THOUGHTS WHILE WAITING...

As this is written, the Myrtle Point City Council is meeting to decide which of three city manager wannabes to hire. If it’s me, I’ll hear about it tomorrow. I shouldn’t be anxious—I have been disappointed an awful lot—but it was so exciting to be wanted by somebody that I hate to be dismissive of the idea.

Some good and some bad news on the music front. The guitar teacher from the music store isn’t interested in playing with the band—he wants to be paid. So the band still doesn’t have a lead guitarist (bad.) The “Portland Concert Coop” is finally going to do their podcast of my Thirsty Lion performance (good), and they sent me a nice, professional release form (which suggests they know what they’re doing). I got a phone call from a fellow wanting to know the Garibaldi Days schedule—he said he read about it in my blog (surprise) and wants to make sure he gets to hear the band (also good). I told Sara the librarian if she could get me about five minutes of film of Rufus doing bulldog things, I’d make her a music video of “Me and Rufus, and Burnin’ Down the House,” and she thinks she can do that (good).

Still working on a Garibaldi Days setlist. Because of the shortage of time—just a little over two weeks until the gig—we will need to concentrate as much as possible on tunes we’re familiar with. For Chris the drummer, that means songs from the Failed Economy Show—only seven of which were mine. (John the bass player also did the Bay City concert, which was all my material, and Dick (blues harp) and I have played together for so many years he probably knows almost everything I’ve written.)

Played “The Taboo Song” for the Friday Night Group, but Sara the librarian was the only one who liked it, I think. Nonetheless, the song continues to get a favorable response from people on line, and from (shall we say) less sedate audiences. This may be one of those songs that’s just not playable everywhere. That means it can’t be album material—but there’s definitely a performance niche that it just fits. Like “Sam and Melinda,” my 1920s-style tale of VD, auto accidents, and killing your lover, and “Electronic Love,” the look at the brighter side of Internet porn. I just have to make sure I don’t play it outside that niche. And I still want to make the music video.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get to the stage where I have enough material for a plain-brown-wrapper album (and I’m not sure I want to)—but I did see, and answered, an ad (Craigslist, again) soliciting entertainment for a burlesque show in Portland, and I could see me doing that. (I am good at fantasizing myself in performance situations. It helps me script out what I’m going to say and do, and pacifies the butterflies that always seem to attack in crowd situations. I do the same with jobs, and job interviews. They, too, are performances.)

What I’d envision is no fancy costume, no dancing, just Me The Deadpan Writer, solo on an otherwise empty stage, with Those Lyrics. It could be a potentially entertaining contrast to everything else likely to be in the show. The organizers say they want half an hour’s worth of material, and I definitely have that.

Second and final day of auditions for the thing is Sunday, 19 July, the day I’d be heading back from the TV taping in Ashland. I could just make it. I asked them to listen to “Electronic Love,” “Naked Space Hamsters in Love,” “Dirty Deeds We Done to Sheep,” and “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” and let me know what they think.

Music this week Friday and Saturday. And maybe the band will finally get to practice, too.

Joe