Idea for Borders

I had a spontaneous idea at Borders the other night, which both worked really well, and failed spectacularly. When I was out passing out the song lists, I gave one to the baristas, and told the kid that they were welcome to request songs, too. Later, a different kid brought the list back with no less than 22 songs checked, with three of those circled with green highlighter, with "Special request for Kelsey" noted nearby.

I don't know which one was Kelsey, nor if any of them could actually hear the songs anyway, since the bar is really far away at South Coast Plaza, but it seemed like a nice way to get them "on our side", as it were. Might account for the guy coming out and asking us if we wanted a drink -- that doesn't happen very often (ever?).

Unfortunately, because of all the attention we were getting down front, and my lack of being able to see that anybody back at the counter was noticing us, I only really did one song specifically "for Kelsey": "The Way You Look Tonight". Of the other two, we accidentally did "The Last Unicorn" anyway(requested by a girl down front), and neglected "Puff", which is kinda hard to do without the requester specifically being there to justify it. Of the other 19, we happened to hit 9 of 'em.

Anyway, I like the idea/effect of at least making the offer to the kids behind the bar, and it'll probably work even better at a place with a closer bar, like, say, Yorba Linda next Saturday.

K&W at South Coast Plaza again - 07Apr2007

Another darn fun night at SCP. Brazenly anticipating a repeat of the success of last week's gig, I sent out a "you should come" notice to the mailing list, but only got one taker. But they were probably right -- it wasn't as magic a night as the previous one, though it was pretty close. My voice was dry or something, and although it was behaving pretty well, it just sounded kinda raspy -- to me, anyway.

But we had a *really* good crowd, which always makes it fun. We had between 4 and 10 people really listening, all the way through. Good applause, lots of smiles. And, despite Will not being there to do his "You should tip these guys" announcement, we made more in tips than last week. That's probably due to my little bus stop gramma friend, Virginia, who brought her Asian friend along and must have been the one who put that twenty in there.

There was a friendly college-age couple there who stayed the whole night. The girl was a big Simon and Garfunkel fan, so we ran through all the S&G I've got. When she requested "The Boxer", I suspected and so asked her if she could/would sing the high part. She said yes, but declined to actually get up to do it -- I didn't have a second mic set up anyway. I could barely hear her, but it sounded like she was right on it...

I had fun pulling out all the new stuff, which is getting to be quite a list of its own. "Mother Goose", "Heart Full of Soul", "Old Man", "Jersey Girl", "I Want You To Want Me", "Under the Boardwalk", and "Satisfaction", which (finally) seemed to be taken in the ironic, I'm-just-kidding-around spirit that I'm doing it in -- people were smiling and chuckling at me. It was also the debut of "Here Comes My Baby", which, in a reversal of my usual experience, seemed kinda lame at home, but went really well at the gig. Felt like a "keeper".

And, we pulled out "Five O'Clock World" again (kinda rough through the yodels), but it uses a down-tuned bass string, which brings up a whole slew of other new/old songs that use that tuning: "Can't Find My Way Home", "Four and Twenty", and "Sarah Maria". That was fun, too.

K&W at South Coast Plaza - 30Mar2007

A great night! Started off a little slow, as usual, with the usual crowd of disinterested patrons, but we brought several of them around over time, and my in-laws showed up and sat right down front, so I had people to play to/for, which always brings out my best.

The sound, also, seems to be better there than anywhere else we play -- I love it when I can hear myself clearly. It lets me relax into the song -- easier on my voice, and better for my playing 'cuz I don't have to try (pick) so hard. You might think that just "louder" on the amp would have the same effect, but it's more than that (and less -- sometimes it's *too* loud, which screws me up even more!). There's something that I can only describe as clarity that makes all the difference.

Anyway, Warren set up his little still/video camera and recorded most of the best stuff, and is gradually posting the songs on his YouTube page. The video is pretty boring, since the camera is on a tripod and never moves, but the audio is surprisingly good for such a simple setup, and it's not really about how pretty we are -- I hope! (Check the K&W webpage to watch some videos.)

We played some of our new stuff, including the new Brit-pop trio of "Bus Stop", "Heart Full of Soul" and "Mother Goose". And a girl requested the once-favorite and still-on-the-list, but seldom-played "Five O'Clock World". It went surprisingly well, and since my voice is both higher and stronger than it was when I semi-abandoned it, I don't see why we can't start doing it regularly again. I've always liked it, but felt like my singing was sub-par on it. Now, not so bad.

And the most amazing thing happened -- the friendly (rare in itself!) Events Manager at that store (Will) came over at 9:45. I assumed he was giving me the "sign" that it was time to shut down (I usually quit at 9:40). But he wanted to borrow my microphone to make an announcement. I figured he was gonna repeat the "We're about to close" announcement, since the store PA is (thankfully) really quiet over in the café. But, nope, he started up a speech about how much he appreciates us coming in to make some music in the store, and how "you probably don't know this, but Borders doesn't pay the musicians, and we really appreciate Keith and Warren giving up their Friday night to come down here" and how "we should all show our appreciation by buying a CD or something", and on and on...

People, thoroughly guilted-out by this, immediately leaped up and started stuffing the tip jar. (It's a shame he didn't make this announcement earlier, when more people were there!) He gave me back my mic, shook our hands (to much thanks from us!), and wandered back down the aisle. As he walked past the jar, he said, to no one in particular, "Well, I should put my money where my mouth is!" and fished some money out of his own pocket!

We were completely stunned by this, especially considering the very cold treatment we've been getting lately at the Costa Mesa store, where we seem to be barely tolerated as a necessary evil, and booted out as early as possible. Not to mention that the tips were really good, for that place. Usually we expect to make 6 or 8 bucks each, this time it was $18. Not a fortune, nor even a record, but it's nice to get some tangible appreciation for our efforts...

And the cool part is that we're back there again next Saturday! Normally we don't (can't) play the same place twice in a row, but last weekend was in March, and next is in April.

K&W at Costa Mesa - 23Mar2007

Pretty fun night. They tend to kick us out at 10:20 at that store, so we started really early so we'd have some decent time to play. Since it was so early, it started out really dead, but we got more and more people roped in as the night went by. By the end, we had more requests stacked up than the management would let us stay and fulfill, which felt pretty rude. Oh, well -- leave 'em wanting more, right?

Warren had his camera set up, and captured a *lot* of Pretty Good performances (15), despite the fact that we haven't played together in 6 weeks. He trims them down to a single tune per clip, and uploads 'em to YouTube, where you can watch 'em, if you want: Click here.

My voice was not nearly as strong as I've gotten used to it being -- I think the time off let it get "out of shape". Hopefully it'll get back on course 'cuz we have gigs for the next three weekends straight, then I have a campout (with gig), and then a solo gig. But I did OK, and played pretty good, and Warren had practiced the week before and played OK, too. And I didn't choke (too much) because of the camera, either.

Another odd thing happened: a guy asked us if our "Blue Spanish Sky" was the Chris Isaak one, and since it was, to play it, which we did. He wandered off briefly, and then reappeared and asked if he could "sing it with [me]". Ohhh kay, sure, why not? I gave him my headset, and he went into it -- and not bad. He was a lot looser with it than I am -- I think he was trying to "Chris Isaak" it up, with a lot more moodiness than, I think, this one actually has. Commendable attempt, but it was a bit beyond him (as Isaak is beyond almost all of us...)

Me and Daleen at California Adventure

A peculiar series of events left me taking the day off to take Geneva and her friend Claire to California Adventure, but without Geneva and Claire. That left just me and Daleen, which seemed strange, but was quite nice. Not that we don't enjoy taking the kids to Disneyland, but it was a lot less frantic this way.

We rode "Soarin' Over California" twice, went to the Broadway-style "Aladdin" show, took the "Learn to Draw" lesson (Jiminy Cricket), and had a nice lunch at the sourdough place. There's not a whole lot to do at California Adventure anyway, and if you're skipping the thrill rides there's even less, which makes for a nice slow paced day. And they have a new thing where they take your picture and post them on-line so you can spend big bucks buying prints of 'em. Or, you can snag them off the page, if low-res is sufficient -- as it is here...

But hey, look! A picture with me in it!

KC at Costa Mesa - 16Feb2007

This was my first solo Borders gig in, wow, a long time -- apparently 14 months. I used to do about one a month, in Rancho Santa Margarita, but since they shut down doing music at that store, I've been being too chicken to play solo at any of the other stores -- and typically getting three gigs a month with Warren, which is almost enough.

But this month, since we somehow didn't get any gigs at all in the initial schedule, we had to pick up scraps from the "Opens". I had to do a solo, or I'd'a only had one gig the whole month. It was at Costa Mesa, which Warren and I had done just the Saturday before, but that actually worked out well, 'cuz (a) they were pretty nice to us, and (b) it felt familiar and comfortable to be there. Not to mention that a full-sized gig the week before is good practice for a gig this week.

Warren's gotten into posting videos up on YouTube lately, and I was gonna try to experiment with setting up my vidcam to catch some tunes. The idea was to put it over at the side, so it (a) wouldn't be right in the middle of the room and in the way, and (b) could catch me and Warren in a single edge-on frame, without being a huge wide shot. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a place to put the camera where it could see me (and "virtual Warren") without being right in the walkway where it would surely get knocked over. I think it'll be possible at South Coast Plaza, but not at Costa Mesa.

Which is a shame, 'cuz the performance felt pretty good. With the "rehearsal" the week before, I was playing well, and feeling loose. I think I did some pretty good work. It was one of those nights when the sound sounds particularly good (to me), so I can really knock it out. Not sure why, though. Obviously, a big difference is that Warren wasn't there, so the songs sound different, but it was a kind of "clarity" that made the difference. My only theory is that the second speaker, which is usually back behind Warren, was much closer to me so I was getting completely immersed in the sound field. Or maybe it was just my imagination...

Speaking of Warren, we apparently make more of an impression that I'd imagined, 'cuz at least three people (mostly the store employees) asked me "where my partner was". (He was in Yorba Linda with Jim, playing one of the other scarce "Opens".)

Anyway, it was pretty fun. My ex-boss Tim came by and listened for a while, and there were several folks that I now know to be "regulars" there, too. But unlike the Mission Viejo regulars, these guys are quiet and appreciative. I had to quit at 10:08, when the manager pointedly pointed at her wrist, but I was prepared for it this time and my voice was starting to go anyway.

K&W at Costa Mesa -- 10Feb2007

You'd think, after four years of doing this, that we'd'a seen most every "kind" of night that we were likely to. But, this one was unique, again. There were lots of people there when we got there, so I handed out lots of the song lists. Just as we started, a local Folk Scene lady-friend of Warren's came by, since she lives only a few blocks away. She started us off right away with a song request or two, and it appears to have opened the floodgates for the rest of the night. I hardly got a chance to choose any songs myself at all -- requests were coming at us the whole night. Usually most people are shy about asking for songs, but it "became OK", and everybody was yelling out songs.

Which was oddly fun, but got kinda cut short. The managers there have apparently gotten the impression that we're supposed to quit at 10:00. We don't know why. We understand that they want us to be out of there before closing at 11, but why the very wide margin for error? Unfortunately, the managers run the place, so there's no appealing for reason.

Anyway, we usually play until 10:40, leaving 20 minutes to pack up, but we got cut short at 10:15. I usually save any New Songs that I'm thinking of trying out until the last half-hour, when there's fewer people there, but because of the surprise cut-off, I didn't get to any of them. Oh, well.

But, because of the overall store-scheduling issues (which appear to be ongoing), I'm supposed to play there on Friday again, as a solo. That might be a bit awkward, but I think the manager (or, more likely, the assistant manager) likes my stuff -- she's friendly enough when she's kicking us out -- so maybe it'll be OK. And, at least, now I know.

Father/Daughter Girl Scout Bowling

The annual Father/Daughter Girl Scout event was bowling this year, and we had fun. Geneva's inherited Daleen's loose ligaments problem, so she can't really swing a heavy ball on the end of her shoulder, but she played anyway. Acacia doesn't exhibit that problem, yet anyway, and she got three strikes. 'Course, those were mainly bounced off the gutter-bumpers, but still...

They traditionally take father/daughter portraits at these things. Two years ago, it was with a Polaroid camera, but last year they bought some little photo printers, and took the pictures digitally. Unfortunately, the printers are really slow, so a lot of the pictures weren't printed yet when the event was over.

This time, we had a couple of cameras, and several memory chips to swap between the cameras and the printers, and we kept the printers churning. I also had snagged the "Father/Daughter Pose" that the professional photographers use when they come take pictures at the Indian Princess events. I also rigged up some makeshift lights with tissue paper diffusers to soften that "snapshot flash" look, and forced the picture-takers to step way closer and get the faces, not the shoes as in the past. The pictures turned out pretty well, for a change.

K&W at Yorba Linda -- 20Jan2007

A really fun gig! The place was unusually full when we got there, and a lot of the people there were "in our demographic" (i.e., old and white). I managed to make myself start off with a spoken introduction again, which kicked things off much better than my usual "start off with a timidly played-and-sung song, and see if you get any reaction" method. We got some immediate interaction in the form of song requests, and if you get some applause on the first song, you're in like Flynn.

Played good, sang good. Felt looser than usual, and was just throwing stuff out there, and it was working, which feels great. I remembered to play some of the new-ish songs (my wacky "Satisfaction" in particular), and surprised Warren by bringing out the brand-new "I Want You To Want Me". I'm not sure exactly how to play it yet, (the chords are easy enough, but I need to work up a way to make it work on acoustic (if that's possible)) but I was feeling daring so I went for it despite not really "having it down". Besides, it was getting late and there was hardly anyone left.

The only bummer is that I put my cell phone on the unused speaker behind me so I could occasionally check the time, and managed to walk out of there without it. Unbelievable, since it's a shiny silver object sitting on a big black box -- how could I not notice it while I was packing up? Anyway, I called right when they opened on Sunday, and it was just sitting there still, so they held it for me until I could go by and get it. Kinda ate up the five bucks tip money in gas, but, oh well.

Great night, overall. Had a good time. Unfortunately and inexplicably, we don't appear on the emailed-out schedule for February. We don't know if that means that Bob just forgot about us, lost Warren's request email, or that we've been fired. The last is pretty hard to imagine, 'cuz "Jim & Warren" is also not-on-the-list, and it's extremely unlikely that both bands did something unforgivable at the same time. We're still waiting on the Final February Schedule -- Warren requested, so we may have snagged, some of the Open spots. Hope so. As of now, we have no upcoming gigs...

K&W at Mission Viejo -- 13Jan07

What a night! First off, it was our first time at Mission Viejo since August, so that was kind of fun. I knew that Geneva's friend's gramma (a really sweet retired nurse), who drives her to the bus stop in the morning was planning to come see us. We've become good friends in 10-minute increments since school started, and I'd given her some CDs that she purports to like. She did show up, with 2 friends, but since that café is always jammed full of people treating it like a library, there was no place for them to sit.

But the real surprise was when a troop of 9 Trailmates dads and associated daughters marched in and lined up at the back (since there were no chairs). They were grinning and mugging at me, and I was pretty hard pressed to maintain the song I was in the middle of, but managed to keep it together. Of course, I was required (and happy) to play "Waltzing With Bears", with many of them singing quietly along. When that was done, it was "Picture time!"

The regular customers were perplexed and (hopefully) amused by all this, of course, so I explained the Indian Princess connection. Most of them seemed to think that that was pretty sweet, and it was over soon enough.

There was a 30-something married couple there when we got there, who were apparently just hanging out to hear the music. I don't know if they were specifically there for us, or just for whoever showed up, but when I passed out the song lists, the guy came up immediately and asked for James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves", pointing out that it was "their song". Fine with me, though I didn't expect I'd be able to play it as the first number, and held off until number 3. They stayed almost the whole night, and it was great to have some Real Live James Taylor fans.

Pretty much the worst singing I've done in at least a year, but not so bad that I needed to hang it up. It got a little better in the second half, so I could come closer to the notes I was aiming at. Fortunately, the worst seems to be over now, so I should be OK at Yorba Linda next Saturday. I hope saying that doesn't jinx it...

We had the usual problem of the Regular Club that hangs out at that Borders. They're a group of 40 and 50-year-olds, mostly single, who hang out in the café every night, apparently. Since they "own the place", they're reticent to give up the sonic space to the band. It's odd, because they profess to like our music, and to prefer it to most (all?) of the other bands that play there, but they just talk, joke, and laugh at full volume over the top of us -- and if I turn up the amp, they just shout louder. And they insist on taking all the "good seats", closest to us.

