Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 3/12/24

Showers End | Plane Chute | Reader Writes | Fern | Unprocessed Ballots | Old River Rd | FB Police Report | Thatcher Hotel | Wild Onions | Koepf Book | Leggett Tree | Philo Rentals | Rotary Phone | Bari Case | Chainsaw Caddy | Cut Wires | Yesterday's Catch | Melnikov Plays | Das Tut Gut | Aneural Patterns | Getting Old | Getting By | Getaway Driving | Under Chassis | Government Secrecy | Milkman | Red Tape | Wage Slave | Bill Kill | Civil Servants | Shetland Path

LINGERING SHOWERS today will lead to warmer and drier conditions late this week. Higher NE winds in Lake county are likely on Thursday. Highs in the 60s and 70s are likely through the weekend with no major disturbances appearing until mid next week.

TOMORROW MORNING: Frost advisory in effect from 1 am to 9 am PDT Wednesday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A cloudy 50F with .54" more rainfall collected this Tuesday morning on the coast. Can we say "dry skies" weather fans? As in for the next week? Other than some wind tomorrow calm sets in for a while.

BIG PARACHUTE HELPS PLANE & OCCUPANTS SURVIVE A CRASH IN REMOTE MENDO

Yesterday, about 1:30 p.m., a small plane, a 2004 Cirrus SR22, encountered trouble shortly after takeoff and crashed in a wooded area of northern Mendocino County near Whale Gulch. Remarkably, everyone on board, including a very young child, walked away with only minor injuries. In part, this appears to be because the plane was equipped with the only entire plane parachute system approved by the FAA.…

kymkemp.com/2024/03/09/miraculous-survival-with-innovative-parachute-plane-crash-in-northern-mendocino-co-leaves-man-woman-child-with-only-minor-injuries/

A READER WRITES:

The Editor’s latest update and photo certainly conveys his difficult circumstances. Jesus, what an ordeal! Hopefully the trajectory will be upward and homeward from here on. Good thing you went into this in relatively great shape. All those miles and push-ups are probably serving you in good stead, even though it may not feel like it right now. 

The Major delivered an enjoyable bit of history as the first act of Saturday night's Variety Show. I forget what the language entanglement delivery was called, a first cousin of pig latin, but it did help soften some of the storyline a bit. He delivered a 2011 AVA article about three Mexican kids getting ripped off for weed and money by some black mopes from Oakland packing heat. And the locals turned to Keith for assistance. Sure could use an updated version of Keith right about now. But, of course, now all the Mexicans would also be packing heat so there would probably be some first degree carnage before anyone thought to call the cops for help. 

Our wonderful Volunteer Fire folks were out in the pelting rain at sundown yesterday controlling traffic around a spot a few miles west of Navarro where someone had managed to careen down a steep embankment off into the woods. Looked like the driver was probably ok, but car extrication was going to be challenging. Must have accidentally swerved for some reason as it was a fairly straight stretch of road. Rain just pouring down.

Happy to see some sunshine on Monday and will try not to get concerned by the forecasted 75 on Friday. 

So sorry about the end of the print edition! I know that would have been a difficult decision to make. But completely understandable!

Sending good vibes your way every day. I would close with “This too shall pass,” but under the circumstances, I would not want to make you gag. 

UNPROCESSED BALLOTS POSE POTENTIAL CHANGES IN MENDOCINO COUNTY DISTRICT RACES

Mendocino County’s unprocessed ballots from the March 5, 2024, Presidential Primary will impact several district races. With thousands of votes yet to be counted, tight races are anticipated, leading to potential shifts in the current standings.…

mendofever.com/2024/03/11/unprocessed-ballots-pose-potential-changes-in-mendocino-county-district-races/

HERE COMES THE SUN

AVA, 

Under the conditions the Editor is showing positiveness. Hospitals are necessary for getting things under control and the sooner he gets back home, comfortable healing will occur. Nice post yesterday with the amazing North Pacific Steamship offering travel. (State room berth with meals.) To Eureka for 8 bucks. It costs more now to pay the toll just to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. Gotta like the “Sniffy Joe” diplomacy photo with Abe Lincoln looking on. And strong counter-point from Victoria Kelly's ‘My Grandfather was Collateral Damage from Oppenheimer's Genius.’ 

One photo for today: “Here Comes the Sun.”

Jeff Goll

Willits

FORT BRAGG PD ANNUAL REPORT 

The Fort Bragg Police Department compiles crime and community statistics throughout the year. Safety of the community and progress of the department can be determined through comparison of statistics year over year. An annual report is a way of disseminating police activities throughout the year to the public in a transparent way. Previously, Council has requested the annual report be presented at a regular meeting. 

Despite a staffing shortage for most of 2023, the Fort Bragg Police Department responded to 16,648 calls for service resulting in 4,261 information cases, 1233 reports and 642 arrests. The Property/Evidence unit processed 3,542 items and conducted 1,406 Livescan finger printings. 

