Friday 5/1/20
* A lot of Beethoven's letters consist of him essentially saying, "Pay me, bitch," and talking about how he is an artist, which he does not think hardly anyone else is, though he also considers J. S. Bach an artist.
*The animus for Thoreau in recent years is ridiculous. His journals can help you become a better, smarter person.
* I have no idea what a TikTok video is. This is probably for the best.
* People who say they live a drama-free life are to be avoided, always. Life is dramatic. Because it is complex and unpredictable. To say that you live a drama-free life means that you do not live life. It means you are likely weak and avoid any risk or vulnerability, that you know nothing of the daring which is required of anything of significance.
* I must revise several essays for a given publication on the subjects of Joy Division, moving/relocating, Joan Harrison. the Joy Division one really shouldn't need anything, and I'm taking something that is done and changing it--which I don't like to do, of course--but I need the money. Sometimes there is a point or you're just adding something on--I am always open--but other times someone doesn't know the subject, thinks maybe you just recently arrived at it, and you kind of have to work around them. I wrote something about Joy Division that has never been written before. And I got a "Joy Division are written about a lot" response. Well, I mean, so? Not this way, and not on this subject. Naturally I know everything else out there written on the band. I know what has been written and what hasn't been written. Further, when I write someone on anything, it's always different. I see things differently, my language is different, the voice, the tone, the insight, all off it. In this case, the particular subject matter has never been done. But what can I do? It's about the money.
* I have spent the evening writing letters to people who'd rather have me dead trying to get the work to have any kind of a chance, while listening to the Who live in 1966 and 1967, the Byrds live in 1968, Marvin Gaye, Creedence, the new Green Day album, various Libertines radio sessions, several acoustic Vaccines performances, Dookie demos, New Order dripping with sweat in Chicago in 1983, Slaughter and the Dogs' "Cranked Up Really High," and Nat Adderley.
* I can see that you've opened my email fifty times and spent four hours with a short story like "Six Feet Away" contained therein. And nothing back. I know what you are up to. I know you like it, or are intrigued by it, or whatever the case may be, and I know that someone at your place of work says, "No, I hate him, and now you must hate him, too," and so you do. I see it time and again. I'm not some primate here randomly throwing stuff out there. This is pretty finely calibrated, as are the means through which I gather my information.
* I don't know why, but I bought Emma some animals crackers the other day when I was at CVS. They were in these little boxes I'd get as a kid and they were only a dollar.
* It is impossible to make or write any remark containing the phrases "ass hat" or "douche canoe" and not undermine the intelligence of whatever it is one is saying, if it were ever intelligent at all.
* Two great lyrics: "She was just seventeen/If you know what I mean," and "I'll probably feel a whole letter better when you're gone," from the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" and the Byrds' "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" respectively. See the subtle qualifications? See the big changes they make? They change everything. That's good writing.
* Some things to write about: The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Dr. Seuss's "Yertle the Turtle."
