Anyway, they tumble around for a while, and take off again, romping down the hall. I try to get back to work, but when I look for the next string, there's one missing. I look around the bed, next to the bed, under the bed. Spreading the search out -- bathroom, hallway. Turns out it's on the floor in the office, at the plumb other end of the house.
Jeez. Only in my house do you have to hire security just to change your guitar strings...
When I finally got to talk to him, he acted like I was on his front porch trying to get him to read a pamphlet about my personal savior, so I'm not really expecting this to go anywhere. He has a standup sidewalk chalk board out front that claims "Live Music Tues thru Sun", but when I asked about that he admitted that he doesn't really have anyone on Tuesday and Wednesday (and maybe Thursday?). I said that I'd prefer to play on either Friday or Saturday nights, and he said that he already has someone on those nights, affirming when I asked that those guys are booked indefinitely. I'm surprised (and dismayed) that people are giving out "every Saturday from now on" (or, in the Food Court, "every Friday in March") commitments. I would never have the temerity to even ask for such a thing...
Anyway, I left him with a CD and a card, and he said he'd listen to it and get back to me -- though it didn't feel like he actually would. I think I'll try to compose a follow-up email to him today with some of the details/qualifications that I was too tongue-tied to relate last night. (I really suck at interviewing.) It seems awfully degrading to have to be begging some guy to allow you to work, for free, at his tiny little place. Part of "The Dues", I guess, though since I'm not expecting to "go" anywhere, I don't know what I'm paying dues *for*.
But, as I've said before, playing to nobody is still better than not playing at all, and I tend to take the opportunity to play new stuff that I'm not entirely sure is gonna work, which is fun. Unfortunately, and oddly, for the fist time since I can remember, no new songs were lodged in my brain forcing me to learn them this week. So I had no completely new songs, but there's always the big stack of kinda-new ones to play with.
We did have an occasional friendly face. Two ladies were looking for a place to settle down with their coffee and snacks, and I happened to be in between songs, so I gave 'em my traditional, "No extra charge for the comfy chairs down front!" line, and dragged them in. They were good about it, and asked for a few tunes, but didn't stay long. And at the end we had a couple of old guys (you know, my age), who really liked our stuff, but it was closing time so they were only there for three or four songs.
Actually, Dave was supposed to come by too, but, of course he didn't. Every once in a while, he asks if I'm playing this weekend, which, since I play almost every weekend, I usually am. Then he acts like he might come out, but he always cops out at the end. I don't know what the problem is, but I also don't know why he bothers to pretend like he'll show up when it never happens. This time, he called me that morning to warn me that he "might not be able to make it", because his wife's uncle was sick. C'mon Dave -- really? You're going with "sick uncle"? You can do better than that.
And he did. At 5:00 he called to tell me that there had been a computer virus outbreak, and he'd have to stay by the phone, just in case. That's much better.
Anyway, we'll assume that the place was empty 'cuz it's a three day weekend, and look forward to next week. I'd hate to have to give up on Borders entirely, but that was hardly worth the effort to drive out there. Especially with the Spectrum Food Court calling my name...
Wow -- one of the craziest gigs, ever. Started out with a lot of people already there, including lots of kids. I like kids, and am used to dealing with kids, so that was fine with me. There was one little boy, 5 or 6 years old, who was really interested in my stuff, and kept jumping up on the stage to play my guitar (I always hold a chord or two and let kids strum a bit), and running around with his brother and big sister (though they were much more subdued). At first is was kinda cute, and I expected some embarrassed and apologetic mom to appear and gather him up pretty soon, so I was tolerant. But it went on and on, and his mom, finally realizing once or twice, would take him away -- but he'd be back just a few minutes later. Definitely not Parent of the Year.
It became a running joke between me and the audience -- me putting up with the interruptions, and letting him strum the guitar one more time, and trying to keep the songs going while the kid was running around below and behind me, threatening to trip on the wires, and playing with the knobs and switches on the electric guitar which was sitting behind me on a stand (about which, more later). He'd run off and let me do a song while he played in the fountain, then show up again to jump onstage, strum my guitar a few more times, then gone (using my padded guitar case down front as a landing spot), then back during the next song to mess with the electric guitar again. I managed to keep the chords and words together, regardless of what the kid was up to, but it was a challenge.
It really went on a long time, and some of the adults in the audience were starting to wonder if these kids didn't actually have a mom in attendance, but finally, she reappeared and took them all away. I swear she called him "Shaggy", but maybe it was something Persian that sounded like that. He was cute, and not really destructive (he never *actually* tripped on a wire, just came really close, and never *quite* managed to knock the electric guitar off the stand, though that was pretty close too), and he never directly interrupted a song, but, wow, that was tough on the concentration.
Anyway, overall there was probably two or three times more people in attendance than the previous couple of shows -- the much-warmer weather obviously helping. For a while there, every table was full, with some folks sitting on the planter-box benches as well. I've never seen it "sold out" before. There seemed to be waves: families with young kids at first (there for a cheap dinner at the food court itself), then older people and couples (possibly hanging out after a dinner in one of the real restaurants), then finishing out the night with lots of teenagers in roving packs.
Those can be problematical, of course, but I managed to strike a balance of fulfilling the (girls') honest requests, and ignoring the (boys') "funny" ones (they tend to ask for "Puff, the Magic Dragon", etc., thinking that they're being oh-so-clever). But I think the boys started to realize that the old guy wasn't half bad, and stopped trying to start up some fun at my expense. There was a table with three boys at it that weren't part of the big group, and they were genuinely asking for James Taylor songs. And then a Jim Croce song, one of which, by luck, I had just (re)worked up. And I had a sweet little Asian girl nearly swooning over any and all of my Beatles songs. When the pack of 20 or so kids showed up, and the boys started (loudly) dragging chairs over to sit smack-dab in front of me with their "Entertain me, I dare you" attitudes, I thought I was in trouble -- but I managed to turn it around and we all had fun.
Earlier in the week, it occurred to me that, although I can't use my electric guitar when Warren's with me because then the two guitars sound too much alike, I should be able to use it when I'm out solo. So I brought it this time, expecting to have a nice empty plaza to test it out on. But it never did get empty, so I just kept playing the acoustic until the very end, when Geneva and her friends (and Acacia) were there, and I wanted to try it out (and show it off) for at least a song or two.
So I switched over and played my newly-rebuilt ultra-minimalist "Wicked Game", "Come Together", "The Wind Cries Mary", and my now-standard closing song, "Golden Slumbers". They all worked out pretty well, except, oddly enough, "... Mary", which is the most "electric" song of the bunch. I guess, since I'm *not* Hendrix, that it requires a Very Different approach, and doing it on the electric made it Too Close, but, of course, lacking. It needs to sound like a "Hendrix Unplugged" version.
Anyway, there are probably other songs on my list that could be done on the electric, and I think it was successful enough to keep experimenting with it -- especially in outdoor settings. If nothing else, it keeps the challenge (and therefore, interest) level up for me. And it's nice to have *some* kind of variation in The Sound, though the changeover time is prohibitive to do it more than once or twice a night. I guess I'll have to have a little electric "set" in the middle with 4 or 5 songs, then back to the acoustic to finish out.
