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...

First Day of School, 2005

Today is the first day of school. Acacia and best-friend Cezanne are in fifth grade, and in the same class for the first time since first grade. All this *and* a new Tamagotchi -- life is sweet.

K&W - RSM and SCP 12-13Aug2005

We played RSM on Friday, with Geneva (her second outing). We had just gotten back from our week on the road, and were probably still too tired, and certainly too un-rehearsed to do very well. we held our own, but not our best work.

Then Warren and I played Mission Viejo on Saturday afternoon for the Seattle's Best refurb Opening Party (for money!). Fair to middlin' I guess -- I was still tired, my voice was partially worn out from the night before, and the audience wasn't doing us any favors. I guess I can tell why they had to pay to get performers out for these afternoon shows -- neither this one nor the Carlsbad one two weeks ago went very well. Maybe it's my fault.

San Francisco Vacation 2005

Day 1 - Saturday, 06Aug05
Mostly a driving day, we left at 9:15 and made it to Johnny's house in Ventura pretty quick, and had nice lunch and chat with John and Shelly. At Dave's insistence, we stopped at the Madonna Inn on the way, but the famous Men's Room was busted. Still, pretty fun.

The drive itself was OK -- we passed things that reminded me of stories to tell: the Renaissance Faire, Wizzin's, Johnny's AM radio, etc.

We made it to Salinas about 7:30, drove around town looking for somewhere to eat. We found the old downtown, but ate at a Chinese restaurant in the newer part.

The freeway noise here at the Motel 6 is pretty loud, but we'll probably be OK. The room itself is not-so-bad, though they lied about the in-room hair dryer.

Day 2 - Sunday, 07Aug05
We spent almost the whole day at the Monterey Aquarium, and it was a good thing that we had big Denny's breakfasts, 'cuz we didn't break for lunch at all. There's a cylindrical glass tank full of sardines going round and round, and they occasionally open their mouths wide open for some reason. I stood Geneva in front of it and said "Open your mouth!", but I didn't think she'd do it. She apparently didn't think she would either, and we laughed for 5 minutes. From there we drove a traffic jam to Santa Cruz, and had pizza in the old downtown. Then we walked up and down the main street, looking in the stores, and bought some souvenirs in a bead shop; a Celtic thing for Geneva and a unicorn for Acacia.

After that, we went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, which is a classic sea-side amusement park, right on the beach, with all the old-school rides and a big wooden roller coaster called the Big Dipper. We walked up and down the whole park, and finally bought tickets for the roller coaster. Then we were naughty and shared a Funnel Cake. Drove home and were in bed just before midnight.

Day 3 - Monday, 08Aug05
McDonald's for breakfast, then the "National Steinbeck Center", which was pretty cool, considering. They have exhibits on all the major books -- Doc's lab, the Red Pony's stall, the Boiler Tank "house", etc. Lots of the various movies playing excerpts. They also have a little art gallery there that was showing a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian called "The Graceful Envelope", with a bunch of hand decorated and calligraphed envelopes that had been sent through the mail to the U.S. Postal Museum. Very cool.

Then we went to the Roaring Camp train ride, up the mountain in a steam train. A nice ride through the Coastal Redwoods, tallest (but not "biggest") trees in the world. I had thought that we'd walk through Muir woods tomorrow to see them, but I guess we don't have to now, and can spend the time in Ghirardelli or something instead.

After the train ride, on to the Winchester Mystery House (crazy roofs, pictured), which was also pretty OK. I didn't know that all the furniture had been sold off after her death, so the house is nearly empty. Which is a good thing 'cuz the rooms are all really small, and it lets a tour group fit in 'em.

Found the Alpine Inn that we'll be at for the next three nights, and it's really cute -- a kind of mini-suite, with a main room and another little bedroom.

Day 4 - Tuesday, 09Aug05
After Denny's, we drove up the coast so we could stop at the Cliff House, the ruins of the Sutro Baths, and see the Camera Obscura, which was unfortunately closed. We didn't explore the ruins 'cuz it was freezing cold, and, as usual, Geneva didn't have much warm to wear. Besides, we had to get to the Exploratorium.

I remember going to the Exploratorium in the 70's, and it was really cool. Later, though, I seem to remember going and it was nearly empty, and lame. Now it's picked back up again, big time, and we spent the whole day in there and didn't see it all.

We went for the deluxe ticket that included a trip through the Tactile Dome, which maybe 20 foot diameter geodesic dome with walk, crawl, and slide passages snaking through it. The passages are lined in various "tactile" materials, and you feel your way through it, in total darkness. They want it to be a "change your perceptions" kind of experience, but it just seemed like a simple carnival Fun House to me. Fun though, and Geneva really liked it.

From there we went to Ghirardelli and the Cannery, mostly to spend time in the "Lark of the Morning" musical instrument store. We also got Geneva a "San Francisco" souvenir baby-doll T-shirt.

And on the way back to the hotel, we drove down Lombard, twice.

Day 5 - Wednesday, 10Aug05
We took the BART over to Berkeley, walked around for a while, and gave some of my trail mix to a very tame squirrel.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us into the libraries without an ID card. Still, Geneva proclaimed it suitable for her to go to since she'll be able to get to San Francisco easily enough. After we'd seen enough of the school, we walked down Telegraph, where all the street vendors and strange shops are.

Took the BART back to Powell, but the line for the cable car never got short enough to get on it. We walked through China Town instead, then went to Metreon, played with the interactive floor and wall, watched some guys playing HyperBowl at the sci-fi arcade, wandered through the shops, had dinner, and checked out Robby the Robot.

Day 6 - Thursday, 11Aug05
We were scheduled to just drive home today, but first we had to take pictures of all the "Geneva" stuff (Motel, Pizza, HVAC supplies, Pub, etc.) along Geneva Street by our hotel. I also decided that we needed to pull through the city one more time to let Geneva run into "Lark of the Morning" and buy the little wooden noisemaker frog that I wouldn't let her buy on Tuesday ('cuz she just. doesn't. need. another gee-gaw).

When we got there, they weren't open yet, but it's near the Golden Gate, so we drove over to the other side and took some pictures, and came back and got the frog. It's kind of clever, since it's a frog, and if you rub its back with the stick just right, it makes a pretty convincing frog noise.

Then we drove on home down the 5, telling stories, talking about movies, school, and other stuff.

All in all, a great trip. It sure makes it simpler to have only two people -- getting agreement on where to go, where to eat, when to do what, etc., is so much easier. We should do more of these...

K&W - SCP 05Aug05

Our first time at South Coast Plaza since the Seattle's Best changeover. The atmosphere is only a little better, but the carpeted section does tend to create an area that's clear of studying kids so we can set up. It went pretty well, for there, with a reasonable amount of appreciation. A dad showed up, stalling while waiting for his family to finish shopping, and when they came to get him, I snagged them all for a while with some kids' songs. That's the son down front -- the dad, mom, and little sister are out of the frame.

On our way out, Warren was waylaid by an older couple that insisted on telling us how much better we are than the usual bands that play there. The woman was a piano teacher, and was less than complementary of the skills of the other players, and of their volume levels. That was nice to hear.

Fairies

Acacia and her best friend Cezanne were playing "Fairies", with makeup, fancy clothes, and perfume. That blue on her cheeks, she says, "...isn't makeup, it's Sparkle Powder"!

Vacation Plans

Since we have the new puppy and nowhere to "board" her this year, we can't take a traditional Family Vacation, so I hit on the idea of taking separate vacations instead. I'll be taking Geneva for 6 days, and when we get back, Daleen will take Acacia for 4 (they have less travel time -- the actual "fun phase" works out about the same).

Geneva and I will be driving up the 101 to Monterey to spend 2 days seeing the Aquarium, Santa Cruz's "Boardwalk" amusement park, and maybe the Steinbeck Museum, then a train ride in Felton, and the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose.

Then in San Francisco (2 days), we'll do the Exploratorium, go over the Golden Gate to the Muir Woods, and then take a day to walk around U.C. Berkeley, and maybe some Chinatown, Pier 39, Metreon, Zeum, etc. I'm trying to keep the activities per day count down so we won't be too rushed, but there's lots to do up there.

