"For Real Stuff that Matters" written by Vincent on estrip.org

Category: cities

05/16/11 10:55 - ID#54300

For Real Stuff that Matters

I went to Pittsburgh this weekend. Then the thought occurred to me, EVERYTHING that the the Buffalo CVB is trying to do by the videos already exists in Pittsburgh. I for once went down there to see Greg Dulli & the Twilight Singers because they he never has played Buffalo for whatever reason.

What got me was the architecture, they have at least 5x the amount of historic structures that Buffalo has and most of them are occupied and in good condition. Also for me as a rail-fan, they never destroyed their train terminal, actually it still is in all of its majestic glory and connected to a bus station. While at the same time they have a real trolly system that goes places, uses an old Pennsylvania Rail Road Bridge and even have some old landmarks for the old trolly system before that was torn up.

To me what Buffalo is almost on the scale of Wheeling West Virginia in terms of old office buildings built around the same period. Heck they even have a nice old theater in town where their Philharmonic plays. I'm just getting tired of the "We Matter" "We're Real" Blah Blah Blah. To me if we don't have the confidence of swagger, no one is going to believe it.

The funny thing I remember about the whole response to the "For Real" video is that it didn't mention anything about sports. Sports and Concerts sell themselves. People come because of the event not because of the town. If they like the town after they get there then they will come back. That's what happened to me & Wheeling. I went there for a casino and went out of my way 2 hours to swing by and say Hello after coming back from Columbus a month back.

It's the same thing with Universities. What got me about Pittsburgh is how impressive the University is and where it is located. I was taken aback by the Cathedral of Learning and the immediate neighborhood as I went there for some 5 guys burgers and fries. Maybe UB is a public institution and that hampers things. If it was on par say with Michigan or even Syracuse would things be better economically? All I can say is that is UB 2020 is cut and slashed this town is doomed.

tinypliny writes at 10:28:20 05/26/11 - Comment #62518: Megabus has a new service to Pittsburgh for $1 currently....

janelle writes at 03:50:25 05/19/11 - Comment #62390: You're not going to get a very unbiased commentary on Pittsburgh from me or Drew.

Drew has a great deal of hometown loyalty. There is nothing wrong about Pittsburgh to him.

Me. I didn't like Pittsburgh at all. It seemed like a poor excuse of a city after having lived in Philadelphia for 4 years.

Pittsburgh has a worse downtown than Buffalo does, I think. Pittsburgh also has had a lot of population loss and some of the outlying suburbs are growing much faster than the city. Neither Drew nor I are big fans of the casino on the water front. I don't think the public transit is much better in Pittsburgh than Buffalo. Their transit serves the south suburbs and that's it. Very limited. The bridges and tunnels are a nightmare for commuting. Parts of the city and immediate suburbs with steep hills are shut down in the winter because it's to dangerous to drive the steep hills covered in snow/ice.

Buffalo has a lower cost of living and we would never own the house we do right now in Pittsburgh.

The restaurant scene is better in Buffalo. My social life has been better in Buffalo. Buffalo geographically is more accessible and easier to navigate than Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh did have a better economic recovery than Buffalo after the steel plant closings and what not. And they did a better job keeping universities and sports teams downtown.

I would hands down choose to live in Buffalo over Pittsburgh.

metalpeter writes at 05:41:19 05/17/11 - Comment #62382: Have to add something here Buffalo has had Championships in Sports Bandits , Bisons (and the AHl team pre sabers), AFL champions before the superbowl I think not sure... But I think if in Hockey or NFL a Championship could have made Buffalo be that great city....

