Keith in Santa Barbara -- 11Aug2012

My wife set up a "weekend getaway" to Santa Barbara, partly for me to see the college my daughter wants to go to, and partly just to have fun. Santa Barbara's State Street is a lot like Forest Street where I play in Laguna, but 5 or 10 times longer. It's where all the funky shops and restaurants are, and all the night life happens there. And the sidewalks are really wide, so it's easy for performers to set up almost anywhere. I definitely had to give it a try...

I found a spot near the "Old Town" clock, in front of a closed office building so I wasn't blocking anything, and started playing. I got a lot of smiles, but hardly anybody stopped to listen. I may not have been loud enough, but I was worried about local no-amps laws and zealous cops. And it's a really loud street, with party buses, limos and low-riders cruising by with their loud music, and the Dixieland band in a bar across the street that seemed to get louder as it got later.

A young family stopped in front of me to eat some ice cream, so I asked the 6-year-old girl who kept watching and smiling at me if she'd seen "Tangled". She didn't answer at first, so I asked again. She tugged on her mom's skirt, so I asked the mom, whose one word reply was "French". Oh.

This may actually help explain some of the non-response -- it seemed like more than half of the conversations we overheard up and down the street weren't in English. Maybe nobody understood any of my songs...

Anyway, I only made six bucks in an hour and a half, but it was fun and exciting to play in a new place. I did have two cop cars drive by without stopping to hassle me, so maybe next time I can be a bit more bold.