Chicken and Olympic Biscuits

So, never been to a chik fil a outlet and I am unlikely to venture into one anytime soon. But the debate surrounding the comments of their CEO is already getting twisted to the point that you wouldn’t want to stop by. Personally, I have a high regard for a well-prepped Chicken and Biscuit sandwich, but those folks need some p.r. assistance. I don’t agree with the CEO at the center of this, but his views are his and he’s unlikely to listen to me anytime soon. He is certainly entitled to his views on marriage and again I don’t agree with him on that, but that matters not. It was sort of dumb to weigh into a marriage definition discussion when you have a post like that as wouldn’t you want EVERYBODY to come to your restaurant? Instead, one interview as there is a market segment going up in smoke, fueled more by talking heads like Mike Huckabee and the like who believe that “It’s a freedom of speech” issue. It’s not, everybody has the right to believe what they chose, but when you are a CEO there isn’t a downtime when it comes to you and microphones.  Course, why interviewers are looking for that opinion?

Beats me.

The Olympics are all over the place at the moment and like many, I watched the amiable mess that was the opening ceremonies. Aside from Meredith Viera singing along, Kenneth Branagh‘s awesome hat, hardly any Led Zeppelin in the british music segment, as well as the Queen as a bond girl, what was up with NBC deciding to overlook the terrorist remembrance in favor of Ryan Seacrest‘s hard hitting interview with Michael Phelps? It’s always bothered me a little that when actual british shows are imported here (Top Gear, Kitchen Nightmares to name two recent ones), the results have their bars lowered so to speak. It’s bad enough that a news program like “Today” is sort of unwatchable during the games for news, but it is kind of discouraging to think “we can’t take it” so we get an interview from a personality who have never done sports of a personality who doesn’t want to be there. Not exactly riveting television, but neither is having hosts pretending that stuff didn’t happen hours ago. That needs a rest. In the age of information shooting through in real time, pretending like you have a hot secret is pretty silly. People will still watch the race between Lochte and Phelps. Someday TV executives will think better of us. Speaking of which, who needed Seacrest doing sports? What is lacking from your life that gets satisfied with that scene?

Who knows?

The scuttlebutt in my little town is that Panera Bread is thinking about moving into the Elmwood area once Blockbuster Video finishes swirling round the drainpipe. After careful consideration, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t care. Another sandwich and coffee place which I guess is good since there are so few of those in the vicinity. While I do my best to eat locally, I think we should look at this rumored marketing decision, shake our heads and go about our business. A chain coming to Elmwood? Gasp! Hey, Spot’s a chain now too. I’ll chalk it up to somebody wants to invest in the area. If it is with their dimes, that’s fine. Let em learn.

But it does make your head shake a bit.

Back to the Olympics for a second, a twitter user smarter than me wondered during the opening ceremonies what they would be like in Buffalo, a few folks have already reported this, but if you are on twitter, look up ##BuffaloOpeningCeremonies and enjoyed the Western New York snark. I was proud I made WGRZ’s recap of the wisecrackery.

Find the best stuff. I love the upshot of this speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGzyvFm2FI4

Reminds me not to go through the motions.

 

Fragile

My dad, thoughtful observant dude that he is, recently noted that all it takes to make everyone around you a doctor is for you to come down with something. Opinions and assholes are forever linked in that regard.

I guess it is a sign that I’m getting older that it is taking a bit for an ankle injury(pulled tendons above my achilles) to recover for me. Age and the fact that resting it is a little dull. The needs of my job need me to do some ambling around, making me the Dr. House of marketing. A couple folks see me coming with a “still limping, there” observation. That’s helpful as I wasn’t noticing. Powered my way through our recent benefit which I think would fry the healthy cortex of Schartzeneggarian proportions. You know you’re doddering a bit when both your mom and daughter present you with ankle braces.