Daleen and Acacia will drive south, staying in Encinitas and hanging at the pool, the beach, and the tide pools, and cruising out to see the gold mine and Wolf Preserve in Julian.

The girls have found it particularly difficult to get along this summer, so this might work out pretty well. Stay tuned.

Geneva, Off To Horse Camp

Geneva went off to Girl Scout Horse Camp on Sunday morning, for 5 days. No one she knows is going, but she makes friends fast -- she'd found a bus-seat-buddy before the engines started. What can be better than Horse Camp for a 13-year-old girl? I'm gonna have a hard time competing with our little vacation next week...

K&W - Carlsbad - 30July05

Warren and I played the Borders-Café-to-Seattle's-Best conversion completion "party" at the Carlsbad Borders on Saturday. Normally, we don't play so far away from home, but this was (inexplicably) a paid gig ($75 to split), unlike the usual nighttime ones where we play for free. Or should I say, we play for fun.

It went OK, but was different than usual. Since it was in the afternoon (2:30-5), it seemed more volatile -- people coming and going a lot -- so we'd have a good audience for a while, then it would go dead, off and on. Strange. Also, since it was a big "coffee party", the grinder and blender were going almost non-stop, which always makes it tough.

The worst part was the drive -- it took us two and a half hours to get there. We left *lots* of time to spare, but we made it just after 2:30, and still had to set up. Pretty much settles the question of whether to play there again at night...

We'll be playing a similar paid "party" at the Mission Viejo store on the 13th. The set up is different, though -- we'll be farther from the grinder, at least.

Geneva's Debut - RSM 23Jul05

Well, I finally got Geneva to come out and play and sing with me at the Borders gig. We worked up 4 "singing songs", and 4 or 5 fiddle tunes. She did really, really well. Better yet, she says she wasn't (and she didn't seem) nervous at all, and afterwards she said that "she hadn't realized how much *fun* it was gonna be!" My greatest fear was that she'd blow it big time, and/or be so stressed-wracked that she'd never want to do it again, but I guess we dodged both of those bullets.

It helped (a lot) that my mom and dad came down (with some friends) -- it's always nice to have some friendly faces in the crowd (and who's friendlier than a gramma?). Not that there was a "crowd" -- RSM was having one of their Summer Concerts that night, so the attendance at Borders was kinda light. I don't think there was any actual competition for audience, but I think that the local families that tend to go out on a Saturday night ended up at the concert, not the bookstore.

She sang "Soak Up the Sun", "Jenny Dreamed of Trains", "Lollipop Tree", and Tracy Ullman's 1979 pop hit "They Don't Know", which was probably the best of the lot. I sing harmony with her, a third up but an octave down, and it sounds pretty good, I think. It reinforces her sound -- and her courage, I'm pretty sure...

The fiddle tunes went OK, too, though we both need to work on the transitions and trying to remember how many A parts, and how many Bs. I'm not sure which one of us messed that up, but it was recover-able.

My dad took video of most of the night and my mom called yesterday to say that it turned out really well, so I'll be anxious to see (and hear) that. I'll try to snag some stills out of it, too -- I forgot to bring a camera.

I guess Geneva's other favorite part is that in order to incentive-ize her to get some songs together at all, I had promised her that she could have all the tips. We sold 6 CDs, and with some too-generous donations from my mom and her friend, Geneva made $47 towards her "iPod Fund"! That's a bit anomalous, of course, but it is a record "take", ever, for a coffeeshop gig. I reckon she'll want to do it again -- next chance at RSM (I don't think I want to take her to any of the not-so-friendly places for a while at least) is August 12. I hope to work up some more tunes by then, too ("Red Rubber Ball" to start). Now that she knows how much fun it is, maybe she'll be more willing to rehearse with me, and practice on her own.

Singing in the Car, Again

Since I've been sick, and I've got a gig coming up this Saturday, I've been trying to sing in the car a lot to get my voice back into shape -- or at least to see if I'm gonna be *able* to sing on Saturday.

I was singing along to the "Waltzing with Bears" CD, and then I got out the regular "Keith & Warren" CD, since those are, obviously, songs that I need to do, and that are in the right range for me.  I sang with that one for a day, but "that guy on the CD" is too loud, and I can't really hear if I'm singing OK or not.

Then it occurred to me that I have the original, separate tracks that make up those songs: my voice, my guitar, and Warren's guitar, all in separate files.  So I burned a CD last night of just the "my guitar" tracks, and now I have "K&W Karaoke!" in the car.  (I could have (should have) included Warren's guitar, especially for the solo verses, but that would have involved doing a mix-down, and I just didn't have time.)

Anyway, I thought it was clever, and it's definitely fun!

Email versus Blog

Hi everybody.  This email message came from the Y7alanzo blog-message forwarding system.  This has turned out to be trickier than it should have been, possibly because they don't really expect you to email your blog messages to a list of people.

Anyway, the formatting of the blog and the formatting of the email version of the messages don't really jibe.  I figured out a work-around, so and I think the words part will be reasonably clean, but the email version doesn't get the pictures.  Most posts don't have pictures, so that's OK, but if you see a blank square in an email, you'll know that there's supposed to be a picture.  You can click on the "y7alanzo" link at the bottom of the message, and you'll go to the actual blog page with that message, and you'll be able to see the picture there.

See you soon.

Comic-Con 2005

We made our annual pilgrimage to the San Diego Comic-Con yesterday. Geneva and I have been going as a father-daughter thing for the past four or five years, but this year Daleen and Acacia decided to tag along and see what it's all about.

Unfortunately, it seemed like a pretty sedate Con this year -- not sure why, exactly. None of us actually read any comic books of course, but there's always plenty of just "pop culture" stuff that we do like to see, and of course the Geek Show is always amusing. There were plenty of costumes, as usual, but it seemed like there was less movie excitement than in years past. Maybe 'cuz "Lord of the Rings" is all done.

We did like all the "Corpse Bride" stuff, and we saw a presentation about "Narnia" which was overlong, but kinda cool. Our "Creator of Kim Possible" friend, Chris Bailey, who draws us up a souvenir every year, couldn't make it this time but we found his booth and told his friend to say hi for Geneva, so that'll have to do.

Acacia's not as voracious and omnivorous a consumer of all things pop as Geneva is, so she found it mostly boring and too long a walk, so I guess Geneva and I will be solo again next year.

K&W - Yorba Linda 01Jul05

We played at Yorba Linda last night. It's the first Borders we've played that's undergone its Seattle's Best conversion. Although there's some confusion about whether or not we still get our paltry One Free Drink, it's pretty nice, and it especially worked out for us because they divided off a living-room-sized section of the (formerly too) large space by carpeting it, and setting Big Comfy Chairs around it. The effect was to make a Special Place for the band (us), with an obvious, designated Listening Area around it.

There happened to be some friendly, interested people, even before we started, and they actually sat in the Listening Area, and, surprise!, listened. And even as people got up and left, other people would come in and take their place -- even knowing what they were getting into! Almost as important -- the people who weren't in the Area (just by knowing that there was such a thing), were aware that there was a Concert going on. This makes a huge difference in how it goes for us, which is, mainly, based on how much Appreciation we get/feel. If the crowd gets the idea that we're just background Muzak, they talk, fail to applaud, and generally ignore us. If they get the impression it's a Concert, they still talk to each other, but quieter, with a little sensitivity. I mean, I don't like to seem selfish, but if I want to play for nobody, I can do it at home.

Anyway, I sang way better than could have been expected, considering the walking pneumonia, but I managed to get through the songs before needing to cough. (And, I brought the regular hand-held mic on a stand, instead of the head-mic, so I would be able to turn away from it before coughing.)

Since it went so well, I'm considering adding it to my list of places I'll do as a solo (which, so far, is just RSM). RSM appears to be popular, and tends to be booked pretty solid, but Yorba LInda usually has a lot of openings in the schedule. If it's gonna be warm and friendly, I may be able to fill some holes in my schedule by volunteering for spots out there.

