tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53029821883910558532024-03-05T19:22:42.756-08:00On the Beat with Paul LiberatoreArticles, columns and reviews about music and pop culture.Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-80647706773989567632009-06-21T08:02:00.000-07:002009-06-21T08:10:24.285-07:00Jack's got the blues and that ain't bad<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9sMFE8PFLr73DfTvQr2LxkOiiXFp9S3ybDJfsBRvuHS4dGi0k0RGMgMMt1WZM1SF9WCf2LxIljeC-XM3L4acYoW5uEJDGPV2rQeEDbJPT7HFStwD-oYPBioSy_4Xch9GKQ40DO27XZc8i/s1600-h/20090618__19liberatore+Elliott.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9sMFE8PFLr73DfTvQr2LxkOiiXFp9S3ybDJfsBRvuHS4dGi0k0RGMgMMt1WZM1SF9WCf2LxIljeC-XM3L4acYoW5uEJDGPV2rQeEDbJPT7HFStwD-oYPBioSy_4Xch9GKQ40DO27XZc8i/s320/20090618__19liberatore+Elliott.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349797785193802386" border="0" /></a><br /><span id="rds_global">At age 77, Marin's own Ramblin' Jack Elliott has a hit on his hands.<p> "A Stranger Here," his new album of country blues, is a tour de force by a folksinging legend who was a prot g of Woody Guthrie and a mentor to the young Bob Dylan.</p><p> In a voice that sounds as weathered and worn as a West Marin fence post, one of folk music's most endearing characters expands his repertoire, interpreting an intelligently selected collection of Depression-era blues songs that, sad to say, resonate once again in today's downbeat economy.</p><p> This is Jack's second CD on ANTI-Records, the label that made a name for itself by signing Tom Waits. "A Stranger Here" came out of the chute running, making its debut at No. 5 on the Billboard blues charts and tying </p><div class="articlePosition2"><p> <span style="font-weight: bold;color:darkred;" > <img src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0304/20080304_032652_audio_icon.jpg" border="0" /> Audio: </span> Ramblin' Jack Elliott - Death Don't Have No Mercy<br /><script language="JavaScript" src="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/audio-player.js"></script> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/player.swf" id="audioplayer1" width="290" height="24"> <param name="movie" value="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/player.swf"> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerID=1&soundFile=http://extras.marinij.com/audio/DeathDontHaveNoMercy.mp3"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="menu" value="false"> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> </object> </p><p> </p></div>with Leonard Cohen's "Live In London" as the highest-ranking new release.<p> Amazon.com gushed: "Elliott has made his masterpiece, an album at </p><p> once elegiac and defiant, that can stand beside great late career recordings by master singers like Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra."</p><p> The Wall Street Journal pronounced it "a career record."</p><p> Oddly enough, Jack has never liked making records. He'd rather be working on the old dory he keeps at his home on Tomales Bay in Marshall. But I've long suspected he had a great album in him, and it took producer Joe Henry (Bettye LaVette, Elvis Costello, Allen Toussaint), to create the setting for that to happen, for him to do some of the best work of his life.</p><p> The seed for the CD was planted when <span id="rds_global">Henry produced Jack's recording of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" for the Bob Dylan-inspired movie "I'm Not There."</span></p><p>"I saw that as a beautiful template for something," he told me. "I thought it would be a great coup if we could make a fully realized album for Jack with a full band and a concept that drives it."</p><p> Henry says he became obsessed with the idea of Jack singing the Rev. Gary Davis song "Death Don't Have No Mercy," and the notion of an entire album of pre-World War II blues flowed from that.</p><p> "I don't know why that song entered my thinking, but it did and I couldn't get rid of it," he recalled. "So I developed a concept that would give me an excuse to have Jack sing it. I heard it as very dark and terse. I heard Jack singing with a band."</p><p> As it happened, "Death Don't Have No Mercy" became the haunting centerpiece of an album that frees Jack from the constraints of his folksinger persona.</p><p> "It thrills me to listen to it," Jack said, speaking from a friend's home in Austin, Texas. "I heard the Rev. Gary Davis sing that song, but I couldn't hope to imitate him, so I don't know if there's any discernible influence. But it's very powerful. It's so heavy I'm afraid of it."</p><p> Jack, who opens the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival with Rosalie Sorrels on June 26, has always been a lone wolf, singing cowpoke ballads and folk tunes, strumming or finger picking his acoustic guitar and cracking up audiences with his rambling anecdotes (hence his nickname).</p><p> For this album, he recorded over four days in Henry's basement studio in South Pasadena with a handpicked ensemble of crack musicians, including keyboardist Van Dyke Parks and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos.</p><p> "I didn't have the courage to tell anyone how frightened I was because some of the songs were nothing like anything I'd tried to sing before," Jack confessed. "I felt totally unprepared, but those guys must have done their homework because they played so damn well I was buoyed up. A lot of times I didn't even play my guitar. I just stood up to the microphone and sang."</p><p> Jack and the band recorded 10 songs by the likes of Son House ("Grinnin' in Your Face"), Blind Willie Johnson ("Soul of a Man") and Mississippi John Hurt ("Richland Women Blues").</p><p> Jack met Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt when the old blues masters were rediscovered during the '60s folk revival of which he was so much a part.</p><p> Now that he's an elder statesman, maybe this album will lead to the same thing happening for him - exposure to a whole new audience.</p><p> "I thought it was brilliant of the record company guys and Joe Henry to choose to have me do this record," Jack said. "That's one of the main reasons why it's going to be a success. I'm very excited about it. But I'm not really a music lover. I just play this stuff. That's what buys the cat food and diesel fuel."</p><p> IF YOU RAMBLE</p><p> - What: Ramblin' Jack Elliott opens the 2009 Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival</p><p> - When: 5:30 p.m. June 26; through June 28</p><p> - Where: Black Oak Ranch, five miles north of Laytonville on Highway 101 in Mendocino County</p><p> - Tickets: $30 to $200</p><p> - Purchase: 558-4253 or 866-558-4253; also atCulture Shock, 7 Bolinas Road, Fairfax, 456-8138 </p><p> - Information: 707-829-7067; <a href="http://www.cumuluspresents.com/">www.cumuluspresents.com</a></p></span>Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-22326064053385677122009-06-15T06:57:00.000-07:002009-06-15T07:13:47.690-07:00Guitarist Robben Ford: A musician's musician<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3NohyT4Ylz0udK2UrkgqErA_dyMknxEFU-0s2pew9V7EG3lNzHs3uCK_N2_8yjzc2d9O0wh1kU_6HVHGBVcyfEUKN92ZA9oJqnRFAQG2pihOnhWiN6KLD4G_f5-PxYL0w6Ci3Y9eK9tMu/s1600-h/Robben_Ford1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3NohyT4Ylz0udK2UrkgqErA_dyMknxEFU-0s2pew9V7EG3lNzHs3uCK_N2_8yjzc2d9O0wh1kU_6HVHGBVcyfEUKN92ZA9oJqnRFAQG2pihOnhWiN6KLD4G_f5-PxYL0w6Ci3Y9eK9tMu/s320/Robben_Ford1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347556036207005154" border="0" /></a><br /><span id="rds_global">For a performer Musician magazine named one of the 100 greatest guitarists of the last century, Robben Ford isn't as famous as he has every right to be.<p> For whatever reason, he's one of those unsung musicians' musicians overshadowed by the likes of John Mayer and Eric Clapton, the top-hatted Slash and the other celebrity guitar slingers.</p><p> Along with Larry Carlton, though, Ford is the most talented and yet underrated jazz-rock fusion players in the business. A four-time Grammy nominee, he's played with some of music's heaviest hitters - Miles Davis and Joni Mitchell, for starters, plus George Harrison, blues giant Jimmy Witherspoon, Michael McDonald, and Marin's own Bonnie Raitt and Phil Lesh.</p></span><p><br /></p><div class="articlePosition2"><p> <span style="color: darkred; font-weight: bold;"> <img src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0304/20080304_032652_audio_icon.jpg" border="0" /> Audio: </span> Robben Ford - Supernatural<br /><script language="JavaScript" src="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/audio-player.js"></script> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/player.swf" id="audioplayer1" width="290" height="24"> <param name="movie" value="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/player.swf"> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerID=1&soundFile=http://extras.marinij.com/audio/Supernatural.mp3"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="menu" value="false"> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> </object> </p><p> </p></div><br /><span id="rds_global"><p><span id="rds_global"></span></p><p>I have a <span id="rds_global"><span id="rds_global"><span style="font-weight: bold;color:darkred;" ></span></span></span>memory of him that has stuck in <span id="rds_global">my mind for years. I was backstage at the San Francisco Blues Festival when I heard a guitarist playing the hell out of a slow blues tune. I didn't know who it was at first because I was unable to see the bandstand from where I was sitting.</span></p><p> Across from me, an older blues cat who obviously knew his stuff was as rapt as I was, swept away by what we later learned was a transporting Ford guitar solo. When the final tasteful note died out, we made eye contact, smiled and nodded in appreciation. We didn't have to say a word. We knew we'd just been taken to a place only a handful of musicians could have taken us.</p><p> Ford last played here in February on a bill with Jorma Kaukonen and Ruthie Foster in the 2,000-seat Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium. </p>On June 13, he returns for a mostly acoustic show in the intimate 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley. His wife, singer Anne Kerry Ford, opens.<p> "It's the perfect place for us to do something kind of unique," he said, speaking from his home in Ojai, a Southern California haven for musicians, artists and health enthusiasts.</p><p> The 57-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist said the Mill Valley show will be "a little more jazz oriented and song oriented" than his straight-up blues or rock concerts with his power trio.</p><p> He'll be singing what he calls his "more subtle songs," namely "Don't Lose Your Faith in Me" and "If" from his 1999 album "Supernatural." It's all part of his campaign to mix music up, to keep it creative and eclectic.</p><p> Raised in Ukiah, Ford came of age during the era of the San Francisco Sound, admiring Marin blues guitarists Michael Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop from the Paul Butterfield Band.</p><p> "When I grew up, I used to see the most incredible combinations of bands at the Fillmore and Winterland in the '60s," he recalled. "You'd see a jazz act, then Ten Years After and then Iron Butterfly. No one minded that there was this diversity."</p><p> Ford is working on presenting a series of diverse shows like the ones Bill Graham used to put together in those freewheeling ballroom days.</p><p> "There are a lot of great artists who don't get heard because they're pigeonholed, and that's just nonsense," he said. "I'm irked by that. There are people in the music industry saying you can't do this or you can't do that. But I like doing a variety of things."</p><p> That's for sure. I asked him about some of the legends he's played with in his wide-ranging career.</p><p> Miles Davis: "That was a crowning moment. I played with Miles when I was 34 or 35, then I left the band. I could have stayed with him for God knows how long because he really liked me. He loved my playing and we got along well.</p><p> "But the situation around him was an unhealthy scene. I don't mean drugs, but it was a shame to feel the need to leave. It was incredible to make a connection with probably the most important figure in music, at least to me. I still listen to him more than any single artist. At first when I left, he was angry with me. But the last thing he said was, 'If you want to come back, come back.'"</p><p> Joni Mitchell: "She was at the peak of her powers when I played with her in the L.A. Express. The 'Court and Spark' record is insanely great, and 'The Hissing of Summer Lawns' leans more to the dark side. They're yin and yang records. And I got to be there for them, to tour with her and make a live record. It was a privilege to work with the greatest artist of the 20th century in pop music. But I split. I wanted to make my own records. I was young and stupid to think like that. But I did two tours with her and two records, and then everybody kind of moved on."</p><p> George Harrison: "It was a great experience to play with one of the Beatles. Who would have thought? I met him in London after a Joni Mitchell concert and he invited me to go on his 'Dark Horse' tour.</p><p> "But it was a strange situation. We were doing two shows a day sometimes and they were 31Ú2 hours long. We had a huge cast of characters with Ravi Shankar and a 16-piece Indian orchestra. We'd be in these enormous sports arenas for 16 hours a day. It was relentless. There were a lot of drugs around, so it wasn't the most pleasurable experience, but George was generous and sweet to me. It was the only tour he ever did with his band, but he didn't like being a bandleader. I saw him years later and he said, 'I think of you, Robin.' Wow, George Harrison thinking of me? That was the last time I saw him."</p><p> Shortly after the tour with Harrison, Ford took a much-needed break from the grind of the road and spent a year in Colorado, studying under the controversial Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa, known for the "crazy wisdom" he imparted on his Western followers.</p><p> While Ford has never lived in Marin, he should feel right at home in a county with the Spirit Rock Meditation Center and the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center.</p><p> "He (Trungpa) taught us to look at our own mind and not look at outside forces for our own personal happiness and well being," he explained. "All of us were trying to turn spirituality into a drug or a lover. But he was relentless in cutting through that kind of a view and getting people to be honest with themselves. It had a powerful impact on everyone in those days. And it still does."</p></span>Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-53699200848354044372009-06-01T06:48:00.000-07:002009-06-01T07:02:53.792-07:00Sweet Deal for Sweetwater?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk7_sVOEuvGQmtl55_friX7hch1_io6QuUtxJ_onxSCj8rr9fBNVbl9TBEK_sWk93LBaZDOjWL8-aKI9R7O4VxqR_FQIDj2O54kmrJYIVbBre47zX4NmRhVCVByk8udr-NmDpfJq-q4atN/s1600-h/sweetwater-01.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk7_sVOEuvGQmtl55_friX7hch1_io6QuUtxJ_onxSCj8rr9fBNVbl9TBEK_sWk93LBaZDOjWL8-aKI9R7O4VxqR_FQIDj2O54kmrJYIVbBre47zX4NmRhVCVByk8udr-NmDpfJq-q4atN/s320/sweetwater-01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342358312802142450" border="0" /></a><br />I had the pleasure of speaking to a community group last week about Marin's rock history. Afterward, the first question from the audience was about Sweetwater. What's going on with the long-closed club in Mill Valley? Is one of Marin's rock 'n' roll institutions ever going to reopen?<p> Good question. The owners of Sweetwater have been vowing to reopen since they lost their lease and shut down the original club in September 2007 after 37 years on Throckmorton Avenue.</p><p> That was more than 1/2 years ago. It looked hopeful when a banner went up on the site of what was the proposed new Sweetwater, just around the corner on Miller Avenue from the old one.</p><p> It promised in big bold letters that Sweetwater would open there soon, in a former gift and home furnishings shop at 32 Miller Ave. But when months passed, times got tough and remodeling work stopped, someone crossed out the "soon" and wrote "when?" in green spray paint.</p><p> Lately, Sweetwater fans had a new reason to be alarmed when the banner disappeared entirely and a "for lease" sign appeared in the window of the partially refurbished storefront.</p><p> There were so many rumors and so much speculation flying around that the club's owners, Becky and Thom Steere, avoided going downtown so they wouldn't be barraged with questions and accusations.</p><p> As it happens, they blame the bad economy, government regulations and unanticipated cost overruns for the delays.</p><p> "We've mortagaged our house three times," Becky Steere said. "It's extremely hurtfiul to hear some of this stuff people are saying." </p><p> For everyone who has been as worried as I've been that Sweetwater may be gone forever, I'm happy to report that there's light at the end of the tunnel, and it isn't an oncoming train.</p><p> The good news is that the Steeres have been in serious discussions with Mill Valley Live Arts, the nonprofit organization that operates the popular 142 Throckmorton Theatre.</p><p> Under the new management concept they're discussing, Sweetwater would also become a nonprofit venue under Mill Valley Live Arts. In essence, Sweetwater and 142 Throckmorton would be sister entertainment operations under the same umbrella.</p><p> "The good thing is that 142 Throckmorton is already quite successful in its programming, and I think Sweetwater would add another venue for the community that's smaller and would allow us to present acts that wouldn't fit well into the larger venue," Larry Goldfarb, chair of Mill Valley Live Arts, said.</p><p> This potential breakthrough is being hailed as an exciting new development by everyone concerned, and it could result in the new Sweetwater opening again in a matter of a few months.</p><p> I proposed something along these lines for Sweetwater some time ago after visiting Passim's, a historic nonprofit nightclub in Cambridge, Mass. But ideas and reality are two different things. What matters in the end is that all the principals are behind it, including the investors, and they appear to be - at least in concept.</p><p> "Having the nonprofit behind us would be a nice thing instead of Thom and I busting our butts every month to make it work, to be able to pay the bills," Becky Steere told me. "It's a good model. It would be a nice community thing. I've never given up hope. And now It looks like it's going to happen."</p><p> According to her, fans of the old Sweetwater needn't worry about the club losing it's roots rock character. Under the agreement, she said, Sweetwater would continue to operate as a full bar with live music.</p><p> Billionaire Warren Hellman, who bankrolls the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco, is one of Sweetwater's investors.</p><p> "He, like many other investors and fans of Sweetwater, would love to see it reopen," said Lora Blum, Hellman's attorney. "And if a nonprofit organization like Mill Valley Live Arts can make that happen, he would definitely support that effort."</p><p> There are some legal complications and other negotiating hurdles, including agreements on financial terms. But Sweetwater has such cach and is of such cultural importance that money does not appear to be much of an object.</p><p> "If we could reach terms, we have donors in place who are pretty committed to giving or getting the money to accomplish this," Goldfarb said. "I think these donors have the financial resources to do so, and they have expressed their desire for it to happen."</p><p> One of the key people in all of this is Lucy Mercer, the founder and artistic director of the 142 Throckmorton Theatre. She has been instrumental in pulling people together in order to save something we all value while at the same time building a nonprofit cultural organization of which we can enjoy and be proud.</p><p> "It's not a done deal," she said. "There's still the paperwork to go through, but overall, it does create a win-win for everyone involved."</p><p> Contact Paul Liberatore via e-mail at <a href="mailto:liberatore@marinij.com">liberatore@marinij.com</a>; follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LibLarge</p>Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-91823530127235539472009-05-15T06:53:00.000-07:002009-05-15T07:18:36.741-07:00A Community Mourns Carl Dern<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3T2dcBktUPB_Yx3y55cdVDRmozw917T_d9nbN2MfG7hywNRxAPNZPDN0AcZiHgFjOaUkCyAr1z7rPKOb4T41Nv0i0EdKzRA9var1jIAJ-yHeR3dXMor_CtuEqkShLzzE-rNeRb8opoMgR/s1600-h/Carl.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 143px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3T2dcBktUPB_Yx3y55cdVDRmozw917T_d9nbN2MfG7hywNRxAPNZPDN0AcZiHgFjOaUkCyAr1z7rPKOb4T41Nv0i0EdKzRA9var1jIAJ-yHeR3dXMor_CtuEqkShLzzE-rNeRb8opoMgR/s320/Carl.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336053772172740642" border="0" /></a><br />This is the obituary I wrote for the Marin Independent Journal. Carl was more than a figure in the community to me. He was someone I looked up to. I knew him since my daughters were growing up and even more recently as a friend and artist at my wife's gallery, the Donna Seager Gallery. To Carl, everyone was family. He was a compassionate man and I'll miss him.<br /><br />Carl Dern, a renowned sculptor and prominent member of the Marin art community, died Monday of complications from interstitial lung disease at the University of California at San Francisco, Medical Center.<br /><br />Mr. Dern, a longtime resident of Fairfax, was 73.<br /><br />In his distinguished career, Mr. Dern's art was exhibited widely in the Bay Area and beyond, including the Fresno Art Museum, the Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.<br /><br />He was a participating artist in 2004's "Hearts in San Francisco" citywide exhibition, creating a bright green heart he called "San Francisco Love Apple."<br /><br />Mr. Dern was best known for his whimsical chairs, ladders and trees fashioned in steel, bronze and copper, sometimes seen as metaphors for the human figure. His work was lauded in an exhibition art catalog for "its elegant imbalance and noble incongruity."<br /><br />Ceramist Richard Shaw of Fairfax, a fellow artist and friend, described Mr. Dern as "a tough, hard-working, sensitive guy." He compared his art to that of Alexander Calder, famed for his metal mobiles.<br /><br />"Carl's pieces looked like they were moving when they weren't," Shaw said. "He gave that feeling of motion.<br /><br />Also accomplished at drawing, Mr. Dern often worked with his wife, Marie, a book artist and founder of Jungle Garden Press in Fairfax.<br /><br />"He was curious, inventive and compassionate," she said.<br /><br />They most recently collaborated with U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan on "The Jam Jar Lifeboat & Other Novelties Exposed," a collection of Ryan's poems that Mr. Dern illustrated with his light-hearted drawings.<br /><br />Mr. Dern also worked in the field of applied arts, most notably creating unique steel and bronze furniture and artistic chandeliers.<br /><br />Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on April 24, 1936, into a family of miners, cowboys and politicians, Mr. Dern moved to San Francisco in 1960 and received a bachelor of fine arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute and a master's of fine arts degree in sculpture from UC Berkeley.<br /><br />He won the prestigious Anne Bremer Prize in Art in 1969 and 1972. In 1970, he co-founded the New Museum of Modern Art in Oakland.<br /><br />In the early 1980s, Mr. Dern built Fairfax Square, a two-story commercial building at 82 Bolinas Road. He and his wife, Marie, worked in their studio on nearby Park Road in Fairfax.<br /><br />A deeply spiritual man, Mr. Dern was a member of the Zen Buddhist community and had been studying to be a Buddhist priest and teacher under the noted Buddhist leader Ed Brown, a personal friend.<br /><br />In addition his wife, he is survived by daughters Amy Christensen of Cotati and Daisy Dern of Nashville, Tenn.; sons Fritz Dern of Fairfax and James Dern of Santa Rosa; and five grandchildren.<br /><br />Memorial contributions may be made to the San Francisco Zen Center, any favorite charity or toward the purchase of a piece of art by a local artist.<br /><br />A memorial service will be in July in Stinson Beach.<br /><br />Contact Paul Liberatore via e-mail at liberatore@marinij.com; follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LibLargePaul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-75732227543633182122009-05-12T06:30:00.000-07:002009-05-12T06:57:21.934-07:00The Dead Live Again: Finding Balance after Jerry Garcia<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsZ0x9zYpVdoDLw-BdR9STCf03JqT9sUrUhGcKnsriY2INAxNrHJC5aHZfhfdpNfsN_Ek0LLn8lkS7jhLZBlh5oXZOK9ZNhqG0vxiDOTE3BHtV8z72aZ3mDQkmJGMCS7I2nzzUH3Ki29VY/s1600-h/20090511__dead.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsZ0x9zYpVdoDLw-BdR9STCf03JqT9sUrUhGcKnsriY2INAxNrHJC5aHZfhfdpNfsN_Ek0LLn8lkS7jhLZBlh5oXZOK9ZNhqG0vxiDOTE3BHtV8z72aZ3mDQkmJGMCS7I2nzzUH3Ki29VY/s320/20090511__dead.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334931149058687490" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Fourteen years after Jerry Garcia's death, the four surviving members of the Grateful Dead have finally come together again as a band.</span></span><span id="rds_global"><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> And the 20,000 Deadheads who sold out the Shoreline Amphitheater Sunday night for the band's homecoming show couldn't be happier about it.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> The Shoreline concert, the first of two at the airy Mountain View venue, came at the end of the Dead's first national tour in five years.
