The Gusto Blog

If you don't have tickets for tonight's Steve Miller concert at Artpark in Lewiston, sorry, but Artpark has just announced the show is sold out.

But we've got you covered - our Pop Music Critic Jeff Miers will be there and will report on the show in Wednesday's Buffalo News and online at www.buffalonews.com.

Primus brings its 3-D Tour, a traveling 3D-enhanced live musical performance, to town with a stop at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 23 in the Rapids Theatre (1711 Main St., Niagara Falls).

Tickets are $42.50 advance and $50 day of show and go on sale at noon Aug. 4 through the box office, online at www.Ticketmaster.com or charge by phone at (800) 745-3000. For more information, call 205-8925 or visit www.rapidstheatre.com.

The halfway point of the 2012 Buffalo Infringement Festival has, lamentably, passed. But there's still plenty of time to get into the action, which is why I'm offering up five picks from among today's many Infringement Fest activities to put on your schedule:

• I don't know Ian McPhail and I've never been to Westside Stories, but I like the sound of McPhail's presentation: "Civilized Poetry." And at Infringement, appreciating the ring of something is as good a reason to check it out as any other. It doesn't hurt that McPhail's presentation, which gets started at 6 p.m., clocks in at a cool 15 minutes.

• Infringer extraordinaire MC Vendetta (a.k.a. Janna Willoughby-Lohr) promised me yesterday afternoon that her and Cat Sinclair's show "Dazzlingly Inappropriate" would live up to its title. Since I've never known her to be wrong, I strongly recommend heading to Rust Belt Books at 6:30 p.m. and leaving whatever delicate sensibilities you may have accidentally brought along at the door.

• After Ms. Sinclair has finished, there's no need to pick those sensibilities back up -- or to leave your seat at Rust Belt, for that matter -- because yet another willfully inappropriate event is set to follow suit in the very same space at 7:30. It has a title I'm not entirely sure is safe to print in a family newspaper, so I will merely link to it. Because that seems more polite.

• And because we're on a roll with the inappropriate suggestions, why not stop by El Museo at 9 p.m. to check out "Yes, I Am Staring At Your [Inappropriate Word] : The Un-Poetic Stylings of Velvet Al. This could either be wildly offensive or delightfully tongue-in-cheek. Only one way to find out.

• If poetry's isn't your thing, fear not: Music abounds on this the sixth day of Infringement. There are big to-dos at Broadway Joe's at 6, Slyboots at 8 and an electronic music night at the The Bend at 9, with slightly smaller affairs at the 9th Ward starting at 7 and Duke's Bohemian Grove Bar at 10 p.m.

--Colin Dabkowski

As part of the Infringement Festival, Torn Space Theater -- which never misses an excuse to branch out from its headquarters on Fillmore Avenue -- is mounting a production of the Leonid Andreyev play "He Who Gets Slapped" in the former Buffalo ReUse facility at 298 Northampton St., now the home of Net + Positive and soon to become a shared artisan workspace. A writeup will follow, but for now I will post this slightly out-of-focus and hastily edited but nonethless interesting video interview with the play's director, Megan Callahan, and its star, Chris Corporandy.

--Colin Dabkowski

Throughout the rest of the fest, I'll periodically be taping interviews with Infingement regulars (and other random artists) as part of a little series I've decided to call "Better Know an Infringer." For the first one, meet longtime Infringement participant and organizer Leslie Fineberg, who I spoke to just after her performance today with Euphraxia and Metamorphosis American Tribal Style Bellydance outside of El Museo:

--Colin Dabkowski

In conjunction with the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, National Public Radio is reviving one aspect of the ancient Greek  games that failed to gain much traction when reintroduced into the modern version of the Olympiad.  From the Stockholm games of 1912 to the post-war London games of 1948, the International Olympic Committee sponsored a so-called "Pentathlon of the Muses"--a medals competition in such artistic categories as literature, music, painting, sculpture, architecture and two types of poetry, epic and lyric--in imitation of the ancient games, which featured intellectual pursuits such as the recitation of victory odes by the likes of classical poets like Pindar alongside the physical competitions.

As Renee Montagne reported on last Friday's Morning Edition, this coming week the program will undertake its own attempt to revive that tradition by inviting five poets representing five continents--Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America (Australia and Antarctica appear to be casualties of the five day work week)--to "compose original works celebrating athletes and athletics." 

