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.

If You Miss the Bus

If You Miss the Bus from janapochop on Vimeo.

Random Check In and EP 1

I started this post in the van between Davis, OK and Freyburg, TX. Then I got distracted by the shiny lights of a convenience store stop. Here is it, plus some EP 1 news tacked on. July 4th notes: Oklahoma beer is different than other beer. By law, beer sold in Oklahoma must have a 3.2% alcohol content, which is different than the usual percentage of, well...everywhere else. You CAN buy full strength beer, but it has to be at a store that sells beer and liquor only, and they can't refrigerate it. It intrigues me that someone thought about this so thoroughly. So apparently it's a big deal to have "Texas beer" in Oklahoma...stronger stuff. It doesn't seem to taste any different, but it might explain why my usual post-concert threshold was higher in Davis than usual. Ahem. They keep talking about the "mountains" around the state and I saw no mountains. I remarked that perhaps a song hook could be, "I'm as high as an Oklahoma mountain and drunk on Oklahoma beer...and I'm still completely sober." (I kid...I had a great time there). There is at least one Indian fusion music station out of the Dallas area, and today they were randomly interrupting the music to state facts about America, like how many people visit national parks in Washington state per year, and how many people immigrated through Ellis Island. I forgot both numbers. That was some wailing sitar, though. Sometimes being a traveling musician means changing your clothes at stoplights, or perhaps changing your shirt while driving. There are signs pointing the way to Hidden Lake along I-35 in OK. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of hiding the lake? July 8th Notes: The artwork for EP 1 is just about there. I'm so happy about it. Emily nailed the vibe...she sent a few options so now I have to do what I fear doing and...make a decision. Gasp. The mixing for EP 1 is also almost there! The four tracks we sent to Dallas came back AWESOME. Some little back and forth to be done but man. Phil Hill is mixing them and he is the man. Sounds like a record.

"Be Wise Not Weird."

It's time for another round of Humorous Search Terms...weird keywords that were Googled and somehow sent these poor, confused (and sometimes suspect) people to my site. I don't think any of these are Jamie trying to mess with the system...she's admitted to doing that. (Now she's too busy being ENGAGED! Congrats, Jamie and Mike!!) Anyway... 1. "funny drug posters" -- oh like maybe...this one? 2. "hilarious pie charts" -- anything involving pie is usually funny. Unless it's mom's rhubarb pie for breakfast. That's all business. 3. "bunny girl" -- I have no idea. 4. "email contact of farmer @ yahoo.com" -- I mean really. How many farmers have a Yahoo email address? Maybe 10 at the most. I hear Gmail is more of a farmer thing. Eesh...needle in a haystack. Pun intended. There we go. A little Friday fun. I'm off to organize my receipts and log my miles. Apparently this new way of life requires new ways of accounting. Office supplies rock! Note: many of you are looking the song "Mercy" by Duffy, because a good 20 hits are from the search term "beggin' you for mercy." Well...Youtube it. It's catchy.

Tuesday Night

You can tell my level of tiredness by the creativity (or lack thereof) in my post titles. I am working on a series of posts for next week (one a day!) that might explain my strange posting schedule as of late. Things are still shifting...though I feel like they have been shifting for about 16 years, haha. Good things, all...and patience is one of those virtue things they talk about, I hear. I got some new music so I am currently delving into Emmylou Harris, Jon Dee Graham, The Band, Springsteen, Lyle Lovett, and Kim Richey. Emmylou blows me away, always. I got more Jana Water in the mail from the nice folks there...a blog post about that is coming too for sure. Next time I'm in NYC I'm going to knock on their office doors and say hello. I hope they don't call security. I'll wear close-toed shoes, I promise! I really want to write a song right now. That and drink water.

Obsession Check In

Someone else's oatmeal. Just for a point of reference, if you ever need to accuse me of being obsessed with anything. (i.e. "Oh yeah?? Well you're dumb, Jana...because you're obsessed with): - Luna Bars. In particular the caramel nut brownie and the chocolate peppermint. Vegan. Full of folic acid. Gimme gimme folic acid. (Oh no, I just made a Britney reference. Sigh. I thought I was above that. I guess not). - Grapefruit. Still on that grapefruit kick! Making up for years of lost Vitamin C. - Sunkist orange soda. I'd also like to think this contributes to my Vitamin C intake, but I think all it does is make me orangey in hue. I spend so much time keepin' it real, yo. I need some artificial flava, too. - Mindy Smith's CD Long Island Shores. "Out Loud" is a spectacular song. Mindy Smith. Not oatmeal. - The Zen of chord theory. Sometimes, when I mess around with words and chords and phrases and open-ended things so much...it's nice to know that the key of C will always have a fifth, and the fifth will always be G. Concrete. - Oatmeal. I know, it's like I discovered how to eat like an adult or something. I was never an oatmeal kid. Now I like to drench it in cinnamon and eat it for dinner.

Labor Day Shirt Spree

Gig shirts. A tricky thing. For me, anyway...they have to be unobtrusive enough so someone doesn't spend the whole show wondering what the heck my shirt means as opposed to listening to the music...but I'd like to think I uphold a standard for t-shirts and that standard is: Dang Clever. Hence...I took a little gig money and hit the sales, all from the comfort of the Irie Bean couch. I love internet shopping. Here's what we ended up with: From RandomShirts.com: From Threadless.com: I just wanted a burgundy shirt with a hen on it, ok? It's actually called "The Emergence of the Easter Egg." Brilliant.

What I look like...

when I am trying to come up with an interesting blog post. And perhaps fail, and decide to just post a photo instead.

Practice Time

So...sometimes I like to figure out a guitar solo and play it over and over and over until I feel like it's time to move on. Tonight was one of those nights. The song: "Slave to the Beauty" by Mary Chapin Carpenter. The Telecaster doesn't make it to gigs ever because...I am a folk singer. Go fig.