This was my monthly session with the old folks at the Senior Day Care. Of course, I try to play the oldest songs I know, but there aren't that many of them, and I keep thinking that they'll get tired of me. But the people who work there always semi-jokingly say that nobody there can remember what happened last month.
I was supposed to play two weeks earlier, but I completely forgot since I don't have to look at my calendar very often these days. The lady, Nancy, graciously re-booked me, but I never wanted to become one of those "flakey musicians".
To make sure that she didn't have to fret about my not showing up again, I arrived way early. I couldn't set up that soon though, because the room was being used for Bingo. So I had to just awkwardly hang out in the office. Turned out Nancy had nothing to do either, because her computer was "broken". I took a look at it, did a hard shutdown, and it powered back up just fine. She was thrilled and had/got to call and cancel the tech that was coming. That made up, a little, for my no-show, I think.
And to make it up to the old folks, I learned a new song from my Dad's recently discovered Guitar Music binder. It's "Today" (while the blossoms still cling to the vine...), and it went over pretty well. I need to clarify where and what kind of harmony to use, though -- I just kind of faked it.
Right after I finished playing at the private party in Irvine, Warren gave me a call and was down on The Corner, watching the Tommies pack up. So I pulled through and got a burger, and drove straight down there. The party was only two hours of playing, so with the teardown, driving, and setup time, I got an hour break and was ready for lots more.
The weather was weird and cloudy and distinctly non-summer-like, so I didn't expect many people, but there were lots of tourists out anyway, so we had people there listening the whole time. There was a girl having her 21st birthday so I played the song for her, and lots of families with kids so I gave out a passle of fingerlights. Seemed like a preponderance of nice Asian families on vacation -- must have been some kind of break week in China or Japan or somewhere. I just played lots of "Country Roads" ("The Song Known 'Round The World") and "Let It Be". I reckon maybe a lot of those fingerlights were going back to China where they came from.
We got started about 8, and Warren had to get up early so he left at 11, but I played an extra half hour, mostly for a nice tourist couple who must have just arrived and weren't sleepy 'cuz they were still on "South Florida" time and wouldn't let me quit.
The wife of a friend of my brother's was planning a surprise birthday party for her husband and they are frequent guests at my brother's house when I do the concerts on his front driveway, so she knew her husband would love my music at his party. It was at a small park in Irvine, and she had it catered and invited about 75 people.
Most of the time, everyone was eating at the big round tables, so I was basically background music again, but most everyone who walked past me to get to the food would give me a smile or thumbs-up, so I could tell that they were liking it, even without any clapping.
One lady liked my repertoire so much that she was about to take pictures of the list (to reference, she later told me, at her frequent campfire sing-alongs). I stopped her and gave her one of the paper copies that I carry in the Magic Bag -- saved her the trouble.
Anyway, it was mostly uneventful, but the lady who hired me must have been happy with it, since we'd agreed on my usual $200 fee, but when she handed me a check, it was for $300.
A nice lady on Facebook wanted to promote her store by having buskers out front. Cheaper than renting one of those blow-up tube guys, I guess.
It's a store full of locally made groovy stuff: bags, jewelry, soap, jelly, coffee blends, re-purposed thrift store clothes, etc. It's in downtown Long Beach, but I was told that there was $5 all day parking nearby, which I couldn't find. So I ended up in a "2 Hours Free!" parking structure and figured I'd go back and drive out and back in at the two hour mark, as also advised by the nice but devious lady.
Anyway, nice wide sidewalk out front, but it's on the east side of the street so it's in broad sunlight, starting at 2pm in the middle of June. I thought, well, at least I have a hat...
So I played. And boiled. A few people walked by, and even fewer put a buck in the jar, though I suspect it was more out of pity for my sweat than respect for the music. Nobody stopped to hear a whole song, but one guy with his little girl promised to come back for one. And didn't.
So, at 4:00 I decided to cut my losses and get into some air conditioning before I passed out and broke my guitar. I went into the store to tell the guy Thanks but No Thanks, and got roped into posing for the professional photographer that was taking pictures of people going "Shhhh" for their upcoming "Secret Art Show" promotional material. And they couldn't wait to get some shots of the guy in the funny hat...
That delay put me just over the two FREE! hours, so I probably didn't even break even, but, you know, new and different experiences...
I did message the nice lady, telling her that it wasn't *that* bad, and that I'd love to come back sometime in the evening when the storefront would be in shade, at least. Or even play, like, inside. No reply. Probably embarrassed about nearly killing me...
I don't know why I keep signing up for this thing (this is my fourth one). I suppose it's flattering to be asked to play (even for free) in a big "Festival", but it's actually a pretty bad gig. Play for four hours to make about a third as much in tips as I would on any Saturday night, for people who run right on by to get to or from the beach. And anybody who came down specifically for the music has 35 more bands to get to, so they don't stick around (or tip, 'cuz who can afford to tip 35 bands) either. Even if you're the best band there, they don't know that until they've walked the whole city.
