and now for something completely different(actually I had originally posted a performance of “All You Can Eat” from 2009, which I thought musically went well with the below, but Candye wrote back and asked me to link to something from this year):
Marjorie Ford sporting Allison Robertson's old sweat top
I ran into Marjorie and John Ford, mother of The Donnas bassist Maya Ford, at Peets. Marjorie and I worked out a deal in which I will trade her a book on zines I got cheap at the soon-to-be-defunct and hopefully clearing-the-way-for-a-concert-venue=bookstore in exchange for a zipper sweat jacket that once belong, or so she says, to Allison Robertson, the guitarist for her daughter’s group (and her best friend since 7th grade). My plan is to donate the garment to the proposed Palo Alto Rock and Roll Archive. The archive is a file at the library pertaining to the time I got Steve Staiger our historian to authorize my suggestion to then-Mayor Bern Beecham to have a civic proclamation in honor of Jerry Garcia’s days here. Other artists I have invited into the hall include The Donnas, Ian MacKaye of Fugazi (who attended Terman Junior high for one year), Chris Applegren of The Pee Chees, and Steve Jenkins of Third Eye Blind. Applegren’s former or then-wife Molly Newman actually managed the Donnas when they were on Atlantic and in fact they meet at one of my shows.
I can tell my furry bear liked the river because he jumped over the ledge:
I shot this picture of Mildred Howard at her Palo Alto installation on August 17, 2011. I could not help doing the Archers of Loaf lyric in the title of this brief post. No other connection, other than I once drove from Chapel Hill to Richmond, VA to see the Archers at Twisters AND oh, nevermind.
edi to add, October 11: I booked Marcus Shelby duo into the reception for Mildred Howard at Palo Alto City Hall lobby and snapped this photo:
Marcus Shelby at Cafe Claude in San Francisco, September 1, 2011
Terry Acebo Davis and I met and regaled Terry Allen with our Sled Allen baseball card sets (featuring work by Mark Weiss, Terry Acebo Davis, Rob Syrett and Mia Ollikainen — honorable mention to Grant Kosh and Steve Cohen; raspberries to the others of you who ignored the RFQ). We also met Robert Hudson at the show and schmoozed with Paule Anglim’s able, helpful and generally lovely staff: Christine, Travis and Monica.
We were not invited to the post-party dinner, alas, so wandered into the Union Square night looking for grub. The syren calls of what turned out to be Marcus Shelby Trio with Howard Wiley
Howard Wiley, tenor sax
lured us into a lovely light supper at Cafe Claude; we sat at the bar and talked Uruguayan football with Enrique, plus got insight into Metallica’s show at a large corporate event by one of the event’s caterers. (She finished my sentence when I was pontificating that for Metallica to play a trade show meant buku books — I said “one million” and that the fledgling high tech company not so much wanted their followers to understand metal as much as that he wanted to show that he could make them… his bitch).
Marcus Shelby and I traded bits and bytes on the DeYoung, John Corbett in Chicago, his Port Chicago piece, Stanford, Mingus and more. He said he was commissioned by the DeYoung to write a companion piece to Edward Hicks “Peaceable Kingdom”.
Later he was joined by a fledgling female vocalist who nailed some Cole Porter standards, and made me regret having to go home so early.
Maybe we can get Marcus Shelby to play some tunes at the dedication of the Mildred Howard “Clear Story” next week in Palo Alto — by nine today I had put in to calls on that topic, we’ll see, clearly.
Not to completely ruin the mood but here is someone’s home video of the Metallica appearance at a trade show, purportedly their first corporate gig.
In a parallel universe, where Mark Oliver “E” Everett is POTUS, and his friend Sean Coleman of The Sunshine Club is a house-hold name, or has his own reality show, Matt Nathanson is exactly where he is here and now, touring the country with Maroon 5 and Train, charting with “Faster”, et cetera. He is also, in this perfect world, appearing sometime soon, very soon, at Zoe Café in Menlo Park, stumping, as it were, for TLPW 456, the campaign to bring culture to downtown Palo Alto, to The Varsity Theatre. Matt would or is or could or should appear at a secret show to rally the troops for the assault on Navarone-esque idiocy that represents the status quo of the landlord-dominated politics of Palo Alto. Apropos of nothing, but of special interest to the overlapping fan bases of Matt Nathanson, the Wilson Pickett cameo in “The Commitments”, Madeleine L’Engle and Robert Venn, Matt will be in Concord, California on Sept. 15, which is only 57 miles and 71 minutes from Cafe Zoe, wink wink nudge nudge.
