Reinhold Gliere -- whose massively romantic Symphony No. 3 the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is playing tonight at Kleinhans Music Hall and Wednesday at Carnegie Hall -- is a great composer.
But he is a great-great-great-great uncle!
And his great-great-great-great grandniece, Jennifer Gliere ...
... is going to be at the BPO's performance on Wednesday in New York City. Jennifer Gliere is a soprano and originally thought she could not be there because she had a rehearsal of Bach's B Minor Mass. But she has been sprung from the rehearsal -- alleluia! -- and so will be able to go.
Buzz caught up with Miss Gliere while she was sitting in traffic, which is what you do when you live in New York.
One thing we asked her about was the folk hero Ilya Muromets, the legend that inspired Gliere to write his outrageous, rarely performed symphony. Ilya Muromets is a warrior who chalks up all kinds of victories before -- fatal error! -- he defies God and is defeated by the heavenly hosts.
Jennifer Gliere said Russian kids grow up knowing all about this mythical figure.
"What would be our equivalent?" we asked. "Would he be like Robin Hood?"
She laughed.
"More like Bigfoot," she said. "Only not as nefarious."
In the Buzz column today we lament the loss of Dorothy Malczewski, a legend of the Broadway Market and a woman who was free with her knowledge of food.
Other people are telling us Dorothy brought the butter lamb to
Buffalo, as detailed in that marvelous vintage video above. Our chief
memory of her centered on the time she told us how to roast duck to
impress Howard, the guy we were dating, and whom we eventually married
(the duck worked).
There were a couple of surprise details we had forgotten. One was
that the duck had been Dorothy's idea! Buzz had confessed we were making
dinner for her boyfriend, and she picked up that we hoped to impress
him. "How about a duck?" she said. And we said OK, even though we had
never made duck before.
Another detail we love is that after giving us the recipe, Dorothy
sized us up, like an artist appraising her successor. "I can see why he
likes you," she said solemnly. "You're a good cook."
Thanks to her! And now, the recipe everyone is waiting for ...
The Tonawanda whale of a sale Buzz just reported on got us thinking of the other Tonawanda whale -- the Big Blue Whale car wash!
That whale was there when Buzz was a little kid and we used to beg our dad to take the car through it. The whale's name was Willie. We never knew that!
We are not the only one affectionate toward that whale. This scholarly Flickr page has pictures and letters -- click on them -- that were published about the whale over the years. Buzz got a kick out of a letter from a Tonawanda killjoy who found it "monstrous, ugly and completely distasteful." Hahahahaa!
Alas, the Save the Whale campaign failed.
And you wonder why so many cars are dirty this time of year.
This morning the very cool Buffalo History Gazette posted a great picture of the Buffalo harbor circa 1910. There is this magnificent passenger ship that sailed between Buffalo and Detroit. And off to the right -- it just happened to be there -- was the Americana, outbound toward Crystal Beach.
One thing led to another, as these things do, and we wound up looking up a few things about Crystal Beach, such as when it opened (1888). Then we looked up the Cyclone, the old roller coaster that was there before the Comet. That is the Cyclone pictured above in an old postcard.
Buzz used to love the Comet but our dad always told us that he rode the Cyclone and next to him we were in the kiddie pool.
Now we see what he meant! Because we found this account on Wikipedia by a Canadian soldier named Ed Mills who wrote the Cyclone in 1943.
Every once in a while you stumble upon someone who has a real way with words. This guy did. He puts you right on that Cyclone. You feel as if you are there! Try to find time in your day to give these couple of paragraphs your undivided attention. It is suggested you put down your coffee first.
Edna Louise has this sale in Snyder this weekend that includes, and we are just skimming the list, stuff from Crystal Beach and the Pan-American Exposition (pictured above), old local postcards, old military stuff, china and silver, paper dolls, rock albums, a HUGE collection of vintage Catholic items including statues and rosaries, and magazines including The Etude and The Botanist. (Buzz has already snooped through the pictures on Edna Louise's site.)There is also reportedly a lot of vintage sheet music, a gigantic collection of lamps (how illuminating), vintage sewing equipment, quilts, it never ends.
In the continuing saga of Anderson Cooper dissing Dyngus Day, we love how festival organizer "Airborne Eddy" Dobosiewicz fights on, like a hero out of a ballad by Adam Mickiewicz, pictured above.
Most recently, Eddy was greviously insulted by Cooper's dodging out of this year's Dyngus Day festivities. Cooper gave some excuse, something about "60 Minutes," but Eddy will have none of it, not that we blame him.
In today's Buffalo News Eddy is quoted on the op-ed page page A8, at the top. He is one of two quotes! The other is by Douglas J. Sarno, representing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, discussing a funding threat to nuclear waste cleanup in Niagara County.
"We're going to make his life miserable," Eddy is quoted as saying, about Anderson Cooper.
This promo for a Valentine's Day story appeared on the front page of The Buffalo Evening News 100 years ago.
Love the mention of "the quaint love missives Grandmother sent Grandfather many years ago, wonderful lacey things that now lie hidden deep in old trunks stored away in the attic."
Buzz did not quite get this whole Mayan thing. We don't worship the Mayan gods, pictured above. We don't buy into these people's religion, so why would we think they had anything on the ball as far as knowing when the world would end?
But we have to say, this whole Mayan calendar business was worth it for all the jokes and cartoons going around. They have kept us laughing in a week that was otherwise kind of bleak news-wise, you know?
And it is the gift that keeps on giving.
Today, a witty and learned friend writes on Facebook:
"Somebody got it wrong. Apparently the world ends at the end of the NEXT Mayan cycle. So beware of Dec. 21 in the year 7138! Start the countdown: Only 1,872,272 days to the Apocalypse."
Hahahahahaa! Knowing this guy, he probably did the math.
There should be some kind of citywide observance to celebrate the
First Bad Driving Day. Whatever we call it, it will probably come this weekend.
The vintage picture above was posted on Facebook today by Forgotten Buffalo along with advice to crack out our winter driving skills. It quickly drew a flurry of comments.
"The first car in line looks like my father's 1970 Plymouth Valiant."
"We had a Valiant."
"The cars aren't the only clue to how old it is -- there's lights on it!"
"And no 990 split."
"The second car looks like a 1972 Bel Air wagon."
One woman, apparently an expat, was wistful. "Wish I could bring Buffalo snow to New Orleans, if just for one day," she wrote. "Snow angel, anyone?"
A muscle car fan also liked the white stuff.
"Let's break out our '70s cars and recreate Blizzard scenes!" he suggested.
