11.29.17

49th birthday. Up at 7. Read a few ch. of Martin Eden – I don’t find the pace of the character’s development especially believable, but I’m starting to get the point. Liked a bunch of b-day wishes on fb and wrote a retrospective post of my own. Returned to take Mom, Dad, and Lori (the same caregiver we had at the hospital) to Mom’s doctor, to consult about the fall and other matters (not the business of this venue to discuss details). Home by 1. Rested, rec’d or returned a couple of birthday calls from extended family. Opened Bree’s presents – a number of music books, mostly on jazz, from Pasadena, inc. a biography of Jay Gorney (blacklisted composer of “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?”) by his daughter, and Listen to the Mockingbird, Douglas Messerli’s little collection of 19th c. public-domain song lyrics. (Bree would have no idea I know Douglas.) Read quota of Mandel, wrote in daybook. Also glancing at a book my dad has around – Michael Howe, Genius Explained, a psychologist’s demystifying account of the early lives of Darwin, Faraday, &c. I like it’s matter of factness, but there’s no special reason to finish it.

Headed out to Pasadena at 4. Listened to Caetano Veloso, Zii e Zie (2009; “Aunts and Uncles”), in his ‘00s/’10 stripped-down alt-samba mode, w/ a young band. Stopped at Canterbury Records, bought a Golden Gate Quartet best-of and a disc of Vaughn DeLeith radio performances, 1928-9 as gifts-to-self. Dinner at Samalang Garden. Met Dan Clucas and Daniel and Kristi at Battery Books to hear a jazz quartet led by locals Steve Bowie (bass clarinet) and Dave Williams (trumpet), w/ Nord “piano” (wish he’d chosen a different sound) and a notably strong double-bass player – a lefty, it turns out, who strings his bass in reverse, something I’ve never heard of. Talked to Dan and Rich West, the owner, a bit about our gig on the 18th, traded CDs. Bought $3-4 LPs of Elton Britt, the Rooftop Singers, and Roswell Rudd, a disc of earlier Thomas Ades compositions, and a 3CD set Hi Records retrospective (Al Green, etc.). Tempted by a large format book about the life and career of Harold Battiste Jr., and (for $20), an 78 copy of James Brown’s “Please Please Please” on the original Federal label. If that’s there when I go back….Had one drink w/ aforementioned folks at the Pasadena Hilton a block away. Drove home to The Four Bags, Waltz and some Jackie McLean, Jackie’s Bag. Back just after midnight, finished quota of Martin Eden, asleep by 1.

I’m getting through the days, but the persistence of the cold is draining – no real energy.

Up 7, went out about 8, worked 8:45-noon on breakdown section. I think it’s ok. Don’t expect to be able to write tomorrow. Picked up a few poetry books at Claremont Library Book Sale (I’ve made my usual rounds by now, except for Ontario, which tends to be thin): Noelle Kocot, Phantom Pains of Madness; Cathy Eiesenhower, Distance Decay; Vi Khi Nao, The Old Philosopher, Paul Nesmer, Taurus, and and African novel, Camara Laye, The Radiance of the King. Also, a bit of sheet music, inc. a fairly old copy of “Lady! Be Good,” with a cover advertisting the original Broadway production. Could be from 1924, since there was some pretty old parlor music in the bin. Had lunch and wrote first page in new poetry daybook. KSPC 2-4 – I left my CD wallet at home, so a few things will wait until the following weeks. Didn’t talk much, b/c of the cold, despite cough syrup and Fisherman’s Friend, but a listener texted me that I was smacking my lips too much. “See also ‘misophonia’.” Another listener defended me. Playlist.

Picked up a few things at Stater’s and Claro’s on the way home. Dinner; Jeopardy. Tired, but got myself to read a few chapters of Martin Eden and start Tom Mandel, To the Cognoscenti. Wrote another page in daybook, somewhat after Mandel; caught up. Took to bed at 11.

