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COMMENTARY: BRUCE JACKSON ON KILLER COPS AND GRAND JURIES

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NEWS: WAYNE BARRETT ON THE SECRETS OF THE SILVER TRIAL

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ART: A. J. FRIES AND KAREN ECKERT: COLLECT ART NOW!

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THEATER: THIS WEEKEND ONLY: AMAHL & THE NIGHT VISITORS

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ON DAILYPUBLIC.COM: READ ABOUT “THE BACHELOR,” THE FIRST GENTLEMEN’S

Advertisers Signature HOUSE BUILT IN BUFFALO. ELLICOTT DEVELOPMENT IS SEEKING TO APARTMENT

DEMOLISH IT TO MAKE WAY FOR A 12-STORY HOTEL AND APARTMENT COMPLEX.

____________________________ Date Issue:

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THIS WEEK

GEOFF / Y16W1 ______________________

IF YOU APPROVE ERRORS WHICH ARE ON THIS PROOF, THE PUBLIC CANNOT BE ISSUE NO. THE 59AD| JANUARY 6, 2016 HELD RESPONSIBLE. PLEASE EXAMINE THOROUGHLY EVEN IF THE AD IS A PICK-UP. THIS PROOF MAY ONLY BE USED FOR PUBLICATION IN THE PUBLIC. LOOKING BACKWARD: FILM:

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Franklin & Tupper, 1948: The Bachelor, slated for demolition.

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INVESTIGATIVE POST: Quick Hit: Funding for Scajaquada Creek cleanup.

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CENTERFOLD: Lory Pollina’s Noosphere # 12.

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The Revenant, plus cinema listings aand capsule reviews.

THE GRUMPY GHEY: The Ugly It.

ON THE COVER VINNY AJ ALEJANDRO is a Buffalo painter and muralist. He created this piece, Eyes on the Future, during The Public’s oneyear anniversary party on November 20.

SPOTLIGHT: Bills receiver Robert Woods takes on TV.

THE PUBLIC STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF GEOFF KELLY MUSIC EDITOR CORY PERLA MANAGING EDITOR AARON LOWINGER FILM EDITOR M. FAUST ASSISTING ART EDITOR BECKY MODA EDITOR-AT-LARGE BRUCE JACKSON CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ENVIRONMENT JAY BURNEY THEATER ANTHONY CHASE POLITICS ALLAN UTHMAN

ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER SPECIAL ACCOUNTS EXECUTIVE CY ALESSI ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES KEVIN THURSTON, MARIA C. PROVENZANO BARBARA FISHER PRODUCTION MANAGER GRAPHIC DESIGNER AMANDA FERREIRA

COVER IMAGE VINNY AJ ALEJANDRO COLUMNISTS ALAN BEDENKO, KEITH BUCKLEY, BRUCE FISHER, THOMAS DOONEY, JACK FORAN, MICHAEL I. NIMAN, GEORGE SAX, CHRISTOPHER JOHN TREACY

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SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER BILLY SANDORA-NASTYN

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DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SEAN HEIDINGER

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THE PUBLIC / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

LOCAL NEWS

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Two landmark applications, new liens for Pigeon, and the wait for medical marijuana

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 THE PUBLIC STAFF

Thursday, January 7, the City of Buffalo’s preservation board will start the process to designate as landmarks two properties whose owners are seeking demolition permits. The first is an apartment building at 329 Franklin Street, at the corner of Tupper, which Ellicott Development wants to tear down in service of a $75 million, 12-story, multi-use development anchored by a hotel and market-rate apartments.

To learn more about that apartment building, called the Bachelor, turn the page and have a look at this week’s “Looking Backward,” and read more about its history at dailypublic.com.

The other property is the Crosby Company’s complex at the corner of William and Pratt Streets. In November, the company applied for a demolition permit for five structures in the complex, “due to deterioration and collapse of structural walls and roofs.” On December 17, the Buffalo Preservation Board denied the company’s request for approval and agreed to seek landmark status for the complex.

Nonetheless, on December 22, workers from Empire Dismantlement began to remove the roof of a building on the north end of the complex on Pratt Street, between William and Broadway. (Empire Dismantlement had had heavy equipment staged at the north end of the complex for several weeks prior.) A source in the city’s Department of Permits & Inspections could not locate a permit for that work and did not believe one had been issued. Last week, workers began tearing up part of Pratt Street, apparently to cut off water to the building.

The Crosby Company and its facilities are certainly historic: Founded in 1896 by William H. Crosby and William H. Hill, the Crosby Company initially manufactured bicycle frames and parts, and later parts for automobiles. (An advertisement for the country’s first automobile show, in Chicago in 1901, declared, “Crosby metal stampings are playing an important part in the development of the automobile.”) Over

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the decades the clientele for its metal-stamping operations continued to diversify; in 1947 the company had 450 employees and produced, for example, 500,000 bathroom scales per year.

The company continues operations, mostly using the buildings at the toward the William Street end of the complex.

The founder’s name is memorialized on the side of the William Street building, but also in Crosby Hall (dedicated in 1932) at the South Campus of UB, where he was a trustee and to which he was a significant donor, and in the Crosby Building (built in 1916, currently owned by Ellicott Development) at the corner of Franklin and Mohawk downtown, just three blocks from the Bachelor and Ellicott Development’s proposed new 12-story building.

—GEOFF KELLY

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

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NEWS LOCAL

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BUFFALO HISTORY MUSEUM.

LOOKING BACKWARD: FRANKLIN & TUPPER, 1948 Franklin Street, at the intersection of West Tupper Street, was part of a dense residential neighborhood on the cusp of downtown. In this photograph taken in 1948, signs are visible for Laughlin’s, the Franklin Pharmacy, the Radio Doctor, and Peter O’Neill’s—Iroquois beer and ale advertised in the window. The Bachelor, a four-story apartment building designed by Green & Wicks and built in 1886, occupies the southeast corner, pictured on the left. The Bachelor, rented only to gentlemen bachelors, was originally advertised with the motto, “When a man’s single he lives at his ease.” The building contained 12 apartments, a ground-floor shop, and a resident janitor who cooked breakfast for the men. The main hall, lighted by a skylight, is the center of the building and still occupied by an original wood staircase, swinging doors for a long-gone freight elevator intact. Today, the Bachelor is one of few buildings that exists from this 1948 photograph. It is a historic gem, exactly the kind of building that downtown needs to continue its revitalization—but is now threatened. Ellicott Development has submitted plans to the City of P Buffalo to raze the Bachelor for a parking ramp and rooftop hotel. The Preservation Board takes up the demolition request this Thursday. -THE PUBLIC STAFF

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 STEVE PIGEON’S NEW TAX LIENS:

Who knows whether 2016 will see any closure to the state and federal investigation into political operatives Steve Pigeon, Steve Casey, and Chris Grant, which became very public when their houses were raided on May 28. What we do know is that Pigeon continues to accumulate liens.

On December 8, the IRS filed a federal tax lien of over $65,800. On December 22, the Admiral’s Walk condominium association filed a lien against Pigeon for $4,500 in unpaid condominium fees.

One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Pigeon has involved his ability to finance the massive cash outlays he supposedly made to and for candidates and committees. In late June 2015, we revealed that Pigeon had over $200,000 in liens asserted against him at that time: a March 2012 federal tax lien for $26,500; a March 2014 federal tax lien for $118,600; and a June 2015 federal tax lien for $126,200. Now we can add about $70,000 to that figure.

Pigeon has previously been caught in apparent arrears on his condominium fees and/or assessments, as he and tanning mogul Dan Humiston seemed to swap ownership and/or possession of two separate units at Admiral’s Walk.

Dedicated readers will recall that in February 2015, Pigeon used the Buffalo News’s Bob McCarthy for propaganda purposes, asserting that 4

he had more than enough liquid funds to play his typical games. He showed up with what he said were tax forms that purported to show that he had enough income to shell out six figures to obscure, small-potatoes political committees.

Pigeon opened his tax returns from the past several years to inspection at the News’s request in an effort to quell speculation that his contributions to the WNY Progressive Caucus in 2013 stemmed from anywhere but his own bank account. His records over the past three years indicate a mid-six-figure income, which he says proves his ability to spare $100,000 even for a fund supporting relatively low-level candidates.

He can afford big donations to a political cause the same way others could contribute to a church, he said, especially because he has no wife or children to support, takes few vacations, has no real hobbies, and lives a non-extravagant lifestyle.

“It sounds odd, but when you look at how I live and how much I make, it really isn’t,” he said.

He didn’t reveal his existing tax liens at the time, however.

These new liens are post-raid—the condo fees go back as far as June 2015—and underscore the difficulty in which Mr. Pigeon finds himself. One may also extrapolate from the IRS lien that Mr. Pigeon’s 2014 gross income was high enough to result in a $65,000 tax liability.

—ALAN BEDENKO

THE PUBLIC / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE LAST YEAR: On Monday, Buffalo’s Common Coun-

cil inaugurated the same leadership it had in 2015: Ellicott District Councilman Darius Pridgen as president, Niagara District Councilman David Rivera as majority leader, and South District Councilman Chris Scanlon as president pro tempore.

At the top of the Council’s agenda in 2016 is the Green Code, a proposed overhaul of the city’s land use and zoning plan that has taken five years to draft. It was submitted to the Council for approval at the end of October. There are a host of public hearings in the next month: on January 6, 6-7:30pm, at West Side Community Services, 161 Vermont Street; on January 12, 5:30-7pm, at the Saturn Club (977 Delaware Avenue); on January 13, 6-7:30pm, at the Grant Street Neighborhood Center (271 Grant Street); on January 16, noon-2pm, at Buffalo Seminary, 205 Bidwell Parkway; on January 20, 6-7:30pm, at the Richmond-Summer Center (335 Summer Street); on January 25, 5:30-7pm, at Buffalo Place (671 Main Street); and on January 28, 6-7:30pm, at Niagara Branch Library (280 Porter Avenue) and, 6-8pm, at North Buffalo Community Center (203 Sanders Road).

Find out more at buffalogreencode.com.

—THE PUBLIC STAFF

MEDICAL MARIJUANA STILL WEEKS AWAY FOR WESTERN NEW YORKERS: On Monday,

the eve of the earliest possible start of New York’s long-anticipated and widely panned medical marijuana program, a state Department of Health spokesperson finally broke silence to announce that the state will be up and running on Thursday, January 7.

If you or a loved one has been watching this play

out with baited breath, wondering when you’d legally be allowed to use a potentially life-altering drug to treat a severe ailment, our advice is keep breathing. The state’s deliberate and conservative program is a slow train coming, but it’s coming.

While the New York Daily News reports that at least one dispensary—Columbia Care’s Union Square depot—is set to open on Thursday, the two Buffalo-area locations seem at least a few weeks off. Although they started recruiting sales and security staff online early last month, there’s not even a sign outside 25 Northpointe Parkway in Amherst for Pharmacann’s proposed dispensary. Bloomfield has at least put its brand out at the busy intersection its dispensary will call home at Main and Union in Williamsville.

Neither company has responded to attempts to contact them.

The Buffalo Cannabis Movement issued a statement over the weekend, expressing frustration with the state’s progress and its restrictive applicative powers and haphazard sense of geography. (For example, we noticed in October that three dispensaries will be located within a four-mile radius in the Syracuse area.) Knowing that it could take several years for the drug to reach those in need of it throughout New York State, the group called on lawmakers to support the Crystal Peoples-Stokes-sponsored “full legalization” bill in the state legislature, the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA).

“We urge all local government officials to pressure our state representatives to focus on this issue, as it is not only a civil rights issue, but a human rights issue,” the group concluded.

—AARON LOWINGER

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LOCAL NEWS

COMMENTARY FINANCE

[ FAMILY RESTAURANT \

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BY DAN TELVOCK n State funds to restore the badly polluted Scajaquada Creek are beginning to trickle in.

The Buffalo Sewer Authority learned last month that it will get a $1.8 million grant through the Environmental Facilities Corporation to improve the water quality of Scajaquada Creek near Forest Lawn Cemetery. The work includes dredging sections of the creek in the cemetery to remove chemical pollution and wildlife-killing botulism toxin. Other work involves flood-control projects from Main Street to Elmwood Avenue and restoring wetlands near the creek to further filter pollutants.

The project is the culmination of three years of studies and design work by the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, US Army Corps of Engineers, and Forest Lawn Cemetery.

“This is a timely announcement that will help catalyze future restoration throughout the Scajaquada watershed,” said Jill Jedlicka, the executive director of the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper.

In addition, the Town of Cheektowaga gets an $80,000 state grant to investigate solutions to sewer overflows in the northern part of the town.

The state grants are part of the $83.9 million in awards for 125 different projects announced before the holidays by the Cuomo administration’s Western New York Regional Economic Development Council.

The sewer systems in Cheektowaga and Buffalo spew more than a half-billion gallons of sewage mixed with stormwater into the Scajaquada each year.

While this is progress, actually reducing the amount of sewer overflows that reach the creek will require a lot more money.

For example, the Buffalo Sewer Authority’s $380 million citywide remedial work plan includes $91 million for improvements that will significantly reduce overflows into Scajaquada Creek. But the big-impact projects aren’t scheduled to be finished for 12 to 15 years. In addition, engineering reports estimate that Cheektowaga needs $53 million for sewer infrastructure repairs townwide over the next decade, most of which will benefit Scajaquada Creek.

Securing that additional money will be a little easier now that the creek is listed on the Niagara River’s “Area of Concern,” a federal designation for environmentally damaged waterways. This means the creek now qualifies for federal funding similar to the Buffalo River cleanup project. n UPCOMING EVENTS: • Investigative Post’s “At Issue” event series resumes January 13 with a luncheon that will consider “Buffalo, in light of Ferguson.” Investigative Post editor Jim Heaney will moderate a panel discussion that will consider Buffalo’s legacy of poverty, crime, segregation, and other urban ills that disproportionately affect people of color.

Panelists include Reverend Darius Pridgen, pastor of True Bethel Baptist Church and president of the Buffalo Common Council, and Henry L. Taylor, a University at Buffalo professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and the founding director of the Center for Urban Studies.

The luncheon starts at noon at Osteria 166, located at 166 Franklin Street. Tickets are $25 ($10 for Investigative Post members) and can be purchased online at InvestigativePost.org/events.

OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS INCLUDE: • Trivia Night, Wednesday, January 27 at 7pm at Brawler’s Deli, in the basement of Pearl Street Grill.

Kevin O’Connell of WGRZ is quizmaster. Trivia topics include Buffalo news, sports, weather, and history.

• Happy hour panel discussion on Buffalo and Western New York’s sputtering democracy, Wednesday, February 24, 7pm at Allen Street Hardware.

• Real State of the City, presented by Investigative Post editor Jim Heaney, Wednesday, February 24, 7pm at Burchfield Penney Art Center.

