The view last night from Section 118, row 23 seats 3 and 4, or as my former Goodby Berlin and Silverstein colleague Jeremy Postaer used to say “any closer and we could smell ’em”
For Don Zimmer (1931-2014, but especially 1987)
“YOU SWING LIKE AN OLD LADY, NORMA” after Washington’s Ian Desmond chased a Ryan Vogelsong sinker into the dirt. Either he didn’t hear me, or he did and got angry because he swatted the next pitch into the gap for a double.
“BELLARMINE SUCKS. SAINT IGNATIUS RULES”, to San Jose product Kevin Frandsen, 3B, who maybe did hear me and went only 1-for-5, on a day that Krukow said was the hardest the Giants staff has been hit all year, 12 hits, 9 runs, losing 9-2.
“DELETE THIS ‘SPAM'” on the first at-bat of the 3-hour-1-minute contest, to Denard Span, who hit a double to right, and later scored.
At the risk of being Alibi Ike, I actually thought the Giants responded to my chatter, and often did that which I so humbly suggested.
“GIVE ‘EM HECK, HECTOR” to Sanchez, who made out.
“COME ON, GREGOR” who went 1-for-4 but looks good in the picture, above.
“YOU OWN THIS GUY, TYLER”, because it said he was hitting .750 lifetime against Strasburg, albeit a small sample set, 3-4, but sure enough he did produce a safety, and our first run. I called him “TY-CO” on the next at-bat, but the encouragement didn’t seem to work as well that time. Strasburg was as good as his advance, and struck out 7 in 6 innings, 88 lucky pitches, nearly all in the 94-95 mph range. He leads the circuit in K’s Schulman of The Sporting Green points out.
I thought about but refrained from this one:
“LET’S GO, BRANDO’. MAKE A ‘STELLA’ OUT OF THAT FELLA” (for Brandon Crawford). I also self-edited enough to avoid saying something about “twist his head and suck out the meat.” Similarly I refrained from dubbing the Nats backstop Wilson Ramos “Fizz”.
After Terry and I put our lids in rally-cap mode, I stole this line from someone a few rows behind me:
“SI, SE PUEDE” (for pinch-hitter or double-switch guy Ehire Adrianza, who deveras lined a single to keep the hope alive. My Spanish made the father and daughter in front of me giggle, and I responded with “Es verdad, no?”
The Giants are in the midst of a stretch where they are playing 20 of 25 games here at home and 25 of 35 leading to the All-Star break. Having won five straight series, including the sweep of the Mets, they have gone 7-0-2 in their last nine sets, so I am betting that Mad Bum, Matt Cain and Tim Hudson can right the wrongs we experienced Monday night. If not we may have to hold a little Situationist prank in which we send 247 balls raining down onto the field from the Bleachers Thursday to ceremoniously disown all the good that Matt Williams did for us in the home run department, 1987-1996.
The game notes state: “The Giants have sold out their last 277 regular season home games, which extends the longest consecutive regular season home sellout streak in the National League”. Meanwhile, there is a StubHub banner in the right field power alley (see above) and 3,847 seats for grabs for today on that site, so do your own math on that one, not to be a party pooper or a player-hater.
I got a kick yelling “Panda” (for Sandoval, of course, who went 0 for 3 but generated some much-needed breeze on a rather balmy Frisco night); I noticed the guy next to me called him “Pabs”.
Terry (my main 6-4-3 squeeze play sophisticated game of catch) thought my cool detachment (wearing a NOKAS shirt and a blue cap with a black dog) was bush league, so she got me a new lid (grey 47 with white logo on orange-and-grey shadows) and some orange knee high socks, to look like Hunter Pence. Thanks, Sweetie. And thanks, Gary Davis, my quasi-brother-in-law for loaning us the tickets while he toils overseas for the Capitalists.
A version of this article appears in print on June 9, 2014, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Free Music, at Least While It Lasts. which reminds me to swing by Mac’s Smokeshop on Emerson in downtown Palo Alto, behind Palentir in the old Facebook buildings, near Slacker Radio and Institute for The Future and plunk down $3 for today’s Times, after train back from game or maybe on way, even though I pre-pay .50 per day to access the thing online. David Carr, not eight-finger-fastball pasted below:
property of bob lefsetz
But my mind went to, John McCrea, Cake, first quasi-hit — although I did heckle them mock-seriously, at Ajax Lounge in San Jose, if that dates it “Commercial radio sellouts!” for it spiking on KOME — your cd collection looks shiny and costly.
Also this from Carr — and I did flip thru the hard Times yesterday and somehow missed it, and heard about it from Lefzsetz semi-spam, but that was commenting on Parks I guess is a source for Carr — and I’m not halfway thru the actual article yet.
We are no longer collecting music; it is collecting us on various platforms.
which reminds me that I probably have my own version of that, well, mine, John’s, maybe Capricorn’s, his publisher, maybe ASCAP and BMI, from a board tape of Cake at Cubberley, September, 1995, that I mean to post up here somewhere once I figure the logistics.
And someone else, a reader of Lefsetz, has a link to Pynchon on Luddittes which is still catnip to me.
And also there is a rack of greeting cards in the window of Kepler’s books in Menlo Park, California, a birthday card — and this is from 20 feet thru the glass — that says CAKE in a font that is very much like the rock band logo, the band whose rider says do not put birthday cake images in the marketing of our show. I will buy that just for my weirdo ephemera collection. Next to this:
cake poster artwork by lane wurster and mac maccaughan
Ich bin ein Ludditte.
edit to add: we really are leaving for the Giants game in 0 minutes, at 3:30, for the 7:15 game, vs. Matt’s Nats, Vogelsong v. Stephen Stroberg (?) but I did find this graph in question, from the Carr:
Writing in The Daily Beast last week, the musician Van Dyke Parks said that in the good old days, a song he recently wrote with Ringo Starr would have provided him “with a house and a pool.” But at current royalty rates, he estimated that he and the former Beatle would make less than $80, which means he will have to choose between a dollhouse and a kiddie pool and then share it with Mr. Starr.
