Terry was listening to Terry Gross interview Donna Summer, and I have Dave Thompson book about I feel love Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, and how they reinvented music. I noticed reference to “i’ll be holding on” by Big Al Downing — but my brain is hearing Mick Hocknull, or somethings “holding back the tears”. Simply Red. Al Downing was 5’11 175.
I think of him as a dodger, not a Yankee .
some people think of them as grooving the ball to Hank Aaron. 715. This is beginning to sound like a Dan Bern song.
The photographer was Lynn Goldsmith And I admit I don’t really know what it all means 7-2 except I posted as a bookmark to go back and sort it. I am for expression and against property rights. Ironically, I am reading the article is well on vacation in Carmel. And they practically ripped the communal copy from the hands of another guest, of Wall Street Journal. Tempted to steal the tear sheet, A4
Museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art warned that a constricted view of transformative use could threaten their ability to create exhibitions and publish artistic works.
And they thereby, therefore caution Palo Alto Mayor Lydia Kou about running for state assembly and throwing out, pop, references to historical figures and what they reportedly said, and why, especially if it pertains to hard science;
I was surprised to read that Lydia Kou is running for assembly; not sure if Mark Berman is doing good or bad. Duly noted that 19 of 20 anonymous posters on the palo alto weekly website are happy she’s running. I am not allowed to post on the palo alto weekly website.
June 10 Cien Mil Mangos 12 pm, Larry Ochs Gerald Cleaver 2 pm, free
June 11 Jim Campilongo Ben Davis Duo 2 pm
I am doing shows on three consecutive days next month at Lytton Plaza, Downtown, Palo Alto. There has been some talk lately about renaming the plaza for Earth Day whose planning offices were across the street or for the A3M movement, the group of Stanford antiwar activists, who played rock music or clashed with the police there. So that’s like a reset, right? Actually “reset” is the name being used by a three-part concert series at Stanford Frost nearby and soon. But if they can appropriate the name “ Steve Lacy” — a hip hop artist headlining here with the same name as a jazz legend — pictured above -I can steal the name reset or Re:Set. Maybe I should call my company GoldenVice… not named for a type of marijuana; or GoldenWeiss.
edit to add: I was just jawing with Scott Amendola (played Thursday, plays May 21) that there is less taboo about doing shows on the anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center; I never believed that the Muslim extremists thought too hard about their date coinciding with numbers you call on your phone to signal an emergency; it much of the world they go date/month not month/date. The towers fell on 11-9. But I do like writing 9 10 11 although I am way off topic — 6/9, 6/10, 6/11. We — Scott and I –were talking about whether our September show would suffer from the Niners game on tv versus the Rams. The only conflict I have with being a football fan is that if I host a show when the Niners host the Cowboys, we will go early, a matinee.
I have 66 advance tickets for Laurie Lewis tomorrow at the Mitch — but I don’t think that means its the mark of the devil.
DON’T CALL THEM FRISCO: Chuck Prophet and The Mission Express announce an Earthwise gig at the Mitch Bowl, Sunday July 30, 2 pm, the first in a four-part free series this summer featuring jazz, funk, rock, and commedia dell’arte.
To wit (check local listings — tickets and reservations at Eventbrite plus Earthwise):
The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet & Drums Palo Alto Art Center, Wed. March 1, 2023 8 pm, free; (2)
Damn Skippy Mitchell Park Community Center, Saturday March 4, 2023 8 pm, $20 at door; (3)
Stephan Crump Lytton Plaza, Saturday, March 11, 2023 5 pm, free (rain cancels 🌧️); (4)
Edu Ribeiro Trio featuring Edu Ribeiro drums, Vinicius Gomes guitar, Noah Garabedian, bass Lytton Plaza, Thursday, April 20, 2023 5 pm free; (5)
Nellie McKay, Karla Kane, Mitchell Park Community Center, Sunday, April 23, 2023 7 pm, $20; (6)
Allison Miller Carmen Staaf Duo Mitchell Park Community Center, Monday, April 24, 2023 8 pm, $20; (7)
Raffi Garabedian Octet Palo Alto Art Center, Thursday, May 11, 2023, 8 pm, free; (8)
Laurie Lewis and Men of Note, Alyssa Burgart Mitchell Park Community Center, Sunday, May 14, 2023, 7 pm, $20; (9)
Amendola Vs Blades, JoVia Armstrong Destiny Muhammad Duo, Mitchell Park Community Center, Sunday, May 21, 7:30 pm, $20; (10)
