Monday 5/31/21
I've been useless today. My useless. Not someone else's useless. Came up with a Fourth of July idea/pitch pertaining to Ben Franklin's perversion, which, while formidable, is not at the level of my guy in Musings with Franklin. I think galleys for Brackets have been sent out by Dzanc. It's not going to matter. There will be no coverage. Hopefully they sent me a couple galley copies, though. I've been thinking about "Eede Upstairs." Someone said to me that there has never been a relationship story like "Fitty"--writ at large as "Fitty." "Eede Upstairs" may end up being "Fitty" writ large. I listened to the Dead's Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. I listen to those albums every day. They are stunning works of musical art. Also listened to the whole of American Beauty: The Angel's Share, which are from the AB sessions. Going to ask my man Howard if he can find free copies of that Angel's Share set and the Workingman's Dead variant. Someone read like ten of my recent stories and sent me a dozen texts about them, saying the were the best things ever, that I will win, have my day, and plenty of opportunity for payback. I appreciated the support. It's also hard for me to look at this kind of thing. I know what the works are. It makes a difference--paradoxically--when you hear nothing, but hearing or not hearing something doesn't change what I know. It's more about support. I have so many people against me. But it's also depressing, in a way, right now, to see someone's reaction to the power of the stories. It's like being imprisoned for something you didn't do, the opposite of anything you ever did, and someone dangles the biggest piece of freedom ever in front of your face. I watched The Blue Dahlia, the Robert Ryan boxing film The Set-Up, the Vietnam picture, Welcome Home, Soldier Boys, and Hitchcock's Young and Innocent. Came up with an idea for a novel that starts with a tree in Vermont. A kind of historical novel. Or a novel that takes off from something that actually happened, anyway. But then completely invented. I have three of these in mind. The second pertains to the man who killed John Wilkes Booth. The third a jazz musician in the manner of Eric Dolphy. You tell the story through collage. Interviews, record reviews, journal entries, and so forth. Set in the time of the New Thing and the Civil Rights Movement. I should have included The Uninvited in my list of favorite films. Tomorrow on the radio I'll discuss that Ryan film, Paul Soles, the actor who voiced Hermey in Rudolph and who just died, plus Sam Cooke's Night Beat album--it plays a key part in the 33 1/3 book--and the two JazzTimes pieces I recently wrote on Dolphy and Charlie Christian. Read some of Star Wars book Shadows of the Empire. It's also the thirtieth anniversary of Heir to the Empire. I wonder if I could write something on that for someone. The Dead, Byrds, Beach Boys, and Beatles are the best at harmonies.
