I like the production values on this. Ken Colombo was sitting a few tables back from the band holding his phone in the air. I like the sound too and and it’s not an Apple product. This was our second song last Wednesday. The place was just starting to fill up, Jack was in NYC, and the rest of the band was getting down to business.
Leave a commentOur Lady of Lilacs
We’ve had a rattle under our car for quite a while so I decided to take it in today. I called Lee at B&B on Saint Paul and he said to bring it in. This meant two bike rides, one back home while they looked at the car and one to the place to pick the car up. It was a beautiful day for both. The car needed front and rear sway bar links. Pothole damage.
In between the rides we planted two rows each of spinach, lettuce and beets. Our neighbor is already harvesting his lettuce. He had it in at the end of April. Our little seedlings were in our living room.
I see this bathtub virgin all the time. She is out near the road on Bouckart Street in Irondequoit. It is kind of a secret street, a straight shot form the 7-Eleven on Titus Avenue to Ridge Road, no stop signs. I keep thinking we’ll interrupt a drag race or something when we take it. We take this route to my parents and Peggi takes it to “the club” (LA Fitness). She looked especially good next to the dark lilacs.
1 CommentThank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
At ninety Kurt Feuerherm is a well seasoned artist. His work is in the permanent collection of MoMA, Albright Knox and the MAG. He was my Fine Arts mentor at SUNY Empire State and he received an award from the college tonight in a ceremony at Cutler Union. They asked some former students to show a few pieces along with Kurt’s work so contributed three of my crime faces. A jazz duo performed and they served drinks and finger food.
It was my first alumni event. I usually ignore the junk mail from the school. They may have even taken me off the list. I’ve never shown my degree to anyone, never even had the opportunity to put it on a job application since I mostly worked for myself. I dropped out of school after a year, picked up some credits for Creative Workshop classes, took a couple of fantastic photo classes at the UofR, got some credit for commercial art jobs and then worked with Kurt. In ten years time I cobbled together an art degree.
Kurt helped me a lot. I was doing something close to cartoons with flat color when I first met him. He got me abstracting my subject matter and working at a larger scale. He sent to the library with a list of contemporary artists who were working in a similar vein. He opened my eyes to a bigger picture. He was very helpful and I’d like to thank him.
Leave a commentEnd Of The Line
Even Spring can bring you down. The ramps are turning yellow and the Trilliums are fading fast. Life is too short. But it is only those left behind who complain. Plants go with hope for renewal. People are gone for good.
Some people give so much they leave a hole when they’re gone. It is up to us to fill it.
2 CommentsTorturing Trees
I’ve never seen the owners of this house but I’m guessing they are of Italian descent. Italians like to shape, stunt and generally torture trees to get them to look like lollipops or poodles tales. This is just my lopsided observation based on living in Rochester for most of my life. Friends, people on my old paper route, the old Italian neighborhoods, you start connecting the dots. Maybe it is their old world connection with fruit trees, a desire to maximize fruit production in a lot in a small space, like a small city lot.
Philip Guston fell in love with the tall, narrow Cypress trees and round ornamental trees in the parks in Rome while he was there on a teaching stint. It is a beautiful custom. You’ll have to the click the photo above to see the tree behind that little pink bike.
Leave a commentCopy Cats
We were listening to Tom Petty’s “American Girl” as we stood in line to buy Flash tickets over the weekend. The song sounded great but once we got in the stadium it turned out to be a cover band. Every song they did sounded as good as the original. So you have to wonder why. Why not just play the recording? I’d much rather hear Angel Corpus Christi’s dreamy Tom Petty covers.
We went up to Olmstead’s Highland Park tonight where the Psychedelic Furs were were playing for free at the Lilac Festival. The guys, the Butler brothers, were covering themselves. They sounded exactly like they did thirty years ago, same songs, nothing new. Kind of an odd experience.
Leave a commentPpwrs
Flickr and Tumblr dropped a vowel and their name got so much cooler. I’ve dropped two in PopWars for this post. I back up all my photos to Flickr. They give you a terabyte of space for free and I’ve been using their slideshow embed code on my home page for years but it never worked on the phone or tablet. You’d think they would be hip to all that stuff. I found this little “Flickrit” java script page that lets you link to a Flckr set and create slideshows at fixed or responsive sizes and I stuck iframe in up above. It stops at 100 photos but it even works on my first generation Touch. Update: The slideshow has stopped working.
Google’s new policy of ignoring sites that aren’t mobile friendly has tearing apart all sorts of stuff. I hardly get anything done anymore. I feel like I’m going backwards. If don’t have anything better to do for a few days drop a url in here and see what I’m talking about. Even my Tumblr signs page flunked. “Text too small to read.” “Links too close together.” “Mobile viewport not set.” Anything Else?
