New pub art at 429 Uni

Posted on January 9, 2022 by markweiss86
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Crate-digging

Posted on January 8, 2022 by markweiss86

 

 

“Inside Llewyn Davis” 2013 by Coen Brothers is about folk but also jazz, pop, country, blues and sea shanty.

 

“I’m Getting Sentimental Over You” Tommy Dorsey;“

“Moon River” Louis Armstrong;

“Stardust” Artie Shaw

“Lord of The Rings” 

“Star Wars”

“How to Train Your Dragon”

“Woodlawn Park” Anime

“Chicago Diner” Kota the Friend

“Wellerman” Nathan Evans

“Drunker Sailor” Irish Rovers

“John Kanaka” Fisherman’s Friends

“Silk Chiffon” MUNA f Phoebe Bridgers

“Ok” Wallows

“Furniture” Maude LaTour

“No Sleep” Skepta

“Welcome to the Show” Cody Johnston

“Blown Away” Carrie Underwood

“God’s Country” Blake Shelton

This educational music list brought to you by Pitchfork and Kelefa Sanneh, and his new book “Major Labels”:

Kelefa Sanneh: One of the things that I didn’t quite realize until I started looking at archives was the idea that genre is disappearing. It reoccurs in the history of music, whether it’s Billboard getting rid of the R&B chart in the 1960s for a minute, because R&B records were going pop and they’re thinking, Maybe it’s kind of all one music. There was a similar impulse in disco—the Rolling Stones and the Star Wars soundtrack are now the same genre; everyone’s making disco hits, so maybe disco is going to be universal. And you have bits of that in the ’80s with R&B and pop coming together. You have that in the late-’90s and early 2000s, the TRL era on MTV, when all of a sudden it’s like teen pop, and N-SYNC is a pop group, but they’re making R&B records. And they’re collaborating with hip-hop producers and rappers.

and1:

I was also listening to the first 60 minutes of Ethan Iverson on a podcast with Dartmouth solider-writer Phil Klay and someone named Siegel. They were commenting on an essay by Wynton Marsalis from 30 years ago. This is mission creep but it occurs to be that I sometimes confuse Cyrus Chestnut, Cecil Taylor and Cedar Walton. And then Andrew Hill (hipped by Nels Cline). And John Goodman plays Roland Turner in the Coen Brothers movie, which is about Bob Dylan, whose version of “Moon River” sounds more country than jazz. And I thought Adam Driver played Johnny Five, Goodman’s “valet”. And Dayna Stephens likes the Jim Jarmusch movie about Paterson, NJ although I haven’t figured out how to access it. And if you are here from the previous feature that was: Alice Waters, Jello Biafra, Errol Morris himself, Jerry Brown –I was looking for Ken Arrow but don’t know what he looks like. His sons were in school with me, at Gunn, in the early 1980s. He won the Nobel Prize. And my tv — paused from Elwin Davis — says Klay is back. The splash brother not war hero scribe. 

andand: KOIT 96.5 updated mix of today’s hits and yesterday’s favorites like Bruno Mars, Maroon 5, Madonna, Ace of Base. 

andandand: found myself digressing to and really digging not just the crate but the greatness of taylor eigsti with becca stevens and maya kronfeld and singer casey abrams from a tv contest doing an original I think “accidentally” then digging further to Frente “Accidentally Kelly Street” and Counting Crows “Accidentally In Love”

I also found an essay by Wynton Marsalis from 1990 Ebony – it’s archived on his site — and captured the closing two paragraphs:

How is Taylor Swift still country? Something about autumn and leaves falling.  Dancing around the kitchen in the refridgerator light. There we are again. Remember it all too well. Its not clear if she is playing along to tracks. Lost in translation. This thing was a masterpiece so you tore it all up. Who wrote this? All’s well that ends well but I’m in a new hell. (He’s an 0lder man?) Turn 21. 
fifty six million views – all this year I think, a fifteen minute short film. Its a 2012 song that she rerecorded and rereleased on her own lable. Co-written by Liz Rose. And the SNL is from November. They jump from Taylor to a bit at Weekend Update about Brittney Spears being released from her conservatorship. And at the end of the bit – which featured a video behind them and four other musicians and two singers – -she appears to take a bow with the two singers: both lightskinned older Black women. See also Sanneh’s discussion of what Black music is. 
She also does a version on NPR tiny desk for 9 m views in fall, 2019, on piano. 
and1:

Musically, JoJo is considered to be primarily a pop and R&B artist;[112] however, the majority of her singles tend to lean more towards the former as a marketing tool.[113] Prefix‘s Norman Meyers observed that “As an adolescent white girl singing mainstream R&B, her singles have leaned toward pop to snag sales … But the list of producers on The High Road … shows that Jojo is more concerned with harder beats and soulful sounds.”[113] JoJo is a mezzo-soprano and her singing voice has been widely acclaimed by music critics, one of whom ranked it among “the best in the game”,[114][115] while her R&B recordings have been compared to the likes of R&B singers Brandy and Monica.[116][117]Describing her as a “vocal phenom”, Entertainment Weekly‘s Leah Greenblatt enthused that JoJo is “capable of Mariah Carey-style upper-register flourishes”.[118] Vocally, critics frequently draw comparisons between JoJo and singers Kelly Clarkson and Beyoncé,[119][120] while Slant Magazine‘s Sal Cinquemani remarked that the singer “could very well be the next Teena Marie“.[121]

At times some of her material and use of melismahas been criticized for being overproduced and overused, respectively

 
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Eight portraits by Errol Morris

Posted on January 8, 2022 by markweiss86
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Cops kill Black father in Canton, Ohio

Posted on January 8, 2022 by markweiss86
Police footage of shooting of James R.Williams, 46

FATHER OF SIX

Out of the blue, he said he got shot, he got hit,” Ms. Williams told The Repository. “I don’t know where it came from. Nobody said anything. They didn’t say, ‘Police.’ They didn’t say, ‘Freeze.’ They didn’t say, ‘Drop your weapon.’ They just shot him.”

She said Mr. Williams had four daughters, ranging in age from 9 to 15, and two stepdaughters.

“He’s going to be dearly missed,” she told the paper. “He shouldn’t have died the way that he did. I just want justice for him.”

To my untrained eye it looks like the officer fires his weapon through the fence and kills the man in his own yard, and then says ”Police”. an expert interviewed said that if the officer felt his life was in danger the shooting is justified. The man was firing into the air on New Year’s Eve which is of course illegal yet not a capital offense. And I noted that I use the plural “cops “rather than “officer”.

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New piece in town, or pie

Posted on January 8, 2022 by markweiss86

Cecilia Lee is the owner of the new pizza spot in Palo Alto, on Ramona Street, next to Coupa. (Wood Oven Pizza, 532 Ramona Street, Palo Alto; 650 494 42 41). She is a retired school psychologist from Lynbrook high school although she raised her family in the East Bay. More to the point her sister owns the building: Liz Wong, Elizabeth and Jaime. The Wongs are prominent downtown landlords whose portfolio includes Apple (formerly Liddicoats) and the new 429 University building Pizza is competitive obviously; they are near Pizza my heart at Lytton Plaza and New York pizza near City Hall on Lytton. WOP — can I say that even here in Plasty? — has a basic price of 25 bucks for a whole pie which is six slices.

I tried the margarita even though we had Howie‘s last night. I stopped at three but will likely have the fourth piece of six after I post here. we had between us last night plus a salad for of eight, not to confuse you, the sausage and red onion.

during my 15 part music series at Lytton Plaza in September and October me and or the band had pizza my heart at least a half dozen times .

I mentioned to Mrs. Lee my beef so to speak with her sister‘s other tenant who sells pepperoni?

The Lees are ethnic Chinese and are both married to Asian south Americans. So one family is Argentinian and Peruvian and the other is Argentinian and Panamanian.

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Eighty-four leches

Posted on January 8, 2022 by markweiss86
After Thiebaud

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Poor House now Move House

Posted on January 6, 2022 by markweiss86
As both a Michael Heizer fan and the former manager of a “Front Porch Blues”  tour act I am looking forward to watching Saturday morning between seven and nine  Jay Meduri’s Poor House rolling by at two mph to its new home blocks away; thanks Sal Pizarro of the Merc for the tip. 

It’s finally time! 
The house will be moved on Saturday Jan 8th starting at 7am and reaching 317 W. St. John around 9am. We are asking everyone that wants to see the house move to arrive at the corner of W. Santa Clara and Barack Obama Blvd to see the house turn the corner from S. Montgomery to W. Santa Clara. There will be New Orleans Band set up near the park to celebrate the move. There will be no parade, however, anyone can follow the house move while staying on the sidewalk or
through the Arena Green Park. Parking would be
available at the corner lot of Barack Obama Blvd and W. Santa Clara. Diridon Train station also has parking available.
Henry’s Hi Life will have their patio open around 9am to serve drinks and the Poor House Bistro will have some food available for purchase.
We are looking forward to joining Little Italy of San
Jose as Famiglia Meduri Poor House Bistro in Spring 2022!
Please let us know if you have any questions. 
Let the good times roll!
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Seventeen jazz / blues tracks on Lions With Wings

Posted on January 5, 2022 by markweiss86

Lions with Wings label

Palo Alto, CA and worldwide web (Bandcamp)

Erik Lawrence / Akira Tana “Opening Day”

Erik Lawrence / Akira Tana “Take Me Out . . .”

