CSS for vertically centered content without using tables
I have been obsessing over this project of building a webpage that could serve as a template for whole portions of a website. I want to do it without tables. I would like a header of a fixed height to stay at the top and a footer to stay stuck to the bottom and both of them would be php includes so I can update the whole thing in one document. And in between that I would like to float the content, centered horizontally and vertically, no matter what the actual height of the content is or how big the browser window is.
Susan B. Anthony Frederick Douglas bridge behind Broad Street bridge over the Genesee River in Rochester, NY
We had lunch at the Convention Center downtown while Kathy Palokoff from Customericty was being nominated for a prestigious Athena Award. She faced some really stiff competition from other women including the honorable Maggie Brooks.
There is a beautiful veiw here of the two tiered Broad Street Bridge crossing the Genesse River. The Erie Canal at one time flowed across the river through the lower portion of this bridge. Or maybe it flowed through on the top level. I’m not not really sure about this. It was diveret and now crosses the river in Genesee Valley Park near the UofR. Behind the Broad Street bridge you can see the top of the new suspenion bridge, the one some people cal the Susan B. Anthony Frederick Douglas Bridge.
We used to sing this song in grade school. Do New York kids still sing this?
“Sum ll Series”, Gloria Ortiz-Hernandez drawing at MAG “Leaded” show
Peggi’s mom gave us a subscription to Smithsonion Magazine and January’s issue had a great article on the Metropolitan’s Van Gogh “Night Vision show. The author tells how Van Gogh, the best drawer ever, was kicked out of an early drawing class and he quotes Van Gogh telling a friend, “I aim to paint with such expressive force that people will say, I have no technique.”
Turning from abstraction to storytelling, the work Philip Guston created in the last ten years of his life was roundly criticized as being clumsy, crude, artless, cartoony, affected and klutzy”. Guston is quoted as saying, “I got sick and tired of all the purity.”
Musa Mayer, writing in her memoir of her father, recaps a talk Philip gave to a group of students at the University of Minnesota in 1978. He ended his talk with the following remark. “Isaac Babel gave a lovely ironic speech to the Soviet Writer’s Union and ended his talk with the following remark, ‘The party and the government have given us everything, but they have deprived us of one privilage. A very important privilege, comrades, has been taken away from you. That of writing badly’.”
Margaret Explosion at the Memorial Art Gallery opening for”Leaded”
Ken and Peggi spent the longest time discussing whether the tree that was positioned between them was real or fake.
I took this shot with the timer while we were setting up in “The Pavillion” of the Memorial Art Gallery for the opening of “Leaded”, a drawing show featuring ten artists. I was expecting a lot more drawing but the work was all executed with lead.
The contract called for Margaret Explosion to pay five, fifty minute, sets starting at 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10, the first two hours where for the patrons. We made up songs most of the night only covering three or four of our own in the last set. The band sounded really good in here and we are really happy the MAG invited us to their party.
Jeff Munson dropped off an Amaryllis plant for us this morning. Peggi added it to her centerpiece on our table.We helped him set up Skype for his trip to Mexico. He also gave me a beautiful shot of the “84 Lumber” sign out on Scottsville Road. I plan to add that to the sign section someday.
I spent most of the day in the basement painting. I was geared up to start a new painting and it hit me (again) how it is always a new beginning. Something never done before unless you are determined to repeat your same mistakes. Learning to see and identify your mistakes as such allows you have that redundant new beginning.
But how long does it take to learn Fred Lipp’s proceedural rules? Look at the painting as a whole at every stage and do the fucking worst first.
Irondequoit Bay is winter playground once it freezes over. We got out on the ice and talked to a few of the fisherman. They were pulling fish out of their holes but they were all pretty small. We watched a group of kids play hockey on a rink they had cleared for themselves. I remember doing that in that same spot when I was a kid. And at the other end of the bay we saw motorcycles were racing around in circles. There’s plenty of funky places to eat down here too. I would recomend Vic & Irv’s, Shamrock Jack’s or Nick’s Seabeeze Inn.
Robin Jon promo photo on the wall at Sound Source in Rochester NY
There are a lot of options in town for buying new band equipment but when you want to keep your vintage equipment going there is no better spot than Sound Source (“We Make Hearing Loss Affordable”).
