Keith at Laguna Beach -- 08Sept2012

I don't normally get to do a Saturday night at Laguna because Jim & Warren have a "standing date" there, but they weren't going to be there this time, so I decided I ought to do it in their stead, even though I've been playing way too much lately.

I was halfway set up when my new nemesis, Bluegrass Boy, came up and asked me if I was just setting up, or tearing down. I told him I was setting up, so he and his bass playing sidekick went on across the street to the opposite corner.

I should have just relinquished the main corner and asked when he'd be done (and I will, if this happens again), 'cuz as long as he's playing that terrific, novel, happy, catchy, bluegrass stuff, I'm chopped liver. We both started at 5:00, and by the time he quit at 8:30, I'd played to an empty corner half of the time, and made like, six bucks in tips.

Fortunately, I'm just plain tougher than he is (or his tip jar couldn't hold no more), and in the hour and a half more that I played, without the competition, my tips-per-minute skyrocketed for a total of $53 for the night. Of course, my stuff works better later in the evening anyway, when people are winding down, but I have to get there early to secure The Corner.

Anyway, I did have some fun. A local family that I'd seen before (and whose 3 girls love me) came by again, and this time it was dark enough that I gave them fingerlights (instead of the bubbles last time). They're pretty crazy kids, bouncing around the area, tripping people with their unpredictable movements.

After a while, another family showed up, and I had the older crazy girl take some lights over to their two glum-looking kids. The little boy perked up and ran around "beaming" stuff, and then suddenly just took the river rock that I use as a paperweight for the song sheets, sitting on the cover of the concrete trashcan next to me. His dad yelled at him, and he just dropped it there in the middle of the sidewalk. (I'm, of course, in the middle of a song, and can't do anything but watch. But I really never *have* to do anything -- the parents (almost) always take care of whatever their kids are up to.) The dad (quietly) yells some more at the kid to "put that back", and the kid finally picks it up, brings it back to the trashcan, and throws it in!

Dad flips out, jumps up and grabs the kid, who commences screaming, and off they go, with Mom and Sister chasing after. I spend the rest of the night wincing every time anyone throws something away, knowing that my favorite rock is getting more and more buried. But at the end of the night, I opened up the can to find that the rock had landed right in an ice cream cup, and was easily fished out, if drenched in melted vanilla.

Keith at Mission Viejo Farmer's Market -- 07Sept2012

It was awful hot, and I was pretty tired from playing the night before, but they had brought out an Easy-Up for shade, so it was OK.

Since school has started, mostly what I got was housewives with under-school age kids in strollers -- which is pretty much my core target audience, so that worked out fine. I'm sure the people behind me were wondering why I was playing "Twinkle Twinkle" so much, though.

The layout is such that I'm near the outside of the Market area, playing outwards at some tables that they set up so people can sit and have lunch. Last time, I turned one of the speakers around backwards, so I might be heard back in the booth area. Unfortunately, to be loud enough to be heard throughout the place, the bakery booth that's right behind me gets it pretty loud, and the younger guy kept coming over and spinning the speaker back around.

So this time I spun the *other* speaker around, so it wasn't pointing directly into the bakery booth. That apparently worked, 'cuz even though I was pretty loud (especially after some other booth people came over and flatteringly asked me to turn it *up*), the older bakery guy came over near the end of the day, handed me a grocery bag full of yummy bread, and said, "Thank you for bringing back such good memories!" in his thick German accent.

Which was doubly nice since I had had breakfast at 6:00 so by the 1:00 stop time, I was starving and wolfed into a big chunk of the Apple Cinnamon Bread.

Keith at Laguna Beach Art Walk -- 06Sept2012

Since I'd had such a terrible night at the last Art Walk, playing on the street (but not The Corner), I decided to go back to Susie's "Twig" shop this time. We both figured it was going to be slow, since all the tourists have gone home, and we were right.

But I had a nice quiet night, playing for and talking with Susie, and we did have a few groups of nice locals come by. And I had cleverly brought my "Street Rig", which doesn't sound as good, but is *way* easier to set up and tear down.

I played until 8:30 or so, and gave up, mostly so Susie could go on home. On my way past The Corner, I saw that Jim & Warren were still at it, and an empty parking space presented itself, so I pulled in and walked down to see them. They were almost-inaudibly holding forth, with a lithe dancer-lady squirm-dancing to a beat only she could hear, and perpetually bucket-hatted homeless kid Shane (or is it Shawn?), endangering passers-by with his own brand of flailing stumble- (break?) dancing. Crazy scene.

"Mad Patty" was there, too (though she calls herself "Silly Patty"), and I sat with her for a while, as she told me of her Bad Old Days in New York and Austin. Suddenly Jim had to go home, and Warren invited me to step in, but I had to get up early to take Acacia to the bus stop, and then go play at the Mission Viejo Farmer's Market, so I reluctantly declined and went on home.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 04Sept2012

Well, it's after Labor Day, school has started, the tourists have all gone home, and Laguna Beach is a ghost town. Mostly. We did have some nice people come by, and local resident "Mad Patty" (as Warren calls her) was there most of the night. She's a sweetie, and fun to play for. She tried all night to get up and leave, but I kept playing songs that she couldn't resist, and kept her there until we all decided we'd had enough at 9:30.

I don't normally take my iPad songbook to Laguna, because I'm right there on the sidewalk and I don't want someone to bump into the music stand and break it, or to have someone just decide to snatch it and run (like the famous Top Hat incident).

So I've been using a printed version, with far fewer songs in it. But now that it's (much) less crowded and crazy, I brought the iPad along, just in case. Which proved prescient, because I was able to play "Billie Jean" for someone (poorly remembered and badly, but whatever), and to satisfy Patty's thirst for Cat Stevens songs with "Sad Lisa" and "Trouble", beyond the two that are in the paper version of the Book.

Tips, at $30, were less than half of the same night last week, but as I keep saying: if I was there for the money, I wouldn't be there.

Keith at Private Party -- 02Sept2012

My brother decided to have a Labor Day "Driveway Party", with me as the musical guest. There were 30 or so of his friends there for his pulled pork sandwiches and peach cobbler, and I set up and played for three hours to a very appreciative audience.

It was outdoors, but in a nice quiet place, so the sound was good. Maybe too good -- I had to set the amp's volume so low that I was almost playing acoustic-only. Which is great, except that it leaves the harmony box out. Apparently, the audience could hear it singing along, but I couldn't, and had to wonder whether or not I'd kicked it on or not. And these days, a lot of my songs rely on that "other guy" being there.

Anyway, it was really great to have an actual audience for once -- people who were there on purpose, listening and responding. I'm up for that, anytime.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 01Sept2012

It was the Saturday night of Labor Day weekend, so I didn't know whether to expect lots of people, or none -- but I guess it turned out to be kinda lots. The weather was great -- not hot at the beginning, but not cold at the end either. And a lot of people didn't seem to be in such a hurry, so they stopped to hear some songs.

I had lots of little kids, but none of them seemed to want to dance much -- just hang out and listen, which is OK, too.

Then some teenagers stopped by, and the boy dragged one of the girls out and they started dancing. Amazing, full "routine" dancing like you see on the TV dance shows. Instantly there was a huge crowd circled around them, applauding when they stopped. The kid came up and asked me if I had any songs with some kind of beat, but I didn't know what he meant. I offered my new "calypso" song, "Kiss the Girl", and they danced some more, though I couldn't tell if it was the same routine or a different one. I should have asked them if they went to OCHSA.

The cute part was that, when they quit and left, all the little kids in the crowd came out and started trying to dance like that -- holding hands and pulling each other around.

Later on, I had two or three little kids that had been hanging out for a while, and were dancing a little, and I thought I might get them more involved if I gave them some fingerlights. As soon as I did, more kids appeared from nowhere, then more, and more. I probably gave out 20 lights in 3 minutes, and only stopped because I ran out! But it was worth it, 'cuz all their respective parents also came over, and I suddenly had a huge crowd to play for. I ran through the dance songs, and almost every Kids' Song I know, with a huge crowd of kids playing with their lights out in front of me. Big fun.

My old high school friend Valerie was in town and came by to see me. I gave her my camera to take some pictures, but I was even more glad that she was there to see some of these crazy magic moments.

My sister told me that my "just feed the jar" policy (and sign) for selling CDs would cause her to just not buy one, since she wouldn't want to pay too much, nor too little. With that in mind, as an experiment, I changed the sign to say "just put five bucks in the jar". It seems to have worked, 'cuz the seven "Favorites" CDs sold out right away. And overall, I sold 14 CDs out of the 20 I brought -- presumably at five bucks each, which must have contributed to the $184 total, which beats the old record by 1 dollar. (Of course, technically, I should probably subtract $14 for the CD materials cost, and 5 bucks worth of fingerlights.)

I guess I'll keep the new sign...

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 28Aug2012

I was expecting a slow lonely night, since schools are starting up and vacations are over. But it was actually quite nice. A lot less people out, but the lack of crowds seemed to make the people who came by more comfortable stopping for a while. We had a pretty continuous stream friendly people sitting on the bench, asking for songs. A friend of Warren's stayed for an hour or two, chatting up anyone else who came by, and requesting song after song, threatening to use up the whole catalog. She's welcome back any time.

I think a big part of what made it work so well for me, though, was the sound. Usually there's someone else playing on the other corner, so I'm afraid to be an obnoxious jerk (as some of them are) and play so loud as to interfere with their stuff. This time, there was nobody over there, so I was able to accidentally turn it up quite a bit louder than usual, so I could actually hear myself. I love when that happens...

When it's louder like that, I can hear myself, so I play and sing better, but the people can hear better over the traffic noise, so they like the music better, and people from farther away can hear the music and come on over if they like what they hear. Win-win-win-win-win.

So, even with the reduced traffic, we were getting through to a much higher percentage of the people who *were* there, brought in about $70, and had a great audience most of the night. I didn't give away any bubbles, but had some tiny kids to give fingerlights to, later on after dark. I'm a little worried when I do that since they're not really intended for teething, but I guess the parents will have to keep an eye on that.

I got to play "The Sound of Silence" again, and it's working out pretty well, I think, so it may move up to The List soon. The harmony's a little problematic, since it's a lower harmony and I don't sing very high, and the guitar part doesn't give the box enough data, soon enough, to get the harmony part right. But with some hopefully-subtle modifications to the guitar part, I think I can get it to work.

I also played my new kids/teens song, "Kiss the Girl" from "The Little Mermaid" a couple of times, and that one's definitely working out, too. It sounds great with the harmony box (and *terrible* without it -- "Please, Mister Postman" is the same way). And at the very end, we had a pair of seniors sitting and listening and requesting great songs, and suddenly, dancing!

Keith at Private Party -- 25Aug2012

In a strange arrangement, the city of Mission Viejo lets a private club of about 80 rose gardeners tend the city's Rose Garden, which they do for free. So the city people decided to throw them a nice Appreciation Dinner, and asked me to play background music. More fallout (along with the Farmer's Market gigs) from getting to know the Santa Claus booking lady.

Almost everybody in the club is "older", you know, like me, so they all really liked my stuff. I played through dinner, then quit so they could have their recognition announcements, after which about half of them left. But some of them stayed specifically to listen to me some more, and said so! Even during the evacuation, more than half of them said something like "I loved your music!" as they walked by to leave.

It was outdoors, but in a quiet enclosed patio area behind City Hall, so the sound was terrific. Indeed, I could hear myself so well that it was intimidating, having to play every word and note perfectly since they were so clear. Especially after playing the street corner in Laguna for so long lately, where I can barely hear anything and am just playing and singing on faith.

So I had a great time -- great sound and lots of appreciative people listening. And I got paid, too -- can't beat that.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 22Aug2012

Summer is clearly winding down -- less traffic again, and definitely fewer tourists. But right off the bat, we had a clump of high school kids, just done with the beach for the day, who stayed for quite a while asking for songs and then failing to listen to them (but still fun to have around). Not sure how this bodes for their attention spans when school starts...

Had more trouble with the sound -- this time caused by dead batteries in the amp itself. This is understandable, since I've been using the amp for all of these Laguna gigs, and haven't had to replace them yet. Eight "D" cells is a lot of juice, but not infinite.

But this is definitely a recurring issue with this "all battery" setup. The harmony box and the wireless mic's receiver both run from the rechargeable battery pack I rigged up, but there are regular alkalines in the guitar's pickup, the mic's transmitter, the D.I. and the amp. And the usual symptom when any of them starts getting weak is distortion, which is also caused by overloads of anything by anything that's up the chain, so it's kinda hard to tell what's wrong, but it's easy to tell that *something* is.

We played to almost nobody a lot, but then four happy (half-drunk?) ladies ("from Peru, South America!") came and sat down, to sway and sing along with "Let It Be". Naturally, halfway through it, the amp went from distorting to garbling, to cutting out. I had some spare batteries, but it takes a while to install them, and the ladies moved on. Drat.

But later on I snagged a little crowd with a set of all "nostalgia" tunes: "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "Homeward Bound", "In My Life", etc. We had a nice couple (who, almost on cue, added "You've Got a Friend" to the set), and a young family, whose cute little girl helped bring in other people, just watching her delight. She was only 2 years old, but when she figured out that there was a guy singing up there, she started asking for "ABCD!", and I surprised her trying-to-explain parents by launching right into it (it's just the alphabet, sung to the tune of "Twinkle "Twinkle"). First kid I've run into that likes the ABCD version better.

Anyway, I guess the sound was finally acceptable (and the traffic noise was abating), 'cuz I was starting to get the couples who are marching past, only to have one spouse stop the other one to listen for a while. I love when that happens. And when I spot people not slowing down, but mouthing the words to the song I'm singing, in spite of themselves. Your feet say no, but your mouth says yes.

But that crowdlet dissipated when the little girl left, and I decided that 9:00 was time to go on home. We packed up and I counted up the tips ($52) while the bluegrass kids set up to take over the spot. They're really good, and people love the novelty, but the crowd's pretty thin that late.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 18Aug2012

I don't usually go down to Laguna on a Saturday night because Warren plays down there with Jim on Saturdays. But this time they had a gig elsewhere, so I figured I could go snag their spot on The Corner.

I had a lot of trouble getting the sound working right at first. It's ridiculously complex, what with there being tone controls on the guitar's pickup, the "D.I." box, and the amp itself, and volume controls on the pickup, the D.I., the harmony box, and the amp. And they're all liable to get tweaked just from packing and unpacking in the crate so even when I get it working one time, it'll be screwed up the next. I know -- duct tape. Don't think I haven't considered it...

Anyway, I was getting distortion on the guitar for one reason, and distortion on the vocals for another. And it's kind of embarrassing to try to fix the issues with people sitting there waiting and watching. But I eventually straightened it all out -- for now. I think. Probably.

Once I could relax about all that, it was pretty fun. More activity than on my usual Tuesday and Friday outings, of course. Sold 3 CDs, one of them apparently for a twenty, which brought the jar total up to $84. And I managed to get some kids around so I could give out some bubbles and fingerlights, which seems to be my primary objective these days.

