Author: Paul

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Baseball Mash-Up

Red Wing Stadium in Rochester, New York
Red Wing Stadium in Rochester, New York

Our neighbors suggested a baseball game and we couldn’t think of a good reason to not take them up on it so the four of us bought tickets on the first base side and prepared for action. The Wings scored five runs in the first inning. Rick and Monica were still downstairs buying beer. And then the game pretty much settled down. They have so many distractions, “Kiss Cams” and “Gangnam Style Cams,” life size bobble heads, idiotic games, crazy snippets of Gary Glitter or Queen songs and patriotic salutes between each half inning that it is next to impossible to get in the groove of the old fashioned game. Top of the ninth was a big one for the Syracuse Chiefs and Rochester almost lost it.

Ads everywhere, every activity is backed by a sponsor. Foul balls cued a glass break sound effect and an ad for a glass company. The scoreboard was brought to us by Baldness.com.

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The Power Of You

Time Warner service window in East Rochester, New York
Time Warner service window in East Rochester, New York

We recently upped our Time Warner exposure by signing a contract for cable tv in addition to our internet access and digital phone. So this has been a new experience for us watching Breaking Bad in real time. But on Sunday night we sat down for episode three in the final season and we could not get our box to work. I tried unplugging it to reboot it and but it wouldn’t budge from the “b109” error message. I called TW and the message said the wait time was approximately forty-five minutes. I hung in there. The operator was not able to reboot through the cable either so she offered to set up a service call on Wednesday afternoon, three days away.

I had a sneaking suspicion that our cat had melted the circuitry. She is fifteen and looks for the warmest spot in the house to roost. So I took the box out to East Rochester and got in line with all the other hopelessly addicted users. The line grew out the door, literally, and just as it did one of the two clerks slid this big blue sign over her window and announced that she was gong to lunch. It was very theatrical.

I hung in there and when I got to the front of the line I found the clerk to be quite friendly and helpful, not at all what I expected. I came home, rebooted, watched a few rather unseemly messages, and then sat there with the sound off watching Manchester United play Chelsea to a 0-0 tie in their English Premier League game.

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What’s Goin’ On

Durrand Eastman Beach in Rochester, New York 2013
Durrand Eastman Beach in Rochester, New York 2013

Sunday was just like it sounds, a day of sun, a perfect day for a bike ride along Lakeshore Boulevard. Culver Road would take you directly to the lake but we turn at Parkside Diner and get on the new bike trail that cuts through the park and travels along the lake all the way to Charlotte. This whole stretch is so dreamy I don’t want it to end so we ride real slow. I love the long sections of beach where almost anything goes. No lifeguards, no cops, no rules about boats being too close to the shore and of course no one telling you that swimming is prohibited.

We turned down Rock Beach Road and rode up and down Rochester’s “Gold Coast” before continuing west on Rock Beach past Saint Paul and over to O’Laughlin’s where we pulled up a chair on the river and watched the sailboats, speedboats and yachts pass by. This is a perfect spot for people watching with its mix of bikers, muscle cars, partiers pulling up to the dock on their boats and old people like us just hanging out.

On the way back we cruised through the picnic section of Durand Eastman where we used to hold the annual Earring Picnic. A large group in one of the shelters was cranking Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin On.”

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The Lonely Goalkeeper

Adrianna Franch takes goal kick for Western New York Flash
Adrianna Franch takes goal kick for Western New York Flash

We got there about an hour before last night’s game, in time to stand behind the goal on the blacktop and watch the WNY Flash warm up. The person who was working the hardest by far was the goalie, Adrianna Franch. The goalkeepers’ coach, Scott Vallow (former Rhinos goalkeeper), took shots at Adrianna for twenty minutes and then the team took turns shooting at her. We watched Abby boot three shots over the goal and the fence. Carli Lloyd scored twice in a thrilling game, the last one coming in stoppage time well after the 90 minute mark. The Flash play Portland in the league finals next Saturday at 8pm.

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Earth Art

New stone patio out back
New stone patio out back

Well, we were planning to be at today’s Durand Eastman stop of Joe+N’s day tour but we “checked back regularly” just as the website suggested and the the tour stop disappeared.

I spent a good bit of yesterday thinking about the Georgia O’Keeffe show of Lake George Paintings that we missed in Glens Falls. Jeff and Mary Kaye drove there and invited us go along but we had a heating contractor here and had to pass. Had it been an ordinary heating contractor we would have rescheduled but this is hydronics specialist, Wayne Heid, the best in the business, taming the wild copper piping that roams through our house.

The organically shaped hillside behind our house is pretty fluid when you just let it go. The trees get pretty big in sixty years and the vegetation that grows under them just swallows up old stone fences and borders and patios. We dug up all this old Medina stone, borrowed our neighbor’s six foot level and spent the last week building a patio out back.

