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It occurred to me earlier this week, when the author posted a summary of some of the recent reviews of her book, that I'd never actually posted one of my own. This, despite being unabashedly in love with it (and kinda liking the author, not to mention the publisher thereof), pimping it here at many a turn, and even, at one point, personally accounting for over six percent of the publishing house's own sales of the thing.
So I thought I'd remedy that, with the added benefit of reminding you to go! buy! read! love!
( A few weeks late but hopefully not too many credits short.... )
Mar. 5th, 2011
We're.... Gaga for Buffalo!
Mar. 5th, 2011 01:07 pmStefani WhatsHerName was in town yesterday. Suddenly everything, from the battles in Wisconsin and Libya to the price of gas, faded as a mere memory as all eyes turned to what she might be doing before her Really Big Show downtown last night.
Some online wags started a daylong trend of fake Tweets about assorted GaGa sightings, beginning with this one:
At least one expatriate SoCal FB friend of mine fell for that one, bemoaning the fact that she was stuck 3,000 miles away from the goodness of Ted's. (My reply? "You have In-and-Out Burger and Koo Koo Roo. Kwitcherbitchin.")
By mid-afternoon, the Tweeting had become rather ridiculous:
Now I'm not into this whole Tweetybird thing (as our new hockey owner calls it), but I can filk a Gaga piece as well as anyone:
[to the tune of, um, this]
Your weather here is so cold,
The population’s so old
You buy Ensure by the case
And Preparations of H
Forget magical-
You’re damn geriatric, oh
Bills jerseys on
And in your old Zubaz pants
You’re in an era that’s gone
And you don’t have a chance
To be relevant
You’re a big white elephant
'But you know that baby, hey-
[Chorus]
I will do you favors
You City of Good Neighbors
Buff-Buff-Buffalocisz!
I’ll free you from your labors,
Bring Stanley to your Sabres
Buff-Buff-Buffalocisz!
Promise I’ll be here all night
But you better not go all Wide Right
Baby you’re so famous
For feeding me Duff’s and Chiavetta’s
Buff-Buff-Buffalocisz!
---
You know I’ll be there
Onstage, Thursday at the Square
Singing top of my lungs
While some underaged punks
Annoy the lawn-chaired oldsters
Puking their last ten Molson Goldens
And from there it’s not far,
Wings at the famed Anchor Bar
You may not think I’m serious
But I’d walk miles for Frank and Theresa’s-
Twenty piece of Suicidal!
'Cause you know that baby, hey-
[repeat chorus]
Real good, You’re texting me how much you hurt
Missing me, so much you shed your shirt
Don't stop- don’t resign for me
Lots of guys, you know, must have the name “Chris Lee”
[repeat chorus]
Some online wags started a daylong trend of fake Tweets about assorted GaGa sightings, beginning with this one:
At least one expatriate SoCal FB friend of mine fell for that one, bemoaning the fact that she was stuck 3,000 miles away from the goodness of Ted's. (My reply? "You have In-and-Out Burger and Koo Koo Roo. Kwitcherbitchin.")
By mid-afternoon, the Tweeting had become rather ridiculous:
Now I'm not into this whole Tweetybird thing (as our new hockey owner calls it), but I can filk a Gaga piece as well as anyone:
[to the tune of, um, this]
Your weather here is so cold,
The population’s so old
You buy Ensure by the case
And Preparations of H
Forget magical-
You’re damn geriatric, oh
Bills jerseys on
And in your old Zubaz pants
You’re in an era that’s gone
And you don’t have a chance
To be relevant
You’re a big white elephant
'But you know that baby, hey-
[Chorus]
I will do you favors
You City of Good Neighbors
Buff-Buff-Buffalocisz!
I’ll free you from your labors,
Bring Stanley to your Sabres
Buff-Buff-Buffalocisz!
Promise I’ll be here all night
But you better not go all Wide Right
Baby you’re so famous
For feeding me Duff’s and Chiavetta’s
Buff-Buff-Buffalocisz!
---
You know I’ll be there
Onstage, Thursday at the Square
Singing top of my lungs
While some underaged punks
Annoy the lawn-chaired oldsters
Puking their last ten Molson Goldens
And from there it’s not far,
Wings at the famed Anchor Bar
You may not think I’m serious
But I’d walk miles for Frank and Theresa’s-
Twenty piece of Suicidal!
'Cause you know that baby, hey-
[repeat chorus]
Real good, You’re texting me how much you hurt
Missing me, so much you shed your shirt
Don't stop- don’t resign for me
Lots of guys, you know, must have the name “Chris Lee”
[repeat chorus]
The good news is, your Buffalo Sabres overcame an early 2-0 goal deficit on the road and beat the conference leading Flyers, 5-3, to keep in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff chase.
The bad news is, most of Western New York didn't get to share in the experience live. The video feed provided by the Madison Square Garden Network, which also provides the audio simulcast provided by MSG to the Sabres Hockey Network, was wonky for most of the game, and it cut out altogether at the stroke of 3:30, when the MSG production facilities were apparently obligated by contract to switch over to a Big East womens basketball game.
