Of haps and haptics

Posted on September 3, 2014 by markweiss86

1. I ran into my Oak Creek neighbor Serkin at Farmer’s Market and gave him my only Weiss for Council pin, from 2012.

New York Times article about robotics, Stanford date-line, by John Markoff: “Brainy, Yes, But Far From Handy: Software Aims to Clear Hurdle To Robots Working with Humans, (9/2/14) backed with Stanford Theatre, upcoming September 20 and 21, “Dinner at Eight” (1933, George Kukor, written by George S. Kaufman or based on his Broadway play, features line, by Kitty (Jean Harlow) You know, I read a book the other day. It’s all about civilization or something — a nutty kind of book. Do you know that the guy said that machinery is going to take the place of every profession?

I saw my neighbor Serkin at Farmer’s Market and gave him my only campaign button, made by Terry Acebo Davis and Rob Syrett. I mistook him for a professional piano player — back when Oak Creek had a piano. Supposedly WORKS Gallery in San Jose a cachet of my buttons — we originally or she originally made about 100. They were part of an art installation in 2012; Joe Miller would know.

What is the Kurzweil theory? The convergence? (When computers or AI surpass humans, like when Big Blue could beat chess masters). Compared to Grey goo, when little bits of lab fabs replicate themselves and take over the world (subject of a movie “Welcome to Dopeville” by a former Dead camera-man Len D’Amico)

J. Kenneth Salisbury and Sonny Chan robotocists
see also Fast Cheap and Out of Control, Errol Morris featuring Rod Brooks of MIT

virtual surgery with haptics, mimic the sensations of touch in a computer simulation

Of haps and haptics

other movies of note:

2. speaking of haps, I am looking forward to the Gunn at San Mateo football game, Friday night lights. This is the varsity debut for Sam Rothstein, linebacker, son of my good friend and fellow Dartmouthite, Scott Rothstein. The team also includes the son of my Terman football teammate Matt Maltz, meaning his son Andrew Maltz, a sophomore nose tackle who tips the scales at 300 pounds (what do you feed him, Jamie?). Vytes of the News suggests that Rothstein and Maltz (sounds like a law firm, or a good place to nosh on knish) will have a great time chasing down Line Latu, who accounted for 325 yards agains the Titans last year. I am going to be posting a synopsis of the game to “Coach” Keith Peters, son of music teacher Ken Peters, another Gunn grad, of The Weekly; GS of the Weekly suggests that because I am running for office I should post under a non de plume. I am pulling for: Sphinx Fitzwater II. Although I will never reveal why. Also: my Terman and Gunn classmate but never actually a teammate Chris Strausser is now an offensive coach at Washington, moving over from Boise State when his jefe Chris Peterson joined the Pac-12 Huskies staff. I recall Chris rassling with his Georgia Ct neighbor Greg Zlotnick when we were tykes. Chris took the long way to the helm of Gunn football, backing up Nick Sturiale, Billy Parker and others before persistence and a growth spurt finally brought him to behind center. He was Gunn’s answer to Paly’s Jim Harbaugh in 1982. (I believe Chris was 2nd team or 3rd team All-SCVAL, and then played for Chico State and Foothill, before John Ralston launched his coaching career, at SJSU). In more recent times, there are at least two Titans suiting up for NCAA gridiron: Sean Lydster a walk-on at Purdue in the Big Ten and Craig “Big Cat” Venuta for Harvard in the Ivy League. Sam Rothstein says he is as fast as Lydster was and is now taller. I hope he keeps up the enthusiasm after meeting Line Latu a few times. My joke is that Rothstein and Maltz are working to convert Line Latu; it is Shabbat after all, Friday night.

