Monthly Archives: July 2017

Wanna Buy Some Books?

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More than half a millenium ago Chaucer wrote about the Clerk (or learned man) of Oxenford. He wears threadbare clothes, his horse is as thin as a rake, and he himself is so thin he looks hollow.

*Ah, but he has books… TWENTY books, in a day when every one was painstakingly copied by hand, and hardly anyone could read. Few institutions had twenty books back then. His “library” (kept right next to his bed) represented a fortune, and whenever he scraped up some money, or even when he could borrow some from friends, he bought even more… not as investments, but because “Gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.”

*Books are far far cheaper today, but no less wonderful. If like the clerk (and like me) you like to prowl around ferreting out more books to buy, where can you go?

*Well, if you want the big-box big selection, complete with cafe, there are Barnes & Noble stores in Elmira/Big Flats, in Ithaca, and in Rochester. The Rochester selection is a little smaller, since it doubles as the U of R bookstore, but also includes a nice sampling of books by U of R faculty and alumni. Besides, you can just walk up the block from Strong Hospital, if you have someone spending time there. (This store also makes a good break if you have to drive up to Rochester to meet the train or do some business.)

*The only independent new-book store in the four-county region is Long’s, on Main Street in Penn Yan. If you like bookshops, take a ride out there. You’ll be impressed by their selection. There’s also a very good local-history section, and a large selection of cards, gifts, and office supplies. If you’re there on a summer Saturday, you’ll find a sidewalk farmers’ market out front.

*Across the street is a used bookstore, Belknap Hill Books, though in my experience the hours there can be whimsical. A block or two down Main is Books Landing, a friendly used-book place in a welcoming space, with a great selection of used jigsaw puzzles.

*Also on the used-book side, try The Paperback Place on Main Street in Canandaigua, or Autumn Leaves on The Commons in Ithaca. Autumn Leaves has a magnetic effect on me whenever I’m in town. It’s a large store for used books in a university community. There’s ALWAYS something interesting.

*That’s also true at Book Barn of the Finger Lakes, out between Dryden and Ithaca. Just prowling through the place is half the fun.

*Over on Geneseo’s Main Street, Sundance Books has held its own for decades.

*Henrietta Library has a year-round book sale room. Dormann Library in Bath has its Wednesday “book barn” on the grounds whenever weather suits. Libraries in Corning, Ithaca, and Hammondsport have significant sales from time to time.

*If you want graphic novels, go to heroes Your Mom Threw Out (Elmira Heights), Comics for Collectors (Ithaca’s Collegetown) or Pulp Nouveau (Canandaigua).

*Each of these towns is interesting in and of itself, and there’s always someplace not too far away to get ice cream. Take a ride. See the sights. Buy some books.

Two Cartoonists From Western New York

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*Western New York is home to two popular syndicated cartoonists.

*Back in 1954, Brad Anderson started drawing single-panel cartoons about a family that was overwhelmed by its own huge dog. What he wanted to eat, he ate. Wherever he wanted to sleep, he slept. When he wanted to take off running, no leash ever made could hold him. His name was Marmaduke.

*The early Marmaduke was foreboding, even frightening, with his constant glare and his coiled muscular stance. Over time Anderson learned to soften him, in part just to open opportunities for more gags, but also to make him more likable. Nowadays great dane Marmaduke rules the roost just by virtue of his vast size and vaster enthusiasm, rather than dominating through intimidation and the hint of danger.

*Brad Anderson was from Jamestown, and he freely reported that his home region often entered into Marmaduke’s world. An early cartoon includes a road sign for the old U.S. Route 17. “It wasn’t easy to make up characters and names for people in the cartoon, so I decided to use real people I knew in western New York. I could relate to them and it helped to establish the characters.” Even the original for Marmaduke lived in Jamestown, with Brad’s mother.

*The cartoon started syndicating in 1954. Brad Anderson continued it until his death 61 years later, and since then his son Paul has taken over, and it’s still going strong. During Brad’s lifetime his work brought him a Reuben Award (from the National Cartoonists Society), the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement award (also from the cartoonists), and the George Arents Pioneer Medal from alma mater Syracuse University. Besides a daily panel and a Sunday strip, Marmaduke has also been in TV cartoons, and in a live-action movie. On his 50th anniversary, 660 papers were carrying Marmaduke.

*John McPherson, who now lives in Saratoga Springs, came from Corning originally, and went to Corning Community College before heading on, like Brad Anderson, to S.U. (and later Bucknell). Also like Brad, McPherson does a panel cartoon that appears in well over 600 newspapers. It’s called “Close to Home.”

