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My Whole Life’s A Vacation
This duck couple looks pretty happy over in Spring Valley.
Last week Fed Lipp passed out copies of a Wolf Kahn interview from an Art Institute of Chicago publication. Both Fred and Kahn studied there but at different times. I didn’t know anything about Kahn but this interview was so concise and action packed that that I went to learn more.
His paintings, mostly bold New England landscapes in high-key colors, are painted from memory and they walk a line between abstraction and representational. They fit Horace’s definition of the purpose of art. They “inform and delight”. Kahn was a refugee from Hitler’s Germany, he studied with Hans Hoffmann and he took Charlie Parker home from the Five Spot when he was messed up. He also wrote a book called,” Wolf Kahn’s America” which I plan to look for in the library as soon as Jerome’s Ignition finishes with our car’s oil change. Still no wireless over here but the waiting room couldn’t be more pleasant.
Kahn, in his eighties now, spends ten hours a day, seven days a week in his studio in lower Manhattan. Summers are spent in West Brattleboro, Vermont where he says he has become “the court painter to the to the chamber music establishment” due to the nearby Marlboro Festival. “Up in Vermont, they understand there is such a thing as culture, not just agriculture.” He considers himself “one of the fortunate people of the world” and “a workaholic”. When asked where he spends his vacation, he says, “My whole life’s a vacation”.
1 CommentWe Fiddled While Rome Burned
My ears are still ringing from last night’s show at the Bug Jar. Hinkley played as a duo of guitar and drums with some keyboard. Will writes great songs and they sounded really powerful in this lean setting. The street out front filled with cop cars as Margaret Explosion took the stage. Someone was shot on the sidewalk in front of the Vietnamese place across the street and they did the whole white chalk crime scene routine. It was some stiff competition. When we finished Larry Feldman told us we “fiddled while Rome burned.” Nod was great. Joe even took Peggi’s request for “World Still Wants You”. Nod is great dance band but they play too loud to be in the same room with. So hung around out front for most of their set.
The Bug Jar is the same as it ever was and I was happy to see that. We hadn’t been here in a while. Hermie is a bartender right out o the movies and the crowd is always friendly. Peggi and I both ordered water and it was nasty tasting. So I asked for an empty glass and get some water out of the tap in the bathroom that tasted great. The recent addition of tvs sucks. It is almost impossible to not look at those damn things especially when they’re tuned to the cartoon channel. Brian Schaffer, Nod’s drummer, had some of his ex students there cheering him on. After the show one of them told Brian, “Learn some Dead covers and we’ll come back next time”.
2 CommentsMini Skirts & Rock & Roll
It’s almost impossible to see our tiny jalapeno pepper plants. We had to mark them with sticks so we don’t step on them while watering. We got sort of a late start with the seeds. I hope they produce fruit before Fall. We put peppers in everything.
Marianne Faithfull singing an acapella version of “As Tears Go By” was not enough to save Godard’s “Made In The USA” which we saw on the big screen at the Dryden Theater last night. It was wearing me out trying to figure out what the hell was going on until I finally let it go and just took in the beautiful colors and let the dialog just wash over me.
But set in Atlantic City but shot in France with no attempt at all to make it look like the US, it works on some crazy level. Filmed in 1966, it is very stylish still and some lines will live forever like Godard’s wife, Anna Karina, saying’ “I think advertising is a form of fascism” and “facism will pass, like mini skirts and rock and roll.”
1 CommentThe Call Of The Drum
Duane Sherwood is posting his favorite reggae singles to So Many Records So Little Time while Kevin is in Europe with the sensational Matt & Kim. I was helping Duane with his first entry and he mentioned that he was headed out later to to drum with his posse Prospect Park. He said he’d call on his iPhone and let us listen in. I kinda forgot all about that and headed down to the basement to paint.
Later on Peggi stopped down to see me and said someone had called on the business line and it was all music. She listened for a few minutes and then they hung up. She said it sounded like Ethiopian music or some other kid f world music. She heard a sax in there too. I said it might have been Kevin calling form Paris. About a half hour after that I realized it was Duane calling from the park.