So -- interesting, crazy, extremely variable, challenging, and very fun, night. I sold one or two CDs, and made $58 in tips -- still not enough to want to hand $50 back to the Spectrum people, but darn good. At one point I looked out and realized that there were several groups of people sitting at the tables, without any food, and with all the people wrapped around the "far side" of the tables so they were all oriented towards *me*. They were listening to me, *on purpose*. I don't often get that impression from more than a few people at once. There's usually one or two people per night that are clearly Listening, and they're what keeps me doing this, but this was 10 or a dozen people, at the same time. Wow.
Cold, but fun. They brought out an umbrella heater as promised, but it had to stand behind me, so although my back was toasty, my hands kept freezing up. I could warm them between songs, but they'd get cold again before the song was over. You can tell it's pretty cold when your breath turns to fog as you're singing.
But it was still fun. Not a whole lot of people, of course, but enough to play to most of the time, with occasional bursts of quite appreciative folks. And in the empty spaces, I got to play the new songs I've been working up during the vacation.
One of which is "Come Together", which I worked up a few years ago, but it's kind of silly even in the real recording, so I've been to embarrassed to play it. But there was literally nobody there, so I thought I'd do it for fun, and naturally some people show up and plop down to hear it. Turned out to be a couple of twenty-something Beatles fans, and they seemed to think it was pretty cool. So, I played several more Beatle songs for them -- the ones that aren't embarrassing. Perfect timing -- I guess I'm on some kind of Beatle kick lately, 'cuz I've also worked up "Hold Me Tight", "If I Fell", and "The Night Before".
The oldest thing that happened, though, was when this sullen punk-boy strolled up and dropped what turned out to be fifty cents in the jar, and took a CD. Warren commented, "You never know..." as he walked away, but then he stopped about fifteen feet in front of the stage, and threw the CD at the ground as hard as he could, shattering the case and sending plastic pieces everywhere. I guess you really do "never know".
Apparently, he figured be was making a stinging social commentary, but I was already pretty aware that everybody doesn't like the same music that I like, so it didn't bother me much. Actually, I thought that be should have been grateful that we made it so cheap for him to impress his friends with his grand gesture.
Anyway, pretty fun. I hope they keep the Food Court free to play at even later in the year when it gets warmer. They're threatening to charge a $50 set up fee, but we're not really prepared to lose money on the deal, although, with better weather we'd get more people, and would probably cover it. But still. Playing for free is one thing -- paying for the privilege to seems a little usury.
I wanted to go to Disneyland one last time before they de-Christmas it, including the newly-re-opened Small World Holiday. The kids had made other plans, and are, incredibly, burned out on Disneyland, so Daleen and I went without 'em.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be a surprise cold snap day, and we froze to death. The crowds were not-too-bad. We did Small World first, and then wandered into the re-done and re-opened (for the zillionth time) Sleeping Beauty's Castle. They've added the floating-in-space video technology that they're using in the new Finding Nemo-ized Submarine ride to have short loops from the movie in the little alcove scenes. Pretty cool -- and I'm still totally mystified about how they do that.
We also went over to California Adventure to see the "What we're up to" exhibit where they're showing off the plans to rebuild big chunks of the park. It's pretty neat, but I'm a little concerned that they've fallen into a habit of adding "Lands" that are purely based around a single movie. They already have "Bug's Life" Land, and they're adding "Cars" Land. They never did that in the old Disney days -- a Land had some kind of generic theme, and featured attractions tied to that theme, whether or not they tied into some sell-able Disney property. There was no "Tom Sawyer" plush as you got off of his island. And no character tie-in for the Flying Saucers or Mission to Mars...
But the character-fication of Disneyland has been intensifying for years now. In the old days, they could build a ride just to be fun -- rides were just rides, not vehicles to sell more branded merchandise. But now, every ride has to have a (or several) character tie-ins.
Anyway, we also went on Daleen's favorite ride, "Soaring Over California", and the new "Toy Story Mania" (more characters!). The lines were kinda long, and it never warmed up much, so we came on home in the afternoon. It was kinda pleasant, without the kids...
To keep myself occupied, I started bringing my cheap electric guitar with me, plugged into a little battery-powered headphone amp. I can hear it fine but it makes almost no noise externally, so I can walk and play and not bother anybody. And not embarrass myself, except of course for the general embarrassment of walking around the block playing an electric guitar like a crazy person. But I've gotten over that, and the extra playing time every day has noticeably improved my playing. Besides, once you're over 50, who cares anymore? When somebody asks, I make a little joke about needing to get me one of those new-fangled iPods so I don't have to do all the work...
Anyway, just before the company shut down for Christmas, I was walking back through the parking lot, and a car pulled up next to me and stopped. It was the ultra-sweet, gramma-like H.R. lady, and she rolled down the passenger window and said "Play me something!"
I'd had to take the headphones off to hear her talking, so they were already in my hand. I mumbled something about it only plays through the headphones, and before I knew it, I had handed them to her. I'd been running through "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas", so I started it up, more as a demonstration of how it worked than anything, but since I had the key in my head already, I started singing it, even though I couldn't hear the guitar anymore. (I *presume* I was singing in the same key as I was playing in.)
I ran through the first verse, and she said, "That was *wonderful*!", and handed me back the headphones. Then, "Merry Christmas", etc., and off she went. I was like, whoa, what just happened? But I put the headphones back on and finished my walk.
I got rained out of my officially booked night playing for the line waiting to see Santa Claus, but I had the notion to ask if maybe the act for Sunday wasn't gonna use up the whole time, so I could fill in the rest. The coordinator lady set me up to play from 5 to 6, in-between sets of some classical violinist and/or his classes. Turned out that he was playing in the conference room inside anyway, so I got to stay the whole night (5 to 8).
It was a blast, too. Most fun I've had in a long time, though it was, again, *freezing*. For the last hour, that wasn't vibrato, that was shivering.
But there was a pretty long line all night long, with families where the kids were just the right age, and the parents were very happy to have a distraction for them while they were waiting to get up to see Santa. Which is exactly why I wanted to play there -- it's perfect for me.
I played "Rudolph" and "Frosty" and "Jingle Bells" a few dozen times each, and the others a few times, and over to the regular kids songs for "Lollipop Tree", "You Got a Friend In Me", "Rubber Duckie", etc. I had kids coming over to "help" -- singing along with "Jingle Bells" mostly, but they'd also sing along on some of them from wherever they were standing in line. They all especially like to do the "Like a light bulb!" stuff along with "Rudolph", and a lot of them were Fa-la-la-ing with gusto when I'd do my country-style fingerpicked "Deck the Halls".
Right off the bat I had a little girl, Katherine, who must have been the daughter of one of the Rec Committee people, who was busily passing out the song lists (which I had far too few of, not anticipating having a helper), and collecting requests and bringing them back to me. She also sang along on "Up On the Housetop" and several others, before she came up with this new "job" for herself. Very cute. I miss having little girls around...
