To say that we’ve made plans for a month in Spain is not entirely accurate. We will be in Spain for a month but have only the first week planned out. That and a La Liga match with Atletico at the end of the month. We bought tickets to that last night. We’ve been reviewing notes from our past trips to Spain and, of course, looking at old pictures. This hotel in Comillas up on the Bay of Biscayne was nice. And then again we have not been down to the southern coast since since the middle 80s.
Peggi and Paul near beach in southern Spain
We came across an entry from our first trip that described how we caught someone trying to break into our rental car while it was parked in front of an historic church. It was one of first stops and they damaged the locks on both doors so we were unable to open them. Rather than return to the rental company I climbed in through the trunk for the rest of the trip. We don’t rent cars anymore. We take public transportation, look out the windows and dream.
We stayed at Duane’s place near Prospect Park for two nights and divided the bulk of our waking hours between two big box museums, the Whitney and MoMA. Outside the museums we walked seven miles or so each day with Duane (in his orange hat) as our guide. We walked the length of the High Line after the Whitney and all the way downtown after MoMA. We found “restaurants nearby” with Apple’s map and ate Mexican and Indian. My brother, Mark, came in from New Jersey and met us at the Picasso show.
I had a crazy nightmare the first night and woke Peggi with my cry for help. Sea lions, like the ones we saw in Maine when we rented a boat, were climbing onto the bed (Duane’s coach) and one of them had three long claws wrapped around my wrist. The second night there was a fire at 1:30 in the morning at the 24 hour car wash on the next block. Peggi woke up to the sirens and the flashing lights. I was aware of the disturbance and had a restless night’s sleep.
Ed Ruscha is mostly fun. Once a commercial artist, he found a way into fine art by doing uncommercial projects. Playing art director he gave himself wacky projects like photographing every building on Sunset Boulevard. Also, he was from California, an outsider to New York cool school. His paintings look like comps for ads.
Ruscha revisited his Course of Empire, a ten-painting installation originally created for the 2005 Venice Biennale, repainting the buildings a decade later with signs of dubious progress (international logos, barb wire). I saw them all at the old Whitney a decade ago. MoMA had three of the pairs in their “Ruscha: Now Then” roundup. They were my favorites.
Henry Taylor’s “B Side” show at the Whitney was a real trip for me. A trip because I went in knowing only “I’ve seen a few reproductions of his paintings that really caught my eye” but here those paintings, large and on display in the first room, struck me as blown up reproductions. I spent the first half hour or so looking for others to like. I scanned the rooms instead of proceeding one by one, following my eye and I slowly discovered Taylor could pull off more than a few good paintings.
He paints quickly with exuberance. His brushwork is like Guston’s. His portraits have real personality, real likenesses if they are someone famous. They bring Alice Neel to mind. He is playful like Basquiat, he riffs on famous paintings, adapting Whistler’s mother in his portrait of the Black Panther Party Minister, Eldridge Cleaver (above) and giving him somewhat of a dandy appearance.
With time I was laughing out loud as I found one thoroughly enjoyable painting after another. Paintings that looked simple at first looked rich and expressive. Rewarding! Henry Taylor is now one of my favorite painters.
Margaret Explosion performing at at RCTV4 in Rochester, New York
It was so good to have Jack back in the fold at our record release party on Wednesday. He says he would join every night if he could the bagel business hard core. The is a help wanted sign out front every time we stop by. We played as a five piece with Peggi’s sax and Jack’s bass clarinet to right and Ken’s unmiced double bass in the corner (that acts like a giant speaker cabinet) and Phil guitar amp and pedalboard to my left. Both Pete LaBonne, shown at the left of the photo above and Bob Martin, shown at the right, live out town now but they are both on the album. And Melissa Davies, who has been playing cello with us for the last year, was spending the night with her kids.
Because we billed the night as a Record Release Party we expected a noisy crowd but it was just the opposite. The room was full and all eyes and ears were focused on the band as we stumbled our way through an improvised set of thirteen songs. The Zoom recorder and mic, in the foreground above, captured the night for us. Here is song number 3.
listen to a live song from Margaret Explosion at the Little Theatre Cafe on 10.04.23Leave a comment
We sold quite a few records at the release party but I surprised how many people told us they didn’t have a turntable. And when I told those people that Per la Prima! is available on all the streaming services I was surprised again that they didn’t belong to any of those. So I promised I would make the songs available here as free downloads. It’s not like there is a whole lot of money in this business.
