Opening the time capsule that was my Canon camera which I had not touched since 2009, I also found this so-so photo of Matt Nathanson Music in the Park in San Jose.
I tried to give Matt a copy of Wallace Stegner’s “Collected Stories” but he refused my gift. He wrote “Wallace Stegner” in felt-tip pen on his hand, however.
That was about nine years after he had last played at Cubberley, supporting John Doe. Here’s that poster:
Matt also played in Center Quad of Gunn High during those pre-commercial radio days, plus at Stanford CoHo and Menlo School. Kathleen Daly of Zoe Cafe once bought me a coffee for leaving Matt a voice mail suggesting he could play her super cool little venue in Menalto.
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!!
San Francisco, Grant and Vallejo — Caffe Trieste exterior
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 