Keith at Laguna Beach -- 31Dec2012

I thought that maybe there would be New Year's Eve party people out on the streets downtown to play for, so I worked up "Auld Lang Syne", got dressed like I was going to the snow, and headed down at 10:00. I figured that I could drive past The Corner, and if nobody was out, I could just cruise on back home.

But of course, once I was down there, and since a really close parking spot presented itself, I stopped to check it out. There was a guy with a guitar on the opposite corner, trading songs with a girl on accordion. She had this really great style of just pulling on long chords and singing over them -- reminded me of some of Steeleye Span's stuff, though I didn't recognize any of the songs. No one else was out, so I stalled a while and decided, since I was already there...

There was hardly any car traffic that late, so it was unusually quiet. I'm pretty conscious of not stepping on other performers' sound space, so I set up my rig, but kept it turned down really quiet. There were lots of dressed up people zooming by. I have no idea how the girls were surviving in those micro party dresses in the 40-degree weather. Maybe that's why they went by so fast...

It was pretty discouraging at first, but after a while the other performers left, so I was able to turn it up a bit, and then people were noticing me more. But they were all on their way from one bar to another, and it was clearly not a Party out on the corner. Still, I got several of those people who rush by, deliberately not making eye contact, and intending to just burn past -- but who pull up, apparently realizing "Hey, this guy's pretty good!", and digging out a buck or two to drop before the Walk light changes. Those are always very gratifying.

I did have one young couple sit down to wait out the end of the song I was in the middle of, specifically to come up and tell me that they had seen me a year and a half earlier at the food court at Foothill, on their first date. That was pretty sweet.

As midnight approached, people started scurrying past even more, apparently trying to get to the Right Place when the time came. I could tell when midnight hit, 'cuz suddenly the noise from the nearby bars and restaurants coalesced into "Five, four, three...", just like it used to do for the evening rocket launches when I lived down Florida.

I fired up "Auld Lang Syne" as it hit midnight, which sounded pretty cool, fingerpicked and with harmony, and just ran through it in a loop for a while. I missed seeing the new year in with Daleen, but it was kinda cool to be ringing it in doing something I love, even if I was only singing to the trees along Forest Avenue.

I hung out for a while more, playing for the people as they gave up and went back to their cars or started trying to hail taxis. Got some great comments, and $15, from the "I love you, man" crowd. Lots of "Happy New Years", and one girl grumbled as she went by, "I just wanna stop and listen to *this* guy -- he's the best singer I've heard all night", but I guess she was overruled by having to keep up with her fast-walking friends.

Anyway, by 12:45 or so, I was just too cold to play any more -- I couldn't feel the strings or frets with my left hand, and couldn't fingerpick with my stiff right-hand fingers, so I was making too many mistakes. I had played "Mister Tambourine Man" a while earlier, and the lines "My hands can't feel to grip, and my toes too numb to step" struck home.

Happy New Year.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 28Dec2012

Yes, I know I'm crazy, but I thought I'd see if I could sneak in just one more night of Christmas music, even though it was 3 days past Christmas. I thought maybe some folks might be out, on vacation like I was, and it was a Friday night...

And it was pretty OK. Cold, but not too bad, and some people out walking. There was a huge multigenerational family there as I was finishing setting up, and they were totally enthusiastic about having a "private performance", and stayed for half a dozen songs.

Oddly, just about the whole contingent of homeless guys were out, after not seeing any of them for several weeks. They're all pretty good guys, and quite respectful of what I'm there for, so they stay out of the way, but listen in.

And in addition to them, I had a pretty steady stream of people cruise by and smile or drop a buck in the jar, but nobody wanted to settle down on the bench in that cold. Did OK anyway, made 28 bucks, and got lots of nice comments. I guess it helped that there was so little traffic, so the sound was pretty good, for that spot. But I guess the Christmas songs are done for the year. Oh well.

Keith at Naples - 23Dec2012

We had a kind of High School Any Year Caroling Reunion Party, and the girl who was organizing it suggested singing around Naples, an upscale waterfront community in Long Beach. It turned out to be just terrific -- ritzy houses decorated to the nines and lots of people walking around the tiny island to look at them. We had a pretty small turnout (as I'd predicted), so we weren't very balanced, nor practiced, but we still had people gathering around us to listen and even applaud. I was amazed, wondered how I could not have known about this before, and resolved to come back the next day with my overcoat, top hat, and guitar.

There weren't as many people on Sunday as there had been on Saturday, but still plenty. And everyone is in the mood for "a little Christmas", and in no hurry to get anywhere. Perfect for me to pull in some folks to hear a few songs. And, although it's basically a sidewalk, it's *not* along an actual street, so there's no traffic noise!

I had convinced my wife and younger daughter to come along to see the amazing decorations, and they brought the dogs, too. I played while they circumnavigated the island. I pulled my "Blitzen the Red-Nosed Reindeer" gag several times when families with little kids would come by, and had lots of groups stop for several songs, gathering pretty big crowds.

At one point, a lady asked for a song I don't play, and I spun the music stand around so she could see the Table of Contents of the Christmas section of my book. She noticed "Silent Night", which I had literally *never* sung before -- it was in my book so I could play it for the little kid that sung at the Santa Claus line a few nights earlier. I had no idea if it was even in my range, but she insisted, so I strummed and hummed through it quickly, decided it was close enough, and went for it.

She and her husband immediately started waltzing to it, right there in front of me. The crowd instantly doubled somehow, and two more dancing couples materialized out of it. I've had people dance before, but never more than a single couple. On top of that, after a few lines, most of the crowd was singing along! I'd been avoiding "Silent Night" on grounds that it's (a) too religious, and (b) slow and boring, but that shows you what *I* know. Or, possibly, how powerful the Christmas Mood can be...

Anyway, I was out there for two and a half hours, played for hundreds of people, and made $88 in tips. It's a bit of a drive from here, but I wish I'd'a known about this years ago, and I'll surely be down there a lot more next December!

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 21Dec2012

Since it was a Friday, I came straight over from work at about 4:15 (so I'd have time to eat dinner and get set up to start at 6, or earlier), but the parking structure was already full! And the regular parking lot was completely jammed too, so I circled a while (hoping to not have to drag my stuff *too* far), but ended up pretty far away anyway.

Oh well, it meant that there would be lots of people there, right? I thought so, but I really didn't get many people coming by at all, and almost nobody sitting around at the tables. Apparently, the only people desperate enough to brave the mall this close to Christmas are actually *shopping*. How weird is that?

So it seemed really slow to me, but there were small groups that would stop for a while, and I made $138 in tips, so there must have been *somebody* listening and in the holiday spirit. I mean, beside the guy who came up on the stage from behind, threw his arm around me and started loudly singing along, who clearly had had lots of the *other* kind of "spirits". Fortunately, he only stayed long enough for his friend to snap a picture, and he was actually singing in key. And even better, he didn't steal my hat...

I did come up with a new "shtick" where I, when some kids come by, ask them if they know that song about the reindeer, and then I start it up but sing, "Prancer the red-nosed...", and stop, acting confused. Then I restart but sing, "Blitzen the...", and by now all the kids are shouting "Rudolph!" at me, and I act like, "Oh yeah!", and restart it with the right words. I guess there's a reason that that kind of thing is Standard Kids' Entertainment Procedure -- it works every time.

Keith at Mission Viejo Santa's Workshop -- 19Dec2012

The lady who books the Farmer's Market and the Santa Claus line gigs was at some function where a 9-year-old kid sang, and since she's a gramma, he was the cutest thing in the world. So she decided it would be really cool if I would let him come down and sing for the Santa line, and asked me if I would do that. Of course, that's a lot easier to say than do.

He wanted to do "Jingle Bells", "Winter Wonderland", and "Silent Night", which I don't actually do, but it's trivial to play, so no problem. But clearly, his vocal range was going to be different than mine, and I had no way of knowing how different. I can transpose songs, but only if I know where to transpose to, so I had to invite the kid over to figure it out. He sings OK -- and he at least has the guts to go ahead and sing in public -- but he's no child star (like, apparently, his manager/gramma thinks).

