Keith in Laguna Beach -- Sunday, 24Aug2014

I thought I'd go down around 3:00 and see if there was an after-beach crowd and then just come home for the dinnertime slump. Turned out it was *all* slump, so there was no noticeable "go on home" dead time, so I ended up staying until the batteries died at 9:30, because it got better and better starting around 7:30.

I think a big part of the problem was the Flower Guys (Angel and his friend), who make origami flowers from palm fronds, and "give them away" for mostly inevitable "donations". They're nice guys but they take up most of the bench with their tools and materials workshop, so people can't sit and listen to the music. Unfortunately, they do very well with this scheme (the guy told me that they had already made $60 on this very slow day, and that they can make $150-$300 on a Saturday), so I have a feeling that this is a new permanent fixture.

Anyway, around 5:00 a family came up right after the first verse of "Let It Be". The mom asked me, "Can they sing with you?", and I said, "Sure!", and they kind of formed a small circle next to me, and the daughters sang church choir harmonies along with the choruses. The dad was kind of encouraging the girls to sing out, and I looked up at him, and it was Chevy Chase! When the song was over, his wife told me that they had sung "Let It Be" at his dad's funeral the day before, which explained their knowing the harmony parts, their somber demeanor, and the all-white clothes that most of them were wearing.

They thanked me and went over to sit on the bench (though most of them had to stand). I quickly started up the next-best song I could think of for the situation, "Hallelujah". They stated through most of that, but got up and wandered up the street before it was over (and before I could get my camera back out).

I went over and told Angel that the guy that he didn't even notice sitting next to him a minute ago was Chevy Chase, and after a bit of "No way!", I showed him the guy up the street in the cantaloupe-colored hat, and he took off to see for himself. Apparently he caught up to Chevy, who was none too pleased to be accosted on his family outing, but (angrily) confirmed that, yes, he was Chevy Chase. I guess I should have let Chevy get a longer head start before alerting rude Angel...

A cute little girl came by, carried by her father, but she needed to get down to dance when I started playing "Twinkle Twinkle". They stayed for a few more songs, and then re-appeared three more times through the evening. I guess she kept convincing her parents that she needed to hear more music.

A while later, a 10-year-old boy ran up and threw a dollar in the trashcan, and his brother came right up behind him and did the same. Of course, I was in the middle of a song, so I couldn't do much about it, but after a while the dad came over and fished the dollars out of the trash and put them in the tip jar, where they were presumably meant to be. He gave me the universal "What are you gonna do?" exasperated dad look on his way past, and I shrugged in solidarity.

So, although for the first four hours people couldn't sit and listen, they were tipping pretty well anyway. And the last two hours were inexplicably like a Saturday night -- lots of people competing for the next request, and bringing in more people with their interest. It helped that the neo-hippies had shown up, and after a while of monopolizing the little part of the bench that wasn't workshop, they all left together, finally clearing some space for the tourists. But at 9:30 my iPad shut down, and after two more songs from memory, the accessory battery did too, so the show was over.