The Important Details:

• Music is Art 2010 kicks off at 10am today at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. It runs until 10pm tonight.
• If you want to see the line-ups, here they are for the three main stages, as well as the DJ stage, projection tent, kid’s village and inside exhibits.
• If you want to learn more about the Music is Art organization before you go, check out their website.
• The Goo Goo Dolls Street Team (come on, we can’t forget that connection!) will be at the festival collecting canned goods for local food banks, so if you’re coming down, don’t forget to bring something along!

I’ve checked out the schedules for today, and I’ve got to say, you’re crazy if you don’t at least stop by. A Mark Freeland exhibit? A DJ tent? Come on, even the Lloyd Taco Truck will be there (I might be most excited to finally try these tacos)!

Most of us are lucky enough to have never worried about having a safe place to live. Most of us have never, and will never, run away from home. Most of us were never, or will never be, a teenager living on the streets.

But next week, those of us who have never lived in that situation have a chance to help those who do – and get some pretty sweet swag in exchange.

The 8^th annual Rock the House Auction to benefit Compass House, a Western New York youth shelter, will take place from May 9-16. The auction is run by Absolute Goo, a fan site for one of Buffalo’s most famous exports, the Goo Goo Dolls.

“Compass House is a fantastic group of people that give so much of themselves to help runaway and homeless kids, and we’re proud to be able to help join with them in this effort,” the site’s webmaster, who prefers to only be known as AG.

In the aftermath of 9/11, “we wanted to do something collectively, to express our gratefulness for what we have been given,” AG said. Given the Goo Goo Dolls ties to the city, a Buffalo-based charity was the perfect fit. AG had heard good things about Compass House’s work, “so they seemed like a natural choice.”

The Goo Goo Dolls have thrown their support behind the auction, too. Along with donating everything from tour memorabilia to personal phone calls, their endorsement has given “national exposure to a local issue,” said Candice Fletcher, Compass House Development Director.

“It’s like one of those amazing, anonymous benefactor things that falls into your lap,” Fletcher said.

As Buffalo’s only shelter and service provider for both male and female runaway and at-risk youth, and one of the oldest shelters in the United States, Compass House operates both an emergency shelter on Linwood Avenue and a resource center on Main Street. The shelter is always open and always staffed, providing immediate access to both a place to stay and counseling services, while the resource center houses the counseling program, independent living program, Street Outreach Program, and Safe Place.

Compass House maintains agreements with over 50 community agencies to help the youth they serve, and volunteers assist a small paid staff at both the shelter and resource center. In 2009, 348 youths were provided with 2,074 days of shelter, food and care at the emergency shelter, and a total of 611 calls were made to the shelter’s help line, according to the Compass House website. The resource center helped 223 youths with case management.

Compass House receives funding from a multitude of sources – the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Erie County Department of Young Services, Episcopal Community Services, state legislation, donations and grants – but much of the money comes with restrictions and requirements.

“The auction gives us an incoming stream of unrestricted funds,” said Fletcher. “It’s a luxury to be able to have this additional pot.”

And since Compass House’s funding was cut by $120,000 this year, the money is especially needed.

Last year’s auction drew over four million hits, with bidders from nine countries, according to Absolute Goo. Over $50,000 has been raised to date, every last penny of which goes straight to Compass House.

Items for this year’s auction come from not only the Goo Goo Dolls themselves, but bands like Cheap Trick and the Rolling Stones, VH1, Grateful Graffiti, Epiphone Guitars, and a multitude of other donors.

“It’s this beautiful symmetry because music generally speaks to a young population,” Fletcher said.

Sometimes a band or an artist will come out of nowhere and totally blow your mind.

Perhaps you’ve heard a song or two and don’t care for the music. Or you’re casual fan, but don’t necessarily think they’re totally spectacular. Or you just assumed you wouldn’t like the music based on genre or preconceived notions.

But then, you have some encounter that changes all that. You hear a song on the radio, or you see a performance, or, I don’t know, you randomly run into the band in a bar one night — whatever the moment, you’re impressed. You’re smiling, maybe a little slack-jawed, and probably using phrases like “frickin’ awesome” or “absolutely unbelievable.”

Because it is sort of unbelievable, to you at least. This band can’t possibly be that band you don’t like. You would never be caught dead with that band‘s music on your iPod. There’s no way that band could do something so cool, be such awesome people, put on such a kick-ass show, whatever. But suddenly you want to tell all your friends to forget what they think about that band and check out this band ASAP.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” or so the saying goes.

