Well, I did it all: the interview (still need to write the story) with photos, the Relay for Life meeting, the photo shoot with the Community Chorus and the GOP Central Committee meeting. Wasn’t really late for any of it. Today: a moving sale (at which I’ll be looking for furnishings for the Cascade Locks house), looking over the Garibaldi Pub with Denise as an a-la-Thirsty-Lion “showcase†venue, a meeting on the library tax levy (and a news story if it gets nasty), and music.

Last night, I watched the candidates make their presentations to the Central Committee with an eye toward critiquing technique; something daughter had mentioned is most new candidates don’t have public speaking experience, and she’s right—and it shows. Makes it difficult for a newbie candidate, because the incumbent they’re running against usually does have some public speaking experience. So the newbie starts off with an additional disadvantage besides the incumbent’s possession of what Teddy Roosevelt called the “bully pulpit.â€

One service the political party organizations could provide is training in how to work a crowd: how to be organized, how to get and hold their attention, how to use inflections, gestures and eye contact—the same sort of stuff I used to critique the high school kids on in speech and debate tournaments. And practice: the party organization could arrange for candidates to practice first on each other (at Central Committee meetings, say), then on presumably friendly audiences (to build up confidence), and finally on audiences guaranteed to be hostile (to give them a good baptism by fire), before turning them loose on the campaign trail.

I’ll suggest the idea after I get elected to the Central Committee. I think the party organization(s) should be providing a service to candidates in order to justify the candidates paying them any attention, and giving candidates tools to help them win elections is a good service. As I recall, all the political parties did this for candidates when I was a kid back in New York—but the parties there controlled candidates to a much greater degree than they do in Oregon.

I found in an old notebook an old setlist; it was for a 3-hour show, and I haven’t done many of those. I think this may have been the big show I did at the Wild Goose in Ashland in April 2008, just before I left southern Oregon; I didn’t see any songs later than that on the setlist. (And the list does have “The Abomination Two-Step,†“Dirty Deeds We Done to Sheep,†and “Sam & Melinda†on it, so I know it was for a bar gig. Those are pretty sleazy songs.) There’s a few on the list I hadn’t done in a long time, that might be good Deathgrass material (“The Termite Song†and “Born Again Barbie,†for instance), as well as some that Deathgrass haven’t done in a while (“When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You,†“Bluebird on My Windshield,†and “Hank’s Songâ€). Diane Ewing’s “Alabama Blues†is on the list, too.

Got an invitation (through Mike Simpson) to contribute to an exhibition being organized by the Tillamook County Arts Network (TCAN); as this is written, I still haven’t gotten their entry form, but the Arts Center had one, and I copied it. Yes, they’ll get a Deathgrass CD. They were asking for CDs from people who had produced albums within the past five years. I passed on to TCAN’s person-in-charge names of other musicians I either knew or was pretty sure had CDs less than five years old (Michael and Sedona, and Doc Wagner, for example, have CDs out this year)—and we’ll see what develops.

Upcoming: band practice Monday and Wednesday nights, caller class Tuesday night, plus a meeting to attend Wednesday and meeting with the vacation rental guy in Cascade Locks Tuesday before class. Denise got a slot at Eric John Kaiser’s Songwriter Showcase (yay!) and I want to go see (and vote for) her after class. Happy Easter, everybody. May the Bunny bring you something edible.

Joe