Get it right

Friday 6/20/25

Checked out the list of recordings added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry in 2025. I had somehow missed it, so I went looking. Disappointing that no classic radio programs made the list this year. That's an egregious oversight. The radio broadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series--which I've said for years is a kind of piece of art--did make it, but the Library of Congress chose Bill Mazeroski's 1965 Topps card as the illustration for this selection. I hate that kind of thing. It's sloppy.

Do the job right. That shit pisses me off. I know you're supposed to love being a lazy, corner-cutting fuck now or else you're not "chill" or whatever inanity that chimps masquerading as people say you should be, but its like no one does anything right. Fully right. I don't mean exceptionally; I just mean right. There's no pride, no standards, people don't have expectations for themselves. It's just life as droolery. Drool it out, puke it up, coast along, swim in the drool, who cares, whatever, who the fuck is the wiser, what's it matter, etc. etc. etc.

More work on a new story that I began Wednesday. It's called "An Afternoon of Unsurpassed Clarity" and it's excellent. It could even be done by tomorrow. Nothing to compare it to. Mind blowing, radical work. Which means absolutely nothing. Would be the same as if I hadn't written it. You could write the best thing ever or not write anything at all. It all boils down to the same thing now.

I just looked at some garbage in Conjunctions, thinking this would be good for a prose off, and you read this shit and you wonder if these people are having an idiocy off. I don't even know which of these stories to use. You click on one and think, "That is the dumbest fucking thing I've ever seen," and then you click on the next and it's like, "Wait a second..."

Nothing is more compelling in baseball than watching an excellent starting pitcher work. There is less and less opportunity to do so as the years go on, because every single aspect of our world gets worse, including sports and all parts of sports--it's the robotification of human life--but sometimes you still find yourself checking to see when it's a given pitcher's turn in the rotation again.

Glad to have been wrong about the Pacers, who I thought were going to lose last night. Didn't think they had enough to extend the series. Hoping they don't get blown out on the road in Game 7.

I erred.

I thought I needed to run 400 circuits of stairs in four months to reach 1000 circuits in a year. I ran 600 from August 15 to May 15.

Obviously--but not to me--that left me with three months to run 400, which is ambitious.

I thought I was well ahead of the pace, and I'm ahead of the pace, but not by a huge amount, and that's with a twenty-circuit day and running ten circuits each day for seven consecutive days of the Monument being open.

I ran five circuits yesterday, which took my total to 790. I'm also going to lose days to shutdowns because of the heat. The Monument is automatically closed when the heat index reaches 89 degrees.

This all might seem foolish and not important, but right now it feels like there is very little I can control. I can control how well I write. I can control something like this, which maybe isn't important in and of itself, but it does play a part in what I'm trying to do. I would like to achieve this and have 1000 circuits a year be my benchmark.

Yesterday was tough in there. Everything was slick, damp. The floors of the hallways in the building were wet. It's soupy. I had sweat a lot just by the time I got over to the Monument.

If I get to 850 by July 1, I should be in decent shape.

But 400 circuits in three months is a lot. Summer months, too.

Ran ten circuits in the Monument today, so now I'm at 800. This wasn't fast or pretty, but the circuits got done. Not humid today and a strong breeze, so that helped.

100 push-ups yesterday and today, three miles walked each day because obviously I didn't fly to Charlestown.

Picked up strawberries, tomatoes, and peppers at Haymarket. Going out to get bananas elsewhere. I'm trying to eat more of them because they help with blood pressure. Until recently, I didn't know that bananas lose nutritional value as they ripen. That spotted banana that you're going to throw out later if you don't eat it for lunch has minimal nutritional value. Bananas are best for you when they're closer to green.

I changed a couple little things in "Friendship Bracelet" that no one else would ever notice.

Started a film piece. Bunch of stuff was published.

There are a number of Cronenberg films playing at the Brattle. I don't care for him but I'll probably go to one or two.