Let’s rename the park, for a Black man. We’re all equal, not a sequel. With 2020 hindsight, we’d repair the funk All the other parks, they want the darks. We charge the poor to park the car, but we don’t tax the man, and drive Tesla. Poet laureate, poet laureate; the epitome of literacy. Life’s a brief candle, but he lit it. He hit it, he didn’t sh** it. For his game, he’s like the Willie Mays or Willie Mac, the Barry or the Bobby, meanings clearly or at bottom. We can’t change our past, but we can change our minds. There’s more than 1s and 0s, there’s more than of’s and “ahvs”
A temple of listening. To see it glistening. Let’s rename the park. Let’s rename the park. aeiou! aeiou! We want to mingle, to hit a single. Even our squirrels think the new rules are uncool. They’re not dullards.
This is a poem I wrote as a song parody to the tune of “don’t believe the hype” by Public Enemy and it also quotes from a poem by Al Young about the squirrels in Palo alto. I sent this to City Council and may have also spoken for the record at a public hearing through Zoom.
I just heard this morning that he had died last month. I had seen his son Michael Young a few weeks before that in San Francisco at City Lights . I will be reaching out to other activists and students of Al to see what is fitting memorial to him here. He had an office on the corner of Bryant Street and University, the Nevada Building, for many years.
If we don’t want to rename the park for him, what shall we do ?
Notes:
Not that it’s critical, but this the original lyrics I am riffing on:
Caught you lookin’ for the same thing It’s a new thing, check out this I bring Uh Oh the roll below the level ‘Cause I’m livin’ low next to the bass, c’mon Turn up the radio They claim that I’m a criminal By now I wonder how Some people never know The enemy could be their friend, guardian I’m not a hooligan I rock the party and Clear all the madness, I’m not a racist Preach to teach to all ‘Cause some they never had this Number one, not born to run About the gun I wasn’t licensed to have one The minute they see me, fear me I’m the epitome, a public enemy Used, abused without clues I refused to blow a fuse They even had it on the news Don’t believe the hype –Yes Was the start of my last jam So here it is again, another def jam But since I gave you all a little something That we knew you lacked They still consider me a new jack All the critics you can hang ’em I’ll hold the rope But they hope to the pope And pray it ain’t dope … The book of the new school rap game Writers treat me like Coltrane, insane Yes to them, but to me I’m a different kind We’re brothers of the same mind, unblind Caught in the middle and Not surrenderin’ I don’t rhyme for the sake of of riddlin’ Some claim that I’m a smuggler Some say I never heard of ‘ya A rap burglar, false media We don’t need it do we? It’s fake that’s what it be to ‘ya, dig me? Don’t believe the hype –Don’t believe the hype, its a sequel As an equal, can I get this through to you My 98’s boomin’ with a trunk of funk All the jealous punks can’t stop the dunk Comin’ from the school of hard knocks Some perpetrate, they drink Clorox Attack the black, ’cause I know they lack exact The cold facts, and still they try to Xerox Leader of the new school, uncool Never played the fool, just made the rules Remember there’s a need to get alarmed Again I said I was a timebomb In the daytime the radio’s scared of me ‘Cause I’m mad, plus I’m the enemy… Their pens and pads I’ll snatch ‘Cause I’ve had it I’m not an addict fiendin’ for static I’ll see their tape recoreder and grab it No, you can’t have it back silly rabbit … Some say I’m negative But they’re not positive But what I got to give The media says this
And here is the Al Young poem I reference, about squirrels:
its actually recorded with a bassist named Dan Robbins —
Squirrels are skittering outside through the trees
Of my bedroom window
Laying it on the line of my consciousness brown and black flurrying and scurrying how can I not help loving them
Like an old Bopster loves licks
Laid down
Building up
The “ofs” and “ahvs” comment in my lyric references his speech at Berkeley a few years back about how the word “love” only has five rhymes whereas “amor” in Spanish is easier to rhyme — or in Portuguese – -he was talking about an English lyric to Jobim.
What got me started on this is that I saw a book in the window of Books Inc at Town and Country, an anthology of Black poets, by Kevin Young and I read the Al Young poem, about “Players” and then when I went online to find more info about the poem, I noticed Al’s obituary.
edit to add, the next day: this is actually my 3000 post and when I realized that fact I put on a replica Roberto Clemente jersey Clemente the baseball star and activist humanitarian who died in 1972 finishing his stellar career with exactly 3000 hits where is my blog has 3000 posts and maybe 1 million heads although a lot of them seem to be from weird countries and robots. I would Say the average article gets about 500 readers not all at once long tail etc.
Inspired by Aaron Carnes’ reading and signing at Streetlight Records Saturday, I wrote this short memoir of my experience doing ska shows here, mostly in the late 1990s, mostly at Cubberley Community Center. Aaron’s book is “In Defense of Ska” and is part his memoir of being in Flat Planet and part being a roadie for Skankin’ Pickle plus his argument about the signficance of the scene or genre. I’ve skimmed the entirety of his book, which is more than I do for a lot of books I buy on impulse. The event was my first author event in a while, and my first time in a record store for a while. Aaron is from Gilroy and is the music editor of Santa Cruz Good Times, a sister publication of San Jose Metro. I saw the interesting cover peeking out from the distribution box and noted that the event was that afternoon and literally went straight to the hit. Aaron had previously written a cover story about Mike Park of SP for the Metro.
