Music at the library Saturday got cut short with a power outage (‘tis the season, I guess). Ice tonight, which will make for a fun trip back to the Valley tomorrow.
Ran into a couple of Christmas EPs—short, 6-song albums—at a thrift store. Both were pretty obviously self-produced. One was a guy vocalist singing some Christmas classics (at least he had real musicians, and it sounded like it was done in a real studio). The other CD had two Christmas classics and four not-very-good originals; girl singer had an okay voice, but it was pretty obviously computer-generated music.
I could do that—and do it better, I think. If I had a record of Christmas songs, though, there would be only five—all originals, of course:
I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas
Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up
Even Roadkill Gets the Blues
Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire (co-wrote with daughter Kimberly)
Song for Polly and Glyn (I Want a Man for Christmas)
First two were recorded in a commercial studio (they’re on the “Santa’s Fallen” album), the other three just on the Tascam (though the chipmunks song is actually pretty professionally done). I took all of them and ran them through the Audacity program to make the volumes consistent (if a professional did that, it’d be called “mastering”).
I do hate to give something that’s only got five songs on it, but I think I will keep this one to the Christmas stuff. (Mostly. I’ll throw in “The Cat with the Strat” as a bonus track. It’s really good—and it’s never been on an album anywhere.) Designed a decent Christmassy label, using one of my archived gift tags as a template. (Last time, I photographed one of our cute Christmas potholders and used that for the label.)
This coming week is shaping up busy: music Wednesday night at the coffeehouse in McMinnville, Saturday afternoon at the library, and Friday I’ll either be playing music in Garibaldi with the Friday Night Group or being Santa Claus for the little kids in Lafayette—I don’t know which yet. Got Christmas presents to get ready for the people I’ve worked with, too—I don’t want to “go poof” without leaving them something to remember me by. Cookies and copies of the “Santa’s Fallen” album for everybody, I expect. And that doesn’t take into account the day-job work, of which there’s quite a bit next week, too.
The Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn.’s year-end bash this year will be Saturday, Dec. 18. Depending on the weather, I could maybe go. (Three 2,000-foot-plus hills to cross between here and there. I don’t want to do that in snow or ice.) No Deathgrass Christmas concert this year—drummer Chris isn’t available—so the weekend’s free; I could hang out in southern Oregon an extra day and see if anyone at the Wild Goose remembers me (they did the last time I went). It does mean I have to have all the Christmas stuff done ahead of time. As usual, not much time.
The Deathgrass “Failed Economy Show” benefit for the Food Pantry will be in January—third Saturday’s when the Dance Floor at City Hall is available. January may be good; people won’t be so busy, and there may be a shortage of good entertainment. We could remedy that easily. Wonder if we could get it videotaped this time?
Joe
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
"SHOULD I BLOG?"
The question was asked on one of those social-networking Websites, “Should I blog?” I wasn’t able to respond (social-networking sites being into this “friending” thing, that I’ve pretty much stopped participating in), but for what it’s worth, here’s an answer of sorts. It depends on your purpose.
Come January, I will have been doing “The Writer’s Blog” for five years, I think. It started as an attempt to organize my thoughts for a songwriting seminar I taught the last two years of the [now gone, and missed] “Moograss” Bluegrass Festival in Tillamook, Oregon. (Yes, teaching songwriting to bluegrass musicians, who mostly play only “traditional” music, is a little like shipping coal to a nuclear power plant. I was surprised the seminars ended up being popular.)
Of course, as a writer on the make, I’m interested in getting attention for the songs I write, so the blog talked about doing that as well—and attempted to be organized about it. That’s where the annual Worklists and regular “reality checks” come in. As a writer and a performer, I am interested in what works, and what doesn’t—just as I am in my occasional gigs as a city manager—and I write it all down so I don’t forget it.
The blog provides another continuing benefit: it’s practice at writing. Each “issue” is roughly the same length, and expresses (more often than not) a complete thought about (more often than not) a single subject. And I do it at least weekly—following that old Internet rule that one’s Website has to change at least once a week to keep an audience’s attention. (I’ve written issues of the blog more often while being unemployed.) The practice writing for space and writing for deadlines made it easier to do the weekly column for the newspaper. (That’s not what got me the gig, however. Knowing somebody was what got me the gig. The practice with the blog just made it easier to do the work.)
