You spelled “is” wrong.
Leave a commentLittle Personhood
A Mano Di Monacelli
Joe Bean’s is not the best place for an art show but any place is better than no space for an art show. Peter Monacelli, who taught drawing for two decades at MCC has a beautiful show at the coffee bar, mounted high on the wall and unevenly lit. The drawings are part of a series based on the words from the song “Follow” on Richie Havens 1967 album “Mixed Bag.” The one above is entitled “But now silver leaves on mirrors bring delight,” after one of the lines in the song. Peter brought the cd with him last night to the opening but we never heard it. And he assured us he was not dead yet. A fourth cousin with the same name had recently died and Peter and his wife fielded thirty or so condolence calls. One told Gloria, “We lost Pete.”
1 CommentI Don’t Wanna Grow Up
When our Netflix queue ran dry we put out the word and loaded it up with recommendations from friends. We lost track of who recommended what but I’m pretty sure our friends A & R pointed us toward “Momma’s Man“.
We watched the movie a couple nights ago and were transfixed by it. A low budget movie with the director’s parents ((avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs and painter Flo Jacobs, shown third and second from the right in this photo) playing versions of themselves in the fourth floor Manhattan walkup he grew up in. The director, in the form of Mickie, comes home and wallows in his adolescence. We saved the extras for the next night and the movie only got better. Instead of the director talking over the movie he dispensed with a rerun of the visuals and recorded a conversation with his parents about the movie, a minimal masterpiece, that deepens the movie’s impact.
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Transcendency
Remember PIL’s performance on American Bandstand? It was one of those transcendent moments of rock n’ roll bliss. We watched it live and hadn’t seen it until we followed this link on the Mojo site. I had a scare last week when SMR almost reached the one week mark without a new post. Turns out it was just a temporary lapse and it’s come roaring back with posts on Kraftwerk and early Swamp Dogg.
Rochester’s favorite realtor, Rome Celli, had his yearly bash last night treating his past and present clientele to popcorn and a movie at the Little Theater. We chose the Descendants, which featured a realtor, and then squeezed in to the café where Annie Wells was playing with a big band. Her ethereal, upper register voice was lost in the din but we did get to hear a bit of a Dave Ripton song on the way out.
I picked up a City Newspaper and was thrilled to find Frank DeBlase back in the saddle after his hospital tweak. Frank’s writing doesn’t get sidetracked with the back story crap. He goes right for the gut and conveys music’s potential for transcendent moments.
Savoring Winter
It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who loves gnarly trees in winter.
Leave a commentWho Are You Wearing?
I missed the Red Carpet opening to the Oscar’s but Peggi filled me in. The big question was “Who are you wearing?” Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen, Elie Saab and Valentino.
I looked down at what I was wearing and compiled this list. A green Archive Records t-shirt with a black sweater from Banana Republic over that, black jeans, regular cut, from Lee with blue Fruit of the Loom underwear below, black socks (I usually buy them in three packs and picked these up in Sears) and then a pair of black Timberland shoes. I’m basically an “off the rack” kinda guy.
Leave a commentGift Shop
Funny how we have not yet outdone mid-century modern. You’d think we’d be pushing it as far as it can go instead leaving it behind as retro. “Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design” at the Memorial Art Gallery touches on the art in design of that period and has quite a few pieces that I wouldn’t mind bringing home. If they had just mass produced the work in the show and turned the main gallery space into the gift shop it would have all made sense.
“Modern Icon : The Machine as Subject in American Art’, next door in the smaller Lockhart Gallery is where the art is. Robert Frank’s “Trolley Car, New Orleans” from his Americans series, a beautiful John Marin etching called “Downtown New York”, A Thomas Hart Benton ink and watercolor drawing and this wonder from Buffalo artist and visionary, Charles Burchfield. You can almost hear the telegraph.
Leave a comment2,000,000 Toothpicks
If you’re lucky you’ll catch Stan Munro at the Assisi Institute on North Winton. He has a table set up near his “Sacred Structures” exhibit where he’s working on a new model. He wasn’t there when we stopped in but we saw his work area. He doesn’t need much, toothpicks, Elmer’s Glue and an incredible amount of patience. It took him five years to construct the nearly thirty buildings at 1:164 scale that are on display here. We heard the Sagrada Familia was one of them and we were just at the 1:1 version so had to check this out. Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia was the most complicated for Munro but not even close to the largest. The Grand Mosque at Mecca dwarfs Notre Dame, St. Patrick’s, and the Vatican shattering my Judeo/Christian view of the world.
