WELCOME...

This blog is the outgrowth of a songwriting workshop I conducted at the 2006 "Moograss" Bluegrass Festival in Tillamook, Oregon. It presumes that after 30-odd years of writing and playing music, I might have something to contribute that others might take advantage of. If not, it may be at least a record of an entertaining journey, and a list of mistakes others may be able to avoid repeating. This blog is intended to be updated weekly. In addition to discussions about WRITING, it will discuss PROMOTION--perhaps the biggest challenge for a writer today--as well as provide UPDATES on continuing PROJECTS, dates and venues for CONCERTS as they happen, how and where to get THE LATEST CD, the LINKS to sites where LATEST SONGS are posted, and a way to E-MAIL ME if you've a mind to. Not all these features will show up right away. Like songwriting itself, this is a work in progress. What isn't here now will be here eventually. Thank you for your interest and your support.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

ANOTHER WILD IDEA...

Got an interesting proposal today. There’s an artist—songwriter, perhaps—who’s putting out an album, and is asking for, well, investors. I could contribute anywhere from $1 to $750, and I’d get a sliding scale of goodies depending on the size of my contribution. For my dollar I’d get a free download of the single of my choice, for instance, and for the $750 she’d come do a concert at my house, bar, Legion Hall, or whatever. (That last is pretty attractive.) She’s trying to raise $8,000.

I like the idea. I’ve had people talk up such proposals before, but this is by far the best thought out. It is tempting to contribute a little bit, just to be able to keep track of how the process goes.

I could do this myself. I’ve talked about doing another album, but am painfully aware there is not the money to do it with. This would be a way to afford it.

Why would someone want to invest in me? Well, I’m not assuming they would; I would rather ask them to invest in The Cause. An entire album of Failed Economy songs, in other words, with half the proceeds after production costs going to the Garibaldi Food Pantry, Deathgrass’ adopted charity. People might be willing to invest in that. And I bet I could keep the costs way, way down.

The process? Pick the songs, first. On an album like this not all of them would be mine—but we can do (and have done) 2-hour shows of Failed Economy songs; we have quite a repertoire, these days. Assemble the band: I’d want to use Deathgrass, of course, but probably include a few extras—female backup vocals would be nice, and so would a fiddle and saxophone (not necessarily on every song, and not necessarily together). We practice—because we’re going to do the recording “Patsy Cline style,” live and (mostly) in one take; that’s the biggest money-saver in putting out a record. I design the cover and label and liner notes (no cost there) and I know which replicating service will give me the best deal (and be able to reproduce my artwork—not all of them can).

Because we’re doing this for The Cause, there are a few other beneficial things we can do. For the songs written by (or co-written with) others, we can ask for waivers of the copyright fees (that was suggested by a music publisher I know); with the requisite paperwork (which I can do) those become tax write-offs for the writers. Any discounts off regular price in the name of The Cause from any service we have to purchase are also tax write-offs for those parties. The more we can get the cost down, the more money can go to the Food Pantry—and not many people would have a problem with that.

And then we promote the heck out of the idea. Radio, newspapers, posters, e-mails and the rest of the Social Networking stuff—and at least one concert, too, to show folks what the product is going to be like. Yes, I’d do the goodies for the investors, too, but carefully—I’d want to make sure everybody who invested got a tax write-off (emphasis on helping The Cause), so their goodies couldn’t be worth as much as the amount of their investment. At the same time, we line up opportunities for sales of the record (and we have to do better than with the Deathgrass CD); if we “press” 1000 CDs (the maximum, I think, this market could take), it could generate upwards of $5,000 for the Food Pantry. We could always start off with less CDs (not trusting that market, with as poor as everyone is these days) and order more later.

Doable? I think so. And it would be a lot of fun. This winter?

Joe

Monday, November 28, 2011

WEBSITE THOUGHTS...

I have envisioned the Joe Website as primarily a repository for LINKS. I want a link to the blog, links to the Soundclick sites and to ReverbNation, a link to the videos on YouTube, a link to CDBaby for online CD sales, and to the three (out of four) Retail Outlets selling the CD that have Websites of their own. I want some specific “click here for…” links, too, that can change regularly: “click here” to play a song, “click here” to play a video, and so forth.

There are some “un-linky” things I want the Website to do on its own, if it can. I want something people can click to sign up for the mailing list (name and edress is all I need, just like we’ve asked for at gigs). I want a photo gallery—though I’m starting that from scratch, since all the photos that were on old “Alice” are inaccessible since “Alice” died. I want to post the latest gig announcement, whatever that is, with its poster (since it’s become traditional to do posters). Some talk—separate from the blog, I think—about whatever latest “project” is being worked on. Sounds simple (except for the photos, of course). And again, except for the photos, it should be able to be done all on one “page.”

Something on that “page” needs to change every week; I’m not sure what, but it needs to be obvious. People need to know that every Sunday (say), if they check in, there will be something obviously new there. That keeps the “customers” coming back. Inactivity is death. Like Stan Good’s song says, “If it ain’t movin’, it must be lunch.”

There are a number of outfits (including my phone company) that offer free Web hosting on a small scale (and small scale is all I need). I’ve signed up at one (wix.com)—had to start somewhere. I will need to invest in a domain name, and need to put some thought into what that should be. A few years ago, I got given the domain name ”nakedspacehamsters.com” as a birthday present by Sharma Kay, but never used it (I did adopt the name for the blog, though—it’s “nakedspacehamsters.blogspot.com”). I probably want something more professional-sounding for the Website.

