FIRST MUSIC VIDEO (SORT OF)...

Okay, we got a band. They play really good together, they’re interested in playing together, and they’d like to do more gigs. Where do we go from here?

We did videotape the Bay City Concert, with two different cameras—I haven’t seen how the tapes came out. The more sophisticated of the cameras is old, but Dick has the equipment to convert its VHS tape to DVD.

We should have a couple of promo audio tracks on hand, and the only way to get them may be by recording them. (At John’s, probably—his recording equipment is better than mine.) Three or four of our best songs, to stick on “band” Soundclick and MySpace pages as a “here’s what it sounds like” reference.

Candidates to hit up for gigs would be the Tillamook and Astoria Farmer’s Markets. County fairs? The Tillamook County Fair is insistent about never hiring any local entertainment, but I’m not sure how many other county fairs are like that. (I got to play once at the Union County Fair, when I lived in Union.) I think we’re in for Garibaldi Days, the local festival, even without a videotape, as long as I stay in touch with the organizers. (And I will. I’ve offered my services as a graphic designer.)

FIRST MUSIC VIDEO: A Portland TV station variety show had asked people to submit 30-second video resumes—-doing their part for the unemployment problem, I guess—-and they got real excited when one fellow put his resume on a T-shirt and then sent them a clip of him wearing the T-shirt. I decided I could go one better. Could I put my resume in a 30-second song? Almost—it came out 40 seconds, but I recorded and submitted it anyway. Bluegrass music, of course; it had to move pretty fast.

Gave me a chance to use Windows Movie Maker for the first time (and a 40-second song was good for experimenting). For the “video,” I used still photos, changing every 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 seconds, and then added simple titles; it didn’t come out bad. The photos of me are all of me performing (and they’re mostly pretty good, because they were taken by others), but I have a big library of municipal-type photos, too, of fire trucks, sewer plants, streets, and water system things—the product of doing all those newsletters for all those towns I worked for. I don’t know if “The 30-Second Resume” (that’s the title) is YouTube material—I’ll have to see what the TV station does with it. (It’s on their Website now.) I know the next one can be better.

Dick Ackerman’s video camera (which is old, but not as old as mine) has an audio input, which I think we can use to take sound off the 6-channel mixer instead of using the camera’s built-in mike (which is a cheap thing), so we can match up good sound to videotape. The other thing I’d like to try next time is using two cameras—one would film just the band playing, while the other could move around, do close-ups and the like. And then the two could be spliced together on the computer.

FAILED ECONOMY SONGS: Time to sift through the material—-I ended up getting a lot. Five of them, I think, need musication, and two more need the music changed so they’ll be more uptempo (since they’re not upbeat). Got one jazz piece, from a fellow in England, that’d be really fun to do (great lyrics), but I’m not sure how fast the band could learn it. Still, it’d be a big surprise for the audience if we could.

Music this Wednesday at the Ghost Hole, Friday at City Hall, and Saturday at the library, and a square dance Saturday night. DVD rewritable drive to install on “Alice” the ‘puter (I probably better put the extra RAM in while I’m at it), and two more city-manager jobs to apply for (even though I’m sure doing so will just result in more rejection letters). And a sink to fix—-yes, Joe the Plumber rides again.

Joe