The crews who go around the world covering up graffitti can’t seem to settle on the right Pantone color for the job. And we are all the richer for that. I love these abstracts. Here’s a few recent captures – onetwo
Peggi and I were shopping at Wegmans yesterday when a man, somewhere near our age, wheeled by in one of those electric shopping carts. We heard him coming. He was chanting, in a sing-song manner, “Trump is a nazi” over and over again. We first saw him in the produce department and then over by the yogurt. As we headed up to the check-out we crossed paths again. Same song, over and over again.
I spotted this truck parked by the amusement park in Sea Breeze. I had my España national team jersey on, we walked through the woods and down Culver to Shamrock Jack’s to watch the Nation’s League final with Spain and Portugal. The pre-game was on one of the seven big TVs so we sat right in front of it at the end of the bar.
There was an older couple next to us. We gathered their daughter was sitting next to them and they were having a good time. The guy said something about his birthday and Peggi and I wished him a happy one. I asked if it was a big one, Peggi and I had just celebrated one, and he said, “Yeah, guess how old I am.” I can’t tell anymore and I didn’t want to insult him so I went with 65, thinking he look older than us but was probably younger. “Guess again he said. “Seventy five?” “Higher,” the guy said. “Eighty?” He settled on 83. We clinked glasses again. The bartender said, “Everyone I know who drinks Johnny Walker lives into their eighties.”
The game was pretty good, tied 2-2 by the 40 year old Ronaldo on the hour mark, but it was frustrating for me. Spain had most of the possession but looked like they were scrambling. They clearly had a hard time moving the ball through the center and repeatedly lost the ball there. I was expecting magic. Professional coverage here.
There’s Notre Dame posters and gear all around the bar, the Irish connection, and they are the local hub for the Premier League’s Aston Villa fans but we were the only ones watching the Spain game. More family members showed up to meet the people next to us and they moved to a table. Another couple sat down minutes later. They were clearly older than us and our ears perked up when the woman mentioned something about Ezra Klein. They took forever to decide what they wanted to drink and the guy finally settled on an Amstel Light. It was served in a proper glass with the Amstel logo.
The sound was off on the tv so our squeals appeared out of context. The new couple asked me if I had played soccer. “A long time ago,” I said. They told us someone had given them a gift certificate to nearby restaurant and they went to Margies down on the lake but they were charging admission because there was a band so they were “bar hoping” before dinner. They told us they gone out to hear their son’s band, The Rhino Chasers, a surf band, the night before. We told them we are in a band as well and they acted like they wanted to hear us. We told them we are playing Friday at the Highland Bowl a whole lot of poets, Writers & Books Poetry Festival.
We each managed to nurse a beer the whole 90 minute match but we split a third for stoppage time. The match went the duration and Spain lost in shoot outs. We went home and played music in the basement.
Corrine Atias went to grade school here on the Barrington Street in the Park Avenue area. We picked up our programs for the annual Landmark Society House & Garden tour in the school and walked by the apartment on Dartmouth where we lived when we first moved here in the mid seventies. It is now a hideous green. Our first stop was a Claude Bragdon house on the corner of Dartmouth and Park. There was a beautiful painting of the original owners hanging in the stairwell. We were told the small portrait in the woman’s hand was of her first husband who died in a dual. Our favorite house on the tour was a Bungalow style house at 417 Westminster. A recessed, center entrance under a pergola opens to a light filled living room as wide as the large house. The house was featured in a book. The backyard garden with a weeping Atlas Cedar and waterfall was heavenly.
Since we don’t subscribe to Fox Sports we have to find a spot to watch the international final between Spain and Portugal tomorrow. We’re thinking maybe nearby Shamrock Jack’s or Sheffield if they are open at three in the afternoon. We watched Spain beat France 5-4 in Magpie on Park Avenue with Scott and guy named Bob who told us he watched a lot of Rugby. He didn’t have to tell us that. He looked exactly like a rugby player. We were the only ones in there except for the bartender and a guy we used to call “Mike Mohawk” back in the Scorgie’s days. Scott gave us a couple of his books. Peggi is anxious to dive into the one on Detroit.
