The Weblog of Daniel Tashian

Well we went to the Y, then I made some fried rice. It was good. I sauteed some cabbage, carrots, onion and celery and garlic. Then I added some leftover rice, soy sauce and a couple eggs, lightly beaten. Got it from Mark Bittman. He’s a wonderful writer. I can just read his cookbooks like you would read a magazine or a novel. Leann gave us “How to Cook Everything” – it’s excellent. John Deaderick came over and played some lovely keyboard overdubs on some stuff. Nice Thomas Dolby type stuff. I have to get ready for Madi Diaz, see what she’s going to sing on. John and I worked til 6, then I took Posh to the park, then we went to Angelo and Eulene’s house for dinner. We had a nice night and they really rolled out the red carpet for us. Champagne toast, cheese, wine, sambuca, espresso, the whole deal. I want to get an espresso machine I think. I don’t know…will I drink too much coffee? Long discussions of honeymoons, wedding stuff, etc. Talked about funny celebrity run-ins. They saw John Lithgow in an alley outside the grammys. Lillie’s was D from Run DMC. Mine was Dylan. I said I was outside 12th and Porter about 1995, and my friend got a new motorcycle, so me and this other dude were in the parking lot, looking at my friend’s bike, just the 3 of us. Were just checking it out, then all of a sudden I realize the other dude is Bob Dylan. I didn’t say anything. Just looked at the bike. Angelo’s was Mick Jagger. He was with Arthur Baker and Mick came over to the studio. Cool. I like those kind of stories. Home about 2.

Woke up and L and I went to the Y. I saw good old Steve and Jill Walsh. The same shows were on TVs on the treadmills in front of me. It makes me feel like i’m caught in the matrix when that happens. The same woman watching “Cash Cab!”, which is probably the silliest show ever invented.  Ran and swam, then it was home and made egg salad for lunch and oatmeal with raisins and pecans for breakfast. I’ve been trying not to take naps during the day, and I find if I drink tea all day long like Ethan says he does, it works. My stupid LaCie drive was giving me all kinds of Kernal Panic errors, so to Mac Authority for a new hard drive. This one has guaranteed data recovery, so they promise you won’t lose anything. It’s called a “Glyph” and it’s supposed to be the best. Walked Radnor with L. and then went home to work for a while. Tried putting another bass on “Somebody Said Your Name” and it wasn’t any better than the one I did yesterday, so I left it alone. The new drive works so much better- no spinning rainbow wheel, fast reaction. Loads everything up very quickly. Made some tofu and veggies and rice for dinner, and had a glass of Bristol Creme sherry. Oh, yes, and when we arrived home, there was a lovely package on the back porch from William Sonoma – and it was a Kitchen Aid mixer from L’s grandparents! Very exciting, and so we went, after dinner, to Whole Foods and found the ingredients for basic bread-making. Have to test it tomorrow, though, takes too long to start at 10pm. But all in all it was a lovely day. Little bits of fresh green just emerging on the hillside, 70 degrees. I remember how, I think it was a couple of years ago, the leaves all came out, then it frosted again and they all fell off. It was the strangest, most haywire weather. I hope that doesn’t happen again!

Well there’s been a lot of morning pages lately. And hot chocolate. And boot camp. L and I to the Y. 9 am. L. riding the bikes and me running. Listening to Cornelius – Sensuous. Brilliant. Saw Steve and Jill Walsh at the Y. Didn’t talk to them though. Went to the bank and to the music store. Jason showed me a new Motion Sound amp that does leslie effects. “You need this.” he said. “You need 2 of these!” He’s funny. I feel myself becoming slightly complacent. I went to lunch with my brother and fell asleep on the couch…Then to the mac store with L. I did email while she looked at shoes after. Then home and played some bass on “Somebody Said Your Name”, and it’s getting quite disco. There’s so much to do on these tracks. It’s unbelievable all the work that still needs to be done to make them fully finished. I feel daunted. I wish I had an intern to help me, like Greg. He was great. I will have to put out some feelers tomorrow. David and Liz came for dinner and it was nice to see some friends and have a laugh for a moment. Bed at 11.

Well it’s been a while since i’ve written on here. Sorry about that. Here’s to better behavior. Things have been hectic as heck. But I find myself thinking a lot about influences. I remember T-bone telling me, when I was at the height of despondancy, thinking I would never make the record I was trying to make: “You’re closer than you think!” and it really made me feel better. It gave me the encouragement I needed to go on. The other day, L. told me about Joel Osteen, and how he had a sermon about that. That reminded me of the power of encouragement. Then I was thinking about influences. I read the excerpt of Haruki Murakami’s “What I talk about when I talk about running” in the New Yorker, and I have to admit I think about it all the time.  It’s not a direct quote, but he says something like: “My wife and I wake up with the sun, and excercise, and limit alchohol and meat. Mainly we eat fish and vegetables. We go to bed not long after the sun goes down.” or something like that. Anyhow. He’s sort of a hero of mine, because he’s so productive. He just keeps cranking out these fantastic books. He’s like some kind of word genius. Although he never tries to sound sophisticated. It’s all very conversational. That’s one reason why I want to write on here more often. I feel that it trains my mind to articulate thoughts into words. It’s like a muscle, and i’m out of shape at the moment. Just need to remember to describe what I see: I need to clean my desk. It’s covered in clutter. There’s tax forms, CDs, iphone headphones, capos, picks, books, reciepts, tissues, keys, scotch tape, post it notes, pens, a copy of “The Outsiders” a photo of my great grandfather in a Napolean costume. Maybe I should write a stage play about a bunch of people going to a costume ball. That’s kind of a good idea. Part of me wants to finish this Silver Seas record so that I can invent some crazy new project like that. Sigh. But the truth is, I never finish stuff like that. Because it’s too much to do on my own, and too crazy to get somebody else to devote a lot of time and energy to it. Except Jon Wright. He would devote time to it.