THE BAY CITY OPEN MIKE (&C.)...

The Bay City Arts Center open mike Saturday night was good: we had 12 performers, including a poet, a standup comic, and a short-story author (all very good), plus the musicians—Opal (electric autoharp), Bud (guitar), Elsie (accordion), Chippewa Bob (saw), Jim (piano), and Noah, one of Mike Simpson’s “Rockshop” kids, did an original song with little Max on drums. Had an “acapulco” singer, too, and first Opal and then Elsie were able to give him musical accompaniment. Thanks, guys.

Some folks insisted I play something, too—I hadn’t planned on it, since we had plenty of performers, and it’s their show, not mine—so I gave them “In the Shadows, I’ll Be Watching You” at the end. And we followed everything with a general jam session by the musicians, most of whom had come there wanting to do that, rather than play solo like usually happens at an open mike. The solo performances were videotaped (thanks, Charlie), and next weekend, I’ll see if I can’t make DVDs out of it for everybody—the office’s old Macintosh says it can do it, but I’ve never tried.

An experiment that did work out: instead of charging the Arts Center’s usual gate fee (since there was nobody to man the door and collect it, anyway), I just put out a donation jar next to the big bowl of homemade cookies, and people did indeed toss money in—more, in fact, than the Arts Center usually collects in gate fees at these open mikes. I think this is definitely the way to go. Yes, one can question whether folks were donating for the music or the cookies—they did eat almost all the cookies—but who cares? Does it matter?

It was nice (and satisfying) that some of the musicians came because I asked them to, and they said they had fun and I think they want to do it again. The monthly open mike may be on a roll now—a “set piece” that just gets bigger and bigger from here on, and can be one of the area’s regular cultural events. This, I think, is how we make the Arts Center the centerpiece of the community (and Bay City really needs a centerpiece): we have events that get people coming here, and they begin thinking of the Arts Center as a regular Place To Go—and subsequently, to schedule their own things at. I’ve made this pitch to the Second Street Market folks in Tillamook, too, but don’t think it’s sunk in yet.

I have seen minimal advertising thus far of the Bay City Centennial celebration, and expect the Deathgrass promotion will be the bulk of whatever gets out there. I’ll make sure our posters, flyers, press releases, and radio spots mention the other “acts” (while concentrating on us, of course); I’d like to see a big crowd at this, and the promotion is something we can do. I still have to figure out the setlist (I have to arrange the setlist for the “Rocktoberfest,” too), and get CDs of the songs to everybody. That last is probably a job for next weekend. This weekend is going to run out of time very quickly.

And for the Bay City Centennial CDs, I need to record “Steamboat Bill.” The second verse of that song is a bit choppy, and could be improved, I think—and I can probably do that. Jeff Tanzer (lead guitarist for the Dodson Drifters) and I never hesitated to improve other writers’ stuff—we even did it to Bob Dylan and Hank Williams—and I suppose Ren Shields, who wrote the lyrics for “Steamboat Bill,” should be no exception. Next week’s commuting back and forth to Lafayette (2 to 2-1/2 hours in the car each way) should provide plenty of time to work on it.

Played Sunday night with the ContraBand—Jane (fiddle), Kathryn (guitar), and Fred (keyboard). I don’t know if the contra dance organizers want us back, but we’re going to continue playing together anyway, I think. I think the goal is to have a band that can do community dances at (for instance) the local Grange Hall—filling a crying need in the Failed Economy. To the extent I can, I want to participate.

Joe