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Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 14Jan2012

2012-01-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

A pretty fun gig -- nobody wanted to stay out in the cold for very long, but I had lots of nice, if short, interactions.

Started off inauspiciously, when my D-string tuner peg button snapped right in two as I tried to turn it past an internal obstruction in the sealed gearbox, before I'd even started playing. Fortunately, it was pretty close to in-tune when it broke, 'cuz I had to play the whole night with it exactly there. These are my second set of tuners and they've always had this grinding issue from day one. I thought it would lessen over time, but it hasn't. Fortunately, I have 6 spare buttons on the old set somewhere...

It was also the first outing for my "songbook in the iPad" experiment. I combined all the Word doc song sheets for the songs in current rotation into a big PDF, with a hyperlinked Table of Contents. The advantages over paper are many: much smaller and lighter to carry, much faster to "flip" to the desired song, no booklight needed, almost infinitely expandable with no added bulk,

The main disadvantage is that the screen is smaller than a piece of paper, so the words and chords are harder to read. This was my main worry, but I put on my "gig glasses" (blended bifocals for distance and "3 feet away"), and it worked out fine. Probably not as easy to read as the paper version, but serviceable.

Also, it's tougher (but not impossible) to scribble on the sheet with hints, notes, diagrams, arrows, etc. I incorporated most of these from the existing pages when I created the PDF version, but I do tend to need to add stuff on the fly during gigs. But I have a PDF viewer that allows annotation, so it'll be clumsy but do-able. And of course, creating and maintaining the PDF itself will be a lot of work -- adding songs will be theoretically easy, but hard when the links get broken, as they inevitably do. Just getting this "proof of concept" main list working right was a lot more trouble than it should have been...

I was also worried about battery life, but I played from 6:30 until 11, and only went down 25%, so that'll be fine (at that low level of backlighting, anyway). It occurred to me, the next morning, that this solution is OK for indoors and nighttime, but may be completely unworkable for daytime (and "starts in the day") gigs. I don't know if some kind of sun shade might make it readable, or if I'll have to maintain a fallback paper copy (with a reduced list?).

Anyway, it was pretty successful, so I'll definitely pursue and improve on the idea. One great advantage not listed above is that I actually have multiple linked Contents lists: Everything Alphabetical, By Capo (I tend to try to play songs with the same capo setting in a row so I don't have to stop and retune so much), Kids' Songs, Dance Tunes, and By Artist. At the very top is a List of Lists, so I can quickly get to the one I need. In real life, this worked out even better than I'd hoped, so I'll think about even more ways of categorizing the songs, since the "What to play next?" question is of the toughest parts of this thing. Maybe "Age Group", or a separate "Late Night" list?

It was pretty cold, so not a lot of people out, but I had plenty of people come by for brief periods. Some young girls specifically asked for Justin Bieber, which had happened a dozen times last summer, just before I actually broke down and learned his big hit, and hadn't happened since. Some older teenage boy came by and started asking for a series of kids' songs, which struck me as stranger and stranger until I figured out that he had someone else (girlfriend? little sister?) on the other end of his phone. Concert by proxy?

But tips were up from previous weeks ($71), and friendly people are starting to come out, so I'm looking forward to springtime.

Keith at Twig -- 05Jan2012

2012-01-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

My old friend from high school, Susie, has recently opened a cute gift shop in Laguna Beach, which hosts a city-wide "art walk" every first Thursday. The shops stay open late and people walk from store to store, sampling wine and cheese, and, frequently, live music. I offered (or self-invited) myself to play at Susie's store ("Twig"), not really knowing what to expect, but it was pretty fun.

There are a lot of musicians (of varying quality) playing on the sidewalks in Laguna, and I've tried it a few times with Warren. But there's a (understandable) city ordinance against using amplifiers on the street, so I (A) can't use my harmony box, and (B) can't be heard. People who do play on the street necessarily play as loud as they can, using either multiple guitars, and/or strumming vigorously. I'm not much of a strummer, and feel less than musical when I do so, so it's a problem for me.

But inside a shop, I can use my amp and harmony box, with the trade-off that there's a lot less traffic. It was pretty empty at first, but around 7:00 people started showing up. At one point there were maybe 8 or 10 people in the little shop. It didn't seem like much to me, but Susie was thrilled with this much traffic, which she generously attributed to the music and not the probably-more-responsible Art Walk event.

And people were very friendly. Everybody says hello, and half of them were friends of Susie's from their kids' schools or church or something. And they were appreciative of the music, led by Susie's consistent applause or "Whoo!" at the end of every song, even if she and I were the only ones in the store. Some people even seemed to be staying around to hear more.

The highlight was a young lady, Erica, that Susie's kids had gone to high school with and Susie knew to be a musical-theater singer. We fired up "Part of Your World" from "The Little Mermaid", which I know how to play in the original "girl key", and she did a terrific job with it.

Presumably, this will have been the lightest traffic of any Art Walk, and it'll get better as it gets warmer. I'll definitely be back next month, if only to have somewhere to play that's indoors. It's definitely fun for me, and it's probably a "win" for Susie.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 23Dec2011

2011-12-27T17:45:00.000-08:00

The parking structure was almost completely full, even as early as I got there, but there were hardly any people to play for. I guess they were all actually *shopping* -- imagine that! I guess two days before Christmas is the wrong time to be out there...

On the other hand, Spectrum has actually been pretty tough for the last several gigs. I'd say that I might need to re-think playing there, but it's the only steady gig I've got (and I'm only allowed two gigs a month, at that), so I'll just have to keep going and hope it gets better as it gets warmer.

Not that it was a "bad gig" at all, there were just very few people to play for. Few of the young families that I usually get, and hardly any roving teens. But my brother and his wife came, and my daughter and her friend, and my wife, too. I had one little toddler girl, and since nobody else was listening, I just played for her for a while. She (and her mom) had fun with the usual "Rudolph" and "Frosty", and she seemed to know that throwing her arms up was required on "Hey!" in "Jingle Bells". The really cute part was when I started playing "Twinkle Twinkle", she looked up at her mom with delight, while her little hands involuntarily started opening and closing -- the universal sign for "twinkling".

Towards the end, a couple came and were clearly listening, and clapping (albeit all alone) at the end of every song. I played for them for a long time, but decided to call it at night at 11:00. They came up and introduced themselves as the couple who post on my Facebook "Keith Comer, Good Music" page -- my (only) actual "fans". It was really nice to have someone to play for to wrap up the Christmas season for the year.

Somehow I made $80 for the night, so I really shouldn't complain. There were two twenties, and a ten-and-five folded together, so *somebody* snuck up and delivered some Christmas Spirit, even though nobody seems to have taken any CDs for their generosity.

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 21Dec2011

2011-12-22T12:24:00.000-08:00

The lady who we may charitably refer to as "in charge" of the booking for Santa's Workshop was never actually clear on who was booked when, even when prodded directly, so I just gave up and went down there to see. There was, indeed, a Girl Scout troop, with three expected participants, (Really?!? Three unamplified Girl Scouts?!?) so the lady in charge (who knew me from the Holly Trolley incident) had them sing for the Cookie Decorating booth people, while I played for the line.

And I'm very glad I did I took the chance. Since it was the last night, there was a huge line, and we started early and ended an hour and a half late. I had *lots* of kids come down to listen, dance, sing along, and shout "Like a lightbulb!" during "Rudolph". And several parents, too.

Unfortunately, without the sanctity of the "not allowed on stage", the kids tend to come around until they're standing right next to me, "helping" me find the next song in the book, pointing at the words as we go along, stepping unexpectedly on the harmony box pedals, hugging my legs, etc. One kid decided to see how much sand he could kick up onto the pedal board, and another wanted to see what would happen if he dangled a dry leaf into the coils of the heater. I had to ask them, "Really? You want to be 'bad' with Santa Claus sitting *right over there*?!?", to much chuckling from the parents in line.

But mostly the kids were great. Lots of participation -- little girls doing preset hand motions to some of the songs, or just making up a dance on the spot. Lots of dancing, with the accompanying parents with smartphone video recorders. One little girl whose go-to dance move was shaking her hips back and forth, while her stiff car-coat looked like a ringing bell, clanging against her clapper-knees.

The stealth tip jar worked well again ($41), but after a while the presence of all the money made it confusing for the kids trying to get to the candy at the bottom of the box. And it turned out that the cranky guy who objects to my having an actual tip jar was being Santa (he's presumably not so cranky with the kids...), so I coulda been more overt.

But anyway, it was the most fun I've had playing for a long time. I love playing for kids!

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 17Dec2011

2011-12-20T10:37:00.001-08:00

Now, that was fun. Not double-booked this time, and that helps...

The setup space was a little different, so I wasn't on the lawn, and had a fence behind me so I didn't have kids running around, tripping on the wires. And I was near a set of park furniture, so some kids and moms would come over and sit "up front". Lots of kids dancing and singing along.

One little toddler boy, bundled up so much that he was a immovable unit, staggered over, unsupervised. Cute, but potentially dangerous with the wires everywhere on the ground. Between songs, I inexplicably stuck out my hand, and he slapped it -- "low five". He seemed to be happy where he was, so I started the next song, but halfway through, he put up his fist for a "bump", which I managed to fit in in-between chords. His mom kept zooming over to snatch him up, but he'd be back in a few minutes. Some kind of junior Houdini, apparently.

I had a small table up, mostly to hold my Dew, but also with my little sign on it, and my "stealth tip jar" -- a small Tupperware with some business cards and wrapped candies, and a dollar bill. The kids discovered the candy, and the parents noticed the dollar, and it started to accumulate tips. I'd done it as a "candy dish" for plausible deniability if the cranky guy from previous years came along. Got away with it too, and made $34. Mostly I had to do *something* to prevent the parents from coming up and trying to hand me money while I'm trying to play, as they do, and it's awkward all around.

Got two requests for "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer". These were most likely instigated by parents, sending the kids over with the request. I don't play that one -- not to be a snob, but that level of redneck humor is lost on me. Problem is: what to say when asked. I can't really say, "Sorry, that song is just too lame" to their face. I told the first kid "I don't do that song -- I *like* my grandma.", but he just looked confused by that explanation, which admittedly has faulty logic if you take the song's first-person narrative as a true story. The second time, I just said I didn't know it...

Anyway, I love playing these Santa gigs -- it's a shame that I only got three and got gypped out of one of them. The last one is this Wednesday evening, and the booking lady's incommunicative messages may or may not imply that even though I'm not officially booked, I can come down and possibly play the last hour and a half after a theoretical short "first act". It may turn out to be somewhat awkward, depending on who the first act happens to be, but it's definitely worth a try.

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 17Dec2011

2011-12-20T10:37:00.000-08:00

Now, that was fun. Not double-booked this time, and that helps...

Keith at Santa's Workshop, kinda -- 10Dec2011

2011-12-19T12:11:00.001-08:00

Well, I went down to play for the kids in line to see Santa again, and as I was setting up, a college-age kid showed up and started setting up a keyboard stand. I asked him if he was playing there, and he said that he was, and he was the leader of a choir and had 19 people coming. He knew the name of the booking lady, and was sure that she'd given him the date, as well as the next Saturday (which she'd also given to me).

So, we decided that I'd give up this Saturday, and he'd give up the next one, and I started packing my half-deployed stuff back up. It seemed a lot easier for me to go home than for him to stop 19 people from coming.

As I was packing up, though, another lady from the Recreation Committee, Cathy, came over and said she was glad that I was there, so I told her that I wasn't really there -- there was some kind of mix-up and I was going home to let this choir play instead. She said, "Why don't you come play for the reception, then?" She was running a side event where people came to ride on the "Holly Trolley" to cruise around the city and see the winners of the house decorating contest.

I wouldn't normally have agreed to play a half-hour gig -- it's just not worth the hour of setup and takedown time -- but since I was already there, what the heck. I had to go into the men's room to get out of the longjohns, but then it was quite pleasant to play indoors where it was quiet and warm for a change. And the people who were coming in to have some coffee and cookies before their bus left were, by definition, in a holiday mood and a great, (captive), and quiet audience. Most of them were older (you know, my age), so I got to play the prettier, and more interesting, sentimental Christmas songs instead of only the kids' ones.

And after they left, there were plenty of cookies to snag as I was tearing down...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum - 09Dec2011

2011-12-10T16:10:00.000-08:00

Another kinda slow night -- I don't remember it being this slow last winter. I did have a pretty constant stream of packs of kids, and some isolated young families to play to, but a general "sit a while" audience never materialized. Maybe people just aren't really prepared for the cold yet, so I get some people to pause on their way past, but they're not ready to sit in one place for any length of time.

Or maybe it was the plague of Jesus people who were hassling folks and chasing them away. It wasn't just some isolated prosthelytizers either -- there were several groups covering the place. This *is* the U. S. of A., and they're free to believe what they want, but their freedom to swing a fist ends where my face begins, and I'd just as soon they'd swing somewhere else and quit scaring my audience off.

But I had fun playing to the people who braved the phalanx to come listen to a few tunes. "Jingle Bells" hauls distant little kids over pretty well -- along with lots of teenage girls, who are also inexplicably into "Holly Jolly Christmas", apparently. A young couple came up and the lady asked me the million dollar question: "Do you know any James Taylor?"

I got to sing my new "Merry Christmas, Darling" a couple of times, though nobody was there to hear it. But the setup was sounding unusually good and I was having fun just singing, people or no.

Somehow I made $62, though half of that was a ten and a twenty. I'm not sure how that happened -- usually I can tell when someone likes me enough to put in a decent tip, or when they're buying a CD, but nobody really seemed to be hovering over the table this time. A nice surprise, though.

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 03Dec2011

2011-12-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

It was a pretty small turnout for Santa, but it's early, and maybe some parents are smart enough to avoid starting up the kids' Christmas Anticipation Engine with three weeks left to go.

So an actual line never really materialized -- just a constant clump of a dozen or so people waiting at the gate. I played anyway, of course, and actually got to play some of the non-kids Christmas songs, since it was mostly adults waiting in line.

The kids were running loose, playing with the toy train setup, or watching the projected kids' Christmas shows (Frosty, Rudolph, Charlie Brown, etc.) behind me. The setup is a little strange now, 'cuz there are people milling around behind me as I'm situated to play to the line. I may try to come up with another setup, but there aren't a lot of options.

Anyway, it was fun, and not too terribly cold -- yet. In previous years I've set out some CDs and the little standup signs and a candy basket (as a stealth tip jar), but the card table has mysteriously disappeared, so I didn't do that this time.

But, one grampa came over and slipped a fiver underneath my cup of water so it wouldn't blow away -- that was nice. His 2-year-old granddaughter was fascinated by the guitar, so I had let her strum it a few times, despite how sticky she was getting with the Christmas cookies and candy canes. I'm about to need new strings anyway...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum - 19Nov2011

2011-12-05T15:19:00.000-08:00

Awfully slow for a Saturday night, caused, no doubt, by the disruption from the very loud generator running next to the Hurley promotional truck parked over by the movie theaters. I guess I'll have to give the booking lady the benefit of the doubt and presume that she didn't know that the Hurley people would be running a generator to power their big TV screens and such, making so much noise that the scheduled performer would be mostly drowned out, but it was pretty bad. And the worst part was that the truck was in the main flow of traffic -- usually, people can hear me from across the plaza as they go by, and wander over if they like what they hear. But with that generator going...

Anyway, I was singing and playing well, for those that did come over, but mostly I felt pretty alone. Until suddenly a group of little kids came running across the plaza (trailed by their various parents) to jump around right in front of me, and it was *on*. I played all my kids' dance tunes, and a bunch of the regular kids' songs, and didn't have to feel weird about boring the adult audience with the kids stuff, 'cuz there wasn't one.

The Hurley people finally shut the generator down at 8:30 or so, and it was suddenly luxuriously quiet. It was great to suddenly sound so good -- I wish there had been some people there to hear it...

I made a possibly-record-low $27, but that's understandable with as few people as I had. The only question is: What am I paying dues *for*?

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 05Nov2011

2011-11-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

It rained most of the day, but it looked like it was clearing up for the evening, and I don't get many chances to play there anymore, so I decided to take the chance. I was afraid that they wouldn't have even bothered to put out a stage for me, but was surprised to find that they'd built the big round stage over the fountain. This is a double win: the stage is great, and of course the fountain and its wall of white noise was necessarily turned off.

But the threat of rain and the unseasonable cold kept most people away, especially the young families with little kids. I do get lots of people in the dead of winter when it's even colder, but I guess people weren't expecting how cold it was, so although a lot of people came by, not very many stopped to sit and listen for a while.

I did have one little kid, three or four years old, whose mother kept telling me that he "loves the guitar". I tried to get him to come up and strum on mine but he was too shy. So I just played some songs for him but naturally, it chose that moment to start to rain. Finally having an audience, I didn't want to stop playing so since it was pretty light rain, I just kept going, even though it was making the ink run on my song sheets. Luckily, it didn't get any worse, and quit after 3 songs.

Anyway, I only made $28 since nobody really stopped for long, but I had a great time 'cuz I could hear myself really well with the fountain off and the mic working correctly, and I had a pretty constant stream of people slowing down on their way past for a few songs. I quit around 11:15, 'cuz I was just getting too cold to play, but while I was packing up, I gave a card to the friendly maintenance guy and asked him to call me anytime there was a no-show at any of the stages, and I could be there in 20 minutes. Maybe that'll bear some fruit in extra gigs this winter.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 29Oct2011

2011-11-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

My cold was a lot better, and I was looking forward to doing a Saturday night again, but it didn't go very well. For one thing, the stage was next to the loud main fountain again, so I couldn't hear myself.

And worse, the battery in the transmitter of my new wireless microphone was going dead. The fountain noise made me think that the sound wasn't really bad, it was just covered up, so it took me a long time to realize that the more and more muffled sound -- like when your ears won't pop it -- was only the mic, and not the guitar. I finally swapped the battery and it cleared right up. Hopefully, from now on I'll recognize that "need a new battery" sound.

But I played a lot of the night with terrible sound, and a terrible performance while I was distracted by it. Luckily, my brother, his wife, and a friend were there pretty early (while the sound wasn't so bad), and the last hour was OK after I found the problem. But I certainly wasn't connecting with the audience while the sound was so awful.

I had a pretty great Kids Party going early on, but the highlight of the night was when a mom encouraged her little daughter (7-ish) to get up and dance. She marched right up, spun around to face the audience, and started her dance, which was: feet planted, then right fist straight up with left hip shot out, and then left fist up and right hip out, back and forth like a pendulum. It was the Cutest. Thing. Ever. Her little bottom slamming back and forth and her little fists pumping up and down -- she had her Move, and she was stickin' to it. For the millionth time I wished I could operate a camera while I was playing guitar, but, sorry...

I didn't get to play "overtime" like usual, 'cuz the guys had to tear down the stage itself before they went home, so I got shut down at 10:15. I didn't sell any CDs at all, and only made $65, but I suppose with the bad sound and "short" time, I was lucky to get that much.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 21Oct2011

2011-10-22T13:59:00.001-07:00

I was at the peak of a really nasty cold, but since it'd been 5 weeks since I'd had a Spectrum gig, there was no way I was gonna miss it. So, despite my usual shunning of pharmacology, legal and non-, I chugged some cough medicine and went "on with the show".

The medicine, plus a steady stream of Mountain Dew, worked pretty well for a while, but the throat tickle nearly derailed a run-through of "The Boxer" (the downside of a head-mic is you can't turn away to cough), so I took some more cough syrup, and then more sips as the tickle came back, again and again. I managed to keep the cough at bay, but the medicine (I drank nearly all of the 4 ounce bottle by the end of the night), plus the alcohol therein, the sugar and caffeine in the Dew, and the adrenaline and serotonin, all snuck up on me after a while.

I'd had "loopy" gigs on cough medicine before, but this time I was refusing-to-ride-on-double-decker-busses Out There. And since it hit me while I was playing, I had to just keep going. Part of my brain was able to sort of "watch from the outside" as the automatic, muscle memory part kept playing the songs and singing the words, and a third part was asking, "Did I just play that right? Am I the one making this music? Do I still have pants on? Is my tie on fire?"

But people kept coming in and hanging around, so I guess I was playing OK. It was "standing room only" for most of the night, and people stayed so I played until almost 1am (by which time the effects had pretty much worn off so I could drive home). Fortunately, I had brought a stool to sit on (expecting fatigue, not loopiness), so for a while when the world felt like the slant-floored Knott's "Haunted Shack", I could sit down before I fell down. If this is what drunk/high feels like, I'm glad I've been avoiding it all these years.

They'd set up an exhibit of custom playhouses in the space where the stage usually goes, so they moved the stage over where the big fountain was right behind me. That was good because it put me closer to the furniture/people than any other arrangement has, but terrible because the fountain makes a huge amount of white noise so I could barely tell what I was doing. But I had a couple of big Kid Dance Parties, sold out of the new "Favorites" CD plus some of the others, and made $116, so I guess the audience could hear, and must have liked what they heard. I had surprise visits from two old Toshiba friends (Linda Ta and Bill Damron), and I'm pretty sure I had a great time, overall, but I'm a little hazy on that...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 17Sept2011

2011-09-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

A really good night -- great weather and lots of people out. Of course with the distance between me and the audience in the comfy chairs, there was the usual difficulty getting any audible response from anybody, but I'm getting used to accepting "attention" over "applause", and a lot of people stayed for long periods, and by the end of the evening almost all of the furniture had been adjusted to be pointing my direction, and that's a good sign.

It was the first trial of my new wireless microphone, which worked out pretty well. At first I was getting some "untuned radio" noise, but I moved the receiver around a bit and it seemed to go away. After a little while, I didn't even notice the difference, which I guess is the whole point -- there's no cable to fight with and "notice". Usually I'm fiddling with the mic cord on one side, and the guitar cord on the other -- with the mic cord gone, there's a lot less hassle. Win.

I could even get the matching wireless thingie for my guitar, but the guitar cord is a lot less trouble (since it's not hanging off of my head!), so it's probably not worth it. It's not like I do a lot of Mick Jaggering around the stage...

Earlier in the week, I got the notion to learn "She Loves You", for some reason. I usually feel like playing rock songs by myself on an acoustic guitar is kinda lame, but since I only play them for the little kids, I'm getting more comfortable doing it. And if the kids are happy, the moms don't mind. And the harmony box goes a long way to making the song sound "realer" (especially Beatles songs), even without bass and drums.

The first hour went by and it looked like the hoped-for crowd of kids wasn't going to materialize. But finally I got a pair of little girls dancing, which prompted some others to come out, and after a while we had a whole thing going, with a chorus of kids shouting "Another one!" after each song. I have 5 or 6 songs for this purpose now, but I may need a few more, since this is turning out to be a regular (and fun!) thing.

It was also the first outing for the new CD that I recorded, but I don't really hype selling the CDs, so I only sold one, to a sweet little Asian lady. I made exactly $100 (and 48 cents), and that was all in ones and fives, which means a lot of people "contributed". Unfortunately, with our cruise coming up, and a gig canceled because they're putting on an undisclosed "special event", it'll be 5 weeks before I'm back there again. So naturally, I played as long as I could, running over the 10:00 stopping time by an hour and a half.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 02Sept2011

2011-09-05T10:10:00.001-07:00

A really great night! Perfect weather finally -- not too hot, and didn't get too cold, either. My brother and his wife were there even before I got there -- I'm afraid they got to see more of me setting up than singing, but they had to get to a movie. Daleen and a friend came by with some dogs, and our neighbors from up the hill were there for a long time, too. They'd never seen me before, and were apparently impressed a bit.

There were lots of young families out, and I had a small one of my famous Kids' Dance Parties early on, and then another huge one around 8:30, with the most kids I've ever had -- probably a dozen families joined in, with all the moms, dads, grammas, and kids dancing, singing along, and taking pictures. Big fun.

