Arenas? Who needs arenas?

I really don’t know when I’ll go to see an arena show again. At least not unless I’m being paid to write about it.

That was one of my conclusions as I walked out of the Quaker Meeting House in Orchard Park Friday night. I had gone with my daughter, Abby, to see Dan Berggen, Dan Duggan and Peggy Lynn – the trio aka Jamcrackers. If you want to check out what they sound like, go to http://www.berggrenfolk.com/ and http://www.esperanceproductions.com/ and http://www.quercusmusic.com/.

It occurred to me that although I would love to see the Springsteen & the E Street Band show at HSBC Arena in November, I probably won’t put down the bucks. Part of it is that the best remaining seats seem to be nearly behind the stage and cost $81 bucks, once you figure in all the charges. You can easily spend several hundred on floor tickets if you go through some ticket brokers.

Of all of the big-time rockers, Springsteen is the one artist who would tempt me most to spend that kind of money. But, to be honest, with two kids in college and another one nearing it, I don’t have the money.

And when I go to see a show like the Jamcrackers, I don’t need to go to an arena. The trio, all acclaimed solo folies as well as Jamcrackers, are regulars in the Adirondack region. The Dans are old friends; I used to do websites for both.

Together they make music that is uplifting, funny, moving, spiritual and energetic. They engage the audience – frequently on a personal level. Their music has depth, and they’ve got some incredible skills. They’re a little like Springsteen in all those regards. Without the hundreds of feet separating you from the stage.

In fact, that’s one of the reasons they’re able to make those connections.

Seeing live music in small venues, that' can be the rule rather than the exception. In the past few months I’ve had chances to see Greg Klyma (BTW, go see him Wednesday live at Allen Hall in Buffalo – for free!) , Gurf Morlix and Grant Hart in house concerts. I’ve seen Commander Cody, Bill Kirchen and the Twangbangers and a host of others at the Sportsman’s Tavern, and Mark Norris & the Backpeddlers at WBFO live broadcast.

Arenas? Who needs arenas?

My own Continental coverage

I went up to Buffalo to see what was happening last Thursday. Here's what I saw.

Continental Coverage ...

It's been awhile since I've used this forum, but I figure it's time to bring it back to life.

Here's the issue today: media coverage of the demolition of the Continental, the old black box punk club on Franklin Street in downtown Buffalo. It was a lot of things for a lot of people. Soon it will be a high-end hotel (or at least the parking garage for one) for business folk visiting Buffalo?

So how did the media cover it?

Here's coverage from Channel 4 (WIVB, the CBS affiliate):



And now here's Channel 7 (WKBW, the ABC affiliate):



And if the embedded video is behaving a little strangely (and it seems to be that way off and on), you can view it at http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/61264502.html?video=YHI&t=a.

And here's the Buffalo News version: http://www.buffalonews.com/409/story/807030.html

So what do you think? Who got it right? The people who focused on the new hotel or the old Continental?

Sex, Lies and the Smoking Gun: Politics and Journalism

Whoever came up with that title for a forum at the downtown library in Buffalo has a way with headlines.

Of course, as in the National Enquirer, the headline oversold the story a bit. Still it was an interesting night, hearing former newspaper and TV reporter and current St. Bonaventure Journalism Dean Lee Coppola, Business First Publisher Jack Connors and WGRZ-TV icon Rich Kellman – and the audience – get a chance to talk about journalism and scandals.

The short synopsis? Scandals sell.

No news there, but there were plenty of observations on the news media. Among them:

Coppola quoted CNN’s Wolf Blitzer (Bonas’ commencement speaker) answering a student query on why the network keeps repeating stories, endlessly, through the 24-hour news cycle: “Because we don’t know when you’re watching.” So I guess you get what you deserve if you watch too much cable news!

Coppola also said the “responsible media find it very uncomfortable to cover stories of immorality.” Which may be why the National Enquirer broke the story on presidential candidate John Edwards’ affair with a campaign videomaker.

Kellman cast the Erie County budget debacle in a meta-story context – WGRZ getting to play the role of hero, with former Erie County Executive Joel Giambra as Darth Vaderesque villain? Was it fair? Maybe not, but Giambra did get caught totally mismanaging the county. And, as Kellman pointed out, the audience needs a STORY.

