Up 6:30. Late-night clips.
R.I.P. Cecil Taylor - put on the WKCR broadcast for a while, and watched part of this. (Returned to Taylor, on radio and YouTube, throughout the day.)
Went to E77, tallied up my 2017 book/record (“research materials”) receipts.
Hadn’t brought anything to read, so l redrafted a graf of the Tin Pan Alley chapter for an hr.
Came back around 10:30.
Cold and rainy out, hard to get motivated, esp. for a library trip.
Read 20 p. of Latouche.
Email exchange w/ 33 1/3 ed. on excerpt Salon is running. Other correspondence.
Called my dad. Nothing new.
Read rest of day’s quota of Latouche. His friend Ruth Yorck died at a performance of Marat/Sade. Related this an other tidbits to Bree.
Scrubbed tub so Bree can take an Epsom bath.
Went back out around 5:30, got a bite, went back to E77. Typed up the lyric of “The Bowery” for Bree to send to Jon Weber.
Filled out the rest of tax workbook as best I could. Retweeted Molly Ringwald. (A lot of Twitter today, actually.)
Had a beer. Read another 1/4 of Hoover. Came back at 8:30.
Listened to this.
Watched Smart Woman (Edward Blatt, 1948, w/ Constance Bennett).
Finished/scanned/sent tax materials to family accountant.
Lights out 2. Mundane day.
4.5.18
Up 7:30.
Fussed w/ formatting CV w/ some late-night clips on in background.
Talked to Bree about yesterday’s appt. w/ her GP.
Headed to E77 at about 9. Made a last pass for now at app. materials, turned them into pdfs, wrote emails w/ attachments to editor and recommenders. Done by 11:30. Had been shooting for 4/2, but not bad - application isn’t due until 5/2. Said hi to Mackenzie Wark.
Had a bite in the neighborhood, read 20 p. of Hoover before walking home.
Took a rest, started looking at Howard Pollack, The Ballad of John Latouche. Read the photo captions at the front of the book (odd) and started the family background chapter. Its 472 p. plus notes: Already glad I didn’t pursue my biographical pipe dream.
Tidying/organizational/email triage. Printed out tax workbook from my accountant, worked on that 2-3:30, w/ The Impatient Years (Irving Cummings 1944, Jean Arthur, Charles Coburn, anonymous male leads) and then There’s That Woman Again (Alexander Hall 1939, Melvyn Douglas, Virginia Bruce, apparently a sequel in which Bruce replaced Joan Blondell, who would be preferable), which I didn’t finish.
Petered out, took a break, made a grocery trip.
Left at 5:30, read Latouche bio on train (both ways + a little more Hoover). He played Rasputin in a school production, just like Bree.
Andrew Levy/Kim Lyons prose reading at Sidewalk Cafe. Got Andrew’s new book;Kim had a cold, which was distracting. Wrote in daybook between readings. Said hi to Nada after, but didn’t stay long.
Home about 8:30, Bree out, took care of a few other tax matters. Half-watched Man of the World (Richard Wallace 1931, w/ Wm. Powell, Carole Lombard, Guy Kibbee) and Angels Over Broadway (Ben Hecht 1939 w/ Thomas Mitchell, Rita Hayworth).
Glanced at an Robbe-Grillet novel, Huysmans’ Parisian Sketches, and an anthology of writing about central California.
Lights out 12:30.
Up 7:30
Listened to a couple of Echo and the Bunnymen songs, off a facebook thread.
Went for coffee at E77, worked about 9:30-noon on final touches on sample chapters for grant submission. Also daybook poem.
Came back while Bree was out, kept at same, expanded one graf, probably wasted too much time trying to shoehorn one more example in.
Bree came back and went out again for acupuncture.
Made lunch, put in some laundry around 4. Kept working.
Dried/folded laundry, took out recycling and office trash, left for Jazz Standard around 6
Finish RthR on train. Ch. 4 on non-human rights; afterword by Astra Taylor, by admission far more Marxist than Arendt. Black disenfranchisement finally mentioned. Listend to the rest of Code Girl. It is so in my wheelhouse, esp. “Accurate Hit” a guitar-vocal piece on a ‘50s progression. Will take a while to get a grip on the lyrics.