Of course they have a right to be there, but it's terribly distracting, and makes it hard for me to get through the songs, much less perform them well. Oh, well. Maybe it's a good thing that we don't get assigned there very often. The good part is that it's close to home, and more likely to be visited by my friends -- the bad part is that it's hard to play with all that racket.

K&W at SCP -- 05Jan07

A mostly uneventful night. We did pretty well, despite the layover of the holidays.

Christi, a nice young lady whom we had met before at that store, timidly wanting to know what the procedure was to get a gig with Borders, showed up again to ask more questions. This time the questions related to doing the actual gig, 'cuz she's got herself on the list, and starts next weekend. She was the one that told us about Eva Cassidy, from whom I stole my arrangement of "Time After Time", so I invited Christi to sing it, and she did. Amazing voice -- though a bit intense for a night's worth. Seems like the audience will be emotionally exhausted after a few songs of that, but maybe that's just me.

A nice senior couple came and sat up front in the comfy chairs for the last hour or so. She went down the list and said "They're all good", at first, but finally requested "Somewhere" from West Side Story. Nobody ever asks for that one -- I was about to take it off the list, but I do love singing it.

K&W at Yorba Linda -- 15Dec2006

It was our last shot at doing Christmas tunes for the year, and it went pretty well. Yorba Linda is kinda far, but I like it. It's a nice big café, and there's usually a fair number of people there, and they're not all studying students.

We played to moderate attention for a while, but then a family came in with two little girls (7 and 9-ish), so I was able to pull out "Rudolph" and "Frosty", and some of the other kid songs. They actually got up and danced around for "Waltzing With Bears". And they sang along with "Rudolph" (the classic little-kid "response" lyrics: "Like a light bulb!"), and tried to keep up with Frosty, which everybody *thinks* they know, but nobody actually does.

Overall, pretty low-key, but pleasant. At the end, I pulled out three new songs I'm working on / playing with. "Under the Boardwalk", which is a contender for permanent status on the list, my strangely peaceful version of "Satisfaction", and my seriously weird "Jimi meets Merle" version of "Purple Haze". Pretty sure I blew Warren's mind with that one...

I played a Christmas Party!

So, Friday night we went to a Christmas party at the home of one of the Trailmates (big-girl Princesses) guys. I had brought along some of my Christmas CDs, and gave some away to people that didn't have one already, including Ralph's sweetie-pie wife, Carla.

She had to work on Saturday morning, and was apparently listening to the CD in her car, called Ralph to get my number, and called me to ask if I could/would play at the office party she was planning for Sunday at her house. I said, sure! 'cuz I love playing the Christmas tunes, and had nothing better going on. She asked what I charge per hour, but I told her I was free -- I don't know how to, much less what to, charge friends. And I expected to have fun.

Ralph sent me his address and directions in an email. I looked it up on Google Maps, and drew myself a copy. But I neglected to write down the actual address number, which I didn't notice until I was almost there. I pulled up anyway, expecting to have to pull a Marlon Brando and stand out in the street yelling "Carla!", but a little neighbor girl was outside and knew where Ralph's daughter lives...

It was pretty odd, gig-wise. I don't play parties, and didn't know if Carla expected me to be background music (which, if she had, and I'd'a had the presence of mind to ask, I'd'a said no to the whole idea), or for people to actually listen. Turned out to be some of each, I guess. A lot of people were chatting, loudly, but occasionally some folks would drift in and request a song or three off the list. Toward the end, as people left and it got quieter overall, more people came to listen.

I'd brought some CDs, in case, and a few people took some and stuffed some money in the jar, and Carla foisted a batch off on people who were leaving. As I left, she gave me an envelope with a hundred bucks in it, and an extra twenty for the CDs she'd snagged. That plus the tip jar came to $141 -- not bad for a "free gig".

At the very least, I learned something about playing parties (besides "Don't"). Mostly, I learned that it's *way* different than playing Borders, if only because at Borders, people are stone silent, and at the party they were way too loud. But they're also much more "at home", and vocal to each other and to me -- asking for songs and deciding to sing along, or even get up front and sing with me. Clearly, at a party (at least a "happening" party) I need more "party songs" -- whatever than means (I tried, and if I could have remembered the words and chords to "It's My Party", I could have had a bunch of women up singing it -- a missed/botched opportunity). At least, some (more) songs that other people can sing, or sing along to. And some in a "girl key", and not only mine.

Anyway, mixed feelings. Generally, people who came in to listen were appreciative. But I found myself trying to play, sing, and concentrate against a wall of party noise, which is hard. I guess I'll do it again, if asked, but it'll take a dozen or more before I figure out how to really pull it off, if ever. After playing Borders so many times, I can see how naïve we were when we started -- I'm sure I'm just as clueless about how to successfully play at a party; in the "don't even know what I don't know" phase.

K&W at South Coast Plaza -- 01Dec2006

I love pulling my Christmas music out every year. Unfortunately, we don't get many gigs in December to play the stuff. So I sent out an "only chance!" message to the K&W mailing list, and it actually worked! 9 out of 10 gigs, nobody we know comes in, which is fine. Of course it's nice when somebody does show up, but also rare. This time we had 17, count 'em, 17 friends: my brother and his wife, my dad's college friend and his wife (who've known me since babyhood), and old high school friend and her husband, three Toshiba friends, one from Linksys, and, almost at the end, two Princess friends with five teenybopper daughters-and-friends in tow.

Which made it pretty fun. Just getting to play those songs is fun in itself, too -- most of them are more elaborate, and therefore more interesting, than the standard pop songs we play. I attribute a lot of my growth on the guitar to my years-long striving to get those songs sounding good. Pop songs just don't "get" the diminished and augmented chords like them old tunes do.

Also, since there's no Definitive Version of most of them (Elvis' "Blue" and Bing's "White" Christmases notwithstanding), I get to do a personal arrangement of them. Meaning, of course, that I can play them "in my style", which means "down at my level of (in)ability".

But it went great. We had all those friends out there, paying attention, and lots of other folks were right there with us, too. One guy was in the comfy chairs when I got there, and we talked while I was setting up. He had to go, though, before I got started, even though he thought he (and his daughter) would like my stuff. About an hour into the gig, he showed up again, with the daughter, and did, in fact, seem to like it.

The whole night shot by. Having the additional 10 or 15 songs to play meant that we did that many fewer of the Usual Songs, which was a nice change. Makes me want to have another 20 songs on the list so the ones we play at any one gig can vary from week to week. That's a bit easier said than done -- (a) I can't think of another 20 songs that (a1) are great, and (a2) I can play, and (b) the best 40 or so always percolate to the top of my "want to play 'em ('cuz they work the best)" mental list, and the rest might as well not be there.

Anyway, we actually do have another Christmas gig, a week from Friday, but it's in generally-unreachable Yorba Linda. We won't have any friends there, but, hopefully we'll get lots of shoppers that need a little break.

K&W at Brea - 18Nov2006

I've never played Brea before, though Jim & Warren have, and Warren warned me that "there's no place to set up". That turned out to be very true, but we moved some roll-able displays out of the way and figured something out.

I played pretty well, considering the 3 weeks lay-off and lack of home practicing. My brain seemed somehow more lucid than usual, as if I'd had some kind of bandwidth upgrade -- stuff seemed to be easier than I remember, so I could handle it all without a lot of specific effort. Odd feeling, that.

Also, being away from the songs for a while has an odd effect: I remembered, well enough, how to play them, but wasn't remembering the exact things I usually do with the vocals, so I was free to (slightly) re-interpret them. Hard to explain, but, I think, good for my performance.

Unfortunately, we were mostly ignored, with light clapping between songs -- except for one young kid at the back that perked right up when we started, and was watching and listening pretty much all the way through to the end. I got the impression (proved right later), that he played guitar himself. He moved up closer in the last hour or so, and talked to us afterwards. Nice kid, and it's always a big help if at least one person is really listening.

Our best reaction all night was for "Homeward Bound". Didn't expect that. And, despite it being a bit early, I played my 6 most presentable Christmas songs. I'm really doing well with "River" these days, now that I can hit that long, high, note without so much strain, and I played "Please Come Home For Christmas" probably better than I ever have.

I had broken my ring-finger nail really short while unpacking the camping gear last Sunday, and it hasn't grown back enough to play guitar with yet. I've been in fear of this happening eventually, and it's come close before, but this was the first time it was completely un-playable. So, I went and bought some "press-on nails", which worked surprisingly well. I looked kinda (let's use the word) odd, I'm sure, with one shiny pearl-pink nail, which looked not-so-bad at home, but really picked up a shine in the well-lit store environment. But it played just fine, didn't feel "in the wrong place" to be unusable, and didn't break loose in the middle of a song. I tried to remember to keep my hand closed up in between songs, but I'm not sure how successfully I hid it. Still, it's good to know that there's a pretty simple solution if this happens again, and I'll know to at least knock the shine off with some sandpaper, next time.

