New Material

I'm nearly constantly learning new songs, both to spice up the act, and to keep myself learning, and interested. Frequently, a new song idea will present itself from my environment -- I hear a cool old song on the radio, or in a TV show or something. Sometimes someone will request a song that, they're right, I oughtta know.

We've been watching "Life On Mars", which is set in 1973, which is a great music year for me. They introduced a "free spirit" hippie girl character, and she reminded me of "Ruby Tuesday", which I've always loved, and have tried to play before, but could never get to work. I don't know if I'm that much better now, or if I just forgive more lameness in my results than I used to, but I'm really liking "my version" this time.

Also, oddly enough, the results of the recent election brought, unbidden, a great old song to mind, so I've been learning "Peace Train". I've been struggling to learn how to strum, which is just physically tough on my Ovation because it's really a classical, but I've been getting the hang of it on the old electric guitar, and some of that technique is translating over. So I'm getting the skill together to do it, but I would never have been able to play it in public before, 'cuz the message would have been so out of place anytime during the last eight years. But now, I think it may be a song whose time has come -- again. I'll be trying it out on Saturday at Brea Downtown, and we'll see how it goes over.

Tinker Bell and Disneyland -- 26Oct2008

Because we're Annual Pass Holders, we were offered a chance to see a preview of the new Tinker Bell direct-to-DVD, all computer-graphics, movie, in the Mister Lincoln theater on Main Street. It was kinda cool -- we got Tinker Bell stickers, pins, and collectible tickets.

The movie was actually pretty good. Turns out that fairies all have their sorting-hat style chosen role to play: water fairy, flower fairy, ice fairy, etc., and Bell, to her initial dismay, is chosen to be a "tinker", a maker/fixer of things. It's not as glamorous as her friends' jobs, but, of course, her talent saves the day (and the fairy-initiated coming of Spring) in the end, and she (and we) learns to accept that her talent makes her who she is.

It's weird to me that when J. M. Barrie wrote "Peter Pan", he clearly intended "Tinker" to invoke "tinkle", not "repairman", but these guys have (deliberately, no doubt) misinterpreted that notion, and run with this alternate explanation. But, being a "tinker" myself, I'm OK with it.

After the movie they brought out the director and the screenwriter, who told us some stories about finding the voice talent for Bell and her friends -- you'll recall that Bell has never "spoken" before -- and how fun it was to make, etc. And they also told us that this was just the first of four planned movies, one a year, and one for each season.

Then they brought out one of the Disneyland Attraction Planners, who told us that they'd been rebuilding the area between Tomorrowland and the Matterhorn, where Ariel used to sign autographs. Now it's Pixie Hollow, where you "shrink down" as you walk up the walkway, and get to meet Tinker Bell and two of her new friends. It wasn't officially open yet, but they were having sneak peeks, so we went right over from the movie. It took a while to get in, 'cuz everybody else did, too, but we felt like we ought to get the whole experience while we were there.

Obviously, it would have been more fun for the girls five or eight years ago, but it was still pretty cool.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 07Nov2008

A generally pretty good night. I had that (or another?) voice thing again, where I my voice wasn't doing what I was telling it to, and wouldn't go into "head voice" (I think?) so I was singing pretty poorly for the first hour-and-forty-five -- but then it cleared up. Unfortunately, just because it was blocked somehow, doesn't mean it wasn't getting "used", so by the time it got fixed, it was also tired out. I'm frankly starting to worry.

Anyway, once my voice was working, it was pretty fun. There was hardly anyone left at that point, of course, so I just kind of kicked out the jambs and belted the last batch of tunes. It's really fun when I manage to just let go like that -- it only happens if there's somebody listening, or *nobody* listening. I'll have to try to let 'er rip more often -- it's too fun to let it wait until it happens by itself.

For the first half-hour or so, we had several people right up front, listening and asking for songs. That made for a great start, even without a cooperating voice. The settings on the amp had been tweaked for the outdoor event last week, and sounded new and cool here in the quiet of that store. And I had the tip jar out more blatantly than usual, which may have helped sell two CDs, and make us $22 overall, which is pretty good for a store, on a Friday.

