Guitars in the news

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I’ll be sitting by myself in the balcony of the Fox Theatre to see Bob Dylan in Oakland in about six weeks (after about eight shows of my own)

I was there and took pictures but only took this one in the sense that it was published on the internet, fair use

I’m medium cool on Bob Dylan but bought a ticket just on principle. There are VIP seats for $400 each – -and I bought some very expensive tickets to see Counting Crows in Saratoga – -I like the ring to that, “counting crows in saratoga” — but opted for $67 seats or seat singular for Dylan. See also, Walker Percy the Moviegoer. I saw Bob at Stanford and he was alright. Lionel Ritchie was better. I bought a single ticket for bob in the balcony in Oakland for $67 plus enought twenty or so for fees plus all the following rules (and I print this because I am still enforcing Covid protocols for my next few shows at The Mitch, including tomorrow Amendola Goldberg Sickafoose, and May 13 Meklit Hadero et al):

Before you purchase your ticket or head to an event, it is important to understand the health guidelines and entry requirements many Event Organizers have adopted to ensure the safe return of live events. Below, you will find the information you need regarding new COVID-19 event protocols.

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    What is a Health Check?Health Checks are safety protocols instituted by Event Organizers to help reduce attendee exposure to COVID-19. Ticketmaster does not set or control Health Check guidelines, which is why different events you see in our marketplace may have different protocols. While specific requirements vary across venues and events, some common measures may include, but are not limited to: proof of full vaccination against COVID-19, proof of a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test result prior to entering the event, a rapid onsite COVID-19 test, or participating in a brief health questionnaire. Please check the Event Organizer’s website (usually the venue’s site) for event-specific details. Are refunds being offered for events whose entry requirements have been updated to include vaccinations or testing?Refund guidelines are determined by individual Event Organizers. To find out if the Event Organizer is allowing refunds for your event, you will need to follow the steps below:
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You may also see some of these protocol details in event information on Ticketmaster, but we do not control or set the guidelines.Is Ticketmaster requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test for entry?No, Ticketmaster does not set or control Health Check guidelines.Certain Event Organizers are opting to require entry qualifications for fans to attend their event. Additionally, some state and local governments are mandating Event Organizers to require health checks at entry. Information regarding the specific Health Check requirements for your event can be found on the Event Organizer’s website (usually the venue’s site) and may also be located on the event page. How will I know if the event I am going to requires vaccination or a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test?Fans should regularly check the Event Organizer’s website (usually the venue’s site) for updated details regarding potential Health Check requirements. Additionally, some Event Organizers may state Health Check entry requirements on their event page on Ticketmaster and include Health Check information in confirmation emails and pre-event day notifications. Some Event Organizers updating Health Check requirements after the initial sale may send ticketholders an updated notification alerting them to the change in entry qualifications. Check your Event Organizer’s website regularly for updates as guidelines are subject to change. I have received my first COVID-19 vaccination dose, will my first dose vaccination card be accepted at entry?Most Event Organizers requesting proof of full vaccination for entry require the last vaccination dose to be administered at least two weeks prior to the event date. Please check the Event Organizer’s website (usually the venue’s site) for event-specific Health Check requirements.How soon to the event date should I take a COVID-19 diagnostic test?Many Event Organizers require proof of a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test 48 to 72 hours prior to the event date. Timeframes for accepted