“In the arms of the Sabres”

Out of a twitter conversation Saturday Night, following the Buffalo Sabres‘ loss to the St. Louis Blues, came the notion of things being so bad that pretty soon Sarah McLachlan will be filming a sad song (does she sing anything upbeat at all) commercial about our hometown team. You can almost see it, instead of orphaned puppies, a series of shots of orphaned pucks and empty nets. The camera cuts to the attractive Ms. McLachlan with Nathan Gerbe on her lap: “Won’t you please help?”

I mean even the Buffalo News feature columnists have noticed. The guys in sports can’t keep the badness contained, it’s spilling over into other departments. The tough part is that with Mr. Pegula and his wallet arriving, the level of optimism got wratched up in well, June, but the cast didn’t change dramatically. Now, we could smile for the first time really since 2007, but the true soul of the team got exposed during the long, overly examined loss to Boston in November and the boys in blue and gold haven’t been the same since. That is most problematic as the promise of some success usually was the balm for wounded football fans drowning in the Bills‘ madcap escapades.

Now, Mr. P doesn’t want to rush to judgement, but as the Walrus said, the time has come. The season is swirling around the proverbial drainpipe and the status quo ain’t working. I wonder what this current stretch could do the young folk like Gerbe or Myers. The promise of the first few weeks of October is a distant memory

“In the arms of a Sabre, skate away from here
From this dark, cold dressing room, and the scorelessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your losing streak
You’re in the arms of an Sabre; may you find some goals here”

This team is bad, scary, bad

YUM

There are some compensations to early starts. The magicians at Sweetness 7 produced this bit of deliciousness for me this morning.

Yeah, it was that good.

It makes you wonder….

-What the problem was with letting the Acropolis complete its second floor bar area. It’s one of the great mysteries to me why when Bank of America bought Pier One they had to fake a second floor for neighborhood standards and with the Acropolis want to make a working second floor that would affect only the people utilizing it, the owners get told no. I don’t get it. It’s the city and a little music isn’t a bad thing, perhaps somebody forgot to charge a licensing fee that seems to be attached to anything and everything.

-if a group of ECC students will get listened to. Governor Cuomo wants to put a health sciences building in the vast disconnect that is ECC’s North Campus. The student group protested that it should go downtown to better take advantages of being nearby to the Buffalo Medical Campus. This concept is quite unusual as it makes a great degree of sense, might even attract more folks to the downtown campus, and I bet they bring their wallets with them, too.

-if the muddleheaded thinking about the Food Trucks will subside with the upcoming law. This reoccuring theme popped in my brain as I perused ArtVoice at lunchtime while successfully not spilling any of the tacos I picked up for Lloyd’s for lunch. The famed taco truck was very busy despite the 14 degree temperatures. Make good stuff and people come out. Aside from the Rocket Sauce laden goodies being just the ticket for me, hopefully the classy attitudes exhibited by the truck owners will be contagious and the debate over 100 feet to 175 feet and licensing shenanigans will fall by the way like they should have long ago, and the brick and mortal guys can get looking for government assistance and make good food (which, guys, as a secret, is what gets people to come to your place, just saying).

-if the good vibes us hockey junkies felt can come back. It isn’t a lot of fun at the moment in Pegulaville. I’d start looking forward to the baseball season, but as a Mets and Blue Jays fan, the magic numbers exceed 162.

-why the School District does pay teachers for plastic surgery.

-when this will become clearer to me. The buddha of my youth is putting out a new record soon. The first single came out and I don’t hate it, don’t really embrace yet either, perhaps a few more listens.

But when the tickets go onsale for the rumored April date, I’ll be there.

Night of the Living Boss

If the rumored April date comes to pass, of course, I’m gonna go, but where goeth the sax parts

What Kind of Day Has It Been?

Fun watching all the Republican candidates basically devour each other. My mom used to sport a “newt happens” t shirt back when he was a regular in the headline the first time. I thought of this as the Today show (in between celebrating its birthday) showed clips of him in South Carolina berating how much of a conservative Mitt Romney is. I can be impartial in this instance as it is like playoff football, my team isn’t there, but any voter who casts their vote based on one candidate’s assessment about how much of a conservative another is needs their flippin head examined.

Just once it would be cool to see somebody campaign based on why they should get the job, not why other people shouldn’t. Pity Jon Huntsman doesn’t stand a chance.

And Newt can’t take the President in a debate, find a new talking point, Dude.

Addled thinking, the same misbegotten thought that put Kool and the Gang and Van Halen on the same concert bill for March. I’m betting that probably won’t be like the Chicago and Earth, Wind, and Fire show that pops up on MSG…oops…that used to pop up on MSG.

That bothers me two cable companies slugging it out over dimes that neither needs. In terms of who is to blame, it is sort of choosing between the Joker and Riddler. Both are villians, but who is guiltier. In this case, I think more fault likes with the kids at MSG. What is even tougher is that the Sabres and Buffalo are merely a footnote to a larger squabble as per usual. The trouble of changing providers really isn’t worth it unless you own a bar as the same slapfight will get played out with those other providers at some point. Perhaps if the Sabres haven’t been playing like they were using double-runners over the past few months, I might have a greater sense of urgency.

