Happy new years and back to work, on the ‘stinkers’

Posted on January 5, 2015 by markweiss86

I posted this on the Weekly site and will check back every few hours to see how long until they censor me.

I suggest rather than censoring me outright, they substitute a euphemism “stinkers” for my word of choice, “asshole”.

This is making my blood boil enough to re-boot and check out Council after all, instead of my previous plan of surfing the web and then watching NBA basketball.

America is dead as a Democracy unless people take part. Read Packer, the Unwinding. Which also reminds: I missed Rachel Kushner in SF apparently, “The Flamethrower”. I am not an “agitator” I am a “flame-thrower” I think, have not finished her book.

This is a ludicrous exercise in that Jerry Underdal and I are the only ones here, out of 30, willing to post under our own names and that PAW consistently manipulates public opinion further by deleting comments partly based on their pro-developer bias, but:

If We the People stand firm and communicate that we are not upzoning to accommodate the greed of the developer here, he will take his fair profit and go.

That leadership has not brokered that deal months ago is a sign of how compromised we are, even with the so-called Residentialist push-back.

That an outcome of the recent election cycle did not include a precipitation along those lines proves how morally bankrupt we have become, or bereft at least. In fact, on the contrary, Molly Stump sought, contrary to law, to gag we candidates here.

And we have spent $2 M plus to gut the Comp Plan in favor of further development, at the expense of resident control, rather that even discussing a more obvious topic: RENT CONTROL.

How many middle class families will be forced out here? How many more…?

And how many anonymous asshole right wingers will continue to sully the waters here with their self-serving and self-harming hate? They can move on, too.

And don’t edit me; these assholes have heard worse. The Puritans (hypocrites) can skim over this with one eye closed.

(As usual I back up my comments on my own blog)

The industry is a billion dollar entity and actually pay for millions per year in propaganda and that probably includes trolls posing as mere assholes.

If you want to edit me, go ahead and revise my work, substituting the euphemism “stinkers”
Report Objectionable C

and1:
And by the way, I am not an “anti-goverment'” “agitator” — you come as close to slander as Sullivan dictates –but a “flame-thrower” see also:

wow 520 reviews here, plus I gave away 10 copies at cost during my campaign:

the link shows that my comments are intact a full 12 minutes later, and this got my blood boiling enough to go to council after all.

three hours later:
I reposted this addendum:
it’s a serious question:

And how many anonymous (stinker) right wingers will continue to sully the waters here with their self-serving and self-harming hate? They can move on, too.

And don’t edit me; these (stinkers) have heard worse. The Puritans (hypocrites) can skim over this with one eye closed.

The industry is a billion dollar entity and actually pay for millions per year in propaganda and that probably includes trolls posing as mere (stinkers).

If you want to edit me, go ahead and revise my work, substituting the euphemism “stinkers”

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Sleater-Kinney back in black

Posted on January 4, 2015 by markweiss86
we are unworthy

we are unworthy

Jon Pareles in Sunday The New York Times on Sleater-Kinney reunion: yeah!!!

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Gunn grad victim of ‘graffiti hate crime’ hoax, not the perp

Posted on January 4, 2015 by markweiss86

“Yell ‘FIRE’ yo, eo yo yo”, Michael Franti, 2006*

Sean Berry, an 18-year-old recent graduate of Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, a stones throw – but be careful — from Stanford University, will be sentenced January 26 by Santa Clara courts for felony vandalism, dating to his actions in May, 2014 when he spewed his spleen and a couple cans of spray paint on the walls of his campus.

THANK GOD LOBOS IS GONE.

That one was reported by the student newspaper, The Gunn Oracle. (Note: I was editor in chief of the same publication, in 1981-1982, and co-editor in chief, along with Andres Fajardo, in 1980-1981). Lobos, I am guessing refers to former Gunn principal Katya Villalobos who was indeed reassigned to the district office. “God” I am only guessing is referring to the principal of the Torah and The Bible, also known as Yiaway, G-d, Jehovah or You, and, when I studied “Paradise Lost” by James Milton, with Chauncey Loomis at Dartmouth — and as was depicted by Donald Sutherland in “Animal House” he or she was omniniscent, omni-benevolent and all-powerful. “Thank God Lobos is gone” is, in my books, a prayer and protected by the First Amendment, thank you Jesus. And Moses. And Isaiah. And Wayne Gretsky.

And Warren Burger. Or was that Earl Warren. I will know it when I see it.

Second part:

TOO MANNY ASIANS HERE

or
2 MANNY ASIANS HERE.

or possibly

Armani as is wear?

My point is that despite the general scuttlebutt of this case it is super hush-hush and on the down low wink wink what it is that who I first wrote about as John Doe  and sometimes  but we now now as Sean Berry ’14 but not Sean Berry the singer nor Sean Barry #22 ’13 or Wade Barry tight end — I think — there is a serious amount of rumor and mystery here.

I met with Chief of Police Dennis Burns on this and a not-necessarily related matter on December 1, 2014 and he told me, to the best of his knowledge that there is no current or recent Gunn student being charged with a graffiti hate crime. I was told that my whistle-blower cover-up theory was wrong and there was no connection between what Berry (who I only knew of as “Doe”) wrote other rumors making the rounds. I

Yet, Breena Kerr or Brenna Kerr of the Daily Post (but not the Palo Alto Daily news, priceless) reports, and this is the headline

TEEN GOES TO JAIL FOR RACIST GRAFFITI.

No, Brenna, he is to be sentenced on January 26 and is likely to have to take a class, not at Gunn, and maybe taking notes with pencil and paper not spray can and shingles, on sensitivity or discrimination or and spend his weekends stabbing Snickers wrappers with a long pole and a nail and again, pointedly not an aerosol, or stickers or stencils but I firmly believe, hours into this, that he is more Eminem will the real Slim Shady please stand up please stand up than Daniel Burros or David Duke.”Bias prevention training” is the term used in Elena Kadvany’s report.