It’s funny what can slow you down. My building has a set of stair cases that thankfully after five years, I don’t think much about….till now. You have to be careful when you think about how you plant your foot a bit and that nearly induced, vertigo I guess. I’m part of a great team and one of the kind souls reorganized our group to “get Mike off the stairs.” That made me feel both really great and sort of pitiful.

I’ve never been a jock of any kind to speak of, but take a degree of pride in doing my share, toting my barge, lifting my bale, doing for the team (“TEAM, TEAM”).

I made sure I wasn’t screwing anything else upIt’s going away, but three weeks off from heavy lifting events will help, but the nerves can repair sooner.

I wouldn’t mind.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Thundercrack

Not a huge fan of most concert videos but this is a pretty good one of one of Springsteen’s underrated tunes

Part of the Show

The shooting in Colorado is a terrible tragedy. I think we can all agree on that. The hailing and flailing of especially folks with microphones is a telling thing. Sometimes there is only so much to say.

Christopher Nolan, the director of ‘The Dark Knight Rises‘, has released a statement on the tragedy that hit Colorado:

“Speaking on behalf of the cast and crew of The Dark Knight Rises, I would like to express our profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community. I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime. The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me. Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.”

Pretty much takes care of it. There will be a fistful of knee jerk reactions to films with a costumed following, a few silly calls to suspend showings and more importantly people who have microphones at their disposal but an abundance of a lack of common sense. I thought Rush Lumbaugh’s attempts at linking Bain Capital to Bane the movie villian were weak, Brian Ross’s attempts to link the shooter to a tea party lineage were pointless and borderline insulting. It’s not the costumes, the film, etc.

Sometimes there isn’t a reason, horror just is…

School Daze

Lot of milestones lately, and the latest one put me, the lovely mother of my lovely children, and the middle child of that collective in White Plains, New York at Purchase College for orientation. It was our daughter’s orientation and first visit to the college of her choice. It was a pretty regular assortment of meetings, sessions, icebreaker type activities. Given it’s location, about 30 minutes north of New York City so there were folks from all over.

I was relieved a bit that it looks nothing like U.B. and is a nice sized community for our daughter to start off and gain some confidence being on her own. It’s right next to White Plains, but built so it is its own little world as well and I think that is kind of cool. One can ease themselves into things so it’s not too much too soon. That didn’t stop my amusement at some of the parents whose questions sounded more like they were sending their ten year old off to camp as opposed to their young adult off to school.

If a community can take our too cool teenager and move her from “I can tell already I’m going to hate it here” (when she saw students dancing parking directions for us) to somebody who has a schedule, two job prospects and three prospective roommates, they must be doing something right.

You never know anything for sure, but this feels like a positive start.

Take me out to the ball game

Well, some of us get taken iffn you play your cards right. Those crazy folks at the Buffalo Bisons offices can put on a show. I was out of town for the Home Run Contest on Monday night, but Wednesday was the Triple AAA all-star game and journeying into the game with my Dad, the atmosphere reminded me a little of when Pilot Field was first opened and the place was full regularly.

We were tucked away among a lot of old school hard core ball fans, which might have been bad, as we are both baseball fans, but we have lives too, so, the events on the field really weren’t taken with too much gospel.

It’s kind of freeing to go to a sports event, where you don’t really have a vested interest, just want to see a good game. That didn’t really happen, but fun can be had in watching the last parachutist miss the ballpark and land on the berm in right field. That actually impressed more than the three guys who made into right field proper.

I enjoyed the spectacle. How can you not have fun watching (and listening) to a couple of strong throated teens get a few thousand people into a “Val-en-tino!” chant for Bison slugger Valentino Pascucci.

Dude ever gets a bobblehead, I’m buyin.

Good show, Bisons

Happy 236th?

Actually we don’t look a day over 220, but in honor of the holiday, a Lee Greenwood free picnic of holiday tunes

Let’s Get Ready to Mumble!

So, Bob Dylan is coming to Artpark in September. This has one of the bucket list feels about it, somebody so known for so long that even if you aren’t a huge fan, it’s still worth it to see him.

Might have to make the jaunt