Wow, if you believe we get the leadership we deserve, we must really stink. There is an old political axiom about how decisions are made by those who show up. There is no disclaimer about how that is a physical or a spiritual appearance. The state budget process has been broke for as long as I can remember. When my kids were younger, angry letters to the editor used to be a rite of Spring when the Pataki administration regularly waffled on funding pre-kindergarden classes that were not mandated.

They have never been on time, never spent within their means and despite the overall economy being seriously broken, our heroes are still spending like drunken state senators. The fact that the budget was decided by 3 guys who, if pushed couldn't spell reform, was bad enough. But they seem oblivious to the big picture.

We are all doing with less. In our jobs, we do more with less, stretching dollars and abilities to get more done. Our fearless leaders apparently don't subscribe to that. Instead of even pretending to watch spending and not buy what they can't afford, they are searching for more revenue. New York State is becoming the General Motors of the US. Our business model is busted and the guys at the top are looking for more money to fuel their private jets. Tje squeezing of blood from the proverbial stone doesn't apply when it comes to pet projects, committee work stipends and a slew of double dippers. Although I do applaud Raymond Gallagher for getting a conscious and quitting his state post of part time work when a potential raise got revealed. The idea of the state applying download fees is ridiculous. The state is threatening to layoff 8900 union employees if concessions cannot be reached. The less mentioned portion of that is that 8000 people have been hired around the state since our economic picture "got dire." Got news, it's been dire.

I suppose in one respect they do have something. Not only does all this bad news keep people out, it makes it difficult to leave to, so things should stablize. Our representatives have to get away from screwing the constituents at every turn. The latest sin is that there will be no Woodlawn or Bennett Beach available this summer. It's a revolting state of affairs when pork barrelled crap makes a disaster day budget, but things that might actually improve quality of life do not. I know Woodlawn is not exactly paradise, but in a region where the state senators get five figure stipends for going to a small handful of extra meetings but neither has the kahones to speak up for their region? What the hell. Positively gutless.

When the budget here was in a state of flux, the whole department participated in an exchange of ideas, not just 3 shifty guys and a highlighter.

The beach thing especially blows. Since apparently some chucklehead decided that Fort Erie is on the other side of the Rio Grande, casual trips to the Canadian beaches are almost a thing of the past. Seasonal customs help apparently believes they are Dirty Harry, you have to look inward. We used to go to the Holiday Inn on Delaware to partake of their pool club. Since the hotel decided they didn't want money (?), they in a fit of Albany-like pique, did away with that program.

Any wonder Patterson got booed at the Ballpark yesterday. I know I'm oversimplifying, but holy crap, the state priorities are so unbelivably fubar (and let's face it, have been).

Yep, we're getting screwed, and Albany will not respect us in the morning.

Gentle readers, this is testament to folks who have too much time on their hands to make films like this and dorks like myself who have too much time to look for them.

I'm sitting here trying in inject myself with a little enthusiasm for a press release another litter of capybara babies, but I'm thinking about my older sister.

She has been in the printing/graphics industry in Manhattan for 25 years. With all the evolution in computers and such, the desktop side of things has really changed and the printing scene in NYC is shrinking and getting more specialized. The firm she was with was tied up in a number of the trading card companies, until they were sold last year. New owners promptly canned a good chunk of the staff including my sister. She hooked on with another place for awhile who wanted somebody for all hours, etc and I think it would have been a great gig for somebody in their early twenties, but not so much when you are 47, 48 years old.

I hate to call and suggest this or that, because she knows all that. The intervening time frame while she applies for this and that has taxed my folks' abilities to offer financial support, and she had to pry into her 401K, and has come to the realization that unemployment insurance doesn't really cut it when living in Manhattan. She told my mom Monday night that she thinks the security deposit could cover May if it comes to that and after that, she wasn't so sure. Can you imagine having to let go of a rent controlled apartment in Chelsea? and head home to Buffalo and bunk with Mom and Dad for a bit?

My younger sister lives near Harlem. She had to deal with an apartment fire three years ago. She said something about how she had to start over, too. I understand the sentiment but it isn't really the same. The younger one still had her profession and had to replace things. The older has the things, but not the profession. Our work does define us to a degree (whether we want it to or not) and older sis has done a good job with coping, but I know the limitations are driving her nuts. She is typically one of the great over spenders in generosity and for almost 18 months has had to shut that instinct down.

