Janice Williams Loves Austin

February 26, 2009

Randomness

Filed under: Music — Janice @ 2:21 am

Sometimes I think all day about an important topic I want to write about. And then something random comes along and that’s where I’m at and what I’m thinking about when I get around to writing.

Such as tonight. I just got an email from a cousin with one of those dire warnings. In this one, the author claims that someone called and left a message on their phone saying “Hi, this is Linda, this is important, call me back” and gives an 809 area code number which apparently will open the gates of Hell if you call it or something (I didn’t read that far). My question is, and maybe I’m from a different generation, who calls back a caller they don’t know? Maybe you think you’d do it as a courtesy, but to me, any caller that doesn’t clearly identify themselves and WHY they are calling is a bill collector. And I’m not calling them back.

Mark and I don’t answer the phone at home unless a.) we know it is ringing (it only plays a soft tune in my office so it can’t be heard throughout the house at all, but if we’re watching TV the caller ID pops up on the screen) and b.) we know who it is.  Gone, long gone, are the days that we answered every phone call. Caller ID cut out lots of our phone answering, but then when we each got cell phones and we know that anyone that NEEDS to talk to us will call the cell phone, the home phone went silent. Why do we have one at all? The alarm system has to have it to connect with the dispatcher, that’s all.

Just about every day there is a message on the answering machine from a perky recorded voice claiming that this is not a sales call. Of course it isn’t, it is a bill collector! Why would I want to call them back? Okay, if I OWED a bill, I might want to call them and get it straightened out, but they still better leave a message that tells me who they represent. I am quite sure this bill collector is calling about a bill from Mark’s past from over 17 years ago. Sorry, not my problem (and it wasn’t his bill anyway). I suppose that they think they might wear you down by calling every day? I don’t know. Send me a letter if you really think it is that important.

Do you also get those calls where it says, “By continuing to listen, you are acknowledging that you are ____,” and then the robot voice fills in your name? So they think I’m listening when it is only the answering machine picking up? Get into the 21st century folks. (heck, get into the 1980s, isn’t that when we all got answering machines?)

Oh, yes, now I remember what I WAS going to write about tonight. We got us a USB turntable as our Valentine’s present to each other. I’m excited. We have had a turntable for years, but it is connected to the stereo in the living room and I seldom use it to go back and hear my favorite albums. The new turntable is portable (like my very first little record player) AND it can be plugged into a computer in order to move the music from those old records to my hard drive or a CD. That will be nice for the records that were never made into CDs.

The first two records I played tonight were Meet the Beatles and Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player (by Elton John). Both were hugely important albums to me growing up and both must have been played about a thousand times. I played side two of Meet the Beatles and Mark was surprised that there were songs he didn’t know.  He didn’t grow up with that album and there are lots of songs on it that were never on the radio (“Little Child” was one). Those songs still absolutely THRILL me and I like hearing them in that particular order. That bothered me when I got the CD. It was the British version of the classic album and there were extra songs and they were in the wrong order. Funny, I put on Side 2 of Don’t Shoot Me… and looked at the songs listed and didn’t think I even KNEW “I’m Going to Be a Teenage Idol.” Once I heard it again, I did, but the mind does forget things, doesn’t it?

My mother bought Meet the Beatles for Mackie and I at the grocery store in Amarillo. While I can’t swear whether it was the Furr’s or the Safeway, I think it was the Furr’s and I have a distinct memory of coming up on it sitting there and begging her to let us have it. Our older cousin Judy was already a Beatles fan and we were certainly influenced by her. This may have also already been after they were on Ed Sullivan, I don’t know. I remember that distinctly, as well, but don’t remember the order of things (give me a break, I was like 4 years old). We had a Montgomery Ward portable record player and I played that album over and over. Mackie was in school by that time so I had it to myself through the day. The next year we moved to the country and the way the piano bench and the mirror over the dresser were situated gave me a perfect “TV” to do my TV show on (watching myself in the mirror). Me and my husband John would talk and play songs from his album.

Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player was the first album I ever bought for myself. It was 1973 and “Crocodile Rock” had already been a hit, I think, and “Daniel” was being played on the radio. I loved that song. My grandfather died that summer in late June. When my cousins were in town for the funeral, my sister, cousin Wyndy, and I went to Montgomery Wards and I bought that album while we were there. I remember feeling a little guilty about buying an album while I should be mourning my grandfather’s death, but I got over that.

It’s funny to look back on these two purchases. We think stores now have EVERYTHING, but most of our grocery stores don’t carry records anymore (okay, the Super Target and Mega Wal-Mart do) and we don’t have records in department stores anymore, do we?  Back then, though, we didn’t really have record stores and we certainly didn’t have electronics stores like Best Buy. And, most obviously, we couldn’t pull an album out of thin air at 3 in the morning on our computers.

I guess next I’ll have to pull out Red Headed Stranger and see how it sounds on vinyl again. Another one I bought at the grocery store (Cooper’s in Canyon). It might not have had the thousands of plays the other two did. By that time I had a car.

I do miss the days of really living and breathing an album for a long time. It was a rarity to get an album and I would sit and listen to it on headphones while I studied the album cover from front to back (the addition of lyrics on an album cover or sleeve was a truly wonderful thing). I knew what the songs were about and who had written them and maybe even who played on them. But, then there came the time that I could afford more music and bought more music and had a lot less time. Then I started getting more and more albums for free through work and if I listened to it all the way through that was an accomplishment. Less and less albums became “important” to me. None life changing like those three.  What were your life changing albums?

February 25, 2009

Time Flies

Filed under: Austin, Food, Music — Janice @ 2:26 am

I was reminded of how little I’ve been blogging by my friend Wild Bill today (by email). He makes me laugh. He wrote about his new cigar interest:

Got some Kinksters a while back and semi-enjoyed them. $2.99 for his low end model. I wanted some of the ones that are hand rolled on the thighs of virgins, but can’t seem to come up with anything. I got some hand rolled through the internet for about a buck a stick probably rolled on old fat women’s bellys. I would like to try one of the $10 cigars but am afraid they would be too good and spoil me or I couldn’t tell the difference between the buck a stick ones. So it is a lose-lose situation anyway. Guess I better stick with the low end rolled on old fat women’s bellys.

Bill makes me laugh. He is a radio listener that came to several of the Friday lunches I had ages ago. He was certainly memorable. He and his wife even brought me mistletoe at Christmas because I had bemoaned the fact that I didn’t have any yet. He is celebrating a birthday Sunday…. Happy Birthday, Bill!

I have enjoyed a tiny bit of music since I wrote last. Sunday evening I went to the Roadhouse Rags (store) on Fort View Drive (named because it was near the lone fort in Travis County during the Civil War… the name escapes me, but the historical marker is by the post office on Congress and Ben White). My friends Mark and Sarah, who have M&S Artist Development had their artists at a little small get together. I went to hear Madelyn Cascio. She was very good, though I got to talking and didn’t really get to hear her set. Keep your eye on her. She’s very young, but has a great, strong voice. I spent a lot of time talking to Shawn Nelson and his band mates. I’ve seen him play before and didn’t get to hang around long enought to see him play Sunday night, which is a shame. Catch him when you can.

I wish I had interesting things to write, but all I have been doing is working and doing taxes. This year’s taxes are quite a challenge with all the various part-time jobs and 1099 forms and lack of 1099 forms. I’m still working on just getting it together for my top-notch accountant Darryl Hoag.  I find it very comforting to have a CPA that is also a bartender and loves the music. I know he is going to do right by musicians. He’s been our accountant for several years. I expect to do better this year and get the taxes to him reasonably early (though it doesn’t look like it will be February like I had hoped). But in the years I have called him in April in a true panic, he is always calm and reassuring. And I don’t think he’s even had to get us an extension on those years. He gets it done, he saves us money. And sometimes he buys me a beer at the Saxon.

