Aaron and I are going to see Shakespeare in the Park this Saturday, the 26th. The play is a comedy, "the Merry Wives of Windsor". It is a performance that is free to the public in Delaware Park.

I don't know if anyone is free that night, but if you are interested, it would be awesome to meet up with people there.

-Jess

Has anyone ever been to the Iron Island Museum in Buffalo? I just read the other day that the television Ghost Hunters recently filmed the museum and some other sites around Buffalo.

I recently installed Firefox3 on my comp. Estrip looks great on it! I really like this version of firefox a lot better than the previous ones.

It is wierd to think of both New World Records and Home of the Hits moved off Elmwood now. They both seemed like an important part of the neighborhood. I used to walk all the time to New World just to browse around, and then I would stop into Spot for coffee. Maybe the change will end up working out well, though. Spot can expand its business.

I really miss Spot. I haven't found any coffee places like that here, yet.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I stopped into Rust Belt Books today. I had never been there before. It's really awesome! A lot of great used books at good prices. It seems to have some unique kinds of books that you wouldn't normally find elsewhere.

What do adult people in Buffalo usually do for Halloween? Do you usually go out someplace or just stay in? What do little kids usually do- is there trick or treating in most neighborhoods? Do they go to some kind of special kid event instead?

I moved here from Jimmytown a year ago and was curious. Last year, I sort of eschewed the Halloween thing to hang out at spot coffee for a date.It was actually really fun... if not kind of an odd day for a first date with someone.

Recently, one of my grad classes were discussing the plans to build a new hotel on Elmwood- near Forest Avenue. Its supposed to be located where several businesses are. I believe these businesses include Mondo Video, Home of the Hits, and some other stores. Everyone in my class that participated in our discussion seems to think that building a hotel there would be a great idea, but I have to say that I definitely have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, I agree that it would be nice to have a hotel in the Elmwood neighborhood. It definitely would be helpful to the many museums and galleries that are located in the area. If a blockbuster show came to the Knox as they do several times a year, people could stay at a hotel right near the museum. They would probably go to some of the restaurants in the neighborhood and such. It's always great to support the economy around Buffalo. And, as some mentioned, some of the buildings that are currently the site are suffering from disrepair and have structural problems.

From a different perspective, though, I have to say that I am sad at the prospect of the tearing down of those buildings. I love the way those house-style stores are mixed together inside the neighborhood. And I feel bad that those stores would be forced to move, potentially not on Elmwood anymore. I think a lot of people would miss not having them around here. I have not been a part of the meeting process and can't make an informed comment on how the tenants of those buildings have been treated... but I have read from many of the news sources that some of them feel that they weren't given much of a voice during this process to have their concerns addressed. Of course, I could admittedly be fallacious in my assumptions on this.

There's also the issue of the possibility that the hotel might fail. Sometimes its hard to predict whether a hotel will succeed in any given area. What will happen to the surrounding neighborhood if that hotel goes out of business and just becomes some abandoned space?

So I certainly am interested in following what the outcome of this will be, and how it will affect the neighborhood in which I live.