Going to Buffalo, N.Y., next July (1 Viewer)

cirerita

cirerita

Founding member
I'm not completely sure as of yet, but I'll probably spend a couple of weeks researching into Buffalo's small press collection, one of the largest -if not the largest- of the USA. My idea is to work hard -yeah, I'm fucked up that way- but I'm sure I could run away from the library for a few hours or maybe during the weekend and hook up with some of you guys... that is, if any of you live within walking distance from the library :D
 
Hey thats cool. I'm 90 minutes from Buffalo.
Depending on the dollar value you may want to stay in Niagara Falls Canada.
Are you bringing the family too?Let me know if you need any information.
I went to Buffalo last year to hear Liam Ó Maonlaí (former Hothouse Flowers singer now sings Gaelic folk music) at a bar call Nietzche's close to the University.
 
Jimmy Snerp,

no, I'm going on my own, we cannot afford a family trip right now. Besides, I don't think my daughter is interested in that small press collection. She doesn't seem really interested in the "littles."

I'll try to find on-campus lodging, but if that's not possible, then Niagara Falls Canada might be an option, but I really don't want to waste too much time on transportation. The library hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and let me tell you I'm not an early bird.
 
If there is a way I can help... ask.
I have a few former employees who are finishing off (fast tracking) their teaching degree in Buffalo so they may have first hand lodging information if you can't find anything that suits you.
 
I booked the flight a few days ago. Barcelona -> London -> NY -> Buffalo. 650 euros, taxes, fees, etc, included. I booked the Barcelona -> London ticket first and then the London -> NY -> Buffalo one. If I booked both tickets with the same dealer, then the final price was almost 1100 euros. Crazy, huh?

Anyway, I'll arrive in Buffalo June 29th and I'll leave on July 19th. Drop me a line if you will visit the library, I mean, Niagara Falls during my stay.

Are the N. Falls worth visiting? I really don't feel like going there, but maybe I have a lot of prejudices about Falls in general.
 
You really can't miss them if you're in BUffalo they are just too close. And they are impressive. I won't get into which falls is better the U.S or Canadian. BUt know this. It is the cheesiest place on the planet. Every trinket and tourism gimic known to man can be bought there including Native American Dream catchers made in China. Everytime I go and I go often-I like the falls. I imagine how much cooler the place would be if there was no commerce around but I bet there are some people still in Vegas who think the same thing. And if you are in BUffalo you must try the BUffalo chicken wing. There is a cool pub called Nietzche's close to the University.I'd like to drop over one day for a pop or two if you're into it.
 
cirerita said:
Anyway, I'll arrive in Buffalo June 29th and I'll leave on July 19th. Drop me a line if you will visit the library, I mean, Niagara Falls during my stay.

Are the N. Falls worth visiting? I really don't feel like going there, but maybe I have a lot of prejudices about Falls in general.
Click to expand...

How can you be predudiced against falls? What did they ever do to you? ;)

Or perhaps you've been to South America...

I was disappointed by Niagara Falls back in 1997 or 1998, and I'm sure it hasn't changed much since then. Then again, the falls themselves are impressive, but all the varicose-veined, cheeseburger gobbling, sunglasses-wearing, bumper-sticker buying typical tourist skanks kinda make it seem like being at Wal*Mart on the day after Thanksgiving. Just to re-iterate Jimmy Snerp. What he wouldn't say is which side: I'd go with the Canadian side.

By all means go, Abel. As a natural wonder, it is impressive. Just wear blinders.

The wife and I might be able to make it up there for a weekend. We'll see. It would be nice to meet a few of you folks. As long as there's beer.
 
If you like rain. Falling water creates negative ions which, they say, can make you feel good. I like rain mostly because we rarely get rain in this desert. Waterfallls are awesome and I'm sure you can block out all the knuckle headed tourists. Study, eat the Buffalo wings, drink the beer, and be happy. Niagara Falls look better from the Canadian side I know I've been there and I am from the U.S.
 
Falls are fine by me, it's what surrounds them what usually bothers me. Anyway, it seems that N. Falls are 15 miles away from the library, so I might as well visit them.

Chicken wings? Pardon my ignorance, but I assume that's meat, right? Sorry to say I'll stick to the Buffalo lactuca... and the Buffalo beer, of course ;)
 
Jimmy Snerp said:
I won't get into which falls is better the U.S or Canadian. BUt know this. It is the cheesiest place on the planet.
Click to expand...
I may be the most cynical, travel-hating person in the Western hemisphere, but Niagara falls (on the Canadian side) was awe-inspiring and wonderful. The town was very tourist oriented, but I thought they did a very good job of keeping the cheese a few blocks from the actual falls (this was back in 1999, I hope it hasn't changed much). We stayed in an inexpensive joint a couple blocks from the falls, and we could walk to them through a park without seeing any commercialization at all.

