Scott Amendola reminded me that December 4 was the twenty third anniversary of the sudden and tragic passing of his friend and bandmate Calder Spanier. I only met Calder once or twice. He played in the Charlie Hunter Quintet I think with Scott, Chuck McKinnon, Kenny Brooks at Cubberley, maybe the same night that the young Lions of Palo Alto like Josh Thurston played there. I might be sloppily conflating too many story lines, too many notes. I’m blowing it. Veronica deJesus did this tribute to Calder.
He shares a few additional signature traits with the Deadhead community beyond this: As a teenager growing up in Connecticut, he made the pilgrimage to New York’s Wetlands Preserve and other clubs in the mid-‘90s to record Charlie Hunter and Medeski Martin & Wood.
“They called it acid jazz, and I didn’t quite know what the acid part meant because I wasn’t quite indoctrinated into the other stuff,” Mayer says of his taper days. “I remember seeing Charlie Hunter at Wetlands—it must have been Charlie Hunter Quartet when Calder Spanier was still around, and he was the saxophone player. [Spanier died in a 1997 auto accident.] I saw Charlie Hunter at the Middle East in Cambridge and brought this guitar pedal that he uses and had him sign it.
“I also had a DAT recorder with the external battery pack and this little lunch cooler that I used as my taper rig. I saw Charlie Hunter at South Street Seaport and I had the DAT for years. I learned all this playing of this one concert, and I learned to play like him as much as I could from all these DAT tapes that I made. After I went to the Berklee College of Music, though, I didn’t keep it going.”
Nonetheless, Mayer’s formative musical experiences in the improvisational realm were much broader than many Deadheads associated with him before seeing him in action. Indeed, before his first show with Dead & Company, many assumed that the group would gravitate back to the blues palette of the band’s early days when Pigpen exerted his influence. However, while Mayer is adept at such tones and techniques, he wanted to go the whole nine yards—or, rather, the full 12 miles.
“When I started, I looked at it from a completely technical standpoint. ‘Could I make this music happen?’” Mayer reflects. “There’s no reason to assume that anybody would know that I could, and I never held it against them. I feel that the steadfastness with which they protect the gate is the same loyalty once you’re in. It’s like the movie where there’s a bunch of seemingly scary biker guys, and a scrawny business guy endears himself to them in some way and they give him a jacket. If you do the work, if you can fix the guy’s motorcycle, you can get his jacket. If you compare my music to the Grateful Dead and that’s personified, then I’m the scrawny business guy in there. But I’m relishing the opportunity to do the work.”
from John Mayer, if again to many tenderfoots for quodlibets
art by Veronica but based on a photo my Michelle B
I’m watching the documentary “Hype” about the Seattle grunge music scene, a very 1990s experience, but when the screen flashed to 7 Year Bitch, I thought of my friend Lisa Fay Beatty.
Lisa was the guitarist for the Mudwimin, who played my first show at Palo Alto’s Cubberley Theatre, in October of 1994. In the Mudwimin the lead vocals and instruments change during the course of the set so she may have also played some drums and bass and of course she sang.
Lisa put as much of her heart into being a sound engineer, at Bottom of The Hill and other places, and on the road. She toured with 7 Year Bitch, I think as a second guitarist.
The other Mudwimin were Mia Levin (also known as Mia D’Bruzzi or sometimes I think Mia Simmins), Sheri “Shug” Robinson and Marie Riddle pka Bambi Nonymous.
The last I saw Lisa I was coming out of depression and looking for management clients and we had lunch. We went to Caesar’s up on Piedmont in Oakland. She told me a long, engrossing story about helping Mikey Thrasher up in Portland produce a Nina Simone concert, and I said “Lisa, that’s your next project, producing a one-woman show about you and Nina, your music, her music and that weekend together”. Nina Simone and Lisa Fay Beatty had gone sailing together and bonded.
Veronica De Jesus of Los Angeles painted a portrait of Lisa Fay Beatty, that I have published above. She also did a portrait of the late Mia Zapata of The Gits. I did not know Mia Zapata but I worked with Lisa Fay Beatty to help publicize a big benefit concert or memorial concert, at Cyclone Warehouse to raise money to find the murderer, and to promote female artists especially. The way the music community in SF bonded over their concern and grief about Mia Zapata had an influence on my decision to become a concert promoter. I did shows with Mudwimin, Oxbow, World For Ransom, True Margrit, Ragady Ann, Third Eye Blind, Acoustic Paradise, Fat Chance Belly Dance, Cat Cody Band, Number Nine (featuring Rob Lederer who lives on Howe near Piedmont, I was just there last week when my mother-in-law was seeing a specialist at Kaiser on MacArthur), Durham featuring Hershel Yatovitz who later joined Chris Isaak band, dot dot dot Akira Tana Otonowa, Tim and Greg of the Motherhips, AJ Lee and Sullivan Tuttle, Johnny A, Jerry Hannan, Clarinet Thing featuring Beth Custer, Patricia Barber Trio — I’m forgetting a few no doubt.
