Vinyl records sound better than cds or digital files. I’m not talking about clean 180 gram virgin audiophile vinyl, I’m talking about dusty old lps and 45s. And there is no question that record covers look much better especially the gatefold spreads weather inside or out. So I’m hanging on to a few and putting the rest in a garage sale next weekend. I offered two boxes of cds to my nephews yesterday, deliberately arranging them so the White Stripes were on top. They looked down at the boxes and giggled as they said no thanks. I asked if they had a cd player and they said no.
Dyson vacuum cleaners have a plastic chamber that collects the dust instead of bag. Ours was empty but it still wouldn’t pick up. We found before that the only way to remedy this situation was to take it all apart and clean the vacuum cleaner parts. Our neighbor, Rick, brought his laptop over because it was making a clicking sound. I asked if he had a backup and he didn’t so I suggested he go to Staples and buy an external drive and run Time Machine before he does anything else. He did that and then took it in to the Apple Store. They told him the fan had become clogged and it needed cleaning.
With all the rain in last few weeks our basement dehumidifier has been running around the clock. I’ve been down there quite a bit going through junk to put in our upcoming yard sale the dehumidified has been as loud as hell. I thought it was on its last lags and risked breaking the plastic cover to get a look at the inside. The coils were completely blocked by dust so scrubbed it with a toothbrush and it works fine now. Our refrigerator came with the house and it has been freezing things that are stored near the back even though it is set to the lowest settings. We were certain that we needed a new thermostat and I priced them and even watched a video on how to install the thing. But before we did that we pulled the refrigerator out from the wall and gave it a good cleaning. Turns out the air intake was blocked and it now runs perfectly.
Jeanie Pruit “Satin Sheets” and Prince “Lovesexy” lp covers
I’ve been going through my lps and putting boxes together for an upcoming yard sale. It’s a a tough project to make any headway on because I keep getting sidetracked by something I have to listen to one more time. At one point I had Jeanie Pruit’s “Satin Sheets” in thefront of a stack right next to and Prince’s “Lovesexy” and I was stopped dead in my tracks!
We stopped by Clover Pools on East Ridge Road to pick up a new solar cover for our street pool. We found some paperwork that says we bought one back in 2007 so I guess these things only last five years or so out in the sun soaking in chorine. Clover Pools sells hot tubs and patio furniture too so we looked around a bit.
We had recently told Rich and Andrea that our NetFlix queue was getting dangerously low and they emailed back their picks. Hot Tub Time Machine was on both of their lists so we just watched it last night. I fell asleep and that’s a thumbs up from me. I couldn’t get over this set of patio furniture that they wanted $2,325 for. The circular table had what looked like Philip Guston cigar butts in an inset fake fire pit.
Our house came with a wrought iron railing around the stairwell. It was painted white and it had these Rococo swoops in it that just did not make it. I tried painting it but the paint wouldn’t stick. Apparently it was painted with oil on top of acrylic at one time and the new coat just lifted top layer of white off. I bought some paint remover but I never started the job because it seemed so nasty. I considered dismantling it and taking it out to my brother’s to sandblast it and then we decided to just cut out the offending curves so we borrowed Julio’s Saws-all and I bought some extra blades for the job. The saw sat next to the railing for about a month until we came up with a new idea for a wood and stainless steel railing. So we took the old railing out to the driveway where it looked even uglier in the daylight.
The time had come to head to Krieger’s with the scarp metal. They’ve been bought by Metalico but everyone still calls it Krieger’s. When we lived next door to Sparky he used to collect junk and dismantle it in his garage and take it to Kriegers for extra cash. I’ve been there with him and the place is a trip so I gave Sparky a call and arranged to pick him up at nine.
Street people pushing empty shopping carts were walking toward us in the middle of Portland Avenue as we approached the gates. We piled the scrap metal in a cart and wheeled it on to their scale while workers barked incoherent orders at us. You get the clear sense that they deal with unsavory characters on a regular basis and they have taken on many of the same characteristics as their clients.
There are cameras mounted above and bars on the cashier’s window. There was a Puerto Rican woman with a black baby in line in front of us. She had tattoos up and down her arms and her transaction was not going smoothly. There was another women in tight jeans and high heels standing off to the side. I asked Sparky what these women were doing and he said, “They’re prostitutes,” like that explains everything.
I slipped my driver’s license through a tiny opening in the bullet proof glass and signed a form that stated that the junk was mine and that I had not obtained illegally. The cashier paid me with a receipt that I had to take to an outdoor ATM machine. She asked if I had ever used the ATM before and I wasn’t sure if meant this particular ATM or any ATM so I said “No” and a worker walked with me to the outdoor machine. There was a guy with long scruffy beard hanging around near the machine and the worker told him to “beat it.” He scanned the bar code on my receipt for me and then said, “When your money comes out, take it fast.”
Back at Sparky’s he showed me the remodeling job he was doing on his bathroom. He had put in a shower enclosure in place of the tub and inadvertently sealed some of his tools in the wall between the studs. I asked him how he was getting by without a bathroom and took me to the basement where he had set up his old bathtub with a garden hose running across the floor from the laundry tub. He used an aluminum extension from a vacuum cleaner as a drain pipe and it ran out of the drain right into the open storm drain.
