But eventually that wore off and I had the benches filled, and some folks standing around, and requests a couple deep. And over to the side, a pretty college girl, scribbling furiously in her notebook. I assumed she was writing up a journal entry or something, but it turned out that she was drawing. Me. And then she threw the picture in my guitar case and disappeared without a word, mid song. It's quite good, though it makes me look old. Or at least older than I think I look... [Click to enlarge the picture.]
I finally remembered to bring the "foot tambourine" that my daughter got me for my birthday. It straps onto your foot, and rings when you tap. Theoretically. The good part is that it doesn't ring unless you really mean it, so you can wear it all the time. The bad part is that it doesn't ring unless you really mean it, meaning, stomp pretty hard. I was wearing my boots, so it was kind of hard to get it to ring with my heel already 3 inches high. Maybe I need to move it out towards my toes more, like the guy in the picture, but then I'm afraid for the elastic. Needs experimentation, and practice, I suppose.
Anyway, it was pretty fun for the second half, and I played on through until 10:45. Went home with $101 in the jar, and some artwork to boot.
A very slow night, as I'd expected to come even earlier, but made bearable and even fun by the presence of Silly Patty, who somehow manages to maintain her enthusiasm all night even though she's heard almost every song I know by now.
Actually, that's not quite true. She came by when I was standing on the lonely Tuvalu corner during Art Walk last week, and I showed her the "Everything" page of my iPad song book, which has (currently) 238 songs on it (as opposed to the 104 songs on the printed handout list). The balance are songs that I don't play very well (but will muddle through if asked), and obscure songs that I don't think many people know. The "B List", if you will.
Patty immediately spotted a few songs that she liked, so I guess I ought to print that list up and let her go through it, since she's sweet enough to overlook the mistakes I'm bound to make on these seldom-practiced songs. So I played quite a few half-remembered songs, not too terribly, and that's kind of fun.
Other than Patty, we had a scant few tourists come by, and went home with $15. Maybe it'll pick up again when "Holiday Season" comes around.
I almost forgot about this, again, but it came up on my calendar so I decided to go on down. Jim & Warren always play on Thursdays, especially on Art Walk Thursdays, so I knew I'd have to find somewhere else to set up, but I've been eyeing the far corner, and wanted to give that a try anyway.
I got there and was set up at 7:30. I decided to add the monitor speaker to the rig, because although the big amp sounds *way* better to the audience, I'm beside it and get a very muffled version. It took a while to get it all figured out, but it did sound way better to me, so that's a keeper, as long as I can figure out a more elegant way of transporting and situating the thing.
Unfortunately, it was almost a moot point, because nobody stopped to listen anyway. Everybody has a map to all the galleries that are participating, and they're all in a big hurry to get to the next one, presumably before the wine and cheese runs out. It's disheartening when people toss, "Oh! I love this song!" over their shoulder as they rush by. I want to shout out, "Then why don't you stop and listen to it?", but it's too late anyway.
I kept on playing, though, 'cuz it sounded really good, and I'm eternally optimistic that someone will notice. But mostly they'd stop on my corner to say "I think it's down this way!", hunting for their cars. So about 9:00 I gave up and walked down to see how Jim & Warren were doing.
And as deserted as my corner was, theirs was a *party*. Lots of people were still out, though they were mostly zooming by there, too. Jim and Warren had just finished packing up, so I figured I'd just settle in and take over -- at least there were potential listeners here.
And I managed to snag quite a few of them, and more and more as it got later, more relaxed, and the galleries (and their free wine bars) closed. It's really gratifying when some people are breezing by and pull up short, apparently realizing, "Hey, this guy's pretty good!". And if I can get them to stay until the end of a song, I can point out the list, and maybe get them to pick a favorite, and stay even longer.
Anyway, I probably made 3 or 5 bucks down the street, but by the time I quit at 10:30, I was up to $40. But still, I'm starting to wonder if Art Walk is the best time to go down, as generally believed, or actually the worst.
It turns out that the problem with starting at 7 (instead of 5) is that it doesn't seem like I've played nearly long enough until it's really late. The good part is that the quiet part of the evening comes sooner. The great part was having an attentive audience, willing and happy to hear some of the lesser-known or infrequently-attempted songs in The Book, like "The Water is Wide", "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water".
Patty, on finding out that it was Warren's birthday and that mine was the day before, went off and got us some amazing cookies at the bakery down the street, which came in handy at 10:30 when I finally decided to get home to bed. I'm always starving at the end of a gig.
