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




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Friday, January 30, 2009

I have a duo!

First gig with Jim joining me on guitar!

The iPhone as a Songwriting Tool

Ok I'll stop the iPhone love gush one of these days but I've had mine less than a week so this is allowed.

Here's why this thing and all it's magical little apps you can download are awesome. Today I'm working on a new song...

1) I pull up some words I had jotted in the notes section this week. None of them actually got used this round but oh well.

2) I emailed some buddies from the phone to fact check a scenario for me...as in, "This line makes sense, right guys?" Jamie nearly responded with a spreadsheet and graph because she's so on it (she's an editor). They said I was in the affirmative. Phew.

3). I use Biblical references sometimes. So I pulled up the app that contains every version of the Bible...in several languages even. Did a content search of the whole thing and pulled up a story about Joshua to make sure I had it right.

4). Then I downloaded a rhyming dictionary app to get some help.

5). Then I decided to take a photo of my large piece of paper and blog it. All from the phone. The only reason I left my bed was to get cereal.

Thank you Apple. But you don't get royalties. Yet.

Blogged from Outerspace

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Big Paper Small Words

Writing experiment this morning.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Neither epidemic nor riot...


This week is flying by. The music school life is hoppin' and while Susan is off gigging in Atlanta and writing in Nashville, I have a lot of business stuff to attend to back here...like designing posters, for instance. And making sure they get to the right venues. And making contracts for upcoming gigs. My favorite line from an old contract we pulled out is, "if the Artist is unable to perform as required by this contract because of acts of God, strikes, illness, riots, epidemics, or accidents, they shall not be in breach...".

It's nice to know we have an out if there's an ebola outbreak or perhaps a riot over who gets the last hoodie.

In other news I welcomed a new iPhone into my life and I'm not quite sure what existed before it. Truly a useful tool, truly a good investment, truly going to make me a good booking agent in training, among other things.

I think my business card would say: "Jana Pochop: In Training" for the next 60 years, if I had a really honest one printed up. Except I'm an expert at mailing posters.

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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Music To Take Away

Do you have The Early Year yet? Do your 5 closest music-phile friends?

DO I HAVE A DEAL FOR YOU.

(Excitement!)

If you feel like sharing the love, I'll send you as many CD-Rs as you want with a hand-picked selection of J-Po songs, including a couple from the new EP The Early Year. You can hand these out to your friends, colleagues, coffeehouse hanger-outers, whoever you think might want to have The Early Year in their life.

The Steps:

1. Send me your mailing address. I won't use it for anything but depositing goodness in your mailbox. Send it to janapochop (AT) gmail (DOT) com

2. I'll send you as many CD-R's as you think you can pass out.

3. You pass them out and share the love. That's called the grass roots way to do it, and I like grass, and I like roots. (What?)

So let's refresh...come see a show or 3, check out the blog, and give free music to your friends.

That's what I call a good day.

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Sunday, January 25, 2009

Campfire Jam

Campfire Jam

One thing new about living in Texas is the phenomenon of jamming around a campfire. Maybe it was too hot in New Mexico for any fire-starting, I don't know. It's one of my favorite things. It was Susan's birthday today so in honor of that we had a shindig this weekend and of course it ended up in a jam. Around a campfire. Happy Birthday, Suz!

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Vote for porterdavis and suSANG!

Ok kids. There's this thing called the Austin Chronicle Music Poll. It actually really does help the bands who get voted on in this thing...it gets their names out there and the more people know names, the better.
You can vote no matter where you live. (Hi, out-of-state blog readers!)

Dan's band porterdavis is set to release a great new album this year and they deserve to be at the top of the heap in this thing. All of you who have seen or heard porterdavis know they're great. Dan also did a thrilling job producing my EP "The Early Year" and we're hard at work on the next one. Support the Producer, yo!

You all know Susan Gibson, and she put out her newest record "New Dog, Old Tricks" this year so it's eligible for album of the year. She's tops in any category you want to fit her into.

Suggested Ballot:

AUSTIN BAND OF THE YEAR: porterdavis

AUSTIN MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR: Mike Meadows - porterdavis

AUSTIN SONG OF THE YEAR: Perfect World - Susan Gibson

AUSTIN ALBUM OF THE YEAR: New Dog, Old Tricks - Susan Gibson

BLUES: porterdavis

ROOTS ROCK: porterdavis

FOLK: Susan Gibson

FEMALE VOCALS: Susan Gibson

MALE VOCALS: Daniel Barrett

ELECTRIC GUITAR: Daniel Barrett

ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Lloyd Maines

DRUMS/PERCUSSION: Mike Meadows

MISCELLANEOUS INSTRUMENT: Simon Wallace - harmonica

SONGWRITER: Susan Gibson

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Air and Simple Gifts

This piece by John Williams was the perfect musical mark for inauguration day. Awesome.