I never counted on an audience, and I’d advise the would-be blogger not to count on one, either. The Internet being the amorphous, anarchic critter that it is, I have no idea who’s reading, or why; I don’t even know how to ask. Nor do I have a clue how to “monetize” (as the gurus at Google’s Blogspot put it) what I do. My advice to the would-be blogger, then, is a question: Is there a specific benefit to YOU—without reference to other people (because there may not be any), and without any expectation of financial reward (because there may not be any) in doing this? If there is, do it. If not, don’t.
These days, a lot of people seem to be doing videoblogs (“vlogs”) instead of the old-fashioned kind. I am not that interested, myself; I don’t see (yet) how adding the video component would make me a better writer. It might be good practice using the video equipment (and I could use the practice), so we’ll see. I do want to “do” video, but I want to use it to add a 21st-century component to my songs, nothing more.
UPDATES: No music at all last weekend, and there won’t be any until at least next Saturday. I heard about another open mike in McMinnville, but it’ll be a couple of weeks before I can go. And there’s reportedly a radio station in Nashville that’s looking for original Christmas songs (and I have five), but I haven’t figured out how to reach the Responsible Parties. I get four days off over Thanksgiving, and it’d be nice if there were an opportunity for the band to practice—but I still don’t have confirmation from everybody whether they can do a Christmas show. Time is getting short…
Joe
Come January, I will have been doing “The Writer’s Blog” for five years, I think. It started as an attempt to organize my thoughts for a songwriting seminar I taught the last two years of the [now gone, and missed] “Moograss” Bluegrass Festival in Tillamook, Oregon. (Yes, teaching songwriting to bluegrass musicians, who mostly play only “traditional” music, is a little like shipping coal to a nuclear power plant. I was surprised the seminars ended up being popular.)
Of course, as a writer on the make, I’m interested in getting attention for the songs I write, so the blog talked about doing that as well—and attempted to be organized about it. That’s where the annual Worklists and regular “reality checks” come in. As a writer and a performer, I am interested in what works, and what doesn’t—just as I am in my occasional gigs as a city manager—and I write it all down so I don’t forget it.
The blog provides another continuing benefit: it’s practice at writing. Each “issue” is roughly the same length, and expresses (more often than not) a complete thought about (more often than not) a single subject. And I do it at least weekly—following that old Internet rule that one’s Website has to change at least once a week to keep an audience’s attention. (I’ve written issues of the blog more often while being unemployed.) The practice writing for space and writing for deadlines made it easier to do the weekly column for the newspaper. (That’s not what got me the gig, however. Knowing somebody was what got me the gig. The practice with the blog just made it easier to do the work.)
I never counted on an audience, and I’d advise the would-be blogger not to count on one, either. The Internet being the amorphous, anarchic critter that it is, I have no idea who’s reading, or why; I don’t even know how to ask. Nor do I have a clue how to “monetize” (as the gurus at Google’s Blogspot put it) what I do. My advice to the would-be blogger, then, is a question: Is there a specific benefit to YOU—without reference to other people (because there may not be any), and without any expectation of financial reward (because there may not be any) in doing this? If there is, do it. If not, don’t.
These days, a lot of people seem to be doing videoblogs (“vlogs”) instead of the old-fashioned kind. I am not that interested, myself; I don’t see (yet) how adding the video component would make me a better writer. It might be good practice using the video equipment (and I could use the practice), so we’ll see. I do want to “do” video, but I want to use it to add a 21st-century component to my songs, nothing more.
UPDATES: No music at all last weekend, and there won’t be any until at least next Saturday. I heard about another open mike in McMinnville, but it’ll be a couple of weeks before I can go. And there’s reportedly a radio station in Nashville that’s looking for original Christmas songs (and I have five), but I haven’t figured out how to reach the Responsible Parties. I get four days off over Thanksgiving, and it’d be nice if there were an opportunity for the band to practice—but I still don’t have confirmation from everybody whether they can do a Christmas show. Time is getting short…
Joe
Monday, November 15, 2010
HOW'D WE DO THIS YEAR?
Time, as we get close to December, to review the 2010 Workslist and see what got accomplished. This year, not much. I suppose I could blame a lot of it on having had a job since the end of July, but I won’t—the idea was to be able to do both. I managed to fit Concert Season into the schedule, but not a lot else.