Police Department staff are required to attend a certain number of hours of training mandated by Peace Officers Standards and Training every year. On top of the standard mandated training, staff completed a combined 800 hours of advanced training in 24 different schools. This ensures the Fort Bragg Police Department is able to provide the best service to our community. Additional specialized training in narcotics was key in the fact the Patrol Division authored and served more warrants in 2023 than in the history of the Department, resulting in the seizure of 17 pounds of illegal narcotics, 12,821 illegal pills, and 20 illegal firearms. 

Important statistics: 

 Rape & Attempts increased by 125% 

 Robbery decreased 17% 

 Assaults decreased 28% 

 Burglary decreased 9% 

 Theft decreased 22% 

 Vehicle theft increased 22% 

 Domestic Violence increased 21% 

 DUI arrests decreased 51% 

 Citations increased 47% 

 Traffic collisions decreased 21% 

Most major crimes decreased and proactive police work increased. 

* * *

Five-year trends: 

 Theft average is 233 per year, which is trending lower. 

 Robbery average is 11 per year, which is trending average. 

 Domestic Violence average is 11 per year, which is trending higher. 

 Vehicle Theft average is 17 per year, which is trending higher. 

 DUI average is 69 per year, which is trending higher. 

 Assault average is 109 per year, which is trending lower. 

 Rape/Attempt is 7 per year, which is trending higher. 

 Burglary is 37 per year, which is trending lower. 

Averaging the last five years of statistics (2019-2023), property crimes are generally trending down. Violent crimes are trending down for general assault, but rape and domestic violence are trending higher. 

Code Enforcement: 

Code Enforcement received 151 complaints in 2023 and closed 92. Of those 92, 14 were unfounded, 5 resulted in Administrative Hearings, one required an Abatement Warrant and one resulted in a misdemeanor arrest. Generally, complaints are resolved with the initial advisory of the complaint and the property owner resolves the issue themselves. 

Care Response Unit (CRU)/Project Right Now (PRN): 

CRU greatly broadened their services in 2023. CRU provided services to over 300 community members in 2023. Much of their work revolves around the homeless population, those in mental crisis, and those with substance use disorders. 

CRU successfully connected 17 individuals from out of the area back to support systems in the location from which they originated. With county funding, CRU operated the Extreme Weather Shelter, providing over 600 bed nights to 165 unduplicated individuals. CRU also conducted 124 crisis de-escalations, keeping police officers available and providing a better service to those in crisis. 

PRN met with nearly every Middle School and High School student in Fort Bragg, offering support with substance use disorders and diverting those at risk. They also trained over 500 coastal residents on the use of Narcan, while distributing 300 doses. Their bilingual status also allowed PRN to provide Narcan training in Spanish, training over 40 people not fluent in English. 

MIKE GENIELLA: A fine Mendocino County landmark. The Thatcher Hotel in Hopland.

A SPREADING PROBLEM

Glyn Rixon: Reaching out for the best way to get on top of a spreading problem. Last year we pulled the wild onions out as much as possible and cut the flowering tops of those remaining before they could drop seeds. Alas, it doesn’t seem to have made much of a dent and they are back expanding their territory in beds and grassy areas! Vinegar spray? Any advice on how to eradicate greatly appreciated!

Erif Thunen: They make a good addition to salads and stir frys.

Glyn Rixon: They are edible and tasty. Maybe I should get a slot at the Farmers Market!

FRANK HARTZELL:

OK, here is my first entry for local book of the week. This was a spoof, written by an Elk ex fisherman making fun of the great Mendocino Whale Wars. I wont give away the plot, but he makes fun of hippies, liberals, environmentalists but also rednecks and billies and has some insight into the financial aspects of it all Great Whale Festival book! Funny at times, angry at times, will take you back. Copyright 1978, publisher was McGraw Hill! Michael Koepf was the author. $10 and Ill try to arrange pickup at a local bookstore, where you can buy! Or Ill trade you for a fun book or something else local....

* * *

Ben Franklin would be tarred and feathered now by the GOP for ideas like public libraries and a subsidized post office. None of the founding fathers were feudalists (trickle down economics and the rest of the GOP platform), that's what they were against. They didnt think wealth walked on water.

TOM ALLMAN: This is absolutely the best story of turning lemons into lemonade. The Leggett post office burnt down two weeks ago after a tree was hit with lightning. Today, I stopped by as an artist is turning the tree into an absolute work of art. Leggett, you always make us proud.

FOR RENT IN PHILO

We have a couple nice apartments for rent off Highway 128 in Philo.

It's an easy walk to to Lemon's Market as well as the Navarro River and Indian Creek.

Studio Apartment $750

The apartment has a full bathroom and kitchen.

Included in the rent are ALL utilities: electricity, wifi, water & propane.

Move in is first month rent, and security = $2,250.

* * *

One Bedroom Apartment $1350

The apartment has a full bathroom and kitchen.

Included in the rent are ALL utilities: electricity, wifi, water & propane.

Move in is first month rent, and security = $4,050. 

There is also shared free laundry on site.

There is a large shared garden, a greenhouse and picnic area, as well as hiking trails.

Beautiful views of the redwoods nearby and killer sunsets!

