Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss

Windhover at Stanford nears opening

Posted on August 20, 2014 by markweiss86

Windhover Contemplative Center at Stanford, featuring large-scale works on canvas by Nathan Oliveira, looks very near completion.

A little birdie told me.

I spoke to Palo Alto boards shortly after Nathan’s passing about the value of honoring his role in town cultural history, as distinct from the history of the university. Gail Price subsequently wrote a proclamation honoring the famous professor and painter, who I also thought of as the father of my schoolmate Joe or Joey Oliveira.

I also circulated — ok, it was more like a hectogram — an idea that We The People should purchase 209 Hamilton which was Nathan’s downtown studio in the 1960s and turn that into a museum for his larger works and revert the upstairs — the former stage — into studios. Ok, Stanford’s idea was better.

Meanwhile, we do have a large work in bronze at the Art Center.

The Windhover — named for the paintings not the man but actually a Gerald Hopkins Manly reference as well — is also notable in that it has no interior wiring. It is across from Roble Gym and next to the Papua New Guinea carvings — near the student Union.

Posted in art, Plato's Republic | Tagged nathan oliveira, windhover | Leave a comment

OfficeUS don’t office us, or a self-tautology?

Posted on August 20, 2014 by markweiss86

The ARB Architecture Review Board meets tomorrow Thursday at 8:30 a.m., or in about 25 hours. I am attending, mainly to listen. Yet I feel compelled to add something to the discussion. Lean in. Stand up. Engage.

I left the June, 2014 Art in America in my man-cave/home office, but realize that thanks to this laptop thing-a-majig, I can find what I was looking for:

OfficeUS, part of the Venice Biennale on Architecture.

link

Can we contextualize our debate over the “downtown cap” in aesthetics, or an understanding of world-wide trends? Is there an aesthetics common ground distinct from the proverbial matters of taste?

Here is one photo, as synecdoche:

There’s also word of and maybe a link to Ai Weiwei, Sugimoto.

More to come.

I want to suggest a chap book, via Palo Alto History Association, on local architecture, especially commercial and public buildings, either by type or by time. (Like the books on streets, parks, trees — my proposed list of 500 jazz memes – I’m up to about 250)

Good morning, board.

The Sugimoto is called Glass Tea House Mondrian and apparently they serve Japanese tea in ceremony there, in Venice, Italy:

He is an artist, not an architect, please note; where did I start to see him: DeYoung, 2007; book on Serra in St. Louis, Pulitzer Foundation – that building is actually an Endo, I mean Tadao Ando, who is said to be self-taught.

My feelings about architecture are like my thoughts on the public art collection: I’d rather see less of it – -less change — but better, more distinct. It seems the industry has the expediency to cram more into a box and call it innovative. But their almost philistines, with due respect that there is some talent, method to their psychosis.

Ai Weiwei Forever Bicycles 11-79 and all that:

edit to add: I spoke to HRB today, about Windhover. I am interested in 385 Sherman, on the agenda at ARB Thursday. I may speak on that, rather than OfficeUS, or both.

Posted in art, Plato's Republic | Tagged hiroshi sugimoto, officeUS, rem coolhaous, rem koolhas | Leave a comment

Matt Gonzalez, part 2

Posted on August 19, 2014 by markweiss86

Hey, Luke, may I use this on my wordpress blog, if I include a credit line, Luke Thomas, Fog City Journal?

Matt Gonzalez actually called back, between appointments, and added some additional critique to my efforts.

He suggested that even as the Residentialists are becoming bolder here in their push-back against the Developers, that people want a positive message.

I agree. Of course we want development and investment. We want to optimize it. We want to regulate it. We don’t want to strangulate it. (Cue the Bob Dorough…or is that Johnny Mercer?)

If there is a Matt Gonzalez Part 3, I would want to go deeper with him into issues like unions and pension. Jeff Adachi, Matt’s fellow Public Defender, ran for Mayor in 2012 and made a dent, and is pro-worker but also had incites into the need to reform pensions.

I wanted to ask Matt what he thought of George Packer, “The Unwinding” but also “Change The World”. I think of myself as a George Packer populist –okay, he works for The New Yorker, so my populist might be a relative term.

I appreciate that a commentator in the Palo Alto Weekly called me a thinker.

I do try.

I’d definitely rather be knocked out by the bell when my 3 minutes are up than learn to speak in nothing but sound-bites.

I also want to ask Matt about my public safety / militarization / privatization concern and possible platform plank — that I spoke about last night at Council.

