Up 8.
Meditated. Upped the time to 17 min.
E77 around 9:30. Desultory light editing on TPA intro.
Finished the Johnson collection. Inconsistent. Some interesting background on “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.”
Wrote 3 notebook-page-sized poems.
Read a few p. of the preface to Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.
Home around 12. Practiced HH songs 30 min., read to end of footnotes in Young, made a few marginal notes for later.
Rec’d a copy of Drew Gardner’s new book Defender in the mail.
A few pages of Scalapino. Slow going.
Returned call from my dad.
Listened to the first 2 tracks on Gil Evans, Into the Hot.
30 min. b-w.
Some Suzuki. Nap.
Changed water bottle.
Read Scalapino on the train downtown. Listened to rest of Evans.
Browsed in Codex, wasn’t seriously tempted to buy anything (well, maybe Jameson, Valences of the Dialectic, but when would I read it?)
Flower/Antietam/Elk City at Bowery Electric. Chatted with a few people - David Nagler, Richard Newman, Chris Nelson, Rick and Sue.
Listened to John Lewis Presents Jazz Abstractions - not sure how much of this is Lewis, how much Gunther Schuller. “Piece for Guitar and Strings” is a like a less polite version of the Guiffre trio concept - which makes sense, as Jim Hall is the guitarist. “Variations on a Theme by Thelonious Monk” is an extended composition using the materials of “Criss Cross.” Third stream is not, I guess, well regarded, but this was as interesting and adventurous as anything I’ve listened to since the start of the month.
Home about 10:30. Read a good bit of Suzuki.
Lights out 12:30.
6.13.18
Up 7-ish.
Meditated 15 min.
E77, read Hartley, took notes on Young up to where I’ve read in the footnotes. Took a while, didn’t get to reading the last 30 or so p. of notes.
Came back, dealt w/ some email surrounding the headliners’ cancellation on Sat. Jotted down a few sentences toward a section on the Tin Pan Alley system (history, role of “plugging” etc. - need to gather sources).
Left w/ Bree for her dr.’s appointment, 12:30. That and lunch nearby took up most of the day, ’til 4 or so.
Bought a sale book about the nineties (1890s, is) at Alabaster + 3 at Strand: newly translated Walser, an anthology of poems about world capitals, and a pocket ed. Of Zen Mind, Beginners Mind.
Went to Think to read — Ken Lauterbach walked in, ended up taking the train w/ him, talking about Hartley (I didn’t know he was gay), Losey, and SF.
Yiddish Under the Starts at Summerstage, hosted by Jackie Hoffman. (She announced that she’s playing Yenta in an all-Yiddish production of Fiddler on the Roof — directed by Joel Grey no less.) Frank London, Andy Statman, klezmer-rock bands called Golem and Pharoah’s Daughter, and a cantor singing “Wonderful World” (Armstrong, not Cooke); she also pulled off a strong trumpet solo. Had a hot dog from the Mendy’s concession. Good show, but hard to find a comfortable place to sit there - left near dusk before last couple acts.
Finished the Hartley collection on the train. (Trip extended by missing a stop on the N, and not noticing I’d gotten on a 7 express.)
Humidity got to me today. At home, rested a little, read a few essags in Johnson (I’ll say, he goes his own way). 30 min, maybe even 4-5, b-w.
Dithered online for a while. Lights out 12:30.
Didn’t: write daybook poem, read Scalapino, practice the HH set, listen to a record.
6.12.18
Up 6. No reason to leave the neighborhood today, which is nice for a change.
Listened to a dharma talk.
E77, read more Hartley. Ran into Seton Hawkins from JLC, told him about the Cecile McLorin Savant talks at Pop Con.
Slate piece on the Enlightenment and race (w/ ref. to Charles Mills &c.)
John Yau on Jack Whitten, Mary Heilmann, Thomas Nokoswski; non-conceptual painting and race/gender exclusions:
Will Stephenson on the Everlys (and Ray Johnson): It was Don who showed Holly and his band how to dress, even recommending Holly try a thicker pair of black glasses. Nap, read some of Charles Johnson, Turning the Wheel. Giving it a chance, but the first long essay on Buddhadharma does exactly what I don’t like — suppose that it’s just obvious that the impermanence/interconnection view of phenomena is not only right but easily seen to be so; that our sense of ourselves (not to use the term metaphysically), others, other phenomena as to some (a) discrete and (b) if not permanent, continuous for a while doesn’t have a fairly strong claim on us. (Surely not just b/c we’re Westerners - if it hadn’t been the case in the Buddha’s time, there would have been no point to his teaching).