What hurts Buffalo is not having a Hindsight guy..... Great highway system except it broke up parks that was connected... The Metro Rail great idea... But why not also still have traffic on Main and since we have great old buildings make it look like trolley cars. I saw and old picture with them and cars.... Why tear it up in the first place... Why stop using the Central Terminal? I think that once one bad decision is made it makes everything a political battle.... That is what Buffalo has turned into... Not hey lets do this or that how about doing something good for the city... I take the Seneca Casino as Prime Example #1. Yes the mob would have taken over the falls but as we see nothing is going on there any ways but so what... Someone wanted to legalize gaming (illegal my ass NYS Lottery) in NYS....It lost. We are a border state it should have been made legal and all that cool stuff Canada has could be on our side over looking the park based of Legal Casinos where we get the entire share there could be one downtown also.... The Metro rail could connect them. Go underground get off on the Island and go to Fantasy island... Have a station at Niawanda Park look at the water and go to Mississippi muds. Have a special Bus service that goes between the beach areas..... Something at least argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

metalpeter writes at 05:29:36 05/17/11 - Comment #62381: I've wanted to go there for some time now... You know being a Steelers and Penguins fan is why.... Don't think my body could handle being out side for an entire football game unless it was really early in the season.... That assumes there is ever a NFL season again.... From what I have heard it is a blue collar town and you gotta like that... I think the closet I have been was I was at some school for a swim meet and you could see one of the bridges that lead to Pittsburgh but again couldn't see the city so not sure if that was where the bridge (yes it was far away to me) really lead.....

vincent writes at 09:43:45 05/17/11 - Comment #62380: With it being 4 hours away it is a nice quick trip. Jason, Ha Ha Ha! If you're going to go out and hit the town I'd stop by a place called the Brillo Box :::link::: it's a nicer version of Hardware downstairs and they have a dancefloor/band space upstairs.

matthew writes at 09:05:17 05/17/11 - Comment #62379: I only spent one evening in Pittsburgh a few years ago, but i really enjoyed my time there. Like Buffalo, but all grown up. I'd like to go again. We should plan an (e:strip) road trip to Pittsburgh.

jason writes at 08:23:16 05/17/11 - Comment #62378: Of course, when I took a sip of the beer I spit it out and was like, "Dad this is some commersh garbage. Why don't people have standards?"

jason writes at 08:20:26 05/17/11 - Comment #62377: Yeah, Pitt is awesome. That is where Josh and I were served our very first beer, actually, in a parking lot before a Pirates game when we were 10 or 11. Some Pennsyltuckian gave us a MGD. "Where did you get that??" my father asked. "Some guy." Did Dad let us drink it? Yes he did. I still haven't dug into the town on a night out yet but I believe it is a proper night out waiting to happen.

mrmike writes at 07:45:05 05/17/11 - Comment #62376: It's funny because of all the hullaballoo around that For Real video, they actually have another produced and floating around that has all the things missing from the first one. That said, never went anywhere because of a catch phrase. Had they just put it out there and not made a big thing out of it, it wouldn't have been a big thing

libertad writes at 06:50:06 05/17/11 - Comment #62375: Interesting observations, I can't believe they have a Statler too. I never have been and have been wanting to check it out since I went to Philly. Now that you wrote this I want to go even more.

paul writes at 01:25:07 05/17/11 - Comment #62374: Wow, that is like the exact same hotel building. Its weird they don't mention that at all on the wiki article. Are there lots of other ones?

vincent writes at 01:16:24 05/17/11 - Comment #62373: They also didn't let their "Statler" fall into disuse and decay...
:::link:::
:::link:::

vincent writes at 12:02:38 05/17/11 - Comment #62372: I wonder if Drew & Janelle still read stuff on here anymore? This was the first time in years I went and to be frank I was blown away. Even by their brand new WATERFRONT Casino!

paul writes at 11:54:34 05/16/11 - Comment #62371: Maybe I should just move to Pittsburg.

Permalink: For_Real_Stuff_that_Matters.html
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Location: Youngstown, NY
Last Modified: 05/16/11 10:55

Category: concerts

05/07/11 02:18 - ID#54235

Free Concerts

Artpark hit it out of the park literally.

I know Buffalo Place has their lineup next week but at this point I really don't care what they throw out there for Thursdays. I'm just excited that the company that runs it finally put together a plan that puts it at the pinnacle of the "free" shows in the area. Basically they put together a way to have the people that want to see a show without dealing with drunken idiots a way to enjoy it and at the same time raise revenue to keep it free for the people that just want to enjoy outdoor happy hour. What impresses me is that they were able to get a Livenation Amphitheatre show Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive 35 Tour and put it out there for "free."

