Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Mar2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 19Mar2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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