I had him meet me down there and do his songs first. He did OK, but kept backing off of the mic so he couldn't be heard much. It was mostly a waste of time, his and mine. He didn't impress anybody in the line, the booking lady wasn't there anyway, and the only real result was that the other kids (and moms) got the impression that I was letting kids come up and sing -- an idea that I really didn't need to get planted out there.

I fended off most of the requests until much later when a little girl (maybe 8?) walked up and asked if she could sing "Santa Baby". Since I know it, but can't sing it (it needs to be a girl), I fetched the mic that Wade had been using and let her try it. Of course my sheet was in the wrong key for her little voice, but I quickly added a bunch of capo and she sang the first verse -- and walked away!

The rest of the night went pretty well, and the line was really long. Turns out that I was misinformed and although there was another weekend before Christmas, this was the last night of Santa. Until next year...

Keith at Mission Viejo Santa's Workshop -- 16Dec2012

We had light rain off and on all day, so I didn't know if I should go down, but I'd had such a good time the week before that I took the risk. It sprinkled on my windshield all the way down there, but when I got there, it had stopped. I stalled for a while to see if it was really done, and decided to set up as simply as I could so that I could quickly tear it all back down again if it started to really rain. And I had brought a supply of garage towels to throw over everything, if need be.

But, it never did rain any more. Problem was (besides the mud), the threat of rain kept a lot of people away. And it turns out that the crazy kid party requires a critical mass of crazy, either in the form of one of a few really crazy kids, or a lot of mildly crazy ones -- and I got neither. I had kids come down, but it stayed pretty subdued because there just weren't enough kids.

But it was still fun, of course. And this time, I brought a little table and put out some of my Christmas CDs and the tip jar, and made $45. It seems like, once in a while, the kids will see another kid putting money in the jar, so they ask their dad for a buck, and it just snowballs.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 15Dec2012

Pretty much like last year -- nobody comes to the mall at Christmastime unless they have to, meaning they have shopping to do, and no time for the music guy. Some people are cool enough to at least smile on their way zooming past, and of course, I did have some people who stopped for a while and asked for some songs. And the families with little kids are the ones who tend to stop, so I played the Big Three kids' Christmas tunes (Rudolph, Frosty, Jingle Bells) a lot.

I've been experimenting with using the "pre-wired" backpack solution that I rigged up for "street work" in the full-blown gig situation, both because it's faster to set up and tear down, and because it prevents me having to disassemble and reassemble it when I go from one kind of gig to the other. The difference is that I need a bunch of additional stuff (the second speaker and its cable, the speaker stands, a power and extension cord, etc.), so I'm trying to figure out what all, and how to carry, the extras.

I'm getting it down, mostly, but in the confusion I forgot the most important thing: the tip jar! OK, maybe that's the 100th most important, but it's still fun to get "money for nothing", so I went to a coffee shop and they gave me a large clear cup. Not nearly large enough (yay!), so I had to empty it a few times into my pocket to make more room. I guess it made a pretty big difference though, 'cuz was a lot more money in my guitar case (on the other side of the stage) than the cup, which is the opposite from usual. But I still came away with $102, so at least I made more than the Center did, after the $50 fee.

I'm back there again this coming Friday, which will be my last Christmas gig this year . I imagine people will be even more frantic though, since it'll be "three days 'til Christmas".

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 11Dec2012

I made a kind of snap decision to go down to Laguna. Apparently, the weather was about to turn a lot colder, and I've got so many other gigs that I didn't know if I'd get another chance to try out my Christmas songs on The Corner.

I got there about 6:45. It was already dark, and the streets were pretty much deserted. I set up anyway, since I was already down there and it was nice and quiet traffic-wise, but I wasn't expecting much. Figured I would get some practice in, if nothing else.

But, just as I was finishing setting up, a couple came by and plopped down on the bench to cuddle and listen to a half-dozen songs. The guy dropped a handful of change in my jar as they left.

After that, couples and small groups came by once in a while. I don't think I sang a whole song to nobody at all, but most of them were only to a few people. But the great part was that lots of the people who came by, though they mostly didn't stop, seemed to appreciate the music, and lots of them dropped something in the jar as they went by.

Probably they just felt sorry for me, out in the cold all alone, but it was clearly the highest ratio of people-going-by to people-tipping that I've ever had. Usually it seems like one in 50 or so people actually put something in the jar, but this time it seemed like every other couple. I made $18 in an hour and a half, the same as I'd made in three hours on the last Art Walk, playing to 3 or 5 times as many people. I actually broke Minimum Wage for once. Woo hoo!

But mostly it was just nice to be out there playing for people who appreciated the moment -- sentimental Christmas music played pretty well in a somewhat magical setting. Or felt sorry for me -- whichever.

Keith at Mission Viejo Santa's Workshop -- 09Dec2012

Wow! That was the most fun I've had in months! When I got there a half-hour early to set up, there was already a lot of people in line -- which was routed as I had requested so that I had a space to play that wasn't on the grass behind the picket fence. When I got ready to play, everybody was looking at me expectantly, so I felt brave enough to introduce myself and announce that if any kids wanted to come down front, they were welcome to. And come they did. And once there were kids down front, other arriving kids figured it was OK for them too, and it self-perpetuated all night.

So right away I've already got a kids' party going, and I'm playing all the kids' songs, way too fast, and they're dancing away. And more kids come, and more, and after a while I've got 20 kids, dancing, telling me stuff, asking me to guess their names (?!?), and requesting songs, songs I just did, songs I don't know, and songs I've never heard of. You can't fault their enthusiasm.

I had one terrific little girl in a long pink coat, dancing away to any and everything. She just kind of joined me "on stage", and took on the role of "go-go girl". She was there for so long that I started to worry that her parents had had to go see Santa without her, but when I said so, they were still over there in line, waving and smiling at the idea.

After a while she was joined by a tiny Chinese girl in a big puffy jacket, looking exactly like a living "Small World" doll. She was also an enthusiastic dancer, and pretty soon they were dancing together, holding both hands and jumping around.

Anyway, it was just amazingly fun. At times I was actually having trouble singing right 'cuz I was grinning too big. And lucky for me, there was a dad there with a big fancy camera who was taking lots of pictures, many of them directly of me. So I gave him a card and asked him to send me some, and he did (as you can see). Can't wait for the next one!

Keith at Mission Viejo "Holly Trolley" -- 07-08Dec2012

The city of Mission Viejo does a home lighting contest every year at Christmas, and the last few years has added the "Holly Trolley" which takes people out on a tour of all the contest winners. The lady that organizes it noticed that she ends up with a bunch of people milling around waiting for their Trolley to leave (twice a night), so a couple of years ago she added a "reception" with cookies and hot chocolate and cider.

This year, she upped the ante by inviting me to play, and by having "campfires" and marshmallow roasting (it moved outdoors to the garden patio out behind city hall). I play an hour before the first bus, and then watch my audience walk out. Then I hang out for an hour (and eat the dinner they provide for all the volunteers), and then play another hour for the second shift of trolley people. Twice: Friday and Saturday.

It's pretty nice -- it's quiet and the crowd tends to be older people, so they're into the schmaltzy Christmas songs. And some families show up so I can play the kids' songs, too. I don't get paid, except dinner (though they're looking into getting me an "honorarium"), but the people are all very appreciative and say nice things as they go past me to get onto their bus.

And one lady came in and loudly proclaimed at me, "Christmas carols [sic] are *hard*! I was in a professional band for 11 years and the chords for Christmas carols are hard!" Not sure why/if she was specifically making a distinction between her "professional" band and me, but it was nice for someone to recognize that not just anybody can pull off those Christmas *songs* (not carols) on guitar. I worked long and hard on a lot of those songs -- much harder than the 60's and '70s pop tunes that I usually play. Working those Christmas tunes out taught me a lot of new stuff (and fancy chords) that I didn't know before. And a challenge is always fun.

