Wednesday 4/13/22
* The guys calling this Atlanta-Charlotte play-in game sound like such grumpy scolds. I feel like I'm being upbraided by a pack of grandfathers.
* It's time to finish "Up the Sea."
* The next little bit is all about crossing things off the list. Execution.
* I've finished three books so far in 2022. You're Up, You're Down, You're Up: Essays on Art in Life and Life in Art. The Root of the Chord: Writings on Jazz's Fundamental Power and Artistry. Just Like Them: A Piece by Piece Guide to Becoming the Ultimate Thinking Person's Beatles Fan. It's time to get that to five. And then keep adding after that.
* It's also time to write "Pre."
* I may be including a quote after the preface for There Is No Doubt. My quote. I saw where someone had used it somewhere online. It must have come from these pages. Can you quote yourself? Who knows, who cares. Rules. Fuck them, too. Rules are for shitty writers. (There's another quote.) Maybe I'll just put it in and leave it unattributed.
* Red Sox nearly blew a 9-2 lead.
* When I think of Miles Davis innovating, I think of his writing, bandleading, preference for risk, a certain x-factor, and then his trumpet playing, which is no knock on his trumpet playing.
* I absolutely hate when people qualify the word "unique." Says a lot about someone's education. I don't mean their schooling.
* Jerry York retiring at BC. Coached DI hockey for fifty years. Came to Chestnut Hill my freshman year and turned a program in disarray into a national power. By all accounts a high class man, too. The kind of news that’s not surprising but it’s still surprising.
* "It takes more than one player to win in the NBA." That's what the analyst just said during this second game. Thanks. That's profound. Does it really? It's astounding how vapid everyone is. Takes more than one player to win. Gee. I didn't know that. Why even say something so remedial?
* Trying to watch Better Call Saul, and I'm both bored and confused two and a half episodes in.
* Interesting, unofficial, inexact stat: I'd say that 60% of the people I see when I am running stairs are wearing a mask. Outside. No one near them. Eight in the morning, no one out on a Saturday. They have the mask on. All kinds of people. All ages. Races, sexes. I'd say it's pretty even across the boards. Had I been in charge of health--not the best idea--I would have had exactly one thing to say about COVID, and then I never would have spoken again. That word would have been "stairs." Problem solved.
* Never forget: you can get the average American to do absolutely anything. No matter how stupid, groundless, crazy. Not even talking about masks right now. If it's presented to them from the right place, said enough, and enough of them are doing it, they'll do it, doesn't matter how imbecilic and counterproductive or counterintuitive it is. And I mean anything. You could get them to go out and shoot themselves tomorrow. If you present it to them the right way, and they see people they know doing it. Anything. There are no limitations.
* I need to do the "Great, good luck" and "literally" op-eds. I have been Great, good lucking the hell out of people lately.
* I could attribute it to H.W. No one would even ask. They'd pretend they knew. Like it was some revered, hallowed artist and they didn't want to be seen not knowing. When it could be Hard Wang.