City of Rochester aerial photo of Kodak and Genesee River
There was a Whole Earth like moment when the promise of the internet first became apparent. Creative types could have a website with an address on the World Wide Web. I’m not sure what happened. Peggi might know. She’s been reading “Careless People.” Maybe we were doomed to scroll endlessly.
My favorite Rochester website is Gonechester. We think of our city as always having been the way it is. Do you recognize anything in the photo above other than Kodak Office building? Our city is continually reshaping itself. Geoffrey Zeiner’s posts uncover the rich past of our city. My grandparents both worked at local shoe factories. This history shaped us.
A Heckel Pat. Turn Shank advertising paperweight.
The Gonechester site pulls together sources to tell stories about people and places that once were part of Rochester, NY, but now are no longer with us. Photographs, newspaper articles, and primary documents are all included to paint a picture of these lost locations, and the people who lived and worked in them. If deep diving on a well researched website with dreamy photos is not your thing Geoffrey is giving a talk, entitled ”A Walk Through a Disappeared Downtown,” at the Chili Public Library, Thursday, June 12th, at 6:30 PM. He has a video about the History of Rochester’s Main Street Bridge.
“Ecstasy Club”by Margaret Explosion from 2024 release “Field Recordings”
We had fun putting this one together. The footage is about twenty years old, shot in our basement for a song called “Super Slinky” from our “Live Dive” cd. We never got around to doing that video but thought it would fit “Ecstasy Club,” a rambunctious song from our newest cd, “Field Recordings.” The kids, some of our nieces and nephews, are all grown now. Margaret Explosion is still here. We play Wednesday at the Little.
I had never seen the Bop Shop as crowded as it was yesterday. I asked Tom Kohn if it had ever been this crowded and he said it was for the grand opening. The occasion was a book release for “Richard Manual: His Life and Music, from the Hawks and Bob Dylan to The Band” by Stephen Lewis, a local boy. Tom’s wife, Jann, was the editor. Tom said the pages were on their kitchen table for a year and a half.
Karen Mahoney’s husband works behind the counter at the Bop Shop and Bob Mahoney was there for the event. They both told slightly different stories about John Gilmore repeatedly calling our friend, Brad, and not getting any answer, then going there, spotting his car, banging on the door and not reaching Brad. Worried, they called the cops. Four cars responded. To do a so-called “Welfare Check” they needed to call all the local hospitals. No one by named Fox had been admitted so they jimmied the back door. According to Kim, Brad was sitting in his chair with the headphones on, listening to Captain Beefheart. He had turned his phone off because he didn’t want to be disturbed. According to Bob, Brad was listening to Frank Zappa. I like Kim’s version better.
2 page spread from “Brief History of the World” Volume XXII
The days are numbered for this long running project. I delivered newspapers for five years back when a kid could work without breaking the law. I loved the daily headlines (redundant today), the sensational photos, the cracker-jack reporting and opinionated columnists but most of all I like the pictures. Miraculously we still get daily delivery of the local paper and the NYT but I realize newspapers are a thing of the past.
2 page spread from Paul Dodd “Brief History of the World” Volume XXII
For twenty five years or so I’ve cut pictures out. Not every day, sometimes weeks go by before I find myself staring at one long enough to think, “I’ll just cut it out. I keep them in a little box and when the box gets full I arrange them in pairs. Not all find a mate so they just stay in the box. I tape the pictures on three hole punched card stock and I’ve filled twenty three binders with the spreads – A “Brief History of the World.”
2 page spread from Paul Dodd “Brief History of the World” Volume XXII
I have just posted “Brief History of the World” Volume XXII. CLICK HERE to download the free eBook.
This book is available here in the generic ePub format. On Mac the download should should open in your Books app. To read (ePub format) on a PC, you’ll need to use a third-party reader compatible with the ePub format. Popular options include Adobe Digital Editions, Calibre, or FB Reader. You can also use Microsoft Edge
I have a page on PopWars where 36 other “Artists Books” are available as free downloadable eBooks.
Touliouse-Lautrec “Touc, Seated on aTable” Hammer Museum
We were out early on Memorial Day, maybe 7:30, and there was hardly anyone in the park but the dog walkers. It was a gorgeous day as the few people we passed acknowledged. We walked along the beach and saw only one sailboat which seemed odd until we realized there was no wind. As we walked up Zoo Road a black car came up behind us, traveling too fast for the park but also too close to us. We saw the owner get out of the car. He had a dog, on a leash, thank god, and he headed up the road ahead of us. I looked at the sticker on his car, a blue American flag with the words, “Support Your Sheriff” below it.
We walk faster than most people, for now, so of course we caught up to him. We were about ten feet behind him when he started yelling, barking really, at his dog. “No! ” he shouted as he yanked the leash around the dog’s neck. The dog looked like a Rottweiler and I was thinking about turning around. There was an article in our paper yesterday about a pit bull who killed his owner.
As we got closer to the guy the dog looked our way again. I didn’t want to look at the owner. He scolded his dog for turning our way and said, “I’ll teach you military style” as he yanked the dog’s leash. We got ahead of them and his phone rang. We heard him telling someone he was in the park and “had to hang up before the dog destroys someone.”
Henri Matisse “Bas Relief” 1909 – 1930 in MoMA Sculpture Garden New York City
The sculpture garden on UCLA’s campus is one of the wonders of the world. I’m so happy Peggi’s sister took us over there when we were in LA. I posted a photo of these Matisse marvels while we were there and remarked how different the light made the sculptures look and feel. Now that I’m back home I called up the photo I took in New York to compare.
Henri Matisse “Bas Relief” 1909 – 1930 in UCLA Sculpture Garden in Los AngelesLeave a comment
I took this photo last month as we flew east into Chicago. It is a nice compliment to the photo I took of our garden in my last post. It also makes a good abstract. We put a second row of arugula in and weeded the spot where we will put the tomato plants on Tuesday. Unusually late but it has been unusually cool. Our garden is in our neighbors’ yard. It used to be their tennis court when they were younger. They also have a fish pond that a heron found this spring. They suspected as much because the fish have all been clustered in the center under a few plants, afraid to come out. Their suspicions were confirmed when they came out to pick up the mail and saw the heron standing in their pond.
The end of Hoffman was especially alive with bird activity today. Our Merlin app identified Red-winged Blackbird, Song Sparrow, Northern Flicker, American Robin, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Gray Catbird, Tufted Titmouse, American Goldfinch, Yellow Warbler, Carolina Wren and a Tennessee Warbler in less than a minute. The neighbors who live in the last house told us they had a pileated woodpecker crash into their window. It shattered the first of a double pane glass, temporarily knocked itself out but got up and flew away.
"The government will no longer track major sources of greenhouse gases, data that has been used to measure the scale and identify sources of the problem for the past 15 years.
"We're not doing that climate change, you know, crud, any-more." Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Fox Business on May 8.
By getting rid of data, the administration is trying to halt the national discussion about how to deal with global warming, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist"
I copied that chunk from a recent article in the Democrat & Chronicle. Aren’t we lucky to still have a daily newspaper in Rochester? I’m not sure that we are. I had not heard the word “crud” since the Mad Magazine days.
Everybody’s complaining about all the rain we have had. Our garden loves it. We have a few varieties, in a few stages, of lettuce, arugula and spinach. I took this photo after picking two bags full and Peggi, at the other end of the garden, is putting in the collards and kale plants, that we started indoors, in the earth. We would normally have our tomatoes and peppers in by now but we still have a slight possibility of a frost so we’ll wait until Monday.
Page 21 of “Underground Designers Handbook” by Leo Dodd 1968
It is not exactly logical, “Mystery is that which gives meaning,” but it does free the mind.
