You know, the interesting thing about hair is what to do with it when you are in a "tweener" awkward stage. I thought about just getting my hair thinned out, trimmed slightly and letting it grow, or just doing the usual and getting it cut so that I can style it with my trademark frontal swoop. I've never really had longer hair before so I don't know what to do. (e:jason) says that I'm developing a little mullettude.

Other than that, I've generally been enjoying my time while not travelling. I've been busy at the office, watching the Sabres, enjoying illicit yet delicious contraband and getting a ton of new music. My most recent acquisitions have been too numerous to list, but the one I'm most proud of is the hard to find Analord 1-11 12" vinyl only singles that Aphex Twin released last year. I've got all 11 in MP3 format, WITH the LP label graphics so that I can continue having all of the album graphics on my iPod. I'm truly obsessive/compulsive with my music. I've also gotten the most recent Broken Social Scene (which I've liked but not owned until recently), Built to Spill, a few Flaming Lips albums, a few Talking Heads albums, Madlib's Blue Note album, Taking Back Sunday's newest and some retro new wave/80's music thats been floating out there. If you like Duran Duran, and you know you do, then check out VHS or Beta. They do some really great instrumentals on their albums, which I think is so cool for a rock band to mix in.

Actually I'm kind of mixed on a lot of the retro 80's stuff coming out recently. I say to myself that I like it, but then I also say to myself that if I wanted to listen to Duran Duran or Talking Heads that I could do just that and stow away the designer imposters.

It seems like every time I visit Los Angeles my feelings about this place grow stronger. It has a lot to do with economic prosperity, attitudes, what you make of places, what you might leave behind, what you might gain. I've decided that one day soon I'm going to shed my skin and migrate west. I haven't been this certain about something in a long time.

Today it hit me that leaving Buffalo is and should be a real prospect for me. I've always said that if I can stay in Buffalo I will, but my perspective is changing. I love Buffalo, even with all of its problems - don't get me wrong. Moving onward and upward is the only thing on my mind lately, and I've grown to adore many places in the USA. California is #1 by a long shot, and it seems like choosing somewhere else to make my next step in would be nothing but a compromise.

I absolutely love this place - maybe I won't end up in LA, maybe somewhere else in this state. I travel enough to know that just getting a new perspective someone else is intoxicating, but I've already been through this before. I haven't wanted something badly enough to fight for it for a long, long time - its a strange feeling. Whatever it takes, I'm coming here for good.

I wish I could share how I feel right now.

(e:jason) - Do not fret I am sending your charger overnight from California. Check your e-mail and look for details- I didn't put that thing in my bag this time, I swear!! I didn't even realize I had it.

Anyhow, I arrived in Los Angeles late Friday night local time, and had MAJOR drama getting a rental. Finally that stuff got fixed, and it was midnight by the time I was on the freeway heading to my buddy's place.

I had the best weekend I've had in a looong time. My buddy is "sympathetic to the cause" and knows a guy with a prescription card, so we were treated to a sack of the finest medicinal grade shit out there - it was a cross between Wreck and J-27. You just can't find that kind of thing on the east coast - it was amazing. The pot had a very sweet and clean taste - it has a linen cinnamon flavor, completely clean and extremely tastey. My bud had some Sour Diesel this week before I came... which if you are a serious stoner you may recognize that strand as some of the most potent, most popular and most expensive strains of chronic out there. I also smoked out of a vaporizer for the first time, and I have to say that I can't wait until I get one of my own.

We basically drove around L.A. Saturday running errands, which was great because I got to drive around the area and get a feel for how to get around L.A. proper. Traffic here is bad but its not completely unmanageable if you have a little local knowledge and have a reasonable understanding of where you are.

We went to Venice Beach, where I scored some beautiful pics and a new hippie-esque ashtray for my room. Venice Beach is interesting - its basically a gigantic boardwalk filled with restaurants, knick knack shops and about 10 head shops. Theres a large green area where you can sit under a palm tree and just enjoy the sun and the breeze. It was completely relaxing; I could have taken a 3-hour nap out there.

