I haven't written a "gig review" in a long time, but this season in Dana Point seems to warrant one. I actually played 25 nights (over 40 days), only breaking for rain, the Mission Viejo Santa's Workshop, a couple of private parties, the Boat Parade where I'm blocked out, and of course, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The city (or somebody?) puts up a *big* holiday spectacle -- lights on every tree and bush, two "walk-in" lightup whales, a giant "surfing Santa" bobblehead, and the main attraction: a "movie marquee" style sign that says "Merry Kiss Me" down in the promenade by the water.
It's also 50 feet from where I play on weekends at the bagel/coffee/ice cream shops; all owned by one guy, who likes me. The sign is a huge draw -- it seems like everybody in the county has to come down and get a photo under it -- so I set up to play for the people waiting their turn. Lots of couples young and old, foreign tourists, and families come down to see the lights, and they all seem pleased to find a guy in a big hat there playing holiday music.
I bring out a box of "jingle sticks", and the little ones love to shake them, rhythmically or randomly, while I play "Jingle Bells", "Frosty", "Rudolph" and the rest. If you want to see what pure joy look like, give a child a jingle toy and start playing "Jingle Bells".
With some kids I'd say, "Hey, if you want to play along, there are some jingle bells in the box here" and they'd look at me blankly. Until their mom would translate into whatever their native language was. Then they'd grab a stick and light up like 100-watt bulbs when the music started. Is "Jingle Bells" well-known in Poland? China? Iceland???
But the cutest thing all month was a 2-year-old girl who somehow knew that the best way to say "Thank you" is a high-five. After every song, she dutifully marched up to me to gently slap her tiny hand on mine, only to immediately about-face and go back to her position, ready for the next song. And she got her parents to bring her back to give me a cuteness overdose a second night.
As it turns out, though, there aren't really very many kids' songs for Christmas. You'd think there are, but it's really about seven. And most of them are pretty short. Most families stick around for about one loop through them, so it works out, but sometimes the kids will insist on staying longer. So I have to drag out the more obscure stuff like "Mele Kalikimaka", which seemed pretty famous in my time, but not a lot of kids know it anymore.
One night after the kids were all gone, I was playing it just for the variety, and a lady started doing the hula. *Real* hula, too. Her three friends got all excited and started to video her, and when the song was over (it's *really* short), I happily played it again. That was fun.
It's not all roses, of course. For one thing, it's cold. Hard to stand there, harder still to play guitar with frozen fingers. And this year, I got some "competition". Two teenage girls set up down the way with a big loud sound system, and a few nights later, a full-on rock band started up, prompting a visit from Security that shut them, and the girls, down. Fortunately, my "blessing" from the ice cream shop owner proved to be my Get Out Of Jail Free card, so I got to play the rest of the season solo.
Except the night that a guy showed up with a guitar strapped to his back, and some bystander thought I should let him join in, so I did. He was reasonably competent, somewhat messily keeping up with the songs I was doing -- faking the chords and playing lead whenever I could figure out how to inset an instrumental verse. He eventually dragged out a cable and I let him plug into my amp -- and he got immediately busted by the Security Guy for not having a permit. Which, actually, thanks -- it was kinda fun, but was mostly messing me up...
Anyway, I stood there night after night watching people take pictures with the "Merry Kiss Me" sign. Unfortunately, the inclination was to have the kissing couple stand directly under the sign, with the cameraman standing back far enough to get the whole sign in. This had the effect of making the people *very* small in the picture.
So I tried to help by putting markers on the sidewalk to get the kissers to stand well forward of the sign. People only "got it" about half the time, though, so I spent a lot of time walking out between songs to point out the suggestion. Most people were initially confused as to why I was interfering, but ended up grateful once they realized that it really was a better shot.
Overall, for me, it really *is* "the most wonderful time of the year". Lots of happy families, excited kids, generous dads. I was literally there every single night I could be. And I'll be back next year, for sure.
