6.15.18

Upset about ICE detention centers - don’t know what to say, or how to hashtag-resist. It has to be acknowledged that the underlying policies continue Obama-era trends; yet the grotesquerie of a coloring book Trump outline on a mural, which also puts me in mind of some Glenn Ligon pieces…. As w/ the Holocaust (or slave quarters, or Manzanar) there will a ‘museum’ of this someday, but we won’t learn anything.

Up around 8.
Slow morning. Got involved on Twitter.
Meditated 17 min.
Finished the Suzuki. 
A couple of chores. Nap.
Went out to E77 at 3:30. Read 50 p. of Sanjek, American Popular Music and its Business 1790-1909. Not going cover-to-cover right now - I’m starting post-Civil War, just got to first mention of the Witmarks. Fascinating.
Chunk of last long piece in Scalapino, “DeLay Rose” as in Tom.
Winnowed some email.
Read 3 short poems at random in that Capital anthology (on Quito, Copenhagen, and Cairo, quoincinentally). Wrote 2 daybook poems (I’m ahead a couple days no - planning to end that project/practice next week, on the solstice.)
Home 7:30. 30 min. b-w. 
Played some of the HH set.
Emails going ‘round about Overlord being added to the show, and the batting order.
Don’t think I got up to much in the mid/late evening, did end up reading a few stories I from Brain Evenson’s Altmann’s Tounge.
Lights out about 1.

6.14.18

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.