White popcorn tree in bloom on March 16 in Durand Eastman Park
I’m not sure what this tree is but it is in an area of the park where they have all sorts of fruit trees. The nearby pink flowering tress are identified as apricot trees so maybe it is in that family. It looks like a Popcorn Tree. Everything is coming on so fast in this summer like weather. We received some mail from the daughter of the former owner of our house. I dreaded opening the envelope thinking it must be a death notice but it was an invitation to his 100th birthday. Imagine how fast time is going for him.
Horseshoes being painted for the beginning of the season
Instead of staying in the woods we’ve been heading into the park proper in hopes of finding yet another early flowering specimen. The apricot trees still rule but the magnolias are coming on. Warm weather obviously brings out a lot of people, two kinds of people, outdoors enthusiasts and dog people. Any walker can tell you dog people always say, “Don’t worry. He/she is harmless” when their dog comes at you or jumps up on your leg. The “Dogs must be on leash” signs at the park entrances only apply to suckers because no one is here to enforce the rules.
We have a few dog maulings under our belts so we’ve had plenty of time to think up novel ways to combat this problem. Peggi would like to buy mace spray but not just the kind the mailman has. She would like something to spray at the dog owners because it is not the dogs fault. We both like dogs especially that cute little thing in “The Artist.” I’ve been thinking about making a t-shirt to wear in the park when we walk that reads. “The Dog Leash Law Does Not Apply To Me.”
Squirrel sitting and eating an acorn outside our window in Rochester, New York
The chipmunks have left their winter complex under our sidewalk. They’ve pushed back the stones that we that shoved down there last year in an effort to keep our sidewalks from caving in. The squirrels never went anywhere this winter. I just checked my little iPod weather app and it’s warmer here than it is in New York, San Francisco, LA, Madrid, Sevilla and Barcelona. So there.
Woodpecker in backyard after flying into our window
Peggi and I were sitting at our computers when we heard this noise coming from the front room. It sounded like someone had dropped a sheet of aluminum or maybe a branch falling on our roof but it wasn’t windy at all. We were both too engaged to investigate so we quickly forgot about it. Later in the afternoon we went out back and found this little woodpecker on the ground below our window. He was obviously stunned but he could hardly walk or hop. We found a worm for him but he didn’t seem interested. We called Animal Control and they said to call back tomorrow if the bird was still there.
We got fixed on this guy and checked on him several times through the day finally watching him fly to a nearby cherry tree where he stood still on the side of the tree. His head was obviously too sore to peck. He stayed in that spot for hours and was still there when we left for our Magaret Explosion gig. I turned the light on when we returned but there was no sign of him. I’m hoping he’s back in action.
Hawk spreads wings and ties off in Durand Eastman Park
The best part about a good walk is the adventure. Heading off in a new direction or just stopping to take in the surroundings. We watched this hawk for quite a while yesterday. It was overlooking a valley and we were on a hill behind it. The hawk had his eye on a squirrel in a nearby tree and was waiting for that squirrel to make one false move. He decided to spare the squirrel and he took off for his next adventure.
Kodak used to make a “Hawk-Eye” camera and my dad worked at Kodak’s Hawk-Eye division on Driving Park overlooking the river. Most of what he did there involved government surveillance projects. He couldn’t talk about it then but it is all in the public domain now.
No paid parking graffitti in public park! Durand Eastman
I agree with the sentiment expressed in this graffiti. Governor PaTacky got the ball rolling when he jacked up the State Park entry fees, boat launching fees, fees for each dock you go through on the canal etc. “Pay as you go” rather than having our taxes cover it for everyone. Rochester’s mayor started charging for parking at the lake so if you want to take the view in down there or just watch the submarine races you have to feed the meter. It’s public land and it should be free to visit but don’t go desecrating the park to voice your opinion. Get creative.
The weather has been changing from minute to minute today. Full sun and then snow flurries which accumulate and then melt, bursts of wind, more sun and then snow pellets that disappear on contact. Perfect conditions for a walk to the lake.
Our neighbor has his spinach in already. He sets the pace around here and makes us all look like slackers. He was telling us that his grandmother used to sprinkle the seed on the snow in the Spring. I like that image.
Sam Jones called me the other day to tell me that someone had brought back Hypercard as a game for the iTouch. My dad was an early Mac user and I remember him showing us that program before Peggi and I had our first machine. We did have an Atari that we bought at Leon’s Typewriter on Clinton Avenue but we only used that for music. I’m happy the old stuff is still around but it’s kind of disappointing that some stuff just won’t go away. After the Gene Vincent and Hendrix and Miles and punk did you ever expect Americana to be everywhere? Spring is here. Let’s get it on.
Si’Van artwork at the Creative Workshop in Rochester, New York
This will probably be the last week for the show of kids art at the Creative Workshop in the Memorial Art Gallery. The staff has announced an adult student show and they’re accepting entries this week. The upcoming show has a theme, something to do with color and design and Spring, but that’s an art education construct. I submitted a black and tan piece in a rectangular frame.
A couple of people from Fred Lipp’s class had moved across the hall for this season’s figure drawing class. Last night they bravely turned the tables on end so they stood six feet high and then drew full size figures in chalk on the long sheets of brown paper that normally cover the tabletop. No such organized exercises in Fred’s class where people work in any medium on any subject and in any style. I’m working on the figure too but from top down. Last night I learned a lesson in form, how a change in direction of a line or shape indicates a change in form. Most of what he teaches is centered around unlearning what you think you know and then learning to trust your eye.
Maureen, who teaches art to kids, was standing nearby working on her favorite theme, another painting of the a bend in the Genesee river as seen from the flats on the east side. She had scrubbed out some trees and was in the process of putting more trees back in when she said “I wish I could paint like those kids in the show.”