One of the best things about a trip to Sound Source is that it is another opportunity to look at old promo shots for local bands like Wilmer Alexander and The Dukes and The Quirks and the the lounge duo, Robin Jon. Rob and Jon just happen to be the owners of this place so you take updated photos of these guys in the flesh if you can get the two of them together. They keep Rob in the back with his head lamp and soldering gun. Rob is likely to to offer you a fudgsicle or show you one of his new squishy toys. Jon manages the front end and takes care of the money.
Rob fixed Peggi’s sax pickup while we waited all the while triggering crying baby noises with something on his desk. He started talking about the Sound Source web site, which is in a sorry state, and wondered if he could learn how to post stuff to it on his own. We told him we would help with this effort. Rob’s father worked at Kodak and he took 3-D photos of Rob’s band during his his high school days. Rob has shown us these on a few occaisions and they are mind blowing. I’m wondering if there is any java script for displaying these on their new web site.
There were only four people in Peggi’s yoga class last night. Maybe it was the weather or maybe it had something to do with Jeffery, the yoga teacher, going on a cruise for a few weeks. There were seven people in my painting class but that’s everyone who signed up for the winter session. It’s the slow time of year and that’s the way we like it.
We dropped my father off after class and Peggi and I went downtown to Danny’s Ball at Abilene. The Eastman 10, who were arrested for playing in the streets on election night, did a rousing version of “God Bless America” and the packed house went nuts. We had our long sleeve Obama t-shirts on.
Doctor Burns has his own Joesph Cornell in his office in Rochester, NY
“Frustration is one of the great things in art. Satisfaction is nothing”. Philip Guston told it like it is.
It’s physically tough too. I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago running down the stairs with a painting in my arms. And for months I’ve been watching this dry red patch between my thumb and forefinger get more and more irritated. It’s on the hand I hold my palette with. In the last week I noticed a funky odor when I brought my hand near my nose. I googled “skin oder” and found all sorts of skin cancer links and stories about animals becoming aware of their owner’s cancer before doctors. So I called my doctor and he got me right in.
He had a Joesph Cornell like box on his wall and I took a shot of it. I explained that my palette used to be painted white but I have worn the paint off over the years. My doctor prescribed a low level topical steroid ointment. He said it was probably a reaction to the chemicals in the plywood and suggested that I give my palette a new coat of paint. I thanked him and gave him a post card for my painting show.
Our nephew, Eli, had a school assignment to do a “Job Shadow” thing and he chose 4D Advertising to work with. He came over today and we had a number of typical projects lined up for him. I showed him a php page that we were working on that would call on an include for the navigation bar. I was trying to explain the concept and I asked him if he had a website. He took me to a FreeWeb site that he and his brothers had put up to feature their Legos Movies. His site was way cooler.
We had him sort receipts for about twenty minutes in preparation for our tax filing. And then I had him scan a notebook of Pete LaBonne’s Fish drawings for the Refrigerator. They have been sitting around since last winter. Eli cleaned up the scans in Photoshop, saved them for web and then uploaded the files. I helped him construct pages in Dreamweaver to display the drawings and we posted them. He put a “fish” link on the front of the Refrigerator so other people can find them.
I interviewed Eli before he left and he typed in these responses.
Eli, how was your day at 4D?
It was great!
What did you learn?
I learned how to add pictures online using dreamweaver.
Do you think you would like to do this kind of work when you are a little older?
Maybe..
I had to sign some paperwork while his mom stood by and I noticed the only
instruction he was given was “Be sure to dress and behave appropriately”. Eli had a black t-shirt that said “The Hives” on.
Our friend and neighbor, Rick Simpson, let us borrow “Stax/Volt Revue – Live in Norway” dvd. We watched it on the coldest night of the year (so far) and we couldn’t sit still. This is one amazing performance from openers, Booker T and the MGs, to Otis Redding. We loved Booker T on organ and Al Jackson on drums and Duck Dunn was a locomotive on bass. The same band backed all six artists on this tour. This show started hot and got hotter until it was almost out of control. Only the great Sam and Dave could take it down a few notches with “If Something Is Wrong With My Baby” and reach the high point of the show.
