I met Ruthie Foster a few years back in Austin, Texas and cut her set once or twice over the years, so I am excited to see her full set next week, Tuesday, March 10 at Berkeley’s Freight and Salvage. It’s actually a triple-bill with Joe Ely and Paul Thorn.
Not sure the segue,but I had downloaded this unattributed aphorism and illustration from the website of Poor Clare’s an order of nun’s founded by St. Francis of Assisi. (If you are a catholic and orthodox very observant “Plastic Alto” reader you may have also read recently something about basketball, and maybe the visual arts, this all sort of runs together. Writing about Austin or just mentioning it, makes me want to go eat a taco or burrito for lunch, here at 3:15 on a Wednesday; I’m also fixing to sneak into a movie, the mockumentary about vampires, at the Guild in Menlo Park, hopefully with my sweetie, TAD, now I’m way off subject. Safe passage here to Ruthie, her crew and her manager Charles Driebe of Atlanta who I first met by phone when he managed Henry Butler in 1999 and I produced a Henry Butler show here, plus did a ride-along a clinic HB did in Fremont for School for the Blind; don’t get me wrong, Ruthie Foster is sighted.
Not sure last time I saw God, or Ruthie Foster, who comes to Bay Area next week with a holy trinity of troubadours and truth-mongers
edit to add:
This is one, reviewed 39 times, my friend Malcolm “Papa Mali” Welbourne produced in 2007:
and1:
This is one came out last summer, reviewed 28 times and features Meshell Ndegeocello:
I’m hoping to see the Ai Weiwei show at Alcatraz, meanwhile I am reflagging here something I wrote about the Ai Weiwei documentary “Never Sorry” back in 2012. I cannot quite recall what I meant by imagining an oblique set of derivative works that read “SO SO RRR” other than “r r r” I sometimes use for laughter and I do notice typography.
I saw the documentary film about the Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, “Never Sorry” and it put me off the fence for good on whether or not to run for Palo Alto City Council. Ai Weiwei was imprisoned by his government most believe because he criticized the government’s role in the death of more than 5,000 schoolchildren in a 2009 earthquake in Sichuan. He claims that “tofu” construction — he means shoddy or subpar — in a government sponsored infrastructure was at fault for all the deaths. Part of his reaction was an art installation in Germany with 9,000 backpacks installed on the wall of a museum there.
He has an uncanny and unique ability to blend creativity and social activism. Although it would be extreme to compare China nationalist government either to our challenges nationally or locally, I definitely believe and have stated in various forums that maybe…
The wordpress blog “EPA and Around the Bay” also known as Slyder24 and sometimes “Tony” documents a lot of street art, stickers and stencil work. He also logged at least five Susan O’Malley pieces, from 2012, archived there and reblogged here at Plastic Alto.
and1: this one is on my camera/ phone but shot by I think former Coach Redfield, and shows me in front of the exact basket where 30 years or so prior, in 1981, my junior year at Gunn I scored my one and only varsity field goal, in a Titan route of what was then called Bucsher Bruins. I was put in at high post, against a zone, and Alan Ng, breaking the press, tossed me the ball and I wheeled, past the man, maybe dribble as I advanced down the lane, went off the glass and in. I’ve done that hundreds or thousands of times in practice and exactly once for the record. I played for a 25-3 league championship and CCS-runner up team, with a high school All America and eventual Knicks NBA draftee Kent Lockhard, who got about 1,500 points and over 500 field goals to my onesy. On consecutive possessions, maybe three of them, the exact same play and I made two but missed two free throws as well, giving me 4 career points. Buchser, that is, where Steve Bartkowski, Joe Charboneau and Mark Langton all excelled.
St. Francis Lancer Curtis Witt congratulates Sacred Heart Prep Andrew Daschbach after exciting 64-59 contest in CCS semifinals Tuesday at Independence High in San Jose.
Hats off to tiny Sacred Heart prep for coming within one trey, by Mason Randall of tying top-ranked St. Francis of Mountain View Tuesday in the CCS semifinals.