I will put in (but not like Putin) a call on this, in the here and now, to Matt’s management, Jordan Kurland and Justin Little of Zeitgeist Management of San Francisco, my old friends. In September of 1995, for example, Jordan wrote me on David Lefkowitz Management letterhead to ask if his old college roommate Matt could open for Dar Williams at Cubberley. That didn’t happen but I did, for example, have Matt open for The John Doe Thing at Cubberley in 2000. I did a bunch of shows with Matt in those days, at Cubberley and CoHo.
Matt is a friend, no lie, but not to the extent of “Jules et Jim” troling for phillies. He did once inscribe a cd to me “I am Mark Weiss’ bitch” which I think was his way of acknowledging my modest role in keeping the wheels on his bandwagon until the Muse of “Come On Get Higher” put the sparks on his tongue, so to speak.
I last saw Matt Nathanson when he played at Metro in The Park in San Jo. I stood in line with some radio contest winners, thanks to my yogi Marla Davies, who also gave me an guacamole green t-shirt, and asked Matt to be part of my Wallace Stegner tribute. Matt hasn’t yet written a song about Stegner, but he did write the words “WALLACE STEGNER” with a Sharpie on the back of his hand, tribute enough.
Kathleen Daly of Zoe Café was hearing me out about my inscrutable and quixotic “TLPW 456” broadsides and campaign when Matt came on her player and she started gushing.
“If you can get him to play here, I’’ll give you free coffee for six months,” she declared. I go there about once a week and spend about $4 per frothy creamy cup so that would be an incentive of more than a hundred billion dollars! More to the point, this type of artist relations and spontaneous passion for the arts is exactly what we need to bring back The Varsity (or to enact The Last Picture Waltz). So if posting a blog is like waving a dream-catcher, in this or any of the trillion parallel universes, keep your antennae up for details to come.
The second previous time, before Marla and Metro and the KEZR The Mix 106 radio show, that I tried to engage Matt I told Justin Little that Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore was quoted in Sports Illustrated as saying that he chills to Matt in the locker room and that therefore Matt should route through there. Well guess what: Matt plays Boise State on October 22, the night of the Broncos’ Air Force game.
So support The Sleep Train Pavillion at Concord on September 15 but keep a close watch on little Zoe Cafe for 12 hours before or after Matt’s hit. And call your favorite Palo Alto council member about TLPW 456 and The Varsity Theatre.
And good luck to my Gunn High classmate and former Kellen Moore in the locker room spy, Chris Strausser, who is now the Assistant Football Coach at Colorado University.
edit to add, Thursday, November 24: my friend Tim Harris surprised me by having learned to play guitar since the last time I visited him. A highlight of his post-turkey concert was his mastery of two Matt songs, and being impressed that Matt and I have such a history.
Contest Rules and Description and Examples and More See Below
Terry Allen’s dad played 14 games for the St. Louis Browns in 1910. Maybe we should make a mock tobacco card for Sled and present it to him Terry when he arrives at Paule Anglim in Sf for a show on September 1. This would pre-empt my plan to see SF Mime Troupe in Palo Alto Mitchell Park that same day and channel, which I wrote about for Patch.
Too many things to see or do or be or slud. Makes me dizzy. Or like on the hop.
edit to add: I texted about a dozen artists and asked them to create mock baseball cards to be presented to either Paule Anglim or Terry Allen on September 1 in San Francisco, at her gallery. So far only one person bothered to acknowledge my text. I have thought up a more thorough set of contest rules and philosophies, available on request. My nutty enthusiasm stems from the recent tour Terry Acebo Davis and I got, the grand tour and reception, from Jack Lemmon, Steve Campbell and Christina Campbell at Landfall Press of Santa Fe formerly Chicago where Jack had worked extensively with Terry Allen over the years (and where he recently worked with Diego Romero, and upcoming no pun intended with or for Judy Chicago).
