PopWars

Artists talks are not for the faint of heart. We bravely attended one at the new I-Square gallery last night where four artists talked about their work and so much more. It was exhilarating. Richard Harvey talked mostly of process but his is multifaceted and interesting. Wendy Menzie started making art after primal therapy in the 70′s. She quoted Philip Larken, “Your mom and dad fuck you up. They don’t mean to but they do” and spoke of her journey back to the child inside. Ed Buscemi stressed the importance of improvisation and relayed a dream he had thirty years ago where people were moving by him on a conveyor belt and he jumped on and tried to shake the people but he couldn’t bring them out of their trance. It seems to be his modus operandi. He is fond of asking “Are you kidding me?” in an animated fashion and he admitted to being hooked on conspiracy therories. Todd Beers discussed his breakthrough painting which is on view until tomorrow and told a beautiful story of his encounter with a dove on the fire escape he was sleeping on. He dimmed the lights and wowed us with his poetry. Harvey, Menzie and Buscemi all studied with Robert Marx who has his own opening tonight at Rochester Contemporary. He is featured in their Makers Mentors show.

We scurried downtown for the Ossia show at Kilbourn Hall but missed the opening toy piano number. We caught “I Can’t Concentrate” by the Brooklyn band, Zs, a mathematically challenging, post jazz, brutal-chamber piece. And then were blown away (again) by Ossia’s performance of Frederic Rzewski’s “Coming Together.” From the liner notes – “The work consists of a bass line accompanied by a series of instructions which can be realized by any group of instruments. With each performer acting as composer, the work allows for a variety of performance outcomes and is essentially an experiment in compositional anarchy.” A vocalist read a letter from Sam Melville-in prison in 1970 for series of radical bombings in Manhattan where no one was hurt-to his brother on top of the music. The twenty minute piece was trance-like and hallucinatory like a deep dream.

I had the best tofu I have ever had at Edibles on University Ave. It was marinated in a ginger sauce and grilled in some fashion that left it moist and soft on the inside but slightly charred on the outside with a caramelized sauce. We had dinner with our neighbors before heading down the street to the Baobab Cultural Center where noted Jazz authority, saxophonist, and RIT Professor, Dr. Carl Atkins and his group, “Culture Clash” gave a lecture lecture-performance. He was Co-Director, along with bassist Ron Carter, of the Thelonious Monk Institute. He led a very cool group of bass, drums and vibes and w would up with, “Epistrophy” and “Ruby, My Dear” and “Well, You Needn’t” swimming around in our heads. That led us to YouTube this morning where watched and listened to main ingredient. And then we dug up dvd copy of “Straight, No Chaser” that Jeff Munson gave us. That’s now number one in our queue.

Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby have taken a liking to Rochester. They’ve been here four times in the last few years and came up tonight to play a benefit for Tom Kohn and the Bop Shop. Amy told the crowd that when they decided to move from France they considered considered moving to Rochester but Eric interjected “it would have been a good choice if it wasn’t for the weather and it’s proximity to Canada and the the fact that it is so far away from everything else.” “It’s better than France” Amy insisted.

They played a fantastic set. They are perfect as a duo, with piano, guitars, bass and harmonies. Thoroughly seasoned performers they somehow manage to sound like the first band your friends put together. If only they would fire that drummer, the drum machine on Eric’s laptop that flattens the songs they use it on. They finished with a beautiful version of Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone.

Chandler Travis opened the show before driving to Trumansburg outside of Ithaca for another gig tonight. He brought the house down with a version of Pete LaBonne‘s “Turning The Page.” Amy told the the crowd she felt like she was tripping when Chandler and his bandmates came out into the crowd to perform this gem a cappella.

Pete LaBonne – Turning The Page
Pete LaBonne “Turning The Page”

My punishment for going away is that I have to wade through and catalog all of the photos I took. We watched this guy for a while, waiting for the light to turn red and then darting out in front of the stopped cars to juggle for a minute and then hit the drivers up for money. Better than someone spitting on your windshield and then using a dirty rag to wipe it before accosting you for spare change.

