Life Is A Spell – Page 40

July 19, 2011August 20, 2019

Handy People

Washing rug on a summer's day — Washing rug on a summer’s day

How did this whole do-it-yourself thing get going so strong? Is it the bad economy or just the availability of cheap tools? Anyone who’s shopped for a house knows how bad a home remodeling job can be. Didn’t it used to be that you’d hire a craftsman for those sorts of things or a rug cleaning service to clean your rugs?

We bought this rug many years ago at Jacobsen’s on Salina Street in downtown Syracuse. We have a few Oriental rugs in our house and they all need washing. It’s our own fault. We don’t take our shoes off when we come in from outdoors, only when we’ve been hiking. We used to call Asian people “Orientals” and I’m glad we swapped that word out. We need a better one for these rugs. I think this one came from the former Soviet Union and “Oriental” just doesn’t seem right.

We decided to clean the rugs ourselves so we’ve borrowed Rick and Monica’s paved driveway (ours is stone) for the last few days and we’ve set up shop over there. I wear my bathing suit We found a page on Jacobsen’s site about cleaning rugs and I watched a few YouTube videos. A lot of people don’t recommend doing it yourself, mostly because it is so much work but we’ve just skipped our daily walk and we work out over there.

We bought a 12″ squeegee, a natural bristle brush and a wooden pole/handle at Black’s Hardware. I put the squeegee on one end of the pole and the brush on the other. We’re using Ivory dishwashing soap and cold water from the faucet and there is a long line of water running down our steamy road.

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July 17, 2011August 20, 2019

Lovely Ball

Bobby Henrie's Shoes at Bop Fest in Rochester, New York — Bobby Henrie’s Shoes at Bop Fest in Rochester, New York

Bob Henrie’s left foot is blurry because southpaws tap their left foot. The photo is blurry because the sun was going down when The Goners took the stage at Saturday’s Bop Fest. You don’t have to reinvent rock ‘n roll, you just have to be good and Bob Henie and the Goners are still the best band in the city.

The US Japan World Cup Final was another roller coaster ride, going into overtime where the US took the lead on another Abby Wambach header and then lost the lead to force the dreaded penalty kick round. Someone had to lose. It was a beautiful game.

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July 15, 2011August 20, 2019

Gumbo Variations

Columbian coffee bags at Canaltown Coffee in Rochester New York

It feels really good to look at something and decide you could live without it and then throw it in the trash. I had this old rusty wheel barrel that I found in someone else’s trash a long time ago. Sparky put a new wheel on it for me. I filled with other junk last night and took it out to the curb. I usually have a moment of remorse but don’t look back.

Still getting rid of junk is not as easy as it sounds. Where do go with stuff that might be worth some money like old records. eBay is not as easy it seems either. I brought a pile up from the basement and let Rick Simpson take his pick from them. He found ten that that liked and built his weekly “Gumbo Variations” radio show on WRUR around the scratchy old vinyl. Each set started with one of our old records (Paul Butterfield, Ginger Baker, Charlie Hayden, Chuck Berry, Crazy World of Arthur Brown) and Rick built on those for a pretty cool but sort of out-of-body show.

We order our coffee ten pounds at time, whole bean from Canaltown. The owner, Pete, roasts in the back room and provides an incredible aroma for the whole neighborhood.

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July 13, 2011August 20, 2019

French Women

Womens Cup 2011 - US beats France 3-1 in semifinals — Womens Cup 2011 – US beats France 3-1 in semifinals

How are you supposed to get anything done during the World Cup? You just can’t. Peggi and I watched the US beat France this morning while sitting in my parent’s living room (you can see some of my dad’s paintings in the shot above). My mom even made lunch for us.

And on the way home Peggi said we ought to go down to our neighbor’s house to watch Sweden play Japan in the second semifinal game. We barely had time to check email before kickoff. Japan was even more stylish than France in the way they played the short ball and passed around opponents with finesse. They hardly broke a sweat. Sweden beat the US in the opening round, just one week ago today, and Japan beat Sweden today so what are the US’s chances on in the final on Sunday? Everything rests on Abby’s shoulders.