We had a nice dinner with Peggi’s mom last night and then the three of us headed off to Mercury Opera’s production of Puccini’s “Tosca”. It is sort of a love triangle where everybody dies. Peggi’s mom told us that much before dinner.
Peggi hung the handicapped tag on the rear view mirror and inched up to the front door of the Eastman Theater to drop off her mom. A car darted in front of us and a woman jumped out and told Peggi that we had just run a red light. It was probably green when started going through the intersection because we were only doing about three miles per hour. This opera crowd is tough.
I slipped my camera out in the first act, made sure the flash was off, all the while keeping the camera against my body and I held the camera under my chin for a few shots. The guy sitting next to me leaned over and said, “That’s very distracting”. I couldn’t tell what he said so I said, “What?” He said, “That’s very distracting”. He had an Australian accent and he looked a bit like Russell Crow so I put my camera in my lap.
The opening scene with an artist, his lover and and an escaped political prisoner all in a church had real potential but it was coming off cute. The sets were beautiful and creatively lit. The three main characters had great voices and strong stage presence.
Opera used to be public entertainment. Someone has stripped the entertainment from these sung plays. The focus is on the trained voices and opera people know the code for signaling their approval of the craft. But what about bringing this play to life so the audience can take their minds off their mink coats and manners?
And they should not have those stupid translations up above the stage. They are like the tags in an art gallery that tell you what your looking at or what the artist had for breakfast. Either everyone should learn Italian or the the opera should be sung in English.
View of frozen over Eastman Lake in Durand Eastman Park
When it is only nine degrees outside it’s warmer in the woods than it is out in the open. This cold view is looking north across Eastman Lake in Durand Eastman Park. There is a little spit of land on the horizon running east/west and beyond that is Lake Ontario and then Canada. At this point we turned around and went back home. Who knows, we might have discovered another country if we kept going.
Five Paul Dodd Crime Faces on the front wall of the Little Theatr Cafe
I found a Hawaii quarter in my pocket today. That completes my little green book. And it made me think of our brand new funky president.
We were going to drive down to New York this evening but we chickened out and called our host, Duane, to tell him we would not be making it. Martin Edic told us last night that Jet Blue had $49 dollar flights so we booked some for an upcoming weekend.
We skied up to the lake and around the ponds. We saw the Mayor of Durand and his posse. The mayor was drinking LaBatts from a can this time and he had a gun for measuring speed. He and his buddies were clocking each other on their sleds and listening to mellow instrumental music. It was eight degrees and sunny.
We checked online to see they had put anything in the Irondequoit Post about my painting show. They had and Peggi read it aloud. She got down to the end and read that I have a second opening on February 6. Only then did we realize we would be in New York City for my opening in Rochester. Jet Blue was very nice about switching the dates.
The first opening went well. I almost forgot that the walls are a burnt orange. Jaffe sat in with the band on piano. He told me, “I’ve seen some piddily ass artwork in here. This stuff is real”. I thought that was kind of funny.
I’m sitting over at Jerome’s Ignition while Igor looks at our car. It’s been making a clunking noise in the front end. This is already sounding like a Click and Clack episode. We are planning to drive to New York soon to see the Marlene Dumas show at the Modern and we are a little concerned about the thump. Igor didn’t see anything so he took it for a spin. When he got back he noticed that the lug nuts on our left front tire were loose. These guys are the best in the world. If only they had a wireless connection here.
I didn’t sleep very well last night and while I was awake I started worrying about my opening tomorrow night. Somebody was saying if I call it an “opening” that would not imply free food but if I call it an “opening reception” that would imply free food. I put “opening reception” on the post card so I stand to look like a cheapskate. I don’t really understand all the protocol of openings and what little I do understand I resist. For instance I can’t bring my own food or beverages in there because that’s their (not for profit) business. I could buy food from them and serve that for free but that’s part I don’t get.
Painting class started up again at the Creative Workshop and my father did some quick watercolor sketches from photos he took on Sunday night of Margaret Explosion on WXXI’s “OnStage”. I took this photo over his shoulder. I’m not sure that he spelled “Margaret ” right but I like the magic carpet under us.
