I went down kinda late and fully expected to just drive right back home after finding all the good spots taken. But I was surprised to find nobody out at all, so I got Greeter's Corner, no problem.
After just a couple of songs, a trio of ladies came by just at the last two lines of "Landslide". One of them stopped right in front of me and listened, and then complained that the song was over. I said that I'd be happy to play it again if she wanted to hear it, and did so. She stood and listened, and started to cry halfway through. I never know what to do in those situations, but she had asked for it, and could easily walk away if she wanted to, so I just kept going. When it was over, she thanked me as she dried her eyes, and off they went. OK...
For the next song, I fired up "You've Got a Friend", and an elderly lady and her son (I'm guessing) came by, and she dragged him to a stop as they fumbled for some money for the jar. By the time she came over with the dollar, *she* as crying, but smiled at me through the tears, gave me two thumbs up, and walked away before the song was even over. Apparently there's a story there, but I guess I'll never hear it.
But two ladies crying, for two separate songs, in one night? That's definitely some kind of record...
I guess we're in the leading edge of Tourist Season, 'cuz there were several groups of people who were clearly Not From Around Here, taking pictures of stuff. If they've neglected to notice it, and I get to the end of a song, I try to point out the "gate sign" hanging above their heads. It says, "This gate hangs well, and hinders none, refresh and rest, then travel on", and has been there since at least the early 1920's, 'cuz I have an old postcard picture of what's now called Greeter's Corner, and the sign is visible in it. I printed that picture and have it on the back of my song lists, so I can show it to people, who then, duly impressed, take pictures of it (and a story) back home.
That happened a couple of times, and one of the (Japanese) guys asked, "Is this an old town?" I told him "yes", but I suppose that Laguna, settled in the 1880's is pretty new compared to, say, Tokyo, which grew up from a fishing village called Edo, founded in the early 1400's.
Anyway, I made $64, and sold all four CDs that I had with me (I don't take very many down there 'cuz I usually sell none at all). One guy came up and put a five dollar tip in the jar, and then asked me, "How much for the CDs?" I told him "Five bucks", and he said, "Oh!", and happily took one. I really don't know why that doesn't happen more often, 'cuz a lot of people tip a fiver, but they seldom take the CD they're entitled to.
I had some little girls that I wanted to give some fingerlights to, but the flaw in this scheme is that, if I give some lights to some kids who have been listening and/or dancing and, you know, being part of it, there are usually a bunch of kids just hanging around at the edges, *not* participating, but once they see the lights being given away, they all come running. So I end up hoping that the deserving kids will stay around until the undeserving kids wander off.
And that finally happened, so I gave lights to two little girls, but there were a set of four more that had been dancing and stuff, but were being distracted by the moms. The new lights I got recently come in a little plastic wrapper with four in a set, so I walked out and just gave the packet to the "leader" (there's always one), and told her to pass them out to her friends. I started into the next song, and then I looked up and realized that they didn't know what these things even were, so I stopped and went back over to do some fingerlight tech support. Once they saw that they were flashlights, they were delighted, but they sure must have been baffled before that...
Anyway, I sold 8 CDs, made $135, got lots of nice comments, and had lots of fun.
Tuesday night was too cold, so we went down on Wednesday when it was supposed to be warmer. And it was, but it was also windy! Not constantly (or I'd'a just gone home), but gusty. I had to keep turning my head sideways to block the wind from the mic so it wouldn't make that wuff-wuff noise. And early on, it blew my tall cylindrical tip jar over, sending dollar bills flying. Fortunately, some guys were there listening at that time, and they helped me round 'em up.
So I looked around for something heavy to put in the jar, but all I could come up with were my keys. That worked for a while, until a gust came from the opposite direction and blew the jar, head first, right into the trashcan! Fortunately, it was pretty clean in there, and the jar landed against a paper bag that kept most of the money contained. Had to dig for my car keys, though.
I got there just as Tom was packing up to leave Greeter's Corner -- perfect timing. Not nearly as many people out as the last few weeks, so it's clearly not anybody's Spring Break anymore.
But we still made 48 bucks, partly due to a guy who came up with his girlfriend quite early, and while she read through the request list, he pulled out a stack of bills which turned out to be all twenties. He asked if he could make change out of the jar, and I said, "Sure, but I don't know how much is in there." There's always at least ten that I leave in there as "starter", but it seemed like there was only about three more, so far. He dug around and found ten ones, somehow, and seemed satisfied (for a ten dollar tip, and he hadn't even heard us play yet!) -- and then proceeded to put several of those back in the jar as his girlfriend asked for songs. We need more guys like him!
I've been trying to learn "God Only Knows", 'cuz it's a great song, and also 'cuz I figure I ought to have at least one Beach Boys song, here with summer coming up and playing in Laguna Beach so much. The "normal" part of the song is working out pretty well, despite the somewhat odd chords, but I can't do (a) the orchestral "stings" that transition to the (b) Ba-ba-pa keychange verse, nor (c) the final rondo chorus with several overlapping singers at once.
But I can never tell how a song's going to work in Real Life until I actually try it. So I played what I've got so far, and it seems OK, even with all that stuff kind of faked over. I'll keep on it, and see what I can do.
Nice weather, lots of people out. Mostly on their way to something else, though, until later in the evening. One good thing was that my Maintenance buddy turned the fountain water down much lower than usual, so the water noise was lower than usual too.
Pretty straightforward night overall. I did have one nice shave-headed foreign-accented guy who really liked my stuff. Reminded me of the Dean on "Community", but taller. He hung around a long time, left and came back for more. Asked for a few songs in his outrageous accent, and bought a CD, too.
I did have a little two-year-old come over to stand right in front of the stage and just *stare* at me. I was in the middle of a song that I know by heart, so I was able to sing straight back at her, and walked to the edge of the stage, and knelt down to get closer to her -- much to the delight and picture-snapping of the parents and crowd. With my creaky old knees I had a tough time getting back *up* again, while keeping the guitar and vocals going, but it was worth it.
Anyway, a great if mostly uneventful night. Almost broke the tips record with $180 in the jar. Spring has been a long time coming, but it's finally here.
They moved the Farmer's Market from Friday (where I had to miss some work), to Saturday. But I guess a lot of the vendors that they had on the roster were already booked somewhere else on Saturdays, because it's quite a bit smaller, and therefore quieter. Fewer vendors, and fewer shoppers, too.
But it was a nice day out, and a few mommies brought their kids over to listen a while, so it was fun, even if it was mostly just a nice little (paid) practice session.
And I guess it was a good thing that it was a nice quite environment, 'cuz I set everything up and started playing, turned up to what seemed like a nice moderate level. But then when I was tearing down, I went to unplug the second speaker to find that I had strung the wire over to it, but never actually plugged it in. Oh well, at least nobody came over to complain that I was too loud.
Fortunately, it was only a two-hour gig, since my fingers were pretty sore already from the ill-advised four hours the night before in Laguna, and I had another gig coming up later that evening at Spectrum...
I was hoping that Greeter's Corner would be open when I got there, and it was! Mysteriously, Sanchez was set up on the gallery corner across the street -- probably Tom had been blocking him, and had only recently left. But even more mysteriously, Sanchez was playing *really* quietly. I didn't really have a theory about that -- "He's learned some manners" didn't seem likely...