I'd been recording at home to make a new "studio" CD to sell, since it's been 5 years since the current "pop tunes" one. I was surprised at how well the singing went, and how accurate my guitar playing was -- apparently playing all day, all week, makes a difference. I didn't really think I was "losing it" when I only play once a week, but I guess I am.

I (mostly) finished the CD that afternoon, recording the last two songs and putting it all together, but, although each song is OK, they're all at different volumes so it's uneven as a sequential CD. I can fix that, but didn't have time, so I only burned 4 copies. I gave one to my brother, and two more got bought during the night. After I quit, a group of people came up, bought the last CD, and told me that they were from New York and that I'd "do great in Central Park". Great idea, if a bit impractical, commute-wise.

It did get cold enough that I needed to put on my jacket towards the end, and in doing so, I dropped the mic. It's been dropped a million times before, but it's very light and it's never gotten hurt by it. But when I got back up and running, the vocal sounded *really* treble-y to me -- almost like a deliberate "singing through the telephone" effect. I asked the crowd if it was sounding funny to them, but, as always, no response, so I don't know if something is broken, or if the amp freaked out, or if I was just imagining it. I played another hour or so, feeling like it was sounding terrible, but people didn't get up and leave, and in fact, I was accumulating more and more people. But I'll have to check into what's up before my next gig in two weeks.

I sold the four new CDs, and one each of the other two, and made $77 for the night. Played for a lot of groups of kids, and lots of older couples that didn't respond much (it's that distance thing), but stayed a long time. And it was great to have the amplifier and the harmony box again, after the struggle-to-be-heard of playing acoustic-only in Laguna. I usually grumble about the hassle of setting up and tearing down the equipment, but it's clearly better than the alternative...

K&W in Laguna - 30Aug2011

2011-08-31T12:19:00.000-07:00

For our second attempt at street busking in Laguna Beach, we decided to forego the corner where we got busted last week, and just start up the street. I was purely acoustic, but Warren braved the use of his little amp, with, this time, the more valid excuse of just amping up to match the volume (such as it is) of his acoustic partner.

We played at the big green bench/art thing on the corner, directly towards the sidewalk passers by, and elicited a few smiles, slow-downs, and stops-to-listen. One lady with a toddler in a stroller stopped to have him hear us, as they do, but was talking to the baby in a strange language, which turned out to be Hebrew. My challenge, therefore, was figuring out what American song she might know. I usually go to The Beatles for that, but for some reason, settled on John Denver's "Country Roads" instead, which she seemed to be mouthing the words along to, so I apparently guessed right.

Then a guy came by, listened for a while, and asked if we knew any Russian songs. I'm not sure I've ever even heard any Russian songs, much less learned any. Cosmopolitan, I'm apparently not. He was up from San Diego for the art festival, but originally from the Ukraine. For some reason, he was *sure* we'd know the song, in Spanish, from the Antonio Banderas movie "Desperado" (no, not the Eagles song of the same name), but we struck out there, too. Where *have* we been?

He left to find his friends, and brought them back with him, and started asking about the "Desperado" song again (apparently, with some research, "Cancion del Mariachi", which Antonio performs himself in the movie), disbelieving that we'd never heard it (though I guess I'd actually heard it once, having seen the movie), and making guitar-playing gestures while singing snippets from it. So I handed him my guitar and said, "Show us", and he did, while Warren played along. Then he launched into a Russian song, which his wife sang along with. The perks of street music -- no rules, no audience, no equipment, everybody's "in it".

Warren went to check on The Alley, and while he was gone a couple came up and the lady took one of my business cards, saying, "You have a beautiful voice". I said, "Thank you", but was thinking, "How can you *tell*, out here?"

They left, but came back later on to ask about where else I play and stuff like that, and then she asked "Do you play any Christmas music?" My favorite question of the month!

We did manage to get down to The Alley later on, but most of the action was down on the corner where a 6 or 7 piece string band was blasting it out. They were very loud, and very good. But it was getting late and we decided to pack it in after not too long. As we were packing up, the lady from the shop next to The Alley came out and told us that our music had made her evening enjoyable. That was nice, 'cuz I imagine she hears *lots* of different musicians there. We made $20 to split, and had fun. I reckon we'll do it again, pretty soon.

K&W in Laguna Beach -- 23Aug2011

2011-08-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

Busted! We were aware that amplification isn't allowed on the streets of Laguna Beach, so I'd given up even trying it, 'cuz my fingerpicked guitar style wouldn't stand a chance on a busy street corner. Jim & Warren have been managing, somewhat, but Jim strums his big Gibson, and six strings at a time make a lot more sound than only one.

Warren plays a hollow-body electric, though, and has been getting away with using a small amp, on the premise that it's just bringing him up to match the volume of Jim's acoustic. And lately, since they seldom see cops on foot to catch them, Warren's been using a mic on a stand as well, which is clearly over the line, but, so far, so good.

So I decided the give it a try, and rigged up my little battery-powered amp for my guitar and head-mic. I even found a way to add reverb to the voice by running the mic into, then back out of, my iPod. Sweet.

The idea was to just barely enhance the volume so we *seemed* to be acoustic-only, but be loud enough to be, you know, heard. But apparently somebody in the ice cream shop that we were set up in front of decided that either (a) we were interfering with their hip-hop radio jams, or (b) The Rules are The Rules, or (c) they just didn't like us being there. So they called the cops.

We managed to get through one whole song ("Hotel California"), and The Man showed up and asked to see our "Amplifier Permit". Obviously, we didn't have one, but he let us off with embarrassment served and a warning, but also a promise to cite us if he caught us using the amps again. ("Amplifier Permits" are issued by City Hall, but, he said, "They're stingy with them.")

We briefly half-tried to play acoustic, but my guitar was drowned out, and Warren's was totally inaudible. Warren suggested a place he calls "Acoustic Alley" up the street, so we packed up and walked up a ways, but it was occupied. So we went up to the next corner, where there are some little "conversation pit" benches set up, and the traffic noise is much less. We played there for a while, where we could at least hear each other, and basically played for ourselves for a while, garnering an occasional smile from passers-by, so I guess we weren't *completely* inaudible.

After a spell, Warren decided to go check if the Alley was available, and while he was gone, I launched into "Over the Rainbow". As I started the verse, one of a pair of old ladies blurted out "Oh! I love this song!" and they stopped to listen. Then, halfway through it, up comes my high-school friend (and fellow member of the Spanish Armada, but that's another story), Susie Elliott!

Susie stayed and clapped loud and long after every song (best shill ever!), and we started to accumulate a (single-digit) "crowd". (I assumed that she had seen my announcement on Facebook and decided to come down since she lives in Laguna, but nope, just coincidence.) It was quiet enough to almost hear me, and Warren's "acoustic/electric" was surprisingly loud (if you can call it that). I was playing as loud as I could, at first with my "strummy songs", but then, embarrassed by the lack of finesse that those feel like to me, graduated to some fingerpicked ones. I was picking as loud as I could, and wondered what would happen first: ripping the strings off my guitar, or ripping the fingernails off of my fingers.

A couple strolled up and started talking to Susie like they were old friends, which didn't strike me as unlikely in Laguna, and grandly appreciating the music. The wife sat right down on the bench next to me, and they asked for their favorites, clapped loudly, and chatted Susie up a bit. After a while, they had to go, but needed a business card first, so he could call us up to play one of his backyard business parties, and also insisted on my digging out the Tip Jar, so he could put a twenty in it. And it turned out that they *weren't* old friends of Susie's, they were just super friendly.

After a while of that, Warren and Susie went to check if the Alley was open, and it finally was so we moved down there. What a difference! The narrow passageway and hard walls provide a lot of "focus" for the sound, and you can actually hear and be heard. We played there the rest of the night, and with Susie and the after-dinner strolling crowd to play for, I had a great time. A lady came up with a handful of change, but couldn't find our tip jar to put it in, so I had to dig it out yet again. We ended up with $32 to split, and decided to pack it in about 9:30.

So, after a quite inauspicious beginning for my first time out, it ended up pretty great. I'm up for another go.

P.S. Susie told us that she's up and bought a gift shop, right down the street on PCH, and will be happy to host some live music (inside, where amps are allowed!), once she opens in September sometime.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 20Aug2011

2011-08-22T17:07:00.000-07:00

OK, I give up. I get it -- nobody's out to hear some guy playing music at the mall in the afternoon. Fortunately, I don't have any more afternoon gigs booked, and now that I'm fully convinced that they're *not*, in fact, "better than nothing", I won't book any more.

I was expecting the new big round stage over the fountain again, but apparently they're reserving the right to decide to just use the old little square one. Makes sense -- that big one is a lot of trouble, and they'll probably only use it when it's appropriate, either a bigger band, or a "bigger" name band. That's fine with me.

It was hot, but not miserably so like last time. And there were a few people out, but it was hopeless to get anything going with them. I had a brief fun time with one of the many young girl soccer teams that came by, but they took off to go get some overly-sugared juice after only a few songs.

And I had a guy perceptively ask me about the harmony box, and another guy came up and told me that he had been in a folk-song band back in the sixties, but that he'd never learned to fingerpick like me. It's always fun to talk to other musicians, however briefly.

I did make $20, which is an all-time low, I think, but still not so bad. Last time I had inexplicably sold almost all of the CDs that I had in stock, so I spent the morning making up a bunch of them, only to sell absolutely none. Maybe it was 'cuz the fountain stage is out in the flow of traffic? Probably just the random nature of the thing...

New Home Recording Rig

2011-08-17T14:37:00.001-07:00

I was all set up to do some home "studio" recording using the MacBook Pro, but I had to give it back when I got laid off. So I've been trying to figure out a new rig, since I'm determined to get a new CD made pretty soon (the newest one I have now is from 2006).

The advantage I have this round is the Harmony box, which, along with adding harmonies when needed, also has nice reverb and vocal compression, which as karaoke enthusiasts everywhere know, make you sound better than you really are. On my previous recordings, I had to add reverb via software after the fact. With the box, I'm less likely to overuse it, as I'm prone to do.

To do decent recordings, though, you need to be able to hear yourself (guitar and vocals) through headphones as you're recording, so you can hear your usually-unnoticed mistakes, and any outside noises that are getting into the recording (dogs barking, loud trucks, etc.). I could use a Windows box, but they don't do real-time monitoring, and hearing yourself a half-second delayed is *really* confusing. Fortunately, the iPad can do it with no detectable delay, so I've settled on recording on the iPad, and then transferring the file to my Windows laptop for trimming, editing, etc.

Unfortunately, the iPad (and Windows boxes, for that matter) only have mono microphone input. On the MacBook, the mic was stereo, so I could record the guitar and vocal on separate tracks. That's nice if you want to edit one part but not the other, or to balance the mix after the fact. I could record the two parts separately -- play the guitar part only, counting measures in my head, and then overdubbing a vocal over that on a separate channel, but disconnecting the guitar and vocal just doesn't come out very musical.

So, I'll make do with performing both parts at the same time, on one track. All I have to do is get the mix right before I start (by trial and error), and simply not make any mistakes. Easy! That'll result in recordings with guitar and vocals (with reverb and optional harmony already built-in, courtesy the box), exactly like what you get at a live show.

I might decide I'm clever enough to add some more stuff (bass, a lead guitar solo, keyboards, or even cello, like I did on my Christmas CD), or I might decide to keep it "honest" (i.e., "live equivalent"). I guess I'll try a few things and see how it goes -- I'll probably end up with a little of each.

I've found appropriate software for the iPad, and cables to run the output of the harmony box (which is guitar and vocals combined) to it, and then back from it to the headphones, so I'm all set up back in the bedroom, er, "home studio". And it's kinda cool that the iPad can just sit right there on the music stand. Now all I gotta do is figure out how to keep the dogs from barking, the guy next door from mowing his lawn every other day, and the room from reaching the 90's in the afternoons...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sat, 06Aug2011

2011-08-07T17:03:00.001-07:00

I asked too late for gigs at Spectrum for August, and all that was left was the "early shift", so I took two Saturdays, 1-5pm, as "better than nothing". And with the demise of Borders, without *something* at Spectrum, I would have had literally nothing.

So, of course, it was hot, being a Southern California August afternoon. They did bring me the shade umbrella, so it could have been worse, but still. The fun part was that they've abandoned the old Food Court stage, and bought a custom circular stage that sets up over (!) the big round fountain in front of the movie theaters. It's really big (for just me), quite prominent, and up high enough that they have a little two-step staircase. It's in the same plaza as the old stage, and faces the same clump of patio furniture and big-tree planterbox bench seating, but from a different angle.

It's really nice -- maybe too nice. I'm afraid that they'll decide to start charging for it pretty soon -- especially considering the 4 hour (according to the maintenance guy) setup time. It's really a far nicer place to play than the old "main stage" that they've been charging $50 for all along, and when they get people asking for this new one over the old one, they'll undoubtedly decide to start collecting.

But on a hot Saturday afternoon, the plaza is pretty deserted, except for people that are on their way somewhere. Nobody's there to just hang out that early, nor in that weather, so I played to a lot of stone silence. There were quite a few people to play to, sitting over there under the tree, but they seemed to be more interested in the shade than the music. Occasionally, though, someone would be going past that couldn't resist listening in for a while -- that's pretty gratifying, to stop somebody in their tracks.

And, for some reason, there were a surprising 11 CDs sold. Not sure why -- the tips weren't all that great. I made $55 in combined tips plus whatever people bought the CDs for. Just another thing that's more random than I'd expect, I guess.

I had a "hard stop" at 5:00 (just when it was cooling off and people were starting to hang out more, of course) to allow time for me to tear down and the next band to set up. I was grateful for it this time, though -- I seem to be able to play for 7 hours in the evening/night, but after just two hours in the heat, I was wiped out, and my fingertips were inexplicably already trashed.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sun, 31Jul2011

2011-08-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

Wow! Great night for a Sunday! After the poor showing last Friday, I was starting to think that "Summer" was over, but I guess it's a just a lot more random than I think it ought to be.

I started at 5:00 this time, instead of my usual 4:00, which worked out quite well, since it really starts to be "evening" at 6:00. That's when the shadows from the buildings make it possible to survive in more than just the few seats under the shade umbrellas.

The stage was back against the big round planter box by the turtle fountain again, but literally every time I've come since they started putting it there, it's been further around the circle. This time it was so far around that I decided to just set up "diagonally", since the corner was pointing exactly at the main group of furniture that folks camp out in to hear me. It was a little odd, but actually worked out quite well.

Early on, a pair of Asian girls came by and tried to talk to me, though only one of them was brave enough to try her English on me. They stared at the list for a while, but couldn't find (or read?) any songs they knew, so I fired up "Let It Be", which *everybody* knows, and saw some definite sparks of recognition.

I had lots of really nice people all night long (and made $84). I'm supposed to shut down at 8:00 on Sundays, and the guy came and took the lights about then, but I kept playing. About 10:15 or so, a nice 50-ish woman came and listened for a long time, and kept commening to anyone else around that I'm "amazing". She asked me if I'd ever played any of the Folk Music festivals, which, um, I don't really play any "folk music", so, um, no. But, I guess I don't know much about them -- maybe James Taylor qualifies these days?

She went to fetch her two friends -- "They just gotta hear this" -- and after a few songs one of them asked me when I'm supposed to stop playing. I told her the truth, 8:00, which had them all baffled for a while since it was almost 10:30 by then. I told them that I wasn't getting paid, and was there for the joy of it, so why would I "knock off early"?

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Fri, 29Jul2011

2011-08-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

A surprisingly quiet night. Usually Fridays are almost as busy as Saturdays, but nobody showed up this time. Maybe there was a Big Game on TV?

Anyway, there were still enough nice people there to make it worth doing. And my brother and his wife came by, as did my wife with the dogs, my daughter, and her friend.

At one point, two teenage girls were up at the table, looking at the list. My brother started stage-whispering "Play 'Baby'!" at me, which I was confused by -- he probably couldn't tell from behind them, but they were 3 or 4 years too old for that. The Bieber fans go from 8 or 10 to about 13, but above that they get too cool. I've had groups of teens actually get up and walk away when I started up that song -- it's a big hit with the right audience, but a double-edged sword.

But it was quiet most of the night, though I seem to have finally stubbled on a setup where I can hear myself without feedback, so that makes it pleasant to just sing. There was only $48 in the tip jar, which isn't bad, but low for a Summertime Friday. But later in the evening, a group of people walked by while I was mid-song, and the lady looked at me and mouthed so I could read her lips, "Beautiful". Made my night.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sat, 23Jul2011

2011-07-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

This was my last Summer Saturday Night before school starts up again. I apparently asked too late about open dates in August, and only got a few "early shifts", which won't be nearly as fun -- the party never really starts until after dark...

I had an inexplicably tough time with the sound. For some reason, they've pushed the stage back 6 or 8 feet, maybe because the power in the light post is dead, so now I'm plugged into the jacks in the planter box. That's bad for two reasons: it puts me even further away from the audience across the plaza, and it puts me closer to the noise of the turtle fountain (and, these days, the very noisy kids playing therein).

It seemed like I couldn't hear myself, but when I'd try to turn it up to try to overcome the noise, I started getting feedback. It was really keeping me from being able to get comfortable, and just settle in and play.

Still, I got some people interested, and had a Kid's Dance Party going for a while there. And later on, I had a group of 8 or 10 high school kids who were counselors at a Summer Camp in Irvine. They were just there to hang out, so they parked right down in front of me. And, of course, being counselors, they were all outgoing, happy kids, so we had a great time. One girl was a huge Beatles fan, so I did lots of their songs, and, of course, the Justin Bieber song, and the Princess songs.

And, surprisingly, (and flatteringly) when I got home, two of the kids had searched me out and sent me Friend requests on Facebook. I accepted their requests, but suggested that they may want to "Like" my "Band Page" instead. This is exactly why I started one, but I'm not sure what to put on it to make it worth peoples' while, so I haven't publicized it much yet. I've put up my videos, and some pictures, and I'm announcing future gigs with the "Event" feature, but all that is better presented on my website. But, these days, if you ain't on Facebook, you don't exist, so I guess I'll keep it going and try to flesh it out as we go along.

(To check it out, just do a Facebook search for "Keith Comer, Good Music". I currently have 9 "fans" -- when I get up to 25, something magical happens, but I can't quite tell what it is. The Page somehow becomes more "real" -- gets a title or something? I guess I'll find out when/if it happens...)

The odd thing about the Spectrum food court is that it's become a big-time hangout place for the local Persian community. It's been that way since we started playing there a couple of years ago, but it's getting bigger and bigger. And they don't seem to have the same ideas about appropriate bedtimes for the kids that us Western parents do. Around 11:00 or so, it gets to be almost all Persian families, 15 or 20 of them, with the men sitting around one big table, and the women around another, and the kids, clumped up in groups by age, running around nearly unsupervised.

Sometimes that's pretty fun, but sometimes the kids get a bit overbearing. And the little ones usually start to see how far they can push me with getting up on the stage. It gets pretty distracting, but I don't mind that much, except when they're horsing around and about to knock over my music stand or accidentally unplug something. And I keep wondering how I can be being pestered by such little kids at almost midnight...

But the "ringleader" of the little ones is a 3-year-old girl named Shadeen that's so cute it's impossible to get tough with her. She's constantly asking me to play "Twinkle" (which I know, and do play for her), but also "Spongebob Squarepants", which I don't know, but may have to learn, just to quiet her down.

Anyway, a pretty good night, but not as great as I was hoping for, as my last Summer Saturday. I made $93 in tips though, so I can't complain.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sun, 17Jul2011

2011-07-24T16:36:00.000-07:00

The first time I got booked for a Sunday, the booking lady unexpectedly asked me what time I wanted to play. I figured that since the usual shift is 6-10, but the stores close at 8 on Sundays, the logical shift would be 4-8. But after trying it a few times now, it's clear that (A) it's terrible playing at 4, and (B) the actual shop closing time doesn't really have much effect on the strolling people that come to hear me.

It was pretty darn lonely up there, playing to dead silence, from when I started at 4 until about 7. That's also when the sun had gone down behind the buildings behind me, so it wasn't miserable. And, once the evening set in, people started hanging out to listen, so it got really fun and I ran way past 8 (until almost 10). I think I'll admit the obvious and start playing "6-8", which will really be 6-10, just like a regular Friday or Saturday (which actually turn out to be more like 6-12...).

But it did get better later on. I had some young teen girls who were too shy to ask for any songs, but I asked them if they'd seen "Tangled", and they had (of course), so I did that song for them, then the one from "Aladdin", and then completed the Princess trilogy with the first public outing of "Part of Your World" from "The Little Mermaid". I've decided/rationalized that it's OK for me to sing it, even though it's clearly written for a girl singer, 'cuz, although I'm not a girl, I'm not a mer-person, either.

Also, since the last Harry Potter movie opened a few days ago, there was a "parked" line for the IMAX showing, right at the side of the plaza, so I had those people as a captive audience for a while. Didn't get much reaction from them, though.

I made $84 in tips, which ain't bad for a Sunday. I just think the first few hours, so early in the afternoon, are wasted -- nobody's really there to just "hang" yet. That's what the evenings are for.

Borders Out of Business

2011-07-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Borders has officially gone bankrupt, and it liquidating the stores. We were hoping to be able to do a last few gigs there, while the liquidation was happening, but I went past the Mission Viejo store and the tables and chairs were gone from the cafe, and this sign was prominently posted.

I guess that's clear enough...

Of course, they announced the optimistic "restructuring" a while ago, and lots of stores closed, but the two that we play at were spared that first round. Now they're all closing.

It hasn't really been much of a gig lately anyway, but when we were starting out it was a good place to play in public without much pressure, since there was usually hardly anyone there. But it did occasionally turn out to be a lot of fun -- Mission Viejo would sometimes unexpectedly be full of people who would join in, and the acoustics at South Coast Plaza were always amazing, even if no one was listening.

And, of course, the biggest benefit was just the experience, giving us a place to practice and to get used to playing in front of real people. We wouldn't be where we are now without it.

Keith at South Coast Plaza -- Fri, 15Jul2011

2011-07-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

This is usually a monthly Keith & Warren gig, but Warren wanted to go join the crazies in the drum circle on the beach for the full moon, and who could blame him?

It was the usual quiet night at Borders, but it's been so long since I've played indoors that I had a great time just playing for myself. And there were a few people listening, albeit quietly. I had a little applause right at first, but once that library-silence sets in, it's tough to break through.

Indeed, I had anticipated the lack of response when I got there and decided to not even pass out the song lists -- just seemed like a waste of paper. I had a stack available, though, for the few people who seemed interested enough to need one. Like the lady who was looking for "some country", giving me a chance to play my newly-learned "Need You Now".

And a pair of young teenage girls who plopped down in the comfy chairs and asked for a couple of Beatle songs. But after a while they seemed stymied by the all-unfamiliar songs on the list, so I confessed that I also knew "Baby", to which they squealed "We love Justin Bieber!" I wasn't sure I really wanted to do it there in the quiet of the bookstore because it's meant to be loud, but I did it anyway, if a bit subdued. They seemed quite pleased, and even dropped some of their hard-earned allowance in the jar on their way out.

Surprisingly, I made $40 -- quite a bit for a bookstore gig. 3/4 of that was a twenty and a ten, which had to be the 3 CD sales. But I just had fun playing in the nice acoustics.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sat, 09Jul2011

2011-07-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

Can't hardly do better than a Saturday in the summer! Started off slow, as always, but got really good after it got dark, so I ended up playing 7 hours for my 4 hour gig -- started at 6, played until 1am.

I'd'a quit sooner, but after 10 or so, it gets quieter somehow, so i can hear (and perform) better, and people get more appreciative, and that's the part I'm there for. I guess I essentially suffer through the first half to filter down to an audience that wants to be there, so I can play the second half.

Anyway, I had several new songs to play, including the love duet from "Tangled", which works really well with my guitar style and voice, and goes over really well with the kids and teens. It's essentially this half-generation's version of "A Whole New World" from "Aladdin", which I've been playing quite successfully for a while, so I'm sure this one will also become a staple of the act.

