Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Moscow

Posted on April 23, 2012 by markweiss86

Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Riccardo Muti performed in Moscow last week, for the first time since 1990.

The U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul spoke to the crowd in Russian as part of the program, and held a press conference with Muti.

McFaul is a Stanford 1985 graduate, Rhodes Scholar and son of a high school music teacher, from Montana.

He uses Twitter to promote his ideas and those of his fellow travelers; he has 24,000 followers.

“Was a magical concert last night” he did tweet. He also reposted a link to an NPR story on same topic. That report says the heart of the show was Shostakovich Symphony #5.

Good luck and mazel tov to Professor McFaul who I’ve been following by various lower tech methods — I read a lot of newspapers — since about 1981 or so.

I was born in the Windy City – -and took a weird visit their via film and “Scarface” movie last week at Stanford Theatre — but I don’t think I have ever heard in person CSO, but hope to. They are in Russia until April 28, it says.

edit to add: See also, 1955 “The Muses are Heard” by Truman Capote, and Beth Custer “My Grandmother” showing in Saratoga next month. It was first published in The New Yorker October 27, 1956; a twist on a statement “when the canons are silent the muses are heard”.

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Announcing Earthwise Productions Institute and news-reading service, not necessarily in that order

Posted on April 23, 2012 by markweiss86

WE RECOMMEND YOU BUY THIS BOOK:

Niners Stadium price shows how stakes are rising, by Gwen Knapp, who the very busy doctor, dad and blogger from the midwest Dr. Brian Moore, a transplanted New Englander helpfully or perhaps wishfully remembers as a Boston Phoenix writer; more believable if he says he saw her doing laps at the Lowell Y; Moore is a former reporter for the Lawrence Eagle Tribune, when I was PTT.  I have not yet read the article, I merely have saved it from recycling and link to it. I or my dad sat in Lower Box Section 20, row X, seats 5 and 6, which stopped being a box years ago, from 1974 to 2010, or from Joe Reed and Steve Deberg thru Joe Montana and Steve Young, to Alex Smith et al. Come to think of it, Harris Barton was sitting four tables away from me here at Coupa while I wrote and posted the first of this. At this point I cannot afford the $2,000 a year to faithfully report to the Stick each fall, let alone an $80,000 seat license if indeed (and not my usage IF) the Niners go 408. I say they are 404. Or as CeeLo would say: 4-U.

Humber’s perfect moment. In The Times‘ graphic, that said exactly how many games, close to 8,000 have been pitched less perfectly by the Mets, plus a list of the former Mets, like Humber and Nolan Ryan, who have no-no’s. “In the 21st Perfect Game, Another Sigh for The Mets” by Tyler Kepner. The sidebar/graphic “7,982 and Counting” lauds: Ryan (7 times), Tom Seaver, Mike Scott and Dwight Gooden. While I’ve got the section open, I had been meaning to get to, or recommend you do it for me — the old Tom Sawyer Syndrome working for all of us here — “The Footprints on a Path to Gold” about Amantle Montsho of Botswana, the 400-meter runner, by Mary Pilon; with excellent photos by James Hill; I didn’t see it here but I was psyched to Pumpsie Green of El Cerrito included and mentioned in ceremony about Fenway at 100. I asked Pumpsie a couple years back for his verbal permission to found a rock group named Pumpsie Green and as counter to the Phish side project Vida Blue, but he talked me out of it. What he actually said was “Ask my wife…I wouldn’t think so..No” which was enough. Back to the wrangling of newsprint and tapping of keys…and sipping foamy coffee….Humber is from Nacodoches, Texas and Rice and was once unbraided by George Vecsey in the Times for flubbing a game in a pennant race, this was September, 2007. People have been adding to his Wiki page since Saturday. He is 12-10 lifetime and about to become a first-time Dad. Mazel to all the little Humber-babies.

1972 A’s recall amazing title run: Amid other A’s from the 1972 team, Gene Tenace and Rollie Fingers hug after Fingers threw out the first pitch. Photo by Lance Iversen/The Chronicle/The A’s Joe Rudi snares a Denis Menke drive to help preserve Game 2.

