Buzz Blog

Little Luna is getting big.

Buzz's prediction is coming true pretty fast! That shot above from Facebook today shows she is no longer the cute cuddly cub the Buffalo Zoo is banking on her being. (Don't click on this picture to donate. Please go to the zoo's site.)

Luna is developing that trademark pear-shaped polar bear rear. And look at those paws!

She will always be cute, but before you know it, she'll be working for Billy Fuccillo.

She'll be huge!!

As Buzz gets ready to fly to New York to catch the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, we are thrilled to hear once again how nice the people there are! Allow us to introduce our authority, Buffalo Broadcasting Hall of Famer Doris Jones.

Miss Jones, pictured at left, flew to New York over the weekend. She was preparing to board a bus from LaGuardia Airport to 122nd Street when she realized that she had nothing smaller than a $10.

What to do??

Ah! She noticed one bus had its door open. She approached and explained to the driver that she did not have the correct change.

"Lady," said the driver, "you are S*** out of luck!!"

Then he gave her a bus ticket.

"WELCOME to New York!" crowed Doris. "What great people! FREE ride!"

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."

Buffalo sign of spring: All of a sudden, you hear all these car radios! One song snippet carried on the air on Elmwood Avenue caught the ear of Jeff Paterson, head of the Community Music School.

Quoth Paterson:

"It's not unusual for someone to sit at the stoplight at Elmwood and Bryant, blaring music so loudly that I can hear every word and every beat inside my office. It is unusual for the song to be 'You Make My Dreams Come True' by Hall and Oates."

Ha, ha!

Buzz went window shopping in Kaisertown and saw this sweet sight in a Clinton Street shop. It is a Kaisertown Ode to Spring!

How much is that Tyskie in the window?

That Tyskie is a penny or two!

Kevin Gaughan, proponent of government downsizing, was seen at Home Depot buying a toilet seat.

With luck he should be able to get bloated bureaucracy to sit down and work on eliminating waste!

The crowds of promenaders today at the Erie Basin Marina included this family of geese.

The geese purposefully walked a great length along the path -- at least from the Hatch to the battleship -- and didn't seem bothered at all by the people around them. But everyone stepped back to give them room.

Hahaaa... It is great how you can see the big birds' shadows.

Honk if you love geese!

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).

We've written about the incident in the paper before, and just now, we found this story in The News' archives.

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 ...

... Go there yourself!

Wesselmann's strikes again!

So Buzz is sitting here, listening to "Life Without Christmas" by Giya Kancheli, this piece the Buffalo Philharmonic is playing at Carnegie Hall next week. It is this kind of haunting piece of music that Kancheli, who was born in 1935, recalls the cold and oppressive atmosphere of the Soviet Union, when religion was outlawed.

There is weird scoring. The piece includes an electric bass, and strings, and piano, and the taped voice of a boy soprano, and, most impressively, the rumble of Stalin's tanks and machinery.

That rumble sounds most realistic, Buzz thought, listening admiringly.

Then .... oh wait.

It was the construction equipment outside our window! They had a big weight and were boring a pole into the ground.

Wow, this sort of makes the piece complete! Can we record this rumble and add it to our performance at Carnegie Hall? Or, better still, bring along the actual equipment?

After all, as JoAnn Falletta said in Saturday's News: "We aren't taking just the Buffalo Philharmonic to Carnegie Hall ... we're taking Buffalo!"