Endemic to the nature of the culture cloud is drifting from topic to topic, or is it just me? I started by going back into “Maynard Dixon” and after about 35 clicks I found myself on Marti Struever’s site looking at a pot by my friend Jody Naranjo. The Jody Naranjo “Hmm” pot is related to the one I am caring for called “The Pueblo Girls”. In the first case the pot depicts Jody and her creative process. It is self-reflexive. It shows her wondering what images to pot on the side of the expertly crafted and polished pot: “Hmm?,” it has the projected version of Jody wondering.
In the second case, one side of the pot shows three female figures set as a rock band, playing drums, guitar and base. The kick drum is labeled “The Pueblo Girls”. Jody said that she and two friends — all known Pueblo artists, one a potter the other a fashion designer — often attend rock concerts together, in Albuquerque, and that Jody sometimes imagines that the three of them have a band together.
The connection is that both pots are self-referential in that they depict things that only exist in Jody’s fertile brain.
I saw the “Hmm?” pot at Marti’s showcase after I had come to terms on taking care of the “Pueblo Girls” pot.
Here is 1’s and 0’s from Marti’s sight, conveniently arranged to appear as words and images:
The things that make you go Hmm. Jody Naranjo’s jar entitled “Hmm. . .” is a ode to her creative process. On one side this beautifully shaped, highly polished redware vessel, Jody has incised a picture of herself thinking up this actual jar. On the other side, there is a picture of Jody happily holding the finished piece. What an interesting concept. Underneath the larger action scenes are Jody Naranjo’s well-known tiny incised designs. The piece is quite large and heavy. It measures 11″ tall x 8″ wide. It is signed.
(and speaking of process, I have “pot” for “put” somewhere above and “version” for “vision”; the pot itself has “hmmm…” with three m’s and three dots, for your sticklers).
I talked to Jody just the other day, briefly. She is getting ready for Indian Market, in August in Santa Fe, and also has shows or markets in Indianapolis and in the fall here in Cali in LA at the Autry. Meanwhile, there are extant pieces in galleries in Scottsdale, Tulsa and Denver. In lieu of actual content or pictures of her work, here is a film of Journey the rock band in Albuquerque — pretty sure Jody told me she was attending that show:
Sunset Magazine’s annual fair included a rummage sale that featured at least two Maynard Dixon covers for sale, posters for $15 — the website indicates they were normally $50.
I may have to look into writing something more articulated about the relationship between Sunset Magazine and this famous Western painter. Sussing around the search-injuns yields a plethora of leads including papers at UC Berkeley, the state library foundation newsletter, two Maynard Dixon museum and the prominent Southwest gallery run by Mark Sublette, who wrote a book on Dixon.
There is also a famous post-Earthquake edition of Sunset from May, 1906 with cover and interior self-portrait by the artist.
Friday at Philz Coffee in Palo Alto, a stone’s throw from the Stanford football stadium where Jim Harbaugh led the Cardinal gridders to an all-time-best 11-win season, Mark Weiss, a concert promoter, arts activist and blogger, performed for the fourth time his workshop of a comedic monologue about pro football with a working title of “The Harbaugina Monologue”.
The 14-minute performance, conceived as part of an eventual one-act, 60-minute performance piece that might call to mind Spalding Gray’s “Swimming to Cambodia” and the George Plimpton book “Paper Lion” draws on Weiss’s antipathy for Harbaugh, who played three sports for Paly High while Weiss played basketball for rival Gunn High, and edited the student newspaper.
On April Fools Day, 1982, his senior year at Gunn, Weiss and his cohorts published a joke version of the Paly newspaper that mocked the worship of Harbaugh by their crosstown fellow students.
Weiss claims that his monologue, that recounts the history of his 31 years rooting against Harbaugh, and the dissonance of both hating Harbaugh and having a lifelong partisan interest in Stanford and the 49ers, is meant as a constructive and perhaps loving criticism of pro football; it is hard on the boy, so to speak, but also hopes to help its target mend his ways, for a utilitarian, Millsian outcome, or so he says. As in, winning is good, but it is not the only thing. (Compare also, for example, as precedent the recent Broadway show about Vince Lombardi).
