Wednesday 10/28/20
Finished edits on WSJ op-ed. Changed my bio with them to plug Meatheads Say the Realest Things. Wrote another short story called "A Call for the Lift." Had a lengthy phone conversation today about "Dead Thomas," which someone told me was the best work of fiction they'd read by anyone in many years. This is last night's segment on Downtown which was about Macbeth, the scariest episodes of The Twilight Zone, Dylan at Philharmonic Hall on Halloween 1964, and ghosts--thoughts on whether they are real, personal experiences, that kind of thing. As I said with the Dylan, it is quite irksome that the Amazon Music version of that set--the sixth entry in the Bootleg Series--edits out the between song commentary and even the start of "I Don't Believe You." The CD is not this way. Why do this? It's crucial to the recording. I screwed up during this segment, when I meant to say Poltergeist and said The Exorcist instead. What can I say? I'm exhausted. But I don't like to make any mistakes, regardless, and I rarely do, so I'll call this one out and try to do better going forward. I ran three miles yesterday, walked five in the rain today. Late coming to this, but Sunday marked 1589 days, or 227 weeks, without a drink. I saw a-not-very-pricey first edition of William Sloane's only novel besides To Walk the Night, which was called The Edge of Running Water, which I am going to get if something good happens soon, which would be nice. In the late afternoon around four I go down to Starbucks to regather. I read Sloane, or some ghost stories, or Lovecraft's Supernatural in Horror which was the selection yesterday, look at the leaves blowing outside, try to stay calm, or get calm again, or the closest I can be during this period of pure hell here. It's kind of my little ritual now. I was explaining to someone today when I go to Dunkin' Donuts and when I go to Starbucks. Dunkin' is for my long walks and workouts, when I'm grungy in the workout clothes, on the go, whereas Starbucks is for that regathering, the mulling, or just getting me out of here and away from the desk. I mailed Halloween cards to my nephew and two nieces, just in time, so they should have those on Halloween morning. My nephew is going as Dracula and he looks pretty cool. He's learning to read and he has his own copy of Meatheads and the other day he asked my sister what "mofo" stands for. One of my nieces is a skeleton and the other--who is nine-months-old--is baby Yoda from The Mandalorian. I listened to Art Blakey's Cafe Bohemia albums--with Hank Mobley just starting out--and an audience recording of a powerful Dylan performance in Philadelphia on 10/10/64. Was planning several novels deep into the night and early AM.
