Up 6, if not earlier.
Form notes on 10 songs.
Coffee, finished Okiji.
Came back in time to finish notes on the current R&B disc. Out of 100 songs from 1942-45, about 70% are 12-bar blues of some kind (which could be classified more finely), 20% 32-bar (mainly AABA w/ a few ABAC and others), and the remainder split between other strophic forms (8 or 16 bar, including a couple on the “Mama Don’t Allow” model), surprisingly few verse-chorus forms (“Minnie the Moocher” being the a famous example), and the occasional oddity like Benny Goodman/Charlie Christian’s seemingly through-composed “Solo Flight” and Joe Liggin’s multi-sectional “The Honeydripper.” Will be interesting to compare these stats to post-war years.
Worked on taxes, wrote cover letter for accountant - waiting on one piece of info, but should be able to mail it Mon.
Half-watched Murder in the Big House (B. Reeves Eason 1942) w/ Van Johnson.
Paid the band. Wrote to Laura about next month’s States of Country.
Left about 1. Read Brooks-Motl on train.
Worked 2-4:30.
Train to Unnameable Books. Started Herve Guibert, The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life, his roman a clef about AIDS and the death of Michel Foucault.
Kim Lyons/Sharon Mesmer reading, intro’d by Nada Gordon. Kim read a piece about Las Meninas, Sharon read light/funny short stories - quite engaging. Said hello to a few people, inc. Joanna Fuhrman and her husband Bob. Chose not to go to dinner. Made tomorrow’s (ideal) to-do list — which could take 10-11 hrs. We’ll see.
Walked to Union Hall. Cold. David Nagler’s new band The Legislation, w/ Annie Nero on bass, debuting a new EP. Strong songs, esp. “The Non-Believers” (from an earlier project) and “See the Devil.” Solo openers Daniel Knox (piano) and Clara Kennedy (nylon-string).
Long train ride - read about 1/2 of Guibert. Home at 1.
3.6.20
Up 9.
Form notes on 10 songs.
Left around 11:30. Read Okiji on train, off and on throughout day.
Coffee.
Worked on introduction from about 12:30-5. Strategic reshuffling, mainly. Elizabeth Newton wrote to ask if I could read a few p. of her diss, on ontology.
Took train to Astoria to pick up book and notebook I left at Let Love Inn. Oddly, they were playing Gang of Four when I walked in. Had a slice nearby, home by 7.
Wasted an hr. Tidied office, took out recycling, worked on taxes 8-10. Making progress. Ordered some pants online w/ a gift card my dad’s brother gave me for Christmas.
Half-watched the rest of Larceny and Manhandled (Lewis R. Foster 1949), also w/ Duryea (+ Sterling Hayden, Dorothy Lamour) during most of the above.
Couldn’t listen to music b/c I can’t find the phone adapter for my headphones. Did turn up memo notebook I hadn’t seen for a few days.
Read a little more Ojiki. Lights out 11:30.
[Didn’t - read a journal article. Forgot.]
I have fewer commitments (gigs, rehearsals) the rest of this month - between that and not having to go out for my dad’s surgery, it feels like I might be able to write more consistently between now and mid-May than I have since the last time I got back from CA; and perhaps break ground on languishing musical projects. Guarded optimism.
3.5.20
Woke up 8-ish. Started watching (really just listening to) Larceny (George Sherman 1948) w/ Dan Duryea, Shelley Winters on phone.
Wasted 2 hrs.
Form notes, 10 songs.
Coffee, ch. of Okiji.
Read Gilbert Harman, “The Well-Wrought Broken Hammer: Object-Oriented Literary Criticism.”
20 min. on taxes.
Called Dad. After a recent doctor visit, it looks like he doesn’t need a surgical procedure after all, which I was going to go out for. Which means that I’m more flexible over the next 2 months (before mixing the HH record in May), and can probably visit him in June, and play with Wckr Spgt in Joshua Tree. (Barring a crisis in between.)
