Bulls’ bottom feeding nets big rewards

Though everyone has known about it for years, the NYTimes threw a little light on how sucking doesn’t suck.

I am a UB fan through and through, so to be honest, seeing the team on the front page of the times was more cause for excitement than it was for despair. They didn’t report anything that UB’s student newspaper, the Spectrum, by way of the Buffalo News, didn’t report months ago.

What strikes me about the whole situation is how fatalistic everyone is about all this stuff – for me, it just shows how big a joke college football is. If you’re not rooting for a top 25 team, it’s hardly worth it to follow your team. If you root for a top-25 team, you just watch your scumbag players either bolt for the NFL or get arrested or something else stupid. If you’re fortunate to root for a middling team, like a top-of-the-MAC squad like Toledo or something, you might be in the best shape as a football fan. It’s depressing.

But, if you’re going to be a UB football fan, you have to take the pill – BuffaloRox put it best in his comments on Buffalo Pundit:

The article clearly explains why UB or any struggling program, would play a football powerhouse against overwhelming odds of winning. It might be a strategy that you don’t agree with. However, following a strategy employed by others (e.g., Bobby Bowden per the article) doesn’t strike me as irrational.

Basically, it sucks to suck, but at least there’s the hope of hope.

I know ethically it’s not any better, but at least college basketball has the redeeming quality of being unpredictable – you don’t get Valpo – or even UB – stories in football.

RIP DFA1979

Call me out of the loop, but I just read this.

Death From Above 1979 broke up. This band changed my musical life for the past couple years – their album, “You are woman, I am a machine” (the funniest album title ever) has pretty much been on constant loop on my iPod (and in my cd player) for a year. They were hard, raw and aggressively sexy – “Romantic Rights” was the best “get over here and fuck, now” song ever to hit the radio.

I saw DFA1979 open for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in Toronto a couple years ago, and their show was messy and ugly – just about everyone there, including myself, thought they sucked. But then I heard “Romantic Rights” on 102.1 FM, the Canadian Edge, and I was sold. Almost every song on their album is blistering, and you can’t help but feel beat up and used (in a good way) after a full listen. It’s cathartic.

Anyway, I believe both members of the band are still active in music – Jesse has been busy with MSTRKRFT, a disco.techno.remix nom he’s worked under before. His work with that project is OK, but it’s just not as incendiary as DFA. Oh well. It’s tough enough to catch lightning in a bottle once, so I’m not surprised DFA only struck with one amazing album.

Here’s hoping the guys the best in the future, and hoping their influence spreads to modern rock everywhere.

The Buffalo News doesn’t jinx

Bashar Issa closed on his $5 million purchase of the Statler Towers today, where he’s planning on sinking $80+ million into the place. And the news put that on page D7.

Why isn’t this A1 news? Unlike the nebulous, controversial Seneca casino, this deal is actually happening. Issa and his BSC Group, his Manchester, UK, based development company, actually bought the thing.

There was no controversy surrounding the deal. He’s not holding out for the city to give him a street, and based on his track record of restoring vintage properties and investing in rebuilding areas is impeccable.

Yet the News and the rest of Buffalo’s MSM outlets are virtually ignoring the deal. I think Buffalo Pundit’s post on the deal is indicative of why: no one can believe this is really happening. Hell, even Byron Brown hasn’t met with this guy yet.
I think the reason people are so skeptical of the deal is Buffalo’s been burned before. But this is one case where rolling out the red carpet for Issa is worthwhile; he’s doesn’t have to rely on government money to make this deal and check out the BSC Group website and their other projects. When it comes to investing in a rust belt area, there aren’t many companies that can match their track record. Manchester is basically a bigger version of Buffalo – a city ravaged by dying steel industries and fleeing population. In recent years it’s made an amazing comeback – it’s more cosmopolitan, and it’s become a chic place for young professionals and companies to locate. BSC’s projects tend to be beautiful – and successful.

UPDATE: Here’s a telling tidbit I heard from someone who’s had indepth contact with Issa and his group: One of Issa’s top-tier guys said this about Buffalo: “Buffalo is where Manchester was 15 years ago. You’re right on the cusp of an explosion.”

old friends

Ah the magic of Myspace.

I finally found an old friend that I lost touch with two years ago. She moved to California, and I missed her terribly. After exhausting all my other efforts, I happened to search MySpace for her, and lo and behold, she turned up. And, as fate would have it, she is in Buffalo for a week.
See, that’s how Myspace will continue to thrive, even with this bull-oney of the new Murdoch-owned marketing vehicle it has become: it keeps connections with friends going. People change e-mail addresses, change hometowns, change whatever, but if there’s one thing people of my generation check in on at least every-so-often, it’s Myspace.

I’m going to meet her in a couple minutes. I throw up a shot or two of the happy reunion if it’s worth it.

UPDATE: Here’s a pic of me and my old friend, Gratchen (yes, with an A). She’s pretty awesome, and moving to Sacremento as we speak. She’s a classic, one of a kind friend.