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.

This blog post. Let me read you it.