I remember chuckling a little when that GM's first mistake last year was giving me a car loan. Ironic still that I might finally be in the position to help if she does have to come home.

To have to reinvent yourself when you think you are finally settling into what you want to be when you grow up...nothing about it doesn't stink.

Sad reflection on the way of the world

Nobody seems to want to give anything a chance to develop anymore. From romances to rebuilds, there is an ugly false sense of urgency that ultimately going to leave us all permanently messed up. I'm sitting here with the morning paper and coffee and there is an article that caught my fancy.

Nothing and I mean nothing has happened in that area of Buffalo for a long time, which makes me wonder about their representation at city hall since he's been over there for more than a little bit. For the city to stiff arm that family's noble idea makes me crazy. Land gets put back to use by somebody who is willing to buy it, work and make something from in a part of town where there is not a whole lot of that going on. The city says no, because they MIGHT be able to resell to places like Habitat for Humanity. They might want to look at the lack of a demand now and be glad somebody has an interest.

It frustrates me because anything that has proven to be a draw around here has happened largely in spite of the "leadership." While our fearless leaders whore themselves out to the perennial cocktease that is a Bass Pro store, Elmwood, now Hertel and pockets of Grant are moving along because small groups of people put their minds & backs to work to make something happen. Small things, sure, but they add up to big things.

I guess I'm ranting a little, but hardly anything is instantaneous. Instant gratification is pretty rare, unless you have a cupcake from Delish handy.

The experiences of the week, watching Sens. Thompson and Stachowski hand out staff raises and pocket stipends, while screwing the electorate further roused my thinking. These are two of dumbest men alive or evil geniuses. I'm not sure which. It reminds me of that actual political sentiment that I think I heard on the West Wing. "Never underestimate the power of a small group of dedicated people to change things, because they are the only ones who ever have."

Makes you crazy.

One of the women who has the dubious distinction of working for me was at a personal milestone. She is turning 30 tomorrow and spent Friday in a pre-birthday funk. Having breezed through 30 only to a full-sized MrMike hole in the the wall that is 40, I tried to tell her it was no big deal. The world throws enough obstacles at you so to bring on others seems a little silly. She was concerned that turning 30 meant the death of something. Can you imagine a world where we all acted our ages according to the stereotypes they demand? I'd be smoking a pipe and drinking high balls on a regular basis and I hate both. Don't want to live in a Mad Men world, just like watching it once a week.

She thought about that then her husband showed up to reveal the secret we've been keeping for almost four months. He called me to ask to turn her loose for a vacation week for this week. He showed up to take her home and pack as they were leaving for Costa Rica at 9:30. I was impressed. She had been missing the folks, so he arranged their travel to meet them in Costa Rica for breakfast saturday morning. I wish I had the means to do that, let alone the wherewithal. She was nearly hyperventalating trying to remember what needed done.

I just smiled and kept repeating don't worry about it.

I guess my point be is that the positive karma is there, you just can't be in such a damn fool hurry to find it.

Going to the b-movie series at the New Phoenix tonight.

"hey michael, i enjoyed your company as well, you are very easy to be around. i am sorry but i just don't feel the connection i'm looking for to pursue a relationship. i wish i did, good luck to you"

All you can do is keep trying

Still rising to the tasks of being awake...

I took an slightly expanded version of a post from here and fleshed it out a little more on facebook, only to see the Buffalo News do two articles on the same topic in yesterday's "paper." Makes you wonder if a few of the minions there are following estrip for feature ideas. Theirs might have been better but mine was first.

The previously mentioned number one son was falling victim to the hype and was after me to go to Monsters vs Aliens once it opened. We decided to take the plunge Saturday afternoon and truly geek it up by going to the IMAX theater out on Transit Road. Anything worth doing is worth doing the excess, you know. But Regal, seriously, $26 for two tickets, seriously? Fandango now charges $2.00 per ticket for ordering online. That's $30 before I've even filled out my financial aid paperwork at the concession stand. That is officially the end of me booking ahead. I love the semantics of a convenience charge. Who exactly is that convenient for? certainly not this decaying customer. But the kid has been good, so I sucked it up--especially since I was rewarded with the Star Trek preview, which was pretty cool. Movie is silly fun if you are thinking about it.

