It was a nice warm day, so I was hoping that some people would be out, but it turned really cold, and they weren't. I played some popular stuff for a while, but nobody really wanted to stop to listen, so I started playing some obscure stuff from the "Other" list. That was actually really fun.
And sometimes I neglect songs that I don't (or didn't) think "worked", but actually do sound good out in the Real World. Like "I'll Never Find Another You", "Wichita Lineman", "Mister Bojangles", and "Trouble"" which sounded pretty good last night. OTOH, there are several that deserve their place in obscurity, not because they're bad songs, but because my rendition is sub-par (I'm lookin' at you, "Down at the Twist and Shout" and "I've Got a Name"). I guess it's also good to discover where I need more practice...
Not quite a new record low, tips-wise, at eight bucks. Or thirteen, if you count the cool New Zealand five dollar bill. (It's got a window! And Mount Everest! And a little tractor! And a penguin on the back!)
I got an email from a guy who saw me at Spectrum, and he also plays at malls and gave me the email address of the lady who books Long Beach Towne Center, Riverside Plaza, and Chino Spectrum. I emailed her my interest and webpage address, and she immediately booked me to fill a cancellation in Long Beach, just on the basis of the MP3s and videos there. Cool!
That all happened Thursday, and on Saturday, even before I'd played the gig, she offered me some more gigs, so I got two more at Long Beach and one in Riverside (which pays actual money, which is good 'cuz it's pretty far away!).
Long Beach was interesting. There's a huge permanent stage, with cool roof/sails and real lighting. And they send, incredibly, a Sound Guy with really nice equipment. Big speakers, and a big monitor "wedge" pointed back at me. It sounded *great* -- noticeably (and covet-inducingly) better than my stuff.
But it's all set up along a cross-traffic walkway, across which is the food court. People who wanted to listen would stop and stand in the middle of the walkway, or sit at the tables of the food court, or along the raised edge of its floor, or on the wheelchair ramp, or on the stairs themselves. None of those places are very close, or inviting, but I snagged a pretty good number of people to hang around anyway.
It feels a lot like the (now extinct) food court stage at Irvine Spectrum -- more of a "wander by" kind of crowd than the "standing in the middle of traffic" feel of the new stage at Spectrum. The other strange part is that they have two bands per night, one from 6 to 7, then an hour to change out the equipment, and a second band from 8 to 9. I was the first one, and maybe more of the older folks are out for the "early shift", so a lot of people stopped to listen a bit.
Long Beach is pretty close to my mom's house, and my aunt and uncle live really close, so they came and stayed the whole hour. That made it easy to get started in this unfamiliar place, to have some friendly faces to sing to, right from the start. After a while, a lady sat down who was really liking my stuff -- she'd applaud after the first few notes of a song when she'd recognize what it was going to be. James Taylor gets that for every song, but it sure doesn't happen for me, that I can remember! When I introduced "The Boxer", she squealed and clapped at just the name of it. And I was about to make a joke about nobody knowing that song's real name...
When 7:00 rolled around, I was prepared to quit (despite it seeming like I'd only just started), but the sound guy was OK with my going over some, since the next guy wasn't even there yet. That was nice because when I said that I was going to have to quit, someone started shouting "Encore!".
I played one or two more, and then the sound guy gave me a "three song warning". I did "Carolina In My Mind", and then "Desperado", and then realized that those are two of the longest songs I know. I thought I'd better do a short one for the last song, but someone in the audience shouted out "Hotel California" -- which I had done as my opening song (like always), but figured it was a good closing song, too, despite it being, whoops, probably the *longest* song in the book. Fortunately, the sound guy didn't seem to notice or mind.
So I probably only got to play for an hour and twenty minutes, and made $50 in tips (not counting the *outrageous* over-tip by my not-so-sneaky mom), so that's pretty good. It does seem a shame to go to the trouble of driving up there and getting all set up, only to play for an hour or so...
Afterwards, I packed up as quick as I could and had dinner with my family in the food court. They went home after that, but I wanted to see what the second band sounded like, and what kind of reception they'd get. It was a young guy doing that hipster neo-folkie kind of stuff, and, well, I was the only one listening. He played and sang OK, but it all sounded the same, and wasn't familiar to anyone (originals, maybe?).
Anyway, it was cool to have a new place to play, despite the quirks. And it's great to be "on the list" for some more gigs at even more places. And, of course, having gigs at places makes you more appealing to yet *other* places, so hopefully I can parlay this into even more new gigs!