*People either like it a lot, or dislike it intensely. Personally it ain’t my style, said Casey, but I laughed right out loud at the shocked farmer’s wife reading “Fifty Shades of Hay.” That alone has to make up for a multitude of sins.

*Apparently they love it in Norway, judging by John’s listings for art credits in the Grand Comics Database (www.comics.org). The GCD only lists one U.S. collection, and I put that one in myself: “McPherson’s Sports and Fitness Manual,” a 1993 book of sports cartoons. One on-line source says he’s done 20 books, which I think must be true. His Facebook page shows that he also does calendars and the like.

*Many people make comparisons between “Close to Home” (debuted 1992) and “The Far Side” (ended 1995). Both are panel cartoons, both employ a deceptively slapdash look in the art, both emphasize weird or goofy humor. But while “The Far Side” often took flights of wild fancy, “Close to Home” pretty much stays where its title proclaims it… with people, and people at that who are… well, certainly not ordinary, but not at all high-flying.

*Unlike “Marmaduke,” John McPherson’s panel does not feature a recurring character, and so has never developed the warm following that the great dane and his exhausted family enjoy. But “Close to Home,” in a day of collapsing print media, still appears in almost 700 papers. Not too many can top that!

Justice, Compassion, the New Deal, and Art

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Livingston Arts has two exhibits that are definitely worth seeing.

*Their gallery space is on the Livingston County campus in Mount Morris, which started off as a state tuberculosis hospital back when Franklin D. Roosevelt was governor. Eleanor came for the opening ceremonies, reading a statement from her husband saying that one reason the site had been chosen was that it had good trolley connections from Rochester.

*Tuberculosis was conquered and the trolley was superceded, and of course F.D.R. went on to be president. But the connection with Roosevelt remains, thanks to the Federal Art Project (under the Works Progress Administration). The New Deal found ways to put artists to work during the Great Depression, and no doubt many of us have seen the marvelous posters and the impressive murals that came from this period – the Painted Post post office has an Art Project mural.

*But the artists also created “easel art” to grace public buildings throughout the land. Many of these hung in New York state locations, as befitting the then most-populous state in the union. But over 80 years buildings were closed or renovated, and canvas after canvas was shipped to the Mount Morris hospital for storage. Fast-forward to the 21st century, and Mount Morris has what’s described as the second-largest collection of W.P.A. art in the world… something like 230 pieces. (Some of them sadly damaged.)

*Maybe two-dozen of the collection are on exhibit an any time. Just now the focus seems to be on landscapes, and most of them made me sad. (Which is O.K. – sometimes art does that.) The Great Depression hammered small farmers hard, and several of the paintings seemed to show tired, worn-out farms.

*But this was NOT the case with “Long Island Farm” by Philip Cheney. Here two men are hard at work together in a broad farm that spans the whole canvas, with the New York City skyline as a backdrop. It’s fun to see the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building when they were new. But it also suggests a benevolent mutuality between the city that buys the produce and the farm that feeds the city.

*I got a warm winter feeling (it makes sense to me) from “The Mountain,” by E. N. Carroll, and I also enjoyed Joseph Sabalauskas’s 1937 painting “The Spring Tree,” with its tall tree, its wide-open spaces, and its contented cow.

*“House on the Hill” also fell into the category of might-be-sad, but I was curious as to what became of the artist, Kikuta Nakagawa. All I was able to learn quickly was that he was born in Japan (1888) attended the Art Students League, and worked in Greenwich Village… so if he was resident in New York, and IF he had U.S. Citizenship, he may have been spared the World War II internment.

*Interesting as the New Deal Gallery is (and exhibits rotate, so keep checking back), my wife and I were especially engaged by a special exhibit, “Jerry Alonzo: Works in Wood.” We even made a second trip from Bath after seeing the exhibit, this time to attend a reception, and to meet and hear from the artist himself.

*The pieces themselves are fine works of art… carefully shaped from wood and other materials, and each intriguing in its own right. Two or three of them were inspired by Vermont’s “Northeast Kingdom,” with rolling landscape, small wooden homes and barns that look like Monopoly items, and plastic cows. Since we used to live in Vermont, and since Joyce’s father spent his first 25 years in the Northeast Kingdom, we had a lot of fun with this.