I do too. Just look at the photo above (click for enlargement.
Trimble Lake in Durand Eastman Park in Rochester, New York
It was seventeen degrees when we took our walk this morning, a brief taste of winter before it heads to sixty on Wednesday. We walked the same loop as yesterday so we could check up on a recent batch of beer cans. We had found these in the usual spot so we tried a new approach to this ongoing situation. I tossed the cans back out on the road and left them there instead of bringing them home to recycle. When we returned today all the cans were gone but the Budweiser guy had thrown a new one down in the ditch.
Peter Monacelli drawing at Joe Bean’s coffee shop in Rochester, New York
Joe Bean’s is not the best place for an art show but any place is better than no space for an art show. Peter Monacelli, who taught drawing for two decades at MCC has a beautiful show at the coffee bar, mounted high on the wall and unevenly lit. The drawings are part of a series based on the words from the song “Follow” on Richie Havens 1967 album “Mixed Bag.” The one above is entitled “But now silver leaves on mirrors bring delight,” after one of the lines in the song. Peter brought the cd with him last night to the opening but we never heard it. And he assured us he was not dead yet. A fourth cousin with the same name had recently died and Peter and his wife fielded thirty or so condolence calls. One told Gloria, “We lost Pete.”
Fifties Chevy BelAir station wagon on Brooklyn street
When our Netflix queue ran dry we put out the word and loaded it up with recommendations from friends. We lost track of who recommended what but I’m pretty sure our friends A & R pointed us toward “Momma’s Man“.
We watched the movie a couple nights ago and were transfixed by it. A low budget movie with the director’s parents ((avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs and painter Flo Jacobs, shown third and second from the right in this photo) playing versions of themselves in the fourth floor Manhattan walkup he grew up in. The director, in the form of Mickie, comes home and wallows in his adolescence. We saved the extras for the next night and the movie only got better. Instead of the director talking over the movie he dispensed with a rerun of the visuals and recorded a conversation with his parents about the movie, a minimal masterpiece, that deepens the movie’s impact.
Remember PIL’s performance on American Bandstand? It was one of those transcendent moments of rock n’ roll bliss. We watched it live and hadn’t seen it until we followed this link on the Mojo site. I had a scare last week when SMR almost reached the one week mark without a new post. Turns out it was just a temporary lapse and it’s come roaring back with posts on Kraftwerk and early Swamp Dogg.
Rochester’s favorite realtor, Rome Celli, had his yearly bash last night treating his past and present clientele to popcorn and a movie at the Little Theater. We chose the Descendants, which featured a realtor, and then squeezed in to the café where Annie Wells was playing with a big band. Her ethereal, upper register voice was lost in the din but we did get to hear a bit of a Dave Ripton song on the way out.
I picked up a City Newspaper and was thrilled to find Frank DeBlase back in the saddle after his hospital tweak. Frank’s writing doesn’t get sidetracked with the back story crap. He goes right for the gut and conveys music’s potential for transcendent moments.
I missed the Red Carpet opening to the Oscar’s but Peggi filled me in. The big question was “Who are you wearing?” Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen, Elie Saab and Valentino.
I looked down at what I was wearing and compiled this list. A green Archive Records t-shirt with a black sweater from Banana Republic over that, black jeans, regular cut, from Lee with blue Fruit of the Loom underwear below, black socks (I usually buy them in three packs and picked these up in Sears) and then a pair of black Timberland shoes. I’m basically an “off the rack” kinda guy.
Charles Burchfield “Telegraph”, currently on view at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York
Funny how we have not yet outdone mid-century modern. You’d think we’d be pushing it as far as it can go instead leaving it behind as retro. “Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design” at the Memorial Art Gallery touches on the art in design of that period and has quite a few pieces that I wouldn’t mind bringing home. If they had just mass produced the work in the show and turned the main gallery space into the gift shop it would have all made sense.
“Modern Icon : The Machine as Subject in American Art’, next door in the smaller Lockhart Gallery is where the art is. Robert Frank’s “Trolley Car, New Orleans” from his Americans series, a beautiful John Marin etching called “Downtown New York”, A Thomas Hart Benton ink and watercolor drawing and this wonder from Buffalo artist and visionary, Charles Burchfield. You can almost hear the telegraph.
Segrada Famillia model constructed with toothpicks by Stan Munro in the “Sacred Structures”exhibit at the Assisi Institute in Rochester, New York
If you’re lucky you’ll catch Stan Munro at the Assisi Institute on North Winton. He has a table set up near his “Sacred Structures” exhibit where he’s working on a new model. He wasn’t there when we stopped in but we saw his work area. He doesn’t need much, toothpicks, Elmer’s Glue and an incredible amount of patience. It took him five years to construct the nearly thirty buildings at 1:164 scale that are on display here. We heard the Sagrada Familia was one of them and we were just at the 1:1 version so had to check this out. Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia was the most complicated for Munro but not even close to the largest. The Grand Mosque at Mecca dwarfs Notre Dame, St. Patrick’s, and the Vatican shattering my Judeo/Christian view of the world.
Bob Henrie and the Goners at the Lovin Cup in Rochester.NY
Kinda nice to have someone provide so much light for a rock n’ roll shoot. WXXI shot another installment of its local music series last night at the Lovin’ Cup and I snagged this shot from our front row seats. The band did all Bob Henrie originals, probably to avoid paying licensing fees, songs dedicated to their heroes, Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry, that somehow manager to sound jazzy. Bob Henrie even duck walked on few songs. They tore it up. Genesee Beer underwrote this season’s installment so have a Genny the next time you’re out.