There is plenty of parking on the property for you and visitors.

Looking for respectful long term tenants who are quiet and stable.

A $15 credit and background check will be done. Equal Opportunity Housing.

(Deposits can be paid over a few months)

No drugs. No smoking. No dogs. Cats ok. Room for goats & sheep.

Send us an email and let us know which apartment you’re interested in.

If you include your cell phone number we can text you more pics.

philorental@gmail.com - or text 415 550 9090

Cheers and thank you!

OFF THE RECORD excerpt (January 17, 2001)

A READER WRITES:

Very interested to hear that the BBC is doing something on the Bari Bombing mystery. A few weeks ago I called the Oakland Police Dept., who referred me to the City Attorney. A woman named Karen Rodrigue came on and the essence of the conversation went as follows: Me: Have any persons on your list been deposed? Rodrigue: No, but two have been scheduled. Me: I am afraid you may settle out of court, with a sealed record. Rodrigue: I know Bruce Anderson very well. That is what he claims. Me: What about Mary Moore? Rodrigue: I know her very well too. Me: Is settlement out of court a possibility? Rodrigue: That is something I would certainly have to look at.

"A while back you made some fulminations about Judge Claudia Wilkin. A federal judgeship seems like a good job. I asked a docent at the Appeals Court in SF how one landed such a position. Answer: 'Be politically well connected.' So, an investigation of how Claudia made it is warranted. She could have dismissed the case rather than let it go to trial."

THE PROB with settlement or dismissal is that too many people outside The Church are watching. Both sides, however, desperately want to settle, Bari-ite lies that they don't want to settle aside. The FBI doesn't want to reveal its informants and whatever else it did on the Northcoast during the Redwood Summer festivities while the Bari-ites, having profitably taken the Bari mythology on the road for ten years now, amassing nearly a million dollars as the Redwood Summer Justice Project, which they use to pay their lawyers to prevent a real investigation of the case and to obstruct justice, and which they also use as their personal slush fund up to and including enhancements of their private property, have raised much of that money on the PC Circuit on the false promise of finding out what the FBI's role in the Bari saga was via discovery motions filed by their hard-hitting "movement" attorneys. They made that promise to unmask the FBI back in 1994 but have not acted on it, undoubtedly out of fear of what they would find.

WHAT WE HAVE here is a situation of the federal government fighting to protect the usual wacky incompetence of an FBI undercover operation in Ukiah as the Bari-ites brazenly and simultaneously fight to conceal the truth of the bombing and profit from it. The feds have got to know that the former Mr. Bari, aka Mike Sweeney, is the person who constructed the device and the person who wrote the Lord's Avenger Letter because it's so obvious they can't not know. The Justice Department's prob seems to be how to plausibly not know Sweeney did it. Why Sweeney did it is the question. Related questions would have to do with his affiliations all the way back to his days as an acolyte of the faddish revolutionary, Bruce Franklin, and who else was in on the post-bomb cover-up. Sweeney seems to be well-connected, to say the least. He is also helped by the fact of residence in Mendocino County where history starts all over again every morning and people are whatever they announce themselves as, no questions asked.

A REAL TRIAL of the Bari case in federal court, I think, will reveal the former Mrs. Sweeney and several of her friends as witting conspirators in the cover-up of the post-bomb period and Mr. Sweeney as bomb maker and Lord's Avenger. The show is scheduled for October in Judge Wilkin's room, Oakland. Think of it as the Northcoast's version of the Cold War with both sides locked in mutual dependence.

MS. RODRIGUE, the former city attorney for Oakland, I understand, is now functioning as a federal magistrate, thus starting down the lucrative road Judge Wilkin took some years ago when she ingratiated herself with the ponderous old hacks then installed in the life-time federal sinecures. A pretty unimpressive bunch, then and now, I'd say, but when's the last time you were in a courtroom where justice seemed to be the point of the procedure? Wilkin, from what I've been told by a person who should know, is or was married to a man who once belonged to the RCP, Robert Avakian's Maoist cult with which both the late Judi Bari and her former husband, Mike Sweeney, were also affiliated. In fact, the two love birds met at a Maoist shindig in San Diego. Avakian is said to have held at least one meeting at Judge Wilkin's house before she was a judge but already doing well enough as a magistrate to own the big house in the East Bay hills that all graduates of elite colleges and left-wing politics seem to think they're entitled to, having had it all ways all their lucky lives, their children secure in private schools while they get out the vote for Al Gore and yell at the Mexican lady in the kitchen for the spots on the wine glasses.