I woud like to relate more of the interesting stories that happen at my primary place of employment, where I work writing press releases, copying and filing contracts, and putting some bands on stage, but all of those stories are really too dangerous to tell the whole world, so I will keep them discreet.

With this exception! …  When I was in radio and talk to guys in bands or musicians with a song or a record and they would want to know what they needed to do to “change” themselves to get on the radio. I tried and tried to get those musicians to picture Willie Nelson asking that question. Where would this world be if Willie Nelson had taken the advice of radio disc jockies who helped him mold his music to be commercial? Thank goodness he did what he wanted to do and the world was drawn to it. I’m not saying that the world is going to be drawn to your music if you do it your way, but you’ll be a happier person if you play it the way you think it should be played.

I wanted to give that same lecture to a member of a band recently, though it wasn’t worth my time or energy. He called to try to sell me/us on the benefits of booking his band for any future gigs. I had never heard of this band at all, which means it is a hard sell. First he went on and ON.  My recommendation to you if you call a booking agent or a venue or someone that you want to sell:  Make it QUICK and to the point. He rambled on and on about their whole philosophy of music and why they do what they do. He made a point to say that their music was family oriented and clean. That’s great. No problem there. The gig/venue that he had called about would probably need that kind of band. He started hanging himself by continuing his prattling and told me how much they charge for a gig and how much they need for travel expenses and how they have to have motel rooms provided, etc. etc.  In this business, everything is negotiation and you never start with that. Bands! Managers! Take note and wait for the offer! But then the guy really blew it. He found out that we also book music series. Honestly, when it comes to our music series, our motto is “It’s all about the beer.” If a band doesn’t make the crowd buy lots of beer, we don’t want them. Music is a wonderful thing, but the venue makes their money (and the money to pay the band) from the beer sales. As we were talking, this guy tried to sell me on the idea of having their band play one of our music series. He continued on about their style of music and how it was family friendly and they “don’t do any drinking songs.” I laughed and said that that was exactly what we needed, bands that do drinking songs. Immediately, he changed his tune and said, “Oh, we can do drinking songs…” and tried to sell me on the idea that they were THAT kind of a band. Too late, he’d nailed that coffin lid shut.

I would like to tell more stories about the bands, but I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. This guy and this band don’t know me from Adam so they will never stumble upon this blog and, even if they did, I don’t think they would recognize themselves.

I think I will have a byline in the Gonzales Inquirer this Friday. If I can, I’ll link to the article I wrote for them about Texas Renegade.  They and Gary P. Nunn are performing at the Gonzales Freedom Festival next weekend on Saturday night. It will be a fun, free show. Maybe you can come down? It is only an hour from Austin, you know.

Oh, and in case I don’t write again this week… Thursday night, come to Momo’s to wish my friend Susan Lippe a happy birthday and help her cause. I met her last year on her birthday when she put together a benefit for a charity in New Orleans Neighborhood Story Project and Mark’s band played it.  She is doing it again this Thursday night at Momo’s with the Belleville Outfit and Little Elmore Reed and other fine folks that are contributing their time and talents to this cause in order to celebrate a wonderful friend’s birthday! Thursday night, Momo’s on west 6th, starting at about 8 p.m.  Mark plays at 11:30 p.m.  Suggested donation $10, but it is a very good cause so you can do better than that, right? I think there will be food for sale and other items for sale, too. She made it a great party last year and made everyone feel welcome, so come be a part of that helpful spirit that she creates.

All that rambling and I didn’t even get as far as the Academy Awards or the President’s speech tonight. I hope you enjoyed them both.

February 20, 2009

Recognition

Filed under: Austin, Radio stuff — Janice @ 2:28 am

I have wondered why there has been a sudden uptick in the number of people going to my website (the main one). Now I realize it is probably people going there from Facebook. Pressure! I need to update it so there is something there to see besides sweet Nathan Jr., huh? Maybe this weekend (along with the taxes).