*Also… many of the pieces are interactive. Three tall figures and a single short one form a piece called “Judgment.” Jerry envisioned this as one small figure surrounded by three towering judges. But guests have been known to rearrange it with a single judge, and two of the tall figures protectively flanking the little one.

*”Three Birds” is magnetized, giving visitors the chance to arrange the three birds (of two types) and the single group of cherries according to whatever story they like.

*Twelve abstract figures, each utterly different, form a group entitled “The Jury” (Jerry’s also a judge).

*But what really drew us back were two exhibits-within-the-exhibit. “The Art of Compassion” collects numerous answers to the question, “What is compassion?,” and builds them all into a set of towers.

*Similarly “Justice Is” solicited opinions, which came from judges, lawyers, fifth-grade classes, and more. Eleven mixed-media (but mostly wood) pieces bring forth the various (and sometimes contradictory) definitions, incorporating such artifacts as levels, rules, plumb lines and bobs, balances, locks, keys, a ladder, and a gavel.

*It all makes a very interesting art show, but it’s also thought-provoking and discussion-starting. You might like to see it. Admission is by donation, the entrance is in the rear, and you may need to hunt a little for the right building. There are several other exhibits up just now, and “Works in Wood” runs through July 22. By the way, we made both of these trips in early July, and each time we saw a dappled fawn on the county campus.

Who Do Owe Our Freedom To?

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People speaking of our military often say, “We owe them our freedom.” We do in fact count on a strong military to maintain our independence, and were unedningly grateful to those who place themselves in danger for us. But just putting on a uniform doesn’t make someone a hero, and not all of our wars have actually had anything to do with our freedom – though that’s the fault of our leaders and we voters, not the military personnel.

*In reality we owe our freedom to a great many people, including… maybe ESPECIALLY including… people who make us very uncomfortable. Freedom’s really no big deal when we’re all on the same page. It’s when we don’t fit in, or when somebody else doesn’t fit in, that freedom becomes crucial.

*So among many others, we owe our freedom to little Jehovah’s Witness children who follow their faith in refusing to salute the flag, despite trips to the office, suspensions from school, and attacks by other children… or even by adults.

*We owe our freedom to unappreciated news reporters who drag themselves out for even the boring meetings of local government, never missing, always digging, always learning the facts, shining a spotlight, and acting as a watchdog lest laxity or greed should become too tempting.

*We owe our freedom to every conscientious objector who fought fires and cleaned bedpans as alternate service, or who sat in cells where they survived daily beatings aimed at forcing them to pick up a gun.

*We owe our freedom to the A.C.L.U. lawyers who champion our Constitution when far too many of us would be happy to sweep it under the rug.

*We owe our freedom to every citizen who pays attention to the campaigns and who then gets out and votes, despite waves of messages telling us that we won’t make a dime’s worth of difference.

*We owe our freedom to the “people’s university,” our public libraries, crammed full of ideas and information that challenge our mindsets.

*We owe our freedom to our public schools, our community colleges, our state universities and our land-grant institutions, expanding our world and our ideas, and helping us build an economic foundation for practical freedom.

*We owe our freedom to the scientists who won’t shut up when we’re poisoning our children.

*We owe our freedom to people of minority groups and minority religions when they fight for their fair and full participation in America – when they challenge America to be true to its talk.

*We owe our freedom to those who reject racism when it’s put on display in front of them.

*When Norman Rockwell did a series of “Four Freedoms” paintings during World War II, the freedom of speech image showed a scene that’s dear to my heart, the New England town meeting. Rockwell isn’t often accused of subtlety, but he tiptoes into it here. The man in the plaid shirt and the filthy jacket rises to say his piece, surrounded by men in white shirt, suit, and tie. But more significantly, his jacket has buttons, while his plaid shirt has a zipper – the reverse of the usual pattern. He’s an oddball. He’s different. He doesn’t fit in.

*Rockwell is often revered for his nostalgic vision of America, but he knew full well that it wasn’t real, and left his comfortable billet with the Saturday Evening Post to gain the freedom of painting about poverty in America, about the civil rights struggle, about three men being gunned down in Mississippi. Many people were disappointed, bewildered, or enraged to find their comfortable favorite artist suddenly challenging them.

*So sure enough, we do owe our freedom, to some extent, to our troops. But we also owe it to 75 year-old Catholic Workers pacifist Dorothy Day, despite her ill health spending ten days in jail for demonstrating on behalf of farm workers. And to thousands and thousands of other Americans who rock the boat, shine the spotlight, stand alone. Without them too, we wouldn’t be free.