tests may vary. Please check the Event Organizer’s website (usually the venue’s site) for specific Health Check guidelines pertaining to your event. You can also locate free testing in your area by using this helpful resource developed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Who will check vaccination status or negative COVID-19 diagnostic test at the entry?This process will differ from event to event. Most Event Organizers will designate personnel to check vaccination cards and/or negative COVID-19 diagnostic test results. Is my health information protected?Ticketmaster does not store or have access to information related to your Health Check. In some cases, the Event Organizer may require you use a third-party app like CLEAR to validate your identity in relation to your Health Check, in which case you would need to read their privacy policy for more information. Does every attendee need to pass the Health Check?In most cases all attendees, regardless of age, will need to pass the Health Check requirements. Please check the Event Organizer’s website (usually the venue’s site) for event-specific details. As the ticket purchaser, am I certifying all individuals in my party attending the event will meet the requirements specified by the Event Organizer?Yes. As the ticket purchaser, you certify all members of your party will follow the Health Check requirements specified by the Event Organizer.  A member of our group is under 12 years of age and is ineligible for vaccination, can he/she still attend an event requiring vaccination?Most Event Organizers requiring Health Checks will ask unvaccinated fans under 12 years of age to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test prior to entering the venue. Check your event page or the Event Organizer’s website (usually the venue’s site) for specific diagnostic requirements or entry protocols related to this age group. You can also locate free testing in your area by using this helpful resource developed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. I am ineligible for vaccination due to underlying health conditions, am I unable to attend an event requiring vaccination?Most Event Organizers requiring Health Checks will ask unvaccinated fans over 12 years old with a valid medical restriction & medical note to take a COVID-19 diagnostic test and provide proof of negative result prior to entering the venue. Check your event page or the Event Organizer’s website (usually the venue’s site) for specific diagnostic requirements. You can also locate free testing in your area by using this helpful resource developed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. What if I can’t get the vaccine for religious reasons?Most Event Organizers will make accommodations for fans with religious exemptions to attend their event if they provide printed proof of a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test prior to entering the venue. Check your event page or the Event Organizer’s website (usually the venue’s site) for specific diagnostic requirements. You can also locate free testing in your area by using this helpful resourcedeveloped by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
           Are Event Organizers requiring a specific type of COVID-19 diagnostic test?Many Event Organizers require proof of either a negative PCR or antigen COVID-19 diagnostic test. Please also check your Event Organizer’s website (usually the venue’s site) for specific diagnostic requirements. Federal guidelines mandate that COVID-19 tests be free so they are accessible to everyone. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has developed this helpful resource to locate free testing in your area.
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I think I wil have fewer rules in place for my shows. But if you are coming to Palo Alto please be vaxed and wear a mask inside the venue. And by the way, my tickets cost less than the add-on fees from Another Planet with Ticketmaster. I’m going to do a Miles Davis show at Lytton Plaza, Cogswell Plaza and Pardee Park under the name “All The Miles are Free” which I think was the slogan of an airlines. Or a rental car company, rather.  And I think Dylan was in town last time that Amendola did a jazz trio show — with Trevor Dunn not Todd Sickafoose. And I know for damn-sure that when Dayna Stephens played a matinee at The Mitch it was August 18, 2019 because the Rolling Stones played that night in Santa Clara and it was my nephew’s birthday.