Anyway, I set up and started playing, enjoying the relative quiet. But after an hour or so, a lady came out of the gallery, and just interrupted me in the middle of a song, asking me if I would "turn it down. It's even louder than the music in our store!" Well, that was pretty unlikely, since I was already quieter than I usually play, so as not to annoy Sanchez when he was being courteous for once. But I politely told her, "Sure", and did so.
But aha! This explained Sanchez's low volume -- clearly his grating sound, right outside their doors, had finally broken the camel's back, and they had come out and told him to turn down, and were now also hyper-sensitive to even my mellow songs and volume. It also explained Sanchez's even deeper than usual scowl...
And then, to make it worse, two minutes later a cop car pulled up, and the cop came over and asked me to turn it down because they'd "had complaints from local businesses". Gee, I wonder who that could be? I told him that the lady had already asked me to, and that I already had. He then asked me if there was another guy somewhere. I told him that had been a guy across the street that had just stepped away (I think he went to buy more batteries again), but he had been playing quieter than he ever had. As annoying as Sanchez is, I still didn't want to throw him under the paddy wagon...
After the cop left, it occurred to me that he'd never said anything about "*no* amp", only "turn it down". So I actually feel pretty good about the whole thing -- the cops (or this cop, anyway) don't seem to be liable to try to enforce the non-existent "no amps" law, but they are available to the shop owners if the music gets annoying enough. Maybe Sanchez will take the hint and quit coming. Or at least play a bit quieter, so as not to incur the gallery ladies' wrath again (though he did turn it back up as soon as they closed the shop, so maybe not).
The rest of the night went pretty well. I had some good little crowds, and made decent tips ($59). I really shouldn't have been out there anyway, since I had two gigs pending the next day, but with Spring Break and all the people out, it's just too tempting.
It was the confluence of Art Walk and Spring Break, a momentous event predicted by the Mayan calendar. Warren figured Jim would want to quit a little after 8:00, but wanted to keep playing himself, so he invited me to come take Jim's place again. Sounded like a great idea to me.
When I got there, they had procured the corner in front of Fingerhut Gallery, 'cuz Sanchez had beaten them to the Greeter's Corner. That was second best, but we'd had good luck there the night before. Unfortunately, Art Walk is unlike any other night because everybody is intent on the wine and cheese at the galleries, and not wanting to hang out much outside where there isn't free stuff.
It's frustrating, because it's the night with the most people out and about, and they're generally well-lubricated as the night goes on, but I've never been able to really snag a crowd -- all I see is people in a big hurry to Get Somewhere.
We had some small successes, and some high school boys that had hung out with us a while the night before came by for more, but I'm starting to think it's the *worst* night to be out there, not the best.
As I drove past The Corner on my way to find a parking spot, there was nobody there. Yay! Unfortunately, just as I got back there with my stuff, I saw Tom, getting his guitar out of the case. There was no point in asking him how soon he'd be done, but he volunteered that he'd have to be there until he'd gotten enough in tips for the bus fare home. (I'm sure he did way better than that -- even after the recent fare hike, it's only two bucks.)
Warren showed up a few minutes later, and we debated on where to set up -- Acoustic Alley is the general Second Choice, and it sounds great there, but the tips were dismal last time. I suggested that we set up across the street on the other corner, where it seems a bit rude to whoever's on the main Corner, but people have been doing it to us all the time lately. Warren was reticent at first, because of his bad experiences with the ladies who work in that gallery, but we decided to give it a try.
And it worked out quite well! There wasn't quite as much traffic as in front of the Ice Cream shop, and there's no bench (though there's a low brick wall/shelf thing that folks can sit on). But, next door is BJ's Pizza -- and this probably only works when there are a lot of people out -- but when it's crowded, people waiting for a table have to wait outside, right down the sidewalk from where we were playing. And we were apparently an appreciated diversion for those people, 'cuz most groups would eventually send one of their party down to put something in the jar, for a pretty amazing $89 total.
We never did get hassled by the gallery ladies, either, so this is definitely our new Second Choice location.
Pretty great. It was Easter Sunday, so I figured there'd either be a lot of people, or none. Fortunately, it was the former. Tom was on The Corner when I got there, but he assured me that he was almost done, so I only had to stall a bit and then take over. And for his final song (the presumably self-written "Dog in a Sweater", whose title reflects all of the lyrics therein), he had me shoot a video for YouTube on his camera. OK, then.
It was nice to play, for a change, when literally nobody else was playing, anywhere on the street -- not even some kid on the other corner hammering away distractingly, as has been all-too-common lately. And in the late evening when the traffic got quiet, it was almost like playing indoors -- imagine that!
Our friend Silly Patty came by briefly, responding, a day late, to my message on Saturday telling her that I would be down there the day before. She needs to check her email a little more often, but I guess she got lucky that I was there both days.
One vacationing family came by for ice cream at 8:30 or so, and, since they basically had me all to themselves by then, really got into the spirit of making requests, asking for "Dear Prudence", "Don't Think Twice", "You've Got a Friend In Me", "Part of Your World", and finally "If You Could Read My Mind" before they wandered off.
Anyway, not as populated as Saturday, of course, but I pulled in $105. I sold two CDs to obviously-foreign tourists (I'm world famous!), and had an almost-unintelligibly foreign guy ask for "any Beatles". He stood and listened for a long time, then asked for a business card and left saying, "I'll call you". Dunno what he'd be calling me for, though -- and of course, he won't call, so I'll never find out, either.
I don't usually get to play in Laguna on Saturday nights, but Jim had something to do in the evening, so he and Warren started early (which nabbed them The Corner), and I just strolled in and replaced Jim at 4:30 -- a terrific plan, so much so that it felt like cheating somehow.
And it was a pretty great night -- the start Spring Break for a lot of people, so lots of tourists and general Saturday Night people out. We got quite a few crowds together and had some fun.
Unfortunately, around 9:00, Ivan appeared and set up right across the street from us, with his very loud amplified reggae and party tunes. He's quite good, and very charismatic with his cute foreign accent and energetic personality, and the too-loud music just *sounds* like a party, so pretty soon he had a bunch of the late-night people around him, having a great time. I tired to compete for a while, but at that time of night, people were more interested in a party than a concert...
Just before I gave up entirely, I was playing "Teach Your Children" and a lady came by with a huge smile, singing along. She stopped and when the song was over, commanded me to "Play me some blues in G! And keep up!" Well, OK then -- and I started playing while she sang in a *huge* voice, no mic needed. It was a little hard to tell where the changes belong -- "the blues" does come in at least two varieties: 8 and 12-bar, but she didn't seem to notice or mind when I was off-base. It was pretty amazing.
After she wandered off, we played another song or two, and then decided to go home and leave it to Ivan. Still it was a very good night, and people must have liked what we were putting out there, based on the $123 (a new street-corner record!) in the jar.
I was really looking forward to playing again, with the success of Tuesday night, but when we got there, the guy who had been playing loud instrumental-only guitar down the street on Tuesday (Al Sanchez) had camped out on The Corner. Warren asked him when he thought he'd be finished, but he apparently had no intentions of leaving, ever. So we went down to Acoustic Alley.
The sound is really great there, but there's much less traffic, and the sidewalk out in front of us is much less conducive to hanging around and listening. For one thing, there's no bench, and if you hang around, you're kind of impeding the flow on the narrow sidewalk. Not to mention that there's nobody that's pretty much forced to hang around once they've bought some ice cream and need to sit and eat it.
So, it was slim pickin's. We had a few people brave enough, or impressed enough, to stop, but not many. Some of them decided that the best place to listen from was *behind* us, up the corridor. Oddly, there were lots of families with kids, though, so we ended up playing a lot of kids' songs.
