Ray Tierney Senior, far left, in front of his store on North Avenue in Rochester, NY
There was some sort rift that developed in my family years ago. Drinking was involved. Pa beat Ma. People took sides and today all is forgiven or forgotten, or most of it anyway. We had reunion in Webster Park over the weekend and Peggi I threw our tofu dogs on the grill along side of our cousins’ hot dogs. The daughter of my grandfathers’ brother showed us a scrapbook full of old family photos and I popped a photo of the one above. It shows my grandfather and his fellow workers in front of his grocery store on North Avenue. “Of course you’ve heard all these stories,” she said. But we really hadn’t and the time flew by as the stories unfolded.
Red vine on tree in Hoffman Road marsh in Rochester, New York
Brad Fox told me he used to get depressed every year at this time when the days get cooler, shorter and grayer. He moved to California to remedy that situation. My good friend and neighbor is also affected by light deprivation. And Anne Havens goes south in the winter but thankfully always returns for productive art-making, something that she is sharing by appointment only before she hightails it out of here. You can contact her through her site.
Me, I get overwhelmed in the summer and look forward to hunkering down in the winter months.
Last night in painting class my father showed me a picture of the spy satellites that Kodak developed cameras for. I remember at some point he couldn’t tell us exactly what he did at work because it was top secret but these “Corona” and “Big Bird” projects have been declassified now there is quite a bit of information online about them. My father drew me a little diagram of how the satellites captured shots of Russia and then dropped the film package as they orbited so that a plane flying below could snag it and bring it in for processing. Pretty hi-tech stuff for a company who’s stock is now selling for a dollar a share.
Dead tree in marsh off Hoffman Road in Rochester, NY
Took our last dip in the street pool on the last day of summer and finally set aside time to watch the Western New York Flash beat the Philadelphia Freedom. Our neighbors had taped the championship game and kept it on their Tivo for us. We had our first and last (while we’re living anyway) garage sale the day they played. If this Women’s Professional soccer league survives and Marta comes back we’ll get season tickets next year. It was a sensational game.
I feel lucky that I am still in touch with friends from high school. Jeff Munson, Frank Paolo and John Gilmore were all at the Wednesday night Margaret Explosion show at the Little Theatre Café. Even Marty Schutt, owner of Schutt’s Apple Mill, was there but he didn’t realize it was me in the band until he was on the way out. Later that night Colin Pinkney emailed me that Whitney Schutt (no relation to Marty) had passed away.
Whitney was so cool they gave her a full page in the yearbook (click on the photo above). Frank sent me her newspaper death notice and it is fittingly poetic.
The Hopland woman who died in a solo-vehicle crash on Highway 20 Tuesday night was identified Thursday as Whitney Schutt, 61.
Schutt was pronounced dead at the scene where her silver 1999 BMW convertible rolled over on the dirt shoulder of the highway, according to the California Highway Patrol.
She was driving west on Highway 20 just east of Potter Valley Road at about 8:20 p.m. when she allowed the car to leave the road for reasons still under investigation, according to the CHP. The car slid out of control on the dirt north of the road and overturned. Schutt wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, according to the CHP.
Drugs or alcohol are not believed to have been factors in the crash, which remains under investigation.
Mark Fox “Untitled (Fence), 2010 at the Culver road Armory in Rochester, New York
How did everybody know about last night’s opening at the newly refurbished Culver Road Armory? A solo show of an unknown artist in a brand new space on a Saturday night and the place was packed. Free drinks were offered to us before we had even signed in on the iPad mounted to the wall near the entrance. Valet parking, prices starting at 6000 without the frame and plenty of red dots on the wall. “This is not an artist crowd, this is a money crowd”, said the first artist friend that we ran into. It’s true, I don’t know many artists who wear suits or spiked heels.
