detail from Felix Esquilin’s portrait at the Village Gate – click photo for full drawing
I like the idea of First Fridays a lot. I’m talking about the effort to coordinate openings on the same night of the month at various galleries around town. Bill Jones is developing a website to replace this one. We checked it last Friday before heading out. You can only take in so much. Our favorite from last Friday wasn’t even on the list and we stumbled on it on our way to see the Respect Sextet. It was a high school art show upstairs at the Village Gate. This kid, Felix Esquilin, makes it look easy.
Peggi and I celebrated an anniversary of sorts yesterday. Our first date was an outing to the Kentucky Derby. We rode in the back of Steve Hoy‘s van from Bloomington, Indiana to Louisville. Voice over talent extraordinaire, Joe Barrett was in the front seat. Secretariat won the race.
We make a point to tune in to the race every year and this time we watched it at Bill and Geri’s house. We were invited there to help take down a few Arborvitae trees that had grown out of control. The shrubs were probably planted there when the house was built and they were now taller than the house. Bill had one of his trees fall on a neighbor’s property many years ago and he bought a chain saw to clean up the mess. His saw has been on permanent loan to us and we really couldn’t live without it. I did most of the cutting but Bill stepped in for this dramatic footage while I grabbed a movie.
Respect Sextet at the Village Gate Attrium in Rochester New York, May 1st, 2009
The whole of yesterday’s activity was a prelude to the Respect Sextet performance outside the Bop Shop at the Village Gate. We have seen this band about ten times now and they continue to shine. The former Eastman students are the best band to come out of Rochester. Their newest cd, Sirius Respect, is a tribute to Sun Ra and Stockhausen and every other song is by one of these two giants. They did a little bit of that last night but they have already moved on. The place was packed and the crowd was a lot younger than the usual jazz beards.
Peggi and I had been chipping away at this big tree stump for about a week. It was here when we moved in and we thought we would get rid of it once and for all. In fact we already had a new Rhododendron bush sitting in a pot waiting to go in the hole. We bought it at WalMart. We were there on other business and we wandered into the “Garden Center”. Peggi asked a worker if they had any lilacs and she took her over to some small purple hyacinths that were blooming. Peggi asked the clerk if she had ever been to Highland Park for the Lilac Festival and she said she hadn’t. So we bought a Rhododendron.
Time Warner sold us on a digital phone package that will reduce our RoadRunner bill and they were switching the lines but the install went bad and we were off line for most of the afternoon so we dove into this project. Our neighbor, Jerod, got involved and he brought his back hoe up to lift the stump out once we had cleared away most of the dirt. Time Warner couldn’t get our new modem to communicate with downtown and at one point we had four TW trucks out in our driveway. The supervisor told us “this was definitely not the norm”. That was oddly reassuring.
Margaret Explosion with two bass players, Ken Frank and Brian Williams
Bob Martin emailed yesterday to say he had the flu and wouldn’t be able to play the Margaret Explosion Little gig. Jaffe, who was planning on playing piano with us, emailed next to say he had car problems and wouldn’t be able to make the gig either. We tried posting a FB message to Phil Marshall and calling Jack Schaefer but both of them were booked. Steve Piper was there celebrating his birthday and we asked him to join us but he didn’t have his guitar with him so we did the gig as a trio. We set up the recorder but somehow failed to record the first set. We are really helpless without Bob.
We managed to get the thing in record for the second set and Brian Williams from “Bobby Henrie & The Goners” joined us for a few songs on double bass. “Talk about mud flaps”.
Peggi was trying to bust the screen open in our kitchen and she knocked our ceramic fish off the widow ledge. We bought it at the Clothesline Show a long time ago and we never found a place to hang it in our new crib. Funny thing is the fish came from one of the nearby ponds that we walk and ski around. A tag on the back of it reads, “The mold for this fish was made by a Perch caught by Joe Lake in a pond of Durand Eastman Park in Rochester, NY in 1993.”
Rick Simpson suggested that we take the pieces over to our neighbor, Leo, who excels in glue applications. Leo chose a two part epoxy that looks black when it hardens. We tried holding the pieces together with nails, our hands and duct tape. We had four minutes to fidget. The seam is pretty visible but it is a whole again.
I sat down to talk to Sue Rogers at last Wednesday’s Margaret Explosion gig and I remember fidgeting with Scott Regan’s pens while we talked. Well, I found the pen in my pocket the next day. I’m bad. I will return it.
