I did listen to a wee dram of San Francisco singer-songwriter maybe bandleader and supervisor candidate Tom Valtin and I would say it has a quality, but I would say also that it could use a little more foghorn. Foghorn Leghorn. The Mel Blanc voiced (as compared to blank verse, or Les Blank) cartoon character who is Southern. I mean vernacular. Of course my starting point is that I found this guy because he is married to the daughter of a favorite professor of mine named James Melville Cox, from Virginia. You don’t know about him less you have read about Huck Finn. Et cetera. Was anybody hurt? No’m but a cartoon dog was assaulted by a big chicken. N-word Jim loved Huck, idiots. Elif Batuman. Bat Makumba ay, ay. Bat Makumba, oh oh. I’m here all week. Try the grits. Pass the port. And….out.

I listened to part of his political speech and would report that I ran for Palo Alto City council on a similar platform. Go, middle class!

and one:
First Edition Adventures of Huck Finn illustration by E. W. Kremble. And Oregon ally this was about the first pages of Tom Sawyer “Old Scratch” and War and Piece “the anti-christ” written within 10 years of each other, snatched by magic hand held box at Bell’s Books of Palo Alto. But there’s a guy named Adam Weinberger in New York wants to sell me such onesy, not the Weinberger with bereaved at Beth Ahmed who went to Gunn and helped the Cubberley Sessions on advice of John Taylor not the right-winger the right-fielder exactly oncely. And gracious flash to Ms. Lessa encouraging me to try Ginsberg “Kaddish” for Naomi with Larry Ochs. Not Phil Oaks. Nor Quaker Ochs.

Tom Valtin seems to have good musicianship throughout. B (as Christgau helpseff might say) Not turkey, big chicken. No pocky for kitty. Arf (gail collins)