Three young guys were hanging around, listening, so I asked them if they wanted to pick a song off the list. I assumed they were just local high school kids, until they started to talk -- they had French accents even more outrageous than John Cleese's. Turns out they were from Quebec, and had *driven* out. I felt bad that they were about to get some decidedly non-Californian weather, but I suppose that they're pretty well acclimated to cold and wet.
They asked for a few songs, and seemed to run out of ideas, so I proposed doing some Neil Young, 'cuz, "He's Canadian." One of the kids looked at me and said, "Eee's note Can-aid-ee-aan." Um, OK. Forget I mentioned it, Pierre.
A young couple sat down and asked if I knew any James Taylor. I said that I know *lots* of James Taylor, well-known and obscure, and started listing some famous ones. They picked one, but an older guy took me literally and asked for "Copperline", which, Ha!, I know. Challenge accepted! Got a big round of applause, too, even though I'm sure most of the people there had never heard it before.
It was quite nice during the day, but as soon as the sun went down, the arctic air started coming in, and it got cold, fast. I was about to call it a day when four high-school girls came and sat down, and got very excited when I invited them to choose some songs.
After a song or three, one of them picked up a CD and asked me how much they were. I said "five bucks", and she complained back to her friends that she "had three bucks". I told her that she could have one for three, but it turned out that she had meant that she *had* three bucks, but didn't have them anymore. So I said, "Well, OK, you can just have a CD", which, of course, turned into each of them just having one, so I "sold out" all four that I'd brought, for free. I said, "OK, but you all have to go "Like" my Facebook page", but none of them have. Oh well. It was worth it just having them stop by to listen and be so excited. And it's flattering that they even *wanted* CDs.
After a while, somebody's mom pulled up, and they all tumbled into the car and were gone. I was freezing, hungry, and, having played four hours plus four and a half the night before, decided that it was probably time to go home.
Nice weather again, so lots of people out and streaming past. The new comfy furniture arrangement isn't really conducive to watching me, but some people were brave enough to spin one of the chairs around. And lots of couples figured out that the chairs are big enough for lap-sitting.
I discovered a new trick -- if you scatter business cards around the table, a lot more of them will disappear than if they're only in a neat stack in the little holder. Now I gotta decide: why do I want to "get rid" of business cards? Presumably, people take them to get my phone number, webpage address, and Facebook page. But so far, two days later, nobody's called or "liked" my page, so...
But I guess you gotta play the odds -- the more people that have the info, the more likely that someone will up and use it. I suppose I'd better order some more cards.
I had this nice old lady come up and, between songs, ask me incredulously, "It says to put five dollars in the jar and just take a CD?!?" Um, yup, that's pretty much exactly what it says, so I said, "Sure!", and she said, "*Any* of them?!?". I'm not sure why she'd think that one would be more than the others, so I answered a different question and told her what the general contents of each of them is (i.e., "my best stuff", "kids music", and "classics"). She went back to her table and dug around in her purse for a bit, came back and took one (some?), pointed to the money she'd put in the jar, I smiled and nodded (since I was, by then, in a song), and she toddled off. I guess she thought it was the bargain of the century. Maybe it is. Or maybe she's just not used to self-serve shopping...
I gave a little blue fingerlight to a tiny boy, and his mom put it on his finger. He generally kept it pointed it at the ground, so his mom started stomping on the blue spot. He decided that looked like fun, and started to try to step on it, too, except since it was strapped to his finger, when he'd move toward it, it would move away. It was like that act where a clown kicks his hat every time he bends over to pick it up, only this was for real.
At one point, two couples were standing right out in front of me, and I was digging around the book for the next song and one of the ladies called out, "Play a love song -- they just got engaged!" I'm *totally* prepared for that (I even have a sub-table of contents of "Love Songs"), so I went for "Wonderful Tonight", which always has the ladies swooning. The engaged couple started slow dancing, and their friends joined in too. Sweet.
The last hour or so was really great, lots of people settled in and actually listening, requesting, and clapping. I like it when there's lots of people, but when there are fewer people, it gets quieter, and the remaining people tend to pay more attention. Or maybe the ones that care to pay attention *become* the ones who stay. Either way, I got to play some stuff with some finesse, and got some great response. Surprisingly, Lionel Richie's "Hello", which I've recently re-worked-out, got the biggest ovation. I was literally surprised by it. I guess my new guitar arrangement really *is* better than the old one.
