Posts

Posted on

Happy New Year Mom!

Satellite dish in a tree in our yard
Satellite dish in a tree in our yard

My mom gave Peggi and me shirts for Christmas. Peggi’s is a fitted orange corduroy one and she has worn it almost every day since. I thanked my mother for mine when I opened it and she said, “I thought it would look good when you’re playing your drums.” So I’m planning to wear it tonight when Margaret Explosion plays the Little Theater Cafe. “My mom has good taste.

I was wiring the backs of my recent paintings in preparation for an upcoming show and I can’t help but review them each time I look at them. Some needed more work so I was running up and down the basement stairs with paintings in my hand and I missed the last step and twisted my ankle. It’s kind of blue on one side.

I should be able to play drums but I might be able to dance when a few friends stop by after the gig to ring in the new year. So I downloaded a free app for our iPod Touch called. “Remote”. I can control iTunes, running on a desktop and wired to the stereo, remotely from any where in the house. I’m thinking about the couch. Now I’m looking for an iPod Touch app that will bring free movies in through the satellite dish that came with our house.

Leave a comment
Posted on

Rubber Seals?

Maytag man lit up in Home Depot
Maytag man lit up in Home Depot


The Maytag dude was all lit up in the appliances section.

For months I had been compiling a list in my pocket notebook of things we needed at Home Depot. So when I finally got there I had some serious shopping to do. I broke our old push broom so I started at the far end of the store near the garden section. I bought a twenty five dollar yellow shop broom that had angle braces suportting the handle down near the broom. PushBroom 2.0.

We needed some some 100 watt bulbs and I bought the Florescents with the mercury in them but I keep hoping they will come up with a “warm” bulb. Between “Soft, Bright and Daylight”, I settled for “Soft.” I tried some “Daylight” a while back and it wasn’t what I pictured. I bought some wire for the back of the paintings that I’m getting ready for a show and some plastic to cover a window in our basement. I only wanted to buy one ceiling tile but I had to buy a whole box and the last thing on my list was “rubber seals”. Rubber seals for what. I couldn’t imagine. Maybe it was the leaky shower that I’ve learned to ignore.

1 Comment
Posted on

Zabadak

Big fallen tree in the woods by our house
Big fallen tree in the woods by our house

Rick Simpson came to our door to tell us that a big tree had fallen across our our path in the woods behind his house. We had to run right down there to check it out. You can only get a sense of how big this tree is by clicking the photo and spotting Peggi in the lower right hand corner. We had sixty mile an hour winds yesterday and there must have been some sort of micro burst in this one spot because four trees came down in a row.

We got a panicked call from Kevin Patrick on Christmas day about the audio player misbehaving on his blog. I had recommended the One Pixel Out player but it wasn’t set up right so he gave us access and we duked it out. I’m so glad we were able to help because I love this site and I love “Zabadak” by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. We didn’t hear this tree fall in the woods but I’m quite sure it went “Zabadak”.

2 Comments
Posted on

I Want Wii Pants

Playing Nintendo Wii Baseball in my nephew's basement
Playing Nintendo Wii Baseball in my nephew’s basement

The last of the family holiday gatherings was at my sister’s for pizza. I spent some time in the basement with our nieces and nephews and their pet rabbit. I tried my hand at Nintendo’s Wii Baseball and managed to foul one off but I struck out pretty quickly. The ball players are all missing limbs for some reason. The hitters have no arms and the fielders don’t have any legs. I’m guessing this player is a woman. I love her pants.

I showed our nephews our new iPod Touch and they took me to the App Store where I took their reccomendations for free software like Google Earth, Pandora, UrbanSpoon and Flixter. I downloaded two drum machine programs that sound great through the stereo. I might try playing it with Margaret Explosion on New Year’s Eve. My nephews kept trying to sell me on games so I installed Cube Runner. I’m not very good at that either.

1 Comment
Posted on

Getting In Sync

Irondequoit Mall, day after Christmas
Irondequoit Mall, day after Christmas

I have been too busy over the holidays to paint or even check in here. Been hanging with our nephew mostly. Peggi and I found an iPod Touch under the tree and our nephew, coincidentally, just posted his recommended apps for the new device on his site. His laptop is crazy glued to his fingers and he hunches over it, hiding his activities under a mop of hair.

It took us three NetFlix sessions to watch a sixty minute documentary called,”Directors: Robert Altman”. Altman reminded us of Martin’s dad, Kenneth Edic. Altman described how he wanted his movies to be adventures. And it was important to him that the actors that he chose be open to an adventure as well. This is what my painting teacher (Fred Lipp) says all the time. “Painting is an adventure. It’s not the execution of a plan.”

