Halloween Campout Pumpkin Display

	We had an Indian Princess campout this weekend, right in front of Halloween, so we had an inter-tribal pumpkin carving competition. It wasn't about individual pumpkins, it was the tribal theme that mattered.
	I came up with this "Angry Peasants Storming Frankenstein's Castle" idea (concept art above, reality here).
	Acacia and I did the dismayed-looking Frankenstein, and all the other kids just had to portray "angry" (with a little design help from me).
	I brought along some lamp oil and we made little torches ('cuz what's an angry mob without torches?). That really made it look cool at night when the judges came by. And we managed not to burn the forest down.

Acacia's Pumpkin 2005

Acacia got a "free" pumpkin at the Indian Princess trip to the pumpkin patch, almost two weeks ago, and since we're going camping tomorrow, last night was our last chance to carve it. I asked her what she was thinking of this year, and her idea was "Ballerina!" Hmmm. Kinda hard to do that one, any other ideas? "Unicorn!"

So I Googled up some unicorn silhouettes, and we knocked this one out. It came out pretty good, even though the pumpkin was really strange on the inside -- way stringier than I've ever seen.

Now I gotta do/supervise 14 more tomorrow at the campout, but that's another post.

Halloween Costume Parade!

Today was Acacia's school's annual Halloween Costume Parade. The whole school, Kindergarten through 5th, parades around the playground in their costumes, while the parents' cameras snap away. It's better than Halloween itself, 'cuz you get to see a couple hundred cute costumed kids, instead of the 15 or so we get at the front door every year.

The girls were mostly the same as usual: fairies, angels, princesses (Acacia and her best-friend Cezanne were gypsies (though, truth be told, she didn't look much different than every other day)). But the boys have a new possibility this year: Napoleon Dynamite, and there were several of those. Lots of Batman, too, with Spiderman largely dropping off the charts -- presumably because there wasn't a new movie this year. But the surprise winner, I think, was Darth Vader -- lots and lots of Darths. I guess the kids were more impressed with Episode III than us grown-ups were.

KC - RSM 22Oct2005

OK, well, that didn't go very well at all. Several reasons, I guess -- a completely unresponsive audience for one. Polite, possibly even authentic, clapping, but no real *listening* going on, most of the night. I tried to just ignore that and play anyway, but my concentration was further compromised by a group of 8 or 9 boys, seemingly unattended by any parents, running in and out of the store most of the night, hassling me, talking loudly right in front, etc. They were pretty awful, and it was a real challenge to remain civil. Good practice, though, I guess.

And, possibly the main reason: I had set up a notebook to record the whole thing. I used the store's amplifier, because it has line-level "Tape Out" jacks, which I ran to the notebook. Unfortunately, I set the levels too high, so most of the recording is clipped in the loud sections. Not much of a loss, though, since I didn't perform very well anyway. Whenever there's a recorder running, it's all I can think about, and I end up performing really badly, 'cuz I'm trying too hard not to make any mistakes. It's like *trying* to go to sleep -- the harder you try, the less likely it is to happen.

I guess (hope?) that the solution to that is the same as the solution to general stage-fright -- just do it, again and again, until the novelty wears off.

Anyway, it wasn't "bad", exactly, but it was certainly disappointing -- especially after how well it went two weeks ago at South Coast Plaza. I was hoping to get a little of that "on tape", but, no magic.

We have an Indian Princess campout next weekend, but I'll be back at RSM again in two weeks for another try. I hope it goes better -- I'm not sure my performer's ego can take that much bruising again.

Guitar Surgery

I spent a couple of hours yesterday re-engineering my guitar. My original intent was to build a new saddle piece, thicker than the current one, and moved "south" to lengthen the bass strings to fix the intonation. Of course, moving the saddle means cutting the bridge piece, which is irreversible, so that's a little scary.

