The Great Lakes are also great obstacles. As the crow flies Toronto is not that far from us but driving around Lake Ontario takes a few hours. To get to Detroit we drove around the bottom of Lake Erie. To get back we took the northerly route across Canada where we went out of our way to stop at an IKEA in Hamilton.
We didn’t really need anything but would have looked at something to replace our twenty five year old futon and we wanted to find a new entry way throw rug. The one we have is so old and frayed it has become a tripping hazard.
We had never been to an IKEA and we were pretty excited as we rounded the corner and spotted the sign. The giant parking lot was empty like they had gone out off business. It was really eerie. I typed the date and word Canada in Google and learned it was Victoria Day.
Woman in Mexican mask at Detroit Institute of the Arts
The fawn in our backyard this morning was no bigger than our cat but its legs were a lot longer. I had to wake Peggi up to catch this sight before it ran away. Just as I did we spotted a fox cross our backyard. I don’t know if they bother the deer but this one just kept moving. We watched as the fawn’s mother came from behind our bedroom and proceeded to groom her offspring. The little thing was trying to nurse while it was getting licked by mom and in about five minutes they were gone. All quite extraordinary.
It had me thinking of the fertility section in Diego Rivera’s mural that we had just visited at the Detroit Institute of the Arts. When we were there it seemed completely incongruous with the manly laborers and machinery but the baby in the womb was the image that stuck with me. Even after watching this woman prance around, taking selfies while wearing a mask.
We just visited a friend, in the hospital at the end of his life, and a scene like the one we witnessed this morning certainly helps right the ship.
I hit the motherland of mugshots at WFAA’s website. Downloaded all 144 Waco Texas bikers in jumpsuits. I’ll need a large quantity of orange paint for this one.
Detroit Walk in Portrait Studio by Corine Vermeulen at Detroit Institute of the Arts
There has been so much written about Detroit’s hope for recovery and it seems every article covers exactly the same territory. We brought the recent National Geographic story with us and Peggi read it aloud as I drove. There are people farming on empty lots in the middle of the city. We got really caught up in it all. In Motown everyone roots for the home team. A bum who passed us on the street this morning broke the news that the Tigers had won all three games in Saint Louis. “All three,” he said, holding up three fingers.
We spent most of the day at the Detroit Institute of the Arts where they are featuring a special exhibit of Diego and Frida in Detroit. Edsel Ford, the CEO of Ford Motor Company put up the money, a quarter of a million dollars in today’s currency, to hire Rivera, an avowed Communist, to paint a mural of the story of Detroit on the walls of the museum. Rivera considered it his best work. Frida came along with him and did some of most sensational paintings here. The show is drenched with cultural and political significance.
When the city went bankrupt the Institute considered selling its assets. Who knows what would have happened to the mural. A Rodin “Thinker” sits outside the museum. They have some choice Cezanne’s, portraits, a Madame Cezanne, a landscape, a famous bathers painting the skulls. Choice Van Goghs and Rembrandts. “Detroit Walk in Portrait Studio” by Corine Vermeulen was in its last day and I’m so happy we caught this show. Her portraits perfectly capture essence of this city, the people. Here’s a link to some of the photos in the show.
Mayapple flower in shade of Edmunds Woods n Rochester, New York
There is the canopy above the woods that has almost filled out and then there is the canopy of Mayapples at your knees. I got down on my kness to take this shot of the beautiful Mayapple blossom in Edmunds Woods. I’ve been there three times this Spring with my father to follow the rapid changes. Mayapples grow in colonies derived from a single root and only the ones with two shoots produce a flower.
I like the production values on this. Ken Colombo was sitting a few tables back from the band holding his phone in the air. I like the sound too and and it’s not an Apple product. This was our second song last Wednesday. The place was just starting to fill up, Jack was in NYC, and the rest of the band was getting down to business.
