Seasons of the Mitch; or Woods that it were so simple

Posted on April 27, 2019 by markweiss86
mitchwoods2018aug

I shot this pic of Mitch Woods in Palo Alto in August of 2018; I’ve seen him play a half dozen times in last 8 months

Someone sent me an old photo from 1991 with Mitch Woods, Johnny Sansone two others and Bob Margolin.

I also shot Mitch Woods last year in downtown Palo Alto.

In between, from his website, promoting a new life album, are two more seasons of the Mitch.

mitch91.PNGinto the woods:

Mitch Woods
A Tip Of The Hat To Fats
Live From The New Orleans Jazz
& Heritage Festival 2018
The king of jump-swing’s rollicking tribute to
Fats Domino and the legends of the Crescent City
Featuring “Walkin’ To New Orleans”
and “Blue Monday”

Recorded live at the Crescent City’s famed Jazz & Heritage Festival, A Tip of the Hat to Fats showcases the masterful pianist and entertainer in his element — onstage and in command of a wealth of styles, from jump swing to blues, boogie-woogie to primal rock ’n’ roll.

“I’m an entertainer, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be than at a festival playing and singing the music I love and making people happy,” Woods relates. “Onstage is where I flourish. The music I love and the songs I write in the spirit of that music do make people dance and laugh. It all comes from the era of the late 1940s through the early ’50s — a soundtrack of jump swing, blues, New Orleans music and early rock ’n’ roll, and I love to go right to the roots of it.”

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In a sense, A Tip of the Hat to Fats is a sequel to two of Woods’ earlier releases: 2010’s Gumbo Blues and 2008’s DVD/CD package Big Easy Boogie. The former is a tribute to the legendary New Orleans blues and soul shouter Smiley Lewis, and includes Lewis’ biggest hit “I Hear You Knockin’” and well as a studio version of “Blue Monday.” And Big Easy Boogie is a dream project for Woods, who enlisted Bartholomew as producer and drafted original Fats Domino band members Herb Hardesty on sax and Earl Palmer on drums. Woods also commissioned a film of the historic sessions and a subsequent concert featuring the album’s players at the 2002 Jazz & Heritage Festival. Altogether, the globetrotting Woods has played the event five times and considers it his favorite festival. The 2018 JazzFest, as the annual series of concerts is known, was in part a tribute to Domino, who had died five months before.

“A raise-the-roof performance… Nothing less than a super-caffeinated, jump-for-joy heat wave.”
– Baltimore Blues Society

Also available: Friends Along The Way
The acclaimed 2017 album featuring guest performances with Van Morrison, Taj Mahal, John Lee Hooker, James Cotton, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Marcia Ball, Maria Muldaur, Cyril Neville, John Hammond, Ruthie Foster and Joe Louis Walker

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“Only a musician’s musician could gather together talented friends like the ones on this record, a major achievement.” – Independent Journal

Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88’s have been the torchbearers of a uniquely American blues musical heritage for more than three decades.

Three-time Blues Music Award nominee Mitch Woods
is available for your festival.

 

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  2019 festival appearances include:

  • Feb 25 – Lancaster Roots & Blues Festival, PA
  • May 12 – Redwood Coast Music Festival, Eureka, CA
  • June 14 – Rendezvous Folk & Blues Festival, Anguilla
  • July 26 – Polish Boogie Festival, Czluchow, Poland
  • August 8, 9 & 10 – La Roquebrou Boogie Woogie Festival, Laroquebrou, France
  • September 13, 14 & 15 – Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, Telluride, CO
  • October 26 – November 2 – 2019 Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, Mexico
  • Dec. 28-Jan 1 – Umbria Jazz Festival Winter, Italy

Some of the many festivals Mitch has performed at include:

  • New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
  • Telluride Blues & Brews Festival
  • Doheny Blues Festival
  • Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise (since 2002)
  • Mississippi Valley Blues Festival
  • Bayfront Blues Festival
  • North Atlantic Blues Festival
  • Rhythm & Roots Festival
  • Big Blues Bender
  • Umbria Jazz Festival (Italy)
  • Ascona Jazz Festival (Switzerland)
  • Peer Rhythm & Blues Festival (Belgium)
  • Notodden Blues Festival (Norway)
  • Edmonton Blues Festival (Canada)
  • Efes Blues Festival (Turkey)
  • Jazz a Vienne (France)
  • Porretta Soul Festival (Italy)
  • Riverfront Blues Festival (DE)
  • Michael Arnone’s Crawfish Festival
  • Cincy Blues Festival
  • New York State Blues Festival

 

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Did I mention that besides all of the above, Mitch Woods is opening for Bob Margolin at Earthwise Productions at Mitchell Park (“the Mitch”!) Community Center “El Palo Alto Room” on Saturday, July, 6, 2019 i.e. between Anguilla and Poland?

