THE MID-YEAR REALITY CHECK...

Life gets interesting… I’m informed there are now three cities considering me (among other folks) as their interim city manager. I don’t know if any of them will decide on me, of course—perhaps none will—but it does feel good to have somebody consider me worth something. I may know in a week. Preferences? I have no preferences; in this job-hunting game, the rule is whoever gets me first, gets me. I would not have applied for those jobs if I weren’t prepared to take and keep every one of them.

It is almost July—time for the Mid-Year Reality Check. I assigned myself a Worklist at the beginning of the year. How well am I doing?

WRITING. Not as good as I’d like. I have three “keepers” in the first six months of 2011, which isn’t great—I like to see a song a month, on average. “Pole Dancing for Jesus,” “Selling Off My Body Parts,” and “Earwigs in the Eggplant” are all good; “Earwigs” is a deliberately Irish tune, so it’s part of the “explore different genres” program, too. I have not done any co-writes.

ALBUMS. The Deathgrass album is done—recorded, mastered, manufactured, and for sale. The Southern Pigfish album (also on the Worklist) is not. It’s more problematic, because all those songs are supposed to be videos; I have run into a potential videographer, though. I’ve talked about doing the Gospel album, but thus far, that’s just talk. There is no money.

MARKETING. I did get the CDBaby account (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/deathgrass), and have had a few sales of the Deathgrass album that way. Three retail outlets are selling the CD, too. No Joe Website yet. Never did a CD Release Event, either. Still haven’t managed to get any video footage either of me solo, or of Deathgrass in concert. I did acquire a portable DVD-rewritable drive, that can be switched back and forth between computers, but it’s not installed yet.

VIDEO. Two more music videos done, both of them good: “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” and “50 Ways to Cure the Depression.” I also have the soundtracks for a couple more videos. Took a video class starting in February to learn how to use a real video camera, and I’ve processed, titled and credited some film. Haven’t pushed the “fan-generated” Southern Pigfish video idea.

MORE (AND MORE PAYING) GIGS. Yes. I’ll be doing the Willamette Writers this summer (performing at one of their fund-raisers), and I’ve done Whitney Streed’s comedy club (and she’d like me back). Deathgrass has been offered two paying gigs thus far this summer (Wheeler Summerfest and the Rocktoberfest), plus Garibaldi Days (a freebie). And I’m playing with a second band, 45 Degrees North, that’s been getting gig offers (they are good).

STAYING IN TOUCH WITH EVERYBODY. I’m still having trouble doing that—and if I end up getting a job, it’ll be that much harder. I’ll get down to southern Oregon at least once this summer, though, for a Southern Oregon Songwriters concert—and like last year, I’ll be doing it in conjunction with Dan Doshier. Haven’t been back to McMinnville since my Lafayette job ended—and I don’t want those people to forget me.

THE WORLD TOUR. I still don’t know how to pull that off. It’s been suggested I could attend some of the Coventry Songwriters get-togethers in England via Skype, and I will try that for starters. The key, I think, is having enough fans around when you get Over There to make the trip worthwhile.

So, some measurable progress—for a change. That should make me redouble efforts to accomplish the rest of the Worklist.

THINGS THAT WEREN’T ON THE LIST. I’ve written two more sock-puppet plays, both with “theme songs,” and both got filmed. Playing with a second band, and they do different stuff (but we’re still playing some of my tunes). Found some more places to play (and expose my stuff to different audiences). And I’m in on the ground floor of formation of a local “writers’ guild” that I hope will be helpful.

Joe