Akira Tana, the quarterback of the league-champion Gunn Titans football team, in fall, 1967, or so, is the producer of a cd by Rufus Reid the bassist called Quiet Pride and I just called him to congratulate him or it on 2 Grammy nods. Akira (ah key dah) and Rufus also co-led a version of “what they do” called Tana Reid, back in the day, before I knew him. But after reading thru my Rupert Pupkin and Walter Mitty style take on the Grammys, I hit Plastic Alto and maybe Earthwise paydirt in reaching Jana Herzen of Motema Records on her cell, as she and her Mom tooled around town, after a trip to Tokyo, non-jazz-related. Jana, who also writes and records her own music in more like a singer-songwriter style, I am thinking — not knowing the work well, yet educated-guessing –like a Leni Stern kind of thing, but she offers that it works as a duo with Charnett Moffet, very jazz.
Well, I am pretty far from the epicenters of music industry or jazz, LA or NYC, but and this luddite has to give due props, the computer and the smart phone make me feel less insignificant.
1.
1. CHANDELIER Sia Greg Kurstin & Jesse Shatkin, producers; Greg Kurstin, Manny Marroquin & Jesse Shatkin, engineers/mixers; Emily Lazar, mastering engineer Track from: 1000 Forms Of Fear [RCA Records / Monkey Puzzle Records]
because Greg Kurstin for years, years ago partnered and cut his teeth with Palo Altan Tommy Jordan in Geggy Tah, Geggy means ‘greg’ and Tah means ‘tom’
2.
this is a stretch, but 2 of 5 in category 13 best metal are from a Ronnie James Dio tribute on Rhino, Rhino founded by San Franciscan Richard Foos whose parents went to India with mine.
1. NEON KNIGHTS Anthrax Track from: Ronnie James Dio – This Is Your Life [Rhino]
5. THE LAST IN LINE Tenacious D Track from: Ronnie James Dio – This Is Your Life [Rhino]
Foos sold Rhino and started Shout! Factory and probably makes no money on this set, but you never know. My holiday best to Richard and Harley.
3.
Ledisi who performed at Cub as “Anibade” and before that was part of Liberty and Ledisi with Liberty Ellman, nominated for best r & b. When she played I got her autograph on a little paper band that the bank was using to wrap her pay, a moneyband, play on that.
1. LIKETHIS Ledisi Track from: The Truth [Verve]
4.
another stretch
Robert Glasper nominated in not jazz but R&B, and I met Robert when he was friends with my then-client John Ellis, at the Knitting Factory in NYC, in 2003. Which is like what I abstained from saying, that I saw but probably did not meet Black Keys a year or two before they hit at SXSW i want to say Billions Party because Pat Carney’s uncle is Ralph Carney, the sf regular and earthwise sometimes.
1. JESUS CHILDREN Robert Glasper Experiment Featuring Lalah Hathaway & Malcolm Jamal Warner Track from: Black Radio
5. There are 29 names mentioned between the five nominees for best R&B songwriters, with the sole soul exception of Jhene who wrote her own ticket. Although they almost listed her left leg and her right leg as their own credits. Which might be why they bumped her to “urban contemporary”.
6.
skipping all the way to cat 30 new age I see David Darling and recall taking a seminar from he and Robert I want to say Duiseneu or Chirstenau the guy who wrote “deadlines” people’s last words, and taught a class on film and archetypes at UC Extension. Darling plays cello.
1. IN LOVE AND LONGING Silvia Nakkach & David Darling [Sounds True]
sounds true enough. Phil Cousineau I mean. Robin did the woodcuts.
7. best improvised jazz solo, this is a stretch but I met both Chick Corea and Fred Hirsch at Stanford Jazz camp this summer, I shot Chick with Dave Sigua in front of Whole Foods, but I chatted with Fred a bit longer, about Frisell.
1. FINGERPRINTS Chick Corea, soloist Track from: Trilogy (Chick Corea Trio) [Concord Jazz]
2. YOU & THE NIGHT & THE MUSIC Fred Hersch, soloist Track from: Floating (Fred Hersch Trio) [Palmetto Records]
8.
Best jazz vocals, all women, I used to chat up 3 of the five, Gretchen Parlatto, because her players overlapped with John Ellis’ circle, especially seeing her at Chris’ of Philly, Tierney Sutton of USC I met at IAJE educators showcase and Rene Marie whose son went to Stanford just about the time she kicked her career, and I had dinner post show in Half Moon Bay, she, Pete Douglas and more entourage. I wrote a long white paper on how to manage her, and copied her agent Reggie Marshall but we did not click. I think this means the haters have stopped knocking her for her verso of lift every voice. And she is on Motema started by Stanford and Gunn grad from the lab, and I have her flyer I am going to sewed in:
1. MAP TO THE TREASURE: REIMAGINING LAURA NYRO (Billy Childs &) Various Artists [Masterworks]
2. I WANNA BE EVIL René Marie [Motema Music]
3. LIVE IN NYC Gretchen Parlato [Obliqsound]
4. BEAUTIFULLIFE Dianne Reeves [Concord Records]
5. PARIS SESSIONS Tierney Sutton [BFM Jazz]
why no fellas?
which is ironic, because others will lament lack of femme players in instrumental category
9.
I woud vouchsafe that if I scrutinized the personel of the two jazz categories I would recognize more of the sidemen. Of the heal diners I prefer the ones from my gen rather than the old timer, Brian Blade,
1. LANDMARKS Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band [Blue Note Records]
2. TRILOGY Chick Corea Trio [Concord Jazz]
3. FLOATING Fred Hersch Trio [Palmetto Records]
Field 10 – Jazz
Category 34 Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new ensemble jazz recordings.