I played "Blue Christmas" a few times, too. It's pretty short -- just 3 verses, and no chorus at all, so I have an instrumental verse in it, which Warren normally fills in. But he wasn't there, so I was just playing through that verse anyway, and surprised myself by turning to Katherine's little brother, Gavin, and, while keeping the chords going (which I didn't think I could do -- singing and playing is easy, *talking* and playing is hard!), asking him if he'd brought a harmonica. He said no, so I said, "Saxophone maybe?", which he also didn't have about his person, so I said "Didja bring your electric guitar then, 'cuz this verse really needs some kind of solo", but no luck there either... and it was time to start the next verse. This went over pretty big with the parents waiting in line. As comedy routines go, it was no "Who's On First", but they seemed to enjoy it.
Anyway, I didn't get a lot of applause, but I could tell that the kids were fascinated, and everybody seemed to be pleased. The Rec Committee workers went on and on about how nice it was, and even Santa called out "Great music there, Singer!" as he was leaving. I had my table with hat and CDs out again, but they were in a kind of awkward place for the parents to notice. Still, I sold 4 Christmas CDs (one to the Mayor!), and one "Waltzing With Bears" CD, and made $40. The Rec Committee Coordinator was hugely grateful that I could and did stay the whole evening, since she was apparently unaware that the first guy she booked wasn't actually going to be playing for the crowd. I'm sure she'll be contacting me for other city events through the year, now. Turns out that with 36 years of practice and perseverance, you *can* build a career out of playing music for free. Oh, wait.
The lady that coordinates the "talent" for the Mission Viejo Recreation Committee called me up at the last minute to see if I wanted to play for the annual "Get a picture of your dog on Santa's lap" Animal Shelter fundraiser on Saturday afternoon. Heck, I'll play anywhere, so I said yes.
Not a whole lot of people, but a pretty steady stream of nice folks with their dogs, and the ladies who were working the camera and printer and such were appreciative. I was already booked for the next night, and it made a nice preparatory rehearsal and desensitation for me. Lay of the land and all that.
Daleen came down and took some pictures. I'd expected it to be freezing again, which I guess I'm getting paranoid of after the AC fiasco at Borders the night before, so I started off wearing my red sweater and leather jacket. But it was really hot out there in the sun so I ended up playing in my "Lime in the Coconut" T-shirt, which is a cool shirt and all, but I don't normally perform in such casual dress...
I did have a little table with a hat and some CDs, and I somehow made 20 bucks -- quite good for as few people who were there. Must be some kind of Christmas Spirit thing.
Anyway, when it's quiet like that, I take the opportunity to play through my newer stuff, including my *finally* workable arrangement of "The Christmas Song" (aka "Chestnuts Roasting..."). I've been trying to find a set of chords that "work" for me, or my style, or my limitations, or something, for 15 or 20 years now, but I finally crunched some pieces of several kinda-working chord sets into one that I can play, and that sounds mostly like the actual song. And it's pretty much in my singing range, too. I set up my iPod to record the night, and you can check it out here.
I came home the other night and the kids were watching "Across the Universe", a movie that kind of chronicles the 60's and 70's, amid a backdrop of all Beatles songs. The main love-interest girl sings "If I Fell", against a very simple guitar part, and without the vocal harmony that's so prominent in the Beatles' version, which they get away with because the harmony line is cleverly carried by the guitar. I thought, "Hey, I can do that -- maybe". So I worked on it, trying to find a key that I can sing it in, and play it in, and also could work the harmony line into the guitar part in. Found one, too. Wanna hear it? It's not a terribly good recording, and I'm not bringing out the harmony very clearly yet, but click here. Either it wasn't as hard to do as it sounded, or I'm getting pretty good at this...
Anyway, overall, a pretty good night. Even Warren, who normally doesn't much care for the Christmas tunes, didn't seem to mind playing 'em, just this once.
And worse, a few years ago when I tried it, a clearly-former-military member of the MV Recreation Committee came over and asked me, "And who are you supposed to be?" I didn't really think I was in disguise, but I tried to explain that I was just trying to entertain the line a little, but he said that they already had music (a boom box with a Christmas record playing, up at the house itself, barely hear-able back where I was), and made it pretty clear that I wasn't welcome. I haven't tried since then.
But this year, they moved Santa's house to the plaza between City Hall and the Library, which is bigger, safer (no traffic), quieter, and nicer. And they put up a stage next to the house for "local performers". Unfortunately, this was a last-minute idea, so the info about how to go about becoming one of those performers was hard to come by.
But we went down for the big to-do on Santa's first night, and there were little-kid dance studios, and a *terrible* local band of high school kids (when we got there, the two guitar players were theoretically playing "Winter Wonderland", but the chords didn't fit the tune, and the girl singer, not being able to tell what was going on, was singing in some random different key. Ouch.), and a poster with the phone number of who to call.
So I did, and got booked for last Wednesday, but the rain came and canceled that. I asked the coordinator if maybe the Sunday act wasn't planning to use the whole time, and she set me up for the violin player's "break from 5-6. That'll be tricky, 'cuz it takes me 20 minutes to set up, and another 20 to tear down, so I don't know how I'll work that.
But then, a while ago, she emailed me asking if I'd like to play on Saturday mid-day, when they have the annual "Dogs on Santa's lap" picture-taking event. I reckon there'll be a line of people waiting for that, same as when it's the kids' turn, so I'm in. Never played for dogs before, but we'll see how it goes!
I had one extended family stop while their 6 and 3-year-old sons watched and danced. The smaller one had downs, and was really into the dancing (with her gramma's encouragement), but instantly broke into crying when the songs stopped. I had to flip through the pages as fast as I could to get another song started. It started to feel like I (and the rest of the family) were puppets to this kid's whims, but he started to understand that there were gaps, but more songs would come, and settled down some. (The family may have partially understood this, and kept adding to the tip jar, again and again.) But they eventually ran me out of danceable kids' Christmas tunes after 6 or 8 of 'em, and wandered off.
I played to empty tables for a while, but dang it, just having all that volume behind you is fun, all by itself, even if nobody's there listening. Sure, I can go home (where it's warm) and play to nobody, but I can't CRANK IT UP! I don't really get that *power* effect at the indoor venues, but out there, it has to be loud to carry any distance, and to compete with that fountain. Of course, there were occasional passers-by and packs of high-school kids out, too. And I knew I had some scheduled visitors a'coming.
My brother came by, as promised, and braved the cold for quite a while. Since there was near-nobody else there, I could talk to him, and played a bunch of Christmas songs, plus all my recent songlist additions for him. He makes a good judge of what's working and not, so it's valuable to me for him to come by.
After he left, a pair of ladies from work (Kristy and Tammy) finally made it, just as I had decided that it wasn't the first, nor the last, time I'd been stood up by pretty girls. I was starting to get a bit cold and stiff-fingered by then (the little heater I'd brought from home had given up at the hour mark, for no apparent reason), but with a real audience, I kept going. Of course, I had to play all my Bestest Tunes for 'em. They stayed a long time, but at 9:00 or so they decided that they really had to find some dinner, and left.
But not before asking me if I'd give them guitar lessons during lunchtime at work. I said that I could give that a try, sure. Might be fun to see if I can teach them something useful. After 20 years or so of guitar playing, I realized that I'd learned a whole bunch of stuff that I don't, or only rarely, need. I think I can filter out what they'll really need to know, and get that much into them pretty quickly. There's *way* more mechanical skill (which you can only get by practice) than there is intellectual facts to know, anyway.
