Ok, 2018. New to me at least. I’m 56 years old, I’ve lost a step. Or worse: maybe I noted this before but don’t remember.
This is the 52nd time I’ve mentioned or featured Mac Laura Jim Jon and jack yes Jack in Plastic Alto and there might be five or six ideas therein theremin
Christgau sent me
backed with
Bw
Timo Andres composition will be in LA Phil next fall if there is an LA Phil next fall and not just more Fill fill fill. It says he is born in Palo alto which probably means the hospital which probably means somebody was at Stanford but do not call him “native Palo Altan” or let’s ask him how long he was in Palo Alto. He’s from CT.
Not long after the people on TV announced that Trump had won Pennsylvania, Jared Kushner grabbed Christie anxiously and said: “We have to have a transition meeting tomorrow morning!” Even before that meeting, Christie had made sure that Trump knew the protocol for his discussions with foreign leaders. The transition team had prepared a document to let him know how these were meant to go. The first few calls were easy – the very first was always with the prime minister of Great Britain – but two dozen calls in you were talking to some kleptocrat and tiptoeing around sensitive security issues. Before any of the calls could be made, however, the president of Egypt called in to the switchboard at Trump Tower and somehow got the operator to put him straight through to Trump. “Trump was like … I love the Bangles! You know that song Walk Like an Egyptian?” recalled one of his advisers on the scene.
bw (Michael Lewis, “The Fifth Rish” 2018)
Ramy Essam song about a date — the guy who directed the video died in prison, for dissent. His name was Shady Habash.
Kudos to Val Denn for her work on behalf of this courageous international artist.
The story.
and: I’m reprinting this from earlier today, the previous post:
Livenation meanwhile — the former Bill Graham Presents and former SFX and former Clear Channel just sold 5 percent of their equity for $500m to the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia meaning that for every $40 you spend on a future Taylor Swift show 50 cents goes towards the dismemberment with a butchers saw of a dissident or loudmouth — like me, were I a Saudi — and the ensuing coverup and two bits worth so to speak goes to prevent women there from reaching orgasm. No truth to the rumor that LiveNation is trying to coax out of retirement Dismemberment Plan. And kudos to Ari Emmanuel of Endeavor for refusing investment from the Saudi’s.
Also, and I am jumping around here there was something in the paper about Rusty Staub spelling the name wrong of the leading prize for literature and peace and saying it was for journalism. But the only time it was awarded to a journalist was 2015 for the writer from Belarus who wrote a hybrid post-modern “Proza” about things like Cherynobel victims — maybe he meant the Chernobyl Prize for Caustic Prose. Svetlana Alexievich. This thread also had me reading a column in the Post by about media control in Saudi Arabia.
andand (I’m sort of conflating news from Egypt and news about Saudi Arabia but here is a column from two years ago about MBS ownership of media, and his imprisonment, in a Ritz Hotel, of elites and family who owned these properties:
It’s understandable if one believes this to be a coordinated attack on what is already restricted space for thought and expression in Saudi Arabia, and the wider region. Yet MBS, as the crown prince is known, already controlled the public square long before he arrested family members and senior business elites last November.
MBS and his family already own the Saudi Research & Marketing Group, which includes the pan-Arab daily Al Sharq Al Awsat. Just over a year ago, there was a serious effort to merge with MBC. Differences over the final financial settlement scuttled the talks.
Over the past 18 months, MBS’s communications team within the Royal Court publicly has chastised, and worse, intimidated anyone who disagrees. Saud Al-Qahtani, leader of that unit, has a blacklist and calls for Saudis to add names to it. Writers like me, whose criticism is offered respectfully, seem to be considered more dangerous than the more strident Saudi opposition based in London. The government arrested dozens of intellectuals, clerics and social media figures over the past year, even though most are actually supportive of MBS’s reforms. Compliant journalists are rewarded with money and access to senior officials.
I wonder if management of Live Nation — especially people who worked with Bill Graham himself — feel about their work profiting the Saudi’s. I wonder if fans will care. Or the artists. Is there a way for artists to bypass Live Nation? Can LiveNation buy back Saudi stock?
Regarding the Eyptian filmmaker who shot a video that was a political satire or hatchet and then died perhaps of Covid, perhaps suicide at age 24 in an Egyptian prison, I don’t I would have the courage as a promoter to work with the artist in the video. But I’d like to hear more from his agent.
andandand– too much to digest, but I’ll come back to Sharmoofers.
