10.31.17

Up at 8. Wasted time online, left by 10, mailed a CD to Jack Silbert, got coffee and read Ellis (I don’t know why I’ve interrupted Monson and Kluge for this fairly bad book, it just seems like something I can polish off and forget, except as an example of a running strand of hidebound reaction to the political motivations of the contemporary humanities. It’s weird, the book is from 1997 but would be about the same if written today – seems like there’s just a standoff, except that the exponents of traditional views are dying off.) Decided against the library, went no further than Lucid in Woodside, got another coffee, worked on book from 11:30-3. Added another 1000 words that need heavy editing but are at least in the right order, feel like I need one last paragraph before I make another pass over the whole section to get into shape (and proportion). Unsuccessful attempts to call the Kitchen (for Raincoats tix) and my dad. Came back, ran into Bree on the corner, watched a bit of the local kids’ Halloween parade together. Went home, rested and read a bit. Dad called back w/ some bad news (not medical, but not general readers’) that screws up some of my plans for the next year or more; told him so frankly. Distressing. Finally found the last box of copies of The Accordion Repertoire in our storage space. Went out for an hr, got back into Monson (interesting discussion of Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things” – some of the usual “destroying the standards” cant, but more measured and detailed than many). Came back, figured out the weird additive-rhythm to PJ’s “Dress” for rehearsal tomorrow, rehearsed a few songs I might play in Hudson. Got involved in a fb thread about Big Dipper w/ three of its members. Lights out by midnight, listened to a relationship podcast I’m embarrassed to name.

[James Brown “Ain’t That a Groove” to Fats Domino, “Ain’t That a Shame.”]

10.30.17

Up at 7. Send Dylan changes in E to “Keeping the Weekend Free.” Got out before 10, read Kluge on train, listened to the end of the A-Z playlist (as much of it as I had put on my phone), switched to Fats D. Spent an hr. at coffee, reminding myself of the structure of the current intro section and starting to get into next graf. Therapy. Lunch. Went back to same coffee place (B’way/96) from 1:30-4:30, drafted the 3 nec. paragraphs on hip-hop production vis-à-vis songwriting/publishing. Not genius, not bad; anyway, they bridge things to the last “movement” of the section. Got into the first graf of that. Guess I could put this down as a 1000 day. Enough for a while (and I forgot my power cord). Walked down Broadway (since it’s cooling off but still nice, and it won’t be in a week or two) listening to the YMRT episode I’d slept through, stopped in at Westsider books. Bought John M. Ellis, Literature Lost, very much in the death-of-the-humanities genre. Was tempted by Strange Tools, a collection of essays on aesthetics by philosopher of mind Alva Noë, because rather than despite the thesis of an essay on pop (it isn’t, you know, music) pissed me off; I have to look it up to cite disapprovingly. Got a snack at Zabar’s, rode home, listened to most of the first disc of the Fats box. Read Ellis, which is predictably bad, until it put me to sleep. Got up around 9, tried to answer some of Dylan H.’s questions about my (poorly edited) piano score for “Nick Cave,” went out to Starbucks for a little bit to read (Ellis) and jot ideas for my Hudson set list. Did the daybook poem at some point. Home, lights out by midnight.

[The Velvettes, “Ain’t No Place Like Motown,” to Sheri Washington, “Ain’t Talking To You Baby”]

