Well, I didn’t get the Museum job. Couple other irons in the fire but really, despite the governmental protestations about “recovery,†I don’t see things getting any better. There is (as usual) a reflection in my private life: I’ve talked a lot about “reinventing myself,†but I haven’t—I’m still doing the same things I have been. And they’re not working, either. It is time to do something different. What? Does it matter?

Caller class last night was the first one I’ve managed to attend in three weeks. Yes, I am getting better (and people told me I’m getting better, too)—I’m just not getting better fast enough to suit me. Locally, I won’t get to work with my square of guinea pig dancers again until April 18—a 3-week break there, too. It would be good to attend some square dances and watch how the callers manage their crowds. It is just hard to get to those things. They all seem very far away with gasoline headed for $5 a gallon.

This week is shaping up a little different, which is good. (Shaking things up a little is good.) Practice with the New Band tonight (because I don’t have my square dancers). Tomorrow afternoon, I have an interview to do for the paper—and tomorrow night, instead of playing music, I’ll be going to a Relay for Life meeting, taking photos for an Arts Center promotional poster, and attending my first Republican Central Committee meeting (I haven’t been officially elected yet, so I don’t get to vote—it’s just an opportunity to meet everybody). Friday, I can play music in Garibaldi—after I attend a meeting that maybe might get argumentative enough to turn into a news story for the paper. I have as many as three news items for the paper this week, and at least one of them will turn into a real story.

Some promotional work, too (unpaid of course). The Arts Center’s going to host a candiates’ forum, with the contestants for county assessor and the two (of three) county commissioner seats; that’ll be Sunday, April 15. Radio and newspaper announcements, posters—it’ll be fun. And cookies for Show Day of course. What would an event at the Arts Center be without cookies? (When we celebrate Marie Antoinette’s birthday, though—it’s on a Friday this year—we will have to have cake.)

For the Community Chorus concert at the Arts Center May 5, I’d like to do something different if possible. Normally, they’d be the “featured performer†followed by an open mike—but the open mikes haven’t been drawing much of an audience, and I’d like to change that.

I’d like to imitate a tactic of The Mercantile, and invite performers—and then publicize heavily the fact that these performers are coming. For the performers it’d be an opportunity to publicize upcoming gigs, as well as to try out new material. I’m pretty sure The New Band would want to do it (and we have a gig coming up at the 2^nd Street Market May 11). Songwriter Eric Sappington’s got an upcoming gig at the Market, too. Roger MacDonald, Michael and Sedona, the Ocean Bottom Blues Band… Yes, there might be enough performers. And two to three weeks might be sufficient for a lot of promotion.

(An idea for the Promotional Poster. The concert will be May 5—that “Cinco de Mayo†beloved of advertisers in recent years. What about a tastefully arranged photo of a jar of salad dressing floating in Tillamook Bay? I suppose the politically correct folks would have fits…)

Joe