And will click on thru to TDB as time permits, post-game certainly. I will keep pushing on with the Carr (as opposed to “Pushing the Norton” which is a Camper Van Beethoven reference or at least Victor Krummenacher ?) until Terry Acebo Davis changes into her Giants Cap and Giants t-shirt, while I am going tres indie in a New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars t-shirt and a Carmel (black dog) cap – not bothering to circle back to Earthwise HQ to suss thru my four or five suitable SF lids.
I didn’t actually read this either but it looks suitable for framing:
I’ve been inescapably subjective, because I make my living as a composer and a musician. But latelyI’m in shock and awe at what I’ve witnessed in the struggling artists and composers who surround me. And if what I’m saying comes as an inconvenient truth, it’s corroborated by no less than Abraham Lincoln. Let me quote him: “Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
Carr:
The acquisition also included the expensive Beats headphones — $300 and up in a variety of colors so they also serve as fashion accessory. People will still pay large money for devices, and this weekend, thousands of people will spend at least $250 for three-day access to the Governor’s Ball Music Festival in New York. It’s a curious disconnect: Fans will pay top dollar for a music accessory or a music event. They just won’t pay for, oh yeah, music.
No, he’s wrong. Or he’s right for wrong music. The festival of live music is worth $250 while the industry is selling a facsimile of that experience, which brings me back to Earthwise Productions of Palo Alto “the Cubberley Sessions” and “Palo Alto Soundcheck” business plan, 1995 and arguing with Lee Townsend over Vietnamese crepes near his studio whether for $19.99 you get a “pretty good facsimile” of a Bill Frisell performance.
True Professions by Ray Johnson inspired my “True Professor” memoir below
I’ve only seen one Ray Johnson in person, at a gallery in Carmel, and posted about that previously.
I don’t think I knew much about Ray Johnson until I read Accidental Masterpiece by Michael Kimmelman.
Prompting me to post this is semi-spam from siglio press about two new Ray Johnson books. Yes I recently purged a bunch of books and cd’s but how much would it hurt to acquire the occasional art book? Someone said that if I cannot afford to collect art per se, I could collect ephemera, the catalogs of shows or announcement and cards and posters. I do have an art collection, mostly things from emerging artists or peers, or my generation. If someone scours thru all 666 posts of “Plastic Alto” you could get a clue about my tastes.
One book is called “Nothing” and one is called “Not Nothing” or actually “Nothing Nothing” which sounds pretty Ray Johnson to me. And, oddly, or very plastic alto, I am now thinking, on a subdural level, about suicide apropos of Ray Johnson compared to J.D. Salinger (who did not actually kill himself, but did have his alter ego Seymour Glass do so). I am digesting a couple pages at a time, borrowed from the library David Shields “Salinger”. I actually started today’s exercises — war games, in the culture wars, I started to write ear games — with page 387 of such, in chapter called “A Terrible, Terrible Fall” Shane Salerno (the co-author) stating that Salinger got so in to Vedanta, the eastern religion, that it ruined his ability to write. (And that is reducing 696 pages to ten words, not a wise idea — and just now as I thumb clumsily my cracked open to 386-387 book, here at Peet’s near Cubberley, sliding like (on) Alladin’s carpet from the pages, is a postcard about Qbert’s scratch school,(Qbert Skratch University) and a hip looking dude picks it up as it glides to him, and I give him a cosmic elevator pitch about Qbert and he
thumbnail of qbert card selfie
says “I don’t get to Daly City much” and that’s his out card to decline the universe’s offer to become “the world’s next great dj”) “You have the right to work, but for the work’s sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working.” They say that is Bhagavad Gita II, 47-49, although my brief glance at the s-i says it is Krishna. Anyhow, there’s my book within book within book.
And to be clear (clear plastic, like that which covered J.D. Salinger’s otherwise cement bunker, in Claremont, New Hampshire, and to think, or write, that I spent four years about 15 minutes from him, and might have tried to send moonbeams from the College on the Hill to his hilltop enclave), the Ray Johnson pictured above is either still on sale (for a whopping price) in Carmel, or in the hands of someone more courageous or deep-pocketed than yours trulio.
I could also kill a couple hours just following the search-injun clues about Ray Johnson. Maybe doing that would scratch this particular itch, and save me the money for the book. articulated particular, something about Gertrude Morgan in my notes^1.
Wow this thing has 121 reviews on Amazon:
1. “articulated syntactic particularity”, I mean, which is Elaine Yau, in New Orleans, quoting Hortense Spillers, ostensibly, in an articulated syntactic particularity of her own device, on Sister Gertrude Morgan, in Sally Promey, editor, “Sensational Religion” which GoogleBooks lets me read something like 4 of 6 pages, plus the notes. So that’s a book review or plug within a book review, within a book review or I’m losing track and besides who really counts? (As Krishna would say; plus that reminds me that my neighbor, Terry’s neighbor actually, Marjorie Ford had an exchange in which she asked me of Bhagavad Gita and I answered with something about Pussy Riot, more, as always, below).
