Up about 6.
Took care of reading quota early. Finished The Mao Case - not really a detective/suspense novel, but an excuse for the author to hang his obsessions with food, classical Chinese poetry, and the Cultural Revolution (all of which are quite interesting). Climactic scene involves a businessmen with a Mao complex strangling the granddaughter of one of his (Mao’s) concubines.
20 p. Pankey. Learned the word “verve” (an annual sedimentary layer, apparently from Swedish).
Watched an episode of Law and Order (keeping an eye on mom while caregiver helps dad shower).
Found a file of Bree’s lyrics, presumably from her last visit here months ago, on the desktop of my computer. She doesn’t show me this stuff — they’re good! Coherent, funny, well-rhymed.
Played a little Monk on the piano (I do this, or other standards, most days, but not long or well enough to mention mostly).
More family business discussion w/ dad. Incremental.
Called Anthony + Beverly about their possible trip to Tucson - their plans affect my activities next week.
Would have left late morning, but there was a scheduled visit from mom’s doctor around 11:30; nothing new.
Went to downtown Upland, picked up 3 dollar CDs and one ($5) by Chris Brokaw at the antique mall; proprietor said Penny Lane is moving in nearby (haven’t been to current location this trip).
Meant to get coffee at Rad, but it was surprisingly crowded - downtown in general seemed more active than usual.
Worked on bridge entry at Ontario Public Library about 2-5. I’m at about 1400 words.
Broke off and read 1/2 of McCrae, In the Language of My Captors. Definitely has power, and anger (not sure this is exact but “whether you are here to look at me or the monkeys/you are here to look at yourself). 
Stopped in the Record Mission nearby, bought the James Chance 4CD box for $2!, + a Gabor Szabo album someone recommended on Twitter and (for Jonathan L.) a record of Norman Mailer reading…Norman Mailer.
Picked up dinner (ordered earlier online) at California Fish Grill, wrote daybook poem and read an article on fashion algorithms (fwd’ed by Jean Cook) on my phone while waiting.
Home, dinner; more irritated with my dad than usual. Jeopardy - and another L&O. Talked to Liz (our main evening caregiver) for longer than usual.
My playing cards arrived in the mail — not trick decks, just high-quality Bicycles designed for magicians (a little thinner, identical Jokers). Ordered 3 packs, opened 1 - feels good in the hands, but I still can’t faro reliably.
Just sort of drifted, watched card tricks and SNL…low energy, nothing worth writing down. Lights out 1 am.

5.11.18

Up 6, watched Petticoat Fever (George Fitzmaurice 1936), w/ Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy, Reginald Owen. Clearly a filmed play - charming, embarrassing Eskimos aside, but trivial.
Napped 9-10.
Email about family business.
Took dad to dr.’s appt. - just a check-up, nothing new. Stopped for lunch at Denny’s near home.
Back just after noon, read 20 p. of The Mao Case, checked a few things online.
Left for library. Worked 2:15-5:15. I guess I’m pretty happy w/ the first quarter of the piece.
Stopped by Rhino, bought 1 skinny tie record by True Confessions; also the Foothill Goodwill, got a sealed copy of Taylor Swift’s 1989 (which I’ve never heard front to back), and an essay collection on Asian visual art and film.
Listening to disc 2 of the Verve Parker set — 11 minute “Lady, Be Good,” probably from Jazz at the Philharmonic.
Dinner, Jeopardy.
Went out at 8:30, had one milk stout at Last Name Brewery. Pretty dead there, which was fine b/c no one thought it odd that I was reading. 20 p. Pankey - the Christian thing is a near-constant, but his imagery and vocabulary get less safe (if not more contemporary) in the 2000s - it’s still quiet(ist?) poetry by many measures, but there is a lyric intensity there.
Daybook poem, actually copied from notes I took at the reading last night.
Forgot the Mao book, so went home by 10, read quota, went to bed w/ a podcast on.
Oh - the tango disc was Trio Hugo Diaz, 20 Best of Classical “Tango Argentino” (Arc 1995).