I have to admit I was a little concerned he was calling back to qualify his endorsement: I hope over the next 75 days to solidify my platform and win the respect and vote of people like Matt and more importantly the Palo Alto voters.

I also say: it’s not so much getting 3, 4 or 5 “Residentialists” into office as activating 500 or so more people to go to meetings, call up their neighbors, check on old friends, check and balance the momentum, lean in, step up and all that. To wind the part of civic life that perhaps has started to flag.

Posted in media, Plato's Republic, words | Tagged fog city journal, george packer, luke thomas, matt gonzalez | Leave a comment

What do you see in this image?

Posted on August 19, 2014 by markweiss86

art by Matt Gonzalez, circa 2006

I see:
1. colors
2. a shape, bunny rabbit? New England state known for leaves turning in fall?
3. numbers, letters, not quite words. Qwerty? Hazbot? Nimby?
4. Is this a reference to Raushenberg, Switters, Walker Evans or what?
(it it bad that I am answering a question with seven I mean eight ?’s)
5. a pretty cool freakin’ endorsement from a regional and nationally known political figure, although he also states, somewhere “I hope that someday they will say Matt Gonzalez is a visual artist who dabbled in politics”

Ok, Matt Gonzalez is a former San Francisco supervisor. He very nearly was elected Mayor. Gavin Newsom beat him by a few points and maybe another $100,00 here or there would have closed that gap, some say. He works as a public defender (he is a Latino from Texas, who attended Columbia for undergrad and Stanford for grad school — I told someone recently my three favorite Columbia grads are: Allen Ginsberg, Matt Gonzalez and Bill Campbell — plus June Omura for good measure). He helped Ralph Nader run for President, once.

I met Matt thru Beth Custer — he donated a work of art, similar in style to the one above, early Matt we say. I bought that piece. (This was 2006 or so). In 2011, December we co-hosted and co-produced a poetry celebration regarding an obscure Dead Poets Society / pro to-Beat named Alden Van Buskirk, in San Francisco.

Ten minutes ago, I said “Thanks for calling me back, I’m sure you are 10 times busier than me”. We talked for five minutes, and hope to meet up sometime in the late summer early fall.

“Use by name at least. Yes, you can say ‘an endorsement'”.

I think this is my 20th endorsement or so, including my Dad, Paul Weiss — the Rotarian and Jewish philanthropist — but this is a thrill for me because this is the first real politician, I mean artist, I mean politician I have had the nerve to try like this. Wah-hoo!

(And I am sitting in the courtyard of Palo Alto Art Center, about to take another gander at work of Joseph Zirker 90 — who also endorsed me — as I write this, although I am about to kick off for lunch, I had just blogged when Matt’s call came in).

I said he is a good writer and I learn a lot from his work. (He also said Tommy Ammiano the comedian is very serious at his day job and don’t go for the yucks, even if I think I am emulating Sartre and “No Exit” who said more of his work got by the censors when he gussed it up a bit, under occupation, like Newk’s famous fade).

MATT GONZALEZ, FORMER SAN FRANCISCO SUPERVISOR, KEY ENDORSEMENT OF MARK WEISS, PALO ALTO CITY COUNCIL.

6. To answer the question, I see blue sky, and I hear birds not back-hoes.

P.S. Matt is from McEllend, Texas but I check “Austistic” meaning “Austin, TX or the 404” just for poetic effect. “Platos Republic” is my main category for things political and my campaign for council.

edit to add: ok, I am not sure, in this giddy state, — is that Delaware? — whether I am thinking Camus or Sartre and censorship, which reminds me that I am meaning to say something about the distinction between the lay sense of “animus” and the Jungian sense (“anima” actually). A troll or maybe the real Jim Baer described his sense of my discourse as “animus” which I think he meant in the sense of “hate” or “anger” or something — I thought it rather ironic, in a classic sense. Want to literally call him on that. I actually tried to bait J.D. Daniels to it, but he said he was not Jungian but a Burnsian or Beckian.

Posted in art, austistic, jazz, Plato's Republic, this blue marble, words | Leave a comment

Are you ready for some Edelman, er, exercise, er, lunch?

Posted on August 19, 2014 by markweiss86

reprinted from three years ago, with addendum:

Patriot Julian Edelman, from nearby Redwood City, California, breaks open the NFL tilt with his electrifying punt return for a score.

This run by Julian Edelman, of the New England Patriots, a former Woodside High and CSM football hero, makes me wish I had done my recent smog check at Frank Edelman’s A-1 AutoTech in Mountain View and Redwood City.

