New York April Nyc Meet-up

Joe,

Thanks for the link.

I think I follow in the steps of John Goodman who with the Rosanne scandel when asked if he was disappointed that he never won an Oscar for and that now as things unraveled he might never will.

John Goodman mentioned that he was nominated 6 or 7 times, and if didn't happen by now it never will. He was cool with that.

I have struggled in the arts for decades: I was a painter (visual artist); a performance artist; a writer; and now a photographer. I always held a day-job, but that is not who I am.

In a ways I am like John Goodman: an actor; but I feel like a poser.

I'm cool with being under the radar, and I would not wish fame on anyone.

Realize I have a gal who is a celeb and famous, and there is a lot of responsibility and hassle being in the public eye. Being famous is quite a burden.

If I ever do become famous, I hope it is after I am dead, that would be a blessing.

In 2005 I got my MFA in Creative Writing at the New School. I sent out my work, and just like John Goodman I got close, but no cigar.

Paula Deitz, the Editor of "The Hudson Review" wanted to publish a story I sent her that was part of a full blown memoir. This is a big deal where new writers who get published in The Hudson Review will get solicited and contacted by agents, editors, and publishers bypassing all the gate-keeping that goes on.

But the review board rejected my story. This is just one case of rapture followed by artistic despair.

The there was Breadloaf Writers' Conference which unlike other writing conferences you have to be invited to attend. Every year only about 230 writers are chosen to attend.

Again close but no cigar. I was "short listed" and would be able to attend if someone that was invited cancelled.

This would of been two weeks of being groomed, nurtured, and mingling with all the power brokers of the publishing world. There would be introductions to editors, agents, publishers as well as other writers.

Pretty much this is the fast track for new writers.

So this is not for an Emmy or an Oscar, but this is my version of just getting nominated.

I have a list of being a "semi-finalist," runner's-up" and the like. Likely more than John Goodman's 6-7 nominations.

When I was a performance artist a Tony Award winning Director once asked me a very good question, "When will you ever resolve all your grief and loses?"

Still today a very interesting question. BTW at that audition I did not get selected. You have to realize that I have been around for decades, and it seems probable that I could be around for another 4-5 more decades.

From 2007 till about 2015 I was obsessed with a changing NYC as a result of the housing crisis.

Today I realize it was to document NYC so that when I leave the city I would have a sense of home, a place where I belonged.

From 2015 to 2020 my shooting was dedicated to supporting "Maggie" and very little would be what I consider my work, but I printed up a storm and got great at printing with Piezography.

So now my move to the burbs is almost like a resolution of my escaping Covid and NYC.

If anything my claim to fame is likely annoying people, and I'm cool with that. I'm cool with staying under the radar and basically blogging here on this thread within RFF.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
Bob,

The Baby-Victorian is like many over hundred year old houses: there is the good, the bad and the ugly.

So there are 40 windows on a house that has less than 1500 square feet of living space, the light is amazing, but it cost so far about $2k for oil to heat this not really well insulated house.

The good is that many original details still exist, and that it was not gut renovated like many of my neighbor's homes, but stripping white paint off the original moldings is an ugly job. We are waiting with our resporators to open the windows and start this task.

The layout of the basement could not really be worse. The roof on the garage needs to be replaced to the point where I would replace the rafters. The snow loads indicate the sistered rafters are not enough because there is bowing and sagging.

In the back there is concrete to breakup, and the garage floor is assembled of blocks like patchwork and needs to be removed so a level floor can be poured.

The front stoop has a skim coat that was just a dressing to sell the house, and already the weather has made it shabby.

So the house has good bones, but in many ways the previous owners "cheaped-out" and did not do things that would be enduring.

So "Maggie" is expected to live to 103, and me 111.

Her mom is 94, and it looks like things are opening up and we can visit her again. This is a big deal because of Covid the lockdown was severe, and Maggie was only able to see her twice over the past year.

An old house is a constant project...

Calvin-August
Click to expand...

Cal,

It's takes time to fully fix up a house, there's alway's something to do. On
the camera front I took my Lil Minolta and the new Zeiss lens on a walk about
in Bronxville, I got my Chemo pump removed so I walk around a bit and took
some photos. It's a real nice lens for a zoom it's really sharp and the IBIS inside
the camera helps.
 
Calzone said:
Bob,

The Baby-Victorian is like many over hundred year old houses: there is the good, the bad and the ugly.

So there are 40 windows on a house that has less than 1500 square feet of living space, the light is amazing, but it cost so far about $2k for oil to heat this not really well insulated house.