LET'S HOPE the Bari case finally gets into Wilkin's cozy, indulgent courtroom in October of this year because it'll be quite a spectacle. Why it's taken this long to move the charade forward is another question we might ask if judges ever had to answer questions about their own behavior. It is known that as a federal public defender, Wilkin, a putative liberal by judicial standards, used to spend a lot of her free time watching Tony Serra at work. Serra is now functioning as attorney for the pending Bari-Cherney federal case which, it would seem, couldn't be in better hands from the $20 million plaintiff's perspective. But as it stands, a whole hell of a lot of people seem to be very nervous about this grand farce of an ongoing fraud, and they oughta be. Oughta be ashamed, too, but shame has been unknown in America since, oh, '55 or so. Seems to me that if justice is done Mike Sweeney will go to federal prison for murder, a half-dozen Bari-ites will go to jail for obstruction of justice and violation of the non-profit laws, four or five lawyers will be disbarred, Judge Wilkin will be removed from the bench, the Northcoast's public radio stations will collapse from the pure weight of their own chickenshit, and Utah Phillips will sing a song about it all called, "If I Were Phil Ochs I'd Commit Suicide But I'm Not."

BUZZ AND THE PELTON WHEEL

I was ailing, lame with a bad hip, so I got a friend to go down to Whale Creek to bring my pelton wheel 250 vertical feet up the steep mountainside. I gave him specific instructions: “Just cut the two electrical wires coming into the barrel, then cut or unscrew the water lines coming in.” Hydros are amazing the way they spin twenty-four hours a day sending power through 600 feet of wire up to charge the deep cycle batteries under the house. Voila!, off grid living.

When I got the pelton wheel to the shop for the repair and rebuild the engineer said, “Look! They cut all these wires on top. That will be another 20$ for this one, and another 20$ for that one. Those kids didn’t know what they were doing.”

“It wasn’t kids,” I said. “It was a grown man, seventy-one years old actually.”

“Well, he sure didn’t have to cut all those wires,” Derek said. “I’ll have this done in a few days.”

When I asked Buzz why he cut all those extra wires he first denied it, then he said BLM probably did it. Next he attacked the engineer. “How does Derek know? What does he know anyway?”

“Umm, he’s only the local go-to pelton wheel guy,” I said. Seriously I could tell he was about to blame aliens for his mistake next. Finally he said he probably did cut them and why did I care so much?

“Because this just doesn’t seem like you. You’re fucking replacing the engine on your thirty year old jeep and you just unnecessarily cut whatever wires you see on the pelton wheel? If you were replacing the distributor cap on your jeep would you clip the battery cables also? If it were your hydro wouldn’t you be more aware of what you cut?”

He kept defending himself and blaming imaginary forces that had come to that isolated spot just above the creek where he had had to let himself down the last thirty feet with a nylon rope tied to a tree.

“Hey man, you’re insane!” I said. “Just admit you made a mistake. I know it’s hard for you because you can fix about anything while I can’t fix shit but this time you fucked up. It’s not even that big a deal, just another 40 or 50 bucks on a six hundred dollar rebuild.”

“So why are you making it one?” he said.

“Because you’re fucking insane! My definition of insanity is trying to defend yourself against the indefensible. Blaming Derek, BLM, big growers and probably aliens when it was you, you who fucked up!

“I’m a seventy-one year old man!” he pleaded, the final excuse, age.

A week or so later I scraped the side of my truck on the gate at the Community Park and he came over and pieced the fender back together with a strand of baling wire. When he had finished the job I said, “Well, you want to hacksaw the rack in half too?”

“You had to say that,” he said.

— Paul Modic

CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, March 11, 2024

RYAN CRANFORD, Ukiah. Felon-addict with firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person, firearm possession after denied permission by court order.

GEOFFREY HAYES, Willits. Controlled substance, failure to appear.

NICOLE LABARGE, Clearlake/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol trespassing-refusing to leave, protective order violation.

ORLANDO MUNOZ, Ukiah. Under influence.

MARGOT PACE, Laytonville. DUI.

BRENDA POINDETER, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

MARK SPITSEN, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

DIANA TIGER, Antelope/Fort Bragg. DUI, resisting.

JAIME TINAJERO, Ukiah. No license, suspended license for DUI, probation revocation.

RUSSELL WHITE, Ukiah. Domestic battery, probation revocation.

RYAN YOUNG, Willits. Probation revocation.

THE HARROWING HEROISM OF ALEXANDER MELNIKOV

by David Yearsley

Alexander Melnikov arrived in Ithaca, New York last Saturday for two recitals—the first on Sunday, the second on Tuesday—using a total of four different pianos and a harpsichord to boot. The plentitude of instruments represented a fraction of the holdings of the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards (CCHK), which sponsored his visit. Melnikov told his audience that he felt like a kid in a candy store.

A Russian now living in Germany, Melnikov’s repertoire knows no borders. During the pandemic he trained to be a commercial airline pilot. His music-making takes him across time and space far quicker than the planes that transported him from the other side of the USA where he was playing Prokofiev and, after Upstate, will deposit him in Atlanta for a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, which the Georgians (the American ones, not their namesakes on the Black Sea) are promoting as the “Everest” of the genre. Given his expansive repertoire and jet-propelled technical prowess, not to mention (at least not yet), the infinite finesse and expressivity of his playing conveyed both in cozy 200-seat venues like that at Cornell and in enormous symphony halls like that he’ll soon perform in in Atlanta, Melnikov appears indefatigable and fearless. Off-stage he admits to being both fatigued and fearful.

