On Saturday I went to a picking party in Professorville, an elegant old neighborhood in Palo Alto. There were dozens of people there playing bluegrass, swing, folk and all sorts of good things in little clusters all over the garden and in the house. The party started early in the afternoon and things had pretty much shut down by 9 PM. Even so, a cranky neighbor called the police to complain about the noise. At around 10 o’clock a pleasant police officer came into the garden where we were sitting (and not playing) and said that he had received a complaint about excessive noise from the banjos and violins. “But that can’t be right,” he said. “From what I understand, it’s fiddles that play with banjos.” What can I say? Palo Alto police officers really know their instruments.
(I’m always looking to name a political movement in Palo Alto; I do this the way normal people invent band names; Banjo Riot in Professorville, could be the ticket)
Michael John Simmons, it says, worked at Gryphon for 15 years. I bought this copy of Fretboard 32 because it had Ry Cooder on the cover — I actually bought it at McCabes. What got me started on the cyberspace is that this issue features photos of Jolie Holland and her guitar by Laurel Nakadate. So I am fixing to write critically about Laurel’s work, on Jolie. Something about Laurel likes a good cry and uses a Jolie song as a type of emotional dildo.
The actual link to MJS on “words” and “Platos Republic”
There’s also a Nathaniel Riverhorse Nakadate if that explains how Laurel got lassoed-like to shoot for Fretboard Journal, which costs $12.95 in the U.S.
Terry and I on our way back, driving, from L.A., heard something about Charlie Haden passing.
I met Charlie briefly, backstage in New York, at the Blue Note club. I had to look it up to realize it was ten years ago, 2004. It was a Bill Frisell duo concert, and on account of having produced two Frisell shows here in Palo Alto, I felt comfortable (comfortable enough) going backstage to say hey.
I told my weird anecdote about meeting his daughter (the one who married the movie star).
It was kind of a rarity for Bill Frisell and Charlie Haden to do those duo shows.
A short time later Bill cut and album with Charlie’s daughter Petra Haden (not the one I tell stories about).
Also, it turns out that in 2005 on a Liberation Movement Orchestra set, they recorded a Frisell tune called “Throughout”. It appears on a 1991 live album of Bill’s, featuring his first quartet of Joey Baron, Kermit Driscoll.
Terry and I caught Bill Frisell in Napa on our way to (!) LA, but the news about Charlie Haden trumps writing more directly about the Frisell show.
To fess up: I’m kind of a faker and poseur regarding jazz and heard about Charlie Haden because an indie rock dude named Roger Anderson (of Vapor Trail – but we met because he had an Archers of Loaf sticker on his guitar case) told me to check out Josh Haden’s Spain at DuNord and from that I pieced together the legendary Haden music legacy, only since about 1995.
But from 1995 to hearing over the radio, driving over the Grapevine in 90 degree heat yesterday that Haden had left the terrestrial domain I have held him in high regards.
The 2005 set I reference is called “Not in Our Name” and I will take it to heart and keep being (my version of) courageous in terms of my own utterances on those types of things.
I posted this under Gennady Sheyner’s coverage of the recent Planning and Transportation Commission meeting.
I hope to write soonly about the Leadership Ad Hoc Comp Plan group or whatever they are called. People I like on that group, of 13: Doria Summa, Cheryl Lilienstein, Rebecca Sanders.
I skimmed but have not read the 17 page (plus 50 pages of supplements) staff report by Elena Lee on “net zero” approach to growth. Plus I have my notes on the June 24 Our Palo Alto event (at Elks Lodge).
I ran into Neilson Buchanan, at Sally Rudd’s yardsale, and was pleased to see he had posted somewhere on the Weekly’s site, a list of retailers gone to hell, and that he mentioned my favorite fiasco, 456 Uni, the Varsity. (plans on file to turn it into more office space, or a lunchroom for a large software multi-national).
I was part of the June 24 Our Palo Alto meeting that preceded the discussion described above, at PATC. In my estimation, despite being in a 9-member workgroup facilitated by Staff Elena Lee, the “net-zero” approach to growth was some kind of “magic bullet” effect that was vague and iffy, and seemed to be phrased like “how would you feel about throwing out high limits and the cap on downtown office development if it were magically balanced by environmental consequences to offset externalities?”
Contrary to what new PATC member Eric Rosenblum says, I felt that all three proposals were “growth”-oriented and not slow-growth or no-growth. The fourth approach, at least at the June 24 meeting, was hardly discussed at all. Staff said, and the chart even stated, that they were mandated in some way in including it, even in a cursory faction.