Ceramics master and conceptual artist Ehren Tool of Berkeley, Calif., in residence at Palo Alto Art Center, Saturday, June 7, 2014, 70 years and 1 day after D-Day, turning swords into ploughshares, clay into ceramics and tooth-holders
Ehren Tool is in residence at Palo Alto Art Center, creating a body of ceramic work that pertains to his service to our country, as an MP, in the Gulf War. He has created more than 14,000 cups that reference his experience. He gives them away. In Palo Alto, over the next month or so, he is adding another 1,200 cups to the project. I visited with Ehren for about an hour yesterday, watching him work and interact with his fans and the merely curious. Palo Altans have the opportunity to further participate in this project by providing content, most commonly photographs, that Ehren will work into the pieces, as decals or relief.
I’m hoping to revisit Ehren with my dad, Paul Weiss, who served in the Navy during World War II. Here is how he is faring, 69 years, nine months and counting after the Japanese surrender:
Paul Weiss, his glass half-full of Italian orange soda, June 7, 2014
Ehren was only midway through telling me his life story when facility director Rebecca Barbee informed us it was closing time, 86-ing me from my jaw-session with the former MP (military police).
Rebecca Barbee and Ehren Tool
A woman named Karen who said she is a former PAUSD counselor, originally from near Burlington, Vermont chatted Ehren up about his technique but also revealed her complicated feelings about her father’s work in the defense industry. The conversation between Ehren, Karen and myself is part and parcel of the project and somehow ends up in the final project, the work itself. Even final project is a relative term: Ehren points out that ceramics like his will last 10,000 years. His intention with his work eventually might become separate from what observers infer about the meaning or purpose or use of the object or objects. (For instance, Terry and I using one as a tooth-brush holder; or, he said people come by and say things like “My boy just loves war toys!”).
I thought these were bullets or bombs, but Ehren said they were shot glasses (for drinking strong spirits, or maybe Orange soda and espresso). Ehren said it can be dangerous, relatively speaking, to host a party in which people drink from shot glasses that cannot be put down, like with the more conventional design.
Shot glasses by Ehren Tool, not at all a homage to Giger. He starts with a 25 pound bag of clay, makes about 20 cups per bag, and then uses the last bit to form these bullets, so as not to waste.
By the end of Ehren’s Palo Alto chapter, I imagine there will be a wall of his finished works, and to some extent the people who pass by and say hi, or just peer in, will be somehow represented on that wall, which is a civil service, albeit less engaging than those like my father who served in the military, or the people who contribute viable and visible content that makes its way into or on to the observable texture and character of the cups.
Fill that cup, Palo Alto! Fill that wall! Hup to it!! Hup!! Hup!!
This wall is your wall, this wall is my wall. This wall is made, by Ehren Tool, for you and me.
I am writing this post remote from Happy Donuts, its last day, last 9 hours.
1. This is admittedly a weird place to start even a lyrical essay about the rise and fall of Palo Alto’s Happy Donuts, but I am sitting in Printer’s Cafe, the day after the Last Donut Show — in fact I ran into Barry Harris, who shot the artwork below, looking up at the giant donut fixture, who was here, with his dog, working with the “problem solver group” or “puzzle meet-up”, and I was trying, after days of procrastinating, to figure out how to use the Canon PowerShot A590 digital camera that I was gifted in 2009, used for a while then abandoned. I have been hunched over the two devices, my Mac and my Canon, trying to coach them into group play. Not sure if I accomplished my goal or merely destroyed my content and melted this machine. I may have to bug out to a simpler era, Fred Astaire at Stanford Theatre and popcorn at throwback prices, which is not the same as pelting the screen with Milk Duds, which I swore of years ago. So, here, in prep for this essay, mostly written, on donuts, is a view of Anish Kapoor “Cloud Gate” which some people call the Bean.
2.
Not sure how to react to the news that the Defense Logistics Agency’s subsistence shop is in the market for doughnuts – lots of doughnuts – for the Navy. Never thought a chocolate-frosted, cream-filled confection could properly be labeled a “subsistence” item like it is on the contract solicitation. (This is actually Mark, another Mark, Thompson, in Time Magazine, Jan. 2013, he is a defense writer or DC correspondent, meaning our Capital and not the comic book company. I should probably glaze this doughy mess, I mean italicize the lift, this is plagiarism in the traditional sense, or back in the day when indeed you would want to trade dollars for donuts, or say that.)
Or that the Navy would be buying them, following this recent story in the independent Navy Times newspaper about tubby shipmates: “Almost 13,000 sailors could be just a jelly doughnut away from getting kicked out of the Navy.” Fried puffs of rich cake are not a health-food staple.
Fact is, the Navy wants DLA wants to buy it 678 dozen raspberry-filled donuts, as the government spells it. Not to mention 1,172 dozen glazed, 652 dozen lemon-filled, 686 dozen fudge-glazed, and 746 dozen cream-filled delights. Plus several other varieties, including 516 dozen of the plain version (that’s the smallest quantity being bought, perhaps for all those chiefs trying to pass their fitness tests). Bids are due by 3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24, with deliveries slated to begin Feb. 10.
The doughnuts will be delivered by the winning bidder(s) starting Feb. 13 to several Florida locations:
Getty Images
Note the resemblance…
DLA TROOP SUPPORT intends to support the needs of its customers by entering into one (1) Indefinite Delivery Purchase Order (IDPO) per region to supply Fresh Donut Items to the customers stated below. This solicitation contains the estimated donut requirements for customers in Mayport/Jacksonville, Florida: Troop Issue, Naval Station Mayport Oasis Galley, NAS Jacksonville Galley, Florida Air National Guard, Fleet Support (Ships) at Mayport, NOAA Ships, USCG Visiting Cutters, USCG Sector Jacksonville, Florida.
“Fresh Donut Items”?
“Estimated donut requirements”?(This is how the Pentagon is supposed to define “requirements.”)
The contract doesn’t specify who’s actually going to be devouring the donuts. No one’s going to deny them to our in-shape sailors. But could we be footing the bill for civilians’ donuts? We’ve asked the DLA.
