Mary Kunz Goldman

Haunted by the past

2009-07-15T08:24:00.013-04:00

Above is a picture I flagrantly stole from Forgotten Buffalo, the folks who run those tours I go on to Black Rock and Lackawanna.

It is of Battenfeld Oils and Greases!

That is a place I love passing on the 190. I love that heavy old German name, Battenfeld. Perhaps one of the German scientists who put Body Worlds together was named Battenfeld! You never know!

Then that hard-core industrial "Oils and Greases."

That is classic!

And as Forgotten Buffalo was explaining the building used to be a brewery. They said you could tell that right off which, I confess, I could not. But then they could not be able to listen to a Chopin sonata and tell immediately it was Leonard Pennario. So, I do not feel too bad!

Battenfeld used to be the F.X. Kaltenbach Brewery and later it was the Buffalo Brewery, owned by Mayor F.X. Schwab. I love how they both had those F.X. initials. Francis Xavier. Or perhaps Franz Xaver, in the case of Kaltenbach.

It is funny how whenever you see F.X. you know that person was named for St. Francis Xavier. That is the only thing it stands for! Like my priest friend from St. Gerard's, F.X. Mazur. We call him Butch but his name is really Francis Xavier.

Mozart named his son Franz Xavier. That was in honor of Mozart's good friend and student Franz Xaver Sussmayr. Later the kid changed his name to Wolfgang Amadeus Jr. That F.X. was not good enough for him!

Here is a picture of F.X. Mozart.

There are not as many F.X.'s running around now as there once were. People are naming their sons Tyler and Zachary and not that.

But still. Howard and I were talking about how in some ways in Buffalo, in ways we do not immediately grasp, our immigrant roots still dictate how we live!

We are a city of beer drinkers. Many of our ancestors were -- the Germans, the Irish, the Polish. And we are, too. We are also coffee drinkers as opposed to tea. The British people who were among the first here were outnumbered by all the waves of immigrants.

If you go to liquor stores as I am known to do now and then notice all the people who are buying Blue Nun. That sweet-ish German wine, that hangs on!

On Friday people whose families were never Catholic tend to crave fish. That is still the special in a lot of the restaurants. Even though the Catholic Church relaxed that no-meat-on-Fridays rule for most of the year, the tradition hangs on. You expect to see fish fries on Fridays. You expect clam chowder.

What else? Wasn't that an old Polish tradition to close places on Wednesdays? Sometimes you still see that. On Hertel Avenue most places are still closed on Sundays. Elmwood is more modern and everything will be open but on Hertel you can go for blocks and most places are shut. It is like Europe. I credit the Italians for that. I will think of that tomorrow when I am stacking cheese sticks in the Sorrento Cheese Italian Heritage Festival Cheese Building Competition.

Certain immigrant traditions will be disappearing. The German identity is not as strong as it was, and no we are more health-oriented, so fried bologna and Fastnachts are going to turn into a thing of the past. I do not eat them myself even though my family is German. My mom does but I do not. Still I will be sorry to see them go.

Here is something funny. The Germans and the Irish married each other a lot and whenever that happens, the German part disappears. I am just saying. Everyone knows someone who is half German and half Irish and I guarantee, that person will go around carrying on about being Irish, ignoring that inconvenient other half. Probably it is because of the negative German stereotypes.

But it could also be because it is easier to honor your Irish heritage because Irish pubs are everywhere and you can go to Ireland and speak the language. Plus the only classical composer you really have to worry about is John Field.

So there is something to chew on with your fried bologna. Now I am kind of craving it.

It all started with Battenfeld Oils and Greases!

Body Worlds II

2009-07-14T09:10:00.001-04:00

At the ortho just now the talk was all about Body Worlds! The nurse at the ortho, Kim, has this gleeful fascination with bodies and medical science.

She was complaining she had not been able to see an autopsy for years.

"I can't remember my last autopsy," she brooded.

That is an interesting thing to overhear!

As I may or may not have explained before, I do admire the science behind Body Worlds. But it bothers me that they are actual bodies and it is bad enough that they are living on in these museum exhibits. I do not want them living on inside my head!

Plus it just occurred to me that if I went I would faint.

It is that simple. Remember when I confessed I fainted when the dentist was explaining to me what was going to happen when they pulled my wisdom teeth out? Imagine if I were standing there looking at someone's intestines.

I would be out cold!

And next thing you know I would be preserved and in the Body Worlds exhibit! Bouncing a basketball or something. That is the way they have these people posed.

So that settles it. The nurse, Morticia -- I mean Kim -- is going to go to the show and she will report to me and we will leave it at that. The ortho is not going. He is like me! He said he had to take Gross Anatomy, which he adds is aptly named, and he does not want to go through that again.

I almost forgot all about my ortho appointment. It was very early and I was deep into the part of the book where Leonard Pennario is 19 and making his debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic. That was the chapter I was working on.

And I was fitting in part of that interview I did with the cousin of his in Rhode Island. Remember her? The cousin who appeared out of the blue. What a beautiful interview that was. About how she was 16 and he was 15 and he used to jump all over her. And then she went a couple years later to see him at Carnegie Hall.

That Pennario link is to such a nostalgic Chopin waltz! Perfect for this story.

La la la la la la la.

And so I was sitting there with my chin in my hand forever, turning all this over in my mind.

Woolgathering.

That is me, thinking about Leonard Pennario when he was 19 and forgetting all about my ortho appointment.

The good news is, my braces are now orange and yellow! Something to cheer me for the month of August.

Loafing

2009-07-13T08:30:00.008-04:00

I am excited about this new sourdough bread recipe I found. It is like a science experiment! It is brewing right now on the kitchen counter.

Most people like to bake bread in the winter when it is cold but I like to bake it in the summer when it is hot! Actually it is not hot enough at the moment for my purposes. I like steamy hot weather because that is when the bread rises the best.

Above is a picture of me baking bread in the summer.

My new sourdough recipe comes from a cookbook I bought at the library book shop for a buck. The recipe comes from South Africa. You know that recipe that is making the rounds for No-Knead Bread? This is even better. If it works out, that is.

In this recipe there is not only no need to knead, but there is no need for yeast.

You do not need it!

That yeast is out the window!

It is Salt-Rising Bread. What you do is, you take a mixing bowl, and you put in two teaspoons salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, one and a half cups boiling water and -- I love this -- a half cup plus two tablespoons cold water. You mix all this together and then you take a cup of whole wheat flour or cornmeal, and you sprinkle that over the top.

Then you do like Bill Clinton ...

... and get on with your life. And the starter sits in the bowl for 24 hours, starting.

When the 24 hours are up you mix in about eight cups more whole wheat flour and then you let it rise for an hour, and after that you shape it into two loaves and you let them rise and then you bake them.

So that is the plan. I cannot wait to see if this works. I get such a kick out of baking bread. Even when I was in California with Leonard Pennario I picked up some flour -- both whole wheat and rye -- so I could bake bread because I am spoiled now, I am used to my own. My creativity in this department was wasted on Pennario. He did not eat bread except if he was eating a burger or something. He was a junk food kind of guy. Well, is there any other kind of guy? Men, they do love their junk food.

Wow, I just sneaked a peek and the stuff smells bread-y in there and it is kind of foamy and bubbly. So at noon I will go and dump in the rest of the flour and see what happens.

I will report!

But soft!

2009-07-12T12:04:00.008-04:00

Lastnight in honor of Taste of Buffalo we did Taste of Big Blue. We dined al fresco on the front lawn with everyone staring at us! I am trying to post pictures of that but my computer is acting up and will not permit it. So I am posting pictures of Shakespeare in the Park instead. I saw "The Tempest"!

Above please find my friends Gary and Michelle picnicking on Shakespeare Hill. I am in the middle but you cannot see me. I am invisible! All you can see are my sandals and my purse.

