News from the Harris Guitar Collection at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

A special guitar enters the collection: I thought that when I donated my guitar collection (40 guitars) to SFCM in 2019, my days as a collector were over. I became the curator of the collection, working with the guitar department to make the collection available to students and faculty for research, performance and recordings. But that intention didn’t stop folks from presenting me opportunities to purchase new guitars. My stock answer has been, “No, the collection is closed. I’m a curator now, not a collector.” Enter luthier Geoff Rashe from Santa Cruz, a builder and player of flamenco guitars, with a wonderful and very rare “classical” Marcelo Barbero guitar from 1949. Geoff knew I had a flamenco Barbero from 1948 and thought, maybe...

The difference between classical and flamenco guitars is mostly a distinction between how the guitar is “set up” for the two very different styles of playing: flamenco players want a low action with the strings closer to the fingerboard for speed and the percussive power of the notes. Classical players want a higher action with clear and sustaining single notes and chords. Also, flamenco guitars are usually made with Spanish cypress for backs and sides. Most classical guitars use a more expensive Brazilian or Indian rosewood. There are some sound characteristics of these two woods that favor the respective flamenco and classical techniques and repertoires, but mostly cypress has been used historically because it’s indigenous to Spain and thus more affordable for flamenco performers.

There is a bit of a prejudice in classical guitar circles against flamenco guitars (the set up being different, the sound of cypress not as dark as rosewood) and our Barbero was, despite being fantastic in its own right, under utilized. So I offered to trade HGC's cypress Barbero (a "blanca") for Geoff's rosewood Barbero (a "negra"), plus cash (classical guitars are more valuable than flamenco guitars by the same maker), but not before several players from the Conservatory came to play Geoff's Barbero—David Tanenbaum and Marc Teicholz, and the founding Chair of the department, now retired, George Sakellariou. All instantly fell in love, as I had, and the deal was done.

Barbero (1904–1956) is considered one of the greatest makers of the 20th century. Though he is best known for his flamenco guitars, his classical guitars are highly regarded and very rare. Barbero followed in the Madrid line of makers, working with his mentor, the great Santos Hernandez, and training Arcangel Fernandez who is still active today. This Madrid line of luthiers goes back to the 19th century workshops of Jose and Manuel Ramirez who followed in the tradition of the 19th century Andalusian, Antonio de Torres, the guitar’s Antonio Stradivari.

The NEW Republican Party

I was listening to a talking head on CNN today discussing the diminishing prospects of the party in the November elections and I thought I heard her say, “the Retroublican Party”. I chuckled and thought, "That’s clever," but she never said it again and none of the other commentators picked up on it or laughed. So I concluded I had heard it wrong, but I loved it. OK, I said to myself, let’s re-do the party emblem with the new name and turn the stylized elephant upside down, like a helpless turtle on its back.

Covid-19 Series #12: Momento Mori

This year It would be wonderful, to have something to hope for. But honestly, I'm not counting on the Happy. In the time of Covid (and post-Trump mayhem), New will be good enough.

Here attached is my final plague-obsessed drawing of 2020 ( Covid Series #12)-- “Momento Mori: Covid Spikes and Cholera Tears”. Any more Covid-related images that emerge in 2021 will be included in a small book along with related texts.

The Latin phrase “memento mori” means, “Remember death” or “Know that you will die”. The Stoic philosophers of antiquity thought this a healthy motto to live by. Today we say, "Gather ye rosebuds...” or, "Tick tock". (FYI: I have spelled memento in my drawing with an “o” which is a technically wrong but an acceptable variant in English.)

My memento mori drawing references both the Covid and earlier Cholera pandemics. My grandfather contracted cholera in Vietnam while serving there in the French Foreign Legion in 1902. A Catholic nun in a Hanoi hospital saved him. Another plague, HIV/AIDS, took my brother in 1988. Hopefully the New Year, happy or not, will bring an end to Covid (and Trumpism) and spare us, our friends and family (and nation) from the twin horrors of 2020. Blessings to so many not spared.

A look back at California's fires this fall

Art History in the making:

The colored fog today gives Mother Nature a new palette color--foggy red.
Imagine an Impressionist artist like Claude Monet painting his iconic "Impression, Sunrise" in San Francisco today instead of Le Havre in 1872. Would the term Impressionism have been coined? What would this alternate version of the painting be called--"Sunrise, Smoky"?

I don't think an art movement dubbed "Smokism" would, um, catch fire. And speaking of catching fire, when did Smokey Bear arrive on the scene?

It started in the 1940s as a campaign to prevent man made forest and grassland fires in the US: "Smokey says, Only YOU can prevent forest fires." If only...

Top: Today's version
Bottom: Original Monet

Donald Trump as an Infectious Virus: A post election perspective.

√ The word "virus" comes from the Latin word for poison.

√ Because viruses carry some but not all the
elements of life (genetic material but no cell structure),
they are considered organisms “at the edge of life”.

