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12/5/02 - It's snowing like crazy out today! Does
this mean the NYC drought will finally be over? I
hope so. Not like I have a lawn that needs watering
anymore. I have an interview for a PA job today.
Updating ye olde resume. It's a reality TV/dating
show that originated in England called "Perfect
Match." Yezzz.
12/4/02 - I went to home to Boston for Thanksgiving last Tuesday. My girlfriend and I took one of the China-town buses. Fifteen bucks one way. It was so cheap, I was glad to be riding in a bus for once. I have a large group of friends from High School that gets together this time of year. It's always nice to see them. We have a little party at my mom's place on the Friday after Turkey Day. It's become tradition. My sister had to cut my mom off after she'd had one too many tequila shots with my friends. My sister brought her new boyfriend home. He's a great guy: smart, out-going, great conversationalist and story teller. I knew we were going to get along when he made a reference from "Blue Velvet." It's nice to see my sister happy. The only bummer this year was that my brother Peter
and sister Tricia weren't able to make it back home
this year. I missed them all the more when we found
some tapes of my dad talking from back in the day. My
mom started crying as soon as she heard his voice. I
was going to take the tapes home but it felt like too
much baggage.
11/22/02 - It's my brother Peter's birthday today.
Happy Birthday! Today the WE job ended. It starts
again 3 weeks from now. Boo, except now I can get
healthy amounts of sleep again... for 3 weeks. Word
up to my boss Staci. Aparently, the ceiling of a room
in her apartment caved in. She was pissed about that.
I am sooooo ready to have a kick ass Friday night.
And a kickass rockshow tomorrow night with the
Epoxies.
11/18/02- I am in a book club called The Blue Stalkings. There are five girls and yours truly. We read books and then go to a restaurant based on a theme in the book to discuss. The last book we read, "Bringing Down the House" is about MIT students who live it up by counting cards in blackjack and making millions in Vegas doing it. So, we decided to do a book club field trip to Atlantic City. I was pretty nervous going into it. I don't have a lot of money to lose you see, and I'd never been gambling. The trip was AMAZING. When we got there, we got upgraded to this INCREDIBLE suite. To describe it wouldn't do the suite justice. It had a bar, a jacuzzi bathtub... incredible. I kept thinking the casino was going to screw us over somehow. We were feeling very decadent. We went downstairs and hit the slots. I lost $20 in under a half an hour, but Jeanie won big and helped me recover my losses. We tried finding the $5 blackjack tables, but didn't find them until the end of the night when the area was already closed. We returned the next day and played a few hands. I ended with $5 up on that. The $5 blackjack was definitely a bit more satisfying than the slots. We returned to Jersey City tired and more than a little hungover. My job for WE, the Women's Entertainment network,
started today. It was good. I have to get up pretty
damn early tomorrow. I have to bring the bagles and
cream cheese.
11/15/02 - Tragedy. I was working on a new song on my four track when it decided to not work. It would play, stop all of a sudden and the tape would unwind. WHY??? It won't rewind or fast forward either. I was really liking using the four track. It was like a musical audio journal. Well, I'll just have to make more ideas and just use the tape recorder for now. This one's dedicated to Porter Erg. Keep on shakin'!
11/14/02 - My sister Tricia's birthday was yesterday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAGNIFICENT SISTER!!! I was too busy being un-employed and not enjoying "8 Mile" to call her. BAD BROTHER. I sold my mountain bike today for $45. Ever since I lost the key to the lock, I haven't ridden it. It's just been sitting in my apartment taking up space. I bought the thing on the street for $40 - that's a $5 profit!!! I got a freelance job as a PA working for WE:Women's
Entertainment. I start on Monday and it ends Friday.
It sounds like it's going to be a pretty easy gig with
reasonable hours. Plus I get paid. Which is good,
b/c I have no $.
11/12/02 - I started doing morning pages today. The
first step in jump-starting my creative processes. I
do a lot of thinking/worrying and not enough doing.
Time to do. I did a lot of walking around in the rain
tonight. It was to accompany a friend as she looked
for apartments. I'm glad I went with her. I think
she needed the support. I got to hang out with my
friend Jack on the ride home from DBA rehearsal. We
had a good conversation in which I learned some good
insights. 1) To believe that your creative life ends
at thirty and then your 'real' or 'adult' life begins
is a bunch of crap. 2)If you find yourself waiting for
stuff to happen, that means you are in a creative
lull. If you are constantly creating, you don't feel
like you're waiting for anything. Time to pump up the
creative juices.