In the background you can see this big overgrown puppy which, I laugh whenever I think of him. His name was Schatze. That is German for "treasure" and I talked German with the dog when I was introduced.

Schatze was all over the place. He could not be kept under control. Finally they took him for a walk and he came back with this big stick and he was on his back flailing around gnawing this stick and everyone was laughing at him. After that they had to take him away for good.

In contrast there was this German shepherd on another blanket who just sat there alertly looking as if he were watching the play. Once when it got sad he started whining! We all started laughing but the laughter was a little nervous.

You start wondering if the dog really did understand what was going on.

What if he did?

I took this picture which looks like a Copley painting. Scoot over Ansel Adams!

Howard mocks out that picture because he says it is missing a subject. But I say it is high art. The lighting was so unusual. Here is another picture I took. It is of our fellow Shakespeareans.

To be frank I got a little lost during the performance. There was so much to do and look at. Going in to Shakespeare in the Park I hardly ever know the synopsis or anything but usually it kind of comes into focus, magically, after about 15 minutes. Your brain adjusts to the Elizabethan language and you are drawn in.

This time around I never did adjust! I felt ashamed because Leonard Pennario was this big Shakespearean and he never would have gotten lost the way I did.

In this picture you can see the stage that, zut alors, I stared at for the most part uncomprehendingly.

My obtuseness was nobody's fault. I am such stuff as dreams are made of, and my little life is rounded in a sleep.

That German shepherd was smarter than I was!

Out on the town

2009-07-11T10:41:00.006-04:00

JoAnn Falletta is the conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and lastnight we went out with our husbands. We went to see Jackie Jocko. That is JoAnn in the picture above with Howard and Jocko.

Jocko gets a kick out of JoAnn. He was reminiscing with her later that night and he said, "The first time I heard they had put a girl up there as conductor ..."

AHAHAHAHAAAAA!

JoAnn was laughing and laughing. That is how cool she is.

I am thinking writing that how funny it is that here I am the, ahem, music critic, and there is JoAnn as the conductor, and I do believe this is the first time in history this has happened, in any city. Normally I am not prone to feminist observations like this but it did enter my mind.

A few weeks ago when I was talking to Leonard Pennario's record producer she admitted that she was pretty much the only woman in a man's business. Then she asked me, "How is it with you?" We were laughing about that.

Well, times are changing.

I had a lot of fun lastnight. Actually I think I had too much fun because JoAnn let me talk about Leonard Pennario way too much. She is probably waking up today telling her husband, there are two words I never want to hear again and they are Leonard and Pennario.

Because zut alors, I do talk.

Particularly with a glass of wine in my hand!

Blah blah blah blah Leonard Pennario blah blah blah Pennario blah blah blah blah blah Rachmaninoff blah blah blah Monteux blah blah Kapell blah blah blah Leonard blah blah St. Anthony's Church blah blah.

That is me!

It is a miracle I have any friends!

Jocko had tons of fun with JoAnn. Right away he asked her if she was Sicilian. Then he got straight which sign she is and which sign her husband is. "Oh, you are good together!" he said.

He asked JoAnn what time of day she was born. She said early morning, around 1 a.m. Next thing you know he will draw up her chart. If you become Jocko's friend he sometimes draws up your chart. He did that for me once!

Then Jocko filled JoAnn in on all the losers I had gone out with before I married Howard, and how he could tell that none of them was any good.

We also hashed over embarrassing incidents I have had at the Hyatt including the time I inadvertently met the flutist Emmanuel Pahud.

Such experiences I have had at the Hyatt! We closed the place lastnight.

They were turning out the lights when we left!

"Body Worlds" and me

2009-07-10T07:27:00.006-04:00

There is this Body Worlds exhibit up at the Buffalo Museum of Science. From what I understand, most other museums in the country said no to this exhibit but we said yes.

That is Buffalo!

How is that for a slogan for us? Buffalo, We Say Yes!

Body Worlds shows you actual human bodies and I guess you can see their insides. Unfortunately I guess you can also see their faces. They have been preserved somehow so there are these faces looking at you. Ay me! That gives me pause! I might not have problems with seeing these people's insides but I do not want to see their outsides, is my problem.

These were people who donated their bodies to science but still.

Did anyone tell them this is how they were going to be used?

Even if they knew that, but still.

Naturally this exhibit comes from Germany. It is the creation of German scientists. I am German so I am allowed to laugh about that. I laughed about it yesterday at work with a friend of mine.

"Of course it has to come from Germany," I said.

He laughed. "That makes it extra creepy."

It also makes people want to go see it, you have to admit that. No one would go to see human bodies preserved by French scientists. But German scientists, people will be lined up down Humboldt Parkway. Alexander von Humboldt!

There is another German scientist! That was smart, putting "Body Worlds" at the Science Museum instead of at the Albright-Knox. They cannot put it at Big Blue because we are going to put the Leonard Pennario Museum there.

One thing, I am wondering if I am allowed to go to "Body Worlds" because I have read that the Catholic Church has problems with it. The Catholic Church has a problem with bodies not being buried.

Does that mean I am not allowed to go? It is kind of a relief when decisions like this are made for you.

The Catholic Church can get you out of a lot of stuff you are not sure you want to do in the first place. The best is, it gives me a ready "no" when my friends want me to go with them to Lily Dale and get our fortunes told. That saves me a pile of money, I will say that. Plus a big hassle. Lily Dale is far and I do not remember the place having any nice restaurants or good music.

So when I am asked now to go to Lily Dale I just say no!

I am not allowed to!

I am like this big puppy dog who is kept in a yard and you might want to play with me but there are places I am allowed to go and places I am not.

La la la la la la la. Or should I say, woof.

Also when the Catholic Church tells you to stay away from something there is usually a very good common-sense reason, is what I am learning.

Speaking of which, I believe I have made my decision on "Body Worlds." Because I am sitting here looking for a picture of the exhibit to run with this post and there is not one I can find that I would like to put on my Web log.

If I cannot find one picture I want to run then what does that say?

"It is surprisingly not creepy," writes one Web logger.

But I do not believe that Web logger. Also I clicked on my Pennario link above and that music, that Schumann, is so beautiful and life-affirming and I think I want that in my head and not this exhibit.

You have to watch what you put into your head.

You see something once and then you are stuck with it!

The highway of life

2009-07-09T09:15:00.006-04:00

Today is Leonard Pennario's birthday. He would have been 85 today. He still would have had five years to go before he hit the dreaded 90. We had a joke about that.

What about the 90? That is it up above!

What about the 990? I have to take it today when I go to the chiro. That is the 990 pictured at left. I would have run a bigger picture but darn! The only ones I can find are on this site called Interstate Guide which will not let you copy big pictures. That is an amazing site. It is devoted to pictures of Thruway exits! There are thousands!

My brother George and I are into Thruway history: exits, tollbooths, footbridges. I will have to mention this site to him. Are there any other Thruway fans out there? I am just wondering.

Talking about Pennario's birthday, I spoke with Joan Benny yesterday. She is the daughter of Jack Benny. It was a fascinating interview and one thing we talked about was the famous bridge game in which Pennario, Joan Benny and two other music types beat a top team of financiers including my boss, Warren Buffet.

Some months ago I was trying to get a hold of Warren Buffet to ask him what he remembered of that incident, and I spoke with his secretary. I heard that Buffet favored Buffalo News employees but I never did hear back from his secretary, zut alors.

Perhaps Warren Buffet is mad that Pennario beat him.

It must be something!

I have to say one thing: I like my life now that I am mixing and mingling with these people. It has been such an honor to have met Pennario and to be tracking him along the journey of his life. Which even included the 90 on occasion. He told me that!

I am thinking of him on his birthday.

I am listening to him playing this beautiful Schumann.

