Reviews and updates: The Monday Night Musical performance went well; Doc, Bill, JoAnn and I were easily more professional than the rest of the performers they had. I hope it turns into more business. I played “The Dead Sweethearts Polka” for both the Friday Night Group and our crew at the Tillamook Library, but I don’t think it’s concert material—at least, not yet; it is hard to sing in the key I recorded it in (it’s way at the bottom of my voice range), but the happy serial killer motif also disturbs people (I can’t complain—that was intentional). I do like the song, though. I guess the best one can say is it’s one of those songs that just can’t be played everywhere—like “Dirty Deeds We Done to Sheep.”

I finally did hear from the 2nd Street Public Market’s director (had to call her, though); the opening of the building has been delayed again (I knew that from the newspaper), and while I’m “on her list,” she hadn’t contacted anybody. I did get an e-mail from her shortly after we talked on the phone—I presume it went to everybody else “on her list,” too—saying what was going on. That’s one to keep following up on; it’s paying business.

Four songs on the ReverbNation Website now (which leaves—what? 70-plus to go?); it’s got a few features now that imitate some of the things Soundclick does, so it may be okay. It’s supposed to “link” with Facebook, but it doesn’t, of course, because Facebook keeps “fixing” things so they don’t work. I activated a long-dormant “LinkedIn” account, too, after a friend/fiddler/fellow square dancer/ex-teacher said she’d gotten some business out of contacts there. LinkedIn proceeded to go spam everybody in my e-mail address book (which is rather a lot of people), which was probably really annoying to a lot of folks. (I know I hate it when somebody does it to me.) LinkedIn is potentially a business-generating site—I can post my resume there, and maybe some graphic-design and writing samples. I just hope I haven’t driven away business by being inadvertently annoying.

And a fellow songwriter says he’s starting up a new label, “Pop Can Records,” and asked me if I’d be interested in sending him some stuff; the answer is yes. What the fellow is creating is actually an OMD (Online Music Distributorship), like Soundclick, ReverbNation, et al., where he says the stuff I send him will be available and promoted. (He’s small, of course—but having somebody else promoting me, too, would be nice, even on a small scale.) All free—but the material I have on Soundclick, et al., is all listen-toable and downloadable for free, too.

I think I’ve probably got a dozen good tunes I could send him. There’s a couple that were done by The Collaborators, the Internet band I worked with some years back (“The Cat with the Strat” and “She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself”), a few that were recorded and mixed by the incomparable Gem Watson (“Dirty Deeds We Done to Sheep,” “The Frog Next Door” and my St. Leif’s Day song, “The Six-Legged Polka”), and a couple I recorded with other people playing lead (“Hey, Little Chicken,” with Dan Doshier, and “Free-Range Person,” with both Dan and Darrin Wayne). And I think I’ve got a few home recordings with me playing all parts that came out decent, too.

Not one evening at home this week; meetings Monday and Wednesday, Tempest rehearsals Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday (I think I have my lines down now), and music Friday (the days are full, too). Upcoming pretty quick, I have another SOSA newsletter to typeset (I’ve recommended the Bay City Arts Center do something similar—it’s really simple to do).

Joe