Lopsided Observations – Page 39

December 14, 2009August 23, 2019

You Are The Figure

Duane had parked his car under a tree in Brooklyn (imagine that) and apparently pigeons like that tree so his car was covered with bird do do when we woke up. Fortunately he lives around the corner from Hollywood Lube & Wash, a 24 hour joint, so we took the car over and had them give it a bath. Chores attended to, we walked to the Ft. Hamilton subway stop and rode into lower Manhattan to gallery hop in Chelsea.

We spotted Bill Viola’s name on the door of a building on 26th Street and popped into a series of dark rooms filled with his l”Bodies of Light” videos. Our next stop was the David Hockney show of big bold paintings at Pace Wildenstein on 25th Street. There was a quote from Hockney on the wall that read, “I have taken to thinking of these recent canvases as figure paintings . . . you, the viewer, are the figure in them. If I was the figure in these paintings I would leave.

We continued to wander and found all sorts of fun stuff like the Warhol Polaroids of sports figures and a beautiful Bruce Davidson photo show. Before leaving Rochester, Brian Peterson had recommended a show by “Wallace Berman”, a friend of his Brian’s from his San Francisco days, so we tracked that show down. As luck would have it John Zorn, who had recorded a sound track to Berman’s 8 mm films was performing live in the gallery with Trevor Dunn bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums. The loose limbed Wollensen played with Bill Frisell at last years Jazz Fest. The film was projected on one of the gallery’s walls and the band set up facing the wall so they could play to the film. NY’s first couple, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, were seated in the front row.

We stopped at a green grocers on the way back and picked up a few things for as Duane termed it a “more hippy than Chinese” vegetable dish at Duane’s table and watched Duane’s and Howard Thompson‘s Suicide footage from Detich Galley in 02/02/02.

1 Comment

December 9, 2009August 23, 2019

Old World Shoes

Sofia Shoe Service on Monroe Avenue in Rochester, NY — Sofia Shoe Service on Monroe Avenue in Rochester,

When my grandfather first came to Rochester he found a job in a shoe factory on Elton Street where Bernie Lehman’s studio and Four Walls Gallery are. Shoes, not just “Made in America” but made in Rochester. i’ve been buying my shoes at Marshalls or Target and they are usually under $50. When they wear out it doesn’t even cross mind to have them repaired or resoled. I take it all these brown paper bag packages are waiting to be picked up so it looks like Sofia’s Shoe Service is weathering the storm.

I came in here with a leather jacket. Not a black biker thing but a cream colored dandy like leather jacket. Peggi’s father bought it on one of his foreign business trips and we never saw him wear it. I inherited it. It zips up on the wrong side like some women’s clothing does. I get compliments on it all the time. In fact Sue Rogers complimented me and I told her how I had wrecked it and she she suggested Sofia’s. I love it in here. I love Dave Kelly’s DA and the black hair and smile on the short woman behind the counter. Dave told me it cost about $35 to repair it and he said he didn’t think it was worth it because the leather was so dry. Thirty five dollars seemed like a steal so I had him go for it.

1 Comment

December 8, 2009August 23, 2019

That’s Italian

Henry B's restaurant in downtown Rochester NY — Henry B’s new owner’s father three times

I kind of miss doing half assed reviews of Italian Restaurants the way we did for the Refrigerator. I use the past tense “did” because that project became overwhelming. It was a hobby that spun out of control. To update it or add content is a nightmare. So many of the primary pages were done in the days before CSS an it is just begging to to MySQL or at least have php includes so I can update and add to the navigation as we continue to build without ripping apart thousands of pages. I have reworked it in my mind. I just need a little time to tidy it up.

But that isn’t even the real reason I stopped. Peggi is controlling her cholesterol with diet but to do so we have pretty much cut out cheese and butter which brings me to Henry B’s in downtown Rochester. The four salads in the “Insalata” all have mozzarella, Caesar dressing with parmesan reggiano, goat cheese, toasted pine nuts and Gorgonzola cheese.

