THE HOT 5
An opinionated to-do list
By Ron Ehmke
Very young children often stop me in the street to ask, “Mister, how do you pick the Hot 5 every month? Are these necessarily the best and most exciting things we should all add to the calendars on our fancy cell phones that our mommies and daddies bought us in a feeble attempt to gain our love in their elder years? And can you loan us ten bucks? We promise we’ll pay you back by Monday.”
Around the time they start hitting me up for cash, I send them away, their other questions unanswered. But you, dear reader, want to know many of these same things, and so I will now set you wise:
•I like to think of the Hot 5 as a memo to myself, a reminder that these are five worthy events around WNY, most of which I personally would like to attend. So I publish them here, and then forget all about them when the actual dates roll around.
•The list is by no means definitive; for one thing, many utterly worthy activities are promoted elsewhere in the magazine, which is why I am not urging you to drop everything and go see Feist headline at UB’s CFA, even though I would not miss that woman for anything, because she is one of the best live performers I have seen in ages.
•I try to assemble the list with utmost integrity, carefully scouring all the items in our monthly calendar and every other listing I might be aware of. Then the press deadline rolls around and I think, oh, what the hell, what looks good this month from the stuff we’ve got pictures of but haven’t written about anywhere else?
Got it? Good. Now, in no particular order, I give you my social calendar for the next thirty-one days.
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Hallwalls’s annual fundraiser is pretty much a guaranteed good time, and certain to contain at least one spectacle you will be able to frighten your co-workers or staid relatives with for at least a week or two afterward. The theme this year is “Unhinged,” so I am totally there. The location is the Central Terminal, where this thing happened last time, too, which makes me a wee bit nervous, but then if anyone can completely reinvent that place a second time in two years, it’s the HW crew, plus the musicians, installation and performance artists, and, yes, self-styled models on hand. (Sat., May 31 from 9 p.m.–2 a.m., 495 Paderewski Dr.; tickets and info: 854-1694 or www.hallwalls.org.)
2. The Man Who Never Died
All good lefties and students of history know that May equals May Day, the international celebration of workers’ rights. In Buffalo, for the last six years at least, May Day equals the Subversive Theatre’s annual staged reading of a thematically appropriate play. This year’s selection will be Barrie Stavis’s 1958 biographical drama about the life and still-controversial death of legendary labor organizer Joe Hill—you know, the guy from the song. If you don’t know the anthem I’m referring to, you’re in for a hell of a story, and a nice visit to one of Buffalo’s most exciting new venues, to boot. (Thurs., May 1, time TBA at the Alt Theatre, 255 Great Arrow Ave., 3rd floor; info: 408-0499 or www.subversivetheatre.org.)
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The Kenan Center’s annual extravaganza (part gallery show, part fundraiser) has a great reputation as one of the area’s major exhibitions of contemporary craft art. The title’s even a misnomer, as there are 105 exhibitors this year. You’ll find work in clay, metal, jewelry, wood, paper, fiber, leather, glass and mixed media—some of it even wearable, as in the case of Frank Westfall’s leather handbags and Lori Ross’s dresses. There’s live jazz, snacks, and tours of the grounds, too. The show opens Friday, May 30 from 6 to 9 and continues through Sunday, June 1.
(Kenan Center Arena, 433 Locust St., Lockport;
433-2617 or www.kenancenter.org/arts/craftsmen.asp.)
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Why am I contemplating an hourlong drive to Brockport to see another student production of a forty-year-old period piece I’ve always had my reservations about? Mainly because Andre deShields’s ballyhooed, visually inventive but disappointing staging at Buff State last March merely whetted my appetite; it reminded me how durable the best-known songs are, how timely the show’s concerns (war, racism, sexual politics, the quest for transcendence) remain in this election year, and how open to interpretation that nearly plotless libretto can be. Let the sun shine in, everybody! (Fri., Apr. 25–Sat., May 3 in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage, SUNY Brockport; 585-395-ARTS or www.brockport.edu/finearts.)
5. Graycliff Tours
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This one’s not limited to May, but since this month’s theme is getting outside, there’s no better time than now to head down to Derby to check out the summer house and grounds Frank Lloyd Wright created at Graycliff. There are far too many options to mention here—quick tours, more in-depth ones, monthly ones intended for photographers, packages with wine and cheese, you name it—so check the website for details. Can’t get enough of that funky Wright stuff? There’s also the latest FLW lecture series, this season focusing on his female patrons. The first talk of three takes place May 8 at Babeville in downtown Buffalo, when art historian Diane Tepfer addresses “Affordable Dreams: The Goetsch Winckler Home,” a look at one of Wright’s earliest Usonian buildings. (Graycliff is at 6472 Old Lake Shore Rd., Derby; tour and lecture info and reservations: 947-9217 or graycliff.bfn.org.)
Ron Ehmke is an artist, not a model.
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