Oh, fun stuff… Had to cancel the Deathgrass performance for October 1, after getting word drummer Chris wasn’t going to be available either. I had substitutions for John (bass) and Doc (blues harp), but this was just getting too difficult. I’m expecting the “Golden Spike” people will be able to get along without us—they have a pretty full agenda. Should be impressive even without us—and despite the rain the National Weather Service is predicting for that day.

It is just as well; that leaves me two nights free this week and I could use them. I’ll play music Friday (didn’t do squat Tuesday). Couple of new jobs to apply for, and I still need to get the important files either extracted from or usable from Alice’s hard drive. Most of the photos for the “Twenty-Four Seven” video are there—and some of them aren’t easily replaceable. However, there’s something wrong with Alice’s old hard drive, and I may need professional help to get those files off. I’m not looking forward to it. As a fallback, I have started re-taking the photos I can, just in case.

The work-around for Lazarus’ inability to burn CDs is the other laptop (I inherited two), a much smaller (and a year newer) Hewlett-Packard. It will burn CDs—maybe DVDs, too—without problems. So I simply transfer files. The H-P still has Windows Vista (uck) but I’m not going to use it for any recording or graphic-design work at this point, so it doesn’t matter.

Step by agonizing step, Lazz is being taught how to do all my stuff. We now have sound, and a remote mouse, and Internet, and can run the Tascam, scanner and printer, and both digital cameras; haven’t managed to hook up a remote keyboard, but I need to—that’ll take care of the problem of Lazz missing 3 keys, which really slows down the typing. Bottom line is of the four (four?) computers currently upstairs in the bedroom, I can probably safely ship two off to the garage. Finally.

And then there’s music. I have really accomplished very little lately: no new songs since “Blue Krishna,” and no musications, either (though I still need to record Ahna Ortiz’ “Nomad Man from Nowhere”), and Concert Season is basically done for this year. Two videos in progress, “Blue Krishna” (which is fan-generated) and “Twenty-Four Seven” (which will be a “French style” slide show), but neither one’s done. I entered the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, and that one for the fishermen’s magazine over in England; I’m not expecting any more results than I usually get from job applications, of course, but both were contests I felt comfortable I could win.

I still have the entries to send off to the Goodnight Kiss Music Contest (I think I’ll send them “Dead Things in the Shower” off the Deathgrass album and—since they’re also accepting videos—the video of “50 Ways to Cure the Depression,” if I can get it off Alice’s hard drive).

Jane and I auditioned for the talent show in Manzanita, and it sounds like we’re on the agenda. The show is Saturday night, and they’ll get “Pole Dancing for Jesus.” (And yes, that’s another one that would make a great music video.)

Joe