Princess Campout at Oso Lake

A great little campout. This is a new place for us. It used to be a private fishing lake, but it's recently been bequeathed to the Boy Scouts and they're opening it up for camping groups. It's really nice, because it's literally 10 minutes from home, so kids with soccer can get to their games and back, and, in our case, I was able to take Acacia to her Saturday art lesson, go on back, and play the rest of the day.

They have fishing (which we don't do), canoeing (which we missed), archery, and slingshots, which were pretty fun. We've been to other camps that had archery, but it's usually just for the kids -- this time I got to shoot, and it turns out that I'm not half bad, but that bow pulls to the right...

Usually, on Friday nights of the campouts, somebody brings a notebook, a projector, and a sheet to hang, and the kids watch a movie. I always think that we ought to be able to think of something better than that -- they can watch a movie any time. So, I volunteered to do a concert. Some kids (possibly prompted by the dads) made some flattering posters that they enthusiastically waved, and they had some beach balls to bounce around, just like a Real Concert. And between songs, they kept chanting "Four more years!"

On Saturday, the kids added little personal messages and little illustrations of my songs (a dragon, the lollipop tree, some waltzing bears), and gave me the posters to keep. Sweet.

I can't really keep Acacia in the Princess program for yet another year, but I'm gonna miss getting to play for a group of kids around the campfire. I'm wondering if the YMCA can give me some kind of unpaid volunteer staff position that lets me show up and play whenever my schedule allows and the camp isn't too far away, without having to pay the annual Membership fee. I guess I'll check into that as we get closer to the end of the program year this Spring.

Halloween 2006

Because of the Japan trip, Halloween snuck up on me this year. Daleen, typically, had much more foresight and built a princess dress for Geneva, and a (very re-usable) Hogwarts wizard robe for Acacia.

I took Acacia over to a friend's much-more-active tract for Trick-or-Treating, so that was fun. Geneva, being In High School Now, went out with some friends, with no parents for the first time. There were no phone calls from the police station, so I guess it went all right.

We have a pretty lame and mostly-non-participated-in annual costume contest at work, to which I usually just wear my astronaut jumpsuit. This year, I was half resigned to just skipping it like everyone else, but I don't want to be That Guy, so, the night before, I built a "Silent Bob" wig out of yarn, and painted my beard black with Daleen's mascara. It actually came out really well, but you either know Silent Bob, or you don't -- and more than half of the people at work, don't.

Oh, well.

Trailmates at Ortega Oaks

We had a campout at Ortega Oaks this weekend, which was ostensibly for Trailmates, but since there are so few of us, we invited the older Princesses along, "as a recruiting tool", wink wink. So Acacia got to come along.

It was a pretty good weekend, it's a really pretty place under huge oaks. It was *really* cold on Friday night, but nice and pleasant on Saturday. We basically just hung out around the campground -- I made a swing with some rope and a piece of firewood, and we flew the little R/C planes around, despite the risk of them getting caught in the trees. Which they did several times, but we just threw things at them to get them down -- they're pretty hard to break.

On Saturday night, we had the usual array of skits from the girls, but, since we had a screen and projector all set up for the movie on Friday night, I got my computer out and showed the "Waltzing With Bears" cartoon. It was fun to see it wall-sized.

After we were out of skits, I got up and played "The Indian Princess Song", with the cue cards. Most of the Trailmates are from other Princess Nations, so they've never heard it (or sung it), and it was fun to introduce it to them. Then I played some more songs, but people started to wander off, and some of the guys were anxious to start another movie, so I quit.

I get that it's fun to watch a movie with your friends, but it always seems to me to be a waste to watch movies when you could be doing camp stuff. You can always watch a movie, but how often do you get to toast marshmallows?

K&W at Costa Mesa - 28Oct2006

It went pretty well, considering that we hadn't played together in 5 weeks, and I'd been in Japan and hadn't hardly touched a guitar for the last half of that. I did try to rehearse a little, but I didn't have much time for it, so I expected to be really rusty and screw up a lot. But I didn't, too much. I kind of watched in amazement as my hands played most of the songs by themselves. I guess someone was singing, too -- probably me, somehow.

I had a few outrageous blowouts, but surprisingly few. Overall, not a bad time -- especially since I had completely foregone the recording rig, simplifying the setup, and removing the pressure. So, I just cut loose and played. Or my hands did, anyway. Kind of fun.

We had some nice people listening in, and a bit of applause. Only one guy, a previous fan, took us up on the first-time-ever Live CD, much to my dismay after all the work I'd done on it for the last few months...

Vacation in Japan with Acacia

Acacia and I spent 9 days in Japan! It was a terrific trip, but too long, complex, and picture-laden to report on here, so I created a specific webpage for it:

http://members.cox.net/acacia.comer

Check it out!

Princesses at Camp Surf!

By fortunate coincidence, the Trailmates (Geneva's "Princess" group) and Acacia's Princess Nation shared a trip to "Camp Surf", in Imperial Beach, south of San Diego. It's right on the beach, with cabins full of bunk-beds, and a big mess hall with darn good food. Which is a good thing, 'cuz they have surfboards and body-boards available, with lessons, and that surfing is hard, hungry, work.

Geneva tried to surf for a while, but decided that body boarding was more her speed, but that's in a separate part of the beach. So I spent most of the time with Acacia. She did pretty well, and had one fabulous ride, standing up all the way almost until the dry land. It was tough on me, though, 'cuz she'd ride in (standing or not), and I'd *walk* in, and help her walk the board back out, over the waves, to deep enough water to ride another one. So I was walking twice as much as her, and walking though waist-high water is some real exercise.

They also have archery and a climbing tower, and a cool little craft where you get to decorate a little wooden surfboard (really a woodworker's "biscuit"). I took a stab at putting a Hula Girl on mine, and it's not half bad, for an inch-tall painting. Check that, and lots more pictures here.

The campfire on Saturday night was an all-skits affair, but I stuck myself in the schedule 'cuz I knew that if the night went by without "Waltzing With Bears", there'd be trouble. I didn't want to hog up too much of the time, but was persuaded to do "Lollipop Tree" too, by audience chant/demand. Afterwards, the guy who runs the camp gave me an inadvertent compliment by assuming that I was a "professional musician that they'd brought in".

All-in-all, a great weekend -- best "campout" in a long time. *And*, a great way to spend my birthday.

K&W at SCP - 23Sept06

Really good. We had good response most of the night, and I played and sang exceptionally well. Coincidence? I think not. Also helping: I was kind of feeling like I had "pretty good" takes of every song we need for the CD, so I relaxed a little and captured "even better" takes of both "Don't Get So Down On Yourself" and "Long, Long Time", and maybe some others, too.

I think, with this set, that we have every song we need for the CD -- I just have to get 'em all found, clipped, processed, and burn it. It's been *far* harder to get done than I expected, but I guess that's the rule with most everything, and I won't bore you with why.

I now have 4 weekends off: next weekend is me and the girls at Surf Camp, the weekend after is "free" (with lots of stuff to do), and the next two will find Acacia and I in Japan.

But I've been bringing a computer in the car every day, 'cuz I have about 50 minutes a day waiting in the parking lot of the bus station for Geneva to come home from school. That gives me a good chance to edit, process, etc. the recordings, and it just may come together, bit by bit.

K&W at Costa Mesa - 15Sept06

A pretty fun night. That place is so full of noise that I didn't expect to be able to get any decent recordings, so I just kind of blew off worrying about it (though the recorder was running). Naturally, I play a lot looser when I don't have the pressure, and end up playing and singing better, and having more fun.

Costa Mesa is usually pretty full of people, and the physical arrangement isn't bad -- lots of people are close enough to hear, though not necessarily within sight. So we had plenty of people, but they were mostly being aloof and buried in their books, papers, and computers. We had some clapping for some songs, and total silence for others.

Then, around 9, a little family came in with two cute little girls, for whom I am a known sucker, so I played some kid songs for them. At the end of each song, I looked around the room to see if any of the adults in the area were at all interested, but no one gave me any indication that they cared one way or the other, so I ended up playing to the girls (and their parents) for quite a while. They must have appreciated it, 'cuz after a few songs, the little girl got up and put some money in the jar, and after a while more, she got up, took a CD, and put some *more* money in the jar.

