Stories & Events for Social Connection

By Seamus Gallivan

• Another action-packed week for PPG
• Musings on Music: Nickel City Sessions at The Cave
• Featured Events: 20 is the new norm, welcoming submissions!
• Listening Links: From “What Elon Musk Wants” to where I’m at
• Reading Rundown: What Are You Reading?

Welcome to the Buffalodown! Always welcoming submissions.

Happy Presidents’ Day? On the road while many concerned citizens across our country were out protesting, I honored the holiday by listening to podcasts about presidents – John Adams, FDR, and the current officeholder, one such link below.

As last week’s Buffalodown led with the Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) as part of a call to get involved locally to channel our anger over what’s happening from The White House, so too does this week, with PPG again offering plenty of light amidst the darkness – two events bookending the listing below, plus their weekly Buffalo Common Council Summary, as well as the return from a brief break of their Public Good podcastwith a new episode dropping at 11:30am Tuesday.

Another podcast linked below that moved me over the past week features musician Jim James of my favorite band My Morning Jacket, whose mindset stays aligned with mine, often giving me perfect songs to express my feelings and values – in this latest long and winding interview, he repeats a wish that we’d channel our anger more into virtuous causes than the void of social media.

The forces of divide and conquer are currently winning, and social media is one of their most effective tools – let’s please escape these traps and find ways to heal, love and support each other. Below is a weekly offering of 20+ gatherings to do so in person.

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Musings on Music

Nickel City Sessions Salutes the Songwriters’ Circle

I love a songwriters’ circle – the celebration of the craft, the banter and stories between and behind songs, and a bonus if they sing and jam together. I’ve presented many over the years at the Sportsmen’s Tavern and would love to do so again – would you attend? Who would you like to see in this setting?

Meantime, singer-songwriter Davey O. has been curating such circles for years under the banner of Nickel City Sessions, now in session at the Sportsmen’s sibling venue The Cave and this week featuring two who’ve moved me to tears and laughs and a load of deep thoughts in Tom Stahl and Buck Quigley, along with a Vermont native with local ties in Phil Henry. See below for Tom’s go-to tearjerker…

…on another soft note – Davey has always included charity in this expression of community, adding, “We have partnered with FeedMore WNY to make these shows more affordable by offering a $5 discount off the $15 cover charge to anyone bringing a non-perishable food item donation!”

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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 the comprehensive community events calendar we’ve been calling for!

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Listening Links

What are you listening to? Please send links!

Here’s PPG’s #2 voted Community Agenda issue for 2025, detailed in two parts:

What Elon Musk Wants – The Ezra Klein Show – Checking intentions is a practice in wisdom.

Democrats are Losing the War for Attention. Badly – The Ezra Klein Show – “Trump and Musk seem to have figured out something about how attention works in our fragmented media age — and how to use it for political and cultural power — that Democrats simply haven’t. So what is it? What do they understand about attention that their opponents don’t?”

Jim James And The Wall Of God – Love is the Author – “The Ocean Of Consciousness, The Practice Of Love, Dreams Authoring Songs, Unmasking Fears, The Universal Truths, Chalamet As Dylan and The Divine Gifts of Kendrick Lamar: these are only a few topics covered throughout Jim and Jaymee’s new epic conversation.”

In the Flamingo Lounge with Rockabilly Greg, episode 150: Seamus Gallivan – who wants to listen to a whole hour of me rambling?! Seriously grateful for Greg and this historical document of Buffalo’s music scene, now 150 episodes of open-ended stories behind the scenes – hopefully you’ll find this episode enjoyable, especially if you’ve bothered to subscribe to Reconnecter and read this far into it

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Reading Rundown

Always welcoming links to read and share at seamus@reconnecter.org.

Leaving this section to you this week, as I’ve been on the road and reading less – please send me links to what you’ve been reading!

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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 Tuesday’s Buffalodown, and reach out with any feedback, all ideas welcome!