What have I accomplished in 2010? I did manage to WRITE IN SOME DIFFERENT GENRES—a medieval ballad (“Last Song of the Highwayman”), a country death metal anthem (“Angel in Chains”), and another polka (“The Dead Sweethearts Polka”). I managed to EXPAND USE OF VIDEO, too: the Hong-Kong-via-eBay video camera turned out to be quite good, I can do video with my digital camera, too, I’ve got a good tripod, and I’ve acquired Skype.
On the other hand, the JOE ALBUM is precisely where it was a year ago; the SOUTHERN PIGFISH ALBUM now has an album’s worth of songs, but is no closer to getting produced. No WEEK IN NASHVILLE, no JOE WEBSITE, and while I did enter three SONG CONTESTS this year, I didn’t win any of them. And I’m no closer to FIGURING OUT HOW TO MAKE A LIVING OFF THIS STUFF.
I suppose I’m a little closer to BECOMING A HOUSEHOLD WORD. (Still not as good a household word as “toilet paper,” though. People spend money on toilet paper.) I did expand a little into the New Market made available by the temporary job; there’s a new (albeit small) fan base that’s gotten used to me being around, and I might yet manage to get a concert out of it before my time here is over. Did a fair amount of work with the Coventry songwriters group in England, too, though my writing volume declined as the job got busier. I’ve done rather a lot of graphic-design work this year, too, for quite a few new people—all of it for free—and I hope that’s gotten some attention.
PLAY WITH MORE PEOPLE? The rock band in Astoria didn’t work out, but “Deathgrass” is a going concern—people definitely know who we are, and we’ve got fans (and I’m continually surprised how many of those fans are young). The eclectic ensembles that I play with at the Tillamook Library, the Forestry Center, Garibaldi City Hall, and (before I had a job) the Garibaldi Pub probably don’t qualify, since they’re usually the same people. I don’t know if there are MORE PEOPLE PLAYING MY STUFF (that probably means there aren’t).
So the 2011 Worklist is going to look pretty much like the 2010 one. MORE VIDEO, to be sure—deejay Len Amsterdam’s mantra, “Video is the new audio,” seems more apparent every day. With a good video camera now, I might be able to do a lot of experimentation. The WEBSITE; the ALBUMS. I expect I have to postpone travel for a while, but that’s okay—I’m not famous enough to be able to get any real advantage out of it. PUBLISHING I really will try to take care of when we record the albums. I probably do not have enough contacts to do a good job of publishing anyone but myself, but I can definitely publish myself.
About six weeks remain until the end of the year, and there are still things I want to (and think I can) do. Chief is another Failed Economy Christmas Show with the band, benefiting the Garibaldi Food Pantry. This time, it’d be nice to get it filmed and re-broadcast on cable TV. I’d like to put a similar concert together in Lafayette, too, to benefit the local food bank here—and it’d be fun to snag one of the “featured” Friday night gigs at the coffeehouse in McMinnville (I can talk to the organizers when I go there to play music Wednesday night).
And there’s a Christmas song to work on, too; I’ve managed to do one every year for several years running—some better than others, of course. Re-reading old files (which I have to do now and then), I ran across a comment on last year’s Christmas song, “I Want a Man for Christmas”: someone had said, “There’s got to be a dead reindeer in here somewhere.” And that’s a line that really needs a song to go with it…
Joe
What have I accomplished in 2010? I did manage to WRITE IN SOME DIFFERENT GENRES—a medieval ballad (“Last Song of the Highwayman”), a country death metal anthem (“Angel in Chains”), and another polka (“The Dead Sweethearts Polka”). I managed to EXPAND USE OF VIDEO, too: the Hong-Kong-via-eBay video camera turned out to be quite good, I can do video with my digital camera, too, I’ve got a good tripod, and I’ve acquired Skype.
On the other hand, the JOE ALBUM is precisely where it was a year ago; the SOUTHERN PIGFISH ALBUM now has an album’s worth of songs, but is no closer to getting produced. No WEEK IN NASHVILLE, no JOE WEBSITE, and while I did enter three SONG CONTESTS this year, I didn’t win any of them. And I’m no closer to FIGURING OUT HOW TO MAKE A LIVING OFF THIS STUFF.
I suppose I’m a little closer to BECOMING A HOUSEHOLD WORD. (Still not as good a household word as “toilet paper,” though. People spend money on toilet paper.) I did expand a little into the New Market made available by the temporary job; there’s a new (albeit small) fan base that’s gotten used to me being around, and I might yet manage to get a concert out of it before my time here is over. Did a fair amount of work with the Coventry songwriters group in England, too, though my writing volume declined as the job got busier. I’ve done rather a lot of graphic-design work this year, too, for quite a few new people—all of it for free—and I hope that’s gotten some attention.