Tom Stienstra: I was meaning to chide him for his column last week conflating graffiti, gangs, vandalism and copper thieves. Barbarians, snobs and imitators all over again, a divisive article he wrote about Palo Alto high schools rivalry in 1980; there are 211 comments on his column, mostly siding with him, at first glance in appears. The biggest crime is the closing of the parks.

Will Bernard in town at Yoshi’s and profiled in the Pink by Lee Hildebrand; he played on the Tom Waits recent cd alongside on one track Keith Richards and Mark Ribot. Photo by Michael Weintrob, who I met when I worked with Henry Butler and John Ellis.

June 8 and 10: who but me will try to see back to back John Adams’ “Nixon in China” and Tinariwen at SFJazz? If you dearest readerly permit me a digression, from yesterday’s soon-to-be fish-papers, the Chron and The Times, I recall first hearing about Tinariwen from Corrina Marshall of Stern Grove, who I met at table 47 of Yoshi’s while we both were scouting EST, the Swedish jazz band, in 2005. And more recently, here, I learned that Ian Brennan, the rrrrn, (he’s funny, he’s a nurse?) is their producer for their recent Anti Release. Tinariwen are Tuareg which should mean that Stanford’s Seligmann will want to be there, or has been there done that. I still root for the Wodabi versus Tuareg, if it’s like Red Sox-Yankees.

Mikhail Baryshnikov “In Paris” at Berkeley Rep, while “Red” last three weeks May 12, about Rothko, Tony winner. Early warning for Monterey Jazz: Bill Frisell, Ambrose Akinmusire, Mulgrew Miller, Trombone Shorty (who plays trumpet) and those are the ones I’ve met.

49ers coach caught up in buzz of new stadium. See also: “The Harbaugina Monologues”

A Bob Marley biopic by Kevin McDonald at Camera 3 and “Gerhard Richter Painting”

“Don’t Stop Believing” about Journey and Arnel Pineda at SF Film Festival May 3 at Castro Theatre a film by Ramona S. Diaz.

The documentary “Hit So Hard” about Hole drummer Patty Schemel, opens Friday (Universal)

Today (yesterday) at Bottom of the Hill: Careless Hearts, Court & Spark, Hooks, Paula Frazer, Chris Von Sneidern, Justin Frahm, Matthew Edwards, Tory Ford (which sounds like the rhythm section of The Donnas), Noelle Cahill, Daniel Phifer, 2:30 p.m. $8.

Mountain Winery: Chris Isaak, August 6 & 7; Barenaked Ladies, Blues Travelers, Big Head Todd and Cracker — which would have filled two Shorelines back in the day– July 31; Michael Franti, Aug. 3; (and save your dates and money for Outside Lands Aug. 10-12); B.B. King and Robert Cray, September 7; Willie Nelson, September 13; 64 shows went go on sale in ten minutes. I have been to Mountain Winery three times in the last five years so will doubtfully go to these five, but you should go. The add curiously doesn’t say who the presenter is; in recent years it has been Live Nation. There is a sponsor mentioned, a solar company.

Seeking uke’s sweet strum by Jeanne Cooper: “Ukulele Source” San Jose; IZ’s ukulele, Los Angeles.

Do they ever have uke night at “Flea Street Cafe” in Menlo Park?

Ruthe Stein on trenchcoats, including 10 from the movies and Cody from Look Model Agency;

Regan McMahon on Nion McEvoy and Chroncile Publishing, and his music jones.

C8 Chronicle, Sunday, April 22, 2011: Robert Ross Staley (1921-2012): He loved, not necessarily in this order, Stanford football, the Democratic Party, the California Coast, the music of Lester Young and a good martini.

Lark Helps to improve the quality of your sleep, by Eileen Lee, freelance, about Julia Hu, and a wristband sleep monitor app. Photo by Jill Schneider;

Indian underworld, review of Sonia Feleiro, Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay’s Dance Bars, by Chita Divakaruni.

Jesmyn Ward,Salvage the Bones, today at 8 pm, at Stanford Humanities Center, 424 Santa Theresa, 723-0011. vs. Slavej Zizek Boris Gunjevic, “God in Pain: Inversions of the Apocalypse” for $27 City Box Office SF. Ward is a Stegner Fellow who won National Book Award I think, in 2011.