I also learned Justin Bieber's "Baby", because the mallrat tweens ask for it almost every week. I'd'a thought that they'd neither expect nor want me to play the current teeny bop heart-throb's songs, but apparently they do, so I caved. There's a lot of distain for poor little Justin out there, and I don't know about any of his other songs, but "Baby" is actually a pretty well crafted pop tune.

I ended up playing it 3 or 4 times -- though naturally, no kids came up and asked for it this time. But just to give it a try-out, I mentioned it to some older teen girls, expecting them to totally reject the notion, but they jumped and squealed instead, every time. (Their respective boyfriends, however, gave the expected disgusted reaction (which I ignored, of course).). Daleen was there with the dogs again, and can attest to the huge reaction I got for it, so I may be embarrassed by it, but I guess it stays in.

Somebody out there musta liked me, with or without the Biebster, 'cuz I made $171. And a couple of people musta *really* liked me, 'cuz there were 4 twenty-dollar bills, despite there only being one CD sold. Usually I assume any twenties in the jar are generous people buying CDs, but if they didn't even take a CD for it, those are some *really* generous people.

Just before 1:00am, I decided that enough was enough and called it quits, despite still having at least a dozen enthralled listeners. But I had just gotten several urgent calls from Daleen about taking Geneva in to Emergency because of a (come to find out) bad appendix (not that I could, or needed to, do anything about it), plus I was starving, so I reluctantly shut down.

As I was packing up, a guy walked by and said, "You have a nice voice." I replied, like I always do, "Thanks, I got it from my dad."

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sat, 02Jul2011

2011-07-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

OK, that turned out to be a pretty bad idea. I guess it at least breaks up the monotonous streak of "great" gigs at Spectrum...

With the booking lady limiting the number of "prime" gigs I can get per month, I decided to give the Saturday afternoon shift a try, as opposed to having nothing at all. I probably should have noticed that I was signing up to play in the blazing sun in early July, but it was my only option, working around other stuff and against what was available.

Anyway, as you can imagine, it was hot. Really hot. And I'm right out in the middle of the plaza, where there's no shade. Luckily, and amazingly, they had bought out a white canvas sun umbrella, so I thought it might be OK. Nope. The canvas creates shade, but it was only barely taller than me, and the canvas itself was getting hot and radiating heat onto my head. At least the rest of me (and my guitar) was in the shade.

But the whole time, my voice was scratchy, and I couldn't seem to get enough breath to sing a whole line. I've never encountered this before -- is it hard to breathe hot air?

Of course, I kept trying anyway. I actually managed to capture a few people who were loyal or tough enough to brave the heat for a while. My best audience was a pair of 5-year-old girls who were playing in the fountain behind me and impervious to the heat as only little kids are. One was a big Ariel fan, and the other was partial to the new Rapunzel. I played my "Toy Story" song, and the one from "Aladdin", and they decided that I must know every song, ever. Flattering, but not *quite* true.

The Ariel fan wanted the song from "The Little Mermaid", which I kind of learned once, but it's far too "girl-singer" so I don't to it. I did play the beginning of it, but couldn't remember much. So then the other one wanted a song from "Tangled", none of which I know, yet. They seemed to be genuinely mystified that I couldn't (wouldn't?) play the songs they wanted, but we compromised with the Winnie the Pooh song, and some Chuck Berry so they could run around, "dancing".

But it was a terrific (if inadvertent) suggestion, so I dug up and am learning the love-song duet from "Tangled". It's really pretty, and actually played on a guitar until it gets swallowed up by the orchestra after the second or third bar. Since the movie is out on DVD now, all little kids will have it well memorized by now, so it's sure to be a hit next Saturday (evening!)

Since I wasn't getting any response anyway, I got the chance to try out some other new songs I've been working on. I've been learning Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now", which has been really tricky, 'cuz I'm letting the harmony box take the high (girl) melody, while I have to sing the lower harmony, hitting just the right notes to make it hit its notes right. It's been a brain teaser, but I guess I've got it down finally, 'cuz I managed to get it all right.

And just an hour before I left for the gig, Geneva came in and suggested that I learn "Mad World" -- a hit from the 80's for "Tears for Fears", recently revived as a slow ballad. I fired up the YouTube videos, found it to be pretty trivial to play, and quickly worked up a song sheet for it. I tried it out when nobody was listening anyway, and it's do-able, but a slow moody downer -- more of which I need on my list like a hole in the head. It might be usable in a quieter, mellower setting, but it was pretty out of place in the harsh light of day.

After a while, I was pretty wiped out, and found myself watching the clock wind down to 4:00. It was getting a little cooler, and people were starting to show up, so it was probably about to get at least a little better, but I'd had enough. I played my last song and signed off, and as I was starting to tear down, a guy from the next band showed up with some equipment, and said, "Take your time -- we don't start until six." Wait, 'six'?!? Oh, right, I'm actually supposed to play until *five*! Whoops -- but too late now...

Since it was pretty empty, I only made $44, which would have only been $24, except for the guy who came up after my last song, "Let It Be", and asked if that song was on any of the CDs. It is, and he asked how much they were, to which I gave my usual "However much you want to put in the jar" line, and he left a twenty! He really must have liked my rendition!

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sun, 26Jun2011

2011-06-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

So an hour after the end of the Foothill gig, I was supposed to be playing at Spectrum, but I didn't quite make it -- started about 20 minutes late, but who's counting? I thought that playing 7 hours in a single day was gonna kill me, but it wasn't really bad at all, except that in the last hour or so, my finger muscles were so fatigued that they just weren't quite doing what I told them to do, so my playing got really sloppy.

I swore to myself that I'd quit at straight-up 8:00, no matter what, just to minimize the expected knee, back, finger, and voice damage, but at 7:50, my brother and his wife strolled in. And, naturally, there were other people really listening by then too, so I kept going, even after my brother left, all the way to 9:35. But frankly, I wasn't really doing anybody any favors butchering songs will my only-half-functional fingers. And to make it worse, I (stupidly) started choosing obscure (and unrehearsed) songs to play for my brother, which I did even worse on. I particularly botched "Copperline", by far my worst-ever performance of that one. The very-cool guitar part has a particular clever srummy pattern and feel, and my almost-dead hands just wouldn't get into it. Oh well -- I guess I can do about 7 hours, but not 8. Good to know.

But overall, it went quite well. Daleen and Acacia came by and had dinner in the food court behind me. Lots of people were listening, and asking for songs, and buying CDs. A very cute little girl and her barely-mobile baby sister came and danced and danced. Sometimes it just kills me that I'm too busy to bust out a video camera and capture some of this stuff...

But the weirdest thing was the girl, looking, made-up, and dressed like a Playboy Bunny, who teetered up (with the requisite toy dog on a leash) and gushed "I'm a singer, too!". I was unable to make any comment on this revelation, since I was in the middle of a song at the time, and she was immediately distracted by a little girl who rushed over to ask if she could pet the dog. The dog wasn't hers, but belonged to her friend, but, yes, you can pet it. Then the friend came over, and the "singer" noticed my business cards, grabbed one and told her friend, "I'll email him", and off they went. All within one song, so I didn't get to say a word...

She did email me -- a gloriously grammar-, punctuation-, spelling-, and capitalization-free message, telling me that she's looking for a guitarist, 'cuz, as noted previously, she's a singer! I replied, as politely as I could, that I already have a singer in my "band", (me), and I'm pretty well booked up with the band in its current configuration. But, if she had some gigs lined up and wanted to hire me to be *her* band, I might have time for that.

Who knows? She might be a terrific singer, and with her looks, she might be able to get big-time gigs somewhere, though it's hard to imagine that she's looking to sing a bunch of James Taylor tunes. So, I have a feeling that this'll go exactly where you'd expect -- nowhere. Which is pretty much all right with me.

I made $115, which, along with the $36 in tips and $100 in actual "pay" from Foothill makes just over $250 for the day, which feels pretty good to the unemployed boy. Not that it's a living...

Keith at Foothill Towne Center -- Sun, 26Jun2011

2011-06-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

I was sitting at lunch with the guys on Thursday, and we were talking about where I'd been playing lately, and my cell phone rang, which it very seldom does. It was the lady who books the Foothill Towne ("You can tell we're classy 'cuz we spell it with an 'e'") Center Food Court. The girl singer that I met there and got the booking info from had had to cancel, and inexplicably suggested that they call me. I already had a gig at Spectrum that evening, but for the $100 paycheck? Absolutely, I'm available.

The Foothill gig is from noon to 3, and the Spectrum one is 4-8, so I could theoretically do both, but could my (in ascending order) knees, back, fingers, and voice handle it? Only one way to find out...

It went pretty much the same as last time -- mostly empty when I get there, then the church people come in and ignore me, then later on the regular people come in and are quite nice. One nice girl marched right up and said, "Play 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'", which isn't on The List (which she hadn't looked at), but I do have a sheet for it in The Book. It's not on The List 'cuz it's just a bit too high for me, so I don't think i do it justice, but I was singing inexplicably high and clear, so I just said, "OK", and fired it up. Except for a few mistakes from lack of recent practice on it, it went *really* well -- I was hitting the high notes like some kind of pop music singer. It was delightful. Or maybe it was just the incredible natural reverb in that place, making me *think* I sounded great -- like singing in the shower.

A guy came in and brought his lunch right to the table in front of me and asked for a bunch of Cat Stevens songs, and a dapper gent and his wife listened well past finishing theirs. At some point, after "Wild World", he came up to look at The List, but also came up and said, "Cat Stevens ain't gait *nothing* on you!". And when they finally did get up to leave, he came up, stood at attention in front of me, and gave me a long formal salute. Odd, but nice.

On top of the $100 they'll pay me, I made $36 in tips, which is not bad for a Food Court. The booking lady told me that they're already booked through the end of August, but she's got me down (and owes me a favor?) as wanting another gig sometime in September. And hopefully, she'll think of me for any other cancellations she gets.

But for this one, fortunately, by 3:00 it was almost empty, except for a few new "fans". Sorry guys, I gotta pack up and get to another gig...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Fri, 24Jun2011

2011-06-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

Yet another great night at Spectrum. Lots of little kids (and their families) right at first, since today was the opening day of "Cars 2". And Daleen and a couple of her dog-therapy friends came by with various dogs in tow, and Acacia with one of her friends. That's always nice.

I've been working up "The Only Exception" by Paramour, and it's starting to sound pretty good. I can't sing it in the same key as the female original, so I had to work up a guitar part that retains the original "carried-through" descant note to make sure it had "That Sound". The "How to play it" videos and tabs on the Internet don't get it, but I do.

Later on, there was a cute 2-year-old girl named Jamie (one of my favorite names for a girl) who just immediately became my best friend, asking me for "Twinkle Twinkle", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and "another one" again and again, all in her completely unintelligible babble language. I had to get her mom to translate, 'cuz I just don't speak 2-year-old anymore. But she was very sweet, and too cute.

I've been specifically setting up with the cables laid away from the front edge of the stage, just so I can go sit down on the edge and talk to the little ones if the opportunity came up, which it hadn't until now. I let her strum across the guitar a few times, which visibly thrilled her (and, in turn, me).

And I'm really beginning to like doing "House at Pooh Corner" these days. My voice has been cooperatively high lately, and the high notes that used to be unattractively strained come out nice and clear now. That, plus the addition of the harmony box, is making this one sound really good to me.

I made $76, and 14 CDs were missing. That's some kind of record, and either flattering or disturbing, depending if you want to believe that they were all paid for, or if this is the first case of someone snagging CDs while my attention was diverted. I can keep a half-eye on the table while I'm singing, but I can't claim to have round-the-clock surveillance. On the other hand, if this is the first time I've been taken advantage of, I'm probably OK.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sat, 18Jun2011

2011-06-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

Another terrific night -- no wonder all the bands are vying for dates at Spectrum, here in the Spring/Summer, especially Saturdays.

These days, people see me setting up and sit down to wait for me to start up! It's a good thing that I'm getting much faster at setting up the stuff, what with all the practice. So I had people listening the whole time, start to finish (at, again, 11pm), sometimes *lots* of people. They were generous people, too -- I made $138.

The same pack of kids that parked in front of me the night before were there again, parked in the same spot. I guess they like me, even though they mostly ignore me.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Fri, 17Jun2011

2011-06-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

A really great night -- terrific weather, and lots of people out enjoying it, and me. I had lots of people listening the whole time, and I ended up running an hour over, and only quit then because I knew I needed to save some strength for the next night. (This was a "pick-up" gig that I got because someone else cancelled -- I don't normally book two Spectrum gigs in a row (nor do they let me, anyway).)

They've installed a new stage; a nice, solid, professional one. It's a little less rickety, but the surface is hard plastic, instead of carpet, so my harmony box slides around easier. That's sometimes a good thing, and sometimes a problem, but I'll get used to it.

The highlight was when five women came out of the movies and stopped by on their apparent "Ladies' Night Out". Clearly my Target Market. They loved my stuff, danced, requested, laughed at my jokes, and generally were out for a good time. I need more like that.

And there was a pack of 8 or 10 high-school kids that listened for a while, requested a few songs, and then just sat down in a bunch right out in front of me. They weren't really even paying attention to me after a while, so I wonder why they'd want to sit in such a noisy area, but who can tell with kids?

I did pretty good for a Friday -- $82 in tips. But more importantly, it was a great night, all the way through.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sun, 12Jun2011

2011-06-14T11:22:00.001-07:00

Pretty slow at first, but got good towards the end. I wish I could figure out how to have the final hour of a gig last for the whole four...

I had come by the night before, just to see who was playing, and the guy there did a several Original tunes (to zero response), and then did "The Only Exception", which visibly drew in a batch of teenage girls. I've been meaning to learn it, so I worked it out Sunday morning, but I've only heard it a few times, so I'm a little shaky on the tune and how it fits to the chords. I did OK the first time through, but by the time I did it again later, I had completely forgotten how the bridge part goes, and just stumbled through it. Ouch. Good thing nobody was listening... I've been working on it some more, and I think I have it down for next time, though. Hopefully.

There was a guy there with a box of something that he'd bought (dishes maybe?), looking kind of frantic, apparently waiting for someone who wasn't coming. He finally came up and asked if he could use my cell phone, 'cuz his was dead. Really?!? Out of all the people here, you decide the guy up on the stage is the one to ask for a favor? But, whatever -- I let him use my phone. Twice. All part of the service, I guess.

And I had a family show up with a tiny little girl, couldn't have been more than two, who apparently knows the entire Disney music catalog already. Usually at her age, they only know "Twinkle, Twinkle", but she lit up with recognition for all the Disney songs I had. I was impressed.

Not a lot of response for most of the time, but there was a while around 6:30 where a bunch of people were hanging out and actually competing for Request turns. And despite the apparent apathy, I made $98, including one attached to a pipe-cleaner "dog?".

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Fri, 10Jun2011

2011-06-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

Whoops. I seem to have run a little long again. The "shift" is supposed to be from 6-10pm, and I usually run over, but this time it got all quiet and mellow, and there were lots of friendly people listening, so I kept on playing. But after a while, I was getting pretty hungry, and I figured it must be getting pretty close to 11, so I checked the clock, and it was *midnight*! Six hours straight with no break -- no wonder my fingertips were starting to hurt and my voice was getting scratchy...

But actually, I'd had a short break at 6:30. A lady came up and told me that they had scheduled a Flash Mob there, and could I stop playing for the length of their song. I said, of course, and offered to help with the sound system. They'd expected to be able to hear their dance number ("Dynamite") through a bookshelf iPod boombox. Noobs. "It's pretty loud", the guy said, but, no way -- they'd have been completely screwed if I hadn't been there. We stuck my mic in front of his boombox, and were able to fill the place.

After that, I had the usual rush of little dancing kids for a while, and Daleen and Acacia came by with the dogs (and "guest dog" Macy) just at the right time, so my little dancing crowd of kids got to meet them, too. And two of my Indian Princess dad friends showed up. That's always fun.

It was a little like last time -- appreciative people, tip-wise, but not much clapping. On the other hand, several people came up and told me outright that I was "terrific", "really good", etc., and I sold 3 CDs. I guess it really is just the layout/distance that makes applause difficult at this place.

I guess it's officially Summer, 'cuz there were lots of people out, even on a Friday. I made $177 -- pretty close to a record, and certainly the best Friday ever. Can't wait to see how it is on a Saturday! Next week!

But wait! I'm also playing there this Sunday afternoon! I wonder if my feet, back, fingers, and voice can handle it. Maybe I'll try to keep it down to just 4 hours...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sun, 22May2011

2011-05-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

The last Sunday I played here was pretty dead, so I wasn't expecting much. And it was kinda weird - people were hanging around and listening, but there was hardly any clapping all night. It was like there was a sign up or something. I can see them mistaking a Borders for a library, but not the big open plaza at Spectrum...

There were lots of people out, so I had someone to play to most of the night, albeit totally silent someones. I managed to get a few brave souls to come up and request some songs, and in the middle I had the now-standard Kid Party, with 6 or 8 kids dancing away. Had one little boy ask if I knew "Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee", and when I said I didn't, he proceeded to "teach it to me" - and all of the several verses, too, if he hadn't been mercifully pre-empted by his mom.

Despite there being a lot of people around, the sound was strangely clear -- I could hear myself almost as well as at an indoor gig. Maybe I was just turned up louder than usual, though I wasn't having any feedback problems, either. Anyway, it was great fun to play and sing with the clarity, so I felt like I was doing really well.

Although the audience was so oddly quiet, I came home with $83 in the jar, quite a bit more than the last Sunday I played here. And I didn't get that "I should start later" feeling that I had last time, either. In fact, it occurred to me that, although the stores close at 8 on Sunday (and the "shift" is theoretically over), the best audiences I've gotten on Saturday nights come after the movies let out, so I thought I might try to hang in there until 9 or so. But my last "customers" left at 8:40, it didn't really look like another wave was forthcoming, and I was starving, so I packed it in.

Keith at Foothill Towne Center -- Sun, 15May2011

2011-05-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

My first regular (as in (hopefully) recurring) paying gig! This place is where we usually go to the movies, so I'd seen people playing at the food court there many times, and felt sorry for them 'cuz it looked pretty awful -- lots of being ignored and kids playing tag around the tables. My only guess as to why there were people there at all was that they were being paid. Turns out I was right, and managed to track down the lady that books the acts, and emailed her to see what it takes to get on the roster.

Amazingly, she did what no one has done before, and just listened to the videos and MP3s on my website -- usually you have to send in a CD and a bunch of "bio"-type stuff. But she went for the "virtual audition", and surprised me by emailing back that I sounded good and asked what I charge for 3 hours! I told her that I didn't really have a fixed rate, gave her the old "it depends on the venue" line, and asked what they usually pay. She said between $75 and $100, I said I'd be happy to do it for the hundie, and she offered me a date.

The place is an open patio, but with a solid roof. There are several restaurants -- pizza, tacos, Chinese, ice cream -- and lots of tables and chairs in the shared patio. But the only non-food thing nearby is the multiplex, so it's not really a hang-out like Spectrum. I didn't expect many people...

I set up on one edge, where I had found some power outlets in the bushes. Looking at the pictures, that may have been a bad choice, since I was radically back-lit, so probably hard to look at. Guess I'll have to figure something else out next time.

Worse, it turns out that the place is one big reverb chamber. With the reverb that my rig adds already, it was way way too much -- that first song was crazy-sounding. So I turned off the artificial reverb and let the place handle it -- it was probably still too much, but sounded pretty cool.

The whole first hour was entirely people who had clearly just come from the nearby Mega Church -- you don't see ladies in dresses on a Sunday otherwise. Just a guess, but I think what He Would Do is give the struggling musician a break and clap a little at the end of the songs. Just sayin'...

There was also a big birthday party over at the side for a 4 or 5 year old Japanese kid, apparently all expat families. That was pretty noisy, but my Spectrum experience has taught me how to ignore that kind of thing.

For the last hour or so, my brother and his wife were there, and a super friendly couple who sat down right in front and kept me supplied with requests. The lady was wearing a name tag that said "Judy-something, Practitioner". I'm not sure what that is, since I've only ever heard it followed by "of the Black Arts", and she didn't look like a witch to me.

The highlight for me was when the guy asked me to play "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". That song pushes my skills and concentration to their limits -- what with the three different guitar styles, two languages, and elaborate harmony box button dance needed. By the time I was done, I was so adrenalined-up that I could hardly play the next-requested quiet song. But Judy liked me so much that she's hunted me down on Facebook and is hooking me up with another musician friend of hers who plays at Downtown Disney, and she thinks might be able to get me the info on how to get booked there. I'm not holding my breath, but wouldn't *that* be cool?!?

The first half of the show, with nobody clapping or paying any attention, led me to believe that I'd end up with an empty tip jar, but I just kept on smilin' and playin' 'cuz I was "gettin' *paid*, son!" But after the church people left and the normal lunch crowd showed up, people were more demonstrative and I ended up with $37 (including two origami "bow tie bucks"). That plus the $100 is not too shabby at all.

K&W at Borders Mission Viejo -- Sat, 14May2011

2011-05-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

Best Borders gig in a long time! The place was uncharacteristically full when we got there, stayed that way most of the night, and we managed to rope some people in right away, and had friendly faces to play to all the way through.

But the highlight for me was when a cute little toddler wandered out right in front of us. She seemed to be trying to give Warren a magazine that she'd found somewhere. We all watched her for a little while, and I broke into my new finger-picked and harmony-boxed "Twinkle, Twinkle". She was so tiny, I didn't really expect her to know it. But her little face lit up like a searchlight as it dawned on her that she recognized it. And it got about the biggest round of applause of the night -- more for her than me, no doubt.

We've been making nearly-nothing in tips at these Borders gigs, and since the tables were all full anyway, I couldn't snag one (and didn't really feel like bothering) to put out the usual display of signs, cards, CDs, and tip jar. But I did set the jar over on the windowsill -- not terribly convenient for people to get to, but at least visible and available.

So I was pretty surprised to get anything at all, and more so to find $16 in there -- not a record or anything, but pretty darn good for this place.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Fri, 06May2011

2011-05-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

A really surprisingly slow night. It seemed like there were hardly any actual adults out, and maybe that's exactly what it was - I guess the working folks are too tired to go out on a Friday. There were plenty of teens though, and I did all right with various clumps of them, but none of them stick around for very long, so I end up doing the same songs over and over.

At one point I had 5 or 6 little kids, but they were all *very* little (toddlers and preschoolers), so I tried out my fingerpicked and harmonized rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle". That went over pretty well, but I'd forgotten about little kids' tendency to respond to something that they like with "Again!". It's a little embarrassing/weird to play it in the first place - I really don't want to play it all night long.

Hardly anyone was putting anything in the tip jar, but then a guy came over and asked for "I Only Have Eyes For You". While I was looking for the song sheet, he asked, "OK if I get change for a twenty out of here?". I said, "Sure", but then partway into the song it occurred to me that there probably wasn't enough money in the jar to make much "change". Nothing I could do about it but watch as he spent the whole song pulling ones out, and straightening, stacking, and counting them. I guess he found enough though, 'cuz there was $24, a twenty and four ones, in there when I got home. A very low "take" for Spectrum, but still way more than we ever pull in at a Borders gig. It'll buy a couple of iPad apps...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sun, 01May2011

2011-05-02T09:49:00.001-07:00

Must have been the month-changeover issue, but I'm not sure how I managed to book two Spectrum gigs in a row. After almost 5 hours of playing the night before, my fingertips were pretty shot by the end of this 4 hour shift. My voice held out surprisingly well, though.

It started out *really* slow. I may have to re-think the start time on Sunday afternoons. (On the other hand, who am I kidding? If they'll let me play, I'll play.) My brother and his wife were there right at the start, so they got to witness the first couple of hours of dead air -- me desperately trotting out all my Best Stuff, and getting stone silence in return. It was a bloodbath...