1. THE L.A. TREASURES PROJECT The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra [Capri Records, Ltd.]
2. LIFE IN THE BUBBLE Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band [Telarc International]
3. QUIET PRIDE: THE ELIZABETH CATLETT PROJECT Rufus Reid [Motema Music]
4. LIVE: I HEAR THE SOUND Archie Shepp Attica Blues Orchestra [ArchieBall]
5. OVERTIME: MUSIC OF BOB BROOKMEYER The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra [Planet Arts Recordings]
4. ENJOYTHEVIEW Bobby Hutcherson, David Sanborn, Joey DeFrancesco Featuring Billy Hart [Blue Note Records]
5. ALL RISE: A JOYFUL ELEGY FOR FATS WALLER Jason Moran
Jason Moran I met as he and Henry Butler were on the Billy Taylor show together during my term.
Note that Motema Jane Herzenberg’s label picks up another three or total of five I think noms.
She lost her dad who along with her mom started a ran a very successful and lucrative lab at Stanford for many years she also plays under the name Jane Herzen.
10.
I ended up calling Jana Herzen, who was known as Jana Herzenberg when she was Stanley Jordan’s classmate at Gunn, and was production manager of Spangenberg but not in the jazz combo, and she confirmed that she got 5 grammy nominees and we schmoozed for a minute as she and her mom drove around town, having just landed from Tokyo where her famous genetics lab dad was feted posthumously. Hmm. there goes the blog post. Gotta run. I am filing here from basement or “A deck” of 250 Hami, and I bragged of maybe getting a Oacacan brass band to play here in a couple hours. Interrobang.
11, or edit to add, or I am going to get a parking ticket if I don’t stop:
Leonard Herzenberg’s wiki lists Jana Herzen his daughter in the music biz but editors of the wiki for Paul J. Cohen the mathematician to LH’s genetics keep redacting the part of his sons Steve and Eric Cohen of “Ally McBeal” fame. What’s up with that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q86U3k1BiKI 1.This joint has 18,000 views: I am also trying to suss out the relationship between Golem, a Jewish New Music Group I saw at SXSW in 2009 and talked to — they were playing with Pura Madre — and this group. There is something about Ry Cooder making some notes, and they used it. Betto Arcos of Berkeley, a Mexican-American promoter and dj, helped this tour, and did a broadcast on NPR or PRI. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NhjwuREluA They played Skirball in LA, upcoming at Mexican Museum in Chicago and Barbez in Brooklyn. Vaya con dios! Or as A.D. would say, “Well, everybody trip…” Actually I put out a flyer to have this group swing thru Palo Alto — Oaxaca, Oaxaca’s Sister City — on their way to Berkeley but yo lo duda. Vamos a ver. (I like that line: Vamos a veer). Se puede desayunar which means either “stuff of dreams” or “whats for breakfast?” 2. Meanwhule, If I cannot find the bridge, Jewlia Eisenberg in a duo with a cantor’s grandson performs a little gallery at 708 Montgomery –near where Ginsburg wrote Howl at 1101 Montgomery, near where I started a short-lived activist cell, The Revolver Group, at 1100 Montgomery aka 400 Vallejo, near that old school defunct restaurant that was in a Hitchcock movie and the bachelor party for my bro — put on my Meridien in Exile. I caught up to Jewlia aka Charming Hostess after years of mere fandom — it started with Glenn Smith of KSZU if that dates it — a couple years ago at David Katznelson’s pop up in the outer Mission. I wanted to fly her to Chicago to perform for the Morton and Edna Weiss Judaica Collection at something Israel. Anyways, mazel to Jewlia. bueno el titjlo maromero se cabs bien Como metaforo end que el grupo de9 musicos hacer o negociar Una balanza De neuve y Antigua, De naive y savvy estupido y listo, Como el o Ella an el circo andando peligrosamente subir LA gents, confundo trapeze y highwirs. And also this is randomish — the promoter of this also produced a Golem show, and Golem I just wrote to to help me track down this miracle show today here in PA — globalquerquepa or glopalqueque — worked with Fred Eaglesmith and I am mad that when he played the Cub and i think we have a board tape he played as
a duo with Ralph I think his sidekick name but here he plays with skirts:
I ran into Andrea Pritchett at a folk concert in SF and got her card. I suggested she could do a one-woman show, a combination of song and story. My understanding is that she is a musician and bandleader, The Rebecca Riots, who supported Martin Sexton at the Cub years ago, and a teacher and a former Cal Student and probably graduate and an activist. Copwatch monitors Berkeley police and tries to support the police commission there.
Here in Palo Alto I tend to speak out for public safety unions and chat up our Chief Dennis Burns when I can, but am generally critical about leadership in recent years and do have this vague perhaps naive notion that we can normalize and demilitarize public safety here.
I think the Ferguson thing is more about class i.e. how we do or do not support the poor than about ethnicity.
I don’t think athletes, pro or college should reference some of the worst incidents in public safety and law enforcement, but I may be a pollyana here. I identify in certain ways with Oscar Grant and think the system responded to the tragedy. And I always believe its better to have a system that errs on the side of letting the guilty walk than one that locks up the innocent.
And I think people like Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative out of Birmingham, AL are right on that Gideon is not being enforced here, the rights of the accused, the right to fair trial.
I am pasting in something from Berkleyside about Cal Women’s hoops, two photos. And I do hope to catch up with Stanford’s reaction to all this, which I only caught part of.
Here is a letter Andrea wrote to the local media, 10 years ago, around the time I first met her:
As a founding member of Copwatch, I feel that I must respond to the misperceptions, misinformation and false notions that appeared in an opinion piece entitled “South Berkeley resident speaks out on Cop Watch,” (January 29, 2002).
The author of this letter seems to have given Copwatch quite a bit of consideration, but has not actually spoken with our members or read our literature. She seems to be operating in the belief that Copwatch is simply against the police on principle.
Within the movement for police accountability, citizens who advocate for independent, civilian oversight of police have often been characterized as being “anti-police.” This simplistic representation of our analysis of police misconduct does a disservice to Copwatch and to the police.
Within many professional law enforcement organizations nationally, there is support for civilian oversight of police. In fact, many police officers have come to believe that community involvement in oversight is essential, especially when we consider how difficult it is for officers who witness misconduct to “blow the whistle” on their fellow officers.
I agree with the author of the letter when she says that Berkeley is “NOT Los Angeles, not even Oakland”. Berkeley citizens voted to establish one of the first Police Review Commissions in the country in 1973, and since that time, there has been a long line of citizens who have invested countless hours into making sure that brutality and misconduct did not become common practice as it has in some other communities.
For the last twelve years, Copwatch volunteers have dedicated themselves to the task of monitoring police conduct. This kind of community oversight helps to explain why Berkeley cops are held to a higher standard of conduct.
Copwatch is made up of volunteers. We are teachers, students, office and construction workers, doctors, artists and others.
We train members of the public in non-violence techniques, observation methods and relevant aspects of the law. We train our members to deescalate situations where possible, not to interfere and to practice non-violence at all times (no verbal put downs, don’t run, keep your hands visible, etc). I must confess that I was shocked to read the paragraph in which the author claims that some officer on the BPD had taken two of the “main leaders” of Copwatch to the hospital to be treated for heroin overdose. This claim is not only untrue, but I fear that it is an effort to “kill the messenger” for carrying the unpleasant information that yes, police misconduct persists in Berkeley to this day.
We at Copwatch have brought incidents of misconduct to the attention of the Police Review Commission and had allegations sustained. We have challenged and ultimately changed policies that we perceived to be unjust or ill considered. We have conducted countless “Know Your Rights” workshops in an effort to educate the public and to defend our basic civil rights. We have provided support and referrals to victims of misconduct. We are currently investigating claims that the Berkeley Drug Task Force has been using excessive force as a means of carrying out drug suppression efforts.
I am glad that the author has had positive experiences with members of the Berkeley Police Department. However, that is not the experience of all Berkeley residents. Copwatch receives many complaints of misconduct each week especially from people who live in south and west Berkeley.
As a school teacher, a twenty year resident of Berkeley, and someone who cherishes the Bill of Rights, I will continue to observe police, speak out against injustice and work for a better Berkeley.
Andrea Pritchett
Co-founder of Copwatch
and 1:
Ward Sutton, often syndicated in Metro, has for the Globe Dec 15 “Do The White Thing” take on all this. Here
Ms. Pritchett is in the middle, between Eve Decker and Lisa Zeiler about five years ago, playing the harmonica:
continuation, or i jumptheshark:
when I said hello to Andrea I said she had played opening for Cheryl Wheeler but she corrected me that is was Martin Sexton she opened for or supported. It was both. And fact-checking that brings me to a PAW article about soccer standout Callie Withers whose artwork I saw in Gunn Oracle and licensed for the show:
Besides her standout soccer performances as a center midfielder at Gunn High School, Withers is also a talented artist. Her mixed-medium artwork recently caught the attention of Mark Weiss at Earthwise Productions. Weiss is a Palo Alto-based concert promoter who hosts many shows for up-and-coming music performers at Cubberley Community Center Theatre.
Weiss had seen one of Withers’ drawings featured in Gunn’s student paper, The Oracle, and promptly arranged for a meeting with Withers. Withers’ piece, a pencil sketch of an old woman’s face juxtaposed with baby cutouts, was used to publicize last Friday’s concert at Cubberley featuring Cheryl Wheeler, Rebecca Riots and Allette Brooks.
“I wanted to give a young female artist from the community a chance to be represented in an event that featured other women artists,” Weiss said. “I saw this piece and it clicked as a good concept for the marketing of this event.”
And what was Withers’ reaction to her untitled work being featured?
“I guess I was kinda surprised,” she says modestly. “I didn’t think my work was that good to be in something (for Earthwise).”
The Rebecca Riots if memory serves has to do with a political reaction to some early feminist battles. I did nail that the band, according to their bio was called “Final Girl” about the weirdness of feminism or lack thereof in slasher horror films, there was often one final victim, female, but the author of that book or treatise did not want a band to use her term.
I would rather sick a harmonica player on a problem than tear gas or stun guns. And I kinda wonder about the cost of putting cameras on police. Seems like pork to me. I thought I read in recent paper that in San Mateo they are putting $1 million into cameras but it comes out $5,000 per unit. I’d rather invest in good people not the gear. As in, Andrea Pritchett without harmonica if needs be.
There was also the potential to explore the addition of a major public benefit through a regional community theater
In section 5a of the official response — required by state law — to the Santa Clara County Grand Jury Report of June 16, 2014, we fail to connect the dots, to say the least:
What is the relationship between Arrillaga trying to buy the property he has been leasing from us and his desire to build an office tower on parkland and a community center (also known as MacArthur Park Restaurant and or El Camino Park, or 27 Uni)?