We did our "standing" Tuesday night in Laguna, not expecting much, and not getting much, either. But that was OK, I took the opportunity to play a whole bunch of songs that I never usually do. For some reason (the dextromethorphan?) I was having some kind of weird clarity of thought thing going on, so my guitar playing was really accurate, and I could remember how to play songs that I haven't tried in years. It was really fun to have that "infallible" feeling.
A couple dozen people walked through, but our buddy Homeless Frank was really the whole audience all night. He kept telling us how much he liked "the new stuff", maybe because he's already heard "the old stuff" a million times.
At one point a nice lady walked right up, looked at my sign, and said, "Keith, you have a really beautiful voice!" I said, "Thanks, I got it from my dad" (as I always do), and asked her if she wanted to pick a song. She said that anything I wanted to sing was fine with her (as they frequently do), so I fired up "Leaving on a Jet Plane", which tends to "work" with ladies in her age range. And it did -- she stood there smiling at me for the whole song, then thanked me, put something in the jar, and walked across the street to climb into the passenger side of a waiting, running, car. I guess she liked me well enough to make her husband just wait...
The weather report said "sunny", but it wasn't. But I was rarin' to go down there anyway, so I presumed that it would clear up later. I was supposed to meet Warren at 12:45, hoping to get the jump on Tom again, but he outsmarted us and was already occupying The Corner when I drove by at 12:40. But the clouds were breaking up, there was a Craft Faire going on across PCH in the Main Beach park, and there were lots of people out, so I decided to park and figure something out. (Warren slept in after a late night and never did show up.)
I wandered around a bit, spying on Tom (who just seemed to be hitting his stride), and April singing away in the somewhat-distant Second Best spot: Acoustic Alley. I walked across the street to check out the Craft Faire, hoping to find some obvious spot to maybe set up over there, where lots of people were meandering. But there wasn't one, and I wouldn't have been comfortable setting up my illicit amplification in a new untested place if there were. At one point, it looked like Tom was gone, so I quickly came back across the street, only to find him sitting down in place, taking a cig break. Foiled again!
But he certainly has as much right to the spot as I do, so I gave up and set my stuff up at the distant-third spot: by the weird green ceramic spiral sculpture/bench thingie. But after about an hour, a light rain started up. I held out for a while, but eventually it got to be too wet to be out there with the electronics, so I packed the stuff up and put it back in the van. Tom is strictly acoustic, so he held out a bit longer than I did, but even if he had wanted to keep playing, the rain had made sure that there was no one to play for, so he gave up after a while.
I hung out under an awning until I was sure the rain had really stopped (20-30 minutes), re-fed the parking meter, and grabbed the opportunity at The Corner. Thanks, rain!
And after the rain blew over it got really nice out. People reappeared, and I had a great run for the rest of the afternoon. Lots of families, and people speaking outrageous foreign languages and taking my picture. I do (deliberately) play my part in the Laguna Street Scene, wearing my big top hat and singing "American Songs".
There was a tenner in the tip jar, and lots of fives (and ones, of course), for total of $72, which I'm pretty sure is a new record for street corner work. Two 13-year old girls came by, went into the ice cream shop, re-emerged with ice cream cones, and put five bucks, each, into the tip jar on their way back past. I guess Dad isn't getting any change back...
Later in the evening, two college girls came by near the end of "Wonderful Tonight", and started to dance to it. One girl was talking about doing some "Tahitian dancing", but the other one wanted to hear "Georgia on My Mind", which wasn't exactly conducive. After that, the Polynesian girl wanted me to play "Wonderful Tonight" *again*, so she could Hula to it. Didn't make much sense to me, but I'm in for whatever, and she squirmed around nicely, attracting a bit of attention and throwing in some hand-signs for the words, like "brushes her long blonde hair". There doesn't seem to be a traditional Hula sign for "car keys", though.
Warren and I had scheduled a gig in Laguna the day before when it was nice out, but then it turned all cold and gloomy. If I had been going down solo, I probably would have just called it off, but I couldn't leave Warren hanging so I went anyway.
And it turned out pretty great! A cold, gloomy weeknight in February. Naturally, there weren't many people out, but it seems like, when they're the only ones passing by at a given time, people get more friendly. The passer-by to tippers ratio definitely seems to go way up, at least.
