Coke vs. Pepsi ~ that sort of thing.
We are between storms. The temperature was in the mid forties today, it supposed to start raining soon, the temps will drop overnight and then we’ll get some serious snow. So instead of skiing we walked up the the lake and then out onto it. Something like the surface of the moon.
Leave a commentTwo buck with large racks crossed our path as we cut through the woods across the street. We stopped skiing for a few minutes to just look around and witnessed a hawk swoop down to pick up a live animal and fly with it to a nearby tree. It looked like another bird in its clutches bit it was hard to tell.
Leave a comment
It is a special club, those of us who get out there no matter what the weather. There are not many of us either so we say hi when we pass. It was 9 degrees today with a wind off the lake.
9 is an important number in soccer, the position with the best chance of scoring, the center forward spot. Often the player in that position will wear the number 9 on his, her or they jersey.
Nine is my favorite number but wasn’t always. When I was nine I placed a token on number 12 at Saint John’s parish’s the their annual festival and I won a box of Milky Ways, something like twenty 5 cent candy bars. Snickers were actually my favorite but I ate every single one.
Leave a comment
These soft delivery bags were sitting in the snow at the end of Hoffman Road about a week ago. The big hill across the street that leads down into the woods is getting a little slick so we drove down to the end of Hoffman Road and skied out onto the golf course from there. These bags were still sitting in a snow bank. I imagine someone stole the contents and dumped the bags.
Our UPS driver is back in action. He delivered a package of frozen fish from the Pacific Northwest and I had a chance to chat with him. He was anti vax and got hit hard with Covid. He was out of work for a few months and told me he was certain he was gonna die. His 70 year old mom got it too and she died. Holding back tears he told me he’s still mourning her.
At sixteen degrees the wind out on the golf course was a bit much so we ducked into the woods and followed the trails around the course. There a few hearty souls out there. We followed the western shore of Eastman Lake up the big lake and then up Horseshoe Road where we had a good view of the whitecaps out on Lake Ontario. With a few inches of fresh snow on the ground the conditions were excellent.
The rough water builds the most interesting formations along the lake. Maybe tomorrow we’ll cross Lakeshore Boulevard and ski along the lake.
2 Comments
On the first page of Pete Monacelli’s book, Origins,” he defines “origin” as “The point or place where something begins, arises or is derived. Source, inception and root.” With verse, Casin paint and ballpoint pen he shares, over 94 spreads, some his origins. It is an astonishingly beautiful book, too good to sit in a drawer in his studio. I offered to create an eBook version and it is available here as a free download.
Click the cover above for a free download version “Origins.”
3 CommentsI was recently helping my brother, Fran, with a computer issue. He is surely up in the Adirondacks now with his snowmobile while Peggi and I watch snow slide off our new metal roof. And I was reminded of this movie, my first and only concept film. My father bought the Super 8 camera for me from Kodak’s Camera Club. It was eighteen dollars.
The movie, sequenced and edited in camera, is only three minutes long. My brothers helped me flesh out the concept and we wrapped it up before the film ran out. Fran is featured sliding off the roof with his friends and my brothers, Tim and John, play instruments in our driveway. The movie was silent but I added an Invisible Idiot song to the soundtrack.
I’m guessing this was 1970. I had dropped out of school and moved back home for a year. Without my college deferment I was ready to go to Canada and then that ping pong ball drop lottery happened. Fran was always a daredevil. He definitely steals the show here. Peggi has always thought he looked like Iggy Pop.
Leave a comment
It was ten degrees this morning when we got out there but we were warm in minutes. We skied over to Horseshoe Road and up to the club house. I always expect to find a café open up there but it doesn’t happen. We’ve skied everyday for over a week now and the five day forecast on the back of the Sports section calls for more snow and frigid temperatures.
