DFS for their infor� CHECK PHONEproperties #, mation, has NAME, grownADDRESS, to over 2,000 in Erie County. & WEBSITE �

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ELLICOTT DEVELOPMENT SEEKS TO BUY TWO MORE CITY STREETS: Ellicott Develop-

ment, which this years finished its conversion of Fairmont Creamery Company building at 199 Scott Street, is seeking to buy two nearby city streets and a Buffalo Sewer Authority storage building at a cost of $633,000. Previous to its renovation, the Fairmont was best known as the home of Ellicott chairman Carl Paladino’s hectoring billboards, visible from the I-190 southbound.) East and West Market streets run one block between Scott and Perry; Ellicott Development plans to use the property for parking lots to support the Fairmont development. There will be a public hearing on the proposed sale next Tuesday, December 8 in Buffalo Common Council chambers, conveniently slated for the working public at 2pm. If approved it will be the first sale of a public street since the controversial sale of two blocks of Fulton Street, just a few blocks away, to the Sececa Gaming Corporation in 2006. Ellicott Development is also seeking to purchase two other largely abandoned city streets, Saint Paul Mall North and Saint Paul Mall South, adjacent to Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Main Street, just north of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. That sale was approved by the Buffalo Planning Board this week. —GEOFF KELLY SHELDON SILVER GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS:

Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, 71, was convicted on all seven counts against him in his high-profile federal corruption trial, bringing to an end a remarkable career in which he spent two decades as one of the state’s most powerful political figures. The verdict was handed down shortly after 4pm Monday, according to multiple news reports. “Today, Sheldon Silver got justice, and at long last, so did the people of New York,” said Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, who had brought the federal charges against Silver. The charges were first made public in late January, one day after Silver had appeared next to Governor Andrew Cuomo and then-state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos at the State of the State address in Albany. Skelos was hit with separate corruption charges a few months later, and is now on trial along with his son. Bharara, who has established a reputation for rooting out corruption in Albany, brought what was initially a five-count criminal complaint alleging that Silver pocketed $4 million in kickbacks since 2000 in the real estate and healthcare industries in return for favorable treatment in Albany. By the time the case went to trial, Silver faced seven charges, including honest services fraud, money laundering and extortion.

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IF YOU APPROVE ERRORS WHICH ARE ON THIS PROOF, THE PUBLIC CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE. PLEASE EXAMINE THE AD THOROUGHLY EVEN IF THE AD IS A PICK-UP. Ellicott Development to FOR purchase East and West Market streets and make THIS PROOF MAY ONLYhopes BE USED them into parking for the former PUBLICATION IN THE PUBLIC. Fairmont Creamery.

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BY JIM HEANEY RANDOM OUTRAGES AND INSIGHTS: Things I’m sick of reading about: the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Bills quarterbacks, anything uttered by a Buffalo Bills coach. Get the picture? The season’s over. Can we please move on? n

Thank you for advertising with THE PUBLIC. Please review your ad and check for any errors. The original layout instructions have been followed as closely as possible. THE PUBLIC offers design services with two proofs at no charge. THE PUBLIC is not responsible for any ALSO SERVING CHEESESTEAK HOAGIES error if not notified within 24 .hours of CHICKEN & WAFFLES receipt. The production department must OPEN FRESH CUT FRIES + MORE! have a signed proof in order to print. LATE Please sign and fax this back or approve NIGHT by responding to this email.

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n The University at Buffalo is heavily subsidizing its D-I athletics program, more so than just about any other major university, Jay Tokasz of the Buffalo News reported the other day. Adding insult to injury, the flagship (football) program is mediocre. Time for some new priorities, preferably something that doesn’t scramble the brains of participants.

Eight years ago I documented the rich subsidy deal the state gave Alcoa to keep operating in Massena. Worth an estimated $5.6 billion in hydropower discounts over 30 years. Yeah, I said billion. Works out to $148,000 per job…per year…after year…after year. Fast-forward to 2015. Alcoa has failed to honor its commitments and is threatening to shutter its North Country operations. What does Governor Andrew Cuomo do? Throw more money at them. n

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n I have two words for Joe Lorigo and others expressing concern about terrorists passing themselves off as refugees: Timothy McVeigh. When it comes to terrorists, Western New Yorkers have a lot of nerve pontificating about the dangers posed by outsiders.

Go see Spotlight, the film about the investigative reporting team at the Boston Globe that broke the pedophile priest story. A compelling, accurate depiction of the craft—and a hell of a story. n

n The Erie County Water Authority has no fewer than 18 bureaucrats making over $100,000, according to an analysis done by Ken Kruly. All to manage an authority that should have been taken over by the county decades ago.

If downtown is booming, why do I see so many “for rent” signs? n

n When will the developers and trade unions come up with a project labor agreement on the next Buffalo Billion project, the retrofit of one of the Key Center Towers to accommodate IBM? And what will the minority hiring goals be?

Speaking of which, why is Betty Jean Grant the only black elected official speaking out about the hiring situation at SolarCity? n

Speaking of which, Byron Brown has got to be feeling used by the state. I mean, he fronted their press conference to declare all is well with minority hiring at SolarCity without being told African Americans make up less than six percent of the workforce. n

n For all the guff Frank Sedita has taken, I

like that the outgoing district attorney actually wants to make sure the police have built a good case before he agrees to try and put someone behind bars. He strikes me as a prosecutor concerned with justice, not just convictions. Investigative Post is a nonprofit investigative reporting center focused on issues of importance to Buffalo and Western New York. Its partners include The Public, WGRZ TV 2 On Your Side, WBFO P 88.7 FM, and The Capital Pressroom.

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DAILYPUBLIC.COM / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / THE PUBLIC

NEWS LOCAL IT’S CAMPAIGN FINANCE DISCLOSURE TIME!

Also known around here as Christmas-comesearly. Here are some notes gathered in haste: —It will surprise no one that the squirrelly committee called the Right Democratic Team, focused on Cheektowaga races and run with all the rectitude of a Steve Pigeon outfit, still hasn’t filed any record of its doings since an 11-day pre-primary filing in August. Nice job, criminals.

Will Sheldon Silver’s conviction stand? Read more at dailypublic.com.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 One scheme involved the awarding of state funds to Dr. Robert Taub, a Columbia University medical researcher, to conduct mesothelioma research. In return, the doctor referred asbestos patients to Weitz & Luxenberg, which employed Silver as of counsel and paid him for the referrals. The other scheme involved two real estate developers, Glenwood Management and the Witkoff Group, that used another law firm with ties to Silver at his behest. Silver also profited from the arrangements. The trial was in its fifth week, and the jury began deliberations last week. In February, a month after the charges Silver were announced, he was forced to relinquish the speakership, ultimately being replaced by Carl Heastie of the Bronx, but

he stayed on as a rank-and-file assemblyman representing Lower Manhattan. With the felony convictions, Silver was immediately removed from elected office. The Assembly’s home page quickly removed his biography from its home page. According to NY1, Silver faces up to 20 years in prison. “A political earthquake has hit Albany,” said Blair Horner of NYPIRG, a good government group. “This is a stinging rebuke to the ‘Albany business as usual’ defense and a clarion call to clean up state ethics. Hopefully this will be the tipping point at which New York’s political leadership will gets its heads out of the sand. Governor Cuomo must now call a special session devoted to ethics reform.” —JON LENTZ, CITY & STATE

—Guy Marlette spent $84,000 to lose his race against incumbent Erie County Legislator Tom Loughran. Loughran’s committee spent $25,000 between January 1 and election day. Deb Liegl spent $60,000 to lose to incumbent Erie County Legislator Ted Morton, whose committee has spent $34,000 since January 1. Among Legislature races, Liegl’s campaign was the main focus of the Erie County Democratic Committee. Morton beat her handily. —Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was found guilty Monday on all counts in his federal corruption trial. (See story above.) Silver’s campaign committee spent $1.5 million on his attorneys between January and July of this year, leaving his campaign committee about $1.6 million—just enough to cover the last six months of legal work. (Silver, who forfeits his Assembly seat as a result of his conviction, needn’t file again until January, so we won’t know for sure until then.) He certainly will appeal his conviction, but most likely will have to pay those legal bills himself. P —GEOFF KELLY

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BUFFALO HISTORY MUSEUM.

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LOOKING BACKWARD: BUFFALO FORGE The products of the Buffalo Forge Company, 490 Broadway, carried the “Buffalo” brand to nearly corner of the planet. Named for its first product—the blacksmith forges assembled by company founder William F. Wendt starting in 1878—Buffalo Forge became one of the world’s foremost manufacturers of heating, air conditioning, dust collection, and pump and machine tool products. As the “Birthplace of Cool,” Buffalo Forge was the site where modern air conditioning—brainchild of chief engineer Willis Haviland Carrier, who spun off to form the Carrier Corporation in 1915—was invented in 1902. Buffalo Forge acquired the George L. Squier Manufacturing Company, makers of sugar, rice, and coffee plantation machinery, in 1903, and the Buffalo Steam Pump Company in 1904. The company was locally controlled by the Wendt family until 1941, when the ownership was broadened by a public stock offering. Buffalo Forge employed 1,500 people in the Buffalo area as late as 1978. In 1993, the Howden Group acquired the company and within a year shut down all Buffalo operations, transferring production and employees to another part of New York State. The 14-acre factory at Broadway and Mortimer—including loft buildings which may have been revitalization targets today—was demolished in 2006. Howden North America has not been successful in efforts to sell the vacant land. Buffalo Machines, Inc., formed in 2003 out of the Machine Tool Division of Buffalo Forge, is still in operation in Lockport. -THE PUBLIC STAFF

THE PUBLIC / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

COMMENTARY NEWS

WHERE MONEY FLOWS LIKE WATER The Erie County Water Authority goes on its merry, spending way

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THIS HOLIDAY SEASON GIVE THE GIFT OF HEALTH & PEACE GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE IN ANY AMOUNT PA R K S I D E L U T H E R A N C H U R C H 2 Wallace Ave Buffalo, NY 14214

BY KEN KRULY

MJPeterson

.com

WHEN YOU ARE A MONOPOLY, does it matter

what you do to take in revenues or spend money? Sure, there are budgets and audits and all that good stuff. But when you are a monopoly that is a government agency, why doesn’t anyone seem to mind what the agency is doing?

Director, Administration: $138,399 Executive Director: $132,763 Deputy Director, Administration: $126,750

The Board of Commissioners of the Erie County Water Authority (ECWA) recently approved their annual budget, with operating expenses totaling more than $60 million. They approved a $10 million increase in the capital budget, requiring new borrowing of $10 million. The rate for water will increase by 3.9 percent for 540,000 customers in 2016.

Business Office Manager: $105,400 Assistant Business Office Manager: $88,577

Administrative Assistant: $81,187 Comptroller: $131,527 Cash Manager: $114,876 Assistat Manager of Accounting Services: $102,251

Senior Distribution Engineer: $128,796 Senior Distribution Engineer: $122,256 Electrical Engineer: $111,790

•

Production Engineer: $110,011 Distribution Engineer: $104,345

Effective Jan. 1, the price of water will increase by 3.9 percent annually, or 12 cents per 1,000 gallons, according to authority Chairman Earl L. Jann, Jr. The quarterly infrastructure charge will increase to $19.45, from $15.45, [Jann] added, providing money for several projects and repair of “an unprecedented number of water leaks” caused by two years of severe weather. “We’re forced to increase our rates and charges for a combination of factors,” Jann said. “The cost of keeping pace with system upgrades and increases to compensation and health care for our employees has led to a dramatic rise in overall expenses.”