Aaron Carnes author appearance, Streetlight San Jose May 8, 2021
I deliberately wanted my concert series at Cubberley to be diverse, so it made sense to have a sprinkling of ska in my history, although overall I consider myself a “1990s indie rock” guy. Recently I do more jazz and blues than rock or ska. Maybe it is attributable to the legendary influence of Skankin’ Pickle that I wanted to poke around in the genre.
1) Toasters, Spring Heel Jack, Monkey at Cubberley Auditorium 2) Tomato Head Records Showcase: MU330, Janitors Apartheid, Slapstick, Chuck Phelps Misc robot project; (I sort of think I did a Dill Records Showcase and a Tomato Head Records Showcase, working with different schism members of the Skankin’ crew) 3)Skankin’ Pickle unannounced guest at PaloPalooza II outdoors Cubberley Amphitheater; 4) Slow Gherkin’, Marginal Prophets, IBOPA; poster by Keith Knight. 5) Second Slow Gherkin’ show, I think; maybe not. 6)Monkey on California Avenue, free show — City of Palo Alto Public Art Commission unveiling of “Go Mama” by Marta Thoma — I was the middle agent or co-promoter; 7) Mike Park opening for The Evens(Ian Mackaye and Amy Farina) at Terman Middle School; not ska, but made you think about ska. 8)Kemuri (with Peechees, The Donnas as Electrocutes, Pansy Division — filling for J Church — not on the poster but Todd Inouye previewed them in his Metro column); I also remember that there was a huge gap between the Donnas short set and the Pee Chees — I wished I had let Kemuri play longer. 9)The KGB? Sort of a ska band (with Big City Rick, Eleventeen); KGB had a song that sampled Marginal Prophets “Your Girlfriend is The Best”. So that’s 8 ska-ish shows; ot 12 tropes — who’s counting? 10) Lester “Ska” sterling played with the Toasters and tried to nap on two folding chairs in the Cubberley auditorium green room which is a former high school cafeteria kitchen
11) When Brad Nowell died I got a call from an artist manager in LA asking me to hold a date for a proposed benefit for his widow and baby, to feature No Doubt as headliner but the show was canceled because the album came out and did very well anyhow…
12) When Jim Harrington wrote about my concert series for Palo Alto Weekly I wore a Goldfinger t-shirt to the photo shoot. They killed the cover photo because I flashed fake gang signs — “W” for Weiss, West Coast or maybe Leonard Nimoy — and shot the redo wearing a coat and tie but making a angry too serious scowl. The black and white interior shots with Goldfinger shirt ran, though.
I would have to admit that if you want to do a “Ska History of Palo Alto” you would write about The Edge. Also, if you stretch the category to rock bands with horns you can add New Morty Show, New Orleans Klezmer All Stars, Cake, and maybe Train. Also, I want to recall that Brad Johnson, who was a popcorn jerk at Stanford Theatre, and a librarian in Palo Alto and recorded with Allen Clapp under the name Variable Stars, a friend C___ recalled that she thought of Brad as “The Ska Guy” because he was always for a while talking up the next ska shows. There was a woman in Hayward who kept a “Ska-lender” a calender of ska shows; I think she was briefly my student when for a matter of weeks I was the volunteer advisor to the Tennyson High School paper. I think it was the Lancer Legend but the kids wanted to have an underground paper called “DANK”. I also had a project called Stanford Ska Project, where I briefly corresponded with a horn player from the Stanford Band, but she moved to Japan. Joshua Roseman did a jazz show at Stanford called “Ska (something)”. And Charlie Hunter did a jazz show in my series that was a jazz re-working of Bob Marley (which is also on Blue Note). Reggae. I want to say I gave Banks Lowman and Tom Drake a ride to Keystone Palo Alto to see Toots and the Maytals but was not cool enough to want to go. I noted “Jump Up” in a James Bond movie recently, Byron Lee. Plus I saw Lee Scratch Perry at Montalvo and was tripping on his sax player Ms Eisen.
Seems like from Aaron Carnes’ book if he had put the exact same amount on energy into his band, they would be well-known. I like that they call him “Carne” — Spanish for “meat” — even though he is Irish. Also, I think Rick Bonde of The Tahoe Agency was from this area and went to Menlo College — he gave me an early Blink 182 show, on Earth Day – -we gave away a new bike from Softride.
