Beto O’Roarke is endorsed by two women I admire alot, Laura Thomas and Rachel Garlin so he must be a fine fellow.

Laura was out in the Bay Area recently to see the U2 concert at the hockey arena here in San Jose and we had lunch at San Pedro Square a place called Farmers Union. I noticed she had a Beto O’Roarke button on her backpack and asked about it. Well, actually, I said “What’s your button say?” and she said “Beto O’Roarke” very enthusiastically. I took note, but we did not discuss it further.

We did discuss Frank Turner who said once that he believes Rock and Roll can save us all. Laura credits me with telling her about Frank, who then played Laura’s showcase and benefit events in Austin, Texas, for SXSW South By Southwest. She said “What’s that you’re listening to?” and I replied enthusiastically “Frank Turner”.

My friend Tim Harris, not the soccer goalie or Packer linebacker, has become a street performer and does shows with Bread and Roses, which was founded by Mimi Farina, the sister of Joan Baez, plays a Frank Turner song, from the second album, that was on KFOG but had never heard the first album, the one that I found so inspiring. I don’t know, I don’t think, the song by Frank Turner, that was on KFOG.

Laura sent me this photo of she and Frank Turner, both wearing ComboPlate Booking t-shirts (that’s Laura’s company — mine is called Earthwise).

Tim and I today, if we are lucky, lord willing and the creek don’t rise LWATCDR, will see Blink 182 and War on Drugs at the Live 105 BFD at Concord Pavilion tonite/today, if you excuse the shaggy dog and digression. We’re talking about Beto O’Roarke. (Not to be confused with Howard Roarke — wasn’t he a character in either an Ayn Rand or a Philip K. Dick chiller?)

So Beto O’Roarke is running for U.S. Senate in Texas, against the incumbent Ted Cruz, who is far right and went to Yale. Rachel Garlin went to Harvard and Tim Harris has a PhD from the University in Edinburgh. I remember something about a pissing contest about whether Beto could use his Spanish sobrenombre honestly, compared Cruz who uses Ted but has a Spanish surname. But that’s about all that took, until Laura and Rachel.

I was actually looking at Rachel’s children’s music songs, especially about Math, because I wanted to send a link to Don R. MacMannis Jr PhD, who is a therapist in Santa Barbara who writes children’s music, and went to Dartmouth, where I went, but a bit before me. We had spoke the other day by cellphone and he had sent me some info I requested a coucple months ago.

I actually mean to send him a couple things — maybe this shouldn’t be so public? –: Rhiannon Giddens version of “Children Go Send Thee”, which I got on Infinity Hall Live on February 20, 2018 on my tv but just now am checking it out — because Aleta Hayes had a banjo player at Mem Chu (see below) — I think her name was Maya but then thought to send it to Dr. Mac.

I liked Rachel’s songs about Philip Roth and Pi, as well. She had one I was pretty hot for about Keith Haring. Rachel has kids, I sent her Mother’s Day greetings by text. I actually said “go, momma” which was an allusion to Marta Thoma Hall, who is also a Mama; she’s Go, Mama. Or Gone, Mama.

Rachel is actually performing with Julie Wolf, who is also quite admirable.

I wish I had said “happy mother’s day” to my, or my and Terry’s, Terry Acebo Davis, neighbor, Sally Ann Rudd. I passed her this a.m. while walking the (shaggy) dog.

Sally Ann and I were discussing Akira Tana the jazz drummer, who played yesterday at Woodside Priory, but I missed it. Akira is a father, or Ryan Tana the basketball player, from Serra High, which I passed in real life for the first time Wednesday, at 20th Street and Alameda De Las Pulgas, in San Mateo CA. I literally pulled over and jumped out of my car to take a picture of the football field where the famous Jim Brady played. I mean Tom Brady.

I actually texted Matt Gonzales and sent him the link to Rachel’s song about Beto. I said “Are you endorsing him?” (that’s were my weird headline here came from: a pun on endorse and dork, Or i coined the term. Or its a coinkydink.

