Up around 7.
Watched the rest of the Anne Baxter movie - I didn’t see the twist coming.
Left around noon (some hard-to-reconstruct delays in getting out of the house, and a phone call from Anthony.)
Tried to get a bite at a Thai place near Sprouts, but it was closed; went for a burger on Central instead. Skipped yesterday in daybook; caught up.
Proceeded from the tango disc to the Verve Parker collection - starts with a Bird with Strings track, “Just Friends,” which I guess fit someone’s definition of “best of.”
Got to the library around 1, read day’s quote of The Mao Case, got involved in some email, read Carl Wilson’s review of the Exile in Guyville reissue (Jessica Hopper’s came out in RS yesterday). Some email - wrote to Annie Nero about playing on the 6/16, and singing on "A Different City."
Wrote 3-5:30. I’m having a lot of trouble with this piece - need to push on to the end of the draft and then cut.
Home, dinner; too much meat today. Anthony came over so I could go out around 7:15.
Listened to Parker on the way to Pasadena to see a group called Need for Speed at Battery Books - turned out to be a group of Cal Arts students, inc. a bassoonist, who play music by Chris Speed (sax player/composer, I’ve seen him play w/ Halvorson), though they also did Julius Hemphill and Ornette pieces. Hardly anyone in the store, which is a shame; Rich West, the owner/manager, said he’d sold $4 of merchandise so far that day. Did my bit, I guess, by buying a collected Paul Laurence Dunbar, Art Lange Evidence, David Rattray Opening the Eyelid, Leslie Kaplan Excess—the Factory, a split LP of Billie Holiday and some third stream guy called Ralph Burns, and Sound Forms for Piano, a New World LP w/ Cowell, Cage, Nancarrow, and Ben Johnson pieces, and Gerard Schurmann, Six Studies of Francis Bacon (U.K. composer, never heard of him, taking a flyer).
Suzanne Vega, Beauty and Crime on the way back. Well-made; the lyrics, on first hearing, make fewer surprising leaps than her most distinctive material.
Got gas for tomorrow; home about 11, in bed soon after.
Have not been reading poetry (the Pankey book I have with me isn't that attractive), nor writing songs/working on music (I have to arrange horns for 2 songs).