November 2007 Archives

Maybe David Healy can teach me everything I need to know about relationships. Maybe he already did...

Perhaps you've heard of my new role model, Connie Corleone.

I drove a car last night.  That sort of thing doesn't happen often.  It's an old car, with no CD player or digital audio input.  So, horrified by the prospect of two 20 minute silent drives, I rummaged through my closet for a mix tape.  The spine of the one I selected is labeled "Don't Assume Anything" (after a lyric on the second track).  I think I made it in late 1999.  The transitions between songs were amazing, and I am suddenly reminded that Dave Matthews wrote at least one song that I really, really liked.

1. 2nd Movement of "Datura" - Tori Amos
2. "Go" - Indigo Girls
3. "Break On Through" - The Doors
4. "Long Snake Moan" - PJ Harvey
5. "As Heaven is Wide" - Garbage
6. "Sympathetic Character" - Alanis Morissette
7. "Don't Drink the Water" - Dave Matthews Band
8. "Siren" - Tori Amos
9. "Wicked Little Doll" - David Byrne
10. "The Boy" - Smashing Pumpkins
11. "Why?" - Tracy Chapman
12. "Out of Range" (live) - Ani Difranco
13. "Bunnies" (live) - Pansy Division

I am overwhelmed with the urge to rock.
Love
Dan

The more I eat leftovers, and hang out with my family, and work on my play, the more preoccupied I become with the fact that I don't own a copy of "Surfer Rosa."  I feel a phase coming on...

Thanksgiving was nice!  Mom and Mike are asleep.  I'm sitting here watching The Godfather with Dad and Bruce (my brother's boyfriend).  Maryland is beautiful right now.  It's actually Autumn, with leaves and everything.  Deep red.  Pieces of (practically) everything are crumbling apart and blowing in the air.  I did a head-stand (shoulder-stand) in my back yard and it started raining, with water hitting my feet before my face.  

I'd like to live in a place like this again, some day.

I wish I had a guitar here.  This week, I learned how to play "Gigantic" by the Pixies.  I guess most other guitarists learn songs like that when they're 14.  I did not!  I want to practice.

I tried to do work here today, but decided I'd rather spend time with my family.  I'm glad I did.  But tomorrow.  Work.  Oy.

Love
Dan

I think Yoko took this the moment I turned 26:



Right after I danced so hard that I manifested my latent mutant power to vaporize matter:

Also inspiring on this sleepless night: The Breeders totally playing the wrong chords on national television (and not giving a fuck.)

Jeez.  I can't get to sleep cause I had coffee at 6:00pm.  I was planning on writing all sorts of interesting stuff.  About how me and Casey saw Ani Difranco at Town Hall on Saturday.  About how Dennis Kucinich played shaker during the encore.  About how tonight I saw a show called "The Birthright Israel Monologues."  About how I've been getting gazillions of emails ever since I posted a casting call on Playbill.com.

But all I want to do is share with you this video clip:

The existence of this clip astonishes me.  I heard a bootleg audio version of this when I was 15, on a dub of a dub of a dub of a cassette that a friend of my girlfriend made me, and it confirmed my suspicion that Tori Amos is some kind of Martian.  Her deconstruction of these two Led Zeppelin songs defined my expectation for every "cover song" I've since heard.  A few days ago, while making that CD for Jeff, I rediscovered the audio.  And, on a lark, just now, I searched YouTube for "Tori Amos" and "Whole Lotta Love," only to find that the EXACT SAME PERFORMANCE was actually from a TV SHOW.  The editing sucks, and pulls back for all the most shocking performative moments, so you rarely get to see her face making these noises.  And there's a typically elliptical story beforehand, which only makes sense to me because I've heard her tell a more coherent version of the same bit.  She says the name "Robert" as a punch line, as though everyone already knows she's talking about Robert Plant.  She always speaks in this ridiculous short-hand, assuming that you're privy to inside information that she doesn't divulge.  That may be the definition of insanity.  Regardless.  The story wasn't in my bootleg, and it freaks me out.  In my imagination, the song always followed some sort of trance or growling spasm.  

Anyway, even if the visuals aren't that interesting, close your eyes and listen.  (I recommend reviewing the original Led Zep versions of "Whole Lotta Love" and "Thank You" first.)

Love
Dan

ps: Here's the more coherent version of her banter (from 00:49 to 02:00):

Weekend accomplishments:

1. I finished a new draft of the climax of my play.

2. I re-wrote the 2nd rabbi scene.

3. I decided to re-write the 1st rabbi scene.

4. I almost finished writing copy for my new website.

5. I registered with Backstage.com and Playbill.com.

6. I hunted for actors.

7. I put clips of <i>Please Let Me Love You</i> on YouTube.

8. I decided not to write the press release for The Lisps' new album.  

9. I wrote the press release for The Lisps' new album.

10. I picked "Entertain" for that mix cd.  (I was like, "Jeff, I made you this CD because you made disparaging comments about riot grrl music while we were on tour," and he was like, "I DID?")

