Author: Paul

Peggi and I were camping out in our neighbor’s backyard when a storm came up quickly and forced us to take refuge in the back corner of their garage. We were huddled together on the concrete floor, wrapped in sleeping bags when I woke up. The neighbors, Mike and Carna, were standing over us. It was kind of cozy and all I could think was, “I’ve had this dream before and I want to go back there.” But it was beautiful out. Again.

Days with gorgeous weather are bad for making art. At least that is my experience. Beautiful days are made for wandering around town with no agenda or taking a walk in a new direction. My father emailed me us reminder of a sale Rochester Art Supply was having today. They had a tent set up in an empty lot near their store on West Main and they had some incredible deals on paper and packages of raw canvas. Richard Harvey was there and Liz Durand, artists loading up on supplies. When the weather does turn we’ll get down to business.

I had a 9PM appointment to talk to Stephen Black in SPOKEN gallery.sg, an online mix of art, creative writing and virtual reality. I was given instructions to download this Unity gaming app but when I launched it I was told it could not be verified. I may just have to visit Singapore to hook up with Steve.

I’m thinking this may be the last weekend this year for the swimming pool on our street. There is so much color creeping into the greenery it makes want to try landscape painting.

We stopped into Hart’s, downtown’s newest grocery store, for the first time. They seemed a bit overstaffed or maybe there just wasn’t enough shoppers there. We were there at noon so we bought a yogurt and listened to the Mambo Kings who were playing in the parking lot. My grandfather, uncle and cousin (all three of them named Ray Tierney) were grocery store people. I shopped and worked in their stores when I was growing up and it seemed like a tough business with tiny margins. Hart’s seems like a dream. I hope it works out.

We left Hart’s to do our monthly shop over at the Abundance CoOp where as one hundred dollar shareholders we get 10 percent off once a month. They are planning to move to a bigger and better location on South Ave. and I wish them the best as well.

My father recently commented on how we never read the bible in Catholic school or in church for that matter. We had our Missal and there was plenty of scripture in the Mass but the Catechism was our bible and the Pope had the final word. Protestants are always going around quoting the bible, the literal word of god, and us former Catholics (if that is indeed possible) are left in the dust.

I was reading an online article about ISIS and one of the comments referred to Deuteronomy 13:6–10 to justify some damn thing. I had to look it up.

 “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

I’m so happy Louise invited us to “Museum Hours” last night at the Dryden. We met for a drink beforehand at Carrol’s and Mathew wore his “Dean & Britta shirt. There was some sort of retirement party so we sat outside. The mosquittos chased us out just before showtime.

I was the first to raise my hand when they opened the floor to questions from the director, Jem Cohen. I was bugged by the moderator’s lengthy discussion of of the relationship between the museum guard and the visiting Canadian. I didn’t think that was what the movie was about and I was hoping to hear the director bring the discussion around to art, appreciation of it and an understanding of where the urge to create comes from. I ran circles around that thought and confused myself more than him. He takes his time and gives very careful answers, the exact opposite of my process.

I loved how he dove into the paintings in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisch and cut to his hauntingly beautiful scenes of the dreary, winter city. Back to the the museum, the Rembrandts and especially the Bruegals and then to the museum guard studying the patrons the way we studied the paintings. That connection to Bruegal’s process picturing museum goers as subjects for paintings crosses centuries of art making urges. I thought it was quite powerful and beautifully expressed. A fine tribute to fine art.

Forbes Magazine ranked Rochester second on its list of “opportunity cities, places where it is possible to have a business impact, build a successful career and make a comfortable living in a relatively short amount of time.” Delmonize Smith, commissioner of neighborhood and business development for the City of Rochester, is quoted as saying “The creative class that’s here that typically has to make this choice between expanding on their passion or their creativity or paying their bills–they’re able to find a decent place to live, pay $400-$450 a month and focus on their passion.” This is exactly why we’re here.

But as lucky as we are to have such a healthy cultural scene the housing would not be so affordable if the city proper did not have real economic problems. Half of its children live in poverty for starters.

Meanwhile Attorney General Eric Holder announced the arrest of a Rochester convenience store owner as the first American to be charged with recruiting fighters for ISIS and plotting to kill returning servicemen.