Edelman is the brightest of eight former College of San Mateo Bulldog stars to have shone in the NFL.

I noticed that the wikipedia page already updated to include tonight’s heroics.

edit to add, three years later, and during pre-season football:

and in related matter: I have some photos of City College of San Francisco Junior College football workouts, at their stadium, from August, 2014, i.e. last week. I went in to the City for a client meeting, or potential client meeting — a former Ivy Athlete turned activist and artist — and stopped by the besieged school to see the famous Diego Rivera murals, at their theatre. That was closed, but I shot some footage and stills thru the window, to amusing effect and tantalizing. The school has a sign about national champions there, recent, post-WWII and during the O.J. Simpson year or years, I am pretty sure, plus a list of two former NFL/CCSF players, who paid for the billboard. Also, being not a sportswriter (perhaps not even in the Richard Ford sense, talk about something long in my que), I met: an Asian professor and activist, a British emigre visual artist, a Guarani / Honduran musician — drummer, likes Andy Palacio RIP; I am jonesing to go back to shoot the mural or see it, for real. Rivals the Orozco mural of our beloved Dartmouth.

I tagged this: Julian Edelman, O.J. Simpson, Andy Palacio, Diego Rivera, Nicholas Wade, Brian Moore. And Dartmouth

At this point, Edelman has 10 touchdowns and 179 receptions after 64 games. He is about my size, 5′ 10″ 198 lbs — as a Terman Tiger 8th grader flag football I was 5’8, 125 lbs receiver, although I lined up as tackle on running plays and was end on defense. Ok, I am lying, I am 6′ even (actually 5’11 3/4 barefoot) and 205 lbs give or take a couple stuffed bell peppers, Ruffles chips in Rancho dip, Macapunas ice cream from Rick’s Rather rich, an egg for $1.75 from Peet’s this a.m., a medium cappuccino usually with whole milk although today they defaulted to skim, a great lunch salad yesterday from Joanies on Cali, Caesar with chicken breast, a Coke — if I can swim 20 times between now and Election Day, November 4 I will feel at least alive. I rode my bike to campus, to Coupa, for another latte, in the a.m. This is more a foodie blog than a sports blog, Remar Sutton. Leave the gun, take the canoli.

Posted in brain, ethniceities, media, sf moma, sports | Tagged brian moore, julian edelman | Leave a comment

Tygress, Tygress (Mia Levin, Sunday, August 17, 2014)

Posted on August 19, 2014 by markweiss86

Mia Levin D’Bruzzi

Mia Levin and I met in 1977 when we were both Terman Tigers and I presume virgins. Now she is Mama Mia to Lalique, 28, and Leon, 9. Wow!

She also has “put out” 10 cd’s, albums and tapes as: Frightwig, Mudwimin, ADSR, Close to the Ground, and Mama Mia D’Bruzzi.

I caught up with her at Palo Alto Farmers Market, on Cali Ave Sunday (after a Gina Dalma coffee clatch in “greater miranda”). I sang backing vocals on a Stones cover. I juggled shakers on an original, about income redistribution. She also has a pretty fair Guthrie tribute. As children wandered by, she switched it up to “the elephant sneezed and fell to his knees” medley — by Thelonious Monk — and drew in even more of the Gen Z’s and their Gen Y parents (to our Boomer or Echo generation — I was in utero when Kennedy was shot, and she might have also been).

Later we posed for photos next to the Huffman and the Johanson (but oddly, not the Piziali). I think she said she had heard Tina Age 13, by Chris Johanson.

Respect for Mia and the Mudwimin is the ship that launched 150 subsequent Earthwise Productions at Cubberley Community Center, fall 1994, to winter 2001.

I also ran into Dan Adams, our fellow Terman Tiger and got his endorsement for Council, and more importantly, news of an Oxbow record in progress. I did the least one could do and still be able to say I helped Dan fix something mechanical on his old Peaugot beater wagon.

weird outro, weirder than “narcotic story”:

Posted in art, ethniceities, la la, Plato's Republic, sex, sf moma, Uncategorized, words | Tagged dan adams, frightwig, mia d'bruzzi, mia levin, mudwimin, oxbow, william blake | Leave a comment

Wooden ship

Posted on August 18, 2014 by markweiss86

Larry Klein, circa 2011, leans in on behalf of the wealthy oligarchs and his clients I mean the people

Lame duck Palo Alto City Council Member Larry Klein tries to quote basketball coaching legend John Wooden tonight from dias.