edit to ad: I had to look it up, to confirm my hunch but the line “all the miles are free” which I claim will give birth to a jazz concert or series in Palo Alto parks was written and voice by Hal Riney circa 1994 for his client a me-too rental car company (me too in the sense of it not being Hertz or Avis, not in the sense of whether the dominant sex or gender abused the less dominant ones). Hal Riney likely made tens of millions in advertising but he was also a right wing duche bag. He helped Reagan get elected or re-elected. I remember reading in a trade pub that he was on an airplane that was being hijacked but refused to be held so he jumped out of the plane and scurried to the jungle as they fired machine guns at his footprints. I lived two blocks from him, me at Montgomery and Vallejo, he, above a wall, at Montgomery near Green. I remember he had a very young son and I saw them walking hand in hand once. So he’s not all bad. But he’s not all Bob, either. 

Never finished this book but I checked the spelling of the author and I think he is Jewish – the guy sitting by himself.

 


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Kudos to Stacey Carter and Derek Lynch for new art at the airport

I met Stacey Carter when she worked with Paula Kirkeby at Smith Andersen Palo Alto on Pepper Street circa 2005. She used some black and white photos of a Yankees game as basis for art. I’m happy she has some work at the airport. Thru Magnolia Editions.
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Brilliant Paly takedown of its athletic Director

While the boys team has new uniforms the girls team tapesWhile the boys team has new uniforms the girls team tapes together
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Further assault on Democracy by Palo Alto City Clerk

AND REMEDY PROMISED, LAST BEST HOPE, STRIVING

 

  1. When a developer spoke to the Palo Alto Public Art Commission last night, although she did not even bother to attend the meeting in person, her face was giving 100 percent status and her voice matched her lips moving ;

2) When commissioner Shen asked a question about the difference between the Percent For Art program for private development like Castilleja and public development like Mitchell Park Library her face and torso appeared 100 percent and her lips moved the same as the sound, synchronized;

3) Yet when a Palo Alto resident and citizen like Rebecca Eisenberg spoke to Commission in opposition to the development her image was reduced to about five percent of normal and her voice was processed and her lips did not synchronize with her sound, which was garbled; worse than that, commissioner and acting chair Ben Minaji rudely cut her off exactly at three minutes or two seconds later.

Have we completely lost our sense of what is a participatory democracy, and we only listen to power, we only listen to money and we only process and mediate through these machines? This immediate problem is the responsibility of the City Clerk to fix. People who attend meetings in person should be given greater status not reduced status. As we did for many, many years, and before the pandemic and this so-called “hybrid model”. 

And more citizens should attend the meetings in person and not be mediated through these devices. There were only two citizens at the public art meeting. And only one of the three commissioners present actually lives in Palo Alto, my Gunn schoolmate Lisa Waltuch, a new commissioner.

Please fix this, City Clerk Lesley Milton, and City Manager Ed Shikada.

 

Coda: within the hour, City Clerk Lesley Milton wrote back to say she would look into my concerns. When I was at Dartmouth I took a class on the American Revolution with Professor Jere R. Daniell; he termed American Democracy an experiment, now 246 years in duration, a striving, and towards a more perfect union, Lord Willing and the crick don’t rise. 

And1: left a voice mail for what Dartmouth lists as his office number: (603) 646-2995 — so much for my ludditism. Professor Daniell, emeritus, my handheld tells me, is class of ’55  (to his father’s Warren Danill ’22) which makes him about 89 years young — and he was about my age when we met.

JERE R. DANIELL II ’55

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Happy honey Charlie Mingus

Born April 22, 1922
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North Carolina ’tis strange, passing strange

I just got a short note from director Christopher Burris, who has been teaching and workshopping and producing at a university in North Carolina and I admit I don’t know Greensboro from Winston-Salem other than it is not Asheville or Chapel Hill.

He sent some photos of “Passing Strange” the Broadway show about types of Black people, for instance middle class Blacks passing for, or being mistaken for, more street types or proletariat or precariat — a word I saw in The Economist for working class types who are in precarious situations economically or socially.

There have been versions this year of “Passing Strange” in Berkeley – -Shot Gun Players — and near Minneapolis – -directed by Austene Van — and in North Carolina.

I saw “Passing Strange” workshop at Stanford and several times in its formative run at Berkeley Rep, before Broadway or Public Theatre of New York.

I saw Stew and Heidi at Brooklyn Academy of Music in February, 2001 and then shortly thereafter but for a short term, truncated as it were, was his or their manager. Mostly for the marketing of “Something Deeper Than These Changes” cd. But we also worked together on successful live tours in the midwest –like Chicago, where I was born, in fact my father flew out for Stew’s show at Martyr’s his 80th birthday weekend — and East Coast like Great Woods near Boston, opening for Counting Crows and John Mayer.

I heard from Stew by email for the first time in a while, this spring, apropos of all this.

