I am hosting two of the greatest guitarists on consecutive weeks; Mark Lettieri plays a free outdoor show at Mitchell Park, Friday, May 24, 2024, from 6 to sunset; Nels Cline trio, with Greenlief and Amendola, fill the void six days later, six hundred yards south by south east, the El Palo Alto Room of the Mitchell Park Community Center in Palo Alto. Twenty dollars plus fees in advance. Two hundred capacity — although truth be told you can get a reasonable approximation of the full show from the courtyard of The Mitch— we are more likely to open the sliding glass walls to accommodate demand than to close them. And as a liberal arts grad from four decades ago I’m hoping to learn something of the guitar works from the double dose or comparison. The interviews from Richmond museum are great. I have the book. A wiki consciousness suggests this info as relevant:
Tone Concepts Goo (distortion) EQD Pitch Bay (pitch shifter) Boss CS3 (compression) EQD Aqueduct (vibrato) Catalinbread Belle Epoch (delay) Neunaber Immerse (reverb) Boss DD3 (delay) A mini white and red pedal i cant identify EQD Special Cranker (overdrive) Boss TU3 (tuner)
I saw James Dolan speak at a music conference in Los Angeles in February. He owns the Knicks and the Rangers, and Madison Square Garden, but was talking about Sphere, a venue in Las Vegas. It’s more than a venue, its a type of venue. It uses millions of LED — light emitting diodes —and thousands of speakers and costs $2.3 billions of dollars to build. He wants to build Sphere(s) out beyond Las Vegas. If you read this, Plastic Alto, and have hundreds of millions of dollars and one hundred acres, call him.*
Meanwhile we have The Guild in Menlo Park, or maybe Guild. They have Ozomatli tonite, Susto played last night; they had Duran Duran recently and a week of Bob Weir. The general contractor told me that 25 billionaires from here put up one million dollars each, for a total fund of $35m, to build Guild. Now there’s a plaque with the names of those donors, upstairs, near the elevator. Actually, I am taking license with the word “billionaire” – -I think of a millionaire as someone with between $20m and $200m outside of their home, and that people with more than $200m assets under management are “billionaires”. People with nothing to about $20m are all in the same boat, more or less, compared to the billionaires and trillionaires; there are no people — yet – with a trillion dollars – just corporations like Apple and Nvidia and Tesla — yet “corporations are people too!” — so it’s confusing.
I started Earthwise if you excuse the digression because I thought that being able to discern good music from noise would help people choose a leader over a despot, and choose war over peace, but now on HBO there is a story about an attractive female Fascist who uses music to manipulate the masses, in a merger of art, entertainment, capital and politics. Oops.
I thought of all this — 316 words above — while watching 10 Stanford students play salsa for about 100 We The Peoples at Johnson Park, by earthwise, under an oak tree. Cien Mil Mangos under thousands of oak leaves.
*I was impressed with James Dolan taking about Sphere. I started to imagine Kent Lockhart the basketball player but also an artist and art teacher being commemorated by having his art translated into or onto Sphere, having his images and shapes projected onto that curved, densely lit, saturated media skin, the way Jessica Yu turned Henry Darger’s drawings into a movie. Kent was once drafted by the Knicks the NBA team owned by Dolan, if that helps the concept move from these pages to Sphere. (And Jessica Yu and Kent were once schoolmates if not friends — she won the Academy Award for short doc — short doc means if Doc Rivers was built like Mugsy Bogues and was a film. In the way that Milt Wagner was not Richard Wagner pronounced “vog” like “dog” and “ner” like “grrr” – the sound a dog makes — and the Warriors auxiliary distaff team is named for an Old Norse concept wall cry eye — like the big eyeball on the sphere or “Naked Eye” by Luscious Jackson not Lucius Jackson, peel me?
Kent promised to send me a lizard he built out of wire and color, maybe based on something he saw on his farm outside Melbourne, the way Oliveira saw hawks over Stanford, to form Windhover. He winged it.
Sphere needs Kent more than Kent needs Sphere, if you ask me or read Plastic Alto – which was named not for the soccer field near Stanford but the little black rubber pebbles that bounced or jumped when the ball hit.
Cien Mil Mangos on May 17, 2024 at Johnson Park: Sofia, vocals; Eva, vocals; Rabiah Kabir, flute; Ryan, trumpet; Andrew, trombone; Ky, bass; Dante, piano; Cefe, congas; Wesley, bongos, cowbell; Elena, timbales.