Practiced a little more, got myself together for gig (cords, pedals, picks, cds). Even made set lists.
Read a few things online, inc. Robert Christgau’s essay about his knee/thigh/mobility troubles.
Took a break for coffee around 4:30, read another ch. of Okiji.
Called car for HH show at Let Love Inn (Astoria) 6:15. Load-in, soundcheck, bite w/ most of the Scene Is Now, bought a 9-volt for delay pedal.
Acceptable crowd - regulars inc. Ira Kaplan; Jordan, Brad and.Chloe from the reading last week, K.C. Trommer, Jay Sherman-Godfrey.
Set: One who fell/Boring postcards/Cover your tracks/Illusions/I Invented Rock ’n’ Roll.Niacin/Man Up!/Guesthouse/Not Just When We Kiss [Damaged Goods]/Enemies of song/Janet Shaw/Faith and Credit.
Seemed to go over. Always room for improvement. Scene Is Now followed - really like their newer songs (some recorded, some not).
Car back, home not long after midnight. Realized I left a book and fold for Laura (who I thought might be there) at the bar. Lights out 1.
[Didn’t: read poetry, write]
3.4.20
Up 8. Listened to a comedy podcast in bed. (Trash, but I might as well own up that many mornings start this way.)
Coffee, took notes on another 50 p. of Butler, Playing Something That Runs.
Started Hannah Brooks-Motl, Earth
Took down a quote from Disciplining Music I want to discuss re formalism.
Sorted receipts for taxes, took form notes on The R&B Years 1942-1945, v. 2, disc 1. (10 songs).
Downloaded some Brazilian songbooks from a link David Nagler sent.
Read Dave Oliphant, “Huidobro and Parra: World-Class Antipoet”
Left at 2:15. Read introduction Fumi Okiji, Jazz as Critique.
Bought new guitar cable, shoes.
Therapy.
Dinner w/ Bree.
Home 8, mopped floor.
Coffee, tried to write a paragraph on formalism for 90 min.
Home 10:30. Changed water bottle for Bree. Ran through a few HH songs on gtr.
Lights out 12:30.
Listened to the first disc of Okazaki’s Monk set over course of the day. Also some HH roughs, to get the lyrics in my head.
3.3.20
Up 6:30. Watched a couple of late night monologues. Notes on a few r&b songs.
Left at 8. Started a ch. of Disciplining Music (on Schenknerian meta-theory, very abstract), continued later
Therapy.
Lincoln Ctr. Library about 11:30-5:30. Mainly read through an old draft of the first substantive ch. of my book, to remind myself of what was in it (so, what not to put in the introduction). Productive? I don’t know. It’s overlong, would like to look for cuts.
Bought a new pair of Converse at Discount Shoe Warehouse, mine are beat. Looked for dress shoes, nothing quite right.
Had time for coffee, read a short, somewhat clarifying summary of Jakobson’s account of poetry/poetics (a course handout I d/l’d from somewhere). Also made quick notes on the last 2 songs on the r&b disc (also on my phone). Benny Goodman’s “Solo Flight,” essentially a Charlie Christian feature, is mystifying — no obvious head melody, seems almost through-composed
Miles Okazaki (g), Wendy Eisenberg (g), Michael Formanek (b), Uri Caine (p), Chex Smith (d) at the Stone. Seemingly some composed material, as several players had music out. 2 guitars, w/ Wendy often as post-Bailey foil/spoiler to Okazaki’s (somewhat) more jazz-language approach and timbre; Caine often sounded quasi-classical, even Romantic, against them. Jacob Garchik came in just before it started; pleasantries, but he left before the end. Talked to Wendy briefly before + after.
Bought Okazaki’s Monk album (6 cds, every tune).
Finished off Discliplining Music on the train — ch. on Gregorian chant, and an anodyne summary/epilogue.
Home 10:30, Bree already in bed. Wasted time. Lights out midnight
[Didn’t: practice, work on taxes]