put it on your shoulder, raise it above your head

Found. Thursday, 6:04 pm. On a dumpster in the alley behind my apartment.

from london, with love

If there's one thing that I brought back from Europe (aside from seven bags of sweet chilli-flavored Nobby's Nuts), it's a deep, abiding, irrational fascination with the insanity that is Eurovision (particularly with the hilarious dead-pan narration of Terry Wogan).

The following entry from Bosnia & Herzegovina blows the mind and assaults the senses. In a word: glorious.

across the pond.

I think that good ol' Dubya would be pleased as punch to know that my economic stimulus tax rebate is being put to good use over in London and Amsterdam.

God bless America.

Cheerio!

on buffalo

It's not like I was all that thrilled to be in Buffalo, NY, in the first place. Every person that I told of this particular work trip immediately turned their nose up at the very mention of this town. My expectations were low.

The airport had no glaring signs of a horrid city, but a quick trip over to the car rental place began to put Buffalo into perspective. The only rental left was an old, gray Grand Prix that smelled like stale cigarettes. Ten thousand of them.

The 10 minute drive to my hotel included seven cop cars.

Once at the hotel it was clear that there was a serious parking problem and that the place was under major renovation. The beds only had sheets on them. With the box spring exposed. And no art on the walls. And it was a Hyatt.

Surely a trip to the Anchor Bar, the birthplace of Buffalo hot wings, would bring some redeeming value to this glorious place. The wings were most certainly tasty, especially when washed down with a New York-brewed lager.

However, whilst at the Anchor Bar, every television was tuned to a local news channel showing a live feed from a hostage stand-off in the middle of the main expressway in town. Not to be out-done, the parking lot of the Anchor Bar provided me with the pleasure of seeing a rather large rat scurry out from underneath my car.

While I am certain there are wonderful, charming people in this town, I have seen very few of them. Most have been trashy, shady and unfriendly.

I'm trying desperately to find something redeeming about this city (vicinity to Niagara Falls, perhaps?) but that seems relatively impossible at this point.

Although, I will say that the salad bar in the cafeteria at Buffalo General Hospital is quite nice. Maybe that's a start?

Poor Buffalo, how thee sucketh.