Tomorrow I turn fifty, so what will I do today-the last-day-of-the-first-half? I thought about not working, not posting to the blog, not doing anything on demand…but that’s not my nature. Most of what I enjoy doing is, in some way, part of my work. My reading generally informs my work (except when I on rare occassion when I “escape” into trade trash novels), and surfing the web is usually for research or at least fodder for thought and possible blog posting. [Speaking of which, Mr. Teachout very serendipitously posted today a particularly pertinent reprise of his August 2004 Antepenultimate posting.] Even playing Free Cell on the computer is usually a trigger for loosening my brain enough to think more creatively about one project or another.
I have a stack of books to read about Duke Ellington, who was a huge influence on Luther Henderson and with whom he worked very closely — books are soon due back at the library, so I’d best get to them quickly. I’ve got a 3000-word article due soon, plans and calls to make in my new role as Minister of Education for the Jazz Journalists Association, and then there are the chores of a personal nature that, being chores, also qualify as work: picking up clothes at the cleaners, picking out a new sink and faucet for the soon-to-be renovated kitchen, and so on. Actually, one thing I have to do today that is not a chore at all is pick up my parents at the airport. They’re coming out for a weekend visit, a mother/daughter spa treatment, and a quiet birthday dinner for six (two friends are joining us) someplace nice, I’m told. By Sunday afternoon, though, I’ll be back at work as I have scheduled a phone interview with choreographer Hope Clark.
Have a nice weekend, see you on Monday.