A few hours of winter had blown into disquietingly mild Upstate New York along with the much-anticipated musical traveler: “You don’t know how overjoyed I am to see snow,” he said in flat tones that might have belied his enthusiasm. Melnikov rarely smiles but once you get to know him, you get good at detecting the enlivening wit in his misleadingly deadpan voice even when it’s bemoaning the dire state of the world or musing on the endearing quirks of old pianos.

Like most reasonable people (not that this towering virtuoso and musical searcher plays reasonably; he’s far too brilliant and imaginative for that), Melnikov is doubtful about the prospects for his race’s—the human one’s—survival. Navalny had been murdered the day before he arrived. Melnikov said he cried most of Saturday. The snow was gone before Melnikov left Ithaca yesterday afternoon.

On his opening recital on Sunday night Melnikov played just one piano—a copy made by Paul McNulty of a Viennese instrument from 1805 by Anton Walter who also made an instrument for Mozart. This single instrument was a self-sufficient tool for time travel to three sonatas (Clementi, Haydn and Mozart) each introduced by a Preludio by Muzio Clementi: one alla Mozart, one alla Haydn, and one alla Clementi himself. Clementi called these sketches Musical Characteristics and they purport to pay tribute, if sometimes archly, to his contemporaries. Even while the brushstrokes painted on this one elegant piano were vivid and dynamic, these two portraits and one self-portrait ended up sounding like the painter himself—Melnikov portraying Clementi portraying Mozart. And that is just as it should be.

Flinging open the doors to that candy store, Tuesday evening’s concert presented six fantasies on five different keyboard instruments, the program proceeding chronologically from the first half of the eighteenth century to the second half of the twentieth. Melnikov had planned to be even more comprehensive, presenting a slightly shorter version of his recent recording on the excellent harmonia mundi label, “Fantasie”: seven fantasies by seven composers on seven instruments like those that the composer-performers first played them on.

A full program of fantasies demands much of the listener and even more of the performer. But with these Cornell keyboard resources to hand, Melnikov served up these ruminations and ravings with kaleidoscopic specificity. The German word for these grand pianos describes them by their shape: wing (Flügel). After each piece, the would-be pilot got up and walked to the next piano at whose controls he flew across the centuries and over their sonic landscapes.

But as any traveler knows, flight plans often have to be changed. Because the CCHK still does not have adequate space to house its entire collection, a Pleyel grand of the mid-nineteenth century wasn’t sledged across the still snowy wastes of the campus to the concert hall.

The Pleyel a no-show, Mendelssohn and Chopin fantasies meant to get us from Mozart to Scriabin had to be jettisoned. In their place, Schubert’s daunting Wanderer Fantasy was calmly called up from Melnikov’s vast reportorial reserves.

For this first piece of the second half of Tuesday night’s concert, Melnikov had moved to center stage and to an original piano by Conrad Graf like the one owned by Schubert; Cornell’s instrument was built in 1825, three years before the composer’s untimely death. A short distance into Schubert’s twenty-minute epic the soft pedal on the antique piano came loose. Like a mechanic on pit row, CCHK’s expert piano technician, Scott Hankens, hopped up from the audience, pulled out the keyboard action from the sumptuously veneered case and made the quick fix to a chorus of applause.

Melnikov asked the audience for permission to start the Schubert over, and off he went, hitting his wandering stride again in the work’s self-assured opening motto that surveys the musical landscape as if from a high ridge. Soon though, Melnikov the adventurer took us into the fog, with unseen ravines and boulders all around, the pianist speeding through the shifting terrain as if pursued by doubts and demons, then slowing to listen out for the ravishing melodies calling from the mists. At a promontory encountered late in the piece, a menacing fugue breaks out, its craggy subject declared in stentorian octaves in each hand as if the narrator/pianist/composer is trying to convince himself of his own courage even as the terror closes in on him. As so often in his two Cornell programs, Melnikov proved himself a master of contradiction, simultaneously heroic and harrowing.

The evening’s journey began, as it had to, with J. S. Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue played at a harpsichord by Barbara and Thomas Wolf after an instrument made by Jacques Germain in 1785 in Paris—when Thomas Jefferson lived in the city. Bach’s is the monument around which all subsequent efforts at fantasy pace and mutter, looking up at the obelisk, and then trying to look past it, listen past it.

But it is impossible to get out from under the sharp, occasionally chipped edges of its shadow. Bach’s Fantasy bolts to life with whirring passage work, electrifying in Melnikov’s hair-raising rendition. He then captured the lightning in a bottle in the labyrinthine harmonies that roll up and down the keyboard before delivering a soliloquy whose meaning remains inscrutable. The unique creation amounts to a curated display of Bach improvising at his keyboard.