Veronica sent me some demos on video of her using percussion instruments of their own design. That’s not quite right: of their own design. That sounds like some weird AI self-similar life of its own sci-fi shit: self-designing percussion instruments. Especially creepy are the pods and rattles. Maybe they are alien life forms. I noticed Veronica’s name in the Pink Section, about a group sew at the former Gilbert Gallery — RIP Ed Gilbert — which is the former Paula Anglim Gallery – RIP Paula Anglim.
When I was thinking about doing that first Cubberley show with the Mudwimin, Lisa and Shug came down and checked out the room and I remember Lisa clapping loudly to see if she could hear an echo in the room, which would be undesirable for a live show — too live. Pretty much any time I tour a room to potentially put on a concert I do the same thing — clap loudly. Maybe Lisa can hear me when I do that. Yeah, that’s a corny line. Let’s be clear, Lisa Fay Beatty was a real pro.
edit to add: here is Veronica DeJesus jamming on a music instrument of its own design — percussion.
Danny Pinter of the Colts versus Jeffrey Simmons of the Tennessee Titans
I’m following the development of Colts lineman Danny Pinter, number 63 above, a rookie from Ball State and South Bend, Indiana.
His position coach is Chris Strausser who was the quarterback for Gunn of Palo Alto Titans in 1981.
I sent Chris a text pointing out that Danny Pinter shares a birthday June 19 with Moe Howard and Lou Gehrig. In terms of archetypes.
I also notice know that he shares this trait with author Salman Rushdie who wrote “The Satanic Verses” and noted the pun I use in the headline. “The rush” means the efforts of the defense to attack the Colts quarterback who Pinter (and Strausser) are tasked to protect.
The Colts are considered the fourth best team in the NFL, although they also got 10 penalties on their line last week.
I was a lineman on the Terman 8th grade A Team in flag football although I switched to flanker or receiver on third down, somehow. There’s a picture of me holding my opponent so that Brad Elman could squeeze thru a hole (made by Matt Maltz).
Pinter did 24 reps of 225 pounds in bench press at this combine whereas my goal is 24 pushups on my birthday coming up in 56 days (and I weigh 225).
The Colts are 7-4 and seem to be playoff bound; they are ranked #10. Quentin Nelson was named All Pro in each of his first two seasons, a lineman. Another lineman, Anthony Castonzo, hurt his knee last week.
Hold on said the Duke, lets make up the “deffisit”, Twain, 1876/2003 page 215 — I read one line of these 18 tomes and moved the pile twice
I woke today (Wednesday, named for Odin a Norse God) reaching first mentally then physically for my Bevington, the Complete Works of Shakespeare, specifically honing in on “The Merchant of Venice” and that line. What is it: If you prick me, do I not bleed?
I should back up: I am Jewish, and white. But I am not a racist, and I consider myself an ally of Blacks. I am from the South Side of Chicago where Jewish middle class families often had Black allies (ok, the help. But work with me here. In my case, to my knowledge, Louisa and Ellen love me and my siblings and my grandmother; it was mutual).
My rabbi, Sidney Axelrod, marched with Martin Luther King. Each year at Passover our haggadah emphasizes the point: because we were slaves in the land of Egypt, we fight racism. We side with Blacks in matters of Justice. To be continued. Gladly.
By the time I made it to the stairwell my Bevington was a tower of 18 titles: Shakespeare, Kamala Harris, Ralph Ellison, Willie Mays (with Lou Sahadi), Folger’s Shakespeare; Al Young — he’s from Palo Alto, by the way, or a Palo Altan at least; Eddie S. Gaude, Jr; Marlon James; Don DeLillo White Noise; David W. Blight, Frederick Douglas; Nathaniel Mackey Whatsaid Serif; Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, Written By Himself; Richard Pryor with intro by Tig Notaro; James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain; Octavia E Butler and a wild card: a cd grabbed randomly from the shelves: TJ Kirk if Four Was One the music of Thelonious Monk James Brown and Roland Rahsaan Kirk.
(In my head, Bob Marley sings “Lively Up Yourself” rather than reaching for a Monk melody…excuse the digression; Did I mention that Plastic Alto is about music chiefly?)