The Public is the place to find print versions of muckraking reports produced by Investigative Post, the only news organization in Buffalo and Western New York dedicated exclusively to watchdog journalism. The collaboration between the two new organizations rounds out Investigative Post’s local press partnerships, which includes WGRZ TV 2 On Your Side; WBFO, 88.7 FM, Buffalo’s NPR news station; and Capitol Pressroom, an interview program carried on 20 public radio stations throughout upstate. All Investigative Post content is P also published on InvestigativePost.org.

MODERN MONOPOLIES The same capitalism that nurtures competition in other countries is being manipulated by monopolies in our own

BY ARI GOLDFARB WHEN ONE THINKS OF MONOPOLIES, some of the first images that come to mind are the board game, or the famous 19th- and 20th-century entrepreneurs who have universities and record labels named after them. These staples of American history have maintained complex, yet endearing personas. While they were able to completely control market prices, they also singlehandedly fixed the Panic of 1907.

Cornelius Vanderbilt once said, “What do I care about law? Ain’t I got power?” He built a vast amount of wealth Martin Shkreli through almost complete control of American railroads and shipping. The monopolies were easy for the general public, and the government to spot, because they were so tangible. A person can see, smell, hear, and touch industry/manufacturing. However, today, intellectual properties, patents, and copyrights, have made monopolies more difficult to spot.

The United States spends more than any other first-world country on healthcare.

USA Today reported in 2012 that we spent almost $9,000 per person. According to former secretary of labor Robert Reich, in his latest book Saving Capitalism, the government spent over $3 trillion on healthcare in 2014 and 10 percent went directly to the drug industry.

Martin Shkreli, the hedge fund manager turned pharmaceutical CEO, was made famous a few months back when he hiked the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill. Though his actions represented the less flattering side of capitalism, they did one important thing. “Pharma Bro,” as dubbed by the media, brought widespread social media conversation to the state of modern monopolies in the American economy.

Though Shkreli’s case brought price-gouging to the media spotlight, this is not a new issue. Before 1990 many vaccines were open to the public domain because companies were unable to patent derivatives of nature. However, in the 1990s the US government changed this ruling. In Reich’s book, he writes that in the past 20 years the number of applications for patents on vaccines increased tenfold, and companies like Pfizer have drastically increased profits; in 2013 the multinational drug company based in New York City earned over $4 billion.

All this paperwork allows companies to hold the rights to create and distribute lifesaving drugs until the patents run out, and then re-patent the same recipe with insignificant changes once the original documents expire. Even though these drugs are cheaper overseas, it is illegal for Americans to shop in foreign markets. Reich writes that in 2012, Congress authorized US Customs to destroy drugs purchased outside of the country. The reason given was to protect citizens from counterfeits, but Reich reveals that from 2002 to 2012, tens of millions of prescriptions were filled over the internet and that there was not a single case of an American being harmed by the drugs they purchased from abroad.

Not only are the American drug companies able to set the prices of our medication, but they have also successfully cut off our ability to seek cheaper vendors, even if they are selling the same product. How are big pharmacies able to do this?

According to OpenSecret.org, Big Pharma shelled out well over $30 million in campaign contributions during the last presidential election. Reich writes that in 2013 these companies spent $225 million on lobbyists. They have also successfully paid off generic drug companies through pay for delay agreements. Generic drug companies receive large sums of cash, and in return Big Pharma earns enormous profits from the market.

Pharmaceutical companies are far from the only monopolies in this country. Most billion-dollar institutions see the value of intellectual property rights and dedicate millions of dollars to collecting as much as they can. Even companies we respect as true American tech giants, like Apple and Google, are tied up in the patent treasure hunt. Gizmodo.com and the New York Times have both written about how in 2012 Apple and Samsung spent more money litigating than researching and developing new technology. In 2011 Google spent over $12 billion dollars to acquire over 17,000 patents from Motorola.

Part of the problem is our patent system and the revolving door between Washington, DC and the private sector. We live in a country where government officials are rewarded with high-paying jobs from corporations which they have helped with legislation. For example, Meredith Atwell Baker was able to jump from the Federal Communications Commission to a senior vice president of government affairs for NBC Universal, after helping push Comcast’s bid to buy NBC in 2011.

By allowing companies to eliminate competition, Americans are rewarded with higher-priced mediocrity. That is why we pay more than any other advanced country for internet and cable services, yet have slower speeds; PBS reports that a New Yorker will pay double the cost of internet compared to someone in London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, or Seoul, and move eight times slower. Many households in the United States have almost no choices for cable and internet providers; and even if they choose to go satellite or cellular, they still do not have many choices. This is because the same capitalism that nurtures competition in other countries is being manipulated by monopolies in our own.

The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete.

Any opinions are those of Jeffrey Goldfarb and are not necessarily those of Raymond James. Expressions of opinion are as of this date and are subject P to change without notice.

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

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NEWS COMMENTARY

Tamir Rice, shot by Cleveland police November 22, 2014.

WHEN COPS KILL What is wrong with a legal system that treats police and their victims so unevenly?

BY BRUCE JACKSON

RARITIES On October 20, 2014, Laquan McDonald, 17, was shot 16 times

by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. The officer had 18 civilian complaints in his record. McDonald, police said, had been slashing tires. Nine of the shots hit him at a downward angle, indicating he was on the ground. Freelance journalist Brandon Smith made 15 FOIA attempts to see the dashcam video of the shooting. Chicago police refused to release it. Smith went to court August 5, 2015, and on November 19 a judge ordered the video released. The city released the six-minute dashcam, which shows McDonald walking away from the police cruiser when Van Dyke got out of it and immediately opened fire. Van Dyke was arrested without bail and charged with first degree murder the following day. (Time sequence from Medill News Service.)

On April 4, 2015, Walter Scott, 50, was killed by North Charleston, South Carolina police officer Michael Slager. Scott was running away after being stopped for a broken taillight. Slager claimed Scott had taken his stun gun and that he felt himself in mortal danger, but a cellphone video by a passserby showed Slager shooting Scott in the back (he fired eight rounds at the running man), handcuffing the motionless Scott, going back toward to his car, getting an object—probably the Taser—and planting it near the body. Slager was charged with murder.

Six police officers have been charged in death of Freddie Gray, 25, in Baltimore. Arrested April 12, Gray died of spinal injuries during the ride. One officer was charged with second-degree murder, the others with manslaughter by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, and/or assault in the second degree, misconduct 6

THE PUBLIC / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

in office, and false imprisonment. There has already been one mistrial in the case.

White cops who kill black suspects are rarely indicted for anything. I don’t know what percentage of those killings are wholly justified and what percentage are not. Congress has made accurate gun death information very difficult to get. (The NRA pays well.)

Would Van Dyke have been indicted had not Brandon Smith made those 15 FOIA requests and finally getting a court order forcing the Chicago Police to release the dashcam? Would Michael Slager’s story about shooting only because he was in fear for his life have prevailed had it not been for that passerby with his cellphone video?

USUALS Sometimes even a video won’t take it anywhere. There was an unambiguous video of New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo applying an illegal chokehold to Eric Garner on July 17, 2014.

Garner’s ostensible offense was selling loose cigarettes. He kept saying, “I can’t breathe.” Pantaleo did not let go of his throat and killed Garner. Pantaleo was not indicted.

Tamir Rice, 12, was shot by Cleveland rookie officer Timothy Loehmann on Nov. 22, 2014. There had been a 911 call reporting a man with a gun in a park. The gun was a pellet gun, though the police couldn’t have known that. But if they thought the man in the park had a real gun, why did they pull up about seven feet from him and open fire two seconds later, while the po-

lice cruiser was still moving? What if they had stopped 75 feet away and used their car speaker to say, “Put the weapon on the ground and put your hands up?” If the grand jury was asked to evaluate the shooting on the basis of the moment the shot were fired, they might reasonably have concluded that the bullets were fired in perceived self-defense. If the time-frame were pushed back one-minute so they could consider if the danger existed only because of police incompetence, they very well might have reached a different conclusion. You can’t claim self-defense if you provoked the dangers from which you’re protecting yourself.

According to the New York Times, “The [911] caller added that the gun was ‘probably fake,’ and that the person waving it was ‘probably a juvenile.’ But those caveats were not relayed to Officer Loehmann or his partner, Frank Garmback, who was diving the patrol car. Officer Loehmann, who is white, opened fire within seconds of arriving at the park. Officer Garmback was also spared any charges.” (The Times article includes a surveillance camera video of the shooting.)

What was that Cuyahoga grand jury told? We’ll never know.

Grand jurors are prohibited by law from talking about what transpires in that room. Neither Garmback, a training officer, nor Loehmann, a rookie with problems in a previous police job, was indicted. “In announcing the decision,” wrote Timothy Williams and Mitch Smith in the Times on December 28, 2015, “Timothy J. McGinty, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, said he had recommended that the grand jurors not bring charges in the killing of the boy, Tamir Rice, who was playing with the gun outside a recreation center in November 2014.”

COMMENTARY NEWS

BOTH POLICEMEN IN THE TAMIR RICE CASE TESTIFIED BEFORE THE GRAND JURY. BUT NO ONE CROSS-EXAMINED THEM. I DOUBT THAT THEIR ATTORNEYS WOULD HAVE ALLOWED THEM TO TESTIFY HAD NOT THE PROSECUTOR LET THEM KNOW HE WAS GOING TO RECOMMEND THAT THE JURY NOT RETURN AN INDICTMENT. JUDGE SOL WACHTLER’S LINE ABOUT PROSECUTORS BEING ABLE TO GET A GRAND JURY TO INDICT A HAM SANDWICH HAS A FLIP SIDE: A PROSECUTOR CAN GET A GRAND JURY TO DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. It goes on. There was no indictment for police officer Darren Wilson, who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August, 2014. Nor in the death of Dontre Hamilton, shot 14 times, in Milwaukee, April 30, 2014. Nor in the death of John Crawford, 22, shot to death August 5, 2014, in a Wal-Mart in Beavercreek, Ohio, while holding a toy BB gun.

COPS, DAS, AND GRAND JURIES Prosecutors go to grand juries in potential felony cases because (in some states) they have to, or (in other states) because they want to.

With rare exceptions, grand juries are prosecutors’ instruments, just as musicians in an orchestra are a conductor’s instruments.

Occasionally a grand jury doesn’t do what the prosecutor wants it to do, in which case it is called a “runaway grand jury.” That is, one that has gone off the designed path. They are very rare.

Some grand juries investigate, but most just hear evidence prepared entirely by the prosecutors. That evidence is often accompanied by a recommendation from the prosecutor. That is why Sol Wachtler, then chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, said in 1984 that a prosecutor could get a grand jury “to indict a ham sandwich.” The following year, the New York Times said Wachtler believed grand juries “operate more often as the prosecutors pawn than the citizen’s shield.” (Ironically, Wachtler was indicted in 1988 on extortion, racketeering, and blackmail charges; he pled guilty to harassing and did 15 months in federal prisons.)

The other side, any other side, has no voice in a grand jury room.

A grand jury hearing is not a trial. It is simply a group of citizens that listens to evidence, or things that look like evidence presented by a prosecutor, and on the basis of the information presented by the prosecutor they decide whether the case before it should or should not proceed to trial. Their decision has nothing to do with right or wrong, with guilt or innocence. It is only about whether or not the grand jury thinks there is enough evidence to go to trial.

In most states, prosecutors don’t need a grand jury: They can go to a judge and ask for an indictment directly. Prosecutors may use grand juries as a device to develop evidence in a case or, as in many of the police killings, as a way to avoid heat for not bringing a case to trial: “Don’t blame me. I brought it to the grand jury and they didn’t indict. My hands were tied.”

Prosecutors do not like bringing cops to trial. They are dependent on the police for all their felony work. Most of the time (think Law and Order) they work in close collaboration. The last thing a prosecutor wants is a rep for being hard on cops.

Some prosecutors with higher political ambition become riskaverse: They go to trial only with cases that seem like sure things.

A grand jury no-bill gets them insulation in a case they don’t want to risk at trial. Erie County’s former DA, Frank Sedita III,

recently anointed judge of the state Supreme Court (neither party fielded a candidate against him in the primaries; he’d have won if no one had voted for him other than himself ) had such a reputation. (For more on that, see “When Prosecutors Go Bad,” The Public, September 8, 2015.)

It’s not just prosecutors: J. Edgar Hoover frequently bragged that the FBI had the highest conviction rate of any law enforcement agency in the country, something well over 90 percent. It was true. The reason was, Hoover never brought anything to federal prosecutors he didn’t think was a sure thing. For years, he refused to let his agents investigate organized crime, some say because he thought the Mob had so much money they might corrupt his agents. Others say it was really because the Mob had so much money it could afford very good lawyers.

The fact that a grand jury did not indict tells us nothing other than that the grand jury did not indict. To know more, we’d have to know what was and what wasn’t presented to the grand jury by the prosecutor. But that information, by law, is secret, unless, after the case is closed, the prosecutor chooses to release some or all of it.

Although the grand jury goes back to 1166, it comes into our legal system via Article 61 of the Magna Carta in 1215, 800 years ago last June 15. Great Britain abandoned it 50 years ago. The US and Liberia are the only two countries that still have them.

The name “grand” refers to the number of participants, not the job: Trial juries are six or 12 individuals; grand juries are 16 to 24.

According to Findlaw, all states have laws allowing grand juries. Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia use them only for investigations. Twenty-three states require them for serious crimes: “Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Caroline, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. In the other 25 states, a grand jury is optional. In those states, charges may be brought by a document called an information.”

The important difference in a grand jury hearing and an information process is, there is almost always a preliminary hearing before a judge when a prosecutor presents an information. The prosecutor has to demonstrate reasonable cause. Both sides get to argue. With the grand jury, the prosecutor doesn’t have to prove reasonable cause; he just has to convince the lay jury that he has it; and the defendant is not represented.

from it, prosecutors rarely call potential defendants into the grand jury room. They may waive immunity, in which case their testimony can be used.

Both policemen in the Tamir Rice case testified before the grand jury. But no one cross-examined them. I doubt that their attorneys would have allowed them to testify had not the prosecutor let them know he was going to recommend that the jury not return an indictment. Judge Sol Wachtler’s line about prosecutors being able to get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich has a flip side: A prosecutor can get a grand jury to do absolutely nothing.

The testimony of the two police officers in the grand jury hearing in the Tamir Rice case appears to be part of their vindication more than anything else.

WHAT TO DO If the present system puts a cloud over police killings because of the intimate relationship between prosecutor’s offices and police departments, what is to be done?

A number of people have suggested that such cases are drowning in conflict of interest from the beginning, that the only time that conflict fades into the background is when there is overwhelming documentation in the public arena giving the prosecutor no choice but to act, as in the Laquan McDonald and Walter Scott killings. Even when prosecutors are acting perfectly responsibly and the grand jury is right in not indicting, there is nonetheless often a cloud over the entire affair.