“As John Wooden would say (if he were polled on loop technology, or using staff time as a subsidy for Palo Alto downtown landlords and parking czars), ‘Hurry, but don’t rush.”

No, sir, what he actually said, as my coach Hans Delannoy said to me, too many times,

BE QUICK BUT DON’T HURRY.

I actually passed this note on to City Clerk Donna Grider, and also to Gen Sheyner of the Weekly. Then posted this.

(I might outro with CSN song which comes to mind)

Also, I presume I was on deep background, but I made some sort of soft voice comment to GS about…Foreign Friends and not quite Wizard of Oz Scarecrow and Klein — I said the last name of the famous coach – -who by the way, had a losing record against Cal’s coach Pete Newell, and pointed to my head.

more Larry-mania: I mentioned in a Weekly post that I was “tough on Klein” here. When I went to speak my 3 minutes Monday — on public safety here — I noticed Klein was not paying attention, his head down, in my opinion trying to ignore me or psych me out. Similar to the episode a couple years back when Mark Peterson-Perez, an activist, and sometimes a fairly caustic speaker, spoke and Larry Klein and then in sympathy Pat Burt both turned their chairs around when he spoke. When I applied for Planning Commission I noted later –reviewing the tape, a public record — Larry Klein left the room, presumably to take a leak. I would say there is a definite pattern, and you can check it by referring to the public record, the video bank. (And I am in Sullivan v. Times territory here — it is not easy to libel a public figure or seated official, but for instance, if I cannot prove my pattern AND he can prove some damages — which becomes known as “reckless disregard for the truth” or “actual malice’ I could be in trouble — this is thin ice, or deep wading). When I ran for council in 2009 and Larry was also a candidate, I did seek him out at a post-event and try to shake his hand and say “I am not sure why I am so hard on you.”. Similarly, I caught Larry Klein napping once at Lytton Plaza mid-afternoon or lunch hour, and might have snapped an embarrassing paparazzo, but instead greeted him woke him, tried to shake his hand — he offered me his left to my right, clutching the paper with his shake hand — and made some reference to the noise ordinance at the plaza. But in the context of a perception that leadership caters to the powerful and does not listen to rank-and-file or grassroots, I would say it is fair comment to note that Larry Klein does not make eye contact or face me when I speak to council or commissions and he is on the dias.

In Weekly:

Rupert — if that’s your real name —

There’s confidentiality and then there is running around in a white hood. No, I don’t think we should have to sign our ballots.

I refuse to accept donations — and people offer — in sympathy with the concern over Citizens United and McCutcheon cases. To date, in two cycles (garnering a “combined” 6,800 votes) and three weeks into this campaign, I have spent ZERO on campaign per se (save filing fees, running tab $75).

This year, for yucks, I am likely to spend up to $1,000 out of pocket, if I can think of a worthy use of the money. Something arty, and smart not crass stupid and cliche. No yard signs. I am for a yartzeit on yard signs.

I asked other candidates to agree to a cap of $10,000 — that’s way above what I might spend.

And since this sometimes linked, and was in fact reported incorrectly in other papers, I sat thru a Union panel on candidates, that they might endorse, but refused to sign a contract that would pledge me to vote with them. I think of myself as pro-worker, pro-middle class, pro-democracy, but not pro-Union.

For the record, I worked on campaigns of: Jerry Brown, Becky Morgan, Tom Campbell, Jeff Adachi, Steve Cohen.

Here is an article on this by Robert Reich (my fellow Dartmouthian — he a few years ahead of me, I’m certain we had some of the same professors); I also recommend his film “Inequality For All”

Web Link

I will keep to myself who among the candidates I am talking to — I would say at this point I have spoken, in the last three weeks, to 9 of the 12, and maybe 5 or 6 of the nine current council, in side-bars and in passing if not strategy sessions per se.

Although I get in their jock a bit, I would say I could work with anyone on council. I was pretty tough on Klein in my blog post last night, but in theory I could find an overlap and mutual common interest, for the good of the people, our community. (I attacked him for his habit of turning his back, looking away or leaving the room when I speak to or am interviewed by council…)

I hope people use the full 80 days to decide and do not mail back the ballots early.

But we need rank-choice balloting or districting or both, better than bullet-ballot scenarios.

Read my blog if you want more nuanced versions of how I think.

There’s also a Times article on trolls:

Web Link</p>

I call this “whack-a-troll” but it seems miles away from discourse and Democracy…

You don’t think you can win the respect of intelligent readers writing under your own name?