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Thirty young ladies, 12 in solids, 18 in stripes

Posted on April 27, 2019 by markweiss86
womenstripes

Another difference is that this group is facing 45 degrees to the viewer

solids

Or as Shakesperstein once said, oh that this all too solid or sullied dress might mesh

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Palo Alto police can eat my grits (although, thank you for your service, the rest of you, who did not cite me for distracted driving, four blocks from my home, at a stoplight, taking an incoming call and saying ‘I cannot talk’)

Posted on April 27, 2019 by markweiss86

From today’s WashPo

hashbrowns

eat me i’m a danish

Justice is served: deep-fried and in a paper sleeve.

A Connecticut judge’s decision has resolved a legal quandary that stupefied some and left others flat-out hungry: Could a police officer mistake a McDonald’s hash brown for a cellphone?

In Jason Stiber’s case, the answer is “yes.” He was found not guilty Friday after successfully contesting the $300 distracted driving citation he received last year.

“It was the case of the century,” Stiber’s attorney, John Thygerson, said with a laugh. “He was quite pleased. Obviously, he was quite pleased.”

Stiber’s victory comes nearly 13 months after he was pulled over by a Westport police officer who claimed to have seen the 45-year-old using his cellphone on the morning of April 11, 2018. Stiber, representing himself in court, lost his case last year but refused to give up — telling The Washington Post on Friday that he doled out a “significant” amount of money to hire Thygerson to prove he wasn’t talking on his phone at all.

His willingness to take on the legal fees — which exceeded the cost of the ticket — was a matter of principle, he added.

“Distracted driving violations go on your record, and they never come off,” Stiber said in an interview. “Plus, a lot of people don’t realize your insurance rates go up.”

In February, Westport Police Cpl. Shawn Wong Won testified that he “clearly” saw Stiber speaking into a black cellphone while driving that morning, the Hour reported at the time. Wong Won said in court that he saw Stiber holding an illuminated object the size of a cellphone up to his face while moving his lips.

[Cops say it was a cellphone. But this driver hired a lawyer to prove it was a hash brown.]

Thygerson rebutted that claim, explaining that Stiber’s lip movement was “consistent with chewing” the hash brown he had ordered at McDonald’s moments earlier. Phone records show that Stiber was not having a conversation at the time he was pulled over, Thygerson said. His client’s car also has Bluetooth capabilities that allow him to talk without holding his phone.

To bolster his defense, Stiber said he made a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain records showing Wong Won was on the 15th hour of a 16-hour double shift when he pulled Stiber over; offering another reason the officer may have confused the fried potato for a cellphone.

Ultimately, the judge concluded Friday that the state was unable to meet its burden of proof, citing a lack of evidence that shows Stiber was actually on his phone at the time he was pulled over. The Post reviewed a copy of the decision, in which the judge cited an appellate court case involving another Connecticut driver who was found not guilty in 2016 after being pulled over for using his phone.

“It just is proof that police officers — there’s nothing nefarious here — but that police officers are human and make mistakes. That’s all,” Thygerson said.

Westport Police did not immediately return a request for comment Friday evening.

Stiber is relieved about the verdict but said the lengths he went to defend himself illustrate a greater problem in the justice system. He had to sit through two trials, miss four days of work and pay a lawyer to get the outcome he wanted — painstaking steps he says others shouldn’t be forced to take.

“That’s why I did it, because I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through this,” he said. “Other people don’t have the means to defend themselves in the same way.”

It remains to be seen if Stiber’s case will establish new precedent in future cases. He acknowledged, though, that his tribulations have made him think twice about eating hash browns.

