Pardon my mess

Posted on July 22, 2023 by markweiss86
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Go Mama went

Posted on July 22, 2023 by markweiss86

Bug in my bonnet about Go mama, the sculpture created by in 1999 for our public collection here later, dear session.
Sitting in the warm morning sun outside Izzy’s where Olivia created some floral art I knew her mother slightly from her days at the daily Dartmouth. What’s wrong babe?

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Panel finds that MTL shit does, indeed, stink

Posted on July 19, 2023 by markweiss86

PROMISE TO EAT MORE RUFFAGE DOES NOT PASS MUSTER FOR POOPY PREXY, BLUE CHIP LAWYERS SAY

💩

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Iconic alumni of the Stanford Jazz Workshop

Posted on July 11, 2023 by markweiss86

For example, Dayna Stephens tuck Andress, Jenny Scheinman, Allison Miller, Mulgrew Miller no relation I’m not Cohen, Charles McPherson , Regina Carter

remarkably every performer at the concert series also teaches at the camp or workshop.

Stanford has a virtually unparalleled mix of performances and education; for the emerging and young professional, it’s a great networking and team building and building opportunity; the coffeehouse, Coho features jam sessions, many evenings during the five week run. There are 650 students ages 10 to 81 according to Stephen Lugerner camp Director. (who himself runs, a small record, label, slow and steady during the off-season.).

I counted 19 of the 80 faculty members who have appeared in Earthwise productions, which produces roughly 40 events all year for 29 years. Jim Nadel et al have done this 51 years.
kudos, hosannas and keep on swingin’.

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Seraph Brass on-sale in Palo Alto, September 28 at the JCC, by Earthwise

Posted on July 11, 2023 by markweiss86

This is a $50 ticket which is pricey by my standard but there’s 5,000 years of baggage to cover; I would submit it’s a bargain compared to paying $1,500 for the worst possible seats for Taylor Swift at the football stadium.

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I can’t believe how good looking I was back in 1988, with Dr. Brian Moore at The Getty

Posted on July 9, 2023 by markweiss86

Or, as Willa Cather wrote: roses that fester smell far worse than weeds. 

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Yo or oy?

Posted on July 9, 2023 by markweiss86

 

 

 

I have a riff about meeting today at Bird and Beckett’s Tammy Fortin, a musician who has a day job at the Stanford Museum. I remember meeting her briefly about eight years ago, mistaking her for someone named Anna Lessenger. I am sometimes too open to meeting strangers, which, in this case, drew the attention of a security guard who asked me to leave. Tammy had no recollection of this which refuted my theory that talking to her was what triggered the security intervention.
Ironically, I am composing this whilst parked outside of Campbell recital hall, where a man named Patrick Wolff just led a band; I was fantasizing about hiring him to improvise while someone with a nicer voice than mine red 20 minutes of “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg.
I am leaving the misspelling of the word “red” in reference to having bought a book about Ellen Harper, the mother of the musician Ben Harper, whose  grandfather was a communist forced to move from New Hampshire to Claremont or something.
yo or oy, jinx.

 

edit to add:

Mark Weiss, founder of Plastic Alto blog, is a concert promoter and artist manager in Palo Alto, as Earthwise Productions, with background as journalist, advertising copywriter, book store returns desk, college radio producer, city council and commissions candidate, high school basketball player, and blogger; he also sang in local choir—with Lydia Oey— fronts an Allen Ginsberg tribute, Beat Hotel Rm 32 Reads ‘Howl’ and owns a couple musical instruments he cannot play:

I bought a 90 year old alto sax from an ad in the Los Altos newspaper on Portola Street in Los Altos in 2019 the 250th anniversary of Portola discovering PALO ALTO I spent $250 on it; then I spent a bit more At Lee’s sax works, and then lent it to a musician, who shall remain anonymous here.  
more recently, I found a viola abandoned in front of the apartment building across the street, and took it to Larry of PALO ALTO to have it restored.  
I bought a banjolele made of steel at Gryphon recently;

At the Gryphons 50th anniversary party while Molly Tuttle was performing I, with the help of Steve Sano picked out a Hawaiian ukulele with Good wood.  
I may never remember his name, but the  percussionist who performed with throat singer David Hykes bought me in Santa Fe a hoop drum.  He performed at first congregation Berkeley a benefit for the Borneo rainforest group, and then I bought it from him game worn as they say.  
Someone named honey lum sold me another hoop drum at some tradeshow or fair. 
My wife, Terry, bought me some bongos by remo or something. I have a vibraslap, which is the only thing I think I play properly.  
I do have a nice cock guitar— what is Apple thinking to substitute or insert that reference?

I bought from Kid Andersen, who was clearing out his closet, and raising cash for a European road tour, an electric guitar, which I intended to gift to a particular blues underdog.  

Maybe I should turn over a new leaf and just learn to play music. Ha-ha. 

Sometimes I think I should just spend five years reading all the books I buy and never read.