But speaking of recognition… I’m wracking my brain about a girl I saw last night at Lambert’s. She was coming up the stairs as I was going down the stairs. I recognized her as someone I knew immediately and thought she was one of the dancers or regulars that comes to see Mark play at various places. She said, “Hello Janice” and I said “You’re late!” because the band was just about to quit. We laughed, passed, and I went home. When Mark got home I asked who the girl was that came in just as I left. He said he didn’t see her or didn’t notice. He couldn’t remember any women that were there at the end that I hadn’t seen already. So now I am perplexed. Now I am thinking I know her from my radio days. I think she worked in our promotions department. Believe me, I worked with a lot of college kids through the years so it is easy to get them confused and forget names. But now I feel bad that I didn’t acknowledge her further if that was how I know her … since I might not be running into her again.

Then again, she might be cousin and I’m just losing all ability to remember faces.

February 17, 2009

Meteors

Filed under: Austin, Family — Janice @ 2:27 am

Have you been paying attention to the story of the “fire in the sky” that people saw north of Austin and south of Dallas on Sunday? At first they reported it as space debris from colliding satellites (yes, that’s comforting) and then they have now decided it was a meteor.

That had to be a might big meteor to be seen in the day, I expect.

I have seen TWO phenomenol meteors, so I can imagine how these people felt. The first I saw was in the 70s when I was in junior high. My sister Mackie was getting ready for a date and fixing her makeup or hair at the dresser. I was sitting at desk chair by our bedroom window talking to her. Suddenly, I saw a HUGE ball of fire in the sky. It was amazingly bright. More than any shooting star, for sure. I thought a plane had crashed or something huge had happened and then the news reported a meteor.

Years later I was working at KPUR in Amarillo, doing the morning shift, and going to work super early. It was probably about 5:45 and I’m driving east on I-40 and I see a bright green ball of fire on the horizon. This time I had the thought “Oh!! A shooting star! What am I supposed to say? Oh, yeah, MONEY MONEY MONEY……… MONEY MONEY MONEY!!!”  It took all of that time for that ball of fire to disappear. Obviously, you can see how the riches have poured into my life by being clever enough to remember to say “money money money” before the shooting star went out of sight. I got to work and had our newsman tracking down what had happened. Like this report Sunday, the police were looking for a downed plane. It was a little foggy so there was some serious concern. Eventually, they decided that it was a meteor, too.

When I was a kid, my great-grandmother’s farm had “meteors” all over the place. I used to have quite a collection of meteor rocks. I still have a couple from there. But you never hear about people picking up meteors anymore. And the rocks I have would certainly put a hole in a house if they came crashing down. What has happened to all the meteors? Now I’m wondering if these are just “rocks” and I’ve been told a big story by certain older members of the family?

February 16, 2009

Feeling better

Filed under: At home, Austin — Janice @ 2:56 am

Yes, I feel a little better about things. I did get things done last night before going to bed and got plenty more done today. Started putting together the taxes, just a little bit, and judging by what TurboTax tells me, we could owe anything between $1500 to $9000. I think the $9000 is a little off. And since I won’t use TurboTax in the end–I’ll have a REAL expert look at it–we’ll be okay. We’ll pay, but we’ll be okay. The drag is, all that money we’ve put into health insurance and it STILL doesn’t take us above the minimums to get to use it for a deduction. Standard deduction is all we get, it looks like (at first glance anyway).

Getting my cruise pictures into this computer was on my list for the weekend, but I never got that done. Yes, it got pushed down the list because I have worked 13 hours on this paid project and that takes priority.

I did get outside in the sunshine today and hoe and take care of the yard a little bit. Enough to really antagonize my sinuses even more. I have been seeing SO many signs of spring and I love it. Already flowering quince is out. I’ve seen big fruit trees in full bloom. When we went for our Valentine’s lunch I saw redbuds blooming and irises are already out. I think we are going to make it through this winter without a hard freeze.