He pleaded guilty to a felony based on the dollar amount of damage he is accepting responsibility for, not because of his message per se. And I am not condoning hate speech, I hate hate, and think of all my fellows as near enough my brothers and sisters, but I also respect the Constitution and believe that just as we have the Nazis marching in Skokie we have a kid on his worst day letting it fly and that’s better than some agency or entity that may or may not reflect We The People stopping him or me, or you, good readers.

But I may have to retract, even here at Plastic Alto, the blog with 500,000 words, 1,100 posts but no readers and eat humble pie and crow if indeed once we see what it is that Sean Berry is trying to say. (edit to add: three years later: I’ve redacted some parts of above that are not defensible even as a blog)

My point is that there is the facts of the case, and I believe the various reports, compared side by side, reading between the lines that there was vandalism and the cost to remedy is more than $400 (four hundred dollars) making this a felony and not a misdemeanor and not a “senior prank” and probably not funny — unless God, besides being omniscient, omnipotent and “all good” also has an inscrutable sense of humor — one one hand and a hoax — based on the words “hocus pocus” and there is also, if you excuse another digression a very good book by Kunt Vonnegut on a not unrelated set of topics — “the Gunn graffiti hate crime” on the other.

The hoax is the combined bumblings of the following groups of people:
– the school administrators, and teachers, and students and parents
-the public safety workers, the police, the resource cop, the spokesman and Chief
-the press, The Weekly, The Daily News, The Post;

I will have to do a bit more reading and talking and learning and maybe go to the sentencing before I comment on the Courts per se. But kudos to the Attorney General of the U.S and Director of Homeland Security for not making this a Fedoeral case (that’s one where everyone wears Fedoras or wigs).

But as I read about this my first gut reaction seems true: the law is a mess.

And I really should not speculate how this fits into my interest in Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson, his book and the fact that Gideon v. Wainright is not being enforced. I would like to talk to Sean Berry, his parent or parents or guardians, and his attorney before I speculate on whether he is of the class that gets or doesn’t get Equal Protection under the Constitution.

Meanwhile I do have calls out to various attorney’s, pundits and artists on WTF.

And I wish I could, as the song playing right now is suggesting shake it off, shake shake shake.

but to be more clear: I think the adults should know better. I am more concerned with the mis-carriage of justice and policy here than the graffiti.

I think teachers and board and Supe from PAUSD should write requesting leniency.

And America has a serious crisis, not just in Palo Alto, about the decline of The Fourth Estate.

edit to add: I posted nearly 8 months afterwards under Jason Green’s depiction of this case, and also briefly exchanged privately with him, expressing my concern:
Can we be clearer on the distinction between felony vandalism based on dollar amount to remedy and whether the message is protected or not by First Amendment? I am suggesting that even that headline is misleading.
Palo Alto: Juvenile cited for racist graffiti at high school. Would he be subject to the same laws and penalty if he wrote HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME and 12 other lines from the classic T.S. Eliot “The Waste Land”? Is he a racist or is he indeed mocking racists?

*take us out, brother Michael:
They tellin’ you to worry about the future
They tellin’ you to never worry about the torture
They tellin’ you that you’ll never see the horror
Spend it all today and we will bill you tomorrow
Three piece suits and bank accounts in Bahamas
Wall street crime will never send you to the slammer
Tell all the children in the arms of their mummas
The F-15 is a homocide bomber

The war is obscene. Saying shit fuck ass or what not is just words peoples. In my book you fire the teacher that made the kids leave their desks to pre-judge this and the kid, Sean Berry sues us for squashing his rights to Free Speech and Due Process. Mea culpa. I’ll cop to that.

and1: I am also thinking that John Paye the football hero told me the other day he recalls going to Stanford Stadium as a kid to toss the ball around with Turk Shoenert and he sees Brian DiBiaso, Kent Lockhart and Jim Harbaugh all great athletes being paid to stencil numbers unto or into the wood benches there, for money. Stanford pays them. I guess as they say about comedy, timing is everything. Jah bless.

and: yes I did interview Kurt Vonnegut or Edmund Burns and I did in spring 1983 although apparently he was drunk and depressed and suicidal at the time and maybe part of “Hocus Pocus” came out of that experience as a Montgomery Fellow the way parts of Tom Wolfe “I Am Charlotte Simmons” is based on Stanford.

and and: four teenage boys, after the St Francis San Ramon game, talk about the gods must be crazy, fighting over what we used to call “shotgun” said “Don’t be a (predicate nominative often also the religion of Jesus Christ, and my ancestors) and then “Don’t be a f—-‘ J–” as I stood 20 feet away and tried to glare, from beside my car, thru the dark, then I got into the car and glared further, and waited, then pulled out and paused, then drove 50 feet pulled over and waited, and I have no idea whether they were getting high, or talking about me and plotting an escape or talking about what classmate of theirs looked best in stretch pants. Yet, they are not using our tax dollars to enforce their idiocy, are not teachers or cops, or the media.

 

 

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Yes, Peggy, there is a Jerry Garcia thread to the Palo Alto jazz story

Posted on January 3, 2015 by markweiss86

Peggy McKee, a history teacher and board member of PAHA, asked me, while advancing our Jan. 25, 2015 event, whether there would be any Jerry Garcia discussions during the event, a discussion of jazz here. I said no, that Jerry was more like jam band, hippie music or “the Sixties.”