The fragmented, disorienting chromatic fugue subject that follows the fantasy should promise to bring order to the sublime chaos. But the theme cannot find its proper key as it goes slithering upward to the wrong destination then stumbles downward to try again before at last wending itself back to the tonic note of D. The second contrapuntal voice (the answer) begins on that same D but enters against a C—an outlandish, dissonant clash and brazen violation of compositional rules. Melnikov embraced the fugue’s restive ambiguity with his legato chromaticism and phrasing that parsed the theme’s seemingly discreet elements. The result was an internal contest between madness and genius. Intermittently he let the sun illuminate these obscure experiments by playing episodes of comfortingly predictable harmonic sequences with unselfconscious clarity. The monument teetered against the gusts of mad genius.

The next number kept things in the family. The sprawling Fantasy in F-sharp Minor by Bach’s second son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, is an autobiographical confrontation with mortality; one version of the piece is entitled “CPE Bachs Empfindungen [Feelings].” The pulsing minor chords that open the piece and sound continually throughout might be heard to play on the cords of the nerves then being investigated by medical science. The most tuneful motive—plaintive, elegiac—is taken from one of his songs, “Who knows how close death is to me?” Emerging from a spasm of figuration, the ghostly melody returns, hesitantly, at the close before arriving at a low, brooding minor chord that is quickly let go of into the final, enduring silence notated as a nearly a full bar of rests. The antic speed of Melnikov’s passagework made the ultimate quiet of the death song, given intense emotional gradations by the pianist, all the more devastating.

Melnikov stayed at the McNulty/Walter for Mozart’s Fantasy in C Minor. The piece starts in those shadows with those octaves later repurposed by Schubert, strays occasionally into patches of light, before returning to darkness that is illuminated at the last moment by a final bolt of lightning—a rising C-minor scale hurled from the keyboard by Melnikov.

Following the Schubert, the last two works were played on a pair of Steinways made half a century apart, but far more alike than the Graf and the Walter separated by just two decades. As Melnikov progressed forward in time he moved back on the stage, paradoxically receding into the present. The keyboard ancestors, their lids now closed, listening mutely along with the audience to the pianist as he continued determinedly on his fantastical itinerary. When Melnikov goes from the old brown pianos to the big modern black ones, his infinite control and ability to play at levels barely above the audible lingers like the faintest echo of the drawing room keyboardist in the modern concert hall.

Scriabin’s Fantasy in B Minor might be considered by some to be more rhapsodic, less prone to blatant disruption than the previous items on the program, though all of the works heard on Tuesday are by definition idiosyncratic. Even if the Scriabin was more lush than the other fantasies, its restless Romanticism seemed like a return. Closing the program, Schnittke’s Improvisation and Fugue from 1965 topples the Bachian monument—building blocks disassembled by gravity and time. Melnikov wondered with us at the beauty in the bleakness.

The decibel range on these modern pianos is far greater than on the antiques though no more expressive. Melnikov meted out Schnittke’s sledgehammer clusters and coaxed the faintest whispers from the giant Steinway, made in 1960, five years before the piece he played on it. Melnikov told the audience that he wasn’t sure whether they would enjoy the Schnittke’s militantly anti-melodic work. Melnikov speaks English perfectly and persuasively, and he knows that enjoyment is not the right word. I was awed, unsettled, deeply moved. We had indeed covered a long distance in those ninety minutes and more. Whether we’d come home with him, or that much nearer to the end, or to both at once, I cannot say.

(David Yearsley is a long-time contributor to CounterPunch and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. His latest book is Sex, Death, and Minuets: Anna Magdalena Bach and Her Musical Notebooks. He can be reached at dgyearsley@gmail.com.)

SO YOUR 90…:

Transduction and Aneural Patterns Like a Candy Store

When I was in 5th grade at Edison Elementary School in Altadena, Ca. there was a well-stocked candy store across the street which sold hard candy for a penny and a nickel bought enough to border on over eating and not feeling so well. But two or three cents worth provided the right amount to damage my teeth but let me off with not too much in the short run. Fast forward a couple of decades when I was finding my way around Stanford which in those day had departmental libraries through which to access books and periodicals with a Stanford I.D. which I had as a non-matriculated (student visitor). And the libraries seemed like the candy store of my earlier years. I particularly liked the biology library which had intriguing titles such as: Transduction in Aneural Organisms (Colombetti, et.al.) I particularly liked being in the midst of seeming miles of stacks in the Green Library and even was given a study desk among the overwhelming confluence of written materials. One of my hard covers (co-authored with others) rests among the note worthies of academia.

But the concept of transduction in aneural organisms would surface in my mind until I spent some time with it. Aneural organisms are (as the title suggests) capable of getting along without nervous systems. The cells' outer layer makes contact with other cells and (perhaps) stores information in the cell nuclei. Then I realized what I was sensing: Humans have several nervous systems and a-neural unattached cells as well; could it be our personal and collective unconscious mind(s) reside amongst our aneural cells and make decision like action which our fully neurological network would never initiate? For example desmosomes are cell like strands that find themselves in places like space between cells and are flexible in effecting the various nervous systems as well as having the capacity for a-neural communication.