Anyway, despite the generally ho-hum response, the performance was pretty good -- my voice has been really good to me lately -- and we may have accidentally gotten a CD-worthy version of "You Were On My Mind", which has been eluding us so far.

K&W at Yorba Linda - 08Sept2006

I hadn't been out Yorba Linda since February (though Warren had). It's a pretty nice setup, and we usually get a decent response, if not-so-much by way of tips. It's remarkable how much the architecture influences the success of the performance. You can do bad in a good joint, and do good in a bad joint, but the other two combinations are far more likely.

I felt like it was a lot more of a "classic" K&W performance than last week at SCP. I was more relaxed -- both generally, and in regards to the Live CD Song Capturement Project -- and less focused on getting specific songs. Probably that was due to the audience's non-rapt, but extant, attention, so I was playing songs I thought they'd like, and a lot of requests.

Unfortunately, Warren wasn't feeling well, so he just kind of pretended to be playing, very quietly. I guess he was afraid to try to play out loud while his head wasn't in it. I carried on, of course, and my voice was in excellent form again. It sure is fun to be able to hit those high notes without feeling like I'm straining, and sounding like it.

Surprise of the night: a young girl who arrived late and didn't see the song lists asked for "American Pie". Geneva also likes the new rendition that Madonna put out, so I had written it out and put it in the "Learning Section" of The Book, and I've been tinkering with it, but never did it in public. Since this girl asked specifically, I played it, and pretty much got through it (though it was (and Madonna's is) a truncated version). Fun.

We may have even picked up a song or two for the CD, but it would be better to get them when Warren's actually audible. Next time is loud, bang-ey, Costa Mesa though, where the odds of getting a quiet take are pretty slim. Good chance to just let the recording go and have fun, though.

K&W at SCP - 01Sept2006

Kind of a strange night. Warren was held up at work, so after stalling as long as I could, I played the first 5 songs without him. It's hard enough to just Start Out with him there -- without is even worse.

But we did OK, after settling in. My brother came by, and I enlisted him to take some video with my vidcam -- which in retrospect was a stupid idea. We'd like to have some video clips of us playing, of course, but since I'm still trying to capture some songs for the Live CD, I was obliged to stare down at the book to try to get through the songs mistake-free, which, I'm sure, makes for some pretty unattractive video footage (I haven't looked yet). We'll have to try again sometime when the CD is over with.

We did manage to get some good (audio) takes, though -- especially at the very end of the night. At least two, and maybe four, of those takes will end up on the CD. But there are still a few "essential" songs that have so-far eluded us, so, next stop: Yorba Linda on Friday.

Geneva Got Her Braces Off!

They'll be sticking other miscellaneous little things in there to keep 'em where they belong, but she's pretty glad rid of the railroad tracks. She says it feels really strange, but she's happy to get used to it. And to get to eat all those forbidden foods -- not that she was really avoiding 'em...

K&W at SCP - 05Aug2006

Another surprising evening. The usual contingent of Asian students inexplicably weren't there, and the place was moderately filled with Regular People, who were reading, but also paying some at-least-partial attention.

I was really hoping to get some clean, flub-free, songs recorded for the Live CD project, even if it meant doing the same songs more than once. Fortunately, the audience was uncharacteristically fluid -- people coming and going -- so I was able to repeat the target songs without subjecting the same people to them over and over. That was lucky.

But, the notebook I've been using to record these long sessions finally (and predictably) ran out of hard drive space, without so much as an error message. At the end of the gig, I thought I'd saved the file like always, but when I got home the machine was hung. So I had to crash it off, losing any data that was still in the program. Fortunately, there's a way to recover and reassemble the zillion tiny temp files the program was making, so I was able to get the first 2 hours (of 3) back. Unfortunately, I was definitely at my best in that final hour, so most of the good stuff is lost.

Still, we did get some good takes, though not all of the songs I would like to get onto the CD. So, we're gonna have to wait until at least one more gig (Costa Mesa on the 26th) to finish the CD. This gives me time to edit and finalize the songs we do have, and to figure out which ones we need (or need better renditions of) to try to snag in CM.

Other than all that, it was a really good gig. We got a lot of attention from the rotating audience, and a lot of people stuck around to the bitter end and came up to say nice things. Just as I was starting to announce that we had to pack up, a nice lady (and apparent repeat-customer) raised her hand and called for an "encore" of "Waltzing With Bears". Despite already being late to start the tear-down, how could I refuse?

Lots of people seem to have noticed the tip jar this time, and we made $62 (!), an almost-record, and certainly a record for that place. That was partially explained by the sale of 9 CDs, including one lady who brought one up to me as we were packing up to ask how much they cost. I gave her my standard "Whatever they're worth to you" line, and sent her back towards the tip jar. I guess she wanted to make sure I knew how much she thought it was worth, 'cuz she came back over to me a while later and forced a twenty into my hand. Maybe she didn't have anything smaller...

K&W at CM - 28July2006

Shocking! Last week at SCP, the place was near-empty, and dead silent. I expected about the same this week -- in fact, I was counting on it, to facilitate continued work on our "Live" CD. But, there were *lots* of people there, and they were in a mood to listen, too. I'd say it was the best audience we've ever had at that store. Lots of nice folks, listening attentively, asking for songs off the list, and even tipping a fair bit.

There was a friendly lady with a cowboy hat and 9-ish-year-old son, who asked for a song, and right after that, I looked over at her (she was pretty far away), and she mouthed "Puff, the Magic Dragon" at me, which, surprisingly, I understood perfectly clearly. She was apparently trying not to embarrass her son, or maybe she just didn't want to shout across the whole café (again). It was fun, though. Didn't know I could read lips.

It was strange/stupid to be disappointed (sorta) about having a decent audience for a change. My playing was pretty good, voice OK (but too tired too soon -- I think I'm warming up in the car too much). My guitar was sounding better than ever, 'cuz I took some of Warren's advice and tweaked the tone knobs to better places. I'd basically had them set to "all middle", since I'd stopped using the under-saddle pickup and have been using the internally mounted mic, and didn't realize that I'd never experimented with 'em. Even with the "default" tone knob settings it was way better, but with a little tuning, it sounds really good now.

I guess we managed to get two of the songs we "need" for the CD done right, but not all of them. I made plenty of mistakes, but some of the coffee staff at that store are particularly insensitive to trying to keep quiet while the band is playing, so there are some songs with nasty noises in them.

Which leaves us with one more chance before I reach my patience limit (and we have a three-week lay-over 'til the next gig) -- this coming Saturday we're back at SCP, with, presumably, the dead silent "recording studio" atmosphere.

K&W at SCP - 21July2006

Bad -- and good! We had the usual crop of studying Asians, and a few people just reading, but nobody particularly wanted to hear us play. SCP is usually that way, but this time even more so. We played to mostly dead silence. Maybe halfway through, some new people came in and clapped, quietly, but we never raised much attention. But...

Since we're trying to build a Live CD, the lack of (a) noise, and (b) need to "connect with the audience" allowed me to concentrate exclusively on getting the song played and sung correctly. I was even able to just stare at the chord sheets, rather than trying to look up, as I usually do, and lose my place and screw up, as I usually do. My voice was in fine form, and I played pretty well. Warren seemed to be doing good work as well.

So, we were able to collect a *lot* of "good takes" of songs. Enough to build the Live CD from this performance alone, though there are a few songs that I'd like to have on the disc that we either didn't do, or that I screwed up. We play again this Friday (in Costa Mesa), and I'm hoping to fill those gaps, and get this Live CD project done.

K&W at Castille - 10June2006

After the resounding success of our gig at the Elementary Arts Academy last month, I asked Acacia's teacher if they'd like us to come down and do the same at her school. She loved the idea, got permission from the principal, and we were all set up for the Friday before the last week of school.

We played multiple lunch shifts again, 1&2, then 3&4, and then the 5th grade, so we started out with our usual kids' stuff, but, based on our experience at OCEAA, we had some rock 'n' roll ready for the bigger kids. I even brought along my electric guitar.

I was a total blast, of course, though not much of an artistic triumph. I was pretty over-excited (i.e., mildly panicked) the whole time -- did some songs too fast, the rest *way* too fast, and sang miserably. One highlight was when I started singing "Fun, Fun, Fun" to the tune of "Roll Over Beethoven" -- an honest mistake since they're the same song (in the guitar), but still...

