Mancini and Morrison [This post just requires tags.]

    Here’s another quick item from my history to top off the month and meet my quota, not unlike the December 31st post ending out 2024 did for that month and the year.

    It was provoked by a question raised by Warwick Grant to the ‘Baghdad By The Bay’ Facebook Group in his May 22, 2026 post. The subject being the old Tower Records on Columbus, Jones, Bay in San Francisco, he asked everyone: “Did you ever buy your records here?”

 

Tower Records circa 1980. SFAI, my now defunct alma mater is also visible.

    This was my reply the next day: “Yes, my very first two albums in 1968: 'Hatari! (Music from the Motion Picture Score)’ Henry Mancini RCA Victor - LSP-2559, and 'The Doors' The Doors Elektra - EKS-74007.

    Er, Mancini and Morrison if you will.”*

   😉

'Hatari!' (1962) & 'The Doors' (1967)

       I was thirteen when Tower Records first opened its doors (no pun intended) even though 1967 was also the year The Doors eponymous debut was  coincidentally released. I was also being given an allowance for the first time and sometimes earning a little more with the occasional odd job or chore here and there. So with my older sisters telling me all about this neat record store way out on Bay Street at the end of the 47 Potrero bus route (we lived on Potrero), I scraped up and saved enough spending cash to make my first purchase ever of a phonograph record for myself!

    I immediately knew on what album that money would be spent: ‘The Doors’! I had to have the long play version of ‘Light My Fire’ to play on our family portable phonograph player.  I may have had the short, 45 version of the song, but that seven minute long performance was only on the album. Acquire it, I must! My sisters, even my twin sister had their 45’s, mainly Motown,  but I as yet had to own a full length record of my own. 

    1968 had already begun, so with the money in hand along with my bus card, I traveled across town to the North Beach venue. Tower Records was huge compared to all the other record shops I had ever seen. Its inventory seemed exhaustive. Wow! Thousand upon thousands of vinyl discs, 45’s, EP’s, LP’s, mono, high fidelity, stereo, you name it!

    Immediately locating my selection, I was doubly excited to learn the prices were just low enough that I could pay for, not one, but two albums; taxes included!**

    I scurried to find the  next section alphabetized under “M” or the soundtrack section, well knowing what that second album choice would be. For ever since I was first taken along with my twin by our dad to see Howard Hawk’s ‘Hatari!’ at the Paramount Theater on Market Street in June of 1962, I was mad about the film,*** the setting, the action, animals, and Henry Mancini’s magnificent score. He had already captured my ear with ‘Peter Gunn’ and ‘Mr. Lucky’. Definitely, ‘Hatari!’ was going to be the first of Mancini’s music I would collect.

    Heading up front, I paid for the items. The transaction went without a hitch. Albums under my arms (I can’t remember if Tower Records was already using the trademark yellow plastic bags with the bold red logo - Hey, come to think of it, I still have one of the smaller Tower bags for 45’s, CD’s and such, in my possession!)… where was I? Oh yes! Albums under my arms, securely tucked, I headed back post haste the quarter mile to the bottom of the 47 line at Van Ness Avenue and North Point.

    It felt years getting back across town (3.92 miles) bus stop after bus stop, but home was now auditory Heaven, the instant I laid that diamond needle down in that long play groove.

    

    -FIN-

 

Small Tower Records bag from the 1990's and still in my possession.

 

*The Mancini/Morrison line was added the day after that.

**Unfortunately, I cannot myself recall what the going price for the albums were, but looking it up online, it could have sold for as low as $2.98 per unit all the way up to $4.98 (the usual 1967 retail list price for a stereo album). Oddly enough, though our phonograph player was monaural, I exclusively bought stereo whenever I could. I guess I was a budding audiophile, even though at thirteen, I hadn’t the monetary means to afford stereophonic equipment That was still a couple of years away - like, late 1969 or mid 1970.

***By the time Tower Records opened, I had already seen the movie eight or nine times wherever it played, at the various theaters and re-releases. It didn’t air on television until its national network Fall premiere on ABC; yet again, would you believe it, in 1967!

 

[+O] [+TAGS] [+TAGS ONLY]

Audrey and "Orangey"*

    I dunno, having just seen 'The Devil Wears Prada 2' on the big screen, with my sister and Andy, yesterday afternoon (I had no idea the original was already twenty years past! How decades fly!) I’ve been feeling a little Holly Golight-ish all day since. 

