Bruce and Clarence, by Laurie Paladino, circa 1984, but not in Palo Alto, not at the Keystone
If you look, you can find a review by Jeff Santosuosso in the Stanford Daily, from the December 3, 1982 show.
edita:
The Jerry Garcia photo, by Baron Wolman, makes sense, since he played there 81 times.
Jerry by Baron Wolman, a print of which you can see in lobby of 260 California Avenue, Palo Alto
The Ray Charles less so. Better would be something like Art Alexakis of Everclear, who I saw there and epitomizes the Edge “modern rock” vibe of the 1990s. Developer and landlord Mark Conroe tips his hat to the site’s rock days, and installed this hall of fame, but I wish someone had reached out to him about bringing a music venue — something acoustic — rather than a restaurant per se. Will try it and report back. Or maybe Mark will find another site, in town, for music, if there is a strong incentive, like a subsidy or TDR. He says he went to shows at 260 Cali The Keystone Palo Alto when he was at Stanford.
andand: this doesnt go here at all, except that the quirk of the internet falsely connected the two threads: the 2011 movie about Deadheads and neuroscience, “The Music Never Stopped” based on a 1993 essay “The Last Hippy” by Oiver Sacks, was produced I mean directed by Jim Kohlberg, a Palo Alto based (ok, Portola Valley) venture capitalist or financier. That would be another guy to get involved in getting a venue going down here. Somewhere at the time, and in a set of gratuitously oblique Plasty-alt ways, I either plugged or panned the movie. I remember thinking it odd that we waited so many years to tell the story, and that the essay was from a collection that pre-dated the more recent Sacks’ “Musicphilia”. The times reviewer noted an anachronism of vegatiarianism or something. The film’s title, which again, to repeat myself, differs from the title of the essay, is also that of a 1975 song on “blues for allah”.
andandand: this reminds me of when Terry and I were driving this spring to Seattle and back, we stopped in this little town in NorCal, I think in the area that Tim Draper wants to spin off as Jefferson, where the guy at the minimart sold me on buying “wet Jerky” and also pointed out the old inn across the way, shuttered and said something about Jack London. When you look it up, or read the plaque, or the AAA book, it says something about “people say that Jack London stayed there”. Not that he did, but people say it.
or the fake Jeremy Lin monument at Mitchell Park library court (where close to nobody plays and just as well: nobody over the age of 15 should play there, lest they brake an ankle. Maybe the counter-move is to claim this is where Jeremy broke his ankle)
15 Pueblo pots, considered, or 16 artists and their work
I recently became aware, or it drifted to the front of my mind, and to the top of my agenda today, although it took me until about 3 p.m to address it, a certain collection of 15 pots that to my knowledge became property of the DeYoung Museum of San Francisco in late 2013. They are part of the Paul and Barbara Weiss Collection of Pueblo Pottery. These 15 items bring the total of Weiss pots at the DeYoung to 59. (The original gift in 2007 was 32 pieces, 12 more, mostly minis were added in 2010; these 15 mostly or all black, joined that group in 2013. If you visit the museum this week, you will see about 12 of the 65 — I was there recently, mainly to see the Turner exhibit. The Weiss pots are on the first floor, past the giant Strontium German Painter(Gerhard Richter, of course; it’s a giant mural that looks like a photograph; it’s a blow-up of a molecule), on the way to the Saxe Glass Collection. Paul and Barbara Weiss knew or know George and or Dorothy and in some ways their favorites followed each other to SFfams.
19. SANTA CLARA BLACKWARE BOWL PRE-1940 UNKNOWN ARTIST
Helen Shupla (1928-1985) Santa Clara (photo at top)
52. SANTA CLARA BLACK MELON BOWL HELEN SHUPLA Carmelita Dunlap (1925-1999), San Ildefonso
Jody Naranjo
Santa Clara pottery by Jody Naranjo
Jody Naranjo
67. SAN ILDEFONSO MARIA MARTINEZ LIDDED POT Maria Martinez (1887-1990), San Ildefonso
70. SAN ILDEFONSO DESIDERIA MARTINEZ Desideria Montoya Sanchez (1889-1982) San Ildefonso
We call this circa 1960 beauty glossy black ware ceramic vessel with painted feather motiff, sometimes also “black on black”; or a mix of matte and glossy:
It’s about 18 inches high.