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> "It's everything I could have hoped for," said 49-year-old Scott Bucey of Corte Madera, a member of the Marin Symphony board and a Deadhead since 1978. "It brings us back to where we were before Jerry died in 1995. I only wish that they had done this sooner."</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> Wearing a tie-dye T-shirt, Bucey was at the concert with his </span><span id="rds_global" style="font-size:85%;">wife, Jennifer.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> "The people in the audience are saying, 'This is it, finally,'" she said. "'It's taken 14 years, but this is it.'"</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> After they lost Garcia, the Grateful Dead's lead guitarist and charismatic paterfamilias, the four other founding members - guitarist-singer Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann - feuded over business and personal issues. The only thing they seemed to agree on was dropping "Grateful" from their name in honor of their fallen bandmate.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> That's why this 20-plus-concert reunion tour has become such a milestone in the 40-year history of the Marin-based band.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> And even in the worst economy since the Great Depression, the Dead remain a highly attractive touring act, playing </span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> "We're selling 15,000 to 20,000 tickets every night," said Tim Jorstad of San Rafael, the Dead's b</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFhmlZgAu4ym8fYZWlGKDNh8LbPIqSQOdAzC1V6RpSE8gKAupyIvtR_S50oD6Ic_zIIg2FJM98MvoKzkX-jwfvbaPuyCaVvi6dYQKZWICWWmEX0zfWkocoW9xJI4BFJbN6IEEK2QN4lYjS/s1600-h/20090511__dead4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 302px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFhmlZgAu4ym8fYZWlGKDNh8LbPIqSQOdAzC1V6RpSE8gKAupyIvtR_S50oD6Ic_zIIg2FJM98MvoKzkX-jwfvbaPuyCaVvi6dYQKZWICWWmEX0zfWkocoW9xJI4BFJbN6IEEK2QN4lYjS/s320/20090511__dead4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334932206769634914" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>usiness manager. "In this economy, that's really good. The guys are stoked."</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> Mickey Hart certainly was, standing backstage before the show with a lit cigar in one hand and a drumstick in the other.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> "We really found each other on this tour," he said with his characteristic energy and enthusiasm. "We're renewing our friendship. We're starting to </span><span id="rds_global" style="font-size:85%;">become a group again."</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> The man who has promised to reunite the country, President Barack Obama, also did his part in reuniting the Dead.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> They came together for the first time at a Warfield fundraiser for Obama the night before the California primary. And a huge Obama benefit concert in Pennsylvania last year sealed the deal for this tour.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> The president was so grateful for their support that he invited them to visit him in the Oval Office when the band played in Washington D.C.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> Rolling Stone magazine ran a photo of him and the band under the headline "Deadhead in Chief."</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> And it turns out that several members of the president's staff, including senior advisers Pete Rouse and David Axelrod, are Dead fans. With other West Wingers, </span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> That same night Hart invited Tipper Gore, a longtime friend, to sit in on drums on "Sugar Magnolia."</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> At Shorel</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilA-biD2aobjFcIkA7N736nHZbrzezEULcAUdSE0ACs3c5vMdlOLW5-V8fCcd6AO0KRT1PA7_v5HLC8JbW7xCTuhh7xaKaWBpyldjwHsOjZTIpEdxrOWCqVEHlFcY96VX617iKIkAtww_l/s1600-h/Mickey+Hart.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilA-biD2aobjFcIkA7N736nHZbrzezEULcAUdSE0ACs3c5vMdlOLW5-V8fCcd6AO0KRT1PA7_v5HLC8JbW7xCTuhh7xaKaWBpyldjwHsOjZTIpEdxrOWCqVEHlFcY96VX617iKIkAtww_l/s320/Mickey+Hart.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334931966003197650" border="0" /></a></span></span></span>ine, the Dead started 45 minutes late, waiting for the jubilant crowd to file in from the vast parking lots, and played past the amphitheater's 11:30 p.m. curfew. Bolstered by lead guitarist Warren Haynes of the Allman Bros. Band and Government Mule, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti from Weir's band Ratdog, the Dead played classics like "Sugaree," "Sugar Magnolia" and, to close the first set, an operatic rendition of "Uncle John's Band" with pipe organ harmonies.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> The packed house seemed to move with the music like one giant undulating organism at a pot party. Balloons and beach balls floated above the crowd and occasionally bounced onto the stage.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> The Dead, concentrating on their trademark improvisational rock, may disdain showmanship, but they know how to put on a show. During their traditional "Rhythm Devils" and "Space" numbers, a sexy group of five female fire dancers came out to add even more heat and light to the far-out proceedings.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> The Dead seemed extra soulful on more introspective songs like "Unbroken Chain" and a 20-minute version of "Help on the Way." Because they are now among rock's senior citizens, choosing "Touch of Grey," their only Top 40 hit, as their final encore seemed symbolic.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> Asked if they will tour again, Hart said, "We need to get through this tour first."</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> But the sense was that, as long as they remain healthy, this tour may be the beginning or a late career revival. Or not.</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> "Since Garcia died, everyone was unsettled musically and personally," said Hart's wife, Caryl. "It took a long time to find a new balance, and that's what you're seeing now."</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> The Dead play again at Shoreline on Thursday night. There's no telling when they may do that again. As someone close to the aging band said: "If you're a Deadhead, you don't want to sit this one out."</span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><span><span id="rds_global"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-HjQWzXzIeqkjBBnMdncHokYPw7p8fHx6BOA90oicqBmI4IVyXJrha5gLf1IWYr9Mso3oQBTivx1rNJ3E2KrLpP7MgQtIZCGEb4yLPEsOQAxc41KVnVnOUm-dLi-w4OH6f_WkRRD2-fu/s1600-h/20090511__dead3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-HjQWzXzIeqkjBBnMdncHokYPw7p8fHx6BOA90oicqBmI4IVyXJrha5gLf1IWYr9Mso3oQBTivx1rNJ3E2KrLpP7MgQtIZCGEb4yLPEsOQAxc41KVnVnOUm-dLi-w4OH6f_WkRRD2-fu/s320/20090511__dead3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334932747747569666" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size:78%;">Photo Credits</span></p><p><span style="font-size:78%;">1.</span><span style="font-size:78%;">The Dead bassist Phil Lesh (left) and guitarist Bob Weir (front) perform at the Shoreline Amphitheater. The Dead performed its first homecoming show at the end of their first tour in five years in front of a packed house of fans at the Shoreline Amphitheater in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Mountain View</st1:place></st1:city> on Sunday. (Special to the IJ/Douglas Zimmerman)</span></p><p><span style="font-size:78%;">2. </span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5COwner%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-size:78%;">The Dead drummer Mickey Hart address the crowd to be patient for the start of the concert because thousands of ticket holders were still outside the amphitheater at the scheduled start of the concert Sunday. (Special to the IJ/Douglas Zimmerman)</span></p><p><span style="font-size:78%;">3.</span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5COwner%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-size:78%;"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"> Huntington Beach</st1:place></st1:city> resident Julie Postel (center) holds a Grateful Dead poster before the start of the concert. Her first Grateful Dead concert was in 1985. (Special to the IJ/Douglas Zimmerman)</span></p><p><span style="font-size:78%;">4. </span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5COwner%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-size:78%;"> The Dead fan Tahoe Jimbo 420 wears tie-dye shoes before the start of the concert. (Special to the IJ/Douglas Zimmerman)</span> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <a href="mailto:liberatore@marinij.com"></a></p><p>
<br /></p></span>Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-87952422864474239082009-05-06T20:53:00.000-07:002009-05-06T21:01:02.454-07:00Robin Williams' surprise Mill Valley show has a lot of heart<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRMEGa7ttr6mG4uqrci5pKY8uYvYci77FJUjdcHTNGvQUPj50GCVq9z7LKOWoQIWPuN_GoaC-gNvWT9RLPFvyJMx4HdrYZVOmHcxoiSjCreuNMWEOIJsJPV_ZgnH1nsrbFpKnjPExfoAc3/s1600-h/robin-williams.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 241px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRMEGa7ttr6mG4uqrci5pKY8uYvYci77FJUjdcHTNGvQUPj50GCVq9z7LKOWoQIWPuN_GoaC-gNvWT9RLPFvyJMx4HdrYZVOmHcxoiSjCreuNMWEOIJsJPV_ZgnH1nsrbFpKnjPExfoAc3/s320/robin-williams.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332926856173736514" border="0" /></a><!--secondary date--><br /><span type="end" id="default"></span><span type="start" id="default"></span><span type="end" id="default"></span><div id="articleBody" class="articleBody"><div class="articleViewerGroup" id="articleViewerGroup" style="border: 0px none ;"><script language="JavaScript"> var requestedWidth = 0; </script><span class="articleEmbeddedViewerBox"></span><span type="start" id="default"></span><span type="end" id="default"></span></div><script language="JavaScript"> if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; </script>Robin Williams made an impromptu appearance at 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley Tuesday night, the comedian's first public performance since undergoing heart surgery in March.<p> Williams, recuperating from a heart valve operation to correct an irregular heartbeat, had been sitting in the back of the theater during comedian Mark Pitta's weekly comedy night.</p><p> "We expected him to just watch," said Lucy Mercer, the theater's founder and artistic director. "He's still fragile, obviously."</p><p> But toward the end of the show, the lure of the stage became too strong for Williams to resist.</p><p> "I was saying goodnight to the crowd when he walked up, and I'm like, 'no way,'" Pitta said. "It was a total surprise to me. Then he went on to do 30 minutes."</p><p> Once he was on stage, the famously manic comedian confessed that he couldn't just sit in the back while other comics made people laugh.</p><p> "You know I'm a whore for an audience," he told the packed house.</p><p> The 57-year-old comedian is known to be a bundle of sweaty energy while performing, but this time fans became concerned when he appeared to be laboring even harder than usual.</p><p> "Ten minutes in, he was out of breath," Pitta said. "He kept saying, 'The doctors said I shouldn't be here. I need another month down.' It was like watching 'The Wrestler' with Mickey Rourke, only with comedy, and Robin up on top of the ropes, leaping off."</p><p> Williams, who has been living in Tiburon since his second wife filed for divorce last year, postponed his sold-out one-man comedy tour, "Weapons of Self-Destruction," after being hospitalized with heart problems and undergoing surgery at the Cleveland Clinic on March 13.</p><p> The 3.5-hour operation involved replacing his aortic valve and repairing his mitral valve. His doctors said he is expected to make a complete recovery.</p><p> He jokes that the next leg of the tour, expected to resume in the fall, will be called "Weapons of Self-Destruction and Reconstruction!"</p><p> There is a history of heart disease in Williams' family. In August 2007, his older brother, Robert Todd Williams, died of complications from heart surgery.</p><p> As he often did when he was developing material for his tour at the Mill Valley theater, Williams got into some good-natured bantering with members of the audience, joking about the cow's valve that was used to repair his heart.</p><p> "Somebody asked him from the audience if he craved different foods," Pitta said, "because he heard that with that surgery, a bovine valve, that's what happens. Robin said, 'Well I'm grazing more.'"</p><p> At one point, Williams engaged in an exchange with Corinna Kaufman, a 54-year-old "guided image practitioner and hypnotherapist" from Novato.</p><p> "In Marin, there's so much material based on that," Mercer said, commenting on Kaufman's new-agey occupation. "He went back and forth with her."</p><p> For her part, Kaufman was afraid the always antic Williams had over-taxed his newly repaired heart.</p><p> "He kept saying, 'My heart is going so fast,' and pounding his chest," she said. "He was so excited just being on stage that he said his heart was jumping all over the place. I was worried that he would keel over right there."</p><p> Williams was remarkably candid, talking about his surgery, his doctors and nurses, dealing with pain, other intimate matters.</p><p> "Personally, I think it was good for him," Mercer said. "He was really open with people. It was wonderful. This is his community."</p><p> Pitta concurred, saying, "At the end of it, in the Green Room, he looked at me and said, 'I needed that.'"</p></div>Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-60064749068631945142009-05-04T20:28:00.000-07:002009-05-04T20:36:59.994-07:00Jai Uttal opens up to life, love on journey to sobriety<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUrVkXyZZF6XkbRphaiYXJTBRQmy9MCWptuoTAD5Z7UvNO4t99v8KaiKxak1SUpuPNc-8L-X4YcK7YhkAwsQR7_DogPuEKWA3fJHvOaHdxVGIYq7h_yWnExZXPzKejxg4MpgcMs3pvGGhu/s1600-h/20090319__jaiuttal.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUrVkXyZZF6XkbRphaiYXJTBRQmy9MCWptuoTAD5Z7UvNO4t99v8KaiKxak1SUpuPNc-8L-X4YcK7YhkAwsQR7_DogPuEKWA3fJHvOaHdxVGIYq7h_yWnExZXPzKejxg4MpgcMs3pvGGhu/s320/20090319__jaiuttal.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332178515787211746" border="0" /></a><br /><span id="rds_global">Jai Uttal, the world music star who has just released a transformational new album, "Thunder Love," was sitting on a plump couch the other day in a comfy corner of Open Secret, the San Rafael New Age bookstore, when strains of exotic music floated from the shop's sound system, causing him to bolt upright and his eyes to light up like an electric Buddha.<p> It was a song by the Bauls of Bengal, India's wandering street musicians, that shocked him into a reverie of recognition. When he was a young seeker entranced by Indian music and Eastern spirituality, he lived among them, traveled with them, communicating with them only through music.</p><p> "Do you hear that?" he asked me. "That music was very influential, very important to me. Those people </p><div class="articlePosition2"><p> <span style="font-weight: bold;color:darkred;" > <img src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0304/20080304_032652_audio_icon.jpg" border="0" /> Audio: </span> Jai Uttal - Bhavani Shankara<br /><script language="JavaScript" src="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/audio-player.js"></script> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/player.swf" id="audioplayer1" width="290" height="24"> <param name="movie" value="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/player.swf"> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerID=1&soundFile=http://extras.marinij.com/audio/Shankara.mp3"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="menu" value="false"> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> </object> </p><p> </p></div>helped me find my voice and my style." His 1994 album with his Pagan Love Orchestra, "Beggars and Saints," was a tribute to the Bauls.<p> By then, though, he was already well known. In 1990, he broke through with his very first album, "Footprints," an innovative collaboration with the late jazz trumpeter Don Cherry and Indian singer Lakshmi Shankar that combined acoustic and sampled sounds from India, Turkey, Africa and the Middle East. It has since become a classic.</p><p> "With that album, I got famous," he said matter-of-factly.</p><p> He is quick to acknowledge another major musical debt, this one to Ali Akbar Khan, the famed North Indian maestro who founded San Rafael's Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967.</p><p> A New Yorker who retains a trace of <span id="rds_global">an accent, Uttal came to Marin when he was 19 to study with Khan, taking lessons in voice and the sarod, the 25-stringed instrument of which Khan is the recognized master.</span></p><p> A multi-instrumentalist singer and songwriter, Uttal has produced a series of acclaimed albums over the past two decades, blending Indian music, Appalachian folk, psychedelic rock, hip-hop, jazz, you name it.</p><p> In 2002, his album "Mondo Rama" earned him his first New Age Grammy nomination.</p><p> At 57, Uttal, who lives with his family in San Anselmo, has short salt-and-pepper hair, speaks in a gentle voice and wears one gold earring and a necklace with a silver feather pendant. On the day of this interview, he had on a brown leather shirt jacket with western snaps and light green pants with a drawstring.</p><p> Until he was in his late 40s, his life and career looked pretty rose-colored from the outside. Then, as now, he earned a nice living traveling around the country leading workshops in kirtan yoga chanting and meditation, a practice that enthusiasts see as a way "to open the heart of infinite love."</p><p> Jack Kornfield, founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, praised him as "one of the most extraordinary spiritual chanters and ecstatic singers of </p><p> But Uttal is the first to confess that he was living a lie. His heart was as slammed shut as a prison door. While his public image was one of an enlightened, spiritual musician who some fans even saw as a guru, the truth was that he was an alcoholic and drug user whose personal life was out of control.</p><p> "It was a dark period for me because my public persona and my internal experience were such a dichotomy," he admitted. "I never felt I was being phony or hypocritical, but I was so miserable inside that I didn't see my way out of it. Here I was performing chanting and devotional music that was about finding your way out of these dark holes. But somehow or other I had dug myself in so deep I couldn't get myself out.</p><p> "Part of it was the drugs and alcohol, but some part of me needed to take that tunnel as far down as it was going to go before I could come out and breathe again. I was very physically sick, but nobody knew it. I had no one to share how absolutely hopeless I felt inside of me. I felt really alone."</p><p> And then, when he was 49, he met his soul mate, Nubia Teixeira, a young Brazilian dancer and yoga teacher who is now his wife.</p><p> "Before I met her, I didn't believe in the concept of soul mates," he said. "I thought it was romantic wishful thinking. But when I met Nubia my whole internal landscape changed."</p><p> Not long after they were married, Nubia, now 36, gave birth to their son, Ezra Gopal, now 4, Uttal's first child.</p><p> "I didn't expect to have a child," he confided. "Ezra was born when I was 54 and totally out of that way of thinking. My wife thought she never wanted a child either. But we started feeling the energy of this being. At first we pushed it away, but then we stopped pushing away and everything changed - Ezra was born."</p><p> As a middle-aged husband who suddenly found himself a first-time father, Uttal realized that he had to make some major changes in his life.</p><p> "The primary one was getting sober," he said. "I was never a party animal or carouser, but I had consistently been taking drugs and drinking alcohol since I was a kid. Getting clean and sober was a big job. It didn't happen overnight."</p><p> But it happened. And the result of his transformation from the dark into the light is reflected in "Thunder Love."