Keith at Irvine Spectrum "Myrtle Court" -- 23Dec2009

When I emailed the girl who books the acts at Spectrum to tell her about The Amazing Hat Stealing Incident, she, apparently by way of apology, offered to let me play at the Myrtle Court stage again for free, but within December, and the weekend nights were already booked. Better'n nothin', I guess.

It was a lot like last time, lots of people streaming by, too busy (or cold) to stop and listen. Come to think of it, I think more people stopped to stand under the umbrella heater behind me than stopped for the music. I did get a few young families -- parents seem to like to show their little kids a Real Live Musician for some reason. Since no one else was listening, I tended to pull out "Rudolph" for the kids. It usually invoked some singing-along by some of the teenage girls and moms-on-a-mission zooming by, too. Hard to resist calling out "Like a light bulb!", I guess.

A few small groups braved the cold for a while and sat at the tables to listen. And lots of people gave me a smile as they whipped by. The sound is pretty nice there, and it's still fun to play "out", even to dead silence, if only for those occasional surprise bursts of applause when you unexpectedly capture someone's attention.

And at one point, a guy stopped at the edge of the stage and said, "Hey, Keith! You're doing a great job, man. I've walked by here several times, and you sound just like John Denver." Thank you! But wait, who?!? I get told that I sound like James Taylor a lot, but I think this was the first time I've gotten John Denver. Anyway, I quickly flipped to my new John Denver song, "Leaving on a Jet Plane", which I'd instinctively avoided because of its extreme John Denver cheesetasticness, but I tried it out after it appeared on "Glee", and, after transposing it down for my vocal range and working up a cool guitar technique for it, it plays and sings real nice.

I didn't think I'd made much in tips, 'cuz so few people stopped at all, but there were 6 CDs gone, and $50.08 in the jar. Good thing Janet waived the $50 setup fee...

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 20Dec2009

This was my final gig (this year) playing for the line of families waiting to plop their kids on Santa's lap. I had complained (via email) about the treatment I'd gotten the week before, and the Activity Committee lady was *very* apologetic and "hoped it doesn't happen in the future". I replied that it would be very simple to predict that piece of the future -- check the schedule, and let me know if That (Mean) Guy was gonna be there this time, so I'd at least know what to expect. She said that she'd check the schedule and get back to me, but never did.

So I went anyway, hoping for the best. That Guy didn't appear to be around, so I put my table closer to the "entrance", but had to move it back a ways anyway because otherwise it would get soaked by the "snow" machines. Because it was still pretty invisible, it only collected ten bucks -- but it wasn't the lack of money as much as the bad treatment that I'd objected to, so that's fine.

Lots more people, on account of this being the Last Chance. And it ran an hour past the official cut-off time, too. The kids and parents were in a pretty festive mood, and the line seemed to be moving faster, so I could cycle around and repeat songs sooner. That helped 'cuz I don't really have too many Christmas songs that kids know/like.

So I did play some "regular" kids' songs. But the unexpected highlight of the evening was after I had played "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", explaining that I play a lot of James Taylor so this one is arranged as if it was being played by him. Some of the parents started asking for James songs, and some of the teenagers (presumably big brothers and sisters) started asking for some Beatles, which their younger siblings were seconding! So I played "Hey Jude", with half the crowd/line singing along on the main part of the song, and seemingly *all* of it singing along on the "Na na" part! That song usually gets a good reception at a gig, but this was the best ever. After it was over I said, "Well, I don't usually think of that song as a Christmas Tune, but I guess it is!"

I kept getting requests for more James Taylor, too, so I slid in "Sweet Baby James" (which James originally meant as a kid's song, for his new baby nephew), and "You've Got a Friend" since it seemed to be in the right spirit of the evening.

And although the Committee lady never got back to me, she apparently got a message to the other Committee members, 'cuz they were *very* nice to me -- asking to help move my stuff in and back to the car, and clapping loudly, and when it was clearly running late, one of the guys came over and asked me if I was OK 'cuz one of the ladies was worried about me. Also the Hot Cocoa lady brought me some, which I had to decline because chocolate clogs up your throat (see, I learned *something* in all those choir classes). She took it away and brought me a cup of water instead, which I had already gotten for myself, so now I had two, and later on she brought another one, so I had three!

After it was all over, as I was packing the last of my stuff in the car, I saw the guy who had apparently been playing Santa, coming out of the building across the parking lot. It was That Guy! That explained both why he hadn't been there to hassle me, and also why the line was moving so quickly. He's not the kind of guy to dote much on the kids -- but he does seem to "own" the Activity Committee, so I guess he decided to take the plum job for himself that night. Figures.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 18Dec2009

I didn't know whether it would be crowded because it's Christmas and everyone's out shopping, or whether it would be empty because it's Christmas and everyone's out shopping. I guess, the former. It was pretty empty right at first, but then people showed up and it was quite full towards the end.

There was a group of high school kids doing "free" gift wrapping (with "donation" jars, up at the front of the room. I gave them a song list, and the girls were really excited and asked for several songs. When I played them, they stood up and grinned at me, swayed back and forth, and gave me the thumbs-up at the end. That was fun.

But we had lots of people come down closer, too, and lots of participation, requests, and a presumably record tip take, $23 each. Must be Christmastime.

I mostly avoided playing Christmas songs, 'cuz Warren's not fond of 'em, but a young family, who we've seen many times there before, stopped in, and I couldn't let them go without doing "Rudolph" for the little ones. And later on, I did "Merry Little Christmas", and maybe one or two more.

But it was also the first outing for "I'm Yours", by Jason Mraz, and my new arrangement (using my newly-discovered/invented "clawhammer" right-hand technique) of John Lennon's "Imagine". They both seemed to work OK, even though I'm still working out how to I want to play "I'm Yours", and when to use the Harmony Box.

Anyway, the night seemed very short, which, I guess, since I've been playing mostly 4 hour chunks at the Spectrum lately and this was "only" 3, it was -- but I think I was also Having Fun.

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 13Dec2009

I had forgotten that they'd asked me to start at 6:45 this week (instead of 6:00) to allow a local kids' dance troop to perform, so I got there at 5:30. That turned out to be a good thing anyway, 'cuz it let me get my stuff set up while the kids weren't dancing yet. And when the teacher got up and started to completely inaudibly try to announce the start of the show, I quickly got out a microphone for her. Pretty much saved her show, since she needed to announce each different song and the kids' names, etc. She was lucky I was there.

I wasn't quite so lucky. When I got there, I hauled all my stuff out, including the card table that I've been putting my tip hat and CDs for sale on. This was fine last week, and last year, too, but this time, a hard-nosed Activity Committee member immediately asked me, "What's this table for?". I told him, and said that it had been OK before, but he didn't want it there by the entrance where it's been, or even on the other side, and made me put it way back away from the walkway, where the families walking up to and back from Santa's house wouldn't even see it, much less be inclined to stop. I tried to reason with him, but it was clearly a closed matter.

I put my new signs, hat, and CDs out anyway, and hoped that people would seek it out if they wanted to contribute. And after I'd played and was tearing down, a guy came up and wanted change for a ten because he wanted to put five in the hat. I took this as a good sign, gave him his change, and watched him go back to the table and take one of each CD. Didn't expect that, but it's OK -- at a buck apiece to make 'em, I'm still "up" 3 bucks. And whatever else is in the hat...

Which turned out to be... exactly what I had put in there at the beginning; not a dollar more.

Now, I know I keep dwelling on the money, but that's really not why I play. I play for the appreciation (which the tips are a tangible token of, but clapping is just as good). And if they'd'a asked me to play, and told me up-front that I couldn't collect tips, I'd'a done it anyway. But I really didn't like being made to feel like a panhandler. That really threw me, and made it pretty darn hard to even go through with it.

But I eventually started playing anyway. I figured that that One Guy didn't want me there, but that he was in the minority. And I had fun. I'd learned "Feliz Navidad" over the week, since I had several requests for it last Sunday, and it went over pretty well for such a dumb song. There were more people there this time, and some pretty good applause. And I love the row of little kids staring at me through the little picket fence...

