I'm not exactly in love with my Iphone these days, thinking of running to Sprint and getting an EVO on the comparative cheap, but occasionally, you get a keeper.

While waiting for the B52s to join us in Lockport, my main musical partner in crime and I took a wander in the nearby locks.







And there was lots worthy of further exploration, but the Iphone is only so smart. Point being, go play tourist and wander.

You find cool stuff that way.

Happily, and as per usual, made a bit of a fool of myself at the B-52s show in Lockport. They are still a lot of fun after all these years. I read a little of some band grumbling about the perfomance space and really couldn’t care less. They played a nice set of music and the majority seems to have a blast. I know I did.



I couldn’t help but laugh as there were a few folks watched the show, with an either a stonedfaced expression or a little peeved. What you see is what you get with the B52s and seeing those folks with such zombified expressions, made me laugh even more.

So, spanning the world…..

Really disappointed in the President and pretty much Congress in general. All the theater, the stupidity, yes, Tea-Party led foolishness around the debt ceiling produced a crappy bill, defunded the FAA and 70-80,000 construction workers on FAA projects as well as infrastructure projects are out of work. Who are these people all these guys are claiming to represent? Bet all of the legislators made their vacation connections on time as the Speaker does need that tanning time.

Over 100 teachers got laid off in Buffalo this week, but we are shopping for an administrator? um, wha? If there are underperforming schools, you’d think the superintendent might take a direct interest in that. That shouldn’t be the kind of thing you farm out.

So, WNED bought WBFO this week as UB sort of lost interest in the radio station. Jeff Simon repeated in the Buffalo News his old laments about the death of jazz radio in Buffalo. As my Dad and I discussed, that story is so dead, it has a tombstone. I’m a little more interested in keeping the great blues shows they have on now. Sure, it would be great for jazz, big band, oldies all to find a place on the airwaves, but WBFO’s audience share bounced up when they turned into a NPR repeater. Since it is public, perhaps a little thought would go into what is next. And, while I’m at it, perhaps WNED might attract a greater listen share if the on-air staff wasn’t so reserved. I’m not saying morning show antics for a classical music station, but perhaps if the announcers weren’t seemingly talking down to people, teaching them, more people might tune in.

I think we ought to have an NFL lockout until this time every year. It was a little more exciting seeing all the compressed movement and actual news, maybe just a ban on reporting next spring. The splurge of news made the Bills seem interesting. Let’s not kid ourselves folks. It ain’t a playoff team in St. John Fisher this year either, but it could be fun. At least the uniforms have improved.

Took in the “Outer Harbor Fest” over the weekend and it was a noble effort I suppose. I found myself lamenting all this great space, all this potential for water access (A Beach in the City, For the the LOVE OF GOD, that is the big project!! make that happen and stores will trip over themselves.), and that made the lame band, food and lousy rides seem even that more pitiful. A well-intentioned sound guy tried to pep us all up with tales of the thousands who were there Saturday evening, but the 30 or so of us there Sunday afternoon were a little skeptical. My son did give the fried dough high marks, so I guess that is something to build on. It bugs me as that space has sat for years now and something could happen. Witness the wharf, mimic that and good times can happen.

Here’s the view from adjacent the temporary Tilt-A-Whirl. Maybe Gallagher Beach ain’t the space, I’m sure there are engineering issues, but could you imagine if there was more water access for those of us who don’t own boats? Could fix a lot.

As this week has shown, there is plenty in need of fixing.

From last Wednesday's night moe show.

My friend and I are in the lower right of the picture

Caught my best side....lol

Nice capper to a low profile Sunday

Well, sorta.

Had a nice kayak ride in the river Saturday. If you have never partaken, I highly recommend it. It's an inexpensive rental at the harbor. I have all the boating skills that an elephant would have on a tightrope and had a grand time, even managed a snap shot quickly taken underneath the skyway.

Hate to see Borders go. Back in the day, when I worked for a book publisher, our CEO envisioned news like this. It was a little hard to imagine because in the early to mid 90s, the race to build bigger better bookstores was fast and furious. We had to gear a lot of efforts towards things that would be pleasing to Borders, Brentanos, Waldenbooks and Barnes and Noble.

Less places for actual books is like neighborhood record stores going away, the material is still out there, but it is kind of sad to see it come to that. Given expense, my awareness of my neighborhood library has returned, because I guess I’m old school, something about the experience of having actual pages to turn.

I don’t have any issues with Kindles or Nooks. A colleague even successfully stripped a nook of its software and replaced it with Android software and it runs like a champ.

One of the greater parenting cons of all time was my dad suckering my siblings and me when we were kids. We would hit a branch library pretty regularly, but special occasions meant “DOWNTOWN!” Hidden treasures could be found on various shelves that rarely met the racks in Clarence. I know you can arrange that now, but when you’re a kid, finding something cool on your own is a joy that can’t be adequately described here.

That was the cool thing about the big stores like Borders. Sure, Amazon has everything under the sun and then some, but places like Borders would have something right there. I wasn’t there a lot, but appreciated what their efforts. It was never terribly important that “Seattle’s best” was brewing in the corner, but after getting my son all hyped up to help me find the latest Tom Robbins book, to the point of chanting “B is for Beer” as we entered the store and finding it was pretty cool.

One less venue for that, so that is a little sad.