Distribution Engineer: $101,512 Distribution Engineer: 2 at $98,679

And then they could look at their human resources operation. The ECWA is incredibly top-heavy with people working in high-paying positions relating to human resources in any form you want to characterize it—personnel, labor relations, employee relations, human resources. Their budget for a 235-employee authority includes: Secretary to the Authority and Personnel Director: $132,756

Director of Employee Relations: $105,978

I thought it strange that McCarthy’s story did not mention what the total budget will be for 2016. But then I looked at the board minutes for their November 5 meeting and saw that the resolution that approved the budget didn’t actually say what the size of the budget is. Why wasn’t the budget approved with some announced cuts in the top heavy bureaucracy at the ECWA? For openers they could consider some reductions in the management personnel of the authority, which includes:

Coordinator of Employee Relations: $99,547 Employee Benefits Specialist: $76,228

That’s a total of $526,623 in salaries for five HR people, plus fringe benefits, of course. As previously noted, these salaries are very much out-of-line when compared with similar positions in the largest local governments in area, the County of Erie and the City of Buffalo. The authority also likes to contract out some of their work which should be handled by the large group of high paid executive staff. In the past several weeks they approved contracts with the following: •

Zeppelin Communications LLC (ZeppCom), which authority board minutes indicate was previously operating under the name Caputo Public Relations.

Barclay Damon LLP (BD) has a contract with the authority for an unspecified term while it works on a matter identified as “bond related transactions and general litigation and municipal law issues.” Barclay Damon’s attorneys will work at a blended hourly rate of $225, with paralegals at $125. The contract was signed by James Domagalski, the former chair of the Erie County GOP. Raftelis Financials Consultants, Inc., a North Carolina firm, will work for a year to “prepare a water utility cost of services/rate structure” in an amount not to exceed $76,700. Hourly rates for staff of this firm range from $70 to $400. They tack on $10/hour for administrative expenses, and the hourly rates increase 50 percent “for services related to the preparation for and participation in depositions and trial/hearing.”

The basic function of the Erie County Water Authority can be summed up simply: They pump water from the lake, purify and test it, and send it to their customers. So here are some questions: •

What is the justification for such a large and extraordinarily high-priced management staff for such a small public works agency?

•

Given the very basic nature of the service and product provided, why can’t some of that high-priced talent perform PR functions?

•

Given that there are at least five attorneys working full or part time for the authority, why does Barclay Damon need to do legal work on “general litigation and municipal law issues?”

Director of Human Resources: $112,114

The old “combination of factors” defense! The authority is also planning $20 million in facilities improvements, as well as security upgrades. The borrowing plan, however, caused the disagreement in approaches that was reflected in Thursday’s 2-1 vote. Jann said the authority’s capital budget has climbed to more than $29 million as a result of the planned system and infrastructure upgrades, a significant increase from previous yearly averages of $17 million to $18 million.

•

Executive Engineer: $158,687

Bob McCarthy’s November 6 article in the Buffalo News about the 2016 ECWA budget approval highlights a few things:

•

Administrative Assistant: $87,969

In an era when most governments and elected officials are supersensitive about raising taxes, the ECWA goes on its merry way. We have a property tax cap in New York State which for 2016 is set in most cases at less than two percent. But the ECWA increases rates by 3.9 percent and no one in a position to raise some hell about it does anything. It is almost like the ECWA is the proverbial third rail of politics for local politicians. We know the answer, but still need to ask: Why?

•

The contract, which is for three years with an option to renew for two more, identifies Michael Caputo as the managing director. The firm will be paid up to $5,000 per month, with Caputo’s hourly rate set at $125 and $65/hour for an account executive. They will work as independent contractors.

Deputy Director: $147,574

•

Why can’t the high-priced in-house accounting talent take care of the cost-ofservice issues?

Maybe there was a reason for the ECWA in the early 1950s when the agency was created and county government was still operating like it did in the 19th century, but there is no justification for the ECWA to exist in the 21st century. I have avoided mentioning the names or political affiliation of any authority employees whose job titles are listed above. We all know that the current crew at the ECWA didn’t invent the organization that exists there. These are systemic problems, and the place needs to be totally reformed. All of the functions of the authority can easily be rolled into county government, which performs all these activities, except on a larger scale. That includes management of a public works function, accounting, legal services, public relations, human resources, etc. Read more of Ken Kruly’s observations on politics P and government at politicsandstuff.com..

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716-819-4200 431 Delaware Avenue Buffalo, NY 14202

DAILYPUBLIC.COM / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / THE PUBLIC

Tha wit rev for lay bee pos des pro PU for wit The mu ord and by

THEATER PUBLIC QUESTIONNAIRE What is your idea of hell on earth? Causing pain to those I love.

THE PUBLIC QUESTIONAIRE

What is your greatest fear? Wasted potential.

TOM MAKAR

Which talent do you most wish you had? Congeniality. What superpower do you most wish you had? Always wanted to fly. What would you change about your appearance? Resting face (apparently seen as judgmental and pessimistic).

BY ANTHONY CHASE

What trait do you most despise in others? Narcissism.

WITH A DRY AND QUIET sense of humor and his signature shock

What trait to you most despise in yourself? Despise is too strong a word to describe my self-improvement motivation.

of Dutch-boy hair, multitalented Tom Makar has been a constant presence on the Buffalo theater scene since 1991. In fact, his name has been associated with more than 300 local productions. Makar is predominantly known as a sound designer and composer, but he has also appeared as an actor and has worked as a director.

What do you most value in your friends? Their willingness to confide. What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment? Too easy! Winning Julie’s love.

Makar has a distinctive face, which, for all its expressiveness, somehow never betrays what he is thinking. Is that a hint of smile? Is it a smile of amusement, of approval, of disapproval?

What is your guilty pleasure? Car shows on Velocity Channel, especially Street Outlaws.

For a man of mystery, Makar is very well liked and works constantly. And our theater community is richer for his presence.

What character from fiction do you identify with most? Randy “The Ram” Robinson.

When he is not in a theater, he is often to be found performing live rock and roll with Wild One.

What person from history do you identify with most? John Adams.

Makar’s work can currently be seen on the stage of the New Phoenix Theatre, where he has directed the Mary Chase’s classic 1944 comedy, Harvey, about Elwood P. Dowd and his friendship with a giant talking rabbit that only he can see.

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

Makar’s past directorial outings have tended to emphasize his musical talent: the Kavinoky Theatre’s productions of Hank Williams: Lost Highway and Always…Patsy Cline; Warren Leight’s Side Man at Ujima. He co-directed and composed songs for a Shakespeare in Delaware Park production of Love’s Labour’s Lost. This time, however, Makar has directed his large, round eyes onto an imaginary rabbit.

What word would your friends use to describe you? Perfectionist.

On what occasion do you lie? When the questioner has no business knowing the truth.

What quality of your current project is most unlike your own personality? It’s charming.

What was the subject of your last Google search? Olivia Munn.

What quality of your current project most reflects your personality? Hope springs eternal.

If you come back in another life, what person or thing would you like to be? Malala Yousafzai.

Here, the omnipresent yet somehow elusive Tom Makar submits to the Public Questionnaire:

When and where were you the happiest? On vacation with my wife, Julie. Let’s say Monument Valley, August 2015.

What is your motto? Music sings eternal.

What is your most prized possession? Guitar collection.

Holiday Fare

A Little House Christmas opens at Theatre of Youth on Friday, December 4.

PLAYBILL BY THE PUBLIC STAFF ANNIE (music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, book by Thomas Meehan): After a gajillion performances over the past 38 years, do you really need a description? Purists will enjoy knowing that this tour (same beloved story, brand new staging) is directed by Martin Charnin, the show’s lyricist, who also staged the original award-winning production on Broadway. Now, everybody sing! “Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow…” And tomorrow starts December 8, continuing through December 13 at Shea’s Performing Arts Center, 646 Main St. (1-800-745-3000); sheas.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. 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, Franklin LaVoie, and others appear under the direction of Tom Makar. Fades away on December 20. At New Phoenix Theatre, 31 Johnson Park; (716) 8531334; newphoenixtheatre.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; enrollment open now 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. 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 play 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. A winning design gives the show a modern, 1950s/1960s sheen. 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 door slams shut on December 6. Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle, 612 Fillmore Ave.; (716) 8121733; tornspacetheater.com. PEPPA PIG LIVE!: Here is a stage show for the pre-

THE PUBLIC / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Dickens favorite adapted for the stage by Neal Radice): From “Marley was dead” to “God bless us, everyone,” 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’s 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; (716) 852-2600; alleyway.com. A LITTLE HOUSE CHRISTMAS (adapted by James DeVita inspired by the fiction series by Laura Ingalls Wilder): Laura, Ma, Pa, and the neighbors carry through in the manner we have come to love them for. Wonderful plans go awry but adversity is no match for strong wills and good spirits and everything works out well in the end. Music, dancing, and a familiar group of characters are presented to audiences wrapped up with Christmas trimmings. Larry Smith and, Kim Cote are among the residents of Plum Creek. December 4 through 20 at Allendale Theatre, 203 Allen St, Buffalo; (716) 884-4400; theatreofyouth.org. JOSEPH’S GOSPEL (solo show written by John Dowie): A humble carpenter working in Nazareth tells everything that happened on the way to the manger in Bethlehem. His courtship with Mary, those three kings, and more are all related from Joseph’s POV. This engagement at 710 Theatre is the US premiere of a one-man show, originally known as Jesus, My Boy when it debuted in Britain. Reviewers in Europe, Israel, and Ontario have called it humane and touching. Performing this story is Alan Safier, who has earned his own fans after touring many seasons as George Burns in the solo-show Say Goodnight, Gracie. December 17 through 20 at 710 Main Theatre, 710 Main St.; (1-800-745-3000); sheas.org. school set starring the Nick, Jr. porcine heroine and a menagerie of her friends. This show has already toured English language countries around the world and is ready to endear itself to US fans. Life-sized puppets, manipulated by the visible puppeteers, replicate the animated action of the television series. Interactive music featuring original songs and familiar music make this a fine way to introduce the wee ones to live theater. December 5 only, at Shea’s Performing Arts Center, 646 Main St.; (1-800-745-3000); sheas.org. 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, or a smart boîte on Elmwood Avenue, this show is a tribute to

THE SANTALAND DIARIES (solo show scripted by Joe Montello, based on the writings of David Sedaris): Bitterly ironic minimum-wage worker takes Christmas gig at Macy’s then lives to kvetch about it. Kevin Kennedy steps into the pointy-toed 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, premiering December 4 and running through December 13. At the company’s new home 500 Pearl St.; (716) 629-3069; roadlesstraveledproductions.org. TRAILER PARK BOYS “DEAR SANTA TOUR” Demanding connoisseurs of red-neck literature and humor will certainly wish to attend this rollicking, yet poignant, depiction of male friendships in all its bacchanalian wonder. Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles, along with Mr. Lahey and Randy—and an inordinate amount of intoxicants—commence a world crusade on behalf of the true in addition to a pursuit of the real Santa. Fraught with allusion to the great literary quests and quixotic dreams of favorite picaresque characters. This is a one-night-only (December 15) presentation at Shea’s Performing Arts Center, 646 Main St.; (1800-745-3000); sheas.org. UH OH! HERE COMES CHRISTMAS (by Robert Fulghum, Ernest Zulia, and David Caldwell): Robert Fulghum, 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 frantic, 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 Corey Beiber, Tim Goehrig, Edith Grossman, Mary Moebius, and Michael Starzynski for O’Connell & Company. Opens on November 27 and closes on December 20 at Park School Auditorium, 4625 Harlem Rd. (Snyder); (716) 8480800; oconnellandcompany.com. 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. Stomp on over through December 6. At African American Cultural Center, 350 Masten Ave.; (716) 884-2013; aaccbuffalo.org.

Playbill is presented by:

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

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JoAnn Falletta

JoAnn Falletta returns to the holiday podium conducting Christmas favorites like Greensleeves, Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah, and Children’s Prayer from Hansel and Gretel. The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus joins in under the direction of Adam Luebke.

Jingle BellJam Sun. Dec. 13, 2:30pm

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Wed. Dec. 9, 8pm

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Free pre-concert activities start at 1:30pm. Post-concert, join Santa and Mrs. Claus for milk and cookies!