1 Comment
Posted on

Pa Ra Pa Pa Pum

Dead Snowmen in our front yard
Dead Snowmen in our front yard

Our snowmen gave up the ghost on Christmas day. I don’t blame them. I went to Sears yesterday looking for a teapot for Peggi’s mom (she melted the last one) and I was right in the thick of it, pawing through merchandise with all the other desperate souls. I felt patriotic shopping but not very religious. Maybe if I bought all that “End of Days” nonsense I would feel more religious.

Peggi’s mom walks so slowly these days, I carry my laptop and type as we go. We’re off to Christmas dinner (for 27) at my parents. The madder the better.

2 Comments
Posted on

Bah Humbug

Snowmen with berets in our front yard
Snowmen with berets in our front yard

These guys did an “artiste” thing on us overnight and donned their berets. I imagine them talking about how this whole Christmas thing has gotten in the way of their quality time.

Leave a comment
Posted on

Exception

Snowmen with faces in front yard
Snowmen with faces in front yard

The snowmen in our front yard have taken on real personalities with the new snow. I’m seeing Winston Churchill on the right.

I paid extra to have the hard drive that I ordered for my father delivered in two days. That should have been Friday. Tracking info showed it out for delivery but later in the day the page show an “Exception”. If I hovered over the word it said “Emergency conditions beyond UPS Control”. I’m guessing that was the snow we had. UPS doesn’t work weekends even in the holiday season so that would mean today if I’m lucky. You would think they might put it at the front of the line but it’s after four now and no package. The only reason I’m writing about this is the “Exception” claim. Can I use that on deadlines or do you have to be in a union?

I have a bunch of passes to MacWorld at the Moscone Center in SF if anyone wants them.

1 Comment
Posted on

Might Even Roast Some Chestnuts

Watkins and the Rapiers at he Flipside on Main Street in Rochester, NY
Watkins and the Rapiers at he Flipside on Main Street in Rochester, NY

You can tell it’s near Christmas by the amount of red that bands are wearing. Another clue is that almost every tune we heard last night was a Christmas thing. I finally got the picture and got in the spirit. Down on Main Street, at the Flipside, Watkins and the Rapiers were thoroughly entertaining. They have a Christmas cd under their belts and add new chestnuts every year. Their Christmas tunes sound like classics. The place was packed but there should have been a line out the door. These guys have rescued Christmas.

Bob Henrie and the Goners at Abilene
Bob Henrie and the Goners at Abilene

Over at Abilene the joint was rockin’. We had just walked in, our glasses were still steamed and people were trying to get us to dance. Bob Henrie and the Goners are real treasures. They are better at early rock n’ roll than anybody. Their covers sound better than the originals. Some bands sound too loud in this room and others just get lost unless you are right on top of the band but these guys sounded like a live record. They have been playing together for twenty five years or so and they are real pros but that is no reason to go see them. Go see them ’cause they are a blast.

Leave a comment
Posted on

Hot Pants Shaker Scene

Peggi buying cabbage at the Public Market in Rochester, NY
Peggi buying cabbage at the Public Market in Rochester, NY

I loaded my mother-in-law’s SUN though SAT, MORN, NOON, EVE, BED pill container like we do every weekend but today I felt like I was loading an Advent calender. We used to have those things in our house when we were growing up and most of the little doors would be open by now. This one though has no surprises unless you forget what medicine you’re taking every day and my mother-in-law just may fall into that category.

We started the day at the Public Market downtown. I love this place especially the way it seems to draw equally from all sub cultures of the city. Red peppers were in abundance for some reason and local cabbage, pears, onions, potatoes and apples were everywhere. Christmas trees were fifteen dollars and every sort of nic nac  or common junk drawer product was there, fresh off a Chinese container. One of the fish guys tried to talk Peggi into buying an eel by wiggling it at us. “They’re good in soup”, he said. We had read a rave review of Barry from Fair Game Foods’ pastrami sandwiches in City Newspaper so waited in line for one of those and took it to our car where we listened to a cd of Margaret Explosion with Phil Marshall from last week.

It started snowing on the way home and it looked like a shaker scene. We are up to about fifteen inches of the white stuff now. We had arranged to ski with Rick and Monica so we headed right out in to the woods. Rick led the way and took us across the golf course and down a few thrill seeker hills. When we got back home we built a fire and put James Brown’s “Hot Pants lp on.

There are a few things in the running for tonight. Bob Henrie and the Goners are at Abilene and Watkins and the rapiers are doing their Christmas show at the Flipside. We might try to do both.

1 Comment
Posted on

Where Were We?

