Pop Stand

Last night I caught Suzanne Vega's voice on WNED-FM, the classical music station. It seems she is the host of San Francisco Symphony broadcasts.

That is Suzanne pictured at left. She is currently the host of a series called "13 Days When Music Changed Forever." There are episodes about  Bach and Mozart as well as 20th Century avant garde events which, we know a thing or two about that stuff here in Buffalo.

What with Vega having been championed by the late Buffalo folk singer Michael Meldrum, and San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas a former music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Buffalo vibe must be strong these days in the Bay Area. All roads lead to Allentown, you know? It's true.

The upcoming episode is about how piano maker Sebastien Erard gave Beethoven a new piano and inspired him to create revolutionary music. Hear it on the radio or listen to it here. This is a nice show! It's fun to hear Michael Tilson Thomas. He has a cute way of putting things. "You can think of the keyboard as kind of a word processor of sound." Ha, ha! When was the last time you heard the words "word processor"? But it kind of entered the language. Meanwhile Suzanne Vega is a great host. She does not get on your nerves. It is fun to listen to her talking about Beethoven's "Waldstein" Sonata. And you get to hear a lot of wonderful piano.

San Francisco Symphony broadcasts are heard on WNED, 94.5 FM on Wednesdays at 8 p.m.

-- Mary Kunz Goldman

In the blink of an eye...

In the sparkle of a sequin...

And before you could say "Stayin' Alive"....

The World's Largest Disco sold out!

"This includes both the VIP and General Admission events. We expect there will be some cancellations, so if you are interested in signing up for our waiting list please do so," the disco organizers announce in an email.

Oh, no! Perhaps it was the last two days' of relentless disco talk on PopStand that did it! We have been on kind of a disco kick.

The grim bulletin continues:

"As previously promised, there will be a small allotment of tickets (300) that will go on sale to the general public on Saturday, August 13th at 10:00am thru Ticketmaster.com.  These tickets will be sold at a cost of $65 but will include all regular Ticketmaster services charges. Star 102.5 will also be giving away tickets on the air over the next few months so be sure to listen in for your chance to win tickets."

The disco is Nov. 26 at the Buffalo Convention Center. Above is a Buffalo News file photo taken at last year's bash, of a Toronto guy dancing the night away.

Those of us unfortunate enough to be left out in the cold may get on the waiting list by clicking here -- or here for the VIP waiting list.

So... that's that.

We now return to our previous programming.

-- Mary Kunz Goldman

Buffalo is a disco town! Yesterday's post about Kevin O'Connell under the mirror ball at the old Club 747 prompted this passionate note from a Pop stand reader, brimming with additions and clarifications.

Please pardon the intrusion but I did not see your e-mail address at the end of your blog on the Buffalo News' website. That hilarious airplane "set" was the actual nightclub. And to those who think the World's Largest Disco has anything to do at all with what disco was really like, well, then they also must believe the Germans won WW II. The World's Largest Disco is a big party, but it is a Halloween beer blast and nothing more. Almost all discos had a dress code and people actually DRESSED UP to go out (no sneakers or jeans allowed). I have no idea why people "dress up" in crazy ragged clothing and rainbow Afro wigs and think, "this is disco."

Darn, and just when we were congratulating ourselves for having assembled our crazy ragged clothing and rainbow Afro wig months ahead of time for this year's World's Largest Disco! That is the World's Largest Disco pictured above, by the way, in a News file photo.

Guess it is back to the drawing board!

Meanwhile, for everyone else out there interested in disco history, Howard -- that is the guy I married -- got the great deejay Shane, Brother Shane talking about his memories of Club 747.

Shane, pictured recently against the backdrop of the Buffalo Statler...

... talks about how the airplane interiors were authentic down to the last detail -- the drop tray tables, the luggage compartments.

"The last thing we did was design and build the cockpit and the audio-visual system," he recalls. "It had to be extremely powerful to make the nightly takeoff seem incredibly real to passengers. This was my primary contribution."