5.10.18

Up at 5:30.
Took dad to 9:30 appointment with accountant. Finished to early for lunch.
Home, nap 11-1. Read quota of The Mao Case + about 10 p. of Pankey.
Assorted email, phone calls, dithering.
Went out at 3. Wrote 2 hrs. at Starbucks.
Dinner 6:30; Anthony and Beverly dropped by so I could go out a little early.
Listened to Anthony Braxton, Victoriaville 2017 - a remarkable solo alto sax document that includes abstract (but often lyrical) passages in his various “languages,” and explorations of “Body and Soul” and (uncredited) “Everything Happens To Me” and “What’ll I Do.”
Reading at PRB, w/ Diane Ward (strong prose-y sequence on Hurricane Katrina), Celina Su (liked the ideas/conceits more than the writing-as-writing), and SA Smyth (best poems concerned metaphor and geometry); said hi to Joseph Mosconi, Harold Abromavitz, Erica Kaufman (whom I didn’t recognize from NY at first); picked up a couple of chapbooks.
Home by 11. Went to bed soon after.

5.9.18

Up around 7.
Watched the rest of the Anne Baxter movie - I didn’t see the twist coming. 
Left around noon (some hard-to-reconstruct delays in getting out of the house, and a phone call from Anthony.)
Tried to get a bite at a Thai place near Sprouts, but it was closed; went for a burger on Central instead. Skipped yesterday in daybook; caught up.
Proceeded from the tango disc to the Verve Parker collection - starts with a Bird with Strings track, “Just Friends,” which I guess fit someone’s definition of “best of.”
Got to the library around 1, read day’s quote of The Mao Case, got involved in some email, read Carl Wilson’s review of the Exile in Guyville reissue (Jessica Hopper’s came out in RS yesterday). Some email - wrote to Annie Nero about playing on the 6/16, and singing on "A Different City."
Wrote 3-5:30. I’m having a lot of trouble with this piece - need to push on to the end of the draft and then cut.
Home, dinner; too much meat today. Anthony came over so I could go out around 7:15.
Listened to Parker on the way to Pasadena to see a group called Need for Speed at Battery Books - turned out to be a group of Cal Arts students, inc. a bassoonist, who play music by Chris Speed (sax player/composer, I’ve seen him play w/ Halvorson), though they also did Julius Hemphill and Ornette pieces. Hardly anyone in the store, which is a shame; Rich West, the owner/manager, said he’d sold $4 of merchandise so far that day. Did my bit, I guess, by buying a collected Paul Laurence Dunbar, Art Lange Evidence, David Rattray Opening the Eyelid, Leslie Kaplan Excess—the Factory, a split LP of Billie Holiday and some third stream guy called Ralph Burns, and Sound Forms for Piano, a New World LP w/ Cowell, Cage, Nancarrow, and Ben Johnson pieces, and Gerard Schurmann, Six Studies of Francis Bacon (U.K. composer, never heard of him, taking a flyer). 
Suzanne Vega, Beauty and Crime on the way back. Well-made; the lyrics, on first hearing, make fewer surprising leaps than her most distinctive material.
Got gas for tomorrow; home about 11, in bed soon after.

Have not been reading poetry (the Pankey book I have with me isn't that attractive), nor writing songs/working on music (I have to arrange horns for 2 songs).

5.8.18

Up around 7.
Read some of The Mao Case.
Discussion about family matters w/ dad.
Went out about 11, stopped in Huntley Bookstore (near the library). A shadow of its former self, but noted paperback of Ed Palvic’s book on improvisation, and that Robert von Hallberg’s book on lyric poetry has sections on Johnny Mercer and doo-wop. Also Sean McCrea’s In The Language of My Captor, which I’d like to read.
Worked at Honnold, about noon-4.
Had 1 beer with Evan Kindley and Aaron Kunin at the Press.
Home around 6:30. Dinner, Jeopardy, no good reason to go out. Dull evening; started watching Chase a Crooked Shadow (Michael Anderson 1958), w/ Anne Baxter - low-budget psychological suspense shot in Spain - but got drowsy before 11.