tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14470326312191184402024-03-19T01:48:13.294-07:00The Hosey ReportKevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-51106613738045822432024-02-19T20:36:00.000-08:002024-02-19T20:36:17.599-08:00Leif Spiritual - Pink Days EP<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUdoaYo5cuvQRt0-AvRU33B-rGaCyoAIaeyud_EMIZR7Lz167gXTLWwI4wsPXCYN3pD1ixyyRMyotesYxu6qtERwUt8fN9XoRyoOckkahMbbHOWLjcmC0-IgzA4gqLX5gw4VRdyIMlqN_D8WDpwlsdrlcG1PUrKwFSzassku6CUfBIhVuXt7rExDtg9g/s206/423454466_1061189975176297_1123383110788357068_n-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="206" data-original-width="203" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUdoaYo5cuvQRt0-AvRU33B-rGaCyoAIaeyud_EMIZR7Lz167gXTLWwI4wsPXCYN3pD1ixyyRMyotesYxu6qtERwUt8fN9XoRyoOckkahMbbHOWLjcmC0-IgzA4gqLX5gw4VRdyIMlqN_D8WDpwlsdrlcG1PUrKwFSzassku6CUfBIhVuXt7rExDtg9g/w394-h400/423454466_1061189975176297_1123383110788357068_n-1.jpg" width="394" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Leif Spiritual is the nom de musique of Tony Christiano, best known as the lead guitarist/co-lead vocalist and songwriter for Oui73, one of the best/my favorite bands from the 1990s. He recently released (I just can’t make myself say or write “dropped”) a four-song EP, “Pink Days,” and it is really, really, really good.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"> There is a lot of what made Oui73 so good, loudly ringing, charging guitar work, moody atmospheres and interesting songwriting; Christiano told me that much of the recording is based on his experience in Oui73 and apparently the surrounding times. I gathered that from some references before he told me that, and subsequent listening to this EP reinforced this.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The recording starts with “You Know I Need It,” upbeat ringing guitars with a touch of Oasis sound; Christiano has been looking for something better in a relationship of some kind, and believes he’s found it, whether band or partner wise, wanting more than a quick fix or mindless set up. The title song follows, referring to the Pink Flamingo/The Old Pink, Buffalo’s best dive bar for longer than the 30-40 years many of us drank, smoked and listened to great DJs like Terry Sullivan, Casino el Camino, Eric Van Rysdam and David Gutierrez. The hard but melodic rocker has Christiano looking back after so many nights there, and half resenting, half laughing at the bouncers and staff throwing customers out at the end with the same lines and methods he saw as a much younger man. His refrain hook of “this place will never be the same” is humorous, based on experience and little bit of nostalgia.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“Out of My Hands,” a collaboration with Allison Pipitone, who sings harmony vocals (Christiano’s sister, Holly Christiano, played guitar in both Oui73 and with Pipitone) has more surging, charging guitars, and Christiano’s occasionally slightly distorted vocals sing of trying to save a situation, musical or romantic, but he’s done all he can and it’s up to others to put in the same effort so things don’t end. The final song, “A Crash on the 425,” is a slow, ominous, sometimes spooky or scary song about a car crash on that Canadian highway, made all the more eerie because it’s based on an accident Christiano came upon years ago. The acoustic guitars build until the electric guitars take over, and Christiano seems to go back and forth from the agony of the male driver searching for his partner and his own shock of discovering the accident, the outcome never clarified.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Leif Spiritual’s “Pink Days”can be found at Apple Music, Spotify and on most music platforms.</p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-74848502878129279262023-07-23T06:26:00.000-07:002023-07-23T06:26:13.640-07:00RIP Tony Bennett: It's a Family Affair<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGCs4FXwOH4sn7kKkLhqSXjKrO8FTSbeklDe78px9R4w89RwBSZBE5JPBM2ZLGoF1EmFpQpOQPsGGLydEQzgR_xYolAZn2f0EHM8anmB4wN9HlTVUZNj1WvcUYr0TSvoLKGqCf6jDlakZ44f3gNb2AgaWSSUG_Fo3e0iZ7TvQQTX74d4vhqQIAJ4hXNg/s225/download-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGCs4FXwOH4sn7kKkLhqSXjKrO8FTSbeklDe78px9R4w89RwBSZBE5JPBM2ZLGoF1EmFpQpOQPsGGLydEQzgR_xYolAZn2f0EHM8anmB4wN9HlTVUZNj1WvcUYr0TSvoLKGqCf6jDlakZ44f3gNb2AgaWSSUG_Fo3e0iZ7TvQQTX74d4vhqQIAJ4hXNg/w400-h400/download-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">I’m saddened at the recent death of singer/activist Tony Bennett at age 95, both as a fan and for the family affair connections he created for many years.</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"> My late father Edward introduced me to Bennett’s music more than 50 years ago; a major big band jazz fan, with Stan Kenton his holy grail, dad's favorite male vocalists, at least from what little he would say in his usual secret way but introduced to me playing them on weekends, seemed to be Frank Sinatra and Bennett. No doubt partly for this reason as well as really liking their music, particularly the 1940s-mid-1960s, they became my favorite male jazz vocalists (I’m willing to be enlightened of others). There is something they could do with a melody and rhythm, and the use of dynamics and subtlety and/or taste both Sinatra and Bennett used are needed more today.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>While I thank my father for the introduction to these two singers, my late mother Sheila is a former fan of Bennett, although I kind of believed she never really stopped liking him. But every time my father would play his music for me, or any time Bennett appeared on television, mom would loudly launch into her mostly staged anger at how she used to love his music and was a favorite, but did I forget he up and left his first wife for a younger woman and that people just didn’t do that and that she couldn’t listen to his music any more. Of course, I frequently heard her singing “Fly Me to the Moon” and “I Left my Heart in San Francisco” while cooking or other activities, sometimes even dancing a bit while she sang.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I was thrilled when Bennett made a serious comeback in his 60s, first with his tribute to the music of Fred Astaire, “Steppin’ Out,” but as no surprise, my favorite of his later albums was “Perfectly Frank,” a gorgeous, heartfelt and wonderful album of Sinatra songs. His version of “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” would be amazing at any age. The fact that Bennett, a World War II veteran, was busted in rank because he ate meals and fraternized with African American soldiers, and later joined the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, shows he was more than a singer.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The first night after the announcement of Bennett’s death, I spent hours listening to his music, starting with the classic “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” album, and even listened to his Christmas album on a hot July night, thinking about the singer, my mother and father. I hope l always think of them when I hear Bennett’s music.</p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-7178734398516247122023-07-09T16:35:00.000-07:002023-07-09T16:35:22.339-07:00Gurf Morlix - Caveman<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS7oPvrmFInGDX8MtiJXgDfvAm2Yhbx_iWHZy2rPHCLQJfe0CqV-WawFy3MxThIS66LejyFImWvop9WXJq0QAqh5xyPClAkQnOHhHdLqadKAlrxDvW4NaOfCj4OtML2vpbUCVaYKuZrZRDqK2Cwgt5stigR59rCuAzPc1TtWgO0Kg_11A42GjVGA3ocA/s2560/CAVEMAN-scaled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="2560" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS7oPvrmFInGDX8MtiJXgDfvAm2Yhbx_iWHZy2rPHCLQJfe0CqV-WawFy3MxThIS66LejyFImWvop9WXJq0QAqh5xyPClAkQnOHhHdLqadKAlrxDvW4NaOfCj4OtML2vpbUCVaYKuZrZRDqK2Cwgt5stigR59rCuAzPc1TtWgO0Kg_11A42GjVGA3ocA/w400-h400/CAVEMAN-scaled.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: large;">(This review was started in March, but some continued writer’s block and other issues have<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>delayed completion until now. I’ll try to explain more soon; go figure. KJH)</i><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">If you’re a professional, independent musician who tours a lot, produces other musicians and occasionally accompanies other musicians live, a pandemic such as COVID-19 (which really isn’t over) can potentially cause a lot of problems, from financial and artistic to personal/social. Buffalo/Hamburg native Gurf Morlix, who does all of the above, apparently named his late 2022 CD Caveman (Rootball Records) in recognition of how he feels things had gone for him.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Fortunately, it sounds like things went quite well musically, because Caveman is a really good bluesy, rootsy country rock album. Morlix seems to have emerged from the pandemic pretty good so far, having played everything on the 10 songs here except for one accordion part and one drum track, as well as having produced and engineered the album. Not one to sit around even when you’d think he earned it, Morlix released his newest album, I Challenge the Beast, April 1. Indeed, he said he has recorded at least seven albums worth of music during COVID-19.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The album opens with the fun “I Dig Your Crazy Brain,” sounding a bit tongue in cheek and led by a great bluesy country guitar riff. He notices someone for what might be outward appearances to others but Morlix sees something more underneath; he also delivers a short, sweet and stinging solo. The title song follows with Morlix noting he has and will do what he has to do to endure, an achievement both as an independent musician and survivor of the virtual stopping of his way of life for several years. There is some cool, echoey guitar on this track. There is also a notable cover of Jim Whitford's “Crash All Night,” originally released on the ex- and current Pine Dog’s Poison in the Well CD, produced by, you guessed it, Morlix in 2000 (Morlix and Whitford have been friends since childhood); the song features the original drum part played by the late Donald Lindley.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Elsewhere, “Where the Lost Are Found,” some spare, swampy blues with a rocking solo, seemingly has Morlix leaving behind the superficial “friendly” world for something more substantial. “Mudbugs” shows Morlix looking back and forward to good, honest food, people and music, Louisiana flavored rock with a fine accordion part from Joel Guzman. He also nods to some great music and memories on “1959,” a dirty blues rock number. I could go on, but there really isn’t close to a bad song here.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Morlix and Rootball Records can be contacted, and Caveman (and the new I Challenge the Beast) can be purchased, at <a href="http://www.gurfmorlix.com"><span class="s1">www.gurfmorlix.com</span></a> and at <a href="https://gurfmorlix.bandcamp.com/releases"><span class="s1">https://gurfmorlix.bandcamp.com/releases</span></a><span class="s2" style="color: #fc4911;">.</span></span></p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-56316443280131252962023-01-02T13:19:00.000-08:002023-01-02T13:19:10.805-08:00Thee Isolators: "Crying Eyes" b/w "Close That Door"<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Uhl7N-_cIbEgCxc__5TaHjjznXhH2AyIpKIEWluD2BBBJShGrqFNodES41AZDUqr-ynUC8L0BzMWe-JjjK1D651Kt-h7MN_0zn1iXlLtT7sgvyZCI77nu0eZc7oFI0C8WF1Iv2uoAU9tZ2O-GTbjn7ZPzHYR8O_7COD7cJ9YSMoe767WTrzB0eQ/s700/a2556134169_16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Uhl7N-_cIbEgCxc__5TaHjjznXhH2AyIpKIEWluD2BBBJShGrqFNodES41AZDUqr-ynUC8L0BzMWe-JjjK1D651Kt-h7MN_0zn1iXlLtT7sgvyZCI77nu0eZc7oFI0C8WF1Iv2uoAU9tZ2O-GTbjn7ZPzHYR8O_7COD7cJ9YSMoe767WTrzB0eQ/w400-h400/a2556134169_16.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> I'm obviously going to explain a bit in a moment, but in case you want just the bare facts/my opinion: Thee Isolators new single, “Crying Eyes” b/w “Close That Door,” on Iso-Tope Records, is a great fucking slab of 60s garage punk rock. The mono recording and in-your-face wall of sound kicks from the first note to the last.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Thee Isolators have been together a few years and are kind of an all-star band with a bit of a newcomer: Matt Aquiline of Revolver Records on vocals and guitar is joined by bassist/vocalist Mark Norris (Girlpope, Doombuggy, solo), Bob Hanley (The Irving Klaws, Cottonmouth) on organ and vocals and Craig Voigt (The Ramrods, Oui 73) on drums. Their live shows are a sweaty blend of 1960s garage punk rock and occasional poppier sounds, with some 1970s/80s punk and power pop roar added in and are highly recommended, especially if you haven’t done so yet.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The original “Crying Eyes” comes charging out with Voigt’s drums before the rest of the band explodes in fine punk form; Aquiline’s tough, sinister vocals detail his getting dumped by his woman, but while it hurts, he’ll pick up the pieces and get over it without trying to get her back. After a wild guitar solo, he knows she can’t hurt him any more and his pride remains. The band also covers the smoldering gem “Close That Door,” originally recorded by the Tigermen. The slashing guitar, organ and thumping rhythm section actually sound reminiscent of Buffalo’s legendary The SplatCats from the 1980s (having caught lots of shows and owning every recording of this band, I don’t say/write this lightly). Aquiline’s bad romantic luck continues; he knows that they’re through so he’s heading back from where he came, pretty much slamming the door shut, but not before tearing off another short, screaming guitar solo.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Thee Isolators’ recordings are available at Bandcamp.com, and the band can be contacted there or on Facebook and probably other social media outlets.</p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-36484925110895771362022-09-27T16:20:00.001-07:002022-09-27T16:20:54.110-07:00Sarah Borges: "Together Alone" <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp7sFL6Snv2Uztc9btTAzjgh58zjvH4hDEbjRWKOyHbF1_Ag37tNzMSsEbJzv6tcNKAJxlEyRFjaTTzm6rPcNAM4pmbNQagNOf8wKB9u_ToduigK3gixyy4b1K-MbQ9bcnvvMQlf1qtUp-WJyCyvI7HZrhkjKf6PIdZwnVEi0nL1fRAE1ukjiJ4oE/s570/SarahBorges_TogetherAlone-3000x3000_300dpi-570x570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="570" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp7sFL6Snv2Uztc9btTAzjgh58zjvH4hDEbjRWKOyHbF1_Ag37tNzMSsEbJzv6tcNKAJxlEyRFjaTTzm6rPcNAM4pmbNQagNOf8wKB9u_ToduigK3gixyy4b1K-MbQ9bcnvvMQlf1qtUp-WJyCyvI7HZrhkjKf6PIdZwnVEi0nL1fRAE1ukjiJ4oE/w400-h400/SarahBorges_TogetherAlone-3000x3000_300dpi-570x570.