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A New Adventure...

Like the song says (one of mine), “The future can change in the blink of an eye.” Got offered a job Monday night, as interim city administrator in Lafayette, Oregon, and I accepted. I start Wednesday (they needed someone right away, and I can do right away). It’ll restrict my movements a bit, and I expect to enjoy every moment of it. I’ve received tons of well-wishes, from all sorts of folks, for which I am grateful. Thanks, everybody. Like another song says (not one of mine—it’s by Jo

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Garibaldi Days Post-Mortem...

The Garibaldi Days performance went well. I found out late that morning that there would be no talent show participants (I had wondered if that might happen), so the two-hour show was back to consisting of just the “Rockshop” bands and Roland and Deathgrass. The “Rockshop” bands stuck to the two-song limit they’d originally been handed, and so did Roland, which left us as the flex point—but we’d originally planned on playing a half-hour set anyway. We actually did 25 minutes (the “Rockshop” k

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Two Weddings And A Garibaldi Days...

It’s busy—but as a former boss of mine used to say, “Never confuse motion with progress.” There’s lots of motion. I have no idea whether any of it will turn into progress. Job interview last Thursday night, and one coming up Tuesday night; I’m not assuming either place will want me, but it is nice they thought I was worth interviewing. (In both cases, I was one of three people they were talking to.) I still have a couple more jobs to apply for—one in Alaska. Though Congress has passed

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More Updates...

As I continue to collect rejection letters from employers, Congress is preparing to vote to re-extend unemployment benefits to the multitude of people who had their benefits cut off in May. I’m not sure it will apply to me—a lot of people who reportedly won’t get helped any more because they’ve been “unemployed too long” are the middle-aged men in professional positions (like me) who were the first to lose their jobs when the economy first collapsed. The garden is way more satisfying than

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Contra Dancing, The "rockshop" Bands, &c...

I practice with our impromptu contra dance band (fiddle, piano, and guitar) Sunday night. “Contra dance music”—I looked it up on the Internet—is 32 measures, with an “A part” of 16 and a “B part” of 16. Sounds like fiddle tunes—but if one thinks of the “A part” as a verse and “B part” as a chorus, the range of possibilities gets a whole lot wider. The “A” and “B” parts (verse and chorus) are supposed to be different, or at least start different, as a signal to the contra dance caller to do so

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10 Minutes...

Potato plants are finally coming up in the garden. It would be a severe blow to my self-confidence if I killed potato plants; potatoes are supposed to be indestructible. (And I’m half-Irish. I should be genetically able to grow potatoes.) Elsewhere in the garden, the corn appears unhappy it got transplanted, the peas are slowly committing suicide, and the carrots and green beans have yet to show their faces (or whatever they call them) above ground. And that’s the good news. Got the ca

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Setlists, &c...

Reviewed the videotape of the July open mike at the Arts Center. The parts with our impromptu band aren’t good enough quality to mess with, I’m afraid—percussion too loud, vocals too low, and lead guitarist Charlie was almost out of the picture most of the time (but he did sound good). I’d like to look at videos from open mikes where Charlie was behind the camera, and able to manipulate it more, rather than being a performer; I think those might be better for converting into YouTube-type video

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No, Yes, And An Open Mike...

“No” from the Willamette Writers group—they’re hiring someone other than me to be the entertainment at their annual conference in Portland. (I hope whoever it is is more entertaining. Some writers I know in the organization have expressed doubts about that, and I hope they express them to the conference organizers.) Also on the minus side—not entirely bad, in other words—our band will get just half an hour at Garibaldi Days; I understand we have just two hours to work with, and we’ll be shari

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Mid-Year Review Of The 2010 Goals...

