Up 6. Watched Strange Powers, the Stephin/MF doc. Went out at 8, read another 1/3 of Meitner. Wrote 500 words about "Always Chasing Rainbows." Had lunch in Claremont w/ Dan Clucas and two other UHS Jazz Band members I hadn't seen since the 1980s. Dropped by the town library, bought LPs of Berg, Wozzeck and Dvorak, Slavonic Dances in the book/media sale room; same at Upland, found a CD set of Die Meistersinger, and some Philip Glass. Read about 1/3 of J.B. Jackson, Landscapes; mid-60s essays on urbanism/planning. Not bad - nice sense of historical changes in American attitudes toward our environments, urban and natural alike. Went out again after dinner to return the movie and poke around Rhino. Listened to Disc 2 of the Anna Records set and David Nagler's Carl Sandburg record (having now heard some of the material live 3 or 4 times, it really holds up; it may by the best-realized record by a 'peer' I've heard in some time.) Lights out 10.
12.26.16
Up 8. Watched most of The Dolly Sisters (1945 Irving Cummings), vaudeville-era tale based on a real sister act - one of whose love interests was co-writer of "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" (a 1918 AABA I had not noticed) and eventual founder of the Harry Fox Agency (the major clearing house for mechanical licensing). Got down some thoughts on Ira Gershwin at coffee, about 10:30-1, 1000 words. Dropped into a thrift store, bought nothing. Came home, read 1/3 of Erika Miester, Copia, listened to the 1st 5 songs on the Magnetic Fields advance (trying to do this daily until the interview) - it's good. Got involved in picking out "…Rainbows," above, from the B section of Chopin's Impromptu no. 4 (op. posth. 66) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pQT1W12R7o. Played through some early Kern, watched part of a lesser Elvis movie, The Trouble With Girls, set on the Chautaqua tent show circuit - oddly, "Darktown Strutter's Ball" figures in both this and The Dolly Sisters. After dinner, my dad played us 2 new songs, 1 his annual Christmas attempt, the other about the Madonna on the Trail statue on Euclid. Some correspondence in evening, sent roughs of the album to Pete and Matt. Daybook. Having trouble fixing on what to read next (prose). Lights out 11.
12.25.16
Up 4. Daybook, Finished Grant & I, went back to bed until 8. Slow morning/afternoon - signed Xmas cards, looked through more sheet music that's here (Kern book w/ some songs I don't really know), finished Alicia Cohen, Coherer, which - despite the flakiness potential of ecopoetic (a mermaid poem?) and the sense that human culture is mainly a mistake - is much better and more readable than I've indicated here; the title indicates, I think, that she isn't giving up on trying to make sense of things. Recommended. Exchanged gifts w/ parents + Bree, then went to Xmas Day brunch at my aunt + uncle Beverly and Anthony's, w/ my parents, kids, grandkids. Came home about 4. Watched Mr. Deeds Goes To Down and dragged myself through the last chapter of Verse - on "advanced topics," viz. alternative metrical theories that don't have much to do w/ my reasons for reading the book (though Atteridge's conception of beats as more primary than feet bears on the organization of songs.) Listened to Disc 1 of The Anna Records Story (Berry Gordy's sister's label - the border between this an early Motown as such is pretty notional) over the course of the day. Lights out before 11.
12.24.16
Up 6; time change may be starting to resolve itself. My shoes were still wet from last night. Started Robert Forster's memoir Grant and I. Can't find the quote, but I like that he makes something of taking trio-era Talking Heads, 2 men and a woman out of rock uniform, as as one of their early inspirations. Bree says that Kevin Malony convinced her to do a Poor Baby Bree at Pangea in March and April - she'll use another pianist, b/c I have already ask her to help me say no to things next year until I finish the book, but I will have trouble letting go. Wrapped presents at home; read more of Hartman and Cohen later; daybook. Xmas Eve w/ parents, Bree, + my uncle Joseph in from Montana. Bree's cold is bad; she basically had dinner w/ us and went to bed. I don't recall doing anything worth recording after Joseph went home, though I was up past 11.
12.23.16
Up early, didn't check time, but fell asleep again on the family room couch. Watched a bit of The Great Ziegfeld, read another 50 p. of Scoundrel Time:
"I can't remember when [Harry Cohn] died, but there was a nice story at the time, attributed to George Jessel. Jessel and a friend were standing outside the funeral parlor. The line of mourners was very long. The friend said, "I never saw such a mob at a funeral." Jessel said, "Same old story; you give 'em what they want and they'll fill the theater."
More to the point:
"There was nothing strange about my problem, it is native to our time; but it is painful for a nature that can no longer accept liberalism not to be able to accept radicalism. One sits uncomfortably on a too comfortable cushion. Many of us now endlessly jul from one side to another and endlessly fall in space."
Went out to Coffee Klatch, learned via facebook that I missed a Slow Children gig at Hi-Fi! Took some good notes on the (very clear and worthwhile) "Song" chapter in Charles O. Hartman, Verse: An Introduction, which I had put aside for a while. Came home, read the (also useful) notes to the salsa comp. Bree official has a cold, so I drove out to Pasadena myself and finished Scoundrel Time over lunch at the Hat. I hadn't made the connection that Blitzstein turned The Little Foxes into his opera Regina partly as a result of their left associations. Did our X-mas shopping; picked up a few things for myself at Battery and Canterbury as well, but I'm not in the mood to list them -- though I finally broke down and bought the Hamilton OCR. Driving both ways, listened to some Glauznova ballet music, which I preferred to the Sibelius on the same disc (Soviet recordings from '62, apparently), and Schubert, die schöne Mullerin (v. Mark Padmore/p. Paul Lewis), closer to strophic forms than Winterreise. Home for dinner w/ parents, watched some of the first Thin Man movie, tried to nap. Read the rest of the Hartman chapter + a chunk of Cohen. 3 p. in daybook.
Loaded in at the Press (in the rain, which I hate), hung out (Brain Macpherson came out, plus more expected Claremont crowd). Started at 10. Good show, w/ the characteristic Spgt looseness/chaos; I played better than I did this summer (though I felt myself flailing w/ the rhythm part on "Janitor"). As I was told last night there were to be "costumes," I wore a fringey/sequined singing-cowboy shirt w/ pearl snaps that I bought in, I think, St. Louis on tour w/ Jenny in 2001. I was spared the indignity of a Peter Criss mask. Downside: the ceiling was leaking all night, and water crept down the wall and toward my amp through the evening; the staff sandbagged me into my corner of the stage w/ towels and (correctly) shut down the second set after "Head Through Iowa." I don't know what the actual degree of physical risk was, but it all felt pretty sketchy, and I wish there were somewhere else to play in town; I don't need to burnish my rock credentials through electrocution. Also soaked loading out. Home 12:30, sat up a while.