Thoughts About Playing at Moxie Java

Turnouts at Moxie Java have been pretty small. Obviously, we'd prefer a place with more people in it, but I don't know how to find that gig. I'm feeling lucky to have a gig at all, and hoping for the best, traffic-wise. It's a little scary when Steve says, "Not a bad crowd, for a Saturday" (eerily mimicking the first line of the last verse of "Piano Man"). It'll be interesting to see how much attendance we get this Friday. My impression from the two Fridays that I've checked in were that they consist of a few drop-ins, and a lot of friends/fans of the particular act of the night. For the piano guy (Rob Blaney), that makes 50 people; for the guitar lady, it was 8-ish. I guess it's a challenge to us to create a fan base, or make do with the drop-in traffic. The third option is find a new place (like Tully's) that has decent drop-in traffic.

The tough part of having a gig is it limits your ability to go looking for a different one. I keep holding out hope for Mama Java's at Mission Viejo Lake, which has that cute little sub-room especially built for music, but I haven't been able get there to see what they're up to since the "last chance!" night of the little jazz combo. I don't know if the combo was retiring, or moving on, or being fired, or if the shop itself has abandoned hosting music. The upside there is that it's fed by the big "Tortilla Flats" restaurant in the same center, and it's got the cachet of being "on the lake", instead of "next to Von's" like Moxie. When I went to the "last chance", there were about 20 people packed into the room, but they were clearly friends/fans, so it was probably non-indicative of a "normal night".

Diedrich's remains tempting, too, but the whole corporate control thing scares me. I'm not sure I'd like being sent all over different places every week. I guess it also feels like they prefer Original Acts, not cover bands -- more like the vibe at the Gypsy Den. I'm afraid to find out how the Monkees must have felt when they went on after Hendrix.

New Gig at Moxie Java

Well, Tully's changed their hours, and is now closing at 7:30 every night (which is when we *used* to start!) so we're out of there. But, coincidentally, my wife saw an article in the local paper about a new (3 months old) coffee shop that has live music every Friday (*Friday*?) and was looking for local talent. So, I called the lady up, and told her I was Local Talent, and she said that she was pretty booked up for Fridays until December. I told her that we're used to playing Saturdays anyway, and she said that she wasn't really ready to afford (afford?) to have music on two nights, but then suddenly said to come on down, then.

Turns out she pays the acts (all solos so far, apparently) $20/hour, and she wanted us to play 7:30-9 (though they close at 10). We went ahead and played 'til 10, of course, 'cuz we like to. My wife and kids came down, and the lady slipped her a check for $40 while we were playing. That's more than she'd promised, and before she knew that we were gonna play longer than *we'd* promised. It's only $20 each, but it's nice to be appreciated. They advertise the "Live Music On Fridays" in their PennySaver ads and the sign out by the street. There's posters of the Act of the Week in the window and tacked to the cash register. Apparently, unlike Tully's, they *like* having music. They *want* to have music. They want to be The Friendly Neighborhood Hangout. We may convince them to add Saturdays...

Anyway, I have an Indian Princess campout this weekend, but they may call me to come in on Friday (which is their advertised night.) I had dropped by this Friday, just to see what's up, and they were *packed*. It was some keyboard guy, with CDs for sale, and professionally photographed posters and a website... Probably a lot of the people were his fanbase -- friends, family, website mailing listers. But however many of them were Friday Regulars for the music, I guess we'll have next Friday, if we get to go in.

Busking in Japan

I'm thinking about taking my guitar to Japan and playing in the subway stations. I've seen plenty of Japanese kids doing it, generally completely ignored, and I guess I'd just like to see if walking-by folks would like me. I'd be way too scared to do it in, say, New York, but Japan is so non-threatening that I could fire it up without fear of danger -- only fear of "rejection". Even that is infinitesimally low -- Japanese people are too polite to overtly "reject" with sneers, boos, tomatoes, or suchlike. If they don't want to listen, they'll just be "busy" (which, nearly by definition, people in a train station are, anyway), and scoot by. They don't have to feel bad, and I don't have to feel bad. But if I get a few people to stop and listen and throw a few yen into the guitar case, I'll have a story to tell my grandkids.

Geneva's being there is a concern, though. But, again, it's so safe there that I don't think there'll be a problem if she comes along. The train stations are clean, safe, well lit -- more like one of our malls, really. Shiny happy people scurrying here and there. (And great acoustics because of all the tile...) Geneva certainly can come along if she wants to -- more danger of her being bored than anything else. Or, maybe I can leave her in the hotel room watching strange, unintelligible TV shows. But, lately, she's wanted to learn a few songs with me (!) -- maybe we'll work up a few before we go and she can give it a try. If a 11-year-old blonde American girl singing Disney tunes doesn't make an impression in the Ikebukuro train station, I don't know what will.

Once Upon a Time...

... there was a little girl who had too many unicorns.

