11.20.16

Up 9. Weight 213.4.

Looked around flea market up the street w/ Bree. I bought 2 Americana CDs + an opera of Moby Dick I'd never heard of, $2 each, out of curiosity; she found a purse. Morning otherwise taken up w/ mundane tasks - which have felt particularly burdensome lately. Phone seems not to be charging, local repair shop closed Sundays. Etc. Met Charlotte Preston at a rehearsal room in midtown (Shetler) at 2, worked on "I've Got the World on a String" (learned the verse) for an hr or so. Headed to LES, picked up my relined coat, wrote 500 on Gershwin at Atlas Cafe, about 4:30-7. Walked to David and Jean's for Scrabble, w/ Steve S. and an arts administrator/jazz pianist named Jeanette Vuocolo (got her card). She's Southern Italian, and mentioned some interesting-sounding work on Italian-American theater and an article called "Deconstructing Louis Prima." (Looks like Will Friedwald gave a talk to this effect, but I can't find a published reference.) Tomeka Reid and Karen Waltuch were supposed to come, but didn't appear. I bingo'd rather elegantly with "capstans," but I don't remember who won. I forgot to bring LPs, but we listened to a Swiss free piano record I liked, and Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti. Did some card tricks for David. Took a car home. Lights out 1. 

Read to 95 in Pollack over the course of the day.

11.19.16

Up 8:30. Weight 213.3.

Found a support address finally, for Avid/Sibelius, wrote an email about billing. (Did get the "I Don't Care" chart printed yesterday, however. Left home 11 am, started Howard Pollack, George Gerswhin His Life and Work at coffee; p. 1-40. Dutiful, well-sourced. Listened to Rubenstein's Melody in F and Dvorak's Humoresque for related reasons (not sure Pollack's description of their themes as AABA is germane). Dealt w/ some email - moving along on the Mekons mechanical license. Distracted by political news. Managed not to write. Came home at 6, read a few more p. of Pollack, walked w/ Bree to a concert by the Queens Consort (mostly local, cleverly named early-music ensemble) at St. Mark's Church. "The Dresden/Venice Connection"; Pisendel, Vivaldi, and others w/ some connection to the court of Augustus the Strong. I doubt get some equally good court music in the next few years. Liked one piece in particular, but lost track in the program, so I don't know which. Talked to the harpsichordist for a bit after - her parts are all figured bass. Bree went home, I stopped by E77, heard a fairly casual alto/bass duo playing Miles Davis' "Solar," etc. Had a beer, did daybook, read to end of Timmons' "middle" book and finished chapter of Hartman. 

Made arrangements to rehearse w/ one of the singers for the Hadju gig. Lights out 12:30.

11.18.16

Up 6:45. Weight 213.2.

Went to gym at 9; elliptical. Came back, searched fruitlessly for a hard copy of chart I'd made for "I Don't Care" (which I'm playing for Bree in a couple of weeks), gave up and found the Sibelius file. Saved it as a .pdf to print at copy shop b/c our printer gave out a few weeks ago; additionally, I couldn't edit it at all b/c the auto-renewal on my monthly license didn't go through for some reason. Tried to rectify that, but as far as I can tell the right debit card is on file, and their support is poor. Completely frustrating, didn't have time to solve the problem. [Included as example of the many hassles and inefficiencies in getting even the smallest thing done.] Listened to a bit of this band Snail Mail https://snailmailbaltimore.bandcamp.com/ at Drew G.'s recommendation - strong vocal and melody on "thinning" puts me in mind of very early Velocity Girl, I'm aged and decrepit enough to have doubts that they'll take the style further w/o losing the spirit (cf. Vivian Girls/Dum Dum Girls/Frankie Rose axis).

Left for Oracle after lunch, finished the last few pieces in the G. Reader on the way (latter-day assessments, the most interesting being Leonard Bernstein's). Worked from 1:30-6:15. Completely thrown off at one point by reading an article about Steve Bannon. He's fucking Moloch. Nonetheless, 574 words on three Berlin songs (inc. "What'll I Do.") That closes out this early-20s subsection. Will tackle Gerswhin tomorrow - the general background/observations I want to make about his relation to "jazz" being trickier than reconstructing the actual song analyses. 