I have an alarm set so this is the speed chess version of The Argument, caveat emptor. My coffee is getting cold, the sip of it that remains. To wit:
Palo Alto should denounce The Beylin Petition as racism. Eric Filseth my neighbor has posted to the Palo Alto Weekly’s online forum three times without saying this. He says its impractical to support the petition. He demonstrates he does not understand the lawsuit. Or what he calls “the Settlement” sic.
The signs in front of Foothill Park (sic) says RESIDENTS ONLY. To Black people, or so they say, this hurts them as if it said WHITES ONLY. Personally, as a white male, even though I may have been taught this by Ellen and Louisa in 1964 and 1965 on the South Side of Chicago, I don’t feel this. But I believe Gwen et al when they tell me they do.
Yes, I need to read more carefully to pass a test of the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment — the Juneteenth Amendment — and this case, but I take it as granted.
If the National Association for The Advancement of Colored (Black) People AND the American Civil Liberties Union, and Judge LaDoris Cordell and nine neighbors say our policy is wrong, I believe them.
Quick timeline:
On Saturday, June 3, 2020 I was on a bike ride but could not help notice that as I approached Bryant (my street) and University, heading South, there were 5,000 gathered, most carrying signs BLACK LIVES MATTER, and though wearing masks (for the Covid pandemic) seeming to welcome me. I was so far from the podium at City Hall — social distance protest oxymoron — that I could barely hear, let alone see. An ally texted me: THAT’S THE MAYOR, THAT’S THE EPA MAYOR, et cetera. On June 5, 2020 Reverend Kaloma Smith wrote an opinion piece in the Weekly and online explaining Black Lives Matter, how it applies here, and, first on his list, the need to open Foothills Park. (I call it Foothill Park, however).
On June 6, responding to a note I sent he and another commissioner, HRC member Ryan McCauley, a lawyer and civil servant by trade, sent me a copy of a demand letter co-signed by 100 local leaders, and clergy that said to open the park.
(As an aside, I posted seven times in my enthusiasm various amicus statements about the park and Black Lives Matter here; another reader, anonymously, denounced me for being “rude”, for speaking too many times and for writing about Matthew in verse. That which you’ve done for the last of my brethren and sisters, so have you done for me – -which Christ said, but I namechecked Roger Rabbit and Bugsy Siegal, and then Tim Bluhm and Greg Loicano of the Mother Hips who had appeared at my music series three months prior; notably, Bill Johnson the white supremacist leader of the Palo Alto Weekly first repeated the claim that I post too many times and then, apparently, banned me permanently from future posts; I am CENSORED).
In November, only one candidate I backed, Greer Stone, was elected. The two incumbents, Lydia Kou and Greg Tanaka, were both re-elected despite their flaws; worse, in my opinion they played the racist card and dog whistle, promising to fight the NAACP and ACLU and Ladoris and Gwen and them, either stupidly or disingenuously; Lydia and Greg – -she is Chinese or born in China, he is Japanese American — claim to be fighting the opening for Foothill Park on grounds of proprerty rights. Worse: Lydia and her husband John St. Claire — who is Black, or mixed race, or so it looks — stood by as a vicious asshole attacked candidate Rebecca Eisenberg as she graciously tried to explain a lot of the above to him. (She’s a Stanford grad, Harvard trained lawyer, and got 7,000 votes in her first try). Lydia turned her back on the fight. John St Claire said “it’s a pleasure meeting you” to the asshole. When I chimed in that “pleasure” might not be the word, considering the abuse Rebecca took, he told me not to put words in his mouth. (He’s a ******t, I reckon; maybe he (***** ******) and Lydia with (**** **** **** **** **** , to each his own, except when you are a public figure).
I say there could be an emergency meeting to declare the Beylin Petition racist. I say we recall Tanaka and Kou for their racist stance and actions.
Oh that this far too solid flesh would melt, not.
Chalk drawing of baseball diamond, downtown north, yesterday afternoon, around 5
pat 2
Professor L_ informs me, via text, that the people who sign the Beylin Petition will be a public record. we can therefore, for example, send them a questionaire, based, ironically enough of Terman, that measures their intelligence It might have a question based on the supreme court super-precedent — Professor Starzinger is smiling, from on high, that i have continued to learn, or follow the lingo — Brown Vs Board of Education, Topeka KS, 1954 and Tingsley, East Palo Alto, how they might be related even separated geographically by 2,000 or so miles and in time by 20 or so years. Ok, it could be a one question IQ test. People who get it right yet sign the petition are racist. People who get the question wrong are merely stupid. They can be sort of forgiven for signing — they may lose their jobs, their friends, their leases, whatever. Actually, both groups might. Maybe the test can be up to 10 such simple things. The hypothesis is that there is an relationship between intelligence and racism here, the smarter you are, the more racist you are. (The petition challenges the fact that the National Association of Advancement of Colored — meaning Black — People is suing Palo Alto to eliiminate what it says are unconstitutional laws restricting access to a park, the public commons, yet the petitioners are claiming they are not racist just greedy. Sho-nuff).