Anyway, I made an astronomical $68, but that's only because my brother threw in a twenty, even though I told him not to, and Kristy did the same thing, even though I told her not to. Discounting them, I guess $28 from the very few people that were there was pretty good.
I got there kinda late, stalling for the drugs to kick in, but there weren't many people there anyway. In fact, it was by far the smallest crowd we've had there yet, all night -- despite it being a fairly mild night for December. That was kinda bad for me, but bodes even worse for the retail industry...
But there were several friendly happy families out, and I played my Christmas tunes for them, and got some good response. Sold a Kid CD, even. In my delirium, I hadn't even remembered to burn any of my Christmas CDs, but it didn't really seem like anybody would have bought one, anyway. (I'll bring some next week, though.)
Later on, I had some uppity teenagers who vacillated between wanting me to play some songs they'd like, and being Too Cool hecklers. I think I managed to mostly win them over, ultimately, despite not really being in any mood to suffer idiots.
I guess I'm not really sure what the official schedule is -- I think they give us 4-hour blocks, but we've never figured we could/should fill it all. I thought I was supposed to start at 6, but I really started at 6:30, and by 9:30, I was getting pretty raspy, and announced that I was gonna do one more song. I thought I had done pretty well to survive that long, but a friendly college-age kid came bouncing along just as I was announcing that, and was begging for more -- especially Beatles. Well, since my last song *is* Beatles ("Golden Slumbers"), I figured, OK, I'd do a different Beatles song, then that one, so I did "Something" first, then "Golden Slumbers", and by then his friends had shown up, so I did *one* more, "All My Lovin'". It was nice to close with some people still "wanting more", as they say.
And I came home with $46 in tips, plus a free movie pass, tossed in by a kid who said he "didn't have any cash, but here's a movie". Seems like that's about the same (in cash) as last time, but with far fewer people, so, pretty good.
But I'm glad I decided not to bail out, as I was tempted to do. Even to empty tables, I had real fun playing those Christmas songs, though a lot of those are only sellable with a best-as-you-can Bing-it-up vocal. Maybe next week I'll be well enough to do them half-justice. But I also got to try out my new-this-year "Christmas Waltz". I've always liked the Hofstadterian self-reference in the lyrics where it informs you that it itself is in "three-quarter time", but upon learning to play it, I'm also impressed that it's an almost-constant (boringly overused standard) 4-chord loop, all through the song, until almost the end where it throws in one extra chord and a fermata... and finishes out with the lines being one half-loop out of phase to the lyrics. Accident, or genius?
"Special Guest Star" Melina joined in again, but this was the first time that she's played when Warren was there. It was a little awkward, since she does essentially what Warren does (play little figures and licks over the top of me), but they worked it out quickly. We had meant to try "Ashokan Farewell" again, but somehow I managed to accidentally take my sheet out of the book in my last clean-out (it was about to break the stand!), so that didn't happen.
There was a period late in the evening, the last 45 minutes or so, when we were hitting on all cylinders, and had a lot of people along. That was really great. I also, inexplicably, learned a Jimi Hendrix song, "The Wind Cries Mary", during the week. It's not exactly up my alley, sound-wise, so I didn't think I'd actually try it in public, but it was feeling good, so I went for it. There wasn't a huge response to it, but no tomatoes, either, so maybe I'll keep it in for a few more tries, anyway.
I also tried out my new "Peace Train", which I had worked up for the (canceled) Brea Downtown gig, and which pretty much bombed here. I didn't play it *that* poorly, but I think it needs a more "loose" crowd/location -- and a bookstore ain't it.
I'm nearly constantly learning new songs, both to spice up the act, and to keep myself learning, and interested. Frequently, a new song idea will present itself from my environment -- I hear a cool old song on the radio, or in a TV show or something. Sometimes someone will request a song that, they're right, I oughtta know.
We've been watching "Life On Mars", which is set in 1973, which is a great music year for me. They introduced a "free spirit" hippie girl character, and she reminded me of "Ruby Tuesday", which I've always loved, and have tried to play before, but could never get to work. I don't know if I'm that much better now, or if I just forgive more lameness in my results than I used to, but I'm really liking "my version" this time.
Also, oddly enough, the results of the recent election brought, unbidden, a great old song to mind, so I've been learning "Peace Train". I've been struggling to learn how to strum, which is just physically tough on my Ovation because it's really a classical, but I've been getting the hang of it on the old electric guitar, and some of that technique is translating over. So I'm getting the skill together to do it, but I would never have been able to play it in public before, 'cuz the message would have been so out of place anytime during the last eight years. But now, I think it may be a song whose time has come -- again. I'll be trying it out on Saturday at Brea Downtown, and we'll see how it goes over.
Because we're Annual Pass Holders, we were offered a chance to see a preview of the new Tinker Bell direct-to-DVD, all computer-graphics, movie, in the Mister Lincoln theater on Main Street. It was kinda cool -- we got Tinker Bell stickers, pins, and collectible tickets.
The movie was actually pretty good. Turns out that fairies all have their sorting-hat style chosen role to play: water fairy, flower fairy, ice fairy, etc., and Bell, to her initial dismay, is chosen to be a "tinker", a maker/fixer of things. It's not as glamorous as her friends' jobs, but, of course, her talent saves the day (and the fairy-initiated coming of Spring) in the end, and she (and we) learns to accept that her talent makes her who she is.
It's weird to me that when J. M. Barrie wrote "Peter Pan", he clearly intended "Tinker" to invoke "tinkle", not "repairman", but these guys have (deliberately, no doubt) misinterpreted that notion, and run with this alternate explanation. But, being a "tinker" myself, I'm OK with it.
After the movie they brought out the director and the screenwriter, who told us some stories about finding the voice talent for Bell and her friends -- you'll recall that Bell has never "spoken" before -- and how fun it was to make, etc. And they also told us that this was just the first of four planned movies, one a year, and one for each season.
Then they brought out one of the Disneyland Attraction Planners, who told us that they'd been rebuilding the area between Tomorrowland and the Matterhorn, where Ariel used to sign autographs. Now it's Pixie Hollow, where you "shrink down" as you walk up the walkway, and get to meet Tinker Bell and two of her new friends. It wasn't officially open yet, but they were having sneak peeks, so we went right over from the movie. It took a while to get in, 'cuz everybody else did, too, but we felt like we ought to get the whole experience while we were there.
Obviously, it would have been more fun for the girls five or eight years ago, but it was still pretty cool.
Anyway, once my voice was working, it was pretty fun. There was hardly anyone left at that point, of course, so I just kind of kicked out the jambs and belted the last batch of tunes. It's really fun when I manage to just let go like that -- it only happens if there's somebody listening, or *nobody* listening. I'll have to try to let 'er rip more often -- it's too fun to let it wait until it happens by itself.
For the first half-hour or so, we had several people right up front, listening and asking for songs. That made for a great start, even without a cooperating voice. The settings on the amp had been tweaked for the outdoor event last week, and sounded new and cool here in the quiet of that store. And I had the tip jar out more blatantly than usual, which may have helped sell two CDs, and make us $22 overall, which is pretty good for a store, on a Friday.
