Detail. 2003 print and multimedia gift to Stanford Hospital of Peter Helen Bing near CDU critical decision unit which is like a buffer between admit and emergency and I got a little yellow sticker for having not visited Africa in last 3 weeks neithet
I just got noted that in Philly coming up, thanks to Mark Christman’s excellent Ars Nova series, two great jazz or out music events.
The first is called Ballrog which is a Tolkein reference — the ballrog was a monster that I think fought Gandalf in the mines, it means “under-ground”, and was also, apropos of Jim Harbaugh in the previous post but not Chris Strausser in what launched most of this today, was once parodied in “Bored of the Rings” as “ball-hog” — and features, like Brunhilde, some Norse dudes.
The second is a Todd Sickafoos joint, The Bear (and that is not a Shakespeare reference?). It features, and this is my nut graph, the following players who appeared, but not all at once, and not with Todd per se as a whole, the following all of whom have appeared with or for Earthwise, 1994-2012, or actually more like 1999 to 2014 because it took me five years as a promoter to develop that good of an ear: Sickafoos, Allison Miller, Jenny Scheinman, Ben Goldberg, Adam Levy (appeared not at Cubberley, but at my brief series at Cabana, with Joey Baron and Steve Cardenas). Come to think of it, I think I sent random word to Adam Levy suggesting or asking something something.
Also, I rang Leah Garchik of the Chron yesterday to relate the story of taking Henry Butler to the 49ers game at the old Candlestick Park and what an ear he had for football; he exclaimed “he’s in!” about a 3rd-and-goal Niners effort; he could hear the fans reaction and pass it on to me before I could tell with my eyes AND ears the same thing. I told Leah, who identified me by voice or maybe voice AND caller i.d. but practically never uses my stuff, that I live vicariously thru her column; I missed the Ai Wei Wei show and VIP arts dudes tour and missed Steven Bernstein Henry Butler duo Hot 9 — the music of Jelly Roll Morton. I was busy putting on Earthwise@20 featuring Colin McMurty and Rachel Garlin; I had a mind to go see McMurtry at Hotel Utah but was literally oblivious to the show at SFJazz, I normally might have wanted to see. As I told Garchik: Bernstein’s “Diaspora Suite” debuted live at my Earthwise@15 at Bottom of the Hill in 2008, with, going full-circle, Goldberg and, in that case, Will Bernard AND David James on guitar; Steven kept saying “my new best friend, David James.” Goldberg, meanwhile, literally meanwhile, played September 20, 2014 that is to say two months ago with Taylor Ho Bynum a site-specific event called !Taylor Ho! in which Taylor a cornet player biked to the hit from SF, then post-event, which is the only one of his 12 or so hits to be performed in actual bike gear, he and I biked about four miles to corner of Foothill Expressway and Arastradero Road. I also told Garchik–whose seed she calls Jake has grown into a pretty decent bone player, regardless of whether he has or has not gone Ars Nova in the 215 — I would wager “yes” — that Steven and Henry met on set of Robert Altman “Kansas City” and that Steven could –literally, this is my third literally, fourth, just today, a new personal best or worst — it was also a Jane Fonda joke the other night on Aaron Sorkin “News Room” she claims the new dictionary definition of ‘literally” is “not literally” and that there is no other synonym for the old usage — Steven can sneak up on Henry – -who is blind, not since birth but crucially since a few days or weeks later, i.e. that is to say, he once saw some thing or things — and say “Hello, Henry” and HB can or will and does without syncopation or missing a beat reply “hello, Steven” — he recognizes that voice. Anywhere. On the road. In foreign countries should such roads rise up to meet them. Speaking of France, if you permit the digression, those fuckers — they actually asked at the airport Henry to remove his glasses to inspect his empty orbs, for purported security reasons. Then made it a point to seat us in the very back of the plane on the frog-jumper-alike between Paris and -The-Akron-of-France whatever it was called, where Michellin got started; they seated us in the back on the off chance the plane goes down you wouldn’t want a blind New Orleans piano player blocking your French egress. Gives new meaning to “did you see that S-car go?”
A clam was when I asked Henry if he could get out and direct traffic so that I could back into the crowd post-game my dad’s white Lexus. There were a lot of clams, those six months. But I did tell my parents “whatever else happens this is one of the best six months of my life”.
I also told Eric Hanson the mensch-agent (Nina Simone) that Henry with a flick of the wrist caned me in my testicles to protest my whistling or humming as a led him thru one of those airports. He asked me once, and I probably complied, to bribe two ladies who were searching his bags by gifting them each copies of the Basin Street release “The Game Has Just Begun”.