Here is a link to Elena Lee’s staff report, in prep for this meeting, and also subject to a previous Gennady Sheyner report on the topic, from a few days prior. It is 17 pages followed by about 50 pages of supplements:
It is still pretty hazy to me the distinction between Our Palo Alto, the revision of the Comp Plan (the housing element, the downtown cap), the newly appointed Comp Plan Leadership Ad Hoc Group, the duties of PATC. It seems to me that leadership is responding to a significant push from developers to not revise or amend but completely disregard what citizens had wanted 1998-2010. Our Palo Alto is a $325,000 slush fund to push thru a new agenda not get citizen feedback.
In my working group, at the June 24 event, among the nine members at our table Steve Levy and Ray Bachetti seemed to hijack the discussion away from a debate or discussion. It seemed orchestrated, like a dog-and-pony show. I said I wanted to discuss “no growth” but was shouted down. Levy even laughed mockingly when I suggested citizens might want a park rather than housing in the event Fry’s vacates it’s Ventura-California location.
In theory at least, citizens can still try to input at the next PATC meeting or at counci, but it seems pretty much like a fix to me. (Maybe the Grand Jury is researching this to add a sequel to its June 6, 2014 findings)
I’m also waiting to hear back after asking staff a month ago for a pro forma for the $325,000 Our Palo Alto initiative.
I posted twice or more to a reporter on Palo Alto Free Press website.
Here is the link to Elena Lee’s report. I noted in a letter regarding the EIR (environmental impact report) that even internally there is discrepancy between how many public hearings there have been, the distinction between Our Palo Alto and public hearings per se, and how many meetings there have been. For example, I went to the Our Palo Alto event in May at Downtown library — led by Sid Espinosa — but noted it was not listed in Elena’s list to an agency about the process.
How is Our Palo Alto not a $325,00 subsidy of the developers who are pushing leadership hard to disregard the Comp Plan?
We are “revising” or “amending” or “updating’ the Comp (comprehensive) plan — but it looks like we are disregarding it. What is really behind this effort, and the $325,000?
As I wrote below: my take on the Our Palo Alto is that it is a slick presentation, with cheese and wine, that says “Get ready for more dense housing AND more office towers…” It is much more of a lecture than a conversation.
edit to add, Sunday 9 a.m. from Douce France:
The so-called “net zero” approach is a type of green-wash. Meanwhile staff steers the conversation away from “no-growth”.
By the way, I wrote about this on June 30, 12 days ahead of GS:
And the person who posted that Doug Moran wrote about elements of this topic would do us all a better service if he or she provided a link or even a paraphrase. There is a big difference between writing about something on the web and having people read it, I know as well as anybody.
Even Elena’s staff report has varying accounts of what is or what isn’t “Our Palo Alto” or a public hearing…look into that, please — and how many secret meetings on this topic were there between the major developers and staff???
edit to add, July 22: I added another post to that Weekly article, in response to Levy attacking my credibility (meanwhile he had also deleted my comments, on his Weekly column, criticizing Downtown streets team — for being scrip — and I re-posted a stronger argument, which I will check back to see if it stands; I could re-post that here, and archived it):
I’m standing by my previous post, despite Steve Levy’s attack on my account. Steve Levy, who was part of the panel per se at the first Our Palo Alto event, and wrote a white paper that is part of the project, and who deletes dissent, including my posts, from his Weekly column.
In my working group, at the June 24 event, among the nine members at our table Steve Levy and Ray Bachetti seemed to hijack the discussion away from a debate or discussion. It seemed orchestrated, like a dog-and-pony show. I said I wanted to discuss “no growth” but was shouted down. Levy even laughed mockingly when I suggested citizens might want a park rather than housing in the event Fry’s vacates it’s Ventura-California location.
Also at the table, if it is that important to get this straight, were Diane Lee, Tom Dubois and Jim Jurkovich, if you want to compare their stories to mine.
“Shouted down” might be too strong, even in context of “seemed to hijack”, which it modifies. People were talking at once, not taking turns, not letting Elena moderate — you could sense her frustration, or I could, seated directly to her left — and I even said “I prefer discussing “No Growth” option, but at this table I see I am in the minority, so we can move on”. And Steve Levy did laugh mockingly when I said “How about a park at Fry’s if they vacate?”
