KC at Costa Mesa - 28April2007

I always have trepidations before a solo gig, but once I get started (always the hardest part), I get over it and have a great time. There were lots of nice people there this time, and I set up a connection right away, and got lots of requests and dialog with several people.

Eventful night. I'm still not over my throat trouble, but I managed, mostly. Following, kinda, Warren's example, I set up the video camera with what I thought was a newly charged battery, but it kept going off after a minute or two. I didn't know what was wrong, so I kept trying to get it to keep going, but was reluctant to keep stopping the show to go out and mess with it too much. At 9:10 or so I finally put in the spare battery (duh), and it ran fine from there.

But not for long. At 9:45, right in the middle of the last dramatic heartfelt chorus of "Jersey Girl", the amp just went "click!", and was dead. That was an interesting feeling -- the sudden "silence" of being abruptly acoustic-only.

I turned it off and back on and tinkered with various things, but it was a goner. So, since I thought I had a half hour or so left, I pulled out the store's little amp, and jacked all my stuff into it, and tried to continue (the show, not that song).

That was kinda tricky too though, 'cuz although my guitar and vocal mic run at about the same level when I'm using my amp, with the store's amp I had to set the vocal channel and the master volume all the way up to get even close to Loud Enough. My guitar's channel only had to be at about 4 (of 10). Weird. Anyway, I did another two or three songs, and got the tap-on-the-wrist signal from the Mean Girl Manager, so it was over.

But it was fun while it lasted. Lots of good feedback, requests, comments, and then warm-fuzzies afterwards while I was tearing down. Some ladies were requesting James Taylor songs, and called out "Thank you, Keith!" as they left. A young couple came over and just plopped down right in front and were just Listening. They didn't even have any books or magazines with them -- a First, I think.

I'm back there again next Saturday, with Warren. Good thing I still have the Indian Princess amp as a backup. I guess I'll take a look and see if it's something obvious, and then send mine back to Carvin for repair.

Canoe Trip down the Colorado River

We had a Trailmates trip to paddle some canoes down the Colorado River. Officially, only Geneva is in Trailmates, but I took Acacia too, since there's not much chance I'll do this again.

There's a campground on the river, just south of Needles. We left plenty early on Friday, but it took 6 hours to get there. Saturday morning, you get up, and they bus you upstream 11 miles, and you get to drift/paddle back to camp. They provide a sack lunch (in a zip-lock bag, just in case), and build a big barbeque dinner at the camp, too.

Apparently, it's really easy to flip the canoes over, so the standard practice for beginners is to bring some heavy sprinkler pipe and duct tape two canoes together into an unflippable catamaran. It also makes it more fun, 'cuz the kids get to be with their friends.

We paddled for a while, then pulled up on a beach to eat lunch. Paddled down a little while more, and pulled up on the other side, so the kids could "go swimming in Arizona". The water was chilly, but not too cold for the kids, and it was nice and sunny to dry them out soon enough. We also had some big squirtguns for water wars between canoes, but that only happened right at first 'cuz we were slowpokes and didn't run into any other friends after the launch point.

We were out for about 5 hours in all, which was plenty, but it was fun. Maybe I will do it again...

KC at Yorba Linda - 14April2007

This was scheduled as a K&W gig, but Warren got a better offer (a unique opportunity he couldn't, and shouldn't, pass up), so it was just me. Probably for the best, too, because I'm coming down with a nasty cold, and had a *terrible* sore throat. I've played/sung with a sore throat before, and the adrenalin or whatever made it seem to go away, but this one was un-ignore-able for most of the night. For the first hour or so I was constrained to some kind of little half-voice, which, even then, wasn't terribly accurate when I'd send it after some note or another.

It wasn't so bad that I had to just give up and go home, though I had half a mind to do so, but I had a good start (the hard part -- getting that initial connection), and a good audience that didn't seem to notice the flaws, so I kept going. Right at the beginning I had a gramma and grampa with three little kids, so I got to sing some of the kids' songs, and several audience members were throwing out requests.

For the last hour or so, an older lady and her daughter sat down in the comfy chairs, and related how the grandson/son (2, but not present) "plays my CD every day". They knew, and requested, a bunch of songs off of that CD, and I could see their lips move as the sang quietly along. They really liked "Teddy Bears' Picnic" (which I ought to record and add to the CD someday), and they were delighted by the new "Matilda" verse for "Waltzing With Bears". They had clearly seen me/us before, and I wish I'd'a had the presence of mind to ask them how they knew I was coming back, or if they're just there every Saturday.

