10.16.18

Up 6. Wt. 214.3

Coffee, caught up w/ daybook. Tried to read a few Ashbery poems. Short nap at home, then some small tasks. Wrote Dan Selzer about paper remnants for another project, to use for cassette cover.

Pete Galub came over about 11:30, originally to work on gtr parts, but given the uncertainty about recording, we just talked. Walked over to David Heatley's for his "bring-a-song" birthday party. Some professionals and experienced musicians (Lee Feldman, Jeff Lewis, Pete), Amy Kohn some relatives, everyone had to sing or play something, inc. their kids. I played, sang "Rubber Duckie" from their Sesame St. songbook and "Boring Postcards." There 1-5, caught up to people.

Came home, turned around and went downtown for David Nagler's Carl Sandburg record release party at Joe's Pub. Both ambitious and good - he's a terrific arranger (string 1/4tet inc. Jean Cook and Dana Lynn, reed, trumpet, keys, double bass, drums, accordion, and sometimes guitar) and a smart setter of text. Nice mix of musical seriousness and accessibility, at least by my standards. (And I like the choice of Sandburg b/c it doesn't feel trendy.) Gave congrats afterwards.

Wrote several emails about the recording/memorial logistics. Listened to another disc of Lester Young (it includes a lot of Holliday and Basie work). Long email to my dad.

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.