Need help with your brackets? Look over a live chat about the NCAA Tournament by visiting the Campus Watch blog.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – there’s something to be said for actual, face-to-face human contact.

You can’t replace it. You can’t duplicate it. Even in this day and age, where you can feasibly know every important piece of information about someone’s life without ever having spoken to them – or, for that matter, met them – human contact is still important.

People lived for centuries without the constant connection of social media, computers and smartphones. They didn’t live without real-world families and friendships.

We may be a digital generation, but we have analog lives, too.

I, for one, would much rather be at a party with my friends than at home reading tweets and text messages about what a great time they’re having. I would rather be taking the pictures than seeing them later on Facebook. It gets boring staring at a screen – and, if you do it long enough, it gives you a serious headache.

If anything, our analog lives are made more complex by our digital ones. Not only do we need stellar interview and phone skills, but our e-mail and texting has to look professional when the situation requires.

And that doesn’t even scratch the surface. Our Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, MySpace profiles (if they exist anymore), and everything Google-able has to appear spick and span and viewable by potential employers, colleges and parents. That keg stand you did at that frat party freshman year was a lot easier to hide 10 years ago.

Not to mention, your digital world wouldn’t be very exciting if your analog one wasn’t filled with people and activities. Without those first connections…well, you’re kind of just a creeper looking for friends in a chatroom.

When it comes down to it, our digital lives complement our analog ones. And it should never be the other way around.

(Originally posted on The Next Great Generation)

The marchers entertained; the floats rolled; and the alcohol flowed.

The National Weather Service has extended its flood warning for Tonawanda Creek at Rapids until late Tuesday night. See more at BuffaloNews.com Live.

A Buffalo man was charged with felony driving while intoxicated and endangering the welfare of a child after a one-car crash in the Town of Elma on Sunday evening, state police said.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will return to Darien Lake Performing Arts Center on Aug. 14, and tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. today. Read more at BuffaloNews.com Live.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Powder Keg photo contest known as Cold Snap. After receiving all of the entries, judges Joe Cascio, Michael Thomas and Katie Schneider (all local photographers) chose their top three images, which are shown here. The idea behind the contest was to get people out snapping images of the festival so that we could see different aspects of it through the eyes of the many, rather than the few. Here's a  big 'Thanks' to Jim Jansen over at Delaware Camera for sponsoring the contest! The results are...

1st Place - Jessica Zyglis for her "Snowman"
1st Prize - An electronic photo frame & 1 - 24x36 inch print

2nd Place - Derik Kane - "Yellow in the Maze"
2nd Prize - 1 - 24x36 inch print and 40 - 4x6 inch prints

3rd Place - Amanda Lonergan - "Waiting" 
3rd Prize - 1 - 16x20 print and 40 - 4x6 inch prints

Would-be welfare queen Larry Quinn

On Tuesday, the Common Council will vote on whether to withhold 13 acres of city-owned land from the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC) unless ECHDC agrees to a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) for the proposed Canal Side development.

So what’s a Community Benefits Agreement?  It’s a binding agreement negotiated between representatives of the community and a developer seeking public support for a project.  The agreement lays out, in black and white, just what the community will get out of its investment.  The proposed CBA for the Canal Side project includes provisions for local businesses, a living wage requirement, and environmental building standards.  You would think that the governments and agencies responsible for handing out more than $154 million in public money for this project might have thought about protecting the public by including these standards, but they were busy with more important matters, like subsidizing failed restaurants and buying tax-free homes in Empire Zones.

So who is the “Community” in CBA?  Folks like the Coalition for Economic Justice, Buffalo Urban League, PUSH Buffalo and other groups . . . you know, the good guys.

So what can I do to help ensure that we get more than poverty wage jobs in exchange for all this public largesse?  Come out to the vote on Tuesday at 2.  Or better yet, show up at City Hall a half hour early and participate in a press conference calling on the Common Council to do the right thing.

This is a fantastic new documentary on the importance of historic preservation in Buffalo by Diedie Weng and Squeaky Wheel. It was produced by Preservation Buffalo Niagara and funded by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.  It is a very simple straightforward look at grassroots preservation in Buffalo.  Much of it was shot on the East Side and West Side. 

This is not highbrow Allentown preservation. This is not about saving great monuments - rather it is about saving the soul of the city... its neighborhoods.  I was so heartened by the intelligent, committed people highlighted in this movie.  Buffalo has a great future if these are the kinds of citizens being called to action.  For so long it has seemed that Buffalo was a place waiting for someone to come in and change things.  More and more it appears that the people are just going to change things themselves.
 
Following is the movie blurb:

With the severe, long-term economic and population decline in Buffalo and the surrounding older suburbs, the housing vacancy rate has rapidly increased. Since 1990 vacancy rate estimates have increased from 10% to as high as 23% -- among the highest in the nation. Decent, solidly built vacant older houses become community problems, dragging down communities as targets for vandalism and crime. As they are demolished, though, they leave holes in the sense of place, the fabric of community, and a visual and psychological emptiness. This short film aims to promote a conversation about low-income communities' efforts and struggles in revitalizing neglected historical neighborhoods by valuing the people and the place as assets.
 
