The Weblog of Daniel Tashian

Walked early and went to breakfast with my dad. It rained while we ate scrambled eggs. It was nice. Came home and did some computing and waited for Micheal’s Art supplies to open. Went down there and got a sketch pad ($15) and started to draw pictures. Jason Gray came over and showed me his new car. It was an Audi. He just dropped Shalene off to get her hair done. We went to Frothy and that’s where everybody goes now. Matthew Ryan was there and I told him I liked “Cars and History” off the new Strays Don’t Sleep album and he said thank you and that he didn’t take compliments well. But he gave me his number and told me to call him and I will because I like him. Came back and Jason hung out for a while and we looked at the Peaches website and I don’t know what Grimey is talking about. He said he liked the last one but I think the new record is the best thing i’ve heard all year! The song “Downtown” is incredible! It’s like better than Prince! But I told him I had to get back to work and I worked on drawings for another 2 hours and Leslie called and we decided to meet at Pizza Perfect. Had salad and lasagna ($10) and a beer. Went home and went for a walk and I got a blister on my foot because I wore my flip flops which was dumb. Took a shower and went to bed.

Leslie worked so I got up with her and made her lunch. It was raining again so I went back to sleep. I just didn’t have much enthusiasm for house-cleaning, which was what was on deck for me. But I got up and started cleaning and I cleaned the kitchen and dining room and vaccumed the living room and took out the recycling. I kept listening to more rap songs and did some work on Reason. I like the song “Dead Disco” by Metric. I wonder if people would dance to that? Melissa Mathes sent me this text message about would I play with her next Tuesday, so I called her and told her I would. She was happy. I like to make people happy. I guess if you disappoint them enough times, then when you actually do agree to whatever they want, they are surprised. Leslie called and she’s less than excited to be back to work after a few days off. I don’t blame her. Organized the studio for about an hour and answered some emails and did some computing and Leslie called again and said she was in the mood for something green, but when she got out of work we ended up going to Jersey Mikes. ($11) And I didn’t sleep well. I need to stop eating food right before bed. Oh yeah, and before bed, I wrote a children’s story and it’s pretty good.

Slept in because it looked like it was going to storm, and that’s the kind of weather we’re getting this time of year: Pop-up thunderstorms, which I love. Checked my messages and Emily West called, and she said to mention her in my blog, because it’s one of the blogs she reads. She said she was preoccupied because she was with the president of her record label yesterday. Leslie took a nap and I went out for a while and puttered around. Came home and watched that movie with Peter Sellers where he’s an Italian director and he’s so animated and hyper, and he’s sweating the whole time. Probably on amphetamines. Mollie Burnett called and she said things were going pretty good. I wanted to talk to someone about DJ-ing, and she happened to call so I kind of talked her ear off, but she was a good person to talk to. Took Posh to Sevier park, and listened to some more rap songs on my ipod. I looked up Ma$e on Wikipedia and fell into an interesting web “black whole” about hip hop. Then I downloaded “Hypnotize” by Notorious B.I.G. after I read that it played at his funeral in New York, and it made the song sound so eerie. I wrote down all the words to “Mo Money, Mo Problems” on notebook paper and it took about an hour. There were still some lines I couldn’t get. I think it’s good to write lyrics down sometimes. I was thinking about what Tom Petty said about sitting around with his friends by the radio, and listening to “Get Off Of My Cloud” by the Stones, and having to wait 3 or 4 hours for it to keep coming on to get all the words. They come really fast. And that’s the same thing in rap, it makes the song really have momentum.
So much of the violent lyrics in Hip Hop are meant to be metaphorical, I think. It’s sad when that trash-talking results in real violence. But that’s what happens when you deal with people who don’t understand the difference between reality and metaphors. They don’t like their pride wounded, so they kill you. But I learned a new term for record sales I never knew before: “Diamond” (Certified 10X Platinum). You don’t encounter that term very often in the idie-rock/folk circuit I travel in (laughs).
Went to Venus Hum’s in-store at Grimey’s and they sounded good. I talked to Annette for a little while, and she said she’d be up for writing some time. So now I have lots of people that want to write that I need to call. Leigh Nash, (who’s new record got 4 stars in Paste) and some others. People are going to start to not take me seriously if I never call them. Anyway, bought some records ($39) and Leslie called and wanted to get Korean food, so we went out to Tofu House and had a Korean feast! I asked the waitress (stupidly) if she was from North or South Korea. “I am from the South.” She said.
The food was excellent, but spicy, and I had nightmares and sweated all night.

