Keith in Laguna Beach -- 10Feb2013

The weather report said "sunny", but it wasn't. But I was rarin' to go down there anyway, so I presumed that it would clear up later. I was supposed to meet Warren at 12:45, hoping to get the jump on Tom again, but he outsmarted us and was already occupying The Corner when I drove by at 12:40. But the clouds were breaking up, there was a Craft Faire going on across PCH in the Main Beach park, and there were lots of people out, so I decided to park and figure something out. (Warren slept in after a late night and never did show up.)

I wandered around a bit, spying on Tom (who just seemed to be hitting his stride), and April singing away in the somewhat-distant Second Best spot: Acoustic Alley. I walked across the street to check out the Craft Faire, hoping to find some obvious spot to maybe set up over there, where lots of people were meandering. But there wasn't one, and I wouldn't have been comfortable setting up my illicit amplification in a new untested place if there were. At one point, it looked like Tom was gone, so I quickly came back across the street, only to find him sitting down in place, taking a cig break. Foiled again!

But he certainly has as much right to the spot as I do, so I gave up and set my stuff up at the distant-third spot: by the weird green ceramic spiral sculpture/bench thingie. But after about an hour, a light rain started up. I held out for a while, but eventually it got to be too wet to be out there with the electronics, so I packed the stuff up and put it back in the van. Tom is strictly acoustic, so he held out a bit longer than I did, but even if he had wanted to keep playing, the rain had made sure that there was no one to play for, so he gave up after a while.

I hung out under an awning until I was sure the rain had really stopped (20-30 minutes), re-fed the parking meter, and grabbed the opportunity at The Corner. Thanks, rain!

And after the rain blew over it got really nice out. People reappeared, and I had a great run for the rest of the afternoon. Lots of families, and people speaking outrageous foreign languages and taking my picture. I do (deliberately) play my part in the Laguna Street Scene, wearing my big top hat and singing "American Songs".

There was a tenner in the tip jar, and lots of fives (and ones, of course), for total of $72, which I'm pretty sure is a new record for street corner work. Two 13-year old girls came by, went into the ice cream shop, re-emerged with ice cream cones, and put five bucks, each, into the tip jar on their way back past. I guess Dad isn't getting any change back...

Later in the evening, two college girls came by near the end of "Wonderful Tonight", and started to dance to it. One girl was talking about doing some "Tahitian dancing", but the other one wanted to hear "Georgia on My Mind", which wasn't exactly conducive. After that, the Polynesian girl wanted me to play "Wonderful Tonight" *again*, so she could Hula to it. Didn't make much sense to me, but I'm in for whatever, and she squirmed around nicely, attracting a bit of attention and throwing in some hand-signs for the words, like "brushes her long blonde hair". There doesn't seem to be a traditional Hula sign for "car keys", though.