Quite early on, we dragged in a cute little 5-year-old girl in a Hello Kitty hoodie and her mom and grandma. I immediately switched to kids' songs, and did 3 or 4 in a row for her/them. It always blows their little minds when I do "Twinkle, Twinkle". They are clearly not expecting to actually recognize anything out here in the Real World.
After they left, a guy came by and sat down on the bench. I asked him if he wanted to pick a song, but he said that he was just there waiting on his wife to finish shopping. I said, "Oh, like the couch they put outside the lingerie department", and he said, "Exactly". But he was there for quite a while, and started talking to us, and telling us about the James Taylor and CSN concerts that he'd seen back in Michigan. He finally asked for "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" once his wife appeared. I think he's the one that left the tenner in the jar.
Later, there was a pack of middle-aged ladies, escorting a younger lady who was "from Norway". They sat and listened for several songs, and Miss Norway requested "Hallelujah". One of the other ladies (mom, aunts?) asked for "Under the Boardwalk" which seemed slightly out of place on such a cold evening, but whatever.
As they finally had to move on, I gave my new Norwegian fan a copy of my CD, which she seemed thrilled by. (I told her escorts that I only did it so she'd take it back with her after which I could claim to be "world famous".) Much later, as we were packing up, they came back by and she ran up and asked me to autograph it!
Anyway, we had a nice evening with a most-of-the-time revolving audience, and pulled in $36, which was shocking since I was wondering on the drive down there if this was gonna be the first night where I didn't make back the $2 parking meter fee...
The new batteries are here! And since I had a pretty good day last Sunday, and it looked to be a nice weather day, it seemed like a great chance to see what they can do.
Of course, it turned out that it was also Super Bowl Sunday, but we decided that Laguna people probably aren't into that kind of thing, so we went anyway. And there were, indeed, lots of people out. So many that it started to feel a bit like last summer, with throngs of people streaming heedlessly past. Still, you can't blame people for having somewhere else to be, and the more people that come by, the more chance that some of them will hear something they like.
Unfortunately, in the daytime, the parking meters will only allow a 3 hour maximum, so we started at 1:00, and had to quit at 4. I was very happy to find that I covered the whole time with only one of the new batteries -- success! And since I bought two new batteries, I presumably now have access to more than 6 hours of amplifier time, which is longer than I can stand there singing anyway.
The only bummer was that another street musician, Tom, showed up as we were setting up. Warren told him that we'd be playing for quite a while, until 3 or 4, and he said that that's OK, he was just hanging out. Which he proceeded to do The. Whole. Time. He just sat on the middle of the bench (mostly precluding other people from sitting there), and listened, for the whole three hours.
I've heard him play before, and he's pretty good. So it was a bit intimidating to have him there, but I guess it also kept me on my best game. But he didn't clap, didn't smile, didn't comment, and kind of "dragged down the room". I kept thinking that he'd get bored, or hungry, or something, but he just sat there.
Oh well. We still pulled in $54, even with Tom's "chilling effect" in place, which is a Darn Good Day for down on a street corner. Definitely beats watching some football game on TV.
Finally, warm weather! I arrived to find that they'd messed with the layout again -- there are new comfy chairs around the planter boxes, which, apparently, led them to put up a tiny stage -- 8x8 instead of the previous 16x16 one. Fortunately, that's plenty for just me, but I don't know what the giant-synth-setup guy or the 3-man Peruvian band are gonna do...
I had had a really terrible cold since Tuesday, and didn't really know if I'd be able to sing at all, but I was feeling a bit better, and I'd already paid the $50 "setup fee", and I don't know what her policy is for last minute cancellations, so I chugged some cough syrup, loaded up a huge bottle of Mountain Dew, and went anyway. It was tough going for the first hour or two, but after that, it seemed to clear up and I was singing just fine. I only crashed and burned one song in a coughing fit all night.
Lots of people out on this fine night, and even more because of the Winter Formal kids wandering around in large packs, microscopic dresses, and outrageously high heels. I guess they were just killing time before their actual event started somewhere else, 'cuz after a while, they disappeared altogether. Disappointingly, only a few of them had time to listen to and/or request some songs -- usually I get more connection from the teens, but they were probably distracted.
