This one is for all of the guys out there looking to make good with your lady friends. The gift is guaranteed to bring a smile to your sweetheart's face, not only when she opens it, but also when she visits Spa Alexis at The Hyatt in Downtown Buffalo. It's really the perfect add-on gift that anyone can use at any time, and of course you would be supporting the local service industry by purchasing a gift certificate or any one of the listed health and beauty offerings. I had never even paid a visit to Spa Alexis until I did my

This holiday season, the Theodore Roosevelt Site at the Wilcox Mansion will be hosting the 36th annual Victorian Christmas.

The celebration will go on from now until December 11 and will feature a series of festive events.  Admission to the TR Site museum will be reduced to half its regular price during this time.  The rooms of the mansion will be adorned with Victorian inspired holiday decorations. There will be plenty of Christmas shopping opportunities between the new Museum Shoppe, Snowflake Boutique and Tempting Treasures shops.

The Victorian Christmas hours

By Salvatore Sciandra:

Many people shudder at the prospect of spending an evening listening to holiday music, and in some cases for very good reason (Hearing Jose Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad" is enough to make anyone reach for the eggnog).  Too often we're subjected to uninspired versions of well worn classics, like "Frosty the Snowman" and "Winter Wonderland".  It's not that these songs are bad, but when played ad nauseum they can certainly lose their original luster.  For that reason it's fun to find Christmas music that's off the beaten path, and for those of

Make no mistake about it. Our Song, currently running at New Phoenix Theatre, is not the story of romance gone bad. This is a wrong-headed hook-up which, for its partners, becomes more disastrous the longer it lasts.
 
Our Song has adapted for the stage by Keith Waterhouse from his own novel. Even without knowledge that both script and book are based upon Waterhouse experience, it is intriguing in a voyeuristic kind of way.
 
It's U.S. premier is staged by Robert Waterhouse, the author's son who is artistic director of New Phoenix Company. This

Sometimes art is like a business. But only sometimes.
 
As we all know, the year end holiday cluster keeps retailers happy and active. The same goes for our musician friends, singers especially. They do double and even triple duty trying to keep up with the public demand for carols, hymns, oratorio, popular winter tunes and other musical merriment.
 
Buffalo Gay Men's Chorus will be punching the holiday time clock as well as hitting high notes throughout the month. The all male chorus, seventy voices strong and approaching its tenth anniversary, maintains a

Rather than staying home to get out of the winter weather, head over to the Elmwood Lounge on Friday night to help warm up your soul.

On December 3, Sugar City will be hosting "Soul Night: Shuffle Off to Buffalo" at 10 p.m.  There will be a plenty of music throughout the evening, including DJ's Handsome Dan, Rev. Johnny Drama and Fab Frankie, as well as Buffalo-based soul bands Bob & Gene and Dyke & the Blazers.  There will be a $5 donation to benefit Sugar City.

Sugar City is an organization that strives to promote alternative art and cultural activities

Look, it's 2010 years after the first Christmas. Today's Christmas memories do not so much include horse drawn sleigh rides to visit friends, wassail and Yule logs. More like sitting home in your footies with Nestlé's cocoa in while basking in a cathode glow. Those under the age of Social Security eligibility may not know if "nine" is "lords aleaping" or "ladies dancing" but can surely sing you the Whoville Christmas carol.
 
We know all the characters from the all the television holiday shows and know all the good lines and we can sing ALL the music. And this is the

Born in 1979, revived in 1994, this year's World's Largest Disco was every bit as rockin' as I had hoped it would be. 

The Fonz was in the house (newly renovated Buffalo Convention Center), along with Cindy Morgan, who portrayed the irresistible Lacy Underall from one of my all-time favorite films, "Caddyshack".  

7500 dudes boogied the night away while Conesus Fest for Charity eclipsed the $2,000,000 mark for charitable donations. 

Kudos to EVERYONE who helped make this event so radical.  The

Rather than purchase your holiday gifts from the same stores you went to last year, try going local this season.

This Saturday, December 11, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens will be having "Holiday Gifts at the Gardens," hosted by the Buffalo Indie Market.  The show will feature items from 15 local, independent art businesses. There will also be a raffle to benefit the Botanical gardens and the largest poinsettia show in western New York. Visitors should bring their families along for holiday treats, children's crafts and even a chance to see

From now until January 30, 2011, the Central Library at Lafayette Square will be featuring a rare book exhibit entitled "The Ideal Book--William Morris and the Kelmscott Press."

