PopWars – Page 173 – Coke vs. Pepsi ~ that sort of thing.

October 15, 2009August 23, 2019

Considering The Space

In painting class last week our teacher, Fred Lipp, was discussing his painting that was recently on display in the faculty show. It is a tour de force and it was a pleasure to hear him discuss it. He talked about his approach to creating this work and coincidentally it overlapped with the way he teaches us to think about our work.

Fred guides us by constantly reminding us to address the worst first and the whole trick is to be able to identify the “the worst.”. And if you don’t start a piece by throwing down a whole lot of “worst” you will have a lot less headaches. It is important to consider the space, the white rectangle, the whole, right from the onset.

Fred strives to achieve maximum results from minimal information so that very first mark must work with the space. “Always address the whole”. Fred says he knows what he is after but he doesn’t know how he will do it. That is the adventure. And he has the confidence to know he can pull it off. He thrives on improvisation and each move is a dialog with the whole.

The Little Theater has a promo display of free New Yorker magazines and I grabbed one between sets at last night’s Margaret Explosion gig. Peter Schjeldahl reviewed a retrospective of the Flemish artist, Luc Tuymans, on display in Columbus, Ohio. Although I had never hear of him, Schjeldahl described him as “the most challenging painter in the recent history of the art.” Tuymans was quoted as saying, “untill I get to the middle of the process — its horific. It’s like I don’t know what I’m doing but I know how to do it, and it’s very strange.” Schjeldahl says this, “— uncertain ends, confident means is as good a general definition of creativity as I know.

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October 14, 2009August 23, 2019

Bomb Shelter Supplies

Chipmunk With Nut in Fall, Rochester, NY

Just the like the chipmunks we gathered the Fall’s bounty for the upcoming winter. We pulled carrots and we promised our neighbor, Leo, that we would make him some carrot juice. He recently had his palette removed and he’s on a liquid diet. We dug up potatoes. We picked the last of the acorn squash. We rounded up the green tomatoes and put them in a paper bag. Our tomatoes had the blight so we pulled the plants out by the roots and put them in the trash. We picked a few heads of purple cabbage and the last of our jalapeño peppers. Peggi already canned seven quarts of jalapeños so we might try freezing these like Tom Kohn does.

And we have our eye on one the pumpkins that Monica grew in the garden. It’s a good size but still dark green. We wore ourselves out putting the garden to bed. I might need an expresso in order to get through tonight’s Margaret Explosion gig.

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October 13, 2009August 23, 2019

Allow Comments

I couldn’t resist walking up into someone’s yard to take this shot this morning of these three balls on a trampoline. I did this after reading a new sign that someone else had put up on a willow tree at the edge of his property, where his yard meets the golf course. Peggi pointed out the new sign, a store bought “No Trespassing” thing, and we noticed the guy had already commented on his own post. At the bottom he added “This Means You”. Of course I pulled out a pen and added, “Not Me!.”

I think I know who he was addressing with this sign. We saw someone on his property a few weeks ago with a baseball hat, parka, cane and plastic bag with golf balls in it. I felt as though I was getting a glimpse of my future. In fact this property owner hollered at me last year when I darted out on his lawn to pick up a glistening golf ball. What did I do? Bend some blades of grass? All he has is lawn out there and he has to mow it every week because it gets so much sun. Someone I work with was complaining about how he was getting tired of mowing the lawn and he said he has a new mower that goes ten miles an hour and yet it still takes him three hours to mow his lawn. I’m generalizing here but only idiots have more than twenty percent of there property devoted to a lawn. That figure is probably too generous.

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October 11, 2009August 23, 2019

You Can’t Reheat A Soufflé

I could have put on the Velvet Underground box set that I bought, ripped and then filed away but I was still diggin my new turntable so I reached for the “The Velvet Underground & Nico” lp which I noticed is only labeled “Andy Warhol” on the front of the album. And then there is that tiny type up top that says, “Peel Slowly And See”. My copy has the upside down Billy Name photo on the back but it’s beat to hell and the banana skin is missing. I put it on and played the Dean & Britta Warhol Screen Test dvd without the sound. The scratchy VU vinyl sounded fantastic and then ultra-fantastic when Nico’s screen test came on.