I finally had a recurrence of the believed-extinct Kids' Party, helped along mightily by some parent's clapping along to the rhythm to the Chuck Berry, causing others to join in. Why doesn't this happen more often?!? It *really* dragged other people in. I'm not sure how to get that started on my own, though -- once the music starts, my hands are kinda busy...
Anyway, I must not have sounded *too* bad, since I sold 5 CDs and pulled in $143. I think I actually had a lot more listeners than it seemed, since people can now camp out in the comfy chairs and listen without seeming to be specifically engaging with me, and there were lots of people in those chairs for long stretches. Or maybe they were just tired...
I ordered new batteries for the amp, and even though they haven't arrived yet, we decided it's still fun enough to do an only-2 hour set down on the corner. It's been warmer so it's not an endurance test anymore, either.
Not many people, of course, but Silly Patty came by, and crazy-dressed Mikey (who may be on the verge of becoming Laguna Beach's official new Greeter) was there for a while, too, so we had some friends to play for.
The batteries, as expected, lasted just over 2 hours, but the evening was young so I sat on the bench with Patty and we ran through Elton John and Kiki Dee's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". We had so much fun with "Baby It's Cold Outside" that we're working up a new duet, now that it's not so "cold outside".
And I was home early, for a change.
It turned out to be easy to remove the batteries from the amp's case, and run the wires outside to connect each battery in turn, instead of both at the same time. I was hoping to discover that one of them was damaged/dead in some way, or something. And the sun came out so I thought it would be worth going down and killing two birds.
I got started at 3:20, and although it wasn't exactly beach weather, there were lots of people out. Even before I got started, my friend Susie and her husband came by. Their little south-Laguna store, Twig, is closed for remodeling, so they had the day off to go for a stroll downtown.
The first battery lasted and hour and ten minutes. I swapped in the other one, and only got forty-five minutes more. The combined time was just about what I was getting when they were both connected, so no surprises or revelations there. I guess I just need to buy new batteries, but the good news is that I found out that these batteries are pretty commonly used in Uninterruptible Power Supplies, emergency lighting, fish finders, electric wheelchairs, powered scooters, and other stuff, so they're pretty easily available on Amazon. I ordered two, with higher Amp-hour ratings than the originals, for less than the amp store charges for one.
The second battery gave up during the last chorus of "Hallelujah", just when I had some people snagged and actually plunked down on the bench to listen. Bad timing, but once the batteries are dead, I'm done. I'm getting pretty tired of hassling with batteries -- hopefully, the new ones will put all this behind me. But I may have to start coming down on more Sunday afternoons -- I made $29 in only 2 hours, with lots more friendly people than we see on Tuesday nights.
The lady who used to do PR for Toshiba, back 25 years or so ago, now runs a guitar slide company with her husband. They have an annual party at their house on the occasion of the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) trade show in Anaheim, and upon learning that I play guitar, she invited me. I don't know how to "jam", but, in keeping with my new "go anyway" policy, I went.
They live in a historic 1911 house, with a (new) 3-car garage that's entirely a music room with her husband's keyboards and her drum set. Their friends brought over lots more amps, guitars, basses, mics, etc. It was a loud electric 12-bar blues jam all night long, and quite good. Not my thing, of course, so I listened some, but didn't bother to join in.
But after a while, a second jam formed in the living room of the house, with all the acoustic guitar guys. We all kind of settled in, tuned up, and then, "Now what?"
One of the experienced guys finally said "Who's a singer?" and I raised my hand, expecting to be one of many, but I was the only one. Whoops. One of the other guys suggested "I've Just Seen a Face", which I know, but I told them that I couldn't do it in the original key. The better players in the circle were able to fake it in my key (with help by watching my hands), and the beginners followed along as best they could.
I had snuck my "street rig" amp into position, for just such an occasion, so I decided that if I was gonna be The Singer, I'd better "suit up", and did. While I was getting my mic, harmony box, and music book at the ready, a guy started in with "The Weight", but nobody knew the words. I got everything up and running just in time to start in on the first verse, but it was in the original key, *way* higher than I do (or *can* do) it. I screeched it out anyway, 'cuz *somebody* had to...
After that, I suggested "Hotel California", but in *my* key. We went through the first verse while I shouted out the chords, and then we went on through it.
From there, I tried to find the most straightforward songs in my book, since nobody seemed to have another plan in mind. I don't know if this is how these things are supposed to work, but everybody seemed to be enjoying it.