And what exactly am I advertising? Me? Deathgrass? Outside Services Ltd.? And if it’s me, which me? I do—or can do—rather a lot of things. Aside from having had a professional career before the economy disintegrated, I write—not just songs but plays and journalistic stuff, too, and I do graphic design work. (I have occasional visions of regaining that professional career, too.) Do I make things too confusing (or present myself as too schizophrenic) if I try to include all that stuff?

Got the computers looked at at Backscratcherz; “Justin” has to go back to the Dell shop (and the Dell shop folks told they didn’t fix the problem, whatever it was), the little HP laptop will get outfitted with Windows XP so it can be a square dance calling machine, and the Compaq got a replacement CD-rewritable drive (which I had on hand—I collect computer parts) that should render it finally usable. The Compaq needs a name—they all need names; I think I will call him “Luke.” Like his namesake, he could be a real Jedi someday, but right now he’s a little slim in the brains department. As Yoda said in “Sleeping Piggy”: “Post smarter.”

I sit down with the Mystery Songwriter tomorrow and find out who he is and why he considers my input important—and Wednesday I’ll pick up the New Family Marimba on my trip to Portland. As presently organizing, the marimba band has five members, and might get a sixth. We might be in a position to play concerts next summer. (And yes, I know at least one country-music song that can be played on marimbas. They ain’t just for that foreign music any more.)

Joe

Saturday, November 26, 2011

2ND STREET MARKET POST-MORTEM (&C.)...

Leftovers Day show was good. Small crowd, but I knew most of them (and also knew where they’d heard about the show). Near as I could tell, they liked all the songs. “Bluebird on My Windshield” was an obvious favorite; so were “The Abomination Two-Step” and (of course) “Pole Dancing for Jesus.” “Hank’s Song” made ‘em think (good), and they liked “The Occupation Song,” which continues to surprise me—I’m not that happy with it, but it’s the audience’s opinion that counts, not mine.

Jane’s electric fiddle was great (as was Jane); we used Ken’s big amp—which is also a 3-channel—instead of the Arts Center’s. Could have used an additional song in the set (too many of the songs were short ones); overall we were just about five minutes short. (The 2nd Street Market didn’t mind—they were closing down as we were packing up.)

Next up: solo gig at the Thirsty Lion in Old Town Portland on Tuesday, Dec. 6. 25 minutes of Christmas songs. I have six of those—if I can re-learn the chords to “Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire.” The sheet music for Mel Torme’s original is insanely complicated, and full of fruity jazz chords, and I know I didn’t do it that way. Mine is country music, with just enough of a riff to suggest I’m aware Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song” exists, and I know how to play it (which I don’t, of course—that’s why I wrote new music).

“Justin” the big computer’s still not working—I should have insisted on proof the repair job was successful before paying the shop in Portland. I can take it back—and I’d have time to do that next Wednesday, when I go to Portland for caller lessons and to pick up the marimba. I do worry I’d be throwing good money after bad, but don’t know how to avoid it. I don’t have a clue how “Justin” is built—everything in that gigantic case is different from what I’m used to—and I’m not sure there’s anyone on the Coast who can work on it now that the techie who reportedly built it has been hauled off to jail. I have a feeling “Lazarus” the laptop is going to be the main computer for a while.

I need to record “The Occupation Song” because people keep asking for it (a good sign). I would like to include on the recording at least mandolin and standup bass (the Crazed Weasels) and fiddle (Jane), but I could do a full-blown production with trumpet, lead guitar, keyboard, and harmonica—I know people who can play all those things really well, and I can mix it in Audacity like I did with “Blue Krishna.”

I might not even have to record each instrument separately—I think I have adapters that’d let me hook up two or maybe even four sets of headphones (if I can get them) so multiple people could play at the same time. My mix—reminiscent of the choreography done on the old Porter Wagoner Show, where they had only one mike on stage and were taping the show live—would have to be perfect, though. The trade-off is if I have to record each instrument separately it will take a lot longer—and I hate to waste anybody’s time. I’m pretty good (if I keep practicing with the Tascam and computer)—but am I that good?

The video is what I expect will be the biggest challenge (and I do like challenges—it’s what got me into city-management work in the first place), because I can’t include any footage of any “Occupy” encampments. The one in Portland is broken up and dispersed and all the others are too far away. I’ll have to make do with (1) footage of where the Portland encampment used to be (it’s still fenced off because it still looks a mess), (2) footage of the little weekly “Occupy Manzanita” demonstration (I’ll have to catch them during the half-hour or so per week that they’re demonstrating), (3) footage of the musicians as they’re being recorded playing the song, and (4) footage of the places mentioned in the song—a coffee shop, a bakery, a library, a restroom, and so forth. I do have all of those immediately to hand.

Rapture Room Sunday night. Meeting a local songwriter Tuesday to listen to something he’s written (I’ll get to find out in the process how he knows me and why he considers my opinion important). Thursday night at the Tsunami, next Saturday at the library. Friday, I’ll skip music in Garibaldi and go to the play instead.

Joe

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

HAPPY THANKSGIVING...