It is said that Julius Caesar divorced his wife Pompea because she was suspected of wrongdoing: “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.”

So must our prosecutors, who have enormous power. We must be able to trust them in all things, or we can trust them in nothing.

Many critics of the current system advocate appointment of an independent prosecutor in cases like this, someone who does not have a day-to-day relationship with the organization that employs the potential defendant and who is not dependent on that organization for success in his or her job, someone who has no political interest in the outcome of the case, someone who no one can say has no interest in it but serving justice on all sides.

After the case is closed, a prosecutor may release grand jury evidence if the prosecutor thinks it contains things the public ought to know or hopes the documents will take heat off the grand jury’s action or lack of action, which St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch did in the shooting of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson.

California governor Jerry Brown recently signed a bill prohibiting secret grand juries in cases involving deadly force by law enforcement. The current system elsewhere in the US serves neither the police nor the rest of us well. If we had a system in which we could have confidence, police officers who killed without justification would be treated like anyone else who kills without justification. And police officers who killed under circumstances that really did make sense would not thereafter live under a cloud of doubt. As they do now.

On rare occasions, possible defendants appear before a grand jury. Since subpoenaed testimony before a grand jury cannot be used against the witness at trial, nor any information derived

Bruce Jackson is SUNY Distinguished Professor and the James Agee Professor of American Culture at the University at Buffalo. P

DAILYPUBLIC.COM / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / THE PUBLIC

7

NEWS STATE

SECRETS OF THE

SILVER

TRIAL A secret powerbroker and the chief judge: a deeper look at the Silver political machine

BY WAYNE BARRETT

Former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

PHOTO BY AZI PAYBARAH

CHINA’S POLITBURO LIMITS its general secretary to two five-year terms, less than half of Shelly Silver’s 20-year reign as speaker of New York’s Assembly. If Silver hadn’t been forced to resign after his arrest last January, and instead served out the two-year speaker term he’d just begun, he would have ruled Albany nearly as long as Saddam Hussein ran Iraq.

Silver made it clear before his downfall that he didn’t think his record tenure was enough. He groomed no successor. And in 2013, he pushed hard to change the state constitution so his lifelong sidekick, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, could get a 10-year extension of his term of office, putting an unsuccessful referendum on the ballot to waive the mandatory retirement age for top judges. He wanted to continue his hegemony over two branches of state government deep into another decade.

Seventeen years before Silver became speaker in 1994, he won a vacant Lower East Side Assembly seat, aided by then-Speaker Stanley Steingut. The Democratic conference in the Assembly elected Steingut speaker precisely 40 years after they’d put his father Irwin in the same leadership post. Together Irwin and Stanley Steingut owned their Flatbush Assembly seat for 56 consecutive years.

In 1976, the year Silver was first elected, Steingut’s chief counsel was Daniel Chill, and all these years later it was Chill, an obscure embodiment of the permanent government, who was the mystery man at the heart of the criminal case against Silver. Counsel to all six speakers since the 1970s, Chill introduced Silver to Dr. Robert Taub, the Columbia oncologist whose testimony helped convict Silver. Taub testified that he then began steering prized asbestos patients to Silver’s law firm, and subsequently got a half-million in state research grants through Silver. The firm, Weitz & Luxenberg, paid Silver a $3 million slice of the Taub bonanza.

Though Chill never appeared as a witness at Silver’s trial, exhibits and testimony indicate that he was part of the Taub deal each step of the way.

US Attorney Preet Bharara and Silver’s lawyers agreed to a stipulation that allowed some of

8

Chill’s actions to enter the record without Chill’s testimony, suggesting that the government did not want to put him on the stand. Chill did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Chill first casually introduced Silver and Taub in 1984, but he set up a second meeting in 2003.

Taub testified that Chill arranged the second meeting so that his childhood friend Taub could ask Silver if he could get the Weitz firm to financially support Taub’s mesothelioma research.

Silver indicated he didn’t think he could do it, but just days later, Chill came back to Taub to relay Silver’s request that the doctor refer his mesothelioma patients to the Weitz firm, which specializes in multimillion-dollar asbestos settlements. When Taub began supplying the lucrative referrals, Silver asked him not to tell Chill about any new ones.

Chill then suggested that Taub ask Silver for state grants, recommending an annual amount of $250,000. Chill even helped draft the letter to Silver seeking the initial grant, court exhibits revealed. When Taub’s first draft of the letter included a reference to Chill, the lawyer asked Taub “not to put his name in it,” and Chill’s name was omitted from the final letter.

It would’ve been awkward to include Chill on an Assembly grant submission since he’s one of the Assembly’s most expensive attorneys, having moved on from a staff counsel position to its outside counsel on all reapportionment matters in 1981. The only records available indicate that Chill’s firm, Graubard Miller, has been paid $4.4 million by the Assembly since 1996, an astonishing windfall approved by Silver even though the Assembly has had few real apportionment issues over these years. The Assembly payments to Graubard hit a high-water mark in 2003, the year Chill, Silver, and Taub did the asbestos deal.

New Speaker Carl Heastie has continued to use Chill, who filed a brief on Heastie’s behalf in September.

Silver’s isn’t the first scandal Chill has survived.

In fact, by the time Silver won his Assembly seat, Chill had already become a focus of the scandal that would cost Steingut his own seat in 1978.

While Steingut’s top aide, Chill was also repre-

THE PUBLIC / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

ALL THESE YEARS LATER IT WAS ATTORNEY DANIEL CHILL, AN OBSCURE EMBODIMENT OF THE PERMANENT GOVERNMENT, WHO WAS THE MYSTERY MAN AT THE HEART OF THE CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST SILVER… senting the most notorious nursing home owner in New York, Bernard Bergman, who was convicted of massive Medicaid fraud in 1976. The Bergman scandal, featuring deplorable conditions victimizing largely Jewish nursing home residents, pushed Chill out of his counsel position, but Steingut retained him as his commissioner on the Legislature’s bill drafting commission.

The bridge between Steingut and Chill was Chill’s father-in-law, Harold Jacobs, a leader in Steingut’s powerhouse Madison Club in Brooklyn (also home for Mayor Abe Beame and a builder named Fred Trump). It was also Jacobs, an influential rabbi who became president of the Orthodox Union, who rallied support for the unknown Silver in his first election in 1976, paving the way for the relationship between Chill and Silver. Chill, too, became a member of the Orthodox Union’s board of governors.

As lucrative as Chill’s Assembly business has been, it’s petty cash compared with what he won in a nine-year lawsuit, Lawrence v. Graubard Miller, which wound up affirming one of New York’s largest contested contingent law fees and most generous client gifts ever. The case went up and down the ladder of state courts twice, ending in a 2014 decision by the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, that awarded over $85 million to the Graubard firm.

This case, too, had a Silver connection. Jonathan Lippman, who cast the decisive fourth vote on the seven-member Court of Appeals in favor of the $5 million gift, and was one of five votes approving the $80 million fee. Silver had aided Lippman’s climb up the court ladder for

years, using his influence with Westchester party leaders to make him a Supreme Court judge and pushing Governor David Paterson to select him as chief judge.

Though Chill ultimately won, the long trail of the litigation was a rebuke to him in many ways.

The referee assigned to first hear it, Howard Levine, a former Court of Appeals judge, said Chill’s testimony was “incredible,” “implausible,” and “demonstrably inconsistent” years ago, but the finding had no effect on Chill’s continuing representation of the Assembly. Two of Chill’s former Graubard partners, including the partner that hired him, Scott Mollen, testified in connection with the Lawrence case that they “would not believe Chill even if he were under oath.” *** The saga started in 1983, when Graubard welcomed Chill as a partner, in part because of his Assembly business. It was also when Alice Lawrence, the widow of Manhattan real estate titan Sylvan Lawrence, retained the firm to sue her husband’s business partner and executor of his will, according to court documents in the case.

That dispute over the disposal of the properties owned by the partnership lasted for 22 years, with Lawrence paying Graubard $18 million in hourly fees.

In 1998, after a win in one of the many battles, Chill trekked out to Lawrence’s Connecticut home and, though he denied soliciting it, managed to get her to give $5 million to the three Graubard partners who worked the case, $2 million of it for himself. Later, Lawrence agreed to pay the $2.7 million tax on the gifts, which went

STATE NEWS to the same three Graubard attorneys that handled the Assembly business.

Testimony at the prolonged hearing in the case revealed that Lawrence and Chill decided in 2005 to change their hourly arrangement to a contingency fee. Chill wanted 50 percent of any future settlement, but Lawrence agreed to 40 percent, still high for a contingency contract.

Less than five months later, Graubard reached a $106 million settlement, laying claim to $44 million of it. Lawrence sued, branding the fee “unconscionable” and attacking the gifts as inappropriate.

The gifts were particularly scandalous because Chill and the other two partners never told the firm or the three Lawrence children about them.

One of the other partners did not even tell her spouse, who was a Manhattan judge. Chill also reportedly did not tell Lawrence she should seek independent counsel on the gifts, which the conduct code requires. Judges called the “magnitude” of the gifts virtually unprecedented.

On the first run up the ladder, Levine ruled in 2006 that an evidentiary hearing was necessary to determine the fairness of the fee. He reported to the Manhattan surrogate, who agreed. Lawrence argued that the fee was unconscionable on its face, requiring no hearing, and lost appeals to the Appellate Division and the Court of Appeals, sending the case back to Levine in 2008.

After a protracted hearing, Levine offered a split decision in 2010, calling the fee “astounding” but not unconscionable, cutting it to $16 million and sustaining the gifts. The surrogate affirmed the formula Levine used to get to the $16 million, but said the gifts emitted an “odor of overreaching” and required that they be returned.

In 2013, a unanimous, four-member panel of the Appellate Division also revoked the gifts. But they also found that the fee was “both procedurally and substantially unconscionable.” They ruled that Graubard could only collect an hourly fee, $1.7 million.

By the time the case returned to the Court of Appeals, it was the buzz of the bar. One of the reasons another Graubard loss was anticipated was that three of the judges on the court had joined the 2008 decision that sent the case back to Levine, signing on to an opinion that said: “On its face, the amount of the fee seems disproportionate to the five months of work since the agreement’s revision.” A fourth judge, Robert Smith, who had also joined the earlier opinion and derided “so much money for so little work,” recused himself when it came back in 2014, citing his onetime connection to a new firm representing Lawrence. A fifth judge also recused herself, for unexplained reasons.

The most important new factor the second time around was Lippman, who joined the court in 2009. With one judge dissenting on the gifts, Lippman’s vote was the minimum needed to sustain them. The five voting judges then approved a fee that, with interest, exceeded what the family received from the settlement. Chill collected at least $14.7 million personally and kept his $2 million gift, undoubtedly the biggest payday of his life. Prior to this ruling, no court had even suggested the firm was entitled to so total a victory.

The majority, including Lippman, acknowledged that the gifts “may fairly be characterized in many unflattering ways,” but said the statute of limitations had run out, an issue barely considered over all of the years of litigation. The previous consideration of the merits of the gift question at every other court level indicated that no one else bought the statute argument and assumed that Lawrence hadn’t sued until seven years after she gave Chill the gifts because the firm was still representing her, meaning that her deadline to object “tolled” during those years.

The majority validated the contingency fees because the firm “risked” receiving no compensation for its continuing work on the case. They regarded Lawrence as a capable businesswoman who could have fired the firm at any moment, though she’d stuck with them for nearly 23 years.

One signal-sending new influence in the case was the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, which filed an amicus brief for the first time when the case went before the Lippman court, contending that the appellate decision threatened “the sanctity of the contingent fee system.” Silver has long been closely tied to the

Former Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippmann.

association, a major donor to Silver’s majority ($768,000 between 2006 and 2013), which has been rewarded repeatedly by Assembly actions, such as protecting New York’s unique liability laws for leased cars. Silver’s two partners, Weitz and Luxenberg, were association directors and officers.

Lippman has voted with the trial lawyers in other cases as well, in the 5 to 2 Ramkumar decision in 2013, when the association also filed an amicus brief, arguing that no documentary evidence be required to sustain an accident claim. The two dissenters on the court said the Lippman majority had lowered “the barriers that courts have erected against baseless no-fault claims,” while the association said the court had “once again injected reason into the process.”

The other edge Chill had was his attorney, Michael Carvin, a Washington-based Republican attorney who argued the “Obamacare” case before the Supreme Court. Carvin has worked with Chill for years as the lawyer for the New York Senate majority, with the Republican Senate and Assembly Democrats joined at the hip, and they won a reapportionment case together before the Lippman court in 2012. The redistricting cases are one reason why Chill was seen as “Shelly’s guy” at the highest levels of the state courts.

Chill and another senior partner at the firm took such a high percentage of the fee distribution that the partner who billed the lion’s share of the hours, Steven Mallis, is claiming in a just-filed suit that they shortchanged him. Graubard responded with a barrage against Mallis, quoting judicial findings from the prior Lawrence litigation that Mallis had concealed the gift from the firm and engaged in “self-dealing,” without looking in the mirror at Chill. *** Lippman and Silver have known each other since they were six, growing up together on the Lower East Side, and Silver made no secret of his use of power on Lippman’s behalf, so much so that Lippman referred to him as “family” at one swearing-in. The first chief judge since the 19th century to have never served on the Court of Appeals, Lippman catapulted to the top despite a career that was almost entirely administrative rather than judicial, thanks in large part to the speaker.

Neither Silver nor Lippman, however, was satisfied with this unlikely triumph. Though Silver had never supported a referendum to change the age limits for judges until Lippman neared the retirement age of 70, he pushed it onto the ballot in 2013 despite the opposition of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the black and Latino caucus of his own members, both of which wanted to replace an overwhelmingly white, and disproportionately Republican, cadre of older judges.

A political action committee that supported the referendum was principally financed by leaders of the state Trial Lawyers Association, including the Weitz firm, which made the second largest donation, $50,000. A report by Politico New York indicated that Lippman “urged several longtime associates to form” the PAC, though sitting judges are barred from fundraising. MirRam, a consulting firm run by an ex-assemblyman close to Silver, managed the losing campaign, consuming nearly all of the half-million dollars raised by the PAC. The trial lawyers, whom Cuomo called “the single most powerful political force in Albany,” endorsed

the referendum while the state bar declined to take a position. The losing referendum occurred, coincidentally, at precisely the same time as the Graubard case first came before the Lippman court.

