Our neighbor, the one with sun in his backyard and a big old fence to keep the deer out, informed us that there was another woodchuck in the garden. At the moment we’re so overloaded with spinach and beet greens and lettuce and cilantro and basil that we should probably let him have at it. But last night I cut up an apple and baited a Hav-A-Heart trap and this morning our neighbor emailed us that we had caught a Blue Jay. He freed the bird.
If you haven’t been to Peggi’s site in awhile you really ought to stop by now while she is featuring a Don Hershey designed home on San Rafael Drive. It’s for sale for the first time since it was built for the original owners in 1960. Hershey designed about 300 homes in the Rochester area (we live in one), most of them mid-century modern, and this one is a beauty.
Leo Dodd Bobolink sketches from former meadows on Westfall Road
Miss the smell of the cigars that our former neighbor used to smoke in their backyard on a humid summer night. And I miss seeing his wife through the back porch windows, working away on her writing.
My father misses the Bobolinks that travelled all the way from Argentina to find a girlfriend in the former meadows off Westfall Road in the town of Brighton. He gave talk on Sunday to 30 or so people at the restored Buckland House which sits on the former Edmunds property there, surrounded by “improvements” that the Town has made in recent years. Ball fields, parking lots, a lodge and a war memorial. And of course everything is handicapped accessible, something the birds could care less about.
Bobolinks like meadows and my father used to walk these fields and sketch the Bobolinks. He projected pages from his sketchbooks of drawings he made “en plein air” of the Bobolinks in these very fields. Development comes with a steep cost. And something as simple as a meadow is like heaven to birds and birdwatchers.
Matisse bought this Cezanne painting, Three Bathers 1879-82, in 1899 and owned it for thirty seven years
Our painting teacher used to say how lucky he was to have “learned from the best.” By that he meant the artists he liked. He studied their work and claimed the artists “spoke to him.” “We had a dialog.”
As great as Matisse is, I happen to think he is the best, he learned from Cezanne. In fact, everyone who is anyone learned from Cezanne or should have. I knew that Matisse owned a Cezanne but I didn’t know which one until I came across a reference to it the other night in a book. It is the one above, “Three Bathers,” and it was painted in 1879-82. Matisse bought it in 1899. Cezanne was still alive and would live another seven years. Matisse lived with the painting for thirty-seven years and gave it to the Paris Museum of Fine Arts at the end of that time. He included a note that read as follows:
“In the thirty-seven years I have owned this canvas, I have come to know it quite well, I hope, although not entirely.; it has sustained me morally in the critical moments of my venture as an artist; I have drawn from it my faith and my perseverance.”
“Sweet Jan” New York plates in Rochester, New York
Standing on the corner, suitcase in my hand
Jack is in his coat, and Jan is in her vest, and me
I’m in a rock’n’roll band Hah!
Ridin’ in a Cadillac, Jim
Y’know, those were different times!
Oh, all the poets they studied rules of verse
And the ladies, they rolled their eyes
Sweet Jan! Whoa! Sweet Jan, oh-oh-a! Sweet Jan!
People swimming at Durand Eastman Beach in Rochester, New York
Summer vacation is just a bike ride away if your bike route includes the path that starts behind Parkside Diner and continues through the the woods, Tamarac Swamp, in front of the Highlands and then along Lakeshore Boulevard toward Charlotte. Of course you’ll want to bring your suit. Or you could just take in the visions of Arcadia, a mythic place of beauty and repose where humankind lives in harmony with nature.
We walk at different times every day. At least I think we do. We see an opening, we suit up and take off. Maybe we are a lot more predictable than I think we are because we are always running into these two women. You can only see one in the photo because the older one stays in the car while her daughter (we’re guessing) walks the poodle. They drive to this location, park awkwardly and the one woman gets out with the dog. We talk about the weather. It is always a nice day or “nicer than yesterday” and then we wave hello to the woman in the car. She smiles and that is it.
Since I have this photo up I’d like to call your attention to the area off to the left, behind the car, right where the road disappears around the bend. That is where the “Budweiser Man” tossed his empty cans for five years or so. Something happened to the guy because there have not been any cans here for months. You can see from these old links that I’ve been picking up after this guy since 2008.
With good reason, Rodin believed he had the hands of god and he rendered them in marble. I am convinced. They are on display now at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.