Why did City Staff and Council try to mis-lead the public, with full cooperation from the Press (Weekly, Daily News and Post) about “the theatre” or “Theatreworks” as opposed to “Office towers” per se?
(It is a secondary matter as to why Theatreworks, a private non-governmental organization, would so willingly play the dupe here, beyond just their private gain: why not just start their own campaign to move downtown?)
The backstory, and I may be the only person with significant background here, and or an incentive to be heard or have closure, is that the Arrillaga project and staff’s spin on it, or shaping of it, overlapped with the public interest and outcry and petitions about some type of public-private partnership to bring live arts to nearby 456 University (aka The Varsity Theatre). My understanding is: Amy French of City Staff heard the arguments about the desire to get something going at 456 and used that sense to help Arrillaga proceed with his otherwise ridiculous project. The implication is that beyond ramming down our throat an unpopular idea, or tricking us, we also despite a public “lets look into it” front deliberately scuttled the idea of finding a cultural tenant for 456.
I think Pat Burt and Greg Schmid should go back to drawing board and make our official response take into better account the assertions I make here. And I think Jim Keene the City Manager should have more of a fear of God or Democracy and be less like some kind of scion. How many more will he add to his team?
I don’t think the rest of us not in leadership, and there may be 50,000 of us to their 50 or 75, think we have considered fully the significance of the GJR.
Posted by Mark Weiss
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
0 minutes ago
I still wonder what is the connection between the 7.7 deal and 27 Uni?
Also, I may be alone but I think we need to discuss how or why staff and council took the interest in 456 Uni, The Varsity and used that to push thru or push for 27 Uni: we added the Theatreworks element, after hearing people like me lobby for a public-private partnership for a cultural use of The Varsity. The initiatives overlapped, which is not obvious given the long dark period to start 27.
Web Link
I thought Burt and Schmid officially wrote the response: why aren’t their names on it? At the time I argued privately that Burt should not be allowed to work on this, but agreed to hold my tongue in deference to the Holman campaign for re-election.
This is really a job for the Feds as much as GJ. Its a RICO case (I’m not a Federal investigator but have a few friends who are. Actually Dennis Burns our chief went to high school with a famous federal watchdog and whistleblower named Kevin Ryan– we may need a guy of that stature to get this sorted).
1.
“I have no sour grapes and I don’t feel like I’ve been wronged,” Lavorato said. “But, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. We would have liked to have kept playing.”
“It’s bittersweet, I suppose,” said Lavorato. “It was a great year. How could you be upset after going 13-0? We won the Open. I think we are the best team in the CCS. I can’t say enough good things about our coaching staff and our kids and how wonderful they were and are.
“This was a special year. This might not happen again.”
(from Palo Alto Weekly coverage of Sacred Heart championship season, but not playing for the State Championships) And my comment on their board: I also referenced this topic in recent address to Open Forum PAUSD board
For the record, you give more coverage to how the coach of a private school in Menlo Park feels about not being invited to play in the post season than you give the entire 12 game season of Gunn of Palo Alto football. There are ten times more Palo Altans who follow Gunn football even in a losing season than live in Palo Alto and root for Sacred Heart.
This is a good story, but it should not displace Gunn.
The fact that there are no comments five days after publishing reinforces my point.
Congrats to Sacred Heart on your championship season.
2. And why does Bill Johnson seem to view development projects thru a rosy screen?
Another local paper reported that the bankruptcy documents showed that Miki was not actually McNellis’ tenant as much as McNellis fronted Miki $500,000 to run the grocery, making them more like partners.
Jim Baer, a consultant to Alma Village, told me this was not true, but I think since the Weekly continues to cover this story, or these stories, they might want to check on it, review the same document.
Is that sausage on the grill or another Grand Jury report I smell?
And I agree with the poster above who thinks also of the stinky History Museum story — we are allowing a particular developer an additional $10 M in TDR somehow related to deal per se — in the same breath here. WTF?
I got the news, from City of Palo Alto that Peter Kageyama is booked to either speak, read from his book or maybe it’s a clinic, soon, this winter. Sounds pretty good, but I wonder the backstory. And dear me I hope they pay him less than the $160,000 they are paying the two flunkies who are birds learning to prey I mean tweet. (That’s a Sondheim reference for the occasional Philistine and hater making his way to Plasty).
I never heard of Peter until 12 minutes ago. He is a protegee it seems of Richard Florida “Creative Capital” or “Creative Class” I read the title into the record once, apropos of the failure of leadership to work to get 456 University the historic and beloved Varsity Theatre onto the cultural inventory.
He is from Akron, Ohio so I rang him and am suggesting he kick back a wee amount to get Ralph Carney to tweet some excellent clarinet sounds in between interstices of the program. I don’t speak for Ralph, I just play hunches.
God does not play dice with the universe but Weiss sticks his little plastic…
I would have preferred producing a lecture by George Packer, on “The Unwinding…”
I wrote yesterday cautioning about the public sector, especially our suspiciously unrepresentative and unresponsive one, the subject of a Grand Jury report, producing content. For instance, we spend $2 Million plus to revise (I say “gut” and “flush”) our Comprehensive Plan, part of the Our Palo Alto campaign, an all-time great euphemism.
We also have a $200K spin meisteress Claudia Keith, a mesmer.
I thought it downright bizarre that in order to develop the former Roth Building at the former Palo Alto Clinic we have to, if you believe Pat Burt, let the Thoits descendants add another $10 M of value to the fully-leased buildings (including Bryn Walker, House of Bagels) they are tearing down and re-building. The default should have been: Arts and Culture Division buys or condemns the building and we the people run it.
