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Definitely Not The Norm

Peggi digs out a stump
Peggi digs out a stump

Peggi and I had been chipping away at this big tree stump for about a week. It was here when we moved in and we thought we would get rid of it once and for all. In fact we already had a new Rhododendron bush sitting in a pot waiting to go in the hole. We bought it at WalMart. We were there on other business and we wandered into the “Garden Center”. Peggi asked a worker if they had any lilacs and she took her over to some small purple hyacinths that were blooming. Peggi asked the clerk if she had ever been to Highland Park for the Lilac Festival and she said she hadn’t. So we bought a Rhododendron.

Time Warner sold us on a digital phone package that will reduce our RoadRunner bill and they were switching the lines but the install went bad and we were off line for most of the afternoon so we dove into this project. Our neighbor, Jerod, got involved and he brought his back hoe up to lift the stump out once we had cleared away most of the dirt. Time Warner couldn’t get our new modem to communicate with downtown and at one point we had four TW trucks out in our driveway. The supervisor told us “this was definitely not the norm”. That was oddly reassuring.

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Big Bottom

Margaret Explosion with two bass players, Ken Frank and Brian Williams
Margaret Explosion with two bass players, Ken Frank and Brian Williams

Bob Martin emailed yesterday to say he had the flu and wouldn’t be able to play the Margaret Explosion Little gig. Jaffe, who was planning on playing piano with us, emailed next to say he had car problems and wouldn’t be able to make the gig either. We tried posting a FB message to Phil Marshall and calling Jack Schaefer but both of them were booked. Steve Piper was there celebrating his birthday and we asked him to join us but he didn’t have his guitar with him so we did the gig as a trio. We set up the recorder but somehow failed to record the first set. We are really helpless without Bob.

We managed to get the thing in record for the second set and Brian Williams from “Bobby Henrie & The Goners” joined us for a few songs on double bass. “Talk about mud flaps”.

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Four Minutes To Fidget

Leo fixes our ceramic fish
Leo fixes our ceramic fish

Peggi was trying to bust the screen open in our kitchen and she knocked our ceramic fish off the widow ledge. We bought it at the Clothesline Show a long time ago and we never found a place to hang it in our new crib. Funny thing is the fish came from one of the nearby ponds that we walk and ski around. A tag on the back of it reads, “The mold for this fish was made by a Perch caught by Joe Lake in a pond of Durand Eastman Park in Rochester, NY in 1993.”

Rick Simpson suggested that we take the pieces over to our neighbor, Leo, who excels in glue applications. Leo chose a two part epoxy that looks black when it hardens. We tried holding the pieces together with nails, our hands and duct tape. We had four minutes to fidget. The seam is pretty visible but it is a whole again.

I sat down to talk to Sue Rogers at last Wednesday’s Margaret Explosion gig and I remember fidgeting with Scott Regan’s pens while we talked. Well, I found the pen in my pocket the next day. I’m bad. I will return it.

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A Lot More Work To Do

Cherry tree in bloom out front
Cherry tree in bloom out front

The Bop Shop’s Tom Kohn comes from a family of hunters and he told me he liked my post on the deer. He said he reads my blog every day now and this kind of threw me off so I didn’t post anything yesterday to throw him off.

I’ve been working on some six by sixes for the upcoming RoCo show. I spotted my stuff from last year in the bottom row of this photo. I submitted prints of paintings last year and never imagined they would sell. I really felt bad when they did, like I had ripped someone off. So this year I’m doing real, miniature paintings and it has been a lot of fun. Pete LaBonne was in town last week and he told us, “I have a lot more work to do before I record again. You know, to come up with something I can listen to when it’s done.” I know exactly what he means. That’s why I am happy to contribute art work to this RoCo show even tough they take 100% and even keep the ones that don’t sell. Like the Clothesline Show for the MAG, this is their largest fundraiser.