From there we went to Malibu - I have to say that I've never seen such a concentration of over the top wealth in my entire life. If there was a hillside or mountainside with ocean views, you'd see it completely peppered with $15-$25 million homes. The level of wealth was obscene. The views however were amazing - there is a public yet private beach out there that you can access off of PCH by walking down a path, so we went down. I got some of the most jaw droppingly amazing pictures I've ever taken. I got some absolutely gorgeous shots of the Malibu area - beach, water, some super fancy homes - once I have the proper cable for the camera I will share with you all.

Today we went to Amoeba Music - some of the San Fran contingent may have been to the one in Berkeley or San Fran proper. Freaking amazing music store - I picked up a new DJ Shadow mix and a compliation of 60's and 70's soul and jazz from the 60's and 70's era.

Anyhow thats about it! I got to watch the Sabres game live here on the west coast too - which I have to say was amazing to be able to see the Sabres play while I was here. I'll be going to watch the game on Tuesday, enjoy some more friendly company and eventually I'll be heading home Thursday night. I'll update if anything interesting comes up.

6AM flight to JFK, $48 cab ride that took 1.5 hours, and finally arrived to work. Flight out of LaGuardia to Midway in Chicago and here I am. Friday night I'll be in Los Angeles.

Tony Snow is now the White House Press Secretary, which I think is an interesting transition. Of course, there are swarms of pleibes out there frothing at the mouth saying "of course, he worked for Fox News" but, as said pleibes naturally don't know a damn thing about the subject matter, they wouldn't realize that he's been a sharp critic of the president.

If you've been paying attention at all to local politics lately you'd know that Joel Giambra has been advocating the legalization of *some* narcotics. Anybody that knows me knows how I feel about it - we should be doing this shit like Amsterdam does. I'm not talking about cocaine or its derivatives... marijuana only. I believe that if marijuana should be illegal than so should alcohol, as alcohol has been the cause of more social ills than marijuana ever, ever has. I have no idea why Giambra broke this one out - its completely out of left field. He is teaming up with a group called LEAP - former and current law enforcement and judges who believe that controlled legalization of certain drugs will actually help law enforcement by lowering crime. In all honesty I'm split on whether or not we'll see legalization in my lifetime.

While sifting through the days news I ran across this story - a lady in CA wants to build a home out of spare parts from a 747 jumbo jet! Check out the article and the artist's rendition of the home.

A few months ago, a company (thankfully we weren't the one to visit this company) in Bangladesh had a fire. Because they locked all the doors and never did any evacuation training, 250 people died in the fire.

Fast forward to this week - we did visit a company in Haiti with the same problems. We aren't recommending them and I hope that they either change their ways or go out of business.

1. This first news story is near and dear to me, especially considering that it involves the worst airport in the United States.

2. This is a bit of a surprise for me, but to be honest I'm glad for him. I don't suffer fools easily and I don't know how Scott McClellan did for 2 years... the press corps are a bunch of blithering idiots.

3. Wal-Mart vows to continue growth despite opposition. What opposition? You mean the activists? Guess what - until its unprofitable for Wal-Mart to operate you aren't going to even phase them with rhetoric.

4. This one truly makes me sick, especially since West Coast tech companies have been complicit in getting political dissidents in China arrested, or possibly MUCH worse. Fuck China, and fuck their President. P.S. Bill Gates still looks like an 11-year old prepubescent boy.

5. Let me get this right. Mexico harshly criticizes the USA for wanting to enforce border security and deal effectively with illegal immigration, but Mexico itself doesn't want to follow its own advice? Fuck Mexico too.

I dislike making two posts in a short amount of time but there is some juicy stuff bouncing around out there today. Please check out my previous entry about the casino, read it, and let me know what you think about the casino issue - either through your own entry in your journal or by leaving a comment on my journal.