“I definitely haven’t eaten as many as I have previously, but I still go to McDonald’s for other things,” he said. “It’s been a long ordeal, but I’d rather avoid trouble in the future.”

ed: this is giving me ideas for breakfast, in tribute, plus someone said that chain now has something new and edible.

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Not so much wah-hoo-wah for Ben Lovejoy in his 14 minutes TOI last night

Posted on April 26, 2019 by markweiss86
enlove

Ben Lovejoy is from Concord, New Hampshire but maybe also Hanover before Dartmouth

I’m following the NHL playoffs, for the first time since the Bruins were great back in the 1980s and I lived in New Hamshire. Pete Peters was their goalie, I think.

I’m following the Dallas North Stars, against the St. Louis Blues, because Dallas as a Dartmouth grad named Ben Lovejoy, who I admit I probably never heard of until earlier this week. (I was researching Hal Booma, who Dartmouth names it’s Ice Hockey Rookie of the Year award, yet he also played football in the 1930 East West Shrine Game, Bronko Nagurski was his teammate, and Roy Riegels — Wrong Way – who later sold farming chemicals in Chico area — was on the opposition)

(Although I did write recently about the possibility that no NCAA athlete in the modern era had more combined hockey goals and football touchdowns as Shaun Teevans. Which itself might be a misstatement since Teevans graduated 40 years ago. Does anybody double in football and hockey anymore?)

Ben’s team lost to St. Louis, 3-2. Ben was on the ice for 14 minutes but was (-2) which I think means he was on the ice for two St. Louis goals — he’s a defensemen.

I’m also potentially watching Sharks because I heard a sniff of the fact that we beat Las Vegas Knights — maybe the defending champs? — in 7 games and scored 4 goals on a power play after they cold-cocked our cappy?

Also, I’m carying a Reg Leach card from 1975 — he’s a First Nation skater.

Dig?

And my title references a Dartmouth colloquialism that may or may not be obscene or uncouth or politically uncorrect my classmate May Drake recently scolded me or shunned me for using the term in an email. The Drake Huestons endowed a chair in NAS at Dartmouth, Brian E Moore E’d me to say.

and:

I also wrote recently about “Cree in the Crease”

Here is RLScreen Shot 2019-04-26 at 9.56.56 AM.png

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Kudos to Dave Montgomery, my former Gunn High of Palo Alto school mate, for winning the MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ for his work on soil

Posted on April 24, 2019 by markweiss86
Screen Shot 2019-04-24 at 4.37.22 PM

we’ve got the dirt on dave

Soil brother number 1. He’s also a very talented musician, with two bands, Good Bones and Big Dirt.

So to summarize: Mark Weiss, Gunn class of 1982, runs Earthwise Productions a concert company that is a spin-off from Earth Day at Stanford; Dave Montgomery, Gunn class of 1979, who is a professor of science at University of Washington and won the MacFound grant in 2008 after publishing his book on “dirt” or “soil” and plays in two bands.

I caught up with recently by email because Beth Custer is doing a work based on Paul Hawken’s book “Drawdown” and Dave Montgomery contributed a brief chapter to it.

And yeah I admit I cannot grasp the concept enough yet to describe here, but check back.

In music, I have worked with Steve Lacy and Corey Harris, both of whom won that grant.  I don’t recall discussing dirt with either of them, although since Corey’s studies brought him to Africa, I bet he observed something about the traditional farming there.

Also, my mind has flashed to Ana Kagunda a local musician in Oakland whose family I believe still owns a farm in Kenya.

And: Dave Montgomery remembers Mia Levin, my Gunn classmate, who also once played in a band called Mudwimin — when Mudwimin played my Cubberley series in Fall, 1994 we sort of headlined the event, in an ad in the Palo Alto Weekly, “cirque de soil”.

I know that E.O. Wilson enjoyed the tribalism of Alabama Crimson Tide football. I believe he said that not only do the total organic mass of ants exceed that of humans, but they are more critical to the natural processes, earthwise. Yet, wake up to find out that we are the eyes of the world, yo.

Did I mention that Beth Custer’s piece for clarinet, voice, cello, violin and drums based on Paul Hawken’s “Drawdown” has its 650 premier at Palo Alto Art Center, Friday, May 17, 2019 at 8 of the clock, for free, free as the air we breathe and the gas we exchange.