I also tried out my latest song attempt, "The Sound of Silence". I have the beginning guitar part worked out pretty well, and the rest is trivial, but it's one of the few songs where the melody is the high part and the harmony is below. The harmony box can do it that way, but since my voice isn't anywhere near as high as Artie's, I can't capo as high as Paul does, so the lower harmony coming from the box sounds like someone singing bass. I'll have to experiment with how high I can risk sliding the capo after singing for a while, when my range goes up quite a bit.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 14Aug2012

Still not very many people out, but they seemed less hurried, so I was able to drag a few groups in to sit for a while and listen.

And there were even some kids to give bubble tubes to. At first there was an Asian family, and I tried to get the two kids to come over and take some bubbles from me, but they were too shy or afraid of taking gifts from strangers. I was a little worried that their dad would see and be upset at me, but when he finally noticed, he shouted, "Hey, thanks!" and made his reluctant kids get up and come take them. It was odd that the kids were more conservative than their dad...

But mostly it was a low-traffic, low-pressure evening, and I was able to quit at 9:00 and get in bed at a reasonable time for once. And $60 in the jar, so I guess the Olympics being over did help some. I suppose I'll go down a few more times, but it certainly looks like summer is dwindling down.

Keith in Santa Barbara -- 11Aug2012

My wife set up a "weekend getaway" to Santa Barbara, partly for me to see the college my daughter wants to go to, and partly just to have fun. Santa Barbara's State Street is a lot like Forest Street where I play in Laguna, but 5 or 10 times longer. It's where all the funky shops and restaurants are, and all the night life happens there. And the sidewalks are really wide, so it's easy for performers to set up almost anywhere. I definitely had to give it a try...

I found a spot near the "Old Town" clock, in front of a closed office building so I wasn't blocking anything, and started playing. I got a lot of smiles, but hardly anybody stopped to listen. I may not have been loud enough, but I was worried about local no-amps laws and zealous cops. And it's a really loud street, with party buses, limos and low-riders cruising by with their loud music, and the Dixieland band in a bar across the street that seemed to get louder as it got later.

A young family stopped in front of me to eat some ice cream, so I asked the 6-year-old girl who kept watching and smiling at me if she'd seen "Tangled". She didn't answer at first, so I asked again. She tugged on her mom's skirt, so I asked the mom, whose one word reply was "French". Oh.

This may actually help explain some of the non-response -- it seemed like more than half of the conversations we overheard up and down the street weren't in English. Maybe nobody understood any of my songs...

Anyway, I only made six bucks in an hour and a half, but it was fun and exciting to play in a new place. I did have two cop cars drive by without stopping to hassle me, so maybe next time I can be a bit more bold.

Keith in Laguna Beach -- 10Aug2012

I got down there at 5:00, expecting to be early enough to get the main Corner, but there was already a guy I've never seen before playing there. I wanted to hear him play a bit, to see what kind of stuff he was doing, and hear him play the harmonica he had on a rack, but as soon as I walked over he said, "Do you want this spot?" I had to admit that I kind of did, and he immediately put his guitar in the case and took off. Apparently he was ready to quit, sitting there on the bench in the blazing sun, with only 8 or 10 bucks in his case, and just needed an excuse. I was glad to have the Corner, but I did kind of want to hear him play at least one...

And after an hour or two of plugging away myself, I can see why he was ready to quit. There were a lot fewer people out, and hardly any tourists with time to spend. I had one nice lady stand there and listen and sing along for a while, but hardly anyone else.

Until a high-school kid came zooming by with a djembe drum. He pulled up and decided to play along with my stuff, so I tried to find some songs that could use some drum reinforcement.

He stayed and played along for a long time, burning through all my rhythmic songs, and then some. He had some chops and mostly adapted to different kinds of song beats, but he was just never quite on the same beat as I was -- and was quite a bit too loud. And since he didn't know most of my songs, had no awareness nor sensitivity to where there were pauses or slow-downs. It just wasn't working.

I thought that he'd get bored if I just kept playing my mellow stuff, which I was forced to do anyway since I'd run out of fast stuff, but he was persistent. After a while of that, and since I was hungry, I just quit playing, found a snack in my box, and walked away to talk to some of the "regulars". He *still* didn't get the hint, so I gave up and came back to play some more. Mercifully, finally, some of his friends happened by, so I handed him four or five bucks out of my jar, and off he went.

I/we didn't really get anyone listening for the hour or two that he was there, but I don't know if that was because of his playing or not. I didn't really get much response after he left, either...

Until a family got in line for ice cream around 9:00, with the dad holding a little 4-year-old who was clearly fascinated and staring at me as I finished a song. So I fired up "Twinkle Twinkle", and they got all excited and jumped out of line to come closer, and the dad asked for "Over the Rainbow", which I not only know, but is one of my best tunes. Other little girls appeared from nowhere, and within a few minutes I went from playing to nobody to a full-on party with a half-dozen kids, their parents, and other passers-by smiling at the kids having fun.

Unfortunately, it was a really long evening of No Fun, to get to that Really Fun half hour. I only made $35 for the 5 hour shift, and only sold one CD (so apparently my clever sign isn't working). Maybe it's the Olympics on TV, maybe the tourists have all gone home already, or maybe it was that drum-"enhanced" period in the middle of the evening. But it's fun enough when it does work that I'll give it a few more tries before I write it off.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 07Aug2012

By the amount of traffic, it appears that summer is winding down already. Or maybe it was just too hot to be outdoors in the late afternoon -- we didn't have much interaction until the sun went down and it cooled off.

It occurred to me that the CDs are kinda hard to see, sitting on the crate next to me, and that maybe the tourists would buy them if they considered them a "souvenir". So I made up a sign to try to attract attention, get the "souvenir" idea across, and help people buy them without having to ask me "How much?" all the time.

And it kinda worked, I guess. I/we usually sell no CDs at all, sometimes one or two on a good night. This time we sold three -- not a huge spike, but considering how few tourists were out (I don't want to be accused of "profiling", but face it, you can tell the tourists from the locals), I think a pretty high percentage of them were drawn in by the sign. One couple who sat and listened for a long time bought one for $20, and the lady told me that they'd listen to it "on the way home" to San Diego.

There were disappointingly few little girls whose moms wanted to hang out for a while. I was dying to give away some of my new "daytime handout" bubbles, but there was nobody to give them to! Finally a little girl appeared, and I gave her a bubble tube, with instructions that she should provide the "special effects" for the next song ("Over the Rainbow" -- I know, kind of mixed metaphors, but work with me here). She proceeded to blow great bursts of bubbles, all through the song and the next few, as if it was her life's work. I didn't really mean for her to take it so seriously...

We pulled in $90, which was a nice surprise considering the low traffic. We played for 5 solid hours, 5:15 to 10:15, when I called it off. The first few hours were mostly a waste, but if we don't get there early, we won't get Greeter's Corner, and the whole evening will be a waste. I guess I'm in for next Tuesday...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 05Aug2012

I asked for dates in August too late, and got stuck with just a Sunday. The stores all close at 8:00 on Sundays, so I figured I'd play from 4 to 8, instead of the usual 6-10. But that was a mistake -- I had almost nobody listening until about 7:00. And it was *hot*.

There's a little kiosk out near the stage these days, with a guy selling balloon animals. After a while, a lady came to join him, drawing caricatures. Once she'd set up, she needed to be drawing something to help attract attention, so apparently she chose me. And later on, she tossed it in my guitar case with the other tips. That was nice of her. On the other hand, the music, running way past "closing time", kept her in customers far longer than she expected, so I guess I repaid her efforts a little bit at least.