Our Friday night was just beginning though. We hopped in the car to ride over to the Village Gate where Cuong Vu was playing with Rochester’s Ted Poor on drums. On the way the Velvets came on the ipod and transported us. Cuong had two bass players and all sorts of knob twisting (see photo above). They were too loud for the space and a little too muscular when stacked against the Velvets but they sounded great once we were inside the record store. They reminded me of those early jazz rock combos like Tony Williams Lifetime and John McLaughlin’s Devotion.

Antony appearing in Lou Reed's Berlin — Antony appearing in Lou Reed’s Berlin

Back home we put our latest Netflix selection on, “Lou Reed’s Berlin”. Lou’s guitar sounded amazing and there were some brilliant moments but Berlin was a pretty dreary lp the first time around and this monstrous production couldn’t disguise that. The Schnabel footage of models in heat was pure crap and the backup singer stole the show.

We cued up the extras a watched Elvis Costell interview Lou and Schnabel. Schnabel wouldn’t let Lou talk and when he declared that he and Lou were best friends we thought we saw Lou wince.

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October 9, 2009August 23, 2019

Out There

Detail of Fred Lipp Watercolor “Out There” 2009

My snapshot does not do this beautiful painting justice. It is a watercolor by Fred Lipp entitled “Out There” and it is on display in the Lucy Byrne Gallery in the Memorial Art Gallery. I suggest you stop by and see it. This painting does so much with space that it almost becomes sculptural. And it shares its name with one of my favorite Eric Dolphy songs.

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October 8, 2009August 23, 2019

I Scan The Woods

I picked up a few more leaves in the woods and put them on my scanner

Peggi and I finished up the InDesign files for a live Margaret Explosion cd. I used the “Custom Quote” feature at Discmakers and found that 300 copies of their digipaks were almost as much as 1000. And 500 actually cost more than 1000 because there is a “$200 off special” on the 1000 quantity. So much for a limited edition. Unlike most live cds this one is all new, spontaneously composed, material.

I dropped a painting off at the MAG for an upcoming show in the Creative Workshop gallery and then stopped at Sparky‘s house to say hi but he wasn’t home. I headed over to Sound Source to buy a used turntable. They had quite a few pick from. I chose a used, dj style, Stanton. You have to pick the arm up and drop the needle and when the record gets to the end the tone arm just sits in that rut but it does start on a dime if you want to cue up a tune. The speed is adjustable and it even runs in reverse. Peggi’s mom came over for dinner and the first record we played was Nino Rota’s sound track to Fellini’s “Amacord”. Peggi’s mom loved it.

Talked to Duane tonight. He had a fifteen minute eye operation in NYC and his doctor gave him some Suicide style dark glasses and arranged for a driver to take him back to Brooklyn in the back seat of a Lincoln.

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October 7, 2009August 23, 2019

Endless Parade

I picked up a few leaves in the woods and put them on my scanner

We went to the Hall of Justice by mistake and got caught up in all the wild press coverage of Greece Police Chief Merritt Rahn’s trial. By the time we got over to City Court the Bulldozer Man had pleaded not guilty and a trial date was set for October 21 at 9:30. We watched about an hour’s worth of young black men as they were arraigned by Judge Elliot. All had public defenders. And then one white shaved head guy in a suit appeared before the Judge with his lawyer. He was looking for some sort of hardship ruling that would let him drive his daughter to daycare even though his license had been revoked for drunk driving. Judge Elliot was very entertaining and he knew it. How else could he get through this endless parade. You could probably stop and and watch any day in you’re downtown.

Rob Storms will be showing his movies of this year’s Burning Man Festival tonight at the Little Theater Café. Margaret Explosion will provide the soundtrack. Big thanks to Marc at Hamilton AV for providing the projector and screen. You won’t believe your eyes or your ears! Hope to see you out.

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October 5, 2009April 4, 2019

Anthony Pilato Trail

Bulldozer Man plows his own road through Monroe County Park

Tomorrow morning, at 9:30 in Rochester City Court in the Public Safety Building, Anthony Pilato will be arraigned on charges stemming from his “improvements” to the undeveloped part of Durand Eastman Park. Larry Staub, Director of Monroe County Parks, said “He admitted to using a bulldozer and hiring some people with chainsaws to come in and help him. He was taking this narrow footpath and widening it to a thoroughfare. … I’ve never seen anything as wildly offensive as this.”

