i think we still hear about it on a daily basis. what you're not hearing is, what are we doing in that community now to make sure they are prepared? how do we tell people what to do and where to go for shelter? if the media to do more of that, i think we would have more people being prepared after a disaster happens. >> and the coast guard. is the coast guard being fairly treated and getting the recognition you deserve? >> i think we talked a lot about building partnerships on this panel and how important those partnerships are. the media is no different. our need to build partnerships with the media outlets is a vital importance. we try to do that on a regular basis and bring them onto coast guard facilities and educate them about our resources and our plants and responses. i think they have the ability to train flat -- translate to the public and be that entity that we're looking for in a crisis. >> when the four of you go back

to your offices and report back to the people who work with you and for you, what are you going to tell them about this particular meeting? do you feel that you're getting something valuable and valuable enough about being here, discussing it in front of this fine audience? >> i think that we are here because we do not want to miss any opportunity to build new and improved-on relationships, not only within the city agencies, but in particular, this great opportunity during fleet week to work with our various military forces, including our coastguard, that does it every single day with us in different aspects. but also, i think the relationships that we would have with the navy and marines and the expectation that if in the event of a very large disaster, wherever it might be in the bay

area, that we can actually start building expectations that would help us with logistics, help us with a lifeline, recovery, help us with moving heavy equipment and materials on the whole bay area and how to do it and how to communicate at different levels most efficiently. and then have our own residents in every neighborhood understand that all of our areas, federal, state, local, are working together to build those relationships so that their confidence. they are in the best shape in their region when we expect a major disaster to come. there should be less fear about earthquakes and more about getting better prepared for it to and finding new partnerships all the time. that is what comes to mind. i want to exhibit that and reinforce it in the media and in every neighborhood that we have got, better relationships than

we do today because of the way we pushed this whole idea of fleet week how well be a lot -- well beyond the celebrations, right into the roles or what to have that enhance our ability to respond and recover fast. >> i agree. when i heard that the navy wanted to discuss this, i thought, that is great. because i know in recent years, the navy has participated in community projects when they were here. i would like to see next year us do some of these tabletop operations and exercises. i do not know were the admiral is, but i would like to welcome you to put a few ships on the east bay. i think it will be visited at the world cup or something like that. and our harbors are debir anyhow. -- are deeper . [laughter] i think using this opportunity

and looking at what we might have to do together sunday, and using this time when you are in our harbors. this used to be our home, but that was a long time ago. we had more opportunities to work closely together. coming from someone who married into a navy family, you have many, many, many people here in the bay area who are in the navy, and we want you to feel very welcome here. so i would love to see any kind of expanded activity around fleet week, whether it is just recalling the history of the nave -- navy in the bay area or whether it is being prepared and maybe doing tabletop arraus potential future scenarios. >> it is interesting that you ask that question, because right before i left, some said, where are you going, and i said that i would be at fleet week it would be on the panel for disaster preparedness, and that looked at me like -- what? you do not realize, but it is

not the local statistics, our federal government. it is our military as well that will help us in the time of disaster. we have our partners around the bay, but we also have a military that will lead to step in. we're going to qualify them in a major disaster. we're going to collaborate and talk today about these different issues and how they can work with us on all those levels of disasters. they come up to me and say, wow people do not understand that relationship, i think. we recognize it and will continue to work on it and will continue to collaborate, because we do not all have a lot of our resources. but collectively, we have a tremendous amount of resources. >> i would just add that that we build on our success of last year, but this is a unique and extraordinary opportunity.

it is an extraordinary opportunity for all of us. i appreciate the opportunity. >> we have just about used up our time here. but i wanted to ask each one of the very brief -- briefly, your number one wish in terms of safety and prevention and disaster preparedness would be what? >> i will give you more than one. i will give two. >> two is ok. >> as i said before, individual preparedness. that would be at the top of the list, because we're not all going to have the ability to have someone come to our rescue right away. the second one is communication. if the communication is not going to be there between all of our region, we're going to be in a heap of trouble. i think those are the things we need to work on and stay on top

of from this day forward, as much as we did in the past as well. >> i would just have to say that we need to continue to build on our ability to build our partnerships and to cross-train with each other, our awareness of each other's capabilities is critical and the key to success. >> major quan. >> i am going to be redundant. money, money, money for infrastructure retrofitting. one thing i have not asked for but injury to me and the previous presentation is i would like to really learn more about how you were able to take the google maps and the data and move quickly. secondly, what lessons you learned in helping restore roads, transportation, and schools. schools are key to rebuilding the community and keeping that connectedness. any of the lessons from japan or the disasters that your help in,

