Up 9:30. Seem to be alternating between sleeplessness and catching up.
Meditated 15 min.
Took some laundry downstairs for Bree and left just before 11. Listened to all of Rhianna, Anti. Odd that it moves from, if not hip-hop, broadly cyclical forms to a couple of songs w/ sectional forms and functional chord progressions (e.g., the retro-soul of “Love on the Brain”).
Therapy.
Quick lunch, worked on TPA at Filicori Zecchini, 96th and B’Way, 2-6 pm. Finally getting there - 2600 words, and I know what the last 2 grafs are.
Karen Oberlin at Triad; Jill Sobule joined her for a song; talked to David Hadju.
Read first 3 stories in L.P. Harltey, Mrs. Carteret Receives. (Need a break from the rigors of Young.)
Home around 9. Rested for a while, 30 min. b-w.
Lights out 11:30.
6.10.18
“Nevertheless a certain class of dishonesty, dishonesty magnificent in its proportions, and climbing into high places, has become at the same time so rampant and so splendid that there seems to be reason for fearing that men and women will be taught to feel that dishonesty, if it can become splendid, will cease to be abominable. If dishonesty can live in a gorgeous palace with pictures on all its walls, and gems in all its cupboards, with marble and ivory in all its corners, and can give Apician dinners, and get into Parliament, and deal in millions, then dishonesty is not disgraceful, and the man dishonest after such a fashion is not a low scoundrel. Instigated, I say, by some such reflections as these, I sat down in my new house to write The Way We Live Now.” —Anthony Trollope
Didn’t sleep well. Up at 5:45.
Poem. Mediated 15 min.
Left about 9:30, Steve Lacy Evidence on train, read Young on hip-hop. I think he’s better on this and poetry than on some earlier music. Had coffee etc. at City Bakery w/ Allen Callaci (visiting, saw Bruce on B’Way) and our old friend Minju, whom I don’t see enough, about 10-noon. Returned a call to Jenny.
Went across the street to Academy, bought the new Exile on Guyville/Girly Sound reissue, the Earliest Negro Vocal Quartets 1894-1928 (Document - something I’ve heard most of an referenced in my soul chapter), Jaki Byard To Them-To Us, and James Carter Quartet, JC on the Set, Unrest Imperial f.f.r.r. (which I strangely never had).
Found a coffee place on 6th, worked on TPA for about 2 hrs, then some email and online dithering.
Face the Music program at Jazz Gallery - h.s. kids playing Braxton, inc. some of his improvisational languages. Teen Ghost Trancin’, as I texted Jean. Joined by a couple of pros. Don’t have the program handy. Learned about it from this Times piece.
Indulged in bbq and a milk stout at Hill Country. (The Big Apple BBQ fest was today in a park near where I was at, I passed as it was closing, guess I felt deprived - saw a table of what looked like rival pitmasters getting ready for some competitive eating, in more than one sense.)
Read quota and then some of Young on train home - conclusion and into the footnotes.
Home about 8:30. Called Dad before I came in the apt.
Crashed for a while, 30 min. b-w. (One feels faintly silly typing “boogie-woogie” every day.)
Read more Scalapino, which I’ve been neglecting. Short poem and a talk on her use of text/image.
Lights out around midnight.
6.9.18
Up about 8:30.
Meditated 15 minutes.
Listened to Mingus, Blues and Roots on the way to Langston Hughes Library. (Stopped for coffee.)
TPA intro 11:30-4:45.
Walked home, more Mingus. I love Jaki Byard.
Needed a nap.
Reserved tix to performance of Braxton compositions tomorrow, Karen Oberlin Mon.
30 min. boogie-woogie - getting into the harder exercises.
Went out again, worked on TPA a bit more at Caffe Benne (which closed at 10) and Starbucks. Ran into Steve Wynn and his wife/drummer Linda.
