Femme Fatale

Vic & Irvs in winter, Rochester, New York
Vic & Irvs in winter, Rochester, New York

When Duane Sherwood was town over Christmas we made the obligatory pilgrimage to Vic & Irv’s (they are closed until March) and hatched plans to go to the John Cale Nico tribute at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. We were going to take the train down and get off in Beacon. We had all read Robert Irwin’s book and were obsessed with seeing the former Nabisco box-printing facility that was renovated by Dia with Irwin as designer. The only tickets left to the BAM show were scattered about. Peggi, Duane and I contemplated sitting in different locations and then nixed the plan. It’s not like Nico would come back from the dead. Here’s what we missed.

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One From The Teens

Old light switches on the wall George Eastman House
Old light switches on the wall George Eastman House

Time is running out for “60 From The 60s,” a selection from the Eastman House archives. The show ends the 27th. With the astounding collection they have in the vaults over there this show could have been 600 or 6000.

I took this shot of some old light switches in the gallery over there.

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Y2K13

Ski path through woods near Durand Eastman Park
Ski path through woods near Durand Eastman Park

Was Bobby Henrie really duck-walking in our our living room last night? It has always been a fantasy of mine to have a band like the one Ricky Nelson had play in our home the way Ricky’s band did at the end of his father’s show. But it wouldn’t be enough to have this band sound like Rick’s. They would have to swing like a jazz band, rock a little harder, be irresistibly danceable and wild even. The Goners are that band and last night was a dream.

Years ago, when we lived in the city, we were talking to our neighbor over the fence on New Years Eve. She asked what we were doing that night and we said, “Nothing much. We’re just gonna lie low.” Around midnight we were doing a line dance out our front door and around the house. We don’t like to plan our parties and and last night was no exception although this time we gave a couple days notice. We invited the neighbors so no one could complain about the noise. It appears everyone got home ok and no one called the cops when Earl set the psychedelic fireworks off in the back yard. Somehow we wound up with more bottles of wine , more beer and more food than we went in to the the whole affair with. Looks like twenty thirteen will be a good one.

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Lawyer’s Wig

Shaggy Mane mushroom on golf course in Durand Eastman Park in Rochester, New York
Shaggy Mane mushroom on golf course in Durand Eastman Park in Rochester, New York

This Shaggy Mane, also known as Lawyer’s Wig, greeted us as we burst through the woods out in to the opening of the golf course at Durand Eastman. This one is edible but it’s a little old. We’re pretty good at spotting mushrooms but we don’t have the confidence to snag them for food. The orange “chicken mushrooms” are supposed to be good and they’re pretty common in our woods. (Can’t believe I call it “our woods.” We do seem to be the only ones who use it. Our friend Shelley picked some oyster mushrooms while we were up in the mountains and we planned on having them for breakfast before we left but but it rained and that puts the outdoor kitchen stove off limits.

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Off The Grid

Looking up at tress in the Adirondacks, Fall 2012
Looking up at tress in the Adirondacks, Fall 2012

The Adirondack Mountains region is one of the most beautiful parts of our country. From Rochester only a morning’s drive with one stop for bathroom and coffee and yet it had been over a year since our last visit. We stayed with our friends, Pete and Shelley and kept them up til the the wee hours. The stars up here are killer. It was a new moon and a perfectly clear sky on Friday night. Looking straight up at midnight was a trip. The daytime view was equally astounding.

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Art Run

Bench designed by John Dodd in front of City Newspaper building in Rochester New York
Bench designed by John Dodd in front of City Newspaper building in Rochester New York

We went on an art run this afternoon, stopped at Rochester Art Supply downtown to pick up some natural white acid free matt board and some 140 pound watercolor paper. Peggi was looking for a frame for a small watercolor but they don’t carry framing supplies here so we headed over to Lumiere. Bill Edwards, the owner of Light Impressions was there setting up green folding chairs for a reception and artist’s talk tonight with Brian Oglesbee. The gallery there was filled with his beautiful prints, no Photoshop by digitally printed as if that matters.

We left the car parked out front and walked over to the Village Gate too see if John Dodd had finished installing his benches. He has two in front of City Newspaper, a left one(pictured above) and a right one on either side of the entry way. He must have just finished installing them as a few people were discussing them as we approached. Mary Anna Towler, the editor of City News, walked out while Peggi was sitting on one and she exclaimed, “We got our benches!” She asked Peggi if they were comfortable.

Bench designed by John Dodd in front of City Newspaper building in Rochester New York
Bench designed by John Dodd in front of City Newspaper building in Rochester New York

As I write this I’m thinking I should have complimented her on the great job City does each week with their publication. You have to leave town and pick up the alternative press there to realize how lucky we are here to have such a relatively hard hitting, thought provoking rag.

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Mercy, Mercy

Mercy flight at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York
Mercy flight at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York

We watched this helicopter take off and then land again at Strong Memorial Hospital. They call it the Mercy Flight and they scoop up critically injured people and whisk them to the rooftop of the Emergency Building. The guy in the bed next to Bill, who we were visiting in his temporary ICU room, was groaning and clearly not happy with his new, brain damaged condition as a result of a motorcycle accident. And Bill called the nurse in the middle of the night when a patient near him went blue. This place is not for the faint of heart. Bill had a tumor removed and a lung shortened in the process. He’s optimistic and ready to walk out of there on Wednesday. So many things can go wrong with the human body and most of them eventually do.