Which makes me think; Why doesn't Buffalo Place just close off the Memorial, charge $25 and make that VIP seating with beverage service?

Permalink: Free_Concerts.html
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Location: Youngstown, NY
Last Modified: 05/07/11 02:18

05/06/11 08:26 - ID#54231

My Response to: "If I could live anywhere else I would choose to live in ...." suggested by e:paul

Southern California

Well at least not in the smog someone a bit out of the smoke if that is possible, but the place is one of the chakra's of the planet (throat) and the place just seems to be another dimension entirely. I love that the "retroness" of the town is the 1950's and not 2 centuries ago. If I could go to the Hollywood Bowl to catch shows once in a while that would be sweet. Also how can you beat the fact that I would be able to go to Santa Monica and Venice Beach on a regular basis?

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Location: Youngstown, NY
Last Modified: 05/06/11 08:27

Category: vlog

04/12/11 07:54 - ID#54040

Queen St NF Ontario

Video of driving down Queen St in Niagara Falls Ont during the fog a couple of weeks ago.

Permalink: Queen_St_NF_Ontario.html
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Location: Youngstown, NY
Last Modified: 04/12/11 07:54

Category: travel

04/03/11 01:16 - ID#53969

Airfare! Seriously

Who the F in their right mind would pay this much money to fly from Buffalo to Florida [through Cleveland & Toronto & deal with Customs] for the price of $2,248 when you can fly other alternative airlines for around $300-$400 for the same destination one way ticket?

Totally WTF!?!

Permalink: Airfare_Seriously.html
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Location: Youngstown, NY
Last Modified: 04/03/11 01:16

Category: gambling

03/28/11 07:37 - ID#53935

Fort Erie Rant

This is me in the moment where I vent about how customer service in Canada Sucks, especially when it comes to casinos.

leetee writes at 01:27:28 03/30/11 - Comment #61522: (e:Paul), he said Harvey's, not Arby's. And the poutine at Lick's is better than the poutine at Harvey's (who have the WORST burgers in the world).

metalpeter writes at 05:22:17 03/29/11 - Comment #61514: In Terms of the Drink that is true at the movies and Sports events for 2 reasons that I know of quickly.....
1. The Food and drinks are where they make a lot of the money
2. The Re selling of it or giving it away.... Why not bring in a burger with that drink and sell it to someone else at a cheaper rate then they sell it.......

What I'm really guessing is that Venues have deals with vendors and I'm guessing that they don't want to compete with someone else but not sure how that is.... So say Pepsi or Budweiser or some company is willing to do x, y, z well if some can buy coors or coke and bring it in why do this.....

For Some reason I get the feeling that (e:MrMike) would know a lot more about this then me and I would like to hear his take on it. That being said Here is my most extreme example of not being able to bring stuff into a venue of any kind...... Buffalo had an Arena Football Team called "The Destroyers" ... One thing about them is they really tried to make it Family Event not like Bills Games... So they had a lot of stuff out side... Some of that was Vendors... I don't mean the hot dog cart at the corner .... It was set up by the team or the league or the Arena and was so endorsed... It was meant as like an out side thing ........ Again it was Team Sponsored and set up by them.... Eat your food and then me and my father went into the arena .... You couldn't bring that food in Hot dog and coke had to be eaten out side.........

paul writes at 10:21:01 03/28/11 - Comment #61508: Good story - the downside of being all video is that it won't come up in search. You should add a quick overview in text to the blog so that it comes up more readily.

They have poutine at arby's?

Permalink: Fort_Erie_Rant.html
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Location: Youngstown, NY
Last Modified: 03/28/11 07:37

Category: social media

03/26/11 07:41 - ID#53917

facebook fading?