I was bowled over by the crowd and I was thinking this must have been a social media fueled event because I feel more isolated now that everyone is so connected. I only knew about the show because Martin Edic told us about it at Wednesday’s Margaret Explosion gig. I started asking people how they knew about his event and I got the story that an art dealer, Deborah Ronnen, who lives in Rochester, arranged the show, for the building’s owners who must have rented the lights, constructed the temporary walls to show the work, bought the drinks and invited the in crowd. The former armory already has a law firm as a tenant and restaurant on the way from the Black & Blue people. This art show was a brilliant ploy to get potential high rent tenants to see the space as a happening spot. This may not be the case but it all sounds plausible.
And then there was Mark Fox‘s art. I loved it but not all of it and not all of it as much as some pieces. I liked the two dimensional work better than the piles of cut out handwriting. I loved “Untitled (Black & White Pools)” and “Untitled (Pools 2)” but my absolute favorite was “Untitled (Fence)” (is it untitled or not?), graphite and acrylic on paper with metal pins (shown above). This three dimensional piece was cut from painted paper and woven like chain link fence and then suspended on pins so it would play with the shadows from the light.
Out of water lilly pad like weeds near ponds in Durand Eastman Park
I can’t tell new music from old any more. Is everything coming back at once or is nothing really new? Was that old disco or new disco that the staff in the Little Theater Café were playing last night? When our Netflix queue ran dry last month we asked our friends, Rich and Andrea, for some recommendations. Rich sent his list along with a request for new music recommendations. I’m still listening to sixties’ jazz so I couldn’t possibly oblige but it was nice to be reminded how out of it I am. I do know I like Matt & Kim.
Martin Scorsese’s “Public Speaking” found it’s way in to our queue and I like that.
The soundtrack to Wednesday’s ride home from our gig used to be The Maestro’s show “Dig This” but time does not stand still in college radio land. Last night in the same time slot it was “Femme Fatale” holding court with the queens of R&B. I just “liked” her page.
The weather changed right on cue over Labor Day weekend and the last few days have been dark and gloomy. Sade sounds particularly good on days like this. I don’t let it get to me, it’s great weather for hanging around with friends. Duane‘s in town for a few days and it’s perfect weather for Margaret Explosion. We begin a long run at the Little Theatre Café tonight at 7:30. We’ll be there every Wednesday until the end of the year.
When I was a kid the ride down Lake Avenue to Charlotte Beach seemed to take an eternity. And that final crest where you got your first look at lake and the tall flag pole was so dramatic. It still seems like a trek even though you’re still within the city limits.
We took Pete and Shelley to see the “Subterranean Surrogates” show at RoCo and then cruised down Lake Avenue to Abbots. They have so many locations now but the Chocolate Almond custard still tastes the best down there.
View of Irondequoit Bay from 590 in Rochester, New York
This morning’s paper had an article about Bay Town Plaza in Webster going under as Walmart plans to super-size their building there. The town is so ridiculously built up it’s depressing. I was going to high school out there when they converted the old three lane (we called the middle lane the “suicide lane”) Empire Boulevard/104 in to the new 104 that plowed through farm fields to carry the burgeoning Xerox’s employees to work. The noisy 104/Irondequoit Bay Bridge was part of the package. We can hear the hum from our house on the other side.
They have been doing work on the Bay Bridge all summer so it’s been in a poor man’s Christo mode. We rode our bikes over there the other day and sat on the bench that overlooks this scene confirming that life is a spell.
Evan with mask at “best Garage Sale Ever” in Rochester, New York
When it came time to make signs for the two ends of Alpine Drive, the night before our garage sale, we did a little brainstorming and Alice came up with a killer title, “Best Garage Sale Ever.” We ran with it and in fact it was the best garage sale ever, a perfect day and a chance to see so many friends in one spot.
We found a Lena Horne cd in the cd slot of Peggi’s mom’s stereo and kicked the sale off with an operatic tribute to Peggi’s mom. We met Noah from next door and I gave him this mask while we were setting up. No one was interested in the glass table that belonged to Peggi’s mom so we put it out in the “Free” section near the end of the sale. Evan picked it up and put it in his sale where it sold for six dollars. We sold our entire music collection and were delighted to find happy homes for most of it.