Weiss admits that Harbaugh is or was an exceptional athlete but questions his leadership style and sportsmanship and whether the strong Harbaugh personality is good for his players, his charges and for society as a whole. He questions also, rightly or not, whether the winning seasons at Stanford and for the NFL’s Niners are attributable to coaching prowess or dumb luck. Further, he wonders if there is a Jungian-deflation ticking-time-bomb as evidenced by the coach’s flare-ups with peers like Pete Carroll and Jim Schwartz. Does winning per se have an eventual toll on even the most focused human psyche?
So far in four appearances at the “amateur night” entertainment forum — an open mic, at a coffee house, mostly for singers — the results have been mixed. People stare confusedly at the speaker, if they listen at all.
Weiss admits that partly the project is cathartic — there is something wacky and neurotic about a 48-year-old purported grown-up holding a grudge for so long, and talking about it in a public forum, but also reports that as he describes the project to people he does meet “fellow travelers,” people who augment his observations with their own critical observations on the the former Paly, Michigan and NFL star.
“I’m not sure where this is going,” Weiss says. “I fantasize or worry actually that Harbaugh will hear about this and come to a show and kick my ass. Friends, including my girlfriend, have told me to ‘let it go’. Yet on the other hand, I think I am learning from and growing from the process, and in truth I wish Jim no harm. There are win-win outcomes I can imagine. And meanwhile it gives me an excuse to meet a lot of Spartans and Buckeyes and pick their brain for new material- that, plus I’ve seen some pretty promising singer-songwriters, like Jessie and Maddie.”
Philz open mic
Notes and quotes:
1) Meanwhile, in the San Francisco Chronicle, Eric Branch reports that “The Harbaugh Rule” works wonders in racing as well as football.
2) On page 66 of the pocket version of George Plimpton’s “Paper Lion” the author describes a “club rush” in which Bobby Layne hazed or disciplined the rookie runner Hopalong Cassady — the linemen let the defenders gang-tackle the cocky neophyte. Weiss’s treatise or treatment seeks to present the Harbaugh story in context with the various examples of leadership and maverick-ships in the rich fabric of football.
3) During Friday’s installment, Weiss quoted briefly or at least referenced an obscure book on sports psychology: “Problem Athletes and How to Handle Them” by Bruce Oglivie and Thomas Tutko (from San Jose State; 1966, London). Page 50 — “The Con Man — self-centered athlete”: “They have a serious problems in forming deep emotional ties with others”. The authors may be saying that some star athletes may have what is today described as “borderline personality disorder.”
4) Friday’s USA Today, June 1, 2012, had a cover story about Chargers great Junior Seau, who died suddenly a few months ago. Weiss glossed this during his presentation but emphasized that he was not making fun of Seau but merely striving to put his Harbaugh observations and views in the context of other contemporary discussions of pro football, such as the significance of the cluster of suicides related to CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
5) Weiss said that he is proud that his four installments of “The Harbaugina Monologues” were various and improvised; they covered about 40 minutes worth of material rather than a honed-version of the same “first quarter”, even if the reactions varied (he was not booed or heckled Friday but confederates reported a significant amount of disapproval in the crowd, whispering). Yesterday’s bit opened with a description of another influence, “California Calling” a music-business performed memoir by Joe Sib, the founder of Side One Dummy Records and 22 Jacks band, an associate of Weiss. Joe Sib has a riff about being a flag football player in junior high and worrying about the two different types of flags, snap-ons versus velcro.
6) Weiss said his pre-game meal was a “chicken Provence French puff” sandwich and an Orangina. On stage he quipped that the show now featured the soda as a sponsor and would hereafter be referred to as “The Harborangina Monologue”. Afterwards he ate a bacon and guacamole burger at nearby Gordon Biersch, sampled their darkest beer pint, and watched a few innings of shutout pitching by Madison Bumgarner of the Giants versus the Cubs.
7) Rather enthusiastic portrayal of Jim Harbaugh and USD quarterback Josh Johnson in the SF Weekly a few weeks ago by Albert Samahah, duly noted. Also: former mayor of Palo Alto Peter Drekmeier, a Paly ’83, said that he thought Harbaugh was especially inclusive of his teammates; “He made it a point to include everybody for example the kicker Drew Van Horn.”