I think it equally bizarre that Palo Alto Little League is run by people who want to make them selves useful to a huge corporation and that trumps baseball per se. Why not ask Alex Blandino, who told me he played four seasons there, to set aside part of his $1.7 million Cincinnati Reds contract to subsidize the league, if regular Palo Altans truly cannot afford it anymore. Or Joc Pedersen. There is no center field foul pole in baseball, peeps.
If Kageyama is merely another toy of the build-build-build Billionaries I will be pretty disappointed. Begs the question: who booked him?
edit to add, already:
Packer has 513 reviews, while Kageyama has only 15 total. Richard Florida, for “Rise of the Creative Class” has only 80. This does not look good.
Let’s see if he returns my call. PK
and1: here is a clue: Jim Keene tweeted this in April:
Peter Kageyama ends #TLG2014 on the highest note. For the Love of Cities!!!
To what extent is Palo Alto even a city?
We have a billion-dollar-per-year-each-year commercial real estate industry drooling in our soup, sure, but there is probably a remote patch of desert in Saudi Arabia with a billion dollars worth of pumps but that does not make it Savannah, GA either.
And2: Kageyama tweets of this, and it has interesting set of sources. Times article recently about where college grads want to live and why. (And I had proposed to Michigan gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer that I write a white-paper about the feasibility of artists moving to Detroit based on meeting one graduating Stanford student, a singer, who thought about moving there. I lost $600 on the proposition in that Southwest Air will not let me re-use the funds of my missed or cancelled or “no show” flight, not to mix causes).
edit to add two months later: one, I did get a return call from peter kageyama and chatted him up for a few minutes. Two, I will try to take in his talk tomorrow, Friday Feb. 20, 2015 at Mitchell Center but three I also wrote to the Mayor suggesting his purported $5,000 fee is too much, and better spent on the arts.
The City Council has approved a $160,000 contract with Ash Ahmad and Kate Stoodley, flunkies from what I would call old school Fourth Estate and pr, dba Comment Ground, to help Jim Keene, our city manager, Claudia Keith, our media guru or something — spin doctress — and Lt. Zach Perron learn to tweet more efwectively.
What, Daffy Duck not afwailable? Suffering sucker-stash!
This is actual content generated by our public servants:
Ducks (they like the storm):
Deer (they like the storm, too):
I want transparency in city leadership, not layers of spin and consultants.
The public sector should not be generating content. Leave that to us wags. Ok-way?
(Or call me and let me hire $160,000 worth of better musicians to play our Twilight and Brown Bag series — for those numbers we could get Matt Nathanson, and maybe Elvin Bishop. For the social media lessons, I would rather hire a Jordan or Terman kid for $16/hr…and there’s more: the electronic version of the staff report does not even let us open on to “Exhibit C” where the slickees/flunkees from SF supposedly reveal their hourly rates…Blame Khash Alaee or Chris Anastole of Staff and your favorite “New Residentialist” council-member)
BLUF, and I got this from Michael McFaul my long-ago Deadhead buddy although he is not in McNally but George McGovern is, BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT, as I was packing up to zip off to the movies — either “Gone Girl” for the Reese, or “Dumb and Dumbererer Too” for the HBO “The News Room” comparison — I chatted up Stanford sophomore Conor Schram a 135-lb wrestler from Pittsburgh, who is taking a course on the media and I suggested he see “The Foxcatcher” and interview Chris Horpel about it: life is a movable feast if you keep your eyes and ears set to vibrate.
This song started playing just then. A “red dog” is football for “everybody go” or as Adam Duritz the huge Cal Football fan say: “everybody freak”. And who does not believe me that I jump up from my table at Ada’s Cafe in Palo Alto and turn 360 degrees towards North, East, South and the West and flap my arms and snap?
Also: Ted Gioia, now absconded to Texas and thusly not avails for my January 25 PAHA History of Jazz Shindig, did write for PTT about Mingus at Keystone June, 7, 1979.
Ry Cooder’s String Cheese incident
Ry and Pasatono Orquestra de Oaxaca, he suggested, according to Andrew Gilbert, that they add trumpet to their Mexican folk music ensemble, which also includes clowning and circus music.
did a show with Golem, i’ve seen.
did they play SXSW?
How did Andrew get the tip?
Hi, Andy, or Andrew. Palo Alto not Berkley is Sister City of Oaxaca, Oaxaca, assuming and big if that Pasatono Orq migrated from rural to their urban whereas Berkeley Sister Cities has or had a Borneo long-house community, so I feel left out and empty that I have to drive to hear this, and am tempted to raise some pronto dough and try to lure them thru Palo Alto for a nooner on their way to F&S. Is there an agent or promoter beyond Ruben? Probably too late but tempting.
How did Andrew get the tip? He’ll never tell. But he lets on thusly to wit:
Arcos has arranged numerous concerts for Pasatono in recent years, including events connecting the band with Oaxacan communities in Southern California. But it was a very different kind of concert at the Getty Center in Los Angeles two years ago to which he invited Ry Cooder. At that point, Pasatono had just one circus tune in the mix.
“When I called Ry to ask him what he thought a few weeks later he said I really think they ought to concentrate on the circus stuff,” Arcos recalls. “He also said they should include a trumpet. That’s Fellini. The horn is very visual and playful, with a great tragic quality. I translated the comments to Rubén and he laughed, saying I can’t believe we’re on the same page. He said the only reason we didn’t include trumpet is because of the budget, but I’ve seen photos of Oaxacan circus band where there’s trumpet. Everything came together.”
Bette Arcos I think is KPFA regular.