Holloway House server in East Bloomfield, New York
The Holloway House in East Bloomfield first opened its doors in 1808 as a tavern and stage coach stop for wagons pushing west. For the last fifty years the Holloway House has been run by the Wayne family. It is well preserved has quite a reputation with old timers. The drive out there, through the rolling hills, is part of the package and the pickled green cabbage in the relish tray, fruit juice/sherbet shrub appetizer and homemade breads and pies seal the deal.
We celebrated my mom’s birthday out there with a fantastic meal and we learned how to keep “New England” and “Manhattan” chowder straight from our server. “It snows in New England (white) and the river is polluted in Manhattan (red).”
I thought yesterday’s 4 Season’s post on “So Many Records, So Little Time” was cool but today’s was a sensation. Kevin posted Margaret Explosion’s “Purple Heart” What a way to start the day.
We took a long bike ride in the direction of Irondequoit Bay and wandered around in the dreamy little neighborhoods that overlook the bay. We stopped at a few garage sales and rode down streets with “No Outlet” signs on them. Perfect Day so far.
Photo of “Subterranean Surrogates” photo installation by Paul Dodd at Rochester Contemporary August 5 through September 25
I skipped the Patron’s Preview last night for the “State Of The City” show at Rochester Contemporary. Gallery director, Bleu said they would be serving “the good wine” but I nixed it. Can’t remember exactly what I did instead but we’ve been weeding out junk around the house and I keep getting sidetracked. We’re planning to have a garage sale in September and we have some stuff on Craig’s list. A guy just called because he wants to buy the golf balls. He’s on the way over here with the cash.
My show, a photo installation entitled “Subterranean Surrogates,” is in conjunction with the “State of the City” show and I will probably be at the opening.
I love the Blindfold Test that DownBeat gives a musician in each issue. Listening with with an open mind, no cover image, liner notes or baggage, can be exhilarating. That’s why I like “iTunes DJ” shuffle mode so much. Knowing what song is going to come up in what order takes all the fun out listening. I’m always running to my computer to find out what it was I just heard come out of there.
I was working at my computer with the iTunes DJ at work in the background when Peggi came in to ask who the last song was by. I was kind of surprised because it was her on sax with Margaret Explosion doing “Sargasso Creek.”
Ducks crossing country road in Finger Lakes region of New York State
Some people like putting things on the calendar and getting all planned out. The only things I put on the calendar are things I would like to forget but can’t like dentist appointments and work related phone meetings.
Peggi and I planned to take a day trip to celebrate our anniversary and we never put a date on the calendar, we just waited for an opening and today was it. The New York Times didn’t show up so we got an early start. We glanced at a map of the Finger Lakes and picked Kueka. We drove down the west side to Hammondsport and and then back up along the east side. We took back roads the whole way and even passed a dirt road called “Back Road.” It’s fun to drive slow, so slow we kept pulling over to let anxious cars go by. We stopped the car in the middle of the road to let these geese pass.
Hammondsport is a well preserved old town with cute little shops full of tourists. We parked near the town square and walked in the opposite direction of the cute little shops. In fact we walked out of town and spent some time in an old cemetery. On the way back to Rochester we drove through Palmyra where Joseph Smith claims to have found his wacky book of Mormon.
It has been hot and sticky for many weeks in western New York, all sun most days and very little rain. And when it did rain the other day these orange mushrooms popped out on a fallen tree in the creek. If they are edible, there’s a few meals down there.
Hot weather takes the life out me. I can’t seem to get anything done and maybe that’s the whole idea.
Painting of Pasta Villa owners in bar of Pasta Villa in Rochester, NY
How this all fits together, I’m not sure. Maybe it doesn’t. We decided to eat out tonight but we wanted to go somewhere close. There’s Osteria overlooking the lake and Shamrock Jack’s and Churi’s Thai food or in the other direction Monte Alban or the new Puerto Rican spot or Pasta Villa. Stop. The citadel of Italian food in Rochester with the dining room frozen in in 1975 with the Ramon Santiago prints on the wall and mirror trim and marble wallpaper with two loud air conditioners cranking. We’re there. Gnocchi with greens and beans and Chicken Picata, Chianti, Dean Martin music, the painting in the bar of the Guido family owners!
On the way home we got stuck at the intersection on Culver where the owner has a couple of pressure treated picnic tables that he is trying to sell for 175 bucks each. This place is a marvel of whacked out tackiness, an American flag on the pole, a circular driveway with at least three cars in it at all times including a shiny black, Chevy 4-door Silverado pick up truck, died black wood chips in the circle and potted marigolds with an angel statue holding out an empty bowl, a deck on the front of the house with an umbrella table. Is it any wonder they have teenage age son running around with a trench coat and long died black hair in the middle of summer?
The people up on the hill had a party over the weekend. We heard the band and we live about a mile away, classic rock sort of stuff, old people music. Their sign looked kind of odd the next morning.
