10.4.21

Up 8. Slept through (b/c I went to bed so late).
Breakfast, coffee. Video call w/ Bree 8:45-9:30.
Tidied up. Massage 10-11:30. (I’m having the guy Bree uses for therapy come over once every 2 weeks, basically as self-care. The body keeps the score, you know.)
Walked to E77, had lunch and coffee, worked on revisions about 12:30-1:30.
Joined orientation call for writing support group, 2-3.
Rested an hr., watched the end of Hallelujah!
Worked another hr., 4-5, mostly small fixes. Next section needs more of an overhaul. 
Left at 5:30. Didn’t feel like reading on a train, listened to a silly podcast about Law & Order: SVU that I follow for some reason.
Went to the Strand for the first time since the pandemic. Surprised that it’s mask-optional. Shelves in some sections were a little emptied out, but I still found a few things, mostly used:

James Tate, The Torches (one of his small press booklets, from 1968)
A book of papers on Freud’s “Observations on Transference-Love” ($3 on an outside cart)
Percival Everett, Telephone (2020, didn’t even know he had a new book)
Rochelle Owens, New and Selected Poems 1961-1996
Jaqueline Waters, Commodore (I don’t understand her poems at all)
Montreux Rothholtz, Unmark
Vincent McHugh, The Blue Hen’s Chickens (1947, Random House, period poet I’d never heard of)
A Jerome Kern songbook, not comprehensive, but w/ some pics.

Webber/Morris big band, jazz gallery. Mostly new pieces + 2 from their CD. It seems to be a looser, less high-concept project for Webber in particular than her own records. I liked the pointillistic opener, and a piece w/ a very strong theme called “Pulse.” Not entirely unswinging, but something about the approach does sometimes border on Stan Kenton territory. Thought about staying for 2nd set, but I was out late last night.
Read 20 p. Lakatos on train

— “The virtue of a logical proof is not that it compels belief, but that it suggests doubts.” (48, quoted from H.G. Forder)

Read about 8 p. Mackey. Home about 10:30. Zonked out, pretty much. Realized to my annoyance that I had forgotten to d/l Laurie Anderson’s 4th Norton Lecture from YouTube for the 24 hrs. it was available. I’m sure I’ll have a chance to see it sometime. Had a snack (never really had dinner, just a couple of hard-boiled eggs before the show), set up a grocery order. Went to bed w/ an episode of Midsomer Murders, 11:30.

10.3.21

Up 5:30, watched some late night clips, listened to some of a podcast about John Cage while making breakfast.
Watched another scene or two of Hallelujah!
Coffee at E77, worked 8:30-10:30. Same chunk as last night, got a bit better, added a bit on “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man.”
Started cooking some zucchini before therapy at 11.
Had lunch, didn’t do a great deal noon-2 pm; some posting.
Cleaned kitchen at 2. 
Pruned a bunch of email, some replies, listened to songs in press links, etc. Had a strange sub-B movie on called Madonna of the Desert on in the background. Wrote to RJ Smith w/ a quick precise of my PopCon proposal; he replied later that it sounded like a good fit.
Listened to more of the Cage podcast, read 10 p. Lakatos, needed a nap.
Took out some recycling, got myself out the door 6:40.
Read 10 more p. Lakatos on the train.

- learned that “enthyme” (as in missing/tacit premise) roughly mens “held in mind.” Same root as “thymus.” Never thought of this before.

- “I abhor your pretentious ‘insight.’ I respect conscious guessing, because it comes from the best human qualities: courage and modesty.” (30)

Started Steve Larson “What Makes a Good Bridge?” Finished that article over a bowl of noodles and cucumber salad. 
Show at the Brick, near Union Pool. Emily Hope Price, cello, voice, pedals/loops - good player; Alba Par (a duo, Clara Elena Montes and Fransicso Pino) doing electric gtr + effects arrangements of 14th-16th c. chanson, w/ some Purcell + Dowling thrown in; James Moore & Andie Tanning, resonator and fiddle, an art-folk kind of thing, w/ some versions of excerpts from Robert Ashley operas and settings (really, spoken w/ backing) of James Tate. Didn’t love every second but an interesting evening.
Read 25 p. Mackey on the train back.

- “Tonal/motion made me weep. I saw no way to/stay where I was, be where I was, what-/ever I was moved on, moved over.”

