NICHOLAS MENDOLA - The Spectrum

NEWS

It's hard to be a Saint in the city

By NICHOLAS MENDOLA | May 2, 2005

"Just when I thought I was out ... they pull me back in," Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, "The Godfather: Part Three."***I entered UB as a default moderate - I had skeletons in my middle class, "okay to make fun of the handicapped and gays," closet - and I leave as a personal moderate with liberal policies.I hate abortion, but I can't tell you not to do it.I hate guns, but I can't tell you not to own them.I don't eat animals, but I can't stop you from eating carcass.We've got rights as Americans.

NEWS

"Less fighting, more punching"

By NICHOLAS MENDOLA | Apr. 27, 2005

When Tuesday's concert at the Buffalo Icon got a little ugly, Indianapolis, Ind.'s Haste the Day just stopped playing.After two kids in the mosh pit took their karate kicks and windmill punches a little too seriously, resulting in a flood of fists and shoving in front of the stage, Haste the Day lead vocalist Jimmy Ryan told his bandmates to stop playing."Aw, look what you did, that was going to be the most intense breakdown you have ever heard and you made me stop it," Ryan said to the crowd.

NEWS

A long time Comin'

By NICHOLAS MENDOLA | Apr. 27, 2005

Robert Zamsky, I owe you the world.About four and a half years ago, I stepped out of my car and onto the pavement in front of the Student Union, ready to take on the world for a chance at playing college baseball and hopefully one day owning a sporting goods store with my B.A.

NEWS

Napoleon Dynamite stinks

By NICHOLAS MENDOLA | Apr. 20, 2005

This ship may actually sail.Key word: may.Next week, after I finish my final column - and stay tuned for that friends, cause it's going to be the gravy on top of five years of hot, delicious column potatoes - I am going to be putting on a bathing suit, wetting down that slip and slide, and going headfirst into reality.As I start pedaling on my ride to be the next amazing cyclist, I'd like to clue you in on some objectives I did not complete following the day I waltzed into SUNY Buffalo in my maroon Phish shirt and board shorts (Yes, I just admitted that I spent a good year in hippie jail.

NEWS

What you need to know:

By NICHOLAS MENDOLA | Apr. 8, 2005

Ryan Adams will be bringing his new band, The Cardinals, to Sphere Nite Club in Buffalo on Saturday, May 14.

NEWS

Stepping out over the line

By NICHOLAS MENDOLA | Apr. 6, 2005

James Howard Kunstler is scaring the crap out of me.The author of "The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century," a novel about what he sees as an impending oil crisis, allowed an adaptation of his book to be included in this week's Rolling Stone.

NEWS

Probably the best band of all-time. Ever.

By NICHOLAS MENDOLA | Apr. 4, 2005

Sometimes, as a critic, you are struck by the hand of something mightier than the normal artist. Sometimes a vocalist grabs you by the throat and demands your utmost attention, the fullness of your musical mind and more than the traditional two thumbs up.We're probably talking like eight to 13 thumbs up here.That artist is Nicholas Mendola, and that band is clearmotive.Combining absolutely mind-blowing riffage with the crooning of Otis Redding, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, and that guy from Shai Hulud, clearmotive has taken the music scene by a molasses storm in the last five years, moving from a band that no one in Western New York cared about to a band that no one in Western New York cared about that has toured to 37 states."I guess we're just like The Beatles in that we have really re-invented the musical wheel," said project mastermind Nicholas Mendola.

NEWS

Better rhymes than your mom

By NICHOLAS MENDOLA | Mar. 30, 2005

Just when you think they can't get any worse, corporate America steps in and takes it up a notch.McDonald's is offering hip-hop artists anywhere from $1 to $5 for each time one of their songs with a Big Mac reference makes it to the radio in a new marketing campaign aimed at reinvigorating the dying double burger of death.The easy angle is how horrible this is, another step in the wrong direction for a healthier, slimmer America.

NEWS

Like my name was Dolomite

By NICHOLAS MENDOLA | Mar. 23, 2005

As Americans, we're tempted to lay claim to anything before anyone else, at any cost. Of course, we have every right to - just think of all the things we found before anyone else: rock 'n' roll, the full-court press, nightly news, America.Oh, about that.We're the kings of Bandwagonland.

NEWS

Bulls run out of gas

By NICHOLAS MENDOLA | Mar. 23, 2005

The University at Buffalo men's basketball team's first postseason was a tale of two Philadelphia teams, as they beat Drexel University in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament Wednesday before falling to St.