Wow, they had a nightly takeoff? 

This story just gets better and better.

-- Mary Kunz Goldman

With the first tickets to the World's Largest Disco going on sale Saturday -- the disco takes over the Buffalo Convention Center on Nov. 26 -- the least we can do is get psyched by watching old footage of Kevin O'Connell in Disco Step by Step at the old Club 747.

Thanks to WBEN radio anchor Steve Cichon for bringing this video to our attention. Now we finally know why Steve sounds so preoccupied when announcing the news!

Can you believe Kevin O'Connell in this video? I was fascinated, too, just looking around at all the girls' dresses. They are so demure by today's standards! And that hilarious airplane set. Too funny. There is also that classic disco version of "Singin' in the Rain." Well, I could go on and on.

Alert, alert, great glimpses of 1970s mustaches, alert!

After watching Part 1 up above you may feel free to watch Part 2.

OK, now, back to work with our sparkly selves. But before you go ... tickets to the World's Largest Disco are $60 Saturday and Sunday, for people on the disco organizers' coveted mailing list, and you know who you are. For the rest of us tickets go on sale Aug. 13 and are $65. Info is all on the disco's glorious and glittering Web site.

-- Mary Kunz Goldman

   Buffalo native Michael Chadwick, shown at left, is one of ten bachelors remaining on Country Music Television's new series "Sweet Home Alabama."  The bachelors from big cities and small towns are vying for the affections of Devin Grissom, a southern belle from Alabama.

   In the fourth episode airing at 9 tonight, Grissom and Chadwick are flown from Fairhope, Ala. (outside of Mobile) to New York City for a date.

   "It's funny how they're portraying me as a city slicker and I was born in Buffalo and raised in the Rochester suburb of Scottsville," said Chadwick earlier today during a phone interview from his Queens residence. "I'm trying to convince her that city life is the way to go."

   A confidentiality clause prohibits Chadwick from talking about his date.

   Chadwick, 28, was born at Kenmore Mercy Hospital. He moved to Rochester at age 6, but returned here to study theater at the University at Buffalo. While at UB, he was assistant director for Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" staged at the university's Center for the Arts in 2009.

   From 2007-08, Chadwick toured the country with the gospel band Liberated Wailing Wall, performing in 200 cities and appearing in 47 states.

   In New York, Chadwick works as a real estate agent for Bond New York.

   "Real estate is what I do to pay bills," he said, "but acting is my passion."

  -- Jane Kwiatkowski

When the spirit moves us, Pop Stand is going to review books we find edifying. Today we brake for a new book called "Bar Hopping Thru America."

This merrily casual paperback is by Terry W. Lyons, a Western New Yorker now in his 70s and living with his wife in Florida. The back cover blurb reads, in part: "The inspiration of this book followed completion of a course, 'Searching for the Lost American Bar,' at the Chautauqua Institute. Who knew Chautauqua taught a course like this? Where do we sign? If you've taken any of those Forgotten Buffalo tours, this would be a way of taking your scholarship to the next level.

So, what everyone wants to know is, what does the book say about Buffalo?

Not as much as it says about Olean, I will say that. Lyons grew up in Olean, and his hometown gets a lot of ink. When he was 17, he used to hang out at a place called the Wheel Restaurant and Bar. He writes: "Unlike teenagers today, economic circumstances usually prevented any one of us from having too much to drink." He describes shuffleboard, which sounds like fun. Only boys would drink, Lyons remembers. Girls did not.

There was also an upscale bar called the Capitol, with a bandstand and a dance floor. Wow, Olean had a lot of bars! Lyons knowledgeably discusses Welch's, where you could place off-track bets. And a few dives: the Brown Bear, Dinty Moore's and the Cabin. "They opened early in the day and, as far as I could tell, never closed."