I got to try out my pretty-new "Ruby Tuesday" and "Sweet Dreams" again -- still working OK for me. And I had my new iPod set up to record the whole thing, with its little $10 mic, and the result is pretty OK. It's sure a lot easier to set up than a whole notebook like we did a couple dozen times to collect the tracks on the "Live" CD. I thought that "Golden Slumbers", which I learned recently, and am using as a closing number nowadays, came out quite well. Listen to it here. If the link doesn't work, type in: http://tinyurl.com/6y5w4j
Had one guy ask for "Mister Bojangles", which I've looked at several times over the years. Because I keep poking at it, I happened to have a copy of the song sheet in the book, so I was able to do it for him, with only one major screw up where I just forgot how to read English for a line. This actually happens more often than I'd like to admit...
Towards the end, three 15-16 year-old girls came over and plopped down right in front. They were listening pretty well, and having fun with us, but when I started "With a Little Help From My Friends" they lit up, spun their chairs around, and sang along all the way through it (which is a little tough, cuz I do James Taylor's version which is pretty different from the Beatles one). After the song, I asked then if they were in a choir or something, buy they weren't -- just big Beatles fans, apparently. Their parents had arrived, though, and they had to leave, so I did "All My Lovin'" as they walked away.
We've been considering whether to try playing at the other stage, where you have to pay $50. When I counted up the tips and CD money, we'd made $55, which, as a one night take is probably in the top ten, but in light of the decision, was just cruel. I think that we'd probably better wait until the Spring, and then give it a try, but in the cold and with the economic crisis, it would probably be ill-advised to try it now.
The other weird part is that the maintenance guys that came to take down the stage asked why we don't try the other stage, and said that the guy that was there that night wanted to play the Food Court where we were. Huh? Either he thinks the Food Court is still free, or he's thinking that having a semi-captive audience ('cuz they're eating) would be better than the high volume, but too mobile, crowd he'd gotten. Interesting...
We had a fun Halloween this year. The first event was the Trailmates party on the night before Halloween. Costumes are required, even for dads, and I'd already worn my "Space Cowboy" outfit last year, so I had to come up with something new. Which was, "Shaun of the Dead", a romantic-comedy zombie movie about a London electronics-store clerk who ends up killing zombies with his cricket bat, that you've either seen, or you haven't. I think that only one dad recognized it, but he was impressed. (The pose at left is straight off the movie poster.)
Geneva was "Susan" from "Desperately Seeking Susan", a character played by Madonna in her 80's heyday. Geneva's new short haircut curled up really nice, and she customized a jacket to exactly match the iconic one in the movie.
Acacia wore Daleen's last-year home-made "Princess" dress, but added a pair of wings to make her a fairy. With make-up -- the best part.
Daleen was working on a new costume, as a schoolmarm, but got it finally finished about 8:30 on Halloween night, so almost nobody got to see it. In fact, she had it on so briefly that I didn't get a picture of her in it.
I took Halloween day off of work (I had accrued too much vacation time anyway), and we went to Geneva's high school at lunchtime to check out the costumes there. Those "artsy" kids really get into it, and have a lot less inhibition than the normal kids. That was pretty crazy. And about a dozen of the kids recognized my Shaun costume, and were totally and noisily thrilled by it. Made my day.
On Halloween night, Geneva went off to a friends' house in Nellie Gail, 'cuz the rich people give out the best candy. Acacia threw a party for 9 of her girl friends, with pumpkin carving, doughnuts-on-a-string "bobbing"-equivalent, and a round of trick-or-treating in the middle. And some vegetarian chili for dinner (Acacia and half of her friends are vegetarians now). Pretty fun, all around.
I was hoping/expecting to have my fiddle-playing guest star there again, but she'd had finals the week before and hadn't had time to practice, so she begged off.
Still no sign of sweetie-pie Manager Sally, for several gigs in a row now. Maybe she's on the day shift now, or maybe she got transferred. It was fun to play with her there - she's a huge James Taylor fan, and was on the verge of getting the nerve together to come up and sing something with me. That would have been fun. Oh, well.
I was hoping for a great night, musically at least, since the last two gigs were out where it's loud and obnoxious. But it takes a decent audience to make a good night, and we were little short in that department.
We did have a young family come by, but the kids were too young to know any songs -- although the little boy had apparently heard some James Taylor, oddly enough. Other than that, nobody was very interested, so we just plugged away for awhile. I did get some decent takes of a few songs on video and posted them to YouTube, so, not a complete loss. Just kind of disappointing.
I guess the other silver lining is that, since nobody was listening, I got to try out some new songs: "Peoples Parties" (might be OK, but very obscure), "Suzanne" (pretty, fun to sing, but I think it's kinda boring to listen to), "We Can Work It Out" (works fine when I play it on electric, but my un-strummable Ovation makes it unlikely), and "Imagine", which I learned specifically because a lady asked for it at this store a few weeks ago. I'm trying, only partially successfully, to imitate the piano part on the guitar, but it's pretty tough. Might work out, though, with more practice.
Well, not as good as last time, that's for sure. We had a sudden cold snap, and the turnout was a lot smaller, since this is an outdoor mall. We made about half as much in tips, but it was probably half as many people, so maybe that's OK.
The bigger problem was that I didn't expect it to be quite that cold, and hadn't brought a jacket. I'm usually OK up (down?) to a point, just from the excitement, but towards the end, I was shivering, and my fingers were getting too stiff to play. The upside is that my fingertips were too cold to feel the pain of playing for 3 hours straight, and my stomach muscles were so tight that I had great breath support for singing -- although you could hear the shivering in my voice at times...
When we played at Brea Downtown last November, I brought a space heater -- I'll definitely be sure to do that again when we play on November 1st.
We did have a few people tuned in. A guy from work promised to come by, and actually did. And a nice couple sat down for the last hour or so, requested several songs, and hung out until the bitter (cold) end. The husband even went out to the car and fetched their jackets so they could stay and watch me turn blue. And a couple with a baby girl were there when we got there and stayed for a really long time, until the baby was yawning and clearly needed to get home to bed.
I'd learned a few new songs during the week to try out, and did so with Joni Mitchell's "People's Parties" and The Searchers' "Needles and Pins". But I usually keep untried and imperfectly-learned songs until near the end when there's less people around, but last night my fingers were too frozen to even attempt anything tricky, so I didn't try out "We Can Work It Out" and "Imagine". I guess I'll get to those next week at South Coast Plaza.
My voice was pretty ragged most of the night for some reason, but the acoustics are terrible anyway, so I'm not sure it mattered. Having to play so loud makes it impossible to really put any finesse into the songs, though I'm not sure why. It would seem like you could just play and sing like always, but have the Master volume knob up higher, but there's just so much background noise, the people and the fountain and all, that it's more like a shouting match than a song.
But that's OK, it's fun in a different way than the gigs where I get to feel like I'm really making music. And, especially at this place, I keep flashing on the wonder of what a shy boy like me is doing in such a public place, making such an amount of noise, in front of all these people.
