i am sitting on the starboard
of your only way
back home




Jana%20Pochop
Quantcast



follow janapochop at http://twitter.com


follow supermerchgirl at http://twitter.com

www.flickr.com








Subscribe in a reader

Jana Pochop
Jana Pochop
Promote Your Page Too

Join My Community at MyBloglog!
StumbleUpon
Add to Technorati Favorites
podsafe music network


Monday, December 29, 2008

Georgia O'Keeffe and Making Records

"I know I cannot paint a flower. I cannot paint the sun on the desert on a bright summer morning, but maybe in terms of paint color I can convey to you my experience of the flower or the experience that makes the flower of significance to me at that particular time." - Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Perhaps my favorite thing to do in Santa Fe is visit the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. I'm no art critic, and I often don't know what I should be doing or looking at in an art museum...but O'Keeffe's work has always gotten under my skin. Maybe it's because she sought out New Mexico as her artistic home. Maybe it's her ability to paint something I recognize while making me see it for the first time and differently each time after that. Maybe it's just because she's brilliant.

The Museum itself is not large at all; you can get through it in 15 minutes if you don't look too closely, or you can take all afternoon. A lot of times there's no glass separating the viewer from O'Keeffe's broad strokes on the canvas. The paint looks fresh.

One of the security guards even showed us O'Keeffe's fingerprint hidden in a tiny watercolor of a windmill. He had to shine his flashlight on the glass so we could pick it out; we felt like we were being let in on a secret.

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

While I was looking at the exhibition yesterday, I decided I want to be able to write songs and make records the way O'Keeffe painted. Bold strokes without hesitation. Making life's minutiae important and beautiful. Shedding light on the colors and scenes already surrounding us. Georgia didn't make the mountain she painted multiple times, but she definitely made it her own.

Labels: , , ,

Saturday, December 27, 2008

End of Year Meme

Well, folks. Time for reflection and all that stuff...it was a good year. I kind of figure if you want to recount it in detail, you can click any month on the archive list over there, so an in-depth kind of recap would be a little silly. There are some fun blog memes going around, though...so let's try this one.

The rules are: take the first sentence for the first post of each month for 2008 and put them together. Also…put in the first photograph of the month (sometimes from the same post, sometimes not).

January: The site looks a little different, except it's exactly the same.


February: Wow, kids; again a stretch of days with no blog post.


March: I really need to start taking photos more because otherwise, you're stuck with images of me like this one, sitting on my porch at 8 AM on a Saturday, blogging outside because I can't mooch a wifi signal inside.


April: "She needs wide open spaces; room to make her big mistakes." - Wide Open Spaces (Susan Gibson)


May: Very fun songswap at the Hideout this week with Amanda Pearcy, Rachel Lynn, and Beth Lee.


June: You've all heard me gush poetic about Mary Chapin Carpenter, one of the main reasons I picked up a guitar in the first place.


July: Well...I am hopefully all situated and ready to hit the road with Susan Gibson for the next few days.


August: The title. The Early Year.


September: Spent the weekend on the road again (now it's stuck in your head! Haha!) with Susan selling t-shirts and CDs to the fine folks in Wimberley, Marble Falls, and Fredericksburg.


October: This one makes me smile because it kind of brings a neat story full circle for me.


November: Phil and his awesomeness have announced the winners of the Merch Girl T-shirt Slogan Contest...go to his blog to see the results.


December: So the whole premise of the title of The Early Year (do you have yours yet, and did you buy some for stocking stuffers? They're pretty with red and green) was the getting up at 5:30 AM to write.

Buddy Christ

Labels: , ,

Friday, December 26, 2008

Rules for Christmas in Albuquerque

1. If the weather people say it will snow on a certain day, it won't.
2. If they say the snow that is falling will only be for a little bit, it will snow all day.
3. Any leftovers from Christmas dinner must be garnished with green chile.
4. Ideally post-holiday breakfasts involve some sort of red chile smothered over something. What the something ends up being is inconsequential if it is covered in chile.

Snow in Burque
Flakes! And I don't mean dandruff!

Labels: , , ,

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Bells Are Ringing

Merry Christmas, everyone!


(I didn't make this video but I love the song - from Mary Chapin Carpenter's Christmas album which is AWESOME).

Labels: ,

Sunday, December 21, 2008

The Big D for Done. And Dallas.

Merching for 2008 is over, yo. What a time. I plan to ruminate on it all more when I am ensconced in New Mexico, eating biscochitos and red chile (not together). How Christmasy of me.

Dallas was so fun and great way to cap it all off. My train home from Fort Worth even ran ON TIME, the first time that's happened for me. Whoa. Also, we had our first WARDROBE MALFUNCTION at a gig, and I handled it. With duct tape. That stuff fixes everything.