This is really a great great piece on Buffalo, well worth your time!
 

Building on the Past for Our Future (22:00) by Diedie Weng from Squeaky Wheel on Vimeo.

The Yard is back, and this time it's playing for keeps. Unleash stimulus: 2010's Artists and Models event scheduled to take place Saturday May 1st. This longstanding Buffalo event has captured more than the imaginations of revelers in the past... it has inspired countless others to promote the arts in large doses, sometimes pushing the envelope and always opening doors for artists seeking untapped insta-venues.

If ever there was a way to bring the masses to the doors of The Yard, then Artists and Models is the ticket. Seeing that this is such a large undertaking, it is only befitting that the event be held inside the cavernous building. In the past, The Yard has hosted primarily smaller concert series, which were held outside on the covered stage. In order to accommodate the thirty art installations, it was decided to put the Rock Harbor interior to good use. Don't miss the 'multimedia art & music megaparty' that always finds the most unusual locations to call home. Heck, in this economy we could all use a little stimulus...

Hallwalls Presents Artists & Models: Stimulus
Multimedia Art & Music Megaparty
May 1. 2010
9 pm - 2 am
Inside Rock Harbor Yard
57 Tonawanda St., Buffalo

Tickets:$15 in advance, students & members
$20 at the door
18 to enter 21 to drink beer or wine (water & soda also served)

30 Artists' Installations -
404 Error, Alice Alexandrescu, Kyle Butler & Marc Tomk, AWK, Steven Ansell & Tammy McGovern, Katrina Boemig, Michael Bosworth, David Butler, Buffalo Hackerspace, Scott Bye, Collective Collective, Jax Deluca, Aasta Deth, John Fink, Chris Hausbeck, HERO Design, Jimyn the Singing Mine, Jill Johnston-Price, Evelyn Killaby, Alison S.M. Kobayashi-Emily Gove & Jennie Suddick, Al Larsen, Marty McGee & Mick Gross-, R.J. Melnyk & Ariane FulkLorna Mills, Vincenzo Mistretta, P.J. Moskal, N.J. Parisi, Shasti O'Leary Soudant, Timothy Scaffidi, Gary Sczerbaniewicz, R.M.Vaughn, Heather Warren-Crow, Christopher Young

Live Music
Family Funktion & SitarJamz
Divi Rome Royal African Sound
Orchestra Stimuli
MC Wizzalot & Tip Top Hip Hop Orchestra
DJ Bev Beverly,
Strip Teasers (Burlesque)

Ticket Outlets:
Hallwalls -Talking Leaves Books (both Elmwood & Main St.)
Sweetness 7 Cafe (Lafayette & Grant) -Rust Belt Books (Allen St.)Room (Hertel) -Clarence Center Coffee Co. (Goodrich Rd)

www.hallwalls.org
716-854-1694

All proceeds benefit Hallwalls 

Event: Artists & Models-Stimulus
What: Night of Mayhem
Start Time: Saturday, May 1 at 9:10pm
End Time: Sunday, May 2 at 2:10am
Where: 57 Tonawanda St

Erie County Attorney Cheryl A. Green has thrown up a new obstacle for the U. S. Justice Department, continuing her almost two-year stand against federal intervention with the county's jails.

We’ve got to give credit where credit is due and NYS Senator Antoine Thompson’s Bigger, Better Bottle Bill has really done a great job of getting a lot of pesky trash off the streets and out of the garbage stream (especially those water bottles).

But …

Antoine, about your Hiram “The Slasher” Monserrate partnership, many of your constituents find your donations of cash and staff support abhorrent.

Disgraced former State Senator Hiram Monserrate, removed from office last month after being convicted of slashing his girlfriend’s face with a broken wine glass, declared that he would seek to reclaim his seat in the special election slated to fill the vacancy next week. What’s that have to do with Buffalo? Well, a couple weeks ago, the Buffalo News reported that State Senator Antoine Thompson has sent a donation to Monserrate’s re-election campaign. We’re now told that Thompson has also been donating manpower: He’s been sending his staff to help in Monserrate’s re-election bid. Artvoice

We’re not too happy with your friendship with Bad Bird Dude (Steve Pigeon) either.

Oh, and folks associated with Steve Pigeon, in particular Hormos Mansouri, who, individually and through his companies, lead the pack with $8,500 in contributions.

Gary Parenti, also tight with Pigeon, gave Thompson $1,900 as an individual and through his company. New Yorkers for Pedro Espada, the state senator who happens to employ Pigeon as his chief counsel, gave another $2,000.

Add it all up, and there’s at least $12,400 of Pigeon-related money.
Jim Heaney, Outrages & Insights

Antoine, why back losers? Why not support Jose Peralta instead?

PeacePrints Prison Ministries, a Buffalo nonprofit agency that helps rehabilitate former inmates, is expanding with a new facility for one of its programs and increased space at another residence.

The National Federation for Just Communities of Western New York will hold its 2010 Citation Banquet at 6 p. m. March 24 in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.