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Doggone Forlorn

Tree near Lake Ontario in Winter
Tree near Lake Ontario in Winter

Yesterday’s rain turned to light snow this morning so the snow stuck to the top surface of every branch. It was beautiful. I had some packages to mail and I was dreading the lines at the Post Office so I decided to drive along the lake over to the Charlotte office. Charlotte in the winter is doggone forlorn. But there were only three people on line, the new AC DC was playing in the backroom and the clerks were very friendly. I was tempted to stop down at the LDR to visit Patty. She and Rick (the “R’ in the LDR) are back running the place. And Rick’s dad, Russ, still cuts the meat each morning. There was nice article about them in Saturday’s paper. Their steak sandwiches are so good we become meat eaters when we walk in the door. Same thing happens over at Vic & Irv’s but that is usually only when Duane is in town and he goes off his macrobiotic diet.

60 Minutes did another one of its hit pieces on modern art when they interviewed Julian Schnabel last Sunday. The artwork they showed did look pretty bad and his Basquiat movie was pretty bad and the cd he put out was astoundingly bad but “The Diving Bell” is a damn good movie so far. We took a break about halfway through and plan to finish it tonight after the Margaret Explosion gig so I will report back.

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Capitalism Is Eating Itself

We met with our Merrill Lynch adviser this morning and were left with the distinct impression that capitalism is indeed eating itself. Our portfolio is worth less than what we put in to it and we’re doing “pretty good”. The same guys who have been saying for as long as I have been listening that “business knows best” are begging the government, who can’t balance a checkbook, for help. The receptionist, who used to greet us here, has been laid off because of the restructuring that Bank of America, who now owns Merrill, has started. And the Wall Street Journal I glanced at in ML’s lobby had an article about New York’s Attorney General, Mario Cuomo’s son, shaming Merrill’s CEO into not taking his ten million dollar bonus this year.

“Does the that fact that big business is begging the government for help indicate that things are really worse than they seem now?”, I asked. Our guy agreed that that was the case. We pushed ahead. Are there any buying opportunities out there now that just about everything has tanked? Maybe but even with their commission danging there they had no solid recommendations. “Do you feel that the Dow could drop much further?”. Our guy thought we would see a twenty to twenty five percent drop before things turned around.

We sold a few things at a loss so we could deduct it from our taxable income and called it a day at the races.

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Apparition

Durand Eastman golf course in the late afternoon
Durand Eastman golf course in the late afternoon

The golf course usually feels like a jarring intrusion when it appears at the end of the trail in the woods near our house. Maybe it has something to do with the memory of being clocked by a golf ball as we crossed this hole a couple of years ago. Sometimes, though, the manicurred golf course appears like an apparition and it just knocks me out – without the ball to the head thing.

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Mele Kaliki Maka

JoAnne Vaccaro sinnging Mele Kaliki Maka at the Vilage Gate Attrium in Rocchester, NY
JoAnne Vaccaro sinnging Mele Kaliki Maka at the Vilage Gate Attrium in Rocchester, NY

We stopped out to see Peggi’s mom this afternoon and she was watching the Del Webb Father/Son Challenge, a yearly golf tournament with famous golfers who are past their prime and their sons. Golf brings out the worst in me. The whispering, the goofy outfits and the gentlemanliness make me want to scream. We were going to walk down to dining room but Peggi’s mom was too tired so she decided to order in. I hung Christmas lights out on her balcony. It was about twenty degrees out there and it’s near eighty inside her apartment. It’s a toss up as to which is more uncomfortable.

Margaret Explosion made an appearance last night at Village Gate Atrium. The band, Hunu, graciously hosted a benefit for The Center For Youth Services. Chuck Cuminale worked there before he passed away and this event raised over a thousand dollars for the home for troubled kids. Various people got up to do a song with he the band and lot of guest musicians sat in as well a number of full bands. In our case it was three Margaret Explosion members plus Phil Marshall on guitar and Bernie Heveron on organ. We did an abstract, instrumental version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman”. Peggi and I ran the tune down in the basement before dinner but the performance was a pleasant surprise. Connie Deming did a beautiful version of Joni Mitchell’s “Christmas Song” and my favorite tune of the night was JoAnne Vacarro’s “Mele Kaliki Maka”.