Also noteworthy, though, is that the latest schedule shows Mission Viejo booked on Fridays and Saturdays -- it used to only do Fridays for some reason. I bumped the manager about that -- I wonder if bringing it to her attention made her go fix it. Anyway, MV always had that "too big" feel like Yorba Linda, but if they did a similar thing to it, it might become a Nice Place To Play, too. Could be a great prospect, especially with the doubling of the available dates, and not being such a drive as Yorba Linda.

Lame Movies

We watched "Temple of Doom" the other night, 'cuz we're working our way through the DVD set, and it wasn't as bad as I remembered it, probably because I wasn't stuck in a movie theater, forced to watch the lame "Ooh, isn't this gross" scenes.

It occurred to me that the degree to which Spielberg/Lucas movies are reviled matches the degree to which they decided to pander to 8-year-olds. The 8-year-old gross-out scenes in "Temple of Doom", and the 8-year-old fantasy-fulfillment "flying a spaceship and accidentally winning the battle" scene in "Episode 1", (not to mention Jar-Jar), might be fun for, say, an 8-year-old, but us adults are just insulted.

(I read somewhere that Lucas said that the first three movies are aimed at audiences that match the age of Anakin in each one. I don't know if that's true, or he made it up to cover himself after the negative reaction to "Episode 1", and it made a handy excuse. He is, after all, the King of the Ret-Con.)

These guys need to remember that their main audience is adults who want a bit of child-like fun, not actual children.

Borders Blurb

Gee, this was nice of them to say. Even though the guy who writes this stuff can't be bothered to come out and actually hear any of the acts...

Singing in the Car

I used to try not to sing in the car, so as not to look like a dolt. You know, you look over and there's some guy with his mouth going, but there's nobody in the car with him. Either he's singing with the radio, or talking to himself. I don't know which is more embarrassing...

These days, though, I pretty much *have to* warm my voice up in the car on the way to the gigs, and, honestly, I sing better on the weekend if I've been singing some each day running up to it, so I've been forced to overcome my reticence. But I feel a little less stupid because I'm singing with the radio *professionally* -- I'm not one of those *amateur* radio singers...

Acacia's New Earrings

Acacia got her ears pierced at the mall. She's a brave one -- no problem, apparently (I wasn't there). They're getting smart, and they get two girls, with two "guns", and punch 'em at the count of three. That way you don't know how bad the first one is, and get too freaked to allow the second one.

Anyway, the starter earrings are little pink flowers made of crystals. She's pretty happy.

KC - RSM 17Jun05

Fair to middlin', this time. I was all prepared to do lots of kids' songs, presumably for some in-attendance kids, since I had some copies of the new "Bears" CD available, but hardly any kids came in -- just two little girls that were there for a few songs, and had to leave. Actually, my kids were there, and two Indian Princess dads with their kids, and a mom friend with hers, but they all disappeared into the Kids' Books section all night.

I stupidly neglected to count the number of CDs that I came in with, so I don't know how many vanished but it was 3 to 5 I guess. Pretty decent tips/donations. I tried a new sound setup -- put the monitor on top of the StageMate (which was on a table to my left), pointed at my head. Might have been a big mistake, actually -- I could clearly hear any and all mistakes, bobbles, vocal warbles, etc., which made me more tense than usual, when I know I made mistakes, but can pretend that no one heard 'em. This setup makes it very clear to me that the mistakes are very clear to them. Does it serve to keep me on my toes, or paralyze me with fear? The latter, I'm afraid, so the performance was hindered, I think.

But, at least, I had no troubles at all with the "cutting out guitar" problem. It seems to definitely be that short cable (that I'm now, of course, leaving out of the setup).

San Diego Campout

Big weekend down at Campland in San Diego with the Indian Princesses. It's our annual Family Campout, so all the wives and siblings were there as well, and we have the annual sand sculpture "contest", for which, for the 7th year running, I'm responsible for design work, and, usually, 90% of the construction work also. This year, though, I had lots of help from the other dads and even the girls. I got them started building me some bumps that I could carve into the pieces I needed, and they went to work! And even closer to the end, when it's usually all me trying to carve the details, I had several dads that could do good work with just some instructions. It came out pretty good, though I think the face came out more gargoyle than sea-serpent. I knew I needed more time to prepare -- if I'd'a done a mock-up in Play-Doh beforehand, I'm sure I could have done a better face. I need that 3D vision in my head. Next year.
I also brought 40 copies of my newly-recorded Kids' CD, and "gave" them away. I suggested that people could throw a couple of bucks at me for supplies, but then the Nation Chief layered on a bit more guilt than I was comfortable with, and increased my "take" considerably no doubt. I didn't know if 40 would be too many or too few (there were about 80 families there), but it turned out to be just right -- I "sold" 'em all, and didn't have anyone asking for one after they were all gone. I'll have to burn some more before the next Borders gig -- I think they'll be popular when kids come in. (Acacia loves to help -- pushing buttons, feeding the drive, peeling the stickers, sticking them on with the little machine, putting them in the cases -- she thinks it's an Arts and Crafts project.) They needed some "stall time" during the Saturday night Campfire, so I got to play several songs. Unfortunately, the way the light was set up, I could (mostly) read the words, but the shadows of the binder's rings were covering big chunks of the chords. I've never played that badly, but I just kept the vocal coming as I played random chords hoping to eventually hit the path again. I was awful, but nobody complained -- they either didn't notice, or were too polite. Let's hope it was the former.

I played a lot better in the big tent on Sunday morning, with my ever-popular "I'm an Indian Princess" song. Maybe it helped blur the memory of the fiasco the night before. I looked up and it looked to me like everyone was singing along...

Waltzing With Bears CD

I've been meaning to put together a CD of kids' songs for a while. I don't really want to be Raffi, but when families come into the coffee shops, the kids make a pretty appreciative audience, and, of course, I know a bunch of kids' songs from my Indian Princess "career". Also, it turns out to be lucrative, since the parents turn out to be more likely to tip when we play kids' songs than when we play regular songs.

At the Indian Princess planning meeting last Thursday, we were confirming that I'll be playing "Waltzing With Bears", as usual, at the campfire on Saturday night, and one of the guys said "You should record that song! My daughter loves it." That set me thinking that I really ought to get the CD done, and Now Was The Time, so I could have it available at the campout this weekend. Also, since we just got a new, screaming fast PC, it looked like the planets were aligned.

(Warren is generally un-enthusiastic about kids' songs, so I don't think he'll mind being "left out" on this one. Besides, getting back in to Jim's home studio (to do more-than-two-tracks recording) doesn't seem likely anytime soon.)

The new (tower) PC, as opposed to all my notebooks, has a Line-In jack -- not usually a thrill, but I've been without one for a long time. Line-In jacks are stereo (my notebooks' Mic jacks are mono), so I figured that I could record the voice on one channel and the guitar on the other. It took some crazy cable patching, but I got it wired up (with alligator clips for part of the path), and was able to record both sources, simultaneously, into Audacity with perfect separation. Of course, then the problem is that 100% of the guitar on the right and 100% of the voice on the left sounds funny. I had to separate the stereo tracks into two (identically long) mono tracks, and bring them into Cool Edit Pro's Multitrack view, slide each of them a little off center in the stereo pan (one to each side), and do a Mix Down. That basically bleeds the two tracks onto each other's side, so they sound "together" (but not Dead Center (aka mono)) in the stereo space.

And, it turns out that Audacity will play back the tracks it already has while recording a new one, so I went back and overdubbed vocal harmony on a few songs. That was pretty fun, singing along with myself. I blend really well with me...

Anyway, I recorded 12 songs, all day Sunday, and two more Monday night. I did some post production on Tuesday night to remove some of the glaring boo-boos, and Acacia and I burned 30 copies last night to take to the campout tomorrow. I don't know if that's optimistic, but I think that a lot of the kids will want to take one home with them. (I don't know if the Dads will be blessing or cursing my name after the 3 hour drive home from San Diego on Sunday.) I can bring any leftover CDs to Borders and get rid of 'em eventually.

Also, since I have 'em now, I posted links to MP3 versions of the songs on the KeithandWarren.com page. And, since kids always want to sing along, I worked up a lyrics sheet and put that up, too. That way I don't have to print up a bunch of copies myself and put 'em in the CD cases.

New PC!