I got to try out my pretty-new "Ruby Tuesday" and "Sweet Dreams" again -- still working OK for me. And I had my new iPod set up to record the whole thing, with its little $10 mic, and the result is pretty OK. It's sure a lot easier to set up than a whole notebook like we did a couple dozen times to collect the tracks on the "Live" CD. I thought that "Golden Slumbers", which I learned recently, and am using as a closing number nowadays, came out quite well. Listen to it here. If the link doesn't work, type in: http://tinyurl.com/6y5w4j

K&W at Irvine Spectrum -- 01Nov2008

My favorite outing at this venue so far. Not a lot of people, but we fairly consistently had at least somebody Actually Listening. It was kind of cold, and had threatened to rain earlier, so the turnout was as you'd expect, but it wasn't really unpleasant up on the stage. And the sound, after some tweaks, wasn't half bad, so I didn't feel like it was just a mess.

Had one guy ask for "Mister Bojangles", which I've looked at several times over the years. Because I keep poking at it, I happened to have a copy of the song sheet in the book, so I was able to do it for him, with only one major screw up where I just forgot how to read English for a line. This actually happens more often than I'd like to admit...

Towards the end, three 15-16 year-old girls came over and plopped down right in front. They were listening pretty well, and having fun with us, but when I started "With a Little Help From My Friends" they lit up, spun their chairs around, and sang along all the way through it (which is a little tough, cuz I do James Taylor's version which is pretty different from the Beatles one). After the song, I asked then if they were in a choir or something, buy they weren't -- just big Beatles fans, apparently. Their parents had arrived, though, and they had to leave, so I did "All My Lovin'" as they walked away.

We've been considering whether to try playing at the other stage, where you have to pay $50. When I counted up the tips and CD money, we'd made $55, which, as a one night take is probably in the top ten, but in light of the decision, was just cruel. I think that we'd probably better wait until the Spring, and then give it a try, but in the cold and with the economic crisis, it would probably be ill-advised to try it now.

The other weird part is that the maintenance guys that came to take down the stage asked why we don't try the other stage, and said that the guy that was there that night wanted to play the Food Court where we were. Huh? Either he thinks the Food Court is still free, or he's thinking that having a semi-captive audience ('cuz they're eating) would be better than the high volume, but too mobile, crowd he'd gotten. Interesting...

Halloween 2008

We had a fun Halloween this year. The first event was the Trailmates party on the night before Halloween. Costumes are required, even for dads, and I'd already worn my "Space Cowboy" outfit last year, so I had to come up with something new. Which was, "Shaun of the Dead", a romantic-comedy zombie movie about a London electronics-store clerk who ends up killing zombies with his cricket bat, that you've either seen, or you haven't. I think that only one dad recognized it, but he was impressed. (The pose at left is straight off the movie poster.)

Geneva was "Susan" from "Desperately Seeking Susan", a character played by Madonna in her 80's heyday. Geneva's new short haircut curled up really nice, and she customized a jacket to exactly match the iconic one in the movie.

Acacia wore Daleen's last-year home-made "Princess" dress, but added a pair of wings to make her a fairy. With make-up -- the best part.

Daleen was working on a new costume, as a schoolmarm, but got it finally finished about 8:30 on Halloween night, so almost nobody got to see it. In fact, she had it on so briefly that I didn't get a picture of her in it.

I took Halloween day off of work (I had accrued too much vacation time anyway), and we went to Geneva's high school at lunchtime to check out the costumes there. Those "artsy" kids really get into it, and have a lot less inhibition than the normal kids. That was pretty crazy. And about a dozen of the kids recognized my Shaun costume, and were totally and noisily thrilled by it. Made my day.

On Halloween night, Geneva went off to a friends' house in Nellie Gail, 'cuz the rich people give out the best candy. Acacia threw a party for 9 of her girl friends, with pumpkin carving, doughnuts-on-a-string "bobbing"-equivalent, and a round of trick-or-treating in the middle. And some vegetarian chili for dinner (Acacia and half of her friends are vegetarians now). Pretty fun, all around.