I’ve got a funny bee in my bonnet about Frost amphitheater in that Pollstar magazine a trade publication nominated Stanford’s 7,000 capacity outdoor concert venue for best new venue, fittingly — And I went to five shows, playing Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, Joe Russo’s almost dead, Lionel Richie which pound for pound was probably the best show and the national — but they list the venue as being in Palo Alto. It’s not in Palo Alto, it’s at Stanford. I mean I live in Palo Alto and I can bike or walk to Frost, it’s about two miles. I like being near Frost, and so many other attributes of a world class university — really, all Universe. But one Golden Voice books Frost and they are doing an excellent job, but Goldenvoice – AEG – Anchutz Entertainment Group — the people behind Coachella are not in Palo Alto. I’m bigger in Palo Alto than AEG or BGP are. Two, I think if Frost were considered Palo Alto and not Lasuen Drive Stanford — Frost uses the Bing box office as a mailing address — then Palo Alto the taxpayers would get sales tax — at least on the concessions. (The shopping center and the hospital are on Stanford land but considered Palo Alto. Oak Creek Apartments and Stanford West are considered Palo Alto — people who live there can vote here.
besides running this “Frost is not in Palo Alto “ thing by my people at Pollstar — I’m a subscriber, I’m in their data base as a promoter — I actually stopped Rick Mueller as he was going to the awards show in February to first congratulate him — I voted for him I think Ryman or something won — but then also point out the errata or peccadillo.
The venue book I have says Bing is in Palo Alto but doesn’t list Frost. Google has it right. My question is pretty geeky: does AEG list “Palo Alto” or “ Stanford” on their contracts? Should say “Stanford”.
If Goldenvoice opened in Palo Alto that would be good as a fan — like at The Varsity — but maybe bad as Earthwise their competitor.
Livenation meanwhile — the former Bill Graham Presents and former SFX and former Clear Channel just sold 5 percent of their equity for $500m to the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia meaning that for every $40 you spend on a future Taylor Swift show 50 cents goes towards the dismemberment with a butchers saw of a dissident or loudmouth — like me, were I a Saudi — and the ensuing coverup and two bits worth so to speak goes to prevent women there from reaching orgasm.
Rick Mueller : UCSB/Golden voice >>BGP—Live Nation >>AEG Golden Voice LA, but books Frost Stanford
bw
Doug Morris, Universal
Bill Graham w Ralph Gleason (I have in my file somewhere a xerox from a book maybe Jim Marshall of Thelonious monk Allen Ginsberg and Bill Graham backstage)
And1 Marc Geiger from Palo Alto booking head of WME
This guy fka That Guy Presents or That Kid! rather
OR: CLARINET THING AT MITCHELL PARK, FEBRUARY 25, 2020 FULL CONCERT (67 MIN)
These are times that try something novel, here in the mediated consciousness stream of my fellow music lovers and coronavirus resisters. I do believe that our inclination to gather in groups of 200 and listen carefully is instilled and ingrained, after five billion years of evolution – I too am descendent from single cell creatures, RNA and yes the germs. Plus my raison de etre appreciates live music over the recording industries. But since we did archive the 2/25/20 concert by Clarinet Thing at Mitchell Park Community Center El Palo Alto Room, with a discussion of how to commercially market it some day– to press 4,000 copies and or sell downloads online — we might as well let you enjoy it in the mean and at times very mean, cruel, whiles.
In terms of getting back to the path I’ve been on for 26 years as a concert promoter and you my fellow homo sapiens sapiens and hep cats, like I said for thousands of years, we shall see: Not all the cards have been dealt. The band comprises: Beth Custer, Ben Goldberg, Sheldon Brown, Harvey Wainappel. There is herein within hearin’ a tribute to former band member Ralph Carney, an original song by Sheldon. The rest of the song is associated with Duke Ellington. The players add other comments about arrangements and influences: Steve Lacy, Billy Strayhorn, RR Kirk. Crew is John Lee sound – -actually the sound for the room was natural, he ran the recording mics. Mark Weiss and Terry Acebo Davis tore tickets at the door and put out the chairs. — this was before social distancing was a thing. (Although sadly and ironically, we learn now that eight members of a Mardi Gras Zulu krewe 2,200 miles away later succumbed to the Covid-19. As of this writing there are about 100 deaths in Santa Clara County, population just under 2,000,000 and the curve seems to be bending.