I later recalled there are at least two ways that Garcia, of the Grateful Dead, a Titan of music, would also be included in a jazz talk. One, as I did gloss in my opus, Jack Walrath once played a Jerry Garcia Day tribute. Two, and this I don’t think has ever been written about, at least not in Plastic Alto, someone told me recently that they caught Jerry sitting in with Vince Guaraldi here, or hereabouts. It may have been Bill Murphy, who I met recently – he is a guitarist — in a duo with Esther Berndt sax at CoHo. The guy who wrote about Guaraldi (“Linus and Lucy”) might know, or be able to confirm this.

Here is the brief excerpt from my longer piece about Jack and Jerry:
Jack Walrath, the former Mingus sideman, also played in the space, doing a trumpet tribute to Jerry Garcia, riffing on “Touch of Gray”, the week Palo Alto’s Mayor issued a proclamation for the dead Dead leader and onetime local music teacher.

I also took a photo of Bern Beecham, or the clip, on file at PAHA will strip in later. And I have a photo of Bill Murphy. (and there is a redundancy in my numbering, of the Garcia Tribute as a meme, I list it twice. I hope she does promote the event as more like a workshop and crowd-source than definitive. It is lyrical, as David Shields would say.).

from PAHA files, but I was the source

from PAHA files, but I was the source

Bill Murphy Palo Alto jazz griot

Bill Murphy Palo Alto jazz griot

Bill Murphy, guitar; Esther Berndt, alto sax

Bill Murphy, guitar; Esther Berndt, alto sax

Research and pr re Jerry Garcia in Palo Alto led to this clip -- I told this to Brad Kava, this list -- and later to the longer research on jazz piece

Research and pr re Jerry Garcia in Palo Alto led to this clip — I told this to Brad Kava, this list — and later to the longer research on jazz piece

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War on Drugs on Conan

Posted on January 3, 2015 by markweiss86

conanondrugs
I taped the other night The War on Drugs on Conan, actually from October, 2014.
They play “Burning” track 8, from their latest release. It is six minutes on the album but closer to four here.
waronconan

2.
I interviewed two young people both about the issue of using ethnic stereotypes and sports mascots and whether an 18 year old should go to jail for graffiti, if the message of the graffiti could merit (demerit?) a more severe punishment. Too tough a set of topics for our group, on a sunny New Yearish Saturday, and shabbat. I thought her shirt was from Palm Springs or Indian Wells, rather than Salinas.

palma

3. South Park had a show too complicated to explain referencing the Washington football team, and their losing trademark protection of their mascot or logo.
southparkspoofonwashingotn
4. This doesn’t go here at all but I also chatted up Jacquetta Lannan of Chez Franc who told me to line up around noon on Monday, Jan. 12 to eat her wiener. Twelve bucks, compared to $10 out of the back of her truck, but it includes a side show I mean dish. And to tie this all together (!?) I said that I misidentified her husband Eliot Smukler (“schmook” as in not “cook” but “kook”) because I had seen an obituary about The Claw, Ed Sprinkle, the football great.

5. coincidentall or not I found a photo of a Sean Berry wearing a Utah Utes sweatshirt:

This might be the young former Gunn student to be sentenced this month to up to 60 days in jail, for offensive graffiti speaking of the war on drugs and dissent

This might be the young former Gunn student to be sentenced this month to up to 60 days in jail, for offensive graffiti speaking of the war on drugs and dissent

6. and it’s generally a bad things when a post digresses to a list of numbered items — Herb/’caine never did dot — but Don Cherry not a flavor not a Canadian hockey player or crooner was both black and Choctaw but even with this snappy sweater they spelled Sanders “Pharaoh”not “Pharoah” A.B. Spellman, I think, and this calls him “Little Rock” but I don’t have the guts to ask him about it.
cherrylp

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Talking of Kiri te Kanawa

Posted on January 3, 2015 by markweiss86
a nice Kiwi lady took this shot of me pretending to work on this article: the tell is the lack of my peepers

a nice Kiwi lady took this shot of me pretending to work on this article: the tell is the lack of my peepers