We’ve taken the path several times since and find it so sad that someone would do this to such a beautiful part of the woods. Anyone who watched the Ken Burns National Parks series could see what a heroic effort it took to set aside park land from development. We have learned that Lisa who lives on Spring Valley called both the town of Irondequoit and the DEC when she heard the “bulldozer man” tearing up the woods. Neither one of of those calls where acted upon until the bulldozer came out the other end of the park. Ken Burns could have used some footage of this 72 year old guy driving a bulldozer through the park.

Ah, but it’s not the “end of the world”. Take a look at the So Many Records, So Little Time site today.

Additional coverage can be found at Channel 8, and Channel 13, Democrat & Chronicle and Irondequoit Post.

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October 4, 2009May 8, 2019

Floating Our Boats

View from Pultneyville Yacht Club on Lake Ontario

Water is also a symbol of cleansing, healing, new life or spiritual rebirth, creative potential, the unconscious and the feminine. All sounds pretty good.

Our friends, Rich and Andrea, just bought a houseboat in Sausalito. They plan to give up their apartment in SF and live on the thing. Sounds like a dream.

Saturday was a gorgeous day here, near 70 and sunny, and it looked all the more beautiful out on Lake Ontario. Jon Flowerday invited us to cruise on his 23 foot yacht so we hooked up out in the historic village of Pultneyville and sailed from Bear Creek towards Sodus Bay. It was just fantastic being out on the Lake, in his steady hands, back to the wind. It was a dream.

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October 3, 2009August 23, 2019

Art Channel

Harold Copp Painting #754 at Four Walls Gallery in Rochester, NY

First Friday of the month usually means gallery hopping for us. The First Friday website doesn’t list them all but we usually check the list before heading out. Cool video installation at RoCo although it was a little hard to hear the soundtrack so we were sort of lost as to what it was all about. We ran into a guy that had just moved here three days ago from LA. He works for a company that makes sustainable clothing and Wegmans has just taken on the line. It’s made from hemp and recycled plastic. He was wearing a few of the pieces and they looked great.

We stopped in the Four Wall’s Gallery and took in Harold Copp’s show. He mixes silkscreen and painting in some pretty interesting ways. There are a lot more than four walls here in the basement of the Elton Street warehouse. Shawn Dunwoody has a pretty cool setup here that offers art programs to city kids. There was a band playing but they blew the sound system.

We finished the evening in surreal fashion as we watched tivo’d footage of John Gilmore art being sold on the AANtv network. If I understand this right, John bought the art from these people in the first place and he was now turning a profit on it as they auctioned it off again.

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October 2, 2009August 23, 2019

Culver Road

Outside of high school in Webster and a few years in Indiana I have lived my whole life near Culver Road. It runs north and south from Cobbs Hill Park in the city to Lake Ontario. I never get tired of traveling it. Although the ride above looks pretty comfy it is best experienced on bike.

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September 30, 2009August 23, 2019

Often In Error – Never In Doubt

Duck on a log in a pond at Durand Eastman Park in Rochester, NY — Duck on a log in a pond at Durand Eastman Prak in Rochester, NY

The trails in the woods were littered with acorns and chestnuts this morning and a nut fell right on my head. It’s harvest time for squirrels. We spotted this duck across one of the ponds in the park.

We heard from a neighbor down the street that our next door neighbor’s dog “grabbed my shirt”. Let’s get this straight. The dog came up behind me and it bit my ass. As soon as I heard it I put my hands in the air. About ten years ago I made the mistake of putting the back of my hand out for a stray dog to sniff. It bit my hand and wouldn’t let go. I had to rip it out. I spent the afternoon in Emergency getting injections of Human Globulin directly into the wounds and then about ten stitches in my fingers. There was a month of rabies shots because I couldn’t remember if the dog had a collar. I couldn’t play drums for for about three months. I still like dogs though.

Duane sent me an email entitled “The End Of PopWars”. I clicked on the link.

We have a picture somewhere of Peggi and me standing in front of the Salvador Dali Museum in Figueras with our A&R Report t-shirts on, “Often In Error – Never In Doubt” on the front. Or at least one of us is wearing the shirt. I can’t remember, it was so long ago! Anyway we still use that phrase at appropriate moments. The A&R Report was published between 1984 and 1992 and the entire collection is now online.

