Steve Balesteri and Frank Sandor

Looking for something to do Halloween night? Concert promoter Frank (the Tank) Sandor will introduce the Balesteri Band’s new lineup at Tony Rome’s (1537 Union Road in West Seneca) tomorrow night (Saturday, Oct. 31) at Tony Rome’s Halloween Party 10pm-2am. Many prizes for costumes…

Tonight, Beggar’s Night (Friday, Oct. 30), has almost as much going on as Halloween, with Bloodlust at Asbury Hall (a “sexy vampire ball for adults”—www.buffalobloodlust.com) and Halloween Overnight Ghost Hunt at Central Terminal and the Iron Island Museum (www.buffalocentralterminal.org). The Riviera Theater will screen The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight, preceded by a Rocky Horror party at 9pm. There are parties at most bars including a Beggar’s Night costume bash at Coles and J.P. Bullfeathers (they’ll both have another on Halloween as well) and the Essex Street Pub party, also on Beggar’s Night.

The Stripteasers

On Halloween at Nietzsche’s The Stripteasers present their annual fun-filled evening of burlesque and music with their “Tales From The Stripped” Halloween Burlesque show; the Palace Theater is screening a double feature of the lost classic Spider Baby followed by the Rocky Horror Picture Show; Central Terminal hosts another ghost hunt, the Off-Limits Halloween Ghost Hunt followed by a seance at Iron Island; the Town Ballroom is hosting the House of Horrors: Buffalo’s Biggest Halloween Party (www.houseofhorrors.com); the Mohawk Place has The Rabies and The Irving Klaws; the Third Room is having a Halloween costume contest with drink specials honoring the Seven Deadly Sins; and Club Diablo has its usual bunch of fetishy fun, both on “Devil’s Night” and on Halloween.

Ellicott District Councilman Brian Davis

Does it strike anyone odd that Ellicott District Councilman Brian Davis—who must represent more same-sex couples than any other Buffalo legislator—is the only member of Council to vote against a resolution asking the city’s Law Department to write up a bill that would extend domestic partner benefits to all city employees.

He represents Allentown, the epicenter of the city’s LGBT culture. The increase in personnel costs to the city is expected to be less than one percent. It’s a resolution asking the Law Department to write a bill, it’s not even the law itself.  Davis voted against even considering domestic partner benefits.

Masten District Councilman Demone Smith voted for the resolution, even though he expressed concern about the actual cost of extending the benefits, and even though his constituency is far less likely to approve of the measure than Davis’s.

So who is Davis representing?

When Erie County Executive Chris Collins called Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver an anti-Christ last Saturday night at a Republican dinner, it wasn’t the first time he’d pulled the line out of his bag.

He recently made the exact same comparison to a group of Buffalo State political science students, who were visiting the Rath Building. Two Buffalo State faculty member were present.

Yesterday I asked Grant Loomis, the county executive’s director of communications, if Collins had ever made a similar reference to Silver before. He assured me that Collins had had not, that the remark was “unscripted” and “off the cuff.”

He then paused a moment and backed off a little, adding, “…to the best of my knowledge.”

I told Loomis about the Buffalo State students, and the two members of the faculty, and Loomis said, “Oh.”

He told me he’d look into it and get back to me. He did not, until this morning, when I wrote to him that I would take his failure to reply as a refusal to comment. He replied to that email immediately: “The CE has said everything there is to say in the statement,” referring to the apology Collins issued on Monday:

“Saturday night, I made a poor joke regarding the Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver.  I want to extend my sincerest apologies to him for my comments.  I have placed a call to the Speaker’s office to offer my apologies directly.

While we may disagree strongly on policy matters, my statement had no place in our political discourse and I am truly sorry to both the Speaker and to anyone else who I may have offended.”

I’m not going to take issue with the apology—it’s too easy to undermine the sincerity of a public apology, and it’s not fair: I can’t see into the heart of Chris Collins.

But it’s clear to me that his remark comparing an orthodox Jew to Hitler and the anti-Christ was not “off the cuff” or “unscripted”; it was not a momentary lapse in judgment. The joke is part of Collins’s repertoire. He has used it more than once, who knows how many times. Perhaps he wasn’t even aware that it was offensive until the uncomfortable silence he met at the Adam’s Mark on Saturday night. Maybe he didn’t know it was offensive until Elizabeth Benjamin exposed the remarks in the New York Daily News on Sunday. Maybe he still doesn’t believe what he said was offensive.  He certainly did not recognize it to be offensive between the time he made the remark to that group of college students and the time he made the remark on Saturday. Or he did and didn’t care. The former makes him an idiot, the latter makes him arrogant and heedless.

And, as Bruce Fisher writes in this week’s cover story, giving him a pass on this makes us all look bad.

UPDATE: Grant Loomis sent out a second statement this morning, after our email exchange. Here it is:

“The County Executive, at times, uses very harsh language in taking on what he believes are opponents of the taxpayers.  As the descendant of a Jewish grandfather, the County Executive recognizes that this characterization of the Speaker is wrong.  He has apologized for that characterization publicly, and personally apologized to the Speaker.  The County Executive will not let this mistake, however, distract him from his focus on protecting taxpayers and challenging the status quo locally and in Albany.”

Still no denial. So he’s called Silver hateful things before, and now that he’s been caught out, he recognizes what he said was wrong. Call it adult education, on Erie County’s dime.