Towards the end, some of the Activity Committee members (not including That Guy) sat on the benches out in front of me and clapped loudly after every song. And as I was packing up, "Mrs. Claus" came out in her street clothes, thanked me, and said that she'd had to ask the Helpers if that was a recording or a live guy.

It's weird -- I know the guy in the red suit last week, and the white-haired lady this week, aren't really Santa and Mrs. Claus, but somehow their compliments warm me up twice as much as other peoples' do anyway.

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 06Dec2009

The city of Mission Viejo builds a big display in the parkway between the city Library and the Civic Center and puts on a pretty elaborate Santa's Workshop and visits with Santa (and Mrs. Claus) every year, for the three weekends in December before Christmas. They finally figured out that they could get local people to come down and entertain the line of families that are waiting their turn to talk to Santa. Me, anyway...

It's pretty fun -- a nice, "targeted" (i.e., all about the same age), and captive audience. I just set up on the lawn beside the line (safe on the other side of the picket fence), and play Christmas songs. It goes over pretty well -- the kids like me, and the parents are grateful for anything to distract the kids so they don't go ballistic while they're waiting in line.

There are some Girl Scout volunteers acting as elves, holding the line back and letting each family go up to Santa's house one at a time. I set up a card table there at the head of the line, with a stack of CDs and a tip jar. Last year it worked really well -- the next-in-line family is kind of stuck there, staring at my table, having been listening to me for the last 15 or 30 minutes ("hint, hint"). A lot of CDs disappeared, and a lot of money took their place.

But this year, they've added a snow machine just above that entrance, with spotlights pointing down from the mast to show the snow as it flutters down. Unfortunately, the new stuff blew the fuse for that whole area and it all went dead,and nobody there knew where the breaker box was. There was plenty of ambient light around from the other displays and street lights, but it pretty much put my little display table in a dark hole. I guess that, plus the pretty light turnout (this was the first weekend), made for a light "take" ($29 -- still not too shabby).

I had fun -- it wasn't *too* cold, it's a nice amount of time (2 hours), and I like playing for (civilized) kids. And Santa's-lap aged kids are just about the right bracket. They all sing along with "Rudolph" and "Jingle Bells" (as do some of the moms). It's actually kind of surprising, though, how few actual kids songs there are for Christmas. Most of them are of the "White Christmas" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" soppy type. I can't really play those for the kids, so I augment the list with a few normal kids' songs like "Puff", "Lollipop Tree", and "Rainbow Connection". I did get several requests for "Feliz Navidad", so I guess I'll have to learn that one before next Sunday.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum "Myrtle Court" -- 05Dec2009

Right after Halloween, in a fit of hubris caused by two quite lucrative gigs in a row, I signed up to play at the Main Stage at Irvine Spectrum, which they call "Myrtle Court" for some no-doubt logical, but unknown to the general public, reason. I figured it would be Christmas time -- there would be lots of people there; I'd get to do my Christmas songs and sell my Christmas CDs; and if I got my daughters to sit at the Sales Table, we'd make out like bandits, even though you have to pay a $50 "setup fee" to play there.

Well, let's just say it didn't work out the way I'd pictured it. Actually, come to think of it, I did pay the fifty bucks, and there were lots of people there, and I did play lots of Christmas music, and my daughters did sit at the table "selling" the CDs -- I guess it's just the "bandits" part that didn't work out.

We did sell a handful of CDs, and covered the fifty plus eighteen, but I was really hoping to do better than that -- mostly because I had promised the girls that they could split anything over 50, but 9 bucks apiece wasn't really what any of us had in mind. (I gave them each $30, putting myself solidly in the red for the evening.)

But that's OK! I'm not in it for the money. It was actually a pretty nice place to play -- they turned down the fountain so it's hardly noticeable (and it's at least a consistent sound unlike the Food Court fountain), and the "house music" was completely off, unlike the Food Court where it's gotten louder than ever, made even worse by the new stage location even nearer a pair of speakers.

The side walls there are also parallel, and seem to make a nice little auditorium. It sounded pretty good to me. And I was singing pretty good, after so many weeks of this cruddy throat. I even seemed to have expanded bass range, but still could hit the high notes. And it wasn't too cold for my fingers to play, either.

My brother and his wife came by, as did a good friend from the Indian Princess program with his. And an old high school friend stumbled on us early on, completely surprised to see me there. The girls were there with me, and Daleen came by later on with the dogs. So I had friendly faces most of the night to sing to, which always helps a lot -- so big thanks to those that came out.

And, as I said, there were lots of people -- but they were all in a big hurry, either to get to the shopping, or to get out of the cold. There are tables and chairs along the fountain, and when Warren and I played there in the summer, there were lots of people sitting around, hanging out and listening. It sounds painfully obvious now, but people apparently don't just hang out when it's freezing outside.

Oddly, it now seems like the Food Court is a better place to actually rope people in, and collect some tips -- at least for a "cover band" like me (not to mention it's free). People are obliged to sit and listen for a while, at least while they're finishing their pizza, and can get hooked -- maybe get comfortable with how this is working, and make a request or two. At Myrtle Court, I'm just a curiosity that's impeding the traffic flow, and no one hears enough on their way through to really want to stop and listen more. And frankly, I hate to be immodest, but I think that I sound *too* "professional", and people assume I'm the paid entertainment, so they don't need to tip -- or even applaud. Still, I do think I'll want to try it again sometime when the weather's nicer.

But the big excitement for the evening was later on, when I was singing away, and a guy jumped up on the stage from behind me (which is a big open area), and stole my hat, mid-song, right off of my head! Everyone assumed that he was some friend of mine messing with me, so no one really reacted. But I sure didn't recognize him as he was disappearing into the crowd, so I told Geneva to "Chase that guy down!", and she leapt up to do that.

He didn't seem to realize that he was being chased, so he slowed down inside the Barnes and Nobel, and she shouted, "Hey you, gimme back that hat", and just snatched it out of his hands as he stood there surprised. Obviously she wasn't going to try to detain him, so he snuck out the back door. She did exactly the right thing -- she got the hat and got away from him, 'cuz who knows how crazy he could really have been. Fortunately, where she caught him, there were lots of people around, so it probably couldn't have gotten *too* crazy.

I couldn't think of anything else to do but wait to see if she did or didn't manage to catch up to him, so I just went on playing. A song and a half later, Geneva reappeared with the hat, and got a round of applause and hoots from the crowd.

This morning, as I was wondering about how the video I usually take came out, it occurred to me -- did I catch the whole thing "on tape"? Sure enough.

Turns out he had his girlfriend with him, watch for the lady in the long yellow coat, behind me right at the beginning. They're just strolling down the mall like anyone else. He apparently tells her what he's planning, and she just laughs while he's committing his daring robbery. After he takes off, she just walks back the other way after him. We didn't even know about the girlfriend until I found the video.

Anyway, pretty amazing. How can a guy just think that that kind of thing is OK? I can't even put it off on "Kids these days", 'cuz the guy's not even a kid. But he clearly thinks it's some kind of joke, 'cuz he's got a big grin on his face the whole time.

But, all's well that ends well, I guess. Geneva got the hat back, an amazing story to tell, and earned a new nickname: "Ninja-neva". It was a total miracle that she was there at all, 'cuz I'm all tied up with cables and a guitar, so *I* sure couldn't have caught him!

Of course, I'll never be able to wear that hat again without thinking about this, and it'll be worrisome to do gigs where the back side of the stage is open to the public (which is, now, *both* stages at Spectrum), but I'll get over it, I suppose.

So, crazy night all round. And like John Sebastian said, "We did it for the stories we could tell".

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 21Nov2009

It's getting colder, but this time I was clever enough to put the heater directly behind me so I was at least evenly warm on the back, though colder on the front. But it kept my fingers from getting too bad, both hands.

