RIP Russell

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Russell Pawlak passed away last night from cancer, at 59. Russell is the major reason that I ever got involved with the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation.

I attended the first public tour in 2003, with my fathers photos in hand, and stood at the gate trying to see in the lobby. Russell said to me, “don’t worry, we’ll go inside”. I’d like to say that I stayed on the tour and listened with awe to every word Russell said but I admit I did not, and once inside I separated myself from the tour (to be quickly followed by Brian who saw me upstairs ha) to see what else there was to see besides the concourse. Russell didn’t have a lot of control over that first group, and the tour went much longer than he probably anticipated, especially when the owner of Duch’s decided to take everyone up to the 4th floor roof.

At some point during the tour I showed Russell the photos and he wanted copies of them. We made arrangements for that, and then I attended every public tour that year…and the public meeting at Mickey’s…and I volunteered to do the website…and I flew to Chicago with Leighanne to find the clock…and asked the Buffalo Science Museum to find the original buffalo in their storage rooms…and Russell asked me to be a board member in February 2004.

Russell’s passion was infectious. Anyone who met him understands. As good as our tour guides may be now, it’s not quite like how Russell was. He was inspiring and he really made you believe that this huge insurmountable task was completely do-able. If someone else had been tour guide that day, I’d never have been part of the CTRC for the last 6 years. He may have made me want to quit a number of times, but in the end, he made me want to stay even more. I sincerely wish he could be around to see what happens.

Posted in: Personal \ Tagged:

Body Worlds

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went to see Body Worlds and the Story of the Heart at the Buffalo Science Museum last night with the parents. it is the original exhibiton of plastinated bodies, like the Bodies exhibit adr and i tried to see at Tropicana last summer. bunches of bodies and body parts dissected and on display so you can see all the different parts including organs, circulatory system, nerve system etc. everything. it was pretty cool, but even though i knew the displays were real people, they still looked fake and plastic. an autopsy it is not, nor is it things in jars like the Mutter Museum (except the embryos). it sorta bothered me that they put eyebrows, lips, nipples and belly buttons back onto the bodies that the skin was removed from. sorta weird and unnecessary. but it was interesting and worth seeing for sure. i recommend it to anyone in the area, or to friends in toronto (the exhibit opens there in october i believe).

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RIP MJ

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MJ’s memorial…sad as hell. very well done, nothing at all flashy and gaudy about it (which i was half afraid of). it was a fitting tribute.

my highlights, if a memorial can have highlights. rather cry-lights…

brook shields

jennifer hudson “will you be there”

al sharpton – “i want his 3 children to know, wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy, it was strange what your daddy had to deal with.”

paris’s comment. so freaking sad.

RIP michael.

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RIP Michael Jackson. omg.

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Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009.

I should say something shouldn’t I? I am not sure I have the right words. There are very few people in my life right now who were around back in the 90s when I became a Michael Jackson fan. There are only a few in my life right now who even know I ever was…so I don’t expect most people reading this to understand what I am feeling upon hearing about his death.

It is hard to express what MJ meant to me, because people have their own thoughts and opinions about him. But he “came into my life” at a time where his music spoke to me, and he had a huge hand in what I have become. People see his controversies and his plastic surgery, but there was much much more to him than that. He made a lot of mistakes with his life and his own PR but I truly believe he was a genius. It is tragic what he had become. But everyone needs to remember what he was, what he did for music and dance, the doors he opened for black performers, his impact on pop culture. He was an immense talent, and his influence can be seen in every dance move by today’s stars like Usher and Britney Spears, and dance troupes like the Jabbawokies and those other dancing tv shows. Any artist who denies that he was an influence is a liar.

I am more upset than I expected to be when this happened, considering I haven’t paid much attention to him in years. It is a shock, for sure. I joked that I didn’t think his London concerts would ever happen, but I didn’t think it would be because he died. I still thought about flying out there for a show every day, but now I have to be content with having had the chance to see him perform twice in 1997.

Despite whatever MJ had become, he was a great artist, a great man, he was a father, and a brother, and a human being. He didn’t seem to have much peace in life, I hope he does in death.

