Wednesday 11/17/21
* I started a new music book this morning. I had most of it figured out, as well as the structure. Perhaps I'll put some up here in a bit. It's excellent.
* Ran 3000 stairs yesterday. Need to be heading out soon for more.
* Yesterday I finished the 2000 word Sun Ra piece for Thanksgiving and filed it. I also went through three short stories--"Drop Paper," "Walk Off," and "Ready to Go"--for a final time. Everyone does their thing, where they select whatever story as their favorite or among their favorites, but for me, in terms of achievement, I put "Ready to Go" there with "Fitty," "Upon Becoming a Ghost," "A Start and a Place," "Dot," "Girls of the Nimbus," "Dead Thomas." I think that's just as good as it gets, and it's done in 1037 words.
* From the Sun Ra piece: "The Ra-Gilmore partnership is an overlooked one in jazz. The idea that Ra is somehow “weird”—with the name, the album cover art, the persona—can deflect from the reality that he’s every bit as much about the music as a Duke Ellington was. Gilmore was a sax man who thinks through his horn; he has an abundance of power, and that power alone could make him a classic, cutting-contest blower, but it’s his cerebralness that accounts for his power beyond power. Brain muscle. He reminds me of Sonny Rollins in this way. Gilmore also doesn’t need to be a “showpiece” guy, and there’s thanks to give for that as well. What’s a showpiece guy? On a different instrument, Dizzy Gillespie is a showpiece guy, whereas Freddie Hubbard is not. Hubbard can better fit his voice, in its myriad permutations, within the voicings of an ensemble. Art Tatum is as showpiece guy, with the exception of the group recordings he cut for Norman Granz, and even then he’s fairly showpiece-y at times."
* I just wrote an entry for these pages that will part the paint from the walls with its truths about a very prominent editor. Coming soon. All in good time.
* I feel like Tom Brady should stop making documentaries about himself. And this new one is about his time with his old team? That sits strangely, I think, when you're on another team.
* Here is an incredible stat: When Thurman Munson hit over .300 and drove in 100 runs over a three year stretch from 1975-1978, he became the first American League player to do so since Ted Williams in the 1940s. That borders on shocking to me. (Incidentally, Williams' final 100 RBI season was in 1951. Mickey Mantle, as I have mentioned, only had four 100 RBI seasons. For a while in baseball, it was a real challenge to hit that 100 RBI mark.)
* It's a little bit later. I am now more than 1/20th of the way done with the book I started writing this morning.