Toronto Trip For Blue Jays And Neil Young At Budweiser Stage
5/20/2024 - Toronto, Canada - I took today off to head North of the border to Toronto, Canada for a day of entertaiment in the big city which would include the afternoon Toronto Blue Jays game at Rogers Centre and Neil Young & Crazy Horse performing in the evening at Budweiser Stage. It was a nice warm day for a drive and I made it into the heart of the city with little traffic on this Canadian holiday of Victoria Day. I parked at Budweiser Stage and walked to the Rogers Centre on this perfect afternoon to watch the Toronto Blue Jays take on the Chicago White Sox. The dome was open on this hot day and baked the fans as they watched the Blue Jays dispose of the Sox by a score of 9-3. I walked back to the Budweiser Stage and picked up a cheap shirt outside the venue then headed into venue. I had a good ticket about 20 rows back right stage. This show was a sellout. The thunderstorms in the area delayed the start of this show by at least a half hour until they passed. I have no idea who or what the opening band was and was happy their set was short. Neil Young & Crazy Horse hit the stage at around 8:50 and played a great set of a little of everything. They opened with a ten minute jam on Cortez The Killer followed by a good jam on Cinnamon Girl and then into a crowd pleasing Fuckin' Up. The band consisted of original drummer Ralph Molina and bassist Billy Talbot, and recently added rhythm guitarist Micah Nelson (son of Willie). They played other classics like Like A Hurricane, Down By The River and Love And Only Love. Neil came out for an acoustic set that opened with Comes A Time and then said it was 'nice to be back in Canada' leading into a great version of Heart Of Gold. They came out for the first encore of Hey Hey, My My, then Don't Be Denied and closed the show with Roll Another Number (For The Road). This was a great show that was not as tight or as intense as it could have been but it was still excellent. I was able to get out of the show in record time thanks to my front row parking. I got pulled over in NY but the nice sheriff did not give me any tickets and I still made it home in good time, even dodging all the deer. Another excellent Toronto adventure in the books, see you again real soon for TTB.Slideshow[]
Santana Brings His 1001 Rainbows Tour To Wonderful CMAC
Bills Make Trip Worthwhile With Shutout Win Over Dolphins
6/22/2023 - Canandaigua, New York - Today, I was back on the road heading south to lovely Canandiagua, New York to see the truly classic rock of Santana performing at one of my favorite summer venues CMAC. I actually won these tickets on the radio using a tip my wife Deb, the contest queen, gave me when to listen and call. I left early for this show and arrived in plenty of time to park and pickup my tickets, which were only lawn but again they were free, and allowed me to sell one ticket cheap to some lucky young lady for a fraction of the cost to pay my parking and snack fees. It was a perfect night weather wise and I found a good spot on the lawn center stage and sat with some nice people to enjoy an evening of Santana on his 1001 Rainbows tour. The show opened on time and Santana and his crew played a great two hour set. He played many classics including Jingo, Black Magic Woman, Gypsy Queen and No One To Depend On. The band sounded good and grooved to many tunes like Oye Como Va, Jingo and Europa. They closed the set with a cover of the Door's Roadhouse Blues and one final encore of Smooth. A good show, with great music, at a great venue, on a gorgeous June night, and oh yea it was free, thanks WCMF.Slideshow[]
9/19/2021 - Miami Gardens, Florida - The day started with a nice sunrise walk on the private Fort Lauderdale beach at our resort the gorgeous Lago Mar Resort. We enjoyed a nice family breakfast at the resort getting ready to head to Hard Rock Stadium to watch the Buffalo Bills take on the Miami Dolphins. We left at what we thought was early enough but we ran into issues finding parking but finally we were directed to a field across from the stadium, a long walk. It was a very hot day and rain was almost a certainty. We headed into the stadium to our seats in the corner of the end zone at club level that were fortunately under the over hangs and provided courtesy of Nicole as a fathers day gift ! It was the Dolphins home opener and that included rolling out the big flag across the field, a nice rendition of the National Anthem from Darius Rucker and then a jet flyover that really gets me every time. I love the jet flyovers after the Anthem. The game opened with the Bills knocking out the Dolphins starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. The Bills dominated play winning a blowout 35-0 to the delight of a large contingent of Bills fans who stayed to the end to celebrate their team. The rains during the game made getting out the field parking lots difficult and included pushing people out of the mud and crazy fans trying to break tables post game. A great time was had.Slideshow[]
Annual Trip To Letchworth State Park For Some Peak Foliage