About Buffalo, Lyons takes time out to discuss our town's brewing history. The Anchor Bar makes it onto the list at the end of the book of bars not to miss. The Place also has a place of honor. Lyons presents it as an example of an endangered old-time tavern. He knows all about its Tom and Jerrys, the drink the bar serves at Christmas time. He has clearly put in his time there.

Lyons is a charming Irishman and rambles through history and geography not really caring what goes where. He interjects quotes. ("I never met a man I liked who didn't drink." -- Will Rogers. I never heard that!)

There are a lot of typos. "Yeats" is spelled "Yates." The absolute last sentence, on p. 241, is a classic: "Ray Brush provided a wonderful final editing of the book" it reads. With no period.

But so what if the book is a somewhat rough, er, draft?

What better mark of authenticity could it have?

-- Mary Kunz Goldman

 "The Bill O’Loughlin Show" will get a new lease on life next month when it adds Lydia Dominick to its lineup and moves to noon weekdays on WGRZ-TV Channel 2, according to a statement released by the station.

The new one-hour talk show will debut Sept. 6 and will air at noon weekdays, replacing “Lunchtime with The Classics,” which is hosted by Dominick.

“Our show will be about local and national issues, local government, politics, what everyone is talking about.” said O’Loughlin. “We’re going to have fun and be controversial in a unique, diplomatic way.”

Since the show's debut on June 26, it had run 30 minutes and was aired at 11:30 p.m. Sundays.

“Bill is a very intelligent and gifted commentator on the big issues in Western New York," said Jim Toellner, WGRZ-TV president and general manager. "He is not blue or red as in Democrat or Republican. I like to say he is green, following the money or motivations behind the headlines.”

O’Loughlin has 20 years in talk radio locally, and has worked at WBEN-AM 930, and most recently at WECK-AM 1230.  

“I am thrilled to be working with Lydia," O'Loughlin said. "She is a wonderful personality, energetic and full of life. We’re going to have fun and it will radiate through the audience. I can’t wait to get started.”

-- Jane Kwiatkowski

Where in the world is JoAnn Falletta? We like to play this game from time to time, track the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra's music director, JoAnn Falletta, and see where she is and what she is up to.

As Joe Williams used to sing: "Baby, I want to know where you're going, what you're doing, and who are you doing it with." Well, not quite. But any excuse to quote Joe Williams.

While looking forward to JoAnn's next appearance with the BPO -- which happens 7 p.m. July 28, at Artpark -- one might well wonder where she is right now. She has been out of town for a while. And, it turns out, there is a good reason for that.

Because JoAnn Falletta, The Buffalo News has learned, is in ....

Here is a hint.

She is in Chile!!

Or at least she was just a few days ago.

Not only that but she is talking about us.

A South American publication features JoAnn talking about Buffalo. The headline reads: "Mi Barrio Favorito: Buffalo Centro, N.Y."

There is mention of "El Oliver's" and "El Cole's." JoAnn is talking about restaurants she loves!

Spot Coffee and Studio Hart also get a mention.

A picture captioned "Parque Japones de Delaware" gives a very flattering glimpse of Delaware Park.

And JoAnn says this about Kleinhans Music Hall: "Tiene una acstica espectacular
y es una de las salas de conciertos más famosas y aclamadas en todo Estados Unidos." I do not speak Spanish but, well, maybe I do. I think I understand what she is saying. She is saying it is one of the most famous and acclaimed concert halls in the entire United States and its acoustics are spectacular. Someone, correct me if I am wrong!

JoAnn has been in Chile conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile in Santiago at the Teatro Universidad de Chile. Jacek Muzyk, the BPO's Principal Horn Player, was there too, soloing in Kenneth Fuchs' "Canticle to the Sun." That is a picture of Falletta and Fuchs at the top of this post.

The composer's Web site has a clip of them rehearsing it. And there is also a review.

Donde el mundo es JoAnn Falletta?