My Google custom search at the top of the site is not even mobile friendly. Everything needs reworking. I have all these web pages open now and will probably not come up for air for awhile.
Mobile Friendly Test
Google Webmaster Tools
Custom Search
Learn About Sitemaps
Responsive Typography With REMs
Responsive Web Design Fundamentals
Understand key points in going mobile
Haplessness
Someone came up to me during the break last night. I was still seated at my drums when he asked if I was Paul. He told me I painted a picture of him and I knew right away who he was. He was one of the six basketball players that I had hanging at the Little a few months back. He is shown on the left in the detail above. People kept asking if I knew any of those guys and I just shook my head but here was the one that many had speculated was the captain of the six member team.
He told me he saw the article in the paper, the one where I said I painted these guys from a 1957 high school yearbook I found because the team looked so hapless. He said he was only a sophomore when that picture was taken. Two of the six are dead, the guys in the middle of both rows. One went on to work for the Green Bay Packers and this guy said he was the quarterback for the UofR. And the guy with one eye closed was not winking, he wasn’t injured on the court with an elbow or anything. His eye just didn’t work.
These guys all graduated over fifty years ago and I never imagined I would meet any of them. It was kind of strange. I hope I don’t run into any of the wanted guys I’ve painted.
1 CommentNothin’ But Blue Skies
Can’t figure out why there were so many people in the park and on the beach today. Is school out already or is it some sort of holiday? We rode our bikes along the beach and stopped at Johnson Pond to see if we could see any of the turtles that my father saw down here. He sent us a photo with twenty fairly good sized turtles sunning themselves on a log. We found ten or so on a log along the lake side of the pond. I only have a three times zoom on my camera so my shots are not as dramatic. Spring usually means rain but it has been nothing but blue sky around here for weeks.
Leave a commentDutiful Dreamer
We picked our wild ramps responsibly, cut them at their base and left the bulbs in the woods. Made a nice green salad with them and added some grapes, halved, the way they used to do it at Peggi’s mom’s place.
The back room at Tapas 177 was the perfect spot for Maureen Outlaw’s opening last night. Dawn Carmel was pouring wine samples, the kitchen kept the tapas plates full, the conversation was crisp and Maureen’s paintings looked fantastic. The familiar scenes she paints, the bend in the Genesee River, the curve in the road through Durand, look anything but ordinary with Maureen’s luscious paint handling.
When I picked my dad up for his doctor’s appointment this morning he had his knapsack with him so I kind of figured he had something in mind after the appointment. Sure enough we stopped by Edmunds Woods where I took the photo above. As you can see, the trees are all filling in and the bounty of wildflowers below is closing shop.
Margaret Explosion has a bunch of new songs in the slow cooker tonight so stop on out if you’re in the area.
Over The Top Of The Pops
Last night Watkins & the Rapiers pulled out all the stops as they recreated the 1958 Grammys Show at the Little Theater. With special guests including Stan Merrell (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu “Volaré”) and Shawn the Café manager, the usual guests, Connie Deming (Peggy Lee’s “Fever”) and Richard Storms (Frank Sinatra’s “Old Black Magic”) and sensational performances by the band as they covered some rich musical territory. Shawn brought the house down with his version of Frank’s “Come Fly With Me.” I have never heard an ovation like that for any other performance here.
Watkins goes for it on a weekly basis. There is always a theme, costumes or new songs, sometimes whole new lyrics to someone else’s songs. The six piece band is made up of unlikely but full-fledged entertainers. They have a die-hard contingent of fans in the front half of the room and usually pack the house. You won’t find more ear to ear smiles at any other venue.
Leave a commentNo Regrets
About seventy five of us were seated in a warm room on an eighty degree day, all chairs facing toward a big screen tv. “Called to Serve” featured Sandra Day O’Conner, John Roberts and Samuel Alito extolling the virtues of our trial by jury system. Former jurors talked about their experience. Everyone looked especially large because the video had been stretched from its 4×3 original format to 16×9. The guy sitting next to me was all decked out in Harley Davidson gear and holding onto a hardback copy of Ace Frehley’s autobiography, “No Regrets.” I spotted only a handful of African Americans in the crowd.
When the video ended we were led into the courtroom where we watched some people shuffle papers for about twenty minutes. The judge came in, apologized for the delay and briefly explained the case. Three cops, who were seated directly in front of me, were accused of using excessive force when they arrested this guy in 2007 for some sort of domestic issue. The guy, sitting alone at a big table with a box of papers, was wearing a green jump suit and currently serving a prison term on an unrelated charge. We were told that was of no concern to us.
