10.23.17

Up at 9, out 10:15, read The New Jim Crow on the train. Therapy. Lunch. Bought a copy of Solomon Northrup’s Twelve Years a Slave from bookseller’s table on B’way – I need to write to Lara Cohen to get her talk about the song he prints at the end. Stopped in Lincoln Center library to look for Tom Petty sheet music – ended up checking out a greatest hits collection and taking chord notes on a few other songs (and “Handle Me With Care”). Got home about 3, rested for a bit, worked through Petty songs from about 4-6, got through half the set. Packed up the digital piano, called a car, got to rehearsal on 30th St. early. Rehearsed 8-11 w/ the “Murderer’s Row” band and some guest singers. Acquitted myself reasonably well (after getting called out for adding extra notes to the elec. piano riff for “Breakdown.” Will still have to work on a few parts on Thurs., after I’m past Laura’s show. Home by midnight, lights out 1.

[Orquesta de Pablo Valenzuela, “Agapito Ven, Ven” to George Jackley, “Ain’t It Great to Be Bloomin’ Well Dead.”]

10.22.17

Up 8. Went to coffee, finished McClary. The book’s value is obvious, but I suspect some formulations have dated: “Madonna’s art itself repeatedly deconstructs the traditional notion of the unified subject with finite ego boundaries.” Black music is not really seen as a tradition with some of its own norms and conventions, but as something of value for its anti-hegemonic power. Caught up w/ poetry daybook, read a few more poems in Starbuck, Bone Thoughts. Liked the short-lined “Tapestry for Bayeux.” Bree went out about 1. I spent the afternoon listening through the songs for Laura’s set and writing chord charts for those she or Jeremy hadn’t done. Left at 4, got some charts copies, read New Jim Crow en route to Gowanus to rehearse at Mark Spencer’s place, w/ Laura, Mark, Jeremy, Kenny Kosek, and Dahni Claremont. Overall, the songs are simpler than last month, but I felt like some of my playing was hacky, and I have to get up on “Cow Cow Boogie” and the piano hooks on “You Don’t Know Me.” Got email from David Nagler – we had miscommunicated and he thought I was coming to DUMBO to run “Dress” tonight. Called and rescheduled. Car home w/ Laura, home at 10, lights out midnight.

[Mission of Burma, “After the Rain” to James Brown, “Again”]

10.21.17

Up 9 am. Slow start. Coffee, read a chapter of McClary. Picked up the ILL copy of The New Jim Crow I’d requested. Came back, put on the rest of the Menendez mini-series so far while doing email and org. tasks. (The interest is partly that they went to Bree’s high school, so she knows the milieu – there’s a scene at Gladstone’s, a fancy beach restaurant her mom and sister like.) Jean + David cancelled Scrabble tonight, leaving me less reason to go out. Played through “My Old Man” for Bree’s spot at the Joni tribute – I don’t have the bridge down. Realized I had left my guitar at E77 after rehearsal the other night (!), so I went to pick it up. No harm done, but stupid. Went to 2 Edward Ulmer movies at MoMa: Strange Illusion (1945), a completely unsuspenseful suspense film (because the crime is solved in a dream in the first scene, and because you know Warren William is the villain from his first scene, because he’s Warren William; and the bigger-budget but very “pink” Ruthless (1948), w/ a reliably constipated Zachary Scott, Louis Hayward, Sydney Greenstreet and love interests Diana Lynn, Martha Vickers, and Lucille Bremer (one of her few decent roles outside Meet Me St. Louis, and quite touching). Last line: “He wasn’t a man, he was a way of life,” in other words, capitalism; thank you Alvah Bessie. Ran into Nick Minichino between movies. Passed by E77 on the way home – crowded, looked like a decent band. Read a fair bit of McClary over the course of the day, up through penultimate chapter on Laurie Anderson. Home before 10. Nothing much after that; put on first episode of new season of You Must Remember This (on Universal horror – looking forward to hearing K. Longsworth imitate Lugosi and Karloff), lights out before 12.

[The Big Three, “After Awhile” to Neil Young, “After the Goldrush” (multiple recordings)]

10.20.17

Up about 8. The Good Place – whatever one thinks of the show’s ethical sophistication, it is disorienting to hear Philippa Foot referenced in a sitcom! Got out before 10, read a few (very few) p. of McClary on Bizet on train, worked at Communitea in LIC from about 11-2. (What explains my intuitions of which coffee shop I will feel able to write in on a given day?) Cut the extended discussion of “Tutti Frutti” and deferred one of “My Favorite Things,” which allowed me to go on a bit. Section now at 3400. Knocked off to deal w/ some email – responded to Brian Mello’s cover design w/ some tweaks, and sent text for inserts. Made arrangements for Between the Tom Petty set and Laura’s, I will have a lot of woodshedding to do over the next week. Left a little after 3, called dad while walking around – he’s getting cataract surgery tomorrow. Met Bree at MoMa for the first night of their Poverty Row series: High Tide (John Reinhardt 1947), a hard-to-follow plot about newspaper corruption starring a worse-for-wear Lee Tracy, and Hollow Triumph (Steve Sekely 1948), one of my favorite movies of all time. Ran into Eric Meyers and a friend on the way out. Home by 9, dealt w/ some email and small tasks. Stayed up fairly late – started watching the Menendez Brothers miniseries.

[Golden Music Orchestra, “African Honeymoon” to Luciano Perrone, “Afro-Brasilieros”]

Up at 8. Tom Shad got in touch about having me play keyboards at a Tom Petty tribute for the closing week of Hi-Fi. Some back and forth about that later in the day, but I think I’m doing it. Left around 10. Breakfast, coffee, started McClary, Feminine Endings on the train, at LC library by noon. “Worked” til 7, though I feel like I only got going around 2. Added 1000 words, but a lot after the first graf either has to go or move. Got bogged down in “Tutti Frutti.” Left to hear the JACK Quartet at Columbia. A selection of 20th/21st string quartets (one of two nights, but I can’t go to hear the program w/ Ruth Crawford Seeger on Sat.)

Erin Gee Mouthpiece XXII (the singers also vocalize; nice but comparatively slight)

Mark Applebaum, Darmstadt Kindergarten (same music five times w/ one player each time getting up to make movements corresponding to their part; hence, last repeat is silent; effective)

Elliott Carter, #2 (I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to follow this music)

Anthony Braxton, Composition 173 (reworking of a 1976 piece for a larger ensemble – I may have the LP; it’s in his abstract music drama mode; “Here’s a sound for you, Mr. Experiencer.”)

Morton Feldman, Structures for String Quartet (early, short, repetitive, subdued; he’s so great)

Cenk Ergun, Sonare (loud-quiet-loud; the grunge hit of the piece; looked taxing to play, not sure if the off-sync sound of some rhythms were an ensemble problem or an epiphenomenon)

Good overall, except for jerks in the audience. Kept on w/ McClary on the way home, daybook poem. Home at 11, read a few poems in George Starbuck, Bone Thoughts. Yale Younger Poets 1960, a few years after Ashbery. It hasn’t dated as well as Some Trees. But what has? Lights out midnight. Feel like I have a heavy couple of weeks coming.

[The Anonymous Que Pasa, “Addy” to Young Tiger, “African Dream”]