Elizabeth Alexander on black experimental poetry: "The sonnet is a hardy, enduring form that has crossed cultural lines and survived more or less intact for hundreds of years. It is here to stay. It is a useful, appealing, and flexible form. And though today it is a traditional form, it began as a rebellious one. The sonnet is the first poetic form in what we know as Italian and was written in vernacular, which is to say, not Latin. The tradition is marked with innovation from its roots. And so, to reimagine and reinvigorate it and make it black, if you will, is inevitable work for black poets that opens up innovative possibilities." Good reminder/rejoinder to Williams.
Review of Rhythm and Reaction, a UK exhibition on responses to early jazz. Too bad it won’t come here. Fascinated with this painting by John Souter, The Breakdown 1926.
Also exists in a sketch or study:
The statue is of Minerva, by the way. Not sure which version I prefer. Possible book cover??
Posted last week of entries here, w/ a little editing. Lights out 1 am. Didn't get to Young, Scalapino, or "daily" poetry.
6.8.18
Up at 8.
Meditated 15 min. Going to stay at this length for at least a week.
E77 about 9:30. Did my main promo (fb, twitter, an email) for the 6/16 show. Wrote a longish post (to a private online group) about writer’s block.
Practiced one of the two-part inventions (no. 8) a few times to warm up for playing this afternoon.
Started reading Chad Hansen, “Should the Ancient Masters Value Reason?”; finished it, and a reply by Angus C. Graham (the subject of the festschrift its in) on the train. Listened to Johnny Griffin, Change of Pace.
Sessioned with Dan Clucas and Ehran Elisha at Michiko. Free - just played, interacted, talked some. Taped it for my own curiosity.
Headed back to Jackson Heights w/ Dan, met Bree for dinner at Himalayan Yak. More actual yak on the menu than the last time I was there, though we didn’t order it.
Walked home. Read my quota of Young, though I’m behind on notes - and frustrated with the whole “white cover version as original sin” thing.
Read rest of current section (“It’s go in/quiet illuminated grass/land”) of Scalapino. Permutation of elements.
Lights out midnight
6.7.18
Up at 8.
Meditated 15 min.
Went to Caffe Benne around 10 to catch up on this and read some stuff online. (Wifi at E77 too erratic.)
Daniel Trilling: “Any authority figure who says: “We should look after our own before we look after refugees,” probably isn’t interested in doing either.” (Look for his Lights in the Distance?)
Anti-Hamas piece in Tablet. Not going to link.
Ceravolo review by Douglas Messerli.
Eugene Lim on experimental writing: "What experimental literature has the potential to do then is to name and subvert or destroy the many literary, psychological, and social ideologies that are hidden from us. Perhaps the most obvious way literature does this is by its history of churning through aesthetic ideologies."
Alexis Clement on event about poetry’s “white room” (per Spahr and Young) at the Project. Charlotte Shane on anhedonia (more or less).
Came home at noon, practiced the songs we’re rehearsing tonight.
Left for LES around 3. (Had originally planned to walk to Langston Hughes Library and return before heading toward rehearsal, but that proved unrealistic.) Call from Dad as I was changing trains; and a business call while I was on the F w/ intermittent service.
Listened to Tres Oui, Poised To Flourish. Will go back to it before their/our show - some substantial songs (“Sunday’s Crowd”) and interesting arrangement ideas (trombone, not used in a cheap orch-pop).
Had lunch and read a little Scalapino (tough going, little to hang on to). Worked on TPA at Black Cat about 4-6; left when I ran out of smokes, tried to go to another cafe but it had closed.
Rehearsed w/ Matt, Pete, and Annie at Rivington 7-10. Fun. Got through the whole set, returned to a couple songs at the end, picked a few more spots for Annie to do b.v.. Decided we didn’t need another practice before the 16th, which frees up some time. Productive.
Realized I’d left wallet on the way to subway, went back and got it, no harm, no foul.
Read quota of Young on the train. Got lamb over rice near home. Too late to play piano. Printed current draft of TPA intro.
Lights out 1.