“This solicitation is for a one-year Indefinite Delivery Purchase Order (IDPO) for the acquisition of donut items, not to exceed 12 months or $150,000.00, whichever occurs first,” the solicitation says.
Whichever occurs first?
No wonder they’re eating so much – they want to chow down before the money runs out.
Several customers joked or remarked that they wanted to buy “the big donut” which is probably not by Claes Oldenberg but might be by Mohamed Soumah. I also wanted to shout out and here is as good a place as any, to Ricki Frankel and I think “Corry”, Ricki being a Dartmouth contemporary of mine and a life-coach (but not for me), and working at Stanford GSB. Which reminds of of John Willinsky of Ed School and Mayfield the Band playing The Black Keys and Ray Charles with Vanessa Perkiness (auto-speller, I think it is Perkins, but not Cooker Perkins of Michigan State fame), deserves for clarity, whatever that is these days, post-days, I have: Escondido-Lausen Barnum, “White Keys” (sic) Ray Charles medley John Willinsky coming back from sabbatical still time to sign up for his courses (insert photo here). Maybe I am only saying that like a mobius strip a donut goes around and around with no obvious starting point so why be linear here? Why start now? Meanwhile, Jonathan Waldman wrote back to say he, too, laments the demise of HD/PA:
Hey Mark – Nice to hear from you – Yes, of course I remember, it was a very memorable evening. Funny, I recently came across their business card I picked up that night, when I was cleaning out my desk – though I don’t recall if I threw it out or just threw it back in my desk. I still get out that way from time to time – last month I was in Newark, CA at the aloft hotel there, and came upon this shopping center that was full of asian shops, like a strip mall chinatown – nice! /Donuts are making a resurgance in Phila, so if you’re ever in Phila, let me know./Thanks for the sharing the sad news about the demise of Happy Donuts – I’ll pass it along to my partner that evening, who I haven’t spoken with in about 7 years (Dan Goettle, I believe it was)./Jonathan I am trying to shape this essay like something designed by Oldenburg and Kapoor, if that makes sense
3.
4.
from Sue Dremman, Palo Alto Weekly, who broke the story:
Doughnut seekers who approached the Barron Park neighborhood establishment were stunned and saddened by the news on Wednesday after reading the signs on the doors that indicated the last cruller or jelly doughnut will be served at 10 p.m.
Owner Soknea Hort said the store lost its contract, but Happy Donuts has a new location at 1062 S. De Anza Blvd., Suite C101 in San Jose. She wants to reopen in Palo Alto and is looking for a space.
Ironically enough, today is National Free Donut Day. The larger chains are giving it away.
5.
Play your cards right, and you can snag no fewer than six free donuts on Friday, June 6. (but not at Happy Donuts–Ed)
Not that we’re advising you to do any such artery-clogging, time-consuming thing, of course. But you could, technically. And oh, what an epic, Homer Simpson-esque escapade that would be!
Time Magazine art by Sarina Finkelstein symbolizing free donuts
Krispy Kreme {I deleted the link here; why let them steal our thunder}is the best-known national brand handing out donuts, no strings attached. Guests take their pick of any variety totally for free, no purchase necessary. If you seek only one free handout on National Doughnut Day—the preferred spelling at KK is Doughnut, not Donut—Krispy Kreme is probably the easiest, most convenient, and most rewarding option. (And what’s the deal with indulging in only one free donut? You’re making the rest of us gluttons look bad!)
edit to add, or Part 6 — and from here on out it is me doing the heavy lifting, time to make the donuts, or my sinker is no stinker: at least I met Barry Hayes, a fellow Dartmouth, reading Eric Schlosser and training his service dog — I stopped him because he had, I noticed one table away, taken a snapshot of the famous doughnut fixture here. He agreed, because my Very Stupid Cell Phone is malfunctioning, to zap me his jpeg “no worries”. He noticed my cap and tipped his hand, so to speak — we abstained from the secret handshake. He said he had a lead on a poem written about this specific donut-hole-in-the-wall so maybe he’ll get back to me and I will eat-it-to-add. Incidentally, but it kinda made my morning — with 3 minutes to spare — Barry said that he recalls attending the Negativland show I produced at Cubberley, for Earthwise Productions, in 1998.
The fate of this donut fixture at Palo Alto’s former Happy Donuts is up in the air
I posted an update on Sue’s story, live from the scene:
Posted by Mark Weiss, a resident of Barron Park
0 minutes ago
It’s a party here, for only another 10 hours — close at 10 p.m. forever, as Sue states sadly.
Mark Weiss, reporting on site, savoring a chocolate covered old fashioned and using the wi-fi.
Web Link
Maybe David Packard will take pity on us and show that old Shirley Temple movie with her making the donuts.
Dora’s Dunking Donuts from 1933
and to Barry again:
—– Forwarded Message —– From: mark weiss <earwopa@yahoo.com> To: Barry Hayes <bhayesXXXXXXX> Sent: Friday, June 6, 2014 12:21 PM Subject: Re: Ur donut
thanks, barry. nice meeting you, again, (i might have been tearing tickets at that may,2000 negativland show).
they are apparently still chugging along, with various new members. peter conheim i had met with his band menopause which played a show at the cub about five years earlier, with oxbow and eskimo, before he joined negativland.
a guy sitting in a donut shop pasting copy to a blog few people read
in theory i will edit this or tie it all together somehow or not.