Also on the Canadian side is a butterfly conservatory, which we hadn't planned on visiting (I mean, why would you?) but we went in one day because it was raining, and - holy shit, that place was amazing.

Also, I can't denigrate any city with a Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, which Niagara Falls has. I make it a point to visit every Ripley's Believe it or Not museum that I find myself within 50 miles of.
 
Hmm, I heard that crossing the Canadian border these days can be a pain... especially when it comes to young researchers who look like terrorists ;)
 
They stopped Carol and I at the US/Canada border - this was pre 9/11 - and practically took apart the rental car we were driving. I don't even think I had dreadlocks at the time...who knows what gets up the nose of those border types.

mjp said:
I make it a point to visit every Ripley's Believe it or Not museum that I find myself within 50 miles of.
Click to expand...
esart said:
That's because you're a kook! :p
Click to expand...
But Ripley was the modern Marco Polo!
 
mjp said:
They stopped Carol and I at the US/Canada border - this was pre 9/11 - and practically took apart the rental car we were driving. I don't even think I had dreadlocks at the time...who knows what gets up the nose of those border types.
Click to expand...

I used to live in upper michigan, about 2 hours from ontario. I crossed the border there a least 2 or 3 times a month. I've also crossed from NewYork and Washington state. Let me tell you, those border cowboys can be real pricks. 9 times out of 10 I got hasseled. quite a number of times my car was dismantled and searched. a couple of times I was detained for hours. and there's not a damn thing that you can do about it. and don't ever complain or question thier reasons unless you really want the fourth degree. Now from what I understand, its actually gotten worse...(like father Luke said, if youve got a record, even drunk driving, forget it!) of course then again ,maybe you can't blame them, I wouldnt want all those damn americans in my country either... never the less its always worth the pains to be in such a beautiful place. British Columbia is like heaven on earth.....
 
Speaking of Ripleys I'm going to Niagara Falls but not the falls this Sunday. I'll take pictures if we make it to them-and we should.
I haven't had many problems at the border at all really and I cross fairly often. Then again I'm usually going over for hockey games or concerts so they ask questions then pass you along.
 
cirerita said:
Hmm, I heard that crossing the Canadian border these days can be a pain... especially when it comes to young researchers who look like terrorists ;)
Click to expand...

There's always these apocryphal stories about Canadians being denied entry into the U.S. on the whim of a border guard. And having the denial extended for five years.

One had a woman going down to visit her fiance also telling the U.S. customs official she was also going to do some research for whatever book she was working on. Denied, she was taking work away from a U.S. citizen.

Others have the customs guy ask at the crossing if you've ever smoked marijuana, not have you been busted for it, but have you ever smoked it? And the smirking answer of yeah, in college once gets you turned around and out for 5 years.

Of course these stories appeared in the news so they are dubious.

A couple years ago I crossed at the Peace Arch and told them I had a few books a non-profit group that I belong to with me to sell to a group of motorsport enthusiasts I was having breakfast with. I'd said similar things before. Well this time I was pulled over, the car checked out and was told by the supervisor that I "had no status in the U.S."

I just listen to people like that. Don't respond very much. It ended with me paying $5 for some reason to U.S. customs. I still have the receipt, still not sure what it was for.

Guess it's better than a full body cavity search. But like a friend said while we waited in line to cross, "what's a little probing?"
 
Meanwhile, at the U.S. Mexican border, you can walk across on foot (in either direction), right next to the miles of backed up cars and trucks, and no one even looks at you.

Trying to "secure" a border is like trying to catch a hummingbird with a cinder block. All they ever do is hang up regular folks. If I wanted to blow up Canada or Mexico (or vice versa I suppose), I wouldn't drive through a fucking checkpoint.

Don't forget to take your shoes off at the airport. What a joke.
 
speaking of customs and crossing borders I never recommend flying into Memphis, Tennessee from Jamaica. Ever. A bunch of college friends and I went there for a week once. On the way back all of the airports in the NorthEast were snowed in and we had to land in Memphis, stay overnight and head home the next day. I took my time getting off the plane and was separated from my group of friends. I was out of it, having consumed as much of the Lamb's Breath as I could before entering the airport in Jamaica. I was immediately singled out by some gung-ho Memphis custom agents. I was grilled relentlessly for 30 minutes while they searched my belongings...I was forced to strip down to my boxers and I was this close to a full cavity search...they finally gave up when they couldn't find anything in my luggage.
 