The good is that many original details still exist, and that it was not gut renovated like many of my neighbor's homes, but stripping white paint off the original moldings is an ugly job. We are waiting with our resporators to open the windows and start this task.

The layout of the basement could not really be worse. The roof on the garage needs to be replaced to the point where I would replace the rafters. The snow loads indicate the sistered rafters are not enough because there is bowing and sagging.

In the back there is concrete to breakup, and the garage floor is assembled of blocks like patchwork and needs to be removed so a level floor can be poured.

The front stoop has a skim coat that was just a dressing to sell the house, and already the weather has made it shabby.

So the house has good bones, but in many ways the previous owners "cheaped-out" and did not do things that would be enduring.

So "Maggie" is expected to live to 103, and me 111.

Her mom is 94, and it looks like things are opening up and we can visit her again. This is a big deal because of Covid the lockdown was severe, and Maggie was only able to see her twice over the past year.

An old house is a constant project...

Calvin-August
Click to expand...

You got that right! Spent the last several years undoing the cheapo renovations on our house, built in 1927, which wasn't worth that much until the past 15 years and thus its prior owners didn't sink much money into the structure. I've told John that every one of their renovation projects came from a Pop Mechanics article ending in the phrase "in one day." (Our phase is "breath-taking thrift and nominal competence.") Most recent ordeal was redoing the basement with waterproofing and a bottom-up renovation, along with roof replacement and replacing many windows (you'll be shocked at how much money you'll save on utilities with an efficient heater and better windows.) Would love to see the gang in Philadelphia again once there are things to do, though the museums have reopened with limited occupancy as are the restaurants, though I'd not risk indoor dining at this point.
 
thambar said:
You got that right! Spent the last several years undoing the cheapo renovations on our house, built in 1927, which wasn't worth that much until the past 15 years and thus its prior owners didn't sink much money into the structure. I've told John that every one of their renovation projects came from a Pop Mechanics article ending in the phrase "in one day." (Our phase is "breath-taking thrift and nominal competence.") Most recent ordeal was redoing the basement with waterproofing and a bottom-up renovation, along with roof replacement and replacing many windows (you'll be shocked at how much money you'll save on utilities with an efficient heater and better windows.) Would love to see the gang in Philadelphia again once there are things to do, though the museums have reopened with limited occupancy as are the restaurants, though I'd not risk indoor dining at this point.
Click to expand...

Jim,

I would be great to have another Philly Meet-Up. We can celebrate a somewhat back to normal.

In about 9 months I will be spending lots to redo the kitchen that is broken up by 5 doorways. Our solution is to build an Island so we can establish a kitchen triangle between the stove, sink and fridge. The present kitchen has no counterspace.

So I convinced "Maggie" not to cheap out and build things out that will be great decades out. I want to spend my money once.

Since you and John are car nuts possibly we could group up and do a car show event or swap meet. After being cooped up for a year I want to shoot and maybe do a weekend trip.

So now I have a car. Let's be safe though...

When is Carlyle?

Cal
 
Saturday we drove up to the small city of Hudson, about 80 miles north of Peekskill to visit an warehouse full of antiques.

The pricing was for tourists with major gouge factor. Not the greatest selection either.

The big surprise on Warren Street, the main drag, was I heard someone call out my name. It was Jack a classmate from grad school (first Masters, graduated 1995), but realize that I ran into Jack or actually he found me while driving a news van for Fox News on the Upper Eastside. Perhaps it was 2002-2003.

So 18 years have passed since I last saw him. I did not recognize him until he removed his mask, but he mentioned that he saw me earlier on Warren Street and recognized me from across the street. I was wearing a mask, so I really do stand out in a crowd.

He also stated that I really do look the same and about 18 years have passed.

Jack in 95 was perhaps in his early 20's, and all the women loved the way he looked. Back then I was 37 and it was like that film with Rodney Dangerfield "Going Back To School" because I was the old guy.

I mentioned to Jack that Glen one of our classmates was killed on September 11th wen one of the towers collapsed. Jack mentioned that Glen told him not to follow him, he had some footage of Glen before he was killed, and had about 20 seconds of footage right before he had to run for his life or he would have been crushed to death like Glen.

Jack only did the news for about 7-8 years and moved on. Back in 95 Jack and I were doing the Long Island news that was broadcast on cable as internships.

Jack was a cameraman, but I was like Superman the guy who would come dressed in a suit as a mild mannered reporter, or would change into jeans to go out as a videographer, but at times I was sent out by myself to be "a one man-band" where I had to perform both roles by myself.

I was only the second person in this program to perform as a "one man-band."

So a lot of memories were triggered, and I realized all the times that we were like first responders, and I remember the time where I thought I might have to use the expensive Ickagami video camera s a weapon to protect myself from being attacked.