83. SANTA CLARA CHRISTINA NARANJO WEDDING VASE Christina Naranjo (1891-1980), Santa Clara
I will have to look up the relationship between Christina Naranjo and Jody Naranjo; I know that Jody Naranjo is related to Jody Folwell, although Susan Folwell is more her peer, the same generation. That’s my Mom in the background, Barbara Weiss. The photos are by Sarah Hogarty.
Picture of Christina Naranjo of Santa Clara Pueblo
This is known as a wedding vase It’s about 13 inches high. It’s from about 1972, although my parents probably bought it in the 1990s. We used to have all the provenance details quite handy and well-organized but I’m not sure that’s so true today. Likewise, it’s my impression that for a minute there the DeYoung would let you access this type of thing — items in the collection but not on view — but I’ve had less luck with that recently. You can ignore the little “83” in the foreground. This is one of the first 30 or so pots they liked. I think that’s an “avanyu” or snake motif carved around the base.
86. SANTA CLARA MARY SINGER TURTLE Mary Singer(b. 1939)
89. SANTA CLARA BOWL C. 1890 UNKNOWN ARTIST
(Ghent has this as “1900-1920”)
Here’s one that is from early 20th century and pre-dates the practice of the maker signing his or her (usually “her”) work.
Some of these pots are the work of one person, several herein are joint efforts, but we don’t really know who made this beauty; call it a group effort, or by a woman and her forebears.
It has a flared rim with a finely notched rim, you can see in this close-up:
118. SAN ILDEFONSO DORA TSE PE BLACK BOWL, INCISED Dora Tse Pe (b. 1939) San Ildefonso
This one is incised (‘sgraffito”) with red pigment rubbed into the carved area. I think they are San I maidens:
134. SAN ILDEFONSO CARLOS DUNLAP BLACK CANTEEN Carlos Dunlap (1958-1981) San Ildefonso
144. SANTA CLARA JODY AND SUSAN FOLWELL BLACK/BROWN W/GOLD LEAF Jody Folwell (Santa Clara) Susan Folwell (Santa Clara)
This is a mother-daughter collaboration:
152. SANTA CLARA TERESITA NARANJO BLACK CARVED POT Teresita Naranjo (1919-1999) Santa Clara
153. SANTA CLARA MELA AND NATHAN YOUNGBLOOD BLACK MELON BOWL Mela Youngblood (1931-1990) Nathan Youngblood (b. 1954)
154. SANTA CLARA JUDY TAFOYA BLACK CARVED POT Judy Tafoya (b. 1962) Santa Clara
194. SANTA CLARA EFFIE GARCIA SMALL CARVED BOWL Effie Garcia, who I met at Andrea Fisher Gallery and I also recall meeting her husband Orville, who was wearing a Chicago Cubs t-shirt. She made this:
addendum:
a)When Paul and Barbera first started collecting pueblo pottery, besides being a fun hobby to work on together, they thought of it as a type of exercize to stay sharp, the “use it or lose it” mentality — I remember when it was new to them and they found it satisfying to be able to recreate or recite the details of genealogy — of who learned to make pottery from whom — after Dillingham. The family copy of this book has little dots next to the creators’ names on the charts:
and I’m borrowing from “Ohioan” to crib it as such:
Hopi-Tewa –The Chapella Family; The Nampeyo Family; The Naasie Family
Acoma Pueblo –The Chino Family; The Lewis Family
Zia Pueblo — The Medina Family
Cochiti Pueblo — The Herrera Family
Santo Domingo Pueblo — The Melchor Family; The Tenorio Family
Santa Clara Pueblo — The Chavarria Family; The Gutierrez Family; The Tafoya Family
San Ildefonso Pueblo — The Gonzales Family; The Martinez Family
b) ok, 24 hours later I have 13 pots pictured, although some of them have a second shot or detail. There’s 18 potters referenced, because some our by a team. There’s two items referenced,but not necessarily shown, because some are unsigned, the two oldest items (although there is a dispute, by about 30 years, about how old one is). I should probably reference what makes what “black”. I hope to link to the artists’ sites, and give their year of birth, although especially for women they don’t appreciate this. There’s one head shot of the individual. I’d love it if an actual scholar wanted to take an interest in this, which is a microcosm of at least Santa Clara pottery; also, how far geographically is San I from Santa Clara?And how long until people -scholars, collectors, fans, the artists themselves– can see these and or verify my claim that these are in the museum? Can we access these online, I mean the DeYoung site?
c) Do people confuse the Weisel Collection and the Weiss Collection, both at DeYoung? And what does it mean that the museum claims that the Weisel gift, of 206 objects all in, includes money that can be used to further research the holdings?
