Keith in Laguna Beach -- Sunday, 29Sept2013

Warren's gone on vacation in Italy, but I went down anyway, and it was quite nice. I had nice people sitting on the bench almost the entire time. Indeed, I had gone down expecting to be mostly alone so I could try out some new songs and play with the drum machine (which Warren objects to), but I ended up playing requests almost the whole time, with no time left over to experiment.

I started off with Hotel California like always, but right away a lady on the bench bashfully requested "Kiss the Girl", followed by "A Whole New World", followed by "You'll Be In My Heart". She was clearly a big Disney fan -- and all those Disney songs quickly attracted a crowd of other people, who stayed and requested other songs, which attracted other people...

But unfortunately, basketball player by day / drunk by night Larry and his friend showed up all too soon. Larry was less drunk than usual, but he was still prone to repeatedly shouting out his requests (which I was obliged to ignore in favor of the wonderfully near-constant stream of requests from real "customers"), and trying to start up unwelcome conversations with the people on the bench. I watched him trying to chat up one girl to the point where she got up and moved over to the other side of her boyfriend to get away from him. It was gratifying that her solution wasn't to just gather up her boyfriend and leave, but a shame that she had to be called on to find a solution in the first place.

I finally asked him and his pal to move over and sit on the side bench "because you've heard me before" and to "leave the 'front row' for the tourists". They were pretty offended, but they actually did it, except when someone on the bench asked for "I'm Yours", and Larry slammed around the corner, "dancing" and flinging his long arms and legs in all directions. As the brave remaining people were scanning the list for a next tune, I quietly suggested that possibly a less danceable song would be a less dangerous choice, to knowing smiles from the bench people.

A nice elderly British couple came by with several requests, including "Puff, the Magic Dragon", despite there being no kids around. Then she asked for "Bridge Over Troubled Water" which isn't on the list, but it is in The Book. I don't normally do it 'cuz it's too high, but I was well warmed up and it was late and quiet so I went for it. And it went over quite well -- another group of people stopped dead in their tracks to listen. *That's* what I'm there for.

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K&W in Laguna Beach -- Tuesday, 24Sept2013

The weeknights are definitely getting slow down on The Corner. We had a couple of nice ladies sit and listen and request a bunch of songs right at first, but once they left, it was pretty lonely.

Until Silly Patty and Mikey the Greeter showed up, but they've both heard all our stuff, so they mostly just chatted to each other, ignoring us, but keeping other people from being able to sit down. And as it got later, more and more drunk homeless guys came by, effectively shutting out anyone else.

Except for an elderly couple from Switzerland who were either really brave or immune to crazy behavior. They asked for several songs from the list, but the guy kept asking for "Simon & Garfunkel, 'Bright Eyes'". I'd never heard of such a song, nor could I think of a song of a different title that might have those words in it, so I had to keep declining and offering alternatives.

All of which they liked, but I was curious about this "Bright Eyes" song he was clearly so fond of, so I looked it up the next morning. Turns out it was written for the movie "Watership Down" (the bunny war book), was sung by Art Garfunkel (credited right there on the poster), and the words refer to somebody's "bright eyes" turning pale. It's about the death of the main bunny character.

Now, sometimes I go home and learn songs that someone suggested at a gig. This one was the number one selling single of 1979 in the UK, while in the US, it barely cracked the Billboard 200. Apparently, we don't like songs about dead bunnies here in the States. And I'm pretty sure I don't need one in my act...

One suggested song I *did* learn is "Pure Imagination" from the first "Willy Wonka" movie. It sounds strange and unplayable, but I found some chords that weren't too wrong and fixed 'em up into a version that sounds pretty good. I tried it out in public for the first time, and it seems to work. Patty and Mikey really liked it, anyway...

It was getting pretty late and I was thinking of calling it a night when It's-All-About-Me-Gaby came by again, but when I wouldn't let her shanghai the act, she left in a huff. Again.

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K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 21Sept2013

Lots of people out on a Saturday night, and we had the bench filled with listeners with requests almost the whole time. It was really great, and resulted in $86 in the jar.

Speaking of jars, three Marines came by, only slightly Drunk and Disorderly this early in the evening, and requested a bunch of hard rock songs. None of which I can play, of course, but they eventually settled on "Hey Jude" -- and then wandered off before it was half over.

Michael (a.k.a. "Jax" these days), was playing on the opposite corner, with his profanity-laced "I'm Being Oppressed By The Man" songs and inimitable "catfight" singing style. A guy walked past him and then across the street to walk past us while commenting that "That guy can't sing! And I'm a singer, so I know!" I made some kind of "Agreed" noise, and suddenly he wanted to prove that he really was a singer -- by singing, right here, right now.

I'm not actually a karaoke machine, but I figured, "What the heck", gave him my head-mic (and *then* noticed that he was smoking -- ick, cigarette mic!). He decided on "The Boxer", and did OK, but with a lot more improvised ornamentation than I'm used to. I guess it's the modern style -- you're not really singing unless you're completely screwing up the tune...

Anyway, we had a great time until about ten o'clock when we had collected so many drunk homeless guys, hollering and dancing wildly around, that the "normals" were afraid to be there. This is really starting to become a problem. It's flattering that these guys all like my songs, but they park on the bench, preventing tourists from sitting down to listen, and their antics scare away even the people that are willing to stand.

But what can you do? It's a free country, and I'm pretty sure that if I called the cops on 'em for Public Drunkenness, I'd start a feud that would be much worse than this is...

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Keith at Mission Viejo Farmer's Market -- Saturday, 21Sept2013

I was up really late at Spectrum the night before, but I woke up early to feed the cats and have my own breakfast, and then set an alarm to take a nap before the 11:30 Farmer's Market gig. I slept through the alarm and finally woke up at five 'til eleven. Whoops -- that gave me 5 minutes to pack up and get down the hill to get set up in time.

I didn't quite make it, but I came close. Fortunately, it's pretty quiet (empty) down there since they switched to Saturdays, so nobody noticed.

It was kinda nice, though, as I had a couple of groups come by to listen for a while. Inexplicably, I there were 4 CDs missing, and there was a twenty (and five ones) in the jar. Did someone buy *four* CDs?!?

At the end, the almond guy came over and said he didn't have any cash (he hadn't sold any almonds?!?), but would I like some almonds? Maple Orange -- pretty yummy.

And the lemonade lady came over and offered me a big cup of lemonade -- "We don't want to just throw it out". And it was yummy, too.

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Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Friday, 20Sept2013

The weather was kind of gloomy, so I didn't expect many people to show up, but it was a pretty good turnout. I had three separate kids parties start up, and got a lot of attention for, not the music, but the glowing balls that I lined up at the front of the stage.

Typically, the parents keep the kids from taking my stuff (it's great fun to watch their mortified reactions when the kids snag some money out of the guitar case tips), but I guess there were a lot of largely unsupervised kids this time. Some would just look at the balls, some would touch them but leave them where they were, some would rearrange them into "much better" positions on the stage, and some would just grab one and take off with it. I realize that the balls are what the lawyers call an "attractive nuisance", but that's mainly why I have them.

One pair of sisters couldn't keep their hands off of them, but were also eating ice cream at the time, so everything ended up very sticky...

And, sure enough, my super-fan Gabby from Barcelona showed up again. They either come to Spectrum every night, or they're stalking my schedule webpage, 'cuz this is three in a row. This time she wanted to hear "Lemon Tree", which is on the "Tribute to My Dad" CD, so they must have a copy of all three of my CDs. Right after that one, Gabby wanted "Lollipop Tree", and when I said, "Oh, so *all* the 'tree' songs", only her mom understood enough English to laugh...

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K&W in Laguna Beach -- Tuesday, 17Sept2013

We got down to The Corner at 7:00 to find Spider already there, only slightly drunk, and feeling charitable enough to shut down and let us take over. He hung out for a while, scaring the passers-by away, but left after a while.

It was pretty slow at first, as expected, but then two local ladies came by and pulled up short when they heard that we weren't half bad. They sat and asked for a few songs, and then four guys from Detroit on a business trip came by. The boisterous one, who turned out to be the CEO, looked at the list and chose "Carolina in My Mind". I think he plays a little guitar himself 'cuz he was hugely impressed with my James Taylor abilities, and seemed to know how good/hard his guitar playing is. That roped the guys in pretty well, and they stayed for a long time, asking for more songs, and the CEO loudly praising us between and during the songs, and dancing with the local ladies. He hooted and hollered at Warren through his guitar solos, and tried to involve other people as they came by. Must be a great guy to work for!

