Everyone needs to take a relaxing Robot Holiday at least once a year. The stress of human life can be oh so taxing. This Sunday consider retiring to the Sportsmens Tavern on Amherst Street to take in the clicks, buzzes and zaps of Robot Holiday music as performed by Buffalo's most eccentric and nostalgic musicians. Not only will you get to experience the incredible transformation of The Sportsmen Tavern into a genuine roadhouse venue (see photos), you will also be able to sing along to electro-synth

THE BASICS: The National Tour of this new musical, based upon celebrated creations of cartoonist Charles Addams, plays nightly at the Shea's Buffalo through December 11th. The book, by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elise, and songs by Andrew Lippa have both seen extensive revision. Jerry Zaks is now supervising the operation. THE ADDAMS FAMILY runs approximately 2 ½ hours with its one intermission.
THUMBNAIL SKETCH: NYC, present day. All seems to be well with the Biggle Apple's weirdest nuclear family until daughter Wednesday, now grown up, falls for the

James Joyce's The Dead, A Christmas Play With Music reprised at The Irish Classical Theatre Company.
Only the Irish could come up with a Christmas Play entitled  "THE DEAD".  And so they have, James Joyce's THE DEAD , A Christmas Play With Music, with the book by Richard Nelson and music by Shaun Davey, has returned to The Irish Classical Theatre Company, directed by ICTC Associate Director Derek Campbell. 
Do not fear, these are not the morbid dead, these are rather visions of warm and lively friends and family, those

Saturday night I hopped on the 25 Delaware bus headed for downtown.  I got off at Niagara Square and took in the awesome view of our massive Art Deco City Hall.  While Occupy Buffalo was doing their "occupying," I strolled by them and started to hear the echo of their folk tunes bouncing off the facades on the square. The noticeably vacant streets of downtown started to fill up with people who all seemed to have one thing in common...BAD Holiday fashion!  The good news was that I wasn't going to be the only one fashionably late.

The Urban

We all know how lonely the holidays can be lonely for some people. Fortunately there are friends right around the corner - furry friends who are in need of homes and good families to take care of them. Your care will come back in the form of purrs!
Mama Hyacinth (1.5 year old grey tabby) was left behind when her owners moved.  She was VERY pregnant and had her babies under a neighbor's hyacinth bush.  The neighbor called Second Chance and we came out and scooped up mama and her 1 day old babies.  They are now 3 months old, loving, active and mama and babies are

The Christmas Music of Mannheim Steamroller by Chip Davis (a preview):       If you love holiday music, brace yourself, because Mannheim is a- rollin' into Shea's. Mannheim Steamroller, that is, the best-selling Christmas music artist in history with over 40 million albums sold.  (Take that, Bing!)  Even if you do not think you know the group, you have no doubt heard their catchy, irresistible sound. The unique mix of Renaissance instruments with rock & roll beats stands out in the sea of non-stop radio seasonal music.  

Produced by Neglia Ballet Artists, in collaboration with The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Shea's Buffalo ( Preview )...

The Holidays are upon us. It seems the season starts earlier every year with Christmas displays popping up in the stores long before the Halloween candy is gone. That sort of unrelenting commercialism can lead to an understandable cynicism, but before we prepare to plow through the next month with our heads tucked down, let us not forget that this is a season for children,

Retail shopping, live entertainment, community events, culinary festival and Western New York's largest holiday ice skating rink set the stage for 37-day event

The region's biggest holiday spectacle in a generation, the inaugural Niagara Holiday Market will be a 37-day winter wonderland in Niagara Falls, New York; opening on Friday, November 25 and running through New Year's Day 2012. The Market is aiming to be on par with the memorable shopping destinations of Europe's Christkindlmarkets and retail arcades.

"We are thrilled to create a world-class attraction and economic

Road Less Traveled Productions (RLTP)  announced what will be a very special evening of theater on January 27, 2012--when Alec Baldwin returns to Buffalo to read Clifford Odets' play The Big Knife in a benefit for RLTP. The event is scheduled to take place at the University at Buffalo (UB) Center for the Arts (CFA) in Amherst, on Friday, January 27, 2012.

