on our way home we saw these bells
The Royal Concept, formerly Concept Stop, was founded by David Larson and friends, is signed to Lava, booked by Marty Diamond, in 2012 or so, and he traveled the Central Coast recently, and posed for this photo. Terry took the bell shot.
While on the coast, we met this swedish rock star David Larson of The Royal Concept
I met David Larson of Royal Concept, his brother and his father, who were bird-watching, literally, winged friends, not cute girls at least in this instant, somewhere undisclosed on the Central Coast, halfway between LA-LA and Frisco.
He told me his agent is Marty Diamond and I told him that is the best agent in the business. That despite the fact that I tried to call on them, a courtesy call, when I was staying at Gramercy Park Hotel and I realized that they were a few doors down, and they said they were too busy. I think I later did shop them Kevin Cadogan’s post 3EB project, when Steve Fergussen (who I booked Frank Black thru) joined that shop. And then Little Big Man as they were called — Marty is 5-foot-2 — joined Paradigm behemoth.
There isa Paradigm Monterrey office, if that is not merely a coincidence.
I did say that pound for pound Tom Windish company (Windish Company) is the best for indie bands, not that Royal Concept should be discontent, nor should they shop around. Windish is about 5-foot-7 but punches above his weight.
They have a major label deal, for sure (Lava). And an A-list manager (used to do same for Prince). As we strolled and gawked at all the pelicans – -what are they feeding on, talk about frenzy — I did what to me is kinda weird and played part of their youtube jam: I was listener number 4 Million.
Earthwise of Palo Alto talent spotter Mark Weiss chats up the Larsons of Stockholm at a secret Central Coast meet up, Fall, 2014 photo by Carol Garsten
Later at San Miguel Mission I shot a random photo of a thank you note to a Mrs. Larson: weird Jungian synchronicity trip of mine. There is also Forrest Bubba Larson, the injured Gunn footballer.
I took the opportunity to name check Esbjorn Svennson. Larson said his first training was jazz, at university in Stockholm.
edita: check that, closing in on 5 million plays:
terry and i met thru bruce beasley not literally
This is only 9 photos, like the 9 players on baseball, and not 10 as promised but give me a break it’s 10:30 and Terry has to work in a.m. — the kid looked like Hack Wilson when dad tossed the BP at Addison recently
I, meanwhile, am still a little under-slept so its a little dicey, esp for “white cheddar” my 4-cyl Chevy (Terry says to take her bigger better Honda but I am old school, 3-gen Chevy guy and former Chevy salesman like my dad Paul E. Weiss and gramps and namesake (which I mouth “NAH mah sa KEY” like a motorcycle) Morton Benjamin Weiss, the founders or confounders of Midway Chevrolet in Chicago (along with Sam Katsin) and Key Chevrolet of Cupertino (sold to Cal: Go see Cal? He came and saw and kinda conquered us!)
I hope to come back Monday in time for the candidates rally at MLK Plaza 250 Hami.
I hope to post the other nine photos:
1. Kent Lockhart Marlinda Fitzgerald garden 3134 Greer — should be a historic inventory site;
2. Terry and I, watching the Giants at Tacolicous
3. Mundo the racquet stringer on his last day on Ramona. I had bought Terry some of these doughnut balls we love, from the market at Caffe Borrone in Menlo, but gave them to John Mundorff the racket stringing guy, on his last day, at NoLa.
I gave two tennis ball shaped delicacies to John Mundorff the tennis guru as going away gift
4. Phyllis and Lindsay, also on Ramona
This is not really sporty unless you notice the camouflage that Lindsay is wearing; she and her boss Phyllis of Phyllis of Bryant Street, fine clothes for fine ladies, Terry shops there
6. logos of Washington and Seattle football teams
a Mateo Romero reference, he endorsed me
Stanford dance instructor Aleta Hayes and I actually had a chat about what a specimen Richard Sherman is or was to a choreographer but this item is actually about the former Berkeley High baller Mateo Romero a Cochiti who was plaintiff in the case that cancelled the copyright protection of Washington Redskins
7. Jessica Roth of Cali Ave no chains campaign and a co-worker but not the ones who met Alex Blandino of Stanford and Reds — Alex owes me a portrait, in front of Slim’s poppies mural
Future Red and former Jordan Jaguar Alex Blandino gives new meaning to big poppies on Cali Ave
Jessica Roth of European Cobblery on Cali and either an employee or a relation, holding my notes from candidates forum on a question I was not asked about chain stores, and later all the ladies there though Alex from Stanford was a cutie
9. Amy Sung was a surprise guest of ours at Paul’s 90th birthday bash, on October 6, 2014 but would not literally sing a solo. She gamely did a shot of whiskey in a souvenir glass she took home as party favor, that features bear holding state map cutout, that I call Best Coast logo, that I bought from Gwen Crawford at Letter Perfect in the Rapp/Strutz/Levett building.