Breaking news, first: I’ve been asked to play Eric John Kaiser’s Songwriters Showcase at the Thirsty Lion Pub in downtown Portland, Tuesday Dec. 6. They want Christmas songs (it’s St. Nicholas’ Day), and at this point I can give them five:

I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas—slow & sleazy
Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up—fast bluegrass
Christmas Roadkill—slow two-step
Another Crappy Christmas (Don Varnell)—fast quasi-pop
I Want a Man for Christmas—rock ‘n’ roll

I need one more longer one or two short ones to fill out my 25-minute set. I haven’t written a Christmas song this year, and don’t know if I’ll have one in time—the gig is only 13 days away. In a pinch, I can include “Pole Dancing for Jesus”—I know that one’s popular—and/or “The Occupation Song” (if the “Occupy Portland” campaign is still viable then). I’ll have to do the “Man” song a little differently, of course; rock ‘n’ roll isn’t something one can play solo—it takes a band. I’m sure it’ll come out country.

(I do have one more Christmas song, come to think of it—“Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire,” co-written with daughter a few years back. I’d have to re-learn how to play it; I don’t remember some of the chords. It is real short—one verse, break, repeat the verse—typical 1940s jazz stuff.)

And the next day—Wednesday, Dec. 7—I’m scheduled to go to my first square-dance caller session. Those will be every Wednesday evening (I can see I’ll be doing a lot of goin’-to-Portland this winter). It’d be nice to book a performance at Whitney Streed’s “Recurring Humor Night” on one of those Wednesdays; her show is late, and my class’ll be early. And again, if it’s in December, I can do all them Christmas songs. In both cases, it’d be nice to sell some CDs—though I have never managed to sell enough on any of my treks to Portland to pay for the trip.

To date, I have gotten rid of precisely one-third of the Deathgrass CDs I had pressed; about half, I think, have been sold or are for sale at retail outlets, and the rest I have given away for one reason or another. It’s not a great sales record. But maybe I shouldn’t be worrying about it.

Years ago, when the Dodson Drifters had singles that got radio airplay (and there were only two of those), we never focused on—or planned on—selling any records. That wasn’t the point behind getting on the radio. It was publicity, pure and simple: if the station DJ liked the record (and they seemed to do that), they’d play it a lot, and with luck, people would come to our concerts (we never seemed to have a problem there, either). We didn’t make records to sell, we made them to give to radio station DJs. Of course we didn’t have the distribution network the record companies had, and we knew we couldn’t compete on that playing field. We also didn’t care. As a regionally famous performing band, we were after more and bigger gigs with bigger crowds, because that was where we made our money.

So why all the focus on selling records today? Sure, that’s what the record companies do, and the cheapening of technology makes it easy for people like me to do it on a small scale—but is that a good reason to do it? Record companies until recently didn’t have the ability to make money any other way—but notice that recently record companies have been demanding a cut of “their” artists’ gate fees and merchandise sales, as sales of their (generally overpriced) records have declined. Maybe one should forget about selling the things (except at gigs, of course) and treat them simply as promotional tools, just like years ago—a device for getting more butts in seats. If one is small-scale (and I definitely am), butts in seats is the bottom line. Just like years ago.

Leftovers Day show Friday, music at the Rapture Room on Sunday. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

Joe

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

ABOUT THAT DIGITAL REVOLUTION...

Good news, maybe, from one of the cities where I’ve applied for the manager job. I’m in Tier Two (those are the people who will be considered if the Tier Ones—the people they really want to interview—don’t work out)—and the Tier One candidates mostly haven’t worked out for one reason or another. So I may hear something soon. Or not. I still haven’t applied for any more city manager jobs. I figure there’s no point. I will concentrate on doing something else.

One evening’s practice with Jane, and we’re ready for the Leftovers Day show, I think. One substitution on the setlist (“Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” instead of “Take-Out Food”), and we’ll do the “Christmas Roadkill” song in its original key of C. The Arts Center’s 3-channel piano amp will work for a PA; my task between now and Leftovers Day is to see if I can make my little guitar amp function as a monitor. We will need one so we can hear ourselves. I still could use some finger-strengthening opportunities, but don’t think there will be any between now and then. No Tsunami Grill this week—Thursday night is, like, Thanksgiving, to be spent with family and a turkey (or in my case, a fish).

A suggestion from Tunecore—another one of the music marketing Websites I subscribed to but never did anything with—that what’s happening in the Digital Revolution is the elimination of the gatekeepers, the people who stand between you-the-artist (or writer) and that theoretical mob of people out there who want to buy what you’ve got. I’m not sure I agree.

A lot of those folks provide services rather than restricting access; your publisher, for example, is the musical equivalent of the real estate agent, peddling your material on his own nickel to somebody who’ll buy it, in exchange for a percentage. They were filters, spotting talent and exposing it to people who could make money off it (and in the process make money for the “talent”). Those folks have been rendered not so much irrelevant, as less profitable, not by the Digital Revolution but by the refusal of the big record companies to accept any outside material. One can argue that the Digital Revolution exists in part because people closed off by the record companies from any access to the record companies were forced to devise an alternative way to get their material to market.

And the New Business Model, whatever form it takes, is going to need filters, too. Right now, we can get our material directly to the public, thanks to that Digital Revolution, but we can’t reach very many people. The consumer has trouble finding good material because there’s a cacophony out there. I’ve likened it to searching for diamonds in a sewer plant; you know they’re out there, but you have to sift through a lot of sewage to find them. We need Digital Revolution versions of Alan Freed, Bill Graham, Colonel Potter, and the like. And there needs to be a way for them to make money so that us-the-talent can make money. That, like Madonna said, may be performance. The record labels don’t control that. They also don’t control the Internet—but that’s so anarchic it may be useful primarily for exposure.