Caravan arranged by “our dear friend Rob Reich”
Lotus Blossom arranged by Harvey Wainappel Billy Strayhorn
Echoes of Harlem — the very first thing we learned together as a group; we formed in 1989. Beth says.
Black and Tan Fantasy arr by Sheldon Brown
Flor Africaine arr by Harvey Wainappel from a trio record with Mingus
everybody’s favorite song the Mooch — used to call it a stock arrangement, 1945 c — learned it in junior high circa 1975, he says, Ben Goldberg.
Creole Love Call arr Rahsaan Roland Kirk “a prophet for our times” Inflated Tear session
E Flat clarinet
Ralph Carney appeared as a special guest in Steven Bernstein’s Diaspora Suite cd release party by Earthwise at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco, January 28, 2008 — Ben was in that band and on that recording; Beth was an opening act
Arranged by Sheldon Brown and it’s called (something) Stomp
Custer, Goldberg, Harvey, Sheldon — not pictured but that is The Mitch
Contrabass clarinet solo and introduction by Beth using Ralph’s old ax
Stare at the Conductor and Wiggle Your Fingers (John Cage reference)
A Blues for Ralph Carney Our Dearly Departed Friend and Colleague Whom We Really Liked A Lot!!
bw
Bosko’s Party 1932 which features a version of “Happy Birthday to You”
And1, the next day: these are words of a fictional clarinetist, Rheinhardt, invented by Robert Stone, quoted by George Packer in 1995 — he moonlights as a right wing flack:
Americans, our shoulders are broad and sweaty but our breath is sweet. When your American soldier fighting today drops a napalm bomb on a cluster of gibbering chinks, it’s a bomb with a heart. In the heart of that bomb, mysteriously but truly present, is a fat old lady on her way to see the world’s fair. This lady is as innocent as she is fat and motherly. This lady is our nation’s strength. This lady’s innocence if fully unleashed could defoliate every forest in the torrid zone. Rheinhardt is fictional “right wing hack”; Packer is real, and bats left.
(“A Hall of Mirrors”, 1967).
I am a medium cool X fan I think I saw them once at the Fillmore in the 90s and John Doe played my concert series at the Cubberley and DJ Bonebrake played with Susan James gave me his business card. And I know I think it was Christgau said they were the worlds greatest rock band as of one day. But I’m excited to listen to the new record that was brought to me the news of by the virtual LA Times I bought for two zuzim.
i’m literally going to jump in my car and go shoot this Stanford sign from behind so to speak.
(I shot the previous version while imagining writing to EI About Lee Konitz)
Can we possibly imagine X alphabet land cd release show at Mitchell Park?
related plasty Segue I noticed that Arion Press had sold a bunch of books to the Deyoung museum. And that Hillary favor man had donated and Enrique Chagoya printed at Sharks Inc.
I was listening to MC Lars podcast and watching Dave Burd Lil Dicky tv show with the sound off, but since I have short attention span, I went back to John Oliver and he was with Wendy Williams and she was eating a lamb chop, and it reminded me that I was going to fry up the bacon so that it wouldn’t go bad. So I decided to listen to Lars with Gary Wolf, who is the creator of a series of books that I only know from the Who Framed Roger Rabbit movie and document via my cellphone camera making my lunch.
The podcast is about 90 minutes and I was done with lunch and most of clearn up –the grease is too hot to handle, although Lucky Lee I have a empty dog food can into which it to pour — and pecking away on my blog while they are finishing up. Lars is talking to Gary at Boston University the afternoon before what most of been an inspired show back in November, 2018.
The sandwich was good. It was a hamburger bun, lightly toasted, a small red pepper sweet and a wee bit of lettuce, plus the bacon, sort of a modified BLT: BLP, close enough.
The photos are timestamped, I will add that if it sems to serve.
The rabbit story takes place in Santa Cruz, which is relevant because Lars is originally from Carmel area.
He has a song about Eddie Valient the dick character in Wolf’s sheep clothing. Dick is another word for private detective and has nothing to do with issuing Dave Burd a sub-penis to find out if Jeff Goodby secretly writes his shit. I’m kind of a hater of Dave Burd in that he worked at the ad agency that I haunted back in the 1980s.