Though it didn't seem like very many people stopped to listen, somehow 35 bucks showed up in the jar. I do remember one guy buying a CD. It was kinda funny though -- he had already put in a buck as a tip, then decided to buy a CD, so he put in a fiver, but also fished out his original dollar. Technically correct, sure, but it seemed a bit petty.
Since I didn't have any other gigs this weekend and Tuesday had worked out pretty well, I decided to give Friday a try. I also wanted to try out the "arrive at 7" idea, saving me the two dead hours leading up to the "sweet spot".
For these street-corner gigs, I've been using the "little amp", "stealthily" hidden in a plastic roller-crate. But it's frustrating because I have to turn it up literally all the way to be heard, and it tends to distort and sound terrible. So I decided to take a chance and bring the "big amp", which also happens to be battery power-able, since it was bought specifically to take to Indian Princess campouts in the woods.
Laguna Beach does have an "amplifier permit" ordinance, but the cops hardly ever come by, and when they do they turn a blind eye as long as you're not bothering anyone with excessive volume. So the theory goes, anyway, and I have had a lot of cops walk or drive by when I'm there with an all-too-visible head-mic, a big black wire coming out of my guitar, and a harmony box on the ground, blinking its myriad red lights. It's not hard to tell I'm not strictly acoustic...
The big amp is already on a roller cart thing, so I packed all the rest of the stuff into a big backpack, stacked it on top, and went on down there to test my luck. Because of the shorter hours, I even convinced my wife to come along with the dogs. It was kinda great to have people already coming by, right at the start, and the big amp setup sounded *so* much better. And of course, as always, when I can hear myself, I perform way better, too.
So I was having a pretty good time, and as always, the dogs were attracting a lot of attention, too. If they'd'a had a tip jar out, I'm sure they'd'a been doing better than I was...
But after an hour or so, just when it was getting really good, a cop car whipped around the corner, lights flashing (though no siren), and screamed to a stop right there next to me. I quietly had a heart attack, but somehow continued and finished the song, singing and playing half as loudly as before, and mentally preparing to be rousted.
But it turned out that the cop was there to take a report from a guy who had apparently been harassed by somebody, so while they were talking I quietly unplugged the guitar, grabbed the iPad and slinked away. The good part was, I didn't get busted. The bad part was, they stood there talking for what seemed like an hour, and destroyed the "prime time" section of the evening.
I actually had a lady come up and tell me that they wanted to hear me play, and I had to tell her that I really couldn't fire up with the cop standing right there, so they reluctantly wandered off. And another lady -- there with her cute little 14-month-old, the dad, and the grandparents -- told me that she *loves* James Taylor (though the song she'd heard just before the cop showed up was John Denver), and always cries when she hears "Carolina in my Mind". They stalled as long as they could, but they had to leave before the cop did, so I didn't get to see/make that happen.
The cop finally left, so I fired up again, but the wind was out of my sails, and the crowds were nearly gone, so I gave up after a while and packed it in. We were there far later than I'd meant to be, and I'd gotten to play far less, but I still pulled in 25 bucks, and it was a success as far as testing out the big amp rig (and not getting busted for it), and for showing up later and still getting to be on The Corner. I've had better gigs, but it was still more interesting than sitting at home...
Warren meant to meet me down there, but he was detained by a sudden work emergency, so I was solo. There was, of course, almost nobody out anyway, especially early on, except some locals zooming by. But hey, once the stuff's all set up, it's fun to just play.
The dilemma, when nobody's listening, is whether to play instantly-recognizable stuff to try to drag in the passers-by, or whether to just have fun playing new and/or obscure stuff for my own entertainment. I chose the latter, for a while, but when more people started to appear (after dinner, I guess), I started playing my more popular stuff.
The last hour or so was actually pretty great -- I had one *very* appreciative guy (who left a $10), and a nice couple of ladies who clearly had somewhere else to get to, but who I detained by playing some of their favorites. They even bought a CD. And I had a lady come up and tell me that it was her 31st anniversary, and could I play "their song", which was James Taylor's "Up on the Roof", which I do happen to know, so that was pretty sweet. I followed it with some more love songs and they stayed and cuddled for a while.
Had a few odd requests: One guy asked me if I knew the theme from "Love Story" ("Where do I begin, to tell the story..."), which, yeah no. Another lady asked me if I knew "that song from 'Ghost'", which is "Unchained Melody". I've looked into that song, actually, and considered it, though it's so "showy" that I'm afraid that I'll never have the chutzpah to do it in public -- kind of like "Bridge Over Troubled Waters", which I have in the book, but seldom perform. And a little foreign dude asked for "Moonshadow" (which I've poked at, but is hard for me because of the odd guitar style), but he settled for "Wild World".
