The Weblog of Daniel Tashian

To the airport at (!) 4:30 and Roger drove me, and he got lost, and didn’t get home until my plane landed in NY! Poor guy. Then I couldn’t get in touch with Greta, so I just chilled out in David Gherke’s hotel room and watched Wimbledon. Gimelstob was playing Roddick. Finally, Greta called, and she had been in Nova Scotia for Ryder’s christening. Cabbed it down to her place ($12) and chilled out for a while. Then she said she was going to the opening of Ethan Hawke’s new film “The Hottest State”, and it was good film, but I had to pee, and it was such a small theater, and we were sitting close to the front, so everyone saw me get up. It was horrible. But Ethan was very gracious, thanking everyone very eloquently. He’s a good speech-maker. Josh Rouse and Paz and Paloma Suay came to the reception, and I met the actor Mark Webber, and Jimmy Fallon came over and talked to us for a minute, and he’s very quick, and of course, funny. Also, as everyone says, a phenomenally nice guy. Talked to Frank Whaley on the street, and he remembered visiting Nashville years ago. We all legged it down to a bar called “Walker’s”, and wound up talking to the songwriter Jesse Harris, but he didn’t seem very interested in me. Ethan’s fiancee was very funny, and charming. I realized at a certain point that I was quite drunk, and it was time to go.

Woke early, and had breakfast with the gang, and Mary Jane and Chris took me to the ferry. Eulene’s good friend Karen (“K.K.”) was on the boat, and we figured out we were on the same flights and everything, so we kind of hung out, and it was a nice day. We went to T. G. I. Fridays in the airport, and sat at the bar and had bloody marys and some food. I actually slept quite a bit on both flights. My dad picked me up and we went to Pizza Perfect, and I was totally in the mood for pizza. Mom seems sort of out of it and her poor arm is in a sling! Home and did laundry and re-packed and tomorrow i’m off to New York. Forgot Posh’s bed at Hopkins, so I let her sleep with me, and she was tossing and turning all night like a restless child. arg.

Woke up pretty early (with the rest of the house). I mean, it’s kind of polite to do that, I think. Meredith had to get her hair done, so she took me in to town. I walked around and got some coffee ($5) and looked at art supplies, but decided I didn’t need anything. Went to a fish place and I got fishburgers for everyone ($37) and took a nap. Went for a walk with Chris and Mary Jane and Reginald and Tilly (the dogs). We walked down a sandy path which led to the ocean. It was interesting terrain, and the dogs were going wild! I felt a little spaced out from the Claritin and I thought about Posh and was thinking she would love this. I was also walking on the beach in my dress shoes, which is a sort of funny thing to do, that I’d never done before. But it was a nice day. Got back, called dad, and he said mom tripped over Sula in the night, and (!) broken her shoulder! What a drag! I wasn’t really in the mood to just stay home, so I texted a few people, and Troy Verges texted back, and invited me to dinner with he and Jessica, in Edgartown. He said wear a jacket, so I knew it was going to be swanky, and it was, and it was in a beautiful old sea captain’s house. The staff would come over to the table and kind of whisper: “The lobster bisque is very delicious”, and it was! The food was great, and I had a nice time talking to Troy and Jessica, but at first I felt self-conscious because I was wearing this really kind of garish seersucker suit, and I was sort dressed like the way a tourist would dress on Martha’s Vineyard, but I forgot about it. We were talking about “the worst job I’ve ever had” and “the weirdest thing that ever happened to you”, and it was fun. They’re great people, Troy and Jessica. 4 course meal, and then Troy picked up the check, which was really sweet. Met Hillary Lindsey and Dallas Davidson, walking down the street, and we decided to go and get a nightcap, the 5 of us. I was being naughty, and I smoked a couple cigarettes, and we sat outside and it was fun. I like Dallas, he’s funny, and we were all kind of re-hashing the wedding. Closed the place down, and I took a Taxi back up island, and the taxi driver was this sort of attractive young girl, so, feeling kind of brazen, I asked her if she might want to get a quiet drink somewhere. “Sure” she said “but it’s 3 dollars a minute.”