Somewhere in the mid-sixties the nine of us piled into the family station wagon and drove south to Mt. Savior Monastery in Elmira. I assume my father had made some sort of arrangement before we stopped in, I was just going along for the ride and probably would rather have stayed home with my friends. I remember the grounds, the barn, the small church and I remember meeting Brother David. My father was greatly influenced by this mystic monk. This glimpse of monastic life was certainly mysterious to me. On the way home we would stopped at Annis Dairy for ice cream.
In his “Underground Designers Handbook,”Leo Dodd says he attended a lecture series by Brother David and was exposed to “the beauty and clarity of his thought, how common religious terms like awareness, encounter and commitment, in David’s hands, took on a special arrangement with stunning impact. Without this exposure, to how these terms interplay with God, man and mystery this handbook would not exist.”
Brother David Steindl-Rast is a Benedictine monk, author, and interfaith scholar best known for his teachings on gratefulness. He was born in Austria in 1926. He was greatly influenced by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki’s book, “The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk,” and the two protested the Viet Nam war together. 98 years old now, he is still a prominent voice bridging contemplative Christian traditions with Buddhism. He has a Ted Talk.
My father was 41 in 1968 when he created his “Underground Designers Handbook.” My parents were unhappy with the conservative tenants of Catholicism and along with a former priest and a small group of like-minded liberals they went about forming their own church, not a physical building but a community. In the formative stages the group would meet at our house and conversation mixed with cigarette smoke wafted upstairs to our bedrooms.
Page 45 of “Underground Designers Handbook” by Leo Dodd 1968
Leo’s artwork, in colored pencils and ink, is a joy to look at. Trained as a mechanical engineer he worked as a design engineer for Eastman Kodak. He was able to reduce concepts to graphic symbols. And if it got complicated he would create a matrix. He used to to say he couldn’t talk without a pencil. I don’t think he could think without one. He retired early but continued working as a consultant. I was lucky to have been on jobs with Leo while creating slideshows for high-tech companies under insane deadlines. This was fun for him. The concepts expressed in his Underground Designers Handbook remain mysterious to me but mystery is that which gives meaning.
Front cover of “Underground Designers Handbook” by Leo Dodd 1968
Leo’s book is available here in the generic ePub format. On Mac the download should should open in your Books app. To read Apple Books (ePub format) on a PC, you’ll need to use a third-party reader compatible with the ePub format. Popular options include Adobe Digital Editions, Calibre, or FB Reader. You can also use Microsoft Edge.
One hundred years ago the downtown Los Angeles space now occupied by Hauser Wirth was home to the Globe Grain and Milling Company. Before I learned the history I was guessing it was once a convent or monastery. There is an open air herb and vegetable garden in a central courtyard and a restaurant next to it. Some of the galleries are large and light filled. Others, like the space where David Hammons’ ‘Concerto in Black and Blue’ is installed, are completely dark.
Someone on Hauser Wirth’s staff had the foresight to preserve the chunk of industrial history (“ruin porn”) in the photo above. The blue with black stripe section on the right is part of a Mary Heilmann installation. And they added the plant, of course, but to recognize the beauty in the crumbling and long neglected chunk of wall was a masterstroke.
I thought of Jason Wilder (and the stories he tells with his found photos) when I glommed onto a prom shoot at The Getty in LA.
I have the slimmed-down, free version of ChatGPT and I’ve been slowly incorporating it in my life for simple queries. As I prepared a new post here I asked ChatGPT, “What is www.popwars.com all about?” It came back with the following and now I’m wondering, do I put quotes around a ChatGPT return when I site it? Rather than asking ChatGPT I think I’ll ask my friend, Rich, an intellectual property expert.
“PopWars (www.popwars.com) is a personal blog and multimedia journal curated by artist and musician Paul Dodd, based in Rochester, New York. The site offers a rich tapestry of reflections on art, music, travel, and everyday life, blending personal anecdotes with cultural commentary.
