5.3.21

While attending an Alec Wilder memorial concert in New York in 1992, I ran into Mitch Miller, still a commanding figure although well into his eighties. Locked in an elevator with him, I asked if it was true that he had criticized rock ’n’ roll in the late 1950s as being “no more than ‘three chords’.” “Too right,” the great man retorted, and “that was being fucking generous!” 

— John Broven, Record Makers and Breakers, 90

Up 7:30. Weighed 216.2, a little down. Coffee, breakfast, hand exercise.
Read 10 p. Fanon bio, chapter of Deep Work.
Worked 11:00-1:30, though only productive for 2 hrs. Of that. Wrote about minor blues, started trying to improve section on 8-bar blues.
Looked at info on roach traps w/ Bree; ordered something a little higher-grade than Roach Motels later on.
Therapy.
Ordered Thai food.
Read 30 p. Broven. Short walk outside. Raining.
Went to bed 11, skimmed more of Deep Work e-book, ch. of Cluny Brown.

5.2.21

“…people like your mother
or others unlike your. Mother who have nothing 
in common with you except to be like you
whom they never know.”

— John Ashbery, “O Knave,” Planisphere, 64.

Up 9:30. Breakfast/coffee. Did very little with the morning and early afternoon. Located a book I needed, Richard J. Ripano, The New Blue Music, but didn’t find the passage I thought I remembered (that happens a lot). 
Called my dad 2-3. D/l’ed a copy of Cal Newport’s Deep Work, skimmed around in it. This kind of disciplinarian productivity stuff bugs me so much, but I need to take myself in hand.
Wrote 6-8 - more or less done w/ the paragraph at hand. Worked w/ a Pomodoro app and a “Study With Me” video - some guy in Scotland looking out a library window, w/ rain sounds. It all kinda helped. 
Read 30 p. quota of Broven, pencil in hand. Short walk outside.
3 p. JA (2 poems). 2 days behind in poetry notebook.
Read some of Deep Work in bed. I’m not proud.

5.1.21

“If you had a smattering of education you would realize that perfection of form can give validity to any sentiment however preposterous.”

— Margery Sharp, Cluny Brown, 84-5

Up about 7. Read a chapter or so of Sharp.
Breakfast, coffee.
Started John Broven, Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock ’N’ Roll Pioneers. Read about 30 p.
Also 10 p. David Macey, Frantz Fanon. Those 2 books are about 500 p. each; I think that will amount to the bulk of my reading for May.
Very slow day. Got involved in a silly Lifetime movie on YouTube. Answered a few emails, DMs. Helped Bree put away groceries.
Finally worked on a graf for a half-hour or so around 8:30.
Read 3 JA poems. Short walk outside.
Another 10 p. Fanon bio.
Lights out around 11.

4.30.21

As his physical powers defined, making hunting impossible, Sir Henry had taken to the pen; all over the world the friends of his youth began to receive very long, very dull letters from him. To Rhodesia, Tanganyika, Singapore; Australian, India, New Zealand and the Bermudas--Sir Henry’s epistles went forth; for he never considered it worth while to write to anyone nearer at hand. So the letters took a long time to get there, and the replies even longer to get back, and all the news was out of date; and this gave his correspondence a peculiar timeless quality which was very soothing.

— Margery Sharp, Cluny Brown, 30

Woke up 5:30, fussed around online, tried to get back to bed w/ limited success.
Up 8. Coffee, breakfast. Made some changes to a grocery order.
Read 25 p. Margery Sharp, Cluny Brown (the source of the Lubitsch movie). Amusing.
Read 2 JA poems.
Worked on blues 45 minutes - about 4 sentences, starting to get into “Trouble In Mind.”
Therapy 1 pm.
Blew off an hr., then listened to Linda Smith’s instrumental LP. Read a few more p. Sharp.
Ordered a couple of books/CDs and a Chantal Akerman DVD, worked on some email, paid bills.
Made Swiss chard and a pot of rice for dinner. Heard most of a CD of later Tampa Red sides, 40s-50s, that Bree was using as exercise music, inc. “It Hurts Me Too,” which happens to run over the same “Trouble in Mind” 8-bar progression I was writing about earlier.
Watched Pebbles (P.S. Vinothraj, 2021) via MoMa. Hard not to compare (facilely) with Ray, though far angrier in tone. Also a touch of What Maisie Knew.
Uploaded Laurie Anderson video to send to friends. Opened up some mail - finally got the Dry Cleaning album.
Short walk outside at 10 pm.
Read more Sharp in bed.

4.29.30

So it is that an adequate vision of the Aristotelian model for the realities of capitalism would see the work of art as a produce rather than as a made object; it would deal not only with the mode of production, but also with those of distribution and consumption. It would imply study of the consumer as well as of the producer, and might even, indeed, find itself touching on the problems of supply and the sources of raw materials….It is a sobering and salutary experience for professional intellectuals to be reminded that the objects of their study and manipulation have a whole material infrastructure as well, which has traditionally been the realm of the sociology of literature.

— Jameson, Marxism and Form, 392-3

Woke up about 7, put on a podcast and fell back asleep until 10.
217.2. Coffee, breakfast. Chatted w/ Bree. 
Finished Jameson.
Watched the rest of Cinema Novo.
Called dad 2-3 pm.
Wasted time. Updated finances.
Downloaded Laurie Anderson’s 3rd Norton Lecture. Read 2 JA poems. Did hand exercises at some point.
Took a walk a little before 6.
Made myself write 6:30-8:30. Completed a paragraph with difficulty.
Listened to an LP reissue of Tampa Red recordings, 1928-1937. Great player; Bree’s very fond of his voice. Not all 12-bar blues; more than a couple “Mama Don’t Allow”-type structures, inc. one in a minor key, and some songs w/ raggy circle of fifths changes.
Put on Linda Smith’s instrumental LP, but Bree was going to bed.
Short walk outside.
Lights out midnight.