My lovely middle child goes to the Tapestry High School, which for this year is in the back side of the St. Mary's School for the Deaf building. I say this because she was telling me about the strange looks that she and a friend were getting taking the Main St bus. Both of them had their IPODs on and the site of two girls with ear buds in place walking past the St. Mary's sign. "Shouldn't they be using their hands to talk?" from one bus rider. No argument with Depeche Mode: People are definitely people.

Six day work week beginning today -- no wonder it feels like I don't have a life. Next week our p.r. coordinator is being taken away to celebrate her 30th birthday so I get to wear two hats again.

Taking a little time away from Bikram Yoga -- finances got a little tight and the continuing change of seasons was screwing with my breathing ability. Once we can settle into spring for real (snow, this morning, really?) and all camp & college fees are finished, I'll hope back on board.

I think we are all gizmo junkies here in some fashion or another. The lovely daughter of two paragraphs ago came home from school on Friday upset. I was over at the house dropping off some zoo stuff and she said her Ipod got taken out of her locker. Sucks to start with, but she paid for the bulk of it, so the emotional investment is that much larger. Occasionally, you are powerless. That was one of those times, where all the ex and I could do was listen.

My church puts on a music sunday every spring and yesterday was the third straight year that I've said the hell with it. The music is beautiful, small orchestra and choir really showing its chops, but the crowd is staggeringly rude. One year, I went up to take number one son to his classroom only to come down to see some woman literally sitting on my belongings. Regularly about 300 people come to the services. but the music sundays double that with people from the neighborhood, people too cheap to go to Kleinhans for the 2:00 show, and just assorted assholes who want to hear the music with little regard for the surroundings. The last one I did go to is still burnt into my memory. This woman was sitting with her baby a couple rows ahead of me. The baby was cooing, enjoying her surroundings and charming the pants of all the immediate neighbors except for these two old biddies who thought they were at Radio City. These two crumudgeons (somewhere between 80 and 200) wouldn't shut the fuck up until the woman left in tears with the child. My biggest disappointment was in myself for not speaking to the witches the way they deserved. This was after some jerkass was trying to shush my son when he was asking some questions about the instruments before the service started.

So, the coffee and home made brunch were much more spiritually fulfilling.

Wished I could have made it to Merge last week, Tiny -- plate is a little full. I'm on three boards at the moment and I'm pretty sure one of em has to go.

Have a good Monday, ya'all.

It's funny how something can be lionized even after falling dormat. You could mount a pretty easy argument how the city screwed up Memorial Auditorium after the Arena was built. It and the surrounding land has sat there for 12 years doing nothing, just another abandoned property not generating anything, not unlike our city leaders. But the sale of its insides and the removal of the property sparked romantic notions. The place was a dump on its best of days. The long darkened ramps introduced you to your neighbor rather closely whether you wanted you to or not. The steps leading down to the seats into the oranges were vertigo inducing and the hand rails were a metal fabricator's practical joke.

I was walking downtown the other night and saw the gaping hole where the desconstruction had opened the building. Like I said, the structure was nothing special, but what it could contain was sometimes amazing: bunches of Sabres games, a few Braves games (as I am old), seeing Bob Seger, Rush, The Kinks, the Who, U2, Springsteen and many more. Okay, I was curious to go back and have a look. I didn't want a seat from the place or anything, but seeing the joint fall back into itself for the Bass Pro store that is never going to come. I took a stroll tonight to look into the abyss and could see into where my Dad and I walked under the rink one night by taking the wrong turn after a playoff game or the night I was part of the post game press corps with Ch.2 (where I covered up my college radio logo from Scotty Bowman's prying eyes ( for a little guy, he scared the crap out of me)).
























My little sister's first contact high, skipping the Senior prom with a van load of friends to see Eric Clapton, having Gil Perreault sign my jersey, getting a seat in the press box for part of a hockey game.