Margaret Explosion plays the Little Theater tonight and John Gilmore will be in the house. It is always a good night when John shows up. Peggi is reading Dean Wareham’s memoir, “Black Postcards“. and we plan to do songs influenced by Dean & Britta who were influenced by the Velvet Underground.

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September 28, 2009August 23, 2019

Bite My Ass

Poor man's survey transit — Poor man’s survey transit

Our neighbor on one side is digging a drainage ditch for the rain run off that rolls down our street. He call’s this set up his poor man’s transit. With the aid of the level he sited the posts that describe the outside perimeter of the pond and plans to grade the basin and build up a berm on the downhill side.

Our neighbor on the other side has a “Senior for Seniors” dog that he got from Lollipop Farm. The dog is twelve years old and who knows what kind of a past it has had. We were walking across his yard the other day, talking and not really paying attention, when the dog darted at us from rear. It grabbed a hold of my rear end and had it’s mouth opened too wide to really chomp down. I could hardly shake it loose and when I did it ripped my Tommy Hilfiker sweat shirt with its teeth. The shirt is a hand me down from Peggi’s father and only has sentimental value at this point. When I got home I found teeth marks in my ass.

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September 27, 2009August 23, 2019

Dean & Britta Screen Tests

Dean & Britta at Lovin' Cup in Rochester, New York — Dean & Britta at Lovin’ Cup in Rochester, New York

The dreary weather this morning was the perfect setting for viewing Dean & Bitta’s “13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests”. We bought the dvd from Dean Wareham after his reading at Record Archive yesterday. Released in conjunction with The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh the dvd features Nico, Lou Reed, Edie Sedgwick and Dennis Hopper sitting for Warhol’s silent film portraits. But the films aren’t silent anymore because Dean and Britta have provided a beautiful soundtrack.

We knew nothing about Galaxie 500, Luna or Dean & Britta except that Angel Corpus Christi likes them. And then Casey form Mex called with his offer to pick up tickets for Dean & Britta’s appearance at the Lovin’ Cup in Henrietta out next to RIT. It was total immersion for us, bartender John John playing Luna tracks at Mex and listing all the covers the band used to do, Dean reading from his tour diary at the Record Archive, Dean & Britta in concert and then the gorgeous dvd. The thing that ties all these projects together is the Velvet Underground, the best rock band of all time. How can you go wrong? We loved it.

Hotel Reverie opened the show last night and sounded great. You can almost forget you’re in the suburbs when the band starts. The club has the right idea with no chair or tables in front of the band and the room sounds great.

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September 26, 2009August 23, 2019

Testing 1, 2, 1, 2

Rubble Bucket at Record Archive in Rochester, NY

Alayna sent us a press release from the Record Archive announcing the appearance of Rubble Bucket on stage in the store at 5 o’clock last night. They were described as a “polyrhythmic nine piece dance band” with comparisons to Fela Kuti, James Brown and Bjork so we dutifully headed over there after work. We were late as usual but he band was running late too so we caught their soundcheck. Sound checks are often the most interesting part of a band’s performance. The interaction between members without their stage persona, what they play while getting their sound, the words they use to test the mics are all more revealing than the songs they perform.

Dick Storms told us the band was on Wease’s show in the morning and Scott Regan’s show midday but hardly anyone showed up for their free performance here. I think that says something about the demographic of those shows. This young jam band has all the right old school influences. I hope a younger crowd found them at their club appearance later last night.

We headed over to Casey’s to pick up the tickets he bought us for tonight’s performance by Dean and Brita. We hadn’t been to Mex in a while and I was happy to see the mural was aging gracefully after almost ten years. The plaster chips and scratches and dings all contribute to tipico ambiance. John played Luna tracks from his ipod in bar downstairs and the food upstairs was better than ever.

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September 25, 2009August 23, 2019

In Ovo

In egg. In embryo. “In Ovo“, a show by local artist, Illa Loeb, may still be up at Nazareth’s Margaret Colacino Gallery. The show officially ended yesterday but the student run space is still accessible. We saw the show with Peggi’s mom and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Peggi wheeled her mom from piece to piece while providing a running, descriptive commentary. The heroic commentary was intended to engage her mom while her defenses are down. Peggi’s mom loves art and we love art but the art that we love hardly ever overlaps. We have seen a lot of art together and difficult, non literal art heightens the experience for both of us.

