12.20.17

Up for a bit around 2 (said hello to nightshift caregiver), and then for good at 5:30 (time change, will be this way for a few days at least). Watched a bit of Marriage is a Private Matter w/ Lana Turner on TCM, then read 10 p. of Levine. Once dad woke up in his armchair (he’d been to bed, not sure how long), chatted a while. Got the car keys and went out about 6:30; found a handful of CDs I’d left behind in the trunk, put on Carly Rae Jepsen, E-Mo-Tion. At Coffee Klatch in Rancho Cucamonga by 7. Got spending record up to date, opened up Ch. 1, worked from about 7:30-11. I think I’ve made a good strategic decision both in slightly reshuffling a couple of subsections of the chapter to introduce “cultural” rather than technical/musicological matters more quickly, and is reminding me of what I don’t need to rehearse in the preface/intro. Improved several paragraphs, word count n/a.

Came home, discussed a few things with my Dad, read a little more Levine, took a nap from 2-4. Went shopping for dinner w/ Bree, came back, unpacked, read a bit more. Talked about how things have been around the house w/ Liz (the most frequent afternoon/early evening caregiver), and what to do for Xmas Eve. Dinner; watched Jeopardy w/ Dad. Went out to Upland Starbucks at 8:30. Too many loose ends to get back to work. Rated a few late EMP proposals, finished quota of Levine (p. 103), caught up quickly in daybook (4 p.). Nice relative obscurity on the instore playlist: The Miracles’ “Christmas Everyday.” Puzzled through two Sandra Macpherson poems in Poetry (one seemingly about buying a forged Whistler print off eBay; not sure what the terseness of the line-breaks is for except to obscure aboutness) and a longer one by Eisder Mosquera: starts w/ a clear lyric occasion (visit to a Cuban dog-track, musings on the poet’s homeland) veers into descriptions of marmoset videos (“The YouTube bubble/incarnadine in the corner”) and distant, near-abstract voyeurism: “I listen in/on the praxis applied/to the nexus/in accelerating,/intimate make-out/fondling.” Would read more. Home at 11, coincident w/ caregiver’s shift change. Started rereading (skimming) Allen Callaci’s memoir Heart Like a Starfish, looking for details/rhyme words to fill in a song I’m stuck on (“Viable”). Lights out at midnight.

12.19.17

Up around 5:30, tried to go back to sleep, but not really. Went out around 7:45, knocked out 500 words of something on the harmony section of the intro (too technical!!), then switched to Ch. 1. Came back at 10, took two potted cyclamen up to the 5th floor neighbor who’ll look at them while we’re away, finished packing. Called car for LGA at 11. Had a second TSA patdown in private, for reasons I’ll never know. Did in-flight crossword as usual. Flicked through the movie selection, ended up watching most of an episode of Insecure, which wasn’t made for me, and 2 of a silly horror anthology called Room 104. Switched to music (couldn’t listen to my own on b/c I only brought I Phone headphones with the old plug; the adaptor is in the bag I checked). Mainly listened to Kendrick Lamarr, Damn; but also sampled an Annie Ross album w/ Gerry Mulligan (swinging “I Feel Pretty”), a Geri Allen/Charlie Haden/Paul Motian date, some Debussy. (Much better choices, art-wise, than the movies.) Started in on Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness. “To insist that only those elements of slave culture were African which remained largely unchanged from the African past is to misinterpret the nature of culture itself.” (5; the entire paragraph is very good).

Flight had taken off late enough to get us into DFW late enough to miss our connection; we were put on standby and (after standing in that line) had 90 min. to kill; called Dad to apprise him; ate. Got on the flight, though it didn’t look good for a while; not sitting together. Did an easy sudoku (the others were filled in), read Levine to 55, the introduction to Stuart Jeffries’ Grand Hotel Abyss (on my iPad), and the first few poets in a Jan. 2017 Poetry I brought along. (Sheryl Luna and Ishion Hutchison, both on the cryptic side; Carl Philips, 1 more discursive poem, ending image too pat; Tommy Pico, kind of a breathless pile-up, like [one dimension of] O’Hara for the Instragram age; think he was in one of those Preludes as well?]) Landed around 10 PST, picked up bags, got a cab to my parents. Dad and Mom both up; Jessica on caregiver duty. Chatted a little while, not long; went to bed and read another ch. of GHA (on Benjamin’s Berlin Childhood, clear enough but the author tends to repeat basic points too many times) before turning out the light around midnight.

12.18.17

Up 8. Did a couple tasks I’d scribbed down last night. Out by 9:30; slight train delay. Finished the Crawford – I don’t know that I think this book entirely succeeds, but there’s an affinity to The Orchid Stories, partly but not entirely the mock-clinical/systemic tone. Started looking at current section over coffee. Therapy. Read Poincaré over lunch – indulged in a full diner meal + pie before leaving NY. I certainly didn’t follow all the scientific detail (it is very hard to make oneself attend closely to long-superseded theories), but I think I got most of the philosophical and methodological points they were in service of. Finished it later on the train. Odd final chapter on the contributions (and physical bravery) of French geodists. Quote to live/teach (write?) by from earlier in the book (117):

What is a good definition? For the philosopher or the scientist, it is a definition which applies to all the objects to be defined, and applies only to them; it is that which satisfies the rules of logic. But in education it is not that; it is one that can be understood by the pupils.

Worked at library 3-6. Added 500 or so words, though this bit, defending discussion of functional harmony, is really tough between clarity, not scolding the ignorant, avoiding overgeneralization w/o too much hedging). Decided to switch to lighter editing of the next chapter for an hr. – probably good to remember that some parts of the book are in decent shape. Got home about 8, got close to packed by 10 (there’s always crap that eludes me until the next morning), listened to side to of the Condition record, and an LP of Stravinsky’s cello-piano Suite Italienne. Lights out before midnight.

12.17.17

Up 8. Spent about 9 to 11:30 at Starbucks and Caffé Bene; boiled down yesterday’s work, started next graf. Off pace. Home: Had my suitcase out all day, put things in it as it occurred to me. Called my dad; wrote condolence emails to two of my cousins (my aunt Rosina’s sons). Laundry. Filled in my travel CD wallet (again, for DJing, though also the car). Went back out to coffee later, finished Blue Bloods, read 2-3 stories in Crawford. Daybook. Lights out by 11:30. I’m sure there was a lot of dead time in there.

12.16.17

Up 7:30. Wrote at Caffe Bene 8:30-11:30; completed one paragraph about the relevance of harmony to form, went on to more bridge-specific points. About 500 words (my current quota), but 2nd ½ is v. rough. At home, read another chunk of Blue Bloods and made vague gestures in the direction of packing – mostly, searching for a couple of books I want to take (it’s finally time to hunker down and read Lawrence Levine), and a few LPs for DJing. Much of the afternoon is foggy. Eventually read some Poincare (he’s arguing against logicism, mostly non-technically, w/ some discussion of Russell’s paradoxes; Cantor, Peano, Zermelo all make appearances; in some ways he was proven right, but he surely underestimated the power of formalization; no mention of Frege, who was obscure at the time). Went w/ Bree to the early music concert at St. Mark’s (two blocks away, not Manhattan; wrote daybook entry before it started), then to my neighbor Jennie’s holiday party. Mostly talked to people from our building. I wasn’t completely in the holiday spirit; a lot of negative self-talk lately, to use the jargon. Came back after midnight; Bree stayed behind to help clean up.