Ironically enough, the spell-check function wants to change “haptics” to “hap tics”

edit to add: The Daily Journal notes that Line Latu, after healing from a broken collarbone, has switched to quarterback while Watson Filikitonga has stepped up for Jeff Scheller’s Bearcats to prove a serious threat at back. All in they have 41 players to Gunn’s 17 Angry Young Men. Should be an interesting indoctrination for young Rothstein and company — if I write for a real paper, like The Weekly, I will not be so sophomoric. I think there is a Riley in senior leadership, maybe a Perricone, stalwarts of many a recent Titan squad.

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Dayna Stephens hands

Posted on September 2, 2014 by markweiss86

Dayna Stephens at Stanford Jazz Workshop, August, 2014 (detail)

Dayna Stephens at Stanford Jazz Workshop, August, 2014 (detail)

I met Dayna Stephens at the Stanford Jazz workshop last month. While we chatted a young composer and trumpet stopped by for Dayna to eye-ball the chart he made, I presume of one of Dayna’s pieces. I heard the young man play later one of his own works and was duly impressed. I recall him as David Stern, like the former NBA executive (and he said: not related to Mike Stern or Leni Stern). I think, my typical carried-away, suggested a DanDayna StephStern project or some-such.

Good hands.
Good heart.
Good ear.
Good day.

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Spiro & Me, baby makes three

Posted on September 2, 2014 by markweiss86
A freelance photographer had me pose next to the Greg Brown alter, on Bryant just North of Uni, Sunday, August, 31, 2014, to note the tragic and sudden passing of Greg Brown, who created these murals. Note the flowers.

A freelance photographer had me pose next to the Greg Brown alter, on Bryant just North of Uni, Sunday, August, 31, 2014, to note the tragic and sudden passing of Greg Brown, who created these murals. Note the flowers.

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Gunn Football at Sequoia jamboree

Posted on August 30, 2014 by markweiss86

seqouiaJamboreeGunn2014

My two favorite Gunn football players are Andrew Maltz, son of my classmate Matt, and Sam Rothstein, son of my fellow Dartmouthian, Scott. Both young men, by the way, are sophomores.

gunnHighLights

Meanwhile, I am posting this from the fantasy football league’s Menlo Park man-cave with the following middle-aged men I recall playing forms of football — touch, tackle and flag — years ago, ages 10 thru 15 or so: Todd Kjos, Brian Evans and Greg Zlotnick.

What is your proudest athletic achievement:

Kjos: hit three home runs in consecutive at bats, at Santa Clara and Los Altos, for Gunn; had a couple interceptions for Gunn, junior year, 1980.
Evans: once won $1,000 at halftime of a Stanford basketball game, for hitting three-pointers in 30 seconds, 12 years ago, i.e. he was 38. Also recalls breaking a record, touchdown passes, Evans to (Tommy) Mell, in 1977, eighth grade B-League flag football.

Zlotnick: is too modest to answer, but, when prodded

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The Steve Emslie Rule

Posted on August 30, 2014 by markweiss86

I wonder if the City will hire a Berkeley based consultant for $1.7 million to help them draft the response or I should say help us draft the formal required response to the GJ.

Or, maybe they will pay Steve Emslie $1.7 million to help draft the, I mean we will pay — government is after all a “we” not a “they” we have to own this — Steve to help respond to this.

I am half kidding (we did pay someone $1.7 to help flush the Comp Plan into the Bay I mean revise it). Actually on Steve Emslie, if we cannot garnish his pension legally we could at least pass a “Steve Emslie Rule” here prohibiting senior staff from working against us in the private sector, the “revolving door”. Anyone?

edit to add:
from the Weekly, in 2002, by Geoff Fein, which makes me realize that the staff who are paid by the citizens but appear to get their marching orders from private sector are a group of roving opportunists, almost like a three-card Monty or ball trick, moving around too quick to pin down who did what and how. We need to grow our own, people.

(and our most recent hires, after losing staff to Redwood City, are from Vancouver by way of Hong Kong and LA or something)

An odd chain of events opened the door for Emslie. When Ed Gawf, who was then San Jose’s deputy director of planning, building and code enforcement, left to take over as director of planning for Palo Alto, it created an opening for Emslie.

