You want to move? No, you just want here to be better

I don’t go for much reality tv, but of late there are a couple of programs on the Travel Channel that I regularly catch. The main one is “No Reservations” by Anthony Bourdain. The Rust Belt episode was on recently, you know with (e:Jbeatty) getting a lot of face time at the end. It’s become one of my favorite programs. It’s not just a food show, more of a food and culture show. There really isn’t anything like it, largely because of the host. Equal parts learned traveler, professional appreciator and snarkmeister, Bourdain does not play tourist, so much as seeks out the actual reality of a given location. It is definitely a job I want.

Lots of people were jazzed here about the 14 minutes he afforded Buffalo. It was nice video. I don’t really care that Schwabl’s made the cut instead of some other Beef on Weck joint. I am getting a little old to go celebrity spotting when he was here. It was too friggen cold for that. It was nice to see Ulrich’s get some face time, along with Nietzche’s in an unnamed cameo. Bourdain writes a lot of sentiments that I wish I’d written. One of those hit home last night when he was summing up Buffalo along with Detroit and Baltimore.

I've seen this episode a bunch of times before being a fan, but he hit on something that struck me.
At the end of the program, he showed a collage of folks from each spot, making themselves at home because it is home. It dawned on me that there is something to that. There is always that possibility that things COULD improve if you head out somewhere else, but that is a really big COULD. Might have made quicker hay elsewhere, but home is that for other reasons. I was reminded about that when some former classmates got together. My kids and my folks know each other and play a role in their respective lives. You can’t put a price about on that.

It’s the little things like that that cause the greatest amount of consternation when the Mayor pontificates or when the State Senate breaks down like an old Nash Rambler. The outline of a good thing is there and too many folks aren’t out to genuinely make it better. But you pick your places to make you stand in spite of those things. You look at what works around here and the vast majority of the success stories come in spite of the elected leadership.

I wrote about this a little in my own blog site and it got picked up by a journal writer in Baltimore who was a little miffed that Bourdain effectively gave a Berlitz style primer over the three cities as part of a large thesis. Each town is different and with its own set of problems. You could probably spend an hour in each region for a show but that probably will never be practical when you are talking about Buffalo, Baltimore and Detroit.

You take your cues from what effects your surroundings. My folks have never stopped looking for ways to improve our immediate surroundings and my former spouse and I have taken up that mantle with our lot.
Looking at Bourdain’s video postcard and a few scenes from “the T.O. show,” you could pick worse backdrops.

Cold beer at a reasonable price, indeed, Tony

I'd watch

Estrip would like to know my current location

Pretty cool, not exact, but awfully close. That is an older photo but it came close. I'm a little further back as this has me sharing a desk with big horned sheep.

Aside from breathing, Bikram Yoga classes are quiet affairs with only the instructor’s guiding voice taking you through the 90 minutes. That said, three things are not real desirable to have happen, especially all in the same evening.

1. A sneeze

2. A Yawn

3. Your stomach remembering you skipped dinner so it makes its displeasure known by screaming like an stereotypical old man “oyoyoyoyOYOYOYOYOYOYoyoyyoyoy”

If you had any flow to your work, that last one takes it away.

–So, the city is paying millions to people too deceased to say thank you. We just can’t get out of our own way. Nice work, H.R.

–All praises to IKEA for doing the City of affording Buffalo the dignity of a quick no, not 9 years of hemming and hawing. To think the Aud got torn down on a hand shake and a lame press gathering. I think what Montreal did with their old Forum, it makes you wonder. The time for the Aud was obviously 1997-98 to get cranking on something, but it does make you wonder.

–Anybody notice there isn’t one monolithic Anchor Tenant on the waterfronts of Baltimore, Cleveland or Chicago. There are lots of little things. Didn’t we learn anything from bending over backwards for Kmart on Broadway to see how fast you can wind up with a big empty building. Create some reasons to come and access to the waterfront and the shops will be lined up looking for space.

–An interesting to site to emerge from the Rogers Centre in Toronto and note that it was indeed Spot Coffee across the street from us.

–Can you imagine getting a field facing room in the Renaissance Hotel in Toronto (The Hotel part of the Rogers Centre) and not being a baseball fan? Nothing worse than wanting to pound on the wall, tell people to keep it down, and the 55,000 people on the other side pay you no heed.

–Back to our silly city for a moment, McCarley Gardens is one of those housing complexes that work. It was planned and executed right and UB needs that exact space for their city expansion. I’m all for UB expanding their city presence, but does it have to wreck a functioning neighborhood to accomplish that? I think not, think a little harder, folks.

–And you have the time thanks to the derailment of 20/20.

–According to a number of sources, the Taliban have been partially funded by factions in the Pakistani government which receives considerable amounts of aid from the U.S. government. So, one of our biggest enemies in the war on terror is apparently….us.

–I don’t have a particular issue with the Sabres and the Tim Kennedy debacle, but I do have to wonder what they are doing aside from wasting the prime of Ryan Miller. You could watch Darcy Regier speak through practically clinched teeth which indicated to this observer that it wasn’t his call. All this buzz killing moment did was to ensure that the Sabres have to pay Kennedy a pretty hefty severance for his taking a chance. The team didn’t get any better, still has to pay him and basically told the fans not to expect any moves that matter going into this season. Hope I’m wrong, but to raise a stink over $200,000 when they have wasted millions on other guys who weren’t worth it seems to scream fire sale as they wait for 40th anniversary sweater sales. Darcy, if you disagree, take a stand, dude!

–Not too sure why everybody is all excited for Pat Kane to lug the Stanley Cup all over, it’s been here before. I got to it before he did.

–In praise of East Side Mario’s in Toronto, the Sleeman’s tap at the bar was a reassuring site.

–The New York Mets torture me so. For every 1985-86, there are seemingly loads of 2010s.

–I have yet to go 3000 miles since my last oil change but when I went to my Valvoline station for a top off before my recent Canadian sojourn, the little weasel said he’d do but I was two months over due as that is their policy. Stated where, exactly? Aside from some obvious Dale Carnegie needs in regards to talking to customers, he needs to think about the car a little bit as it clocks miles driven not the changing of the calendars. Schmuck.