Cien Mil Mangos, April 18, 2024, 3rd Thursday, California Avenue:
Sofia, vocals; Rabiah Kabir, flute; Jenna, alto; Ryan, trumpet; Gil, trombone; Dante, piano; Ky, bass; Max Yoshimoto, timbales; Sebastian, congas; Austin, bongos. (Note: this is third year for Cien Mil Mangos, a student group that overlaps with but it independent of either Murray Low’s class or SALJE Stanford Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble. When someone graduates, they recruit for more members; as a nod to this dynamic, Murray on piano and Rabiah on flute opened for Will Bernard group at Earthwise at The Mitch last month).
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DJ Sep from Dub Mission spun reggae and dub at Lytton Sunday as the rains stopped and started as if by her cue. I hope to bring her back to either Lytton Plaza, Johnson Park of Mitchell Park, perhaps opening for Native Elements, whose drummer Chris Cortez has a family history in Downtown North. I gifted Sep some vintage baseball cards that I had fished out of my storage locker – longer story — when she mentioned that her son plays high school baseball and is bound to continue that initiative at a small school east of here. Sep was also my publicist in the early days of Earthwise Productions — she had a listing service. Back when newspapers were more widely read and had “agate print” sections about live events.
Earthwise productions announces the first combination Alfred Hitchcock movies and live music festival in Downtown Palo Alto May 4 thru June 2.
On May 4, DJ Sep spins reggae and dub music for free at Lytton Plaza, from 3 pm to 5 pm and then fans of suspense can pay $7 to see “Shadow of a Doubt” from 1943 which Halliwell gives *** and features Joseph Cotton. “Shadow of a Dub” is what the cognoscenti will call it — dub is a type of music from the Caribbean that Sep spins. (This is also the first Earthwise event that features a dj but not live music).
On May 10, Earthwise welcomes a new quartet of rock/roots music led by guitar wiz Jim Campilongo at 6 pm followed by, for $7, Lifeboat at 7:30. Spellbound plays at 5:30 and 9:20 and total weirdos can start their evening at the movies, pop out to catch the band, called Spaghetti, and then go back into the movies for as long as four more hours. The Spaghetti band features Jim Campilongo guitar, Scott Amendola drums, Matt Muntz, bass and Sam Reider accordion or keyboards. We call this combo “Spaghetti Spellbound” — there is no spaghetti allowed in the theatre, not ice cream, but the pop corn starts at $1.
On May 17, Earthwise welcomes Cien Mil Mangos to Johnson Park which is four blocks from the theatre, at Waverley and Hawthorne approximately. The show is from 6 to 7:30 or so; sunset is 8:13. At precisely 7:30 the Stanford Theatre will show Vertigo. Alternately, for $7 you can see The Man Who Knew Too Much at 5:20, stay for about an hour then huff it or hoof it over to Johnson Park to dance salsa. “The Man who Got Vertigo Dancing Salsa (with Stanford Students). Que sera sera!
May 24 at Mitchell Park – -which is not downtown but only five miles south — brings Mark Lettieri quartet. He is the guitarist for Snarky Puppy jazz band, and hails from Menlo Park. The show is from 6 pm to sunset and then you can zip north — towards Menlo Park but still on this side of the crick, still Santa Clara County — to see all but the start of North By Northwest and then To Catch a Thief at 10 pm. Let’s call this Lettieri by Lettieri Or: To Catch A Riff.
TO CATCH A RIFF
May 30 is Nels Cline Trio for $20 — quite a bargain, frankly — at The Mitch El Palo Alto Room — which, is stated above is about five miles south of the actual El Palo Alto where Portola camped in 1769. The Nels Cline Trio features Nels Cline guitar, Scott Amendola (from the May 10 show) on drums and Phillip Greenlief on reeds. For an additional $7 plus another buck for popcorn –you can do Nels Cline and then I Confess. We call this I Clinefess. Which means nothings. Da da. I confess that I’m not familiar with “I Confess” other than to say that Halliwell or what I might call Halli-Nels says its from 1953 is rated ** and starts Montgomery Clift. Or, if you really don’t have $20 or don’t like virtuoso rock guitar with jazz or improv stylings, you can pay only $7 — only $5 if you are a senior – -and come to think of it Nels Cline is a senior so if he goes to the movies after his show he will pay $5 — you can see “The Wrong Man” at 7:30 – or if you confuse Nels Cline and Jeff Tweedy and you show up at the concert say “this is the wrong man” we would refund your $20 and in fact if you are reading this and you are the first person to buy a ticket to Nels Cline at The Mitch and say ‘This is the wrong man” I will rebate your $20.