10. Master barber Terry Parks (as distinct from the woman I love Terry Acebo Davis or the candidate I endorse Terry Godfrey from UCLA and Evergreen Terrace) has yet to report back as to whether former Mayor Mike Cobb who shares office space with HRB member Roger Kohler — who incidentally is designing a home next to us here on Downtown North, where Tom Williams and Kaye and their daughters and grandkids are sorely missed — took the bait and came by for a free to him haircut.
Free haircut for Mike Cobb
Like louie louie (not the broncos and SJS db) me gotta go
jah bless
edita: yes we always yes we always yes we always have fun
thats my mom!
I shot Bill Frisell from lip of stage at GAMH October 13, 2014, side man to Sam Amidon
music
visual arts
sports
media
Palo Alto campaign news
other policy matters (“Plato’s Republic”)
none of the above
I was writing about my own mother which, in trying to find Matt Hanks email address, flashed to this, from 2006. And by the way Sasha and Norah have a project coming soon to GAMH I noticed at the Bill Frisell “side man” show:
Hi Mark,
> Thank you so much for writing to me.
> i’d love to meet you one day.
> i’m so blessed to have my wonderful family which
> includes my 2 older
> children from my first marriage to pianist George
> Muribus, my 4
> grandchildren, and then my Smith jr. and Sasha. I’m
> very very proud of
> Smith Jr. and Sasha for their passion and love of
> the music that they
> shared so intimately with their great Dad. Every
> time I play with Smith
> Jr. also called Smith V (the fifth generation of
> that great name Smith
> Weed Dobson), and hear Sasha’s beautiful voice, my
> heart bursts with
> love and pride. I’m a fierce Mom, huh!
> Our hearts still ache every day missing Smith, but
> it’s getting better,
> slowly.
> i’m not sure what article Rachel Metz wrote about
> Sasha. Could you send
> me a copy?
>
> Best and blessings,
> gail
S ibbledy boppidy bee-bop, dee wah-wah-wah.” It would be gibberish to some, but to 23-year-old jazz singer and teacher Sasha Dobson it’s scatting, her second language. “You’re making up a melody over the chord changes of a song. A lot of it has to do with harmonics and music and stuff, but it also has to do with being creative and being in the moment,” Dobson said, describing the skill for the uninitiated. Locals can see for themselves when Dobson performs on Wednesday at Campbell Recital Hall, as part of the Stanford Jazz Festival. Joining her will be her mother, vocalist Gail Dobson, and her brother, Smith Dobson, Jr., a drummer, tenor saxophonist and vibraphonist. Dobson also intends to honor her mother at the concert in honor of her birthday. The performance is appropriately entitled “Homecoming,” a fitting name since Dobson first attended the Stanford Jazz Workshop as a 12-year-old student. Today, the 23-year-old musician is one of the youngest teachers at this summer’s Stanford Jazz Workshop, where she’s instructing two musicianship classes, two combo classes, and one master class for vocalists. “I definitely enjoyed being a student here and now I’m kind of honored to be a part of it. You take it all for granted when you’re living it,” Dobson said. In her own classes, Dobson helps students learn vocal warm-ups, work on their scatting techniques, maintain their focus and learn how to deal with stage fright. “Some of (my students) have been singing jazz for a while and some of them have never even heard a jazz record, but they’re so open,” Dobson said. The dozen years Dobson has spent perfecting her talents as a jazz vocalist have served her well. Her grace, throw-back style and white-knuckled command of the microphone stand are evident in her music, which tweaks jazz standards into moods and melodies all her own. A Santa Cruz native, Dobson grew up singing and dancing alongside her late father, Smith Dobson, a pianist and vocalist; her mother, Gail, and her brother, Smith Jr. “We always had bad luck with babysitters so we just went to the gigs,” Dobson said, explaining how she and her 25-year-old brother got their starts in jazz by following their parents to shows. By age 3, she was grooving to her father’s tunes and by age 5 she began singing. By her eighth birthday she began singing with the Dobson Family Band. Though she sticks mostly to vocals, Dobson plays a little piano, writes some lyrics and wants to begin composing. She grew up at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, helping her parents, who were instructors, and attending classes herself. At the age of 17, Dobson left Santa Cruz and headed to New York City to pursue her goal of singing professionally. For two and a half years, she attended the city’s arts-oriented New School University on a partial scholarship. Dobson left college in 1999, explaining she was “ready to start singing.” “My experience