I seem to set myself up for certain predicaments in predictable ways--predictable to anyone who knows me but unexpected to me. For example, I wrote a book including an analysis of Lorquian kitsch. Of course, I hate that whole side of Lorca's American reception, but I knew what I was in for from the start. Or should've. Now, with the "writing jazz" course, I realize that I really hate most "jazz literature" that has that exact same kitsch element--and from the same damn period as the Lorca material. All that unbearable hipsterism and evocation of Bud and Bird, all that horribly embarrassing adoration of the exotic other. My god! Oh church of Coltrane! I guess that means it's a good thing for me to teach then! The bad thing is always arguing with people who aren't bothered by all that, always setting myself in opposition to what normal people think.

Of course what allows me to hate in good conscience is that I myself am deluded hipster or flamenco wannabe. I can recognize it in others because I've been there.

I just read a short story that has Stan Getz "blasting away" or something like that. That is just wrong.