d) San Ildefonso and Santa Clara are indeed near each other, although I don’t know if there is a technical or cultural reason their typical pottery are similar; I’ve never been to either place. They are both about 20 miles northwest of Santa Fe, nearer to Espanola. There are 19 pueblos in New Mexico. Most and maybe all make pottery, among other arts and traditional activities. (see also: pottery from Arizona, for example, by Hopi). I have a rough sense of the distance between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but less so between Santa Fe and any pueblo. I have a sense of the distance between the Bay Area (SF, San Jo) and Santa Fe, by plane, or of its character. But I have not been out to the pueblos, or the casinos, except 40 years ago we took a trip by motor home and visited Hopi territory, i.e. I was 10 years old. (And we noticed Katchina dolls and rugs, but didn’t take much note if we saw any pottery). Link.
PoMo not Pomo or e) A little off topic, yet timely to ask if there are more black pueblo pot-makers or Pintupi line painters, although it would be better if I were talking in that case about Acoma fine line versus Pintupi???
f) certainly Maria Martinez merits entire books not footnotes here but I did take and recommend you do too, an your earliest convenience 25 minutes to view this 1970s educational film showing Maria and her son Popovi Da firing a batch of about 30 pots and plates. If I said “glossy” above I meant “highly polished” although she says “high polish” duly noted. Director Rick Krepela, it may also be available in a 45 minute format on the leading portal:
I thought I saw Robert Nichols name in the credits, as technical advisor, which would make perfect sense since before opening his Santa Fe gallery he was a producer for the National Parks Service. I should really read the Alice Marriottbook.
Paul and Barbara Weiss went to Mexico in July, 2005 to give wheelchairs to those needing. The obituary which appeared in last week’s Palo Alto Weekly claims this was 2011. Did he go twice?
edit to add: Brian Moore commented on the Weekly’s obit page, which I was somewhat pleased to notice my Dad shared a column, and in the print version the page, with George Liddicoat, the father of my friend John Liddicoat:
Posted by Brian, a resident of Old Palo Alto
on Oct 9, 2015 at 8:47 pm
Paul Edward Weiss, whose obituary appeared today, was a gentle, generous, and genuinely good man. He always seemed to have a slight smile on his face, as if bemused by life. It was always a pleasure for me just being in his presence. He made a difference, and he will be missed. (I made the point to Brian that my dad’s middle name was his dad’s first name, Edward Moore, and it stuck).
and:
Dear Fellow Rotarians, As you know, Paul Weiss passed away in August while visiting Santa Fe. Those who knew Paul well held him in high esteem as a long time Rotarian, a generous supporter of Rotary projects, a well known and respected Cupertino business owner, and a great family man. Condolences may be sent to the family through Paul’s wife, Barbara Barbara Weiss, …Palo Alto, CA 94301 In keeping with Paul’s love of Rotary, his family is encouraging memorial donations in Paul’s name be made to the Cupertino Rotary Endowment Foundation (CREF).
Their slogan is “The best decisions start here” so I’m sure they know what they are doing. My simple reaction is “good riddance” but my reaction is more nuanced than that.
Palo Alto, its physical site and geography, its culture, it’s leadership — elected, appointed and paid — is in many ways merely a subsidiary of 3000 Sand Hill Road (which is likewise NOT Menlo Park).
Survey Monkey, despite the fact that it is in industry parlance a feature more than a product or company — compare it to Apple or HP — is basically a “play”, a set of manuevers, a money grab, a sting. Sophisticated, despite its childish name and iconography.
101 Lytton was built with the realtionship with its tenant baked in; it got variances, used the PC zoning, as GS states. Likewise, at ARB they argued for variances to our laws regarding signage. They wanted bigger signs, better lit, more of them, for the stupid green chimp or whatnot. As I argued at those meetings, the signs do not, as one would normally assume provide way-finding to people for instance getting off a train and looking for a street address, but they point to Wall Street and the money-grubbers, their partners in crime. 101 Lytton is merely a giant billboard, despite the fact that people work there, 9 to 5 or whatnot and clearly desite the fact the many others 50,000 live nearby.
This is all calculated, by people who’ve done this many other times, to eventually and soon enough cash out of the $1.3 Billion valuation.
So office space in Palo Alto is ephemeral, despite being built of brick and mortar. And I don’t fret for the developer, the Smith family — odds are they are getting a slice of the IPO or exit, sort of the way David Choe got millions for a mural at the original Facebook, above Jing Jing.
