Thursday, May 29, 2008

Now Let's Make It Completely Legal

I am incredibly happy about the news that Governor Paterson has told agencies they must start recognizing gay marriages (video here).

The next logical step is to make gay marriages legal in New York State.

I'm smiling. I can't help it.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Sunday Mornings

After a very late night that included Wilmer Valdarrama at the Reg and Forte for Surprise Party No. 6, my dogs nosed me out of bed around 9am this morning. It's been a fairly productive day so far. I already wrote my news scripts, got dishes done, and did some yard work. To see this year's plantings check out my post on Fiercest Calm.

Friday, May 23, 2008

The Gyrosphere Is Gone!

As I clicked through the D&C this morning, I decided to check out an article about Seabreeze Amusement Park. Little did I know that one of my favorite childhood memories had been erased from the park's landscape. The article mentioned a new, fabulous ride for this year. My smile slowly disappeared as I looked at the accompanying picture and determined that this ride seemed to be located at the same site where the Gyrosphere had whirred around for years. I quickly went to Seabreeze's main site and pulled up the park map.

Folks, I am saddened to inform you that The Gyrosphere is no more.

This ride carried such musical memories for me. A sad day this is. I offer this video in remembrance of a once great ride:

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Southern Tier Blogger Meet-Up

Over the past few days, I was ruminating over the idea of a local blogger meet-up and had even started developing a kind of manifesto for why I wanted to do this, but then I thought, "Why? Let's just get the word out!"

And that is: I want to meet all you local bloggers that are lurking in your various corners of Chautauqua County (and adjacent areas). Nothing too serious. Just a meet-up that could involve idea sharing if we're so moved.

If you're interested, leave a comment below along with a location you'd think would work for a get-together. My ideas for location include the usual (Forte, Labyrinth, Ellicottville Brewing Company-Fredonia).

Monday, May 19, 2008

Welcome to the Blogosphere - Jamestown Post Journal!

The company that owns the Jamestown Post-Journal has decided to join the rest of the crazy Internet world by getting its employees to blog on the paper's website.

There's quite a cast of characters over there offering dialogue on everything from liberal to conservative issues, the latest entertainment amusements, and even posts about copy-writing. Well, one post at least on that.

Go have a gander, get a user name, and start commenting away.

If you have a local (Chautauqua County-area) blog that you would like linked/discussed/pointed at, feel free to leave the link in comments below or email me at muzenews(at)gmail(dot)com.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Thursday In The Square - 2008

I can't seem to get excited about this year's Thursday In The Square line up. Where's the TMBG? Where's the Modeski, Martin, & Wood? Where's the Dropkick Murphy's? Maybe I'm just out of touch. Here's the article that appeared in Gusto of The Buffalo News.

Thursday at the Square Line-Up

May 29: Galactic (with the New Deal)
June 5: The Disco Biscuits
June 12: Yonder Mountain String Band
June 19: The David Sanborn Group
June 26: Martin Sexton (with the Mike Doughty Duo)
July 3: Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels
July 10: Jimmie Vaughan (with JJ Grey and Mofro)
July 17: Mickey Hart Band featuring Steve Kimock and George Porter Jr. (with Tea Leaf Green)
July 24: Gin Blossoms
July 31: Spirit of the West
Aug. 7: Zappa Plays Zappa (with the Whigs)
Aug. 14: Mike Gordon (with Samantha Stollenwerck)
Aug. 21: Saliva
Aug. 28: Candlebox
Sept. 4: Big Head Todd and the Monsters (with Indigenous)

Buffalo Place Rocks the Harbor

Aug. 15: Great Big Sea
Aug. 16: The Robert Cray Band and Keb’ Mo’

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Coming Soon To A Theatre Near You

Question: What 3 actresses or actors would play you in a film?

Answer:

Alicia Silverstone: The "Clueless" version of her for my high school years. They'd have to die her hair more brown than blonde, but keep the length. I choose her for the egotistical reasoning than a girl tried to pick me up once by telling me I looked just like her when "Clueless" was in theatres and that she thought Alicia Silverstone was "HOT!"







Gillian Anderson: I need her for my short hair years in college. Plus, she was just wicked cool as "Scully" in "The X-Files."












Julie Delpy: For my late 20s flowing into the present years. She looks nothing like me but I love the way she does dialogue in movies like "Before Sunrise/Sunset".

Best of Chautauqua

It's come to be that time of year again where the Chautauqua Region WORD does their annual Best of Chautauqua Poll.

There isn't a best local blog category, but if you would like to throw some love my way in the "free for all" space, that would be cool.

Regardless, go over there and show your love for all your favorite places and people in the county.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Because It's Not Your Style...

A kind of light Spring-y song.

Reviving Memories

Yesterday, Heidi asked me if we should delete a photo blog we started back in 2004 to share pictures with each other of stuff we were doing. At the time, sites like Flickr hadn't taken off. I have an account on there now, but I just don't make a habit of ever looking at the site. I like blogging. It's familiar and I like the way the platform works in terms of posting entries that include text and photos.