Since I've been working for PC manufacturing companies for the last 20-odd years, it's been a while since I've had to buy a PC. But the machines in the house are getting pretty sad, so I broke down and bought a new desktop (or, more correctly, "mini-tower") from Dell (who else, anymore?). I got the chance to set it up on Saturday, and I gotta say it went easier than I expected. That Windows XP (my first encounter with it (!)) works pretty good -- found all the stuff, set up pretty easy. But there's always a "but"...

I use Windows 2000 at work, which has the whole "multiple user partitions" thing going, but there's only me on the thing, so it's not an issue. At home, the XP is cool to be able to give each user a different wallpaper, and, more useful, their own program icons and browser shortcuts. (Here comes the "but"...) I don't know how to let multiple users access the same programs. Some applications' install programs ask, "Just you, or everybody?", but most don't seem to.

I installed Google's "Picassa", to use to catalog the huge library of family pictures we have. I installed it in Daleen's "partition", and it searched out all ten zillion pictures and created its database. But when I go to my partition, I have the program icon on my desktop, but there's no pictures. (Admittedly, this allows for different people to have different picture libraries, but it should allow the opposite as well.) So, to see the pictures, I either have to re-index the whole thing (takes a long time, and creates a huge database file), or log in as Daleen.

Of course, I tried to "fool" it, by going to my file manager and moving the database files from Daleen's directory to the "All Users" directory, but it wasn't fooled (still no pictures from my account).

Maybe I'll figure it out eventually, but the whole point is that this is supposed to be dummy-proof. I shouldn't have to (a) try to trick it, or (b) try to figure it out.

Oh, well. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. More complaints later, no doubt.

KC - RSM 03Jun05

Strange evening, but OK. When I got there, there was a table set up in front of the café section, with a little sign advertising a book signing by a local guy author. In convenient, but probably OK, so I start setting up. The café guy lets me get mostly done, then tells me that I need to talk to Tom, the Event Manager. I was afraid that he was gonna send me home, but although Tom's a little exasperated that Bob booked me without regard for his (apparently) locally booked book signing schedule, he's OK for me to go on, since I don't need his PA system, and he knows he can trust me to play quietly until the book guy is gone.

In fact, Tom was incredulous when I mentioned that the only discernable rule that Bob has is not to book a single act twice in the same store in the same (calendar) month. (I'm already kind of cheating that rule since I tend to get booked once a month as "Keith & Warren" and once as just Keith.) But Tom said "People love you guys! We've never gotten a complaint, and gotten lots of compliments", and wants me/us in there as often as we'll come. He gave me his email address and phone number, and said that anytime we want to play, just let him know!

I'm not sure how that gibes with the schedule that's forced on him by Bob, though. Obviously, Bob can't book, say, "Marina V", while Tom books K&W on the same night. By the looks of the recent schedule, there aren't many Fri-or-Saturday nights that aren't Bob-booked. But, the upcoming June 24 and 25 seem to be empty, and I'm free, except for the Folkie Jam, so maybe I'll take him up on the offer.

Anyway, I finished setting up, and played, really quietly, for the first hour and a half. So quietly in fact, that I was sure no one could hear me, which is remarkably freeing. But there was a core group of three or four solo ladies there that were reading, then clapping, so I guess they could hear better than I thought. It also provided an unprecedented opportunity to play all the really soft and slow ones, without the guilt of being too boring...

Of the several people who told me that they would, or might, come out, none did. Except Acacia's teacher, "Mrs. Smiggs", who hadn't said she was coming, but showed up with her daughter around 9:10 and seemed to be both amazed and entertained.

And although I was prepared to switch to a mic for the guitar if it started cutting out again, it worked perfectly all night. I was hoping it would cut out and give me a chance to try to isolate the problem, but it's wise to that plan...

Stay back, kids!

K&W - SCP and RSM - 13/14May05

We played South Coast Plaza on Friday evening. A lot fewer studying-college-kids than usual, which, unfortunately, meant it was nearly empty. We did get a pair of college kids, but they weren't studying, just shopping, and they listened and made some requests for a while. And we had a nice Persian lady that seemed to like the stuff, even though she didn't know many of the songs. She said she lives nearby, and would like to bring some family to see us next time we're there. That's flattering.

I tested out my new arrangement of "Something" -- having finally caved to the pressure of the many times we get people inadvertently requesting James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" when they really mean George's tune. Turns out that parts of it work pretty cool in My Style, whatever that is, though other parts, not so much. Maybe they'll tweak with time. Warren seemed to like it, anyway.

But, as expected, it went quite well, again, solo at RSM on Saturday. It was pretty empty at first, but somewhere in the middle I got a few kids, and was doing songs for them. Apparently, some other kids heard familiar tunes, and came in, and I ended up snagging quite a few families that way. And, of course, the adults like to send the kids up with some money for the jar. Because it was so kid-heavy, I think I made the most tips ever, and without selling a single CD -- though I did give one away to a nice couple that was celebrating their 35th anniversary (with me?!? What's up with that?).

The guy was amusingly forgetful -- he asked for "You Were On My Mind", which I did, and three or four songs later, he asked whether he had requested "You Were On My Mind" or "Always On My Mind", which, in retrospect, is probably what he *meant* to ask for (anniversary-song-wise), but wasn't. And when they were leaving and I offered the CD "as an anniversary present", he said, "How did you know it was my anniversary?!?". He had told me when they first came in, not more than 45 minutes earlier.

"Mind" games

K&W - Yorba Linda 07May05

Not bad, for Yorba Linda. It's just such a big, bright, impersonal space -- more like a school cafeteria than a coffeeshop. It affords the people plenty of space to sit far away from us, and remain disengaged. It just doesn't feel like "we're here together".

Still, we got some response from several groups of people, especially a family that came in with a freakishly friendly young lady (17). She walked in with a big smile, looking directly at me (us?). The only (normal) explanation would be if I knew her, but, nope, she's just shockingly open. Refreshing, and wonderful. And she was a big Beatles fan, and asked for their songs all night. Made our night, really. Funny how it only takes one person to make the difference.

My voice wasn't quite as good as the night before at RSM, but my playing was (a bit) more focused. The disconcerting total silence at least makes for "good sound". Sometimes the bustle of the people's conversations and the drink-making machines are hard to play against...

I thought "Long, Long Time" went particularly well. And "First Cut..." was the best it's ever been. Some kind of slightly slower tempo, I think.

K&W - RSM 06May05

The gig went really well last night. It started off slow -- seemed "too early" since the sun was blazing through the windows, making it seem like early afternoon. It just doesn't seem appropriate to be doing mellow coffeeshop music so early in the day. So I played the faster, pop-ier stuff, and got into it eventually. It was more or less full most of the evening after a while.

The highlight was later on when I put my almost-full bottle of lemonade (graciously provided by Borders management) on the table next to the amp, and launched into "I've Just Seen a Face". Apparently, the vibrations were buzzing the bottle toward the edge, and just after the word "Falling!", the bottle fell, with a crash, right next to my foot. I, of course, froze, looked down at it, decided there was nothing I could really do that was urgent, and continued the song (albeit with an abbreviated last half). The irony of the timing was lost on no one. That's entertainment.

We cleaned it up (mostly), and got back going, but even though it didn't really seem to bother me that much, my concentration was shot for the next dozen or so songs. Weird.

Our new little fan ("almost 9"), Paige, was there again (with her dad) -- two weeks in a row. It's always nice to have someone to play to. There was also a lively high-school-age girl who listened for a while, asked for a song or two, and whipped out her cell phone to call and excitedly beckon her twin sister. Obviously more kids who grew up listening to their parents' playing of this "old music".

But the night was mostly notable (to me) by how well I was singing. With a microphone, you're hearing yourself from "the outside" so it's easy to be impartial to how you sound -- it sounds like someone else, or a recording -- so I know when I'm singing good, and when I'm singing bad. Last night, after about 9:00, I was hitting stuff I usually strain for, and more flexible than usual, both. A lady asked for "Pancho and Lefty" and it was, by far, the best I've ever sung it. I wish I'd'a had a recorder running.

