Local Voices: Signs Point to Varsity Progress

I am not an actual bird omenologist although one of my first clients, Kevin Russell, who studied the Penan of Borneo, claimed to be. And I recall that in Michael Apted’s film about Leonard Peltier, “Incident at Oglala” there was a bit about the men sighting an eagle during their prayer session, and trying to follow the flight of the eagle to safety. Third, Nathan Oliveira is said to have used the sighting of a hawk at The Dish as inspiration for his famous Windhoven series. (And I did see a wild turkey the other day, while strolling through campus, thinking about Nathan; and a hawk-shaped smudge on a street sign, and an insistently loud woodpecker rattling a power-line box, all in one freakish morning).

I am more commonly a news-clip-omenologist; I take inspiration from things I clip from the newspaper, especially via the New York Times. Like Errol Morris claiming that a tiny item in the Chronicle launched “Gates of Heaven” (and, in turn, “Thin Blue Line”, “Fog of War” and, recently, at the Aquarius, “Tabloid”), I clip stacks of potential fodder, food for thought and projects (or I could line a thousand birdcages).

Today at , for instance. In between calls to City Staff about a potential white paper on The Varsity Theatre (which I call “The Last Picture Waltz Initiative" – I am advocating a run of 500 shows in the historic theatre, over ten years, as a long goodbye, before letting another chain retailer, or office space, in), and to the GM of a leading Bay Area cultural programmer, who wants to tour the theatre or bookstore, I clipped three things from a paper left at my table:

1. Jen Shyu at Newport Jazz Festival. Jen is a Stanford grad and jazz vocalist who performs often with Steve Coleman and also writes original music that combine jazz with Taiwanese folk tales. I have an on-again, off-again correspondence with her about trying to bring her show to Palo Alto; I took it as a good sign that she was in the New York Times today as I am trying to organize my various thoughts and strategies about this rather ambitious cultural initiative. Ben Ratliff compared her to Sarah Vaughn.
2. San Diego Chargers, new stadium discussion. This is an obscure point: the article mentions the various negotiations about either building in San Diego a replacement for the very-Candlestick Park-like Qualcomm Stadium, moving the team to LA, and I recall that Gus Spanos, whose relatives still own the NFL franchise, was part of a partnership that bought the Murphy Street Theatre in Sunnyvale in the 1980s (and yes, I was an unpaid consultant on that; I met Gus at a copy shop and gusanoed by way into his project). More relevantly, the article says that Anschutz Entertainment Group wants to finance a $1.2 billion new stadium for the Chargers in L.A: one of my sources on the Varsity project is David Lefkowitz, in AEG's San Francisco office, who books The Warfield Theatre; I know David because his management clients Charlie Hunter, Galactic and Stone Fox all played my Cubberley series.
3. In the obituary of former Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield, it said that his civil rights legislation was informed by his experience producing concerts by Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson, in Willamette in the 1950s.

I spoke with Diane Samuels of a local non-AOL media outlet on the Theatre topic, and look forward to reading her report. I described my role to her as akin to Paul Revere, in getting the word out, or a Hoo from the Dr. Seuss book.

I ran into Jenny Bilfield at Stanford West -- I live nearby, at Oak Creek -- and asked her to try to write even the briefest note to Council or the Editors about how much a cultural outpost like The Varsity Theatre would add to our town; we discussed Paul Florida's "The Rise of the Creative Class." I told her I hope to interview Josh Roseman for this site, and to spread the word about Matmos So Percussion, (whose album cover was created by my pal Rob Syrett). I noted later that our Mayor Sid Espinosa circulated a video of his tour of her new venue, Stanford's soon-to-be-complete Bing Auditorium.

In my letter to council, archived here, I reference the fact that some people think of the combination 4-5-6, for instance, in Chinese dominoes, as good luck (The Varsity Theatre is located at 456 University, of course).

Because I often interact with the internet at the library, (I DO NOT OWN A COMPUTER, REPEAT, I DO NOT OWN A COMPUTER) I happened onto a copy of "A Night at the Opera" -- I wonder what wisdom Groucho and Harpo could offer here? (Stay tuned, dear readers; better, write your own white paper or letter to the editor, or comment below, about "The Last Picture Waltz" (SAVE THE VARSITY) initiative.

Ok, I found this clip of Chico Marx singing "All I Do Is Dream of You" which roughly describes my current obsession with The Varsity. And yes, I did the obvious and pulled my worn copy of "The Last Picture Show", Larry McMurtry's novel. So far all I've found there is the fact that Duane's family has a cocker spaniel. Our blind cocker Frida is very, very optimistic about TLPW and 456. And speaking of Indians, omens and opera's, as I was finishing this tract I got a return call from Santa Fe by way of Berkeley in the seventies arts lawyer Kate Fitzgibbon who says she recommends "Griselda" but has heard good things about "The Last Savage."