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"> I have enjoyed Sarah Borges’ music for years, and gave a very positive review to her “Diamonds in the Dark” CD with the Broken Singles way back when Val and I had our BuffaloRoots.com web site. So I was very happy to see she released a new album. “Together Alone," on Blue Corn Music. Even better is that I’m not disappointed; this is a great album.</span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> “Together Alone” frequently focuses on life just before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as its aftermath (no, not end), not only how all parts of life have been affected, but how the loneliness, hurt, longing, fun and need for others, while worsened during the pandemic, existed beforehand, continue and will always be there. Borges’ music includes punk and power pop to basic rock and roll, country, blues, Americana and pop.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> She and the musicians (producer, guitarist and occasional co-songwriter Eric “Roscoe” Ambel stands out) start flexing their muscles from the start on “Wasting My Time,” bluesy Americana rock basically describing life during the new wartime, COVID-19, fighting through the loss, loneliness and death. Just living and even making mistakes are worth it and Borges’ choices. The driving rock of “Lucky Day” follows, on which Borges seemingly hopes a relationship will get better while pretty much knowing it won’t, like one’s chances playing the lottery. “Wouldn’t You Know,” chugging blues and rock, comes to the realization that she never really got to know this guy despite them having fun.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> Despite the seriousness of most of the songs Borges maintains her sense and need for fun on the rocking “You Got Me on the Boat,” the story of she and her band’s great experience on the xM Satellite Radio Outlaw Country Cruise #5, the last thing they did before COVID-19 changed the world. “She’s a Trucker” describes the jobs Borges took to get by during the pandemic, way more than just as a musician, again with Ambel leading the band through some driving rock.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> Borges and company leave the title song to the end, a thoughtful, jangly tune recalling life before and during the pandemic. Trying to stay in contact with lovers and friends will always be different and vital; nothing is the same any more, broken hearts, death, separation and loneliness all have more causes and longer lasting pain. Things don’t and won’t get magically better when COVID ends and relationships won’t continue or improve because people realize their faults and mistakes. Borges sounds mournful, slightly hopeful but also uncertain. </span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> Not wanting to over categorize things, but this album is really good rock and roll for grownups while still remaining youthful at times. Here’s to hoping Borges and band will stop in Buffalo soon supporting “Together Alone,” because it’s been way too long since I last caught them live. Borges can be contacted at Blue Corn Music, at www.sarahborges.com and on Facebook and Twitter.</span></div></div>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-68055204037678658972022-09-18T16:27:00.000-07:002022-09-18T16:27:25.822-07:00Ray Wylie Hubbard - Co-Starring Too<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZyStarmF09OWH7O2ljUzKxZ7qmrh7MNFTKRwKMtD3NjRaH-IzyxSjwSGg3NRLLqPuZvkfM838Izmz-07YyUTOmUnZpSthlQo6FIzh17X9Lf1I0RpXizorYwbgvkES04q8KXFMRKaDtNM8WwH0hWqDFHIm0qxOwzNyw_8laTGbh86p5ecc8hGSn9M/s600/RWH_0200_ART_ALBUM_CoStarringToo_Cover_2021.11.23_FNLcopy_grande.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZyStarmF09OWH7O2ljUzKxZ7qmrh7MNFTKRwKMtD3NjRaH-IzyxSjwSGg3NRLLqPuZvkfM838Izmz-07YyUTOmUnZpSthlQo6FIzh17X9Lf1I0RpXizorYwbgvkES04q8KXFMRKaDtNM8WwH0hWqDFHIm0qxOwzNyw_8laTGbh86p5ecc8hGSn9M/w400-h400/RWH_0200_ART_ALBUM_CoStarringToo_Cover_2021.11.23_FNLcopy_grande.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Musical collaborations can be dicey; just because two artists admire each other’s work or till similar fields, doesn’t mean working together will produce a good song. The prospect of an album full of collaborations runs a gauntlet, and a second such album almost invites them. So, it is very good fortune that Ray Wylie Hubbard’s new recording, “Co-Starring Too,” on Big Machine Records, is a really good album.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"> The 11 songs avoid the pitfall of sounding disjointed; you can’t tell at times that these are 11 different collaborations. It sounds like the songs were conceived to be on an album that just happens to have different musicians on most songs. It doesn’t hurt that Hubbard lends his gravelly, swampy vocals and sound to some fine musicians, starting off with “Stone Blind Horses,” sharing lead vocals with Willie Nelson on a stately, slightly battered country flavored song where they acknowledge approaching the end of their earthly existence and hope they’ve touched the lives of people well and maybe been appreciated along the way. There’s some nice accordion and Lloyd Maines plays his usual excellent steel guitar.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Hubbard and friends kick up some serious dust on several songs (possible credit to his son and excellent guitarist, Lucas Hubbard, part of his father’s touring band. who appears on several songs). “Only a Fool” is a great, rough rocking tune where Hubbard and the Bluebonnets strongly assert that one would disrespect women at their serious peril, with angry guitar supplied by Eve Monsees and/or Kathy Valentine (yes, that Kathy Valentine). “Naturally Wild,” featuring Lzzy Hale of Halestorm on vocals and guitar and John 5 (currently with Rob Zombie, formerly with David Lee Roth, Marilyn Manson and k.d. lang) on guitar, warns the listener not to expect them to calm down or ease up. “Texas Wild Boys” has some fuzzy guitar illustrating hard living but decent people who aren’t like the police, politicians or corporate crooks, with a tough solo by (apparently) Tom Lukovac.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>On the swampier, more soulful side, “Groove” is a slinky, funky song about where the groove started, crediting many places and influences but certainly leaving the listener to think soul, funk, blues, gospel, rock and other styles combined in various ways. Kevin Russell and the Shiny Soul Sisters add great gospel vocals. On the country rocker “Hellbent for Leather,” Hubbard and Steve Earle sing of returning to Oklahoma from Los Angeles, having had enough of the bright lights. “Pretty Reckless” is a humorous story of ending up on a night out in Austin with someone as crazy and, well, reckless as yourself. Wynonna Judd duets with Hubbard while Charlie Sexton and Gurf Morlix (the former Buffalonian who also played bass in Hubbard’s band for a 2022 Austin City Limits performance and previously produced Hubbard) provided smokey, bluesy guitars and bass.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The only complaint I have is that the credits are really hard to decipher. While the insert prints the song titles, singers, writers and lyrics, the musicians aren’t listed there but are found on the packaging under where the CD goes, in small print that goes line by line without arranging them song by song. I hope I didn’t mess up any credits in this. article.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Hubbard can be contacted at Wylieworld Music, PO Box 2706, Wimberley, TX 78676, at www.raywylie.com, and Hubbard occasionally graces Twitter and Facebook with his comments. Big Machine Records can be found online at www.bigmachinelabelgroup.com.</p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-30537518509012778752022-09-12T17:02:00.000-07:002022-09-12T17:02:26.606-07:00Music Is Art Festival: Just as the Name States<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6nfI_CL-_3rILBBdoKWMbLZszNj8azKootR8lN-fIlccIKtrK3Td-dkh1idVjY8vvVCsqvHV2IKiEtFcQSj2g6UQGLAESX9qan3joDcaoS7GQdoLb4DJQ70YZ57yOyvAdwht7ktW_dXeqJmE0u3sNsegoLIr02HLSQ1AeWI1u8OwB4L-UfwUf708/s4032/IMG_2093.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6nfI_CL-_3rILBBdoKWMbLZszNj8azKootR8lN-fIlccIKtrK3Td-dkh1idVjY8vvVCsqvHV2IKiEtFcQSj2g6UQGLAESX9qan3joDcaoS7GQdoLb4DJQ70YZ57yOyvAdwht7ktW_dXeqJmE0u3sNsegoLIr02HLSQ1AeWI1u8OwB4L-UfwUf708/w400-h300/IMG_2093.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My lovely wife Val at her photography booth ay MIA</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> The 20th annual Music Is Art Festival, the brainchild of Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac and company, was another great time and success at Riverworks September 10. I don’t want to write, and I doubt most people want to read, a straight narrative of the 13 or so hours my lovely wife Val and I were there manning the Val Dunne Photography booth, watching bands and so on, or the two-plus hours setting up the day before, so I’ll try to illustrate my highlights and one or two hopefully interesting takes/observations.<div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxUIhhrDo7YPI47y4ed3xkwH1Hq_wtmsP-hnXpP-0jPi5GqKyn2I7RN8zax8a7BVCqIg1x_740o8CZo_88VvYCkbyHRLW7H8OejE1THgmqZOSFAFSrn8lK46ZI3f9iSdMaGUamxl3aIlyRMp2UnZmxMLK_oppK6CvnfhBqW6CEgVK5dEfq-3QAOa0/s2971/IMG_2122.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2764" data-original-width="2971" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxUIhhrDo7YPI47y4ed3xkwH1Hq_wtmsP-hnXpP-0jPi5GqKyn2I7RN8zax8a7BVCqIg1x_740o8CZo_88VvYCkbyHRLW7H8OejE1THgmqZOSFAFSrn8lK46ZI3f9iSdMaGUamxl3aIlyRMp2UnZmxMLK_oppK6CvnfhBqW6CEgVK5dEfq-3QAOa0/w320-h298/IMG_2122.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soul Butchers Allan Uthman and Justin Rowland</td></tr></tbody></table> Let’s start with the band I’ve been wanting to catch live the most for a year or so, the Soul Butchers, who I did witness this day; simply amazing. The band delivered an intense, thundering set of punk rock and hard rock led by the scorching guitar of Allan Uthman and the insanely powerful vocals of Justin Rowland. Despite having to perform on the Ganson Silo back stage, possibly the hardest to find or most remote stage to get to, the band attracted a crowd and more than made it worth our effort. Using his voice on its own and with a megaphone on occasion, Rowland’s singing makes you feel like the guy in the chair of the classic Maxell cassette tape commercial.</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJUaBpwdJ8BaKV2MUjHJVbvlcvfQyEkzYHy61oD8d5FXyaHYquN8xOAMYGzKEqupYHyKzkZ2DfkzQEpQWE291SQ_eDmrTMaKmQnBVd67VqGhSX5lmJkNms1e1cZCtO2lfWNP7AbNyn_MC7ihtn3gzlX4OjioXOnDJHM44wmLsoJJS7s9GDWrfnCKo/s3897/IMG_2158.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3897" data-original-width="2693" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJUaBpwdJ8BaKV2MUjHJVbvlcvfQyEkzYHy61oD8d5FXyaHYquN8xOAMYGzKEqupYHyKzkZ2DfkzQEpQWE291SQ_eDmrTMaKmQnBVd67VqGhSX5lmJkNms1e1cZCtO2lfWNP7AbNyn_MC7ihtn3gzlX4OjioXOnDJHM44wmLsoJJS7s9GDWrfnCKo/s320/IMG_2158.jpeg" width="221" /><br /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div> Tension/Wicked Tension also performed a memorably strong, aggressive set as the band celebrates its 40th year (I still have my four-song 45 featuring “Recruits,” and Tension was one of the first bands I professionally interviewed more than a few years ago) as Buffalo’s best hardcore punk band. Vocalist Tymn Tension, original drummer Tony Ferro, guitarist Troy Messio and bassist Mark Giuliano were energetic and solid, and Tymn’s dark but accurate sense of humor always adds some fun. The Enemies also sounded pretty good and provided an interesting moment. During part of their set, Terry Sullivan (vocalist for the Jumpers, the Restless, Terry and the Headhunters and many more) came over and said hello. As we spoke, the Enemies started playing “I Wanna Know,” a song Sullivan sang with the Restless on its only Mercury Records album. Sullivan laughed, smiled and said, “wow, this is just surreal for the both of us.” “Really for you though,” I replied, and he said back, “no, really, for both of us.” It had struck me that way, but seemed much more for Sullivan. He then went to the front of the stage to wave to guitarist Guy Pelino who also played with the Restless for a time.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmxRikWtwTJDO2tG6IlNC7c21BYHgo1t0kxfFGRWovFZXFG59vVgUqt62dCW8OsJjSLttQjiqN41tD309GTsMklbllOJ1cFsvKtFWBjn1PK1SJ61f8sOSdYT594BDfTAO-DviRrrtG36M1FtlZwYk9Br1LmgiZ8hLQXxJWVemWH0NZI8jVczQNEUg/s4009/IMG_2134.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2085" data-original-width="4009" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmxRikWtwTJDO2tG6IlNC7c21BYHgo1t0kxfFGRWovFZXFG59vVgUqt62dCW8OsJjSLttQjiqN41tD309GTsMklbllOJ1cFsvKtFWBjn1PK1SJ61f8sOSdYT594BDfTAO-DviRrrtG36M1FtlZwYk9Br1LmgiZ8hLQXxJWVemWH0NZI8jVczQNEUg/w400-h208/IMG_2134.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Clockers may have played to their first sit-down audience.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div> For me, the strangest and somewhat funniest part of the day involved one of the hockey rinks Val’s booth was located between. In recent years, the rinks have hosted youth karaoke and talent contests for bands and individuals from young kids through high schoolers. This year, the rink nearest the front of the property hosted the youth battle of the bands, which featured some seriously good talent. But this year, at about 4-5 PM, a halfpipe was set up and punk bands played from the stage of one rink, a pretty good idea. But when I looked in during the Clockers’ set, much of the crowd was sitting in the two metal bleachers set up in front of the stage and I could not see any moshing. I suppose as a 61-year-old heart attack and massive open heart surgery survivor, I somewhat understand, but it was still funny.</div><div><br /></div><div> I walked in and out of several performers on the main GCR stage inside, mostly while on my way to elsewhere but to at least catch a bit of music. Tom Stahl and the Dangerfields sounded in good form and like they were having fun; not sure Stahl has ever performed a down show. Peelander Z, a flashy punk, “comics” and whatever they throw in the mix band from Japan, received an amazingly enthusiastic response from the crowd for what seemed to be formulaic, upbeat cutesy punk. The Pillagers wiped off<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj03OM_Dvfsqx9Zz7gBhtWVp2VWKHhUddyDgrQKCGQoyq7d0fZeIdaWdYarsK5laYK5wf6aen3owNKklUBbIoEUOAiaeYSW5d-Or24jx1qqWHckRQa24k503hO4XSWFp46obEQ5DDEufllHANlqzbOMoIBLys1GHvwZ2eivB8so47QTOlsR-ZX8m88/s3239/IMG_2101.