12.27.28

Up at 6. Listened to a little bit of a Taborn/Wm. Parker/Gerald Cleaver trio. Got out by 7; dad will call the plumber again. Rhonda said my mom got up and down from her chair better after the soreness of the phys. Therapy wore off, so that’s good. Went to Koffee Klatch – a ‘20s jazz recording of “Three Little Words,” more syncopated than the openly pop Ellington one I happened to hear yesterday, but I couldn’t Shazam it in time. Worked from 7:45-11 on “four families,” up to the breakdown. Blew $4 at the Mennonite Thrifts Store – the Aretha Franklin bio I’ve cited from library copies; the Housemartins The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death, a copy of the first Katydids CD (San Diego major label jangle band no one else remembers; I put this on immediately as comfort food), and a collection of Bernstein-conducted marches. Went to the hearing aid place, but after I parked, couldn’t find the baggie I’d put them in. Looked at home, in car, bag, etc., went back to coffee, no luck. Really a mystery. Had lunch and read 25 p. Levine. Wrote to Daniel & Kristi and Dan Clucas about joining me for my birthday Friday. Went to downtown Upland with Bree around 3. Bought an odd variety of 50-cent LPs/CDs at library book sale, inc. a nice Nonesuch pressing of Silver Apples of the Moon. Bree got a collection of George Kaufman’s prose and an old French cookbook. Poked around 3 antique mall downtown, didn’t buy anything else. Picked up dinner at Padua Pasta Makers. Ate w/ parents, watched Jeopardy w/ Dad. Went out to Starbucks a little after 8, read the last bit of Levine (on the gradual change from folkloric animal/trickster figures to outlaws/“bad men” [I was wondering when Stagerlee would come into it] and genuine heroes [Jack Johnson, Joe Louis]) and the epilogue. Easily one of the most edifying and judicious books, on any topic, I’ve read in the last few months. Looked more at the breakdown section; its delicate. Heard more of the Henri Texier CD off and on in the car over the course of the day – solid Euro-jazz (not “free”/non-idiomatic), more tunes based on ostinati than changes. Came home, read 2 ch. of Martin Eden. Cold a bit better today, but too tired to read/write poetry. Lights out 11:45.

12.26.27

Up 6-ish. Worked at Coffee Klatch about 8:30-11:30. Got the history/origin grafs more together, started too look at the “4 types of bridge” which is too long. I think I have to return to a section on repetition in between. Tried to take my dad’s hearing aids to be serviced, but they were taking an extra day off after Xmas; same with Claro’s; picked up a few things at Smart & Final. Came to the end of disc 2, Okeh Ellington; put on a CD by Henri Texier (French jazz bassist, no strong impression yet). Rested at home, eventually got back to reading Levine. Fooled around at the piano off and on, playing through some harmonizations of “All the Things You Are” Ethan Iverson published on his blog, and trying to get back into Two-Part Invention No. 1 (the famous No. 5 enervates my dad, I think). The physical therapist the hospital ordered for Mom came by around 5:30; she followed instructions better than I expected, but did complain of some soreness later. Dinner. Went out about 8:30-10:30, worked just a little more. House quiet when I go back, but the hot water in the kitchen sink couldn’t be turned off from the faucet; my dad had called a plumber before he went to bed, while I was gone, but to no avail. I turned it off from below the sink, which is about as handy as I get. Read to p. 50 of Martin Eden – I guess I’m seeing already that it’s going to be a moth-to-flame tale; he’ll be broken on the rocks of class ambition. I want to say that the style of non-modernist early-20th c. novels is not congenial, but I guess it’s just that London’s psychologizing and techniques seem unsubtle compared to James (is he a modernist?) or Wharton. Struck by the phrase “tie-ribs of language.” Last poem in this daybook, maybe my fourth filled in the last 18 months. Fell asleep to an interview w/ Craig Taborn.

12.25.17

Slept poorly, got up several times, for good around 5:30. Read quota of Levine (African-American humor, a lot of it more disturbing/telling than funny by most lights), and a couple chapters of GHA (Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization, which sounds like complete b.s., Adorno’s Negative Dialectics, and their respective relationships w/ the New Left and student radicals). Tried to sleep a little more. Opened our few presents w/ Bree and my parents around 10. Played Christmas songs at the piano for a while – don’t know if my dad noticed I was playing his “Our Little Christmas Tree.” Rested/dithered/showered. went out at 2:30 to the one Starbucks (on Mountain) that stayed open. Worked on the bit about added/omitted/recomposed bridges until the closed at 4:30. At home, finished GHA (Habermas—difficult to follow all the ins and outs on a second-hand account, but I get the outline of the view; hard not to feel that the idealization of café culture as a model for the public sphere is the positive mirror image of the nostalgia for a lost bourgeoisie that drove so much of Adorno’s negativity; then a concluding “continued relevance” chapter).

Leftovers w/ Bree and parents. Decided to sleep in extra bedroom for a few days, to keep Bree from catching my cold. Retired around 10, caught up in daybook, started Jack London’s Martin Eden (partly b/c it’s always been something my dad has mentioned, and he wrote a short one- or two- character musical about it in the ‘80s; additionally, I happened to bring it up w/ Aaron Kunin once and he said he liked the book). Put the Billy Hart quartet CD I got at Rhino on my iPad, fell asleep to it.