And also, I am doing a show or perhaps two shows with DaShawn and Wendy Hickman husband and wife from those same parts, near Winston Salem or Greensboro. My shows are June 5 in Palo Alto, free and outdoors at Mitchell Park Bowl, and also in Santa Cruz, the Kuumbwa center, Friday June 3. (They also are part of the Little Village Mother Fucker – that’s what its actually called, shibboleth — at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, across the street from Berkley Rep, on Thursday, June 2 but only 25 minutes set, with four other acts). I talked to DaShawn about trying to get to the “Passing Strange” show and we briefly discussed maybe a sacred steel version of some of those tunes, breaking out the church roots.

Yes, ’tis strange. (And that’s a reference or shout out to Shakespeare and Othello. Shout out to Shakespeare, Othello, Christopher Burris, Charlie Hunter, DaShawn Hickman, Spike Lee and my former client Stew (everybody knows that he’s really Daddy Feel Good, Yeah, Yeah Yeah, Yeaaah whatever that means…)

 

coda:

Hi Mark,

Hope this email finds you well.

I just wanted to pass along the program and some photos from our production of Passing Strangeat UNCSA. It was incredibly successful, having a real impact on the students here.

(dropbox: shout out to dropbox)

Much Gratitude,

Christopher

646.XXX.XXXX

PO Box 218 NY, NY 10014 

@misterburris

 

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John Zorn ‘Naked City’ vs Or Bareket ‘Sahar’

 

This is from 1993 and featured John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Joey Baron, Wayne Horvitz; I had never seen it until 10 minutes ago; I admit I had it confused with “Spy VS Spy” which I borrowed from the library once, but does not feature Wayne Horvitz. I am thinking of this because Wayne is coming here in three weeks, with Sara Schoenbeck, bassoon; very different then his younger, New York days. Yet because I added twenty other musicians and several other genres, it came to mind (in the liner notes to Spy VS Spy, it lists about 50 influences including film noir and Ornette Coleman).

 

I do not know much about the screaming Japanese fellow.

Meanwhile, back in the current times, albeit a few days ago now, mONday, we had Or Bareket, who has a new album coming out next month – like in the twilight between his Palo Alto appearance and Wayne’s Palo Alto show, called “Sahar”.  Is that a reference to Africa or the desert? Or to something deeper that informs both Or’s music and the naming of the large open space?

I was impressed by the young band featuring Or Bareket, bass, composition and band leadership; Tivon Pennicott, who played tenor sax — he is not on the recording but learned the work quickly, and we used a music stand donated by Brian who hangs out at the plaza a lot and does various creative things himself; not many people get a music credit or are mentioned in a concert review just for having a music stand in his trunk; Tivon also plays with Gregory Porter including perhaps such a show this week in Belgium; Savannah Harris on drums who also ran the table after the show, with a post game feast at Reposado then in the back room of the Wine Room here on Ramona — the former Gaylord’s Ice Cream Parlor or Double Rainbow, perhaps. Excuse the digression but Hershel Yatovitz told me that in 1983 he was a janitor by day sweeping up at the nursery school at the church behind the Varsity, then he’d play all night for tips at that same place, the ice cream parlor, maybe within 10 feet of where Savannah, Terry and I were sitting and sipping, then would go to the alley behind the Varsity and get high with Michael Hedges, who typically held court in the courtyard of The Varsity; he said his fingers bled, then he got very sick and tired but emerged as a musician — people don’t realize the difficulty of just becoming world class I mean working class — or that “World class” and “working class” are about the same in the arts in Late Capital America. Jeremy Corren on keyboards – -who said he too, like H and I is a Jew, but also a Mexican; From LA, son of two physicians and went to Columbia. Great young band, maybe the youngest I’ve worked with. I mean, I booked Taylor Eigsti when he was 15, but I was 35. Now I am 58, and these band members are like 28, 29, et cetera. (Although, despite making that pronouncement, i worked with Carmen Rothwell in the Dave Douglas band, Engage, and I don’t think she’s much older, though Dave is.

Are you following this?