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1649" data-original-width="3239" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj03OM_Dvfsqx9Zz7gBhtWVp2VWKHhUddyDgrQKCGQoyq7d0fZeIdaWdYarsK5laYK5wf6aen3owNKklUBbIoEUOAiaeYSW5d-Or24jx1qqWHckRQa24k503hO4XSWFp46obEQ5DDEufllHANlqzbOMoIBLys1GHvwZ2eivB8so47QTOlsR-ZX8m88/s320/IMG_2101.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tom Stahl & the Dangerfields</td></tr></tbody></table>about a decade or so of dust to play an enjoyable rocking set. I also caught parts of sets by several bands and performers I had no wish to find out their names or subject myself to much of their music; they shall remain anonymous.</div><div><br /></div><div> There was much enjoyable work from artists on display; certainly, I am lucky to be married to my favorite photographer, Valerie Dunne, and spent much of the day helping at her Val Dunne Photography booth. We has Jess Pfohl create a painting of Rick James across the hallway from us, and Chris Main also created a cool painting outside near the water. There were many other artists not only displaying their work but creating on site.</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSa2w-opET_XNCmmaEVDxTZi_ZuPz4ui7Vtwkzo_U8IjQI5DFKQyq0XBL9Wm2Y2e_odPBzKNo99C68mU9bGn5g7cD56pd35UiMXyNedSZJM1eyrjOkqgmOO9ODi71bNmKfO8_HOUcUPMgEnIePmB4LFnXCywAF1u4-TtROrgX0gqUYHbFa8EytE24/s2878/IMG_2103.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2878" data-original-width="2802" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSa2w-opET_XNCmmaEVDxTZi_ZuPz4ui7Vtwkzo_U8IjQI5DFKQyq0XBL9Wm2Y2e_odPBzKNo99C68mU9bGn5g7cD56pd35UiMXyNedSZJM1eyrjOkqgmOO9ODi71bNmKfO8_HOUcUPMgEnIePmB4LFnXCywAF1u4-TtROrgX0gqUYHbFa8EytE24/s320/IMG_2103.jpeg" width="312" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jess Pfohl painting Rick James</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div> Music Is Art has become an established highlight of Buffalo’s summer, not only as a great outlet and living, breathing site for music and art, but for people to get to see friends they may not have recently been with, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Admission remains free, while parking is difficult and at a premium (and private businesses charging money for the parking, none going to MIA). Takac and his group of committed volunteers deserve a lot of credit for continuing this festival, from its modest beginnings on Franklin Street in Allentown to its time at Delaware Park and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery to the present.
</div>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-75614626734412442312022-09-04T17:25:00.000-07:002022-09-04T17:25:51.403-07:00Soul Butchers - Landfall EP<p> <span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEOcDnzdlDsayBwWGBJuYbqYN1IfjleBECTuBaewLQp2O8Pya8RSs1G-_Z_rF2C6jakBkaTHVKichU6CYDL73cWMrC0GYEKmF3QGYG1tA1CDpg-KoQ2WLT9yWjywnVWp8IgP8qpBp339DjSkZHKO49Q8_Qvf4ge_nc9yVz1Saz3S8hvIeYPhLjViA/s700/a4247890439_16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEOcDnzdlDsayBwWGBJuYbqYN1IfjleBECTuBaewLQp2O8Pya8RSs1G-_Z_rF2C6jakBkaTHVKichU6CYDL73cWMrC0GYEKmF3QGYG1tA1CDpg-KoQ2WLT9yWjywnVWp8IgP8qpBp339DjSkZHKO49Q8_Qvf4ge_nc9yVz1Saz3S8hvIeYPhLjViA/w400-h400/a4247890439_16.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Soul Butchers is a band I’ve been meaning to listen to, live or recorded, pretty much since it came out and had several people who I trust recommend them. But between my writer’s block and COVID-19 hitting, as well as my forgetfulness, I hadn’t until I recently purchased the band’s 2020 6-song EP, Landfall. Well, I deserve a bit of a snack to the head, because it’s really fucking good.</span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The sound is a snarling, angry mix of punk, rock, metal and blues led by the soaring, pissed off vocals of Justin Rowland and wailing guitar of Allan Uthman, supported by the rhythm section of bassist Rob Bernette and drummer Joe Peluso. It seems Soul Butchers are a bit of a mystery or secret; the band does not have a web site and its Bandcamp page does not list band members or print any lyrics.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But it’s no mystery how good the music is from the start; “Crawl” features Uthman going from rough and bluesy to churning punk/metal, while Rowland urgently sings of an apparent power/domination situation he does anything he can to leave. “Have to Die” has a hilarious but ominous singalong chorus after a cool bass and guitar intro that turns into punchy, rough punk, and Rowland sees only one over-the-top way to fix things. After the mid-tempo crunch of “Landfall,” Uthman in particular ups the voltage, with blazing riffs on “Nervous” illustrating Rowland’s apparent frantic attempts to interact with people, and the hammering punk of the almost out of control “Pills,” where Rowland shows the effects of amphetamine abuse, eventually losing control. “Trail of Blood” ends the EP with a heavy metallic guitar riff and Rowland trying to get out from under a person, government or system that bring out violent tendencies in him and other people. Sadly, he sees no way out and no fewer victims.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The one issue I have with some of the EP is that the vocals occasionally get a bit buried by the music, which may not be too bad to some with Uthman’s supercharged playing, and I should admit that I have been diagnosed with a bit of high frequency hearing loss (40 or so years planted much too close to speakers will do this to a person). Soul Butchers can be found on Bandcamp, Facebook and Instagram<span style="font-size: 11px;">.</span></p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-20965477523183921462022-08-28T18:37:00.001-07:002022-08-28T18:37:49.639-07:00The Return of the Prodigal Reviewer Son<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipDA4Y_xEbyVjXJVFCSpKjQDI4BaVq12yxyX5vp0IiTVtGMXDNCKAVTAU1SGY8qWPOiNiNLgXJD4pDXRPr5z_oWe7AIqxO6G_lbDAauf8MP7Xn6WV3ceFnGGLOez458pK-GPtSqvPWHrf0CBi2bF78pL8-Y15f9gWFnj-RP3INXSW0URqQARaAQ7A/s2915/IMG_2004.heic" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2915" data-original-width="1867" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipDA4Y_xEbyVjXJVFCSpKjQDI4BaVq12yxyX5vp0IiTVtGMXDNCKAVTAU1SGY8qWPOiNiNLgXJD4pDXRPr5z_oWe7AIqxO6G_lbDAauf8MP7Xn6WV3ceFnGGLOez458pK-GPtSqvPWHrf0CBi2bF78pL8-Y15f9gWFnj-RP3INXSW0URqQARaAQ7A/w410-h640/IMG_2004.heic" width="410" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">No column logo, so a new Mask-R-Aid music notation selfie will do</span>.</td></tr></tbody></table><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><br /><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Thank you to those who have recently reached out online or asked me in person if The Hosey Report has returned/started to cover music again. The answer is yes and I am very excited about it.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This blog had sadly swerved away from music coverage in the last few years, especially following my heart attack and massive open-heart surgery in late 2017. On top of that, suffering from a painful, sometimes almost crippling case of writer’s block for several years didn’t help, and this blog went much too infrequent for my liking. Things picked up in frequency for an unfortunate reason, as the COVD pandemic hit and I addressed nothing but that issue for about two years. In that time, I did start taking photography much more seriously, and am heartened by my progress as a photographer, being able to express myself artistically and politically, as well as the generously warm response from you fine people.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But I need to be sure that I do not forget that I am a writer at heart, in talent, calling, vocation and art and any other way it can be referenced. Having been a newspaper reporter and editor for more than 18 years and a freelance writer for more than 35 years, it gets in your blood, just like the ink we used to print with not so long ago. Slowly, the urge to write about music returned, and a few bands and musicians (Monkey Wrench in particular) reached out to me about writing about new musical releases, etc., and I started buying some music, at Bandcamp and elsewhere, with much of it making me want to write about it.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It has also led me to look for some interesting, off the beaten path type photo mini-essays, such as the one I published on the guitarist playing serious metal favorites outside Starbucks on Delaware Avenue in the middle of a workday. I’m finding some really good music, my lovely wife and by far the better photographer in our marriage Val Dunne and I are going to more shows and I feel an enthusiasm for all of this I haven’t felt in years. Most of my new reviews have been either CDs or digital recordings, and those will continue, and I will also review the occasional live show and conduct a couple of interviews.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It’s good to be back, and performers wishing to contact me can email me at <a href="mailto:kjhosey@roadrunner.com"><span class="s1">kjhosey@roadrunner.com</span></a> or comment here; email me for my mailing address if needed.</p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-6247519049622700502022-08-21T16:48:00.000-07:002022-08-21T16:48:44.346-07:00Brandon Delmont: Soul of a Delmont<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMesZAgWViFoaxJJQagVf-xeUStVZ3cePfcbwEKB4U2xhnUFzrmg5IWNpsQUyQtQXeVn-XQi163LF97D1Y5ULJ-jCxBUgBm8Is5av40wXjzhqXa7mOs0pGIGzc-fa5i31HSW_1Wz7Or-oRVheMI0lUhSuLwrBm8c_0GtV0-u__BigyEXyzSMigYOI/s700/a0942350669_16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMesZAgWViFoaxJJQagVf-xeUStVZ3cePfcbwEKB4U2xhnUFzrmg5IWNpsQUyQtQXeVn-XQi163LF97D1Y5ULJ-jCxBUgBm8Is5av40wXjzhqXa7mOs0pGIGzc-fa5i31HSW_1Wz7Or-oRVheMI0lUhSuLwrBm8c_0GtV0-u__BigyEXyzSMigYOI/w400-h400/a0942350669_16.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Brandon Delmont may be best known as the talented drummer for girlpope, but the composer and multi-instrumentalist has been more than busy since that band ended its career. He has and/or still performs and writes for bands including the Lindbergh Babies, A House Safe for Tigers, Odiorne and the underrated A Son of the Sun.</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"> This year, he released a new 7-song recording, “Soul of a Delmont,” for NocturnalSol, and it is simply wonderful. Melding jazz, pop, soul, funk and rock. the all-instrumental recording allows Delmont to stretch out and work with some fine musicians, while apparently playing much of the music, from drums to other instruments. “It’s McLemore” starts things with horns, guitar and organ leading a smooth but soulful song with some swing and 1970s feel, and adds a real cool organ solo from Janes “Jamie” Burgess, who supplies most of the trumpet and trombone here. “”Way of War” is a bit more mellow, with the horns swelling to a stronger trumpet lead and more funky rhythm guitar.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My two favorite songs come in the middle of the recording: “926” is basic, majestic jazz and soul with some bluesy heat and slower tempo, while “Sort of Blue” sounds a bit like a tribute to Miles Davis’ classic “Kind of Blue,” with moody lead trumpet and a smokey backing band. Elsewhere, “Now and Ben” blends 60s pop, rock and soul while swinging organ and trumpet both take leads and Joey Tosto plays a sweet guitar solo; “Ready, Set, Go!” Is another slice of pop and soul, and “Casi En Casa” is regal jazz, soul and pop well mixed.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Brandon Delmont and NocturnalSun can be found on Bandcamp, Delmont also on Apple Music and both he and several of his bands can be found on Facebook and other social media.</p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-72741087621426829602022-08-14T15:39:00.000-07:002022-08-14T15:39:05.119-07:00The Greg and Jim (and Cathy and Jim) Band at Duende<p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlsLWWQ6xDHJrBYb-u_YYZx4vcr57cLWX8CRGoJj_67CsAWrdYr0m_dOuVmRsTMOLyyPfGlE6n2GW2PBmPzGV7sO5ziXvaDPiaPfGBrRCkuuAyRCzzcGX-I3GXAY1kTZxbxQz188ke8tv9pCqqqGk1aVCA5iQF-yRdfx2vLghUHDMETbIUulbJHs/s3902/IMG_1866.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2502" data-original-width="3902" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlsLWWQ6xDHJrBYb-u_YYZx4vcr57cLWX8CRGoJj_67CsAWrdYr0m_dOuVmRsTMOLyyPfGlE6n2GW2PBmPzGV7sO5ziXvaDPiaPfGBrRCkuuAyRCzzcGX-I3GXAY1kTZxbxQz188ke8tv9pCqqqGk1aVCA5iQF-yRdfx2vLghUHDMETbIUulbJHs/w400-h256/IMG_1866.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> In some ways, Thursday, August 11, 2022, could be called a virtually perfect day. The weather was a wonderful sunny 75-78 degrees, there was a bit of a breeze and the Greg and Jim Band performed two sets of original roots rock, Americana and country and western to a large, appreciative crowd at Duende at Silo City.<p></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The pretty much all-star band of Greg Klyma on guitar and vocals, Jim Whitford on bass and vocals, Cathy Carfagna on keyboard, accordion and vocals and Jim Celeste on drums and vocals performed songs from Klyma’s various solo recordings and from Whitford’s songbook from the Pine Dogs and solo work. Whitford has played on several of Klyma’s recordings and Klyma was a member of the Red Liners, basically the last invocation of the Pine Dogs; Celeste is the original/sole Pine Dogs drummer and Carfagna and Whitford have performed together in several bands and setups.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The band performed some great Pine Dog tunes including “Everybody Looks So Down,” “Whiskey Voice,” “Moving Pictures” and “Good Luck, Money and Gasoline,” as well as Whitford’s solo songs “Mr. Money Man” and “Crash All Night.” Among the notable Klyma songs were “Still No Silver Linin’,” “Jane,” “Kristofferson” and “Davidson County Beauty Queen.” Throughout the two sets, the musicians played well off each other, with no one trying to steal or overstay their welcomes in the limelight, a testament to both the quality of musicianship onstage plus the experience both in general and playing together live and in the studio. Solos were never too long, no preening was on display and the musicians showed honest appreciation of each other’s talents, occasionally injecting some humor. The audience enjoyed the band, danced along and even sang at times, and Duende’s laid back setting and atmosphere/vibe gave the show and evening a fine groove. (Also, not paying $100 or more for tickets and no charge for parking helped.)