Well now. It seems that you wanted to see the Cheese On Bread Journal.

We used to have one! Or, at least, I (Dan) used to keep my own personal journal on the Cheese On Bread website. Then, when we went on our first tour, we switched over to Livejournal for the CHEESE ON BREAD TOUR BLOG, to which we returned when we went on European tour.

I really liked using Livejournal, so I started my own account there. You can read my dumb thoughts HERE.

Yup!

Love
Dan

Well now. It seems that you wanted to see the Cheese On Bread Journal.

We used to have one! Or, at least, I (Dan) used to keep my own personal journal on the Cheese On Bread website. Then, when we went on our first tour, we switched over to Livejournal for the CHEESE ON BREAD TOUR BLOG, to which we returned when we went on European tour.

I really liked using Livejournal, so I started my own account there. You can read my dumb thoughts HERE.

Yup!

Love
Dan

Hiya! Tour's over, yakkedy yak. I liked our Tour Livejournal, so now I've started my own personal one. You can read it HERE. I guess I'll use this page for Cheese On Bread news from now on.

Love
Dan

For the next month, our journal will be HERE!!!

Tues. June 21: The WYSIWYG Talent Show was super-fun. All of the performers were fascinating and opulent. The crowd was very responsive to my piece. I did "In My Dreams I'm Michael Jackson," with Dibs on ukelele and omnichord. I realized far too late that everyone assumed he was my boyfriend, and thus missed out on all of the otherwise-inevitable pick-up lines from the audience filled with single gay men. Ah, well! A pleasant distraction. I don't get to perform prose enough. My album and tour have gotten in the way of all that.

Fri. June 25: Fundraiser at Cake Shop! It's all a blur. The kissing booth was a great success, and would have been a greater success with a tad more booze. C.o.B. was going to try out our new 5-piece arrangements, but Jason jumped on stage and did impromptu drumming for us. Considering he'd never done it before, it was pretty effing awesome. Anyway, anecdotes, anecdotes, blah blah blah: It was a very successful benefit, with incredible performances by Creaky Boards (ad libs to break my heart), Dream Bitches (they covered my song Wordcum!), Pantsuit (meatloaf!), and of course the absurdly tight Bloodsugars. Andrew and Anne danced up a storm. Sara and Matt and Kevin and I chatted the night away in a diner in Queens.

Sat. June 25: Octopus! I got to sing with Double Deuce, which is my favorite thing in the world. THIS is all you need to know.

Sun. June 26: Betsy and I woke up in Williamsburg and met up with Andrew and Tom for the PARADE!!!! ...I think I should write about this later. I want to actually WRITE about it.

Wed. June 29: After several days of booking shows and mailing press releases, I finally finished preparing my BOOK! "Louder Than Words: Selected Performances, 2004-2005." It's an anthology of my performance texts. I like it. Lots of people bought it at my show, which happened this night. I sang my quiet songs, and was joined by the astonishing Lydia, whose vocal stylings prompted me to bring "Umbrella Song" out of the vault. Andrew came up to sing his song, "I Wanna Be Your Friend," and we sang "O Superman" together, which was ridiculous. Long Lost Billy came to the show, and we caught up. I stayed out at Odessa way too late...trying to forstall the inevitable return to my apartment, along with all the cleaning that had to be done.

Since Then: Much rehearsing and revelry in Philadelphia. NEW CHEESE ON BREAD SONGS, which is astounding. I love everyone. This tour will be amazing.

I wish I had written in this thing in the past week, so I didn't have to treat all of these joyous days so cursorily.

I will see you soon, no?
xoxo
dan

Andrew just posted an absurd list of musical favorites, so I thought I'd respond with my own choices, partly to balance his madness, and partly because I don't want to do what I'm supposed to be doing:

Favorite bands:
1- Cheese On Bread (I wouldn't do it if I didn't like it!)
2- The Moldy Peaches
3- Le Tigre, pre-2004
4- The Tri-Lambs
5- i'm not really into bands

Favorite musical genius:
1- i don't think i believe in musical geniuses
2-
3-
4-
5-

Favorite vocalist:
1- Bjork
2- Kathleen Hanna
3- Eartha Kitt
4- Toby Goodshank
5- Dashan Coram

Favorite musical personality: (for the record this is a ridiculous category but i can't help myself)
1- Kathleen Hanna
2- Laurie Anderson
3- Peaches
4- Lach
5- Dan Fishback -- Hey, why not?