Keith at Mission Viejo Farmer's Market -- 07Dec2012

Even quieter than last time, but more solidly the "Christmas One", so I got to play a lot of my Christmas tunes. Definitely not the most fun gig I play, and it's a bit tricky to play in the middle of a workday, but since I get paid, that's all OK with me. And the vendors there seem to appreciate my making their slow day a little less boring -- they say nice things or give me a thumbs-up as they walk by...

Keith at Art Walk, Laguna Beach -- 06Dec2012

I keep swearing off the Art Walk nights, and I keep being tempted back in. I thought that maybe this time would be better since it's "the Christmas one", and I was kinda right. There weren't as many people out as when it's warmer, but they seemed in less of a rush.

I got there pretty early, so The Corner was free, but I left it for Jim & Warren. Unfortunately, they got there just a bit too late, and it had been snagged by some guy I've never seen before. He was, let's say, "sincere", but not very good. Waste of a perfectly good corner...

Anyway, I set up down by the big green swirly bench/art thing, and had sufficient traffic to make it worth it. There was already some guy in Acoustic Alley, and later on, a guy strumming a classical and singing in Spanish, some kid slamming chords on a banjo, and a girl playing cello in the alcove/entrance to a For Lease shop (I'll have to remember that location!). Jim & Warren, having been snarfed from The Corner, set up across the street from me -- I could hear them in between songs, and Jim's new amplified voice helps their "sound" a lot.

I had a big extended family of parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc., come by and use me as a babysitter while the adults chatted way too loudly nearby, though a few of them were polite enough to clap a bit occasionally. And after a while, Silly Patty came by to ask for lots of songs, including some I haven't sung in a long while ("To Make You Feel My Love" and "For Free", that I recall).

Anyway, I had some fun (and made $18), so it alleviated, somewhat, my bad feelings about Art Walk. I guess the biggest problem is that, if you're not on The Corner, you just don't get the traffic or attention, and, since I always defer it for Jim & Warren (even if they don't manage to get it themselves), it's kind of a Poor Night, by definition.

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 01Dec2012

The lady who books "acts" (I use the term loosely) for the Santa's Workshop at the Mission Viejo Civic Center finally figured out that nobody does it better than I do, so she let me sign up for as many of the nights as I wanted. I took all the Saturdays and Sundays that I wasn't already spoken for, and the last Wednesday (since it gets more and more people as the date approaches Christmas).

This was the first one, and, as expected, had a pretty small turnout. There are two possibilities of where they'll string the ropes to designate the line, and they chose the worst one, which puts me on the grass, behind a picket fence so the kids can't come up. I talked to one of the guys, and suggested that they do it the other way from now on, so we'll see.

Also, they run Christmas cartoons (Charlie Brown, Frosty, Rudolph, Chipmunks) on a projector back behind me. The sound has always been really quiet, so it's not a problem, but this time it was really loud. I asked the guy if he could turn it down, but he apparently couldn't figure out how to. It was pretty distracting, but I just powered through. After everyone was gone, I figured out where the volume control was myself, and turned it down. If it's back up next time, I'll know what to do.

Not a lot of response from the small crowd, but it was OK. The nice ladies in the Hot Chocolate and "Decorate a Cookie" booths clapped once in a while, so I didn't feel quite so lonesome.

I was also scheduled for the next night, Sunday the 2nd, but it rained all afternoon, so I didn't go down. I don't know if they still held the event or not, but I didn't want to go down and set up my equipment in the wet grass, nor get rained on and blow up the electronics. And there'll be more chances -- four more Santa gigs in the next three weeks, assuming the weather cooperates.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 24Nov2012

I was anxious to get down to Laguna and sing some Christmas songs, now that it's past Thanksgiving. But too early still, I guess. Although the street was all decorated up with Christmas lights, nobody seemed to be "in the spirit" yet. The only people I got to stop were a couple of young families with little kids, for whom, of course, I played "Frosty", "Rudolph", etc.

Oh, and one other guy -- a drunk and addled homeless guy who sat down on the bench across from me and proceeded to shout, whisper, cry, and rant, to nobody in particular. At first he seemed somewhat reasonable, but he got louder and more crazy as time went on. And, of course, he was scaring away anybody else who might want to stop.

I tried to just overpower him, playing louder than his ranting, but he didn't seem to mind or even notice. Then I thought I might be the reason he was hanging out there, so I "took a break", hoping to bore him into moving on. But, no -- he didn't need a reason to be there, nor anyone to actually be talking to.

Occasionally he'd hit a patch of near-coherency. At one point he was proclaiming his "bottom of my heart" love for Eve -- *the* Eve; you know, Adam's girlfriend. Not sure how he knows her. And later on he was describing his emphatic belief that Ian Anderson (of "Jethro Tull") was the greatest musician that ever lived. And he *is* pretty good, but I think even Ian would agree that he's no Mozart...

Anyway, it was pretty awful. You can't help feeling sorry for the guy, but at the same time, there was nothing I could do for him. And he was certainly ruining my evening, along with his own. Finally one of the "regulars" down on the corner came by, a big guy who does a lot of Tae Kwon Do, and decided to help me out, forcefully telling the crazy guy to move along. Which he just up and did.

But it was too late -- the foot traffic had disappeared, so I played a while more, and gave up. Somehow I made $34, though, which was weird since almost nobody stopped. So I guess I'm considering going again, sometime closer to Christmas. Not sure when I'll be able to, though -- I'm booked pretty solid at Spectrum and lots of Santa Claus Workshop gigs.

Indian Princess Reunion Campout

One of the dads from our original Indian Princess tribe organized a "reunion" campout, at my favorite local campground: San Mateo. Of course, it's hard to get onto people's schedules anymore, but 5 dads and 8 daughters showed up.

Some of the girls hadn't seen each other since they were half the size, and in some cases wouldn't have recognized each other at all, but within minutes they were all "besties" again; climbing trees, exploring the nearby "wilds", and doing whatever it is that kids do on these things when they're out of sight of the dads.

When night fell, we had dinner around the campfire, and the girls surprised us with a short program of nostalgic Princess skits ("School on Fire" and "Candy Shop"), cheers (Watermelon, Roller Coaster), and songs (my "I'm an Indian Princess"). That was pretty cool, and great of the girls to think of it. Warms a daddy's heart.

Of course I had brought my guitar, and played some of the old songs, and the girls started singing along to the kids songs I used to do at Princess campouts, but also to every Disney movie song I know. And also the few recent pop tunes that I've picked up to play at Spectrum. It was really great to have actual Singing Around the Campfire, though Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift are a far cry from "Comin' 'Round the Mountain"...

It sprinkled on us a few times, and finally turned into actual rain so I had to put the guitar away, but it let up after a while and the girls reappeared when the S'mores fixin's came out.

The next day, we walked down to "Trestles" beach (which is one of the big attractions of this campsite). Of course, the water was way too cold to get into, but the girls wandered off to explore, just like they used to do 10 years ago.

It was really great to get together with these guys and girls again. We're planning another one for next Spring, and hope to get even more of the old gang.

Keith at Mission Viejo Farmer's Market -- 16Nov2012

They've added a "Craft Faire" to the usual farmers' booths, so I was expecting (hoping?) that they'd be Christmas-y, so I could play some Christmas songs, even though it's before Thanksgiving. But they were just regular crafts, not Christmas stuff, so that didn't work.

So, a pretty standard, quiet, gig. I guess I'm just background music, since everybody there is either shopping, or selling. Maybe a dozen people come over to the tables out in front of me to eat lunch, but they pretty much ignore me, too. It's a good thing I'm getting paid, 'cuz it's really not a lot of fun to be playing to nobody. I can do that at home.

The bread guy wasn't there, so no free bread this time, but I did run into some ladies (don't know what booth they'd been running) in the parking lot on the way out who told me how pleasant it was to have me there. I said that I was glad they liked it, 'cuz I'll be back in three weeks...