I had a pretty bad cold coming on, with a pretty scratchy throat -- and we were all out of cough medicine. I went for it anyway (of course), and only really crashed a song once with a coughing fit.

Just before my Halloween gig, I bought some of those little Mini Tootsie Rolls, in the little individual wax paper, twisted-on-the-ends, wrappers. I gave away some of them, but had lots left, so I've been trying to use them as "bait" to get people to come up to the Scary Table to get a song list. So I keep a half dozen scattered on the table next to me.

Late in the evening, a little family was listening off to the side: mom, dad, and little baby. After a while, the mom kinda snuck up (in plain sight) and put a small handful of twisted-end candies *on* the table. I thought that was a bit strange but sweet, until, an hour later (and after they were gone), I looked closer to find that they were actually throat lozenges. More sweet of her than I'd realized! And once I'd found them, they really did save my skin for the last hour or so.

Lots of kids were out, and kept asking for "Hey There Delilah" (as they do), but since that song is one of the three or four that inexplicably trash my throat even when I'm in good condition, I had to refuse. After the third of fourth group requested it, I finally said, "Sure I'll play it, if one of you will sing it". One of the girls turned out to be an OCHSA vocal music student, and her friends immediately forced her come up and do it -- and pretty well too, though not exactly her key. A big thrill for the group of them, and a nice breather for me.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 20Nov2009

A nice little evening made novel by the appearance of our first "opening act" -- a couple of friends of Warren's wife who sing harmony doo-wop through a high-end karaoke machine against a piano on CD accompaniment. Sounds silly, but works out pretty well. I got there early to hear their last 3 tunes ("Calendar Girl", "In My Room" and "Love Potion Number 9"), and they're not half-bad. Apparently there used to be 4 guys, which was probably more impressive, but they do OK with two. (And hey, and how come *we* don't have matching outfits?)

Anyway, Warren hooked them up with the entertainment manager of that store (since all the music is individually booked now), and she either only wants music on one night a week, or mistakenly got the impression that the two bands were inextricably linked. Whatever.

Their being there had the unexpected side effect of prying Warren's wife out onto the town, so she heard us play for the first time in a long time. She was particularly interested in hearing the harmony box do its thing -- no doubt she's heard a lot about it (good and/or bad) from Warren. But she's always a pretty good audience. And after they'd found someplace for dinner, her friends came back to hear a few of our tunes, before they had to cut out for late-shift jobs.

Later on we had a friendly middle-aged lady completely involved, listening and requesting. Turns out she was visiting from Australia -- our second unaccompanied Australian lady in as many gigs. What's up with that?

We made $26 to split, but $20 of that was a single bill from our new Australian friend. She either really liked us, or it was that "Foreign Money looks like Play Money" effect, like I used to get whenever I was in Japan.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 28Nov2009

It was threatening to rain, but it just sprinkled a bit in the afternoon, so I decided to go for it anyway, despite the risk and my lingering cruddy throat.

When I got there, surprise!, the stage was gone! I looked around a while, befuddled, and found it, all the way across the plaza, on the other side of the fountain and turtles, out in the middle of the traffic lane toward the theaters. This puts the fountain between me and the potential audience eating at the tables, gets me closer to the way-distracting "house music" speakers and the fountain noise (and nearly within splashing range right behind the turtles), but puts me out in lots of foot traffic -- except it's behind me. It's pretty true that nobody's eating outside in the cold, so moving away from the tables isn't exactly a bad thing, and I guess I could treat it like the other stage -- turn around and use the fountain as a backdrop, but the little audience I did get was sitting around the benches that surround the planter boxes on either side of the fountain, which was actually kind of nice. If I play the other way, I'll be expecting the entire audience to stand...

It was pretty dead, despite the presumed holiday sale rush, but I had at least a few people tuned in most of the night, and sometimes a pretty nice crowd. There was a heater set up, but it ran out of gas pretty early on. I called the guys out and they eventually brought a new can, but that took a while. Fortunately, I'd brought my overcoat and new top hat (and cleverly had on my long johns). I was cold, but not too bad. I wore the hat when I'd switch to Christmas tunes, and people seemed to get it that it was The Christmas Hat.

Arielle, one of our Princess friends, came by with a group of her high-school buddies, and she shouted "Hi, Keith!" on their way past into the food court. Later, as they all came out again, I was in the middle of singing "Santa Claus is Coming To Town", so I improvised, "He knows if Arielle's been good, so be good for goodness' sake", to her embarrassment and the delight of her friends.

I got a lot of families and clumps of kids, which is great, 'cuz I can do "Rudolph" and "Frosty", etc. "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" sounds great with the harmony box, as does "Blue Christmas". But, for some reason, that end of the mall is Persian Hangout-ville. They're all very nice people, but we don't match up, musically, much. Especially in, ahem, Holiday Music.

Towards the end, a whole group of well-to-do Persian ladies with some kids came by and tried to listen in. One of them asked me if I knew any French songs. All I had to offer was the Beatles' "Michelle" with Paul's school-boy French lines in it, which they graciously took as Good Enough. Then the younger ladies found some songs they knew on the list, so I did those, but there was a toddler boy who they wanted to get to dancing, so I did some "rock" for him, while all the grammas took pictures. I'm sure that between them all, they accounted for a big piece of the $50 I took in.

And in the last 20 minutes or so, a middle-aged couple came and sat listening for a while. Eventually the wife came over to talk to me -- I assumed she was going to make a request. She did: "Can I sing a duet with you?" Um, sure! I was just noticing that afternoon as I was putting the Xmas tunes into the Big Book, that I have two songs that I can't sing: "Santa Baby", and "Baby It's Cold Outside". They're apparently there for just such an occasion -- so I asked if she knew "Cold Outside", a classic and perfect duet, but nope. "Santa Baby"? Also nope. Shucks. (In her defense, she was clearly a WWII Japanese war bride.)

But she knew "White Christmas", and turned out to have a huge near-operatic voice, way too loud for my poor microphone, but it was OK. She wanted to do another one, so we did "The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts roasting...). It was a bit of a challenge on both of them to follow her near-random timing ideas, but kinda fun. She was done, but wanted to know how often I was there, and how to contact me. I showed her the website address on the songsheet, but I'm not entirely sure I'm hiring right at the present...

Anyway, fun, crazy, different kinda night. I'm definitely glad I took the chance and went -- it only rained a few drops just while I was packing up, just in time.

K&W at Borders Mission Viejo -- 14Nov2009

The terribly broken booking process that Borders was using to schedule the musicians into the various stores broke down entirely when the guy who marginally ran it quit. Since then, it's been hard to tell what's going on, and how to get scheduled. Long story short, I haven't played at Borders MV since the end of March, which has been OK with me since it's very hit-or-miss there.

This time: pretty big "miss". It started out OK, but with only a few people (usually the café is full, even before we get there -- the economy?). We got a little response at first, but that died out, and we were playing to stony silence for a while. Even that's OK sometimes -- I was enjoying being (a) warm, and (b) able to hear myself clearly. Besides, I'm getting used to it -- but it does get a little depressing after a while...

Towards the end though, it went from bad to worse. A group of developmentally disabled teens and their handlers come in. Some sat in the back corner, some (lacking anyplace else) sat at the table right in front of us. I won't go into it, but they started off polite and degenerated into some pretty loud, and rude, behavior. Not to mention distracting. Fortunately, it was pretty close to quitting time anyway, so I got through it for a while, and shut down.

To make it even worse, we couldn't rustle up a place to put the tip jar where people could get to it -- and nobody seemed to want to -- so we made literally $0. At least it was easy to split two ways...

My next opportunity to play there will be January 9. We'll see if the intervening 7 or 8 outdoors-in-the-cold gigs will change how I feel about attempting it again.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 13Nov2009

The gigs seem to be getting lower and lower key as it gets cooler. Not a particularly good sign for my booked-solid November and December...