Oddly, despite Sunday afternoons being when you'd expect more kids to be out, I never did snag any for the usual dance party. And as much as I was dying to find some kids to give my new "daytime present" wedding bubble favors to, no kids ever slowed down enough for me to be able to hand any out.

But pretty much as soon as the sun went down behind the buildings and it cooled off a bit, people started to slow down and listen. Then it got pretty fun. As different groups of people found out that they could ask for songs off the list, I got three deep in requests at one point. And I finally got some little girls to give some bubbles to.

And it just kept being really fun, even though the mall was theoretically closed at 8. I guess nobody told the people that...

But after a while I was feeling really tired and my fingers hurt, but I kept and looking at my clock, and thinking, "Gee, it's only 8:30". But at 9:30 I realized, "But I've been playing since 4!", so at 9:45 I told the remaining listeners that it was past my bedtime and shut down. If I ever get stuck with a Sunday again, I'll start at 6.

I had sold out of the 8 "Favorites" CDs, several of the Kids' ones, and a few of the "Dad's CD" that I brought, and there was $97 in the jar. The "setup fee" (illustrating that it's really more of a "tribute") is cheaper on Sundays -- only $25 instead of $50, so at least I made more than the Center did. I can't help thinking that I'd probably have done better on the corner in Laguna, but it's nice to have the "big setup" with the good sound once in a while.

Keith at Laguna "Art Walk" -- 02Aug2012

I decided to try playing on the street again for Art Walk, but this time I'd be on my own -- Warren usually plays with Jim on Thursday nights. And they endeavor to get Greeter's Corner, so even though it was empty when I got there, I looked around for another place to set up. (Unfortunately, even though I had deferred the Corner for Jim & Warren, another guy beat them to it anyway -- so I might as well have been the guy who snagged it. Oh well.)

April was already in the Acoustic Alley, so I went down to the other corner, but instead of setting up on one of the corners, I asked permission to use the raised "boardwalk" in front of a little boutique store there. It was theoretically ideal, on the main side of the street, raised up like a stage, well lit...

But it didn't work out very well. There were lots and lots of people out, but they (almost) all just zoomed on past me. Either they didn't want to stop there in the middle of the busy sidewalk, or because of Art Walk, they all felt like they had to get to all the galleries, so didn't have time to stop. There are a lot of people in a hurry on "normal" nights, too, but at least some of them are "wandering" and willing to hang out for a song or two. Or the time it takes to eat their ice cream.

So I just felt like some kind of "decoration" -- people would glance over and sometimes smile as they went past, but only a few groups slowed down to listen to a song, or choose one. About halfway through the evening, I moved over to the green spiral art/bench thing, hoping that people would feel like they were able to step out of traffic, but it didn't seem to help much, and when the sun went down, I was standing in the shadow of a tree in near complete darkness, unable to see or be seen, so I moved back to the boardwalk.

And then I was visited by a 3 or 4-year-old completely unsupervised Persian Demon-Boy. I tried to appease him by giving him a finger-light, but he only used it to further terrorize me -- beaming me in the face and trying, for some reason, to touch it to the guitar, while I was playing. His inattentive big family parked on the bench 20 yards down the street were no help -- his dad came down 3 or 4 times to speak sharply to him, and then walk away and let him carry on, undeterred. They didn't even notice when I gave up, unplugged, and walked halfway up the street with the little monster in tow.

By 9:30 there was almost nobody left, and the Bluegrass Prodigy Kid was hauling in whoever was still around, down at the Alley, so I packed it in. When I got home, there was an even $50 in the jar, so I didn't do as bad as it felt, but, as always, that's not the point. It's nice to have an "approval rating" score (and, they're "dollars" -- even better than "points"), but I'd really rather have people listening than their money. It's way more fun down there on a normal night, at Greeter's Corner, with happy people hanging around. Not sure I'll even bother with Art Walk next month -- or maybe I'll go back to Susie's store...

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 31July2012

Terrific night! I don't know why a Tuesday had more traffic than Friday or Sunday did -- maybe it was Synchronized Swimming night on the Olympics…

I got there really early to stop by Chico's, but I didn't find the lady anyway. Whatever -- it got me up and playing by 4:45. That's probably too early to get any kind of traffic or response, but it does guarantee getting the Greeter's Corner spot.

After a while, a lady with a sweet smile stopped by. She was clearly enjoying the songs, so I asked her to pick one. She stared at the list for a while and mumbled something that I couldn't catch. After a few tries, I finally heard her: "I had cancer". I guess she was trying to explain her twitchiness, but I was really just looking for a song title. Anyway, she was a total sweetie, and stayed a long time, dumping money in the jar (for which I gave her two CDs), and "sit-dancing" along to the tunes in her twitchy but endearing way.

After a while the sun went down and she was freezing, and tried to leave to go to her apparently-close-by home to get some warmer clothes, but she liked the songs too much to leave. I felt bad watching her shiver, so I finally asked her to find her *least* favorite from the list, so I could play it and she could break loose. But she wouldn't pick so I just refused to play any more until she left -- after I promised I'd still be there until at least 9:30, and she had given both of us a big hug. She never did make it back, though. Maybe we'll see her again some other night.

We also had a pair of young ladies sitting on the bench speaking Romanian to each other. I thought they were waiting for someone/thing, but apparently they were really listening to us. So I started playing the most internationally classic songs I could find ("Let It Be", "Country Roads", etc.). After a while, one of them left, but doe-eyed Renee stayed a while, and it occurred to me that it was a perfect opportunity to try out the so-far only half-baked rendition of "California Girls" that I've been working up, after telling her, "This is for you". She was apparently charmed by that, and came up to apologize for having to go a few songs later, and later on "liked" my page on Facebook. If that's all it takes, I'm gonna have to do that more often.

And later that night, a bunch of local high school girls dropped in to dance, laugh, talk too loudly, and generally start a party right there in front of us. They were there for a long time, but finally left to pursue some local high school boys, as is their wont.

Anyway, we had enough traffic to keep us interested until we finally gave up at 10:15, when a guy who we hadn't realized was "waiting" and not "listening" came up and started his "set" -- singing well, loud, and high, and banging on a guitar plenty loud enough with no amplifier at all. Turns out he's visiting from Colorado and just wanted to give Laguna busking a try. He could have gone to any other corner, but maybe he wanted to hang out so he could ask me all about the harmony box.

I'm not sure how we got to play so long -- two nights before, my set was ended at only 4 hours, mid-song, when the battery that runs the harmony box died. But the extra-long 5.5 hour set, a few CDs sold, and the heavy traffic netted us $112 for the night, even without any disproportionate contributions from my family doctor. When I'm playing alone, I bring the tip jar home and count it up while I'm having a before bed snack, but when I'm with Warren, I have to count it up on-site to give him his share. Uncrumpling, stacking, and counting all those loose ones takes a while, but it occurred to me that I shouldn't complain about how long it takes to count the money -- the longer the better!

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 29July2012

I probably shouldn't really be playing Every. Other. Night. But you know what addiction is like -- gotta do it anyway, even though you know it's not good for you. The blessing/curse of playing street corners in Laguna is that I can do it any time I want. And I *always* want…

Of course, it's also a Limited Time Offer -- once school starts up again and the tourists go home, it won't be nearly as fun, so I've got to get it while I can. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

But I kind of had to go down anyway, looking for the lady at Chico's to ask her if I can play in her shop on Thursday for Art Walk. It turns out that Chico's is a women's clothing store, and not as gallery as I had assumed. I guess that's OK, just because of its ideal location, but the lady I'd talked to wasn't there anyway, and the other ladies were busy with customers.

