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.