Our cherry tree blossoms came out today so I grabbed this shot while still in my pjs. Peggi and I spent about an hour this morning swinging a sledge hammer at an old stump in front of our house. It has been rotting since we moved in here it’s time to remove it. We borrowed a pointed sledge hammer from Rick and Monica. Monica had a name for the the tool that I have forgotten. It’s killer. I’m sore all over.

We took a walk and followed what sounded like the world’s biggest woodpecker. We used our ears as tracking devices while he worked away on tall hollow tree. When we got close but spooked him and watched as he flew to another tree. It was a beautiful Pileated, like Woody Woodpecker.

It’s Brad Fox‘s birthday today. We are the same age for two days. I plan on giving him a call as soon as I finish this entry.

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Outside The Box

Magnolias in bloom in Durand Eastman Park
Magnolias in bloom in Durand Eastman Park

With temperatures predicted to head into the eighties this weekend everybody is talking about the weather. Or at least everyone I saw today including the dental hygienist and my wife and Pete and Shelley. This will kick Spring into high gear and probably kill off the crocuses and the other early Spring flowers. Things move so fast this time of year that is mandatory that you get out there to watch. We walked up to Durand Eastman and checked out the magnolias. Shelley gathered some Pondarosa pine needles for the tiny little baskets she makes.

Pete LaBonne sat in with Margaret Explosion last night on the grand piano and Jaffe was there to watch. Tom Kohn from the Bop Shop was there and Scott Regan from WRUR. The band was on their best behavior and we made the bonus.

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I Like Lucinda

Timothy Horn's "Nerites" currently on view at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY
“Nerites” currently on view at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY

It figures we would run into Lucinda Storms at the opening of the glass show at the MAG. She was ogling Timothy Horn’s big jewelry piece entitled “Nerites” after the Greek god of shellfish and it was my favorite piece in the show. Lucinda was wearing her own creation – beautiful, organically shaped glass beads.

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Losing Ground


Click photo above for a movie of Ab Baars Trio with Kern Vandermark at the Bop Shop Attrium in Rochester NY

The Ab Baars Trio with Ken Vandermark was a treat for the ears last night. They are about twenty dates into a US tour. They played New York last night and are clearly on a roll. There was physical space around their instruments, I swear. You could hear each instrument clearly and the dialog was fascinating. I turned the movie function of my camera on about halfway into this Ken Vandermark piece called “Losing Ground”. The band is taking the train to Buffalo for a gig tonight and then they play Ken’s hometown, Chicago, for a few nights and that’s it.

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Peeper Symphony

Wetland humming in Spring
Wetland humming in Spring

Besides the eye candy, Spring comes with equally impressive scents and sounds. The nearby wetlands vibrate like a post modern symphony with small frogs (peepers) gurgling in unison to attract mates. It is as calming and beautiful as Tuvan throat singing monks but more organic, freer in time with overlapping monophonic harmonies. This is way beyond om.

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You Are Stuck With It

Easter display in house on Culver Road in Rochester, NY
Easter display in house on Culver Road in Rochester, NY

I rode my bike past this display in the front window of a house on Culver Road and couldn’t resist stopping to take a photo. Even after reading how that guy came out of his house and shot that kid. Someone who puts Easter animals in their window probably wouldn’t tote guns would they? This display is either a week late or these people are on the Eastern Orthodox calendar like our neighbor, Helen.

Raised as a Catholic, and still mystified by that whole thing, I was never taught the significance of the bunny and chick. You can hardly even speculate anymore with Wikipedia right at your fingertips but I would have guessed that the chick has something to do with being born again. And maybe that’s why Catholics scoffed at these pagan symbols. You are born Catholic and then stuck with it. You don’t have the option of being born again. I certainly knew the bunny showed up with the an overdose of candy just after we had given up candy for Lent but this guy was suspect too. The focus, of course, was supposed to be on the most suspect of all Catholic legends, the resurrection.