Could I do that? (I’m still trying to find a niche in the music business.) Not yet; I know how it works, I think, and I can produce: I can put lyricists together with composers, and singers, and musicians, and recording studios, and the graphic designers (one of which is me), and I know how and where to get CDs and other “merch” manufactured inexpensively. The marketing? Not so much: that depends on contacts, and I do not know—yet—enough people who could do an independent writer or artist any good. I am at present just another of that cacophony of voices clamoring for attention.

Joe

Saturday, November 19, 2011

RELAY FOR LIFE SUMMIT (&C.)...

All in all, a good trip to Portland. I got a lot of encouragement from the employment consultant, and new leads to follow. “Justin” the big desktop PC got fixed (bought him a keyboard as a “welcome back” present). Got new business-card software, T-shirt transfers, and T-shirts. Got to look over the square dance caller’s equipment—I think I have a lot of what the “job” requires—and he’s interested in teaching me! (He’s teaching another caller-wannabe, too.) We’ll get together after Thanksgiving week.

And the Relay for Life summit was both productive and interesting. Lot of rah-rah, which isn’t at all bad; I’m fascinated by what motivates people, and these folks are both motivated and motivating. It’s not the fund-raising, I think (though they do raise millions for the American Cancer Society in the process); rather, they’re a gigantic mutual support group for those who either have had or have cancer themselves or know someone who has and had to deal with it. It’s a nasty experience by all accounts, and treatment (which is sometimes successful, and sometimes not) is as nasty and debilitating as the disease itself. For those who’ve lost somebody to cancer, the loud, positive, occasionally outrageous, and very, very active Relay is a way to heal; for those who have survived, it’s a way to celebrate.

I guess I fit in there, too, after a fashion. Dick Ackerman, who was both a close friend and neighbor and one of the best blues harp players it’s been my good fortune to know, died from cancer; after months of painful and exhausting chemotherapies he’d been pronounced cured—but I don’t think he was, and I think he knew it. He died a year later while on a cross-country RV trip with his wife—something they hadn’t done in a while. I think I knew it was going to happen, too. I wrote “Crosses by the Roadside,” my kaddish for his wife, months before Dick went on his last ride. (I hate being prophetic.) “Everybody’s got a story,” I was told over and over again at the summit. That one’s mine.

I was there as the Entertainment Chair for the Tillamook County Relay for Life, and I did pick up a number of good ideas I think we can implement. (“Cowpie bingo” is real popular in some places, for instance—it was one of the main events at the Union County Fair when I lived in Union—and we could definitely do that here. We have lots of cows.) Visiting other Relay events to see how other people do things was recommended, and I would like to do that; none of those will happen before summer, though, and by then preparations for our own Relay will be mostly complete.

It occurred to me as I was driving to Portland that job-wise I may actually have gotten what I wanted (a little belatedly, of course). When I quit the City of Garibaldi in 2004, I really wanted to get out of city-manager work. I kept doing it because having done it for 11 years, I couldn’t seem to get interviewed for anything else. That’s changed now. Some of the major recruiters have been on a campaign to “raise standards” by requiring a bachelor’s or (better) master’s degree in “public administration,” and to the extent their campaign’s been successful, it leaves me out—I’m simply a computer programmer with 17 years’ experience as a city manager, and I don’t get called for interviews any more. But isn’t that what I was asking for—to get out of city-manager work? True, I wanted it earlier than now, and I really did want to have a replacement job doing something else. I think what I’m being told is to focus my job-searching on something else. I’ll do that.

Music at the Rapture Room Sunday (meeting with the marimba band, too). Practice Monday night for the Leftovers Day show on Friday. Gonna be busy.

Joe

Monday, November 14, 2011

LEFTOVERS DAY SETLIST...

Setlist is done for the Leftovers Day show. We have:

SET ONE (11 songs):
Pole Dancing for Jesus—slow & sleazy Gospel
Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up—fast bluegrass
Hank’s Song—deliberate two-step
Welcome to Hebo Waltz—fast waltz
Hey, Little Chicken—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus—mod. tempo Gospel
The Occupation Song—ragtime
Tillamook Railroad Blues—deliberate blues
Santa, Baby (Javits, Springer & Springer)—slow, sleazy quasi-jazz
Abomination Two-Step—fast polka
Take-out Food (Stan Good)—slow, sleazy quasi-blues

SET TWO (10 songs):
I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas—slow & sleazy
Dead Things in the Shower—fast two-step
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Rotten Candy—fast Gospel
Christmas Roadkill—slow two-step
Bluebird on My Windshield—fast bluegrass
Always Pet the Dogs—slow two-step
Naked Space Hamsters in Love—fast bluegrass
Writer’s Block Blues—slow & sleazy
Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy

Second set is all love songs (defining “love” loosely, as usual). Still have two Christmas songs, plus three dead dogs, a dead cat, dead bird, dead armadillos (who were in love), and unspecified dead things by the side of the road. Love and dead things seem to go together, I guess.

First set’s got two Christmas songs, too—one of them my one and only cover, “Santa, Baby,” the oh-so-sleazy Javits/Springer/Springer song that Eartha Kitt made famous. It was my most-requested song a couple of Christmases ago, and people started requesting it again last week. The two local-color songs, three “religious” numbers, two about food (one with dead animals) since it’s Leftovers Day, “The Occupation Song” for social commentary and “Hank’s Song” just for fun.

