Coke vs. Pepsi ~ that sort of thing.
I’ve been thinking about my old friend Brad lately. My father’s financial advisor used to live across the street from us and he asked about Brad and his name has come up in a few other contexts. I’m remembering things like how Brad used to singe the hair on his legs with his cigarette between puffs. And how he used to punch me in the arm so hard I couldn’t even lift it. I’m bad on the phone but I owe him a call.
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We were on the way out the door of Nick’s Sea Breeze Inn when my father asked, “Where else would you see a bench like this?” We have seen it used when the waiting room is full but not in the dead of winter. My mom ordered her usual spaghetti and meatballs, my dad went with the broiled Haddock and Peggi and I each order the “Italian Trio” special (choice of three: Manicotti, Gnocchi, Lasagna, Chicken Parm or Eggplant Parm) with a salad.
Nick stopped by our table as he always does. My dad used to meet here once a week for lunch with his retired engineers’ posse and Nick and my dad have some sort of rapport. Even though Nick played football for Geneva High School he said he wouldn’t be watching the Super Bowl. “Bunch of babies. That’s not football. That’s a circus.”
He inserted the story of how he shined shoes at the Naval base on Seneca Lake and brought the money home to his mom and then how he dragged blocks of ice upstairs at Club 86 and chipped them by hand to stock the bar before Jimmy Dorsey or whoever took the stage. He worked his way back to a football analogy. “Those guys make one small play and then cut to a commercial. I go in the back room here, he said, and the dishwasher will say ‘I’m on break’.” Nick looked at his watch to illustrate. “I have two more minutes! In my day they would tell you your hours are 9 to ‘u’, nine AM to unconscious.
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I usually chop my hair with scissors by pulling it out and cutting it all at about the same length and then I ask Peggi to help with the rear. It takes all of five minutes. But today I decided to tag along with Peggi when she went to Chi Wah’s on Monroe Avenue.
Our friend Jeff and Mary Kaye’s daughter, Maddie, works there now and we signed up for her. We chatted with Chi Wah and of course the only thing you can think of when you talk to her is the role she played in “China Doll” and Rochester bust. I haven’t really looked in the mirror yet but I think Maddie did a good job. I’ll know when I get out of the shower tomorrow morning.
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Many years ago I bought a few boxes of slides at a garage sale. The person attending the sale said the woman who used to live in the house had traveled all over the world so I gambled on the lot. I used one of the photos on the cover of the Invisible Idiot cd and I think the goat photo above is one. They’re in the public domain now like my Flickr photos. I put a slideshow together of these found photos and they are serving as a short winter vacation.
We were at the Dyden Theater for “Blue Velvet” when we saw the previews for “The Great Beauty.” We had not seen that since it came out and this ages like a fine wine. We’ve spent a lot of time in movie houses in the last few weeks. I wore my long underwear for last night’s showing of “The Great Beauty and almost nodded off. I was plenty engaged, the movie was so dreamy and Tony Sevillo does such a great job of getting into his character that I found myself as detached and then introspective as Jep Gambardella. This is a beautiful movie to look at and listen to. ESG’s brilliant “Moody” is even in there. Director Paolo Sorrentino reminds us Fellini is not dead.
We watched Hitchcock’s “Rope” over the weekend. By the time we get to the end our Hitchcock binge it will be time to go around again. “Liv and Ingmar: Painfully Connected” was perhaps a perfect winter movie. I finally like Leonardo DiCaprio in a movie. “The Wolf of Wall Street” was an all out romp. And I was happy that “Inside Llewyn Davis” was so dark. I was afraid to see the damn thing not because of the David Van Ronk revival but because of all the nostalgic, reverent singer/songwriter myth making going on.
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Rochester architects Chris Brandt and Craig Jensen contacted Peggi through her Don Hershey website and arranged to meet here yesterday afternoon to talk Hershey. We woke up without heat. The small motor that opens the flap on our furnace flu burnt out so the boiler had gone into rest mode. Wayne Heid rescued us hours before the meeting.
The architects brought Cynthia Howe from the Landmark Society along as well and we stood around the table talking about homes that we all suspect may be Hersheys. He designed 300 some houses in this area and some of them are really tucked away. It was a delightful three hours spent ping ponging around town on cell phone maps as we pooled our knowledge. Cynthia pushed Peggi to write a book on Hershey. Peggi has a spread sheet of confirmed Hersheys that she continues to add to and someday it will all be on the site. Craig bought a stack of photos that he bought from Dick Storms after Dick scooped them up at Don Hershey’s house when the architect died and the kitchen shot above was in there.
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Abbott’s Custard at Culver and Ridge is closing. The “U” and the “S” have already left. Go US!
Not everyone has a Tumblr page but everyone should. So much fun. I keep my Funky Sign collection over there.