In 1998 Emslie was hired as deputy director of code enforcement for San Jose.

“I thought it would be an interesting challenge. That was deciding factor in going (to San Jose),” he said.

Another factor was the election of Ron Gonzalez as mayor of San Jose.

After all the new high-rise growth and boom of high-tech companies in San Jose, Gonzalez initiated a program focusing on neighborhoods. Emslie knew that code enforcement would play a strong role in the Strong Neighborhood Initiative.

“We were cutting new ground, we were creating new models for engaging the community,” Emslie said.
Emslie was in code enforcement for two years when the planning bug bit him again.

“It was fun doing code enforcement, but I missed long-range planning,” he said.

Emslie was asked if he’d be willing to head the planning implementation section.

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Hooray for boobies

Posted on August 30, 2014 by markweiss86

new Paly dean Adam Paulson

new Paly dean Adam Paulson


Patch sent me a blast that said Paly has a new dean, Adam Paulson, from San Carlos district and a b.a. from Colorado, masters from Pepperdine, announced by Max McGee (I call him “Bill”), who I had a nice little mini-pow-wow with last week.

I posted to Patch, first time in a while, I logged in via Disqus, whose code was stored on this little trusty Mac Pro (I call it, “Max”, hence the confusion and my pet name for our Doctor McGee — his freshman roommates called him “Bill” also, before that fateful fall day, who could forget it?) and said:

Hooray for Boobies
and provided a helpful link

I am just curious whether they will let it go,
nodding
starting
going with the flow

or will they try to
stop
it
stem
its flow.
steamed, as it were
wah hoo wah
or tabo(o)

reminds me of dao
before I knew her
fictional or real
did you make this up or is it real
both
my cousin at wellesley
susan riddle
we lined up
before we had lines of our own

hooray hooray indeed

welcome max and adam

thank god lobos is lobos

hurray for lobos!!!
interobang
i’d tap that

terry calls from the next room to say that in some places they not only say or not say hooray for boobies but worse than the amazons or Isis the Goddess

I cannot say.

but you can peek for your self on the inter
nyet

in boobious battle

maya said something about butterball; been a long time

edit to add: Patch did not approve my comment; they deleted it. Then I posted a link to this. Oh, well. So ti goes. Meanwhile I wanted to quote from Dao Strom’s famous story “Chickens” because Terry and I were discussing tabo bathing style, from Philipines, but Terry got very mad and so I am moving on, blogwise. In Dao’s story, which won her a student prize and was put by Larry McMurtry next to Wallace Stegner in “Still Wild” best Western writing, a family of immigrants took baths using water poured from plastic jugs. Which reminds me — now Terry says I am acting like a white person — that when I spoke to SFPUC about 2019 coming up, “Two Hundred Fifty Years of Potable Water” maybe we could solicit a compilation of stories about water. I should ring her. Sorry, Dao, I missed your birthday again, around April Fool’s Day.

But I digress
dig?

outro: bloodhound gang “bad touch”

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Like shouting ‘freegal’ in a crowded public sphere

Posted on August 29, 2014 by markweiss86

San Jose library stopped using this service because there wasn’t enough interest relative to their fee basis yet instructed it’s readers to try to get a Palo Alto library card and use our Freegal!

I wonder how this works out in terms of paying royalties to song-writers and performers.

Also, Monica De Conge seems to not have a sense of the distinction between a library being a public sector service and the free market or a store; she seems to want to use public sphere as a showcase for particular brands and corporations.

Others have panned Freegal, if you do the search.

It would take me several lifetimes to actually listen to all the music we have on cd at the library; I as a habit grab something on impulse and give it a spin. (Still haven’t downloaded anything on my laptop, although I did sell off to last man standing brick and mortar about 1,000 cd’s and a smaller group donated to Palo Alto Friends of Library.).

My first reaction to this is: too good to be true. Maybe I will try it.