to share those, because the military institutions have access to technology and experience that a local government would not. >> my wish is that knowing that there will be disasters of every kind that we may face, my wish is that every resident, business, and a person that goes to school in the bay area can appreciate the individual responsibilities they have to be part of a strong neighborhood and strong cities that are doing everything they can to take the fear out of these disasters and the building relationships and communications. and actually, being part of decision making that makes us that much more higher level ready responsible. i think it takes everybody not only talking about this. it takes an attitude where this

is part of the way we live in the bay area. we have to be better prepared. this is our responsibility as says it -- as citizens to work together, to bring down the communication barriers, and have an attitude that we will overcome any disaster because we're working together to strengthen every place that we live and work in order to school in. >> if we still have someone in the audience with a microphone, we would be -- is there someone here who still has the microphone? a and theirh, a nice person with a microphone. -- ah, there is a person with a microphone. there must be at least one question here for our panel. they have answered every single thing that you ever thought about your entire life? no. here is the question.

and from a famous person. here we go. >> governor barbara -- barbour said will have a big catastrophe, it is going to encompass one city usually, so he thinks a governor should be in charge. but in this panel, nobody has mentioned the governor. what role leading the governor of california should have? >> i think you have to remember who the governor is. i love jerry. [laughs] i clearly think of the wildfires and the earthquake that the governor has a role that is pretty critical for mobilizing the r and maybe resources outside the region. let's think about an earthquake. the kind of earthquake we're all

theory in the bay area could also take out the levees, which would disrupt the water system for a lot of northern california. i would have to think twice. i mean, i think that the governor has to rally the state resources, but the governor may have multiple disasters on his hand, so rallying as overall resources to take care of what is probably going to be a multi- city, multi-issue kind of disaster, because it may be search and rescue and fires in san francisco and oakland, but it could be water supplies throughout the rest of the state. it could be later-after-later in a major disaster, and i think the state is going to have to rally resources from the entire state and probably from washington in a major event like that. >> good. do we have another question from the audience?

the gentleman over there was starting to raise his hand. well, if we do not have any more questions, i think that we have pretty much settled the issue here. we thank you all very much for being here. would you like to say a few words? >> jack, i appreciate you moderating. i appreciate the officials here for participating in the panel. i do not know, i felt pretty good about the commonality here in terms of the agreement that you all had on the things that need to be done, particularly your expression of support for what we're trying to accomplish here. so would all of you please help me give them a big round of applause for this panel? [applause] i know that we have two mayors

here and the supervisor, and i know your schedules are hectic. i appreciate you taking the time. and our port captain, we love her. she is one sharp cookie, and she does a great job here in san francisco. thank you also much. appreciated. i will ask all of you if your mind, take a quick break, because we're going to transition to our next panel. everybody has talked about the role of private sectors. we think now that we probably should someday do a whole day on the role of private sector, and we're going to have a great panel here. i would like to say, let's start this, if we could come in five minutes. let's take a five-minute, maybe stand in place or if you need to make a head call, and get the panel up here so we can start it.

[applause] >> good evening. welcome to the meeting of the commonwealth club and forum, connect your intellect. you can find us online. you can follow the best of our conversations on twitter.

i am the author of the "this is your brain on music. " i am a professor of psychology and behavioral neuroscience. i am delighted to introduce you to my friend, one of my famous -- favorite guitarists and musicians. he discovered the guitar at a young age. he has played at notable vilnius such as the -- notable venues such as montrose and carnegie hall. >> i would like to start by saying that in the last 15 or 20 years of my research, one thing i found most surprising as a musician myself in exploring music and the brain is how --

discovering where it is that music is. i always imagined as a player that the music was in my fingers. now i know is in the brain. it is a neuro-representation of the figures. music is in every part of the brain that we have mapped. there is no part of the brain that does not have something to do with music. i found that very surprising. i wondered if you find that surprising as a player and what your own intuitions were coming into it. >> i think my intuition is that music is something that gets received in some sense or another, like radio, like something you pick up. it is a vibration. when i have written my own music for the guitar, a lot of times it is the result of having experienced something and having to absorb it like you might absorb a vibration or

light our experience something rhythmic like walking down the street. >> a lot of composers say they feel like they are not really creating the music. they're channeling it. roseanne cash talks about holding up her catcher's mitt and catching one as it goes by. someone else talks about how the music is everywhere for anyone to take, that you just have to tune into it. >> driving down here today, there was a rough patch of road because there was construction. you are feeling the road. it makes you aware that no matter where you are or what you are doing, you could be some ki, and you hear something may be rise out of that rhythm. for me, personally, a lot of times the idea for writing a

piece of music or making arrangement comes from some sort of rhythm. a lot of people would say, do you get the melody first or the rhythm? i always say i get the rhythm first and the melody comes out of it. >> could you play us an example of may be something where the rhythm came first? and maybe just play the rhythm. >> i will try. this is a piece called "cumulus rising." this is from a piece that i did in 1998, on the theme of water. this is sort of the theme of water rising through a team less clout. it does not have to be, but that is the sensation that gave me the idea. -- cumulus cloud.

