Category: Irondequoit Melon

Matters of Importance to People North of the Ridge

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Patron Saint Of Realtors

Realtor shrine in houe on Wisner Road in Rochester, New York
Realtor shrine in houe on Wisner Road in Rochester, New York

Wisner Road used to lead right in to the park. It still does if you are on foot but it used to lead right into Zoo Road back when there was a zoo in Durand Eastman. Two zoos for one city seems rather extravagant but that was then. Some how the residents were able to convince the town to turn their road into a dead end back in the seventies and I’m glad they did. It took all of the through traffic off the park roads. Most of the traffic on Wisner now is people driving their dogs to the park entrance where they let take a dump on park property.

We were heading back from the park the other day and were just in time to catch an open house on Wisner. The house is made for Mad Men parties with a big sunken living room, big picture widows and a wall of blue stone fireplace. There were a few scented candles burning in the house. I like candles but hate the scented ones and it makes me suspicious as to what scent they are masking. I thought this little shrine in the hallway was pretty cool.

Margaret Explosion “When Saints Were Saints” from last Wednesday at the Little Theater Café.

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King Of Beer

New 24 ounce Budweiser cans on Hoffman Road in Rochester, New York
New 24 ounce Budweiser cans on Hoffman Road in Rochester, New York

The phantom Budweiser guy is back with a whole new look, the newly designed 24 ounce Budweiser cans. He dumped three of them in the his favorite, exact same spot in the last few days. I don’t really care for the new look. If they had asked me I would have suggested something clean with lots of white space or maybe red space and a bold retro looking crown icon. Certainly not the hideous bow tie if they they’re going after young kids.

I also came back with a golf ball that I found when we crossed the course. It must be left over from last year because they haven’t opened the course yet. A groundsman told us “maybe tomorrow.”

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Submarine Races

No paid parking graffitti in public park! Durand Eastman
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.

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Woods, Burp, Outdoors, Burp

Trimble Lake in Durand Eastman Park in Rochester, New York
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.

How many 24 ounce cans can one guy drink?

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Bootleg Bench

Bench in Durand Eastman Park at the top of the luge hill.
Bench in Durand Eastman Park at the top of the luge hill.

I not sure but I think this is a bootleg bench chained to a tree at the top of the luge hill in Durand Eastman Park. Not as brazen an act as Anthony Pilato driving a bulldozer through the undeveloped part of the park so he could ride his horses up there but still pretty bold. The bench doesn’t look like any of the others in the park. It’s the kind you could buy at Home Depot and it’s in the same spot as the makeshift bench that was placed here when the luge fans were out last year (and then hidden behind a tree when they went home).

There is a metal plaque nailed to the bench that reads, “In Loving Memory of Elizabeth Salathiel 1921-2009 From The USA Luge Team.” I looked her up. She’s for real or was for 87 years. This is the same hill where we used to see the man child, nick-named “Mayor of Durand.” He’d sit at the top and drink Genny’s from the can between occasional sled runs. Haven’t seen him in a few years but there is quite a crew here when the weather is right and plenty of regulars who we say hi to as we ski by. I’ve seen some of them videoing their ride and I found this clip online.

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Civil War

Murph's on Titus Avenue in Rochester, New York
Murph’s on Titus Avenue in Rochester, New York

East and West Irondequoit have separate school systems, separate libraries (for now) and separate Wegmans. Kings Highway, the Goodman Street extension, serves as a moat or wall between the two. They share a town hall and lake frontage but there is not much lateral movement between the two. Neither of us can go any further north unless by boat so most of the movement is toward the city and back.

We did some gallery sitting in the I-Square gallery yesterday and it got me thinking about the divide. Mike Nolan, the entrepreneur responsible for developing the future “four corners” of Irondequoit, now called I-Square, lives on the dividing line and is donating this empty storefront gallery space to the community. Most of the funky little shops in this old strip mall will have new homes in his revision although the consignment shop where we took many of Peggi’s mom’s furniture pieces has moved around the corner.