After a while, a lady came in who was a singer for a local country band, and she wanted to sing some stuff. We did "You've Got a Friend", and "Long, Long Time". After she left, some of the other guys (I guess we had 7 guys playing) got up to take a break, and one of the guys started a 12-bar blues jam, and the host showed up to play some slide on his dobro and sing some classic blues lyrics. I carried the chords while the other guys "soloed".
And then one of the guys started doing his original songs, and I watched his hands and tried to contribute some fingerpicked filigree onto his 12-string strumming. Sounded OK, maybe.
Anyway, it was fun -- both the "doing my songs" part, and the "try to keep up" part. I must have been enjoying myself, 'cuz I didn't get home 'til 2am. I reckon I'll be back next year, maybe a little more prepared.
Another short session, testing whether the addition of the monitor speaker is what's made the battery life so short. I started out with the monitor attached (to get the volume and mix right), and then unplugged it after a while. The batteries still only lasted two hours, so, drat. I guess my next experiment is to rig it up so I can run each of the batteries individually, and see if anything surprising comes of that.
Not much traffic down there, of course, on a Tuesday night in January. We pulled in seven bucks, though -- enough to pay for parking, if not gas...
A guy came by with a big camera, and asked if he could take some pictures of us. We agreed, of course. He seemed to be doing some kind of actual Photography, not just taking pictures, so I gave him my card and asked him to send some pictures along. He said he would, but I haven't seen anything so far.
We had a weird break in the cold weather for an almost summer-like weekend and a lot of people came out to the mall. But it was oddly difficult to get anyone to stop and listen. Maybe I was just off my game...
It was the first outing at Spectrum for my new wireless guitar interface, making me completely disconnected. I didn't really expect it to be that different, but it is. Obviously, I can now walk around the stage (but only if I don't need to see the song sheet or click the harmony box's buttons), but what I didn't anticipate is that I can also turn around as much as I want to. When there's a cable attached to the guitar, it's risky to spin in place, 'cuz you wind yourself up, and have to remember to un-spin the opposite direction, and also be sure not to trip yourself on the wire that you're wrapping yourself up in. With the all-wireless rig, there's no worries.
And this is especially useful at Spectrum where I'm out in the middle of the corridor, with people coming in from both directions. I've settled on playing away from the fountain, but there are some people who camp out at the tables that line the sides of the fountain behind me, so now I can periodically turn around to see if anyone's back there, or acknowledge some applause, or just to get a different outlook. I'm pretty pleased with it.
Anyway, despite not feeling like I was connecting very much, I sold 4 CDs and made $129 (and somebody put a twenty in there), so I guess I didn't do as bad as it felt like I was. The money's nice and all, but I'd be happier with the evening with less money and more connecting. I need to work on my "patter"...
I really only went down there to see if, by charging the amp for three days straight, it'd last longer than 2 hours. It didn't. I thought that maybe the last time I'd only gotten 2 hours it was because I didn't charge it enough. Nope.
And it was cold. Really cold. I was hoping, against my own best interests, that it would hurry up and crap out so I could go home and get warm. When it finally did, I packed up like a zombie hoard was on its way, and practically ran to the car.
I did get a chance to try out some new songs. Stuff always sounds different out in the real world than it does playing at home. I've (inexplicably) worked up a medley of "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" and "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys", which seemed pretty cool at home, but didn't really fly out there. I'm not sure I'll ever have the guts to play 'em with people actually listening, anyway. But I also learned "Please Come to Boston", which sounded pretty good at home, and even better out on the corner, so I think that one's a keeper.
Nobody stopped to listen, of course, except one lady who may or may not have really been stopping to smoke her cigarette (though she did drop some money in). Mostly people just sped by, on their way to someplace warmer, I guess -- but several of them tossed a buck in on their way past. Not sure how they made the decision to tip me when they couldn't have heard more'n a half verse on their way by, but I guess they either had pity on the blue-lipped singin' boy, or I'm just terrific in small doses.
So, although the tips-to-passersby ratio was high, it was almost completely deserted, so I only made $8.50. Sorry Ma, you can't get that operation yet...
But I was really only down there to time the amp in a real-world situation. On the other hand, until it warms up a bit, I guess the battery-life issue is moot. I've had my fill of freezing to death for a while. And the homeless guys have heard all my stuff by now.