I kept looking out to see if Sanchez was done, and finally around 8:00, I couldn't see him anymore, and when I got closer he was cleaning the money out of his guitar case, so I went back and told Warren that he was done. It was late enough, and he'd been playing so much, that Warren decided to just go on home. I quickly packed up my stuff and rolled down there, only to find that Sanchez had left his (empty) guitar case and amp behind, and Frank told me that he had just gone to buy some batteries. I'm not sure you can "save your place" like that, but I'm not a complete jerk, so I gave up and went on home, too.
So, we really only played for 2.5 hours, while we usually play at least 4 when we're on The Corner, but we only pulled in $19. Compared to Tuesday night's $79, that really shows how much it's location, location, location. I guess Sanchez gets that, too.
We got there a little after 5, and Tom was jammin' away, but he said that he was just about done, so we waited a few songs, and it was our turn on The Corner.
It was nice and sunny still, with a pretty good turnout of beach goers, but the first 2 hours or more were pretty lean, with people just rushing by. We did have a batch of cheerleaders come by and request a song (at my insistence), but then disappeared before I even got a chance to play it.
But it's becoming clear that The Good Time is after dinner, starting at 7:30 or 8:00. Unfortunately, if we just show up at 7:30, somebody else will have snagged The Corner. Anyway, we gathered a pretty big crowd, which persisted for quite a long time. Once you manage to get a critical mass, some people leave but others see the crowd and come over to take their place. And I noticed quite a few people that came by, listened for a while, left, and came back later, having apparently decided that we were the best thing going around there.
One guy listened for a spell while eating his ice cream and finally decided to take a look at the list. When he spotted "Hallelujah", he asked for it and put ten bucks in the jar *before* I sang it, saying "I'm dropping a ten 'cuz I *know* that's gonna be good -- the more verses the better!".
And a Zealander in a fancy suit (there's something you don't see every day!) stopped to ask for "If I Fell". I had been expecting a slow night so I hadn't bothered to put the CDs out, but he read the sign, and asked for and bought one -- first time *that's* happened. And then he came back later to marvel at why we weren't singing "in a tavern somewhere". I said I didn't know where to find one, but he had taken a card on his first pass through, and said something about how he was gonna find us one and call me. Here's hoping he comes through...
At the request of a friend and my brother, I've been learning Stephen Bishop's 1977 hit, "On and On", after transposing it into a still-awfully-high but more reasonable key. I've really only barely got it working, but thought I'd try it out in real life anyway, to see if it goes over and is therefore worth pursuing. And as half-learned and ragged as it was, it went over great! I think somebody pulled out a wallet and fed the jar all three times I played it. Definitely a keeper.
Anyway, we pulled in $79, which is just plain amazing for a Tuesday -- especially since Spring Break hasn't started yet for most places, that'll be next week and the week after, I think. I started the evening thinking it was gonna be a bust, but it turned out pretty good after all...
An unprecedented two Saturdays in a row! Not as cold as last week, or maybe it was just because I was clever enough to wear an extra shirt this time. When I first got there, there were lots of families hanging out around the fountain, but as soon as I started playing, they all disappeared. Was it something I said?
Anyway, it was the usual thing of hardly anybody interested at first, but more and more people stopping to listen as the night went on. At one point I had two little girls out dancing, so I said that I would play a real dance song ("Mister Postman"), and did they know how to do the Mashed Potato? The parents laughed at the question, but I showed them how -- just pick up your heel and "mash" with your toes. The bigger girl (5-ish) just stared at me, but her little sister was game, but was doing it exactly backwards, toes lifted, and twisting on her heel. Close enough (and very cute)!
The last hour was great, with lots of couples sitting and listening, so I stayed until 11:00. I didn't notice it happening, but I was selling a lot of CDs -- 14 of 'em. I sold completely out of the 8 "Favorites" CDs (where usually I only sell one or two). Now I'm gonna have to burn another big batch, but I guess that contributed to the near-record $172 in the jar, so no problem!
Friday was a blast last week, so I went again -- it's clearly a better deal than Tuesday, at least until summer.
And it went pretty well, though no Woo Girls this time. I got The Corner at least, and no sign of Tom. April appeared in The Alley after a while, and I could hear her between my songs, beltin' her 40's and 50's torch songs out.
Lots of folks up from Mexico, wanting to take pictures of or with the funny guy in the hat. And one guy who insisted, through his teenaged son translator, that I play "Hallelujah" twice in a row, since he had missed the first verse with his video the first time around. But he bought a CD, and added two more bucks "for the music", so I obliged. I came home with $57 total for the night.
Late in the evening, a guy set up down the street a little way, with an amplified Ovation, slamming away in an open tuning and way too loud with too much treble, sounding as much like a washboard as a guitar. It was an interesting racket from where I stood, but after I shut down and packed up, I walked over to hear what he was doing for real, and it was a *bit* more musical up close, though still some pretty strange stuff -- just slammy-rhythmic guitar with no vocals. He also had this intense glare, like "I double dare ya", on all the time. I don't think that that's the best way to clean up on tips, buddy, but, you know, to each his own...
I picked up an "extra" Spectrum gig due to lucky timing of an email exchange with the booking lady. And it was not only a Saturday; the weather was (or started out, anyway) nice.
So lots of people out, and a pretty good response all night. The teens are back out in force, too -- some groups joining in, and some being far too cool to listen to the dinosaur play. Had some dancing kids (to whom I gave finger lights), and a group of Mexican ladies who wanted to take a picture with me -- even though I didn't have the top hat that I wear in Laguna. And lots of people taking pictures or videos with their phones or sometimes big professional cameras. It seems like, the better I get, the more people want to take my picture. Weird.
I had one group of all tween boys, horsing around and looking at the list and trying to decide which kids' song would be the funniest to ask for. Before they came to a decision, I said, "You know, I didn't come out here to be made fun of", and they instantly switched to respectful, "Oh no, we didn't mean..." mode. I was surprised that that worked so well.
But the best part was later in the evening when I had lots of people stop to listen and cuddle in the unexpected cold breeze. I was freezing, but that (extended) second half is always the best. I had a couple cuddling and slow dancing over to one side, so I started playing all love songs 'til they wandered off.
And there was a big guy who settled into one of the comfy chairs and listened for a long time. At one point, some girls came by and asked for "Landslide", and after it was over he came up and told me something that I could hear little of, and understood less, but apparently the song had some kind of great personal meaning to him -- I caught something about weight loss? Um, OK -- glad you liked it. (And I suppose your explanation of the nonsensical lyrics to that song is as good as Stevie Nicks' insistence that it's somehow about her dad...)
After another half-dozen songs he came up again, and walked past the tip jar to personally hand me a twenty and thank me for the music on his way out. My pleasure.
Anyway, with all the people coming by to hang out, listen, and "extend their dates", that last hour stretched into two and a half when I finally shut it down at 11:30. Five and a half hours is probably sufficient, especially since I'd already played 4 hours the night before in Laguna. I had the recorder running, but most of it is unlistenable 'cuz of the noise, until the fountain shut off entirely at 11:00. I do kind of like my simple, sparse arrangement of this song:
Ruby Tuesday
I thought I'd see how a Friday night looks down on the corner -- should be better than a Tuesday anyway, right?