PLAY WITH MORE PEOPLE? The rock band in Astoria didn’t work out, but “Deathgrass” is a going concern—people definitely know who we are, and we’ve got fans (and I’m continually surprised how many of those fans are young). The eclectic ensembles that I play with at the Tillamook Library, the Forestry Center, Garibaldi City Hall, and (before I had a job) the Garibaldi Pub probably don’t qualify, since they’re usually the same people. I don’t know if there are MORE PEOPLE PLAYING MY STUFF (that probably means there aren’t).
So the 2011 Worklist is going to look pretty much like the 2010 one. MORE VIDEO, to be sure—deejay Len Amsterdam’s mantra, “Video is the new audio,” seems more apparent every day. With a good video camera now, I might be able to do a lot of experimentation. The WEBSITE; the ALBUMS. I expect I have to postpone travel for a while, but that’s okay—I’m not famous enough to be able to get any real advantage out of it. PUBLISHING I really will try to take care of when we record the albums. I probably do not have enough contacts to do a good job of publishing anyone but myself, but I can definitely publish myself.
About six weeks remain until the end of the year, and there are still things I want to (and think I can) do. Chief is another Failed Economy Christmas Show with the band, benefiting the Garibaldi Food Pantry. This time, it’d be nice to get it filmed and re-broadcast on cable TV. I’d like to put a similar concert together in Lafayette, too, to benefit the local food bank here—and it’d be fun to snag one of the “featured” Friday night gigs at the coffeehouse in McMinnville (I can talk to the organizers when I go there to play music Wednesday night).
And there’s a Christmas song to work on, too; I’ve managed to do one every year for several years running—some better than others, of course. Re-reading old files (which I have to do now and then), I ran across a comment on last year’s Christmas song, “I Want a Man for Christmas”: someone had said, “There’s got to be a dead reindeer in here somewhere.” And that’s a line that really needs a song to go with it…
Joe
Sunday, November 7, 2010
A DRAFT CHRISTMAS SHOW SETLIST...
Well, the Big Job in Lafayette—recruiting a new city administrator—is done, except for the paperwork. They picked one—and it was the guy from Alaska (thereby indicating the value of Skype). Now, I can work on the city’s money, which I haven’t had a chance to do much with since I got here. Today, however, I’ll do other stuff. A day off—and away from home, spent mostly at the computer, I’ll apply for jobs (I’ll be needing one), do the SOSA newsletter if I’ve got all the material, and write.
I haven’t got confirmation from the band that they can do a Christmas show, but I have a draft setlist anyway. It looks like:
SET #1 (12 SONGS):
Dead Things in the Shower—mod. fast two-step
Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy
Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up—fast bluegrass
Tillamook Railroad Blues—deliberate blues
Things Are Getting Better Now That Things Are Getting Worse (Gene Burnett)—fast two-step
For Their Own Ends (Southern Pigfish)—folk-rock
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Our Own Little Stimulus Plan (Betty Holt)—Buddy Holly-style rockabilly
Dance a Little Longer (Woody Guthrie)—country rock
Ain’t Got No Home in This World Any More (Woody Guthrie)—fast two-step
I Want a Man for Christmas—rock ‘n’ roll
Un-Easy Street (Stan Good)—mod. fast two-step
SET #2 (11 SONGS):
50 Ways to Cure the Depression—folk-rock
Hey, Little Chicken—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You—fast bluegrass
Even Roadkill gets the Blues—sleazy two-step
Duct Tape—mod. speed country
The Dog’s Song—rock ‘n’ roll
Free-Range Person—fast bluegrass
[NEW] Another Crappy Christmas (Don Varnell)—fast country-rock
Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus—mod. speed Gospel
I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas—slow & sleazy
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad (Woody Guthrie)—fast bluegrass
Five Christmas songs on the list this time, 11 songs about the economy, and the rest just plain fun (and normal inclusions in Deathgrass’ setlists). Only one song the band have never played before. It’d be fun to enlist Indica, the girl who sang with us at the wedding (and this time, give her lyric sheets and a CD); if we could do that, we could substitute a couple of her Gospel songs and really give the audience a treat. Short potty break for the band between sets, which this time I want to fill with stuff to discourage the audience from drifting away; I want refreshments (my cookies, hopefully Jeannette’s cinnamon rolls, coffee and punch), and maybe we should have somebody at the microphone doing announcements. Could we film it this time? (We didn’t manage to film the two previous shows.)
I would really like to do a benefit concert for the food bank here in Lafayette; it could be a “Joe Farewell Concert” at the same time—an opportunity for me to thank everybody for a genuinely enjoyable gig as their temporary city manager. Yes, I’d want a band: bass, drums (unless we’re going to play bluegrass music), “whiny” and “non-whiny” leads—and if other people can sing, we can do their stuff as well as mine. I have a couple of folks, now, that I can ask, who may be or know those resources. It’d have to be in December, because I “go poof” December 31.
Joe
I haven’t got confirmation from the band that they can do a Christmas show, but I have a draft setlist anyway. It looks like:
SET #1 (12 SONGS):
Dead Things in the Shower—mod. fast two-step
Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy
Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up—fast bluegrass
Tillamook Railroad Blues—deliberate blues
Things Are Getting Better Now That Things Are Getting Worse (Gene Burnett)—fast two-step
For Their Own Ends (Southern Pigfish)—folk-rock
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Our Own Little Stimulus Plan (Betty Holt)—Buddy Holly-style rockabilly
Dance a Little Longer (Woody Guthrie)—country rock
Ain’t Got No Home in This World Any More (Woody Guthrie)—fast two-step
I Want a Man for Christmas—rock ‘n’ roll
Un-Easy Street (Stan Good)—mod. fast two-step
SET #2 (11 SONGS):
50 Ways to Cure the Depression—folk-rock
Hey, Little Chicken—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You—fast bluegrass
Even Roadkill gets the Blues—sleazy two-step
Duct Tape—mod. speed country
The Dog’s Song—rock ‘n’ roll
Free-Range Person—fast bluegrass
[NEW] Another Crappy Christmas (Don Varnell)—fast country-rock
Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus—mod. speed Gospel
I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas—slow & sleazy
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad (Woody Guthrie)—fast bluegrass
Five Christmas songs on the list this time, 11 songs about the economy, and the rest just plain fun (and normal inclusions in Deathgrass’ setlists). Only one song the band have never played before. It’d be fun to enlist Indica, the girl who sang with us at the wedding (and this time, give her lyric sheets and a CD); if we could do that, we could substitute a couple of her Gospel songs and really give the audience a treat. Short potty break for the band between sets, which this time I want to fill with stuff to discourage the audience from drifting away; I want refreshments (my cookies, hopefully Jeannette’s cinnamon rolls, coffee and punch), and maybe we should have somebody at the microphone doing announcements. Could we film it this time? (We didn’t manage to film the two previous shows.)
I would really like to do a benefit concert for the food bank here in Lafayette; it could be a “Joe Farewell Concert” at the same time—an opportunity for me to thank everybody for a genuinely enjoyable gig as their temporary city manager. Yes, I’d want a band: bass, drums (unless we’re going to play bluegrass music), “whiny” and “non-whiny” leads—and if other people can sing, we can do their stuff as well as mine. I have a couple of folks, now, that I can ask, who may be or know those resources. It’d have to be in December, because I “go poof” December 31.
Joe
Saturday, November 6, 2010
SKYPE WORKS! (&C.)
In Lafayette all weekend… This is the weekend we do the city manager interviews, and it’s a lot like a musical gig with the band: about mid-afternoon, I decided I’d done as much as I could, and it was just going to be Showtime. Tonight was the “meet and greet” with the three candidates and the public, with coffee and cookies and punch, and the performance went well. Tomorrow we do the interviews.
Worth mentioning, because it was my first opportunity to put Skype to work (one of our candidates is in Alaska), using my video camera as a Webcam, with a separate microphone (City’s) and my speakers out of the recording studio in the garage. So we had a little semicircle of chairs around the computer, and people got to talk to the Alaska guy at the “meet and greet,” too, and I think virtually everybody did so. We’ll do his interview tomorrow the same way. About the only thing we couldn’t do (somebody had to point it out) was shake hands.
So all you folks I’ve corresponded with via e-mail in Sweden, England, France, Canada, and the Arabian Peninsula—we’re going to be able to talk. I can hook all this stuff up to both “Alice” at home, and “StuartLittle” here in Lafayette; I think the only thing I need to find is the adapter that allows me to use the singing mike on the computer. (Way better than those cheapo computer mikes—and the cheapo computer mikes aren’t cheap any more, either.) The world, in the words of one of my economics textbooks, just got flatter.
The video camera is quite nice; it’ll do a sharp picture from across the room, and it has a separate cord that’ll connect it to a soundboard—which (I think) makes it possible to do live music videos. I’ll have to try it. I don’t know if it’s possible to mate it up to the Tascam (I’d have to get an adapter), but it should mate up to the big soundboard at the Arts Center. Maybe the best time to test it would be at the next Arts Center open mike (first Saturday in December).
The only music this week was at the coffeehouse in McMinnville (they seem to be getting used to me now; I seem to see several people who hang out until after I play); those folks got “The Taboo Song,” “Leavin’ It to Beaver,” “Born Again Barbie” (for the religious song), and “Always Pet the Dogs” (for the serious one). I’m about out of religious songs; the only one I’ve got left is “The Abomination Two-Step,” though I’m not sure it’s coffeehouse material; next time, I could do “Oil in the Cornfield” for the serious song. The folks in McMinnville haven’t heard either one yet. (I have tried to play different songs every time. To date, they have not heard the same song twice, unless someone’s requested it.)
To do, still: the November Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. newsletter; a setlist for the Failed Economy Christmas Show I would like the band to do in December; next week’s column for the paper; and a couple more jobs to apply for. (I got confirmation this week that I won’t get one assistant city manager job I applied for, because the city manager who was going to hire me got fired.) Trying to organize a Christmas event here in Lafayette; there reportedly hasn’t been one in the past, but now there’s hordes of little kids in town. Santa needs to come in a big way (and I’ve volunteered to “do” Santa—I’ve done it before). There’s a local food bank here, too, that not many people know about. I bet they could use a benefit concert, just like the one in Garibaldi does. ‘Tis the Season.
Joe
Worth mentioning, because it was my first opportunity to put Skype to work (one of our candidates is in Alaska), using my video camera as a Webcam, with a separate microphone (City’s) and my speakers out of the recording studio in the garage. So we had a little semicircle of chairs around the computer, and people got to talk to the Alaska guy at the “meet and greet,” too, and I think virtually everybody did so. We’ll do his interview tomorrow the same way. About the only thing we couldn’t do (somebody had to point it out) was shake hands.
So all you folks I’ve corresponded with via e-mail in Sweden, England, France, Canada, and the Arabian Peninsula—we’re going to be able to talk. I can hook all this stuff up to both “Alice” at home, and “StuartLittle” here in Lafayette; I think the only thing I need to find is the adapter that allows me to use the singing mike on the computer. (Way better than those cheapo computer mikes—and the cheapo computer mikes aren’t cheap any more, either.) The world, in the words of one of my economics textbooks, just got flatter.
The video camera is quite nice; it’ll do a sharp picture from across the room, and it has a separate cord that’ll connect it to a soundboard—which (I think) makes it possible to do live music videos. I’ll have to try it. I don’t know if it’s possible to mate it up to the Tascam (I’d have to get an adapter), but it should mate up to the big soundboard at the Arts Center. Maybe the best time to test it would be at the next Arts Center open mike (first Saturday in December).
The only music this week was at the coffeehouse in McMinnville (they seem to be getting used to me now; I seem to see several people who hang out until after I play); those folks got “The Taboo Song,” “Leavin’ It to Beaver,” “Born Again Barbie” (for the religious song), and “Always Pet the Dogs” (for the serious one). I’m about out of religious songs; the only one I’ve got left is “The Abomination Two-Step,” though I’m not sure it’s coffeehouse material; next time, I could do “Oil in the Cornfield” for the serious song. The folks in McMinnville haven’t heard either one yet. (I have tried to play different songs every time. To date, they have not heard the same song twice, unless someone’s requested it.)
To do, still: the November Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. newsletter; a setlist for the Failed Economy Christmas Show I would like the band to do in December; next week’s column for the paper; and a couple more jobs to apply for. (I got confirmation this week that I won’t get one assistant city manager job I applied for, because the city manager who was going to hire me got fired.) Trying to organize a Christmas event here in Lafayette; there reportedly hasn’t been one in the past, but now there’s hordes of little kids in town. Santa needs to come in a big way (and I’ve volunteered to “do” Santa—I’ve done it before). There’s a local food bank here, too, that not many people know about. I bet they could use a benefit concert, just like the one in Garibaldi does. ‘Tis the Season.
Joe
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