Jazz Odyssey by Tom Nolan, a review of Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, who is from, um, Canada. Edit to added that Esi is Ghanaian and was born on a Sunday, and you can do your own links and leaps and digging deepers, readers; I’ve been here for two hours and have to pretend I have a life to get back to. The book, like plastic alto, is about jazz.

“Afghan war success is just ‘dangerous political fiction” by Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford and Pulitzer winning former foeign correspondent for New York Times.

In Customer Service Consulting, Disney’s Small World Is Growing by Brooks Barnes. Twelve hundred words, eighteen links and the truth, or the nearest thing these days, like Kinda Sorta Organic.

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Lytton Green 4-20 shindig

Posted on April 21, 2012 by markweiss86

Palo Alto's greenest rock star Kristina Lindsay at Lytton 4-20 shindig

Earthwise Productions my day job predates “Plastic Alto” the blog by about 17 years and is a spinoff of Bay Area Action which produced a large Earth Day event in 1993, I worked on. In 1997 for Earth Day I produced the Earth Day Rock ‘N’ Bike which featured a new band called blink 182, at Cubberley Center Auditorium, which is now a library.

The blink 182 show was $6 all ages, but two-for-one if you rode your bike. It drew about 150 people, for their NorCal premier or at least their first tour through these parts. (They returned to the area about six months ago, re-forming, and played a show for a car sponsor and charged about $60 per tickets, to mark how times change, for them if not for me. Twenty dollar lawn seats, according to Jim the Critic and my favorite search injun, but the show also included Weezer).

I spent about two hours at the Palo Alto Downtown business and professional association’s Green and Clean Street Scene event Friday, a second annual, then popped in on the movies across the street to catch Howard Hawks’ “Twentieth Century” and “Scarface” with Paul Muni.

The Lytton Plaza event included live music by Dave Hydie and Skee, and a drummer. They were not paid to play but they were given temporary safe harbor from the new crackdown on noise and amplified sound.

I chatted with Carissa from Lyfe the restaurant about her green healthy juice we sampled, but also about her Navajo cuff silver with coral — I am never completely on the clock or  off the clock with any of my many jobs and preoccupations –perhaps like the Philip K. Dick story or character or strange phenomenon. On supposed behalf of Carissa, I actual texted Navajo jeweler Cody Sanderson trying to i.d. the heirloom piece, with a stamp “JL” but he had “no idea.” Did later find this list of hallmarks, including a Jeff Largo, and a book on topic by two Joe Lowry’s but that all seems like a red or corral herring, and definitely off topic from Green Scene et cetera.

I talked to Jan Merryweather from Acterra but mostly about Stanford tennis and British beer.

I bounced about 20 mostly lame advertising ideas off of Russ Cohen of PAD including that we should dress the downtown beat cops in ceremonial garb to simultaneously deter crime and stimulate business. Think changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace meets Matt Damon Texas Ranger from “True Grit”. Russ’ quick revise was: just put them in brimmed caps. I was thinking giant toy guns that you pull the trigger and out comes a flag reading “SHOP”.

Which segues to my personal highlight meeting the 27-and-3/4s-year-old grand-daughter of former Mayor and ad whiz Jim Burch, Kristina Lindsay who traveled to Costa Rica with an NGO that wants to teach kids the importance of the rainforest and all the little live things therein. She said that her likeness is on the artsy Palo Alto Shuttle makeover along with a quote bubble “Are their any other rock stars on this bus?'” She was probably the biggest rock star at the Lytton Green 4-20 shindig, no disrespect for Hydie and Skee, and I should know as I am a great talent spotter as my blink 182 anecdote should show. So look for Kristina Lindsay and her collection of stuffed monkeys at your better marketplace of ideas and unlimited public forums while supplies last.

edit to add, rounding out our green weekend, and slightly saddlesore from my bike, I upload this Selby Lang found object beachplastic photo, from Natoma Street in SF, 2010, as compared to the recent and current installation at Bixby Park we admired yesterday, a Monet homage called “Lillies”.  Mr. Lang told me a cool story about Abbie Hoffman. Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang.