When the place was full and the asbestos was hiding quietly in the ceiling, it really didn't look much better or dramatically different, but what could happen inside fueled the imagination. I can still remember the peanut vendor/huckster who worked the events. He would sit outside and bark "Before you go in the door! Stop at the Peanut Store!!

It was a dump, but it was our dump

Indulged in a little localized pointless travel on Saturday. The famous number one son and I schlepped up to Niagara Falls to play tourist before the tourists come back. Great day for a wander. There is a spot on Three Sisters Island where some maintainence has made another island for water pressure relief. That's resulted in some great, finely buffed skipping stones, but if you hit it right, a well skipped rock goes quite a ways thanks to the velocity of the water putting potential back spins. A nice day capped off by boston coolers (ginger ale over ice cream) at a ice cream place in the falls.














My ace traveling companion after a well skipped rock.

This is floating around facebook, and it dates me a little, like I need help in that department. Well, dear reader, there used to be a thing called record stores, not just the music department at Target, sometimes two to three per mall. You could really lose yourself in the realm of album covers and what not. I still pile up lots of tunes, I or otherwise, but it isn't the same. This little exercise came through a friend of mine from our mutual days in college radio. He has a couple of years on me, but it is funny about shared experiences. There were certain albums that everybody had. The Cd era eroded this a little.

Think of 25 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world. It's funny because these are a few that transcend the medium, meaning I'm a sap and bought em on cd.

1) Rumours - Everybody we knew had it. It was like it got slipped through everybody's mail slot, standard suburban issue

2) Tattoo You- another one that everybody had. It was the last Stones album to matter, despite the fact they keep churning them out.

3) Tommy (first the movie, then the original album) - Elton John's version of Pinball led me to the Who, and my life-long mania began.

4) Who's Next - the album that started me working backwards through the Who's career.

5) Quadrophenia - I promise I'll stop at three Who albums. This one took me the longest to get into, but it became the deepest listen.

6) Born to Run - the title song defines that period of my life, giving rise to life-long Bruce fanaticism. Yeah, I got a ticket for his show in Toronto

7) The Wild the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle - again, I came to this one late but it became the deepest Boss listen.

8) Sgt. Pepper's - probably the first album I listened to end-to-end, when I was a child, reading along with the lyrics on the back. Come back to it periodically ever since.

9) Abbey Road - I remember tracking this in its entirety on a WSBU overnight shift.

10) Dark Side of the Moon - Almost an afterthought now, but another one everybody had and it is just great enough that periodic revisits can be a revelation.

11) All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes - makes me wish Pete Townshend would record more.

12) My Ever Changing Moods - The Style Council: defines a college period for me. Under-rated, and made me a big fan of everything Paul Weller (the Jam) attempts.

13) The Joshua Tree - my first great album on CD.

14) Achtung Baby - The follow-up is probably the last album I absorbed from beginning to end.

15) Avalon - Roxy Music made the most evocative rock ever. Honorable mention to "The Atlantic Years" compilation.

16) Hotel California: Title song made me want to learn how to play guitar

17) Moondance: Van Morrison, I'm not a fan of the title song, but the record as a whole grabs your soul like everything matters. It helps that Van gives a damn through the whole thing.

18) The Last Waltz: The Band did more than just back up Bob Dylan, they could play a little bit of anything from Blues to Country to Rock and do it with enough panache that you had to be impressed..

19) Tusk: much weirder and ultimately more satisfying than any of Fleetwood Mac's more famous, more commercial releases.

20) Kiss Alive I: as Dave Marsh once said, "It's great, f**k you!"

21) Physical Graffiti - nothing like listening to Led Zep on a cheap hi-fi at age 14.

22) Led Zeppelin IV - Still don't know what a "bushel in the hedgerow" means, still don't care. It's a great record.

23) Tug of War - McCartney's work after John died had a poignancy that matched his best Beatles stuff.

24) Scenes from the Southside - hard to choose one Hornsby album, there are three or four I love.

25) Live at Leeds - OK, I lied.

No clash or ramones, because I'd find out about those later. Looking at the list, I guess I'm an audio dork, but there was something liberating about putting the big old KOSS headphones and dreaming.

Old fart rant over.