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?!?