And of course, once there was a party started on the corner, more people were automatically pulled in. The CEO put a twenty in the jar after a few songs, and after half-a-dozen more, added another twenty. One of his guys did likewise. And one of the ladies who got caught up in the party wanted to buy a CD, and asked me if the twenty she was holding was OK. I told her it was way too much and to go ahead and make herself some change out of the jar, but she said she'd just take "three of whatever is in there", which turned out to be three ones. I'm not sure I meant for this to be some kind of rigged carnival game...

After the party had wandered off, at about 9:30, I decided it was time to go home ("school night" and all), and I had just started to shut stuff down when there was a sudden wave of new people. We played a few songs for them, and up came Gaby the dancer. She swayed a bit, but decided she really wanted to sing "Scarborough Faire", so I fired it up, after warning her that it was unlikely to be in her range. And I was right, 'cuz she had to switch octaves back and forth to stay with the melody, but at least she stayed in key.

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K&W in Laguna Beach - Tuesday, 10Sept2013

It's much quieter now that the summer is over, but on the other hand, it's a whole lot easier to get the ice cream corner, since nobody else is out there.

So it was a pretty quiet evening, until a lady came by and went to the ATM, and came back to put a twenty in the jar. She loved all the songs on the list, and chose quite a few, since she was basically the only one there. After a while she noticed the CDs and asked me how much they were. I told her she'd already paid for one (or 4!) and should just take one. Then she dug through her purse until she'd found a pen to have us autograph it.

She listened to some more songs, and then decided that we needed even *more* money, and came up to put *another* twenty in the jar. Some kind of Super Fan! As she finally left, we told her that we were there most Tuesdays, and she promised to come back and see us again -- and she really ought to; she's paid up for a dozen or so gigs...

But it was a kind of "big tip" night, since we got three five-dollar bills as well (for a total of $64). One of the fivers was from a nice Chinese lady who put it in the jar along with a fancy little cookie. Which was quite yummy on the way home, starving...

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Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Saturday, 07Sept2013

I had to zoom over directly from the Homeless Benefit in Laguna, and try not to be too late starting. But when I got there right at 6:00, the fountain was still on full blast. When I called them to say so, the (new) guy said that he didn't have anybody on the schedule, and I said that I did and it's me, but he said he'd have to talk to "the lady". I still had all my stuff to set up, so he was giving me an excuse to be late, but hurry it up, buddy.

Luckily, another maintenance guy that knows me showed up and decided to believe me, so with that all straightened out and my stuff set up, I started at 6:30. Not too bad, and I had a not-my-fault excuse...

I had a decent night, but for some reason, although there were people watching me and listening, it had settled into a "no applause" night. This happens sometimes, and I don't know how to break that spell.

My biggest fan family showed up again, the ones with the little girl who insists on dancing (or playing with her fingerlights) while standing on the drain grate, and whose accent I can't understand. She came up and asked for a song that sounded like "Buh, buh-bu-buh BUH-buh", which I managed to decipher into "Puff, the Magic Dragon" entirely by the rhythm of the phrase and not by any actually detectible phonemes therein.

After a while she came up to tell me that they were going to dinner, but they'd be back. That was nice to know, I guess. And they did come back, but this time, as they said goodbye, I asked her mom what her name is (Gaby), and where they were from: "Barthelona". That explains the outrageous accents, but doesn't explain why they're out to see me every month.

At one point, some teenage girls came up and wanted to give me a pizza that had been mistakenly double-served to them, and they didn't know what to do with. I've never gotten a whole pizza as a tip before...

I had people listening the whole night, and it was especially nice after 11:00 when the fountain finally went completely off. So I ended up playing until midnight when a guy carrying a "backpack guitar" wanted to hear (see) me play a few songs, which I don't mind a bit -- almost everything I know I learned by watching other guys' hands, and I'm happy to "give back". I ended with his request of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", where I got so into the strumming that I caught the back edge of my plastic nail on a string and almost split it in two. Yeowch. Glad that wasn't my *real* nail.

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K&W at Homeless Benefit Concert -- Saturday, 07Sept2013

Kooky Mikey the Greeter and his pastor had this idea to put on a concert of the street musicians to benefit the homeless and some children in Haiti. Naturally, I volunteered right away, and although I already had a gig scheduled at Spectrum that evening, Mikey assured me that it would start at 4:00, and I could go first.

Turns out it really started at 5:00 (and Spectrum starts at 6), but I did it anyway. I had expected to go on solo, so Warren could play with Jim, but Jim had something else going on, so I invited Warren to go on with me.