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Building Local

Medina stone on backyard patio
Medina stone on backyard patio

I don’t usually use my flash. I generally hate the way it looks but it has been getting dark so early lately I needed it to document the backyard patio we’ve been working on for the last week or so. I’m getting pretty obsessed with the project and worked til dark tonight. Peggi had to take a break because she caught her finger between two rocks and it has turned blue. Don Hershey, the architect who designed our house, was a big fan of Medina Stone and used it on the front of his house on South Landing Road.

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Now Or Never

Denny Tadesco and Gary Lewis discussing The Wrecking Crew at the Little Theater in Rochester, New York
Denny Tadesco and Gary Lewis discussing The Wrecking Crew at the Little Theater in Rochester, New York

Because it is now or never there is a wealth of fabulous music documentaries out there, “The Girls In The Band,” “Six Feet From Stardom” and “The Agony & Ecstasy of Phil Spector,” all of which we saw on the big screen at the Little Theater. Last night’s screening of “The Wrecking Crew” may be the best of them all. 99 minutes long with 100 hit songs, all played by the amazing Wrecking Crew.

Denny Tedesco is making the movie and talked about his film after the screening. Denny is Tommy Tedesco’s son and he started the movie while his father, the guitar player on thousands of songs from the sixties, was dying of lung cancer. He told us he had recently interviewed Leon Russell and would have him in the next cut. He reunited his father, a Buffalo native, with the great Carol Kaye and Hal Blaine and they talked about creating parts for the soundtrack of our lives. Great interviews with Cher and Glen Campbell. Brian Wilson deservedly gets more movie space than anyone else and local resident, Gary Lewis joined the discussion in person.

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Artist Statement

Paul Dodd "Model From Crime Page 08" 2013
Paul Dodd “Model From Crime Page 08” 2013

Zanne Brunner is a former art teacher. She runs the I-Square Gallery and she has asked me and the five other artists in the current “Sight & Sounds 2” show to do an artist’s talk tonight. Art educators like that sort of thing and often the back story is more interesting than the work. I couldn’t decide whether to just wing it or prepare for it. Winging it would be easier but I would surely say something stupid so I’ve decided to collect a few notes.

Why? I’ve been painting and drawing these characters for a long time and I’ve noticed most people look at my work and quickly avert their eyes. The faces could be a lot more compelling for one thing but for most it is simply not a pleasant experience. Others, like Pete Monacelli, spend a lot of time trying to figure out why I paint these guys and I would guess he has spent more time thinking about this than I have.

I started this project by trying to capture the expression in the mugshots (reference for the human condition) from the local paper, a lifelong academic exercise, but lately I start with the source material and then leave it behind as I try to mold the figure with a more dynamic presence. I could point to a few examples in the show. Better to have a dialog with them. Where is this all leading? Here is a music analogy since we are all musicians. I have listened to Peggi Fournier create beautiful melodies on the spot for a long time. Pure creation!

I continue to take a Wednesday night painting class with Fred Lipp and he has helped me immeasurably.

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Boom Boom Town

Lower Falls of Genesee River in Rochester, New York
Lower Falls of Genesee River in Rochester, New York

Rochester became a boom town with the the success of the flour mills that capitalized on the river’s force. That same force cut a pretty impressive north/south gorge through the state creating the “Grand Canyon of the East” in Letchworth before it cut through the center of the city on its way to Lake Ontario. And all that flour was shipped via the Erie Canal to points east and west.

The canal still crosses the river in Genesee Valley Park. They fill the canal in the Spring by opening that connection. But years ago the canal crossed the city on Broad Street, a waterway bridge that was built over the river. This marvel is still there and if it was up to me the city would reopen the intersection. Rochester would again be a boom town just because this thing would be so cool.

Personal Effects '"A Collection" CD on Earring Records released in 2008
Personal Effects ‘”A Collection” CD on Earring Records released in 2008

Boom Boom Town / Violince 05:39 Written, performed and produced by Peggi Fournier, Paul Dodd, Bob Martin and Martin Edic with Kevin Vicalvi. ©1988 Earring Records. From Personal Effects’ Cassette “90 Days In The Planetarium.”

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Paint A Picture Of This Guy

Ed Buscemi I-Square Gallery opening for Sights & Sounds 2, Rochester, New York
Ed Buscemi I-Square Gallery opening for Sights & Sounds 2, Rochester, New York

The best part of art openings is the art of course but that is often hard to see with all the commotion. The second best part is the free ranging conversation and no one is better at that than Ed Buscemi. He has taught art as an adjunct professor at Fisher, MCC and Brockport and is now teaching full time online for the Art Institute of Pittsburg.