He shortly thereafter explained himself and shared some of his wisdom about proclivities of certain ethnic groups he can tell from her voice, too dirty for Plastic Alto even if I did say “fuckers” directly above. Use your other senses on this one.
And if Leah Garchik writes back four words, to my 929, “thanks for this info” I will scream.
If Henry Butler met this fellow traveler in an airport, he might say “Have you seen my Hot 9?”
Chris Strausser, OL coach and OG South Palo Altan
It took Chris Strausser five of those six years to have his biological clock and growth spurt catch up to his football ambitions — he was under-sized or maybe boyish — and did not start for Gunn or Terman at quarterback until senior year, fall 1981. He overtook Nick Sturiale and held off Chris Nelson and wound up 2nd or 3rd team all-SCVAL (to Jim Harbaugh’s MVP, for crosstown rivals the Paly Vikings). In a certain way, Chris Strausser for Gunn did reach a pantheon of Santa Clara Valley and Peninsula signal-callers and pass-chuckers that would include he, Harbaugh, John Paye (Menlo, Stanford, 49ers), John Capuzelo (three five touchdowns for Carlmont versus Mills, I covered for PTT) and Ben Bennett (Peterson, Duke, WFL?), and also various Morninweg’s not far from here, Oak Grove, Montana State I think and NFL coaching.
Chris, and I can swede in a picture of the lads at my Bar Mitzvah, played for Foothill JC and Chico State, coached for San Jose State (thanks to a family connection to John Ralston — Chris’ father played for Ohio State if that explains any of this, as a DB); Colorado, Boise State and now is in Seattle with his boss Chris Peterson.
I got to this today because I am on the early shift at Peet’s the former St. Michael’s Alley, and I ran into Mac Beasley, the father of Viking stalwart Mike Beasley, a former Cougars letterman at linebacker, meaning he played for Paly with Our Boy Jim then Pac-10 football up in Pullman. I remember the name and face of Beasley but only met him in recent years because Terry My Terry (Acebo Davis) is neighbors with Mac and Alexandra, and I re-introduced myself to Mike and got some Harbaugh “the Peacock” stories from him, when he was visiting his Pop. There’s also Matt Beasley, who I admit did more for Paly hoops than I did for the championship Titans and is my fellow Jazzworker, but I never until recently connected the names. Chris Strausser has a brother named Yale not sure why, perhaps conceived while reading Walter Camp’s biography?
Randy Yale Strausser was in my brother’s class and I don’t think either of them played football, my brother stopped playing two–on-two street touch football when he was about 12, although he did row some lightweight or novice at UCSD, and has remained reasonably fit to age 54 nearly enough.
I’ve seldom seen Chris Strausser and exchanged brief stories, mostly in the wake of the tragic death of another former Gunn signal caller, Danny McCallister, class of 1980 and an Oregon Ducks letterman at DB, who died in a work-related accident in Saratoga around Halloween, 2007, now seven years ago. A bunch of us met after the Gunn-Paly hoops game in January, 2008 to discuss raising a fund in his name, and Chris wanted to participate in that, we discussed.
I will have to update to explain the Apple Cup, Washington Huskies versus Washington State Cougars, this time in Pullman, but unless there is a monsoon I am predicting Huskies 45-21. (rainscore: 23-20, visitors). I read something somewhere about the cheap proliferation of College Cups for rivalries; and yes, albeit a tangent, I inaugurated the First Annual “Kings Cup” between the bitter rivals Palo Alto Firebirds and San Jose Hawks in the United States Interregional Soccer League, the Sizzle or Sirzle.
And1: solange to former Cubberley footballer, brother of Gunn footballer — and I asked him recently, the brother, “did you ever sack Harbaugh?” and he did not, unlike Jim Yardley, have specific memory or Shieldsian fabrication of such, Matt Liddicoat, John Liddicoat’s bro; Matt died suddenly at age 56 last month but I found a photo from happier times, his undergrad work in geology at San Luis Obisbo:
Matt Liddicoat, d. 2014
continuation: I left a voice mail for Brian Tom of the Huskies pr corps and remembered mid-message that I took Sam Rothstein, 15, to watch Huskies whoop Cal 31-14 or something and took a photo of the Huskies sideline, which I presume includes Chris Strausser somewhere, unless he is in the booth, I also shot. I said to Tom o his machine: “I surreptitiously rooted for y’all versus Cal”.
