Category Archives: DavisOrtonGallery

4/6/2019 – opening reception DOG

Saturday

Got up right away. Worked on a solution to mounting the video monitor between the windows on the front wall. Small technical troubles with the driver gizmo creating phantom files. Problems solved. Had to move Ruths vertically oriented video to an iPad on a back wall.

Karen went off to exerise class at library. 

Opening from 5 to 7 pm went very well. Lots of people showed up. Ted and Anne came. They know one of the exhibitors, Matt Frieburghaus, a faculty member at Marist. Sarah Sterling, Jude Silver, Michael O’Hara, Ruth ??, Dave Drake, and many others…..

Last year’s sign for the Photobook Show on Winter Walk Saturday. Changed over today.

4/5/2019 – work, DOG, other

Friday

Weather was cold and rainy. Snow shower in the afternoon.

Spent part of the morning finishing up hanging the DOG show. Will have to wait until late for the arrival of the monitor for the videos.

Long telecon with Troy Web at noon. Seth almost came unglued because of his laptop failing. But we got through it. TW is still not acting like a partner. Tendency to do just what they are asked with no responsibility for giving us feedback. Talked with Matt Almeida from the car at Subway out in Claverack. 

Walked around with Karen to drop off gallery cards at the B&Bs and other.

Construction continues next to Michael and Ruth’s house.

Ruth Wetzel dropped off the monitor at 7:30.

4/4/2019 – little work, tennis lesson, hang DOG show, Andrea

Thursday

Puttered around most of the morning. Met with Seth briefly at noon. Got RPM apps working in prep for meeting with Ray Velez Monday.

Tennis lesson at Total Tennis in the afternoon. Mostly worked on backhand and serve. Not getting some sort of wrist motion on the backhand. New stance for serve is still uncomfortable. Right foot is set behind the left turning the chest to face the side fence. More natural slice action.

New pickle ball courts at Total Tennis.

Came back to home. Carla Shapiro and Ruth Wetzel who are curators for this first show of the season showed up. Hung show.

Dave Drake came by with a pot of gorp for dinner.

Karen told me that Andrea had called to say that Brad (Fallon) had broken up with her. Something along the lines of “where is this going?”.

 

3/28/2019 – work, DOG, tennis lesson, Maria Manhattan, work

Thursday

Carla Shapiro came to work with Karen on the installation of the season opening show. She is one of the curators. Brought me a present.

Worked on UTMH example pilot project financial analysis. Talked with David A. about Ball Consulting retainer.

Karen had an appliance repair guy come from Ackermans up the street. Leaky dishwasher. Cleaned. Told us that repairing the electric lighters on the cooktop would cost ~$188. We’ll go on using the gas lighters that cost $2.

Tennis lesson was focused topspin backhand. Need to simplify and slow down. 

Attended event at the library. Maria Manhattan’s The Box Lunch. Very amusing.  PerfectTen girls made update addition.

UTMH meeting w Seth, Brandon, and James to review backend admin features.  Useful meeting. Lasted until after 10pm. 

 

3/26/2019 – more diary projects, DOG marketing, UTMH, tennis

Tuesday

Richard Yatzeck

Good discussion with UTMH team. Talked with Sam and Gayle as well as Seth.

Sent out numerous press releases for the first show of the year at DOG.

Mostly worked on old diary entries from 2011 and new Projects. Also made changes to the CSS to remove some of the very heavy font styling…..

Added long letter to Yatzeck from 2012 about his book Russia in Private. Yatzeck died recently at age 86.

Sent note to Taft in search of Walter Foley, a teacher at Taft when i was there. He sponsored my second ISP project. Not clear why he supported a very middling student. Also sent email to Walter Moswkalew another Taft teacher with whom I studied Greek. A bit of nostalgia I guess.

Read some more of Jill Lepore’s These Truths. Interesting parallel between two fights during colonial period, one over representation and the other Slav Rey. She notes that only the former was victorious through the Revolution.

Tennis

Karfen went to Yoga with Anne Bertran-Dewsnap. I went to tennis at Total Tennis.