In a related realm, I pledged $100 to Palo Alto Rec Foundation in honor of City Manager Jim Keene who I met with at the Palo Alto crafts fair (better than I expected). Keene is running the 10k of the Palo Alto Weekly Moonlight Run and if he either breaks 50 minutes or places in his age group (he just turned 60) I will pay up. (Similarly, I once pledged $500 if Police Chief Dennis Burns could learn a particular bird call, ala the Piedmont High students — longer story). Keene was wearing a Navajo silver bracelet and said that he was the former City Manager for Flagstaff, AZ. This fact begets yet another Earthwise Production: the Palo Alto Indian Market. Details, teepee announced.
And further afield: I am working on, for Palo Alto Patch, the following stories: on Mildred Howard, “Clear Story”; on Rochelle Ford sculpture garden; on Josh Roseman Jamaican Jazz (what I call “Lively Up Your Arts”) at Stanford, David Krakauer’s Abraham Incorporated appearing at Cal Performances in November, a poster for Stanford Lively Arts with Rob Syrett for Matmos So Percussion; a Dao Strom Jennie Gillespie tour stop in Palo Alto area, a major announcement or breakthrough on the Wallace Stegner tribute; debut of a project called “Sussman Can’t Sleep” that combines Jimi Hendrix and Klezmer but is actually a Coen Brothers homage featuring Glenn Hartman and Beth Custer; a posting to my “Together We Are Giant” baseball song proposed compilation by Johnny Law; two new Santa Fe based music projects, and apropos of the Varsity Theatre project, the formation of the Varsity Theatre Jazz Orchestra. Oh, yes, I am also planning to interview Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus most specifically about his song “Let Our Garden Grow” because of the fact that Terry, Hadar our neighbor and I now have a patch in the public garden at Johnson Park.
Meanwhile, I found this new artist (to me) in the list of nominees at the Downbeat Readers Poll, bassoon player Katherine Young (here performing at Philly’s Highwire Gallery; people I recall voting for include: Ambrose Akinmusire, Dave Douglas, Nelly McKay, Norah Jones, John Ellis — write-in on soprano –, Bill Frisell, Chris Wood, Craig Taborn, Jenny Scheinman, Darcy James Argue, Rudresh Mahanthappa, John Santos, Don Cherry, Wayne Horvitz, Uri Caine, Josh Roseman, Chris Potter and Ben Goldberg, and write-in for David King, and the Bad Plus — I picked Taborn over Iverson for piano despite my recent infatuation with the “garden” song I glossed above).
The longer list of names I susses this a.m. after seeing them on the Downbeat poll beyond Katherine Young of Porter Records include Ann Savoy’s Black Coffee blues or old-timey cd, Lauren Newton, Mwata Bowden, Susie Hansen, Diane Monroe, Linda Oh, Mary Oliver, Florin Niculescu, Ola Kvernberg, Helena Gough, Peter Appleyard and Olivia Brooks Either OAR. That’s actually Olivia Block, who will be at the Stone in NYC while we are all sludding into Terry Allen in SF; her album for Either OAR in Seattle was on the Downbeat ballot which reminds me both of Origin Records in Seattle and my recent conversation with Russ Gershon of Massachusetts regarding my came-and-went brainstorm about changing Earthwise to Aether Ore; Russ runs the Accurate Records label and Either Orchestra, and recently toured Ethiopia.