Sonny and the Rhinestone Sunsets, The Suitcase Junket, Mitchell Park Community Center, Friday, May 26, 2023, 8 p.m. $20 (11)
Robert Syrett
Freddy Jones Band, Lytton Plaza, Friday, June 9, 7 p.m. Free. Tickets on sale May 11. (12)
Larry Ochs Gerald Cleaver, Cien Mil Mangos, Lytton Plaza, Saturday, June 10, 12 pm, free (jokingly calling this “Re:Set Lytton Plaza”) (32)
Jim Campilongo Ben Davis Duo Lytton Plaza, Sunday, June 11, 2023, 2 pm, free; world premiere; (repeats July 16); (13)
Will Bernard Charles Rumback James Singleton, Mads Tolling Mitchell Park Community Center Wednesday, June 21, 2023 8 pm; world premiere; $20; repeats 6/22/23, 6/23/23 $45 for three-show pass. (14)
Will Bernard Charles Rumback James Singleton, Ben Goldberg Sheldon Brown Mitchell Park Community Center Thursday, June 22, 2023 8 pm; $20; (15)
Will Bernard Charles Rumback James Singleton, Shelley Doty X-tet Mitchell Park Community Center Friday, June 23, 2023 8 pm; residency $20 per show, $45 for three shows; (16)
“The Western Edition”, Lucie Stern Community Center, Wednesday, June 28, 2023, 7 pm, $20. Tickets onsale May 11. (17)
Adam Levy Mint Imperials Lytton Plaza, Monday July 10, 2o23 7 pm Free (18)
Jim Campilongo Ben Davis Duo Lytton Plaza, Sunday, July 16, 7 pm, free (19)
Lydia Lunch, Eugene Robinson, Saturday, July 15, 2023, Mitchell Park Community Center, 8 pm. $25. (20)
Leon Timbo, Josh Thurston Milgrom Quartet, Thursday, July 20, 2023, California Avenue “Third Thursdays” Tickets on sale May 11. (21 — not actually my show but I am producing a stage for Carol Garsten founder of this new initiative)
Matt the Electrician, Sony Holland, Friday, July 21, Johnson Park Tickets on sale May 11. (22)
Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express, Sunday, July 30, 2023 Mitchell Park Bowl, 2 pm. Tickets onsale May 11. (23)
San Francisco Mime Troupe, Sunday, August 6, 2023, 2 p.m. Mitchell Park Bowl Tickets on sale May 11. (24)
Lisa Mezzacappa’s DuoB, Vinicius Gomes Fabiana Cozza, Mitchell Park Community Center, Friday August 18, 2023, 8 p.m.. Tickets onsale May 11. (25)
Shamarr Allen, TheSticklerPhonics, Sunday, August 2o, 2023 2 pm, Mitchell Park Bowl, 2 pm. Tickets on sale May 11. (26)
Amendola Vs Blades featuring Skerik and Cyro Baptista, Eric Person Quartet featuring Marcus Shelby, Adam Klipple, Sunday, September 17, 2 pm, Mitchell Park Bowl, Free. Tickets on sale May 11. Note: this show features eight musicians and two sets; the AvB show on May 21 features four musicians and two sets. (27)
David James Band Mission Rebel No. 1 Searching For the Reverend Jessie James, Sunday, September 24 2 pm early show, right before Yom Kippur, which starts at Sundown. (28)
Earthwise at Palo Alto JCC, September 28, 2023. Hold the date: Earthwise at the JCC, which means “Jewish Community Center” but you do not have to be Jewish to attend. I have seen events there featuring Amy Tan, West Coast Live Sedge Thompson, Black Violin. (I produced a show there in December 2019 with Charlie Musselwhite, Valerie Trout and MC Lars).(29)
Dan Bern, Sunday October 8, 2023, Mitchell Park Community Center 7 pm,. Tickets onsale May 11. Note: at this show, in addition from culling from his collection of 1,000 songs, Dan will debut a song commissioned by Earthwise Productions and Lions With Wings — the online–only record label affiliated with Earthwise — about Wallace Stegner and his short story about tennis and class “As Cool As Them” on piano. (30)
Young Dubliners, Saturday, November 11, 2023, Mitchell Park Community Center, 8 pm. $25 (31)
There are a couple other events being worked out so I predict Earthwise will end up around 36 for the year, which works out to about three per month.
This is essentially a re-write of the post from earlier today.#
It started with a simple visual comparison between a photograph by the LA-based art photographer Sue Hudelson and something newsy online I found about the outfit that the movie star Olivia Wilde wore to a big event in New York. To wit (what should follow are two photos)
If you look carefully you will note that in the first case, from 2006, the subject “Julie” is posed next to a guitar. The image was included in a recent art show about “The Guitar in American Art” — in fact the image dons the cover of the catalog, which is edited or curated by Leo G. Mazow. Just for yucks here also is my photo of the catalog, here at my table, at Coupa in Palo Alto:
I don’t know if that is what the designer calls it, but two writers for The Dartmouth called it a “guitar dress” — their comment is the nidus of this post.