Len Lisenbee’s column on the front page of the Sports section was about how wildlife survives in this climate. We’re always coming across spots the trails where deer have slept for the night, depressions in deep snow that look pretty cozy. Sometimes the snow looks melted by their body heat. I’ve always wondered how they are able to withstand the cold. Lisenbee explained the deer have “hollow hairs,” like double pane glass with dead air inside, that help hold in body heat.
Leave a comment
Barcelona, long the best football team in world, fell apart. They got so big they couldn’t afford their big money players. Messi, still the best player in the world, is paying in Paris with Neymar and Mbappe. Others took a cut in salary. A former player has returned to coach the team and he is playing youngsters, 17 and 18 years old, with the remaining veterans, the mentors, Pique and Busquets. They still play the beautiful game and they are even more fun to watch. Unfortunately they can’t seem to win but they are coming closer.
The Bilbao club is the opposite of a big money team. They only hire people born in the Basque region. That region, in northwestern Spain stretches in France. Basque before country! This last match was played in Bilbao and before the match began, while the stadium was bathed in deep red LED lights we were treated to tradition Basque music played on xalaparta, a hollow wood instrument.
Bilbao has a famous soccer academy and the graduates for the most part stay in the region. Most Spanish teams have their ultra fan sections. The fans in Bilbao are all ultra fans. They are loyal backers and proud of their team. They beat Barcelona in overtime and will advance to the final rounds of the Copa del Rey.
Leave a comment
We opened the ESPN app to watch the Copa de Rey match between Atletico and Real Sociedad in San Sebastian and found a group of people out on the pitch dressed as chefs. We became rabid Atletico fans last year during their improbable run to the top of La Liga but this year things have fallen apart for them. Real Sociedad has some of the most boisterous fans in La Liga and the were louder than ever last night. There was no way Atletico could have won.
The city was celebrating the feast day of their patron saint, San Sebastian, with a festival called Tamborrada, where groups of locals form street parades, dress as soldiers and cooks. San Sebastián has long been noted for their culinary arts and members of their famous dining societies meet at midnight in the Plaza de la Constitución and then march through the streets with drums for the next 24 hours.
Back in Rochester old man winter showed he could still get it up. We had eighteen inches of snow at the beginning of the week and have skied for four days in a row now. It was only 12 degrees when we got out their this morning and we didn’t expect to anyone else out but we underestimated our fellow citizens.
Leave a commentThere were footprints in the fresh snow on the paths this morning so we weren’t the only ones out there. We didn’t see anyone though. It was only 5 degrees.
I’ve been playing around with these bodily forms for a few weeks now. With acrylic paint on paper, solid colors straight from the tube or jar, I limited myself to three colors per piece. I settled on four drawings that worked and tweaked the curves for days. I swapped colors while they were hanging on the wall. I determined I didn’t need the negative space on the sheet of paper that I painted each one on and found some pieces of 1/8 inch plastic that will remain flat after I cut the forms out. The plastic sheets were bigger than my painting sketches so I photographed the sketches and projected the paintings on the plastic sheets.
I had seen a jig saw in Jared’s garage so I took the sheets down there and asked if I could cut them out. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to follow my curves. Turns out Jared’s wife, Sue, is the jig saw expert. I came close to just asking her if she could cut my forms out but I eventually got a little better. Peggi tried her hand at it and together we completed the task. Jared’s garage is heated, ours is not, so I plan to file the edges down when it gets a little warmer and then paint them.
1 Comment
Peggi and I home-tested for the first time since this thing began. We were getting to gather with two other couples to celebrate Jedi’s 67th and someone suggested we all test before the event. We bought some test kits back in the fall when we thought we might have been exposed. We felt ok and never went anywhere so we didn’t use them. The package said they expired in January so here we are. Negative.
We arranged to take Jedi and Helena’s dog, Bigz, for a walking the morning. Jedi was still in pjs when we stopped by. Bigz was roaring to go. He pulled us along, down Hoffman to the golf course and into the woods. We came up on Center Entrance and met a neighbor walking her new puppy. The puppy was three time the size of the Notorious Mr. Bigz but Bigz was the aggressor. I’ve had this song going through my head all day.