Mike stopped in the gallery before he headed down to Murph’s for a meeting and Peggi noted we had never been to Murph’s. We asked his co-worker if the food was any good. She hesitated and said, “They have good wings and I hear their fish fry is pretty good.” That wetted our appitite so we walked down there when our stint was up. I expected to see Armand at the bar with the locals but he wasn’t there. Everyone seems to know one another in here and it’s strangely comfortable but the fish fry was nasty, three quarters of it deep fried batter, at least, and it was hard to separate the fish from the batter like we usually do. There was a sign above us advertising “25 Wings and a Pitcher of LaBatt’s Blue” for twenty dollars. And classic rock and tv monitors tuned to some sort of lottery in the middle of the afternoon is depressing.

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Not On The Wagon

22 ounce Budweiser cans on Hoffman Road in Rochester, New York
22 ounce Budweiser cans on Hoffman Road in Rochester, New York

We thought this guy moved away or went on the wagon or died maybe but he’s still around. At least he has slacked off a bit. These are the first cans we’ve found in months. Same guy for sure because the 22 ounce Budweiser cans were in the exact same spot. They look kind of Christmasy.

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Bridge It

Picnic table in park along Lake Road near Sea Breeze in Webster, New York
Picnic table in park along Lake Road near Sea Breeze in Webster, New York

Three days in a row with temperatures in the sixties. We headed down to the lake and crossed the seasonal swing bridge that connects Culver Road to Lake Road in Webster. This tiny strip of land between Irondequoit Bay and the lake used to have houses on both sides of the road but quite a few on the north side were washed away years ago before they got he lake levels under control. The Army Corp shored it up with a pile of rocks and the town of Webster turned it into a nice little park. Next time we come down here we’ll bring some sandwiches.

A permanent bridge was planned for this spot but the money for the project was diverted to San Francisco after their earthquake and we’re stuck with this winter only solution. If anybody asks I’m all for keeping the bridge open all year. And while we’re at it let’s keep daylight savings on all year.

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Subterranean Surrogates

Photo of "Subterranean Surrogates" photo installation by Paul Dodd at Rochester Contemporary August 5 through September 25
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.

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Dream Baby Dream

Concrete building on Eastman Lake in Rochester, New York
Concrete building on Eastman Lake in Rochester, New York

I can’t be the only one who is tempted to take a photo of this concrete structure every time we walk by it. It’s on the western shore of Eastman Lake in Durand Eastman Park. The trail along this side of the lake is a bird lover’s paradise and we often spot birders with binoculars and long lens cameras hanging off their necks but in the dead of winter it is usually only us.

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Bad Moon Risin’

Big moon rise over Durand Eastman Beach in Rochester, New York
Big moon rise over Durand Eastman Beach in Rochester, New York

Neil Young must have gone crazy with this super moon thing. He recorded his most recent record on a full moon and people say he plans key moments in his life around full moons. Peggi has woken me up to look at the moon before and she was excited about this “Super Moon.” She put her coat on around sunset and said, “I’m headed down to the beach to watch the moon come up.” That got me away from the computer for a bit and I went down to Durand Eastman with her. It was about 35 degrees as the sun went down and it soon felt colder. We were getting ready to bail when the most dramatic huge moon popped up over the beach houses in Sea Breeze. This thing was spectacular!

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Just Askin’

Saint Patrick's Day ad at Shamrock Jack's in Rochester, New York
Saint Patrick’s Day ad at Shamrock Jack’s in Rochester, New York

It was perfect day for the boiling of the beef. Or for an intervention but that’s another story. I wish I had my camera. Nikon had me send the camera back at my expense to fix a lens cover that wouldn’t spring fully open and then told me the replacement part is on backorder! Grrr. If I had the camera I could have pryed the lens cover open to make a movie of our walk through the woods and then the funky little neighborhood of Bloomington style houses (one was for sale for $87,000- just askin’), down Culver Road past the bowling alley and Mastrella’s where we saw the short Elvis impersonator, by the New York Store where we saw new bicycles made in Queens in the window, by the barking dog in front a house with a beautiful view of the lake to Shamrock Jack’s for a sandwich and a pint.

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As California Goes

Freeway Ends Sign on Route 590 North in Rochester, New Yo
Freeway Ends Sign on Route 590 North in Rochester, New Yo

In painting class tonight our teacher, Fred, was talking about how expensive oil paints are now. He was speculating that turpentine is now a “hazardous material” and it costs extra to transport things like that. He was saying you can’t even buy commercial oil paint anymore. It’s illegal in California and “as California goes, so goes the nation.” It’s all acrylic or water based enamel now. A tube of paint is thirty bucks or so.