The Lancers prevailed 64-59 but clearly had the fear of God put in to them by their mid-Peninsula brethren. The Gators team featured several members of a football unit that defied the odds to win the Open contest this fall, including Randall, their QB. You would think that suiting Ben Burr-Kirvan even for one game might have been worth a bucket or two Tuesday when it counted most.
As I exited the game I brushed against the lines of sportsmanship, near the St. Francis bench. I greeted the reserve guard Riley Quinn, who saw no action Tuesday but was a contributor on football. We exchanged high fives and I said “Good game, son. Good luck”. I saw Quinn during warm-ups, running the drills with his mates. Here is a quote that Riley attributed to former Major League pitcher Jim Abbott and told a writer for the Chron two springs ago (and it does dovetail or overlap with my Susan O’Malley tribute yesterday):
“… believe in yourself, find your own way, and use the talents you’ve been given … great things can happen!”
My own observation is that as the years recede the difference between my opponents and my teammates blurs; now the distinction is between being able to run and play at all compared to when I would fill nearly ever afternoon with some type of exertion or game:
Riley Quinn top of key and his mates, preparing to play with and against boys from Menlo Park
And1: a bad pun in headline about the Saint’s hometown. Other than those warm-ups I’ve never seen Quinn; he’s been written about in local and national media.
This article shows the idiocy of the CCS format: you win Div. II and therefore can claim to be the 25th top team in the section? Why not have Div. I thru Div. L playoffs and give every other kid the chance to say he was a CCS champion?
I posted that snarky bit below John Reid’s Merc story about Los Altos advancing in Div. II playoffs. I’m not against Los Altos, I like Rosenbaum and McColl, I almost went up to Milt McColl and told him that I used to date the best friend of his wife, yadda yadda. But Los Altos has won State Championships in football, they don’t need watered down divisional sectional banners cluttering up their ceiling.
I also posted that I like St. Francis over Sacred Heart of Menlo Park tonight at 7:30 at Independence in San Jo in that I am a hater of Sacred Heart football even in a miracle season because the Palo Alto Weekly covered them fully but never ran more than a line or two about 1-9 Gunn, the home team.
I will count and then delete what I think of as 300 hoops photos at about 15 contests, maybe 20 this season. But if I go all the way down to San Jo to watch St. Francis v. Sacred Heart, might as well watch two WCAL’s in the other bracket, Mitty and Serra. I guess I would flip and root for Sacred Heart against Mitty or Serra just for the Mid-Peninsula connection. I guess I like Homestead over Bells but won’t pay to see it.
Meanwhile a Gunn kid Ian Cramer won CCS wrestling at 145 or so, only the sixth ever to do that.
and 1: you’d be looking pretty dumb with not your finger and your thumb but CCS CHAMP Div. L on your lid:
edit to add:
John Reid filed another story, about Los Altos beating Santa Clara to advance to Div. II finals, and the chance to claim #25 best team in the section. Instead of a sarcastic “now I can sleep better quote like in yesterday’s story, now the coach Bob MacFarlane is saying how “great” it is to reach this “pinnacle”.
For the record, public schools have won 17 top level championships in the 46 years of Central Coast Section basektball. They’ve won (we’ve won, I’m a Gunn grad) 6 since 1988 when the multiple divisions format business started. We won 9 of the first 14 titles. In 2003, Jeremy Lin and Paly won Div. II title (and state title at that level) but arguably could have won the overall title.
Just them them play; that’s what gives us the occasional “Hoosiers” story. Don’t contribute to someone’s fall sense of “special”.
This could almost fit above, in the Jamie Cullum piece. I was imagning or drumming –dramming dam u, stupid cumpooter — it’s a whiskey reference, although I am still on caffeine, and on bike, for what that’s worth, and walking on sunshine, and felling good — Jamie Cullum w. Jamie Stewart, dialing Nina fixes. Dueling, like that old guy from the movies, L.B. Jones’ father in law. Now this is Plasty!
(the headline above is Nate of the Times, 2013)
Jamie as Xiu Xiu did with Ches Smith in 2013 and Mary Halvorsen, and Tony Malaby a Nina Simone tribute, but did not touch “Misunderstood” which was written for Nina but I got from The Animals first. Jamie Cullum meanwhile covers as a Nina Simone shout “Misunderstood”.