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Yeh for Microsoft Store Opening

Posted on April 19, 2012 by markweiss86

I met at 9:15 a.m. three young women who said they had been waiting in line since 2 p.m. the day before to score tickets to the Maroon 5 appearance sponsored by the large corporation’s retail outlet’s grand opening. Their names are or were Swasti Shukla, Vidya Ramesh and TeJashi Pradhar, all apparently from Cupertino, California, about 15 miles south of here. Swasti said she was a B.U. grad –like the semi-fictional “I’ll show her” ex-girlfriend of Zuckgoldberg — and studying for the bar exam, and an English major, as I was, back in the day (we used Old English, in Shapiro’s Marlowe class, or Latin in our discussion of Hollenshed, but I digress). Vidya had a hoodie with Greek lettering, not for her sorority but for an engineering fraternity; she has a bacherlor’s from UCB but is now at Stanford, the campus, not the real estate / retail ground leasor, excepting these last 20 hours or so. I took the opportunity to hip them about Rupa Marya, which one of them conjured to her supersmart/GetSmart hand-held dohicky, of unclear corporate origin. Their wristbands revealed them to be number 80 of the Hot 100, the ones who scored two tickets apiece for Saturday’s big show, which will be on the roof or top floor of the adjacent parking structure. The lot looks to hold 1,000 cars per floor, or about 5,000 people, although the show is allegedly limited to 1,000. And although I was able to scam my way to a special viewing box for the ribbon cutting, thanks to this here little blog, the helpful event worker emphasized that my laminate will not do Jack Shit on Saturday. (We’ll see…)

Speaking of Jack Shit, someone useful and Maroon-obsessed told me what the bleeped out parts of the new Maroon 5 song are. Something about crappy fairy tales and an ex-girlfriend who eats too much fast food. And still uses a payphone, and does not have a phone like Vidya Ramesh the engineer does.

I also met a high-ranking pr flack for this large corporation, Doug Free, who said he went to high school with Craig Chaquico, of Grace Slick’s band, was worried about Levon Helm’s wellbeing, but had never met Dennis McNally — although he was a classmate of Rich Kelly, and agreed that he was a demon at the net (tennis, not information super highway).

I also met three Palo Alto mayors within one hour, and schmoozed with. Sid Espinosa, the former mayor who actually is the head of philanthropy for This Behemoth and was apparently being paid to be here today, beyond access to Adam Levine, Yiaway Yeh, the actual mayor, who made a joke about the opening falling so close to Tax Day, and Greg Scharff, who is on Palo Alto City Council, is Vice Mayor, and who I described in front of our little temporary clique of schmoozers as “the next Mayor” which got a bigger reaction that I thought it would.

I also ran into Jim Cuneen, who I think of as a fellow Gunn tennis player, in the hey day of Gunn tennis — during The Streak — 185 wins in a row, a national record for any sport — and we talked tennis and the old days. I recalled his old Valient and its “hee-haw” horn; Cuneen always reminds me of George Bailey in “It’s A Wonderful Life”, buying his luggage, before he falls into the indoor pool. Jim is some kind of lobbyist in San Jo, has a child at St. Francis, and cut his political teeth working for people like Ed Zschau, Becky Morgan and Tom Campbell. I compared him to Gary Fazzino. There was another Gunn grad there, I think on the corporate dole, but I did not catch his name, an ’89. Scharff asked me about Cuneen’s backhand, and I said “Be afraid. Very afraid.”

Meanwhile, getting psyched for sneaking into the Maroovies, I will pop in on the Palo Alto Downtown association’s 4/20 4:20 shindig, something Green. At Lytton Plaza, which I track and haunt and

I was fishing for a Stew reference that I will have to come back to:

(twenty minutes or half a can of soda later — this is an update — the lyric from Stew’s “Drug Suite” which pre-dated and gave birth to “Passing Strange” the line is “I am here to house the haunt”…that would be cool if Maroon 5 would cover something that dark and deep…now back to twenty minutes ago):

edita, four hours later: I returned to the scene of my crimes to update and post more photos to this blog entry. I am sitting here at Microsoft –shit, if they can donate $1 million to four educational non profits I can mention them once — Retail at Stanford Shopping Center, A Simon Property — now I sound like Morgan Spurlock — at 3 p.m sharp (but not Sharp, as far as I know) on a sunny Thursday, April 19, 2012 tapping away on a $1499 Sony VAIO L23BFX — and a nice on the dole bloke named Martin from Leland High/SFSU soccer, he played for Dave Gold but does not know Brian Ho or his organ, offered me a Mountain Dew just when I thought I was due for the old 8-6. Weird. Check that: Mtn Dew -R.

