Sunday 6/12/21
Didn't do great with the exercise yesterday because I ended up going back into the Beatles book and worked on the start of the first chapter again so I just walked five miles. That's not going to get it done and I must not become a pig man. As I work through the rest of the day I shall drink a lot of hibiscus and peppermint tea for my blood pressure.
Sent a Beatles pitch to The Daily Beast. Sent the Three Investigators essay to The New York Review of Books. Sent another publisher Cheer Pack: Stories. Sent a different publisher Become Your Own (Super) Hero: Modern Fiction in Twenty Easy Steps (Stories). Offered an extra essay I had to The Millions.
Updated the News and On air sections. Spent a lot of last night on the phone with the host site people trying to fix things that need fixing, but getting nowhere. Changed the text of the front page of the site which now gives some explanation at the bottom for the various sections and their content. Sent stories to NOON, The Iowa Review, McSweeney's. That will all be ignored. Ditto a pitch to Pitchfork.
Talked to Kimball about what to discuss on Tuesday: a Powell and Pressburger film, a time in baseball when Gary Carter was the best player in the world (circa 1982), the Beatles' first BBC session with Pete Best on drums (it's a charming, rocking affair), and the most beautiful song ever written about a dying loved one, the Dead's "Box of Rain."
Carter was an amazing ballplayer. One of the best offensive players in the game, and perhaps the second best defensively after Ozzie Smith. Top five in each. There are some arresting comparisons to be made between Gary Carter and Carlton Fisk. I can prove who was better--that's Fisk--but the better player was never the best player in the entire league, and Carter was. Carter, though, was essentially done in his early thirties. Fisk had two more acts left in his career.
Couple of beautiful Carter cards: 1977 and 1980 Topps.
I don't know how the Red Sox won that game a couple nights ago. Came out of nowhere and took it.
Downloaded a Dead show from 1970 with the first live performance of "Ripple."
Must have good focus this week. Put the time in and try to get through the following, and see if you can do more as you do it all:
* Finish Dracula 1931 Halloween op-ed
* Proof Roger Maris/1961 op-ed
* Proof/tweak Glue God: Essays (and Tips) for Repairing a Broken Self again; send to interested publisher
* Complete the first three chapters of Same Band You've Never Known: An Alternative Musical History of the Beatles + update/revise outline and summary
* Turn 1100 word Freddie Redd essay into a 2000+ word essay
* Complete essay on Powell and Pressburger's A Canterbury Tale
* Work on site issues
* Compose on fiction
* Write JazzTimes feature on John Coltrane/Ascension
* Find your way back to Musings with Franklin: A Novel in Conversation You Can Drink To
Speaking of which, today marks 1813 days, or 259 weeks, without a drink.
Listened to Otis Redding's Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul and Live in Europe.
Worked on a horror story in my head called "The Frontage Road."