A REPUBLICAN CONVENTION...

Went to the Republican Party convention in Salem on Saturday (2-hour drive each way). It wasn’t a total waste of time, but it was close. The idea of people vying to get elected to fly to the other end of the country on their own nickel to “vote” the way they were directed to by the voters in the primary election last month is just weird. (The spectacle of supposedly conservative Republicans proclaiming support for the front-running Republican nominee as if he were conservative was weird, too.) The paranoia-driven efforts by pro-Romney Party leadership to prevent the meeting from being packed or otherwise taken over by Ron Paul supporters (which said Ron Paul supporters appeared to have no intention of doing) were a little ridiculous, and made everything take way longer than necessary. Nonetheless, I did my duty as a precinct committeeperson and cast my ballots for folks I thought (or hoped) were at least (1) not dumb and (2) not crazy. And I got to practice my singing square dance calls and my songs for the July 21 Gospel Show en route. (Which is why my time wasn’t entirely wasted.) I figure now that I’m no longer working as a city manager (and therefore no longer forced to keep my mouth shut politically), I can do more than just observe and complain. So I’ll influence things to the extent I can. (I noticed a lot of first-timers at the Salem meeting saying much the same thing, and I voted for them when I could—and when they appeared to be not dumb and not crazy. One way to change things is to change the people doing things.) Yes, one more thing for Joe-who-now-has-a-job-and-no-time to be involved in. It shouldn’t take much more time the rest of the year, though. No more trips to Salem. (I do not like to waste time.) Coaster’s performance at the 2nd Street Market has been moved (by the Market) from June 29 to one week later, July 6, 6-8 p.m. The good news is that gives us an additional week to practice. The bad news is the performance will be the night before the 24-hour Relay for Life. I should prepare for a whole weekend with minimal sleep. (Kinda like this one’s been.) I still need to do posters for the show, and this’ll give me time to do that. (I did figure out what’s wrong with the scanner unit on the old printer. What I don’t know is whether I can fix it.) I haven’t hooked up the new computer yet—I’d like to pull the RAM chips from the old Compaq in the garage and see if I can boost the new machine’s brainpower even further. Also upcoming: the puppet show troupe’s performance of Jedi Pigs of Oz. Need to practice—haven’t done that yet—and I also need to record the theme song. I’ll do it myself if I can’t get time at Jim’s shop. I might be able to record Coaster playing it (we’re scheduled to practice Friday night)—I need to remember to take the power adapter for the Japanese mixer (I forgot that last Friday) ‘cause it won’t run on normal American power. If I can get a fiddle lead, I can do a sight gag with puppet Yoda (who’s playing a harmonica, and can act surprised—and then upset—at the sounds he/she is getting out of it). I’ve plugged myself into the Relay for Life schedule, too—playing solo, because I wasn’t going to ask anybody else to play with me in the middle of the night. I actually do have a couple of songs appropriate for the event, “Crosses by the Roadside,” the kaddish I wrote for Carol Ackerman when husband Dick died (of cancer), and Tarra Young’s “You’ll Make a Real Good Angel” (her lyrics, my music), which she wrote for a friend who was dying—again, of cancer. For the rest of my two hours, I’ll just do “Joe stuff.” I have plenty of songs that work okay solo. And the Raps—for Relay, for the Gospel show, and for the Coaster show. In the latter, we’ve substituted a couple of the Dylan songs, “Don’t Think Twice” and “When the Ship Comes In,” for tunes on the setlist we didn’t do that well. Next week, too, I have got to find some places to play music. I have not been playing enough. My fingers get sore way too fast—and I have some lengthy performances coming up. Joe