I was worried that we wouldn't get The Corner, but when I got there, there were no other musicians, but there were three Greenpeace kids, trying to talk to people about the whales, tigers, etc. I told one of them that I was sorry to blow them out, but that I was gonna set up and play some music, and he said, "Great! Even better for us!" OK, if you think so...
So I set up and played, but kept it turned way down so they could be heard. Some people stopped to talk to them, but for the hour or so that they were there while we were playing, we made zero tips, and no one stopped to listen. Now, that's not completely unusual for the first hour, but still. People are sympathetic to Greenpeace, but most of them don't want to stop and talk about it...
Anyway, it was fun after that. Silly Patty showed up, and pretended the painter's palette she had bought was a tambourine, while I played "Mister Tambourine Man". She's always fun to have around. But the most fun was when the "Woo Girls" (so called because almost anything causes them to throw their hands in the air and scream "Woo!") showed up.
I'm guessing that they were en route from one bar to another, but the crossing light held them up, and I snagged them by offering to let them choose a song. One of them asked if I knew "Trouble", but she didn't mean the Cat Stevens song that I know, she meant the Taylor Swift one that I don't. But I said that I did know Swift's "Mean", and they were thrilled to dance and sing along for that one. And, of course, when there are party girls dancing, other people stop to join in or at least watch the fun. We had a pretty good crowd, all of a sudden.
I played a few more songs for them, interrupted by one of them being hijacked by a spun-out homeless guy recognizing her as his nurse from the hospital, and she had to call a cab and then pre-pay the driver to have him taken back there, and then convince him that the cab driver was a nice guy and wouldn't hurt him to get him into the cab. Crazy stuff -- and then she was right back to "Woo!".
Warren thought it would be nice to go down on a "no-Tom-Tuesday", and I agreed, since I needed to get the bad taste of Sunday's all-acoustic disaster out of my mouth. But when I got there, Tom was already on The Corner, and reportedly had been for a long time. Apparently he means to make a full-time job of it. Foiled again!
But the Alley was empty, and I managed to bring all the required amplification stuff this time, so I set up there. Warren showed up after a while, and we noticed that Tom had finally left, so I moved down to The Corner. Not a lot of people out at first, but it was a nice night, and it was fun to just be playing, audibly. And with the wireless mic and guitar, I can wander out in front of the speaker to tune the volume and tone and feel good about what I sound like.
Mostly uneventful, until 7:30 or so when a guy came by and was listening with just a little *too much* interest. He actually seemed to be "studying" us -- he didn't/wouldn't request anything, but he took a picture of the song list, and I'm pretty sure he was doing some recordings, too. Not sure what that was about...
Then some ladies sat down to eat their ice cream, and I correctly guessed that the right song to do was "Jet Plane", which caused one of them to loudly sing along. She requested Don McLean, so I got to play my recently-learned "Vincent", which had 'em swooning. And I guess all that attention was contagious, because before I knew it, there was 8 or 10 middle-aged couples sitting and standing around, like some kind of concert or something. (Warren's picture above only captured part of the line-up.)
I ran through all my best, sweetest, most nostalgic stuff. It was a pretty magical half-hour or so. Some of the people were brave enough to pick some songs, and lots of people came over to stuff the jar. I think it may have been a kind of "post dinner" thing -- people wandering home or to their cars, with no pressing schedule.
Anyway, as that started to break up, a couple came up to me and the lady, looking at my sign, asked, "Did you apply to play at the Sawdust Festival?" I said, "Yes, I did, but I haven't heard anything back yet." She said, "I'm on the Entertainment Committee. We're going to decide next week. You'll be getting a call."
Wow. Finally! I've been trying to get into the Sawdust Festival for years, but every time I remember to apply, it's been too late -- already all booked (at least that's what they tell me -- maybe they just think I suck and it's the easiest excuse). This year, I sent an email in January, but there's nothing like having someone actually come by and hear you -- especially since she happened to be there just as the magic was happening!
So, a good night that turned great (especially for a Tuesday!), restored my faith in my viability down there, didn't get busted, possibly lined up a coveted gig, and we pulled in $60 to boot (I don't know who put that twenty in there, but thanks!). I reckon all that makes it the Best. Night. Ever. down there.
I thought I'd go down and see if there was any "nice weather" traffic out on a sunny Sunday, and there was. I was a little paranoid about getting busted again, presuming that, if it was the same Beach Patrol guy and he recognized me, I'd get a ticket instead of a warning this time. So I contemplated just going acoustic, if the reverb-y Alley was free, but brought the amp anyway in case Tom wasn't out on The Corner and I got tempted into risking it.
But when I got there (after a half-hour in a traffic jam caused by the Edison people stringing new power lines down Laguna Canyon Road), I discovered that I'd forgotten to bring the little rechargeable battery pack that powers the harmony box, and the wireless mic and guitar receivers. So I was stuck with an all-acoustic afternoon whether I wanted it or not.
Fortunately, the Alley *was* miraculously free, so I set up there and Warren appeared minutes later. It sounded OK, and I could hear myself pretty well, but nobody, and I mean nobody, even slowed down to listen. It was frustrating, but I was about to make it worse.
Tom was down on The Corner, so we couldn't have played there even if I had had the right equipment, but around 4:30 he came by us, leaving. I decided, since this wasn't working anyway, to go try playing acoustic down there (as I had last weekend after the "bust"), but Warren was due at home so he left.
Which was good for him, 'cuz it was *terrible*. It seemed much more noisy than it had last weekend, and I felt completely inaudible. I played my loudest songs, but was completely ignored. I kept trying, slamming away, but mercifully I was stopped when my parking meter time was up, and I went home depressed.
I guess the only good thing was that, in the whole three hours, I never saw that (or any) Beach Patrol, so I'm feeling a little safer to go down next weekend with the amp and all -- and hopefully, the battery to make it work...
The nice weather was fading back into cold gloom, but we went down anyway. Nice sunset right behind us, though...
Not a lot of action, but we did rope in some nice people, including one cuddly couple -- she was a big James Taylor fan, and he liked Jim Croce. Given the choice (and the titles in my song book), I did a bunch of James Taylor...
And the later it got, the quieter the traffic, so I fired up the recorder app in my iPad and got some low-fi recordings. Try these out:
In My Life
Only Exception
Over the Rainbow
Something in the Way She Moves
Sound of Silence
Waiting
You Can Close Your Eyes
Laguna Beach has an annual "Patriot's Day" parade, (though their long-standing title has been co-opted by the Federal 9/11 day). I thought that if I could get there just as the parade was over, there would be lots of people roaming the streets. And I was right. Unfortunately, the city had apparently called in some extra "law enforcement" for the event.
After about a half hour of playing, an elderly "Beach Patrol" guy came along and, very friendly-like, told me that I could keep playing, but I'd have to shut "that" (amplifier) off. I said, "Oh, OK, but it's pretty hard to compete with the traffic noise and motorcycles and stuff". He said, "They'll be able to hear you!", which is only barely true.
But I dutifully turned the amp off and took off my headset, and off he wandered. I flipped through the book and played only the strummed songs, shouting the words, but it doesn't feel much like music to me. Obviously, I'm harmony-less, but I'm also finesse-less, when I can't fingerpick and sing with some subtlety. I didn't have the guts to turn it back on after he'd gone, 'cuz I figured he'd be back, and about an hour later he did come around again to give me a big grin, and obviously, check up on me.
But, belying my impression of what I sounded like -- and whether or not I "sounded" like anything at all from 8 feet away -- I had people apparently listening pretty much the whole time. I was watching for a "nobody's here" window to pack up and leave in disgust, but I didn't get one for two hours. Or maybe they were just eating their ice cream and smiling at me out of politeness (or the funny hat). Hard to tell.
