MORE VIDEO THOUGHTS...

About the time I finish and post one “issue” of the blog, I start another one. I’m not sure whether that means a lot is happening, or I just have too much time on my hands. Probably the latter. Why else would I spend time on Facebook’s “Which Disney Princess Are You?” quiz? (I’m Cinderella, in case you hadn’t guessed.)

Some things are going okay. I have two bands I’m playing with, and we have a fan base; the ability to get gigs may be limited mostly by reluctance to ask for them. There are a few things I could do that would make the process easier, and I should simply do them. The Coast Band can record a few songs during our six weeks “off” before the Failed Economy Show, and maybe do a video if someone can be tapped to film us somewhere; the Portland Band will get videoed at our Red Room performance, but we’ll know exactly how to do it going in, in part because of my experiences on the Coast.

And I am still writing. “50 Ways to Cure the Depression” was the first song in a long time, but there will be more—I feel like a logjam broke. It’s nice to hear people say it’s the best I’ve ever done; I know it’s not, but the sentiments are encouraging. And it is timely. Lengthy to-do list of songs to musicate for the Failed Economy Show, and I’m comfortable—again—that I can do most of them in one or two takes.

The problem, of course, is that I don’t make a living at that stuff. If I pushed real hard, could I? I don’t know. I’ve said before I thought it’d take a year of hard work before I got to the point where music was providing even half my income, and I haven’t pushed hard at this. I have confirmed thus far what I suspected, namely that there is a market for the stuff I do, and it might be a big one, despite whatever The Industry says. (It isn’t the first time I’ve been right and they’ve been wrong. I should just stop paying attention to them.)

An idea. There was, once upon a time, a lady who videotaped a lot of city council and county commissioners’ meetings, and had them aired on cable TV. Could that be done with the Failed Economy Show? It is a benefit, after all, for the local Food Bank, and everybody knows the food banks everywhere are in trouble. If the concert footage were run on TV, with contact information for all the local food banks, it’d be great publicity for the band. I don’t know who the lady is, but I know some government folks who do. If the lady’s no longer around, could the cable TV company itself be prevailed upon to air our videotape? (They’re a big conglomerate—but I do know their vice-president for public affairs in New York City. That could be fun…)

CDs, too. Select the best of the performance cuts—or re-do them in the studio if we have to—and assemble a CD with about an hour’s worth of music. Could the CD itself be a benefit for the food bank? Maybe; there’s not a lot of profit in a $10 CD, and if one gave half that to the food bank, there wouldn’t be much left to distribute after production costs. On the other hand, the publicity could be really worthwhile, and could maybe sell other CDs, and get the band more gigs. Might be well worth a try.

For that one, we (or I) would get to pay copyright royalties to the authors, which would be fun for them, even if inadequate recompense for their work. They’d at least be able to tell publishers, record companies, &c., “Yes, one of my songs was covered by a relatively famous performing band, and it is on a record, and the record is selling. Now, what are you going to do for me?” And to do that, I have to become a music publisher. Things keep nudging me in that direction.

Joe