11.1.16

Up 7:00. Weight 214.

Exercised 10 min. Left between 9:15-9:30 (work on this). Read Starr over breakfast. By 10:30, it didn't seem like the trip to Oracle would be efficient, so I wrote at E77 until about 11. Graf putting aside Rhapsody in Blue, plus a (too?)-technical discussion of "Somebody Loves Me." Picked up another Gershwin bio at library, also checked on Gone Girl, which I'd started reading out of mass-cultural curiosity in a Salvation Army this summer. Came home, finished quota of Starr, dozed to a Dragnet episode for 1/2 hr, started Susie Timmons, Superior Packets. (3 older books in one + new poems; Hog Wild [1979], so far, is comparable to Greenwald's Common Sense - similar hard to place inter-generation of NY School/not yet Language writers.) Packed for rehearsal, got out suitcase. Managed to get off a couple of emails (to Robert Christgau and my godfather) I'd been procrastinating about. Left for downtown 4:40. Listened casually to Benny Moré while reading Hamilton on Motown Beatles' covers and Aretha Franklin/Janis Joplin/Dusty Springfield interrelationships. Managed to drop off my coat for relining this time. Rehearsed 6 to 8:30, w/ Brandon/Mike/Pete; went through songs I want to track as 4-piece ("Cover Your Tracks," "Guesthouse," "Still In Error," possibly "Different City," "Faith & Credit," the one where I'm not pulling my weight), also ran "Enemies of Song." Knocked off early, no need for a forced march. Went to the Strand b/c the new Ashbery is out (I checked). Read a bit more of Timmons on the way home, had a notion for a poem so filled last 2 p. of current daybook, which covers about 5 months of "practice." Home just before 11, ran through some email.

Lou Donaldson, "West Indian Daddy."

October reading

Charles O. Hartman, Free Verse: An Essay
David Jasen and Gene Jones, Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters 1880-1930
Ara Banias, Anybody
Alex Abramovich, Bullies
Joseph Massey, Illocality
Jonathan Lethem, A Gambler's Anatomy
Ben Lerner, 10:04
Sterling A. Brown, Collected Poems
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Signifying Monkey
Carolyn Kizer, Knock Upon Silence
Alan Gilbert, The Treatment of Monuments
Percival Everett, Wounded
Clark Coolidge, On Arrows and Other Matters (chapbook; interview w/ Lytle Shaw)
Aaron McCullough, Double Venus

10.31.16

Up 7:00. Weight 214.2

Exercised 10 min. (missed yesterday). Left 8:30, read McCullough at coffee, at Oracle by 9:30. Spent a while looking at and old talk/paper, "Wittgenstein Abuse," b/c a student in Dublin wrote asking about it (I sent it, though it needs work if I ever mean to publish it). Wrote about 11-1:30, longish graf on Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, 500 words. Kept at Starr when I came home but fell asleep for an hr. Watched the local Halloween parade w/ Bree. Mainly email/tasks after 7: rec'd the songs from Allen's WFMU set from Gaylord, sent "State Trooper" off to the cassette comp (hoping it's in time). Heard from Brian McPherson about licensing the cover songs on Work From Home, started looking into it via the Harry Fox website. Annoyingly, Strayhorn/Ellington's "Strange Feeling" is only 30% through HFA, and the Mekons' "Last Dance" isn't there at all, so it will take further research to track down the publishers if I want to do this correctly. Finished McCullough's Double Venus - the title sequence is very earnest, open-fieldish (a few words printed sideways) w/ an air of pantheism. Oppen a presence; tend to get more out of the separately titled poems ("Resistance in the Materials") than the rest. Tried to update my to-do list. Overwhelmed. Played a little guitar before before bed - thing I worked out the coda to "Enemies of Song." Lights out 12:30.

10.30.16

Up 9:30. Weight 214.2

Left around 10:30, read a chapter of Starr over coffee breakfast. At Oracle 12:30-3:45. Still on "Stairway to Paradise" - sticky last sentence. Really crowded train downtown, could barely get a book out; downpour when I got off (but had umbrella). Brandon texted that he was bleeding more from a small (unspecified) outpatient surgery than expected; thought, reasonably, he should stay home from rehearsal. Just hoping it doesn't continue to be an issue before/during recording. Tried to take my main winter coat, which I would not otherwise have been wearing, to be relined at a tailor (which I'd checked the hrs. for, and called) near where we rehearse; of course, it was closed (w/ a sign reading Open 7 days). Ill-starred. Grabbed coffee + a danish at Atlas, did the daybook. I write things down and check later to see if they're poems.

Worked on parts for various songs w/ Matt, 6-8. Pretty good, I know it will still need work when we have to commit to tape. Read most of the Beatles/Motown chapter in Hamilton; the McCartney-Jamerson equation is the best thing in the book so far. Home about 10, played guitar for another hr. or so before bed. Would like to shift my entire schedule about 2 hrs. earlier.

10.29.16

Up 8:30. Weight 214.3

Went w/ Bree to a nearby church rummage sale, took a flyer on a Benny Moré CD (40s-50s Cuban bandleader). Went to coffee, went ahead and finished the Everett; daybook. Read a section-and-change on Aaron McCullough (lyric to which fragmentation doesn't always add much, some Howe-like archaic passages; I like a short sequence on domesticity). Exercised 10 min. Cleared email and worked on misc. tasks 2-5; added the recent 4-track comp to the website, contacted singers I'm accompanying for David Hadju, sent demos to Peter Hughes [unfortunately the "Boring Postcards" I played into my phone yesterday didn't work out], made some phone calls. Another indolent patch. Went to coffee about 7:30, read Stones/British blues chapter of Jack Hamilton + the introductory chapter of Larry Starr, George Gerswhin, who seems defensive about race. Put together a playlist of models/inspirations/aspirations (listed below) for the upcoming recordings - nothing I mean to copy directly, just some performances to get in our heads as to feel and some arrangement ideas. Read a few p. from Hartman, Verse,, tidied up office, got set for tomorrow. No prose. Lights out just past midnight.

Booker T & the MG's, Time Is Tight
Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Temptation
Talking Heads, Pulled Up.mp3
Tom Waits, 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six.
Tom Waits, Singapore.mp3
Elvis Costello, Pads, Paws And Claws
Elvis Costello, Chewing Gum
Railroad Jerk, Ballad of Railroad Jerk
Mable John, Same Time, Same Place
Barbara Stephens, The Life I Live
Bobby "Blue" Bland, I'll Take Care Of You
Ike Turner, Takin' Back My Name
Rolling Stones, Rocks Off
Gang of Four, At Home He's a Tourist
James Brown, I Got Ants In My Pants (And I Want to Dance)
James Brown, Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved
Minutemen, Toadies
Minutemen, Maybe Partying Will Help
Big Flame, Why Popstars Can't Dance
Toulouse, Commuter Maquette
Go-Betweens, Slow Slow Music
James Brown, Cold Sweat Pt. 2
Wire, Mr. Suit
Wire, Former Airline
Wolfhouds, Cut the Cake
Game Theory, She'll Be a Verb
Verlaines, Way Out Where
Verlaines, The Ballad of Harry Noryb

Unrelated - Muhal Richard Abrams, "Temporarily Out of Order," from his first, straight-ahead recording, 1957.