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One Of Everything

Matt Dodd's photo of Black Friday shoppers in West Paterson NJ
Matt Dodd’s photo of Black Friday shoppers in West Paterson NJ

At least once a week I check in on my nephew at his blog, The iLife. He’s a freshman in college now but he still has good instincts. He went out to the Best Buy in West Paterson on Black Friday to interview some kids on line. He took this shot about one in the morning just before that dude was trampled at WalMart. His interview is as good as the photo.

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Dream of Life

Indo-Pak Coalition at the Village Gate Atrium last night in Rochester, NY
Indo-Pak Coalition at the Village Gate Atrium last night in Rochester, NY

Last night we stopped in the at the Village Gate Atrium to see Indo-Pak Coalition with Rudresh Mahanthappa on sax . The sax, tabla, guitar lineup had all sorts of potential but it didn’t really work for me. Seemed kind of academic or something and I was never any good with that.

Rochester Contemporary has their Members Show opening tonight. I always like this show. I put this recent crime face in there. We saw Barbara Fox recently and she was complaining about how her work gets lost in it and that is certainly a drawback of an uncurated free for all but I like the chaos of it all. And it is full of surprises. We want to be over at the Eastman House by eight to see the Patti Smith movie, Dream of Life.

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Refusing To Migrate

Eastman Lake in Durand Eastman Park, late Fall 2008
Eastman Lake in Durand Eastman Park, late Fall 2008

We walked through the woods and along the eastern shore of Eastman Lake this morning. Up near Lake Ontario we crossed over to Durand Lake and took the path along its western shore to the woods that lead back to our house. I didn’t see a soul the whole time except for my wife. Winter is coming on and the remaining leaves have lost most of their color other than this rich brown.

Winters in Rochester are tough and they toughen us. I’m looking forward to this one. I like the solitude, the warmth of the fireplace, the lighter social calender and the additional time to paint.

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Three’s A Crowd

Raccoons out back in a tree
Raccoons out back in a tree

There was a squirrel fight going on outside our bedroom window this morning. At least i thought it was squirrels. It woke me up so I got up and didn’t think much about it. Later we saw our neighbor walk up our driveway to look at something in our back yard. We went out and found three large raccoons in a tree. Two were on a perch near the top and one was further down. Every time the third one tried to get on the same perch a nasty fight broke out with lots of loud squealing. Our neighbor said it was too early for mating so who knows what was going on. It was hard to watch. I took a few photos and went back in to work.

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A Condition or a Proviso

rgaret Explosion playing upstairs at Abilene in Rochester, NY
Margaret Explosion playing upstairs at Abilene in Rochester, NY

I dragged my feet getting to this report on Black Friday’s gig at Abilene. I wanted to post a sound file with the entry and I hadn’t found time to listen to the tracks. I was almost afraid to because Ken and I had such heavy colds. We were both doing legal drugs to take the edge off. Ken took some Sudafed and I went with the Advil.

Danny has a magical little room upstairs. And just like magic Dale and Myna showed up for our set. I hallucinated seeing Dale tuning a guitar at stage left while we were playing our set at the Scorgies thing but they couldn’t make that one. Dale and I played together for a couple years in early New Math and we did a gig with Myna’s band, Human Switchboard, and the rest is history. It is always good to see him.

Jack played guitar and bass clarinet with us, Bob was celebrating Liz’s birthday at ONE, and Ken played his electric bass instead of the stand up. The lineup switch, the room, the drugs and the Nod people shaped the sound of the evening. It felt out of our control. Peggi, though, was in full control and sounded better than ever.

The room could be both perfect and magical. Danny has to get a liquor license for the upstairs bar. NYS makes you get a separate license for each floor. Some one has to move the furniture out of the alcove where the low rise stage is. No furniture in that performance space. The Get Out The Vote posters should be history, as graphically interesting and successful as they are/were. The rest of the place is so timeless. And Danny needs to serve Guinness on tap. These demands will be in our rider the next time we play there.

Nod rocked the house downstairs. It was almost a perfect evening.

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Extra Friendly

We took Peggi’s mom back to our old neighborhood last night. We had dinner at the Park Avenue Pub. Hadn’t eaten there in thirty years or so and it was pretty much the same. Ramon Santiago wasn’t there though and the bar seemed pretty quiet but it was a Sunday night.