Anyways, so to reiterate, and back on main topic, I am announcing a contest. I will pay $10 (ten dollars) for the first 10 “roughs” submitted by noon Thursday (as I will most likely be taking the 4 p.m. train to get to the event in SF that starts at 5:30), “roughs” meaning even the slightest articulation of the slimmest idea, on a napkin, A2 envelope, via text or email, whatever — as long as it references “baseball card” “art” or “sled allen” it probably qualifies, or $100 total prizes in that category. I will also pay $20 each for the first five “comps” or finished works submitted; “comps” means it has some production details, or actual detail, or color, or nuance, or technique — I usually stop after a “rough” and then beg for help from an actual artist type. And I will pay $200 for the grand prize winner. (Or a total for $400 in prize money proffered). The artist retains title of the works and ideas submitted. I am merely angling for the right to walk up to Paule Anglim or Terry Allen and show how clever we all are. I will suggest to Paule and Terry that the follow up with the artist directly if they want to procure or re-sell the piece. (On the other hand, and this is a catch, not unlike Willie Mays hauling in Vic Wertz in 1954 or Joe Rudi against the wall in 1973, artists have to come pick up the submitted work from me if they want it back, I ain’t footin’ that.)
For instance, here are two quick “roughs” that I might enter:
1) take the photo above, which I found via a search-injun, and print it out and paste it to another sheet of paper or part of an old shoebox and write “Sled Allen” “St. Louis” and woller, there’s your mock baseball card art.
from encyclopedia of baseball
2) Roger McNamee and Moonalice recently played Palo Alto free series and gave out a four-color poster that has an elephant playing second base. I may cut out part of the elephant, draw on with a Sharpee some Micky Mouse Ears (the Roger Brown kind, not the Disney kind, for fair use reasons, or stylistical ones) and bingo!
3) am on a roll, here, I may dig up some other random baseball card from my disparate and vast (ie because some of it is scattered and purloined) collection and take the aforesaid marker of the first part, and rip it, ala the Marx Brothers in “Opera” or tag it with “Sled” or such and there I go. I actually gave Howard Finster or actually his grandson Andy Finster a Topps Football card that showed a Niners lineman I forget who blocking out number 66 (eerily close to THE DEVIL 666) and I wrote “JOE 3:16” all over the card in a Roman Opalka pattern, and Howard asked Andy to “take the artist and his work” down to “the Ramp” where we did hung it.
So get to sluddin’ or artin’ or Allenin’ y’all.
This may help explain even furthr:
Robert Syrett obliged by fountain penning a quick take on Strathmore Artist Trading Cards, a uniform 2.5 x 3.5 handy format, and in fact an inspiration for this whole farrago: Rob’s trading card of Olivier Messiaen and ondes martenot I gifted to Josh “Socalled” Dolgin at KZSU Stanford a couple years ago. So far we have submissions from Syrett, Terry Acebo Davis and yours truly, with faints hints of comprehension from Grant Kosh in Santa Fe and Steve Cohen in LALA, who I said could have his own category if slips up, or sleps, or sluds into second, and submits a “Steve Allen” instead, or insled.
I am getting local merchants to post “TLPW 456” broadsides in their windows to get the word out about the citizens’ initiatives to affect the future of The Varsity Theatre, at 456 University Avenue in Palo Alto. It is a “snipe campaign” meaning it is only designed to pique curiosity and direct potential fellow travelers towards a search engine which would perhaps lead them here.
The flyers are hand-numbered by yours truly. (Although Palo Alto Public Arts commission chair Ally Richter
TLPW broadside at Bell's Books in Palo Alto
sat at the next table while I was working on that process, the numbering, 1 thru 456, natch). I also made little business cards with my contact info, some I leave behind at the stores that post the flyers.
edit to add: also, in terms of my describing omens that portend success for the Varsity initiative, I was pleased to see Jeff Bridges (from “The Last Picture Show” movie”) reviewed recently in New York Times.
still capture of pigeons from Jim Jarmusch "Ghost Dog" (1999)
I dubbed my initiative to affect the future of 456 University, The Varsity Theatre site, “The Last Picture Waltz”. I am referencing the Larry McMurtry book, “The Last Picture Show” and the Martin Scorsese concert film “The Last Waltz.” I’m suggesting not that the theatre should permanently go back to its intended purpose but only that the cultural community have the opportunity for a last kiss goodbye there, maybe 50 shows a year for the next 10 years.