Also, I wrote staff asking for a breakdown of costs or pro forma about Our Palo Alto. How is it not a slush fund for the status quo, for the incumbents and a subsidy for the landlords and builders? To the extent my request for information is being ignored, I feel more strongly the Grand Jury report of June 16, 2014 that indicates we have both corruption and a lack of response from City Hall.
I agree we need to revisit the Comp Plan, buy why do we need $325,000 in slick brochures and consultants to do so?
edita, again: I posted this today:
I’d like to see a breakdown of costs for “Our Palo Alto” which I understand is $325,000.
Could we amend the Comp Plan for any cheaper?
I asked staff for a breakdown and got no response; I guess I have to file a formal request to City Clerk. By the way, the Grand Jury report of June 16, 2014, beyond the impropriety about staff and council dealings with a developer, says we have a problem in not responding to requests of information.
Regarding this ad hoc group, I trust Doria, Cheryl and Rebecca, but after that I am not so sure. it does look packed, by the industry.
I’d be curious to see a list of people who applied, or if seated members said how they thought to apply, or were they approached.
On the general topic, the article refers to “new Comprehensive Plan”. Aren’t we merely revising or updating our existing plan? Is it obsolete or is it that the industry is pressuring leadership because our plan tells us that we are already overbuilt?
And my response:
Good story, Chad. Another point about 27 University is it is actually simultaneous with 456 University potentially back-online as a place for public events: City of Palo Alto staff actually took what they were hearing from residents about wanting leadership to work with the landlord (not Arrillaga) at The Varsity Theatre and suggested to Arrillaga that his massive office towers monument would go over better with Theatreworks as the poster-boy, or patsy or whatever you want to call it.
There are relatively fewer people these days passionate about the fate of 456 University and what government could or should do to enact the people’s will, but the historical context is that in the 1990s thousands of citizens signed a petition trying to urge City Council to not grant the zoning change that resulted, for 15 years or so, in a retail use for the historic Theatre.
The Grand Jury report of June 6, 2014 finds there is corruption involving one developer and two deals, but it remains to be seen how widespread is the rot or what anyone can do about it.
Not sure why you picture the editor of a local paper here, but the local press — the Weekly, the Post and to a lesser extent the Daily News — were cheerleaders of the project in their real-time coverage of it and certainly not aware and were not looking for any pattern of secret dealings or corruption. They under-play the report, in my opinion.
Who are taking credit for being the whistle-blowers? (I don’t blame them for being discrete).
Pablo Cruise was all over the radio in 1977 “Place in the Sun”.
Years later it was Gil Draper of Draper’s Music who hipped me to the fact that the band had Palo Alto roots.
Here is a glib from People Magazine of the time, although it actually describes the band as part of the Marin County scene.
Pablo’s roots go back to the Greek-descended (Corey) Lerios’ band at Palo Alto H.S. His classmate Steve Price signed on as a roadie (because he owned a van), then switched to drums. After brief passes at college, they joined with Jenkins (originally from Ypsilanti, Mich. and the group’s only non-Californian) in a San Francisco band called Stone-ground. They split off to form Pablo Cruise in 1973, working at first for $25 a night and, in Jenkins’ case, surviving on food stamps. The fourth member, Day, who once played in a high school band with Carlos Santana, joined in 1977.
I got onto this today because Terry and I plan to ride our Schwin’s to Rinconada Park at 7 to hear AJ Crawdaddy band, part of the City of Palo Alto Twilight Series, that features Angelo Rossi, who is also from Palo Alto and apparently an associate since the old school days of Lerios and Price and played with Pablo Cruise in 1981-1982. His site says he is now a realtor in Woodside. All close enough for the Palo Alto Rock and Roll Archive that exists only 1) in my head 2) in Plastic Alto and 3) maybe or maybe not in Steve Staiger’s desk, or at the archive of Palo Alto Historical Association, at Cubberley, three doors down from where “The Wave” took place.
One of the possible positive outcomes of the 2014 Palo Alto City Council elections would be the actual enactment of the Palo Alto Rock and Roll Archive, and maybe an exhibit and series of events at Palo Alto History Museum, at old Palo Alto Clinic Park, near Heritage Park (which itself needs to be re-named). Karen Holman, probably running for re-election despite her failure to clearly separate from the corruption at 250 Hamilton (Grand Jury Report, 6/6/14), is or was in leadership with the effort to develop the old clinic as a cultural historical site.