Lisa Bunz, the owner and hostess, took us to a warm booth in the front so we could watch the sidewalk traffic. I made eye contact with an old guy in a wheelchair on the way to our table and he reached out his hand to shake so I did. I was thinking “this place is extra friendly” but I’m not sure he was all there. He was sitting with an Audrey Hepurn/Geraldine Chaplin like women in a floppy hat who was either his much younger wife or daughter and there was another couple at their table. The guy had a bald head with big scab on the top and his ears were huge. She seemed to be doing most of the talking for the old man but at the end of their meal the other couple thanked him for inviting them. It was kind of like that scene in “Five Easy Pieces” where the Jack Nicholson character tries talking honestly to his father after the old man had a stroke.

We asked Lisa how things were on the Avenue these days and she lamented the fact that it was younger scene. I just finished a new batch of crime guys and I was thinking how nice it would be to paint old people like this guy and the cast of characters out at Peggi’s mom’s place. I would want to photograph them and work in my basement from the photos. But how do you go about that whole thing? Would any old people want to be painted for some reason. I could have a show in their dining room. I’m gonna have to think about this for a while.

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White Green

White green on Durand Eastman Course in Rochester, NY
White green on Durand Eastman Course in Rochester, NY

We invited Rick and Monica over for dinner and Peggi planned to make sweet potato soup from a recipe that was in the paper this week. We needed to pick up a few of the ingredients at Wegmans and I wanted to have some beer on hand for Rick so I grabbed a six pack of Sierra Nevada. The cashier asked for proof of age from both of us. Peggi said she didn’t have her wallet with her so I said, “I don’t even know her”. The cashier said “Sorry, that’s our policy”. A manager came over and asked Peggi what her birthday was. The answer was in the 50s for cryin’ out loud so they made an exception.

I made a calameri salad with organic Calamata olives and we got the house extra warm for Monica. We had been burning some funky wood but we made a point to bring in some dry hardwood from a few years ago. The four of us sat on the couch after dinner and we watched “Five Easy Pieces”. I want to start another Karen Black fan club or at least join one. I have the soundtrack on vinyl and I got it out after the movie.

I dreamed I had either ten or twelve nostrils. They were lined up in pairs. I don’t know if this had more to do with my cold or the painting I struggled with recently. When I woke up I realized I had had a bloody nose in my sleep and so we spent a few hours researching removing blood stains on Tempurpedic mattresses and then settled on a little pile of Kosher salt that turned red after an hour or so.

It was very dark today but the woods was beautiful. We saw a bunch of deer and a large Pileated woodpecker. When we got down near the lake we crossed the golf course and I took this shot of the white green.

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Tonight at Abilene

Nod Margaret Explosionposter for gig tonight at Abeline
Nod Margaret Explosionposter for gig tonight at Abeline

Nine o’clock tonight if all goes well Margaret Explosion will be the first band to play upstairs at Abilene. It’s cozy up there with a small bar and and some funky portrait paintings. There is a small stage near the front that looks out over the street and, compared to downstairs, you can almost hear a pin drop. Nod plays downstairs when we’re done. We are long time Nod fanatics and are looking forward to this gig.

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Really Rather Trippy

Between The Buttons by the Rolling Stones
Between The Buttons by the Rolling Stones

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for “Between The Buttons”. I am thankful that it still sounds as good to me as did in 1967. Bob Mahoney and John Gilmore stopped over after Margaret Explosion’s gig last and we went for a ride with iTunes Party Shuffle while we ate olives and bread. I’ve got all my cds on a harddrive now and it is a gas hearing stuff come up that I know I love but I wouldn’t think to put it on. Of course iTunes doesn’t think at all and it shows me up all the time.

We heard a couple Pete LaBonne tunes that drew us closer to the stereo so we could hear the lyrics. Then there was something from Moondog and “The Wind Cries Mary” and a track from Bruce Anderson/Dale Sophiea’s “Strict” and then an amazing last number. It sounded so good I played it again as Bob and John were putting on their coats. “Something Happened To Me Yesterday” features Mick and Keith trading lead vocals, Ian Stewart on piano and Brian Jones on trombone, trumpet and violin. Peggi mimicked Kieth swinging a pint as she sang his lines. It’s barroom circus music and pop psychedelia like Colorblind James meeting the Squires of the Subterrain.