The kids went pretty crazy for it, I'm afraid. We had them all packed up next to us (good thing the janitor put out some traffic cones!), dancing, screaming, bouncing up and down, and shouting out suggestions for the next song. We got asked to "Do some AC/DC!" a lot -- how are these kids hearing hard rock from 15 years before they were born?!?

But, not so coincidentally, we had worked up AC/DC's "Long Way To the Top", which was featured in the movie "School of Rock". We saved it for the end, and I completely botched it up. It was too fast, badly sung, *way* too much distortion on my guitar (I over-drove my little amp and it sounded great, but when I started the actual song, I played louder and that over-drove the big amp. Distorted distortion doesn't really work.), and to top it off, during Warren's big solo, I stepped on the cable and unplugged myself, leaving Warren truly *solo*. I scrambled it back together, and faded back in, and he shouted out when we were about to hit the next "thing" so we made it through, but I don't know how it could have gone much worse.

But they loved it! Kids are a great audience, especially when you're a not-so-great band. Acacia came home and said that "a bajillion" kids came up to her to tell her to thank us, and/or to ask "was that really your dad?" I guess she'll be famous, at least for the last 4 days of school. Good thing they took it as "cool dad" rather than "geek dad".

We had a great time, too, and will certainly consider doing more of these, even after Acacia moves on to middle school. And, I invited the YMCA Princess Program Director to come by, and she thought we were "wonderful", and that the kids "love you guys and you're great with them". I'm working up to offering to come play at YMCA functions, picnics, etc.

Princess Campout in san Diego

Low turnout for our tribe, but a pretty fun campout anyway. Daleen kinda liked the less-large crowd, which made it more friendly.

First thing Saturday, every year, is the Sand Sculpture Contest. This year, in homage/sympathy to the "theme", we/I built a penguin. He actually came out cuter than the drawings -- usually it's the other way around. I had less time than usual, so it's not as finessed as usual, but I was sufficiently sunburned already, so maybe it's for the best.

At Saturday night's campfire, the Hosting Tribe had decided to try something different, so instead of skits, each tribe had to come up with a video, which were projected in alphabetical order. Most of the other videos were invented mini-movies starring the girls and/or dads, and were pretty cute, if usually overlong to make their point. They each had a flavor of "Ain't our daughters the cutest!", which, frankly, falls in the same category as watching somebody else's vacation slides.

Our "Penguins on a Bus" video (see the "San Mateo Campout with Acacia" blog entry 6 previous to this one), on the other hand, involved the girls only as puppeteers, never showing their faces or names. I came up with that specifically to avoid the "other peoples' kids" syndrome, but I was the only one. I think it was more entertaining this way, but I feel a little bad about it, in retrospect. I could, at least, have put their names in a credits sequence (but what about the girls that couldn't be there?).

Anyway, it was well received, and immediately followed by my "Waltzing With Bears" cartoon. That went over even better, I think. I was watching the audience from up front, since I've seen the cartoon before (several million times by now), and they seemed to be enjoying it. Most of them were singing softly along for the choruses, and laughed out loud in a few places -- especially the scene where the bears "drag him away". I happen to know the guy who runs the Friendly Spirit Nation website pretty well (me), so it's posted up there for future generations to discover.

Sunday morning was the annual hand-off ceremony, ringing out the old chiefs and in the new. Of course, I'm Website and Music Guy for life, but they throw me a plaque every year in appreciation. Rodney said some really nice things about me, and several guys actually stood up during my acknowledgement round of applause. They managed to talk me into One More Year (which is feasible because of Acacia's pretty-good attitude about it), so "I'll be back." But the year after, I think they're gonna miss me.

The Littlest Beatle

Acacia had to do a biography project in school (5th grade), and she chose Paul McCartney. She was doing her research (on line, natch), and playing non-stop Beatles songs in the background, apparently for inspiration. It was too cute to hear her back there, singing along with "Lucy in the Sky" and "Yellow Submarine", etc., while she was searching the web and typing up her report.

They had to build a presentation board with pictures and stuff, and, last Tuesday, get up and talk about their person, dressed up to be them. (Geneva was Ben Franklin three years ago, and I bent her up a pair of "bifocals" out of baling wire.)

So, of course, Acacia wore my old "Sergeant Pepper" coat, and put red tape stripes down her pants. That, along with her "growing my bangs out" retro-seventies shag look, made a pretty cute combination, even if it doesn't look a lot like Paulie. She loves the jacket, and wants to wear it all the time now, even though (because?) her hands don't poke out of the sleeves.

K&W - SCP 20May2006

Good ol' "No Clapping!" SCP. It's pretty hard to get anything out of the "audience" (I use the term loosely) there.

My throat was all kludged up, so I sounded kinda "furry", but not really "bad". I had control and range, just with an uncharacteristic sound. Still, because of the "library" feel there, nobody seems to want to clap. So we got no response except smiles until the last half-hour or so when the atmosphere finally loosened up a little.

The good part was that I didn't bother to record the gig ('cuz of my throat), so I was a lot more loose myself. When the recorder's going, I feel the pressure to try to Make No Mistakes. With a screwed-up-anyway voice, and no recorder, the pressure was off. Liberating, really. Made it a lot of fun, even with no clapping.

But, it turns out, although they "couldn't" clap, they were apparently liking it, 'cuz at the end, I was making the obligatory "There are some CDs and business cards over there" speech, and people got up and went over there! Didn't expect *that*! We made $30, and sold 4 CDs -- probably a record for that place.

An older guy asked if we knew any "Peter, Paul and Mary" songs, and we do, but it's "Puff". He said we "sound like the Sixties". Hmmm. Then I remembered that I learned "Lemon Tree" for Dad's CD, so I pulled that out and managed it pretty well, considering that I don't practice it much and it's a lot more complicated than it sounds. It's fun to be able to satisfy a random request like that, even if it only happens sometimes.

KC at "It's a Grind" MV - 12May2006

A new coffee shop opened up just down the hill from my house, so naturally I offered to come play there, and after some stalling to "get on their feet", I got booked. It was quite low-key -- maybe 20 people over the course of the night, and never more than 10 at a time. But the owner was there (asked for "Georgia"), and seemed pleased enough. As he left, he said he'd get in touch with me about scheduling a next time.

Originally he had me booked for Saturday night, but he called two weeks ago and moved me to Friday, without much explanation. There was a little plastic stand thing there with a printout of the month's activities calendar, showing just 4 things (one was me), and nothing on Saturday, so I just don't get it. Before Friday, my two theories were: (1) He had something else lined up, but it fell through and he was too embarrassed to call and move me again, and (2) Saturdays are really crowded and he didn't want to risk an untried act on his big night (or, maybe, he just didn't want to have the hassle when it's a big night anyway).

But, I drove down there at 8:30 on Saturday night and it was almost empty (3 people and a very bored coffee girl), so now I have a third theory: Saturdays are dead, and he didn't want me to waste my time.

The good part, I guess, is that he set me up just to the right of the door, and I set the amp on my left. There were no little tables, so I put my little sign and the tip jar on top of the amp (on its stand, but as low as it goes so the top was just shoulder height). That meant that everyone passed very close to the jar on their way out, and most folks dropped in a buck, or the change they got from their to-go coffee order, as they left. I made $13.86. Woo-hoo! No more bread-lines for me!

The sound was kind of echo-ey, but nowhere near as bad as the school (of course). Toward the end, four teen-agers came in, and were *remarkably* insensitive to the live music that was going on. They stood right in front of the amp (they kind of had to, to get to the coffee order spot), and shouted at each other to be heard over the music. Never a glance at me. After they got their drinks, they sat down, and continued shouting over the music. I spun the amp a little, to shoot it towards the other people who were there, but even then, they were louder than me. I turned up as much as I could, but hit the feedback threshold and couldn't go any higher, so I just toughed it out until the end.

They struck me as kids who encounter loud music everywhere they go, and are completely comfortable with it, and shouting louder than it, to chat with their friends. Live or boombox doesn't seem to make any difference. Used the back of one of my songlists as scratch paper to write down phone numbers, too. Not the worst behavior that I've seen, but I sure hope my kids never grow up to treat the world with such disrespect.

Anyway, it was Good Enough -- I'll give it another go. My apprehension was clearly unfounded. A lot like Tully's, really. Not many people, not much response -- the "crowd" was just too small to support any amount of clapping -- but there was some occasional genuine appreciation. It may build up some...