We asked the manager which of the entrees didn’t include cheese or butter and recommended the “Pasta e Pollo” (Chunks of roasted chicken breast in a shitake mushroom and Marsala sauce. Tossed with rigatoni and finished with Parmesan Reggiano. “It only has a slight amount of butter” and parm. It was pretty amazing. We started with their flash fried “Calamari Fritti” which was tender, meaty and not as spectacular as Mario’s grilled calamari. We ordered a second pasta dish, “Gnocchi alla Mamma” (Homemade gnocchi tossed with tomato basil sauce and Parmesan Reggiano) that was delicious but there wasn’t enough sauce. And the “tomato basil sauce” looked and tasted creamy. Enough! This dish packed a wallop. We were with Peggi’s mom and only she had room for dessert. The portions are HUGE and we brought home enough for two addition meals.

I asked our server whether the three photos on the wall at the end of the room were all the same because I desperately wanted to find some difference in them because one didn’t bear the the decorator’s touch of repetition. They are all the new owner’s grandfather and they were all exactly the same. So this dude is competing with Henry B (on the door in photo above) who I gather was the original owner’s grandfather. And what’s with the painful smooth jazz with drum machine music? We heard the satellite station dj and we heard him back announce a David Sanborn track. My dentist has better music than that. We reviewed the former location and incarnation of this place few years back. I remember l liking it quite a bit.

4 Comments

December 4, 2009August 23, 2019

As It Seems

“No Bikes or Motorized Vehicles allowed on County Park trails”. I think that’s how the sign reads. Maybe that doesn’t apply to the gentle paths that circle the the two ponds in Durand Eastman Park (above). Nothing is as it seems anymore. That’s not right. Everything is as it seems, not as it is labeled. “Dogs Must Be Kept On Leash”, “No Texting While Driving”, “Fair & Balanced”. I better stop. They didn’t specifically say, “No Bulldozers allowed on County Park Paths” so I guess that lets Bulldozer Man off the hook.

Jeff Munson and Mike Allen were at the Margaret Explosion gig last night and we talking about another classmate who might be trapped in his blog. Conversation turned to Kevin Williams, the local meteorologist/global warming denier, and his wacky letter to the editor in the morning paper. Meanwhile, we might have just had the warmest November on record. I know, “Does not a trend make”.

Leave a comment

November 30, 2009August 23, 2019

Flesh Made Paint

Grafitti Tanks at Cobbs Hill in Fall 2009

We stopped back to see “Paint Made Flesh”, the sensational painting show at the Memorial Art Gallery. Last time we were here was for the opening and that is no time to see a show. This one, especially, requires some time with each of the all-star artist’s works. At the opening I was trying to survey the room between conversations and stack one painting against another from my vantage point. A much richer experience unfolds when you move from one to the next ignoring the damn placards on the wall and the audio tour and just letting the paintings talk to you one by one.

There are some absolutely beautiful paintings here like Picasso’s “The Artist and his Model“, Eric Fischl’s “Frailty Is a Moment of Self Reflection”, Richard Diebenkorn’s “Woman by a Window”, and Jenny Saville’s “Hyphen“. And then there are some tough, challenging paintings here like Guston’s “The Web“, Tony Bevan’s “Self Portrait”, Frank Auerbach’s “Head of David Landau”, Susan Rothenberg’s “Crying“, Lucian Freud’s “Standing by the Rags” and Alice Neel’s “Randall in Extremis“. I found these to be the most rewarding.

And hey, Francis Bacon, Francesco Clemente, George Baselitz, A.R. Penck, David Park, John Currin and the film director, Julian Schnabel are all in the house. The show is up until January 3rd. You gotta get over there.

I was just getting ready to pop a picture of Picasso’s painting when the guard said, “No photos.” We left the gallery and headed over to Cobbs Hill where we walked up the hill and around the empty reservoir and then into the woods to the graffiti tanks at Washington Park. From high brow to Low Brow, there are no rules up there.