So this is where rigging out a M-body as a weapon came from.

Some of my classmates include Lauren Defranco who was a reporter on Eyewitness News, and Sukana Kristna who now has her own talk show.

Jack went into business with his family for a few years and then went back to school to become a nutricianist. He lives in Mass.

The world is not that big. Also seeing Jack again made me realize how many different lives I have had. They say a rolling stone...

Cal
 
In about 9 months I will be spending lots to redo the kitchen that is broken up by 5 doorways. Our solution is to build an Island so we can establish a kitchen triangle between the stove, sink and fridge. The present kitchen has no counterspace.
Click to expand...

In the various homes I have owned, I have installed 4 or 5 new kitchens. I can say that it is a good idea to "live" in the space for a time instead jumping right in, as it sounds like you will be doing. You may have several changes of mind on how you design it in that time. If you do it yourself (not that hard) you will save a lot of money. I do my own plumbing, but do hire an electrician for the wiring. As for the cabinets, I can recommend the RTA type.(ready to assemble) Just do your plan accurately and it will go well.
I can recommend a company that makes really nice cabinets in the USA to order. Most of them are now made in China. They have a nice website with a CAD ap so you can do a layout of your kitchen. Bath cabinets also available.
www.barkercabinets.com
 
Austintatious said:
In the various homes I have owned, I have installed 4 or 5 new kitchens. I can say that it is a good idea to "live" in the space for a time instead jumping right in, as it sounds like you will be doing. You may have several changes of mind on how you design it in that time. If you do it yourself (not that hard) you will save a lot of money. I do my own plumbing, but do hire an electrician for the wiring. As for the cabinets, I can recommend the RTA type.(ready to assemble) Just do your plan accurately and it will go well.
I can recommend a company that makes really nice cabinets in the USA to order. Most of them are now made in China. They have a nice website with a CAD ap so you can do a layout of your kitchen. Bath cabinets also available.
www.barkercabinets.com
Click to expand...

Austin,

We plan on doing lots of sweat equity, but we will hire pros for the plumbing and electric.

Our kitchen has no dishwasher, and the instant on tankless hot water believe it or not comes from our oil burner, but there already is a gas fired hot water tank already existing that just needs to be hooked up and turned on.

Eventually I was going to re-activate the gas hot water heater anyways for my darkroom, and eventually the smallest bedroom with become the "bathroom annex" where there will be a soaking tub and the skinny upstairs bath will be converted into just a toilet and vanity (likely double sink) and will have an internal connecting door to the bathroom annex.

So I figure we can get by with the tankless system as is set low, and turn on the gas tank water heater when we want scalding hot water for the dishwasher, soaking tub, or for darkroom use.

My forensics suggest that under the top layer of ceramic tiles and 1/4 inch plywood subfloor that is over two layers of linolium exists the oroginal quarter sawn heart pine floor, and because I'm stubborn I would like to salvage it even if it is mucho distressed.

If I have to I would be even willing to buy reclaimed heart pine and lay down a new kitchen floor because the entire first floor would match and be stunning.

I also wonder if I can get the Crown furnace converted to Natural gas so I can get rid of the oil tank. The Crown Furnace is only 8 years old and is really a good one.

The gas oven is a nice convection oven, and that really spoils you, but Maggie wants to upgrade it to some Italian gas convection oven that is truely stunning looking.

I don't plan on cheaping out on this kitchen. One reason why I wanted a small house is so I can go a bit crazy lux-ing it out.

The existing cabinets are Home Depo specials made of solid maple, but "Maggie" wants to recycle them. I think I can do that by doing one of my guitar finishes in nitrocellulose lacquer, although perhaps not a mirror finish, but perhaps satin.

If I can get rid of the oil tank and convert the Crown to natural gas then I actually can build out a more useful darkroom that takes a step towards a "Crazy-Dan."

Maggie and I decided to concentrate our efforts this year on the house to mostly the outside. There are only a few interior tasks for this year: put up a sheet rock ceiling in the hallway and dinning room (the hall is presently is gutted, and the dinning room has tiles removed, but a plaster ceiling with holes is exposed), and stripping white paint off the moldings and doors.

The big and expensive jobs will begin next year with the kitchen and the "powder room" off the kitchen.

The Bathroom Annex is likely in the following year.

Then I can concentrate on my basement, my darkroom, and my garage studio. Sometime in the spring I will insulate the attic with two layers of R30. Almost nothing up there now. Seems like in the basement that all the plumbing for hot and cold water is on one half side of the basement (26x26) as everything in this house is small.

Getting rid of the oil tank would really open things up.