Another cool thing is that Gary Wolf uses the word “bacon” around minute 46.
Ok.
So the filming so to speak was all between 11:22 and 11:53 or about a half hour elapsed. And it’s nearly an hour later, mostly waiting for the content to upload to my laptop, given our crappy wifi. And I have to admit that technically although this is deliberately glitch-hop reality hunger David Shields, I actually had to make and eat two sandwiches to get the shot of the chewing action. And as a shout out to Muybridge, I shot two rabit or rapid rather two rather rabbit-like bites.
Lars: what is the name of the instrumental intro? Sounds like 1990s punk, like Offspring or Rancid or AFI? I liked the phrase “standardized four-P stutter” when he says “who plugged Roger Rabbit” unless he says “four piece stutter”.
Also, does Lars always say “lend me your ears” or only if the subject is hippity hop?
My slugline which I’m not sure where you can see it has a bad pun on his name, but I edited it out of the version you can see — I was also watching Cheech and Chong Up in Smoke and they make the same joke about Sgt Stadenko “hard hat” versus “lars bud”…
Bedeep, bedeep, bedeep, that’s all folks….!!!!
edit to add: fair use lift of Who P-P-P-Plugged:
recognized his Oriental rug from the flying scene in Baby Baba and the Forty Thieves. It still bore the stain where Baby Herman had wet his pantaloons during one of Roger’s hare-pin turns.
One whole wall displayed autographed photos of famous celebs. Studio prexy Walt Disney and his adopted nephew Mickey. Roger and Baby Herman flanking publicity agent Large Mouth Bassinger. Benny the Cab out for an evening of engine revving with Fangio, the Spanish race car driver. Baby Herman making goo-goo eyes at Carole Lombard and her making them back. Roger even had one of me and Doris. Together and happy. A collector’s item if ever there was one.
A faded chunk of wall space contained a hook but no likeness. In a nearby wastebasket, I spied a silver picture frame. I eyeballed its eight by ten. Jessica Rabbit, Roger’s hotcha wife. She looked terrific, even scraped and torn by broken glass.
Roger opened the breastplate in the suit of armor he’d worn in Sleepless Knights. With its straight-up-and-pointy iron ears, it would have made a perfect cocktail fork for the giant who lived at the top of Jack’s bean stalk. Roger had a better use for it. He’d converted its hollow innards into a bar. “Drink?”
“Every chance I get.”
He set out glasses–decaled with his likeness–and poured from a bottle of bourbon with more years on it than a perpetual calendar. I’ll say one thing in the rabbit’s favor. He didn’t know when to stop.
MC Lars was in England explaining the relationship between hip-hop Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe to a group of students, on May 2, 2018.
He had them hitting the trochee hard. Upon the trochee hard they hit; something something think of it.
My records indicate that at approximately the same time depending which way the earth turns I forget I had made a meatloaf:
I was in Palo Alto California not England which also means I was not far from where MC Lars had done university. Coinkydinky – that’s a coined term here in Plastic Alto – -and shout out to Rachel Garlin who went to Harvard and played varsity basketball there and has a podcast live thingy starting, actually with a rapper on the same show Whitney Peyton, it’s called Curve, I’m hoping my wife will help me load it on her computer – she’s the one with Zoom — we did our Sedar with Zoom this year although we couldn’t deprivatize our mic so the could see us and not hear us – -just as well — we had meat loaf last night and today, while the lamb that was supposed to be for Easter is still lingering or languishing but not marinating — Rachel has a new cd called Greenmode or Mondegreen rather which is a word that is in my Webster’s Ill but not my Webster’s Ninth its a new word and it means when you mishear a lyric or poem and invent a substitute. the Mondegreen is from some poem about a lady who is actually not green. Excuse me while I kiss this guy, that sort of thing.
Anyways, two out of three ain’t bad. (And Rachel teaches junior high so maybe she and Lars can collaborate too..)
Bw
And1 Marc Geiger from Palo Alto booking head of WME
This guy fka That Guy Presents or That Kid! rather
I am a medium cool X fan I think I saw them once at the Fillmore in the 90s and John Doe played my concert series at the Cubberley and DJ Bonebrake played with Susan James gave me his business card. And I know I think it was Christgau said they were the worlds greatest rock band as of one day. But I’m excited to listen to the new record that was brought to me the news of by the virtual LA Times I bought for two zuzim.
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 