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July 11, 2011August 20, 2019

Dreamland

Rasberries in Leo's garden — Rasberries in Leo’s garden

Winning is not everything but I do wish I could beat my neighbor, Rick, in horseshoes. Not so much for the sake of winning but just to be able to see him with his tail between his legs for a while. Maybe that is the same thing. It felt real good to see the US beat Brazil in the 122’nd minute on a beautiful cross that Rochester’s Abby Wambach nailed with her head. And it was especially nice to watch the game with my mom while sitting in my parent’s living room, a few blocks from Mercy High School, where both Abby and my mom went.

It has become impossible to keep up with the wild raspberries in Leo’s garden although many of the neighbors on our street have been trying. Peggi and Monica both made pies over the weekend. I have seeds stuck between my teeth around the clock. And with this heat the berries will soon shrivel up.

Andy and Karen from Dreamland Faces were in town last week. They dropped off a few of their new 45s at the Bop Shop and our neighbor Rick grabbed one for us. Both sides are in Chinese. Here’s hoping they’ll be here long enough for a gig next month when they return. This is a folk song about pretty girls with long braids. “If you want to marry, don’t wed any other – I want you to marry me. Bring all your money and your little sister, get in the wagon, come with me”

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July 7, 2011April 3, 2019

New Polymath

Pale Swallow-Wort, invasive species plant in New York State

I hate this stinking weed, an invasive species, called Pale Swallow-Wort, that pops up everywhere. It’s really tough to pull out because in most cases you don’t get the roots when it snaps off just above the ground level but the dry conditions we have now make it the perfect time to rid your yard of this sucker. You can see in the photo above that I was able to get most of the roots. I use two the hand technique and pull straight up with focused concentration.

We have a recording of Hildegard Von Bingen’s music that we play quite a bit but we didn’t realize she was such a polymath. The movie we watched last night about her life, a thousand years ago, hardly touched on her monophonic vocal works. Instead it portrayed her as a dark ages religious mystic struggling with a Catholic church hierarchy that unfortunately still exists today.

Polymath would have been a better name than “New Math”, which was already retro when we called ourselves that back in the late seventies, but anything with the word “math” in there sounds too progressive or soulless which isn’t quite fair too mathematics but . . . I played in the band when we recorded the first single with Howard Thompson behind the glass wall of PCI Studios.

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July 4, 2011August 20, 2019

Ralphie The Gopher

Kevin was in town and he stopped by with his family just after we had had heard from neighbor that there was a gopher loose in the garden that we share. Our neighbor said if we wanted any spinach we better pick it before dark because there might be any left in the morning so we all headed down there to pick a few bags.

This morning we checked email before heading out for a walk and our neighbor sent one telling us he had captured the varmint. We stopped down there and found Ralphie, just as we pictured him, in a cage with a few slices of apples. It looked like he had worn a hole in his nose trying to get out this trap. It will will be a long hot weekend for hi him before the town picks him up on Tuesday and transports him over by the bay.

Coincidentally Peggi was wearing her Ralphie The Gopher hat so I took this picture with the hat on the cage. We ripped our Ralphie cds a while back and gave the whole Tall Tales library to our niece and her husband. They’ve told us many times how Ralphie is their family’s favorite.

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June 29, 2011August 20, 2019

Back To Something

So Wegmans grows this stuff and charges a premium for it while we can grow the same stuff for free? We haven’t even watered our garden yet this year and it’s doing fine. We’ve had fresh lettuce and spinach for weeks.

We went over to my parents to watch the US beat North Korea in the Women’s World Cup. A real clash of civilizations, the Koreans were about half the size of the Americans and young with a sixteen year in starting lineup. Rochester’s Abby Wambach had a beautiful cross and assist on the first goal. We may stop down at our neighbors for the next game since we don’t have cable. We had a big old branch come down in the last heavy rain so I’m firing up the chain saw this afternoon to take of it. I’m planning on using my new noise canceling headphones so I won’t hear you shouting at me.