</p><p> "That goes right into what 'Thunder Love' is about - the opening to love and trust expressed through song," he explained. "It's why this album is different from all the others."</p><p> It's also different in that it focuses heavily on guitar and banjo and incorporates Brazilian instruments and rhythms for the first time in a significant way.</p><p> On this album, Uttal also sings more in English than he ever has, using Sanskrit only in the chants and choruses. Aside from the complex structure and length of several of the nine songs, it's a catchy, commercial record with lots of pop hooks and memorable melodies.</p><p> He says this album is about opening up to love and to life, at long last. That's patently evident on "Bolo Ram (Let the Spirits Sing)." As he sings in his fine clear voice, "Looking 'round my bedroom for some evidence that there's still reason to be alive / Not so long ago I lost my innocence simply trying to survive / Memories come and go but nothing stays / You know still I hold on tight / 'Cause without your love I could live a million days and never get it right."</p><p> At this mature point in Uttal's professional and personal life, he seems to have finally gotten it right.</p></span>Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-83844855193627118812009-05-01T07:34:00.000-07:002009-05-01T07:41:11.819-07:00Kenney Dale Johnson, Chris Isaak's drummer, sidekick, friend<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJx197t8WsWFLJz6xAoLvvzBm7Yps46aNjO8sTXPeZkgciiX9dhjVZiYvCblrG8nquyPPOwcttyUvf2DFycuuRfCvqOT9h5_5gv9LN4SpR9g6Dkm0644vcLV99Fn29Ewek_pG8cIZy-6XP/s1600-h/20090430__01drummer2_Gallery.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 212px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJx197t8WsWFLJz6xAoLvvzBm7Yps46aNjO8sTXPeZkgciiX9dhjVZiYvCblrG8nquyPPOwcttyUvf2DFycuuRfCvqOT9h5_5gv9LN4SpR9g6Dkm0644vcLV99Fn29Ewek_pG8cIZy-6XP/s320/20090430__01drummer2_Gallery.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330864573699497474" border="0" /></a><br />The Chris Isaak Band headlines in a few weeks at the Sonoma Jazz Plus Festival, a rare close-to-home concert that drummer Kenney Dale Johnson sees as chance to prove to his San Rafael neighbors once and for all that he really is a professional musician.<p> "We play in the North Bay so seldom that my neighbors don't believe I'm in a band," he says with a contented smile one unseasonably warm afternoon, sitting on the back deck of his Gerstle Park home in blue short-sleeve shirt and black shorts, sipping a tall, cool one and gazing at the inviting water of his swimming pool.</p><p> In point of fact, Johnson, who's "54 and kickin'," has always been in a band. From the time his postal worker father bought him a drum set when he was 12 (which he still </p><div class="articlePosition2"><p> <span style="font-weight: bold;color:darkred;" > <img src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0304/20080304_032652_audio_icon.jpg" border="0" /> Audio: </span> Breaking Apart<br /><script language="JavaScript" src="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/audio-player.js"></script> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/player.swf" id="audioplayer1" width="290" height="24"> <param name="movie" value="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/player.swf"> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerID=1&soundFile=http://extras.marinij.com/audio/BreakingApart.mp3"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="menu" value="false"> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> </object> </p><p> <span style="font-weight: bold;color:darkred;" > <img src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0304/20080304_032652_audio_icon.jpg" border="0" /> Audio: </span> I Lose My Heart<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioeEJqNYnwIzIFlpC0zD6t9Qrtr-djd-WSnjWcIxI2N8Me0IMtUl2Ez3R53SJSVjO0zbbi19GAH2jvapW0b_4KqldL3hH86wsuZadT6QgNJa4Lu0fZYPomY7MRrA4oBSAhFytdmpMz-Ler/s1600-h/20090430__01drummer3_Gallery.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 206px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioeEJqNYnwIzIFlpC0zD6t9Qrtr-djd-WSnjWcIxI2N8Me0IMtUl2Ez3R53SJSVjO0zbbi19GAH2jvapW0b_4KqldL3hH86wsuZadT6QgNJa4Lu0fZYPomY7MRrA4oBSAhFytdmpMz-Ler/s320/20090430__01drummer3_Gallery.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330864910634558802" border="0" /></a><script language="JavaScript" src="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/audio-player.js"></script> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/player.swf" id="audioplayer1" width="290" height="24"> <param name="movie" value="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/player.swf"> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerID=1&soundFile=http://extras.marinij.com/audio/MyHeart.mp3"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="menu" value="false"> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> </object> </p></div>has), he played in high school and college rock bands in his native Texas.<p> "It was post-Beatles, when everybody wanted to be in a band," he says. "I'm from a podunk town and everybody had a band. I don't know why, but I always wanted to play drums."<br /></p><p><br /></p><p> Johnson, who wears his jet-black hair slicked back rockabilly style, is a charismatic transplanted Texan who sprinkles his conversation with down-home colloquialisms like "good Lord" and "good night, nurse."</p><p> He has been Isaak's drummer, sidekick and friend for the past 24 years, a year longer than he's been married to his wife, Katherine.</p><p> "I drum and sing and crack wise," he says in his residual Lone Star twang, describing his duties as Isaak's right-hand man.</p><p> Isaak plucked him out of Ronnie Spector's band in 1984, and they've been tight as a tick ever since.</p><p> "I met Chris before he was famous, before he had any records out," Johnson recalls. "Somebody told me, 'There's a guy looking for a drummer and you'd be perfect.' When I heard what was essentially a demo of the first album, I went, 'Oh, my God.' I loved his voice and I loved the songs. I thought, 'This is right up my alley.' So I auditioned, got the gig, such as it was back then, and 24 years later we're still traipsing around the world."<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcfotyC8373InfpTxS3AsD1fjexxZvwaVbAiz4K02PN8yhP7sYU9KPZQt8KEgIaVONBdJlNrqdZ2DNRvX6PrQZpYSqyDGq9GQGuW5PVrLctlBQ2Cx7SkMgKc5aPKWqmRjY9DkAYy4zcZcC/s1600-h/20090430__01drummer_Gallery.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 218px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcfotyC8373InfpTxS3AsD1fjexxZvwaVbAiz4K02PN8yhP7sYU9KPZQt8KEgIaVONBdJlNrqdZ2DNRvX6PrQZpYSqyDGq9GQGuW5PVrLctlBQ2Cx7SkMgKc5aPKWqmRjY9DkAYy4zcZcC/s320/20090430__01drummer_Gallery.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330865059603462066" border="0" /></a><br /></p><p> With a new CD, "Mr. Lucky," Isaak's first studio album in seven years, and a new TV show, "The Chris Isaak Hour," on A&E's Bio network, they can look forward to traipsing around the world for some time to come.</p><p> Which suits the personable, self-effacing sideman just fine. In today's depressed economy, as the ailing music business tries to reinvent itself, he has no complaints.<br /><br /></p><p> "We still get to make records on a major label," he says. "We still get to have a tour bus. People don't understand that tour buses are far superior to flying. And people still come to see us. We're blessed, and we know it, at this stage to have people still caring. That's a big deal to us."</p><p> Johnson is fascinated by rock history, and happily recounts his own journey from the "oil patch" in the Texas Panhandle where he grew up to upscale Marin County and enduring success with a major rock band.</p><p> After high school, he went to the University of Texas in Austin, hung out with "runnin' buddy" Stevie Ray Vaughan and played in an R&B band called Steam Heat.</p><p> In 1977, "to seek my fame and fortune, I moved to San Francisco," he says.</p><p> But fame and fortune were slow in coming. Johnson arrived when the celebrated San Francisco Sound was disappearing in pop music's rear-view mirror. And for the first few years, he scuffled as a freelance drummer.</p><p> "I've played with everybody," he says. "I've played in every bar you can think of."</p><p> Even after hooking up with Isaak, a heartthrob roots rocker who favors Nudie suits and plays an acoustic guitar with his name emblazoned across the front, it was more of the same, at least at first.</p><p> "That was the day of hair bands (Motley Crue, Great White, the Scorpions) and acts like Madonna," Johnson recalls. "We made no sense. Our first album, 'Silvertone,' in 1984, wasn't a hit."</p><p> Nevertheless, it had a couple of songs on it, "Gone Ridin'" and "Livin' for Your Lover," that director David Lynch put on the soundtrack of his kinky cult classic "Blue Velvet."</p><p> "The second album, which we call "the Green Album" (real title: "Chris Isaak"), had "Blue Hotel" on it, which was a hit in France," Johnson says.</p><p> Closer to home, Isaak band gigs at the Nightbreak and I-Beam clubs in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury and at now-defunct New George's in San Rafael were generating a lot of local buzz. "Around '87, before we hit nationally, It was fun being one of the biggest bands in the Bay Area," he remembers.</p><p> The third album, "Heart-Shaped World," which included the career-changing "Wicked Game," was the charm.</p><p> Lynch again played a role in keeping Isaak's music in the public consciousness when he featured an instrumental rendition of "Wicked Game" in his 1990 film "Wild at Heart."</p><p> When an influential disc jockey in Atlanta saw the movie and started pushing the vocal version of the song, he sparked a national phenomenon. Just like that, "Wicked Game" was a Top 5 worldwide hit. But the Isaak band wasn't too big to play hometown clubs like New George's throughout the '90s.</p><p> In 1997, Johnson and his wife bought their San Rafael home and have been proudly part of the Marin music community ever since.</p><p> "I bump into the craziest people here," he says, beaming. "I bump into James Hetfield (Metallica) all the time. I run into Santana at the car wash and (Huey Lewis drummer) Bill Gibson at Mollie Stone's. I see Sam Andrew (Big Brother and the Holding Company) painting in a coffee shop. He was on 'Cheap Thrills,' for God's sake. I'm a big fan. I love this place."</p><p> He and his wife were miserable when they had to live for months at a time for three years in Vancouver, B.C., during the filming of Showtime's "The Chris Isaak Show," a behind-the-scenes sit-com about the band in which Johnson played an exaggerated version of himself. "We were up there for eight months during the season. Talk about homesick. Oh, man, did I miss Marin."</p><p> Johnson won't have to be away from home that long shooting "The Chris Isaak Hour." He's able to commute from Marin to a studio in Los Angeles where the program's taped.</p><p> "It's an interview show with one artist, 30 minutes of music and 30 minutes of interview," he explains. It's kind of guerrilla TV. We can shoot an episode a day. It's good fun. Chris and I ride to the airport together. We have a lot of time to brainstorm."</p><p> During the musical numbers, Johnson, looking like a Buddha behind his drum kit, can be seen on a riser in the center of the stage, backing up guests like Glen Campbell, Stevie Nicks, Jewel, Michael Buble and Cat Stevens, who's trying to make a comeback.</p><p> Promoting the new album, Johnson just got home from a 3-week concert tour of Australia with Isaak and band.</p><p> The Sonoma Jazz Plus concert will be the last show until the band sets out on a West Coast tour from July through September.</p><p> Johnson's glad to be going. After all this time, he takes nothing for granted. He remains grateful that he's been able to make a living doing what he loves to do for so long.</p><p> "We're very fortunate because we always try to put on a good show," he says, explaining the band's secret of success. "We feel every night is an audition for the next one. We realize that people go to a lot of troublcome to a concert. They spend a lot of money, they hire a baby-sitter, so we don't want to let them down. And I think that's paid off. We still have a good draw and people still come out to see us. Thank goodness."</p><p> IF YOU GO</p><p> - What: Sonoma Jazz Plus featuring Chris Isaak and Kenney Dale Johnson</p><p> - When: 6:30 p.m. May 24 (Jazz Fest is from May 21 to 24)</p><p> - Tickets: $45 to $250</p><p> - Information: 866-527-TIXX or <a href="http://www.sonomajazzplus.org/">www.sonomajazzplus.org</a></p><p> Contact Paul Liberatore via e-mail at <a href="mailto:liberatore@marinij.com">liberatore@marinij.com</a></p>Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-64620562924944662582009-04-29T20:56:00.000-07:002009-04-29T21:04:42.457-07:00Zakir Hussain --On his way to Carnegie Hall<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQKVvk3hLuvgPPz3EbdoOH-zO3ncoRXwFXxCAN2ViJQYt2tZr6wjEoNTlYEysrYTIQqWRg_9xbfFsqS-bSizB2Ssgg9nbuu-VcejB-Q5yfienj5Ft8Kdw68FcuoGpKgQdQMwfSGkLnIx-B/s1600-h/20090402__Hussain_300.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 211px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQKVvk3hLuvgPPz3EbdoOH-zO3ncoRXwFXxCAN2ViJQYt2tZr6wjEoNTlYEysrYTIQqWRg_9xbfFsqS-bSizB2Ssgg9nbuu-VcejB-Q5yfienj5Ft8Kdw68FcuoGpKgQdQMwfSGkLnIx-B/s320/20090402__Hussain_300.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330328896734570610" border="0" /></a><br /><span id="rds_global">This has already been a banner year for Marin's Ustad Zakir Hussain, and it's barely four months old.<p> At the 51st Grammy Awards in February, Zakir, the greatest tabla drummer of our time, took the contemporary world music album Grammy home with him to San Anselmo for his work on "Global Drum Project" with the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart.</p><p> Beginning April 26, the 58-year-old master of Indian classical music curates a five-event "Perspectives" series at Carnegie Hall, celebrating the scope of his collaborative career with the likes of George Harrison, Van Morrison, Pharaoh Sanders, John McLaughlin and a pantheon of rock and jazz greats.</p><p> The series in his honor has him once again in the company of the finest players in contemporary </p><div class="articlePosition2"><p> <span id="rds_global"><span style="font-weight: bold;color:darkred;" > <img src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0304/20080304_032652_audio_icon.jpg" border="0" /> Audio: </span> Hussain and Sharma - Drut Gat </span><script language="JavaScript" src="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/audio-player.js"></script> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/player.swf" id="audioplayer1" width="290" height="24"> <param name="movie" value="http://extras.marinij.com/audio/player.swf"> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerID=1&soundFile=http://extras.marinij.com/audio/drut_gat.mp3"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="menu" value="false"> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> </object> </p><p> </p></div>music, among them banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, genre-busting double-bassist Edgar Meyer and as one-third of an trio with drummer-pianist Eric Harland and jazz saxophonist/composer Charles Lloyd.<p> Of their trio, Lloyd says it "swings like a (expletive). You can hear the blues, and you can hear prayers, and it can put a smile on your face and a lift in your step."</p><p> Zakir kicks off the Carnegie Hall series, a partnership with the World Music Institute, performing an evening of Indian classical music with his childhood friend Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, the undisputed master of the santoor, an ancient stringed instrument considered the elder brother of the American hammered dulcimer.</p><p> And here's the cool part for those of us who aren't in a<br /></p><div style="width: 336px;" class="articleEmbeddedAdBox"><hr class="articleAdRule"></div>position to travel 3,000 miles to hear Zakir and Sharma in Carnegie Hall. We don't have to. They will be right here April 11, playing in the 2,000-seat Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium, a stop on their "Maestros in Concert" tour.<p> "What's nice for me is that it's rare that Indian classical musicians get presented at Marin Center," Zakir told me by phone from Louisville, Ky., hours before his concert there, the fourth of the tour. "Ali Akbar Khan has played there, and maybe Ravi Shankar once or twice. But it's rare that it happens. I'm really looking forward to it."</p><p> Plus Marin is his home turf. Born in Mumbai, the son of the tabla immortal Ustad Alla Rakha, Zakir has lived in San Anselmo since he came to Marin in the fall of 1971 to teach at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, now in its 42nd year.</p><p> "I love this place," he said. "Not to mention the fact that I ran into some fabulous musicians here. Mickey Hart is one of them."</p><p> Over the years, Zakir has recorded and toured with Hart aggregations, including Planet Drum, winning the first world music Grammy with that group in 1991.</p><p> Marin is also where he met his wife, kathak dancer and teacher Antonia Minnecola. They have two daughters, Anisa, 27, a film producer whose movie "Splinterhead" just premiered at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin; and 24-year-old Isabella, who teaches ballet and modern dance at Dance Theater 7 in Fairfax.</p><p> Zakir tours constantly with McLaughlin, with Hart's various aggregations and with his own groups. He's just gotten back from India, where he performed during the country's annual concert season, which began in November and ended in March.</p><p> Now he's back on the road with Sharma, playing 20 shows across the country through mid-April.</p><p> "I miss home," he confessed. "In fact I was so homesick the day before yesterday that, after finishing a concert in Ann Arbor, Mich., I flew home to be with my wife and daughters for about 18 hours. It was very nice to see them. I took the red-eye back last night and arrived here in Louisville two hours ago."</p><p> Zakir is famous for his work with rock, pop and jazz stars, but he hasn't forgotten his roots in Indian classical music, and he doesn't want it to be lost in the conflation of the traditional with the contemporary.</p><p> "Every other year I do a countrywide tour of Indian classical music featuring one of the maestros in a straight duo," he explained. "This year it's with Shivkumar Sharma. I worry that with so much musical interaction, with fusion, with world music, with whatever you want to call it, the traditional art forms may not survive. The idea of this tour is to make sure that people don't forget what the source is."</p><p> By performing in Marin, Zakir hopes to call attention to the Ali Akbar College, founded in 1967 by the ailing master, Ali Akbar Khan, known to his students and disciples as Khansahib.</p><p> "This month is his 87th birthday," Zakir noted. "He's on dialysis three days a week, and it's very difficult for him to get up and teach. He still attempts to teach for an hour or so a week and we're all praying that he'll make it, that he teaches some more, but the future of the college needs to be decided so that even after him it will continue. We are hoping if major Indian music shows start happening in Marin that will help in some way."</p></span>Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-74625767879405329112009-04-23T21:58:00.000-07:002009-04-23T22:20:55.508-07:00The Art of Knowing Proust<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3zPQnut3dc_dem51GB6fIipw61nfAdy6g57kSY8xRXvN5LS_jV9g4X1tx2FltXHbBEpGWdFN9w0aoAWomlTjIpvFHSyneCxSvVwF55C2FCkJdurHSVxRJtlEa6IHWkJXDI73w3blEfi_/s1600-h/Paintings+on+Proust.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3zPQnut3dc_dem51GB6fIipw61nfAdy6g57kSY8xRXvN5LS_jV9g4X1tx2FltXHbBEpGWdFN9w0aoAWomlTjIpvFHSyneCxSvVwF55C2FCkJdurHSVxRJtlEa6IHWkJXDI73w3blEfi_/s320/Paintings+on+Proust.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328122941892360402" border="0" /></a>With more than 200 reproductions of artwork such as Johannes Vermeer, Bolinas artist Eric Karpeles has brought the works referenced in Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time to life for readers.<br />Not many people dare to read Proust, that most intimidating of writers, let alone a high school kid.<br /><br />But Bolinas artist Eric Karpeles scaled Proust's 3,000-page mountain of a novel, "In Search of Lost Time," more commonly known as "Remembrance of Things Past," when he was a teenager.