I took some video, but there's nowhere to put the camera, so I hung it from the amp itself, and the audio was blown out. But I had also recorded the audio with my new iPod, as an experiment, so I laid the iPod's not-bad audio track onto the not-very-good video that my little camera grabs, and made a barely-passable movie of "Peaceful Easy Feeling", which is available here. (That's http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_mi2wZEMLzA if the link doesn't work.)
The night went pretty much how it usually goes, until a bunch of people (5 or 6, mostly ladies) came screaming up, clearly pre-lubed, rockin' out to the song we happened to be playing at the time. They whooped and hollered and half-danced, and perched on a bench/planterbox, waiting for more. I obliged with what passes for rock-n-roll in my repertoire: "Here Comes My Baby", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", etc., some of which they chose off the list.
It was great fun to have somebody actually actively rockin' with us, and they even went so far as to encourage the other people to "get with it". Wow. Unfortunately, they were bound for other destinations, and left too soon. They got the show kicked into high gear for a while there, though. Even after they'd left, other people were energized and asking for songs, 4 deep at one point. It's amazing how the same songs, played the same way, can be completely different depending on how the audience reacts. Those girls certainly made our night.
We made $78 plus a $5 check made out to "Keith and Warren" which I haven't tried to cash yet. Sold a handful of CDs in there, too. We've consistently made more than $50 there, so it's conceivable that we could pay the $50 "setup fee" to play the more public, heavier trafficked, location in the middle of the shopping center, and still come out ahead. It might be worth a try, just for fun -- we'd probably go home with less than if we'd played at the Food Court for free, but it'd be a different experience.
But, bad news, we got permission to play again on 10/10 and 11/01, but after that, they're gonna start charging $50 for the Food Court gigs, too. So we can either quit playing there entirely, or go ahead with the mid-mall location, since it's 50 bucks either way. I suppose we should give it a try -- once, at least.
It's an interesting trick on their part, though I doubt that they mean it to be: charging the band $50 is a clever way to weed out bands that people don't like. The management doesn't even have to audition the bands -- any band that is likeable enough to cover the $50 will play. Bad bands won't (unless they're desperate enough that they're willing to go negative for the night). I guess we're just barely good enough...
So I packed up left. First time I remember bailing early on a gig. Usually playing for quiet people is still better that being home doing nothing, but this was just humiliating.
Of course, I find out later that my brother came by at 9:00, and must have missed me by only a few minutes. That only made it worse...
Anyway, it was a little strange, but OK. There were maybe 8-10 adults there, family, gramma, some friends, and half a dozen kids of varying ages, one of which was the birthday boy, turning 4, I'd guess. One of the adults was also celebrating her birthday, too.
The mom that "won" me knew about the auction in the first place because her daughter also goes to OCHSA, in the Opera conservatory. She was there too, of course, and I could see her quietly singing along with some of the songs, so I invited her up to sing one for real. I strapped my head mic onto her, had to clip the cable to her bathing suit bottoms, but she totally went for it, and knocked "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" out of the park. It was a little odd, because she has this opera-trained su-per ac-cu-rate e-nun-ci-a-tion, and I'm used to hearing it in a more casual pop style. Later on, I asked her to come up again, and we did "When You Wish Upon a Star". On "Will come to you", she practically trilled the L's. Pretty cool. Her dad was apparently traveling or something, 'cuz while she was singing, her gramma came forward, holding a phone out like a microphone, with dad on the other end.
It's kind of odd singing to a dozen or so people who were trying to have their own party, with visiting and swimming and kids running around playing. But I've gotten used to being ignored, I guess, and just carried on. After a spell, we all got comfortable with the situation, and they got brave enough to talk to me, and start asking for songs, and it got more fun as it went along. The lady seemed very pleased to have me -- certainly not your normal backyard birthday party.
I guess Daleen intends to auction me off again this year. We'll see if anybody wants me this time.
Back again at my "local" store, with a promise from part-time fiddler Melina to step up and play again. I had my little camera set up taking movies, but I don't think she was aware of it -- and since she's kinda nervous anyway, I didn't mention it for fear of spooking her even worse.
Like last time, I played solo for a while, and then she showed up and played along for a few songs. She had learned the "real" classical intro line from "Whiter Shade of Pale" and that worked out really cool. She had learned, or already knew, "Ashokan Farewell", but she does the rhythm differently (wrong), so it was pretty baffling for me, trying to follow her. We'll have to have a look at that, and agree on something. We did a couple more songs that I can't remember, and she also played along with "Don't Think Twice" this time, which worked pretty well. I've posted the video, and will try embedding it here.
Overall, pretty fun, but not as magically connected as last time. I had a bit of a fright when the Regulars arrived and, lacking anywhere else to sit, settled into the only empty table there -- the one right in front of me. I was sure it would get ugly and I'd have to fake an emergency phone call from home or a heart attack or something, but they were somewhat well-behaved -- only one woman was talking with her outside voice. It didn't completely derail me, but it's still too distracting to get any magic going. Oh well, still a pretty good night, altogether.
Started off slow, as usual, but got pretty good at the end. I played to dead silence for most of the evening, with a few smiles to keep me going, but there was that "Library" vibe to contend with. But near the end, some families came in, and some other friendly folks, and I started getting some back-and-forth going.
For some reason, there were two big, old, trashed, "school tables" out in the room, taking up space 'cuz nobody wanted to sit at them. The probably had had some kind of event earlier. Anyway, I went ahead and put the CDs, cards, songlists, and tip jar on one of them, which made the setup far more prominent than usual. I was a little afraid to do that, 'cuz this is the one store that's ever enforced the "no CDs, no tip jar" rule, but I didn't see that particular picky manager this time, so I chanced it.
But that apparently made a big difference, because when I finally got some friendly people, lots of them saw the CDs, sign, and jar, and I sold 5 CDs (usually, none), and made $34 in tips and CD payments. Not a record or anything, but not bad.
I set up my little camera to take some movies, but I haven't had a chance to look through the results yet. With the dead silence, and the great acoustics there, I might have gotten some good stuff -- I'm just too busy to find out...
It's a strange place to play, with some people coming by just to eat dinner, and some people coming by on purpose, drawn by the music. Lots of youngsters, some too cool to acknowledge us at all, some bent on being smart-alecs, and some who seem to recognize that we're pretty good, really.
It was kinda surreal -- playing and singing while watching the big full moon rise up over the Edwards 21 marquee...
Near the end, though, a pair of Asian women (a mother and her 20-something daughter) came in, and while they were in line for coffee, the mother was totally getting into the song, which happened to be "People Get Ready", the only overtly religious song I do, requested by a guy who was genuinely listening and getting interested. When the song was over, she said, loudly, "Play that one again!" Huh?!? That's a new one! I said, "But everybody's already heard it!", and she said, to the room in general, "Oh, they won't mind. Will you?" Of course, nobody wanted to answer, or even acknowledge the crazy lady, so they all got really busy with their books and/or coffee all of a sudden, so I said, "How about I do the last two verses over again?", and started them before she could object.
She and her daughter sat down in the table that's right in front of us that's generally empty because it's right in front of us. They were wearing the same bright green T-shirt dress, though the mom had a pink sweater over it. Turns out the daughter is slightly retarded, and the mom is doting over everything she see, touches, or says -- she's also holding her hands across the table and singing along with the song, right into her face. Really odd, but super (over?) friendly, and loving the music.
