Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss

bluf: all things are connected, salesforce tower and proposed -and-passed New Guild Theatre in Menlo Park. Thosed who don’t know what’s passed are condemned to read staff report, so to speak.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mpsOcNti_KU

I’m not the only one.

It looks tiny from this angle:

So, this is kind of a cheap trick but I was commenting on the fact that the thing is visible from all over and undeniably has a phallic look. The pubic art, even depicting Alonzo King dancers by video artist Jim Campbell, “Day For Night” as described in the venerable but not venereal Times by David Streitfeld and Charles McDermid, does not mask that. Calls to mind weird lurid reality hunger but pre fake-news-per-se quasi-images of our then-president markings on his member and Michael Jackson. It’s not ever a good thing when it appears in the media, even Plastic Alto, that someone claims that it get identify your….ding dong… by its distinctive…oh whatever. Cue, not “Detroit” but “The First Part”.

That’s a thing.

The second photo is from a private residence in Palo Alto and you can almost see the SalesForce dick building. Also, coming to mind is Ginsberg “Howl” and his “Moloch! Moloch! Moloch!” contempt for large edifices. Which I used to slather Arrillaga. Which came to mind apropos of the decision to dig deep at the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park for Taylor Swift, Willie Nelson and Jon Wurster (the drummer for Superchunk, standup comedian and in comedy radio duo Sharpling and Wurster and I think a cameo voice in Isle of Dogs Movie speaking of Day for Night now playing at same Guild Theatre in Menlo Park. This has digressed worse than a shaggy dog at Oh My Dog in Foster City (photo of Jim Phoster and his phallic monument) insert here  but I am sort of in favor of the Dunlevie plan and taped and sort of watched an hour of it last night on cable access, displacing my potential mind-melding with Antonio Banderas as Pablo Picasso but am also admittedly a wee bit green with envy but I am thinking that the weak link or the chink in the armor or the Achilles Heel of the project may be that they have not specified how they have access to Taylor Swift. When the thing (the plan, not the dingus) was announced a quick search-injun showed plausibly someone who was founder or first round investor in an eventual unicorn or exit such that he has as much as $100M and could donate $20M towards a non-profit music venue for the mid-Peninsula but if, for instance, Taylor Swift played a launch party or private function like Xmas party for a pre-IPO that doesn’t mean she’s gonna rush back to play a 300 capacity non-profit. Maybe I’m wrong, and in the way my sense of what Peter Thiel said about his courtroom fight or takedown of Gawker shifted, as he said that millionaires have a hard time, post Citizen United, fighting off billionaires, maybe $100M in high tech does qualify you to be a talent buyer on the level of the handful of people who have actual talent (or luck) in that realm; I mean established concert promoters and talent buyers: Jason Olaine, David Lefkowitz, Michael Bailey, Jason Garner. I’m wanting to contact them to clarify their relationship with Taylor Swift (and Willie Nelson — the illustration from their architect puts his name on the coming marquee, and that was printed in Mercury Daily News) and as I jokingly claim above “J.Wurster” who I think is Jon Wurster — I’m pretending I think “Isle of Dogs” on marquee right now is subtle claim that Jon Wurster comic and rock star is being promised to appear at the Peninsula Arts Guild New Guild Theatre grand openings. So you could — you diligent civil servant or not-kow-towing elected — call Pollstar in Fresno and get digits and call Taylor Swift management or agent or maybe even label and check their story from the other direction back “Hi, who in your office is the liaison between Taylor and the venue being built in Menlo Park, CA?” They are an impressive team but there is nothing new under the sun and a bone orchard of failed venue plans like this, most obviously New Varsity in Palo Alto in 2011 and its offspring, in my book at least, in Plastic Alto, Arrillaga Towers in Palo Alto. My other joke or weird mind-rift is that Dunlevie is going to get a call from John Arrillaga offering to build 200,000 feet of office space above the theatre which he promises to donate to Stanford. How do you say no to a 200 ton gorilla or a blue monkey? (insert photo of public art in Pruneyard, Campbell, CA — not to be confused with Jim Campbell pubic art in SF, which is where I came in to this day for night nutmeg morning glory roots & offshoots hooter or hoot. (Freight and Salvage).

