Posts from March 2007

Wow!! Sabres pogs!!

YourHub, The Buffalo News' fledgling social networking site, has been around for a few months now and I was initially reserving judgment because a website is only as bad as its content, and there wasn't much content yet. Well, after four months of paying local self-published wordsmiths to fill their site by plugging their novels, today's discussion topic is: drinking too much coffee . When the inevitable follow-up came I could not help but contribute. Only after I had pushed the Send button did I remember the photo I had posted on my profile lo these many months ago .

Now I'm not going to knock YourHub because it's not like I haven't been down that road on (e:strip) myself @zobar #37304 . And it's academically interesting that, despite its stated corporate goal of being inclusive of all 630,000 Buffalo News readers, it's becoming an in-club just like any other social networking site - that the in-people [most or all of whom are paid to be there] have formed their own community and are talking about their caffeine intake and their favorite Italian restaurants just like the rest of us unpaid local bloggers. Except that they can't really speak freely because they can't say anything that would offend Depewites' tender sensibilities. Which means that not only are they talking about in-stuff we don't care about, it's totally watered down. It's like eating someone else's cold tapioca when you don't like tapioca and you're not hungry. Or like reading Buffalo Current without Sabrina the Creepy Sex Columnist (GOOGLE - cache:www.buffalocurrent.com).

But I guess that's all to be expected. This is what bugs me about YourHub. It is divided into neighborhoods: Amherst/Clarence, 'Central,' Grand Island/Ken-Ton, Hamburg/West Seneca, Niagara Falls, Orchard Park/East Aurora, Southern Tier, and West Niagara County. They are arbitrary but at least they're well-defined ... except for Central. I kind of figured that since Buffalo is the county seat and that's also where the Buffalo News is headquartered, Central meant the Buffalo city proper. But no! It appears that they completely forgot to include the city in their list of neighborhoods. So where is an urban hipster like myself supposed to post the pictures I took drinking PBR in the booth at Frizzy's?

And that is why we have (e:strip).

- Z

... those sweet sweet cravings ...

- Z

The part of the big pink bunny will be played by yours truly. You'd think it would be more difficult to rent a pink bunny suit than it would be to rent a tux, but such is not the case

@dragonlady7 says I should be an evil pink bunny. I asked her what makes a pink bunny evil. She said they're exactly the same except instead of handing out eggs, they throw them.

- Z

Tickets are now available online

I asked if I could get a Derby Widow discount. @dragonlady7 said, only if you wear the bunny suit and skates. This is not entirely out of the question.

- Z

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New journal music: Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits by The Magnetic Fields gather:0661516001174422854

Ya the Prius was cool, but I felt the need to move on... Used the insurance money to buy a nice, solid '65 GMC Handi-Van. Here's some pictures I took of it coming off the truck:


Thing runs like a top. It's got kind of a weird paint job, but that can be taken care of no problem.

- Z

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The real story, which is still pretty cool: @dragonlady7 came home from work tonight and was all: dude - you would not believe what's coming off the truck at Brown's garage - which is just down the street. I was all: no I probably wouldn't. The least freaky car I've seen at Brown's in recent memory was a lime green Gremlin. She was all: well... it's... the Mystery Machine. And I was all: what? yeah right... and she was all: no man- it's the fucking Myss-terr-ee Machine. And I was all: you gotta be kidding me. And she was all: dude. And I was all: dude. So I threw on my coat and grabbed her camera and ran down the street, and yeah: the Mystery Machine.

So I talked to the truck driver, and he says he can't go anywhere with it without getting mobbed. He says, yeah: it's a 1965 GMC Handi-Van with like 600,000 miles on it, runs like the day it was made, and it's the Mystery Machine, on its way from Winnipeg to somewhere in New Jersey. Made my day.

So this morning I had a little bit of an accident in my poor car. Some guy had decided that he needed to turn left immediately, which happened to place his passenger side door directly inside my engine compartment. Once two objects occupy the same space at the same time, well ... that's when the insurance companies get involved. I can only hope that in his haste he was able to get to his extremely important job on time, because I know I didn't make it in to work until 11:30. I find it extremely unlikely, however, because while I left the scene in a tow truck, he left in an ambulance.

At any rate, I'm not hurt - a little overwhelmed, but not hurt. The tow truck guy and the receptionist at the collision shop were both very nice to me and answered all my stupid questions ... the receptionist even drove me to the rental car agency to hook me up with a loaner.

Looking at the car makes me sad, because over the course of 76000 miles I've formed a weird sort of bond with the thing, it's a great car, and even after having its tiny front end smashed in it still somehow ran like the day I bought it. If by some miracle it's not totalled I'd like to get it fixed up real nice. If it is totalled ... well shit, I hear Volkswagen is making Rabbits again.

Fuck, man. I just don't want to have to deal with all this paperwork and decisions and shit.

- Z

Doing my volunteer duty:

$5 for Hospice gets you into 48 [!] bars on Chippewa, Elmwood, Allen, and elsewhere. @dragonlady7 and I will be at the Century.

(MAP TO: 320 PEARL ST)

- Z

(MAP TO: 674 ELLICOTT ST)

Tonight we went to the single least cool place in Buffalo. It's not even the kind of uncool where you can go there and be ironically cool - there is no cool to be had, period. All the meat is pork, and all the vegetables are cabbage. Everything is either marinated in vinegar or fried in butter - or it's marinated in vinegar and then fried in butter, and served with a big dollop of sour cream. If you're there on the right night, you will be serenaded by accordion with tuba accompaniment. It is a happy place.

I speak of Ulrich's Tavern , the bar that's so German it wraps around to being Irish again. [That will make sense if you go there.] Good live music, great local brews, and just this totally insane Leberkase that looks more or less like a grilled sandwich if the bread were made of meat. They are celebrating 50,000 days [138 years] of continuous operation, and that does not exclude Prohibition. These guys are hard-core OG. They spit on your 'cool' and call it tartar sauce.

- Z

This morning my valentine surprised me with two thinly-veiled threats laid gently on my pillow, a heart-shaped box of chocolate-covered guilt, and flowery proclamations of inadequacy and thoughtlessness - all before I even left for work! It must be love.

I had composed a soliloquy about Valentine's Day - how it should be a happy holiday, not a sad or angry holiday as it's become. It should not be about desperately "Seeking same for LTR," but about celebrating the relationships we have with the people who make us feel special. It should be about demonstrating the appreciation we have for who we share our lives with - not demanding same of them. It should not be about flowers and chocolates and cards and trinkets bought out of necessity, but rather unique gifts and gestures that show that you know and care.

I didn't post it because I hadn't gotten a chance to edit it, what with all the craziness around the house lately. I don't think I'll bother posting it now, because I'm clearly insane.

But if anyone here shares my insanity, know that secretly* I'm totally with you. I wish you, above all, a happy Valentine's Day.

- Z

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• I guess it's not really that secret anymore, but it sounded poetic.

ps. New journal music. gather:0790574001171472480