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Inspirational Words

Jean Michel Basquiat painting at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, NY
Jean Michel Basquiat painting at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, NY

Every trip to New York, for the last ten years anyway, has included a Saturday romp through the hundreds of commercial galleries in Chelsea. It’s like iTunes shuffle, you never know what you might come across. I had a few destinations in mind as well so we made sure we saw the A.R. Penck paintings at Leo Koenig, the Jean Michel Basquiat show at Gagosian, but I never expected to see Francis Bacon paintings in a gallery down there along with a large Philip Guston I had never even seen in books. I asked if anyone had bought the Guston and they said it wasn’t for sale.

It always surprises me when I see people talking to an art dealer in Chelsea and appearing to be seriously considering the purchase of a piece. Are these scenes staged? Do people actually buy high priced artwork on a whim? Of course they do and that’s what makes the world go ’round.

I wouldn’t be suspecting ulterior motives if we hadn’t stopped in a gallery at the end of 25th Street where someone was sitting at a desk behind an obligatory Mac laptop and three artists’ names were rubbed on the entry above the door. One of the gallery’s walls was painted a toxic shade of yellow and an “L” shaped piece of painted wood was mounted to the right of a hole that had been cut in the drywall where a piece of plywood, about four feet square, was exposed. The tops of a few wood screws were also visible.

New Yorkers are in better shape than we are. They run up and down the stairs of subway stations and walk, walk, walk. When the galleries closed we hiked over to Fifth Avenue and found Nomad, the fancy restaurant our nephew works at. This was a surprise visit so the maître d’ asked us to wait in the lobby and after ten minutes or so someone came out and led us down the stairs to the kitchen. The stainless steel work area was immaculate and dramatically lit. The workers were all standing over a huge, long table. Random inspirational words were printed on on the wall next to a large picture of Mick Jagger. The scene was more intense than any of the galleries we had been in. Our nephew, the artist.

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Art Binge

Man sleeping on F train in Brooklyn
Man sleeping on F train in Brooklyn

Friday night is Target night at MoMA and admission is free. The place is packed but I have learned how to ignore the large crowds and just enjoy the glimpses of blockbuster shows. I don’t even notice the groups of people who barely look at the art but might take a cellphone shot of it and then move on. We met our friend, Duane, here and there was plenty of room in front of the Malevich paintings in “Inventing Abstraction.” Thanks Target.

Our art binge had only just begun and we needed physical nourishment and rest so we took a downtown train to Chinatown and stopped at a favorite haunt near the Tombs. Duane did a little shopping for a cast iron wok while we were down here but had no luck. We headed out to Brooklyn to listen to some reggae, watch some homemade movies and bed down.

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Train To Loveland

Indian Point Power Plant as seen from train
Indian Point Power Plant as seen from train

The Amtrak ride along the Hudson is so dreamy especially as you head south on the river side of the train. It perfectly set the stage for our stop in Beacon where the DIA has enshrined major works by an all star cast of big thinking, modern (post 1960) artists. Joseph Beuys, John Chamberlain, Walter De Maria, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Blinky Palermo, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Louise Bourgeois, Michael Heizer, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman, Robert Ryman, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, and the earth artist maestro, Robert Smithson. But the biggest star of all could be Robert Irwin who designed a plan that would retain the original character of the former Nabisco box factory while accommodating its twenty-first century museum function. The place is a marvel, a theater with dramatic visual acoustics.

Train To Loveland

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Not What But How

Sunny snow scene with yellow mark on tree
Sunny snow scene with yellow mark on tree

I’ve been looking at some Robert Ryman images in preparation for our visit to DIA Beacon and I like what I see. The impetus for the DIA trip is the Robert Irwin book that we went crazy over. Irwin designed the repurposed Nabisco box factory on the Hudson for the DIA foundation. He talked about Ryman’s influence in the book and so I tracked Ryman down. I like this Ryman quote from the sixties. “There is never a question of what to paint, but only how to paint.”

It bugs me when people deface trees but I have to admit this little yellow patch on a tree near Eastman Lake looks pretty sensational.

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Budweiser Profile

Big Budweiser cans in plastic bags
Big Budweiser cans in plastic bags

Over the years we’ve developed a few theories about who the Hoffman Road Budweiser guy is. We’ve suspected kids, the neighbor with the dog whose breath smelled like liquor one morning when we engaged him in conversation and the guy who built the new house up on the hill. In fact last summer we became certain he was our man because he defaulted on his mortgage, moved out and the pile of beer cans dried up.

