6.9.18

Up about 8:30.
Meditated 15 minutes.
Listened to Mingus, Blues and Roots on the way to Langston Hughes Library. (Stopped for coffee.)
TPA intro 11:30-4:45.
Walked home, more Mingus. I love Jaki Byard.
Needed a nap.
Reserved tix to performance of Braxton compositions tomorrow, Karen Oberlin Mon.
30 min. boogie-woogie - getting into the harder exercises.
Went out again, worked on TPA a bit more at Caffe Benne (which closed at 10) and Starbucks. Ran into Steve Wynn and his wife/drummer Linda.

Elizabeth Alexander on black experimental poetry: "The sonnet is a hardy, enduring form that has crossed cultural lines and survived more or less intact for hundreds of years. It is here to stay. It is a useful, appealing, and flexible form. And though today it is a traditional form, it began as a rebellious one. The sonnet is the first poetic form in what we know as Italian and was written in vernacular, which is to say, not Latin. The tradition is marked with innovation from its roots. And so, to reimagine and reinvigorate it and make it black, if you will, is inevitable work for black poets that opens up innovative possibilities." Good reminder/rejoinder to Williams.

Review of Rhythm and Reaction, a UK exhibition on responses to early jazz. Too bad it won’t come here. Fascinated with this painting by John Souter, The Breakdown 1926.

Also exists in a sketch or study:

The statue is of Minerva, by the way. Not sure which version I prefer. Possible book cover??

Posted last week of entries here, w/ a little editing. Lights out 1 am. Didn't get to Young, Scalapino, or "daily" poetry.

6.8.18

Up at 8.
Meditated 15 min. Going to stay at this length for at least a week.
E77 about 9:30. Did my main promo (fb, twitter, an email) for the 6/16 show. Wrote a longish post (to a private online group) about writer’s block.
Practiced one of the two-part inventions (no. 8) a few times to warm up for playing this afternoon.
Started reading Chad Hansen, “Should the Ancient Masters Value Reason?”; finished it, and a reply by Angus C. Graham (the subject of the festschrift its in) on the train. Listened to Johnny Griffin, Change of Pace.
Sessioned with Dan Clucas and Ehran Elisha at Michiko. Free - just played, interacted, talked some. Taped it for my own curiosity.
Headed back to Jackson Heights w/ Dan, met Bree for dinner at Himalayan Yak. More actual yak on the menu than the last time I was there, though we didn’t order it.
Walked home. Read my quota of Young, though I’m behind on notes - and frustrated with the whole “white cover version as original sin” thing.
Read rest of current section (“It’s go in/quiet illuminated grass/land”) of Scalapino. Permutation of elements.
Lights out midnight

6.7.18

Up at 8.
Meditated 15 min.
Went to Caffe Benne around 10 to catch up on this and read some stuff online. (Wifi at E77 too erratic.)

Daniel Trilling: “Any authority figure who says: “We should look after our own before we look after refugees,” probably isn’t interested in doing either.” (Look for his Lights in the Distance?)
Anti-Hamas piece in Tablet. Not going to link.
Ceravolo review by Douglas Messerli.
Eugene Lim on experimental writing: "What experimental literature has the potential to do then is to name and subvert or destroy the many literary, psychological, and social ideologies that are hidden from us. Perhaps the most obvious way literature does this is by its history of churning through aesthetic ideologies."
Alexis Clement on event about poetry’s “white room” (per Spahr and Young) at the Project. Charlotte Shane on anhedonia (more or less).

Came home at noon, practiced the songs we’re rehearsing tonight.
Left for LES around 3. (Had originally planned to walk to Langston Hughes Library and return before heading toward rehearsal, but that proved unrealistic.) Call from Dad as I was changing trains; and a business call while I was on the F w/ intermittent service.
Listened to Tres Oui, Poised To Flourish. Will go back to it before their/our show - some substantial songs (“Sunday’s Crowd”) and interesting arrangement ideas (trombone, not used in a cheap orch-pop).
Had lunch and read a little Scalapino (tough going, little to hang on to). Worked on TPA at Black Cat about 4-6; left when I ran out of smokes, tried to go to another cafe but it had closed.
Rehearsed w/ Matt, Pete, and Annie at Rivington 7-10. Fun. Got through the whole set, returned to a couple songs at the end, picked a few more spots for Annie to do b.v.. Decided we didn’t need another practice before the 16th, which frees up some time. Productive.
Realized I’d left wallet on the way to subway, went back and got it, no harm, no foul.
Read quota of Young on the train. Got lamb over rice near home. Too late to play piano. Printed current draft of TPA intro.
Lights out 1.

6.6.18

Up before 6 - too early.
Meditated 14 min. Had a long talk w/ Bree.
Had to go back to bed for a while.
Boogie-Woogie 30 min.
Read Scalapino (“The Tango”) at breakfast. Her explicit (to me too sweeping) critique of reason/“heirarchy” more explicit this one.
Lincoln Center library, TPA intro, 2-6.
Headed into Wmsbg. Listened to Teddy Charles, Tentet - larger group arrangements, a lot of blowing over backgrounds, didn’t wow me. Bought 2 sale-rack poetry books, the new Wire, and an anthology of essays on Chinese philosophy at Spoonbill & Sugartown.
Went to Wonders of Nature; met Dan Clucas there. Two Mule Team (Rick Brown and Sue Garner) w/ Willie Klein from Mofungo - included cover of Woody’s “Deportee,” which I have to admit is a good song. Wrote daybook poem (and 2 ahead) during set. Talked to Chris Nelson about Your Band Sucks. C. Joynes, a UK guitarist - instrumental electric set, mainly in a folk/modal fingerpicking mode (inc. “Red Wing” and some other trad material), but ending w/ “Someone to Watch Over Me,” a nice surprise. When I asked about another original I liked, he said it was based on the structure of “Night in Tunisia.” Bent Greg Peterson’s ear about standards. Elkhorn, w/ Rick joining for the last piece. Left a Human Hearts record for someone I knew would be playing there in a few days — he had bought it at a show, there in fact, but gotten wasted and left without it.
Managed to read quota of Young on the way home - section mainly on Bob Kaufman, interesting but not as directly related to what I’m looking for. Home/lights out about 1.

6.5.18

Up 7:45.
Meditated 14 min.
Boogie-Woogie 30 min.
Gym. Chapter of de Unamuno (insistence that belief in the immortal soul is irrational; so much the worse for reason; interesting commentary on Hume, Kant, James). Listened to Jimmy Guiffre, Western Suite (enjoyable and adeptly played, but suspect, what with originals called “Apaches” and “Big Pow Wow”; there was a bit on Ray Noble’s “Cherokee” turning into Parker’s “Ko Ko” in Young yesterday).
Coffee (and 2 hardboiled eggs and a banana) at E77; read last two stories in Oates. Talked to MacGregor for a while.
Home 1:45. Ran out of steam - abandoned library plan.
Called dad. Considered posting to fb about the Alan Seeger book, decided not to take the time.
Made a business call. Played piano for another 30 min. to make up for skipping yesterday.
Went out about 7:30; had a burger, intended to go to E77 but they were having the monthly open mic for a local poetry scene I give a wide berth, went to Starbucks instead, worked on TPA intro 2 hrs. and change. Getting somewhere?
[Reconstructing this later, I don’t remember what I did after 11 or so.]