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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Resetting the Clock. Again.

Augh. Going from days that start around noon and end around 3 AM to days that start at 6 AM and end at 11 PM is WEIRD, folks. Yesterday was a giant sleepwalk after a merch weekend and getting back into a new week. But it's ok, and stuff gets done, and I can always think, which is my favorite pastime. Thinking does not require operating heavy machinery or caffeine thank goodness.

We're having pretty awesome weather here in Texas, so we can sit on the porch and look at maps without shivering too much. Pretty nice.

Work Day on the Porch

I spent the White Elephant gig perched on the corner of the dancefloor, which gave me a great view of Mr. David Carroll and his upright bass skillz. Dig it.

Bass Strings and Susan Gibson

The band was rockin' and always a treat to see. It was the first weekend of the Fort Worth Stock Show, something that used to put me in a state of dread when I worked in the 4-H office because that usually meant I had forgotten to turn in some form for some sheep or something...but this time it was cool because Susan had a huge crowd.

The Band

And there were no forms to turn in.

Susan

And instead of looking bored in a cubicle I get to look cheesy in a soundbooth. Life is indeed fun...so my internal clock will just have to deal with it.

Sound Booth Hijinx

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Friday, January 16, 2009

So much fun at the White Elephant!!!


Hi Karen and Amy!

Hi Susan!

Hi Amy!

Hi Nichole!

Fort Worth.  Hearts!

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Packed.


Ready for 3 days on the road...should be prepared for anything.

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Mapping the Year

From the war room yesterday...aka my apartment.

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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Juggle

Dashboard Piggy Bank

I can tell this year will be a test of my skills to juggle about 8 million more things than last year. And I like it. The key is to not compromise my course, while taking every opportunity available to me and adding a little something to the planet along the way.

The more opportunities the more decisions, the more decisions the more opportunities...if I do it right. I am learning a lot, and it's only January 13th. Saving all these lessons in my lesson piggy bank. I keep it on my dashboard.

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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Lookin' for the Heart of a Saturday Night

Good grief, almost a whole week without a post. My new year is kicking off slowly on the outside, hm? Lots of pondering and planning on the inside, though. Starting to think about the next record...meaning...editing and re-writing. Always a slightly hard thing for me to do. It's nice to have a producer for some thought and direction. It's hard to hear some things go back to the drawing board, but necessary for a desired end-product. Or end-art-project!

I spent yesterday starting some of my new tasks as Tour Monkey. I need a more official title than that but I like the image that one brings up in my head. Also I like bananas. The boss lady has been on a songwriters' cruise in the Caribbean (how's that for working?) and I have been accomplishing things back here so that's good.

Katie made some really good spaghetti last night and I didn't take any photos, so this post is photo-less in homage to the spaghetti.

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Sunday, January 4, 2009

Settling In

$1.32?  Really?
The cheapest gas I have ever purchased. Yeah, I'm young. Las Cruces, NM...

I made it back to Texas just in time to play a gig on Friday night. I started the drive from Albuquerque at 5 AM and didn't stop until I got to Tantra Coffee in San Marcos around 7 PM. The half hour drive up to Austin was probably the worst part just because I did not want to get back in the car, but luckily I played at a place of caffeination. I think I made up a new word.

This new year brings about some immediate changes and the promise of more. The Big One is I have moved up from the title of Merch Girl to more of a tour and business assistant in Camp Susan. I'm excited to be able to work with such a great person whose music I believe in unequivocally. But I'm still probably going to keep the Merch Girl title because it's so darn cute (right, Phil?).

I just finished the first song of 2009 (although it was started back in '08)...we'll see if it sticks and where. I'm making demos in preparation for the next EP...kind of just swapping song orders around and seeing what might work.

Also starting a NEW BLOG project...domain name has been purchased. Now I'm just trying to set it all up. More on that sooner.

Here's the progression of the sunrise from about 6 AM - 7 AM in Southern New Mexico on Friday....

Sunrise in NM 1

Sunrise in NM 2

Sunrise in NM 3

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Thursday, January 1, 2009

Oh Nine

Snow, highway, and sunset.

Happy New Year! Josh and I had a fitting end of the year meeting yesterday and decided we should do that every December 31st...Bourn Records schedules things ahead, I say. We geeked out with our laptops at Flying Star here in Albuquerque and made plans for the coming months and beyond.

I have a goal list sort of made and will solidify it this weekend...it's on the front burner because oddly, I seem to be pretty good about checking things off my lists. Quite a few goals from 2007 and 2008 have come to pass. Some days I feel like I am the world's worst procrastinator but something in there works...maybe it's the caffeine.

There's also the magic ingredient of The Unexpected. I have been the fortunate recipient of a lot of opportunities and happenings that I couldn't have schemed up, really. A result of preparation meeting opportunity and some dang nice people in the world, I think. Yay 2009!

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