Fri. Dec. 18, 10:30am Fri. Dec. 18, 8pm Sat. Dec. 19, 8pm Sun. Dec. 20, 2:30pm John Morris Russell debuts as the BPO’s new Principal Pops Conductor in this holiday tradition featuring the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and ABC Bel Canto Choir.

The enchanting Irish music sensation brings their pure, angelic voices to classic hits and Christmas favorites for an unforgettable experience.

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Call Today!

The BPO is a U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots drop-off location. Bring a new, unwrapped toy to the BPO Box Office or when you come to a concert Dec. 1- 20.

BPO & C TI C K G D s M E TS G R E AKE I F A T T S

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DAILYPUBLIC.COM / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / THE PUBLIC

ARTS REVIEW

AMID/IN WESTERN NEW YORK, PART 5 At Hallwalls, the fifth installment in an ongoing survey of regional artists BY JACK FORAN “DYING IS EASY, COMEDY HARD” holds for visual art as well as theater. Visual artist Pat Kewley

does comedy brilliantly. Cartoon art, essentially. Sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes quietly humorous more thoughtful stuff. Both categories are on display in the current Amid/In Western New York exhibit at Hallwalls. Laugh-out-loud funny in a phrenological drawing, a cranium divided into multiple segments, each one labeled “stupid.” More quietly humorous in a series of portraits entitled overall My Favorite Explorers, subtitled Polar Explorers, Pioneering Balloonists, Polar Explorers who were also Pioneering Ballonists, and Female Cosmonauts. With captions listing their achievements but also—as necessary—disappointments, misadventures. For example, “Ferdinand von Zeppelin, constructed world’s first guidable airship, 1899.” “Alberto Santos-Dumont, crashed a dirigible into the roof of the Trocadero Hotel in Paris, 1901.” “Roald Amundsen, first to reach South Pole, 1911.” “Robert Falcon Scott, second to reach South Pole, 1912. Froze on return journey.” “S.A. Andree, perished during attempt to reach North Pole by balloon, 1897.” Among the female cosmonauts, “Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space, 1963.” And “Nadezshda Kuzhelnaya, never chosen for spaceflight.” Eileen Pleasure has a half dozen or so emphatically abstract paintings, only one of which features some recognizable imagery, a little house on a globe world not much bigger than the house, seeming to be floating off into space. It’s called Cast Adrift. Julian Montague has some large wall paintings that are both abstract and representational. Representations of geological phenomena with identifier titles, visually simplified to the point that before you notice the title and recognize the geological item, you might see some more familiar item, like the ice-cream cone that then you learn is a geyser. A representation of a hill feature a little recollective of Pinocchio’s whale. Mark Lavatelli has some encaustic monotypes on paper of nature subjects, clouds, trees, intricate tangles of branches, usually in monocolors. With a useful explanatory note on his encaustic technique, and how in the process the heated pigmented beeswax paint is absorbed into the paper, versus merely adhering to the paper surface. Giving a depth sense, and feeling of color and matrix as integral, one thing not two. J. Tim Raymond has a number of appropriation works that combine technical architectural drawings and Raymond’s copies of kids’ drawings of military operations. The architectural drawings include schematics of constructions of architects the likes of Walter Gropius, Richard Neutra, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright. The kids’ drawings were found art in an old sketchbook on sale at an Amvets store. Raymond has copied the fantasy military operations onto the architectural schematics. Frank Lloyd Wright’s bucolic Falling Waters setting becomes the scene of a helicopters and paratroopers attack.

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. 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-studio-1045-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 114pm. 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. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm, open late First Fridays until 10pm. Art Dialogue Gallery (5 Linwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14209, wnyag.com): Very Buffalo, a selection of photographs by Len Kagelmacher. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 11am-3pm. Artists Group Gallery (Western New York Artists Group) (1 Linwood Ave, Buffalo, NY 14209, 716-885-2251, wnyag. com): 21st Annual Artful Gifts—The Fine Art of Giving (and Collecting). Tue-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 11am-3pm. Benjaman Gallery (419 Elmwood Avenue Buffalo, NY 14222, thebenjamangallery.com): Man of Extremes: A Survey of the Work of Wes Olmsted. Salon 3: An Exhibition of Everything: Over 150 Unique Works of Art from $50 — $900. Works by Bruce Adams, Charles Burchfield, Robert Blair, Virginia Cuthbert, Augustina Droze, A.J. Fries, Richard Huntington, Alexander O. Levy, Bill Maggio, George Renouard, Charles Rohrbach, Amos Sangster, Martha Visser’t Hooft, and more. Special event Fri Dec 4 6-9pm: Warm Hands, Warm Heart. On view through Dec 19. Thu-Sat 11am-5pm.

Big Orbit (30d Essex Street, Buffalo, NY 14222, cepAppetites/Anxieties: agallery.org/about-big-orbit): multi-disciplinary installation by Liz Lessner. Fri-Sun 126pm. BT&C Gallery (1250 Niagara Street, Buffalo, NY 14213, 604-6183, btandcgallery.com): Features, paintings by Julian Montague. Opening reception Thu Dec 3, 6-9pm. 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. TueFri 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 12-4pm. 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. 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 12-5pm. 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.

10 THE PUBLIC / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

A still from Kyla Kegler’s 2014 video, Ritual.

AMID/IN WNY PART 5 HALLWALLS / 341 DELAWARE AVE, BUFFALO / HALLWALLS.ORG

A video by Mickey Harmon is a kind of super-speed sight-see tour of a digitized version of downtown Buffalo, to a soundtrack techno version of the banal-to-begin-with Malvina Reynolds song “Little Boxes.” The buildings and monuments look like they were made of Lego blocks. Another video, by Kyla Kegler, has two acrobatic performers in red and white literal coverall costumes enacting what Kegler characterizes in an explanatory note as “a choreography of color, form, and movement, organized into simple activities and nonsensical gestures.” She goes on to say the piece “attempts to evoke various symbolic and primal impulses without offering a direct narrative or logic.” Peter Sowiski has some large-scale, stain-painted on handmade paper works about faceless warriors and drone strikes. Laura Borneman several large abstract paintings, one of blocky rectangles with intriguing scraped and sanded looks, two others jumble mosaics of irregular shards and swatches in a spectrum of red tones. And Marissa Tirone an unusual woodwork item intended to represent a city plan in the abstract. A plane—like a table top—with little cut-outs and raised relief bits and pieces to represent features to be defined and identified by the viewer, the artist says in her explanatory note. This is part five (of a projected seven) of the Amid/In Western New York show. Part five continues P through December 18.

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. MonFri 10-4pm, Sun 1-4pm, see site for upcoming classes. 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, 856-2717, cepagallery.org) Fire and Ice: photogrpahs by Alan Friedman and Douglas Levere. Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 124pm. 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. WedFri 10:30am-5pm, Sat 10:30am-4pm. Dolce Valvo Art Center (NCCC 3111 Saunders Settlement Road, Sanborn, NY 14132, 614-5975): Student Art Exhibition, opening reception Dec 3, 12:30-2pm. On view through Dec 12. Tue, Thu 12-5pm, Fri 12-3pm, Sat 12-4. 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): Time Will Tell, members’ exhibit by the West Seneca Art Society. Opening reception Fri Dec 4, 7-9pm. On view through Jan 2. 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, 852-5656, 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. Indigo Art Gallery (47 Allen Street, Buffalo, NY 14202, 984-9572, indigoartbuffalo.com): Flux, recent work by Colleen Toledano. Opening reception Fri Dec 4, 6-9pm. Wed & Fri 12-6pm, Thu 12-7pm, Sat 12-3pm, and by appointment Sundays and Mondays. 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 11am-4pm. Karpeles Manuscript Museum (Porter Hall) (453 Porter Ave, Buffalo, NY 14201): Maps of the United States. TueSun 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 124pm and by appointment.

IN GALLERIES NOW ARTS 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): Etchings and Paintings, George Renouard. On view through Dec 31. Tue-Sat 9:30am-5:30pm. MJ Peterson Buffalo Office (431 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14202): Annual art show with work by Scotty Bye, William Cooper, Ramon Dennis, Fotini Galas, Mark Hussien, Jeffrey Livingston, Glenn E. Murray, Kiersten Minnick, Sally Januale Treanor. Opening reception Fri Dec 4, 6-9pm. On view through Jan 1. MUNDO IMAGES Gallery (Tri-Main Center, 2495 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, Suite #255 Lobby): Colors From My Gypsy Soul, watercolors by Fritz Raiser. TueFri, 11:00am-4:30pm. 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. Niagara Arts and Cultural Center (1201 Pine Avenue, Niagara Falls, NY 14301, 282-7530, thenacc.org): Artists and friends exhibit featuring Violet Gordon. Opening reception Dec 5, 6-8pm. Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat & Sun 12-4pm. 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): 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, Kristopher Whatever, Michael Mulley. Opening Fri Dec 4 6-9pm. 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): Prints by Jane Marinsky. Opening reception Dec 4, 6-9pm. On view through Feb 28. 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 12-5pm. Stangler Fine Art (6429 West Quaker Street, Orchard Park, NY 14127, 870-1129, stanglerart.com): Open WedFri 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): Through the Looking Glass— The Third Dimension, paintings by Yegor Mikushkin. Opening Thu Dec 3, 6-10pm. Open every Fri 5:307:30, during all events, and by appointment. TGW@497 Gallery (497 Franklin Street, Buffalo, NY 14202, 981-9415): Work by Jane Bergenn, Joan Fitzgerald, Patti Harris, Marie Hassett, Joyce Hill, Catherine O’Neill, Julie Lewitzky, Richard Rockford, Carol Case Siracuse,Ann Steivater, Russell Ram, Sally Treanor, and David Vitrano. Opening reception Fri Dec 4, 6-9pm. 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, Cravens World: The Human Aesthetic, on view through Dec 31, 2016. Wed-Sat 11am5pm, 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. Villa Maria College Paul William Beltz Family Art Gallery (240 Pine Ridge Terrace, Cheektowaga, NY 14225, 9611833): Animation and Fashion Design & Merchandising Program student exhibit, on view through Dec 11. MonFri 8am-8pm, Sat 10am -5pm. Western New York Book Arts Center (468 Washington Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, 438-1430, wnybookarts. org): Translation: The work of Jozef Bajus and Olga Bajusova, guest curated by Elisabeth Samuels on view through Dec 12. Wed-Sat 12-6pm. Wrafterbuilt Furniture (119 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14201, 913-5313, wrafterbuilt.com): Drawings and sketches by Jaime Schmidt.

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Give the gift of Western New York Art this year. Stop for a visit at the Burchfield Penney Museum Store and join us for Holiday Open Studios — December 4, 5 and 6 at The Center — featuring more than 45 artists. For details, visit www.BurchfieldPenney.org.

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DAILYPUBLIC.COM / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / THE PUBLIC

12 THE PUBLIC / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

THE WORK / COLLEEN TOLEDANO, part of an exhibit of Toledano’s work called Flux, opening this Friday, December 4, 6-9pm, at Indigo Art, 47 Allen Street, Buffalo. DAILYPUBLIC.COM / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 13

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WEDNESDAY DEC 2 Kung Fu 8pm Buffalo Iron Works, 49 Illinois St. $12-$15

THIS WEEK'S AGENDA FRIDAY DECEMBER 4

LOOP MAGAZINE’S 50TH ISSUE RELEASE PARTY 6-10PM at Loop Magazine, 224 Allen St.

Loop hosts an open house to celebrate four years and 50 issues as Buffalo’s magazine for the LGBT community and its allies. Toast the 50 local folks the magazine featured in its new issue, “Circles of Influence"; peruse “Plus and Minus,” works by photographer Lingxiang Wu; and get your copy of the new issue, hot off the presses.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 4 GOS GOZAH: HOTLINE XXX-MAS BLING 10PM-3AM at Milkie’s, 522 Elmwood Ave.

