K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 06June2015

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.