30 min. b-w, also practiced some of the HH set - and remembered to add the 6/16 show to this site!
Organized a cabinet under Bree’s direction. Finally played side two of Szabo, Spellbinder.
Tidied up my office.
Read 2 sections of a longer, mainly prose, Scalapino piece “The forest in the Euphrates River.” There is “subject matter,” but it’s hard to know what it’s status is, and y’know, content is a glimpse (something Young quotes as well); so it’s not tempting to paraphrase here.
Worked on TPA at E77 about 8-10; got to decent complete draft of the section, almost exactly 3000 words. Saw Macgregor, we let each other work — he had a copy of Caroline Levine’s Forms.
Gym. Read a few p. de Unamuno, not a whole chapter. George Russell Sextet, Ezz-thetic. Dig the leader’s piano solo on “Lydiot,” but “Round ‘Midnight” arrangement seems unnecessarily florid - is that really Dolphy?
Could have done this day (esp. meditation and exercise) in a different order, but knocked off most things on my list, except finishing/taking notes on Young. Lights out midnight.
6.11.18
Up 9:30. Seem to be alternating between sleeplessness and catching up.
Meditated 15 min.
Took some laundry downstairs for Bree and left just before 11. Listened to all of Rhianna, Anti. Odd that it moves from, if not hip-hop, broadly cyclical forms to a couple of songs w/ sectional forms and functional chord progressions (e.g., the retro-soul of “Love on the Brain”).
Therapy.
Quick lunch, worked on TPA at Filicori Zecchini, 96th and B’Way, 2-6 pm. Finally getting there - 2600 words, and I know what the last 2 grafs are.
Karen Oberlin at Triad; Jill Sobule joined her for a song; talked to David Hadju.
Read first 3 stories in L.P. Harltey, Mrs. Carteret Receives. (Need a break from the rigors of Young.)
Home around 9. Rested for a while, 30 min. b-w.
Lights out 11:30.
6.10.18
“Nevertheless a certain class of dishonesty, dishonesty magnificent in its proportions, and climbing into high places, has become at the same time so rampant and so splendid that there seems to be reason for fearing that men and women will be taught to feel that dishonesty, if it can become splendid, will cease to be abominable. If dishonesty can live in a gorgeous palace with pictures on all its walls, and gems in all its cupboards, with marble and ivory in all its corners, and can give Apician dinners, and get into Parliament, and deal in millions, then dishonesty is not disgraceful, and the man dishonest after such a fashion is not a low scoundrel. Instigated, I say, by some such reflections as these, I sat down in my new house to write The Way We Live Now.” —Anthony Trollope
Didn’t sleep well. Up at 5:45.
Poem. Mediated 15 min.
Left about 9:30, Steve Lacy Evidence on train, read Young on hip-hop. I think he’s better on this and poetry than on some earlier music. Had coffee etc. at City Bakery w/ Allen Callaci (visiting, saw Bruce on B’Way) and our old friend Minju, whom I don’t see enough, about 10-noon. Returned a call to Jenny.
Went across the street to Academy, bought the new Exile on Guyville/Girly Sound reissue, the Earliest Negro Vocal Quartets 1894-1928 (Document - something I’ve heard most of an referenced in my soul chapter), Jaki Byard To Them-To Us, and James Carter Quartet, JC on the Set, Unrest Imperial f.f.r.r. (which I strangely never had).
Found a coffee place on 6th, worked on TPA for about 2 hrs, then some email and online dithering.
Face the Music program at Jazz Gallery - h.s. kids playing Braxton, inc. some of his improvisational languages. Teen Ghost Trancin’, as I texted Jean. Joined by a couple of pros. Don’t have the program handy. Learned about it from this Times piece.
Indulged in bbq and a milk stout at Hill Country. (The Big Apple BBQ fest was today in a park near where I was at, I passed as it was closing, guess I felt deprived - saw a table of what looked like rival pitmasters getting ready for some competitive eating, in more than one sense.)
Read quota and then some of Young on train home - conclusion and into the footnotes.
Home about 8:30. Called Dad before I came in the apt.
Crashed for a while, 30 min. b-w. (One feels faintly silly typing “boogie-woogie” every day.)
Read more Scalapino, which I’ve been neglecting. Short poem and a talk on her use of text/image.
Lights out around midnight.