David Bookstaver, who has been Lippman’s spokesman for 20 years, told me that it would be “wildly irresponsible” to try to link Lippman “to Mr. Silver and any of his wrongdoing,” adding that Lippman did not discuss the Graubard case or any other with Silver (nor did he know Chill). Bookstaver, who responds to every probing question about Lippman with outrage, used much the same tone when questioned in 2013

by Politico about Lippman’s role with the referendum PAC, calling such rumors “abhorrent” without denying that Lippman had asked “others to form the PAC.” In fact, despite Bookstaver’s irresponsibility charge, both the New York Times and the New York Post have done stories connecting Lippman to court appointments that either benefited Weitz & Luxenberg asbestos clients or those of a second firm that made payments to Silver that led to his conviction.

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For example, Lippman named Supreme Court Justice Sherry Klein Heitler an associate justice of the Appellate Division in 2007, and “approved” her elevation to administrative judge overseeing all Manhattan Supreme Court civil cases in 2009, according to Bookstaver press releases.

When Heitler got her 2009 promotion, she was already in charge of a special court hearing major asbestos claims, where Weitz & Luxenberg was the plaintiff ’s attorney in more than half the cases and winning huge awards. Earlier in 2009, just as Lippman became chief judge, the Weitz firm began petitioning Heitler to reverse a decades-old ruling banning punitive damages for asbestos patients, a potential mother lode for the firm. Heitler eventually did just that, and even after her asbestos role exploded in headlines early this year, Lippman named her to one of his top executive posts, chief of policy and planning.

Bookstaver also acknowledged that “it is likely that Judge Lippman has during the normal course of business attended a meeting with Mr. Weitz or representatives from his firm—as he has with countless large firms in the state.”

Other judges contacted by City & State find any Weitz & Luxenberg meetings disturbing, especially in the context of the mutual Silver connections, the Heitler rulings and the referendum PAC contributions.

Lippman wanted all of the upside of his familial relationship with Silver over the years, but now, none of the downside. His liberal record drew favorable farewells recently, omitting decisions like the one in the reapportionment case defended by Chill and Silver that led to an extra seat in the Senate and contrived continuance of Republican rule.

Silver’s iron hold on the Assembly and Lippman’s on the courts are finally at an end, though there appears to be no term limit on the culture, which blames the spotlight of Preet Bharara more than the conduct of its icons.

Former Village Voice reporter and columnist Wayne Barrett covered New York politics for 40 years and co-authored City for Sale, a chronicle of the great municipal scandal of the 1980s. His piece appears courtesy of a content-sharing agreement with City & State. P

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9

ARTS FEATURE

COLLECT ART NOW Artist A. J. Fries and partner Karen Eckert are on a mission to get people to buy local art

BY JACK FORAN SOME LOCAL ARTISTS HAVE AN IDEA about what we could all do to help

make the new year better than last year or the year before. Buy more art.

To that end, artist A. J. Fries has started up an organization called Collect Art. Fries runs it with his marriage and business partner Karen Eckert. Full information on the project and enterprise is on their website, collectartnow.com.

Some 26 local artists are involved—with likely more to be added down the road—in a stylistic range from representational to abstract and gradations in-between.

There are two basic purchasing protocols—galleries as they are designated and presented on the website—Custom Gallery and Featured Gallery.

The Custom Gallery shows samples of the different artists’ work and basically asks, would you like to have a work custom-made for you by any one of them you select—or more than one if you wish—for a set price of $250 per artwork.

But first, online, there’s an “input” questionnaire that you’re encouraged to fill out to let the artist know something about you—your tastes and distastes—to help him or her produce a work precisely to your liking. Questions about color preferences. Or if you prefer black and white. Whether you’re okay with nudity, or risqué imagery. Yes or no, or a little is okay, but not a lot. Whether you like nature art. Anything else you’d want the artist to know about yourself. And information if you wish to provide it on your past experiences collecting art. Or visiting art galleries and art show openings. How often you go.

The Featured Gallery at the moment is still under construction, but will show actual completed works by the organization artists, with prices—ranging from under $100 to several thousands—that you can purchase. What you see is what you get.

The website includes a list of Frequently Asked Questions and answers, and personal stories vis-à-vis artmaking and collecting by Fries and Eckert. Fries talks about his determination from childhood to become an artist. The first formal art experience he says he remembers was seeing images in a book of an Edward Kienholz installation. “I was confused. I was intrigued. I was hooked,” he writes. “Since then my love of art has grown exponentially. I’ve devoted my life to seeing, discovering, exploring, and above all creating art.” And more recently, he says, promoting art, “not just my own art, but art in general.” As a serious project, but sometimes by comically unconventional methods, such as the time he and a friend staged a tailgate party at the Albright-Knox. “My goal is to show people how fun and exciting and accessible art is.”

Eckert’s story is a very different one. She says that prior to meeting Fries—she says they met “the new-fashioned way, online,” and “fell disgustingly in love” right from the start—she didn’t concern herself much about art. She had other priorities, as a suburban mom of three and high school English teacher. And her home was decorated with “mass produced pictures that I purchased cheaply because they matched my décor. My home, my walls, had no personality, no originality. They had no voice.”

After getting to know Fries, his world, she says, all that changed. “I began to experience the community of artists in Buffalo. They are an incredible, amazing bunch…When I went to my first art show, I was nervous. I remember asking A. J. what I should wear, how do I talk about the art, what if I sounded inane or naïve? Art was intimidating. But then it wasn’t.”

Ultimately, she says, she “took the plunge.” She purchased a painting “that spoke to me.” Now her walls had a voice. And “I was hooked,” she said.

“Meeting Karen has allowed me to see art in a new light,” Fries writes. “During our time together I’ve had the pleasure of watching her discover for herself how wonderful the world of art and art collecting is.” It’s a discovery and experience P the pair want to spread to and share with the community at large.

Jason Seeley

“I’VE DEVOTED MY LIFE TO SEEING, DISCOVERING, EXPLORING, AND ABOVE ALL CREATING ART,” SAYS A. J. FRIES. Emily Churco

Maria Pabico LaRotonda

10 THE PUBLIC / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

A. J. Fries

COLLECT ART COLLECTARTNOW.COM

IN GALLERIES NOW ARTS

IN GALLERIES NOW = ART OPENING Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222, 882-8700, albrightknox. org): Monet & the Impressionist Revolution, 1860-1910, on view through Mar 20. 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.

Benjaman Gallery (419 Elmwood Avenue Buffalo, NY 14222, thebenjamangallery.com): Man of Extremes: A Survey of the Work of Wes Olmsted. Thu-Sat 11am-5pm.

Big Orbit (30d Essex Street, Buffalo, NY 14222, cepagallery.org/about-big-orbit): Appetites/Anxieties: multi-disciplinary installation

by Liz Lessner. Performance from music and poetry duo Siti Bauw on Fri, Jan 8, 8-11pm. FriSun 12-6pm.

BT&C Gallery (1250 Niagara Street, Buffalo, NY 14213, 604-6183, btandcgallery.com): Features, paintings by Julian Montague, on view through Jan 15. Fri 12-5pm or by appointment. ¡Buen Vivir! (148 Elmwood 14201 buenvivirgallery.org): Game–The Last Word from ed; photos by Orin Langelle.

6-8pm, Sat 1-3 pm.

Avenue, Buffalo, The End of the Paradise RevisitTue-Fri 1-4pm, Fri

Buffalo Arts Studio (Tri Main Building 5th Floor, 2496 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, 8334450, buffaloartsstudio.org): BAS Annual Resident Artists Exhibit and Sale, on view through Jan 8, 2016. Tue-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 10am-2pm, Fourth Fridays until 8pm.

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): Art in Craft Media, on view through Jan 24 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. 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 on view through Mar 11; Artists Seen: photographs of contemporary artists by David Moog; Mystic North: Burchfield, Sibelius, & Nature, on view through Jan 31; A Few of Our Favorite Things: Recent Acquisitions 2013-2015, on view through Apr 11. Roycroft from the Collection, on view through Jun 24. Tue, Wed, Fri (Second Fridays until 8pm), Sat 10am-5pm & Sun 1-5pm. Admission $5-$10, children 10 and under free.

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.

The CG Jung Center (408 Franklin Street, Side Entrance, Buffalo, NY 14202, apswny.com): The Omega Point Project: The Noosphere, 2012 and Beyond, graphite drawings by Lory Pollina.

Opening reception Jan 8, 5:30-8:30pm. Artist talk Fri, Feb 5, 7pm and Tue, Feb 23, 7:30pm.

Collect Art Now (Virtual gallery, collectartnow. com): Featured artists: Rita Argen Auerbach, Emily Churco, A.J. Fries, Evan Hawkins, Mark Lavatelli, Polly Little, Esther Neisen, Maria Pabico LaRotonda, and Jason Seeley.

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. Wed-Fri 10:30am-5pm, Sat 10:30am-4pm..

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): Reflective Life, work by Danielle Heyden. On view through Jan 2. Tue & Wed 116pm, 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.

Karpeles Manuscript Library (North Hall) (220 North St., Buffalo, NY 14201): Great Moments in Medical History, on view through Apr 28.

Tue-Sun 11am-4pm.

Karpeles Manuscript Museum (Porter Hall) (453 Porter Ave, Buffalo, NY 14201): Maps of the United States. Tue-Sun 11am-4pm.

MUNDO IMAGES Gallery (Tri-Main Center, 2495 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, Suite #255 Lobby): Colors From My Gypsy Soul, watercolors by Fritz Raiser. Tue-Fri, 11:00am-4:30pm.

Native American Museum of Art at Smokin’ Joe’s (2293 Saunders Settlement Road, Sanborn, NY 14123, 261-9251) 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. Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat & Sun 124pm.

Nichols School Gallery at the Glenn & Audrey Flickinger Performing Arts Center (1250 Amherst Street, Buffalo, NY 14216, 332-6300, nicholsschool.org/artshows?rc=0): Seeing Through Nature: new mandalas by Jody Hanson. Opening reception Fri, Jan 8 5:30-7:30pm. Mon-Fri 8am-4pm, Closed Sat & Sun. Nina Freudenheim Gallery (140 North Street, Buffalo, NY 14201, 882-5777, ninafreudenheimgallery.com): Kyle Butler, Joan Linder, and Michael Stefura. On view through Jan 21. Tue-Fri 10am5pm, Sat & Mon open by appointment only, and closed on Sundays.

Pausa Art House (19 Wadsworth Street, Buffalo, NY 14201, 697-9069 pausaarthouse.com): The Abstract Tableau, paitings by Mary Begley.

Opening reception Fri, Jan 8, 6-11pm. On view through Feb 27. Live Music Thu-Sat. See website for more info.

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. Gallery Walk in Market Arcade, Fri Jan 8, 6-9pm. Tue-Fri 11am-4pm and by appointment.

Sports Focus Physical Therapy (531 Virginia Street, Buffalo, NY, 14202, 332-4838, sportsfocuspt.com): Prints by Jane Marinsky. 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.

Studio Hart (65 Allen Street, Buffalo, NY 14202, 536-8337, studiohart.com): The Rest Is Silence: new work by Amy Greenan and Elizabeth Switzer. Opening reception Fri, Jan 8 6-9pm. TueFri 11:30am-3:30pm, Sat 12-4pm.

Sugar City (1239 Niagara Street, Buffalo, NY 14213, buffalosugarcity.org): The Belt Line: Hiding in Plain Sight: photographs by Brendan Bannon, Max Collins, Molly Jarboe, Christina Laing, and David Torke. Open every Fri 5:307:30pm and by event.

TGW@497 Gallery (497 Franklin Street, Buffalo, NY 14202, 981-9415): 3 Months, new paintings

by David Vitrano. 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 11am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm.

UB Art Gallery (Center for the Arts, North Campus, Amherst, NY 645-6913, ubartgalleries. org): Splitting Light, work from Shiva Aliabadi, Anna Betbeze, Amanda Browder, Erin Curtis, Gabriel Dawe, Sam Falls, Nathan Green, John Knuth, David Benjamin Sherry, and Hap Tivey.

On view through Jan 10, 2016. Tue-Fri 11am5pm, 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 9am4pm.

To add your gallery’s information to the list, please contact us at info@dailypublic.com.

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NOOSPHERE #12 by Lory Pollina. Pollina’s exhibit, The Omega Point Project: The Noosphere, 2012 and Beyond, opens this Friday, January 8, at the C. G. Jung Center, 408 Franklin Street.

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THIS WEEK'S AGENDA FRIDAY JANUARY 8

GOS GOZAH: BATTLE WINTER EDITION 10PM-3AM at Milkie’s, 522 Elmwood Ave.

Gos Gozah returns with a fresh start, hot and ready to battle winter with the ultimate queer dance party in Buffalo.

Wild drag show, grimy DJs, and sexy queers to grind with. A queer-, trans-, and women-friendly event. No tea, no shade.

Entry: $5 with 2 for $5 well drinks.

SATURDAY JANUARY 9

SYD BARRETT BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE WEDNESDAY JAN 6 7PM / NIETZSCHE'S, 248 ALLEN ST. / FREE

SILVER PRIDE COFFEE HOUR 10-11:30AM at Daily Planet, 1862 Hertel Ave.

A booming meet-and-greet coffee social for LGBT seniors and open to everyone.

No agenda, just a gathering of LGBT seniors and friends for socializing. For more information, call the Pride Center at 852.PRIDE.

SATURDAY JANUARY 9

[TRIBUTE] Maybe one of the most mysterious men in rock-and-roll history, Syd Barrett was a founding member of Pink Floyd. Under Barrett’s leadership, the English rock band—which has been admired for their contributions to psychedelia in general—put out what was arguably their most psychedelic record, Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The band’s debut album is now considered one of the greatest records ever written, though maybe not as influential as Floyd’s 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon. Several years prior to Floyd’s release of Dark Side of the Moon, the band parted ways with Barrett, citing his erratic behavior and unstable mental state. By the time Floyd released Dark Side, Barrett was already two solo albums deep, releasing The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, both in 1970—though those albums would be the extent of his solo studio work. In honor of Barrett’s birthday, this Wednesday, January 6, Nietzsche’s will continue what is billed as the “Longest Running Syd Barrett Tribute,” with “Episode 12.” The show will feature a collection of local bands who will play the songs of Syd Barrett, as well as a psychedelic light show. And you can’t beat the cost of admission: free. -CORY PERLA

WEDNESDAY JAN 6 MEAN & BITTER CHOWDAH BATTLE 4-7PM at Q, 44 Allen St.

Join the Imperial Court for a fierce chowder cook. Vote for your favorites: $1 per vote, as many times as you’d like.

Proceeds benefit the charities of Reign 25. Unlimited tastings: $5.

TUESDAY JANUARY 12

PAWS FOR PRIDE

Emulsified #3: Obedience 7pm Hallwalls, 341 Delaware Ave.