But, naturally, right after they left, some little kids came up to watch, so I started in with the dance tunes. This quickly snowballed into the biggest Kid Party I've ever had -- at least a dozen kids, really getting into it. The gravitational attraction of Kids Having Fun is pretty irresistible to other kids, and their parents. And they stayed and stayed, too -- I was running out of danceable songs by then end, and that's never happened before. (I can't take pictures while I'm playing, but here they are waiting for the next song.)

Unfortunately, after a dozen songs or so, it degenerated into the bossy kids hijacking the show by whiningly insisting on songs they'd never heard of (and wouldn't really like) from the list, just by the titles. This bothered me at first, but then I figured that there are no bad songs on the list, and their essentially random selection process wasn't really much different than me choosing. I suppose, alternately, I could have just agreed to play whichever song they asked for, and then actually played any song I wanted -- how would they know?

Anyway, after the kids all drifted away it was evening and (a) it was a lot cooler, and (b) I started getting the dating crowd, who tend to sit and listen. Like (almost) always, the last hour was really nice, but I was getting really sloppy from fatigue, hunger, and fingertip pain, so I actually quit at Quitting Time for once. Almost exactly half the tips as the night before, but $56 is nothing to sneeze at, and watching those kids dance was the most fun I've had in a long time.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sat, 30Apr2011

2011-05-02T08:40:00.001-07:00

Started off a little slow -- lots of people around, but they were strangely unresponsive. But after a while I started getting some people tuned in, and in the last hour or two, had made some real "fans". Fewer little kids dancing than usual, but just as many bands of teenagers asking for the few semi-current songs I do. I must have done "Hey Soul Sister" and "I'm Yours" 5 times each.

Had a big family come up with a little boy, asking for "Twinkle, Twinkle". Of course I said that I didn't know it, but they seemed sincere, so I said I'd try to fake it. The chords are easy enough, and it actually took off when it occurred to me to kick on the harmony box. I might have to take a look at working up a decent arrangement of that, since I do get a lot of tiny kids who ask for "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and such. Might be nice to have one that they'll recognize.

But then another mom came up holding a 4 or 5-year old boy, asking for "any Bob Marley". According to the mom, "One Love" is the kid's favorite, but I only (half) know "I Shot the Sheriff", so I faked the first verse, to a completely blank response from the kid. Whatever.

(I do get a surprising number of requests for Bob Marley, but do you *really* want to hear the white suburban, baloney with mayo, version?!? Or should I just save us both the embarrassment...)

While I was setting up, a lady came over to tell me that she had also been booked for that stage, and somehow knew that it was in fact, triple booked -- yet another group thought they were supposed to be there. They we going to go play at the "for pay" stage, which made sense since they had, indeed, paid. That was confusing because you don't have to pay for the Food Court, and, how did they know that there wasn't already someone else on the other stage, too?

Anyway, I guess it's a good thing that I get there early, 'cuz the double-booking resolution seems to be "first come, first served", 'cuz they lady never implied that I should be the one to back down -- she just wanted to let me know. Not having any way to check, I had to assume that I knew what I was doing (though there's no guarantee of *that*), so I didn't volunteer to leave, either. But I did spend the whole night worrying that I had screwed up somehow, and had "stolen" the stage, and would be henceforth banned (or at least "non grata"). But I've since checked my email, and I do have a confirmation message, so at least the snafu wasn't my fault.

And I'm glad I stayed. While counting the tip money ($113!), I came across a tightly-bundled origami "packet" of three dollar bills wrapped around a (long!) note. (If you're reading this on my blog, you should be able to click the full-text thumbnail and see it big enough to read.) I won't quote the whole thing here, but it starts out: "You are an amazing talented man. Your destiny is big and mighty." And it gets wacky (-er) from there. It ends with "Your wildest dreams are about to come true, get ready for all you wanted and more. You are loved."

Apparently, she (I'm assuming "she") liked my stuff a bit... I can't quite tell if she's a fan or a fortune teller, but since she couldn't have been able to see my palms while I was playing guitar, let's assume the former.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- Fri, 15Apr2011

2011-04-21T09:01:00.000-07:00

We had the usual uninterested group of studying college kids for most of the night. After many frustrating gigs' worth of trying to reach them, this time I just decided that I'd forego that and just play what I wanted to play since it gets the same (non)reaction either way.

And that made it a pretty fun time. We ran through some obscure stuff (e.g. "Waiting"), and some neglected old tunes (e.g. "Down On Yourself"), and some "experimental" stuff (notably Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing", which I've been poking at to see if there might be some way to pull it off in "my style", with so-far limited success). That one really gives Warren something to sink his teeth into.

We did have a guy come right up front with his little daughter (22 months old), who he claimed "loves music". After a song or two, he asked if we knew "I'm Yours", "her favorite song". You could have fooled me, since her china-doll-cute but accusingly baffled expression didn't change a bit, before or after the song. Still, they gave us a reason to be there for a while.

I've had reason to believe that people can't find the little table with the tip jar on it when I put it over to the side, so this time I put it right in the middle of the room. Unfortunately, that appears to have had no effect whatsoever, since we made exactly two dollars. Made the split-math pretty easy, though.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sun, 10Apr2011

2011-04-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

Nicer weather than last Sunday afternoon, but fewer people. Maybe it was *too* nice, and they were all at the beach.

Started off really well, with a bunch of Persian kids, led by brash and bold 8-year-old ("I'm the oldest one here!") Samantha and her twin-brother cousins, jumping right in. She had lots of requests right off, which is nice, for a while, but she ended up trying to hijack the whole show. After a while, she was requesting songs she'd never heard of, just to be the one in charge. Pretty young to be such a control freak already -- I'd give this one a wide berth, 8-year-old boys.

I did assemble a pretty good group of young dancers, and a few moms camped out right in front on blankets -- glad to have their kids distracted so they could get into some serious mom-talk. Samantha, not being a dancer herself, kept trying to steer me into some non-dance tunes (chosen at random), but her feminine wiles were wasted on me.

After it cooled down and the Sunday Afternoon Family Outing crowd left, it was pretty empty, except for the occasional group passing through and getting caught up in one of my songs and hanging out for a while. Ended up with $50 and some change in the jar, but that was only because a guy came through with two small daughters and dropped a twenty in, before I had even really gotten started. They didn't even stay long enough to hear a song, much less request one, or pick up a CD. Thanks, dude, but what was that about?

As I was packing up, a young woman came up and told me that I had "sounded really good", and then asked if I took checks, or only cash. Um, what? Then it occurred to me that she wanted to buy a CD, not leave a tip, so I told her to just take one. She did, and a card, and then asked me how much I charge for a gig. Taken by surprise (again), and wondering if she meant "this one" or if she intended to hire me, I decided the latter and managed to say "about two hundred", and she said she'd "shoot me an email". That probably won't happen of course, but it's flattering anyway.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sun, 03Apr2011

2011-04-04T10:00:00.001-07:00

Turns out that there's a Sunday evening shift available at Spectrum that I didn't even know about until recently, and since I couldn't get in on Friday or Saturday, and the Springtime weather has been bringing lots of people out, I thought I'd give it a try.

And it was pretty good. Lots of people out, but it seemed like they were more "busy" and less "cruising" than the usual Saturday night crowd. It was a little tougher to drag people in, but I did OK. Less groups of teens, too. I thought I'd get more young families on a Sunday afternoon (I played 4-8, when the shops close), but didn't really. But it was the first weekend of Spring Break, so maybe that had an effect.

Inspired by Acacia's "Just Dance" game, I decided to learn "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", due to its almost universal "get up and bounce around" appeal. I figure that a lot of parents of young kids would have been teens in the 80's, and this song will go over with them. And I had a chance to try it out when a young girl wanted to dance (aka "get swung around in a circle") with her mom and aunt, and kept saying "Play another one!" after every dance song I'd play for her. Unfortunately, I completely choked, and played it worse than I've ever played any song in public, ever. I guess it's actually trickier than one day's worth of poking at it qualified me for.

Daleen came by with the dogs and stayed almost the whole night. Her parents showed up, too, and my brother with wife. I just wish I'd'a had a chance to run through a couple of the new songs the day before, but couldn't with all the birthday party setup and teardown. I botched the first half of "Amie" pretty much, but mostly pulled off "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes".

It was interesting playing in the beating down sun, after freezing for so many gigs in a row. But then the sun went down and it got pretty cold up there, as usual. Who says we don't have "weather"?

Anyway, it was fun, and a definite "better than nothing" on weekends when I can't do a Friday or Saturday night. Apparently no one signs up for Sundays (or knows about 'em), so I can probably get in almost anytime. And I made $79, on top of the fun of it, so, yeah, I'll definitely do it again.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Mar2011

2011-03-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

More fun at Spectrum! It had gotten kind of dreary, so there weren't as many people out as last week, but still, lots. Played for lots of dancing kids in the first half, and lots of dating couples in the last.

I'm starting to think that the way it works is: at 1 year old, the parents park the stroller in front of me and hope the kid is absorbing some of it. At 2, the kid just stands and stares. At 3, they kind of wobble back and forth. At 4, they run around in circles with their arms out like an airplane (or fairy?). At 5 and up, they actually start to put on some "moves" that we would call dancing. But, to each his own, right? I think that even the 2 year olds are "dancing", they just haven't moved it from their minds and into their feet yet.

I made a new sign that hangs from the speaker and encourages people to come up and make requests. I really don't need (though I don't *mind*) a tip for a song, but people either figure that's the unwritten agreement, or really do appreciate the songs. Either way, I made a record $136 in tips, selling 4 CDs. I can't wait for it to really warm up, so more people will be out, and they can hang out later.

I guess the sign really did work in getting more people to request songs. But despite the direct reference to the list, a lot of them were just making stuff up without looking. I had some middle-aged Persian women rearrange the chairs to form a little "front row" (of 4). One of them asked for "It's Now or Never", which, um, no... But I played "I Can't Help Falling In Move With You" instead, which they audibly swooned over. Had a guy ask for some "America", for which "The Last Unicorn" wasn't good enough (of course). I guess I should learn one of their songs, and now that I have the harmony box, I might be able to do justice to one. And another guy seriously wanted some Hendrix -- and not one of the soft ones (I could have pulled off "The Wind Cries Mary" or the coincidentally-in-process "Little Wing", but he wasn't interested in either of those). He settled for, oddly enough, "Peaceful Easy Feeling".

Played several Happy Birthdays -- I should really work up an actual decent arrangement one of these days. One was for a pair of twin high school girls. It was tricky to fit their names into the line: "Happy *birth* day dear Savanna-and-Mackenzie...". They were there with a dozen friends, all dressed to the nines in their micro dresses and 4-inch heels. Not sure why...

When I got there, the table with tablecloth was already out, so I never saw the maintenance guys. I expected them to come get the cloth sometime after 10, but they never appeared. At all. Which was nice, because I got a really nice crowd around 9:30. The cool part is, without a hard stop, I can play forever. The problem is, without a hard stop, I don't know how to quit. So I ended up playing until 11:40 -- I just can't resist a tuned-in audience. Five and a half hours does seem a bit long, but with the afternoon nap, caffeine, and adrenaline, I don't feel it (until I get home and crash).

But since they don't bring out the lights anymore, nor a heater, I have to bring my own. I'm starting to look like Jed Clampett on the move out to Californee, with my guitar on my back, pulling a train of the amp (on a cart), side speaker, two tripod stands bungeed on, tip jar/bowl, dish heater, clamp-on "spotlight", and suitcase with all the cables, etc.

I will have to look for a new tip container, though. The bowl is nice, but the wind-tunnel effect at Spectrum keeps threatening to blow the money away, and with the inexplicable new volumes, the bowl I have isn't cutting it...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 19Mar2011

2011-03-20T15:27:00.001-07:00

Wow, what a night! Started out great, went to darn good, and ended terrific.

Before I got started, there was a birthday party going on behind me in the food court -- little Gracie was turning 8. Her friends started yelling for me to sing Happy Birthday to her, which she was adamantly opposed to, but I did it anyway. That served as a pretty good start-up for me, and brought them all over to see the song list and start ordering up their favorites. I did several songs for them, interspersed with grown-up songs as they repeatedly got distracted and came back.

I inexplicably had a huge inventory of CDs in my case, and where I usually put out only a few (because I usually only sell a few, or none), this time I just put 'em all out. On one of Gracie's fly-bys, I told her to take one of the "Waltzing With Bears" CDs, as my birthday present to her. She was gratifyingly thrilled with that, and even more so when I remembered that I had a Sharpie with me, and offered to autograph the CD.

As usual, the group of kids dancing and bouncing around in front of me attracted even more clumps of kids/parents, and Gracie, having figured out that the CDs were available, was hawking them to the other kids, in her party and not. I guess I should have been giving her a commission, 'cuz she sold me out of all 5 "Bears" CDs -- her pitch hyping the included autograph was apparently quite persuasive.

Gracie's party was there for the whole first hour, keeping things interesting. After they left, it was a little calmer, but I always had people to play for. This was my first Spectrum (outside) gig since the time change, and it was strange to be playing in the daytime, but the "Spring is here-ness" brought lots of people out.

The middle section was pretty standard-issue, just playing the Greatest Hits, and some requests when I could coax one out of someone. Daleen showed up with the dogs, and I'd occasionally invite some kids over to pet them.

Later on, I had another batch of dancing kids, including a tiny girl (maybe 2 years old?) whose parents seemed convinced that she would dance, but she just stared at me. I played all my best rock'n'roll (such as they are) songs, but there was just too much distraction, I guess. Finally they gave up, but as they left the mom came up and said "I have something special for you", digging in her wallet and coming up with her business card. "It's a 'Get out of jail free' card, if you're ever in Fresno". Um, hows that again? But her card shows that she's an officer with the Fresno police department. I'm not in Fresno much, and I get arrested there even less often, but it was a nice gesture.

For the last hour, which turned into two, I had that really great "Don't want the date to be over" crowd. Somehow, it gets quieter and I can hear (and perform) much better. My throat kludge was cleared out, so I was singing pretty well, and the date people want the pretty love songs, which I'm pretty good at.

A couple in the comfy chairs way back by the theaters were clapping loudly after every song, and the man eventually came up and asked if I knew any James Taylor. Dude, you just said the magic words. I did several James songs, branched off to some Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel, and after a while they moved over to the not-quite-so-far-away comfy chairs to my right.

A young man came up and was pretty excited by the list and the CDs. He put a fiver in the bowl and asked for two songs, including "Moon River" which he'd seen on the "Try to Remember, a tribute to my dad" CD, though it's not really on The List. But it's still in The Book, so I gave it a shot, and managed to get through it fairly well. He said that these were songs that his mom used to sing to him to put him to sleep. Before he left, he dumped some more money in the bowl and took one of each CD.

By this time, I was way over the 10:00 stopping time, but the only thing that the maintenance guys needed to take away was the table cloth, so I cleared off the table, gave it to them, and kept playing. It was getting pretty cold, but the James Taylor fan couple held out all the way until 11:00. By then, they were pretty much the only ones left, so they came up and thanked me, the lady told me I was "a serendipity" (that's a good thing, right?) and I started packing up.

When we first started playing in coffeeshops, a friend from Toshiba came out and told us that the jelly jar that I was using for tips was too small. She was convinced that a big bowl would attract more money. That may or may not be true, but I have plenty of stuff to drag out there, and a big bowl seemed like unnecessary extra trouble. But recently I found a medium-sized crystal-looking plastic bowl at the Dollar Store, and have been trying that out. I don't know if it was the bowl or not, but I made $117. That included selling a record number of CDs -- I think 13 were missing, including all the "Bears" ones, and 3 of the 4 "Dad" ones, and 5 regular ones. Maybe having lots of CDs out makes it look like there "needs to be", 'cuz they're popular?

Or maybe I was just connecting with folks better than usual. Hard to say.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 18Mar2011

2011-03-20T09:27:00.000-07:00

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 18Mar2011 Pretty standard quiet night at Borders. One older guy asked for a few songs, and stared at me intently while I played 'em. He wasn't all that enthusiastic, though -- I suspect he was a guitar player and just wanted to see how I played 'em. Or maybe just shy.

And there was another guy who was pretty enthusiastic, but started his requests with "Music of the Night" from "Phantom of the Opera". Not exactly my style, though I suppose it *could* work on guitar. Still, weirdest request of the month, if not the year.

Anyway, we played on through with not much recognition, but it still beats watching TV. When we got to the last song, Warren suggested "Waiting", which is just an amazing song. Too bad it's so obscure.

Ended up with $7 in tips, 5 of which came from Mr. Music of the Night, who apparently liked my non-Phantom tunes well enough, as well.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Feb2011

2011-02-27T11:41:00.001-08:00

Lots of fun. The weatherman had been predicting another rainout, but the storm apparently got here a day early, and it was dry most of the day. On the other hand, it was getting desperately cold, but I decided that it wasn't any worse than back in December, and I'd toughed that out...

When I got there, the maintenance guys had apparently given up on me and were about to cover the stage with a plastic tarp, but when they saw me, they consented to let me give it a go. I told them to forego the usual light tree and table cloth, which, it turned out, allowed me to go way past the usual shutoff time, 'cuz they had no stuff to come take away. I had my own heater and "spotlight", and the table they bring is just stored flattened up under the stage, so I could "put it away" myself.

But it was frightfully cold. I had my "going to the snow" clothes and my heater so I did OK, except for my fingers, which have been worse. It did keep the "crowds" down a lot, of course, but there was almost always somebody listening in, and the usual intermittent group of teens wanting to hear my 3 or 4 "less than 5 years old" songs. Had one group of very young teens, all decked out in lenses-poked-out 3D "geek glasses", who insisted that I play some Justin Bieber songs. I promised that I'd learn some for next time (but my fingers were crossed).

Just after 8:00, it started to hail. Yes, hail. I had been worrying about rain, but surely didn't expect hail. Of course, hail isn't exactly "wet", so it was actually OK, but after a few minutes, it dissolved into light rain, so I had to unplug the electronics and take cover (with my guitar) under the awning in front of the Starbucks. It was polite enough to rain lightly, and straight down, so I figured the amp and speaker would be OK, and I hastily slid the shouldn't-get-wet stuff up underneath the table.

It rained for 25 minutes or so, and I used the time under the awning to work out a passable version of the Beatles' "Rain", which, when it finally tapered off and convincingly stopped, I played at length to the wry smiles of the people hustling by. It took a while for people to decide that it was safe to stay and hang out, and I'd almost decided to call it a night after my empty-plaza Rain Medley ("Rain", "Rhythm of the Rain" and "Shower the People" (which I hadn't actually "thought" of, but fatefully accidentally flipped to in the book)). But I'm glad I stayed, 'cuz when the crowds started to reform, they were the most appreciative of the night. And since I had no forced shutdown time, I kept on playing 'til after 11. The last hour is always the best, so why not stretch it to two?

Had one young lady, while reading through the Song List, give an audible squeal of delight at some song-discovery. I had to wait until the end of the song in progress to find out it was "To Make You Feel My Love", which I haven't played in probably two years. It's not even on the list anymore, but it was on the ancient version that I happened to have a few plastic-protected copies of and dug out after the current ones got soaked. Fortunately, the chord sheet is still in The Book, so I played it reasonably well, despite barely remembering how the tune even goes. Great song -- maybe I'll put it back on the List...

First time out for the newly-resurrected "Wonderful World", which sounds great now, thanks to the Harmony Box. There's also been a sudden and inexplicable resurgence in the popularity of "Blackbird". I had started out the evening with a cruddy throat, but by the third time through, I was cleared out, singing quite well, and hitting even the way-too-high notes in it.

I had brought a new "big salad bowl" tip jar that I got at the dollar store. When it started to rain, I figured that the money would be fine, but I'd failed to realize that the bowl would collect lots of water, and the $41 "take" was a soggy lump when I went to collect it. When I got home, I laid it out on the floor to dry, and next morning the cat was making sure it was well protected (and killed). Thanks, Zadi.

Keith at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 18Feb2011

2011-02-25T15:32:00.000-08:00

Usually this is a K&W gig, but Warren had a better offer, so I went in solo. As usual, mostly apathetic people there, but occasionally I managed to pique someone's interest. Got a big smile from a little 8-year-old girl and her dad when I fired up "A Whole New World" from Aladdin.

A storm was coming in (the one that would rain out my scheduled gig at Spectrum the next night), so I played and sang, and watched the outdoor shade umbrellas getting tossed. I managed to alert the store guys to go get them before they got too damaged, I hope.

The wind came up pretty hard, and one of the windows behind me was loudly rattling in the frame or something, and sounding like someone was knocking to come in. Spooky, and distracting.

But not as much as the guy who was there the whole evening, sitting in the very corner chair almost next to me, who clearly had the nasty cold that I'm still recovering from. He hacked and coughed and horked all night long, while staring at his iPad screen, and occasionally commenting on a song I'd played. I wasn't really worried about catching it myself, since I've already got it, but there were other people there, and, Dude, I'm tryin' to play here! Some people...

K&W at Borders Mission Viejo -- 12Feb2011

2011-02-25T15:01:00.000-08:00

Pretty typical quiet evening at Borders. As usual, most of the people were there to read/study, not to listen to some local musicians, so it was tough to get anything going.

I pulled out all the usual crowd-pleasers, but couldn't make a dent, so I decided to have some fun for myself by trying some more unusual (and, admittedly, ill-advised) numbers (i.e., "The Air That I Breathe" and Heart's "Alone"). That, obviously, didn't work either.

Finally though, near the end of the evening, some people came in who were tuned in a bit, and requested some songs. One of their requests was "I Want To Hold Your Hand", and I'm sure they were expecting "the usual way", but I've been doing it in the "Across the Universe" / "Glee" way, which is much slower and makes it astonishingly deep. Sometimes I feel a little embarrassed and self-conscious doing it that way, and sometimes (like this time) it rips my guts out. Took me a while to recover enough to play the next song...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 11Feb2011

2011-02-14T14:29:00.001-08:00

What a great night! Most pure *fun* I've had in ages. At the risk of besmirching my 56-year zero-drugs policy / record / reputation, I think I was a bit high on cold medicine and Mountain Dew, and feeling completely uninhibited -- or as uninhibited as an old suburban white boy gets.

Now, I've been playing almost every weekend for nine years now, and I'm completely over the whole stage fright thing (except to just get that first song started). It doesn't even phase me to make mistakes anymore -- for one thing, "Hey, nobody's perfect", and for another, "It's too late now!" But I still have enough pride to want to do the best job I can with each song, so there's always the self-induced pressure to get it right.

But this time, even that seemed to be out the window. Not that I was playing sloppy and screwing up a lot -- but apparently, after all this time, I can play those songs more on automatic pilot than I think I can. And being able to just let it go and "let 'er fly", is, well, exhilarating.

I felt like I was connecting with the songs more than ever, and really giving them more oomph in the singing. And, of course, it becomes a feedback loop -- the more I gave the songs, the more people were tuning in, which makes me give it even more. And actually (hopefully?) it may have been entirely that audience feedback, and not the pseudoephedrine/caffeine cocktail.

It was a nice night, and I had the feeling that there were people really listening, basically all the time. It's odd -- the audience is kinda far away. This time, I got two opposite feelings about it: 1) They're so far away that it doesn't really matter what I do, and 2) They're so far away, I can't tell, but they might be really into it. Either way, I was swingin' for the fence.

And lots of people responded. I had groups come stand up close, so I *knew* they were listening. A big clump of 8th graders came and requested songs, and then were requesting the next song even before the previous one was half over. Uh, guys, I can only sing one song at a time. Lots of families with little kids dancing, so I flipped to my new "dance tunes" section in the book and went for it.

And toward the end, when I'm playing for the "don't want the date to end" crowd, I got into a set of sentimental stuff and was really laying it on thick, and they were eating it up. I was really cranking, and it was really working.