I think Mark’s granddad died on Valentine’s Day. I associate the two together, so it was close, if not on the day, in 2000. We had been to visit him earlier that week as he was dying and got to say our goodbyes (though he was not truly conscious). Redbuds remind me of him because he lived in beautiful East Texas at Hideaway Lake and they had big pines and redbuds. He had earmarked a redbud for us to take home from his yard. We didn’t get it until after he died, but he had chosen it for us. It is in our backyard and getting bigger each year. It hasn’t bloomed yet, but when I saw the redbuds blooming in the neighborhood yesterday I thought of Granddad. He was a sweet man.

February 14, 2009

Procrastinating Valentine’s Day

Filed under: At home, Family — Janice @ 10:32 pm

I am behind on my day. Mark had a gig in Houston last night and drove home after it, arriving somewhere like 6 a.m.  When he is out of the house, I sometimes can settle in and get some real work done. Last night was a good night for that. I am working on a project that I really enjoy AND I’m getting paid to do it. Last night I got serious and sat in one place for over 8 hours working on this project, finally finishing a segment of it and stopping at 4:30 in the morning. Good work, but that certainly threw off my schedule. So I have slept all day, except for a lovely Valentine’s lunch with the man I adore.

So now Mark has gone to another gig and I am procrastinating. I need to get back to work on that project. That project pays me, so it will eventually take top priority. But there are so many other things that need to be done as well. The kitchen WILL be clean before I can stand to go to bed, and the bathrooms, too. But then there are the projects that aren’t immediately profitable and slow to be completed that gnaw at me. I had SWORN I would look through my tax file tonight. I do not like putting together the taxes each year. This year haunts me even more since all my work this year was contract labor and had no taxes taken out. We rarely get a refund as it was and now I’ve got income that wasn’t taxes. We are going to be owing some money and I dread getting those figures. (But in case Darryl, my accountant, has found my blog:  I swear I’ll get it to you early this year.) I also must find health insurance soon for us. We’ve been limping by on COBRA and it will run out soon. That is probably a good thing because I expect we might be able to find it a little cheaper. Maybe not a lot, but we might be able to save a little. I definitely need to be looking and get that done because of Mark’s serious needs that we cannot let fall into “the gap” of being not covered.

I may end up following my Mother’s good advice of my childhood. “Go on to bed and get a good night’s sleep and get up early.” Whenever Mackie and I were in a state because we had a homework project that was incomplete at bedtime (which, I’m sure, only occurred because we had put it OFF until bedtime), Mom would not let us pull an all-nighter. I really don’t remember ever getting up in the morning early to finish anything, but somehow things did get done. They always do. And what’s the difference if you miss one year of paying taxes?

February 13, 2009

Yet another catch up

Filed under: At home, Music, Radio stuff — Janice @ 2:28 am

The worst part about NOT writing is having to get started again. No way I can catch up so I won’t really try. Another bad thing is all of the ideas and subjects I think “Oh yes! I must write about that!” i.e. I’m listening to Jack Ingram right now on the “radio” (computer website iLike something deal). I went to see a movie a couple of weeks ago (“Milk”–excellent) and my phone rang just as the lights went down. I didn’t recognize the number so I let it go to voice mail and checked it when I got out of the movie. It was Jack. How nice is that? I want to tell him, “I can’t help you now, you don’t have to be my friend anymore!” Big ol’ hit-making #1 country star calling me.

We caught up on our American Idols tonight. We had a lot of catching up to do after the cruise and all the long episodes they’ve had. Finally waded through to the end and they certainly put in all of the most obnoxious attention-grabbing singers, but I guess that makes for good television. I dearly wanted them to sit Tatiana down and say, “Sweetheart, you really can sing, but we can’t stand you so go back home to Puerto Rico.” sigh

I’ve seen some great music in the last few weeks. Catch Shurman sometime if you can.  They just moved to Austin and a friend had been telling me about them. Finally got to see them on a really fun night at the Saxon a couple of weeks ago (and they’ll be back there on Tuesday night, 2/17). They reminded me of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Rockers, but not dance all over the stage kind of rock. And they TRULY had that “certain something” that an artist or band just has to have to make it. Something sexy and charismatic. In fact, an hour or two before they performed, I had already noticed two of the guys in the band, just hanging out, because that had that “something.”