But, I've also been annoyed lately by the lack of response in the lowest string. This is caused, probably, by the fact that I've got it set much higher than the other strings at the saddle end, so it doesn't rattle which means that its sound has more saddle material to get through to reach the pickup. So I cut it down some more, as much as I dared, and started thinking about the neck itself, which, upon inspection, was starting to curve upwards. The resultant high action is the theoretical source of the intonation problem, too, so I tweaked the tension rod in the neck to flatten it out.

That looked really good, but made most of the strings rattle like crazy, 'cuz I'd cut the nut to match the bent neck. So, I ended up buying and fitting a new nut and not working on the saddle/bridge at all. I think it helped, but didn't cure, the intonation problem, but it's also easier to play, I think, so that'll be nice on those long gigs. The intonation is only a little bit out now, so I think I'll live with it for a while, and see how it goes in real life.

Keith and Geneva video

I borrowed the Mini DV tape that my dad shot at the "Keith with Geneva" show at RSM on July 23rd, so I finally broke down and installed the Firewire card that I bought 6 months ago, and it worked, first try. Why does it surprise me when stuff works these days?

Anyway, I snagged the whole 54 minutes (11 gig), sent it back out again to a blank tape for me to keep, and also re-output it as WMV (which took 75 minutes of slogging). I also snagged a single song ("They Don't Know"), with Geneva singing, which clocks in at a manageable 8 meg, to show it can be done. Not sure what to do with it -- maybe I'll post it on the K&W songlist page with the MP3s.

The software ("Movie Maker 2", comes with XP) can also snag respectable still shots at 640x480 right off the movie. They look pretty good as-is, and processed down to blog size, they're quite usable. And I get to single-frame through the whole movie to find just the right shot -- still camera shots tend to catch the singer in an "F" or some other funny-mouth pose.

Smells Like Christmas!

This morning was the first morning that was cold enough that I needed to turn on the car heater as I was taking Acacia to school. As it finally heated up, she said "Smells like Christmas in the house". At first I thought she was smelling some pine scent that I hadn't noticed, but then I realized that she was associating the smell of artificially heated air with Christmas, since the Christmas season is when we start using the furnace in the house.

Ah! The cheery scent of burning duct-dust!

K&W - RSM and SCP 07-08Oct2005

Strange weekend. RSM, usually my favorite place to play, broke our streak of "pretty good" gigs, and SCP, usually one of the worst places to play, was one of the best gigs I can remember.

The RSM gig wasn't all that bad, really. It was unusually empty, but we had some nice people listening. Geneva did fine for her songs, as usual. But I felt completely "off", mainly 'cuz the sound was inexplicably terrible. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, so I couldn't fix it, but it was muddled and confusing and I couldn't tell what I was doing, so I couldn't perform well. We struggled on, of course, but it never did feel right.

Conversely, at SCP on Saturday, the sound was crystal clear. I could hear myself (guitar *and* voice) perfectly -- from full voice to whisper, strumming or barely picking. It's baffling, 'cuz this was with essentially the exact same setup, speakers and amp-wise, and I didn't touch the amp's knobs between Friday and Saturday. Apparently, it was "the room", either the shape, or the ambient noise, or something.

Also, my parents' old friends, Maryjane and Bill Wiley came by, so I had someone to play to, which always does wonders for my performance. (Jessica Ching came by too, later, though she looked bored the whole time.) It definitely becomes a feedback loop for me -- the clear sound and sympathetically focused attention helps me sing better, and hearing one song go really well makes me give it up even more for the next song, and on and on, and up and up.

My voice is back in shape, finally, after that bronchitis or whatever, and/or the clarity of sound made me *think* my throat is back in shape, which encouraged me to do little things that I don't usually expect to get away with, or can't usually hear whether or not I did/can. It was an amazing feeling -- to feel like I could do anything, and it all worked. Not to keep ranting about this, but it also made me connect to the songs more myself -- I was starting to choke up during both "Jenny Dreamed of Trains", and "Puff". It's hard to sing with a lump in your throat.

