Lure partner, Paul Mastriani, preparing for the opening.

The blacklight room. 3D glasses supplied for optimal effect.

Video projection

Lure studio manager, Heather Masessa

Friend and collaborator on the Cult Classic Movie poster series, Billy Davis.

Francesco rocked the screen printing demo till nearly midnight.

Screen printing Demo.

Dustin, Scott, Sean of Neon Forest

Thanks to Neon Forest, Et Cetera Magazine, Wally’s (Orlando’s legendary dive bar), Jay Dwarzski, Francesco LoGiacco, Lee Waters and Gary Jones.

Neon Forest Gallery • 1741 Orange Ave • 7-MID

Here's looking at YOU.

spraymount! spraymount! spraymount!

Over 500 pieces in the show!

Ladder time! Not quite like hammer time!

Snacks while we work. (JK)

I have a coffee maker that I love. It’s a Starbuck’s Barista coffee maker that I’ve had for 4 or so years & it usually makes great coffee day after day. However, a few nights ago as I was performing one of  my nightly rituals of preparing the coffee for the next day I noticed something strange. I was filling the reservoir in the sink & it seemed to be taking a long time to fill. When it reached the desired water level I picked up the reservoir & noticed that water was pouring out of the bottom of it. I just thought that the stopper had come loose – no big deal. But, as I was trying to put the stopper back, it wasn’t quite working & water was still seeping thru the stopper. A couple of days of bad coffee later I told my husband “We have got to find a new coffee maker”. I was kind of sad because, as I’ve said – I love my coffee maker.

So, last night Jeff & I went on a quest for a new coffee maker. There are several criteria that the new coffee maker would have to fulfill. They are as follows:

Have to have:
Timer (coffee has to be ready to pour when I roll out of bed in the morning)
Thermal Carafe (none of that glass stuff with a burner underneath – that’s a great way to burn the coffee)

Need to have:
Removable reservoir (easier to fill & you are less likely to pour water down the back of the coffee maker & all over the floor)

Do not want:
Inclusive Coffee Grinder (my parents bought us a really nice coffee grinder for our anniversary a few years back & anything that would be included with the coffee maker would be inferior to the one we already have)
Glass Carafe (see above)

I didn’t think that it would be hard to find a coffee maker that would fulfill my needs. I’d been at Bloomingdale’s a few days before & seen that they had a wide variety of coffee makers & figured I’d just run in & pick one up. Boy, was I wrong.

Jeff & I started our quest at the two Starbuck’s at the Millennia Mall (actually, I’d already been to another Starbuck’s that morning (to pick up a decent cup of coffee) and looked for a coffee maker there – but they only had French Press’s). I’m guessing that Starbuck’s no longer makes coffee makers. After the two Starbuck’s we went to Bloomie’s. They did have a decent selection of coffee maker’s – but none that matched my criteria. So, on we went. Macy’s – there was one, a Cuisinart, but it was kind of clunky & ugly. Next, we went to Williams-Sonoma. They did have one that fit the criteria (I think) and it was beautiful. Very elegant & minimalist with a lovely cone-shaped carafe’. Downside – it was $300. I wasn’t sure I was ready to invest that much – it was about twice what I’d wanted to spend. So, my husband looked at me & said “Target?”. So, on to Target we went. As I looked down the line of coffee makers I only saw one that had a thermal carafe – it was a Mr.. Coffee (you know, the brand your parents had when you were a little kid – I didn’t even know that they made them any more). On closer inspection, I also noticed that it had a timer & a removable reservoir & it wasn’t terribly ugly. (I wasn’t crazy about the way the coffee basket worked (and it was a basket, not a cone), but I figured that you can’t have everything). And, it was $80. So, home we go with our new coffee maker.

After we got it home, we ran a couple of cycles of water thru to clean it & then I prepared it for the next day. Setting the timer & the clock. Measuring our normal 5 scoops of coffee into the basket. But, apparently I forgot to put water in it. I woke up this morning & went to the kitchen looking forward to trying a cup of coffee from our new coffee maker & it was just sitting there beeping and flashing at me. After I figured out that – hey, there is no WATER in it (it was early after all) I filled the reservoir & pushed the button for brew. I stood there & watched it brew, anxiety was building for my coffee. It finally brewed enough to fill a cup! I poured it into my favorite travel mug & noticed – it looks a little light. So I tasted it. Ugh – flavored water. But, I don’t normally drink black coffee, so I moved onto the cream test. (pour a little cream into it & see what color the coffee turns). It turned a light brown. Not good – means it’s weak. (the worst is when it turns gray – which means it’s weak & the coffee beans are inferior). I prepared it anyway & had a couple of sips. It was bad. So, there went that cup down the drain.  (I’ll do without before I’ll drink bad coffee). What to do now? Get dressed and run down to my local Starbucks? No, I pulled out my beloved Starbucks Barista & figured – If the water isn’t sitting in the reservoir for long, it will be OK. So, here we go thru the ritual of grinding the beans and adding the coffee & water to the maker (which I poured in from a measuring cup instead of removing the reservoir from the maker). Three minutes later I’m pouring the half cup of coffee that is brewed into my cup. Sniff test – it smells like coffee. Cream test – its a little dark, but that beats being a little light. Taste test – ahhh, its COFFEE. So, here I am enjoying my first cup of coffee and writing about my first cup of coffee and trying to figure out what to do now. I’m thinking that Mr. Coffee is going back to Target & maybe $300 isn’t too much to pay for coffee bliss every morning. Or, maybe I’ll just struggle through with my beloved Barista for a bit longer.