I got the conversation going because I said I was going back to oils after this batch of paintings. I’ve been using kids’ tempera paint and I’m getting tired of how it acts when I try to rework an area. You kind of reactivate what’s below and it gets messy.

Whenever Peggi’s sister was in town visiting her mom she would ask us what freeway she takes to get from wherever to wherever. I’m the wrong one to ask because I’ve lived here so long I just follow my nose and I can’t keep the 490, 390, 590 thing straight. I remember Route 47 doing pretty much the same thing. Anyway, the point is there are no “freeways” in New York. California has freeways. We have expressways and a thruway. So what were they thinking when when they put up this new sign on 590 North where that highway peters out and leads into the four traffic circles?

I don’t really think of MX-80 Sound as a California band but they’ve been there for about thirty years, long enough for vocalist, Rich Stim, to reinvent himself as video king, “MXRICH”. I love his his newest, done for an Angel Corpus Christi instrumental track.

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My Smile Is Stuck

Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band performing live at Ludlow’s Garage in Cincinnati in 1969. Photo by Kim Torgerson.

We haven’t seen the man-child mayor of Durand all winter. We have seen his buddies a few times on the long twisted path that they sled down and the next time we see them I plan ask about the mayor. The banks of that hill are all packed down with fresh snow making it look like a bobsled run. We skied down it today but snow plowed most of the way down to break our speed.

Our neighbor spotted a coyote yesterday and the neighbors down the street heard them howling last night. They said the coyotes had killed a deer out back so Peggi and I skied around the creek bed to see if we could spot the carcass but no luck. We got back to the house around dusk and there was a message from our friend, Duane, giving us the news that Don van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) had passed away. Duane owns one of Van Vliet’s prints and Peggi, Duane and I had seen a few of Van Vliet’s painting shows together in New York. I love his paintings but I absolutely love his music and poetry.

One of my favorite psychedelic experiences was having the sensation that the little house that Dave Mahoney and I lived in in Bloomington was flying like that scene in the Wizard of Oz. The soundtrack was 1969’s “Trout Mask Replica” which had just been released. We rode to Cincinnati with Jeff Amour from MX-80 Sound to see the Captain at Ludlow’s Garage on that tour. We sat in giant chairs. Screaming Gypsy Bandits and The Hampton Grease Band opened. Kim Torgerson took the photo above at that show. Steve Hoy drove us to Columbus the following year to hear the Magic Band on the “Lick My Decals Off Baby” tour. And back in Rochester I heard him at the Red Creek Inn where I recorded the live track below. That’s Brad Fox you hear sitting next to me. Greg Prevost from the Chesterfield Kings interviewed the Captain between sets.

Captain Beefheart Live at Red Creek in Rochester, NY

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Hunker Down

Yellow cherries in the woods with snow, Rochester, New York
Yellow cherries in the woods with snow, Rochester, New York

I don’t remember this yellow cherry tree from last year. It’s the first thing we saw today as we entered the woods. The skiing was excellent as long as we didn’t stand still. The ground is not quite frozen yet so the snow is sticky down there.

People were talking about sixteen inches but that doesn’t seen possible. We have about five out there now and I just checked the weather – “Occasional lake effect snow showers. Additional accumulation 3 to 5 inches in the most persistent snows…greatest near Lake Ontario and in the eastern suburbs. Lows in the lower 20s. Northwest winds 15 to 25 mph becoming west. Gusts up to 30 mph. Chance of snow near 100 percent.” Didn’t keep Peggi from going to her yoga class.

Did anybody see that article about the State of Kentucky using economic development funds to build a replica of Noah’s ark. It’s kinda down there near the Creation Museum. Separation of church and state issues make it sort of controversial. They’re talking about rebuilding the Tower of Babel down there. I’d like to be there when they speak in tongues. Or how about that article about the neo nazi’s lawyer who has hired a make up artist at $125 a day to cover up his defendant’s tattoos during his capitol punishment trial. “Could be distracting or prejudicial to the jurors.” Is there such a thing as a fair trial? My friend Rich sorts a lot of these issues out for me.

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The Right To Write Badly

Smokey lawnmower on Culver Road in Rochester, NY
Smokey lawnmower on Culver Road in Rochester, NY

I’m reading William Corbett’s memoir of Philip Guston where Philip Guston is reading Isaac Babel. “Comrades let us not fool ourselves: this is a very important right (the right to write badly), and to take it from us is no small thing. Let us give up this right, and may God help us. And if there is no God, let us help ourselves”. Guston cherished going out on a limb. Isaac Babel was arrested, tortured and shot during Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge.