I was reading along with Jeff Miers’ chat on the Buffalo News website, okay rereading it over Saturday coffee and the idea of a permanent fixed stage at the waterfront where the temp one was last year has merit in what is left of my mind, the place did well with the paid shows and small stage productions that came last summer. Thursday in the Square shows did well, and even the modestly priced Tragically Hip show did well. Let’s just keep Live Nation back at Darien Lake with their surcharges. The current folk found a nice mix, a little something for everybody.

Hey Time Warner, toss the Fuse Channel back when the dust settles, the actual level of music on tv, beyond Palladia is a little lacking.

And yeah, it snowed, in Buffalo, in January, imagine….

Happy Now?

There was an awful lot of whining going on about when are we going to get ours in terms of snowfall? I really wanted these people to shaddup because if in Buffalo you ask for snow, chances are it will still be in here in APRIL! It’s less charming then, in fact, after the holidays, I’m sort of whatever. But some things are certain, death, taxes, the Mets sucking, Snow in Buffalo? Settle, it came.

So, it never ceases to amaze that there is somebody driving down Elmwood, with a few inches of snow covering their car, windshield barely defrosted, no lights on.

I don’t mind the snow, just what can happen mind sets. Having four wheel drive is the key to NOTHING and there are few folks in the city who think having a four drive car has given them the powers found usually with residents of Krypton.

It’s the little things that make it even more interesting.

The traffic light on my street took on disco light flashing, which brings an even busier intersection that much more of a mess as we all forgot the four way stop rule they teach you in driver’s ed.

There isn’t that much snow as I write this but somehow folks are already in the streets.

It is what makes the “Where is our snow” facebook status updates and tweets sort of laughable.

“It’s here!”

 

Yep, still Lucic’s fault

Another rare hockey blog. I was thinking how usually Sabres Leafs games are must see tv, but the cable squabbles have taken care of that as a problem. The guys who started out so well, and that game in Boston really exposed them.  As the cartoon from the Buffalo News shows, Ryan Miller hasn’t been himself (wonder if the concussions are really healed and all), and the team has been more of a collection of bodies instead of a team, sometimes passionless ones at that. It made me wonder about all the twitter discussions that if Lindy Ruff was let go, who should replace him. I got an answer for that one, Ted Nolan. Think about it, Nolan’s guys weren’t always the most gifted kids, but they never took the night off. I’m saying dump Lindy by any means, but some kind of shakeup needs to happen to give this team some life.

Passion does lead to production. And while the new ownership raised expectations, the bulk of the current Sabres’ nation remembers 2006 when a lot seemed within reach, which only adds to the frustration considering the so called “Core” of the current team was there riding the coattails of Drury, Briere, etc. You’d think what they saw then would be helping them now.

Something got awry quickly, remember October? That was fun. Sure, there were injuries, but other teams have dealt with those too.

The Sabres GM, who is looking more and more like Niles Crane, earned points with me when asked if the team would be worse without Drury and Briere and he answered yes. I respected that because he was honest with us. The guy got Briere, Drury, Doug Gilmour, J.P. Dumont and others, so he knows how to deal. It’s just hard not to wonder if he forgot how.

Aside from fining players for uttering “work hard” “move your feet”, “play the whole game” cliches, with the proceeds going to a list I almost have at the ready, the home team hasn’t been itself since the Lucic incident and needs an injection of some soul soon.

That and MSG (and it’s cable company parent) and Time Warner needs to get this slap fight settled. Getting NBA-TV isn’t compensation. There’s no good side in that discussion. I do know that anybody thinking of switching services should be careful as who knows when the Direct connection expires.

So, do something Darcy, maybe a simple gesture could trigger some good karma.

Gospel for 90s kids

From the prophetic pages of Unrealitymag. com come some things for the nineties that are hard to argue with:

Six Degrees

Alright, I need a word with you, yeah, you, the yahoo who posted on his Facebook or Twitter feed to “Bring it On!” with the forecasts of cold and snow.  You, dear sir, are a schmuck! You complacent, commuter cup swilling, jug head. I thought of you while waiting for AAA this morning. I enjoy the seasons to be sure, but those who somehow measure their manhood by snow piles I think need to be smacked back to consciousness, preferably with something frosty. Yes, we have handled snow just fine, but 6 degrees is cold, too cold to enjoy the snow for very long.

It’s cold, especially if you develop a car issue, as mine did, on the way to work, for the first time in almost a week, on a busy street, during rush hour, with a grumpy teen in the car.

While waiting the admirably fast AAA folks, (helpful dude showed in 30 minutes) all I can think about were the yahoos who filled social media spots with “Finally” “Bring it On” “Bout Time.” There will be time for all the fun stuff as we enjoy Winter until May, then have near winter, not winter, then near winter again. So, settle down as the tire that might need changed tomorrow morning might be yours. Don’t go tempting Karma like that, she’s burn out a headlight in temps like this and make you drop the most important screw into a dark corner that you can’t see into and your fingers will be too big too reach.

It snowed in real numbers in the southtowns. Go there, but settle down, we’ll get ours.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,500 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.