As Bob Marley says: you can fool some people some time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time: just at least the last three City Councils and numerous boards and commissions, unless they are in on the game in which case “fool” is not the word.
Twelve-twenty one p.m. on a Friday and I will take a stroll down to the gelato place and snap a recent photo of the building in question, and update, lwatcdr.
I would not call Palo Alto’s measure a “stict” limit as you do. If you follow the link and read the footnote on page 2 of that document, the staff report, our Comp Plan had a cap in place that would have triggered a moratorium on further office space. Instead of enforcing such, we are re-writing the Comp Plan and having annual metered extensions to the already overbuilt downtown.
andand:
Lost in the Fog by a mile.
andandand:
Mark my words, Bennett Porter and her ilk will take the money and run ($1.3 Billlion valuation) long before they ever move to Bay Meadows. And they play us (or our so-called leadership: elected council, appointed boards paid staff) for chumps at every step.
The building and it’s copious signage only exist long enough to signal the money people that the exit will happen as envisioned.
Our town is just a staging area for someone else’s drama. It’s not even an office park, it’s a lab for the VCs.
4) or so:
My blog covers “Plastic Alto” comprises more than 1,000 posts ranging from “butt rap” (a type of music, apparently) to live coverage of policy meetings.
I wrote and tried to link to a post on another blog that you did.
See:
(pingback)
I also ran for Palo Alto City council three times (8,000 or so cumulative votes, but needed about 9,000 at one time), and was a candidate or at least an applicant for board or commission here five times (two votes, all time, needed five at once — if you see a pattern here).
My concern about that blog, echoing your comment, is that I worry that the pro-growth short term developers could merely pretend to be transit-oriented and environmental (and Democratic, as compared to neo-Totalitarian or whatnot) as a type of greenwashing. Look at Michael Kasperzak, of Mountain View running for Assembly for lobbies for a 10 percent cap of rent increases and takes gifts from 30 different developers — and also pledges to stay within the $500,000 voluntary spending cap — that’s a lot of money!!).
Anyhow, thought I’d say “hey”. And I will give it a read.
5) and as I prattle on here I am thinking not of monkeys on a race track but the line about an infinity of monkeys pounding on computers:
I’m sort of continuing from a previous comment, loosely comparing my blog to your blog and a third blog on which we both commented. And I’m curious what the gist of a recent state university planning degree confers upon its students compared to someone like me from a previous generation (I’m 51, a product of the 1980s more or less), with a very different tack, I think.
And in Palo Alto policy there is a rough schism along both ideological and generational lines: Palo Alto Forward I call pro-development, they call themselves transit-oriented or what not but they are generally very recent voters or workers by my take and maybe naive (whereas I may be a moldy fig).
I think it’s great if this blog is so site-specific for that particular station, where CalTrain meets BART, and it’s neighborhood. But the reason it exists at all is that Millbrae is where? And there were or are no NIMBYs?
This might be a non-sequitar but you say you live in SF: Terry and I were in the City last week, first time in a while, at the Opera, a matinee. What struck me is how much growth there is — I lived in the City in the late 1980s, for four years. Specifically, from up Van Ness — we went thru a drive thru, in a car, to get a milkshake, if that doesn’t completely discredit me. But it was notable how dwarfed City Hall is now that several huge buildings seem to have sprouted around it, mostly to the South.
And then you see Ed Lee on tv commercials spouting platitudes about fair housing but the ad, for Prop A is underwritten by Lennar.
I tend to knee-jerk: if a big builder says they are for it, I’m against it.
For me, capital is organized and powerful whereas people are diffused and fairly week. Consistent with Citizen’s United and McCutchen, a disturbing trend. In Palo Alto, in my opinion, at least since 2009 (though I’ve been in the community since 1974 on and off) developers more obviously of office space always get their way and average citizens mostly tune out or are ignored when they pipe up. And the building industry arguably is under-regulated.
Similarly, (?), other developers want to build ultra-dense housing. A bowling alley, tear it down and put in RM-15 homes; or Fry’s, likewise.
But will this really make housing affordable for recent graduates in urban planning? Or does it cater to high-end and the elite (founders of tech firms, VCs)?
And what about the working class? What about rent control? (Not even discussed. State law caps that).
Thanks for the food for thought. I hope these comments are not too esoteric or naive.
—
Do you work for public sector, an NGO the industry or what?
this bit was for Jim Walks Near Millbrae Stations on wordpress, my new BFF
I mean JF Walks and i hope he doesn’t think me a Mule or like Steve Poltz a Mewel (he was the male Jewel) for saying that JF Walks not JF Walks Blog is the name of his blog (JF Walks Blog blog?)
