in happier times, Ahn celebrates her win at the Open
Based on Yesterday’s Research and Revelation: Or, Kirstie Ahn Should Take a Gap Year
It’s no good when the evening of your greatest victory ever the news is about how your father thinks you should quit and become a corporate clone, or a mother. And it’s not obvious from her Tweets what she intends to do about it; she’s conflicted. I would say: take a gap year, no matter how it turns out today (or yesterday?) at the US Open, 3rd round.
pre-ramble: Ahn qualified for the 2008 U.S. Open when she was 16. She wanted to turn professional and take the first-round prize money she earned — $18,500 that would have meant forfeiting college eligibility.
“As a 16-year-old, you’re like: ‘Oh my God, so much money. Let me take it!’” Ahn recalled. “My dad, deadpan face, was like, ‘You could win the U.S. Open this year, and you’re still not taking the money — you’re going to college.’
“I was like, ‘But if I won the U.S. Open, I could take the money and pay for college!’ He was like: ‘No, I don’t care. You’re not getting into Stanford without being on the tennis team.’ ”
Don Ahn would not budge. [Note: and Don Budge would not “ahn”]
“Just playing tennis without education is nothing,” he said. “You have to be an educated person to live a life in society.”
Kristie ended up at Stanford, becoming captain of the powerhouse women’s team there.
When she graduated, she made a deal with her father to pursue professional tennis. He agreed to provide financial support for three years.
Being a Stanford grad doesn’t necessarily help; I recall meeting Stanford’s Sara Choy when she was at Terman, because she lived on my floor, 3 doors down, and Oak Creek ran her picture in its newsletter (We actually met in the laundry; her bag was bigger than she was). In an interview in a Stanford press lab, she said she played tennis so fervidly because her goal was to get in to Stanford. But she didn’t indicate why that was important to her. What about Stanford? What about the rest of her life and the brave new world beyong Palo Alto, Stanford, Perry Lane, Menlo Park, Oak Creek, the 650, the midPeninsula, the no-mans-land between baseline and net?
Any the Mom didn’t seem much help, besides being of the flaming stripe tiger varietal. I said “Good luck to your daughter? I played tennis for Terman, too” and she scanned me, more like The Terminator than a human, and walked away wordless. Ok, it was St. Francis versus Sacred Heart and, that she blew off Gunn — home of Emily Zhou, Barrie Bulmore, Cammie Mitchell, Stephanie Savides, Stacy Savides, Vedica Jain, Rebecca Dirksen and Ken Arnold, plus ironically, her SHP coach Jeff Arons — maybe she was actually picking up my vibe, my chip.
So what I noticed about Ahn, and I will link to the story and update at below if there is another result good or bad, is that according to her Stanford Sports bio, she went to Professional Childrens School in Manhattan, the oxymoron Oxford. The school, we soon glean, was founded 100 years prior for child actors on Broadway, and only recently started positioning itself as a school — better than home-schooling — for underage pro caliber athletes — although in this case it is a misnomer because Ahn, who was #2 mostly at Stanford — retained her eligibility.
Ahn has actually earned $500K on the pro circuit — which I admit is more than I have earned certainly since 2015 and maybe all time. But the story is that her parents said they would support her for only 3 years, and now, though apparently self-supporting, she has moved back in with the folks.
She could be partner someday, Dad says. Maybe she could be Kirsten Ahn someday.
Other famous Professional Childrens School products include Sarah Michelle Geller aka Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Ricki Lake aka Tracy Turnball who starred with Vinyl in John Water’s original Hairspray; I did not recognize any of the other athletes AND they fail to list Ahn.
Some viz:
Ricki Lake as Tracy Turnbull in Hairspray during her student days at Professional Childrens School, the alma mater and surrogate mother of tennis flash Kristie Ahn
I remember being shocked, surely shocked, at this photo of Professional Childrens School student Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Tennis anyone?
I watched 3 min of this with sound office, looking for body language facial cues, and she seems normal enough, but there is something about young athletes, especially training under their parents’ watchful eye, from a young age, that I think thwarts excellence as it precipitates excellence in a narrow field. And I am flashing to the movie about the chess prodigy — Looking for Bobby Fisher – where the mom goes “My child is better at chess at age 10 than you will ever be at anything” which cuts both way. I agree: this is man-splaining.
outro: Big Sam Funky Nation big booty big bone:
edit to add, the next day:
Duffy was denied entrance to the Fair, hence we had no ‘bone.