<br /><br />"I was fortunate to have a very perceptive teacher when I was in high school," he said. "He knew that I was a reader, that I should be exposed to the first volume of the novel. It was such a remarkable experience, I went on to read the whole book."<br /><br />Since then, the 54-year-old painter, who lived in France in the 1970s, studying on<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUB0fzi4XeoA55CZRglk2W6L0jT5oaQNXDcHP9LA85XlVdzmjTOPG95IuDlLymdHVIpkJBJFBgboRwkuvv7in4aQOAVMurmClYMdvmxCN3vYFytSKcS9Y8rEKTsknWV_nGR2u5BRH0idrR/s1600-h/manet_olympia.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 215px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUB0fzi4XeoA55CZRglk2W6L0jT5oaQNXDcHP9LA85XlVdzmjTOPG95IuDlLymdHVIpkJBJFBgboRwkuvv7in4aQOAVMurmClYMdvmxCN3vYFytSKcS9Y8rEKTsknWV_nGR2u5BRH0idrR/s320/manet_olympia.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328121189633404274" border="0" /></a> fellowships at la Cite des Arts in Paris and the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, has read the great French writer's epic about art and memory once a decade.<br /><br />To help less-courageous readers of all ages, he spent four years writing "Paintings in Proust: A Visual Companion to 'In Search of Lost Time,'" published last year by Thames & Hudson, a prestigious British company.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">At the 28th annual Northern California Book Awards on April 19 in San Francisco, he was honored with a special recognition award for his efforts.<br /></div><br />An esoteric hit, the first printing of 6,500 sold out in seven weeks at $45 a copy, and private sellers on Amazon.com have been asking as much as $285 for a first edition book. A second printing at the original price will be available this month.<br /><br />Illustrated by more than 200 reproductions accompanied by the passage that references the painting, Karpeles' book is an easy reading coffee table guide to the artists and the works that Proust referred to in his long and winding narrative.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_fqGiU2vRe2D9ntmMdt30x7PrC5G_SiSMaNi_609OMMqRU3m5aFPpK3DXHR8rNJwWTsztmS_dyK_D5ah8htvxfEj9CdyBZUqh9_pIqj2ZnsWmmdC824bEEKF7-WTIg_oUBvIxVkiwFr3H/s1600-h/20090423__23proust1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_fqGiU2vRe2D9ntmMdt30x7PrC5G_SiSMaNi_609OMMqRU3m5aFPpK3DXHR8rNJwWTsztmS_dyK_D5ah8htvxfEj9CdyBZUqh9_pIqj2ZnsWmmdC824bEEKF7-WTIg_oUBvIxVkiwFr3H/s320/20090423__23proust1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328122092456821458" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The New York Times said "it fills a long-standing gap in the huge shelf of books É devoted to navigating and understanding the novel."<br /><br />In its review, the Wall Street Journal wrote that "anyone who has devoted any time to reading 'In Search of Lost Time' will be grateful for the chance, at last, to look closely at the painterly sources of so many allusions. But there is no need to know the novel or its characters to admire the prose or the visual display, or to grasp the interpenetration of the two É each made vivid by Mr. Karpeles' matchings of text and art."<br /><br />A reader reviewer on Amazon.com wondered "why nobody had the idea before."<br /><br />Karpeles asked himself the same question, and found that, for whatever reason, such a book didn't exist.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYNWvYQWv5KMbLv7mvgxQ_LXX5WgMqLAmo_A6SJuDXK0RymKjuww-6tHuV4_5uXODC1n4ld3rqLIF9COlx4BtGyGzayWjFssCi6dlAqVDInhLYdgYXyHR5-9_51P0ldLLQzz34K6M0b9J2/s1600-h/ingres-odalisque98.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 186px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYNWvYQWv5KMbLv7mvgxQ_LXX5WgMqLAmo_A6SJuDXK0RymKjuww-6tHuV4_5uXODC1n4ld3rqLIF9COlx4BtGyGzayWjFssCi6dlAqVDInhLYdgYXyHR5-9_51P0ldLLQzz34K6M0b9J2/s320/ingres-odalisque98.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328122740696910722" border="0" /></a><br />While rereading "In Search of Lost Time" after turning 50, he decided that he was as qualified as anyone to write the book, filling the void between the intersection of Proust's literature and his novel's visual aesthetics.<br /><br />"I started at the beginning of the book, and every time I came across a reference to a painting or a painter, I made a note of it," he explained. "When I was done, I had over 300 slips of paper in my book. Half of them were paintings I knew, and half I didn't know. I'm somebody who spends my life in museums and I'm a painter myself, so I figured that if I didn't know all of them, other people aren't likely to know them either."<br /><br />It wasn't practical or affordable for Karpeles to travel all over Europe, tracking down paintings so he could look at the originals. So he did most of his research and detective work online.<br /><br />"It's the kind of book that would probably not be doable before the Internet without a huge allocation of funds for travel," he said. "A lot of this stuff is in France and Italy.<br /><br />"But it's interesting to note that Proust didn't see all the original paintings he was writing about, either. He wrote this at a time (1909 through 1922) when art journals and monographs were first coming into print. So he benefited enormously from reproductions."<br /><br />Probably the most famous example of that is in the love story between the tortured character Charles Swann, who falls for the faithless courtesan Odette de Crecy because she resembles a woman in a Botticelli fresco.<br /><br />"That fresco is in the Vatican, but Proust never went to Rome, so he never saw it," Karpeles noted. "So here's a painting Proust knew by reproduction only. And just as I wasn't able to see every painting in the book, nor did he see every one. He was writing 100 years when there was enormous technological change in the world, just as we're going through now."<br /><br />Karpeles recently gave a talk on "Paintings in Proust" for 150 people at the Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station, sparking the formation of a Proust reading group.<br /><br />"The feedback I get on the book from so many people is that they never expected to read Proust, but my book breaks Proust down into a digestible format, so that you begin to see what it's all about," he said. "And if you really like what you're reading, it might prompt you to read the whole thing. As an advocate of reading Proust, that's a great secondary effect."<br /><br />TAKING ON PROUST<br /><br />For more information on the Proust reading group,e-mail Arianne Dar at ariannezd@aol.com<br /><br />Contact Paul Liberatore via e-mail at liberatore@marinij.comPaul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-1362496232035595822009-04-19T09:10:00.000-07:002009-04-19T09:20:50.067-07:00Birds of Prey in Marin CountyClick to see video! http://www.marinij.com?bcpid=20117890001&bctid=20120746001<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgieD6ek9TZGUyOCYd6FDD-NL_A1FAW0l1aKJ85UsRlGQjlTwJ-4UQfaQO38Sp2qbwuBigfWlAmJ5rgxUU0CmVHRGChyphenhyphenRvV7KDsTck5JYFx_1WGrnwt6Ewgk64fiiN-28rTs_Aw-zedLpKV/s1600-h/20090419__19raptor3_Gallery.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 209px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgieD6ek9TZGUyOCYd6FDD-NL_A1FAW0l1aKJ85UsRlGQjlTwJ-4UQfaQO38Sp2qbwuBigfWlAmJ5rgxUU0CmVHRGChyphenhyphenRvV7KDsTck5JYFx_1WGrnwt6Ewgk64fiiN-28rTs_Aw-zedLpKV/s320/20090419__19raptor3_Gallery.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326437556769324658" /></a><br /><br />Birds of prey are like the rock stars of wildlife.<br />People love to be around them and act kind of awe-struck when they see them up close and personal.<br /><br />That was certainly the case Saturday afternoon at the first Birds of Prey Day at the Marin Art & Garden Center in Ross.<br /><br />"Raptors are cool," Allen Fish, director of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, told an audience of more than 100 hawk enthusiasts at the unusual event, a fundraiser for the Hungry Owl Project Raptor Rescue program.<br /><br />Because 30,000 hawks pass through Marin during their annual fall migration and 19 species make the county their permanent home, Fish said Marin has earned the title of "raptor Wonderland."<br /><br />And, for raptor fans, Saturday's event was like being in hawk<br /><br />heaven.<br />Staring wide-eyed at a rare merlin falcon perched regally on her keeper's gloved wrist, John Lennon, a 56-year-old Ross gardener, was obviously thrilled to be within a foot or two of a bird of prey so swift as to be virtually invisible in flight.<br /><br />"I've never seen one up close like this before," he said, beaming. "In the wild they fly so fast that you can't focus on them. But to see one up close is fantastic."<br /><br />All around the Garden Center patio, hawk handlers were showing birds, called "wildlife ambassadors," that the average person never sees so close up without being in a cage.<br /><br />Mela Brasset of the Bird Rescue Center in Santa Rosa held a majestic red-tailed hawk on her leather-clad wrist as the 4-year-old raptor spread her wings in the afternoon heat. The hawk was stolen out of her nest when she was a juvenile, never learned to hunt and would starve in the wild.<br />"We take these hawks around to schools as part of our education program," Brasset said, "but the turkey vultures are always the favorites because they inevitably poop and barf. Kids love that."<br /><br />Falconers showed their birds and prepared them for demonstration flights. Other handlers, including volunteers from Wildcare in San Rafael, showed a peregrine falcon, a one-eyed Swainson hawk, a Harris hawk and a little American kestrel named Kimosabe.<br /><br />"The kestrel is the world's most perfect hawk," the Raptor Observatory's Allen Fish said. "It's so aggressive that if it were bigger, it would probably kill us all."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSy2rT41LA0pPzVoIFz2h9HQt3nyrozuvjHVNkWQJKBqMxtTbwosMACwe5vXdWixm4Y32OyQ5_errhQbO9jNV4VD0QsSZL91_0cZU0I8ygiEmxkudl0NW49BBiTR0S3rOvFq9iPhwsTf1-/s1600-h/20090419__19raptor1_Gallery.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 203px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSy2rT41LA0pPzVoIFz2h9HQt3nyrozuvjHVNkWQJKBqMxtTbwosMACwe5vXdWixm4Y32OyQ5_errhQbO9jNV4VD0QsSZL91_0cZU0I8ygiEmxkudl0NW49BBiTR0S3rOvFq9iPhwsTf1-/s320/20090419__19raptor1_Gallery.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326437550914006658" /></a><br />http://www.marinij.com?bcpid=20117890001&bctid=20120746001<br /><br />Instead, humans are the ones doing the killing of kestrels and other birds of prey, Fish was quick to point out, noting that American kestrels are disappearing at the rate of 4 to 5 percent a year, and are at their lowest population in 20 years.<br /><br />Red-tailed hawks may be common in Marin, but "two out of three of them won't see their first birthday," Fish said, adding that the first-year mortality rate for raptors is 50 to 70 percent.<br /><br />The birds are vulnerable to poison, disease, natural predators, climate change, loss of habitat and electrocution from power lines.<br /><br />After a hawk was electrocuted, caught fire and fell to the ground, igniting a blaze in a Sonoma county vineyard last year, Windsor Vineyards produced the appropriately named Burning Hawk wine. Ten percent of each sale through May 29 will go to avian protection projects, said Wildcare spokeswoman Maggie Rufo.<br /><br />The Hungry Owl Project, a Wildcare program, is trying to encourage beneficial predators, such as barn owls, to reduce the need for harmful pesticides and poisons to kill rodents, a large part of the raptors diet. One way they are doing that is by building and distributing nest boxes for owls and other birds.<br /><br />At Saturday's event, Bob Holt, woodshop teacher at San Rafael High, said he and his students have built more than 300 nest boxes for Wildcare.<br /><br />"The American kestrel is our smallest local falcon, and we can use the boxes to give them a safe place to nest," said Alex Godbe, founder of the Hungry Owl Project. "One of our goals is to protect all beneficial predators."<br /><br />After listening to the presentation by the Raptor Observatory, Birgitta Akesson, a Novato nurse, said, "I didn't know that we have such a large variety of raptors. I knew they were endangered, but not to this degree."<br /><br />HOW TO HELP<br /><br />For information on nest boxes and other raptor rescue programs, go to www.hungryowl.org.<br /><br />Paul Liberatore can be reached at liberatore@marinij.comPaul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-79867762746244682992009-02-21T13:41:00.000-08:002009-02-21T13:44:58.388-08:00Author brings humanitarian message to Marin Center<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmC76zgakG_TgRzhjPxgC46PxPqQqZllCn2Bx0yqkBGK__XTEAHoQ_fKhWzx5O3MIzd7J9JPccJL14amGY0ns-o2oEnSydwHEghgkovxu0xkvUPgJrQxQyFKHh4gYcSlUqHw13hfI_Lr1E/s1600-h/Greg+Mortensen.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmC76zgakG_TgRzhjPxgC46PxPqQqZllCn2Bx0yqkBGK__XTEAHoQ_fKhWzx5O3MIzd7J9JPccJL14amGY0ns-o2oEnSydwHEghgkovxu0xkvUPgJrQxQyFKHh4gYcSlUqHw13hfI_Lr1E/s320/Greg+Mortensen.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305369806065711058" /></a><br />Greg Mortenson is seen with Khanday schoolchildren in Pakistan. Mortenson, who talked to a sold-out audience at Marin Center on Thursday, wrote 'Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations One School at a Time.' (Provided by the Central Asia Institute)A sold-out crowd of 2,000 people, crackling with excitement and anticipation, packed into the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium for an old-fashioned slide show.<br />In our high-tech, short-attention-span popular culture, this old-school presentation Thursday night was the hottest ticket of the Marin Center season because it was delivered in person by Greg Mortenson, a former "dirt bag" mountain climber who is the co-author and subject of "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations One School at a Time."<br /><br />A New York Times No. 1 best-seller, the phenomenal success of the book has turned the shy, unassuming humanitarian from Bozeman, Mont., into a reluctant celebrity and genuine American hero - a nominee for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.<br /><br />When Mortenson asked his audience how many of them had read "Three Cups of Tea," a gripping account of his death-defying efforts to build schools in war-torn Pakistan and Afghanistan that has been on the best-seller list for 105 straight weeks, nearly every hand in the hall shot up.<br /><br />Tall and lumbering, the boyish 51-year-old had on khaki slacks, a brown sportcoat a little too snug for his bulky body and a bright red Jerry Garcia necktie adorned with hearts that his wife, Tara, gave him for Valentine's Day.<br /><br />"She said I had to wear this in Marin," he said to a warm laugh from the audience. "It's called 'Exploding Heart.' It took a lot of courage to put it on."<br /><br />It took an extraordinary amount of courage for Mortenson to do what he and his Central Asia Institute have been able to do since 1996, successfully building 78 schools in the wildest regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan and operating four dozen others, educating thousands of children, particularly girls, who are often denied an education by the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalists.<br /><br />"The more I do this, the more I'm convinced that there's only one thing that can make a difference and that's education," he said. "Unless the girls are educated, the society won't change.<br /><br />"From my perspective, I see girls learning how to read and write, and they teach their mothers to read and write, and educated women refuse to allow their sons to join the Taliban."<br /><br />Pacing the stage as he talked, his story illustrated by slides of the schools and the faces of the grateful children they serve flashing on a large screen behind him, Mortenson told the crowd that he had bad news and good news for them.<br /><br />He began with the bad news. "Since 2007," he said, "the Taliban have bombed or destroyed or shut down 500 schools in Afghanistan and another 180 schools in Pakistan."<br /><br />"What is interesting, though, is that nearly all the schools are girls' schools," he explained. "Their greatest fear is that if a girl gets an education, grows up and becomes a mother, the value of education will go on in their community, causing the Taliban to lose their ideological power to control the society."<br /><br />Shifting gears, he went on: "Here's the good news. How many of you know that in Afghanistan in 2000, at the height of the Taliban, there were 800,000 mostly boys in school? Today, there are 7.2 million children going to school in Afghanistan and 2 million of them are female. Has anybody here heard that?"<br /><br />The audience buzzed at the question. Two hands tentatively went up.<br /><br />"In the last year I've talked to over 350,000 people and in the whole time that I've asked that question, only about 50 hands have come up," he said.<br /><br />Then, pausing for emphasis, he elaborated: "That is the greatest increase in school enrollment in any country in modern history, and nobody in America is aware of it. Don't you think that's good news?"<br /><br />With that, Mortenson smiled as a huge ovation washed over him.<br /><br />The "Three Cups of Tea" saga began in 1992, when Mortenson attempted to scale Pakistan's K2, the world's second-highest mountain, as a tribute to his younger sister, who had died at 23 of an epileptic seizure.<br /><br />As fate would have it, he had to turn back before reaching the summit. Emaciated and injured, disoriented and half starved to death, he stumbled into the tiny, impoverished mountain village of Korphe (pronounced Core-fay), where he was nursed back to health.<br /><br />While recovering, he noticed that the village's 84 children were sitting outdoors in the cold, scratching their school lessons in the dirt with sticks. They were so poor that they couldn't afford the $1-a-day to pay a teacher, sharing one with a neighboring community.<br /><br />When he was strong enough to leave, Mortenson vowed that he would return and build a school, making good on that promise.<br /><br />"I found a better mountain to climb," is the way he put it.<br /><br />Since then, he has fearlessly carried out his mission, tirelessly raising money for the institute, leaving his wife and two young children for months at a time, surviving a kidnapping by militant tribesmen, two fatwas against him, a firefight by rival opium dealers and any number of physical hardships in the rugged land that is like a second home to him.<br /><br />The title of his book comes from a Pakistani saying that after one cup of tea you're a stranger, after two a friend and after three you're family. In other words, it's all about winning hearts and minds by building relationships, which Mortenson has done.<br /><br />When his book came out in paperback, he had the subtitle changed from "One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism" to "One Man's Mission to Promote Peace."<br /><br />"Fighting terrorism is based in fear," he explained. "Promoting peace is based in hope. The real enemy is ignorance. The real key and hope for peace is through our children."<br /><br />With President Obama's election, the elephant in the room Thursday night was what Mortenson thinks of the new administration's Afghanistan/Pakistan policy.<br /><br />"I'm concerned about what's happening now in Pakistan," said Cornelia Busse, who attended a pre-talk reception for Mortenson that was a benefit for the Marin County Library. "We're sending Predator drones in and that concerns me. We're killing civilians and I'm worried."<br /><br />During his talk, Mortenson reminded his audience of what Obama, Gen. David Petraeus and other military leaders have told him.<br /><br />"They all say the same thing: There is no military solution in Afghanistan," he said. "They say the answer lies in education."<br /><br />Despite that knowledge, a U.S. troop buildup looks inevitable.<br /><br />"President Obama now is rapidly deploying three brigades to Afghanistan," he said. "We are going to increase our troops there by up to 60 percent, about 25,000 troops there by the summer.<br /><br />"My concern is that there is no strategy, there is no military plan. If you talk to any Afghan leader, they all say the same thing: We do not need more U.S. troops in Afghanistan. What we need is training and supplies for our army and our police. And most of all we need education."