[FILM] Four films, four looks at the psychological bartering that forms the meta-structure of social interactions: What you are willing and not willing to do based on another’s desire. Curated by Buffalo ex-pat by way of Ankara, Turkey, and Austin, Texas Ekrem Serdar, Obedience will host a provoking lineup from Jesse McLean’s Lose Yourself (5 min, digital 2011), Michael Robinson’s Hold Me Now (5 min, digital, 2008), Paul Sharits’s T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G (13 min, 16mm, 1968), and Stanley Milgram’s Obedience (45 min, 16mm, 1962)—from Milgram’s landmark study on the possible psychology of genocide. -AL

THURSDAY JAN 7

7PM at Loop Magazine, 224 Allen St.

Micawber with Graveslave

The first organizational meeting of a volunteer-based program designed to help keep LGBT seniors and their pets together during difficult times, because Pets Are Wonderful Support.

Email pawsofpride@yahoo.com for more information.

6pm Broadway Joe's, 3150 Main St. $5

LOOPMAGAZINEBUFFALO.COM

[METAL] Green Bay’s merchants of death metal, Micawber, will make a stop at Buffalo’s Broadway Joe’s on Thursday, January 7. Despite some recent lineup changes, the band brings a raw, yet fun sound. Along with them they’ll bring Minneapolis metal mavens Graveslave, as well as further support from Misanthropy, VoKillz, Way of Life, and the Finality Complex. Presented by For the Music Presents. -CP

14 THE PUBLIC / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

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[COMEDY] Comedian Aries Spears was on 198 episodes of Mad TV, so chances are if you’ve tuned into that show you’ve probably seen Spears do one of his famous (or infamous) impressions. From Eddie Murphy to Al Pacino and O. J. Simpson, Spears’s celebrity impressions were probably the best part of the whole series. Hopefully he'll show off some of them when he comes to Helium Comedy Club for six shows start- ing Thursday, January 8 through Sunday, January 10 -CP

SATURDAY JAN 9 Queen City Roller Girls Season Opener 2pm Buffalo RiverWorks, 359 Ganson St.

[ROLLER DERBY] Opening day for the Queen City Roller Girls, the Western New York-based roller derby league, is this Saturday, January 9 at their home base, Buffalo RiverWorks. The season will kick off with a match between the Devil Dollies and the Suicidal Saucies. Buffalo RiverWorks was, among other purposes, designed and built to house the Queen City Roller Girls, and this Saturday marks the beginning of their second season there.

-THE PUBLIC STAFF

Gos Gozah: Battle Winter 10pm Milkie's, 522 Elmwood Ave $5

[DANCE PARTY] If what you look for in a night out on the town are “grimy ass DJs” and a “wild ass drag show,” or just about anything else revolving around ass in general, then Gos Gozah is the dance party for you. This month’s entry, which takes place on Friday, January 8 at Milkie’s and is dubbed the Battle Winter Edition, includes DJs Pu$$y Pop and ABC Crew and a twofor-$5 drink special. Oh yeah, and it’s also Sailor Moon-themed, so, like, be prepared to summon the power of your legendary silver crystals? Or maybe just find a really awesome brooch. Gos Gozah is a queer-, trans-, and women-friendly event. -CP

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[ART] Artist Mary Begley’s work is not unlike Charles Burchfield’s, creating cryptic, colorful, abstract landscapes. “An entity surrounded by its environment is a universal concept,” the she says in an artist's statement. “Whether it is from reality or from a more sub-conscience level.” This latest collection is titled The Abstract Tableau, which is made up of works created over the last five years. In it, the artist explores how abstract paintings can “tell a story and set a scene.” Begley’s work has been featured in a number of local galleries including the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Big Orbit, and Hallwalls. Her next opening is this Friday, January 8 at Pausa Art House as part of January’s First Friday gallery walk. Admission to the exhibit is free. -CORY PERLA

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[PUNK] Local easycore quartet Cause for a Hero are apparently calling it quits after three years, so come out and see them off in style! It’s a six-band marathon lineup at Mohawk Place on Saturday, January 9, kicking off early with Derby/Angola young’uns One Less Today, followed by the bluesy duo Satellite Nation (featuring electric violin!), local emo and punk-pop from Pity Sweater, and Avidd the Band, plus a later set from Michigan’s Winner Take All. -CJT

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Ravi Padmanabha & David Adamczyk 7pm Daily Planet Coffee, 1862 Hertel Ave.

PUBLIC APPROVED

[JAZZ] Few musicians around these parts can play the sitar like Ravi Padmanabha.

Same goes for David Adamczyk and his fiddle, so it’ll be interesting hear what sort of experimentation bubbles out when these two are in the same room, back to back. Padmanabha and Adamczyk will perform this Saturday, January 9 at Daily Planet Coffee Shop on Hertel. -CP

Leggy 8pm Dreamland, 387 Franklin St. $5

[INDIE] Coming to our neck of the woods from Cincinnati, Ohio, garage rockers Leggy will bring their lo-fi dream rock to Dreamland on Saturday, January 9. The band’s last album, 2015’s Nice Try, is streaming now on bandcamp and is suggested listening for anyone thinking about checking out this catchy indie rock band. Their fuzzy dream pop tracks sound like they’re straight out of the garage and they’re addictive enough that you’ll want to be able to sing along when they put on their c l o s e - q u a r te rs show at Dreamland.

Local support comes from Space Is Haunted, Jamie and the Debt, and Utah Jazz. -CP

SUNDAY JAN 10 Buffalo Bitter Winter Clothing Drive 1pm Fireman's Park, Fireman's Park, S Division St.

[HELPING] The non-profit community organization Buffalo’s Good Neighbors is partnering with Friends Feeding Friends to help clothe the cold this winter. Each Sunday the organizations hang clothing items such as sweaters, hats, gloves, and socks between trees in Fireman’s Park, downtown, for those who need them. Last week, they put out six totes worth of items, which they expect will be gone by Sunday. Feel free to bring your items to hang at 1pm. -TPS

SOUL PATCH FRIDAY JAN 8 10PM / DUKE'S BOHEMIAN GROVE BAR, 253 ALLEN ST. [TRIBUTE] The year is 1994. Nelson Mandela is elected president of South Africa, former professional football player Al Cowlings picks the wrong day to go on a joy ride with O. J. Simpson, and Nirvana plays what will become their final show. Some great albums came out in that year too, including Green Day’s Dookie, Alice In Chains’ Jar of Flies, Weezer’s first self-titled album, and Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy. Ah, what a year! This was also the year, that, 20 years later, would influence a bunch of guys from Buffalo to start a freaking sick cover band. Soul Patch basically owe their existence to the year 1994 and they can’t deny it. Though the band, led by Keith Buckley—better known as frontman of Buffalo hardcore rock band Every Time I Die and advice columnist for The Public—covers your favorites from the entire span of that sacred decade that was the 1990s, 1994 was clearly the pinnacle.

On Friday, January 8, Soul Patch make their triumphant return to Buffalo for an intimate show in Allentown at Duke’s Bohemian Grove Bar. -CORY PERLA

PUBLIC APPROVED

Alleys with Pierre 5pm Studio at the Waiting Room, 334 Delaware Ave. $8

[EMO] Celebrating the release of a new split four-song EP, local emo duo/trio Alleys and Minneapolis trio Pierre will co-headline the Studio at the Waiting Room on Sunday, January 10, airing their frustrations the way that only emo bands can. Along for the ride are Cedar Kites and Bungler for a 16+ gig that starts at 5:30pm and costs $8. -CJT

Fleuron Rouge's 2016 Winter Hafla 7pm Asbury Hall, 341 Delaware Ave. $15-$20

[PARTY] In Arabic, a hafla is a party—more specifically, a party that involves belly dancing. In that case, hafla is the perfect word to describe Fleuron Rouge’s upcoming party at Babeville’s Asbury Hall. The belly dance company will hold their annual celebration this Saturday, January 9 with a performance featuring guest artist Jill Parker. The Fleuron Rouge Belly Dance Academy Dancers and Spun Out Fire Productions will also perform. -TPS

Aggrohippie

SITI BAUW W/ LIZ LESSNER FRIDAY JAN 8

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

8PM / BIG ORBIT GALLERY, 30 ESSEX ST.

[PUNK] For many Buffalonians, Erie is just a rest stop on the highway with clean bathrooms. But for Aggrohippie, it’s home. And there’s nothing remotely sanitized about this band’s crust-punk assault, complete with a serious ideological bent that comes through via barked rhetoric and a grimy guitar grind.

The Pennsylvania four-piece play Mohawk Place on Sunday, January 10 with Wrux and Healer. -CJT

[EXPERIMENTAL] There’s a simple magic to the way Dutch duo Siti Bauw composes their live pieces. The methods of production are laid bare, usually on the floor: There’s always a mixer, some pedals, two microphones, and a revolving assortment of travel-ready instruments like a melodica, a hand drum, a mouth harp, a shaker, a cheese grater, a flute of some kind. Then Nana Zoë Jovanovic or Roberta Petzoldt play a small piece of melodica or voice or percussion before hitting the loop pedal and trading off so the other can add a complementary sound, another texture to the building song.

At some point, one of them begins to speak, or read a poetic piece. The result is captivating, if not near hypnotic, with the music forming a mediative background to amplify the impact of the poetry. Thanks to some financial support from the Dutch consulate, Siti Bauw are currently in town to compose a performance in conversation with Liz Lessner’s exhibition, APPETITES/ANXIETIES, which is entering its final weekend. This Friday at 8pm, Siti Bauw will play amid Lessner’s work in CEPA Gallery’s Big Orbit Project Space. -AARON LOWINGER

16 THE PUBLIC / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

CALENDAR EVENTS

MONDAY JAN 11

ARE YOU A

LESBIAN OR BISEXUAL WOMAN

PUBLIC APPROVED

Elvis Presley Birthday Bash 7pm Sportsmen's Tavern, 326 Amherst St. $10

BETWEEN THE AGES OF 18 AND 35 YEARS OLD?

[ROCK] 81 years ago, Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. By the age of 21 he was a sensation, and by the time he died in 1977 at the age of 42, he was the king. In that amount of time Elvis racked up 18 number one albums (and three more since his death) and more than 30 number one singles.

There's a reason that people still celebrate his birthday. Locally, you'll find a celebration of the King of Rock and Roll's birthday at the Sportsmen's Tavern, this Monday, January 11, where the Mark Gamsjager & Lustre Kings featuring Eddie Clendening will pay tribute to Sir Swivel Hips. -CP

The WORLDS Study wants to hear about your experiences coping with daily stress!

TUESDAY JAN 12 Jupiter String Quartet 8pm Kleinhans Music Hall, 3 Symphony Circle $25

[CLASSICAL] On Tuesday, January 12, the Jupiter String Quartet will perform in the Mary Seaton Room at Kleinhans Music Hall.

The band, violinists Nelson Lee and Megan Freivogel, viola player Liz Frievogel, and cellist Daniel McDonough are masters of chamber music, enjoying national and international recognition. Performance pieces include Schubert's Quartettsatz in C minor, D.703, Ligeti's Quartet No. 1 “Metamorphoses nocturnes,” and Smetana's Quartet No.1 in E minor, “From My Life.” Beginning at 7:15pm, pre-concert talk will be hosted by WNED’s Peter Hall. -CP

ELIGIBLE WOMEN CAN

EARN UP TO

THE BARKSDALES FRIDAY JAN 8

$292

Participation in this study is confidential.

9PM / BUFFALO IRON WORKS, 49 ILLINOIS ST. / $5 [PUNK] Formed for the rubble of the Drunkyard Boys and Switch 86, the Barksdales bring a clamoring punk energy to the stage, which they’re hoping to capture on their first full length (out sometime this year). In the meanwhile, they released an EP late in 2015, In Our Hands, and continue honing their guitar-centric craft with local dates—including a show Friday, January 8 at Buffalo Iron Works with Rochester’s the Isotopes. -CHRISTOPHER JOHN TREACY

Call 716-887-3390 for more info

LEARN TO FENCE

PUBLIC APPROVED

AGILITY • BALANCE • CONFIDENCE

1/8V ARTWORK BY JESSICA SADDLESON

ARM CANDY PRESENTS GROOVE SALAD SATURDAY JAN 9 8PM / EPIC RESTAURANT & LOUNGE, 431 ELMWOOD AVE. [HIP HOP] “One would argue that Art and Hip-Hop go together like currency and the Medici Family,” say the promoters of Arm Candy Presents Groove Salad, a new monthly art and hip hop showcase. The Medici family are considered one of the wealthiest families of all time—and the promoters of this event are certainly hoping this becomes one of the more successful monthly parties in Buffalo. To ensure that, DJ and hip hop producer Cove and artist Jessica Saddleson are bringing a savory mix of reggae-inspired beats, tasty eats, and provocative art to Epic Lounge on Elmwood.

For this edition, artist Jessica Saddleson will present a combination of art exhibit and interactive art instillation. Her oil- and sharpie-based art pieces will be on display, but she’ll also present an instillation that will, in her words, “allow patrons to neurologically place optics on various forms of visual candy.” Cove, whose most recent projects include a production piece with Prime Example and OldSouls, last year’s solo instrumental full-length, Love.

Lost/Love.Gained, and few new beats to tease an upcoming mixtape, will come with a what should be a heady mix of reggae and hip hop. Buffalo DJ Josh Yourmoms, who is capable of delivering everything from a set of banging hip hop classics to a low key, funky vibe, will also join in on the fun.

P -CORY PERLA

ENROLL NOW!

SEE OUR WEBSITE FOR CLASS REGISTRATION, DATES & TIMES * GROUP RATES AVAILABLE * USFA CERTIFIED COACH • ALL EQUIPMENT PROVIDED

716.553.3448

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DAILYPUBLIC.COM / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / THE PUBLIC 17

THEATER PREVIEW

Nickel City Opera’s production of Amahl and the Night Visitors.

AMAHL & THE NIGHT VISITORS This weekend only, Nickel City Opera presents Gian Carlo Menotti’s musical telling of the story of the Magi

BY DOUGLAS LEVY GIAN CARLO MENOTTI HAD TWO INSPIRATIONS for and one challenge to fulfill when he approached writing his opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, the sixth annual presentation of which by Nickel City Opera is this weekend, January 8-10, at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 724 Delaware Avenue. Performances are Friday at 8pm, and Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 3pm. Tickets are $16 for adults, $8 for children and will be available at the door or in advance at Eventbrite.com. (Type “Amahl” in the search field.) For more information call 716-939-3722.

One source for Menotti is the roughly 500-year-old painting The Adoration of the Magi by the Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516). In it we see the three foreigners from the East, one bowing, presenting their gifts to Mary with the infant Jesus on her lap. The Magi were literally (in Greek) astronomers, whose interest in following the star to Bethlehem was at least partly scientific. They are variously depicted in Matthew’s telling of the Nativity as wise men or, depending upon the translation, kings.