</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Finally, if you haven’t caught these musicians either solo or with their respective bands, do yourself a favor and do so, and the same for anyone who hasn’t had the chance to catch a show at Duende. Besides a rather extensive beer/wine list, they have a pretty decent appetizer, sandwich and dinner menu.</p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-85353714455522638392022-08-07T16:48:00.000-07:002022-08-07T16:48:47.177-07:00Matt Smith's Nervous System - Close Down the Dream<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHOPgu58cb9jtTbX5n5rZ1nL58rUKzLQZ6GBmzJKydAEZlFJ-PCBDnNLvwP5Jq1P_zylIGRVrrXXhsokaTmC_9GmUEUTlbdcdRZnASDj8b_7xB7840te191TFP1tXRh-lKSplJSYglPzWCz6HNUIjr-3gVZZujPclrguy-EHo7IJYGNPiGcm_W2L0/s700/a2314584595_16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHOPgu58cb9jtTbX5n5rZ1nL58rUKzLQZ6GBmzJKydAEZlFJ-PCBDnNLvwP5Jq1P_zylIGRVrrXXhsokaTmC_9GmUEUTlbdcdRZnASDj8b_7xB7840te191TFP1tXRh-lKSplJSYglPzWCz6HNUIjr-3gVZZujPclrguy-EHo7IJYGNPiGcm_W2L0/w640-h640/a2314584595_16.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p> <span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Matt Smith never stopped creating music after playing for years in some of Buffalo’s relatively best known and most successful bands, first Scott Carpenter and the Real McCoys/the Orbits before that, and with The Headhunters led by Terry Sullivan. Smith later basically created his own studio, produces and records his own music and other performers and plays out live again.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> Now recording and performing as Matt Smith’s Nervous System, accompanied by Colin Pratt on bass and Roddy Potter on drums, Smith released an absolutely wonderful album in 2021, “Close Down the Dream.” I could take the easy route and say that the album features 11 songs of Smith’s guitar playing (10 originals, one cover), as well as Matt singing and the rhythm section doing a fine job, and be done, but I am a rock writer, and well…</p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The recording starts with “Downer,” a basic drums and bass rhythm before Smith comes in with spare, funky, bluesy guitar that gets more stinging and echoey; while there’s a bit of singing, this is a virtual and winning instrumental. “Everything Isn’t Anything Anymore,” beginning with stripped down, rumbling guitar, has Smith wondering whether or not his work, music or life is good enough or when do you stop trying, themes he returns to often. With this recording released in 2021, no doubt much of the writing and recording went on during the worst of the COVID pandemic, possibly causing some introspection. “A Regular Thing” sounds hot and atmospheric with slower guitar; Smith comes to grips with everyday life and the good and bad of repetition, while his guitar sounds bluesy and even happy at times. “Teardrop Avenue” has an upbeat Motown sound and great guitar work.</p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Songs keep excelling in the same mode, and after a cover of the Rolling Stones’ ”Child of the Moon,” “Reality” charges out with a riff endearing to us Stones/New York Dolls fans while Smith seems to sing that people should keep more of their BS to themselves. Some of the best songs are saved for the second half, including pretty much the guitar magnum opus of “Chasin’,” where Smith muses over trying to not fall behind creatively, socially, romantically and so on. The more than 7-minute song features about five minutes of Smith’s guitar rocking, ringing, soaring, scratching and feeding back, a bit like his “Marquee Moon.” Pratt and Potter stay out of Smith’s way while upping the intensity. “Until It Fits” takes the much quieter route, spare and fever dream like (some keyboards nicely accent Smith’s guitar), where the love of a person, vocation and substance seem to blend or at least are compared.</p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I’ll stop but believe me, this is one REALLY good recording. Matt Smith’s Nervous System’s music is available on Bandcamp, the band’s website is <a href="http://www.mattsmithsnervoussystem.com"><span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">www.mattsmithsnervoussystem.com</span></a> and the band also has a Facebook page.</p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-40682460160055462792022-07-31T18:32:00.004-07:002022-07-31T18:32:58.944-07:00RIP Ed Honeck & Thanks for Having My Back<p> <span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Damn, it seems that I have yet to catch up with remembrances, as I need to pause and remember Edward Honeck, the former publisher of Buffalo Night-Life Magazine, the first professional publication for which I wrote and the home for more than 15 years of this attempt at musical opinion and mental clarity, The Hosey Report. Honeck died May 27, 2022.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I wrote for Buffalo Night-Life Magazine from 1985-2001, originally brought on board by then-editor and author Rick Falkowski. People who read me years ago may recall that I did not exactly hold back on my opinions, good or bad, for bands, clubs, radio stations or promoters in the Buffalo music community. It was thought to be refreshing at first, but of course, when I criticized certain bands, stations, clubs, etc., perceptions of refreshing turned to wrong, stupid, hurtful, uninformed, vile and worse, and calls for my disciplining, up to and including firing, came up frequently and in print, as well as in telephone calls to Honeck and others. NEVER, not once, did Ed come to me and ask me to change my approach or content, change an opinion, kiss anyone’s ass or apologize.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This includes one of my more famous, infamous or notorious articles and processes. In 1988, Buffalo Night-Life Magazine was hosting the Buffalo Music Awards at Manikin’s on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Tonawanda. As usual, cover bands and tribute bands of all sorts were receiving lots of honors, making lots of nauseating speeches and braying like mules about how good they were for the Buffalo music scene. It’s no surprise that as a more than 5-decade supporter of original Buffalo music, I did not take to this well, including in print. At one point at the ceremonies, Robbie Takac threw a bottle at the podium and speaker and the Goo Goo Dolls were ejected. My article, printed in the December 12, 1988 edition of Night-Life, criticized the awards, radio stations and the entire stinking system in my blustery opinion; the reaction included two weeks of pages of letters on my article (and more trickling in later), some agreeing, many not, some generally opining and several calling for my either reining in or firing; Buck Quigley was kind enough to defend me in print. Buck himself had been tossed off the stage after he had some fun and accepted awards for other bands before handing them to the actual winners and criticizing the actual award concept while accepting the best new music band award for the JackLords.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>While Buffalo Night-Life Magazine was sponsoring the awards, Ed stood by me, never telling me to back down, never threatening my status as a writer for Night-Life and not telling me to apologize or change anything. The incident barely came up again and when it did, after he assured me that Night-Life didn’t lose any readers or advertising from my articles (both good and bad, I suppose), the reaction was raised eyebrows, a hearty laugh from Ed and a shared drink. I left Night-Life over financial considerations, but more than 20 years later, I have one gift Ed gave me, a black hooded sweatshirt with Night-Life sewn on the chest. It’s a great sweatshirt I still wear, but if I didn’t, I’d keep it anyway. Thanks, Ed, and RIP.</p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-15828178591246530872022-07-24T16:29:00.000-07:002022-07-24T16:29:03.167-07:00Dave Palumbo: Another Buffalo Music Community Loss<p> <span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNNCNC8NIQMv0nlP3_qDbgEuM1FDQYsDwpFgSIwnysN-nKI6lXK1Dlx94umQMBOWSPZntqxkNpV2GyeNNSwP3hLdmFkXHOGEE1HKTPb-ytqB5LqbOAQG_VfxKuu-gtoPx6n-CO9E_p4BIolMEYepiSeGijJPaeYu4qR0KWxHPgZBfOzR6ShE6zh0w/s326/images.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="154" data-original-width="326" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNNCNC8NIQMv0nlP3_qDbgEuM1FDQYsDwpFgSIwnysN-nKI6lXK1Dlx94umQMBOWSPZntqxkNpV2GyeNNSwP3hLdmFkXHOGEE1HKTPb-ytqB5LqbOAQG_VfxKuu-gtoPx6n-CO9E_p4BIolMEYepiSeGijJPaeYu4qR0KWxHPgZBfOzR6ShE6zh0w/w640-h302/images.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Sadly, here we go again, another remembrance post, this time for Dave Anchovies, known to his family as Dave Palumbo, who died July 19, 2022, and whose love of music led him to operate a great record store, perform as a musician and support other musicians/the Buffalo music scene.</span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Palumbo operated Spiral Scratch Records, a great independent music store which supported original Buffalo music in many ways, from featuring their music on sale at the store, first on Delaware Avenue and later, after a destructive fire, on Bryant Street near Elmwood Avenue, to hosting performances by many local bands and artists, especially on Record Store Day. Spiral Scratch Records closed in 2015, leaving a hole in both the independent record store community and Buffalo music community overall.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A cool DJ at WBNY 91.3 FM from his student days at Buffalo State College, Palumbo later hosted an excellent Saturday night show as an graduate/alumnus on WBNY, the “Scratch n Sniff Radio Programme,” where one was likely to hear just about anything, particularly with a sinister edge, whether style, sound, lyrics or recording quality. As a musician, Palumbo was probably best known as guitarist for the Trailer Park Tornadoes.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Our paths crossed in almost entirely musical ways, from both being WBNY graduates who seemed to be remembered for playing loud, obnoxious music and sometimes hoped listeners/detractors were offended. We both did what we felt was best to support Buffalo/WNY musicians, although you might say that Palumbo really put his money and heart where his mouth was. It was also nice to live less than two blocks from Spiral Scratch Records when it was on Bryant Street, getting to go there for bands or to shop, as well as frequent dog walks past the store with Harold. Strangely, Dave and I never had a real long conversation, no comparing of notes or ideas or anything (naturally, no photos of him); the nature of seeing someone while bands were playing or one of us was running their business precluded really long talks, but I would have loved to have had time to talk about things further. Sadly, none of us will have that opportunity, and Dave will be missed more than any of us can imagine.</p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-26139995066370380162022-07-17T15:34:00.000-07:002022-07-17T15:34:03.149-07:00Support Your Local Musician - At All Levels<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdoqlmZble4YQJ5Oy8KFB3QWrup7NT1cF0G1aGWq-rf8KYjhOgkdUtiuUEZn_ozA2KnBsw1L7CRBfQvXw7GbdUhLqjIhn61LYCP_1uISFxuxeHiDnDR2NKh9XDgi3upOiRNMBvpnBZnppy7vmZ0Re_AJjewAFDlzf9rKMQ_fe-YFcX48VRYl1jspo/s3311/IMG_1570.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3311" data-original-width="2468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdoqlmZble4YQJ5Oy8KFB3QWrup7NT1cF0G1aGWq-rf8KYjhOgkdUtiuUEZn_ozA2KnBsw1L7CRBfQvXw7GbdUhLqjIhn61LYCP_1uISFxuxeHiDnDR2NKh9XDgi3upOiRNMBvpnBZnppy7vmZ0Re_AJjewAFDlzf9rKMQ_fe-YFcX48VRYl1jspo/w239-h320/IMG_1570.jpeg" width="239" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEA79wdTYtuUwNcAzZBP3WIaby3C3Nvm1odQBO1GVnuUFkovgwNvFa96WI0YrPS3yxNC336cUii93EBBkjDxV6GMcMYDglBzZNumUhV0eopQCa4gwfxIGuFqXENqesV0uu4wjxp-7-4VOqDFF1gRo5vXnNm46cS5k_ABqAzyaIGQP9vEvJXZvq8PQ/s2125/IMG_1567.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2125" data-original-width="1539" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEA79wdTYtuUwNcAzZBP3WIaby3C3Nvm1odQBO1GVnuUFkovgwNvFa96WI0YrPS3yxNC336cUii93EBBkjDxV6GMcMYDglBzZNumUhV0eopQCa4gwfxIGuFqXENqesV0uu4wjxp-7-4VOqDFF1gRo5vXnNm46cS5k_ABqAzyaIGQP9vEvJXZvq8PQ/w232-h320/IMG_1567.jpeg" width="232" /></a></div></div><br /><br /><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">I was taking one of my lunchtime walks about a week ago, basically 1:30-2 PM, on one of my main routes, from the Rath Building to Delaware Avenue to Tupper Street; Babeville and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center are at the intersection. Typical weather: hot, sunny and a bit humid.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> Early on the opening part, I walked on the opposite side of Delaware Avenue from where, at the intersection of West Chippewa Street, stand Spot Coffee, Starbucks Coffee and Bocce Club Pizza. Almost a block away, I heard unaccompanied electric guitar playing Black Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral.” A shirtless guy, with white facial makeup covered with black highlights near the eyes and mouth, much closer to King Diamond than Kiss, and leather half-sleeves was playing a Flying V replica through a small amp on the sidewalk at the corner.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My walks are very important to me and my continued post-medical fun long-term recovery, so I continued, but quickened the pace, hoping to get back on the other side for more of his playing before he was asked to leave or escorted away. Happily, he was still grinding away when I came back, this time ripping some riffs from a couple of songs from Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” album. I smiled and nodded when I approached him and he smiled back. I asked if he would accept a donation; he smiled and said yes, so I handed him a couple of dollars. He took it and said, “Thank you so much, man,” and when I told him to keep up the good work, he smiled even wider, said “You bet I will, partner,” and went back to playing. His playing finally subsided in the background as I closed in on work to again take on my Erie County duties.</p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-20331563246136569842022-07-12T16:52:00.000-07:002022-07-12T16:52:02.376-07:00An Unexpected but Deserved Tribute to Sara Rogers<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho8xBfVmYzVr8ygULdGEkzYdajONuTRmnhVqKtV7qgqf8vhT7kaGIbjmcHFykPl31TTiQ7HI33Gbytn0UQUn1HGTEVsV_7JnjCrKS6JOf7PO_ErqA7Ei27Uublj6tbYr0J48tsZil4E2dqlCusogw529L3JMx6ggU3mKLJI8lO29bZRz54wSAi7tU/s3425/IMG_1673.