Woke up at 7:30. Paid a parking ticket from Peekskill. Realized that I’d blown off calling into jury duty Friday. (It’s too late. Not sure what consequence to expect.) Went to E77 around 9. Finished the Hiss book – interesting thoughts on urbanism and landscape planning, but the rah-rah Ted-talk quality of the exposition got to me. Daybook – had a couple of actual ideas for short poems, so worked ahead. Read 2nd section of Lauterbach, a long lyric essay called “Task: To Open.” Roughly equal doses of: reflections on her alienation from some recent poetic trends, not to mention social media; glosses on Emerson; some fairly de rigeur suspicion about reason/rationality – and a couple of stunning passages of vivid imagery/distributed attention, esp. p. 71, that justify the enterprise. Came home, started reading Farrukh Dhondy, C.L.R. James. (I fell so far behind on my self-imposed quotas of reading prose and poetry last month that I feel like getting at least up to, if not over, my usual pace and the time devoted to my “reading life,” which feels in some way at least as important as doing the same with writing.) Anyway – I know so little about James, really, that it seems like getting the shape of the life will help me decide what to read; this author seems very invested in James’ non-rejection of, broadly, the West (more narrowly, English lit + public school/cricketer values) despite his Marxism and advocacy of colonial self-determination. W/o knowing other secondary literature, I’m suspecting that this is only one way of viewing his work.
12.5.17
Woke up early, got out by 7:30, did poetry daybook, wrote up some comments on the Pop Conference papers prior to the next round of voting. Came home, read a chunk of Hiss and napped 2-4. Did a few things around the house, went back out at 5:30, dealt w/ some email at E77, started reading again, but left when I realized that it was open mic poetry night; moved on to Café Bene, kept alternating between reading and doing this and that online. Came back while Bree was out, didn’t do much for a while but eventually listened to Jean Carroll, Girl In a Hot Steam Bath (one of the first stand-up comedy albums by a woman), filled the new “book”case with CDs that have been sitting in piles in the bedroom, helped Bree put some things away and replace a curtainrod that had fallen down. Listened to some of the rough mixes – should send to the rest of the band. Stayed up to almost 2, not doing anything useful. May have forgotten something, but overall a dithery day – didn’t write, should have tried harder to finish Hiss so I can move on.
Nov. 2017 reading
Ingrid Monson, Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction
Alexanger Kluge, Learning Processes With a Deadly Outcome
Jonathan Gould, Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life
Raymond Smullyan, The Tao is Silent
Mark Tucker, Ellington: The Early Years
Wendy Lesser, The Amateur
Clifford D. Simak, Project Pope
12.4.17
Up 7. Out a little after 9. Read Hiss on train. Didn’t do much of great use at coffee – got involved in a thread about Christmas music on a listserv. Therapy. Headed downtown w/ plan of working at Jefferson Market library. Fine, except they don’t have, I was told, “a public bathroom for adults.” Found one at a nearby market then went back and worked desultorily from about 2-4:45. Starting the “defense of music theory” section of intro – got into 2nd graf. Met Bree at IFC to see Bombshell (Alexandra Dean 2017), the documentary about Hedy Lamarr and her frequency hopping co-invention w/ George Antheil, for which she began to get credit just before her death. As filmmaking, it’s mainly the usual modern doc combo of stock/archival stills [inc. distressing pictures of her after late plastic surgery] and footage, voice-only taped interviews w/ the subject, and talking heads, but it’s a fascinating story of a strange and in her combination of experiences possibly unique woman. Went w/ Bree to her MRI at Cedars. Didn’t take long. Home around 10, lights out by 11.
12.3.17
Up before most of the house, except Bryan D. Walked into the village to pick up coffee pods for the Keurig, and have coffee [by] myself at Bread Alone, where I used to go before class when I taught at Bard. Read to p. 40 of Tony Hiss, The Experience of Place and finally caught up to the date in the poetry daybook. Went back to house for last breakfast/packing/goodbyes, got out by 11. Spent rest of day looking at antiques/books/records in Rhinebeck and Kingston w/ Bree. Gritted my teeth and bought an obscure underground Dylanologist publication from 1971 for (a) research (b) more than I’d normally spend. Other smaller purchases – looking forward to a book on C.L.R. James, and a bunch of $2.50 LPs from Rocket No. 9 (owned by Doug Wygal of the Individuals, apparently, though he wasn’t there). Bree found things she liked as well. Glanced at a couple of historic bldgs./plaques. Had snack/coffee in an odd shop/café called Outdated that specialized in deadstock notions (inc. some tempting memo pads, but I really do own enough blank notebooks of all sizes) and oversized scones. Left a little after 4, drove home, talked and listened to the O’Jays, Ship Ahoy – I’d forgotten about “Money, Money, Money,” which I arguably unconsciously swiped for a moment in “Faith and Credit.” Didn’t hit bad traffic, back in JH before 7. Unloaded car, left Bree, returned it to Enterprise, did the same routine as a couple weeks ago of walking home along the bus route. Have been really lucky, generally, that it’s not as cold as last year (whatever that means for the species).
The amount of time I’ve spent out of town, either for music (Catskill, Kernersville) or not (Thanksgiving, this weekend) in the last two months is unusual. Not unpleasant, but I’m glad to be done until we go back to CA before Xmas. Haven’t written for more than 3 or 4 days in a row in weeks. Anyway, finish line of weekend reached by 8. Saw that a small package from Mitch came in the mail; turned out to be a hard drive, presumably w/ my Pro Tools sessions and (I hope) rough mixes – too tried to plug it in. Lights out by 10.