Carl Jung was deeply involved in his investigations of the personal and collective unconscious mind: "In the collective unconscious of the individual, history prepares itself; and when the archetypes are activated in a number of individuals and come to the surface, we are in the midst of history.The archetypal image which the moment requires, gets into life, and everybody is seized by it.the powerful factor the factor which changes our whole life, which changes the surface of our known world, which makes history is collective psychology, and collective psychology moves according to laws entirely different from those of our consciousness.the archetypal images decide the fate of [mankind]..It is a power that fascinates people from within.it is the collective unconscious which is activated, it is an archetype [and] it has historical aspects.[Thus] a wave went over them and just washed their reason away" P.183-4. (The Tavistock Lectures, (1968)

If we accept Jung's assertions and the possibility that a-neural organic formulations factor into the irrationalities of past and present we would do well to determine (and what to do) if a-neural organic is influencing what is commonly called the visceral brain. I would like it to be possible for us to take reasonable and measured steps as well as creative allusions that can measurable benefit our collective lot in life.

— Gregory Sims

NO EYES LEFT, no ears, no teeth, no legs, no wind. And when all is said and done, how astonishingly well one does without them.

— Paul Claudel, on old age

DON'T BLAME POLICE 

Editor,

"Police chases are killing more and more Americans. With lax rules, it's no accident." (Chronicle, March 5)

I'm dumbfounded by this story that essentially blames police officers for injuries and deaths caused by dangerous drivers fleeing from police cars. 

The police don't cause these wrecks. 

Negligent drivers do by refusing to pull over when they see police cars flashing red lights behind them. 

These reckless people make the decision to evade police vehicles instead of pulling over and stopping, as required by law. 

The police and other law enforcement personnel are just doing their jobs to prevent potential injuries and/or deaths. 

Put the blame where it belongs -- on careless, self-serving drivers who flout traffic laws. 

Catherine Shepard

Berkeley

GOVERNMENT SECRECY ERODES PUBLIC TRUST

When the government keeps secrets, it's rarely some grand conspiracy to cover up uncomfortable truths. More often, it's little decisions made by elected officials and bureaucrats that keep the public in the dark.

The North Bay has seen a couple of recent examples. 

Last month, Sonoma County supervisors received a report on an investigation into DEMA Management and Consulting. DEMA is a for-profit homeless services provider that the county has paid more than $26 million over the past few years using no-bid contracts. It has come under intense public scrutiny since an investigation by The Press Democrat found questionable billing practices. 

The problem is that the county reviewed the report behind closed doors and refuses to share it with the public. County residents don't even know precisely who participated in the meeting. 

Nothing in state or local laws compels such secrecy. If the findings are ready for supervisors to see, they ought to be ready for the public, too. But County Auditor Erick Roeser is keeping them under wraps as a "courtesy" to DEMA so the company can prepare a response. That courtesy is a discourtesy to the public. 

County officials also say the possibility of litigation requires secrecy. That might — and only might — be true for discussions between supervisors and their attorney, but the report itself does not fall under that particular open meeting exemption, even if it holds scandalous news. 

Or consider last week's incident in which four Sonoma County sheriff's deputies were injured during a car chase and shootout near Santa Rosa. As of Thursday, authorities had neither named the deputies nor released body camera footage that could answer a lot of questions. 

Again, this is a choice on the part of public officials. They could release that information now — state law requires eventual release of bodycam footage — and let the public decide whether deputies acted appropriately. But they chose to leave the public guessing. Guessing, at least, about all the details except one. Santa Rosa police, who are investigating the incident, quickly announced the identity of the dead perpetrator. 

Cases like these are not unique to Sonoma County. In many communities across California, government watchdogs, ordinary residents and the press run into roadblocks when they try to access public records. 

Sunday marks the start of national Sunshine Week, an annual commemoration of freedom of information and government transparency. Sure, it's not a real holiday with days off and barbecues, but it is a chance to remember that government serves the people, and the people deserve to know what their government is doing. Sometimes that's uncomfortable for those in power, but that's on them. If they don't want to be embarrassed, if they don't want the public to get angry, then don't do foolish things. 

An open government empowers the people to hold their officials accountable. When voters can see their government in action, they can make informed decisions at the ballot box. Transparency discourages abuse of power and encourages efficiency and effectiveness. There's less chance of graft when one might easily be caught by a watchdog's public records request. 

Transparency builds trust. This is a time of public disillusionment with government. Secrecy will not restore the public's faith. 

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat Editorial)

RED TAPE TURNS SF RESIDENTS INTO SCOFFLAWS

by Emily Hoeven

My first run-in with San Francisco's infamous bureaucracy happened before I even arrived here.

About a week before my move from Sacramento to San Francisco, I realized that I might need a temporary permit to park and unload my moving van in front of my new building. I assumed, naively, that this would be a relatively easy and inexpensive process. 

I was wrong. 

After Googling around for a bit, I ended up on the Temporary Signage page of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's website. This appeared to be the right location -- it outlined the process for reserving parking spaces for commercial and residential moves, corporate events, funerals and "other similar needs." But the page itself was a confusing tangle of charts, caveats and costs, and I had a difficult time deciphering which permit I was supposed to apply for, let alone how much time was needed to process the application. 