The ultimate queer dance party in Buffalo returns for a much-needed winter installment. Strap on your tubular bells and lick those candy canes: costumes heavily encouraged. Entry, $5.

JOHN LEGEND THURSDAY DEC 3

[FUNK] Back in the early and mid 1970s, jazz visionaries like Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis got caught up in the swirl of funk as an off-shoot of soul with more progressive possibilities. Hancock’s Headhunters (both the album and the band of the same name) might be the most stunning example of this, while Davis’s On the Corner is less accessible but built from similar ideas. On the fringes of jazz, bands like Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra took some of the groove sensibility that funk projected and straddled the lines between jazz and prog-rock with fusion, which broke all the rules. Kung Fu brings the fusion idea current (nu-sion?) with just the right amount of electronic detailing, creating a sound that’s altogether sassy but serious, modern but classic, and complex but fun. And yes, there’s definitely a jam-band element to what the ensemble does, but this is jazzier than most anything you’d catch at Further Festival. Kung Fu comes to Buffalo Iron Works this Wednesday with likeminded musical compatriots Consider the Source, supporting last year’s Tsar Bomba disc. -CHRISTOPHER JOHN TREACY

8PM / ALUMNI ARENA, 108 ALUMNI ARENA / $32-$60 [LECTURE] Oscar- and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter John Legend flew into the limelight in the early 2000s on the wings of Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, and Jay-Z. Hailed by Quincy Jones as a “genius,” Legend’s illustrious career began with his platinum-selling debut album Get Lifted in 2004 and includes an Oscar for best original song, nine Grammys, five Soul Train Awards, the BET Award for Best New Artist, and the special Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. His songs have been featured in prominent films, including Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman. The founder of the production companies HomeSchool Barthe and Get Lifted Film Company, Legend’s ambitions stretch across an array of endeavors. His humanitarian efforts are extensive and encompass an array of charitable donations and active involvement in groups like Management Leadership for Tomorrow and PopTech. In 2010, he was awarded the BET Humanitarian of the Year and has won many other accolades for both his charitable outreach and his musical talent. From the potency of his recorded works to award show performances and sold-out tours dates worldwide, Legend remains as relevant as ever. Legend will discuss his career, answer questions, and perform at the University at Buffalo Alumni Arena on Thursday, December 3. -KELLIE POWELL

SATURDAY DECEMBER 5

THURSDAY DEC 3 Peace, Love, and Grant Street 4pm Grant Street between Lafayette and Auburn

[SHOPPING] The fourth annual Peace, Love, and Grant Street touches down this Thursday, December 3 at locations along the rebounding commercial district between Forest and Ferry streets. Rust Belt Books, Gypsy Parlor, Westside Stories, and the West Side Bazaar are just some of the highlights to be found while enjoying the still-temperate weather and supporting small businesses. Runs 4-8pm. -AARON LOWINGER

And the Kids

7pm The 9th Ward, 341 Delaware Ave $10-$13

PUBLIC APPROVED

LGBT & ALLIED FAMILIES HOLIDAY EVENT 2PM at Adoption STAR, 131 John Muir Dr., Amherst

Join Pride Center of WNY for a free performance from the Wondermakers, presenting folk tales from around the world. Children and parents in the audience will be cast to help act out and tell the stories. Doors open at 1:30 p.m.

Ralphie May 8pm Helium Comedy Club, 30 Mississippi St. $25-$38

SATURDAY DECEMBER 5

LEGACY SOUND AND FX

[INDIE] With their debut album, Turn to Each Other (Signature Sounds), And the Kids have introduced themselves as a band that is succinct and original with a flair for gorgeous harmonies. Hannah Mohan’s passionate vocals are underpinned by Mohan’s reverberating guitar, Rebecca Lasapanaro’s skintight rhythms, and flourishes of synths and percussion, courtesy of Megan Miller. Together, they create a lush soundscape that soars. Catch And the Kids with PWR BTTM at the Ninth Ward at Babeville on Thursday, December 3. -KP

NICE & SMOOTH FRIDAY DEC 4

[COMEDY] When it comes to controversial topics, Ralphie May, may be politically incorrect, but at least he’s freaking hilarious. Bold and unfiltered, he’s got “more flavor than your average white guy.” May is one of the most popular comedians in the country, having released several comedy specials and famously recording two specials in one night (the first comedian in history to do so). Catch May at Helium Comedy Club on Thursday, December 3 through Saturday, December 5. -KP

2-11PM at Dnipro Ukrainian Center, 562 Genesee St.

9PM / DUKE'S BOHEMIAN GROVE BAR, 253 ALLEN ST.

Painted Zeros

A collaborative music festival to unite the community and help end AIDS by 2020. Musical guests span the genres of R&B, post punk, neo-soul, psych-rock, and trapfusion. HIV and STI testing available. Free and open to all ages.

[HIP HOP] Duke’s Bohemian Grove Bar continues their “Legends of Hip Hop” series—which has recently featured acts like Kool Keith, Tony Touch, and Camp Lo—with a special appearance by the Bronx duo Nice & Smooth. Greg Nice and Smooth B are unsung stars of early hip hop who have influenced the likes of Biggie Smalls and KRS-One. In 2011, the duo celebrated the 20th anniversary of the release of their seminal record, Ain’t a Damn Thing Changed, which featured huge, catchy party anthems that sampled everything from Joe Cocker to Public Enemy, Wings, Funkadelic, and James Brown. The duo drifted apart in the late 1990s, quietly releasing some solo work (Nice is the more productive of the two) but have sporadically reunited over the years. This year has been one of their more active in a while, but it’s hard to say if you’ll ever have to chance to catch this classic hip hop duo again. -CORY PERLA

[POP] The lone studio project of Katie Lau expands to a trio for the stage, Painted Zeros, allowing the barbed-but-dreamy tones of the Don Giovanni debut, Floriography (out late October), to flourish. Lau’s knack for coupling shimmering pockets of pop with progressive song structures and her multi-instrumental abilities make her a triple threat, rendering Painted Zeroes a Brooklyn-based project worthy of your attention. Thursday, December 3 at Mohawk Place with Bethlehem Steel. -CJT

LOOPMAGAZINEBUFFALO.COM

14 THE PUBLIC / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

8pm Mohawk Place, 47 E Mohawk St. $6

CALENDAR EVENTS PUBLIC APPROVED

ROBOT HOLIDAY FRIDAY DEC 4 4:30PM / LARKIN SQUARE, 745 SENECA ST. [MUSIC] Robot Holiday is not what it sounds like: It’s not when you shut down mentally and let the season roll over you, pretending to care, inside your bubble, looking perversely forward to the solitude of January and February. Indeed, it is the just the opposite: It’s a raucous, once-a-year, charitable collaborative effort by some of the region’s finest musicians to record original, nontraditional holiday music, commit it to CD, play it live at a big fundraising concert, and donate the proceeds of the whole shindig to the Food Bank of Western New York. The lineup of contributing musicians is impressive, including Dee Adams, Cathy Carfagna, Jonathan Hughes, Guillermo Izquierdo, Jony James, Joelle Labert, Doug Lambert, Rob Lynch, Alex Lynne, Katy Miner, David Mussen, Naryan Padmanabha, and Jim Whitford. This year the big concert takes place at Larkinville’s annual first Friday in December event, December 4, with opening sets of holiday classics from the Tins and friends along with DJs Shane and Tone of Verve Dance Studio. And because it’s Larkinville, there will be food trucks. Lots of them. -FRANCES BOOTS

And the Kids PHOTO BY CHATTMAN PHOTOGRAPHY

FRIDAY DEC 4 Holiday Open Artist Gift Sale 5pm Burchfield Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Ave

[SHOPPING] As a quick survey of our paper may indicate, the holidays really bring out the best of our local creative talent. Diving in the deep end this weekend at the Burchfield Penney Art Center is a collection of local artisans and makers with items for sale to make even the grinchiest heart thump. Running from Friday through Sunday (Friday 5-9pm, Saturday & Sunday 11-6pm), the big annual gift sale is direct economic stimulus, with 20 percent of sales donated back to the Burchfield, one of area's stalwart supporters of local artists. And we hear the café will mix up a mean eggnog. -THE PUBLIC STAFF

Hertel Holidays

5pm Hertel Avenue, 1000 Hertel Ave.

[SHOPPING] The 120-member strong Hertel Business Association boasts stores that offer something special for everyone on your list this month, from books to jewelry, from art to beer and fresh meat. Whatever you're looking for, Hertel Holidays has it covered. A lot of the businesses will offer refreshments and special treats to visitors, and we have it on good authority that a certain Mr. Claus will make an appearance this Friday (5-9pm) and Saturday (11am-4pm). -TPS

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 DAILYPUBLIC.COM / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 15

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BUTTER BLOCK'S ELMWOOD VILLAGE POP-UP butterblockshop.com

The talented team at Butter Block have a temporary home in the Elmwood Village. Until December 19, they will be running a pop-up shop at 732B Elmwood (behind Ro). If you haven't tried a chocolate croissant, pop tart, or homemade “Oreo" from Butter Block, you are missing out. Follow them on Facebook to find out what they'll be serving at the shop that day.

5 VENDORS TO VISIT AT THE QUEEN CITY MARKET SATURDAY DEC 5 11AM / KARPELES MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY PORTER HALL, 453 PORTER AVE. / FREE + ACCEPTING NON-PERISHABLE GOODS FOR FOOD BANK OF WNY [HOLIDAY] For the fifth year in a row the Queen City Market will set up shop for one day only, this Saturday, December 5 at Karpeles Manuscript Museum on Porter Avenue. More than 50 vendors will be present with such a wide selection of gifts—from pottery to vinyl records, jewelry, and one-of-a-kind art—that you should be able to find the perfect gift for just about anybody on your list. If you’re like me and shopping can work up a mighty appetite in you, don’t worry, Amy’s Truck, Llyod Taco, and Rolling Joe food trucks will be parked outside. With such a huge marketplace and only one day to go through it, we figured you might need a little roadmap so we picked five of our favorite vendors as starting points. -CORY PERLA

ALPINE MADE SOAP

HARMUO SATO

In scents like Ginger and Grapefruit, Cafe con Leche, Pumpkin Spice, and Mint Chocolate, Alpine Made soap smells so good you just want to take a bite out of it. It wouldn’t hurt, either, since it’s made from goat milk and all natural ingredients. Needless to say, it feels much better on your skin than in your tummy.

NESTWELL BRITISH CHIPPY BECOMES PARKERS, NOW WITH BOOZE! parkersproperfishandchips.com

Everyone's favorite fish and chip spot in South Buffalo now has a new name and has expanded. Originally, British Chippy (1216 South Park Ave.) was a companion cafe to the English Pork Pie Company. They have since changed the entire company's name/branding to Parker's and have re-opened the Chippy as Parker's Proper Fish and Chips. The menu has remained the same but they now offer beer on tap and even have a couple TVs on the wall for sporting events.

You’ll find some practical yet stylish items from NestWell at this year’s Queen City Market. The home decor company specializes in vintage pieces—like their neat little Bed Spring Bird’s Nest—and handmade items, like their Hand Crafted Beer Carriers, which go for a reasonable $35 and come equipped with built-in bottle-cap opener.

Author Harmuo Sato has penned some touching books for children, including Ramen Girl, which tackles the topic of depression, and Dance Danse Dance by Cappuccino Cat, which is a lovely journey through the dreams of a cute character named Cappuccino Cat. Although the subjects are vastly different, the thread that links them together is Sato’s brilliant and vivid illustration. Born in Japan, this artist has lived in Buffalo since 2013 as a student at UB. A selection of her cute and thought-provoking illustrations will be available for purchase at this year’s Queen City Market.

