23 lyrics typeset—takes us through the letter E. (Yes, that’s only 20% of the alphabet. I said this was a big job.) I’m keeping the same format throughout, this time; the New Joe Songbook is going to be a thoroughly professional publication. (The previous edition had a few flaws. This one will not.) One item I can include with the photos is concert posters—I do have quite a few of them, some dating back to my Southern Oregon period (2007-08). Other photos? I’ll just have to keep taking photos, I guess.

I raised at the Arts Center’s Board meeting the idea of a by-invitation concert (a la The Mercantile) in lieu of our next open mike at the Arts Center, and I think the Arts Center’s Board would like me to try it. They’ve noticed, as have I, that attendance at the open mikes has been sparse of late. That will be in May (no open mike in April, because we’ll be having a John Stowell concert instead, with fiddle instructor Paul Patterson). May 5, in fact (and that is a holiday in some cultures). I need to make sure the Tillamook Community Chorus is our headliner—the event was scheduled a year ago for the specific purpose of showcasing them.

For the other performers, I’d call on people I know—songwriter Eric Sappington from Netarts, Roger from Nehalem, Michael and Sedona (Sedona Fire), Loren and Judy (the Crazed Weasels String Band), Irene and Lori from South County, the 5-1/2 Piece Band from Rockaway, “Chippewa Bob†and his musical saw, Ken Hardy, and me and Jane (and the band, if the band are ready for prime time by then). Maybe a few others. If everybody was agreeable, we could have quite a lineup of local talent. And I could publicize it heavily. I do know how to do that.

The other suggestion made was to go back to having food up in the auditorium, like the Arts Center did for open mikes years ago. Easy enough to do; I bake cookies anyway (and people do eat them, even after they’ve heard the “cookies†song), and one could simply tell all and sundry, “Hey, bring something if you can and we’ll make it a potluck.†A few “hot pots†for coffee and tea is about the only infrastructure we lack.

On the computer front, “Lazarus†the laptop is going to get a new addition—a remote DVD-rewritable drive. (Yes, Lazz came equipped with a DVD-rewritable drive, but it never did work; that was apparently a design defect in that model laptop that Dell never could—or would—fix, and it’s one reason that model laptop isn’t made any more.) I’d bought earlier an external case I was going to use for Alice’s old hard drive; that old hard drive is dead, alas, but the case will fit a CD drive, too. John at Backscratcherz having a DVD-rewritable drive on hand was a nice plus.

Since it’s an external case, I can mate it up to other computers, too—and one that could really use a CD-rewritable drive (not to mention a DVD-rewritable one) is old “StuartLittle,†my inherited semi-portable computer. (Everything but the monitor fits in a plastic storage container.) “Stuart†is a pretty good little computer despite being a little shy in the brains department—but he’s 11 years old, and back then computers didn’t come with CD-or-DVD-rewritable drives (and Stuart is such an odd design nothing normal will fit). So the computers can share. I may get away from the need to have four computers around yet.

I managed to get both a news story for the paper and my column done just before their deadlines on what for this week is a real busy schedule. I’d like to be earlier, but it’s nice that I could pull it off. And this month’s challenge from the Coventry songwriters is for songs about TIME (not the “parsley-sage-rosemary-and†variety). I wonder if I could manage to say something about that before their deadline?

Joe