Conversely, I was playing pretty poorly -- made a lot of "got lost" mistakes, seemingly always during the instrumental verse, screwing Warren. Concentration problem. Especially after the lemonade explosion. We're at Yorba Linda tonight -- we'll see if I can stay focussed...

KC - RSM 15Apr05

RSM was pretty good, as, I suppose, it usually is these days. Margie's boyfriend and his thirty-something daughter (Allison?) were already there when I got there, and Margie showed up a little while later. Patty from up the hill came in with her three kids, as did Princess dad Kevin with his three. But before any kids showed up, I handed a song list to Margie's party, and after reading it through, Allison wanted to hear "Rubber Duckie". Another familiar looking lady was there, who I eventually figured out was the wife of the Ovation Expert guy that we met there before. After "Rubber Duckie", she asked for "Last Unicorn", and somebody else wanted "Rainbow Connection". All these kids' songs were asked for by adults, but we were "pretending" that I was actually playing them for the one 10-year-old boy that was there with his parents, not really listening. So I gave him a sheet, and he asked for (adult song) "First Cut is the Deepest", to great amusement all around.

Later on, I was just finishing a song when a middle-aged lady came around the corner of the magazine rack and loudly proclaimed, "You mean that wasn't a *record*?!?" which sent the café into a stunned silence. I was taken aback, of course, but managed to say something about "No, it's just me...", followed by some lame jokes about there actually being a CD player in the amp, and I'm lip-synching. What I *wished* I'd'a said is, "Thanks, Mom, but you're laying it on a little too heavy!" but I'm not that quick-witted.

K&W - Mission Viejo - 26Mar05

It went pretty well, for Mission Viejo. Warren cut out at 9:30 for some previous engagement, so I was solo for a while, but getting over that first 10 minutes is the hard part, so it was no problem.

I hung out and played for another hour or so after he left -- they close at 11:00. A little girl (7 years old) and her mom showed up at about 9:50, and I was about out of Adult Songs anyway, so I played a few for her. She was way over by the window, but she came up to me and said "Thank you" -- I'm sure it was mom-induced, but cute anyway.

When my fingers couldn't take any more, I announced the Last Song, and played it. Then I said thanks &c., and said that we play "here" and "other local Borders", and that there were "cards with a website address on 'em up here on the table, so you can check the schedule and catch us again". *Four people* got up and fetched cards! Four out of about ten that were still there. Pretty flattering.

Vocal Ranges

Warren and I have been puzzling over the actual vocal ranges of people. Mostly, I suppose, due to my problem of pitching songs at Princess campouts so that both Dads and their Daughters can sing along. As always, the web tells all, of course. I found the standard choir vocal ranges, according to Rice University.

They did the staff notation, I drew it on a keyboard 'cuz I'm a visual kinda guy.

According to this then, C to C is the only shared range -- although, as theorized, that's with the guys (low-C to Middle-C) an octave below the girls (Middle-C to high-C). I guess there's only three notes (well, 5, if you count black keys) that are shared by everybody in absolute pitch, but that would make a pretty boring song.

I get the feeling that the shared part of the guys' two ranges is approximately the "inexperienced" guys' range, and similarly for the girls. Basically you cut off the low part of the basses, and the high part of the tenors, and you have a guy who's essentially neither. But, by experience, getting above Middle-C is tough for non-singers, so I'd say the low-C to Middle-C is pretty safe for, say, Indian Princess dads.

It's strange to me, though, that they expect basses and sopranos to span two octaves, but they go so much easier on the tenors and altos.

Anyway, the lowest note I (try to) sing at the coffee shop is in "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground": a low-low-E, same as the lowest string on the guitar. I used to could sing it, back when I was a stock E-to-E bass, but only early in the morning, and before I got too warmed up. Since I've been singing so much, again, ('course, not as much as two hours a day, back in school), my range has been moving up (or, at least, the bottom end has), so I can't really hit it anymore. Fortunately, the guitar's bass note is kind of fortifying me when I aim at it, so I think it gets implied, if not enumerated.

Difficulty/Complexity and Music

Sometimes it strikes me that I have some great songs that are a lot of work (and/or are so hard that playing them is risky), and then when I drag 'em out, they don't even go over all that well. And then there are songs that you could teach a monkey to play ("Teach Your Children", "Peaceful Easy Feeling") that people keep asking for. Obviously, this is really just a truism, a song is good or bad *not* depending on how hard it is, but it makes me wonder if it's worth it when I undertake a new song that's hard (e.g., "Martha My Dear", which just laid there), when I could just find some more campfire-hack-favorites. I'm just saying...

Living Tradition Jam - 22Jan05

Geneva and I checked into the Living Tradition Folk Jam in Anaheim on Saturday night. I hadn't really thought she'd be interested, so I wasn't planning on going, but at 5:00, we were just sitting around, and I glanced at the clock and remembered that the Jam was that night, and asked Geneva if she wanted to go. She was all for it! So we packed up quickly and jumped in the car.

Anyway, it was pretty big fun -- especially, and amazingly, for Geneva. She snuggled up to the whistle-lady to her right (and her music stand), and sight-read as best she could. She did OK on the slower ones, but she didn't seem at all frustrated by the fast ones that she couldn't catch up on. Patty had a feedback form to fill out at the end, and Geneva just wrote "More slow songs!" in the comments section. Other than that, she had a great time.

I just strummed along on guitar. At first I thought I could keep up by watching another dude's hands, but a lot of the songs change chords too fast. The guitar guy on my left figured that out and moved his music stand over closer, and I did all right from then on. I figured that guitar players were a dime a dozen so they wouldn't really need me, but when Patty asked my guitar-neighbor what song he wanted to do, he chose "Golden Slippers" 'cuz he's learning to flat-pick the melody. All the other guitar players took the opportunity ("Easy song!") to get out their respective melody instruments (mandolin, etc.) so I found myself the only one playing rhythm!

Patty (who ran the jam) was kind of going around the circle, asking folks what they wanted to play, and after a while decided to notice Geneva, asked her her name, and if she had a song she wanted to do. When Geneva asked for "Ashokan Farewell", they were all totally thrilled (and impressed) (and, probably, relieved that it wasn't, say, "Hot Cross Buns").

Unfortunately, our glory was short-lived, as Patty's gaze turned to me next, and by way of explanation, I told her that I play with Warren (who's been going to these for a while) at coffee shops. She asked what kind of music, and I said mostly 70's pop -- "not this kind of stuff". "Like what?" "Well, 'Fire and Rain', and such." "Play it!" "Now?" "Sure!" "Well, it's a 'singing' song." "So, sing it!" "Well, OK." "What key is it in?" "Um, F?" "Go ahead!"

So, without my songbook open (you'd think that, by now...) I sang the first verse, forgot the words to the first chorus, sang the third verse, second chorus, and quit. Flipped open the book and found the second verse, which they implored me to go ahead and do, as some of the better fiddlers were starting to get the hang of something.

Anyway, it just kind of landed with a thud. Even if I hadn't completely blown it, I don't think it was very well advised. Generally regrettable. If she'd'a asked "Do you know any folk songs?", I could have pulled out "Tennessee Waltz", or something. But she asked "what we did" and drove me down the wrong street. Made a bit of a fool of myself, I'm afraid, though they're quite forgiving, or at least well-practiced at ignoring embarrassing events. Hopefully, at the next one, we can pull something a little better planned out, and redeem myself.

But, I only really only drove out there for Geneva's sake, and she loved it, and really pulled it off far better than I did. And, of course, they loved having her. I think she's definitely in for another go next month, and if she wants to go, I'm inclined to take her. Unfortunately, it's another RSM gig, so we'll have to bug out early again. (This one broke up at 6:50-ish.) And the month after is a Mission Viejo gig. At least that one has an 8:00 start time.

Acacia's School Bus Pinecar

Three years ago, when we went to build the annual pinecars, Acacia asked for a school bus. It turned out to look kinda cool, even though it's so simple. A bit of Monster Truck feel to it, because of the big black tires on the "outside" of the bus body.

I had half tried to talk her out of it, since it was too simple to be a Design Award winner, but that was the year that Acacia was in 1st grade, and she was pretty intimidated by the (real) school bus. It was loud, and there were Big Boys in it, and only the presence of her big sister got her into it every morning. I think maybe it was a subconscious plan to "conquer" the thing -- her own personal Moby Dick. Bringing it down to scale, and "owning" it probably helped her deal with it in Real Life.