Moreover, they appear aware that whomever it is they expect to find is the King of the Jews. (They make the mistake of telling this to Herod, the reigning king installed by the Romans. Not long after, Herod orders the killing of all male children younger than two years. This forces Mary, Joseph, and the child to make a quick escape to Egypt.)

PLAYBILL ALL MY SONS (drama by Arthur Miller): Just after World War II, revelations about a military accident hits the homefront back in the States. Of course, there are chilling parallels to present treatment of combat forces. However, universal questions cannot be avoided about responsibility of individuals in a community crisis. Greg Natale, who directed Miller’s The Death of a Salesman for Irish Classical Theatre last season, returns to stage Peter Palmisano, Josie DiVicenzo, Chris Kelly, Anthony Alcocer, Candace Kogut, and others for the company. Opens January 15 and closes February 7 at Andrews Theatre, 625 Main Street, 716853-ICTC(4282); irishclassicaltheatre.com.

END OF THE RAINBOW (Drama with music written by Peter Quilter): The drama here is the late career struggle as Judy Garland prepares for a five-week gig in London, one of the final concert appearances. The music is a parcel of songs she rehearses and performs as part of her act. This international hit had a brief but notable run on Broadway. British actress Tracie Bennett earned Tony and Olivier award nominations for her performance as Garland, a grueling effort physically, emotionally, and vocally. Lisa Ludwig directs Greg Gjurich and Chris Hatch as the men in Judy’s life.

Guest artist Natasha Drena stars as Garland. Opening January 8 through 31 at KavinokyTheatre, Porter and Prospect, on the D’Youville College campus, 716-8297668, kavinokytheatre.com.

FREUD’S LAST SESSION (drama by Mark St. Germain): God. War. Science. Politics. Psychoanalysis. Atheism.

Literature. Enough loaded topics of conversation so that it is not surprising that this session would last longer than the proscribed therapy session. Sigmund

Bosch’s painting is rich in symbolic imagery. The beasts whose breath warmed the infant are in a stall to the left. A dove sits in a window further up, and angels spread a tarp across the stable walls, shielding the mother and child. A few faces can be seen on the left and right gazing through the windows; perhaps some of the shepherds who chose to stay on. But if we look beyond the scene of adoration, into the middle distance hundreds of yards away, just above and a little to the left of Mary’s head, we see two figures: a woman in a red robe and white veil, and before her a man or boy, dancing. On the ground lies a crutch. It is very likely that they provided Menotti with the characters of Amahl, lame boy, and his weary mother who are central to the story of the opera.

Menotti’s other inspiration was Christmas as celebrated during his childhood in Italy. It is the Three Kings, rather than Santa Claus, who bring the gifts. He recalls how he and his brother would try as hard as they could to stay awake to catch a glimpse of them. Sleep invariably would overtake them. “But I do remember hearing them,” said Menotti. “I remember the weird cadence of their song in the dark distance; I remember the brittle sound of the camels’ hooves crushing the frozen snow; and I remember the mysterious tinkling of their silver bridles.

Freud, atheist-Jewish father of psychoanalysis, has found refuge in London as World War II ignites on the Continent. Freud, in his 80s and in the final stages of cancer, seeks lively conversation so invites C. S. Lewis, the English novelist turned Catholic and half Freud’s age, for a chat. Katie Mallinson directs Matt Whitten and David Oliver for Road Less Traveled Productions. Opens January 22 and continues through February 14, at the company’s new home 500 Pearl Street, 716-629-3069, roadlesstraveledproductions. org.

KEELY AND DU (drama by Jane Martin): Du is a nurse who is part of an extremist right-to-life group. Keely is pregnant, having conceived by way of a rape. Du and her colleagues have kidnapped Keely (they would say rescued), chaining her to a bed to prevent her from having the abortion she seeks. The irreconcilable stances of “right-to-life” and “right-to-chose” cadres are actively represented in Subversive Theatre’s production. Kelly Beuth and Kate Olena star as the women in conflict under the direction of Toni Smith Wilson. January 14 through February 13 at Manny Fried Theatre, 255 Great Arrow Avenue (3rd floor; elevator access). ), 716-408-0499, subversivetheatre.org.

ORDINARY DAYS (musical by Adam Gwon): Four young New Yorkers, albeit recent arrivals from elsewhere.

An exponential number of coincidences amongst them. A dozen or so emotion-driven songs about the city, loneliness, love, and the future. A post-9/11 fable about the internal search for one’s soul and the perpetual search for a soulmate. Reed Bentley, Edith Grossman, Adam Hayes, and Jennel Pruneda appear under the direction of Victoria Perez-Maggiolo for O’Connell & Company. Opens on January 21and closes on February 21 at Park School Auditorium, 4625 Harlem Road in Snyder, 716-848-0800, oconnellandcompany.com.

PIPPIN (musical with a script by Roger O. Hirson; music

18 THE PUBLIC / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

“My favorite king was King Melchior, because he was the oldest and had a long white beard. My brother’s favorite was King Kaspar. He insisted that this king was a little crazy and quite deaf….

He was also rather puzzled by the fact that King Kaspar carried the myrrh, which appeared to him as a rather eccentric gift.”

The challenge came when the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) commissioned Menotti to write an opera for television to be broadcast live on Christmas. He admits that for the longest time he didn’t have a single idea. Then, one gloomy November afternoon, while walking through the Metropolitan Museum of Art he came upon Bosch’s Adoration of the Magi. Seeing it brought everything back: Christmas in Italy with his brother, their anticipation of the arrival of the Three Kings with their different personalities, and their weird song echoing from the distant hills.

January 6 is the traditional date for the Feast of the Epiphany (Manifestation in Greek), the day the Three Wise Men (or Kings) had revealed to them God the Son as a human in Jesus. While the Gospel of Matthew renders magi as “wise men,” its Greek root is more at “magician.” So we may conclude that the “magic” of Christmas—the wonder, the glad tidings, the revelation of the anointed one—includes the marvelous and transformative things that Amahl, his mother, and the world experience the night the P three visitors came.

and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz): A brightly conceived restaging of the 1972 Broadway hit, presently a hit revival on Broadway. The original staging by Bob Fosse famously gave this show sizzle. Its new staging makes the show soar—literally. Pippin, the young and seemingly hapless son of history’s mighty Charlemagne, searches his soul for the meaning of life. His only clue is the hunch that life means more than European war, court intrigue, wealth, and fame. A chipper Steven Schwartz score adds to the fun. National touring company of the Broadway production comes to Shea’s January 26-31. At Shea’s Performing Arts Center, 646 Main Street, 1-800-745-3000, sheas.org.

RING OF FIRE (musical revue created by Richard Maltby, Jr. and conceived by William Meade): For many, Johnny Cash was the voice of country music. In fact, he was many voices for a variety of songs. In his long, varied career, he dipped into gospel, bluegrass, rockabilly, Christian, and punk. This revue pulls together 30-plus songs which Cash recorded or performed during is career. Musicalfare’s creative team, headed by director-choreographer Michael Walline and musical director Theresa Quinn, aim to make use of the Cash songbook, providing the show with distinctive interpretations, both musical and staged, for each number. Ring of Fire was first developed for production at Studio Arena in 2006 before a truncated run on Broadway. A year ago, Richard Maltby. Jr., the show’s creator, revised the show and staged it for Milwaukee Rep. Apparently rethinking this revue for to better establish its worth is in the air. At MusicalFare Theatre on Daemen College campus. 4300 Main Street in Snyder, 716-839-8540, musicalfare.com.

VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE (comedy by Christopher Durang): Proving that family is a reliable source of humor is this entry form Christopher Durang, who has followed this thought, exhaustively, and made us laugh, exhaustively. After almost a lifetime of

separation, siblings Vanya, Sonia, and Masha reunite at the family’s rural vacation home. Vanya and Sonia are virtual recluses while Masha returns from her glamorous movie star life with her buff, boy-toy beau.

Three guesses what his name is. The sibs hash over all that they have missed through the baby boomer years as they prepare to face the future. Doug Weyand guides Louis Colaiacovo, Lisa Ludwig, and others to and through the laughs in the Second Generation Theatre production. Opening January 22 and closing February 8 at Lancaster Opera House, Central Avenue in Lancaster, 716-508-7480, secondgenerationtheatre@gmail.com.

WHY WE HAVE A BODY (drama by Claire Chafee): Still muttering since the holidays how odd your family is?

Meet Mary. She is a drifter in the habit of robbing convenience stores. Lili, her sister, is a private investigator whose specialty is digging up evidence for divorce cases. Their mom, Eleanor, has picked up roots and wanders through the rain forest. The lyrical meanderings as each woman tries to find herself…or each other…is the thrust of playwright Chafee’s writing.

Presented by Brazen-Faced Varlets under the direction of Elizabeth Oddy and featuring Heather Fangsrud, Jennifer Fitzery, Lara Haberberger, and Jeanne Huich. The show will be performed on Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm from January 30 through February 14 at Rust Belt Books, 415 Grant Street, 716-598-1585.

Playbill is presented by:

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

SPOTLIGHT SPORTS

ROBERT WOODS Dave Jickster and Robert Woods on the set on In the Zone.

@ROBERTWOODS @ROBERTW10DS

IN THE ZONE LIVE MONDAYS @ 7PM ON WBBZ WBBZTV

“Robert Woods’s name was one of the first names to come up at our emergency meeting. And like any player, you’re not sure how good of a host he’s going to be, and [it] turns out that Robert is just a great guy,” Jickster said. ”He catches a lot of footballs, he always has a smile on his face, and the most important thing is he wants to be here and he wants to talk football, which is very important to the show.”

For Woods, who had appeared as a guest on The Fred Jackson Show, the offer involved the challenge of filling some big shoes, with Jackson achieving massive popularity in the Buffalo community.

“I knew Fred was leaving, and I knew we didn’t really have anybody who was, like, ‘Mr. Buffalo,’ and I think this show was a great way to start on that way,” Woods said. “I knew at the time it definitely wasn’t going to become instant. I knew it took Fred years and years. It’s not just one year to replace Fred in that position. That will take years of work.”

Woods’s television career is off to a good start. In the Zone is a lean, well-produced 30 minutes of follow up from Sunday’s game and conversation leading up to the next. Woods’ confidence continues to develop with each episode.

Still, Woods says he is camera shy. He doesn’t know if his postNFL career involves a role on television, although he does have one major supporter on that path.

“This is kind of my first jump into it, one my mom kind of encouraged me to get into. She wants me to be a commentator once I’m done,” he said.

ROBERT WOODS

Getting NFL players to commit to guest spots on In the Zone on a Monday evening can be tough, he says.

Buffalo Bills receiver seeks to become “Mr. Buffalo” as host of weekly Bills talk show

BY KIP DOYLE BUFFALO BILLS WIDE RECEIVER ROBERT WOODS knows

about adapting to tough situations. When the 2013 second-round pick was asked to focus primarily on blocking earlier this season, he took the task in stride, showed a knack for making key blocks, and handled tricky questions from the media on why he was locking up with defenders more often than being targeted for catches—and all in a very stately manner. No coach was besmirched, no responsibilities were shunned. Woods’s reception numbers picked up as the season went on until he suffered a hamstring injury against Washington and was placed on injured reserve.

Woods’s composure may have motivated local television station WBBZ to hire the University of Southern California alumnus as host of the weekly Bills talk show In the Zone, which airs live from the Eastern Hills Mall every Monday during the regular

“[Monday] is really the only off-day that we have. And especially because I try to base [the guest selection] off of performance.

And then with a loss, that definitely hurts,” Woods said.

Even without the occasional guest, Jickster and Woods are able to hit the topics that Bills fans are wondering about, including questionable play selection and penalties. Again, Woods manages to address the issues without throwing anyone in the Bills organization under the bus.

season. Woods has been off the show since his injury, with Bills great Steve Tasker and others filling in for him.

“Our show has energy and it’s an honest show. Robert is as honest as can be with his answers,” Jickster said.

In the Zone replaced The Fred Jackson Show after Jackson, the popular former Bills running back, was released last preseason.

WBBZ producers were put in a difficult spot, as preparations were well under way for a fourth season with Jackson hosting when the announcement was made.

The show also has its candid moments, like when Woods critiqued Bills running back Mike Gillislee’s awkward Week 13 touchdown celebration, or when Woods thoughtfully answered a studio audience member’s question on why his favorite movie is Apocalypto.

In the Zone co-host Dave Jickster, who also had an on-camera roll on The Fred Jackson Show, recalls Jackson’s surprising exit.

“When he got cut, it was almost a panic situation for everyone here. We didn’t know what we were going to do,” Jickster said.

The possibility of a new player filling in as host each week was discussed but abandoned.

“It’s a pretty laid-back show. I love it when the fans have great questions. That’s the tricky part, when they hit you with some wild question that’s non-football related. You never know what you are going to get,” Woods said.

In the Zone airs live Mondays at 7pm on WBBZ, Channel 67.

Free reservations to be part of the studio audience can be made P at wbbz.tv.

INJURED?...KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. BEFORE YOU TALK TO AN INSURANCE COMPANY, TALK TO ME.

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DAILYPUBLIC.COM / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / THE PUBLIC 19

FILM REVIEW

Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant.

LEO AND THE BEAR THE REVENANT

BY M. FAUST IT’S NEVER A GOOD SIGN WHEN A MOVIE starts with the

words “I know you want this to be over.” Especially when it’s a movie that comes to you encased in a skin of pre-release publicity and chatter that generally proclaims, “We dare you to watch this movie.”

If you’ve heard nothing else about The Revenant, you’ve probably heard about the Bear. The Bear was the reason I wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing the new film by Alejandro González Iñárritu, his first since the Oscar-winning Birdman.

(Another reason: At 156 minutes, it’s only a few minutes shorter than Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, another Western with which it has much in common, most of which can be boiled down to “Don’t take Grandma to see it.”)

In retrospect, I’m abashed to admit that the version I had heard was that the movie shows Leonardo DiCaprio getting raped by a bear. He isn’t. (It’s a female bear.) Still, that’s about the only horrible thing the bear doesn’t do to him in a lengthy sequence of mauling, clawing, and tossing around, all unmarked by any visible edits.

How was it done? I suppose if I looked around enough on the internet I might find out, but I hate taking the mystery out of

IN CINEMAS NOW

BY M. FAUST & GEORGE SAX

PREMIERES OPENING FRIDAY, JANUARY 8

THE FOREST—Horror movie starring Natalie Dormer as a woman searching for her missing twin in a haunted forest in Japan. With Eoin Macken and Stephanie Vogt. Directed by Jason Zada.

Local theaters THE REVENANT—Leonardo DiCaprio as a frontiersman who struggles to survive in the west of the 1820s after he is attacked by a bear and left for dead by his companions. Co-starring Tom

movies that way. But it’s astonishingly realistic. So is a scene of wolves separating a bison from its herd and slaughtering it. So is a scene of a dead horse being disemboweled.