Kellman credited former WGRZ reporter Stefan Mychajliw (now unrepentant chief apologist for the Buffalo city schools) for his ability to simplify and clarify the story to draw the audience into the stories.

“We were doing our duty as journalists, but it was also good for ratings … an ideal situation,” said Kellman.

Kellman described the situation as a “black swan,” a phrase I hadn’t heard before. It’s a situation that is totally unexpected, but fortuitous – at least for the TV station and its news ratings. It apparently takes its inspiration from “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable,” a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb that has sold a heck of a lot of copies.

Connors provided some reminders that most newspapers had histories as political organs. The Buffalo Courier (and later the Courier Express), for example, was once owned by waterfront boss “Fingy” Connors (damn, I forgot to ask if they were related!) as a forum for pressing his agenda.

Connors (Jack, that is, not Fingy) also drew a line between moral scandals (Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky) and misuse of public funds/abuse of power. Bill Clinton’s approval ratings, Connors said, rose during the scandal and subsequent impeachment.

So there you have it. Not too much mention of Alexander Hamilton (the forum was part of a series of events commemorating the great man – who also had an affair with a friend’s wife. Hamilton’s wife, by the way, stood by him when it was revealed).

With such great source material, there were other items that could have drawn more attention. For example, the press’ dealings with Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, the slave Jefferson apparently had an affair (and children) with. I’ve read that the criticism was so severe it made Jefferson almost rue his support of a free press (including the oft-quoted: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”).

Mention was made of Grover Cleveland’s love-child, but not much of how it was handled in the media. According to a story in U.S. News & World Report on past presidents’ indiscretions, The Buffalo Evening Telegraph ran a story headlined, “A Terrible Tale: A Dark Chapter in a Public Man's History: The Pitiful Story of Maria Halpin and Governor Cleveland's Son." The resultant rhyme was “"Ma, Ma, where's my pa? Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!"

Meanwhile, Cleveland’s opponent, James Blaine, was knee deep in corruption accusations as the 1884 election approached.

As per Jack Connors’ observation, Cleveland won.

Pine Doggin'

What is it that makes me love the Pine Dogs? Oh, great songs in a classic American rock 'n' roll style. Two great singers in Gretchen Schulz and Jim Whitford, with Gretchen adding in some great stage presence. Whitford's do-it-all guitar. An accessible, humorous stage presence that guitarist Don Vincent, bassist Tommy Fischer and drummer Jim Celeste help cement, turning may of their fans into their friends.

But like a lot of my favorite Buffalo bands (Steam Donkeys, Scott Carpenter & Real McCoys, most of Terry Sullivan's projects, to name a few off the top of my head), for reasons now buried in the past they never met with commercial success they deserved.

But the fans remember. In fact, Saturday night's show was another of the "family reunions" that Buffalo shows so often turn into. At one point singer and guitarist Gretchen Schulz started name-checking the people in the audience -- from the stage.

The band played over three hours, over 30 songs -- largely their originals. The audience mouthed the words to the songs, and the girls danced like it was 1989 -- albeit with a little more bounce to the ounce to match the gray growing in the guys' hair -- if they still have it. The Pine Dogs did their signature mix of American rock 'n' roll, with a ton of songs by guitarist and singer Whitford, but some by almost every member.

It was great to see Vincent back on second guitar. While the band continued after his departure several years into the band's existence (in 1995, just past halfway into the band roughly 1989 to '98 prime years; , his leaving took a little away from the group's glue. It's great to have him back for the occasional reunion shows.

This is music that should have been hits. On Saturday night, for a few hours on Amherst Street n Buffalo for a set of old friends, it was again.

BTW, here's a youtube video shot at a show as part of one of the area's summer series, with lots of kids jumping around on stage with the band. They're performing "What You Want."



If you get a chance to catch them again, don't miss it.

Road to DC, part 2

Washington ... what a trip.

That's both figuratively and literally. Our Fredonia group's expedition to Washington for the inauguration was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

It's a good thing that we went in with the expectation that we had no expectations. We just wanted to be there for the moment.