part 3 Eric Filseth a former mayor and current council member has posted eight times now on the Palo alto Weekly comment board, in a thread with 30 other obviously racist comments. He does not say “I condemn this petition as racist — please do not sign it”. I have sent him five messages trying to explain my stance versus his. Here’s another example, of disparate effects: if I make a sign that says FUCK THE POLICE and stand with it at Lytton Plaza I will get some stares, maybe some comments, maybe someone will really get in my face. if the police come, I will say I am a blogger and ran for city council and live in the neighborhood, knew the Chief Dennis Burns fairly well, and was one of 25 Palo Altans to publicly oppose – -fitting here — a measure that tried to limit the police CBA here – -I mean them no actual harm. Sho-nuff, 2. Then, I will find a confederate, who presents as Black, maybe waiver him, maybe pay him $5,000 and show a letter of credit claiming to have $500,000 for his legal defense, or to pay his widow — maybe the waiver will offer to pay his funeral expenses should he expire within the next 2 years for any reason. What happens if he, a Black man, protests in Lytton Plaza, protected so to speak by the First Amendment but his sign says FUCK THE POLICE? (Ask Albert Hopkins for the answer).
part 4: I’m having varying reactions as I continue to listen to Pop Smoke (Bashar Jackson, 2000-2020, RIP) and his Grammy nominated song “Dior”. I saw an article that says it was used as protest music at BLM marches in New York. It’s hook: “Christian Dior, Dior; We up in all the stores”. My first thought was to challenge the author and claim it was not used by protesters it was used by looters. But then I remembered there was a band in San Francisco (which ran a club Komotion) Mat Callahan and The Looters. And a book “Property is Theft”. Whereas I was initially interested or fascinated by the lyrics about sex.
I did not know this part of the story but this is Rafer Johnson gold medalist consoling his dear friend CK Yang his UCLA teammate after narrowly defeating him for the title of Worlds Best Athlete, Yang competed for China or Taiwan. Rafer’s brother was the 49ers Jimmy Johnson a DB
part 5: I edited 36 hours later the first version of this which projected my own kinkiness onto John St Claire who, despite running ads in the paper for his real estate practice that feature his likeness and being married to a two-term council member Lydia Kuo, is not a public figure. I may have misunderstood his comments about watching some asshole who lives in Palo Alto Hills (i.e. in a $5m house) say it was his “pleasure” to meet. I’m ok in chess — we watched the new series “Queen’s Gambit’ but have never played speed chess. I’m sure I’d suck. If Lydia signs this petition, she is likely to be recalled both for breach of fiduciary duty, for being a racist or for being stupid.
part 6; Othello: tis strange tis passing strange…I suffered all kinds of bullshit and she loved me that I went thru this, my ally (paraphrasing, the way the Duke misremembers Shakespeare in “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”.) — published 6 pm Thursday, December 3, 2020 with four long weeks left in this mutha or as a group of kids said “low key fuck you 2020”
outro by Pop Smoke, more than 100 million viewers have seen this first:
edit to add, the next day, or two days from the start or, as Pop Smoke would say, “RRR”:
One part diagnostic suggested to be sent to all consignatories of the Beylin Petition
Brown Vs Board of Education, 1954, is to Topeka Kansas what PAUSD, 1985 East Palo Alto…choose the best response
a. Reverend Don Wildmon and Fred Phelps of Westboro strange bedfellows
b. Rolando Blackman taking it to the hole for the Wildcats, who are up by 6
c. “Sex makes me feel all tingly…”
d. Tinsley Volunteer Transfer Program or TVTP that allows students in an underserved educational community to attend better schools as a matter of equity.
andand: I started with Shakespeare and Shylock and his butt — unless that is Voltaire Candide Chapter 12 — and finish with exotic dancers going clap clap clap, so there is a certain roundedness to my methods, right? Picaresque versus prick. Or piquerism.
andandand, maybe the last word on this thread or post: Albert Hopkins died in 2007 at age 63, so one would not be able to consult him on the topic of racism in Palo Alto. Here is a quote posted from Tom Jacoubowsky who I know so I don’t think he’d mind me using him here thusly:
Albert will be terribly missed by the Gunn community. His reach went far and wide and he made such a difference in the lives of so many at Gunn and elsewhere. On a personal note, he was a friend and a mentor and I will always cherish the many conversations we had. Gunn High School will always remember Albert Hopkins.