Campout in Julian

The campout was pretty good. There were only three of us Pawnee, but it was Acacia's two best friends, and, coincidentally, two of mine, so it was a good combination. It was waaay out by Julian, and 4000 feet up the mountain there, so it was bitingly cold, but we got through it.

They asked me (*asked* me!) to play two songs at the Nation campfire, so I did "The Three Mile Hike" (Princess words superimposed on, of course, the Gilligan's Island theme), and closed the show with my "Goodnight Irene (Princess version)". I had a whole two minutes' notice, so I fumbled quite a lot on "Hike", because I have to slide the capo in real time to affect the 4 half-step key changes, which is pretty tricky even when I've practiced the move, and my hands aren't frozen. With no practice, frozen hands, and campfire smoke blowing into me with an inopportune wind shift, it was quite a trick.

Afterwards, we have our own tribal campfire, but I spent the remainder of the evening setting up the telescope to peek at Jupiter, so I didn't play much.

But at the end of the Big campfire, they asked me to whip up "God Bless America" (!) for the morning show. Not exactly your usual guitar-oriented folk song... I spent the early morning working that up, and got a passable rendition ready in time. They sure have (unfounded) faith in my abilities. I guess my problem is that I haven't let 'em down yet, so each subsequent request is more outrageous.

On the way home Sunday, we stopped for the gold mine tour, which was pretty amazing. Three-feet wide by five-feet high tunnels right into the mountain, probably a thousand yards worth, on the level we took. We walked around in there (with a guide) for almost an hour.

Miyazaki's "Spirited Away"

Terrific. Problem was, we thought we were going to the dubbed-to-English version, supervised by John Lassiter (of "Toy Story", "Monster's Inc.", etc.), but when we got to the theater, it was the Japanese language version with subtitles. That's kinda OK with me, but the kids were a little over their heads, bandwidth-wise. Especially since, as the reviewer below notes, it's a pretty complex story for a kid's movie.

The good news is that they're releasing it on DVD this coming Tuesday (dubbed version, of course). At the same time, they're releasing "Kiki" and "Laputa". Gonna be an expensive Tuesday for me, and not only because it's tax day.

It won the "Best Animated Film" Academy Award last month -- beating Disney's "Lilo and Stitch" and "Treasure Planet", and Fox's computer-generated comedy "Ice Age". I think I read that the other three had earned over $100 million each, while the US release of "Spirited Away" had only made $5.5 mil. I can't tell if the US releases of Miyazaki movies don't make money because they're marketed badly (on small budgets), or if they're marketed badly because they don't make money.

Working up some songs

I'm trying to work up "Puttin' On the Ritz". It was apparently written in 1930. I haven't really decided which verses and bridges to use -- the original words were about going down to Harlem and watching the servants spend their pay. There were a bunch of verses added subsequently, to replace the offensive ones, so there's no "real" version anymore. The Pasadena Roof Orchestra version I have uses some of each, so I may follow their lead.

I need a lot of work on the guitar part, especially the bridge. There's a lot of bass line, going pretty quickly. Of course, possibly a bigger problem is trying to actually pull it out in public -- the whole song seems too peculiar...

I was also surprised to like "Let It Be" so much. It's always seemed a little "much", but it plays so well on guitar, and I like singing it (now that I've transposed to a rational vocal range). Maybe it feels better because of the current political climate...

I worked on "Someone to Watch Over Me" some more last night. I'm liking it more and more as my arrangement begins to sound righter to me. It was, and is, clearly, a chick song, but lots of guys sing it anyway, so I guess it's OK. I suppose if Sting can do it, I can. (He says, "There's a little lamb that's lost in the woods", instead of "I'm a little...". I may steal that idea.) I'm trying to get the guitar part smoother -- getting the hang of that "four inside strings" diminished chord. In this case, it's a Cdim, x3424x. It helps me to think of it as a two-finger E7 shape (the 030200 part) *and* an A7 shape (the 004040 part), played at the same time.

The "real" song has one of those traditional, completely different, intro parts, which I don't have any chords to, and most folks don't know that part anyway. The remaining song is kind of short, so there's definitely an instrumental verse in there for Warren. I think it'll go like "Stardust", with an instrumental verse, then a repeat of the final section(s).

Yet more new songs

I guess I'm essentially not happy with the quality of many of the songs that I end up doing just to fill the time -- even when it was only an hour and a half. I'm probably my strictest critic, but I keep hoping to stumble on songs that really "work", to replace the second-stringers. Recent additions like "Let It Be" and (I like to think) "Crying" fall into the first category -- all too many others fall in the second.

Anyway, I think I've settled on some working chords for "Someone to Watch Over Me", after some work on Sunday. It's a classic, of course, and though I'm not sure my singing will make it a "keeper", it was worth a try. (Not to mention the pure challenge of getting it working.)