But the upside this year was that I played at the night-before party and made yet more rich old lady friends, 'cuz, you know, I'm right in their wheelhouse. One of the organizers insisted that I show up, this time, at the After-Fete party (it's all about the parties for these people) at the "C'est La Vie" restaurant that's just a few doors down and across the street from the corner I play at.
They have live music in there sometimes, so I asked the organizer lady to introduce and recommend me to the owner, and she did, telling him that if he had me in there, she and all her Committee friends would be there. So, hopefully, she'll follow through with that idea and I'll get at least one night in there, which will hopefully parlay into more.
She had thought that I was going to bring her a CD to the restaurant, but I don't know how she got that idea, and I didn't. So I went back to my car and fetched a stack of 'em and handed 'em out like candy to all the Committee ladies, the owner, his sister the manager, and a Kids' CD for his 10-year-old daughter. Hopefully, all of those were a good investment...
You'd kind of expect that each Saturday leading up and to summer would be better than the last. But the last three Saturdays have each been worse than the one before it. Maybe it was the gloomy weather that kept people at home this time, but it was pretty empty.
Warren had gotten there at 7:20 to wait out the Tommies, but he discovered that they hadn't come at all, so he called me and I got down there as fast as I could. We had a three-generation family on the bench even before we started, but they must have liked the music 'cuz they stayed for about an hour. And bought CDs, too.
Later on a guy came up to buy a CD, but he only had a twenty. I told him to go ahead and make change out of the jar, but it was early and there wasn't much big money so he had to count out a bunch of ones. And 5 minutes later he came up to buy a second one, for some reason. At least this time he had exact change...
And I did have a "Let It Go" singalong, except the three kids didn't actually sing at all. Unclear on the concept, apparently.
Anyway, oddly slow night, and the people who were there were strangely apathetic. Maybe it was me...
The Tommies texted Warren to let him know that they were quitting earlier than usual, so we jumped in our cars and got started playing around 8:15. But it was kind of chilly, so there weren't many people willing to stop -- which may explain Tom's early retreat. We did gather some crowds, but not as constantly as last week.
But the fun started even before I got down there. I was stopped on my way to The Corner by a lady shouting, "I love your hat! Marry me!!!" I had to walk through her little group, so I stopped to talk, though I was in a hurry to join up with Warren and get started. It's all pretty fuzzy now, but there was talk about a birthday, and what a great hat, and I showed off the bunny inside, and tried to convince them to follow me down to The Corner and hear me sing, so I could do "Happy Birthday" for them, etc.
But first they needed a picture, and the older lady (you know, my age) had her phone out, and I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow I ended up locked in a kiss with the "Marry me" girl, waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the mom (?) to signal that she'd gotten the pic. It was like those dolls with the magnets in their lips, puckered up and barely touching. But Mom apparently didn't really know how to work her phone, so after what seemed like ages (but was probably 10 seconds), I broke the kiss to ask "Did you get it?", but she hadn't, so we had to go again, but this time the younger dude had his phone out, so eventually somebody got the pic.
But that wasn't enough! Now the mom was complaining, "Hey, it's *my* birthday, where's *my* kiss?!?" So I gave her a peck, too, but didn't wait for the cameras this time. After a bit more trying to convince them to come hear me play (they never did), I went on my way, thinking, "How did *that* happen?!?"
Anyway, it was pretty slow at first, but started to pick up after 9:00 or so -- maybe starting later isn't such a bad thing. My little superfan (whose name is Natalia) came down with her family again. Her mom is noticeably pregnant, which probably accounts for Natalia's having a baby doll stuffed up under her sweater. Nevertheless, she asked for "Mister Postman", which was a big hit with her and her mom, but also the other people standing around.
A guy came up to tell us that he'd just moved to Laguna. We asked "from where", and he said, "Newport Beach". Not too terribly exotic, then. But he was really thrilled with my stuff, and when I played "Blackbird", he jumped off the bench to do some "We're not worthy!" bows. Crazy.
And later on, a couple came by and mentioned that it was their anniversary. I quickly gave the lady a tiara, which looked good on her. I told her that now she'd get the respect at work that she deserved, and she liked that idea.
But we also got our first taste of trouble in the form of drunken bums -- in particular a woman (we're pretty sure), who kept hanging around and harassing our "customers", singing along, making rude comments, and generally scaring people away. And little Mexican Walt, whose shtick is to "make friends" with tourists before asking for money, was also there.
Warren made some heroic efforts to get them to move to the furthest bench (or go away), but they were pretty persistent. At one point, I just "took a break", since nobody could stop anyway, in hopes that the woman would go away. And she did go sit on the far bench, but as soon as I started playing again, she wandered back over.
So, about 1:15, since there were almost no people left, and the ones that came by couldn't stop anyway, I gave up. Naturally, as soon as we started tearing down, she left -- so maybe I need to use that as a strategy.
Anyway, not as good a night as last week, but pretty good, and inexplicably more lucrative -- there were four twenties in the jar, and 8 or 10 fives, along with the usual stack of ones. My voice isn't completely back to normal, but I can sing the high notes pretty well, and the remaining "gravel" actually seems to make the low notes stronger.