Duct Tape.  Fashionable and Functional!
I'd like to think Susan has started a trend.

Susan played a great show at Sue Ellen's and the company was snarky and sublime. Also I got a new hat, because it was flippin' cold in Dallas. I was sweating Austin when we departed, and by nightfall it was a good 30 degrees c-c-c-c-older.

Hat.
Hizzat, yo.

Merch in Dallas - hoodies!
This looked cooler without a flash in the club lighting. Really.

Laptop time!
Excellent gig.

Jana and Marian at Sue Ellen's in Dallas
I played a set with Marian...and the hat.

suSANG! and J-Po!
Thanks, boss. Fo' shizzle.

More stuff happening next year...new opportunities and more of the fun stuff. I'm excited. I'll be even more excited after a bit of a winter's nap and some warm toes. Goodnight, y'all. Thanks for reading. Some sort of year-end round up will ensue, no doubt. Go make your lists of things accomplished this year and revel in a life well-lived. It's good to do.

Labels: , , , , ,

Saturday, December 20, 2008

New Hoodies and Last Merch Trip O' the Year

I love hoodies. I lived in them in New Mexico when we actually had four seasons and three of them contained some elements of coldness. I picked up some brand new Susan Gibson hoodies yesterday, designed by Emily who yet again did a great job (she did my album artwork, too).

New Hoodie!

They are centered around the song "Perfect World" - with the line, "Wouldn't it be great if all the bad guys dressed in black?" Hence, you have a bad guy warning sign on the front, the lyric on the back, and the oh-so-ironic fact that the hoodies are indeed...black. We were proud of that little trick.

Wouldn't It Be Great If All the Bad Guys Dressed in Black?

Tonight Susan plays in Dallas and then the Merch Girl checks out for the rest of 2008. Pick up a hoodie, or if you can't be there tonight, I'll see you in January. Heck yeah!

Here's the tune...so you can sing along to the subtitles on my shirt.

Labels: , , ,

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Because Terri Hendrix Rocks Like That


I got my Terri Hendrix CDs in the mail today...because I pre-ordered them because, well...WHY NOT!? The big news from Terri was that the pre-orders themselves paid for the recording and printing of these CDs and will pay for her NEXT record, too. That is amazing.

In these times of record labels dropping artists and folding and freaking out because people are stealing music by burning a CD for their friends...Terri is the one still standing and still putting out awesome music...independent since 1996. Who's got the right idea?

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Clean Clothes

Won't some aspartame-filled diet cola product sponsor me?? Come on.

Anyway, greetings from the laundromat. It's kind of shocking how wifi'd up most places are these days. I get internet at home, at Red Leaf, in the merch van, at venues, and while doing my laundry. I get personally affronted when there isn't wifi, or when it's not free. Maybe I need to unplug.

There's not much bloggage because there's not much to report beyond the usual routine. I'm still getting up early when I can, unless I roll into town at 4 AM like I did Sunday night. That would be madness, though it might invoke some interesting lyrics that would be unreadable the next day.

As always, 2009 promises to be a year of big change and I hope, big progress. 2008 was definitely that. And here we go getting all year-end sappy. I had better put my clothes in the dryer.

Labels: , ,

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Live Version of "Fortunate" up on Myspace

Check out a live track from my weekend in Port Aransas for the Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines workshop last month...we did a show that weekend and my tune was "Fortunate." That's Lloyd doing the introduction. Hear it on Myspace, yo!

(And if you dig the tune, probably my favorite version so far is on Youtube with Susan Gibson and Marian Brackney jammin' along at Artz Ribhouse in Austin).

(And if you really, really dig the tune...get your copy of The Early Year. Woot!)

Labels: , ,

Monday, December 15, 2008

Wednesday - Thursday Last Week

Whirl. Wind. I awoke last Wednesday to snow on the ground, forcing me to walk back inside when I was leaving to grab the camera. Now, I know what snow is. I was born in South Dakota. Even New Mexico gets hit a few times a year. This is what we call...a dusting. But it still proves how cold it is here!

Snow in Austin.

So then it was into the van for a merching trip to Denton. We picked up a few people before the gig and it was 5 dogs and 5 people for a bit.

Four Dogs.  One Van.

The Mt. Vernon String Quartet was playing the early show at Dan's Silver Leaf...which was kind of surreal but also kind of cool.

Opening Act: A String Quartet!

I set up the merch table with Christmas lights while being soothed by strings and piano. Christmas lights make everything better.

Merch in Denton!

Susan shared the night with Charlie Shafter and the Gnomes, who opened and also played with her. They were awesome, and I highly recommend their CD. We listened to it a bunch on the way home that night.