Wayne Horvitz / Ha-Yang Kim / Ayesha Brooks “Crispin and Lisa’s Duet”

Wayne Horvitz / Ha-Yang Kim / Ayesha Brooks “Hard Time Killing Floor”

Wayne Horvitz / Ha-Yang Kim/ Ayesha Brooks  “One Last Blues”

Wayne Horvitz / Ha-Yang Kim/ Ayesha Brooks “Sweeter Than The Day”

Wayne Horvitz / Ha-Yang Kim / Ayesha Brooks  “Trouble In Mind”

Zach Ostroff / Scott Amendola “Venus As a Boy”

Carmen Rothwell “Dwellings 1 – Explainer”

Carmen Rothwell “Dwellings 2 – Bed Song”

Carmen Rothwell “Dwellings 3 – The Window”

Stephanie Chou “Continuum Hypothesis”

Dayna Stephens “The Artist Si Grazie”

Dayna Stephens “The Hero’s Prelude”

Dayna Stephens “The Nomad”

Dayna Stephens “The Prophet”

Nancy Wright / Bob Margolin / Mitch Woods “There is Something On Your Mind”

 

Note: Lions With Wings and Mark Weiss / Earthwise Productions were given a producer’s credit for a Dave Douglas Fay Victor / Camila Meza project called Overcome.

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Dial M, or dialing for dollars

Posted on January 5, 2022 by markweiss86

Mark Wang for NYT, 12/7/20

Silicon Valley Business Journal reported recently that Palo Alto companies give and get more than a billion dollars each year in venture capital. Billion with a “B”, a thousand times million with an “M”. 

Meanwhile I noted, in an “Uplift” message from the City, that our libraries are only open 28 percent of the time. 

What if we levy a teeny tiny tax on venture capital here and use that money to hire back furloughed staff and keep our lights on longer at libraries and community centers?

Mark Weiss

Downtown North

Former candidate Libraries Commission (but scored 20 percent higher on Math than Verbal)

Library hours open per week:

Children’s: 12

College Terrace: 8

Downtown: 8

Mitchell: 39

Rinconada: 30

Total: 97 hours 

Max: 10 x 7 x 5 = 350

(Assuming 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week is full capacity) 

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A schoolmate at Gunn High of Palo Alto writes in today’s Sunday Times of being homeless two years

Posted on January 2, 2022 by markweiss86

 

bw

A set of portraits of friends, strangers and people I met:

Daniella Mizrahi, a Paly grad and Oregon advertising grad, owns a clothing line in LA and was marketing on the roof of the Roosevelt, at a very lively fitness class

 

Eden Ariel Gordon played my Nina Simone event in San Francisco; a Columbia grad, she wrote a musical about the Beats from the distaff perspective

 

Eric Cohen handled the mish mosh soup at Cantor’s last month

 

I served Pietisserie for fifty at The Mitch on December 3, 2021

I interrupt my own broadcast to note that that’s Dave Feldman, Paly 1983, on tv talking about today’s NFL scores. If I was briefly Palo Alto’s top Jewish basketball player in 1980-1981 season, Feldman quickly eclipsed me. (As did, honestly, a guy named Barak Weiss). Reminds me that I am meaning to update my coverage of Jeremy Lin. He spoke at a rally or church service at City Hall in May.

 

Renata Bradford showed me her beautiful nails. I interviewed her twice, once about Mark Bradford and the second time, with tape rolling, about Chris Burden, in front of LACMA.

Obama portrait on tour, by Kehinde Wiley, with Eric Cohen in the foreground, what Professor McGrath would call reportage

Mark Weiss and Aisha Ayers – she flew out from Denver to star in my NIna Simone Lisa Fay Beatty tribute at Bottom of the Hill, November 28, 2021

I like the way the jogger’s legs mimic the hashmark on Bryant Street

Karla Kane of the Corner Laughers at Earthwise at The Mitch, opening for Barbara Manning

 

and1 THIS JUST IN:

Football is over, after 3 games — I’m mostly chiling with cold symptoms. Self-quarantine. But SCC.GOV Covid dashboard seems to show the biggest spike of new cases in the history of the pandemic, over 3,000 new cases, though deaths seem relatively normal and there is something about “numbers are preliminary” – – it says rolling seven day average of cases is 723:

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