The album is getting some airplay as well and it’s interesting which song they chose to play.. Scott Regan on WXXI followed a Clash song with “Yard Bard.” Rick Simpson on WITR chose “Edge of Town,” the last song on side two and Cal Zone on WAYO’s “Magic Records” played ” played “Pungi Pie.” He followed that up with Pharaoh Sander’s new Luaka Bop release.
listen to Rosary from Margaret Explosion lp “Per la Prima!”Leave a comment
It is still a mystery as to why oak trees yield a small acorn crop some years and then a bountiful one. This year the squirrels, chipmunks, birds and deer have struck gold. This bonanza is botanically referred to as a ‘mast’ year. We have had a long stretch of unusually warm dry weather and the slightest breeze releases the nuts. We’re still sleeping with the windows open and when the nut clusters hit the metal roof of our house we get a riotous cacophony and some crazy dreams.
Peggi Fournier, Jeff Munson and Nina Gaby at RL Thomas Reunion in 2023
I go on Facebook to post Margaret Explosion gigs and this time I found some photos from last weekend’s reunion of RL Thomas high school. I snatched these two of Peggi and Jeff Munson. They’re shown talking to Nina Gaby (in the foreground.) I was sitting to Nina’s right and am thankfully out of the frame.
The reunion was a two part affair and we went to the first half, in the dismal upstairs room of the American Legion on Ridge Road. There were plenty of complaints about the stairs during the cocktail hour but it was mostly joyous, “happy to be alive” conversation. It was another opportunity for Doug Click, one of the first friends I made when I moved to Webster in the middle of fifth grade, to remind me how we used to hit balls over the hedge in right field to catch a glimpse of Wendy Williams (eventually the vocalist for the Plasmatics) sunbathing in her back yard. According to Wikipedia “She had her first run-in with the law at the age of 15, when she was arrested for sunbathing nude. Williams attended R. L. Thomas High School in Webster at least partway through the 10th grade, but left school before graduating.”
When the food came out Peggi and I sat down with Nina and Lauri Bortle. I have reconnected with Nina because we run in the same art circles. As I vaguely remember Nina was one of those girls in high school who were too cool or self assured for me to approach. Come to find out she lived near and hung out with Charlie Coco, later one of my best friends. Charlie was always surrounded by girls, not because he was a ladies man or anything but because he sort of was one of the girls. I remember Lauri fondly from Mrs. Sweeney’s class but I was struggling to remember anything else about her. Back home I looked her up in my yearbook and found this note, written at a 45 degree angle across her senior picture, carefully avoiding her features.
“Paul, Only you could come into class late every day and always make the wrong comment and still remain so innocent. Your personality is so perfective, it’s darling. Best of everything, Lauri
When I transferred from Bishop Kearney to R.L. at the start of 11th grade a guidance counsoler told me if I took Senior English the next summer school I could graduate after my junior year. But no way. I was having too much fun. So many of the notes from my classmates were about “ball-busting” or soccer. I shudder to think what I wrote in their yearbooks. Of course, these are all revisionist memories but I found the notes from my teachers to be the most informative. An eye-opening glimpse of immaturity, something I am still working on.
From my Physics teacher – “Paul, It’s been a struggle, but we’ve almost made it. Here’s hoping. Best wishes and rots of ruck, G. Ross
From Mrs. Clapp, an English honors teacher – “You seem charming in your myopic way. I thought you were great in “Teahouse” (Teahouse of the August Moon play)
I wish I had asked all my teachers to sign my yearbook especially my favorite, Miss Gertrude Wilder (math). She was so quick and witty. She would outsmart the smart Alecs and she made an heroic effort, in a meeting after class, to get me to apply myself.
Poster for Margaret Explosion “per la Prima!” record release party Wednesday, October. 4, 7-9pm at Little Theatre Café
After twenty five years, seven cds and one 45, Margaret Explosion is releasing our first vinyl lp. Entitled “per la prima!” it was recorded in the Café over the past few years. Your voices may be on this record! The espresso maker is there and Pete Monacelli can be heard saying “Yeh” at the end of the second song.
Margaret Explosion album “per la prima”
The album features Peggi Fournier on soprano sax, Ken Frank on upright bass, Phil Marshall on guitar and Paul Dodd on drums. Also included are three songs with Jack Schaefer on tenor sax, bass clarinet or guitar, two songs with Melissa Davies on cello and two songs with Bob Martin on guitar. It is jam packed!
We hope you can join us at the The Little Theatre Café on Wednesday, October 4, 7-9pm as we celebrate its official release. We won’t be playing any of these songs on Wednesday (we try not to repeat ourselves) but this will be a special performance. Albums will be available for $20 at the show. The songs on the lp are available now on the steaming services.
Listen to “Rosary” from Margaret Explosion lp “per la prima!!” Pete LaBonne plays piano.2 Comments