So I guess I'll see if she's there on Tuesday night, and if not, I'll just go in on Thursday Art Walk night, and if she's there, or not, just offer to play in the shop. And if they say no, I can just go find a corner anyway. But playing in a shop would be much more quiet, and I could use my good big amp instead of the not-so-good little amp. We'll see.

Lots of people out, more than Friday (and I made $66). A guy came up that said he lived near to James Taylor and asked me to play some of his songs. I said, sure, but don't tell James...

Later on, a little 2 or 3-year-old girl that was being towed past by her mother just dug her heels in and, once liberated from her mom's hand-hold, started dancing to the decidedly non-dance song I happened to be playing. Of course, I played "Roll Over Beethoven" for her as the next one, and some teenage girls came out of the ice cream shop to dance along with her. Just during that one song, the crowd ballooned up to more than a dozen people, smiling at the little dancer(s).

And at some point, a teenage girl came over, bought a CD, looked at me and said "You're amazing!", and walked away again. *That* was nice to hear.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 27July2012

I wasn't really thinking about going down to Laguna again already, but my wife and daughter decided to go see the new dance movie, and there didn't seem to be much point in sitting home alone…

There were less people out than on Tuesday -- maybe they were all at home watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. But there were still plenty enough people to make it fun, and I brought home $63 in tips.

But the best part was the nicely-dressed lady who came up and stared at my song list for a while, but declined to make a request off of it. Then she told me that she worked across the street at "Chico's", and that they had loved my music and had turned off the in-store radio so they could listen in better. And she had decided to come over to give me a dollar, and say so.

First off, I was horrified to hear that I was loud enough that they could listen in from a store across the street and down one. I guess the crate that the amp is in restricts how loud it seems to be to me, while letting sound fly out the front at unimaginable volume. I'll have to check into that…

But second (and of course I was too dim-witted to think of this while she was still there), it occurred to me that, if they liked me that much, maybe they'd let me perform in or in front of their main-drag store on Art Walk night, next Thursday. When I thought of this, I wanted to go over and ask her, but it was closing time (7:30) and I think she had come by on her way out, and also I couldn't wander off and let someone else snag my prime spot. So now my challenge is to find her again and find out what she thinks of that idea, before Thursday.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 24July2012

Another great night on the corner in Laguna. It's tourist season, so there's lots of people out, and lots of them are up for the "authentic Laguna Street Music experience. Or hungry for ice cream -- not sure which.

We had lots of listeners, and collected lots of tips, but the clincher was when my sweet lady doctor finally made good on her promise to come see me play sometime. She lives somewhere nearby in Laguna, so she came by after work, though that proved to be almost 9:00. The good part about that was that she had us pretty much to herself by that point. She brought two cute daughters, who she kept sending up with more and more money, and I'm pretty sure that she contributed about $50 of the evening's record $125 take, all by herself -- though, even without her participation, we were already breaking the record. Not bad for a Tuesday.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 21July2012

Warren’s other music partner, Jim, had to leave early from their usual Saturday evening gig in Laguna, so Warren invited me to come down and take Jim’s place around 5:00. Since that pretty much guaranteed our having the prime “Greeter’s Corner” stage for the evening, I jumped on it.

It being a summer Saturday, there was lots of competition, across the street in both directions. Of the two, the worst was the jazz sax with drums on the ocean side of PCH. If that guy ever landed on a recognizable tune, I sure never caught it. Fortunately, while I was playing, it wasn’t too loud to deal with.

Otherwise, it was a pretty normal evening. Lots of people out, mostly zooming past, but plenty of folks slowing down to take notice, too. And lots of people buying ice cream and settling in on the benches to eat it, constituting an audience whether they want to or not. Fortunately, most of them seem to become interested, and my "pick a song from the list" methodology helps to drag them in.

No trouble with the cops about the amplifier use, and $75 in the jar -- so a good night, any way you look at it.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 20July2012

A much slower night than the Saturdays have been, but still fun. The official "shift" is 6:00 to 10:00, but it really seems pointless to start at 6 on a work night -- there's nobody out that early. Of course, it works as a warm-up period for me, so maybe it's OK. I can get those initial jitters out of the way, get my voice and fingers warmed up, and be fully in the swing by the time the real traffic starts up.

It was opening night of the new Batman movie, so I assume that a lot of the people zooming by were on their way to the theaters. I saw a lot of Batman T-shirts. Maybe that accounts for some of the lack of traffic, too.

Not a lot of little kids out at first, but a Kid Dance Party started up later in the evening. After a few songs, I climbed down and sat on the edge of the stage for a Mom Picture Party with a bunch of the kids around me. Then I brought a little girl (maybe 4 years old) around to sit between my knees, lifted the guitar up over her to sit in front of both of us, and let her strum (with a little help) while I handled the chords and sang "Twinkle Twinkle". She was a little baffled by all this, but her mom was thrilled.

It being a Friday, and Spectrum being literally across the street from work, I invited everybody to come over and see me. As expected, no one did, except the one guy who I *didn't* invite, because he lives in Colorado, who had just flown in (with family in tow) for the week, was looking for a restaurant, and accidentally came upon me as I was setting up. He said they'd come back by afterwards when I'd be playing, but, as expected, they didn't. Oh well.

Anyway, it's kind of nice playing at this stage, 'cuz the people who settle in on the planter-box benches are clearly there to listen to me, unlike the food court where they could just be there 'cuz the chairs are comfy. It's gratifying when people are strolling past, get caught up in a song, find a place to sit, and stay for a while.

The day before, I'd stopped at the Goodwill Store and bought some really great "working" cowboy boots. I know it sounds silly, but wearing cowboy boots makes me "braver", and I felt quite a bit looser up there singing and dance/shuffling around in them. Not to mention that the soles are nice and flat and click the harmony box's buttons a lot more reliably than my hiking boots' too-textured soles do.

There was $93 in the jar, just about half what the Saturdays have been. I also didn't sell many CDs this time, except for the three that went to a set of little kids whose mom was too busy with her phone call to police the fact that they were taking one each. But that's OK -- they helped clean out the really crappy colored CD cases that I shouldn't have bought and have been embarrassed to be selling anyway.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 14July2012

Not as many people out this time. They might have been scared off by the hot muggy days before this one, but it was actually quite nice. So I played to a steady but small stream of people, and never even got a kid party started. But there was always someone to play for, and I had fun.

At one point, a family showed up with three kids who had seen me there before, and remembered my songs. The two-year-old came up and mumbled something that I managed to decode as "Twinkle Twinkle", and the older daughter wanted to hear "Woody!" (which meant "You've Got a Friend in Me" from "Toy Story"). It's great to have "fans".

It didn't seem like very many people were coming up to ask for songs but apparently there were, because I sold 15 CDs and there was $180 in the jar. Sometimes even the nights that felt just "fair" were actually "darn good".

Keith in Laguna Beach -- 08July2012

I went down at 4:45 and played for a while in the Acoustic Alley hallway, and did OK, but it started to get really thin around 6:30, so I figured it was dinnertime, and that ought to apply to me, too.  So I packed up, thinking I'd find some dinner and come back and play a little later.

But I don't know the area at all, and just started walking towards the ocean, when I ran into Steven who seems to be down there a lot, so I asked him where I could get a burger.  Being vegetarian, he didn't exactly know, but knew of Johnny Rockets, and thought there was another burger place "further down".  So I started walking north, and had decided to just do Johnny Rockets and get it over with, but it was jammed.  Giving up on that, I started walking, looking for this other place.