It being just after the first of July, it’s time to do the “mid-year assessment” on the 2010 Goals. How are we doing? Well, I did WRITE IN SOME DIFFERENT GENRES—a medieval ballad, another polka, and country death metal. No doubt there will be more. I entered four SONG CONTESTS the first half of 2010, but didn’t win any (and the goal was to win them, not enter them). I do PLAY WITH MORE PEOPLE—everywhere and everywhen I can. BECOME A HOUSEHOLD WORD? I’m getting better known, but I have

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Talking Inspiration To Writers...

So… let’s assume I’m playing for the Willamette Writers conference (I don’t know that for sure as this is written), and that I’m playing for an hour like I recommended, and solo. (A lot of assumptions, here.) I assume, too, that it’s not usual for them to have a writer as their entertainment. Near as I can tell from their program, their “writers” umbrella covers not just books, but a wide range of formats from film to poetry—but I didn’t see music or songs mentioned anywhere. I nonethe

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Hosting An Open Mike...

It appears I’ll be hosting the Open Mike at the Bay City Arts Center Saturday, July 10—eight days from now. Up to me, I presume, to both round up entertainment and publicize the event. The BCAC traditionally has a “featured performer” that’ll play for half an hour (everybody else gets 15 minutes), usually in between the kids and the adults. I wonder if that’ll have to be me? The “featured performer” normally is, or has some connection to, the Artist of the Month; last month’s A.O.M. was

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Garibaldi Days And The Thirsty Lion...

Well, the Lions Club changed their mind about not having music at Garibaldi Days. I suppose that’s testimony to the power of the Internet, or the speed of 21st-century communication, or something like that; I just mentioned it in the blog and on Facebook, but by the time I got back from the Thirsty Lion performance last night, I had a message waiting for me from the Lions’ entertainment person, and we talked this morning, and music is back on. I’ve volunteered to help organize it (which I want

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No Music At Garibaldi Days...

Well, the Lions Club have decided there will be no entertainment at Garibaldi Days this year. Not just no “Deathgrass,” but no anybody—no Talent Show, no middle-school rock bands. Nada. They say it’s because they couldn’t get it together (of course, they didn’t involve me—but I’m not sure how much help I would have been). I’m sure Garibaldi Days will come off fine without entertainment—it is their 50th anniversary, and they should get big crowds anyway thanks to the economy forcing folks to

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Saturday Night, And The Moon Is Out...

Like the song says (not one of mine), “it’s Saturday night and the moon is out.” And I have no intention of going anywhere. I marched two miles in the Dairy Parade, as part of the TAPA contingent, wearing my “Beauty Queen of Leenane” sash, and got my picture taken; that’s enough accomplishment for one day. I will not be starring in “The Beauty Queen of Leenane”—they decided on the younger guy—and I am not bothered; it means I don’t have to change the date of the Sept. 25 “Joe Concert.” T

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Updates...

Second time, now, that “the Pigfish song” has been requested in our acoustic jam session at the tavern. This time, “the band” was just Doc on blues harp, Terry on fiddle, and me as the only guitar, but the song still came out okay—and I noticed people listened. I have a feeling the song’s going to get requested more—and people may end up knowing the name Southern Pigfish without having any idea the band doesn’t exist. I’d like that. I may not get picked for the play I auditioned for—I’

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"pig Wars" Post-Mortem...

The Great Intergalactic Puppet Show (G.I.P.S.) production of “Pig Wars” is now history. It was a brief performance—6-1/2 minutes, according to the videotape. Small but appreciative crowds—but larger, I heard, than for the rest of the events in Bay City’s “Party for the Park,” because we marketed and they didn’t. Post-mortem (one should always do post-mortems on performances, even if it’s a puppet show): The stage needs to be higher; you could see the puppeteers’ heads from the audience

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Doing A Duo (Maybe)...

Roland is interested in doing a duo. He is, I think, more confident than I about our ability to make money doing this, but I agree that the two of us sound way better together than we do separately. We’ll (tentatively) get together at his place Saturday night and discuss what to play, and maybe record a couple of things. It sounds like he’s got more sophisticated recording equipment than I do (plus he doesn’t labor under the difficulty of being mostly tone-deaf). I want as quickly as p

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The Thirsty Lion Pub (Again)...