They called sixteen names, mine included, and we were seated in the jury box. I think they were working their way toward seating only eight jurors. The judge asked each of us many questions based on the forms we had filled out. Would we be available for the next few weeks? I said I might have some conflicts but would try to move them. He asked what I did when I worked for the police department in the seventies. I told him I pulled mugshots and made flyers for about a year until the grant for my graphic arts position ran out.
A woman who said she was breaking out in hives was let go. A man who said his fourth ammendment rights were violated when he went through the metal detector downstairs was let go but I made the cut up to the break. The jury box faced a wood paneled wall with a big built-in clock. It read five to noon and I believed it until I saw smaller clock below it. It was still only ten o’clock. Despite the extensive downtime, relatively few people brought reading material and of course phones were confiscated at the door. The woman sitting next to me in the jury box was reading “Ghostbread.” I told her I loved the book and she said, “I’m reading it for the second time.”
Next came a round of personal questions from the judge. What do you do for a living, are you married, what are you hobbies? About half had no hobbies at all. One guy answered, “I enjoy not working.” That got a good laugh. Most people answered all the questions enthusiastically. I got the sense they really wanted to be on this jury for the next three or four weeks. I can’t say I was looking forward to being trapped in the Federal Building for the next month hearing this sad case.
The two defense attorneys and the prisoner approached the bench for a round of whispering and when they returned the judge told me I was excused. I rode my bike down Main Street and out Joseph Avenue, scene of the 1964 race riots and then the Urban Renewal blight. I was feeling a bit guilty about not making the good citizen grade.
Leave a commentMint Juleps
We had to leave home before the race started so we missed this year’s running of the Kentucky Derby. Peggi and I went to it on our first date, the year Secretariat won, and lately we’ve been in the habit of driving or riding our bikes down to the lake to watch the race at O’Laughlins overlooking the river and Port of Rochester. But this year we had a conflict. The Flash were playing their home opener.
Kerry Regan and Claire pulled into the parking space next to us and they didn’t have tickets either so we bought four from a guy on the street for ten dollars each. Without Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd and all the players they traded away, the attendance was way down so we ignored the seat assignments and sat where we wanted. And as luck would have it forwards Sidney Leroux and Jasmyne Spencer switched sides so we had a great view of the action.
The match was against Boston so I was hoping to see my favorite player in the league, Heather O’Reilly, but apparently they traded her to Kansas City. Kansas City will be here Friday to meet the Flash but by then all the national team players will be training for this summer’s World Cup.
The Flash played pretty good in the first half but dominated the game in the second and scored three goals against Boston’s Alyssa Naeher, the national team’s backup to Hope Solo. All three of the goals were solid. Sydney’s was picture perfect as she moved right and shot back to the left near the post. Kristin Edmonds is back on defense and playing like she really wants the ball. She’s always moving to an open space and covers a lot of ground. She plays like O’Reilly and I would put her at midfield if I was coach.
The Flash Mob, shown above, sounded better than ever last night, even added some new samba beats so it was no surprise to see Todd Bradley playing with them. He’s recently put together a Bossa Nova combo with his two brothers and Brian Williams.
1 CommentThe Park Is Tripping
Spring Beauty
Because we help the Historic Brighton organization with their website we were included in an email from a board member, my father, alerting members about the Spring explosion of color in the Edmunds Woods. The fact that the small patch of mature woods behind a row of doctors’ offices on the corner of Clinton and Westfall is virtually unnoticed by most residents makes its delivery of the goods more spectacular. I’m talking about wildflowers and they are almost all in full bloom now.
There are very few deer nearby so the flowers and undergrowth remain uneaten. The woods is made up of mature trees but you have to hurry because the the trees are full of buds and will soon snuff out the light on the undergrowth. Squirrel Corn, May Apples, Ramps or Wild Leeks, Spring Beauty, White and Red Trillium, Cut-Leaved Toothwort, Blood Root, Trout Lilies and Blue Cohosh sometimes intermingled in a glorious display. You have only a few days left to witness this.
Leave a commentGoing Dumb
There is a John Baldessari painting in the current show at the Memorial Art Gallery. It struck me as kind of dumb but fun. I’ve seen a few videos of Baldessari talking about art and I really like listening to him. I found this video this morning and I really love it. John Baldessari talks about why Philip Guston is the boss.
Leave a commentSpontaneous Duplicity
Our Jazz Fest buddy, Hal, saw one of these Spontaneous Duo concerts in New York and he got the idea going up here last year. The performance order was assigned by a moderator five minutes before the start of the event. One musician started by playing alone. Five minutes later he was joined by another musician. After five more minutes the first musician left and another player joined the second. There was always a duo playing, the music never stopped for an hour and a half. It was like an open jam for music students (and some faculty members) but not on blues tunes, they were improvising freely.
