Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss

Well, you’ve never heard of me, bob, even though I’ve written you 50 times.  (“What about Bob?”)

1) I did produce one Cindy Bullens show at the Stanford student union for Earthwise Productions. I Remember the radio promoter or the music Director of Alice 97.7 came to lunch with us.  I had no idea who she was, only that the agent was someone I did business with.  I Remember the thing about the child with cancer.  

2) I have a similar name to Mary Weiss, and I discovered The Donnas. 

I think I wrote to Mary Weiss once about The Donnas.  

I am Turning 60 in exactly 12 hours and 62 minutes— who knows maybe I’ll go to the Niners game as “Mary“ not Mark…. Not all the cards have been dealt.  

Mark weiss

In Palo Alto

Sent from my inner girl power

Coda: in fall of 1981 I was a stringer for the peninsula Times  tribune  covering high school football and Mike Nolan the sports writer had transitioned to Michelle Nolan…. They said that the other Sportswriters put a cucumber in their mail box — I got blackballed from the Greek system at dartmouth in ‘84 for writing about Gay rights —

What makes Sammy run?

This book was written by my fellow dartmouthian Budd Schulberg, who told a convention of journalists in Hanover circa 1999 that he was almost expelled by President Hopkins for  writing a sympathetic account of a miners‘ strike up in Vermont. 

On Jan 23, 2024, at 8:15 PM, Bob Lefsetz <bob@lefsetz.com> wrote:

”TransElectric: My Life as a Cosmic Rock Star”: https://rb.gy/s679py

You might not know who Cidny Bullens is, but you should read his book.

Yet if you were a rock aficionado back in the seventies, and devoured all the information you could lay your hands on, of course you know who Cindy Bullens is, she’s the backup singer who toured with Elton John and was going to break big with her powerhouse rock vocals.

But she didn’t.

Mary Weiss died the other day, you know, of the Shangri-Las. “Leader of the Pack” is what you hear most these days, but I always preferred its predecessor, “Remember (Walking in the Sand).” It was a hit during the summer of ’64, it battled the Supremes’ first Top 40 crossover hit, “Where Did Our Love Go?,” for chart dominance. Both great cuts, at the time I preferred the Shangri-Las tune, although now my preference has flipped. In any event, back then I saw the acts as equals, but they didn’t turn out to be. The Shangri-Las stalled out, and the Supremes became icons. But I’ll never forget seeing Mary Weiss with her long blond hair and boots on TV. But Mary didn’t write the songs, and therefore she rode out her days as an administrator at an architecture firm. You see you’ve got to earn a living.

So Cindy Bullens is plucked out of obscurity by Elton John

Both grand pianos, the Roland SH-3A and the Rhodes 88 were retained for Vangelis’ active late 1970s and early 1980s setup, which also featured newer synthesizers by Yamaha (CS-40M and GS-1), ARP Instruments (Pro Soloist, 2500, Odyssey), Oberheim Electronics(TVS-1A, four and eight-voice Polyphonic Synthesizers), Sequential Circuits (Prophet-5 and Prophet-10), Roland (Jupiter-4, ProMars Compuphonic and the modular Systems 101, 102, and 104), a Korg Polyphonic Ensemble, an RSF Kobol Black Box, and a MiniMoog. Other studio equipment during this period included the Solina String Ensemble and EKO Stradivarius string synthesizers; sequencers by ARP, Roland (CSQ-100 and CSQ-600), and Oberheim (DS-2); drum machines by Simmons(SDS-V), Korg (KR-55, Mini Pops 120), Roland (CR-5000 Compurhythm), and Linn (LM-1); vocoders by EMS (Vocoder 1000) and Roland (VP-330 VocoderPlus Mk. I); and the Dubrecq Stylophone350S. Vangelis also added a CrumarCompac-piano and a Yamaha CP-80 to his piano set-up.^[129]  

AND 27 LINKS

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THIRTEEN MUSICIANS THREE DOGS AND AN ARTIST

and1:

Charlotte’s mother arrives. She brings her cello. She’s an expert on the siege of Leningrad. She has written a book on the topic. When Charlotte’s coma is induced, her mother fills the neuro ward with the saddest sounds ever conceived. For days, there is nothing but the swish of vent baffles, the trill of vital monitors, and Shostakovich, Shostakovich, Shostakovich. (Adam Johnson, “Nirvana” 2015 in Fortune Smiles)

OPEN LETTER TO ETHAN IVERSON ONE OF MY FAVS ALTHOUGH I SOMETIMES DIRVE HIM NUTS, RIGHT? DIRVE OR DRIVEL EITHER OR ETHER ORE

I am a former journalist turned concert promoter and record producer so it is always a thrill when someone I know or like is written up in The New York Times, still the paper of record.