6) two hours later, still no gelatto but Jason Green of the not-Merc reports that Steve Elliiott of Stanford land states that part of the purpose of 500 El Camino in Menlo Park (former car dealership lots) is to retain or enhance 3000 Sand Hill.
7) ugh:
Meanwhile in a related story Stanford now says that part of its rationale for 145,000 square feet of office space at 500 El Camino, not far from 101 Lytton, is to retain or extend 3000 Sand Hill the famous cluster of elite finance workers.
If you are not part of the elite, or working directly for them, you go the way of the Ohlone, basically. posted to PAW
Some photo memories, previously published on “Plastic Alto”
edit to add, October 6, 2015 (would be Paul’s 91st birthday):
Paul at a local restaurant, 2014
Paul visiting with artist Andile fall, 2015
Paul and Barbara, New Years, 2014
Break the fast in downtown Los Altos with Mark, Terry, Rick and Nancy, 2014
Paul and Mark at “Old Hats” September, 2014
Paul and Mark selfie at the opera november 2014
I remember going to a meeting at City Hall then coming back to catch up with Terry and Dad, having dinner at Osteria, unless it was the other way around and I ate a quick bite, went to meeting, left and found them still there. Our fourth wheel was Phyllis the dress seller, whose shop is two doors down.
On our way to services
Exactly one year ago, Dad’s 90th birthday, Lin escorts Dad and Michael our friend, waits in the ready. Some of us did shots.
Paul at Opera, or under it, 2014, November
This is one of my favorite photos, that was stored in my phone for about a year until just now: Dad was a regular at Stanford Theatre; he would pretty much catch every show, sometimes he’d see the same program twice. I would say he went there about 100 times in recent years, and I met him there or caught him there about 10 times (which parallels our experience going to Niners games together, I describe above):
My father, Paul E. Weiss (1924-2015) and I sat together for the San Francisco 49ers games for roughly 30 years, near the 20 yard line. Our seats were first called Section 20, Box 5K, seats 1, 2 and then Lower Box 20, Row X, seats 19 and 20 I think. Our seats stayed the same, but the bars were removed and another row was added behind us.
The boxes had bars separated you from your neighbors. Our box had six seats. We two (1,2), 3 and 4 which were in different rows and usually had single men who didn’t seem to know each other although they were both black, “Ron” and “Bob” and then a nice couple Erwin Loretz and wife Sharlene I think it was, basically in front of us. Sometimes we’d sell each other spare or extra tickets. To my left, or closer to the end zone was a couple from Redwood City, the Van Trichts. Nancy was the wife and then widow; her daugther Jeannie would use the tickets for a while. Then people from her church would take them.
I definitely remember when Mr. Van Tricht died, how ashen Nancy looked. And Jeannie leaned over to me and said “My mom wants you to know that my Dad passed away, during the off season.”. I remember him being tough on Keith Fahnhorst, who jumped off sides. He would bellow, “Fahnhorst! You idiot!” Howard Van Tricht, a Sequoia High graduate. Nancy had a red Western hat covered in souvenir pins. A gamer babe, in recent (Giants) terminology.
There’s a new book all about that era by Dave Newhouse. The period directly before the DeBartolo years and Joe Montana was pretty frustrating, but as a 10 year old box it was always very exciting to be so close to the action. In truth, my dad was not a big football fan, but he knew I loved it, so he took me. We are talking 10 games per season, for 30 seasons, maybe closer to 200 than 300 if you back out the time I was away at college, or times I took a friend and not my dad.
We also went to two Super Bowls: in Palo Alto against the Dolphins (I flew back for that) and in Miami against the Bengals, we both flew down together.
I saw The Catch, in 1981, but I took my Oaxaca Exchange pal Nancy Rhoan not my Dad. Her parents used our tickets to see the Super Bowl in Detroit.
Above is a poloroid of my Dad from the late 1980s, in the parking lot, on the hill just west of the stadium, our preferred strategy. Below is the link to the Newhouse book, which I am likely to zip over to Books Inc at Town and Country this very morning to procure, and a video posted in 2007 from a fan with similar seats.
Notes: This is not by dad’s obituary, but may suss up as such. The actual obituary is pending.