"Paper Moon"

I've lately added "Paper Moon" to my song list. I was inspired, not surprisingly, by a James Taylor version from the movie "A League of Their Own", in his sweet and affable fashion. It's got that great old Tin Pan chord progression, which defied/challenged me to figure it out. I've been working on it for a while, actually -- my first downloaded version languishing on my hard drive was from September 2001. I've been poking at it lately again, trying to get it by ear, but could only catch parts. But, while searching for some Christmas tune, I encountered a batch of jazz-chord songs' sheets, and there it was again. Combining hints from there, and my own sensibilities (created by my limitations), I worked up a pretty passable chord-set.

I've also been poking at, less successfully, "As Time Goes By", which I can do the verse of, but the bridge needs work. The jazz-chord site's version works (for me) for a while, and then falls apart. Strange how these Internet songsheets (and, almost as much, paid-for commercial songsseets) just never seem to work as is. I *always* have to tweak them -- usually for the singable key, but almost always also to get 'em to sound right.

Maybe it's just me.

"Martha, My Dear"

My brother suggested "Martha, My Dear", which sounded kinda easy in my head (ragtime-y, should work with Travis picking -- or so I thought). Turns out to be really strange -- the first part is in Eb, and the middle section is in F (on the record). And the verse is played, twice, on just piano (as intro and as an instrumental verse).

So, first I had to find a (pair of) key(s) that were playable (and, hopefully, singable as well), and then I had to work up a passable instrumental verse, which, remarkably, is coming along pretty well. Noting Juber needs to be worried about, but pretty OK. I can't usually play it well on the first time through, but I'm working on it. I ended up transposing it up (!) a whole step, and capoing two. I'm singing down an octave from there, of course, so it's really down a 5th or so. A fun challenge.

"Blatz Reunion" performance evaluation

I couldn't really tell how anything went, with the lights so bright in my eyes and all. I really thought I was singing unusually badly, because of the cold, and extra nervousness. The bass player was also throwing me off on the songs he played on, since he blew it pretty badly, especially on "South of the Border", which sounds easy, but the changes aren't as obvious as you'd think (and he thought).

Anyway, it was darn fun. I don't know how we missed doing "Let it Be", and I was hoping to get to "Hey, Mister", re-worked up just for the nostalgia value, especially for my Aunt Sharon. But I reckon she went away pretty happy with what we did manage to get done.

My old roommate Kendall is (still) a mechanical monster on the guitar. His fingering is so precise, and he insists on getting every note exactly right. It's funny (and amazing) to me that he still dissects every James Taylor album, decrypting every new trick that James picks up. But having Kendall as a roommate definitely brought me up from being a three-chord-strummer to being able to play with some class. And every James song I do came directly from Kendall, or from the James-sensing-capability I developed from Kendall's tutoring. I'd sure like to sit with him for 6 or 8 hours sometime and learn some more tricks...

Christmas Tunes

A lot of the Xmas songs are trivial, especially the kids' ones: Frosty, Rudolph, Housetop. But the old-time jazz standard types are a lot more interesting than most current (and by that, I mean "20 year old") pop tunes. Working those out is what got me to the level that I can do things like "You Don't Know Me", "Someone to Watch..." etc. (whether or not that's a good thing).

I'd be tempted to do only the jazz classics at Moxie Java: "Have Yourself...", "I'll be Home...", and maybe (if I can pull it off), that Eagles "Please Come Home for Christmas" blues tune. Seems like I learned two Elvis tunes: " Santa Claus is Back in Town" and "I'll Have a Blue Christmas" last year, as a joke, but they both worked pretty good. I'd expected to be embarrassed to do them, but they sound good, so I wasn't.

I guess I'd want to have the lamer songs handy, just for the kids, if any, by request -- that always bumps up the tipping.

I've had a spurt of new song learning this week (already) -- "Homeward Bound", "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (in D, I think), "Mister Postman" (haven't settled on a key yet -- maybe C (i.e., C, Am, F, G, all the way through)), and "All I Have To Do Is Dream" (in C (hey, it's C, Am, F, G, too!)).

The latter three are all trivial, but I thought they might be fun, in the vein of "Standing There". But "Homeward" is deceptively tough. Maybe I'm trying to play two guitars (and the bass) at the same time, but the chorus is hard (and fast). The verses are easy, at least half of the way through. But that intro/outro riff has to be right on the first try, which will take some practice, and luck. The original is too high, of course -- it's in G, capoed three, but if I just leave the capo off, I think I'll be OK.

Borders -- It's Working Out!

Last night I went by Borders RSM to drop off some posters, which I augmented by taping a copy of the "Round the Rancho" newspaper article to the bottom, with the "You could find a treat at Borders tonight" modified by "X-ing" out the "to" in "tonight" and writing "Saturday" above it, in red Sharpie. I don't know if anyone will read the whole article, but it might help to have the endorsement of an authority, an Actual Newspaper.

Cidne wasn't there, but I handed them over to Tom (the "event manager"), who very gladly put them both up immediately -- one taped to the window by the front door, and the other installed in a pre-made poster-frame that's up on a pillar in the middle of the store, pre-empting a "Something Percent Off Sale" poster (!). He said something like, "It's nice to finally get some *good* music in here", which was pretty nice of him. He also wanted me to bring posters in for the next one (Nov 26) when we come in on Saturday, and he'll put them up, too.

He showed me the November Borders Official Newsletter, which has, as he put it, "a pretty nice write up". I had to admit that it's "pretty nice" because we wrote it ourselves, but it prominently occupies the whole middle column of the three column page -- they used our "release" in its entirety. I suppose it helped that, because of the holiday, there are few events, so they needed to fill some space...

Thoughts About Playing at Borders

I was feeling intimidated by Russian-born, Hollywood-store playing, multiple Real (looking) Album recording, gorgeous, "Marina V", and noticed that she was playing at, of all places, RSM on Friday, so I stopped by. She sings pretty well, plays a big electronic piano and has a guy playing guitar along but mostly inaudibly. Writes her own songs -- I listened to 4 or 5, and they all sound pretty alike. I wonder if it's because they *are* alike, or if it's because the "sound" (her voice and the piano) is the same, or if it's because they're all songs I've never heard so they just run together. Mostly, they're all very earnest, very serious, very somber. She introduces each song with a little story about it ('cuz she wrote 'em), and they all have some very serious Meaning to her ("I wrote this song while thinking about my little brother, back in Russia, who I miss very much..."). I was hard pressed not to shout "Lighten up!" at her. The place was very sparsely populated -- probably only 4 or 5 people in the coffeeshop itself (and one guy was clearly working on some kind of chemistry term paper on his laptop). I think she essentially sombers people right out of the room.

She did commandeer a table at the "back" of the coffeeshop (by the magazines) (which she could afford to do, since there was almost nobody using them), and had a little display of CDs, a tip jar, some small posters, and a little sign: "Marina V CDs, only $10". I guess this allowed people to just serve themselves. It looked a little better than a table dedicated to holding just a tip jar (as our analog would be). I'd be very surprised if she'd sold any, though. Or made any tips, for that matter.

I think it points up the strong symbiosis between venue/audience-type and band/music-type. K&W and RSM "match". Marina V and RSM don't. Perhaps she's a big hit at, say, the Hollywood store. We may be completely humiliated in Hollywood tomorrow night. But, hey, it'll be a story to tell, whichever way it goes.

Name That Tune

This is pretty cool...

http://www.name-this-tune.com/

a.k.a. "Musipedia" (.org)

It's a music encyclopedia, built on-the-fly by its users, on the Wikipedia model. Uses a clever tune searching method called "Parsons code", where a tune is described only by its changes, up, down, or repeated. Seems to work -- I found "Over the Rainbow" with it. The tune was detail-described by another notation method called "Lilypond", which had the tune, but sans rhythm, so in the spirit of public interest, I figured Lilypond out and went ahead and put some rhythm cues in.

Good fun, and potentially useful someday -- check it out.

