K&W at Waterloo Station -- 25May2007

Well, that was different, at least. Waterloo Station is a new coffee shop, just 4 miles from my house. Daleen noticed an article about it when it opened up, and the owner (Suzy) was soliciting "local musicians" to come play. I emailed her, and got a reply from her boyfriend Rick, saying that he knew all about us 'cuz he'd seen us play several times before, and that he'd be happy to have us come in. That was kinda cool -- being "famous"...

A lot of my local friends have never come to see us play, citing "too far" as their reason (or excuse). So I thought that this would be a great place to play 'cuz they could all come out. Luckily (or not) it occurred to me to check the place out in person before I sent out the "come see me" message, 'cuz the place is kinda small. So I sent out the message, but I didn't really push it.

I needn't have worried about my friends overcrowding the place, though -- none came. Not only that, no strangers came either. Well, almost none -- we had one very loud older guy come in and basically take over the place for 45 minutes. We just kind of stood and watched. He didn't even buy anything -- in fact, he was trying to sell some paintings to Suzy. And later on, a guy come in to buy a chocolate croissant, settled for a brownie, and sat and made a few requests and listened for a while.

Other than them, all we had was Suzy and her dad to play for, until boyfriend Rick finally came by towards the end. He's a big British Rock fan, and ran down the list naming lots of songs for us to do. In addition to being the "booker" for Waterloo, he's also a "local musician" playing open mics and gigs at other places, so he knows a lot about being a "bookee". As we were tearing down he and Warren had a long talk about places to check into, which might turn out really useful.

But Suzy (and her dad) and Rick seem to like us and our songs, so we all agreed to (pretend to) blame the lack of attendance on the Memorial Day weekend, and try again at some unspecified future date.

Pawnee Princess Campout at O'Neill

Since Sunday was Mother's Day, and we couldn't find any other less-crowded weekend, we had an Our-Tribe-Only campout for just Friday to Saturday. This one-night campout idea actually worked brilliantly. Since there were only 2 meals involved, we just had pizza on Friday night, and went out to McDonald's for breakfast on Saturday morning.

It saved us having to get groceries for 20, and drag out all the propane, stoves, supplies, pots, pans, forks, paper towels, etc., etc. And we didn't have to waste time cooking the food, and cleaning up afterwards. Clean-up from pizza is "Throw your paper plate in the fire".

It was also easier on the dads, 'cuz it's a lot easier to recover from one bad night's sleep than two, and easier on the girls 'cuz they had some weekend left over to get their homework done, etc. Not as much playtime, obviously, but, you know, enough.

It also produces a cool effect that Warren and I independently noticed about playing on Friday nights -- when you do something cool on Friday night, it makes it seem like a 3-day weekend. You do something fun, and then you have Saturday, and, although it seems like the weekend must be over, there's still Sunday left -- like a bonus!

I guess another thing that made this one-nighter seem a lot easier was that there was no Big Production Saturday Night Campfire (with me setting up the Whole Rig, playing, and tearing it all down again) and no Sunday Morning Assembly (with me setting it all up and playing again). I sure like playing for the kids and all, but it takes a big chunk out of my weekend to have to.

K&W at CM - 05May2007

Pretty good night. The amp didn't blow up this time, so that's a start...

We set up really early, 'cuz we're getting used to getting kicked out at 10. Most places that close at 10 start the music at 7, so we're just treating that place as a 7-10er, even though officially it's an 8-11.

Downside of that, though, was that there was nobody there yet, so it was hard to get started, playing (and, worse, announcing) to an empty room. But it started filling in after a while, and people were tuning in. My voice, which, by my experiments singing in the car in the days leading up to the gig, was gonna be a terrible embarrassment (cracking and just cutting out), turned out to be the best it's been in many weeks. And at times, better than I can remember for a long time. I was hitting high notes, and had a kind of nimbleness that I haven't seen in forever. Truth be told, it was making me kind of cocky, and I took chances I won't usually touch. Fun!

The last hour or 45 minutes we had a kind of full house, and it seemed ridiculous to shut down just when the crowd had finally materialized and gotten in the groove, but the Mean Girl Manager doesn't see any of that...

We had lots of people come up and tell us that we were "really good", and one guy seemed to be telling Warren that he was gonna fix us up with a (presumably paid) party somewhere. We'll see...

Tried out the new "Girl", a Beatles song from "Rubber Soul". It sounds pretty good at home, but just kind of laid there in the store. I'll give it another go or two, but it may just not "have it". Shame, too, 'cuz it's a song where I actually strum (gasp!) the guitar, and it actually works.

KC at Costa Mesa - 28April2007

I always have trepidations before a solo gig, but once I get started (always the hardest part), I get over it and have a great time. There were lots of nice people there this time, and I set up a connection right away, and got lots of requests and dialog with several people.

Eventful night. I'm still not over my throat trouble, but I managed, mostly. Following, kinda, Warren's example, I set up the video camera with what I thought was a newly charged battery, but it kept going off after a minute or two. I didn't know what was wrong, so I kept trying to get it to keep going, but was reluctant to keep stopping the show to go out and mess with it too much. At 9:10 or so I finally put in the spare battery (duh), and it ran fine from there.

But not for long. At 9:45, right in the middle of the last dramatic heartfelt chorus of "Jersey Girl", the amp just went "click!", and was dead. That was an interesting feeling -- the sudden "silence" of being abruptly acoustic-only.

I turned it off and back on and tinkered with various things, but it was a goner. So, since I thought I had a half hour or so left, I pulled out the store's little amp, and jacked all my stuff into it, and tried to continue (the show, not that song).