And we were at Daleen's mom's house last night, and she had a "Songs of Irving Berlin" book on the piano, from which I plucked "Putting On the Ritz". Surprisingly, the chords work quite well on guitar (unlike, for instance, "End of the Innocence", as discovered on Saturday). Again, I don't know what the vocal will sound like yet, but there's a small chance it'll work out. (It probably falls under the category of "Songs to Stump the Lead Player", but it might be fun.)

I guess I've discovered that some songs that sound OK in the bedroom, fall flat at Tully's -- and vice versa. So I'm stuck with working them up anyway, and trying them out live.

P.S. In reading various sites on Berlin, one claimed he only played didn't read or write music, never learned to play properly, and only played black keys on the piano (!). Using a pitch shifting piano (apparently readily available at the time), he *sounded* in different keys. Another said that he could only play in F#major (which may or may not correspond to "black keys only" -- I guess it's F#major without 4s and 7s). Can that really be true? If so it'd be a amazing collection of pentatonic melodies... I guess I should sit down at the piano and pick out "Ritz", starting on F#.

Tully's 15Feb2003

Tully's was pretty good this week. My cold is getting worse, but I seem to be able to kinda sing through it -- I don't have a sore throat, just a cruddy one. I managed to hold off the coughing until between songs. A quartet of nice Chinese people came in about 9, having an anniversary party. They wanted to hear some Carpenters, which I begged off of, on account of being chromosomally impaired for such songs. I happen, though, to have "Won't Last a Day Without You" in the book, 'cuz this little girl at work likes to come sing it when I bring my guitar in for lunchtime practice. So the anniversary couple's friend came up and sang it while I played -- she wasn't bad. And they tipped us $20 at the end. We had to play all love songs for the rest of the night, which, as it turns out, not so many in the book qualify for, but it was fun.

Yesterday I worked up a song at my mom's insistence -- it's called "Frog Kissin'", and the recording I have is Chet Atkins. The song may or may not have been written by him, or Ray Stevens. Anyway, it's a novelty song about seeing the best in people, worked around the fairy tale notion in the title. Cute, but I can't imagine doing it for anyone except my mom.

Longer hours at Tully's!

February 10, 2003 9:28 AM

Wow. We did 33 songs last night. I was afraid my ragged voice would give out, but I actually felt stronger as the night went on, though I did hear myself missing notes here and there. It was odd -- usually I just sing, and think about the song, and the words, and the phrasing, and the chords -- and the singing itself just takes care of itself. It's not like you have to think about how to talk -- you just do it. But with the sore throat, I have to actually *try* to hit the notes -- it's like my voice is slightly out of control and I have to concentrate on it to keep it in line.

Hopefully, it'll clear up soon -- though today it's worse than last night, so I'm not in the upswing yet...

Anyway, there weren't many songs on the list that we *didn't* do last night -- mostly the "second stringers". I guess I'd better go on a more active hunt for more material.

I'm pretty stoked that we get to play 'til 10. It'll be a challenge to have that much really good material, and to be able to play that long, and sing that long, but it reinvigorates that whole thing.

Warren seems to think that I sounded "fine". Seemed to me like I heard me miss plenty of notes -- sharp here, flat there. "Wicked Game" is certainly the most challenging -- that descending line off the falsetto flip is the worst. I don't know how he does it so smooth -- I always feel like my flip from falsetto "don't" to regular-voice "want" is horrible. I end up landing on "want" so hard it sounds like a yelp. And my falsetto sounds so much different than full-voice that it embarrasses me. Maybe it's not so bad from the outside? In my head, it's gnarly. If I didn't like that song so much, I'd certainly skip it.

I lately heard "I Will" on the Musak somewhere, in a version that sounded a lot like James Taylor. I've never seen it on an album, but a deep check of the 'net showed it on something (bootleg?) called "Rarebits", so he may do it in concert, though how it would get it on a Musak tape remains a mystery. Anyway, it gave me the idea to go ahead and transpose it to a sing-able key (duh! Why don't I think of that *without* the cattle prod?), which I did yesterday. It's originally in F (!), but moved down to D, it's (as far as I can tell with my trashed voice) in a sing-able space, and easy to play, not to mention very James-like in chords.

In fact, once moved to D, the first phrase is identical to the first and last lines of "The Way You Look Tonight", so I'm thinking of melding (medly-ing) the two. It'll, at least, save me having to decide on a "next tune" once per night.

I'll have to see if some other Beatles songs can be beaten into submission by the same treatment. I might look at "Mother Nature's Son", as requested by my brother a couple of weeks ago -- seems like a distinctive (and non transposable) guitar part, though.

Anyway, I played through some of the "Working On 'Em" songs to see if I can move 'em into the "Good Enough" section. "Play Me" (Neil Diamond) seems a likely candidate, and "Four Strong Winds", I guess. Also, we probably ought to dust off some of the ones that we were playing, but that I've come to avoid because I didn't think I did 'em well enough -- "Free Man", "Crazy Little Thing", "Still Crazy", and such like. Even "That Thing You Do" maybe...