Gallery director, Bleu Cease called yesterday from Rochester Contemporary to arrange time to set up “Subterranean Surrogates,” my upcoming photo installation. I did RoCo’s logo a while back and I had a show there long before Bleu took over so I didn’t realize what a dynamic force Bleu is. He does everything over there and what he doesn’t do he arranges to have done right. He climbed off the ladder and on to the top of one of the walls in his flip flops while helping me block out the ambient light that was creeping into my allotted space.
I was there all day hanging the projector upside down from strings attached to the ceiling in the back room so the photos would drop into this space and fill one of the walls. Peggi was originally going to drop me off downtown but she made a run to JoAnne Fabrics to buy some black felt for the ceiling and she picked up a peanut butter and banana sandwich and pitched in on the ceiling effort while I balanced the projector. You would think four white walls with photos projected on one would be a pretty simple install but we were there until eight. Art is not as easy as it looks.
“Model From Crime Page” 2010, watercolor by Paul Dodd currently on view in the Finger Lakes Show at Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York
There seems to be no limit to the supply of fresh faces to paint. This one and another are currently in the biennial Finger Lakes Show at the Memorial Art Gallery. They asked me to record a brief statement about my work and you can hear it by calling 585 627-4132 and then 8 when they ask for the “stop number.” Click the photo above to view the whole piece.
I just listened to it and I can’t believe how dry it sounds. Geez! And I can see myself reading the statement from my notebook. I hate those typewritten artist’s statements and don’t read them unless I’m totally taken by the piece. Somehow I thought these recorded notes would be different and they are but mine doesn’t add much to the work. For kicks you can call back and push random stop numbers for some disjointed artist’s statements.
Jennifer Hecher’s “Martyr Dress #2” in Finger Lakes Show at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY
I guess my favorite piece in the Finger Lakes Show, which opened last night at the Memorial Art Gallery, was Jennifer Hecher’s “Martyr Dress #2”. It was the most intriguing and quite beautiful, made mostly with broken white and brown egg shells (click photo for enlargement). Just what did she do with all those eggs? Her cholesterol could be sky high.
It’s a bigger show than the last few with quite bit of variety and unevenness. I have some watercolors near the exit, a perfect location, but my two pieces are hug too close together. A revved-up Krypton 88 with Jim Via on guitar, Jenna Weintraub on pipes and left handed Dana Gregory on drums made it a party in the ballroom.
I hope no one bought this goat at the Public Market. We were hitting it off pretty good while Peggi went to the bathroom n Saturday.
We finished our last of seven rugs yesterday. Rick and Monica’s driveway has never been cleaner. We dried most of them on our roof during this heat wave but the last one was too heavy to get up there so it is up on blocks in our front yard.
I’ve been baiting and arming the Have-A-Heart trap all week with no luck at capturing the raccoons that terrorize our cat. The first few nights I found the trap closed with no bait left in it so I adjusted the sensitivity thinking a light footed animal like a chipmunk ate the bait and then slipped out through the bars of the cage. It was so sensitive that it closed during the night, trapping nothing and leaving bait. I put some watermelon out there last night and this morning I found a robin in the trap so I set it free.
Mayor of Rochester welcomes World Cup Players at Sahlen Stadium in Rochester, NYAbby Wambach a
After barging in on our neighbors to watch the Women’s World Cup in the middle of the day for a few weeks in a row they bought us tickets to Wednesday’s New York Flash game against magicJack. It was a an opportunity for the mayor of Rochester to give Rochester’s Abby Wambach (24 hours after her Letterman appearance) the keys to the city as he welcomed fourteen returning Word Cup players from the two teams in front of a sold out crowd of over 15,000.
Rochester’s Flash have an amazing lineup with Canada’s Sinclair on the left flank working with Marta, the wold’s best female soccer player, and Alex Morgan right behind them. Marta’s moves are astounding. She out maneuvers opponents like a magician and gives the ball up to take the heat off only to move to an open spot in seconds so she can receive the pass. The tiniest player on the field, she’s is also tough as nails. We watched her shove an adversary to the ground in frustration because, as a matter of fact, she does own the road. The whole team plays world class soccer passing with artful finesse and they are a joy to watch. How did we get so lucky?
The sign out in front of Walgreens flashed “The Walgreens iPad app is here! I can’t imagine.
Why doesn’t Walgreens have an apostrophe in it? I’m not the one who should be nick-picking grammar so I won’t go there. I’m just asking. I think Wegmans dropped the apostrophe to. They got in to some sort of a scuffle with Walgreens over the use of the “W’ as a logo. Seems like Walgreen’s won but I’m not sure.
I stopped in to pick up a new battery for my watch. It kept losing time and then working fine for days and I got so I just din’t trust it so I bought a new. They have their own microclimate over there at Culver and East Ridge Road. When the wind is blowing in and it’s cold out and you’re on a bike it can be brutal. And today it felt hotter than hell. I asked the clerk if the temperature display was accurate and she said it was.