From ages 16 to 22. I wanted to be a journalist and then chickened out.  At age 30 I started this concert business.  In 2011, and started this blog.  Sometimes I think I should just write as the main reason for the air I breathe.  I guess this is midlife crisis.  
Come by tomorrow at seven to see a Adam Levy. 

And1 which today I will call Adam12:

I am pulled over now in front of Windover or Roblé or Arrillaga just to say that I bought an Ahmad Jamal record at boo records in San Luis Obispo I believe it’s called “awakening” and believe that I could do nothing musical but listen to this for six months, and I wonder if I would actually learn about this music other than a kind of like it. I said something similar about ETHAN IVERSON and Keith Jarrett.  Like if I did nothing but listen to Keith Jarrett records for three years, would I approximate Ethan’s knowledge. I don’t know why my computer capitalizes his name and sometime capitalizes the name of my city. I don’t know why I leave it.  Stet .

 

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Friends, Romans, Palo Altans— lend me your ears

Posted on July 9, 2023 by markweiss86

July and August, shows by Earthwise Productions, in Palo Alto parks, plazas and public facilities:

and my lips cannot quite form the sounds of Otis Redding outro to “dock of the bay” as I try to land back here on the table, at Coupa. 

Adam Levy & Mint Imperials Lytton Plaza, Monday July 10, 2o23 7 pm Free

Jim Campilongo Ben Davis Duo Lytton Plaza, Sunday, July 16, 7 pm, free

Lydia Lunch, Eugene Robinson, Saturday, July 15, 2023, Mitchell Park Community Center, 8 pm. $25. 

Leon Timbo, Josh Thurston Milgrom Quartet featuring Dawn Clement, Thursday, July 20, 2023, California Avenue “Third Thursdays”. 

Matt the Electrician, Sony Holland Duo with Jerry Holland, Megan Slankard, Friday, July 21, Johnson Park Tickets on sale May 11. 

Jorge Glem Sam Reider Duo, Lytton Plaza, Wednesday July 26;

Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express, Emma CatherineSunday, July 30, 2023 Mitchell Park Bowl, 2 pm. 

San Francisco Mime Troupe “Breakdown” Sunday, August 6, 2023, 2 p.m. Mitchell Park Bowl, free

Lisa Mezzacappa’s DuoB, Vinicius Gomes Fabiana Cozza, Mitchell Park Community Center, Friday August 18, 2023, 8 p.m.. 

Shamarr Allen, The SticklerPhonics, Sunday, August 2o, 2023 2 pm, Mitchell Park Bowl, 2 pm. free

Sam Burton Lytton Plaza in August — I noticed in Mojo magazine recently that the new Molly Tuttle record got a *** review but Sam Burton’s got a ****  

DaShawn Hickman, Destiny Muhammad, The Mitch, August 25. 
That’s 12 shows  

 

 

 

 

 

On a personal note, I’ll also be checking out Andrew Bird in July, Rebelution reggae in August, at Frost, plus Stanford Jazz Workshop, especially the CoHo jams. Tammy Hall plays SFJazz second stage the evening of my matinee with SFMT. And Stanford Theatre is back 4/7s of the time with Cary Grant movies. 

…

edit to add:

Stephen J. Cohen just interrupted my morning flow at The Coup to tell me that he had texted me a couple days ago but my fucking smart phones had been hacked by Putin’s trolls — Wired mag says that anyone who has ever run for public office here in USA! USA! is being hacked by fucking Putin and yes I qualify — to say that Eugene S. Robinson will be on KFJC later this week talking about me and his obsession over me. Eugene and Steve were housemates … old Alpha Delt house which not coinkydinky is very …and yes it was “Angel” the song by Oxbow and not the Cary Grant movie playing tonite at David Packard’s movie place palace “Only Angels Have Wings” which Apple or the fukcing huskies want to call “poorly” or …. and now have plausible deniability. So Eugene is the front man for Oxbow — and write as I say that a gorgeous song young thing in short shorts walks by me and my head turns and I type song not young — I was Oxbow’s manager for about three months the year they went to SXSW and Eugene insisted on being paid in wristbands not cash and this precipitated a dispute that was not curable and he fired me as his or their manager. So he is the first former client to appear as talent in my series. And as I was saying, Lydia Lunch sang or spoke on an early Oxbow record — I wounded not would not remember — and on cue the amazon blondie thing probably USA Water Polo –…- so I type song not young agin — Lydia Lunch sang on Angel — and I think Angel is one of the few Oxbow songs I would recognize but they played it a lot live during the era I was Oxbow’s manager. ….. and a guy who like Steve Cohen, Eric Cohen, Dan Adams, Marsh McCall and I — and I think the last time I saw Eugene in person was just after Marsh passed and Eugene’s daughter was graduating Gunn ….- and so was my quasi-godson SR was walking……Did I finish the thought that Matt Nelson is an excellent sax player about half my age — his father is Mark Nelson I met her at Coupa which indirectly created this chain of connection — Matt and Battle Trance played on Halloween at Lytton Plaza and he told me subsequently that he was part of a Lydia Lunch project and and the second one should be emphasized…..-….and this is probably a weird place to say that Dick Fregulia is in MoJo mag recently with a singer from San Francisco circa 1978 — dick was Palo Alto’s original Bohemian and held the piano chair at Saint Michael’s Alley when it was on University in 1958 or so and came to my (Not)Tom Harrell show October 2018. So Matt Nelson is part of a trio with Tim something – -and Jim Campilongo tweeted something about the bandmates of Adam Levy — and I should add that to the text per se. My computers are acting very oddly. So I am dropping a few lines and missing a stitch. Eugene  says he is appearing in Palo Alto this week but does not mention “Earthwise”. which is exactly like mentioning Eugene Robinson but not Oxbow. {Note: a year later I redact this passage; writing is never as easy as it felt that day…)