Most of my efforts on this project involve contacting people in the music business to see if there is a qualified operator who wants to try to get the lease on the historic theatre. I am also trying to talk to council to see if there is anything that government could or should do to lend a hand, invisible or not. I did have a meeting with Tom Ferhrenbach*, Palo Alto’s economic development director, to try to sway him to this cause. Plus I mention this to every third person I meet, and have made business cards specific to this project, and some handbills (TLPW 456 they read, in “Palo Alto green” — the “Color of Palo Alto“).
snipe campaign handbill or broadside for The Last Picture Waltz initiative
Plus my writings, here, at “Plastic Alto” at Patch Palo Alto, and commenting where applicable on other sites. I was on Fox 2 morning news.
I am having fun with this. And I enjoy flipping through various media and texts for insight and inspiration. Not sure what the story of “Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai” does for me here, but I wanted to print this still-capture of the pigeon-training sequence to link to my discussion of “bird omenology” on Patch.
In a previous post there, I suggested citizens address council on this topic during oral communications. (The Varsity, not birds :).
Obscure movies, acronyms, numerology — 4 5 6 is a reference to Chinese dominoes — I think there is still some method to my madness. Or as Brian Eno would say, as part of his famous “Oblique Strategies:” Be extravagant. I’ve got my mojo working, as Muddy would say. (Plus I laid a Teddy Ruxpin medal on Edgar Allen Poe’s grave in Baltimore, and a Satchmo coin in New Orleans, at Marie Laveau’s alter: I’m calling in some favors from 12 Galaxies, you could say.)
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
*Here is the link to Fehrenbach’s preliminary report on the topic which one local paper paraphrased as saying the theatre proposal was a non-starter. In my meeting with him, he seemed to have changed his mind and vowed to look into this properly. I think the entire matter is a fascinating case study on the nature of power, property and community.
Somebody made this short film of Bob Pritchett singing and playing the blues harp, in the foyer of the Varsity Theatre. (In its heyday, that courtyard featured regular concerts by Tuck and Patti, Michael Hedges and more. See Randy Lutge’s archive of about 400 shows, there and in the main room). Pritchett was in the Gunn High School Hall of Fame, played college football and had a tryout with the Dallas Cowboys. He was my coach for Frosh-Soph basketball at Gunn in 1978-1979. You can maybe hear him here still lamenting getting edged out of the league championship that last game at Paly.
LOCAL ARTS ACTIVIST INITIATES DEBATE THAT RECALLS “THE LAST WALTZ” CONCERT FILM AND “THE LAST PICTURE SHOW” NOVEL
Mark Weiss awoke Friday morning brimming with ideas about The Varsity Theater in Palo Alto, the recent site of Borders Books. On his way to one of his usual perches, at Peet’s on University, to set down and organize his thoughts, he ran into the media. This chance meeting interrupted the train of ideas and questions running through his mind: did he really know 50 comparable cases of theaters converted back to music or non-profit and non-traditional venue spaces? How could he make himself and his knowledge base a resource either to the the building owner, the hypothetical and perceived community group or the concert industry to make some fruition this time around? In 1996 Weiss joined an ad hoc group of what seemed to be about a dozen people who were trying to lobby city council to thwart the landlord, who needed a variance to convert the space from the historic theater to retail. They said they had 8,000 signatures on a petition. But that strategy failed, the council voted anyhow to grant the variance and Palo Alto therefore enjoyed, if not a downtown gathering hall then a pretty good book store for 17 or so years. And Bill Workman of the Chronicle wrote a column about Weiss , the cheeky promoter who said at the public hearing, in front of Fazzino, Simitian, Kniss et al, he could develop his twice-a-month concert series at 300-capacity Cubberley Theater and move that over to the much larger Varsity, if given time and opportunity. Also, Weiss’s concert concern, Earthwise Productions booked a short series of performances into the courtyard of Borders, for and with them, and he was quoted in the Metro lauding the Vienna Teng in-store which drew throngs.
So this July morning, whatever else happens, is said, or sung, Weiss is on record again regarding Chop Keenan’s showplace property, The New Varsity. He said, on KTVU Morning News, “Now that Borders is leaving, I think there is considerable community support for looking into the possibility of a theater or performing arts space.” (Sid Farhang of KTVU, a reporter with 20 years experience there, was shooting some footage and Weiss asked for a word with him).