To top it off, a guy came up and asked me if I had a card, and said I 'had a good sound", and something about being a producer and a studio or something. I'm like, "What -- this?!?". I'm feeling like a Neanderthal out there, banging on rocks and shouting, and he *likes* it?!? Can he even hear it?!? But of course, he'll never call, so I guess it doesn't matter what he heard or thought he heard.
Anyway, I made $21 in tips, presumably entirely out of pity. And of course now I'm all paranoid again to go down there with the amp, though I'm pretty sure the guy was just a "temp" cop, since he obviously hasn't heard of the "look the other way if they're not causing any trouble" policy that the rest of the real cops seem to have in place.
Seems to me like the city ought to have a Maximum Volume law, and not this arbitrary "no electronics" one. There are plenty of modern instruments that depend on electricity to work (keyboards, synths, surf guitar, my harmony box, Warren's lead guitar and effects thereon, April's iPod boombox backing tracks, etc.), and musicians that are responsible enough to play them at reasonable levels (as many of us are doing now). But to have to live under the threat of getting busted for providing the city's citizens and tourists with some entertainment seems uncool.
Nice weather, and lots of people out. Kinda slow at first, but then a surprising number of people stopped to actually listen for a while, hanging out around the planterboxes or the new comfy chairs. My brother and his wife came by, and probably helped by showing the others that it was OK to move the chairs and to actually pay attention to the music guy.
And it seemed like, the later it got, the more people were joining in, so I ended up playing for five and a half hours, ending at 11:30. The good part about being there so late is that the fountain goes completely off at 11, so it finally gets really quiet. I remembered to turn on the recording app in my iPad towards the end, and once the fountain noise disappears, the recordings are pretty passable. (If these links don't work in the email, go to the actual blog page by clicking the "y7alanzo" the link at the bottom.)
All My Loving
Hello
Wonderful Tonight
I was in the middle of a song, and a woman I used to work with at Toshiba walked up and stood there, holding out her business card. I couldn't take it from her, of course, but she stood there, and stood there, and stood there, looking at me expectantly. Finally she mouthed "Do you remember me?", and I nodded, trying to keep the song together at the same time. So she tossed the card on the table, turned around and left.
After the song was over I said, "I wonder how she thought I was going to take that card from her?", and everyone laughed, but now I realize that she thought I could read her name off of it, which, from 10 feet away, on a business card?!? Not likely. I don't know what her hurry was so she couldn't, say, wait a minute or two for the song to end and actually talk to me, but whatever.
Anyway, good night, good tips, and I'm finally over that cold enough that I didn't even notice it, or have to fight with it.
It was a nice warm day, so I was hoping that some people would be out, but it turned really cold, and they weren't. I played some popular stuff for a while, but nobody really wanted to stop to listen, so I started playing some obscure stuff from the "Other" list. That was actually really fun.
And sometimes I neglect songs that I don't (or didn't) think "worked", but actually do sound good out in the Real World. Like "I'll Never Find Another You", "Wichita Lineman", "Mister Bojangles", and "Trouble"" which sounded pretty good last night. OTOH, there are several that deserve their place in obscurity, not because they're bad songs, but because my rendition is sub-par (I'm lookin' at you, "Down at the Twist and Shout" and "I've Got a Name"). I guess it's also good to discover where I need more practice...
Not quite a new record low, tips-wise, at eight bucks. Or thirteen, if you count the cool New Zealand five dollar bill. (It's got a window! And Mount Everest! And a little tractor! And a penguin on the back!)
I got an email from a guy who saw me at Spectrum, and he also plays at malls and gave me the email address of the lady who books Long Beach Towne Center, Riverside Plaza, and Chino Spectrum. I emailed her my interest and webpage address, and she immediately booked me to fill a cancellation in Long Beach, just on the basis of the MP3s and videos there. Cool!
That all happened Thursday, and on Saturday, even before I'd played the gig, she offered me some more gigs, so I got two more at Long Beach and one in Riverside (which pays actual money, which is good 'cuz it's pretty far away!).
Long Beach was interesting. There's a huge permanent stage, with cool roof/sails and real lighting. And they send, incredibly, a Sound Guy with really nice equipment. Big speakers, and a big monitor "wedge" pointed back at me. It sounded *great* -- noticeably (and covet-inducingly) better than my stuff.
But it's all set up along a cross-traffic walkway, across which is the food court. People who wanted to listen would stop and stand in the middle of the walkway, or sit at the tables of the food court, or along the raised edge of its floor, or on the wheelchair ramp, or on the stairs themselves. None of those places are very close, or inviting, but I snagged a pretty good number of people to hang around anyway.
It feels a lot like the (now extinct) food court stage at Irvine Spectrum -- more of a "wander by" kind of crowd than the "standing in the middle of traffic" feel of the new stage at Spectrum. The other strange part is that they have two bands per night, one from 6 to 7, then an hour to change out the equipment, and a second band from 8 to 9. I was the first one, and maybe more of the older folks are out for the "early shift", so a lot of people stopped to listen a bit.
Long Beach is pretty close to my mom's house, and my aunt and uncle live really close, so they came and stayed the whole hour. That made it easy to get started in this unfamiliar place, to have some friendly faces to sing to, right from the start. After a while, a lady sat down who was really liking my stuff -- she'd applaud after the first few notes of a song when she'd recognize what it was going to be. James Taylor gets that for every song, but it sure doesn't happen for me, that I can remember! When I introduced "The Boxer", she squealed and clapped at just the name of it. And I was about to make a joke about nobody knowing that song's real name...
When 7:00 rolled around, I was prepared to quit (despite it seeming like I'd only just started), but the sound guy was OK with my going over some, since the next guy wasn't even there yet. That was nice because when I said that I was going to have to quit, someone started shouting "Encore!".
I played one or two more, and then the sound guy gave me a "three song warning". I did "Carolina In My Mind", and then "Desperado", and then realized that those are two of the longest songs I know. I thought I'd better do a short one for the last song, but someone in the audience shouted out "Hotel California" -- which I had done as my opening song (like always), but figured it was a good closing song, too, despite it being, whoops, probably the *longest* song in the book. Fortunately, the sound guy didn't seem to notice or mind.
So I probably only got to play for an hour and twenty minutes, and made $50 in tips (not counting the *outrageous* over-tip by my not-so-sneaky mom), so that's pretty good. It does seem a shame to go to the trouble of driving up there and getting all set up, only to play for an hour or so...
Afterwards, I packed up as quick as I could and had dinner with my family in the food court. They went home after that, but I wanted to see what the second band sounded like, and what kind of reception they'd get. It was a young guy doing that hipster neo-folkie kind of stuff, and, well, I was the only one listening. He played and sang OK, but it all sounded the same, and wasn't familiar to anyone (originals, maybe?).
Anyway, it was cool to have a new place to play, despite the quirks. And it's great to be "on the list" for some more gigs at even more places. And, of course, having gigs at places makes you more appealing to yet *other* places, so hopefully I can parlay this into even more new gigs!
Three young guys were hanging around, listening, so I asked them if they wanted to pick a song off the list. I assumed they were just local high school kids, until they started to talk -- they had French accents even more outrageous than John Cleese's. Turns out they were from Quebec, and had *driven* out. I felt bad that they were about to get some decidedly non-Californian weather, but I suppose that they're pretty well acclimated to cold and wet.