I told Heidi that the pack-rat in me just couldn't see deleting the blog with all its photographic memories from when we used to post more frequently. She said we each had to agree to post to it at least once a week.

So I welcome you to visit Fiercest Calm. For now, the archives are there to browse but you will see some new pictures start to pop up over the next few days. Thank goodness for picture/email posting via cell phone.

I Bake Okay

Making a caramel porter chocolate cake for my mother in law's birthday and mother's day.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Where's The G-D Peanut Butter???

Our Wegmans has been making changes to the store over the past week that they claim are based on customer response. I can understand two of the three things that are being changed, and am quite happy about those two things. Let's start with the positive:
  1. Our Wegmans will finally have a sushi bar by Mother's Day

  2. The Nature's Marketplace section has been expanded
Now the notso pleasant change:
  1. Aisles shortened by inserting a break in the middle of each aisle
Now, putting in that break wouldn't have been so bad if they also didn't change where all the products were located. Every single aisle is different. Those who know me know I plan my grocery list and coupons based on where items are in located in the store. I knew our Wegmans so well that I often found myself giving directions to out-of-towners who had driven over from the Lake to pick up groceries (more fan girl action here).

Anyway, one of the basic items I needed to pick up today was peanut butter. This used to be located across from cereal. I couldn't find it in cereal. I looked in the next two (four with the aisle breaks) aisles for it. I found hot fudge and other sundae toppings, but not peanut butter. I think I spent almost five minutes going up and down aisles looking for this staple. Eventually, I broke down and asked an employee. She directed me to aisle 10 and told me to "turn right" when I got there. Peanut butter and jelly products are now located in the snack aisle near bulk food, which was moved to accommodate the larger Nature's Marketplace.

I watched other shoppers wandering around with the lost sheep look on their faces. What is normally a highly enjoyable experience for me became almost stressful. And of course I forgot to pick up a store directory to look over so I could avoid this next weekend.

I'm thinking the Jamestown/Lakewood shoppers could have used a little "Get To Know Your Wegmans!" video like they created for the new store in Potomac, VA.

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Wedding Music

The advent of the month of May is like the gunshot which signals the start of the 20, give or take a few, week wedding season around this country.

As someone who is playing in several weddings over the next few years, may I suggest to all you happily engaged couples that you listen when the person providing music for your ceremony gently suggests not using Pachelbel's Canon in D, or any of the traditional songs you hear at weddings.

First of all, this is a day you want to remember so you should pick something that is special to you. Maybe I'm a musical snob, but using Pachelbel, Trumpet Voluntary, the wedding march (any version), or Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire is about as unoriginal as you can get when it comes to wedding music. I'd throw in Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Handel's Water Music but you almost never hear those played even though they're quite lovely tunes.

If you have a talented enough musician, you might even be able to convince them to do something modern under the guise of it being a "classical" tune. I'm still trying to figure out if I could learn some of "Satellite" by Dave Matthews Band to play for a couple whose music taste runs more along DMB, Bob Marley, and Led Zeppelin than Mozart, Schubert, and Mendelssohn.

I may have posted this video below before, but it bears repeating because this guy really gets the point across when it comes to Pachelbel's Canon.

Friday, May 02, 2008

The Monster Jade

I have moved my massive Jade plant to our porch for the warmer weather season. This thing is a monster!

Thursday, May 01, 2008

The Drive to De-Clutter

I'm taking the next few work days off (5 day weekend) to work on something that started gnawing away at me a few months ago. Clutter. Our house has become remarkably full of stuff over the past three years that we've lived here. I generally have been working hard at keeping stuff neat and tidy, but when I open cupboards, closets, or drawers I'm flabbergasted by how full they are.

"Enough!" I said. "This is ridiculous! We don't use half this stuff and never will!"

Initially, Matt thought I was going through a nesting phase, but it's lasted a few months. Some of the foolishness we have is items we had planned to sell at a garage sale before we even moved into our house. Some of it came from my grandma's house after she died and we had to sell her place. Other stuff came from my parent's house. It was either stuff that belonged to me as a kid or stuff my mom thought would be useful in our house. You'd be amazed at how easily it all piles up in a short time period.

Honestly, I needed a couple years to finally feel okay about parting with the stuff that came from my grandma's house. It was too hard to let go when I remember her telling my mom how she would lie awake at night and think about where her furniture would go in our new house after she died. She said it gave her something to concentrate on other than the pain from her cancer. At the same time, my grandma wasn't one to hold onto stuff. She kept a pretty minimalist house in terms of knick-knacks, books, magazines, and other dust-gathering bits. Because of that, I feel like I'll be honoring her memory better by sorting through everything once and for all to see what we can sell at a garage sale in July.

Cutting to the Scene with the Pixie

Ten years ago, I decided to do one of the most drastic things I had ever done to my hair. I went from a long style (below collarbone) to a p...