The other question (beyond “how do you know TS?”) for Dunlevie et al is: is this a zero sum in the sense that Menlo Park is beating Palo Alto to the punch or that just as The Last Picture Waltz 456 (TLPW456) paved the way to Peninsula Art Guild that New Guild in turn in time paves way pavement which Mac I swear in “Take the Tube” call “Puh vehement” three syllables pays forward for The Varsity new newed. Or, Hey Chop are you going to sit idly by as Crittendon steals your thunder? Or Peter Pau who owns the Fox in Redwood City, which he bought to worship in.

Here is where the strings come in. Hold my string as I walk away and destroy my sweater. Weezerchunk, a cover plan — who should play opening night.

Read the staff report.

Try the meat loaf.

I’m here all week. Or until about noon.

No, seriously it was kind of reassuring to see speaker after speaker from nearby Menlo Park, i.e. I walked there, to see “Death of Stalin” then walked home with my our lamp picked up from the Fix It shop articulate what I’ve been saying since 1994 about the value of music in community, in Democracy, for linguistically conscious blue monkeys.

where the heck is the bridge or “update button” stupid smart phone d’oh!?

the picture, in the times, was worth, to me at least if not to you, gentle reader, 1,069 words, and a few clams

edit to add, although only two people so far saw this, including I and thou, but here from 3 years ago is a related preamble:

It was no architect designed this view
He could not have known about you
Mousy homes, catacombs
Detroit has a skyline too
Detroit has a skyline too

Doesn’t really fit here, but this is a music blog first and foremost.
1.

John McNellis, I think he has offices 400 block of Waverley, near the combination 7-ll / Start-up Garage, sometimes volunteers at the Soup Kitchen and is known for opposing amped music at Lytton Plaza, on behalf of TCV his tenant nearby, and for Alma Village, fall, 2014

2.

Charles “Chop” Keenan, reaching skyward at High and Hamilton, shot nearby, fall, 2014, but mostly known for keeping the people out of the historic and beloved The Varsity

3.

Elizabeth Wong is Argentinian, a mom, a wife and a landlord more than developer, with The Apple Store and fresh plans for 429 University on her horizon

I will outro with the video of the song, by Superchunk, who played my Cubberley Sessions, my 5-year anniversary event even, where we gave out “Superchunk(chocolate chip)” or “CreeperLagoon(berry)” ice cream, from Rick’s Rather Rich.

I mean this in the nicest and most respectful possible way, but these 3 might not fit into an elevator together.

and1: it is weird being a combination concert promoter and political activist — one who does not accept campaign contributions, even, but then I sent this to the record label and hinted that they should send me a free bumpersticker. I would gladly reimburse them for the sticker, I just wanted to see what kind of reaction I would get. I was a Superchunk fan before I started the concert biz, by about 2 years. I was a Superchunk fan before I knew there was indie. I first saw ‘chunk at Cat’s Cradle in 1991, the month that Anita Hill was calling out Clarence Thomas.

and now I’ve really blathered over the minimalism of the 3 developer photos but Jon in a 2005 memoir corroborates what I saw on Anita Hill’s wiki page about October, 1991 being the timing of the show I saw: it was Jon’s first month with the band:
I really can’t believe it’s been almost 14 years since I was asked to join Superchunk (I replaced original drummer Chuck Garrison). Sure, it was tough giving up my burgeoning window-washing career (I was told I was on track to becoming second assistant crew chief), but I went for it anyway. Over the course of two weeks in mid-October 1991, we practiced in Mac’s living room, played a WXYC benefit at the Cradle, and prepared for a four-week tour. I didn’t know it then, but that tour would be just the first step of an almost decade-and-a-half-long journey that would take the four of us around the world many times.

and and back to 2018 or 2019 I know the future: Jon Wurster can wash the windows at Salesforce Tower as funny performance art piece, timed for Grand Opening of New Guild Theatre in Menlo Park, California, near Silicon Valley, but the coolest part of all will not be “the first part” but the after-party at Cafe Zoe in “Menalto” where Jon plays solo drum kit and woopie cushion. Jon it’s never too late to have a happy “stay indie” non-music day job.