SELLING OFF BODY PARTS (&C.)...

The “Southern Hospitality” play is going well (opening night is April 1); I took cast photos, and they did come out fairly well—chalk that up as something else I can do (or that people now know I can do). The little camera is living up to the reviews I saw of it a while back: “These things are really old, but they’re really good.” Mine is seven years old now.

A news story (one of two) to cover for the paper Thursday night, instead of playing music. I don’t mind a bit if paying work gets in the way of a jam session dominated by rock musicians (which I am not one of). I will still get to play music, I think, Saturday afternoon at the library and Sunday night with “the impromptus.” And at at least one of those, I’ll get to try out the New Song.

Hight “Selling Off My Body Parts,” it’s one of those “say wha’…?” commentaries on the economy that just demanded to be wrote. I try to figure out whom I’m channeling each time I write something, and this time, I think it was Buck Owens. Buck’s songs—at least, the ones he performed himself (he wrote some that were cut by others)—were upbeat, even a little manic, and very focused on structure. His choruses had the same chord progressions as the verses, too, something considered a big no-no by all the experts. (Buck’s songs were hits nonetheless.) A little Avril Lavigne in there, too (I do like those internal rhymes). If the live audiences like the song, it might make a good inclusion in the next Failed Economy Show benefit concert for the Food Pantry. I’m sure we’ll be doing more of those, because the failed economy is just not going away.

I was asked to help screen bands for the 2011 Rocktoberfest (being held once again in September, when the weather is supposedly nicer), and I’ve tentatively agreed, warning them (as I do everybody who wants long-term commitments out of me) that I could disappear quickly if someone offers me a job out of town. Pacific Railway & Navigation (the “save the train” folks) approached me about a “battle of the bands” event maybe in August, and I might help them with that, too, provided they listen to me. I think I know what’s possible to ask bands to do, and what kind of infrastructure the organizers need to have on hand, and I’m pretty sure PR&N don’t know.

And the entertainment chairman for Garibaldi Days now has a burned copy of the Deathgrass CD. We are lining up Concert Season, slowly but surely.

I have the vendor for duplicating the CDs now—and it’s DiskFaktory, the outfit I’ve used in the past for bulk duplication of “I’ll put my own labels on later” CDs. DiskFaktory will allow me to upload my own designs for the label and covers, and appear to be able to get it right—something the other vendors couldn’t. (The other vendors all had their own “design templates” they preferred to have you use—which I didn’t want to do. Our CD is going to look like I want it to look, not how they want it to look.) It is ready to send; I haven’t yet, because I want a few days to assuage my paranoia about Taking The Plunge. Got barcode; got shrink-wrapping; got radio stations lined up to play it. I should have the product in hand by mid-to-late April. And then we’ll schedule the CD release event.

Joe