Appointment with destiny

2009-07-08T06:41:00.012-04:00

Today is the day I have to go and see about my tooth. There is this tooth in the back of my mouth that has been giving me problems what with the braces and everything. And my ortho and New Dentist got together and recommended this specialist. His name is Dr. Howard something-or-other and he is in West Seneca.

What about the Seneca Nation of Indians?

I should have them do a dance of good luck for my tooth!

I am not sure I ever told about my adventures with New Dentist. I know I wrote I was getting one.

New Dentist is the greatest. We actually met once before at the soup kitchen. I was cooking and he was the volunteer in the office! We sat around the soup kitchen and talked for a couple of hours the way the volunteers at the kitchen sometimes do and then I asked him what he did and he was a dentist.

Not only that, but he was Howard's dentist!

So now he is mine too. And my first appointment a couple of weeks ago was promising. I did not see one schuft or oik while I was there even though the office is on Sheridan Drive where I know there is many a schuft or oik to be found. And what is especially charming about New Dentist is that his office is not high tech.

Here is what happens when they have to send your X-ray to another dentist. New Dentist calls in the hygienist and dictates to her his pronouncements on the situation. Then she disappears.

Then New Dentist sits with you and chats. And then the hygienist returns with a neatly handwritten note. He goes over the note and corrects grammar and punctuation. He rethinks phrases. "It would read better if we said it like this," he says.

Then the hygienist disappears again. And you chat some more with New Dentist. After 10 minutes or so she returns with the note neatly rewritten. New Dentist checks it over. OK, it's good to go.

It is like 1888!

About a month ago when I began planning to write all those letters to Leonard Pennario's friends and colleagues, I had grandiose ideas that I would hand write the letters. But in practice, forget that!

So I admire New Dentist and his priorities and his aesthetics.

New Dentist also does not use a computer or anything when it comes to scheduling appointments. On the way out I asked the receptionist if I could take her picture for my Web log and she said yes. So here it is.

One question: What is that mallet doing on the desk in front of her? I hope they are not going to use that on my teeth! Certain aspects of 1888, you want them at the dentist's office. Others you do not.

Thinking about all this it occurs to me: Thanks to my teeth, my life is much richer. I meet all these people I would not meet otherwise and they are fascinating.

I wonder what adventures today will bring.

More important than Michael Jackson

2009-07-07T08:37:00.015-04:00

Today, that funeral for Michael Jackson! Can you believe it?

What is with these people?

I have this theory that the problem is that most people are not religious any more so they need something to fill the void and this is it. They get to scream and cry and feel they are part of something.

There is no other explanation for this hysteria! I am sorry but it is true.

Now, hysteria over Leonard Pennario, that I could understand. But zut alors, not this.

Luckily I have my priorities in order and I know what is important. What is important to me right now is my car inspection. Preparations start now, even though it is still good for three more weeks!

Yesterday I took my car by Goldman Motors and Howard replaced my registration sticker which I have been carrying around in my glove compartment. Then he filled up my tires. That is a picture above of Howard filling up the tires. A prince among men!

Goldman Motors is the name of Howard's garage and office which is on the border of historic Black Rock. It is near the Pierce-Arrow plant.

The Pierce-Arrow plant is one of the great long buildings of the world.

In the long buildings department it is rivaled only by World Auto Parts which happens to be right next door.

At Goldman Motors we treasure our proximity to these architectural wonders. The time flew as Howard looked over my car.

I have to go back to Goldman Motors this weekend so Howard can check my brakes. After that he is going to go with me to get my car inspected because last time, a year ago, I went by myself and it ended up costing me $1,500.

Make that $1,500.50 because they took so long replacing everything and changing every single fluid that I had to kill time by going to Goodwill. And I found a record of William Kapell playing the Khachaturian Concerto and paid 50 cents for it.

Leonard Pennario had just died and I thought about that as I walked back to the garage where my car was being inspected. I was wishing Leonard were alive because then I could have told him about this record I bought. Leonard would have loved that, I remember thinking. He would have loved that I found his buddy William Kapell at the Goodwill and not him.

It was blazing hot and a guy pulled over and asked me if I wanted a ride. That is another thing I remember. Who can resist a gal walking along in a sundress and sandals carrying a William Kapell record? He could not, that was for sure.

Wow, that was a year ago!

Anyway this year I cannot go unaccompanied to get my car inspected because look what happened last time. So I will be spending some quality time at Goldman Motors in the next week. Here is one more picture. It is of Abu Ghraib!

Abu Ghraib is the sinister part of Goldman Motors where there are these two dark doors leading into cinder block cells.

Here is a closeup of one of the doors.

Speaking of Abu Ghraib I am a prisoner of my Web log. I must away and get on with my day. Much as I am reluctant to.

Ach du lieber, Michael Jackson's funeral.

It is crazy!

Stranger in the night

2009-07-06T07:51:00.007-04:00

There was something else that happened at the soup kitchen yesterday that was funny and that I did not think to write. I was too angry at the slug complainer!

The office volunteer, Jim, told me this story.

He said a guy had showed up at the door earlier with a woman and a child. Jim began to tell them that the shelter does not take families. But it turns out that no, this woman is only a friend. She is taking this guy around and translating for him because he speaks no English.

OK, fine. There is a bed available, so Jim sits the guy down, begins taking down his information, starting with his Social Security number.

The guy has no Social Security number.

"Everyone has one," Jim says. "You get it when you are born."

It ends up the guy is not a U.S. citizen. The woman explains that. So Jim starts in on other questions. How long have you been in this country? Where did you stay lastnight? That sounds like a blues song! But it is a question we ask at the soup kitchen.

The guy and his friend are very friendly and cooperative as they answer all the questions but one thing is puzzling Jim. He cannot figure out what the guy is doing in America.

Finally the woman understands his confusion and ends it.

She explains, "He is on vacation."

Ahahahahahaaaa!! Jim explains politely that we do not take people who are on vacation. And they accept that and thank him and leave.

Where do we begin?

Perhaps they thought the shelter was a hotel.

Perhaps they thought it was a fine restaurant. A misunderstanding that does not surprise me considering the aromas that were emanating from the kitchen thanks to me and my Caribbean ham and black bean stew.

But imagine if the guy had been admitted! Howard and I were laughing about that later.

Imagine what he would tell his friends at home:

"There was this weird place I stayed at in Buffalo! You ate in a communal dining room. And there was only one thing on the menu. And besides the guy who signed me in, the chef was the only normal person in the place. And even she, all she would talk about is a pianist I never heard of named Leonard Pennario."

Ha, ha!

Here is the only thing I can think of. This is a Catholic soup kitchen and there are crucifixes and statues all over the place. Like this statue on the wall visible behind the big white head of lounge sensation Guy Boleri. You cannot quite make it out in this picture but I believe it is St. Francis.

Maybe the guy yesterday thought it was some kind of a monastery. Sometimes when you are traveling you can stay in monasteries. I have never been savvy enough to do that but some people have.

Another day, another puzzle.

That is my life!

Soup to nuts

2009-07-05T18:57:00.012-04:00

So today I am at the soup kitchen, as you can tell from the picture above. And I make this stew I think is beautiful. I got it out of "The Moosewood Restaurant Cooks For a Crowd." My sister Katie gave it to me.

I was making Caribbean Black Beans and I added a whole mess of wonderful ham to it. It is great to take a vegetarian stew recipe even if you are going to add meat to it because most meat stew recipes, they have nothing but meat and onions and spices and maybe tomatoes, never many vegetables. So it is good to start with a vegetarian recipe and then think about adding the meat.

I served myself a bit to taste it and it was wonderful. You saute up these onions with all these herbs and spices and then you add the beans, plus, I added some leftover baked beans the kitchen had in the fridge. Plus the ham. Then it baked in orange juice.

