Should mention the “upper†first. Got tapped at the last minute to be part of a band playing a benefit concert in Manzanita. The “band†ended up being Ken, Jane, and myself, and we probably played two hours. We ended up doing a lot of my stuff (with over 80 songs, I have a lot of material to work with). The crowd wanted uptempo material, so they got it:

Spend the End of the World with Me

The Abomination Two-Step

Naked Space Hamsters in Love

Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus

Bluebird on My Windshield

Duct Tape

I May Write You from Jupiter

The World Enquirer

The Termite Song

The last three I don’t think Ken and Jane had ever played before. They can now. We also did three slower numbers: “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?†(which somebody requested), “Pole Dancing for Jesus†(consistently popular), and “Armadillo on the Interstate†(as a closing number).

And we got paid. (Hadn’t expected that.) Plus I sold a CD. More than paid for the gas, it did. I think that makes the second paying gig I’ve had this year.

Tonight, music at the Tsunami in Wheeler, and Saturday night an open mike at the Arts Center; Friday night, I have my choice of music at City Hall in Garibaldi or a tavern in Tillamook (hosted by a fellow I know). I expect I’ll pick the closer option—I need to promote the open mike. With other events happening the same night (notably Michael and Sedona’s CD release party, which I’d be at if I weren’t hosting the open mike), I’m expecting a shortage of customers.

And a to-do list:

I’ve got a handful of songs I have to re-record because the only recordings were on old “Alice†the ‘puter’s hard drive—they were never posted on an OMD anywhere. For starters, I just want draft recordings on the Tascam; I’ll work on getting better ones later. There’s a handful of cover songs Deathgrass does, either public domain or used by permission, that also didn’t exist anywhere except on “Alice.†I need to recreate those, too. Unless I can retrieve one of the setlist CDs I made for the band (and I don’t think I kept any myself), I’ll have to re-record those.

I need photos, both for the New Joe Songbook and for some of the upcoming videos. I haven’t traveled anywhere exotic, or been stationed anywhere odd, for quite a while, and I can’t afford to just pack up and go somewhere, either. Lesson for the future: archive everything regularly, including photos.

I need speaker stands for the little PA system. I haven’t been able to find a second junk mike stand to adapt, and I don’t want to buy one (I am proud that this PA system cost all of ten bucks to build); I’ll have to make stands instead.

I have CDs to make for Clint the bass player. Basically, the entire catalog, except for the songs that are on the Deathgrass and Santa’s Fallen CDs. I need to download from the OMDs the songs I don’t have on “Lazarus†the laptop, and run them through Audacity to equalize the volume. He wants lyric sheets, too—which means finishing the New Joe Songbook.

Fellow name of Barry Post passed on a challenge from a Dave Wood: Can you write 500 to 700 words a day in a blog, every day for 90 days? Sure. I can even make them make sense. But can I make them interesting? We’ll see. (This one, by the way, is precisely 600 words.)

Joe