CHRISTMAS LAST?

On Christmas Day, one should talk about Christmas, right? Nah. Everybody else is doing that. Here are some random music-related thoughts instead.

It was exciting to have “Spend the End of the World with Me” written in just a couple of days—made me feel I hadn’t lost my touch. It’s been performed, too, before a live audience, and they liked it. I’m accordingly hot to get it recorded and videoed, so I’ll feel comfortable about going on to something else.

Recording will be done on the Tascam; I can’t afford to professionally record everything, especially the stuff I’m pretty sure isn’t going anywhere. The “base” tracks I’ll do as usual, with me playing rhythm and a simple lead, and singing, then mixing that down and re-posting it as two tracks on the Tascam—leaving me two tracks for recording the other people (if they’re willing) doing the fancy stuff. I believe I have the ability now to record two instruments simultaneously, using the mixer for the inputs (I have a splitter I can use to rig up two sets of headphones); that’d be fun to try.

I could record the video for the song all in one location, I think, if I could get all the props together. I had assembled a list of desired props to hunt for—and then realized I either have or can find substitutes for all of them. I don’t even have to do “location” shooting of the band: I can use still shots of them, too. It would be nice to have somebody else to run the camera, though, for some of the shots—like the one where I toss a thrift-store globe through a basketball hoop and let it smash on the ground. (Still do need the thrift-store globe, and to borrow the use of someone’s basketball hoop for the occasion—but I have a work-around for that, too, if it doesn’t happen.)

Two more performances coming up. Wednesday, Dec. 28, I’ll be part of Whitney Streed’s “Weekly Recurring Humor Night” at the Tonic Lounge in Portland, and Saturday, Jan. 21, the Hoffman Center in Manzanita is having another talent show. Jane and I will do “The Abomination Two-Step” at the Hoffman, I think—some folks have actually requested it. Whitney’s people in Portland will get “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” plus “Dead Things in the Shower,” “The Abomination Two-Step,” and “Pole Dancing for Jesus.” Having “Dead Things” on the list will allow me to promote the Deathgrass album.

Spent Christmas Eve doing an application for a city-manager job I’m sure I’m not going to get. I got fed up enough with the headhunting outfit recruiting for the job to use my cover letter as an opportunity to lecture them, and the city that hired them, about what they’re doing. It’s too bad there are two days before I can put the stuff in the mail, because I keep having second thoughts about it. Am I burning bridges if I do this? Then again, the city in question has made it clear they don’t want to hire me anyway, and the headhunter outfit hasn’t called me for an interview in 18 years—ever, in fact. I’m not sure any bridges exist, even if I did want to burn them.

It would be fun to put together an album of end-of-the-world songs; I’d be real curious what other writer’s “take” is on Armageddon. (We’d need to have it out to market early, just in case.) The End of Everything has been predicted before—a lot, in fact—and it hasn’t happened yet, and it might not happen this December 21, either. But one of these times, the predictors are going to be right. Given those circumstances, what kind of advice would writers be giving people? What kind of advice should we give?

Joe