1986-12 (December)

Monday, December 1st[1986] Gabriela left for NY on 7:40pm flight; Hugs out all night in apparent celebration of recovery of his “single” status. Super D; refilled dipprioamole prescription. Nighttime VCR: “Swept Away,” a Wirt Müller film we saw first ten years ago.

Tuesday, December 2nd[1986] Hugs arrived home at 6:30; joy boy. Took him to bank in afternoon; cashed check to give him $700 for Paris trip to retrieve his things + make arrangements for keeping on giving up his long-time apartment. Skipped walk. Take-out Chinese food for dinner after watching a Coppola film on VCR: “One From the Heart.”

Wednesday, December 3rd[1986] Up at 7; cereal, breakfast. Then packed for non-stop plane ride to Washington + theBurns Civil War TV project. Will be there until Sunday morning, then up to NY through Wednesday noon, when I fly back home. Delta Flight 508 took off on schedule, 12:20; landed so, too, at 3:10. Checked into Park Hyatt by 4 oclock—luxury hotel, open just two months with kingsize bed + many accessories, including terrycloth robes, shampoo, etc. as well as round-the-clock room service + two channel telephone; even a small video in the bathroom.Dinner with Ken + Ric Burns + four other guests at Sichwan,sponsored + staffed by + from the Republic of China; excellent meal—best Chinese food I ever had.Back in room by 11.

BURNS TV FILM CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON BEGINS Thursday, December 4th[1986] Washington: first day of three-day conference critiquing Burnses’s strip of a five-hour Civil War television series. Woke at 7:30; had breakfast in Room. Meeting began at 9:30 in downstairs conference room—ornate, with a big circular conference table. Met R.E. Lee’s great-grandson; Whiskey salesman.Broke at noon for a sandwich-+-salad lunch, then resumed till 4:30, covering the script for years 1865+ ’65 page by page.Dinner alone in Melrose Restaurant downstairs. Nouvelle Cuisine—limestone lettuce salad with mushrooms, veal kidneys with pasta + a glass of red wine; Mondave, very ordinary (like alcoholic grape juice) though it cost $10.50.Back to room by 9; deep hot bath + so to bed.

Friday, December 5th[1986] Washington Park Hyatt. Daylong session, much like yesterday’s; met + liked grant’s biographer William McFeely. Black radicals called to order by Vann Woodard, whom they resect highly—a masterly performance.Drinks at 5:30 in Burns suite; dinner again at Sichuan garden—food even better than before. Back in room by 11: showered, washed my hair. TV till midnight, then sleep.