Overall, the setlist tries to show off the fiddle—Jane is a great fiddle player. Some of the songs I’ll be doing in a different key than usual to give the fiddle more range (and a couple of them I’ve found are actually easier to sing in the “new” key). Next step: setlist CDs (I need to re-record four of the songs in the “new” key and record two more from scratch), and the Rap. Need to arrange to borrow amplification for the occasion, and need to get photos for the poster. (Must have a poster.) And we should invest an evening or two before the gig to practice.

Elsewhere: the “Jedi Pigs of Oz” script is done with revisions and it’s okay; got the theme song to record, too. I’m not sure when we get to perform it—maybe not until January. News stories to cover this week for the paper; square dance classes to help arrange; Friday’s the big trip to Portland, and it looks like I’ll have to go the long way ‘round to avoid the snow. Applied for yet another job—and since this one’s Something Completely Different, I’m sure that if they reject me it won’t be for the usual reasons.

Joe

Sunday, November 13, 2011

VIGNETTES...

The truck has brakes now. Considering how they feel (the stopping, and all), I don’t think it really did before (with a standard transmission, it’s not like you use the brakes much). The brake job cost so much money I’m probably committed to keeping the truck for a much longer time than I’d planned.

I didn’t make it to Manzanita for their little weekly “Occupy” demonstration (gotta watch that gas expense, now), but I still might be able to get footage of the “Occupy Portland” encampment. I understand it’s still in business, after some 5,000 people (a lot of them with cameras) showed up Saturday night, along with all four TV stations, to film the presumably-gonna-be-violent “eviction” from the Portland Park Blocks, the forcible dispersal didn’t happen. If the encampment’s still there next weekend I’ll go by.

Sent my submission off to the new Manzanita literary magazine, The North Coast Squid (squid generate ink—hence the title). Had to be poetry; they were accepting prose, poetry, and photography, but my non-work related prose (like the plays) is all too wordy for a literary magazine, and my photography, while occasionally pretty (it did get exhibited at a couple of art shows), is really nothing special (nobody ever bought any of ‘em). Sent the Squid “The Cat with the Strat,” my only real poetic effort in several years (2006), and we’ll see what they do with it. Not a contest per se (though getting published could be characterized as “winning”)—it’s just part of the effort to become a household word.

The big Relay for Life “summit” was seeking donations for a silent auction next Saturday, so they’ll get a copy of the Deathgrass album. I’ll do that for the Bay City Arts Center’s big fundraiser in December, too (where the album might actually get some attention because people in this area know me).

I could include a Deathgrass T-shirt, too—that’d make the prize seem really special. I don’t have the design on computer any more—it’s one of the things lost when “Alice” the ‘puter’s hard drive failed—but I do have a printout, and it will copy onto T-shirt transfer material. (Ought to scan it while I’m at it so the design is preserved electronically.)

Roughly 10 days in which to assemble the Leftovers Day setlist, record a setlist CD, and practice. (I lose two days next weekend with the trip to Portland.)

How do I put together setlists? Or the past couple years I’ve been able to just refer to old setlists, but I can’t do that now—those were all on Álice” the ‘puter’s hard drive, and are lost now. Have to start from scratch. “Envisioning,” first: I imagine what the hall will be like, and what kind of people will be there, both those I know and those I don’t, and I guess what kinds of stuff they’re going to be interested in hearing.

I have certain “defaults” I can work with. Leftovers Day (aka Black Friday) is the traditional kickoff for the Christmas Shopping Season, so we’ll want to do Christmas songs; I have four—six if I dare to include “I Want a Man for Christmas,” which really shouldn’t be sung by a guy, and my rendition of “Santa Baby,” which was my most-requested song a couple of Christmases ago (a cover song is okay here, I think, since we’re not being paid). Food songs? (It is Leftovers Day, after all.) I’ve got three of those, including Stan Good’s “Take-Out Food.” Local color is probably important; we could do the “Welcome to Hebo Waltz” and “Tillamook Railroad Blues.” For the rest, I’ve got lots of love songs (defining “love” loosely, of course) and some “religious” ones, too.

And then we mix ‘em up. Start with an attention-getter—that’s an application of Pete Seeger’s rule: get the audience’s attention with the first song, hold it with the next, and after that, you own them and can do what you want. “Pole Dancing for Jesus,” I think. After that, something faster—“Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up,” perhaps. I usually alternate faster and slower tunes, sometimes mixing in different styles and keys. The basic rule is two songs next to each other should never sound alike. Lots of room for lead breaks, ‘cause Jane is a tremendous fiddler and we should strut her stuff.

Music tonight at the Rapture Room. I can talk to folks about “The Occupation Song” recording and video (they all should be there this time), maybe set something up for the next two weeks. Can I get a Leftovers Day setlist done too?

Joe

Thursday, November 10, 2011

SQUARE DANCE CALLING? (&C.)

Trip to Portland next Friday; bunch of “next time I’m in town” stuff to do. The big Dell desktop still needs to go to a Dell repair place (if they want to charge too much money, though, I’ll either postpone doing something or do it myself). There’s an employment consultant I promised to visit, and I’ve got to go by a music store. I’ll be in Portland because the next day (Saturday) is a big Relay for Life meeting there (and as the local entertainment chairman I need to be at the meeting). I’ll have the guitar with me because y’never know—and I feel naked without it, anyway. I had wanted to swing by the Occupy Portland encampment, to get some footage for “The Occupation Song” video, but I understand the encampment is going to be forcibly dispersed about a week before I get there. (I won’t be able to get footage of the dispersal, either. Too bad.)