Here is Pablo Cruise on Kirshner 1977 circa:
And here is Angelo Rossi pka AJ Crawdaddy at Club Fox recently:
Not to be a hater but I wonder if these types of bands are “buy-ons” meaning they pay to play at the Rinconada Park or do we the taxpayers pay them to perform for us? In the case of Moonalice, the band fronted by big-time VC and music nut — of not unnoteworthy chops — Roger McNamee if we paid them rather than the other way around we are suckers. And I just checked to find that Moonalice as part of the annual Twilight Series may have only been a two-year run, in 2011 and 2012 — both post-dating Suzanne Warren’s long-time curation of the series. I do recall stopping McNamee in 2011 post-hit to ask him to get involved with the Save the Varsity Part 2 campaign — he is part of ownership of the group that runs Slims and GAMH or was.
I would much rather give the gig to someone between the ages of 18 and 30 and not over 60. But I also, if I am not painting myself into a corner, believe in paying union wages or a modified version to all performers at City Sponsored or city-produced or co-sponsored events, $75 per service (90 minutes) for individuals and $150 for a group. My understanding or lasts I checked the Sunday farmers market on Cali Ave pays their performers a flat $35. Maybe I am like the Indian guy crying in the old pollution ads but when I go to these events it is more to contemplate what could be and not to groove or rock out.
Meanwhile, and as a type of add-on, when Terry and I got back from our week in LA-LA, Nielson Buchanan we saw at Sally Rudd’s moving sale and he was holding the local newspaper that said that former Planning and Transportation Commissioner Eduardo Martinez had died, of cancer, at 67. I did not know him well but will remember that when I applied for PATC he sent a note to me (and I presume the other candidates) thanking us and offering to follow up with us with other concerns. I would say that reaching out and even acknowledging fledgling activists and candidates is a rarity here; mostly leadership and the Establishment circle the wagons and fold their arms. (The other exception: Gary Fazzino).
The title would overstate my respect for Martinez or condolensce to his family and friends but I did see Carlos Santana play an acoustic version of this, at Bill Graham’s public memorial, at SF’s Sherith Israel or Emmanuel, and he said it was based on a Yiddish melody, taught by Graham to him:
O Lord Lonnie, we bow down
To a man we once called Clown
So so bad he was last year
A demotion seemed quite clear
Somehow he stayed with the team
Filling in, he kept his dream
Quietly, his average rose
Less at-bats the trick, I s’pose
Playing more, his high marks stuck
Soon seemed like ’twas more than luck
“Chisenhall,” his name called oft
Batting average stayed aloft
Monday was his night of nights
His output could power lights
T.J. House, the rookie, faltered
While the record books were altered
Our Lord Lonnie, starting mellow
Singled to bring in one fellow
Then the hits kept coming strong
Three of them were hit quite long
In the end, he plated nine
One their pitchers, he would dine
Others would add to the rout
None, though, could get near his clout.
That’s by Eric Hanson, the Cleveland Indian bard, (Tribelines) and here it is translated to mere sports-writerish:
Third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall had nine runs batted in and three home runs in a five-hit game, Michael Brantley scored five times and the visitingCleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers, 17-7, on Monday night.
The only other nine-R.B.I. game in Cleveland history was by Chris James in a 20-6 victory for the Indians on May 4, 1991, against Oakland.
Chisenhall had two-run homers in the second and fourth innings before hitting a three-run shot down the right-field line in the eighth to give the Indians a 17-6 lead.
Which do you prefer, the poetry, natch?
Chisenhall meanwhile is poised to become the first Indian since Samsom Occum I mean Bobby Avila in 1954 to lead the loop in batting percentage. He’s at .342 as of 9:33 Sunday
World Cup action at NoLa, Palo Alto, but texting D.F.
Watching taped versions of France-Germany and Brazil-Colombia made me want to post as an interstice Cake “Mahna Mahna” which I took as a tropicalia cover.
Its actually an Italian song about a Swedish soft core porn movie.
Many people think it started with the Muppets.
It had runs with Red Skelton and Benny Hill.
I was crossing it with “Bat Makumba>Batman” — which is definitely Brazilian.
But maybe in some weird player to be named later logic, with White Stripes “7 Nations” being a big football soccer chant, the Philiadelphia Union of MLS and their Sons of Ben fans do a version of Mahna Mahna.
This has 48 Million views:
I’m wondering about my ears can we segue to Os Mutantes?
