Dick, Carol and I will be in the talent show (tentatively dubbed “Garibldi’s Got Talent!”)—I really hadn’t expected otherwise, but today’s audition made it official. The music store in Tillamook called; they want to sell my CDs ($15 per, of which I get $10)—I may need to get more pressed. (Handing the things out like business cards does help. That’s how the music store got one.)

Rowan (the Craigslist banjo player) is interested in the banjo—we’ll try to connect while I’m in Portland. Sent the Garibaldi Museum owners the poster for the 1 August concert. And my audition for the burlesque show is confirmed, too—6 p.m. Sunday 7/19, in Portland. Means I’ll need to leave southern Oregon by around 10 a.m.

The burlesque show will get 6 songs, I think:

Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes? (slow & sleazy Gospel)

Naked Space Hamsters in Love (fast bluegrass)

Sam & Melinda (slow traditional folk)

Dirty Deeds We Done to Sheep (Johnny Cash-style rock ‘n’ roll)

The Cat with the Strat (talking blues)

The Taboo Song (mod. slow two-step)

That’s under half an hour, because all the songs will be shorter when there’s no lead breaks. Enough shorter so I could fit in a seventh song? Maybe. My best candidate may be “The Termite Song”—it’s pretty short, too—inserted in between Sam & Melinda and the sheep. It’s not as suggestive as the rest of the setlist, but it does get people’s attention—and global warming is such a (shall we say) hot topic these days.

Script is done for the 7/18 RVTV shows, and e-mailed to host T-Poe and producer Sheral; I found “flex points” where I can reduce the length of my performance slightly to accommodate lengthier interviewing by T-Poe if necessary. Two of the songs in the “Serious Issues” set have extra choruses that can be eliminated, and two of the songs in the “Not Serious At All” set have lead breaks than can be cut back. Just need to know ahead of time that we need to do that.

At the Southern Oregon Songwriters showcase in Medford Sat. 7/18, I’ll do my three newest: “The Taboo Song,” “Me and Rufus, and Burnin’ Down the House,” and the finally-finished reincarnation song, “Always Pet the Dogs.” Yes, it’s done, I think (lyrics are getting peer review at Just Plain Folks, but I haven’t seen any nits yet). It’s just three verses (2 verses, chorus, last verse, chorus), but I really couldn’t think of anything that needed to be added. Some songs are just like that. Maybe I can record it this weekend.

On the not-good-news front, I did not get the city-manager job in Myrtle Point; I got the formal rejection letter in the mail (they even said which of the whippersnappers they hired, but I can’t remember which of the kids was which). I’ll send them a nice letter back, wishing ‘em the best of luck (they are nice people), but I still do have other fish to fry. No point in being discouraged about it. (And that’s the only bad news—today, anyway? That’s not too bad.)

Tasks for the weekend are to mow the lawn, finish the Garibaldi Days program, design and typeset the program for the 17 July SOSA concert in Central Point, script out the Garibaldi Days and Museum sets, apply for half a dozen more jobs, and pack for Road Trip #2. Music Friday night at City Hall and Saturday at the Tillamook Library.

Joe