K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 29Aug2015

We both assumed that the odds of us playing tonight were near zero, but out of the blue, Tom texted Warren to tell him that they were out of town and wouldn't be there. Wow!

It's been really hot, and there were lots of people out. Unfortunately, that included some undesirables. Like the meth casualty who loudly proclaims his opinions of the songs, right in the middle of them; street-person aging-hippie/beach chick, Wendy; and the literally crazy cat-lady who only speaks in meows and licked Warren's cheek ("kitty kisses!"), while he was trying to play.

It came down to just Wendy for most of the night, and although Warren valiantly tried to keep her subdued or at least at a distance, she was a thorn in my side all night, keeping me from being able to really get into my playing. I kept thinking that I'd pull her aside and give her the hard truth that I'm just not down there to play for her, but she was half drunk and I didn't know how she'd react, so I held my tongue.

Otherwise, a pretty good night. I hadn't seen my little superfan Natalia for a few weeks, and when they showed up, I knew why -- the formerly very-pregnant mom was toting a two-week-old baby sister. On the outside, this time.

Later on, a couple of college kids came by and listened for a while before looking at the list and requesting "Pure Imagination" from (the original) "Willy Wonka". People sometimes ask for that one by its title, even though they don't really know it, and I lead them to a different song. But these kids knew exactly what they were asking for, so I did it. And pretty well, considering how strange the chords are and how infrequently I play it.

After that, they asked for a dancing song, so I did my favorite, "Please, Mister Postman", and they got up and did some very impressive "American Bandstand" style, hyperkinetic, skirt-twirling, rock 'n' roll dancing. That was pretty great.

During the summer, we get people from all over the world (somebody snuck a United Arab Emirates 10 dirham note (worth $2.72) into the tip jar). I tried to hand a song list to a lady and her friends and she waved me off and said in Boris and Natasha's accent, "No, ve're foreigners! Just play wot you vere playink!" I asked "Where are you from?", and she replied, "Carlsbad". I couldn't stop myself from saying, "Um, Carlsbad isn't a foreign country..." She just smiled and didn't say anything, so apparently where she's really from is Top Secret. I don't think her "Carlsbad" cover story is going to hold a lot of water, though.

But despite the implication that she didn't know any American songs, after a while she came over and put a twenty in the jar. I don't know if it was a tip or if she was buying my silence...