by the way, you might try the bombeleos like a donut filled with creme at Cafe Borrone annex restaurant in Menlo Park
or: Desserts come in the form of bombolone (Italian filled doughnuts), lemon tarts, mascarpone and amarena cherry tarts, chocolate pecan tarts, cream puffs with strawberry rhubarb mousse, from Elena Kadvany of the Weekly, on Borrone MarketBar, Feb. 2014
I don’t actually eat many donuts; they fall on the list of things I pretend not to indulge in, when I pretend that I am disciplined and not totally out of control. But I do sometimes or quite often upgrade my Peet’s Coffee to “whole milk” low fat is now their default, and eat the occasional croissant. And I am not a fan of the buzzy or formerly buzzy chain from the South that was perhaps in some kind of a stock scam but people apparently lined up when it first opened, or camped out, or stood there just watching the construction workers and thinking of donuts. They are too sweet to my taste and not local enough. But there is a local chain based in South Bay — 408 — that gets a lot of local media, like in the Metro and did donate to Eric Finali’s music festival, but I don’t think they could ever open here unless they change their name. But there is a page on their site about franchising:
Want your own Psycho Donuts? That would be crazy! We are currently forming an interest list. While there is no guarantee that Psycho Donuts franchises will become available in the future, we welcome you to share your interest with us. In the event Psycho Donuts franchises do become available, please be aware that there there will be minimum requirements published for prospective franchisees. Simply send us an emailand tell us your name, location, and why you’d make a great Psycho Donuts franchisee!
At 12:40 p.m. I count 10 people sitting, four in line, three front workers and who knows how many in kitchen. I count at least 15 trays of donuts to sell, despite feeling for a mili-second that my choices were limited, an hour or more ago, by not getting in line at the re-opening– wait, its’ a 24-hour place — I overheard someone say that there was a line out the door in the early morning hours. I would say that more than 50 and close to 100 have been served while I am here.
I would bet dollars to donuts that Steinberg’s book of donuts does a better version of what I am trying to do, burn off the donuts by thinking hard about where they fit into the cultural fabric, “the raw and the cooked”, which I must have read from with Kirk Endicott at Dartmouth in Anthro I, but more fun.
Sally Levitt Steinberg is not in the stacks at Palo Alto libraries but I am tempted to check out, literally and figuratively, the kids book , at nearby College Terrace and another extant copy at Childrens Library, Minnie and Moo Solve the Case of the Purloined Jelly Donut.
My fondest memories of Happy Donuts of Palo Alto would be watching the World Cup Finals here in 2012 with the Rothsteins, when Zidane head butted his way out of his reality, an existential act of the highest order. I also recall showing the place off to a duo of corporate lawyers, like Jonathan Waldman from Philadelphia I had somehow befriended and partied with, before that like all things, ended.
At 1:15 I count another 40 or more people in and out here and although the smell of a hamburger is quite tempting, I decide to make like a scramble egg and beat it.
There might be a Part 7, and addendum, based on Terry and I returning for the closing at 9:45 Friday night and buying four glazed donuts, two of which we ate immediately and two we saved for Saturday’s breakfast. We have shots of Terry and I, separately, or shooting each other, under the giant faux-Oldenburg which to me is the MaGuffin: what is going to happen to the unique and artsy store fixture and what does that tell us about the reason that Happy Donuts as we know it is closing, where the giant donut art goes tells us something the papers aren’t reporting and staff aren’t saying. Staff are saying to come visit them in Santa Clara or San Jose — not bloody likely. I woke up this a.m thinking about Corey Harris “Know Your Culture” – which is actually a Marcus Garvey, black pride, back to Africa Reggae thing, but, especially about the mis-heard line up vultures, I used as a sort of anthem about local culture; and also the “Dopeland” or whatever movie about the former Grateful Dead filmographer who made a science fiction parable about Grey Goo: I was thinking “For Palo Alto, It’s Goodbye Culture, Hello Green Goo”, like we are wading ankle deep in this green goo that is the byproduct of how things are changing here, which is slowly rising and will eventually choke us out. We cannot breathe water, unlike our ancestor the crossoptgerian lungfish, and we certainly cannot breathe green goo. (Green metaphorical goo, from grey goo and not to be confused with the creme filled bombalone. Stay tuned. Wear galoshes. Reduce. Reuse. Register. Recycle).
Happy Donut worker or co-owner restocking milk to cold case on her last day here in Palo Alto
edit to add: apparently the whole farrago was a fake “going out of business sale”. D’Oh!
I posted thusly:
Posted by Mark Weiss, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
0 minutes ago
Whether it was willful or due to journalistic ineptitude, the Weekly’s coverage of Happy Donuts closing is…wait for it…an unethical subsidy for the landlord…
See also:
Notice Regarding Bankruptcy: Debtor’s Store Closing or Going-Out-of-Business Sales 11 USC § 101 et seq. – To give notice to the California Attorney General of a motion or other bankruptcy proceeding that seeks authority for a debtor’s store closing or going-out-of-business sales, present service to:
Consumer Law Section, Attn: Bankruptcy Notices
California Attorney General’s Office
455 Golden Gate Avenue, Suite 11000
San Francisco, CA 94102-7004
Molly Stump should look into this and take appropriate action. (Beyond ordering a box of jelly filled to go…)
Also, why don’t you report on the name of the building owner? Apparently the residents circulated this info…
Bad reporter, no donut!!!!
The owners of this property must be in a coffee klatch with the people who run Alma Plaza…
The Maguffin here was the number of people who asked, at the fake closing, what would happen to the giant donut fixture and were told that it would stay with the property….D’oh!!
Palo Alto, a Thursday late morning early afternoon in June — Strong coffee brings out the inner-Mencken in me, unleashing the inner-Stalin in Stephen Levy, who keeps deleting my attempts to civic-engage him
[portion deleted]
[portions deleted}
[portions deleted}
Peets don’t fail me now.
