The Weblog of Daniel Tashian

So this guy called Gary something is riding his bike across America and riding for charity and he’s a friend of Julian Dawson’s, so he was chilling for a day or two at Hopkins, and he’s a really interesting guy. The folks were out of town, so I went over there and walked Sula, and took Gary to the Cumberland Transit, and the kids were all interested in his bike. Just being in that Bike shop, I started to get kind of into the idea of cycling again. I’m so susceptible to influences like that. Joe Pisapia was there, and he was getting into it. He said he was going to see K.S. Rhodes and I should go. Delois called me and said she was house sitting for the Coburns if I wanted to jump in the pool, so I went out there and we had dinner and it was fun catching up, and she played me the Brandi Carlyle record and it was good.

Well I guess a lot of people are at Bonarroo, but it’s really hot and all the trees look strangely dry. I called John Bruton and told him I was going to hang out with a friend who came into town. He didn’t seem disappointed. Felt sort of desolate and hot around…like some wild west town at high noon.

Walked and Liz pulled up along side us, and she said she was tired. Ran a few errands and Jason Lehning came over and we worked on bandnames. The Frontrunners: The Silver Seas, The Rainclouds, The Tigersharks, hey wait a minute, “The Frontrunners” isn’t bad either…or does it sound contrived? My mom says “What about the Silver Bees?” and my thing is, does it remind you too much of “The Silver Bullet band”? At any rate, I don’t think we’ve completely resolved it, but we’re close. I also really like “The Windowsills”. I think it has a certain elegance and magic to it. I had to quit at 3 and I went with Mary and Edie to the Frist and it was a watercolor exhibit. It was nice,  I saw Thomas Hart Benton and Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper and they are terrific. I mean, you can’t beat Edward Hopper. Upstairs they have this area where kids can make art, and I was so inspired, I went in there and made 2 pieces. Edie made 2 fantastic, exuberant watercolors. I need to get some more water for my stuff. Some bigger paper. I could get big paper and cut it up. Also watercolor pencils are indispensable. We ate at the little cafe, and Mary said she got an order from a really cool boutique in New York.  Went to Hopkins for dinner and Liz came and it was grilled chicken and grilled peaches and eggplant over rice. Home and we watched the first half of “Paris, Texas” (Me, Carl and Liz).

Melissa came over, and we made a cool demo of  “Gimme Some Sugar” and she was sort of pretending to be Mick Jagger when she did the vocal and it was funny. We went to lunch with Layng at Woodlands and he was talking about Bonaroo. He said he was going to drive down and back each day. That’s a lot of driving. I feel like I sort of “should” go to Bonaroo, but my dad said somebody offered him tickets to Woodstock and he didn’t go, so why would he go to Bonaroo? But I bet it’s pretty fun. Especially to be backstage, cruising around on go-carts. But I don’t know as purely a spectator. It might be weird.  David Mead called and he said he would be in town later. Melissa and I finished our demo, and she went to learn David Bowie songs with Brad Jones. I met David halfway down the street and we went to PM ($27) and chilled there for a while. I forgot to feed Fraidy, so we walked over there and I fed him.

Walked and Liz came, and she was funny.  Went to the Vietnamese seamstress and took my seersucker in. She was saying something to her husband, I wonder if it was: “Here’s that guy again, the one who told me his jeans were too tight! Now he’s back with 3 more pairs!” Renovated my ipod, and now it plays some amazingly great stuff: Grant Green, The Reminder by Feist, Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith, Joni Mitchell, Burt Bachrach etc. Went to East Nashville, and it took absolutely forever to get there for some reason. Played drums on a session for Peter Bradley Adams and man i’ve gotten really good at the drums. So that was fun, and I went to hopkins for dinner and it was french lentil stew with fresh bread. Went to Jen Masselli and Mark Deaderick’s house, and they got a new Samsung high definition TV and it really looks great. They had the basketball game on and we watched some of that. We mainly sat outside and I had a couple of beers and Emily Deaderick came over and Mark’s friend Seth was there. Read some Ian Fleming: Thunderball