It was cold, but they did manage to bring out a heater this time. Problem is, I can't bring it up on stage, so it has to sit on my left, keeping my fretting hand warm, but leaving my picking hand pretty chilly. But I did OK. It'll certainly get worse.

And, I actually had even more fun than usual. It wasn't terribly lucrative ("only" $36 in the jar), but I had an almost constant supply of someone to play to, which is pretty rare. Mostly it was groups of teens, but we get along pretty well. I also had a few adult couples that were impressed and hung out for a good long while, it seemed to me, considering I had a heater and they didn't.

Somebody requested "Hotel California" last week, so I learned it all this week. I'd poked at it before, but it didn't seem to fly. This time, it does sound good to me, which either indicates that I'm getting better, or that I'm getting less critical of my own shortcomings as I get older...

So I tried it out "live", and it does seem to work pretty well. I'd'a thought that the Harmony box would be a big help, it being an Eagles song and all, but there are really only a few lines that have harmony in them. The bigger challenge is that it's kind of the same thing, over and over, so I'm trying to vary the guitar style between different verses.

I also brought some Christmas songs out, which nobody seemed to object to. Yes, it's pre-Thanksgiving, but I guess people are getting used to that idea. And I'm only playing the more modern, pop-song style ones, so far. Next week, look out.

The thing I'm starting to notice at Spectrum, though, is that, because the crowd turns over all the time, I tend to play the Greatest Hits, repeatedly, trying to rope in new converts as they breeze by. This means that I *don't* get to play some of the quieter, subtler songs that I tend to get to in a quieter, less dynamic place. Trying to "get" people is a kind of fun in its own right, but it's not as fun musically as getting to play a lot of variety.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 07Nov2009

Quiet, but nice. It was kind of like Borders -- people seemed to like the stuff, but it started out without anyone clapping, and that kind of self-perpetuated. There was hardly anyone there at 6:00 starting-time, but after a while the place was jammed -- more people than I've ever seen there before. Unfortunately, they weren't there to see, or interested in, me. And after dinnertime, it went back its normal half-empty state.

But a few people tuned in eventually, and I had fun. I brought my 3 best, and least "Christmasy", songs to try out -- just 'cuz the actual Christmas season, when counted in number of gigs, is terribly short. I'd expected some dismay from the audience, but when I announced that I was intending to be the first to affront them with too-early Christmas music, there was applause! I guess I'll bring a few more next week.

I kept trying to find something that would "click". I did "Don't Stop Believing" a few times, but it didn't catch on until later in the night when some kids responded, big-time. I asked (knowing the answer) if they were watching "Glee", and got a big "Whoo!" from all 4 of them, so I did my other two "Glee" songs: "Sweet Caroline" and "Alone". They even got into "Caroline" with the "Ba, ba, bas" -- which is definitely what I'm hoping for.

It seemed to be "Let's request songs Keith ought to know but doesn't" night. A girl walked all the way up from her group way in the back to ask for "Here Comes the Sun", based on, I suppose, my having just done "Lucy in the Sky". A huge linebacker of a high school kid asked for "The Times They Are A'Changing" (?!), and settled for hos second choice: "some Johnny Cash" (I did "Ring of Fire"). A guy sent his wife up to ask for "Hotel California" (so I did "Desperado" as the next-best-thing), and a nattily-dressed little foreign man clapped appreciatively for "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and came right up afterwards to ask for "that sunshine on my shoulders song".

And, my biggest fan for the night, a 20-ish kid in a Dodgers cap, started clapping loudly (and virtually solo) for any Beatles songs I did. He came up and put money in the jar and proclaimed "Please play some more Beatles songs, sir!" So I did, and did, and he came up and put more money in the jar, and repeated his request for "more Beatles", so I did. But then a girl requested something (something non-Beatles), so I did that one, and after that, the kid came up a third time to put yet more money in the jar, and request yet more Beatles. I was out of Beatles songs by that point, though, except the "in process" ones in the back of the book, so I did a few of those. I thought I had a lot of (enough of!) Beatles tunes, but apparently not -- gotta go learn some more, I guess. I'm gonna need a bugger notebook, and a stronger music stand!

Anyway, aside from those few demonstrative people, it was pretty quiet (and pretty cold). Still, I made $48, which is less than previous weeks, but nothing to sneeze at, especially compared to the frequently single-digit nights at Borders.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 30Nov2009

I usually only play at the Spectrum on Saturdays, but this Saturday was Halloween. Since I like to play somewhere at least once per weekend, at the last minute I asked the Spectrum people if I could play on Friday instead. I appear to be the only sucker they have playing in the Food Court these days, so I got it.

I got there a little late, 'cuz it's hard to get there at 5:30 on a work day, but nobody was exactly there waiting for me -- there were literally 2 people in the whole outdoor area. I expected it to be lighter than on a Saturday, but not *this* light. More people eventually showed up, but it stayed pretty quiet. I figured it was a lesson well learned -- stick to Saturdays.

Still, it was pretty fun. I had some people listening most of the time, and the usual packs of roving teens. At one point, a small group showed up and a girl was on a "dare hunt" of some kind, and needed to come up and sing a song. Fine with me -- what have *I* got to lose? She turned out to be even worse than she'd claimed, completely tone and rhythm-deaf on "Yesterday" (even with me singing in her ear), so I shut it down after two verses.

Then another girl (from a different roving pack) decided that she wanted to sing too, and did almost as badly on (a similarly-shortened) "Hey There Delilah". I was surprised because usually people with the guts to get up have a little talent to back it up.

I wore my "Shaun of the Dead" costume, which consists mainly of a short-sleeved white shirt, a red tie, and a red nametag (sorry no pictures -- I forgot the camera), which had gone over big-time at OCHSA earlier, but it's a bit subtle and obscure and nobody seemed to recognize it with a guitar in front of it. Admittedly, you've either seen that movie or you haven't -- but I ended up asking a few people directly if they'd seen it, and once reminded of the movie, they suddenly understood that I was wearing the costume. Not nearly as satisfying as having someone recognize it spontaneously -- and a bit painful to think that everyone else just figured that that outfit was just how big a geek I was...

I also brought some little Tootsie Rolls to give away, but since my hands are both busy most of the time, didn't really get a chance to do so much. And it turns out that throwing little candies at people in the semi-darkness doesn't work very well, either.

I had worked up "Ghost Riders in the Sky" (again) for the occasion, and played it a few times, with the harmony box chiming in on the "Yip-ee-i-ay" parts. Sounded really cool.

There was a group of teenage Asian kids who brought their dinner out and inexplicably sat at an up-front table. They were studiously-too-cool to acknowledge me, and ate and smoked and talked for a long time without so much as looking up. But apparently they were listening closer than they pretended to be, 'cuz when someone else took me up on my offer to play requests from the song lists available on the table, one of the girls couldn't help herself, got a list, and started requesting songs -- which they ended up staying around quite a while for. It's pretty satisfying when you can visibly turn some people around.

And towards the end, I had a 20-something couple come by who were *really* into it, for no apparent reason. They sat for a long time, asked for several songs, refused to ask for more ("All your stuff is great -- play whatever you want!"), and clapped and "Whoo-ed" at the end of any and everything. Then some teens came by and dragged some chairs around to form a "front row", and they were asking for stuff (and, typically, not listening to the songs they asked for), but being enthusiastic in between songs. Between them, they made my night.

It seemed like there wasn't very many people there, so I wasn't expecting much in the tip jar, but it totaled $85! The really odd part (and, I guess, explanation) is that there was a twenty, 3 fives, and 3 sets of 5 ones folded together. That means that I made the first $50 off of only 7 generous people -- without selling a single CD, or even noticing anyone who seemed particularly (twenty-bucks' worth) entranced.

It's becoming pretty obvious that people tip a single guy more (sometimes a lot more) than a "band" (even of only 2). I'm obviously basing that on a very limited data-set, but I certainly don't think that "we" (when Warren's there) sound worse than "I" do, and the set list and "performance" is nearly identical. I can only guess that people feel either (a) sorry for, or (b) more personally connected to, a single guy standing there playing. Not that I want Warren to stop coming -- I'm not in this for the money -- but it's an interesting bit of psychology.

