Father/Daughter Girl Scout Bowling

The annual Father/Daughter Girl Scout event was bowling this year, and we had fun. Geneva's inherited Daleen's loose ligaments problem, so she can't really swing a heavy ball on the end of her shoulder, but she played anyway. Acacia doesn't exhibit that problem, yet anyway, and she got three strikes. 'Course, those were mainly bounced off the gutter-bumpers, but still...

They traditionally take father/daughter portraits at these things. Two years ago, it was with a Polaroid camera, but last year they bought some little photo printers, and took the pictures digitally. Unfortunately, the printers are really slow, so a lot of the pictures weren't printed yet when the event was over.

This time, we had a couple of cameras, and several memory chips to swap between the cameras and the printers, and we kept the printers churning. I also had snagged the "Father/Daughter Pose" that the professional photographers use when they come take pictures at the Indian Princess events. I also rigged up some makeshift lights with tissue paper diffusers to soften that "snapshot flash" look, and forced the picture-takers to step way closer and get the faces, not the shoes as in the past. The pictures turned out pretty well, for a change.

K&W at Yorba Linda -- 20Jan2007

A really fun gig! The place was unusually full when we got there, and a lot of the people there were "in our demographic" (i.e., old and white). I managed to make myself start off with a spoken introduction again, which kicked things off much better than my usual "start off with a timidly played-and-sung song, and see if you get any reaction" method. We got some immediate interaction in the form of song requests, and if you get some applause on the first song, you're in like Flynn.

Played good, sang good. Felt looser than usual, and was just throwing stuff out there, and it was working, which feels great. I remembered to play some of the new-ish songs (my wacky "Satisfaction" in particular), and surprised Warren by bringing out the brand-new "I Want You To Want Me". I'm not sure exactly how to play it yet, (the chords are easy enough, but I need to work up a way to make it work on acoustic (if that's possible)) but I was feeling daring so I went for it despite not really "having it down". Besides, it was getting late and there was hardly anyone left.

The only bummer is that I put my cell phone on the unused speaker behind me so I could occasionally check the time, and managed to walk out of there without it. Unbelievable, since it's a shiny silver object sitting on a big black box -- how could I not notice it while I was packing up? Anyway, I called right when they opened on Sunday, and it was just sitting there still, so they held it for me until I could go by and get it. Kinda ate up the five bucks tip money in gas, but, oh well.

Great night, overall. Had a good time. Unfortunately and inexplicably, we don't appear on the emailed-out schedule for February. We don't know if that means that Bob just forgot about us, lost Warren's request email, or that we've been fired. The last is pretty hard to imagine, 'cuz "Jim & Warren" is also not-on-the-list, and it's extremely unlikely that both bands did something unforgivable at the same time. We're still waiting on the Final February Schedule -- Warren requested, so we may have snagged, some of the Open spots. Hope so. As of now, we have no upcoming gigs...

K&W at Mission Viejo -- 13Jan07

What a night! First off, it was our first time at Mission Viejo since August, so that was kind of fun. I knew that Geneva's friend's gramma (a really sweet retired nurse), who drives her to the bus stop in the morning was planning to come see us. We've become good friends in 10-minute increments since school started, and I'd given her some CDs that she purports to like. She did show up, with 2 friends, but since that café is always jammed full of people treating it like a library, there was no place for them to sit.

But the real surprise was when a troop of 9 Trailmates dads and associated daughters marched in and lined up at the back (since there were no chairs). They were grinning and mugging at me, and I was pretty hard pressed to maintain the song I was in the middle of, but managed to keep it together. Of course, I was required (and happy) to play "Waltzing With Bears", with many of them singing quietly along. When that was done, it was "Picture time!"

The regular customers were perplexed and (hopefully) amused by all this, of course, so I explained the Indian Princess connection. Most of them seemed to think that that was pretty sweet, and it was over soon enough.

There was a 30-something married couple there when we got there, who were apparently just hanging out to hear the music. I don't know if they were specifically there for us, or just for whoever showed up, but when I passed out the song lists, the guy came up immediately and asked for James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves", pointing out that it was "their song". Fine with me, though I didn't expect I'd be able to play it as the first number, and held off until number 3. They stayed almost the whole night, and it was great to have some Real Live James Taylor fans.

Pretty much the worst singing I've done in at least a year, but not so bad that I needed to hang it up. It got a little better in the second half, so I could come closer to the notes I was aiming at. Fortunately, the worst seems to be over now, so I should be OK at Yorba Linda next Saturday. I hope saying that doesn't jinx it...

We had the usual problem of the Regular Club that hangs out at that Borders. They're a group of 40 and 50-year-olds, mostly single, who hang out in the café every night, apparently. Since they "own the place", they're reticent to give up the sonic space to the band. It's odd, because they profess to like our music, and to prefer it to most (all?) of the other bands that play there, but they just talk, joke, and laugh at full volume over the top of us -- and if I turn up the amp, they just shout louder. And they insist on taking all the "good seats", closest to us.

Of course they have a right to be there, but it's terribly distracting, and makes it hard for me to get through the songs, much less perform them well. Oh, well. Maybe it's a good thing that we don't get assigned there very often. The good part is that it's close to home, and more likely to be visited by my friends -- the bad part is that it's hard to play with all that racket.

K&W at SCP -- 05Jan07

A mostly uneventful night. We did pretty well, despite the layover of the holidays.

Christi, a nice young lady whom we had met before at that store, timidly wanting to know what the procedure was to get a gig with Borders, showed up again to ask more questions. This time the questions related to doing the actual gig, 'cuz she's got herself on the list, and starts next weekend. She was the one that told us about Eva Cassidy, from whom I stole my arrangement of "Time After Time", so I invited Christi to sing it, and she did. Amazing voice -- though a bit intense for a night's worth. Seems like the audience will be emotionally exhausted after a few songs of that, but maybe that's just me.

A nice senior couple came and sat up front in the comfy chairs for the last hour or so. She went down the list and said "They're all good", at first, but finally requested "Somewhere" from West Side Story. Nobody ever asks for that one -- I was about to take it off the list, but I do love singing it.