NY Day 5 - Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo
If the heading wasn't clear, today I drove to Buffalo. My cousin Andrew's wedding was going to be there tomorrow, and there was a party tonight with all his and his bride to be's family and friends, and it was not to be missed. I had missed his sister, Elanor's, wedding (the first wedding of my generation on this branch of the family tree!) due to not being in the country at the time, so I really didn't want to miss any part of this one.
My mom's side of the family is big, Irish, and very close. She's one of eight, and all told in my generation there are thirteen of us, and the fact that we all get along so well is truly mind boggling. I legitimately feel like if I wasn't related to them, my cousins would still probably be some of my best friends. Because there's about seventeen years between the youngest and the oldest of us, it's been really cool to get closer to my older cousins and siblings with age, as the gaps between 20 and 30 are much less meaningful than the gaps between 10 and 20. It's fun discovering that shockingly after growing up in such similar environments all of us have aged into the same kind of generally weird, smart, and funny adults so family get-togethers are always enjoyable.
While getting to see my family was great, the drive up was less than exciting. It's a little less than six hours to get to Buffalo from Manhattan, depending on traffic, so I had to get an early start. Honestly because I was so groggy, I don't remember anything before my first coffee other than rough traffic and beautiful views along the George Washington Bridge.
My first coffee stop was at a Dunkin Donuts off the interstate. Because Dunkin's a big chain, it's not usually worth noting except that this one had a surprising number of nuns in it which was fun. I haven't been a practicing Catholic for about six years now, but somehow I still felt like I was supposed to let the nuns go to the bathroom before me even though I got in line waayy before them. It's amazing how they can get in your head like that. They seem innocent and sweet, but I bet they know they can play it up when they really want to pee first if they need to.
After another big chunk of highway, I stopped for more coffee, a slice of pizza, and gas at a place called Dandy's. The gas was for the car, the rest was for me. Despite the fancy name, I'd say it was probably just about average to a little bit above average from what you might expect from gas station pizza and coffee. The pizza was buffalo chicken though, so that was nice little preview of where I was heading. The most interesting part about Dandy's though was that across the street was a Drive-Through Vape Store, which might be the best case I've ever seen for millennials probably being the generation that brings about the apocalypse.
During the next couple of hours of driving, I started having a tough time staying awake despite the two coffees, so I switched from my steady stream of music, to re-listening to the first episode of Norm Macdonald's Podcast where he interviews Bob Einstein AKA Super Dave Osborne. I've said it before and I'll almost certainly say it again, but Norm is easily my favorite living comedian, and his podcast is one of the most consistently hilarious things I've ever listened to so I can't recommend it enough. Norm is a good example of what I was talking about yesterday, in that he is extremely politically incorrect at times but he's a great writer and an equal opportunity offender. He always places making a well crafted joke above anything else, but when he crosses a line he always has a shit-eating grin that lets you know he's in on the joke and just pushing buttons without meaning a lick of it. It can be an impressive tight rope act and I think a lot of people might think he really is one of those guys that outright rallies against political correctness entirely. However in a recent interview, I think he might give one of the best cases for how and why you should be sensitive with your material even if you generally think of censorship as a bad thing. He talks about why he cut out a bit about Caitlyn Jenner from his most recent Netflix special. I was actually there when he filmed it, because the show was in Boston, so I heard the joke that got cut, and felt like it was pretty inoffensive. Norm says in the interview though that he still thinks the joke is funny, and that he wouldn't think of it as offensive, but that he can't control how other people take his material. He said the idea of someone somehow hearing that joke and using it in anyway to justify a worldview where they might hurt a trans person made him too uncomfortable to leave it in the special. I think a lot of comedians I've seen take it very personally when they're asked not to do a bit because someone thinks of it as offensive even when they don't personally see anything wrong with it, but I think Norm's logic hits the nail on the head: your intentions may be pure, but once you decide to tell a joke in public and put it out there, you're partly responsible for how other people take that material. I'm sure comedians would debate how much responsibility for other people's reading of a joke a comic actually has, but it's something to take into consideration and the reason why I think clarity of language is super important in joke writing. In general I don't think there should be any real limitations on ideas people should be able to talk about on stage, comedy is after all in some way about trying to make sense of a crazy world, but I do think if you're gonna say something you should be prepared for the responsibility that comes with saying it. It's easy to forget when you're the center of the stage (or you spend every day writing about yourself) that it's not always all about you and your actions will always extend beyond yourself in ways you can predict and ways you can't.
That's my dumb take on an issue related to comedy for the day, I have no idea if that's of any interest to anyone else or if it's kind of masturbatory to waste so much virtual ink on basically saying comedy doesn't have to be mean and that I like and respect Norm Macdonald. But it's something I sure think about a lot, especially when I'm alone in a car for six hours in the middle of Upstate New York. Oh well, here's a pretty picture from a scenic rest stop to break up the text for a bit.
I did make it to Buffalo though (with the assistance of maybe just one or two naps at rest stops), and basically immediately got ready for the pre-wedding party. It was in a fancy mansion, and it was so great getting to see so much of my family in one place. We all sat around one big table and basically chatted the whole time. I felt a little bad, that I didn't try to make more of an effort to get to know other people there for the wedding, but I don't know when I'll get another chance to see all those people so I don't feel that bad about it. Plus the bride and groom really happy, which is the most important part. Also after about 6 mimosas, I probably wasn't in first impression making shape. See picture below:
Favorite Random Observations: 1-800-GIANT MEN (that's two many letters); Two identical trucks in a row, one that said "I believe in God" on the back and the other that just said "Hustler"; Endless Mountains; Next Area: 58 Miles (not rest area, area); Smugglers Wine Bananas (no clue); Village of Horseheads
Regional Observations: New York Drivers are definitely the worst I've encountered so far.
Albums Listened To: Get Hurt by the Gaslight Anthem; Get Lonely by the Mountain Goats (just Half Dead); Get Rhythm by Ry Cooder; Ghana by The Mountain Goats; Ghost Town Rockers by Stray Bullets; A Gift from a Flower to a Garden by Donovan; The Gipsy Hill EP by Big D and the Kids Table (Just New England); Give 'Em Enough Rope by The Clash (great album unfortunately sandwiched between two much more monumental albums); Give 'Em the Boot by Various Artists (compilation of 90's ska punk from Hellcat Records); Give a Monkey a Brain and He'll Swear He's the Center of the Universe by Fishbone (first time hearing this one, since I picked it up used in Maine, but it's good. A lot of people hated it when it came out because it had too much heavy metal and hardcore punk for their ska fans and too much sillier aspects for any real heavy metal fans to get into)
People's Favorite Jokes:
From Super Dave on Norm's Podcast since I didn't hear any other jokes: A man bets another guy at a bar that his dog can talk. The other guy says, "You're crazy! If that dog can talk, I'll buy you a drink. But if he can't talk I'll throw you out the window." "He can definitely talk! Listen to this," the man says. "What do you call the top of a house?" he asks the dog. "Roof!" the dog says. "What is the texture of sandpaper?" the man asks. "Rough!" the dog says. "Who's the greatest baseball player of all time?" the man asks. "Ruth!" the dog says. So the other guy throws the man out the window, and when he's lying there the dog comes up to him and says, "Do you think I should have said Dimaggio?"
Song of the Day:
A surprisingly intelligent look at the military industrial complex in under three minutes and with a funky bassline. What's not to love.