    This frequently happens as a direct result of my catching a snappy and snazzy film about style, women, the Big Apple, and wit. Holly is my afterglow, with Director Blake Edward’s 1961 adaptation of Truman Capote’s ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Audrey Hepburn’s character being movie-wise, my fashion favorites!**

    Not too long afterwards, and purely by coincidence, I chance to see a Facebook sci-fi film post about "Orangey", the feline of the silver screen, who just so happen to also play “Cat” in the Hollywood/New York-based classic.

    Then I happened on this online image fur the furst time fur minutes ago!

Audrey Hepburn as “Holly Golightly” and "Orangey" as who, or rather, what else, “Cat”. Naturally.

    Cat naturally.

    ;-)

    -FIN-

*Wikipedia: "Orangey was a name used by multiple male, red domestic shorthair tabby cats which served as animal actors in motion pictures. While portrayed as a single cat in early studio publicity and news accounts, the cats' owner and trainer Frank Inn has stated that the original Orangey died prior to his first role and was actually multiple cats."

In fact, the feline depicted above, does not appear to be either of the two tabbies (Felis catus) purportedly used in the 1961 feature film, ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’.

For these reasons I felt it proper to place the name in quotation marks.

**Note, my own blogger profile incorporates Golightly's whimsicality as well as my signature wink.

Some Works

     Today is my good friend Iddo Johannes Van Spall's birthday. He's seventy nine I believe. Today the fifty five year old Vaillancourt Fountain in San Francisco is also in the process of being dismantled. 

    What's the connection you ask? Well, the only clear image of Iddo in my possession was coincidentally photographed at that very same fountain in 1974. 

    So lifting an idea from the card I recently bought to celebrate my sister's birthday, the timely lift proving to be just the perfect tie I needed to bring everything together, I decided to take advantage of the coincidences and produce this.

Iddo's birthday card featuring the 'Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi' and the 'Vaillancourt Fountain'.

    Happy Birthday, Iddo!! 

    ;-)

 

    -FIN- 

 

Fountains: Gian Lorenzo Bernini's ‘Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi’ (1651) in the Piazza Navona, Rome, and Armand Vaillancourt's 'Vaillancourt Fountain' or 'Québec libre!’ (1971) in San Francisco and dismantled in May of 2026.

Dan Fontes 1958~2026

     To my total surprise, I just learned two hours ago through social media, that one of my Facebook Friends had suddenly passed. Dan Fontes, an acquaintance of mine, and renowned Oakland and Bay Area muralist, was only sixty seven at the time of his demise. According to early news reports, cancer was the cause.

    Normally, I would always receive his semi-regular Facebook updates, and merely thought the recent lull in posts was because of other art or hobby-related activities momentarily taking up his priorities. I had no idea.

    And now he's gone.

    Dan Fontes and I first met at Cafe Van Kleef (CVK) in Oakland. In need of more steady income, I had just switched over from the Oakland Arts Department to work for Peter Van Kleef at Peter's fledgling art bar. Due to my freelance association with the City of Oakland, I was already aware of Dan's mural work and was more than overjoyed to finally meet him, when in 2003 he accepted Peter's invitation to add four figures to the mural hanging in the cafe (more on that in a bit).

    Dan and I soon struck up a casual friendship, and remained acquaintances over the years. That acquaintanceship extended to Facebook. And as I actually happen to live so very near to one of Dan Fontes' "Animurals", he and I would sometimes run into each other on the street. After my stint at CVK and returning to the Oakland Arts, I would also bump into Dan there, at a public meeting or art event, or his at his studio space, the one or times I dropped in for a visit.

    I always enjoyed our meetings, however fleeting.

    Speaking of one such encounter...

    Below is a series of pictures I took, when I chance to catch Dan restoring one of his "Giraphics" murals beneath the 580. En route on foot to a weekly commitment in Oakland, where I was no longer a resident but still having business (just up Oakland Avenue in fact from where I use to reside) we crossed paths. My commitment it so happened, was smack on the opposite side of that same MacArthur overpass.

    Pleased to see each other, Dan and I chatted for a bit. Leaving his assistant to carry on, he then suggested and volunteered to descend the scaffold to take my photo, kindly obliging me with a photo pose in return before I had to dash off to keep my appointment.