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June 14, 2011December 17, 2019

Give The People What They Want

Beer Lady at Durand EastmanGolf Course in Rochester, NY

I had always heard there was a “beer lady” at Durand Eastman and we walk that way a few times each week but I’d never seen her until now. The cans of beer she sells are on ice in the bucket attached to her cart. I reached for my camera and she said “Are you going to photograph me?” and then turned away for this shot. I told her it wasn’t a closeup but I’m sure she gets hassled by guys all day. As far as I can tell beer is big part of golf. We find cans in the woods all the time near the holes we cross and I chuck them right back out on the course.

I were asked to fill out a survey card at the Jazz Fest last night. It’s an opportunity to suggest artists you’d like to see at upcoming festivals but it’s also an opportunity for the promoters to ask how much you earn per year and how much you plan to spend at the festival. I lie about everything but the musicians I’d like to hear, Ornette Coleman, Mostly Other People Do The Killing, Ken Vandermark, Joe McPhee. Logic would tell you the information is used to give the people who have the most to spend the kind of entertainment they want. This might explain why the six venues we visited last night were packed with festival goers and such mediocre bands.

I tracked what we heard here.

We came home and watched Monte Hellman’s 1971 cult classic, “Two Lane Blacktop” with Dennis Wilson, James Taylor and Warren Oates. I remember seeing this with Dave Mahoney back in our Bloomington Days and remember not much happened but that is the whole point.So beautiful to see the movie unfold in what feels like real time with no manipulation or plot twists and the dead pan, non actors with the masterful Warren Oates. Laurie Bird is “the girl.” Monte Hellman deliberately holds back from giving us what we want. I loved every bit bit of it.

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June 11, 2011August 20, 2019

Cross Fade

View of Madrid from atop El Círculo de Bellas Artes Building

It’s going to be tough pretending we are still in Madrid. We spent our last day there following the yellow PhotoEspana route of top shelf photo shows. We spent quite a while at at the “Ron Galella – Paparazzo Extroaordinaire” show at El Círculo de Bellas Artes and then took the elevator to the top floor terrace where we had a sensational view of the city.

A friend sent me a link to a story Jeff Spevak did on me as a curator of the Jazz Fest. Before we left I told Jeff to help himself to the photos I had on my site from past years festivals but I never expected this. My neighbor stopped me this morning to say “I saw the music critic dis you in the paper.” Some curator, I missed the first day while we were gone.

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June 8, 2011August 20, 2019

Follow The Nuns

Catholic shop in Madrid near the Plaza Mayor

I have a small box of holy cards at home. I’ve collected them for many years so some are from my youth. I even have a relic of my patron saint in there that a priest friend of our family bought for me when he traveled to Italy. I was born on the feast day of Saint Paul and that’s how I got my name but it’s not the Saul/Saint Paul of the Letters, it’s Saint Paul of the Cross We used to book mark our missals with holy cards and they gave some when we made our first communion and confirmation and I fell in love with them. They were every bit as cool as baseball cards. I have some from relatives funerals and the Katarii shrine in Auriesville, New York
but most of my cards are from previous trips to Spain when we used to stop in almost every church we saw. We sort of have that under control now.

There used to be a cluster of religious shops around the Plaza Mayor in Madrid and there still are a few but the Catholics are dying and commerce has a new face. We stopped in the full blown priest supply store above and asked if they had any holy cards, they’re called estampas in Spanish, and the clerk recommended another shop where I found ten or so interesting ones for two euros.

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June 7, 2011August 20, 2019

Bull In A China Shop

El flamenco es filosofía pura,anõs de filosofía condensada. It is the heart of Andulasia in Southern Spain. We had to see some flamenco on our last night in Sevilla so we asked a number of people what they recommended and decided our best bet was the Museo de Flamenco founded by the famous flamenco singer Cristina Hoyos. They have a nightly show and this one included a man and woman who sang and danced, a man who sat and sang while clapping and a virtuoso guitar player. An earthy art form that came from the gypsy streets, flamenco is culturally rich. Antonia Mercé, “La Argentina,” Lorca’s muse, said “There are no schools to create flamenco just as there are no schools to create poets.”