3 Comments

November 16, 2009August 23, 2019

It Hurts Me Too

Buffalo Bills jacket in the neighborhood

I have Bob Dylan’s “Self Portrait ” on my iPod and I’m really diggin’ it. His voice sounds great and there are some beautiful songs. I like the cover painting a lot too. There’s a song on there called, “It Hurts Me Too” with the lyric.
“When things go wrong, so wrong with you
It hurts me too.”

I thought of it today when I was behind this guy. I’m not a football fan but I would like to see the the Bills win for a change.

Leave a comment

November 15, 2009August 23, 2019

Crash Boom Bang

Mysore Woodlands Indian restaurant in Rochester, NY

Arpad and Danita’s son turned six on Saturday and about twenty kids met at the martial arts studio on Clinton for a party. They were all out on the mat doing double kicks when we showed up. We had a slice of pizza and some walnut cake that Arpad’s mother made but we were still hungry when we left so we followed our noses next door to Mysore Woodlands. It’s kind of a strange name for a restaurant. “Mysore” is nasty and “Woodlands” sounds like a park. Boasting that they specialize in both northern and southern Indian food is plain goofy. We ordered dosas from the southern side. It is amazing how potatoes, beans, pancakes and crepes can be supercharged with spices. We loved it.

Monica was away for the weekend so we invited Rick over to watch a movie. He brought the movie too. It was a James Bond thing called “Quantum of Solace”. Jack White and Alicia Keys sang the theme song and then the chase scenes started. I couldn’t tell who was chasing who. Most of the movie was chase scenes and fights. The cutting was so fast and furious that I could,’t tell which guy was James Bond. I gave up on the movie and started ripping some cds. The movie was loud as hell, all screaming and crunching and crashing.

I was in the dark over by the stereo and I tripped on the audio cord yanking the old laptop off the shelf and then the external drive which was connected to it with a short Firewire cable. The cd that I was ripping bounced out of the laptop when it hit the floor. Peggi stopped the movie while I assessed the damage. The cable was shot, the cd drive won’t read a cd anymore but the laptop and hard drive survived.

4 Comments

November 3, 2009August 23, 2019

Face2Face Blogging

Peggi in hammock out back western New York

Spevak columns, written on assignment for the D&C, work well on a few levels. Slyly reported with descriptive delight, they often do the job without touching the subject and they always carry weight between the lines. So what does an untethered, bedroom slippered Jeff read like? JeffSpevak.com was launched yesterday in old school fashion, upstairs at Abilene. The 4D designed site was projected on the big screen and food was laid out at three stations. Manchego cheese, candy corn, chocolate covered expresso beans and out-of-this-world, smoked salmon prepared by the blogger-in-chief.

I talked baseball with Scott Regan, MySQL with Stan the Man, juggling with Don Christiano’s son, and lucrative Montauk and the Hamptons gigs with Brian Williams. Dale Evans discussed her exercise routine and Peter and Nancy told us why they’re moving to Portland. There’s more going on there. I can’t handle any more.

In his “Opening Day” post Jeff writes, “Thank You for joining me on the Internet. I’d rather we could do this face-to-face, sitting in a bar. Nonetheless, I shall have a dirty martini, thank you. And The Essential George Jones.” That, in a nut shell, is his site map. I’ve added Jeff’s site to my daily reads and I’m looking forward to joining him at the bar over “A Cup Of Loneliness“.

1 Comment

October 27, 2009April 11, 2019

Nobody Gonna Take No Picnic Table

I have a hard time being on time and I accept the fact that it is a selfish trait. But I do appreciate it when others are late for something that I schedule. This morning I was late for jury duty. I had a good excuse but those are easy. Peggi was driving me because she needed the car. The new traffic circle at Seneca Road and 590 was closed, no detour signs or warning until we got up to the “Road Closed” sign. We tried getting on at Titus but it was backed up for half a mile so we gave up and drove down Culver. When we got to Court Street, it was closed so they could unload the World Wrestling tractor trailers for tonight’s performance at the Blue Cross Arena. I removed my belt, emptied my pockets and took off my sweater but still set off the alarm at the Hall of Justice. I gave up my watch and then my wallet and I still beeped. They brought over the the guards with the hand held wands and they determined it was the snap on my Levis. I sat down in the court room and asked the woman next to me if they had called anyone’s name who wasn’t there and she asked, “Are you Paul Dodd?”