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3425" data-original-width="2721" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho8xBfVmYzVr8ygULdGEkzYdajONuTRmnhVqKtV7qgqf8vhT7kaGIbjmcHFykPl31TTiQ7HI33Gbytn0UQUn1HGTEVsV_7JnjCrKS6JOf7PO_ErqA7Ei27Uublj6tbYr0J48tsZil4E2dqlCusogw529L3JMx6ggU3mKLJI8lO29bZRz54wSAi7tU/w509-h640/IMG_1673.jpeg" width="509" /></a></div><br /><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Harold (Val and my 11-year old pit bull blend) and I were taking our typical Sunday afternoon walk on Buffalo’s West Side when we turned a corner and came to a house we frequently notice because there is often a dog water dish in the walk and a humorous but serious sign about the occupant’s dog,</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"> There was also a sign that took my breath away for a moment, a drawing/painting of a young woman playing an acoustic guitar with the legend “Welcome to Music with Miss Sara. Music for All Ages and Abilities.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It was sadly obvious this is a sign advertising the skills and vocation of Sara Rogers, who was killed in June when she was hit by a car while riding her bicycle on South Park Avenue in Buffalo at only age 29.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I did not know Ms. Rogers personally, but I was aware of her professionally and have read many wonderful thoughts and words about her on social media as well as pieces in the Buffalo News and Buffalo Rising. A jazz and acoustic music guitarist, singer and songwriter, she had earned her bachelor’s degree in music, worked as a music therapist and was known for her enthusiasm and commitment to helping all people, but it seems especially younger people, find and experience the joy and wonder of making music, art and living life. She touched many people in apparently profound ways and certainly made lives better, something we would be grateful to achieve and should always strive to do.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>There are many musicians and artists in Buffalo and Western New York who touch others in these memorable ways but may fly under the radar, and our music and artistic communities should be proud that Ms. Rogers was one of them and will no doubt leave her mark and influence on others for a long time. I find no adequate words to thank Ms, Rogers for her spirit and accomplishments nor those of proper condolence to her friends and colleagues.</p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-55896125980564424352022-07-03T21:59:00.000-07:002022-07-03T21:59:49.896-07:00MonkeyWrench - Sasquatch Gold CD review<p><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMBhxxE2CpKLFeqmHEUpzOGIAHvndaTDO0eReOgCfBzR52dkS1ZitMNSIRk89695N7BlGdmjnPGSzUlqfYw0UNx-RCnm_97bHJphRidFiyD6rCwK7Z-sWful_ju6RI3Dr0ZO8WHf0Aol9aGhGH-4cKgyL_wU3L0mYumYZvtYUXcAOxQDUv326Elr0/s700/a0210925504_16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMBhxxE2CpKLFeqmHEUpzOGIAHvndaTDO0eReOgCfBzR52dkS1ZitMNSIRk89695N7BlGdmjnPGSzUlqfYw0UNx-RCnm_97bHJphRidFiyD6rCwK7Z-sWful_ju6RI3Dr0ZO8WHf0Aol9aGhGH-4cKgyL_wU3L0mYumYZvtYUXcAOxQDUv326Elr0/w400-h400/a0210925504_16.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">In about 35 years, you can drink a lot of beer, play a lot of loud, fast rock and roll and punk music, make friends, work jobs, drink beer, write songs, move apart, reunite and face yourself, if you’re smart or fortunate, maybe both. On their newest 5-song CD “Sasquatch Gold,” Monkeywrench does all of this.</span></span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> For a time one of Buffalo’s best musically and hardest drinking bands (yeah, a bit of my opinion with some fact), Monkeywrench, made up of Timo Walikis on guitars and lead vocals, Schmidty on lead guitar and vocals, Scotty James Dio Maruscak on bass and vocals and Marc Yonkers on drums and vocals has released several albums, 45s, tracks and so on. After Walikis moved to California, the members went their separate ways, performing in other bands, most notably Schmidty in the very good and very underrated country rocking Flatbed. Happily, Walikis moved back and the band reunited. It shouldn’t be forgotten that the band’s alter ego, the Vinny Barbarino Experience, gained an unexpected popularity playing revved up 70s and 80s covers of all genres, and is playing occasionally again.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I have been a big Monkeywrench fan from the start, and noticed from the start that the band kind of walked a high wire with the drinking thing (this was during my drinking days as well). Social drinks were frequently called for from the stage, shots were accepted and the legendary Piels helmets became famous, but as many of us discovered, there are holes and blanks that the booze doesn’t fill, things change too fast, life in general starts coming in and it isn’t always fun or sensible.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Monkeywrench has addressed these things in songs for years, but faces them head on on “Sasquatch Gold.” The CD starts with “That Would Be Great,” a kick ass rocker with Walikis noting it’s almost a surprise the band made it here kind of intact, or at least functioning, and that “you can only hate so much until you just let go.” “Beat the Feel” also blazes along as Walikis drinks alone, gets more drunk, realizes he’s lied to himself about life as it moves on. “Fucked Up Better” pulls the throttle back slightly to a melodic rocker; Walikis points out his drinking hasn’t improved much and may have prevented him from failing more spectacularly: “Should have fucked up better…was never much of a plan.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The all leads to the CD ending mid-tempo country rock “Drinking of Me,” an amazingly mature reassessment of the life of a punk rocker who put his music and maybe drinking first and his now-ended relationship second. Walikis knows things are over and it’s mostly his fault, and eschews bitterness and nastiness for understanding, reflection and appreciation of what his ex went through and the effort she made. He tells her “I hope to God you’re not with someone like me,” and of course, sends her off with the title toast.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“Sasquatch Gold” can be obtained through Bandcamp or Apple Music, and Monkeywrench has pages on Facebook and Instagram.</span></p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-84621909104352036292022-02-13T13:54:00.000-08:002022-02-13T13:54:31.460-08:00No clever title today; clear the snow/ice off your sidewalks<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgbtA8UDvHEfreBTpIP0IGUMDqqs_rYEkYPUQ8voXJiKfQtNvon91D2_gCFsDXhIVj8e9mrLkw74rqvL58z1frCSgINBS9BOAm9jMD-CfKzu3Inzny6bvPj2rNkIkR2Wyh1xTKTp89hvXJoI7UKNn0IRte1MnyNy7w-_WlGEGyoSXsNXwluxfXsAVU=s1863" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1863" data-original-width="1490" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgbtA8UDvHEfreBTpIP0IGUMDqqs_rYEkYPUQ8voXJiKfQtNvon91D2_gCFsDXhIVj8e9mrLkw74rqvL58z1frCSgINBS9BOAm9jMD-CfKzu3Inzny6bvPj2rNkIkR2Wyh1xTKTp89hvXJoI7UKNn0IRte1MnyNy7w-_WlGEGyoSXsNXwluxfXsAVU=w512-h640" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I know this photo of the sidewalk in front of our house and property on Norwood Avenue<br /> looks ridiculous posted like this, but Blogger won't let me move the image or wrap text around <br />it for some reason. I'll try to resolve this soon, but the image should do the job for the moment.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> Been using this blog for some COVID posts for the past two years or so, with just one non-pandemic post, but Buffalo's winter has been a pain in the ass for several reasons, and one that just won't go away/get better despite apparent reasons how it could.<p></p><div> Buffalonians/Western New Yorkers, especially us natives, often like to think we're too tough to be bothered by winter weather, and handle it in such a good fashion that many often laugh when other parts of the country report they are at standstills when they receive way less snow than our normal amounts. But as well as a lot of whining after serious snowfalls and sub-zero temperatures starting about a month ago, the response of both private homeowners and residents and the official City of Buffalo "efforts" in clearing streets and pedestrian areas have been woefully lacking to the point of incompetent and almost dangerous. Way too many side streets did not get plowed for days, if not weeks, and a much higher percentage were not sufficiently cleared. Sometimes, the snow was cleared off streets onto sidewalks (Buffalo does not clear snow from sidewalks unless official city property, and even then...) and bus stops, the responsibility of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, were either unplowed/shoveled or plowed in. I must say, as an employee of the Erie County Department of Social Services, I am lucky because the snow clearing/removal operations at the Rath Building in downtown Buffalo, where I work, have been excellent. But you can read more about this from the news media and social media; I don't want to be repetitive.</div><div><br /></div><div> But Saturday, February 12, 2022, when I took our dog Harold on our walk, I got as mad as I can recall for years back, because the conditions of the sidewalks, intersections and elsewhere remain atrocious, verging on the dangerous. We were fortunate not to fall on the walk that took us from Norwood Avenue near Bryant Street down Norwood to West Utica, then to Richmond, down Richmond across West Ferry to Breckenridge, back to Norwood to West Ferry, to Ashland back to Bryant to home, about 1.5 miles through Buffalo's Elmwood Village/West Side. Every street brought us at least one or two amusement park-like scares and thrills, except they weren't entertaining, but degrees of danger. Whole properties of sidewalks were uncleared, and not just of snow, but of inch or more thick, slippery ice, and many intersections either had paths barely cleared or foot worn down or none at all. This ran the gamut from owner occupied homes and rentals to facilities and development projects such as the former church at West Ferry and Richmond (which I took photos of during the week). Some of these paths hadn't been plowed or shoveled of snow in weeks, and had foot paths worn in them so that the ice was quite smooth and slippery; despite wearing hiking boots, I had to grab onto fences, rails, cars, garbage totes and even Harold to keep from falling. Whether any kind of salt or deicer had been used on so many of these properties is unknown but doubtful.</div><div><br /></div><div> Before anyone tries to make too many excuses, remember this: despite suffering a heart attack in October 2017 and undergoing massive, life-saving open-heart surgery in November 2017 at the Cleveland Clinic, I cleared 2-3-inch thick ice from our driveway, sidewalk and path to our porch using a garden shovel, some deicer and the great repair work from the Cleveland Clinic medical staff over several days. I have been fortunate to have received a lot of help removing the snow, but I took it upon myself to clear the ice, as well as shovel out the ice chunks the street plows left. Also, we own the lot next door to us, so I have been shoveling ice from a double wide berth. So, unless you've undergone more surgery than me or have other medical reasons, or you own larger sidewalks/properties than us, I have little patience with excuses for not clearing walks at this point. Sadly, this also feeds into the City of Buffalo "Mayor" Byron Brown's administration's opinion that residents' poor parking/snow clearing efforts are at least partly to blame for the city's inadequate response.</div><div><br /></div><div> The city workers themselves are themselves putting out admirable efforts, but no apparent snow clearing plan, a patronizing attitude from the mayor and his administration on just about everything and suspicions of favoritism (including possible instances of less than full committal to clearing areas of the city that backed India Walton during last year's mayoral election), combined with truly crappy weather in heavy snows and brutally cold temperatures, have left streets and sidewalks in poor shape and citizens, both property owners and those who don't, with little confidence that the Brown Administration has the competence or will to properly clear the snow. Sadly, too many people are also falling into the no hope/don't care trap and not clearing their own sidewalks and driveways of both snow and ice. Clearing your own walks not only make them safer for other people to traverse, they are safer for you to go about your business outside. It's not like we have suddenly forgotten how to do this or know that it works.</div><p> I believe the city needs to start looking into buying smaller plows that can be used on sidewalks, even as a pilot program or for certain neighborhoods with needs such as large numbers of senior citizen residents. This would entail Buffalo Common Council members to engage the public and advocate for change, and yes, increased spending at first. But if this was an issue to possibly increased the funding of the police department, in personnel and/or equipment, there would barely be a question of if but of how much and how soon. This is a matter of public safety and needs to be addressed now; it isn't going away, will be back next winter if not again this winter, and will get worse. Hell, on the micro level, I have noticed that Harold, our 11-year old (next month) pit bull/mastiff blend, has adopted his walking gait to the snowy and slippery sidewalks, often mirroring mine. If he knows there is a problem, there's no way city officials, even the clown car of our mayor and his administration, don't know there is a major problem that needs to be changed, if not solved. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" class="placeholder" height="20" id="df58cf830cbad" src="https://www.blogger.com/img/transparent.gif" style="background-color: #d8d8d8; background-image: url("https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/i/materialiconsextended/insert_photo/v6/grey600-24dp/1x/baseline_insert_photo_grey600_24dp.png"); background-position: 50% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; opacity: 0.6;" width="27" /></div><p></p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-34610563370134821372022-01-01T15:03:00.005-08:002022-01-01T15:03:56.130-08:00Dispatches from the Time of the Virus XIV: When It Seems to Come for You, Or Why We Wear Our Masks<p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>While at work at about 3:45 PM Monday, December 27, I felt my cell phone go off in my pocket recognizable as a text message. I was scanning several items, so I figured I would check the message when I got back to my desk. As I sat down at my desk, my cell phone rang, or at least produced its incoming ringtone. I checked my phone, which read that the call was coming from my wife Val, who is working from home due to the COVID pandemic.