2. Erwin Loretz was a season-ticket holder for 57 years, it says. I also remember he and a pal would compete on their picks each week, Erwin pulling out a little hand-written pick sheet and me looking over his shoulder, unnoticed. Later, Sharlene introduced me to her niece, because we were both in the arts. We were 34ers, to their 57ers. They were honored at halftime once, or won a prize.
3. I found an old obit of a former Dartmouth coach who actually wrote a football fight song, “As The Backs Go Tearing By”. Thomas J Keady.
4. The Van Trichts were parishioners at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in Redwood City. There was a very large young fellow named “Joe”, who also worked at Palo Alto Hardware, who took those seats for a while and maybe knew them from that. The Oliffs from Los Altos and I think Beth Am, who also had a daughter my age, sat in our section or near us, much closer, for a while. Generally our experience was self-contained, just Dad and I, and not that much socializing with our comrades, behind the high-five here and there.
5. Further research shows me that we were probably seats 5 and 6 in the box — making Erwin Loretz 1 and 2 — and we maybe were somehow 5 and 6 in the new row and aisle configuration. The Niners added a couple thousand seats during their heyday, the time when their were thousands on a waiting list and some people sold their rights. And kept the tickets until 2009 making me more like a 35er, and I do recall taking Terry their once or twice, the year we started dating. And I have to report that by 2009 Dad was not so interested anymore; I asked him once or twice if he wanted to go and he said no. He was already having mobility issues, which despite remissions culminated in him mostly needing a wheel chair to get around. He went from cane to walker to wheelchair to bed-ridden in varying hard to predict patterns. By then he was sort of over being a sports fan and turned to classic movies (like at Stanford Theatre) but also the Opera and ACT, and Theatreworks. Everyone once in a while he would surprise me by mentioning something current about the Niner, Giants or A’s. Actually we did have a scheme to go see a day game at the A’s for old time sakes, but his health back-slid a bit and that window closed. There is a comparison to the times I sat with him in the dark at Stanford Theatre in recent years, and our days going to the Niners. Don’t get me wrong: he would go to nearly every show at Stanford Theatre, sometimes twice, and I would occassiionally synch our schedules to meet him there, or sneak up on him there, or agree to meet him afterwards for a bite. (His caregivers would handle all the heavy lifting, and logistics). In fact, and this is way out of bounds for a football post but one of the first things I did deliberately as an act or homage or in my mourning was to go on a Saturday to the Stanford Theatre matinee and go watch about an hour of the movie –something with a starlet, and based on a classic source — War and Peace, that is — and go sit up close as he was apt to do. I did sort of stare into the darkness, and not the screen hoping to against-logic spot him, or see if any of the other regulars might want to know the news. I ate my popcorn, slurped my sugar-drink and left at intermission, then waited until the crowd cleared to pass the news to Patty, the manager. This part should be a separate entry. Even weirder segue, I saw two or three movies there recently with vintage baseball scenes, especially in the Kurasawa run.
6. I let the 49ers tickets lapse. Actually, in 2009, they lapsed, were re-assigned to be someone elses potential upgrade, then were offered back to me and I bit. But those last couple years I guess I became more like my dad and not that interested in football. I thought $2,000 per year was more than I could budget, for discretionary spending or yucks. And I did not feel that the IRS would let me consider them a business expense, although I did occasionally or a handful of times take music people like Eric Hanson and the singer and prospective client Candye Kane (and her son, a Cal Student). I rejoined my Gunn High fantasy league, in 2007, at our 25th reunion, but have less zeal for football, I admit. But it is one of the things my mind goes to, when I am processing the sudden loss of my dad.
7. Dad and I stood together on the Beth Am Bema in January, 1977, my Bar Mitzvah but he made a little speech in which he compared me to the Oakland Raiders, I guess for their “commitment to excellence”. I think I was a little embarrassed. I heard the tape again in 2005 or so and was still a little embarrassed or remembered such. For a while we did go to Raiders and Niners games, but our allegiances were shifting west. Despite the fact that the Raiders were Jewish-owned — Al Davis –I am guessing that more Jews identified with the 49ers image than that of the more rough-hewn — dirty, expedient, blacker — Raiders. The Niners also had Harris Barton, who I still sometimes stalk, and Jon Frank.
8. Terry and I went into the City last weekend, to use Paul’s tickets to the SF Opera, “Sweeney Todd” by Sondheim, and as we passed Candlestick Point I was driving but was also staring into the void created by the demolition of the Park and wondered if there is some analogy or comparison to the contemporaneous loss of my dad, or the void it creates. I guess, in both cases, eventually, oportunity.
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 