I would serve this for a party! That is how good it was.

Then I made a rice pilaf to go with it.

And here is what happens. I am done and ready to leave because I have to interview Kaye Ballard, remember, about Leonard Pennario. And one of the guests shows up who is staying in this shelter where I cook at, as we like to put it in Buffalo.

"What's for dinner?" he asks.

This is a question we are not supposed to answer but I am stupid so I do anyway. I said it was a Caribbean ham stew with black beans.

"I don't eat beans," this oik says. Oik is a British word I am picking up from my British music buddies on Twitter. It means schuft!

"Well, you don't have to eat the beans," I said.

"You mean I can pick them out?"

"You can do whatever you want," I said. "You can eat the ham. The ham is in big pieces."

And this schuft, this oik, just looks at me angrily!

Then he goes on whining and complaining. And I start getting all mad.

Everyone is so entitled! That is what I whispered to Jim, the volunteer in the front office. He rolled his eyes and agreed with me.

So once again I will be getting no time off from Purgatory because of my, ahem, charity venture. Number one I get mad at the people I serve. "Bums" is the word coming to mind at the moment. And number two it made me mad so here I am writing about it for all the world to see. There are points deducted for that, too, in the great hereafter.

I will probably end up in Purgatory for a long long time the way I am going.

And not only that, but I will probably have to cook there!

Here is an artist's rendering of Purgatory. I am the woman with the laurels on my head, on my way to the kitchen!

Meanwhile Pennario will be up there in heaven thanks to all the candles I lit for him at church, which, I lit one just this morning. And he will be wondering where I am. So will my father -- and my grandfather the Lackawanna haberdasher, whose birthday is today.

All because I let that bum today get me mad and then I wrote about it. Not only that, but I used Howard's joke in the headline. "Soup to nuts" is what Howard calls my, ahem, charity venture. Today I say, he is right!

Ay me!

The big cheese

2009-07-04T16:23:00.005-04:00

I hate to take away from the speculation about whether or not Sarah Palin will run for president when Obama's time is up.

But I hereby declare my own candidacy in this year's Celebrity Cheese Building Competition!

Remember last time I competed? Above is a photo my friend Judi Griggs took of me competing, bitterly, in last year's contest.

Now I have been invited back!

And this year they are initiating a Mary Kunz Goldman Law, something about each contestant will have his or own separate judge to measure the cheese tower before the wind or other circumstances has a chance to knock it down. I guess something like that happened last year, compelling me to -- perish the thought! -- lose. But I honestly do not remember much. I was in too big a hurry to get to the wine tent.

It is like when Leonard Pennario was 12 and learned the Grieg concerto in a week so he could play it for 2,000 people at the Texas Exposition, all he remembered of the performance was that when it was over he could go on the rides.

I am the Leonard Pennario of cheese building!

Those of you who are in Buffalo, come to cheer me on on July 16. Come on, you want to go to the, ahem, Sorrento Cheese Italian Heritage Festival anyway. July 16 is as good a day to go as any.

And note to out-of-towners: Send those prayers and good vibes in my direction!

If I win I get $500 for St. Anthony of Padua.

All year, he will help us all find our lost objects!

Romance in the night

2009-07-03T18:38:00.006-04:00

Zounds, I almost forgot to check in! The day just passed and I did not notice.

I spent an hour and a half or something on the phone with the assistant to Leonard Pennario's manager at Columbia Artists. That was a highlight! She will be very valuable to the book.

But I hope I was not too ditzy! Because I had trouble sleeping lastnight. It must have been all that talk of Michael Jackson and his sleep problems.

Lastnight when I could not sleep ...

I was sitting downstairs on the couch reading "Somewhere in Time."

Goofy book, yessirree. But you have to be careful what you read when you cannot sleep. You do not want to read something work-related and if I read about music I often end up spring-boarding in my mind to my own book and things I want to do and do not want to do with it based on what I am reading.

I saw the movie "Somewhere in Time" when I was in high school which is when you should see it. Wow, my friends and I cried buckets. When he has to go back to the present day -- in the book, it's 1971! -- and then when he sees her and they play that Rachmaninoff.

That Rachmaninoff kicks in, you are dying!

But ahahahaha, that ballad they put in this video after the Rachmaninoff, it sounds so dated and forgettable. Was that even in the movie? I do not remember it.

Since when it came out I saw the movie again once and I have to say this, it did not hold up. Incidentally Leonard Pennario saw the movie too. He thought it was based on an intriguing and kind of touching premise but in the end it did not work out. I always seem to agree with him on movies. In this case I love that he took time out from his touring and whatever to see "Somewhere in Time" when it came out. That is Pennario!

Reading "Somewhere in Time" I was surprised to find that in the book, the hotel is the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. I went to see that place and I remember Pennario thought it was wonderful that I went to see it. We used to talk about going there for lunch but we never got to because of his health.

In the movie the action takes place at that Mackinaw Island hotel in Michigan.

But even though I have been to the Hotel del Coronado I was not thinking romantic thoughts lastnight, I will tell you that. Because the bad news is, the book "Somewhere in Time," I just do not like the writing.

No reason I can put my finger on.

Just do not like it.

"She kissed him casually, a woman tasting freely of her lover's lips."

I do not know why I do not like that sentence but I do not!

Then there are something like three pages of total porn. In the movie it is pretty tame but in the book he really goes to town with it. I was sitting on the couch lastnight reading it thinking, I cannot believe I am reading this.

Perhaps Michael Jackson ended up in that situation. Perhaps that is what sent him over the edge to seek out that powerful sedative.

If they find a copy of "Somewhere in Time" in his house then we will know.

The new wine

2009-07-02T05:02:00.000-04:00

It is time for my friend Gary and me to bottle our Cabernet and the other night that is what we did.

Our friend Lou came over to help and Guy Boleri, lounge sensation, serenaded us on the piano while we worked. Guy was in the living room right over our heads! We do our bottling in Gary's basement which was once a speakeasy during the 1980s for UB students. There is a bar down there and a menu over the bar offering sandwiches and beer.

Gary has all this equipment including an old fashioned pliers-like implement that jams the corks into the bottles and seals them. Lou and I both practiced with that thing till we got good at it.

In between working we sampled the new wine which tastes yummy! And I got to hear about Gary's and Lou's love lives. Gary is in love with a Hispanic chick so Lou being Hispanic was giving him advice on what to say and do.

I just sat there and laughed unhelpfully. I love being the only woman in a houseful of guys on such occasions as this.

I thought about how at Sacred Heart we used to sing this song.

Lou is in love now too and he said that it is to the point where his love is returned. His lady friend is telling him, "I love you, baby." That is what he told me!

In between these revelations the siphoning hose we were using for the wine turned into the All You Can Drink Wine Spigot. All I could think about were those Laurel and Hardy movies where Stan Laurel would be sitting there with the wine spigot in his mouth, getting drunker and drunker. Laurel and Hardy are my favorite comedians and they were Leonard Pennario's too. Naturally we discussed that, when we were supposed to have been talking about Ravel.

Here is a picture of Stan Laurel bottling wine but it could just as easily have been me. Or Lou!

We all agreed that our Cabernet is fine stuff. If you went into a restaurant and received a glass of it you would rejoice! It is not for nothing that I go in halves with Gary at James Desiderio's for the grape juice as I admitted in my list of important things about myself. That is a good move!

We look forward to nights later this summer sitting in Gary's Florida room and drinking this wine and eating produce from Gary's garden. Gary is growing everything from wild garlic to Brussels sprouts to acres of tomatoes. And he let me taste his strawberries, just like in the song.

He is also growing slender Japanese eggplant.

This will be a magical summer.

Michael Jackson and me

2009-07-01T07:03:00.010-04:00

All this Michael Jackson coverage has "Human Nature" rattling around in my head. This goofy song I have not thought about in years.