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 11Nov2012

I had gone down to Dana Point to eavesdrop on new music-acquaintance Joe Cannon's party (though I didn't want to be seen, nor pay the $15 (!) to get in). I only heard the first verse of "Teenager in Love" and decided that that was enough.

From there, though, I stopped by Forest St. and nabbed a parking spot across from Acoustic Alley. There were some guys parked on the bench at The Corner -- one was idly thumping a djembe, and the other seemed to be sketching. I got there at 5:00, and there was some pretty decent foot traffic, so I played in the Alley for a while, just me and my guitar, which made it easy to just walk down to The Corner every 20 minutes or so to see if they'd gone away yet. But they never did.

Playing "au natural" was interesting: no mic, no amp, no harmony box, no tip jar, and no music book. I got the chance to see not only what songs on my list I know how to play without the song sheet, but what songs on my list I can even remember are *on* the list. I hit the top 5 Obvious ones ("Hotel California", "You've Got a Friend", "The Boxer", "Over the Rainbow", "Let it Be"), and then, um, what other songs do I know, again? Oh yeah, "Sweet Baby James", "Crying", and um, "Wonderful Tonight". And then, um, "Over the Rainbow" again.

Anyway, at 6:00 I resolved to walk by the guys on The Corner, carrying my guitar, and see if they'd volunteer to be done, or maybe back off on the drumming and let me play anyway. But loony Mr. Frequency was there, regaling and/or berating them, and I'd had plenty of that last time, so I spun around and went on home. I guess I broke even for the evening, though, tips versus parking, since I happened to be playing "Sweet Baby James" when a family came by, and the newborn strapped to the lady's tummy was named "James", so the dad sent the 4-year-old big sister skipping back to hand me a dollar.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 07Nov2012

We thought we'd give it one more go down in Laguna, especially considering the little warm snap we had. (Originally, we meant to go down on our usual Tuesday night, but bumped it a day when Warren's wife pointed out that it was election night. D'oh!) By Wednesday, the warm snap was over though, and almost nobody was out.

We did have fun for a while, playing for a three-year-old boy and his mom, who had come out to get some groceries. He was quite a dancer, and Mom had a hard time dragging him away. And I didn't help matters much when I deliberately broke out the kids' Christmas songs...

And we attracted the attention of a new homeless guy, who seemed quite lucid at first, but was, shall we say, riding a different bus than the rest of us. He decided that we "sounded really good", so he settled in on the bench to add some harmony. Unfortunately, his definition of "harmony" is somewhat different than usual, and he'd just start sing/chanting a kind of "rhythm track" of something like "ticka-bit-a-tick", over and over, without any particular pitch, nor any rhythmic relation to the sing I was singing. But he was totally committed to it, and kept it going, essentially at random, whether I was in a song yet or not. It was terribly distracting, of course, but I just kept on playing, presuming/hoping that the amp was louder than he was.

He stayed for far too long, but suddenly stood up and gave us a parting lecture on "the *freq*uency", and how he "*was* music", and a lot of other stuff that was delivered in completely authentically composed sentences that were nonetheless, absolutely unparseable. It was actually kind of amazing, because it was *so close* to making sense, but just didn't, quite. I wish I'd'a had a recorder...

Later on, we had another "Laguna Only" moment when a homeless burnout surfer type guy wandered through, carrying a box, and with a live crow perched on his wooly stocking cap. The crow seemed reasonably comfortable up there, but the feathers on his tail and one wing were pretty trashed, so he probably couldn't fly and been rescued by the surfer, who will hopefully keep him fed until the feathers grow back and he can fly away.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 31Oct2012

When I got home and told my wife how deserted it had been down in Laguna on the night before, she said, "You should go down *tomorrow* night", meaning, on Halloween itself. This sounded like a terrific idea, so, although I don't normally do (or have the stamina to do) two nights in a row, I went down.

Great theory, but, nope, nobody out. None of the hoped-for crowds of costumed revelers; no photo opps with crazy party people (and I'd brought my camera). The city of Laguna Beach is really missing a bet, not hyping up a big downtown party like New York does.

Oh well. There were a few of the homeless guys out, and a nice couple stood on the opposite street corner and listened for a while -- not sure why they were so shy. Afraid of the homeless guys? And later on, a couple pulled to a stop 'cuz the guy was impressed that I was playing "Scarborough Fair" correctly. Their appreciation 3 bucks and 2 more made up the lowest tip-jar count in recent memory.

At least, having learned a lesson the night before, I gave up at the early hour of 8:00, and got enough sleep for a change.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 30Oct2012

Well, street-corner playing is definitely all over, at least for weeknights. And at least until the Christmas shopping season. It was pretty much a ghost town. Not only that, but a couple of guys had gotten to The Corner before I got there at 6:30. So I strolled around and talked to the bored restaurant hostesses and the girl who works at the nearby T-shirt store who frequently comes out to listen when she's bored. It was actually kind of nice to look around the area, since I normally have to bee-line to The Corner and don't get to sight-see.

Warren got there at 7:00, and the guys hadn't give up yet, so we went and played in the Alley for a while. I just played and sang acoustically, since there wasn't anybody there anyway, and it gave us a chance to play through some new, as-yet-unlearned songs.

After a while, the Other Guys walked by, having abandoned The Corner, so we relocated and I deployed the amp and all, but it didn't get much better. We somehow pulled in 18 bucks, but even the homeless guys weren't out. Maybe everybody was at home, working on their costumes...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Oct2012

Maybe I was just tired. I had a tough time getting "into it". There were a couple of people, here and there, that would stop to listen, but I couldn't get much interaction going until very late.

Except for a batch of little kids who just *had* to be up on the stage. At first there were three fairly well-behaved little girls, and it was nice. Then more, and more, until there were eight of them, only occasionally in danger of knocking the music stand over. But their presence made the older boys in the crowd bolder, and pretty soon I had strafing runs of unruly boys zooming across the stage, coming very close to tripping on the wires and/or knocking down the iPad. I let it all go, but it put a crimp in my performance to have to worry about all this stuff while trying to sing the songs. I probably shouldn't have given them that inch...

After a while, I was down to just one little 2-year-old, who really just wanted to be on the stage. She was too young to really care about the songs, but she liked being up there with me. And since I had no one else to sing to, I sang to her for a while.

I also had two teen-age girls come by who remembered me from when they turned cartwheels in front of the Fountain Stage at my gig in February. They were quite thrilled that I'd learned songs by Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber in the interim.

Finally, very late, some couples showed up who were really listening, and asking for songs. One of the couples wanted to dance, and the guy bribed me to play "Brown Eyed Girl", which is in the book, but I rarely do 'cuz I don't think I pull it off at all. But they stayed and stayed, and I ended up playing until 11:30, when we'd all had enough. I guess that last half-hour partially made up for the previous five. I did bring home $82, so I guess it wasn't quite as awful as it felt. Maybe I was just tired.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 23Oct2012

No rain this time, but it's starting to get a bit cold out there already. Not a lot of normal people out, but I had a full contingent of the Regular Crowd. I suppose that "homeless" also means "TV-less", so these people don't have much else to do. None of them are particularly bad off -- there's a pretty good structure for them with the Shelter to sleep at (though most of the guys don't), and local restaurant employees and patrons coming out and handing them food. They have cell phones, and reasonably nice (and clean) clothes. But no TVs, and nowhere else to go. And though they've all seen me a dozen times, they really do seem to appreciate the distraction.

The good part is that there's always somebody there to play for, and people tend to pay more attention if *other* people are paying attention. On the other hand, if the regulars are acting boisterous or erratic, I sometimes think that the regular people passing by are reticent to stop and be too close to some of these "sketchy characters"...

Anyway, I did manage to get a few "other" people to stop. One young couple started dancing to some love songs, and caused a lot laughter when their dog tried to join in on the dancing, the only way an un-neutered male knows how to. And later I had a couple that really needed to get back to their hotel in Anaheim so they could get some sleep before their early flight back to Florida, but I kept playing my best stuff and keeping them there. I'm so mean...

