Lon "Obilon" C.'s Profile

Across the street from the Albright-Know Gallery is Buffalo State College. It's the smaller sister school of the (probably) better known University of Buffalo but both are in the SUNY system. At this point you've either stopped reading this review or are thinking: please get to the point!

Here it is, as a art student at Buffalo State College across Elmwood Avenue, I spent many a day in the Albright-Knox Gallery and I am grateful for it. The museum holds a diverse array of paintings and sculptures and is large enough so that you can return time and time again without getting bored but small enough to really do in one day.

I see people complain here that the collection is random but that's probably the point. With this being (as far as I know) the only major art museum in Western New York, it has to have a wide appeal. I found the randomness appealing and quaint in a way. Even now I remember spending snowy days int he museum taking notes for a particular art or design project or just spending some time surrounded by art.

There are pieces by some of the biggest names in modern art here including Lichtenstein, Warhol, van Gogh, and deKooning. The gallery serves as a cultural center and at the risk of sounding too much like an advertisement is located at the edge of beautiful Delaware Park overlooking the lake in the first of famous landscape designer Fredrick Law Olmstead's Buffalo parks.

Personally, I have fond memories of this museum and have returned many times since college, always drawn in by its accessibility and diversity.

Oh Strand Bookstore! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I'll start with 18. That's how many miles of books the Strand claims to have. Sounds like an incredible claim but if you've ever been there you'd believe it.

The Strand is actually notable for something other than its books. Nope. Not its free bookmarks. Not the prices. Not the selection. Those are all cool things about The Strand. But the most important thing about The Strand - and there should be a warning of some kind on the door - is that this bookstore is the epicenter of a massive whirlpool of time. It is New York City's most famous time suck. Once you go in, the seconds turn to minutes, the minutes to hours and the hours to days.

I once met a guy in the sub level who came into The Strand in 1972 and hasn't left. (He thinks his wife is still waiting for him outside yet little does he know she moved to Phoenix in the 1980s.) Funny thing is, the guy's happy as a clam. I tried to tell him about cell phones and the internet but he just scoffed. "Who needs 'em," he said. "When I have all this!"

My little tale accentuates what every New Yorker who loves books already knows. Don't go into The Strand unless you have at minimum an hour to kill and preferably a half a day. One of my favorite things to do is shop the racks outside of the store on a Friday night. It's bustling with people.

I've been to plenty of used bookstores and let me tell you The Strand is head and shoulders above them all. You will find something here that you like. You will probably find more than one something.

P.S. There used to be an Annex down on Fulton Street but it closed last year much to my chagrin because now I have to truck all the way up to Union Square to go there (I work in lower Manhattan by Wall Street.)

I'm from Long Island. When you're from Long Island you must sign a contract when you become a teenager that says you will utter the words "best place to see a concert, ever" after someone mentions Jones Beach Theater. Seriously, it's a law. It's true. Jones Beach really is the best place to see a concert, ever! But they make you sign the contract anyway just in case.

Been to a lot of concerts in my day and some were mind blowing. Some, I can't remember because they were either really bad, boring or I was totally wasted DUDE! (Sorry Mom.) But I remember every single concert I've ever seen at Jones Beach and I loved them all. Even the one the guy reviewed with Bowie and Moby? Yep, saw that one too and even though he's right, it poured cats and dogs, I had a great time.

I've seen everyone at Jones Beach from David Lee Roth to Black Crowes/Jimmy Page to the Cranberries to Blues Traveler to Tori Amos to... well you get the point. I make it my business to see at least two shows per summer here and I've never been disappointed. Does the food costs a gazillion dollars, of course. It costs too much at Great Adventure and Yankee Stadium too, but people keep going. You go for the music.

You can actually have a great tailgate party in the parking lot and the even though the cops are out in force, I've personally never gotten a ticket - yet. It's on the beach, and when the sun starts going down, the breeze starts to blow and the music plays, you are in heaven. The good heaven, where there's loud rock and roll!

I don't get it...