Favorite music stories: (also ridiculous)
1- Helen Stratford (i'm hoping for a happy climax and ending)
2- Barry Bliss (likewise)
3- Ivan Sandomire
4- Courtney Love
5- Jewel. Just kidding - Kimya Dawson.

Favorite songwriter:
1- folk
2- whales
3- Tori Amos, 1994-1998.
4- Regina Spektor. huh. I think I actually mean that.
5- Christy Eldridge (where did you go???)

Favorite Songs:
1- Happiness - You're a Good Man Charlie Brown
2- The The Empty - Le Tigre
3- Finlandia - Finish National Anthem
4- Cabaret - Cabaret
5- O Superman - Laurie Anderson

After making this list I feel hollow and disgusting. I shouldn't make lists.

Love
Dan

I am amazed by this sentence from my new friend Anne's livejournal:

I am going to buy cleaning supplies and clean my room with the energy of a Zionist now.

come see me tonight at PS122!

love
dan

LIST OF THINGS I WANT TO TELL YOU:

1. Friday's fundraiser show at Cake Shop is going to be unreal. Some of the best bands ever. A kissing booth with your favorite anti-folk hearthrobs and pin-up girls. Cake. Records. A chance to win your own Yamaha synthesizer. And all proceeds go to our tour! Help us show middle America how to live! (as if we know)

2. I just booked a going-away party at Sidewalk Cafe on Wednesday, June 29, at 11pm. It'll be just me, playing some quiet, tiny, little, soft, wittle, wittle, wittle songs. I'm not advertising at all really, cuz I want people to go to Friday's show. But it'll be nice. The next morning, I go to Philly and get set for tour. I'll be away OVER A MONTH. Don't let this city go to shit.

3. I have so many things to do on Saturday, my head is going to fall off.

4. On Sunday, me and Betsy and Andrew and Tom and maybe some other cool kids are going to meet in Central Park to make anti-corporate, anti-hubris posters for the gay pride parade. Then we're going to march as our own group. I don't think we have a name. Cool Kids? We're going to point out everything wrong with mainstream gay culture. Even in our big celebratory weekend, we need to remind people that things aren't cool. That mainstream gay body culture hurts everyone by devalidating old age. If you cannot imagine being happy and old, then you don't want to get old. And if you don't want to get old, you basically want to die. And if you want to die, you don't care if you get AIDS. And if you don't care if you get AIDS, you'll probably get it. And that just makes the virus stronger and more dangerous to everyone in the world, not just to the psychologically wounded gay men of New York. As long as only ONE kind of body is the acceptible gay body, our very lives are at risk. I cannot have pride in a community that does not confront this problem directly and honestly.

5. I think on Thursday I'm going to see my friend and former teacher's new play, "The Rich Silk of It" at a short play festival here: Casa Cupcake (545 9th Ave, b/w 40th & 41st); 8pm, $10, reservations: 347-993-0258.

6. Yesterday I learned how to use my roommate's Garageband program, and I recorded a new song. Soon I'm going to touch it up a little and post it here. All I want to do now is record songs on that laptop. It's addictive.

7. Tomorrow I perform at the gay pride edition of PS122's blogger talent show. I'm gonna talk a bit about Michael Jackson, while Dibs and someone else (maybe you? email me!) play atmospheric music behind me. Cesar was supposed to come play clarinet, but then he became lame.

8. On Wednesday, Dibs releases his gorgeous new cd. I will be there, enjoying the good tunes and clapping loudly. Preston from Sewing Circle plays after him. Preston is the new cool guy.

9. The new season of Queer as Folk is D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-N-G.

10. If they really do destroy NPR and PBS, I am going to F-L-I-P [space] O-U-T.

11. Last night I got to sing a song with the Tri-Lambs, my favorite band. I love singing with them. I especially love singing the part that goes, "AND I WANNA MAKE LOVE TO YOU! LIKE YOU WANT IT BAD! I COULD BE YOUR PRETTY MAMA, BABY! YOU CAN BE MY BABY'S DAD!" I would never write a lyric like that, so it feels good to sing it. Actually I probably would write a lyric like that. Actually I probably have.