<br /><br />Paul Liberatore can be reached at liberatore@marinij.comPaul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-14107868234911024982009-02-13T07:53:00.000-08:002009-02-13T07:58:39.640-08:00Lib at Large: Reuniting Grateful Dead members, fans happy about tour - but not ticket prices<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHymYz49F76SwL3l-3e4UZovtXzVBzX02x2O3uBnvZyXFcx7zxEgp80Rw3AzKg98gJJIzXe3SygZcgjyxREzKgfuAukpKrS8XZQF5rzHhPXIn3szkoWe9mBlPgk5Lh2QN7ugBm_wce_mX/s1600-h/Kreutzman.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHymYz49F76SwL3l-3e4UZovtXzVBzX02x2O3uBnvZyXFcx7zxEgp80Rw3AzKg98gJJIzXe3SygZcgjyxREzKgfuAukpKrS8XZQF5rzHhPXIn3szkoWe9mBlPgk5Lh2QN7ugBm_wce_mX/s320/Kreutzman.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302311190308966018" /></a><br />Bill Kreutzmann, the drummer for the Grateful Dead, is one happy man. He has a new band, a power trio called BK3 that's making its San Francisco debut tonight at the Independent, an intimate nightclub in the Western Addition.<br /><br />It's one of a half dozen shows for Kreutzmann with BK3, a group he's formed with bassist Oteil Burbridge of the Allman Brothers Band and guitarist Scott Murawski of the band Max Creek.<br /><br />After that short tour, Kreutzmann goes straight into rehearsals with his reunited Grateful Dead bandmates - Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Phil Lesh - for a Dead tour that kicks off April 12 at the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina and ends May 10 with a homecoming show at Shoreline Amphitheater.<br /><br />In addition to the new band and the new Dead tour, Kreutzmann has a new girlfriend and what sounds to me like a new lease on life.<br /><br />"My personal life has changed immensely for the better," he told me from his home in Kauai, Hawaii. "I couldn't have dreamed of being this happy."<br /><br />Too bad Deadheads aren't quite as joyful as he is these days. Many of them are furious over the nearly $100 ticket price the Dead is charging for the best reserved seats for its tour, the band's first in five years.<br /><br />The outraged tone was set by a profane YouTube tirade by a female fan that has Deadhead chat sites and message boards buzzing over what is being seen in some quarters as price gouging by the ultimate egalitarian band.<br /><br />As it turns out, $100 is sounding like a good deal.<br /><br />"I've heard of tickets going for $1,200," Kreutzmann said. "They've been scalping tickets for horrendous amounts of money. And I really hate that, by the way. That's one of my pet peeves.<br /><br />"There are people out there who just care about making money," he went on. "They don't care about the music or making the fans happy. Just because someone will pay $1,200 for a ticket, in this economic climate it's adding insult to injury. It's an uncool thing."<br /><br />Plus it puts a lot of pressure on the Dead to live up to the elevated expectations that come with ticket prices that high.<br /><br />"I don't know if I can play that good," Kreutzmann laughed. "That's like so much money. (Jerry) Garcia would be infuriated. He'd be like, 'No way, man. You can't charge that much.'"<br /><br />In reality, ticket brokers are charging a lot more. After talking with Kreutzmann, I went online and found tickets for the Shoreline show going for more than $2,000 each. Tickets in the $500 to $900 range are commonplace.<br /><br />"It's pretty awful," agreed Tim Jorstad, the Dead's San Rafael-based business manager. "Some artists are just fine with scalping tickets, charging a premium and keeping the money. We aren't. That money is not going to the band, and it's not good for the fans."<br /><br />Jorstad explained to me the rather complicated process of pricing concert tickets while trying to maintain some control over the brokers and scalpers.<br /><br />"We thought long and hard about ticket prices," he said. "The band was extremely sensitive about what they should be."<br /><br />Jorstad had the band's booking agent survey ticket prices for some 50 bands touring last year, such as the Eagles, that are equal in star power to the Dead. Many ticket prices for those bands were in the $150 range.<br /><br />"I went back to the band with my research and we sat back and said, 'OK, we don't want to be $150, which is what a lot of those tickets we surveyed were coming in at," he said. "We talked hours about this. We probably give this particular topic more time than anything else. In the end, our ticket pricing came in at 65 percent lower than that collective group."<br /><br />What they agreed to charge, on average, was $95 for premium seats (plus $2.50 service charge), and $58 and $40 for second- and third-tier seats.<br /><br />"We wanted to make sure we had something for everybody," Jorstad said, reminding Deadheads that "since our last tour in 2004, everything associated with touring has gone up in price - fuel, trucking, busing, personnel.<br /><br />"This may be the Dead's last tour, and maybe not," he added. "And when you add into the mix the touring expenses and that this will be a good, four-hour show, we felt it was good value for the ticket price.<br /><br />He acknowledged that it isn't what the fans are accustomed to paying. "They're used to $50 and $60 tickets," he said. "We don't like to make people unhappy, obviously, but what we're charging isn't an unreasonable price to pay. We've tried to be fair to the legacy of the Grateful Dead, but we are a business entity, and we're trying to give our band members a reasonable pay day as well."<br /><br />According to Jorstad, the Dead had enough clout to get half the available tickets for the tour and sell them themselves at face value through Music Today's ticketing facility and the band's Dead.net.<br /><br />In addition, the Dead set aside 1,500 of the best tickets for Grateful Dead-related charities to sell to support their work.<br /><br />Despite the carping from Deadheads, Jorstad insists that the band still has its '60s bonafides.<br /><br />"We didn't do what a lot of bands do. We didn't take corporate sponsorship money," he said. "And there were millions of dollars on the table for that."<br /><br />The problem is that the Dead have no control over giant Ticketmaster and the ticket brokers that dominate what is called the secondary ticket market.<br /><br />"Ticketmaster does what it wants. They have a secondary ticket Web site, and that's the auction. That's the secondary market, and that's where they scalp tickets for very high prices," Jorstad said.<br /><br />"We shut that down as much as we could, but it was hard," Kreutzmann said. "It makes me feel the audience is getting exploited, having to come up with all this money."<br /><br />It appears that the band is trying to give Deadheads their money's worth.<br /><br />Augmented by lead guitarist Warren Haynes and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, the surviving members regrouped last March for an Obama fundraiser at the Warfield and followed that with a huge benefit concert at Penn State that raised $500,000 for the Obama campaign.<br /><br />As a reward, they were invited to the Inauguration, playing at the Mid-Atlantic Ball. Afterward, they were among a select group of celebrities who shook hands with the president and first lady.<br /><br />With those benefit concerts behind them, they have a head of steam heading into the tour. And they aren't taking it lightly. In two weeks, they're going into Bob Weir's San Rafael studio to begin a heavy rehearsal schedule, some 20 days, an unusually intense regimen for this band.<br /><br />"We're going to rehearse like crazy before we go out," Kreutzmann said. "I want us to be really, really good."<br /><br />Paul Liberatore can be reached at liberatore@marinij.com.Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-42749981961206212502009-02-05T20:54:00.000-08:002009-02-05T21:09:09.560-08:00Liberatore: Elvin Bishop's Grammy nomination is long time coming<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOqOMfTgmvOopVg_DdnQskl221WWwMF3nFB_JSC5q5sO6av1ubJyGutpRIjnhOG_YE8esmgs2CqlIfss5ol7Rpoir7EIVJUiwwy2n3h6-I8Du2d-8H0QQSXOwmwLOtOD2XnYUcXlcgod1G/s1600-h/20090205__07Liberatore+Bishop.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOqOMfTgmvOopVg_DdnQskl221WWwMF3nFB_JSC5q5sO6av1ubJyGutpRIjnhOG_YE8esmgs2CqlIfss5ol7Rpoir7EIVJUiwwy2n3h6-I8Du2d-8H0QQSXOwmwLOtOD2XnYUcXlcgod1G/s320/20090205__07Liberatore+Bishop.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299544692858384530" /></a><br /><br />Veteran bluesman Elvin Bishop, whose album 'The Blues Rolls On' is up for a Grammy, has gained accolades from critics and blues fans throughout his 45-year career. <br />For the first time in his 45-year career, Marin's Elvin Bishop is up for a Grammy Award. I'm betting that true blues aficionados agree with me: It's about time.<br /><br />Bishop has at long last gotten the attention of the Grammy people, who nominated his "The Blues Rolls On," on the Southern California label Delta Groove Music, as best traditional blues album. In terms of name recognition, he's more than aware that he's up against some formidable competition from Buddy Guy, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker Jr. and 95-year-old Pinetop Perkins.<br /><br />"In the recording academy, there are 12,000 people who vote and 11,000 of them neither know nor care anything about the blues," Elvin told me matter of factly. "They just check off a name they've heard. That's basically what it amounts to."<br /><br />Win or lose, Elvin plans to make the most of the experience. He's going down to the Staples Center in Los Angeles for Sunday's 51st Grammy Awards show with his wife of 22 years, Cara, and their 20-year-old daughter, Emily, a junior at UC Berkeley.<br /><br />"I played on the Grammy show three years ago, but this is the first time I've been up for an award," the 66-year-old singer-guitarist-songwriter-bandleader-master gardener said from his San Geronimo Valley home. "Anybody you can think of in the music industry will be there. You schmooze around and see people you ain't seen in years and go to parties and stuff. There's nothin' to it really."<br /><br />While pop stars like Jay-Z and the Jonas Brothers, Kid Rock and Lil<br />Wayne, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift soak up all the TV time, the blues and the other Americana awards are treated like the red-headed stepsisters of the Grammys. They're handed out long before the cameras go on.<br /><br />"Blues is not a very important category to them," Elvin conceded. "The blues awards are given out in what they call 'the pre-tel.' That stands for, 'You're not going to be on TV.'"<br /><br />I first met Elvin in the mid-'70s, just as his "Fooled Around and Fell in Love," the single from his Capricorn album "Struttin' My Stuff," shot up the charts and was a top 40 smash.<br /><br />But Elvin's a blues musician, not a pop star, and he understands that the blues is bigger and more important and more enduring than any awards show or hit tune.<br /><br />Not many blues musicians go to the University of Chicago on a National Merit Scholarship as Bishop did before joining the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the group that introduced young rock fans to the blues in the '60s.<br /><br />And beneath his aw-shucks persona and Oklahoma-farm-boy-in-overalls image is an intellectual's appreciation of the history of the blues as an American art form that has been passed like a torch from generation to generation.<br /><br />That's the concept he very effectively conveys on "The Blues Rolls On." One way he illustrates the tradition is by including among the album's dozen tracks the song "Yonder's Wall," featuring singer/guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks, son of the bluesman Lonnie Brooks, whom Bishop has known since the early '60s.<br /><br />Four decades ago, Bishop recorded "Yonder's Wall" when he was with Butterfield, who learned it from the 1950s Chicago bluesman Elmore James, who picked it up from Arthur Cruddup, who had recorded it in the '40s.<br /><br />"The concept of the whole thing is how the music flows from one generation to another, and I thought that was a good example of that," Elvin said.<br /><br />Furthermore, he cited a line in the song, "Your man went to war," as yet another illustration of its enduring relevance from decade to decade and from singer to singer and, unfortunately in this instance, from war to war.<br /><br />"These guys are singing about four different wars - World War II, Korea, Vietnam and now Iraq - and the words still hold up," he pointed out. "The blues rolls on."<br /><br />As part of the package, Bishop enlisted several generations of blues musicians as guests on the record, with B.B. King and James Cotton the elder statesman.<br /><br />Before listening to this album, I'd never heard of the up-and-comers John Nemeth, whom Bishop calls "a monster talent, a guy to keep your eye on," or a family band from Tupelo, Miss., called the Homemade Jamz. It includes 14-year-old lead singer and guitarist Ryan Perry, his 11-year-old brother, Kyle, on bass, and their little sister, Taya, on drums. She's all of 9-years-old. Talk about the younger generation.<br /><br />"They're the nicest family in the world," Elvin said. "And they're on their way to success."<br /><br />In keeping with his theme, Bishop had them record "Come On In This House" by Junior Wells, one of the elder bluesmen who mentored him when he was just starting out.<br /><br />Adding to his impressive guest list are Kim Wilson from the Fabulous Thunderbirds, George Thorogood, Warren Haynes of the Dead, zydeco stars R.C. Carrier and Andre Thierry, Marin's Angela Strehli and Tommy Castro, guitarist Mike Schermer and young Derek Trucks, considered by Bishop "the best slide guitar player who's ever been."<br /><br />In addition to his Grammy nomination, Elvin's a multiple nominee at the Blues Foundation's 30th Blues Music Awards on May 7 in Memphis.<br /><br />"The Blues Rolls On" is up for album of the year as well as contemporary blues album of the year. The title track is nominated for song of the year. And Elvin is in the running for contemporary blues male artist of the year.<br /><br />But first there's the Grammys on Sunday night. I asked Elvin what it would mean to him if he actually won.<br /><br />"I don't know," he said after a moment. "It couldn't hurt anything. It's like a guy pitching a no-hitter. For ever after, it's there."<br /><br />Paul Liberatore can be reached at liberatore@marinij.com.Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-8786638455124019952009-01-06T21:02:00.000-08:002009-01-06T21:15:13.682-08:00Lisa Kokin : Ex Libro Exhibition Catalog by Paul Liberatore<div align="center"><span class="artist-name style18 style19"><span class="artist-name style18 style21"><br /> Lisa Kokin : Ex Libro, Paul Liberatore Catalog Essay</span></span><br /> </div> <table width="200" align="center" border="0"> <tbody><tr> <td><br /></td> <td><img src="http://www.donnaseagergallery.com/artists/lisa_kokin/Images/2009/27Room%20for%20Improvement%20%28detail%29%201_150.jpg" alt="Room For Improvement, Lisa Kokin at Donna Seager Gallery" width="231" border="0" height="150" /></td> <td><img src="http://www.donnaseagergallery.com/artists/lisa_kokin/Images/2009/19Psychoanalysis%20of%20the%20Total%20Personality_150.jpg" alt="Psychoanalysis of the Total Personality, Lisa Kokin at Donna Seager Gallery" width="172" border="0" height="150" /></td> <td><img src="http://www.donnaseagergallery.com/artists/lisa_kokin/Images/2009/48Four%20Balls%20Short%20%28detail%29_150.jpg" alt="Four Balls Short, Lisa Kokin at Donna Seager Gallery" width="225" border="0" height="150" /></td> <td><br /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="artist_description style15">Lisa Kokin once called one of her exhibitions <em>Relative Obscurity</em>. While she is charmingly self-effacing, she was referring to the pieces she created for that show out of family photos she'd found in flea markets, not to herself.</p> <p class="artist_description style15">At this mature point in her career, the 54-year-old Bay Area artist has achieved a level of prominence in the contemporary art world that invites comparisons in aesthetics, content and use of materials to Louise Bourgeois and Kiki Smith. For the past two decades, Kokin has been in the forefront of an emerging new art form: the artist’s book, hence the title of the exhibition at Donna Seager Gallery: <em>Ex Libro,</em> meaning not only "from the book," but in Lisa Kokin's mischievous world of layered puns, "formerly a book." </p> <p class="artist_description style15">“Lisa Kokin alters books and text through a complex system of destruction and preservation,” Seager says. “There is as much meaning in what has been taken away as in what remains. The look and feel of books, papers, texts, and photographs blend to form a unified structure, whole unto itself even before you begin to mine it for the rich content.”</p> <p class="artist_description style15"> Since artists’ books have been recognized as a distinct genre only since the early 1970s, even the most ardent art lovers can be forgiven for not knowing exactly what they are. They are not books about artists or books depicting artists' work. In the absence of a better description, they have been defined by Stephen Bury, head of European and American collections at the British Library, as “books or book-like objects whose appearance is determined by the artist.” In other words, the book itself, in its altered form, is the work of art. Kokin calls hers “reassembled books.”</p> <p class="artist_description style15">“My definition of an artist’s book is open-ended, a freedom that may in many ways be attributed to my lack of formal book art training,” she explains. “I am blissfully unaware of all the rules I am breaking as I go about my routine of sewing, stapling, riveting and otherwise reconstituting objects to transform them.” Kokin left out shredding and pulping and gluing and mashing. Her studio looks like a depot where books go to die, only to be magically reborn as pieces of art that are wonderfully fascinating and endlessly varied in their imagination and creativity.</p> <p class="artist_description style15">On a recent visit to her studio before the exhibition, shredded pages in mounds on a table immediately brought to mind images of Monet's haystacks. She explained how she takes each and every one of these shredded pages and painstakingly pulps and molds them with white glue into balls of various sizes, from bonbons to boulders. “It's very difficult physically,” she says with a slight grimace. “There's a lot of repetitive motion.”</p> <p class="artist_description style15">In one corner of the floor was a cluster of what appeared to be stones, the smooth, round ones found on river bottoms. She'd molded them from pulped self-help books. Their colors are watery reds, earthy greens, browns and grays, and on many of them you can glimpse the titles: <em>Fit for Life, How to Live on Your Income</em>, <em>Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office.</em> Arranged together on the gallery floor, they form an installation she calls <em>Room for Improvement.</em></p> <p class="artist_description style15">“Through her process of art making, she explores cultural and personal issues of conformity and gender, the ambiguities of society and human behavior,” Seager says, referring to Kokin's frequent investigations of her bisexuality, her Jewish heritage, her devotion to universal struggles for social justice and against censorship. “Her aesthetic in these meanderings is consistently refined and appealing.”</p> <p class="artist_description style15"> And, in this show, funny. The woman has a sense of humor to go along with her social conscience. “It's very important that people laugh,” she says with a sly smile.</p> <p class="artist_description style15">Like a Native American using every part of an animal, wasting nothing, Kokin has taken the variously-colored spines from the self-help rocks and fashioned them with burlap and twine into what looks like a Venetian blind. She calls the piece <em>Treatment,</em> a play on both psychotherapy and window coverings. In this context, the titles are as risible as they are readable: <em>Eat More, Weigh Less</em>, <em>How to Clean Everything,</em> <em>How to Manage Your Mother</em>, <em>The Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude</em>, and the presciently ironic <em>The 401(k) Millionaire</em>.