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>As I answered the phone, “Hi, hon,” I went to my text list. “Get home now, dear,” my wife said in a rather urgent voice, “X (our nephew) just tested positive for COVID.” As I heard this, my heart dropped, and when I looked at the text message, it was also from Val, stating, “Sit down, sweetie. X tested positive.”<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4mJTAtFPNFITdRl0DXsoAqQWMTL0qeiNBBNtqN3bjOwBmsV0vT8cMqIhZY3Xd61Sli42n5w3jz929Av5zEdgGuwZH2CA8bWsLGrjzwYb-fGwRpbf8H9kWB_CW7utlar_zHlrMwZ4Ixz5uKmeVpCT88a2L2mkgas4vb4qyLvrgrIPyUFMYRxDVOS8=s640" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4mJTAtFPNFITdRl0DXsoAqQWMTL0qeiNBBNtqN3bjOwBmsV0vT8cMqIhZY3Xd61Sli42n5w3jz929Av5zEdgGuwZH2CA8bWsLGrjzwYb-fGwRpbf8H9kWB_CW7utlar_zHlrMwZ4Ixz5uKmeVpCT88a2L2mkgas4vb4qyLvrgrIPyUFMYRxDVOS8=s320"/></a></div></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And so, with the call no one wants to receive, the adventure begins. Actually, the adventure began Christmas Day (Saturday). Val and I went to my sister-in-law Y’s house for a brunch get-together with X, Y, Y’s friend and my mother-in-law. My nephew actually arrived from his father’s house a few minutes after Val and I got there at about 12:30-1 PM, and the boyfriend arrived a bit after that. It was a very nice, relaxed, enjoyable gathering, as nice as holiday gatherings can be during a pandemic, which caused this brunch to be a mask-wearing affair for, with occasional laxness by some. Eventually, my nephew returned to his father’s house and the brunch ended.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Sunday went by normally, as did returning to work at my Erie County Department of Social Services job; Mondays are typically busy, and we were with mail/payments, clients and usual tasks. Or at least until I received the telephone call and texts from my wife. I immediately finished the task I was on, notified my supervisors, checked on the protocols, swiped out at 4 PM and went home. Val and I started checking where, when and how we could get the testing done as soon as possible, as well as receiving results. Val came across CTS, found their testing site at the Buffalo Grand Hotel (formerly Adam’s Mark Hotel) on Church Street, and while appointments weren’t 100 percent necessary, they were recommended, and we got one for 4:25 PM Tuesday, December 28. The rest of the day was spent notifying work representatives (in my department and personnel) what was happening, how my job responsibilities were looking for the next couple of days, and worrying. Worrying about what what I/we would do waiting for the results, what would happen if either one of us or both of us tested positive and we had to quarantine, and so on. The way our house is set up, we have an unfinished attic and basement, and the bedroom is upstairs, next to the computer/media room, and the next room is Val’s studio/computer room; the shower is also located upstairs, so how Val and I would quarantine from each other if one of us tested positive is unknown.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Having at least a couple of unexpected days off from work doesn’t thrill me. I take pride in my job, a job/situation where we had a 25 percent personnel cut a few years ago, allegedly temporary but it’s been two years or so. When one person left to go to another position (she did a great job with us), it took almost 2 months to replace her, and the new person started two weeks ago. Also, the other person in my office is, shall we say, technology and hard work challenged and could retire today with a full pension; when I am out, they often panic. But I left the messages that I wouldn’t be in along with work instructions, and they basically got by; yes, my return was met with work that should have been done, but it was expected.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tuesday went by in fits; Val continued to do her job from home, I slept in a bit but got up to feed and then walk our dog, Harold, and wanted to start writing something like this piece, but found I couldn’t concentrate and didn’t feel like commenting on it on social media just yet. So I ended up showering, doing a lot of reading and hoping the clock would quickly get to the time we could go to get our tests.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We got to CTS at exactly 4:25 PM; except for one couple of guests, the only people we saw were two staffers behind the desk and the CTS setup just off the main lobby, with three workers and a few clients/patients. We had to scan something to get to the registration page, and after a few minutes we handed the additional forms back to the first worker, and we waited with a few other people for the rapid response and PCR COVID tests. The testing seemed rather easy and harmless; for each test, a swab was placed in my nostrils, went back a bit/a lot, swirled a few times and that was it. We were told to go back to the waiting/lounge area and wait for our rapid response test results, and about 15 minutes later, we received our cards with the results on them, handed to us individually and face down. While I had shown no symptoms and felt fine, I hadn’t relaxed since learning of my nephew’s positive status, and it felt like the proverbial weight was taken off my back when I flipped the card and saw the negative status. I smiled as I showed Val the card, and she smiled as she waited for hers, which also came back negative a minute or so later.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Because our COVID protocols did not read like they clearly allowed return to work without a negative PCR test, I contacted the personnel department COVID email address to ask about it; they got back to me checking on my vaccination, booster and symptom status. Because I was fully vaccinated (Pfizer) and boosted (Moderna), had no symptoms and had not tested positive, I could return to work the next day, Thursday, masked as all Erie County employees at the Rath Building are, and I did. Val and I await our PCR test results, but as of 5:30 PM New Year’s Day, we remain symptom free.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Postscript: my nephew is feeling OK, and my sister-in-law and my nephew’s father both tested positive for COVID, had some symptoms and are feeling better. All are vaccinated and boosted.</p></div>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-17609616503483985902021-07-19T15:04:00.000-07:002021-07-19T15:04:19.480-07:00Says Me: Buffalo Is Not a One-Political Party City Yes, I’d like to discuss a non-COVID 19 pandemic issue or two; in particular, they are political issues mainly affecting/relating to the City of Buffalo, of which my lovely wife Val and I are longtime residents and homeowners in the Elmwood Village/West Side.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCVWkwREc_UpNk0-l0jeRk5BzbwK8SVKg0PHZ_sU2JVbvWsB1JEFIDqcUIsENjtCe-2SA0L6U-BNApfSTQ-SFS1JQWk2iNCWTgaosHsLK4Ujlxo9cnLn-j_yJVeIGbl0viXOhuTZAQIs0/s800/1012040_1024x1024_1dbf89d4-32d0-4e2b-8845-bfa4f82c414e_1024x.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCVWkwREc_UpNk0-l0jeRk5BzbwK8SVKg0PHZ_sU2JVbvWsB1JEFIDqcUIsENjtCe-2SA0L6U-BNApfSTQ-SFS1JQWk2iNCWTgaosHsLK4Ujlxo9cnLn-j_yJVeIGbl0viXOhuTZAQIs0/w240-h320/1012040_1024x1024_1dbf89d4-32d0-4e2b-8845-bfa4f82c414e_1024x.webp" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div> As many of you readers know, India Walton, nurse, community activist and leader and democratic socialist, defeated four-time incumbent Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in the recent Democratic Party primary (damn, it feels good to write that sentence). Val and I proudly voted for and donated to the campaign of India Walton, and plan to do each again. Val and I are Democratic committee people on the left side of the electoral/philosophical spectrum, me for about 15 years, Val for almost 20 years.</div><div><div><br /></div><div> What moves me today is an idea that really gets my gander up (or other antiquated expressions), that Buffalo is a one-political party city, which is about as bad as believing that Buffalo and other Erie County municipalities should have open primaries. No and no. If there was a law or imposition that only one political party could hold office in the city, I could understand such a sentiment, but that is not so. People have elected only Democrats for several years in city, county and state offices, but you only have to go back about 5 years to find Republicans representing parts of the city.</div><div><br /></div><div> With every single elected city official in Buffalo and every other elected official at any other level in Buffalo a Democrat, I realize the easy comment/response is that this a one-party city. But that is really an oversimplified, intellectually lazy and simply wrong statement. It isn’t fair, but more importantly, is wrong and kind of dumb to blame Democrats for being able to organize, work hard and offer the stands on issues that the vast majority of city residents favor/agree with; it’s contemptuous to Democratic voters. Instead, we have a Buffalo Republican Committee that, through marching orders from the Erie County and New York State Republican committees, have basically given up on the City of Buffalo, even with an officeholder as recent as former State Senator, now Congressman Chris Jacobs. The obvious reason for Republicans giving up and not even making reasonable efforts challenging or vying for elections in Buffalo is that the fewer competitive races in Buffalo, the lower the Democratic voter turnout may be, affecting county, state and federal elections.</div><div><br /></div><div> Enrollment of Democrats versus Republicans in Buffalo favors Democrats by a margin of about 7-1 to 10-1, but fighting for your beliefs and political existence would seemingly be a good idea for running candidates against incumbents in the city. Democrats also hold majorities in the New York State Assembly and State Senate, as well as occupy the Governor’s Mansion, but it wasn’t long ago that Republicans held the majority in the State Senate and held the governorship (the electrifying, magnetic George Partake) and even had a U.S. Senator in the slimy, how-did-he-avoid-prison Alphonse D’Amato. I understand that Republicans have a horrible track record of electoral success, as well as actual policy implementation, in urban areas, but when your party pretty much stands for horrible policies and is blatantly racist, maybe the best we can hope for is a GOP that exists but barely succeeds at anything in the city besides voter suppression.</div><div><br /></div><div> I am not stating that every office being held by one party, in Buffalo Democrats, doesn’t create some problems. Sadly, this situation has led to some political laziness and the election and re-election of someone as boring, non-innovative, incompetent and some would say even worse like Byron Brown, who served on Buffalo’s Common Council and in the New York State Senate before becoming mayor. This creates a situation where the winner of Democratic primaries in Buffalo are de facto election winners; if there is no Republican candidate, as there is none for the Buffalo mayoral race in 2021 and has previously occurred, then the election itself becomes all but a formality. Some people believe this makes it a good thing that Byron Brown, after his primary loss to India Walton, has announced he will conduct a write-in campaign for mayor. It is a real long-shot election strategy, but no one at this point expects Brown to do the smart thing, the classy thing and the right thing and concede the primary election and leave the race. But it seriously demonstrates some hypocrisy and self-aggrandizement in Brown’s part, since he has won several primaries in the past and never welcomed write-in campaigns, but no doubt expected losing candidates to bow out of the race. It is hard to believe that Brown, the former New York State Democratic Committee chair, did not expect and advocate for primary winners to be the party’s candidates and not seek disgruntled losing Democrats to continue their campaigns. But, here he is.</div><div><br /></div><div> There is the related concept that political primaries, which decide the parties’ respective candidates, should be open to all voters, regardless of affiliation. Some say that in a city like Buffalo, where one party dominates elective offices, that this would give all voters a chance to vote on the candidates at a time their voices could be heard. Primaries are specifically held to determine which candidate represents a specific political party in the general election, so absolutely no, no one not registered to that party should be allowed to vote in the primary. Want to vote in a political party’s primary? Join the damn party. Why should anyone not holding the same beliefs as a specific party get to choose its candidates? Don’t give me the argument of there being no chance of outsiders winning primaries; India Walton just did so. Also, it is not a political party’s responsibility that the other parties run candidates or run candidates of any particular quality. Open primary? Sure they’re called general elections.