(I know, I know -- what a old softie I've become. Truth is, it took me a long time to *stop* choking up on those two (and "Pooh Corner" -- that's why I don't even *think* of adding that new third verse). I usually only get through them by deliberately *not* thinking about what I'm saying.)

Another strangeness -- it seems to have been Repeat Night. We kept getting new people come in and requesting songs that we'd already done. Since most of the crowd that was around the first time would have been gone by then, I went ahead and did 'em. I hope Bill and Maryjane didn't mind too much -- they were there most of the night. By my recollection, we did 49 songs, but 7 of those were repeats.

Anyway, small crowd, even smaller *listening* crowd, low tips -- but still the best night for a long time. Makes it all worthwhile. Sure wish I'd'a had a recorder running.

House of Blues Field Trip

Yesterday I took some time off of work to be a chaperone for Geneva's school's field trip to the House of Blues. They took all the instrumental music classes, so there were 220 kids, 4 busses full. (These are all pretty good kids, so the chaperoning part was pretty easy duty, though they got pretty loud and rowdy on the bus. My stash of Cat's Cradle strings came in handy to entertain quite a few of 'em on the bus.)

The House of Blues has a "Schoolhouse Band" that puts on a great, hour-long "educational show", basically on the topic of why they're called "House of Blues" when most of the shows they put on are Rock and Roll. It was really well done, interactive so the kids were involved, and in a great format. The two singers traded off doing narration about the evolution of the blues from West African rhythms up to Hip Hop, with the band playing examples along the way. Sometimes it was a phrase or two, sometimes most of a song. They always kept the kids connected by getting them to sing, shout, or dance along, and the narration never got too long before another song came up.

They covered African chants, slave tunes, spirituals, southern rural blues, Robert Johnson, W.C. Handy, Chicago blues, Jazz, Gospel, Rock, R&B, Muddy Waters, Aretha, Eric, Jimi, Sly, James Brown, Funk, Rap, Hip Hop, up to, I guess, Jet -- and a lot more that I've forgotten already. They were all really good, but the guitar player was amazing. He had to cover every style of guitar, all the way back in time, on a Strat and a wooden National for bottleneck. His "Purple Haze" was spot on. I was impressed. The kids had a great time, but it was probably more interesting to me than it was to them -- kids never care about their Heritage...

Birthday Party at Mom's!

We had a birthday party for my sister and I at my mom's house yesterday. My dad dragged out the old 8mm projector and we watched movies from Christmas 1955, when I was 14 months old. I'm wearing one of those one-piece footie-jammies, and I look *exactly* like "Henry" in the old comics.

We also watched a later Christmas, and what was alarming to our post-millennium eyes was the *guns*. My brother and I got guns, guns, and more guns for both Christmases. You don't see too many 14-month-olds kids with a pair of six-shooters strapped around the waist of their jammies anymore. Western-style revolvers in holsters, "Rifleman" style rifles, dart rifles with a target... All guns, all the time!

And here I am, not a serial killer at all. How'd that happen?

K&W - MV 01Oct2005

Another good night at Mission Viejo. Warren got there before I did and talked to Cidne, the sweetheart of a manager there, and she told him that she's got my "Waltzing With Bears" CD playing non-stop in her car. And, of course, that we'd have to play it for her, which, of course, we did.

We started early (7:30), 'cuz Warren wanted to leave partway through to go see a favorite band of his that doesn't play very often. I went ahead and kept playing until 10:45. Longest gig ever, I think. We/I played 51 songs (that I remember) in that time, sold 4 CDs, and brought in $38. Not sure why the tips lately are so much better than they've ever been. Mysterious.

I did try something new -- "introducing" each song before we played it. This, hopefully, gave Warren a little "heads-up" which he normally gets precious little of, and filled the time while we were tuning or I was flipping through the book looking for the song. Maybe it helped, but I felt kind of stupid introducing songs like "Something" and "Fire and Rain" -- as if anyone wouldn't recognize 'em...

