4.4.20

Up 7:30
10 p. Poetic Closure
Form notes, 10 R&B songs. Exercise.
Walk.
Worked 10:45-1. Sent graf. That’s 10 days straight - made deal w/ self that I’ll draft some material ahead tomorrow and start polishing/sending Monday.
Placed a delivery order w/ another service for 4/19 - though we’ll need some things before that.
Finished quota of Poetic Closure by 3:30.
Started Lisa Robertson, The Baudelaire Fractal. Surprisingly readable (verse aside, her essays are hella dense). Immediately struck by generic relationship to Anna’s book — poet’s novel w/ oblique relationship to memoir/autofiction.
Bree needed a break, watched another 30 min of Merrily We Go To Hell.
Called Dad. No news is good news.
2nd walk. Grocery nearby, which decided was too small to go to safely even when they were only letting 10 people in, has closed until 4/6.
Wasted time until 7:30.
P. 54 Roberston. Moxley’s The Middle Room is another one (though that is ‘straighter’).
Had soup and leftovers around 9.
2 LEAR poems. Tired to read over a few - I don’t think much of this is good.
A few more poetry videos, almost up to date.
Finished watching the movie w/ Bree.
Right at midnight, tried to reserve a delivery time at Fresh Direct - website was hung up, presumably from traffic, and when I tried it 15 min. later, the day of slots they’d released was already full. Not great!

Haven’t been getting up to much in the evening - musically, in particular.

4.3.20

Up 4-6 am. YouTube, but did read 10 p. Poetic Closure.
Up for real 8:30. Dharma talk.
Coffee. 
Form notes, 10 R&B songs. Cecil Gant is underrated/discussed.
Exercise.
A few more pages.
Walk.
Worked 11-1. Sent graf. 
Saw email that several things are missing from our grocery order. Procrastinated about discussing it w/ Bree. Got a call later that it’d be up to 3 hrs. late.
Finished quota of Poetic Closure by about 4. Having some insights into the distinction between closure and representing closure (e.g. formally) - could be useful musically.
A few p. of Eleanor, which I’ve been spelling wrong. Side 1 of Debby Harry, Koo Koo. Something doesn’t come off - last song on the side, “Inner City Spillover” is interesting (more for the lyrics than the reggae arrangement).
Ordered Peruvian chicken to supplement groceries (which came a little after 5). And the first place I called didn’t pick up.
5-7 deliveries, transferring food to clean containers. A little stressful, but got through it. Also cooked remaining vegetables from farmer’s market. Took out trash and took a walk before eating.
Spent time with Bree. Watched first 20 min. of Merrily We Go To Hell (Dorothy Arzner 1932) w/ Fredric March, Sylvia Sydney.
Got back to Eleanor, finished it around 10:10.
No energy to work on poems or music. Lights out 11:30.

4.2.20

Up 7:15.
Laundry day - helped Bree take it down.
Started picking away at today’s bridge graf earlier than usual. Did a pass, then today’s form notes. (By the way: 1948 had 25% AABAs + a couple other 32-bar forms, the most of any year/set so far; the first disc of 1949, so far, only has 3!).
Exercised - it took about as long as Jimmy Witherspoon’s two sided version of “Ain’t Nobody’s Business,” the record that made Jerry Lieber want to become a lyricist when he heard it working as a busboy at (I think) Clifton’s Cafeteria in downtown LA.
Watched a few more poetry videos, tried to close a few more tabs. Waffling about ordering some recordings.
Coffee, breakfast, about 9.
Read to p. 72 in Eleanor to get the jump on the afternoon.
Walk. Helped Bree bring laundry up. A lot of handwashing.
Worked 11-1. Sent 2 grafs! (Really 1 long technical one that read better w/ a break.) But I’m not a day ahead anymore.
p. 100 Elanor + about 15 p. of Poetic Closure by 2. The notion of “terminal modification” (i.e. a variant refrain or a couplet at the ending of quatrains) as strengthening closure is interesting; and  she notes that a return to a norm after a deviation (I.e. - a bridge!) can also have this effect. Her psychologizing can feel overgeneral, universalizing - this is def. criticism before “theory.”
Lunch. Tried to change our grocery delivery order, but we’d missed the window.
Continued reading w/ breaks, ’til 5.
Bree thinks she has a mild cold - maybe I had one last week.
Watched an old Rankin-Bass special, Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1970), voiced by Danny Kaye, Vincent Price, Casey Kasem, and Paul Fries.
Wrote 100 words from a prompt.
Bree too tired to do much about dinner. Ate what was around (1/2 sweet potato, cheese) and made some quinoa.
Emptied a box in the living room, moved some things.
Read another chunk of Elanor.
Lights out 11:30.

4.1.20

Up 7:30.
Started Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Poetic Closure.
Watched Colbert.
Coffee, breakfast. Exercised (2nd week; up 1 rung).
Form notes 8 songs - quit a little early so I wouldn’t start writing late.
Walk. Being more careful about a couple things (doorknobs, not touching anything when I come back). 
Worked 11-1. Sent graf. Next one might be harder to complete, would like to try to work another hr or so later.
Necessary business call.
Read Smith 2-4. Quick late lunch.
Started Anna Moskovachis’ novel Elanor, or the Rejection of the Progress of Love.
Therapy.
2nd walk. Dropped tax returns in mail (through slot w/o touching - guess I could have had mailman pick them up outside, but this seemed safe enough).
News that Christina Monet (Ze Records/“Is That All There Is?”; 61) and Adam Schlessinger (Fountains of Wayne, “That Thing You Do”; 52) are dead from COVID-19. Hard.
Ordered delivery with Bree - Thai place, 2 blocks away. Worked out fine, seemed safe, kind of a relief.
Between order and delivery, made 2 min. poetry reading video for Rob McClennan; read the untitled villanelle and “Lub-Dup” (both unpublished). Sent it later.
2 LEAR poems.
Read to p. 50 in Elanor.
Stayed up for a while, cleaning up my desk and a few things online. Notes on the 2 songs I skipped this morning, posted March reading list.
Lights out 12:30

March 2020 reading

Jean Day, Daydream
Okiji, Jazz as Critique: Adorno and Black Expression
Herve Guibert, To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life, trans. Linda Coverdale
Jill Johnston, The Disintegration of a Critic, ed. Fiona McGovern, Megs Francis Sullivan, Axel Wieder
Mark J. Butler, Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music.
A.O. Scott, Better Living Through Criticism.
Frances Ponge, Soap, trans. Lane Dunlop.
Mark Slobin, Folk Music: A Very Short Introduction
Ariana Reines, Mercury
Detlev Claussen, Theodor W. Adorno: One Last Genius, trans. Rodney Livingstone.