1 CommentGolf Balls 4 Sale
Spring is more intense every year. At least that is how I see it. The explosion of new growth in the woods is just overwhelming. We were lucky enough to get out for a walk today and found this little moss covered cave dwelling. We skirted the golf course at one point and I found five balls. One was a translucent pink Slazenger. If our street had any traffic, I’d set up a stand and sell these by the dozen. I’d undercut that guy on Lakeshore Boulevard.
My high school girlfriend made friends with me last night on Facebook. And on top of that I came across a song from that time period that I absolutely loved. We have been moving the So Many Records site to a new server and in the process we’ve tidied up the music players and pop-up enlargements. “Boogaloo Down Broadway” by The Fantastic Johnny C. sounds as good as it ever did.
The morning paper had a story about this Saturday’s Dylan Tribute and for some reason it featured a Margaret Explosion photo. We were invited to do a song there but we are hardly the featured act. Chuck Cuminale, the ultimate Dylan fan and critic, started this tribute twenty some years ago and I will always think of him in connection with this event. He even shares a birth date this week week with Bob.
6 Comments“Come On. We’re Goin’ Downtown.”
Back in the early eighties Peggi and I held a wedding reception for the bass player in our band. He and his wife got married in a church and everyone came back to our house for a party. Their parents and family and our friends were all there and I was spinning records in the living room. The bass player’s brother asked if it was ok if he set some fireworks off in the backyard and I said “Sure.” There was a tremendous boom in the back but I didn’t pay much attention. Those things sort of scare me. I kept playing records.
Our neighbors and people from blocks away called 911 and and the next thing I know there was a cop at the door. He asked me if I was the owner of the house. I said, “Yeah,” and he said, “Come on. We’re going downtown”. There were about ten cop cars on the street by this time and they had already spotted the crater in the backyard.
I said, “Wait. I have to go to the bathroom.” I went upstairs and the cop followed me up. I went in the bathroom and he wouldn’t let me close the door. He came into our tiny bathroom with me. I told him, “Look, I don’t really have to go to the bathroom. I’m just stalling, trying to figure out what to do.” He ushered me downstairs, put handcuffs on me and had me sit in the back seat of his car out in front of our house. I noticed the woman across the street looking out her window while I sat there with the dome light on.
I kept saying that I didn’t know anything about the boom. They kept me out in the car for over an hour while the “Exterminating Angel” like party going on inside turned into a a heated moral dilemma. The groom’s brother worked for the City and he had more explosives in his car so he didn’t want to confess and risk losing his job. There was a lawyer in the crowd he said he would represent me. We all showed up in court the next morning but the arresting officer never showed so they dropped the case.
I was thinking of this story this morning when I put the crime guy (above) in our car. I entered him in the “Made In NY” show at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn and he was accepted. I’m taking this guy downtown.
3 CommentsSet Sail For The Sun
The whole of yesterday’s activity was a prelude to the Respect Sextet performance outside the Bop Shop at the Village Gate. We have seen this band about ten times now and they continue to shine. The former Eastman students are the best band to come out of Rochester. Their newest cd, Sirius Respect, is a tribute to Sun Ra and Stockhausen and every other song is by one of these two giants. They did a little bit of that last night but they have already moved on. The place was packed and the crowd was a lot younger than the usual jazz beards.
Leave a commentDefinitely Not The Norm
Peggi and I had been chipping away at this big tree stump for about a week. It was here when we moved in and we thought we would get rid of it once and for all. In fact we already had a new Rhododendron bush sitting in a pot waiting to go in the hole. We bought it at WalMart. We were there on other business and we wandered into the “Garden Center”. Peggi asked a worker if they had any lilacs and she took her over to some small purple hyacinths that were blooming. Peggi asked the clerk if she had ever been to Highland Park for the Lilac Festival and she said she hadn’t. So we bought a Rhododendron.
