BuffaloStyle: Sat 10/31/09

Halloween edition with host Christina Abt:

buffalo style 10-31-09

Buffalo Style: Sat 10/24/09

Hosted by Christina Abt:

buffalo style 10-24-09

Buffalostyle Big Bands Part III

During my summer hiatus from Buffalostyle Radio, I worked with WNYMedia videographer Marc Odien to put together Buffalostyle videos featuring some of the positive people. places and events within our community.

We finished up our summer project with a three part series. Part I was devoted to the Crystal Beach Ballroom, Part II told the story of WNY’s only all female big band and, here, Part III tells the life story of a very special WNY musician by the name of Fran Schrett.

Click on the link and enjoy Fran’s story of a musical era defined by war, women and wonderful music.

Enjoy!

BuffaloStyle: Sat 10/17/09

BuffaloStyle: Sat 10/10/09

This week’s Buffalostyle is all about people helping people as we chat with citizens and organizations who are putting together winter clothing drives to help those less fortunate in our community.  You’ll be amazed at the people who are stepping up and working to make a difference for others during the cold winter ahead.

buffalo style 10-10-09

What I Wore…..

Ok, I’ll admit it. While standing in store checkout lines, I thumb through tabloid magazines for the latest Hollywood romance or scandal. On occasion, I’ve also been known to watch a celebrity gossip show or two. Yet, based on the popularity of such tabloid tattling, I know that I am not alone in my enquiring mind fascination.

Recently, though, I experienced an up-close-and-personal encounter with a celebrity that made me realize no matter one’s lot in life, we are all just people with the same needs and wants, dealing with the same life challenges and issues.

My encounter occurred during a trip to New York City with my daughter. While in the Big Apple, we attended an off-Broadway play titled, Love, Loss and What I Wore. The production is a one-hour reading of essays detailing significant life moments and memorable dresses, shoes, coats and even undergarments connected to those moments. The essays are read by a changing cast of celebrity actresses who, on this particular evening, included the multi-talented, Rosie O’Donnell.

While browsing through the theater Playbill I noticed an acknowledgement of Ms. O’Donnell as a production contributor. I immediately wondered if I would somehow recognize which essay she had written? The answer to my question became apparent as the play unfolded. There was no doubt which reading was her own, as the topic of Rosie’s personal essay was one that she has shared publicly for many years…. the absence of her mother.

Rosie was a young child when her mother died of cancer. In her “Love, Loss” essay, she talked about the fact that she never got the chance to shop with her mom for a special outfit or a prom dress, like all the other girls. Rosie also shared a particularly poignant clothing memory about the woman who eventually became her step mother and the bathrobe she wore that was just like her mom’s. It was a moving story that gave the audience a deep glimpse into the heart and soul of this famous woman. Yet in the moments that followed, the rest of Rosie O’Donnell’s story was truly revealed.

As the next actress began reading Rosie turned toward her fellow performer, on stage directly in front of my daughter and me. Since our seats were close to the front of the small theater, I could clearly see that Rosie’s eyes were awash with unfallen tears. And while she appeared attentive to the stage production, Rosie’s mind was clearly a million miles away, lost in her motherless childhood memories.

I was mesmerized by the moment, but also felt somewhat like an invasive voyeur. Before me was one of the tabloid’s most popular targets…a superstar actress of the most famous kind. And I was witnessing a very personal interlude that had nothing to do with her fame and fortune achievements. Rather it was the same heartbreak and personal struggle that I have endured since my own mother’s death—the life reality that all of us encounter whether we are Rosie O’Donnell or everywoman.

Ultimately, it was but a few moments before Rosie recovered and returned her attention to the ongoing readings. As she did, she glanced through the audience. There she noticed my child sitting next to me, our hands entwined. Rosie’s essay had moved my daughter to silent tears and a need to reach out and touch her own mother. I held on tightly in response. And as if in complete understanding, Rosie smiled gently and gave us a quick wink, just like any girlfriend would do.

And in that moment I learned more about Rosie O’Donnell than any enquiring tabloid or gossip show could ever reveal….
….and I was wearing my “skinny” grey slacks, my black leather jacket and my favorite suede boots.

BuffaloStyle: Sat 9/28/09

Christina Abt and Lingerie Football quarterback Krystal Grey:

buffalo style 9-26-09

Freedom of Choice

Freedom.

According to the dictionary, freedom is the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.

According to our forefathers, freedom is the foundation of our homeland and every American’s birthright.

According to the many American service men and women who guarantee our freedom, it is the essential right for which they serve and sacrifice their lives. And in my world, freedom is quite simply the right to legally live my life the way that I see fit, without interference or oppression.

I am focused on these comprehensive definitions because it is my understanding that New York State is about to institute a regulation that I believe to be a complete violation of American freedom, in every sense of the word. From what I have been able to discover, the New York State powers that be are getting ready to issue a state wide decree that will stipulate the following:

1) All government medical/ health workers who have direct contact with the public must receive both a flu and a swine flu vaccine.

2) Since the swine flu vaccines have been created in haste — and in some cases outsourced to foreign countries such as China, where testing standards are below American specifications — all aforementioned employees must sign a release waver before receiving the swine flu vaccine. The waiver states that should any side effects occur as a result of receiving the vaccines, employees will not take legal action against the vaccine manufacturers.

3) The only exception to this vaccination program is if an employee can prove medically that they will suffer a life threatening reaction to the vaccine.

4) Should any employee refuse one or both vaccines, they will not be allowed to continue in their job and there will be no guarantee that they will be placed in another job where they would not come in direct contact with the public.

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Now I am fully aware that the upcoming flu season is being heralded as one of pandemic proportions. And for those in the health care and medical fields who will be dealing with flu sufferers, protection from infection is paramount. However, for my nickel, no one has the right to tell any adult American Citizen what legal substances they have to put into their bodies. Furthermore, no one has the right to threaten a person’s gainful employment as punitive coercion in any circumstance.

The added insult to this proposed vaccine program is the indemnifying waiver. If the vaccine is safe, then why is a side effect waiver required?

If the government is unsure of the vaccines’ safety, then why are they willing to risk the health of their employees—those same employees that they are supposedly trying to protect with this vaccination program?

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I find it hard to imagine that state health officials truly believe that they can institute such a vaccination program and succeed in forcing it upon their employees.

Further, I find it unimaginable that the government health employees involved will go quietly into the rank and file of vaccine receivers. Yet if both of those things happen, then I truly believe that the freedom that we have created, enjoy and defend as American citizens will be permanently damaged and unretreivably eliminated from our lives — and that would be a illness of truly pandemic proportions

Buffalo Style: Sat 9/19/09

Host Christina Abt, on location at Kitchen Creations:

BUFFALO STYLE 9-19-09

BuffaloStyle Radio is Back!

Host Christina Abt with author Cathy Marie Buchanan, plus local music from Chris Cannon

BUFFALO STYLE 9-12-09