There was also a beautiful Asian-American lady, by herself, who sat and listened closely for the whole last hour or more. She requested a few songs, the same ones that I think are my best (for singing, i.e., "Crying"), but when I asked her if she had more requests, she just said "I like them all." It was kind of unnerving -- I was starting to think that she wanted to ask me something, or was studying my guitar playing, or something. At the end, while I was tearing down, she come up and asked what kind of guitar I have, 'cuz she thought it "sounded beautiful". That was nice.

Anyway, it was pretty good, but pretty bad, too. I had fun, but it was tough to be that bad of a singer, and the bandwidth I was spending on worrying about and trying to control my trashed voice made me make guitar screwups that I've never even imagined. Which, of course, made me start to think too much about my hands, which makes it worse, 'cuz my hands know how to play that stuff, but I don't. I had considered bringing along the computer to record the night, but I'm glad I didn't -- I wouldn't want a recording of the many songs that were the worst I've ever done. Oddly, though, there were half a dozen that went really well -- I was kind of singing really "gently" to spare my voice (and not push it to cracking), and that treatment worked nicely of a few of them.

I had been working (some more) on "Mother Goose" all week, but was afraid to try it, or most of the songs that go even a little high. I've also been working on "American Tune", which I thought might be safer to try without Warren there, but it goes *way* too high, so I didn't risk it. Next time, assuming I'm well by then.

Yellow Submarine Pinecar

For this year's, and presumably our last, Pinecar Derby, Acacia and I built the Yellow Submarine. Every year I ask her what she wants her car to be ("Caterpillar!", "Whale!", "Unicorn!"), but this year, since she's become a big Beatles fan, I proposed the Yellow Submarine idea, which, of course, she loved.

We used the same methodology as the Gray Whale from three years ago, but that one was whittle-able (with a carrot peeler, for safety (she was only 9 then)). This one has more complexity, and more "inside curves", so we cut the basic profile shape from a block of balsa, and just started working on the 3D shape by hand, using the sanding drum. There are no pictures (in the movie) of the sub from the top or bottom, so we just got to (had to) fake the plan view shape.

I whittled the periscopes while she sanded and painted, and we made the handrail around the top out of some 1/8-inch solder I had, super-glued together and painted red.

The painting was a lot harder than the all-gray whale, but we didn't have to make perfect lines 'cuz they got covered up by the red vinyl pinstripe tape. We did the hatches with masking tape, and the windows (with the little Beatles in them) and main "flower(?)" decoration were printed to scale on CD label sticker stock. The clear lacquer overcoat gives the flat acrylic paint, and everything else, the same shininess, and hopefully will keep the stickers safe.

The base is the original car block, cut off short, and covered with a printed piece of paper. I found a picture of an original cel from the movie showing the Sea of Holes, and PhotoShopped the Beatles out of it. Acacia pointed out that one of the holes should be green, 'cuz they went through that one to get to the Sea of Green. The clear shaft that connects them together is a piece of a mini-blind control rod.

There was no race or design competition this year (to save both the dads and daughters the worry of trying to compete in everything), so it was just for fun, and for show. Of course, we got lots of impressed people, but we also have a fun decoration on permanent display in her room, and lots of memories.

Idea for Borders

I had a spontaneous idea at Borders the other night, which both worked really well, and failed spectacularly. When I was out passing out the song lists, I gave one to the baristas, and told the kid that they were welcome to request songs, too. Later, a different kid brought the list back with no less than 22 songs checked, with three of those circled with green highlighter, with "Special request for Kelsey" noted nearby.

I don't know which one was Kelsey, nor if any of them could actually hear the songs anyway, since the bar is really far away at South Coast Plaza, but it seemed like a nice way to get them "on our side", as it were. Might account for the guy coming out and asking us if we wanted a drink -- that doesn't happen very often (ever?).

Unfortunately, because of all the attention we were getting down front, and my lack of being able to see that anybody back at the counter was noticing us, I only really did one song specifically "for Kelsey": "The Way You Look Tonight". Of the other two, we accidentally did "The Last Unicorn" anyway(requested by a girl down front), and neglected "Puff", which is kinda hard to do without the requester specifically being there to justify it. Of the other 19, we happened to hit 9 of 'em.

Anyway, I like the idea/effect of at least making the offer to the kids behind the bar, and it'll probably work even better at a place with a closer bar, like, say, Yorba Linda next Saturday.

K&W at South Coast Plaza again - 07Apr2007

Another darn fun night at SCP. Brazenly anticipating a repeat of the success of last week's gig, I sent out a "you should come" notice to the mailing list, but only got one taker. But they were probably right -- it wasn't as magic a night as the previous one, though it was pretty close. My voice was dry or something, and although it was behaving pretty well, it just sounded kinda raspy -- to me, anyway.