P.S. Here's the Parsons Code for "Rainbow", just to get you jump started:

*UDDUUUDUD

K&W - South Coast Plaza - 08Aug04

Inexplicably, the South Coast Plaza Borders has their music on Sunday afternoon. We were greeted by a room full of intensely studying Asian college kids, some of whom had earplugs in even before we got there. Since virtually all of them were (a) too young, and (b) from another culture, the response was, shall we say, underwhelming. On top of that, the Muzak wouldn't stay off -- we had to keep asking them to kill it, and it would reappear 10 minutes later. It was a pretty big waste of time, but I always say, "A bad day playin' is still better'n a good day watchin' TV". (And certainly better'n waxin' the car!)

A year or two ago, I'd'a been deeply annoyed, probably, but these days I'm pretty confident that we're Good, and the lack of response just felt like their *inability* to respond, not our lack of talent. So, it wasn't really painful, just surreal. What's hard to imagine is who decided that Sunday afternoons was The Time to do that -- both being Insanely Wrong, and bucking the rest-of-stores trend of doing music on Friday and Saturday evenings. I imagine that, even at that store, the vibe is completely different on weekend evenings than on Sunday afternoons.

Clearly, although it was amusing once, I'd rather not repeat the experience, but that store isn't even on the September listing, so there's no danger there. And none of the other gigs are afternoons, either, so hopefully we won't encounter that kind of environment again. And, clearly, we've learned another lesson -- stand staring at the Manager until the Muzak demonstrably goes off. They need to know that if the Muzak don't go off, the Band don't play.

In retrospect, and without the pressure of actually standing there, I think I might have been a bit more aggressive, too. That's easy to say now... At the time, it seemed prudent to be a even swap for the Muzak. Along the lines of a string quartet at a garden party -- just music wafting by. I figured the kids couldn't have more issue with us than they'd already have had with the speakers. At least three of them were wearing earplugs even before we got there. Still, even if I had been *able* to dislodge the kids from their books, I'm not sure that that would be doing any of them a favor. Even kids that would have rather been listening to music were probably aware that what they *ought* to be doing is knuckling down. So I felt better just fading back, and letting them be OK with ignoring me.

Anyway, however a gig goes, it makes for at least one good story. This one yielded two -- the "Day of the Dead" gig itself, and the skimpily-clad college cutie who sat right in front of me and leeeeaaaaned over, multiple times, to get into her book bag -- all while I was trying to play "You've Got a Friend" -- probably the most concentration-challenging song I play. That there was a Test sent by the Devil hisself!

JT Night?

I took Geneva over to Del Lago on Sunday morning to check out the "Neil Diamond Tribute" karaoke. It's not "come up and sing" karaoke -- it's a guy with all the Neil Diamond karaoke CDs and a system, and (only) he sings. He's actually pretty good, and the old ladies were groovin' to it. He doesn't really "imitate" Neil, but he sings a lot like him, and wears a fancy shirt and gold chain. He's probably 55 or so himself, pretty close to Neil's current age, I'd guess.

Counting us, there were probably a dozen people there at the peak (all *not* his wife and friends). The interesting part is that he got people out there (and his "steak house in Dana Point" gig, and a private party in the condo complex across the street later that day) on the strength of his "come hear Neil Diamond songs" promo. If the poster had said "guy singing along with karaoke box", nobody would have been there. But these folks showed up 'cuz they knew what to expect.

Makes me wonder about, at least, the Marketing/wording on our "poster", and, at most, possibly doing something similar but with a James Taylor spin.

To start with, I can replace "Family-friendly classic pop" on the poster with something more specific, like a list of Featured Artists. Sorting the List by artist yields clumps of James Taylor, Beatles, Paul Simon, and Willie Nelson. I'm willing to leave Willie off the list, since although I think people like his songs (or these few, anyway), most folks around here probably don't think of themselves as Willie Nelson Fans. Maybe something like " James Taylor, Beatles, Paul Simon, and many more". Maybe stick Chris Isaak in there, for the young(er) ones.

Or, more extreme, we could do some kind of "James Taylor Night". On the Long List, there are 15 JT songs, some of which we don't *really* do, but which I can kinda do, and might could be worked up better (Mexico, Sarah Maria, Daddy's Baby). And I can probably work up a batch of the easy but not compelling (to me) ones. We could advertise a "Tribute", do all the JT songs in one "set", and see if the folks roped-in thereby (if any) would hang out a little longer for some non-James-but-along-the-same-lines tunes. That JT hook sure seems to work on coffee shop owners, as an intro line...

Autoharp Progress Report

I finished the chordbars, but haven't built any buttons yet. I've tried two temporary solutions, and actually my first-try little yellow buttons were better than the current bigger green ones. It also sucks that I labeled the sticks on the stick, not the button (with little peel-and-stick labels). If the buttons are the labels, it's obvious which label applies to which button (duh), but you have to lift your fingers to see the labels. This way you can see the labels all the time, but it's hard to correlate which is which. Dilemma. I think the original machine's solution is that the labels are on the (slanted) front surface of the (quite tall) buttons. I think I like that approach, but it won't work with the "T-shaped" buttons I'm thinking of -- unless I'm significantly cleverer with the table saw than I think I am...

I was thinking that the buttons are typically way taller than they need to be, as evidenced by the mighty-thin yellow ones I made. But now I'm starting to think, conversely, that really tall buttons my relieve some of the wrist-tweak problems. You can rest the heel of your hand on the "deck" of the bank of chord bars, and if the buttons are, say, 3/4" tall, your wrist won't be so bent to push 'em. I'll have to experiment with that before I start cutting wood.

Autoharp Remodel

Well, over the long weekend, I had time to build the new chord bars for my autoharp. It took longer than I thought it would, 'cuz although they're "just sticks", they need to be (reasonably) *accurate* sticks. Also, since I lowered the "action" (a lot), it mattered that the bass end strings ride higher than the treble end (because they're wound and really thick) -- so I had to taper the sticks to compensate.

Anyway, I ended up using "fun foam", which is a 1/16" thick, really cheap, "Arts-n-Crafts" material -- basically a modern equivalent of Construction Paper for kids to make flowers and butterflies with. It's about the right softness, though I'd have liked it to be a bit thicker. It seems to be working at least as well as the original felt.

Of course, I suddenly couldn't play with the theory anymore, I had to "cut bait", so I decided on a final (for now) layout. I moved the "long row" (8 buttons) to the "bottom" (as seen by the incoming left hand, when the 'harp is held upright), and the "short row" (7 buttons) to the top. This is opposite to default, but it put the 2m and 6m under the thumb when the 4, 1, 5 are under the three strong fingers. The 6m is a bit tucked under the index finger (on the 4 chord), but it's easily workable, having (now) tried it. The picture makes it pretty clear (but discount the apparent location of the pinky -- that's accidental, the pinky isn't used except for long leaps to "accidental" chords).

Building the chords themselves wasn't hard -- I had just glued a slab of Fun Foam to a chunk of wood, and sawed the whole thing up into sticks, with the Foam already on 'em. I just had to trim little "V"s out of the Foam where I wanted a string to sound. The chords worked out OK, except the G#m is pretty weak. The two top octaves are "complete", but the bass octave is missing the D#, G# and A#. This leaves the G# chord without not only a Bass 1, but also a bass 5. I cut it anyway, and figured it'd be OK since it's not used much. But I'm thinking that if, in fact, it's not used much, I might decide to replace it with, say, D#dim or something. Or, maybe, C/b -- though those are pretty far-fetched, too. I do have three spare un-notched sticks, so I can experiment.

But my two bigger concerns at this point are (1) I don't have any push buttons -- the ShopSmith burned through a belt just as I finished the sticks, so I couldn't build the button stock. As an interim solution, I used little rectangles of peel-and-stick (bright yellow) Fun Foam (!), which, since my action is so low, work pretty well, despite being only 1/16" "tall". I also just wrote the chord names on 'em with fine-point Sharpie, so that was handy.

The second problem is inherent in Autoharp design -- it seems to be perfectly designed as a carpal-tunnel-syndrome generator. The left hand reaches around the thing, cranks 90 degrees at the wrist, and tries to push the buttons, hard. Worst possible thing you can do to your hand/wrist. And it hurts, too, even before you get any permanent damage. Not sure what to do about that -- possibly better positioning across the chest, maybe hold the left elbow out from the body? With a small pillow? (At the risk of making people think you have some soft of bagpipe-autoharp hybrid...)