The first tip of the night was from a lady who breezed through the corner and, without slowing down, stuffed a five and three ones into the jar on her way through. I get fives, and I get lots of ones, and an occasional ten or twenty, and even, once, a fifty, but exactly eight dollars? That was either incredibly and inexplicably specific, or absolutely random, but I guess I'll never know which.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 20Oct2012

Warren was gone to Hawaii for a week, which meant that he and Jim wouldn't be on The Corner on their usual Saturday, so I went down. It was way better than the usual Tuesdays we've been playing, naturally, but I was surprised by how *much* better.

I got there just after 5:00, and it was kind of cloudy but not cold, and lots of people were out, especially later on after dinnertime. But around 8:00 it started to mist. No problem. That faded out, then came back, and then turned into a sprinkle. I was using my iPad as the music book, and those are obviously not supposed to get wet, but it wasn't really *raining* yet...

And, naturally, just as it got worse, a crowd formed. I was starting to worry about the iPad, so I took one of my pass-out song lists out of its plastic "sheet protector" and put the iPad in it. It was hard to read through the water drops, but at least it was safe. And I had to keep wiping the guitar neck off with my sleeve between songs, but it was kind of fun.

Still, I began to feel like I was some kind of idiot who didn't know to come in out of the rain, but I guess it came off as romantic, 'cuz I started getting several couples who were standing in the sprinkles -- cuddling, slow dancing, and making out. I was thinking, "What is this, Paris?!?", but I started playing lots of love songs, and apparently made some people happy.

But after a while as it started to be an actual "rain", the crowd disappeared, so I could half-pack up and roll over to stand underneath the little awnings out in front of the ice cream store. That got me out of the ever-increasing rain, but made me pretty nervous when folks would rush by on the narrow sidewalk, just barely avoiding snagging the music stand and sending my iPad crashing to the sidewalk.

So I played a while longer and then figured it wasn't gonna stop, and obviously nobody else was going to show up in the rain, so I went on home about 10:30.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 15Oct2012

Just another quiet night in Laguna, playing for Silly Patty and some of the usual homeless guys. The bad part is that not many people are out anymore -- the good part is that it gets nice and quiet, so it's fun to play and sing (especially with my new not-really-stealth rig that uses my "real" amp, instead of the smaller, bad-sounding, practice amp).

The only problem (OK, one of the problems) with these street corner gigs is that there are no rules. People can do whatever they want, within social and legal constraints, which, in Laguna, are pretty lax. For instance, if a guy shows up with a loud drum and wants to play along, off beat, there's not much I can do. If a drunk shows up and wants to sing along off key, same thing.

With homeless Matthew, who I can't tell if he's always slightly drunk or just partly spun-out, it's singing, and stomp-dancing, along. He's harmless, and kinda sweet, if tone deaf, and goes on and on (and on and on) about how great we are, and how we (?) sing like angels, and how amazing every song we play is. He's just kind of erratic, and scares the normal people away.

Lately, he's become enamored of the LED "Glow Ball" that I put in my tip jar to make it findable in the dark. I finally fished it out and let him "hold" it, and when he disappeared with it, I figured the three bucks it cost me was well spent to be rid of him for a while. But he brought it back eventually. I ordered a bunch more from Hong Kong, and I think I'll just give him one when they arrive -- though I'm not sure if making an even better "friend" of him is a good idea or a bad one...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 13Oct2012

There were *way* more people out than I'd expected, but maybe I was just projecting the fall-off that we've had down in Laguna. Still, it was strangely hard to get through to anybody, at least for the first few hours. I'm used to people zooming by, obviously, but usually I can snag at least a few. But until about 8:00, hardly anybody stopped. Strange. And disconcerting...

But eventually that wore off and I had the benches filled, and some folks standing around, and requests a couple deep. And over to the side, a pretty college girl, scribbling furiously in her notebook. I assumed she was writing up a journal entry or something, but it turned out that she was drawing. Me. And then she threw the picture in my guitar case and disappeared without a word, mid song. It's quite good, though it makes me look old. Or at least older than I think I look... [Click to enlarge the picture.]

I finally remembered to bring the "foot tambourine" that my daughter got me for my birthday. It straps onto your foot, and rings when you tap. Theoretically. The good part is that it doesn't ring unless you really mean it, so you can wear it all the time. The bad part is that it doesn't ring unless you really mean it, meaning, stomp pretty hard. I was wearing my boots, so it was kind of hard to get it to ring with my heel already 3 inches high. Maybe I need to move it out towards my toes more, like the guy in the picture, but then I'm afraid for the elastic. Needs experimentation, and practice, I suppose.

Anyway, it was pretty fun for the second half, and I played on through until 10:45. Went home with $101 in the jar, and some artwork to boot.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 09Oct2012

A very slow night, as I'd expected to come even earlier, but made bearable and even fun by the presence of Silly Patty, who somehow manages to maintain her enthusiasm all night even though she's heard almost every song I know by now.

Actually, that's not quite true. She came by when I was standing on the lonely Tuvalu corner during Art Walk last week, and I showed her the "Everything" page of my iPad song book, which has (currently) 238 songs on it (as opposed to the 104 songs on the printed handout list). The balance are songs that I don't play very well (but will muddle through if asked), and obscure songs that I don't think many people know. The "B List", if you will.

Patty immediately spotted a few songs that she liked, so I guess I ought to print that list up and let her go through it, since she's sweet enough to overlook the mistakes I'm bound to make on these seldom-practiced songs. So I played quite a few half-remembered songs, not too terribly, and that's kind of fun.

Other than Patty, we had a scant few tourists come by, and went home with $15. Maybe it'll pick up again when "Holiday Season" comes around.

Keith at Laguna Beach "Art Walk" -- 04Oct2012

[Pic is me, as seen from the lousy camera in my iPad on the music stand]

I almost forgot about this, again, but it came up on my calendar so I decided to go on down. Jim & Warren always play on Thursdays, especially on Art Walk Thursdays, so I knew I'd have to find somewhere else to set up, but I've been eyeing the far corner, and wanted to give that a try anyway.

I got there and was set up at 7:30. I decided to add the monitor speaker to the rig, because although the big amp sounds *way* better to the audience, I'm beside it and get a very muffled version. It took a while to get it all figured out, but it did sound way better to me, so that's a keeper, as long as I can figure out a more elegant way of transporting and situating the thing.

Unfortunately, it was almost a moot point, because nobody stopped to listen anyway. Everybody has a map to all the galleries that are participating, and they're all in a big hurry to get to the next one, presumably before the wine and cheese runs out. It's disheartening when people toss, "Oh! I love this song!" over their shoulder as they rush by. I want to shout out, "Then why don't you stop and listen to it?", but it's too late anyway.

I kept on playing, though, 'cuz it sounded really good, and I'm eternally optimistic that someone will notice. But mostly they'd stop on my corner to say "I think it's down this way!", hunting for their cars. So about 9:00 I gave up and walked down to see how Jim & Warren were doing.

And as deserted as my corner was, theirs was a *party*. Lots of people were still out, though they were mostly zooming by there, too. Jim and Warren had just finished packing up, so I figured I'd just settle in and take over -- at least there were potential listeners here.

And I managed to snag quite a few of them, and more and more as it got later, more relaxed, and the galleries (and their free wine bars) closed. It's really gratifying when some people are breezing by and pull up short, apparently realizing, "Hey, this guy's pretty good!". And if I can get them to stay until the end of a song, I can point out the list, and maybe get them to pick a favorite, and stay even longer.

Anyway, I probably made 3 or 5 bucks down the street, but by the time I quit at 10:30, I was up to $40. But still, I'm starting to wonder if Art Walk is the best time to go down, as generally believed, or actually the worst.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 02Oct2012

It was a nice warm Indian Summer evening, but still not a lot of traffic. Fortunately, we had a lot of "regulars" ("fans"?) to play for: Silly Patty, Janelle, taxi driver Sid, and some other drop-bys. I had the big amp, and the later it got, the quieter the road traffic, and the better I sounded/felt.