Most people look the other way when they see my art. It must make them uncomfortable but I am comfortable with that. It is not for them. Some people get it and respond in ways that could read like my artist statement. I am holding out for the day when the art reads on its own. Ed Buscemi read my eleven drawings on display at the I-Square Gallery last night and talked my ear off with Renaissance references and encouragement to go for the gesture, to follow up with the direct, confident strokes he delighted in pointing out.

“Look at Egon Schiele,” he said, while all I could think was, “I’ve got to paint a picture of this guy.”

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Art Tent

Pete Monacelli and George Wegman in the RoCo Art Tentl at Party In The Park concert in Rochester, New York
Pete Monacelli and George Wegman in the RoCo Art Tentl at Party In The Park concert in Rochester, New York

That wasn’t so bad, sitting in the Rochester Contemporary Art Tent at the Party in the Park in downtown Rochester. Watkins and the Rapiers sounded good opening for the opening band although I wished they would have played more of their originals than the covers. I don’t remember the second band and John Hyatt was easy enough to tune out. Two other artists were stationed in the tent. Pete Monacelli is already a good friend and it was a pleasure to get to know George Wegman’s work. The top notch RoCo staff (Bleu and Carly) were there, raising awareness, and they are a delight to hang with.

I tried my best to talk my way out of doing a portrait of a woman who liked my work, even told her it probably wouldn’t look like her but she insisted so I gave her my email address. The rain today will probably turn the dust in front of the ISquare Gallery into mud for tonight’s opening so wear appropriate footwear if venture out.

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Mobile Device Policy Enforcement

Tiger Woods on the 8th hole of Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York
Tiger Woods on the 8th hole of Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York

Golf brings out the worst in me but I couldn’t say no to the offer of free tickets to the PGA Championship so we drove to my parents, parked in their driveway and then rode our bikes to Oak Hill Country Club. There was a New State Trooper guarding the bike rack when we got to the gate. We followed the throngs on to the course and had no idea where we were or what was going on but we found that we could see quite a bit of action by just staying still. The acton comes to you as all the players are moving in big circles. Tiger Woods came to us.

But the manicured greens, the whispering, the cigars, the fashion sense, the blazing sun and the overall decorum gives me the creeps. We couldn’t bring water in and paid three bucks for a bottle and I had to dodge the “Mobile Device Policy Enforcement” team to take this shot. My brother was volunteering in the Pro Shop for free tickets so we stopped in to see him but the place was as big as a Walmart and packed to the gills. Greg Norman Women’s Wear anyone?

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Sights & Sounds

10 Paul Dodd drawings at ISquare Gallery in Rochester, New York
10 Paul Dodd drawings at ISquare Gallery in Rochester, New York

Zanne Brunner has organized a show of artists/musicians at I-Square Gallery in Irondequoit near the House of Guitars. It features artwork by six musicians and is entitled “Sights & Sounds II” It is a dusty storefront gallery in a strip mall near the House of Guitars, “dusty” because the whole area is being transformed into a Utopian town square thanks to a taxpayer funded PILOT Comida grant.

Peter Monacelli, Jaffe, Scott Regan, Steve Piper, Jed Curran, and I all have recent work in the show. I hung the ten drawings shown above from my ongoing “Models From Crime Page” series. There’s an opening on Friday night at 7PM that might involve some music.

Update: OK, I guess I was off the mark here, not even “often in error, never in doubt” like MX-80, more like “often in error, often in doubt.” Martin straightened me out with his comment below.

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Ka Pow

Mural near El Camino in Rochester, New York
Mural near El Camino in Rochester, New York

We helped my dad clean out his gutters, patch a few holes in his roof and bring down a broken limb in a maple tree out in front of their house. I climbed a ladder with a running chain saw in order to accomplish that last one, something I would rather not do again. We finished around dinner time and my father suggested a few places we could go to eat. We chose Nick’s Sea Breeze Inn. It is one of our favorite places mostly because Nick is such a great host. He always greets my dad with a long Leeeeeeeooooooo.

Nick’s location is stellar, the end of a dead end road, in the summer that is when the bay bridge is closed, just down the road from the oldest miniature golf course in the county and right across the street from a hundred year old amusement park, the parking lot has a sensational view of the Lake Ontario. Inside Nick has decked the place out with a lifetime’s worth of memorabilia from the days when he managed a nightclub on the heavyweight circuit, Armstrong, Ellington and the great Scott LaFarro who was in Nick’s high school class.

Tonight the four of us went for the buffet dinner and we each filled our plates two times. The pea soup was thick, the salads and antipasto were delicious and the Eggplant Parmigiana was fantastic but this one mystery dish knocked us out. It was sweet and sour with celery and walnuts. Nick told us it was a Sicilian dish called “Caponata,” mainly eggplant with onion, celery, plum tomatoes, vinegar and sugar, pine nuts or walnuts, capers and olives with fresh parsley. He said it is often sold more finely chopped in small jars as a spread for toast or bread. I plan to do my own batch when our eggplant matures.