1. I find myself in the uncomfortable position of ALMOST agreeing with Shrillary on an issue. She and Senator Reid are championing a new program that would federally fund the morning after pill and programs designed to reduce abortions. The bill would also provide funding designed to support low income women that choose to carry babies to full term. You can read about it here -

My view on this is that abortion is the most barbaric thing our society allows. Therefore finding ways to reduce abortions is a good idea. The problem is, how do we go about that? One argument is that abortions wouldn't be as necessary if people simply were more responsible, so abstinence should be the focus. Another argument is that we should make access to contraception easier and more affordable, and the result would be a general decline in abortions. I think it would be hypocritical to support a ban on abortions and at the same time reject any realistic prevention initiatives. Ultimately the issue is, how do we go about prevention?

Handing out RU-486 isn't the answer, but I don't see why we can't come up with something that would make it easier for women to access birth control. I think that is a reasonable idea. Supporting women that choose to carry babies to full term though? We already do that - its called welfare, and there are ALOT of people out there that abuse the system and keep popping out babies because the more kids you have, the more govt. money you are allowed access to. I still have a few questions about this though, and I think no matter what there needs to be some abstinence programs also. Sex ed cannot be one-sided. Anyway, read the article and decide for yourself!

2. Purdue University grad student arrested for threatening to kill the Prez, his administration, Republicans, and also threatening to rape and mutilate American and British women. Cookoo!

The student's lawyer is suggesting that he is covered under the First Amendment because he never would have actually carried out the threats. Number one - how do we know that? Number two - First Amendment is not absolute and you cannot threaten to kill the POTUS and expect to hide behind the Constitution.

3. Al Gore is releasing a movie related to his lectures about global warming.

You lefties will like this one. Hell, I'll check this movie out whenever its available. This is supposedly an article about the movie, but Richard Cohen inevitably and predictably starts bashing Bush and suggests that Al Gore would actually be the perfect candidate for President in 2008!! This is alarming because I agree with Mr. Cohen. I would relish Al Gore running against someone like George Allen because all we'd have to do is drag out sound clips of Al Gore speaking over the past few years and the R's would win by a landslide. In particular I think Americans would be interested in the speech that Gore gave in Saudi Arabia, essentially bashing America and being paid by the Saudis for it. Thats it Mr. Gore - stir up the Middle East and talk trash about the USA, then run for Prez. I think Richard Cohen dipped into my ziplock bag of vegetables when I wasn't looking.

Ugh. 6 martinis at Cecilia's last night did me in fairly harshly. Sorry (e:nejifer) (e:decoyisryan) and (e:ladycroft) - I hope I wasn't too much of a pain in SPoT last night! I was wobbly... and even now my body feels like its aching for hydration. You guys have been catching me on bad days - Timika will attest that I'm actually a very nice guy and I don't drink or go out all that often.

I'm glad to see some dialogue about the casino - (e:dcoffee) makes some points that I agree with, and it seems like I'm united with most people out there that think that this thing is a bad idea.

If you oppose the casino, or support the idea... why? I'm kind of curious about it.

For me, I see the casino this way - its good for the Senecas (tax free land in the city of Buffalo?) and for the developers but its horrible for the populace. Casinos are never investments in the traditional sense. This isn't something that is going to benefit our city in any meaningful way because a casino isn't like a mall. People go to casinos not to buy things but to risk things, and in most cases the money stays directly in the pockets of the people who build and run the casinos. Local dollars will not get recycled back into our economy... traditionally casinos are black holes for dollars. Usually this is tourist dollars, and this is what the supporters of the casino are arguing for and banking on.

My sentiment is this - WHAT tourists?!? People don't come to Buffalo to see Buffalo - people come to Buffalo to see Niagara Falls. Theres no guarantee that building a casino is going to bring in tourists when you already have two casinos 20 minutes away. We are arguing about building an attraction for the sake of tourism that has already been built twice over in other areas. In our case they would be local dollars being sucked in by the vortex, and I have a serious problem with that because our area cannot afford to waste the money. You might say, "Josh, I think that if people want to waste their money at a casino, so be it... if they don't want to waste their money than they shouldn't gamble." I tend to agree. However, if people don't want to waste their money gambling, then why bother to build the casino in the first place? Take a look at Niagara Falls. Do you see a city that is rejuvenated by the casino? That place is a ghost town... even more so than when the casino was simply the convention center. Here's a thought - if we want to attract tourists and compete against Niagara Falls, or possibly lure them away from NF to dump a few tourist bucks here, why not build something DIFFERENT than what you'll find in NF and that has a more tangible and realistic revenue scheme?