The exhibit will feature several books that were produced or influenced by Morris' famous Kelmscott Press.  Morris was a 19th century craftsman, writer and poet who made great contributions to the revival of printing in the late 1800s.  Though he is often remembered for his home furnishing and décor store, Morris & Co., Morris also was the founder of the Kelmscott Press, which was responsible for

THE BASICS: This quartet of murder stories by local playwright Gary Earl Ross plays weekends at Ujima's Theater Loft through December 19th. The cast of nine has been co-directed by Ross and Bob Ball. The piece runs a little over two hours with its single intermission.

ABOUT THE PLAY: MURDER SQUARED (which I think just means "murder times four") is an affectionate tribute to late '50s-early '60s TV--in particular, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone, shows which appear to have had a major

It's officially the holiday season and Urban ARTisans has opened their very first "pop-up" holiday store in the lobby of the HSBC Center to offer shoppers a chance to purchase some gifts made right here in the City of Buffalo.

The store, which opened its doors to shoppers today, will be open from now until December 23.  It will offer a variety of gift choices, from jewelry to scarves and art pieces.  All of the items being sold are created by craftsmen from the Buffalo area, giving them their own unique appeal (as opposed to the standard

Christmas has come early for Buffalo Rising readers.  Starting immediately, you can get $8 off any Buffalo Rising shirt in stock and any of the ridiculously awesome Buffalo Rising Hero Design Prints.  Just use sale code GIBLETS and our store will automatically take $8 off each sale item you purchase. Supplies are limited so act quickly.  
Remember, all of our shirts are printed on American Apparel and the Hero Design prints were

THE IRISH EYED: Riders To The Sea

Water Everywhere: Were he writing today, and in the U.S., John Millington Synge might very well set his short play Riders To The Sea along the Louisiana gulf coast where people still earn their livings and meet there deaths on the water. He might well have used the rich regional patois in his dialogue and mixed up the Christian faith with nature based paganism.
 
But it is set in the Aran Islands, three rocky remnants off the west coast. Inishmohr, Inishmaan and Inisheer are only a brief ferry ride from

Buffalo & Erie County Public Library Staff Review by Carol Ann Strahl:

Empire of the Summer Moon is a stunning and vivid account of the 40- year battle between the Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the Comanche land.  Its focus is the story of Cynthia Ann Parker, a white nine- year -old child who is kidnapped in a Comanche raid.  It is also the story of her son, Quanah Parker, who becomes a chief and later a spokesman for the tribe.

Their story begins in 1836 with Cynthia Ann's abduction and concludes in 1911 with Quanah's death. Over

THE IRISH EYED: James Joyce's The Dead
 
The first decade of the previous century must have been a quite a time in Ireland.
 
Artists, especially in literature and theater, saw an opportunity to depict the variety of Irish life... provincial and urban, individual and societal, modern and traditional... in order to establish an essential, common appreciation of Irish in an Irish context.
 
All too true to Irish contrariness, the Irish themselves objected to these depictions. So much so that fights and riots took place in Dublin theaters

This year, economic pressures are causing consumerist encroachments on the holidays like never before.  It seems like every year, stores open earlier and earlier on "Black Friday" until this year when some stores will be opening for holiday sales on Thanksgiving evening.

Thankfully, Buffalo

There are two kinds of people in America - those who get up in the wee hours of the morning on the day after Thanksgiving to trample their neighbors in a hectic hunt for Black Friday bargains, and those who think they're all nuts.

But we can agree on one thing - getting a present is cool. It drives the loons in line at twilight to get the latest Wii Tickle Me Rock Band, and it has inspired The Good Neighborhood and some of our funkiest friends to throw the Black Friday Funkout this Friday at Mohawk Place, featuring a tryptophantastic trio of Buffalo's freshest funk and a gift drive for

For all of you B-movie fans out there, especially the ones who have followed Scott Washburn's exploits as he (and his cohort in B-movie crime) bounced from the New Phoenix to Chenango and now onto the Historical Society... don't worry, he's got you covered. Just because the series is going legit for now doesn't mean that the movies are going to be legit forever. Though this is not the bottom of the barrel schlock that we have come to know and love (or hate), this is still some of the best, classic horror and suspense movie madness to be found. The bottom of the barrel stuff will, of course be back,

With the second annual Powder Keg Festival taking place (announcement soon) and the return of holiday decorated windows to Main Street, along with yesterday's announcement of the Olmsted Nights Winter Lights, Buffalonians are finally starting to embrace winter. As if that wasn't enough, the Olmsted Parks Conservancy is unleashing a park-oriented winter festival called Flurrious! to the mix. On the weekend of January 15-16, a 15-acre site surrounding the Parkside Lodge will be dedicated to family-friendly winter