I’ll be brief today.
Up before 11 - stayed up so late.
Had my first harmony lesson, out of Schoeberg’s textbook, with Judith Berkson and 2 other students (one of whom was in the Absolutely Kosher band The Dead Science, of all things). Fun - learned about the basics of open and closed SATB voicings, and the rules for going from one chord to another (diatonic changes only). Will do some exercises over the next 2 weeks.
Made some buckwheat, and some onions and garlic for Brussels sprouts. Cleaned the stove.
Piano - scales, arpeggios, some improvisation, worked on “Dancers in Love.”
Spent and hr. putting together playlist for next week’s radio show - did a little of this yesterday too. Almost have 2 hrs of gospel assembled.
Short walk at 10. Intended to get it together to walk to the bank to deposit checks, but didn’t. Tomorrow, if possible.
Poetry notebook. 12 p. Quick Question.
1/11
Up before 6, reading political news. Breakfast, coffee.
Sat 15 min.
Looked at my chapter 10:30-12:30, started trying to revise intro. Slow start after more days off than I intended.
Eyes tired, concentration not great for most of the day.
Wrote a p. in poetry notebook, turned into 2. “Political,” I guess.
Therapy 3-4.
Spent a long time responding to another email about the piano track, and figuring out how to change/fix a couple things. Want to sit down and record, like, 2 measures, later.
Read first 6 poems in John Ashbery, Quick Question.
Read a very clear and convincing article by Michael Friedman, “Carnap’s Aufbau Reconsidered.”
Piano 30. Min - chromatic scales, 6 major scales, 1st 32 bars of “Dancers in Love.”
Took out trash, short walk around 10. Crossword.
Stayed up ’til 1 a.m. putting finishing touches on the piano track. Punched in 2 bars; edited, exported audio + MIDI.
Went to bed at 2 am.
1/10
Up at 6:30. Breakfast. Neighbor was using laundry room, had to wait a bit. Took 4 loads down, got Back upstairs at 8.
Sat 15 min. Made coffee.
Read a few p. of Breezeway. Hooked up computer and keyboard so I could record immediately after a short walk. Recorded fixes for several sections of the piano part, added to the celeste part as well. Only took a few takes each, maybe 20 min. Started to edit/comp, had to go back downstairs to bring up laundry. Done w/ that a little after 10? Edited in Logic another couple hours, replayed a couple measures, made rough mix of the new track, sent to Mac. Will wait to send real files until he okays it.
Called Dad about 1:45, talked about 45 min., put Bree on the phone (hadn’t since around Christmas).
Kinda drifted until a little before 4:30. Put on KSPC livestream for a while - listened to the extremely long-running Sunset Review, a sort of cut-rate local Bob & Ray involving a made-up town called Merkis Palms.
Worked for an hour, maybe less, on figuring out how to bounce/save audio + MIDI tracks instead of sending Mac the Logic session, since he’s using ProTools. Not too bad, also figured out how to join regions.
Tried to close some tabs. Read Artforum pieces on the postponed Philip Guston show, the meatiest by Robert Slifkin:
“Modern art, Guston’s paintings seem to say, ought to be ashamed of itself….But of course, his self-recrimination was predicated on his position of privilege.” [This is close to my current attitude toward indie-rock, and my own involvement in it.]
“Guston was a tortured aesthete, someone who felt torn between his commitment to artistic freedom and social justice—a position, I’d venture, that is shared by many artists and critics today. But his invocation of such a charged political symbol as a motif for this self-examination was insensitive and potentially offensive in ways that he and so many of his commentators since have not recognized, and his repeated statements that these images expressed his fascination with evil demand a greater level of scrutiny than they have yet received.” [Provocative, but I don’t quite sign on.]
Had KSPC’s “Forward Into the Past” show on much of the evening - 30’s music, and episodes of You Bet Your Life and Pat Novak, For Hire.
Decided I needed to reply to the response to the query I’d sent to Focusrite support. So I got the thing out and plugged it in so I could troubleshoot, and basically, it all worked. Got the proprietary software, got the headphones working, lined-in a guitar (wow am I out of practice) and recorded a couple tracks w/ different amp sounds in Logic. Had less luck with re-activating Sibelius.