Or maybe that's the cough medicine talking. But, like a drunk who thinks he's funny -- please don't tell me different.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 28Jan2011

2011-02-03T10:21:00.001-08:00

Weird, crazy, fun, but somewhat disappointing (and cold) night.

When I first got there, there were some people messing with equipment on the stage. Oh no, not double booked again! But, they were tearing down, not setting up, so no problem except for the heart attack...

So I set up my stuff, and then noticed that the "house music" was even louder than usual, so I called the Maintenance guys to get them to turn it down. Their response: "It's a new system, we can't turn it down." Really?

Unbelievable. Seems like every time this gig starts to get reasonable, they come up with a new way to screw it up. Move the stage to someplace stupid, shut off the power unexpectedly in the middle of the show, and now, loud 80's rock playing almost as loud as I am. And this on top of them telling me that "due to the new layout and increased interest", they're going to start charging $50 to play on this stage, like they do for the other one. I don't think they'll get many takers if they can't figure out how to turn the music down...

It was doubly annoying because I had set up a bunch of video cameras to record with, but the recordings would be useless with the "second sound track" running through them, so there was no point in starting them up (except to catch the images here).

But there was nothing I could do about it, so I just powered through. While I was playing, of course, I was way louder than the house music (at least where I was standing), but as soon as I'd end a song, there it was again. Not sure how it sounded to people who were standing halfway between the house speakers and mine, though -- but I didn't see anyone edging away from the wall with the speakers on it, so it apparently wasn't as bad "out there" as it was on the stage.

Anyway, for some reason, it turned into "Guest Star Night". Early on, a girl came up and asked if her friend could sing. This seemed more joke than serious offer, and this idea seldom works out since all my songs are transposed into my vocal key, so I said, "Sure, but I only have one mic". Oddly, that seemed OK with them, so she came up on stage and wanted to sing "Time After Time". This was an even worse plan than almost any other song I do, because my arrangement of it is quite a bit different than the recording that she's used to, but we plowed through it, and since nobody but me could hear her when her version diverged from mine, it was no problem, and she seemed pleased to get to try. Go figure.

Later on, a kid carrying a guitar broke loose from his pack of friends, came up and asked if he could play a song. Nobody happened to be listening just then, and I was freezing, and getting not inconsiderably annoyed with the house music, so I said, "Sure". His guitar didn't have a pickup in it, so I gave him mine, and strapped the mic to his head, and stepped off the stage.

He started up a song I've never heard before (I decided later that he probably wrote it himself), stopped and fetched a lyric sheet out of his pocket, and finally managed to get through it. Couldn't hear a word of it, and his singing wasn't the greatest, but it took guts. As I was getting the guitar back, his friend asked if he could play one, too, and I couldn't see any reason not to let him, so he fired up a kind of speed-metal superfast strummy thing, did about half of it and quit. Thanks guys, that'll be plenty.

And then, almost at quitting time, a young Persian lady marched straight up to me from way across the quad. I said, "You look like somebody on a mission!", and she said that her husband had dared her to sing a song. Probably they had seen the proceedings earlier on, and decided that this was OK. She came up and I strapped the mic on her, and asked what song she wanted to do: "Let it Be". I strummed a little of it, and she decided that it was a bad key for her, so I mentally transposed it back to the original key, and fired it up. She wasn't bad, though a bit matter-of-fact, but I was mostly pleased to be able to play it through in the "wrong" key -- looking at one set of chords, but playing another, without completely crashing her.

Ended up with $44 in the jar, which is low for this place, but not bad, and understandable considering how cold it was. I did *not* split it with my co-stars...

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 21Jan2011

2011-01-27T08:42:00.000-08:00

I think this was the emptiest I've ever seen this place -- maybe it's Winter Break at UCI, so we didn't have the usual contingency of Calculus, Bio, and Engineering studiers. Not that those kids, with their permanently-embedded iPods are much of an audience anyway...

So it was a pretty quiet night. I had an unusual amount of trouble getting the sound right -- the settings for "outdoors" and "recording at home" apparently aren't conducive for the acoustics of this place.

But I eventually got it worked out, and later in the night some people showed up who seemed to like us. One particular guy asked for lots of "classic rock" songs, including "Southern Cross", but I convinced him to take "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" instead, 'cuz I think I manage it better. He actually stopped his car to get out and shout something encouraging to us as we were talking later in the parking lot. That was nice.

I did set up a bunch of video cameras, but I was never particularly inspired, so nothing much to glean from the footage.

Some girls way in the back had circled six songs, mostly Beatles, on the Song List and brought it up. I played most of those, and then later, they brought up another List, with six more songs, mostly Beatles again, "written in". I don't know if they were just suggestions of songs I ought to go learn, or if they somehow expected me to just play them. Amusingly, they had written them on the List in the approximate places they'd have to be inserted. Thanks for the alphabetization help, girls!

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 15Jan2011

2011-01-19T09:12:00.000-08:00

Big fun! It was pretty warm outside, so lots of people came out. And the thumpa-thumpa-cart was nowhere to be seen (nor heard!).

Maybe it's the season, or maybe it's this "big space in front" layout, but I'm beginning to notice that the nature of the gig has changed. At the old food court, I was playing to people who were seated, and usually eating -- and whether they wanted to hear me or not. Now, there are people (sometimes *lots* of people!) out on the sofas and around the planterbox bench, but I'm also roping in people who are "strolling". I guess they're there to just cruise around, and stopping for a while to hear some tunes is OK -- they weren't going anywhere in particular anyway.

These fall into two main groups: teenagers, and young families. The clumps of teens stop to see if I know any songs that they're interested in, and end up requesting the few "new" songs I know, and maybe some Beatles, too. The young families stop to let the kids have a gander at the man making music. The stroller-bound ones just stare, but the mobile ones dance, either spontaneously, or led by the moms. Either way, neither group would have been inclined to sit down, especially at "picnic tables", so the big open space suits them fine, and is working out far better than I'd expected.

The teens are surprisingly civil. They ask for the songs they recognize from my list, and frequently sing along, if their group is big and rowdy enough. And I seldom get any smart remarks. I definitely need to learn some more songs from within the decade, but I'm actually surprised that they want to hear me play "their songs". Seems like, when I was seventeen, if some Old Guy was up playing "my songs", I'd'a been disdainful, but these kids ask me for 'em, listen, and even tip me (sometimes with "all the change in my pocket", which is actually pretty endearing).

As are the little kids dancing. Some of them just shuffle back and forth, some stand and stare, some run around with their hands out, airplane-style, and some older ones actually aim at some "moves". I have to quickly dig out the more danceable tunes in the book (which I also need to learn more of). And as other parents wander by and see the Little Kids Dance Party going on, they stop, too. This happened twice on Saturday -- the first one breaking up only because the power timers went off again, at 7:30 exactly. I definitely need to have a word with the Management about that. It sure saps the momentum out of the show to get cut off mid-song...

This time I immediately rewired everything to run directly from the battery-powered amp, but even those two minutes broke the spell. Not the end of the world, I eventually got a second batch of dancing kids, but not very professional, at minimum. And, wow, does it sound different without the Harmony Box in-line, even when I'm not using the harmonies. The Box adds "vocal effects" (compression, reverb, etc.), and apparently does a great job, 'cuz it sounded suddenly pretty sad without all that. Fortunately, they got the power back on pretty quickly this time, and I re-re-wired everything to get "my sound" back.

They had also failed to bring out the table, tablecloth, and lights. I thought they were just late (and I had already found the table, tucked up underneath the stage), but I called them when it was time to start and they still weren't there. They guy said that I wasn't on *his* schedule, but he'd bring out the lights. A long while later, they brought out the tablecloth, but the lights never showed up. But the upside of that is that they didn't have to come to take them away either, so I was able to play way past the 10:00 "deadline".

So, big fun, interesting evolution of the gig itself, and 59 bucks in the jar. I may be getting the hang of this...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 08Jan2011

2011-01-09T15:40:00.000-08:00

It was my first time back at the rebuilt Food Court area since the terrible experience 6 weeks ago. It's definitely much improved! They moved the stage out into the plaza some, and brought the outdoor sofas a third-again closer. And they moved the thumpa-thumpa (animated T-shirts) cart way back to the corner.

So the audience is only "far away", not "stupid-far". Most of the night, I had people camped out in the sofas and along the planterbox bench, just listening. To me. Wow. They're a bit far away to want to shout out requests, but some were brave enough to. And quite a few young families were out, and would let their little kids dance with (or stare at) me from the "dance floor" in between.

Early on, a birthday party of 20 or so 15-year-old girls came by, in costumes. Chicken, clown, cheerleader, superman, cone-head, etc. There was also a couple of young guys hanging out with me, one of whom had his Christmas-present ukulele with him, so I had just fired up "I'm Yours". The girls heard that and had to come over and sing/shout along, and then ask for a few songs before moving on into the food court for dinner. That was fun.

My brother came by, and heard a few songs before the thumpa-cart guy started up his break dancing show, which he apparently does once a night. This meant that his music got twice as loud, and that it was apparently time for me to take a break. I'm not sure if I "own" the sonic space there, but since he had drawn a much bigger crowd than I had, I guess he's somewhat entitled -- though I'll have to send a message to the management asking what the deal is there.

After he was finished, I started to play my new "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" for my brother, got through the first line, and the power went out. I had just bought a new parabolic heater that day, specifically to try to keep warm out there, but it had apparently been too much for the circuit. I called Maintenance, and they poked around for half an hour before discovering that it wasn't a circuit breaker at all -- they had put that outlet on a timer, since it used to be powering some tree lights or something. My brother gave up and went home before they got it fixed, and I took the chance to go talk to the thumpa-cart girl to ask, when/if they got my power back on, could they maybe keep the thumpa-music down a bit. She was really nice about it, and it worked, for a while, most of the time.

But the new location is much more prominently "just outside the theaters", and after 9:00 or so, lots of people on dates come wandering out, so I started doing the softer more romantic stuff, and drew in a lot of people. And when the thumpa-music was down (or later, off), I could really hear myself pretty well, so I was able to really get into it, and felt like I was giving some pretty good performances. I guess the difference is that I'm finally far enough away from the turtle fountain that I don't even notice it. Yay!

I guess some other people noticed that I was "on", too, 'cuz I made $82 in tips and a few CD sales. Part of that was a twenty dollar bill, which was, presumably, for a CD (or 2? I keep forgetting to count how many I'm putting out.)

Naturally, since I was doing so well, I didn't have any cameras set up. Or is it that I was doing well because I didn't have any cameras intimidating me? Either way, a really really good night. I felt good, was singing strong and playing well, I didn't get too cold, and just had a blast. After last time, I was beginning to think that they'd "ruined" the place, and that I wasn't going to want to play there anymore. Now, I can't wait to go back.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum, Myrtle Court-- 23Dec2010

2011-01-09T11:49:00.001-08:00

I got to play the Main Stage at Spectrum again, coincidentally exactly a year from the famous hat-stealing gig of 2009. This year I swore to play facing *away* from the fountain, which is also away from any potential audience sitting at the tables along its sides, but at least it doesn't leave my "six" unprotected.

At first it seemed like a huge mistake -- it felt weird to deliberately turn my back on the people at the tables, but after I got started, I was able to almost continuously attract at least a small (and sometimes satisfyingly large) group in the standing-space in (my new) "front", and some lingerers sitting on the bench/planter boxes at either side. I guess that's the way it works -- once you're playing, you attract the attention of the tide of people coming down the corridor. Most go on by, but the ones that like what they hear can stop for a while.

I got lots of families with small kids, many of whom stop to let their kids see what Live Music looks like. I must have played "Rudolph", "Frosty", "Jingle Bells" and "Up On the Housetop" a dozen times each. Of course, having little kids gives me the excuse to play those, but the teenagers who come by while they're playing always join in, either on the main part, or with the "...like a light bulb!" descant on "Rudolph". I guess once you learn it, it's irresistible.

I made $49 in tips -- I'm sure it would have been more, but the arrangement forces people to split into two "streams" around me, so half the people didn't happen to walk by the tip jar. Next year, *two* tip jars.

Fortunately, I'd convinced the Booking Girl that, although her Original Material bands can probably sell enough CDs to cover the $50 Setup Fee, poor widdle me, playing well-liked but "cover" material, entertains the crowd, but doesn't sell enough CDs to afford to pay for the privilege. So she waived the fee, or I'd'a been a buck in the hole for the night.

So it all worked out -- I had a great time, played for a lot of people, made some Christmas money, and I still have my hat.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 17Dec2010

2011-01-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

A pretty good night -- unusually many people were tuned in. Was it the Christmas season, the Christmas music, or just the luck of the draw? No way to tell, I guess.

We did pretty well, tips-wise, but most of it was a twenty dollar bill that was ostentatiously left by a bearded guy we've seen before, who sat up front in the comfy chairs (*too* comfy?), asked for a few requests, and then fell loudly asleep. Not sure whether the $20 was an apology, or a thank you -- apparently he needed the sleep.

Thoughts on The Hat

2010-12-24T12:06:00.001-08:00

I've been thinking about the response I had at the Santa's Workshop line the other day, and I think it was at least partially the effect of The Hat. At 6-foot-2, I'm a somewhat scary Big Man, and any given kid is in a foreign place (mall or Civic Center park), confronted with a Stranger, and is bound to be a little apprehensive in interacting with me. Mom seems to be OK with it, and the Big Man is playing and singing My Kinda Songs, but still...

But when I put on The Hat, I'm suddenly Something Else. With The Hat on, I'm not a Big Scary Man anymore -- I'm a Character; a Clown maybe; or something from TV. Kids are suddenly completely confortable talking to me, telling me their stories/concerns, asking for songs (sometimes while I'm in the middle of singing other songs!), screaming demands at me ("Play it again!"), etc.

It's magical, and quite wonderful. I'm thinking of wearing it year-round. Or at least whenever I'm likely to be playing for little kids.

Keith at Santa's Workshop - 15Dec2010

2010-12-16T08:41:00.000-08:00

What a great night! They re-routed the line to see Santa so that it's on the sidewalk, putting the people too far away if I set up on the lawn like usual, so I moved to the in-between "rest area". I set up so that I could play to the head of the line, but that coincidentally put me right in front of some (anchored-down) park furniture -- a bench, two chairs, and a "coffee table". I didn't realize that parents would allow their kids to come and sit there, right near me, but they did, and what an audience!

And a huge turn-out. It's supposed to go from 6-8, but they obviously can't turn people away, so I was playing until 9 when the line finally played out. It moves quite slowly, so I had some of those kids for 2 hours. I played and played, and they danced and sang along and requested songs, some real, some made-up. Sometimes I'd do a song, and they'd all scream, "Do it again!" Even with several "greatest hits" non-Xmas kids' songs mixed in, it was tough not to be too repetitive, with 3 hours to fill, but nobody seemed to mind.

Lots of cute, cute kids to play for. Most of them dressed up for Santa (and the pictures) -- red velvet with white fur trimmed dresses, sequins, sparkly shoes. And it's so fun to say, "I'm gonna play a song now about a dragon -- a magic dragon..." and have some kids shout, "Oooh! 'Puff the Magic Dragon'!" They're so excited to have guessed it! And I got to enlist kids to "help out" with the "...like a lightbulb!" descant for "Rudolph". Everybody sang along on "Jingle Bells". And there are lots of kids who know a full hand-gesture routine for "Up on the Housetop", miming the words "up", "reindeer", "Santa Claus", etc. I love audience participation!

I did work up the guts to put out the card table with the basket of candy and business cards on it, despite being pretty sure that Mister Cranky-Pants was there. All the candy was gone, though nobody seemed to have gotten the implied, stealth, "tip jar" aspect. But I didn't mind at all -- I had a blast. There was a pretty thick cloud cover that might have meant rain, but really only served to keep it merely cold, not freezing, so I didn't even have to play with frozen fingers. What a great night!

And a good thing, too, since the weather report is for rain all the way through the weekend, probably killing my Spectrum gig on Saturday, and the last Santa night on Sunday. Bummer. Now that I got this great setup (accidentally) figured out, I want to do it again!

K&W at Borders Mission Viejo -- 11Dec2010

2010-12-14T09:53:00.001-08:00

That was pretty fun. Due to various complications, I haven't played at the Mission Viejo Borders since May. When I got there, I was reminded of one of the downsides of playing in these no-stage bookshop venues: a lady was completely camped out in the corner where we need to set up, and was steadfastly impervious to my setting up of amps, stands, cables, etc. all around her. We get the same situation at South Coast Plaza, too, where someone is parked there, and we have to gently dislodge them. Awkward.

Anyway, we managed to get going eventually, but I had a lot of trouble getting the sound right. I guess the adjustments that get it working outdoors don't work so well indoors. And it's complicated since there's a tone knob in the guitar, on the pre-amp on the ground, and on the amp itself, all fighting/enhancing each other.

We did get some decent response, and I managed to goad several people into requesting songs. The good part was that, due to the "holiday hours", the store was open an hour longer than usual, so we had time to do more stuff. I sprinkled in several of my more pop-like Christmas songs, and Warren didn't complain too much about it. And, later in the evening, when the requests tapered off, I played through some unusual stuff: "Waiting", "People's Parties", "Landslide", and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", which I've recently figured out how to use the harmony box on, and worked far better than I'd expected/hoped. Demands a bit of fancy footwork, but I guess I'm getting the hang of it. Next up: "The Weight", which requires some really complicated foot-button pressing but sounds great, if I hit it.

We pulled in $19 in tips, which is pretty good for this place. I have a busy week coming up -- The Mission Viejo Santa Claus line on Wednesday and Sunday, Spectrum on Saturday, and the South Coast Plaza Borders on Friday with Warren again. 'Tis the season, I guess...

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 01Dec2010

2010-12-02T10:28:00.000-08:00

This is my third year playing for the families waiting in line to see Santa Claus at the Mission Viejo Civic Center. This year it's a little different -- they took out the stage (which was too far away from the "audience" anyway) and replaced it with Other Activities: cookie decorating and a projected loop of animated Christmas specials (Charley Brown, Frosty, Chipmunks, etc.) with (fortunately), the sound quite low. This was pretty smart, but it turns the lawn behind me into a Destination. It's a little odd to have people milling around behind me while I'm trying to play.

But it wasn't a problem -- this time anyway. The turnout was very small, here on December 1st, and a Wednesday. In fact, I always set up to play to the "middle" of the line, but the line was so short all night that it never even reached back to where I was playing. Everyone could hear me, but nobody was "in front" to see me (and I, them).

So mostly I seemed to be playing for the middle-school girl volunteers that pass out the hot chocolate and wear the Rudolph and Frosty suits. And that's OK. It was almost like a dress rehearsal for the rest of the nights.

I am pretty thrilled to be on the bill with such eminences as Suzanne's Dance Factory and Brownie Troop 367. I'm definitely on my way to the big time now...

There was some email discussion about whether or not I could put out my card table with CDs and a hat. Someone on the Committee doesn't like that because this is supposed to be a "free event". I'm not actually forcing anyone to buy one, but whatever. I have more of a problem that they won't even allow a tip jar. I don't need the money (though it's nice to feel appreciated), but it turns out that if I don't put out a jar/hat, people walk up and try to hand me money. Even in the middle of a song.

So the (possible) stealth solution we came up with was to put a low basket on the card table, filled with mixed peppermint candy and my business cards (which they specifically said I was allowed to put out). We figure that if anyone decides to leave a dollar in the basket in exchange for a mint, I can't stop 'em.

But, since the line never came back that far, that scheme didn't get tested. We'll see how it goes next Sunday.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Nov2010

2010-11-30T10:21:00.000-08:00

They've been doing construction next to the Food Court for the last month or two, demolishing a big restaurant, with no indication of what they'll put in. Well, it's finally done, and the answer is: nothing. They just paved over the whole place so it's one huge patio connected to the east side of the Food Court itself, and probably tripling the area.

But they didn't equip it with more tables and chairs -- the outside seating area of the Food Court never really filled up, so the idea clearly wasn't to add capacity to it. So all that's in the new area is three new sun-umbrellas with some outdoor comfy chairs and couches, two little vending carts, and empty space. Lots of that.

When I got there, I hunted around for where they put the stage in this new setup, and it was way over at the edge of the Food Court, "behind" (from the Court's point of view) a planter box with big trees in it, facing out into the new area. People in the Court, my usual audience, couldn't even see me. From the stage, there's nothing but brick pavers for miles, until you get out to the new comfy chairs clump, waaay out there. And over to my left, the two carts.

One of which made matters even worse -- it was selling T-shirts with live LED images on them that would react to sound/music. Pretty cool technology, but in order to demonstrate them, she had specially chosen thump-thumpy music blaring out so the display shirts would move. Loud -- really loud. I thought (hoped?) that she was far enough away that it wouldn't be a problem, and it was mostly OK (from where I was standing anyway) while I was playing, but as soon as a song was over: thumpa, thumpa, thumpa. Really annoying. And the space between her and me must have been even worse.

So basically, it's terrible. People wander through the space, and occasionally smile or nod my way on their way past, but there's nowhere to sit, so there's nothing resembling an audience -- even an accidental one a la the diners in the Food Court area. Some folks would take the only option and sit out on the comfy couches, where they could probably hear well enough, but there's no possibility of any kind of relationship -- no point in even clapping, and definitely too far away to shout up a request. Indeed, old Toshiba friend Glenn and family came by and did exactly that, though he did make the trek up and back to say hi, and then again to ask for a few tunes.

And occasionally, someone would come and stand up close, over to the side by the table, and listen for a few songs. Had some families with little kids so I played "Roll Over, Beethoven" so they could dance, and a really nice couple who ended up buying two CDs, and some others. But it took a lot of guts/dedication to do that, so it didn't happen much.

Not to mention, cold. I had brought our bathroom space heater, but of course, I couldn't even tell it was even on unless I was touching the front grill. The readout on top said 48 degrees. And I'm standing there, almost completely still, for 4 hours straight. It gets really hard to play when your fingers are frozen stiff.

Anyway, enough whining. I was upset that I hardly have any gigs there through December, but now I'm glad. All these issues are solvable -- maybe some furniture is on order, maybe someone will tell the T-shirt girl to turn it down, and the maintenance guys will undoubtedly start bringing out the umbrella heaters someday. I just figure that whoever has the rest of the gigs in December can deal with them, and I'll cruise in to all-fixed-up, later on. Hopefully.

Inexplicably, there was $35 in the tip jar. A third of that was the nice lady who bought the two CDs. Not sure when the rest of it came along, but I guess I was playing OK. Or maybe it was just pity for that guy playing guitar up there and turning blue...

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza – 19Nov2010

2010-11-24T16:51:00.000-08:00

Early in the week, I was walking around the parking lots with my electric guitar, and a lady pulled up in her car and shouted, "Do you give lessons?" I told her, "No, but I know a guy who does." I gave her my email address so she could contact me and I could give her Warren's info, but I also told her that she could come see us at Borders on Friday, meet Warren in person, and even maybe discover that the crazy guy who plays guitar while walking around the buildings really isn't crazy after all.

And she actually showed up. She's a big "music fan", and seemed to really enjoy listening to us and asking for songs -- and not just as an "audition" for Warren as a teacher. But she (Lisa) wasn't the only one. There were several people who were joining in, listening and requesting. It was almost like having an actual audience!

But Lisa is apparently a rocker at heart, because she requested almost exclusively the faster songs on the list. As a result, I think it was our hardest rocking gig ever. I don't generally like to play the rock songs on the list, because I think they sound a little pathetic on acoustic guitar with no bass nor drums, but I have a few on there anyway. She asked for all of them, and the Friendly Guy Who Works There came up and asked for "Roll Over Beethoven", too. So we played a lot of fast songs that we seldom play, some that we haven't played for years, and more of them in a single gig than ever before, I'm sure. "Take Me to the River", "Don't Stop Believing", "Daydream Believer", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", the aforementioned "Beethoven", and there was an older guy there who asked for "Dream Lover", and "Teach Your Children", and a nice lady next to Lisa who asked for "Country Roads". Some "harder" than others, of course, but it sure seemed like a lot of *strumming* to me.