10/26/2019 - Castile, New York - Today, we headed south down 390 for our annual trip to see the near peak fall foliage at beautiful Letchworth State Park. We left early making stops in downtown Rochester to pickup Deb's pal Gigi for her first visit to the park and then downtown Geneseo to pickup Dom and Liv. We arrived at around nine in the morning to a shockingly almost empty park. The weather was a little cool but dry and the foliage was near peak. We spent time exploring all over the park hitting Inspiration Point, the Upper Falls all the way to the train bridge ending at the Lower Falls. An excellent day of relaxing in the park that ended in Geneseo having a nice pizza lunch at Mama Mia's. A great annual getaway that we will see again next year.Slideshow[]
More Maui, More Maui, More Maui, More Maui
Rask And Boston Bruins Take Down Sabres At Key Bank Center
3/17/2018 - Maui, Hawaii - This St Patricks Day in Maui started with a nice breakfast at the condo at Kaanapali Shores. We were up early and headed to Lahaina to take in another whale watch with our favorite tour company, Ultimate Whale Watch. It was a nice morning and the watch started with us boarding the Wiki Wahine raft. The watch started with a close encounter with some bottlenose dolphins and then following some whales for some closeup whales and tails. Another good watch that was good but not quite as good as the one earlier in the week. We walked around Lanaina a bit getting some nice shots of the Banyon Tree and then heading to Pi Artisan Pizzeria for a nice lunch. We headed back to the condo taking in another gorgeous Maui sunset. The trip is sadly almost coming to a close.Slideshow[]
12/3/2016 - Buffalo, New York - Today I headed west to downtown Buffalo to watch my Buffalo Sabres take on the Boston Bruins in an afternoon tilt at the Key Bank Center. Mike again provided the excellent free ticket. The Sabres struggled to find offense in this game even with Jack Eichel in the lineup. They did get some decent scoring chances in the third period but lost to the Bruins by a score of 2-1. Evander Kane had the lone goal for the Sabres and Robin Lehner in the nets tried his best to keep them in the game. Tuukka Rask was hard to beat and his excellent goaltending sealed the victory for the Bruins. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon even though the Sabres lost AGAIN...Slideshow[]
AC/DC Brings Rock Or Bust Tour To Toronto's Downsview Park
Eddie Daniels Joins Jazz Band At 12th Annual Evening Of Jazz
9/10/2015 - Toronto, Canada - In the concert finale of the summer, we headed north of the border to Toronto's Downsview Park, to see the classic rock of AC/DC on their Rock Or Bust Tour. We left a little late due to work and school and drove to the outskirts of Toronto to Kipling to pickup the TTC which would bring us right to Downsview Park to avoid the pre and post concert traffic. The crowd was pretty large, about 90,000, but we headed to the left of the stage and grabbed a great spot very close to the stage. The opening band was Vintage Trouble. They did a soulful bluesy set that was pretty short. AC/DC hit the stage at about nine and played a raucous two hour set. They opened with Rock Or Bust and dove into a set of classics like Back In Black, Hell Bells, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and TNT to name a few. Brain Johnson on vocals was good and Angus was Angus. They finished the set with Let There Be Rock and an awesome guitar solo by Angus. The crowd was intense, people body surfing, woman flashing, and people just getting into the music. They came out for a two song encore that included a nice jam on Highway to Hell. For the final number they brought out the cannons and wailed on For Those About To Rock (We Salute You). A fantastic final number that concluded with a huge fireworks show to end it with a bang literally. I would say all 90,000 were entertained. A good move to take the subway as we avoided the post concert traffic jam again, jumping on the train and heading back to Kipling to drive back home. This was just a really great show and was a nice finish to an excellent summer of tunage.Slideshow[]
2/6/2015 - Hilton, New York - Today Dominic and the Hilton High School Jazz Ensemble performed at the 12th Annual Evening of Jazz at Merton Williams Middle School in Hilton, New York. The Evening of Jazz featured the talents of world class jazz musician Eddie Daniels. The Merton Williams Jazz Ensemble opened the evening with several numbers under the direction of Charles Kane. This was followed by the Rochester All-Star Big Band with special guest Eddie Daniels. The band included local professional musicians under the direction of Jared Streiff. They played a great set that included Eddie Daniels performing some fantastic clarinet and saxophone solo performances. The evening ended with the Hilton High School Jazz Ensemble performing five numbers. The numbers included We'll Get It, Hay Burner, Decoupage and an original piece commissioned for the band called Needledrop. For the final number the Hilton High School Jazz Ensemble was joined by Eddie Daniels to play the David Benoit song Sao Paulo. The finale included an excellent solo by Dominic on the Soprano Saxaphone which was followed by a solo by Eddie Daniels on Tenor Saxaphone. It was a great show and Dom did a fantastic job playing both Bari and Soprano Saxophone. The next big show for the ensemble will be in Orlando, Florida at Walt Disney World in April, I can not wait....Slideshow[]