11/11/02 - I went to a wedding this weekend in Savannah Georgia. I had a great time. Lisa and I packed swimsuits, all psyched to spend some time in a hotel pool. When we got there, and asked if there was a pool the bellhop said, "The pool's on the second floor - and it's heated!" Lisa and I had some time to kill after we checked into our room, so we changed into our swimsuits, went downstairs to the second floor and found the pool. Unfortunately, the pool was empty, i.e. NO WATER in it with some caution tape around the perimeter. For the bachelor/bachelorette party, we went bowling.
Lisa told me that's what we were going to do, so I
wore one of my bowling shirts with a skinny tie. It
was the first time I bowled over 100. Lisa was
psyched to get a strike. Yeee-haw!
11/5/02 - I worked at HBO today at the front desk in
the lobby. A little weird to be back, but on the
whole definitely a good thing. Yesterday I took naps
and reread "Catcher in the Rye." Not the kind of book
that's going to inspire you to get a job. 11/3/02 - Went to the WFMU record fair today. Got Led
Zeppelin II and Meet the Beatles on vinyl for $9
total. Also got in for free b/c I got a postcard from
CMJ that gave me that privalige (sp?). Listening to
the Ben Kweller cd that Lisa purchased there. It's a
good record. He reminds me of Ben Lee and Ben Folds.
Hmm. That's a lot of Bens.
11/2/02 - I met a guy at a show this evening. I was standing at the front of the stage and I asked him if he thought I could fit an apple core into an empty Poland Springs bottle. He thought I could (I did) He said he saw the DBA show at Luna Lounge and that we were really good. He said we really reminded him of his old band; buzzing guitars and girl/guy vocals. "Who's your old band?" I asked. "I played guitar in the Selby Tigers." he said. That really made my day. I'm listening to "Charm
City" right now. ROCK.
10/31/02 - Happy Halloween! Adam's party was a success last night. I spent too much money though. The financial situation is getting me stressed. Working CMJ is getting me down. I wish WE were there ROCKING, with everyone asking "Who ARE these guys/gal?! They RULE!!!" I'm just Johnny impatient. I'm hungry too, that might have something to do with it.
10/30/02 - It's Adam's birthday today. Happy Birthday buddy! It's also my brother David's birthday. I hope it's his birthday, because I just left him a birthday greeting on his machine. Two of the coolest guys I know share the same birthday. Today, I handed out promotional materials at the CMJ
Music Conference for the marketing department of Much
Music. People were cool. We gave out flyers and
these little wallet/keychain things. Punk rock!
I get to do this for another 3 days. Who knows what's
up after that? Bueller? 10/28/02 - My first official day of unemployment. I had a week there in between HBO and the MTV job. I wait with baited breath to see how long I'll go this time. Sooo unexcited. Going to the unemployment office today. Halloween on a Thursday night this year. That's
better than a Wednesday. There were apparently a
bunch of Halloween parties on Saturday. I was still
recovering from illness. My GF had family in town
too. That was nice. We went to a really nice dinner
and did a lot of walking around the different areas
downtown. 10/25/02 - I'm very ill today. Last night after I got home from work I went and had chinese with my GF and her friend. That was nice exept there was a bit of indigestion going into it. Then, around midnight after I'd gone to bed, I got up, went to the bathroom, had the runs, and then puked my brains out. I had to get up and do that every hour for the rest of the night. Around 6am, it was pretty much dry heaves. I stayed home from work. Tomorrow is supposed to be
the last day of wrapping. I'd like to be there, but
with the fever and runs still going on, it may not be
an option.
10/22/02 - We're "wrapping" out of the house. Show's over, time to pack up all the stuff and move it out. It's sad. This is my first real production. Could be the reason for my sentimental feelings right now. I have a tendancy to get sentimental though. At this moment one of the guys I worked with is checking out "Dan's Dill". He thinks the moustache is funny. Last year, my girlfriend and I went to a moustache party. All the guys had grown moustaches in the month or so leading up to the event. It was a last minute decision on our part to go, and not wanting to seem out of place, we drew on moustaches. Except our friend Monica who's moustache was made out of a piece of pasta with a length of floss tied around her head to keep it on. She also wore swimming goggles. Good times. Tonight is the wrap party. What would be cool would
be to show up in a saran wrap, or gift wrap outfit. Wooooorrrd.