Ah, things begin to move… I got myself invited back to the THIRSTY LION PUB in downtown Portland, TUESDAY, 29 JUNE. I’ll be part of their “Portland Songwriter Showcase,” which will have three other performers besides me and host Kory Quinn (who’s pinch-hitting for regular host Eric John Kaiser). The host usually kicks it off at 8:30 p.m., with the other performers starting at 9 p.m. I don’t know if I’ll be on first—I have been the last two times, because Eric knows I’ve come from furthest aw

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Football, And Writers, And Socks (Oh My?)...

Had people from Gearhart (40 miles away) come to hear the Friday Night Group; they said they’d read about it in the paper. The only mention “in the paper” I know of has been by me, in my column. Maybe that means people—from out of town?—are reading it. I continue to have each week’s column plotted out in advance, and hope I can continue to do so; if I can write the column in the time it takes to type it, it’s almost a productive use of my time (and the only part of my newspaper work that is).

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One Of Those Modest Proposals...

One of the writers’ groups I subscribe to got a solicitation recently from someone looking for investors for his album. Difficult to tell whether it was spam or not—the fellow has yet to respond to any messages, and he did get a lot of caustic comments about “selling sand to the Sahara” (since a lot of those writers are working on albums of their own). Still, it’s an idea worth exploring—not for his album, of course, but for mine. Investing per se, where people contribute money toward the

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"monet-Ization" (&c.)...

Sent off a column to Lorelei Loveridge for Performing Songwriters United Worldwide. “Monetization” was supposed to be the subject—and I couldn’t resist bringing up Claude Monet. (Yes, the impressionist painter.) He ended up being surprisingly apt: his paintings are thousands of little dots that seen from a distance, turn into landscapes. The “Monet-ization” lesson: Look at things differently. A comparison is possible between the dinosaurs that control the music industry and us small-sca

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Upcoming...

The Rockaway Beach Rocktoberfest will be in September (Sept. 18 & 19) this year; thankfully, they are still calling it Rocktoberfest—I am not sure there are any things they could call it with “September” in it that would be pronounceable. Mike Simpson and The Exiles’ Tim Croman are doing the booking. They are insistent on keeping the promise made last year that if the Rocktoberfest happened again, the musicians would get paid; they’re asking $75 per musician (which is reasonable—it’s just

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The "song For Charity"...

I am, I think, relatively satisfied with “Song for Charity (and Faith, and Hope).” It was a fairly rushed job, to get it out of my head, but I have to approach these things professionally under any conditions. So the lyrics were as well polished as possible, and sung to myself for two or three days while the song was developing, and not written down until close to the end (by then, I had everything almost memorized). Brief peer review, because I was in a hurry; after I’d gotten comments from

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Two Songs In One Day?

Glyn and Sherri’s “One Lonely Night Closer to Gone” is done. I’m actually pretty happy with the way it turned out—but I still shouldn’t be the one singing it, not with a line like “How far gone do I have to be/Before you know you were my man?” Unless I want to add it to the “play this in gay bars” list. I could have fun with having a whole set’s worth of songs about wanting guys, and missing guys, and breaking up with guys—all sung by me… And I believe I know a gay bar in Portland that still

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About The Blog (Because Someone Asked)...

I was asked whether I blog. Well, I have a blog. Is it a noun or a verb? Or both? A “nerb,” perhaps? Language has gotten funky in the digital-and-text-messaging age, and I do worry about it; the Romans felt the decline in Latin grammar (beginning around 100 A.D.) was a signal of the death of civilization (and they were right—it happened just 400 years later). I began “The Writer’s Blog” 3-1/2 years ago, I think, after teaching a seminar on songwriting at the “Moograss” Bluegrass Festiv

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