Update, 3 years late

Wow, I just looked back at this site and realized I hadn't updated it in just over 3 years! Crazy. I'm sure my hoards of fans have been terribly worried and disappointed. What can I say...life ran me over a few years ago and it's taken me a while to recover - and I've been without home internet for the last year which makes such updates difficult! Life has completely changed.

So, here is the state of things in late 2010:

I am still alive. My kids are doing great - Emma is now 7 and James is now 3. Their mother and I 'broke up' just under three years ago, which made for a rough few years - but the kiddos are doing fine and are healthy and happy. My mom & dad are still around, which makes me a lucky guy. I still have my job (fingers crossed through the mine field of layoffs that our nation has faced since my last update). I've moved since then as well but have been at the current place for a year now and plan to stay there for the foreseeable future.

I'm still making music, and more am recording my first ever 'album' of material, as opposed to just a random new demo here and there. I hired a drummer and we have pro- recorded 8 songs worth of drums. I'm really looking forward to where this goes and think the sound will be far better than most of my old recordings.

Since 2007 the economy & job market have tanked. There have been political earthquakes which have left people more divided & partisan than ever. No one knows where it's taking us, but I don't like the feeling of things in this nation - lots of uncertainty and growing divisiveness.

That's about it. Drop in and comment sometime.

August 2007 update

So I've neglected this blog, sue me! ;-)

Lots going on. Still working on some of the health stuff but getting by OK. We had a healthy baby boy "James" on May 14th, 2007 and he is now 3 months old! He and his big sister are getting along fine! Mommy and daddy are trying to get our rest! Here he is at 2 months:



On to other things - my company was bought out in April, resulting in some layoffs and lots of changes & growing pains. The other week we just got the announcement that ANOTHER company is buying out the company that just bought US out! Here we go again!

On the music front, I have about 5 new songs in the works and am pretty excited about them! I'm a quality over quantity guy, so I don't come out with tons of songs every month. Hopefully the wait will be worth it! I normally do everything myself, but on these new songs there will be some playing by a few violinists that I admire - so I'm looking forward to an expanded soundscape. I also picked up a mandolin the other day and have a new bass coming.

That should do it for now! I'm not aware of anyone who regularly reads this, but if you do then thanks for checking in!

Daniel

What's Going On Lately: Big News & Observations from 2006!

Well this will be a quick and easy summation of current events in my life, for all of the readers out there ('all' meaning the one or two that read!).

BIG NEWS ITEMS:

1) We are pregnant and expecting a child in May, 2007!!! We just found out last week that it will be a baby boy. This was unplanned, but we are very excited about it - and trying to get as much rest as possible now because we won't be able to get it later!! ;-)

2) My job of 4 years may be in jeopardy as we are being 'acquired' by another company. IF you've ever seen OFFICE SPACE, just think about the 'meeting with the Bobs' when you think of me! :-)

3) Sadly, my Grandmother Bette Watkins Garrison (father's side) passed away unexpectedly Dec 22nd from an aneurism of the brain. It's been tough for my dad and his sisters as well as for her husband Roy. She was a good woman with lots of kindness, experience & common sense. She will be missed, may she rest peacefully.

OBSERVATIONS from 2006:

1) Health is something you should cherish if you have it, because when you loose good health it can really get you down. I've been up against some things for almost two years and you truly don't realize how much you take for granted until your health slips.

2) Local musician friends suck. There may be an exception or two but mostly the exceptions aren't in Dallas. My observation over the last 7 years or so has finally come to a point in 2006, and I realize how poor a decision it was to place the amount of care & support I have in musician friends - here in Dallas especially. They tend to be egocentric, self serving politically driven glad-handers who are unable to reciprocate even the barest principals of friendship the moment you aren't at their shows. There are likely fewer fake people in any field other than politics.

Now bear in mind that I am a musician/singer/songwriter. Even so I manage to keep in touch with others and try to show them that I care about them on a personal level - it's not all about stroking their ego so they can stroke mine or selling them on my product. That's where I differ from almost every local musician I know. No single group of people have ever disappointed me more than the musicians I have met in Dallas since 2000.

3) Watching your young child grow is an amazing thing. It is difficult yet rewarding and offers a unique perspective on life, totally removed from the perspective you have when you have never been a parent. So many things in life change when you are a parent and it is amazing the amount of growing up it forces you to do in a short time period. I love my daughter and hope the best for her future.

Over and out...

Be Not Solitary

I feel alone.

That statement could be interpreted as self-pitying or some other such sneering description, but it's really not. It's just a statement of a fact and one that I wonder if will ever change.

I have both a mom and a dad (not together anymore) that both keep in touch. I have two brothers that don't speak to me or each other. I have a wonderful little daughter and a loving long-term relationship with a wonderful girl that I met 6 years ago, and they give me plenty of time & attention.

So why lonely, with all of that? I dunno. Other than those that I consider 'family', I don't really feel like I have made many friends in life.

I was raised in a strict religious order where friends with 'outsiders' was prohibited. I broke away from that in my adult life, but it's left me feeling terribly awkward when it comes to actually just "hanging out" with people because the rules are so different from what I grew up with.

I spend a lot of effort reaching out to people - people I went to school with and barely knew, people I've worked with or hung out with in the distant past and haven't seen for years, people I've 'met' online through various music or firearms related sites & e-lists. I try hard to keep up with them and some of them try back, which I always appreciate. I like a lot of those people and would like the chance to actually hang out in person - sometimes that happens too, but not too often.

Why so difficult?

Random Night...

