TWO DAYS till the trip to Myrtle Point. My bag is packed, but everything doesn’t fit; some of it’s going to have to go in another container. I’m packing for five days; I don’t know if I’ll get to stay that long.

The job front actually looks hopeful for a change (it’s probably illusory, but I’ll ride the hope as long as I can). Not only is Myrtle Point interviewing me, but I found out Gold Beach, where I’d also applied to be city manager, is checking my background—and one usually doesn’t do that unless one is seriously considering hiring the person. (And Gold Beach is also in southern Oregon.) And a little water district here on the North Coast has started looking for a new manager—not, for a change, because of financial problems, but simply because the current manager is retiring. I’ll apply. It’d be a great gig; I could commute from Garibaldi, and for a change not have the expense of keeping up two houses.

“The Taboo Song” (tentative title) is done. I managed to include 15 things you’re not supposed to write songs about: (1) dental hygeine, (2) liposuction, (3) pederasty, (4) breast reduction, (5) babies, (6) libraries, (7) deformed puppies, ( aborton, (9) narcolepsy, (10) litter boxes, (11) Star Trek conventions, (12) football, (13) necrophilia, (14) war, and (15) imaginary women. Compressed as tight as I think I can, it still comes in at just under 2 minutes—20 seconds too long for Lorelei’s 100-second video. I may do it anyway. I did script out a commentary to run onscreen while the song is playing and the slides are “rolling,” and the commentary does talk—briefly—about my hopes for the future of the music business. I’d hate to not use it.

On the other hand, it’s a not-bad little song. I did another recording, with a Rap on the front end, and a lead break and final chorus on the rear—and slowed down just a hair, to make it more danceable—and it came in a little over 4 minutes, which is just about ideal. Not album material by any means, but they may like it at the Wild Goose. And it does feel good to have accomplished something start to finish in a short period of time. URL is http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songi...;songID=7750801. It’s on the “Works in Progress” page.

I figured out who I was emulating when I wrote this—it was Scott Garriott, a songwriter I know in Ashland who writes some of the most disturbing folk music I have ever laid ears on. Very traditional formats, with compelling melodies and very, very strange lyrics. I’ll be seeing Scott while I’m down south; he asked if I could record some guitar tracks for an upcoming album—and I’d like to. Scott is the second (of two) non-famous writers I’ve ended up “channeling” in a song (the other is Lou Quarmwater, who lives in Canada).

Still to do for the trip: I’ve got RVTV setlists to dump onto CD for Darrin (harmonica) and Dan (mandolin), whom I want to enlist as leads for the TV show next month. I should have Failed Economy Show songs from John Thursday morning; from that three or four, I’ll pick one to take to southern Oregon on the Tascam to get other people’s lead parts. I’ll have three tracks to play with, so I can do three different leads (more if I want to be creative).

THREE WEEKS to the Garibaldi Days gig—and I know we’re on the schedule, because I’m typesetting the schedule. We will have two hours. We HAVE to practice. That’s twice as long a time frame as we had for the aborted Museum gig, and while I can include a lot of material from the Failed Economy Show, I don’t want to use all of it. I only want to use the Other People’s Songs we did that came out good (and ideally, that had people dancing). There is a difference between playing a benefit concert for a Cause, and playing a gig for entertainment, and I want to make it clear that we understand the distinction. Fun songs, not message ones, in other words.

Joe