Any one else care to see a cutting contest or collaboration with these two Jamie’s? If I was Michael Bailey I would have flown in Stewart to open for Cullum, with or without the Nina book.
Jamie Stewart, old pal, can you come play Lytton Plaza around Aug. 5 if we can get Jamie Cullum? I remember talking to Jamie Stewart the day Allen Ginsburg died and he said we should all gather at Lytton Plaza:
kicking it with jamie cullum, captured from Kimmel, 2015
Dear Jamie Cullum, when you play Hollywood Bowl on August 5, 2015, please swing by Palo Alto and do a free show at Lytton Plaza to raise awareness of “the Great Unwashed”. Thanks, Mark Weiss
This is the quinetessentional plastic alto in that it stays on topic, is mainly about music, has a combination of memoir anecdotes, news and hypotethical news i.e. drams or wishes.
I just emailed Terry my Terry, the artist Terry Acebo Davis and our close friends, Steve and Eric Cohen — brothers, from Ally McBeal, the Dancing Twins — and suggested we all rendezvous in La-LA on August 5, at Hollywood Bowl where Jamie Cullum is apparently headlining or at least guesting with the LA Phil. We saw Joshua Bell there last year.
I met Jamie Cullum post-show at the Fillmore in 2005. I was rolling with Jack Walrath, a jazz veteran who was the youngest and whitest member of Charles Minugus’ last quintet, 1972-1975, which I guess is a long time ago. Jack told me that he has been playing that music longer than Mingus himself got to do.
Jack was my client for one term and stayed with me that week, on Pepper Street in Palo Alto. I suggested we check out Jamie Cullum at the Fillmore. I was hipped to Jamie by Jason Olaine (my fellow former Titan hoops star), then at Verve. At the time, Jamie was thought to be the answer for Verve to Blue Note’s Norah Jones. Please note that now Jason is at Lincoln Center at Jamie is at Blue Note, working with Don Was. I met Jamie briefly at IAJE the jazz conference, as well as his British spearhead.
menageaTVois
Jack and I, quite frankly, were a bit bored and nonplused and retreated to the poster room to get high and reminisce; Jack had lived in Oakland in 1970 and was having flashbacks (and I do wonder what reading Fear and Loathing so young has done to my story-telling: does every little anecdote have to have lizards attacking our ankles?).
But then Jack came running up to me: Hey, that’s Haitian Fight Song! To his expert ear, the hook on Jamie’s single was copped from a Mingus tune. That inspired me and I sent a note backstage saying that an O.G. Mingusman was in the house and wanted a word with young James.
Sure enough, someone on his team came out and got us passed thru and we all went up for a nightcap. Jamie’s bass player said that Jack was a judge the year he was working on the Monk Awards, et cetera. Jamie true enough used actual jazzbeuax in his band those days.
I also caught Jamie on Kimmel the other night and captured him kicking his piano, ala Ben Folds. Jamie is MOT by the way and Burmese. And a Papa, which is more that I can say. Mazel mazel twice to the Cullums. If Dana Collins is still in his team, I am going to try to get backstage at the Bowl. Also, and this is counter-inductive to getting on a list, I am wondering why Charles Mingus is not given a writing credit on “twenty-something”. Not that Sue Mingus needs the money but it would seem the menschy thing to do, nu?
And maybe they will see this Bat-beacon reference to swinging it Lytton Plaza style. In fact, we should counter Los Gatos jazz on the plaz” note by note.
and1:
compare the two, “Haitian Fight Song” by Mingus w. “twenty something” by Cullum, the bridge or hook:
which also reminds me of an excellent recent article on copyright in The New Yorker by Louis Menard, I clipped and will re-read
The cd came out in January. The suss reveals it was Oct. 4, 2004 that Jack and I were kickin’ it with Jamie. Meanwhile, he was back at the Fillmore last summer, with my friend Megan Slankard opening. And Aiden Vizairi who I tend to dislike already reviewed “Interlude” for BrandChron.
I interviewed, lunched and even jammed with David “Kracky” Krakauer and Josh “Socalled” Dolgin at KZSU Stanford the day this premiered live at Mem Aud…
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 