I watched as they found their last jury member and I was excused for another eight years. I was wrong when I said these lawyers were looking for blank slates. After two days I have no idea what they were looking for. It did seem obvious that the defense was determined to find one person who could doubt eye witness testimony and the cops statements and then stick to their guns even though the rest of the jury felt differently.

I hopped on my bike as another guy on a bike said, “Hey Bro. Where’d you lock your bike up at?” I said, “I locked to that picnic table over there.” He smiled and said, “I don’t think nobody gonna take no picnic table.”

I rode down Monroe Avenue past KrudCo and the Bug Jar to Lumierre Photo where Bill Jones is printing a post card for us. I stopped by Parkleigh to visit my sister but she hadn’t showed up for work yet. I cruised through the Public Market and bought some new red potatoes. And then I rode down Clifford to Savoia Bakery and bought some almond cookies for Peggi. I recognized the woman behind the counter and asked her if she used to work at Calabresse’s Bakery on Culver. She said, “Wow! I guess I don’t look all that different.” I was too embarrassed to tell her she was featured in a song we wrote for the Planetarium Gig in 1987. She was the girl in the bakery with silver fingernails!

Personal Effects “Silver Finger Nails” from “90 Day In The Planetarium” 1987

1 Comment

October 23, 2009August 23, 2019

Accept Christ Or

I wonder if I was the only one who fell for the Webster Dental Group’s ad blitz. Their “Free Seminar on Dental Implants” ad ran nearly everyday and I heard a radio spot as well. I have two back teeth that need to come out so I called the number and made a reservation. The receptionist said there would be free refreshments there too. I was picturing sweet stuff. I dropped Peggi off at her mom’s and drove across East Rochester and out Five Mile Line Road to Webster in the middle of rush hour to get to the seminar. It took me a half hour to get across town. I forgot my iPod so I fiddled with the radio and came across an interesting segment on spanking children. It was a Christian program and a woman was giving tips to the host. The host delighted in this subject and kept snickering when the woman described graduating from the bare hand (when becomes clear that it is not inflicting enough pain) to the wooden spoon (she keeps a few hidden about the house). And talked about a friend who had a “special, ten inch leather strap” made for herb that “really cracks”. She said, “Of course after we spank, we pray together and we tell the children that someday we hope they will learn to accept Christ as their savior.”

I finally got to the Holiday Inn in Webster and there was a small sign on an easel in the doorway announcing the seminar. I asked the receptionist where it was being held and she said that it was cancelled. I asked how come and said that was all they told her. They could have called me, the creeps. Guess I can forget about that place.

I drove back to Peggi’s mom’s place and found them having dinner in the Bistro. Lorraine from my painting class was there with her relatives. We watched the Yankees’ game after dinner and kept her mom up til the bitter end.

We came across this wounded hawk in the woods today. We were concerned because it was so close but as walked further it flew overhead.

1 Comment

October 16, 2009August 23, 2019

Post Warhol

Andy Warhol is rumored to have stolen Yoko Ono’s idea for helium filled mylar balloons or “pillows”. Or is it the other way around? I can’t remember. Doesn’t matter. The three Colorado kids upstaged them both when they set their dad’s weather ballon free and pretended that one of them was in it. This YouTube savvy family captured the nation’s attention with their pop event and it made for the best tv since OJ’s slow speed chase. And we never would have seen it if we weren’t out at Peggi’s mom’s place where the tv has no off button. In fact, I bet this event wouldn’t even have happened if we weren’t out there to watch.