We use the flower pot out front to gauge the fresh snow. Of course you would have to know how deep the pot is before you could make any meaningful calculation. We have about ten inches of fresh snow and the temperature to support it. Break time today will call for a ski in the woods.
“Sun is shining and the weather is sweet, yeah” – Bob Marley
We got some snow last night, enough for cross country skiing. We were downtown doing a few errands just before the front came in. We took Culver back home, traveling north toward the lake, and we had just crossed Ridge Road when I grabbed this shot. It looked like mountains out over the lake.
Jeff Munson and Mary Kaye had a few people over for dinner. Jeff made what he described as “a pile of food on a plate”. I was more like a work of art. Wine sizzled mussels in and out of the shell over polenta with baked turnips, kale, pear juiced squash all drenched in the wine/mussel/kale broth. Mary Kaye made tangerine sorbet and cookies for dessert.
It took us over an hour to get home but the ride was delicious too. It was snowing heavily, Peggi was doing 20 mph tops and I was looking out over the river. We got on the expressway near RIT but we couldn’t see the road at all so we got off and inched home on Winton and Culver.
I gotta remember to ask Jeff if he could grab a photo of that 84 Lumber sign out his way? Just a point blank shot of the round “84” up on the pole. Talk about works of art. Pick a number and make you own. It would look great in the “signs” secction on the Refrigerator.
Margaret Explosion performs tonight on WXXI TV’s “On Stage” at 7pm. We’re watching that Bill Jone’s place while we celebrate his birthday.
I know some people are cat people (like us) and some are dog people (like our neighbors, Rick and Monica) and others are are just not pet people at all (like my parents). And that’s what makes the world go ’round.
This is Stella and she makes my world go “round. We sat by the fire this morning and read the New York Times on our iPod Touch. I love the way some sites are optimized for this thing and I want like rework all our sites for this tiny device.
Not these mugs again. This is just a little show at a little gallery. In fact it’s called the “Little Cafe”. But it has taken me most of the week to get ready for it. I made some small changes to one of the paintings a few minutes ago and I’m supposed to meet Peter Monticelli there tomorrow morning at eight to hang the show. I never see eight AM. This requires setting the alarm.
I counted the lights when we played at the Little last week and I’m bringing one piece for each light. Five will go on front wall behind where the band sets up. I settled the order tonight by spreading them out in our living room. I had a different five lined up here until Peggi put her two cents in. She was right. I might shuffle a few more around again when I get there.
I emailed the Democrat & Chronicle, City News and the Irondequoit Press about the show and Linda Quinlan from the Irondequoit Press called to ask if she could do an interview. She stopped by and we looked at the paintings. She was really sweet. She said she “did everything but clean the floors” for the paper. We gave her some Yogi Tea. We don’t read the fortunes anymore. I doubt those Yogi Tea people are real yogis.
Zazie drawing of Peggi Fournier and Ken Frank playing with Margaret Explosion
I mentioned that I invited Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn to my opening of the CrimeStopper portraits. He emailed this morning that he was going to be in Albany earlier in the day but he said he would try to stop by. He said he was looking forward to seeing my paintings.
Jaffe, who played keyboards with Colorblind James for many years, sat in with Margaret Explosion last night at the Little. He fit right in and the band sounded pretty good. Five year old Zazsa, the daughter of Franzie Weldgen who has his art on the walls this month, danced for most of our set and then did drawings of the band. The one above is the drawing she did of Peggi with her sax and Ken with his stand up bass.
Scott Regan and Sue Rogers from WXXI were there and they reminded us that the audio from the Margaret Explosion performance on “On Stage” would be broadcast today at 6pm on WRUR and then Saturday at 3pm. The bad ass blue ray hi def picture and sound will be broadcast at seven on WXXI TV. I’m kind of afraid to look at myself in hi def. I had my eyes closed for most of the hour while we played.
I launched Audacity when the radio show started tonight and I grabbed the streaming signal from WXXI’s website. It’s the first time I’ve used the program and when I listened back I heard Peggi and her mom and I eatting dinner and commenting on the performance. Guess I left the mic input on.