Susan Gibson and the Charlie Shafter Band

Note the hip use of the capo on the guitar to hold her cigarette. Talent!

Susan Gibson in Denton

And we drove all the way home that same night. Which turned into morning. Which turned into sunrise. Yawn.

Sunrise after a long drive home.

Labels: , , ,

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Positively European


My new tool for the road is a "Euro Lap Desk" (that was what the package said anyway). It's a big piece of wood with padding on the bottom, so I can laptop in the van in style. I've also successfully used it as a writing desk and today I used it to eat a salad with no mishaps or spillage whatsoever. Truly, the Euro Lap Desk is a thing of beauty. What makes it "Euro"...we can't figure out. Maybe lap desks are big over there.

Hello, mobile office. We're on our way to the White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth...

Labels: , , , , ,

Friday, December 12, 2008

Lyrical Venus Podcast for Download

My good friend Heather over at Lyrical Venus has uploaded the podcast from when I was on her radio show in October. That means you kids can go take a listen and download it if you like...yay Heather! Download it on the website (it was the October 14th show)...or here's a direct link to the mp3.

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Dan's Silver Leaf Redux


It's a good night, y'all. We're in Denton for what is a return merch trip for me to Dan's Silver Leaf...we were last here in July. That means I'm tenured. Or something. I'm wearing a scarf. I look silly in every picture. Oh well.

Labels: , , ,

To Denton and Back


I have a puppy in my lap.  Driving to Denton for Dan's Silver Leaf gig tonight.  Gonna be a merch girl with many layers on!  Brr!

Labels: , ,

Monday, December 8, 2008

Retirement Fund Grows

So Saturday night after the show in Lake Buchanan we had a convenience store stop to make, and while I was more focused on popcorn vs. pretzels for the trip home, Susan managed to find a ceramic pig that I don't have in my collection yet. Win! Nice boss.

New Ceramic Pig!

Labels: , , ,

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Happy Dogs on Lake Buchanan

Just to start off...I realized I did not take ONE photo of the lake the whole time we were about 60 feet away from it. Oops. Lake Buchanan is pretty, not that I could prove it.

Ready to be the Merch Monkey
Monkey ready to make good the benefits of the merch.

Yesterday Susan played at the Cedar Lodge Resort in Lake Buchanan along with a bunch of other cool artists to benefit the Happy Dog Rescue out in that area. There were puppies everywhere, and they were all stunningly well behaved. We didn't see one piece of BBQ being chased after or anything.

Guilda.
Guilda ready for her close up.

Yin and Yang
I call this "Dog Yin-Yang."

Walt Wilkins and The Mystiqueros
Walt Wilkins and The Mystiqueros

Moon and music.
Susan Gibson

Going home.
Then we drove home. In the dark. Past the lake, I swear.

Labels: , , , ,

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Bring 'Em All In / Lloyd Month



I love this song. Yay Terri and Lloyd. :)

Also it's Lloyd Maines month at LoneStarMusic.com -- good times and well deserved. Woot!

Labels: , , ,

Random Searching

It's time for another round of "how people found jpo.com." It's weird, folks. The trending of some things is hysterical. Also, I apologize to the people who really own jpo.com because I am too lazy to type my whole name.

Facts:

1. The 3rd most popular search term used to get to my site in the past month is "red velvet bingles."

2. Someone searched for "Jesus on my dash". Did they want to know WHO has one on their dash? Were they looking for a Buddy Christ of their own?

Buddy Christ

3. Someone typed "i love jana" - well, good.

4. Someone else typed "who needs a merch girl". Well, lots of people, but not Susan. Job taken.

5. In the past 5 months, about 2000 people from Texas have visited. About 2 from North Dakota have visited. Come on, Fargo...represent.

Unrelated but sorta not:

Urban Dictionary's definition of "merch girl":

cute girl that sells a band's merchandise at a show. but sometimes they are not cute.

Well then.

Labels: ,

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Early December

So the whole premise of the title of The Early Year (do you have yours yet, and did you buy some for stocking stuffers? They're pretty with red and green) was the getting up at 5:30 AM to write. It was a particularly productive time for me, but 5:30 AM is not sustainable forever, especially because I don't retire at 9 PM. Ever.

However, Dan and I decided on an Early Season of sorts...so we're once again waking up at 5:30 AM to get things done, like write and practice and take time to sit and be. Days fill up so fast, it's kind of nice to see the sun come up. I hope I'll get some new tunes out of this season, but whatever comes will be worth it, even if it's just a lot of sunrises.

Also, Terri Hendrix posted a bunch of tunes from her new Retrospective CD and her Christmas EP on her Myspace -- AWESOME. Go listen. Then go order them.

Bed time.

Labels: , ,