8.28.16

Up just before 8. Weight 216.1.

Dithered for a while, transcribed the lyrics to “Junk” before noticing the 7” (Rocking-Horse Loser, one of the non OPB Jupa releases) has a lyric insert. Went to coffee around 10, read the last few pages of Pleitz, finished Paul’s book. Wrote to Ben Friedlander about getting a copy of the issue of Paideuma w/ my Kenward Elmslie piece – I was somehow not notified that it was out. A few other online tasts/responses, about an hr. Came home, turned around fairly quickly w/ Bree to see Marked Woman (Lloyd Bacon 1937) at MoMa. Warners Gangster/“hostesss” drama w/ Bette Davis and pre-persona Bogart, as a D.A. Not a musical, but set in a nightclub, so there were 2 good but little-known Warren/Dubin numbers, “Silver Dollar Man” & “Mr. and Mrs. Doakes.” First movie I’ve seen in a theater for at least 6-7 weeks.

Rode to Bree’s stop for her dentist’s appointment, went on downtown, dropped the above 7” off at Matt’s work (vicinity of Astor Place), chatted for a minute. Stopped at Housing Works Books, picked up (used) two Springsteen CDs, Len Chandler’s first LP, and Hegel’s Lectures on World History (which has the scurrilous section on Africa that James Snead recuperates). Read 50 p. Jasen and Jones, sections on James Reese Europe, Spencer Williams, Maceo Pinkard, and the obscure lyricist Jo Trent, who turns out to have written “Muddy Water” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-6PgkOHagI w/ a white lyricist, Peter DeRose. (Bree and I had been curious about the song – its connection to McKingley Morganfeld’s nickname is unclear.)

Rested at home, then checked my phone. Rehearsal w/ Laura cancelled; we’ll just run the song at soundcheck Friday. Then I had an odd series of texts from Bree, telling me that an ambulance was taking her to the ER Bellevue (not the mental institution). In brief, the (student) dentist inflated her face while fixing her cavities. They monitored her at the I offered to come out, but she said it was too crowded and confused there. As it turned out, they sent her home around 9, with a prescription for antibiotics. I read a bit of the Hartman and fell asleep before she got back.

Her face is puffy, and she is upset, obviously, though it’s ultimately benign (the antibiotics are a precaution) and should subside within 72 hrs. The condition is called subcutaneous emphysema, or air emphysema, and is a occasional and preventable byproduct of dental treatment; per Wikipedia, "In 1900, the first recorded case...was reported in a bugler for the Royal Marines who had had a tooth extracted; playing the instrument had forced air through the hole where the tooth had been and into the tissues of the face."

Obviously, not possible to do anything else this evening. Read first 15 p. in Banias’ Anybody while Bree was getting ready for bed. Discomfort w/ gender + “deceptively casual” tone, though I think very careful in setting up effect; Maggie Nelson (who blurbed) evident in background. Imagined, but no more, a poem w/ a similar poem about the very clichéd subject of riding the subway with other people.

No prose today. Lights out 11:30.