     I had no idea then this would be our last public encounter. The date was Thursday, April 25, 2016.

Dan Fontes, when last we met, and I still had personal commitments in Oakland. Thursday, August 25, 2016.

       This final, in-person meeting happened to coincide with the start of Dan's 2016 'Animural' Restoration Project, slated for completion unbeknownst to me by Earth Day April 22, 2017.

That's not an optical illusion you're witnessing. The scaffold is actually leaning toward the mural. Thursday, August 25, 2016. Dan's assistant is Kristi Holohan.

     And as the target date neared, a flurry of flyers went out inviting one and all to come enjoy the day and Dan's art. Wholly unaware of the announcement was I however, no longer residing, as I mentioned, in Oakland.

The official flyer for the Giraffe Murals' Earth Day, April 22, 2017 opening.

 

  Yet, sure enough, as luck would have it, by pure chance alone, I just happened to take these next two photographs two days prior to Earth Day! Once again, I was on my way to my weekly engagement.

Spot the three giraffes in this panoramic view. Thursday, April 20, 2017

My favorite Dan Fontes’ “Giraphics”. Thursday, April 20, 2017

    Dan's murals are many, but in once particular case, I can truthfully state that I had a hand.

    Back to 2003 and Cafe Van Kleef. 

    Peter Van Kleef, the eponymous proprietor, had this large mural, which had already been reworked by a second artist to populate to the tableau with recognizable personalities. Hence the appearance of Jerry Brown (Peter's then neighbor), Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Vincent van Gogh, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol. When in the fall of that year, the cafe officially got underway and was opened to the public, Dan was invited to add a few more notable celebrities.

Cafe Van Kleef Mural  -  Photo by Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE 2023-05-11

    First came Frida, followed by James Brown. Dan simply overlaid Frida Kahlo, head and shoulders atop a generic guitarist in the bottom left foreground, taking good advantage of the ready-made forearms and instrument 

    James himself, got slotted in bright lemon-lime, to the right of Jerry, perhaps in an bid to brighten up the latter's dour demeanor. ;-)  

Cafe Van Kleef Mural - Photo by Douglas Zimmerman SFGATE 2023-05-11

 

     Then came the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, third on Dan's list. Dan was almost done with the Dalai when suddenly there was a problem and he stopped. Up to this point, for each of the individuals, Dan had been relying on a photographic referent, but for the Dalai Lama, he needed a twist and lacked a guide.

    That's when Dan turned to me as we were chatting, and asked me if I could literally lend my hand. Sticking a bar glass in it, he then pulled out his Polaroid and once he was satisfied of the pose, snapped a picture. A moment later, with the freshly developed print in hand, Dan once again resumed his painting.

With the help of Google’s machine learning (A.I.) to blur out the surrounding imagery, yep, that’s me in the mural: the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso’s right hand man, er, um, uh… right hand!

    Not that anyone knows or cares - few do - but that's how I ended up literally having a hand in one of Dan's artworks and the story behind my brief stint as his hand model.

    A fourth figure was begun, but did not see completion. Craggy Keith Richards started to take his place at the extreme opposite end of the mural, but Peter and Dan had a falling out. Peter reneged on paying Dan the money he was due, and Keith was left uncompleted as a result.

    Fortunately, Dan and I remained friends. I only learned the reason for the parting much later. From Dan own lips. Sadly, knowing that one side of Peter, his spottiness with regards to monies due, I'm not surprised. Even I went unpaid. Were it not for Peter's wife, Cindy Reeves, who saw to it I eventually got paid everything in full, I would have been out on the streets.  

    But enough with the bummers and the prior puns already. All joking and some regrets aside, having had the honor to be of help to Dan is indeed, a memory I fondly treasure, and it's nice nevertheless to find a part of me unexpectedly immortalized. No big deal to Dan, but I have been more than well-rewarded.

Lake Merritt Mural Project (1988) Dan Fontes

     For all his kindness, his artistry, and decency, I am so saddened by Dan Fontes' sudden departure. I can barely believe it, and cannot even begin to imagine the heartbreak and anguish his long time, loving partner, Julie Lucchesi must be enduring. She was so very dear to him. Indispensable..

    Dan was a pleasure to have known and interact with, and I will miss him.

    To quote the recent remark of an admirer of his: "Rest In Paint".

-    -FIN-