A couple anecdotes for you all -

1) Elizabeth Smart and her father Ed sat 2 rows in front of me on my first flight from LAX. At first I saw this gorgeous blonde girl that was dressed very well, and I was thinking the usual extremely dirty thoughts that guys think when they see a pretty girl. I didn't think much of it. Once we got on the flight I heard Ed speak when someone was in his seat, and I thought "AHA! Thats the Smarts!" Then I immediately felt filthy and extremely guilty over what I was thinking about Elizabeth. For those of you who either don't remember or don't pay much attention, Elizabeth Smart was the Mormon girl who was kidnapped in Utah 3 yeras ago by a couple who had done some handiwork around her father's multimillion dollar suburban Salt Lake City home. Yo Ed - you are a millionaire, you don't need to be flying America West with your daughter. At least she is 18 so I don't feel REALLY dirty.

2) After I returned from California, my co-worker and his friends went to IHOP in Williamsville for breakfast. Ralph Wilson, the venerable Buffalo Bills owner, was sitting by himself eating breakfast there - amazing! They went up to him and chatted him up - apparently he is a really, really nice old fella and even signed some Bills stuff for my co-worker and his friends. Its just kind of strange seeing a damn-near-billionaire octogenarian who practically has deity status here in Buffalo eating at an IHOP by himself.

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!"