Robert Dawson photo from his book on San Jose water treatment

When Robert Dawson spoke at the Palo Alto Art Center a few months ago I was seized by the idea of producing a concert at the San Jose Waste Water Treatment center in honor of his excellent work there; but the trick or the twist is that I want to bring an obscure, not quite active, geographically-undesirable band, based almost entirely on their name, the Twin Cities’ Bring That Shit. (Someone else, concert promoter Eric Fanali actually, suggested Okkervil River instead).

The twin of this idea would be to bring Harriet Tubman (featuring Melvin Gibbs, Ron Miles and DJ Logic) to Lytton Plaza in Palo Alto regarding High Speed Rail proposal; I am specifically reacting to the racist counterproposal in terms of signs going up on the corridor that, as Ray Bacchetti points out, seem to mock our segregationist past, that people like he still remember (it was before my time, although I am from the South Side of Chicago). The signs say “THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD”.  I want to make and offer counter-signs (or counter-offers?) that feature a likeness of freedom activist Harriet Tubman and the words “UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” (some people prefer that if there is a High Speed Rail it goes under the ground rather than over our heads, if the reference just did).