WHAT PEOPLE SAY THEY LIKE...

Bryan Marvis (THS speech coach) has written a screenplay with his sister—nice, post-Apocalypse thing that would make a good movie—and would like to do a reading at the Arts Center. I think it could be pulled off, though I’ve never done one of those things before. I envision something that comes a little close to an actual play, with about 12 actors and actresses playing (reading) all the roles and some quick costume changes to keep the audience focused (since the play takes place in four different locations around the world). A casting call, and about 2 practices, I’d think. There would be a free week in June at the Arts Center to work on this. We’ll see what the Board thinks.

From the graphic-design end, I have a summer calendar to finish for the Arts Center (almost done), and a newsletter to design for them, too, modeled after the monthly Southern Oregon Songwriters newsletter (of which I have another issue coming up, and no copy yet). Designed business cards for the cast of TAPA’s “Sex Please, We’re Sixty,” and those all came out pretty good; I think (and hope) the cast will be handing those out in quantity to promote the play (and maybe I’ll get some business out of it). All unpaid work, of course. “Alice” the ‘puter’s hard drive is almost full now, and I’m going to have to add another one; hopefully, one of the college yard-sale hulks in the garage has a hard drive that can be re-formatted and will work—I can’t really afford to go buy one new.

Somebody started a couple of “Joe appreciation” threads at the Just Plain Folks Website, and it was an opportunity to see what other people—specifically, other writers—considered my best songs. I assume to the extent possible they should be part of performing setlists.

Top-ranked were “Rotten Candy,” “I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas,” and (surprise) “In the Shadows, I’ll Be Watching You,” the song about the stalker, and “The Dead Sweethearts Polka” (about the serial killer). I probably can’t perform “Wildflowers,” the Lynn Orloff bluegrass song I musicated, because it really should be sung by a girl (and it did get recorded later by Polly Hager), but it was on the “top” list, too.

They listed several I do regularly perform—“Bluebird on My Windshield,” “Dead Things in the Shower,” (co-wrote with Bobbie Gallup), which has become the band’s standard opening number, Stan Good’s “Un-Easy Street,” “Free-Range Person,” and the Southern Pigfish classic “For Their Own Ends.” Some that I apparently ought to perform more are “Crosses by the Roadside,” “Meet Me at the Stairs,” Naked Space Hamsters in Love,” “Vampire Roumanian Babies,” “The Dog’s Song,” and “When They Die, I Put Them in the Cookies.” They were all on people’s lists, too.

Christmas songs were favorites: “I Want a Man for Christmas,” “Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire” (co-wrote with daughter Kimberly), and “Even Roadkill Gets the Blues.” The band did perform the last one in our Failed Economy Christmas Show, but we’ve never done the others. “I Want a Man for Christmas” has been recorded by Polly Hager, and should really be sung by a girl—unless one is performing it in a gay bar. (I really should try that.)

And there are a few I‘m not sure what to do with: two Beth Williams songs, “Bad Sock, Good Sock” (“love, lust and loss among the footwear” I think is how we described it) and “Cast Away” (which Beth wrote for her own get-well album we did last year), one by Polly Hager, “Cougars and Cub Scouts” (which again, really should be sung by a girl), Stan Good’s “Gimme Couple Billion of Them Bailout Bucks” (which the band performed at the first Failed Economy Show), and “The Cat with the Strat” (which I have performed solo in public, but it doesn’t sound the same without all of Vikki Flawith’s nifty sound effects). All those may be “special-purpose” songs that may be hard for an audience to get without a lot of explanation.

I was surprised the list was as long as it was. Next step: incorporate as many as possible of those songs in performance setlists. One wants to play what people like.

Joe