Met Brad San Martin and his gf Amber at Village Standard for said band’s 7:30 set. He’s working as the Apollo Theater’s first in-house archives, which sounds pretty effin’ cool. Talked about hanging out for Amateur Night rehearsals, and seeing the dramatization of Coates’ Between the World and Me (which, whatever my reservations, is significant). Amber works in student services at a tiny art college in Greenwich Village. Had some collard greens, a biscuit, and 2 stouts.
Code Girl set very satisfying - the rare band where the guitarist-leader could turn up. They didn’t do “Accurate Hit,” and I don’t know the material well, but everyone’s playing is on point, and the vocalist Amirtha Kidamba has something special going on in her own right. Wrote ahead one day/page in poetry notebook. Spoke briefly to Tomas Fujimara (drums) to i.d. a tune (“Drop the Needle”), said Thumbscrew (this band minus trumpet, vocals) has a week at the Vanguard in June; loved their “standards” set at the Stone in Feb., will go. Seeing jazz, as opposed to indie-rock/singer-songwriter stuff, is great — I have no envy or bitterness, b/c the musicians are so much better than me.
Started listening to Coxsone’s Music 2: The Sound of Young Jamaica, comp. of 1959-63 ska/proto-reggae/jazz. The Fats Domino influence is clear, apart from the well-known connection to “Be My Guest”; there’s an accordion-led version of “Swaneee River Rock,” and a lyric nod to “Blueberry Hill.” Straight-ahead jazz tracks w/ no discernible Jamaican feel next to, say, Delroy Wilson’s “Lion of Judah” - nice mix, would make a good party record.
Started reading Paul Hoover, Viridian. No particular reason except I picked it off the shelf while looking for something else. Mainly 1-2 page lyrics, Ashbery minus some density/escape velocity at times, but nice moments (“what is a stone but a theory of change?”). Longest/clearest poem so far is about baseball.
Wrote a little more on the Queensboro Plaza platform. Felt like/had a donut on the way home - not typical.
Home a little after 10. Winnowed some email (not enough). Mason.
Lights out 1.
4.3
Up 8:30.
Watched new Kesha/Macklemore video (godawful), and John Oliver.
Put on Bree’s socks by mistake.
Left at 10:30.
Train, rain. Read ch. 2-3 RthR.
Biscuit and coffee. Daybook.
Worked at Schomburg 1-5. Wrote up a few elements of application, shortened statements, tinkered w/ sample chapters. Productive; very close.
Started listening to Mary Halvorson’s new Code Girl album, in prep for seeing her tomorrow, on the walk to a bar on Frederick Douglass to meet up for Katie Degentesh’s birthday. Drew, Bruce & Sally, Catherine Talese, a couple people I don’t know as well.
Dinner w/ same group nearby at Streetbird.
Rode partway home w/ Catherine and a friend (George?). Switched train, more Halvorson, read Levy.
Home by 11. Caught up w/ Bree.
Read last few p. of Levy. Paratactic, largely unlyrical, w/ found/overheard elements, dry in a way I like but not emotionless. Endnote on Davidsonian interpretation, which helps a little?
1 episode of Perry Mason
Lights out 12:30.
4.2.18
Up at 8.
Skimmed this.
Snowed overnight, but not that bad.
Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” stuck in my head.
Left at 10.
Listened to 5049 podcast w/ Rebekah Heller (new music bassoonist).
Coffee. Read introduction to Stephanie DeGooeyer, et. al. The Right to Have Rights (on Arendt).
Therapy.
Lunch. Saw someone working on a MS titled “Where Do Birds Go To Die?” though a cafe window.
To Lincoln Center Library; started working by 2.
Worked an hr. each on CV and statement.
Then I looked more closely at the application instructions, and both my statement and intended writing sample are much too long.
Changed gears and cut 3 sections, about 8K, out of the version of the introduction I mean to send; now 15,000 words.
Left at 7:45. Read Ch. 1 of RtHR, started Ch. 2.
Perry Mason.
Decided to use the inconveniently chunky notebook that I began and avoid for the next 3 months of poetry, to fill it up. Wrote a page.
Trips to laundry room for Bree.
More Mason, lights out 1:30.