(Still in Mt. Vernon; no scale.) Got up for a while around 3 and read a long article on gambling addiction in the Atlantic. Back to bed, up for real around 8. Slow breakfast, conversation, dog walking. Got a ride to the train around 1, rode to GTC w/ Derek. Bree went home, I went to Lincoln Ctr. library (having checked online that it was open, which the Julliard Store, where I'd also hoped to look for a recent ed. of Adorno, was not). Copied music for "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "Stormy Weather (w/ verse and interlude respectively) for Hadju show, + George + Ira's early "The Real American Folk Song (Is a Rag)." Checked out a useful collection of mainly pre-1924 Gerswhin; Woll, Black Musical Theater; and a book on Neapolitan opera that I may not get to for a while. Left 4:30, read Pollack over coffee and on train back, also finished Timmons. May have to put aside reading poetry until the end of the month. Home by 6, unpacked, daybook, read 10 p. of Hartman on free verse, but generally exhausted; lights out before 10.
11.23-24.16
(11.23) Up 9. Weight 213.2.
Mundane tasks, copied some music for Thanksgiving singalong, left at 1 to meet Bree in midtown. Took our time getting to GTC, Read Pollack on Metro-North, got to Mt. Vernon around 4. Some shopping w/ Jenny, dinner w/ her and Brian, came back and played w/ a karaoke machine (w/ ridiculous vocal effects) they just got, and tried out the digital piano we're taking to her family's tomorrow. Talked for a while about politics/culture (not by business to report on that here), everyone went to bed about 11, stayed up and got to 250 in Pollock (mention of "Some Wonderful Sort of Someone," a 1918 AABA song by Gerswhin, lyrics Schuyler Green); finally got into 3rd section of Susie Timmons + daybook. Probably went to bed around 12:30 (but restless all night; listened to some Shostakovich).
(11.24) Up 7. No scale.
Kept at Pollack, to 300. Made cranberry sauce and washed potatoes. Jenny's old friend/bandmate Derek came in around 2, we all left w/ her brother's around 3. Not really the purpose of this 'journal' to detail my holiday activities, but this has been our East Coast Thanksgiving for 3-4 years running now, and, per usual, I played some piano and led a singalong w/ Bree (Xmas songs, + the numbers you'd guess from Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music), before the various kids took over w/ v. recent pop songs (e.g. Daya, "Sit Still, Look Pretty") and Brian's karaoke machine (though I delivered the breakdown to "Shake It Off." Also did a couple of card tricks. Entirely pleasant. Our crew went home about 9, stayed up for a while watching 1/2 of A Face in the Crowd. Managed to read more Timmons at some point, and did daybook (v. sketchy). Lights out around 11.
11.22.16
Up 8. Weight 213.3.
Someone left their keys in our building door; I held onto them and put up a note; our neighbor Wesley came by an hr. later, thanked me profusely, gave me cookies. Had a little idea, so took care of the daybook early, and got some way into Hartman's chapter on free verse. (Surprised that he cites a Bob Perelman poem.) Left around 11, read Pollack on train to coffee/Oracle. Worked until 3, when I had arranged to meet Thomas Coombes, a friend visiting from Newfoundland. Had a coffee and then beer/a bite, talked about music. Came back about 7:30, kept at it 'til 10. Output: 834 pretty solid words (+ persnickety footnotes) on "Swanee." Tees me up for "Stairway to Paradise," but there are other tasks to attend to tomorrow. Home; to p. 200 in Pollack, lights out 1.
11.21.16
Up 9, Bree already out. Weight 213.5.
Went to E77 at 10, looked at yesterday's writing but didn't get much farther. Came home around 1, called my dad for his birthday. Scrubbed our tub. Ordered the Game Theory reissues I don't have yet.
Went back to E77 for soup and a sandwich, wrote 750 unpolished words on Gershwin vis-a-vis "jazz" and black music, and - finally getting to individual songs - "Swanee." (The last time I drafted this, I didn't know about its relationship to "Hindustan.") This page is also informative. After 9, read rest of quota of Pollack (to 150), caught up in daybook. Didn't get to Timmons. Lights out 12:30.
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.