</div></div>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-69968615968151253152021-05-30T14:55:00.001-07:002021-05-31T09:26:28.845-07:00Dispatches from the Time of the Virus XIII: Keep Feeling (and Keep Getting) Vaccinations<p>My lovely wife Val Dunne and I received our second Pfizer COVID vaccinations April 2 at the Delavan Grider Community Center FEMA site in Buffalo. We did everything we could do over this past almost 1 1/2 years to avoid and fight this pandemic, and we've come out on the other side fine...so far. We urge EVERYONE who is eligible and has none of the few, rare medical reasons not to to get the COVID vaccinations, Save your life and others.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx75yZQYoYbWO0e6L-UBeVejoSgYzDiyzcYqtzIijt9VBuARASzSuRjfTikPDDiq8hg9gnCz4KYPFL1HqJ_9jYwA__7ABcy8JiqIdY-AVA_TcrVPowU62vwts-FsVH2iyoJc8kZ8vKAHs/s2048/IMG_4428.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1808" data-original-width="2048" height="558" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx75yZQYoYbWO0e6L-UBeVejoSgYzDiyzcYqtzIijt9VBuARASzSuRjfTikPDDiq8hg9gnCz4KYPFL1HqJ_9jYwA__7ABcy8JiqIdY-AVA_TcrVPowU62vwts-FsVH2iyoJc8kZ8vKAHs/w640-h558/IMG_4428.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My lovely wife Val and I after we received our second Pfizer COVID vaccination April 2.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> We're thrilled and relieved to have made it to this point and continue to take all proper precautions; Val continues to work from home full time, and her health has improved in several ways; she has a major comorbidity which attacks her immune system, multiple sclerosis, which she fought and lived with before, during and when we get to it, after the pandemic. I never stopped going into the office to my Erie County Department of Social Services job in the Rath Building in downtown Buffalo, despite my 3 comorbidities, nor did I stop dealing with clients/the public, although it was in a reduced role. We were reduced to 50 percent in-office in March 2020, went to 60 percent by May and then 100 percent by the start of June 2020, and we started wearing masks before we went to a reduced in-office schedule.</p><p> We are still wearing masks at work, but the rules have been eased a bit; at first, it was 100 percent at all times except when eating, drinking, etc., but now, if you are fully vaccinated (and 2 weeks past second vaccination) and at your desk basically isolated from others, you can take your mask off. You must wear masks when in contact with the public at all times and when entering or traversing pubic areas and similar situations. Personally, I continue to wear my mask at all times at work except when eating and so on, and will do so for the foreseeable future, and possibly/probably after we are told we can stop. We deal with people most often in the lower economic classes and situations at ECDSS, and sadly, these people frequently have the lowest or worst access to quality health care; they, as always, deserve to be treated with respect and quality interaction, but I plan to stay as healthy as I can and have through this pandemic and to bot spread the deadly virus, rare s that possibility is.</p><p> The success of the vaccinations, and the success of the Biden Administration and other officials and companies in getting the production and distribution of the vaccinations greater and more successful than anticipated, while not perfect, has been amazing. I would never have believed just how effective the vaccinations would have been if you had told me this before their application. Anyone looking for me to give any credit to former President Trump for any of this process needs to fully accept Trump's responsibility for calling COVID-19 a hoax, repeatedly underplaying its urgency, pushing quack "treatments" such as hydroxychloroquine sulfate, insulting and trying to silence scientists such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, somehow suggesting bleach and lights to treat COVID-19, for not taking the pandemic seriously when he apparently contracted it and then, finally, getting vaccinated in secret with then First Lady Melania Trump.</p><p> As per our specific vaccinations, Val had a few short-term side effects such as tiredness, soreness around the vaccine area and a bit of the blahs; I missed a couple of days of work after my first vaccination due to chills, fever, fatigue and the like, but I only felt some soreness and tiredness for the second shot and didn't miss any days from that one. My full-time immediate officemate, a normally very nice white male a few years older than me, is a conservative and Trump supporter. He did not get his vaccination until the Erie County designated times workers could take off from work without losing any time/pay to get the vaccines at vaccination events for county employees only; of course, they were timed with the end of the day so he could get the shot and go home. </p><p> There is so much more to write about, but I'll save it for next time, and yes, I know, it's been about 10 months since last entry; I won't let that happen again.<p></p>Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-54082144579790520852020-07-12T15:47:00.000-07:002020-07-12T15:47:30.175-07:00Dispatches from the Time of the Virus XII: New Masks and Worries (Thank and Apologies to Ian Dury)<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I received two new cloth face masks in the mail a couple of days ago; that gives me 7 cloth face masks, as well as a stash of paper/filter face masks. My lovely wife Valerie Dunne also has about that many cloth face masks, and we expected to buy more.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbO0DJL3yNM4szBOAfzvGLtfybgivCGrEsEBcJJ01rRR__vcryMm1Rd66U9vmNZVjSrQz0ss4GuvZRbnC4ZRjJfsnY65oPGuB29oprtPXmP3rzGZbcS0Vr6L1UO_FPUcH411hUyT-qvAc/s1600/IMG_2634.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1317" data-original-width="1432" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbO0DJL3yNM4szBOAfzvGLtfybgivCGrEsEBcJJ01rRR__vcryMm1Rd66U9vmNZVjSrQz0ss4GuvZRbnC4ZRjJfsnY65oPGuB29oprtPXmP3rzGZbcS0Vr6L1UO_FPUcH411hUyT-qvAc/s320/IMG_2634.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New masks, bought from the University of Wisconsin.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It’s simple; we believe, and have been presented with more than enough evidence, that the best way to survive this COVID-19 pandemic is to protect ourselves and others the best way scientifically possible, by properly wearing face masks, practicing social distancing and taking other precautions. These are also some of the easiest, most elementary actions one can take to help decrease the spread and transmission of COVID-19.</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Buffalo, Erie County and New York State have stricter face mask rules than many states, and it should be no surprise that after the rough start when the coronavirus first hit New York City and the state, we have done a better job than most of the country at following face mask and social distancing rules and have more than flattened the curve of COVID-19. The reality of the national daily cases of coronavirus increasing to records of about 65,000 now, after the scary, deadly higher deaths reported from NYC and NY State, shows that states such as Arizona, Florida, Texas and even California, which did a reportedly good job at first fighting the pandemic, are not taking face masks and social distancing serious during their “reopening.”</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Nothing will flat-out stop COVID-19 in its tracks in a short period of time, and no one should be surprised if the daily cases reported continue to ruse through the holiday season. Medical professionals continue to report and fear the continued increase, and they and frontline medical personnel urge people to realize that not only are we in Buffalo and Western New York rushing reopening (with the tacit support, and sometimes urging, of way too many media outlets), but that we are not even done with the first wave of COVID-19.</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I don’t mean to sound like a downer, but even though Erie County and New York State are doing better than so much of the country, we can still do better. Sorry, but we need to slow down the reopening; too many people and businesses are not even close to being good or even improved on face mask wearing and social distancing. Just shop at any grocery store or other large store, eat at a restaurant our even go to the Rath Building, where I work, and you’ll see numerous violations as well as other issues. Just because we did well enough to slow down the curve and adhere to rules at the start doesn’t mean that we have won and are through with the coronavirus or precautions. Some people seem to think that we are past the worst and have beaten COVID-19, when we have barely begun to stop the increase of the spread. It sucks that so many people are being affected financially but you need to be alive to operate your business and customers need to be alive to spend their money there.</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Val and I will continue to get takeout food from restaurants, but there is absolutely no way at the present that we will eat at a restaurant, indoors or outdoors. We also will not be going to any concert venues, particularly indoor venues. We don’t even feel safe enough to be around people in the settings, and definitely don’t trust most people to practice social distancing, proper face mask wearing or take other precautions. We fear that COVID-19 will come back strong in Buffalo/Erie County, and while we hope we are wrong, talking actions to keep ourselves as safe as we can will continue to be taken.</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Call me repetitious, call me scared, call me cautious; as long as you can call me alive and relatively well, I’m fine with a</div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
ll of that.</div>
Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-82613759564880180622020-07-04T17:05:00.000-07:002020-07-04T17:05:21.222-07:00Dispatches from the Time of the Virus XI: Dignity of Work, Meet the Eternal Desire to Stay the Hell Alive a Bit Longer<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The first week Erie County, my place of employment, was back to “full” operations had some good and some bad, and a lot of it seemed to be an enlargement of what has gone on since February or so when the COVID-19/coronavirus first hit Buffalo/Western New York so hard.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-gjBejXRR9ZO2O_q_SQKuGhQG4LEkySNl5scpStovmWJV8dukZOr6jcxCm8YVk8L9O3OWAhZZCUEYSYj2r1ISTcl3Jq8aEYD_ET_D8xk7_6e-sJP2wwA87tS8aeOSIRYBBYfnODfoUzo/s1600/IMG_2610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="962" data-original-width="1431" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-gjBejXRR9ZO2O_q_SQKuGhQG4LEkySNl5scpStovmWJV8dukZOr6jcxCm8YVk8L9O3OWAhZZCUEYSYj2r1ISTcl3Jq8aEYD_ET_D8xk7_6e-sJP2wwA87tS8aeOSIRYBBYfnODfoUzo/s400/IMG_2610.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tools of the trade, kind of.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I work in the Rath Building for the Erie County Department of Social Services; I’ve previously mentioned that my job is in what is basically the ECDSS accounting department, in the cashier’s office (I am the casher). It is also known as The Cage, because we have very limited access (3 people, including me, have keys to the office), it has a very old and secure safe for obvious reasons, and are kind of locked in by a very heavy, electronically locked door because we handle financial transactions daily with clients, as well as provide transportation to homeless people and clients seeking transportation to jobs, job interviews and substance abuse treatment, when approved by social workers. We have two windows with solid hard, thick plastic where we conduct transactions with both clients and other workers, and the large windows facing Franklin Street cannot be opened, at least not from the inside. Normally, 4 of use work in this “office” full-time, but since a person went to another department at the end of January, we have worked with 3 people; a planned replacement was postposed and apparently canceled after the COVID-19 crisis hit.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I suppose the lower number of workers due to COVID-19 staffing in the Rath Building (normally in the thousands) has been good in ways. Those of us who worked at our offices, our stations, all throughout the COVID-19 crisis so far, have formed a camaraderie because we have gone through the same issues, precautions, scares, altered work spaces, environments and rules. We’ve gone through a mid-year budget reduction plan that cut some positions, left many of us worried for either our jobs or those of coworkers and friends as well as the effects on efficiency and productivity, we’ve gone from being issued paper face masks and a few bottles of hand sanitizer to being issued cloth masks, sanitizer on every desk and having work spaces sprayed several times a day by county employees. We went from having extra face masks on hand for clients who appeared sick or made us feel unsafe in any health regard to having the building require them for all employees and visitors. You can also toss in the standard municipal employee loathing too many citizens still have and direct at us.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>While some workers began to trickle back to the Rath Building in what seems to be the start of June, along withe the increase of hours worked by many employees who never stopped working, the vast majority of workers who either worked form home, were moved elsewhere or were still on very limited hours returned to the Rath Building Monday, June 29. A large number (possibly majority) of people who work in the Rath Building appear to start their shifts at 9 AM; I and much of my department start at 8:30 AM, so we get to avoid some of the normal rush. With the elevators limited to no more than 4 people riding at the same time, the earlier you get to work, the less people there are to use the elevators. I work on the 4th Floor and sometimes use the elevators, sometimes walk up the stairs, and I had no problems during the pseudo shutdown getting a ride. It didn’t appear to be too much of a problem this past week, except in Wednesday, when I had to verbally tell someone to get off the elevator because they were exceeding the capacity. There are 6 main elevators in the Rath Building, and usually 2-3 arrive and open their downs in a 30-second period of time in the morning, so there should be no problems. But…at about 8:20 AM Wednesday, July 1, a man tried to get on the elevator when four of us were already on it (several large signs saying elevator capacity is 4 are posted on the lobby at the elevators). Both I and another man on the elevator told the man he was above the capacity limit. the man got off when he looked at me and saw no smile; after the man got off the elevator, the other man who said it said to the other three of us on the elevator, “I was really half joking,” to which I replied, “I wasn’t. My health means too much to me.” The elevator was silent until I got off on my floor.