Illa Loeb, a former student of Fred Lipp, creates luscious, painterly, three dimensional art. Her work has an intensely physical hands on feel. You want to touch her work and she does exactly that. She photographs herself wearing her pieces like clothing or aprons. She created “An Alphabet” of with charcoal and vaseline on her mouth and transferred the look of the letters on her lips to paper. Photos of this process are on view on a monitor but you have to ask the student attendee to turn it on.

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September 23, 2009August 23, 2019

Slow Down

We stopped to watch this turtle today up on the Spring Valley trail that the Bulldozer Man reworked. I’m glad the turtle didn’t get run over by the guy. Can you imagine being on the park trail when this 72 year old drove through on a bulldozer? It still seems like a bad dream. People say the trail will come back but the narrow path that wound its way around hillsides will never come back. It is now a ten foot wide, muddy road. The vegetation will come back especially the invasive species. Life goes on. This turtle doesn’t seem to mind.

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September 22, 2009August 23, 2019

Puff The Magic Dragon

PuffBall, Golf Balls, Horseshoes and Deer Antlers

It was kind of nice when my parents liked the same kind of music as us kids did. But that didn’t last long. Bob Dylan parted the waters a few years after “Puff the Magic Dragon.” Sad to see Mary go.

I took this photo about midnight last night. Brian Peterson called us from Pep Boys on East Ridge where he was returning a huge truck that he and John Gilmore rented to drive a bunch of John’s art down to Florida for auction. Brian needed a ride to his house. I had forgotten that our neighbor delivered this giant Puffball to our front door while we were working. I guess we could have had it for dinner. We’ve eaten puffballs with Pete and Shelley but we were afraid to eat wild mushrooms without an expert.

I jumped in the pool while Peggi was checking the chemicals. It is still swimming weather in western New York but the temp has dropped to 66 so it was refreshing. It temporarily removed the stress from my dental situation.

I had about a hundred line drawings that I was chopping out of a pdf and putting online as jpegs for a client. The lines in the original were very faint. I couldn’t improve the drawings much in Photoshop’s Levels so I searched online and found a cool video that was posted by Shedge Pranay that explains how to use the Filters/Other/Minimum command to thicken a line. The video is only a minute long but it took me three plays to understand his English. He sounds like the early computer voices. Really quite charming.

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September 21, 2009August 23, 2019

Falling Apart

I have been on a winning streak in horseshoes for about the last month. My friend and neighbor, Rick, has challenged me to more games than ever in this period and for some reason I keep beating him. In the dentist office I have been on a losing streak. The English are supposed to have bad teeth but the Irish must have worse. My whole family is cursed.

The picture above shows the last four teeth on the top left side of my mouth. I had a root canal on number one about two years ago. That tooth is a wisdom tooth and the roots were goofy so he could not complete the job. Since it didn’t hurt after the first stage of the root canal my regular dentist decided to fill it and see how long it lasts. Tooth number two started acting up this summer but my dentist could not find the cavity. I went back last week and he still couldn’t find it so he sent me for a root canal. That guy found decay in my root and said, “I can’t complete the root canal. One and two should be pulled and I would recommend an implant where one is and another one where tooth number three is. And then a bridge that runs from tooth number one to three.”

I started asking around about implants. Jeffery had nerve damage in his cheek as a result. Shelley described the sensation of a dentist pounding an implant in to her bone with a hammer. Jeff said his jaw was broken. Steve said they had to do a done graft with material from cadavers. Margie talked about sinus lifts. It is surprising how many people have these things but I can hardly sleep at night. I’m considering something you snap in instead.

Rich sent me (via YouSendIt) a 70 meg movie of his root canal. I love that.

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September 20, 2009August 23, 2019

New Tricks, Old Dog

I shot this dark movie in Steve Hoy’s trailer in Tennessee.

I was laying in the outline of a head and fussing with trying to get it right but I couldn’t when it dawned on me that I should always be painting the whole thing at once. I moved on, addressing the whole instead of beating up the parts and I had much better luck. I already knew this.

More photos from Tennessee

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