Posted in brain, media, Plato's Republic, sports, words | Tagged david crosby, john wooden, larry klein, mccutcheon, pete newell, robert reich, stephen stills | Leave a comment

Notes on public safety, during three minute address to Council tonight

Posted on August 18, 2014 by markweiss86

Larry Klein, at 7:45 tonight, approximately ten minutes after his 3 minute nap

>>Seemless transition from neighborhood preparedness to public safety

Gunn, Paly and Castilleja –aspire to community service

We can self-govern and self-police.

No outsourcing. No privatizing.

Background:

1. 2011 ballot Measure D affecting collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and binding arbitration

A recent regional panel said we had some improprieties in how we passed the Measure

Link to Palo Alto Weekly recent story.

Public employment relations board, 53-page ruling.

2. Gunn “graffiti hate crime case”

I find fault with:

a. media, Chris Kenrick of Palo Alto Weekly

b. public safety, PAPD, Sgt. Zach Perron spokesman

c. schools — should have kept it in-house

They flared the flames of racism and classism and sensationalized this story.

3. Recent reports, out of Ferguson, Missouri, especially in The New York Times, Elizabeth R. Beavers and Michael Shank, about militarization of public safety.

(The authors are actually policy researchers and activists, not Times staff)

Also, in November, 2011, Palo Alto outsourced our crossing guards to American Guard Services, a very militarized firm, and all they did was hire back the same guards and make them work for less. I had written a letter to Weekly asking City Attorney cancel that contract and put it to re-bidding.

Link to Safe Routes to Schools, which mentions ACG. I may send this to PAPD and PAUSD people in charge.

I am interested in reaching out across the creek in one direction or the other (and here I gestured with my hand in two directions, with a shaking motion) such that we work together for our mutual safety but that is not the same as pooling resources to hire or outsource this kind of thing.

Larry Klein took the 3 minutes to either fixate on his fly or perhaps trying to remember his mantra; he certainly did not do me the courtesy of looking at me, and did not seem to listen to me. Previously I have noticed him taking the opportunity to relieve himself when it was my turn to speak, leaving the table, we presume to go and use the facilities. If he gets within earshot tonight, I am going to call him on it.

I should probably explicate what I actually said here.

ABOVE, WHAT I SAID, BELOW, WHAT I HEARD (ABOUT PARKS AND LEE PROPERTY)

I am writing this while attending the meeting. About 7:35 p.m. or 20 minutes later. Council is covering their respective asses on the 7.7 acre of Lee Property donated to City years ago, but never dedicated, and the subject of the Arrillaga power play, described in Grand Jury Report of June, 16, 2014. Four areas where fences are off the line by 8 to 12 feet — in which way? Chain link, covered with black vinyl plastic “and I expect will be replaced” Greg Betts. Whose fences? Neighbors. Holman.

Scharf: let’s celebrate this.

see also: Acterra has some plants there.

also: Peter Drekmeir, former Bay Area Action / Acterra leader and former mayor, did he have an inkling on the impropriety of the usage, for 20 years, and overlapping his terms?

Betts: artist in residence use? Like Sarah Cameron Sunde, communing with ants? There is no irrigation, and it would take about $500,000 to add sprinklers. There is a parks public outreach and planning “EIG?” – he will refer to them.

I am going to text Peter Drekmeier and ask him to call me on this topic. Acterra there since 2005. Kniss: this place is like a dust bowl now. (She has a property very near, she and Dick Kniss, a Williamson Property, I recall, plus she mentioned it once during campaign, 2012.

Schmid, 7:45, concerned about 8.5 foot chain link fence, Arrillaga put on public land, and can we get him to take it down?

edit to add: while editing this to add the links, meanwhile listening with one ear to discussion of parking technology and “loops”, I realized that I had written a version of this on Weekly comment board, earlier today:

I was one of only 50 Palo Altans willing to put their name on a defense of our public safety workers, NO on D at the time.

I would like to see a more thorough discussion of these issues.

I look at this in context of Fergusson, Missouri and the recent, in New York Times discussion of militarization of our public safety.

By Elizabeth R. Beavers

Web Link

I think we should self-govern, with leadership this is reflective of and listens to rank-and-file citizens, and a type of self-policing that expands neighborhood preparedness into something that de-specilizes public safety — so certainly DO NOT out-source or privatize. I want to see people from Gunn and Paly (and I guess Casti) grow up to help keep us safe.

I think leadership in 2011 was taking orders from a non-elective cabal of right-wingers, arguably the same people who push for too much development.

I do not think our working class should be scape-goated for our problems.