They asked for a few songs, and seemed to run out of ideas, so I proposed doing some Neil Young, 'cuz, "He's Canadian." One of the kids looked at me and said, "Eee's note Can-aid-ee-aan." Um, OK. Forget I mentioned it, Pierre.
A young couple sat down and asked if I knew any James Taylor. I said that I know *lots* of James Taylor, well-known and obscure, and started listing some famous ones. They picked one, but an older guy took me literally and asked for "Copperline", which, Ha!, I know. Challenge accepted! Got a big round of applause, too, even though I'm sure most of the people there had never heard it before.
It was quite nice during the day, but as soon as the sun went down, the arctic air started coming in, and it got cold, fast. I was about to call it a day when four high-school girls came and sat down, and got very excited when I invited them to choose some songs.
After a song or three, one of them picked up a CD and asked me how much they were. I said "five bucks", and she complained back to her friends that she "had three bucks". I told her that she could have one for three, but it turned out that she had meant that she *had* three bucks, but didn't have them anymore. So I said, "Well, OK, you can just have a CD", which, of course, turned into each of them just having one, so I "sold out" all four that I'd brought, for free. I said, "OK, but you all have to go "Like" my Facebook page", but none of them have. Oh well. It was worth it just having them stop by to listen and be so excited. And it's flattering that they even *wanted* CDs.
After a while, somebody's mom pulled up, and they all tumbled into the car and were gone. I was freezing, hungry, and, having played four hours plus four and a half the night before, decided that it was probably time to go home.
Nice weather again, so lots of people out and streaming past. The new comfy furniture arrangement isn't really conducive to watching me, but some people were brave enough to spin one of the chairs around. And lots of couples figured out that the chairs are big enough for lap-sitting.
I discovered a new trick -- if you scatter business cards around the table, a lot more of them will disappear than if they're only in a neat stack in the little holder. Now I gotta decide: why do I want to "get rid" of business cards? Presumably, people take them to get my phone number, webpage address, and Facebook page. But so far, two days later, nobody's called or "liked" my page, so...
But I guess you gotta play the odds -- the more people that have the info, the more likely that someone will up and use it. I suppose I'd better order some more cards.
I had this nice old lady come up and, between songs, ask me incredulously, "It says to put five dollars in the jar and just take a CD?!?" Um, yup, that's pretty much exactly what it says, so I said, "Sure!", and she said, "*Any* of them?!?". I'm not sure why she'd think that one would be more than the others, so I answered a different question and told her what the general contents of each of them is (i.e., "my best stuff", "kids music", and "classics"). She went back to her table and dug around in her purse for a bit, came back and took one (some?), pointed to the money she'd put in the jar, I smiled and nodded (since I was, by then, in a song), and she toddled off. I guess she thought it was the bargain of the century. Maybe it is. Or maybe she's just not used to self-serve shopping...
I gave a little blue fingerlight to a tiny boy, and his mom put it on his finger. He generally kept it pointed it at the ground, so his mom started stomping on the blue spot. He decided that looked like fun, and started to try to step on it, too, except since it was strapped to his finger, when he'd move toward it, it would move away. It was like that act where a clown kicks his hat every time he bends over to pick it up, only this was for real.
At one point, two couples were standing right out in front of me, and I was digging around the book for the next song and one of the ladies called out, "Play a love song -- they just got engaged!" I'm *totally* prepared for that (I even have a sub-table of contents of "Love Songs"), so I went for "Wonderful Tonight", which always has the ladies swooning. The engaged couple started slow dancing, and their friends joined in too. Sweet.
The last hour or so was really great, lots of people settled in and actually listening, requesting, and clapping. I like it when there's lots of people, but when there are fewer people, it gets quieter, and the remaining people tend to pay more attention. Or maybe the ones that care to pay attention *become* the ones who stay. Either way, I got to play some stuff with some finesse, and got some great response. Surprisingly, Lionel Richie's "Hello", which I've recently re-worked-out, got the biggest ovation. I was literally surprised by it. I guess my new guitar arrangement really *is* better than the old one.
We did our "standing" Tuesday night in Laguna, not expecting much, and not getting much, either. But that was OK, I took the opportunity to play a whole bunch of songs that I never usually do. For some reason (the dextromethorphan?) I was having some kind of weird clarity of thought thing going on, so my guitar playing was really accurate, and I could remember how to play songs that I haven't tried in years. It was really fun to have that "infallible" feeling.
A couple dozen people walked through, but our buddy Homeless Frank was really the whole audience all night. He kept telling us how much he liked "the new stuff", maybe because he's already heard "the old stuff" a million times.
At one point a nice lady walked right up, looked at my sign, and said, "Keith, you have a really beautiful voice!" I said, "Thanks, I got it from my dad" (as I always do), and asked her if she wanted to pick a song. She said that anything I wanted to sing was fine with her (as they frequently do), so I fired up "Leaving on a Jet Plane", which tends to "work" with ladies in her age range. And it did -- she stood there smiling at me for the whole song, then thanked me, put something in the jar, and walked across the street to climb into the passenger side of a waiting, running, car. I guess she liked me well enough to make her husband just wait...
The weather report said "sunny", but it wasn't. But I was rarin' to go down there anyway, so I presumed that it would clear up later. I was supposed to meet Warren at 12:45, hoping to get the jump on Tom again, but he outsmarted us and was already occupying The Corner when I drove by at 12:40. But the clouds were breaking up, there was a Craft Faire going on across PCH in the Main Beach park, and there were lots of people out, so I decided to park and figure something out. (Warren slept in after a late night and never did show up.)
I wandered around a bit, spying on Tom (who just seemed to be hitting his stride), and April singing away in the somewhat-distant Second Best spot: Acoustic Alley. I walked across the street to check out the Craft Faire, hoping to find some obvious spot to maybe set up over there, where lots of people were meandering. But there wasn't one, and I wouldn't have been comfortable setting up my illicit amplification in a new untested place if there were. At one point, it looked like Tom was gone, so I quickly came back across the street, only to find him sitting down in place, taking a cig break. Foiled again!
But he certainly has as much right to the spot as I do, so I gave up and set my stuff up at the distant-third spot: by the weird green ceramic spiral sculpture/bench thingie. But after about an hour, a light rain started up. I held out for a while, but eventually it got to be too wet to be out there with the electronics, so I packed the stuff up and put it back in the van. Tom is strictly acoustic, so he held out a bit longer than I did, but even if he had wanted to keep playing, the rain had made sure that there was no one to play for, so he gave up after a while.
I hung out under an awning until I was sure the rain had really stopped (20-30 minutes), re-fed the parking meter, and grabbed the opportunity at The Corner. Thanks, rain!
And after the rain blew over it got really nice out. People reappeared, and I had a great run for the rest of the afternoon. Lots of families, and people speaking outrageous foreign languages and taking my picture. I do (deliberately) play my part in the Laguna Street Scene, wearing my big top hat and singing "American Songs".
There was a tenner in the tip jar, and lots of fives (and ones, of course), for total of $72, which I'm pretty sure is a new record for street corner work. Two 13-year old girls came by, went into the ice cream shop, re-emerged with ice cream cones, and put five bucks, each, into the tip jar on their way back past. I guess Dad isn't getting any change back...