REVOLVER RECORDS This all-used vinyl record seller started off as a pop-up shop, popping up at various locations in the Elmwood Village—outside of Bureau men’s shop on Elmwood, at the Peddler market, and at swap meets. Now they’ve got their very own storefront on Hertel and Norwalk, but that doesn’t mean you won’t see it popping up elsewhere, including at this year’s Queen City Market. And this guy has more than just your usual rock-and-roll fare— he’s got plenty of disco, funk, and soul too.

TREBIRD JEWELRY Trebird jewelry creates some of the most unique jewelry around. Owner Katie McGinnis takes the plywood from old skateboards and repurposes it into neat little pieces of one-of-a-kind jewelry including earrings, necklaces, and men’s cuff links.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

Book Signing: When the Lights Go Out 5pm Mohawk Place, 47 E Mohawk St. free

TED'S OPENS LONG-AWAITED DOWNTOWN LOCATION tedshotdogs.com

After a long wait, Ted's Hot Dogs finally has a downtown location once again. Located at 124 W. Chippewa near Papaya and the Chocolate Bar, the newest Ted's is the only location that's open for late-night eats. This popular local chain will remain open until 2am on Friday and Saturday and 9pm during the rest of the week.

BUFFALOEATS.ORG

[HAPPY HOUR] Local author Michael Farrell will be signing copies of his new book When the Lights Go Out at Mohawk Place this Friday, December 4. This is an appropriate venue: Farrell’s book is about an aging Buffalo musician who is forced to leave Buffalo’s greatest stages. Singer/songwriter Sara Elizabeth will also perform. -TPS

Genkin Philharmonic Orchestra

8pm Pausa Art House, 19 Wadsworth St. $5-$7

[JAZZ] It's not every day that you get to hear Radiohead songs performed live in a room the size of your living room. The Genkin Philharmonic Orchestra will perform cuts by Radiohead, Captain Beefheart, Led Zeppelin, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, and more when they perform live at Pausa Art House on Friday, December 4. -CP

16 THE PUBLIC / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong

8pm Buffalo Iron Works, 49 Illinois St. $7-$10

[FUNK] As the name might suggest, Baltimore-based Pigeons Playing Ping Pong brings an amused, prankster-style energy to the stage, making the band a recurring festival draw with its gooey funk amalgam. Perhaps what's most surprising is the amount of groove the band churns out as a mere fourpiece—it sounds more like six. They come to Buffalo Iron Works on Friday, December 4. -CJT

Gos Gozah: Hotline XXX-Mas Bling 10pm Milkie's, 522 Elmwood Ave $5

[DANCE PARTY] Gay-wave dance party Gos Gozah returns to Milkie’s this Friday, December 4. The theme this time around is “Hotline XXX-Mas Bling,” which attendees are encouraged to translate appropriately (or not, if you’re trying to freak out the regulars at Milkie’s) into costumes. Specials include two-for-one drinks, “wild ass drag,” DJ Pu$$yPop, and more. -CP

SATURDAY DEC 5 The Sword

7pm Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. $19-$22

[ROCK] Originally from Austin, metal quartet the Sword has taken new direction on High Country (Razor & Tie), expanding further beyond the shred-heavy volume of their earlier discs in favor of a tighter, more manicured presentation. The results are striking, with accents on structure, song craft and harmonies. More percussive accents and use of keyboards adds to the refined sound, which still rocks and revels in some familiar gothic themes. Hear the difference at Town Ballroom on Saturday, December 5 with Royal Thunder. -CJT

Kurt and the Loders play Pearl Jam 10pm Nietzsche's, 248 Allen St. $7

[TRIBUTE] For their next gig, Buffalo 1990s cover band Kurt and the Loders will play two

CALENDAR EVENTS sets strictly dedicated to Pearl Jam. Each set will feature a Pearl Jam record played in full, though the band has not announced which albums—though the list can be narrowed down to two of the five albums PJ put out in the 1990s. Kurt and the Loders come to Nietzsche’s on Saturday, December 5. -CP

PUBLIC APPROVED

SUNDAY DEC 6 Slim Jesus

LIVEMUSICEVERYNIGHTFOROVER30YEARS!

6pm Studio at the Waiting Room, 334 Delaware Ave. $15-$18

[HIP HOP] Last week rapper Slim Jesus set fire to a record contract on Instagram. The rapper, who was born in 1997 and hails from Hamilton, Ohio, has racked up 16 million views on his “Drill Time” music video, which was released in August. Why would he need a record contract? Certainly, for Slim Jesus, there’s no going back from such a grand gesture now, but he’s done well enough without the help of a record label so far, mostly due to the video for “Drill Time,” which was shot in a garage. The 18-year-old rapper raps a big game—guns, drugs, and hos are his primary subject—causing critics to ask questions, like “Do you actually live that life?” His response: No, but some of his friends do. He may look like a mini-Eminem and sound like Chief Keef, but Slim Jesus doesn’t seem to care about any of that. He’s just trying to keep his pockets heavy. Slim Jesus comes to the Studio at the Waiting Room on Sunday, December 6. -CP

Whitehorse 7pm Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main St. $15

[FOLK] The hard-hitting sounds of Whitehorse—the Canadian folk-rock husbandand-wife duo of Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland—will hit you in a deep place. Their repertoire is a multi-hued tapestry of soothing tones that boast a cozy familiarity with a pleasing air of originality. Their latest release, No Bridge Unburned, finds this power couple in more Southern territory with nodes of Latin rhythms and Beatles-esque pop. Catch Whitehorse at the Tralf Music Hall on Sunday, December 6. -KP

WEDNESDAY

DEC 2

THURSDAY

DEC 3

FRIDAY

DEC 4

GRACE POTTER SUNDAY DEC 6

9PM FREE

Pink Talking Fish

9PM $13 PRESALE/$18 DOS

A Band Named Sue 6PM FREE

Randle & the Late Night Scandals Six Year Stretch The Fredtown Stompers

7PM / TOWN BALLROOM, 681 MAIN ST. / $31-$35 [ROCK] For over a decade, Grace Potter has wooed crowds as the edgy and fun-loving frontwoman of the Nocturnals, a five-piece outfit that has established itself as one of the most electrifying folk-rock bands in the nation after releasing four albums and headlining dozens of music festivals. If Potter’s made one thing clear, it’s that she knows how to rock a stage. It came as a shock to Nocturnal fans when 2015 proved itself as the year of her reinvention and the band went on hiatus. Potter pursued a solo project, releasing her debut Midnight (recorded and mixed by Eric Valentine) last August. “In a lot of ways, the Nocturnals are a safety net and a beautiful, beautiful blanket. All the life and music we’ve woven makes it so much more than a name on a marquee. But I realized the Nocturnals aren’t me, but a part of me…so it’s natural to want to grow.” she revealed to Paste Magazine. On Midnight, Potter delves into pop-rock territory without compromising the soulful, bohemian flair that fell fans fell in love with through the Nocturnals. This Sunday, December 6 is an opportunity to catch her reinvention live as she lights up the stage at Town Ballroom. -JEANNETTE CHIN

Adam Bronstein’s Freehand Trio

10PM $5

SATURDAY

DEC 5

Kurt & the Loders: Pearl Jam Part III 10PM $7

WEDNESDAY

DEC 9

Jon Lehning sextet

THIURSDAY

Jane Getter Premonition Grayo

DEC 10

9PM FREE

9PM $10

TUESDAY DEC 8

PUBLIC APPROVED

Reggae Happy Hour w/ The Neville Francis Band FRIDAY

6PM FREE

DEC 11

Tats for Tots Holiday Toy Drive 12pm Ink Inc., 320 Grote St. $34-$50

[HOLIDAY] INK INC Tattoo Parlor, located at 320 Grote Street in Buffalo, will host a Tats for Tots Holiday Toy Drive from 12pm to 8pm this Tuesday, December 8 through Saturday, December 15. Don’t worry, very few tots will actually be tatted at this toy drive. For $35 and an unwrapped toy valued at at least $15, adults may choose from a variety of holiday- and winter-themed tattoos, or for $50, you can get a custom, two-inchby-two-inch tat. -CP

Yace Booking Presents:

Difficult Night (EP Release Show) Welks Mice / Buffalo Sex Change The Patterns 10PM $5

SATURDAY

DEC 12

Handsome Jack / The Soft Love HOKAN / Frontstreet Men 10PM $5

GAG with Rotten UK, and Gun Candy

WEEKLY EVENTS

6:30pm Sugar City, 1239 Niagara St.

EVERY SUNDAY FREE

[PUNK] On Tuesday, December 8, Sugar City brings in three exciting noise-punk bands, one new, one throwback, and one nationally known. Headliners GAG hail from Seattle and bring a combination of experimental noise feedback and blistering punk. Rochester’s Rotten UK bring a retro-anarcho punk style, and finally Buffalo new-coming freak punks Gun Candy will debut godknows-what. -CP

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

EVERY MONDAY FREE

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

EVERY TUESDAY

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

EVERY WEDNESDAY FREE 6PM. TYLER WESTCOTTS PIZZA TRIO

ANDREW W.K. TUESDAY DEC 8

EVERY THURSDAY FREE

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

7PM / BROADWAY JOE'S, 3150 MAIN ST. / $25 [ROCK] In a surprising move, Andrew W.K. will make a super special appearance at Broadway Joe’s on Main Street for an ultra-intimate performance on Tuesday, December 8. The performance is part of the self-proclaimed King of Partying’s “Party Hard Holiday Super Special Celebration Solo-Tour,” which features the bloody, muscular frontman, clad all in white, pounding furiously on a keyboard and hollering into a microphone in classic Andrew W.K. fashion. Don’t let the one-man-band aspect of the show fool you, this will most likely erupt into a mosh-fest of epic proportions as the entire tour has been designed around these intimate, cozy bars and clubs where the intensity can be ratcheted up and the partying can be extra partyful. So, like, party hard. P -CORY PERLA

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 / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 17

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PHOTO CHIELLI/CHURCH � CHECK COPYBYCONTENT STREET STUDIOS Thank you for advertising � CHECK IMPORTANT DATES with THE PUBLIC. Please review your ad and check � CHECK NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE #, & WEBSITE for any errors. The original layout instructions have � PROOF OK (NO CHANGES) been followed as closely as possible. THE PUBLIC offers � PROOF OK (WITH CHANGES) design services with two Holy proofsWaltz-King, at no charge.Batman! THE PUBLIC is not responsible Advertisers Signature for any error if not notified within hours of LEVY receipt. ____________________________ BY24 DOUGLAS The production department must have a signed proof in Date: _______________________ order to print. Please sign CY / Y15W46 IN THE OTHERWISE GIDDYand WORLD fax thisOF back or approve Issue: _______________________ Die Fledermaus, insults are never taken lightly. by responding to this email.

