Self-Promotion/Old College Try, Radio Style

From Friday through Sunday, March 31-April 2, WBNY 91.3 FM, the radio station at Buffalo State College, will be holding its annual Alumni Weekend, and I will be joining a bunch of alumnus from my early days to more recent graduates in taking over the airwaves and having some fun.
I was on the air as a DJ, news reporter and anchor, talk show host and producer from 1984-1985, when I graduated, and it was possibly the best thing I did during my college career, besides get the writing bug and decide that I needed my journalism degree as I finished my criminal justice degree. While describing all of my musical tastes and selections I played while at WBNY would take too long, I can tell you that I hosted the Holiday Hardcore Harangues and that my main show, 6-10 a.m. Wednesdays, was called the loudest morning show in Buffalo. In fact, if you want to hear what my incredibly nasally voice sounds like and get a peak into what I used to listen to and what I listen to know, I will be on from 8-10 a.m. Saturday, April 1.
Other alumni, including Tina Peel, now on 107.7 FM The Lake, and Cal Zone, will be on hand and on the air. Even if I wasn't prominent enough to be mentioned in/for the Buffalo Rising article, I think it will be fun.

Already, Part 2

Val and I went to the Buffalo Arts Center in the Tri-Main Center on Main Street for the Plates and Pasta fundraiser Saturday; Val is a resident photographer and former board member at the BAS, and because she was documenting the event, I was the paying member of the couple. There was a very large crowd present, we knew a lot of people (Val's mom Janice sat at out table), and the food was rather good, although in short supply except for current board members; the extremely large amount and quality of desserts helped make up for that.
We were tired but happy as we left, and I became curious when I saw some papers on the car windshield; I knew they weren't tickets, and expected some kind of announcement for an arts event. Instead, it was another full-color Antoine Thompson for New York State Senate postcard/handbill, along with a handbill for a "Women on the Move" luncheon sponsored by The Supporters of Antoine M. Thompson. Val and I have been supporters of State Senator Marc Coppola, who Thompson is challenging, since he was the Buffalo Common Council member representing us in the Elmwood Village portion of the West Side, when he helped Val with several home and inspection issues with our house (before we had even started dating), and we continue to support him.

Mail Call ... and Cheap, Too

Opening the mailbox as I got home today, I saw two packages inside, which is nothing new because of the CDs, DVDs and other materials we receive for BuffaloRoots.com, but my hopes were a little different, because I recently ordered two used books through Amazon.com. Happily, it was the two books, both by Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams: "A Farther Shore," a hard cover, and "Before the Dawn," a trade paperback. Even better, the total cost of the two books, one in excellent and the other in very good condition, including postage, was $11.67.
Val and I are among those who were disappointed that Adams was unable to travel to Buffalo/Western New York for St. Patrick's Day weekend, and insulted and confused by the actions of federal agencies in delaying/preventing Adams' visit. I reject the terrorist label on Adams, who has led Sinn Fein, and through it, the Irish Republican Army, away from violence and working toward peaceful political resolutions. Adams was jailed a few times by the British authorities without trial for his alleged terrorist links/activities; hmm, and to think some people want the Bush Administration to take after European governments more.

Latest Sign of Musical Devolution

While I can't think of a pizza commercial I like, the latest one to make my colon clench (yes, I love that expression) is that of Papa John's in which the Go-Go's "We Got the Beat" is changed/prostituted into "We Got the Meat." The Go-Go's debut album, Beauty and the Beat, is one of my favorite albums of any genre from the 1980s, so to hear such a ridiculous, vacuous take off on one of the two best-known songs from it just puts another nail in the coffin of my youth/early adulthood's musical idealism, or is it naivety?

Good Deed, Parking Meter Edition

On my way from work downtown to Dog Days of Buffalo to pick up Walker Evans from his weekly dog day care session Wednesday, I stopped at Elmwood Pet Supplies, 706 Elmwood Ave., to pick up a box of organic green bone treats he likes, one of the few treats the rough, dog-of-the-streets, Rottweiler/German Shepherd blend can eat and keep down.
I parked at a meter diagonally across the street from the store, in front of the church, and when I went to put a quarter in the meter, I saw that it still had 22 minutes in it, so I smiled and walked across the street. Two doors down from Elmwood Pet Supplies is a beauty salon, and I noticed that the meter of the car parked in front of it was blinking, indicating that it was out of time. I grabbed the quarter I was going to use for my meter, placed it in and turned the key/handle, setting it back to 30 minutes.
This act would have barely been worth writing about if this ending hadn't occurred: When I drove away after making my purchase and getting back into the car, as I passed the car whose meter I dropped a quarter in, a Buffalo Police Department patrol car stopped next to that car, and I saw the officer in the passenger seat looking at the meter.

Harrumph

Yes, I know, it's been a week since I last posted, and yes, I have a few topics I want to address, but I'm tired, grumpy, a bit confused, in need of some inspiration and damn, will this frigging cold weather every go away? I'll be back soon, hopefully tomorrow, with some comments on V for Vendetta, one of my all-time favorite comics, becoming a movie, as well as a few other things.

Already?

In yesterday's mail, Val and I both received a full-color, approximately 9x12-inch, two-sided postcard from Buffalo Common Council Member Antoine Thompson, announcing that he was running in the Democratic primary for State Senate Tuesday, September 12, and asking us for his support and to vote that day.
Former Common Council Majority Leader Marc Coppola was elected in February to fill the remaining 10 months of the term for that State Senate position after former State Senator Byron Brown became Buffalo's mayor January 1. With Val and I Democratic committee people, I can hardly wait for the flood of mail and telephone calls to come in this race.

Major Radio Annoyance(s)

Over the years, in print and on the Internet, my music writing/criticism gained a reputation for cutting little slack and being as honest and direct and often derogatory as possible, but I have tried not to insult individual listeners. But a current television advertisement for WJYE 96.1 FM, Buffalo's Soft Rock, has me pissed off to high hell, so I will issue a double warning: this post features some profane language and will not be nice to at least one listener.
The ad features several listeners of the station in what appear to be reality vignettes, stating what they like about the station and its music; one woman states that the music referred to as soft rock "energizes me." Energizes me? Pardon me, but what kind of fucking loser are you?
Whether I like the music or not, whether she or anyone else likes the music that WJYE plays or not, who in the hell is "energized" by the Little River Band, Kenny Rogers, Richard Marx, Faith Hill or Billy Ocean? I can understand people liking this music, being soothed by it or even being inspired by it, but energized? What kind of narcolepsy is this person or others going through to be energized by this music?
And another annoyance, one that has perturbed me for years, is the term "soft rock." Sorry, but rock music was not created and does not exist to be "soft." Yes, most rock bands play an occasional soft song (too often to scary results), but if a band or performer play this kind of music exclusively or mostly, then they are not a soft rock band, they are a pop band, which is no insult.

Unplanned Break

Really, Val and I didn't intend to have gone more than a week between posts here, but a busy week at work and otherwise caused just that.
Starting with watching as much Winter Olympic hockey as possible (thank you, DVR), we, aside from work, attended the Sabres' return game against Atlanta (which sucked, and dropped our record for Sabres games we've attended this season to 1-2-1); got ready for and then attended the opening of Val's digital photography show with neighborhood/friend Eileen Graetz at the College Street Gallery, which went excellent; took the dog to Delaware Park as the weather improved; wrote, chose the photos and produced/laid out the page of the Mike Meldrum CD release party for BuffaloRoots.com, and basically, for the first time in who knows when, vegetated for a day or so before returning to the working grind today.
So, to quote Elvis Costello, "Welcome to the working week."