Leave a comment
Keeping up with the three LaLiga teams we follow is handful. Imagine if you were one of the players. In addition to the 38 regular season fixtures there are Olympic and World Cup qualifying games for their home countries and then, if the teams are lucky enough, the tournaments which are woven into the season. The Champions League, the Copa del Rey and today’s Super Cup.
Real Madrid meets Barcelona today (always an “El Classico” when they meet). Atletico meets Athletic Club Bilbao tomorrow and then the winners meet each other on Sunday, all matches in Riyadh, the capitol of Saudi Arabia. The four teams qualified by being the first or second place finishers in last year’s La Liga and Copa del Rey tournaments. Why Saudi Arabia? Money. Lots of it. Will MBS be in the stands? I will report back.
We picked an armload of collard greens and kale from garden. In January! Petra from Fruition Seeds says it gets sweeter after a freeze. I eat the very top leaves of the kale plants while we are down there, the smallest but most tender. We found enough cilantro and even some arugula standing in the snow to compliment the tasting. Super greens for Supercopa!
Leave a commentI keep reminding myself, “If Sun Ra can die, anyone can.”
Bruce Anderson, barber, fine artist and guitar player for MX-80 Sound has left the planet. His work, with Screaming Gypsy Bandits, Caroline Peyton and MX-80 Sound, was proof of higher life forms in Indiana, where Peggi and I spent out college age years. It is so sad to think we’ll never again hear Angel Corpus Christi at live MX shows screaming with delight during one of Bruce’s amazing solos.
2 Comments
It was cold this morning but the birders were out, all bundled up with binoculars hanging on their necks. Someone had spotted Redpolls and Purple Finches near the end of Hoffman Road and posted the location so a small group had gathered. The Finches have come south for the winter, “south” to upstate New York. One of the guys told us he had also seen some Red Crossbills near Conifer Lane, the long dead end running off Hoffman. He told us they have special beaks that enable them to pick the seeds out of a pine cone.
We looked Red Crossbills up when we got back home and sure enough, “their distinctive mandibles, crossed at the tips, enable them to extract seeds from conifer cones and other fruits.” Fitting that they were spotted on Conifer Lane probably picking the seeds out of the conifer cones.
Leave a comment
The first round of Spain’s Copa del Rey happened midweek between La Liga fixtures. Second and third tier clubs are eligible so the matches took us to unknown regions while the country celebrated Los Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day.) We enjoy the pageantry of the pregame as much as the match and watched one match each day for the last three, Barcelona playing in Linares, Real Madrid in Alcoi in Alcoyano’s tiny stadium and then Majadahonda vs Atletico. All three of the big teams won but just barely in some cases.
I see the 99 year old Betty White did not die from complications of the Covid vaccination. I’m running out of band width keeping up with the fact checks!
Leave a comment
I didn’t want the acrylic primer I bought online to freeze so I was keeping a lookout for the Amazon truck. It was dinner time and dark when we got an email saying our package had been delivered. I walked around the house but I couldn’t find it. We texted the neighbors on three sides and emailed Amazon that we didn’t receive the package. On their site we found a photo of our package sitting somewhere in the dark, a beige blur on a solid background shot in a vertical orientation. We took the photo into Photoshop Elements and jacked up the levels enough to see the box sitting in front of our neighbors front door.
When we closed the street pool this fall I brought the two large flower pots home to repaint. I love winter for all the time it provides for projects but I am already backed up. I asked the paint guy at Meyer’s if he could mix me some turquoise paint with primer mixed in. I was under the impression that that was how things were done now. He told me that was a scam and I would have to use “bonding primer” first and then the paint. But their primer was backordered on account of one of those Covid supply chain issues.