He said there is a slightly cheaper thingy he can let me have for $800 from HP, if I ever want to kill my Luddite jones. If they comp me, maybe, but for now its three last men standing, me, Wendell Berry and Jerry Mander, using the cloud. (I have never bought a computer but update my blog and check my email at the library or borrow from friends and family, but not on a smart phone. Mine is hella stupid. But not Slightly Stoopid, alas.

I bounced off of Cuneen my Greg Alden, Mark Mitchell, Matt Mitchell, Michael Jessup riff. Cuneen would know the Alden’s I knew, because Ellis Alden was Tom Campbell’s campaign treaurer in 1988, but did not know that Greg was a CCS doubles champ for Menlo and now manages the Stanford Park Hotel and its new Menlo Grill, I was sort of reviewing once, with an American Twist approach. At the Ari Cartun Bob Dlyan thing, a couple Friday’s back, it was “Fifth Friday” in March, I met a dude from Arkansas I think it was who knew Chip Hooper in his best days but could barely believe me that at Gunn Hooper, who rose to like seventeen or seven in the world was only number four on his high school team. And I met in the laundry room of my apartment building the number 1 ranked 12 and under girl in NorCal who was dragging her laundry bag but could stop a tank like at Tienman Square with her groundstrokes, a Michael Jessup protegee and Terman High student. I subtly recruited her for Gunn — namedropping CCS champs Rebecca Dirksen, Stephanie Savides and Barrie Bulmore — but I have a sense she is more likely to go Nick Bollatieri or some such. Her name is Sara. No last name needed. Her strokes are Micro-hard.

Music fans Swasti Shukla, Vidya Ramesh and TeJashri Pradhan lent their likenesses to the Microsoft Retail and Maroon 5 hype and hoopla for about 20 hours

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You Are Plural band at SFMOMA museums

Posted on April 17, 2012 by markweiss86

I hesitate to call You Are Plural a singular sensation.
I caught their set at SFMOMA members party Saturday but could not stay to harass them or buy what looked to be pretty cool little needlepoint patches or somesuch homemadities, because our Gang of Four was hungry to get to Peter Fangs around the corner Nanking style grub, at 660 Howard which to me screams “WILLIE MAYS” if not “slide,  slide, slide.”

The band was understated and tasteful, more like egg flower soup than oh, what’s that fake heavy cream puff fried thing?

RIYL: Ramon and Jessica, Shes and Himsels, The Bird and Beasties, John and Exene, Zoe Keating who I saw had a credit on PBS South Africa doc, Madigan Shive if she had an affair with Donovan Leitch, well, when he was 25 or something like in a science fiction movie. Deerhoof if only because they are cool and played a SFMOMA event. Also, I booked a band briefly of really youngin’s from Austin called You and I. Kinda a Mayor Newsom’s cousin thing, Joanna? Although she is more of a Harpie, to my Harpo — I met her once, Kim Chun introduced us at The Evens show at or above DuNord and called me “an original G promoter” whatever that means.

Sorry for my Christgau complex; check their head:!

I took a photo:

You Are Plural and do not blend into the Mario Botta background, despite self-similarity of the black and white keys versus the black and gray bricks.

Posted in art, austistic, music, sex, sf moma | Tagged | 1 Comment

Topps Baseball, Fang or Maroon 5

Posted on April 17, 2012 by markweiss86

I am trying to train myself to write in my spiral notebook and not on my viral blog this week but I do have three ideas, maybe four of what I would write about otherwise.

1) I bought a pack of Topps baseball cards, read them over for insights and snarkasms, shot them with my stupid phone and sent them to my email acount, for uploading hereinning. Meanwhile, rain delay…

2) Maroon 5 is apparently doing a special show for 1,000 at Stanford Shopping Center — would this violate the new noise ban, do they have a permit?? Tomorrow or Thursday, for a large electronics device store’s grand opening. I was gonna mine mine emails for the time I sent a semi-span based on the strange overlap I noticed between Yale, Willie Mays, the number 24 and Adam Levine. Don’t recall what it was…article in RS started on page 24 perhaps.

