The Weblog of Daniel Tashian

Returned home to find Leslie had gone to Home Depot and rented a tiller (!!!) with which she has plowed the backyard AND planted a vegetable garden! Go Leslie! But these new developments were tinged with sadness, because one of our beloved cats, Baby Frances left home and has not returned. This has been especially hard for us, because there was no explanation. Leslie said “This would be easier if we knew what happened to her.” but she just disappeared! We’ve both been moping around, feeling that it would be decadent to have too much fun, given the situation. Baby Frances has been always hovering on the edge of our minds for the last few days.
But in lighter news, we went to see a good movie this past weekend because Josh had a song in it:
“The Interpreter” with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. Now this is the kind of movie I like! Good old fashioned international thriller! I would recommend to anyone seeking a good “escapist” movie experience! Tomorrow we leave to do a handful of dates around the southeast with Josh Rouse, then it’s home for 2 months!
LA was a blast, but it seemed particularly aesthetically unpleasant this time around. This may have had to do with where we were staying (downtown) but I found it hard to see the allure. Then again, i’m not an actor!
San Fran was really nice (weather-wise) and it was great to see my cousin Ethan, and to hear about what he’s up to with a new company he’s started! Very cool stuff! He emailed me a nice review of Josh’s show from the San Francisco Chronicle
I don’t know what it is about the northwest, but I like it. The climate seems just right to me. I will never be able to convince Leslie to move there. I have an idea of what we could do with all the homeless people in San Fran (there were a lot downtown) : One word: Alcatraz!!!
HA HA!!!
I’m going to hell for that, but it’s my blog, so there!

So we were determined to make a dent in the ever-growing population of weeds which has invaded our garden. So we turned to a product by Easy Gardner called Weedblock! This is excellent stuff! You lay it down, put mulch over it, and, supposedly, no weeds! Our garden is currently so weed infested, it would take several hours a day, just to maintain it! The only problem is, neither of us knows the difference between weeds and the flowers that are supposed to be there! Nevertheless, we are hoping this product will cut the maintenance time down just a bit. We ended up having a lot of fun, and then the nephew of a friend of Leslie’s came by, and he might mow the lawn for $30.00. We asked him to name a price, but he just shrugged his shoulders, so I said “What about 30 dollars?”. Leslie kept saying “No…that’s not enough!” I wanted to kick her in the shins! Ah Love! A many splendoured thing it ’tis!

Returning from the 1st leg of the U.S. Josh Rouse tour, I was again greeted with a torrent of un-opened mail and lots of beautiful green trees and plants! Leslie ordered quite a lot of spring plants (which came ALIVE in a little cardboard box with holes in it) from Gurney’s. So far, we’ve been really pleased with the quality of the plants. We like to support local businesses, and we went for a drink last night (to Nick and Rudy’s steak house with our neighbors and also Local Restauranteurs Mike and Colleenof the Mirror! But we were not able to do this with the plants because the guy who runs the plant shop over on 12th is a notorious meanie and an alchoholic to boot! So we supplemented our mail-order greenery with some good stuff from home depot (2 American Boxwoods, 29.00 each) and 1 Gardenia (16.95) Also , some assorted monkey grasses to frame the other stuff (4 @ 3.95 each). We had a meager budget of 100 bucks to landscape the front bed, and we came in slightly over budget, but I’m very pleased with the results! Leslie and I spent all day thursday digging around in the dirt, and I was sore today, but it was
worth it. Then Mike and Collen said they had extra tickets to the Nashville Sounds and it was to the “Bud Deck” (dollar draft buds, and free hot dogs!). So we scrubbed down and went to the game, but it was so cold we had to leave at the 7th inning! It’s nice to be able to experience the spring in Nashville! It reminds me why I love it here! It only stays this way for about two weeks, then it gets HOT AS HELL!

So…I’m backstage at NY’s Prestigious Irving Plaza, well rested after a night on the couch of my good friend and fellow songwriter Greta Gaines We watched a funny “stoner” movie called “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle” which introduced me to my favorite new term: “The Business Hippie” Then we watched a frightening “hard copy”-type expose on the whole Kobe Bryant thing. I’m sorry, but he borders on grotesque. The whole way he was licking his lips at the press conference is the CLASSIC “Clinton-esque” I’m-lying-but-I-hope-no-one notices-the-weird-stuff-i’m-doing-with-my-mouth thing. What a trip. Greta has an adorable 9 month old baby called Cassidy, who is very vocal about not wanting to be alone at night, but luckily, If I can sleep through Hags snoring, I can sleep through anything. Backtracking slightly, Toronto was awesome! I love that town, and Josh’s friends Howie Beck and Hayden came to greet us and we had a great show. I get a definite vibe of intelligence from Toronto. Woodstock, was, unfortunately, another story. We played a show at what appeared to be a ski=lodge in the summer. Complete with not just one, but SEVERAL people walking around talking to themselves, a drunk biker girl with a black eye and a pentagram necklace, and an uber-fan who just kept reciting song titles over and over while hopping from one foot to the other : “Under code blue stahs!” hop hop “Miracle! Jesus!” Hop Hop “Aw Jeehz” hop hop “We got the guitah playuh ovah heah! ” hop hop “Under code blue stahs!…Aw Jeez!”
Woodstock seems like it’s still suffering from some people who ate the brown acid and never came back. It was sort of depressing.
But, to end on an up note, tonight should be a great night here in NYC, the weather has been beautiful, and every one is in good spirits! I will post some pictures soon.

Last night’s show in East Lansing was cancelled, due to the Spartans being in the final four! This was exciting, so we went to the Bennigans and watched the game over delicious foodstuffs! This was a very “Michigan” thing to do, but the Spartans lost, so the atmosphere became sort of…less than exciting. So, back on the bus, where play station 2 reigns king, and Hags is definitely the king of the violent video games! I bought a Tennis game at EB games ($9.99) and Laurel and I had Panda Express for dinner. I noticed that each restaurant in the food court had it’s own slogan to attract diners. “Real American Food!” Boasted the A&W stand. I wonder if there’s a restaurant somewhere in, let’s say, China, which boasts: (in chinese) “Real Chinese Food!” Or if this brand of patriotism is strictly American? We had breakfast at The Big Boy (Breakfast Buffet, Small O.J. $9.72) then got back on the road to Ann Arbor, where we will stay tonight, then play tomorrow night. I think now I will go to Burger Kingand see if I can get one of their terrific veggie burgers!