Time Warner sold us on a digital phone package that will reduce our RoadRunner bill and they were switching the lines but the install went bad and we were off line for most of the afternoon so we dove into this project. Our neighbor, Jerod, got involved and he brought his back hoe up to lift the stump out once we had cleared away most of the dirt. Time Warner couldn’t get our new modem to communicate with downtown and at one point we had four TW trucks out in our driveway. The supervisor told us “this was definitely not the norm”. That was oddly reassuring.
Leave a commentPeeper Symphony
Besides the eye candy, Spring comes with equally impressive scents and sounds. The nearby wetlands vibrate like a post modern symphony with small frogs (peepers) gurgling in unison to attract mates. It is as calming and beautiful as Tuvan throat singing monks but more organic, freer in time with overlapping monophonic harmonies. This is way beyond om.
3 CommentsYou Are Stuck With It
I rode my bike past this display in the front window of a house on Culver Road and couldn’t resist stopping to take a photo. Even after reading how that guy came out of his house and shot that kid. Someone who puts Easter animals in their window probably wouldn’t tote guns would they? This display is either a week late or these people are on the Eastern Orthodox calendar like our neighbor, Helen.
Raised as a Catholic, and still mystified by that whole thing, I was never taught the significance of the bunny and chick. You can hardly even speculate anymore with Wikipedia right at your fingertips but I would have guessed that the chick has something to do with being born again. And maybe that’s why Catholics scoffed at these pagan symbols. You are born Catholic and then stuck with it. You don’t have the option of being born again. I certainly knew the bunny showed up with the an overdose of candy just after we had given up candy for Lent but this guy was suspect too. The focus, of course, was supposed to be on the most suspect of all Catholic legends, the resurrection.
4 CommentsMaybe It Is The Packaging
This morning’s “Beer Guys” column in our incredibly shrinking newspaper was about seasonal bock beers. Legend has it they were originally brewed by monks in Germany during Lent and that the bock beer had extra nutrients for the those who were fasting. They reviewed a few bock beers and I agree with their opinion that the locally brewed Genesee Bock is one of the best. And I was happy to read that it is selling briskly. At $5.99 a twelve pack at Wegmans (w/ Shoppers Card) it should be. When I worked as a stock boy at the old Super Duper they sold Genny Beer and Cream Ale for $1.09 a six pack as one of their “in store specials”. These were products that were sold at or below cost to get people into the store. That was a long time ago. The yesteryear price of the back beer matches the retro packaging perfectly.
My uncle worked for the old Topper Brewing Company, they also brewed Standard Ale, and I have always pulled for the local companies. I don’t understand why they can’t come up with a good craft brew. Both Rorbach’s and Custom Brew Craft put the Genesee/High Falls/LaBatt’sUSA product to shame. Our friend’s, Pete and Shelley drink Genesee Cream Ale, and I gather it is more popular in the mountains than it is here. I like it but I have a hard time with their packaging. Maybe they should bring back Jenny.
Jenny seemed wildly exotic when I first tuned into her. The dark hair, the slinky low cut barmaid outfit, the red lipstick smile, the choker necklace, the mole. I couldn’t wait to meet her in a bar but I was only ten or eleven. I found this picture of her over at Small World Books on North Street.
2 CommentsI’d Like To Thank My Mom
click photo for Maira Kalman’s advice
We bought copies of Maira Kalman’s “The Principles of Uncertainty” as a Christmas gift for Peggi’s sister and for our friend and neighbor, Monica. We don’t own it our selves but it seemed like a good gift idea. I followed Kalman’s blog on the NYT’s website and loved it. So why should we pass up a free lecture by her at RIT? We couldn’t think of any reason.
It is always cold and windy on that damn campus. They designed it that way. It and the giant sprawling mall give Henrietta a bad name. No amount of wind is going to blow that Albert Paley down though. We sat next to our siter-in-law. She teaches a design class out there and had told her student to come but she only saw three of them there.
The person who introduced Maira said that she and her late husband ran the influential design company, M&Co. I never connected those dots before. Maira Kalman said her mom is the centerpiece of everything she does. She explained that her mom simply allowed her to daydream and never pushed her in any sort of practical career direction. She recently illustrated a new edition of Strunk’s The Elements of Style and she projected slides of that work from her MacBook while she told funny stories like how she’d marry Lincoln in a nanosecond.