We're really rockin' now!

We've been having way too much fun with "The Beatles: Rock Band" since I got it for my birthday. And spending way too much money on it, too. I "invested" my unexpected windfall tips of two weeks ago on a set of drums and the optional cymbal kit, which arrived yesterday.

We played with it for a little while without the cymbals, and all three girls are better at it, from the get-go, than I am. But I'm getting the hang of it. And once I added the cymbals (which really just substitute for the pads, but are more "realistically" placed), it's really fun. You really do feel like a drummer, especially when there's a recognizable "pa-dum-dum, pish!" sequence that you nail.

Anyway, Daleen won't play guitar or sing, but she seems to like the drumming, so we may have ourselves a four-part family band going, with drums, guitar, bass, and a singer. Pretty cool!

K&W at Irvine Spectrum - 24Oct2009

Well, not nearly as great as last week, but still better than sitting at home...

It was a bit colder at first, moving to way colder at the end, and there weren't as many people out, and far fewer children. We got some packs of teenagers, including a big group that had just come from their Homecoming Dance -- the girls in their tiny slinky dresses, and the boys in ties but with their shirt-tails out, as is the style.

I learned the 80's power-ballad "Don't Stop Believing" a while ago, thinking that since it was prominently featured in the pilot episode of "Glee", and a bunch of the kids on our cruise knew (and karaoke-ed) it, that it might go over. Suddenly it's my biggest hit! The teenage kids ask for it every time, and since we get various roving packs of kids, we did it at least 4, maybe 5, times.

One pair of 15-ish girls wanted to sing along with it, and one boldly asked if she sang the song with me, could she have one of the tip-dollars. I said, sure -- I'm willing to support anything out of the ordinary these days. She started out OK, but got distracted and they were both gone before the end of the song! Without her dollar! That's some short attention span! I guess she remembered later on, 'cuz after a while they did reappear so she could claim her "earnings". (I should have told her she could only have 50 cents, 'cuz she only sang half a song, but I didn't want to get into that. I'm guessing it's best not to get all "Papa Don't Preach" on your audience...)

Her friend started singing along this time, so I told her to get on up on the stage and sing, which she did, but she was too busy texting to keep up with the song. Dude, really?!? You can't put down the phone until the end of the song?!? Kids these days...

Anyway, the other unexpected Big Hit is "Hey Jude", which I would never have expected to even "work" with just me and a guitar (and, occasionally, Warren), but it does, and gets requested a lot. I think we did that one 4 times, too. It gets asked-for by people of all ages, not just the teens.

The new songs of the week were Heart's "Alone" and Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline", both taken from recent episodes of "Glee". "Alone" went pretty badly, but I'm just learning it, so it might be OK once I get "my arrangement" figured out. "Sweet Caroline" was a little better, but to make the low, low note singable, I had to make the high notes pretty darn high -- in fact, technically out of my range. But with a few hours of warm up, I hit 'em OK, so maybe that one will work better over time, too. I do get asked for Neil Diamond songs from time to time, so it'll be good to have that one on the list, if it works out.

The night started off pretty slow, with really terrible sound (especially with the second speaker accidentally not-plugged-in). It's quite a bit more confusing and difficult to get anything to sound right when Warren's there -- I don't know how they do it when there are even more guys and instruments. (I suppose to start with, they have Sound Men, and better equipment...) It's probably just me -- I learn those songs by myself, and by the time I drag 'em out "in concert", I've heard them a few zillion times with just my voice and guitar, so when Warren layers on his stuff, it sounds suddenly very complex to me, and the sounds I'm used to hearing are lost in the mix.

Anyway, I managed to defeat most of the feedback and get some acceptable tone dialed in eventually. For some reason, there's usually a big(ger) crowd that shows up at 8:30 or 9, so it gets better/funner then, but it was dead again by 10:00, so we quit on-time for once.

Only made $40 in tips this time (or 41 minus 1, I guess) -- quite a drop from the $110 last week. I hope the attendance isn't going to be this bad all the way through winter...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 17Oct2009

OK, wait. A hundred and ten bucks?!? In tips?!?

A whole lot of ones -- I can understand that. But 4 fives -- OK, we get those sometimes. But a ten? And a *twenty?*?!? Who puts in a twenty?

And what was I doing right?!?

It was a *really* nice night, especially after how unseasonably hot it had been all day. But the evening was just perfect, and there were a *lot* of people out. There were a few stretches with nobody really listening, but most of the time I had someone at least partly interested. Started off really well (and there's nothing better (and rarer) than a good start), with a group of 6 or 7 teen girls who were there already when I was setting up, so I handed them a song list before I started, and they asked for several songs before they left.

The rest of the night went pretty much as usual, except there was this stint in the middle where a bunch of little kids were coming up with dollars to stuff into the jar. It had apparently become some kind of instant fad, 'cuz they just kept coming, sometimes the same kid more than once. (What dad gives the kid another and another dollar to feed the jar with? Apparently much better dads than me...) That clearly contributed to the world-record tip total, but I didn't do anything to actually cause it. I wasn't even playing kids' songs at the time, 'cuz all these kids were way in the back and sides, and didn't appear to be part of the action. Shows what *I* know...

Had a tiny little dancer for a while at the beginning. Probably 4 years old, she kept coming up and giving me those classic little-kids' most-important-word-missing sentences: "I got a mmsumgm at home!" "A what?" "A mmsumgm." "Um, sounds nice (I guess)", and "How come you got a thaslmumm? "Um... because?"

Had a guy watching from the close-by planter-box bench, for a long time. I assumed he was waiting for something or someone, but after an hour or more, he finally got up, put some money in the jar, and went and sat back down. After another half hour or so, he got up again, and left. Musta just been enjoying the music, I guess.

Anyway, I was singing good, and playing good, and hitting the foot button on the harmony box with halfway decent accuracy, so I think I may have gotten some good video. Nothing much more to report, but...

A hundred and ten bucks?!?

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 16Oct2009

A really good night, because of the really good audience (for once). Usually we play to a lot of disinterested people, but this time we had a several people right up front, really listening. It makes a big difference. Having somebody to play for sharpens up our game, and ropes in more people, and round and round -- hopefully, anyway.

My brother came by, which is always nice because I trust his judgement of whether a song is working, or even worth pursuing. I've been working on several songs lately that I wanted him to hear. I even sent him a message on my way to the gig telling him that we'd be there -- which is way I wasn't completely surprised when he walked in, though he hadn't actually gotten that message...

I guess most of the new songs were working pretty well, though I'm pretty sure it's time to give up on "Africa", at least for indoor venues, and until I've practiced it quite a bit more. On the other hand, I'm really liking the way "Lucy in the Sky" works in my arrangement and key.

We had a little family with a toddler early on, and my brother and a young guy who seemed completely into our stuff later. And towards the end, there was a pretty lady who was looking around for a place to sit with her coffee, so I gave her my usual joke of, "There's no extra charge for the comfy seats up front" and she actually took me up on it. Turns out she was Australian, and really got into the music, asking for several songs and apparently staying quite a bit later than she'd intended.

We made $32 to split, which was quite a lot for this place. Not sure how that happened -- I didn't see many people coming over to contribute...

I had my movie camera all set up, but never managed to actually fire it up. I usually wait a while at the beginning 'cuz there's no point in capturing the early not-warmed-up yet songs, and then we were being "accompanied" by the happy little baby, so those takes wouldn't have been much good, either. And then I just kind of let it go -- maybe 'cuz it's nice to play without that pressure for a while.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 10Oct2009

Another great night at Spectrum -- not as good as two weeks ago, but close. Pretty good sound (considering), quite a few sympathetic listeners, and some outright "fans".