Our Lady of Lilacs in front of house on Bouckart Street in Rochester, New York
We’ve had a rattle under our car for quite a while so I decided to take it in today. I called Lee at B&B on Saint Paul and he said to bring it in. This meant two bike rides, one back home while they looked at the car and one to the place to pick the car up. It was a beautiful day for both. The car needed front and rear sway bar links. Pothole damage.
In between the rides we planted two rows each of spinach, lettuce and beets. Our neighbor is already harvesting his lettuce. He had it in at the end of April. Our little seedlings were in our living room.
I see this bathtub virgin all the time. She is out near the road on Bouckart Street in Irondequoit. It is kind of a secret street, a straight shot form the 7-Eleven on Titus Avenue to Ridge Road, no stop signs. I keep thinking we’ll interrupt a drag race or something when we take it. We take this route to my parents and Peggi takes it to “the club” (LA Fitness). She looked especially good next to the dark lilacs.
Sixties glass building on Mount Hope Avenue in Rochester, New York
At ninety Kurt Feuerherm is a well seasoned artist. His work is in the permanent collection of MoMA, Albright Knox and the MAG. He was my Fine Arts mentor at SUNY Empire State and he received an award from the college tonight in a ceremony at Cutler Union. They asked some former students to show a few pieces along with Kurt’s work so contributed three of my crime faces. A jazz duo performed and they served drinks and finger food.
It was my first alumni event. I usually ignore the junk mail from the school. They may have even taken me off the list. I’ve never shown my degree to anyone, never even had the opportunity to put it on a job application since I mostly worked for myself. I dropped out of school after a year, picked up some credits for Creative Workshop classes, took a couple of fantastic photo classes at the UofR, got some credit for commercial art jobs and then worked with Kurt. In ten years time I cobbled together an art degree.
Kurt helped me a lot. I was doing something close to cartoons with flat color when I first met him. He got me abstracting my subject matter and working at a larger scale. He sent to the library with a list of contemporary artists who were working in a similar vein. He opened my eyes to a bigger picture. He was very helpful and I’d like to thank him.
Reflection on Johnson’s Pond in Durand Eastman Park
Even Spring can bring you down. The ramps are turning yellow and the Trilliums are fading fast. Life is too short. But it is only those left behind who complain. Plants go with hope for renewal. People are gone for good.
Some people give so much they leave a hole when they’re gone. It is up to us to fill it.
I’ve never seen the owners of this house but I’m guessing they are of Italian descent. Italians like to shape, stunt and generally torture trees to get them to look like lollipops or poodles tales. This is just my lopsided observation based on living in Rochester for most of my life. Friends, people on my old paper route, the old Italian neighborhoods, you start connecting the dots. Maybe it is their old world connection with fruit trees, a desire to maximize fruit production in a lot in a small space, like a small city lot.
Philip Guston fell in love with the tall, narrow Cypress trees and round ornamental trees in the parks in Rome while he was there on a teaching stint. It is a beautiful custom. You’ll have to the click the photo above to see the tree behind that little pink bike.
Flickr and Tumblr dropped a vowel and their name got so much cooler. I’ve dropped two in PopWars for this post. I back up all my photos to Flickr. They give you a terabyte of space for free and I’ve been using their slideshow embed code on my home page for years but it never worked on the phone or tablet. You’d think they would be hip to all that stuff. I found this little “Flickrit” java script page that lets you link to a Flckr set and create slideshows at fixed or responsive sizes and I stuck iframe in up above. It stops at 100 photos but it even works on my first generation Touch. Update: The slideshow has stopped working.
Google’s new policy of ignoring sites that aren’t mobile friendly has tearing apart all sorts of stuff. I hardly get anything done anymore. I feel like I’m going backwards. If don’t have anything better to do for a few days drop a url in here and see what I’m talking about. Even my Tumblr signs page flunked. “Text too small to read.” “Links too close together.” “Mobile viewport not set.” Anything Else?