Walked early and was in a good mood all day. Went to Chinatown for lunch and went to Davis Kidd and got the new issue of Paste magazine and the Bees have a song on the sampler CD, and they put us close to the top of the CD, which is great because maybe more people will hear it that way. But I still wonder if “The Country Life” would have been a better choice? It was funny, in the airport the other day I had my ipod on and one of the girls said: “What are you listening to?” and Grimey said: “The Bees!!! He’s listening to his own record and second guessing the mixes!” and I laughed, and sort of smiled, like: “wouldn’t that be stupid! Ha Ha!” and really, that’s exactly what I was doing!! And I’ve been hearing alot about the new Tom Petty record, and I have to go out and get that. Then I was listening to N.P.R. and Terry Gross was interviewing him and he mentioned Warren Zanes. Went to the baseball game and I didn’t even know who was playing. I know one of the teams was “The Sounds”. But we went with Andy and Sandra Torrente. And we had a fun time, and I knew that if I forgot my camera, it would be a beautiful night, and it really was…but I took some pictures with my phone, and i’m going to figure out how to put them in the computer soon. Then went home and downloaded some songs from itunes, because I was going to D.J. for Deanna Bruton’s birthday at “L’ayla”, so I got some songs and went over there, and it’s so crowded now. I mean, the first time I was there, there were maybe 50 people. And that was just 3 weeks ago! Now, it’s like 300! I mean, I kind of liked it better before. John Bruton and Erin were there and also Jaren Johnson and some of the other guys from Bang Bang Bang. Leslie and Sandra came, and it was so loud, you couldn’t really talk. They put me on about 12:30 and my songs went over well, except Michael Jackson. It was fun and I saw Emily West, and she was going to DJ and I was looking forward to her set, but it got kind of late and she left, and I don’t really blame her. I went out on the balcony, just in time to see this drunk girl fall over and hit her head on the ground. It was terrible! And this guy was like “Get Up! Get Up!”. He wasn’t even trying to find out if she was okay! I mean, I don’t know what his problem was. Maybe they were under age. But it was getting kind of “Buckhead”-ish in there. But there was a terrific dancer there, named C.J. and she came to the DJ booth to request something, and it really does make you feel powerful, to be in the DJ booth. But she said she would give me dance lessons if I called her. Leslie and Sandra left before I was through and I stayed for all of Jaren’s set and he played a cool Jay-Z song, and i’m getting so into rap these days. Maybe it’s just a passing phase, but some of these records are just crushingly good. Paid my tab ($25) and went home. Went to sleep on Leslie’s side of the bed because she was in mine.

Got up early and walked Posh, and Leslie had been working for 3 days straight, so she slept in. Came home and went back to bed for a little while. Got up and did the bills and Comcast was back up to $100 again. They said they put us on “promotional” for 6 months, but it doesn’t really make that much difference. $13 or something. Took my check to the bank to deposit and mailed the bills. Leslie had the idea to take my grandma out to lunch so we picked her up and went to Olive Garden, and I just remembered that Jon Wright maybe used to be a chef there? Or maybe he just waited tables. Anyway, I had soup and salad and so did Leslie and my grandma had pasta with tomato sauce. She was cute and she wanted me to cut the pasta for her. She had a glass of Chardonnay. She paid for lunch and we took her back home. It’s a little bit far to go for lunch, but when you want Olive Garden, that’s the only one there is. Went home and watched some of Bridget Jones and it’s pretty funny when he stops her after they have a fight and says “Bridget!” and she turns around at the door, and he says: “That’s not your coat.” and you see, and she has this hilarious huge coat on (laughs). Woke up about 5 to go to the library and we dropped off Posh to play, and I got some videos by Warren Bernhardt about jazz, and a couple Alexander McCall Smith books and one by Mark Halprin and he looks interesting. Also got that movie “Mediterraneo” and it won an Academy Award. Checked email and we sold some Starry Gazey Pies, which we just got in, and somebody wrote that they got it because they wanted to see how the Bees were influenced by the book by Brenda Wooton and I don’t know anything about it. Which came first? Leslie and I went to Kroger and she was getting mad at me for getting in people’s way at the grocery. “You see someone coming and you don’t even attempt to get out of the way!” She was saying, and she has a point. But why doesn’t anyone see ME coming?
Why do I always have to see them? I think she’s embarrassed by me sometimes. But i’m embarrassed when she’s always taking stuff back. But I took something back yesterday to Davis Kidd, and I didn’t have a reciept and it was like a 20 minute ordeal, and I felt so cheap, it was only a $5 item. Got the stuff at Krogers ($39) for Chilli and Gazpacho, which I plan to make from the New York Times Magazine Cooked for a while and had some beer and watched Mediterraneo with Leslie and I forgot what a good movie that is. She liked it too. Oh, and I forgot- Leslie told this great story about a baby she delivered, and the family said they wanted to give her an American name, and she gave them all these ideas, but in the end they named her Leslie! How cool!