Final layout

More Thoughts On Autoharp layouts

Despite my sister's adherence to "old" autoharps, presumably with 15 bars (as opposed to the really old 12s), the Real autoharpers all seem to use the 21s, though seemingly always modified for better chords and chord layout. Unfortunately, there seems to be as many "correct" layouts as there are guys to opine on the topic. Part of the attachment to 21-bar harps is, obviously, more chords, but also the bars are narrower, so the buttons are closer together, and there are three rows of buttons, rather than the 15-bar harp's two.

So, I'm tempted to try a three row layout on my 15-bar Chromaharp (which showed up on Friday) -- though the rationale seems to be Majors in one row, Minors in another, and the 7th in the third. Since I won't have any 7ths, that doesn't necessarily make sense for me.

What worries me now is the matter of playability when it's laid on a table versus held up against the chest. Upright leaves the right (strum) hand in the same place, but reverses the incoming direction of the left. Apparently the idea is to be able to use the fingers and thumb (oops -- didn't think of that!) to chord, with "touch type-ability". I think this means that I'll have the Majors on the top row, so the 1, 4, and 5 are under middle, index and ring finger, and the Minors in the bottom row where my shorter thumb can reach 'em -- and shifted right so the 2m and 6m are *under* the thumb, not necessarily "near" the 1. Or maybe that won't work out 'cuz it throws a lot of the minor chords off the end of the rack...

On further thought, I don't think three rows makes any sense for my scheme, since I won't have any 7ths. The real hang-up now is this left-hand coming in from the top, or bottom, problem. I talked to my sister this morning and she said that she Never plays it laying flat (lap or table). She distains the crossed-over wrists thing you get when it's flat (though that's the way it's pictured in the booklet that came with my ChromAharP). This might explain why the playing position is never mentioned in the FAQ -- it's Presumed Upright by all the Regulars. But it obviously makes a big difference if you're gonna lock your three main fingers on 1, 4, and 5 -- where your thumb ends up (to the left or right of that), is gonna determine where you want to put 2m and 6m. I suppose I'll build it "right" (i.e., meant to be held upright), and my daughters will figure out that it works better that way soon enough. It is, mainly, for them -- but I want it to "bring 'em up right" chord-relationship-wise, so I want to put in the logical chord bars before I let 'em play it much. I can picture them playing along with me on some of my guitar songs, once the requisite chords are available.

Thoughts On Autoharp chords

Well, I tried a lot of chord layouts, but logic brought me inexorably to the good ol' Circle O' Fifths. But does the Way Music Works drag you to the Circle, or does the Circle make music work?

There are little pockets of logic in the Oscar Schmidt autoharp layout, but they evaporate pretty quickly. I can only presume that Oscar thought that nobody cared what key they were actually in (i.e., no one ever played with anyone else on a different instrument), and so being able to shift over and play in, say, Ab, seemed like a great idea. This is even more prevalent on the 21 chord model. And clearly, 7th chords were a lot more fashionable in the Olden Days than they are with me, now.

But, if you're gonna play with other people (or, maybe more importantly (to me), use other people's sheet music), you only need to aim at reasonable guitar keys and chords. My layout is gonna let me play in C, G, D, A, and E, with all the normally required chords available. I can't play in any flat or sharp keys, nor in F or B, but I'm pretty sure I can live with that <grin>. Even if my kids need to transpose a song to put it in their singing range, E is close enough to F, and C to B.

That said, it's true that since I'm not gonna use B as a I or IV, it can be a 7th chord. I can at least give it a high-octave 7, and maybe the middle one, too. Seems like the chords towards the left and right edges of the layout are "not gonna be I" chords, and can be 7ths -- like the Dm, too, perhaps. Still, I'm always a lot happier to leave a 7th out than to have one in that doesn't belong. Maybe they all can receive the high-octave-7th-only treatment, just in case. At the least, maybe I should re-scan a stack of songs to see which appears more often, B or B7, Dm or Dm7, C#m or C#m7, etc.

Bought an Autoharp

Whoops. Up and bought an autoharp on eBay. It's actually a "ChromAharP" (pretty wacky capitalization!)

While I wait for it to arrive, I got to mess with my mother-in-law's (real) Autoharp. It's a new one, with the plastic box covering the 21 chord bars. I tuned it (it was a half-step off near the top -- obviously not getting much use) and messed with it a little. No Bm! No F#m! 21 chords and I can't play any songs that are in D (which is *lots* of 'em)! E7, but no E! No C#s! Who dreamed this thing up?

I was starting to think that since they've built a few million of 'em, they must work for somebody, so maybe I could live with the native set up. But even on the 21 chord model, there's no black-key chords except for Bb7 and Ab. Huh?

So, clearly, I'll have to rebuild the chord bars. Not sure how I'll re-label 'em, but that's the least of my worries. First, to find suitable "felt". I wonder if some alternate material would work on the chord bars: some dense foam like flip-flops, or artificial chamois, or something. I also don't know if I'll rebuild the existing bars, or just replace them with duplicates -- might seem safer, and let me do some experimentation without doing any permanent damage. For one thing, I did layouts with three and even four "rows" of buttons (like the way the 21-chord boxes have three rows of 7). And to make matters worse, I read some guy talking about re-tuning some strings, as well! Turns out the low-end is non-complete, and he wanted a low G# to fatten up the E chord he was adding. More options to worry about! (Personally, I'm not terribly attracted to adding a low third to a chord...)

Chordie.com

What an Amazing Thing this is! These guys find tab/chord sheets in text format on any/all Internet sites, analyze it, and format it *on the fly* into that clever x-by-2 line table format to keep the chords where they belong! Who even thought it would be possible!?! An amazing parsing job, considering how many nearly-randomly-formatted chord files are out there.

And just for fun, since they've auto-detected the chords versus the words, they put little chord diagrams on the right. And on top of that, they do on-the-fly chord transposition, too. I am totally impressed.

They even "extra format" any found-in-the-text, 6-number, chord "diagrams", with the little string numbers over the fret numbers. Careful, though, it's still all the "OLGA-quality" (oxymoron alert!) files that are being presented. Just 'cuz the format's nice doesn't mean that the chords/words are right. Cool, anyway.

http://www.chordie.com/index.php

Tully's Dead

The manager at Tully's (where we've been playing nearly every Saturday night, for two years, for free) called and asked us not to come back, citing "customer complaints" about not being able to study while we're there.

Sounds like a pretty lame excuse to me, though. We weren't bogarting any "study" tables. "... not enough table space"?!? Isn't that an architectural/furnishing problem, and doesn't it imply that the place is full, and isn't that a good thing? I suppose we were deleting the use of two chairs, but they weren't "study chairs", since they didn't have any writing area anyway.

I guess I could buy the argument that we were too noisy to do group study around. But how many study groups come down there on Saturday nights, anyway? And do students that showed up and were chased away by the awful racket then return in the daytime, ask for the manager, and complain? Hard to imagine...

But, whatever -- whether it's a bogus excuse or a real one, we're out of a job. I wonder if, after a week or three, he were to get several complaints from people who had shown up hoping to hear some music, and were disappointed, whether he might reconsider. Of course, that would require the Music Fans to have the same determination as the study-fiend Philistines -- they'd have to show up on Sunday morning expressing their disappointment to Dave in person, since it's unlikely that any "Hey, where's the band?" complaints would be accurately and diligently relayed by the Saturday night staff.

But, frankly, as much as Tully's is (was) the highlight of my whole week, this just makes me angry.

I guess we'll get an occasional gig at Del Lago, and we could (and should) get back in touch with Jill at Moxie and see if she wants us to do a Friday (paid, and attended) night over there once in a while. And we can send another CD in to Diedrich, possibly with material recorded on Saturday -- though they seem a long shot to me now. (I did listen to a tiny bit of Saturday's file, and it sounded really "boomy" -- possibly not usable at all).

Or maybe I'll just have some Saturdays at home with the family for a while.