And walking, and walking.  Dragging the roller-crate, and with my guitar strapped on my back.  I kept walking, thinking that it would be a shame to give up if it was just on the next intersection.  And then I thought that I might be able to get back to downtown on the free shuttle, so I figured I could go further.  And further.

I never did find it, and there weren't any return shuttles, either.  And somewhere along the way, my clip-on guitar tuner got knocked off, so I had to walk *back* for a quarter of the route, thinking I might remember where I had hit something.  Never found that, either.

I ended up having a gas station muffin and a bottle of Mountain Dew for dinner, sitting on a planterbox in front of a hotel, watching the cars go by on PCH.  A career high, it wasn't.

And when I got back to the street, there were people already set up at the main and secondary corners and the hallway, and it was 8:30, so I just admitted defeat and went home.  I guess they can't all be winners...

Keith (and Warren!) at Laguna Art Walk -- 05July2012

Susie had another friend's band in her "Twig" shop this time, so I decided to go see what Art Walk looks like downtown. Coincidentally, Jim was out of town, so Warren (and the traditional Jim & Warren setup spot at Greeter's Corner) was available. I wasn't sure I'd be brave enough to set up there on the "Main Stage", nor brave enough to fire up my clandestine amp rig in so public a spot, but I was determined to try -- and when I got there at 4:45, there was no one else playing at all, so I really didn't have any excuse.

This was the same spot that I had played at with Warren the very first time I went down there. And at which we got busted for using amplifiers when the kid working in the ice cream store that we're right in front of called the cops to get rid of us so he could crank his indie-rock radio station. I've been paranoid about amp use ever since.

So I got set up and started playing, and a nice man was sitting on the bench, listening and clapping, right away. After a few songs, he said, "You could play louder!", but I explained that I wasn't technically allowed to have an amp at all. He said, "But the people like it", and I said, "That may be so, but the cops don't". He said that the cops don't really come by, and I said, "Even so...".

He got up and said, "Well, if you need any water or ice cream, let me know", and wandered back into the ice cream shop, since (it turns out), he's the owner. Talk about irony! The owner of the shop I'm most afraid of bothering, asking me to turn it up...

And I kind of did. As the foot and car traffic got louder, I had to gradually turn it up to compensate. (And then as it tapered off toward the end, I never did turn it back down, and seemed pretty brazenly loud by 10:00.) Around 10:30, my battery pack gave up, and my feet, back, and fingers weren't far behind, so the concert was suddenly over. As we were packing up, the two cars and an ATV full of cops screamed up, lights flashing, and were rousting some kid for something. I asked Warren, "Was he using an amp?"

Lots and lots of traffic, but most folks seem to be on their way somewhere, and loathe to stop, even when they exclaim, "I love this song!" or start singing along as they speed by. That's kind of frustrating. But some people stop and listen, and it's kind of fun trying to find the formula that'll stop more of them. I'm actually finding that it's the nostalgic "crooners": "Over the Rainbow", "Homeward Bound", "You've Got a Friend", etc. that work the best.

Early on, the young families are out, and when I spotted the little girl with the Little Mermaid sweatshirt, I fired up "Part of Your World", to much delight. And one dad asked for "Rainbow Connection", but his little girl was more interested in how the guitar works than the song itself. I crouched down, mid-song, so she could get a closer look, and she interjected a well-timed strummed-chord flourish while I was fingerpicking further back.

But mostly we were overshadowed by the bluegrass kid who had a standup bass player with him and set up on the opposite corner. They sounded *really* good, and were novel and exciting, and pretty much stole our thunder, and rightly so. If I hadn't'a been playing myself, I'd'a been over there listening, too.

We cleared $58 anyway, which is a new street-playing record, and pretty good considering the lower-than-expected turnout due to the gloomy weather, and the bluegrass distraction. And it was fun, and a good confidence-builder for me to play with the amp for 5 hours without getting busted once.

And, after we packed up, street-regular Peter fired up Steven's guitar for an impromptu Neil Young jam, with the motley crew of Laguna People that was still around so late. I don't do/know a lot of his songs, but I joined in with the ones I do, and faked the ones I don't. I learned that when looney-tunes people (like "Wiggles-Like-A-Glowworm" Sara) decide that they know the lyrics better than you, you'd best just let 'em have it their way.

But it was a School Night after all, so at 11:00 I was very glad that I'd paid the two bucks for the parking meter two blocks away at sea level, and went home.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 04July2012

They were predicting 100,000 people to turn out for the 4th of July fireworks, but the gloomy weather stunted that number. But I went down anyway, hoping it might burn off.

So I got there at 2:00, very early, for fear of the traffic and parking. Traffic wasn't bad, but I did end up parked at a new record height up the hill. At this rate, after a few more gigs I'll be hiking in from a parking spot somewhere in Long Beach...

So early, nobody else was playing on the street, so I set up in Acoustic Alley and played without the amp at first, but I got brave enough after a while and got much better responses with a little volume and harmony. Still, the afternoon crowd seems to always have somewhere to get to, and a lot of people rush on by. Except the group of 8 or 10 teens who happened to be going through the corridor when I hit the "Na na" ending of "Hey Jude" and loudly joined in.

So around 5:00 I thought I'd go find some dinner, and play some more later. But I got roped in by Steven, who was playing at Greeter's Corner. I finally had my clip-on tuner, so I was able to down-tune a half-step to match his guitar, and play along much better.

Unfortunately, he sings higher than I do, so I could play along, but my trying to add on some vocal harmony to his songs was pretty tough. And he's much younger than me, so we don't have much overlap of songs we know -- except Beatles. But even there, since he strums, he does stuff like "Hold Your Hand" and "Day Tripper", while I do "If I Fell, "Let It Be", and "In My Life".

But it was fun anyway, trying to keep up and add something useful, although he wasn't making much headway with the (far larger) throng passing by, either. It's hard to explain, but he seems to be "just playing", and people don't stop to listen the way that they do for me. I think I sound more like a "performance" and less like "just songs". Or something.

Anyway, I hung out with him for a while, but it wasn't really working so I left to test out some other location options. I set up at the weird green spiral art-bench, and didn't really expect much -- I was just trying the spot out. But although the crowd was much thinner, many more of them slowed down or stopped to listen (and tip). It was weird. And nice.

But tomorrow was a work day, so I gave up at 8:30, after a group of young girls with patriotic paint on their cheeks stopped to help me sing Taylor Swift's "Mean" while a mom took a dozen pictures. That's always fun. I meant to try to snag some of the massive exodus after the fireworks, but they weren't scheduled to even start until 9:30, so I gave up on that plan.

There was a surprising $27 in the jar when I got home, and five English pennies, for some reason. Back again tomorrow night for Art Walk!

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 30June2012

Well, I found a cheap roller crate thingie, and successfully rigged up a battery powered amp with harmony box inside it, so I was obliged to take it down and try it out in Laguna.  My minimum set of stuff fits in there perfectly, with just enough room for the required bottle of Mountain Dew.

It worked out quite well, actually, with the wireless mic's receiver at the bottom of the crate with its antennas already extended, and everything pre-connected except for the harmony box, which has to be outside so I can step on its buttons.  I velcro-wrapped its four cables into a nice collected umbilical, so I just have to roll up to where I want to play, pop the top of the crate, unload the music stand and book, CDs, tip jar, standup sign, and harmony box, feed the umbilical out and plug in the 4 plugs, run the separate guitar cord out, turn on the amp and battery pack, put the top back on, and arrange the "merch" on it (further disguising its real purpose), strap on the guitar and wireless mic, and start playing.