That being said, I am skeptical about organized labor, and its leadership.

Thanks to the men and women in blue (and sometimes pink) for keeping us safe!

I appreciate the signed comments by our neighbors who disagree with this (pro-worker) viewpoint, however. Let’s talk about it!

Like the Grand jury report of June 16, 2014 this is sign of a leadership crisis here.

edit to add, an hour later: Larry got up, presumably to pee, at around 9.

edit to add, the next day: I caught up to Liz Kniss, City Council member and former Santa Clara County Supervisor, and she clarified: her property on Page Mill is not adjacent to that of Arrillaga; if she mentioned Arrillaga as “my neighbor” she meant their respective properties in town per se; she said something about her husband doing HAM radio, up on Page Mill. She and Nancy Shepherd had toured he site in question, the 7.7 acre parcel the Lee Family donated to City for rec use years ago but finally Monday we added to park inventory, after Arrillaga had used it as a loading area for work on his own adjacent compound and tried to buy it from us, secretly, for $175,000. Also, Peter Drekmeier and I traded brief emails on this, because he is a BAA/Acterra alum and former Mayor. Acterra has a nursery up there, which may or may not be continued with the new designation. I am holding my place here about Larry Klein and his bladder, tacky as it may be (my stance, not his bladder). I sent a copy of this to his work email address plus a little note about whether he was intending to look like he could care less when I talk to council.

edit to add: November 26: the search function leads me here, maybe
cuz i miss-spell the italian word for writing on the walls, but somehow appropriate I just posted to PAW under an article about public safety staff texting a photo of a scantily clad suspect asking Weekly to re-open its report on “gunn graffiti hate crime” here known as “gunn graffiti” as a tag no less, thusly, but please not above that I guess I did in August speak to the world for 3 minutes linking this May 2014 Palo Alto case to Feguson MO:
Hey i’m still looking for traction regarding the PD’s inflammatory statements about an alleged but actually bogus “graffiti hate crime” at Gunn, May, 2014 (the one that started with “Thank God…”). You and several other news sources fanned the flames of racism and invited speculation on your anonymous comments boards.

Don’t get me wrong: I support Chief Dennis Burns and our generally excellent public safety staff here. But we do demand excellence.

Why don’t your report a follow up on the May, 2014 cold-case non-case and own up to your end of it.

If I did not have a meticulous habit of signing 234 of 235 posts to PAW I would have posted under NOBODYS PREFECT

I also spell “ferguson” fergusen I will add the correct and leave the incorrect.

and just for yucks or yuck i clicked on “sex” as category

Posted in media, Plato's Republic, sex | Tagged american guard services, conan the barbarian, fergusen mo, ferguson, gunn graffiti, gunn graffiti hate crime, public employment relations board | Leave a comment

There’s a little piece of Maria in every song he sings

Posted on August 18, 2014 by markweiss86

This is a photo of a tv screen in LA last weekend, of Berkeley kid, Adam Duritz, the voice of my generation. But what’s that thing alighted on his noggin?

When I worked, as a freelancer or go-fer, at Goodby Berlin and Silverstein, 921 Front Street in San Francisco in the late 1980s there was an interesting looking lady there about my age named Maria. I seem to recall that one day she said there was some chalk graffiti in front of the office that said “I love you, Maria”. Something makes me wonder if this is the Maria the muse of several Counting Crows songs. Keep in mind that Adam Duritz is about my age and would have been some kind of starving artist, under-achieving bougie or under-employed malcontent, as I was. Also, another GBS peon of the time, Pammie Laws later got signed to Warner with Seven Day Diary.

(But of course I also thought that Steve Jenkins of Third Eye Blind was J.T. Leroy based on the fact that his best friend in 7th grade at Terman Junior High in Palo Alto in 1976 was John Leroy…on the other hand, according to Kevin Ryan of Green Apple Books in SF, Margaret Cho worked there either simultaneous to me or just before me, in 1989..also, two former girlfriends of mine, A_____ and C_____ both knew Adam, either from UC Berkeley or the Bear’s Lair / Himalayans days. It is said that Steve Jenkins’ brother, George Jenkins, now a collegiate woman’s rowing coach was Adam’s fraternity brother at not Berkeley but UC Davis and he introduced A.D. to Steve, whose band opened for Crows at the Fillmore. And Patty Spiglanin of The Naked Barbie Dolls is often seen backstage at Crows on the strength of the fact that two of her band members left to join Adam’s crew. And my cousin Craig Ruda — Eric Cohen, who took the above pictures last weekend asked me this — was bass player in Joe 90, on Adam’s E Pluribus / Geffen imprint, and sang backing vocals on “Hanging Around”. And my client Stew opened for Counting Crows on 10 dates East Coast sheds, Great Woods, Saratoga, Holmdel, Jones Beach — I t.m.’d those dates. So my guess about Maria is not totally stab in dark. I am the rain king. Yeahhh.)