Morning Edition listeners will determine the winners in virtual "poetry slam" fashion, based on the popular vote for each of the five contestants whose poems you can read and listen to at www.npr.org. 

One of the poets is former Buffalo area resident and Williamsville East High School graduate Kazim Ali, who has been selected to represent North America in the competition.

Continue reading "Williamsville native Ali selected for NPR Poetry Games" »

Gerry Maher and Chris Corporandy in Torn Space Theater's production of "He Who Gets Slapped," part of the 2012 Buffalo Infringement Festiva. Photo by Lukia Costello.

You might think the Monday after the first weekend of the Infringement Festival, a swirling bacchanal of activity in venues large and small across the city, would be a little slow. But you'd be wrong. On the fifth day of Infringement, there's more than enough to keep the aspiring Infringer fully engaged. Here's are today's recommendations:

  • Film plays a big role in the festival today, with a screening kicking of at Filigree's at noon with screenings of "Red Green Totem," "Decency in Kind" and "Thin Red Line." Also at 7 p.m., Burning Books hosts its own "Clips and Trips Film Night," with an eclectic assortment of films ranging from "Alice In Wonderland Tea Party Scene" -- a kind of Rand Paul-meets-Lewis Carroll mashup -- to the documentary "Riding on the Edge: Bicycling in Buffalo."

• Torn Space Theater, one of Western New York's most accomplished experimental theater companies, presents "He Who Gets Slapped," Leonid Andreyev's play in which a writer takes a job as a circus performer in an attempt to get away from his sordid past. Tonight's performance is at 8 in The Foundry, a performance space in the former headquarters of Buffalo ReUse at 298 Northampton St.

• It wouldn't be Infringement without Euphraxia and Metamorphosis American Tribal Style Bellydance, the longtime Infringers who will bring their unique style of bellydancing to El Museo at 5:30 p.m.

• Rust Belt Books hosts the Living Poets Society, a kind of poetry/music open night including "Spoken Word , Sound poets, Visual and Concrete poetry, as well as numerous musical arrangements whether it be guitars, harmonicas or drum circles." That gets started at 7 p.m. and runs until about 9.

• If you didn't get your fill of pyromania from Pyromance, fear not: Hoopnosis' FireFaery Show lights up Days Park tonight at 9.

--Colin Dabkowski

Anyone looking for a glimpse into Infringement should check out the Flickr photostream of Infringment organizer Dave Pape, who takes thousands of shots during each festival and posts them up daily. Here's a sample of three pics from the last two days:

A performer eats fire on Satuday night in Allentown:

Buffalo Infringement co-founder Kurt Scneiderman dances during the West African dance and drum inclusive performance on Saturday in the Alt Theatre at the Warehouse:

A Saturday street scene in Allentown:

--Colin Dabkowski

Hard to believe it's already the fourth day of the 2012 Buffalo Infringement Festival, but there are still more than seven days left to get your Infringement on. Here are a few picks for today:

• Not-to-be-missed is the 10th annual College Street Block Party, an Infringement staple since the beginning that takes place at the intersection of College and Allen. It's always a busy affair packed with tons of smiling neighborhood folks and plenty of bands. This year, the entertainment includes: Poindexter, Ball Cheese Psychotics, Shubbaluliuma, Logo City, Ramforinkus and Peanut Brittle Satellite.

• Word on the street is that Lila Sylla's West African dance and Drum inclusive performance is well worth checking out, which you can do today at 3 p.m. in the Alt Theatre.

• At 5 p.m. in Night House, Virginia Warwick presents what appears to be an immaculately strange event, a "toy theater symposium" featuring "3 little shows: 00OOoo, Olivia Sea Turtle and Do Right Belly Fire, Do Right Monkey Brain." That's at 5 p.m. in The Vault.

• The Buffalo Burlesque Collective, if you haven't seen its members perform, is worth at least a half-hour of your time. Today, that half hour runs from 6 p.m to 6:30 in the Alt Theatre.

• When you think Infringement, you don't necessarily think metal, but later on the Tudor Lounge will host its own Metal Night, featuring  Spider Goat, Metal Mountain Trio and manawi thorn.

--Colin Dabkowski