NEEDS AND UPDATES...

I’m registered for school fall term (I have one class to take over the summer, that I can do at the local community college), have another city-manager job to apply for, still have no money, and have some more work to do on the Squirrel House before it’s rentable. We paint today, I think.

When you don’t have money, you entertain yourself with lists of what you’d do if you had money. Here’s mine. NEEDS first—all of them major expenses, I think:

Registration as publisher and writer (BMI).
Copyright all songs on the new CD (11 of mine, plus 2 co-writes).
Registration with Harry Fox Agency for mechanical licenses.
Trip to southern Oregon for the 8/30 Central Point concert.
Trip to Nashville for Pineyfest next year.

These are all things I have to do. The publisher/writer registration and copyrighting are prerequisites to getting the new CD out; registering with Harry Fox is necessary for the Friday Night Group album; and I’ve committed to the Central Point concert. I consider Pineyfest 2009 a “need,” since I have to save up about $2,000 to make the trip.

I have “WANTS,” too—a battery pack for the video camera, a tripod for the camera (I saw one in a thrift store, but didn’t buy it), extra RAM for “Alice” the computer to do music and better graphics with, and a print-on-CDs printer, for starters. Those will wait on a better income.

UPDATES:

Got my girl singer (maybe)—and I’ve got something to try her out on. I want to send “Rotten Candy” to Goodnight Kiss Music’s contest (winner gets their song on an album with a professional singer). I wanted to find “her” key—but maybe that doesn’t matter so much to somebody with a voice range of more than one octave. That’ll take care of my “I want to enter another contest” problem for the year, too.

There are two Marge McKinnis songs that are potential entrants for the contest, too—and I do have them in sans-vocal form, courtesy of last year’s Pineyfest Demo Derby. I could substitute the female vocal for mine and submit those, too, if Marge is okay with it.

I did run across another fun contest—the National Australian Bank is having a contest for “aspirational” songs, reportedly to use as a theme song for the bank (and you don’t have to be Australian to enter). Thought about sending them “When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You,” but the second line (“And all the things you put me through”) probably doesn’t send the right image for a bank that’s looking for business. It’ll have to be something else—maybe something custom-written for the occasion.

I scripted out the “innerview” of Country Rose by Danny the dog, and have Rose’s answers recorded; now it’s time to do Danny’s questions. Time to break out the CD burner. I haven’t done enough for Whitby Shores lately.

The Labor Day weekend trip to southern Oregon right now includes only the Saturday concert in Central Point. It would be fun (and good) to line up other opportunities to play while I’m down there. The Ashland Beanery is open that Friday night, and there’s both a poetry open mike and the famous open mike at the Wild Goose Sunday night. Could I do more on the album while I’m there? I’ll have to contact Wayne. Johnny B.’s is a possibility, too. As an out-of-town “star,” I could maybe get more attention.

Joe