Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss

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3. Philip Greenlief has written a set of song or suite of music that he claims he wrote in reaction to a trio of films by Michelangelo Antonioni from 1961-1963; he is performing said work with Lisa Mezzacappa and Jason Levis at Mitchell Park Bowl in Palo Alto at 2 pm Sunday, July 24, or 13 days from now, presented by Earthwise Productions, my company. Citta Di Vitti (named for the actress starlet of such works, and recently transmogrified back to stardust).
4. I am Mark Weiss, a former city council candidate and producer of this blog, Plastic Alto. Activist and provocateur. But he means well. 
5. I live downtown Palo Alto, or Downtown North, as they say.
6. While watching “Blow Up” from 1966, that takes place in London but not Rome but by the same director, I noticed the term “Dual Carriageway” which means there is room for two cars or two lanes in the same road, same direction. There was a sign that said DUAL CARRIAGEWAY as the lead characters’ car is seen zipping around. I guess otherwise the Brits in the 1960s would go bumper to bumper in a single file; while, perhaps, in Italy they would try to squeeze past each other on the left or right of each other, with or without the sign.
7. Since I am also producing a show with Scott Amendola and Wil Blades on the preceding Sunday, July 10, I thought to make a flyer promoting both show, “dual” “carriageway” as it were. The poster references the same director that the program itself does. Plus Scott and Philip have a group together called Greenlief Amendola (which was scheduled at the same location last July, but Scott took ill and Philip carried on, so to speak).
8. I made a blog post last night, while watching “The Blow Up” — it can be a crude meaning not tweaked out poster design. You can scroll down to view it.
9. I printed 18 copies of said flyer and numbered them like prints: 1/18, 2/18, 3/18, 4/18 et cetera. I also hand-altered each one by writing variations of the word JAZZ in the photo, sculpted slightly to pretend to be in the photo and not on the photo. Yes, its like graffiti.
10. This morning, Monday July 11 and less than one hour ago, I taped 11 of these 18 to windows on shops in Palo Alto on Uni between Bryant and Ramona or on Ramona between Uni and Hamilton or on Bryant. Most of these were abandoned store fronts, vacant.
11. I shot or documented each posting. Two of them were near other not-quite-kosher postings for Stanford Jazz Festival or Stanford Lively Arts –one of them was on top of the poster for Stanford Live.
12. I will check back tomorrow to see how many of the first 11 survive. I pulled from my shelves “Street Art Cookbook” but did not read it very carefully.
13. Generally its better to wait until the stores open and ask the shop-keepers for permission to post your notice. If beyond pulling down the poster/flyer, they wish to scold me — or fine me — they can noticed they are sort of signed “Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss” but that only proves that I published the design not that I personally posted the notice or had the notice posted. Some of these buildings had security cameras that might have caught me red-handed. I wonder about the etymology of the term “red handed” — is it a slur on racial or ethnic lines the way “jew”, “gyp” or “scotch” sometimes is?
14. More to the point, if there is a point, or a pint, I hope to finish “The Blow Up” and maybe take a peak at the three films that Philip actually is referencing. Meanwhile I am also promoting shows, beyond these two, with Native Elements, Johnny A, Tammy Hall, Melanie Charles, a jazz quintet who asked me to keep their show a top secret, a jazz duo who asked me to keep their show a top secret, Steve Poltz, Mads Tolling, Flaming Groovies, Lee Vilensky, something with Philip Greenlief and a bassist from Mexico October 6, something with Amendola called Sticklerphonics August 21; something with Erik Lawrence and Akira Tana and maybe a bassist named Julian Esparza but I called him Julio Cortizar and maybe beyond Lytton Plaza and Mitchell Park bowl and Johnson Park also the Mitch itself i.e. indoors and hard ticket, but maybe also at the Art Center but it might be at 3:30 to 5 an odd time and Lucie Stern ballroom or courtyard I’ve never used. I’m also seeing Molly Tuttle with Old Crow Medicine show Wednesday in Saratoga and did a drawing for our spare pair at the Waybacks show yesterday and the winner was a man wearing a shirt from the Ukelele gallery in a small town above Kailua in Kona Hawaii. I did not catch or ketch his name but he said he taught ESL at Stanford was recently married to a woman named Dovie not Davie Wylie or Wiley or maybe wisely.
15. Shout out to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers whose flickering ghosts I caught most of Saturday at the re-opened Stanford Theatre, before shuffling off to watch a Led Zep cover band that was the sonic equivalent of a security guard raping an underage girl who wanted to suck off Robert Plant; for a brief second I thought that was Steve Zukowski, Gunn ’80 — excuse the pun — but no. And certainly not Gretchen Menn who neighbors said weathered parts of the shutdown hereabouts, the Casti Grad and private pilot. The City announced a Tom Petty band — but Petty Rocks not Petty Theft – -then sent word that In the Led was tag-teaming for not-Tom Petty. Like the Jerry Hannan song “I put I cant believe its not butter on my I cant believe its not bread”. Again: If I was producing a Led Zeppelin tribute I would have the Waybacks with Sarah Duhks AND Steve Zukowski AND Gretchen Menn and I would announce that I am NOT having In The Led Cranked to Eleven. 

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This doesn’t belong here but my phone died before I could post the 11 documentation photos of my little run of mischief this a.m. but I did find this photo of 11 women touring with curator Emma Acker her show at DeYoung about Precisionists: