PUMPKINFEST, WEDDING AND FOOT (OH, MY)...

The Hurt Foot’s been kind of dominant the last couple of weeks; yes, it only hurts when it’s being used for standing, or walking, or touches something, but that’s, like, almost all the time. The doctor says it’s getting better—thereby convincing me he’s a more insightful man than I.

And so I haven’t got much done. (Yes, the Hurt Foot is a good excuse for inactivity, too.) I finally did write the Rap for the Pumpkinfest (a relatively easy job—just have to keep in mind virtually no one in that audience has ever heard me before), and piece by piece, as I go to jam sessions and open mikes, I’m getting to run through the songs on the Pumpkinfest setlist, making sure I know them by heart. I’m able to introduce nearly all of those as “here’s another song I can’t play at my daughter’s wedding.”

And I haven’t accomplished much with the Wedding Setlist. At this point, rather a small number of my suggestions have been ruled acceptable by the Happy Couple, and they’ve had four suggestions of their own—all covers (not a problem at this gig, since it’s unpaid), one of which I know I can play, two I think I can play, and one I’m not sure about at all. That still leaves rather a large material lacuna to fill—and said wedding is, as of tomorrow, just two weeks away. Need to get setlists and CDs to the band, and we have to practice all this new stuff. (Gack. In a word, gack.)

I think the only solution to the problem is to take Alice-the-‘puter’s braincase with me when I go back to Lafayette. StuartLittle, over there, can’t copy CDs—no rewritable CD drive. I’ll take the Tascam, too, in case I have to record something (likely); Alice has been trained to interface with the Tascam, too, and StuartLittle hasn’t (considering how old some of this stuff is, I’m not sure the software even can be found any more). I’ll have part of Monday night (still have to write the column for the paper) and Tuesday night to finish this. I can mail the material to the band, and hopefully arrange practice for next weekend.

My only getting-out this weekend was to play music Friday night and Saturday. Got to try out on Saturday’s crowd at the library “Dead Fishes” and “Vampire Roumanian Babies,” which I want to do at the Pumpkinfest, and “I Want a Man for Christmas,” which hasn’t (yet) been rejected for the Wedding Setlist. And they did like all of them. This Wednesday is another open mike at the coffeehouse in McMinnville, and I’ll use that opportunity to promote the Pumpkinfest again. The folks there haven’t heard “Dead Fishes” or Beth Williams’ “The Well in the Glade” yet.

One thing I’d really like to accomplish while I’m making money is to record the album. John hasn’t had any time (and since I became a city manager again, neither have I). It would be worthwhile, I think, to bite the bullet and record the thing at Mike’s studio in Rockaway. As usual, I would want to do it Patsy Cline style—live and in one take—to save money; since Mike would be recording engineer, I expect his lead guitar would have to be added later. Good winter project, assuming I can hang onto some of my money.

And the other is a Christmas benefit concert for the Food Pantry, like we did last year. Probably the ideal date would be Saturday, December 18—I’m pretty sure the Dance Floor at City Hall is available that night (it was last year). We could almost use the same setlist.

Joe