Well, don’t judge a band by their place on the record store shelves.

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I would have never given N.E.R.D a chance if free tickets and/or Three Days Grace hadn’t been involved.

I arrived at UB’s Springfest this past Saturday too early or too late for my liking, depending on how you look at it. I’d already missed Lady Danville — who I’d never heard of until UB booked them, was excited to see, and who I’ve since heard won over the crowd, most of which held one or both of those sentiments as well — but I still had to sit through Anberlin and N.E.R.D to get to Three Days Grace.

As my Pharrell-obsessed friend worked her way up front for N.E.R.D, I hung back. I didn’t need to be enveloped in sweat and B.O. just yet.

Their set started out as expected. A zillion (OK, two or three), seemingly-unnecessary backup rappers/posse members crowded the stage in front of the band, and I made jokes to myself and prepared for what was about to assault my poor ears.

And I got what I expected — for a little  bit. Right around the time they started rapping Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” (yes, there are two “r”s, and, yes, I know that off the top of my head; don’t judge me), I almost gave up. Springfest is supposed to be rock, so what were these guys doing there?

But then the mood totally changed. There were mosh pits and crowd-surfing. There were drums, guitars, bass and keyboards. It just so happened the guy singing had a super-smooth, R&B-style voice.

And I found myself grooving to the music without knowing it.

When it comes down to it, N.E.R.D actually is a rock band — not straightforward rock, but funk-rock, pop-rock and/or electronic-rock. They just combine it with hip-hop and R&B, which many rap-rock bands don’t. It gives them an advantage, because they’d fit well on a bill with a band like 3OH!3 and a band like The Roots. And — here’s the cool part — they rarely sample, like many hip-hop/rap/R&B acts do. All those beats, they’re totally theirs. That deserves some serious respect.

They also deserve it for two more things that many bands don’t do (or don’t do well), the first of which is involving the crowd. With rare exceptions, there’s nothing worse than when a band gets on stage and just plays. So when Pharrell not only pulled people on stage, but tried his hardest to get everyone in the arena involved, including the fairly-disinterested crowd in the stands, I started to take him more seriously.

The second thing he did was look out for the fans. Moshing and crowdsurfing can get dangerous, especially when there’s people in the crowd who aren’t out to have fun, but have an intent to injure for one reason or another. Something happened in the front of the crowd near the end of N.E.R.D’s set, and instead of ignoring it and continuing, Pharrell stopped and called out the guy involved, essentially telling him to cut it out, because what he was doing wasn’t cool.

And that’s, without a doubt, one of the coolest thing a band can do.

I am what you might call a “fake” Buffalonian.

I was born in Connecticut, and my family moved here when I was almost six for my mom’s job. Before that, we really didn’t have any ties to the area; my dad went to Buff State and grew up in Rochester, but that’s the closest we go. We certainly don’t have generations of Stefano family members living in South Buffalo, Kaisertown, or wherever it is Germans and/or a conglomeration of Italian and pretty much every other European country would live.

We live in the suburbs — always have, despite my constant pleas, once I entered high school, to move into the city — and I’m probably the family member who’s in Buffalo proper the most. I left the area for school with, I confess, every intention of not returning.

My accent is mostly Buffalo — using “the” before highways, flattening my A’s, etc. — but, having first learned to talk in Connecticut, there’s a slight enough New England tweak to it, even 21 years later, to make my freshman year roommate balk when she heard my “real” Buffalonian boyfriend say “haackey.”

(To which I would say — really, Bostonians making fun of our accents?? But I digress…)

Despite all of this, we (my family and I) consider ourselves Buffalonians. It’s not like five is old enough to really have ties to an area, despite how much I bawled my eyes out when we left. Connecticut/the east coast is a foreign, preppy world that I (not-so-secretly anymore) now thank God I didn’t grow up in. I would be an entirely different person had we stayed in Connecticut.

But the thing is, sometimes I feel like a “fake” Buffalonian because I don’t remember so many of the things that make Buffalo Buffalo. And, with the exception of my dad in certain cases, my family doesn’t either. Clearly, not being alive in the 1970’s, I’m not going to remember how the city looked before the steel mills closed and we put a highway through the East Side, but sometimes I wish I could remember it more, if not through my memories, then through those of my family.

Then, in my Easter Day boredom, I came across Forgotten Buffalo. Of course I’ve heard of the organization before, and I knew they did tours, but what I’ve been most enthralled with for the past couple hours are the pictures they have on the website and Facebook — old buildings, the steel mills alive and operating, hilarious (in that why would you put a roof over Main Street??) plans for the Metro Rail, and many, many more. They’ve built a little collection over there through the best historians you can find — the people who lived it.