Left for Bushwick about 6:45, to hear Drew G.'s "psych" guitar-duo Elkhorn at Alphaville. Read Susie Timmons on train. No music - phone is dead again. Got there early enough to get a burger, do daybook, read a few p. of Hartman, Verse. Chatted w/ Drew and two Swedes he'd brought a long - a non-fiction writing student at Columbia, and a painter. Met the people who put out their cassette. Elkhorn played about 9 - generally pretty together, Drew uses a ton of effects and his partner Jesse's Guild 12-strings (both in open tuning) sound fantastic. Fahey + modal soling, essentially. One riff was in 5/4. Stayed around to talk for a while, said hello to Jesse and his dad (smoking pot together outside), but didn't hear the other bands. (Headliner: "Weird Owl," which is the name I'd make up for a Brooklyn psych-rock band in a bad indie movie.) Would have considered a cab, but didn't see one, read Hartman on the way home - sort of trudging through this chapter on trad. poetic stanzas to get to the free verse and (unusually for a book on prosody) "song" chapters. Lights out 1 am.

11.17.16

Up at 8:30 am. Weight 213.1.

A fairly dead day, until mid-afternoon: email, practical tasks, put something in the mail, wrote an email to (I think) the Mekons' publisher re a mechanical license for the "Last Dance" cover. Attempted to call Sen. Gillibrand's office to protest the Steve Bannon appointment, but rec'd busy signals or full mailboxes at 3 numbers. This, by the standards of my political activism, is guerrilla warfare.

Left at 3. Met Bree at MoMa for two restored (not Restoration) comedies: The Brat (John Ford, 1931), w/ Sally O'Neil putting on the thickest East Side accent ("voigin") this side of the Dead End Kids, and Bachelor's Affair (Alfred L. Werker, 1932), in which Adolphe Menjou entangles and then disentangles himself from a Harlowesque gold-digger (Joan Marsh), w/ the latter taking fuller advantage of pre-Code license. Earlier than I would expected for references to the rumba craze (complete w/ louche dance teacher). Some good lines: "There's a man here with a mustache"/"Tell him I already have a mustache." "Every man has his price, and every woman has her figure." Had dinner together, then went to see Bree's friend Edgar Oliver's modest one-man show, Attorney Street, at Axis Theater. Hard to capture what this was about briefly, but a comment about hoping someday to write something that would making him deserving of a friend struck home. 

Got through some of the Gerswhin book over the course of the day, and resumed Susie Timmons' Superior Packets before bed, but that's about it. No prose, skipped daybook (though doubled up yesterday). Lights out 11:30.

11.16.16

Up at 5:30 am. Weight 213.1.

Paid/reimbursed the band via PayPal as promised. Got coffee and started some notes that turned into a graf on Gershwin's "classical" background, 7 to 8. Or so. Napped when I got back. Exercised 10 min. (1st since NC, b/c I'd made myself put it on yesterday's to-do list). Left again before noon, found a notary (2nd floor law office, just walked in) to deal w/ something I have to return to my dad, had lunch, got to Oracle around 1:30. Worked off an on until 7 - finished the graf on Blake/Sissle/Shuffle Along and a reasonably cogent 427 words on Berlin, "Everybody Step." (Longer than what I lost, but probably better.) Found a pdf of "Lady Of the Evening" to download for tomorrow. Talked to David, the novelist who's always there for a while - he's worried about writers critical of Trump being jailed as enemy combatants or seditious.

Left before 8, went to the Park Church Co-op in Greenpoint (border of Wmbrg, really) to hear Rose and Bob Bannister at a benefit for a sexual abuse charity (+ to give them their copies of the Iowa 4-track comp.) Running way behind; read my quota of the G. reader and they still hadn't started; left for a slice down the block, eavesdropped on a long conversation between the staff and a regular who wanted a deal on dozens of canoli for his construction crew. Came back, had missed on act, saw Public Speaking - one guy on electronic loop + two violinists, plus back projections. Came off gothy in the space. Wrote 2 1-p. poems in my daybook during their set, chatted w/ Rick Brown in between - turns out Easter and Stamey had recorded some Information material years ago. Rose and Bob were as good as I've seen them, though her gtr was undermic'd; she read some written-out intros the songs about her relationship to "religiously motivated misogyny" and the p.o.v. of murder ballads. Covered Leonard Cohen's "The Story of Isaac" (very effectively); recalled that John and I had played it in a Pitzer auditorium something like 25 years ago. Didn't stay for the last act.

Listened to Shostakovich's last quartet on the walk to the train, finished Ashbery on the ride. Home midnight, lights out 1.