10.15.16

Up 9. 214.4

Rehearsed w/ Bree. 11-1 coffee, mostly online. Will almost certainly postpone our Nov. recording session to go to a memorial out of state. 

Spent hr+ organizing office, trying to update to-do lists, get some control. Had to go back to Cafe Benne for wallet. Rehearsed more. Bree left before me, met her at Slipper Room for Trav + Carolyn's vaudeville wedding. Played "Wedding of the Painted Doll" - Bree sounded good. Good Groucho imitator, Trav sang "Froggie Went a-Courtin." Ran into Chris from Purple Ivy Shadows, an indiepop-era band from Providence, met his wife. Stopped by e77 on the way home, heard a kid from Atlanta covering "Stray Cat Strut," George Jones, this and that. Nothing wrong w/ his voice, solid guitarist. Talked to Macgregor. Home, decompressed 11-1. 

Too much of the day (last few, in fact) centered around that performance. No prose or serious reading, skipped daybook.

10.14.16

Up 9. 216.6

Wrote a chart for "Wedding of the Painted Doll." Oracle 12-3: Started a Dylan piece for LARB, thought better of it. Picked at "Goo-Goo Eyes." Stopped at library to confirm my address (system wasn't let me request books online). Rehearsed at / Bree. Train to midtown, finished 10:04, daybook. Met Drew at Community Church for 2nd show in AACM series -- Leo Smith trio (w/ Bobby Naughton on vibes; some intervals hurt my teeth); Thurman Barker Heritage Ensemble (3 horn front line inc. Bill Lowe on trombone). Ate after. 

Listened to 2 CDs of a Lester Young box over the course of the day. "Shoe Shine Boy" (1936; exemplary rhythm changes head, sev. yrs before "Lester Leaps In"). Prose? Barely. Stalled on serious reading. 

10.13.16

Up at 9. Weight 214.6.

Dylan won the Nobel and it strangely sidetracked my day. After reading others’ takes, wrote a longish facebook post at coffee about it, which got some nice responses (and some guff from a Marxist film-theorist I’ve met exactly once) over the course of the day; Evan Kindley asked me to expand it a bit for an LARB piece, which I don’t know if I can do in a timely fashion. But that put me behind a bit, and by 1 p.m. it looked like it was going to rain, so I went back home, read a chunk of 10:04, and lost focus. Never went to the library as planned. Ultimately, I grabbed another coffee, wrote in the daybook, and read one poem in Ashbery’s A Wave (in consolation for the bridesmaid). On returning around 6 p.m., I played through “Painted Doll” myself, then ran it with Bree 3 or 4 times. I have to write a chart (though not every note) in the new key if I’m not going to get confused.

Returned a call from the sister-in-law of a very ill friend. It isn’t good.

No prose, didn't read Gates or Brown, generally stalled and disorganized. Have to do better tomorrow (and put some systems in place).

10.12.16

Up at 7:30. Weight 214.5.

Agreed to play “The Wedding of the Painted Doll” for Bree Sat. after all. A time commitment, but as I’d started to suspect, the accompanist she called wasn’t up to the material, at least not quickly. So I got a copy of that printed on the way out. Read 10:04 at coffee. Worked from about 11-4, still on “Goo-Goo Eyes,” which turns out to go off in some complicated directions, but it’s getting there. Probably added 500 words.

Read Sterling Brown on the way home, rehearsed the song w/ Bree for 30 hr. or so; fortunately, she had already figured out her key. I’m not doing anything fancy, but will need to get it under my fingers the next couple of days. Headed back out at 6, read about 25 p. of Gates on the train (definitions/examples of Signifyin(g)) to Ridgewood to see Ed’s new band Knolls in an needlessly large bar on Seneca. Steve Silverstein asked if this is what Get Smart! sounded like, and that’s a better comparison than anything I could make offhand. Short, some pedal mishaps, but he’s a better guitarist I’d made out, drummer was together, bassist acceptable but not doing much more than holding it down, all told I’ve seen, and played, far worse first shows. Talked to Ed, Liz, Steve, Sue Garner, watched the next band’s first 2 songs, completely average boy rock. Long ride, listened to some live Apartments and a chunk of Motown Singles Vol. 1, read the preface of John Maynard Keynes.

Oh – made time for a stop Human Relations, a bookstore near the club. Hadn’t been – not bad, better than Molasses, also in that vicinity. Picked up James Rosenquist’s autobiography on the $1 racks outside (proprietor commented he’d marked it down b/c it hadn’t sold in 6 months), and a book on the U.S. gay classical-music underground.

Home about 11, up until 2, not for good enough reasons. 

10.11.16

Didn’t notice when I got up. Weight 214.4.

Monk’s birthday – watched a live solo performance of 4 Ellington tunes, put a Riverside-era set on my phone. Should probably have played something from my fakebook. Left for downtown about 11:30, read Lethem while waiting for Alex Abramovich, just back from a New Orleans trip. Lunch, 2:30 showing of The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith at Metrograph. Smith is a fascinating character, but the parts closest to my concerns were on Hall Overton and Monk’s Town Hall concert. Among the talking heads – Steve Reich, Carla Bley, Jason Moran. Had another coffee w/ Alex, walked up to McNally-Jackson, didn’t go in. Picked up my gtr at Rivington - worked out conveniently, as it’s down the block from KGB bar. Reading wasn’t for a while, finished Lethem, read in Gates. One could, shall we say, quibble with the equation of the ordinary English word “signifying” w/ the theoretical specifics of Saussure. Steph Burt/Terrence Hayes at KGB; taked to Steph for a while before. Read a fair chunk of Brown on the way home, listened (at various points) to aforementioned Monk, also 3 of his tunes on Misha Mengelberg’s Four in One. Home about 10. No prose.