I also saw Pat Green at his CD release last Friday at Waterloo Records. That was fun to see him and Clay Corn, Brett Danaher, and Brendan Anthony. I missed Justin Pollard, the drummer. Pat has such a sharp sense of humor and I haven’t gotten to experience that in a long time. He is a great entertainer. I did buy the new CD and can’t say that I love it. I need to A-B the new version of Carry On and see why it doesn’t move me (for the non-audiophiles, A-B means you listen to the two versions sort of side by side, switching back and forth to compare). I especially didn’t see the need to change the lyric from “Texas” to “my place.” Really? Does Texas in a song really send up red flags in Nashville? Still a great song and I love it. I tell Walt Wilkins how great it is whenever I see him since he has a writing credit on it, but he insists Pat wrote 90%. I think he just doesn’t want anyone to think he wrote his own name into a song.

I tried to go the Ben Kweller CD release, but the line was around the block. I did get the CD later in the week and I like a lot of things about it. Still a couple of songs that I need to get more used to, but I find myself singing “Fight” a lot and the one about the pretty head.

Well, I guess I haven’t seen that much music after all. I have the need and desire, just sometimes not the energy. I have been out to see Little Elmore Reed this week, too, but I like to keep that one secret (ha, like the whole town doesn’t show up every Monday no matter how secretive we all are!). Mike Keller did sing “No Blow, No Show,” on Monday and that made me very happy. I had discovered just this week where Mark keeps the recordings of their shows so I had already listened to about five different versions of that song (all by LER) that day. I’m going to have to make myself my own personal mix tape. I would have something so many people truly want–a Little Elmore Reed CD! I have heard the reason they don’t have a CD is because their leader is a perfectionist.

The past few weeks have been so incredibly busy for me, I have barely had time to watch 23 hours of American Idol, 4 hours of Grey’s Anatomy, 2 of The Closer, 2 of Lie to Me, 2 of The Office, 2 of 30 Rock, a Superbowl, and the news every day with Brian Williams (I have a huge crush on that younger man).

I was offered some new work when we got back from the cruise. It is difficult to describe, but it involves music and Billboard charts and finding songs that fit certain categories. It has been a BALL. I really feel in my element when I’m doing a job like that. The project continues and I hope it continues and grows! I don’t think that is going to happen, but it is fun to have a hand in something that makes me go, “Oh, yes! This is what I like to do!”

I was hearing some parts of the stimulus package today and I truly hope it works. I want the economy to recover, uh, yesterday. It can’t be soon enough to make me happy. I don’t know that any of the features will have too much impact on my immediately. Mark may get a little more money in his paycheck, but since everything I do is freelance, I don’t have taxes taken out of my checks and I won’t get that small amount that will be there. Also, they’ve extended unemployment benefits, but since I am working enough to negate that possibility, that doesn’t help me out. And there was talk about helping to pay for the health insurance when you’re on COBRA. My COBRA is just about to run out and we need to find other health insurance, so that probably won’t have an impact either (unless there might be some help for other kinds of insurance). I am an optimist and I feel recovery coming on.

I told someone the other day that we are all either optimists or in denial about the economy. I bought tickets to see Bruce Springsteen, for heaven’s sake. If I really believed that things would get worse and we would be in dire need later in the year, I wouldn’t have made that “investment.” (Hell, yes, it is an investment…. I am a music consultant, I have to see performances like this so that I can advise people, right?)

Okay, that’s my catch up and now we’ll see if I can get to some of the other topics in days to come. And pictures, too. I did take some on our cruise and I haven’t even looked at them!

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