Margaret Explosion – Juggler
Margaret Explosion “Juggler”

Back just in time for winter and last night’s art opening at I-Square at the future four corners of Irondequoit. I have a few pieces in a show with Wendie Menzie, Ed Buscemi, Todd Beers and Richard Harvey. That’s Richard Harvey’s work shown to the left of mine in the photo above. It was a cool little gathering with coffee and homemade sweets. Peggi made ginger snaps with cayenne pepper following Shelley’s recipe.

We met I-Square developer, Mike Nolan, and our friend Charlie’s little sister. It gave me the opportunity to tell her the story Charlie told me of their other sister taking the ring off a famous dead man’s finger. I told the story to Chuck Cuminale and he wrote a song about it for Colorblind James. Charlie and Chuck are both dead now and Charlie’s sister had no idea there was song about all this.

Poet and artist, Todd Beers, said he gets all fired up at openings and can’t wait to get back and start work on something. I told him openings have exactly the opposite effect on me. Todd said he saw Peggi and me in my two portraits and he a sang a line from an old song of ours.

Butter is back in our diet for the holidays, mostly in the form of cookies. Cheese and dips, chocolate covered figs from Spain and even hamburgers are back too. Duane breaks his macrobiotic diet down at Vic & Irvs each year and we joined him for that debauchery last night. And Rick and Monica are bringing a picture of egg nog over later tonight.

Every time I see my former neighbor, Sparky, we talk about cooking some sausage, something we did about five years ago. He called the other day to say he had some sausage and he was coming by for lunch. He told me to have the grill hot but he got here about a half hour early so I wasn’t ready. How can you be ready for Sparky?

I put a collection of country music on and went out back to start a fire while Peggi and Sparky chatted about the old neighborhood. Sparky picked up the album cover and got on a roll. Turns out he knew most of the big stars and even played with a few. He told Peggi he was the one who gave George the “No Show” nickname. Sparky was raised in Kentucky. He knows Country. Peggi made a video of him a few years back and we put it up on YouTube this morning.

The best part of Christmas is the Bobbie Henrie and the Goners‘ Christmas show and it’s already over. The place should have been mobbed, it usually is, but I’m glad it wasn’t. We could stand right in front of the band and soak it up. This band rocks and swings like no other. They effortlessly mix rock and roll with country and jazz. They transcend rockabilly. Their songbook is enormous. They tore up the Christmas chapter at Abilene on Saturday night with choice George Jones, Elvis Presley and Brenda Lee covers.

Now let’s get on with the holidays.
MX-80 Sound
Spinal Tap

I stop at “So Many Records” every morning. First audio of the day and it often gets me time traveling, mostly in a backwards direction but not entirely linear, more like the opium fueled dreams of Robert DeNiro’s character in Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon A Time In America.” The older you get the bigger your memories play in your present. The only reggae we had when we first met Kevin in 1976 was Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff. I am one of Kevin’s friends who was blown away by the “THIS IS REGGAE MUSIC (Volume 3)” collection that Kevin talks about in yesterday’s post.

Since we play about once a week and don’t usually do a song more than once we have a lot songs in the kitty. We had this idea to get one hundred downloads up on our site site by Christmas but that took some doing. We spent the last week listening to things like “Prom Night 2″ from a few years ago and now retitled “Submarine Races.” And this afternoon at about four o’clock we uploaded the hundredth song.

Download all 100 here.
Margaret Explosion – Submarine Races

I spotted this orange glove in the middle of Culver Road and I had to turn around and grab a shot. It might make a good Margaret Explosion cover. Here’s one from the “Extreme Materials” art opening at the MAG.

Margaret Explosion – Art Opening
Margaret Explosion “Art Opening” with Pete LaBonne on piano