Counting Crows at Greek Theatre Los Angeles August and everything after 15, 2014 photo and review by Eric Cohen: we met the crows guitarist the night before at a party; going to counting crows concert tonight, what is the name of your cousin who played with joe 90 (Craig Ruda); (will you review the show for plasty?) Possible I’m not qualified a fan; (did they play round here)yes. that’s a good dog. a good song. Hanging around? I don’t think so.but that is also a good one. (he later sent a link to setlist dot com which does not list it — he was correct)
Thanks Eric

Posted in ethniceities, la la, sex, sf moma | Leave a comment

Rue-DOOR-en felt the most real so we GOOG-led it and found a section of an island in Finland that we someday hope to claim as ancestral homeland

Posted on August 16, 2014 by markweiss86

(TRIBUTE TO BIG DAYS OF JOSEPH ZIRKER, SARAH CAMERON SUNDE, THEIR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS, AUGUST 14-15, 2014 PALO ALTO AND SAN FRANCISCO)

I do not know Jodi Wilgoren also known as Jodi Rudoren. Her sister Debbi Wilgoren was three years behind me at Dartmouth which means my roommate Scott Rafshoon probably trained her as a reporter at the Daily D. Debbi writes for the Post while Jodi writes for the Times.

I stole these three jpegs about art and artists in the Gaza Strip. The headline above comes from an article Jodi wrote about coining a name using her and Gary’s names.

This is a weird post. I’m at Starbucks on El Camino, at Stanford Aveune, the former Mountain Mike’s Pizza building, and wanted to do about an hour of “work”, before showering, changing and heading back to Terry’s. I am pasting in here the photo Terry took of Joe Zirker and 12 others Thursday, that Sal Pizarro of the Mercury used with his column, at least online. (It is fair use for me to drag a photo my girlfriend took from the Mercury to “Plastic Alto”; meanwhile I have a set of about 30 shots of the same event I will edit and post here as well. I may try to sneak a link to that into the comments under Sal’s item about Joe.

photo by Terry Acebo Davis

Scott and I walked Ace from Barron Park to Mitchell Park and back. We stopped for about a half hour to hear the Mads Tolling Quartet play. I greeted Mads before the hit, having been seated next to him for a show at Stanford a week ago. I was pleasantly surprised that his band included Ila Cantor on guitar, someone I had met in New York in 2004, and greeted her, as well.

Child art from Gaza published in New York Times

On my way to Smith-Andersen to pay down my art tab, I detoured to a drive-way sale in Professorville. Something tipped me off that this was the house of Jason Peery, the Pinewood High basketball coach whose family foundation donated the new gym at Paly High. Sure enough, Mrs. Peery introduced me to her husband and then I also met Jason Fung, who happened by in his vintage muscle car. He said he remembered Joey Piziali (my favorite late 1990s Paly player) and we exchanged some friendly smack talk about him. Jason succeeds the great Earl Hanson as Athletic Director at Paly. He kindly posed for Plastic Alto:

Paly grad, longtime staffer and new AD Jason Fung, at Jason Peery’s yard sale, summer 2014

Jodi Rudoren became Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times in May, 2012, after 14 years as a reporter and editor at the paper. She previously served as the paper’s Education Editor, deputy Metropolitan editor and Chicago bureau chief.

Darcie and Daina of the Oak Creek Club staff lent me a pen and gave me a piece of paper to make some quick notes about Times stories Friday I hope(d) to delve into.

This headline today made me re-route:

Artists’ Work Rises From the Destruction of the Israel-Gaza Conflict

Liligul and her yorkies were stretching their respective or collective what is it 22 legs which sounds rather Louise Bourgious when I came upon her.

There was a distinct Norge tinge to my Friday, seeing Liligul and then proceeding directly to what became a 6.5 mission to support Sarah Cameron Sunde; car to apartment, bike to train, Caltrain to Aquatics Park and then in reverse. For Sarah, she spend upwards of 12 hours in the Bay charting artistically the ebb and flow of the water. Einer Sunde her father joined in for part of the stint. A collaborator named Winnie the film producer from Oakland included me in a sub-ritual, a symbol dance we performed around 2:26.