Yowza there must be something mighty strong in my morning local-chain-high-end coffee this morning:
I started researching the allegation about Karen Holman in bed with real estate speculator Steve Pierce, as reported in today’s Daily Post by Breena Kerr, but paused just long enough to unload on Dr. Steve Levy who writes a pollyana “greed is good” column for the Weekly — and by the way, the Weekly had not bit on the Holman story, yet.
{Editor’s Note: I pulled this shortly after posting, only to find that a cache lingers. Such is the nature of the internet. I would say, as the Palo Alto Weekly reported, that Karen Holman broke no laws in her actions toward the Arastradero site, and I would hope to hear from her directly before pontificating on that little incident. Maybe she was played, as in the industry wants to discourage her from running again, and set her up. Or it could just be a lapse in judgment. Or she really does think upzoning that particular site is the best utilitarian outcome, regardless of the fact she collected a consulting fee from the developer on a completely unrelated project more than a year prior.}
Here is what I said to Steve:
I voted against AA, and hope the final count shows that it fails. I am voting against any future bond measures on infrastructure. This is all a bunch of pork. The builders are great at swaying the public and swinging the votes, and laughing all the way to the bank. It seems that everybody with a cement truck wants his day in the sun or another couple victory laps.
Why don’t you invest in East Palo Alto, or Ventura even?
I’d like to see a park at the former Fry’s property — that would raise the values of the non-conforming Ventura neighborhood homes, a more savvy and delicate type of gentrification.
I am certain you would disagree, Dr. Levy.
Until it is more apparent that leadership here responds to people and not merely money, I look askance at almost anything said by experts and advocates and pollyannas and Gordon Gecko’s who speak like Barney the Dinosaur.
Go invest in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places where Americans have died to make it safer for your money — 7,000 and counting. At least then it’s like Harry Lime and all his little dots: Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever?
Or: don’t shit where you eat. (Ok. I’m going to stop this one right here. Even channeling, after multiple viewings, Llewyn Davis’ frustration and helplessness regarding the reduced state of his father Hugh Davis, in the recent Coen Brother’s film, I never say this in person; one citation traces its use to a 2011 film, and even there it was more for shock value than actual rhetoric use. I am saying that for people who live in Palo Alto but do not make our livings in real estate, real estate development, real estate law (like our mayor-past H. Gregory Scharff), or the building trades, it is an entirely different matter, to be at ground zero of a Real Estate Boom; we want to live and work in different realms.; it is indirectly accusing the industry of being callous to our reaction to their externalities, if overstating the quality of the effects. See this. -Ed. I’m expecting it to be deleted).
The last thing I want to see is $300 million in pavement leading masses of people towards a sign that says “One Tree” (which has actually already been done, by Rigo23, in San Francisco).
Maybe we should change the name of the city from Tall Tree to Big Money. Then at least the monument to greed proposed at 27 Uni would make consistent sense.
Your proposed title is a false dichotomy, and self-serving. The most obvious retort would be considered uncouth.
It’s not funny if you have to explain it, but here are my footnotes:
I voted against AA(1), and hope the final count shows that it fails(2). I am voting against any future bond measures on infrastructure. This is all a bunch of pork(3). The builders are great at swaying the public and swinging the votes, and laughing all the way to the bank. It seems that everybody with a cement truck wants his day in the sun or another couple victory laps.(4)
Why don’t you invest in East Palo Alto, or Ventura even? (5)
I’d like to see a park at the former Fry’s property — that would raise the values of the non-conforming Ventura neighborhood homes, a more savvy and delicate type of gentrification. (6)
I am certain you would disagree, Dr. Levy. (7)
Until it is more apparent that leadership here responds to people and not merely money(8)(9)(10), I look askance at almost anything said by experts and advocates and pollyannas and Gordon Gecko’s (11)who speak like Barney the Dinosaur(12).
Go invest in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places where Americans have died to make it safer for your money — 7,000 and counting(13). At least then it’s like Harry Lime and all his little dots: Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever?(14)
Or: don’t shit where you eat. (15)
The last thing I want to see is $300(16 ) million in pavement leading masses of people towards a sign that says “One Tree” (which has actually already been done, by Rigo, in San Francisco(17)(18).
Maybe we should change the name of the city from Tall Tree to Big Money.(19) Then at least the monument to greed proposed at 27 Uni would make consistent sense.(20)
Your proposed title is a false dichotomy(21), and self-serving(22). The most obvious retort would be considered uncouth.(23)
1) The three-county tally is, as of 1o a.m. on a Thursday, reading a local rag at least, 48,699 for and 24,137 PLUS ME AGAINST, or a winning 66.86 super-majority margin. Supposedly ahead by 141 votes, with some provisional ballots yet uncounted. Which makes me wonder, (2), how to go about demanding a recount, or to reread the articles about all the spending, $800,000 behind this. Or: who spend that money, developers? It falls into my general concern that 40 years into the environmental movement what we actually see is an amazing greenwash movement.
3) When I say bunch of pork I am thinking about: Gunn School bond and improvements, in two or three stages, new library, new gym, new math; Mitchell Park library and center; Main Library, College Terrace red0s, various Cubberley redos that did little, especially in the theatre; Stanford’s $5Billion hospital; Stanford’s power plant; Stanford has become just just the MIT of the West but the Bechtel of Academia, et cetera. New Police Station?