Cam aka Cameron Ochs of Lafayette, CA (East Bay, Contra Costa County, but also in her case UC Davis and time at Stanford labs) has a new cd out, “Otherside”. Expectations are high; her song “Burning House” from 2015 has 52 million views on Youtube. I am late to the party. In the wake of the sold out Molly Tuttle show, William Morris Agency Nashville called me to host a Cam show that was to be April 1, 2020 at Mitchell Park Community Center; it sold out in one day. We held a couple replacement dates then, like everyone else, let it go. But her new album came out earlier this month. The title track was co-written by Avicii – -the late Tim Bergley. She’s also worked with Lori McKenna, Diplo, Train, Jack Antonoff of Fun. Her manager Danika worked at KRTY in San Jose.
Not sure if she’ll reschedule Palo Alto some day, but I wish her the best.
PS I saw an interesting video of Avicii working on this song a few years previous — not actually sure if that is Cam in the video. Through Lions With Wings bandcamp project I’ve been hearing works-in-progress and scratch versions of some songs, which is new to me as a concert guy. Also, I was geeking on song exploder, a popular podcast and now on Netflix. I just saw somewhere– prompted by the tv listings — Pat Monahan of Train with Darryl Hall of Hall and Oates — which did sort of lead me to Cam — that “hey soul sister” is based on a Platters’ song. Also, I watched “Bill And Ted FTM” and the title track is by Weezer but says its an “interpolation” of Billy Joel song.
Lions With Wings, the content platform spearheaded by Mark Weiss of Earthwise Productions as a work-around for a cancelled concert series, has released a total of six songs, with more in the works, Weiss says.
The songs are:
1) Dayna Stephens, “The Prophet”;
2) Dayna Stephens, “The Nomad”;
3) Mike Park, “Steppin’ Stone”;
4) Mike Park, “Game of Love”;
5) MC Lars, “In the Land of Grasshopper Song”;
6) Nancy Wright featuring Mitch Woods and Bob Margolin, “There is Something on Your Mind”.
The songs are available as both free downloads and free streaming on Bandcamp.
The artists were asked to observe their Covid-19 protocols during the production process. Technology such as email, texting and Zoom partially replaced the experience of a live recording.
In their cover of “There is Something On Your Mind” Marin-based pianist and vocalist Mitch Woods delivers an original monologue or bridge that references the challenging period of surviving a pandemic, which as of this writing includes more than 200,000 American fatalities.
Earthwise Productions had concluded seven concerts this year, most at Mitchell Park Community Center in Palo Alto — with one, by Patricia Barber Trio at both Palo Alto and Occidental (North Bay). An additional ten shows were annnounced*.
The Nancy Wright session also includes a video made by Kid Andersen at Greaseland Studios in San Jose. More precisely, the audio download is a simulcast to the video.
Weiss said that there is also a joint venture with Dave Douglas and his Greenleaf Music, called Overcome. It features Dave Douglas, trumpet; Ryan Keberle, trombone; Fay Victor, voice; Camila Meza, voice and guitar; Jorge Roeder, bass;Rudy Royston, drums; The set will be released on December 4 on Douglas’ bandcamp platform.
Lions with Wings is named for a landmark on the nearby Stanford University campus whereas Earthwise Productions is both a pun on his name and a residue of his work on Earth Day at Stanford in 1992, Weiss said. Weiss said that his environmental beliefs that underpin his concert productions values include appropriate technology and Luddittiism as described by authors like Jerry Mander and Helena Norberg Hodge, so it is a bit problematic to be putting his focus on music that is tethered to the proliferation of semiconductors.
“I am giving seed money towards new works and new collaborations that will in most cases appear for live shows back in Palo Alto, once we can safely return to community events”, Weiss said.
His mouth to God’s ears, borne, perhaps, by lions with wings.
*a smattering of audio and video from the live series is available here at Plastic Alto, a WordPress platform.
This is Darrell Griffith Dr. Duncan Stein I get that but why would there be a team called jazz in Utah?
today’s main stream news had an article about an art installation in the middle of nowhere they don’t know if it’s from last week or 40 years ago and it resembles the work by McCracken that was also used in the Stanley Kubrick film
Bw
Audio notes or podcast demo of a completely separate post regarding the continuum hypothesis maybe there is an analogy about finding a rational number on the number line compared to finding either a monolith created by a superior culture or a piece of art humorously placed on the down low by McCracken
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 