I have my own, slightly newer and younger version of those memories — some day I will be telling my children about “this really awesome place called New World Records that I used to spend hours in after school. It’s now that [insert whatever; hopefully still SpOt].” — but I want to know about the more distant ones. The history of this area fascinates me — not so much the stuff they taught us in 4th grade social studies (though that’s interesting in its own way), but the social and cultural stuff that you learn about through family stories that begin with, “There was this club called The Continental…”

So, as you’re perusing the site with a post-Easter dinner ham hangover, tell me your stories. Show me pictures. Give me website links. I want to hear about your favorite old hangouts, closed restaurants and clubs, and all those other memories. Mostly, I want to know — where the heck was the Thruway Mall?? Seriously, Google turned up zilch, and I didn’t even know such a place existed.

But after that’s answered, I want to hear all the good stuff, too.

Hipsters on Food Stamps

I must be missing something here because I’m really not seeing what, as the second half or so of the article mentions, people find so wrong with this. If you qualify for food stamps, you qualify for food stamps. It’s not as though the government is breaking the rules by giving the people in this story food stamps, and the recipients aren’t breaking the rules when using them. They aren’t using up their allotments, then begging for more.

Food stamps recipients are able to use the money for whatever they choose to buy that fits the program’s guidelines, and, if both sugary foods and drinks and healthy, organic ingredients are within those guidelines, wouldn’t you rather food stamp recipients use the money to buy the latter? If anything, the government and those in charge of the program could learn something from this — food stamp guidelines should be stricter, giving those receiving the benefits little option but to eat healthier. We are so concerned about obesity in this country, and studies have shown that the poor are more likely to be overweight because the worse a food is for you, in general, the cheaper it is. If these “hipsters” can maintain a healthy diet on food stamps, why can’t everyone?

I really wish the article had mentioned how much these people make. I’m very, very curious to know how much these people make. I wonder if there are more 20- and 30-something out there who are eligible for food stamps, but just don’t know it or wouldn’t consider it because of the stigma attached.

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Universal Announces Plan to Lower CD Prices to $10 or Less

All I have to say about this is “Yes!”

I don’t like buying music online — if I’m going to pay $10 for an album, I want something tangible. I like the feeling of taking the wrapping off a CD and putting it into my CD player. Honestly, it’s the only way I really listen to an entire album all the way through. Thus, I look forward to FYE’s $9.99 sales. And, now, I’m really looking forward to this new plan.

Because, you see, CDs are wicked expensive. I’m totally unopposed to paying for a CD I really want or something by a band I really like, but when I’m just browsing and see something interesting, I’m usually turned off of it because it’s $15-$20. Um, hello, I’m paying for insurance(s), clothing, and social events here, and I’m not making a ton of money. As much as I love music, I’d much rather put that $20 towards a live show than a CD that I can (shhh!) find online for free.

I have a hard time understanding how any executive could be quoted as saying “Why does Universal feel the need to get below $10?”

Um…why not? Clearly, if sales are down, there’s something wrong with the current model. If those lower prices generate a huge jump in sales, it’s probably the price. Always lower price = always (OK, usually is probably a safer word) higher sales. I don’t have a business degree, nor am I much of a business person, but, really, I can even figure that one out.

“My whole family is down at Dave & Buster’s right now, but I’m just not really into it, so I figured I’d come get my watch fixed. It’s needed it for a while now.”

It was a Friday night in July, and the girl was stuck at her job at a mall kiosk. Sitting at the workbench fixing this customer’s watch, she just wished the woman would stop talking so she could concentrate. It always bugged her when customers felt the need to tell their life story while she was trying not to slice her hand open getting off the back of their watch.

“We were supposed to be at the Billy Joel and Elton John concert…,” the woman trailed off.

The girl’s ears perked up.

“Yeah, I heard it got canceled,” she said. Truthfully, she was a little happy when she heard that news — it had been killing her knowing that she wouldn’t be able to go. “I really wanted to get tickets,  but I’ve spent so much on concerts already lately, and they were so expensive, I just couldn’t do it.

“They were,” the woman said, “but it’s Billy Joel. And Elton John.”

“I love Elton John. I would kill to go,” the girl said. She was actually enjoying this now, going back and forth with this woman about favorite songs.

They kept talking as the girl finished the watch repair and the woman paid for her watch.