And I told the Freight Box person, Elaine?, that there was in my dreams a F&S2, in Palo Alto, at the old New Varsity — Steve Baker was set to tour it, but his son broke an ankle and a soccer game and we’re still healing, waiting, Buddy Hollying. I think I mean Crying Waiting Hoping
they are playing skirball.
do they have an agent?
Oaxaca Oaxaca?
Musical ambassadors for the state if not the capital…
Oaxaca string cheese is there a better name for it?
Quesilla, en Espanol quesa que dehebrar, hebra means strand or string:
Oaxaca, also known as Queso Oaxaca, Asadero or Quesillo is a Mexican name for a semi-soft, white, string-type, Hispanic-style cheese made from cow’s milk. Belonging to the pasta filata family, similar to a Mozzarella, Oaxaca is a stretched curd cheese, kneaded and sold in long ropes gently wound in balls.
(but it is proprietary to Plasty that someone would link String Cheese Incident the musical group to this Oaxacan circus orchestra, no)
2.
effigy versus billboard liberation vs. ready-made
hate crime racial incident
does it matter the category of the creator or author?
cf Gunn High graffitti hate crime
I like Dinkelspiel and Berkeleyside — want to reach out, i may have already
more of my observations about Shelby Sinclair
Don Cherry playing flute outside the cell of Angela Davis, circa 1968
3.
South Park Redskin mash up: because the Redskins copyright is cancelled, they could use the logo in their tv show, about a start-up stealing that name, for borrowed interest. And drew a penis and breasts on to it, for good measure. (then had two of such creatures engaging in arguably non-consensual intercourse)
a little misconstruable
Andre Cramblit
cf. palo alto bad billboard art
cf cristina valezguez in a closet at cubberley “training cetner’
4. Cal Hi Sports
montage of 60 images from the season
Sacred Heart, if your kid does not go there, why root for them?
compare to De La Salle??? Notre Dame
Josh Stern of Paly
Lance Armstrong?
5. missed Jeff Parker
Charlie Hunter
Jeff Charlie Hunter Parker
ois 303 779 6032
insert photo here, it is an old number for blues guy Otis Taylor or his former number, I’ve tried various versions of it.
6. PAHA jazz
mohini rustagi
esther berndt (performing Tuesday 12/16 at CoHo after Warriors game, with Bill Young)
joey oliveira
the dr who booked miles davis
talk to danny in person if he cannot attend..see his clips or flyers.
george winston
will ackerman
dan adams
jason olaine
charles mingus in palo alto tribute
dick fregulia
fair fair and credit
full faith and credit big band
more gioia
dude from nearby, wrote about linus and lucy, wizard of menlo park,
list of venues
akira tana
7. rebotted at STanfrod Tressider CoHo Starbucks
A Long Strange Trip by Dennis McNally, 2002, paper, $20
today’s Merc, for “Finished: 49ers postseason hopes vanish in Seattle as attention turns to future of Harbaugh: by Cam Inman
Chron, “Down and out: Dreamy 1st half turned gloomy and removed any Harbaugh mystery” by Scott Ostler
a disc of photos by Norman Pearl of Burlingame, although my computer has no disc drive
“nice day for a stroll” chapbook by Matt Bowling, PaHA, $10
Chron sports section from 12/2/14 about “Coach evasive on his future” by Eric Branch, the one about the recessive gene for worry
stuffed into a notebook that has exactly six entries, from recent weeks
a totally full notebook my day book, Aug. 6, 2014 thru Oct 25 of this year, seems like a whiles ago
“A brief history of time” borrowed from PA Library my next stop
j. LaDoris Cordell lead of Chron, by Melody Gutierrez, “Secrecy of grand juries blasted: Calls grow for openness in handling police killings
k. full page ad, center for the art of translation CATranslation.org
l. Irene Dalis 1925-2014 Opera San Jose did not know her
m. i am late to notice 12/13/14, had to check my watch, re parking restrictions, that today is 12/15/14, but in Europe it is 15/12/14 right?
n. am i the only person trying to think of MO as class not race?
o. IPO valuations are out of control, by Brian Hamilton, of Sageworks?
p. kudos to Frances Dinkelspiel of Berkeleyside, best news source in the Bay area?
q. Sen ElizabethWarren at op ed opposed to the bill?
r. accoridng to Matier and Ross, EA of Redwood City is hosting a private meeting about Olympics ’24
s. next to “Beatboxking cellist keeps them coming for more” by Mike Kepka, cf Garchik, with big photo of Joey Chang of Mountain View, who appeared in the Palo Alto street fair several times, 2009 to 2013, 50 Mason Social House in the Tenderloin; Joey Chang, 34, of El Cerrito; Cello Madness Congress;
t. off line, off this line, Hershel Yatovitz texts me from Chicago.
u. “Saving mY Tomorrow” HBO earth-day-lean-in, with Willie Nelson, TMBG, Ziggy Marley
v. Soundbox at Symphony space venue
w. Gone Girl at 12:20 at Redwood 20
v. Garchik on Larry Baer 18 to life? and this is my 20th post in this list?
y. gave up Ms. Moskovitz story to Leah Garchik….I’m a bad, bad man.
i would only go to Gone Girl because Reese is producing; has a different vibe than Strayed
z. book at Keplers about 33 artists in 3 acts or something, I want to compare to Tom Robbins art writer anecdotes; I also wanted to compare how many sports writers former editor s of best sports writers vs. editors of best essays; I counted 14 of 24 of the sports guys and all guys pretty sure.