</p> <p class="artist_description style15">“I like to work within limitations,” she says. “I ask myself, ‘How can I take a book and make it look completely different, but only use the materials from the book and very little else? Those are the parameters of my challenge. I sometimes use thread or wire, but I don't want to use extra color or doodads or tchotchkes.’” Kokin has several reassembled dictionaries in this collection. Her favorite, <em>Abridged,</em> has recently been featured in <em>Banned and Recovered,</em> an exhibit sponsored by the San Francisco Center for the Book and the African American Museum and Library at Oakland.</p> <p class="artist_description style15">“Each artist was asked to pick a book that had been banned,” Kokin recalls. “I originally thought to do a gay-themed book, but when I searched the Internet for banned books and found that the <em>American Heritage Dictionary</em> had been banned in at least two states, I thought, 'That's my book.'” It struck her as beyond the pale that anyone would ban a dictionary because some bluenose found 39 “objectionable” words in it. But there's no underestimating the dictatorial righteousness of the Texas Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who were “shocked” by “debasing” words like “brain” (denotes violence), “bucket” (slang for buttocks) and “across-the-board,” (betting on horse racing in Texas is illegal).</p> <p class="artist_description style15">“I pulped each page and saved only the banned words,” Kokin explains. “I then reconstituted the pages and pressed the 'bad' words into their respective pages. Then I baked the book to darken the pages and give them a burnt aroma. The pages are held together by a strap made from the spine of the dictionary, with an anagram for “American Heritage” (“Ream Again Heretic”) sewn onto the bottom. I used the entire dictionary except for the covers, with only glue, snaps and thread to hold it together.”</p> <p class="artist_description style15">Like many of her baby boom generation, Kokin was taught to wash her hands when handling books, to treat them with the utmost respect. So she’s had to wrestle with conflicted feelings about her sometimes ruthless artistic process. “Every time I take my X-Acto blade to the tender page of a book, I see my long deceased grandfather's face before me,” she says. “He is not happy. I am committing the Jewish equivalent of a mortal sin, and, believe me, I feel guilty. So powerful is my drive to rearrange and juxtapose, however, that I am willing to risk the wrath of my ancestors to accomplish my mission.” It was especially painful when she was faced with a handsome atlas that had been in the Indian Consulate library in the 1950s.</p> <p class="artist_description style15">“It was such a beautiful book,” she sighs. “The maps were just gorgeous. It hurt to have to pulp them, but I did.” The result is a striking piece that consists of pyramids of pulped pages stacked symmetrically in colorful balls between the book's covers. The old atlas ended up exacting its own bit of good-humored revenge. After she’d pulped all the pages, she discovered that there weren't quite enough to finish the piece, hence the title, <em>Four Balls Short</em>. “I had to take some pages from another book,” she admits.</p> <p class="artist_description style15">Conversely, Kokin made the most of a tragedy, salvaging a priceless first edition of <em>Uncle Tom's Cabin,</em> subtitled, <em>Or, Life Among the Lowly.</em> “A friend gave it to me after her friend’s dog chewed it up,” she says. In its new form, the pulped balls grow like Topsy on twisted wire out of the remains of the book. All that was left of the title was <em>Un Life</em>, which is what Kokin decided to call it. </p> <p class="artist_description style15">She has always been a political artist, from her beginnings making batiks to protest the Vietnam War and to support solidarity movements in Chile and Latin America. Later, she designed posters for leftwing causes in a graphics collective and built apartment houses in Cuba. While studying at California College of the Arts, she began working with found materials: photographs, buttons and other common objects from flea markets that used to belong to real people, and now only represent their discarded memories.</p> <p class="artist_description style15">“My work is about memory and history, both personal and collective, and the areas where the two intersect,” she says. “I'm interested in representing the human condition by using the objects we leave behind.” Some of her most powerful work deals with the horrors of the Holocaust and the plight of marginalized people everywhere. She has never been afraid to tackle the largest socio-political issues: racism, censorship, violence, genocide.</p> <p class="artist_description style15">On a recent search at a recycling center, Kokin came upon a batch of Western novels, Louis Lamour-style macho tales with titles like <em>Blood Reckoning</em> and <em>Night of Vengeance</em>. In the past, she would not have been attracted to this kind of book, but she saw them as particularly relevant now, at the end of two terms under the swaggering George W. Bush.</p> <p class="artist_description style15"> “For the <em>Ex Libro</em> exhibition, she shredded these shoot-'em-up novels to create two long, quilt-like pieces she calls <em>Shroud.</em> <strong> </strong>They hang in the gallery as both a death knell for the past and victory banners for the future. “It's about the end of an era,” she says. “I see it as a comment on the last eight years. Now that I'm older, I still have political consciousness, but my work is not as black and white as it was when I was in my twenties. I had very strong opinions then, and I still do, but they have grown more subtle.”</p> <p class="artist_description style15">“I believe in Lisa Kokin’s work,” says Seager, “She has an individual approach to her materials and medium. With humor, content, unerring instincts and meticulous craftsmanship she is able to deliver a unique aesthetic sensibility. When I see her work, I am reminded of the first time I saw an exhibition by Eva Hesse in which my idea of art was instantly expanded and I was able to imagine new forms of self-expression.”</p> <p class="artist_description style15">With this extraordinary show, we’re seeing an artist at the height of her powers, serious in purpose but light in touch. She presents her view of the world with the<br />consummate skill of an artist whose work will be remembered, and whose contributions are destined to take their place in the history of art in the new millennium.</p><p class="artist_description style15">See Lisa Kokin at www.donnaseagergallery.com</p><p class="artist_description style15"><br /></p>Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-37139684100303133272009-01-05T20:23:00.000-08:002009-01-05T20:33:18.226-08:00Terra Linda woman debuts album 20 years after being forced into hiding<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4btzVyg025cTfU-Dw4prrvHdTvK7Wf3k5vx8SLOnwXuF80K6F-1chQgmU74pungAXZI1tPx8xvB_-aUpXr0Q1znxgfOu_WZdhoRMMZXv8TrxqdFpIMzC2ZkzSCUt6y-f0N4ABuZuH0P-I/s1600-h/Kathryn+Keats.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 235px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4btzVyg025cTfU-Dw4prrvHdTvK7Wf3k5vx8SLOnwXuF80K6F-1chQgmU74pungAXZI1tPx8xvB_-aUpXr0Q1znxgfOu_WZdhoRMMZXv8TrxqdFpIMzC2ZkzSCUt6y-f0N4ABuZuH0P-I/s320/Kathryn+Keats.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288033473495394066" border="0" /></a><br />Marin singer/songwriter Kathryn Keats calls her debut CD, "After the Silence," an apt title that celebrates her new life, a second chapter free of the relentless fear of being hunted down and killed, murdered by a psychopath who had once been her songwriting partner, her mentor, her lover.<br /><br />For the better part of two decades, during what should have been the heart of her musical career, Keats gave up her public life, hiding from a murderous madman under a new identity provided by the Alameda County Victim Assistance Program.<br /><br />She was escaping from a psycho former boyfriend and erstwhile musical director named Ken Ford, who told her the Zen gods commanded him to leave her "dismembered and hanging from the trees."<br /><br />"It was terrifying to always be looking in closets and behind doors, to be afraid to walk on the street," she recalled, sipping a cup of tea at the dining room table of the comfortable Terra Linda home she shares with her husband and their two young sons.<br /><br />Free at last<br />Keats is a zipper-thin woman in her late 40s, hip looking, with short, spiky black hair. On this gray day, she wore low-rise jeans that hugged her trim figure and padded<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbEBB_w5nkKSJ_HqzQzjLHc3X9ajv2mwmrmj8a-50cl_3jyYGdIhNkDmhhIwIqWJSlr3XW-PibRbnDI28r3gQhQezpjgXPU4dsTOFDGnpBuWTkWc-uhyCh7PMGoE6poXCYRrOx5QdhCad7/s1600-h/Kathryn+Keats,+Ellen+Munger.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbEBB_w5nkKSJ_HqzQzjLHc3X9ajv2mwmrmj8a-50cl_3jyYGdIhNkDmhhIwIqWJSlr3XW-PibRbnDI28r3gQhQezpjgXPU4dsTOFDGnpBuWTkWc-uhyCh7PMGoE6poXCYRrOx5QdhCad7/s320/Kathryn+Keats,+Ellen+Munger.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288033911442921506" border="0" /></a> around barefoot in her tastefully decorated house, its walls hung in fine art.<br /><br />In 2005, she received the news she had been awaiting most of her adult life: that Ford had died, of lung cancer. Her first response was to express her relief, her long pent-up emotions through music.<br /><br />"I wrote a song the day I found out that Ken was dead," she recalled. "I was crying, writing it at the piano. Lorenzo (her then 8-year-old son) was behind the couch. He slowly stuck his head up and sang the chorus out of nowhere. I said, 'May I use that?' He replied, 'Yes, but how much will it pay?'"<br /><br />What emerged that day was a country ballad, "Why Don't You Pray," that begins, "It's my first day of freedom for many a day," and goes on to rejoice over the end of a murderous affair that forced her to abandon her musical career and kept her emotionally paralyzed with fear for decades.<br /><br />"You know I spent 20 years, almost half a life," she sings. "I don't recommend it. You forget how to cry."<br /><br />She's excited about this second chance she's been given, even though she says she doesn't quite know what to make of it yet.<br /><br />"I've had a hard time getting comfortable in suburbia," she said. "I'm grateful and I love it. It's beautiful. But I'm really just a funky musician. To feel of value, all I need is a city, some places to work and to be composing and producing music with creative people."<br /><br />Even in less than funky upper-middle-class Marin, she's set free her long suppressed creativity with her new album, a slickly produced independent CD that showcases a half-dozen finely crafted original pop songs she co-wrote with titles like "My Life," "Hold Me" and "Lovin' So Easy."<br /><br />"To come out of hiding and take back music is a really different vibe," she said, lamenting the confusion it has caused her children. "It would have been easier to take back music and not come out of hiding because I'm a good musician, songwriter and singer."<br /><br />In all of her time underground, she was none of those things. She didn't have the heart to write songs and wouldn't have sung them in public if she'd wanted to. She couldn't even use her real name, Ellen Munger, which was becoming known in musical theater circles before the nightmare that ended her career just as it was beginning to take off.<br /><br />To elude her stalker, she legally changed her name to Kathryn Keats, the first name borrowed from her grandmother and the last from her favorite romantic poet.<br /><br />In the early '80s, after a dramatic and unprecedented Alameda County court trial, Ellen Munger ceased to exist.<br /><br />"The last show I did was in Theater on the Square in San Francisco and someone in the audience recognized me," she recalled. "It was my last attempt to work. I knew when that happened, I was done, that was it, it was over. It was proof that I could no longer do what I'd done my whole life. And I didn't really know how to do anything else. That's all I loved."<br /><br />Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll<br />Growing up in Evansville, Ind., she had been a natural-born performer, announcing to her family when she was 5 that she wanted to be a singer when she grew up.<br /><br />She spent her youth pursuing that goal, singing at Nashville's Opryland when she was still in high school, appearing a number of times on TV in "The Mike Douglas Show," studying at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.<br /><br />She wasn't yet 18 when she moved to New York in the mid-1970s, landing a part in "Let My People Come," a lurid off-Broadway show that billed itself as "a sexual musical" and included nudity, simulated intercourse, X-rated songs and a lot of offstage drug use.<br /><br />That's where she met Ford, the show's long-haired and handsome musical director, 13 years older, a powerful and charismatic personality.<br /><br />It didn't take long for her to fall under his spell and for her to move in with him in Philadelphia when they weren't on the road, touring with the show for the next five years.<br /><br />"Ken was a great musician," she says, even now. "All we did was write music together."<br /><br />And do drugs.<br /><br />Keats was alarmed when Ford began showing psychotic symptoms, hearing voices, seeing spirits in the shadows on the walls, a schizophrenic splitting into multiple personalities.<br /><br />Angry and paranoid, he turned on her, beating and sexually abusing her.<br /><br />"None of this probably would have happened if there hadn't been so much drug use," she said, remembering those free-wheeling hippie days. "People in Marin need to know that drugs really screw you up. And they really get you in trouble when you're a teenager, which I was when I met Ken. I was 17."<br /><br />A life-saving trial<br />The insane romance turned into abject terror in 1983, when they were living in an Oakland apartment. For 54 harrowing days, Ford held her captive, subjecting her to unspeakable torture and humiliating abuse.<br /><br />Keats didn't try to escape because she believes she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, in which victims become emotionally attached to their abductors.<br /><br />"When you're in that situation, you learn to do anything to love your perpetrator, so you stay alive," she explained. "You'll get killed if you get away. So you end up identifying with the perpetrator because if you don't, the perpetrator will kill you. So you'll do anything to stay in the good graces of that person so you won't be murdered."<br /><br />Ford's descent into madness resulted in him once showing up at Keats' sister's doorstep looking like a prophet of doom, barefoot, wearing a white robe and white wig.<br /><br />Just in time, the sister intervened, calling the police, who took Ford to Highland Hospital in a straitjacket. After he was released, he called Keats from a pay phone, threatening to find her and kill her.<br /><br />In mortal fear for her life, she took her case to a young district attorney named Leo Dorado, now an Alameda County Superior Court judge.<br /><br />"When I went to see the apartment, then there was no doubt in my mind that he was very dangerous," Dorado recalled last week. "The things he had written on the walls were not just disturbing, but totally dark and scary. It was incredibly frightening. That's when we knew we had to do something."<br /><br />Hamstrung by the limitations of the law in domestic violence cases in those days, when stalking wasn't even illegal yet, Dorado cobbled together what he calls "a kind of hybrid case, between a criminal and civil proceeding, to indicate that he was dangerous, but that there was a psychiatric foundation to his dangerousness.<br /><br />"We hadn't really done this before and we couldn't find any precedent for it," he continued. "But we knew he was so dangerous we had to get the psychiatric community to present a case that was coherent to a jury, to give her some time."<br /><br />Keats, then still known as Ellen Munger, was a powerful witness.<br /><br />"Despite the mortal fear for her life on an immediate basis, she was able to hold it together in court," Dorado said. "She's so intelligent she was able to give a good factual history to the jury and show how bad he had become. What impressed me about her was her strength through all of this. To be able to focus and be able to stand in front of a jury and recount these things. She knew better than anybody what was in his mind."<br /><br />The jury believed her, and Ford was sentenced to a six-month involuntary psychiatric commitment.<br /><br />"Without a doubt, she was in mortal danger if we didn't have him committed, and the jury understood that," Dorado recalled. "But there was only so much we could do to keep him committed."<br /><br />"After the trial, I lost touch with her," Dorado said.<br /><br />And so did just about everyone else except for a few close relatives.<br /><br />Going underground<br />With her new identity, she went into hiding in Los Angeles, serving as an assistant to photographer Herb Ritts and working as a "schlepper," her word, in the film industry.<br /><br />In 1989, while managing an acting studio in San Francisco, she met and fell in love with Richard Conti, an actor and owner of a marketing design business. They married four years later and now have two sons, 11 and 13.<br /><br />She kept the door to her past closed, except for an occasional crack.<br /><br />"The real details I didn't know," Conti said. "There were certain things I really didn't want to know, to be honest, because some of them were really bad. I could see it was really painful to her, so she kept that to herself."<br /><br />But fear is not easily hidden or kept to oneself.<br /><br />"There were episodes when we'd be out to dinner and someone would walk by who would spook her, who would remind her of Ken, and we'd have to go right home," Conti remembered. "Even at home, if someone strange was parked across the street, she'd make me go over and ask him what he was doing. She had a lot of bad dreams. There was always that fear."<br /><br />Afraid no more<br />The fear evaporated four years ago when the call came that her tormentor, who had become a street person, was dead.<br /><br />"It was like the biggest weight off her shoulders," her husband recalled. "She really changed. She totally opened up. The day she found out she was in tears because it was an incredible release. Interestingly enough, she sat down at the piano again and started singing. It was automatic."<br /><br />She also called Dorado, the former prosecutor who had saved her life all those years ago.<br /><br />"I didn't hear from her until one day she called me, not that long ago, and said, 'This is Ellen Munger. I don't know if you remember me but I just wanted to tell you that Ken Ford is dead and I can come out now.' It was really a stunning call after so many years had past.<br /><br />"She recited to me what she'd had to do, to stifle her creativity because of the publicity, of not being able to rest until she'd heard he'd died. We have a good relationship now. We don't always have good stories and happy endings in these kinds of cases."<br /><br />In March 2006, Keats told her story for the first time in an article in Reader's Digest.<br /><br />"I wanted people to know who I was, to know what I'd been sitting on forever, to know why I'm so weird, why I'm so extroverted but so terribly introverted, why no one knows anything about me," she explained. "And also the fact that since I lived through it, it was really my job to come out and speak about the issue."<br /><br />Keats doesn't regret the good that her story has done in helping other abused women, but she wishes she could have spared her sons from it.<br /><br />"Can you imagine being a child and the one person you trust implicitly, your mother, is not who she said she was for the first 10 years of your life?" she asked. "I would never have come out of hiding if I had known the impact it would have on my children. Never, never, never."<br /><br />But the past is the past, as Keats knows better than anyone. And she has her first CD, at long last, and her career in music is beginning again.<br /><br />"The music part is awesome," she beamed. "Everything I'm tied to in my whole being is music. Oh, my gosh, just to be back in public with music and write music and work with people I want to work with. It's so cool."