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I stopped over to visit Sparky, our former neighbor, and he had just finished lunch when I walked in. A dirty pot was still in the sink and empty can of Popeye spinach was on the edge of the sink. I felt as if I had finally discovered his secret potion and asked if I could take a photo of the can.
I will have to add this to pictures of Sparky on his mini website (sparky.com) I think the last update was the “Sparky Dolls.” His counter is still broken and there is an ongoing slew of “Episodes” to add but it will be hard to top these gems.
Sparky Recycles Aluminum (he pronouces it ally-loon-ee-mum) – smashes up old lawn chairs, dimantles lawn mowers in his garage. Has an old scale in there to weigh the recyclbles..
Sparky’s Boat Cuts Loose From His Trailer And Passes Him On The Road (he says)
Sparky Changes Rusty’s Name To Little Man And Then “Little Manny”
Sparky Takes Little Man To The Vet Because He Can’t Poop
Sparky Goes To A Body Building Contest In Buffalo
Sparky Shoots At Squirrel With Homemade Slingshot
All it takes is a couple of inches of new white stuff and winter is all fresh again. And of course it helps when the temperatures don’t even make it out of single digits. The air crisp and the snow is perfect for skiing. We drove to the other side of the park, the undeveloped section on he west side of Kings Highway, and skied up along the ridge that runs almost all the way up o the fire department. We were the only human tracks, plenty of others out but no walkers, snowshoers or other cross-country nuts.
We skied in the park yesterday too. There still isn’t quite enough snow to cushion the trails in the woods so we’re going all civilized rather than bushwhacking. The Rochester Cross-Country Ski Foundation grooms trails on the golf course and we saw a few tiny signs for the “Nordic Center.” We can only image what that is or where it might be. The signs so few and far between that you might freeze trying to follow them. I should add that our style of X-Crountry skiing is worlds away from the upcoming Olympic variety of skate skiing. We trudge. They glide.
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I took five books out of the downtown library, all picture books really. Leon Golub : echoes of the real by Jon Bird, The German expressionists; a generation in revolt by Bernard Samuel Myers, Tàpies : January 27-April 23, 1995 by Carmen Giménez, David Hockney : portraits by David Hockney and Matisse: radical invention, 1913-1917 by Stephanie D’Alessandro.
I spent so much time with the German Expressionist book that I had to renew the lot twice. I finally decided to look for a used copy of “A Generation in Revolt” and found one through Amazon. That gave me some time to spend with other books but it makes clear where my heart lies at the moment. I am deep into the German Expressionists.
The library copy, a first edition from 1957 printed in Cologne, was missing a few plates (the color reproductions that are glued on the page) and I can’t wait to see what the Emil Nolde one looks like. As luck would have it davoser-tagebuch posted this beautiful Kirchner painting (above) to my tumblr site this morning.
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Our friend, Louise, writing about a nearby, familiar and favorite spot says it “is so beautiful I think I might disappear: out of life, and into it.” I can’t write anything after that. Here’s a drawing.
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It seems I’m posting something related to the MAG everyday. We were there for two different movies and then last weekend’s art opening. Tomorrow I’ll be downstairs in the Creative Workshop for painting class. The Lockhart Gallery in the MAG has an interesting show about the Watson family’s contribution to the Memorial Art Gallery’s collection. I absolutely love this 1931 pencil drawing by the renowned Maine artist/sculptor, Gaston Lachaise. The drawing, like a lot of his sculpture, one of which is on display in the main gallery at the MAG, was inspired by his wife, Isabel Dutaud Nagle.
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The printmakers’ world is rather archaic. There are so many rules as to what is technically a numbered print, one in a series where each is the same, and what is either an “Artist’s Proof” or a mono print, a print which cannot be in a series because it is slightly different from the next in the series. But all that is breaking down and the new show, “Redefining Multiples: Contemporary Japanese Printmakers,” at the Memorial Art Gallery pretty much puts those old ideas to rest. How the heck does the artist who squeegees ink on sheets of glass, and then layers those sheets in a single work, produce a multiple? I gave up trying to figure it out and that is exactly how it should be. So forget about the title of the show and enjoy it.
You can’t improve on nature but you can grab a pretty cool film loop if you fly around a cloud. Toshinao Yoshioka’s “Guidepost 6,” a 2001 dvd is stunning. Not sure how he made that. Naruki Ushima’s inkjet photos are beautiful and would really dress up a corporate boardroom. Gallery visitors are reflected in the glass on his photos and the photos themselves are as much about reflections as the subject of the photos. An interesting play. And I enjoyed watching Judd Williams and Todd Smith check out Junji Amano’s minimalist acrylic, graphite screen prints.