a.a. was gonna list the 14 classmates of Mrs. Creighton, 1976, courtesy of SB
a.b. I called Garchik because she started and ended her column with weed stories; Bizarro meanwhile had an eskimo getting a chocolate kiss shaped like a human nose;
a.c. wariors at 16 in a row, 21-2 overall, Tuesday in Memphis. dont I have a buddy who works for the Grizzliers”
a.d. Scott Osler is the fifth horseman of the Apacoloyse: “The end is going to be ugly and painful and unpleasant for all concerned No way around it; It all unraveled for good on a cool, clear afternoon in the city the 49ers love to hate; come to think of it, I better find an open mic this week to do the last installment of Harbaugina Monolgoue? Freight? (who is having Oaxacan Circus Music Wednesday?)
a.e. speaking, as I did to Garchik, about Peninsula roots of Chang, Tom Stienstra “Barbarians Snobs Imitators” 30th anniversary edition has a nice ring to it. And he was busted for growing dope, Steve Staiger flashed to, the other day at PaHA.
a.f. Mike Riley, OSU coach in Jake Curtis: did he get fired or promoted or moved on?
a.g.how many college teams can I name of top ten NBa scorers — Moses malone -none; Jabbar, UClA, Malone, Utah State, played against my teammate Lockhart of UTEP; Kobe none; Jordan UNC and Jim Yardley told me about him; Wilt, Kansas?; Shaquille LSU and they gave his dad a job; Elvin Hayes, Houston, played against UCLA Walton, but now I forget where he played pro, also Houston? Dirk,Germany? Hakeem, obviously I am confusing Hakeem, who I saw posed he other day with Dartmouth grid legend Murray Bowden(owns half of Houston) with Elvin. Elvin played Baltimore Bullets?
a.h. the other cool thing about South Park Redskins is their grid of NFL owners, inc Mike Brown of the Bengals , now 9-4-1 and shut out Browns, new Browns anyhow 30-0 I should text congrats to my classmate Katie Brown Something. first Bengal shutout since 2008.
a.i. Dez Bryant caught 3 TDs which is a good omen for Stanford’s Devon Cajuste since that’s his favorite player, he told me, once, at Sam’s on Uni, the night he scored 3 TDs himself v. Army; Stanford favored by 14 v. Maryland, (48); my dream is to sit in box with Mayor of Palo Alto or press box, thanks to Plastic Alto coverage of Gunn football; and Cajuste and Williamson;
a.j. article on list of Bowl Games and history;
a.k. Delasalle plays Friday 12/19 against Centennial Corona of Riverside County.
a.l. Jeremy Lin, pride of South Palo Alto, got 8 points and 6 assists in 20 min for laker win v Minnesota; I found a clip unfiled and unfurled at Earthwise Ifnormation Repository with a picture of Brian Baskauskas as player of the week and Jeremy as honorable mention;
a.m. Cindy Lee Garcia wants Youtube to take down video of her which upsets militants?
p.1 lead of Merc, by Howard Mintz;
a.n. Affordable Care Act year 2 starts enrolling Nov. 15 thru FEb. 15, by Tracy Seipel
a.o. Edit: County must see housing as its mission: pro-developer tripe? Tuesday’s board meeting, cf Cindy Chavez.
a.p. Big Tobbaco at Stanford, op ed by Donald Bentley, m.s. 1982
a.q. SJSU basektball team played without five suspensions, reminds of V-12 players at Dartmouth 1944, in odd ways;
a.r. the Merc reports there are 21 comparable or better streaks that Warriors at 16, topped by Lakers, 1971 33 in a row. Eleven of the 21 won titles those years. Ok, if we get to 20 odds go to three-fourths.
a.s. Fuzzy Thurston who was not actually a classmate of PAUSD prexy Glenn Bill Max McGee at Dartmouth, died at 80; I showed Max our Max a photo of SI cover of his namesake, from above urinal at Old Pro, when Juliana Lee donated $50,000 (of her purported $3 mill in commissions) to PIE.
a.t. I started to say: Andrew Luck led team to 2nd division title as Ryan Fitzpatrick of Los Gatos and Harvard broke his left leg, dumb luck.
which reminds: am I seeing Gone Girl or Dumb and Dumber too?
u. HBO’s News Room kinda jumped shark with Jeff Daniels and friends playing acoustic jam when I get to Memphis. (but Nina Simone comes on radio 12:18 at Starbucks with Dylan’s Tom Thumb Blue
that’s my transit
edits and adds:
i. searching-injuns:
When 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern asked the Dead to play the White House if he were to win, the Dead responded, “We won’t play until you legalize marijuana.”
Richard Simon on MTV site, at the time
ii. I also apropos of above, texted a photo of M. Ward of She and Him on Tonight to Hershel based on the killer guitar solos on that old school guitar
iii. I did write to Andrew Gilbert and then Betto Arco probably to no avail.
iv. Mike Riley will coach for Nebraska, I added already elsewhere in Plasty. Congrats. 61
v. Norman Bridwell creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog died today at 86 but I am sussing the term “red dog” meaning all defenders attack at once, the football jargon (and I do have a brief item about Greg Brown Julie Brown, a Oaxacan carving I saw and Mark DiSuvero, recentemente)
vi. in this brief history of my blog I am forgetting why exactly I changed from Ry Cooder meets String Cheese Incident meets Oaxaca cheese reference to Red Dog a term for blitz a term for in my mind abundance, but there is also a Bud “Red Dog” Ettinger who apparently invented the linebacker blitz and had red hair and there is the “South Park” parody of Dan Snyder and the Washington football team whose offensive mascot lost its copyright protection so that even Comedy Central can either parody or pirate it, a Moser of the Post comments:
And then it gets real bad when, before a game against the Dallas Cowboys, Snyder gives a pep talk to his discouraged team.