K&W - OCEAA, 11May2006

OK, that was pretty weird. We got a call from an Indian Princess mom who works at the Orange County Educational Arts Academy, which is sort of the elementary school version of the High School of the Arts that Geneva coincidentally just got into. She'd heard the "Waltzing With Bears" CD (a few million times, no doubt) because all the Princesses have one by now, and was wondering if we'd like to come down and play during lunchtime. A strange request, but we're in this for the Stories, good or bad, so, sure, we'll give it a go.

They have five lunch shifts, which spread over a too-long time span, so we decided to do the three middle shifts, skipping the Kindergartners, and the 6th graders. We played in the cafeteria, to maybe 50 or 70 kids at a time, while they were eating, shouting, etc. The place was *outrageously* echo-ey, so the sound was really strange. It didn't bother me so much as make me think that the kids weren't really getting the songs, and especially, the words. I wasn't getting any reaction to the Funny Parts, so I had to assume that they couldn't understand any lyrics.

So, I settled on doing songs that they'd already know, like "Puff", and "You've Got a Friend In Me". But as the older kids started coming in, they were asking for "some rock and roll", so we did "Love Potion Number Nine", and "Roll Over, Beethoven", and finally, "Take Me To the River". Those went over pretty well, probably because they didn't require any comprehension of the lyrics to have some rhythmic merit.

The kids were pretty enthusiastic, if only because we were Something Different. Some of them were clearly enthralled, and others were having fun at "pretending to be at a concert", with hands waving in the air, etc. One could take that as "making fun of", but I don't think they were being malicious about it.

Compared to the Indian Princess audience that I'm used to (and that all know me (and my songs)), these kids were less appreciative. But compared to the usual Borders audience, they were worshipful! Warren was pretty pleased by that, and thinks we ought to look into doing more of these. The teachers all know me down at Acacia's school, so I think they'd let us come in sometime and do that. I guess I'll email her teacher and make a proposal.

San Mateo Campout with Geneva, May2006

Back at San Mateo like last weekend, this time with Geneva and the Trailmates. (Good thing it's my favorite campground.)

I had volunteered, somehow, to lead the Talent Show that we (I) decided would work better than trying to get this very-low-turnout group to do tribe-based skits or whatever. I was afraid that everybody would beg off, but I managed to get all 12 girls up there doing something. They seemed to have fun, and there wasn't a lot of anxiety about it, probably thanks in great part to the "team building" games that Todd had set up earlier that morning. Once they were all friends, they didn't seem all that worried about performing for each other.

We had two violins (one of them Geneva, of course), a viola, a flute, a recorder, a guitar, a dance, some gymnastics, a magic show, and some jokes. Then we did karaoke for a while so the dads would get some exposure.

On Saturday we got to go down to the beach to see the tide pools, which Geneva really loves. She'd have explored all day, if we'd had the time. And on Sunday, we finally got to go down to the stables on Camp Pendleton and do the horseback trail ride. And after that we went to Joe's Crab Shack in Oceanside, and I bought her a really cute cowboy hat in the gift store.

Pretty good weekend for her, which made it a pretty good weekend for me.

San Mateo Campout with Acacia, April 2006

Great campout, as it is every year. On Friday night, instead of the usual movie, I volunteered to do a "Kids' Concert". I was worried that I would be less entertaining than "Ice Age 2", but the everybody seemed to be OK with it. The surprise of the night was when I did "Love Potion Number 9", which has been in the Kids Section of the Book for a long time, but never gets requested, so I don't do it much. But I did it anyway, and it went over really big. When I played at the Saturday night campfire, and again at the Sunday morning "Chapel", some kids were calling out for me to do it again. Raucously. Who knew?

On Saturday, we implemented my idea for the "video" that we're supposed to submit to be shown at the end-of-the-year Family Campout in June. Each tribe is supposed to do whatever they want. Nobody in my tribe had any ideas, so, naturally, I had to come up with one, which was to do the "Penguins on a Bus" sketch, but with sock puppets which the kids would make, use in the play, and take home. A craft and a video, all in one. I spent two weeks designing the penguin puppets for cuteness and build-ability, and making the cop and bus driver, and the motorcycle, and getting ready to build the bus at the site, to accomodate however-many girls we ended up with. Planning nightmare, 'cuz whatever I remembered to bring was gonna be it -- no running out to the garage for some duct tape or whatever.

It came out quite well. Took forever, but we had a good long morning to do it in, and the kids could go play while the dads worked on the "set". I was really surprised at the level of participation -- all the dads helped out, a lot. Frequently, on this kind of thing, they all just sort of get a "This is Keith's thing" attitude, and walk away. This time they all pitched in, and it's a good thing, too, 'cuz it was pretty complicated to get it all working.

You can check it out here.

The link is to an 8 megabytes file, but you might find it's worth it.

The original idea was to do it in one take, in the camera, and to submit the tape, foregoing any editing on the computer and that whole can of worms. Didn't happen, but since I had to go to the computer anyway, I was able to throw in some titles and stuff at the beginning that make it a lot more fun anyway.

By the way, the name is a parody of the upcoming Samuel Jackson thriller "Snakes on a Plane", which won't be out until August, but is getting lots of buzz on the Internet, probably only 'cuz the name is so cool/funny. I know nobody will get it, but it's just my little joke.

K&W at SCP - 21Apr2006

Same old sleepy South Coast Plaza. Mostly Asian kids studying again, but we did have a familiar return customer family with a little girl. Unfortunately, she pretty much tuned us out when she got involved in a book she was reading. Then again, good for her.

And my old boss, and Warren's old acquaintance, Tim, stopped by, and seemed to enjoy himself. Stayed for a good while anyway. Obviously woulda rather been playing than listening, but I have that problem, too.

The recording turned out pretty good again, though a bit overblown so the loud songs may be too badly clipped. But I think we may have turned in some decent performances, so we'll see what's useable.

Next weekend is my full-length "Kids' Concert", which has never been attempted before. I've tried to re-work-up the kids' songs in the book, 'cuz, since they shut down RSM for music, we haven't had much call to play 'em. Odds are, though, that I won't have many people there to worry about anyway. Stay tuned...

Disneyland!

We finally broke down and bought our Disneyland Annual Passes, but it was really crowded so we didn't get to do much. So we came back on Sunday, and it was really crowded again. Starting to wonder about my investment, there.

But, it was right around Spring Break, so it's probably not representative of the rest of the year. Our idea is to go over there a bunch of times after work on weekday evenings. The best part about an Annual Pass is that you don't have to "get your money's worth" every time. And you can enjoy the littler things, 'cuz you'll have other chances to get to the "E ticket" stuff.

We did manage to get on "Indiana Jones" on Sunday, and it was Acacia's first time. No problem. It's really kind of too rough, and too fast, and you don't really get a chance to figure out what you should be afraid of before it's gone anyway. They need to learn some subtlety in there.

We also saw the "White Witch" from Narnia. She's the quintessential "Ice Queen", and, amazingly, Disneyland didn't dilute that by making her a Nice Lady, "Here, sit on my lap." The lady they have playing her looks great, moves all "regally", and only barely tolerates her "visitors". There are some pages that are advising the people in line how they'd better act, so she doesn't "get mad" at them. It's quite a hoot.

K&W - CM 08Apr2006

Good night, sedate audience. That Costa Mesa store tends to be pretty quiet, but I had some fun with a few people. The best part was that my voice was working *really* well -- I was doing stuff that I usually can't manage, and hitting notes with ease that usually come out strained. Don't know why, but it's *so* cool when that happens. I usually attribute it to being warmed up, but I hadn't had much chance to sing all week, so I guess it was just the phase of the moon...

Got some more good recordings for the Live Album, too, which I guess I've come to think of as inevitable. Sometimes I wish it were even *more* quiet in the joint, so the recordings don't have chatting, grinders, water running, dishes clattering, or whatever in the background. It's reasonably rare that I'm singing well, and not making glaring guitar mistakes -- it's a shame when some background noise messes up the take. Oh, well.

And there were some new "Borders Coming Events" flyers there, with only the Orange County stores represented -- mostly the book signings and Story Times listed, but filling the remaining space with some small percentage of the bands that will be playing. There were copies of both March and April's flyers, and we were listed in both of them -- one of our several gigs, apparently chosen at random, in each. And in one of them, they printed our "publicity picture", though only our mothers would recognize us in that half-toned postage-stamp sized shot. Still, there were lots of bands that didn't get a mention at all, so somebody must like us, somewhere.