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Modern Art

Jem Vinxi painting currently on view at the Little Theater Cafe
Jem Vinxi painting currently on view at the Little Theater Cafe

Remember when modern art looked and was contemporary? It doesn’t matter, it still looks good and JEM Vinxi who is currently showing at the Little Theater Cafe almost makes it look fresh. Not quite landscapes or representational but structural and decorative. They’re old fashioned modern art paintings and I like them.

Margaret Explosion got stuck in a few ruts last night and it wasn’t the paintings fault. Somehow we managed to shoot ourselves in the foot. There is still a fine line between modern art and junk or spontaneous composition and jamming.

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Sparky Doll Discovery

Sparky Doll purchased at Small Word Books on North Street in Rochester, NY
Sparky Doll purchased at Small Word Books on North Street in Rochester, NY

Sparky Doll purchased at Small Word Books on North Street in Rochester, NY

It wasn’t even a close call to pick our favorite Sparky doll from the fourteen on display at Small World Books on North Street. Peggi picked this one up for two bucks. The owner, Rocco, let me photograph all fourteen while we hung around talking. He told me these things are pretty common in New England.

Sparky Dolls found at Small World Books in Rochester, New York

I had to call Sparky this morning to check in on him. We were neighbors for twenty some years and I kept track of him when we lived in the city. We even developed a mythological site devoted to him and I’m sorry to report I don’t have any new episodes for it.

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Maybe It Is The Packaging

"Jenny" as pictured in a Genesee Beer promotional item
“Jenny” as pictured in a Genesee Beer promotional picture

This morning’s “Beer Guys” column in our incredibly shrinking newspaper was about seasonal bock beers. Legend has it they were originally brewed by monks in Germany during Lent and that the bock beer had extra nutrients for the those who were fasting. They reviewed a few bock beers and I agree with their opinion that the locally brewed Genesee Bock is one of the best. And I was happy to read that it is selling briskly. At $5.99 a twelve pack at Wegmans (w/ Shoppers Card) it should be. When I worked as a stock boy at the old Super Duper they sold Genny Beer and Cream Ale for $1.09 a six pack as one of their “in store specials”. These were products that were sold at or below cost to get people into the store. That was a long time ago. The yesteryear price of the back beer matches the retro packaging perfectly.

My uncle worked for the old Topper Brewing Company, they also brewed Standard Ale, and I have always pulled for the local companies. I don’t understand why they can’t come up with a good craft brew. Both Rorbach’s and Custom Brew Craft put the Genesee/High Falls/LaBatt’sUSA product to shame. Our friend’s, Pete and Shelley drink Genesee Cream Ale, and I gather it is more popular in the mountains than it is here. I like it but I have a hard time with their packaging. Maybe they should bring back Jenny.

Jenny seemed wildly exotic when I first tuned into her. The dark hair, the slinky low cut barmaid outfit, the red lipstick smile, the choker necklace, the mole. I couldn’t wait to meet her in a bar but I was only ten or eleven. I found this picture of her over at Small World Books on North Street.

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Pasta Fazool

Marc Chagall self portrait on the cover of Time in 1965
Marc Chagall self portrait on the cover of Time in 1965

Rob Storms from Sound Source called us on Saturday afternoon to invite us to Small World Books for some homemade pasta fazool. This invitation came right out of the blue and we accepted it. Small World Books is in a beautiful old building near downtown on North Street and it specializes in used, rare, and out of print books.

Rocco runs the place and he made the soup. They do most of their business online so it is no surprise we had never been there. We wandered around the building for for an hour or so and I came across this magazine from another era. There is a beautiful light filled gallery upstairs and a small performance space. We’re thinking, we’re thinking. I bought a Matisse book for five dollars and Peggi bought a Sparky doll. I might post a picture of that tomorrow.

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“Don’t Compromise Honey. That’s All You Got.”

Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Company at the Syracuse War Memorial in 1968. Photo by Kevin Patrick
Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Company at the Syracuse War Memorial in 1968. Photo by Kevin Patrick
Janis Joplin Syracuse War Memorial in 1968. Photo by Kevin Patrick
Janis Joplin at the Syracuse War Memorial in 1968. Photo by Kevin Patrick

Janis Joplin with Big Brother & The Holding Company at the Syracuse War Memorial in1968. Photo by Kevin Patrick. Click photo for another shot.