Buffalo Cast Announced
The cast of THE BIG KNIFE will be led by Alec Baldwin (Charlie Castle), and includes Lisa Vitrano (Marion Castle), Brian Mysliwy

IMAGING MADOFF, by Deb Margolin, directed by Greg Natale for The Jewish Repertory Theatre. 
The Jewish Repertory Theatre celebrates its Ninth Season in its new home, the Maxine and Robert Seller Theatre at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo. This is a wonderful thing for local professional theatre. While always a purveyor of highly acclaimed and high quality productions, there were times in its short history when JRT might have toppled over and gone the way of Studio Arena. Fortunately for

THE BASICS:  This curious little comedy by Yasmina Reza (ART), translated by Christopher Hampton, is receiving its WNY premiere at the Kavinoky Theatre.  The production, directed by David Lamb, runs weekends through December 4th.  The play runs a brief 70 minutes; there is no intermission.
THUMBNAIL SKETCH:  The time is the present; the place--New York or any other big city.  Young Benjamin has just attacked schoolmate Henry with a stick at a local park, knocking out a couple of Henry's teeth.  As the curtain rises, the

(Preview) Prior to the arrival of THE MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, I spoke with CODY SLAUGHTER, who plays ELVIS PRESLEY in the National Tour.  Mr. Slaughter provides some wonderful insight about the show, his role and the reactions and impressions he has had thus far (see interview below.)  
The national tour of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, the Tony Award winning new musical inspired by the true story of four rock 'n' roll icons will make its Buffalo Premiere November 8 - 13 at Shea's Performing Arts Center as part of the M & T Bank Broadway Series. 
/lifestyle/index.html

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra presents the following concerts and events for the month of November:
 
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - 7 PM
BPOvations Concert Preview Lecture: Russian Nationalism
Amherst Audubon Library
Paul Ferington, conductor
The lives and music of two great Russian patriots who brought heightened respect for Russian symphonic music to the concert halls of the world. Concerts Previewed: Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky (Nov. 19-20), Tchaikovsky and Strauss (Feb. 11-12), and Prokofiev's Fifth (Mar. 9-10) 
 
Thursday,

Buffalo & Erie County Public Library Staff Review by Patricia Covley:
Back when I was watching "The Osbournes" on television, I never thought - Hey, that Ozzy is so smart, they should give him a weekly column to dispense advice about life!  This book is based upon Ozzie's advice columns in the Sunday Times and Rolling Stone.  The book begins with a warning that Ozzy is not a qualified health professional.  He should, by most accounts, be dead because of his years of abusing drugs and alcohol.  Now that he is clean

Second Chance Sheltering Network, Inc. is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit animal rescue group serving the Western New York area.  Their goal is to help place homeless animals while simultaneously helping interested individuals find a new furry companion.  Every Sunday, we run a homeless pet spotlight to help these animals find a good home with a loving family. Please consider adopting an animal... 
Marcey and Milton are very sweet and loving siblings who started their life journey as unwanted kittens from a stray mother.  Their mother had the litter

Buffalo Bisons' owner, businessman and sports author Bob Rich Jr., will be part of a lively evening with three other esteemed baseball storytellers discussing "America's Pastime and the Fall Classic" presented by the George Bush Presidential Library, Friday, Oct. 28TH.

The evening begins at 6 p.m. and lasts until 8 p.m. in the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center located in the library at 1000 George Bush Drive West, in College Station.

Rich, who is known for his humor and wit, joins Leland "Milo" Hamilton the voice of the Houston Astros; Baseball Hall of Fame recipient Curt

The Baird Foundation has generously awarded the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra a dollar-for-dollar challenge grant up to $100,000 based upon all new and increased gifts to the 2011-2012 annual fund campaign. All pledges must be paid by the end of the orchestra's fiscal year on August 31, 2012 to qualify. 

"The BPO is an extraordinary community asset that provides a significant impact to the quality of life in Western New York. The Baird Foundation Challenge is premised upon our reaching out to those that believe the BPO does exactly that," said Arthur Cryer, Trustee of the Baird

Interview with Caleb Spaulding regarding his music video (Safety Sin) filmed in Downtown Buffalo:
BRO: How long have you been playing guitar and singing?
Caleb Spaulding: I've been playing guitar/singing/writing for about 7 or 8 years. I turned 20 last July.
Name three musicians that you draw inspiration from.
I draw a lot of inspiration from Paul Simon, Chris Bathgate and Josh Ritter.
/lifestyle/index.html

VIVIEN, The Triumph and Madness of Vivien Leigh, by Rick Foster | Directed by Darleen Pickering Hummert for New Phoenix Theatre and Red Thread Theatre
A "one man show" (or a "one woman show", as the case may be), can present a theatre with major opportunities and major challenges.  On the plus side, such "one-handers" allow theatres both large and small to produce a  play with minimal payroll and, often, minimal production costs. Thus a company with a four or five show season gets a bit of a breather between larger productions.
/lifestyle/index.html

Buffalo & Erie County Public Library Staff Review by Patricia Covley:
At age 45, Jim Axelrod, correspondent for CBS News, was in the midst of a midlife crisis.  Due to a shakeup at CBS News, he was now uncertain about his capabilities in his job.  He'd been passed over for plumb assignments at the network.  Years of being on the road for his work had taken its toll on his family life.  He was thirty pounds overweight and drinking too much.  Something needed to change.
Just as Axelrod was feeling