A pretty young hostess at Reposado Restaurant in Palo Alto

Artist from Gaza depicted in The New York Times today, article by Jodi Rudoren formerly known as Jodi Wilgoren, whose sister overlapped with me at the Daily Dartmouth, in 1985

Ace made a friend, after a while, they called him Ollie. Ollie is black while Ace is a mix, of black and white, more white I would think. They started playing and, to be honest, for a second there I thought it would get out of hand and Ace might get hurt. Then we all went to hear the music, which you could not hear from the dog run, until you got past a truck playing music to a group of what looked like Oceanic Islanders at one of the reserve barbecue areas. When I noticed the female guitarist, a rarity, my mind flipped thru a short list of possible identities and I did think of Ila, although it had been more than 10 years since we met, but I had seen a notice about her and sent her a greeting via email. When Mads introduced his band, he said this was the first time he and Ila had played together. The Zidane song was not in the set list.

Ila Cantor guitar goddess August 2014 Palo Alto Mitchell Park with Mads Tolling Quintet

I hugged and kissed Eva Zirker hello but did not spend much time with her, having seen she and Joe the night before (and Joe the night before that). Eva’s daughter Karen Jo I had met several times, at opening and birthdays, but did not speak to that night — I sprang away early to try to catch Charlie Chan at the Olympics, at Stanford Theatre. I did speak to Karen’s grand-daughter, Chamisa or Charmisa, at length and she posed for me, I posted below.

A good portion of my Friday (Freya-day)was devoted to Sarah Cameron Sunde and her performance piece 36.5, in San Francisco, at Aquatics Park, in the shadow of Ghiradeli Square. I left Scott’s at 11 a.m. determined to get my bike and I to the 11:41 train, which I made by 3 minutes, plus the 3 minute delay announced. A detour of about an hour to help a traveler find the Golden Gate Transit stop had me arriving at the North Point spot of the show at around 2:20, and I was immediately corralled into playing a small support role by Winnie Wong, an Oakland based film producer, whose boyfriend Dan at that point was running an errand out to the water to help Sarah. Einer Sunde, proud papa, was himself neck-high in the project at that point; today he told me his duration was about an hour. I scribbled something about “My bonnie lies over the mountain” into a comments book, then headed back, via Embarcadero green bike lanes, to catch the 4:09 express. I sat with Jim Keene, Palo Alto’s City Manager, who happened to be in the City, and rode with me as far as Millbrae. I dubbed her Queen Sarah Freya-Day, after the Pee Wee Herman side-show and Chapel Hill rock band.

While I compose all this, “Water of Love” by dire straits flows from the coffee house speakers; not sure what this photo says about the totality of the Sarah Cameron Sunde piece “36.5” other than that I was there for a tick of a clock and snap of a shutter.

L I K E T H I S

Carmisa wondered if the couple depicted in this Joe Zirker piece were his parents (her great-great-grand-parents)

Joe Zirker actually asked me to shoot his show, both the art and the people, and I complied with about 34 shots before it got dark enough that my camera starts to automatically use a flash, and I stopped. That plus I had promised myself I would leave at 7 to catch Charlie Chan at the Olympics.

Joe and Eva’s grand-daughter Carmisa (I hope I am spelling that) started telling me her work and study in social justice. I wanted to counter with a description of the so-called Gunn graffiti hate crime. I’d like her take on what the heck that was all about here — I am resting my case that the First Amendment carries despite efforts by the school, the press and the spokesperson for PAPD to fan the flames of racism and classism here.

Ok, Joe, you deserve better than someone to hijack your event for political agendas, even ones you or your family might agree with. In fact Joe Zirker in honor of his show, and his 90th birthday, deserves 90 actual art critics to see and write on this set. I will try, therefore, to send this post to 90 art writers and bloggers. Maybe Joe Oliveira can forward this to Peter Selz, who we saw (and I shot) recently at Cantor and WCC.

Carmisa wondered if the couple depicted in this Joe Zirker piece were his parents (her great-great-grand-parents)

Palo Alto former art commissioner Paula Kirkeby and current City Council candidate at Zirker opening, Thursday in Palo Alto (Peter Kirkeby)

Winning

additional reporting by Jodi Wilgoren Rudoren in Jerusalem and New York and throughout the internet

and winnie’s twitter feed: winning

and whiting

Posted in art, ethniceities, media, Plato's Republic, sex, this blue marble | Tagged jason fung, jason peery, joe zirker, terry acebo davis | Leave a comment

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