Up 7:15. Watched late night monologues.
Coffee. Exercised.
Form notes, 10 songs - end of 1948 set.
Breakfast. Therapy. Took out recycling.
Worked 11-1.
Called Dad, and my uncle Anthony.
Some office work.
Talked to Bree after she got off the phone with her mom, who tells her virus news that makes her anxious. That, in turn, throws me off.
Read 25 p. Adorno 4:30-6. End of main text, letters from A. to Bloch; and Horkheimer to A. — lengthy invective on his dislike of an early publication of Habermas’s, under the Institute’s aegis. Strangely, H. comes off, secondhand, as a “revolutionary” Marxist - one thinks of him as a softer, ‘liberal” version of first-gen Frankfurt School figures. And there is something defensive in H.’s response.
2nd walk.
Watched Elvis Costello’s livestream for the NHS, after the fact.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfXyl0fBcTY&fbclid=IwAR2Mv53ViI3Mwxj6oIiHibYP6zXzoAVKIf55gNwDlhbJd8duq_NPCPx9Th8
And some of one with Mike Davis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOp9G5hoQnM
Finished Reines.
Turned a couple of the LEAR poems into a 100 wd prose piece, but didn’t type up anything new.
Watched a few more of Rob M’s videos - still haven’t made mine.
Finished the Adorno bio, finally. A couple more letters, and a rather long, discursive acknowledgements section - that is partly about food and coffee in Frankfurt. Substantial, and will be in my thoughts, but I’m looking forward to reading something lighter, which would be anything.
Finished watching Impact (Arthur Lubin 1949) w/ Brian Donleavy, Charles Coburn, and two underrated actresses of the period, Ella Raines and Helen Walker.
Managed a little more office cleanup.
Lights out 12:30. Put on a David Harvey podcast about neoliberalism, but fell asleep quickly.
3.30.20
In & out of bed during the night. Dharma talk.
Up 8:30. Form notes, 10 R&B songs. Exercise.
Walk. Worked 10:30-1. Sent graf. Exchange with Dylan.
Lunch.
40 p. Adorno bio, 2:15-4:15.
Read 3rd section of Reines. Anaphoric porn. (Don’t mean to be glib - abjection isn’t my thing, but every so often she hits on something I like a lot, like a poem about her relation to cultural capital.)
Late shower, 2 LEAR poems, about 15 min The German Sisters.
2nd walk at 6.
Wrote 100 words from a prompt.
Made dinner w/ Bree.
Finished The German Sisters. I do find it odd that the nature of the radical sister’s political activities and associations become, if anything, vaguer as the movie goes on — though likely viewers (i.e. the German audience) would know the RAF context.
Bree showed me an odd anti-Communist ad for CARE packages from an episode of What’s My Line.
Dithered from 9-ish on. Texted Andrew Hulktrans (who’d checked in a couple days ago). Wrote mixing notes for 3 more songs. A little bit of office work.
Lights out 11:30.
A little less anxious - not reading as much news, have felt a bit better since Trump caved on Easter. Saw a chart that suggested a dip in the number of new cases at NY hospitals. Who knows - but right now, I’ll take it.
3.29.20
Up for a bit at 6, had to go to bed again, up at 8:30.
Joined Bree in talking to our friend Ron in CA on FaceTime.Made coffee. Walk.
Didn’t go to Farmer’s Market - Bree and her mom (who says they’ve been closed where she lives) were concerned about safety/social distancing. I’m not sure how I feel, and might go next week, but it didn’t seem like we were in dire need of something we can’t get elsewhere.
Worked 11-1. Sent a graf.
Form notes, 10 R&B songs, into disc 4 of current year (1948).
Read 15 p. Adorno bio.
Put in grocery delivery order w/ Bree, took a while.
Had her sign (our first joint) tax returns.
Finished Adorno quota, 2nd section of Reines. Disarming.
Watched another 10 min. of The German Sisters.
2nd walk, about 6 pm.
Listened to Kris Davis, Matt Mitchell, Aruan Ortiz, Matthew Shipp, New American Songbooks Volume 2. Shipp’s versions of hymns are beautiful - not entirely, but largely, played straight. Kris Davis does a prepared piano version of Carla Bley’s “Sing Me Softly of the Blues,” also a highlight. The LP pressing isn’t that great, tbh - a lot of surface noise. But there’s a download card.
Read David Brackett, “From Jazz to Pop: Swing in the 1940s” (actually a ch. of his 2016 book Categorizing Sound.” Interesting, but bad on the “work concept.” Also doesn’t realize that Johnny Mercer wrote “G.I. Jive”; thinks his recording is a cover of Louis Jordan’s. Sigh.
Zoom session w/ Ted & Wendy - read and talked about each other poems. Edifying.
Not much after 10 pm. Lights out 11:30.
3.28.20
Up 7:30 am.
Shostakovich Quartet #1.
Walk. Exercise.
Worked 11-1. Still a little bit ahead. Sent off a paragraph.
Didn’t do too much until 2:30.
Read 30 p. Adorno bio.
Bree made salmon. I mopped the floor afterwards.
Couple of email replies. Opened some mail (that had been around for more than 24 hrs) - CDs, LP, tax return.
Finally figured out how to open a password-protected doc. so I can print it.
Walk at about 5.
Worked on mixing notes for Mitch, first 2 songs - maybe an hr? Get this done by mid-April.
Another 10 p. Adorno — I can’t make 502 LEAR poems, incorporated 100 words from a writing prompt.
Watched a UK movie w/ Myrna Loy, If This Be Sin (Gregory Ratoff 1949).
Read first section of Ariana Reines, Mercury. Lights out 12:30.
3.27.20
Was up about 3-5. Read to the end of a ch. in Adorno bio. Dharma talk.
Up 9:30. Bree went to store. Toilet knob broken.
Made coffee.
Form notes, 10 songs (R&B 1948, disc 3).
Returned a call from caregiving agency - just checking in/updating contacts, esp. on out of state family.
Called Dad. He doesn’t want to set up FaceTime.
Walk, about 1:10.
Sent yesterday’s graf to readers, worked 1:30-3:30. Trying to stay one day/graf/step ahead - I have something to send tomorrow, and am pretty close on the next 2.
Watched about 45 min. of The German Sisters, finally.
Exercise.
Another walk at 6.
Wrote to my dad’s attorney about family business.
2 LEAR poems
50 p. Adorno.
Lights out 11:30.