And my understanding, as a special feature, the sound created by Beth will travel beyond the walls of the room and quite possibly expand in every direction for billions and billions of ears.  (If ants had ears, rather: Or, what is the frequency, David?)

and1: I don’t remember when or why I took this picture of Beth Custer, but here it is:

bethrandomshot

Beth is doing three shows about the environment, on commission from SF Arts and with special help from Circuit Network

Dave’s book is actually called “Dirt: the Erosion of Civilizations” and was published 12 years ago, and a summary of such appears on pp. 70-71 of Hawken (2017)

 

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I Am Sitting at Lytton Plaza Reading George Packer in The Atlantic

Posted on April 24, 2019 by markweiss86

[Photo by Matt and Justin –Matt who models at Palo Alto Art Center –Justin his wingman and also a model of sorts — Or we can rest assured he embodies a human form]

61DAA592-DB99-47CF-B059-066D71435D46.jpegAnd1:

A couple hours later, I have decamped to Coupa Cafe.

I stil have not finished the George Packer cover story about Bosnia and its significance as far as the so-called “American Century” and charting our future. The full title is: Elegy for the American Century: In the 1990s, when Richard Holbrooke ended a war in the Balkans, America seemed poised to reach new heights; instead it began to decline; a report on the decay of Pax Americana.

This is the first George Packer I’ve read in quite some time. I had been checking, fruitlessly, The New Yorker. Yet I had read that George had been hired away by Laurene Powell Jobs, who is investing via her Emerson Project into media of various stripes. Emerson whose offices replaced The Nevada Building in Palo Alto, which at one point had a studio of the California Poet Laureate Al Young. Actually,  in between posting this and fleshing it out a bit, I fist-pumped Ron Conway the investor, who I imagined was on his way to see Laurene Powell Jobs. I told Ron that I recognized him from the Pace Gallery JR show recently (Conway is one of about 1,000 people who sat for the photo-mural, some of whom were at the opening).

But I stopped on page 85 (not 84, mind you) to open my computer and try to reach out to Glen Eberle, the Dartmouth Olympian and combat veteran who I once tape-recorded (literally, on a cassette) about his experiences listening to John Denver at the Sarajevo Olympic games — Glen competed in biathlon. I am wondering what Glen Eberle would think of George Packer’s article.

George, meet Glen; Glen meet George.

eberstock

I presume this is The Old Boy Eberle, my schoolmate and subject in a winter hunting outfit he helped design with a pack and stock he helped design, fording a stream near Boise.

Here’s Packer’s lead:

What’s called the American century was really just a little more than half a century, and that was the span of Richard Holbrooke’s life. It began with the Second World War and the creative burst that followed—the United Nations, the Atlantic alliance, containment, the free world—and it went through dizzying lows and highs, until it expired the day before yesterday. The thing that brings on doom to great powers—is it simple hubris, or decadence and squander, a kind of inattention, loss of faith, or just the passage of years? At some point that thing set in, and so we are talking about an age gone by. It wasn’t a golden age—there was plenty of folly and wrong—but I already miss it. The best about us was inseparable from the worst. Our feeling that we could do anything gave us the Marshall Plan and Vietnam, the peace at Dayton and the endless Afghan War. Our confidence and energy, our reach and grasp, our excess and blindness—they were not so different from Holbrooke’s. He was our man. (A variation of this runs on the cover, along with teasers for Kamala Harris and “What Your Dentist isn’t Telling You”)

In theory, I will edit to add some actual conclusions about the story, and hopefully a note from Glen (if not his take). I admit I am not good at telling the story of the former Yugoslavia and the Balkans. I had a brief talk about this with the pianist Larry Vukovich. My father sold Yugo’s. I love Caffe Trieste.

Here’s the link to the actual story, but by all means plunk down the $9 at Mac’s Smoke Shop.

andand: this is very self-referential but I also have a post about running into my fellow former editor of The Dartmouth Paul Gigot ’77 at that same Lytton Plaza.