Lumiere at the Litle Theater Cafe in Rochester, NY
Lumiere at the Litle Theater Cafe in Rochester, NY

We were kind of tired last night but heroically headed downtown for Lumiere’s last appearance this year. Guitarist Roy Berns fell off a ladder and injured his shoulder. He’s having it operated on and will miss most of next year. The violin player they had fits their gypsy jazz sound perfectly. I still miss Ed the accordion player but no sense crying over split milk. The band sounded great.

We must have had eight inches or up here near the lake. We talked about skiing all day but didn’t get out until four or so. We skiied down to the park and then back through the woods. The path was buried and it was pretty dark so we got lost a few times. We were so turned around we didn’t even know if we were headed in the right direction. We’ll look for our tracks tomorrow and find out where we were.

Leave a comment
Posted on

Nice Pixels

"Paul Dodd, made from Paul Dodd paintings" digital print by Steve Piotrowski
“Paul Dodd, made from Paul Dodd paintings” digital print by Steve Piotrowski


“Paul Dodd, Made from Paul Dodd Paintings” digital print by Steve Piotrowski on display at High Falls Gallery in Rochester – click photo for full picture

I first heard about this piece from John Gilmore. And then Steve emailed me that the piece was in a show at the High Falls Gallery. So Peggi and I headed over there this afternoon to check it out. Sally Wood Winslow (Janet Reno’s cousin) runs the gallery and she is so much fun to chat with that it took us about a half hour to get up the stairs to where the art is.

It is a portrait show and Steve, who also has a sensational oil painting of the falls on permanent display here, did this piece in Photoshop. He grabbed a photo of me off the web and digitally repainted my big pixels with other paintings of mine that he found online. You kind of have to squint or get away from it to make sense of the big picture. We were kind of knocked out by all this.

2 Comments
Posted on

Can’t Stop The Crimestoppers

Snowmen in front of the house
Snowmen in front of the house

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. The temperature was somewhere in the low thirties so it was perfect packing and we rolled these two dudes up.

I tried to help my dad by buying a harddrive so he good do a proper backup of his system but the Western Digital drive I bought at Buy.com was defective so I spent a good part of the day getting an RMA number, repacking the thing and running it out to the UPS Store to return it. I took advantage of the trip to buy some new canvases at the Art Store in South Town Plaza. I bought six 20″ by 24″ canvases that were 50 per cent off. I was thinking of doing something other than crime guys but there was an enticing “CrimeStoppers” page in the paper this morning.

2 Comments
Posted on

Isn’t Grappling Enough?

Art work at 2 Vine Restaurant in Rochester, NY
Art work at 2 Vine Restaurant in Rochester, NY

The Democrat & Chronicle seems to be falling apart. They have laid off about ten percent of their staff and there were ridiculous typos in the paper this morning like this head, “McCain Rejects Criticism Republican of Obama”. The typos have to be bad for me to notice. Readership is declining (more like dying) and they can’t seem to think their way out of the box. How about some more interesting local content? I already knew someone threw a shoe at Bush before I opened the paper. In fact I had already seen the video.

City does an amazing job with local stuff. There is some meaty political coverage and Frank DeBlase is a joy to read and they even have an art critic. Imagine that. Rebecca Rafferty reviewed the RoCo Members Show last week. We had been to the opening and saw plenty of things that we liked. I usually just let my eye wander and stop when something seems pleasing so I knew I had missed a lot. It’s hard to see the show when so many people are milling about but it’s fun to see the people. We wanted to go back and this time we brought Rebecca’s review and we tracked down the drawings and paintings that she cited. It was a lot of fun.

I like art criticism regardless of whether I agree with it or not. Roberta Smith’s review of “Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave“, a mid-career survey at MoMA was tough. Marlene is one of my favorite painters of all time and easily my favorite living painter. She draws raw and right on and her paintings are luscious. Roberta worked extra hard to knock her down. Here’s a quote. “Fusing the political and the painterly, it grapples with the complexities of image making, the human soul, sexuality, the beauty of art, the masculinity of traditional painting, the ugliness of social oppression. How much it delivers on these scores is a question that this exhibition doesn’t quite answer.” Why does this exhibition have to “deliver” any of this. Isn’t grappling enough?

We had an incredible dinner at 2 Vine. We shared a Thai flavored Calamari appetizer and Peggi and I both ordered the bass special. The waitress explained that all their fish comes fresh daily from Boston and it is never frozen. It was also prepared first class. Crispy on the outside but light and moist on the inside with a very delicate orange flavor. It was the best fish I have ever had in my life. Which brings us to the art on the walls. Egon Schiele on Red Bull and Jagermeister?