1. I went into Starbucks not Peets because Terry’s brother Gary gave me a gift card of $10 for Channukah. There was $2 left on it, the coffee was $1.80 and I asked the young clerk if I could donate the balance as a tip.
2. The January, New Year’s light shone reflectively (so to speak, Janus) on the rainbow mural, that I knew to me the work of Joey Piziali, so I shot a photo, thru the glass, which is a better vantage point than from the narrow alley. I waited for a passer-by, to mark the time.
3. I asked a lady sitting behind me, nicely, to shoot me, as what professor of Dartmouth Art History and father of a U.S. Ski team Felix McGrath might call “reportage”.
4. The lady, a nice lady — and I have left the original caption — was from New Zealand.
5. Her accent was nice enough, among her other charms, that a man sitting behind her — J_____, joined us, and asked if she was familiar with Kiri Te Kanawa.
6. Somewhere in there I left a voice mail for Erik Flatmo, who went to Gunn, Columbia, Yale, taught at Stanford and mayor or mayor-not-be like myself a former basketball player. He has a course last spring — about the time of the Gunn graffiti hate crime hoax or miscarriage of justice — about virtual drawing, which featured muralist Joey Piziali as a guest critic; without violating the sacrosanct academic environment, I would not mind writing about what the kids today thought of public art.
7. In walks Michael Alchek a commissioner who once mistook me for Hoody Allen and was in kind of a rush — he bought two cups of coffee — and did not have much of an observations to share about the Piziali mural, as part of a triptych or the fact that the building was being torn down around it: did they leave the one wall of the old building for any other reason besides the fact that there is public art on that building? (And I doubt he had seen my previous post comparing the young commissioners to The Mickey Mouse Club; and I did not mention that Alcheck who is a realtor and manages or owns a shopping center somewhere south of Palo Alto was unbraided in a local rag for trying to tell Los Altos commissioners what to do on a project, supposedly; I complimented his hair — kind of a hip hop or New Wave thingy — he went to Priory — and said that J_ mistook him for an artist, but I lied in a white way — god, that is not racist, “white lie”??? — and said J_ mistook him for “the artist” implying “Piziali”.
8. J__ said he once worked for Tip O’Neill, who said “all politics are local”.
9 I recommended George Packer, who profiled the Biden lieutenant TK.
10. My original head here, before Starbucks logged me off and WordPress failed to save, was “Reportage on the mural” but I switched to “Talking of Kiri te Kanawa” as a reference, and I admit I had to suss or what I call search-injun the actual cite, “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” the women come and go talking (I had “speaking”) of Michaelangelo.
11. J_ has read and recommends something I barely have tried: James Joyce.
12. I started out wanting to add a bit of W. Royal Stokes on John Stubblefield to my preview of Pharoah Sanders, coming to SFJazz.
13. Joyce is probably LFHFAO about all the bad stream-of-consciousness writing the internet makes for apology. (for makes apology?)
14. I should run the photo of the kid accused of the graffiti crime.
15. In their destruction of the building it looks like the developer not we taxpayers have painted over the Miles Davis stencil, I shot above.
16. My new friend and neighbor, who reads Manil Suri, made a successful joke about “down ” and “up” but I forget the rest.
17 Notes:
a. Kiri Te Kanawa has a website sure and a foundation. In fact, I sent this brief message and the link: greetings, somewhat obliquely, from 10.5 K kilometers. (I should have said “away” but I think they get it. It’s about 6,000 miles)
b. in the initial now lost draft of this, I admitted the photo was a hoax in that I am not actually writing and the tell is that I am not wearing my eyeglasses
c. I also took the opportunity to share with Ms. New Zealand a photo I shot of the Mauri artist TK2 who I met in residence recently (TK3) at DeYoung Museum in SF. This:
d. this is just literary enough to shoehorn in here, “eat bird for supper?” a message I sent to Eric Hanson the literary music agent, who roots for the Steelers, who playoff the Ravens, the former Browns, named for an Edgar Allen Poe joint. And not to digress, but I once left a Teddy Ruxpin pin on his Baltimore tombstone. If I do spend half the day in a sports bar, and I do admit that although I think of the internet and by extension wordpress and Plastic Alto as a business tool, one can project and infer a wee bit about the actual human behind these business tactics, I may not actually, asI intended to do, go home and shower: I am wearing yesterday’s New Year’s Day Next Day Deerhoof tee.
e. I just noticed, as I was trying to remember something else, that Daily News on Fri., Jan., 2 mentions Cadence Lee winning state title on Feb 22 of last year. Daughter of my classmate Emmie Fa. And now a Brown student, along with Josh Stern of Paly, the lacrosse player and sportswriter.
f. I think, two hours in, and two hours before the post office closes — I am awaiting a post — of the old school variety — that I spotted Stanford’s Clay Carson, and rose to near-stalk him — he would be spoken to, or not –and that my friends is Shakespeare — Hammy even — I said “hammie tutu” the other day in reference to Hamlet Act II scene 2 — my former client Stew, Mark Stewart, who has a lyric suggesting that black people get mistaken for people they don’t resemble in the least.claycarsonofstanfrd
g. failing to speak to the Carson doppelgänger, I bought a yogurt — J__ nodded at me but would not be spoken to – I wanted to get his email address — of the following parts: plain nonfat Greek yogurt –speaking of Classics and Marsh McCall and we was — cultured grade A non fat milk, active yogurt cultures — I’m paraphrasing — strawberries, sugar, modified corn starch, cellulose gum — and come to think of it, maybe I should have tried this exercise before commitment — oat and honey granola — I almost wrote “joey” no “hoey” close to the vernacular “hooey” , whole rolled oats, milled cane sugar, rice flour, oat flour, vegetable oil, canola and or safflower and or sunflower oil, molasses, honey, natural flavor — which previous life experience and my copious readings tells me is actually translated to “soothing no something artificial and made in New Jersey” — comma, salt, barley, no excuse me barley malt syrup and last and least, blueberries. There is more but I spare you that, seriously. Ironically, to some people this is the most poetic part of the post, and the most informational.

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Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry….and Dartmouth?

Posted on January 2, 2015 by markweiss86

Pharoah Sanders on tenor as depicted by SF artist Ian Johnson, courtesy of that badmutha, not to be confused with Turkish jazz man Muffucka Fillet

Pharoah Sanders on tenor as depicted by SF artist Ian Johnson, courtesy of that badmutha, not to be confused with Turkish jazz man Muffucka Fillet


and prologue talk about karma I did reach Chris Cortez just now or an hour after posting the first draft of this in the booth of KCSM and he agreed that my Pharaoh take is pretty esoteric and funky like a tweeter to think “Don Cherry” when I hear “Pharaoh Sanders” but he also felt me and even spit a bar on tune about Bob Marley and “War” and Selassie and all that, and I vowed in a Jan. 2 kind of way to bring some Native Elements free and for the people to the 650 and our blessed parks here, and he will try to spin some like this

and I also have to check a before o or o before a
like Noah or not like Noah (Naoh?)
write about Naoh!(right about now!)

Or, The Creator Has a Master Plan*
KCSM morning guy, not Cortez, maybe a Brit, Berman? Burman? says that Pharaoh Sanders is here for 3 nights at the new (to me, to me it is still hypothetical or mythical) SFJazz Palace, on Fillmore, near Civic Center and what flashes to mind, because I am a jazz mutant, is Don Cherry. And, worse, Don Cherry at Dartmouth.

Does Pharaoh Sanders want to talk about Don Cherry. Or Dartmouth?

