11.12.16

11.12.16

Up at 7. Weight 213.7 Went to a church sale on the UES w/ Bree at 9: 2 pr pants, 1 sweater, CD of Ella & Louis singing Gershwin, Copy of v. 1 of the standard edition of Rememberance of Things Past to replace a beat-up one, 1976 pb ed. of Walter Tevis, The Man Who Fell To Earth, with Bowie on the cover. Bree bought a shirt and a nice old lamp w/ a relief pattern of crickets on it. We spent $11 in all. She went hope, I stayed in the neighborhood w/ the intent of walking to the Met. But I ended up finding some coffee and then sitting in Shakespeare & Co. Caught up in daybook, w/ the help of a volume on Naval Phraseology for a found poem. Read a chunk of GG, and the remainder of Brett Milano's Scott Miller book (started yesterday, efficient rock-bio read). Listened, in fact, to 2 Steps from the Middle Ages on the way home - it had been a while - and much of Real Nighttime, which I had heard more recently; since Scott's death. I went to E77 for a while later and heard a singer-songwriter, going by "Violet" who had not an ounce of originality but a good 2nd guitarist. Fooled around with some more political writing, couldn't make myself clear email, lights out about midnight.

11.11.16

Up at 7. Weight 213.8 - steady, even a hair down from the start of the trip. Relieved about that.

I'm going to need a couple days to get back to routine. Went to coffee, wrote a long facebook post about the time I met Leonard Cohen. Came home, finished Arlo's book; I admired it, especially the 3rd section, but don't have any cogent comment. Read a chunk of Gone Girl. Talked to Bree when she came home, picked up a few groceries, went to E77 around 7 and wrote a long political post for a listserv. Not very insightful, but it helped me process. That, frankly, was my "work" for the day.

This happened the day before the election.

11.10.16

Up before 7, finished Greenberg's Gerswhin book; off pace on reading for the week, excusably for the week I suppose. Went to gas up the car and pick up biscuits for breakfast w/ Matt. Met Mitch at 10 am for data transfer, shot the breeze for a while, talked a bit about next steps (probably looking at April for the main overdub/vocal session, though I may do some bits at NY studios in the meantime). Left a little before 11, dropped of car, made the 1 pm flight; read Arlo Quint and did the medium sudoku. Split from Matt and Brandon at Laguardia, home by 3. Recorded most of the receipts for the trip, talked w/ Bree when she came home, went out to E77 about 6:15, responded to most of my email, wrote to Jarvis from Woods about seeing a studio in Greenpoint he does work at, read various election postmortems. Came home, read 50 p. of Gone Girl, learned that Leonard Cohen had died. Lights out at midnight.

"The Old Revolution"   

"Do I Have To Dance All Night?"

11.9.16

Up at 6:30. Trump is the President-elect. I can't watch the victory speech. Poem in daybook. Went into the studio before everybody else to work on guitar parts, decided to play a break in "Faith & Credit" w/ capo. Mitch came in 10:30-ish, Matt went thrift/record shopping, not sure where Brandon is - seems justifiably subdued. We worked on aforementioned F&C guitar, ok but Mitch decided the Strat was misbehaving (tuning), so we switched to a marimba part, which I got fairly quickly, and the main guitar for "Untimely Beggar" (my Ibanez, subdued). A fairly delicate part, but I got 90% of it in 2-3 takes. Mitch went to get the Strat set up in town at about 1:30. Probably got back in gear around 3, edited the "Beggar" part - not fancy, but controlled, and the tone is exactly what I'd hoped - and re-did "Faith" one more time, capo and all. Thus ends basic tracking! Started rough mixes at 5, took a dinner break while Mitch went at it (drove our rental for the first and only time), finished before midnight, went to bed pretty quickly. The strongest recordings at this early stage are probably "Still in Error" and "Different City."

11.8.16

I've got a feeling it's all rigged
I've got a feeling it ended a long time ago
Nobody tells me
I've got a feeling it's over now
I've got a feeling it's over now
I've got a feeling the votes are in and I got none
And all I want is one

Game Theory, "Throwing the Election."

Up about 7, read a bit of Gershwin. Started at 11. Stood at a mic and sang rough vocals for the entire album. It was quickly noted that "cummerbund" &c could easily appear on the list of "Least Metal Words." Recorded Pete, more Telecaster on "Still in Error," doubling a lot of the riffs, and took down several solos through a great Sovtek fuzz unit. Tried my own solo on "Shovel-Ready" again, wrote out a line for Brandon to add in the long break in "Believe in Ghosts." Mitch had to duck out a couple of times because his gf had a flat tire. This took us to almost 4, so we (the band) took Pete to the airport, found Japanese food in Greensboro, hit a Walgreen's, came back by about 6. I was half-dead or a little hung over or something, so I rested until Mitch got back. Spent the evening recording Matt on percussion we probably can't do elsewhere: 2 tracks of tuned tympani for "Enemies of Song," rachet and assorted bells for "Believe in Ghosts," 2 passes of maracas throughout "Still in Error," and clapper and metal-on-metal (the staircase to Mitch's engineer's loft) on "Shovel-Ready," may be forgetting something. By the time we knocked off at 9, elections returns were coming in, and it started looking worse once we were back at the cabin. (Mitch said he was going home to watch, get drunk and anxious as well.) I caught up in the daybook and we all looked helplessly at the internet and listened to local NPR. I don't think I've ever been in a state that went red during a presidential election. Went to bed at 12:30, before the official call but with little hope.

It will be strange to go on (with anything) tomorrow. This is what I said on facebook: 

I have not posted once about this election. I could try to say this at greater length, but all I have is: knowing that the country is full of misguided and gullible people is one thing; incontrovertible evidence that naked assholes -win- is another. On top of anything strictly political, our apparent next President is every narcissistic cretin-bro I have ever encountered -- as much in music, poetry, or academia as anywhere else -- rolled into one, plus the uncle that sneered "when you discover girls, those books will go out the window" when I was 12. That matters. I doubt that even most Trump supporters deserve the shitshow that our civic life is likely to be for the next four years. And to my farthest-left and accelerationist friends: I don't honestly know whether you're right that the American experiment, project, etc. has been a bankrupt "settler" fantasy from day one. But a lot of people who can't rightly be blamed for that have to live here too, so unless the glories of the Commune are imminent, fuck you. Even if the asshole loses in the next few hours, fuck you.