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Not Much Of An Exaggeration

Noguchi sculpture in garden at Noguchi Museum in Long Island City
Noguchi sculpture in garden at Noguchi Museum in Long Island City

There was something strangely familiar about this particular sculpture in in the garden of the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until Peggi pointed out that it reminded her of “Subterranean Surrogates.” The museum here, on the site of Noguchi’s last NYC studio, was recently renovated but remains the first and only museum in the country to be founded by an artist during his lifetime and dedicated to his work. Noguchi worked in ceramics, drew, designed gardens, furniture, architecture, and sets but it is his stone sculptures that have always knocked me out and there is a large section of them here in a protected outdoor setting and garden. We started there and I didn’t want to leave to go inside.

This Week In New York called the Noguchi Museum “one of the most peaceful, beautiful, spiritual, and moving places in New York.” Not much of an exaggeration. Michael Black (one of the founding members of the Bang On A Can All Stars) and the Hartt Bass Band (eight double basses) performed pieces in the museum the day we were there. They sounded great but not great enough to keep us from going back out to the sculpture garden.

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We Live Like Kings

"Wes Peden and his partner juggling in Rochester, New York
“Wes Peden and his partner juggling in Rochester, New York

Baptist Churches can be scary places like that video I saw on Huffington Post with the Baptist preacher talking about rounding up all the homosexuals. The auditorium at Northridge Baptist Church tonight, though was “More Fun Than Visiting A Zoo.” Our neighbor, Rick, tipped us off to this show which featured Rick’s juggling partner’s son Wes and his partner from Ohio with a sensational live percussionist from Sweden. Wes has been studying for three years at a circus school in Sweden and is now considered one of the top jugglers in the world! I missed a lot of their act because I was gawking at the drummer.

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Robert Frank’s Shoes

Scott McCarney "Bible For Terry Jones" at Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York
Scott McCarney “Bible For Terry Jones” at Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York

Scott McCarney’s beautiful new show, “Reversing the Catastrophe of Fixed Meaning,” opened last night a Visual Studies Workshop. An ambitious title that for me actually succeeds in the incendiary piece, “Bible For Terry Jones.” There is something of a “Boy’s Life” nostalgia in Scott’s work but he manages to shatter the stereotypes. His “book art” rewrites the museum tags on this dying medium.

And then there is Robert Frank’s shoes, the ones he wore while shooting photos for “The Americans.” He donated them to Visual Studies after a workshop here in the seventies. I had heard they were here but I wasn’t prepared for their dandyness. It puts a whole new spin on these classic images.

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Pity The Photographer

Window at Baobab Cultural Center in Rochester, New York
Window at Baobab Cultural Center in Rochester, New York

Don’t you hate it when someone makes a point of noting that no Photoshop was used in a photo. Who cares? The camera lies and that’s why we like it. I snapped a shot of a statue in the window of the Baobab Cultural Center and wound up with this magical composition full of reflections I didn’t see.

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The Great Outdoors In A Glass

Bob Henrie and the Goners at the Lovin Cup in Rochester.NY
Bob Henrie and the Goners at the Lovin Cup in Rochester.NY

Kinda nice to have someone provide so much light for a rock n’ roll shoot. WXXI shot another installment of its local music series last night at the Lovin’ Cup and I snagged this shot from our front row seats. The band did all Bob Henrie originals, probably to avoid paying licensing fees, songs dedicated to their heroes, Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry, that somehow manager to sound jazzy. Bob Henrie even duck walked on few songs. They tore it up. Genesee Beer underwrote this season’s installment so have a Genny the next time you’re out.

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Once Upon a Time in America

Joe Bean Coffee Roasters on University Avenue in Rochester, New York
Joe Bean Coffee Roasters on University Avenue in Rochester, New York

The atmosphere and service at Joe Bean Roasters on University Avenue are laid back which is something I didn’t expect considering their product. They are artisan roasters and craft brewers. You can choose from about ten different preparations but we chose the single pour method and watched as our barista weighed the beans on a drug dealer’s scale, ground them and slipped the grounds into a single serving sized paper cone while the water boils on a burner in hands reach of the seats at the bar. The glass pots of fresh brew are placed, Japanese style, on a small board alongside a ceramic cup which we were able to fill three times while we chatted with Mike, the owner. The place feels a bit like the opium den Robert DeNiro visited in “Once Upon a Time in America.”

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No, Gracias Por Nuestra Visita.

Tapas in Barcelona
Tapas in Barcelona

Tapas, Pinchos or Pintxos, Raciones or whatever you want to call the small portions of prepared food that are offered in every café/bar (cafés seamlessly meld into or double as bars) in Spain should have caught on here by now. I really don’t understand why the concept has not taken hold. Are there U.S. Heath Department rules against serving food this way or something? It seems like the very definition of civilization to walk into a place, say Hola, and order something from the glass cases on the counter. Sharing a small dish over conversation and a coffee or making a meal of three or four portions with a glass of wine or beer is a no-brainer, tried and true, money-making concept but I have yet to see anyone pull it off in the States. Octopus salad with black olives! Come on.