But there’s a limit to the value of this kind of thing. You start paying more attention to wondering how it was done than to the story. Especially when the story is as haphazard as it is here.

The Revenant (a medieval term for a revived dead man) is based on the true story of frontiersman Hugh Glass, who in 1823 was abandoned by his comrades after he was attacked by a grizzly bear. Despite being left with no shelter or supplies, he survived to hunt them down.

This certainly seems like sufficient material for an adventure movie—it was when it was filmed in 1971 as Man in the Wilderness, with Richard Harris. Yet despite what some might see as the excessive attention to the details of Glass’s struggle, the long-in-development script (the final version is credited to Iñárritu and Mark L. Smith) piles on subplots involving French trappers, an Arikara tribe searching for their chief ’s kidnapped daughter, and other characters who are dispatched with a heedless indifference that you seldom see outside of Game of Thrones.

It’s all quite gorgeous to look at, for the beauty of the natural

Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, and Forrest Goodluck. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman). Reviewed this issue. Local theaters

ALTERNATIVE CINEMA AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (1945)—Adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic storyTen Little Indians about 10 people stranded at a remote mansion trying to discover which of them is killing the others. Starring Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, and June Duprez. Directed by Rene Clair. Wed Jan 13 7:30pm. Screening Room HOW TO STEAL A MILLION (1967)—Caper comedy set in Paris with Audrey Hepburn trying to cover up her father’s art forgeries by stealing them from the museum where they are on display.

With Peter O’Toole, Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith,

20 THE PUBLIC / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

landscapes, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s skill in framing them, and Iñárritu’s ability to make it all look so seamless.

(Though he can hardly top Birdman in that respect, you can’t help but marvel at many of the shots he and Lubezki accomplish.)

But it’s not much more than good-looking, certainly not enough to make it worth the endurance test that it is. As Glass’s primary betrayer, Tom Hardy speaks most of his dialogue in a mumbled growl that might be authentic, but I’ll trade authenticity for comprehensibility any day.

The bear scene made me think of Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog’s unforgettable documentary about a reckless California dude who moves to Alaska to live with bears, one of whom attacked and ate him. The Revenant is awash with Herzog’s perception of the natural world’s indifference (at best) to man. If only they could have got him to direct this.

PS: Much has been made of DiCaprio’s dedication to the realism of this film and the difficulties he withstood during nine months of shooting it. To that, I point to the end credits for his on-set personal hairstylist and chef. Life is never that hard for a P movie star.

and Charles Boyer. Directed by William Wyler (Roman Holiday). Fri-Sun, Tue 7:30pm. Screening Room MARCH OF THE PENGUINS—French documentary about emperor penguins and the unbelievable hardships they undertake in order to breed.

Filmmaker Luc Jacquet and his crew followed a flock through Antarctica on its nine-month breeding cycle in conditions of almost unbelievable arduousness. The film’s accomplishment is aesthetically, logistically, and technically stunning, marred only by a narrative tendency (at least in the English version) to anthropomorphize its subjects and their struggles against nature’s cruel indifference. –GS Sat-Sun 11:30am.

North Park TIMBUKTU (Mauritania, 2014)—An Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, this drama fol-

lows the family of a cattle herder as their village is beset by jihadists. Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. Presented by the Roycroft Film Society. Sun 4pm. Parkdale School Auditorium, 141 Girard Ave., East Aurora (roycroftcampuscorporation.com)

IN BRIEF

THEATER INFORMATION IS VALID THROUGH THURSDAY, JANUARY 7

ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE ROAD CHIP—Sequel. With Jason Lee and Bella Thorne. Directed by Walt Becker (Old Dogs). Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge (AMC), Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

IN CINEMAS NOW FILM

LOCAL THEATERS

with many of that conflict’s passions still fresh, it contrives to place a bunch of characters in a remote Wyoming way station during a blizzard that makes travel impossible. The dialogue lacks the florid orotundity that is Tarantino’s stock-in-trade—you can see why he didn’t cast Christoph Waltz—which leads you to think that he may be after more serious concerns than in previous films. But everything that appears to be dissecting the American character turns out to be merely a diversion from a spaghetti Western story that could—and should—have been told in a trimmer film. Excellent Ennio Morricone score. Starring, in alphabetical order, Demian Bichir, Bruce Dern, Walton Goggins, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Kurt Russell, and Channing Tatum. –MF Amherst (Dipson), Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge (AMC), Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

How to Steal a Million

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

THE BIG SHORT—If you want to learn about the part of a conventional dramatic narrative, in deep and complex causes of the 2008 bankwhich Omalu’s undeniably interesting personal ing crisis that nearly brought down the Amerhistory inevitably distracts from the central stoHAMBURG PALACE ican economy, you’d be better off watching a ry. Co-starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin, 31 Buffalo St., Hamburg / 649-2295 documentary on the subject (especially Charles Albert Brooks, David Morse, and Luke Wilson. – hamburgpalace.com Ferguson’s Oscar-winning Inside Job). On the MF Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge (AMC), Regal Elmother hand, you can’t argue that a fictionalized wood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal LOCKPORT PALACE movie starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Brad Transit, Regal Walden Galleria 2 East Ave., Lockport / 438-1130 Pitt, and Ryan Gosling, directed and co-written CREED—Sylvester Stallone finished his long-runlockportpalacetheatre.org

by Will Ferrell partner Adam McKay, is likely to ning Rocky series with Rocky Balboa in 2006, reach a lot more people. Working from the book but writer-director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Staby former Wall Street insider Michael Lewis, the MAPLE RIDGE 8 (AMC) tion) convinced him to let him use the character film whirls around several unconnected charac4276 Maple Rd., Amherst / 833-9545 in a spin-off film focusing on the illegitimate ters who all came to the conclusion that money amctheatres.com son (Michael B. Jordan) of Apollo Creed. Decould be made by using the market to bet on termined to follow in his father’s footsteps, her it’s own inevitable failure. It’s explanations can persuades the retired Rocky (Stallone moving MCKINLEY 6 THEATRES (DIPSON) be confusing, though McKay makes that part of into the Burgess Meredith part) to coach him.

3701 McKinley Pkwy. / McKinley Mall the story—the narration notes that the financial The result is a crowd-pleaser that pays affecHamburg / 824-3479 world is designed to make outsiders feel stupid. tionate tribute to memorable locations and mckinley.dipsontheatres.com Co-starring Marisa Tomei, Rafe Spall, and Melischaracters from the Rocky films while following sa Leo. –MF Amherst (Dipson), Flix (Dipson), Rea different structure. Coogler also retains Stalgal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, NORTH PARK THEATRE lone’s sentimentality, and the notes struck by Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria 1428 Hertel Ave., Buffalo / 836-7411 the cast here are honest, even if the challenge northparktheatre.org BROOKLYN—Saoirse Ronan stars as an Irish girl faced by his hero feels contrived. With Tessa who emigrates to the United States in 1951, Thompson and Phylicia Rashad. –Greg Lamberwhen the economy of her home country was son Regal Elmwood, Regal Transit REGAL ELMWOOD CENTER 16 in shambles. Adapted from Colm Tóibín’s 2009 2001 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo / 871–0722 DADDY’S HOME—Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg novel by Nick Hornby, Brooklyn is not only an regmovies.com as the past and current husbands of the same extraordinarily good film; it’s also an important woman (Linda Cardellini) battling for the affecone, arriving as it does at a time when so many tion of her kids. Directed by Sean Anders (Sex REGAL NIAGARA FALLS STADIUM 12 people are being forced to leave the lands of Drive). Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge (AMC), Regal 720 Builders Way, Niagara Falls their birth and so many normally decent peoElmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Re236–0146 ple want to turn them away. Emotionally rengal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria dered by an attractive cast and crafted in the regmovies.com THE DANISH GIRL—Loosely based on the life of best traditions of mainstream filmmaking—it Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne), the Danish wouldn’t look out of place if you were to see it REGAL QUAKER CROSSING 18 landscape artist of the 1920s whose posthuBrooksome evening on Turner Classic Movies— 3450 Amelia Dr., Orchard Park / 827–1109 mously published diaries (under the name Lili lyn is a captivating and rewarding moviegoing regmovies.com Elbe) have been inspirational to the transgenexperience, the kind that at best comes along der community. It’s a handsome production dionce or twice a year. Co-starring Emory Cohen, REGAL TRANSIT CENTER 18 rected by Tom Hooper with similar period detail Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, and Julie Transit and Wehrle, Lancaster / 633–0859 as his Oscar-winning The King’s Speech. But it Walters. Directed by John Crowley (Closed Cirwalks an uncertain line between transvestitism regmovies.com cuit). –MF Eastern Hills (Dipson) and transgender, often seeming to imply that CAROL—Based on the novel The Price of Salt, the two exist on a continuum. Fine performancREGAL WALDEN GALLERIA STADIUM 16 written by Patricia Highsmith from an experies by Redmayne Alicia Vikander notwithstandOne Walden Galleria Dr., Cheektowaga ence in her own life and published under the ing, its appeal may be limited to those who have pseudonym “Claire Morgan” in 1952, Carol re681-9414 / regmovies.com read Lili’s diaries, though those are also the counts a romance between an aspiring young viewers most likely to care about the liberties writer and a married suburban woman she met RIVIERA THEATRE that have been taken with them. With, Matthiwhile working as a department store clerk.

For 67 Webster St., North Tonawanda as Schoenaerts, Sebastian Koch, Ben Whishaw, director Todd Haynes, this provides another 692-2413 / rivieratheatre.org and Amber Heard. –MF Eastern Hills (Dipson), chance to explore repressed gay love in the North Park staid 1950s, as he did in Far From Heaven. But THE SCREENING ROOM THE GOOD DINOSAUR—There’s a subversive charm while he recreates the era to visual success, he’s 3131 Sheridan Dr., Amherst / 837-0376 in the way Disney/Pixar’s latest effort inverts not as concerned with imitating a Douglas Sirk stereotypes without explanation—the family of screeningroom.net melodrama this time around. (You may or may apatosauruses (I checked) runs a farm comnot consider that a plus.) Languid and seducplete with crops and livestock, and a human tive, it’s a slow burner with Rooney Mara and SQUEAKY WHEEL cave toddler acts like a dog—but this hero’s Cate Blanchett as an exquisitely matched pair.

712 Main St., / 884-7172 journey is a long haul for adults. After young With FILM Kyle Chandler and Sarah Paulson. –MF>> AmVISIT DAILYPUBLIC.COM FOR MORE LISTINGS & REVIEWS squeaky.org Arlo’s father is killed in typical Disney fashion herst (Dipson), Eastern Hills (Dipson) and a storm casts Arlo far away, he makes a CONCUSSION—Far be it from me to complain too SUNSET DRIVE-IN perilous journey home. Sam Elliott won me over much about a movie with lines like “God did not 9950 Telegraph Rd., Middleport 735as the voice of a grizzled T-Rex cowboy, but the Concussion is intend for us to play football.”

But 7372 / sunset-drivein.com overly familiar plot points are fossils. I preferred another example of a movie that tries to make a “Sanjay’s Super Team,” the preceding short. DiHollywood hit out of material that would better TJ’S THEATRE rected by Peter Sohn. –Greg Lamberson Four be served in a documentary. Will Smith stars as Seasons, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal 72 North Main St., Angola / 549-4866 Dr. Bennet Omalu, the Pittsburgh pathologist Transit, Regal Walden>> Galleria, Transit Drive-in newangolatheater.com VISIT DAILYPUBLIC.COM FOR MORE & REVIEWS who while investigating the FILM apparentLISTINGS mental (Fri-Sat only) decline and suicide of a retired Steelers player THE HATEFUL EIGHT—At two hours and 45 minTRANSIT DRIVE-IN discovered a condition, chronic traumatic enutes, Quentin Tarantino’s latest burns slowly, cephalopathy, brought on by excessive blows to 6655 South Transit Rd., Lockport but despite a lot of promising sparks fizzles out the head—a sine qua non of football. Writer-di625-8535 / transitdrivein.com by the time it gets to its gore-soaked finale. Set rector Peter Landesman (adapting a GQ article

by Jeanne Marie Laskas) struggles to make this sometime in the years just after the Civil War, P

CULTURE > FILM

CULTURE > FILM

JOY features a terrific performance by Jennifer Lawrence as a heroine Preston Sturges would have loved, the Long Island woman who invented the Miracle Mop and became rich selling it on the then-new able channel QVC. Like Sturges, writer-director David O. Russell packs his movies with characters who all think they’re the star of the story (and, in a different handling, could be). But while he has all the right ingredients, Russell isn’t much of a cook. He stirs and stirs to haphazard results. The first half of the film, charting our heroine’s domestic problems, are mostly just depressing, And the film’s third act seems to have been stuck on just to give the story a dramatic conclusion. With Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Édgar Ramírez, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, and Isabella Rossellini. –MF Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge (AMC), Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria KRAMPUS—Why did it take so long for someone to make a movie based on the Alpine folklore about St. Nick’s counterpart, the demon who deals with the naughty kids? Maybe because the subject seems impossible to deal with other than as a flat-out horror movie, which is hardly likely to pull in a big crowd this time of year. Director/co-writer Michael Dougherty tries to mix in comedy by using a feuding family as the object of Krampus’s visit, which works more due to the talents of the adult cast (Adam Scott, Toni Collette, Allison Tolman, David Koechner, and Conchata Ferrell) than anything in the script.

It’s admirable that his monsters (Krampus has a krew of debased holiday figures) are masked actors and puppets rather than CGI, but they look awfully low-budget. And the ending is a terrible cheat. But there are pleasureable moments along the way for genre fans. –MF Regal Quaker, Regal Walden Galleria POINT BREAK—Remake of the 1991 Patrick Swayze-Keanu Reeves movie. Guess they’re finally hitting the bottom of the barrel for movies to remake. Starring Édgar Ramírez, Luke Bracey, Ray Winstone, and Teresa Palmer. Directed

by Ericson Core (Invincible). Flix (Dipson), Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria SISTERS—Not a remake of the 1973 Brian De Palma movie, unfortunately. Starring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Ike Barinholtz, John Leguizamo, and Dianne Wiest. Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge (AMC), 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 Four Seaasons STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS—Sequel. Aurora, Flix (Dipson), Hamburg Palace, Lockport Palace, Maple Ridge (AMC), New Angola, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria, Transit Drive-in (Fri-Sat only) P P

CULTURE > FILM

VISIT DAILYPUBLIC.COM FOR MORE FILM LISTINGS & REVIEWS >> DAILYPUBLIC.COM / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / THE PUBLIC 21

PUBLIC MARKET TO PLACE AN AD CALL (716)856.0737 OR EMAIL CLASSIFIEDS@DAILYPUBLIC.COM / DAILYPUBLIC.COM/CLASSIFIEDS 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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-------------------------------------------------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 716-912-1586 -----------------------------------------------KLEINHANS AREA Historic Orton Pl., 2 bdrm lwr, appl, lndry, wlk to BPO/ Allen Street. Avail Jan 1, 2016. $700 + sec/util. 882-5028

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COMMUNITY EVENTS 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.