A concert venue of course, is easier said than done.
But Weiss, a Gunn and Dartmouth graduate who has produced more that 200 concerts in Palo Alto since 1994 and ran for City Council, says he would think it would be worth doing, to to shoot for a business model that could find 50 shows a year, for ten years and then out. That’s 500 shows. It would be like Larry McMurtry’s “The Last Picture Show” meets The Band, Bill Graham et al “The Last Waltz,” he says, referring to the 1966 novel (made into a 1971 movie) and the 1978 Martin Scorcese documentary, respectively. Added together Weiss dubs this initiative, “The Last Picture Waltz.”
RATTLING CHAINS
“It might be too much to expect this to be permanent,” he says. “But it would be worth the effort to run the venue for a 10 year term, as a type of long goodbye.”
“I think the concert world might be more open to this now that Bill Graham Presents regional monopoly has split into Live Nation, Another Planet and Golden Voice, three of the country’s best promoters all nearby. Also, Freight and Salvage raised $20 million to build a new venue in Berkeley, as a non-profit. So the times they are a changin’.
Or, as Levon Helm might say, “don’t do it. Don’t break my heart.” Don’t add another retailer to that jewel-box gathering space, without at least one last kiss goodbye, or 500! Weiss is canvassing, by phone, text, email and in person, to find like-minded potential stake-holders in hopes of getting a hearing from Keenan, who was said to be already fielding queries from national retailers and 2.0 tech firms. He is said to be considering first floor retail and second floor office space. Speaking of chains, the ghost of guitar whiz Michael Hedges (1953-1997) reportedly said through a medium that he he prefers artists over code-writers in his former favorite haunt.
edit to add, 8/1: this is text of my letter to council:
I am writing you to ask our elected representative government, our Mayor Sid Espinosa and eight additional City Council members, to intervene in the matter between the landlord/manager of 456 University Avenue and his prospective future tenant, at the Varsity Theater, in the wake of the failure of Borders national chain Books there.On these five grounds:1)The venue could be a future site (as it was from 1927 to 1994, for more than sixty years) for a public hall, for entertainment, for a marketplace of ideas, for live music concerts, for live theatre, for lectures, for government outreach, for film programming and high technology showcasing, for up to 900 people at a time; this use is a rare thing, an essential thing for a Democracy, great for local economy (see Richard Florida, “The Rise of the Creative Class”) and consistent with our articulated values about “civic engagement.”2)When Council in 1996 voted to give landlord a variance to permit conversion from Theatre to retail, it was very specifically and popularly asked to only do so if the Theatre could be converted back; short of a literal covenant, the popular conception is that in the event of the failure of the national chain bookseller, the citizens (at that point 8,000 had signed a petition) would have a fair chance to present a proposal. Also, and former Mayor Gary Fazzino reminded me of this recently, the engineering done in 1996 very specifically was done so as to ease the reversion back to a Theatre or public hall use. (The website of Meserve Engineering of San Jose confirms this and has useful photos). 3)Our elected council should perhaps atypically take the initiative here in terms of directing or engaging with applicant in that he is generally perceived to be the most powerful land-owner in town, or one of “the Big Three”, endorsed eight or nine of the campaigns of the current Council; it would be in the public interest if Council strived to avoid the appearance of a two-track governance, for the elite and the commoners. Indeed, it looks like the three local papers have something of an embargo on this story, of the community interest in The Varsity Theatre. Also on Friday, July 29 a deputy city manager seemed to be making prejudicial, premature and biased comments on this issue, or words were attributed to him, that this proposal – the Varsity Theatre — was a non-starter (“that a theater wasn’t really a viable option”????). Also, given the historic value of this building, staff should be instructed to be thorough, diligent and error-free in its writings, research and reports on this topic (perhaps especially to refute the notion that the very powerful can somehow hermetically influence staff utterances); perhaps any application for permits at 456 University, in this context, could be grounds for calling a public hearing;4)In terms of the value of a proposed or potential Varsity Theatre, perhaps