K&W in Laguna Beach -- Tuesday, 09July2013

We lucked into the ice cream corner again, and had lots of nice people just about the whole time, except when some of the scruffier homeless guys were occupying the bench. They tend to make the tourists a bit nervous...

For some reason, "Blackbird" was Top of the Pops, and was requested three times. One lady listened for a while, came over to put something in the tip jar, and said "You guys are too good for this". That was a pretty nice thing to say, but unfortunately, she didn't have any practical advice about where we should/could be playing...

We also had some "help" from a guy named Spider, who plays around there sometimes, but this time he was pretty drunk and being obstructionist. I don't know if he was grumpy because we had the best spot, or because we sounded better, and were doing better, than he could. Just one of the things you deal with in the anarchy of street music...

Along with the street brawl that some teenagers started up in the outdoor alcove of the restaurant next door, and thundered right through the "stage" and across the street. Right in the middle of, you guessed it, "Blackbird". I carried on for a half a verse, but gave up. When the excitement died down, the lady who had requested it said, "I guess you'll have to start over". Pretty much.

But other than all that, it was a pretty good night.

One thing that's always bothered me when I play, is that, naturally, the best stuff happens while I'm playing, not between songs. Of course, that's when my hands are occupied, so I can never get any good pictures. But my day job recently supplied me with a new iPhone, which has a pretty good camera built in, so I figured out a way to trigger the camera with a remote control, and stuck the remote to the back of my guitar's headstock, where I can reach the button with my left thumb -- the only movable piece of me that's not otherwise occupied while I'm playing. (And with my wireless guitar and mic, I can even walk out in front of the camera and get pictures of myself, as above.)

So I was able to get some pictures of a sweet old couple dancing to "The Way You Look Tonight". It was doubly cute, because the same couple had been by last summer, and danced then, too. Click here to check 'em out in my blog post from last August 28:

http://y7alanzo.blogspot.com/2012/08/k-at-laguna-beach-28aug2012.html

That time, Warren just stopped playing to grab his camera -- this time he didn't have to.