OBSESSING ABOUT THE VIDEO...

I have over 150 photos taken with the “Twenty-Four Seven” video in mind, but I won’t use all of them. I continue to run into “photo opps” that are better than ones I’d taken before—having a camera on hand constantly, and keeping one’s eyes open, is a great habit to get into. With very few exceptions, I have my illustrations for most of the lines in the verses. The chorus is more problematic. The chorus happens four times, and I wanted the photos to be different each time.

“Twenty-four seven,” the opening line of the chorus, is one of the hardest to “picturate.” There’s only one 24-hour restaurant in Tillamook, and it doesn’t advertise the fact. (I did find one sign for it, though.) There are other things that are open all night, though: the hospital, the Sheriff’s Office… I’ll go there.

“You boggle my mind…” There is a kids’ game called “Boggle,” and I did find a copy in a store. The other three iterations of this line need to be something different, though. Are there signs that boggle the observer, for instance?

For “Any which way you slice it,” I have a couple of sales racks of knives and saw blades. A couple of deli signs should fill that out. I know an outfit that sells pizza by the slice, too.

No luck at all with “You’re my bottom line.” I wanted to get photos of some accountants’ front doors, but I haven’t found any. (I know they’re around. Probably hiding—accountants aren’t very popular in These Troubled Times.) May have to illustrate this with some outrageous sale signs instead.

“The cream in my coffee…” A coffee shop sign. Creamer. And a fridge magnet of a cat drinking coffee. One more, and we’re good.

“My moment of truth…” I’d wanted to use entertaining church readerboards, but there aren’t many churches with readerboards around here (and the ones there are aren’t particularly entertaining). Truth may have to take a different (and non-religious) form.

“If wishes were horses…” No horses, alas. I can substitute elk, though. And cows. There are lots of cows in Tillamook County. (In fact, one could do a whole video just of cows. I’ll have to try that. I wonder which song I should use?)

For “I’d marshal my forces,” I’d originally thought of chess sets—and I might still find one. Got a photograph of a group with shovels posing for a groundbreaking, though, and a painting of a convoy of warships at sea. And there are always cows-in-formation.

“And have a field day with you.” No shortage of fields around here (some even without cows), but that wasn’t really what I was after. I want signs. Golf courses, yard sales, perhaps; maybe some of those impromptu anniversary or birthday parties that seem to be rife on the Coast. And I suppose one could always use a field with cows for this.

It’s raining, which I hope is a good thing; the weatherpeople were predicting rain in Portland on Saturday, and we’re usually a day ahead of them on the Coast. With luck, the rain will be over for us by the weekend, and we’ll have nice weather for the Deathgrass Rocktoberfest concert.

The Mid-Atlantic Song Contest got their entry today—“Dead Things in the Shower.” So I did accomplish something. (Applied for a job, too.) I’ll go play music tonight at the Tsunami in Wheeler—I am still obsessed with strengthening my fingers for the gig. It’ll be a chance to practice some of the rock ‘n’ roll numbers on ‘em—to date, they haven’t heard any of those, and they are all rock musicians, after all.

Joe