January is as empty of gigs as December had been full, so even with the cold and likelihood of empty streets, I decided to go down to Laguna just to get a playing fix. And it was pretty much as expected.
But after a while Silly Patty showed up, though she spent most of the time talking to the homeless guys. I did get her to come up and sing the Girl Part of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with me, which I can still get away with 'cuz it's an "it's cold" song, not particularly a "Christmas" one. It was a bit tricky, 'cuz I only had the one mic, and it's a head-mic at that, but she held it out and we tried to sing into it together like John and George.
It went pretty well, so I had her sing "Santa Baby", which, OK, *is* a Christmas song, but there wasn't anybody there to complain (nor listen, for that matter), and we were having fun.
After that, I sang a few more songs, and suddenly the amp started cutting out, due to lack of power. I should be getting 6 hours out of it, since I installed a second battery, but I only got 2. On New Year's I was only out there for 1:45, so I don't know if it would have done more or not. Seems like I got 2:30 at least at Naples.
I don't know if I just didn't charge it enough, or if there's something wrong with the batteries, or what. Both of the batteries are almost new, but I don't know how to test 'em except to just use the amp and see how it goes. I guess I'll charge them for a couple of days, and just go down and do another evening down there, and see how long I get. If I don't get more than 2 hours again, I'm gonna have to go talk to the guys who sold me those batteries...
I thought that maybe there would be New Year's Eve party people out on the streets downtown to play for, so I worked up "Auld Lang Syne", got dressed like I was going to the snow, and headed down at 10:00. I figured that I could drive past The Corner, and if nobody was out, I could just cruise on back home.
But of course, once I was down there, and since a really close parking spot presented itself, I stopped to check it out. There was a guy with a guitar on the opposite corner, trading songs with a girl on accordion. She had this really great style of just pulling on long chords and singing over them -- reminded me of some of Steeleye Span's stuff, though I didn't recognize any of the songs. No one else was out, so I stalled a while and decided, since I was already there...
There was hardly any car traffic that late, so it was unusually quiet. I'm pretty conscious of not stepping on other performers' sound space, so I set up my rig, but kept it turned down really quiet. There were lots of dressed up people zooming by. I have no idea how the girls were surviving in those micro party dresses in the 40-degree weather. Maybe that's why they went by so fast...
It was pretty discouraging at first, but after a while the other performers left, so I was able to turn it up a bit, and then people were noticing me more. But they were all on their way from one bar to another, and it was clearly not a Party out on the corner. Still, I got several of those people who rush by, deliberately not making eye contact, and intending to just burn past -- but who pull up, apparently realizing "Hey, this guy's pretty good!", and digging out a buck or two to drop before the Walk light changes. Those are always very gratifying.
I did have one young couple sit down to wait out the end of the song I was in the middle of, specifically to come up and tell me that they had seen me a year and a half earlier at the food court at Foothill, on their first date. That was pretty sweet.
As midnight approached, people started scurrying past even more, apparently trying to get to the Right Place when the time came. I could tell when midnight hit, 'cuz suddenly the noise from the nearby bars and restaurants coalesced into "Five, four, three...", just like it used to do for the evening rocket launches when I lived down Florida.
I fired up "Auld Lang Syne" as it hit midnight, which sounded pretty cool, fingerpicked and with harmony, and just ran through it in a loop for a while. I missed seeing the new year in with Daleen, but it was kinda cool to be ringing it in doing something I love, even if I was only singing to the trees along Forest Avenue.
I hung out for a while more, playing for the people as they gave up and went back to their cars or started trying to hail taxis. Got some great comments, and $15, from the "I love you, man" crowd. Lots of "Happy New Years", and one girl grumbled as she went by, "I just wanna stop and listen to *this* guy -- he's the best singer I've heard all night", but I guess she was overruled by having to keep up with her fast-walking friends.
Anyway, by 12:45 or so, I was just too cold to play any more -- I couldn't feel the strings or frets with my left hand, and couldn't fingerpick with my stiff right-hand fingers, so I was making too many mistakes. I had played "Mister Tambourine Man" a while earlier, and the lines "My hands can't feel to grip, and my toes too numb to step" struck home.
Happy New Year.
Yes, I know I'm crazy, but I thought I'd see if I could sneak in just one more night of Christmas music, even though it was 3 days past Christmas. I thought maybe some folks might be out, on vacation like I was, and it was a Friday night...