11. Dibs and I planned the launch of the new and improved danfishback.com.

Pretty soon, danfishback.com will replace this LiveJournal as my blog.  I love LiveJournal.  I think it's a great tool, and a great community builder.  I started using it because it's populist and punk, and because some good friends were already here.  But, you know, change is good, etc, and I'm excited about the new site.  I think it will launch in early December, hopefully before my play reading on the 9th.  

Meanwhile, over the weekend, they added a new phone system at work, but also kept the old one, in case we got scared of the new one.  So there are two phones next to my keyboard.  I'm scared of them both.

Love
Dan

I wanted to finish writing all the copy for my new website today, and I have like 40 minutes to do so before carousing for the first time since I got sick last weekend. And yet, I feel compelled to waste my time posting this ridiculous idea.

CARRIE BOXING MATCH: BROWNSTEIN V. BRADSHAW



Okay guys, we're all friends with the media elite. How do we make this happen?!

Love
Dan

Apparently, Carrie Brownstein writes blogs for NPR almost as awesomely as she played guitar in Sleater Kinney.  (Which is to say: very awesomely.)

I wish I was Carrie Brownstein.  Writing a blog in Portland.  With a dog, and an iPhone. 

I'm making a womyn-only mix cd for Jeff Lewis' birthday, called "Ladies Do It Better."  What Sleater Kinney song should go on it?

Sleaterkinneycarriebrownsteinsleaterkinneycarriebrownsteinblogsdogsiphonesportlandrainrainrainglamorousrainandcheapnessinportlandcarriebrownsteinsleaterkinney.

Love
Dan

I have this recurring fantasy, where I wake up, go to work, do my job very well, come home, make really good art, then go out and have beautiful times with my friends.  In this fantasy, each day is around 48 hours long.

My schedule for 2008 has a big gap in it, sometime in the middle somewhere.  In this gap, I plan to:

1. Complete my two in-progress solo albums.
2. Record, direct and edit a music video.
3. Learn how to use iMovie.  (I guess this should be #2.)
4. Learn how to play my favorite rock songs on electric guitar.  (ie: Become a better guitar player.)

Also, in April, I'm probably going to Israel.

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I know.
Love
Dan

WUNH Durham Top 10
November 12,2007

1. electric six - "i shall exterminate everything around me that restricts me from being the master"
2. tokyo police club - "smith"
3. sigur ros - "hvarf/heim"
4. saturday looks good to me - "fill up the room"
5. portugal the man - "church mouth"
6. lightspeed champion - "galaxy of the lost"
7. minipop a new hope
8. cheese on bread - "the search for colonel mustard"
9. grizzly bear - "friend"
10. iron and wine - "the shepherd's dog"

Yay! I love Durham!

Love
Dan

Ohhh! Okay. Obviously. Am I the one with bangs?

In my last post, I describe a sudden jolt of energy and inspiration that made my Sunday morning fabulously productive.  Soon after writing it, I was hit by massive head cold, slept for most of the afternoon, and, this morning, stayed home from work.  I felt similarly ill on Friday, but got well enough to continue with most of Saturday and Sunday unimpeded.

Of note is this: I do not feel fatigued.  I have a head cold.  I <i>had</i> a sore throat.  My sinuses are filled with mucus, and I blow my nose a lot.  (My Neti Pot has helped quite a bit.)  But: I do not feel fatigued.

This is possibly the first time in two years that I have experienced cold symptoms without fatigue.  The sense of weariness usually lasts for days after the symptoms go away.  This has happened as recently as a month ago.  It is not happening now.

Since my last bout of fatigue, I have taken daily supplements of Vitamins B12 and A.  I've also started eating fish, which is a whole nother story.  Anyway, this is all just to say: SCORE.

Love
Dan

From 10:00am to 11:00am, I was staring at my ceiling, having a very silent, very still panic attack, feeling completely incapable of accomplishing anything in life, from getting out of bed, to writing a play, to loving a human being, to being a friend, to sustaining the life of my body for a reasonable period of time. Then, at 11:01am, I decided to make root vegetable stew.

And everything changed.

And I felt COMPLETELY ON TOP OF MY GAME. I ran down my loft bed ladder. I walked into the living room where Katherine was waking up. "Katherine," I said, "I feel COMPLETELY ON TOP OF MY GAME."

We went to the grocery store. I put all the empty bottles into recycling bags. I'm cleaning my floors now. With the broom and the special spray-swifter. Then I'm going to do the dishes. Then I'm going to clean the vegetables, cut them, and put them in a pot. I'm going to make lunches for the whole week. I'm going to make some lists. I'm going to finish things.

Last night, this morning, at 4:40am on Hooper and South 2nd, I threw my arms around Ardi's shoulders and said, "One day we will write a book together, and it will be called, 'The Parties We Had & The Parties We Didn't Have.'"

I'm 26 years old, and the enemy is expectation. The ally is impulse. Deb Margolin always taught me that desire was the only guide to make good art. I finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally believe her.

Love
Dan