FIRST CD SALES (&C.)...

Well, we were supposed to be Internet-less for four days, while the phone company sent a crew from Florida to fix some big, mysterious piece of equipment that failed… It’s back, after less than a day—with no explanation, of course. (I wonder if the repair crew is still en route from Florida.) Life Without Internet did interrupt a couple of typesetting jobs—the SOSA newsletter, which I’m already late on, and one for the square dance club; on the other hand, I did get other work done, and figured out work-arounds for a lot of Internet-dependent stuff.

Income taxes are done for the Bay City Arts Center; doing the taxes has been my job for the past two years. It wouldn’t be so bad if the IRS didn’t keep changing the forms. More paperwork this year; I loved the Paperwork Reduction Notice (part of an inch-thick sheaf of instructions) that said it would take me only 11-1/2 hours to fill out the forms. (It actually took about half that. I’m not sure whether that means I’m good or not.)

CDBaby should have their sales stock of Deathgrass CDs by now, and more CDs have gone out by mail to DJs and the like. Two stations are getting their CDs delivered personally. One CD went to England, to the “WriteLink” outfit that ran the “Can you write like Dylan?” contest we won in 2009; I wanted them to have a copy, so they could see what we’ve done with “No Good Songs About the War,” the song that won first prize in their contest. I have a short list of people to send CDs to, including Bobbie Gallup and “Tampa Stan” Good, who were co-writers on “Dead Things in the Shower” and “Un-Easy Street,” respectively. (They also get checks—small ones, because not many CDs were pressed—for their copyright royalties.)

I have one retail outlet selling the CDs thus far: Office Only in Wheeler has the CDs (and a “They’re Here!” poster). And I sold five, just the first day I started carting some around with me. (Traded five more for a little PA head, too. It needs speakers, though.)

It would be nice to do the CD Release Event on Saturday, June 4; the Bay City Arts Center is having an “Artist of the Month” reception 5-7 p.m., so we’d have a potentially captive audience. That’s about three weeks out, so there’d be time for publicity. Tommy at the radio station says it’s definitely possible to stream the concert—all it takes is WiFi in the building, and the Arts Center has that—and Tommy’s got that evening free, too. (It would be nice if the telephone company’s DSL lines were working for the occasion.) John and Charlie are in; still have to talk to “Doc” and Chris.

I ran into a musician at the Tsunami Grill (a drummer) who asked, “Are you Joe? People keep asking me if I know Joe.” Apparently I have a reputation now (though I’m not sure for what). I decided if anyone was going to ask me to sing, I would, so when they did, I did; they got “Pole Dancing for Jesus” (a consistent hit), “She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself” (co-host Aaron’s favorite), and “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” I don’t get to go there that often, but I think when I do, they’ll remember me. Bar owner got a CD—the bar has a CD player.

No music on Friday night at Garibaldi City Hall next two weeks because the hosts will be out of town; I’ll ask if The Impromptus would like to use that time for practice. Music still at the Library Saturday afternoons. I’ll miss the jam session at the Rainbow Lotus this week, I think (release party for the DVDs of the play I was in); I’d like the Lotus to be the Deathgrass Retail Outlet in Nehalem, if they’re willing, but I’ll have to go see them in person.

Joe