PopWars – Page 187 – Coke vs. Pepsi ~ that sort of thing.

October 23, 2009August 23, 2019

Accept Christ Or

I wonder if I was the only one who fell for the Webster Dental Group’s ad blitz. Their “Free Seminar on Dental Implants” ad ran nearly everyday and I heard a radio spot as well. I have two back teeth that need to come out so I called the number and made a reservation. The receptionist said there would be free refreshments there too. I was picturing sweet stuff. I dropped Peggi off at her mom’s and drove across East Rochester and out Five Mile Line Road to Webster in the middle of rush hour to get to the seminar. It took me a half hour to get across town. I forgot my iPod so I fiddled with the radio and came across an interesting segment on spanking children. It was a Christian program and a woman was giving tips to the host. The host delighted in this subject and kept snickering when the woman described graduating from the bare hand (when becomes clear that it is not inflicting enough pain) to the wooden spoon (she keeps a few hidden about the house). And talked about a friend who had a “special, ten inch leather strap” made for herb that “really cracks”. She said, “Of course after we spank, we pray together and we tell the children that someday we hope they will learn to accept Christ as their savior.”

I finally got to the Holiday Inn in Webster and there was a small sign on an easel in the doorway announcing the seminar. I asked the receptionist where it was being held and she said that it was cancelled. I asked how come and said that was all they told her. They could have called me, the creeps. Guess I can forget about that place.

I drove back to Peggi’s mom’s place and found them having dinner in the Bistro. Lorraine from my painting class was there with her relatives. We watched the Yankees’ game after dinner and kept her mom up til the bitter end.

We came across this wounded hawk in the woods today. We were concerned because it was so close but as walked further it flew overhead.

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October 22, 2009May 19, 2022

Head On

Philip Guston "Web" 1975 on view at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY in "Paint Made Flesh" show. — Philip Guston “Web” 1975 on view at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY in “Paint Made Flesh” show.

“Paint Made Flesh” originated at the Frist Center in Nashville and then stopped at the Philips Collection in DC before arriving at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester. It features an all star lineup of top-shelf, painter’s work from 1952 to 2006. I was asked to make some short comments on the painting of my choice. The MAG sent me the tiniest jpegs of the collection and I spotted Philip Guston’s “Web” painting in there so I claimed it. I had seen this painting at the Modern when they had their sensational Guston retrospective a few years back. I was given a brief opportunity to preview this show at the MAG (It opens this Saturday) and it will be an overwhelming treat for painters.

I used my smoothest delivery to record these comments for their audio tour. It can be accessed at the show with your cell phone.

I’m Paul Dodd and I’m happy to say a few words about Philip Guston’s painting entitled “Web”.

After a very successful run as a painter of gorgeous abstracts, Philip Guston decided that he wanted to “tell stories” and he returned to the figure. These late paintings are blunt, humorous and dark. Here he depicts himself face down on the ground, his monstrous, bloodshot eye has looked too much or seen too much yet he is still looking, eye wide open. He poured his entire life into painting and and he confronted it head on. He recognized the absurdity of it all and had the graphic skills to express it, often painting about the act of painting itself.

You have to move back a bit to take in the scope of this landscape, the dramatic advance of the spiders capitalizing on the artist’s inertia and the blood pool that stops abruptly and floats in transparent space while his wife, Musa, his life-affirming source, pops up at his side.

I find Guston’s late work to be heroic in its openness and thrilling in its directness. I hope you enjoy it.

Now if I had a cell phone I could hear it back.

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October 21, 2009August 23, 2019

Man Improves Nature

Fallen tree in Spring Valley before Mr. Bulldozer Man — Fallen tree in Spring Valley before Bulldozer Man plowed a mud highway through one of the prettiest parts of Durand Eastman Park

When I retire I might just hang around the hall of Justice all day. There are so many interesting characters coming and going, court workers, lawyers, the cops and undercover cops, the gang bangers, the accused and their families, the judges and Bulldozer Man. Today’s proceedings were pretty swift. Two lawyers huddled with Judge Elliot. There was some chuckling involved but we couldn’t quite hear what was being said. Monroe County’s attorney wants restitution and Bulldozer Man’s attorney argued that his client was only doing improvements to the park. A new court date was set for 1:30 on November 10th. The fallen tree above is no longer lying across the path through Durand Eastman Park. The BullDozer Man and his crew removed it before they plowed their new mud highway through one of the prettiest parts of the woods.

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October 20, 2009August 23, 2019

Give It Up For Clarence

Jackie or Jill's wagon on floor as our house was being built — Jackie or Jill’s wagon on floor as our house was being built

Clarence Meyer stopped by to visit us and the Don Hershey house that he built in the the nineteen forties. Clarence is 97 now and this is his third visit since we have lived here. He had both of his daughters with him this time, one form Ohio and one from California. If you click on the photo above you can see the girl’s wagon in the foreground while Clarence is up on a ladder smoking a pipe as his wife hands him some nails.

It has been such a pleasure getting to know the guy who built our house, to be able to ask him questions about the construction and to hear his stories about the architect and the materials used. The war years were a tough time to be building a new house for a young family so Clarence did most of the work himself. And he didn’t cut any corners while carrying out the architect’s labor intensive, special touches. He is so delighted to see someone in the house who appreciates all his work and he’s thrilled to see the small updates we’ve done. He is an inspiration to us.

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October 19, 2009August 23, 2019

Save The Redwoods

Frederick Law Olmsted designed three parks in Rochester but he was already dead by the time Durand Eastman was developed. Durand Eastman is celebrating it’s one hundredth birthday this year. We spotted an announcement in the paper for a tree tour on Sunday so we walked over there and met near the old zoo.

The guides were very knowledgeable and pleasant, the weather was perfect and the park looked beautiful. A couple from California were there expecting to see some Fall color but but because we are so close to the lake the trees are only beginning to change color. Funny that you have to go south a bit to see the change. This Dawn Redwood was thought to be extinct until a Japanese botanist rediscovered the Chinese tree in the forties. This tree was panted with a seed from that Redwood and it has already grown this big.

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October 18, 2009August 23, 2019

Common Sense

Note from our neighbor posted on our front window

As old as our neighbor is he still gets up before us. And this morning we found this note taped to our front window. I should tell you that what you see above is not the entire note but it is the meat of the thing. If you click on the photo you can see the whole note.

Our neighbor is in his nineties and he’s losing it. He knows it and it is very frustrating. He has always been Mr. FixIt and he’s cheap too so he still tries to take care of things but he can’t think straight any more or even remember where his fuse box is. His bedroom light don’t work anymore and he had an extension cord running in there when we stopped in this morning. We suspected he had blown a fuse but there were only two 70 amp fuses for the whole house. He is the original owner and he said he had never changed a fuse. It didn’t seem possible and we were afraid to yank one of them out because they were held in place with metal clips and we had never seen fuses like this. We suggested he call an electrician.

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October 16, 2009August 23, 2019

Post Warhol

Andy Warhol is rumored to have stolen Yoko Ono’s idea for helium filled mylar balloons or “pillows”. Or is it the other way around? I can’t remember. Doesn’t matter. The three Colorado kids upstaged them both when they set their dad’s weather ballon free and pretended that one of them was in it. This YouTube savvy family captured the nation’s attention with their pop event and it made for the best tv since OJ’s slow speed chase. And we never would have seen it if we weren’t out at Peggi’s mom’s place where the tv has no off button. In fact, I bet this event wouldn’t even have happened if we weren’t out there to watch.

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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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