The Buffalodown, Vol. 2, Issue 41
Stories & Events for Social Connection
- Sean Ryan interview this Friday at Burchfield Penney
- Musings on Music: Dee Adams to perform at the same event
- Featured Events: 28 this week, always encouraging submissions!
- Links to the Deep End
Thank you for your attention!
Please forward this to kindred souls, and subscribe here if you haven’t yet!
Please join us this Friday, December 12th, at 7pm, for the next event presented by Investigative Post, as Geoff Kelly and Jim Heaney will interview Mayor-Elect Sean Ryan at the Burchfield Penney Art Center (1300 Elmwood Ave), about his thoughts on the state of the city government he’ll inherit on January 1st, and his priorities for addressing Buffalo’s many problems. The live Q&A will happen in the Burchfield Penney auditorium during their Second Fridays event, which includes an exhibition opening, live music and all-ages art-making. Admission is free, no registration required – seating in the auditorium is first-come, first-seated. Food and drinks will be available for purchase.
Stories & Events for Social Connection
By Seamus Gallivan
- Humboldt Parkway public meeting tonight
- Musings on Music: Allman Betts returning to Kleinhans
- Featured Events: 34 this week, always encouraging submissions!
- Links to the Deep End: ICE in Buffalo, centenarians, Grace Lougen & more
Thank you for your attention!
Please forward this to kindred souls, and subscribe here if you haven’t yet!
Welcome to another big bunch of new subscribers this week! Shout out to Jim Heaney of Investigative Post for leading his own weekly newsletter by recommending Reconnecter along with five more independent news sources often linked here, proclaiming, “There’s more to local media than what the chains offer.” Reconnecter is all about connecting people, places, and causes, and this weekly Buffalodown is open to your input.
In light of the public meeting tonight on the future of Humboldt Parkway,repeating this lead story from last week, about the original inspiration behind Reconnecter – the fight for parkway revival in the heart and lungs of Buffalo, which I entered more than a decade ago by joining both the Restore Our Community Coalition and Scajaquada Corridor Coalition.
Representatives from the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) have recently responded to the community and court dismissal of their band-aid proposal for Humboldt with a rebranded attempt at community engagement called Queen City Forward. We’ll meet again for a “listening session” open to all tonight, December 2nd, from 5-7pm in the Schiller Park Senior Center at 2057 Genesee Street – 2.5 miles from the area in focus, for reasons so far unknown.
Shout out to the grassroots East Side Parkways Coalition (ESPC) for their advocacy to lead us to this point – and for being the only entity to make a flyer for the meeting tonight that includes basic details. And thanks to ESPC for having me on their weekly WUFO radio show over the weekend; tune into future episodes Saturdays from 11:30am-12pm on 96.5FM, 1080AM, or www.power965radio.com.
Looking further ahead, the next event presented by Investigative Post will be Geoff Kelly and Jim Heaney interviewing Mayor-elect Sean Ryan on Friday, December 12th, at 7pm in the Burchfield Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Ave. It’s part of the Burchfield Penney’s Second Fridays free event including an exhibition opening, live music and all-ages art-making – more details to come, please stay tuned!
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Musings on Music
Dee Adams at Burchfield Penney this Friday
That part above about live music at Burchfield Penney this Friday? That’ll be offered by Dee Adams, one of my favorite Buffalo musicians and one of the first supporters of Reconnecter.
I recall fondly the first times I saw Dee when she was new to town in 2004, originally from England by way of Rochester, making fast friends at open mics with a warmth in her soul that comes through in a voice that’s both soft and powerful, with grace and sass and an inviting stage presence. I just searched back to my 2005 interview with her in The Buffalo News and I’m impressed with my consistency, ha – I wrote then that she had “a powerful yet sensitive voice and a songwriting style that’s equal parts poetic prose and barstool banter.”
Dee has been a tenured host of the Sportsmen’s Tavern open mic, formed bands for her original music and anchored the quirky wintertime collective Robot Holiday, and now brings heavenly harmonies with Dee’s Grand Isle Opry (which she foreshadowed in that 2005 interview by saying, “I’ve always been big on harmony — if I had my way, I’d be doing something really lush”), along with occasional solo and duo shows when joined by her jovial husband Joe Mergler, and even a “Caroling with Mrs. Claus” show, a new spin on her caroling career that’s warmed hearts from Black Rock to Larkinville.
Encouraging everyone to come early to Burchfield Penney this Friday, as Dee will be playing solo starting at 5:30 – and if you can’t get a seat in the auditorium for the Investigative Post interview with Sean Ryan starting at 7, Dee will be there to comfort you with a second set.
Throwback to 2011, Dee playing a little studio session series I hosted next to the Sportsmen’s
And here’s Dee leading the ladies of Robot Holiday in Larkin Square in their annual honoring of a request by my late father to cover Dolly Parton’s “Hard Candy Christmas” – made him cry every time…
…and it’s about the best time of year to hear Dee’s original, “Go Bills!”
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Events in the Week Ahead
Thanks to all who’ve submitted their events! Welcoming submissions with a flyer and link to seamus@reconnecter.org
Visit and subscribe to The Buffalo Hive for another community events calendar!
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Links to the Deep End
Deeper dives into subjects that matter for social connection
- Jim Heaney of Investigative Post reports on how “Buffalo’s incoming mayor begins to build his team” – again, join us this Friday at 7pm at Burchfield Penney Art Center (1300 Elmwood Ave) as Jim and Geoff Kelly from iPost will interview Mayor-Elect Ryan.
- Also from iPost – a two-part story from Adam Smith-Perez on “Buffalo’s indifferent response to opioid overdoses” and “Opioid epidemic funds lack oversight, transparency,” and more from Dale Shoemaker on “Local police who cooperate with ICE.”
- Please watch the backs of our neighbors in the “unarmed services,” as my retired postal worker uncle started calling them during the post-9/11 anthrax scare – WKBW’s Michael Schwartz reports on five local mail carriers robbed over the past month during peak package-shipping season.
- Investigative reporter Charlie Specht offers a heart-wrenching introduction to “Catholic Muckrackers: Two Buffalo reporters cast a spotlight on their own religion.”
- Buffalonian journalist Derek Seidman reports for Truthout on the latest in a workers’ rights movement rooted in Buffalo and reaching the heights of corporate ivory towers – “Why Walmart Wants to See the Starbucks Barista Strike Fail.”
- Finally, belated love to Buffalo native Willie Nile after he once again rocked a homecoming show at Town Ballroom this past Friday, and checked in beforehand with Jeff Miers on the Why Music Matters podcast:
Thank YOU for reading this far and being part of it all – extra thanks to everyone supporting this work with a membership at www.reconnecter.org!
Please share with friends to sign up for next week’s Buffalodown, and reach out with any feedback, all ideas welcome!
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