Another Sad Aloha To Maui Until Next Time - Part VII
Experience Hendrix Tour Jams At UB Center For The Arts
4/20/2014 - Maui, Hawaii - The final evening on Maui we took in an awesome sunset from the ocean front views of Kaanapali Shores. After watching the sunset we headed back to Lahaina one more time for dinner at the Hard Rock Café. We followed that up with ice cream concoctions at Coldstone Creamery. The final day had one last morning beach walk watching the sun rise. We said are Aloha's to our home away from home Kaanapali Shores and did some final island exploration. We stopped at Kapalua Bay to relax by the beach and take some nice scenic photos. We headed east after that and had an early lunch / dinner at Outback Steakhouse in Wailea. We then headed north from there heading to Hookipa Beach to watch the awesome world class windsurfers. Finally we headed to the airport to catch the red eye flight from Kahului Airport to Denver starting the long journey home. From Denver to Chicago and finally back home to Buffalo. Another fantastic Hawaiian adventure in the books. A sad aloha until next time..... 123456Slideshow[]
4/1/2014 - Buffalo, New York - Another day and another great concert, today we attended the Experience Hendrix Tour performing at the University of Buffalo Center For The Arts in Buffalo, New York. We headed out a little later than planned and before entering the venue we decided to scalp our tickets to upgrade from our upper balcony seats to the sixth row floor, this was a good move. The seats were excellent and sitting down we did not think it would end up being a three and a half hour jam session of the music of Jimi Hendrix covered by tons of artists. The show opened with original Hendrix band member Billy Cox playing Stone Free. This started the night of tons of artists jamming on Hendrix tunes. The short list of artists that played included Billy Cox Hendrix's original bass player, the Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy, Johnny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Dweezil Zappa, Doyle Bramhall II, Eric Gales, Ana Popovic, Eric Johnson and Mato Nanji. The show was non stop Jimi and each artist played it in their own style making it an entertaining show. Ana Popovic showed not only does she look good but she can play guitar jamming with Dweezil Zappa. Johnny Lang and Eric Johnson did a nice jam on the Wind Cries Mary and Kenny Wayne Shepherd did an excellent cover of Voodoo Chile. The show finished with the classic blues guitar of Buddy Guy being joined by Billy Cox and others to close out the show with a nice version of Red House. This was an excellent tribute to Hendrix that included a star studded lineup of guitar players, we will be back next time for sure.Slideshow[]
Nicole Finishes First Season Of Hilton Track
Buffalo Sabres Brawl With Penguins On Pittsburgh Plane Trip
5/20/2008 - Brighton, New York - Nicole completed her first season on the Hilton Central Schools modified track team today. The final track and field meet was held in Brighton versus both Brighton and Batavia. Nicole had a great first season competing in the 50 meter hurdles, the 75 meter dash and the triple jump. Hilton had an excellent team winning most of their meets. Nicole was a top performer in the hurdles and 75 meter dash finishing in the top three consistently.Slideshow[]
2/17/1979 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - My Aunt Mary decided for my upcoming birthday to take me on my first plane ride to see our favorite team the Buffalo Sabres play the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Civic Arena in downtown Pittsburgh. The trip to see the game started the day earlier heading to Buffalo Aiport for my first ever time on a plane. At the airport, we ran into some star New York Ranger players, Esposito, Duguay and Sanderson, wearing their full length mink coats and rolling pennies across the floor amusing themselves waiting for thier flight. The Sabres had just beat them the night prior at the Aud. We arrived in Pittsburgh and made it to our hotel right across from the Civic Arena. We had time to visit with Uncle Loren and Aunt Jerry a bit and had a great dinner at the hotel that included an awesome hot fudge sundae bar. We headed to the game early and our seats were literally right on the ice, first row in the corner. We watched both teams warmup and I even managed to snag a practice puck from Pete Mahovlich! The Sabres and Penguins cleared the benches right in front of us in the first period, when Dave "The Hammer" Schultz was ambushed in the corner by two Penguins and Rene Robert led the Sabres off the bench to let the brawl begin. Several game misconducts were given and the Sabres managed to win the period but after that the Penguins took over and won the game 6-3. Even though they lost the game, my Aunt and I had a fantastic trip, thanks Superstar! Game SummarySlideshow[]
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)