The masthead of Plastic Alto, a blog comprising 750 posts since 2010, pictures Mark Weiss bowling at Ran Ham Bowl in St. Paul. The photo is by Terry Acebo Davis. Mark’s cousin, Isaac Blumfield, had a gig in the adjoining room, The Souldiers — a band Mark wanted to manage on condition of the name being changed to the Mouldiers, in honor of Bob Mould. This was fall, 2009, an era that Mark recalls as during the first run of “A Serious Man” which he took in earlier that day; he also recalls wandering thru a Ted Leo / Dessa Doomtree show at Macalester College commons, about 1.4 miles away.
Mark says he doesn’t remember his score, but is fairly sure he did not sprain an ankle, aggravate a left inguinal pre-hernia, irritate L-4 to L-6 lumbar and discs, especially not on the right side, nor strain his tricep. He does recall, in 1981, squaring off against Jerry (brother of Danny) Scher in league action at Fiesta Lanes — and this was years before certainly Souldiers but also The Big Lebowski — rolling a 217 and “high handicap 279” to win a trophy in league action. Not a perfect game, but close enough for horse shoes.
Note: I started this post as a note-pad on the mid-May incident at Gunn High, a 17-year-old charged for possible “hate crime graffiti”. The student newspaper, The Oracle, (of which I was editor in chief, or co-editor-in-chief, my junior and senior years) reported that one message said “thank god lobos is leaving” referring to re-assigned Principal Villalobos, Katya. Note the term “thank god”.
I wrote to Police Chief Dennis Burns two weeks later and two weeks ago asking to learn the content of the messages. No response yet, although I did run into Burns that same day around town and he said he got my message.
I do not condone graffiti or the idea of attacking an ethnic group with words. But I question the very notion of “graffiti hate crime” and am assuming the young person innocent until proven guilty.
The following are my notes preliminary to writing Burns and publishing previous post in Plastic Alto. Excuse the disorganization of ideas. It’s more like a list of topics than a flowing paragraph and essay.
I hope to hear back from Zach Perron or to continue to research this topic. I also visited the school on the first day of summer and have reason to believe I sighted the person in question and his parents. I think they were leaving the Administration Office right before I went in, so we passed each other — they were not known to me, other than I am guessing who they are but not their names.
I am curious about the continuum from dissent to vandalism. When a 17-year-old boy writes, among other statements, “Thank God…” and ends up in the justice system, for possible hate crimes and felony vandalism, makes me wonder. I am not condoning hurtful words to members of historically subject groups — or individuals — but I also am putting the May 17, 2014 incident at Gunn High School, my alma mater, into recent context.
In 2008, the Palo Alto Police Chief Lynne Johnson resigned after admitting the instructed her officers to profile blacks.
I sat thru some of the public hearings on the matter and found the mothers’ pleading for better treatment for their children, and the end to profiling, to be pretty compelling and believable.
I have two sources for my understanding of the most recent case: 1) the Palo Alto Weekly article by Chris Kenrick, and 2) the Gunn student newspaper Oracle coverage. The Weekly relies pretty heavily on the Gunn story, and in my opinion did a shoddy and unprofessional job, and maybe should have held back until they got their facts straight.
That a police officer calls the graffiti “racist” does not mean the accused has done anything wrong. His views (Lt. Zach Perron) probably should not have been made public.
I walked the Gunn campus Tuesday to get some sense of what might have gone down. I think I see one place, on the new math building, where patches are painted over.
According to the student newspaper, one of the messages thanked God that the principal was resigning or being relocated.
Aren’t these messages, to an extent, expressions of political belief, and thereby afforded Constitutional protection?
If it starts “Thank God…” could everything after be considered a type of prayer?
If the person who created these messages is, as I suspect, or as my intuition and not-uneducated guess, tells me, turns out to be a member of either a lower socio-economic class or a minority himself, or herself, does that mitigate or contextualize the charges that he or she is “racist” or “sexist”?
I don’t think being black, for example, gives one the right to denigrate, for example Jews, but it is, to my mind, a different matter than the historic situation of blacks in America as a minority being subject, in some instances, to intimidation and hate messages but sub-groups comprised mainly of majority whites.
Also, there is the matter of when should a minor be treated as an adult, in the justice system.
According to research at places like Southern Poverty Law Center, in Dallas, and Equal Justice Initiative in Birmingham, Alabama our justice system seems to have flaws that incorporate difference in class. Further, even 50 years later we have not fully administered Gideon v. Wainright (rights of the accused, to fair trial, to competent defense). See Stevenson.
I wonder to what extent the Gunn graffiti incident is like Allen Ginsberg “Howl” which has it rough spots, the 1957 poem, but over all has redeeming social value.
