3.11.20

Up 6.
Form notes, 10 songs.
Coffee. Read 25 p. Butler, 30 p. Johnson, Brian Kane, “Acousmatic Fabrications: Les Paul and the ‘Les Paulverizer.”
Started a long article on “Body and Soul.”
Left about noon, made quota of Butler on train (though I ought to go back to musical examples w/ accompanying CD).Library 1-3:30. Moved around to a few moments in the “form” section of intro - progress not steady, but I don’t have much interfering w/ work the next few days. Saw Tomeka again.
Check out Mark Slobin, Folk Music, A Very Short Introduction.
Read some Johnson - by ’71, she’s a self-proclaimed “lesbian chauvinist,” writing what was once a dance review column in stream-of-consciousness style. Listened to a few tracks of Okzaki.
Therapy.
Dinner w/ Bree.
Home about 8. Tidied office - a little dispiriting to pile up loose ends/to-dos, but at least I cleaned up.
Finished notes on the current R&B disc. Ripped the next two discs.
Watched Pleasure Cruise (Frank Tuttle 1933), w/ Roland Young, Genevieve Tobin.
Lights out midnight. L&O podcast (another of my brainless comforts.

3.10.20

Ups for an hr+ around 2-3. Watched some crap online. This was happening a lot a few months ago, not so much recently. Not sure why it recurred. Got back to sleep for 3 hrs, up 6:45.
Form notes, 10 songs.
Train, read 25 p. Butler.
Therapy.
Bought Bree some unsweetened chocolate.
Lunch, coffee (late).
LC library noon - worked about 11:30-2, reinserting a couple of bits into the intro. I think it works now; will move on (or back) to form/alism.
Responded to E. Newton’s diss passage (at some length, about 900 words written quickly - lucid but not what you’d publish, like a peer review). Hope it helps.
Took a break - read some of Jill Johnston, Disintegration of a Critic on Judson, Fluxus, &c. Supposed to get weirder.
Ran into Tomeka Reid, who was studying up on bebop for a job interview at Brown. Told her how much I liked her last record.
Worked off and on 4-5:30. Tried to settle on 1st 2 grafs of form section. A lot of this material exists in multiple drafts.
Watched some of this weird conversation between Earl Sweatshirt and his mother, Cheryl L. Harris of “Whiteness as Property” fame. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwgIWG6V3qk
Library closed at 6. Finally bought new headphone adapter at Apple Store. Sandwich.
Read Butler in plaza at Lincoln Ctr. until Bree showed up. Finally listened to a little more Okzaki.
NY Philharmonic, Debussy Apres-Midi… and Nocturnes, Ravel Scheherazade, and Scriabin Poem of Ecstasy. Some empty seats - I don’t know if people are starting to stay home. Singer for Ravel mouthed/mimed “wash your hands” to audience.
Home about 10. Read a bit more Butler, didn’t quite make 50 p.
Lights out 11:30. Dharma talk.

[Didn’t read a journal article.]

3.9.20

Up 9:30. John Oliver segment.
Form notes, 10 songs.
Left at 11:45. Mailed tax documents to acct. Done until the return shows up.
Coffee, started Mark J. Butler, Unlocking the Groove.
53rd St. library, worked 1:30-4:30. Putting stuff back in.
Had a bite, home 6. Chatted w/ Bree.
Read: to p. 53 of Butler, p. 80 or so of Brooks-Motl.
Took out recycling, brought up laundry.
Read Susan Reid, “Socialist Realism in the Stalinist Terror: The Industry of Socialism Art Exhibition, 1935-41.”
Cooked some vegetables, ate w/ Bree. Called Dad.
Wasted some time, but finished Brooks-Motl. Better than some poetry I’ve read recently.
Lights out not much after 11.

3.8.20

Up 9:30 - lost an hr. to Daylight Savings Time (which I’m otherwise happy about). SNL.
Farmer’s market. Signed a ballot position for a local Dem candidate.
Home, put on KSPC livestream for a while.
Worked through email, 1 hr., did various related tasks. E.g. paid Bob, downloaded concert tickets.
Talked w/ Bree about home projects, travel plans, hr.+. (“Family Meeting”) [Hired a housekeeper.]
Coffee (late), read:
Thomas McEvilley, “Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief” (famous negate review of MoMa’s 1984 primitivism show)
Richard A. Peterson, “Why 1955? Explaining the Advent of Rock Music”
Katherine Spring, “Pop Go the Warner Bros., et al.: Marketing Film Songs during the Coming of Sound.”
Bookstall across the street: Moravia, Contempt, CDs of Grace Jones, Pull Up to the Bumper and Ahmed El-Salamouny, Aquarela. 
Form notes on The R&B Years 1946, v. 1, disc 1, 10 songs. Some interesting discoveries already, re compound forms: Gatemouth Brown’s “I Ain’t Mad At You, Pretty Baby” and “Did You Ever Love a Woman” seem to set some precent for “I Got a Woman.”
Worked on taxes.
Spent 30-45 min. or so starting to work on music for a lyric David Hadju sent me. Would like to finish this, then go on to lyrics for the Eyelashes tracks.
Headed down to the Jazz Gallery to hear Tyshawn Sorey Sextet - but I had the wrong night. Disappointing. Looked in the windows of Rizzoli (closed at 7). Could have gotten a coffee or a drink or a bite, but headed home, had a slice after I got off the train. Read quite a bit of Guibert on the train, both ways.
Home 8:30, wasted 90 min, then finished Guibert.
Lights out 11:30.

[Didn’t write or try to, read Brooks-Motl, listen to Miles Okzaki]

3.7.20

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.