Brick by brick

Yesterday Howard played a gig at the Statler. It was the first payoff he got from his successful efforts to find the old hotel a buyer. He got to play a cocktail party for Business First.

That was Howard's hope when he saved the Statler, that he would be able to play there!

Business First is a business newspaper and they were giving out the Brick By Brick Awards. People were walking out carrying bricks.

That is Howard up above playing his gig. He is the Leonard Pennario of the Statler! What I like about the picture is how it makes him look like a cardboard cutout. As if he is just faking playing the Statler. But he was not. He was there! But I was not. I was at Parings Wine Bar with my mom. The picture was taken by his friend Zbigniew Bielinski.

The good side of that is, I get to mention someone named Zbigniew on my Web log. That makes me feel cool.

Play it again, Howard!

Hard-hatted Howard

Howard, that megalomaniac, is all over the news today talking about the Statler. There was a media reception yesterday and he was interviewed by the radio. They are talking about how Howard was the one who advertised the Statler for sale when no one was selling it, and who brought in interested parties, and who talked the new owner, Mark Croce, into buying it.

That is Howard in a hard hat up above!

I wish the radio had interviewed me too so I could have worked in something about Leonard Pennario.



All is not lost because today at noon I get to go on Live Chat again on our Gusto Web log at work.

Although, with all this excitement, I am going to have to have a few more cups of coffee before I am ready for that!

Piano man

What with all the excitement involving my office supper club, I forgot to mention that Howard was the subject over the weekend of my colleague Donn Esmonde's big Sunday column which is, I will have you know, read by millions and millions of people.

Above is a picture of Howard being interviewed! I took the picture.

It is a perfect picture because Donn Esmonde is the very image of a reporter and Howard is the very image of -- well, what Howard is the perfect image of, I am not quite sure, but whatever it is, I am sure he is the perfect image of it.

For the longest time Howard would not stop playing the piano as Donn was interviewing him. My husband was behaving like a skittish horse. I wanted to poke him and say, uh, Howard, would you stop being such an ass and talk to Donn like a normal human being? When I interviewed Leonard Pennario he sat and talked to me like a normal human being.

Luckily Howard stopped playing of his own accord and the interview proceeded and the result was this masterful column. It is about how Howard helped get the Buffalo Statler Hotel on the road to renovation and good health.

Donn Esmonde said it is a very good story. I began waxing poetic to him and said it was about the power of the private citizen, what you can do when you see something that needs to be done.

Every word of it is true!

Flush with success

Today Howard is in the limelight! He is featured in an interview on our local station WBEN-AM.

I stand in awe of his blinding celebrity. Well, I sat in awe anyway. We were at the breakfast table listening to it. Howard winced every time his voice was heard on the air. He said he had been so nervous that he felt as if there were weights on his chest.

I said, "Howard, you sound like a total brain."

He said, "I felt as if I sounded completely the opposite."

Ha, ha! Now he knows how I felt when I was on Performance Today, on Piano Puzzler, talking about Leonard Pennario. I still have not listened to that broadcast!

It is not easy being on the radio when you are used to sitting and writing and editing your words.

Just as it is not easy for radio people suddenly to have to sit down and write. It is like when that national broadcaster had to write a story about St. Gerard's Church: You get phrases like "for all intense purposes."

It can be hilarious when we are forced to enter each other's territories and now Howard has found out what it was like in Radio Land.

Back to the Statler. We passed it the other night when we were walking from Big Blue to the Kenmore East Reunion at the Buffalo Convention Center. And there was all this garbage floating around on the sidewalks. Bits of insulation, particularly. We figure it comes from the courthouse that is under construction across the street.

It did detract from the curb appeal, I have to say that!

So did the garbage kicking around the inside of the Statler. Although we did get a kick out of the Land of Toilets, pictured above. A floor full of toilets! Picture that.

As real estate agents love to say: Bring your imagination, and let's talk.