It turns out that the problem with starting at 7 (instead of 5) is that it doesn't seem like I've played nearly long enough until it's really late. The good part is that the quiet part of the evening comes sooner. The great part was having an attentive audience, willing and happy to hear some of the lesser-known or infrequently-attempted songs in The Book, like "The Water is Wide", "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water".

Patty, on finding out that it was Warren's birthday and that mine was the day before, went off and got us some amazing cookies at the bakery down the street, which came in handy at 10:30 when I finally decided to get home to bed. I'm always starving at the end of a gig.

Though it didn't seem like very many people stopped to listen, somehow 35 bucks showed up in the jar. I do remember one guy buying a CD. It was kinda funny though -- he had already put in a buck as a tip, then decided to buy a CD, so he put in a fiver, but also fished out his original dollar. Technically correct, sure, but it seemed a bit petty.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 28Sept2012

Since I didn't have any other gigs this weekend and Tuesday had worked out pretty well, I decided to give Friday a try. I also wanted to try out the "arrive at 7" idea, saving me the two dead hours leading up to the "sweet spot".

For these street-corner gigs, I've been using the "little amp", "stealthily" hidden in a plastic roller-crate. But it's frustrating because I have to turn it up literally all the way to be heard, and it tends to distort and sound terrible. So I decided to take a chance and bring the "big amp", which also happens to be battery power-able, since it was bought specifically to take to Indian Princess campouts in the woods.

Laguna Beach does have an "amplifier permit" ordinance, but the cops hardly ever come by, and when they do they turn a blind eye as long as you're not bothering anyone with excessive volume. So the theory goes, anyway, and I have had a lot of cops walk or drive by when I'm there with an all-too-visible head-mic, a big black wire coming out of my guitar, and a harmony box on the ground, blinking its myriad red lights. It's not hard to tell I'm not strictly acoustic...

The big amp is already on a roller cart thing, so I packed all the rest of the stuff into a big backpack, stacked it on top, and went on down there to test my luck. Because of the shorter hours, I even convinced my wife to come along with the dogs. It was kinda great to have people already coming by, right at the start, and the big amp setup sounded *so* much better. And of course, as always, when I can hear myself, I perform way better, too.

So I was having a pretty good time, and as always, the dogs were attracting a lot of attention, too. If they'd'a had a tip jar out, I'm sure they'd'a been doing better than I was...

But after an hour or so, just when it was getting really good, a cop car whipped around the corner, lights flashing (though no siren), and screamed to a stop right there next to me. I quietly had a heart attack, but somehow continued and finished the song, singing and playing half as loudly as before, and mentally preparing to be rousted.

But it turned out that the cop was there to take a report from a guy who had apparently been harassed by somebody, so while they were talking I quietly unplugged the guitar, grabbed the iPad and slinked away. The good part was, I didn't get busted. The bad part was, they stood there talking for what seemed like an hour, and destroyed the "prime time" section of the evening.

I actually had a lady come up and tell me that they wanted to hear me play, and I had to tell her that I really couldn't fire up with the cop standing right there, so they reluctantly wandered off. And another lady -- there with her cute little 14-month-old, the dad, and the grandparents -- told me that she *loves* James Taylor (though the song she'd heard just before the cop showed up was John Denver), and always cries when she hears "Carolina in my Mind". They stalled as long as they could, but they had to leave before the cop did, so I didn't get to see/make that happen.

The cop finally left, so I fired up again, but the wind was out of my sails, and the crowds were nearly gone, so I gave up after a while and packed it in. We were there far later than I'd meant to be, and I'd gotten to play far less, but I still pulled in 25 bucks, and it was a success as far as testing out the big amp rig (and not getting busted for it), and for showing up later and still getting to be on The Corner. I've had better gigs, but it was still more interesting than sitting at home...

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 25Sept2012

Warren meant to meet me down there, but he was detained by a sudden work emergency, so I was solo. There was, of course, almost nobody out anyway, especially early on, except some locals zooming by. But hey, once the stuff's all set up, it's fun to just play.

The dilemma, when nobody's listening, is whether to play instantly-recognizable stuff to try to drag in the passers-by, or whether to just have fun playing new and/or obscure stuff for my own entertainment. I chose the latter, for a while, but when more people started to appear (after dinner, I guess), I started playing my more popular stuff.

The last hour or so was actually pretty great -- I had one *very* appreciative guy (who left a $10), and a nice couple of ladies who clearly had somewhere else to get to, but who I detained by playing some of their favorites. They even bought a CD. And I had a lady come up and tell me that it was her 31st anniversary, and could I play "their song", which was James Taylor's "Up on the Roof", which I do happen to know, so that was pretty sweet. I followed it with some more love songs and they stayed and cuddled for a while.

Had a few odd requests: One guy asked me if I knew the theme from "Love Story" ("Where do I begin, to tell the story..."), which, yeah no. Another lady asked me if I knew "that song from 'Ghost'", which is "Unchained Melody". I've looked into that song, actually, and considered it, though it's so "showy" that I'm afraid that I'll never have the chutzpah to do it in public -- kind of like "Bridge Over Troubled Waters", which I have in the book, but seldom perform. And a little foreign dude asked for "Moonshadow" (which I've poked at, but is hard for me because of the odd guitar style), but he settled for "Wild World".

I was surprised to find $50 in the jar, most of which had to have appeared in that last hour. Now that there's nobody else trying to play down there, I'm thinking that I could still "get" The Corner and do almost as well, audience-wise, even if I show up at 7 or 7:30, and just play that "sweet spot".

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 18Sept2012

I keep thinking that the traffic down in Laguna will be so thin that it won't be worth going down there, eventually. But we had fun last week, so I agreed to go again. And it was pretty desolate, but that gave us the chance to play some of the fun but obscure ones, and try out some new stuff that's not ready for an audience yet. So that was fun.

And some people do come by, and I noticed a couple of fivers getting dropped in the jar, so I figured it was at least gonna pay back the gas and parking meter money...

I noticed this tall lady watching from across the street with her teen-age daughter. She kind of smiled and waved at the end of the song, and walked on. Later on, they were on our side of the street, but up the sidewalk a ways. And later still, they finally came over, and I pulled out my most popular tune, "Over the Rainbow". They clearly loved it, and it was an inadvertent bull's eye 'cuz the mom told us that the daughter had sung that song in a fifth-grade talent show. And the daughter said that she hears that song a lot in the Hawaiian BBQ place where she works. The mom wanted to take a picture of us with the daughter, which we did, and she wanted to know our names, and shook our hands and left something in the jar before leaving. Sweet.

We played some more, and I decided that I was warmed up enough to chance "Piano Man" again, and it went quite well this time. I'm not sure anybody could hear the low notes, but I was at least not screaming on the high ones.

Around 8:30 there was nobody left in sight except the homeless guys, so I decided to break off "early" (only 3.5 hours) for once. Counting the tips on site so I could split the take with Warren, I found 4 ones, 4 fives, and - What the heck?!? - a *fifty*, right there on top. I'm pretty sure it was from that tall lady, and I guess that makes us professional photography models, 'cuz it surely couldn't have been for that one song...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 14Sept2012

For some reason, they put the stage up at the opposite end of the fountain. It didn't make much difference, except a change of scenery for me as I stood there staring at Oakley instead of Old Navy. But the cool part was when the maintenance guys came to turn the fountain down, they opened up a trapdoor right there in the sidewalk, and went down a ladder to the tunnels that are apparently beneath the whole shopping center. The fountain's "volume" is definitely not on a timer, but the fact that the valve is underground explains why it comes up at random, whether I'm playing or not -- they just don't know what's happening up above. So they turn it back up to full volume when they assume I must be done, and shut it off at 11 before they go home.