Among the 1,340 photos and 94 videos stored today and for months in my Motorola is this shot of Strausser at Memorial Stadium on 10/11/14 or exactly 36 years after our ping-pong/pool clash of the Titans to be and 4ever
And for bonus, in inimitable style here is another great Gunn quarterback, in the tradition of Strausser, McCallister, but predating them by a decade and one of only two championship years, SPAL not SCVAL, Akira Tana (Harvard, Ruth Brown, Rufus Reid) and a near-selfie at the Gunn50-50 event:
edit to add: happy Husky, 31-13.
and1: John Reid caught up to Strausser earlier in the season, regarding the Stanford game. What?! The writer for the Merc has more pull than the founder of Plastic Alto? (Actually, I left a voice mail for Reid suggesting the story; I had met Reid after seeing his bylines for years at the Gunn 50-50:
“I have a few Jim Harbaugh stories, but none that I want to share,” said Strausser, a 1982 graduate of Gunn High School in Palo Alto. “He was a competitor back then as he is now.” Chris, we can work that out later, as I resurrect or remount so to speak The Harbaugina Monologue.
and and: nearly two months later I left a second message trying to reach Chris Strausser — I had his old cell in my old phone, from his Boise days. They went to a Bowl game, as well. I said “congrats on an excellent season”. With the spotlight on Oregon (not Washington) made me wonder about something I did talk to Chris about, briefly, a benefit or fun to honor the legacy of another Gunn quarterback, Danny McCalister, who also played DB for the Ducks. And coinky, I am working on an Akira Tana matter in that he will speak on my jazz panel Sunday (1/25/15) for Palo Alto History Association.
Going for 2: I did talk to Washington Huskies Pac-12 assistant coach Chris Strausser today and will have to write a whole-cloth new account of that although I realize that my writing style is still a little Air Coryell or Martz variant even –overly complicated — and would benefit from being a wee bit more “three yards and a cloud of dust” — as E.B. White would agree, “omit needless words” — which I just realize is a Woody Hayes OSU thing although Chris corrected my memory: his dad attended and played some for Michigan his mother the recessive gene was the Buckeye, but after nearly 20 years coaching D-1 he does not think or himself as a fan of the Buckeyes but sure, admires and respects and in fact is himself –with Coach Peterson — striving for a National Championship, for the Seattle side. For his livelihood, his wife, his daughters. Chris said he played at about 5’11” 185 and I had at least enough self-control to not ask exactly how that his changed 25 years later, so I would say we are about the same size — he played receiver in the years that Sturiale was our quarterback, until senior year — although I would venture that Chris, by the nature of his work, around the gym, and athletes, and representing the Huskies, has stayed more fit that I have. Tip of the cap to ya, old classmate and friend.
He said it was okay to swede in the 1977 picture of the Terman crew, at Beth Am. He said to not embellish his achievements; I said Gunn Football tradition is under-rated and under-heralded, and ameliorating that is my goal, but I would be professional. I want to create interest in Huskies football, as well. Go. Terry and I will be in Seattle in April for her part in a group show at Wing Luke, and he said we should ring them.
But it is confusing to go from Danny Mac to Jim Yardley sacking Harbaugh, in context of Strausser, I admit.
There is a popular restaurant with regional cuisine and an impressive art collection highlighted by some Sudduth
Archibald maclish inspired war monument at sf opera & mark Weiss November 23 2014 before LA Boheme
I was working on a parody of Mark Ronson “Uptown Funk” the song that was on SNL; I was going to call it “Upzone Funk” about Palo Alto’s recent land-use debates and their impact on our recent elections.
Meanwhile I noticed an anesthesiologist from Oklahoma City who choreographs, leads and films a long-running and popular (180,000 subscribers) series of short films about dance, set to music of the top 40 or funky jams of the day. Her name, research indicates is Lauren Lee Fitzgerald, M.D. but on certain social media pages she is also Lauren Fitz of Co Motion.
I am tempted to try to reach her by phone and do an excloo for Plastic Alto.
She reminds me of Rupa Marya who is an oncologist and leads April Fishes, the rock band that sings in French, Spanish, English and Hindi and also performs acts of kindness in varying degrees on three continents and a dozen countries.
Both Rupa and Lauren Fitz are candidates in my world (Plastic Alto, which does occassionally interface with more established time-space-continuum) for Surgeon General. And I did briefly correspond with fellow Dartmouthian C. Everett Koop, who like Fitzgerald was known do get his funk on!
(I was briefly working on a parody of Taylor Swift “Shake it Off” — I mean to perform the lyrics and prose poems, not to sing or act them out.)
In my world, I switch out Michelle Pheifer for Elizabeth Wong, the landlordess. (Which begs, “Royals”, no?)