8) Last week Weiss was introduced for the first time to another former Viking star, Mike Beasley ’81 who went on to star in Pac-10 action for the Washington State Cougars, and is now a banking executive in the Emerald State. He was in town for a fund-raising golf tournament, for Paly. He chuckled politely at the description of the “Harbaugina Monologue” and revealed that among the seniors during Harbaugh’s junior year their pet nickname for the star quarterback was “Peacock”, referencing his cockiness. Harbaugh was the missing link that piloted a core of blue-chip class of 1981 seniors – – Beasley, rb Marc Ford, Mark Johnson — to the CCS quarterfinals, but then slogged through a so-so senior year (although he did lead basketball to CCS semis; he was all league in three sports).
9) Weiss’s actual outline for the June 1 performance:
intro: JOE SIB
One: Fourth Installment
First with a sponsor
Harbaugh Monologue Sponsored by Orangina
two: 1982 Paly Campanile spring sports preview
three: NASCAR
four: Mike Beasley “peacock”
five: research – Junior Seau
six: best moments of my life involve football, but back in 1974
sevens: Rugby 7’s Dartmouth – Army — Will Holder — (NBC recently broadcast the 2011 collegiate rugby championships and the West Point team featured a former Paly baseball and football player Holder.)
Dartmouth had a guy who looked kind of sloth-like and fleshy — big gut, not athletic, tough-looking. A scrum. He scored a try, though, surprisingly fast. Weird thing was he scored a try while simultaneously studying for his chemistry final. He had a book open, right there on the field, with reading glasses sliding down his nose — and made a one hand grab when the ball was tossed to him. He kinda faked them out; people bounced off him on his way in. (“I guess if I am suggesting some sort of reform to pro football, Canton-style football, it could take a tip from Rugby 7’s — maybe we can go back to players going both ways, offense and defense and they can wrap around not hit on the perpendicular.”
eight: John Paye – better person. Maybe I should praise Paye and not bash Harbaugh (“I did ring Paye recently and spoke for him on a different subject although we did discuss Harbaugh briefly; not sure if I mentioned this project; supposedly, Stanford passed on giving Harbaugh a scholarship, holding the spot open for Paye who was five miles down the road, at Menlo, although he was a year younger. Paye did start in football and basketball for Stanford and for five minutes in the NFL for the Niners”.)
nine: conclusion: Reggae or world music bands. Trying to heal help him. Problem athlete book Oglivie and Tutko.
10) If one types “harbaugh” into the search engine of Weiss’s blog, “Plastic Alto” which covers music, the arts, “ornette” and some local politics, the football coach is mentioned in 18 posts, including six about the monologue per se, mentioned in the heading. In terms of the laws on unintended consequences, Weiss’s comedic attack on Harbaugh might also serve as a leading clearinghouse for news of all things Jim for his many followers. Weiss did not Friday mention by name his former fellow high school editor Greg Zlotnick but made reference to a classmate “who was an All America kicker at Wesleyan.” Zlotnick is one of the friends who suggests, not unlike Lucy for Charlie Brown, Weiss “drop it.”
11) This is actual edita that I found while proofing above and not sure it fits here other than fact that this is mainly a music column with departure into football but Justin Combs son of P. Diddy will reportedly play for UCLA football next season; people are player-hatin’ in questioning why a millionaire’s son should accept a scholarship (valued at “$54,000”) but clearly John Paye and Steve Young for examples could have easily afforded to pay their own way in college.