My Google custom search at the top of the site is not even mobile friendly. Everything needs reworking. I have all these web pages open now and will probably not come up for air for awhile.
Six Basketball Players – Oil paintings by Paul Dodd 2015
Someone came up to me during the break last night. I was still seated at my drums when he asked if I was Paul. He told me I painted a picture of him and I knew right away who he was. He was one of the six basketball players that I had hanging at the Little a few months back. He is shown on the left in the detail above. People kept asking if I knew any of those guys and I just shook my head but here was the one that many had speculated was the captain of the six member team.
He told me he saw the article in the paper, the one where I said I painted these guys from a 1957 high school yearbook I found because the team looked so hapless. He said he was only a sophomore when that picture was taken. Two of the six are dead, the guys in the middle of both rows. One went on to work for the Green Bay Packers and this guy said he was the quarterback for the UofR. And the guy with one eye closed was not winking, he wasn’t injured on the court with an elbow or anything. His eye just didn’t work.
These guys all graduated over fifty years ago and I never imagined I would meet any of them. It was kind of strange. I hope I don’t run into any of the wanted guys I’ve painted.
Can’t figure out why there were so many people in the park and on the beach today. Is school out already or is it some sort of holiday? We rode our bikes along the beach and stopped at Johnson Pond to see if we could see any of the turtles that my father saw down here. He sent us a photo with twenty fairly good sized turtles sunning themselves on a log. We found ten or so on a log along the lake side of the pond. I only have a three times zoom on my camera so my shots are not as dramatic. Spring usually means rain but it has been nothing but blue sky around here for weeks.
We picked our wild ramps responsibly, cut them at their base and left the bulbs in the woods. Made a nice green salad with them and added some grapes, halved, the way they used to do it at Peggi’s mom’s place.
The back room at Tapas 177 was the perfect spot for Maureen Outlaw’s opening last night. Dawn Carmel was pouring wine samples, the kitchen kept the tapas plates full, the conversation was crisp and Maureen’s paintings looked fantastic. The familiar scenes she paints, the bend in the Genesee River, the curve in the road through Durand, look anything but ordinary with Maureen’s luscious paint handling.
When I picked my dad up for his doctor’s appointment this morning he had his knapsack with him so I kind of figured he had something in mind after the appointment. Sure enough we stopped by Edmunds Woods where I took the photo above. As you can see, the trees are all filling in and the bounty of wildflowers below is closing shop.
Margaret Explosion has a bunch of new songs in the slow cooker tonight so stop on out if you’re in the area.
Watkins & the Rapiers Grammy 1958 show at the Little Theaer Café in Rochester New York
Last night Watkins & the Rapiers pulled out all the stops as they recreated the 1958 Grammys Show at the Little Theater. With special guests including Stan Merrell (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu “Volaré”) and Shawn the Café manager, the usual guests, Connie Deming (Peggy Lee’s “Fever”) and Richard Storms (Frank Sinatra’s “Old Black Magic”) and sensational performances by the band as they covered some rich musical territory. Shawn brought the house down with his version of Frank’s “Come Fly With Me.” I have never heard an ovation like that for any other performance here.
Watkins goes for it on a weekly basis. There is always a theme, costumes or new songs, sometimes whole new lyrics to someone else’s songs. The six piece band is made up of unlikely but full-fledged entertainers. They have a die-hard contingent of fans in the front half of the room and usually pack the house. You won’t find more ear to ear smiles at any other venue.
The Flash Mob with Todd Bradley Western New York Flash home opener 2015
We had to leave home before the race started so we missed this year’s running of the Kentucky Derby. Peggi and I went to it on our first date, the year Secretariat won, and lately we’ve been in the habit of driving or riding our bikes down to the lake to watch the race at O’Laughlins overlooking the river and Port of Rochester. But this year we had a conflict. The Flash were playing their home opener.