The Memorial Art Galley has a show of her work (play) opening on May 2nd so she will probably be back in town for that.
Leave a commentFrom High Brow To Low Brow
Remember when state license plates were distinctive? Remember when cars didn’t all look alike? I was following these guys yesterday as they cruised down Culver. I never get tired of this drive. I’m guessing this car is a 1968 but I could be way off.
I ripped some old vinyl over the weekend. Screamin Gypsy Bandits from Bloomington, Indiana, Sun Ra Italian pressings on Horo that never came out on cd and a live Archie Schep from Germany (I borrowed these from Tom Kohn) and Dr. John The Night Tripper lp, Gris-gris, that I heard in Rick Simpson’s basement and just had to have. And then Brad Fox called a while back singing a song from an lp that we used to listen to. I recognized the tune as being from a Keith Jarrett/Jan Garbarek lp called “Belonging” so I ripped that for him. And then I thought I would might as well make a digital copy of the Hi-Techs singles.
When I took the shot above I was headed to the Eastman Theater to pick Peggi and her mom up at the opera. I was listening to WPXY and kept the station on as we cruised back down Culver to our house. We were all singing along to something that had the refrain of “You’re a womanizer, womanizer, baby”,”You spin my head right round when you go down” and “you’re hot when you’re cold and you’re in when you’re out”. Top Forty is a little raunchier than the Invictas “The Hump” was in the mid sixties but it’s still based on the same catchy melody/riff/rhythm thing.
2 CommentsBeautiful Urban Decay
Detail from “A Lot Besides” by Ricky Sears at Rochester Contemporary. Click photo for full shot.
RoCo’s new show opened last night with “In Between”, paintings and sculpture by Brooklyn based artists Malin Abrahamsson and Ricky Sears. Bleu Cease, RoCo’s director, introduced us to both artists last night and we had a nice chat about their work. Malin said she felt as though Rochester was a third contributor to the show because their reaction to the city was right there on the walls.
I’m not sure if i ever would have determined that this work was based on Rochester if I didn’t read the blurb in the small round room that was stuck to the wall above a delightful book that the the two artists had put together as worked on this show. Malin’s paintings were done on canvas and Ricky’s were done on glass, old window panes in fact, and they are quite beautiful.
2 CommentsCold Call From India
Peggi had a few problems with her hard drive and before we ran the disc utility we confirmed that we had back-ups of everything. She found a bunch of photos from a few years back and we got sidetracked looking at them. The one above is of the main part of house getting redone by us before we moved in. We scraped the stalactite like textured ceiling off and we repainted and pretty much reworked the whole place. I love the way it looked back then (click the photo for full effect) and I’m wondering if we can go back there. It was such a blur at the time but it It looks like an art installation now. I’m glad I photographed it. Then again, I photograph just about everything.
Today started like most with a cold call from India. They wanted to talk to us about graphic design or something. I have very little patience for these guys and hung up on him. Next call was from a sweet sounding woman who wondered if we did the the little programs that they pass out at funerals. Despite the rotten economy I turned her down. I’m wondering if a listed phone number is still a good idea for a business.
Last week we did a quote for lawn care company. They wanted a logos for their trucks and business cards etc. I love doing logos but these guys had four letters in their name and they wanted graphics in each of the letters. I told them I didn’t think that was a good idea but I couldn’t talk them out of it. So we gave them a quote and never heard back. We do have work so I’m not worried yet. If it does get bad I’l hear one of these Indian guys out.
1 CommentKing of Beers Lives Here
In a sure sign of Spring they have put the flags up on Durand’s golf course. Beer and golf are really made for each other. We came home with a ball that we picked up as we crossed the course and a can that we found along the road.
