Up 7. Watched another 30 min. of The Great Ziegfeld - it’s 3 hrs. Chatted w/ dad. Tidied bedroom. Left to L.A. about 9:40. 1st trip out of the I.E. since I’ve been here, always forget how unpleasant the freeway traffic is when I’m away for a few months. Made it to Ameoba by 11, shopped for an hr., several classical CDs in the $3-5 range to satisfy my curiosity about Ignacio Cervantes and John Alden, Carpenter, some used jazz, 2 volumes of the year-by-year R&B sets I’m trying to complete, and a couple of indulgences - a pre-ICP Mengelberg I hadn’t seen before, and a vinyl comp of gospel that influenced rock and roll (a lot of which I may already have or have heard). Also bought a self-contained turntable, one of those Crosleys, to use here - justified/budgeted it as a “home” expense. Met Evan Kindley for lunch in Los Feliz, spent a couple hrs. catching up and chatting about various academic and literary subjects, walked from 101 Cafe to Counterpoint Books on Franklin, near where I used to live. Picked up a couple more jazz CDs and an early bossa nova comp. Dropped Evan off to pick up his daughter, drove home w/ a stop in downtown West Covina (yes, another bookstore). The coffee place in that vicinity closed - tho, I hadn’t cared for it since it changed hands into more of a boba situation. Had also thought to buy some sausage for dinner on Friday at the nearby Claro’s, but had forgotten that the entire chain is closed on Weds. Listened, over the course of the day’s driving, to disc 4 of Motown 1967 (probably twice through, and repeated plays of Chris Clark’s version of Smokey’s “From Head to Toe”), Lloyd Cole’s synthetic new Guesswork, and most of a Guus Janssen/Han Bennink duo. Home by 6. Dinner, got some office/paperwork together just after for an errand tomorrow. Watched Jeopardy!, and most of a Law & Order, made myself go out from 9-11 to edit. No time to read seriously today - didn’t quite finish the unfortunately dull Gorney book. Read front matter and 1 short poem by Alfred Starr Hamilton from the Song Cave book I’d found in Claremont the other day. Lights out 12:30.
Last day I’ll be posting this for the foreseeable future; will continue to post monthly reading lists, and think about how otherwise to use this space.