My favorite part of the evening was the Japanese prints that the MAG pulled out of its collection. Tokio Miyashita’s orange woodcut with aquatint, a 3d tour de force, and Hiroyuki Tajima’s “Good Evening” woodcut print. It looked like a primitive hologram. The Johnathin Wintringham saxophone quartet playing Philip Glass in the auditorium and the string duo in the courtyard were both outstanding. We had so much fun at the opening we stayed until the guards started packing up.
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It was tempting to go beyond this point on the Charlotte Pier but we chickened out and turned back but not before we spotted a Snowy Owl. Winter is not for the faint of heart.
“Five hundred years after Copernicus, it sure still looks as if the sun is going around the earth.” I snagged that line for Adam Gopnik’s piece on the New Yorker site. I like taking the counterintuitive route, bundling up and stepping outdoors in inclement weather. It’s some kind of kick.
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I forgot how many great songs there are on “Transformer.” “Classic Albums; Lou Reed – Transformer,” 2001 was shown at the auditorium in the MAG tonight. The coolest thing about this documentary is how cool Lou Reed is. That and Lou Reed playing accoustic guitar versions of the songs on Transformer. Then after that there’s Herbie Flowers playing his stand up bass line from “Walk On The Wild Side” and his tuba part in “Goodnight Ladies.”
Lake Shore Record Exchange, who presented the movie, topped it off with a screening of the BBC’s “Lou Reed Remembered.” My favorite section in this movie was the interview with Lou where he talks about the beauty and power in delivering songs with detachment.
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I exhausted myself writing an artist statement (*required) for two drawings I entered in Auburn’s “Made In New York” show. And now it’s time to watch the Tonya Harding documentary.
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The temperature was near 40 degrees today, the sun was shining and the woods was wet. This is what a January thaw looks like. We had to go all the way to the lake to see if the ice formations were still there. They were but the color was near brown with all the sand that has washed up on them.
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What do you think of when you hear the name “Freedom Industries?” Sounds vaguely patriotic. They’re the company that let their aging coal processing plant dump toxic chemicals into West Virginia’s drinking water supply and then didn’t warn the downstream residents of the peril. They had the freedom to let it go until they were found out. West Virginia is desperate for jobs and government regulations are a hinderance. This is why Congress continues to gut the Environmental Protection Agency. Regulations are a pain in the ass.
Who better to lead a ring that collected a $28,000 kickback from each of hundreds of police officers and firefighters who falsely claimed mental problems due to 9/11 than an ex-agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who once served as a senior Nassau County prosecutor. Who better than Facebook to expose the “injured” as bullshit artists after they successfully bilked the Social Security Administration of $21.4 million in disability benefits.
Today we learn Larry Staub, the Monroe County Parks Commissioner, is in line to take over as executive director of the Monroe County Republican Committee. I guess this move all makes sense. They have cut staff and funding of the parks to such a point that volunteers have taken over many of the upkeep tasks.
I like thinking about these things as I walk in the woods.
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While the bands that regularly play the Little Theater Café wait for the schedule for the rest of 2014 the new owner of the building that houses the café has announced that the café will stay open for the time being. This is good news. And the name Glenn Kellogg, an urban planner and the man behind the project, has chosen for his new grocery store (no it is not a Wholey’s) is also good news, the name of Rochester’s first supermarket, “Hart’s.”
I asked my parents what they remembered about Hart’s and I was surprised to hear it was all good to. I expected some sort of rivalry between Hart’s and Tierney’s, my grandfather’s store. My dug up this chart he had constructed years ago that plots the history of grocery stores in Rochester. My grandfather opened his first store with two of his brothers back in 1906 on Hudson Avenue so both the Hart’s and the Tierneys were here long before Wegmans.
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We were lucky to get a seat at the MAG’s afternoon presentation of “The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show,” Michael Maglaras’s documentary about the now infamous show of radical art (Europeans, Cezanne, Renoir, Van Gogh and Marcel Duchamp as well Americans, Marsden Hartley and John Marin) that took place a century ago. We were fifteen minutes early, rarity for us, and the only seats available were right down front which is right where we usually sit regardless of how crowded the theater is. The film was very good but how could it not be, centering on pieces like Matisse’s “Blue Nude.” Carol Acquilano was sitting behind us and she reminded us that this was the last day for Rochester Contemporary’s 23rd Annual Members Show.
So after the movie we were some of the last visitors on its last day, in fact Peggi and I took our pieces home with us when we left the gallery. Every member gets to contribute one piece and each time you visit the show you get to put a small yellow sticker next to your favorite piece. I put mine next to Kaavl Obijn’s “Holy Night,” a mixed media piece that could have landed Kaavl in prison if RoCo was in Russia. It was rather hard to photograph but you should be able to tell that parents, Joseph and Mary, the shepherds and wise men and most of the animals are gathered around a small tv set in the corner of the manger while the Christ child is let unattended.
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