We visited the Bay Model instead — snuck him in, I guess. But the good news, further, if you read Plastic Alto for its coverage of Earthwise Productions, the agent for Big Sam returned by call and we are discussing some of his other clients for The Mitch. We also, at a local diner or cafe met a guy who said he had a jazz label called Clarity. Always good to pick up tidbits about the biz. But for the grace of god.
and1: digressing even futher from either comment on athletics or comment on media to my primary directive which is either music, my music aka Earthwise or my self (Shields, 2010), I met Anna Conrad –tho at the time she had a more Jewish name — Anna Bernstein Conrad or something, tho she is German — becuause I did some show or was setting up a show or just re-visting Jonah Montranga (Far, oneline drawing) and he mentioned that he was on his way to play hotel cafe — maybe I saw him at Hotel Utah — with Anna as a package but they were told that they would split their show with John Mayer, who was doing a secret show, that would be annnounced shortly before his hit via Twitter, back when no one knew what Twitter was. (And for the record, I still am a refuse-nik, for most social media, beyond WordPress)
but Anna, who also reocords or posts under Anna River, has a cover, besides her little cocktease novelty thing — Bradley Cooper, John Stamos, Jason Sudeikis, all with hoes on their dicks — does a cover of Alvvays “Dream Tonite” which sent me to the original which has 1.5M views. I saw the entire set of Alvvays last night at Frost which I enjoyed. I’ll steel a line from the super-brain known as Kato-Rodriguez/ YoshiMiguel: they sound like Six Pence None the Richer meet Something More Indie. I sent the agent, who i Don’t know otherthan he works with Tom Windish — the best ears in the game — after half a song saying I liked but by the end it storted to bore me. Or bore on me.
I left The National after about 10 songs. I live 2 miles from Frost and am in the music biz so I go to every Frost show. So far I would say Lionel Richie was the best (JRAD, the National).
Ahighlight for me is that a lady my generation liked by Yo La Tengo shirt,and shot my photograph –and I remembered to suck in my tummy — and then I tried to trade it to her for her The National T but then we settled on me selling it to her for a bargain price — not to dis YLT, far from it. She was a rabid fan so ithought the shrit belonged to her. I picked it up at The Fillmore a couple years ago – being certainly the only fan to catch the Giants -Mets night game and then zipping over to catch the last 3 songs. Yo La Tengo being named for the Mets in their early pathetic days when Chico Escuela collides with Frank Howard or Frank Thomas (not the Big Hurt guy, a white guy) and then claimed it was because the shortstop called him off in Spanish).
Besides my own onsales, I have: Jenny Lewis, Jay Som, maybe Cake Ben Folds in LA, Mixtaape or something. Willie Nelson if he gets better.
My shows: John Santos, Sun Kil Moon, Molly Tuttle, Scott Amendola Trevor Dunn Philip Greenlief, Tom Harrell. Plus a couple offers and holds. Who knows.
I saw a guy with an APE hat and wondered if he was their protesting the rigged bidding that Greg Perloff described to a reporter n The Metro.
and and: As i write this on a Labor Day late morning, I am screening Boogie Nights lazily in the background but I stopped the film when Snif N the Tears “Drivers Seat” came. It reminded me that in Richardson Hall at Dartmouth College, someone on the floor below would play this song constantly very loud, and it annoyed the rest of us, directly above. Also, my friend A_ said that at Stanford a few years before, all the kids would simultaneously play “My Sharona” at midnight in his dorm. These were turntables.
There was a guy named David Dawley who I quoted in the Dartmouth as saying that his dog Sniff could pick stocks in a bull market as well as President of the College David T. McLaughlin. And did I mention that I met a tennis recruit from Gunn named Emily Zhou but pronounced “Cho” and her parents. She is #75 recruit in the country but did not play for Gunn. I said I was briefly an assistant coach at Gunn for the same guy.
Paul Roberts not Todd Parker
I’m watching a German and an Argentinian on tv right now but will try to catch a bit of Ahn’s match as well: Good luck!