It started inauspiciously -- when I got there, the food court was literally empty, not a single person at the tables. It was chilly (compared to previous weeks), and I thought that nobody would show up at all. But as it got darker, it didn't get colder, and the temp seemed appropriate to nighttime activities, and people *did* start to show up.

I played to some indifference at first, as always, but much of the time there was at least someone to play to. And later on, a couple of groups of teens showed up that were open to some fun. I played their requests for a while, then went for my show-stopper, "Don't Stop Believing". When I hit that last "Don't Stop!" and cut off suddenly, they burst into spontaneous "Whooo!"s, shown above. Then we went into "Hey Jude" (by request), and I got some actual participation on the "Na na na na" part at the end. I think it helps that I've been kicking on the harmony box after the first Na na, which I think sounds like people are joining in, and convinces others to do so.

I tried out my newly-worked-up "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" again (now that I can play it a little better). It's surprising to me that such a distinctive song sounds OK in my simplified acoustic guitar version. I expected it to flop horribly, but it actually sounds good to me. Check it out on YouTube, here. I love the little trill that the harmony box does on the very last "Ah!".

Conversely, "If You Want To Sing Out", which I can play and sing really close to the original, just kind of lays there in concert. You just never know...

I made $40.40 for the night, plus a single piece of Korean candy, carefully and somehow-significantly laid in front of the tip jar by a cute apparently-Korean girl. I'm not sure of the customs there -- if I eat it, are we married?

Trailmate Camping at Oso Lake - Oct 2009

We had a Trailmates campout at Oso Lake over the weekend. It's a kinda lame campground whose best characteristic is that it's incredibly close -- about 10 minutes from home. But we have fun hanging with our friends, regardless of what else is going on.

There's a "lake", of course, but it's really a reservoir for reclaimed water, so there's no swimming, and we don't fish. (The guys that do fish didn't catch anything anyway.) We could have gone out and paddled around in a canoe, but, for some reason, the girls didn't want to -- sounded boring, I guess.

The camp is owned and run by the boy scouts, so there are "badge earning" activities that we could do: archery, BB guns, slingshots, and tomahawks. We've done the first three before, here two years ago and also at other places, but we'd never tried tomahawks before. But because it's run by the Boy Scouts, their program is designed to impart as much Safety as possible, by extracting out all the Fun. The kid they had running the tomahawk area was apparently a zombie (he sure had the "shamble" down), and worked under the philosophy that the slower he moved, the fewer tomahawks would be thrown, leaving fewer chances for anyone to get hurt. Or have any fun.

On Friday night I set up all the equipment so we could have a movie, but this time I also brought along our Wii, 'cuz I'd gotten "Beatles Rock Band" for my birthday the day before. There weren't many girls there, 'cuz most of them went out for dinner, but we had some fun playing that for a while, and then we watched "Across the Universe", a movie based around a bunch of Beatles songs. Kind of a theme going, there.

On Saturday night we had our "Trailmate Talent Show", which of course failed pretty miserably since none of the girls knew about it, nor would any of them have wanted to demonstrate their talent even if they had. But I managed to get several of them to come up and tell jokes into the microphone, and Geneva and Acacia played their Canon, and Geneva and I played "Ashokan Farewell". Then, since there wasn't anything else, I played for a while: "Waltzing With Bears", "Lollipop Tree", etc. It was great fun for me -- the kids are enthusiastic, and most of the dads seem to enjoy it. The sound was good out there in the quiet, and I was singing quite well. But it was getting cold, so people started to adjourn to the campfire, and I quit before I was all alone out there.

So all in all, a pretty good, if low-key, campout.

K&W at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Sept2009

Well, no repeat of last week's magic. All the knobs should have been set the same, but the sound was strange and harsh, and I couldn't get into it like last time. Halfway through, my guitar started getting distorted, and I remembered some strange sounds coming and going toward the end last time, and was thinking that the amp was going bad. (I had even brought along the Trailmates amp as a spare, just in case mine completely went out.) But Warren thought it might be the battery that's mounted up inside my guitar to power the pickup's pre-amp (which I'd completely forgotten about, and would never have thought of), and once I'd swapped that, it was all good again. And a good thing, too -- sending the amp in for (no) repair would have been a lot of trouble... Thanks, Warren!

But even when it was working, I still couldn't seem to get the sound right, and messed with it most of the night, trying to. Part of it is that the whole thing is more "complex" when Warren is there, and since we swapped the amp channels around (because of the harmony box), he's been able to be louder, and is doing so, which is throwing me some, too. But toward the end of the night, it seemed to finally get somewhere close to reasonable so I could focus on the music, and not only the sound thereof.

We didn't get a lot of response for most of the night, but finally a pair of women came and sat for a while. They both had little dogs, and one had brought her mother, too. We finally convinced them to have a look at the song list and pick a few. Oddly, there seemed to be far fewer roving packs of teens this time.

I did bring a few new songs, and with nobody listening, had ample time to try them out. I get asked for John Denver songs, and "Leaving on a Jet Plane" specifically from time to time, and since it appeared in the new hit (with geeks) TV show "Glee", I thought I ought to finally work it up. Not that it's very complicated, with its three chords. It took longer to type it than to learn it. Anyway, I thought it went OK, despite its extreme cheesiness.

I also tried out Neil Young's "Helpless", to see how the harmony box would work for the chorus. It did seem to work, but I'm not sure it's a song people really want to hear much. Seemed to be fun for Warren, though.

The third try-out was "Father and Son", which went just about as badly as I'd expected it to. The "son" verses are sung an octave above the "father" ones. At home, I can hit the low notes of the father part, but the son's high notes are pretty screechy. Once I'm on stage, my range slides up a step or two, making the low notes out of reach on the bottom, and the high notes, well, not quite as screechy. I guess I'll leave it in the book, but it'll only work on nights when my voice is working extraordinarily well.

I tried to remember to "accidentally mention" the CDs for sale, but since nobody was really listening, there was no one to mention it to. So we only sold one, to one of the dog ladies, for her grandson. Made $38 overall -- pretty low for this place, but not bad. Heck, that's nearly five bucks an hour, for each of us! Good thing we're not in it for the money...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum Center -- 19Sept2009

I was a bit worried that having two gigs in a row would only serve to show me how old I'm getting by crippling my knees and trashing my throat -- but I did OK. More than OK -- it was as if the previous night's performance was just a warmup to this one. I was singing better (and higher) than in a long time, the whole four hours. I was also somehow mentally sharper than I'm used to being -- the songs seemed easier to play than usual, and the extra apparent bandwidth let me do things that I'm usually to "busy" to attempt. I think I was just a lot more relaxed than usual, and that "throw it to the wind" feeling is amazing.

So I had a blast, feeling "invincible" somehow, even though I played to abject silence most of the night. There were plenty of people out there, and there were an occasional few that seemed to be listening, but there was scarce little interaction (clapping, requesting, etc.) But I didn't mind, oddly enough -- the sound was inexplicably clean for this notoriously noisy outdoor venue, and I was having fun just playing for myself.

I did have some little first-grade dancers for a while, but their parents were too busy with some kind of big get-together to pay much attention themselves. I played "Here Comes My Baby" and dragged out the "Twist and Shout / La Bamba" medley again. Much later I discovered that they were Spanish speakers -- I hope my accent on "La Bamba" isn't too atrocious.

But finally, after almost three and a half hours of near-total apathy, four high-school kids showed up and (re)made my night. It was just a shame that they showed up so late. I told them that I didn't have much time left, but we could play until the guys showed up to chase me out of there. They sat down and listened for a while, and then asked if I knew "any *popular* songs". I was taken aback by this sudden turn, until they clarified that they had said "Bob Dylan" not "popular". Whew!

I said that, yes, I knew "Don't Think Twice", and one of the girls said "Oh! That's my favorite song ever!", to which I said (without thinking), "Then get up here and sing it with me." She (Brianna) was flustered, but came on up and sang along, quietly, even when I leaned over so she could sing into the mic. Not choir kids, then.