People warned us about the dealers and true to form they were there as we were setting up a full two hours before the sale began. I dreaded the whole affair and it was was an incredible amount of work but turned out to be fun, mostly because Alice and Julio are so much fun.
I put my 1996 series of 24 “Rochester Crime Faces” in the sale. Last time they were out in public was when they hung in the old city jail, the Cell Gallery, in Writers and Books. Ruby Rubenstein, Scott McCarney, Marie Via, Claire Marziotti, Chris Schepp, Judy Levy, Amy Enis, Maureen Outlaw, Sally Wood Winslow and Heather Erwin all bought at least one. I was thrilled that they sold out.
After 30 years in the city we moved to a house that didn’t have enough room for all our stuff so the stuff remained in boxes for six years. In that time we accumulated more stuff and when Peggi’s mom passed away we wound up with even more stuff. The time has come for our first Garage Sale!
We been preparing for Saturday’s Garage Sale our entire life, accumulating stuff that we liked, never thinking of it as collectable or even having any trade-in value at all and then comes the realization the stuff is in the way. Beyond giving things away and then donating stuff to charity there is the practical matter of putting a little white sticker on each and every glass bird or Elvis Presley placemat.
Our friend’s, Alice and Julio, were planning a sale this Saturday as part of a neighborhood sale in Pittsford. We plan to piggyback on their sale and make it a party. We ripped our lps and cds so our entire record and cd collection is for sale. We weeded our book shelves, our closets, the garage and the basement and came up with a truckload of stuff for the sale. If you’re out and about on Saturday stop by. I’m sort of dreading it but it could be fun. Alice is calling it “The Best Garage Sale Ever!”
Old rock magazines headed for garage sale on Saturday in Rochester, New York
I was going to toss these old magazines in the 50 cent box for Saturday’s yard sale but I stopped to check the eBay price of the Rock Scene with the dorky picture of Keith and I found it just sold for $26. There is so much anxiety involved with this whole garage sale thing.
I had this U2 cd single of a song called “Numb” from the Zooropa album. It was a promo sent to us when we were doing the print version of the Refrigerator and our friend, Duane, told us it was valuable so I put it right by my monitor for the day when we decided to liquidate. I guess it’s more like downsizing or miniaturizing as in mp3 files. Ironically, the precious cd” wasn’t there when I reached for it. I had to laugh. I never even ripped it either. Its probably in one of the cd boxes out in the garage.
I spot-checked the thousands of cds and vinyl records and found that vinyl was worth more than the cds so I decided to go with $3 for the vinyl and $4 for the cds and I will probably lower the price in the afternoon.
I never expected to get any money back when I finished with our books and records and Rock Scene magazines yet the value we placed in these things while we owned them gets devalued when we look them up on line. It’s all kind of weird. A lot of our stuff came from garage sales in the first place. Maybe this is what makes the world go ’round. This is our first garage sale and I hope its the last.
Dyson vacuum cleaners have a plastic chamber that collects the dust instead of bag. Ours was empty but it still wouldn’t pick up. We found before that the only way to remedy this situation was to take it all apart and clean the vacuum cleaner parts. Our neighbor, Rick, brought his laptop over because it was making a clicking sound. I asked if he had a backup and he didn’t so I suggested he go to Staples and buy an external drive and run Time Machine before he does anything else. He did that and then took it in to the Apple Store. They told him the fan had become clogged and it needed cleaning.
With all the rain in last few weeks our basement dehumidifier has been running around the clock. I’ve been down there quite a bit going through junk to put in our upcoming yard sale the dehumidified has been as loud as hell. I thought it was on its last lags and risked breaking the plastic cover to get a look at the inside. The coils were completely blocked by dust so scrubbed it with a toothbrush and it works fine now. Our refrigerator came with the house and it has been freezing things that are stored near the back even though it is set to the lowest settings. We were certain that we needed a new thermostat and I priced them and even watched a video on how to install the thing. But before we did that we pulled the refrigerator out from the wall and gave it a good cleaning. Turns out the air intake was blocked and it now runs perfectly.
