Up 5:30. Coffee around 7, a little Williams (Sokei, but I keep forgetting his name), poem. Read the first poem in Vincent Katz, Swimming Home. Came back, relearned “Each and Every One,” “Signed Curtain,” and “Model Worker” for Sat. Tried to figure out some details of “Our Hearts Do” on the piano - fooled w/ this off and on during the day. I feel like I had the bridge changes a while ago, but something doesn’t gel when I play it now. Spent some time with Bree, left for library at 2:30, had a bite on the way, worked on chapter ending 4-6, though I mainly went to return books and copy a couple p. from Edward Berlin. (Looks like I’m writing 1500 words about James P. Johnston’s “Charleston” for Sound American, and Willie “the Lion” Smith’s comments are relevant.) Headed downtown to meet Drew Boston for an adaption of In the Penal Colony at New York Theater Workshop - his idea (he’d gotten the tix for his birthday), but he got stuck at work, couldn’t even meet me after for a bite. Saw it anyway - performed entirely by 3 African-American men, undifferentiated for the first 1/3, which opened w/ them singing Sam Cooke’s “Chain Gang” and some athletic dance/mime (I mean: boxing, basketball), before settling into an impressionistic but recognizable adaptation of the Kafka story, and then back out into the framing material. In sum, an interpretation of black incarceration and, a bit more confusedly, spectacular mediation; I don’t think I understood a closing speech on punishment, but the director’s notes had a reading list of The Fire Next Time, Citizen, and related titles. All in all, not completely effective, but it doesn’t bother me that it somewhat literalized the source material as “political”; the more ambiguous prose version (which is also a Christian allegory) still exists, and this is one thing theater does. Waited for Drew at Vesalka until he texted that he wasn’t making it, ate at Blue Ribbon closer to F train instead. Hot and humid all day, pretty sick of the walking. Ended up managing to read all of the short edited volume Adorno’s Dream Notes I’d intended as a birthday present over the course of the day. Humanizes him (not that I’m sure he’d have liked that). The essay at the end (by a German critic, can’t recall name) is fine, but much less engaging. Pretty much collapsed upon getting home around 11; read a few more p. of Katz.
jul 18
[Touched on the horns before bed last night. I should probably call “Faith and Credit” done for now, pending running it by the players. (Discussed this w/ Cheryl and Jay at lunch last week - changes/reduction on the session are usual.) Lights out midnight.]
Up 6:30. Went to Cafe Benne, finished typing up notes on Culler, and wrote a 300 word graf toward the chapter conclusion. Came back at 9:30 or so, saw that I had missed an email from my neighbor about rescheduling our philosophy chat. May or may not happen later today. [It didn’t. Too bad.] Reread the Snead article we were going to talk about anyway. A lot of misc. packing/typing up of loose-ends. Helped Bree change our bedding. Took a few notes on Edward Berlin’s little Reflections and Research on Ragtime booklet, paged through Roholt’s Groove and realized there was nothing I needed, checked Kevin Young’s The Grey Album on a couple things, then returned it to the branch library around the corner. After Bree went out, I tested out the repaired Princeton, partly to make sure one of my tuning pedals worked, and ended up practicing some of by b-b-q set for Sat., which I’d been putting off. Watched, at Bree’s recommendation, a short sub-B-movie, a pro-business, anti-muckraking MGM programmer called Hometown Story (Joseph M. Newman, 1951). Highlight is Alan Hale Jr. explaining to a chef exactly how he want his porkchops cooked. Also Marilyn Monroe in one of her early tiny roles, though she makes an impression. “I always treat men with respect. That way they treat me with respect.” Got back to the Bert Williams book - which, though not engagingly organized, gets better as it goes along; I’m getting the sense of his ideas about the marginalization of West Indian/Carribean concerns in the “bichromatic” regime of U.S. race relations. Interesting account of Marcus Garvey as a trickster/showman. Took a box of junk that Bree had collected out for trash day - happy we’re actually getting crap out of the apt. Worked another 90 min. at E77, left before music started. Not much of note after 9. 2 p. in poetry notebook. Listened to music on shuffle in bed; I think I can remove the OCR of Ragtime from my phone. Lights out 11.