 

 

 

 

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Glad I’m McGurl

Posted on July 3, 2023 by markweiss86

OPEN LETTER TO McGURL:

I hope this is not seen as a rant or gripe, but more like what Wendell Berry would call “another turn of the crank”.

Please take it on faith or prima facie that I have some cred re music, journalism and education.

I am responding to the article by GH of the Mercury about a Stanford course on Taylor Swift. My first thought was they should expel Ava Jeffs and fire you, until I read your cv or at least the page on the Stanford website.

I don’t think I read the book on “the program era” but I recall that it came out the year I signed as a management client Dao Strom. Dao’s story “Chickens” was anthologized in Larry McMurtry “Still Wild”. She wrote it as a student, later signed with the same literary agent as Patti Smith. She was a Michener Fellow at Iowa. I thought that I could help her songs get the same level of traction in the industry or with audiences as her books. I was wrong. 

(Before that, I was the manager for Stew, Mark Stewart, aka Stew Stewart — at least at Harvard — the creator of the Broadway show “Passing Strange” — a semi-autobiographical work about a middle class Black man posing or passing as lower class. (Stew is currently working with Spike Lee for a musical movie about Viagra, working title Don ’t Call me The Dick Joke Marlon James” or maybe “Don’t Call me A Dick Joke, Marlon James”.

Also, if this is not a non sequitur, I commissioned Dan Bern to write a song about Wallace Stegner’s story about playing tennis at a snobby resort in Santa Barbara. Coinkydinky — and I coined the term “coinkydinky” — which is not a dick joke — I am taking my wife to Cambria this summer, which is near Santa Barbara. Then I am meeting Dan Bern in Santa Fe, at La Fonda, on “the Terrazza” next fall.

I think Taylor is over-rated and a product of market forces. Maybe Josh Thurston Milgrom or his father could break it down. 

Ms. Jeffs et al should teach instead Dao Storm or Malcolm P Harris, the guy who says Stanford could or should give (back) 8,000 acres to Muwekma Ohlone.

I wrote this before “the jump” — meaning my gripe, rant or “another turn of the crank” might be mitigated if the Mercury (which is not a Hayes paper, not owned by Knight Ridder and maybe not even McClatchy – -it might be owned by the people who were on “60 Minutes” who were buying up papers to deliberately destroy journalism and democracy —- says this class is not for credit towards a degree, merely for “fun” or just something to do so that people don’t step in front of the train or get too drunk to give consent. (Then write memoirs about such).

Please rescind your support of “the Swifties”. What about Jonathan fuckin’ Swift, you bastards.

Mark Weiss

In Palo Alto

a.b. from Dartmouth (in English)

Dba Earthwise Productions of Palo Alto since 1994

Why not substitute a course about Marsh McCall (1964-2017) his humor writings, from Gunn Oracle, Stanford Chaparral, Peninsula Times Tribune (Palo Alto) and Hollywood – -just shoot me. He wrote a few songs — I would say he was as good a songwriter as Taylor Swift; and he looked almost as good in a skirt — when he was 16. Marsh McCall once walked into the journalism lab at Gunn after lunch and said “Today: ‘Women Who Dress As Men Who Dress As Women’”. This is all true — except the joke about Marlon James. Which I was just makin’ up. Why not teach a course about Lydia Pense and cold blood playing electric guitars as Lenny Siegel and David Harris thru rocks  thru the window of the trustees’ meeting? 

edit to add: the honorable Rebecca Eisenberg rightfully chided me for my unkind reference to Chanel Miller. So I wrote to the student mentioned in the mercury, as the creator of the course, and suggested that she might add know my name to the syllabus: how would knowledge of the brock turner case affect the way a group of Stanford students see celebrity in the form of Taylor Swift or feminism or beauty?

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Buskers at Lytton Plaza who do nothing but K-pop arranged for electric guitar and vocal duet

Posted on July 2, 2023 by markweiss86

Band Kori from USC; she’s working at.Tesla this summer

edit to add:

..or keyboard

 

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