So I did several songs they wanted, and while they were thinking about what to ask for next, I launched into "Don't Stop Believing", which they totally dug, and which also roped in another set of high-schoolers who were hanging out farther back, out of range. This Party was definitely Started. Unfortunately, it was getting pretty far after 10:00, but Brianna asked, at exactly the right time, for "Golden Slumbers", which wrapped it up just as the maintenance guys appeared.

(Half and hour later, as I was walking out with my guitar on my back and the amp in tow, some of the further-back girls sang out "Just a small town girl..." (from "Don't Stop Believing") at me from across the patio. Nice.)

An odd but maybe not surprising thing happened halfway through the evening. A kid, maybe 15, came up and asked how much the CDs were. I told him "Whatever you want to put in the jar", but pointed out (on mic, since it's stuck to my head) that the ones on the left are for kids, and the ones on the right are for grownups. He thought about that for a while, and took a grownup one. 10 minutes later he was back to apologize and swap it for a kids' one -- apparently he doesn't know right from left yet. But the more remarkable thing is that, clearly because of the accidental "announcement", other people started coming up to see what this was all about, and ended up buying out all the kids' CDs (OK, there were only three of them -- but I've been carrying those three around for months without selling them). I even had someone ask me if I had any more -- but they looked familiar so I told them that I'd get some more for next week, and that seemed OK with them.

I've been under the (apparently quite wrong) impression that if people can see me, they can see the table and sign, but I guess that's overly optimistic. I'll have to try to mention the CDs earlier in the night, perhaps as an "educational" announcement like this accidental one was, so that people know about them. Sales will undoubtedly go up, if this was any indication. There is a rule against "aggressive solicitation", and another about "You may not direct attention to the tip jar before, during, or after your performance", so I'll have to be careful, but I'm probably not the "aggressive solicitation" type. Maybe an unobtrusive solution is just to mention that "this song is on our CD" when I'm introducing them.

Anyway, I had a great time for some reason, and my knees were OK, and my voice was OK, and I made 47 bucks. You shoulda been there...

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 18Sept2009

Another nice but quiet night at South Coast Plaza. The highlight was the arrival of a family with a 9-year-old boy who had a wild variety of requests: Al Di Meola, "House of the Rising Sun", and the Who's "Behind Blue Eyes". He's been learning guitar himself, and these reflect what he's heard and is learning. (That's him in the bottom right corner of Warren's picture, playing "air chords".) I've played through that last one before, and half-remembered some of the chords, but even with the kid's help, couldn't get through much of it. He settled for "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "You've Got a Friend in Me", though, and his dad asked for more usual (and on-the-list) stuff, like "Old Man" and "Bus Stop".

The sound was, as always, clear and clean, helped by my trying out (at Warren's suggestion) a different (and far less obtrusive) "effect" setting on the Harmony Box. I thought the harmonies themselves were working pretty well -- partly because I've abandoned using it at all on some songs. I killed some of them because the box can't track my fancy guitar work and sings "mistakes", and others because the original recording's harmonies run *below* the melody, which was fine when the melody was up pretty high (like in Beatles songs), but since I've had to transpose them down, those lower-harmonies are more like bass lines and sound terrible. But all of these songs were do-able before I had the harmony box, so I can go back, no problem. I haven't yet started working up the harmony-required songs that I couldn't touch pre-box. Except "Cinnamon Girl", which I've been dying to play, but sounded weak without the harmony. It may not work *with* it either, but...

Later on, a nice older lady that we've seen several times before (she calls us "Sweetie") came in, and asked if I knew any songs from the 40's. Oddly, I have more from the 30's, but I played all I had of both.

Anyway, it was pleasant, and we made ten bucks each, which is quite a lot for this place.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 12Sept2009

It was quite a bit cooler than last week, so I expected more people to be out, but it was actually even worse. It was like "Borders Night" -- I played to dead silence most of the time.

Started off interestingly, though -- a little boy, maybe 7, named, apparently, Solomon, came right up while I was setting up the equipment and asked if he could sing a song. I said, "Sure, go ahead". Of course, he wanted to have a microphone, not just stand there singing, so I got the head-mic connected and put it on his head, and told him to go for it. But that wasn't good enough, either -- he wanted "music", too. I asked him what song he was gonna sing, but he didn't really know, but just wanted me to play anyway. So I set up the rest of the stuff and we started playing -- him singing something unintelligible and inaudible, and me quietly strumming a couple of chords at random. He really thought he knew what he was doing, and punctuated his singing with some vaguely karate-like stage "moves" -- and his mom was thrilled and taking movies on her camera.

We did four songs that way, but it was getting close to my actual start time, and I thought I'd better get started for real -- this was music only a mother could love. While he was waiting for me to set up he had told me that he was a "great singer, and actor, too", and that he'd been in movies, which turned out to be only the one, though he didn't know the name of it. That was actually semi-believable -- he was a darn cute little kid, and had enough "moxie" to have gotten into a movie as an extra.

The only problem was that his family (gramma and two sisters) stayed around for a long time having dinner and chatting, and he kept coming up and asking if he could sing another song. I had to keep telling him no, 'cuz, really, we'd all had plenty of it, I think.

I never really did get anything "going", though. About halfway through, three teenage boys came and were completely stoked, but they only stayed for a few (Beatle) songs. Their interest sparked a small spate of attention from some other diners, which apparently chased them off when they didn't get first crack at the requests, and which died out pretty quickly. They came back a while later, and asked me if I gave guitar lessons. I was flattered, but had to turn them down.

Geneva, Acacia and her friend came by, briefly, and I guess Geneva met some friends and went to a movie, and Acacia and her friend shopped, and came back by later on. That was nice, because I've recently learned "Come On, Get Higher", a new song that Acacia says is her favorite song ever, so I wanted to play it for her. Apparently acceptably, too. I also used her being there to try out "Don't Stop Believing" again, which went over well with lots of previously-dead-silent people, so I took a chance on "Africa" too, which, OK, not as much, though I played it a lot better than last week.

I took home a disappointing $31, though that's still, what, three times better than even a "good" Borders night, so I shouldn't complain.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 05Sept2009

I guess the heat (though it was quite nice in the evening) and the three-day weekend kept most of the people away. But I wasn't really at my best anyway, so maybe that's OK. I'm not sure why I go so brain-dead once I'm standing up there, but now, way too late, I'm pretty sure that the vocal enhancements (reverb, compression, etc.) in the harmony box were accidentally turned off the whole time. It sure sounds "flat" in the video, anyway, and I never did seem to Get Into it like I usually do. And half (or more) of what makes you feel like you're singing well is reverb – ask any karaoke fan (or don't -- I don't think they realize why they sound good (to themselves anyway) at the karaoke place (and the shower)). How I can be so clueless as to go the whole 4 hours without realizing it, is the mystery.

Anyway, I had only occasional groups tuned in, though towards the end the usual crowd of shy quiet listeners way in the back by the restaurant developed again. Maybe it's just too loud up front for the actual grown-ups...

A small group of young black kids sat down right at the front table, way too cool to acknowledge me, of course. So I played "Hey Ya", with no introduction. It was fun to watch the pretty girl in the middle as she started to realize that she knew those words from somewhere, then eventually catch on to what song it was, then whisper it to her friends.

Later on, a family was eating nearby and their little red-headed kindergartener was dancing to any and everything I played. So I started playing my most danceable stuff for her. Another mom dragged her even-smaller little boy over to dance too, and the adults in the area started to notice and watch them. She just danced and danced until I ran out of fast tunes, so I was obliged to drag out my "Twist and Shout / La Bamba" medley, though it's kind of embarrassing. It actually went over pretty well...

I had been learning two new songs all week -- the first one is "Come On Get Higher", which is a new song that I've been noticing from different directions, so I figured it might be popular enough that I could play it and a few of the younger people might know it. I played it twice, the first time when almost nobody was there, and then later on when I played it, a girl at the table behind me said "That was good!" right out loud. So I guess that one's a keeper.