In the first version of this post I was juxtaposing the simple comparison of the two photos with a riff about the names of certain musicians, their stage name compared to their given name or legal name — the connection was that Corey Harris was included in a video series via the Richmond, VA museum that originated the guitar show. That is, Corey demonstrates his technique on guitar but also describes some of his research on the history of the blues music and the history of the guitar. Corey won a MacArthur Genius Grant and has described the link between West Africa, the Caribbean, New Orleans and the geographic influence on music forms like blues, jazz and rock.
Corey Harris, I believe he has changed his legal name to something more aligned with his world-view, perhaps referencing Islam or Rastafarianism.
Meanwhile, I see that Alvin Youngblood Hart is the opening act for a tour by Mike Campbell who was in Tom Petty’s band. They have a sold out show at The Guild in Menlo Park. I know that Hart is actually named Greg. The “Alvin” in his stage name comes from Alvin and The Chipmunks, the popular cartoon characters who, before AI, have an unnatural yet charming vocal tone. AYH played a couple shows in the earlier version of Earthwise Productions. I also wrote a paper about AYH and his song “Manos Arriba Sucker” for a class at Foothill College. The song predicts in some ways the murder of George Floyd. (The song is actually called “Manos Arriba” and includes the lyric “start with the soul” which is the title of his 2000 album). *
I noted that a musician from England named Mark Stewart had died. My former client Stew, also known as Stew Stewart is also known to some as Mark Stewart. His opus “Passing Strange” is being remounted by a local theatre group in Arlington, VA.
Last night at the Guild I saw Young Dubliners the rock band from Ireland. I waited until the Warriors game was over so missed the hit. I was musing that people call the Warriors NBA “The Dubs” — I am promoting a November 11 concert of the same group and wonder about a cheeky yet inefficient poster using Jeff Mullin and the headline YOUNG DUBS PALO ALTO NOVEMBER 11.
The music group Young Dubs perform Saturday, November 11 at Mitchell Park Community Center, presented by Earthwise
That the singer of Young Dubs explained his song about Rwanda^ made me want to book this band for the reunion of the A3M group of activists who cut their teeth protesting the Vietnam War.
Meanwhile back at the ranch with Hans, Bret and Jan, I learned that some Palo Altans are cousins of Ross Bagdasarian and that he had a cameo in Rear Window:
*I’m also reminded that I visited New Orleans in October and took the opportunity to catch up by phone with Mem Shannon, the cab driving bluesman. My trip to New Orleans is also part of the backstory for my upcoming show with James Singleton, the bass player, who appears three shows next month with Will Bernard and, from Chicago, Charles Rumback.
^Quick story: reminds me that on my way to NoName hip hop show at Fox Oakland I met a Rwandan woman who now lives in Belgium, and gave her my plus one. I feel a bit bad because a half hour earlier I promised a ticket to a teacher I had met on the BART.
thank you The Dartmouth for the fashion/journalism tip I was originally going to write about the death of Mark Stewart, Mark Stew Stewart of “passing strange”, Alvin Youngblood Hart, who prefers Greg; and Corey Harris, who I believe has changed his legal name to something either Rastafarian or Muslim. just last night someone was trying to explain the connection between the Armenian Diaspora and Alvin and the chipmunks….
What I really should be doing is walking around town putting up my poster for a cluster of shows including Raffi Garabedian, May 11, Laurie Lewis, May 14, Amendola vs Blades, JoVia Armstrong Destiny Muhammad, May 21; Sonny Smith, the suitcase junket, May 26, and Jim Campilongo, Ben Davis duo in June and July. Lydia Lunch onsale, JUST ADDED, Young Dubliners, November 11. Meghan Powers ’23 and Marius DeMartino ’25 Pointed out Olivia’s dress was guitar-shaped.
Carolyn Said in The Sunday Chron reports that even with public art the $2.2b Transit Center south of Mission is mostly deserted. Which reminds me of the desert-located land art project by Michael Heizer, called “City”.
b//w
Singer songwriter, Dan Bern is scheduled to return to PALO ALTO Sunday, October 8 at the Mitchell Park Community Center. Sometime this summer he will drive six hours from Silver Lake, New Mexico to near Santa Fe to write a song about a car. And in Denver there is an upcoming exhibit about art cars. Unless I am confusing that with the guitar show that was in Richmond, VA and is now in Nashville. Art car, guitar — I have some kind of audio process crosswiring. Or hot wiring. I am also trying to urge Binta Ayofemi to build a guitar, influenced by the interviews that both Corey Harris and Yasmin Williams gave to the guy from the Richmond Museum. Yasmin is at Stanford May 18.
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 