That Friday night I will visit a square dance caller in Portland as he’s setting up his equipment, and pick his brain about what he uses and how. “Calling” is something else I want to do; I may already have some of the necessary equipment, and I’m partway there experience-wise—I can perform (been on the band side, I have), and can square dance pretty well myself. Most square dance callers have a really good line of “patter,” and that’s something I do with the Raps when I’m on stage. The best callers seem to be good standup comedians—and I’ve done that, too.

No, it’s not something anyone makes a living at; it’s just something else I can add to the “pin money” repertoire along with musician, playwright, actor, concert promoter and so on. None of those things make money either. I like filling holes—that’s something I do as a lead guitarist—and there’s a definite hole here crying to be filled. There are virtually no callers on the Coast; square dance clubs (like the one I belong to) have to import callers from Portland, a 2-or-more-hour drive on regularly dangerous roads, and it costs money. A caller resident on the Coast might end up being in demand. And there’s some sentiment among some of our local square dancers to help me in this effort somehow (I’m not sure what form that “somehow” might take).

Over the past year I’ve acquired a few new “jobs” (have to use the term loosely because they’re all unpaid): I’m now secretary of the square dance club (right after they voted to disband a couple of months from now—of course that could change) and I’m the entertainment chairman/recruiter for both the Tillamook County Relay for Life Campaign and for Garibaldi Days. All stuff I can do—and all part of becoming a household word, which was one of the 2011 Worklist items (it was on the 2010 Worklist, too). The goal, I think, is to reach the household-word status of, say, toilet paper: that’s a household word people actually pay money for. I have a ways to go before I hit that point.

Organizing the setlist for the Leftovers Day gig (Friday Nov. 25, the day after Thanksgiving); I do have a partner—Jane Dunkin on fiddle (yay!). Since it will finally be Christmas Season I can play the Christmas songs—all five of them:

I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas (the classic)—slow & sleazy
Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up—fast bluegrass
Christmas Roadkill—slow two-step
I Want a Man for Christmas—rock ‘n’ roll
Another Crappy Christmas (Don Varnell)—sleazy pop

That’s only 20 minutes of a 2-hour show, though. It would be fun (not to mention unexpected) to do a whole set of Yuletide material, all (or most) of it in the “dead dog” or “Santa’s Fallen” vein. All either original, traditional, or by other unknowns, of course, pursuant to the Usual Rules. I wonder if that’s possible? I didn’t have a lot of luck assembling material for that aborted Train Set; I did get a lot of stuff, but I couldn’t sing and/or play most of it. I am seeing Christmasy lyrics show up on the various writers’ sites, however, and some of them may bear musicating. I’d better get my recording capability down, so it doesn’t take much time to produce something. Still need to record “The Occupation Song,” and also the theme song for the “Jedi Pigs of Oz” puppet show.

Joe

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

"JEDI PIGS OF OZ"...

Draft script for the Wizard of Oz puppet show is done. Tentative title: “JEDI PIGS OF OZ.” With our all-pigs, all-Star Wars characters cast: Princess Leah as the girl, Luke as the Zombie Scarecrow (who needs a brain), Darth Vader as the Tin Man, Chewy as the Cowardly Wookie, Hansolo as the Great and Powerful Wizard, and Yoda as the Wicked Witch of the West. One new character: sassy Glyn the Good Witch, who’s trapped inside a balloon and can’t get out. (So we can use a balloon and Karen doesn’t have to create a new puppet.)

I was asked, “Did you really write this in just a couple of days?” No; it was less than one, actually—but I’d gone to bed the last few nights thinking about dialogue, and I suppose that counts, too. The script is out for peer review now, and we’ll see if that results in any changes. It’s a longer play than ones we’ve done previously—The Wizard of Oz was a full-length novel (and movie), after all, not just a fairy tale—but not a lot longer. I get to rely a lot on cultural shorthand: people know How The Story Goes, so it’s possible to skip or gloss over parts with no one noticing. (No Munchkins in this play, for instance; no talking trees, field of poppies or helpful mice—and the Flying Monkey (just one) doesn’t fly.)

Our puppeteers don’t have to worry too much about having their lines down exactly, because we’ll have the script posted on the backside of the stage (where we can see it). The main thing we have to wrestle with is getting the moves down; there will be three of us behind the stage, each with a very limited field of movement.

I will still need about a minute’s worth of music by the sock-puppet band for the ending credits; having a song has become traditional now (since it’s been done in the last two puppet shows). I have the first verse down, I think, but will need more. When the band performs, Darth usually ends up being the drum, with Chewy beating on his helmet with a drumstick—but in this play, by the end of the play Princess Leah is wearing Darth’s helmet. Should Leah be the drum instead—and Darth do the lead vocal? That could be interesting; Darth “speaks” through a megaphone (to get that James Earl Jones voice) and singing like that could sound very much like William Shatner doing pop music.

(And this time I’ll record an instrumental version, too, that I can extract from for the opening title and credits. Last time, I backed the opening credits with a clip from Southern Pigfish’s “Darth Vader Blues,” which was the only instrumental I had.)

