British singer and musician Brian Peters is coming to Buffalo for a late afternoon show in The Back Room at Allen Street Hardware this Sunday, April 21, for a special performance that should prove to be both intimate and compelling. "One of the main differences between the folk scene in England and the folk scene in America is beer," said local folk singer Dave Ruch.  "Good beer and folk music are inextricably linked in the UK, and British performers are inevitably horrified when they first discover that folk shows here in America are so often held in church basements, coffeehouses

Last night, the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was captured alive. After an emotional week, the capture of the remaining suspect was one of those cathartic moments that a country shares on television, on social media, in bars and restaurants and in stadiums. Except, of course, if you were at First Niagara. 
The Sabres were hosting the New York Rangers and playing for their playoff lives. There were a significant amount of Rangers fans in the arena and, perhaps because of that, there was actually energy in the arena. The Sabres played a solid first period

A community meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 23 at 5:30 p.m. in the Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo Alford Auditorium.  Attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about the process being developed for the reuse of the current hospital's campus once operations move to the new John R. Oishei Children's Hospital on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. 
This open community meeting follows focus groups, public meetings and other discussions held in which neighbors, local residents, business owners, constituent groups, elected and other

By Tom Murdock:
We've all seen our favorite buildings on Google Street View and toured neighborhoods - and even cities - we've never been to.  The next generation of Google Street View takes viewers inside buildings, and the technology is just getting rolled out in Buffalo.
Local businesses now have a direct connection with this exciting new Google program through the Buffalo Niagara Partnership.  Businesses can show off their facilities through virtual tours that are hosted

Years ago, a couple of local artists scoped out this blank cinder block wall at the corner of Allen and Park, to put up a mural, but at the time the storefront was vacant and with no permission from the owner of the building, the project never happened. 
Yesterday, as a precursor to the echo Art Fair event, artist Max Collins with the help of ReImagine's Cortney Morrison-Taylor, adhered a temporary wheatpaste billboard to the formerly

By Mark Kubiniec, President Grant Amherst Business Association:
This Saturday, April 20th, is the Spring Scajaquada Cleanup, as Grant Amherst Good Neighbors concerned about the health of our Scajaquada Creek form the largest contingent of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper's annual Spring Cleanup. Volunteers meet at 9am at the American Legion at 533 Amherst Street - bring your favorite shovel, rake and sturdy outdoor gear to join your neighbors and Grant Amherst Businesses in cleaning up our community connection to nature. Sign up online

Buffalo's CanalSide district continues to evolve as multiple construction crews, cranes, and heavy equipment dot Lower Main Street and the Inner Harbor. Lieutenant Governor Duffy was on hand yesterday alongside several local leaders including Mayor Byron Brown for a groundbreaking ceremony held for the East Canal, the latest public improvement at Canalside. The $5 million park project that will connect Washington and

More good news for the Buffalo River. Congressman Higgins has announce that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will allocate an additional $22 million towards the second phase of the Buffalo River clean-up effort, bringing the total funds to $44 Million. Federal funds are to be matched by "a consortium of non-federal funding partners through a partnership agreement between Honeywell Corporation and Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper". 
There were concerns as of late that the Federal money would be in jeopardy for the second phase of

Preservation Buffalo Niagara is recognizing outstanding preservation projects and those contributing to preservation efforts at its annual awards ceremony May 31, 11:30 AM at Kleinhans Music Hall.  Buffalo Rising is profiling this year's winners.

The east monumental stair of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery was constructed in 1905 and consists of a tiered granite stair assembly including granite landings and cheek walls with integral granite seats. This top of this granite assembly aligns with the top of the granite base, upon which sits the original marble Gallery building.