She asked for some songs, and some more, threatening to hijack the evening, but I tried to let the other guy get in some requests, too. Then she asked for "You've Got a Friend", so I started it up, but she was singing along, as loud as me, at her daughter, but doing the Carole King version, not the James Taylor one, so she was singing sometimes way different stuff than I was, and it was *really* throwing me off. I was ignoring her as hard as I could, but she was too loud, and too wrong.
She was reminding me of a lady that used to work at Toshiba who was similarly Asian, and loopy. We used to call her "Crazy Jean", and a lot of people avoided her, but she was great fun to talk to. I used to go up and talk to her sometimes, just to get a dose of surrealism, 'cuz she had this amazing talent for unexpected tangents and connections -- and her own way of looking at the world. I miss her.
So it was getting close to time to quit, and who should come walking in? Speak of the devil: it's Crazy Jean! She's unmarried, but she had a 12-year old girl (her neighbor's daughter) with her -- they were on their way home from the beach. We happened to be in the middle of "Love Potion Number Nine" when they came in, so she started "bop-walking" to the rockin' beat, and came right up to the front of us. The *other* crazy lady, also right in front of us, jumped up and grabbed Jean's little friend's hands, and started dancing, too. Jean was a bit taken aback, but it looked safe enough, if weird, so she let it go. We just kept playing...
So the other crazy lady starts talking to Jean's friend, gets her name (Alyssa), has her sit on her lap (!), and Jean kinda goes along with it all. Turns out she's a teacher, "owns a school" in San Louis Obispo, and, as she told us while we were packing up, wants us to come up and play sometime. I said that it's kinda far, and she said, "Oh, you just sit down... on a train! You don't even need any baggage..." (a reference to a line in "People Get Ready"). What. Ever.
Weird night...
But it went really well. The acoustics there are nice, and the people are friendly. I think we literally made $4 (to split) in tips, but it's still nice to play to nice people.
I'll miss that place. But not the drive.
Anyway, I went over to the Info desk to get somebody to fetch the store's equipment, and as the guy went off to get it, the college girl behind the counter suddenly asks, "Are you Keith?". I said yes, and she asks, "Are you ever looking for a violin player?" Huh?!? That's pretty out of the blue, and strangely worded, but I recover and say, "Sure! But we don't get paid or anything." She's aware of that, but wants to sit in anyway, and says that she's "classically trained, but I can improv". I'm thinking that anybody with the guts to ask, probably knows what they're doing, or thinks they do -- and if not, what have I got to lose? Anything to shake it up.
So I start setting up, but thinking about it, I realize that since I only play there once a month, and it's 50/50 whether Warren will be there too (which would complicate the issue, with two "lead" players), that tonight's a pretty good chance for her to do it, if she's gonna. I found her at the cash registers and told her as much, but she said that she's working until 10:30 (a half hour past closing time). I presumed she'd get a dinner break sometime, and suggested that she go home and fetch the violin then. She said she'd think about it.
Well, she must have decided to go for it, 'cuz an hour or so in, she showed up with her case. I asked her what songs she thought she could handle, and she started with Paul Simon's "America", to my surprise -- not really an "easy one". But she kept up, and played around in the right key, and it sounded good to me. Then she chose Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight", which has a signature Stratocaster riff, and I thought she meant to play it on the violin, and she said, no. Huh? Then why this song? But I played it anyway, and she did better, 'cuz it's a more obvious chord progression, and slower.
Then she asked for "Whiter Shade of Pale". Cool! It's got a signature Hammond organ line that's based on a tune by Bach -- she can play that line, and it'll sound great! But, again, nope. And again, why'd you pick it, then? But she played some stuff that was similar, and it sounded OK anyway -- though the official line would have been more impressive.
She said she'd have to get back to work after one more, so I suggested "Let It Be", 'cuz it's pretty straightforward, and she's bound to know it. And it did work out well.
Between the songs, I tried to impress upon the audience how cool this was, but I guess it was just "some people playing" to them, and nobody seemed as excited as I was to have her there. Oh well. I had to ask her name so I could introduce her -- it's Melina. I talked to her at the end of the night, and she had fun, and I told her that she's welcome any time. I don't know if she'll be wanting to come to any gigs that aren't in the store she works in, but we'll see what happens.
Of course, Daleen thinks that if I want a violin player, I should recruit Geneva. And I love that, but she just doesn't have the time, nor inclination. I guess I should have been working on her, and with her, over the summer...
Anyway, after Melina left, I kept playing, and after a while, some new people filtered in that, for some reason, were really enjoying the music. I had 3 or 4 people around the room that were really into it, and asking for songs, and clapping -- for real, not that "polite" stuff. Their interest seemed to be contagious, and for the last half hour or more I was more connected to an audience than I've ever been. By far. It was amazing. And of course, it's a loop where I play better and better, and people start listening more, and around we go. Exhilarating.
And, for a while at least, I knew why I keep doing this...
Pretty fun. We started off strong due to the crowd of teens who watched us finish setting up, waiting to hear some tunes, and were then very appreciative once we started up. It's always nice to have somebody to start playing for, right off the bat.
We had lots of people stop for a while, all through the evening, and pretty good feedback, generally. But I felt sort of "out of it" for some reason -- like I wasn't really running the show, but that it was running me. Hard to describe, but it just didn't feel right, a lot of the time.
Daleen, Acacia, and all three dogs came along, which made for a pretty tightly packed van, but they walked around the area a lot, and then spent some time near us, attracting more people than the music was, it seemed.
There were a lot more very loud cars and motorcycles going by, and sometimes stopping for far too long right in front of us, due to the crosswalk there. Loud mufflers, and cars with very loud music coming through open windows. Probably more of a Summer thing.
Anyway, it was fun, and different. Don't know why I couldn't get "into it", but I guess there are good nights, and bad nights. Still, I was playing and singing well enough -- that wasn't it. We made pretty good tips, though -- $63 (we'd thought it was $70, but Acacia (who, for some reason, just *loves* to count the money) neglected to subtract the $7 "seed money" that I'd put in). We were thinking that we ought to make a bunch more in the Summer than we had last November, but it's not materializing. Maybe it's the economy...
Huntington Gardens is Daleen's "favorite place" -- they have more plants than you can shake a stick at. Not exactly *my* idea of a good time, but we walked through a few hundred miles of paths through plants, and Daleen and the kids loved it. Must be a Girl Thing.
They have a big Desert Plants section, and some nice Japanese Gardens. Recently, the Chinese, not to be outdone (especially by the Japanese), put in a section of their own, which is even more elaborate.
After the plants, we went into the museums to look at the paintings, which are more interesting to me -- to a point. They really mostly have portraits, and they all start to look alike after a while with the rosy cheeks and lipstick and mile-high wigs and frilly satin and lace -- and that's just the men...
So after the obligatory half-hour in the gift shop, and the obligatory droppage of 75 bucks, we were off to lunch on the way to the Griffith Park Observatory. It was famously recently expensively renovated, and looks exactly the same. They wanted to leave the iconic building alone, so they jacked it up and added an underground "second story", with more exhibit space and another little theater.
