Joshua Van Tassel

mmmmmmm breakfast. That’s one great thing about doing a project like this, I have the time to actually eat something healthy most days. When you eliminate the whole getting to work and coming home from work, you gain soooo much time.
In other news it’s sunny today and I feel really good. I saw some great friends last night, go to this website here to see some good photography. I’m going on a sound collecting excursion today, I’ll put some gems up tonight or tomorrow morning. . .

Here’s something I started working on today that’s going to get completely fleshed out and probably completely overblown. But it’ll be lot’s fun.

Last night I hung out with my good friend Valery and it was fun. Her record is on the go right now and I think it’s going to be awesome. Pre-order the box set here.

I’ll be posting some music, later this morning, but here’s a little situation that’s been bugging me. On the way home I was waiting to cross the street at a red light when a girl came running up to me crying. I had my headphones so I took them off ( mistake #1), and she was hysterically begging me to help her. She didn’t want money, she just wanted me to buy her some food from Mc Donald’s ( which we were outside of). She told me she was pregnant and had messed up her life, and just wanted something to eat. Mc Donald’s isn’t really my first choice of meals for people who haven’t eaten all day and are pregnant, but it was a bit late and all that was open. I decided to help her out, she looked pretty upset, and in the grand sheme of things what difference does $5 make, right?

Quite a bit. As soon as we got inside, the tears stop and all of sudden my new friend has got attitude. She orders a Mc Chicken meal ( supersized) a 10 pack of nuggets, 2 cokes, a pie, and ice cream. Lets be serious for a second here. Do I want to help this girl? Of course. Do I want to feel like I’ve just been totally duped and spend about $25 at Mc Donald’s? No way. So I let her know that there’s really no way I’m paying for all that ( as she was arguing with the cashier about how long the nuggets were going to take), and without really even looking at me she informs me that ” ok, I guess I won’t get the ice cream this time. this time? You’re definitely on some crazy ass drugs.

For some unknown reason I still ended up paying for her Mc chicken meal and cancelling the rest. The only problem is she’s totally left a bad taste in my mouth regarding helping people on the street who are less fortunate. Was she really pregnant? Was she really broke? Should she star in numerous films due to her uncanny ability to cry and look helpless on command? Oh right, as I left the store, she asked me if I’d pay for her to take a cab home. I’m a sucker.

Oh no, did I just give my credit card away? But she said she was a homeless alien lifeform……

I went to the grocery store this morning, and a very interesting man looked at me and said ” why are you wearing those things in your head?”. The only response I had was “well, I’m not sure. Why are you wearing a purple hat?” He thought for a moment, decided it was a stale mate and left it at that. Colorful characters on the Danforth, always very friendly, but a little aggressive sometimes. Today’s beat I dedicate to that man for making me wonder “why do I wear earrings?” It kind of makes you wonder.

I’m a lucky man and had the Nunc Scio creator and blogger master chief cook up a mean brunch this morning for a few lucky people. I also had a great rehearsal with stop.die.resuscitate and saw the a rough cut of a video for one of our songs. It involves a kid’s drumset, toy piano, black robed white faced monsters, and feathers. That’s all I’ll say for now…..the release is on January 26th at the Drake Hotel, if you’re free. and feel like dancing.

Today’s post is an experiment that didn’t really work, but I guess you learn as much if not more from these type of things then when everything sounds great. In that case here it is. It’s kind of like putting up a bad picture of yourself and having people get to look at it and draw their own conclusions about what kind of person you are. So here’s a comprising posting of an experiment and a worse driver’s license photo ( although the fact that I finally got an Ontario d.l. makes my mom very happy).

I swear my eyes are open when I drive.

Saturday morning. Here’s some quiet morning music for all you sleepy people. Nothing crazy, no funny stuff.

I was very lucky to play with 3 of my favorite people last night, Joanna Borromeo, Joel Schwartz, and Brett Higgins. They’re wonderful people to hang with, and to make music with; their stuff is totally worth checking out.

I’m fulfilling a childhood dream tonight and going to see the dinosaur exhibit at the ROM, which gets me all giddy and unfocused. I’ll bring my H4 and hopefully something pre-historic will growl at me.

Dear Green box, thank you for all the good times. Lots of my friends like you and I really do as well.

Ideas come to us in weird places and at awkward time, but this one was while I was at home, which is a good place to have them. It’s not a tune yet, but it’s a start. Maybe it’ll never be a tune, who knows, that’s what this is for. In other news, I got my first professional massage today and I now feel a bit crazy. Very relaxed, but crazy. They tell me this is normal.

My monitor sees and hears it all. 

I played a great gig last night with the mighty composer and improviser Rob Piilonen at the Tranzac last night and it was great fun. I only play sampler and effects in that group, and I love it. As a drummer, it’s hard for us sometimes to be able to just not play during the course of a tune, and to just listen to what’s happening around you. In a historical context, we’re expected to maintain the time for everyone else, and to keep things moving along. That gets to be a lot of pressure sometimes, and we just want to hear what’s going on. So that’s what I got to do last night.I even had time to sneak a picture of Joe Sorbara ( who knows his instrument better then most if us know the way up the stairs to our childhood bedroom).

I was still thinking about sounds this morning, so I made a little club beat for anyone who is going to the gym early and needs motivation. Keep running.

and this one is for Brett Higgins who reminded me I haven’t yet had my fill of TW.

Here’s a snippet of something from a piece I’m almost done with. Sometimes simple things are the ones that mean the most, to me anyway.

I’m playing with a great bunch of people in a band called The Outlanders at the Central this Friday night, it should be tons of fun. Please come on down.

I wear these more then pants lately.

So this little squirrel is for some reason presently screaming his furry black head off in the tree behind my house. Reasons for this -

1. He’s confused by the spring like weather and wants to talk about it

2. He’s a very dirty squirrel and no one else will forage through garbage and compost with him

3. He’s rallying dozens of other squirrels together to launch a full scale takeover of my house. I’ve seen his little spies through the window. They know where I’ll be and when. Damn them, they’re so fast.

If I survive I’ll write later.