The game remained on MSG's HDTV channel, which enabled the radio station's postgame guy to broadcast his own last few minute play-by-play by reporting what he was seeing on the in-studio video monitor. Much like primordial baseball broadcasters re-created game highlights in the 1940s by reading the plays off of tickertape and dolling them up with sounds of bats and balls and crowd noises manufactured in their own studios.
Later in the post-game, they ran their usual highlights of the goals scored during the game. Most of Rick's calls were crisp and clear, but the final-minute empty-netter, which sealed the win for the Blue and Gold, was flimsy and echoey, clearly recorded by an iPhone or somesuch off the HD television monitor in the radio station's employee lounge or something.
This is what you get when your nightly broadcast rights have been sold out to a network which is not only the broadcast home of one of your conference opponents, but in fact owns the other team. That strange-bedfellowship is an unintended consequence of the demise of the Adelphia Communications empire at the turn of this past century, owned by the dreaded Rigas family, which along the way not only acquired the Sabres ownership but founded a cable network and an associated radio station to showcase their games. Now that the Sabres have been purchased by an aggressive new owner, there have been some suggestions favoring the revival of the Empire Sports Network, or something like it, to showcase their games much as YES does the Yankees or SNY does the near-bankrupt Mets.
Note to Ray's file: the squatters on empiresports.com, the actual former domain, lose their current naming rights on May 15, 2011. The somewhat more appropriate empiresports.net, currently parked by a speculator in Zimbabwe, becomes available on April 21st.
----
Totally removed from such sport was the film we watched tonight: Mad Hot Ballroom, a documentary about the use of ballroom-dance competitions in the New York City public schools in the mid-2000s. The dedication, talent and sheer impetuousness of these older-elementary schoolkids were an inspiration to all of us in the room; making it even more touching was the venue of the competition finals.
Eleanor and I visited NYC on the weekend of our engagement, 25 years ago this coming December. We stayed in a now-nonexistent hotel between the towers of the World Trade Center, but in our exploring that weekend, we talked our way into the then-under-contruction Wintergarden of the nearby World Financial Center. That building survived the 9/11 attack, and several years later it served as the host site for these amazing kids from Tribeca and Washington Heights and Forest Hills and Bensonhoist. It's a beautiful recouting of how music and dance can overcome far more obstacles than the two left feet I've been blessed with.
The bad news is, most of Western New York didn't get to share in the experience live. The video feed provided by the Madison Square Garden Network, which also provides the audio simulcast provided by MSG to the Sabres Hockey Network, was wonky for most of the game, and it cut out altogether at the stroke of 3:30, when the MSG production facilities were apparently obligated by contract to switch over to a Big East womens basketball game.
The game remained on MSG's HDTV channel, which enabled the radio station's postgame guy to broadcast his own last few minute play-by-play by reporting what he was seeing on the in-studio video monitor. Much like primordial baseball broadcasters re-created game highlights in the 1940s by reading the plays off of tickertape and dolling them up with sounds of bats and balls and crowd noises manufactured in their own studios.
Later in the post-game, they ran their usual highlights of the goals scored during the game. Most of Rick's calls were crisp and clear, but the final-minute empty-netter, which sealed the win for the Blue and Gold, was flimsy and echoey, clearly recorded by an iPhone or somesuch off the HD television monitor in the radio station's employee lounge or something.
This is what you get when your nightly broadcast rights have been sold out to a network which is not only the broadcast home of one of your conference opponents, but in fact owns the other team. That strange-bedfellowship is an unintended consequence of the demise of the Adelphia Communications empire at the turn of this past century, owned by the dreaded Rigas family, which along the way not only acquired the Sabres ownership but founded a cable network and an associated radio station to showcase their games. Now that the Sabres have been purchased by an aggressive new owner, there have been some suggestions favoring the revival of the Empire Sports Network, or something like it, to showcase their games much as YES does the Yankees or SNY does the near-bankrupt Mets.
Note to Ray's file: the squatters on empiresports.com, the actual former domain, lose their current naming rights on May 15, 2011. The somewhat more appropriate empiresports.net, currently parked by a speculator in Zimbabwe, becomes available on April 21st.
----
Totally removed from such sport was the film we watched tonight: Mad Hot Ballroom, a documentary about the use of ballroom-dance competitions in the New York City public schools in the mid-2000s. The dedication, talent and sheer impetuousness of these older-elementary schoolkids were an inspiration to all of us in the room; making it even more touching was the venue of the competition finals.
Eleanor and I visited NYC on the weekend of our engagement, 25 years ago this coming December. We stayed in a now-nonexistent hotel between the towers of the World Trade Center, but in our exploring that weekend, we talked our way into the then-under-contruction Wintergarden of the nearby World Financial Center. That building survived the 9/11 attack, and several years later it served as the host site for these amazing kids from Tribeca and Washington Heights and Forest Hills and Bensonhoist. It's a beautiful recouting of how music and dance can overcome far more obstacles than the two left feet I've been blessed with.