Read David Lowery, whose bandmate in college dated Gunn grad Debby Solomon, on the way the digital word cheats the artists and performers; the system is still working out the kinks. And oh yeah the former Napster CEO is in Palo Alto getting indigents to sweep the streets for scrip.

II.

Here is link to David Lowery famous article: different service but I think we will find the same thing holds, that these services do not actually compensate artists properly.

Web Link

My Song Got Played On Pandora 1 Million times And All I Got Was $16.89 less than what I make from a single t-shirt sale.

For comparison, songwriters get 9 cents per copy when you buy a recording or his or her song. The record labels initially tried to consider downloads a sale per se but artists sued to have it thought of as a license per se, which meant the difference, for them, of getting 5 percent additional royalties versus 50 percent.

It will probably take another 20 years to figure what is fair to the artists and composers, for the disruption of music to settle.

Meanwhile, enjoy their music.

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Living in reverse, August 29 thru 21

Posted on August 29, 2014 by markweiss86

Mia Levin D'bruzzi Simmans caught up and did a selfie at farmer's market which reminds of our sweaty Terman slow dance of 1975, speaking of the looking glass, media age

Mia Levin D’bruzzi Simmans caught up and did a selfie at farmer’s market which reminds of our sweaty Terman slow dance of 1975, speaking of the looking glass, media age


I met Winnie Lewis while standing outside Peet’s on Uni, because power had gone out, and walked with her to Peet’s near Whole Foods — she manages that building. Today, Breena of the Post takes up Lewis’ case about Downtown Business Assessment, page 11. I jumped out of bed at 6:54 deciding to relive the last 8 days in reverse — part Heidi Julavits, part Britt Daniels, but also Lewis Carroll — with help of my Moto G. (check back to see if I update with actual photos, not just a log).

20 things, in reverse, I’ve shot in last 8 days
and I started to write this from Beet Cafe, in the AOL building, near Page Mill, where Constantin from Ukraine fronted me $2 for a glass of orange juice.
IOU2dollars

20. Sal Gaeta at Jardin Santana Row San Jose selfie
salGaetaJardin

19. new bathing suit, from Sam of Palo Alto Sport and Toy

18. Sarah Cameron Sunde, pow wow on the arts, at Coupa

Nice pow wow with Sarah Cameron Sunde, a lot different than watching her from 50 meters in the bay the previous week

Nice pow wow with Sarah Cameron Sunde, a lot different than watching her from 50 meters in the bay the previous week

17. Raheem Nelson, “Lupita Nyong’o” at Pacific Art League

16. watching your phone series, in SF and at Coupa

15. visit to SF City Hall and SFPUC hearing: I spoke about the history of potable water, 1769 to 2019, 250 years, thanks to Greg Bayol, Peter Drekmeier, Melissa Novotny, Art Torres and Portola

14. wedding crasher at City Hall

13. Sam Weinert musician and barista, at Four Barrels, The Mission District

12. random Mission Street mural and possible alternative logo for UC Santa Cruz teams
goSlugsMissionStyle

11. pilgrimage to Diego Rivera Murals II, at City College San Francisco

10. tennis lessons, Oak Creek Palo Alto

9. power outage

8. street fair packing up, posing with Ning-Ann

7. campaign event, Ralph and Jackie Wheeler Eichler South Palo Alto

6. kids at play, Roble Park

5. Tom Dubois event, Roble Park

4. Ramos Park, near Robles Park: who doesn’t confuse these guys?

3. puppies seeking good homes

2. Robin Young and friend, bicycling for a good cause

1. greyhound placement worker and friend, Pleasanton

0. Tim Harris, Cubberley-Paly 1982, busking to Frank Turner, Pleasanton

(-1). Don Yarkin still photo, circa 1975, thanks to Hans Delannoy and Cubberley Catamount

(-2). Farewell, Hans Delannoy, my old coach

(-3). Debby Mytels, at Seale Park

(-4). Bellarmine lunch grotto: my first visit to the campus since 1973 when all the kids on Russell Lane were sent to their summer sports camp; I recall the baloney sandwiches served down there; all the other buildings are post-1973.