Ya sabes!*

-- Mary Kunz Goldman 

*That is "Where in the world is JoAnn Falletta? Now you know!" in Spanish, according to a translating page I found on the 'Net. Please pardon that I do not know how to do the upside-down question mark. Gracias!

Props to Kim. Kim Kardashian, that is.

She called it. She said a long while ago the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial would be "shocking" and to many people she was right.

What's helpful to remember about Kardashian is that the reality show "star" famous mostly for her vacuity and her derriere is that she was, as I said in a TV column last Friday, the daughter of Bob Kardashian, the lawyer and friend of the most scandalous (and famous) murder defendant of modern times, O.J. Simpson.

Kardashian, you may remember, was entrusted to read O. J.'s "suicide note" during the White Bronco Chase. He's also the one whose dropped jaw and shocked, befuddled look the moment O. J. was pronounced "not guilty" told all of us everything we'd ever need to know about whether or not the ex-Bill was, in fact, guilty.

If there's anyone who understood the "shocking" distance between a murder trial jury verdict and a televised murder defendant's public unpopularity, it was the late Bob Kardashian. Presumably he passed a lot bit of that wisdom on to a daughter or two.

None of the "expertise" journalists and even lawyers might claim seem to have exceeded that of the daughter of an intimate friend of a famous -- and infamous -- murder defendant.

In this instance, it seems to me that the verdict, unlike the Simpson verdict, showed the American legal system at its best, not its celebrity-driven worst.

The prosecution never made a precise case. It could never say exactly how poor little 2-year-old Caylee Anthony died or even where -- not to mention who might have been responsible.

Reasonable doubt lives in this case crowed the defense. It was hard to argue with that, no matter how ridiculous the defense's alternative theory of events was. All they really had to do was point out that the prosecution was guessing what happened, just as they were. Guesswork isn't exactly a great basis for putting someone to death -- or putting them away for life either.

Casey Anthony may be one of the least popular human beings in America at this very moment. But that doesn't mean she needed to go up the river for crimes no one could even enumerate precisely, let alone prove her agency in.

I doubt whether she'll ever show up on "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." But who knows? Some day, maybe she'll be able to pay a jailhouse visit to O.J. Simpson.

Now there are two people, it seems to me, with a lot to talk about.

--Jeff Simon

In the department of Where Do You Begin To Ask Questions, the wildly popular Dutch violinist and bandleader Andre Rieu is touring with a waltz by Anthony Hopkins. There they are pictured together at left. The waltz is reportedly front and center on Rieu's new CD.

I did not know Anthony Hopkins was a composer! But he was -- and is, it seems. Rieu discusses him on his Web site. He writes: "We were all inspired by Sir Hopkins' beautiful music."

Having not heard Rieu's new CD -- and Rieu is not coming to Buffalo until Nov. 21  -- I looked high and low trying to get a sneak preview of this waltz. Darn, I could not.

But I did find this YouTube interview, which took place in April, in which Hopkins talks about how he used to compose a lot of music. He is a big Andre Rieu fan and had "this vision, this dream" that Rieu could perform some of his music. So he wrote and orchestrated a waltz. Rieu, he says, "embellished" it.

The interviewer asks how it sounds. "Fantastic!" Hopkins exclaims. "It's a beautiful arrangement, a beautiful sound," he adds, graciously giving all the credit to Rieu.

What a charmer! You cannot beat Hopkins as he talks modestly about how he plays the piano, "but I'm not a concert pianist." He says he plays the piano every day. He describes his waltz as "rather Viennese, central European. ... I wrote a lot of music, 40 years ago, 50 years ago."

Might he write more music in the future? 

Hopkins says, "I have several more waltzes I'm going to send him when I go back to Los Angeles this week."

"So we can expect a whole album of your music by Andre Rieu?" the interviewer kids.

"You never know. I hope so! It'd be lovely."

-- Mary Kunz Goldman