I want to say that I read something about Isaac Green who I knew of and had his number in my book, “Isaac Green and the Ska-Lers” — maybe he is an artist manager or something in business but a journalist outed him. Also, I recall that Dave Hawkins of Engine 88, Cahn-Man Management (Green Day) and Lost Weekend Video told me once that part of the reason they threw in the towel of Engine getting signed to a major was that labels wanted to sign ska bands – -his company ran 510 Records which signed Dance Hall Crashers. Travis Barker of Blink 182 was not in the band when they played The Cub but I recall that I recognized his name when he joined Blink because he was in a ska band that had played the Edge; also, No Doubt’s horn section was in a local San Jose ska band. There are two Spring Heeled Jacks, one from here one from England that is more techno. Has there ever been a Jewish ska band that sang in Hebrew and used a ram’s horn shofar?
I found a short video of Goldfinger at The Edge, 1997 and full set of Fugazi – -not ska — at the Edge in 1999 — they should put Feldman’s photo on the wall at 260 California Avenue offices
and1: One of the projects I did to stay busy, stay hopeful, stay sane during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 was to collaborate with Veronica DeJesus to do a series of memorial portraits of musicians who had played my concert series. I did not know Lynette Knackstedt and doubt I spoke with her at the show but she did play at Cubberley once, summer of 1997, my second Palo Palooza show. Aaron Carnes’ book has some passages about her, including a crush by another fan, which she handled gracefully even though she was a lesbian and he was straight. Maybe an author like Carnes should tell her story.
At minute nine of “don’t look back” a British journalist asked Joan Baez how to spell her name: BAEZ (“zed”). “Oh”he exclaims “I did not recognize you”. Reminds me that in September 1995 or fall of 1995 Dar Williams headlined my concert series at the Cubberley community Center theater. I recall that she said something about she was going to have a special guest so we needed two mics. Show enough Joan Baez shows up and sat in with Dar for a “you’re aging well” and “hallelujah”. But what makes me think of it right now is that the volunteer working the door, N-, didn’t know who Joan was and was slow to even admit her to the show— I don’t think we had laminates in those days either.
Although I doubt Joan would say the experience reminded her of this film. Last time I saw Joan she was at printers ink and I gave her a copy of Dao Strom’s demo — Part of my imagination as Dao’s manager was that she would write a play about a singer imprisioned for her views and it would be ambiguous until the end of the play whether it took place in north Vietnam or North America.
I am creeping up on 3,000 posts although some of the stories I’m sure I have repeated 10 times . The search function indicates I’ve mentioned “Baez “25 times. And the auto correct function indicates that I should acknowledge the passing of Robbie Beyers who I did not know but met once at Cafe Zoe he shot 40,000 images of the Stanford band.
suzanne deal booth the wife of billionaire investor Dale Booth now owns 32.6 acres of Rutherford grapes. They are from Houston, Kansas, New York, Chicago and LA. Esther Mobley the wine critic of the Chron reports. She worked with Menil in Houston. Three of my last seven posts are reactive to the Chron.
The chronicle claims that Jerry Garcia despite being dead 26 years is an investor and advocate of Blockchain, cryptocurrency and non-fungible art investment NFT. We may be going to hell in a bucket but at least his beneficiaries are enjoying the ride.
$1 million if you’re already speculating in cryptocurrency can buy you this:
Compared to doing a screen capture or cutting phase
for comparison sake and because it’s ironic here is my version of how the band got its name for what the name means: story goes that a man arrives in a village and meets an undertaker who is in a cup quandary or is upset because there is a body of an indigent person or an unknown person and they’re not sure what funeral rights: the traveler not necessarily being wealthy but being compassionate encourages the undertaker to do the right thing and perhaps pays for part of the funeral expense. Peter he buys a mule or a donkey or a horse or some type of companion. Soon after that good things start happening to this person maybe he invest in cryptocurrency or finds a bag of gold or gets laid. Turns out that the Spirit of the departed indigent person had returned to this plane in the body of the mule and helped all these great things start happening; grateful dead. (If there are any obvious intact errors in my version of the grateful dead man I’m going to leave them symbolically or consistent with the idea that the proliferation of computers and social media and iPhones is indeed influencing our understanding of our place in the world and what is happening
I just got an announcement about a flaming lips show May 7 at the Warfield May 7, 2022 Someone texted me offering me the Giants tickets versus Texas Rangers Monday night. I said I prefer Tuesday afternoon. I wonder who the Giants are playing May 7, 2022? to one year from tomorrow. I have no idea where I will be one year from tomorrow.
Someone texted me offering me the Giants tickets versus Texas Rangers Monday night. I said I prefer Tuesday afternoon. I wonder who the Giants are playing May 7, 2022?
today is Willie Mays his 90th birthday. I have tickets to a zoom event sometime this afternoon celebrating the fact. I wonder what will the maze thinks of zoom. I think of Willie Mays either going backwards to catch off the bat a Vic words or just generally running such that his cap would fall off or fly off. I also think of May 24 is a holiday.
Malcolm Gladwell in conversation with Walter Isaacson on Amanapouor show, regarding his book on the technology of bombers in World War II and the burning of Tokyo and other cities he says 10 years ago we thought Twitter would help democracy but now that is obviously absurd. No shit, Sherlock.
bw
Journalist from India who writes columns for Washington post Rana Ayyub: Fairplay to freedom of the press in India.
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 