The Gusto Blog

News Arts Editor Jeff Simon and Pop Music Critic Jeff Miers answered your questions about books, movies, television, music and more directly into the camera. Please allow extra time for the large video file to load.

The News' Charity Vogel is hosting the monthly Buffalo News Book Club live chat with guests Vincent O'Neill from Irish Classical Theatre and Laurence Shine from Buffalo State. This month's News Book Club selection was James Joyce's "The Dead."

Letterpress printer Amos P. Kennedy visits the Western New York Book Arts Center on Saturday. Photo from bookartsguild.org.

Shortly after turning 40, Amos P. Kennedy Jr. quit his job as a computer programmer at Indiana University submitting his resignation letter, rumor has it, on a piece of toilet paper to pursue a far more unpredictable and less lucrative career as a letterpress printer. This is a move that would strike most people as foolhardy, if not insane. But for Kennedy, who went on to develop formidable skills as a creator of prints and bound books along with a serious following, it was a true calling.

Kennedy will be in Buffalo to give a printing workshop as part of the "Analog Artist Showcase" in the Western New York Book Arts Center (468 Washington St.). Kennedy will demonstrate his techniques on the Vandercook press, a favorite of letterpress printers, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday (Dec. 3). Following the second workshop, Squeaky Wheel Media Arts Center (712 Main St.) will screen "Proceed and Be Bold," a documentary about Kennedy’s life and work by filmmaker Laura Zinger.

"The work of this self-proclaimed ‘Humble Negro Printer’ raises emotionally-charged questions and reveals remarkable depth beneath the bold print," according to Zinger’s website. "By learning the rules and then choosing to break them, Amos redefines what life (and letterpress printing) can be: exhilarating and subversive."

Tickets to the screening are $7 or $5 for WNYBAC or Squeaky Wheel members. For more information or to register for the free workshop, call 348-1430 or visit www.wnybookarts.org.

-- Colin Dabkowski

News Arts Editor Jeff Simon and Pop Music Critic Jeff Miers answered your questions directly into the camera. Questions about books, movies, television, music and more were submitted in the chat console below the video player.

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It’s time again for a "Big Night," Just Buffalo Literary Center’s monthly salon that’s out to unite local audiences for poetry, art, food and music in the Western New York Book Arts Center (468 Washington St.). The second program of the current "Big Night" season will get going at 8 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 19)with a reading from poet Anna Moschovakis, music from Malaria Control and readings from the recently released "Starlight Studios Anthology."
   Moschovakis has been collecting rave reviews for her most recent book of poetry, "You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake," out on Minneapolis-based Coffee House Press. Moschovakis’ wide-ranging poetry, according to the publisher, "incorporates Craigslist ads, technobabble, twentieth-century ethics texts, scientific research, autobiographical detail, and historical anecdote to present an engaging lyric analysis of the way we live now."
   The Starlight Studios anthology features a collection of poems and illustrations by 15 artists associated with the local arts organization, which helps people with developmental, neurological and learning disabilities create and sell their art.
   For more information on the event, call Just Buffalo Literary Center at 832-5400 or visit www.justbuffalo.org.
 -- Colin Dabkowski

News Arts Editor Jeff Simon and Pop Music Critic Jeff Miers answered your questions about books, movies, television, music and more.

NOTE: The entire 30-minute video must download before playback begins. Thank you for your patience.

All things being equal (which, as we know, they seldom are), Jeff Miers and I will open our little lemonade stand and chat on camera with readers today beginning at 1 p.m. We'll be ready and willing to deal with all subjects -- well, more or less, anyway.

Hope to hear from everyone then.

--Jeff Simon

News Arts Editor Jeff Simon and Pop Music Critic Jeff Miers are answering your questions directly into the camera. Submit your questions about books, movies, television, music and more in the chat console below the video player.

Today, the Greater Buffalo Cultural Alliance, a regional arts advocacy group formed last year in the wake of the county cultural funding crisis, released a statement reaffirming its mission to form a "united front" of regional arts groups. The statement follows (emphasis mine):

The Steering Committee members of the Greater Buffalo Cultural Alliance (GBCA) affirmed at a recent meeting that regardless of the upcoming County government election and its subsequent results the grassroots organization will continue its commitment to providing strong advocacy and support that focuses on bringing the arts and cultural communities of the Western New York region together as one united front. A significant part of these efforts will be to create a dedicated Erie County funding mechanism for the Arts.

GBCA spokesperson and Co-chair Randall Kramer stated, “This is not a political issue but speaks to how we envision our community in the future. The Arts need to team up with all sectors, government, business and public, to ensure the greatest possible results for our region.”

“We remain committed to have the entire cultural sector recognized for its importance to this region’s economy, quality of life, education and enjoyment; and we remain committed to securing proper investment for all the cultural organizations that make up this important sector,” Tod A.Kniazuk, the newly appointed executive director of the Arts Services Initiative of Western New York, added.

--Colin Dabkowski

News Arts Editor Jeff Simon and Pop Music Critic Jeff Miers answered your questions directly into the camera. Watch a replay below:

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News Arts Editor Jeff Simon and Pop Music Critic Jeff Miers answered your questions about books, movies, TV and music directly into the camera.

Download audio