We could maybe perform the play the weekend of December 10; the Arts Center is free then (but that could change—December is getting a little busy). Failing that, it’ll be January. And of course we’ll film and YouTube it; we’ve got this routine pretty much down, now.

Open Mike at the Arts Center was good. Had just enough performers to feel right, Jim running sound and me being host (and we both got to perform, too). I thought the audience was small, but they did eat most of eight dozen cookies so I guess it wasn’t that small. And a big jam session afterwards. Had a toddler who was out on the floor dancing to Jane’s and my rendition of “Pole Dancing for Jesus,” and I’ll have to see how much of it got caught on video. Just the toddler alone would make a tremendous video backdrop for the song. (And she definitely stole the show.)

So one project (the play script) kinda done. I haven’t talked to the musicians I want for “The Occupation Song” video (most of them weren’t at the Rapture Room jam Sunday night) but I can still record the “base” rhythm guitar and vocal track Thursday at the Arts Center. I’ll just have to approach it the way I did the “Twenty-Four Seven” video—keep the equipment with me and as opportunities happen, grab them.

Joe

Sunday, November 6, 2011

MUSIC VIDEO OF "THE OCCUPATION SONG"?

People seem to like “The Occupation Song”—I played it at both the Tillamook Library and the Bay City Arts Center Open Mike, and it got a good response both times. Guess it’s time to record it. Folks at the library wanted me to make a music video of it, and that’s possible to do, too.

I always want to incorporate new techniques into each new video and this one’s no exception. This time I want to try a variation on the “green screen” technique I saw used in a video of one of Gene Burnett’s songs. The traditional use of the “green screen” is to insert footage of one thing (a singer, say, or band) into footage of something else—but what if you don’t have that kind of technology or technological expertise on hand? What I saw done in the Gene video was a frank overlay—of one film over another. Real impressive. I could take that a little further, and have the two films fade in and out at different times.

We do the recording first; the song drives the video, not vice versa. I think I could film me with a Webcam doing rhythm guitar and vocals (it’d be the first time I’ve done that), extract the audio track from the film and use that as the “base” track on the Tascam onto which I’d pile other instruments. What other instruments probably depends on which of the musicians I know are interested in participating—but I know a fiddle player, a mandolin player, bass player, musical saw player and a few others I’d like to ask. Since the Tascam is portable they wouldn’t have to be together in the same place or at the same time—I can take my mike and my one set of headphones and the laptop to wherever they are, record one track at a time and load it into Audacity (where I’ll end up doing the mixing if there are more than four tracks). I expect I’ll want to add the Electric Banjo, since the banjo is such a great Depression-sounding instrument (and it wouldn’t have to be me playing it—I found out last night I know a real banjo player and I bet I could enlist him).

And while the instrumentalists are being recorded I’ll film each of them playing, on my little digital camera. Probably just little snatches of film that I’ll insert into appropriate points later—I particularly want to focus on the musicians during the two lead breaks. Might could catch a film of some of them playing together that I could use part of, too.

The singer, instrumentalists and “band” are one of the video tracks. For the other, we want stuff: inside and outside footage of a coffee shop, a bakery, and a library (all mentioned in the song), and shots of a porta-potty with a door sign that says “Occupied” (they don’t all say that). I want footage of the little “Occupy Tillamook” and “Occupy Manzanita” demonstrations that have been happening weekly. I’d like to film the big (and semi-permanent) “Occupy Portland” encampment, but that entails going to Portland, and I don’t have an excuse to do so until the 19th (for a Relay for Life meeting). And finally, we spend some time mixing and matching and overlaying, and deciding whether to do this on a Mac or a PC (I have the latter, and have access to the former—they use different software for the video work, and the output looks slightly different, too).

I’ll see some—not all—of the musicians I want to invite at the Rapture Room tonight; the others I can call. I think this is one of those “time-sensitive” projects that probably has to be put out right away in order to have an impact. And I needed something new to work on, anyway. This’ll be fun.

Joe

Friday, November 4, 2011

A GIG, A PLAY, AND AN INSIGHT (OF SORTS)...

A gig! Well, sort of: the 2nd Street Market called, wanting me to play one of two dates the end of November (I picked Friday Nov. 25, the day after Thanksgiving). Nice that they called, wanting me—I much prefer that to me soliciting them. 2-hour show; unpaid, of course (the Market has no money, and won’t for a while). I can do two hours easily on my own, but like I told them, I’d rather have company, and I’ll enlist some if I can. That’ll affect what I (or we) play, but not much. They have a nice stage, but no sound. I don’t have a PA system myself, but I may know where I can borrow one for the occasion—like I’ve said before, I do know some people.

I have finished a draft plot layout for a new play with the “Pig Wars” sock-puppet troupe. I think we could pull off The Wizard of Oz (actually, a very sick and twisted variation thereof). The junior high school’s after-school drama program is doing The Wizard of Oz this year, and we might be able to attract some attention to their play by doing one of our own in the same vein.

I know we only need six main actors for the play, because the Southern Pigfish song “Bedpans for Brains,” which is written to be sung by the Wizard cast, has only six verses—one for each character (the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Lion, the Witch, Dorothy, and the Wizard). We have six sock puppets, too—just have to fit them into appropriate roles.