12) more edita/addendums: a) the Lombardi show is closed but the website offers a 25-page study guide including discussion of St. Ignatius’s influence on that coach; meanwhile, while glossing my use of the term “a stone’s throw” in lead, I noted that the term derives from Gospel of Luke, 22-41, during the so-called “Agony of the Garden” and “Holy Hour” sections, and makes me wonder how to tie that in more directly to the Greatest Harbaugh Story Ever Told; also, there is a bit about stone-throwing in Rinde Eckert’s “The Idiot Variations” here and personal interviews, circa 2001. The actual distance from Philz at 101 Forest and Alma to Stanford Stadium is nine-tenths of a mile. I would estimate that Jim Harbaugh could toss a stone about 60 yards, or three-hundredths of a mile, but you never know. Rather, it might take him about 30 tosses to go from Philz to Stanford Stadium, but work with me, here, guys.
edit to add, morning is gone, sitting in Peets now, near Cubberley ie a couple hours into this, 2:30 p.m.: not sure what this means, and switching back to true first person rather than fake third person describing myself, but I have had the Bernie Taupin Elton John chestnut “Take me to the Pilot of your soul” in my head — it was also covered on “American Idol” recently I must have seen by Joshua Ledet and Fantasia — someone on youtube called him “Mantasia”. I am also referencing obliquely Mark Twain especially “Life on the Mississippi” his account of being a riverboat pilot. I am saying something about leadership and being the pilot, a coach and a quarterback are both pilots of the team — but also something of course Jungian. Outro to music — and see also below the Pink Floyd riff.
I met David when he was with Joey Baron I think, they played at Hotel Cabana, where the Beatles once stayed. No, it was the Leni Stern show. Those were the only two shows I did in the Cabana Room and I sometimes get them confused.
A couple years later I was in Williamsburg visiting David Beech and we were at this Jamaican restaurant that’s no longer there. I think it was called Bleu Drawers. The guy at the table next to us started gesturing a bowing motion with his arms. I asked him “Are you talking about Matt Haimovitz?” That was Gregor Asch pka DJ Olive; they were talking about Matt being part of the Ropeadope music tour, which I caught at The Independent on Divis which was formerly known as Justice League and Kennel Club.
Anyhoo, I am doing this shout out to the Mr. Asch because I was linking to his father or grandfather or great grandfather in the previous post. I didn’t realized he was also later in the Whitney Biennial. Good job. Good one.
As your eyes adjust to the dark you realize you’re on the balcony overlooking the tent. after a while your eyes adjust further and you start to make out the moose heads mounted at eye-level around the walls looking down onto the tent with sleeping people inside.
And it was Greenpoint not Williamsburg, Bleu Drawes Cafe.
The Joey Baron band I am thinking of was JB, Adam Levy, Steve Cardenas and Tony Scher. The Leni Stern band would have been LS, David Binney, maybe Kenny Wolleson. Jenny Scheinman played with Leni later; I recall bringing them a North Beach birthday cake but did not make the show, the following year. I also recall that Joe Russo at one point worked in her office, and a lady whose name I do not recall but was an aspiring actress and I caught her playing a stiff on “Law and Order.” This is a little off topic from DJ Olive or is it?
I saw David Binney in Fall, 2008 doing a benefit for polio cure with some Indian Musicians, at Flint Center in Cupertino, with my dad, sponsored by Rotary Club.
edit to add:
I was checking on the DJ Olive site, to close this out, and I noticed it say that they are mastering a new cd called THWIS.
The young lady in this picture looks suspiciously like the lady I met and wrote about on 4-20. You can see me in the lower left corner. I shot this today.
Dear Moe and All:
Setting here listening to your Stella Brooks album sounds tough and good. Old timey sound of the backs her up “Little Piece of Leather” is onery, delightful and rough. “Gin’s gonna kill but they don’t say when.” I’m not specially convinced that “I’ll never be the same” gets out of the parlor. On the cover I’ve always thought that the Grateful Dead should be sponsored by the government. It should be a public service that they should set us up to play at places that need good music. We shouldn’t be a business per se. That’s the direction I’m convinced we should be heading. An artistic movement, albeit an organic and as-yet-unstated one is forming. What are its key components? A deliberate unartiness. Three days of world music. Jimmy Ciff. The Dennis Bovell Duo. The Twinkle Brothers. City Hall. “Raw” material. seemingly unprocessed, unfilterered, uncensored, and unprofessional. Randomness, oedipal accident and serendipity, spontaneity; artistic risk; emotional urgency and intensity, reader/viewer participation; an overtly literal tone, as if a reporter were viewing a strange culture; plasticity of form, pointillism; criticism as autobiography; self-reflexivity, self-ethnography, anthropological autobiography; a blurring to the point of invisibility of any distinction between fiction and nonfiction: the lure and blur of the real 3.
