GETTING BACK TO NORMAL (WITH A ROBOTIC ELVIS)...

Are things getting back to normal? I hope so. (Then again, one is tempted to paraphrase Bill Clinton: “Define ‘normal’.”) Lazz has only a couple more accomplishments to learn before he can be a Real Computer, I’m finally getting some work done on the house, and every single one of the job applications outstanding is to be a city manager somewhere where I’m not only qualified, but someone knows me. (Of course, the “someone knows me” isn’t necessarily a good thing.) Two—ultimately three—new ones to apply for, too, with the same conditions (or limitations).

A video thought, with respect to “Pole Dancing for Jesus.” We start with one scantily-clad pole dancer, then two, then four, and so on. Chorus is sung by a few pewsful of a “congregation,” in their Sunday-go-to-meetin’ garb, with open hymnals. At (or somewhere in) the second verse, we switch—it’s the congregants acrobatting on the poles, and the chorus being sung by the scantily-clad pole dancers, in the pews with the hymnals. I can’t take credit for the idea—‘twasn’t mine—but it sure would be fun to do. Actually, the go-to-meetin’ folks wouldn’t be hard to enlist—I think absolutely everybody likes this song. Finding the pole dancers (and the poles) might be a little problematic. I’ve got a few dance enthusiasts I can talk to locally, though.

And I have run across a videographer. He’s young, but from what I’ve seen of his work, he’s very, very good. I’d like to turn him loose on “Born Again Barbie” if he’s interested, and see what he’d do with it. I’d scripted out a sort of stop-motion video a couple of years ago, working within the limitations of my old digital camera (so everything was actually still shots, and I relied on the camera’s zoom feature to create the illusion of movement)—but I wouldn’t want him to pay any attention to it. Allowing creative people to “do their own thing” with your raw material encourages the maximum amount of creativity.

I would want to re-record the song. Co-writer Scott Rose had recorded it originally, but I never had a good copy (and he said he’d lost his), and I never had it archived on Soundclick or ReverbNation, so now that “Alice” the ‘puter is dead, the old recording of “Born Again Barbie” is probably gone forever. It’d be good to record it with a real band, too (Deathgrass would be my first choice). I am insistent on doing this for no money, though, so I’m not sure what we’d use for studio facilities. I do know a few folks with home studios, but I don’t know how good they are at what they do.

In the Pushing the Envelope Department: Having done an art project that plays music for the Women’s Resource Center, it’d be fun to do another, more ambitious one. CART’M, this region’s combination transfer station/recycling center/thrift store (I think of it as what a dump would be like if it were run by hippies who were really serious about their principles), does a “Trash Art” exhibition every year; could I make something out of thrown-away (or throw-away-able) stuff that would not only play music, but be animated? That portable CD player I was going to use for my Shoe Project art piece never would play CDs, but its little motor does spin—and little motors like that can make things move. An animated robotic Elvis, perhaps, gyrating its hips as it sings “Test Tube Baby”? That’s another song it’d be nice to re-record—I really like how Deathgrass does it—but I do have the demo that was done in Nashville in 2007 at the Pineyfest songwriters conference. In a pinch, that’d work. Even has a saxophone in the mix.

Mercenary thought. (What? Aren’t we really doing all this stuff just because it’s fun and out of the kindness of my heart? Sure.) What I may be accomplishing with some of this stuff is expanding public awareness of my existence—exposing people in a bigger variety of “venues” to the music through forms they’re used to (even if they’re not what I’m used to). So we have a piece of artwork with shoes that plays a song, and—maybe—a robotic Elvis doing the same sort of thing. In addition to the playing music in all sorts of different places, like with the rockers at the Tsunami Grill and at the Talent Show in Manzanita. Part of that trying to become a household word. (“Toilet paper” is a household word. I haven’t even got that far yet.)

Joe