And big fun. Lisa and Warren wandered off to talk business toward the end, and set up a date for the first lesson, so apparently we passed the audition -- all good, all around. But do I need to get a tattoo now?

Keith at San Mateo Campground -- 13Nov2010

2010-11-16T11:24:00.000-08:00

A guy in my old Indian Princess nation invited me back to play for their campout and I jumped at the chance -- even at the expense of having to postpone a Borders Mission Viejo date to do so. The San Mateo campground is just 17 miles from my house, and has a really nice little amphitheater, with nice benches and a stage and power and even lights.

To make it more fun for the kids (or to buy the audience's favor), I went to the swap meet in the morning and bought 60 tiny LED flashlights, and gave one to each princess. The picture above is half the crowd with their lights.

I started with my greatest hit, "Waltzing With Bears", and a bunch of the girls (and several dads) got up and danced between the stage and the front row. Nobody dances like little girls, aged 5 to 9. And after each song, they all went back to their seats, only to leap up and dance all the way through the next song, and the next...

It was huge fun for me, and all too nostalgic. We did all the hits, including "The Indian Princess Song", with the cue cards. Since there were several dads there that came up and welcomed me, I asked for 3 volunteers for the cards of girls "who have seen this before!", though I think one of the girls that I picked may have fibbed a little, 'cuz she was completely confused. But that was, and always has been (though inadvertently), part of the fun.

It was far too short, because (a) they scheduled in the girls' skits in the middle (though that was fun/nostalgic too), and (b) it got really cold and a lot of the girls just wanted to go back to the tents and go to sleep. I had made up 30 "Bears" CDs, and left them (and a donations hat) out for the guys to take, and 15 of them disappeared. I heard a lot of girls begging their dads for one, only to have the dads tell them that they already had one. Apparently the girls wanted a back-up -- even more flattering...

About a dozen guys came up while I was taking down the equipment to thank me for coming out, and several girls, too -- some of them even without their dads making them do it. A lot of them mentioned how much they missed having the music at the campouts. Me too! Call me any time!

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 12Nov2010

2010-11-15T13:40:00.000-08:00

A bit disappointing after last Friday's success -- I guess it really was the nice weather, and last week was *before* the time change which probably helped, too. A lot fewer people this time, and less "connecting" going on, but still better than sitting at home watching TV.

I did have some people listening -- Daleen came by for a while with the dogs, and there were some friendly people along the way, and a pair of teenage-girl Beatle fans at the end. And sometime in the middle, there was a guy looking on my table for a business card (which I'd neglected to put out), needing my email address, saying something about wanting to hire me. He discovered the email address at the bottom of the song list, and insisted that that was enough, and left. I didn't think much about it, until I got an email on Saturday morning, which I'll just quote in full:

Dear Keith:

I heard you play at the spectrum today and I just wanted to say thank you very much for playing. I was having such a hard day and I took a very long walk to calm down...maybe a 5 mile walk I would say, and I ended up in the spectrum where you were playing. See, I've been diagnosed with depression and have reoccurring thoughts of suicide, today being no exception, but for some reason hearing you play made me feel so much better. I know it may not seem like a lot to you, but it meant a lot to me. It really makes a difference to people, even if it's just one simple song. Thank you for giving me something worth living this day, and something to keep me going in the future.

I appreciate what you do. You don't have to respond, just thought I would let you know that you make a difference.

So... there's that.

Kind of makes worrying about the "take" in the tip jar fade in relevance...

You know, I'm obviously glad to have had a positive impact on the guy's life, but I'm not sure how much credit I can claim, since I was completely unaware and just doing my usual show (which, let's face it, I do for the attention). But still, nice.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 05Nov2010

2010-11-08T09:33:00.000-08:00

Somebody has snapped up almost all of the upcoming Food Court Saturdays, so I broke down and requested a bunch of Fridays, 'cuz I thought they'd be better than nothing. But I wasn't expecting there to be many people on a Friday, to the point where I brought out the electric guitar, figuring that I could play around with switching to it while there wasn't anyone there anyway.

But I was way wrong. There weren't many people at first, but, possibly because it was a wonderfully warm evening, people started showing up, and for no apparent reason, there were lots of attentive, appreciative people out there, all night long. I half-expected, after this presumed disaster, to have to tell the booking lady that I'd need to beg off of all those other Fridays I'd booked, but it turned out to be the best Spectrum gig I can remember.

Part of it may also have been that, for some reason, the sound was way better than it's ever been there. There was a new maintenance guy who turned the "house music" completely off (as opposed to just "down"), and there were a lot fewer screaming kids in the fountain, and maybe just a lower general hub-bub of people, or maybe I just had the knobs adjusted different. Or maybe it was because the stage got moved back in front of the ice cream bar store, so I didn't have a wall right behind me, which I now think may contribute to feedback which in turn prevents my being to turn it up as much. Whatever -- I could hear myself far better than I ever have been able to before at this place. That really helps me play and sing better.

So people were staying, and listening, and asking for songs -- it was great. My voice was even better than two weeks ago (when I thought it was "all better"), and I was able to really go for it. While I was setting up, I had asked the maintenance guy when he gets off (11:00), and told him that the last 9-10 hour was generally the best for me, so he didn't need to hurry to come out and get the lights (and shut me down). He heeded that and showed up to stop the fun at 10:30 -- literally leaving several people "begging for more".

One of whom was a guy who was there with his self-professed First Date, and who was trying Way. Too. Hard. When they arrived, they sat down right up front, and he spent most of the songs singing along and expansively miming all the lyrics, for the presumed "benefit" of his date. I don't usually think this of people, but I had to suspect some kind of "artificial courage" was at play.

Anyway, after a while, he came up and asked if I could play "Fire and Rain" and I told him I could play it with both hands tied behind my back. He said that he wanted it to become "their song". I said OK, and started flipping to it in the book, but then, thinking about it, I said, "You know, it's not really a love song." He started squirming a little at that, but then I thought about it more and said, "Actually, I guess it is kind of a love song, but the girl is dead". That got him really squirming and laughing nervously -- I suppose that wasn't the most tact I've shown lately, but I wasn't really thinking. I went ahead and played it, but I'm not sure it'll really become "their song", nor even if there'll be a second date.

So, other than that lapse of judgment, it was a really great night. I guess I'll keep the rest of those Fridays -- even though it is quite a bit tougher to play a 4 hour gig after a day's work. On the other hand, it's a great startup for the weekend. Not to mention the $75 in tips, which is a recent record -- and then there's that great "Stickin' it to The Man" rush 'cuz it's all tax free.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 23Oct2010

2010-10-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

It had been raining off and on all week, but it was pretty clear on Saturday. Still, I didn't expect many people to come out, but I was wrong. It was empty for the first hour or so, but it picked up pretty well. At one point it was literally "standing room only", which is hard to do in a Food Court.

It was quite a struggle to get anything going that first hour or two, though. Faced with stone silence at the end of every song, I always end up reverting to a "greatest hits" program, playing just my most crowd-pleasing stuff, just to try to rope somebody, anybody, in. That's the trouble with this venue -- no subtlety allowed. And how many times can I play "Hotel California" in one night?

Actually, that's not true. About 9:00, I usually get some people who've apparently gotten out of their movie and don't want to go home yet. Then I get some real audience, and it's late and moody enough to do some soft slow stuff. That's my favorite time.

But before that, I had a big foreign kid ask for john Denver's "Country Roads". This is another song (like "Something") that I had to include because a song I *like* to do (James Taylor's "Country Road") gets confused with it, and people ask, and get disappointed 'cuz it's the "wrong one". So I did it, and got probably the loudest round of applause of the night. C'mon people! Really?!? Any campfire hack that knows 4 chords can, and does, do "Country Roads". It's so dumb and easy that I'm embarrassed to play it. But it goes over. People like what they like. I guess I'm not really *being* a music snob (I *did* put it on the list), but I'm sure thinking like one. Gotta try to cut that out...

People occasionally take my picture. I assume they're tourists. Nobody takes any video, though (except me, of course). This time, a lady was clearly taking video with her smart phone -- holding it up, horizontally, at me for half a song, then turning around and walking back to her husband. That's odd, I thought.

Twenty minutes later, I spot a guy in the back with a real home video camera, pointed right at me for quite a while. Wow, twice in one night -- weird.

A half hour later, there's a guy off to the side with a full-scale "pro" video camera, on a tripod, aimed at me! What's going on here?!? That one was *really* strange -- not to mention the triple-coincidence. I half-expected him to come up later to have me sign a waiver, but he never did. I wonder if it's for those Spectrum commercials I've occasionally seen, and if I signed a general waiver when I took the gig. Guess I'll have to keep an eye out on the TV.

Anyway, it was a pretty great night, after it got rolling. I'd wonder about talking them into letting me play from 7-11 instead, but I don't have any more gigs there until December 18th, so it's kinda moot. And, presumably, when Daylight Saving ends, it'll all be different anyway.

I've been neglecting the CD manufacturing lately (with everything else going on) so I only had two with me, and they both sold (usually, none do). And though it seemed slow, I ended up with $67 in the jar, so, not bad at all.

I just wish I had the stage presence or knew what to do to get the audience connected earlier. It seems to happen anyway -- usually; eventually -- without my direct influence, but it would be nice to be able to *make* it happen. Maybe I need to play "Country Roads" more...

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 15Oct2010

2010-10-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

I'd only just gotten back from our trip to Japan the day before, so I was a little spaced out and unrehearsed, but at least not too sleepy. The sound was quite loud (inadvertently -- but once you've started, it's too late to back down), but clear and wonderful, as it always is, here.

It did seem more bass-y than usual, so I had to do some tweaking to get comfortable, but eventually was loving it. It wasn't until the very last song that I noticed that I had turned up the amplifier's reverb at last weekend's ill-advised campfire. That's usually off, 'cuz the harmony box takes care of it now. But I guess I had "double reverb", which may explain the odd, but lush, sound.

Had a mother/daughter (or big sister?) pair right up front, right from the start, so we got some participation right away. More than the usual amount of friendly listeners this time.

And my voice was almost completely back on track, finally. I still can't hit the very highest note that I used to have, but it doesn't appear much. And my nice clear tonality is back too, so I'm pretty happy.

Unfortunately, my usually-reliable almost-every-Saturday gig at Spectrum seems to have dried up (I could only book two more until the end of the year!), so just when I finally *can* sing I'm not gonna get much chance to actually do it.

But it was a great night, and it was a thrill just to hear my (functional) voice coming out of the speakers again.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza – 17Sept2010

2010-09-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've played with Warren, or at SCP for that matter, so it was a fun change. Unfortunately, my voice is still a little messed up, so I had to do most of the songs with my guitar still down-tuned a half step. This has the effect of changing all my guitar-friendly keys into worst-case-scenario keys for Warren to try to play along in. But he hung in there, and called it all "educational", which I imagine it was. Towards the end, though, I figured I was warmed up enough, and there were few enough people there anyway, that I could go ahead and tune back to normal key and give him a break.

As always, not many people there, and during the second hour nobody was paying much attention, but early on we had an Asian couple sitting right up front, definitely there to hear something. They just stared at me blankly when I'd ask if they had any requests from the list that they appeared to be reading, until finally the lady asked for "Rhythm of the Rain", barely understandably.

She had some odd mannerisms -- all through "The Boxer" she held her hands out and twiddled her fingers as if she were (faking at) playing the piano. And through another song, she alternately banged her fists on each other, to the beat, sending the hit-upon fist around in an 18-inch loop to come back and hit the other, sending it on its own loop. Some weird kind of drill-team move, maybe. But they must have liked us, 'cuz they bought a CD on their way out.

Later on, a college girl came in and joined in pretty well -- singing along (to herself, of course) with several of my songs. Her two friends showed up and they all requested a few tunes before they had to leave.

But, as I feared, the terrific acoustics of the place made it very clear (to me at least) every time my voice missed its mark. Fortunately, there was hardly anyone listening, so I wasn't too embarrassed. I probably *shoulda* been, but I'm too far beyond that anymore.

I did get to play my new "Nature Boy" in a quiet mellow setting. Works much better than last week at Spectrum. I don't know how easy it is to play along with, since it's all vague-rooted spacey jazz chords, but Warren seemed to like it in general.

We made $12 to split, which was pretty good considering how few people were there. Obviously, it's not a very lucrative place to play, but it's good to play someplace where I can actually hear myself, once in a while. As opposed to Spectrum where I'm so drowned out by the fountain noise that even *I* don't know if I'm singly badly or not. I guess it's good to have the camouflage while my voice is trashed, but it's a lot less artistically satisfying if I'm actually doing well.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum – 11Sept2010

2010-09-17T16:37:00.000-07:00

Well, school's officially started, and the Food Court is pretty dead. Maybe it'll pick up again after all the excitement's over, but every week for the past 3 has had fewer people than the one before. Note to self: If you're gonna have a trashed voice for a 10-15 week stretch, don't do it in the summer next time. I up and missed the best playin' time…

I was hoping, again, to be able to tune my guitar to concert pitch, maybe after a while warming up at a half-step down, but I never really got the impression that I'd get away with it. But it was pretty comfortable singing down the half-step, so maybe I'm very slowly approaching "fixed".

Never a lot of people, but an occasional friendly group to play for. One 30-something couple sat and listened a long time, and the girl unexpectedly and raucously joined in singing/shouting the chorus "Time After Time". That was odd.

I have a section in The Book of songs that I mostly-know, and are there in case someone asks for them, but not on The List 'cuz they don't seem that popular. I occasionally run through them to remember how to play 'em, which I did on Saturday. That was lucky because out of the blue, a guy asked for "If You Could Read My Mind". If I hadn't run through it earlier in the day, it would have been a disaster.

Anyway, pretty fun, even without much of a crowd to play for, and $44 isn't bad (especially considering how few people were there). Next week is South Coast Plaza, and then I'm out for a while for my vacation, so it'll be a while before I'm back at Spectrum.

"Flyer" at Buster's Beach House -- 05Sept2010

2010-09-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

It's been years since I've dragged myself out to see Todd and Nancy play. They have a new third member of the band, Kurt, who, coincidentally, also went to Marina, a year behind me. And the guy is good -- really good.

Anyway, Daleen and I sat and watched anonymously for a couple of songs before Nancy noticed me, and started saying that they'd have to have me up there in a while. I never know if that's "cool", for them to bring up other people, but apparently it is. On that chance, though, I brought my guitar, just in case.

It's strange that, the night before and almost every Saturday, I play for 4 hours and it never even occurs to me to be nervous about it anymore -- but Nancy even suggesting that I come up sent me into a cold sweat. Most of that was undoubtedly just unfamiliar circumstances, but part was also my still-not-fully-working voice, made a bit hoarse by the 4 hours of singing the night before. And the fact that my guitar is tuned down a half-step (so I can reach the "high notes"), and I was worried about Todd trying to play along when I'd be in a really odd key.

Luckily for both of us, he wanted to just go out and listen. I played "You've Got a Friend", quite badly. I was nervous, and my guitar sounded funny and distant through his system, and I'm not used to singing into a fixed mic on a stand (I have a "head mic"), so I was completely thrown. I kept thinking, "Who *is* this?", 'cuz I couldn't recognize my guitar, my distracted and bad playing, or my voice.

I tried to snap out of it and just play, and maybe had it partially together by the ending. I thought it was a total bomb, but I got a *huge* round of applause, surprising me a lot. They (the crowd and Todd) seemed to want me to play another one, so I chose "Leaving On a Jet Plane", because (a) it's really easy, (b) my arrangement is unique, and, I think, pretty cool, and (c) I get to put some spin on the vocal. Todd had reappeared, and I warned him not to try to play along ('cuz of the weird key and guitar arrangement), but to definitely sing harmony, which was really great. Amazing to think that the first time we harmonized together was 39 years ago...

That one went way better, and people seemed impressed. Nancy seemed to want me to do "Sweet Baby James" (so they could both sing harmonies), but two was enough, and we might get to it later on (though we didn't).

Of course, it takes me at least two songs just to get warmed and loosened up, but it's pretty cool to play for people who are actually there to hear music, as opposed to my usual gigs where I'm essentially an interruption. I'll definitely have to go back down there, when my voice is better, and sooner than a couple of years this time.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum – 04Sept2010

2010-09-05T17:03:00.001-07:00

It's Labor Day weekend, so I wasn't expecting many people out, but it was the opposite -- lots of people, all evening long. It was pretty hot in the day, but a pleasantly warm night, so people seemed to just stay -- it was the most people I've had still-there all the way to the end, ever.

My voice has gotten noticeably better over the past week (finally!), so I took a chance and brought my guitar back up a half-step, so it's only a half-step down from normal pitch. That helped a lot as far as it, and me, sounding really low, and most of my songs were sing-able there. I even felt like I occasionally had enough "left over" to actually *sing* parts of some of the songs, as opposed to just hitting the notes.

Two sleeve-tattooed, black-T-shirted guys sat down at the very front table even before I got started, and, far from heckling me with requests for Ozzy tunes as one might expect, they asked for classic stuff off my list, very politely. Their first request was "Hotel California", which I've been opening with anyway, so that worked out well. Then "Hey Jude", "Help From My Friends", and a lot of others, until finally the girls that they were apparently waiting for showed up, and off they went. Great way to get started, though.

Lots of nice older people out too, quietly hanging around, though most were too shy to request anything (or, as they invariably insist when called out, "You're doing great -- I love all these songs!"). Some couples sat and listened for an hour or more, I'm sure.

And, especially early on, lots of kids playing in the fountain. That makes it crazy and pretty noisy, but I'm starting to think that I have a symbiotic relationship with the kids -- the fountain brings the families out, and my tunes keep the parents less bored, so the kids get to play longer. Especially on such a warm night -- there were kids still playing in the fountain way past dark, with their parents smiling and nodding at me.

Towards the end, there was a cheerful guy shouting great ("Eagles!") and crazy ("Boz Skaggs!") requests. He audibly liked my rendition of "Old Man", so I took the opportunity to play "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" for someone who'd recognize it. Seemed to go over with him, but not so much with everyone else. Bummer -- I'm really liking playing that one. Then, when it was almost 10:00, I decided to play "Nature Boy", just to get it in, but it just completely flopped. Wrong mood and setting -- it still might work at a Borders. I did *not* get the chance (or the guts?) to play Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You", which I had worked up earlier in the day. It plays really well, but it's a bit out of my wheelhouse. But if I get a pack of tweens out there one of these nights, I'm gonna whip it out and blow their minds. Or not.

Anyway, it was a great night -- basically no "down time" the whole 4 hours. That's never happened before. I'm pretty sure I had more tippers (though less actual money), than last week. More singles, fewer fives, but still $55 ain't bad.

I wish I coulda played later, but I had warned the crowd that I'd have to quit at ten, and they apparently believed me and started clearing out at 5-'til. Actually, I can usually play another 10 or 15 minutes before the Maintenance guys show up, but my left-hand fingertips were really hurting, so, since most of the crowd was gone anyway, I went ahead and shut it down just a little after 10.

I hadn't even noticed the pain in my fingers until 9:45, when I looked at the clock and realized that I only had 15 minutes left. Now I know how Wile E. Coyote feels when he's run out over the ravine and doesn't fall until he looks down.

Keith (finally!) back at Spectrum -- 28Aug2010

2010-08-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

It's been 10 weeks since my voice mysteriously quit working right (I'm beginning to suspect foul play), but it's been getting slowly better, despite the help of modern medicine.

When you're young and you hurt your knee, you "walk it out" to get back in the game. As you get older, you reach a point where you do the opposite -- immobilize it. Since the doctors were no help, I've been trying to figure out if I should "work out" my voice (by singing at home a lot and/or playing a gig) or if I should take a vow of silence for a couple of months.

I guess I've decided on the former. Most of the warbling/lack of control is gone now, so the main remaining symptom is loss of the high end of my range. Unfortunately, it's not accompanied by a corresponding increase of range at the low end, but the only way I could come close to singing my usual songs was to play them lower by tuning my guitar a whole step down, and hoping for the best with the low notes.

Naturally, this makes my guitar sound growly, and takes away a lot of the "sparkle", but I didn't have much choice. It also makes me sound a lot more profundo -- not a very "pop" sound. Most pop songs are sung by tenors, and I've already transposed them down for my baritone voice. This further-drop takes them into scary-low range, down in Caiaphas territory.

I was hoping that, as my voice warmed up, I would regain some of the high range, but it really didn't happen. Usually I gain about 3 half-steps in the first hour or so, but last night it may have been only one. This is somewhat distressing, 'cuz it may mean that the "work it out" method isn't working.

But it sure was nice to be back up there again, and people didn't seem to notice much. The mostly-high songs sounded OK, 'cuz they weren't too low in the tuned-down state. The medium-range ones sounded pretty funny to me, but nobody threw any tomatoes...

I had forgotten how much *stuff* have to set up, and take down. Or maybe it just seemed like more hassle 'cuz I'd lost the routine of what goes where. I'd also forgotten how much 4 hours of playing trashes my back and knees...

The good news was that they've moved the stage again, almost back to where it started. The little candle/jewelry shop in the middle of the food court went under, so the stage is now right in front of it, using its front doors as a backdrop. This puts the stage "front and center", and it's nice to have a wall behind me, ever since the "hat stealer" incident (q.v.).

Had some nice people there, and got some good reactions (and 66 bucks), especially during the last half hour. I'm starting to wonder if they'd let me play from 7-11, instead of 6-10. I keep having to quit just when it's getting good -- all the 7:00 movies let out around 9:30, and some folks are looking for something to keep the evening going.

But I finally got to play the song I was working (and working and working) on when my voice quit: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". The "suite" part indicates that it's really 4 movements, strung together. I'm hoping that my dazzling Spanish (born of Two Whole Years of high school classes) in Part 4 keeps people from noticing that I'm entirely skipping Part 3, just 'cuz I can't make it sound like anything on guitar. (Besides, canaries are yellow, not "chestnut brown" anyway, right?) Unfortunately, it's one of the "low, so now even lower" ones, so, kinda not OK until my voice catches up.

I also played my new Obsession Song of the Week, which I'd just really worked out earlier in the day: "Nature Boy". It's from 1947 and very jazz-chord-y, but I worked out a way to play it that sounds pretty good to me. It's OK, I waited until nobody was listening, but it seemed to "work".

Had a young couple come up and ask me if I used to play at the Borders in Santa Margarita. Absolutely -- it was my favorite place to play. But they shut it down, like, 5 years ago. It was flattering that they remembered me -- and Geneva. They asked if she still played with me, but I had to tell them that she's 18 now, and wouldn't be caught dead...

Another couple came up as they were leaving and said that they'd missed me (during my 10-week absence). Also flattering. And a guy asked if I knew "Still Crazy", which, why yes, I do! It's not on the list, but it's in The Book. It's great when that happens. But what's with little kids waving at me during songs? Can't they see that my hands are busy?

Anyway, I'm up again next week, and we'll see if my upper range comes back over time. The "exercise" doesn't seem to have helped, but at least it doesn't seem to have done any damage, either. But I don't want to have to play/sing so low forever...

Geneva Goes Hang Gliding -- 17Aug2010

2010-08-18T15:01:00.000-07:00

We finally got the chance to make good on the Birthday Present promise to take Geneva hang gliding. The Present/promise was delivered on her 18th birthday back in December, but we were waiting for good flying weather -- and since summer's almost over and we were on our way out to Palm Springs for a few days' vacation, it was the perfect chance.

The idea occurred to me because, of the few things she's let me read of her Creative Writing stuff, half of them feature "girls with wings". Seemed to be a big fantasy of hers, and this seemed like the closest I could come to fulfilling it.

The hang gliding guy operates out of San Bernardino -- you basically drive up the mountain, jump off, and land back down in the flatlands. The "flight" is really "Lesson 1", and after 2 or 3, you're ready (if you're *ready*) to fly one solo. As much as she'd like it to, it's probably not gonna become a real hobby for Geneva, but it's still more interactive as a "lesson" than just as a "ride".