We rode our bikes down to the old Newport House on Irondequoit Baty. The former speakeasy is still there but it’s boarded up and in demo mode headed for upscale condos. A worker came out and asked if he could help us. You know you’re in trouble when someone asks you if they can help you. On the way back we smelled something foul in the air. It got worse the closer we got to Culver Road and there we found this guy desperately trying to mow his lawn before his mower burned up.

We gave Kim Simmons two boxes of cds to sell on eBay. He takes 30% for his effort and that seems fair. We spent most of the weekend in the garage going through boxes of junk. Our house came with junk that the previous owners couldn’t sell at their final garage sale and we piled our junk in front of that junk. I feel like we’re all pawns in a giant worldwide garage sale scheme.

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With Good Reason

Three deer in Spring Valley
Three deer in Spring Valley

I remember going to the zoo at the top of Zoo Road in Durand Eastman and looking out over the hillside full of deer. That zoo is long gone but the deer are still here. Rochester didn’t need two zoos anyway. This set up with them wandering freely around the whole town seems much more civilized.

Peggi and I seem to have been buried in an endless amount of tweaks to sites we thought were done. A lot of this is mission creep and a good bit of it extras. That line however is pretty fuzzy.

When we do get caught up the first recreational project on our to do list is creating a shopping cart for Pete LaBonne’s “Gigunda” digital box set. Pete has been remastering the tracks in his Adirondack studio and the last of the reworked tracks arrived in today’s mail. Pete has added the original cover art for the full blown download experience and he selected tracks from each album to giveaway as teasers. The full albums will be available as downloads for chump change. I noticed that “Antique Revolt”, a project I played on along with Bruce Eaton, was not included in this set. With good reason.

Title song from Godiva Records cassette, “Antique Revolt” Recorded by Arpad Sekeres in 1992

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I Before E Except In Budweiser

Budweiser and Pussywillows on Hoffman Road

Most of this snow is gone. I took this photo a few days ago. We were down there again today and found more giant Bud cans and we picked some Pussy-willows while we were at it. Those are 24 ounce cans. Luckily we found an old bag to put them in. A school bus passed us as we were heading back with an armload of cans today. We waved. This Budweiser guy is remarkably consistent not only in the brand he drinks but in exactly where he throws his empties. A compulsive drunk.

I spent most of the day redrawing a three dimensional wagon wheel-like graphic for a client. It was probably generated in PowerPoint but they wanted to use it at poster size so I redrew it in Illustrator. Type on a curve, a million callouts, one of those crazy organizational charts that make your eyes glaze over.

Yogi tea bag fortune read “Empty your self and let the universe fill you.” I like that one. Most of them are annoying. I roughed up a painting in class and my teacher commented, “That guy is looking a lot more casual”. Made me realize what an important quality that is.

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Goin’ Buggy

Fallen tree on frozen Eastman Lake in Durand Eastman Park
Fallen tree on frozen Eastman Lake in Durand Eastman Park

We had been buried in work, a brochure for the Cancer Institute, and unable to get out for the last two days. But today we walked out of here just like that dramatic scene in “Buñuel’s “Exterminating Angel” when the bourgeois party goers finally decide they are able to leave the house they have been holed up in for days. Well, it was almost that dramatic. There were plenty of fallen limbs in the woods as a result of the heavy snow we had over the weekend but the skiing was surprisingly good. We stopped along the path that follows the shoreline of Eastman Lake and I took this photo. This tree has been sticking out of the pond for years but it looked especially good to me today.

We’ve used a few different shopping carts over the years and Peggi has decided to give X-Cart a try on our newest project. She has chatted with and emailed the Russians that work for the company and they seem quite friendly. Not sure what that cold war was all about. You download and set up the software for free and you pay when you implement it. So far, so good.

Speaking of shopping carts – I grabbed one of the small ones over at Wegmans but I was shopping with two lists, one for us and one for Peggi’s mom. I filled the cart with Depends and Dr. Pepper. I wasn’t sure if the cashier could get all the groceries back in the cart so I apologized for filling up the buggy. Buggy? Where did that word come from? Another era and I was there.

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