3/24/2019 – painting, gallery, Indian music with kids,

Sunday

Slight coating of snow on the ground. After breakfast Karen went off to Williams Lumber to buy more White Dove paint. I was sitting at the breakfast table looking out when she came in from the barn. She promptly fell flat on her face on the two steps up to the deck.Very upsetting to me. She just jumped up and said that nothing was hurt. Probably bruised knees.

More work on Sicily photos. Prepped and painted walls in gallery. Karen painted the doorway in the kitchen.

Went to Hudson Opera House for a concert of Indian music with kids from Hudson performing. Lots of fun. You can hear the kids in the background. As the music gained pace some began to dance around.

Ran into Pauline Decarmo on way home. She gave us some weed to tide us over. We also talked about her design work of UTMH.

Stopped at new store next to Vico. Strange place. The Hudson Underground. The Hudson Underground. 

Beer can chicken, spinach, leftovers

 

3/23/2019 – breakfast, farmers market, travel photos, art opening

Saturday

Late breakfast at Bob’s. Whitney and Steve were there. Karen and I talked about a road trip in September. Went to Walmart. Karen arranged for my first shot of the new anti-shingles vaccine.

Worked on the photos from the Sicily trip in 2018. Over 1,400 from this Netherlands-Sicily trip in October. The iPhone time stamps and the camera time stamps are slightly out of synch causing troubles with the sequencing.

Went to art opening in late afternoon at Hudson Opera House. Too many people. Stopped at Red Dot for a drink and appetizers.

On the way home ran into Michael O’Hara outside his house. We stood over the construction site next door.Just as I noticed that the first floor joists are attached to a ledger board instead of sitting on top of the foundation Michael said that the contractor had poured the wall 18” too high. What a mess. Then Michael told the story of how the original building had collapsed because they had dug down 2 feet below the bottom of the original stone foundation. The clay subsoil gave way causing first a side wall then the front wall to slip in under the building. Big SNAFU. So far this is not an advertisement for competence on the part of the architect owners nor the contractors.

Watched the fourth in the Kavanaugh Q.C. British TV series from the mid ‘90s. Followed by another VEEP.

 

2/28/2019 – DOG, UTMH, Tennis

Thursday 2:/28/2019

Up early, 4:45am. DOG web forms. A little UTMH. 

Went to History Room at the library to participate in a psychology experiment for Caitie Hilverson, daughter of Liz Dolan. Involved solving a puzzle. . Tower of Hanoi.  After 3 rounds with 3 disks one try at 4 disks. Solved that in 17 moves, one more than the minimum. Then was asked on video how I had solved the puzzle.

Tennis lesson. Need to focus more on early prep with feet for ground strokes. 

Made carrot mushroom loaf. A favorite. 

2/20/19 – HAL, DOG, UTMH, tennis

Wednesday 2/20/2019

Finished up the DOG website forms for Karen. They are now set up as a database so she can export things  En mass.

Good call with Miranda Barry about David Murphy and a foundation for the library. She had followed up on my conversation with David while we were in FL last week. Looks like a good opportunity to get a significant start on an endowment for the library. Also we talked about possible co-president arrangement.

Spent most of the afternoon with Seth. Discussed customer service requirements and lit of user manuals that Ryder Cooley needs to write. Reviewed bad service situation with Troy Web. Need to have a meeting with Anthony DeBonis to try to improve things. Also talked with David about his Slack account. 

Spoke with Anita Harris for 30 minutes. More about her Mom’s house and all of the travails with her siblings.

Evening tennis was just so so. 

2/19/2018 – DOG, UTMH, tennis

Tuesday 2/19/2019

Up at 5:30. Met w Karen about forms on DOG site. Wrote piece for AD about Republican Party moral bankruptcy.  More time on OLDFandF.com.

Wrote more patient instructions for UTMH. 

Went to Total Tennis for singles nite. Played doubles with two different groups of guys. More competitive on average than the Wednesday group. Tall guy Rick with a funny but effective backhand. Very quick hands. Good serve. Short Indian guy Nick. Not a strong hitter but quick, good volleys. Als a kind of sour guy Kevin. Played until 9:15. I had some really striking sequences of shots. Good serving night.