11.13.16

Up at 8. Weight 213.6.

Left house around 10, spent most of the day at Oracle. Read miscellaneously, cleared all my email (which involved various other tasks) and made a few other steps forward, mainly writing to the studio about another session in spring and putting some money in my PayPal (Trump-dirty, or not?) to send to the band, wrote to Cake Shop about a December show. Started Ashbery's new Commotion of the Birds, re-read the great title poem and another 10 or so in his "late style" - casual mastery of disjunction and odd vocabulary. Casually looked for j-card templates. "Tomalley" (the edible paste, not quite meat, inside lobsters and crabs); "nainsook" (a type of light muslin). Once home, started in on The Gershwin Reader, ed. Robert Wyatt and John Andrew Johnson.

Elvis Costello, Nov. 7 performance of "Night Rally."

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."