Explorations and Adventures?

Going Nowhere Fast

Wednesday, May 23. It was the tenth day of Laura living with me, and things weren't getting any better, crying and fighting all the time, sitting around with nothing to do but watch old episodes of Red Green, or on a particularly lucky day, some obscure French film from the library. I rather enjoyed these things when I could still have another life. There were times where I was happy around her, while there was still a place to hide, but that was getting closer and closer to impossible, sharing a studio apartment downtown, never being able to get more…

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Last Rites

I've spent so much time this winter and spring walking around Mount Hope Cemetery with Laura. I never thought I would, but it's one of the very few things we can agree on to do -- I get outdoors every once in a while, she gets to have her Victorian architecture fix, and we wander around, looking for various pieces of lost history. Yesterday was more of the same, with one exception: the chapel doors were wide open! I'd already been a few times, but getting in would be a dream come true for Laura! Or not; she wouldn't follow…

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Bits and Pieces

The rest of the places in Buffalo this weekend that weren't quite big enough for their own posts WILDROOT -- the product that made 50s hair the greased-up mess it was. Just by nature of what the factory made, and a precipitous drop off in demand once greasers were out and bowl cuts were in, Wildroot closed after just 14 years of operation, in 1963. A few later attempts were made to bring the product back, then to attach the Wildroot name to other hair products, but the association with crew cuts and grease was just too much for the…

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Sins and Trasspeses

Buffalo's Sacred Heart Cathedral, like so many other Catholic churches, fell into ruin at the loss of its flock. Once Buffalo's diocesan church, well before 1900, it became an early casualty in 1952 due to suburban sprawl and white flight, leaving behind a church building that soon after reopened as a prominent black church and religious school before fading away in the early 2000s, again facing the loss of its congregation. The church basement held a variety of religious leftovers from both the Catholic and AME eras of the church. Molding away in a few boxes were 1930s and 40s…

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Fixing A Hole

Now that I've lived downtown for three months, it was only a matter of time until I started exploring my immediate surroundings at the Midtown hole. Thanks to a shitty economy and even worse planning, Midtown has hit bottom after a 30-year slide from innovative (one of the first indoor malls, and a thriving business district until the late 70s) into desolate (rising crime and falling population) to promising (new construction, or at least demolition of the old, closed mall), and finally to stagnant, in its present half demolished, completely unbuilt stage. This was Midtown (and the rest of the…

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Capitol Offense

There are days meant for just getting the hell out of here... this weekend was certainly one of them. The combination of dealing with grad school, Laura and being indoors all winter put me over the edge; I had to do something besides another weekend with Her, and I had to do it NOW! So, as soon as Laura was safely on the bus to class for a Friday morning (and she'd just stayed with me, so I had to make sure it looked like nothing was out of the ordinary), I packed my bag (consisting of mostly beer) and…

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