So, we showed up at the landing site, and the guy took Geneva away for an hour or so, and we finally spotted a tiny white wing up above the mountain. We watched it circle and glide around for half an hour, until they swooped in and dropped right back down, standing up, no running required. Pretty impressive.

She had a terrific time, of course, though afterwards she said that she was getting a little airsick up there. She was too proud to tell the guy about it, though. And despite that, she'd do it again in a heartbeat, I'm sure.

(Click any image for bigger version.)

Keith (not) at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Jun2010

2010-06-30T16:33:00.000-07:00

I had to cancel (aka "no show") at the last minute for the first time -- due to a sudden, mysterious, and frankly scary, near-total failure of my voice. I don't have a sore throat, but there's a "sore gland"-like pain in the left side of my neck (though without any swelling), and I simply can't make my voice go up to even slightly-high notes. I aim at 'em, but my voice won't go there. My neck/throat feels "tight" when I try.

I discovered the problem on the way to the gig, singing along with myself (on CD) to warm up. But I never got warmed up. I can't hit high notes, and the medium notes waver radically. I sound like someone who's purposefully making fun of singers -- completely off half of the notes, and all wiggly.

I've never felt (or heard of) anything like it, I have no idea what it is, what caused it, nor when (or if) it'll go away. It's been 4 days as of this writing, and it's just about the same, still, so I cancelled next Saturday's gig already, in hopes that they can book someone else.

I'm considering going to the doctor, but there's nothing to see, and no symptoms to report except the sore spot in my neck, a tiny bit of scratchiness, and "I can't sing anymore".

I can talk fine ('cuz that's lower in my range), but I dunno. Maybe it's Goiter. Maybe it's a "pulled muscle", (though it's not like it happened while I was tryin' to sing a double-high-A). Maybe it's a new, weird, non-hurty Cold. Maybe it's thyroid cancer. Maybe I just slept on my neck wrong. It's really scary, though, 'cuz, like, what's the point of knowing how to play all this guitar if I can't sing along with it? So I guess I'll have to go let the doctor stick some needles in it/me, 'cuz, you know, that's what they do.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 18Jun2010

2010-06-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

An even more disinterested crowd than usual. I guess it's essentially random -- sometimes there are people who think we sound pretty good, and sometimes there ain't -- but I'm starting to wonder if it's even worth setting up the stuff there.

I guess it wasn't *that* bad -- there was a guy down front who (somewhat reluctantly) picked out a few songs, and a period near the end when a pretty girl in the back (friend of the guitar-playing coffee-guy?) was asking for songs, and actually listening to them when played. But most of the time we were just playing into a black hole.

On the other hand, it may have been just as well that nobody was listening, 'cuz I was playing pretty badly. Or was I playing badly 'cuz nobody was listening...? I set up some video cameras, but didn't bother to start them up until the sun had set behind us, because the video's unwatchable until the glare behind us goes away. (Hmmm. I wonder if that's part of why we can't get any connection going -- nobody can bear to look at us.)

Anyway, I don't think I managed to play a single song all the way through without a huge mistake for that last hour when the cameras were running. But that's OK -- it'll save me a lot of time this week, not having to edit movies together...

Towards the end, a 50-something lady came and was listening, sort of. When I announced that we were almost out of time, she got up and came over to show me a CD she was carrying around, to ask me if I knew any of the songs on it. The artist's name was in a fancy font, and, apparently confused by the lady's outrageous eastern European accent, at first I thought it said "Grace Jones". That seemed pretty crazy, but then I realized that it actually said "George Jones", which was slightly, but not much, more reasonable. She wanted to know if I knew "Picture of Me Without You", which I've never heard of, but figured "Angel Flying Too Close To the Ground" might be a reasonable substitute (plus, it gives Warren a chance to play harmonica). But apparently she'd never heard that one. I guess she's just a George Jones loyalist -- no Willie allowed.

It occurred to me afterwards that I should have attempted to remember and play "Bartender's Blues", which James Taylor deliberately wrote to sound like George Jones, and which George subsequently obligingly recorded. She'd'a probably known that one.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 12June2010

2010-06-17T09:17:00.000-07:00

Not a lot of people out there, but I had a great time. It was a little gray out all day, so there were fewer little kids screaming in the fountain, and somehow I could hear myself noticeably better than usual for this very noisy outdoor venue. Was the amp just up louder, or the house music quieter? Dunno, but whatever it was, it sure helps.

Geneva had taken two of my cameras to her Grad Night party, and managed to leave the main one I use for the "close shot" and the audio with a friend. I found this out only an hour before the gig, of course, so I had to just forego trying to take any video this time. I was pretty unhappy with her, of course, but it turned out to be unexpectedly liberating to not have that pressure. I like to think that I'm getting immune to it, but clearly not.

To start with, it saved a lot of time in the set up and tear down. And, since I never start the cameras up right at first ('cuz it takes me a while to get warmed up and playing halfway decent), it saved me having to interrupt the show to start 'em all up. But mostly, I was just a lot more relaxed and able to just "let 'er fly". I don't know if I'm actually better that way, but it seems to me like it, and it's definitely a lot more fun.

There weren't a lot of people, but there was nearly always somebody tuned in, so I had someone to sing for (and, despite the low attendance, made $57). And my brother came by for quite a while, which is always nice. He got to hear my first, very flawed, attempt at a new arrangement of "Over the Rainbow". I worked up (that day) a ukulele-less simulation of the version that was in the season finale of "Glee", which is based on the version by Hawaiian legend Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, heard these days in dozens of movies and commercials.

It's interesting, musically, to me because "Bruddah Iz" rebuilt the chords and melody, but also rearranged (aka "butchered") the lyrics, scrambling bits and pieces of the real words as if he was simply lost but remembered some of it. The "Glee" version puts the words back where they belong, and reworks the chords to be more accurate to the original, while retaining the feeling by using the same ukulele track and rhythm pattern. This makes it far more palatable to me, because I have a hard time deliberately singing it "wrong", with the words messed up so much that the verses don't even rhyme anymore. And it's hard enough trying to remember the "new melody" after singing the original one to my very hard-earned jazz-chord version all these years.

I can play this very-simplified version on my ukulele, but that would require the hassle of (a) bringing it, and (b) amplifying it, so I'm just putting a capo up high on my guitar and strumming in a ukulele-like way. It'll have to do. And it apparently does work out, 'cuz I played it two more times, getting better each time, with good response. Late in the evening, a white-haired gent came up and, without checking the list, asked if I knew "Over the Rainbow". I told him I knew two versions, the classic one, and a new one on ukulele. He immediately asked for the ukulele one, "for [his] granddaughter - she loves that one". I guess that clinches it.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 29May2010

2010-05-31T14:14:00.001-07:00

Nice and warm, finally, and well-attended. Unfortunately, the warmer it gets, the longer I have to endure the screaming kids that parents bring to play in the fountain. It's really becoming what we had as the "city pool" when I was a kid. I don't begrudge them getting to "play int he sprinklers" on a warm summer evening, but I wish it wasn't so close to where I'm trying to play.

I did have some friendly people, and some definite admirers. One Persian family was there almost the whole night -- they were there when I got there, and left around 9:00. They didn't interact with me much, but the kids asked for a few songs later on. The ancient gramma, with her walker and brought-along camp chair (so she wouldn't have to sit on the metal ones), had the dad ask me to play Lionel Richie's 80-s hit, "Hello". I only just learned that one (because of it's showing up in "Glee"), so it's not even on the list. They musta heard it two weekends ago, but it was still quite a surprise to get it requested by 90-year-old gramma.

A guy came up and asked if I knew any "Bad Company", but settled for "Hotel California". And another Farsi-lady asked if I knew any "Bee Gees", and settled for "Lucy In the Sky". At least I'm not *entirely* disappointing.

I set up 5 cameras this time, so when one failed (my fault -- forgot to put a memory card in it), I had 4 streams. This time, my mistake was not pointing the lights at myself (it was too hot when I switched them on!), so I'm just a silhouette against the ice cream store's lights. That's OK, I wasn't terribly inspired anyway, and this saves me a lot of time with the video editing software, not having to create any videos. I still have one or two to finish from last week at South Coast Plaza...

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 21May2010

2010-05-27T11:59:00.000-07:00

A pretty good night -- not a lot of overt audience response (as is usual for this place), but some good performances for the cameras, and we sold all 6 CDs that I put out and took home $14 each, so someone must have liked what they were hearing.

The video equipment malfunction trend continued with my not being able to find the memory chips I needed (I found them later -- they fell out of my jeans pocket in the closet), so I had to use the low-capacity spares, which meant more trouble and less video. And I carefully set one of the cameras perfectly straight, but with its adjustable-angle lens inadvertently tilted at 15% off of horizontal. I'm just gonna pretend that it's "artistic", and not a screw up.

The others were in pretty good spots, with pretty good framing and zoom levels, so there's something to work with there, except that the backdrop is a white porous window shade, facing west into the sunset. The first half of the night is radically backlit, so we're little more than silhouettes. This may also explain why no one would look at us until the last half hour...

But I got some decent stuff in the later parts, so I'll be working those up into multi-camera videos this week.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 15May2010

2010-05-20T08:57:00.001-07:00

Unexpectedly low turnout, compared to recent weeks. I think it was the weather, which was warm and sunny in the day but turned chilly and windy, forcing inadvertently inappropriately dressed shoppers to go home early.

And those that did show up were unusually subdued. And a lot fewer teens than usual -- Prom season? I played to a lot of dead silence, but there were patches of enthusiastic people, and somehow there was almost $50 in the jar, so I must have sounded good to somebody, sometime.

I put up 4 video cameras this time, and caught some decent footage in several of them. Unfortunately, now that the experiment of "Can I do it?" (meaning, cut several cameras' footage into one, more interesting, video) is over, I'm left wondering "Why am I doing it?"

I suppose each one I've done is a little better than the last, since I'm getting beyond just making it work and into making it "pretty". And I'm getting bolder with the zooming and panning effects, as I see that they really do work. Of course, now I'm probably pushing them too far...

Anyway, I guess each one I do can be a replacement for previous ones, if they are a better performance or video take/edit. I'm compiling them onto a sub-page of my home page, where they could be an "audition page" if some venue would ever deign to enter the modern age and accept a URL instead of a physical CD. So far that's never happened, but someday...

Check out some new videos here.

K&W at Borders Mission Viejo -- 08May2010

2010-05-14T17:18:00.000-07:00

Fun, but short! It was the usual (these days) half-full coffeeshop, but we had several friendly faces out there. But after a while, long-lost cousin Vanessa (and family) came by, and really gave us someone to play for. And not too long later, my brother also arrived, upping the ante even more!

I was torn between playing for her and visiting with her, but she had to leave at 9:00, so we reluctantly took a break at quarter 'til. By the time she broke loose and we started up again, we only had time left for 3 songs, 'cuz they close at 10, and it takes at least 20 minutes to tear down. With the early closing time and the rare "break", I think that's the least I've played in years.

Still, all the attention (from Vanessa's family and Roy) had roped some other people who were left wanting more when we had to quit. They asked about the price of the CDs, and were beside themselves when I told them "Whatever you want to put in the jar" -- this was far too good a deal for the Jewish Mothers Club to pass up! I made Vanessa take a pair of CDs, plus a specially-made "Tribute to My Dad" CD that I'd brought for her, but we sold 4 more, presumably a pair to each of the Moms. And did pretty well in the jar, accordingly.

I'd brought a stack of video cameras, and set three of them up to try to catch some decent footage if there happened to be any decent performances. And did, it turned out. My new cutting between several camera approach really makes the videos more fun to watch (if 10 times the work to produce), but it really shows the difference in quality between different brands of cameras! When it cuts from one camera's output to another, you can really see the color and sharpness differences -- although I can minimize it some in the software.

Anyway, you can check some of the new videos out on my webpage. Click the "Videos" tab. The "Hallelujah" and "Let It Be" takes at the bottom are from this outing.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 01May2010

2010-05-06T09:32:00.001-07:00

It was a nice warm day, and I had a big "dinner crowd" to play for. And with my voice almost completely cleared up, I had a great run for a while there. But when it started to get dark, a cold wind came up and it was pretty empty for the mid section. And then, again, the "night owls" start to show up at 9:30 and I'm bummed to get cut off at 10.

During the empty gap, I fired up three of the cameras I'd brought, but both Flip cameras flaked out on me entirely. I think one of them had a legitimate excuse, 'cuz I'd neglected to delete any of the old videos and it was full (though I sure thought it would hold more than what was on there). The other one is clearly just broken, 'cuz it records for a while and then just hangs. Last time it got (and then lost) 35 minutes' worth, this time it hung in only a minute and a half. Good thing I (a) didn't pay for them, and (b) know the Product Manager, who'll be getting quite an email later today.

So instead, I ended up running my very short recording time camera which puts proportionately more pressure on me to "get it right", which, of course, causes proportionately more non-rightness. I'm gonna have to abandon that approach, 'cuz I end up with no video anyway, and a bad performance to go with it. If there were no cameras at all, I'd have the same amount of video (none) but at least I'd'a had a decent night for the people in the house.

Anyway, I had fun, as always, impressed a few people, and made 32 bucks -- not bad for a cold, windy night. And I might be able to squeeze one halfway decent song video out of the footage I managed to get.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum - 23Apr2010

2010-04-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

A slow but very fun Friday night. I had some kids come by right off the bat, so I got a good start. Most of the night was pretty empty, but even then there were at least a few people really listening and joining in with requests. It got really good toward the end, with lots of people into it. I happened to look around and saw the maintenance guys standing there. Whoops -- I checked the time and it was 10:15 already. Time flies and all that...

The ice cream bar place behind me has a new employee, who came out and asked if I knew "Michelle", 'cuz it was "the best song in the world", and, not so coincidentally, also her name. I do -- or *did*, it's tricky to play, and I haven't for a long time, but I got through it OK. A while later I confused the heck out of a, in retrospect, *different* long-and-very-blonde haired girl by asking her what her *middle* name was. It was Taylor, though she was baffled as to how that was relevant...

The New Song of the Week was Paul Simon's "American Tune", which I've been "learning" for 20 years, but I think I can sing high enough now, and I've finally decided that the way I play it is the way *I* play it, and it's fine. I played it twice, and the second time through it went quite well.

I tried to capture some video, and just to make my life even more complex, I brought 4 (!) cameras: my old standby on its boom on the top of the amp (to my left); my old still camera clipped to the music stand, pointing (theoretically) at my guitar-playing left hand; and two Flip cameras from work, one strapped to the back of the amp, and one on top of the other speaker, to my right.

The first one performed admirably, as always: got great sound and recorded two 1:40-long battery's worth of good video. The other still camera turns out to record at a very low-res 320x240, and it inexplicably gave up quite early, but at least it got something. The Flip on the amp worked OK, but quit (as it's unforgivably designed to do) after an hour, and when I tried to restart it, its memory was full.

The Flip on the speaker froze up after 35 minutes, and when I hard-rebooted it, lost that file. On restart, it ran only 12 more minutes and quit. Massive fail. Luckily, of the three songs it caught, "Carolina in My Mind" was a pretty good take, so I can salvage that, at least. The big problem, of course, is that I can only set the cameras up pointing vaguely towards myself, start 'em up, and hope -- I can't see if they're properly aimed, or even actually working, 'cuz I'm on the wrong side.

Not sure why I had such bad luck with the cameras, but it was probably because I was singing and playing the best I've been for a month or more...

Or the cold. It was plenty chilly out there, and I had some trouble with the more intricate fingerwork towards the end, but at least I wasn't shivering. I made $40.04; half of that was from a guy who had been transmitting me live to a girl on the other end of his mobile video phone (!) for a half-dozen songs, and then bought one of each CD with a twenty. I could see her face on the little screen as he was pointing his phone at me. Is it the future yet?

Keith at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 16Apr2010

2010-04-19T16:51:00.001-07:00

Started off really well, with several nice people already in the up-front comfy chairs, including one guy who I've seen before and apparently also remembers me, since he told a cellphone caller, "I'm gonna hang out here a while -- there's a guitar player setting up and he's pretty good".

That gave me someone to play for right off the bat, which helps a lot. And a lot of people heard the little intro speech that it was possible to make, given someone to make it to. So then a lot of people were willing to step up and request a song... Snowball...

In fact, I hadn't expected such participation, and my plan was to play my second-string material for a while to warm up/clear out my voice, and then start the video cameras to record the Good Stuff. But, all the requests were unerringly for the good songs, so I'd already done them all before I got a point where I could start the recording. I also couldn't afford to crash the momentum by stopping playing to start the cameras, so my plan was out the window.

Which made a great night, performing- and fun-wise, but not so good recording-wise. I did manage to get a few decent song takes towards the very end, so not a total loss, but it's more about the moment than the recording thereof. And it was good to have my voice back to near-full strength, after so long.

Keith at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 10Apr2010

2010-04-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

We've been playing at South Coast Plaza exclusively on Fridays for over a year now, and I was hoping that this special-permission Saturday would be more lively. I was wrong.

Same usual group of Asian kids studying (or pretending to), and bored, lost, or ex- husbands hanging out in the bookstore for lack of anything better to do. I failed to get any connection started off the bat, and played to stone silence for most of the night. Nice acoustics, though. And no interruptions...

I tried my best to win someone over -- playing my biggest hits, but they weren't interested, and my voice was still pretty clogged up so I wasn't really getting anywhere. After a while, since no one was listening anyway, I took the opportunity to play some new stuff. That's always fun, and good practice.

But finally, the judicious black guy who asked for some great songs last week came in and gave me someone to play for. And as soon as he started clapping, several other people joined in. See? That wasn't so hard!

Unfortunately, he got there pretty late, and with the new early closing time, it was over before it made up for the previous hour and a half.

Probably because his own hair and beard are prematurely white, as I was packing up, he mentioned that he liked the color my hair was turning. I've been thinking that whatever amount of color "dirty blonde" originally claimed is essentially fading out, but he said it looked like it was "turning to bronze". I like that.

I have a new "Flip" digital camcorder on permanent loan from work, and I had an idea -- I set that one up, and also my usual point-and-click camera in Movie Mode, at two different angles, and ran them both for the last half-hour or so. Yesterday, with a lot of fiddling, I was able to make a video of "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" that cross-fades back and forth from one view to the other, with a little "Ken Burns" slow zooming thrown in. Makes a far more interesting video. You can check it out on my Facebook page (since my YouTube account got shut down...) http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1393143159307

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 03April2010

2010-04-08T16:31:00.000-07:00

Started off crazy, with 3 teenage girls (who I've seen hanging out there a lot) sitting right down front, impatiently waiting for me to finish setting up so they could have me dedicate a love song to the "hot guy" who works in the ice cream bar shop right behind the stage -- despite them not even knowing his name. Not exactly what I'm there for. Between them and the guy who owns the BBQ shop in the Food Court, who, for several weeks running, has tried to get me to hype his shop in return for a free dinner (which I don't need, 'cuz I eat before I get there) -- it's too much pressure!

They stayed for quite a while, until I got my camera out and they leaped out of their chairs. I thought they were gonna get together and pose, but they were really jumping up to run away! I sure didn't expect that these particular girls would be camera shy...

But the night was generally very slow (only $35 in tips). It was surprisingly cold, and I'd only brought my vest, because last weekend it was nice and warm. This was a huge mistake, 'cuz I was freezing and shivering long before it was even half over. I kept telling myself that I could just go home, but there was always just one or two people really listening somewhere out there, so I couldn't do it. I'm such a sucker...

Finally a nice couple came and listened for a while, and after a couple of songs the girl jumped up and suddenly asked "What's your favorite hot drink?" Taken off guard, I said "Hot chocolate", and she said, "I knew it!", and took off. A minute or two later, in the middle of a song, she set a Starbucks hot chocolate down on my table, and then she and her boyfriend waved and left before I could even thank her. That was amazingly nice.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 02Apr2010

2010-04-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

I usually only play South Coast Plaza on the third Friday (the standing K&W gig there), and this one would normally have been Jim & Warren, but Jim couldn't make it, so I filled in. Maybe I shouldn't have -- my cold had evolved away from the sore-throat phase to the full-of-crud-throat phase, and I had a really hard time singing. It would clear up a little occasionally, giving me (false) hope, so it was kind of off and on.

Anyway, there was a nice lady there right at first who was really interested in hearing us, but she had an appointment to get to, so we tried to play the songs she wanted right off the bat. But there was also a 11-year-old girl there (with her parents) who wanted to hear some songs, so there was a bit of a bidding war going on for our time. That made it fun, and created a good start, but they both were gone too soon, leaving us with the usual only-partly-interested crowd.

There was one guy later on who had a particularly specific set of requests, all great classics that have been on the list for a while, and that I've been neglecting. That was pretty fun, trying to get those de-cobwebbed. Didn't do too bad on 'em, either.

And we must have been doing something OK, 'cuz we made 16 bucks to split, which is pretty good for a Borders gig.

The weird part is that I'll be back there next Saturday (just to have somewhere to play 'cuz Spectrum was unavailable), and then the next Friday for my usual monthly SCP date. An unusually SCP-intensive couple of weeks...

A New Guitar Trick

2010-04-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

I seem to have invented a new way to play a guitar. Now, I'm not stupid enough to think that I'm the first guy to find this trick, but in 38 years of playing guitar, I've seen a lot of guys do a lot of different stuff and I've never seen it before. So I've probably only "re-invented" it, but whatever. This won't make any sense at all to non-guitar-players, but if you play, read on.

The trick, simply, is to put a capo on the guitar's second fret, but only covering the 5 highest strings, leaving the bass (6th) string open. (You have to use a C-clamp style capo -- the stretchy kind obviously won't work.)

At first glance, this is very similar to just lowering the bass string by a whole step, which is probably the most common non-standard guitar tuning, called "Drop-D", and well-known to almost everybody. In fact the trick does act a lot like Drop-D, (though up a whole step), and some of what you learn in Drop-D does apply -- especially the big grand sound of the normally-anemic D chord (though it's now an E, because of the capo). In both Drop-D and this trick (which, I suppose, could be called "Drop-E"), the usual D chord (xx0323) with its very weak bass (caused by the two unusable low strings) becomes 000323, with a huge bass end, and great Travis picking potential.

But the beauty of the trick is that it does *not* change the fingering shapes of other chords that use the 6th string. Unlike Drop-D, the G chord is played completely normally: 320003. Same with F#m, or even the alternate bass note of Bm. The only weirdness, and this is very weird at first, is that you have to manually fret the "0" fret of E chords. Em is still 022000, but that bass note 0 requires a finger, because the open bass string is really "-2" (see the picture). So you do have to set the capo back in the fret (unlike the usual practice of putting it kinda forward, to avoid buzzing), so you can fit your finger in beside the tip of the capo.

Since I came up with this, it's been surprisingly useful and I'm using it for several songs now. I "invented" it while working up "Peaceful Easy Feeling", but now I use it for "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Lyin' Eyes", "Dear Prudence", "Can't Find My Way Home", and probably a few more that I'm forgetting.

One disadvantage is that, because it relies on the capo to start with, you can't "capo up some more" to get a different singing key. (Unless you want to use *two* capos (one all the way across, and one not), two frets apart.) But it's occurred to me lately that my vocal range is about a third or fourth lower than most (tenor) pop stars'. I very frequently have to transpose popular songs down a fourth (an interval that is very convenient playability-wise on the guitar), but sometimes that's a little too far, so I end up with a capo on the second fret anyway. (Transposing down a third usually results in unplayable chords.) With this trick, I get that same amount of down-transposition (down a fourth and back up two frets), and a big fat bass note on the D chords (actually D shape, E sound) for free.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 27March2010

2010-03-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

Had a pretty slow start, but it wound up being a great time later on. And lots of friends turned up. Right as I played my first tune (badly - not warmed or limbered up yet), friends Doug and Melody came by, on their way to see the musical at OCSHA. Not sure how that makes a logical plan, but I'm not complaining. But they had to go after only three songs, and after the initial dinner rush, the place was pretty empty except for a few very bored husbands looking for a place to sit and wait. They're usually far too grumpy by that time to join in at all.