“We cannot give up,” he says. “We have been through too much together. We have fought Eagle and Bear. And the Eagles only beat us by 3 points! … Don’t let them break you — don’t let them win!”
Spoiler alert: The Dallas Cowboys then play “a lone Redskin” — Snyder in an Indian headband. Alone on the field, he is repeatedly crushed by Dallas squad.
additional note number roman numeral vii: the subtle Counting Crows lyric allusion is botched above: “well, everybody trip” is the line from “Hanginaround” a top 5 hit from 2002 or so; I dig the song because my cousin Craig “Bip” Ruda sings background and claps on recording and my then client Stew does so on the tour; and when the man goes “everybody trip” the musicians ad lib some dance moves, fast cheap and out of control. This is about the fifth Crow reference out of 1,000 plus posts. And I read but did not paste in two passages, one about his anxiety in recent years, or admission of such and I forget the other. About the making of the album, with all the guests spot. More than any other pop figure, Adam Duritz is my guy, my generation. It’s good he went to UC Davis not Brandeis or something, which would have pickled his herring. The one Feldman went to. The Jumbos or what not. Warriors, come out to play.
I wrote this, Palo Alto Mayor and Gunn grad Yiaway Yeh approved it, yet it somehow never found its way from electronic media to official parchment and presentation. (And thanks to Emmie and Julie for their comments and commitments: their kids! Wow! Mazel!)
And thanks to current Mayor Nancy Shepherd — mother of four who went to PAUSD schools but not Titanicly — for her recent pep talk for Chris Horpel’s current grapplers. It was fun watching 50 kids fall to the matt on cue and then pop up ready to roar.
Whereas, The Gunn High School wrestling team on February 11, 2012 grappled with, captured, pinned down and achieved, the team championship at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League meet, a contest comprising 15 schools, including Gunn and Palo Alto.
Whereas, Coach Chris Horpel’s grapplers that day notched one individual first, one second, six thirds, three fourths and one sixth-place finishes, enough to earn the overall win in a true Titan team effort, with 195.50 points.
In the regular dual meet season, Gunn tied for first with a 5-1 mark, its only loss to rival Palo Alto (who placed fourth overall at the finals meet), and finished 8-1 overall.
Standouts wrestlers for Gunn included Cadence Lee, Daniel Papp, Ian Cramer, his brother Eric Cramer, Julian Calderon, Casey Jackson, Marco Lopez-Mendoza, James Foy, Chris Jin, Sean Lydster, JJ Strnad, Harsha Mokkarala, — the League meet point winners — and Lucas Munro and Miko Mallari, and Stephen Martin, Aaron Davis, Tavor Baharav, James Perng, Michael Abramovitch, Derek Lai, Tommy Farley and Jessica Sun;
Whereas, the results all together constituted perhaps the greatest season in Gunn’s illustrious history, and the first league title since 1976, when under coach Bill Sperry Gunn won five consecutive titles in the SPAL.
The individual girls CCS championship also won by Cadence Lee, daughter of Gunn grad Dr. Emmie Fa, her second in two seasons, also put her in an elite class of Gunn CCS champion and State meet wrestlers, including Dwight Miller 1973 and 1974, and State placer Floyd Williams in 1976, CCS champs Dan Gebben in 1979, Zach Blumenfeld in 2009 and
Stefan Weidemann in 2011.
Chris Jin, senior wrestler and MVP at 145 pounds won the Titans only individual league championship while amassing a glorious streak of 29 wins to 4 defeats.
And whereas, for coach Chris Horpel, in his tenth Gunn season, after a previous stellar collegiate coaching tenure at Stanford University and UCLA, the championship is testimony to his vision, persistence, meticulousness and inspirational qualities,
and his leadership and mentoring of assistant coaches and alumni Kiyoshi Kawano, Jonas Haro, Tom Glenn and Derek Austin; and in consort with colleagues Sarah Stapp, athletic director, Tom Jacoubowsky, assistant principal and Katya Villalobos, Gunn Principal;
I (Yiaway Yeh), the first Titan graduate to issue such, do hereby declare this Mayoral Proclamation in honor of the Gunn wrestling championships of 2012.
Here is link to Butch Garcia photo of Nancy and I with Chris and principal Denise Herrman and the team.
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 
Ducks and deer cheer $160K additional coverage via Comment Ground of SF
The City Council has approved a $160,000 contract with Ash Ahmad and Kate Stoodley, flunkies from what I would call old school Fourth Estate and pr, dba Comment Ground, to help Jim Keene, our city manager, Claudia Keith, our media guru or something — spin doctress — and Lt. Zach Perron learn to tweet more efwectively.
What, Daffy Duck not afwailable? Suffering sucker-stash!
This is actual content generated by our public servants:
Ducks (they like the storm):
Deer (they like the storm, too):
I want transparency in city leadership, not layers of spin and consultants.
The public sector should not be generating content. Leave that to us wags. Ok-way?
(Or call me and let me hire $160,000 worth of better musicians to play our Twilight and Brown Bag series — for those numbers we could get Matt Nathanson, and maybe Elvin Bishop. For the social media lessons, I would rather hire a Jordan or Terman kid for $16/hr…and there’s more: the electronic version of the staff report does not even let us open on to “Exhibit C” where the slickees/flunkees from SF supposedly reveal their hourly rates…Blame Khash Alaee or Chris Anastole of Staff and your favorite “New Residentialist” council-member)