Maybe what ties this together is me, Mark Leland, Nick Sturiale and Andy Zenoff as delinquent juniors drinking suicides and cranking Van Halan and Montrose and using our tennis racquets as air-guitars.
The history of air guitar indeed might include tennis racquet as a preliminary phase:
Proust, 1891:
The Turkish cafe in Palo Alto that came to fame as a hangout for and or investment by soccer great Hakan Sukur, has opened a juice stand on the sidewalk.
The man who invented the orange and egg soda coincidentally was named Freed.
Bull of Bospherus was actually invited to open a bull hoagie stand in Seoul. Meanwhile Kal or Cal from Egypt 40 years ago this month opened a gelato stand next to Jim from Palestine’s New York bagel stand made from buffalo milk.
I have not been to a Stanford Women’s soccer game in many years, but I may go this year to check out a special player named Catalina Macario.
An SB sports columnist posted a vine of a great goal against Penn State where Macario scored 1 v. 5. That means there were five players attacking her, but she held the ball, whirled, found space to kick and beat the Keeper – -ok, 1 v. 6.
I found the vine from Kim McCauley of SBNation and also PAW story.
I was noticing the men’s poster in the window of Gerardo’s barber shop on Ramona. The men have won five straight conference titles and three national championships.
For ladies soccer, my pantheon includes, Callie Withers, Mary Harvey, Teresa Noyola, Erin Martinez Montoya, Lisa DeLong, Terri Wheeler, Kirstin Luckenbill. Also, Deena I think was her name, the sprinter from Seattle, who still lives around here. With her family.
My goal is to catch 1 women’s game and 1 men’s game, and then see what happens. I’d like to catch a football game, as well.
One of my favorite Stanford soccer matches was when Santa Clara beat Stanford 2-1 and a kid from Gunn scored the winning goal — a teammate of Andrew Jacobson who also went on the MLS. From Morocco I think, Melachy? The led Gunn to the CCS title.
edit to add: I attended part of the first half and heard one goal but did not see it. Macario scored twice in the second half, in a 5-1 win.
I literally just this minute got a message from Stanford that a psychology professor and PhD who specializes in racial bias is going to be speaking at Cubberley the former high school auditorium or theater, in conversation with LaDoris Cordell.
Her name is Jennifer Eberhardt.
But in my mind Cubberley peaked a long time ago. In the 1990s it was quaint to bring world-class artist to a 40-year-old former high school building. In fact there’s a similar series but not as prolific and not a PPP in Campbell where I saw Kris Kristofferson once. But now Carlee as a 60-year-old building that’s been out of commission from its original purpose for almost 40 years is just shabby.
So it reminds me of the time that Ledisi performing under her name Anibade which I guess is actually her middle namePlayed one of my showcases part of a larger jazz series and actually share the stage with Galactic and I believe it was Brown Fellinis.
Several years later Ledesi was named were nominated for a Grammy for best new artist.
No disrespect for Dr. Eberhardt. But I wonder in the case of the singer from New Orleans in Oakland before New York but with a African sounding or meaning name she explained it to me once her ethnicity creed and heritage probably helps her image at least if not her craft so there’s a bias for black female artists in the music biz. But I wonder in the case of the singer from New Orleans in Oakland before New York but with a African sounding or meaning name she explained it to me once her ethnicity creed and heritage probably helps her image at least if not her craft so there’s a bias for black female artist in the music biz ( although I’m not really an expert although I have had three black clients who definitely used there at the city but in very different ways — I had a weird feeling in the recent Aretha film from 30 years before that she was being Svengali’d by somebody. There is something just the other day in the Times about her errors fighting for their share. But a lot of people’s do that don’t day. Oh and I’m hoping to sneak out of real life and into the movies to see the thing about the student who was an immigrant and he quoted a west Indian political radical their version of Malcolm X. Oh and I’m hoping to sneak out of real life and into the movies to see the thing about the student who was an immigrant and he quoted a west Indian political radical their version of Malcolm X Luce. I Watch Sunvalley serenade the Glenn Miller vehicle only long enough to see the Nicholas brothers and I know for a fact the Nicholas brothers had Kin who went to Stanford recently.