Or heard, I might add. If Jackson was so huge, how come we have not heard this stuff for years? It was not in radio rotation so far as I knew. That is, when I walked into restaurants and stores and whatever, I was barraged with all kinds of other stuff, but not this.

I have also not heard "Beat It" for years. Or "Billie Jean."

Which makes me think: They will not be listening to these songs in 100 years. Sorry.

However, I sympathize with Jackson in one respect. That is the insomniac business.

I was reading just now about how he was an insomniac and wanted this drug, this sedative. It sounded like a terrible sedative. The story gave me the impression that if you took this drug, you might not wake up. You had to have a nurse in the room with you to wake you in eight hours.

Imagine that!

It is like "Romeo and Juliet"!

The worst I have ever taken is Ambien which, I still have a bottle around somewhere. That is a souvenir of my year or so as a serious insomniac. I was the worst! I got into this groove where I just did not sleep three days out of the week. Then sometimes I could not sleep for two or three nights in a row. Incredible! I used to talk about that with Leonard Pennario because he had sleep problems too.

But then I went to the sleep doctor and he straightened me out without drugs and all I can think is that would have worked for Michael Jackson too. It is pretty simple. They do not let you go to bed before midnight and for five nights you have to get up at 5 a.m., then five nights at 5:15 a.m., and so on, until you are sleeping like a normal human being.

You are so tired you have no choice but to sleep! So you turn your pattern around and now I am a good sleeper.

I do not know why more people do not undergo that therapy. I hear it referred to as "last-resort." Last resort? It should be first resort! Drugs should be last resort. Those sleeping pills, they beat you up bad.

What I am getting at is, I feel a little of Michael Jackson's pain. I remember what that is like, when you cannot sleep and you are all exhausted and frightened and panicked. You start to think you are losing your mind. Here is a picture of me as an insomniac, a couple of years ago.

I believe that is where Michael Jackson was at, as we like to say here in Buffalo.

It is not fun, not sleeping.

Here is one thing funny. You are always hearing songs and poetry with the gist of "I've been up all night, and I'm waiting for the dawn, the new day brings hope."

When you are sleeping you do not want to see that dawn. That new day does not bring hope, I will tell you that right now. Whoever writes songs and poetry like that has not ever been up all night.

Unlike Michael Jackson.

And me.

The wicked stepsister

2009-06-30T08:07:00.007-04:00

Ay me, things have been busy at the Leonard Pennario desk!

We have the University of Southern California including Pennario in a display they are doing of their august faculty. Pennario did not teach there but two of his most famous colleagues, Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky, did. They asked me for a picture of the three of them together, with the violist William Primrose.

Then there is a doctoral student at Juilliard who is working on a thesis concerning Pennario's performance of Ravel's "La Valse." It is wonderful that students are beginning to rediscover his work. This student emailed me about her thesis and I am conferring with her on it. I do not know why I think it is a she. The name is Asian so I cannot tell.

What else?

That round of letters I sent out at the evil Post Office are continuing to bring results. I just heard from the assistant to Pennario's manager at Columbia Artists. I have been wanting to get a hold of her so that is a big breakthrough.

Tomorrow is the day I talk with Kaye Ballard!

I was over at my friend Gary's house and he was excited at the idea of talking to Kaye Ballard so he played one of her records. It was "Ha Ha/Boo Hoo"! The cover has two pictures of Miss Ballard, one happy and one sad. She is an excellent singer and a great comedienne it will be an honor to converse with her.

Kaye Ballard played one of the wicked stepsisters in the Julie Andrews "Cinderella." Here she is in this picture. She is second from left.

Here is a clip where you see her at the beginning hilariously trying to get the prince's attention.

Then the clip goes into "Ten Minutes Ago." What a beautiful waltz that is. You could be corny in musicals back then. You were allowed to be.

Now I feel as if my life is a movie, talking to all these people!

Except for while they might never come down to earth again, I sure have to, on this rainy Tuesday morning. What is on the agenda today? Is not today the day they are planning some stupid send-off for our Memorial Auditorium?

It is a little late for nostalgia, you know?

Or, as this goofy German exchange student we used to have used to say: "It is not interesting." You should have heard that in his sleepy, condescending accent. My father nicknamed him Klutz. I feel like calling Klutz on the phone right now, just to hear him say that. Just to hear him say, "It is not interesting."

I do not want to see that silly Aud send-off. I want to watch that scene from "Cinderella" again.

"Ten minutes ago..."

Ay me!

Why did the turtle cross the road?

2009-06-29T07:32:00.003-04:00

Ay me, here it is Monday morning! And how I am wishing it were Saturday.

That was when I saw that turtle pictured above!

Howard and I were walking in Delaware Park and we took the route around the lake. There is one section of the path where it is beautiful and quiet and you can hear the birds and for a minute you forget all the slugs and schufts who like to make noise on summer days with their car stereos. Why doesn't the mayor ban car stereos in city parks? There is a question we can all chew on.

While we were walking down this path we stopped for a moment to stare into the water of the lake and watch the fish flitting about. It was like watching an aquarium. Howard pointed out how every fish had its own little territory and would snipe at other fish who got near it.

When we turned, a gentleman was standing in the path. "Look," he said.

And he pointed at this turtle crossing the road!

He said the turtle had just come out of the bushes. Now it was making its way across the road, one clawed foot in front of the other. Howard marveled at its single-mindedness of purpose. It is like me working on my book about Leonard Pennario!

The turtle seemed conscious of us but unafraid. It must have known that if we did anything it could either snap at us and take off one of our fingers, or else disappear into its shell. We did not know what it would do and we did not want to find out.

With immense dignity, its head held high, dragging its prehistoric tail, it kept on walking, ponderously and steadily, until it reached the water on the other side that it somehow knew was there.

Then plop!

It simply dropped in, like a stone. For an instant we saw it, swimming gracefully away, all four legs stretched out and paddling. Then it disappeared.

It is in the lake somewhere! Our turtle! A half an hour later when we were boating ...

... we thought about that.

Do watch that link. What a Schubertian morning I am having. I am supposed to be getting to work and instead I am listening to songs and looking at pictures.

Speaking of pictures Howard put that picture of me and the turtle up on Facebook and he asked for captions. You would not believe what people came up with.

"There should be a hare coming along any minute now." Budd Bailey, our sportswriter, wrote that.

"On second thought, why rush this whole Leonard Pennario thing?" That is my friend Carl Herko who works at the Portland Symphony!

"I see another authorized biography in the making." That is Marto Vago who is married to my piano teacher, Stephen Manes.

"Wanna race?" That is from my athletic friend Michelle Wlosinski.

"I don't know what the dentist gave me for this @#$*& tooth, but now I'm seein' prehistoric reptiles..." That caption is from our photographer Bob Kirkham.

"That's it! I'm never drinking anything Gary makes again, ever!" Dave Lundy, the actor, wrote that.

"Hmm. I wonder if he fits into Howard's new chair?" Ha, ha! That is my piano teacher himself, Stephen.

"Zut alors... now what would Leonard Pennario think of all this waste of time?!" My Facebook friend Toni Taber whom I met last week at Niagara Square wrote that. Toni, I shudder to think what he would think! Zut alors indeed!

"I'm so damn lost. Where's the Appalachian Trail?" That from our editor Scott Scanlon!

"See what just once kiss will get you." Our friend Kenny Larkin wrote that.

My friends Melinda and Lizzie made jokes about soup. We do not want the turtle to hear those! And Jeff Cooperman wrote the caption I used as my headline today.

Then Howard himself wrote something: "A magnificently engineered creature! ... and the turtle isn't too bad either." Hahahahaha!

There were so many good ones, I do not have time to copy them all. Oh! I forgot this one!