It was bass and drums when we walked in, then drums and piano, cello and piano, piano and a clarinet player who doubled on plastic water bottle, soprano sax and clarinet, banjo and stand up bass, drums and banjo, voice and drums, flute and voice, trumpet and flute, ending with tenor sax by Vince Ercolomento. All with transitions were so seamless there wasn’t space to applaud.
Leave a commentB-Day Part 2
The Lake Ontario Parkway ends at Lake Road in Rochester. We crossed it and the river on the Colonel O’Rorke Bridge and pulled into the Stutson Street Plaza. Can’t go here without thinking about the time we took mescaline and watched a matinee of 2001 in the old Stutson Street Theater. And then I start thinking of the summer job I had with Brad Fox cleaning this parking lot in the middle of the night.
But tonight we were here for a birthday dinner at Carpani’s, formerly Cipriani’s. We split an order of Sautéed Calamari with Calumet olives, red onion, pepperoncinis, chopped fresh tomatoes, garlic and oil and a dish called “Pasta Alla Zia Teresa” with mushrooms, broccoli and olio sauce. Both were very good. If I was still keeping track of these things Carpani’s would have a place of honor.
We got lost in this painting during dinner and made it home for two more episodes of “Bloodline”. 65. Done that.
1 CommentNo Particular Place to Go Again
My dad’s car is in the shop so he invited us over to their place to celebrate my birthday with a milkshake and sandwich. The weekly special was an Italian Hogie, the same thing Robert Durst shoplifted from Wegmans when he got popped. The bistro at their place was packed so we ate lunch in the library by the fireplace.
It was a beautiful day, warm enough to go without a hat and a clear blue sky. We left my parents’ place and traveled west on the 104 past the ruins of Kodak Park and Ridgemont Plaza and onward, just wandering as is our custom on April 28. We turned right on a small road that surely would have taken us to the lake if we stuck with it but we got on Route 18, the “Roosevelt Highway” and paralleled the shoreline until we got to Lakeside Beach State Park.
The park wasn’t officially open so there was no entry fee and most of it was lawn with concrete slabs scattered about and chainlink nets for something called disc golf. We tried to ignore all that and climbed down the bank to the lake where we found some shotgun shells, golf balls, drug bags and all sorts of tiny plastic trash.
We walked for a few hours and worked up a thirst so we stopped in Oak Orchard and bought a couple of bottles of Guinness from a girl with large peace sign earrings. We drank the beer by a nearby bridge and watched a turtle sun himself. This very sleepy little town was just coming alive for the season with bait shops, boat rentals and sailboat ride places.
We took the Lake Ontario State Parkway back into town and were amazed at how rough the road was. A bit forlorn but still a beautiful highway. Each bridge is slightly different from the next and all faced with stone. Many are in disrepair today. The Parkway was built in the late forties at what was surely an optimistic time, a time when you might just hop in the car on sunny afternoon and take a drive.
Leave a commentDancing In Your Head
We went to “The Human Touch” opening on the later side in order to still be downtown when Nod took the stage at Abilene around midnight. The Memorial Art Gallery’s new show features part of the collection of RCB Wealth Management, whatever that is. Their website says “The Human Touch reflects the rich diversity of our clients, employees and the people who make up our everyday lives.” And that it does, but the effort to be diverse became the show rather than the selection of art. I only went to their website after seeing the show so now I’m wondering. Did the diversity effort look so obvious on the wall because all other shows are so insular? I don’t know. I only hoped to see some good art and I did see some.
Robert Longo, Chuck Close, Elizabeth Peyton, Nan Goldin, Kehinde Wiley, Carrie Mae Weems, John Baldesari were all represented but I was more intrigued by Willie Birch’s black and white acrylic and charcoal on paper drawing of two women, Till Freiwald’s large watercolor on paper studies of a live model for even larger (8 feet tall watercolors) and Luis Gispert’s giant, Spanish tinged, animated photo, “Living Room” from his Urban Myths series.
Nod was fantastic, more energetic than ever in their twenty-fifth year. They are the perfect trio. Each part is internal to their sound. Joe’s guitar playing is unique as hell, one of a kind. And although you can hardly ever hear what he is singing you can always hear the sweetness the melody he adds to his angular guitar playing. Tim Poland is a really melodic bass player and he propels the band with his lines while keeping the train on he tracks. Brian is rock solid on drums, never ruffled by Joe’s adventurous turns, he can fill up a song with fills without getting in the way. Nod’s sound gets under you skin and goes to your whole body. If no one breaks the ice you are left dancing in your head.
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