The other new song is "Africa" by Toto. I'm not sure how that happened, but I was messing with the chords and they really sound great played on guitar, so I just kept hammering at it until I had something reasonable -- maybe. It's clearly not the kind of song I usually play, but the other Power Ballad I recently added (also maybe), "Don't Stop Believing" seems to amuse people, so...

I was shy about dragging it out, though, but at 9:45 I decided I had better try it anyway (although way too many people are out then), if only to satisfy my own curiosity of whether it's worth pursuing. It turned out to be way too low to sing, but the chorus is way too high. That's the problem with trying to sing songs that are sung by multiple guys by myself. I'd already capoed 2 -- I guess I'll have to go up another one and see if that works any better, 'cuz the song did seem to basically go over OK, even though I completely forgot to kick on the harmonies, and fumbled here and there. I'll keep practicing, and see how it works next week. If I can get it to where I can sing the low notes, and let the harmony box take the really high ones, it might work out.

I did clip two songs from the evening's video, and posted them at: http://www.youtube.com/user/y7alanzo Oddly, they're my only two medleys, the aforementioned "Twist and Shout / La Bamba", and "Over the Rainbow / When You Wish Upon a Star", which I did for another cute little girl who was staring at me from down front early on. Everybody says that they learned the guitar to impress girls -- I just thought I'd impress a few that were over 18...

I did OK though, even with the light crowd -- 57 bucks in the tip jar. Imagine what I could'a made with a little reverb...

Trailmates at Camp Surf, San Diego -- Aug2009

While Orange County was sweltering in a heat wave, the girls and I took off for our annual Trailmates trip to Camp Surf, an "all-inclusive" YMCA almost-resort, on the beach, 4 miles from the Mexican border.

We got there Friday evening, and went to our traditional Friday-evening restaurant with most of the other guys and girls, but they've added "Live Entertainment", in the form of a guy with a guitar. He was pretty good, and did several completely unexpected songs (like "Tainted Love"), and newer songs that I've never heard before. He played everything from memory, which impressed me, since I'm terrible at that. But his main problem was the sound of his guitar, which was one of those semi-hollow electric Fenders, but it sounded like a plastic Casper guitar.

When we got back to camp, I set up the projector and showed the movie "Silverado". Only about half the girls wanted to see a western, but the dads all liked it. It's long, though, so we were up 'til midnight.

After breakfast on Saturday, we went down to the beach, where Geneva surfed on the full-sized boards, and Acacia and friends went out on Boogie boards. The water was really cold (especially after Mazatlan 4 weeks ago), but we had wetsuits, so we were OK. They drag everybody out of the water for lunch, and afterwards the girls all crashed for a nap until the afternoon beach session.

Saturday night dinner was (as always) build-your-own Taco Bar. Then comes "Skit Night", where the camp counselors (college kids who serve as lifeguards, arts-and-crafts teachers, rock climbing and surf instructors, etc.) and the kids do skits for each other. Each of the groups that were there (us, a small Cub Scout group from Desert Hot Springs, and three Princess tribes out of Newport Beach) signed up to do a skit or two, and I usually sign up to sing some songs, too. I did "Waltzing With Bears" (of course), "Lollipop Tree", and "ended" the show with my Indian Princess-ified "Goodnight Irene". But when I finished it, all the Trailmates clamored for "The Indian Princess Song", so I guess I had an encore.

Of course, I had my new harmonizer box with me, and used it, sparingly, on each of the songs. It was especially welcome on "Goodnight Irene", which absolutely *begs* for a harmony line through the singalong chorus, and I've been wishing that somebody out there would find it, but nobody ever has. Finally, the box took care of it, to my great relief.

After the "show", we went back to our own campfire, and the girls got to singing some silly Girl Scout songs (Geneva ran one or two of those, quite well), and some of them were trying to sing pop songs, especially, for some reason, "Sweet Home Alabama". I thought it would be fun to jump in with my guitar , but as soon as I got back with the guitar, they started asking for lots of other songs. We had lots of Misses -- songs they'd suggest that I'm too old to know, and songs I'd suggest that they're too young to know -- but we found a few that they knew, and that I managed to fake, even without my Big Book: "Let It Be", "Hey, Jude", "Desperado", some others, and most fun of all, "Don't Stop Believing". And of course, ""Sweet Home Alabama" which none of us actually knew the verses to. It was really fun -- it just seemed like a weird campfire to do all those kinds of songs instead of, say, "Comin' 'Round the Mountain" and "Home on the Range". But it had been a long day, and by 11:30 everybody'd given up and gone to bed.

But between the guy playing at the restaurant on Friday, and these girls asking me for new hip songs, I'm somehow inspired to go learn some new stuff. I've been reticent because I couldn't figure out how to find recent songs that several people would know (the girls provided me with a list), and I was afraid to be "that old guy" playing "young" music. I'll remain sensitive to that, but I think learning a few new tunes might be worth a try.

On Sunday, we were glad that we'd done sufficient beach play the day before because an amazingly thick fog rolled in and they closed the beach because the lifeguards couldn't see the water from their towers. So we took it easy, did the crafts, and went home after lunch.

All in all, a great weekend.

K&W at Borders SCP - 21Aug2009

Another good time at South Coast. My voice was good, the sound was good, the Harmony box worked (pretty) good, and a good "crowd", of, mainly, two. I always pass out song lists before we start, to (a) give fair warning of what we're about to perpetrate, and (b) help people call out songs that we actually do know, as opposed to random stuff we don't.

This time, two older ladies actually took it to heart just the way I've always intended it -- they started right away commenting and cooing over this and that song on the list, and almost immediately moved to a closer table to listen better! They stayed tuned in, asking for songs and generally appreciating the music, and even moving even closer when a pair of comfy chairs opened up, and hanging out way past their expected "goin' home" time.

Of course, I wanted to try out the Harmony box, here where I can actually hear what it's doing, and was quite happy with it. I didn't mess with the "room" effects at all (though I should have), 'cuz the initial settings sounded pretty good just as they were. I proceeded sparingly with the harmonies, but nobody cried "foul" when I started using them, though one music-loving gent immediately sussed out what was going on, and how.

At one point, the ladies were whispering to each other and eyeing me suspiciously, and I thought that surely they were starting to wonder about where the "other singer" was coming from. (That, or my zipper was down...) I asked them directly if they had a question, but they were wondering if my guitar played without being plugged in (Huh?). I said that, sure, it works fine, and they seemed satisfied once they'd decided that it was "a six-string, then" (Double Huh?). They never mentioned the vocals, which possibly/hopefully confirms my theory that most people will just hear the harmony as "sweetener", not as some mysterious "other person".

As the night went on, I got bolder about employing the harmonies, and played songs where it was more and more integral/blatant. And despite his initial reservations, Warren didn't seem thrown or distressed by it. (An incidental big upside for him is that he gets to move to the more powerful amp channel, so he gets more headroom to get louder, or "cleaner".)

Towards the end, a nice lady who's seen us there several times before came by, and after a few songs, she asked "What's that reverb? It almost sounds like a harmony." Exactly!

I set up the movie cam and got some decent takes of the box in action. The "poster child" is the Everly Brothers' "Dream", and Crosby, Stills and Nash's "Teach Your Children" shows off the 3-part harmony really well. Check out any or all of:

Dream
Teach Your Children
The Boxer
Sweet Baby James
Southern Cross
Cinnamon Girl

"Sweet Baby James" is an example of judicious use of the harmonies, where they only come in occasionally (requiring me to kick the button accurately -- so far, not so easy). On the other hand, "Cinnamon Girl" is kind of botched up (I mixed up which part goes where, and undoubtedly confused Warren in the process), but it's still a good example of the harmony working well. It's also an example of the danger -- I'm liable to make all manner of other mistakes while I'm trying to work the box. Although in this case, it's no excuse, since it's an "On at the beginning, off at the end" song. I guess I can screw up a song without any help, after all...