Today is the 186th Anniversary of Buffalo being Incorporated (April 20, 1832) so I thought I would share a recent story about... Buffalo.

So as we prepare for the Cortney Chyme Celebration Showcase for this year, Cortney, and I knew we needed to take some photos for new marketing materials, posters, etc. We decided the first place we wanted to shoot was in front of the wall mural on the side of the 710 Main Theater. I didn't want this to be a normal street level angle so I brought a platform for Cortney to stand on, and a step ladder to shoot from. Doing this at 9:00PM on a Tuesday night, we knew it would attract attention.

As I'm setting up, and Cortney is standing on her platform with an illuminated reflecting umbrella, a car pulls up on West Tupper right where we're standing, and stops right next to us. Now if you know Tupper, there are only lanes of travel - no parking. That cross-street area of West Tupper between Pearl, and Main is narrow, so it was a bit unexpected to have someone stop. The driver rolled down the passenger window, and I expected him to ask if we could give him directions, but he said nothing. He just sat there, and turned up his radio probably about as loud as it would go. It was odd, to say the least. We carried on with what we needed to do.

It continued to be odd as he just sat there, not doing anything, but blaring music next to us. I had no idea what the music even was. Jazz? Salsa? Fusion Jalzza? He just sat there. We started shooting, and he just sat there. We kept shooting, and he just sat there.

Eventually he shouted something out the window. Something rather unintelligible. We're not sure if he offered to help, or was just telling Cortney to be careful standing on the platform. We kind of acknowledged him with a, "We're ok, thank you." response. He shouted something back, we think about Jesus, or god or something, and then sped away.

We took pictures.

It is becoming a tradition. Two years ago for her first show, as we photographed in front of the "Love" mural on Ellicott, a drunk man wandered out of a bar to come over, ogle Cortney, and ask if we needed help. We declined. He hung out for a while, ogling Cortney, and drinking a beer. It was about 2:00PM. Day drinking, and bothering people as they work...

Buffalo.

Oh, how we love Buffalo.