Would he have 20 minutes? If he is here for three nights, that’s like 72 hours, could he squeeze me in for 20 minutes?

Is it better or worse to tell him I want to ask him about Don Cherry? What about his, Pharoah’s new record? Or his 57 records (reminder to self: check that figure)?

Flash to Charlie Haden on Charlie Rose last night, speaking of mythical or hypothetical or mediated rather than real. Ok, remind me, where did Charlie and Pharaoh overlap, in same or different projects from Charlie and Don. (I know that the guy who invited Don Cherry to Dartmouth, who shall remain nameless here, claims he met Don while a studio guest of Charlie Haden liberation orchestra, circa 1970 or 1969).

It’s either in the liner notes to the breakthrough album for Blue Note, or in the personal statement Don Cherry used to qualify for his Dartmouth teaching gig that Pharaoh “Little Rock” was in his circle. And if I took for granted the name of the capital of Arkansas (which for instance produced our 42nd POTUS, another sax-man, a lesser one, name of Clinton, Bill not George), thinking of Sanders in his youth, well,yes, hell yes, you can think of something super-sold, like rock, like that molten comic book character.

Does he play Arkansas?

Mr. Sanders (“Call me Pharaoh”), do you still play Arkansas?

My main question: how important is it to understanding Don Cherry is it to know that he once taught at Dartmouth? Or, how, even from a relative outsider’s perspective, what does it say about Dartmouth that it once hosted Don Cherry?

Are the worlds of jazz and the worlds of Dartmouth mutually exclusive? What are their overlapping values?

When I heard about “Don Cherry at Dartmouth” it gave me pause: I knew a fair amount about Dartmouth, I knew a fair amount, this was 2004, about jazz: I didn’t know there was an overlap.

(I ended up doing 50 hours of research or more, enough for 100,000 words but Dartmouth Alumni Magazine ran about 1,200 words, and re-wrote my lead; that the jocks called the class “Pots And Pans” became the story not the side-comment. Ah, compromise).

And yeah, having the blog with 500,000 words but no readers does not qualify me for a medal. Or, if I am the last to remember Pharaoh as “Little Rock” or Don at Dartmouth, I better pipe up, mighten I?

Truth be told, it would be my 2004 research into 1970 that would tell me, or Don’s former students told me, that Symphony for Improvisers featured Don Cherry, Pharaoh Sanders et al. And I bought a cd version of the Blue Note release and then more recently a collectors item LP. (fact of which has me wanting to re-route to my space to check the record, literally and figuratively: where does Don call him “Little Rock”?)

Here is a link to the Don Cherry cd, which protocol prohibits me from putting in foreground here.

And does Ian M. Johnson the SF painter of jazz greats have a Pharaoh Sanders work?

*21 songs or 9 hours ago, 1:32 a.m. this morning, as Terry and I were waking up to turn off the post-Charlie Rose visitation with pre-Charlie Haden, Greg Thomas of KCSM spun something of this title from Pharaoh Sanders and Leon something. Greg Bridge and Leon Thomas, I mean. Karma is the album.

Sanders is an important figure in the development of free jazz; Albert Ayler famously said: “Trane was the Father, Pharoah was the Son, I am the Holy Ghost

this is a coda:
Just for reference, I am not sure I could get an A identifying the last 6 leaders spun on KSCM: Michael Blake, Tom Lllelis, Jonathan Kreisberg, J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding, Allen Smith. I was just trying to get through to Chris Cortez to wish Tom and Kay (his in-laws) a “Happy” and to request some Pharaoh, I also almost called Arkansas 503 to ask the guy at the supply store if he was familiar with a famous jazz guy from there — Sanders Supply of Hot Springs — and also our Mayor elect Karen Holman I think is from Arkansas before Missouri.

But mostly people I admit if they are into Pharaoh think of him as the leader and not as a collaborator, or as a collaborator with Coltranes John and Alice, and then McCoy Tyner before Don Cherry. (And research shows that there is “Where is Brooklyn?” as well or before Symphony for Improvisors).

And this also, if you excuse the digression — and it this jazz-like? — I am thinking of Ethan Iverson of Bad Plus and Do the Math his blog arguing, losing-ly but charmingly that The New York Times had it wrong when it eulogized a certain piano player in a certain way and he felt the solo work stood on its own. I cannot quite pull the names out of the aether without doing the math. Cyrus Chestnut? I am embarrassing myself. But the fact is that we do have an abundance of members of the jazz tribe the pantheon and it is hard to keep them straight. No chaser. (I’m gonna leave my error, as egregious as it is, the only thing that connects Cyrus and the real guy is that Cedar is also a tree; Ethan Iverson lamented, plausibly that William Yardley of The Times a fine reporter, from a good Carolina family — Greensboro — who I knew on the mean hard courts of Escondido Village, when he was pre-pubescent, but scrappy — but I don’t think is a jazz guy lauded the legacy of Cedar Walton by saying he cut his teeth with Art Blakey; Ethan: …The NY Times obit by William Yardley fumbled the ball a bit. I, at least, don’t think of Art Blakey first when I think of Cedar Walton! I think of Cedar Walton when I think of Cedar Walton. Also, Cedar rehearsed with Coltrane a little bit and made a single hard-to-find record with Josh Redman, but surely other names deserve mention before Trane or Josh. The three most obvious are Sam Jones, Clifford Jordan, and George Coleman…

The Times obits are usually very good. I’m complaining only because the Times really is the most important daily record of New York culture. Cedar lead marvelous trios and quartets in town for the last 40 years that were required listening for any fan or student. Who gave more to New York culture than Cedar Walton?