We could have Princess Leah as Dorothy (the only overtly female role), Yoda as the Wicked Witch (he’s green), Darth Vader as the Tin Man (of course), Chewy as the Cowardly Wookie; Luke could be the Scarecrow (he needs a brain) and Hansolo, who knows it all, can be the Great And Powerful Wizard. We’ll need one additional character, I think—Glyn the Good Witch, who in the movie always shows up in a bubble; in our case she’ll never be able to get out of the bubble, so no one will see her. Don’t need a Toto—Chewy can do that duty (and the “he’s not a dog—he’s a Wookie” can be one of the running jokes). We’ll see what others think.

After a difficult week assembling material for the newspaper column, I’m back to having plenty of stuff in advance: I know what I’m going to write four days before I have to write it. I prefer it that way. Next step (I hope): some news stories for the paper—though I’ve been told I’ll need to file them immediately. Again, if I work at it I can probably have a good idea what I’m going to be writing before it happens.

A reporter for the Washington Times characterized the Occupy Wall Street (and Other Places) people as "idiot lights." It’s an apt description—and no, he wasn’t saying the Occupy people were idiots. “Idiot lights” are the warning lights you'll sometimes get in your car, saying things like "Check Engine." The idiot lights do not fix the problem; they do not tell you how to fix the problem. Sometimes they don’t even tell you precisely what the problem is. They simply signal you that a problem exists and will get worse if you do nothing. The fact that when you ask 20 “Occupiers” what’s upsetting them you get 20 different answers, some of them really off-the-wall liberal answers, is irrelevant; what’s important is not why they’re there, but that they’re there and there are so many of them. They’re warning lights. And—perhaps expectably—nothing is being done about them. In the last Depression, nothing changed even after demonstrators started getting killed, and that could happen again.

Two days till the Open Mike at the Arts Center. I assume I’m the host, since I haven’t heard from Jim, who’s the normal host. I also don’t know who’s coming, or how many are coming. Hopefully some do—I plan on baking a lot of cookies.

Joe

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

THE GOODNIGHT KISS CONTEST...

Well, they lied. Broadjam, that is. The pitch was if you signed up for their “Free Mini-MoB” account, you could upload a video for the Goodnight Kiss Music Contest. (The contest would still charge an entry fee, of course.) Alas, ‘tain’t so. I am told I am not “allowed” to upload any videos until and unless I sign up for Broadjam’s not-free ($5-a-month) regular membership, and on my non-existent salary, I am not doing that. (And I hate bait-and-switch tactics. I will not participate in them.)

The alternative is to snail-mail it. I could do that—the old H-P laptop will burn DVDs (one of its few skills)—but I’d have to drive somewhere and purchase a blank recordable DVD, and suddenly the cost of entering a contest I expect to have little hope of winning just went up. I’m better off just sending them a couple of songs, instead of a song and a video. I was going to send the songs by snail-mail anyway, and I have the blank CDs for that—I buy them in quantity.

I expect there will be other video opportunities. I would like the opportunities to be free or nearly free: I am in my infancy as a videographer, and the things I’ve uploaded to YouTube are really experiments—each one I’ve done has incorporated some new technique I’ve learned—on which I am primarily after feedback and input. And it’s not like any of these have “gone viral”; the most popular of them has gotten less than 300 “views” since it was posted back in January, so at best it’s “gone head cold.” Now, with songs, I think I know what I’m doing, and I’m okay with investing a little bit of money in showcasing what in my semi-professional opinion is a good (and potentially prize-winning) product. Videos? Not so much.

What to send? There are 11 songs on the Deathgrass album; I’d already decided to send Goodnight Kiss “Dead Things in the Shower.” “No Good Songs About the War,” I think, will be the other. Production’s good—I love Mike Simpson’s harmonies—and I got to play lead guitar on it, too. That song did win a contest once, so I know somebody thought it was good.

I checked on two other contests I entered—and comfortingly, the reason I hadn’t heard anything is they haven’t decided anything yet. The Angler’s Mail magazine song contest in England only closed yesterday (Oct. 31), and the Songwriters Association of Washington (D.C.) said they won’t be announcing winners until early in 2012. I thought I’d entered a third contest already this year, but if so I can’t remember what it was. With luck they’ll notify me if I won.

I was asked at the Writers’ Group meeting what I expected to get out of entering these contests. Exposure, primarily; if I win top prize or close to it, I’ve got somebody else promoting not so much that particular song as promoting that I exist and I’m a writer. (I still get occasional comments from the Website of that writers’ group in England that awarded us first prize in their “Can you write like Dylan?” contest—back in 2009.) While exposure in remote places might not translate into the “butts in seats” that Madonna (among others) maintains is the key to making money in the music business, it might generate some online CD sales if nothing else.

There is a new literary magazine starting up on the North Coast—the North Coast Squid, they’re calling it. First issue’s due out in February. It would be nice to send them something; it’d have to be poetry, I think—songs don’t lend themselves easily to publication solely in print, and plays (the puppet shows) are a little long for publication in a magazine. They’ll take photos, too, but my photography I am not impressed with. I do have one piece that might work: “The Cat with the Strat,” which started life as a poem; it only got set to music because The Collaborators, the Internet “band” I was working with at the time, wanted to record it and it had to have music for them to be able to do that. I have until the end of the month to decide whether I’m brave enough to send it.

Music Thursday night at the Tsunami, Friday night at Garibaldi City Hall (gotta tell everybody about the Open Mike), Saturday afternoon at the Tillamook library, Saturday night in Bay City (the Open Mike at the Arts Center), and Sunday night at the Rapture Room. I’m ready.

Joe