10/20/02 - The show ended, and began, last night. The kids left the house. We went to the director's apartment and watched the first episode. It was a good time. What now? The director told me I need to focus my energy.
Choose one path and the universe willitself to
me. I like that idea. Well, there is a record to
write. Tours to go on. At the show the other night
Adam said I'm in DBA for life. He's right. This is
the path.
10/17/02 - The bills will be paid. Point made. I'll stick to worrying about my own problems. If you're thinking about other people's problems it's just because you don't know how to solve your own. We've got the show tomorrow. ROCK!
10/17/02 - It's 4:30 in the morning and I'm watching "Family Ties" out of the corner of my eye. TV has this effect, it just SUCKS YOU IN. Even in a high stress environment like this one. I've seen camera operaters look at the TV to see what's on as they rush out the door. Marriage. It is the GREATEST RISK a young couple can
make in a relationship. Do I want to get married one
day? Absolutely. But GODDAMN. There are a lot of
pitfalls. Honesty, communication and patience are
key. What ELSE? Don't be fooled. This is only
advice for myself. "Gentle reminder," my mom would
say. The specific details of the future scenario will
come as I take those steps. One foot after the other.
10/15/02 - I'm a little behind on my bills I realized today. Not good. Hopefully I'll catch up this week. I'm excited for the show on Friday. It's gonna rock! I went flyering today, which I'd never done for DBA. Adam made a really good flyer. It's the intro-image on the website. After work yesterday a few people came over and had a
couple of beers. It was cold on the roof when we went
up, but I think everyone appreciated the view.
10/14/02 - We had rehearsal a couple of days ago. I guess I've been stressed out (what with the 10 - 12 hour work days and the big zit on my face) cuz I was a tremendous crank. Everything's kosher now. What IS my DILL sometimes??? Congratulations to Jeanie's friend Lauren. She became
a mom over the weekend. WOW. The idea of kids is
just that for me: an idea. It's there though. One
day.
10/10/02 - Went home last night. Fell asleep at 7:00
pm or so. Slept a good 12 hours. Feeling a whole lot
better now. Rehearsal tonight: psyched to get the
rock in shape.
10/9/02 - How about that beard huh? Pretty impressive. Then you've got the balding accountant look. Not so hot. I'm having an off day. Poor, cranky me. I don't want to do much of anything. There's a guy at work who saw DBA within the last
couple of years. He was dating a girl who was
cousin's with a girl Adam went out with, who also
happened to be someone that I went to college with.
That was a cool connecting the dots moment. He saw us
at a club called "Life". Wed for the Lower East
Side Stitches. They got drunk and were kicked out
later in the night. "Life" is no longer a club. It's
a regular theater where they're showing a musical
about Janice Joplin. It used to be a place called
"The Village Gate". My Aunt Diane played once there
in the '60's. I saw Aunt Diane in Memphis this past
weekend. I applaud you if you were able to make it
through this paragraph and follow the line of thought.
10/9/02
10/7/02 Just got back from a wedding in Memphis. It
was really nice to be there with my brother, sisters
and girlfriend. I like my extended family a lot.
Good people. I bought a couple of cool things in
Memphis, including an orange trucker's hat that says
"Memphis" on it in puffy script. My girlfriend,
brother and I volunteered to get bumped from our
flight on the way home. We got a $300 voucher from
Northwest ("nwa.com" funny, no?), bumped to first
class on our rescheduled flight, and got $10 worth of
meal vouchers to use in the airport. I used my $10 to
get ribs. I had ribs once a day for the 3 days I was
in Memphis. I think I liked the dry-rub ribs at the
Rendez-Vous the best. We went to Graceland. I'd been
before. We only did the mansion tour, but that was
plenty. I really wanted everyone to see Sun Studios,
which was my favorite bit last time I went to Memphis,
but we ran out of time. Next time! 10/02/02 Summer's over, but it was 85 degrees today. I ran around Central Park. Hot out there! On the way home from work I saw this big pile of trash with stuff besides just garbage bags. I went over to see if there was anything worth taking. I found these four wooden folding chairs. We needed chairs for our kitchen table, so I took them. They're probably from the 1930's. When you unfold them, they look like regular chairs. They were a bitch to carry home though. Very heavy. Took 'em on the subway, missed my stop and had to double back. They look good around the table though! Definitely a bit musty. I shaved off the beard and the hair off the head last
night. They were calling me "fetal Dan P." at work.