3. Meanwhile, I ate at Peter Fang’s restaurant at 660 Howard and noted that the street address equals Willie May’s homer total AND that said slugger’s middle name is same as Street. Willie’s porno name would be 660 Howard or something. Peter Fang is his real name, I think, or so my deep throated sources tell me, or it just rose out of the grey matter like acid reflex. Willie Mays’ safe word is “slide”. Or would he?

4. Bonus trek is something about Dartmouth soccer and “Oh, the places you’ll go, once you pull the keeper…” edita: this is far from baseball but I saw earlier that Matt Marquess the Gunn grad played six matches for Kansas City of MLS and is NOT the son of the Stanford baseball coach.

Five: Consider the state of literature at the moment. Consider the rise of the memoir, the incidences of contrived and fabricated memoirs, the rash of imputations of plagiarism in novels, the overall ill health of the mainstream novel. Consider, too, culture outside of literature: reality TV, the many shades and variations of documentary film, the rise of the curator, the rise of the D.J., sampling, appropriation, the carry-over of collage from modernism into postmodernism. Now consider that all these elements might somehow be connected, might represent different aspects of some giant whatsit that will eventually constitute the cultural face of our time in the eyes of the future… What all those things have in common is that they express or fulfill a need for reality, a need that is not being met by the old and crumbling models of literature.

I guess inappropriation is when you forget to put the link, or you lie to counsel, or forget on which photo your poser is based.

Ok, the baseball cards:

GORDON, LA — I liked the little trophy, which dates back to Ken Hubbs at least, or ultimately, in his sad case. My quibble was that the back touted the dude’s speed on the base paths so why did they put a picture of him on defense.

REYNOLDS, Baltimore – News to me, this guy, who has a lot of power. On the other hand, is it cruel to point out he is the easiest whiff in the land, and that at 230 or so, he has not hit his weight since 2009 and is not doing any better so far this April.

GUTIERREZ, Seattle — I am going to hold on to this guy’s card, and maybe put it in my vault because the stats on the verso are for a Washington pitcher and not a position player from Seattle. With more hours in the day, I could comb through my Baseball Almanac and call this error by it’s proper name.

The chief myersist of the search injuns leads me to believe that Topps has seen fit to attach Sean Burnett’s numbers onto the card of Gutierez. And not to nit-pick but I found a number of cards, in my pack of 12, wherein the stats listed “3B” twice, that is for both double and triple columns. Also, it lists “W” for both wins and walks; I would suggest “BB” (base on balls).

MONTERO, Arizona – I am forgetting now, since I left the stash in my new baseball-hotdog-apple-pie-mobile, what I learned from this 2×3″ oracle, but I think I noted that he is one of about 200 Venezuelans in the show, all time, and that he broke the Arizona record for extra base hits by a catcher — hence the thing about 3B having too many plate appearances so to speak.

i think that is kinzler he is blocking

HOLLIDAY – This is pretty esoteric but I recall going to a Giants game about four years ago and hecking this guy and one of his fans, a lady, sat a couple rows ahead of me and tried to correct my rant. I said “Go back to Canada!” and she said he was from U.S. I guess I crossed him with Matt Stairs if they both overlapped briefly for the A’s. He’a an Okie and almost won the Triple Crown once; somebody already compared him to the Mick.

This is a weird "in action" shot. I miss the days of posing for Topps.

As sort of a seventh inning stretch dealio I am interrupting my own screed to shout out to Harris and Boyd classic flipping trading book; I must own an earlier edition that this 1991:

THOME and RIPKIN — I got two weird cards in my batch of twelve. Somewhere along the line, where they went into darkness and sorta out again, like adding lights to Wrigley then having a power outage like we had at a recent Niners game that I was not there, baseball cards started going all Willy Wonka and putting something extra special in some packs. Not sure where these rank but the Jim Thome card was in honor of him being like the 11th guy to hit 600 homers or something and the Cal Ripken was in honor of him going 6 for 6 one day or night against the Braves in interleague play, if that merits an asterisk. The cards face says something weird to me about Cal “unloading” which sounds like solving his constipation or something, and worse it says “on the A-T-L” which took me a minute to solve to the obvious town not a weird acronym for playoffs (LCS, DS whatever). And the “AL” the junior circuit has a “TM” for trademark, whatever. Also while I am on a roll or falling of the mound like Stu Miller there is too much wordage in the little barely legible note of copyright including a URL and a “code”? Maybe my sick connotation for the Ripkin is a play on Mylanta, Atlanta or some such. (but not david o’such a vice president at the real estate firm that ate the Times Tribune who was terror of our Senior Little League back in 1978 and 1979, I walked by their semi-public garden and then lobby and noticed also, to come, something about Western painting and Cooper).

Thome looks like he is whacking the embossed seal, which almost recalls a classic George Carlin line about Clemente having two balls. Bush league Baldessari. I also have my doubts that either of these cards use a picture of the actual moment described.

CASTRO, Chicago — Again, news to me because I do not follow this like I did in 1972 through 2000, but the Cubs have a great little infielder who is only 22 and had 207 hits last year and is 4th so far this year in BA and 1st in SB, but also has 60 errors in 290 games.

I would say overall $4 is high for Topps back of 12 with no gum. I recall them being 25 cents for 10 cards and slab back in the day.

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It wasn’t God who made honky tonk Anglim

Posted on April 17, 2012 by markweiss86

Clare Rojas the successful visual artist who performs and writes as Peggy Honeywell the slightly less successful musician has a new album out which you can hear for free here, at Soundcloud I mean. Actually, it may be that she is simplifying and releasing her music now under her art name (God knows what the name is on her passport, or birth certificate).

I met Clare a couple months ago during her Paule Anglim show opening in SF and asked her about her music. It wasn’t until two minutes ago that I heard any of it; the link didn’t work for me at the time, though I tried.

I saw Clare at the Barry McGee show Saturday but did not bother her.

When I met her before she said she wasn’t actively doing music anymore on the account of raising a child but that she had recently recorded a new cd that she was putting out there for free on the internet. The gallery helped it along by linking from their site, thusly.

Jordan Kurland the artist manager (Death Cab for Cutie, formerly Matt Nathanson, Feist) and Noise Pop co-founder collects Clare’s art and commissioned her to do a poster, was at that show, with his buddy Adam Werbach. If Clare ever gets more serious about optimizing her music she could probably get a pow-wow with Jordan. Or tap me here at Plastic Alto I would gladly put my two cents worth forward.

Meanwhile, and I cannot believe I just blew two hours on my stupid blog, I am off to fax my accountant, open a vein and bleed a little for the IRS and get back to my actual obsession for the week and task at hand, working my way through the remaining 150 short treatises of the 618-part manifesto “Reality Hunger” by David Shields. I met David at West Coast Live some time ago and only now have permitted myself to take it all in. Sometimes I fantasize about doing nothing but catching up with my reading.

edit to add now two and a half hours into my day but still on the stupid computer: the song Clare recorded that I chose to link to is actually a cover of a song that was a number one country hit for Kitty Wells and the basis for an album title by Dolly Parton and friend but also was written by a guy who became controversial based on his racist views later in his career. Rojas misspells the word “angel” as “angle” at least on the service site. And that only 18 people have heard it so far speaks to my idea that she needs a manager proper to publicize this. Anybody? I kinda sort mentioned this to the lady doing online pr for the new Stew record. Might have to pass this strangely on to her’m.

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Rigo 12

Posted on April 12, 2012 by markweiss86

Rigo 23: Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program

PreviousNext

Opening reception
Saturday, April 21 | 6-9pm

Conversation between Rigo 23, Caleb Duarte, and Sam Durant 
Saturday, April 21 | 5:30pm

Initiated by San Francisco-based artist Rigo 23, Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program is an interdisciplinary collaboration with weavers, seamstresses, painters, carpenters, and cultural activists from Southern Chiapas, Mexico. Conceived as a series of sculptures and large-scale environments, Rigo 23’s project for the Gallery at REDCAT is the outgrowth of direct negotiations with the Good Government Junta of Morelia, Chiapas, developed around the theme “Another World, Another Path,” articulated in 2009 by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) at the First Global Festival of Dignified Rage—an event that marked the group’s fifteenth anniversary and underscored its belief in a utopia related to Mayan conceptions of the cosmos. Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program takes the form of a planetarium, in which constellations and spacecrafts based on the iconography and imagery of the EZLN are realized for the purposes of intercommunal and intergalactic dialogue.