Anyways I better bone up on Beto O’Roarke. I hope he wins and makes Texas blue. I think. America needs that. Last night I met another neighbor, named Jenice Hansen Snyder and explained who Philip Roth is or was. (Portnoys Complaint, The Human Stain, the Plot Against America) Ms. Snyder (married to Jeff the lawyer) also went to high school with Tommy Jordan, whose first cd I found on that same last Wednesday San Mateo sojourney, at the record store with the horrible name.

Johnny Cash also has a version of Children I send Thee.
I wanted to send links by private email to Dr. Mac of Colin Meloy “Dracula’s Daughter” — which he wrote when he was 14; and Stew, Mark Stewart, and Heidi Rodewald “Gary Come Home” from SpongeBob Squarepants.

if I wasn’t lazy I would put all these people in the “tag” category.

I also sent Rachel Garlin a brief text and link regarding the recent passing of Bob Dorough who wrote some wonderful children’s music. I sent “My Hero Zero”.

Also, this is pretty random but I met a nice man named Bill Norton who is a jazz singer and taught psychology at Texas Tech the Red Raiders for many years before moving here to Palo Alto. Actually my dog Duffy, who has never been mentioned here in Plastic Alto before, introduced us, or rather, Mr. Norton noticed Duffy and asked me about him and then we set to gabbing, quite a whiles. In front of Tuts Cafe (and I’m meaning to search the etymology of the word or phrase “tut-tut” if its in my Webster’s Ninth. Am I the only one who noticed that the New York Times wrote an analysis of Turkey politics on April 8 about a month ago and used the words “tut-tut” or “tut-tutted” to mean “dissent”, about a month or three weeks before they outed Hakan Sukor the footbal hereo (stut, I mean stet) and refugee? Also, I’d like to claim here that Plastic Alto scooped the Times on Tuts and Hakan Sukor by four days, although I was a little afraid to mention him or it by name.

Anyways, I hope this helps Beto win. (More torque).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0f4-Vh9qwk

Notes:

1. Beto is also known as Robert O’Rourke, 45, who was born in El Paso, Texas and went to Columbia and is in the U.S. House of Representatives.
2. Howard Roark is the main character in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead.
3. The Man in the High Castle title character is an author of a book-within-the-book named Hawthorne Abendsen. I’ve never read it nor seen the tv show.
4. Laura also was here supporting a client or friend named Korby Lenker whose book was reviewed by Tim O’Brien (the things we carried) — I saw him at Stanford. Where Michael McFaul is lecturing Monday not Friday.
5. I mentioned Michael McFaul and his book (but not by name — or maybe you can see the book title on my Apple Iphone 6) at the Palo Alto Human Relations Commission meeting Thursday. Michael McFaul who reportedly liked jazz (his father was a music teacher, in Montana) and went to the Grateful Dead at least once — he was also U.S. Ambassador to Russia. Not sure he is endorsing Beto O’Rourke.
6. I will read up on Beto O’Rourke, beyond noting the interest of Garlin and Thomas (and Wolf) and potentially update here in Plastic Alto, the blog with 500,000 posts and no readers, and 1,610 posts.
7. Regarding Blink 182 who are from San Diego they should do a tour that is in honor of the 250th anniversary of the 1769 journey of Portola from San Diego to Palo Alto. Jerry Hannan kinda sorta did that for Earthwise in 2016; Rachel played Cafe Zoe same run of shows in 2015, maybe with Curtis McMurtry, Laura’s then client.
8. There is a rumor that a couple who live in Downtown North had a cat named Cubberley named for the Cubberley Sessions (1994-2001).
9. Our dog Duffy may or may not be named for Professor Dudley of the Stanford botany department; Duffy’s previous human companion was married to a botany professor named John Thomas and she had a dog named Wiggans, named for Professor Wiggans of that department. This is both a shaggy dog and a red herring.