I was kind of disappointed that it's still all at elementary school level -- I was hoping that they'd get beyond the "how much you weigh on Jupiter" stage, but I guess schoolkids are their target audience. The planetarium show (with the new comfy seats), on the other hand, despite being "for beginners", was excellent. They really put it together to illustrate the concepts perfectly. "How to explain stuff" is kind of my "thing", and this was simply amazing. Brilliant, even. And well presented too, with a live Actor Guy doing the narration.
So that was pretty fun, too. We had arranged to meet the Spencers there, so the kids had friends to hang with, and from there we went into Hollywood to have dinner, which was a special time, too. A great, if long, day.
A pretty typical outing for Costa Mesa -- some people listening, and some people completely indifferent. I felt good though, singing and playing well, and feeling loose.
But we were cut pretty short, because the store's hours changed and, of course, nobody told us. So we arrived at 7:30 thinking that we were playing 8-10 (or 10:30) for an 11:00 closing time, but the coffee girls told us that they now close at 10, so we only really had from 8-9:30, and even at that we were pushing this cranky crew by cutting close to their "get out of here" time.
It wasn't so bad -- it would have been nice to have been told beforehand, but it wasn't the end of the world. But I could have done without that particularly unpleasant coffee girl's "nyah nyah" attitude. She seemed evilly delighted that we had gotten screwed out of our play time, and that was uncalled for. I get it that we offend her hard-core punkette sensibilities, but she doesn't have to be a jerk about it.
Turns out, she was right. I don't know how long it's been, but it was all *very* familiar to me. The kids must have been pretty young, though, 'cuz they didn't remember any of it.
We walked around all the usual exhibits, but I'd gotten a time-specific ticket for Geneva to see the plastic-ized skinless people. Acacia and I opted out -- we didn't feel the need to see the insides of people. For one thing, it's kind of expensive -- for another, I'm not sure it works both ways -- they probably wouldn't pay *me* 18 bucks to see the insides of *my* stomach. Acacia and I went over to the space museum and looked at the satellites and space capsules instead.
After that, we saw a really cool 3D IMAX movie about prehistoric "sea monsters". It was pretty amazingly realistic, and big fun. We had a little more time after that, so we sped through the Natural History museum. They've refurbed the stuffed animal dioramas by cleaning them up, and repainting the backdrops, and they're *really* good. They're incredibly realistic, and the transition from the real dirt, rocks, and plants to the painting is almost completely invisible. It's pretty amazing.
Anyway, a pretty fun Dad-n-Daughter day.
(Who's that way-too-skinny kid in the back?!?)
OK, I was never actually in Drama at high school, but they'd do a musical every Spring, and they needed singers, especially *boy* singers, so they'd raid the music department to get some. My senior year, I was in the Concert Choir and the "song and dance" 12-kid group, The Mariners, so I got shanghaied into "Mame". I wasn't sure what I was getting into, but I let them talk me into it.
It turned out to be great fun. I never actually saw the play itself, so I have very little idea what it's even about, but we had fun learning the songs and dances for the "production numbers", and I met a lot more girls, and that's what counted, back then.
So, every 5 years or so they throw a Reunion of all the kids that were in Mr. Meyer's (now called "Bob") Drama productions. He taught there from '65 to '74, and all the kids loved him (I didn't actually get to know him at all, but whatever). It works out really well since Drama productions tend to be mixed-grade so you got to know people older and younger than you were -- and of course, by now, the few years' differences are invisible anyway. And the Drama Reunions also kinda serve as Mariner Reunions, since most of us were in the musical, at least.
At every Reunion, they have a long slideshow, using the old round slide tray projector, and everybody sits around and makes cracks at their friends' previous selves. This time, since the slides are starting to dissolve, a guy volunteered to scan all the slides, pictures, programs, yearbooks, and anything else he could dig up, including some previously unseen black and white stuff taken for the school paper and yearbook, and made an incredible "Ken Burns" style slideshow, complete with music. I had access to a projector, sound system, and screen, so I volunteered to be the tech boy. Again.
Anyway, the slideshow was really well done, and everybody loved it. Funny part was, we had to wait until around 9 to start the show so it would be dark enough, so it was over a little after 10, and (most) everybody got up; said "That was terrific"; and went home. Buncha old fogies. So much for that "wild drama party" reputation...
I had a great time seeing a bunch of old friends -- though several that I wished were there didn't make it. Laura, Dawn, Craig, Todd/Dirck, Clark, Saskia, and Michelle were there, but no Johnny, Dave, Ken, Sherry, Mindy, Leslie, David, Janelle, or Denise -- even though I had personally talked, I thought, those last two into coming. I guess I'm just as easy for pretty girls to lie to now as I was back then...
But it's always nice there with the good acoustics, and with the room nearly empty and deathly quiet, I had fun playing in the crystal clarity. And it was nice to have the Spencers see me in such a good acoustic setting for once. Todd's mostly heard me out in some campground someplace...
We were suddenly OKed to play at the Irvine Spectrum Food Court, and since Friday was the only free weekend night we both had free in August, we jumped on it. No pay, of course -- but at least they don't *charge* you, like the $50 you have to pay to play down in the middle of the mall.
It's a bit challenging, but it was fun anyway. There are a lot of people, but many of them are just there to eat their pizza, not to hear some music. Of course, that gives us the opportunity to turn them into fans, assuming we're interesting enough. We had old people, parents, teens, kids, and babies. It was unusually eclectic -- we'd bounce back and forth between "Sweet Baby James", "Hey There, Delilah", and "Rubber Duckie". Had some kids that were fascinated and got themselves lists so they could make requests, and other kids that showed their coolness by showing their contempt.
The biggest problem is the acoustics -- it's outside, so we have to be really loud to start with. But back behind the audience is the kids' fountain, with "spitting" giant turtles and the "jumping water", all programmed in loops so the noise comes and goes -- but mostly comes. I had it turned up *really* loud (*I* thought), and a dad in the first row of tables comes up between songs and asks if we could maybe turn it up a little. "Up"?!? I thought he was about to complain about it being too loud from where he was sitting. So I floored it, which brought even the vocal up to the point of clipping distortion from the speakers. But, oh well.
I had (foolishly) thought that I might get away with playing the electric guitar all night (4 hours! 6-10), 'cuz I use it to practice as I walk around the block twice a day at work, and I'm getting pretty used to the string spacing, and the sound. But the overall acoustics and bad settings made it pretty awful, so I gave it up after 8 or 10 songs. Too bad, though -- it sounds better to be on an electric for the "rock and roll" songs (such as we have), and it's a lot easier on the fingers, too.
At about 9:20, I suddenly wondered if the effects processor was being overloaded by the sheer volume, and looked to see if the caution light was blinking or not. It wasn't, though it should have been, which made me notice that the reverb was turned almost all the way down. That was because I had last used the amp at the wedding, and there was a lot of natural echo in the room, so I turned the amp's reverb way down. After I noticed that and turned it up where it belongs, the whole sound was *way* better -- too bad I figured that out just when it was almost time to quit.
Anyway, it was fun, and different, (and we made $64 to split) so we'll do it again -- a few times anyway.