4) this goes below: Cake “The Distance” (musical interlude) — you can play it and scroll back up to continue reading. It’s not about development per se, but about racing. Or going in circles. Cake, by the way, debuted this song at Cubberley before it ever went on radio, to become their first big hit. I’m also thinking about Randy Newman “Red necks” a version in my head that I change it from “rednecks” to “developers”: “they don’t know Degas from a whole in the ground/They’re keeping the residents down”
5) and 6) I walked the other day from former Ventura school site to Cali Ave, having been to a certain number of hearings and meetings about various projects and proposals in that area, and wonder about holding the line against the Very Powerful South Bay developer who supposedly eyes Fry’s for buku housing and trying to establish a park there. It would be number 2 in park behind Foothills. Revenge for Heritage Park debacle (and kudos for the lady who said Monday about how the former PAMF could have been saved and used to house all of our non-profits. How much would 100-acre park in Ventura raise the values, which about at about $2 million each in a city where everybody else is about $3 Million each. I would say: trade the Ventura school property to Sobrato and hold the line or down-zone to “park” or whatever for the Fry’s spot. And try to relocate Fry’s to 456 University– I would accept that. Not that I’m ever polled. (like a chess game: sacrifice a queen but mate: sacrifice historic and beloved theatre but get a great park, which could become world class, somewhere between a public Gramercy and Central Park, or High Line.
7) Dr. Stephen Levy is the founder of the Center for The Continue Study of California, Economy, the CCSCE. Check that, he is the CCSCE. The think-tank center that used to be on Hamilton next to a Russian kettle-bell center and is now in an office center next to a lady who teaches piano, but he has a Ph.d from either MIT or Stanford or both. I wrote about this role in the dog-and-pony show and $325,000 slush fund called Our Palo Alto and the inevitability of adding infinitely more office space AND high density housing. Someday there will be machines, nanotechs even, that will continue to build more office space and high density housing in Palo Alto even after all other life forms on earth go ashes to ashes dust to dust (the dust will be nanotech dust).
8)9) and 10) I was thinking George Packer, Clements, McChesney and someone who wrote a nice column in the Merc yesterday about State initiative I may uncharacteristically report, fighting back against “Citizens United” and “McCuthcheon”, Richard Hobbs.
11) Gordon Gekko is the financier played to Oscar-winning acclaim by Mike Douglas in the 1987 Oliver Stone film “Wall Street” who said “Greed is good”. My misspelling is poetic license — or the too strong coffee working it’s mojo, literally — perhaps morphing with the Geico Gecko on millions of dollars of tv ads, heading towards the pseudo-reptilian talking purple dinosaur (who some right-wing asshole tried to out as gay, or were those the teletubbies?) 12) Barney.
I’m backing off my Barney-gay theme, but found that it was Jerry Falwell of Moral Minority who complained about Tinky the Teletubby or whoever not being Ray Nischke enough for his tastes in child-rearing.
I guess I should gloss Pollyanna as well. I was writing that Sid Espinosa, Steve Levy and David Harris of Our Palo Alto were too optimistic and seemed to be reading from a script. Pollyanna is a best-selling 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter, I learn, compared to Biblical naysaying female Cassandra or male prophet of doom Jeremiah — people sometimes use these as terms to describe someone’s dialectic. Is this a jeremiad?
At this point, and partially bracing against his response, I revisited his column at the Weekly and added a link back to these further notes. Plus I added this:
And at Dartmouth in the 1980s, when I was studying government with Denis Gartland Sullivan, he argued, after Richard Neustadt, that the problem with Democracy, even back then, is the problem of imperfectly informed voters, which is similar, in my mind, to Noam Chomsky, speaking in 2009 in Palo Alto talking about a “Democracy gap”. So even though I am in the super-minority or whatever, about Measure AA, and not to sound elitist, but I worry that many voters don’t do the legwork, even in Palo Alto.
Palo Altan Jim Newton, by the way, wrote his thesis with Sullivan and continues on with this study and writing, and is the editorial page editor of Los Angeles Times, has biographies of Earl Warren and David Eisenhower, is friends with newly re-elected by 40 points with 1.2 million votes State Attorney General Kamala Harris, who came to his reading here, and was my editor, at the Daily Dartmouth.
You should debate Jim Newton on money in politics and greed is good.
You could challenge Robert Reich to some Indian wrestling. I’d back you in that, at least.
for 14) I actually cut and pasted from a quick search for the correct spelling of the Orson Wells character in “The Third Man” which is actually a Graham Greene story. He is sitting atop a ferris wheel in a closed amusement park and imagining as a form of distancing all the little people below him as dots. This is the same scene that contrasts the Italians and Swiss and their contribution to society, bloodshed and masterpiece art versus harmony, chocolate and cuckoo-clocks.
13) The Times has this update for today:
The Department of Defense has identified 2,310 American service members who have died as a part of the Afghan war and related operations. It confirmed the death of the following American recently:
JONES, Jason B., 29, Capt., Army; Orwigsburg, Pa.; First Battalion, Third Special Forces Group.
plus I was adding the roughly 5,000 dead in Iraq, and that is not counting merely injured, or foreigners. Oh, yeah, I meant to add above that the Barney song is sometimes used in the Middle East as psy ops to freak out our opposition, they say. And not that all investment is the same, in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto (my argument) or Middle East reconstruction; my point, obliquely made if at all, is that all things are connected and the reason I want more from Democracy locally is that I want more from Democracy nationwide, and I worry that I am complicit in these deaths that to say the least are excessive. I am not saying that Dr. Stephen Levy has blood on his hands. I am saying maybe if he got more dirt on his hands he would feel some connection to the land beyond how to optimize it for short-term financial gain. I should take my own advice, I admit.
Maybe I am out of bounds to picture Levy and Reich in a physical contest, although if Stephen is related to former Palo Alto Mayor (and another pro-developer voice) Leland Levy, I noticed and I think wrote about once his physical prowess at least in ping pong, (the night of the State of the City, at JCC). Reich, the former Clinton advisor, a current Berkeley professor and of course fellow Dartmouthian, is 4′ 11″ and has joked that he should not be addressed as “your highness” but rather “your shortness”, almost too much. In any case, I’d love to see Reich lecture here on “inequality” or any topic, maybe even at one of these Our Palo Alto shows.