I am saying just as it is weird to think of Art Blakey when you eulogize Cedar Walton it is probably weird to think Don Cherry when someone mentions Pharoah Sanders, ok, I cop to that, or “I flash to that” as the Dartmouthians who were also Don Cherrytes would say, back in the day. Meanwhile I continue my digression…

And also: I am working, hopefully doing the math, to prep for the Palo Alto History Association panel on jazz, Sunday, Jan. 25, or three weeks from Sunday. I will re-mount my 20,000 shaggy dog piece as 6,000 words solid. Jazz history starts here in 1968 when Danny Scher, 15, hires Monk to play at Paly, weeks after MLK falls, and ends, in my subjective view, in 2011 on a Tuesday when City Council refuses to bring jazz and Mammon to the same table to bring The Varsity back online as a music venue. Rendering approximately 70 years before as “pre-history” and everything since, these four or five years, as “post-history”, give or take a few dinner jazz gigs, or Dan Adams and Terigal Burns and them on Father’s Day in the street. Read my lisp! It is sort of like the movie version of Enrico Banducci clobbering Chris Walz with a fake Keane, I admit, with a close enough for me Cal Tjader in the background digetic or non-digetic.

So yeah I am fixing to ask to drive an hour, drop $50 for a hit and get twenty minutes of immortal’s time to ask about 1966 or 1968 or such. Here in the 2015.

Amazon lists 71 titles under “Pharoah Sanders” and I will check my a’s and o’s.

It looks like there are four shows next week at SFJazz.

So if I go, with or without working up the nerve to request an interview, and I admit a lot of that is wondering what will happen — which is sort of like what Bill Murray was saying as a mantra on Charlie Rose aired two nights ago but we viewed in our personal sense of time just a mere 12 yours ago — and my thing with Randall Kline — my first visit to SFJazz palace – -and notwithstanding what I posted earlier about V. Vale recommends Werner Herzog, Cornell West and or Patti Smith or Jello Biafra — and time and money is even more scarce these days — and there is also – and hey, I am doing them a small favor or semi-solid but not quite Little Rock — to link to them here is a link to an upcoming “gala” with Joni Mitchell, and for $100,000 you too are “legendary” and it includes some type of lap dance or private seating.

later: somewhere in my Don Cherry research, which crosses with Farrell “Pharoah” Sanders via Okey Temiz is a Turkish trumpeter named Muffy or Maffy Fallay and someone supposedly telling him he would get over in America just for the name, Muvaffak,
no idea if Pharoah plays with Muffy, or that is jumping the shark to go there, but seems like turnabout is fair play.

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My message to neighbor Eric Rosenblum versus what his computer may have told him I said:

Posted on January 1, 2015 by markweiss86
my kind of town, i was born there, but it is not Palo Alto

my kind of town, i was born there, but it is not Palo Alto

What I said:
Hi Eric, Mark Weiss, 
I can’t resist.
I didn’t see the meeting
 and I haven’t seen the tape, either, but 
The Post quotes you regarding the term “privatization” 
as it applies to Downtown North parking 
and I think you misuse the term,
 with due respect.
“Privatization” 
would be what happened in Chicago 
where Rahm Emanuel, 
for example, someone paid a million dollars—, a billion dollars to collect all the parking revenues for the next 50 years in Chicago. and then they realize “Oops” it was worth ’10X’ that, ten billion, and they look stupid. 
That’s “privatization”. 
If We The People
 some of whom live on Bryant Street — in the first 300 blocks
—three blocks —
wish to regulate, that’s not “privatization”. That’s “regulation”. 
And I don’t know why you’re unclear on that.
But “privatization” is an entirely more pernicious and separate matter, heretofore, separate.

Have a great trip, talk to you later. Bye.

This was back in November, shortly after elections.

What his email attachment claims I said:

Hi Eric, Mark Wise. I can’t resist. That’s the I didn’t see the meeting. But the I haven’t seen the J be there, but the post quotes, too. Regarding. The term privatize issue, as it applies to downtown north parking and I think you miss use the term. With due respect, privatization wouldn’t be what happen in Chicago. Where, Ron Emmanuel, For example, someone paid a million dollar billion dollars to collect all the parking revenues for the next 50 years in Chicago. And I realize pokes it was worth ten. Expeditor’s for ten billion that’s stupid. That’s privatization. If We, the people. Some of them live. I’m Brian street in the first 300 box. 33 blocks wish to regulate that’s not privatization. That’s a regulation And I, don’t know why you’re on clear on that. But privatization. Is it internally more print issues, and separate matter here 2 floor, separate. Have a great trip talk to you later. Bye.

And his response, which actually indicates he heard me properly or you be the judge. (and we had a quick further back-and-forth on somewhat related topics. Don’t get me wrong I like and respect Eric, but I do wonder if the gadgetry helps or hinders, and his background is smack-dab-in-the-middle of the widget-wonder-complex, which of course is why he owns a house here and I, the arts guy, still rent):

hi mark

thanks for your comment re: privatization.

yes, perhaps it’s not the right term.

a regulation that sets aside a group of streets that everyone in the city has paid for and makes them for the semi-exclusive use of those who live there smacks of elitism and entitlement. The people who are hurt are small businesses (whose employees will have more difficulty finding affordable parking). My point was that we should at least charge a market rate for this “regulation”. The city’s projection is that this program will cost $500-700k/year to administer. And that’s for ONE neighborhood.

For a city that has difficulty finding a budget to help the homeless or the displaced residents living in our trailer park, spending this kind of money to ensure that I don’t have to always park in my driveway (and god forbid a dude who serves me at Sanchos gets to park anywhere near my house) feels unseemly.

Having said that, I supported the citywide ordinance if there is broad neighborhood support. I just think that we need to properly price parking.

and1:
here is a link to a discussion of the actual deal, which was made in 2008, before Rahm took office (and I admit I said his name wrong) and the math is more complicated than my description of it, and he is probably correcting the deal somewhat.