12. On Saturday night, me and Cool Kid Betsy had a rad and cheap dinner at Kellogg's Diner. Don't you love it when you make a new friend, and you generally just see each other and scream and have fun, and then you finally get to sit down with them and have a serious conversation, and you realize they're just as grounded and serious and thoughtful as you hope that you are? That's a great feeling. Then we saw Clemence play at Pete's Candy Store with the Babyskins. They sounded great together. I really liked Clemence's songs. I like songs by French girls more than songs by French boys. I had a really lovely conversation about alternative medicine, food, and energy with Diane Cluck. I told her about how Benjamin called me from the pitch-black-middle-of-the-night dome of a Buddist temple in California, just to thank me for putting one of her songs on a mix cd I made for him. (The CD was labelled "Totally Buddha!") She gave me advice about different healers in NYC, and what to do with energy during and after a performance. I used to collapse after every Cheese On Bread show, until I started directing my energy through my body and to my feet, instead of through my feet and out my head. Now, my energy stays between me and the Earth, and it doesn't just get lost in outer space. And YES, Dad, I really did say that. I really am a freaking hippie. I love you! How was the rest of your father's day?

13. I think on Sunday, my dad is getting an award from PFLAG for being the best dad ever. I don't think that's the official title of the award, but that's pretty much what it comes down to. He's been fighting the forces of heterosexist oppression in Montgomery County for the last couple of years. In the last battle, they won, but only because they lied and cheated. My dad is remarkably unphased. I would have flipped out, but he's just like, "Well it's not over." Bravo. I cannot believe that my Dad is literally a superhero for gay children. It's true. He's like Batman, except without a costume, and for gay children, and everything he does is legal and not really weird at all. I would come down to Maryland to watch him get the award, but I have to work on tour stuff all day on Saturday, and wake up really early on Monday, and then travel non-stop for a WHOLE MONTH, so I think the same-day round-trip trainride would break me. Instead I'm going to preach the gospel of Dad at the Pride Parade.

14. I got a great email from Gregg the other day.

15. My roommate made roasted turnips last weekend, and they were amazing. I didn't know turnips were roastable. She made them with rosemary.

16. I'm glad they're going to destroy the abandoned houses in Gaza Strip to make room for Palestinian high-rises. I think the destruction itself will probably vent a lot of pent-up rage that might otherwise get filtered into un-contained violence. Maybe we should stage acts of inconsequential violence all the time, so that people can let off some steam. Actually, now that I'm typing this, it's starting to sound like a GREAT idea.

17. Buy my ALBUM already!!!!!

18. I should do other things now.

19. I probably miss and love you.

All of those things,
Dan

-listening to josh malamy's new album, and really liking it. i listened to it several times over the past week or so, waiting to like it. i knew i would. now i do.

-yesterday i bought a copy of lolita and i'm sort of frighteningly into it. nabokov is one slick mother. i'm reading it for my new one-man show, "please let me love you." a lot of the show will be about pedophilia, so i'm making a pedophilia reading list. the next book i want to read is about the fake "sex ring scare" in the 80s, by that lady who was in capturing the friedmans. i've been wanting to read that for a long time.

-i'm going to a diner with betsy now. betsy's my favorite new friend.

-why are sara and kevin in portland? i would like to know

-lippe lent cheese on bread a car-lighter-adapter for the tour! lippe is the best!

-tomorrow i will clean my house and finish making presskits to send! i will also call my AWESOME DAD because it's FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!!

love
dan

great show at sidewalk last night. as betsy and i were walking away, we were talking about toby's great set, and that prompted me to talk about kimya's great set the other night, and then betsy's like, "speaking of the moldy peaches, the other day i saw adam green for the first time in like three years!" and i said, "that's odd," and she said, "why?" and i said, "cause he just passed us." and she swung around and went, "ADAM!" and he came back and they hugged, and i got introduced, and then he went to go sing kareoke, and i said, "well that felt awkward," and betsy was like, "why," and i was like, "because yesterday i wrote a song about how much i don't like his last album," and then betsy fell down on the sidewalk.

love
dan