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Moment vs. Delivery Time

Durand Eastman in late Fall 2008
Durand Eastman in late Fall 2008

It will be a relief to play as Margaret Explosion tonight. The gig we did as Personal Effects required rehearsal time, stamia and earplugs. The night before Thanksgiving is usually a good night at the the Little. A woman from my high school class came to see the band when she was in town for our reunion and she asked if her husband could sit in with us on piano when they came back for Thanksgiving so we’ll see what happens.

Last night was my last painting class for the year. Lorraine Bohonos had some beautiful paintings near completion and Geri McCorrmick is breaking out of her concentric mandalas and Maureen Outlaw worked on the end stages of three fantasy scenes. I worked on a crime guy’s honkin’ neck all night. I still seem to spend a lot of time fumbling around trying to find a solution to a problem that I created. These kind of activities test my patience even though I know it is the process that I must learn to enjoy.

Margaret Explosion is a relief because it is all about the moment where Personal Effects was mostly about getting it right for the delivery.

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Sleeping With The TV On

We’ve had an ongoing short in the power supply for our old laptop and I wasn’t able to turn it on for the last two days so I took it to MacInTak on Clinton Avenue. They’re right across the street from the India House store in the same location where my grandfather had his grocery store. MacInTak is at the other end of the spectrum from the shiny Apple Store. They have about as many computers on display as the Apple Store does but in this case they are all vintage. Everything from the “toilet seat” G3 laptops to the G4 “Cube”, “bubble” I-Macs, G5 towers and every generation of I-Books. This place is family run just like my grandfather’s store was. But my grandfather never had a picture of Emperor Haile Selassie on the wall.

We sent “Blow Up” back to NetFlix today. Peggi and I had both seen it a long time ago but neither of remembered what it was all about. Now I know that’s because it was not about much and the characters are barely sympathetic but it was beautiful to look at. Someone took extra care in picking every shot in the movie with extraordinary attention to color and composition. It was a sensational mix of of old world Europe and swinging, mod London. Would that have been the director, Michelangelo Antonioni, or was there a cinematographer on the job? I’d like to thank that guy.

I feel asleep at some point and I was dreaming about the listening booths in the record store where Guy’s wife worked in Hitchcock’s “Strangers On A Train”. We saw that movie a few days ago. They had booths like that at Jay’s Record Ranch on Clinton Avenue in the sixties where you could check out the singles before plopping down your cash. The movie was still playing when I woke and the Yardbirds with a young Eric Clapton were playing at a party. I thought I was in Kevin Patrick’s blog where I had spent some time earlier in the day. I felt like I had just clicked on one of his mp3s and was now immersed in a whole new scene.

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Shopping For Nostrils

"Local Crime Face 01" oil on canvas by Paul Dodd 2008
“Local Crime Face 01” oil on canvas by Paul Dodd 2008

I finally finished this guy’s nostrils. He’s another face from the Crimestoppers page in the Democrat & Chronicle. The painting happened really fast. I was just laying it in and it seemed like it was done so I stopped. But I knew the nostrils weren’t right so I repainted them and repainted them again. Then I set the painting aside for a few weeks. I took a fresh look and was not buying them.

I changed the color, I loosened up the edges, I made them less flat and they still weren’t right. Peggi had me tip my head back and she drew the shapes of my nostrils on a piece of junk mail. I changed the shape of these and the painting looked pretty good. Thank you Peggi. I dropped the painting off at RoCo for their Member’s Show. It opens on the first Friday of December.

I sorted my Scorgie’s Reunion photos while talking to Duane on the phone from Brooklyn. I put a about twenty five of them on the Scorgie’s site.

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Who Says You Can’t Go Back?

Personal Effects on stage at Scorgie's reunion at the German House in Rochester, NY
Personal Effects on stage at Scorgie’s reunion at the German House in Rochester, NY

Look how old the Scorgie’s crowd got! (click photo for full shot) Funny thing, the band hasn’t changed a bit. I posted a few more on the Scorgie’s site.

There are so many familiar faces in this photo like Earl with the video camera and Arpad and Brian Williams from the Goners and Monica from the HOG (along time ago) and Nick Gerber down front and my sister Ann (it’s hard to get her out) and Rick & Monica and Mary Caine and Bob Mahoney and Martin Edic and the guy in Peggi’s yoga class and Passion B’s drummer, Tim Dodd, and Stan the Man & Lynn, Amy & Howie and Doug Rice and Jeff & Mary Kaye, Mark Schwartz and Maureen Outlaw and Trish from the LDR and Ashley Black.