And it was pretty OK. Cold, but not too bad, and some people out walking. There was a huge multigenerational family there as I was finishing setting up, and they were totally enthusiastic about having a "private performance", and stayed for half a dozen songs.
Oddly, just about the whole contingent of homeless guys were out, after not seeing any of them for several weeks. They're all pretty good guys, and quite respectful of what I'm there for, so they stay out of the way, but listen in.
And in addition to them, I had a pretty steady stream of people cruise by and smile or drop a buck in the jar, but nobody wanted to settle down on the bench in that cold. Did OK anyway, made 28 bucks, and got lots of nice comments. I guess it helped that there was so little traffic, so the sound was pretty good, for that spot. But I guess the Christmas songs are done for the year. Oh well.
We had a kind of High School Any Year Caroling Reunion Party, and the girl who was organizing it suggested singing around Naples, an upscale waterfront community in Long Beach. It turned out to be just terrific -- ritzy houses decorated to the nines and lots of people walking around the tiny island to look at them. We had a pretty small turnout (as I'd predicted), so we weren't very balanced, nor practiced, but we still had people gathering around us to listen and even applaud. I was amazed, wondered how I could not have known about this before, and resolved to come back the next day with my overcoat, top hat, and guitar.
There weren't as many people on Sunday as there had been on Saturday, but still plenty. And everyone is in the mood for "a little Christmas", and in no hurry to get anywhere. Perfect for me to pull in some folks to hear a few songs. And, although it's basically a sidewalk, it's *not* along an actual street, so there's no traffic noise!
I had convinced my wife and younger daughter to come along to see the amazing decorations, and they brought the dogs, too. I played while they circumnavigated the island. I pulled my "Blitzen the Red-Nosed Reindeer" gag several times when families with little kids would come by, and had lots of groups stop for several songs, gathering pretty big crowds.
At one point, a lady asked for a song I don't play, and I spun the music stand around so she could see the Table of Contents of the Christmas section of my book. She noticed "Silent Night", which I had literally *never* sung before -- it was in my book so I could play it for the little kid that sung at the Santa Claus line a few nights earlier. I had no idea if it was even in my range, but she insisted, so I strummed and hummed through it quickly, decided it was close enough, and went for it.
She and her husband immediately started waltzing to it, right there in front of me. The crowd instantly doubled somehow, and two more dancing couples materialized out of it. I've had people dance before, but never more than a single couple. On top of that, after a few lines, most of the crowd was singing along! I'd been avoiding "Silent Night" on grounds that it's (a) too religious, and (b) slow and boring, but that shows you what *I* know. Or, possibly, how powerful the Christmas Mood can be...
Anyway, I was out there for two and a half hours, played for hundreds of people, and made $88 in tips. It's a bit of a drive from here, but I wish I'd'a known about this years ago, and I'll surely be down there a lot more next December!
Since it was a Friday, I came straight over from work at about 4:15 (so I'd have time to eat dinner and get set up to start at 6, or earlier), but the parking structure was already full! And the regular parking lot was completely jammed too, so I circled a while (hoping to not have to drag my stuff *too* far), but ended up pretty far away anyway.
Oh well, it meant that there would be lots of people there, right? I thought so, but I really didn't get many people coming by at all, and almost nobody sitting around at the tables. Apparently, the only people desperate enough to brave the mall this close to Christmas are actually *shopping*. How weird is that?
So it seemed really slow to me, but there were small groups that would stop for a while, and I made $138 in tips, so there must have been *somebody* listening and in the holiday spirit. I mean, beside the guy who came up on the stage from behind, threw his arm around me and started loudly singing along, who clearly had had lots of the *other* kind of "spirits". Fortunately, he only stayed long enough for his friend to snap a picture, and he was actually singing in key. And even better, he didn't steal my hat...
I did come up with a new "shtick" where I, when some kids come by, ask them if they know that song about the reindeer, and then I start it up but sing, "Prancer the red-nosed...", and stop, acting confused. Then I restart but sing, "Blitzen the...", and by now all the kids are shouting "Rudolph!" at me, and I act like, "Oh yeah!", and restart it with the right words. I guess there's a reason that that kind of thing is Standard Kids' Entertainment Procedure -- it works every time.
Not quite a new record low, tips-wise, at eight bucks. Or thirteen, if you count the cool New Zealand five dollar bill. (It's got a window! And Mount Everest! And a little tractor! And a penguin on the back!)