Leave a commentThe Great Outdoors In A Glass
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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Ash Wednesday
They sure know how to celebrate life in Brazil. I’m thinking about what I used to give up for Lent.
I’m also thinking about who to paint. I’ve been working on the same batch of mugshots for a few years now, doing them in oil and then pencil and then tempera and even a few watercolors. Lately I’ve been working in charcoal, a medium I find very malleable. You can white out tempura but it gets messy and watercolor is almost impossible to go backwards in but a good eraser can really tear up a charcoal drawing. Maybe I should paint the twelve apostles.
9 CommentsNothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing
Scientists love mysteries and no scientist shares that love like Laurence M. Kraus. Of course I don’t know many scientists but I did share the article on Krauss’ new best selling book in this morning’s paper with the scientist/neighbor/friend down the street.
“A Universe From Nothing” book excerpt | review | video
Leave a commentEarth Above Man
I’ve spent the last day thinking about Rick Santorum’s observation that Obama has “a world view that elevates the earth above man.” I still going with the earth.
The coolest thing about a blog is the database. It is so damn organized. I use it to keep track of things. Every year we spot these little yellow flowers (Winter Aconite or Eranthis hyemalis) popping through the snow and since there has been a dearth of the white stuff this year the yellow flowers were up yesterday on February 19th. How much earlier is that than the last few years? I went to the db. The yellow flowers were spotted on March 9th in 2009 and March 10th in 2010.
Leave a commentMi Ricordo
Margaret Explosion plays an early show at Abilene tonight in the swanky upstairs lounge at 7:30. We’ll be performing a soundtrack to a collection of silent circus movies. Admission is free. Peggi has been warming up for the gig by playing sax along with Nino Rota’s soundtrack to Fellini’s Amacord. We have the lp but the digital files at Amazon were only $6.99 ($9.99 at Apple) so we downloaded a fresh copy. Don’t expect as many key changes tonight.
Leave a commentBecause He Is Awesome!
Our neighbors, Rick and Monica, gave Peggi a “Watch It Grow!’ Jesus kit for her birthday. You drop the pint size figure into a glass of water and watch as it increases in size up to 600 percent. Two days in and the little guy was still lying on the bottom of our glass with his arms outstretched. I was skeptical. Of course, I was skeptical of the Resurrection in my Catholic youth. I took this photo a few days ago but this morning he is twice the size and standing up in the glass!
I’ve been following the Jeremy Linsanity story and his quote, “I believe in an all powerful and all-knowing God who does miracles” stuck with me. Mostly because I started singing that song.
2 CommentsSpring Is In The Air
The lemon yellow, non fragrant witch-hazel and orange sweet smelling witch-hazel are both in full bloom on leafless trees in Durand Eastman Park. We usually don’t see the yellow stuff until March but this is no usual winter here.
1 Comment4D
Back in college I let my roommate, Steve Hoy, write a paper for me. It was an English class of some sort and a creative writing exercise so the topic was wide open. Steve wrote a Sci-Fi like paper about time as the “Fourth Dimension.” It received an “A” with a little note that read “Very nice Mr. Dodd.” It was the best mark I ever got in that class.
Craig, who used to be in our painting class but is now across the hall in a figure drawing class, said “The Artist was a good movie but Hugo is a great movie.” Peggi and I loved The Artist so Hugo became a must see.
It is amazing that both movies cover such similar territory in similar time periods, France, dogs and movie making but there were some striking differences. The Little Theater was packed for the Monday night showing of The Artist. Regal Cinema in Culver Ridge Plaza was almost empty. There were three other people in the theater with us with the 3D glasses on. The Artist was whacky and fun while Hugo was steady and sure footed. It felt too long about three quarters in and I started thinking about how much money the movie must have cost. I vote for The Artist.
Five of the movies playing at Regal Cinema were in 3D. I’m waiting for 4D.
Leave a commentWe Found Love In A Hopeless Place
A foot of snow changes everything. We cut the trail through the woods, skied along the ridge up to the lake and even took a loop around the luge hill. We were so tired we decided to sit on the couch and watch the Grammys.