I'm known as Dan P. That's because there used to be a
guy named Dan L. who worked there. He insisted
everyone call him Dan'l. My girlfriend took pictures
of me in the various stages of beard removal. Maybe
I'll get them up here sometime...
9/29/02 I grew a beard to hide the cold sores. The cold sores are going away. People seem to like the beard though. My girlfriend likes how it looks, but not how it feels. I'll be getting rid of it in a couple of days. It's Sunday today. Before this job, I used to like
sleeping in on Sundays. I had to be at work at 6 am
today, so I got up at 5 am. That's pretty early.
Watching the sky get brighter through a thin sliver of
window in a basement.
9/22/02 4 a.m. again. People doing stupid shit. Parking cars in places where they shouldn't be parked. In front of hydrants. No standing. Dumb da dumb dumb. Diddee dumb. I remember rock n roll. A clarion call on the first day of Fall. The snap of the snare. Crunch of a power chord. Thud of the bass. I have these gross cold sores going on. I'm grossed
out by myself of late with that shit. But I don't get
a chance to sleep and recover. The internet said
they'd heal in two weeks. I've got about a week to
go. I grew a beard to conceal the ew-ness. I haven't
had facial hair in a couple of years. It's itchy.
Not a fan.
9/22/02 Almost 4 am as I type this. In the basement of "the house". Not my house. Not a DBA affiliated house. This situation reminds me of the game "Sims." People are funny when viewed from a distance. The distance of a lense. The distance of time. We gotta good show coming up on Friday, October 18 @ Luxx with Pansy Division and The Plus Ones. We should have a new song or two to perform from the new Stardumb Split entitled "Ellis Island Rendez-Vous" and the upcoming, as yet to be named, new full length. DBA is a sleeping dragon right now. There's a fire in the guts like you wouldn't believe. Twenty four hours ain't much to do stuff in. You ever notice that? It's a shame I like sleep so much. xo - Dan
9/13/02
One door closes, another door. I'm on this job now. Long days. Twelve hours at least. It's rewarding though. I'll be doing a lot of driving around the city, which I like. "I love... New York City... whoah yeah! New York City!" Check out the pics section. Adam did a great little
tour journal thing with pictures and text. Funny
stuff! It made me miss tour...
9/11/02
I worked on this job I'm doing until 8am this morning. Then I slept until 3:45pm. I haven't pulled an all nighter in years. I definitely got loopy and cranky around 4am. Book club meeting tonight. I'm the only guy in the
group. We read a really great book called "Cruddy."
It reminded me of a David Lynch movie. Not any
specific one, just the wierd freakishnesss going on in
it. I saw "Blue Velvet" on the big screen on Friday,
speaking of David Lynch. Definitely his best movie.
I wish he'd stop doing movies set in L.A. Not as
good. 9/9/02
9/4/02
I'm pretty sure I qualify for unemployment, which is
really great. I find out for sure in 2 - 4 weeks.
I'll be using this time to do creative stuff. I'll
write songs and work on a screenplay. Adam suggested
I post scenes from the screenplay here. Perhaps. I
don't want anyone taking my brilliant and original
ideas for themselves. What's the movie about you ask?
It's kind of a "Slums of Beverly Hills" meets
"National Lampoon's Vacation."
A family roadtrip, no specific destination, from the
point of veiw of a fourteen year old girl with weight
issues. That's all you get for now Bub.
8/30/02
Last week, I was a production assistant for a new MTV reality show. I ran around a lot in cars getting things for people. I feel like if I say any more about this I'll be sued for breaking a confidentiality agreement. Loophole: I never signed one. Labor day weekend is probably going to be rainy. Appropriate I guess, but I would've liked a sunny day at the beach instead. Adam comes back from Greece on Monday. Thank God. Rock n Roll has become a basic necessity for me, like food, sleep or water. I need to get some rock man, it's been two weeks! It's like starvation! Bass, drums, and guitar are the ingredients. Let's mix 'em up and get it going!