But we had a *really* good crowd, which always makes it fun. We had between 4 and 10 people really listening, all the way through. Good applause, lots of smiles. And, despite Will not being there to do his "You should tip these guys" announcement, we made more in tips than last week. That's probably due to my little bus stop gramma friend, Virginia, who brought her Asian friend along and must have been the one who put that twenty in there.

There was a friendly college-age couple there who stayed the whole night. The girl was a big Simon and Garfunkel fan, so we ran through all the S&G I've got. When she requested "The Boxer", I suspected and so asked her if she could/would sing the high part. She said yes, but declined to actually get up to do it -- I didn't have a second mic set up anyway. I could barely hear her, but it sounded like she was right on it...

I had fun pulling out all the new stuff, which is getting to be quite a list of its own. "Mother Goose", "Heart Full of Soul", "Old Man", "Jersey Girl", "I Want You To Want Me", "Under the Boardwalk", and "Satisfaction", which (finally) seemed to be taken in the ironic, I'm-just-kidding-around spirit that I'm doing it in -- people were smiling and chuckling at me. It was also the debut of "Here Comes My Baby", which, in a reversal of my usual experience, seemed kinda lame at home, but went really well at the gig. Felt like a "keeper".

And, we pulled out "Five O'Clock World" again (kinda rough through the yodels), but it uses a down-tuned bass string, which brings up a whole slew of other new/old songs that use that tuning: "Can't Find My Way Home", "Four and Twenty", and "Sarah Maria". That was fun, too.

K&W at South Coast Plaza - 30Mar2007

A great night! Started off a little slow, as usual, with the usual crowd of disinterested patrons, but we brought several of them around over time, and my in-laws showed up and sat right down front, so I had people to play to/for, which always brings out my best.

The sound, also, seems to be better there than anywhere else we play -- I love it when I can hear myself clearly. It lets me relax into the song -- easier on my voice, and better for my playing 'cuz I don't have to try (pick) so hard. You might think that just "louder" on the amp would have the same effect, but it's more than that (and less -- sometimes it's *too* loud, which screws me up even more!). There's something that I can only describe as clarity that makes all the difference.

Anyway, Warren set up his little still/video camera and recorded most of the best stuff, and is gradually posting the songs on his YouTube page. The video is pretty boring, since the camera is on a tripod and never moves, but the audio is surprisingly good for such a simple setup, and it's not really about how pretty we are -- I hope! (Check the K&W webpage to watch some videos.)

We played some of our new stuff, including the new Brit-pop trio of "Bus Stop", "Heart Full of Soul" and "Mother Goose". And a girl requested the once-favorite and still-on-the-list, but seldom-played "Five O'Clock World". It went surprisingly well, and since my voice is both higher and stronger than it was when I semi-abandoned it, I don't see why we can't start doing it regularly again. I've always liked it, but felt like my singing was sub-par on it. Now, not so bad.

And the most amazing thing happened -- the friendly (rare in itself!) Events Manager at that store (Will) came over at 9:45. I assumed he was giving me the "sign" that it was time to shut down (I usually quit at 9:40). But he wanted to borrow my microphone to make an announcement. I figured he was gonna repeat the "We're about to close" announcement, since the store PA is (thankfully) really quiet over in the café. But, nope, he started up a speech about how much he appreciates us coming in to make some music in the store, and how "you probably don't know this, but Borders doesn't pay the musicians, and we really appreciate Keith and Warren giving up their Friday night to come down here" and how "we should all show our appreciation by buying a CD or something", and on and on...

People, thoroughly guilted-out by this, immediately leaped up and started stuffing the tip jar. (It's a shame he didn't make this announcement earlier, when more people were there!) He gave me back my mic, shook our hands (to much thanks from us!), and wandered back down the aisle. As he walked past the jar, he said, to no one in particular, "Well, I should put my money where my mouth is!" and fished some money out of his own pocket!

We were completely stunned by this, especially considering the very cold treatment we've been getting lately at the Costa Mesa store, where we seem to be barely tolerated as a necessary evil, and booted out as early as possible. Not to mention that the tips were really good, for that place. Usually we expect to make 6 or 8 bucks each, this time it was $18. Not a fortune, nor even a record, but it's nice to get some tangible appreciation for our efforts...

And the cool part is that we're back there again next Saturday! Normally we don't (can't) play the same place twice in a row, but last weekend was in March, and next is in April.