<br /><br />'After the Silence'<br /><br />What: Kathryn Keats sings in Marin for the first time, accompanied by bassist Michael Manring and pianist Kevin Gerzevitz<br /><br />When: Friday, Jan. 23<br /><br />Where: 142 Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley<br /><br />Tickets: TBA<br /><br />Contact Paul Liberatore via e-mail at liberatore@marinij.comPaul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-56952542614602194822008-10-19T10:34:00.000-07:002008-10-19T10:43:00.573-07:00Bioneers: Chemicals = Cancer is a topic at Marin ConferenceScientist warns of cancer link<br />Paul Liberatore<br />Article Launched: 10/18/2008 10:46:15 PM PDT<br /><br />Environmental scientist Sandra Steingraber, hailed by the Sierra Club as "the new Rachel Carson," spoke Saturday at the 19th Bioneers Conference in San Rafael on a subject of intense interest to Marin County women: the link between toxic chemicals in the environment and cancer.<br /><br />Marin has one of the highest rates of breast cancer in the state, and organizations such as Zero Breast Cancer (formerly Marin Breast Cancer Watch) are calling for accelerated exploration into its possible causes, including environmental factors.<br /><br />Steingraber's book, "Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment," won the Jenifer Altman Foundation award for "the inspiring and poetic use of science to elucidate the causes of cancer."<br /><br />A senior research associate at Commonweal, the health and environmental research institute in Bolinas, Altman established the foundation shortly before her death of cancer in 1991.<br /><br />In introducing Steingraber, an internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancer and reproductive health, Charlotte Brody, executive director of Commonweal, praised her ability to communicate scientific research through her literary talent.<br /><br />"You learn the concepts," she said, "but your heart sings at the same time."<br /><br />In an impassioned half hour talk to an overflow audience in the 2,000-seat Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Steingraber told of being diagnosed with bladder cancer 30 years ago when she was 20.<br /><br />Now a mother of two elementary school age children, she obviously recovered from her cancer and realized that hope, but she learned some things about her illness that have nothing to do with the high cancer rates in the family that raised her.<br /><br />"Here's the punchline," she told her audience, "I was adopted."<br /><br />But, she went on, "It didn't take long for me to learn that bladder cancer is considered a quintessential environmental cancer. We have more evidence for a link between toxic chemicals and bladder cancer risk than almost any other cancer."<br /><br />Although the medical community ignored the connection between carcinogens and cancer in those days, she suspected that her cancer had something to do with the environment in the Illinois small town where she grew up.<br /><br />Years later, while researching "Living Downstream," she discovered that she was right. Her hometown and its riverside environs "have statistically elevated cancer rates, three dozen different industries line the river, farmers practice pesticide-intensive agriculture, hazardous waste is imported from as far away as New Jersey and the drinking water wells contain traces of both farm chemicals and industrial chemicals, including those with demonstrable links to bladder cancer."<br /><br />While decrying the lack of regulation of government oversight and regulation of chemical products in this country, she got a huge ovation when she called for the same kind of crisis-driven rescue of the environment that Congress just gave to the economy by bailing out Wall Street.<br /><br />"We need a $700 billion bailout to invest in alternative energy and reform our chemical regulatory policies," she insisted. "If we don't take action, we don't know what will happen, but it will be terrible. Our ecology will tank."<br /><br />Steingraber is currently a distinguished visiting scholar at Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y., and a sought-after public speaker.<br /><br />During her address on Saturday, she referred to the words of her mentor, Rachel Carson, in "Silent Spring," that we are all exposed to "a changing kaleidoscope of chemicals over our lifetimes."<br /><br />These chemicals are particularly hazardous to pregnant women, an issue she writes about in her follow-up book about her pregnancy with her first child, her daughter, Faith, 10.<br /><br />In "Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood," she reveals the alarming evidence of chemicals causing what scientists call "spontaneous abortion."<br /><br />Seeing this as a problem that crosses political lines, she said she's interested in engaging the pro-life and pro-choice movements in a dialogue on this common ground issue.<br /><br />"Maybe we can all agree, pro-life and pro-choice, that any chemical with the power to extinguish a human pregnancy has no rightful place in our economy," she said to thunderous applause.<br /><br />Paul Liberatore can be reached at liberatore@marinij.comPaul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-30621532601232802892008-10-19T10:17:00.000-07:002008-10-19T10:29:33.032-07:00Paul Liberatore: Hot Buttered Rum's Redner shakes up Vivaldi's classic<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0LVN4U-dfpxOIvvZmU-3oLBY896MmKKEpgeMOUPS4MJh02WBOWAi-MDGcWQLeD_gHgJ0-oHtKDJ4mHhR1XDtgnDCGrPBpelAvNau4QIZeGLr-2XV891JjPtY4HeUeqMWKBDI17M7Wfps0/s1600-h/20081017__Redner.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0LVN4U-dfpxOIvvZmU-3oLBY896MmKKEpgeMOUPS4MJh02WBOWAi-MDGcWQLeD_gHgJ0-oHtKDJ4mHhR1XDtgnDCGrPBpelAvNau4QIZeGLr-2XV891JjPtY4HeUeqMWKBDI17M7Wfps0/s320/20081017__Redner.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258917631971182466" /></a><br />Just before violinist Aaron Redner was to go on stage the other night at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, Colo., with his band, Hot Buttered Rum, he was on his cell phone, talking excitedly about playing Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" next week in Mill Valley.<br /><br />"I find myself in a band that travels nonstop and has lots of followers, and that's great," he told me. "But I've been feeling a need to tap back into my classical roots."<br /><br />By classical roots he means the master's degree in classical violin performance he earned from the New England Conservatory in Boston before joining Hot Buttered Rum, spending the past six years on the jam band circuit with groups such as Phish and String Cheese Incident and the Yonder Mountain String Band.<br /><br />As a side project that will take advantage of his classical training, the 37-year-old Tam High grad has come up with an idea for a crossover concert at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre during a break in Hot Buttered Rum's busy touring schedule.<br /><br />Next Thursday night he'll be joined by some of the finest young classical musicians in the North Bay in an interpretation of Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons," a timeless favorite that most people are familiar with in some form or another. We've all heard strains of it in movies and commercials and have probably hummed it in the shower without knowing it.<br /><br />"That's why I picked this piece, because it's almost like pop music, " Redner explained. "I'm still going to play all the notes, but there's room<br />Advertisement<br />for interpretation and improvisation more than there is in most classical music."<br /><br />For this one-off gig, he's assembled a classical string quartet filled out by guitar, bass and harpsichord. He's enlisted the likes of Karen Shinozaki, who grew up in Terra Linda and performs with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, and violinist Michelle Maruyama, who appeared at the Nano Mugen Festival in Japan recently with Third Eye Blind.<br /><br />"I'm surrounding myself with huge talent and trying to stay relaxed in the middle of it," he said, noting that he's encouraging them to shed their classical music conformity, urging them "to think of themselves as a band."<br /><br />During breaks between the movements in "The Four Seasons," various aggregations, including all the members of Hot Buttered Rum, are primed to jam on jazz, bluegrass and swing renditions of seasonal songs like "Autumn Leaves" and "Summertime." Making sure this doesn't resemble a traditional classical concert in any way shape or form, Redner's even got an interpretive dancer in the mix.<br /><br />"People in the jam band world are saying how much they love this piece, which I didn't expect," he said, referring to the Vivaldi. "And classical music fans are going to hear some jazz standards in this show, and some swing and some bluegrass - music they might not go out of their way to hear normally."<br /><br />During his college years, Redner was on track for a career with a chamber group or symphony orchestra. Then, as he put it, "I got kidnapped by this band, the Grateful Dead. And I decided I loved playing music that people could dance to in a communal atmosphere. That was lacking in my classical music experience."<br /><br />Even six years later, though, his classical jones has been hard to kick. During Hot Buttered Rum shows, he's known for playing a Beethoven sonata in the middle of a bluegrass tune.<br /><br />"I've been trying to do that more and more," he said. "Fans are starting to expect it."<br /><br />With this concert, which Redner hopes will be the first of many, he joins a classical crossover movement pioneered by virtuosos like Edgar Meyer, Joshua Bell, Bela Fleck, Mark O'Connor, Chris Thile and Mike Marshall, who produced the last Hot Buttered Rum album.<br /><br />"In order to do this kind of thing and not sound like a dilettante, you have to do your homework," he said.<br /><br />As a resident of San Anselmo, he said there are a lot of beautiful places to do that.<br /><br />"I go over the Bolinas-Fairfax Road, stop beside one of the lakes and practice my butt off," he said. "When I'm up on Mount Tam in the open air, I try to create music that fits that perfection. I don't want to be guilty of air pollution."<br /><br />IF YOU GO<br /><br />- What: Hot Buttered Rum's Aaron Redner's "The Four Seasons," acoustic<br /><br />- When: 8 p.m. Oct. 23<br /><br />- Where: 142 Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley<br /><br />- Tickets: $20, $15 students/seniors<br /><br />- Information: 383-9600<br /><br />Photo Info: Aaron Redner of Hot Buttered Rum leads a group of equally musical friends in an excursion into the classical world of Vivaldi, with surprisingly modern results. (Dave Fleischman)<br /><br />Paul Liberatore can be reached at liberatore@marinij.com<br />Print Email Font ResizeReturn to TopPaul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-18420865233711649262008-10-19T09:32:00.000-07:002008-10-19T09:44:10.352-07:00Santana Wows San Rafael Middle-Schoolers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikyvRvDdoFfpKyWFwAmGD1Rm6G8vA2AdSdXg6aiRD2iuN6Eea14k1OinJK8xTTwuSrZEDk7a4kkWX7B8ol0hTmvsMlQzk2uBxY_K3yzPaZAaN726JUIN_TdSkCuCm7pXh3mD-fEIFzKi2i/s1600-h/20081016__17santana1_Gallery.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikyvRvDdoFfpKyWFwAmGD1Rm6G8vA2AdSdXg6aiRD2iuN6Eea14k1OinJK8xTTwuSrZEDk7a4kkWX7B8ol0hTmvsMlQzk2uBxY_K3yzPaZAaN726JUIN_TdSkCuCm7pXh3mD-fEIFzKi2i/s320/20081016__17santana1_Gallery.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258905369152380786" /></a><br />Santana wows San Rafael middle-schoolers<br />By Paul Liberatore<br />Article Launched: 10/16/2008 10:04:28 PM PDT<br /><br /><br />Wearing an impeccable white suit and a black fedora, Carlos Santana, looking and sounding like the rock-superstar-cum-spiritual-figure he's become, was greeted Thursday morning by a gymnasium full of squealing, screaming, wildly cheering students at Davidson Middle School in San Rafael.<br /><br />In honor of Spanish Heritage Month, Santana's highly orchestrated appearance was on behalf of the San Rafael-based Milagro ("miracle" in English) Foundation, the charitable organization he and his wife, Deborah, founded a decade ago. The organization works to improve the lives of disadvantaged children through tax-exempt donations to nonprofits such as Marin City-based Performing Stars of Marin.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGklgZWuU7Upv308VS6KBycuOCyEFHiEaBKXajDP2-OHyfT7DAYRi-NT7KgV8LohMhHz1ynmTmndlgNZumwJWklIneuEj21FfZ5DGqzO9eJwxkQJKbEsg81wKQoiwhws0jc97okL6fLSiK/s1600-h/20081016__17santana2_Gallery.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGklgZWuU7Upv308VS6KBycuOCyEFHiEaBKXajDP2-OHyfT7DAYRi-NT7KgV8LohMhHz1ynmTmndlgNZumwJWklIneuEj21FfZ5DGqzO9eJwxkQJKbEsg81wKQoiwhws0jc97okL6fLSiK/s320/20081016__17santana2_Gallery.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258905828779956562" /></a><br /><br /><br />"Milagro," Santana intoned in a video shown before his talk, "is the hand of God."<br /><br />In an article headlined "Carlos' Cosmic Bummer" in the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine, he vowed to stop performing seven years from now, when he's 67, and become a preacher, "Like Little Richard," he said.<br /><br />In his sermon-like talk to the Davidson students, the majority of them Hispanic, he seemed to be warming to that role, imploring them to pause for 10 seconds of silence in honor of "the holy ghost, for allowing us to come together in unity and harmony and trust and hope, to change the fear all around us on this planet right now."<br /><br />Santana, a long-time San Rafael resident, instructed the children to "visit your own heart and touch your own light."<br /><br />The respectful silence that followed in what<br />Advertisement<br />had been a gym full of hundreds of squirming middle-schoolers was clear evidence that these kids were paying attention to a celebrity they can identify with, one who rose from an immigrant background similar to many of theirs to become a rock icon.<br /><br />"It's important for each one of you, no matter where you come from or where you're going, to value yourself," he told them, in the next breath challenging the education system in California to introduce a new curriculum called "unconditional love" that would combat racism and promote self esteem.<br /><br />"Just like we can teach history and arithmetic, it's important to teach unconditional love," he said, criticizing the state for spending more on prisons than on schools.<br /><br />"Someone is making the wrong choices for you," he said, continuing his plea for "spiritual education" in public schools.<br /><br />"Not necessarily about Jesus or Buddha or Krishna or Mohammed or Rama," he clarified, "but about being kind to one another, about being gentle to one another. It's the best spirituality we can share on this planet."<br /><br />Deborah Santana, who has filed for divorce to end the Santanas' 34-year marriage, was conspicuous by her absence, but Carlos acknowledged her, thanking her for "helping me create this vision."<br /><br />"Even though she's not here, she is here in my heart," he said. "She's with all of us because we want the same things for the same reasons."<br /><br />During the event, Samsung Electronics America's Four Seasons of Hope program in association with Best Buy stores presented the Milagro Foundation with a check for $100,000. All the kids in the audience had on black Samsung Seasons of Hope T-shirts with Santana's image on them.<br /><br />Sitting in the front row beside San Rafael Mayor Al Boro, Santana smiled appreciatively when youngsters from Performing Stars sang and danced to songs from his career-reviving 1999 album "Supernatural."<br /><br />Forty years after his career began in San Francisco's Mission District, Santana and his music are so much a part of the popular culture that even 11-year-old Lizbeth Canche, a sixth-grader, said she learned to play "Oye Como Va," from Santana's classic 1970 album, "Abraxas," on the recorder in school.<br /><br />"I've only seen him on TV," she said before the start of the program, "but my brother works in a car wash, and he came home and told me he saw him there."<br /><br />Afterward, parent Armando Quintero said having a star of Santana's stature take an interest in a school with an overwhelmingly minority enrollment goes a long way in improving its image and the way its students feel about themselves.<br /><br />"He didn't even play, but the kids were excited about seeing him," he said. "And they got it. They heard from him how important they are."<br /><br />Contact Paul Liberatore via e-mail at liberatore@marinij.comPaul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-64201604344713669332008-10-04T07:50:00.000-07:002008-10-04T07:56:32.200-07:00Mickey Hart Prepares for Reunion<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9g_0wlqZoWCyxk-wLKrxNODk2hF17Lc-mvnAfYGfjDeIVLeqmI89V933Skgmu4pMMT_118n-RASpvjH0HFBoZfyJOh3lRSJbvxH-k2yfb78zvr8H8OKkPANQGYGrthTRUx50gDC3LMZPz/s1600-h/20081003__03MickeyHart.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9g_0wlqZoWCyxk-wLKrxNODk2hF17Lc-mvnAfYGfjDeIVLeqmI89V933Skgmu4pMMT_118n-RASpvjH0HFBoZfyJOh3lRSJbvxH-k2yfb78zvr8H8OKkPANQGYGrthTRUx50gDC3LMZPz/s320/20081003__03MickeyHart.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253312592669345842" border="0" /></a>
<br />
<br /><h1 id="articleTitle" class="articleTitle">Drummer Mickey Hart prepares for reunion, Hardly Strictly fest</h1><!--subtitle--><!--byline--><div id="articleByline" class="articleByline"><a class="articleByline" href="mailto:liberatore@marinij.com?subject=Marin%20Independent%20Journal:%20Drummer%20Mickey%20Hart%20prepares%20for%20reunion,%20Hardly%20Strictly%20fest">Paul Liberatore</a></div><!--date--><div id="articleDate" class="articleDate">Article Launched: 10/02/2008 11:52:42 PM PDT</div>
<br /><span type="end" id="default"></span><span type="start" id="default"></span><span type="end" id="default"></span><div class="articleViewerGroup" id="articleViewerGroup" style="border: 0px none ; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 300px;"><script language="JavaScript"> var requestedWidth = 0; </script><span class="articleEmbeddedViewerBox"></span><span type="start" id="default"></span><div class="articlePosition1" style="width: 300px;"><script language="JavaScript"> if(requestedWidth < requestedwidth =" 300;"><div class="articleImageBox" style="width: 300px;"><span class="articleImage"><a href="http://www.marinij.com/portlet/article/html/imageDisplay.jsp?contentItemRelationshipId=2127067" target="_new"><br /></a></span><div class="articleImageCaption" style="width: 100%;">Mickey Hart (left) and Bob Weir have agreed to regroup with other Dead members for an Oct. 13 benefit for Barack Obama at Penn State. (IJ archive/Jeff Vendsel)</div></div></div><span type="end" id="default"></span></div><script language="JavaScript"> if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; } </script><span type="start" id="default"></span>Mickey Hart's Global Drum Project is one of the reasons this weekend's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival calls itself "hardly strictly."<p> The former Grateful Dead drummer's world groove percussion quartet, featuring Marin rhythm master Zakir Hussain, plays Saturday at the festival in Golden Gate Park, even though its sound is hardly bluegrass. But then it isn't strictly anything else, either.</p><p> As Hart himself says about his eclectic international aggregation, "There ain't nothin' like Global Drum."</p><p> That used to be what bumperstickers said about the Grateful Dead: "There ain't nothin' like a Grateful Dead concert."</p><p> But since Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, there haven't been many reunions of the four surviving members, who have feuded over business issues and musical direction. Their relationship was so poisonous at times that their iconic skeleton and roses could very well have been a skull and crossbones.</p><p> But now, as Hart puts it, "Love is in the air."</p><p> All four of the remaining bandmates - Hart, fellow drummer Bill Kreutzmann, singer/guitarist Bob Weir and bassist/vocalist Phil Lesh - have agreed to regroup as the Dead for an Oct. 13 benefit concert for Barack Obama at Penn State University's Bryce Jordan Center. They share the bill with the Allman Brothers.</p><p> "We found something really important to bring us together," Hart tells me. "It's funny that an Obama event would do that, but that's how important and critical this election is. The Dead are going to playin the swing state of Pennsylvania. It's our call to arms, or call to music, which is the way we arm ourselves.