I can’t find Chris Schepp, Cheryl & Mark, Billy & Nancy, Dick Storms, Danny, Russ Lunn and Beth Brown, Olga, Jon who used to take a lot of photos, Fran, Del, Pete Presstone and Scotty and Jeff Labin, Andrea Kohler and Jason and Mike Mohawk and Rock n’ Roll Joel, Richard Casa, Chas Lockwood, Ralph Meranto, Gary Brandt and Chuck Perry but I saw or talked to them all at some point. And there’s Duane Sherwood way in the back doing the lights.

Man, it was really good to everybody.

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Jumbo Shrimp

Jumbo Shrimp at Shamrock Jack's in Rochester, NY
Jumbo Shrimp at Shamrock Jack’s in Rochester, NY

Gary from New Math stopped by this afternoon with two carloads of friends that were in from out of town for the Scorgie’s thing. Duane Sherwood pulled in the driveway right behind them. We looked at photos from last night and laughed. Duane helped me get my camera set up to photograph some paintings with the Lowel lights that he gave me. We thought we’d eat at LDR but they closed at eight so we went down to Shamrock Jack’s. Peggi, Duane and I each ordered the fish fry.

Our waitress was wearing a yellow “Champion Drinker” t-shirt that she said all the staff wear on the days that Notre Dame plays. A guitar and drums duo scalled “Jumbo Shrimp” started playing in the front room. They each had plastic beer holders on their stands and they were having a great time at their job. They did a Marvin Gaye tune and “My Girl” and a bunch of stuff we didn’t recognize.

Peggi guessed the guy on the right was “Jumbo” and the guy on the left was “Shrimp”. The drummer played a cocktail set standing up and the guitarist sang and played acoustic guitar. The drummer sang back ups without a mic. They sounded like like the White Stripes on a cruise ship were the perfect capper to our rock and roll weekend.

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Back In Black

Ann Taylor Display at Eastview Mall in Rochester, NY
Ann Taylor Display at Eastview Mall in Rochester, NY

I guess you have to go WalMart to pick up AC DC’s new disc. And I think Sears may have an exclusive on black jeans now. I have one old pair that I wear while painting. The knees are worn through and they’re pretty covered in paint. I wear my other pair when I’m not painting but they’re getting pretty ratty so I need to move a new pair into the rotation.

We went out to the Gap in Eastview Mall where I had bought my last pair. Why do they call them a “pair” anyway? I can see a pair of socks but pants? I had read that Gap hired a new designer. Guess the guy doesn’t like black jeans. The salesman recommended Lord & Taylor at the other end of the mall. On the way we stopped at Abercromie & Fitch. It was like a disco in the middle of the afternoon. The sixteen year old salesboy suggested Express. We studied the Mall map and planned our route. A saleswoman at Banana Republic said they had “light black”. I said, “like grey?” She showed us some dark denim. Eddie Bower had prefaded black. I can do that myself. Express had some “Low Rise” jeans. I have a hard enough time keeping my pants up as it is so I nixed those. We struck out at Lord & Taylor and gave up.

We stopped at Apple store to look at the new laptops and and then Ann Taylor where Peggi tried on a top. I wandered around the store and took this photo of a guy bringing wood to his lady. A saleswoman there asked me, “Are you finding everything alright?” I said, “I’m not looking for anything.”

I mentioned this to Bob Martin at our Margaret Explosion gig and he said, “Try Sears”.

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Last Call!

Bob Martin and Chris Schepp with Personal Effects blaster
Bob Martin and Chris Schepp with Personal Effects blaster

Way cool article in the morning paper about the Scorgies Reunion tomorrow. Cool picture of Peggi on the front page! And Frank DeBlase did a great piece in City. He used my Polaroids on the cover of this week’s issue.

We had this General Electric blaster that we used to duct tape up to the top of the wooden column in front of the bar at Scorgies and it made some damn good tapes. Arpad transferred a few of the tapes to cd.

Here’s Personal Effect’s version of Tanya Gardner’s “Heartbeat” recorded live at the Peppermint Lounge in 1985 on our blaster.

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