Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss

Have you seen her dressed in….brown?

I’m an independent concert promoter in Santa Clara County so maybe the industry players’ loss is my gain, my chance to step up and promote at the Santa Clara Football Stadium.

But it’s more fun to riff off the headlines of a recent news flurry: first, the Stones said that despite what people like me in the 10th row truly enjoyed, the show was a nightmare for people doing their jobs.

Then the local press reports that Santa Clara leadership voted in a closed session to tell the 49ers that they will no longer broker, manage or middle the concerts and auxillary income revenues for events the other 354 days of the year — ok, 6 months off season, fairly.

I have no idea.

But the city is claiming that the producers of an $11 Million dollar event — part of a tour of 20 such events — erred in asking for “flickers” and not “fireworks”.

I’ve been in the biz 25 years and have no idea what “flickers” are versus other effects. Actually I was just yesterday talking with artist manager Paul Nugent in Austin in Texas who, along with Bryan Perez and I produced for Rolling Stone the magazine a show with his then client the one-hit wonder Deep Blue something. They brought two trucks of intelligence-beam lights, to little and quaint (and now decrepit and Wrecking Ball fated) Cubberley Theatre. I also know not to let bands like Great White light indoor fireworks. Elvis Costello, sure.

There is a press conference at 11 a.m. today that I might have to attend, in the way What Not to Wear helped Megan Slankard get notice.

Ok, maybe this is the day I can wear my VIP Rolling Stones fake laminate.

Our version of this in Palo Alto is that the guy who manages the office at The Mitch made me, the sound crew and the artist — six musicians — wait To load in until staff got there which makes sense – I filled out the form wrong. Apparently Palo Alto is running Mitchell Park better than the 49ers are running their stadium maybe we can help them out.

The taxpayers took on the risk of a $50 M bond issue to build Mitchell Center, so myself and so far 1,000 others believe that world class jazz, folk rock and blue grass is best and highest use in El Palo Alto, the Mitch.

Current onsales, Earthwise Productions at The Mitch:

Sun Kil Moon, September 27
Molly Tuttle, September 30
Amendola Dunn Greenlief, October 11
“Hands of Orlac” with live original score, October 25
Tim and Greg of Mother Hips acoustic duo, March 6-7, 2020.

I also have a free Tom Harrell Quartet show at Palo Alto Art Center aud, Thursday, October 24 (whereas The Mitch has a classical show at the same time from MusikWest — because the City gave them our hold!)

edit to add, the next day: I did attend the press conference wherein Santa Clara leadership layed out their case against the 49ers. I ended up arriving 2 hours late for the A’s game, but lucked out in that the game was rain delayed 40 minutes then went extra innings. So I saw a great two hours of ball ending in a walk-off celebration, by Matt Canha. And meta-significant: I filmed exactly one pitch and it proved to be the double that ended the game. Or i marked it as a single but the writer for the Merc said it was a double. I guess if the guy scores from second, its a double. Or the celebration was at second base, but isn’ it true that it doesn’t matter if he touches second, since the game is over? I filmed 2 minutes of that: the players rushing the field, the ump also walking off, the elephant mascot taking center stage with a waving standard; squirting him with water bottles, high fives galore, syncronized jumping up and down like kids and then eventually a hug from the skipper, Bob Melvin, Menlo Atherton class of 1979 and stalwart for Palo Alto Post 375 national finalists.

Here is more notes on the weird local yokel govenment thingy:

Lisa Gillmor and Deanna Santiago of Santa Clara looked like a comedy team

Animal crackers:
Chico with Harpo, breaking into the hotel, asks for a flashlight, but gets “flesh”, “fish”, “flute”, “flit” and a “flush”.

A statement from the City of Santa Clara faulted the concert producers of what to me was an amazing $11 million dollar extravaganza for fudging or fidging the difference between “flickers” and fireworks. There’s also the famous Mark Twain quote about the difference between the right word and the nearly right word is the difference between lightning and a lighting bug (or fire fly — but even that quote, which I always thought meant you’d rather get bit by a fly than stuck dead by 10,000 volts, I saw being used by a reputable speaker to mean that speaking with lightning meant using powerful words — its complicated”.

But the bottom line — if we will ever see such — I recall John Sununu then governor of New Hampshire in my poli sci course describing drilling down thru layers of “fudge” — is that Santa Clara City and county Labor Leadership looked like a joke calling out the 49ers yesterday. (In front of five cameras – media circus).

First of all, if you need nine people to polish their shoes and stand upright in a row to make your otherwise obscure point, that tell’s you something. I have no idea what she— spokes person Lenker, mayor Gillmor of City Manager Deanna Santiago — were trying to say. But they were bluffing us into thinking that the other Stooges got her point.

There is an $86,000 discrepancy between what some clerical workers workers were paid to wax floors and what they should have gotten. But the 49ers paid the discrepancy. Got it.

The contract was too much — the one that paid the workers too little. Is this flea flicker accounting. Flesh flaker. Flak flouting.

So now, accroding to reporting by Thy Vo of the Merc — who I believe and I think she also recorded the whole kit and caboodle kit — as did Clem Kadiddlehopper of the DeLouth Standard — anything over $100,000 will have to wait until the Stadium Authority and or the City Council meets twice a month to approve. (So I guess beyond Sundays home opener versus the Stealers, what, we should expect sticky floors? Gee, thanks.

The 49ers are a franchise worth $3.5 Billion — and they mastermdied the stadium deal in the first place — I would think they know what they are doing, and or their millions of fans — including corporate leaders in expensive boxes – don’t care to know how the front office sausage is cured.

Leadership decried the fact that the 49ers own The RedBox Bowl — no, in Silicon Valley we laud the fact that they thunk it up.

I will update to tell you who played in the game, what it was called the year before —something appropriately nuts – and whether Andy Dolich, Barry Alderson, Ted Leland and or Gary Cavalli and Ann Cribbs were also to blame. Was it the fourth place Big Ten versus fifth place Pac 10? I almost went.

I actually got the second question at the press conference — I wanted to know how their dealings over the years with the amusement park business informed their dealings with the NFL and the concert industry – and they said, hey, kid, don’t ask stupid questions. Lets get back to flickers and flashers.

The last time I was in that room was winter, 1984 and I covered for the Peninsula — Arlen Gregorio — that’s the guy who dated Allyn Stone, right? — Times Tribune City of Santa Clara voting 4 to 3 to purchase from developer Caz Slendak the land under Marriott’s Great America to prevent the park closure and redevelopment as office space. I felt the leadership were being coerced or were in over their heads – it seemed like a lot of money at the time.

And what does it mean that the spearhead for We The People, then-mayor Jamie Matthews – -who I seem to recall was a high school band leader for a while — the 49ers stadium deal then disappears into the mist?

I am sympathetic to labor — I was one of the few Palo Alto candidates who bothered to be vetted by labor — but this is not a popular fight.

Ann Rubin ktvu
Deanna Santana
wage theft and money losing events.

KTVU cuts to Jesse Gary new food choices for 49ers games: cheese steak bulgogi; dungeness crab sandwich; cheese toastie with cartelized shallots and leaks; and Vegan beyond meat brat.

Put it this way: if Mayor Lisa Gillmor asked her voters: Do you want a better master tenant for the Stadium Authority of the 49ers stadium, or do you want a free hot dog, 98 percent of the citizens would say “Huh, Free food! Yes!” Or maybe, “Ooh! Ooh!”.

Quick Henry the flit!