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Besides seeing people I haven’t seen in a while, there seem to have been few changes. Our workload barely seems to have decreased despite more people being on more of the time, and we are seeing more members of the public/clients at our windows for transportation as well as making payments, along with more workers conducting normal business such as dropping off checks to be distributed to clients, processed and deposited by us, signing for cheeks and dropping off applications for payments. And yes, our supervisor continues to be just a wee bit of a micromanager, which can even be good at times, such as when she wrapped individual plastic ware and napkin settings for and distributed the pita wedge sandwiches, fruit salad and chips for our birthday luncheon for the workers celebrating July birthdays. Or at least I think it was good; I made a point of getting my own piece of cake later, and did not eat any of the other food (not a fan of them).</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Otherwise, the week started with more violations of there face mask rules (must be worn by all workers except when eating, drinking or in your own office alone) before improving as the week proceeded. With the cashier’s office being one communal room without even cubicles, we had to make sure all of our seats at our desks were at least 6 feet apart and moved them to make sure they were more than that distance from each other. We always wear masks except for eating and drinking, and one reason we make sure of this is that there are 2 work telephones between the 3 (and sometimes 4) of us working there. With some the newly returning workers having trouble with the concept of mandatory at first, as well as some with issues over covering noses, I was one of probably many to constantly remind people to wear masks and wear them properly, and reported frequent/flagrant violation to supervisors. I don’t care if some people believe I’m being petty, annoying, a combination of these or just me on steroids; I plan to continue to survive this pandemic and help as many other coworkers survive it. I even noticed a supervisor not in my direct section (not my supervisor, in other words) who not only wore her mask off her nose several times, but was observed by me sitting directly next to an employee with her mask completely down around her lower neck as she trained or instructed her on something. We’re talking at least 10 minutes the first time and a second session later. I just don’t fucking get it; if she has a medical exemption, rare as they are, then I understand; otherwise, no.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>With so many states seeing record number of COVID-19 cases, some like California after allegedly getting things under control, I will not relax one bit or trust anyone more than they have proven they should be trusted in fighting and avoiding coronavirus infection. Christ, more than 130,000 Americans have died from it already, and we aren’t even out of its first wave, much less anywhere into the second wave. As much as I wish we could open up more of Buffalo, Erie County and New York State, the best way to fight this is to wear face masks, avoid crowds by social distancing and take precautions. I wish not one business was affected by this, but until we have flattened this virus and its reach, we have to do more and stay vigilant, not let down our guard. My lovely wife Val is working from home, and fortunately, her multiple sclerosis and its accompanying screwing with her immune system hasn’t hurt her worse than normal. Let’s keep it that way.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-59132402081866340732020-06-25T17:39:00.002-07:002020-06-25T17:39:45.829-07:00Dispatches from the Time of the Virus X: Return of a Not So Minor Threat, Reopening (?) New York/Erie County<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It seems I have to catch up on a few things and quickly mention others, so let’s start:</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQrcR1Rjlpk1kj_hyqaHSeR82VHN33VUBprow1nTpu66dBKNvoTZv-k4_INwPnE3RalGN2AgkDRzFNVAzCqd5cOmNhhKxxp39aXKNIMhe1DKyLIFqnXju5WunJVWY-kMqVM_G4nPxPljE/s1600/Tshirt+IMG_2600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="711" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQrcR1Rjlpk1kj_hyqaHSeR82VHN33VUBprow1nTpu66dBKNvoTZv-k4_INwPnE3RalGN2AgkDRzFNVAzCqd5cOmNhhKxxp39aXKNIMhe1DKyLIFqnXju5WunJVWY-kMqVM_G4nPxPljE/s640/Tshirt+IMG_2600.jpg" width="284" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Your author in an Ivan Gonzalez creation</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>As you may know, my good friend for more than 30 years, Ivan Gonzalez, came down with and was really fighting COVID-19 hard. Ivan has returned home, is feeling much better as he continues his recovery, and you can read about his fight and initial release from the hospital in the Buffalo News. It is a goddamn pleasure to read his social media posts again, and even better to see he, his wife Colleen Flaherty Gonzalez and sons at their house or walking past ours in the neighborhood.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In a DM to me shortly after his return home and in a social media post earlier today, Thursday, June 25, Ivan clearly and sharply advocated for both concern of the health of the medical professionals who saved his life and continue to work to save and treat others, and to keep more people alive and healthy in general, for people to keep wearing face masks, practice social distancing and take any other precautions. It is damn annoying that Gonzalez had to state this again and that they still seem quaint; wear fucking face masks, socially distance yourself from others and be safe.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>If you want to help Gonzalez continue his recovery, support a local artist (Ivan, of course) and get something cool to wear, he has t-shirts representing areas of the City of Buffalo for sale. The link to Gonzalez’s online store is <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbuffalocitylimits.square.site%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3BJdkK8Pct5uxevujEkIJYEZGuEcP0r1HPlkAY2NkYHVEvOUQNFwBLacw&h=AT22i3er10gPRzn48T_u7Wkh27Lz9YIwkqUPNlA-qdf_UajToNFWsmoQGY_3SDknbghgYi2YZRQ5Y80NqEMFGIM3wj6cYU_5cQ62tMHv-UZA6efa7L_vzYlMe0Z3KNGfDEAv2wFs"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;">https://buffalocitylimits.square.site</span></a>, and you can see one of the shirts, a holiday gift from my lovely wife and photographer Val Dunne, in the selfie accompanying this entry. They’re very cool, and Gonzalez deserves to be able to retire to a life of art, husbandry of sorts and parenthood, as well as forming his own Minor Threat.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I agree wholeheartedly with Gonzalez’s efforts to advance face mask wearing and other activities to keep people healthy, and I remain worried that the “reopening” of Buffalo, Erie County and New York State are moving too fast. It so absolutely sucks that too many businesses, so many of them small businesses, cannot either open up at all or fully, but sadly, I do not have confidence in people following face mask, social distancing and other activities to keep people as safe as possible. That so many people still whine and mewl about wearing masks, as if placing one on your face over your mouth and nose takes such a herculean effort or is a violation of Constitutional rights, is abhorrent. That too many people believe in the already proven wrong/lies of conspiracy theories that masks can kill you due to carbon dioxide issues and are breeding grounds for illnesses and killer germs, is unspeakably bad. There are an extremely limited number of illnesses/physical conditions that allow for face mask exemptions, and it certainly appears that medical professionals have been able to wear masks for years and years without killing themselves.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>While too many people here in Buffalo/WNY are not following or believing in masks, social distancing, etc., enough of them are and we took these precautions early and seriously that New York State has fallen to be one of the lower states for COVID-19 incidence and deaths. Sadly, but also not overly surprising, states such as Florida, Arizona, Texas and even California, which allegedly reopened to varying degrees of caution, have all spiked and are now seeing scary records of coronbovilius incidence. There is no reason to let up on the COVID-19 response gas pedal, so simply, let’s not.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I have not read or heard any comprehensive news reports on how the coronavirus crisis affected voting on Primary Day, June 23 (coincidentally, Val and my 18th wedding anniversary). Anecdotally, it appears many more people voted by absentee ballot in the districts I live in, represent and walk through, work and conduct business in; Val and I mailed in absentee ballots this electoral cycle.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The County of Erie officially returns to 100 percent public operations (with no doubt a couple of exceptions) Monday, June 29. As most readers here know, I work for the Erie County Department of Social Services, and have been reporting to the Rath Building and working throughout the COViD-19 crisis, involving office/financial responsibilities, clients and other public contact and with other departments/employees. I am a bit skeptical that we are 100 percent prepared to return to complete functions, particularly things such as the transportation of employees and clients. The NFTA is still working on limited capacity and with alleged limitations to necessary workers and the practice of social distancing in buses and metro cars. I won’t kid you, I’ve been happy that there hasn’t been the more than 1,000 workers in the Rath Building every day; those of us who have worked throughout the COVID-19 crisis have formed bonds, a certain camaraderie and are used to following strict rules of wearing face masks at all times and social distancing, as well as cleaning work areas. This doesn’t mean that things will go to hell and that workers and the public won’t follow best practices to fight the coronavirus, but let’s say I’m less confident when I see how bad some states have done. I realize that Buffalo, Erie County and New York State have done better than many areas, but there are definitely idiots and conspiracy theorists, as well as a certain uneducated population, who I don’t trust to do the right thing. Let’s hope I’m wrong and that we do all we can to beat or at least limit the spread of COVID-19.New York State Reopening, Spikes and a County Returns toi Work</span></div>
Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1447032631219118440.post-31108648892111956772020-06-09T15:50:00.000-07:002020-06-09T15:50:35.805-07:00Dispatches from the Time of the Virus IX: Everything Counts in Large Amounts...Especially Toilet Paper<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Remember when one of the worst parts of the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis was a lack of toilet paper available in many stores? Talk about your simpler, more innocent days, as the pandemic’s toll approaches 110,000 deaths in the USA and too many people still don’t take it seriously or believe in one of the many conspiracy theories about it. But I want to keep one entry of “Dispatches from the Time of the Virus” a little lighter, so here is the story of toilet paper and good things coming in large packages.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh81s5D3YNT__fnf6EUA2dSnXplKmMz1cMqtPBG5ys6LcoxMstGeJ0q2gpc3oXFYwwiWwk9NteV0ELJzWRo8iYHCqZLOGgAFhLZK3zKvUYYmXmrzfKYI9U-dGAdDKg4nW6P9Nt67uwAyOE/s1600/TPphoto06092020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="976" data-original-width="1600" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh81s5D3YNT__fnf6EUA2dSnXplKmMz1cMqtPBG5ys6LcoxMstGeJ0q2gpc3oXFYwwiWwk9NteV0ELJzWRo8iYHCqZLOGgAFhLZK3zKvUYYmXmrzfKYI9U-dGAdDKg4nW6P9Nt67uwAyOE/s320/TPphoto06092020.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's a beauty, isn't it?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Sometime in April, I was planning on buying some toilet paper during my weekly grocery shopping at Wegmans on Amherst Street in Buffalo. While toilet paper shortages had begun to be reported, in Buffalo and Western New York, it was mostly a shortage of two-ply toilet paper and in packages of 4, 6 and more rolls. My lovely wife Val and I live and own our home in Buffalo’ Elmwood Village/West Side neighborhood; the house was built in 1900, and it still has a good amount of its original plumbing, so we are a serious single-play household. When you combine that with my anal nature of never wanting to be low nothing’s like toilet paper, we always have several rolls own the house, and I probably get itchy when we get below six rolls on hand.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Wegmans and most grocery and department stores I have checked established policies early on of allowing only one package of toilet paper per purchase; with single-ply toilet paper sold only in single rolls (or so I thought), as I found out on previous occasions at Wegmans, I had to buy one roll a week and hope our usage didn’t surpass that. There were even a couple weeks when Wegmans had no single-ply rolls for sale. I was hoping for four or six packs of one-ply to be sold, but never saw them. So, this week in April, I went down the aisle where the toilet paper was stocked, and saw they had a display of single roll, single-ply, and grabbed one.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 15px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Suddenly, I heard angels, looked up and to my left, and there, on the shelf, was…a display of about 15 packages of 20 rolls each of single-ply toilet paper. It was the best I had felt after seeing something unexpected since my sister-in-law Tricia pointed out my wedding ring at the bottom of the deep send of a swimming pool at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas the day after Val and I got married there in 2002. I may have actually thrown the single roll of toilet paper back on the shelf before I grabbed the package calling me and got in the checkout line. I knew that it would be its own package in the shopping cart and the car on the drive home, but I forgot that the previously largest package of toilet paper ever in our house was six rolls. Even though we have a cupboard with shelves above the toilet in our half-bath on the bottom floor of our house, I soon found out that there was no way this package would fit on any of the shelves, even after I rearranged things. So, the sizable package was placed next to our bullet garbage can in the kitchen, where it remains, until we use just a bit</span></div>
Kevin J. Hoseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16237600081433004831noreply@blogger.com0