And of course we had to take in a bullfight before leaving Spain, there is so much pomp and ceremony and rich color palette in this ritualized life and death spectacle. It’s pretty certain who is going to die here and it is sometimes messy. As a Taurus I feel sorry for the bull and almost want to root for el toro

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June 6, 2011August 20, 2019

Museo de Jamon

Pimientos el Padron and Leonard Cohen article

Finding a good spot to eat in Spain is easy. Restaurants and cafés are everywhere. Picking a really good spot requires some astute attention to details. A lot of places have tables out on the street but do they have an active bar/tapa scene as well and a dining room inside? Do they serve their coffee in small glasses rather than cups? And most importantly, How many hams do they have hanging from the ceiling? Spaniards are crazy about ham. They have a chain of delicatessens called “Museo de Jamon.”

They like to have their main meal midday and la siesta is not some quaint old custom. Most places other than restaurants close down in the middle of the work day. We trade off between a big meal in the afternoon and grazing on tapas, pinchos and rationes at multiple establishments and made a point to visit Restaurante Modesto in Sevilla for the Pimentos del Padrón we spotted.

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June 5, 2011August 20, 2019

Kiss, Darling

I hadn’t thought about “Kiss and Darling” in a long time. They were full color, Italian, photo novellas with young people posed perfectly in ordinary European situations along with thought bubbles or conversation that dealt mostly with romance. Nothing steamy, just dreamy. They sold them everywhere in the eighties. We used to pick them up at Bertha’s on East Main and sometimes we’d by the Spanish versions at World Wide News.

I keep flashing on them as we walk the streets of Sevilla. We’re lost most of the time but it doesn’t matter. Every street we turn on is full of people strolling, shopping or window shopping, eating and just plain living their lives out on the street. It’s like a Fellini movie and I love it.

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June 4, 2011August 20, 2019

Pepinos Asesinos

Germany was pretty quick to blame Spanish cucumbers for the eColi breakout. The common currency Euro was intended to bolster Europe but it hasn’t worked out for all countries in the union. The ancient Juderia section of Cordoba is almost overrun with souvenir shops. The clash of civilization goes on.

In Rochester we have the historic High Falls area that must be over a hundred years old. Margaret Explosion played a gig there a few weeks ago. This morning we were a block from the train station in Cordoba, walking through a park when we came upon some Roman ruins from the first century.

Jews, Muslims and Christians all lived in harmony in Spain for a few centuries so Cordoba is extremely rich in history. La Mezquita, the largest mosque in the west, was built in the Jewish quarter on top of San Vincente Basílica which was built by the Visigoths as a Christian temple dedicated to martyrs. The Moors destroyed it in 785 but recent excavations have preserved portions that are now visible through holes cut in the floor of La Mezquita. The Spanish Inquisition expelled The Moors and in 1236 King Ferdinand III (also known as “El Santo”) consecrated the Cathedral which was built literally within the walls of the mosque, it’s ornate spires soaring through the ceiling. Mass has been celebrated here everyday since. It is all quite a spectacle.

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June 2, 2011August 20, 2019

Universal Language

Juan Francisco Isidro painting on display in Sevilla, Espana

We got up so late today that they were putting away the breakfast food at the café we stopped at. And they were preparing the tapas for the glass display cases that line the bar between you and the barista. We watched as they put out a display tray of Pimientos del Padrón and made a note to come back here later.

First thing we heard on the street today was an American woman telling her male friend, “Don’t you go thinking you know more Spanish than me.” Lots of Germans walking around Sevilla’s Centro district too, French and Italian, all butchering Spanish no worse than I would if I opened my mouth. I used to think art was the universal language but really good art doesn’t always translate. Food is probably the universal language.