Hmmm.  It may sound like a lot, but compared to the setup and teardown of my usual Real Gig rig, it's a dream.

It's tricky, though.  In a standard gig, I can assume that nobody can hear the acoustic sound of the guitar or my voice -- that all they hear is what's coming out of the speakers.  With this "close-proximity" sort of gig, people can hear me directly as much as I'm willing to crank the sound coming out of the amp.  So, they're hearing the guitar and the main vocal from two places (directly and the amp), but the harmony vocal created by the harmony box is only coming from the amp.  This make it really tricky to get a proper mix between the three components, and it took me quite a while to get something that I think was working well (though it's hard to tell since I'm so close to the sources of two of them).

And at first, it was kind of moot -- I got there at 4:45, when there were no other players out yet, so I got into Acoustic Alley, where I don't really need an amp at all (though I do like the enhancement of the harmony).  I set up without the amp at first, played a few songs to get comfortable, and then fired it all up.  But because it was a summer Saturday, there were a bunch of junior police(wo)men out directing traffic, and one of them seemed to think that right out in front of me was a good place to keep the cars moving down Forest Street.  She probably couldn't hear me at all most of the time (especially when the ubiquitous Harleys came by), nor was she probably at all interested in my amplifier transgression, but I'm still pretty paranoid about it, so I stashed the clandestine gear and played acoustic for a long time until she was gone.

The passers-by seemed pretty disinterested though, this time.I got only a few people to stop and listed for a while, but lots of people gave me a smile, and that's close enough to keep me playing.  By 8:00, I was starving, so I packed up and ate some trail mix as I rolled down to Greeter's Corner to see how Jim & Warren were doing.  They were just packing up, too, and another guy (Tom) was in the wings, playing already in anticipation of snagging the "main stage" there.

But it occurred to me that the main reason I had gone down there remained unfulfilled -- how would this new rig work out on a noisy, non-Alley, corner?  So I went down to the other end of Forest, and set up on the corner there, which has a pair of resting-place benches for people to hang out on.  It was getting late, so the traffic noise was abetting some, and a lot of the shops were closed so I was feeling less afraid of getting some shopkeeper mad enough to call the cops on me.  So I cranked it up a bit, and pulled in quite a few tips (for a new-record total of $41), and got some people to stop to hear a few out of the "on their way home" crowd (including a quite-drunk sing-along lady and her long lost friend, and the Russian couple who wanted to hear "Ho-tyel Cal-ee-for-nyah").  Apparently it *does* help to be actually audible.

By 10:15 though, the crowd had thinned and I decided that I needed to be closer to the action down at PCH.  But Tom was still going at it on the Corner, so I went on around, intending to go on home, but there was a little alcove off the sidewalk on the side of the art gallery, and since they were closed, I pulled up and sang a few more.  But even with the amp, the PCH traffic is pretty obnoxious, so I gave up at 10:45.

Besides, six hours of pretty continuous playing is a bit much, even for me.  Next time I'll try to show better judgment.  The new rig was quite a bit easier than my usual setup to drag back up the cliff, but I was still near-dead by the time I got back to my car.  I could try to find parking nearer to Forest Street next time, and take the $2 for the parking meter out of the tips, but it's the most exercise I get all week...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 23June2012

A terrific, record breaking, night. Perfect weather and a summer Saturday brought out lots of people, and they all end up coming past the dead-center Main Stage at some point. And they were all apparently in the mood for some live music, 'cuz I had lots of people in front of the stage, on the planterbox benches, and when I'd remember to turn around, the tables were all full and sometimes there were people sitting on the fountain edge benches, all the way around.

I get lots of requests from the teens for Taylor Swift songs, so I learned her "Mean" song the day before. My wife and daughters came by, so I dragged my daughters up to sing it along with me, and they saved me from getting lost more than once. It's kinda tough to learn to play and sing a song that you've only heard a few times, but I'll get it. It's a cute song and it does seem to go over well.

Later on, one of my patented Kids' Dance Parties started up, and with the volume of traffic pouring by, it quickly snowballed into the biggest one ever. I had 15 or more kids at one point, and with the attendant parents, strollers, etc., we were clogging up the whole plaza to where people could hardly get through. Definitely a new record for "pulled in" audiences.

One of the moms was trying to get her kids situated to take a picture in front of me, so when that song ended, I got down on the edge of the stage to pose for one. Suddenly a half-dozen other moms were out, cameras in hand, rounding up their kids for a picture. That was odd, and fun.

Earlier that Saturday, I had checked my CD inventory and figured I'd better make some more up, just in case. So I had lots, I thought, when I put 22 CDs out. But at the end of the night, there were only 2 left. That's probably a record, too.

The fountain came on full-force at 10:30, a half hour later than last time. But I still had lots of people, so I just turned it up and kept playing anyway. About 15 minutes later, the horrible salsa-jazz muzak came back on, loudly, so I had to turn it up a little more. I was thinking, "Are they trying to get rid of me? What's next, guys with firehoses? Tear gas?"

The fountain shut off entirely at 11, but that just made the muzak more obnoxious, so although I tried to play some more, it was no use. When I finally gave up and quit, there was $183 in the jar, another new record. Also in the tip jar was a napkin-note saying, "You have a beautiful soulful sound. NICE", which is worth way more than the dollar bill it was wrapped in.

Keith at Fete de la Musique -- 16June2012

At Art Walk last week, a couple of people mentioned the "Fete de la Musique", which I'd never heard of, but turns out to be Laguna's annual street music festival. With only 9 days notice, and almost no web presence, I didn't think I could get in, but the organizer responded to my last-ditch email, must have liked what he saw on my webpage, and offered me a slot -- as long as I didn't need electricity.

I was already planning to build a battery-powered street-stealth amp rig, so I took the offer, and quickly finished the project, but using my real amp, not the little hide-able one. That involved buying a new battery for my battery-powered (but long dead) amp, and trying to figure out a way to power the AC adapter-powered harmony box and wireless mic receiver.

I got it all working by Friday, but that didn't give me any time to do battery-life tests on anything, so I wasn't sure if or when they'd die on me. I had to prepare to play the gig with fall-back setups for every possible failure -- all the way down to just playing acoustically, me and my guitar.

So I was completely prepared for something to go wrong, but it all worked perfectly, and with battery time to spare. And a pretty good time it was, too. I was stationed at the corner of PCH and Ocean, right across from Main Beach and the volleyball court, so I had a lot of foot traffic. And, unfortunately, a lot of car traffic, which wasn't half bad compared to the all-too-frequent Harley traffic... (I wonder what the Harley people are going to do when all vehicles are electric. Play recordings of loud obnoxious combustion engines as they go by? Amplify some 60-cycle hum?)

Anyway, it was fun to play out there and actually be audible. A lot of people breezed on by, but a lot of people stopped to listen. And a lot of people in cars stuck at the red light would roll down their windows to see what I was up to, and clap or give me the thumbs-up as they went past.

I had two little girls who dragged their parents to a stop and stayed to dance for 20 minutes or more. And the cute kids were a magnet for all the grammas going by, so I developed a little crowd for a while there.

And for a while I had a guy who was obviously not hitting on all cylinders, trying to sing along on these songs he clearly loved, but he'd long since lost his ability to keep stuff like that sorted out in his head. So I'd sing a line, which would remind him of the words, and he'd shout out the last word or two in the gap before the next line. It was sweet that he was so moved, but also *incredibly* distracting, and I had a real challenge keeping the song together. He "sang along" in his disjointed way for a half-dozen songs, and finally decided to go back to what he had come down for: holding up a sign in the "Legalize Marijuana" demonstration across the street at Main Beach. Dude, spun-out guys like you are *not* doing The Cause any favors!

