I've been running around doing Poetry Alive! shows again. The driving makes my brain go all mushy, because I think myself in silent circles until there is nothing to think anymore. Out on the highway everything becomes so simple after a few hours of the same road, the same cars and trucks, the same signs for the same gas stations, hotels and restaurants.

I did get to see something a little different in Buffalo. Though it's best known for wings, we took some local advice and went to lunch at Rick's Cafe American (formerly known as the Polish Villa and apparently the setting for part of the sit-com Jesse with Christina Applegate). There we got a true taste of the art and food of Buffalo's thriving Polish community. I felt like a learned a little something new, tried some tasty new food and really visited a bit of Buffalo. There's something about eating at places like Applebee's and TGIFriday's that depresses me. I mean, why drive for 12 hours to someplace new only to see the same corporate structures that have sprouted in your own town. Buffalo isn't Asheville and Asheville isn't Buffalo, so i was glad to catch a little bit of what makes them different.~w