Good Morning Buffalo: A quick look at what's happening today
Published: December 30, 2009, 3:19 pm
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The wind is still with us, even though the National Weather Service had planned to lift the wind advisories before daybreak. All that means is that sustained winds are supposed to drop below 31 mph with gusts of less than 46 mph. What's forecast are winds of around 25 mph with gusts up to 43 mph -- not exactly a break in the weather.
With temperatures hovering in the low 20s, we're expected to experience below-zero windchills. There's also more drifting and whiteouts likely on the highways, especially the north-south routes in those areas still under a lake-effect snow warning until Saturday morning. That would be southern Erie, Wyoming, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties.
If you've got to head south of Buffalo or westward on the Thruway, Saturday should be the better day to do it. By then, the snows should have subsided, the winds ought to have diminished into the 10- to 20-mph range and temperatures are supposed to climb up to around the freezing mark. You should be able to see pavement again. Sunday's forecast promises even warmer temperatures and a chance of snow showers in the morning and maybe rain later on.
Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of the Lights, begins at sundown tonight and continues for the next eight days. Marked by the lighting of an additional candle on the Menorah each night, Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C. and commemorates the "miracle of the container of oil," when a day's worth of consecrated olive oil miraculously kept the temple's eternal flame lit for eight days, long enough to press, prepare and consecrate more olive oil.
Rep. Louise Slaughter is coming to Buffalo today on what's described as "a problem-solving trip" and she's bringing a guest -- the No. 2 man at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD deputy secretary Ron Sims. They plan to meet with Mayor Byron Brown, the anti-Brown members of the Common Council and representatives from nonprofit agencies that provide services to HUD. Discussions will center around the 19 deficiencies investigators found in Buffalo's HUD block grant programs. She'll hold a news conference with Sims to talk about it this afternoon in her offices in the Lafayette Court Building, a building that also houses the local HUD offices.
The Sabres wind up their five-game home stand by hosting the Chicago Blackhawks, whose lineup includes South Buffalo's Patrick Kane and former teammate Brian Campbell. The Hawks currently are on top of the Central Division in the NHL's Western Conference. The puck drops in HSBC Arena at 7:30 p.m. Watch on the MSG Channel. Listen on WGR 550 AM. Come early and see broadcaster Rick Jeanneret signing limited edition Aud bricks from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in front of the Sabres Store. The bricks are $49 and $69. A portion of the proceeds go to the Buffalo Sabres Foundation.
Greater Niagara Ballet's 32nd annual production of "The Nutcracker" opens at 7:30 p.m. in Niagara Falls High School Performing Arts Center, 4455 Porter Road. Additional performances take place at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $10 and $15.
Victorian Christmas celebrations continue today at Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site, 641 Delaware Ave. First there's a holiday concert by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, with Matthew Kraemer conducting, in Kleinhans Music Hall at 10:30 a.m., followed by lunch at 1 p.m. at the TR site. Tickets are $40. Then there's a Victorian Tea Room Supper and vintage fashion show with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and supper at 6. Tickets are $45. For information and the required reservations, call 884-0095.
Down the street at Starlight Gallery, 340 Delaware Ave., across from Babeville and Hallwalls, NOMAD Art & Lit holds its Give Local event at 7 p.m. Donate $20 to the City Mission and take home a piece of original local artwork. For info, visit www.nomadbuffalo.com.
Country singer-songwriter Kenny Rogers is scheduled to play the Jamestown Savings Bank Arena in Jamestown at 8 p.m. His show last night was in Sandusky, Ohio. Will the lake-effect snows let him through? For info, call 484-2624 or visit www.jamestownarena.com. Tickets are $29.75 to $75.
R&B saxophonist Will Holton puts the funk into holiday songs in a show he calls Will Holton's Soulful Christmas Affair tonight in the Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main St. Tickets are $32.50. Doors open at 7. Music starts around 8.
The Hamburg High School Concert Chorale is featured as the Orchard Park Symphony stages its annual holiday concert at 7:30 p.m. in the Orchard Park Middle School Auditorium, known on these occasions as the Joseph Wincenc Memorial Auditorium after the orchestra's founder. The school is at 60 S. Lincoln Ave. Admission is $12, seniors $9, students free. For info, call 474-5843.
How could we resist a night at the theater entitled "Mommy's Martini Hour?" Touted as "a humorous, musical glimpse into the lives of two single mom/chanteuses" -- namely Kerrykate Abel and Loraine O'Donnell (with Chuck Basil at the piano) -- it promises to deal with "divorce, diapers, dating, drinking and everything in between," set to the music of Bonnie Raitt, Christine Lavin, Broadway and the blues. It opens tonight in the Buffalo United Artists theater, 119 W. Chippewa St. Tickets are $15 and $20. Part of the BUA's cabaret series, it continues at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 19. For info, visit www.buffalobua.org.
The world-renowned Irish Tenors -- classically trained singers Finbar Wright, Anthony Kearns and Karl Scully -- are accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra as they perform Irish and holiday classics and modern-day favorites at 8 p.m. in the Mainstage Theatre at the University at Buffalo Center for the Arts. Tickets are $33.50 to $49.50.
Movies opening today include director Clint Eastwood's highly regarded "Invictus," starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in a tale of rugby in South Africa; the animated "The Princess and the Frog," in which Disney does a classic fairy tale with a New Orleans twist and a dark-skinned heroine; and "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee," with Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin, Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder in a witty drama about a woman seeking escape from a marriage to a much older man.
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