Up 6 or earlier. I’m a little ahead on the R&B notes, so I listened to the new Wire album, Mind Hive, on Spotify. A couple of pop songs and some darker, goth-leaning numbers. They still have weird moments - how did they decide to title a song “Oklahoma,” and yell it at the start?
Coffee - wasn’t in the mood for the books I’m in the middle of, started A.O. Scott’s Better Living Through Criticism. Goes down easy, wears learning lightly. Maybe too much so.
Had to go back to bed when I got back. Napped until almost noon, and wasted some time after that. Libraries aren’t closed, but the virus increases my resistance to going. So, not a writing day.
Made myself work on my (physical) inbox at 2:45, worked for 2 hrs. Filing/trashing, returning a W-9, adding things to to-do list, etc. Did actually feel like progress. Listened to the previous Wire album, Silver/Lead while doing so - not quite as good as the current one, I thought. Trudgier “rock” rhythms. Also the last few tracks on disc 2 of Okzaki/Monk.
Groceries w/ Bree. More people in our local, not-huge health food store than I’ve seen at one time, stocking up but maybe not to the point where you’d call it panic buying (I saw toilet paper), as were we.
Saw the news that B’way shows an any 500+ events are cancelled by the city until further notice. Rec’d emails about the Encores! performance of Love Life (Weill/Lerner), which will be refunded (maybe next season), and Tony Bennett in Staten Island, new date TBD. Kept looking for explicit word about the Wire show I had tickets for tonight, but heard nothing from Music Hall of Williamsburg, cap. 650 (by email/twitter feed). Was already leaning toward not going — they played last night, and even it was going on as scheduled, it probably shouldn’t have been, and I wasn’t about to log an hr. on the subway and back to find out. Realized that Jay Sherman-Godfrey was playing w/ Wire Troop at Let Love Inn, which I’d told him I’d be missing for Wire (odd coincidence about the band names), so I did go out to Astoria. Predictably scant attendance, and maybe even going to low-key things like this is contraindicated, but it was good to hear them play. May not hear any live music for a while.
Made a list of my ongoing/pending creative projects (writing, music) between sets. Maybe I should post it. It’s long - if I didn’t start anything else, and spent all reasonably available work time bringing them to fruition, it would take several years to complete them (more, if getting a couple of theater pieces produced is a goal). That makes me anxious.
Read some Johnston before leaving for the show, and on trains. Had to skip around in the collection b/c of the density of the prose. Long 2-part piece on Agnes Martin, and a really lovely and interesting passage on her participation in a John Cage piece, which seems to have been a kind of consciousness raising experience for her. Gives a different view on what the political meaning of that kind of work might be than the Mira Schor line on his quietist obfuscation of his gayness; and on the controversy on Julius Eastman’s performance choices (in a different Cage piece).
Home midnight. Watched a couple things on YouTube. Lights out 12:45, put on disc 3 of Okzaki.