“Enjoy your night,” the girl said as she handed the woman her receipt. “I know it won’t be as great as the concert, but…”

“I’ll try,” the woman said with a smile. “And I hope whenever they reschedule the show, you have a really great seat.”

***

When the first rescheduled date, in early December, came out, I debated getting tickets. And then Christmas happened, and after car payments and buying gifts, I still couldn’t bring myself to spend $100 on a concert ticket, as much as I was dying to go.

And then they postponed — again.

I don’t really believe in signs or fate or whatever, and I know how stupid this is going to sound, but I told myself that this was my sign — I needed to be at this show. I’d been given chance after chance, and I was a fool if I didn’t take this one. I swore to my parents that when the tour finally made it to Buffalo, whenever it was, I would be there. I had built this show up in my head to the point where I didn’t care how much the tickets cost, where I was in the arena, or if I had to go scalp seats the night of the show — I would be there, even if I had to sit in the last row of the farthest section, by myself.

Fortunately, I found tickets through a family friend about a week before the show — $100 a pop, on the side of the stage — and my mom decided she’d come with me. The seats were spectacular, and as the lights dimmed and the pianos rose from underneath the stage, I thought about that encounter at the mall eight months ago. I was actually there. Sitting in HSBC Arena. Seeing one of my all-time favorite musicians, and The Piano Man, The Entertainer.

And I kid you not, I teared up a little bit.

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This is not 1975.  Billy Joel, now over 60, does not have all his hair. Elton John, nearly 63 years old, cannot hit the high notes he could when he was 28.

And it doesn’t actually matter, because they put on a show that, in terms of musicianship and energy, rivals that of some of the best “young” bands out there.

They can both still play the hell out of a piano. John, now a muted version of his once glammy, Vegas-ready self (and that’s not an insult), has turned his already-wonderful songs into flowing masterpieces that sound like the album versions…but don’t. “Rocketman” became a 10-minute journey, while “Levon” and “Tiny Dancer” had sound that was uniquely live, yet still maintained the beauty they have on their respective albums.

Truthfully, Elton John is one of my favorite artists, young or old, period; he could sing me the alphabet, and I’d be happy. Still, he has managed to retain relevance and be a sought-after collaborator (VMA and Grammy performances, anyone?), and is, quite simply, (Captain) fantastic.

Joel seemed more comfortable on-stage, taking some time to joke with the crowd about their respective seats and the many cancellations. My mother and I have this theory that John, for all his loud outfits, is a rather quiet, shy guy. I don’t really know what to say about Joel’s solo set — I like Billy Joel, and I know and like his music, but I hadn’t really thought about what his set would be like, and I didn’t really have any expectations, so I can’t actually say whether they lived up to them or not. Once again, that’s not a bad thing, it’s just that the main reason I wanted to go to this concert so badly was Elton John. I will say, however, that it was a pleasant surprise to see Joel get up from behind the piano for “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and “It’s Still Rock ‘N Roll to Me,” and I really enjoyed just listening to him play.

And while the two still can hold their own on their own, the real treat of the show was getting to see them on stage together, duetting on each other’s songs. “Your Song” was the perfect opener, just as “Piano Man” was clearly the choice closing song, and hearing each lend their voices and put their own twists on the other’s hits definitely makes that $100 ticket price totally worth it — not to mention that you’re sort of getting three shows in one.

So, yeah, Elton couldn’t hit the highest notes in “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” and Billy Joel was making jokes that he was really Billy Joel’s dad. But if you think they’re washed up or has-beens or whatever — think again.

Oh yeah, I hope the woman from the mall enjoyed the show just as much.

I was a picky little kid. Forget sushi or steak — I didn’t even like pasta sauce.

Fortunately, I’ve wised up. My picky-ness is more of an idiosyncrasy now — I pick chicken apart because the veins gross me out, and I won’t eat most condiments, especially mayo (whipped egg? really?) —  and while the thought of eating liver or caviar is still too much, I’ve moved far past my distaste for pasta sauce. And I love finding a new place to eat.

Yet, strangely enough, I have yet to experience a restaurant week. I’ve never been home for the ones around here and, well, I was a broke college kid in Boston, what do you want from me?

But now that I have the chance…I’m a little overwhelmed. And I feel like I need some help.

I trust you, WNYMedia readers. So — where would you go? I’m planning on two dinners. My only real criteria: it can’t be somewhere I’ve already been. That’s a short list in comparison to the overwhelming number of participating restaurants.

Make your case. I’ll report back.

After all, if you have to eat to survive, you may as well eat well.