Savannah also plays with Melanie Charles, who came thru SF but I missed it. I met her manager Charyn Harris, no relation to Savannah Harris, who is also Macy Gray’s tour manager. Charyn Harris is first cousin of Eugene S. Robinson, who sings like the guy above, the Japanes guy. Also, Japanese Breakfast is on the cover of Pollstar, I’m about to read. So is Remi Wolf. Big world, big ears, stay tuned.

Savannah Harris of Oakland and New York, drums; Or Bareket of Israel and New York, bass; Jeremy Corren, of LA and New York, keys — at Lytton Plaza, April 18, 2022 by Earthwise

Tivon Pennicott of Jamaica, Atlanta, Miami and New York; he told Terry Acebo Davis my wife that he slept in his car in NYC until his gigs caught up to his vision and talent

 

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Every day is Earth Day: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and, especially Sunday, April 24, with MC Lars and Matt The Electrician, in Palo Alto

MC Lars, aka Stanford grad Andrew Nielson, 39, with the kids

 

Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered

I’m producing an Earth Day concert Sunday 2 p.m. at Mitchell Park Bowl.  I’m writing early Wednesday morning, or Tuesday night, depending how you look at it. So there’s four days, 4 times 24, plus 14 more hours to prepare, or a total of 110 hours to make this show a success. [Today is 4-20 — I’m high on concert-organizing — Ed]

What makes a concert, on Earth Day or any day, a success? Good question. At the very least, if the musicians come and play and then leave without obviously showing anger or disappointment at me, or the world, that is a point in favor. If people come to said concert, and have a reasonable time, that helps. The more the merrier, I would think, although I admit to rationalizing how good a show is even when I am (sometimes) disappointed with the turnout.

I’m not going to commit in print – -or here at Plastic Alto,  on the world wide and forever web — to the idea that 100 people at Mitchell Park at 2 pm. Sunday is a good show, whereas only 20 people is not. I’d like to see 1,000 people. Is there any thing I can do to bring 1,000 people? (Besides hiring a more popular band or act: I really like Matt the Electrician and MC Lars — they both have played in my series, for Earthwise – – I know a fair amount of their respective song books – -they have more than 10 albums between them). In comparison, the Or Bareket – Jeremy Corren – Tivon Pennicott-Savannah Harris jazz show Monday at Lytton Plaza had, by my count, 80 people who stopped to watch, came on purpose, pulled out their cells or lingered more than they normally do, say, checking out the fountain. 

I hope there is sun on Sunday, naturally enough, but I’m okay if it rains. We will tent the muscians, from sun or rain – and so far there are only two musicians. They are both one-man-bands. Matt plays a guitar and sings, Lars raps and pushes buttons on his computer. There’s a third solar-powered person who might just sing one or two songs, a capella. 

For a couple days I sat at Lytton Plaza; ok, for a couple hours, on two or three days, and tried to hand out t-shirts and sign up volunteers for my Earth Day show. Not sure if the two or three people I met those days will come (or if they are wearing their shirts in the meanwhile; the shirts are black, I bought them at Nordstroms — they are vaguely environmental and say “Save the Planet” or “Hear the Silent Scream” or “Go SOLAR” or something that seemed to fit. “Why did you buy black t-shirts?”, asks my wife. “Are those dirty or clean?” she asks about the dishes. But I digress.

I have 12 other shows on sale and a half-dozen shows in progress in various ways, but I am going to punt all that until Monday after Earth Day. I have plans to see three baseball games but will cut that back too, now that I think about it. (Paly, A’s, Paly-SF).

Can I get 1,000 people out to Mitchell Park on Sunday, because they love music, the planet or our community? Is it enough of a gift that I can work these next 100 hours — ok, let’s say 40 hours — plus 40 hours of sleep — towards this goal, or these ideals? Right livelihood, baby. Maybe the difference-making factor influencing how I feel about my Earthwise Productions’ Earth Day featuring Matt The Electrician and MC Lars is how I use those other 20 spare hours I reference here, in my own calculus. How well can I focus? How well can I use my time? Is this box on my lap a help or a hinder?

