Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 23Jan2010

Wow. It was really, really, cold. There were some people out at "dinner time", presumably because the inside area was all full, but it got pretty thin after that. At least it wasn't raining, like the previous five days of storms. But at times, I was playing to nothing but empty tables and a trio of spitting turtle statues. Of course, I've played to stone silence before...

I thought about calling Maintenance and asking them to bring me a heater, but afterwards I was talking to the guys and they said that the heaters are all out being repaired, so they couldn't have brought one anyway. So I stood there in my longjohns, shirt, wooly vest, leather jacket, overcoat, and fingerless gloves, shivering and trying to read the chord sheets through the clouds of my breath.

Fortunately, my brother and his wife came by, and he loaned me his "London cabbie" hat. That helped, generally, but it's still pretty hard to play with frozen-stiff fingers.

But it was still fun. Even a bad night playing still beats watching TV. There were several groups of somewhat appreciative teenagers, early on, and a cute little toddler girl trying to dance, so I knocked out "Twist and Shout" for her. And it's always great to have my brother there. He even got up and sang "Love Has No Pride". And later, a pretty college girl came by and told me I have a "very lovely" voice. I said that that was just the electronics, but she insisted that, no, she's A Singer, and she Knows. Can't argue with that. Won't, anyway.

It was the first outing for my new, super-sturdy music stand, which did great -- it's nice to be able to flip through The Book without the stand threatening to collapse. And also the first outing for the harmony-box button-pusher I built out of some scrap Pergo last weekend. It gives me far bigger targets to step on, so I don't have to look down at the box to click the harmonies on and off. And no accidental volume-knob step-spinning, either. Worked great. Gave me the courage to try my newly developed, way-too-elaborate, three-harmony-mode "Here Comes the Sun", which I mostly got away with.

Just before they left, my brother asked for James Taylor's "You Can Close Your Eyes", which I really should play more often. It came out pretty well on the video, despite my frozen fingers, so I put it up on the YouTube -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5vkjGP1DYE

For the record, I only made $20, but that was actually unexpectedly good, considering how few people were out. The weather report shows cold again, with rain likely for next Saturday. I think it's just trying to show me that it coulda been worse...