K&W in Laguna Beach -- Thursday, 06June2013

I keep swearing off Art Walk nights, because all the musicians show up so it's so hard to get a decent spot, and even if we do get a good corner, there's liable to be someone loud on the other one. But worse, most of the people use the Gallery Map as a guide to where the next glass of free wine is located, and therefore have no time for street music. But, I don't seem to be able to resist, so I agreed to meet Warren down there, but only if we managed to get a good spot, and there wasn't any obnoxious nearby noisy competition.

I got there a few minutes before five, and obnoxious noisy Sanchez was already on the gallery corner, but I grabbed the ice cream corner anyway. The gallery ladies can and do call the cops if they think you're too loud, so Sanchez is kept (somewhat) in check when he's there. Or so I figured. He started off quite moderate, but got louder and louder as the night progressed. Near the end, I asked some people on the bench if he was as distracting to them as he was to me, and they said that once I started playing, they couldn't hear him at all -- so that was a relief.

Early on, an Indian family strolled by, with several youngsters, 2 or 3 moms, some dads, and Grandpa in full Sheikh getup: all white clothes, turban, tied-up beard. They stopped to listen for a while, and then Grandpa gestured to one of the sons, who brought over a black metal teakettle, and lifted the lid so Grandpa could take out a handful of rock candy pellets, which he proceeded to hand to Warren and I. I didn't know what it was, but Warren tossed some into his mouth, even before one of the sons explained that it was candy. With that assurance, I tried a bit too, and it was tasty, but made it a bit tough to sing. I'm not sure what the significance of all that was, but it must have been something portentous or there wouldn't have been one whole son dedicated to hauling around that teakettle...

We also had an enthusiastic girl from Columbia come by and ask to be in a picture with us. She commented that she needed a guitar, so Warren offered to let her hold his. She couldn't play it, she just thought she needed one to fit in.

Anyway, we did OK at $42, but that's two bucks less than the night before, with many many times as many people zooming by. We're just not as attractive as free wine, I guess...