AV street correspondent John Duke send in this story:

The Express Mart on the corner of Colvin and Highland Streets in the Town of Tonawanda is just a little bit different from the everyday gas station.  You can stop in for unusual items, from a hot Sicilian wrap to a Jones Pure Cane Soda (subtitled “M. F. n Grape”) to a venison snack.

Bob McDonald

Behind the counter you’ll find Bob McDonald, who also isn’t usual. Recently, a customer who was having one of those days, coasted in on fumes and without his wallet, but with a roll of dimes in the glove compartment.

Before the customer could ask, Bob said, “We take change,” and watched as the customer put five dollars of gas in the tank and then began struggling with the keys in the ignition. Bob put a small wrench on the counter as the customer returned to the store.  The customer said, “I can’t turn my keys in the ignition,” and Bob replied, “You need to get leverage,” motioning towards the wrench.

The customer took the wrench, started the car, and was all smiles as he pulled away.

“How’d ya know?” another customer asked Bob.

“I watch people, I see it all the time. He’ll be right back.”

“How do you know that?”

“They always come right back after you help them,” Bob said. “They always take off with my wrench, and I haven’t lost a wrench yet.”

A good idea for a poor city: Tomorrow evening, Buffalo Councilman Mike LoCurto is introducing a program that provides free prescription drug discount cards, sponsored by the National League of Cities. LoCurto will explain the program at 5pm at the North Buffalo Community Center (203 Sanders Road).  The discount cards offer average savings of 20 percent off the retail price of commonly prescribed drugs at more than 59,000 participating retail pharmacies across the country. There are no restrictions based on age, income level, or existing health coverage. There are no membership fees, no enrollment forms.

“In the current economic climate, where many people are watching what they spend, the NLC prescription discount card will offer significant savings on the purchase of prescription medications for our residents,” LoCurto said in his press arlease. “Whether or not an individual has prescription coverage, this program can make it easier for our residents to afford the drugs they need to deal with a short-term illness or stay healthy by managing a chronic condition.”

Archeologists believe they may have found a long-lost quatrain penned by the famous renaissance seer Nostradamus, in the remains of a room once used as a salon by Catherine de Medici. The four-line verse is thought to be one of the fifty-eight quatrains missing from the his collection of predictions known as the seventh “Century.” He composed ten in all. Believers around the world point to the uncanny accuracy of his forecasts—including envisioning the rise of Napoleon and Adolf Hitler.

Alas, the discovery comes a few days late for Erie County Executive Chris Collins, who might’ve benefited from the soothsayers words:

The great suit will stumble at the mark

Among a crowd of his followers

From his lake, clad in silver, on horseback, he will cross the state

Seeking the letter sigma, whose number shall be six

Karl Blau

Influential indie label K Records (former home of Modest Mouse, Built to Spill) is coming through town on Monday (Oct. 26) with a cast of underground innovators hand-plucked from the rich musical landscape of the Pacific Northwest. A new find—ear candy out of Olympia, Washington—called LAKE will be serving up songs from all over the musical map. Sometimes they sound like Sufjan Stevens covering Broken Social Scene; sometimes they sound like label-mates the Microphones; sometimes they just sing songs about sandwiches.  LAKE is six-members—all of whom have side projects—and has released 12 full-length albums since 2005.  Their latest effort, Let’s Build a Roof, was recorded by label-mate and tour-mate and visionary Karl Blau (pictured), who will be accompanying LAKE on this tour, performing songs from his new album, Zebra.  Blau is equally eclectic, choosing for this album to integrate elements of African music into his signature style.  And as if enough weird ground hasn’t been covered, Seattle’s the Curious Mystery will be providing bluesy, drug-soaked psychedelia.
Oh, the beautiful unevenness of it all.
—sal viglietta

LAKE, Karl Blau, the Curious Mystery
Sugar City, 19 Wadsworth | 7pm | $6/donation

It seems as though a year cannot pass in WNY without the weather claiming some victims. Back in August, the first victim of the season was Griffis Sculpture Park. Due to a series of heavy wind storms the park suffered approximately $50,000 in damage; many of their trails either destroyed or  rendered a danger to hikers. The park was closed down because it was deemed a danger to visitors, and there is still work to be done to reopen it. The band 10,000 Maniacs has decided to hold a benefit concert to raise funds for the park, on Saturday (Oct. 24) at Essex Art Center. The Maniacs, along with A Potter’s Field and Red Window, will be hosting the event. With over 250 sculptures located in the park’s fields, ponds, and forests, Sculpture Park is considered to be the United States’ first and largest of its kind. The Ashford Hollow organization that owns and operates the park subsists on grants and donations, providing arts and education programming to over 4,000 area students each year. This will be the second benefit held for the park by 10,000 Maniacs The first—back in 1991 when the band was fronted by Natalie Merchant—attracted over 5,000 fans. Hopefully we no longer need the star power to make a difference.
—ann marie awad

Essex Arts Center, 30 Essex St. | Doors at 7pm | $40/presale | Available at TerrapinStation, 1172 Hertel Ave.; Urban Threads, 736 Elmwoood Ave.; Queen City Gallery, 617 Main St./Market Arcade, or $45/at door.

For those who are interested in reading such things, here’s the operative part of the lawsuit filed last Thursday on behalf of Tom Golisano, Steve Pigeon, and Gary Parenti against the Erie County Board of Elections and its two commissioners, Democrat Dennis ward and republican Ralph Mohr.

Enjoy: RNY v ECBOE.