ROAD TRIP #2 POST-MORTEM...

Road Trip #2 was okay. Job interview went well; Gold Beach is a really nice place, and I think I’d enjoy living and working there. I’ll find out if I’m the Chosen One in a week or so. And the public television taping was lots of fun. I’m in the burlesque show, too. (From public television to burlesque in one day. I think that suggests versatility. Doesn’t it?)

On the Bad News front, the only rejection letter I got while I was gone was a music one, from the West Linn Library, saying they’re not interested in having me as a performer. They didn’t say it was because they didn’t like my stuff—just that there were too many applicants. (Nonetheless, the fact they picked other people instead of me means they liked those folks’ stuff better.) And Rowan (Banjo Girl) can’t play the banjo for a while—she got tendonitis. I offered to try to contact her again in a month and see if things are better. So the banjo got to make a thousand-mile trip in the van and is still with me.

TV is a fascinating medium. It’s all illusion: the studio is a cavernous concrete-block space with multitudinous lights hanging from a ceiling two stories above; there are three cameras, all manned, and a sound room four times the size the Dodson Drifters had, crammed with equipment and manned by two more people. The stage is actually a very small platform in the middle of the room, and the space for the studio audience is small, too (which was good—we had only a small audience), but you’d never know it when you see it on TV. The Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. tapes two shows a month here, except in August and September.(when everybody in SOSA is busy with the summer concerts).

The “serious issues” RVTV show came in at 29 minutes 33 seconds (out of 30 minutes), and we didn’t have to change a thing. In the “not serious” show, we cut the lead break out of the last song and the show came in at 29 minutes 44 seconds. Near perfect timing, in other words. Darrin and I had practiced the two previous nights, and had everything note-perfect for the show. Since I can’t receive Ashland public television in Garibaldi (just Portland public television), I ordered DVDs of the show (they want $10 apiece for those). I’ll have to find out if it’s legal to make copies. A number of people have asked for DVDs of the shows.

I do have one follow-up I can do after the RVTV shows air. I had contacted Ariella St. Clair, a concert promoter in Ashland, last year, and been told by her she wasn’t interested in me because I wasn’t famous enough. I asked what would make me famous enough, and was told, “I only do people who’ve been on public television.” Now I can find out if she was serious, or if that was just an excuse. I will have been on public television.

While in southern Oregon, I got to see Darrin’s band (hight The Hired Guns) perform Friday night (impressive show). The Hired Guns will also be the backup band for songwriter Larry West (their lead guitarist) when he plays Central Point 22 August—the same day I do. I also delivered both Darrin and Dan CDs with the setlist for our 22 August concert in Central Point. That show’s an hour 15 minutes long (last year’s shows were only half an hour).

Got to meet the organizers of the burlesque show in Portland, and talk with them a bit about what they had in mind. I only played them two songs, “The Taboo Song” (which they hadn’t heard) and “Naked Space Hamsters in Love” (which they had). I got the impression they’d made up their mind they wanted me in the show before I got there. Their next step is a general meeting, sometime in August, of all the performers they’ve selected. First show is planned for late September at the Hawthorne Theater, which I’ve been told is a nice—and big—performance space with a good sound system.

Now that I’m back, I have half a dozen more jobs to apply for (including the City of Gold Hill, also in southern Oregon, which is hiring their first-ever city manager), and practice for the Garibaldi Days concert—which is this coming Saturday. Still need to write the script for that, too.

Joe