Leave a comment

October 3, 2009August 23, 2019

Art Channel

Harold Copp Painting #754 at Four Walls Gallery in Rochester, NY

First Friday of the month usually means gallery hopping for us. The First Friday website doesn’t list them all but we usually check the list before heading out. Cool video installation at RoCo although it was a little hard to hear the soundtrack so we were sort of lost as to what it was all about. We ran into a guy that had just moved here three days ago from LA. He works for a company that makes sustainable clothing and Wegmans has just taken on the line. It’s made from hemp and recycled plastic. He was wearing a few of the pieces and they looked great.

We stopped in the Four Wall’s Gallery and took in Harold Copp’s show. He mixes silkscreen and painting in some pretty interesting ways. There are a lot more than four walls here in the basement of the Elton Street warehouse. Shawn Dunwoody has a pretty cool setup here that offers art programs to city kids. There was a band playing but they blew the sound system.

We finished the evening in surreal fashion as we watched tivo’d footage of John Gilmore art being sold on the AANtv network. If I understand this right, John bought the art from these people in the first place and he was now turning a profit on it as they auctioned it off again.

Leave a comment

September 25, 2009August 23, 2019

In Ovo

In egg. In embryo. “In Ovo“, a show by local artist, Illa Loeb, may still be up at Nazareth’s Margaret Colacino Gallery. The show officially ended yesterday but the student run space is still accessible. We saw the show with Peggi’s mom and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Peggi wheeled her mom from piece to piece while providing a running, descriptive commentary. The heroic commentary was intended to engage her mom while her defenses are down. Peggi’s mom loves art and we love art but the art that we love hardly ever overlaps. We have seen a lot of art together and difficult, non literal art heightens the experience for both of us.

Illa Loeb, a former student of Fred Lipp, creates luscious, painterly, three dimensional art. Her work has an intensely physical hands on feel. You want to touch her work and she does exactly that. She photographs herself wearing her pieces like clothing or aprons. She created “An Alphabet” of with charcoal and vaseline on her mouth and transferred the look of the letters on her lips to paper. Photos of this process are on view on a monitor but you have to ask the student attendee to turn it on.

1 Comment

September 22, 2009August 23, 2019

Puff The Magic Dragon

PuffBall, Golf Balls, Horseshoes and Deer Antlers

It was kind of nice when my parents liked the same kind of music as us kids did. But that didn’t last long. Bob Dylan parted the waters a few years after “Puff the Magic Dragon.” Sad to see Mary go.

I took this photo about midnight last night. Brian Peterson called us from Pep Boys on East Ridge where he was returning a huge truck that he and John Gilmore rented to drive a bunch of John’s art down to Florida for auction. Brian needed a ride to his house. I had forgotten that our neighbor delivered this giant Puffball to our front door while we were working. I guess we could have had it for dinner. We’ve eaten puffballs with Pete and Shelley but we were afraid to eat wild mushrooms without an expert.

I jumped in the pool while Peggi was checking the chemicals. It is still swimming weather in western New York but the temp has dropped to 66 so it was refreshing. It temporarily removed the stress from my dental situation.

I had about a hundred line drawings that I was chopping out of a pdf and putting online as jpegs for a client. The lines in the original were very faint. I couldn’t improve the drawings much in Photoshop’s Levels so I searched online and found a cool video that was posted by Shedge Pranay that explains how to use the Filters/Other/Minimum command to thicken a line. The video is only a minute long but it took me three plays to understand his English. He sounds like the early computer voices. Really quite charming.

Leave a comment

September 13, 2009August 23, 2019

Eye For An Eye

How about a ten foot wide road right here?

In my nightmare scenario post last week I speculated wildly on what the County might have been thinking when they tore up one of our favorite walking paths in what they call the “undeveloped section” of Durand Eastman Park. We walked the path after that post and followed the giant tire tracks from the trail’s entrance across from 700 Hoffman Road to where the path enters the subdivision near the corner of Hillview Drive and Eastman Estates. We spotted some guys hanging around and asked them if they knew who might have driven through the woods in a bulldozer. They didn’t know much about the woods but they said one of their neighbors had unloaded a big piece of equipment on Eastman Estates a few days earlier. As we were talking to them their neighbor drove up the driveway that was once part of this bridal path in a black Hummer.