My thoughts on what I have seen through my facebook account.

metalpeter writes at 09:49:08 03/27/11 - Comment #61478: To be honest the Old Myspace was better then Facebook ever was... The Reason for this is blogs you clicked one button and everyone's blog pops right up you close that page and you see the next blog... The thing with facebook and this is a real example is say MrMike has a post (he has a lot of great ones) but say run into it at 14 hours back if I click on it that link sends me to a new page then I would have to scroll back through 14 hours........ That is why they have the common thread... But all they should do is make that click open a new page and leave the old one behind .... I think though that the way that page works makes it better for say Moe's or Target (yes I follow both) then for a friend that has a blog.....

I also think that Tweeter is going to be an important part of facebook.... Well so is the cell phone you can post a picture from a show or tweet something and if you set it up right it goes right to facebook....

Love the line about have people gone to real life....... There are things you can't really post to facebook...... Wish I could think of a real life example of my case..... Oh wait just thought of.... I wrote a blog about how it is a little bit gay (not a bad thing) if you watch Hardcore porn..... Now on facebook you might not want to post about I know I wouldn't I don't know who looks at my stuff But I know I have 6 cousins I think on there and an aunt but who knows who else since it is a public page..... Again the picture thing

metalpeter writes at 09:34:05 03/27/11 - Comment #61477: Before I read everyone's comments I will say this You should if you haven't seen it The South Park Facebook episode it is pretty funny... Bill Maher bashes Facebook sometimes and he is on it.... The thing that really drives it is "The Tech" what I mean by that is that... Websites know lots of people are on facebook they make it so you can log in with facebook or share what you are doing on that site.... For example Fubar, MySpace, Yahoo (might include Flckr as well) you can log into with facebook so then it can share what you are doing with facebook..... Windows Live has a great way to share pictures on facebook. Now I don't know how the tech works for phones I have heard Warner Bros. Have singed some deal where you can rent movies on facebook not sure when that will happen.... Somehow through Netflix you can watch a movie and post about it might even be with a review or am I thinking of BDlive some kind of blu-ray on line thing......

It is hard to say where facebook is going to go but what it seems like to me is what you often see in Porn is that facebook will become an internet portal.... Say you want to know about The Bills or the sabres or the cowboys or about when movies open... You won't have to go some sight about that team or that thing you go to Facebook and everything you care about you can find there....... What happened with myspace to a band I followed is that they dumped their website for a site on myspace... Myspace was free and In stead of paying for a site every month and they made it sound as if a myspace page could be run by them you don't know how to code and all that stuff.........

jbeatty writes at 11:15:36 03/26/11 - Comment #61476: I have to agree to an extent. I had a facebook account when you needed a .edu address in order to sign up. It was a much smaller thing back then. It was just friends from school and friends that I knew from far away that had access as well. I never worried about any sort of comments I made. I wasn't friends with my mom or aunts or anything like that. Now that I am its more like real life. I have to watch what I say when it comes to certain subjects and it has lost its novelty and exclusiveness. I find myself questioning whether or not to make a snarky retort on someones post. I used to just let loose and say what was on my mind. I have stopped saying much of anything there and just check in to see what is up with other people. But really the people that I want to hear from never seem to say anything there and I just end up calling or emailing them.

Maybe (e:paul) is right there are plenty of people who will feed the facebook frenzy for a long time to come. Myspace died a fairly quick death once Facebook opened the up membership to anyone. I would guess that Facebook is ripe for being the next Myspace but it needs some sort of catalyst to really put the nail in the coffin.

paul writes at 10:44:04 03/26/11 - Comment #61474: I think a lot of people have become terrified of scrutiny for by both employers and family. Look at (e:lilho), as an example. When less people were online, there was less to worry about. Now everyone from your first grade teacher to your grandma is online reading about you, as your actual identity. It makes people self censor more. Remember how estrip used to be before people were afraid to say anything. Remember the internet in general back then?