"I'm sorry Howard, I thought I had one more wish left." Our friend Art Page came up with that.

Ahahahahahaaaaaa!!

Now here it is Monday morning and ay me, I am in the mood for nothing but fun and games.

That turtle was moving faster than I am!

LA Story

2009-06-28T13:43:00.022-04:00

Yesterday we observed an important anniversary and today we observe another one. It was 100 years ago that the City of Lackawanna became a city! So yesterday we went to Lackawanna. It was another one of those outrageous bus tours led by our friend "Airborne Eddy" Dobosiewicz. That is our bus in the picture above.

But that is not I next to the bus in the purple! That is another woman on the tour. I remember her because she was in the bathroom forever in one of the joints we visited and I was waiting for her to get out and I thought I was going to be left behind.

When she finally got out I smiled as I went into the bathroom and I said: "Hold the bus for me, please, will you?"

"I'll do my best," she said.

You'll do your best?? Honey, your best is not good enough! Had you not been in the bathroom for three years, we would not be in this situation.

But anyway.

Our first stop on the bus was the brownfields of Bethlehem Steel where I took this picture to bring home to Howard.

The music from Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" played on the sound system of the bus as we went into areas normally accessible to authorized personnel only. We all cheered.

Here is another picture I took.

And here is one which shows my friend Jane.

Aren't these pictures great? My brother George and I were talking a while ago about one way in which we are different. That is the fact that George has no interest in industrial history while I am very interested in it for some reason.

At one time all kinds of railroad lines thundered through Lackawanna. They included the Erie/Lackawanna, the New York Central, Lehigh Valley, and the Pennsylvania Railroad.

We got to go up close to the monster wind turbines that are now creating energy on the site. The height is 365 feet from ground to hub. Each rod of the turbine is 150 feet long and weighs 17 tons!

Why do I find all this fascinating? But I do!

The tour stopped by Our Lady of Victory Basilica so I could light a candle for Leonard Pennario at this very holy place on the year's anniversary of his death. Isn't this a sweet statue of an angel? I chose a candle that was kind of near her because I thought he would like that. I am fussy when I light candles for Leonard. I do not light candles for him just anywhere I will have you know.

After I lit my candle for Leonard and got the ball rolling all kinds of other people on the tour, even people who are not Catholic, began stepping up to the plate, putting money in the box and lighting candles. While they prayed I sought the counsel of Our Lady of Victory.

Father Baker named the basilica for Our Lady of Victory because he was a Civil War soldier and he was in the Battle of Gettysburg. That is an experience you do not forget. Victory was a high priority for him as it is for me too.

Up by the dome of OLV ...

... you can see St. Michael the Archangel. I think that is who that is anyway. It is either he or St. Gabriel! But I think it is St. Michael because he is the one who defends us in battle and is our safeguard against the wickedness and the snares of the devil.

What about the snares of the devil's food cake?

St. Michael the Archangel does not protect us from that!

Late that night after many other stops we wound up drinking beer at a veterans' post. It is Post 63! "I hope you all dug it," our guide Eddie Dobosiewicz told us.

We did! Especially seeing Father Baker's picture on the bulletin board.

There was this poster too which I took note of at one of our other stops.

Ha, ha! My friend Jane and I have a joke for when we have a drink and are toasting each other. For years we said, "Cheers, Big Ears." Jane got that from somewhere and I like it. Then once when we were at the Broadway Market we were looking at pig ears and then we started saying, "Cheers, Pig Ears."

Now we are saying "Cheers, Weird Beard."

It is not every night you find yourself on a street corner on Electric Avenue talking with Eddie, right, a woman out walking her cat, left, and the Mayor of Lackawanna, center. The mayor of Lackawanna is named Norm Polanski.

We also met the mayor of Lackawanna's wife. Jane asked her, "What's it like, being the wife of the Mayor of Lackawanna?"

"It's all right," she said.

She met the mayor of Lackawanna in a bar! I asked her. It was Egon's Bar at the corner of Ridge and Abbott. She said Egon's is closed now.

On the way home Eddie made the rash decision to stop the bus so we could get a glimpse of Lackawanna Days. That was a big carnival they had set up and they were showing fireworks because as I mentioned, it is the 100th anniversary of the City of Lackawanna! It was incorporated in 1909. Prior to that it was part of West Seneca.

Eddie gave us 10 minutes so Jane and I thought we had time to make it to the beer tent. We did and we took our beers and tried to return to the bus but an official stopped us. He yelled: "Where are you two girls -- er, women -- going with that beer?"

Isn't it a riot how everyone is afraid to say "girls"? They are so afraid you will be offended.

So we stayed at the beer tent, figuring we had a couple of minutes. But then we were busted by the mayor of Lackawanna's wife! She saw us there and she went and told Eddie and Eddie came running up in a tizzy asking us if we were crazy and telling us to return to the bus, that he could have lost us.

Meanwhile our friend Lizzie, on the bus, was calling us on my cell phone. She knew where we were!

Lizzie and Jane and I wanna go back to Lackawanna.

Anyone else wanna?

A year later

2009-06-27T16:16:00.004-04:00

It was a year ago today that Leonard Pennario died and I cannot decide if it feels like a long year or a short year.

It feels long because of all the time I have spent missing him and thinking about him. But it feels short because of all the time I have spent working. The time does fly when you are having fun, and doing this book is a never-ending thrill.

Well, I guess it will have to end sometime! I will have to finish this thing up.

I cannot go on for years like this, that is for sure. I work on my Pennario project for at least a couple of hours every day, and as my friends are always quick to tease me, I think about him all the time.

You cannot go on forever with a dead concert pianist living in your head. I believe I have said that several times along the line. I know I have thought it!

I would put the book at half done, maybe three quarters done. A lot of people ask me for a percentage so there, that is the best I can do. There is just so much to get a hold of and research and collect. It is not like writing a memoir about your own darn self. It is also not like writing a book about some no-count pianist.

Sometimes I think Pennario downplayed how great he was to me so I would go ahead and take this on.

"Oh, Heifetz? That was nothing. That was just a few concerts we gave."

"What do you mean, how did I learn that Grieg concerto in a week when I was 12? It was easy. It was nothing. C'mon, let's go out to this movie."

Now here I am.

I will never forget my life that week Pennario died, that is for sure. In this crazy hotel room, calling the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press. For some reason I forgot the Washington Post. The Washington Post never entered my mind losing Leonard. I feel bad about that.

What a week. Flying out to California and dealing with that crazy Hertz. Wow, I remember writing that blog post. I did not want to let on that anything terrible was happening.

Then losing Leonard the next day. Above is the picture Howard ran with my Web log that day. It shows Pennario and me in the Century Grill in Buffalo deciding we would do a book together.

I have a memorial Mass scheduled for Pennario on October 25. That was the earliest they could give him a Latin Mass and I know that was what he wanted. So that is settled anyway.

Meanwhile I hope that he is happy with how things are going.

I hope he is not aghast that it is taking so long!

Darkness at noon

2009-06-26T10:19:00.018-04:00

Yesterday after meeting former Common Council president George K. Arthur and African Cultural Center director Agnes Bain for lunch at the City Grill. And when we emerged the sky was as dark as night!

A storm was brewing!

As I ran back to the office the wind whipped. My skirt was flying this way and that and I had to take shelter behind the wall of one of the trolley stations to get out my camera. But it was worth it. Can you believe that picture above? It looks like Armageddon!

Clouds of dust filled the air because of the destruction of the Memorial Auditorium. That is the Aud on the right in the picture at the top of this post.

Here is a closeup of our city's handiwork.

The Skyway stood out in sharp relief.

Such stormy skies! I was lucky to make it back to the office right before the rains came down.

Speaking of frightening sights, you would think that in eulogizing Michael Jackson, Fox News would have been able to come up with a more flattering picture than this.