DIE FLEDERMAUS DIE FLEDERMAUS

Johann Strauss Jr.’s instantly popular 1874 operetta has as its central character Eisenstein (to ONLYPRESENTED THIS PROOF MAY BE USED FOR BY PUBLICATION IN THE PUBLIC. BUFFALO OPERA UNLIMITED be sung by Robert Zimmerman) who is bedeviled by his own incapacity to control himself. FRI, DEC 4 / 8PM + SUN DEC 6 / 2:30PM He insulted an official, which has landed him eight days in jail, largely due to the incompeROCKWELL HALL PERFORMING ARTS tence of his lawyer. CENTER AT BUFFALO STATE COLLEGE 13OO ELMWOOD AVE / BUFFALO Moreover, his tactless abandonment of inebriated friend Falke ( Jeffrey Coyle), dressed in a $30 / $25 FOR SENIORS bat costume (hence the title), on New Year’s $10 FOR STUDENTS Eve in the center of town has motivated the latter to arrange for an elaborate revenge to enfold 716.878.3005 /BUFFALOSTATEPAC.ORG at a masked ball being thrown by one Prince Orlovsky, a rich and gregarious Russian (sung here by Elizabeth Wojtowicz). Thus transpires a humorous succession of mistaken identities that has remained unrequited but true. “You and flirtatious tête-à-têtes, all set to Strauss’s don’t get the impression that there is a string gorgeous waltzes and songs. This digs Eisenof Rosalindas.” stein deeper into his hole: He makes a pass at an apparent Hungarian countess who in fact is The source materials for Die Fledermaus were a his wife Rosalinda (Holly Bewlay) in disguise. German play The Prison (a farce though the tiAt the end the whole party ends up at the potle seems to belie that) and a French vaudeville lice station where everything is sorted out. (All Le réveillon, a reference to a traditional French this would make great reality television.) supper party on New Year’s Eve. The final libretto, an adaptation by Richard Genée, transA key supporting character is the singing teachformed the meal into a ball, leaving Strauss amer Alfred, who it seems is incapable of shutting ple opportunity to show off his musical talents up. This Buffalo Opera Unlimited production for which he was justly famous. of Die Fledermaus has Stephen Macdonald, a veteran Alfred, singing up a storm. Macdonald, A lot goes on in Die Fledermaus, and it benefits a lyric tenor, feels Strauss’s music fits very well from careful listening (it will be sung in Enupon his voice, and he enjoys his incorrigible glish). One performance custom is to announce romanticism as he tries to re-woo Rosalinda, the arrival of local (for the audience) “luminarhis former lover who now will have nothing to ies” who make appearances in the second act. do with him despite the torch he holds for her. So far we know that Buffalo Common Council member David Rivera is signed up; the rest “He’s a bit of a roué,” Macdonald concedes, must remain a surprise. Alfred, a nineteenth noting how completely uncaring he is about century Sinatra, has the musical gifts to still Rosalinda’s marriage and her determination to make Rosalinda swoon, despite her best efforts be faithful to Eisenstein. At the same time, he not to, as he rolls out a cavalcade of snippets of is willing to sacrifice for her, inasmuch as he love arias. Die Fledermaus has an abundance of agrees to pose as her husband, who ducked out passionate music and ribald comedy all mashed to go to the ball, when the jailor comes to take up in a delightful couple of hours in the theater. the convicted prisoner to jail. Alfred’s gallantry “It gets complicated, in the usual way farcical means he spends all of Act II in prison. “He is productions do,” laughs Macdonald. And that genuinely in love with her and is determined to P win back her affection,” says Macdonald, a love is half the fun.

SPOTLIGHT ART addresses and investigates things that can be found in the real world. In general I want to take something that people are familiar with (stray shopping carts, spiders, birds, etc.) and offer a new way of seeing it. I’m not interested in making work that mainly derives it’s meaning through its relationship to other art or the medium in which it’s made. We’ve seen numerous examples of your distinctive posters for events around Buffalo for years. You also create book covers, record jackets, logos, and a whole range of graphic design with a very disciplined approach. You’re a prolific commercial artist, but at the same time you’re a fine artist with work that can simultaneously appear deceptively simple yet highly conceptual. Please share your perspective on these two sides of your work and their relationship. The relationship between my design and

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art work can get a bit confusing as I often use the tools and techniques of graphic design in my art. There are academic debates over what is and isn’t art/design but for me it is pretty simple: If my work is in the service of the ideas/ needs of a client, it is graphic design; if it is in the service of my own ideas, it’s art (with graphic design in it). One of my projects involves designing fake book covers that are the reading materials of a fictional character. The process of making the fake book is completely different from designing a cover for a client. Sometimes with the fake I will have the idea for the image first and then write the title. Obviously that would never happen in a designer/client situation. There is a slight gray area in that I do have (published by PrintCollection.com) Wed. Nightprint series Lunch Special that areEveryday not part of my official art practice and Vegan Special are aimed more at a design/homewares TWO SLICES + A 20OZ. DRINK kind of ANY LARGE VEGAN PIZZA market. But in that case Print Collection takes only $16.25the client role. only $5.65 Are there artists who influenced you in

94 ELMWOOD AVE / Delivery 716.885.0529 ALLENTOWNPIZZABUFFALO.COM your/formative years? There were a lot of influences, but looking back there was one show Hours SUNDAY-THURSDAY: 11AM-12AM at/ FRIDAY-SATURDAY: the Albright-Knox in11AM-4:30AM 1990 (when I was

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17) that really stuck with me and influenced my approach to art making. The exhibit was British artist Hamish Fulton’s Selected Walks 1969-1989. He recorded long hikes (the act of Julian Montague with Iceberg, from his new series. taking the walk was the art) with photographs and brief bits of text. There was a lot of large Helvetica in red and black on the walls as part PHOTO BY JOE GUTT of the installation. Another big influence were Brian Eno’s albums from the 1970s, in particular Before and After Science, Another Green World, and the Ambient series. Even though this is a non-visual influence, there is something in the tone of those albums that I connect to and want to, inPUBLIC some way, recreate in my work. Those IF YOU APPROVE ON THIS PROOF, THE CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE. PLEASE EXAMINE THE AD artist, exhibiting at ERRORS BT&CWHICH andARE Hallwalls Eno albums are all over the Features paintings. THOROUGHLY EVEN IF THE AD IS A PICK-UP.

SHARE PLEASE EXAMINE THIS PROOF CAREFULLY JULIAN MONTAGUE YO U R EVENT An interview with the

BY MARTIN MCGEE

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TELL US ABOUT the new work at Hallwalls’s

Amid/In exhibit and your solo show at BT&C Gallery. The work at BT&C and Hall-

walls is a new series of paintings in which I depict features of the landscape; they are mostly geological features and events. I’m very interested in thinking about geological time, and the way the physical world around us was formed. In the pieces I isolate a feature and depict it in a very simple, clean way. In the upper left hand corner there is a word or phrase that acts as a label. Some of these words are specific, perhaps less familiar terms (glacial erratic, cuesta, drumlin), others are more familiar and almost too general (island, shore, horizon). I’m hoping that in their stillness and simplicity they relate some feeling of the slow, unending processes of the earth. I’m also interested in the way that language and naming relate to the way that we see things. This is a big part of my other projects. The difference between the broad and specific terms in the pieces is a way of suggesting that language can maybe only take you so far in the effort to understand reality. But also, I just like playing with how words interact with images. Part of the inspiration for this work comes from a childhood interest in Japanese ukiyo-e prints. In that genre there are a lot of landscapes depicted with clean, hard lines and descriptive text or poems. Prints made in the vertically oriented oban format like Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo are a connection point for me.

What about your contemporaries today?

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JULIAN MONTAGUE

FEATURES: NEW WORK BY JULIAN MONTAGUE

CHECK COPY CONTENT It’s kind of rare for me to findAdvertisers an artistSignature that I

really think is amazing. There are times when I go to the Chelsea galleries in____________________________ New York City CHECK IMPORTANT and almost DATES everything leaves me cold. But there are a bunch of artists who I think are great. I’m usually drawn to artists build a Date who _______________________ CHECK NAME, whole ADDRESS, world withPHONE their #, work—David Altme& WEBSITE jd, Olafur Eliasson, Sarah Sze, Tomas SaraceY15W22 no, Geoff McFetridge, Mark Issue: Dion, ______________________ and Nina Katchadourian are good examples of that.

PROOF OK (NOyou CHANGES) Were into art from an early age? Yes.

My father taught art history, design history, MAY ONLY BE USED FOR and drawing at the college level,THIS so IPROOF was always PUBLICATION IN THE PUBLIC. PROOF OK (WITHtoCHANGES) exposed art. I also went to the Buffalo Academy of the Visual and Performing Arts for high school. I didn’t study art or design in college; it wasn’t until I left school that I realized what I THROUGH DEC 19 wanted to do. There were elements of what I do HALLWALLS / 341 DELAWARE AVE now in my work as a kid. I was always trying to BUFFALO / HALLWALLS.ORG make hard line graphics with flat, solid colors. I had almost no interest in proper drawing or rendering things realistically. I still don’t and I’m not very skilled in that way. This is someHow does it connect to your past work? This what ironic as my father, John Montague, is the is a bit of a departure in terms of medium and author of an instructional book on perspective approach, although these pieces do bear a sudrawing that has been in print since 1984 and perficial resemblance to my more commercial has been translated into a dozen languages. print series. The two big multi-year projects What do you think about the art scene (The Stray Shopping Cart Identification Project in Buffalo? I think the scene here is great and and Secondary Occupants/Animals & ArchitecI’m proud to be a part of it. The art community ture) both have fictional authors at their center is strong and supportive with good institutions. and a fairly complicated conceptual conceit. Buffalo is a good place to live as an artist, but This work is seemingly more straightforward. we do have a long way to go in developing a P population that actively buys art. What it shares with my other work is that it

AMID/IN WESTERN NEW YORK, PART 5

EVENTS@DAILYPUBLIC.COM

DAILYPUBLIC.COM / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 19

FILM EVENT

Let the Record Show: AIDS ACTIVISM IN THE 1980S SATURDAY DEC 5 8PM / HALLWALLS / 341 DELAWARE AVE, BUFFALO Nostalgia is the past filtered of its unpleasantries. For as much as people who grew up then like to rhapsodize about the 1980s, there was a lot about that decade that still brings a shudder and unfortunately still affects how we live today. Yet it’s undeniable that Let the Record Show, Demetrea and Rebekah Dewald’s documentary about the (primarily) New York artists community’s reaction to AIDS, will bring an unexpected smile to the lips of those who lived through that time. It’s clearest in the film’s closing line, delivered by Patrick O’Connell (who in 1978 was one of the first directors of Hallwalls). The harder fought the battle, the stronger the espirit de corps. Not that the Dewalds (mother and daughter) set out to pat viewers on the back. With archival clips and interviews from many survivors of the era, they chart the growth of AIDS and the increasing desperation of a dying community to get research funding for a disease that, under Ronald Reagan, the national largely chose to ignore. Using the weapons at their disposal, they put art to work, with the formation of ACT-UP and the Red Ribbon Project.

Let the Record Show will have one of its first public screenings this Saturday evening, December 5, 8pm, at Hallwalls. The film will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Demetrea Dewald and Rebekah Dewald, Patrick O’Connell, and Ron Ehmke, former Hallwalls performance curator and co-founder of ACT-UP Buffalo. $8 P general, $6 students/seniors, $5 members.-M. FAUST

IN CINEMAS NOW BY M. FAUST & GEORGE SAX

PREMIERES OPENING FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4

KRAMPUS—I can’t believe it took so long for someone to make a movie based on the Alpine folklore about St. Nick’s counterpart, the one who deals with the naughty kids. The movie isn’t being previewed, but given that it stars Adam Scott, Toni Collette, and David Koechner, it’s a safe bet that it’s going for funny more than scary. Directed by Michael Dougherty. Area theaters

ALTERNATIVE CINEMA

THE BISHOP’S WIFE (1947)—Cary Grant as an angel sent to help a bishop (David Niven) who is so obsessed with fundraising for a new cathedral that he’s neglecting his wife (Loretta Young). One of the best holiday fantasies ever to come out of Hollywood, with one of Grant’s most irresistible performances. The Public’s M. Faust will introduce the Saturday show. SatSun 11:30am. North Park DICK JOHNSON & TOMMY GUN VS THE CANNIBAL COP—Buffalo-based action-comedy-horror-buddy cop movie starring John Renna and Sam Qualiana as cops on the hunt for a serial killer. With Debbie Rochon, Danny Hicks, and Timothy Quill. Directed by Chris Rados. Fri 10pm. Screening Room EXPERIMENTER— Peter Sarsgaard as social psychologist Stanley Milgram, whose 1961 experiments shocked the world in proving how easy it was to provoke ordinary people into torturing test subjects, as long as an authority figure commanded them to do so. With Winona Ryder, Anton Yelchin, John Leguizamo, Anthony Edwards, Dennis Haysbert, Lori Singer, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Jim Gaffigan. Directed by Michael Almereyda (Nadja). Wed-Thu 7:30pm. Screening Room THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI [1947] and TOUCH OF EVIL [1958]—Two of Orson Welles’s rare films made with Hollywood money, constricted by studio demands but still showing traces of auteurist spirit. Sat 1pm. Central Library, 1 Lafayette Square THE LADY OF THE CAMELLIAS—From the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, a new production of John Neumeier’s adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel with music by Chopin. Sun 12:55pm. Amherst LET THE RECORD SHOW—Documentary recalling Manhattan’s artists struggle to win attention for AIDS research in the 1980s and 1990s. Directed by Demetrea Dewald. Sat 8pm. Hallwalls A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (a.k.a. STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN, Great Britain, 1946)—Michael

Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s beloved fantasy starring David Niven as a RAF pilot arguing for his life before a heavenly court after his plane is shot down in the Pacific. With Kim Hunter, Raymond Massey, and Richard Attenborough. Presented by the Buffalo Film Seminars. Tue 7pm. Amherst (Dipson) WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954)—It hasn’t aged terribly well, the mawkishness of the plot is mitigated only by the film’s failure to pay much attention to it, and the title song (first used a dozen years earlier in Holiday Inn) is framed with the reverence of a visit from the pope. But the urge to wallow in it is undeniable, at least if you’re of a certain age. Starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, and Dean Jagger; look for George Chakiris as a dancer. Directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca).-MF — Fri-Sat, Tue 7:30pm. Screening Room

IN BRIEF

THEATER INFORMATION IS VALID THROUGH THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3

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 Four Seasons, Regal Elmwood, Regal Transit BROOKLYN—Saoirse Ronan stars as an Irish girl who emigrates to the United States in 1951, when the economy of her home country was in shambles. Adapted from Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel by Nick Hornby, Brooklyn is not only an extraordinarily good film; it’s also an important one, arriving as it does at a time when so many people are being forced to leave the lands of their birth and so many normally decent people want to turn them away. Emotionally rendered by an attractive cast and crafted in the best traditions of mainstream filmmaking—it wouldn’t look out of place if you were to see it some evening on Turner Classic Movies—Brooklyn is a captivating and rewarding moviegoing experience, the kind that at best comes along once or twice a year. Co-starring Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, and Julie Walters. Directed by John Crowley (Closed Circuit). –MF Eastern Hills (Dipson), North Park

20 THE PUBLIC / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

CREED—Sylvester Stallone finished his long-running Rocky series with Rocky Balboa in 2006, but writer-director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station) convinced him to let him use the character in a spin-off film focusing on the illegitimate son (Michael B. Jordan) of Apollo Creed. Determined to follow in his father’s footsteps, her persuades the retired Rocky (Stallone moving into the Burgess Meredith part) to coach him. The result is a crowd pleaser that pays affectionate tribute to memorable locations and characters from the Rocky films while following a different structure. Coogler also retains Stallone’s sentimentality, and the notes struck by the cast here are honest, even if the challenge faced by his hero feels contrived. With Tessa Thompson and Phylicia Rashad. –Greg Lamberson Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria THE GOOD DINOSAUR—There’s a subversive charm in the way Disney/Pixar’s latest effort inverts stereotypes without explanation—the family of apatosauruses (I checked) runs a farm complete with crops and livestock, and a human cave toddler acts like a dog—but this hero’s journey is a long haul for adults. After young Arlo’s father is killed in typical Disney fashion and a storm casts Arlo far away, he makes a perilous journey home. Sam Elliott won me over as the voice of a grizzled T-Rex cowboy, but the overly familiar plot points are fossils. I preferred “Sanjay’s Super Team,” the preceding short. Directed by Peter Sohn. –GL 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! LOVE THE COOPERS—Remember Love, Actually? Writer Steven Rogers (Stepmom) and director Jessie Miller (I Am Sam) obviously did in fashioning this American answer to Richard Curtis’s movie about different people approaching Christmas while dealing with variously comic and dramatic circumstances. But it lacks the British film’s nimbleness, coming off as a bunch of underwritten stories played by a better cast than it deserves: John Goodman, Diane Keaton, Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin, Amanda Seyfried, Marisa Tomei, Ed Helms, Anthony Mackie, and June Squibb. Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge, 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 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 cando 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 interested in illustrating Weir’s problem-solving than the more familiar stuff about NASA mounting a rescue operation. The overall result would be more enjoyable on a popcorn level if the first half hadn’t put you in a logical mode that the second half abandons. (The disco music is particularly idiotic—as if a mission to Mars in even the near future couldn’t come equipped with at least as much music as you or I could fit on a thumb drive right now.) With Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Pena, Sean Bean. Directed by Ridley Scott (Prometheus). -MF Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria 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). Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria THE PEANUTS MOVIE—Charles Schultz’s beloved comic strip characters in a 3D animated feature scripted by his son and grandson. It’s as faithful as can be to the spirt of the original comic strip and TV cartoons, so adults who grew up with Charlie Brown, LInus, Lucy, and Snoopy won’t find a fond childhood memory assaulted. Directed by Steve Martino (Horton Hears a Who). Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria ROOM—A young woman raises her five-yearold son in small room while trying to hid form him the reality of their situation, that they are being held captive by the man who kidnapped and raped her. A crucial part of the Room’s impressive achievement is to render this situation persuasive as we experience it from the boy’s perspective. Adapted by Irish writer Emma Donoghue from her own novel, it’s a conceit that is easier to pull off in literature than with the objectifying glare of movies, but director Lenny Abrahamson somewhat improbably succeeds in conveying the receptive suggestibility of a small child and his construction of a little world. If the second half, in which the boy discovers the real world, it never really loses its focus, thanks largely to the acutely sensitive and sometimes riveting performances of Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay as mother and son. -GS. Eastern Hills (Dipson) SECRET IN THEIR EYES is a remake of the 2010 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, though changed so much that you may not notice. Shortly after 9/11, three people working on a Los Angeles anti-terrorism unit find their lives disrupted when the teenaged daughter of one is brutally murdered. That part of the story is interwoven with the same people 13 years later, reopening the unsolved case. As

IN CINEMAS NOW 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 7357372 / sunset-drivein.com TRANSIT DRIVE-IN 6655 South Transit Rd., Lockport 625-8535 / transitdrivein.com

the pivotal character, Chiwetel Ejiofor makes good use of his gift for expressive empathy; Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts, by contrast, hold their cards in closer. It’s an unwieldy story with a lot of red herrings and an ending you probably won’t be expecting: You may not find it satisfying, but it’s not boring. With Dean Norris and Alfred Molina. Directed by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass). –MF Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria SPECTRE—The 24th official James Bond movie is a letdown after Skyfall, though still better than any of the Bonds of the 1980s and 1990s. (A low bar, that.) Concluding his term as 007 in a series that essentially rebooted the franchise, Daniel Craig makes his reported unhappiness with the character part of his performance. But the script struggles to weave the previous Craig films into a common storyline, while preparing for a future that will feature bigger roles for team Bond—M (Ralph Fiennes), Q (Ben Whishaw), and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris). With Christoph Waltz as the villain of the piece, Léa Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, and Jesper Christensen. Directed by Sam Mendes (Skyfall). -MF Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria SPOTLIGHT—One of the very best movies ever made about the working press, a group that can certainly use a little support in the fact of the preening entertainment personalities, opinion pushers and bombastic bloggers who have given modern journalism a bad name. Recounting the efforts of an investigative unit at the Boston Globe to uncover decades of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests and the diocese’s cover-up, the film isn’t overburdened by seriousness. Focusing on the team that worked the story, this is a film about people; with an ensemble of performances that work individually and together. It keeps a humane focus even as it generates drama. Starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, and Stanley Tucci. Directed by Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent). –GS Amherst (Dipson) SUFFRAGETTE—Docudrama following women working the get the vote in early-20th-century London who turn to civil disobedience after decades of peaceful campaigning 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) TRUMBO—Bryan Cranston is suitably amusing as Dalton Trumbo, the rakish, self-indulgent but courageous screenwriter who wrote some of Hollywood’s greatest scripts even while he was blacklisted in the 1950s. Recounting the history of the “Hollywood 10.” Jay Roach’s film is only partly successful, self-handicapped by a combination of earnest striving for accuracy and honesty up against some muddled, fact-challenged recreations and too much drab narrative about Trumbo’s family life. With Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson, Helen Mirren as a broad, crude Hedda Hopper, Diane Lane, and Louis C.K. –GS Amherst (Dipson), Eastern Hills (Dipson) VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN—This vaguely steampunk version of the man who made a monster unfolds primarily from the perspective of Frankenstein’s assistant Igor (Daniel Radcliffe), whom he rescues from servitude at a circus after recognizing his self-taught medical brilliance. It’s certainly a different take on a much-told story, with James McAvoy a gleefully loony but energetic Dr. F. But it all leads to naught with a perfunctory climax. The amount of violence and gore in this PG-13 film is further proof, if any were needed, that the MPPA ratings are utterly worthless. With Andrew Scott and Jessica Brown Findlay. Directed by Paul McGuigan (Gangster No. 1). –MF Flix (Dipson), Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker P

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Cash Mob THE WESTSIDE BAZAAR 11/28/15 . 10AM-8PM 25 GRANT ST, BUFFALO

The West Side Bazaar is a not-forprofit international market and food destination located on the West Side.

The Public intends to support local business and the community as a whole with our cash mob series this holiday season. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, we encourage you to join us and support the local businesses outlined to the left. All cash mobs are open to the public!

QUEEN CITY MARKET 12/5/15 . 11AM-5PM KARPELES MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY 453 PORTER AVE BUFFALO The Queen City Market is an one-stopholiday-shop, featuring 50+ local vendors, artists, and food trucks.

HORSEFEATHERS 12/12/15 . 10AM-2PM 346 CONNECTICUT ST, BUFFALO

Horsefeathers winter market is a two floor market that hosts local artisans and great spot to sit for a meal.

WNYBAC 12/18/15 . 4PM-6PM 468 WASHINGTON ST, BUFFALO

Western New York Book Arts Center is hosting their 8th annual Last Minute Panic Holiday Sale, filled with unique handmade goods.