That quote is from the opening scene of  “Love Janis” at the Downstairs Cabaret. All the lines in the play are from Janis Joplin’s own words, her letters and interviews, and it takes two actresses to deliver them, sometimes at the same time. This works well because just as you’re not buying one, the other takes over. The band members tour as Big Brother now so the show rocked. First play I’ve been to where they pass out ear plugs.

Coincidentally Kevin Patrick primed the pump for us with his recent entry with these sensational photos of Janis.

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But What About?

Art Music blackboard message at the Ctreative Workshop
Art Music blackboard message at the Ctreative Workshop

When I showed up for class at the Creative Workshop I found this message on the board. I have an interest in the two disciplines. I know Fred Lipp has a day class on Tuesdays and I wondered if he might have posted these notes. The only time I remember him addressing the class with chalk in hand was when he drew a diagram of his winter accident. He is not the demonstration kind of teacher.

When he showed up last for class (he is that kind of teacher) I asked him if he wrote the note. He said no and and asked if there was something I wanted to add. I said, “Improvisation”, and he wrote that on the board.

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That’s My Dad

Orchard in front of the Stone Tolan House in Rochester, NY painted by Leo Dodd
Orchard in front of the Stone Tolan House in Rochester, NY painted by Leo Dodd

My father likes to say he “can’t talk without a pencil” and it is pretty much true. Armed with a pencil he talks better than anyone I know. He knocked this painting off in our last class and it knocks me out. It’s a sketch of the orchard in front of the Stone Tolan House on East Avenue and it was done from a sketch in one of his many sketch books.

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Anne Havens Open Source

Ann Havens’ art

These are not Anne Havens’ colors but they could be. Peggi and I bought this piece years ago at a Pyramid Art Center show and I photographed it tonight in very low light. It hangs over our washing machine in the basement in the laundry slash band room. I love this piece and I was immediately attracted to it. Still am and don’t know why but that is the fun of it. I still don’t know who won the game of tic tac toe. It’s almost like I don’t want to know. It is too nicely drawn to look at what it depicts. And I love the beaker!

We were very fortunate to have Anne try out her “I’m moving to Florida routine” with us at the recent RoCo opening. It was delightful. She explained that she just gets so depressed in the dark winter months that she doesn’t want to do it anymore. She told us she only wears black here but wears white in Florida and she said it like she wasn’t ashamed to admit it. She told us she  “is thinking of changing her name to Annie.”

We are very happy for her.

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I’d Like To Thank My Mom


click photo for Maira Kalman’s advice

Maira Kalman speaking at Rochester Institute of Technology
Maira Kalman speaking at Rochester Institute of Technology

We bought copies of Maira Kalman’s “The Principles of Uncertainty” as a Christmas gift for Peggi’s sister and for our friend and neighbor, Monica. We don’t own it our selves but it seemed like a good gift idea. I followed Kalman’s blog on the NYT’s website and loved it. So why should we pass up a free lecture by her at RIT? We couldn’t think of any reason.

It is always cold and windy on that damn campus. They designed it that way. It and the giant sprawling mall give Henrietta a bad name. No amount of wind is going to blow that Albert Paley down though. We sat next to our siter-in-law. She teaches a design class out there and had told her student to come but she only saw three of them there.

The person who introduced Maira said that she and her late husband ran the influential design company, M&Co. I never connected those dots before. Maira Kalman said her mom is the centerpiece of everything she does. She explained that her mom simply allowed her to daydream and never pushed her in any sort of practical career direction. She recently illustrated a new edition of Strunk’s The Elements of Style and she projected slides of that work from her MacBook while she told funny stories like how she’d marry Lincoln in a nanosecond.

The Memorial Art Galley has a show of her work (play) opening on May 2nd so she will probably be back in town for that.

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