Hudson is suppose to be another Hudson River art town like Beacon and Peekskill. Out of the three Peekskill suits me the best. Being so close to huge state parks is mucho huge, not to mention a 1500-1600 acre preserve 4 blocks away.

All the above were industrial cities that fell into decay.

Calvin-August
 
Cal, you can probably have that tank removed for free since they are popular for use as large smokers. People have offered to take ours from our basement, but it's not ours to give, since we rent.

Phil Forrest
 
Phil_F_NM said:
Cal, you can probably have that tank removed for free since they are popular for use as large smokers. People have offered to take ours from our basement, but it's not ours to give, since we rent.

Phil Forrest
Click to expand...

Phil,

I'm sure it will get recycled to some good use.

I'm glad the house is modest in size. This way I can afford to do things that otherwise might not be practical.

Why didn't the previous owner convert to gas eight years ago?

Cal
 
Calzone said:
Why didn't the previous owner convert to gas eight years ago?

Cal
Click to expand...

Perhaps they were distrusting of the local gas infrastructure or maybe wanted to only use what they paid for. Maybe they had a diesel car and were preparing for the zpocalypse. There is definitely something to be said for the independence that having fuel on-site allows; refer to Texas last month, or central and northern New Mexico, every winter. Just one or two instances of not having heat due to NG being so cold in the local pipes that it can't flow, is enough to want to hold heating oil or a large propane tank on one's own property.

Phil Forrest
 
Just one or two instances of not having heat due to NG being so cold in the local pipes that it can't flow,
Click to expand...

I have never heard of this happening. I live in Colorado and have winter temps well below zero. I have a natural gas furnace and have never had a problem like that. :D
 
Cal, if if you have farmers in the area with diesel tractors, you might get them to take the tank and the oil. When we converted my father's house to gas heat ( makes it easier to sell) we gave a neighbor all the oil in the tanks-IF he removed the tanks.

Some people are just convinced oil heat is better-sadly, they are wrong. With dad's house, we were paying $200 a year for a tune-up on the furnace every fall.

An oil furnace is the home heating version of a MG-you have to work on it every time you turn around.

The most likely reason for not converting it that they didn't want to "waste" any oil in the tank and just bought another oil heater. That was my father's idiot reason for keeping oil heat.
 
Calzone said:
Why didn't the previous owner convert to gas eight years ago?

Cal
Click to expand...

Cal,

Regarding removing your oil tank yourself, here in the city it can lead to trouble. When you go to sell, there will be a record that there was a tank, but when it can't be located it's possible that the assumption will be that the tank was in the ground. At that point it is your job to prove the negative or it will be assumed that you have a tank in the ground ready to spring a leak and cause an environmental issue!

Joe
 
Austintatious said:
I have never heard of this happening. I live in Colorado and have winter temps well below zero. I have a natural gas furnace and have never had a problem like that. :D
Click to expand...

This was in the news recently in Texas.
I spent the 80s in Cascade / Chipita Park and it never got as cold there as it did in New Mexico. Our gas pipes in New Mexico would regularly "freeze" (just condense any moisture or oil vapor in the lines enough for the gas to slow down as it were a liquid, but the plumbers called it freezing.) Colorado got a lot of snow but New Mexico is generally a higher elevation and the air just doesn't hold any heat. People who have large outdoor propane or NG tanks sometimes have this happen due to impurities or moisture in uninsulated/heated lines.
Stay warm.

Phil Forrest
 
jszokoli said:
Cal,

Regarding removing your oil tank yourself, here in the city it can lead to trouble. When you go to sell, there will be a record that there was a tank, but when it can't be located it's possible that the assumption will be that the tank was in the ground. At that point it is your job to prove the negative or it will be assumed that you have a tank in the ground ready to spring a leak and cause an environmental issue!

Joe
Click to expand...

Joe,

Thanks for the heads up. I'll document the tank.

One half of the basement can be opened up. The only thing is that I have to have the natural gas line rerouted to get my full ceiling of 7 feet.

I think I can expand the darkroom/print studio to 18x13 and not have to add plumbing to the garage studio. I have Bilco doors to connect the basement to the garage for work flow.

Maggie is culling down her clothes and is collecting vintage Dior. So by going high end she will have less volume, but more high end as she developes this portfolio.

This clears out the small bedroom that will eventually have that slipper shaped soaking tub.

Cal
 
Austintatious said:
I have never heard of this happening. I live in Colorado and have winter temps well below zero. I have a natural gas furnace and have never had a problem like that. :D
Click to expand...

Austin,

The problem in Texas is that they cheaped out and didn't account for possible effects of global warming. Their infrastructure was built out without winterizing.