Kerry Regan and Claire pulled into the parking space next to us and they didn’t have tickets either so we bought four from a guy on the street for ten dollars each. Without Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd and all the players they traded away, the attendance was way down so we ignored the seat assignments and sat where we wanted. And as luck would have it forwards Sidney Leroux and Jasmyne Spencer switched sides so we had a great view of the action.
The match was against Boston so I was hoping to see my favorite player in the league, Heather O’Reilly, but apparently they traded her to Kansas City. Kansas City will be here Friday to meet the Flash but by then all the national team players will be training for this summer’s World Cup.
The Flash played pretty good in the first half but dominated the game in the second and scored three goals against Boston’s Alyssa Naeher, the national team’s backup to Hope Solo. All three of the goals were solid. Sydney’s was picture perfect as she moved right and shot back to the left near the post. Kristin Edmonds is back on defense and playing like she really wants the ball. She’s always moving to an open space and covers a lot of ground. She plays like O’Reilly and I would put her at midfield if I was coach.
The Flash Mob, shown above, sounded better than ever last night, even added some new samba beats so it was no surprise to see Todd Bradley playing with them. He’s recently put together a Bossa Nova combo with his two brothers and Brian Williams.
There is a John Baldessari painting in the current show at the Memorial Art Gallery. It struck me as kind of dumb but fun. I’ve seen a few videos of Baldessari talking about art and I really like listening to him. I found this video this morning and I really love it. John Baldessari talks about why Philip Guston is the boss.
Painting behind bar at Carpani’s Restaurant in Rochester, New York
The Lake Ontario Parkway ends at Lake Road in Rochester. We crossed it and the river on the Colonel O’Rorke Bridge and pulled into the Stutson Street Plaza. Can’t go here without thinking about the time we took mescaline and watched a matinee of 2001 in the old Stutson Street Theater. And then I start thinking of the summer job I had with Brad Fox cleaning this parking lot in the middle of the night.
But tonight we were here for a birthday dinner at Carpani’s, formerly Cipriani’s. We split an order of Sautéed Calamari with Calumet olives, red onion, pepperoncinis, chopped fresh tomatoes, garlic and oil and a dish called “Pasta Alla Zia Teresa” with mushrooms, broccoli and olio sauce. Both were very good. If I was still keeping track of these things Carpani’s would have a place of honor.
We got lost in this painting during dinner and made it home for two more episodes of “Bloodline”. 65. Done that.
My dad’s car is in the shop so he invited us over to their place to celebrate my birthday with a milkshake and sandwich. The weekly special was an Italian Hogie, the same thing Robert Durst shoplifted from Wegmans when he got popped. The bistro at their place was packed so we ate lunch in the library by the fireplace.
It was a beautiful day, warm enough to go without a hat and a clear blue sky. We left my parents’ place and traveled west on the 104 past the ruins of Kodak Park and Ridgemont Plaza and onward, just wandering as is our custom on April 28. We turned right on a small road that surely would have taken us to the lake if we stuck with it but we got on Route 18, the “Roosevelt Highway” and paralleled the shoreline until we got to Lakeside Beach State Park.
The park wasn’t officially open so there was no entry fee and most of it was lawn with concrete slabs scattered about and chainlink nets for something called disc golf. We tried to ignore all that and climbed down the bank to the lake where we found some shotgun shells, golf balls, drug bags and all sorts of tiny plastic trash.
We walked for a few hours and worked up a thirst so we stopped in Oak Orchard and bought a couple of bottles of Guinness from a girl with large peace sign earrings. We drank the beer by a nearby bridge and watched a turtle sun himself. This very sleepy little town was just coming alive for the season with bait shops, boat rentals and sailboat ride places.
We took the Lake Ontario State Parkway back into town and were amazed at how rough the road was. A bit forlorn but still a beautiful highway. Each bridge is slightly different from the next and all faced with stone. Many are in disrepair today. The Parkway was built in the late forties at what was surely an optimistic time, a time when you might just hop in the car on sunny afternoon and take a drive.
