Buffalo Rising Online

Take Steps for Crohn’s & Colitis is the nation’s largest event dedicated to finding cures for digestive diseases. Participants raise money for crucial research that wouldn’t even have been possible a few short years ago, bringing us closer to a future free from Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Beyond raising money for research, Take Steps brings together the Crohn’s and colitis community in a fun and energetic atmosphere. Participants are encouraged to make noise and be heard -- raising awareness of these little-known diseases in Western New York and across the nation.

At latest estimate, approximately 1.4 million Americans have Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. The unpredictable nature of the diseases – never knowing when you might spend two weeks in the hospital, require surgery, or miss an important personal event – creates a significant burden on the community and the economy: more than $1.26 billion in direct and indirect costs annually, according to the American Gastroenterological Association.

Buffalo Tours presents Waterfront Revival. Can the thriving waterfront of the early 20th century come to life once more? Walk from the mouth of the Buffalo River toward the newly reconstructed and re-watered Commercial Slip. Learn about the once barren and flooded "flats" that became a thriving neighborhood of homes and shops during the heyday of the Erie Canal. What's next?

Meet at The Hatch.

The Parkside Community Association and Buffalo Tours presents an approximately 2 hour guided walking tour of the historic Parkside neighborhood on Saturday, September 13, beginning at 10 am, rain or shine. Learn about the architecture, lifestyle, and history of this fascinating area. The walk is easy, the pace leisurely. Many of the historic structures and landmarks in the neighborhood are highlighted, including the Church of the Good Shepherd and the Pierce Arrow Building. Walk past beautifully manicured gardens and learn to appreciate the different architecture. As breathtaking as North Buffalo is, few visitors ever get a chance to experience the real beauty and history of its neighborhoods.

Meet at the Church of the Good Shepherd, 96 Jewett Parkway. For further information, contact the Parkside Community Association at 716.838.1240 during normal business hours.

OperaBuffs of WNY Inside Opera Lectures moves its fall 2008 lecture season to Westminster Presbyterian Church with today's opening lecture by Jack Langerak, Rochester based Music Educator and pre-opera performance lecturer for The Mercury Opera of Rochester, speaking to it’s 08-09 productions.

Gary Powers, President of Celiac Sprue Association/USA will address the WNY CSA Chapter members and the public on the multiple and rapidly changing challenges and opportunities for celiacs. CSA, a membership based non-profit with nearly 10,000 members and over 100 chapters, plays a key role nationally, regionally and locally in supporting individuals and families affected by this auto-immune digestive disease affecting 1 in 133 people. Over 2 million Americans are affected.

People with celiac disease can not tolerate gluten (a naturally occurring protein found in foods containing wheat, rye, barley, and possibly oats, or their derivatives). There is no known cure at this time. However, the total and lifelong removal of gluten from the diet normally restores people with this condition to a more healthy state. Undiagnosed and untreated individuals may suffer from gastric distress as well as a wide variety of related auto-immune diseases as well as bone loss, anemia, neurological, fertility issues, etc. An early diagnosis followed by strict adherence to the gluten-free diet is the key to restoration of a normal, healthy condition.

The Art of Editorial Cartooning, a lecture by Adam Zyglis, editorial cartoonist for the Buffalo News, who will explain how an editorial cartoonist chooses a subject and distills its meaning to an image, and how the reader can interpret a political cartoon.

Tonight's Bread & Puppet performance is a culmination of the previous 2 days workshops including local musicians and performers.

The University at Buffalo Anderson Gallery is pleased to present the memorial exhibition, Ode to Michael Goldberg: Selective Thievery and the Practice of Looking. There will be a public reception this evening.

Michael Goldberg (1924-2007) is known for his large-scale abstract paintings which reflect the early influence of Abstract Expressionism on his sixty year long career. In addition to a group of important paintings from the University’s collection, loans of artwork from several private collection and public institutions,many shown publicly for the first time in years, provides a unique opportunity to observe the development and evolution of the artist’s life and work through drawings, paintings and prints dating from the 1940s to the 1980s.

Ode to Michael Goldberg traces the evolution of Goldberg’s work beginning with the early cubist inspired drawings of the ‘40s, the monumental nonobjective paintings of the early ‘60s, the abstracted landscape and still-lifes from the mid- to late ‘60s, monochromatic paintings of the ‘70s and ending with his use of grids in the ‘80s. The grid was the structure that informed Goldberg’s most recent work, which was exhibited at Knoedler & Company, New York, shortly before his death in December of 2007.

Image: Untitled, 1965

The George Scott Big Band of the Historic Colored Musicians Club featuring the lovely Melissa Kate play a show tonight to benefit the Friends of the Night People Organization. Come enjoy swing dancing, great food, drink and music.

Photo: Melissa Kate

Tonight marks the opening of Andrew Reyes and Rodney Taylor's exhibit at Hallwalls. An artist talk begins at 8PM. The art practice of Toronto artist Andrew Reyes is a conceptually-based one that traverses multiple media, from sculpture to photography to found objects. He may, at one moment, sardonically critique consumer and contemporary art culture; the next moment, he may extract a blossoming and sublime moment from unexpected or banal sources. He may choose to "summon Dada, Dieter Roth, the Kienholz's and the windows at Tiffany's" while remarking upon consumerism, art world values, and the vagaries of meaning. He is not averse to humor and glitz and often realizes his projects in an enticing amalgam of seduction and critique.

Buffalo artist Rodney Taylor's most recent painted works on paper combine fiercely energetic rendering with blunt symbols and icons in a hybrid that addresses itself to the emotional state of the union circa 2008. Using a tree as the central image throughout the series, Taylor takes the icon through successive degrees of devastation and dissolution. From a sick bed, to sprouting, blood red, from the top of the Capital Dome, through floods and fire and ultimate annihilation, Taylor presents an arc of potential self-destruction that is both a narrative omen and emotional roller coaster.

Celebrate the weekend with Cruzin' Dueces tonight at Sportsmen's.