Posted 1 day ago on May 25, 2012, 10:50 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
On May 11, a group of students at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City booed Enrique Peña Nieto at one of his appearances. Peña – who was followed out of the building by students shouting “Get out!”- is the presidential candidate for the PRI, the party that ruled Mexico for over 70 years before being voted out in 2000. After this incident, supporters of the PRI in the mainstream media and on television news quickly demonized the dissenting students, claiming they were planted by their political rivals.
Students at Ibero fired back. 131 students from the university uploaded videos on Youtube and Facebook proving their identities. Soon, using the name #YoSoy132 (I am 132) in solidarity with the students who stood up to Peña, the protest spread from social media to the streets. One week ago, hundreds of students demonstrated outside Televisa’s broadcasting centers. The protests continued to grow, reaching a size of around 50,000 in Mexico City on Saturday, when marchers shut down Paseo de la Reforma, a main thoroughfare in the capital. Over 20 cities in Mexico have joined in solidarity so far.
Although press has covered the protests as a youth-led movement against the PRI, the organizers describe themselves as a nonpartisan, leaderless movement for real democracy. In fact, the corporate media have been some of the movements primary targets. The movement is upset that two corporations, Televisa and TV Azteca, own 95% of media in Mexican homes, and the companies both have been accused of showing undue favoritism to the PRI. During the 70-year rule of the PRI, Televisa largely acted as the party’s propaganda arm and continues to favor the PRI. Although Mexican media ignored the protests as long as possible, they were forced to acknowledge them after massive turnouts at Televisa’s headquarters. A Mexican political analyst told the Wall Street Journal: “The protest movement has already achieved the impossible: forcing Televisa to cover an insurrection by young people.”
But they are not finished yet. The #YoSoy132 movement is organizing a nationwide TV boycott during the presidential debates; on May 30 in Mexico City students from all schools and univerisites will gather for a joint General Assembly; convergences are also still taking place this weekend and beyond in Oaxaca and elsewhere in Mexico.
The #yosoy132 movement arose from social networks and the jeering of Enrique Peña Nieto by students at the University of Ibero. After this incident, the PRI accused the students of being planted. In response, 131 students uploaded videos showing their names, faces, account numbers, and credentials. Their videos climbed on Youtube and proved they were students from that university.
Then, the PRI was forced to admit that, yes, they were students but that it would be investigated. In response, users of social networks started the #yosoy132 (“I am 132”) movement, announcing they too were exercising their freedom of expression and that they supported the 131 students.
Thanks to that, we organized and set up a march last Friday, attended not only by students from the Ibero, but also from universities such as ITAM and Anahuac. We marched on the sidewalk, without affecting traffic, and shouted slogans to Televisa and other mass media, demanding truthful information and the democratization of the media. We called, this time from many more colleges (public and private), to demand an end to media manipulation and the imposition of a candidate.
Then, we took to the streets, without party, without color, without violence.
#YoSoy132 is no longer a movement of students. Today we are a movement of ALL Mexicans.
The powerful media of our country (Mexico) want to impose a candidate (Peña Nieto) through the manipulation of information. The young university students at Ibero protested against media bias after the Peña Nieto’s visit to the university. This generated a physical and digital citizens’ movement against the Telecracy.
We are inspired by the 131 students at Ibero, who showed that the people are the boss, not a handful of corrupt politicians and businessmen who want to decide the future of the lives of millions of Mexicans and who lie, suppress, and deceive to do it, creating an environment not conducive to progress, freedom of expression, and truth.
Today I say to that small corrupt group of people:
I am the 132. I will not be fooled. I want a fairer, more free Mexico.
This is La Primavera Mexicana civil awakening against the manipulation of information. #YoSoy132 is a movement for truth.
tomorrow in Oaxaca
edit to add: I clicked thru to learn that Lopez Obrador is ahead by 59 points on the Oaxaca digital webpage. And there are 28,000 “likes” on the leading social media page for “Yo Soy 132”.