These people, who apparently have rights to the old bridal path that runs through the sub-development, decided to continue the path about a mile in to the park by hiring some sort of front end loader to drive the distance and widen the old walking path to accommodate motor vehicles. We were up there yesterday and the trail is covered with tire tracks.

I emailed Larry Staub the Director of at the County Parks. The City owns Durand Eastman but it is being managed by the County. Larry walked the path and told me that I had underestimated the damage in my email. He got part way up the path and called 911. When he got to the other end of the path he met this guy who acted like he had done the Park a favor. Larry called for Sherriff’s backup and had the guy arrested. The innocent until proven guilty suspect will appear in City Court on Tuesday October 6th at 9:30 AM. Larry thanked us for bringing this matter to their attention and he asked us to think about what sort of restitution the County should be seeking from the guy. Our neighbors have suggested a few ideas but they are all illegal.

4 Comments

August 31, 2009August 23, 2019

Jeff Koons In Sea Breeze

We wandered around Sea Breeze on our bikes, checked out the progress on the traffic circles over on 590, and then rode down to the bay. We sat on the blue bench at the Newport Yacht Club and looked out at the sail boats. Can’t remember where we were when I spotted this lawn installation. I think it may be a Jeff Koons piece.

Leave a comment

August 28, 2009August 23, 2019

Nightmare Scenario

Spring Valley path after bulldoze action

We’re thinking it won’t rain this evening so we’ll be able to play outdoors at the Village Gate and if it does rain we move the action inside, fire jugglers and all. But we’re thinking it won’t rain.

There is beautiful section of Durand Eastman that we used to call the “undeveloped section” and we hike up there three or four times a week. It’s located south of Titus between Kings Highway and Hoffman Road and in five years we have only come across two other parties on the trail. Today we found the path had been widened to to ten feet or so by a bulldozer. We can’t imagine what kind of nightmare scenario this is part of. Widened and flattened for dirt bikes? ATVs? Housing development going in? Bored park maintenance staff with new taxpayer funded equipment? Handicapped Accessible woods?

We wanted to cry but we were too mad. We plan to call Stephanie Aldersley, our town represenative.

2 Comments

August 24, 2009August 23, 2019

Passion Play

Cross in the back of a pick up at the Hungerford Building in Rochester, NY

I was talking to Tom Lacagnina at the last RoCo opening about a mutual friend who had passed out at a dinner party. Tom said he remembered passing out at Church and I do too. I remember the sinking sensation as my knees buckled and all that Catholic imagery began to swirl. It seemed someone in our family was always passing out during Mass. It was often hot and the clothes we had to wear were stuffy but that wasn’t the reason. We used to have to fast for three hours before receiving Communion. As kids we were up running around the house for hours before my parents rounded us up for Mass. We were starved by the time the service began. And a dry wafer stuck to the roof of your mouth did not exactly hit the spot. Sacrifice is a big part of the Catholic experience.

My favorite part of Catholic Churches has always been the Stations of the Cross. They are usually different in each Church and offer more to contemplate than a single statue. The fourteen stations are spread around the church and tell the story of Christ’s crucifixion. In older churches they are usually presented in a in a traditional fashion but in contemorary churches they are often minimal and symbolic. The greatest story ever told is is fertile ground for artists.

The owner of this pickup truck is ready for a real sacrifice. You just never know when you might come across a Christlike figure. I was not surprised to see this cross parked near the corner of Main and Goodman. I picked East Main Street years ago as the setting for a modern day crucifixion. In 1993 I began collecting source material for a series of paintings that I planned to do of this story. I photographed locations for a contemporary setting that would have Christ sentenced near our home at East High and crucified at the Liberty Pole. This truck is on that route, just across the street from the adult book store.

