Up 7:00. Weight 214.

Exercised 10 min. Left between 9:15-9:30 (work on this). Read Starr over breakfast. By 10:30, it didn't seem like the trip to Oracle would be efficient, so I wrote at E77 until about 11. Graf putting aside Rhapsody in Blue, plus a (too?)-technical discussion of "Somebody Loves Me." Picked up another Gershwin bio at library, also checked on Gone Girl, which I'd started reading out of mass-cultural curiosity in a Salvation Army this summer. Came home, finished quota of Starr, dozed to a Dragnet episode for 1/2 hr, started Susie Timmons, Superior Packets. (3 older books in one + new poems; Hog Wild [1979], so far, is comparable to Greenwald's Common Sense - similar hard to place inter-generation of NY School/not yet Language writers.) Packed for rehearsal, got out suitcase. Managed to get off a couple of emails (to Robert Christgau and my godfather) I'd been procrastinating about. Left for downtown 4:40. Listened casually to Benny Moré while reading Hamilton on Motown Beatles' covers and Aretha Franklin/Janis Joplin/Dusty Springfield interrelationships. Managed to drop off my coat for relining this time. Rehearsed 6 to 8:30, w/ Brandon/Mike/Pete; went through songs I want to track as 4-piece ("Cover Your Tracks," "Guesthouse," "Still In Error," possibly "Different City," "Faith & Credit," the one where I'm not pulling my weight), also ran "Enemies of Song." Knocked off early, no need for a forced march. Went to the Strand b/c the new Ashbery is out (I checked). Read a bit more of Timmons on the way home, had a notion for a poem so filled last 2 p. of current daybook, which covers about 5 months of "practice." Home just before 11, ran through some email.

Lou Donaldson, "West Indian Daddy."