KC - RSM 24Sept2005

Well, it finally happened. When Warren and I started playing in coffee shops, 3 and a half years ago, I thought that probably, eventually, someone would come up and ask us to play a party. We did get a gig last November, but that lady had seen the article in the newspaper, and hired us without ever having actually heard us.

Anyway, last night, a lady came up as I was packing up, and asked if I did "private affairs". Her mother passed away recently, and she thought I would fit in to the memorial service she and her sister are planning in November. I told her that I'd certainly love to do it (despite it being "in the L.A. area"), and gave her a card so she can contact me. I gave her a CD, so she could play it for her sister (and to keep me in her mind). It'll probably never happen, but it's nice to be asked.

Otherwise, a nice, if sedate, gig. Started off fun when Isaac from Trailmates came in with wife and 4 little girls. His oldest daughter was visibly thrilled to get to ask for songs off the list, and I ended up doing almost all the kids' songs I know. That was fun, as was, later on, when I had a little boy that came and sat right down front, so I handed him the shaker on "South of the Border". He did all right on that one, but, of course, wanted to shake it on all the songs from then on out. I convinced him that it didn't really work on slow songs, though, and ran out of fast ones soon enough.

Geneva was there briefly, and did only three songs. She did well, and it's always good practice for her, even if it's brief. Altogether, I did 47 songs for the night, sold only 3 CDs, but, inexplicably, had another good tip night -- $42. It didn't really feel like a motivated crowd, but I guess you never know.

I'd been working up "Desperado" over the week, and didn't really know if it was gonna "work", since it's such a cliché these days. But I pulled it out at the very end, 'cuz I had a pretty good feeling about the 6 or 8 remaining listeners, and it worked quite well. It's weird -- some songs sound great at home, but just seem to lie there when I do 'em at the store, and others work fine. I can never tell which, until I try 'em. "Desperado" might be a keeper.

KC - La Habra *and* K&W - MV 17Sept2005

I played the La Habra Borders' "First Pour" party from 12:30 to 2:30, and then Warren and I played at Mission Viejo at 8:00. I was afraid that my voice and/or fingers wouldn't hold up for two gigs in one day (4.5 hours total), but I did fine. The 5 hour gap helped a lot, of course. I'm sure I couldn't do 4 hours in a row...

I'm feeling repetitious saying "It went pretty well" every time, but I/we really haven't had a "bad gig" for several months now. Actually, La Habra started out looking like it was gonna break that trend -- when I started, there were only 7 disinterested people there. And the setup is pretty lame, with the drinks pick-up station right next to the "band corner". But after 4 or 5 songs, my mom, dad, aunt and uncle came in and saved the day.

It's pretty clear that a small group (or even one person!) that's really listening can change the whole dynamic. For one thing, I play better when I have someone to play to. For another, the group that's clapping are modeling that behavior for the others. And when passers-by hear the applause, they're more likely to wander over to check it out, and possibly stay, and snowball the whole process.

Anyway, they really helped get the audience "working", and by the time I had to pack up the place was full and really with me. I made $30 in tips -- best so far for a solo, I think.

And there was an older lady sitting up front with her daughter, and she seemed to be *really* enjoying it. She recognized all the songs, and was really appreciative. When I started the distinctive guitar intro to "Scarborough Fair", she clapped! Like at a concert where people clap whenever they recognize a song from the intro chords or words. I've never had that before...

I hope the girl that followed me at 3:00 appreciated the warmed-up audience I left her. Us Borders performers don't often get the benefit of an opening act.

The Mission Viejo gig went well, too. My voice was a little weak at first, but actually warmed up as we went along. I was afraid that we'd have to quit early (i.e., when we're *supposed* to stop, not when they start closing the store), but my voice was OK, and my fingers seemed to go past hurting into numb, so that was OK, too.

The usual gang of regulars were there, of course, but they're starting to know and like us, so that works out OK these days. We've heard from them before that most of the bands that play there are loud and/or annoying, so they like it when Warren and I come in. And we made $35 in tips -- not as good as The $79 MV Anomaly last time, but better than the previous record otherwise.