I still haven’t done the paintings but I did make large prints of the source material and displayed them at the Bug Jar for a month. I entered them in the Finger Lakes Show in 1999 and won a few awards with the “Passion Play” piece. I will do those paintings some day.

3 Comments

August 20, 2009August 23, 2019

I Remember Woodstock

Dodds and friends on Hawley Drive in 1969

Left to right, my mother, my brothers John and Fran, Brad Fox, my sister Amy’s four little buddies and Dave Mahoney

This is one of the first photos I took with my first camera. My father brought it home from the Camera Shop at Kodak. I took the photo in the summer of 69 but I don’t have any photos from Woodstock so I’m guessing I got this camera after the festival. Spevak had called me for some quotes for the article he was writing on Woodstock for the paper and then the editor emailed me to ask if I had any photos. Whatever I said was cut out by his editor but we did celebrate the 40th anniversary by seeing the director’s cut of the movie at the George Eastman House last weekend. They have a crankin’ sound system in the Dryden Theater.

As we sat there watching the movie I kept trying to remember who it was that had recently told me they were in in the movie. It wasn’t until near the end of the movie that I remembered that Holly Clarke from my high school class was one of the nude woman swimming in the pond. We got there a day early but still managed to get stuck in traffic. When it got unbearable we parked the car and started walking. I remember a long line of people going in one direction and an equally long line going in the opposite direction. No one was sure where the festival site was and we watched people turn around and switch directions on a hunch. I don’t remember packing any food, clothes or sleeping gear but we did have some acid they we planned on taking at the show. We couldn’t wait for that and took it the morning of the day before the show. We wandered around and tried purchasing some canned goods that a local family had arranged along the railing of their porch. It all looked so strange and we weren’t sure what we wanted or even how to conduct the transaction. We found the festival site and hung around in the blazing sun while the sound crew conducted an ungodly sound check. There were scattered groups of people with dogs on the hillside and the animals were howling at the stage.

We left before the show was over because Dave Mahoney thought we had better get out before they ran out of food. On the way out we bought some mescaline from some high school friends that we ran into. Back in Rochester we went to an afternoon matinee of “2001” at the old Stutson Theater where Herrema’s is now and took the blue capsules. We were the only “adults” in the theater and we laid down on the floor in front of the screen. I have no idea what that thing was all about. I haven’t done any of that stuff since 69 but it kinda stays with you.

Richie Havens was great in the movie. Canned Heat sounded like the inventors of sludge rock. The Who tore it up but looked pretty silly. I never like the Tommy stuff. Only Queen can mix rock and opera. Ten Years After were wankers. Sha Na Na was hideous and Joe Cooker was over the top. (Is that a Beatles song.? “High with a little help from friends.”) Peggi leaned over and said, “You have to admit that was a good song from pre-bloated Crosby Stills and Nash” and I admitted it. The Jefferson Airplane tracks were goofy one. The rest must have sucked. They could be pretty rough live. I saw their Volunteers tour. I never had any of Santana records but he kicked ass. His drummer was amazing. Sly, Janis and Jimi were all great. It was pretty good show.

1 Comment

August 19, 2009August 23, 2019

Pit Bull & Jesus

White Pit Bull with Jesus in Rochester, New York

I took this photo over by the Public Market on Saturday. The dog is real.

It really bugs me that the Quicktime Pro “Export for Web” feature generates a movie that is not supported on the iPod Touch so I’m through with it. I put five or six movies from this blog (including my shaky Wreckless Eric / Amy Rigby video with extra footage) up on YouTube today and I switched the links. I hope I don’t effect the price of Apple stock with that. And I see the Bobby Henrie & The Goners video I put up there in my last post has a hundred views already.

Old guys are allowed to have favorite cashiers at Wegmans. I asked mine were the charcoal was and she led me down the aisle! She pointed to a big pile of Briquettes and I said, “no, regular charcoal.” She said, “What is regular charcoal?”. I saw a few bags of the old fashioned lump charcoal and I grabbed one of those and thanked her.

1 Comment