On Sunday June 2 Earthwise is hosting Eddie 9V (with opener from San Jose Jimmy Dewrance band) at Mitchell Park Bowl and then at 5:30 you can catch Psycho and then Strangers on a Train at 7:30. Ideally I would see all the above just to know how they go with the music but if I only hit one film of the 26 or so on the Stanford Theatre schedule it would be “Strangers on a Train” because I am reading the book by Patricia Highsmith: maybe next year I will promote a combination book festival, concert series and movies
The Los Angeles Times published a picture yesterday, on their website and possibly in print editions, of a woman in a blue t-shirt, at a gathering or skirmish, that they describe as part of the ongoing on-campus conflict here loosely based around or in reaction to the conflict seven thousand miles away between a Democracy with a military and a terrorist group with billions of dollars of back, Israel vs. Hamas. The woman’s is described in the cutline as being the daughter of a UCLA professor. It says she was shouting. Indeed, her mouth is open, and her ams are outstretched; her right fist is balled. I cannot make out what is in her left hand. I guess, her purse. She has a second back, a book bag, over her left shoulder. But what catches my eye is the shirt: JEWS FIGHT BACK NOW.
I’m using such as my headline, first thing, Monday morning. Seven hundred miles away from the conflict in LA.
Yesterday afternoon I hopped on my bike and was heading towards White Plaza on Stanford’s campus; I wanted to see the pro-Hamas protests here. I told myself I was going to a baseball game, Cal vs Stanford. But when I got as far as Palm Drive and Campus Drive I noticed a road block, to restrict parking near Frost Amphitheatre, and Bing and stopped to looking into – -using a handheld computer device that I favor — the possibility of a concert at the amphitheater.
Indeed, something called Dabin: Stay in Bloom was about to transpire. A young woman confirmed my conclusions: Dabin is a young EDM musician and producer from Toronto now living in Denver, of Korean heritage. Most of the young people I could observe were Asian. I decided, especially as a concert promoter that it made more sense to take in a couple hours of a music event than to proceed on to White Plaza to scoff at the pro-Hamas and antisemitic crowd.
I have to admit, if you excuse the digression, that I felt out of place for being white and old – I’m 60. The vast majority of concert goers were young – -around 20 to 30 – -and Asian. I was dressed in some hiking shorts, running shoes and a Van’s zipper hoodie and a light blue Swetka’s cap – it’s a tennis store, I play or played tennis. Many of the others there wore underwear –okay, I probably noticed 100 people in their underwear. I was trying to avert my eyes. Or not stare. Or not being called out for staring.
It occurred to me that my first concert, a day on the green by bill graham at the A’s ball park, I was 14 and most of the people were in their 20’s or 30’s and I tried to think of myself as much older than I was, somehow. Now, 46 years later I am way too old to be there and I tried to think of myself as young.
During one song by Tiffany Day – who is a pop artist with a live drummer playing keyboards but mostly singing along to beats — I got up and danced, mildly: I shifted my weight from side to side, more or less on the rhythm or on the break.
I noticed that after I finished – and I really did so mainly to avail DVTs in my legs for sitting for so long, on the curb of the raked amphitheater, that the miscellaneous people behind me said “Hey, let’s move up” and deserted, leaving for a while an empty pocket around me.
I called a friend and asked which was more weird: to be in an amphitheatre surrounded by half-naked young people or to leave such a place and sit in the dark and watch an old Hitchcock movie? Although I reported to him via text that I was “digging in” –meaning sitting down again, reclaiming my seat and not “digging it” in the sense of actually enjoying it — I actually left, around 6:30 — I had arrived at 4. Or I arrived at 4, bought a ticket on line and waited a half hour of the ticket to load to my account (after I changed the password to my account).
I have about an hour until I meet my trainer, just enough time to go to campus, via car and peep the protest tents. It’s like picking a scab.
The shirt can be read two ways: first, it could have an implied comma, Jews, comma, fight back now. Like a command. Or it could be read straight up as descriptive, Jews fight back now. As in we are fighting back, by going to the rallies and demonstrations and speaking our or screaming or just staring in scorn at the antisemitics.
In March, a group of pro-Hamas demonstrators marched down the street in my neighborhood – -it was Emerson near University – -and I said no thank you to a man handing out pamphlets but then said “HAMAS SHOULD SURRENDER” and a young woman turned and flipped me off – -an obscene gesture. I have this on tape. I taped about 3 minutes of the confrontation.f
“Jews fight back now” to me means that perhaps in 1930 as assimilated Jews in Germany stood up to Hitler and antisemitism maybe they could have prevented the Holocaust. Part of the success of the Holocaust was that Jews didn’t realize how bad this was getting.
Since October 7 –although for me I didn’t realize until a day or two later, let’s say October 9, 2023 – there has been what I call a “soft pogrom”. Soft in the sense that we have not been physically confronted , not been raped or murdered or beaten up, or had our windows smashed, but that today’s Nazis are feeling us out, looking for a sign from the majority that they can attack us without punishment.