That was a shock yesterday, losing the Gloved One. My brother George called me about it. I have to say this: I do not quite understand or appreciate Michael Jackson's art. I cannot quite see what makes him great. I mean, with me it is not like Leonard Pennario, where it hits me right in the face.

But I admire his skills and success as an entertainer and how he was able to market himself. And he was a first-class weirdo which I also admire. As Howard said, Jackson was one of the great weirdos of the last century. Perhaps the greatest. As for the new century, the competition promises to be keen, so the jury is still out.

I feel nostalgic for Jackson as a part of my growing up. I even had a "Beat It" nightshirt. I picked it up somewhere and I slept in it when I lived in my haunted apartment on Parkside.

Remember Weird Al Yankovic and "Eat It"?

Leave it to me to get the conversation around to food!

One thing, this hysteria over Jackson, I wonder how long it will go on. It has become like a religion with some people, mourning these pop culture figures. Think back to when Princess Diana died, the endless zeal with which people mourned her. It is still going on!

It is like me mourning the Aud!

With which, here is a still life featuring our E.B. Green-designed edifice visible behind one of our trolley stations.

Here is another shot of it with the sky.

What a dark and dramatic day! Later on last night the light was still weird. I took this picture of Howard in the driveway.

I ended the day relaxing in Howard's new smoking chair.

Howard did a picture gallery of the chair's odyssey from the bus station to Big Blue that has me laughing and laughing! You can view it here on his Web log.

It was an honor to sit in the chair after viewing Howard's gallery.

A dramatic end to a very dramatic day!

Trailer trash

2009-06-25T07:31:00.016-04:00

The other night when my mom and I saw "Easy Virtue" they showed us a trailer for "Away We Go." Wow, that is a terrible title, "Away We Go." Couldn't they have thought up anything more vivid or descriptive?

I mean, "Leonard Pennario, America's Greatest Pianist." That is a title for you. It tells you everything you need to know. It is descriptive and sexy!

Anyway. From the trailer "Away We Go" looked really annoying, about a couple who are expecting a baby and they apparently move all over the place, trying to figure out what to do with their lives and where to settle down. That is what it seemed like from the trailer anyhow. I am not going to be seeing the movie!

Plus there are unsavory sex scenes which naturally they splash up there on the big screen when here I am at the movies with my mother.

Of course we've got that big "R" rating!

Plus you have to look at that ugly actor. Whatever happened to the image of the leading man? At least when I show you pictures of Pennario ...

... he is something good to look at. I would write "eye candy" only my mother and I agreed that we do not like that expression.

Anyway. I am watching the trailer to "Away We Go" thinking, these dopey kids, you know? Because I thought they were maybe 20. I remember being 20 and I ran around then acting like an idiot, that is for sure.

Then today I find out that these "kids" are supposed to be in their 30s!

Here is an annoying picture of this couple from "Away We Go" smug in their dumbness.

Adolescence is extended now into your 30s and I do not see this changing. It is because kids cannot ride their bikes around the block by themselves.

Dogs cannot roam!

Lastnight I was at my mom's house helping babysit our little Bobbie and Georgie. Bobbie is what my mother calls Barbara because my mom's mother was named Barbara and they called her Bobbie. And we were joined in the back yard by Annie. Annie is the old yellow Lab from next door. She always walks around like a cow grazing, her muzzle to the ground, sniffing, sniffing.

Annie is free the way dogs used to be.

She is old and docile but when we were kids a lot of dogs were not. And as Howard pointed out, we learned how to deal with them. When we walked to school -- we were allowed to walk to school way back when -- we had to learn how to deal with Big White Dog ...

... who knew its domain and once bit my sister Katie.

There was also Yar the beagle. And J.B. the Scottie dog that belonged to the Robshaws two doors down. Mrs. Robshaw would come to the door and call in the dog when she called in the kids. "Karen Ann Robshaw!!" she would yell. And the little girl would come running from down the block. "J.B!" And the dog would come running on its little legs down the sidewalk.

We also had Baron, the regal and skittish German shepherd next door, and the really old black Lab from down the street, so old she walked sideways. What was that dog's name? Stacy. She was the Teapasses' dog and she would come reeling into your yard.

Now all the dogs are on leashes and all the children are wimps. And we have couples like the couple in "Away We Go," in their 30s and stupid and proud of it.

I am glad sometimes that I caught the tail end ...

... of civilization.

On a blue note

2009-06-24T08:46:00.006-04:00

Lastnight my mom and I went to see "Easy Virtue" at the Amherst Theater. A lot of the movie was annoying but it was worth it for this one scene, when Colin Firth dances the tango with the lead actress. I have forgotten the name of the lead actress because 90 percent of the stuff that is not Leonard Pennario-related flies right out of my head.

There is that moment when Colin Firth stretches out his hand to do the tango with this actress.

Wouldn't you just die??

That is what I whispered to my mom.

That is a picture above of Colin Firth doing the tango. It is one of those movie things, everyone in movies knows how to do the tango. In real life no one knows how but in movies everyone does.

Here is a tango I love. It is Lester Young! With Oscar Peterson. Pennario was an Oscar Peterson fan. As is every thinking human being.

That sleepy saxophone of Lester Young. I love that. I have not heard this record in years. There is this funny moment between takes on this recording. The producer says: "Do it the way you did before. With the funky introduction."

"But there's ladies out there," Lester Young says.

"What?"

"You said a funky introduction but there's ladies out there."

Dear Lester.

Then there's the "Drop your drawers, drop your drawers, drop your drawers, take 'em off, take 'em off, take 'em off."

I know every word in this song and every solo by heart. It is kind of off color but that is the charm of it, Lester Young just sang it so sweetly.

That reminds me.

Yesterday I was on the phone with Pennario's producer for Angel/EMI for TWO AND A HALF HOURS. This woman is brilliant and I loved talking to her and I am going to talk to her again. I would still be on the phone with her except I had to go to the movies with my mom and it got down to the wire. It hurt to hang up. I was just enjoying the conversation so much!

She told me one sort of off-color story Pennario had told her about this woman who had shaken his hand after a concert. Well, it was hardly off color. It was very mild. But I was thinking, I am not surprised he never told that story to me.

Pennario was chivalrous in a silver-screen sort of way and he would not tell me off-color stuff. He would not tell me this one Army joke either. He got to the point where it would have fit in to whatever story he was telling me and then just looked at me and said he could not tell me this joke.

Dear Leonard.

Nowadays most people do not care what they say in front of you, that is for sure.

You just pass people on the street and they are dropping that F bomb! That happens to me all the time. All I have to do is get near someone and the person immediately gets on his cell phone and starts dropping that F bomb.

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. To Lester Young singing his sweetly naughty little tango. To getting to wear a long slinky gown and doing he tango with Colin Firth.

Colin Firth stretching out his hand to you.

Wouldn't you just die?

It was a hot and torpid night

2009-06-23T06:48:00.014-04:00

Am I ever glad I braved the Post Office From the Black Lagoon and got all those letters mailed! Because suddenly my life has become very exciting.

Well, I mean, my life is always exciting. But now it is more exciting. Because whenever my phone rings I never know who it will be! Those letters I mailed, remember, were to people who knew Leonard Pennario, people who for some reason or other I had not gotten around to talking with yet. I am trying to get this book into shape.

Anyway, yesterday my phone rang and it was Kaye Ballard, the cabaret artist and movie actress. She could not have been more gracious and she is going to talk to me next week.

Here is a classic picture of the great comedienne Kaye Ballard.

I was "Miss Ballard"-ing her and she told me to call her Kaye. "I'm calling you Mary," she said.

It is so nice of her to get in touch with me so fast. Pennario's friends really loved him.