I completely object to what Mike Niman (my favorite non-journalist) said recently in the Artvoice. He and I agree that building this casino is a bad idea, but for different reasons. Mike Niman suggests that this casino would affect the poor the most because they can least afford to gamble. This is absolute baloney. When do you ever see poor people in ANY casinos? That suggestion is an absolutely hollow argument because there is no factual basis to be able to make that assumption on. Poor people as a segment of the population do not gamble that much, and if you don't believe me you can go ahead and spent a week in Niagara Falls to study the clientele.

What Mike Niman is really saying is this - "Poor people, we are trying to protect you from yourselves, because I, Mike Niman, believe that you are too stupid and irresponsible to be able to handle yourselves if a casino is built." This is a perfect example of the nanny state. I believe in personal liberty first and foremost. If you want to go bankrupt in a casino as far as I'm concerned that is your right as an American. Suggesting to hold off on building a casino because you think that the people can't handle the responsibility is absolutely ludicrous. It might be true, but we simply cannot begin restricting what we build or do because a select group of people think they are smarter than the poor people - "daddy knows best!"

Judith Einach was volunteering for Byron Brown's administration down at City Hall, working on the big city cleanup. So, what happens if she was critical of Byron Brown and his administration during the first 100 days of Brown being in office... ON HER OWN BLOG? You get thrown out of your volunteer job because a lackey read it... apparently these goons keep tabs on their own people. Completely outrageous - read about it here - and spread the word. Also here -

My take on it is this - I don't agree with Einach politically at all. She's hard left and I did not vote for her. However - I completely admire her dedication to the area, and the truth is that despite her losing to Brown it was good of her to volunteer her talent and intelligence to Byron Brown, whose administration apparently lacks such qualities. You cannot deny Judith Einach's pedigree with respect to her commitment and fervor for improving our area. Just a tip o' the hat from your local Elmwood Republican. I wanna give Judy a hug over this one because I truly believe that she is a good, committed person and she got the big time railroad treatment from the ignorant ones downtown. Our area needs 100,000 Judith Einachs. I might ask for some political diversity in that 100,000... but imagine what we could do if we had a large, vocal, zealously committed group of people like Judith?

Did these people even think about what they were doing before they did it? She was fired (ahem, excuse me, "told to leave") by Brown's communications director, Peter Cutler. Since when does a communications director get authority to fire anybody anyway? What a crock of shit this guy Cutler is... and apparently according to other city employees Cutler has autonimously made decisions and consented to things without Masiello's knowledge. Who is calling the shots down at City Hall? Apparently its not Byron Brown. What we're seeing here is exactly why good people don't get involved in trying to improve the local situation. You have political operatives, these hired goons, guarding their turf and protecting their guy... at all costs. Cutler is a textbook example of slimy shitstain operatives who subvert their own boss on occasion, and at the same time try to punish people employed by (or volunteering for, apparently) the city if you dare be critical. These people are paid to keep local politics as opaque as possible. City Hall is a bastion of totalitarianism. Peter Cutler has been professionally bending the truth for years, and now Mr. Pavel and Pete are trying to cover it up and essentially call Judith Einach a liar. Lets take a look at the credibility and professional history of the parties involved... who are we to believe, Cutler and Pavel, or Einach? Sorry Petey. You are a child compared to Judith Einach.