1 Comment
Posted on

Behold, Darkness Shall Cover The Earth

Newly renovated Eastman Theater
Newly renovated Eastman Theatre

Peggi’s mom bought us tickets to Handel’s Messiah at the Eastman Theater but we we were a little late getting there so we had to sit in the back until intermission. The sound back there pretty good. It was a good natural mix and not particularly boomy in the low end or anything as I remember it. It just wasn’t present enough back there. The Eastman has recently finished the first of a three part renovation project and the sound stage portion has been completed. It has been re-designed to take advantage of advances in acoustical innovations and I would say they did a great job. The next two phases improve accessibility, a concern of particular interest to this age group, and an all important food concessions lobby. We moved down to our assigned seats at intermission and the sound was excellent.

Christopher Seaman, conducted and played harpsichord at the same time. That was kind of fun to watch. There were about 120 vocalists in the Rochester Oratorio Society on stage with the orchestra and with all those people I would expect something a little more boisterous but it all seemed all seemed too stuffy.

I spent a lot of time looking at the big panels behind the musicians. You know how when a storefront or an old building boards up a window and it looks like it was done for security reasons because maybe the neighborhood is declining or something. Well, that’s how this renovation looks to me. It sounds good but damn, is it bleak looking.

Leave a comment
Posted on

Soul Revival

Peggi and Monica skating at Manhattan Square Park
Peggi and Monica skating at Manhattan Square Park

Monica had the brilliant idea to invite us to go skating with her and Rick at Manhattan Square Park after work on Friday. We put our long johns on and warmed up our skates by the heater. Peggi hung on to me for the first few laps and then she was on her own. She had a collision with a young kid and they both fell but no one was hurt. The rink here has been renovated and it is now kidney shaped and very pretty. I could have done without the Christmas music but that is a losing battle.

I clomped next door with my skates on to Manhattan Square apartments where Frank Paolo works but the guard told me “Frankie wasn’t in yet”. We drove over to Corn Hill to look for a Mexican restaurant and wound up at an Italian place called Tony D’s. They specialize in coal fired pizza and they let us to place a special order of caramelized  onion pizza with no cheese. We sat by the oven and watched three beefy guys do the cooking. They played eighties soul music and got talking about Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and the whole soul revival thing goin’ on.

3 Comments
Posted on

Sam Patch Does The F Word

Over the last ten years or so I’ve made a compilation cds to hand out to friends and I thought I would do a new one before Christmas. I issue them under the “Sam Patch” moniker and I have been titling the collections with words that run in alphabetical order. This is my sixth one so I’m up to “F” and I may just call it “The F Word” and, of course, include Pete LaBonne’s song with that title. These songs below are in the running but they won’t all fit so I will have to do some editing.

“Caravan” There are so many versions of this Duke Ellington song but this one from the Frankie & Johnny lp knocks me out.
“You Belong To Me” by Patsy Cline
“Valse Chiapañecas” from a Nonesuch cd called “Mexico: Fiestas Of Chiapas & Oaxaca”
“I’ve Been A Long Time Leaving (But I’ll Be A Long Time Gone)” by Waylon Jennings
“In My Own Dream” by Paul Butterfield from In My Own Dream lp
“I Could Have Danced All Night” by Sun Ra from the Sound Sun Pleasure lp
“Roomful of Voices” a Playette song with the late Dave Mahoney on lead vocals
“Carnival Song” by Tim Buckley from Goodbye And Hello
“The F Word” by Pete LaBonne from his Yick Yack cd
“Is That All There Is?” by Peggy Lee
“The Minotaur’s Son” by Incredible String Band from The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter
“Blue Samba” by Ike Quebec from the Soul Samba lp
“Once You’ve Had The Best” by George Jones
“Beyond The Sea” by Bobby Darin from the Live! At The Desert Inn cd
“Tiny Montgomery” by Bob Dylan & The Band from The Basement Tapes
“Harry Irene” by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band from the Shiny Beast lp
“The Creator Has a Master Plan” by Pharoah Sanders
“Suite For Lester” by Art Ensemble Of Chicago, a tribute to former member LesterBowie
“Peter and Judith” by The Art Ensemble Of Chicago from the Urban Bushmen cd

Leave a comment
Posted on

Locked-In Syndrome

Stella on bed
Stella on bed

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” is a beautiful movie. The lusiously colored, closely cropped, bedridden, framing really looks great on tv. We watched long stretches of it for the second time last night. The French speech therapist’s endless repetition of the alphabet hypnotized me. I felt as I too had “locked-in syndrome” like the lead character, Jean-Dominique Bauby. Julian Schnabel did a great job bringing this (based on a) true story to the screen. Bauby’s memoir, though, is where the magic came from. “My cocoon becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly. There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas’s court.”

I’m thinking our white cat may have a variation of this “locked-in-syndrome. She spends nearly twenty four hours a day on our bed yet we’re certain that she has a life in there and that it is full enough for her. We can see this in her eyes.

Leave a comment