Our “over the air” connection kept breaking up so we may have misread some of the intent but this is what we got. Bruce kicked it off with a pumped up, selfish sounding, ‘god is on our side’, pep rally anthem, setting the tone for the evening where it became clear that all of the successful songs repeat one line for the length of the tune. “We take care of our own.”
MC LL Cool J said a prayer to the heavenly father! Bruno Marks, a combination of Little Richard, Prince and a gay James Brown, had the best line of the night when told the crowd to “get off their rich asses.” An athletic Chris Brown auto tuned “Put your hands in the air.” Reba McEntire has had some serious work done on her face. Rihanna sang “We found love in a hopeless place” 64 times.
Lady Gaga was in the front row and caught in some sort of netting. The Beach Boys looked like they were curiosities in a songwriting museum. Unlike the guy in a cowboy hat who won an award, Taylor Swift was cute and actually sounded country. An alien looking Katy Perry sang “This is the part of me that you’re never gonna ever take away from me” over and over. The Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl lectured us about music. “Long live rock and roll.” Please. They couldn’t get this guy off the stage and even cut to him dancing to the big mouse dj.
Adele can really belt out a tune. Bon Iver managed to look disheveled in a suit as he thanked his parents. Jennifer Hudson sounded great singing Dolly Parton’s song in tribute to Whitney Houston. They should have just shown that clip, read a list of the award winners and edited out the rest. Instead we went three hours and then turned the thing off at eleven before Sir Paul did his Beatle thing.
2 CommentsFrozen Salamander
It was fairly cold today, just below freezing but nowhere near typical February weather for this part of the country. The daffodils in our back yard are up, maybe four or five inches. We’ve only skied a few times and are still waiting for a good storm. We spotted this salamander in the middle of a trail and thought he was was dead. I rolled him over with a stick and he started wiggling his vestigial looking legs so I rolled back and he slinked away.
Leave a commentRed Rumped Agoutis
Yesterday a federal judge ruled that whales do not deserve constitutional protection against slavery when held captive in a marina. Meanwhile we were celebrating Peggi’s birthday at the zoo marveling at the snow leopard, orangutans, Madagascar cockroaches, Burmese pythons, laughing hyenas, Amur tiger, bald eagles, Mexican wolves, Red Rumped Agoutis and King vultures. We spent a good part of the afternoon with the sea lions who were having a ball jumping in and out of the water and playing with buckets. The two youngest sea lions had lost an eye and the use of a flipper and were rescued. The eagles were injured in the wild and can’t fly but sat atop some fairly tall trees out in the open at the zoo, quite a dramatic sight. No signs of slavery here.
The King Bees have a very cool scene going over at The Beale in the Southwedge on Wednesday nights. They play an opening set of standards from the rock era like seasoned pros and then gracefully turn the spotlight on the musicians in waiting. Last night they had four tenor saxophones, one played by a sixteen year old whose parents sat in the front table. Drummer Pete Monacelli’s wife, Gloria, sits off to the left with her knitting circle and the Buffalo Sabres game is on the tv above the stage.
Leave a commentThe Artist
I thought “The Artist” was about an artist. And I thought it was going to be silent, like really silent, without any musical accompaniment. I imagined listening to people squirming in their seats but I was happily wrong on all counts. I should accept the fact that actors are artists and I do but it’s not he first thing I think of when someone talks about art.
Maureen Outlaw took this photo last night and emailed it to me from class. I work on these charcoal drawings at arms length and hold them up to a mirror to get an overview while scrubbing away with my eraser. I’ve noticed that I spend more time drawing with the eraser than I do making marks with the charcoal stick. I stuck them up on the wall at class while I addressed Fred Lipp’s criticism and moved across the room to get another perspective. Some work better in your face. This camera phone photo is yet another vantage point and they are all informative. Fred told me they look “tough”, adding, “That’s a compliment.” They could be a lot tougher.
I loved “The Artist” and how it kept playing with the vantage points of filmmaking, the movie within the movie and the movie being projected in front of us which we were made more keenly aware of because of the absence of dialog. The theater was packed and I was aware of the oversized people crammed in the seats ahead of us. Skip Bataglia’s “Car Crash Opera”, a seven minute animated short which ran before the movie was sensational. In class a fellow student Craig said told my father, who is also in the class, that he looked like the librarian in “Hugo.” So that has been added to our queue.
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