There’s also something called Privatization Watch that I subscribe to but never read because all their subject lines are the same and never indicate what the topic actually is.

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Cajuste and Williamson lead Stanford bowl romp

Posted on January 1, 2015 by markweiss86

Jordan Williamson of Austin and Palo Alto had 9 more points bringing his career to 374

Jordan Williamson of Austin and Palo Alto had 9 more points bringing his career to 374


My two favorite Stanford footballers were young men I met in town, Devon Cajuste a wide receiver and Jordan Williamson the all-time leading Cardinal scorer as kicker, from Texas.

If I only get the chance to fast-forward to see three plays they include these two guys.

Devon Cajuste the Jets fan who also likes Dez Bryant and Marcus Welby MD set up his first of two TDS with this nice catch in Bowl game


Devon Cajuste the Jets fan who also likes Dez Bryant and Marcus Welby MD set up his first of two TDS with this nice catch in Bowl game

Here is Devon’s first td, the announcer said it was a play Peyton Manning made popular:
devoncajustetd1

This is Cajuste’s second td of the game, sixth of the season and 11th all-time:

If Devon does not make it with the NFL he is prepping in Weissman's lab for a career in science or Med school. I suggested he also track down Paul Maggio, MD, PhD and fellow New Yorker

If Devon does not make it with the NFL he is prepping in Weissman’s lab for a career in science or Med school. I suggested he also track down Paul Maggio, MD, PhD and fellow New Yorker

I actually requested to both Svoboda of Stanford and Kelley of FFBG a media pass and was told I was not fresh enough for Foster Farms, or too rara avis, or just missed the cock’s crow. Don’t you (bock) me, baby?

Here are the two portraits I shot on DC and JW, the first at Lytton Plaza the second at Geraldo’s barber shop:

devoncajuste

It took us a minute to get from Butthole Surfers to ACL to Vince Young to "well, um, I'm on the Stanford team" humble enough for an "awesomely disproportionate" Texan

It took us a minute to get from Butthole Surfers to ACL to Vince Young to “well, um, I’m on the Stanford team” humble enough for an “awesomely disproportionate” Texan


and1: Joseph Beyda of the Stanford Daily reported (and Speedracer tweeted) that Devon Cajuste announced the day after the 45-21 Bowl win that he will return to Stanford for his fourth varsity season; the New Yorker in him probably thinks he can break out with 10 tis and go down as an all-time Farm great. Which means more frequent flyer or JetBlue methinks for Andrea, who said she tries to make every game. (I met them at Sam’s soup bar, across from the plaza, the week after Devon was hanging with we street music types, the day he pulled in three scores versus the Black Knights; excuse the reaching, grabbing twisting and diving sentence structure, a homage to Devon in the read-zone).

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Economics of Happiness Portland, Earthwise and Weiss for Palo Alto roots

Posted on January 1, 2015 by markweiss86

hello, helena

hello, helena


I left a pursuit of corporate happiness in 1993 and moved my belongings via a rented truck from Cow Hollow to Byrd Lane and studies activism, environmentalism and “right livelihood”. Part of that effort landed me at Bay Area Action, where Cindy Russell, Frank Lopez, Holly Kaslewich (Millions), Peter Drekmeier and others were producing an Earth Day event. I worked a stint in Berkeley, off Solano, helping market the film version of “Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh”. Because I was reading Jerry Mander “Absence of the Sacred” Cindy suggested I produce the “Earthwise Traditions” segment of Earth Day. Two of the groups I met thru that, Eagle Vision Education Network of Sacramento, CA (“Cathy White Eagle”) and Rainforest Awareness Project of Colorado (“Kevin Russell”) then hired me to work directly with them on follow-up events. This lead to a series of concerts at Cubberley the first two of which were benefits for BAA and friends of BAA. And that led to about 150 more shows at Cubberley, 50 or more additional concerts and work on a dozen to twenty music acts per se.

I probably met Helena Norberg Hodge (founder of Ladakh Project, producer of film, author of book of same name, founder of ISEC International Society of Ecology and Culture, laureate Right Livelihood Award) only four or five times, but that made an impression. I worked directly with Steve Gorelick or the Berkeley office, which shared space with Thich Nhat Han’s publisher, Parallax Press.

I do recall meeting with Steve at the inception of the move towards a focus on music and being affirmed that somewhere in a book Helen cowrote or edited on the movement there was discussion of the value of local-produced culture and independence from big media and entertainment.

And as I write this I look up to see Jack Black on a Thanks a Million Teachers float on Parade of Roses, on TV36. Oh, well. Jack Black is a dude who married a chick I kinda sorta dated in SF in the late 1990s, a cellist. She turned an “O” or “0” into a smiley face, but had her grandparents in town, or so she said, when I invited her to Elastica at the Fillmore and that ended that. (She said she wanted to learn to play accordion).

During my Brooklyn sabbatical of winter, 2001 I attended at Hunter College the conference of the International Forum on Globalization, and also corresponded with Academy Award nominee and Emmy winner from Los Altos and Egan Elizabeth Thompson on these issues, we re-met ISEC office around that time, she did some freelance for them. (Mazel to she and Robert the rocket scientist somewhere in the 650, newlyweds; Betsy was at Yaddo while I was in Brooklyn).

The previous on Amy Goodman led me to think of Helena. Steve said “she’s one of the world’s most lucid thinkers” or maybe “She’s one of the media world’s few lucid thinkers”. Either or.

None of the 50 or so mentions of my three successive campaigns for public office has mentioned that I see my efforts there as part of a 20-year campaign of activism. I self-identified on my ballot book statement as “activist/CEO/writer”.

maybe I can get here:
The Economics of Happiness conference

Portland, Oregon

February 27 – March 1, 2015

register-buttonjpg

There is an alternative. In fact, there are many!