Anyone who has rude cracks to make about him or his death, please don’t talk to me.

Posted in: Music, Personal \ Tagged:

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i bought Dr Pepper flavoured freezey pops at the dollar store. they were probably made in china and thus are poisonous but oh well, they were a dollar. and they don’t taste like Dr Pepper, they taste the way Dr Pepper chapstick tastes. reminiscent, but not quite right. which makes me wonder just how hard is it to put the same ingredients into a freezey pop so that it would taste the same?! just pour some Dr Pepper into plastic sleeves, easy.

Posted in: Personal

ok, one more nin show

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just bought a lawn ticket for pittsburgh…ticket promotion, the price is 7.66….with $6 for parking and $6 in fees LOL or there is no service fee wednesday offer for lawn tickets…so the ticket would be $19 plus 6 for parking…who wouldn’t get the special lawn ticket?!? and i’m kinda irritated you have to pay for parking with your ticket, when i am not driving and would not need to park. just another lovely live nation rip off.

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Vacation!

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vacation week.

started with 5 days in a row at the terminal, as my last hurrah of sorts. wed night to meet a caterer. thurs night board meeting, then the TAPS ghost hunt on Fri and Sat, and finally our own ghost hunt Sunday. the weekend was pretty fun, and we made some money. they started with a meet and greet for the people who bought tickets, and then went into a lecture by John Zaffa, a demonologist, which was…interesting. a bunch of stuff about exorcisms etc. jason and grant followed that with their own presentation/lecture, and some video from some of their shows and other non tv investigations. once it got dark, about 9pm they broke into groups and the rest of the night was the actual hunt. friday night i got a psychic reading done on para-x radio haha. interesting and mostly bull, of course. saturday night was much the same, only i didn’t stay the whole time cuz i was tired and bored. sunday was without celebs, and 200$ cheaper hahaha. we had about 40 people and WNY Ghost Hunters brought in some people to speak, and then at dark again, broke into much much smaller groups to investigate the floors. i don’t really think the terminal is haunted, but they’ve been finding some interesting things. someone on the hunt got a pretty impressive EVP in fedele’s apartment.

anyway. it was a good weekend for us, and technically my last one for a long while. i don’t want to see that place again for months haha

so today i left for a real vacation for the last 4 days i have off. i ended up deciding on braddock pa, trans allegany asylum and west virginia penn in WV. turns out david was going to be in wv with his gf at the same time, and decided to meet me in braddock.

well…braddock was not what i was expecting 1. it is way close to pittsburgh and i pictured it farther out, sorta middle of nowhere mountains. 2. it is bigger than i thought it would be. i was expecting a main street and then houses spread out over several other streets. instead it was crowded with buildings (yes mostly empty, especially main street) 3. since it was crowded with buildings, and most of them were houses, there wasn’t anything to really photograph. 4. they still have a US Steel mill?!!? i don’t quite understand what this city’s problem is. i thought they were ruined and the population had left because industry had left, but they have a big steel plant and a large hospital and it is very close to pittsburgh. i don’t get it. it’s also right next to rankine, which i didn’t realize til i was driving and suddenly realized i had been there before, with dan 2 years ago haha. so i met up with david in braddock and we drove around a bit, but then left to some places he knew of in nearby mckeesport. visited an old hotel, steel fabricator (i think) factory and a church. so it ended up being successful. i then followed him down into WV and am now spending the night in morganstown.

tomorrow is weston and trans allegany lunatic asylum. woo. i’m excited tho i hear the tour goes way too fast for good photo taking, but i suppose i can always take the tour twice 🙂

Posted in: Personal, US Vacations, Vacations \ Tagged: , ,

Aud photo contest

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good news, I asked the harbor people about what size they want the photos in for the contest and made a comment about wishing we could submit more than one. they said to have family and friends submit them for me LOL so now i can pick more than one and have mom send one in and dad and depending on how many i really want to send in, some of you guys too 🙂 but i still win the orange seats 🙂

Posted in: Personal