I had the choice of applying for "permits for events filed 14 days before an event approved by ISCOTT," "permits for events filed 13 days or fewer before an event approved by ISCOTT" or "temporary 311 signs (up to 3 days)." (When I called 311 to ask what ISCOTT was, the operator responded that he had no idea. I later learned that it stands for the Interdepartmental Committee on Traffic and Transportation and approves street closures for large events.) 

The website also noted that I should allow a minimum processing time of five business days between the date of application and the date of enforcement. If my application were approved, signs alerting the public would need to be posted at least 72 hours in advance for unmetered spots and at least 24 hours in advance for metered spots. 

I wasn't sure which permit timeline applied to me, but one thing was clear: It was too late for me to meet any of the application deadlines. 

It was also wildly expensive. 

The cheapest permit listed was for a temporary 311 sign, which was $320. But, the site cheerfully noted, if you were reserving a metered parking space, you would also have to pay an additional $16 per meter per day. 

I stared at the webpage in disbelief. How was it possible that a temporary parking permit could cost nearly four times more than it did to rent a moving van? 

And why would San Francisco, which is desperately trying to lure back residents amid a post-pandemic exodus, charge newcomers such an exorbitant sum just to park their moving truck? The policy stands in stark contrast to recent efforts to lower costs for renters, including a law authored by Assembly Member Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, to cap the size of apartment security deposits. 

I didn't have five business days to spare for the city to process my parking permit application, but even if I did, the $350-plus in fees was out of the question. So, I did what I now see any number of other movers do: double-park. 

This was, of course, far from an ideal solution. Not only does it create less safe street conditions, but it also clogs traffic, irritates drivers and forces you to constantly be on the lookout for a parking enforcement officer who might ticket or tow your car. 

But the city had effectively left me with no choice. I had wanted to do the right thing and get a parking permit, but the lengthy application process, confusing guidelines and prohibitively steep cost made that next to impossible. 

My experience was a microcosm of a much bigger problem: San Francisco's absurdly complicated and expensive regulations incentivize even the most well-intentioned people to skirt the rules. This, in turn, breeds corruption. Why go to the trouble of obtaining 87 permits to build a single housing development when you could just pay off a few government employees? 

This lack of credibility can also make it difficult to take San Francisco's rules seriously. How could the transportation agency, with a straight face, charge me $350 to park my moving van for a few hours when it spent years ticketing stolen cars and leaving victims with the bill? 

A San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency official told me the temporary parking permit price merely allows the agency to recoup program costs, including labor, materials and enforcement. 

But even a few small improvements could help bring costs down and improve efficiency. The official noted that workers have to wade through piles of invalid or incomplete permit applications and go back and forth with confused customers. This is a waste of time and resources that could easily be addressed by clarifying key details and instructions on the website. 

That would also help cut down on the lengthy processing time. Although the state sets certain time restrictions -- the 72-hour notice to reserve an unmetered parking spot, for example, is in the California Vehicle Code -- San Francisco could streamline things within its control. 

"There are a couple of things that could be updated," the official acknowledged. 

Whether the transit agency will actually slash fees, however, is another matter. It's facing a projected $12.7 million budget deficit over the next two years while the city stares down a nearly $800 million shortfall. 

But by charging such high rates, the agency may ironically be collecting less money than it would at a lower price point. Given the choice between paying $320 and double-parking, many people are going to double-park. But that calculation would likely shift dramatically if permits were priced far lower. 

San Francisco needs to make it easier to follow the rules than to break them. Doing the right thing shouldn't cost hundreds of dollars more than doing the wrong thing. 

(SF Chronicle)

FOUNDING FATHERS WOULD BE APPALLED

Dear Editor,

Anyone who comes near the Founders’ writings is confronted with their great hostility to “faction,” that is, partisan politics.

Today, faction is not the problem, but the solution fully embraced by both political parties, except for rare moments of consensus among our current batch of cat-fighters in Washington.

This rare kind of consensus was recently achieved by the U.S. Congress. Hundreds of representatives of the people set aside party labels and worked together to fashion a bi-partisan bill to deal with the southern border issue that everyone could live with. Everyone, that is, except one person.

Former President Trump killed the bill that represented the best efforts of 535 representatives and the hopes and wishes of 335 million people, and substituted his own yet unannounced will for theirs.

The surest sign that the headwinds of autocracy are blowing in America is that one solitary personality is able to torpedo the will of the people. One single individual announces that the nation will henceforth go begging at the feet of the most partisan of all partisans, the one who is in it for himself, the type of leader our Founders and Mothers fought a revolution to overthrow.

Kimball Shinkoskey

Woods Cross, Utah

I RATHER LIKE the comparison of Clinton to Nixon; I certainly always wondered how anyone could look at either man and not see what they were (especially when they were talking to crowds). But I wasn't raised to be grateful to politicians for what they give me with my own taxes; they are to be regarded as civil servants who are hired for short-term contracts and should be fired if caught stealing or lying. We want and need a democratic republic, not a banana charismocracy run by demagogues and frauds.

— Christopher Hitchens