Is the Gunn Vandal entitled to some fair comment?
Is he commenting on the relative value of the new math building (called, by the way The N Building, as in The N word)?
Is he saying that he thinks athletics is over-emphasized, even at Gunn (famous for losing to Paly, and losing blue chip athletes to cross-town transfers)?
Is he friends with the anonymous artist whose work in a political art show I likened to Enrique Chagoya?
I will be disappointed if, when I get a chance to see the actual evidence, to learn the content of these utterances, I have to retract my provisional support, this plea for leniency.
But at this point, based on what is generally known, I am disappointed in Chris Kenrick and her editors (Bill Johnson, Joceyln Dong) for their coverage, and in Officer Zach Perron. Did they fan the flames of class warfare, or engage in sensationalism.
Officer Perron, in effect, speaks for me, for We The People, so in my opinion has much higher scrutiny. His ignorance and bias, should that turn out to be the case — let’s call it “potential bias” — under the color of authority is arguably much worse than what a poorly educated (if that is fair) 17-year-old can do or has done, with pen, paint or marker.
From the top floor balcony of Gunn’s N Building, by the way, I spied 70 yards away a fairly high level piece of graffiti/art on the water byway. It’s not legal but it’s arguably of some value, aesthetic-wise.
And keep in mind that to confuse the issue you have reformed graffiti artists, or vandals like Shepherd Fairey, David Choe and Banksy earning huge fees and commissions and impacting national issues. Is there any way we can give our local child, our student, the benefit of the doubt: maybe he is a future artistic and provocative genius that we haven’t learned to interpret yet, beyond wanting to criminalize him (or her)?
To the extent that school, in due process felt compelled to censor his message and restore the walls or roofs to a uniform and message-less hue, I think in this case the young man or men and their parents should reimburse We The People for maintenance costs, or be forced to do the repairs for us, as community service.
But I don’t think he should be further penalized because of the content of his message.
(And I’m not sure what to think of the cultural vigilantism that went on: math teacher encouraging their students to leave class to erase or alter or hide the message, accepting as out of bounds without due consideration?)
(And I am aware that the Courts have consistently ruled that, in fact, the First Amendment does not apply whole-cloth to the school environment, or to minors).
Would it be appropriate for a school to clarify, when graffiti appears, that the school does not condone the message and will endeavor to hold the creator responsible, or compel same to defend his or her work, (and leave it intact until such time)?
Certainly I would not agree to have public funds put toward a message that says “Thank God…..” — it might violate the no establishment clause.
Lynn Stegner and others have commented that dissent is more often met with official violent reaction (in the case of pepper spray to the eyes of Occupy student protest at UC Berkeley).
Noam Chomsky and Ben Bagdikian chronicle the demise of the Fourth Estate, and the tendency for the press to either enforce status quo or forward corporate and industrial and power interests. In Palo Alto, I think I see a bias for the powerful and a lack of coverage of interest to the poor, or their neighborhoods, or these types of issues.
I’ve tried to challenge the Weekly and Daily News several times to re-visit or revise their coverage of the poor, at Lytton Plaza, or in certain other cases.
In the James Franco movie “Palo Alto” there is a scene about youth cutting down a tree as a prank or statement. In 1982, vandals (and probably not artists or political activists) cut down the tree in the amphitheater, supposedly as part of a feud between rival cliques. In 1979, students named (and who could forget) Kramer, Kincheloe and Keplinger put their initials in 50 foot white lettering on the side of the Gunn theatre.
See also: Nell Bernstein books on justice system, on NPR this week.
A year or two ago, the Daily Post STET
I bought a copy of this two years ago at the Steinbeck center in Salinas:
I have this taped on my girlfriend’s TV-VCR; about five minutes in, I ran to my computer to post on this topic — this is David Choe, who I met one night when he was commissioned famously to paint an office space for an eventual start-up IPO company:
I bought this book at SFMOMA; I have not read it, just flipped thru it. I am not a graffiti artist although I have once or twice written in comments on a notice posted on Cali Avenue kiosk.
edit to add, 8 days later: While in Los Angeles, I heard a news report of a graffiti hate crime conviction in which Amos Hason, 49, was given three years in L.A. County jail for writing “Adolph was right” and “Ki__ Je___” on a fence behind a plumbing business. I doubt the Palo Alto case the message was as targeted or as provocative and direct, inciting an action (it was ordering the reader to harm the famously subjected sub-group). Meanwhile I am still waiting for a response from Palo Alto P.D. about the Gunn case.
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 