Terry Acebo Davis and Mamoru Okuno at the Commons of the Lucas Residences at Montalvo, Saratoga, Calif., May, 2012
At the after-party for Beth Custer’s show Friday at Montalvo, I spent some quality time with Mamoru, a Japanese artist-in-residence there. Mamoru — no last name needed; like Madonna or Beyonce — is a minimalist artist, who works with sound. He is from Japan but did spend five years in New York while studying jazz at CUNY. His English is excellent.
We missed his happy-hour show, as we opted to belly-up to the bar at a Saratoga Village hot spot and sample some wild boar prociutto from The Basin Restaurant — after being shut out of its sister restaurant Casa de Cobre.
Mamoru briefly described some of his work. For example, he has a piece or project that involves listening to the sound of saran wrap as it unfolds itself in a styrofoam cup. We talked about John Cage, but also Paul Bley, who was an influence of his when he was more directed to jazz. He has a blog, but was surprised that his family reads it, he reported. I passed on the news that someone was turning the Golden Gate Bridge into a wind harp.
I hope to delve deeper into Mamoru’s work. I wish him a happy and successful sojourn here in Santa Clara County.
やってきましたMontalvo。前回の記事でも書きましたが、カリフォルニアのサラトガというところにあるアートセンター内のレジデンス施設です。滞在先の目の前のハイキングコースを30分ほど上りきるとこんな風景がみられます。ブルージェイ（アオカケス）という青黒い鳥がとんでいたり、リスがいたり、野うさぎ！がいたり。。。施設の人達によればボブキャットやピューマもいるとか。。。と、なかなかの大自然っぷり。こっちで作らなくてはいけない音の１つは、この展望ポイントでヘッドフォンで聞く音源とうのがあり、ほぼ毎日往復１時間の山歩きをしています。また作品の内容は追々と。 I have arrived to Montalvo Arts Center a week ago. It’s in Saratoga, CA. It is a great place with hiking trail just infront of my studio. I can see blue Jays, some rabits, and according to the people here I might have a chance to see bobcats! or puma! Anyway in very short, it is full of nature here. I am making some sound that goes well with the view on top of this trail, so I am walking up to the lookout point almost everyday. It takes about an hour to get there and come back, so it is a great exercise, too.
edit to add, July 13, 2012 about five weeks later: I am sorry that time flew so quickly and I did not meet Mamoru again. I hope he enjoyed his visit. I will close with another long borrow from his own blog. When I think about this post, I worry that the title is too obscure: I reference a brand name, plus a song. Also, the word I use is very close to a word that is apparently closely monitored by the government. Below he uses the more generic “food wrap”:
I had a great time at the “Final Friday”, 30-40 min presentation. There were variety of people from children to senior, and It was well received. I introduced a video work about etude no.12 food wrap, and passed the cups with wrap in them. Also, I put up the hanger rack with hangers that I found in the venue, and the electric fan from my studio to do etude no.11 installation. There were about 40 people, so I amplified the sound. It sounded great. People seemed to have enjoyed the presentation and it was encouraging for me to have various responses. Thanks for coming out!
In Japan, Saran Wrap is a trademark of Asahi Kasei. a company with 25,000 employees. Here it is Dow. Other places generic. Since 1933.
I was watching television, lazing away my Saturday morning, dog by my side — Tom Cruise in “Risky Business” 1983 — when I got a text from a friend who lives in Mexico asking me if I had heard about “Yo Soy 132”. I had not.
Yo Soy 132 appears to be a citizen’s initiative, based in Mexico City, that wants to impact the outcome of the upcoming Mexican presidential election and future of their country. Specifically, it refers to an incident earlier this month in which students protested the visit of a leading candidate, the telegenic Enrique Pena Nieto. His party claimed that the protests were fake, that political rivals planted the protests with agents acting as students. In response, 131 students posted their photos and names on the internet, essentially taking credit for the dissent, identifying with it, and perhaps putting themselves in harms way for their cause, to show their commitment. The term “Yo Soy 132” — “I am 132” refers to the rest of the crowd, the people, who stand with them in solidarity. It’s like the 6th man concept in college basketball (the crowd augments the five-man team).