The Bop Shop’s Tom Kohn comes from a family of hunters and he told me he liked my post on the deer. He said he reads my blog every day now and this kind of threw me off so I didn’t post anything yesterday to throw him off.
I’ve been working on some six by sixes for the upcoming RoCo show. I spotted my stuff from last year in the bottom row of this photo. I submitted prints of paintings last year and never imagined they would sell. I really felt bad when they did, like I had ripped someone off. So this year I’m doing real, miniature paintings and it has been a lot of fun. Pete LaBonne was in town last week and he told us, “I have a lot more work to do before I record again. You know, to come up with something I can listen to when it’s done.” I know exactly what he means. That’s why I am happy to contribute art work to this RoCo show even tough they take 100% and even keep the ones that don’t sell. Like the Clothesline Show for the MAG, this is their largest fundraiser.
Our cherry tree blossoms came out today so I grabbed this shot while still in my pjs. Peggi and I spent about an hour this morning swinging a sledge hammer at an old stump in front of our house. It has been rotting since we moved in here it’s time to remove it. We borrowed a pointed sledge hammer from Rick and Monica. Monica had a name for the the tool that I have forgotten. It’s killer. I’m sore all over.
We took a walk and followed what sounded like the world’s biggest woodpecker. We used our ears as tracking devices while he worked away on tall hollow tree. When we got close but spooked him and watched as he flew to another tree. It was a beautiful Pileated, like Woody Woodpecker.
It’s Brad Fox‘s birthday today. We are the same age for two days. I plan on giving him a call as soon as I finish this entry.
With temperatures predicted to head into the eighties this weekend everybody is talking about the weather. Or at least everyone I saw today including the dental hygienist and my wife and Pete and Shelley. This will kick Spring into high gear and probably kill off the crocuses and the other early Spring flowers. Things move so fast this time of year that is mandatory that you get out there to watch. We walked up to Durand Eastman and checked out the magnolias. Shelley gathered some Pondarosa pine needles for the tiny little baskets she makes.
Pete LaBonne sat in with Margaret Explosion last night on the grand piano and Jaffe was there to watch. Tom Kohn from the Bop Shop was there and Scott Regan from WRUR. The band was on their best behavior and we made the bonus.
“Nerites” currently on view at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY
It figures we would run into Lucinda Storms at the opening of the glass show at the MAG. She was ogling Timothy Horn’s big jewelry piece entitled “Nerites” after the Greek god of shellfish and it was my favorite piece in the show. Lucinda was wearing her own creation – beautiful, organically shaped glass beads.
Click photo above for a movie of Ab Baars Trio with Kern Vandermark at the Bop Shop Attrium in Rochester NY
The Ab Baars Trio with Ken Vandermark was a treat for the ears last night. They are about twenty dates into a US tour. They played New York last night and are clearly on a roll. There was physical space around their instruments, I swear. You could hear each instrument clearly and the dialog was fascinating. I turned the movie function of my camera on about halfway into this Ken Vandermark piece called “Losing Ground”. The band is taking the train to Buffalo for a gig tonight and then they play Ken’s hometown, Chicago, for a few nights and that’s it.
Besides the eye candy, Spring comes with equally impressive scents and sounds. The nearby wetlands vibrate like a post modern symphony with small frogs (peepers) gurgling in unison to attract mates. It is as calming and beautiful as Tuvan throat singing monks but more organic, freer in time with overlapping monophonic harmonies. This is way beyond om.
Easter display in house on Culver Road in Rochester, NY
I rode my bike past this display in the front window of a house on Culver Road and couldn’t resist stopping to take a photo. Even after reading how that guy came out of his house and shot that kid. Someone who puts Easter animals in their window probably wouldn’t tote guns would they? This display is either a week late or these people are on the Eastern Orthodox calendar like our neighbor, Helen.
Raised as a Catholic, and still mystified by that whole thing, I was never taught the significance of the bunny and chick. You can hardly even speculate anymore with Wikipedia right at your fingertips but I would have guessed that the chick has something to do with being born again. And maybe that’s why Catholics scoffed at these pagan symbols. You are born Catholic and then stuck with it. You don’t have the option of being born again. I certainly knew the bunny showed up with the an overdose of candy just after we had given up candy for Lent but this guy was suspect too. The focus, of course, was supposed to be on the most suspect of all Catholic legends, the resurrection.
Jem Vinxi painting currently on view at the Little Theater Cafe
Remember when modern art looked and was contemporary? It doesn’t matter, it still looks good and JEM Vinxi who is currently showing at the Little Theater Cafe almost makes it look fresh. Not quite landscapes or representational but structural and decorative. They’re old fashioned modern art paintings and I like them.