I gotta tell you, I love getting out at night. I don't mean getting out to a bar, or a club, or a show etc. My favorite times & experiences are often just being OUT at night, the later the better and the more quiet & serene the better.

Something about the quiet, the solitude and the beauty of the night is totally refreshing to me in a way that nothing else is.

I miss the road trips I used to take - just me in my 67 Mustang on some deserted highway in the middle of Nowhere, TX. Windows down and air rushing in, little or no traffic, the hum of the engine, the moon & stars up above. Usually the radio was off, but sometimes a little Miles Davis or Coltrane, or Van Morrison.

I could drive for hours and just be in love with the feeling. Sometimes I could hear the locusts or crickets in the fields as I cruised by. Sometimes I'd see a rabbit or a deer near the side of the road, looking up startled as I passed. Beautiful.

I was reminded of all that tonight, even with just a short trip to a local convenience store. The air is cooling, the moon is bright even as it's partially shrouded by soft grey cloud. Stars peek through. The roads were nearly empty and all was fairly quiet, for a suburb of the city. Just that 10 minutes was refreshing to the soul!

Quiet night, cool air with window down. There is a guy I know named 'Sam'. Sam is from Nepal and had loaned me a tape of some of the Indian music he likes - a Khazana recording written & narrated by Gulzar. Tonight, that music was absolutely the perfect thing to go with everything around me. That trip was 10 minutes of paradise.

It's the little things that count, and this was one of them.

dw

Music of Khazana / Gulzar:

At Odds...

I don't know how much more 'at odds' I could be in life.

It seems that throughout my life, my independent thinking has put me at odds with my peers and caused rifts between myself and those of any given group that I am considered to be a member of.

I have lived parts of my life in so many difficult & varied positions and in so many diametrically opposite circumstances that I have gained perspectives that many of my peers have not.

I don't mean to suggest that I am the only one to have gained insights through these kinds of opposing entanglements in life, but I do believe that the majority have not so thoroughly lived them.

Through these things I have gained empathy beyond what many around me have, some insight I think - and have in so many cases moved from one side of an argument or belief system into a totally differing position. This can make me unpopular with those that hold either position strongly because unlike them I do not just see "my" side, I see both through having lived both.

While I am extremely passionate about my beliefs, I also realize that we are not infallible and that our beliefs should always be open to change if a stronger & better viewpoint reveals itself.

Whether it be the political right & left - I am at odds with both positions, even while grasping and to some degree holding close to aspects of each. Or religionists or secularists, I am at odds with both - yet hold an understanding of both that few will ever have. I have lived both positions on each of these, and not just on the fringes but heart & soul dedicated to one or the other at certain times in my life.

I've been physically attacked for refusing to salute a flag or sing a national anthem, yet attacked by others verbally as a "jingoistic flag-waving nationalist'. I've been an anti-war type and non-violent pacifist who was prepared to suffer or even die for that position, yet also a staunch 2nd Amendment gun-rights advocate and someone that absolutely & unapoligetically believes in the right to self defense with whatever level of force is neccesary in order to prevail and preserve your life. How can such contradictions be?

I have been the oblivious dreamer sleepwalking through reality, and in other times been hyperfocused and situtationally aware while everyone else sleepwalked right by me. I've done years of unpaid volunteer work to benefit the Spanish speaking community and counted many illegals as my friends, yet also been upset by the scope of the illegal invasion and the damage it's doing. Economically, whether it be poor & living out of a car or living in an expensive lavish house - I have done both. Whether it be wrecking a relationship, or desperately trying to hold one together - I've done both. So many things like this I could name but it would take hours.

I wish my peers would understand that my views are formed from a depth of life experience and never just a lemminglike wish to fit in with the group OR a desire to be difficult and 'different'. Instead of quick harsh judgements I wish more of my peers would actually consider an intelligent, logical and heartfelt constructive discussion - one without the trappings of dogma, partisanship, etc.

I am very tolerant towards the viewpoints of others and wish more of them would be the same instead of letting philosophical or ideological differences be an excuse for distance.

I am at odds with the world and am afraid it will always be this way.

dw



"I never submitted the whole system of my opinion to the creed of any party of men whatever - in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Hopkinson, (1789)

It's The Little Things...

Sometimes it's the little things...

Sometimes it's the little things that make the difference between life & death. A microscopic renegade cell in a person's body can become cancer and take a life. A little thing, like being distracted by the car radio for the barest moment can cause lives to be lost. A small 115 grain bullet can end a life - or save one.

A little thing like being 2 minutes late for work could haved save your life if you worked in the WTC on 9/11. A small thing, like having to wait through one more traffic light instead of running it could be the delay that saved you from having that fatal accident moments later as another car passed your intended path. A small thing like a glance, or brush of skin could be the difference between finding love and being alone.

A small thing like projecting confidence when you walk could save you being the next target of a mugger or rapist. A small thing like a few words of a speech could change the vote you cast at the elections, and change the entire future of a nation - and a world. A small thing like the substitution of one word for another, or one sound for another could make the difference between a song that is ignored and unheard and one that becomes a top selling hit.

A small thing like a smile or a pat on the head or kiss of a 'hurt' from us as parents could change the feeling of wellbeing and worth of our child, and alter the possible future versions of a person that our child becomes. A small thing like an angry word at the wrong time could be the pivotal moment that changes the cast, the mold that shapes that child's future and everything in it.

A small thing like faith - even the size of a mustard seed (very small) - can move mountains. The smallest grain of doubt could be the weakness that causes the avalanche and brings the entire mountain down.

Everything in life is small.