Today’s pro-Hamas demonstrators are Nazis in that Hamas was founded by Muslim Brotherhood, who were an offshoot or ally of Hitler’s Nazis. The people who slander Israel and Jews and are trying to start a fight know that they are doing nothing for the tragedy of civilians 7,000 miles away, they are using this as an excuse to try to kill Jews here. History clearly shows.
The college students, at Stanford, at Cal, at UCLA or USC should be expelled — if they don’t know their place in history they have no right to be educated here. Good bye! Shalom! Adios. Hasta la vista, babies.
Jews fight back now.
Jews, fight back now.
Postscript:
I posted under Lorraine Al’s column that her narrative was biased an antisemitc. I said perhaps Hamas stripped bodies and put them in a mass grave. to wit:
It’s a tragedy, but it is a modern Democracy — like us — fighting against a terrorist group, who killed 1,000 civilians. on October 7 – -including the rape and mutilation of hundreds of women, and uses women and children as human shields, as martyrs, perhaps, as you report, stripping their bodies and dumping them in a mass grave.
How about some reporting on why a million Muslims would live under the thumb of Hamas and not exercise their rights as Israel citizens?
Or why do American college students jump in on the side of the brown oppressed people rather than side with the believers in women’s rights, gay rights, etcetera?
Your narrative is biased and antisemitic.
About Lorraine Ali
I notice that Getty Images wants to charge $500 to use this photo. I consider it “fair use’. I cannot find the identity of the woman yelling. Maybe her name is not “Johanna Isreal” she gave that as a nom de guerre. Maybe the photo is staged. But the t-shirt is real enough, I think.
The first version of this one minute ago read “jew fight back now” dots me, as herb Caen would say.
edit to add, hours later:
UKRAINE FIGHT BACK NOW
MR REZNIKOV
I biked over to Stanford, at the end of my workout, partly to cycle the lactic acid from my system but partly — like the proverbial dead cat — curious about the pro-Hamas or Maoist installation at White Plaza. There were about eight students there, commiserating or lying to each other about their miserable parents, and a bookshelf. Apparently they hate all Jews but love Karl Marx. I did not engage.
About forty yards from the compound I saw a flyer on a kiosk: the former defense minister of Ukraine was speaking just then at Encina Commons, a short bike ride away.
What an amazing experience! An actual world leader, trying to explain himself to everyone from current undergrads to our former ambassador to Russia. Breaking down the reality. It was quite inspiring. Ukraine looks to Israel for clues on how to survive. The pitch: we in the U.S. must help Ukraine if we want to preserve Democracy. The axis of evil is: Putin, Iran, North Korea. If Ukraine falls, so does Seoul. I sat next to McFaul. Or he sat next to me – I got there first. He nodded at the guy next to me. I pretended I did not know him. He asked the second to last question. Most of the people asking questions were ex-military, or ex-Soviet Republic subjects. As I unlocked my bike I said to three students: isn’t it great that at Stanford you can see actual world leaders five minutes from your dorm. Contrast this with the stooges and Fifth Columnists playing their form of liar’s poker in Little Rafah.
I rode back to the kiosk to snag the poster, but my wife later threw it away. More cognitive warfare, I suppose.
Speaker: Oleksii Reznikov, Minister of Defense of Ukraine (2021-2023)
Opening remarks followed by Q&A
Moderated by Steven Pifer, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine (1998-2000), Stanford University & Brookings Institution
Mr. Reznikov served as the 17th Minister of Defense of Ukraine from November 2021-September 2023. Prior to that, he was Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine (2020-21). From 2014-18, he served as Deputy Mayor of Kyiv, during which time he also was head of the Ukrainian delegation at the Congress of local and regional authorities of the Council of Europe.
A top Ukrainian lawyer, Reznikov represented the candidate for the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko in 2004, proving in the Supreme Court the falsification of the election results by another candidate – Viktor Yanukovych. As a result, a re-voting took place and Yushchenko became the President of Ukraine. Reznikov is known as one of the best Ukrainian negotiators, serving as the Deputy Head of the Ukrainian delegation at the “Minsk Negotiations.” As a lawyer, he practiced alternative dispute resolution. Due to the fact that he managed to bring most of the conflict cases to a peaceful settlement, he received the nickname “Peacemaker”.
Reznikov also has extensive teaching experience at a number of the national universities of Ukraine. Recently, he has given lectures at universities Washington DC, Tokyo, Munich, Vilnius, and Tel Aviv. He has received numerous awards, including the Order of the Cross of Vytis for special determination, sacrifice and leadership in the defense of Western democratic values and the fight for a safe Europe (awarded by the President of Lithuania, “Silver Cross of Merit” (awarded be the President of Poland), the “Medal of Merit” (awarded by the Defense Minister of Lithuania), and a medal for “Outstanding Leadership during the War” (awarded by the Defense Minister of Denmark).
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 