The

By Jennifer Passaro:
There was a house in Rochester, New York that seamed a long block with its beautiful flanks, aglow beneath the soft hum of American Elms, lined, the way a landscape is lined, by the degrees of light's play. Inside this magnificent house lived a family, and a little girl with pigtails whose life would be forever changed by her experience there. The home was called Boynton House, and it was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
"Instead of standing in line with neighboring homes, the Boynton House appeared

I just received this link to Rust Belt Almanac, a start up magazine focusing on the rustbelt region of the US.  The magazine's tag line is "A magazine about industrious people."  Its founders are photographer Noah Purdy and graphic designer Michael Artman. They are twenty somethings living in Pittsburgh where they founded the magazine. They state that the magazine was born out of a shared desire to document the stories

Channels: Stories from the Niagara Frontier is Squeaky Wheel's production initiative that matches up local filmmakers with WNY's activist groups to make short documentaries about social justice issues impacting this region. This Thursday April 18th at 7 PM, Squeaky Wheel will be premiering three new films produced through the initiative at the Market Arcade Film + Art Center. In advance of the premiere, we have been posting brief previews highlighting each film.
Not Without Us by Mental Health Peer Connection + Sam Avery
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By Jessica Edwards:
On Monday, Anthony Bourdain will be entertaining at Shea's Performing Arts Center (see here). The last time Bourdain was here, he played on the image of Buffalo that is most expected. A City that is slow to recover from the loss of the industrial might it once showcased. During his television series No Reservations, the "Rust Belt" episode (2009), he posed the question, "What

The Central Terminal Restoration Corporation (CTRC) has announced its intentions for adaptive reuse plans that would see the terminal as public/private development in the realm of a Center for Restoration Arts & Sciences. The recent developments are based upon a number of groups that have toured the complex and identified synergies that would lead toward tenancy and development prospects (a mix of private developers, local foundations, Government, Education, the Arts and neighborhood nonprofits). "Interest in this adaptive reuse project is escalating from nonprofits to new businesses,"

This is a scan from a 1960s Chamber of Commerce promotional brochure.  I will post the cover in the near future with a few more images. It is a classic example of corny civic pride but is kind of cool anyway.  I used to collect this kind of stuff and had a whole cork wall in my bedroom covered with Buffalo images clipped from various sources.  I don't have a "now" image to compare to this but I think there are enough prominent differences to find without the comparison. 
The first thing that stands out is that construction is still ongoing at the Rath County

If you've been looking for a place to salsa... you know, bachata, merengue, and cha cha cha, there's a new Wednesday night salsa dance series in full swing at the newly renovated Pucho Olvencia Community Center (POCC) located at 261 Swan Street. "Buffalo's longest running and most popular salsa night" has taken the dance to the next level and is out to entertain both amateurs and pros on its new very large and extremely smooth dance floor.  It's just what salsa dancers have been waiting for. The group's inaugural event at the POCC (last Wednesday) attracted nearly 100 dancers and Latin

This past Friday, after attending an inspiring music performance at Pausa Art House (see here), I joined a group of friends over at CooCooU@27 for the much anticipated Future is History design show (see here). Being a fan of mid-century modern design, I knew the show was going to be good, but just how good I had no idea until walking in the front door. 
Exhibit designer and curator, Marty

It's a fact that fewer and fewer people are reading books these days. With the advent of TV and video games, and social media and smart phones, people are finding less time to pick up a good book. On April 23, 2013, 25,000 volunteers from around the country will hand out half a million books in over 6000 cities and towns in the US. The initiative is called Word Book Night U.S. (WBN), and the premise is to get specially printed books into the hands of light readers and non-readers - those who don't necessarily have easy access to books. On that

If you made it to Boom Days this year, then I don't have to tell you how much fun it was. If you didn't make it to Boom Days, local photographer Don Burns has captured the excitement of the event in a slide show that can be viewed after the jump. When viewing the images of the musicians, you must remember where they are playing - inside of one of the silos on the grounds of Silo City. Don has done a wonderful job at capturing the scene both inside and outside of the silos, and even managed to capture a shot of climbers as they repelled down from Elevator B. About Don Burns:
Don

It's not too late to sign up for the upcoming Buffalo Spring USCF Classic - a sanctioned chess tournament scheduled to take place at the Main Place Mall. The tournament takes place on Saturday, April 20, 2013 and is being presented by Garnell W. Whitfield Jr., City of Buffalo, Fire Commissioner and The Archangel 8 Chess Academy (Facebook). 
For thirteen years The Archangel 8 Chess Academy has been teaching people the art of chess, hosting tournaments