It was a revelation to see so many Rodin sculptures in one place. Walking around them, experiencing one after the other in space and realizing how well Rodin played with and accentuated the physical properties of the human form was a sensation. You feel the structure, the balance, the weight, the strength, the beauty, and it is not an illusion. It is three dimensional.
Rodin was commissioned to create a work for the 1889 Paris Exhibition. Rodin chose to reinterpret Dante’s “Inferno” in a bronze door. “The Thinker” was part of that assemblage and was originally entitled “The Poet” after Dante. When this project was canceled due a lack of funds Rodin created models and finished large pieces from the figures. Many of them, including “The Scream” above, are in this show.
The Museum here has a great collection, Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, Giacometti, Golub and Penck but it is all so two dimensional.
My sister joined us for the World Cup final and came over an hour or so early so we could talk before the big game. We had the pre-game show on and most of the commentators were predicting a U.S. would win. I felt like that we’re going to win as well but I was really worried about the game being a blow-out. We had seen so many tight, exciting games recently, I just knew we were overdue for one of these high scoring games. And I knew there would be a huge crowd tuning in, the most to ever watch a soccer game in the U.S., so I wanted it to be be a good game. I found myself hoping Japan would close the gap in this one but the U.S. was unstoppable. I wish Lloyd had played that good when she was with the Flash.
They are pretty relentless with the French in Montreal. They’re only a half hour from New York State, you’d think you’d be able to make a subway transaction in English. I took the language in High School but I never got the hang of all those silent syllables. Spanish makes a lot more sense, more sense than English, with the hard considents and the consistent pronunciations of vowels.
The Spanish restaurant, above, was right across the street from our hotel in Montreal. We stopped in the first night, after the game, and had gambas al ajillo. We sat at the bar chatted with the owner. He was originally from Ligo in Galicia and I think he was also the chef because he kept running back to the kitchen. When we finished our tapas he recommended a drink we had never heard of, “Sol Y Sombre.” Just like the cheap and expensive seats at a bullfight in the sun and the shade. It’s made with Brandy and Anise. We ate here the following night as well.
At the celebration of Fred’s life some painters in our class were asking each other if they had done anything since Fred died. Most had not. That’s not right, of course, with all that he taught us. It may just be a matter of time.
I’m happy to have our boring lives back now that jazz fest and the world cup are behind us. Even the Grateful Dead finally wrapped things up this weekend. I’m ready to watch a slow summer simmer.
Elvind Opsvik wrote to tell me my notes on his band’s performance were “spot on.” I’m really enjoying the 45 that we bought at their gig. We were were invited to a post jazz fest party and everyone was talking about the Woods Brothers, a group whose sound file we nixed on the final night. Felt like we saw a different event than most.
Between chasing the national team to Montreal and the WC final we saw the WNY Flash play the best game we’ve seen, tying the first place Seattle Reign FC, 1-1. I hope some of this World Cup fever rubs off on the local team. Lloyd, Morgan and Wambach all played for the Flash and Leroux will be back here soon. Somehow Rochester let Kansas City kick their ass as a soccer town.
Hope you haven’t used up your ten free NYT’s clicks this month because there’s a pretty great article on Robert Frank in the Magazine section.
We stopped our bikes at this place on the route to my parent’s place so I could take a shot of a front yard full of mushrooms. This one caught my eye. It sort of looks like the stadium in Montreal. Considered a white elephant it has largely sat empty since it was built at enormous cost for the 1976 Olympics. Even the Montreal Expos bailed on the place and the city. Pink Floyd attracted the largest crowd to the stadium, 78,322, in 1977.
It is supposed to rain here tonight but that is of no concern because the stadium has a retractable roof. The sound my be a problem since I left our earplugs back in Rochester. Now that Canada is out of the World Cup the whole place may be shouting USA. Here’s hoping Heather O’Rielly sees some action and Germany goes home tonight.
Bratwurst and German beer under a tent in the rain. Colleagues, artists, students and especially family all laughing and telling stories about Fred, aka Fritz, shown above with his older brother, Hans. Fred would have loved it. Wish he could have been there. If only to hear him laugh one more time.
This article was hanging on one of the walls inside the tent.
Denys Baptiste Triumvirate performing at the Rochester International Jazz Fest 2015
France and Germany were tied at the half when left the house for the jazz fest so we had to finish that game before we moved over to the U.S. vs. China match. France had outplayed the No. 1 German team in the first half but Germany regained their form in the second half. The game stayed tied for the two overtime periods and then our recording ran out. The penalty shots are no way to settle a match anyway. We were happy to see the U.S. playing like champs, quickly moving the all with one touch passing. Everyone was doubting the coach but she fielded a great lineup last night. Left the lumbering Abby on the bench for most of the match and came to her senses near the end and put Heather O’Rielly in.