More: there’s a poster by Evri Kwong, a North Bay artist I met at Smith Andersen several years ago – his art was featuring in the Chronicle and at The DeYoung in 2020, a show that opened right after the shutdown. Actually, it’s art by Evri Kwong and typography by Terry Acebo Davis. There are about a dozen of them around town and maybe I can put up another 100 or so. (There was a young person handing out a similar flyer at Earth Day for another event, Saturday; maybe I should follow her lead and just stand around passing out flyers). 

Here is a link to the EventBrite page for Earthwise Welcomes Earth Day with Matt The Electrician and MC Lars. You don’t have to sign up to attend, but many people do. I should mention here that I worked on Bay Area Action Earth Day at Stanford (BAAEDAS — “bad ass”) in 1993, though not the concert part. The concert featured Michelle Shocked and Peter Apfelbaum. I remember it drizzled. Earthwise Traditions was a themed section of the event that featured indigenous views on the environment, the planet. I worked on that part of Earth Day, an activity that became my founding Earthwise Productions in 1994, pretty much my fulltime employment these 28 years.

Here is a link to a song MC Lars recorded and wrote at my suggestion, something about the indigenous people of Arcata and Humboldt – based partly on an essay written by my classmate at Dartmouth Andre Cramblit. Maybe Lars will perform the song Sunday – -it has likely never been played live, just in the studio.

Here’s his first verse; earthwise because it mentions trout, eel, grass hopper, trees and the river:

And you can go north, away from the traffic
Where time slows down and the world’s less frantic
The Land of the Grasshopper Song I’ve heard it called
South of Oregon and Klamath Falls
There’s the Trinity River, Mad and Siskiyou
The Eel and the Smith, and Van Duzen too
Doing back flips I saw a rainbow trout
In the clear cold water I forgot about the drought
Where the mountains keep on going, I would be a liar
If I said I wasn’t scared by the Slater Fire
I took two photos, before and after
I met a park ranger there was zero laughter
When I asked about the scope of the blaze
Paradise was lost and it burned for days
But you can still go swimming where the waters run deep
And big foot might be hiding watching in the redwood trees

and1: This is the poster for the famous Blink-182 show at Cubberley, Earth Day 1997 — I forgot that, as the poster shows, it was a two-show promotion called “Earth Day Rock N Bike” — we gave away a bike as a door prize:

Blink poster by Bruce Meyers; there’s a bootleg poster of the same show by someone named Murph; that Blink 182 went on to sell 20 million records raises an interesting question: is it more environmental or more green if they had continued to play for only 500 people per show and not at Shoreline and the like? Are all Mitchell Park or Earthwise shows more environmental or green than all shows at Shoreline, with its traffic and, in many cases, complicity with big media, which is inherently anti-environmental? See “small is beautiful”. E.F. Schumacher, the book. I’m also going to re-read Wallace Stegner’s essay on Earth Day and the history of environmentalism. He spoke at Earth Day Palo Alto, 1990 and was scheduled to speak again at our 1993 Bay Area Action Earth Day but died in Santa Fe instead, two weeks before Earth Day. 

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April 18: day of show


I have a concert tonight at Lytton Plaza whith Or Barekat Quartet and therefore my next 12 hours revolve around those facts

Yet, I am running a photo of my dog yesterday caught mid conniption by a Stanford student an entrepreneur named SHough rhymes with my headline. Sydney Quoyen Hough, from Saratoga, working on their next billion, yet staying ”fuzzy” by hanging out at Farmers’ Markets, shooting photos with a real camera and talking to strangers. Sydney and friends also calculated that on Aug. 20, 2022 human race will reach 8 billion active members; I am guessing that there’s about 20 billion of us all time people who self identify as Homo sapien sapiens, linguistically conscious naked apes.

 

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