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Psicodèlico

Greenery with human touch in Girona Spain
Greenery with human touch in Girona Spain

The great Antoni Gaudí picked up what they were putting down in Barcelona and transformed the city and architecture worldwide. Pablo Picasso painted here for twenty years. Juan Joan Miró was born here and spent most of his life here. Dali lived and worked nearby. Surrealism, Modernismo or Moderisime in Catalan, Novcentisme, new century movement (last century change, not this one), Manzana de la Discordia or just plain Psicodèlico, Barcelona wears it well.

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Carmen & Emilio

Public drinking fountain in the old city of Barcelona
Public drinking fountain in the old city of Barcelona

There are public drinking fountains all over the old city of Barcelona. Most are dried up. Some still work but people don’t seem to use them anymore. I saw a dog drinking out of one yesterday. People buy their water in plastic jugs now. See “MX-80 – We’re So Civilized.”

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Hermie’s World, Excellent

Rolling Stones pinball machine at the Skylark Lounge in Rochester, New York
Rolling Stones pinball machine at the Skylark Lounge in Rochester, New York

Everyone knows Herman and for good reason. He’s the perfect bartender and conversationalist. Formerly a Bug Jar fixture he’s got his own place now, called the “Skylark Lounge”, on Union Street, a drag show venue for many years that he and Bug Jar inventor, Casey, have retooled with swank. The location, on a one way street in the East End, is a bit forlorn but it’ll be the center of the universe when the city fills in the Inner Loop.

We stopped in after the Margaret Explosion gig and sat at the bar by the juke box. Hermie told us he was considering one that played 45s but it wouldn’t hold enough music so he settled on one that plays cds, his cds, mostly old school, VU, Stones, Curtis Mayfield, Donovan, JB, Stooges.

Forget about wifi, the Rolling Stones pinball machine in the corner is the main attraction until they get their entertainment license. I couldn’t tell if I was getting extra points for hitting Mick or what but he kept prancing across the middle of the game and was definitely in the way. I won a few bonus balls and then a free game. I was slamming the machine and never tilted it. I wish they wouldn’t release those extra balls when you get on a roll. In the old days and you could get a get a good run going by working the ball, one ball.

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Voices From The Past

Lake Ontario shoreline in Rochester, New York
Lake Ontario shoreline in Rochester, New York

People used to identify themselves when they called you but they don’t do that anymore because everyone has cell phones and they know who’s calling before they say hello. In fact people don’t even say hello any more they just start talking. Well we don’t have a cellphone and I’m often completely thrown as to who I’m talking to. Someone will prattle on about something while I’m running through my mental rolladex trying to figure out who the voice is. Is it work related or a friendly? No big deal. I’m just saying.

The phone rang during dinner the other night and our nephew was laughing at the quaintness of the answering machine on our land line and that led to a discussion of the old full size cassette answering machine that we had and how we’d record over and over the tapes until they were layered bits and pieces of voices from the past. I set a few of them aside and went downstairs to check to see if I could put my hands on them. I found a cassette deck and put on a white label advance copy of Colorblind James’ “Why Should I Stand Up?” from 1991 that had been put into service.

Brad Fox called and started with a joke. “Why did the Siamese twins go to England?” No punchline. A snippet of Colorblinds’ “That’s Entertainment”, Deb calling from Massachusetts asking for help with her computer which was suddenly in a foreign language. Peggi’s mom letting us know she didn’t like the answering machine. A snippet of “Ride Board.” A wrong number where someone left a message for someone we’ve never heard of. Our nephew calling for help getting a stuck floppy out of an Mac SE. He’s majoring in artificial intelligence today. Another snippet of “Ride Board.” And plenty of people complaining about the quality of our outgoing message which as I remember had either James Brown or Miles Davis blasting in the background.

Sometimes the machine would record our part of a conversation if we failed to pick up the phone in time. So we heard Steve Black from Singapore answering a call from Steve Hoy while we were out somewhere. Directions to Jeff and Mary Kaye’s house for the first time! And then Peggi’s dad and Gary Bennet calling from beyond the grave. Are people saving their cellphone messages these days? This stuff is priceless.

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Remaking America

Limes at the Beverly Hills farmer's market
Limes at the Beverly Hills farmer’s market

Animal is one of LA’s hottest restaurants. Google it, they have great publicists. We first read about it in the New Yorker last year but we’ve known about it for a few years because our nephew works there. Someday he’ll have his own place. He’s an amazing chef. We had dinner with him at Animal last night and the five of us shared eleven plates. “Plates” includes appetizers, salads and entrees and they are typically shared as we did. They do “New American” cuisine, “maximum flavor from a minimalist kitchen.” Each dish from their daily menu is entirely distinctive and sensational.

Our nephew took us to the Beverly Hills farmer’s market this morning where he shopped for mushrooms, delicata squash, cilantro, a persimmon that he used in our arugula pecan salad tonight.

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