Suicide in Buffalo May Not Be Redundant, After All

Tuesday closings have twice recently interfered with my cultural appreciation.  First the FDR Memorial on Roosevelt Island, now Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House in Buffalo.

When in Buffalo, eat wings.  We lunched on a bucket of 20 at the Anchor Bar, highly recommended by a native friend of Joe's.  BTW, they ship anywhere.

Wanna bet that the hardbitten waitress above purchased her insurance just down the street?

The team indulged my passion for cemeteries with a drive-through at nearby Forest Lawn. About 150,000 souls and several once indigenous critters crowd into a pastoral space about one third the size of Central Park.

Rick James and Millard Fillmore, the 13th President of the United States are among those at rest.  James's epitaph:  I've had it all.  I've done it all. I''ve seen it all.  It's all about love.  GOD IS LOVE.  Or maybe coke?

Fillmore, a Whig elected in 1849, was the last President to be affiliated with neither the Republicans nor the Democrats.  Maybe it's time for a new party.

One husband left no doubt about his priorities.

With so much attention focused on statues commemorating the Confederacy these days, this Union Memorial came as a welcome tribute to the sacrifices born by those Americans who fought and lost their lives for a just cause.

Frank Lloyd Wright, born 150 years ago this past June, wrote the words inscribed on this prime parcel of eternal real estate:  A burial facing the open sky . . . the whole could not fail of noble effect.

It didn't surprise us in the least that the family buried beneath were also major benefactors of the Albright-Knox Gallery, our next stop.

In an effort to popularize a modest collection, the marketing gurus put all their marbles in Casey Riordan's "Shark Girl" basket.  Of course she has her own Twitter account now.

The permanent collection, housed in the new building, traces the evolution of art from Impressionism in eerily empty galleries.

The temporary exhibits in the old building underwhelmed, although Philip Guston probably would have appreciated the prominence given this work, which it shares with only one other.

Decorating a staircase in the style of Sol Lewitt provided a soothing photographic backdrop.

One of Magda's college roommates texted her the name of Buffalo's ritziest residential neighborhood.  Thanks to Zillo, she and Joe determined that they could afford a house there three times bigger than the condo they just bought in South Boston.  It seemed like a good time to remind them of a famous line from A Chorus Line:  "Suicide is redundant in Buffalo."

That may have been true in the 70s, but it isn't now.  After a porch hang, we cancelled our dinner reservations and headed to Food Truck Tuesdays where hundreds of young families gathered for reasonably priced food and live music.

Initially skeptical, Thom quickly sang his praises of Larkin Square, a re-purposed warehouse district.