I am sitting at Coupacafe eating breakfast and reading a graham green story about the Eiffel Tower.
I have a New York Times folded, on the table, ready to be read.
On my left, a father and son. He reading from his handheld, the boy playing video games. To my right , very young mother— in the powder room, her sister, two young kids, one on her watch, one on a ipads sized game box. the elder —still in late teens, scrolling.
I am doing this, ironically.
final tally six humans six devices, no conversation a guy talking to himself assuming no one is listening to him. what a dog waiting for more scraps or more interactions human or canine.
I would like to do an event at bottom of the hill. We’ve done three others previously. Working with Lynn mostly. Ramona came to the last one because it honored your former colleague Lisa Fay Beatty on the 10th anniversary of her passing. (Lisa was in the first band I ever booked, which was Mudwimin in fall of 1994.) The show I’m thinking of is a local / South Bay showcase guest-curated by Aki Kumar. Let me know what the avails are. I can go as soon as March or as late as October. I could do a Monday if necessary. Mark Weiss dba Earthwise (650) 305-xxxx
by the way, my dream booking would be to do a Donnas reunion show or a Ragady Ann (their original name) reunion show (playing the music from their 1995 7 inch EP) . Maya is my neighbor. But more likely, I would just do this Blues/indian fusion showcase . Also, I wonder if ramona still has a crystal ball I gave her more than 20 years ago. many nights at bottom of the hill and some afternoons, definitely help me hone my promoter instincts! My onsales here: Feb 22 Jim Campilongo Adam Levy Duo P 7:30 Feb 28 Edward Simon Trio f Adam Cruz Or Bareket, Stephan Crump M 8 pm March 17 Edu Ribeiro Noah Garabedian Vinicius Gomes trio, Murray Low M March 23 Ralph Alessi Quartet P April 4 Realtime Collective Tammy Hall Sylvia Cuenca Kristen Strom Ruth Davies, Rabiah Kabir Quartet M 8 pm April 17 Mads Tolling Sam Reider Duo, Larry Ochs Ben Davis Fred Lonborg-Holm Trio TBA May 1 Never Come Down, Hannah Mayree J 6:30 May 15 Caroline Davis Quartet M May 22 Lily Finnegan Gaby Fluke- Mogul Duo, Jordan Glenn Flatways Trio M June 6 Emi Makabe Quartet f Thomas Morgan Kenny Wolleson Vitor Gonćalves M Sept 18 Splash Myra Melford Michael Formanek Ches Smith M J = Johnson Park (free) M = Mitchell Park Community Center P = Palo Alto Art Center
It’s kind of a weird memory, but I definitely remember forever Totaling my car on 280 totally sober but hit by a drunk driver. On my way to a curbfeelers barbecue show there.
I do mostly Blues and jazz these days although in my history, I did baby band rock and punk: blink-182, fifteen, stone fox, mermen, third eye blind, cake, galactic, oxbow, sf seals. AFI.
This is a memorial painting I commissioned of Lisa from Veronica DeJesus.
and more: Stanford Ebuka basketball, defensive stance, jazz photo picture framer, flute player, Ms. Hermann all girl rock band, sorta sisters, NFL Davis, Mehdi Gunn MLS. Don Cherry, ngoni, Greg Brown rip, Will Bernard set list from recent show:
Gee Baby… Nat King Cole version
Isfahan Billy Strayhorn
Bye-Ya Monk
Winin’ Boy Jelly Roll Morton
(didn’t play)
My tunes:
Stone Valley
Dry Land Tourist
Nook Sack
Go West
Not Necessarily Stoned
Little Hand
Homeward bound
I had a good January between my birthday, my friend visiting, trip to San Francisco, Corey Harris residency, opening acts, DJ Sep, Jack Tuttle, will bernard, Gunn basketball, Stanford basketball; looking forward to February shows at The Mitch there is Edward Simon, Trio and Stephan Crump opening; at Palo Alto Art Center there is the Du of Jim Campilongo and Adam Levy; there are nine other shows to start getting the word out for including never come down at Johnson Park, real time collective at The Mitch, and Caroline Davis in May. I’m also looking forward to not one but two Bill Frisell 75th birthday party shows one at the Hertz theater and one locally at the Guild.
Greg Brown was the founding guitarist and had songwriter credits for or with Cake. He later co-founded Deathray, which played my concert series.
Cake with Greg Brown played the Cubberley Community Center Theatre in September, 1995 and then the multipurpose Auditorium in July, 1996 where “The Distance ” was let loose. Deathray played I recall once at Cubberley and once at Stanford‘s Coho.
The five-man band was built around Mr. Brown’s love for an eclectic mix of genres, including soul, big-band jazz and old-school country, passions he shared with Cake’s co-founder and lead singer
John McCrea.
“It’s hard-edged, easy-listening music that’s fairly low volume but not folksy, economical in its arrangement but not boring, and really exciting and dynamic with good songwriting,” Mr. Brown told The Los Angeles Times in 1995.
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 