>> if you could play the rhythm first. >> i will tap it. [tapping] pretty simple. then i will play a little bit of it. ♪

>> i will leave it there. [applause] >> one of the things that people often ask is what is happening in our brains when we hear a piece of music. it is extraordinarily complicated. a sound enters the years and there is a cascade of their rick complicated processes that turn the changes in air pressure to an electrical signal which gets transmitted from the year to the brain. once it hits the brain, it gets even more complicated.

it turns out there are distinct regions of the brain that process different aspects of the sound. one part of the brain, you can think of it as a special purpose circuit, attending to and processing their read them. then there is a separate part processing the pitch, a separate part combining the pitches and duration into melodies, a part separate from that attending to how loud or soft it is, and it all comes together later and get this seamless impression of this beautiful melody and harmony, yet, it is processed piecemeal. one of the sources of information of this is we have patients who are damaged in one focal portion of the brain and they lose one of those elements while retaining the others. they may lose rhythm or they will have to pitch and harmony. >> is it processed in real time?

simultaneously? >> yes, but quickly. when i say later, later in brain time means maybe 1/30 of a second later. any second, it can be disrupted , and you to organic brain injury or trauma, it can be disrupted. it is remarkable. the player, at some level, perhaps unconsciously, are having to think about the elements unconsciously. >> i teach a lot of workshops and a lot of people come to play our master classes, they come with their own performance, arrangement. they are looking for feedback. one of the things that i always say, because, as a musician, we try to get everything at once. all of the elements.

we tried to simultaneously get the rhythm, melody, the subtleties, dynamics, accent, all those things that make music interesting. but a lot of times, it is good practice to tear them apart. solo guitar playing, for example, polyphonic music, you have a melody and a baseline, maybe an accompaniment, 3rd voice or harmonic accompaniment. i always suggest people to tear them apart, work on the melody, just work on the base, rhythm, accompaniment. that provides an important process to understanding how these elements have to happen simultaneously. >> when you are writing, as a fan of yours, for decades now -- i think your first record came

out in the 1970's. >> 1978. >> that is right. as a fan, one of the things that struck me is you did not sound like anyone else i had heard, and you still do not. when i listen to any other guitarist,, composer, you can hear their influence, who they took this idea or technique from. your music just sounds fresh and novel. i wonder if you might be willing to disclose to us some of your influences and how they gave rise to your compositional playing style, and maybe demonstrate them. >> i like to joke, i did not learn how to play anything else really well, so i had to come up with my own. it is true, i found this out

later when i was teaching. can you show me that solo to that song? do you know how it goes? i am useless at that. i am not very good at cataloging other people's music. i certainly had my influence is growing up. i started playing the guitar when i was 12th. i was a big fan of the pope, blue, british isles scene, mississippi john hurt me, sonny terry brown mcgee, i played some blues harmonica. >> did you learn that open tuning style, slide style? >> i have not picked up a slide in a long time, so i do not want to embarrass myself, but yes. it was a lot of folk music, blues and early on.

i fell in love with the sound of the steel string guitar. there are a lot of idiomatic thing that it does well. i studied classic guitar a bit, but the steel string, for example, we do something called a hammer on and pull off, which is -- >> you get three note for the price of one. >> you plug the string but you get four notes. i always think of that town at the the prototypical steel string guitar sound. british isles, a caltech music. i learned all the paul simon songs. as i got older -- >> he is a hell of a guitarist. people do not realize. he is not flashy, but if you try to learn his tunes, they are

really hard. >> he is a brilliant guitar player. i eventually got interested in jazz, world music, everything. maybe that is one of the reasons. i enjoyed so many kinds of music, i did not have a preference. i did not want to be anything in particular. i just wanted to play guitar and get that sound that i was hearing in my head. >> is there a particular song of yours that you can trace back to and influence, sound that you were trying to get that you heard somebody else use and you wanted to use it? >> i will play you a few bars from a piece that i wrote in the 1970's, very much influenced by the british isles style. this one is called "inverness."

♪ >> i am cutting it short, but, to me, that is the quintessential british isles style. >> although, in your hand, it is more harmonically complex. >> it could be. >> one of the things i was trying to do -- i became a big fan of keith jarrett when i was young. i thought, wow, if i can do something like that with a guitar -- and i remember, i was a student at uc-berkeley, considering going to graduate school in economic geography and working as an intern coming here

at the san francisco planning department. i was also a record in my first album. i wrote this piece called " turning, turning back." it began the recording but it also began a new direction for me. they say every musician that starts recording for writing, arranging music, they have to find their own voice. i think i may be found my own voice in that one. >> are you going to play some of it? ♪ >>