I was surprised to find $50 in the jar, most of which had to have appeared in that last hour. Now that there's nobody else trying to play down there, I'm thinking that I could still "get" The Corner and do almost as well, audience-wise, even if I show up at 7 or 7:30, and just play that "sweet spot".
I keep thinking that the traffic down in Laguna will be so thin that it won't be worth going down there, eventually. But we had fun last week, so I agreed to go again. And it was pretty desolate, but that gave us the chance to play some of the fun but obscure ones, and try out some new stuff that's not ready for an audience yet. So that was fun.
And some people do come by, and I noticed a couple of fivers getting dropped in the jar, so I figured it was at least gonna pay back the gas and parking meter money...
I noticed this tall lady watching from across the street with her teen-age daughter. She kind of smiled and waved at the end of the song, and walked on. Later on, they were on our side of the street, but up the sidewalk a ways. And later still, they finally came over, and I pulled out my most popular tune, "Over the Rainbow". They clearly loved it, and it was an inadvertent bull's eye 'cuz the mom told us that the daughter had sung that song in a fifth-grade talent show. And the daughter said that she hears that song a lot in the Hawaiian BBQ place where she works. The mom wanted to take a picture of us with the daughter, which we did, and she wanted to know our names, and shook our hands and left something in the jar before leaving. Sweet.
We played some more, and I decided that I was warmed up enough to chance "Piano Man" again, and it went quite well this time. I'm not sure anybody could hear the low notes, but I was at least not screaming on the high ones.
Around 8:30 there was nobody left in sight except the homeless guys, so I decided to break off "early" (only 3.5 hours) for once. Counting the tips on site so I could split the take with Warren, I found 4 ones, 4 fives, and - What the heck?!? - a *fifty*, right there on top. I'm pretty sure it was from that tall lady, and I guess that makes us professional photography models, 'cuz it surely couldn't have been for that one song...
For some reason, they put the stage up at the opposite end of the fountain. It didn't make much difference, except a change of scenery for me as I stood there staring at Oakley instead of Old Navy. But the cool part was when the maintenance guys came to turn the fountain down, they opened up a trapdoor right there in the sidewalk, and went down a ladder to the tunnels that are apparently beneath the whole shopping center. The fountain's "volume" is definitely not on a timer, but the fact that the valve is underground explains why it comes up at random, whether I'm playing or not -- they just don't know what's happening up above. So they turn it back up to full volume when they assume I must be done, and shut it off at 11 before they go home.
Anyway, it went pretty well for the hottest Friday on record. I didn't expect anybody to come out in such heat, but it wasn't really that bad after the sun went down, and there were plenty of people. I had several little kids, but never enough at once to get a dance party started. One cute little girl who stayed a long time, and dragged her mom back later on for seconds, had only one dance step -- straight up and down pogo bouncing -- for any and every song.
I sold lots of CDs at the new fixed $5 price (for a total of $127 in the jar), and managed to give out some bubbles and lights. I even got rid of one of the not-coveted white fingerlights by giving it to a kid in a play SWAT outfit, and telling him that this would help him fight crime. He proceeded to thoroughly investigate the various planter boxes, turning up nothing suspicious, so I guess we can all sleep soundly.
Last Tuesday went better than expected, despite the end of Summer, so I figured I'd give it another try. It was pretty dead, but fun anyway, due to the eventual arrival of Silly Patty, who is about my age, and therefore loves all the same songs as I do, and appreciates my versions of them. And it only takes one appreciative listener to bring out the best in me, which brings in other people as they pass, too.
People sometimes ask me to play some Billy Joel, or specifically for "Piano Man", which is the same thing. I usually say, "Does this *look* like a piano?!?", but mainly I don't play it because I've tried before, and it's really hard to sing, due to the incredibly wide range it requires (because half of it is sung quite low, and the rest is up a whole octave from there).
But my voice is getting stronger and higher after all this exercise it's getting, so I took another stab at it, and found a way to play it on guitar that works for me, and transposed it to center on my presumed "well warmed-up" range. I meant to try it out on Saturday, but I put it off over and over until I just never got to it. This time I just made myself play it, and, well, I definitely played it. The low parts were definitely low, but maybe the mic helped pick up those notes. And I was able to sing the high parts, but I sure felt like I was screaming more than singing.
But, during the song, several people stopped in their tracks to listen. I'm just not sure if they stopped because it was great, or because it was a train wreck...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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...
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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...
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.
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!