If you don’t believe me, just watch.
Backs went tearing by, gain by steady gain, Dartmouth Big Green wamps Princeton 41-10 to finish 8-2, 6-1 best finish in 17 years, second place to unbeaten Harvard and win #100 all-time for Eugene “Buddy” Teevens he of the five-pound-weight in his jock, circa 1970.
Nelson Perla Ward who helped Sacred Heart win
CCS just yesterday was once a star for Paly in water polo, and drew the ire of a Paly essayist
During his senior year at Paly, scholar athlete Josh Stern, now at Brown, describes seven cases of Paly athletes leaving for private schools (or PAUSD students) and two counter-examples, Keller Chryst and Tolbert, of blue chip players arriving from elsewhere to bolster the Vikings sports dynasty.
My response, I just posted, to his spring 2013 research and analysis:
This is a great story, Mr. Stern.
One ironic point is that Paly’s top 3 athletes that year, Floreal, B. J. Boyd and Dawkins, all live in Gunn district and transferred to Paly specifically to play sports.
One you missed is Alex Blandino, Jordan, St. Francis, Stanford and now Reds bonus baby, a shortstop.
Jeremy Lin: Kings Academy, JLS Paly, Linsanity: but Gunn students his former teammates and classmates held up indicting signs his senior year.
George Packer, Gunn 1976 and writer for the New Yorker notes in passing the rise of the private schools in the area relative to our still-excellent yet flagging public institutions.
But Paly poaching South Palo Alto athletes and dominating the use of Tinsley athletes is an under-told story and more prominent, this Gunn alum would say.
Perla-Ward winning CCS yesterday with Is Nothing Sacred? and then being quoted in the Merc is what prompts my sussing you out today, in 2014.
A lift from his article, published in April, 2013 Paly Vikings sports magazine and online:
Upon asking these athletes, a common thread emerged: It was generally not anything expressly negative about Paly that caused the athletes to transfer or enroll at other high schools. Rather, most can attribute the switch to educational reasons, personal connections with sports teams, recruiting and a variety of other factors. Many of these athletes have made names not only for themselves, but also contributed greatly to their schools, which include Sacred Heart Preparatory, the Menlo School, St. Francis, Bellarmine, Archbishop Mitty and many others. – See more at: http://vikingsportsmag.com/features/2013/04/26/what-if/#comment-50782
begs the question: where is Josh Stern today?
see also: I just rattled the fences privately to former mayor Greg Scharff recently re-elected and yes he got my vote and head of Community Service challenging the legitimacy on these grounds and historical about a JEREMY LIN PLAYED HERE sign at new $25 M Mitchell Center half-court. On one hand, it does emphasize the South Palo Alto roots of Mr. Linsane, but on the other it further glorifies and hagios (if that is a word) the story and he really needs to come clean and I would say apologize about dissing South Palo Alto and his careerism which started at age 14 apparently.
By Vytas M, for the Merc:
“We came into the season with a few goals, but we started checking them off and this was the last one,” said SHP senior Nelson Perla-Ward, who transferred from Palo Alto after his freshman year.
edit to add: my extensive research shows that Josh Stern the insightful Paly sports writer is also Josh Stern lacrosse stud and therefore by deduction Josh Stern freshman lacrosse star at Brown, which also triggers in the Plastic Alto reflux thoughts of the great and recently transferred out of this league Michael Carney of Mill Valley, who preceded Stern for the Bears by about 50 years and coached for many years, I think Tamalpais High and Terry and I met thru Beth Custer and toured his modern art collection. Solange Michael Carney, mazel tov Josh Stern and Jeremy Jeremy cue the Eddie Vedder wail, but I hear my bud and friend of Eddie Jerry Hannan: we have agreed, to a greed. By any means necessary.
and1: this is already hop-scotching more than a Floreal triple-jump but I sussed “Jeremy” lyrics –because it did sort of flash thru my mind — and will stick with the further-step “Society” greed-agreed pun rather than Jeremey spoke in class today But we unleashed a lion even though I was just thinking about the fact that Lin was on the Campanile and basically a columnist covering himself but somehow Harvard pr department then said he was “Editor” of the Campy. I would say “page editor” would have been more accurate. Haters gonna hate, of course.
drfrank69
But I was also toting a 1970 Esquire Magazine because it has Lt. Bill Calley on cover, the man who went nutzo in Vietnam and murdered a bunch of innocents. Who knew he was named “Rusty” of all things?