<br /></p><p> Minus Kreutzmann, Hart and Weir joined Lesh at a Phil & Friends benefit show for Obama in February.</p><p> For this month's concert, Kreutzmann jumped on the bandwagon, making it an official Dead reunion.</p><p> "We rehearsed for three days at Bobby's studio in San Rafael, and we got along," Mickey reports. "It was great finding each other's rhythm again and it was very relaxed. We left the managers behind. Maybe that's one of the reasons we could all be in the room together. There was less baggage."</p><p> But they were so rusty that the old bandmates, famed for their one-mind improvisation, had to actually relearn some of their own songs.</p><p> "Sometimes we had to listen to the recordings to find out what the chord changes are," Hart reports. "But we were never over prepared, and that was part of the fun of Grateful Dead music. There are some chords and vocals that we've never agreed on. Phil has his own way of playing them. Bob has his own way. Then we as the Dead have our way. It was, 'Hey, which way do you want to do this, or is there a way?'"</p><p> As for rumors that this is a precursor to a full-blown Dead tour next year, Hart says: "We're all smiling and playing good and that's the first thing. It's like getting back together in a romantic relationship. And this one's really complex over many years. Everyone's got to find their own rhythm again. You've just got to take this kind of stuff step by step."</p><p> IF YOU HAVE RHYTHM</p><p> Mickey Hart's Global Drum Project, featuring Marin's Zakir Hussain, plays at 5:40 p.m. Saturday on the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Star Stage. The three-day festival, beginning Friday and ending Sunday, is a free event in Golden Gate Park's Speedway Meadow. Check <a href="http://www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com/">www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com</a> for the complete lineup.</p><p> Paul Liberatore can be reached at <a href="mailto:liberatore@marinij.com">liberatore@marinij.com</a> </p></div></div>Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-24097250317801263792008-10-03T06:06:00.000-07:002008-10-03T06:16:49.947-07:00Paul Liberatore: Grateful Dead's contributions to Slide Ranch subject of tribute dinner<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikOsI0MxShU1aygus-ef8-T4Gu7rvnUufwputPKrPer6cE0i8Mwm_4SEtI4KU0hinj2LEflwGJdQdzWf55elFWcTRn1YXsv6ovMGuPv60P-U5VP_QOJFVElDk5yxt6w9IuDiYSt4xbN1Pm/s1600-h/20081003__03washington2_Gallery.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikOsI0MxShU1aygus-ef8-T4Gu7rvnUufwputPKrPer6cE0i8Mwm_4SEtI4KU0hinj2LEflwGJdQdzWf55elFWcTRn1YXsv6ovMGuPv60P-U5VP_QOJFVElDk5yxt6w9IuDiYSt4xbN1Pm/s320/20081003__03washington2_Gallery.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252915241523058434" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypESKhsuiP1PdUtLD9PoX3irvm2btAGCIlyQjpKXvlV6CINBNBCQ4n1gW5ZDcMlZLetuactOLaOVjUfW8nzRr9I0N7KE3GNk3nGqi8ZBcfLZeAfaDcqHhB-8P-xvMQT-YFZF17ubdI87G/s1600-h/20081003__03Garcia_Gallery.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypESKhsuiP1PdUtLD9PoX3irvm2btAGCIlyQjpKXvlV6CINBNBCQ4n1gW5ZDcMlZLetuactOLaOVjUfW8nzRr9I0N7KE3GNk3nGqi8ZBcfLZeAfaDcqHhB-8P-xvMQT-YFZF17ubdI87G/s320/20081003__03Garcia_Gallery.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252914670810506338" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Paul Liberatore<br />Article Launched: 10/03/2008 12:08:38 AM PDT<br /><br />Every time I think I know a lot about the rock 'n' roll history of Marin County, something new comes to my attention that makes me think again.<br /><br />That happened recently when I heard that Slide Ranch, the teaching farm on the Marin coast, is hosting a $750-a-couple dinner in honor of the Grateful Dead on Tuesday night at Fort Baker's tony new Cavallo Point Lodge.<br /><br />The evening includes music by the Celtic jam band Wake the Dead, and a "silver trowel" presentation to former Grateful Dead guitarist/singer Bob Weir.<br /><br />If you're like me, you may be wondering what in the world the Grateful Dead had to do with Slide Ranch. Surprisingly, a whole heckuva lot.<br /><br />Executive director Charles Higgins has done considerable digging into the history of a ranch that was once a ruin and now gives 8,000 city kids per year a taste of life on a working, organic farm.<br /><br />He tells us that:<br /><br />Ed Washington, co-producer of "The Grateful Dead Movie" in 1977, was the ranch's first director.<br /><br />Danny Rifkin, the Dead's first manager, had a lot to do with connecting inner-city kids to the bucolic 134-acre spread.<br /><br />Jerry Garcia, the band's lead guitarist, was its first major donor, contributing $500 - a lot of money 40 years ago.<br /><br />I was reminded that my colleague Nels Johnson and I attended a Saturday afternoon benefit concert for Slide at the Stinson Beach Community Center by Garcia's short-lived bluegrass band, Old & In the Way.<br /><br />Over the years, the Grateful Dead's Rex Foundation came through<br /><br />Originally a 19th century dairy farm owned by a Portuguese family, the ranch had degenerated into a haven for drug dealers and counterculture outlaws in the freewheeling 1960s.<br /><br />In 1969, through the joint efforts of Marin attorney Doug Ferguson and the Nature Conservancy's Huey Johnson, Slide Ranch was purchased and protected from commercial development and cocaine cowboys.<br /><br />Once the deal was done, Susie Washington-Smyth, who co-founded Slide with her husband, Ed, recalls bounding down the ranch's precarious driveway with Ferguson and Johnson only to be confronted by shotgun-wielding drug dealers on horseback.<br /><br />"These guys had on cowboy hats and big duster coats and snarled at us, 'What the hell do you want here?'" she recalls. "Huey (Johnson) looked at them and yelled, 'I'm your new landlord and you've got 30 days to get out of here.' I was convinced they were going to shoot us. When they left, they just trashed the place."<br /><br />The Washingtons and other members of the Grateful Dead extended family spent months cleaning up the ranch grounds and its falling-down outbuildings, constructing a Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic dome as a primary program area.<br /><br />It became "the anti rock 'n' roll place," Higgins explains, for the folks, mostly women, who were into milking goats and going back to the land, providing a healthy environment for their children and for inner city kids to learn about the earth and how to take care of it.<br /><br />Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Garcia, Jerry's wife, remembers coming out to the ranch from Stinson with her two young children, Sunshine Kesey, Ken Kesey's daughter, and Annabelle Garcia, Jerry's girl.<br /><br />"The driveway was a nightmare," she recalls. "They didn't call it Slide Ranch for nothing. By the time it became an environmental center, everyone had put in so much work. There were tons of garbage. We had to break the foundation out from the old cow barn, which was crumbling old concrete, and that took months. Everybody we knew came out and participated."<br /><br />Since those volunteer-driven beginnings in 1970, more than 175,000 people from diverse backgrounds and communities, most of them youngsters, have participated in Slide Ranch educational programs.<br /><br />With an eight-person staff, the ranch offers family and group programs as well as summer day camp for 8,000 visitors a year. These are hands-on education activities on a working ranch with farm animals and organic gardens.<br /><br />"Slide Ranch has always been a different kind of place," Washington-Smyth points out. "It's never been your mainstream summer camp. It's always been right on the edge of idealism and practicality. And that's one of the reason's it's been successful.<br /><br />"When we started in 1969, it was with a wish and a prayer," she says. "One of the most surprising things to me is that 40 years later, Slide Ranch is still going on stronger than before."<br /><br />IF YOU GO<br /><br />- What: Slide Ranch and the Grateful Dead Silver Trowel Award Dinner<br /><br />- Who: Special guests Bob Weir, Rob Wasserman, Jay Lane, Henry Kaiser, Dennis McNally, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, Brian O'Neill, Gary Fisher, Doug Ferguson<br /><br />- When: 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday<br /><br />- Where: Cavallo Point Lodge at Fort Baker, 601 Murray Circle, Sausalito<br /><br />- Tickets: $750 per couple<br /><br />- Information: 381-8758, charles@slideranch.org<br /><br />Paul Liberatore can be reached at liberatore@marinij.com.Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-48184672677290290662008-10-02T23:06:00.000-07:002009-01-06T21:16:59.496-08:00Joan Baez: Still Stirring Emotions after 50 Years<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD7rgaYFsOUGaNEbvm_yJtA9pzU0xegnY6Cevdtm1-lOIJmOejP67CdZzs8HCcrFT6B4n25Mcd3KRxOMPmTiCQxM41THVWpi2oRMdPwzUhUUysngKmxnz7dcoD69zRR8fdCOpYbPm6DH2y/s1600-h/Joan-Baez.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD7rgaYFsOUGaNEbvm_yJtA9pzU0xegnY6Cevdtm1-lOIJmOejP67CdZzs8HCcrFT6B4n25Mcd3KRxOMPmTiCQxM41THVWpi2oRMdPwzUhUUysngKmxnz7dcoD69zRR8fdCOpYbPm6DH2y/s320/Joan-Baez.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252811551766810498" border="0" /></a><script language="JavaScript"> <br /><br /><h1 id="articleTitle" class="articleTitle">Paul Liberatore: Joan Baez still stirring emotions 50 years into her career</h1><!--subtitle--><!--byline--><div id="articleByline" class="articleByline"><a class="articleByline" href="mailto:liberatore@marinij.com?subject=Marin%20Independent%20Journal:%20Paul%20Liberatore:%20Joan%20Baez%20still%20stirring%20emotions%2050%20years%20into%20her%20career">Paul Liberatore</a></div><!--date--><div id="articleDate" class="articleDate">Article Launched: 09/19/2008 12:07:06 AM PDT<br /><br /><br /><span type="end" id="default"></span><span type="start" id="default"></span><span type="end" id="default"></span><div class="articleViewerGroup" id="articleViewerGroup" style="border: 0px none ; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 300px;"><script language="JavaScript"> var requestedWidth = 0; </script><span class="articleEmbeddedViewerBox"></span><span type="start" id="default"></span><div class="articlePosition1" style="width: 300px;"><script language="JavaScript"> if(requestedWidth < requestedwidth =" 300;"><div class="articleImageBox" style="width: 300px;"><span class="articleImage"><a href="http://www.marinij.com/portlet/article/html/imageDisplay.jsp?contentItemRelationshipId=2108317" target="_new"><br /></a></span><div class="articleImageCaption" style="width: 100%;">Joan Baez is 67, but she has the top album on Amazon.com s Singer-Songwriter chart this week. (Getty Images/Dave Hogan)</div></div></div><span type="end" id="default"></span><div class="packagesGrpBox" style="width: 200px; height: auto;"><div class="packagesHeader">Related</div><div class="packagesBox"><ul><li class="packageTitle">Joan Baez</li><li class="packageDate">Sep 19:</li><li class="packageItem"><a href="http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_10507851" style="width: 184px;">Audio: Listen to title track from Joan Baez's Day After Tomorrow</a></li></ul></div></div><script language="JavaScript"> if(requestedWidth < requestedwidth =" 200;"></div><script language="JavaScript"> if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; } </script>
<br />Joan Baez is celebrating her 50th anniversary in the music business this year, and she's doing it in surprisingly fine style - with a hit record.<p> Her new album, "Day After Tomorrow," produced by Steve Earle, was No. 1 on Amazon's Singer-Songwriter chart this week, ahead of Jewel and Eva Cassidy. It was No. 2 in traditional folk and No. 3 in contemporary folk.</p><p> At age 67, looking lovely as ever, Joan happily finds herself with one of the hottest albums in the country, which she's dedicated to her 95-year-old mother.</p><p> "I told Mom that if I don't watch out, I'm going to be famous," she joked to my wife and me the other night over dinner at Greens in San Francisco.</p><p> Joan is a friend, and this was our chance to spend some time with her before she went back out on the road on her second world tour this year.</p><p> She'll be back in the Bay Area for a Nov. 15 concert at the Wells Fargo Center in Santa Rosa, followed by shows Nov. 18 and 19 at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.</p><p> Months ago, in our living room in Mill Valley, she played us an unmixed version of the title track, a heartbreaking lament by Tom Waits about a soldier longing to come home from Iraq.</p><p> She sings it in her now burnished alto, accompanied only by her acoustic guitar. We were so emotionally moved that we suspected that this album would resonate with the reflective mood of the country at this critical time in our history.</p><p> I won't forget listening to the final product, sitting together at Joan's home one golden summer afternoon. With its literate, intelligent, compassionate songs of peace and hope and homecoming by Earle and Waits, Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett, Eliza Gilkyson, Thea Gilmore, Diana Jones and Patty Griffin, the album touched us just as the title song had. And we were pretty sure we wouldn't be alone.
<br /></p><p> As one of the citizen reviewers wrote on Amazon: "Joan Baez, my hero. More songs of rebellion, coal miners, soldiers, God. I enjoyed this just this morning and I'm always happy to hear her voice."</p><p> Joan recorded "Day After Tomorrow" in Nashville with an acoustic string band that included Earle and bluegrass aces Tim O'Brien and Darryl Scott.</p><p> "It's going back to my roots, but with contemporary songs," she said. "It speaks to the essence of who I am in the same way as the songs that have been the enduring backbone of my repertoire for the past 50 years."</p><p> Joan was back in Nashville last night, where Earle presented her with the Spirit of Americana Free Speech Award at the Americana Music Association's seventh annual awards show.</p><p> Then she was off to the U.K., where she's a sought-after guest on radio and TV talk shows.</p><p> I asked her what the Europeans want to know. She said they always begin by asking her about Barack Obama, the first candidate she has ever endorsed for president, whether America is ready to elect an African American to head the country.</p><p> She said she tells them that it all boils down to whether America is smart or not. By the time she returns home in November, after the election, we'll know the answer to that.</p><p><script language="JavaScript"> </script></p></div>Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302982188391055853.post-21803820286006091172008-10-02T08:55:00.000-07:002008-10-02T09:05:53.588-07:00A studio visit with MacArthur 'genius' Walter Kitundu in the Marin Headlands<div id="articleByline" class="articleByline"><a class="articleByline" href="mailto:liberatore@marinij.com?subject=Marin%20Independent%20Journal:%20A%20studio%20visit%20with%20MacArthur%20%27genius%27%20and%20his%20pigeon%20in%20the%20Marin%20Headlands">By Paul Liberatore</a></div><!--date--><div id="articleDate" class="articleDate">Article Launched: 09/26/2008 02:03:10 PM PDT</div><br /><script language="JavaScript"> var requestedWidth = 0; </script><script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/js/article/viewerControls.js"></script><br /><div id="articleBody" class="articleBody"><div class="articleViewerGroup" id="articleViewerGroup" style="border: 0px none ; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 202px;"><span class="articleEmbeddedViewerBox"><div id="photoviewer" style="width: 200px;"><span class="clicktoenlargephoto"></span><div class="photocontainer" style="height: 140px;"><div class="photocell" style="width: 200px;"><div class="photo"><a id="gallery_link" border="0px" href="http://www.marinij.com/portlet/article/html/render_gallery.jsp?articleId=10567977&siteId=234&startImage=1" target="_new"><img id="image" src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0927/20080927__genius1_Viewer.jpg" onerror="javascript:this.src = 'http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/clear.gif';" onload="javascript:toggleVisibility('image',true);" style="visibility: visible;" width="199" height="132" /></a></div></div></div><div id="caption" class="caption" style="height: 60px;">Walter Kitundu, artist in residence at Marin s Headlands Center for the... (IJ photo/Frankie Frost)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><span class="footer"></span></div><script type="text/javascript"> viewer_currentlySelected = 1; viewer_lastIndex = 3; viewer_images = ['http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0927/20080927__genius1_Viewer.jpg','http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0927/20080927__genius2_Viewer.jpg','http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0927/20080927__genius3_Viewer.jpg']; viewer_widths = ['199','199','199']; viewer_heights = ['132','132','132']; viewer_captions = ["Walter Kitundu, artist in residence at Marin s Headlands Center for the... (IJ photo/Frankie Frost)","Walter Kitundu plays a phonoharp, an instrument he made with a sound... (IJ photo/Frankie Frost)","Walter Kitundu demonstrates a prototype of a wind-powered instrument he... (IJ photo/Frankie Frost)"]; viewer_galleryUrl = '/portlet/article/html/render_gallery.jsp'; viewer_articleId = '10567977'; viewer_siteId = '234'; viewer_isPreviewing = 'false'; viewer_isEmbedded = ''; viewer_activeButtonLead = 2; viewer_visibleButtonCount = 5; viewer_allowEnlargement = !isEmpty(viewer_galleryUrl); selectImage(1); displayOn('control_box'); function addToDimension(dim, val){ index = dim.indexOf('px'); if(index != -1){ dim = dim.substring(0, index); } dim = parseInt(dim) + val; return dim; } if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("MSIE") != -1){ $('photoviewer').style.width = addToDimension($('photoviewer').style.width, 2); $('caption').style.height = addToDimension($('caption').style.height, 2); } requestedWidth = 202; </script><img src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0927/20080927__genius1_Viewer.jpg" style="display: none;" /><img src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0927/20080927__genius2_Viewer.jpg" style="display: none;" /><img src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site234/2008/0927/20080927__genius3_Viewer.jpg" style="display: none;" /></span><span type="start" id="default"></span><span type="end" id="default"></span></div><script language="JavaScript"> if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; } </script><br /><br />When multimedia artist Walter Kitundu rescued a one-eyed pigeon in the Marin Headlands one day this week, he called his new pet MacArthur, a name inspired by the $500,000 MacArthur Foundation "genius" award he'd just won.<p> The soft-spoken 35-year-old artist in residence at Marin's Headlands Center for the Arts was one of 25 MacArthur Fellows announced on Monday. He'll receive $500,000 with no strings attached over the next five years.</p><p> There are many strings attached to the wildly imaginative instruments he builds for San Francisco's Kronos Quartet, an association that has earned him a reputation as a rising young star in experimental music.</p><p> He's best known for creating the "phonoharp," a beautifully constructed multistringed wooden </p><div class="articlePosition2"><!-- Start of Brightcove Player --> <div style="display: none;"> </div> <script src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/experience_util.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> // By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and C // found at http://corp.brightcove.com/legal/terms_publisher.cfm. var config = new Array(); /* * feel free to edit these configurations * to modify the player experience */ config["videoId"] = null; //the default video loaded into the player config["videoRef"] = null; //the default video loaded into the player by ref id specified in console config["lineupId"] = null; //the default lineup loaded into the player config["playerTag"] = null; //player tag used for identifying this page in brightcove reporting config["autoStart"] = false; //tells the player to start playing video on load config["preloadBackColor"] = "#FFFFFF"; //background color while loading the player /* * set the player's size using the parameters below * to make this player dynamically resizable, set the width and height as a percentage */ config["width"] = 486; config["height"] = 412; /* do not edit these config items */ config["playerId"] = 1815820641; createExperience(config, 8); </script><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,0,0" id="flashObj0" width="486" height="412"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> <param name="movie" value="http://admin.brightcove.com/viewer/federated_f8.swf?flashId=flashObj0&servicesURL=http%3A%2F%2Fservices.brightcove.com%2Fservices&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https%3A%2F%2Fconsole.brightcove.com%2Fservices%2Famfgateway&cdnURL=http%3A%2F%2Fadmin.brightcove.com&autoStart=false&preloadBackColor=%23FFFFFF&width=486&height=412&playerId=1815820641&externalAds=false&sendReports=false&buildNumber=1055&ranNum=101348"> <param name="wmode" value="window"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"> <param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com/viewer/"> <param name="SeamlessTabbing" value="false"> <embed src="http://admin.brightcove.com/viewer/federated_f8.swf?flashId=flashObj0&servicesURL=http%3A%2F%2Fservices.brightcove.com%2Fservices&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https%3A%2F%2Fconsole.brightcove.com%2Fservices%2Famfgateway&cdnURL=http%3A%2F%2Fadmin.brightcove.com&autoStart=false&preloadBackColor=%23FFFFFF&width=486&height=412&playerId=1815820641&externalAds=false&sendReports=false&buildNumber=1055&ranNum=101348" base="http://admin.brightcove.com/viewer/" quality="high" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" allowscriptaccess="always" name="flashObj0" wmode="window" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swliveconnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" width="486" height="412"></embed></object> <!-- End of Brightcove Player --></div>instrument fused with a record turntable that amplifies the vibrating strings through the stylus. It looks like something Jam Master Jay would play at a Marin crafts fair.<p> He and the quartet played phonoharps when Kronos premiered Kitundu's composition "Cerulean Sweet" at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in 2006. They played a rendition honoring Charles Mingus at the San Francisco Jazz Festival last year.</p><p> Those successes aside, like many artists, Kitundu has to hold down a number of jobs to keep body and soul together. He was driving his battered 1984 Honda to one of them - a class in wood arts he teaches as a "distinguished professor" at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco- when he took the cell phone call from the foundation that instantly and dramatically changed his life.<br /></p><span id="rds_global"><p> "It sounded like a bill collector at first," he said Thursday morning in his capacious studio at the Headlands Center near Sausalito.</p><p> But he was soon disabused of that notion.</p><p> "At that moment I sort of froze," he recalled. "I was in disbelief. I was without words for a while. This was something I never imagined. I was crying as I parked the car."</p><p> The only catch was that he was informed of his good fortune a week before the public announcement, and he was sworn to secrecy until then. He could only tell one person, a girlfriend.</p><p> "Conceptually, everything in my life had changed," he explained. "But, practically, everything was exactly the same. That dissonance lasted a week. It was a strange feeling."</p><p> Kitundu began his career as a DJ with a hip-hop group while studying art. He's often had to decide between buying groceries or the materials he needs for one of his projects. No more.</p><p> "For an artist in this country, the things that are stressors are often financial," he said. "Oftentimes I've had to ask myself, 'Can I buy a sandwich or should I get these bolts and finish this last piece?' To have that not be an issue is overwhelming."</p><p> Dennis Bartels, executive director of San Francisco's Exploratorium, where Kitundu is on the staff as a multimedia artist, describes him as "a rare combination of original thinker and gentle soul."</p><p> Surrounding him in his Headlands Center studio are the parts for "trumpet" violins, a trumpet cello and a trumpet viola - brand new instruments he's making for the Kronos Quartet.</p><p> The group's Dennis Harrington has compared him to Leonardo da Vinci, and he is indeed something of a Renaissance man. He's now deeply involved in nature photography with a focus on birds and raptors. His latest phonoharp is inlaid with the shape of a shorebird.</p><p> On Wednesday he slipped out of the media spotlight and worked in the Marin Headlands with other volunteers banding migrating hawks. That's where he befriended MacArthur before the handicapped pigeon, now safely in a cage in the artist's studio, could become a raptor repast.</p><p> "For the entire day, being completely inaccessible was fantastic," the publicity-shy artist said with a smile. "It was very centering."</p><p> Born in Minnesota, Kitundu spent eight formative years in Tanzania, where his parents still live. His father is a retired doctor and his mother a retired nurse. He hasn't seen them in two years, and one of the first things he plans to do with his money is pay them a visit.</p><p> "They didn't know about the existence of the award," he said. "When I told them, my mom asked, 'How much is it?' Needless to say, when I told her it was for a half a million dollars, they were thrilled. The next day they were reading the news reports on the Internet and my father said it was hard to read through the tears."</p><p> IF YOU GO</p><p> Walter Kitundu speaks as part of the Design and Craft Lecture Series at the California College of the Arts at 7 p.m. Oct. 22 at 1111 Eighth St., San Francisco. For more information, call 703-9500.</p></span><br /></div>Paul Liberatorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17071563278754380506noreply@blogger.com1