On one hand I understand this push for everyone to be themselves and their real identity online to promote honesty. The Buffalo News comments would be a perfect example of a place where anonymity makes for an unruly environment. Facebook was the biggest impetus for this coming out of a school setting. I was/am totally into that but I think for a lot of people it stiffles creativity and what they are willing to talk about publicly. One of the benefits of the internet where people had separate online identities from their real identities was the ability to be more open and perhaps different from their real life. Imagine being from a small town.

Ironically, when I created estrip I was rebelling against the anonymity. That's why I am (e:paul) and almost all of the original people were their names. Now I find the anonymous internet more interesting.

theecarey writes at 09:31:17 03/26/11 - Comment #61473: "Is everyone going back to real life?" Interesting question to ponder. Like you, I see less personal updates from friends and more business related updates. I very much enjoy utilizing Facebook as a means to keep on top of various news and information sources, but I would still like to see friends post a few lines about their own lives on a regular basis. I cherish those bits and pieces of their shared lives, especially because I likely wouldn't otherwise have or find the opportunity to maintain contact by other means.
I don't write much there, or anywhere myself, and when I do it tends to be vague despite having my profile set to private.

paul writes at 09:12:42 03/26/11 - Comment #61472: (e:matthew) did something interesting on facebook - he told me he deleted most of his friends, turned his stuff to totally public and now he posts only items anyone can see and does worry about permissions anymore.

vincent writes at 08:24:10 03/26/11 - Comment #61471: Maybe it's the (e:strip) ers moving on to the next big thing as they comprise a good number of my friends. From my perspective it's become the place for Business/Ads/Interactive Deals.

For example, If it wasn't for Death Cab for Cutie posting stuff on their page I wouldn't have know about a small intimate club show that I bought tickets for today. Or the stuff I get from Vegas hotels like the Hard Rock like their "Twitter Tuesdays" where if you book through a link through their tweet you get slashed room rates.

For me I still long for the interconnection with other people. Right now I feel like I stayed too late at the party and everyone else paired off and went home with each other.

paul writes at 07:59:01 03/26/11 - Comment #61470: I wonder if they will make laws about vlogging and driving, lol. I don't think facebook is dying, however, I do think the status update lifestyle of twitter and facebook definitely contributed to the decline in blogging. Its so much easier to come up with tiny, whitty updates or to like or poke something then it is to create full blog entries and responses.

If you are seeing facebook die, it might be the natural online lifecycle of the people you are on there with. There are a bunch of studies about this phenomena. Its not that people are going somewhere else, they just get over the excitement of posting their whole life online. That or they have some bad experience that makes it less positive. Looking back at my blog stats I went through something very similar. Just compare the number of blogs I published in 2004-2005 to 2006-2007.

The thing is there will always be new people who have just discovered being online and they will feed the facebook frenzy for a long time to come.

Permalink: facebook_fading_.html
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Location: Youngstown, NY
Last Modified: 03/26/11 07:41

Category: death

03/08/11 06:50 - ID#53786

Everything Ends

I always watch this video when someone I know passes on.

Permalink: Everything_Ends.html
Words: 13
Location: Youngstown, NY
Last Modified: 03/08/11 06:50

Category: tv

02/17/11 07:14 - ID#53634

TV land vlog

Permalink: TV_land_vlog.html
Words: 2
Location: Youngstown, NY
Last Modified: 02/17/11 07:14

Category: music

02/15/11 09:41 - ID#53615

Who is Arcade Fire?

It's just sad how American Idol and Dancing with the Stars this country has become. The Grammy's are not a popularity contest, it's a group consensus of the 12,000 CREATIVE people who WORK IN THE INDUSTRY! That's the beauty of it to be honest. I remember back in the 90's when Bonnie Raitt cleaned house and people were like "Who is Bonnie Raitt?"

I am just happy that a Canadian group got to sit on top of the musical world Sunday night with Album of the Year. It's funny reading these comments on this tumblr

The Suburbs is the name of the band??? Look Tiffany, just because you never heard of them doesn't mean that they're not Phenomenal, the world does not revolve around you or started when you were born. It's funny and yet sad to sort through that thing.

But I have to say their sit eating grin at the beginning of Ready is just priceless and EPIC.