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Lesson includes rental equipment, a first timer lesson and a beginner’s area lift ticket.

-----------------------------------------------REINSTEIN WOODS AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM A one-hour program for kids featuring a different, fun outdoor activity each week. For children in grades K-5. No registration required.

Every Thursday from 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM. 93 Honorine Drive, Depew. More information atreinsteinwoods.org/ events/after-school-escape-3/

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNIFER KERN BUCHHOLZ SAM HOYT JILL CONKLIN COFFMAN PAUL BARDOTZ EMILY STERN ALLISON HEBER JAKE MIKLER

ACROSS 1 DIY handicrafts site 5 “If things were to continue like so ...”

15 “The Clothed Maja” painter

61 “Desperate Housewives” actress Hatcher 62 Summer dress uniform component, maybe 63 Cut down to size

16 “Taken” guy

DOWN

BENJAMIN KINNEY

17 Beach bird

CHRISTIAN EDIE

18 Tow-away zone destination

1 Brand in the frozen breakfast section

19 “10 Items ___” (checkout sign that drives grammarphiles nuts)

2 Go from gig to gig

NAJEE WALKER ZACH PATTON STEVE TAYLOR IAN BROST CRAIG KANALLEY

21 Ardent admirers

JEANNINE GIFFEAR

22 They may be collateral when buying new wheels

ROLANDO GOMEZ

------------------------------------------------

28 Recede gradually

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SQUEAKY WHEEL/BUFFALO MEDIA RESOURCES. Squeaky Wheel seeks a dynamic, driven, personable and experienced Executive Director with exceptional writing skills who demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of managing an arts organization.

The position is an opportunity for a visionary arts leader to build the programming and profile of this nationally recognized organization.

Strengths should include writing grants, overseeing programs and finances, and fostering relationships within a passionate constituency.

Please send cover letter, résumé, writing sample, list of 3 references, and salary requirements in a single pdf document via email to edsearch@ squeaky.org by January 15.

30 Long-hitting clubs

3 They’re represented by fingers in charades 4 Conn. school 5 Half of the ‘80s synthpop duo Yaz

31 Word before Jon or Wayne

. YOURSPCA.ORG .

205 ENSMINGER RD. TONAWANDA 875.7360

MARKET NOW ONLINE! DAILYPUBLIC.COM/CLASSIFIEDS

28 “Support Your Local Sheriff!” actor Jack 29 Benjamin Netanyahu’s nickname 33 Full of memorable lines 34 “Gold”-en role for Peter Fonda 35 Paul of “Anchorman” 40 Weight training partner 41 Bargain-basement unit 42 “The Memory of Trees” Grammy winner

6 Comedian Minchin

7 Savion Glover’s specialty

47 Nutcase

8 PPO alternative

48 Give a long-winded talk

49 Sgts.’ underlings 9 ___ START (Tobias’s oft-misinterpreted 36IFVigoda who’s still alive WHICH YOU APPROVE ERRORS ARE plate ON THIS PROOF, THE 51 Edible seaweed used for license on “Arrested Development”) BE HELD RESPONSIBLE. PLEASE EXAMINE THE AD sushi 37PUBLIC Big nameCANNOT in THOROUGHLY EVEN IF THE AD IS A10 PICK-UP. 52 Roasting device toothbrushes Highest Scrabble tile value 54 “Was ___ das?”

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THE PUBLIC. Please three-pointer CHECK NAME, ADDRESS, 56 “A Kiss Before Dying” “Chronicles of Narnia” review yourinto ad the and check 12� stands, e.g.errors. The original lion for any author Levin PHONE #, & WEBSITE layout 43 Former instructions British Poet have 13 Adult Swim fare, for been followed Laureate Hughesas closely as � PROOF OK (NO CHANGES) 57 California red, briefly possible. THE PUBLIC offers short PROOF OK (WITH CHANGES) 58 Suffix with winning 44 Multi-layered dessert design services with two 14� “Lord of the Rings” tree popularized 2015 proofs at inno charge. THE creatures PUBLIC is not responsible 45 Abbr. after a proof LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS for any error if not notified 20Advertisers AncientSignature Greek portico within 24 hours of receipt.

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Brown 50 Carter and Spelling, for two THIS PROOF MAY ONLY BE USED FOR25PUBLICATION IN THE PUBLIC. Simile segment, maybe 53 Cheat 26 Annoys by staying outside the lines?

59 Lying over 32 No pro show, yo

most Hi! I am Nicki, a 2-yea r-old beauty ! I am one of the dog. lap a am I think I and lived ever who’s loving dogs I joyfully hop right into the lap of anyon e who meets me!

Come meet me and my friend s at the SPCA!

27 NYSE symbol for the company that keeps going ... and going ...

46 1990 NBA Finals MVP ___ Thomas

PLEASE EXAMINE THIS PROOF CAREFULLY

Meet !

Nicki

22 THE PUBLIC / JANUARY 6 - 12, 2016 / DAILYPUBLIC.COM

60 Gambles

FAMOUS LAST WORDS BACK PAGE

THE GRUMPY GHEY: THE UGLY IT

BY CHRISTOPHER JOHN TREACY “JUST GET IT.” I stared at my phone with what must have been a shocked expression at his nasty shift in tone.

“You’re a smart guy. Please, just get it already.”

I felt like I was being spoken to by an exasperated school teacher, calling my attention to something that was just beyond my nose but that, for whatever reason, I wasn’t seeing.

And yet, I did see. I had seen. I’d gotten it months ago. I’d also seen something I thought I really wanted, so I was willing to look beyond the ugly it he was hoping I’d just get already. Apparently, my approach had backfired.

Over five months, our sporadic correspondence had amounted to about 40 emails and well over 200 text messages. Our interactions held lure, and despite the fact that our plans always mysteriously fell through, I repeatedly let him command my attention.

I also gave quite a bit of thought to what might be wrong with this guy, because something definitely was. Just what was his “Ugly It”? Is he a drug addict? Is he mentally ill? Does he have HIV and is—understandably—troubled about admitting it to prospective sexual partners? Is he in the closet? Is he in a relationship and this is all directionless flirtation? Or maybe, I wondered with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, maybe he’s just a selfish prick with no mitigating excuses. The Ugliest It of them all.

In this season of renewals and new beginnings, I’m never one to make hard promises to myself. New Year’s resolutions seem like a great way to set yourself up for failure. But one thing is certain as we move into 2016: I will not be tolerating this kind of bullshit again.

Problem is, I come from a bygone era wherein people gave each other the benefit of the doubt. As a result, the cut-throat maze of online introductions, flirtations, and cyber courtships seems unusually bizarre to me. It’s a world that’s taken me years to navigate, a secondary system I’ve had to learn that’s vastly different from what I knew growing up.

Fifteen tears on, I can’t claim there’s a whole lot of finesse involved.

MAP

But for the most part I can hold my own. Usually, I don’t let situations get quite so complicated.

Something about this particular conversation, however, held great promise…an unusually charged degree of sexual chemistry. There seemed to be a deep-seated, mutual physical attraction.

And now, on the flipside, it felt like this man was talking to me like a dog. See the ball? SEE THE BALL? GET IT? Good. Heel. Sit. Stay. Maybe it’s not all that surprising since it’s when we feel that very high-test combustible lust I’m referring to that our inner animal takes the lead. Base instinct runs amok and logic is quickly rendered a buzzkill. It’s a cartoon image of a German shepherd dragging its comparatively wispy, confused-looking owner along the sidewalk, galloping after some shapely poodle with a fancy haircut. You really don’t have much choice but to just ride it out.

Somehow I’d convinced myself this was worth getting dragged a few blocks.

Suddenly, things you might not otherwise tolerate become forgivable in scenarios like this. That the poodle might be insufferably selfish or emotionally unavailable wasn’t much a consideration when your lower self went galloping down the street. With the realization that you’re really just dealing with a runof-the-mill bitch, you then kid yourself into thinking each ensuing disappointment is an isolated incident. New boundaries are set, and then reset when the poodle crosses them. Patterns develop and you pretend not to see them. The bar just gets lower and lower.

We kept running into each other in a certain online spot. Call it the big dog park in the sky. Each time, the fire got fanned all over again. Some fervent butt sniffing would occur followed by an intense chase…and then, like clockwork, the poodle would flake, always with the false promise of a rain check.

And each time, I fell for it, wagging my tail all the way home.

But in the end, what upset me the most about this overlong, fruitless exchange wasn’t the loss of a hot sexual prospect. It was more about the way I’d hung in there despite not being treated very well. It was about the wasted time and energy, and the way I’d let him toy with my transparent enthusiasm. It was about repeatedly buying the lie.

Throughout our correspondence I was constantly told what a great guy I am. Cool guy, good guy.

Hot guy, cute guy. I’m awesome. I’m a mensch. Yay me. But these compliments were always delivered with a lilt of regret that I couldn’t hear in his printed words. What he apparently meant to say was “You’re such a great guy, in fact, that I can’t let myself beat you up and treat you like shit the way I want to.”

Perhaps I’ve been lucky. Nobody has ever rejected me for being ugly, too fat, too thin, stupid, a lousy lay, or any of the other superficial things we tend to fear most when we put ourselves out there. That one time when some Bostonian buffoon told me my teeth weren’t white enough for him to kiss me in the bathroom of The Eagle doesn’t count.

But rejection just gets more complicated and difficult to dismiss from there on out. In this instance, I was essentially being rejected for not being trashy enough. I lack the fuck-and-run quality he requires.

Telling someone they’re “too nice of a guy” to bed down the way you want wreaks an inner havoc all its own (and you might not want to make such sweeping assumptions, either). Getting rejected because of your physicality is, of course, awful. But in the picked-over world of gay hookups, most of us have found ways to tune it out. Getting rejected because your psychology isn’t sufficiently warped is much harder to grapple with. And trust me, when I was getting dragged down the sidewalk, a mindfuck wasn’t quite what I was after.

“It’s the hand of god save,” he chirped at me in the ensuing fallout. Really? Is that what it is? Because I could swear it’s just the sound of you being an insufferably selfish, emotionally unavailable toy poodle, I thought to myself. “I hope you understand that, for you, it is most likely best not to get involved with me. You dodged a bullet, friend. Pat yourself on the back and go have a beer.”

The patronizing arrogance astounds me still. The hand of god helped save me from your potent bullet. Are you really going to imply that your selfish, shitty behavior is actually related to some sort of divine intervention, FREIND? I do believe that is the only time a gay man has ever posited that god stepped in to save me from the fate of having sex with him. It’s most definitely one for the scrapbook.

Sure, I’ll pat myself on the back and go have a beer, even though you know damn well I’m sober, you sanctimonious schmuck.

For the record, being sober also means that there’s no magic off button to relieve tricky feelings like anger and hurt. I no longer have the luxury of using anything to take the edge off when I’m at a breaking point. I get to just sit with negative energy until

it passes. Yay for awesome me, The Mensch, toughing it out.

The man on the other end of this conversation, also in his 40’s, seemed genuinely surprised by my upset, as if he’d barely been paying attention during the five month chase. This might be the most infuriating aspect of the entire shebang: the startling difference between the amounts of energy expended. In truth, I felt winded—like I’d been punched in the stomach.

It should have been a validating moment when he finally apologized, but really it just felt empty. He only wanted to shut me up. Sometimes there’s no satisfying end to be had. Losses must be collected and the sooner you walk away, tail between your legs, the better.

Not a full 24 hours later, as I sat in the drug store parking lot pouring over emails on my phone, he backed into the spot next to mine. I’d been seething all day, parodying the phrase “hand of god save” with the most obnoxious voices I could muster. Apparently, turning our exchange into an SNL skit was providing me some comic relief. On his way out a few minutes later, he recognized me and shot me a smug, bushytailed grin, as if he’d conveniently forgotten how annoyed I was. The look I reflected back surely reminded him.

I never did find out exactly what his problem is. I have my hunches. But more importantly, I realized a good chunk of this charade could have been avoided if I hadn’t left myself open to it, if I’d let the mere existence of his non-specific Ugly It be reason enough to back away.

I hope in the coming year that I’m better able to shut people down who have no place in my life… to protect myself from men that don’t deserve my attention, my generosity, my good will. In this case I let a funky mixture of morbid curiosity and lust get the best of me, fortified with some of that aforementioned benefit of the doubt. After all, being misunderstood sucks. And don’t we all have Ugly Its? I try to give people fair chances to clarify their intentions, so they’re not left feeling like I somehow got the wrong idea about them — so that worthwhile opportunities aren’t missed because of failed communication.

Have we reached a point where we can no longer afford that allowance for one another? Maybe meeting men online is one area where such leeway simply doesn’t belong. The world is full of sociopaths, many of whom are charming and have impressive P penises. Only divine intervention can save us.

ALLENTOWN

Some places to wander into during this Friday’s Allentown Gallery Walk…

NORTH ST

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WASH IN

2

GTON ST

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1

URY A LL WOO DB

4 EDWA

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FRAN L INIA P

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VIRGINIA ST

7 GRINDHAUS CAFE / 160 ALLEN ST Allentown’s newest coffee shop is friendly, comfortable, and delicious. Check it out between gallery stops.

VIRG

HALLOWAY ALLEY

Mmmm is for meatloaf. An institution such as Mothers has no need to change. Kitchen open late.

DE RUTTE ALLEY

6 MOTHERS / 33 VIRGINIA PLACE

KLIN

7

Often overlookied, the Jung Center has great exhibits. This Friday, 5:30-8:30pm, it’s The Omega Point Project: The Noosphere, 2012 and Beyond, graphite drawings by Lory Pollina.

3 Months, new paintings by David Vitrano, opens this Friday, 6-9pm, at this handsome boutique gallery.

3

ALLEN ST

4 C. G. JUNG CENTER / 408 FRANKLIN ST

5 TGW@497 GALLERY / 497 FRANKLIN ST

5

MAIN

This shoebox of a gallery has terrific, always crowded openings. This Friday, it’s The Rest Is Silence, new work by Amy Greenan and Elizabeth Switzer, 6-9pm.

RL ST

3 STUDIO HART / 65 ALLEN ST

IRVING PLACE

PARK ST

A terrific wine bar with perfect little plates to accompany. A cozy place to start an evening of gallery-hopping.

ELMWOOD AVE

2 JUST VINO / 846 MAIN ST

COLLEGE ST

ish menu to match. Moules, anyone?

MARINER ST

Named for the great Coco Chanel, with a bistro-

DELA WARE AVE

1 COCO / 888 MAIN ST

N

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