I stuck my head over the embankment as we walked by the other day and couldn’t believe my eyes. We brought two Wegmans bags with us the next day and the pile of 24 ouncers barely fit in. Whoever he is he probably has a red nose and black bow tie.

My favorite thing about the Neil Young autobiography is not the wild stories about familiar names, it’s the little things like when he visited Costco for the first time. “My first big purchase was a set of replacement brushes for my Sonicare toothbrush.” Marveling at the vast organic food section and then remembering all the small mom and pop stores from his youth he writes. “I felt pretty old for a moment and then I regrouped and realized I was alive and should be thankful.”

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Ways To Go

Beautiful dark grey snowy day in Rochester, New York
Beautiful dark grey snowy day in Rochester, New York

I shoveled the driveway in my pajamas this morning. Not the first time I’ve done that. I go out to get the paper and if it looks like it’s over my slippers I shovel my way to the mailbox. I have always liked shoveling snow. I used to do three driveways when we lived in the city, sometimes four, as our neighbors got older. And I used to make money with my shovel when I was in my teens. The rules never change. You have to get out there right away before the snow gets too heavy, before cars drive on it. And do it two or three times in a heavy storm. My father was showing me a Ralph Avery watercolor last night, a scene of downtown Rochester, and told me Avery died shoveling snow in his driveway. Not a bad way to go.

There is nothing like a fresh snowfall. I wish we had more of them. It’s like mother nature has low Testosterone these days.

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Connections

Alarm Will Sound performs "1969" at Kodak Hall in Rochester New york
Alarm Will Sound performs “1969” at Kodak Hall in Rochester New york

I think of our time, early twenty first century, as turbulent but pointing to a reflection of this turmoil in contemporary art or music is not so easy. The late sixties were very turbulent and the evidence is everywhere.

Alarm Will Sound, a new music group which started while the principals were students at the Eastman, returned last night to perform their newest work,”1969.” Three projection screens surrounded the 20 piece orchestra as they played arrangements of pieces originally performed by John and Yoko, Stockhausen, Luciano Berio and Leonard Bernstein, pieces that today clearly express those heady days. Images of Stavinsky, Father Berrigan, Hunter Thompson, Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights protesters, Kent State students and the soldiers in Vietnam cement the connection between the times and the art. I was thinking how Philip Guston’s art changed in that same period but that played no part in this program. These were our formative years so Peggi and I deserved the second row seats we took. Actually we arrived as the show was starting and someone was in our seats already so the ushers said we could sit anywhere we want.

I loved this presentation, short pieces of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass’, Lennon and Yoko’s “Unfinished Music”, the Beatles “Revolution Number 9” and Stockhausen’s “Set Sail for the Sun,” collaged together with dialog taken from the artist’s own words. The entire piece was centered around a connection that actually never took place, a meeting between Stockhausen and John Lennon. They did talk about it though.

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The Moment Is Now

Matt & Kim at Armory in Rochester, New York
Matt & Kim at Armory in Rochester, New York

You can’t hear Kim, standing on her drums in this photo, but she’s telling the crowd “to have fucking fun,” as if the packed Armory needed any guidance. Our friend Kevin, manages this band and they have become a sensation. It must be so satisfying for a pop music fiend to have an act at the top.

And this band is intense pop. Boiled down to the essentials of drums and melody they deliver their major key, sticky tunes like mini anthems. Kim may be smiling full tilt but she is working her ass off. As a duo their huge, live sound (I wore my Home Depot ear protectors) is quite fragile and that only adds to the excitement.

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Fragment of a Head

"Fragment of a Head" from Chiapas, Mexico Eighth Century
“Fragment of a Head” from Chiapas, Mexico Eighth Century

The Memorial Art Gallery has a really interesting show to celebrate their Centennial. The staff picked local artists and invited them to reinterpret works from their collection. The new work in “Art Reflected” is for sale and it is scattered throughout the gallery, positioned next to or in front of the work of inspiration. This arrangement encourages you to wander into rooms you normally whizz by. Like an Easter egg hunt the show is full of surprises. It reinvigorates the collection.

My brother, John, has a really nice piece here but as a celebration the show is a bit stuffy. One hundred artists for the one hundred years would have added to the merriment. If they had asked I would have given my reflection of this beautiful Mayan, stucco “Fragment of a Head” from the eighth century.