I did the math. These big cans of Budweiser are equivalent of two 12 ounce cans. And they are not the sort of thing that comes in six packs or cases. In fact the only way you can buy these giant cans is singularly (or in groups of single cans). Beer sold singularly in a 24 ounce can is marketed to people who are not taking it home for later. And once you open a can you pretty much have to drink the whole thing. So that leaves two types of beer buyers. Kids, who we first thought were responsible for tossing all these empties on one of our hiking routes, fit this profile but so does an alcoholic who doesn’t want to bring the beer home to his wife or get caught with it in his car. The later is our neighbor’s theory and he told us who he suspects.
Leave a commentYeah, But It’s Cold
I met Monica this morning out by the mailboxes as I was grabbing the soon-to-be-extinct newspaper and she was heading off to work. She rolled down her window and said “Isn’t this a beautiful day?” Before I could say “yes” she continued, “I say that to people and they say, ‘Yeah, but it’s cold’ “.
I’ve talked before about the beautiful color of everything this time of year. Only a few early flowers are up and the buds have not popped on the trees and it has hardly rained in a while so there is very little green.
At first it bugged me that the town left these cones and black plastic here all winter. But I’m realizing that I am attracted to these construction sites at the same time as I am repulsed by the need to constantly mess with nature. In this case a housing project that the town allowed to go forward not only leveled the woods but altered the drainage and overloaded this low lying area so that it is now a certified wetland. They spent most of last Fall raising the level of this road so it will stay above water in the Spring. Just a little further up Hoffman Road from here is where we find most of the big Bud cans.
Anyway the cones look great against our gray brown world and I’m savoring it. I’m starting to think that these people at the Town are more creative than I give them credit for being. I’ve also noticed that I’ve been looking at the stuff in Home Depot like it’s all art supplies. I think they even sell these cones.
3 CommentsLoud Rules
Two of our nephews each had horn solos in their band concert at Brighton Middle School so we had to be there. Their younger brother plays horn too and the three of them have a band called “Rubber Chicken”. The band concert was great but the Science Fair going on upstairs was something else. Both nephews had exhibits. The youngest demonstrated a method for collecting static electricity. The oldest determined which method worked best for getting gum off your show. Burning it off, freezing it so it cracks off and squirting DW40 on the shoe were all explored and the DW40 worked best.
Other kids examined which sandwich bags would keep bread from molding longer and which cleaning product got the dirt off their gym socks. For some reason three separate kids examined colored candles to see which one burns the fastest. Probably because they got to play with fire. One kid studied toilet paper and declred “37 per cent of the people in the US use Wegman’s brand. but our favorite was the experiment to determine whether plants grew faster with loud music , soft music or no music. The kid declared that soft music was the best but the graph that he produced showed that the plant exposed to loud music grew the fastest. That was a good part of the fun, shooting holes in their “controlled studies ” and reading their “conclusions”.
Last night we watched Let The Right One, a really cool Scandinavian movie about kids the same age as our nephews except these kids were vampires.
Leave a commentI Would Rather Be Sailing
I had a meeting today with a client at his office. He showed me his logo and then explained that it is not intended to be an oval. His flat panel monitor was distorting everything he looks at by a long shot, even the picture of his son that used as his wallpaper. He asked me if I could remedy the situation so there I was duking it out with his clunky Windows pc.
This afternoon my father sent me this Word doc that he had spent most of the day on. It was given to him by a pc user and he added a bunch of stuff and sent it back but the guy wasn’t able to open the file. All I had to do add the “.doc” suffix to the file name and send it back. You’d think a Windows machine would recognize a Word doc.
A friend of ours programs data bases for web sites and he laughingly told us that he just stopped previewing his sites in Explorer. He said the people who use that program are idiots and he doesn’t care about them. I was reading a bad review of Explorer 8 today and they had a link to stats that showed two thirds of all web users use IE. That’s a lot of idiots. The economy would get a real sot in the arm if all web developers could quit wasting time with IE workarounds.
I was reading about the new system for the iPhone and Touch and an app for them that will allow users to see other users on the same network and exchange virtual business and it reminded me that we haven’t done new business cards since we moved. We have been using the “we just moved” excuse for four years now. We had some business cards printed online for a client they came out great. They offer rounded corners too. So I spent some time today playing with the 4D Advertising logo. I love coming up with logos and haven’t done one in a while.
3 Comments