1 Comment
Colleen Buzzard alerted us to a pop-up show in our neck of the woods so today’s walk started out in the direction of Durand Eastman. Up there I realized I had forgotten my mask so instead of crossing over to Culver we circled back to our house and picked up a mask before going the few blocks to Coolidge. Nancy was helping a friend clean out a house that he bought when it occurred to her that the white walls and wood floors would make an ideal gallery setting for her recent, mostly fabric based sculptures.
The crevice in the piece above was stuffed with dried “Devils Heads,” the seed pods of the invasive Asian water chestnut, that Nancy collected along the Hudson River bank. And below this piece, on the floor was a carefully arranged pile of the pods.
Nancy utilized the empty space in dramatic fashion by arranging her pieces in windows and on their sills, in the fireplace and on the hearth. Some hung from the ceiling while others sat on the floor. Right next door someone with Buffalo Bills posters and a campaign sign for Mike Carpinelli (Trump’s “favorite sheriff in New York State”) for Governor in 2222 and right across the street from the giant tree whose trunk has grown so big it no longer fits between the sidewalk and the street is this cute little one story, grey brick home slash gallery. This was a sweet location for an especially sweet show.
Leave a comment
Four days into 2022 and we had our first proper ski of the season. Skied up to the lake and around the golf course. The few inches we got will be gone tomorrow when the temperature reaches into the forties.
Peggi spent a good bit of the remainder of the day trying to find a power cord for her Yamaha digital Sax, the YDS-150. The plastic horn comes with 4 double A batteries and sounds beautiful on its own, with no amplification. In Peggi’s hands it has a warm almost primitive sound like something older than a real saxophone. It isn’t a wind controller although it can be used that way via midi. House of Guitars and Sound Source didn’t have what she was looking for so she ordered a 6 foot USB A male to Micro USB B at Amazon.
Leave a comment
I was talking to my brother today about his experience with switching internet providers. I was doing more listening than talking as he told me how little the person on the other end of the line knew, someone in a call center somewhere reading from a script. The cable company told him they would mail him a new modem and all he had to do was plug it in. “To what?” he kept asking. He has never had cable tv and as far as he knows there is no cable running to his house. I tried a line I’ve been using lately, paraphrasing our friend Kevin in Nashville, “The whole world is falling apart.” I think Kevin’s actual quote was, “Half the world is going nuts.”
The New York Times year end Week in Review had a big article on how global warming was playing out in various parts of the world. We are in danger of flooding up here while California burns and the arctic melts. Large parts of Spain are experiencing desertificaction so the almond farms are planting crops to replenish the soil. On a micro level I can tell you that we went out skiing yesterday after our first significant snowfall and our skis stuck to the warm ground.
We dropped our car off this morning at B&B on Saint Paul Boulevard for an inspection and an oil change. We hadn’t been in there in a year and they asked if we had an oil change somewhere else. I said we haven’t been anywhere and Brian told us they recommend an oil change even if you haven’t driven the miles. We took a five mile walk through Seneca Park while we waited. The Frederick Law Olmstead park, overlooking the Genesee River is so pretty in the winter. I really don’t believe the world is falling apart. I am an eternal optimist.
Leave a commentNothing much happens in this Margaret Explosion song. The band just sits comfortably with these textured patterns. And nothing happens in the video either so they work well together. Most of it was shot out the back window of Duane’s car in New York. I love it back there, Peggi and Duane talking up front, music on the car’s sound system, watching the world go by. The footage is just like what I imagine people bring home on their phones after cruising through midtown in one of those open air double decker, red buses. There are times when you just don’t want anything to happen.
But then the movie footage sits around for a few years and you realize how much has happened. Gowanus’s Kentile sign is gone but I read it might be coming back. The toll takers and their booths on the NYS Thruway entrance are gone! And you hardly ever see turquoise Chevy Imapala convertibles anymore.
Leave a comment