Our guide book said, “Nothing much happens in La Macarena district,” “It is the least altered by tourist hype,” and “Entertainment value is substantially compromised by authenticity,” so that became our day’s destination. We spent a good bit of time ducking the sun and at one point felt overcome by it so we dashed to a fruit stand. We bought some small exotic peaches and and asked the owner if he could recommend a good restaurant. He pointed down the street and said, “Todo recto. Al fin. A la derecha. El Rinconcillo. Es muy bueno.”

This place was established in 1625. It’s older than Guinness. We ordered the house salad for two (asparagus, roasted red peppers, salchitas, grilled shrimp, bonito, calamari stuffed with ?) and we split a spinach and chick pea dish that must have been influenced by our proximity to Morocco. Both were out of this world.

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May 31, 2011August 20, 2019

El Parasol Metropol

We bought two eBooks for the iPad on travel in Spain, one by “Let’s Go” and one by “Lonely Planet.” One’s a little more backpacky with advice on how many people you can get in a room and the other is a bit ordinary so we consult both and mix the youth oriented tips with the conservative. We found a place in Sevilla that was described as grandmotherly in one book and funky in the other.

The proprietor told us the wifi (pronounced weefee) connection would not work in our room but it worked great if we sat in particular chair in the lobby. They have a wild contemporary portrait painting on the wall so I asked for advice in finding some galleries. He recommended the Alemeda de Hercules area so we headed off in that direction. The streets in Sevilla look like they were laid out by a spider so we walk a block and get our map out. The Sevilla map we have is from our last visit here. They were preparing for Cartuja, a worldwide Expo, so it might have been ’93 or so. An area with a big blue “P” on our map that once was a parking lot is now the site of one of Sevilla’s newest attractions, el Parasol Metropol and it was quite a sensation to stumble on it. It’s kind of like the metal jungle gym like thing they constructed in Manhattan Square Park in Rochester.

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May 28, 2011August 20, 2019

Great Weather For Ducks

We found six golf balls near this hole when we scooted across the golf course but we still haven’t found one of the Polara balls we read about. They have an irregular dimple pattern and are sort of guaranteed to go straight so maybe thats why we haven’t found any of them. They are technically illegal but that shouldn’t stop a Durand duffer.

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May 24, 2011August 20, 2019

Experience The Possibilities

"Model from Crime Page" tempura on paper, Paul Dodd 2011 — “Model from Crime Page” tempura on paper, Paul Dodd 2011

I had my last painting class of the year tonight. It was a good one but they all are. It’s not a class in any conventional sense. There are no lessons and no course, just a group of people painting in the same room in a wide assortment of mediums and styles, abstract to still life. It’s more like group therapy.

Our teacher wanders from one painter to the next and looks at what each person is doing almost as if it was the first time he has seen the work. We can all hear the advice he gives each student and damn if doesn’t always apply to all of us no matter what we’re working on. It’s the same guidance over and over. The woman next to me tonight was explaining what she had planned for her piece and Fred said, “I want you to learn to experience the possibilities rather than the inevitabilities.”

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May 23, 2011August 20, 2019

Magic Marta

Marta playing for WNY Flash in Rochester, New York

Naming rights are out of hand. Rochester’s soccer stadium is now called “Sahlen’s Stadium”, named after a Buffalo hot dog maker, and last night our local Women’s Professional soccer team played “magicJack,” formerly the Washington Freedom. Most teams in the league have the city’s name attached to their moniker like Boston, Philadelphia and Atlanta this team is simply called “magicJack” just like they spell the usb phone device that lets you make free internet calls for twenty dollars a year.

Last night was a golden opportunity to see some of world’s best women soccer players. Local favorite Abby Wambach plays for magicJack and so does Hope solo and Shannon Boxx. All three were starters in the 2007 World Cup and six players from this team will be going to Germany to play for the US in June’s Cup. But Rochester has the the best player in the world on their team and we couldn’t take our eyes off her last night. Marta will of course be playing for Brazil next month but right now she is working her magic in downtown Rochester.

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