Later in the evening, two college girls came by near the end of "Wonderful Tonight", and started to dance to it. One girl was talking about doing some "Tahitian dancing", but the other one wanted to hear "Georgia on My Mind", which wasn't exactly conducive. After that, the Polynesian girl wanted me to play "Wonderful Tonight" *again*, so she could Hula to it. Didn't make much sense to me, but I'm in for whatever, and she squirmed around nicely, attracting a bit of attention and throwing in some hand-signs for the words, like "brushes her long blonde hair". There doesn't seem to be a traditional Hula sign for "car keys", though.
Warren and I had scheduled a gig in Laguna the day before when it was nice out, but then it turned all cold and gloomy. If I had been going down solo, I probably would have just called it off, but I couldn't leave Warren hanging so I went anyway.
And it turned out pretty great! A cold, gloomy weeknight in February. Naturally, there weren't many people out, but it seems like, when they're the only ones passing by at a given time, people get more friendly. The passer-by to tippers ratio definitely seems to go way up, at least.
Quite early on, we dragged in a cute little 5-year-old girl in a Hello Kitty hoodie and her mom and grandma. I immediately switched to kids' songs, and did 3 or 4 in a row for her/them. It always blows their little minds when I do "Twinkle, Twinkle". They are clearly not expecting to actually recognize anything out here in the Real World.
After they left, a guy came by and sat down on the bench. I asked him if he wanted to pick a song, but he said that he was just there waiting on his wife to finish shopping. I said, "Oh, like the couch they put outside the lingerie department", and he said, "Exactly". But he was there for quite a while, and started talking to us, and telling us about the James Taylor and CSN concerts that he'd seen back in Michigan. He finally asked for "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" once his wife appeared. I think he's the one that left the tenner in the jar.
Later, there was a pack of middle-aged ladies, escorting a younger lady who was "from Norway". They sat and listened for several songs, and Miss Norway requested "Hallelujah". One of the other ladies (mom, aunts?) asked for "Under the Boardwalk" which seemed slightly out of place on such a cold evening, but whatever.
As they finally had to move on, I gave my new Norwegian fan a copy of my CD, which she seemed thrilled by. (I told her escorts that I only did it so she'd take it back with her after which I could claim to be "world famous".) Much later, as we were packing up, they came back by and she ran up and asked me to autograph it!
Anyway, we had a nice evening with a most-of-the-time revolving audience, and pulled in $36, which was shocking since I was wondering on the drive down there if this was gonna be the first night where I didn't make back the $2 parking meter fee...
The new batteries are here! And since I had a pretty good day last Sunday, and it looked to be a nice weather day, it seemed like a great chance to see what they can do.
Of course, it turned out that it was also Super Bowl Sunday, but we decided that Laguna people probably aren't into that kind of thing, so we went anyway. And there were, indeed, lots of people out. So many that it started to feel a bit like last summer, with throngs of people streaming heedlessly past. Still, you can't blame people for having somewhere else to be, and the more people that come by, the more chance that some of them will hear something they like.
Unfortunately, in the daytime, the parking meters will only allow a 3 hour maximum, so we started at 1:00, and had to quit at 4. I was very happy to find that I covered the whole time with only one of the new batteries -- success! And since I bought two new batteries, I presumably now have access to more than 6 hours of amplifier time, which is longer than I can stand there singing anyway.
The only bummer was that another street musician, Tom, showed up as we were setting up. Warren told him that we'd be playing for quite a while, until 3 or 4, and he said that that's OK, he was just hanging out. Which he proceeded to do The. Whole. Time. He just sat on the middle of the bench (mostly precluding other people from sitting there), and listened, for the whole three hours.
I've heard him play before, and he's pretty good. So it was a bit intimidating to have him there, but I guess it also kept me on my best game. But he didn't clap, didn't smile, didn't comment, and kind of "dragged down the room". I kept thinking that he'd get bored, or hungry, or something, but he just sat there.
Oh well. We still pulled in $54, even with Tom's "chilling effect" in place, which is a Darn Good Day for down on a street corner. Definitely beats watching some football game on TV.
Finally, warm weather! I arrived to find that they'd messed with the layout again -- there are new comfy chairs around the planter boxes, which, apparently, led them to put up a tiny stage -- 8x8 instead of the previous 16x16 one. Fortunately, that's plenty for just me, but I don't know what the giant-synth-setup guy or the 3-man Peruvian band are gonna do...
I had had a really terrible cold since Tuesday, and didn't really know if I'd be able to sing at all, but I was feeling a bit better, and I'd already paid the $50 "setup fee", and I don't know what her policy is for last minute cancellations, so I chugged some cough syrup, loaded up a huge bottle of Mountain Dew, and went anyway. It was tough going for the first hour or two, but after that, it seemed to clear up and I was singing just fine. I only crashed and burned one song in a coughing fit all night.
Lots of people out on this fine night, and even more because of the Winter Formal kids wandering around in large packs, microscopic dresses, and outrageously high heels. I guess they were just killing time before their actual event started somewhere else, 'cuz after a while, they disappeared altogether. Disappointingly, only a few of them had time to listen to and/or request some songs -- usually I get more connection from the teens, but they were probably distracted.
I finally had a recurrence of the believed-extinct Kids' Party, helped along mightily by some parent's clapping along to the rhythm to the Chuck Berry, causing others to join in. Why doesn't this happen more often?!? It *really* dragged other people in. I'm not sure how to get that started on my own, though -- once the music starts, my hands are kinda busy...
Anyway, I must not have sounded *too* bad, since I sold 5 CDs and pulled in $143. I think I actually had a lot more listeners than it seemed, since people can now camp out in the comfy chairs and listen without seeming to be specifically engaging with me, and there were lots of people in those chairs for long stretches. Or maybe they were just tired...
I ordered new batteries for the amp, and even though they haven't arrived yet, we decided it's still fun enough to do an only-2 hour set down on the corner. It's been warmer so it's not an endurance test anymore, either.
Not many people, of course, but Silly Patty came by, and crazy-dressed Mikey (who may be on the verge of becoming Laguna Beach's official new Greeter) was there for a while, too, so we had some friends to play for.
The batteries, as expected, lasted just over 2 hours, but the evening was young so I sat on the bench with Patty and we ran through Elton John and Kiki Dee's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". We had so much fun with "Baby It's Cold Outside" that we're working up a new duet, now that it's not so "cold outside".
And I was home early, for a change.
It turned out to be easy to remove the batteries from the amp's case, and run the wires outside to connect each battery in turn, instead of both at the same time. I was hoping to discover that one of them was damaged/dead in some way, or something. And the sun came out so I thought it would be worth going down and killing two birds.
I got started at 3:20, and although it wasn't exactly beach weather, there were lots of people out. Even before I got started, my friend Susie and her husband came by. Their little south-Laguna store, Twig, is closed for remodeling, so they had the day off to go for a stroll downtown.
The first battery lasted and hour and ten minutes. I swapped in the other one, and only got forty-five minutes more. The combined time was just about what I was getting when they were both connected, so no surprises or revelations there. I guess I just need to buy new batteries, but the good news is that I found out that these batteries are pretty commonly used in Uninterruptible Power Supplies, emergency lighting, fish finders, electric wheelchairs, powered scooters, and other stuff, so they're pretty easily available on Amazon. I ordered two, with higher Amp-hour ratings than the originals, for less than the amp store charges for one.
The second battery gave up during the last chorus of "Hallelujah", just when I had some people snagged and actually plunked down on the bench to listen. Bad timing, but once the batteries are dead, I'm done. I'm getting pretty tired of hassling with batteries -- hopefully, the new ones will put all this behind me. But I may have to start coming down on more Sunday afternoons -- I made $29 in only 2 hours, with lots more friendly people than we see on Tuesday nights.
