Rochester Gets Faith

Artist Faith47 out of South Africa was in Rochester, NY recently to work with local artists in transforming a large concrete wall in Troup Street Park into a message of hope, with a second location on North Union Street by the Rochester Public Market. The Synthesis Collaborative, a Rochester nonprofit organization, sponsored the multi-site mural project. Faith47 joined other South African artists including Mak1one, Freddy Sam and Dal along with the FUA Krew out of Rochester, and while there she found time to hit up this underpass deep with the network of Rochester roads. Pretty.

The Taqwacores

In an unusual blast of historical synchronicity, the documentary The Taqwacores opens tonight at the Northwest Film Forum. The film, which documents the rising political and creative force of young Muslims, follows the unlikely birth of Muslim Punk Rock around the world.

The film took its inspiration from the influential novel of the same name by the Rochester, NY-born Islamic convert Michael Muhammad Knight. The riotous and revolutionary book invents a fictional Muslim punk scene in Rochester, and the story unexpectedly catalyzed the creation of a full fledged hardcore movement among the Muslim faithful in Islamic communities around the world. The film, which took more than 3 years to make, follows a band of Muslim misfits across three continents from the United States to Pakistan to track the uncompromisingly brave actions and attitudes of these rebellious musicians, and their impact on the young people who come to see them.

The film opens tonight, February 11, the day that a surprisingly strong youth movement forced Hosni Mubarak from power, and runs through the 17th.

Ashbery

Today is the birthday of poet John Ashbery, born in Rochester New York on July 28, 1927, and raised on a farm near Lake Ontario. Ashbery first published poems as a student at Deerfield Academy, including an early poem that was published in Poetry magazine under the name of a classmate who had submitted it without Ashbery's knowledge or permission.

Ashbery attended Harvard University, where he was a classmate of Robert Creeley, Robert Bly and Peter Davison. He was awarded the Yale Younger Poets Prize in 1956, selected by W. H. Auden, for his first collection Some Trees. In the late 1950s Ashbery's avant-garde work was associated with that of Kenneth Koch, Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler and others as part of the "New York School," a loosely affiliated group of poets whose work was direct, immediate and spontaneous, drawing inspiration from the avant-garde art movements then blossoming in New York City. From the mid-1950s, when he received a Fulbright Fellowship, through 1965, Ashbery lived in France.

During the fall of 1963, Ashbery became acquainted with Andy Warhol during a poetry reading tour that took him to New York. When he returned to live in New York in 1965 he was welcomed with a large party at the Factory. He became close friends with poet Gerard Malanga, Warhol's assistant.

Increasing critical recognition in the 1970s transformed Ashbery from an obscure avant-garde experimentalist into one of America's most influential poets. His 1975 book Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror won all three major American literary awards - the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In the early 1970s he began teaching at Brooklyn College, then moved to Bard College, where he was a Professor of Languages and Literature until 2008 when he retired. He was the Poet Laureate of New York state from 2001 to 2003, and also served for many years as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Ashbery's poems vary from self-consciously difficult to eloquently prosaic. He often employs a gentle and familiar tone, though one can find voices in his work from news reporting, advertising, bureaucracy, business memos, scientific reports, newspapers, psychology textbooks, and more. He plays often with juxtapositions of colloquial language and soaring grace, sometimes shifting quickly from one mode to the other. Ashbery once said that his goal was "to produce a poem that the critic cannot even talk about."

Mottled Tuesday

Something was about to go laughably wrong,
whether directly at home or here,
on this random shoal pleading with its eyes
till it too breaks loose, caught in a hail of references.
I’ll add one more scoop
to the pile of retail.

Hey, you’re doing it, like I didn’t tell you
to, my sinking laundry boat, point of departure,
my white pomegranate, my swizzle stick.
We’re leaving again of our own volition
for bogus patterned plains streaked by canals,
maybe. Amorous ghosts will pursue us
for a time, but sometimes they get, you know, confused and
forget to stop when we do, as they continue to populate this
fertile land with their own bizarre self-imaginings.
Here’s hoping the referral goes tidily, O brother.
Chime authoritatively with the pop-ups and extras.
Keep your units pliable and folded,
the recourse a mere specter, like you have it coming to you,
awash with the new day and its abominable antithesis,
OK? Don’t be able to make that distinction.

Madalena at the MoMA

Italian painter Batiste Madalena was hired by Kodak founder George Eastman during the last days of silent cinema to design and hand-paint film posters for his theater in Rochester, NY—at the time the third-largest cinema in the U.S. Working alone over a four-year period and against deadlines that required as many as eight new posters a week for each change of bill, Madalena created over 1,400 unique works. Approximately 250 of these posters survived when the artist himself rescued them from the trash behind the theater. Madalena's rediscovery in the 1980s brought his brilliantly colored, singular designs, done in tempera paint on illustration board, to the attention of critics and collectors, and soon made him one of the most celebrated advertising artists for moving pictures. Fifty-three of Madelena's posters from this period will be on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from October 16 through April 6.

Different Approaches to Mass Transit

Very interesting story in the NYTimes today about the transit system in Rochester, New York. It seems the Rochester transit system just cut fares, thus increasing ridership and ultimately making more income.

"The Rochester system, which expects to run a surplus for the third year in a row, has been able to reduce its one-ride fare in part by eliminating some low-trafficked routes, avoiding debt and aggressively raising revenues from other sources. The fare fell to $1 from $1.25 on Sept. 1."

Concurrently, the Rochester system made some creative arrangements with local public schools, colleges and private businesses, all of whom have students or employees who use the system extensively, to help subsidize transit operations.

In contrast, this morning King County Metro announced that it will be adding new bus routes and more frequent service to keep up with rising transit demand, and “revising” bus service for 22 other routes. To support the service expansion Metro has already had to raise fares 25 cents, and another 50-cent increase is in the works. As Rochester's approach demonstrates, higher fares lead to lower ridership, bringing lower revenues, which launches us once again into the vicious cycle of crowded buses, unreliable schedules, and a less pleasant bus experience.

Obviously there are great differences of scale - Rochester’s Regional Transit Service carries 15 million riders a year, which is a fraction of the King County ridership. But as economic hard times have reduced tax revenues and increased demand for government transit subsidies, Rochester's unusual approach to transit may provide valuable lessons for larger cities that are having trouble balancing increasing demand with reasonable fares. Like Seattle.

Thanks to RocBike for the sweet photo taken on a Rochester bus.

Suffragette City

This recently came to my attention. David Bowie was imprisoned in Rochester, New York following his March 1976 arrest on a felony pot possession charge. Bowie, 29 at the time, was nabbed along with Iggy Pop at a Rochester hotel following a Saturday concert. Bowie was held in the Monroe County jail for a few hours before being released. The Rochester Police Department mug shot was taken three days after Bowie's arrest, when he appeared at Rochester City Court for arraignment. The original mugshot is owned by a Rochester guy who is looking to sell the one-of-a-kind image. So if you're looking for a truly unique piece of Rochester rock and roll memorabilia drop a line to hessexpress2@hotmail.com.