So I played for myself for quite a while (which was probably OK, since my voice was really unwieldy), but then an old high school friend and her mom came by, all the way down from Washington. Having someone to play for makes all the difference, so suddenly it was big fun (and my voice finally kicked in, too). A couple of songs later, along came Daleen and Geneva, getting some dinner before going shopping for a while. And a while after that, Princess friend Jim and his daughter Emily showed up. Wow -- it's been months since any friends have come out.

And, coincidentally (or maybe related?) there were suddenly lots of other groups of people tuned in -- clapping (and hooting!), and actually competing to get their requests into the queue! It don't rain, but it pours. It was Really Happening for a while there. But Sheri and her mom had to go, and since I haven't seen them in 15 or 20 years, I took a break (!) to chat for a while before they were gone for another 20.

Unfortunately, but naturally, that broke the spell, and the best audience I've had in weeks dissipated, but that's OK -- I had a nice half-hour chat with Sheri and her mom, reminiscing about the old Mariner days.

After they were gone, I played a bit more for Jim and Emily, but it was getting late, so they left, too. It was almost ten, and I was about to pack it in, but suddenly some "my age" ladies were there, clapping appreciatively, so I played some more. And then some couples came by (possibly people who have heard me before -- some folks were specifically asking for James Taylor songs), and it was going far too well, again, to quit -- even though it was past time for me to be off the stage. But the maintenance guys have been coming later and later, so I went ahead and risked it, and ended up playing until about 10:40 -- I'm just a sucker for people who are actually listening. And the fifty bucks...

Just before I finally quit, one of the ladies who had been listening came up to put a buck in the jar and tell me, "You haff a fairy nize voize" in her cartoon Swedish accent. That was fun.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 20Mar2010

2010-03-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Another two-gig weekend, and me sick, to boot. But I'm clearing up, and I did fine. And the weather's getting warmer -- and with the time change seems warmer still, 'cuz I'm essentially starting "an hour earlier".

The highlight came early on, when a Birthday Party of 9 (?) year-old girls, all dressed up as the cast of the new "Alice in Wonderland" movie, stopped by to eat some ice-cream bars on their way to see the movie. (Click the pic to see it bigger.) I got my "start" playing for little girls at Indian Princess campouts, so I'm not only prepared to do it, I love to -- and it was a great and easy way to get the ball rolling. They were already excited to be there, having fun in their costumes, getting even higher on the ice cream, and ready to party with half-a-dozen of my kids' songs.

The Birthday Girl was the Mad Hatter, and I was impressed that they had a set of actual twins to play Tweedle-Dee and Dum. I guess they couldn't find any mouse ears for the Dormouse, 'cuz she had rabbit ears like the White Rabbit and March Hare. She didn't seem to mind. And I liked the blue feather boa around the neck of the Caterpillar. Big fun, all around.

And a pretty good night even after they left. No repeat of the way-too-loud background music from last week, even though I'd neglected to send a nasty-gram to the entertainment lady. Guess it wasn't necessary.

The new songs of the week were "Dear Prudence", and "Lyin' Eyes". Both use my new "capo across only 5 strings" trick. I learned "Prudence" before, playing the real, and surprisingly difficult, fingerpicking arrangement, but it was too hard, and too hard on my hands, to be worth it. I suddenly decided that a simplified arrangement wouldn't kill anybody, so now it's both do-able, and quite nice. And I get to kick in the full "choir" in the harmony box for "won't you come out to play", and it sounds awesome.

And just to show how cocky I'm getting, I transposed and worked up "Lyin' Eyes" at 4:00, for a gig that started at 6 -- with dinner in-between. It's normally strummed, but I don't strum so I'm fingerpicking it, and can "pull out" most of the signature lead line in the intro as I go. The trick is remembering where the "thirds" are for each of the chords as they go by, and making sure to pluck them on the downbeats in (or out of) the fingerpicking pattern, so that the harmony box knows how to sing correctly. It's a bit of a lot to remember, while the song is going by: keeping the picking going and hitting those thirds, kicking the box's buttons on cue, and singing the words, all at the same time. But if it was easy, everybody'd do it.

Had several groups of nice people, families and teens, and made $42. Played a lot of kids' songs -- and not just for the birthday kids. I think I did "Puff" 3 times, a new record. But also "Whole New World", "You'll Be In My Heart", "Waltzing With Bears", even "Rubber Duckie", and several more. And got another request for "Teddy Bears' Picnic", which I hadn't played at all for probably a year, but have now played for the last three gigs running. What's up with that?

Keith at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 19Mar2010

2010-03-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

Warren couldn't make it this time, so I went solo. It was probably the most responsive crowd I've ever seen there -- maybe my doing; more likely just luck. But I did come up with a new gag to try to get over the biggest hurdle of every gig -- how to get started -- and maybe that explains it a little. I always try to start with a standard-issue "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen..." type intro, but it's frequently too awkward to even do that. It's really hard to just start talking, loudly, into a crowd of people, none of whom is even looking up.

So I came up with this idea to say, "OK, wave if you can hear me in the back." (This is pretty standard, and easy enough to break straight into.) But then, "Good. Now keep waving and say: 'Hi, Keith!'". This is pretty lame, but breaks the ice and starts the self-introduction. And I have to say, it worked. People giggled a little, and I was able, since I had some attention, to keep talking, introduce myself, do the other standard joke about the song lists, and start the first song with some connection already started.

I also started with a different song. Usually I start with "With a Little Help From My Friends", just 'cuz it's easy to play and easy on my voice to get warmed up, and the words are kind of appropriate ("What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me?"). But I've been having a lot of luck with "Hotel California" lately, so I started with that, and got a pretty huge response -- especially for this place. It's just got a lot more "oomph" -- though I played and sang it poorly, without being warmed and limbered up. Still, probably a keeper.

Anyway, I don't think I've ever had applause after every single song, all night, before, at any Borders. Even when I manage to get them started at the beginning, it usually fades out after a while. But there were some friendly and enthusiastic college kids who stayed interested, and other people showed up and got into the spirit as the time went on. Great night. Only nine bucks, but I'll take attention over cash, any time.

I'd had a really bad cold all week, so I wasn't even sure I'd make it at all, but with enough cough medicine and lemonade, I was able to sing OK, and only had to stop to cough in the middle of one song. I did have a slightly breathy/raspy tone that made me wish I knew some Rod Stewart songs, but I don't. I'd'a sounded great on "Maggie May", though...

K&W at Borders Mission Viejo -- 13Mar2010

2010-03-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

At the very least, it was nice to play warm for once. But there were some responsive people, and we did quite well ($34 to split) for a Borders gig. $10 of that must have come from a nice but shy lady who had to have her husband make her request for "Lollipop Tree" for her, and who subsequently bought a "Waltzing With Bears" CD to take home. He was friendly, too, and helped out by taking some photos with Warren's camera, and aiming and starting up my new (permanently?) borrowed-from-work Flip video camera.

Had a guy come up and show an amazing agnosticism for instrumentation and style by asking for "anything by 'Cream'", which, of course, we had to turn down -- except that I do play "Can't Find My Way Home", which is by Cream descendent-band "Blind Faith", so I did, but he was gone already anyhow.

But the fun part of playing there is seeing how many of the strolling-by people we can manage to snag on their way past the café. The people already in, or stopping into, the café aren't there for the music, they're there for the seats -- a place to sit and read an unbought book. So they're "listening" whether they want to or not. But the people walking by aren't "stuck" there, and if they stop to listen to the rest of one, or maybe a few songs, that's something.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 12Mar2010

2010-03-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

The weather decided to show me that, despite appearances, it's not really Spring yet. I had my warm jacket, but not the thermals that had worked so well in January. So I played with frozen fingers again -- I'm getting used to it.

But it also kept the people at home I guess, because it was pretty sparse. But, hey, once the equipment is all set up, you play anyway -- and it still beats watching TV.

I did have some small groups of people tune in now and again, and it was kind of fun to be able to focus on them directly, since there would often be no one else nearby at all. I had a pair of teenage girls settle in for several tunes (Beatles, natch), and I had a mom come by with two little kids (4 and 5?). The little girl wanted to hear some dance music, so I played "Mister Postman" for her. But not before giving her one of my prepared-in-advance "Easter Egg with dry beans" shakers (Daleen's idea). She didn't really know how to shake it in time, but she was shaking it anyway, and I did several kids' songs for them.

Then some older girls came up and wanted to hear "Waltzing With Bears". Turns out that one of them was an old Princess fan of mine, and knew exactly what to ask for. She also wanted me to sing my "I'm an Indian Princess" song, but there were a dozen or twenty people listening in by now, so I declined. It's one thing to sing that with a hundred little girls joining in at a campout, but quite another to sing it solo in front of strangers.

Later in the evening, a group of 4 vatos with porkpie hats and the requisite tats and earlobe plugs came over and sat right up front, looking tough. But they found a song list and started asking for songs, polite as can be. They always seem to want to hear "Ring of Fire".

But all night long I was fighting against the way-too-loud house music. I called Maintenance, and left a message. I waited an hour and called again, and he said he'd be "right over". I don't need him to come over, I need him to go to where the volume knob is, but whatever. Nothing seemed to happen, so I called again, and he said he'd be right over again, so I just stood there waiting.

The drum track from the "Latin jazz" kind of stuff they have going cuts right through, and is incredibly distracting. He showed up and argued with me over what's "too loud", and whining that if he turned it down here, it would be down all around the area. I told him that that's not my problem -- that I can't play when that stuff is as loud as I am. He said he'd tweak it again and "see how it is over there", and it finally went down enough that I could ignore it for the remaining hour and a half. I don't want to be "that complaining guy" and have them stop booking me, but I also think I deserve a little respect, and an environment that's play-in-able. I'll have to craft a carefully worded email to the event coordinator...

Made only $22, due to the small turnout, but had a lot of fun getting to play some of the lesser-done songs in the book. Like "Ten Degrees and Getting Colder" in honor of my frozen fingers...

"Captain Eo Tribute" at Disneyland -- 05Mar2010

2010-03-07T15:59:00.000-08:00

We went to Disneyland to check out the "Captain Eo" movie that they revived because of Michael Jackson's death. Actually, it's billed as a "Captian Eo" *Tribute*, which I guess means that this is not the real Michael Jackson, but a impersonator. He sure looked like the real one though, and I'd'a bet it was really him, until he delivered his first uber-dramatic line, "We're going in!", and it was dubbed in by a 10-year-old girl -- probably Dakota Fanning. That kind shattered the illusion.

Anyway, Michael/Dakota is the pilot of a little egg-shaped ship, with a crew of robots stolen from that lame "Wizard of Oz" sequel, a two-headed muppet, an untidy blue elephant (cast to deliver the requisite amount of vaguely not-quite-fart jokes), and a cute little flying thing with a human-wrist-shaped blank spot where he sits.

They get yelled at by Admiral Bushy-brows over Princess Leia's video phone, who tells them to go fly through some recycled Death Star tunnels to find a green "beacon" light, despite their actual goal being the Wicked Witch of the West's "throne room", where she's gotten herself tangled up in a bunch of industrial tubing that's inexplicably dangling from the ceiling. She's been up there so long that her fingernails are four inches long, and she's pretty grumpy about it.

Michael/Dakota and crew show up and she immediately tries to throw them in the dungeon, but they insist on putting on a show first. Queen Giger-Makeup can't really stop them, since she's still stuck to the ceiling, and her guards keep getting their half-a-mile-of-industrial-tubing costumes turned into brightly-colored shredded Flashdance Lycra by some rainbow beams that inexplicably come from a few inches left-and-above of Michael's palms, like he's some kind of fabulous-costume-and-makeup spewing gay Spiderman.

But he's not, he's Tribute to Michael Jackson, so he gets all the newly-costumed Not-Zombies into a Not-a-Triangle diamond-shaped arrangement, and does a Not-the-Thriller dance, to a hoppin' beat laid down by Gumby versions of his robot friends who have transformed into a set of self-playing metal drums, a synth played by the Flatulephant, and Spock's stand-up bass played by the rear-end-less flying butterfly-monkey. The theater itself tries to get in on the action, thumping the seats up and down just a quarter beat off the actual rhythm.

Queen Cargo-Net-Accident is apparently even more sick of Michael's crotch-thrusts than the rest of us, so she starts screaming and swinging back and forth in her nightmare-hammock, until Michael send out one more blast of Gay Power from his almost-palms, which transforms her steam-factory palace into a Greek temple, breaks her down from the ceiling, and turns her into Aurora, Bringer of the Dawn from Fantasia.

This was apparently Michael/Dakota's mission from the beginning -- bringing Fabulousness to the non-Fabulous -- so he gathers up his de-transformed crew/band, and while misusing the definite article in the first decipherable lyrics of the whole show, departs with "We are here to chaaaaange the wuuuuurld".

Fortunately, this Star Wars/Thriller mash-up/rip-off was perpetrated by the actual rights-holders of those properties, so lawsuits don't ensue as Michael/Dakota flies off in his Space-Combi into a twinkling starfield.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Feb2010

2010-03-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

Another low-key but big-fun night. The sound seems way better these days -- probably because of smarter placement of the monitor speaker. It's tricky, 'cuz you have to be able to hear it, but if it's pointing too much at your mic or guitar, you get feedback. I've tried lots of places, and none have worked very well, until I lately tried putting it on the ground in front of me. This is where everyone else puts it, and, surprise! (not?), it works really well there. Sometimes I think I'm so smart that I'm an idiot.

Not too cold, finally. Lots of teens out and about, some individual packs coming by again and again. Had that thing again, where I can't get anyone to come up and get a song list and make requests off of it, until one group finally does, and when the other groups see them reading the list and requesting, they get jealous and jump up to get their own list. So I go from nobody making requests to having to queue them up, and put people off with "OK, I'll do that one after I get to their one, and their one..." When it rains...

I snapped one of my foot pedals right in two -- I guess I was stepping on it to press the button and kind of lost my balance, so I put my full weight on it. That Pergo flooring stuff I made it out of is really strong and stiff for its thickness, but now I guess I know its limits. Fortunately, I have more at home and it was easy to just make another piece, good as new.

Strangely, exactly $49 again, same as Saturday last week. Which possibly disproves Saturdays being better than Fridays? Or more likely proves that the tip results are essentially random -- or based on factors more important than which day it is, like, oh I don't know, how well I'm playing, and who shows up?

I'm up again next Saturday, but the weather report says it's gonna rain, so maybe not.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 20Feb2010

2010-02-26T14:56:00.000-08:00

A really great (and lucrative: $49) night. I got there really early and there was nobody in the food court at all. I started setting up and the ice cream bar dude (the store I'm right in front of) wandered out and facetiously asked "So, you gonna fill the house tonight?" I told him I doubted it, but after a while there were plenty of people to play for, and several groups who were getting pretty attached.

I was afraid that after the very bad voice I'd had the night before, that this night would certainly be terrible, but somehow I'd completely recovered and had the best voice that I can remember. Clear and high... I was easily hitting high notes that I usually strain to get to. So much so that I deliberately pulled out "Blackbird", with the high note that I usually make a passing feint at, and hope no one notices. This time, nabbed it.

I got to play my new "Strawberry Fields" several times (I'm liking it). Got a lot of good reception to "Hotel California". Lots of Beatles. And had a real live James Taylor fan to play some of the great but obscure ones for. Lots of little 2-4 year olds this time, for some reason.

Had an actual incident pretty close to heckling, though. Some high school guys were playing around in the fountain, and when I started doing "I'm Yours", the most obnoxious of them decided to "sing (or bellow) along". I just ignored him and kept going, and he gave it up before too long. I guess I'm actually pretty lucky that that's as bad as it gets around here. Good to live in a nice neighborhood.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 19Feb2010

2010-02-25T15:16:00.000-08:00

A pleasant, quiet, and suddenly very short, gig. It had been two weekends (i.e., three weeks) since I'd played anywhere, so I was a little rusty, but not too bad. The worse part was that I had an inexplicably scratchy throat, almost from the very beginning.

But we had some very forgiving people, apparently, because we got a reasonably warm response, even with the lousy vocals. And I had the chance to try out some of the new songs I've been working on over the hiatus.

One that was a surprise to me is "Mister Postman", which is trivial to play, but I thought it would be a fun song to have, maybe for when little kids wanted to dance. I learned it a long time ago, but it just sounded terrible -- dull and lame. But I tried it out at home with the harmony box singing up a third, and Ping! It sounds great! Makes a *huge* difference. A guy was sitting down front and asked about what was making the harmonies (it's surprising how few people do), so I played that song as a prime example of how it works.

We also had a visit by a fellow singer/player that we met at some of the Yorba Linda places, Mark Hermann. He didn't say much, but he did put in some interesting requests...

Anyway, we were going along, expecting to shut down at the usual 9:40 so the store can close at 10:00, but, between songs, I heard the manager announcing that "It's 8:40, and we'll be closing in 20 minutes. Please bring any last minute purchases..." What?!? So I played a song while Warren went to talk to her, and sure enough, they close at 9:00 now. It's that darn Economy again! We barely got in an hour and a half! She said we could start earlier next time (gee, thanks), but it's already hard to start on time (7:00) on a "work day" (we have a standing date on the third Friday). I guess we can try though, next month.

On the other hand, with as bad as my voice was behaving, it was probably a mercy just to shut me up...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 30Jan2010

2010-02-01T14:27:00.001-08:00

It was cold again, but not as bad as last time. Lots of people at dinner time, and not quite as empty afterwards. I guess Spring really is coming.

It was pretty quiet most of the time, but I usually had someone to play to. There was an older couple who were clearly listening and enjoying the stuff, and finally came up to request "Uncle Walter", so I played it, and when they came up again later (to buy a "Bears" CD), I asked where they'd heard that song before. Turns out the guy actually had an Uncle Walter, who had died just 3 days after they'd heard the song on the radio. A friend of theirs had told them about the guy who plays that song at Spectrum on Saturdays, so they found me on the web and have been watching my cartoon version (and sending the link to their family Back East), and wanted to come hear it in person. Wow -- that was kinda fun. Actually, I could tell they had been hearing the Official Version (the one on the CD), since they were clearly surprised when I went into the new Extra Verse (the one about Aunt Matilda).

A little boy (about 12, clearly sent up by his dad) came up and, while fumbling with a five dollar bill, asked if I would play a song they requested. I said, "Sure", and he asked for "Oh Bla Di, Oh Bla Da". I guess I should have been more specific -- you can ask for *a* song, but not *any* song! So I showed him The List, which he took back to his dad, and then returned asking for "In My Life". I said, "OK", and the kid asked "How much is it?" I said "It's free!" Of course, his dad made him come back and deposit the fiver anyway. (Part of the $60 I made overall.)

Later in the evening when it was mostly empty, I decided to give a try to my latest Beatles song, "Strawberry Fields Forever", which I've been working up an arrangement for. It's hard to tell how songs will "work" in The Wild playing for real people, as opposed to how they work in the bedroom playing for the cat. I've had songs that I thought were sounding weak turn out really well, and others that seemed like they were shoe-ins go all lead ballooney on me. I'm not really done with this one, but I figured I'd give it a try now, and it if failed, I could save myself the trouble of getting it entirely together. But it sounded quite good out there, even half done, so I guess I'll keep at it.

I'm never quite sure if my stripped-down and/or peculiar arrangements of these kinds of songs (see "Lucy in the Sky") are brilliant, or if it's just that I've played them a few jillion times by the time I'm ready to show them in public and I'm brainwashed into thinking they sound good. I guess, by definition, I'll never know...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 23Jan2010

2010-01-25T09:08:00.000-08:00

Wow. It was really, really, cold. There were some people out at "dinner time", presumably because the inside area was all full, but it got pretty thin after that. At least it wasn't raining, like the previous five days of storms. But at times, I was playing to nothing but empty tables and a trio of spitting turtle statues. Of course, I've played to stone silence before...

I thought about calling Maintenance and asking them to bring me a heater, but afterwards I was talking to the guys and they said that the heaters are all out being repaired, so they couldn't have brought one anyway. So I stood there in my longjohns, shirt, wooly vest, leather jacket, overcoat, and fingerless gloves, shivering and trying to read the chord sheets through the clouds of my breath.

Fortunately, my brother and his wife came by, and he loaned me his "London cabbie" hat. That helped, generally, but it's still pretty hard to play with frozen-stiff fingers.

But it was still fun. Even a bad night playing still beats watching TV. There were several groups of somewhat appreciative teenagers, early on, and a cute little toddler girl trying to dance, so I knocked out "Twist and Shout" for her. And it's always great to have my brother there. He even got up and sang "Love Has No Pride". And later, a pretty college girl came by and told me I have a "very lovely" voice. I said that that was just the electronics, but she insisted that, no, she's A Singer, and she Knows. Can't argue with that. Won't, anyway.

It was the first outing for my new, super-sturdy music stand, which did great -- it's nice to be able to flip through The Book without the stand threatening to collapse. And also the first outing for the harmony-box button-pusher I built out of some scrap Pergo last weekend. It gives me far bigger targets to step on, so I don't have to look down at the box to click the harmonies on and off. And no accidental volume-knob step-spinning, either. Worked great. Gave me the courage to try my newly developed, way-too-elaborate, three-harmony-mode "Here Comes the Sun", which I mostly got away with.

Just before they left, my brother asked for James Taylor's "You Can Close Your Eyes", which I really should play more often. It came out pretty well on the video, despite my frozen fingers, so I put it up on the YouTube -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5vkjGP1DYE

For the record, I only made $20, but that was actually unexpectedly good, considering how few people were out. The weather report shows cold again, with rain likely for next Saturday. I think it's just trying to show me that it coulda been worse...

K&W at Borders Mission Viejo -- 16Jan2010

2010-01-21T10:49:00.000-08:00

What a great night! The café started out about half full, and never really filled up. (A year or two ago, this place was standing room only from the time we got there right up to closing. Down economy, or three-day weekend?) But most of the people there were very friendly and actually responded when I asked if there were any requests. And once a few people had done it, the rest decided it was OK, so they joined in. It was definitely the highest ratio of requesters per capita that we've ever had.

A young couple were there right at the beginning, with a already-bought CD and songlist on the table, clearly waiting for us to finish setting up and get to work. When I asked her for a request, she immediately said "Waltzing with Bears". She wasn't young enough to be an ex-Indian Princess, so I asked where she had heard that song before, and she said that they'd heard us before. Wow -- actual fans. Not that they'd sought us out to hear us, but they did consider themselves lucky to have chanced upon us again. That's *almost* as flattering...

Later on, we had a very sweet and appreciative Hawaiian lady who sat at the back, requesting songs and just beaming the whole time. She had just happened by, liked the sound, and sat down and stayed all the way until closing. She really wanted us to play "White Bird", but I didn't know it, no matter how many times she asked.

When we were done, I went back to give her a business card so she could check our website schedule to maybe come see us again, and she asked what we do "for real". I told her I was in Marketing at Cisco, and that Warren was -- and I just made this up off the top of my head -- a "technical editor", though he'd been (not so) recently laid off. She said that that was funny, 'cuz *she's* a technical editor, too. That seemed bizarre since I had just made that job title up to be "close enough" for layman's conversation, but it seems to have worked, and she said that she'd keep her ears open for him. Wow.

Anyway, it was a great, and way too short, night. The sound was good (of course, *anyplace's* sound is good when you're used to playing outside by a fountain, like I am), and the people were friendly and polite. And we made $27 each -- huge for a Borders, though $20 of it was from the nice Hawaiian lady. I was pretty close to writing off Borders, or at least that particular Borders, after our last terrible night there. This pretty much reverses that notion.