Good thing I have such nice matters to dwell on because lastnight, I do not know what it was, I could not sleep. And I had gone to my killer Pilates class and everything! I think it was that I was just warm. We have this electric fan in the window but sometimes the air just grows torpid. Torpid. That is a great word! I just looked it up and it comes from the Latin "torpidus," from the verb "torpere," which means to be sluggish or schuft-ish.

Look, now I know another Latin word. Congratulamini mihi!

So I could not sleep in the sultry night and I rose at dawn which, this being two days after the longest day of the year, occurs at about what, 2 a.m.?

It could be the excitement of lastnight. The conversation with my new friend Kaye, and then my friend Gary showed up out of the blue and picked me up in his Spider convertible and took me downtown.

What about the spider I saw the other day?

What about Spider Martin?

Spider Martin was the first jazzman I ever interviewed. We conducted the interview on the sidewalk in front of the Ontario House in Niagara Falls on a torpid and sultry night. Look at his hip trio, with Dr. Lonnie Smith! This is not the first appearance Dr. Lonnie Smith has made on this Web log.

Back to last night. Gary and I took the Spider down Grant Street which was sultry and torpid in the evening heat. He said he was hoping to impress hot Latina Grant Street girls. Gary has been working construction at Lorigo's Meating Place and he says that now that he is a construction worker he can ogle girls openly.

That is the phrase he used! I am still laughing about it.

He added: "We're up there on those beams, we're yelling all kinds of filth!"

Ha, ha! Well, I know Gary and I know he would never yell filth.

Gary and I sat on the patio of Shanghai Red's and drank margaritas and were soon joined by Howard who ate a fish fry. That is a beautiful picture of Shanghai Red's up above.

After that we stopped by the free all-night concert in Niagara Square. Gary said a pianist was playing there, named Leonard something-or-other. It was not Pennario! That is all I know.

But zut alors! As soon as we turned up Leonard whoever he was ended his set.

Plus there was nobody there anyway!

There were about two other people at this all-night concert besides us and both of them were friends of mine who up until now had existed only on Facebook. Their names are Toni Taber and Diane Strawbrich. They came up separately and introduced themselves. It was like magic, Facebook coming to life!

Last night lying awake I kept thinking of this all-night concert, going on and on, into the night, all through the night, with nobody there. It is still going on now! I think it goes until late this afternoon. Perhaps I will walk over on my lunch hour and see how it is going.

Note to out-of-towners: In Buffalo there is so much going on that you can have an all-night free concert in the middle of the city and nobody has time to show up.

We are the city that never sleeps!

Score!

2009-06-22T07:33:00.005-04:00

Congratulamini mihi! That is Latin for "congratulate me." As if you could not have guessed!

Every week when I go to church there is some phrase that I get a kick out of and yesterday "congratulamini mihi" was it. It is what the woman in the parable says when she has 10 coins and loses one and finds it. We usually translate it as "Rejoice with me," and that is how my prayer book translates it too.

But I prefer "Congratulate me." Because that is what it means!

So. Congratulamini mihi, for I have found a wondrous kitchen scale. That is it pictured above! I found it as an estate sale where I went with my mom on Darwin Drive in Snyder the other day. It cost me only a buck.

Howard covets it for Big Blue.

That is a picture of my new scale above. Zounds, the picture is blurry. Something on my camera is not set right. When I am not in such a hurry, later today maybe, I will have to correct it and take new pictures.

There is also this Osterizer.

I bagged that for $4! I had a vintage Osterizer already, and it was a good ol' wagon, but now it done broke down. I am very fussy when it comes to blenders. I want a vintage blender, and I want an Osterizer. So now I have this new one. Well, new in a manner of speaking. New to me!

After the estate sale my mom and I stopped by Goodwill where I picked up a fine pile of tapes. I may have mentioned the Goodwill cassette department last time I was there. It was as if a piano nut unloaded his whole collection. There was all this dandy piano music. Last time I was there I bought $10 worth. That would have been 20 cassettes! But I kept thinking of treasures I had left behind, what with my mom watching over my shoulder and everything.

Specifically I was remembering Guiomar Novaes playing Chopin Nocturnes. What had ailed me, not picking those up? So I was happy to return to that Goodwill because even though it was a month later, I figured those Nocturnes would be there.

Which they were! Along with other treasures. I walked out of there with 14 more tapes! They are great to take in the car or on picnics or to the beach. And I am thinking I might scrounge around the house for my old cassette Walkman. I want to be the only person still running around with one.

I am looking through the bag right now. I got Emil Gilels, Alfred Brendel playing Beethoven, Robert Casadesus playing Satie, Barry Douglas, Charles Rosen playing Stravinsky and Schoenberg, Earl Wild, "Wild About Liszt," Vol. 1, etc. I got "Wild About Liszt" Vol. 2 last time and did not see Vol. 1. How lucky it was that I went back.

And the gem of the haul: the Leonard Pennario/Erich Leinsdorf Tchaikovsky First. It is out on Seraphim. I had a funny conversation with Pennario about that but that will have to wait.

Wow, this tape also seems to have Pennario playing a bunch of solo Tchaikovsky piano pieces! A fine find.

Congratulatimi mihi!

That which does not kill us...

2009-06-21T07:15:00.008-04:00

Friday, I went to renew my gym membership at the, ahem, Buffalo Athletic Club downtown. From now on I decided I will go only to places with stentorian names. The Buffalo Athletic Club. The Lockport Town and Country Club.

When I went to renew my gym membership here is what was an outrage. They said I had been to the gym -- I mean the club -- only twice since December.

Only twice??

I must have been there more than that!!

But I was not. Last time I went to Pilates, I wrote about it, remember. That was what a rarity it was.

I have been walking and in the winter I cross-country ski and now, every week or so, Howard and I do a little volleying on the Delaware Park tennis courts. We prefer the court near the Scajaquada so we are not observed. Anyway, I have not been a complete schuft, is what I am saying. I do get out and move.

But the book keeps me home and sedentary more than I like to admit. For hours on end I just sit. And I know I do not have a lot of weight to lose or anything but I am horrified to say that some of the clothes in my closet that I want to wear do not fit anymore. This is an outrage! And it is no longer fair to blame Leonard Pennario and the chocolate sundaes he used to order and make me split.

I bet if I had been working on a book with Emil Gilels...

... he would not have been ordering chocolate sundaes and making me split them.

Yep, I know how to pick 'em. That is for sure!

When you stay away from the athletic club for a long time one benefit is that when you get back all the technology has changed. I went to the Buffalo Athletic Club by the Boulevard Mall and there were all new machines!

It was fun just walking around looking at them and that is what I did for a while, listening to Walter Gieseking play Cesar Franck. The I-Pod Shuffle makes the gym a lot more pleasant, as long as we are speaking of technology.

Finally I got up on this machine that has you "float." That is a kind term for, well, what happens is you have to put your feet on these pedals and then the pedals go up and down and around in circles at the same time. At first I thought the machine was malfunctioning but no, that is what it is supposed to do.

It takes only 10 seconds for it to kick in, which means, for your thighs and butt to start burning terribly and your heart to start pounding in a most unnatural way.

One and a half minutes into this and I am thinking, I cannot possibly go on.

But being German I did.

Then I went on for another 10 minutes. At this point Gieseking was playing Beethoven so luckily that absorbed me. Now, Walter Gieseking...

... there is another pianist who would not have been making me share his chocolate sundae. At least that is what I am guessing. And now I can see that would have been just as well.

After 15 minutes I finally let myself off the Float machine. I could hardly walk! But I dragged myself over to a bicycle machine and I began pedaling.

I chose a "Variety" course which means sometimes it is very easy and sometimes it is very difficult. The easy part was not too bad. But then it went up to just "moderately easy," as opposed to "completely easy."

And I am sweating and straining!

What in the world??

I have turned into this weakling!