there was finished…It’s so much money; the vocal program there is not that strong,” Dobson said. “I needed to be out singing, experiencing.” She beefed up her skills while living in a small studio in a building subsidized for artists, waiting tables at Dano’s, an upscale restaurant, and spending nights singing at local clubs and bars. “I feel like I have established myself out there locally,” Dobson said. “All the opportunities I had growing up I realized when I was there.” In New York Dobson polished her chops singing an array of jazz standards, about 30 of which she knows off the top of her head and perhaps 100 with which she is well-acquainted. Dobson is trying to learn more, she said, though the creativity scatting brings will remain a large part of her music.
She will also undoubtedly continue to admire and draw from her father’s body of work. A well-known musician, Smith died in May 2001 after falling asleep behind the wheel of his car on the way home from a gig in Palo Alto. “In the last year it’s just been such a journey since my dad died…I’ve incorporated meditation, spirituality and yoga and they’ve helped me get through life in the hardest times,” Dobson said. A scholarship named for Smith was established last year by the Stanford Jazz Workshop. It is awarded to a student between the age of 12 and 17, and includes full tuition. Since her father’s death, Dobson has recorded her first album, “Detour Ahead,” which will be released within the next month on Small Records, a New York-based label. Two of the arrangements on the album were written by her father. Dobson has spent the past two summers teaching jazz vocals at Camp Heartwick in Oneonta, N.Y. Eventually, she would like to get her master’s degree in music. In the meantime, she will keep playing music with her brother and would like to continue working with the Stanford Jazz Workshop. “I plan to move back here and settle down; (but) probably not for like 10 years,” Dobson said with a laugh.
Who: The Sasha Dobson Group, presented by the Stanford Jazz Festival.
Rachel Metz was the second of three Metzi to work with Earthwise having performed as Babysitters Club and also some miscellaneous promotional work; we saw Cat Power at BOTH; don’t see as much these days: good story on Sasha
Rob Burger key player
Rob Burger played Cubberley and other Earthwise events, especially as Tin Hat Trio. He gave me a demo tape for Tin Hat when it was called Masopust.
He also plays on Tracy Champman “our bright future” which may or may not be the genesis of my near-band-experience called One Day Vacation.
Stanford vb Jordan Burgess courtesy of Stanford Daily and the number 800
i’ve never worked with Vienna Teng but made two flyers for or about her, and flew with her to L.A. once
edit to add, late night: this could be it’s own item but One Day Vacation is a Tracy Chapman lyric from “Bright New Future” and “Save Us All” (my god is a very big god) in that I auditioned for a two person band with an elder (90 years old to my forty-something) she on piano and me on vocals, maybe just doing Tracy Chapman songs arranged so. We met up at agreed upon time at Oak Creek club house but I did not last thru the first song. Apparently they were writing songs of love but not for me. I could not hear a half step between “not” and “for” or “me”. At least not in that key, right? Aight? Earlier my mother Barbara Weiss and I had gone to see Carey Perloff ACT play “Higher” world premier at Moscone Center not Geary Street, as Carey’s guests, and were seated next to Tracy Chapman and Alice Walker. Tracy was very sweet about yielding to an elder, which seemed to annoy Alice a wee bit since she had gone out ahead of us and then my mom was moving somewhat slow, such that Alice was standing outside the venue for an awkwardly long time. Tracy looked back to see us off before ducking over the hills back toward Mission. Earlier we were in line for a cookie behind Tracy and I could not help talk to her about “Passing Strange” by my former client Mark “Stew” Stewart, because I had discussed same with Carey during the time Tracy had a song in a ACT show by Athol Fugard I saw although I keep botching the name: Blood Knot versus Bloodlines. Tracy corrected me. On the way home — and by the way the only reason or the main reason I went with Moms to this event was that my parents and their driver could not find the venue to see “Higher” the first time, and I knew Mom knew Carey slightly and Carey would want Barbara to see this — we played a Tracy Chapman cd I had borrowed from library and when that song came on my Mom started slapping her thighs along to the rhythm. Some people theorize and even make movies about music and Alzheimers. I even fantasized that Tracy Chapman would come to my parents’ condo and play for Barbara and maybe cure her. One day. Vacation.