20) regarding 27 University Avenue, I have written previously about the flaws in the project, which can be seen, in my opinion as a play by a very powerful man, a Stanford alum and donor, to leave a legacy project for himself, damn the cost to we little people, putting up with the construction disruptions, noise and the traffic,not to mention loss of parkland and moving of a historical asset, plus several War Monuments, that never get mentioned.
Getting back to Karen Holman: I had flagged her in my notes on the May 8 meeting for saying she supports up zoning 687-693 Arastradero to create quote “company-town” housing for nearby employers – she mentioned a software company thereabouts who according to the developer (who owns 691 Arastradero and has a tenant there on notice to leave) has 3,700 employees (and this was at least parroted back if not independently confirmed by staff Tim Wong, in his report). The committee voted against her motion, but I thought it odd to advocate something that sounds like Matewan in the 1930s or worse Mussolini’s Italy, the bundling of business interests and public policy. Would the inhabitants of up zoned to RM-30 from R-1 “company-town” “88 dwelling units” be paid in scrip? (which, although way off topic reminds me of Palo Alto’s Downtown Steets Team, the ones who push brooms and rat each other out, then get paid in coupons to Starbucks but not Peets — and this is where I came in.
edit to add, or playlist:
I was thinking Little Feat (“There’s a fat man in the bath tub with the blues”) but it is Rockin Dopsie credited with reviving the traditional folk saying and song, “Feets Don’t Fail Me Know”
edit to add, a couple days later: meaning to check back to see what he, Steve Levy, columnist for the Weekly, did with my esoteric Corey Harris quote, from “Plantation Town” not to be confused with “Pauline” commentary in “Salinger” by Shields and Salerno. Also, mulling over the dissonance and irony of rah-rah-American Milton Friedmanite Steve Levy and his Stalinesque tactic of purging all dissent from his column/comments. Which reminds me of Dr. Evil “Zip” (based on Ernest Stravo Blofeld, an Ian Fleming character, before Mike Myers) mixed with Peter Sellers from Hal Hartley’s “Being There” trying to mute street thugs or change the channel with a remote. Try that in real life, buddy.
The term “Pauline” occurs on page 344 of Shields/Salerno, attributed to S.J. Rowland, on J.D. Salinger (compared to my quoting of a Corey Harris lyric — the reference is St. Paul): These granted, he has an almost Pauline understanding of the necessity, nature, and redemptive quality of love. Steven Levy meanwhile deletes all reference to my post, not just the content, good Stalinist he, and not very Paulinesque move. I will re-post the content, which is just the first verse of the song.
edit to add, moments later:
Posted by Mark Weiss, a resident of Downtown North
0 minutes ago Mark Weiss is a registered user.
I was at the same meeting as Mr. Dubois and Mr. Levy said they were, about Karen Holman’s curious comments, that the Post splashed on headlines and the Weekly buries in above.I am glad the Palo Alto Weekly clarified Karen Holman’s role in the discussions of the housing element and most specifically the proposal from realtors Steve Pierce and Adam Touni doing business as Zane McGregor to upzone the property they own across from Gunn High and next to Alta Mesa cemetery. At the meeting earlier in May, apropos of the staff report by Tim Wong of City of Palo Alto, which included a letter from Pierce about his desires — which I paraphrased as “our greed is good for you”– I was rather concerned by Karen Holman’s statement about a “company-town” opportunity. Pierce and Touni claim that a nearby software company might want to build apartments for up to 88 of their workers, if only we the people would upzone from R-1 to R-30.The term “company-town” to me sounds like something out of Matewan, West Virginia in the 1920s where the workers are paid in scrip, or maybe even Palo Alto in the 1960s when H-P did not build but tear out 100 homes to create an Expressway on Oregon Avenue, to save precious time, for their gain and not necessarily ours. Results, of course, triggering the Residentialist movement here.
It troubles me that Karen Holman, generally one of the view council members in recent years to be even partly residentialist, –that is, not an obvious shill for the real estate industry or always pro-corporate — would not see a problem with this, “a company -town” proposal, in this era of inequality, dollarocracy, “Citizens United” and McCutcheon.
That she walks a tight-rope in collecting fees from applicants then being careful about recusing herself in matters of potential conflict, and within a time period, to follow the letter of the law, is problematic, but given her longtime service, as Planning Commissioner before Council, she knows what she is doing, even playing with fire.
If Karen Holman and or other incumbents want to be re-elected, they should take more obvious steps towards showing which side they are on, and step to the step.
Some of the other posters seem to want to frame the debate pretty narrowly, as in Growth vs. Slightly Less Growth and still call themselves “residentialist”. Caveat emptor. Buyer beware!
I respect Karen and think she fought the good fight on many cases for the people but with due respect I think she should, in a super bon bon kind of way, step aside.
I admit I had to use search-injuns to find out that there is a Tsachy Weissman (short of Itschak, or “Isaac” — maybe pronounced like “Socky”, like sock puppet) at Stanford but the Weissman Score for compression is just a gag.
To be clear, of the five people I reference here, I’ve met two of them a total of maybe 5 times…
This is a gag, a sight gag, from Home Box Office and Mike Judge “Silicon Valley”:
HBO
edit to add, a couple days later: Michael McFaul is back at Stanford, and has been since the Sochi Olympics, which I learned of by watching a Charlie Rose show I had taped and ignored for about a month. Michael McFaul who I had met twice, 30 years ago, well before either of us had even a touch of gray.
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 