Flipping thru that book there was a Pat Kramer story about another Dr. Frank, the phrase popped out at me: Frank Ryan, the former NFL quarterback who played for the Cleveland Browns and the Washington Washingtons, and also earned a PhD in math. I mentioned to Portman that I might write something as if I was confusing the two “Dr. Franks”. Portman was a grad student in English when he started his career; his father helped build the famous Gilman Street or 924 Gilman, that launched among others Green Day. Nine-two-four I immediately note factors nicely to, um 3 times 308, or 2 x 3 x 154, or um 2 x2 x3 x 77. which is actually a really good football number, picture Deacon Jones I think chasing poor Dr. Frank.
I rang Steve Cohen I mean Eric Cohen speaking of twinned primes or primed twins as it were. And he did not know off the top of his head about Opperman’s conjecture regarding primes, from 1882, which is what Dr. Frank in Grafton Vermont is still pecking away at. At which he is still pecking, rather. An article says he has a box of books he is thinking of donating to either Dartmouth, 30 minutes away, or Yale he was their athletic director. Ryan played for Rice but got his doctoral at UCLA after being drafted initially by the Rams.
I want to ring that dude. It’s a red herring but I did ring the son of former Dartmouth boxing great and Hollywood stud Robert Ryan. The son is a prof up in Oregon.
Steve and Eric’s dad, Paul J. Cohen worked briefly on the Reimann, towards the end of his run. He became an immortal back in 1963 while living on Princeton Street in Palo Alto, at Stanford or nearby on the continuum hypothesis. He had to write to Godel to know whether he was on to something. Paul J. Cohen a couple years ago was honored at halftime of a football game, Stanford V. USC i think it was, Steve and Eric followed them on to field with camera for a documentary about the solving of the problem, or about problems of fatherhood per se and I actually from the top deck shot some useless footage. Isn’t that more typical, life as useless footage? Not to be droll.
Frank from the 650 meanwhile was puttering along with his songs until a NY based lit agent said “dude, I mean, doc, you know, like your songs song like teen lit?”
Frank said, in turning down a chance to perform for Earthwise@20: you don’t realize how hard it is to write these #@&^ books!
Joan Ryan I used to read, I think in the Globe but would have no reason to connect her to a QB. Makes me want to run to my brother’s house, my parents old house, where I lived about half my life, about 25 years — the one near the Stegners if you are a frequency of finding yourself on an integer so to speak, Plastic Alto out of the near infinite or very very large amount of data on the internet — and look for box of Topps Footballs. Do I have a Frank Ryan? I think I recently procured for about $5 a Jack Christianson. I also wonder if I have a New England or Boston Patriots Brian “B.D.” Dowling, he of Doonesbury fame. 
I also, dorklike or King Dork that I am, borrowed “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 speaking of primes” but did not realize that is was Blue Ray and I am green light.
Go, Dartmouth and Buddy Teevens right this minute against somebody we win and Harvard loses and we are co-champs.
Here I am send me which is a Hebrew prayer but I use it for football. See above.
(There’s also apparently another Dr. Frank Ryan who just made his last touchdown while tweeting about his dog, presumably not a bulldog, a plastic surgeon but not a White Grafton acrylic I would not think. And this is weird digression but: here on Shabbat please bless my friend the Dartmouth Rhodes fellow Dr. Joanna Morris of Hampshire College and her wee babes).
Frank, if you read this and say “Fun!” is that real, sarc1 or sarc2?
Keep on rockin’ in the free world.
Hold that ball and run away from big bad #77, let alone 2 x 3 of them, and either complete your pass, throw it away or step out of bounds.
I think it is taught and or instinct of sorts and not something a computer will help with, with due respect, sirs.
Also, Go Go Go Gunn Get Em Get Em Get Em Gunn X TWO for Gunn water polo CCS championships versus St. Francis today I will live to see lord willing and the creek don’t rise.
Ursula finally has tits.
this isn’t about you any more
edit to adit the next dayit: not sure who pat kramer is but roger kahn who wrote the article I was reacting with also wrote something earlier for Saturday Evening Post called “C-(Frank Ryan)/2”. It is anthologized somewhere else that search-injuns pick up and starts something like: “The two worlds of Frank Ryan meet in infinity” and he says Kahn that he does not remember what the equation as title is supposed to mean. Very Borges Y Yo, sez me.
edit to add, a few weeks alter: not only does he not have tie to play the Earthwise@20 or e@rthXXise but also has a new book to finish finishing and a show this sunday the 9th up in Oakland 1 2 3 4 Go Records 420 40th street or something easy to remember even when stoned and frank doesn’t 1,500 words approximating your story merit mention? King Dork Approximately
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/king-dork-approximately/Event?oid=4137262
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Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 