The most surprising thing about Lenny's is that it's not owned by an old jewish guy but some Asian guy and his name isn't even Lenny! Only in New York.

Oh, you want to know about the food and the service? Well, at the John Street location right near to where I work the people are fantastic. I go there everyday so they know my order, they smile a lot and make nice small talk. Very friendly.

The coffee is very good. Not bad at all. I'd say typical New York cup of coffee, in a good way. Smooth and not too burnt or strong like, say, Starbucks.

The sandwiches are standard too. Not too shabby. You will not be disappointed by Lenny's food but you won't be floored either.

For breakfast I usually get a fruit salad which is Yummy Yummy. Always fresh.

Prices. A little expensive but, y'know, it's New York. Whadayawant? Cheap. Go to Jersey. You want a typical New York Deli? Go to Lenny's

Want to save money? Make your own damn sandwich you kvetcher.

The ALS Association of Greater New York is an organization that assists people with ALS and their families. Quickly, ALS or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is most commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease after the Yankee baseball player in the 1930's and 1940's who contracted the disease at the height of his career. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.

This particular chapter serves New Jersey, New York City, Westchester and Long Island. Every year they organize 5 Walk to Defeat ALS events raising money for the victims of this disease.

The website for this chapter is http://www.als-ny.org and they are closely associated with the Yankees (Lou Gehrig) organization, which does a lot of work with ALS-NY.

They are a small but very hard working and helpful organization doing very good work.

There is not much about Central Park that hasn't been said. This is a place that is integral to the city. Without it, this would have not been the same town. Central Park is a character in itself. It has played the central role in many a film, book, play, song and piece of art. At times, dark and scary, and at others it's bright, fun and playful. There's room in this park for everyone to enjoy. My favorite is the fact that there's a zoo, a lake and that the bedrock juts right up out of the grass providing natural resting places. I used to take my lunch breaks here and in the summer I'd lay on the bedrock and sun myself while reading a book or taking a quick nap.

Oh Yeah. This place is too cool. When I was graduating college way back in the early 90s I'd stop by this place and say that whenever I could afford my totally hip downtown, NYC apartment, I'd shop here for my kitchenware. Well, I never got that NYC apartment, hip or not. So every once in a while I still stop by the store to get a whiff of the old days.

The flatware, dinnerware and gifts are all totally original and quirky. Where else can you get plates with a Manhattan Skyline pattern? What started out as a rare find of dishware in an old barn for the owners turned into a gem for NYC.

Whenever I get nostalgic or want to surround myself with a cool NYC original, I stop by. One day I'm going to buy myself the whole skyline collection.

What makes a coffee bar different from the countless others in the city? Internet connection? Check. Expensive 16 oz. coffee? Check. Quirky post-modern decorating? Check. Not Starbucks? Check. Two plasma TVs showing people doing extreme sports? What??? Yep. This place is just different enough from your average NYC cafe to make it special. One thing is that they have a nice, relaxed, undercrowded atmosphere that is just downtown enough to be good but just uptown enough to be convenient. Plus, on constant rotation are outdoor sports on the televisions sporting surfers ripping curls, making you wish that you were on an island somewhere with them. Oh yeah. They have good coffee, pastries and a great egg sandwich on multi-grain bread. But, you know, you expected that much.

One of the best comic book and collectible stores in the city. It's got a great selection of current comics and an even better selection of Graphic Novels. Unlike most comic book shops, Forbidden Planet has collectible action figures and other toys at pretty reasonable prices with a good discount section. But once you wind your way through all the comics on the first floor, don't stop there. Head upstairs for a large Magna and Anime section with everything from Pokemon to Akira.

It's not a huge shop but it is classic and a must stop shoping trip for any Geek. As a plus the shop usually has a few good freebies like mini movie posters of upcoming genre films or a film/tv prop. My recent favorite was a life sized Dalek they had as you walked in.

You might think that Forbidden Planet would deserve a maximum rating but where it doesn't work is in space. The comic section is not very condusive to browsing as the aisles are too narrow and I contantly bump into other patrons.