UPDATES: I posted “You Could Be The One,” the T-Poe poem I set to music, on my MySpace page (T-Poe hasn’t put it on his). One last room in the Squirrel House (what was my bedroom while I was there) to sweep and vacuum, window to fix in the shed out back, and the lawn to mow (still haven’t done that), and I’m done. Time to move back to Garibaldi, wait for my retirement check to arrive from AIG, and register for college if there’s still time. (There should be.)

“Alice” the computer is already back in Garibaldi, as are the guitars and banjo; I’ll be away for a couple of days while I’m moving the remainder of the belongings. Some more jobs to apply for when I get back to Garibaldi. I haven’t decided whether the studio should stay in the garage, or go up on the second floor of the house, where the computer room is. Winter is coming on, and the garage is uninsulated.

The Harvest Festival gig will happen—SATURDAY, 11 OCTOBER, at NOON. I’ll finally get to send another gig notice out to the “joelist” (I wonder if they remember me?) and to the “friends” on MySpace. Setlist to work out—I’ll be playing solo, will have an hour (12 to 13 songs), and it’ll be a family crowd, with a lot of kids. The Harvest Festival is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Neskowin Valley School, which is a little private school in way-south Tillamook County. This will be the third time I’ve performed there (and the first time in two years).

NEW MATERIAL: Did music for another Gospel song, this one by a Regina Michelle, whom I ran across on the Muse’s Muse writers’ site. The song is overtly religious, but was okay to work with—it comes across like one of the old Holy Roller “shouters,” and was a lot of fun to do. And she said she used to be a singer; maybe she can sing it if I send her just the music. At this point, she has a draft, with me singing, which she said she liked (and reportedly posted on her MySpace page).

And I have another song of mine I’m working on, too. Madonna’s announcement recently that she was adopting an African baby (because it was “trendy”) prompted the question, “But what about all the poor Roumanian vampire babies?” Those poor unfortunates will at least get a song, exhorting people to adopt them, too. It might be a good Norwegian Black/Death Metal tune, because of the vampire theme, but I think it’ll be folk-rock instead—I hear that Southern Pigfish singer’s Dylan voice singing this. I guess Southern Pigfish will finally get their Soundclick page (I did promise I’d do that once I’d written them three songs)—maybe a MySpace page, too (I’ll need more photos for a good MySpace presence, though.)

So just a little good news. Besides getting the Harvest Festival gig, somebody I applied for a job with complimented me on my city-manager qualifications (of course, they haven’t hired me yet); somebody in the audience at the Friday Night Group complimented me on my singing (with my voice?); even had a minister say he liked my album (and that’s the one with “Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus” and “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?”). That’s probably enough “uppers” at one time—if I were too unstressed, it’d affect my ability as a writer, and I wouldn’t want that.

Not a lot of feedback on the publishing co-operative idea, so maybe it’s not worth pursuing. What I should do instead is simply form my own publishing company, document the process well, and then just tell everybody, “Guys, you can do this, too.” WHO does it is unimportant. What’s important is that there be a way to get creativity to market apart from the stranglehold of the commerial music industry, and that people are aware of it so they can take advantage of it. The answer to the first question is “Yes, there is,” and the answer to the second is “I’m working on it.”

Joe