Anyway, it went pretty well for the hottest Friday on record. I didn't expect anybody to come out in such heat, but it wasn't really that bad after the sun went down, and there were plenty of people. I had several little kids, but never enough at once to get a dance party started. One cute little girl who stayed a long time, and dragged her mom back later on for seconds, had only one dance step -- straight up and down pogo bouncing -- for any and every song.

I sold lots of CDs at the new fixed $5 price (for a total of $127 in the jar), and managed to give out some bubbles and lights. I even got rid of one of the not-coveted white fingerlights by giving it to a kid in a play SWAT outfit, and telling him that this would help him fight crime. He proceeded to thoroughly investigate the various planter boxes, turning up nothing suspicious, so I guess we can all sleep soundly.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 11Sept2012

Last Tuesday went better than expected, despite the end of Summer, so I figured I'd give it another try. It was pretty dead, but fun anyway, due to the eventual arrival of Silly Patty, who is about my age, and therefore loves all the same songs as I do, and appreciates my versions of them. And it only takes one appreciative listener to bring out the best in me, which brings in other people as they pass, too.

People sometimes ask me to play some Billy Joel, or specifically for "Piano Man", which is the same thing. I usually say, "Does this *look* like a piano?!?", but mainly I don't play it because I've tried before, and it's really hard to sing, due to the incredibly wide range it requires (because half of it is sung quite low, and the rest is up a whole octave from there).

But my voice is getting stronger and higher after all this exercise it's getting, so I took another stab at it, and found a way to play it on guitar that works for me, and transposed it to center on my presumed "well warmed-up" range. I meant to try it out on Saturday, but I put it off over and over until I just never got to it. This time I just made myself play it, and, well, I definitely played it. The low parts were definitely low, but maybe the mic helped pick up those notes. And I was able to sing the high parts, but I sure felt like I was screaming more than singing.

But, during the song, several people stopped in their tracks to listen. I'm just not sure if they stopped because it was great, or because it was a train wreck...

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 08Sept2012

I don't normally get to do a Saturday night at Laguna because Jim & Warren have a "standing date" there, but they weren't going to be there this time, so I decided I ought to do it in their stead, even though I've been playing way too much lately.

I was halfway set up when my new nemesis, Bluegrass Boy, came up and asked me if I was just setting up, or tearing down. I told him I was setting up, so he and his bass playing sidekick went on across the street to the opposite corner.

I should have just relinquished the main corner and asked when he'd be done (and I will, if this happens again), 'cuz as long as he's playing that terrific, novel, happy, catchy, bluegrass stuff, I'm chopped liver. We both started at 5:00, and by the time he quit at 8:30, I'd played to an empty corner half of the time, and made like, six bucks in tips.

Fortunately, I'm just plain tougher than he is (or his tip jar couldn't hold no more), and in the hour and a half more that I played, without the competition, my tips-per-minute skyrocketed for a total of $53 for the night. Of course, my stuff works better later in the evening anyway, when people are winding down, but I have to get there early to secure The Corner.

Anyway, I did have some fun. A local family that I'd seen before (and whose 3 girls love me) came by again, and this time it was dark enough that I gave them fingerlights (instead of the bubbles last time). They're pretty crazy kids, bouncing around the area, tripping people with their unpredictable movements.

After a while, another family showed up, and I had the older crazy girl take some lights over to their two glum-looking kids. The little boy perked up and ran around "beaming" stuff, and then suddenly just took the river rock that I use as a paperweight for the song sheets, sitting on the cover of the concrete trashcan next to me. His dad yelled at him, and he just dropped it there in the middle of the sidewalk. (I'm, of course, in the middle of a song, and can't do anything but watch. But I really never *have* to do anything -- the parents (almost) always take care of whatever their kids are up to.) The dad (quietly) yells some more at the kid to "put that back", and the kid finally picks it up, brings it back to the trashcan, and throws it in!

Dad flips out, jumps up and grabs the kid, who commences screaming, and off they go, with Mom and Sister chasing after. I spend the rest of the night wincing every time anyone throws something away, knowing that my favorite rock is getting more and more buried. But at the end of the night, I opened up the can to find that the rock had landed right in an ice cream cup, and was easily fished out, if drenched in melted vanilla.

Keith at Mission Viejo Farmer's Market -- 07Sept2012

It was awful hot, and I was pretty tired from playing the night before, but they had brought out an Easy-Up for shade, so it was OK.

Since school has started, mostly what I got was housewives with under-school age kids in strollers -- which is pretty much my core target audience, so that worked out fine. I'm sure the people behind me were wondering why I was playing "Twinkle Twinkle" so much, though.

The layout is such that I'm near the outside of the Market area, playing outwards at some tables that they set up so people can sit and have lunch. Last time, I turned one of the speakers around backwards, so I might be heard back in the booth area. Unfortunately, to be loud enough to be heard throughout the place, the bakery booth that's right behind me gets it pretty loud, and the younger guy kept coming over and spinning the speaker back around.

So this time I spun the *other* speaker around, so it wasn't pointing directly into the bakery booth. That apparently worked, 'cuz even though I was pretty loud (especially after some other booth people came over and flatteringly asked me to turn it *up*), the older bakery guy came over near the end of the day, handed me a grocery bag full of yummy bread, and said, "Thank you for bringing back such good memories!" in his thick German accent.

Which was doubly nice since I had had breakfast at 6:00 so by the 1:00 stop time, I was starving and wolfed into a big chunk of the Apple Cinnamon Bread.

Keith at Laguna Beach Art Walk -- 06Sept2012

Since I'd had such a terrible night at the last Art Walk, playing on the street (but not The Corner), I decided to go back to Susie's "Twig" shop this time. We both figured it was going to be slow, since all the tourists have gone home, and we were right.

But I had a nice quiet night, playing for and talking with Susie, and we did have a few groups of nice locals come by. And I had cleverly brought my "Street Rig", which doesn't sound as good, but is *way* easier to set up and tear down.

I played until 8:30 or so, and gave up, mostly so Susie could go on home. On my way past The Corner, I saw that Jim & Warren were still at it, and an empty parking space presented itself, so I pulled in and walked down to see them. They were almost-inaudibly holding forth, with a lithe dancer-lady squirm-dancing to a beat only she could hear, and perpetually bucket-hatted homeless kid Shane (or is it Shawn?), endangering passers-by with his own brand of flailing stumble- (break?) dancing. Crazy scene.

"Mad Patty" was there, too (though she calls herself "Silly Patty"), and I sat with her for a while, as she told me of her Bad Old Days in New York and Austin. Suddenly Jim had to go home, and Warren invited me to step in, but I had to get up early to take Acacia to the bus stop, and then go play at the Mission Viejo Farmer's Market, so I reluctantly declined and went on home.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 04Sept2012

Well, it's after Labor Day, school has started, the tourists have all gone home, and Laguna Beach is a ghost town. Mostly. We did have some nice people come by, and local resident "Mad Patty" (as Warren calls her) was there most of the night. She's a sweetie, and fun to play for. She tried all night to get up and leave, but I kept playing songs that she couldn't resist, and kept her there until we all decided we'd had enough at 9:30.

I don't normally take my iPad songbook to Laguna, because I'm right there on the sidewalk and I don't want someone to bump into the music stand and break it, or to have someone just decide to snatch it and run (like the famous Top Hat incident).

So I've been using a printed version, with far fewer songs in it. But now that it's (much) less crowded and crazy, I brought the iPad along, just in case. Which proved prescient, because I was able to play "Billie Jean" for someone (poorly remembered and badly, but whatever), and to satisfy Patty's thirst for Cat Stevens songs with "Sad Lisa" and "Trouble", beyond the two that are in the paper version of the Book.

Tips, at $30, were less than half of the same night last week, but as I keep saying: if I was there for the money, I wouldn't be there.

Keith at Private Party -- 02Sept2012

My brother decided to have a Labor Day "Driveway Party", with me as the musical guest. There were 30 or so of his friends there for his pulled pork sandwiches and peach cobbler, and I set up and played for three hours to a very appreciative audience.