CULTURE > FILM

VISIT DAILYPUBLIC.COM FOR MORE FILM LISTINGS & REVIEWS >> DAILYPUBLIC.COM / DECEMBER 2 - 8, 2015 / THE PUBLIC 21

PUBLIC MARKET TO PLACE AN AD CALL (716)856.0737 OR EMAIL CLASSIFIEDS@DAILYPUBLIC.COM / DAILYPUBLIC.COM/CLASSIFIEDS

NORTH BUFFALO 3 Bedroom apartment. Off Hertel, near Delaware park and less the 20 minute drive from North Campus. Washer and dryer included as well as 1 spot off street parking, and additional space in basement. $900/mo. e-mail gjgikas@hotmail.com or call 716-9121586 -----------------------------------------------------WALDEN AVE Upper ($725.00) and Lower Apartment ($675.00) for Rent By Walden Avenue Buffalo call Divina 1855 452-3628 for more details -----------------------------------------------------KLEINHANS AREA Historic Orton Pl., 2 bdrm lwr, appl, lndry, wlk to BPO/Allen Street. Avail Jan 1, 2016. $700 + sec/util. 882-5028 ------------------------------------------------------

STUDIO, 1 & 2 BEDROOMS AVAILABLE STARTING AT $550.00 AND UP CALL 716-310-3153

THE ARTS

716.560.1891 nadiaibrahim.com ARGENTINE TANGO

THE REFINERY, located at 77 Saranac Avenue in Buffalo is looking to hire a full/part time stylist. Commission based pay. Please email therefinery77@gmail.com or call 716.783.9051 ------------------------------------------------------

Friend ly...play ful...so cial...yo u’ll get bunny hugs all day long from BILLIE !! Hop to it and call SPCA ADOP TIONS , 716-8 75-73 60, or visit YourS PCA.o rg! . YOURSPCA.ORG . 205 ENSMINGER RD. TONAWANDA 875.7360

www.traviswidricktango.com PHOENIX RISING THERAPEUTIC is looking for a NYS licensed massage therapist to rent a room in a busy practice in the Elmwood Village. Laundry on premise and parking included. Serious therapists inquire only. Please call (716) 551-0970!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

THANK YOU PATRONS

ALAN BEDENKO JACK MACK CAITLIN KROWELL AARON STAHURA ANNA MONACO HASTINGS MICHELLE MAIN TARA RINDFLEISCH LYNDSEY LOU DEVINE STEVEN RITTNER PIERCE MCCLEARY

BRIGID MALONEY NATASHA ALLARD JAMES LENKER KATHLEEN MORRISEY CORY MUSCATO <3 ALAN FELLER BRETT PERLA NANCY HEIDINGER DOUG CROWELL

CALL FOR WORK IMPACT ARTISTS GALLERY Exhibit: Avant. When: Jan 8 - 29, 2015. Reception: Jan 8, 2015 from 6 – 9 PM. Deadline: Dec. 16, 2015. Prospectus is on impactartistsgallery.org/call-forwork/

MISSED CONNECTIONS I saw you staring into the big ditch that will someday be an apartment building on the corner of West Delavan and Elmwood. The fence surrounding the pit had fallen down and part of me thought you were contemplating a leap into the mud pit. I asked if you were ok and you looked up slowly and said “yes” and walked away. Hope you didn’t jump, but if you did, I know a good attorney. Please contact me: 716-706-9254

MARKET

FLANEUR SPECIAL RUST BELT BOOKS 415 GRANT STREET FOR ALL THE IDLE LITTLE LOAFERS ON YOUR HOLIDAY LIST.

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Some of our favorite spots nearby the Queen City Market at Karpeles.

A former a church and forever architectural jewel plays home to a rotating exhibit of historical manuscripts and special cultural events, like this weekend’s Queen City Market.

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A new coffee shop with a new feel started by someone who is new to Buffalo. Stop in for some avocado toast and your daily caffeine fix.

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2 TIPICO COFFEE / 128 FARGO AVE

Some of the best Puerto Rican food in the city. If you’re not in the mood for rice and beans with roast pork—which is nuts—try the cubano or tripleta sandwich.

Every Tuesday 7pm to 9pm Guided Practice Session $10 1526 Main St. Buffalo Drop ins welcome.

WEST ALLENTOWN

3 SAZON CRIOLLO / 272 HUDSON ST

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EMPLOYMENT

APPLIED PAINTERS INTERIOR PAINTING 716-533-3177 -----------------------------------------------------LANDSCAPING + FALL CLEANUPS TRIMMING AND MAINTANENCE DESIGN AND PLANTING Call Jordan at Plant Matter 716-249-1519 -----------------------------------------------------LEARN ABOUT MEDITATION Open House every Thursday evening at 7. Free instruction. Shambhala Meditation Group. Find out about us at: buffalo.shambhala.org -----------------------------------------------------FREE LEGAL ADVICE The Free Legal Advice Clinic is free of charge and open to the public. Lawyers will be on hand to discuss issues and give advice on ANY issues you have questions about. Hosted by WNY Council on Occupational Safety and Health (WNY COSH) and PUSH Buffalo. Our Lady of Hope Church corner of Lafayette and Grant. Thursday 11-19 -15 4:30pm to 6:30 pm Any questions call Marshall at WNY COSH @ (716) 833-5416

Meet ! Billie

FREE YOUTH WRITING WORKSHOPS Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30 - 6 PM. Open to writers between ages 12 and 18 at the Just Buffalo Writing Center. 468 Washington Street - 2nd floor., Buffalo 14203. Light snack provided!

A P P L I E D PA I N T E R S 716-533-3177

APARTMENTS

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4 ALLEN STREET POUTINE / 242 ALLEN ST Allentown’s brightest corner brings traditional and experimental poutine combos south of the border. Make sure to draw on their wall!

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5 LOOP MAGAZINE / 224 ALLEN ST Buffalo’s LGBT/queer magazine celebrates their 50th issue during the First Friday Gallery Walk. Meet their pick of 50 influential people.

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A newly reopened neighborhood cafe serving west Allentown and the D’Youville College area with coffee, desserts, and simple lunches.

Comprehensive nightspot with food and entertainment specializing in throwback hip hop like this weekend’s appearance from rap duo Nice & Smooth.

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6 BUFFALO ROME / 388 PORTER AVE

7 DUKE’S BOHEMIAN GROVE BAR / 253 ALLEN ST

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THE PUBLIC’S NOTICE The Public encourages you to use caution while participating in any transactions or acquiring services through our classified section of the newspaper. While we do approve the ads in this section, we do not guarantee the reliability of classified advertisers. If you have questions, email classifieds@dailypublic.com.

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FAMOUS LAST WORDS BACK PAGE

THE GRUMPY GHEY avoid it. Unfortunately, that seems like the only way. The implication, driven home by beloved stories like How the Grinch Stole Christmas and It’s a Wonderful Life, is that you’re a cold-hearted curmudgeon if you’re not onboard with all the holiday shenanigans and need to be shown the light. We’ve been socialized to believe that there’s something inherently wrong with us if we can’t muster a festive tone this time of year. And for anyone that has trouble doing so, our friends and associates have been raised to believe it’s their responsibility to bring us ‘round. Barf. Christmas has been hijacked. It’s been bastardized and perverted. It’s no longer recognizable as its former self. It’s a back-alley plastic surgery disaster. I was choking on my food at dinner the other night, listening to an acquaintance yarning on about the various goodies he snagged during Target’s Black Friday blowout (all for himself and his partner to enjoy, no giving involved). To try and explain what bothered me about it would’ve potentially meant throwing him under the bus, so I just sat and nodded. It’s not fair to hold one person accountable for the wrongs of an entire culture, however tempting.

THE MOST HIDEOUS TIME OF THE YEAR There’s nothing wrong with not loving the holidays, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise

BY CHRISTOPHER JOHN TREACY

CALL ME GRUMPY, but the holidays really chap my ass.

My disdain becomes more pronounced with each passing holiday season, and I find myself wishing it just didn’t happen. For anyone. Anywhere. Ever. To hell with little Cindy-Lu Who and her adorable pink onesie. I’ve begun to think we ought to just cancel the holidays altogether. What’s that you say? My heart is two sizes too small? Are you harvesting my organs to pay for Christmas this year? Right, then let’s not worry about the size of my heart. When I was a kid, I loved the holidays. Most kids do. The magic of the bright lights, the insular sense of familial well-being, the extended time off from school…what’s not to like? And let’s not forget the gifts. By the time I was in college, my Christmas list was a word-processed booklet, broken down into categories with specific directions and suggestions for where to find the more evasive items. Both my gluttonous list and I were bona-fide pieces of work. All of that’s changed. Holiday giving and receiving is meager on Planet Grump. My industry slows way down between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, which means I’m usually pretty broke by the time the jolly fat man lubes himself with margarine for the trip down my chimney. As I write this from inside a corporate coffee shop, I’m shocked and appalled to discover that Earth, Wind, and Fire’s “September” has been digitally altered to become “December.” Seriously? Nothing is sacred. Much in the same way that the food industry (we’ll call it Big Sugar) has taken pumpkin spice varietals well beyond the pale, we seem determined to make everything in our world have a holiday twist from mid-November through the end of the year. “Forced” doesn’t even scratch the surface. You can’t buy groceries without having the holidays rammed down your throat. I’m subjected to the legend of Rudolph while I hunt for a brick of cheddar, sung, thank-

fully, by a mid-century crooner. (Auto-tuned Christmas carols are just the lowest of the low.) In a different coffee shop, Miss Piggy repeatedly squeals “five gold rings” over the din of conversation. It was genuinely funny once or twice, but by the 10th time, I’m harboring a fantasy about stabbing her chubby felt neck with a fistful of coffee stirrers. Who thought any of this was a good idea? It’s as if nothing else were happening in the world (and yet so much is). There’s no escape. We’re all being penetrated by a gigantic corporate Christmas tree whether we like it or not: “Sorry, folks, we realize the needles are a tad sharp, but there’s a complimentary fresh tube of peppermint-stick-scented ointment in your mailbox at home.” For some people, the holidays are really difficult on a basic emotional level. For LGBTQ folks in particular, it can be a reminder of old rejections and hurts from unsupportive family. Maybe you feel obligated to reunite with people who don’t respect you, which leads to all kinds of negative thinking. But folks in our community feeling forlorn around the holidays need to know: They’re not missing out on anything. The truth is that the holiday season has become a cesspool of greedy behavior and unchecked alcoholism. Fret not, it’s nothing you’d want to deal with anyway. But the problem is that we can’t escape it no matter where we go, so an illusion is established that makes people feel like they’re missing out on something great. It’s cruel. The true spirit of Christmas is a celebration of life. It’s a celebration available to anyone who wants it, for anyone who isn’t bothered by its Judeo-Christian connotations. And, as I’d interpret it, it’s a celebration that’s meant to transcend things like gender and sexual preference. But not everyone wants it. And those folks shouldn’t have to stay indoors without any media exposure in order to

But those circulating clips of rabid individuals trampling one another and grabbing items out of each other’s arms early on Black Friday? Those should be used to identify the culprits, who should then be rounded up and sent to a work camp, indefinitely. Perhaps Jane Goodall can be called upon to deal with them until they demonstrate their worthiness to rejoin the rest of us. These people are the dregs of humanity, and don’t bother trying to play the race card with me here, because the behavior is perpetrated by all colors, all creeds. Sale prices have reduced us to animalism, wherein we creep up on others and rip the fresh kill right out of their mouths. We laugh because we’re at a loss for how else to deal with the ugliness. It’s funny because it’s absurd; it doesn’t seem real. But much of it is. You call that Christmas spirit? A savior was born (or, if you don’t believe in saviors, let’s just call him a historically cool dude) and this has become an excuse for some of the most appalling public behavior in the supposedly civilized world. I fail to follow the logic. For years, I’ve tried to nail down what’s missing from my experience of the holidays that used to dependably fill me with warmth. Black Friday obviously isn’t it, but there’s no denying that the big splash of gifts received caused a massive dopamine party in my brain. Over time, however, I became convinced there was more to it than that. I didn’t want to believe that the only thing that made me tick around the holidays was the promise of goodies. Turns out, thankfully, that what’s missing isn’t something that can be purchased: It’s a sense of reassurance and familiarity. For me, the holidays were about finding comfort in the knowledge that, regardless of what else is going on, my family would come together for a brief period every year and attempt to enjoy each other’s company. Some years were better than others, but there was a ritual in place. Which isn’t to say that there’s no joy to be had in gathering with friends and exchanging some gifts or enjoying a nice meal. But it’s not the same sensation and lacks the reassurance that all is right with the world—because it isn’t, and a new flat-screen television won’t change that. What remains of the holiday season offers so little in terms of genuine fellowship, it’s a shame that anyone should feel like they’re missing out. What they’re missing died a slow, painful death starting in the middle of the last century and finally petering out completely 15 or 20 years ago. All that remains is brash, cheap, and unspeakably phony, but it will never completely go away. Believing it will implies that we’re capable of learning something from our mistakes, and the track record isn’t very good. There’s nothing wrong with not loving the holidays, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. There’s no shame in disapproving of what’s happened to Christmas now that large corporations have so grossly distorted and destroyed it. In fact, if more of us were honest with ourselves, we might realize that the holiday season makes us feel put upon, obligated, strained, and unhappy, none of the which are in the true spirit of giving or celebrating the birth of someone great. I’m not a religious person, but maybe this year I’ll go to midnight mass and see if I can find some holiday spirit there. After all, isn’t that where this annual shindig really got started? Maybe that’s where it should’ve stayed. P

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