Margaret Explosion got stuck in a few ruts last night and it wasn’t the paintings fault. Somehow we managed to shoot ourselves in the foot. There is still a fine line between modern art and junk or spontaneous composition and jamming.
Sparky Doll purchased at Small Word Books on North Street in Rochester, NY
Sparky Doll purchased at Small Word Books on North Street in Rochester, NY
It wasn’t even a close call to pick our favorite Sparky doll from the fourteen on display at Small World Books on North Street. Peggi picked this one up for two bucks. The owner, Rocco, let me photograph all fourteen while we hung around talking. He told me these things are pretty common in New England.
Sparky Dolls found at Small World Books in Rochester, New York
I had to call Sparky this morning to check in on him. We were neighbors for twenty some years and I kept track of him when we lived in the city. We even developed a mythological site devoted to him and I’m sorry to report I don’t have any new episodes for it.
“Jenny” as pictured in a Genesee Beer promotional picture
This morning’s “Beer Guys” column in our incredibly shrinking newspaper was about seasonal bock beers. Legend has it they were originally brewed by monks in Germany during Lent and that the bock beer had extra nutrients for the those who were fasting. They reviewed a few bock beers and I agree with their opinion that the locally brewed Genesee Bock is one of the best. And I was happy to read that it is selling briskly. At $5.99 a twelve pack at Wegmans (w/ Shoppers Card) it should be. When I worked as a stock boy at the old Super Duper they sold Genny Beer and Cream Ale for $1.09 a six pack as one of their “in store specials”. These were products that were sold at or below cost to get people into the store. That was a long time ago. The yesteryear price of the back beer matches the retro packaging perfectly.
My uncle worked for the old Topper Brewing Company, they also brewed Standard Ale, and I have always pulled for the local companies. I don’t understand why they can’t come up with a good craft brew. Both Rorbach’s and Custom Brew Craft put the Genesee/High Falls/LaBatt’sUSA product to shame. Our friend’s, Pete and Shelley drink Genesee Cream Ale, and I gather it is more popular in the mountains than it is here. I like it but I have a hard time with their packaging. Maybe they should bring back Jenny.
Jenny seemed wildly exotic when I first tuned into her. The dark hair, the slinky low cut barmaid outfit, the red lipstick smile, the choker necklace, the mole. I couldn’t wait to meet her in a bar but I was only ten or eleven. I found this picture of her over at Small World Books on North Street.
Marc Chagall self portrait on the cover of Time in 1965
Rob Storms from Sound Source called us on Saturday afternoon to invite us to Small World Books for some homemade pasta fazool. This invitation came right out of the blue and we accepted it. Small World Books is in a beautiful old building near downtown on North Street and it specializes in used, rare, and out of print books.
Rocco runs the place and he made the soup. They do most of their business online so it is no surprise we had never been there. We wandered around the building for for an hour or so and I came across this magazine from another era. There is a beautiful light filled gallery upstairs and a small performance space. We’re thinking, we’re thinking. I bought a Matisse book for five dollars and Peggi bought a Sparky doll. I might post a picture of that tomorrow.
Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Company at the Syracuse War Memorial in 1968. Photo by Kevin Patrick
Janis Joplin at the Syracuse War Memorial in 1968. Photo by Kevin Patrick
Janis Joplin with Big Brother & The Holding Company at the Syracuse War Memorial in1968. Photo by Kevin Patrick. Click photo for another shot.
That quote is from the opening scene of “Love Janis” at the Downstairs Cabaret. All the lines in the play are from Janis Joplin’s own words, her letters and interviews, and it takes two actresses to deliver them, sometimes at the same time. This works well because just as you’re not buying one, the other takes over. The band members tour as Big Brother now so the show rocked. First play I’ve been to where they pass out ear plugs.
Coincidentally Kevin Patrick primed the pump for us with his recent entry with these sensational photos of Janis.
Art Music blackboard message at the Ctreative Workshop
When I showed up for class at the Creative Workshop I found this message on the board. I have an interest in the two disciplines. I know Fred Lipp has a day class on Tuesdays and I wondered if he might have posted these notes. The only time I remember him addressing the class with chalk in hand was when he drew a diagram of his winter accident. He is not the demonstration kind of teacher.
When he showed up last for class (he is that kind of teacher) I asked him if he wrote the note. He said no and and asked if there was something I wanted to add. I said, “Improvisation”, and he wrote that on the board.