It's the Mexican Border.
There are five of us in the car.
We had just gotten many bottles of Tequila.
We also had loaded up on Xanax and Vicodins

We forgot that one of us had a passport from England.

And That Passport had recently traveled through
Iraq on a newspaper assignment.

This was a whole new lesson in what does the
future hold in store. . .

It worked out fine.
Just fine.
 
mjp said:
Don't forget to take your shoes off at the airport. What a joke.
Click to expand...

YEAH! Exactly!

father:
Great poem!

Jimmy Snerp:
then Most of us here are guilty of that crime from one time or another, which makes us all guilty the same. But please, don't let us fly buknet into a skyscraper, ok?
 
I have too many ugly border crossing stories to tell, but one always makes me laugh when I remember it...

1988 or '89, touring all over Europe and North Africa with a reggae band. I am the Holder Of The Passports, probably because I don't smoke herb and therefore everyone assumes that I won't leave them on a balcony or in a toilet somewhere. Anyway, passports from U.S., St. Lucia, Dominica, Jamaica - a regular United Nations jammed into in my pocket.

One morning we are in an airport in the UK, and I am sitting at a table trying to eat some kind of stale breadlike thing, when I see our bass player ambling toward me at his usual casual pace. Only on either side of him are British military guys, fully outfitted, with their automatic rifles held in both hands, ready to lay waste to whatever gets in their way.

I can only imagine what kind of horror is about to transpire, or how long it is going to take me to get him out of prison. So the bass player, Ray, finally makes his way to where I'm sitting and says, very calmly, "Dem man deh wan see some passport." Ha ha. Yeah, they wanted to see all of our passports as it turned out.

But to touch on what Father Luke said, we had a lot of stamps and visas in our passports from North Africa, all of them in Arabic. Even in the 80's those attracted attention, and not exactly good attention, whenever you traveled anywhere. For 5 or 6 years I had to explain those damn stamps whenever I left - or tried to come back to - the U.S. I was glad to replace that thing when it expired. I imagine it's much worse now, but man, what a pain.
 
ok, I finally found a place to stay, a nice little apt. on campus. It's a 7 minute walk to the library, but I was told I could catch the free shuttle as well, as if walking were a crime of sorts!

Last night I noticed that I would have to review 800 mags (2,000 - 3,000 issues, maybe more). Shit, that's 60 mags a day. I don't think I'll make it. Anyone willing to help me out? The apt. is big enough for 2-3 people. Just bring your mattress ;)
 
ah, well. that's too bad (for me). I love research and have patience up the wazoo, so this type of thing is right up my alley. unfortunately the timing isn't there.
 
cirerita,

Just off the campus in Buffalo there is an absolutely wonderful bookshop called Talking Leaves ...Books that specializes in small press publications. I've visited the store many times and feel certain they can put you in touch with qualified people who would be delighted to assist you in your research on a gratis basis.The owner is a very friendly fellow named Jonathon Welch and his wife is Martha. My name is Bill Whitaker and I visited him and his bookshop for years as a publishers' representative of many small independent publishers including BSP. If you contact him, please tell him I said "Hi."

Here is his website: http://tleavesbooks.com/about.htm

Good luck!
 
Hi cirerita, I live several hundred miles south of Buffalo, and if you visited in the winter you'd know why. :-) So I probably won't get to visit with you. However, I do know Michael Basinski, the curator of the poetry collection at the State University of New York in Buffalo. He came to a few of the poetry readings I held back in the mid-to-late 80s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which is not that far from Buffalo. That University has a huge poetry collection, so I'm assuming that is where you're going.

If it helps to drop my name, I'm sure that Basinski remembers me. His library may be the only place on earth where you can find a copy of the rare-as-hen's-teeth Pig in a Poke #2. It's so rare I don't even think that I have a copy. (BTW, if you ever see one, PLEASE give me a shout ...)

http://www.buffalostate.edu/library/rooftop/members/basinski.htm

Hope this helps ...
 
Harry,

I've been in touch with MB for a long time now.

And, yes, their poetry collection is HUGE. I'll keep my eyes open and will let you know if I find a copy of PiaP #2.

As a matter of fact, if any of you guys want me to copy a few pages from a really obscure mag, let me know it.
 
Hey Abel, would love to see the scan when you get time. Also, if you see Pig in a Poke #2, please create a diversion and steal it. I like Basinski but we have to keep our priorities straight.
 

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