PopWars

When my father was still working he would bring home loaner digital cameras from Kodak’s Camera Club. The first one was half a megapixel resolution. 500K photos. Once the one mega pixel models came out I bought one, through his camera club connection of course. They were expensive at the time.A few years later I graduated to a 3 megapixel model, another Kodak camera, and it was that camera that I used to take the picture above. The enlargement is shown in its full resolution, 1152 pixels wide.

I photographed fifty or so manhole covers all within a few blocks of our house near East High. My father documents birds and wildflowers, I document signs and dumpsters and manhole covers, things like that. It runs in the family.

I created a slideshow back in’99 and put it on the Refrigerator website. This was in the early html days when you vertical center an object in a table. These days you go through hoops to align things with divs and the page is much more adaptable to various screen sizes. I dusted it off and moved the slideshow to PopWars where it looks brand new. Go to Manhole Mandalas.

The High Line in New York is a sensation, a former railroad line converted to a simple but scenic walkway. The local trail that runs between Lakeshore Boulevard and Lake Ontario, where the old train tracks were, is also a sensation. It is mostly level, the views of the lake are gorgeous, the people watching is prime and it is no where near as crowded as the High Line.

We often do it by bike and start up near the Parkside Diner. From there you can roll through the park woods, across the marsh on the new wooden bridge and on to trail along the lake. There are people picnicking on both sides of the trail, Reggaeton on the sound systems, sun worshippers in lounge chairs oriented just so, bathers in water, most in only up to their knees but some out on the sand bars, windsurfers way out and lines of motor boats anchored just off shore. Today we rode the whole thing, took every bit of it in and continued on to the river where I took this shot while we had lunch. It is a rather inexpensive vacation.

As hot as it was we suited up and walked in the woods. We spooked this little fawn but once it jumped up and ran in circles it got really curious about us and came pretty close. There was no sign of the mother. We were standing as still as possible. After a while I threw it one of the Beechnuts I had picked up and I spooked it again but it came back to check us out once more and then just bent its knees and sat down in the ferns.

When Bill Jones died a few years back, Fred Lipp bought his wife a tree to plant in their yard. Maureen Church, a longtime student, remembered that gesture and asked if we wanted to go in on a cherry tree for Fred’s family. We dug the hole today and planted the tree. His daughter, Janet, promised to send us a picture when it blossoms in the Spring.

We didn’t really discuss what we’d do on our anniversary. It just worked out that we spent a good part of it weeding a new patch of pachysandra that we recently put in. Eventually it will take over and snuff out the weeds but it needs a little space to get going.

We stopped in at the Little Theater Café last night, first time we had been there since our gig ran out for the summer. Maria Gillard was there with her band. They do swing/jazz, mostly great songs from the the golden years but Maria’s originals fit in beautifully. Some music works better than others in here and these guys bring the place alive. Pete Monacelli plays drums with what look like paint brushes. He has just the right touch and a perfect color sense for the tunes.

I suppose any member of our street pool association could take it upon themselves to make a purchase for the pool and then go to the treasurer and get reimbursed for it. I was a little nervous about it. We were at Home Depot returning a nozzle for our garden hose. The thing had come apart on us and I couldn’t get it back together. They are pretty good about returning stuff over there. We spotted these plastic flower pots in the outdoor garden center. They came in four or five colors but the turquoise ones looked especially good to us, sort of retro Florida-like. The flower pots at our pool were the typical garden store, Romanesque things. Ornate and grey with a short stem and a wide base. They were made out of plaster or something that slowly chips and crumbles. There were only two of the turquoise plastic pots left. We were on our bikes. Would the others approve?

Well, we made it home with the things on my handlebars and the treasurer didn’t balk at the reimbursement but it took her and her husband about three weeks before they announced they liked the new flower pots because they went well with pool color adding they weren’t something that they would pick out. I took this shot while standing in the pool, midway between the shallow and deep ends.

Aren’t we lucky that some things still rust?

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.

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.”

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!

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.

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.