Most of us really wanted to be on the National Mall. Only one of us -- Buffalo State student Mandy, who traveled with us but stayed with a friend in DC -- actually made it there, though.




The rest of us tried, though. The Ploetz group got up at 4 a.m. and left the hostel by 4:30 (later than many of the others staying there). You can check out the video above. Coffee was hard to come by at that hour -- the line from the Starbucks stretched around the block.

The maps weren't really well marked to show which paths went to the national mall, where we could see the inauguration on Jumbotrons, and which went to the parade path along Pennsylvania Avenue.

The cops and the volunteers weren't much help either. The answers kept changing. We finally ended up in a line by 14th Street, which despite what somebody in a law enforcement uniform had told me, was for the parade.

It was also, however, by the National Press Club building, which explains how we got interviewed by TV crews from Sweden and Japan and by an Australian radio journalist. It may also have had something to do with my wife, Sandi, wearing an Uncle Sam-style felt top hat.

And, yes, it was cold. Bone-chillin' cold. We wound up on the parade route, where the parade didn't actually start until about 3:30 or 4 p.m. The crowds were cheerful and relatively patient despite the bitter chill, and then there was the squirrel.

I'm actually taking other people's word on this. Apparently a gray squirrel was playing near the feet of a disabled lady in front of us. People were taking photos of it.

But then something startled the squirrel, it bounced to the top of the lady's chair -- or perhaps her shoulder -- and bounced again. I felt something smack my ski cap and asked who had been throwing things into the crowd, only to be told I had been ... squirreled. The squirrel was smart enough to disappear into the shrubs behind us.

We waited. And waited. We talked with a guy from Minnesota who was waiting for his son to march in the parade. His son was playing clarinet in a group marching in the fifth of six divisions.

A city commissioner was taking photos with a very nice digital SLR camera. He said he had a ticket to sit inside the enclosed area in front of Washington's Wilson Building -- the city hall -- but he couldn't get across the parade route to get there. I guess you really don't mess with the feds.

Two girls from Australia stuck it out longer than us. Their faces were a wind-burned pink from the 20-plus-mph winds.

An older African-American woman was there in a wheelchair. Her son said they left New Jersey at 2 a.m. to get there. She insisted on coming. We wondered if the cold might be enough to do her in, but apparently she survived.

Meanwhile, others from our traveling group had repaired to the Capitol City Brewing Company, where the view was better and the Inauguration Ale flowed. They caught their own part of the experience - perhaps a bit more sensibly!

By the time we left (just after Joe Biden passed), we were frozen nearly stiff. Every part of my body hurt when I moved. Most of it hurt when I didn't.

But we were able to bring home some memories of a historic moment for America -- and memories of our personal reasons for being there.

Road to DC, part 1

Whew ... it's been a whirlwind the last few days. Interviewed by media from three continents. Hit in the head by a squirrel. Chilled to the bone. Thrilled to be there.

Yes, we went to Washington for the inauguration, our first in person.

By us, I mean a group of Fredonia students, Dr. Linda Brigance, Lecturer Amber Rinehart and my family. Thanks to the youth hostel in Washington we had an affordable and convenient place to stay.

I'm sure each of us had our own reasons for going. I'm not sure the network broadcasters got it quite right for many of us, though. Yes, it was an historic moment when the first African-American president officially took over the job.

But I think for many of those in the throngs throughout the capitol city, there was more to it than that. There seemed to be a sense that something bigger was going on, a sense of hope that politics could change from what it had sunk to in the last eight years. That was what the pilgrims wanted to be part of; they wanted to say, "yes, we believe this country can be more than it has been, and we're here to reinforce the points that were made on Nov. 4."

Woodstock without the drugs? Maybe. It was definitely a gathering of the tribe -- those who have been ashamed of the actions of our country's government since 9/11, and idealistic enough to think the directions can be changed.

Expectations are so high for Barack Obama that he's bound to disappoint many of his supporters down the road. But for a few days it was good to set my reportorial skepticism aside and believe.

(More tk -- including the squirrel story -- in Part 2)