We saw three early shows last night and hustled home to watch soccer. Ikebe Shakedown at Montage is from Brooklyn New York and were here two years ago playing at the Bug Jar. The seven piece band apropriates Afrobeat and is really smart to play only the essentials in fairly tight arrangements of simple parts. Imagine Fela Kuti at a frat party. The horn players were really good, good enough to play with with Sharon Jones last night at Kodak Hall. They get the party going with no misfires.
Before they started their gig at Christ Church Denys Baptiste said his Triumvirate doesn’t discuss what they are going to play before they start the set and he said he was not really the leader, “the best idea wins.” They play versions of pop songs or iconic songs from the recent past. They don’t stop between songs and their set is one continuous piece. They really take their time skirting around the theme of each song and then easing their way out and into another. They were laid back and slightly detached from the material. Their music would work well in a moody Film Noir movie. We realized how narcotic-like their sound was once we were back out on the street.
Melissa Aldana is a great tenor sax player. Her young Crash Trio was doing Ellington’s “I Got It Bad” when we walked in and the drummer was sounding especially good with the brushes. They work well within the tradition of jazz but at the same time their sax, bass and drums trio shows how elastic the form can be as they carved out their own sound. They asked if they could do an additional song and finished with a one Aldana wrote for Sonny Rollins called “Back Home.”
I this is a low rider but it was riding pretty high yesterday afternoon on East Avenue.
The notice on the Jazz Festival’s site says: The group, Arstidir, scheduled to play twice tonight at Xerox Aud and twice tomorrow at the Lutheran Church, will not perform due to State Dept.Visa issues. There will no replacement concerts.
There are lot repeats at this year’s Jazz Fest. Not just acts from other years but acts that play two shows at one venue on the first night and then two more shows at another venue the second. And they’ve done their best to disguise that fact on the program guide by using a different promo picture of the artist on the second night. Fred Hersch, Jane Bunnett, Benny Green, the Rad Trads, Kat Edmundson, Arstidir, Raul Midon, Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra with Ingrid Jensen and Julia Biel are all double booked and our options are closing in.
I take notes notes on the acts each year and I post them over here. You’ll have to click on the 2015 Jazz Fest pass to get through.
For a lot people cilantro tastes like soap. I am not one of those people. I love the stuff. We planted it for a couple of years now it just keeps coming back and our crop is peaking now. Our green salads are half cilantro. We’re thinking about making a batch of cilantro pesto but this jazz fest is getting in the way.
Eivind Opsvik Overseas at 2015 Rochester International Jazz Festival
The Lounge Lizzards are alive. Or their “not exactly jazz” spirit is in Elvind Opsvik Overseas. This band was here at the Lutheran Church in 2010. They were one of our favorites then and even sounded better this time. Of course they brought along two more members, a piano player and a tenor sax player. Each player has a distinctly different role in this band. No one is glomming on to another’s part or space. Consequently the ensemble creates a very rich pallette.
Led by the bass player, Eivind Opsvik, they opened with a car chase of a tune, one where the chaser forgot what it was chasing. They get cinematic in a hurry. The tenor sax adds a solid film noir aspect to the big picture, at times taking the band into Gato territory like Last Tango in Outer Space. We’ve heard drummer Kenny Wollesen with Bill Frisell a few times but he sounded better than ever in this setting, free to color the song as he sees fit. Brandon Seabrook could be the world’s most unusual guitar player. He bowed his guitar while Opsvik bowed his bass but mostly he adds angular punctuation, meloodic and rhythmic and WTF texture when rubs a mini cassette player across the neck of his guitar.
We came home with their 2012 “Overseas IV” white vinyl, small hole 45, No. 0175. It contained a download card for the whole cd. I really like this packaging idea.
I’m taking notes at the jazz fest and posting them over here.
Conga drum player on East Avenue at Rochester Jazz Festival
We heard this guy from a distance and he sounded great. He sounded great up close as well and I loved how he set himself up in the middle of East Avenue. We went into Christ Church to hear one of the English bands and when we came out a half hour later this guy was playing exactly the same beat at the same tempo.