 

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Beth Custer, Jane Monheit and Bob Margolin headline next three Earthwise Productions shows

Posted on April 23, 2019 by markweiss86

ONSALES VIA EVENTBRITE:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/earthwise-welcomes-jane-monheit-tickets-62895624506

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/earthwise-welcomes-bob-margolin-and-jimmy-vivino-2-guitars-200-stories-tickets-62896241351

 

 

 

Earthwise Productions of Palo Alto announces three confirmed shows this spring and summer.

Beth Custer premieres a commission for clarinet, voice, strings and percussion, based on the writings of environmentalist Paul Hawken, “Drawdown” Friday May, 17 at Palo Alto Art Center Auditorium, 1313 Newell Street. This event is free and starts at 8 p.m.

Jazz singer Jane Monheit appears Friday June 21, 2019 at Mitchell Park Community Center “El Palo Alto Room”. The tickets will be $20 at the door.

On Saturday, July 6, 2019 at Mitchell Park, Earthwise Welcomes blues musician Bob Margolin. Tickets will be $20 at the door.

“I have personally known each of these headliners for close to 20 years. Beth played in her project Donz Luz 30 Bezos at the Cubberley Center in fall, 2000. I first met Jane a couple weeks after she placed in the Thelonious Monk competition for vocalists, at a small club called Zinno’s in New York City. (She headlined Yosh’s earlier this month). Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin was part of a blues package featuring Pinetop Perkins (1913-2011) that played Cubberley in 1998; both he and Pinetop were part of Muddy Waters’ blues band for many years.”.

Fans can RSVP to earwopa@yahoo.com to receive updates about advance tickets.

Earthwise Productions was founded in 1994 by Mark Weiss, after his experience helping to produce the Bay Area Action Earth Day event that year. Venues that have featured shows locally include:TK

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This vine is Jane Monheit “Waters of March” Yoshi’s April 3, 2019 (in Palo Alto she will be appearing as a duo with this pianist)

 

A spear

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A spike

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A point!!!

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Jane Monheit at Yoshi’s, April 4, 2018 — she signed my calendar “To Mark Weiss my latest autograph” Only makes sense because I just told her that in 1998 she signed “Thanks for being my first autograph”

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Self referencing self portrait as chimera leaning slightly towards the luft

Posted on April 22, 2019 by markweiss86

89E17C7A-E7B0-447D-9A13-89C3A8DFD78B.jpegHow would I describe this: my head is a bowling ball or is that my hand left arm facing Minneapolis one leg with orange sneakers three hands one holding the other two want to fist want to stop and some words and a table and some other books or patterns or

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I laughed, I cried I kissed $20 trillion goodbye

Posted on April 22, 2019 by markweiss86

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Boykin, Booma both Barrett bearers

Posted on April 19, 2019 by markweiss86

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Dartmouth thing.

This is Keith and his nephew I wonder who is faster I presume the next generation yet Keith as some of his Twitter friends noted looks pretty fit

A2BDF8BF-A1A4-4A80-88BF-BAC59B6BB797The boykinism  is named Brandon Adams and competes for University of Houston track team that apparently is coached by Carl Lewis.

Couple days later I don’t member how I got into the thing about the Dartmouth guy from the 1930s or earlier.

Doesn’t belong here at all but: the governor of Delaware is a former MVP of the Dartmouth football team name John Carney; Why the fuck does this AutoCorrect keep misspelling the name of my alma mater Dartmouth College

Just in case Keith reads this although it’s not a happy story it’s my story: I was recently in a nine way email chain with members of my freshman dorm, Richardson and one of my memories was actually from senior year or the week before senior year when Scott Jamie and I were living in an apartment with bunkbeds.  Just in case Keith reads this although it’s not a happy story it’s my story: I was recently in a nine way email chain with members of my freshman dorm, Richardson and one of my memories was actually from senior year or the week before senior year when Scott Jamie and I were living in our apartment with bunkbeds  and Scott let Keith spend the night but did not tell Jamie or I in fact I didn’t realize Jamie had arrived yet we were there early to work on the newspaper.  I remember Jamie calling me and saying “there’s a black man in the lower bunk”  I admit I pictured anything but Keith Boykin! I wish he had said there’s a future presidential staff for harbor law grad and the outstanding member of his class and that they were someday be a plaque that says Keith Boykin slept here.

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