Nathan Olivera reclining nude, painted at 209 Hamilton in the 60s and now part of the Anderson collection at Stanford Heard a ruckus last week on Friday and follow the parade so to speak of people trying to support families even of Mexicans and Hondurans by pointing fingers at Palo Alto‘s hipster spooks the multibillion dollar unicorn who claimed they were trying to catch Osama bin lot of interaction the spying on us arguably even hearing my voice in real time as I compose, using auto dictation on my super smart
I chuckled and thought of the long time dissent leader Tom Jordan who when I ran for city Council told me that like in the towel of poo I should find a parade and jump in front of it. I tried to explain this to one of the other Marchers is a former mayor.
The group stopped at the corner of Hamilton and Alma and a lady with a megaphone invited a succession of young speakers most of who’s organizations we’re probably know more than the speaker in his or her roommate all of which had weirdly similar names sort of out of something from life of Brian.
I asked to speak in jotted down my name and bona fides or identifications in her hand held which likely was a burner while mine is not parentheses as fate would have it I mine was home charging so at least that day was not being tracked
But if you look it up I am on record as questioning the relationship between the city and this group.
Speaking of art some of the radicals, like raging grannies, made red paint handprints on the sidewalk and even the window of the building. Not Exactly abstract expressionist, Or barely Jackson Pollock.
Ironically this door, once the home of the sons of the Golden West, there is a plaque in the sidewalk, and one of only maybe 10 downtown sides of this group, the spooks, not the radicals, although Bay Area action once health court in the basement of Ross, across from Lytton Plaza.
They never got to my turn starting at four prompt ending at six prompt I was wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt and was going to say something about using your tongue meaning speak out but not speak friend and enter.
Today I noticed there is no parking here to corner in front of their headquarters and they had parked three fairly large rental trucks to try to screen the protest from the hundreds of drivers going north and south on Alma which means soul today I noticed there is no parking here to the corner in front of their headquarters and they had parked three fairly large rental trucks to try to screen the protest from the hundreds of drivers going north and south on Alma which means soul
b/w
Tom Franco art installation at 540 Ramona, the last days of Phyllis price upon request:
Speaking of spooks hey that could be the name of a blog,
I started to say that one of my favorite James Franco movies is where he plays a CIA operative I think and he’s going to take out a fictitious version I think not played by the real guy I think I have a real desperate
and1:
Not to blow paranoid winds, But as I stood in front of Dashe Institute for the future actually – it seem like there was a guy there merrily to spy on me and try to tape record my rambling or maybe he just had his own conversation. Wired magazine says the Russians hack anybody who ran for public office in the US even people only got 8000 votes like me; and on the other hand as I was telling the Reds,
And I wrote about it here once, as I passed a group of the Ex military guys I think they said a good morning We know who you are. They have facial recognition software hidden in their hair gel but do they have a machine that can detect bad Hunter Thompson imitators from bad Allen Ginsberg from bad David Foster Wallace from bad the guy who wrote tortilla curtain?
andandand:
Crown point press send word of a book about artichoke recipes which made me ask about Nathan and reprint this image of twin runners:
There’s also something artsy by someone named Jim Melcher from 1970 for the pics number 25 the first baseman trying to tag out Lou Brock it’s actually a triptych or whatever comes two after that, five:
Bonus points if you can identify the first baseman number 25 1974 probably nationally
3M, also known as Minnesota Mining, is an 89 billion dollar corporate conglomerate.
The “31 M’s” are the bands booked by Eric Dimenstein and Jim Romeo’s Ground Control Touring of Los Angeles and Brooklyn (but apparently not Chapel Hill or Carrboro) that start with the letter “M”.
The first band I tracked, and booked and at times sort of stalked is Superchunk, whose leader has a name with, yep, two more M’s.
I met Jim Romeo in New York when he worked with Bob Lawton. They called it Twin Towers — this was before the destruction of the World Trade Center. i think they were a part of ICM, a big corporate conglomerate — compared to being “boutique”. I think at one point briefly they were called “Four Three Two One”. Maybe it was Dimenstein who suggested the name change.
