January 6, 2008

Epiphany. It is 8 AM and I have been up four hours.

Larkin had set the alarm to waken him with the local Christian station. I heard the music and couldn’t imagine where it was coming from. You never know about people.

Late afternoon coffee with Elisabeth Gray and Luke Haynes. They were delightful. We talked about art and nothing else, and they restored pleasure to a day that was too much given to catching up with work that is not going to be caught up with in a day. They are both far more reflective and self-conscious artists than I, and the exercise of self-consciousness was good for me. I spend most of my life doing it; I should be able to explain what it is I’m doing. Luke is always smarter than he looks like he’s going to be; another way of saying that is that he is too cute to be as smart as he is. Elisabeth is just as smart as she looks, which can be terrifying. I was very happy in their company. E helped me understand the situation with the Catalyst series. Her perception is that it was invented to reward NC Stage actors and volunteers who are otherwise sadly under-compensated. This seems rational and virtuous, and the only problem is that it is concealed from people, like me, who assumed it was something else altogether. Fine. Enough of that. Elisabeth’s Plath piece–with me as Plath’s father in the video–won first prize at the Edinburgh Fringe, and may have a run in the West End in October, when I may just go over and see it. That these things are not known to the Asheville public is shocking, but, then, who would tell us?-- seeing that the newspaper cares for nothing but weather and gossip.

Sweet, soft night.