The Weblog of Daniel Tashian

Didn’t walk the dogs, just put them out back to play, and they did, and came back in huffing and puffing. I have to get a baby gift for Ang. Stayed in my pj’s until about 10:15, when Natalie called and she said she was already in the neighborhood, and could she come early, so we started writing about 11, and we finished at about 5, after going to Kalamata’s for lunch. I forgot I mentioned something to L. about going to the meditation thing, so when I called her when we were done she was disappointed. “I waited for you.” But things perked up when we went to Ombi, for “Restaurant Week” and it was excellent. Trout and parsnips, Muscles and Heirloom Tomatoes, Gnocci and Brussels sprouts. Chocolate Pot du Creme, heavenly. Lovely wine, too, and Jeanne got a bit tipsy. Home and played the song for L. that Natalie and I wrote: “After Dark” - It currently has a key change, but i’m not sure I don’t like it better if it stays in the original key. Then again, “I’ll Stand By You” has like 2 key changes in it, and I love that. Did an interview with Jeanne and took some portraits of her, but couldn’t post them from the laptop, Apple told me when I called them.

Well it’s finally cooling off a bit. Made scrambled eggs with parmesan cheese. I am really into eggs at the moment. Except not really duck eggs. Worked at home a bit on interviews and I need to find contact info for Matthew Ryan because he said he would do one. To the pool around noon, then to Whole Foods for a salad. Saw Mindy Smith. She had a whole shopping cart full of healthy food. “I’m completely giving up wheat!” she said. Back home and worked on “The Coast” for a little while, then tidied up and packed a suitcase for Hopkins.

Things to take with me:

Oxygen Keyboard

Computer/ Charger/ Drive

Phone / Charger

Clothes / Toothpaste / Toothbrush

Headphones

Recorder

Camera

Alec Guiness diary

Walking shoes

Took Aunt Faith to the airport. 2 hours early. No thanks. Email from Joe re new Ashton Kutcher film wanting SIlver Seas song. Watched “Strange Foods” on the travel channel and I had to turn it off because one retaurant offered, to my extreme horror and disgust: Fried bumble bees! That’s the worst thing i’ve ever seen. Sometimes I feel like humankind is just so negligable. But then later I saw an advertisment for an ASPCA credit card and I think that’s the one I should get. “No rewards?” said L. “Just a donation? That’s silly.” To dinner at PM and then to see “Transiberia”. Kind of dumb. Woody Harrelson sort of bothers me now. I don’t know why, maybe it’s his glasses in this movie. Home and read strange article in the times about Myspace Music. I couldn’t help feeling sort of fatigued by all this technology. To bed with uneasy feeling about the future.

Well it was rent day and I went to Grimey’s in the AM to pick up money from the last Guilty Pleasures show. Thank God for that gig. It has been so great to be a member of that excellent group. We just get better and better, I think. Started the day somewhat stressfully, trying to negotiate over a piece of my grandfather’s furniture with Vicky. I just felt irritated and distressed. We came to an agreement by the end of the day that we are both ok with - I will buy it, but not at full “market” price. It feels strange to buy my grandfather’s furniture. Took L. some Mums, and ran into H. Korine and his wife, Rach. “I didn’t know you shave your head!” he said. “Good look for you!” - Devon emailed from NACA - wants me to put my calendar on Google Calendars. I need to figure out how to do this. Played with the iWeb quite a bit. The Interviews are now up. Messed with the Canon and figured out how to shoot B & W. Made fish with scallions and butter and breadcrumbs for dinner: “So good, I can’t believe it’s fish!” L. is working furiously on her paper. Started new song, or rather, began pruning old idea, with new excitement: “The Coast” - playing the Wurlitzer. Cooler weather in the AM and all day. Ran a couple errands with L. and got a black T-shirt. Can’t have too many of those. Watched Carson Daly. He looked like he had some sort of fake tan. The guy who invented “Stuff White People Like” was on, and I couldn’t decide if he was funny or not.

Looked around on flickr quite a bit. Very interesting site. Trying to figure out how to get the Canon to take black and white. Finally a bit of rain, but very blustery and more wind than rain, really. The missing thing was the darkness of deep clouds. These were shallow, easy clouds. Not much to say.

