Larry Starr, George Gershwin
Arlo Quint, Wires and Lights
Rodney Greenberg, George Gershwin
Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
Brent Milano, Don't All Thank Me At Once: The Lost Pop Genius of Scott Miller
John Ashbery, Commotion of the Birds
The George Gerswhin Reader, ed. Robert Wyatt, John Andrew Johnson
Susie Timmons, Superior Packets
Vic Hobson, Creating Jazz Counterpoint: New Orleans, Barbershop Harmony, and the Blues
Up 9. Weight 214.1
Coffee: read 50 p. Pollack, another 1/3 of Waldrop, finished Beatty; daybook. Quite indolent until 4:30 or so: napped, watched part of Adam Curtis' Hypernormalization, played through "I Wonder Where She Is Tonight?" from the Paul Dresser book. (Not much of a song.) Our internet has been very erratic all day, which isn't helping; nor is the increasingly chaotic state of the apartment. Went out 5-7, finished 1 paragraph and wrote another (transitional, on Lady, Be Good, before getting to the songs). Came home and filed 20 LPs, which is something. Read a few p. of Keynes. Lights out 10.
Up 7. Weight 214.
Morning/afternoon: rotated among home and coffee, reading, correspondence, and napping. Other than daybook, no attempt to write. Read 50 p. Pollack (genesis/initial production of Porgy & Bess, no great surprises compared to other bios), 75 p. Beatty, and about 1/3 of Keith Waldrop, Windfall Losses (1972, not sure where I picked this up). Wrote to a couple of the people involved w/ David's show last night, printed out the mechanical licenses for the WFH covers, got CDs together to submit to Wes Stace/Cabinet of Wonders. Met Brian Macpherson for dinner in my neighborhood at 6:30. Listened to most of Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Thee (vocal-over-treated/sculpted sounds - the extended AACM family never fails to surprise) on the way to meet some folks at Brazenhead. Good talk - mainly politics. Listened to 2 Steps + extra tracks on the train back home, as I have to get cracking on the liner notes. Home quite late, lights out past 2.
Fri. 12-2
Up at 7. Travel day to Rhinecliff. Not going to detail the itinerary, except that we stopped at Bruise Apple books in Peekskill, where I found a 1966 sales convention musical for Listerine, a John Hartford LP, and a large collection of the songs of Paul Dresser, w/ a foreword by his brother. Finished Love for Sale on the train, arrived at the house Jenny + Brian rented (for a 10th anniversary/wedding party reunion) around 5; dinner, card games.
Sat. 12-3
Up around 9, slow coffee/breakfast, eventually walked into downtown Rhinebeck, there's some kind of Dutch pre-Xmas winter festival (Sinterklaas) on -- a life-size cuckoo clock w/ owl-masked rope-pullers is the most Wes Anderson thing I've ever seen in real life. Haven't been up here since I taught at Bard 8-9 years ago; odd to be around old, if short-lived, haunts. Splurged at Oblong Books/Records on new copies of the recent Leonard Cohen and Esperanza Spauling albums, Toussaint's American Tunes from last year, and Robyn Schiff's recent A Woman of Property. Heard the tail end of a Balkan vocal group in a Lutheran church, had a bowl of soup downstairs and perused a Jerome Kern collection that was lying around - "Cleopatterer" has ahead of it's time Wodehouse lyrics, and "Ka(h)lua," from 1921's Good Morning Dearie is AABA (somewhat in the vein of Berlin's "Lady of the Evening.") Managed to catch up in the daybook and answer some email in the late afternoon (but no reading to speak of) eventually returned to town to watch the Sinterklaas parade, which was impressively elaborate - lots of giant owls and bees, among other local/seasonal symbols mysterious to me - to the point of creepiness, esp. given that I had no idea this went on while I lived up here. Evening - dinner, playing music (from Xmas songs to "Ruler of My Heart," "Jive Talkin'" and "New Lace Sleeves" w/ Trip, Dan, Kevin, and Amy.
12.4.16
Didn't pay attention to when I got up; last breakfast, rehearsed "I Don't Care" w/ Bree and played though other songs for the show later in the evening. Kristin & Brian gave us a ride to the station, turned out Kevin was taking the same train. He and Bree talked for most of the ride while I napped, got to 150 in The Sellout, and listened to the Toussaint album - highlight may be a lovely performance of Maurice Gottschalk's Danza (op. 33), which is intriguing to think about in re "The Crave" (Morton) and the B strain of "St. Louis Blues." Arrived at Penn Station around 4:30, at Sid Gold's an hr. after that. W/ about 20 songs/singers, I won't go on at length about David's book event, but I acquitted myself acceptably playing "After the Ball" (at the last minute for Steve Ross from his chart, which I accidentally retained), "I Don't Care" (Bree), "I've Got the World on the String" (Charlotte Preston), "…Cowhand" (which I sang w/ David's guitar), "Video Killed…" (David + Karen's son Nate), and, once again, the closing "Happy Trails." Stuck around a little for piano karaoke w/ Joe McGinty (sang "Psycho Killer"), cab home, cold still lingering enough to be exhausted, lights out by 11:30.
Up around 7. Weight 213.8
Very scattered, hard to remember in order. Did daybook first thing, read 50 p. Hadju and 25 of Pollack for good measure. A lot of correspondence/printing/b.s. at home. Mailed the LPs; next, a larger order of various records for Dan H.'s record store in Des Moines. Rehearsed "I Don't Care" w/ Bree. Rested for a while, then played through other songs I'm playing on - "Video Killed the Radio Star" and "I've Got the World on a String" (just kept playing several choruses w/ metronome to get the changes ingrained), also spent a while on "I'm an Old Cowhand." Packed in a halfassed way, as I do, and went out around 8:30 to meet Laura C. at E77 and watch one Jacob Tilove play a couple of sets of gtr and mandolin - some trad bluegrass ("Liza Jane," basically a minstrel song), some singer-songwriter material, inc. a couple by John Hartford, who I know nothing about, a Neil Young song I know but can't name, and solid originals in similar modes; nice surprise was the Fleetwoods' "Mr. Blue," a better song than I'd remembered. (Turns out the writer also penned Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places," decades later.) A couple of high-lonesome-style duets w/ a guitarist. Ran into the fellow who hired me for the Bill Frisell/Woody Guthrie talks at Lincoln Ctr. a couple of years ago - seemed pretty interested in the bridge book. Also had a good catch-up with Laura. Nice evening, in all. Lights out midnight.