8/9/02
So, tour was great. Our roadie Lew took many copious and detailed notes, so one day there will be a link or something to his full account of what happened. Here's my take: I grew up in a big family that moved around the country for a bit in a '77 Ford Station wagon with a trailer on the back. We moved from Boston, MA to Idaho Falls, ID, to Phoenix, AZ to St. Cloud FL. All in one year. There were six of us in the car at the time. I romantisize that period of time. One day I'm going to write a movie about it. THE POINT IS tour, which was 5 people in a 2000 Dodge 3500 van had that similar vibe. A big family on a cross country road trip. Here's another way of putting it (I say this all the time to people): a HARD DAY on tour was an 8 hour drive. And you're not even necessarily driving the whole time. You could party the night before and take a nap in the van. Or talk to your girlfriend on your cell phone. Or read a book. Or just look out the window at the trees or the mesas or the sand or the little scrubby trees or the Exxons or the Bob's Big Boys as they streak past your window. On Monday my department head gave me my five weeks notice. Not enough room in the budget for me. Think about the AOL-Time/Warner stock value here. Nevertheless, I was stunned. Then I realized I could just re-enter the in-house temp pool. Or collect unemployment. Options aplenty!
5/21/02 The Shakes are the most, at the end of the night, when DBA's motor had run down, Sean, Michael, Doug and Patrick helped unload the DBA gear, (And by "helped" I mean, "pretty much did it all". Thanks, guys! The next morning, to make life easier for them, I moved their van to the other side of the street so they wouldn't have to wake up early, but I accidentally pocketed their van keys and took them to work with me. Around 1:30, I get a call and I realize what a doof I am and jump on the next bus back to Jersey. The Shakes were good sports about it, though, and when I got home I found them watching 7th Heaven. I hope we see them in Chicago! 5/13/02 Check it out...This is Aftershock. Can't you just picture a sweet-ass 70's mural? Darth Vader in a lightsaber battle with a naked chick holding a giant salami. Here's Dan and I inspecting the hitch. That's not rust. And lastly, Hooray for us. One step closer being a professional rock and roll band. 5/9/02 5/2/02
4/19/02 End Results: Mike felt good about all of his takes. Dan re-did all his bass parts on the punch-in day because we got a WAY better sound for the bass. Jeanie felt that her guitar playing had improved quite a bit since her last recording session, especially in the muted downstrokes department. And Adam learned that there is a minor chord in Undone. 4/15/01 4/12/02 Dan's bass amp was repaired for only $65 because he is a prefered client. Hooray for Andre Audio-Tronics, Inc. Take your busted stuff to Andre and tell him Daniel Paquin sent you. Jeanie bought a Dimarzio Super Distortion pick up for the silver sparkle Gibson Explorer guitar. I know you didn't think it was possible, but now DBA will rock even harder! Dan is the new ?color? commentator, Ken ?Red? Ray, for Kaiju Big Battle. His first show was this past weekend, but he?ll be doing the show June 9 at the Warsaw in Brooklyn. Hit the Rock! has broken even! Correction: Jean Leavitt did not make the green bean casserole. Jean Lee made it. This is good news because Adam was under the impression that it was a Pot Luck Easter dinner and he didn't bring anything. This diffuses a lot of band tension. Lisa won a turkey. Joe cooked it and we ate it on Easter. Dan made his famous mashed potatoes and Leavitt made a string bean casserole. Mike T punched Mike D and then vice versa. Adam and Pauline got schooled by the Shy Guys at Photo Hunt. It was an embarrassing slaughter. Give it up for the SG proper. The show on March 29 was not the disaster that it was billed as. In fact, it was bitchin' and boss. All of the bands played well, and there was even a surprise set by The Unlovables (no E). Ummm...did anyone get paid? That lump on Dan's arm has been confirmed by the HBO nurse to be nothing more than "a fatty deposit". Easter is on Sunday. At happy hour on Friday, Adam and Pauline are challenging the Shy Guys to Mega-Touch photo hunt (titty touch) at the Raven (Ave A and 11th). Losers buy the winners drinks.
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Finished up with the Tour 2002 Demo recordings and posted them all on the