As far as we could tell, there was no publicity at all, but a few people wandered in on their way back to their cars from the beach when they heard the music. The local radio station guys showed up, but just to sell some T-shirts, not to broadcast or even record the event. And a Orange County Register photographer was there, though not a reporter, so there were only a few pictures and a brief blurb on their website the next day.

Pastor Don said that we could do "4 or 5 songs", but since we were first, we got up to do a "sound check" with the provided equipment, got the levels as close as we could (which was *terrible*, but, oh well), and cheated in few songs for the folks wandering in early and the artists in some booths along the side, and then started playing my Best Stuff after the official start at 5:00.

After three songs, I asked Pastor Don how many more I had time for, and he said "one". So I fired up "Over the Rainbow" to go out on my most well-received song. After the big ovation (well, big for a dozen people), Don ran over and asked "Do you want to do one more?", and I said, "Nope!" and started unplugging stuff. I was out of time anyway to make it to Spectrum, and he'd fooled me into doing my Final Number already, so, too late! Besides, the sound was so screwed up (from where I was, though apparently not so bad Out There), that I couldn't really tell what I was doing, and Warren's amp had turned into a Feedback Machine that had completely drowned out my intro to "Rainbow" (though they'd apparently gotten it back under control), so I was ready to Be Done.

Warren stayed for the rest of the evening, and said that most of the acts got to play 4 songs, and that for most of them, that was 4 too many, but there were a few that were good. Pastor Don's guys said that it was a "great success", though we don't know what that means, and that they'd probably do it again next year. I guess you can count me in, but try to avoid a night where I'm already booked.

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K&W in Laguna Beach -- Monday, 02Sept2013

It was Labor Day, and stiflingly hot, so we were hoping for a decent turnout at the beach. And thus the ice cream shop, and thus the corner.

We got there at 4:00, but it was already occupied by Michael, who apparently doesn't care overmuch about honoring the "paid to *not* play" money the ice cream store owner gave him. (Michael does all self-written songs about how abused he's been by The Man and various girls, and he plays guitar well enough, but it's hard to tell what the songs are about 'cuz his cat-fight-yowl of a singing voice is mostly unintelligible, and certainly doesn't win him many fans.)

But he assured Warren that he was going to quit at 5:00, so we just hovered nearby to discourage any other bands from trying to move in, and to see if he was any more sensitive to glaring than he was to payoff money. (He wasn't.)

But he finally cleared out, and we did pretty well, though the 5:00 hour is pretty slow. Worth it to slog through to the more-fun evening hours, though. And our friend Daniel came by with his big-lens camera and took a few decent shots as the sun was going down.

Late in the evening a guy came by, sat on the bench, and way too enthusiastically proclaimed how great we were, after -- and during -- the songs. He was, for some reason, dying to hear "Lyin' Eyes", which I seldom play, but did. He got up and went to the ATM next to the ice cream store, and when he came back, tried to get the guy next to him on the bench to break a twenty. The guy couldn't/wouldn't, so, let's just call him Drunk Guy, decided to go ahead and put a twenty in the jar.

He was loudly singing along on every song I did, even after I started trying to play "chick songs" and then obscure stuff he wouldn't know. Finally Warren couldn't take it anymore, and went over to ask him to sing more quietly. He took, as only drunk people can, huge offense at this, said that he was singing as loudly as his twenty entitled him to, but got up and indignantly stormed off. Works for me. (And his twenty contributed to the $107 we pulled in.)

Weirdly enough, later on a (much more polite) guy came by and asked me if I knew any Eagles. I read him off the list of 6 or so Eagles songs I know, and he decided on "Lyin' Eyes". Hadn't played it in six months, and then twice in one night.

A few weeks ago a guy asked for "Tiny Dancer", and when I said I didn't know it, he said, "You should learn it". So, OK, I did, and it works out moderately well, arranged for guitar and transposed down for my vocal range. I fired it up for the first time, and I think it may be a keeper. I've also been working up "Daniel" which is working OK too, and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", which, not so much.

Two nights before had inexplicably become "Karaoke Night". This time, it was "Adults asking for Kids' Songs Night", and we did "Puff, the Magic Dragon", Kermit the Frog's "Rainbow Connection", and "House at Pooh Corner" -- all of which got a huge response. Musta been something in the water...

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