Anyhow, the bands that comprise the 31 M’s of Ground Control are:
M. Ward
Mac McCaughan
The Make-Up
Makthaverskan
Malcolm Middleton
There are at least three theories on the etymology of the name. One is that the name Dumfries originates from the Scottish Gaelic name Dùn Phris which means “Fort of the Thicket” Another is that it comes from a Brittonic cognate of the alleged Gaelic derivation (Welsh Din Prys). Dumfries may be the same place as Penprys, which is mentioned in an awdl by Taliesin, and suggests that the first element may have originally been pen, “summit, head” (Welsh pen). According to a third theory, the name is a corruption of two Old English or Old Norse words which mean “the Friars’ Hill”; those who favour this idea allege the formation of a religious house near the head of what is now the Friars’ Vennel.If the name were English or Norse, however, the expected form would have the elements in reversed orientation (compare Clarendon). A Celtic derivation is therefore preferred. Moreover, the Brittonic element drum, meaning “ridge”, and the Gaelic elements druim, which means the same, and dronn-, “a hump”, have all been suggested as an explanation of the first element.
Mamiffer
Marching Church
Maria Taylor
Marika Hackman
Marisa Anderson
Martin Frawley
Mary Lattimore
Mary Timony Plays Helium
Mdou Moctar
Mega Bog
Melkbelly
Merchandise
The Messthetics
mewithoutYou
Midori Takada 高田みどり
MIKE
Mirah
Miserable
Moaning
Modern Nature
Molly Burch
MONO
Monsters of Folk
Mount Eerie
MOURN
The Music Tapes – I think this one actually played one of my shows, at The Cub. Maybe with Olivia Tremor Control.
It would take me the greater part of a day (or part of a great day) to try to listen to all the bands here that I might like, or want to book some day, or go see.
Dial M for music!
MMM, MMM, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM good!
I wonder how many of the Ground Control bands that start with M are from Minnesota? Once Lane Wurster, Chris Eselgroth and myself were walking back to their office after lunch in Carrboro North Carolia,and Lane and Chris chuckled at the site in the window of a toy store or antique store a board game called Husker Du and when I asked what was so funny, they didn’t bother to explain to me. Which would be called “band-splain”.
Who books Bob Mould?
Maybe an alternate title for this essay could have been:
Arab Strap VS Scotch Tape
and1: I’m going to a Niners game Thursday night — only an exhibition — and it reminds me that when I worked at Green Apple books there was a guy named Alan Black from Glasgow and he liked soccer not American gridiron and I took him to the 49ers heyday against the Los Angeles Rams their enemy and rival and Alan said he thought LA might win and everyone laughed at him and sure enough Alan had predicted an upset and guessed right but he wouldn’t take my $20 because we had “disgraced the bet”. I actually parked briefly in front of Green Apple Books just today and snapped a photo of a man my age in striped pants reading from a book from the bargain bin with his legs crossed but standing while a young woman is walking up Clement, meaning north, passed the entrance to the store, while reading from her small screen. Maybe when my phone has more juice I will move that image from there to hereabouts. Foolish. (I wonder if Ground Control has ever booked a small or quiet act into Green Apple Books – they do events there sometimes).
andand:
There’s also a new band with Ground Control called Purple Pilgrims but that’s a horse of a different color:
The first part:
Mac’s vocals sound like Fred Schneider:
Mac would “be fifty two” if he was born in 1967.
andandand: I’d like to start a project called Highlands and Islands, especially if Bob Mould would produce our record and was booked by Frank Riley. It’s 1:41 an M.
Molly Tuttle performs a rare hometown concert at Mitchell Park Community Center, Monday, September 30.
Tickets are $20 in advance at EventBrite.
edit to add: this is selling very briskly. Thanks to Karla Kane of the Palo Alto Weekly for including my onsales in her Fall Arts Preview. It’s the first time in roughly 20 years that Earthwise Productions was anticipated in that way:
— From Earthwise Productions at the Mitchell Park Community Center and Palo Alto Art Center: John Santos Sextet (Sept. 13), Sun Kil Moon (Sept. 27), Molly Tuttle (Sept. 30), Amendola/Dunn/Greenlief (Oct. 11), Tom Harrell Quartet (Oct. 24); Earthwise (link).
There’s also an interview between Karla and Molly later this month.
Led
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 