Up at 7.
Meditated 18 min. 30 min. b-w.
Listened to Mary Halvorson, Code Girl on train. Brought lyrics, but couldn’t find it in my bag (turned up later).
Coffee, read a bit of Fagin, wrote 2 daybook poems.
Therapy.
Read in Sanjek over lunch.
Worked on bridge encyclopedia piece 2:30-6:30 at Lincoln. Read Middleton’s relevant sections on “Form” in the previous edition. Revised about the first 1/4 of the piece - 650 words, not bad.
MoMa, for screening of Frances Stark’s adaptation of The Magic Flute. Basically a teaching piece, sort of a cross between a two-hour follow-the-bouncing-ball animation and Peter and the Wolf. I’m not an opera buff, so I learned a lot. Saw Dan Fox on the way in, but he had to wait for his gf Sarah, and I didn’t see them on the way out.
Read a little more Sanjek on the way home, didn’t make 50 p. today.
Lights out 12:30.
6.17.18
Decadent: Up at noon.
Went to Caffe Bene to update this.
Came home, meditated 18 min. Read a few p. of Fagin.
Called Dad, w/ Bree, for Father’s Day.
30 min. b-w. Also tried to play “Bye-Ya” and “Reflections.”
Went to E77 around 5:30. Read 50 p. of Sanjek.
Came home, listened to a ch. of Trollope, and Cecil Taylor Jazz Advance (1958; Trane’s “destructive” “My Favorite Things” has nothing on alleged “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To”). Which reminded me to read Val Wilmer’s obit in The Wire.
Slow, post-show recovery day.
6.16.18
Up 8.
Meditated 17 min.
Coffee/bagel - finished the Scalapino.
Gym. Finished a ch. of de Unamuno (did I mention he’s long-winded), listened to Tyler First Recordings, and some of Coltrane Time (w/ Cecil Taylor).
Home around 11. 30 min b-w, about the same practicing tonight’s set.
Started getting myself/equpiment/merch/clothes together after that, and tried to relax a little. Watched a conversation between Henry Threadgill and Jason Moran at Harlem Stage from a couple years back, and part of another Moran talk that started making me mad.
Left around 4:30. Listened to the rest of the Coltrane/Taylor + the Tres Oui record.
Got to Bushwick w/ time to stop in a bookstore called Human Relations (there’s another I haven’t been to a few blocks away, Topos). A couple of tempting academic music books, but limited myself to a $1 book by a UK poet I’d never heard of (title not handy). Loaded in at Alphaville, made set list and read a few p. of Betsy Fagin, All Is Not Yet Lost. (Had decided not to pack the heavy hardcover Sanjek w/ guitar/cords/pedals/records. Felt like a pack animal as it was.) Rest of the band, and the others’ rolled in around 7. Annie brought her husband. Didn’t try to soundcheck. Went back and forth about the order, finally settled.
Overlord - solid, covered “Just What I Needed.” Pepto G, apparently an offshoot of a band I don’t know called Psychic Selves - very delayed/revered out; their hipster friends left immediately after, which I could have predicted. Still, decent, attentive crowd for the HH set - inc. Drew G. and Katie D., Deborah W. and a friend, Drew B., Rory B., Andrew H., Nick M. Seemed like most of the songs got over, Annie sang a bit more than previous show.
Set: See Me As a Lover/Inland Valley Water Table Blues/A Different City/Soft Gamma Repeater/Illusions/The Old Currencies/Still in Error/Guesthouse/Not Just When We Kiss/Flag Pin
Unfortunately, some of -our- friends left for Tres Oui, but they brought it. Nate, the frontman, does Morrissey when not playing guitar. Got to hang out + talk for a while after, good guys. Walked to train w/ Andrew, until he found a car. Ran into Marc Nasdor just outside the Monroe L station, biking home from Katy Bohinc’s reading at Torn Page. Chatted. Listened to an audiobook of Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage which I’ve been listening to off and on, mostly before bed. Home at 2, but stayed up for an hr. to wind down. Lights out 3.
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.