The one unexpected issue with playing two gigs in one day was trying to remember which songs I'd already done. During the second gig, I'd look at a song sheet and think "Did I already play that one, or was that this afternoon?"

Lemonade Stand for Katrina

Acacia and her little friend Arielle set up a Lemonade Stand with the proceeds going to the victims of hurricane Katrina. They set up on the busy corner down the street, and brought in $15, which they split and took to their schools to put in the collection boxes there.

The sign says "Help the Katrina Victims! Buy Lemonade!"

New Blurb at Borders.com

I just noticed that I got a new blurb on the Borders webpage for my upcoming performance at the La Habra store:

Keith Comer
September 17, 2005 12:30 PM
Keith is an accomplished guitarist and singer whose performance is both stylish and musically fulfilling.

Wow. "Stylish" and "Musically Fulfilling". Where do they get this stuff? The guy's never even heard me play, but he obviously has a degree in marketing, and that's almost the same thing...

KC (and Geneva) - RSM 10Sept2005

Geneva managed to fit a little practice time into her schedule this time, so I brought her along to the gig again, and she did really well. That practice stuff appears to work...

This time, rather than intersperse her songs among mine, we just played all her stuff in a block, mostly so she could go home early with Daleen, but it actually worked out pretty well that way. Last time, it seemed like the transitions between fiddle tunes and my acoustic pop were pretty awkward. This time, we had worked up "The Star of the County Down" as a duet (she plays some verses, and I sing some, and we're together on the last chorus), so we played that as the last song of her block, and it slid into me singing solo much nicer. Inadvertently clever.

She played well, and sang pretty well, though she's still too self-conscious to inject much of her own personality into the songs. I can't really expect her to at this early point -- you just really have to perform in public lots and lots of times to start to relax and "let it fly". I hope she'll stick with it long enough to get that feeling.

We sold 6 CDs, 5 "Bears" and 1 "regular", which seems odd since there really weren't that many families with kids there. The jar had 42 bucks in it, which is darn good. We reached a compromise on the distribution thereof -- I kept $2 per CD sold to cover the costs, and gave her the rest. That's still pretty good money for a 13-year-old. Especially for 15 minutes' work...

We/I had a very nice audience -- a lot of people seemed to wander in specifically to hear me play, and they were very quiet. I really feel like I play and sing better when I can hear myself, so quiet helps a lot. Usually it doesn't really fall silent until the last hour, or half-hour, but this audience was really listening so they were quiet just about the whole time. And genuinely appreciative at the end of each song. I had about 10 people stay all the way to the very end. I couldn't seem to muster up any of that interplay that Warren and I had at Mission Viejo last weekend -- these people just seemed to want me to go on ahead, and wouldn't even speak up to request songs. It felt oddly "respectful". Never got that before.

But, with the quiet, and my voice clear after the first 3 or 5 songs, my playing was oddly focused (and accurate), and I think I sounded pretty good. It'll be interesting to see what I can pull together on Saturday, solo for the first time at La Habra.

Another Paying Gig!

Hey! I got another paying gig! The Borders guys sent out a request for "mellow solo" acts to play the Seattle's Best remodel re-opening party at the La Habra store on the 17th, for 75 bucks, and I was the first to respond, and I got it.

Of course, since they were specifically asking for solo acts, I'll have to do it without Warren, which I've only, so far, done at nice friendly RSM. But, for 75 bucks, I'll tough it out. I've always said that the whole point of this exercise was to push myself -- like a roller coaster, if it wasn't scary, it wouldn't be fun.

The other tough part is that me and Warren are already booked for Mission Viejo that same night, so I'll be playing two gigs in one day. I've done two gigs on consecutive days, and it gets a little tough voice- and finger-wise, but I'm willing to risk it. The La Habra gig is 12:30-2:30, and the Mission Viejo one starts at 8:00, so there may be enough of a gap that I'll be OK.