All around the world, thousands of initiatives are demonstrating that we can create a better future: resilient communities, healthier ecosystems, equitable economies. Now we need to connect the dots, get together, translate understanding into action, and build a global to local movement!

Join us at the Economics of Happiness conference to discuss, discover and devise better systems for now and the future. Get involved in a new project. Find out how to make your work more effective. Link up with local initiatives. Debate the details. Explore new policies. Deconstruct the old. See the connections. Articulate solutions. Get engaged in creating a new economy – one that works for people and the planet!

The program will include plenaries, panels, interactive workshops and other participatory sessions. The wide range of inter-connected topics will include: local food, public policy, democracy, local business, the commons, cooperatives, local finance, spirituality, connecting to nature, economic indicators, health, education, bridging the North-South divide, the new economy movement, climate justice, cultural diversity, biodiversity, environmental justice, income inequality, and the impact of the economy on our psychological well-being.

SPEAKERS*

Bayo Akomolafe, Nigerian clinical psychologist, professor, and coordinator of the International Alliance for Localization (IAL).

Yoram Bauman, An environmental economist and professor at the University of Washington, co-author of The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change, and world’s first and only “stand-up economist.”

Kurt Beil, Naturopath, professor and researcher on the importance of nature in human health.

Carol Black, Education analyst, television producer and director of the film Schooling the World.

Chet Bowers, Esteemed thinker in the fields of education, ecology, technology and the commons. Author of Let Them Eat Data and Revitalizing the Commons.

Paul Cienfuegos,Leader in the Community Rights movement, working to dismantle corporate constitutional “rights” and enshrining local self-governance.

Charles Eisenstein, Speaker and writer focusing on themes of human culture and identity, author of Sacred Economics and The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible.

Jihan Gearon, Executive Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition. Jihan is Diné (Navajo) and African American and works on connecting the issues of energy development in Indigenous communities to larger social justice movements and common strategies.

Charles Heying, Professor of urban studies and planning, author of Brew to Bikes: Portland’s Artisan Economy.

Catherine Ingram, International Dharma teacher, leader of Dharma Dialogues and author of Passionate Presence.

Manish Jain, Coordinator of the Indian organization Shikshantar: The People’s Institute for Rethinking Education and Development.

Sandra Lubarsky, Professor and leader in sustainability studies in the US.

Donnie Maclurcan, Distinguished fellow with the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems, co-founder of the Post Growth Institute and author of Nanotechnology and Global Equality.

Jerry Mander, Founder of the International Forum on Globalization (IFG), author of Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television and The Capitalism Papers.

Camila Moreno, Brazilian lawyer, food sovereignty activist and researcher with Terra de Direitos and the Global Ecology Justice Project.

Helena Norberg-Hodge, Director of Local Futures, author of Ancient Futures and producer of The Economics of Happiness film.

Janelle Orsi, Attorney and Executive Director of the Sustainable Economies Law Center, author of Practicing Law in the Sharing Economy.

Derek Rasmussen, Former policy advisor to the Inuit in the Canadian Arctic, meditation teacher.

Vicki Robin, Advocate for “relational eating”, best-selling author of Your Money or Your Life and Blessing the Hands that Feed Us.

Michael Shuman, Founding board member of BALLE, Research Director at Cutting Edge Capital, Fellow of Post Carbon Institute, author of Local Dollars, Local Sense.

Cameron Whitten, Occupy Portland pioneer, 2012 mayoral candidate, activist for social justice and graduate of the Portland African American Leadership Forum’s Leadership Academy.

*Speakers listed are confirmed at time of writing; however, details are subject to change without notice. Refunds cannot be given because of program changes.

LOCATION
The Eliot Center
1211 SW Main Street
Portland, Oregon 92705

SCHEDULE
Friday, February 27
4:30pm-6pm: Registration
6pm-10pm: Opening evening

Saturday, February 28
9:30am-6pm: Plenaries and workshops

Sunday, March 1
9:30am-1pm: Field trips and tours
2-7: Workshops and closing plenary

CONTACT
For more information, please contact the conference organizers.

Email: portland@theeconomicsofhappiness.org
Telephone: +1 415-670-9054

TICKET PRICES
Early bird (a limited number available until December 31): $85

Regular (until February 1): $150

Last minute: $250

Student/low income: $50

Scholarships available upon application. Please email portland@theeconomicsofhappiness.org to apply.

PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS
Alliance for Democracy
Artisan Economy Initiative
Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE)
Center for Earth Leadership
Center for Sustainable Economy
City Repair
Community Alliance for Global Justice
Community Rights Lane County (CRLC)
Community Rights PDX
Dharma Rain Zen Center
Economic Justice Action Group (EJAG)
Ecotrust
FoodCorps
Gaia Education
Greater Portland Sustainability Education Network (GPSEN)
Growing Gardens
Jobs with Justice PDX
Living Dharma
Living Economies Forum
Move to Amend – Portland
New Economy Coalition
Northwest Cooperative Development Center (NCDC)
Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI)
Oregon Banks Local
Oregon Community Rights Network (ORCRN)
Oregonians for Fair Trade
Our Table
Overgrow the System
Portland Fruit Tree Project
Portland Made
Portland Project for Cooperative Innovation (pdxPCI)
Post Carbon Institute
Post Growth Institute
Portland State University Institute for Sustainable Solutions
Schumacher Center for a New Economics
Shareable
Slow Money
Springboard Innovation
Story of Stuff
Support Local Food Rights (SLFR)
Supportland/Portland Made
Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC)
The Happiness Walk
The Oregon Commons
Transition US
Tryon Life Community Farm
Urban Farm Collective
Yes! Magazine

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