√ Some viruses can evade immune responses and
result in chronic infections.

√ A host virus’s genetic material can be passed on “vertically” to offspring for many generations.

√ To control a virus, the host must be identified and separated from the community.

√ When a virus infects a large percentage of a population, it is called an epidemic. If an outbreak spreads worldwide, it’s called a pandemic. They usually return for a 2nd and more lethal wave until immunity can be established by the affected community (“herd immunity”).

√ Donald Trump

Humpty Trumpty

I have to post my Humpty Trumpty cartoon one more time and quickly now, before the election results are final.

When I first posted it in 2016 during the election it proved premature. And then, during the impeachment hearings, I was wrong again. It looks like the third time is the charm. But if by some trick of political fate Trump pulls out a victory, I promise that you will never ever have to see the image again. It will be swept into the dustbin of cartoon history where failed cartoons abide.

Covid-19 drawing no. 8

My No.8 Covid-19 drawing puts our pandemic into historical perspective on the eve of our election.

The popular names for these world historical pandemics, like the Black Death (bubonic plague) evolve over time and "catch on." For example, the 1918 Spanish Flu (also Swine Flu) was called the French Flu by the Spanish who thought the virus had arrived in Spain via France. But despite its origins being still unclear, "Spanish Flu" has stood the test of time (My chart suggests a colorful alternative).

The Trump government is trying to brand Covid-19 the China Virus and even the Communist China Virus for political purposes-- to avoid taking responsibility for what is fast becoming an American virus in terms of its impact. I propose a more appropriate name, The Red, White and Blue Death.

Fight Mouthwash Eat Garlic!

Fight mouthwash, Eat garlic!

Bastille Day Cancelled in Berkeley: Usually, Berkeley, home to thousands of Francophile gastronomes, celebrates the French Revolution’s anniversary on July 14 with increased consumption of garlic. Most notably, and most extravagantly at the Chez Panisse Garlic Festival.

I helped produce the celebration in 1976 after publishing The Book of Garlic in 1974 and launching the Lovers of the Stinking Rose garlic fan club.
This year’s plan for the festival, pre-Covid, was to honor Gilroy’s garlic festival in the wake of last year's mass shootings, the 40th anniversary of Les Blank’s marvelous film, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers, the 44th anniversary of Chez Panisse’s garlic gala, and the 46th anniversary of The Book of Garlic's publication. (See you all in 2021.)

The Garlic Revolution’s motto, announced in our club newsletter, Garlic Times, was Fight Mouthwash, Eat Garlic™.

This was a clove in cheek response to the newly launched product, Signal Mouthwash, from Lever Brothers and their marketing propaganda that labeled garlic breath “The worst bad breath in America.”

I debated a Lever Bros. chemist on TV in New York in the late 70s, arguing that to truly kill the lingering odor of garlic one would have to bathe in Signal Mouthwash because garlic’s sulfides are released through the pores in human sweat.

Mouthwash companies have continued to identify garlic breath as “the worst” despite the huge increase in garlic consumption in America following the revolution. Now, however, one detects a shift in corporate mouthwash strategy tuned to the rising popularity of garlic and garlic health supplements like Garlique.

The newest mouthwash ad campaign on TV is for SmartMouth, a product aimed at “sulfur gas,” not any particular sulfur-containing food like garlic. Sulfur gas is naturally produced by oral bacteria, especially from high protein foods, and some people produce more of it than others.

So chalk up another victory for our on-going garlic revolution, the destigmatization of garlic breath as bad breath. Better late than never.

Make America Eat Again

Despite my depression related to election/debate horrors, I still find myself looking for ways to manage via humor and art, even if only for my own amusement. My effort to exorcise Trumps repulsive MAGA hat symbolism has led me through a series of graphic and conceptual iterations (swipe to see the original).

With “a little help from my friends” I’ve come to what may well be the end of the line, a hat that if it existed—qua hat—I might actually wear it. But as with all my "inventions" dating back to my Foodoodle cartoons, I prefer to invent, not invest.

What will happen to Chez Panisse?

What will happen to Chez Panisse? When I think about the aftermath of Covid and the effect on our local restaurant scene, I of course worry about our cradle of California cuisine. But if anyone can figure out how to survive, it's Alice Waters & Co. They have always emerged Phoenix-like from past disasters (fires and now a pandemic) and the restaurant has thrived. I expect, and pray for, no less this time around. A drawing I did some years ago (attached) imagined Chez Panisse in the distant future as a California Historical Site with a combination cafe, boutique, school and museum operated by its foundation. Fanciful? Premature? Psychic? Time will tell.

New Rules

New Rules: Living alone, there is no one yet in my “pod” or “bubble,” so when I go out to eat in a newly opened restaurant with a friend, I’ll need to sit 6 feet away from my dinning companion. How do you do that at a cafe table that is on average 3 feet across? One way would be to pull your chairs away from the table and use extra long cutlery. (Williams Sonoma, are you listening?)