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Go Bills

NFL burger flippers at Eastview Mall in Rochester, NY
NFL burger flippers at Eastview Mall in Rochester, NY

Peggi and I headed out to the mall this weekend. We don’t get out there much but Peggi needed new jeans and our niece told her Old Navy was the best place go for jeans. The corridors to the big box stores are lined with small vendors and once I figured out what this Russian guy was selling I took out my camera to grab a shot. He asked, “What are you doing? I said, I’m taking a photo for my father. I know he would want one of these but I don’t know which team.” What was I supposed to say? “You have a bizarre product line.”

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Don’t Bug Me While I’m Working

Paul with milk
Paul with milk

I’m just realizing yesterday was the first Friday in Lent. No wonder Captain Jim’s on East Main was so crowded. We had suggested bringing fish frys over to my parents. They weren’t real fish frys, our four orders were baked and came with a baked potato and cold slaw. Mom mom microwaved some broccoli and we each had milk to drink. My parents get their milk from the Pittsford Dairy and it comes in glass bottles just like the one in the picture above.

Popwars was moved to a new server, one with the most recent version of php. The move knocked out my nav bar because I was using full urls in the includes but I was able to update my blog software. Took me a few days to recover. Wouldn’t want to get hacked.

Man, I can’t put “Waging Heavy Peace” down. It is so much fun to read.

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King Of Pop

Snow covered trees over creek
Snow covered trees over creek

The fresh snow is either evaporating or melting. We need some more. But it is a perfect day for YouTubing. We followed a Lincoln ad to Beck’s over the top performance of Bowie’s “Sound and Vision.” Low is still one of the greatest records of all time so maybe this will recharge sales. Watched a trailer for the David Mamet Phil Spector movie with Al Pacino and Helen Mirren and we longed for the real thing, “The Agony and Ecstacy of Phil Spector.” We saw it a few years ago at the Dyrden Theater and then heard the producers were having a hard time securing the rights to all those classic Wall of Sound songs. Whether that is true or not the movie has been unavailable. I have a feeling in this BBC link is only temporary so you better watch it soon. Finally, we primed ourselves for Matt & Kim‘s Monday night Armory appearance and got back to work.

The Pope had a press conference today. He said he just wants to spend more time with his wife and kids.” –David Letterman

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Across From The Barrel O’ Dolls

Judd Williams charcoal/graphite drawings at Axom Gallery in Rochester, NY
Judd Williams charcoal/graphite drawings at Axom Gallery in Rochester, NY

Jim Thomas ran a gallery on Prince Street about ten years ago. It was a beautiful space for art. One of the more memorable shows we saw there was Judd Williams. I feel in love with his charcoal drawings. Judd taught painting, printmaking, sculpture and figure drawing at Rochester Institute of Technology and Jim taught there as well. The Axom Gallery on Anderson, run by Rick and Robin Muto with their daughter Margot is one of the finest spaces for art in the city now and and they are currently featuring Judd Williams. Boo Poulin, a student of Judd’s, and I were drooling over these charcoal and granite drawings at the opening, wondering how Judd got such even tones of grey and Boo went directly to the source. Judd explained how he masked areas and layers graphite by rubbing and manipulating and then drawing with rich black on the grey. They are really wondrous.

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Perfect Gift

Peggi skiing in woods on her birthday
Peggi skiing in woods on her birthday

Peggi described today’s snowstorm as the perfect gift for her birthday. The trees were so laden with snow that we could not make out the trail. It was a little sticky especially if you stood still for a few minutes but it was exceptionally beautiful.

454 5300. Thank god today was the last day of the WXXI pledge drive. Don’t you think the local PBS station would be more successful if they kept Norm Silverstein off the air? I know he’s the president but where in the world did he pick up that affectation?

We had dinner at Rooney’s in Swillburg. The place has been around forever and if it wasn’t so expensive it would be mobbed. Maybe the economy will come back. We were some of the only diners there tonight. They had quite a few cancelations with all the “No unnecessary driving” orders. Celebrating Peggi’s Bday was a necessity and the food was fantastic.

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The Natural

Bowling ball return at L&M Lanes on Merchants Road in Rochester, New York
Bowling ball return at L&M Lanes on Merchants Road in Rochester, New York

Our friend and neighbor, Rick, got a bowling ball for Christmas. He booked the upstairs lanes at L&M on Merchants Road last Saturday and brought his laptop and microphone to dj while he bowled. This place has real wood lanes, 6 upstairs and 6 downstairs and eighteen beers on tap, Rick’s idea of heaven. D&C music editor, Jeff Spevak, was there but not bowling, he was taking movies on assignment and he came up with this short little movie. He caught me picking off a spare.