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Iniciado por el artista Rigo 23, de San Francisco, Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program [Programa Espacial Autónomo InterGalactico] es una colaboración interdisciplinar con tejedoras, costureras, pintores, carpinteros, y activistas culturales del sur de Chiapas, México. Concebido como una serie de esculturas y ambientes a gran escala, este proyecto de Rigo 23 para REDCAT es el resultado de negociaciones directas con la Junta del Buen Gobierno de Morelia, Chiapas. Desarrollado en torno al tema “Otro Mundo, Otro Camino,” articulado en 2009 por el Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) en el Primer Festival Mundial de la Digna Rabia – un acontecimiento que marcó el decimoquinto aniversario del grupo y subrayó su creencia en las concepciones Mayas del cosmos. Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program [Programa Espacial Autónomo InterGalactico] toma la forma de un planetario, en el que las constelaciones y naves espaciales son basadas en la iconografía e imaginário del EZLN y teniendo como propósito el crear diálogo intercomunal e intergaláctico. (Translation: Edgar Miramontes.)

Funded in part with generous support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco; Ann Hatch; Community Futures Collective; Megan Wilson; and Antonio Roman-Alcala. Additional support provided by EDELO Residency Program, San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico; and Guest Haus Residency, Los Angeles.


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Eric Turner “Angels and Stars” on Leno

Posted on April 11, 2012 by markweiss86

I fell asleep, woke up, saw Rachel Maddows pull an exact quote from her anti-war book “Drift” about Lincoln warning against the worst and most King-like oppression of the people of a President making war, and then saw a totally unknown as far as I know but passable act called Eric Turner, who looks like the new Bob Dylan but with a band that could take the Roots in running fulls. Almost worth staying up, now that the computer is laplike and sparkling, for something promising called White Rabbit on Fallon –although I thnk I am taping M. Ward the former future farmer (?) on another channel — and bowling with Christina Applegate.

edit to add: still no idea who Eric Turner is but while fact-checking the ? regarding M. Ward and Future Farmer I diverted somehow to the fact that Esperanza Spalding recorded for Hush Records and Merge Records as a sideperson, as early as 2003, notably on “Transfiguration of Vincent” with M. Ward.

edit to add: he is an American, from Boston College high, lives in Sweden, teaches Math as a day job and is on Capitol Records, with this video, and the additional digression — wow, this is a great half-awake lat night surf session or a very vivid dream, who knew that Janelle Wang

Janelle Wang speaks mandarin on NBC and was a gunn cheerleader???

of local NBC affiliate is a former Gunn High cheerleader?

this might be important:

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Three chords and the truth

Posted on April 9, 2012 by markweiss86

I am admittedly biased about Robert Glasper.  He is my best friend and my life partner.  He is also a brilliant musician… disclosure and disclaimers aside.

–Angelika Beener, jazz writer and in Glasper’s circle.

This made me laugh out loud and will also get me to a store to find the cd. Go deeper on this and sundry other jazz and real world topics at:

http://alternate-takes.com/2012/03/01/black-radio-pianist-robert-glasper-turns-it-up/

Personal to A.B.: I was once close to JAE. He had a girlfriend, bandmates, roommates, and I had a girlfriend and a few chums, but we had a special bond. I helped him load out of B.B. King’s once — boy when you double or triple on bass clarinet, tenor and alto, that in itself is a lot of work, to carry let alone play them things. I schlepped an organ from the shop to studio once. That and helping he and Noel Silverman negotiate a three-cd deal with the late great Joel Dorn and Kevin Calabro: I was the p.m. of JAE. For a minute. Initial term, 2003-2004 but still follow and root for him, if I don’t collect a nickel for every copy of “Friends Seen…” nor my two cents worth for every copy of Orrin Evans’ “Easy Now” (features John Ellis “Bonus Round” written or released during my term).

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