THE HOT 5 An opinionated to-do list By Christopher Schobert March is best known as my birthday month. Remarkably, there are still tons of things to do that don’t involve buying me presents. (Crazy, right?) It’s a month of holidays, of artistic collaboration, of chocolate, architects, and Morrissey. Plus, robots. And French chefs. And most of all, words like “Dyngus.” 1. St. Patrick Joseph Dyngus Day Party As a proud descendent of the ’Oirish, I have always loved St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans. The green beer flows, the ironic “kiss me” T-shirts are busted out regardless of the temperature, Leprechaun flies off the shelves at Blockbuster, and the streets of Buffalo and beyond are overrun (in a good way) with parades. I’ll hesitate from judging which is best—I probably wouldn’t live past March 31—but I think my favorite way to celebrate is the twelfth annual St. Patrick Joseph Dyngus Day Party on March 22. Apart from celebrating both St. Patrick’s Day and the gob-smackingly named Dyngus Day, the party is known for bringing together three ethnic holidays and cultures: the Irish, the Polish, and the Italian. The fun will feature a polka band, a Celtic rock group, and Italian musicians, too—a model UN of local music. A “surprise special guest” is planned, and attendees will have the chance to learn how to do a tarantella, a polka, and a jig. If that doesn’t say long live the Ir-olish-alians, I don’t know what does. Sunday, March 22, from 3 to 8 p.m. at the Irish Center, 240 Abbott Rd., Buffalo; tickets are available at the Tara Gift Shoppe, 245 Abbott Rd., Buffalo, 825-6700, or by calling 834-7664. 2. WOYUBU: An Intermedia Mash-Up Some musical mash-ups are clever (the Strokes plus Christina Aguilera), while some are downright mind-blowing (Jay-Z + the Beatles = The Grey Album). WOYUBU: An Intermedia Mash-Up applies the same collage technique to theater, bringing together the technological wizardry (VR, computer games, etc.) of UB’s Intermedia Performance Studios with the satirical comedy of the Real Dream Cabaret plus actors and computer scientists as two classic plays are staged simultaneously on either side of a wall. I’m going to quote directly from the press release, as the description is wonderfully complex: “This performance and interactive installation invites audiences to watch or play as we upload Georg Büchner’s prescient unfinished crime drama (begun in 1836), Woyzeck, and Alfred Jarry’s perverse 1896 fantasy, Ubu Roi, to the digital world using virtual reality, performing robots, puppets, and surveillance technology. Based on newspaper accounts from Germany in the 1830s, Woyzeck tells the story of an overworked soldier who kills his mistress in a fit of jealousy. Jarry’s Ubu Roi is an early foray into absurdist theater that inspired generations of avant-garde artists with its warped vision of a Macbeth-like coup d’etat.” Robots, absurdist theater, puppets, and murrrrderrr? Sounds awesome. March 13–14, 20–21, and 27–28 at 8 p.m. at the Downtown IPSpace, 1716 Main St., Buffalo; for more info or to make reservations, visit www.woyubu.org. 3. Morrissey at UB’s CFA Remember how different things were the last time Morrissey played Buffalo? It was 1997, the venue was Kleinhans Music Hall, the Smoking Popes opened, and Mozzer was a tad on the ropes, career-wise. Promoting the slightly underwhelming (yet oft-underrated) Maladjusted, the show was a blast, as Smiths-T-shirt-clad fanatics bum-rushed the stage, and were treated to an encore of “Shoplifters of the World Unite.” What followed were some wilderness years. Adrift without a record deal, Morrissey bided his time in sunny Los Angeles and waited for the world to warm back up to his sexually ambiguous outsider-clarion calls. And funny enough, it did. He stormed back with 2003’s You are the Quarry, the darker and harder-to-love Ringleader of the Tormentors, another greatest hits collection, and now, a triumphant new record, Years of Refusal. It’s an album that ranks nicely with his strongest solo efforts, and it’s also worth noting that his setlists regularly feature a handful of Smiths’ classics. His March 19 concert at UB’s Center for the Arts is the most exciting local music announcement of 2009 (so far). See? The more he ignores us, the more we love him. Thursday, March 19, at UB’s Center for the Arts, Amherst; call 645-ARTS or visit www.ubcfa.org. 4. Sweet Pleasures Anything named “Sweet Pleasures” is probably going to be enjoyable, but if it involves chocolate, then doubly so. An evening of French chocolate-making and tasting, “Pleasures” will feature prize-winning chocolate expert Benjamin Desmartins. Desmartins will lecture in English and also participate in a question and answer section in this special event sponsored by Alliance Française of Buffalo. Samples will be available, and special products will be offered for purchase. Yum. Thursday, March 26, at 7:30 p.m. at the Bulger Communication Building, Buffalo State College, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo; 886-0866 or email mvs52@verizon.net. 5. Architect David Jameson at the Buffalo Home & Garden Show As you have probably intuited by now, we at Spree are mad about architecture, so much so that we once devoted an entire issue to the Queen City’s built environment. Classic buildings are a significant part of what makes Buffalo such a historically fascinating, physically gorgeous place to live, and one organization making sure that these works of art are cherished is the American Institute of Architects’ Buffalo Chapter. The AIA is always up to interesting things, and on March 6, they’re bringing award-winning residential architect David Jameson to lecture at the Buffalo Home & Garden show. Jameson is a major American architect—visit www.davidjamesonarchitect.com for a list of his work and awards—and he should have plenty to say about our city’s past and future. Friday, March 6, at 7 p.m. at the Buffalo Home & Garden Show, Buffalo Convention Center, Buffalo; 855-5555 or www.buffalohomeshow.com. Associate editor Christopher Schobert’s favorite Morrissey line is: “If you have five seconds to spare, then i’ll tell you the story of my life.” SUBSCRIBE NOW Back to the Table of Contents Back to Top