We played the Carlsbad and Mission Viejo re-opening parties, and both were pretty awful, as gigs go. Less attention, more commotion, more coffee-making noise. I can see why they have to pay to get bands to show up for the afternoon ones. I'm not expecting this to be much fun, but even a bad afternoon playing is better than a good one sitting at home, and it's nice to get paid once in a while.

K&W - MV 03Sept2005

What happened?!? Mission Viejo is usually a "pretty OK" place to play -- the setup isn't very conducive to good audience interaction, and there's a lot of bored (and loud) "regulars" that just hang out there and talk, ignoring the band.

Last night *seemed* to go just a little better than usual, but apparently went *way* better. We usually sell a CD or two, and make between zero and 12 or 15 bucks in tips. I had brought 7 CDs, 3 of the kid's songs, and 4 "regular" -- the same 7 CDs I had brought to (and sold none of at) my solo gig last week, and the South Coast Plaza gig the night-before-last. Inexplicably, they sold out last night. We had people complaining as we were packing up that we hadn't brought any more!

And the tip jar was *jammed* full of money. Seventy-nine bucks! More than double the previous record (which was artificially inflated by the presence of over-tipping friends and family).

My singing and playing was essentially the same as the night before -- a little kludged up, but OK. The only explanation is that we had a better connection with some of the people. Since we start at 8:00 there (it's 7:00 at the RSM and SCP), there were already a lot of people there. I had brought a lot of the song list sheets, so I personally passed them out amongst the tables. That may have started something. (At the other places, I either leave a stack of them on the "tip table", or put them out on (empty) tables.) I was also a little more "talky" than usual, which is a feedback loop -- the more people seem interested and listening, the more I'll talk, which engages the people, etc.

Anyway, not the most fun night I've had, but certainly the most profitable. I guess I'll have to try repeating some of those "techniques", and see if we can duplicate the success. We're not really in it for the money, but it is fun to get some -- kinda validates the effort.

K&W - SCP 02Sept2005

South Coast Plaza isn't usually terribly friendly place to play, but it went pretty good, despite a rocky start due to my continuing throat problems. But after 8 or 10 songs the kludge cleared up some, and I was singing pretty well.

We were happy to see our crazy but sweet old Toshiba friend, Jean, who never fails to be surprised at how "healthy" I look, despite my heart attack of, what, two and a half years ago now. Nice of her to be concerned, though.

My brother and his wife came by, too, right in the middle of "Long, Long, Time". I think that was the best I've ever performed that song -- it was inexplicably getting to me as I was singing it. That happens once in a while, and it's quite a thing. It pays back a lot of the bad nights...

KC - RSM 27Aug2005

Another solo gig at Rancho Santa Margarita -- this time without Geneva because school started and with all the excitement, she hasn't had any time to rehearse her songs. It went quite well. My cold (or whatever it is) has backed off a little, so I can sing OK, most of the time. A friend from work came by (!) and wanted me to do "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" (her favorite), but it's really high and my voice was cracking and failing all over the place. Embarrassing, but she claims to have loved it. I managed most of the other songs without too much throat kludge.

It was an unusually static crowd -- small groups came in and stayed for a long time, listening, not reading and ignoring. That was pretty great, 'cuz it gave me a chance to connect with them better (and made me think that I was doing pretty well, to keep folks there for so long). I was also a little more talky than usual, for some reason, and that went over pretty well.

The downside was that when a crowd is less stationary, there's more Leaving going on, which is when the tip money comes out, if it's going to. Still, I made $14, in tips only (no one took any CDs) which is pretty good, considering how many people I had. It doesn't sound like much, but I was expecting a lot less, and was flattered. One couple was there til the very end, and when I was shutting down and they were getting up to leave, I said that I play there quite a bit, etc. She said, "Oh, yeah, we've seen you before. We'll be back." Quite flattering, that.

And I had new strings... mmmmm... new strings... In Heaven you get new strings every day...