Letter from the editor
News and notes; How are we doing?
By Elmer Ploetz
Editor-in-Chief
The Buffalo Hive
Hi.
As editor-in-chief of The Buffalo Hive, I hope you’ve been enjoying the journalism we’ve been providing over the past two-plus weeks since we launched. We’ve been having fun doing it!
One of the highlights for me has been our film coverage. Simply put, M. Faust has been compiling the best overall look at what is happening with movies in Western New York.
You can check out his reports to see what is showing where, along with his pithy descriptions of the films, plus trailers.
It’s been awhile since people have been able to find that all in one place, in a form that is well organized and easily digestible. And the comments are fun too.
Combine that with Faust and Sarah T. Schwab’s other reviews, and we’ve got some cool stuff. Share the news about that!
BOARD NEWS
We’re really looking forward to working with our new board officers, elected Tuesday night, Aug. 6. They include President Dave Lotempio, Vice President Bob McLennan, Treasurer Alexa Wajed and Secretary Sara Ali. Thanks to all for stepping forward.
In working with that board and alongside Managing Editor Frank Housh and a group of volunteers that is starting to form, I think we’ve got a great team! (Let me know at thebuffalohive@gmail.com if you’d like to lend a hand).
Thank you, VP Bob McLennan, for your kind words in the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation JAM (Journal of Americana Music). Bob helped spread the word in his “Bflo Bob Sez” column.
You can read it all HERE. The link should take you to the part about The Buffalo Hive, right below the free tickets. It’s worth noting the SAM Foundation is a great nonprofit, too.
INFRINGEMENT COVERAGE
What did you think of Miggie Jean’s coverage of the Buffalo Infringement Festival?
We tried a new approach for the Infringement Festival, with Miggie giving a bit of review, a bit of preview and a lot of social media shares to relay the variety and the fun of one of area’s most imaginative events, a sprawling 11-day extravaganza of art in all of its forms.
It’s not traditional journalism, with a whole lot of “he said” and “she said. Instead it’s an attempt to do journalism by a community for a community and, somewhat, in the language of the community.
What should we try next?
MY ARTS CHOICES?
One of the things I’m discovering with serving as editor-in-chief of The Buffalo Hive is that, ironically enough, putting together a publication about arts and culture takes away time from going out to see arts and culture! But I’m trying to get out there.
This past week I was able to see Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s production of “Comedy of Errors.” Our group was able to stake out a spot about 15 feet in front of the stage, stage left. We love being up close where the performers wouldn’t even need their microphones and there is nobody between us and them. I guess that kind of makes us groundlings, appropriately enough for “Comedy of Errors.”
I had heard (and read, in Melinda Miller’s excellent review) about how this production had called on a “Laugh-In” sensibility (that’s “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” the groundbreaking rapid-fire comedy sketch show set amid the psychedelic colors of its era – 1968-73).
Still, I hadn’t been ready for quite the level of utter goofiness this Shakespearean comedy produced. The performers were excellent, but the production itself was really the star as the show as the mistaken identity comedy was amplified (sometimes literally) with broadcast-style sound effects, really good 1971-era wardrobe choices, Vaudvillean chase scenes and the oh so “Laugh-In” faces looking out windows to deliver one-liners.
It’s one of Shakespeare’s earliest, shortest and maybe funniest plays. If the idea of Shakespeare as goofball appeals to you, you’ve got one week to get out and see it. It closes Aug. 18.
Speaking of goofy, that was something I didn’t expect to see with Yellow Jack’s new LP. I picked up the album at their show a while back at the Flying Bison brewery, but have just been getting to listen to it recently.
The band has always played traditionalist folk/Americana in a relatively straight ahead fashion. But on the new album, “Song of the Hippy Davy (and other traditional melodies),” they skew in a light-hearted direction.
Start with the title song, a rewriting of the traditional song that dates back at least 300 years in the British Isles. Instead of the rich woman leaving her husband and child to run off with Gypsy Davy, this woman chosen Hippy Davy. The abandoned husband is left with the choice of whether to pursue them on his Harley.
Similarly, in the band’s take on the traditional “Jesse James,” it includes a set of lines from the Kingston Trio version (at least that’s where I first heard them) saying
“Jesse robbed from the poor and he gave to the rich. He never did a friendly thing.
And when his best friend died he was right there by her side
And he lifted off her golden wedding ring.”
That was in the middle of song glorifying the life of America’s best-known 19th century bank robber, giving a sense that the performers know there’s a bit of irony in singing the praises of a cold-blooded killer.
The rest of the album is fine, too, both originals and covers. You can check out the title track above, but I recommend tracking down the album either on Bandcamp or tracking down a hard copy.
You can also find a profile of the band from last year HERE. It’s from a University at Buffalo publication.
Finally, something more serious. This past week my friend Jeanne Jones was laid to rest. She had been struggling with her health for some time.
Along the way, she had maintained her bright, sunny personality as much as one can in those circumstances. We had played phone tag last spring before getting a chance to talk, and I think she wanted to make sure to touch bases in case we didn’t get to speak again – and we didn’t. We had a mutual friend who simply disappeared when he developed cancer, not letting anyone know, and then he was gone, and she didn’t want to let that happen. It was bravery and Jeanne’s sense of duty in the face of life-threatening circumstances.
But, as her husband, Larry, reminded me last week, she also had hope. She had hoped that surgery would come through, that she would recover and that she would return to work – even though she was at a point where many people would be looking forward to retiring.
She worked for the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, but her real work was as a union activist with CSEA Local 698 and as a delegate to the Western New York Area Labor Federation. That was what she hoped to return to.
One of the reasons we care so much about the arts is that they help us deal with life, death and everything we encounter. So in that spirit, I’ll close this column with a song that I’ll always think of when I think of Jeanne, and which will likely always bring a tear to my eye when I hear it.
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