The worst part, though, was when I was all done and had to drag the Equipment Choo-Choo back up the cliff to my car. Indeed, dreading the climb, I kept playing as long as I could, just waiting for it to cool down enough. I had to drag it backwards most of the way, stopping every 30 feet (that's 10 feet vertically) to rest. About 3/4 of the way there I decided that the equipment was cheaper than a heart attack, so I tucked it inside a vacant carport, walked the rest of the way to my car, and came back for it. Next time I have the full raft of stuff with me, I'm paying for parking at street level!

Keith at Twig, etc. -- 07June2012

Wow -- what a crazy, great, crazy-great night! I started out at Twig, as usual for the First Thursday "Art Walk". Had a pretty good turnout early on, and lots of fun with Susie, her life-of-the-party sister "Don't-Call-Me-Noni", and Noni's friend, all shaking my kids'-giveaway egg-rattles and baby tambourine, and singing along out on the sidewalk to "Don't Stop Believing". It's so much fun when it turns into a party...

But by 8:30 it seemed to be Over, so I packed up and was driving back up PCH by 9:00, and was surprised by how many people were still thronging the sidewalks. I decided to turn up Forest (the main "music street") to see if/who was still playing. As I went by "Greeter's Corner" where Jim & Warren usually play, I saw Warren, but no Jim. And half a block up there was a rare sight -- an empty parking spot -- so I snagged it.

April was holding forth in the Alley, as expected, but like every other time I've seen her, she was busy talking to someone, so I've never actually heard her allegedly great singing. Across the street from Warren was the fledgling Steven & Noah duo. I went over to see how "Jim & Warren" were doing, but it turned out that Jim had gotten delayed enough that it wasn't worth coming out, so Warren was soldiering on as a solo.

Not that he really wanted to -- he immediately asked me to get my guitar which was pretty close-by in my car, and we launched into whatever songs I thought I could remember all the words to without my Book, and could play Loud. I beat my poor index finger to a pulp, using it as a pick and strumming songs that I usually play with, shall we say, a bit more finesse.

Indeed, it was harder than usual to remember the words to the songs because my brain clearly has the words linked to the hand actions, and since I was playing them "wrong", the associations were broken. Weird how the brain works...

But we got through a bunch of classics, to much delight of the assembled cast of characters: Drunk Guy Who Wants to Sing, Crazy Spin-Dancing Lady, Maurice the Foreign Lothario, Mikey the new Greeter (who switches the Crazy Loon character on and off at will), and several Silent and Serious observers who got pulled in by the music. Not sure why this particular, peculiar, crew assembles around Warren and not, say, Steven and Noah right across the street...

Anyway, it was big fun. Warren has a mic on a stand that I was able to sing through while stress-testing my guitar strings. This was nice for two reasons: (1) I could be heard a bit better, and (2) it made me more confident (or less paranoid) about using a mic/amp on the streets. I'm now only 1 for 2, getting busted for amp use, instead of 1 for 1. That helps me decide to build up my own (subtly) amplified rig for street use.

Warren decided that he'd had enough about 10:00, and since my alarm goes off at 5:30, that seemed like a pretty good idea. But I couldn't resist going across the street to once again try to jam with Steven and Noah, despite their down-tuned guitars. They were celebrating a huge-tip night, due to the big turnout and Steven's aggressive approach where he hard-to-ignore-edly just asks passers-by if he can play a song for them. He usually tunes this to who they are, e.g., "Hey lovebirds, can we play a love song for you tonight?" It's way too bold for me, but it was really working -- people who were snagged in by it usually left a tip as well. Important for these guys who are apparently living on this...

After a while of that, I decided that I really did need to get to bed, so I walked back to my car by The Alley, and heard a kid banging away on a solo mandolin and singing old-timey Bluegrass stuff. Wow! I started to put my guitar back in the car, but just couldn't resist putting it back on and walking over to try to lend some guitar support.

I played along to that song and one other, figuring out the chords as we went, since I can't "read" mandolin chords like I can a guitar's. Three fashionable ladies surprised me by stopping to listen to the kid and his "down in the holler" style, telling us how great "we" were (I told them that it was "all him", and I was just strumming along), and asking him his story when the song was over.

His name is Zack, he's 16 (!), lives in Mission Viejo, and his dad taught him how to play. He plays in a couple of Bluegrass bands at festivals, mostly in Northern California. I was ready to play with him some more, but it was 11:00 and his mom pulled up to take him home to get to bed for school tomorrow, providing me with some apparently-needed collateral parental guidance as well.

All-in-all, a crazy fun musical night. Definitely need to do that again, even if my fingers still hurt...

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 03June2012

I had so much fun last Sunday that I decided to try playing the streets of Laguna Beach again. Of course, it wasn't Memorial Day weekend anymore, and the gloom that finally burned off inland was more persistent down by the beach, so it was a pretty low turnout. I played from 4:00 to 6, and only collected $7, though the smiles and thumbs-up were plentiful.

And I seem to be getting somewhat famous -- a guy came by who recognized me from my Farmer's Market gigs, and a lady stopped to somewhat inaccurately exclaim, "We saw you at Spectrum last week! You're really good!"

Early on I was visited by another local player, Steven, who probably wanted to set up in the Alley, but since I had beaten him to it, ended up at the Corner. He's probably also frustrated by the (lack of) acoustics over there, but since he strums, he's got a lot better chance of being heard than I do.

But when I quit at 6, I decided to go down and listen to him for a while -- "maybe put on a harmony", in the words of Joni Mitchell. I got there just in time to help another guy, Noah, improvise a shoestring strap for his beat-up old guitar -- he and Steven have apparently started experimenting as a duo.

Steven is quite good, plays well and knows a lot of songs, though not so many of the words thereto. He tends to sing a line of two and make up lyrics for the rest, sometimes consisting of "And this is the second verse of this song I don't know..." kinds of stuff. It's actually kind of charming.

Noah, on the other hand, is all over the map. He knows a lot of songs, and just bashes pieces of them out, willy-nilly. They got into a Beatles jag, but Noah favors the obscure ones (like "Girl" and "I'm Only Sleeping"). Steven tried to steer toward more well-known stuff ("Standing There", etc.), and Noah knows those, too, and sings the high harmony like a champ.

I sat on the bench opposite them, and since my guitar wasn't in a case, I could just strum along and hope to catch the passing tourists in a kind of reinforcing Surround Sound. But that was tricky since they have their guitars tuned down a half-step (presumably to make the songs easier to sing). It's nearly impossible to take songs written in, say, E, and play them in E-flat. But with some creative capoing, I had a blast trying to keep up.

Steven got Noah off of the (chunks of) Beatles tunes and started on a Credence set, playing songs he knew the chords to ("Proud Mary", "Up Around the Bend", and the particularly appropriate "Willy and the Poor Boys"), teaching them to Noah, but having to look up the words on his phone balanced on top of his guitar. He understandably thought I'd know those songs, and I do, but I don't actually play any of them 'cuz Fogerty sings way too high for me.

Anyway, crazy as it was, that public jam for an hour more than made up for the previous disappointing two. But as I was leaving, there seemed to be an uptick in traffic, as the 7pm dinner crowd was arriving. I guess I'll have to figure out by experience when the best times to play happen -- maybe earlier in the afternoon for the beach crowd, and then later on for dinner time?