It’s especially propitious if there is something good in there day of show — I produced 60 shows last year. I buy the NYT at Mac’s Smoke shop maybe 250 times per year, (plus I get it online).

I’d say that only a handful of times there is something great in the paper and I put it out at the box office table or show it to the artist, to get them especially psyched. 

I also remember very well that the day the papers said Obama was elected POTUS The Times also featured Mary Halvorson a guitarist I saw with John Tchicai in Philadelphia Ars Nova Mark Christman a couple years prior (and who else but Plastic Alto strings a meme: Obama-Mary-Halvorson-Mark Christman-Ars-Nova?)

So it was a mixed blessing to know of a positive new Ethan Iverson review in The Times but to read about it in his substack which is like a blog, and not see it organically in the paper itself first. Of his new Blue Note release “Technically Acceptable”.

And today for further reference or digression of more about ME ME ME and my memes and less about Ethan I bought four papers: NYT, WSJ, The Merc and The Chron. I never read more than five percent of what I buy.

I first heard about Ethan from June Omura, a dancer from Mark Morris Dance. I am not sure if I knew much about Mark Morris before I met Dr. Ellen Omura standing in line to meet Yo Yo Ma at a big box in SF. In 2000, or twenty four years ago.

Ethan was a co-founder of The Bad Plus. And was on the cover of Downbeat. More than once.

I have said, and it bears repeating, Ethan Iverson could win a MacFound Genius Grant just for his writing.

So I am thrilled to have onsale Ethan Iverson solo April 1, 2024 no fooling at Earthwise at The Mitch in Palo Alto, California with Marta Sanchez solo as the opening act or co-bill. Ethan as a trio is playing multiple shows at Joe Henderson Room (the Joe? The Hen?) SF Jazz end of March. Not the ides of March but the EIdes of March, perhaps. 

I admit I have barely metaphorically speaking scratched the surface of Ethan’s new Blue Note cd and I did not notice there was a piano sonata* on it. I don’t think I know what a piano sonata is beyond a song cycle. Or extended composition. By the way, I am trying to produce 8 or EIght days and nights of piano shows, mostly solo, at The Mitch and make less cruel thereby April. Hurry up keys, its time. Maybe that’s what I will call the series HURRY UP KEYS ITS TIME.

Duffy and daddy discovering together the new Ethan Iverson sonata which Seth Colter Walls says is high spirited and sturdy. *as above: despite the fact that it is nearly 16 minutes in duration and literally title “Piano Sonata: Allegro Moderato; Piano Sonata: Andante; Piano Sonata: Rondo: if you are reading here you may notice I sometimes say “And1” to introduce a footnote which is more Elgin Baylor than Errol Garner, peel me?

I knew Donald Burnham of dartmouth. By phone and buy letter. One verse players or teammates in cross country told me they thought it was funny when the movie came out about the drunker who had a homophone name to Don Burnham. Burnham was one of only two NCAA champions in the history of dartmouth key as a miler in 1936 and then Adam Nelson and shotput in 2010 or so. Donald, Burnham of dartmouth was Harry Hillman’s protégé. he became a psychiatrist affiliated with Walter Reed in Bethesda Maryland, but did not compete into the Olympics because the US boycott Hitler. Hillman boycott Hitler 36 but lawson Robertson, Hillman, buddy, or they were connected at the kneecaps went as a coach. 
I found two collectible pocketbook versions of the bases for the movie.

my wife thinks having a library is like playing bridge and I need to discard. 

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Spencer Jones of Stanford ate at the same restaurant as I last night, but I did not accost him nor shoot him; I did introduce this morning at Café Venice myself to Barry Eisler, the spine novelist, and told him that when I go to the bathroom, I am preparing to be jumped by spies, and how would I myself despite the relative lack of training for such confrontations; I’m slightly neurotic.

Victor “Kool A.D.” Vazquez: As a kid, I lived by a KFC in Hunters Point [San Francisco] that turned into a combination Taco Bell–KFC, I think, first, and then a combination Pizza Hut–Taco Bell–KFC after that, and I had always kind of tripped off it. It was kinda funny and bleak, like this manic, weirdly desperate-feeling late-capitalist lumping of brands, like a NASCAR logo collage vibe—that classic hollow American illusion of choice camouflaging a bland, toxic, junky, monolithic corporatism, a kind of P.T. Barnum snake-oil vibe, like, “Whatchu need, we got pizza we got tacos,” and finding yourself there in that no man’s land of empty promises, being stuck there, and kind of throwing up your hands like “Fuck it—we out here, I guess.”

I am enjoying a late breakfast at Ada’s Café at the Mitchell Park community center; I am not blogging about what actually had me up at 7:30. But it’s a hint if you know that Mike Mulcahy was once player of the year for the Cubberley cougars.. and JD Diepenbrock, an enthusiastic pickle ball player has a husband named Peter.

photo by our little Oaxacan Terry Acebo Davis