Art & Photography: Paul Dodd shares his artistic endeavors, including paintings, collages, and photography. The blog features various art projects, such as the “Mex Mural Project” and “Subterranean Surrogates,” showcasing his creative process and exhibitions.
Music & Bands: A significant portion of PopWars is dedicated to music. Paul documents performances and recordings of his band, Margaret Explosion, an experimental jazz group known for its improvisational style. The site includes concert posters, music releases, and reflections on gigs. Additionally, there’s archival material on past bands like Personal Effects and Invisible Idiot, highlighting the local music scene’s evolution.
Blog & Observations: The blog entries are a blend of diary-like posts and cultural observations. Topics range from local events in Rochester to broader musings on art exhibitions, travel experiences, and societal trends. Paul’s writing often intertwines personal narratives with commentary on contemporary issues, providing a unique lens on everyday occurrences.
Family & Archives: PopWars also serves as a digital archive for family history. Paul has digitized and shared old family photographs, preserving memories and offering glimpses into the past. These archives provide context to his personal stories and artistic inspirations.
In essence, PopWars is a multifaceted platform that captures the intersections of personal history, artistic expression, and cultural discourse, all through the eyes of Paul Dodd.”
Last night’s gig was noteworthy for a few reasons. It was sort of quiet (nearly impossible to compete with the gorgeous weather and Lilac Festival.) Cello player Melissa was unable to make it. Ken bought an acoustic bass on eBay and brought that instead of his double bass. Relatively new neighbors, on the street down below, were there. They told us our band reminded them of music they heard in Morocco. My brother, Tim, was there, a rare sighting. And other than the one big table where the Monacelli’s were holding court. the room seemed to turn over at the break. All new faces to play to. The band always sounds better on quiet nights. People asked for an encore but Jack, bass clarinetist, said, “I’m done.”
At the end of the night Jen (pictured above) came up to say hello. Back in town, she reminded us she used to work in the café twenty years ago. We went down a long rabbit hole with her talking about people who used to work behind the counter.
There is a rumor going around (I started it) that the new pope chose his name in honor of Leo Messi. Of course there were thirteen other popes named Leo and five of them are saints including Leo the Great (#1) who convinced Attila the Hun not to sack Rome. We are hoping he chose to follow Leo XIII and continue his support for social justice. It was not lost on my cousin who texted us the day he was nominated that he choose the name of her uncle, my father, who gave up on the idea that the church could reform in his lifetime. Pope Leo XIV also graduated from Villanova, my father’s alma mater.
When we were in Miami earlier this spring, visiting our nephew and his wife, we had dinner at their restaurant and our nephew sat down with us for a few minutes. We had heard that Messi had eaten at his restaurant and I couldn’t wait to ask where it was that Messi sat. Our nephew nodded to the seat right next to us.
Before El Clásico on Sunday the announcers were talking about how they couldn’t imagine how Barca could carry on when Messi left and then along comes Lamine Yamal. I know Barcelona was knocked out of the Champions League by Inter but they beat the pants off of Real Madrid and they are a pure joy to watch. Not just Yamal, Pedri and de Jong in the center, Raphinha and Lewandowski (when he’s fit) up front and Cubarsi, Kundi and Balde in the rear. There is plenty of life after Messi. We have a new pope. Fascism may be raising its head but I am still optimistic.
Slow Dance by Margaret Explosion from 2024 release “Field Recordings”
We took an Uber from Peggi’s sister’s house to Ameba in LA. We walked Hollywood Boulevard when we got there and grabbed another ride somewhere on Sunset. I held my iPad Mini’s camera up against the window and sampled the vibe on the Sunset Strip. I never expected to get the crying woman. Seven songs from “Field Recordings,” our newest release, now have videos. Seven remain.
Margaret Explosion poster for May 14 2025 at Little Theatre Café
Margaret Explosion plays Wednesday night at the Little Theatre Café – 7-9pm.
