K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 04July2015

Fourth of July fell on a Saturday, so we thought there would be lots of people down at Laguna to see the firework show. And there were. But they were all preoccupied with their beach trip and, after the fireworks, getting home, so it was actually one of the worst nights in a long time. I keep falling for the idea that holidays will be good nights, but so far, every time I play a holiday: New Year's, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, etc., it's been terrible. Maybe I'll finally divest myself of that delusion...

The Tommies were there as usual when we arrived at 8:00, but they packed up in time to watch the fireworks at 9:00. We played on the Fingerhut side until then, and moved over when they left. And when the fireworks were over, there was a tsunami of people swarming off of the beach and streaming past us, but almost nobody stopped. Big hurry to get out there and sit in the traffic trying to get back up the canyon, I guess.

I just kept trying to find something that would slow somebody down, and kept playing to no reaction at all. Finally it paid off -- when the Fourth people were all gone at 10:30 or 11, we were finally playing for the usual Saturday night bar traffic, which works pretty well for me.

I snagged a few couples with the Everly Brothers' "Dream", which I'm going to have to remember to do more often, 'cuz it went over big. The girls captured by that one asked for "Mister Postman" from the list, which also did well, since they danced and even the people walking through had to do it dancing. So for the last couple of hours (we quit at 1am when the battery died) we did OK.

Unfortunately, our old friend Angel has reappeared for the summer. He makes origami roses from palm fronds and "gives" them to girls and kids. Of course, most people "tip" him for them, and he said that he'd made $350 that day, in 12 hours of hanging around the corner. That's pretty close to our hourly rate, but he can keep it up longer, requires a lot less equipment, and doesn't get blocked if someone else already has The Corner. Maybe I need to switch occupations...