The lady who used to do PR for Toshiba, back 25 years or so ago, now runs a guitar slide company with her husband. They have an annual party at their house on the occasion of the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) trade show in Anaheim, and upon learning that I play guitar, she invited me. I don't know how to "jam", but, in keeping with my new "go anyway" policy, I went.
They live in a historic 1911 house, with a (new) 3-car garage that's entirely a music room with her husband's keyboards and her drum set. Their friends brought over lots more amps, guitars, basses, mics, etc. It was a loud electric 12-bar blues jam all night long, and quite good. Not my thing, of course, so I listened some, but didn't bother to join in.
But after a while, a second jam formed in the living room of the house, with all the acoustic guitar guys. We all kind of settled in, tuned up, and then, "Now what?"
One of the experienced guys finally said "Who's a singer?" and I raised my hand, expecting to be one of many, but I was the only one. Whoops. One of the other guys suggested "I've Just Seen a Face", which I know, but I told them that I couldn't do it in the original key. The better players in the circle were able to fake it in my key (with help by watching my hands), and the beginners followed along as best they could.
I had snuck my "street rig" amp into position, for just such an occasion, so I decided that if I was gonna be The Singer, I'd better "suit up", and did. While I was getting my mic, harmony box, and music book at the ready, a guy started in with "The Weight", but nobody knew the words. I got everything up and running just in time to start in on the first verse, but it was in the original key, *way* higher than I do (or *can* do) it. I screeched it out anyway, 'cuz *somebody* had to...
After that, I suggested "Hotel California", but in *my* key. We went through the first verse while I shouted out the chords, and then we went on through it.
From there, I tried to find the most straightforward songs in my book, since nobody seemed to have another plan in mind. I don't know if this is how these things are supposed to work, but everybody seemed to be enjoying it.
After a while, a lady came in who was a singer for a local country band, and she wanted to sing some stuff. We did "You've Got a Friend", and "Long, Long Time". After she left, some of the other guys (I guess we had 7 guys playing) got up to take a break, and one of the guys started a 12-bar blues jam, and the host showed up to play some slide on his dobro and sing some classic blues lyrics. I carried the chords while the other guys "soloed".
And then one of the guys started doing his original songs, and I watched his hands and tried to contribute some fingerpicked filigree onto his 12-string strumming. Sounded OK, maybe.
Anyway, it was fun -- both the "doing my songs" part, and the "try to keep up" part. I must have been enjoying myself, 'cuz I didn't get home 'til 2am. I reckon I'll be back next year, maybe a little more prepared.
Another short session, testing whether the addition of the monitor speaker is what's made the battery life so short. I started out with the monitor attached (to get the volume and mix right), and then unplugged it after a while. The batteries still only lasted two hours, so, drat. I guess my next experiment is to rig it up so I can run each of the batteries individually, and see if anything surprising comes of that.
Not much traffic down there, of course, on a Tuesday night in January. We pulled in seven bucks, though -- enough to pay for parking, if not gas...
A guy came by with a big camera, and asked if he could take some pictures of us. We agreed, of course. He seemed to be doing some kind of actual Photography, not just taking pictures, so I gave him my card and asked him to send some pictures along. He said he would, but I haven't seen anything so far.
We had a weird break in the cold weather for an almost summer-like weekend and a lot of people came out to the mall. But it was oddly difficult to get anyone to stop and listen. Maybe I was just off my game...
It was the first outing at Spectrum for my new wireless guitar interface, making me completely disconnected. I didn't really expect it to be that different, but it is. Obviously, I can now walk around the stage (but only if I don't need to see the song sheet or click the harmony box's buttons), but what I didn't anticipate is that I can also turn around as much as I want to. When there's a cable attached to the guitar, it's risky to spin in place, 'cuz you wind yourself up, and have to remember to un-spin the opposite direction, and also be sure not to trip yourself on the wire that you're wrapping yourself up in. With the all-wireless rig, there's no worries.
And this is especially useful at Spectrum where I'm out in the middle of the corridor, with people coming in from both directions. I've settled on playing away from the fountain, but there are some people who camp out at the tables that line the sides of the fountain behind me, so now I can periodically turn around to see if anyone's back there, or acknowledge some applause, or just to get a different outlook. I'm pretty pleased with it.
Anyway, despite not feeling like I was connecting very much, I sold 4 CDs and made $129 (and somebody put a twenty in there), so I guess I didn't do as bad as it felt like I was. The money's nice and all, but I'd be happier with the evening with less money and more connecting. I need to work on my "patter"...
I really only went down there to see if, by charging the amp for three days straight, it'd last longer than 2 hours. It didn't. I thought that maybe the last time I'd only gotten 2 hours it was because I didn't charge it enough. Nope.
And it was cold. Really cold. I was hoping, against my own best interests, that it would hurry up and crap out so I could go home and get warm. When it finally did, I packed up like a zombie hoard was on its way, and practically ran to the car.
I did get a chance to try out some new songs. Stuff always sounds different out in the real world than it does playing at home. I've (inexplicably) worked up a medley of "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" and "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys", which seemed pretty cool at home, but didn't really fly out there. I'm not sure I'll ever have the guts to play 'em with people actually listening, anyway. But I also learned "Please Come to Boston", which sounded pretty good at home, and even better out on the corner, so I think that one's a keeper.
Nobody stopped to listen, of course, except one lady who may or may not have really been stopping to smoke her cigarette (though she did drop some money in). Mostly people just sped by, on their way to someplace warmer, I guess -- but several of them tossed a buck in on their way past. Not sure how they made the decision to tip me when they couldn't have heard more'n a half verse on their way by, but I guess they either had pity on the blue-lipped singin' boy, or I'm just terrific in small doses.
So, although the tips-to-passersby ratio was high, it was almost completely deserted, so I only made $8.50. Sorry Ma, you can't get that operation yet...
But I was really only down there to time the amp in a real-world situation. On the other hand, until it warms up a bit, I guess the battery-life issue is moot. I've had my fill of freezing to death for a while. And the homeless guys have heard all my stuff by now.
January is as empty of gigs as December had been full, so even with the cold and likelihood of empty streets, I decided to go down to Laguna just to get a playing fix. And it was pretty much as expected.
But after a while Silly Patty showed up, though she spent most of the time talking to the homeless guys. I did get her to come up and sing the Girl Part of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with me, which I can still get away with 'cuz it's an "it's cold" song, not particularly a "Christmas" one. It was a bit tricky, 'cuz I only had the one mic, and it's a head-mic at that, but she held it out and we tried to sing into it together like John and George.
It went pretty well, so I had her sing "Santa Baby", which, OK, *is* a Christmas song, but there wasn't anybody there to complain (nor listen, for that matter), and we were having fun.
After that, I sang a few more songs, and suddenly the amp started cutting out, due to lack of power. I should be getting 6 hours out of it, since I installed a second battery, but I only got 2. On New Year's I was only out there for 1:45, so I don't know if it would have done more or not. Seems like I got 2:30 at least at Naples.
I don't know if I just didn't charge it enough, or if there's something wrong with the batteries, or what. Both of the batteries are almost new, but I don't know how to test 'em except to just use the amp and see how it goes. I guess I'll charge them for a couple of days, and just go down and do another evening down there, and see how long I get. If I don't get more than 2 hours again, I'm gonna have to go talk to the guys who sold me those batteries...