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Get Up Early

Mattress sign on Clifford Avenue in Rochester, New York
Mattress sign on Clifford Avenue in Rochester, New York

When I think of mattresses I think big and cushy. This sign is so slight and the lettering so compact it is surprising that it’s mounted on wheels. It would be quite a sight to catch the owner wheeling this thing out in the morning.

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Disco Devil

We stepped out for a walk at the exact same time as our neighbor so we walked together down the road in to the park and back through the woods. We ordered new Merrill hiking boots when got back. Been meaning to do that since we’ve both worn through the bottoms with all or construction work. We called MedVed but they were out of both of our sixes so we shopped online.

We listened to a lot of music while we worked on our project and I got a little tired of all the big musical notes that my iTunes library shows when it can’t find the cover graphic for a song so I’ve started what could be an even bigger project – tracking down graphics through Google image search. Found a good one for Lee Perry “Disco Devil.”

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble plays out at the Lovin’ Cup tonight with the great Corey Wilkes on trumpet. How great is he? He filled the trumpet slot for the Art Ensemble when Lester Bowie passed away. I took this movie of Kahil El’Zabar’s drum solo last time they played the Village Gate.

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Ala Franz Kline

Fallen trees in winter ala Franz Kline
Fallen trees in winter ala Franz Kline

Scenes like this, scattered throughout the woods, always draw my attention. It would be such a drag if all the trees stood upright. Natures battlefields make the woods so much more interesting than parks or people’s well tended property. Trees die and sometimes take out others when they go. Micro bursts of wind take out whole sections of the woods. Lightning brings down the tallest trees. Our hiking and ski paths get rearranged by the carnage. It’s all very dramatic like big bold rough and tumble charcoal drawings or Franz Kilne paintings.

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Changing The Channel

Duane Sherwood shot many of the Personal Effects videos back in the day so it is only natural that he would want the best quality of his videos up there. Copies of his videos were posted years ago when YouTube’s standards were lower and if you don’t have a channel YouTube will make one for you with those clips. So we set up a Personal Effects Channel last night and Duane is posting better quality videos as I write this.

On the other side of the coin he found some live footage of the band performing at the Community Playhouse in the SouthWedge nearly thirty years ago. Not sure who shot it, maybe Russ Lunn, but this stuff is low quality, underground and I love it. Duane masterminded the visuals, co-ordinated the dancers and prop guys and ran the light show.

Reset the counters.

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Third Generation

Bleu Cease, Peter Monacelli, Kurt Kurt Feuerherm and Kristine Bouyoucos at Maker Mentor 2013 show at Rochester Contemporary
Bleu Cease, Peter Monacelli, Kurt Kurt Feuerherm and Kristine Bouyoucos at Maker Mentor 2013 show at Rochester Contemporary

WXXI hosted the Rochester premier of the “The Central Park Five” at the Little Theater last night. There was a reception beforehand in the café and we planned to attend but we were so close to finishing the wood trim around in our new room that we stayed and slugged it out. Our methods have evolved through experience and most importantly our mistakes. We measure twice and cut once and we sneak up on tight fittings by cutting pieces a little large, trying them and then fine tuning. And Peggi and I are a damn good team when it comes to ripping long pieces the Sears table saw that we inherited from our former neighbor, Leo Pfeiffer.

We finished in time to make it to the opening of Makers/Mentors at Rochester Contemporary. The mentor, Kurt Feuerherm, was my mentor as well back in the seventies and his influence was evident in the work of the three makers, evident in the three makers, Peter Monacelli, Kristine Bouyoucos and Patricia Dreher. I managed to glom on to a photo op with three of the featured artists. California-based Patricia Dreher was not in the house but her Stinson Beach Winter Light Series and several paintings of the Port of Oakland were beautiful. This is an especially strong show. Pete Monacelli’s abstract interpretations of downtown Rochester, entitled “Midtown Transfiguration,” are outstanding and Kurt’s abstract landscapes are sensational.

Pete normally teaches at MCC on Thursdays so last night’s opening was a field trip for his students. Their assignment was to take in the show and interview Kurt Feuerherm.

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