[Our Internet was down until the 17th.]
3/13
Up 8:30. Took a while to get going.
Form notes, 10 songs, The R&B Years 1946 v. 2-disc 2.
Coffee. Read quota of Butler.
Not a lot of action until 2:45. Tried to work on intro for 2 hrs. Found the right draft of one particular graf, took a long time to revise.
Bldg. meeting.
Misc. work in office - email, filing - after dinner. Tried to set things up to do something real tomorrow. Had on a so-so thriller, The Shadow on the Window (William Asher 1957) w/ Betty Garrett.
Got involved in card magic instructional videos. Lights out around 11:30.
[Pretty desultory - first day of event cancellation/social distancing/semi-quarantine. I did go out for coffee twice.]
3/14
Up 8:45.
Form notes, 10 songs.
Coffee 10-noon. Wrote 400 words on meter.
Reading/watching COVID-19 news of an on.
Read 50 p. Scott. Changed sheets w/ Bree. Lunch.
25 p. Butler (w/ unplanned nap).
Finished reading Johnston.
45 min. or so on email.
Read another 50 p. of Scott.
Started watching the RAF-themed The German Sisters (Margarethe von Trotta 1982) on Mubi. Saw about 15 min., but the internet went down and stayed out for the rest of the eveningMade myself write another 100 or so words.
Listened to disc 3 of Okzaki/Monk, worked on organizing living room, vinyl, sheet music in credenza, etc. for 45. Helped Bree w/ laundry.
Read a poem from Hotel Lautremont.
3/15
Up 7:30. Internet still downForm notes, 10 songs.
Farmer’s market - open for the time being, meat purveyor was out of some things, the produce guy Bree likes was fine, Hawthorne farms had the usual.
Coffee, worked about 11-1. Revised/added to “meter” bit, started reconstruct “harmony.”
Rite Aid out of rubbing alcohol, backing soda.
Notes on a few more songs, more card magic, started watching a (saved) video of Amy Silliman talking about paint at the Whitney.
Finished Butler. Read more Scott.
Called dad.
Worked on setting Hadju lyric 45 min.
Went out for coffee to get online, ripped a few more r&b discs and worked on harmony grafs a bit more. Probably did add 500 words or thereabouts today.
Lights out 11:30.
3/16
Up 6:30. Listened to part of a 5049 podcast w/ Nate Wooley.
Form notes, 10 songs, The R&B Years 1947, disc 1 of 4. [1946 collection stayed close to the proportions of 1942-1945; perhaps 1 or 2 fewer 32 bar songs, and a few more blues-w-bridges, e.g. “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” and “Wake Up Old Man.” Still 15-20% AABA]
Verizon service call; scheduled technician for Wed.
Coffee 8-10. Worked on intro. Harmony section could get long. Maybe not needed. I won’t have this luxury from here on out: by state-wide decree, restaurants (I assume including coffee shops) among other things are closing tomorrow, 9 am.
Home. Finished Scott; watched Sillman video; read 25 p. Drew Milne, Go Figure.
Moved a cabinet shelf.
Read editor’s intro to Foucault, The Politics of Truth (late-ish talks/interviews about the Enlightenment)
Song notes on rest of current disc.
Worked on a notice to distribute to the building of corona virus, for rest of the board to revise/approve - had been putting it off b/c of email being down. Finally took a screenshot, sent it to board pres., went up to her apt. later to hash it out.
Notes on rest of same disc.
Hadju lyric, 30 min. or so.
Jenny T. called.
Okzaki/Monk disc 4
Read to p. 59 of the Foucault.
Lights out 11:30.
3/17
Up 6. Misc. podcasts.
Bree says she feels a sore throat, cancelled a housecleaner whose first visit was supposed to be today.
Notes, 5 songs, The R&B Years 1947
Therapy, via Zoom.
Had a weird/garbled phone msg, apparently about an investment opportunity, from a friend’s #.
Groceries - no onions, or Bree’s preferred brand of eggs, but plenty of most produce, and paper towels.
Not a lot of focus in afternoon. More of the current R&B disc. Tried to read in Foucault, too abstruse. Card tricks. Went back out to buy Bree a thermometer (last one they had at Rite Aid, expensive new-fangled model). She talked to her doctor, who said to monitor symptoms. Temp. below 99. It’s possible she has a cold or something, but so far I doubt it’s corona. But we’ll see. She’s supposed to avoid contact w/ everyone other than me (and limit that, not share utensils) until symptoms subside, + 72 hrs.
Made myself do some work. Typed up and revised 2 short poems from a notebook c. 2018.
Went back to the harmony grafs. Didn’t cut as much as I thought I might, but came up w/ a version of 1st graf I can stand, for now, w/ some sense of the direction forward. 278. I’d like to progress at 250 a day during this stressful period — there’s a lot of time, potentially, but it’s hard to focus.
Tried to watch a Fred Allen movie I’d downloaded w/ Bree, but the sound and sync were erratic. Watched 30 min. of an old campy favorite instead — the pilot episode of The Big Party, a Revlon-sponsored variety show, with the conceit of celebs getting together b/c host Rock Hudson is in town at the Waldorf. Also ft. Tallulah Bankhead, Sammy Davis Jr., Mort Sahl, Esther Williams, Lisa Kirk — and Matt Dennis (“Everything Happens To Me”) at the piano.
Read 1/2 of Frances Ponge, Soap, trans. Lane Dunlop. Reminded of it by a fb post of Nada Gordon that linked to an excerpt in the Paris Review (different translation). Delightful — I read Ponge and think, oh, this is poetry.
Read Jose Antonio Bowen, “Who Plays the Tune in ‘Body and Soul’?”
Lights out around 11. Dharma talk.
3/18
Up 7. Watched/read coronavirus news on phone, showered before 8.
Form notes, 7 songs, R&B Years 1947, disc 3.
Verizon technician came; worked in the basement, then gave us a new modem. (Had said he hoped he wouldn’t have to come into the apt., but didn’t balk.) Probably done by 9. Bree stayed in bed to avoid contact. Not much change in her slight is-it-or-isn’t sore throat/temperature - the latter ranging from 99.3 to 98.8 over the course of the day.
Wasted time. Napped (no caffeine). Read some Ponge.
Watched a CDC Q&A on coronavirus w/ Bree. Live-stream hung up, so we paused it until it was almost over. Nothing really new, or that you can’t read online.
Cut down yesterday’s graf a bit. Short walk outside to Rite Aid.
Therapy, online.
Made coffee at home for the first time in many years (I have a grinder, a stand-alone water boiler, and a one-cup ceramic dealie.) Not terrible. I actually have 1 lb+ of beans someone gave me in the freezer.
Revised 2 more notebook poems.
2nd walk, around 6.
Finished Ponge.
Called our friend Ron in L.A.
Lights out 11:30.
[Too much time online today, and didn’t really get the book window I wanted, between the scheduled repair and therapy. ]