july 17
Slept very poorly, might have been up around 3, listened to podcasts. Had to actually get up at 6, cleaned up and got coffee quickly, left w/ Bree at 8. Her appointment, the follow-up her kidney stone procedure, went smoothly - we were out of Mt. Sinai by 10. She’s back to normal on this front. She went home, I stayed around Union Square and read Green at Think ’til noon - finished it later on the train back. Stopped in the Strand, bought nothing. Came home, hot and exhausted, rested but Bree needed my help repacking the kitchen A/C we have to return. Annoying but necessary; UPS picked in up later. Napped about 3:30 to almost 6. Played through a couple of the songs I bought last night. Called Dad. Went to E77, worked on “I Ain’t Got Nobody” section from 7-9 over 1 beer. Rounded off, I think it might be the end of the chapter - which I had previously conceived as going all the way up to “I Got Rhythm.” Requires changing (and shortening, which is good) the introductory section. Thunderstorms. Had a bite, bought baking soda for Bree. Home by 10, finished Tuten - terrific book, somewhat comparable to Barthelme but even more deadpan, with a lot of found material. He quotes Engels’s “Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State”:
“The making of contracts, however, requires people who can freely dispose of their persons, actions, and possessions, and meet each other on the basis of equal rights. It was precisely the creations of these ‘free’ and equal people that was one of the principal society.” (47-8 - goes on from there, on bourgeois marriage)
july 16
Up 7. Left at 8, reading Green. Therapy. Lunch in that area, then worked over coffee for about 3 hrs. Came home, should have napped but didn’t. Dealt w/ a lot of email, wrote response to Holbo. Left at 7 to meet Laura and Jeremy for L.’s birthday at Vince Giordano & His Nighthawks’ weekly gig at Iguana. They were, frankly, better than I remembered - I feel like I saw his w/ some second-call players, or doing less rehearsed material, a few years ago. They have a huge “book” and Vince can call a couple 100 tunes at least, inc. request from the obvious (full-scale “Sing Sing Sing” complete w/ drum solo) to the obscure (“Four or Five Times,” though not this arrangement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj4GT9t2uRM). Not this arrangement. Also had a nice “I Got Rhythm” chart. A couple of guest turns (inc. “Charleston”) by a female period song-and-dance trio, the Honey Taps. Stayed for all 3 sets. Birthday guests inc. Rachel, Jay, Chris and his partner from the Tall Pines (we didn’t recognize each other at first), woman who books the swing series at Lincoln Ctr., a couple other people I didn’t know, and Tav Falco (yes, that Tav Falco), who hit it off w/ Bree and invited us to visit him in Vienna. Also talked to Vince’s clarinetist, Dan Levenson, and Phil Schaap.
Vince sells old sheet music, presumably duplicates and unwanted material from his collection, at $3 a pop, alongside his CDs. Spent $60, mainly on a folder marked “Black composers, professional copies,” Benny Carter’s “Rainbow Rhapsody,” several lesser Ellington tunes w/ various lyricists, a novelty song about “Queen Isabella” co-composed by “Chu” Berry, some Waller-Razaf, and Ivory Joe’s “I Always Lost My Mind.” And, outside of that folder, “Moanin’ in the Morning” (Arlen-Harburg, from “Hooray For What!”), a 1949 tune from a show I’ve never heard of by Jay Gorney w/ lyrics by Jean and Walter Kerr, a Nathaniel Shildkret song, “Just A Romantic Fool” pub’d by Ralph Peer’s Southern Music. And, the piece de resistance, even though it’s a Xerox: “Bill Johnson, the Monkey and the Dago,” Bob Cole (w/ no Johnson Bros.), 1896.
Car back to JH w/ Laura and Jeremy. Bree has a doctor’s appt. tomorrow, so we got to bed pretty quickly after that. Stalled on the Bert Wms. book, but read a few pages of Tuten’s Mao book which looks to be a kind of collage novel. Didn’t touch the horns.
july 15
Up 7. Went out early to read 60 p. of Green. Back about 9:30. Set up new keyboard, stood old on up against a wall in my office for electronics disposal at a later date. A couple of small chores for Bree; I have a list of to-dos before leaving for CA Sat. Watched more of Che pt. II while eating lunch. Went to Lincoln Ctr. Library around 1. There aren’t any books about Marion Harris. At the point w/ this section where it feels baggy and confused. In any case, it’s 3K words as of leaving at nearly 8. Read the Bert Williams book on the train, both ways. Touched on the horns in the evening. Finished the Che movie. Did a little packing. Bought Mekons tix for CA. Lights out around midnight. [Sorry I’m saying less of interest; I’m wearing down again, will probably stop at the end of the month.]