Fast forward a year and a half—past ATP New York 2009 with the Flaming Lips (I don’t recall why it slipped by me)—to ATP New York 2010. It took only a brief conversation with good friend and virtual punk and indie rock history scholar, Thomas Scott, in which he only had to suggest that we go to ATP this year for me to get on board. I wasn’t going to let regret rear it’s ugly head again with a repeat of 2008’s failure to commit to what would arguably be the Festival of the Year once again.

The line up for this year wasn’t quite the list of my favorite bands that 2008’s roster had promised, but there were at least two bands from my list: Sonic Youth and Explosions in the Sky. Plus, Iggy Pop and the Stooges would perform their legendary 1973 album, Raw Power, to close the first night. What self-respecting rock music fan wouldn’t want to see the spectacle of a forever shirtless and writhing Iggy at 63 years of age, belting out “Search and Destroy” or “Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell?” Not me.

I gave my friend Gary a call about this one, knowing he’s generally game for almost anything that promises to be a good and interesting time. And this trip would inevitably involve a couple of culinary detours as well—adding another facet to the trip that would pique his interest. He was in and tickets were bought.

Once we landed in Newark and picked up our rented Dodge Challenger, it was time for a late breakfast on our way to South Fallsburg, NY, where our accommodations were, so we made a planned stop at the New Jersey roadside institution, Rutt’s Hut, for some rippers. A ripper is a hot dog that’s been cooked in a deep fryer. This cooking process causes the casing to tear and rip lengthwise in their sides, making them not the prettiest hot dogs you’ll ever see, but damn tasty, with a slightly chewy exterior and still tender inside. Topped with cheese and Rutt’s own mustard and pickle relish,  Gary and I indulged in what I’m sure looked like a seriously disgusting culinary misstep to our vegetarian traveling companion, Thomas, as he sat with an egg sandwich prepared by the staff. After washing down the deep fried all beef goodness with a beer, we were ready to move on to the next stop, Dia:Beacon.

What was once a Nabisco box printing plant built in 1929 on the edge of the Hudson River in Beacon, New York, is now Dia:Beacon: A sunlight-filled 300,000 square foot museum dedicated largely to installations by Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Joesph Beuys and Walter De Maria, to name a few. The highlight for me was Richard Serra’s, Union of the Torus and the Sphere, a rusted metal sculpture that, at 37’ long and nearly 12’ high, overwhelms what would normally be a very large room. It vaguely resembles a ship at sea listing to one side, but with a bow at both ends. It is almost uncomfortably close to a gallery wall on one side which creates a nearly claustrophobic feeling as you pass along. It’s a beautiful thing in it’s juxtaposed fluidity and roughness, elegance and extreme heft. Once we left the museum we had just enough time to get to The Raleigh, our place of residence for the following days, check in, get the shuttle to ATP site, get our wristbands and be at the first show at 3:30pm.

After about a forty-minute drive through the Catskills, we arrived at what is now the strangest, creepiest, but weirdly entertaining stays of our collective lives. The Raleigh is one of the last of the Borscht Belt resorts that lost it’s lustre somewhere around, oh, maybe,  forty years ago. Time seems to stands still here. The lobby was dark, dank and decorated in a gaudy-glam style of gold and filigree mixed with Naugahyde remnants from the 60s that might have even looked somewhat upscale when this place was in it’s heyday. It felt like we stepped into the Overlook Hotel from The Shining and expected to see twin little girls glaring at us from the end of a distant hallway inviting us to join them on the other side. Behind the counter we only heard English accents. Obviously, the regular staff had been replaced by ATP staff for the weekend. We got our keys and proceeded to walk down several seemingly endless hallways that lead to our room in the Sammy Davis wing. 642, if  I recall. On the way to the room we saw rows of twin bed frames leaning, maybe eight deep, against one wall and a room with wafer thin, mis-matched matresses  stacked several feet high. There was the smell of what I assu med was a combination of mold, stained carpeting that hasn’t been replaced at least twenty years, and old lead-laden paint. To make things even more creepy, I spotted a baby stroller tucked in a hallway corner with a well worn straw broom; there was a  blue plastic children’s chair turned upside down in the middle of one hallway. If our wives had been with us, we would have been looking for other accommodations pronto. But, we were willing to embrace the strangeness—as long as there are no bedbugs—which Thomas checked for as soon as we get to our suite from hell. Why would we have gone anywhere else? There was shuttle bus running every fifteen minutes to Kutsher’s, where the real action is. After all, we did actually see Wata and Atsuo of Boris in the lobby of The Raleigh. If was good enough for them, certainly it would suffice for us. We had working air conditioning and hot water. Well, the hot water we found out later started out hot and gets hotter. Hotter than Hades. It was a scorching, skin peeling kind of hot, so you had to be careful to blend in some cold water as you take your shower. It was an adventure at every turn.

The Raleigh entrance.

The shuttle that would take us to Kutsher’s arrives in front of The Raleigh. And it wasn’t not the kind of shuttle bus one would expect. You know, a smallish modern bus with comfortable seats, fuctioning air conditioning and ample room for adults. No, it was old yellow school bus with leg room designed for 5th graders and the tin backed seats you can hear bend and pop against the pressure of your body weight. We boarded the bus along with some other passengers snickering about their bizarre weekend home. The weather was beautiful and we were all excited about the events that lie ahead at ATP New York.

The Raleigh.

One of the hallways at The Raleigh.

The Raleigh lobby.

The Raleigh lobby.

Thomas at the empty Raleigh bar.

The Raleigh.

The Kennedy Wing at The Raleigh.

Can you find "labyrinth" within the labyrinth?