A prime example is with their wind turbines. Wind turbines work fine in polar and arctic conditions if designed and spec'ed for that type of duty.

In Texas the cold froze the grease and all wind turbines failed to work. Also the wind turbines lacked de-icing features.

I'm pretty sure in NM and Colorado they paid to have driers to prevent freezing of condensation.

Fact is Texans cheapened out and did not properly account for freezing temperatures.

Pretty consistent why their grid failed. Lack of forward thinking.

Cal
 
Phil_F_NM said:
Perhaps they were distrusting of the local gas infrastructure or maybe wanted to only use what they paid for. Maybe they had a diesel car and were preparing for the zpocalypse. There is definitely something to be said for the independence that having fuel on-site allows; refer to Texas last month, or central and northern New Mexico, every winter. Just one or two instances of not having heat due to NG being so cold in the local pipes that it can't flow, is enough to want to hold heating oil or a large propane tank on one's own property.

Phil Forrest
Click to expand...

Phil,

Not that I'm a survivalist, but the thought did pass my mind of possibly getting a VW Golf Wagon Diesel.

An alternative thought though is that a natural gas conversion could be easily performed at a later date.

Also since the Crown furnace offers tankless hot water, I found it odd that the natural gas hot water heater was still intact, although disconnected.

Not that I would design a house with both, but since I have both I can exploit both for their own assets: one for energy efficiency; and the other for high output.

Kinda like the mighty 2 liter gas engine in the Audi A4 that has a turbo. The power is there when I need it.

The tanked hot water I would only turn on to run the dishwasher, fill the soaking tub, or for when I need to regulate water temperature for washing prints.

Otherwise the tankless system is add-E-quit for regular domestic use.

Cal
 
The bedroom in our Madhattan one bedroom apartment was only about 100 square feet, but 3/4'ers of it was booby trapped with woman's clothes, shoes and handbags.

Devil Christian suggested that I went vertical and kinda built a high rise within that room to accomodate all the stuff packed in there.

So about 1/4 was my print studio, and that included my 24 inch Epson floor standing printer known as "the Jersey Barrier" as well as a 27 inch EIZO calibrated monitor.

So imagine all my cameras, and thousands of dollars worth of paper and ink cramed within say a 4x6 area that was about 25 square feet as my print studio.

So you can imagine having a 12x18 foot room in the basement for a wet darkroom is a huge deal for me, and why I am willing to change to natural gas and get rid of an oil tank. I figure just over 200 square feet.

Then in the garage which will be super insulated, sound proofed, and HVAC via a heat pump will be another 200 square feet for a digital printing studio/soundstage.

The best thing though is no "woman factor."

"Maggie" gets anxious and at times is impatient. In her haste she to furnish the living room she shows me some lamps she saw online. So I pick this floor standing one.

Then comes the delivery and she is disappointed because it is oversized and it looks like it belongs in some S&M dungeon of a castle. She commands me to move it into the basement, and because the ceilings are only 7 feet and the lamp so oversized it barely fits standing up.

So then she worries how to pawn the dungeon lamp onto Etsy or some other site, but then I tell her I'll use it. So it is too big for the basement, but I can already see it in my garage studio with the vaulted ceiling.

It is kinda ugly, but that's my style. Anyways maybe it will repel Maggie and keep my studios from being contaminated and booby trapped.

Gear Alert: yesterday I secured 22 2.25x3.25 Kodak number 5 film hangers that seldom get listed on EBAY. Kind of a rare find and then to secure 22 of them means I can do some serious shooting using my ten Grafmatics to dip and dunk developing.

I already have Kodak 3 1/2 gallon hard rubber tanks with covers.

I also have a Nikkor rack so I can develop 36 reels of 135 or 18 reels of 120 in a batch. How crazy is that?

I was looking through all my lab equipment, hot plate stirrers, untra sonic tank, triple beam scale, $400.00 calibrated brass weight set I rescued from salvage, and all the expensive glassware to make developers. Pretty much a good sampling from Fisher Scientific.

I'm sure Devil Dan would approve.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll bring the lens board for the Zeiss 100 Planar to work to cut down the corners so it will fit the Baby Linhof Master V that basically is a folding Linhof without any movements. This camera has no serial number and is some freak/prototype that I am glad I bought.

The camera came with a hand strap and folded it is actually small yet porky in a Linhof sturdy manner. It likely will be the coolest 6x9 folder on the planet. Also too cool that I have ten Grafmatics to blast away with.

I favor the grafmatics because of fast loading, and the compact size, but I also have 6x7 and 6x9 roll film backs.

Calvin-August
 
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