I’ve only been following this for about two hours, so my account may be off or a little superficial.
I didn’t see anything about this movement in the newspapers.
But I noticed on a blog that someone said “Hey, America, turn off your tv and tune in to this!”
And then the famous Bob Seger – Tom Cruise bit came on and I felt a little foolish.
And worse: I forget which party in Mexico I think represents the best future. Frankly, I am a little intimidated by Mexico. I am not sure how widespread the corruption is, or how pervasive the violence is. Ok: someone said PRI is like the Soviet Politburo. Pena Nieto some say is a front for ex-president Salinas. I guess liberals should hope that despite the 20 point or more deficit the former Mayor Lopez Obrador will rally and seize the moment.
Meanwhile, and I hope this is not too superficial, I am trying to understand the Mexican culture better. For example, I am studying my Manuel Alvarez Bravo book. I have about 12 texts I am trying to freshen up with or by.
I could also add here, since I am an arts writer, that David Packard’s Stanford Theatre showed the 1934 Howard Hawks film “Viva Villa” about Pancho Villa last week. I missed it but my dad saw it. Written by Ben Hecht starring Wallace Beery.
There is an extensive wiki article on Enrique Pena Nieto. I do recall sometime in the last year or so noticing a mostly favorable article about a handsome candidate and his telenovela new wife. Not sure if I should venture to characterize him further. He’s an interesting contrast to Palo Alto’s Ron Kent who married a Oaxacan, runs Oaxacan Kitchen restaurants and farmers’ market booths, and who I shot last week chopping his own cabbage while his co-worker made tortillas from hand.
Ron Kent un hombre de right livelihood
Let me mix metaphors: in Buddhist thought, a man who integrates his mind, his heart and his hands is a good man, has “right livelihood”. I would venture that Mr. Kent is a better example of this than either me or Mr. Pena Nieto.
Youtube has three videos that appear to be by the people who actualized this moment. I still don’t see it in The New York Times. Basically the students are saying that the major television network are pushing through a telegenic candidate who they assert is flawed.
Now I am also flashing to another Stanford Theatre movie, “Sergeant York” and its use of “render to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s” and also Bob Marley lyric I caught on my new XM: if the cap fit let him where it.
We live in interesting times. Cuidado mis queridos amigos y hermanos Mexicanos y Oaxaquenos.
Maybe Bob Marley can offer some insight here:
edita: here is Times from April, 2012:
But cynical commentators joke that the race is essentially a battle between the Pretty Boy, the Quinceañera Doll and the Tired Has-Been.
Enrique Peña Nieto, the telegenic front-runner sometimes called the Pretty Boy (or Gel Boy because of his styled hair), will need to persuade voters that he represents a new, corruption-free Institutional Revolutionary Party, or P.R.I., the party that ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000.
Josefina Vázquez Mota, a former education secretary under the current president, has perhaps a greater challenge. She has been called the Quinceañera Doll because she is always smiling, but her party — the P.A.N., or National Action Party — has been in charge for 12 years, a time of rising violence and continued corruption.
And even for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a liberal former mayor of Mexico City who lost the last election in 2006 by 0.6 percentage points, the past and future compete. The oldest of the candidates, sometimes called the Tired Has-Been, he must answer the question of whether he has put aside the radical populism of his last campaign to govern as a moderate.
edita2, one post later: “Risky Business” is winding down — not sure how to tie it all in to this beyond the occasional out of context “wtf”, and I am missing the first couple innings of either Indians – White Sox or Giants-Marlins, but I went back to my original incoming text to add this link. The Mexican protests, also called “Mexican Spring” is linked to Occupy.
edit to add3: so, RB is done, and I am fact-checking, but I cannot resist, although it may Muddy the waters, in not a mannish-boy way, more mannish>boy I guess, but the media box rolled into a fake Chris Matthews Rick Santorum bit from 2003 in which Santorum suggests a tattoo on his back that says exit poll only.
edit to add, June 8: here is Pacific News Service about Yo Soy 132 in SF:
SF Protesters Support Mexican Student Movement #Yosoy132
Posted: Jun 07, 2012 SAN FRANCISCO — On Wednesday, protesters gathered outside the Univision headquarters in San Francisco to demonstrate their support for a student uprising taking place across Mexico. Mexican students there are calling for the democratization of Mexican news channels and a rejection of PRI presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto. The Mexican student movement is nicknamed #Yosoy132, a reference to a recent protest by 131 university students against the PRI candidate. Univision announced during its evening news show that it would broadcast the Mexican presidential debate on Sunday, June 10, from Guadalajara.