It was outdoors, but in a nice quiet place, so the sound was good. Maybe too good -- I had to set the amp's volume so low that I was almost playing acoustic-only. Which is great, except that it leaves the harmony box out. Apparently, the audience could hear it singing along, but I couldn't, and had to wonder whether or not I'd kicked it on or not. And these days, a lot of my songs rely on that "other guy" being there.

Anyway, it was really great to have an actual audience for once -- people who were there on purpose, listening and responding. I'm up for that, anytime.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 01Sept2012

It was the Saturday night of Labor Day weekend, so I didn't know whether to expect lots of people, or none -- but I guess it turned out to be kinda lots. The weather was great -- not hot at the beginning, but not cold at the end either. And a lot of people didn't seem to be in such a hurry, so they stopped to hear some songs.

I had lots of little kids, but none of them seemed to want to dance much -- just hang out and listen, which is OK, too.

Then some teenagers stopped by, and the boy dragged one of the girls out and they started dancing. Amazing, full "routine" dancing like you see on the TV dance shows. Instantly there was a huge crowd circled around them, applauding when they stopped. The kid came up and asked me if I had any songs with some kind of beat, but I didn't know what he meant. I offered my new "calypso" song, "Kiss the Girl", and they danced some more, though I couldn't tell if it was the same routine or a different one. I should have asked them if they went to OCHSA.

The cute part was that, when they quit and left, all the little kids in the crowd came out and started trying to dance like that -- holding hands and pulling each other around.

Later on, I had two or three little kids that had been hanging out for a while, and were dancing a little, and I thought I might get them more involved if I gave them some fingerlights. As soon as I did, more kids appeared from nowhere, then more, and more. I probably gave out 20 lights in 3 minutes, and only stopped because I ran out! But it was worth it, 'cuz all their respective parents also came over, and I suddenly had a huge crowd to play for. I ran through the dance songs, and almost every Kids' Song I know, with a huge crowd of kids playing with their lights out in front of me. Big fun.

My old high school friend Valerie was in town and came by to see me. I gave her my camera to take some pictures, but I was even more glad that she was there to see some of these crazy magic moments.

My sister told me that my "just feed the jar" policy (and sign) for selling CDs would cause her to just not buy one, since she wouldn't want to pay too much, nor too little. With that in mind, as an experiment, I changed the sign to say "just put five bucks in the jar". It seems to have worked, 'cuz the seven "Favorites" CDs sold out right away. And overall, I sold 14 CDs out of the 20 I brought -- presumably at five bucks each, which must have contributed to the $184 total, which beats the old record by 1 dollar. (Of course, technically, I should probably subtract $14 for the CD materials cost, and 5 bucks worth of fingerlights.)

I guess I'll keep the new sign...

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 28Aug2012

I was expecting a slow lonely night, since schools are starting up and vacations are over. But it was actually quite nice. A lot less people out, but the lack of crowds seemed to make the people who came by more comfortable stopping for a while. We had a pretty continuous stream friendly people sitting on the bench, asking for songs. A friend of Warren's stayed for an hour or two, chatting up anyone else who came by, and requesting song after song, threatening to use up the whole catalog. She's welcome back any time.

I think a big part of what made it work so well for me, though, was the sound. Usually there's someone else playing on the other corner, so I'm afraid to be an obnoxious jerk (as some of them are) and play so loud as to interfere with their stuff. This time, there was nobody over there, so I was able to accidentally turn it up quite a bit louder than usual, so I could actually hear myself. I love when that happens...

When it's louder like that, I can hear myself, so I play and sing better, but the people can hear better over the traffic noise, so they like the music better, and people from farther away can hear the music and come on over if they like what they hear. Win-win-win-win-win.

So, even with the reduced traffic, we were getting through to a much higher percentage of the people who *were* there, brought in about $70, and had a great audience most of the night. I didn't give away any bubbles, but had some tiny kids to give fingerlights to, later on after dark. I'm a little worried when I do that since they're not really intended for teething, but I guess the parents will have to keep an eye on that.

I got to play "The Sound of Silence" again, and it's working out pretty well, I think, so it may move up to The List soon. The harmony's a little problematic, since it's a lower harmony and I don't sing very high, and the guitar part doesn't give the box enough data, soon enough, to get the harmony part right. But with some hopefully-subtle modifications to the guitar part, I think I can get it to work.

I also played my new kids/teens song, "Kiss the Girl" from "The Little Mermaid" a couple of times, and that one's definitely working out, too. It sounds great with the harmony box (and *terrible* without it -- "Please, Mister Postman" is the same way). And at the very end, we had a pair of seniors sitting and listening and requesting great songs, and suddenly, dancing!

Keith at Private Party -- 25Aug2012

In a strange arrangement, the city of Mission Viejo lets a private club of about 80 rose gardeners tend the city's Rose Garden, which they do for free. So the city people decided to throw them a nice Appreciation Dinner, and asked me to play background music. More fallout (along with the Farmer's Market gigs) from getting to know the Santa Claus booking lady.

Almost everybody in the club is "older", you know, like me, so they all really liked my stuff. I played through dinner, then quit so they could have their recognition announcements, after which about half of them left. But some of them stayed specifically to listen to me some more, and said so! Even during the evacuation, more than half of them said something like "I loved your music!" as they walked by to leave.

It was outdoors, but in a quiet enclosed patio area behind City Hall, so the sound was terrific. Indeed, I could hear myself so well that it was intimidating, having to play every word and note perfectly since they were so clear. Especially after playing the street corner in Laguna for so long lately, where I can barely hear anything and am just playing and singing on faith.

So I had a great time -- great sound and lots of appreciative people listening. And I got paid, too -- can't beat that.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 22Aug2012

Summer is clearly winding down -- less traffic again, and definitely fewer tourists. But right off the bat, we had a clump of high school kids, just done with the beach for the day, who stayed for quite a while asking for songs and then failing to listen to them (but still fun to have around). Not sure how this bodes for their attention spans when school starts...

Had more trouble with the sound -- this time caused by dead batteries in the amp itself. This is understandable, since I've been using the amp for all of these Laguna gigs, and haven't had to replace them yet. Eight "D" cells is a lot of juice, but not infinite.

But this is definitely a recurring issue with this "all battery" setup. The harmony box and the wireless mic's receiver both run from the rechargeable battery pack I rigged up, but there are regular alkalines in the guitar's pickup, the mic's transmitter, the D.I. and the amp. And the usual symptom when any of them starts getting weak is distortion, which is also caused by overloads of anything by anything that's up the chain, so it's kinda hard to tell what's wrong, but it's easy to tell that *something* is.

We played to almost nobody a lot, but then four happy (half-drunk?) ladies ("from Peru, South America!") came and sat down, to sway and sing along with "Let It Be". Naturally, halfway through it, the amp went from distorting to garbling, to cutting out. I had some spare batteries, but it takes a while to install them, and the ladies moved on. Drat.

But later on I snagged a little crowd with a set of all "nostalgia" tunes: "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "Homeward Bound", "In My Life", etc. We had a nice couple (who, almost on cue, added "You've Got a Friend" to the set), and a young family, whose cute little girl helped bring in other people, just watching her delight. She was only 2 years old, but when she figured out that there was a guy singing up there, she started asking for "ABCD!", and I surprised her trying-to-explain parents by launching right into it (it's just the alphabet, sung to the tune of "Twinkle "Twinkle"). First kid I've run into that likes the ABCD version better.

Anyway, I guess the sound was finally acceptable (and the traffic noise was abating), 'cuz I was starting to get the couples who are marching past, only to have one spouse stop the other one to listen for a while. I love when that happens. And when I spot people not slowing down, but mouthing the words to the song I'm singing, in spite of themselves. Your feet say no, but your mouth says yes.

But that crowdlet dissipated when the little girl left, and I decided that 9:00 was time to go on home. We packed up and I counted up the tips ($52) while the bluegrass kids set up to take over the spot. They're really good, and people love the novelty, but the crowd's pretty thin that late.