- “Sang not to sing but to say what song/reneged on.”

Should look up a couple of words.
Home 11:30. Couple small domestic tasks, logged in w/ the writing group. Went to bad after 1 am.

11.2.21

Up 5:30, put on an episode of Midsomer Murders, got back to sleep. 
Up for real a little before 8. Breakfast, coffee. Ran dishwasher.
Started editing section 8:30, finished around 11. Nailed down several citations, and ended up downloading a couple of Philip Tagg papers and a 2014 book called Groove: An Aesthetic of Measure Time that I hadn’t seen (while running down a ref. for Waterman on “metronome sense.”
Took a fairly long break 11-1; posted to writing group, other online activity.
Lunch, emptied dishwasher; updated monthly budget, paid a couple bills.
Found a download of King Vidor’s Hallelujah, which I was thinking of seeing at Film Forum tomorrow; bought a ticket to an experimental music gig instead, ft. Emily Hope Price, the cellist who played in Jean’s string quartet for my record.
Got our mail - hadn’t for a few days, since I didn’t know where the key was. Realized later that I unmindfully put (our only) key down when I came back in, and now I’m unsure where. So that’s on my mind.
Read to end of the first section in Mackey, about 25 p.
Took a fairly long nap, until 4 or so. 
Made more coffee, read front matter and about 20 p. Of Imre Lakatos, Proofs and Refutations. “Logic sometimes makes monsters” — Poincaré.
Worked on the next section of the chapter (refrains) from 5:30-7. Not as much progress as this morning.
Snacked a couple of times rather than having a proper dinner.
Spent about half an hour on an email to Elizabeth Newton, who’s supposed to interview me for a podcast in the next couple weeks. We’ve discussed it, but there’s more prep. Also replied to Judith Berkson about starting up harmony lessons again.
Watched an hr. of Hallelujah! Lights out around 11.

11.1.21

Up about 8. Breakfast, coffee. Weight 207.8; down about 5 from 2 weeks ago.
Breakfast, coffee.
Video call w/ Bree (she’s w/ her family in France), 9-10.
Cleaned kitchen; had been a couple days. Still need to clean stove; should mop floor soon. Had on a b crime movie, Big Town After Dark (1947).
Wasted about 45 min. online.
Went out for a few groceries, threw something together for lunch. Made more coffee.
Worked for an hr., 12:30-1:30; revising burthen/call-and-response subsection, looked up/transcribed examples from Child and Harry Smith’s Anthology.
Called my dad about 1:45, talked for an hr., mostly about movie. Showered, shaved.
Therapy, 3 pm.
Started Nathaniel Mackey, Tej Bet, the 1st of his 3-book boxset. Read 20 p. This is probably my biggest reading project for the month. Looked up a couple of his references to Cuban music.
Intro Zoom call for an academic writing support group I joined for Nov., 5 pm, about 35 min.
Walked to Espresso 77 (my local coffee place). Had 1 beer, worked on same section about 6:30-8. Did some productive pruning, esp. from an overlong discussion of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Chatted w/ my across-the-street neighbor Macgregor on the way out.
Bought a few more groceries (different place) on my way home.
Home before 9, had a bite, put some butternut squash in the oven for later.
Nothing of note after that; in bed around 10:30.

Oct 2021 reading

3648. Pola Oloixarac, Mona, trans. Adam Morris
3647. Nicholas Stoia, Sweet Thing: The History and Musical Structure of a Shared American Vernacular Form
3646. John Godfrey, City of Corners
3645. Lyn Hejinian, Oxota: A Short Russian Novel
3644. John Godfrey, Midnight on Your Left
3643. Natalia Ginzburg, The House and the City, trans. Dick Davis
3642. Hans Magnus Enzensberger, The Number Devil, trans. Michael Henry Helm
3641. Francis Ponge, The Partisan of Things, trans. Joshua Corey and Jean-Luc Garneau
3640. Bethany Klein, Selling Out: Culture, Commerce and Popular Music
3639. Ivan Turgenev, First Love, trans. Isaiah Berlin
3638. Stéphane Bouquet, The Next Loves, trans. Lindsay Turner
3637. Katy Bohinc, Scorpio
3645. Catherine Clément, The Weary Songs of Freud, trans. Nicole Ball
3644. George A. Reisch, To The Icy Slopes of Logic: How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science