March 2013 – Page 2

March 6, 2013August 16, 2019

No Drawers

Passersby rush past Moondog as he stands at his panhandling post in front of the CBS building in Midtown Manhattan

With a name like Moondog you would be hard pressed to come up with an album title as good as your moniker. I’m guessing that is the reason there are so many different recordings called “Moondog.” I had one on vinyl back in the late sixties and then in February of 1970 the Sunday Democrat & Chronicle featured Moondog on the cover of their Upstate Magazine. I kept the magazine inside the gatefold lp for a long time, then scanned the article for the Refrigerator. While staying with a friend who was living in Hell’s Kitchen, we walked over to Sixth Avenue where Moondog was holding court. I was a fan and so was his onetime roommate, Philip Glass.

Later I found two of his cds in the downtown library, one called “Moondog” and the other “More Moondog/The Story of Moondog,” both recorded in the mid fifties, with sound collages and poetry and a glimpse through the eyes of a blind man. We were on an Amtrak train coming back from Manhattan in 1999 when we found Moondog’s obit in the NYT. I folded that up and stuck it in Moondog’s “Sax Pax For a Sax” cd.

Hark Pictures from Midlands UK is making a documentary about Moondog and the director found the Upstate article that I had transcribed. She asked if I still had the original article. Good question, I have digitized so much of my stuff over the years. I just bought a new desk for my computer and in keeping with my minimal aesthetic it has no drawers so I filled the trash can three times with old stuff. But I surprised myself and found the magazine squirreled in one of the few remaining hiding spots. The brittle old newsprint cracked as I did 600dpi scans of the pages.

Work In Progress Administration

Janet Williams is one of my favorite painters. We have a pretty good reproduction of one of her pieces, a broom from her “Primordial Household Objects” series, but there is nothing like the real thing. Some of her older paintings can be seen here and she shows her recent work at the Oxford Gallery on Park Avenue.

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March 4, 2013August 16, 2019

Time Becomes Space

Do you want to feel young? Go to one the Regal theaters when they do their live HD broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera productions. You will be the youngest person there. We went to Wagner’s Parisfal, his last opera, and were in our seats at noon. The first act ended at 2:30 and the second at 4:30. We had to leave and missed the third act all together but wow, what a spectacle!

The music is heavy, the production almost painterly with white dresses soaking up blood, the story jam packed with the big issues, good versus evil, an exploration of human frailty, a spiritual quest where the pure and foolish are made wise by compassion. The female lead is being punished for laughing at Jesus on the cross while the brotherhood of the Holy Grail bring home the rituals of a high mass. Take of my blood and drink. Take of my body and eat.

If only there was enough time in the day to take in the third act.

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March 2, 2013August 16, 2019

Panic Attack

International School of Music & Arts students performing Philip Glass at Rochester Contemporary

Axom Gallery was jam packed last night for Judd William’s artist talk, so jammed a woman next to us on the way in said, “I better not go in there or I’ll have a panic attack.” Judd’s talk was pretty straight forward and you probably could have guessed that he has fun while he works. He draws a lot. He always has, he was voted the “The Artist” in high school and he likes doing portraits but he shys away from calling them portraits because often times the people he draws say it doesn’t look like them. It was a treat to hear him talk while surrounded by his recent work.

Our favorite show this First Friday was the performance by the International School of Music & Arts students doing works by Philip Glass. This instrumentation sounded fantastic in this room and I have never heard anything sound good in this space. The oldest kid in this ensemble is a tenth grader. Two of the violinists are in seventh grade.

Artist Statement

Artist's statement at Canaltown Coffee on East Avenue in Rochester, New York — Artist’s statement at Canaltown Coffee on East Avenue in Rochester, New York

My sister got us out of bed pretty early this morning. She had slipped on the ice last night while walking her dog and the throbbing pain in her wrist had kept her awake all night. She didn’t think she could drive herself to the doctor so we offered but first we had to “walk her dog”, a euphemism for taking the dog to a bathroom on the neighbor’s lawn. I inverted a Wegmans bag and cleaned up the mess and we headed off to Greater Rochester Orthopaedics (GRO) where the walls of the waiting room were lined with two foot square paintings of tree related art. I wanted to take a photo of one of them, a cross section of a big tree, but I did not want to confront the grumpy, gum chewing couple that was sitting in front of the painting.

My sister came out with a purple cast and I suggested going to Canaltown for a cup of coffee. We ran into my father over there, he was getting a to-go cup for my mom, so we had a small family reunion. The paintings there were not as intriguing but I liked the artist’s statement.