the lyric is about two minutes in. I will send this to Carey and maybe Tracy or at least Rob as a type of prayer:tracy chapman’s one day vacation in palo alto
copyright nono candidate yesyes
I saw this at the UNAFF at Stanford. I bought a pass for $180 in hopes that I can take some time off the campaign trail to think about larger issues than the myopic.
(I first met Jasmina Bojic when she called Earthwise in January, 1998 to ask for a comp to see Train, we recalled tonight).
MC Hammer has a cameo in the film, or played a role in Tubbs getting in. Which had me worry a little about what Tubbs had to trade for his success. But I will give him benefit of the doubt.
Michael Tubbs is 2L. 2 Legit. 22 legit. Don’t quit.
edit to add: I sent a Mark Weiss for Palo Alto Council envoy to Stockton Monday October 28 to rendezvous with District 6 Michael Tubbs staff and hope to exchange consciousness with the young statesman as soon as plausible, as karma katch for the Palo Alto reform bid, all around sure enough do you feel like I feel, as Frampton might say. 22 legit not 23 skidoo my brother
Patience Young and Jeannete Smith Laws and Nash, sounds like a rock group, but not quite elemental earth wind fire
My understanding is that between that day at Windhoever and today (i.e. infinite forever) there was some music, approaching but never quite reaching Motown in its heyday and Keta Bill with Big Bang Beat Zasu Pitts.
Here is photo of Patience Young, twenty five years at Cantor Museum and Jeannette Smith Laws, a longtime dean.
I have three minutes between appointments here at the former Earth
edit to add 10 hours later:
I ran into Terry Godfrey (and family) and told her (them) that I am endorsing her for PAUSD board. As a Gunn alum, I think Terry, along with Ken Dauber has the skill set and background to help restore our schools to their historic excellence, working with Max McGee new Supe, Denise Herrman, new Gunn principal and current board especially Melissa Baten Caswell, my Dartmouth classmate, and Camille Townsend, a friend and type of mentor and inspiration, who says she is voting for me if not endorsing per se (?!)
I spoke of Danilo Perez, the Panamanian cultural ambassador who played a memorable concert at Cubberley for Earthwise in 2000 and did an even better clinic for middle school students thru Music for Minors in Redwood City. Tell you what: in honor of Terry Godfrey on PAUSD board, let’s bring Danilo Perez back to Palo Alto and this time do some work with PAUSD kids, maybe thru Jason Lewis’ wife, at Gunn.
I met Gina Dalmas on the campaign trail and appreciate her work, but Terry gets the nod, perhaps owing to the work she did with Vic Ojakian, who I am getting to know, like and admire. I did attend a coffee function for and with Gina in Greater Miranda, something I mentioned in passing just today when I saw Karla Kane, Koi and their new baby (name didn’t catch: Kal? Krypton? Kumfurt?)
Somewhere in there Terry emphasized but in a nice way that she is a WASP, duly noted.
Also, I put in a plug for the new LGBTQQ queer and questioning but not for me teen programming at Family and Services on 375 Cambridge, an org for which Gary Kremen, yours totally and the rest of our Friday Dudes from Barron Park crew raised a total of $600 recently.
Good night, moons.
not your great-grandmothers reed music
My new super stupid (i.e. “smart”) phone will not tell me if my cousin is married to a Florida or a Florida state, but the computer found me this shot, I was looking for a few months back. Ornette)
Have not heard from “Kraky” but gained material with Ben Goldberg thanks to my “Taylor Ho!” shindig and bike ride.
Beth Custer gratuitous photo post here: has part of a commission in her bank and her left brain-thingy.
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Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 