Woke up early because Tad and Judy were leaving town, so unfortunately, I had to pack up and move to a friend’s up the road. The price you pay for being too cheap to get a hotel. A nice old Vineyard farm house, with a lovely garden, and bee hives in the back. Dunbar and Meredith and their daughter Mary Jane, and her wife Chris welcomed me. Mary Jane took me and my tux to the bus station, and it was like that Mastercard add from a few years ago (“priceless”) with the bridesmaid in the sea-foam green dress who takes the city bus to the wedding. It was really easy, and the bus stopped right outside “The Outermost Inn” (in Menemsha) which is a lovely seaside inn, owned by James Taylor’s brother, Hugh. He welcomed me, and I was the first one of the groomsmen there, and he gave me a glass of water and he was singing to himself, and he has an excellent voice! But the Outermost Inn is quite a place. Beautiful! It sits on a hill, overlooking a lovely meadow, and beyond that, a lighthouse, and the sea! The rest of the groomsmen arrived, and I thought I was coming down with the flu, but Gabrielle, Angelo’s daughter told me it was allergies and gave me a claritin and some advil and she was right! We got dressed and it was funny, a bunch of musicians struggling with their tuxes, and it was me and Billy Beard, Frank Swart, Chuck Prophet and Frank Petraglia. We took a few pics at the outermost, and I forgot that Angelo gave us all binoculars. We got in a van to go to the wedding, and it looked like it was going to storm, but it held off. Eulene took a while to get to the church and everyone was sort of anxious. The wedding co-ordinaters were calling the chauffer’s cellphone and there was a lot of whispering, but she arrived and was stunning, and she knows the way to make an entrance! The wedding was one of those lovely short-ish weddings and we took some pictures, then it looked stormy again, so we went back to the Outermost Inn, and it was pouring! Everyone was kind of clustered together inside, and it was kind of nice, and then the clouds broke, and a rainbow appeared, and everyone cheered, and it turned into a beautiful starry night! Dinner was really good (surf and turf) and I got kind of drunk, and danced with some different people. I asked Ang if I could stay at the inn, but then I thought what am I doing? He just got married, why would he want to be bothered with sorting out my accommodations? I could feel Leslie kicking me in the shins as soon as I said it! But we all had a great time, and it’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a wedding. They really did it right! Took the last shuttle home and it dropped me on M. and D.’s doorstep. Staggered up the steps and somehow remembered to take some advil!

Woke earlier than usual, maybe the time zone? Had a great outdoor shower, and read for a while, and Judy took me to lunch at “Larsens” in Vineyard Haven, and I had all sorts of naughty fried fish that was delicious, and Judy pointed out Billy Joel’s house, overlooking the harbor. I felt like if he was around, I could go and say hello, and he would remember me, but maybe I was over-romanticizing? To Brickman’s for my Tuxedo ($126), and everything fit perfectly, except (laughs) the pants, the shirt and the jacket! Went to the W. Tisbury church at 5, and it’s a lovely old church from the sixteen hundreds. Angelo and Eulene’s friends and family are really lovely, and it’s just a cool bunch of people to be around. Very funny. We went to the rehearsal dinner at the Oak Bar and Grill in Oak Bluffs. There were a lot of familiar faces: Troy and Jessica Verges, Peter Wolf, Barbara and Roger Moutenot, Hillary Lindsey and Dallas Davidson, and lots of others. It was a nice dinner and I got sort of drunk, because Angelo’s brother Frank kept encouraging me to drink Tequila, but not too bad, and Angelo said “remember to save something for tomorrow” or something like that, and they looked great, really. Angelo looked so skinny, and Eulene was just tan and radiant. Her brother Caleb and his girlfriend Monique gave me a ride home in a convertible, and it was fun, seeing all the stars, and I stood up in the back of the car and it was windy and beautiful.