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(the link is from New American Media, formerly known as Pacific New Service — they had an office off Civic Center Plaza in SF; I dated Carol Hegna in 1984 when she was at PNS and I was at Peninsula Times Tribune; pretty sure I met Sandy Close then; Close won a MacFound Genius award in 1995, and helped Jessica Yu produce “Breathing Lessons” in 1996.
(three years later: someone sussed “Carol” in my search function, which had me re-checking this: Pacific News Service v. Bay City News. Ooops. Our first date was a chicken farmer in Petaluma, she had featured).
I rebooted my Wednesday morning by 45 minutes to review Jimmy Fallon with John Mayer, and then write briefly about it. It was John Mayer’s hat that struck a chord with me. Is he channeling Dr. John Mac Rebennack or Jack White?
I thought of Will Bernard’s “Medicine Hat” especially apropos of the fact that Mayer is having health problems, with his vocal chords.
When he came out, the Roots played “Johnny Be Good Tonight”. Mayer sat in with the Roots.
His new cd is out as of Tuesday, “Born and Raised” but due to the injury he is not touring.
I actually like and admire John Mayer. Most of which, as I’ve described before, is because he took Charlie Hunter Trio as a support act, and according to John Ellis, Mayer could sing back a lot of the solos. And he can basically play them. He has the chops.
Charlie also got a writing credit on “Continuum.” Maybe some day we can hit up John regarding some kind of legacy work for Paul J. Cohen, the continuum hypothesis, although it is a stretch.
And I met John once when Stew toured with Mayer and Counting Crows. I’ll keep milking that story for a while, I guess.
BTW, Greg Dulli and Afghan Whigs came out and gave a good report, after the Mayer interview — “if I ever face reality, that’s gonna be the end of me.” Dig.
Ok, I admit I had to use “search-injun” to hear that Jimmy Fallon did introduce him or them as doing a cover by Marie “Queenie” Lyons and the album is called “See and Don’t See.” Dig or double-dig the strings, and ?uestlove sitting in, as well.
One last gratuitous crate-digging of my own cv: Greg Dulli is or was a fan of New Orleans music and my former client Henry Butler.
Not that he needs my help, being number 1 at Amazon, but tap here to get your copy:
Ok, so the Afghan Whigs thing is only a single and you have to get it from their site, which is cool. And, I guess I am the Rip Van Winkle of indie rock, but, this is their first release in 13 years and first show in 11 years, sold out in NYC, but I may have to check them in Frisco. (Although I admit I do confuse them with High Llamas or something. Also reminds me of the great gospel singing I saw at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass of Mike Farris formerly of Screaming Cheetah Wheelies, and also I found his chapbook at the record store where Michelle Malone performed in South Carolina. Which to me begs question of if Michelle and John have jammed???? Both being ATL et cetera.
I also hat to check that it is Peter Tosh who does the “Johnny Be Good Tonight” as opposed to Chuck Berry, different song.
Ok this is a bit of a digression even by my standards, but Alex Rawls of Offbeat in New Orleans has a recollection of Henry Butler sitting in with Afghan Whigs at Howlin Wolf in 1997, whereas I got in direct from HB in 2003.
Dulli noted
edit to add, ten weeks later: I finally listened to John Mayer, “Born and Raised”. Here is a video of a secret show he played the title track at, in 2011, a different secret show at Hotel Cafe than the one I saw while stalking Jonah Matranga and Anna Rosenthal in May, 2009. (Someday I will post about my numerous trips to LA on a whim, most recently to see Anna Fermin).
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 