I didn’t find this 14 year old link until we returned but I too was hoping to find some of the funky feel of the old Hawaii Five 0 show in Honolulu and I’m happy to report we found it. Even downtown Waikiki, which is mostly swallowed up with high rises, there are chickens roaming freely, a canal that seems to stop time in the middle of the city and the surf always just a stones throw away.
Old Queen Theater in Kaimuki neighborhood of Honolulu
Unless I missed something the Kaimuki neighborhood seems like a great place to live. A citizens group is even trying save the Queen Theater. We had brunch in a restaurant near the Local General Store and walked around enough to get a feel for the place. It was raining in the mountains on the day we were there and depending on which way I faced the light was especially dramatic.
Local General Store in Kaimuki neighborhood of HonoluluLeave a comment
We have more mache than we can eat. Our green salads of late have been all mache with a few sweet pepper slices for color and texture. The lettuce went to seed last year, survived the winter, recently shot up and is now going to seed again. I would give some to the neighbors but I’m afraid they would be wary of the gangliness of the shoots and white flower tops.
I told the receptionist at our doctor that I really liked the music that was playing in the waiting room. The kind of easy going jazz, never pushy or wanky, and definitely not “smooth jazz.” John Coltrane’s “Say It (Over and Over Again)” never sounded better.
Kyle Buchanan’s interview with David Cronenberg started with this paragraph. “In 2017, during the funeral of his wife and longtime collaborator Carolyn Zeifman, the director David Cronenberg found himself struck by an unusual impulse: As the coffin holding her dead body was lowered into the ground, he wanted more than anything to get into that box with her.”
That idea made us want to see his new movie. They are always risky but this one did not live up to the promise of that idea. “The Shrouds” got way bogged down, the lead character got more unlikable as the movie went on and the whole concept fizzled with complicated Russian and Chinese interference.
We were not sure if we would be up for going out on our first day back so we waited til we were boarding the plane in LA to buy tickets to Tony Brown’s show at Hochstein. At that point the tickets to Branford Marsalis were half price. Marsalis has been playing with the same band for a few years now and they show it. Not by being tight so much as in their willingness to move as a unit toward new vistas. They reached for it in the very first song surprising us, but we are not that familiar with him. By the third song they were taking their ties off. The drummer was a force of nature but just as comfortable playing like Denardo Coleman when doing an Ornette song. They brought the house down with Keith Jarrett’s ”Long as You Know You’re Living Yours” and the bass player stepped aside at the encore to let the Eastman’s Jeff Campbell play on Monk’s “Epistrophy.” So glad we went.
The lettuce, arugula and spinach we planted before leaving is all up. The Mache lettuce, that surprised us by coming back after winter, was about ten inches tall when we got back. We were only gone twelve days! I picked a huge bag for the next few dinners and we brought our pepper plants home from our neighbors where they were sitting in the window while we were gone.
There is a reason Ed Ruscha photographed Every Building on the Sunset Strip in 1966. It was already an iconic slice of California fantasy. Our Uber driver was just finishing his shift this morning as we spotted one attraction after the other. He told us “the billboards (mostly promoting shows we’ve never heard of) really pop at night.” He dropped us off at Ameba a half hour before they opened so we walked the star-studded sidewalks on Hollywood Boulevard and found a coffee shop next to yet another Scientology building. Kim Carnes’ “Betty Davis Eyes” was playing on the sound system.
Gene Autry has more than one star on the sidewalk. The store was mobbed by the time we got back there. Peggi and I found two boxes of used jazz 45s and each went through a box. I found it interesting that the smaller San Francisco store had about three times as many. The clerk, who had family in Rochester, told us they had a listening station up until Covid and they never brought it back so we bought a short stack on good faith.
Peggi’s sister made reservations at the Getty and we drove over there in the afternoon. We started with the Gustave Caillebotte show, mostly stunning, large Impressionist paintings of his friends with a few awkward clunkers. And then the three Rembrandt’s in the permanent collection that are seared in my memory from previous visits. I find it especially reassuring that Rembrandt is still laughing in this 1628 self-portrait. Only he has/had the ability to capture a human being for all time.
