wednesday may 7th 2008
Packard Building Sold
West Coast Perspective
Plans for converting the Packard Building at 1325 Main Street into 40 apartments and first floor commercial space have taken a step forward. White Plains-based Regan Development purchased the property today for $1.2 million from Cash Realty & Auctions. The three-story, 70,000 sq.ft. property is located at the corner of Riley Street, two blocks north of ArtSpace.
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Anthony Swinnich
Back when video games were still in their infancy, developers relied on whichever computer system they were programming for to create any kind of audio for their games. Today's video games can sound like anything from an orchestra to a jazz band because the audio is pre-recorded and loaded onto a CD, eliminating the need to rely on the limited resources a primitive computer provides.
Those limited resources forced programmers to think carefully about what sort of music would play during their games, and there are beautiful compositions hidden in the bleeps and bloops because of this. These songs were so well written that many people feel a nostalgic connection with them today. Enter Armcannon – Buffalo's own video game rock maestros. This 5-piece outfit carefully splices many well-recognized video game tunes with elements of metal, jazz and straight-up rock to create a s…
Eli George
Buffalo Homecoming Weekend is sure to be busy for everyone in Buffalo. With a ton of different events going on, it may be hard to schedule what you’re going to do. If you would like to take a trip off the beaten path, you may want to check out the Market Arcade Theater. For a movie? Well, kind of.
The Buffalo Arts Council will be putting on the Rocky Horror Picture Show at 11:30pm on Friday June 27th and twice on Saturday June 28th, once at 10am and then a traditional midnight showing. It may seem a little early to report on something happening in June, but that’s because the council is looking for people to play the characters and there will be a sign up sheet this Saturday.
Celeste Lawson, Executive Director for the Buffalo Arts Council says, “We were looking to do Rocky Horror apart from that weekend, and then thought that weekend might be a fun time to do it because t…
buffalorising
Back in January, Eli George wrote an article about rising real estate in Buffalo. It was a fairly hotly debated issue, as many felt that the real estate was not on the rise, but was in fact just some rich person’s home up for sale. Others cited facts from USA Today and personal anecdotes to vouch for the rise in the market.
Now, CNN Money weighs in saying that Buffalo/Niagara Falls is one of the 10 fastest growing real estate markets. Even more interesting is the fact that some of the other ten on their list include Rochester and Syracuse. The rest are fairly spread out across the country, but it is really awesome that three cities all right in the general vicinity of one another all made the top ten list. For …
Christa Glennie Seychew
A little while ago I posted a story about a local musician vying for the attention of Anthony Bourdain's Travel Channel television series, “No Reservations”. For those of you who missed that story, here's the link, but we can sum it up by saying that Buffalo, thanks to Mr. Starr's fine work and the votes of many BR readers, came in among the top four finalists.
Though Buffalo and Mr. Starr didn't win the contest, producers of Mr. Bourdain's program were pleased with all of the finalists and have promised to include them in some way in an upcoming program. But most of you know that, since once Mr. Starr secured Buffalo's seat amongst the most serious contenders, major media outlets in the area picked the story up.
Letter to BRO
This morning my heart fluttered. I was watching WGRZ’s Day Break, as I so often do by default because my wife likes it, and I realized that those public organizations that perpetuate segregation need to be exposed and held accountable. For a while now, every time I watched that program, this tension would build in me; the kind of tension that feels almost like you wished Grand Theft Auto was real; and you were the main. And it would usually happen during Kevin O’Neil’s segment, “Celebrating Western New York”. First of all, he’s not funny…not in the least and second, Western New York to him is all things Polish, German and Irish, forget about everything and everyone else.
Most of the time, unless it’s for some holiday or specific recognition, most minority news of any sort begins with …
queenseyes
Unfortunately, in the year of '07, Buffalo lost a remarkable Falcon. That Falcon was irreplaceable. For a long time it looked as if Buffalo was going to lose another type of falcon as well (the endangered Peregrine kind). Well, if you've been following the progress of these birds that have made their home atop The Statler, then you know that they have been staging a comeback in recent years.
If you are unfamiliar with this terrific story, then you may want to head on over to the Buffalo Audubon Society's website. It is there that you will find The Falcon Cam - a camera that lets you see what these birds are up to at any given moment (click here to visit). The Buffalo Audubon Society has set up this official falcon website so that we might learn about the…
queenseyes
Monday evening Councilman Brian Davis called me to say that work was being started on clearing the Tower Shoreline Beach. When I asked him when, he said, "They're working late evening and night so as not to disturb visitors during the day." So last evening I though I might head over to check out the work in action, but unfortunately the work does not even get underway until after 10pm.
When I arrived at 8:30pm I discovered a large crane that was being used to remove the driftwood from the beach. There were also large rolling illumination spotlights so that the workers could light up the task before them. Brian told me that City Hall had located a contractor who was willing to come in and remove the wood for free. Apparently there is a price tag on the wood, and that made it attractive for someone to acqu…
queenseyes
While biking home last night from the Cobblestone District, I couldn't help but wind my way through two flowering tree-lined plots outside of Dunn Tire Park. Each one of these patches of trees acts as bookends to the exterior park that runs along Swan Street. As much as the trees brought a sense of comfort, I also felt that they were there to act as buffers to the slower traffic on Washington and to the Oak Street speedway. In-between the two sections of trees is a long stretch of concrete that is way underutilized.
There is big potential here for The Bisons to reach out and brand its image to the community. Of course you cannot see into the stadium to see what is taking place... I would think that the land outside of the stadium could become a destination for people who were interested in the game of baseball. Maybe a big fountain to add a sense of excitement when you're walkin…
tuesday may 6th 2008
Consider Trees
queenseyes
It's anyone’s guess as to when and if traffic will return to Main Street. Either way, there are sections of Main that could really benefit from the addition of foliage. When the street was adapted for the Metro Rail, it was literally paved from the buildings on the West side of the street to the buildings on the East side. There are vast stretches of paved blocks where bike riders and walkers are king. But at the same time it is easy to recognize which sections need trees, bushes... anything that resembles plant life.
Greenery is necessary for a number of reasons. During the summer months the trees offer shade on hot days. The trees also add life (movement and sound) to dead sections of the street. The vibrant color infused into a brick and stone landscape can be pleasing to the eye. Trees also soak up the rainwater that otherwise dumps into the sewers. At this point in time w…