offering, via a qualified nationally-known commercial operator, by a non-profit or an ad hoc and to be formed new NGO, or by government, beyond the economic value to local restaurants, hotels, impulse-buy shops and perhaps CalTrain, one specific social value near to my heart would be its impact or synergy with Project Safety Net. I believe, especially in the context of the demise of our downtown teen center, and the closing of the public hall during the work on the Art Center, that there could be concerts specifically to raise funds or consciousness about teen suicide. In 1998, for example, I hosted and produced just such an event at Cubberley featuring a band called Pansy Division, who were famous as a clearinghouse for such information. More recently, I have been in contact with Kristin Hersh, who played Cubberley, was nominated for a Twilight Series show, and has spoken publicly about the suicide of her friend the musician Vic Chesnutt. Also, I thought of Judy Collins, who wrote a book about depression, and thought to contact her, regarding a potential concert here, via her associate my friends at Grassy Knoll management and label, Julia Reinhart. Joan Baez and Dar Williams are also well known, sympathetic, and have local ties.5)I think staff or council should be in contact with potential operators of a venue, who could also offer insight, encouragement and information should it come down to deciding that a local newly-forming operator is the best viable new tenant. People I have, since July 20, spoken to include: Jason Olaine, Gunn graduate, and manager of Yoshi’s San Francisco; Gary Meyer, founder of Landmark films; David Lefkowitz, manager of the Warfield Theatre, for Goldenvoice; the office of Alex Hodges, of Nederlander of Los Angeles, operators of San Jose Civic; Brad Kava, music writer, artist, and partner in Santa Cruz Blues Festival; Stuart Brewster, of Palo Alto Jazz Alliance; Steve Baker, manager, Freight and Salvage, of Berkeley (a $20 million dollar project that Palo Alto City manager Jim Keene told me recently he had a great familiarity with); Chris Cuevas, artist manager and founder of Wanderlust music and yoga festival; and Roger McNamee, artist, venture capitalist and investor in Slims/Great American. Also, I think we should contact Lee Smith, Michael Bailey and or Rick Mueller of Live Nation, who operate Shoreline, Mountain Winery and the Fillmore; Greg Perloff of Another Planet, who runs Fox Theatre in Oakland; Danny Scher, a Paly graduate, former president of Bill Graham Presents in San Francisco, principal of Dansun Productions in Berkely, who I believe consulted with his schoolmate Gary Fazzino on this matter in 1996; and Dawn Holliday, of Great American Music Hall, Slims and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass free festival. I have a list of more than 40 such potential sources on this matter, many I have dealt with personally. (I said to council on July 25 that I would on a pro bono basis help staff research and write a white paper on this important and timely matter. I am hereby repeating the offer and advocating that something like should be done, or asking).
While I know that many feel that government should not intervene with property rights and the free market, I think there are certain cases where we are compelled to act, and this case, of the matter of 456 University and the Varsity Theatre qualifies and merits it. I think, as keeping with the lore of social media, perhaps the crowd-sourcing and hive-sourcing, and wiki- , would yield a better solution than otherwise would be arrived at by the savvy and successful individual. There could be a win-win that generations of Palo Altans (and regional supporters) would laud your efforts and the efforts of the landlord here. It could be all of our legacy to act here and now on this matter.Many people here feel that the numbers 456 for further auspice are a lucky combination; I realize I am asking for something quite difficult to achieve or hope for.
Perhaps we could put funds forward to get a 60-day window for first right of refusal, to research these ideas.
Following music w. government since 1978 when, as an 8th grade rep to Terman Site council I was amazed to hear Led Zeppelin played over Cubberley High p.a. while en route to a district-wide school-hours meeting
There’s a guy calling himself Cornelius Boots — I don’t know his real name but am pretty sure his initials are B.C. not C.B. — who leads a group called Edmund Welles and sent his mailing list the link to this recent performance of Medeski (John) Martin (Billy) and Wood (Chris) that he and Ralph Carney joined, in San Francisco, at the former Kennel Club on Divis (Justice League, The Independent).
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 
