September 11, 2011

Took the sunny Saturday to attack the front terrace, shearing deeper into it than has ever happened since I was in residence. Now all is at least accessible. Wild honeysuckle is the worst. I stopped the last attempt there when I disturbed a towhee’s nest, but it is late enough that this time I had no such fear. As sweat poured from me, Jonathan David phoned from downtown to offer a window to meet him and his girlfriend, S, in town for, it turns out, Andrew Gall’s wedding. I showered and sped. Met them at Malaprop’s, where I was asked to sign one copy of A Dream of Adonis that a colleague was buying as a gift for the Chinese people (I listen; I hear, I do not always comprehend), and to sign other copies of the book for the store itself. We strolled and chatted, colliding again and again with the smallness of the world and the many points at which our social empires touch even at distance. Lunch at Scully’s. JD’s setting of “The Taut String” is very much more elaborate than I had imagined, and it was gratifying to hear of all the knotty music that will hang upon my handful of words. He reminded me that I must be in New York on December 11. We got along famously. S is trying to get him to move to Asheville, and if that happens I will have new friends and collaborators. Part of the evening spent watching the New York Open with DJ (the people we wanted to win, did) and going to Richmond’s opening at the Pump. He was surrounded by his family. If I were a good person I would not have mentioned their failing to meet me at Vance, but I am not a good person, I do always bless him in my heart. No one in my acquaintance strives more diligently after the good.

Moon in glory the last few nights, creeping from my east to my south to my west windows as the world moves.

Figured out why I hate jazz. I am not cool. Garrison Keillor was going on about how the kids in his college radio station who did the night jazz show were so cool, and I realized, like Saul getting clobbered from his horse, that my anti-coolness has stood between me and jazz all this while.