Don't like criticism, Pete? Don't like criticism Byron? FUCK YOU. BOTH OF YOU ARE TERRIBLE AT YOUR POSITIONS AND SHOULD BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY. How's that for criticism? I support Judy Einach here, and the truth of the matter is that it takes an impossibly high amount of insecurity, ego and immaturity to perpetrate something like that. You are both guilty and deserve to be ejected from your positions as fast as possible before any more damage is done. What are you going to do if people disagree with you outside of your own controlled fascist, law breaking environment? Send police to their house and escort them out of Buffalo?

Josh's Reflection On Byron Brown's First 100 Days In Office

Byron Brown isn't even a Buffalo native... he can't possibly understand the issues of this city. He is a leader by title and not by example. Nobody outside of City Hall and select districts in the city respects Byron. Byron was elected because he is a Democrat. PERIOD. It had nothing to do with the "job" he did in Albany, or any political pedigree, or excellence in past performance.

Byron Brown has showed a shocking lack of judgment concerning the people he surrounds himself with. People like Pete Cutler are in it for self-preservation and he doesn't give a damn about you or your desires to improve our city's situation. This is the type of person that Byron Brown feels are the best people for the job? Absolutely shocking. I thought that Byron Brown was a "mayor of the people" - at least thats the line he's using. Ironically it was stolen from Judith Einach. If Byron is a "mayor of the people," then why does he have police guarding his office from those ne'er-do-wells... you know, the peons who actually elected him, THE PEOPLE? Why does Byron Brown's e-mails go to Peter Cutler and not to Byron Brown? Even Masiello published his own e-mail address. Where was the leadership during the Police ticket fiasco this winter? Byron Brown was in his office hiding behind his desk and his police guard.

Why is it that Brown's administration is locking down City Hall like it has? Do these people realize that City Hall belongs to us and not them? As my employees, I expect the Mayor and his people to serve the community. They have done nothing but serve themselves. Get rid of the excess security - Masiello didn't need it, Griffin didn't need it, and you definitely don't need it, Byron.

Absolutely nothing has been achieved during Byron's first 100 days in office. Nothing is even on the slate for achievement. Leadership is a buzzword and not a policy of the Brown administration - take a look at Byron Brown's actions and you'll see clearly that there is no leadership at the top. A true leader would have jumped at the chance to talk about the ticket fiasco in a rational manner, and a true leader would have backed the people up and publicly questioned the police's true motivation. Bottom line - it was a union contract issue and the Police Commissioner should have been publicly chided by Brown. Instead, he made one public comment about it then went back into hiding. Even if he agreed completely with law enforcement, the manner in which he approached this problem showed a complete lack of sensitivity to the populace and insulted the collective intelligence of the community. Leaders don't hide - chickenshits hide. Byron Brown is a chickenshit and not a leader... the first 100 days of his tenure are proof.

Leaders know how to choose, motivate and appropriately monitor their employees. Byron has completely lost the plot in this regard. Byron Brown has absolutely no control over the people that work for him. The manner in which Judith Einach was handled begs the question - did Byron Brown even know what was going on? Mayors pass off a lot of details and issues to their administrations, so naturally Byron Brown isn't going to be worrying about volunteers. Because of the profile of Judith Einach, however, Pete Cutler and the cronies should have known that this situation was going to make City Hall look absolutely terrible. Are there any directives being handed down from Brown's office? The lack of leadership and direction is completely beyond question.

In short, Byron Brown is a NYC import with a proven track record of abuse of power, incompetance, contempt for the populace, cronyism and a complete lack of leadership. I told you all that this was going to happen back in the fall - things are actually worse than I imagined. We need to abort. These people need to be thrown out immediately and fed to the private sector, where a vast majority of the bullshit they perpetrate isn't tolerated. 100 days has been too long for Byron Brown. No damage was done, thankfully, but that is strictly a result of Byron Brown doing nothing. Byron, Pete, all of them have proven their incompetance and abusive nature in record time. For the good of our city we have to begin proceedings to remove Byron from office. Unfortunately, people that care are outnumbered by the people that don't. I'm using this space to personally impune and criticize Byron Brown until he isn't mayor anymore - hopefully all independant media will do the same and keep our officials in check.