Tried to help Bree fix the chain inside the toilet tank once in for all — we last went through this a year ago. I wasn’t that helpful.
Discovered that the Charles & Ray Eames film that the Human Hearts’ “Goods” is on YouTube:
Got involved watching some Logic instructional videos. Took my walk around 10, stayed up a bit, did Mon. Crossword, read last poem in Breezeway. Lights out after 11.
1/9
Woke up 6:30. Unusual - not too early, not too late, slept through. I hate to say, it might be that I didn’t have afternoon coffee (though I’ve also had a one-cup day and stayed up until 2). Regulating sleep matters more when you’re hitting middle age.
Anyway: breakfast/coffee - talked to Bree longer than most mornings, about the state of the world.
Started on the radio show before 9, finished the file, playlist, and log just after 10.
Didn’t do that much until after 1 — caught up on the news, some other light internet reading. Did put on a Robert Wyatt record from 2010, but I wasn’t concentrating on it.
Finished Brenda Lozano, Loop. A very European novel; I’m not sure it added up to much, nor would doing so be the criterion it would accept for itself, but I like this paragraph toward the end, which is of course metafictional:
“Rivers have a source, a life, a youth, an old age. Some have longer trajectories than others; some are abruptly cut off, while others follow a peaceful path to the end. The book only classifies the longest rivers. A grey box describes each one: its name, where it beings where it ends and how long it is. Footnotes at the bottom of each page give the sources consulted, along with other measurements. Comparing one river to another, you see how slight the differences are in the lengths. In other words, it’s obviously impossible to classify them exactly. That desire to classify them, like the desire to write accurately about the past, is based on a fiction. The book of rivers is like a silent novel. The trajectories are so similar despite being in different places, and yet the rivers, ordered from biggest to smallest, lie side by side. Impossibly side by side. They may not all meet along the way, but all the rivers are part of the same book.”
Page in poetry notebook - found that I’m a day ahead.
Read to p. 90, Ashbery, Breezeway.
Watched a piano lesson, practiced 30 min.; chromatic scales considerably faster, my control breaks down around 160 bpm. Major scales, “Stella By Starlight” w/ metronome. Didn’t have much time for “Dancers in Love.”
Joined Segue reading w/ Ron Silliman and Tonya Foster.
Made some Swiss chard, ate w/ Bree. Heard some of the Jimmy Dean CD she was playing. Almost 9 by the time we cleaned up.
Got together materials I needed to drop off w/ a neighbor who’s replacing me as building secretary; also emailed some older minutes, scanned an insurance form that needs to be on file. Took those upstairs when I went out for a walk, took out recycling, short walk. Did the Sunday crossword, just under 30 min. - looked up 2-3 things. Listened to the rest of the Wyatt trio record.
Read to p. 100, Breezeway. “The young men are building a boat/Definitely a freedom container.” (“Warm Regards,” p. 75)
Lights out midnight. Forgot to meditate today.
1/8
(Very brief; I wasn’t nothing things down during the day, so I’ve forgotten small/in-between stuff.)
Up about 8. Coffee, breakfast. Caught up in poetry notebook (3 p.)
Worked on ‘Chunk track - recorded 3 takes around 11:30, then spent 2-3 hours editing/comping. Added a celeste part. Took a break, then made v. rough mixes (w/ a couple steps I had to look up/learn from videos; not too hard). Got feedback from Mac - generally pleased (“this is fucking majestic”), a couple of notes for simplifying the first 1/2 of the song, which makes sense. Can do that this weekend. This was basically my day until 5.
Recorded/assembled radio show about 7-10, got to about 1:40. Seems like a bit of a trudge this week - partly b/c I’m entering the online playlist as I go (in batches, not after each song, but not entirely after the fact either). Took out trash around 10, short walk, did crossword. Chain in toilet came loose, had to open the tank. Not a big deal, but annoying - Bree’s better at fixing this than me. Lights out 11.
Hard to get in writing or even reading w/ these other projects. But at least I’m not doomscrolling or watching cooking videos all day.