Geneva Made It!

We got the Official Letter from the Orange County High School of the Arts yesterday, and Geneva got in. She was accepted in both of the Conservatories that she tried out for, Creative Writing and Integrated Arts. That’s great for her, and also good news for Acacia, since she’ll be going for Integrated Arts next year for Junior High, and if Geneva’s resume was sufficient, Acacia should be OK, too.

You can’t have a “double major” of course, so Geneva will choose Creative Writing. This will be *so* great for her!

K&W - CM and MV 31Mar and 01Apr2006

Double Header weekend. It was our first time back at Costa Mesa/Newport for a long time. I think they stopped having music, and just started up again. The layout is a bit problematic, facing in to the café, with our backs to the store, but it’s like that at Mission Viejo so we’re used to it.

The sound was pretty good, and I finally got a decent rig to record the live shows with so the recording came out really good. I still don’t know *why* I’m trying so hard to record these sessions, but now that we have both of these nights with decent sound and some decent performances, we’re thinking of putting together a “K&W Live” CD. The sound won’t be as good as the studio CD, but it’s pretty close, and we’re better than we were back in April 2004. Not to mention that we have some new songs that deserve to be on a CD somewhere.

Unexpectedly, my in-laws showed up, as did my brother and his wife. That was nice. There are several songs I carry around in the book, just for my brother to hear, but I tend to lose my ability to remember stuff like that when I’m Up There, so I didn’t play them. Next time for sure...

Mission Viejo was unusually nice this time. There were none of The Regulars there, so we didn’t have to compete with their social club for sonic space. And we always play so much better when we’ve just had a “dress rehearsal” the night before. Unfortunately, I’m also tired in fingers and voice, so I only play better for the first half, and then I fall apart for the second. And, having just set the gear up the night before, we were faster roadies than usual, so we were ready to go early, and played from 7 sharp to 10:30. Looong set. We usually clock 42-44 songs in a night -- this time was 53.

Trailmates in Anza Borrego

Geneva and I went camping with the Trailmates last weekend, out in the Anza Borrego desert. It's been a long time since we've been camping together, so it was really nice to do that.

They have a "must-see" hiking trail to "The Palm Grove" that's supposed to be 1.5 miles, but I think they got the decimal point in the wrong place. Or maybe it just seems that way because a lot of the time you're climbing up rocks so it's like stairs, up and down, all the way there.

But it was worth it -- we saw lots of desert life on the way, cactus and such, and got pretty close to a bunch of longhorn sheep. And the Grove itself is pretty cool, except there's brown water constantly dripping out of the trees. We never did figure out what that was -- but maybe we're better off not knowing.

Geneva brought her new camera, and it was her first chance to point it at something other than silly girls at slumber parties. She's actually pretty good with nature shots -- some of her best pictures are here.

Snow Trip!

We finally managed to cut loose some time to drive up to see the snow. We just drove up to Mount Baldy, which is surprisingly close, really -- only about an hour drive.

We took the dogs, who didn't seem that concerned about running around in the snow. It was nice fluffy "powder", which crunches into snowballs really easy, so we were throwing snowballs at each other, and the dogs were freaking out that we were not throwing the balls for them! So, we tossed some small snowballs to the dogs, who caught them, which shattered the balls except for whatever was trapped in their mouths, which they didn't seem to mind just crunching down.

Just as we got to a good place to stop, it started actively snowing. I think it's the third time in my whole life that I've been in actual snowing-down snow. At first it was little balls, like someone had opened up a beanbag chair, but after a while it turned into these sticky, fluffy flakes. Cool.

And cold! Naturally, the girls were froze to the bone pretty soon, soaking pants and frozen fingers, and the snowing was getting worse, so we packed up and came back down before it got too much to negotiate without chains. Of course, it never did get thick enough to pile up on the road, but what do I know about snow?

Geneva's "Audition" at OCHSA

Yesterday I took Geneva to the Orange County High School of the Arts for her "audition" for the Creative Writing program. We had been to the Open House, twice, and heard about the program from the director (author Jim Blaylock), and he said that this is the first time that the administration is making him do auditions, and he wasn't really sure what he was going to do.

So what he did was bring in all the kids at once, let them ask some questions, have them introduce themselves around the room, and then write a short essay/story/whatever on the topic: "If you could do anything, or be anything, what would you do or be, and why?" This is, of course, about as wide open as anything could be -- pretty much a "soft ball".

While the kids were writing, Blaylock took the parents out to another room and answered questions. There were 25 kids in the audition, and one of the dads asked how many other kids were going to audition. Blaylock said that there were 10 that were transferring in from other departments and so were kind of automatic, and 7 more that couldn't make it that day or something. Since the total he's gonna take is 43, and that totals 42, another dad did the math and asked "exactly how good our chances were". Blaylock said that he's disallowed from saying so, but that if you were here at the audition, you were "very, very likely" to make it in.

In retrospect, he appears to have just done what he's always done -- chosen from the written portfolio submissions -- and he's tacked on this "audition" as a formality, as directed by his boss. Apparently, if you didn't make the grade, you just didn't get an invitation to the "audition". It would probably be *possible* to get cut from the audition -- if, for example, your essay was so much lamer than your portfolio that it was clear that someone had "helped" too much, or if you showed up, I don't know, drunk or something.

Anyway, it won't be official until we get the letter from the school, but we're pretty sure she's made it. I'm pretty thrilled for, and proud of, her. Her, and our, lives are gonna start getting even more interesting, come August.

K&W - MV 10Mar2006

Pretty good night, pretty mediocre audience. We played pretty good, and the sound was (finally!) decent, but the audience was pretty un-responsive. Luck of the draw, probably, though I can't help think that it's as much the performer's fault as the audience's if he can't elicit some response.

But, at least we got some decent recordings. As always, the last hour or so was the best part, 'cuz the sound issues are (sometimes) worked out, and I get to feeling more loose and confident. The recording isn't perfect, but it's pretty presentable.

And, because nobody seemed to care anyway, just to make it amusing for myself, I got out a bunch of songs that I seldom or never do. That made it more fun...

Indian Princesses at the Hockey Game

Our Indian Princess event for this month was a trip to the Mighty Ducks hockey game. We lost, but only barely, and it was a fun game to watch. The girls generally got the idea that we were trying to get the puck in one net, and "they" were trying to get it in the other. The more obscure rules just went by unnoticed. But they all thought it was really funny that the players got a "time out" when they were bad.

Before the game, they have a little "carnival" in the parking lot, with face painting, roller hockey, a giant slide, and a balloon animal guy. And they had supplies to make "Go Ducks!" posters, which was fun. Everybody thought my poster was amazing 'cuz I put the Mighty Ducks hockey mask logo on it, but I was just copying it from the cheerleader girl's T-shirt, so it was all win-win for me...

K&W - Cerritos 04Mar2006

OK, now that was strange. We thought it was gonna be a "Grand Opening" the way it's been at the other ones we've done, where it's really a Opening of the Seattle's Best makeover of the café, but it was an actual Grand Opening of a new physical store, across the street from the old one. It's a big, nice, new building, with the café upstairs on a sort of half-floor, looking out over the main floor with all the books. Unfortunately, the "band spot" is down this 15-foot-wide corridor, hemmed in by walls on one side and behind, and looking out over a glass half-wall into the store.

That was kind of cool, but severely constricted the size of the in-the-same-space audience -- to about 10 people. All those chairs were well-camped-in long before we got there. That's OK, we're used to playing to small audiences, and 10 is better than some we've had, but I had invited my parents to come down, since it was relatively close to where they live, and they invited, oh, everybody they know. Final count, by my reckoning, an even dozen parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and off-spring thereof. None of whom got to like, sit down, and, like see us while we were performing. They had to settle down in various other parts of the café, so maybe they could hear us, but who knows?

On top of them, we had 4 or 5 acquaintances from the Folk Music Jam we used to go to. They were a bit more nimble or lucky, and got some seats where they could see us, at least, eventually.

We played pretty well, I think, but, as has happened *way* too often lately, the sound was screwy, or screwed up. The contained space probably had something to do with it, but we also (for the *last* time! Grrr!) tried to use the store's amp, and it started weirding out halfway through. Fortunately, I had my amp with me, and we switched to that and did OK for the last half -- when nobody was there anymore...

Essentially, it's an un-playable layout, and I think I'd turn it down if they ever ask us to play there again (unless it's for money like it was this time!), but there's not much chance of that, so we probably don't have to worry about it.