The alarm went off at 4:45, and damn. That’s not enough sleep. Went downstairs grumpy, and my dad was outside, sitting in his truck. He called a couple times, he said, to make sure I was up. To the airport, and going through security I saw Roy and Jenny Neel on their way to D.C. Found the Moutenots and Bob and Christine Orral, but I was too tired to really form sentences. Slept up to Baltimore, had some breakfast at Au Bon Pain ($7) and Roger told me about going to Bonaroo with his son. Jeeze. But I wish I did see Feist, though. They were all taking a flight on to the vineyard. I planned to take the ferry. “You should just come with us.” said Barbara, “It’s so much easier”. At Providence they disappeared, so I took a Taxi to the Vineyard Fast Ferry and it was actually lovely, and a little bumpy, but great. I read Vanity Fair’s Africa issue and wow! I was pretty impressed. What a great magazine. Josh Rouse called while I was on the ferry and the reception was actually fine. He said he was coming to the Bees gig in NYC. Got to the Vineyard and went to the Crawford’s, and we had a lovely dinner and I made a sort of crappy watercolor of their house, a beautiful place right on a nature preserve. Tad was telling me about France after the war. How he was fascinated by the sewers. Talked on the phone to Amy Loftus and Leslie and she told me she met Feist at Bonaroo and I was jealous. I don’t know why, I don’t know what I would say to her anyway, other than I am a fan and I think she’s fantastic but i’m sure she hears that 17 times a day, so that wouldn’t really be interesting. It would just be cool to meet her, I guess. Read some of the New Yorker and hit the hay at 11.

Walked and it was me and my mom and Roger. Packed a little, then went for a haircut ($18) and met Kirshner for lunch at Shintomi. He was talking about being in Bolivia and how the girls there are really attractive, but they want to get serious really quickly. I had sushi and I limited myself to $20, so it wasn’t too much. Home and practiced for Melissa’s gig but I couldn’t concentrate for some reason. Took Posh and her toys and her bed over to Hopkins and my dad gave me a toothbrush. I felt strange having no dog around while I finished packing. Went to the basement for Melissa’s showcase and it was crowded. I saw Robin and Karen Eaton, Brad Jones, Jason Lehning, Buddy Miller, Steve Walsh, Amy Loftus, Emma Grandillo, Jerry Flowers, and  Jerry told me to get a Bentley Coupe: “Treat yourself. You deserve it!” (laughs) The showcase went well, the only thing was, during “Law Of Attraction”, nobody seemed to know what the hell was happening, least of all, me. But oddly, it garnered the most compliments. Went to Sunset Grill with Peter and Cam from New West, and Karl Rybacki. I had a Sonoma Salad with chicken, and the chicken was undercooked and over-represented. Had fun talking to those guys, and the funny fact emerged that Alice Cooper dislikes the term “mother****er” (laughs) Home and finished packing and MaClean read my Vanity Fair and listened to the Stones.

Did some errands and went to lunch with Melissa Mathes and she bought me lunch and it rained really hard and the Baja burrito guy was chasing the umbrellas around the parking lot. It was beautiful to look out the window because you can see an uncharacteristically long way from there. I helped her sort of make a set list for tomorrow’s showcase. She took me to the bank and the pet store and it was finally raining. Thank gosh. Home and went to dinner with B and H and the Neels, the sort of directors of Al Gore’s climate project. Very interesting people. Good dinner, and everybody was talking about the night the wall came down in East Germany and I want to keep more tabs on current events. I think I should subscribe to the Economist. First the New Yorker, then maybe. Played Ping Pong and went home.

Not very much happening, I just chilled out mostly until the Guilty rehearsal at the Basement. I started to get in a bad mood by the end and Grimey was grumpy, too, but the band sounded good. I like playing the song “Would I lie 2 You” by the Eurythmics. I feel out of practice on the bass, and that was pissing me off. Had some brandy.