Jeffery teaching yoga class at Rochester Yacht Club
Jeffery has one hell of a yoga studio. He teaches a Saturday morning class at the Rochester Yacht Club in the mouth of the Genesee River. It was the first time I have taken a class from Jeffery and my first time inside the Yacht Club. He is a great teacher but I can’t see him without thinking of that song by the Pixies, “Jefery, with one F, Jefery” even though he has both. He’s good because he talks you through the poses explaining what you should be concentrating on. And he is right there with the release pose once you’ve pushed yourself. His 9:30 class is for all levels so I just qualified.
We planned tonight’s jazz fest lineup around the Germany/Sweden match. We’re thinking Germany is on course to meet the US in the semis. Eric Revis Trio at Xerox Auditorium looked the most promising act so we planned to start there. Because we got such a late start we parked on East Main walked across the Inner Loop which in that area has almost been filled in. That was a cool sensation.
A week or so ago the local paper asked me to write a piece on the jazz festival. It was in the this morning’s paper.
We take the annual Jazz Fest a day at a time. We generally preview the sound files for the night’s offerings on the day of the show and then head out the door with a rough sketch. We like to be surprised. Tonight we only found two bands that caught our interest and no surprises. The best is yet to come.
Free parking is getting harder and harder to find in Downtown Rochester. All the spots we we found in years past are in areas that are being redeveloped. I dropped Peggi off near City Blue and went on the hunt for a spot. When I reconnected with her she was standing in a long line between two rows of port-o-johns on Barrett Place. But she had already talked to the vocalist, Cecile McLorin Salvant, telling her, “We’re looking forward to your performane” as she walked by. We brought our dinner, a green salad, rice dish and two Sam Adams and before we knew it we were inside Kilbourn Hall.
At twenty three Salvant has a voice way beyond her years and a fabulous piano, bass and drums trio. She opened accompanied by only the bass player with a song called “Lonely Town.” Then Glitter and Be Gay” and three Cole Porter songs. Most of her songs are from a long time ago. She is very theatrical and musical but just didn’t draw us in with her readings of these classic songs. I would prefer more of a personal stamp.
If you search for a sound file of “Music Music Music” you won’t come up with the band, “MusicMusicMusic.” Despite their digital indexing problem the Swedish band has been together for more than ten years . They were at Jazz Fest in this same venue back in 2008. Their first number tonight opened up to a drum solo, the second one was slow with bowed bass and a pretty, spacious effect on the piano. They were so enjoyable I almost forgot to snap a photo of them. The piano player leads this trio and was expeceptionally melodic. They finished the set with the Theresa Brewer song, “Music! Music! Music!” Hard to get that one out of your head. Hope they haven’t been doing that for ten years.
I’m keeping track of what we see at the 2015 Jazz Fest over here.
View of Irondequoit Bay from house for sale on the west side
We were riding our bikes down to the pier near the bay winding our way through the funky neighborhoods that line the bay. There was a garage sale at the house in front of the backyard pictured above. I checked out the books, “I Am Ozzy, “The Long Hard Road Out of Hell” by Marilyn Manson and Nikki Sixx’s “The Heroin Diaries,” and then noticed someone standing in the backyard. There was some sort of temperature inverse going on that day, we rode through warm and cool pockets, and long low cloud hung over the bay so I wanted a closer look.
They owner was out there and she said they were planning on putting the house up for sale in the next few days. I took note because our friend, Kathy, has been looking for a house for quite a while. Like us, when we moved from the city, she has no real need to move so she was taking her time, like years worth of time. We emailed her this photo and said something like, “Here is a view from your backyard.”
She called two days later and told us she had bought the house. Turns out the owners were only living there temporarily. They had downsized and sold their former house to Lou Gramm of Foreigner and were living here while they built a new home. A man who lives down the street is responsible for fixing the house up. A young French couple lives next door. I hope it all works out.
Linda, down the street is in Peggi’s yoga class and she told Peggi she thinks they have a fox living in their backyard. It turns out a few neighbors all think they have a fox living on their property. It’s surely the same fox, golden brown, somewhere between a cat and dog in size. We’ve seen it many times now and we were sitting out back when it pranced by with something in its mouth. I was certain it was part of our neighbor’s black cat. I kept my eye out for the cat the rest of the day and grew even more certain that it had met its demise. I was afraid to ask them if they had seen their cat recently but after a day I got up the courage. Turns out the cat was fine and they too had seen the fox many times.
I asked Jared, at the other end of the street, if he had seen the fox and of course he had. He told us foxes won’t bother a cat. Maybe a kitten but not a cat.