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A Perfect Loop

View of Kodak Hawk Eye and Driving Park Bridge from Genesee River bike path in Rochester, New York
View of Kodak Hawk Eye and Driving Park Bridge from Genesee River bike path in Rochester, New York

Pretty soon you will be able to follow the river on bike from its source in the hills of Pennsylvania northward to Lake Ontario. And when you reach Rochester you will be able to take your choice as to which side of the river you would like to travel on. The city keeps expanding its bike paths and we arranged a weekend tour for a most spectacular ride.

We started by putting our bikes in the car and driving to the zoo in Frederick Law Olmsted’s Seneca Park. We parked and rode out of the zoo entrance and across Saint Paul Boulevard to Collingwood where we found the newest section of the city’s ever expanding bike paths, “El Camino,” on a repurposed old rail bed. We rode north past the former Ridge Lumber (Home of Lanky Planky) and across 104 on a foot bridge with a graffiti carpet past the open air drug markets of Avenue D, C, B and A, stopping frequently to marvel at the new murals painted by the Wall Therapy Project on the backs of abandoned industrial buildings.

We lost the path north of Clifford Avenue and wound up on the Bausch Street Bridge where we crossed the river looking for the west side path to take us back to Seneca Park. Traveling north on Lake Avenue to Driving Park we spotted the illusive trail. Determined to find out where we went wrong we took the path back south down along the river where I took this shot. The big art Deco building is Kodak’s Hawk Eye plant where they made bomb sites for the military. My father worked here and was sworn to secrecy. I love the name of the bridge, “Driving Park!”

If we had gotten off El Camino when we got to Clifford we could have crossed Saint Paul and gotten on the northbound trail that crosses the river on an old RG&E power plant and then travels along the west side of the river gorge into Maplewood Park where you have the option to continue north to the lake or cross back over the river on a foot bridge that leads into Seneca Park and the zoo where our car was parked.

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Dislodging

Gareth Fitzgerald Barry at Axom Gallery in Rochester, New York
Gareth Fitzgerald Barry at Axom Gallery in Rochester, New York

Marion Winik described our friends, Pete and Shelley, as the perfect house guests. Amazing company and an exceptionally light footprint. Over coffee this morning Steve Black outdid Pete and Shelley by suggesting that we do a project. We picked one from our ever shrinking summer job list and spent the afternoon between showers setting patio stones in concrete. Our favorite First Friday stop was Axom Gallery’s show of Gareth Fitzgerald Barry’s sculpture. We finished the night with a small screen showing of “The Source Family.” Everything you imagined a commune to be, sort of interesting but not worth linking to.

I’ve got to thank Rick Simpson for dislodging you know what from my brain ears when he played Lee Michaels’ “You Know What I Mean” on his Gumbo Variations radio show.

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Blacksteps

Korean wedding in Central Park
Korean wedding in Central Park

I know wedding photographers don’t like it when they set up a shot and you glom on but if you’re gonna get married in Central Park on a Saturday afternoon there really are no rules.

We met Steve Black at the bus station this morning at 7AM. His bus got in at 4:30 or so but he insisted we let him roam around downtown Rochester for a few hours before picking him up. Still felt like we were getting up in the middle of the night. Steve splits his time between Bali and Singapore and hadn’t been in Rochester since he shot the video for “Trophy Bowler.” Back at the house we ate a lumberjack’s breakfast and hopped in the back of Jared’s pickup to finish picking up the locust tree that fell in our neighbor’s yard. That has to be the heaviest wood we have ever come across. I don’t think it would even float.

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It Doesn’t Matter

Cross as seen through construction peep hole in Chelsea, New York
Cross as seen through construction peep hole in Chelsea, New York

It never fails to happen. We’ll dart in and out of galleries in Chelsea just as most folks do, carrying on conversations while taking the art in, and the lines between the art, the people and the gallery setting all get blurred. Maybe it’s just the act of discerning the good from the bad that alters your perception skills but I always come back home with some pretty cool photos that I shot between galleries.

Back at Duane‘s in Brooklyn I insisted on listening to the entire “On The Beach.” Phrases connected to insidious melodies were lodged in my head and I thought I might be able to shake them by feeding my fix. The title song is killer but “Ambulance Blues” had its hooks in me big time. At first it was “Walk On” and then “Motion Pictures.” Back home it’s been the line, “It doesn’t matter,” from “For The Turnstiles” so I decided to fight fire with fire and buy a remastered digital copy from iTunes. I’ll report back.

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