(-5). San Jose Museum of Art: the Willie Mays catch parallels the “sun” sculpture

(-6). Palo Alto downtown as seen from 101 Alma

(-7). storage locker diving for my vintage Matt Gonzalez silkscreen poster by Hardy

(-8). I loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night, tattoo on PS Storage clerk’s arm

(-9). San Francisco Mime Troupe, “Ripple Effect” at Mitchell Park, Aug. 21

(-10). Karen Runk of SFMT, Mitchell Park, August 21, 2014

(-11). tour of Epiphany Hotel conference room

(-12). Sam Smidt and helper, Emerson Street, August, 2014

(-11). Lee Lippert of ARB and Randy Popp, Gunn 1983 who I’ve sort of known since 5th grade, 4th for him, from Fremont Hills and Natoma Loop

(-12). Donna Grider, city clerk

(-13). Peter Kirkeby, my Gunn classmate, got a parking ticket while waiting for the public hearing on 400 Page Mill, his family’s Smith-Andersen gallery abuts

outro with Spoon “Written in reverse” from 2010 although sends me back to their show at the Cub in 1998

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Jardin Latin violin

Posted on August 28, 2014 by markweiss86

IMG_20140828_185617756

Harriet Newhart Sal Gaeta and Manuel collectively and professionally known as Dos Gardenas at Santana Row Jardin garden bistro and pub and I Love Her flamenco style

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Schauer / Brown for Michigan 2014

Posted on August 28, 2014 by markweiss86

Mark Schauer, Democrat of Michigan, I met in Old Palo Alto and hope to work with or for someday, soon

Mark Schauer, Democrat of Michigan, I met in Old Palo Alto and hope to work with or for someday, soon


as fate would have it, I wandered into a Old Palo Alto fundraiser for Democrat Mark Schauer, who is leading according to polls in his effort to become the next governor of Michigan, and the tie-in here is that he chose Lisa Brown as his running mate (for Lt. Governor – I wrote about her for Plastic Alto two years ago with her sparring the right wing about reproductive rights and her famous “thank you for your interest in my vagina” quip). Meanwhile I am running for Palo Alto City Council (and met Mark while waiting my turn, at a panel of environmentalists — I had walked 1.4 miles there but arrived two hours early and something sent me towards Schauer, as strange as that sounds. I asked a couple questions, based on Reich and Packer, and actually left wanting to work for Mark Schauer in Michigan should he prevail while I falter (or not make as much dramatic progress as I have since 2009, to increase at this rate). I am hoping to break away from Palo Alto to catch up to Schauer and Perkins (his treasurer, also on this junket) in Detroit and maybe Ann Arbor, in October. We also have a plan for me to write a white paper on luring artists to Detroit, or arts funding as stimulus spending. More to come. Mark reminds me of Buddy Teevens, the Dartmouth coach and former QB. Mark went to Abion College in Michigan(the Britons), with advanced degrees from Western Michigan and MSU Sparta. I sent the previous version of above to him, but truthfully, maybe I could have crafted a tighter version. Michael Moore (“Roger and Me”) did a benefit for him.

Meeting Mark Schauer inspired me such that I crushed my interviews, apropos of my strive for office in Palo Alto, with the environmentalist panels and local Democrats.

Although I claim to have lived in Palo Alto community since 1974 it’s also true that I was born in Chicago and feel some connection to Michigan. More on Mark Sch later.

Mark Z. Barabak in the Los Angeles Times:
Michigan: Gov. Rick Snyder romped to victory in 2010, thanks in part to a cheeky ad campaign that portrayed him as “one tough nerd” and promised to bring a business sense to state government. He has taken on unions and other Democratic constituencies in this solidly blue state and organized labor is itching to oust him. Snyder’s Democratic challenger is former U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer.

Posted in media, Plato's Republic, sex, this blue marble, words | Tagged , , | Leave a comment