10.29.17

Up at 7, went out for a bit and started a response to Steph. Burt’s “lyric” talk (not to publish, just a correspondence I owe him out of courtesy). Came back to meet Bree and a neighbor to take some of the building’s junk to an Electronics Disposal Day at the post office – of course, it started raining as we pushed handtrucks 4 blocks. Rested for a while, then had another more arduous round of same, loading 6 TVs into cars. Done w/ that by 1. Went out for a bit, read another 50 p. of Monson, wrote daybook poem. Came home and did some minor tasks, figured out key I want to sing “Keeping the Weekend Free” in with Dylan Hicks. Tried to look at an issue of Poetry from a couple years back I picked up somewhere, couldn’t get traction. Watched a 10 min. video about the making of Trout Mask Replica, got involved in a couple of lecture videos by composer/music theorist Samuel Andreyev, analyzing, respectively, Webern’s Op. 19 (a rarely heard work I’m pretty sure I heard performed downtown last month), and Tom Waits’ “Underground.” Laura came over about 5 to rehearse Chickfactor set for next Sat. – mostly originals I’ve played w/ her a number of times, plus “Indoor Fireworks,” “Love Vigilantes,” and possibly a new one. She threw out the idea of having Pete Galub play gtr on a few, so we called him, and he’s in. They’ll practice separately. Went back out for a last cup of coffee, read Jennifer Bartlett, (a) lullaby without any music [I also read this in MS several years back], worked a bit on “Viable” lyrics (which I’ve been doing off and on, may have started to crack it, transition out of ¾ bridge back into what I intend to be a pretty straight power-pop main section will be tricky musically), started Alexander Kluge, Learning Processes with a Deadly Outcome. Maybe a documentary-styled novella about the destruction of human society after an interstellar war isn’t what I should be reading right now, but hey. Came back at 9:30. Finally transcribed Brandon’s bassline at the end of “Believe in Ghosts” so I can arrange something (Chamberlain?) over it.

10.28.17

Up at 6. Went out for coffee at 7, finished The New Jim Crow (the last chapter goes pretty far on a limb in criticizing affirmative action as a “racial bribe”), caught up in poetry daybook. Got back in bed for an hr, went out w/ Bree at 10 to see an Italian company’s shadow puppet play, A Sky For the Bears, at the New Victory Theater with a bunch of 4-7 year-olds and their parents. Charming, well-performed, intriguing techniques. Went closer to MoMa for lunch, had time before movies to spend an hr. in the Is Fashion Modern? Learned a fair bit about, e.g., guayabera shirts and cheongsam dresses. Also poked around the museum stores. Saw The Vampire Bat (Frank Strayer 1933) and The Crime of Dr. Crespi (John Auer 1935), worth it for the respective creepy-doctor-with-God-complex performances of Lionel Atwill and Erich von Stroheim. Walked Bree to train, finished the George Starbuck collection while waiting for the next movie. Careful writer, but I read this w/ such gaps that I probably missed the book’s thematic movement – registered the different tones created by straight and slant/off-rhyme as much as anything. Watched White Zombie (Victor Halperin 1932), which, despite Lugosi, is more effective visually than dramatically (though the explicit reference to Haitian zombies as, in effect, slaves created to “work in the sugar mills and fields at night” was interesting; does this aspect of the colonialist subtext show up in Lewton?) Back in JH by 9, looked in at E77 – crowd for a band that actually bills itself as “dad rock,” couldn’t hack that, got a bottle of water in Starbucks instead and read first 50 p. of Ingrid Monson, Saying Something (started on train). Came home, lights out around midnight, put on You Must Remember This but fell asleep quickly.

10.27.17

Up 8:30. Glad I can forget the 27 songs I learned to play last week. Email etc. at E77, 10-ish to noon – getting ducks in a row for Nov. session. Came back and wasted time, to be honest. Finally did an hr. or so, not much more, of tasks, organization, etc. Left for movies at MoMa w/ Bree. False Faces (Lowell Sherman 1932) – Sherman, a Warren William type (bulkier) in this case playing a crooked plastic surgeon with no redeeming qualities, also directed. Quick break, then The Sin of Nora Moran (Phil Goldstone 1933) – I can’t go into it, but you could use this one to teach the syuzhet/fabula distinction. Back in neighborhood by 9, had a bite + got home by 10. Bought a download of an instructional video on card magic (by John Carey) b/c I was curious about a trick on the demo, watched some of that. Lights out midnight.