Walked to the post office with my dad, and went to the downtown library (which I’m ashamed to say i’ve never been to before). Never have been much of a reader. I got some Wes Montgomery CDs, and two Ian Fleming books, and “Tender is the Night”, just so my whole trip won’t have just been about entertainment. Home, and worked for a while, and I studied some Bachrach music, then I played Tennis with Jen Masseli, and it was a long set, which she won 5 to 7, but we hit some good balls. I just kept hitting these what I call “mudballs”, which sort of clang against the frame of the racket. At any rate, I think I pulled a muscle in my foot and I had to ice it down.  And then I went to Hopkins for dinner, and Karl and Carl showed up with their car: A Civic Hybrid. Which is a very nice car and I’m happy they got it. Played some music, then went to Bongo, and  Angelo and Eulene were there. Went home and Rachel and Chris were leaving and I said “do you guys want to go get in the pool for a sec?” and they did, so we went to the neighbor’s pool and it was a nice night, with clear skies and you could see lots of stars. Home and talked to Liz for a second and read 2 pages about the life of Burt Bachrach and crashed.

The finals of the French Open were on, so I watched them all morning. It was fun to see Federer get clobbered, what’s that German word? Schadenfreude or something like that.  Then called my brother and we agreed to go the pool. Put on my sunblock and hit the pool with gran, and it was a perfect day. Went home and got ready for Melissa Mathes’ rehearsal and she came over and we went by Starbucks and I got the new collector’s Paul McCartney Starbucks card like Bill Lloyd has. To sound-check and it went pretty well. We zeroed in on some musical things like bgvs and stuff, and apparently someone is coming from Blue Note now? I told my dad this and he said “Oscar Peterson was on Blue Note” and I started to picture this imaginary meeting between Oscar Peterson and Melissa Mathes. Went to see the movie “Knocked Up” because Brad and a bunch of people have said it’s funny, and it was. I enjoyed it quite a lot.

Walked and worked for a while. Then I had to get to the pool. Grilled cheese for lunch. We were having a little get together tonight to celebrate the birthdays of Liz and Carl, and also just sort of an excuse to learn to make Mojitos. So I went to Wild Oats and they had only like 2 things of mint, so I had to go around to a few different shops. ($38, $28) and I realized I spent to much time at the pool because when I got home I was late, and Liz already did a lot of the stuff for the party, and I felt bad. But it went off pretty well, and there were lots of cool people there. Brad Jones said he was having mechanical difficulties, so he postponed his motorcylce trip. Courtney Jaye was there, and Leslie and Melissa and Joe and Marc Pisapia came. Joe’s hair is longer now. The only thing that didn’t work was the Karaoke. It just wasn’t loud enough. I don’t know why. At least I tried. But I sang “Walk On By” and I tried to hit all those notes and it wasn’t easy. That’s my new thing. Well, not my new thing, but I’m back on the Bachrach obsession. Let’s see. Who else was at the party. Kate York, and she was suggesting that a game of spin the bottle be initiated. Kristy West was there. “I wish I came a little earlier.” She said, looking around. I saw a few people for a second, Emerson Hart, Helena Johansson and Brian Sprouse. There was some long-limbed goddess although I didn’t catch her name. But really, a Mojito is a labor intensive drink, and I was so busy making them that I didn’t get to just chill. But I kind of like floating around at parties. Curt Perkins said he’d help me on my website, and Joy Tilgman and Amy Loftus and Kate and Leslie were all dancing and I danced for a while, too, but I didn’t have that much good dance music. Nobody wants to dance to Petula Clark’s “Downtown” except me.  All in all, it was a fun party.

Woke up at six and went to paint my grandfather’s deck. We painted (me, my dad, Roger Ryan) until it looked like it was going to rain. Then it looked like the clouds moved north, so we resumed, and had it done just as the sun was starting to get too hot. Home and worked for about 3 hours then went to hopkins for lunch, and it was the most marvellous egg-white omelet I’ve ever had. It had asparagus and mushrooms and it was served with fresh cole slaw and wow. Worked on a steel solo for a country demo, then went to Pei Wei with Carl and Karl and Jeanne.