Jeanie Pruit “Satin Sheets” and Prince “Lovesexy” lp covers
I’ve been going through my lps and putting boxes together for an upcoming yard sale. It’s a a tough project to make any headway on because I keep getting sidetracked by something I have to listen to one more time. At one point I had Jeanie Pruit’s “Satin Sheets” in thefront of a stack right next to and Prince’s “Lovesexy” and I was stopped dead in my tracks!
Our house came with a wrought iron railing around the stairwell. It was painted white and it had these Rococo swoops in it that just did not make it. I tried painting it but the paint wouldn’t stick. Apparently it was painted with oil on top of acrylic at one time and the new coat just lifted top layer of white off. I bought some paint remover but I never started the job because it seemed so nasty. I considered dismantling it and taking it out to my brother’s to sandblast it and then we decided to just cut out the offending curves so we borrowed Julio’s Saws-all and I bought some extra blades for the job. The saw sat next to the railing for about a month until we came up with a new idea for a wood and stainless steel railing. So we took the old railing out to the driveway where it looked even uglier in the daylight.
The time had come to head to Krieger’s with the scarp metal. They’ve been bought by Metalico but everyone still calls it Krieger’s. When we lived next door to Sparky he used to collect junk and dismantle it in his garage and take it to Kriegers for extra cash. I’ve been there with him and the place is a trip so I gave Sparky a call and arranged to pick him up at nine.
Street people pushing empty shopping carts were walking toward us in the middle of Portland Avenue as we approached the gates. We piled the scrap metal in a cart and wheeled it on to their scale while workers barked incoherent orders at us. You get the clear sense that they deal with unsavory characters on a regular basis and they have taken on many of the same characteristics as their clients.
There are cameras mounted above and bars on the cashier’s window. There was a Puerto Rican woman with a black baby in line in front of us. She had tattoos up and down her arms and her transaction was not going smoothly. There was another women in tight jeans and high heels standing off to the side. I asked Sparky what these women were doing and he said, “They’re prostitutes,” like that explains everything.
I slipped my driver’s license through a tiny opening in the bullet proof glass and signed a form that stated that the junk was mine and that I had not obtained illegally. The cashier paid me with a receipt that I had to take to an outdoor ATM machine. She asked if I had ever used the ATM before and I wasn’t sure if meant this particular ATM or any ATM so I said “No” and a worker walked with me to the outdoor machine. There was a guy with long scruffy beard hanging around near the machine and the worker told him to “beat it.” He scanned the bar code on my receipt for me and then said, “When your money comes out, take it fast.”
Back at Sparky’s he showed me the remodeling job he was doing on his bathroom. He had put in a shower enclosure in place of the tub and inadvertently sealed some of his tools in the wall between the studs. I asked him how he was getting by without a bathroom and took me to the basement where he had set up his old bathtub with a garden hose running across the floor from the laundry tub. He used an aluminum extension from a vacuum cleaner as a drain pipe and it ran out of the drain right into the open storm drain.
Holloway House server in East Bloomfield, New York
The Holloway House in East Bloomfield first opened its doors in 1808 as a tavern and stage coach stop for wagons pushing west. For the last fifty years the Holloway House has been run by the Wayne family. It is well preserved has quite a reputation with old timers. The drive out there, through the rolling hills, is part of the package and the pickled green cabbage in the relish tray, fruit juice/sherbet shrub appetizer and homemade breads and pies seal the deal.
We celebrated my mom’s birthday out there with a fantastic meal and we learned how to keep “New England” and “Manhattan” chowder straight from our server. “It snows in New England (white) and the river is polluted in Manhattan (red).”