Well it seemed like it wanted to rain all weekend but it couldn’t get the nerve up to actually do it. I hate that kind of “pregnant” weather. I just wish it would get on with it. I find myself feeling very thwarted and anxious in that kind of weather. I wonder if most people are psychologically affected that way. Read the first paragraph of Jean-Dominique Bauby’s the Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Amazing and brilliant. Going through another Nick Drake phase, fascinated by his futuristic elegant music. It sounds so modern and wonderful, like it has no time, just the endless time of the universe. Annoying hot, cloying weather. Tried to walk the dogs to the post office and just turned around and went home. Won an auction for some socks on ebay. Did I overpay? My favorite socks are (or used to be) made in Italy for Paul Smith. Trolling around the internet showed very few signs of life for men’s socks. Toyed with the idea of starting a sock company. Maybe asking Ethan if he would like to collaborate on a men’s sock brand. I just think we could do the same manufacturing as Paul Smith, but not charge as much. I wish when I had these kind of ideas, I would just do them, instead of only talking about them. But there are only so many hours, I think I will request an intern for the spring semester. Drove to the pool and did some laps. Arm sore and hurting. Not sleeping well. Maybe I just favor my right arm when I swim too much. Did some office work and went to the Canale’s for dinner, Lori and Danny. Lovely people, both quite talkative and interesting. She has done some editing, and the subject of Cormac McCarthy, (whom both Danny and I had met) came up, and how he has renounced editors and insists he doesn’t need them. Some of the editors say he’s showing signs of insanity, but I thought “The Road” was his most sublime and terse work yet. I drank too much wine and L. was tired so we left, but not before I played a couple feeble versions of new Silver Seas songs. Ug. Feel out of practice. Need to clean the studio desperately. Deep clean. Wash baseboards, etc. Hard to find the motivation, yet I know the result will be a better work-flow. Tomorrow.

Panel for “Next Big Nashville”, me, Glen Phillips, Kevin Griffin, and Dan Wilson. Interesting discussion about co-writing. Me saying : “Sometimes I feel like there’s too many songs.” and Dan Wilson saying “I’m not sure about that.” But very cool, and Jake Ottman was there, and Patrick Clifford, who I think is so funny. Then after, had some leftovers with Lillie, and we watched the end of “There Will Be Blood” and both of us marveling at Johnny Greenwood’s creepy and lovely score. The end of the movie had a fantastic terrible-ness to it. I loved the film, although I’m not sure if it had any redemptive quality. But I do feel that it was an important investigation of the typical “American” attitude of competitiveness. In other words, in order for one person to really make a pile, many others must suffer. Then took long nap, and rode bike to the Y to swim. Bike needing adjustment, handlebars, seat etc. I think my muscle aches are resulting not from biking itself, but the ergonomics not being dialed in. Then to Thai food with L, then on to the Bluebird Cafe for our “In The Round” - me the only one with no “hit” songs. I would always have to play right after some really big hit as well- Dan Wilson singing “Closing Time” -then it’s my turn. But Lillie says I held my own and seemed to make some friends as well. Glen Phillips was quite funny. Saw Mitchell Cohen, and he works for Verve now and I guess they are making a record on Darryl Hall, and he said he thought one of my songs would be good for Darryl. Also saw Jewel and Barry Coburn, who said he’d just had surgery. Then to 12th and Porter to see Elle Macho and they were exciting, terrific. Lindsay Jamieson was pounding the crap out of the drums. Home and bed by 2.

Well my grandpa died. I got the call that he was going about 7 am and so I shaved, and drove down to the hospital. The drive was very peaceful and grey, overcast. It was like a day from a movie.  When I got to the room, my dad was there, and he said: “He’s gone.” I felt the body and it was still warm. I touched his head, and his hands. I’ve never been in a situation like that. A death situation. It was very intense and I felt very glad to have been able to witness that. I didn’t feel sad at all, only strange. I don’t know how to describe the feeling. A kind of wonder, I guess. How could there be a spirit in the body one minute, then the next, it’s gone? The family all went to Hopkins for breakfast and I talked to Carl on the phone. Dad made fried eggs for himself and mom made me scrambled duck eggs. I like chicken eggs better I think. We toasted to my grandpa, and told some memories about him, then that was it. I had to go home and get practicing for the Guilty Pleasures gig.  But the gig went well, and we had a good crowd, but I drank so much Red Bull and vodka and I got kind of drunk, and I was trying to throw an empty beer bottle out the window at a passing train and I missed the window and it smashed into the wall and startled everyone, and somebody really could have gotten hurt and I felt really stupid.

Well we decided last minute to have an engagement party for Mike and Mindy, so we were getting ready for that, and L. helped me, and we got these funny balloons that said “Good Luck!” and we got white roses. I spent a lot of time during the day researching bikes, and I got the bike bug bad. I think I decided what bike to get, and it is a bit of an extravagance, but it’s so cool, and both David Mead and Brad Jones said I HAD to get it. It’s called “Soulville” and it’s designed by Masi. I wonder if when I die, my headstone will say something like: “He was a man of many passions- Among them were 2-wheeled European transportation devices and the Ukulele!” But we had fun getting ready for the party, and it turned out no liquor stores were open so we couldn’t get any wine, but Jay Barron bailed us out and gave us some champagne thank god. And everybody came to the party! Let’s see….who was there. Bobby Bare and Tommy Keenum and James DiGiralamo and Jason Lehning and Lex and Tamara and Josh Rouse and Brad Jones and Kat Martin and Trisha Brantley and all kinds of folks. Matthew Ryan came and he said he would like to be interviewed. I have been collecting interviews, and as soon as I get the blog fixed, there will be a part of the site where you can listen to them. I feel slightly guilty about the bike, I mean, I could just buy a $200 Schwinn and it would probably last me the rest of my life. It’s just that these things, sometimes you just have to live a little. So L. made some punch with Vodka and white grape juice and ginger ale and I drank a ton of it and got quite drunk. I was laughing a lot and at one point I appearantly fell off the sofa. heh heh.