That was kinda tricky too though, 'cuz although my guitar and vocal mic run at about the same level when I'm using my amp, with the store's amp I had to set the vocal channel and the master volume all the way up to get even close to Loud Enough. My guitar's channel only had to be at about 4 (of 10). Weird. Anyway, I did another two or three songs, and got the tap-on-the-wrist signal from the Mean Girl Manager, so it was over.

But it was fun while it lasted. Lots of good feedback, requests, comments, and then warm-fuzzies afterwards while I was tearing down. Some ladies were requesting James Taylor songs, and called out "Thank you, Keith!" as they left. A young couple came over and just plopped down right in front and were just Listening. They didn't even have any books or magazines with them -- a First, I think.

I'm back there again next Saturday, with Warren. Good thing I still have the Indian Princess amp as a backup. I guess I'll take a look and see if it's something obvious, and then send mine back to Carvin for repair.

Canoe Trip down the Colorado River

We had a Trailmates trip to paddle some canoes down the Colorado River. Officially, only Geneva is in Trailmates, but I took Acacia too, since there's not much chance I'll do this again.

There's a campground on the river, just south of Needles. We left plenty early on Friday, but it took 6 hours to get there. Saturday morning, you get up, and they bus you upstream 11 miles, and you get to drift/paddle back to camp. They provide a sack lunch (in a zip-lock bag, just in case), and build a big barbeque dinner at the camp, too.

Apparently, it's really easy to flip the canoes over, so the standard practice for beginners is to bring some heavy sprinkler pipe and duct tape two canoes together into an unflippable catamaran. It also makes it more fun, 'cuz the kids get to be with their friends.

We paddled for a while, then pulled up on a beach to eat lunch. Paddled down a little while more, and pulled up on the other side, so the kids could "go swimming in Arizona". The water was chilly, but not too cold for the kids, and it was nice and sunny to dry them out soon enough. We also had some big squirtguns for water wars between canoes, but that only happened right at first 'cuz we were slowpokes and didn't run into any other friends after the launch point.

We were out for about 5 hours in all, which was plenty, but it was fun. Maybe I will do it again...

KC at Yorba Linda - 14April2007

This was scheduled as a K&W gig, but Warren got a better offer (a unique opportunity he couldn't, and shouldn't, pass up), so it was just me. Probably for the best, too, because I'm coming down with a nasty cold, and had a *terrible* sore throat. I've played/sung with a sore throat before, and the adrenalin or whatever made it seem to go away, but this one was un-ignore-able for most of the night. For the first hour or so I was constrained to some kind of little half-voice, which, even then, wasn't terribly accurate when I'd send it after some note or another.

It wasn't so bad that I had to just give up and go home, though I had half a mind to do so, but I had a good start (the hard part -- getting that initial connection), and a good audience that didn't seem to notice the flaws, so I kept going. Right at the beginning I had a gramma and grampa with three little kids, so I got to sing some of the kids' songs, and several audience members were throwing out requests.

For the last hour or so, an older lady and her daughter sat down in the comfy chairs, and related how the grandson/son (2, but not present) "plays my CD every day". They knew, and requested, a bunch of songs off of that CD, and I could see their lips move as the sang quietly along. They really liked "Teddy Bears' Picnic" (which I ought to record and add to the CD someday), and they were delighted by the new "Matilda" verse for "Waltzing With Bears". They had clearly seen me/us before, and I wish I'd'a had the presence of mind to ask them how they knew I was coming back, or if they're just there every Saturday.

There was also a beautiful Asian-American lady, by herself, who sat and listened closely for the whole last hour or more. She requested a few songs, the same ones that I think are my best (for singing, i.e., "Crying"), but when I asked her if she had more requests, she just said "I like them all." It was kind of unnerving -- I was starting to think that she wanted to ask me something, or was studying my guitar playing, or something. At the end, while I was tearing down, she come up and asked what kind of guitar I have, 'cuz she thought it "sounded beautiful". That was nice.

Anyway, it was pretty good, but pretty bad, too. I had fun, but it was tough to be that bad of a singer, and the bandwidth I was spending on worrying about and trying to control my trashed voice made me make guitar screwups that I've never even imagined. Which, of course, made me start to think too much about my hands, which makes it worse, 'cuz my hands know how to play that stuff, but I don't. I had considered bringing along the computer to record the night, but I'm glad I didn't -- I wouldn't want a recording of the many songs that were the worst I've ever done. Oddly, though, there were half a dozen that went really well -- I was kind of singing really "gently" to spare my voice (and not push it to cracking), and that treatment worked nicely of a few of them.

I had been working (some more) on "Mother Goose" all week, but was afraid to try it, or most of the songs that go even a little high. I've also been working on "American Tune", which I thought might be safer to try without Warren there, but it goes *way* too high, so I didn't risk it. Next time, assuming I'm well by then.

Yellow Submarine Pinecar

For this year's, and presumably our last, Pinecar Derby, Acacia and I built the Yellow Submarine. Every year I ask her what she wants her car to be ("Caterpillar!", "Whale!", "Unicorn!"), but this year, since she's become a big Beatles fan, I proposed the Yellow Submarine idea, which, of course, she loved.

We used the same methodology as the Gray Whale from three years ago, but that one was whittle-able (with a carrot peeler, for safety (she was only 9 then)). This one has more complexity, and more "inside curves", so we cut the basic profile shape from a block of balsa, and just started working on the 3D shape by hand, using the sanding drum. There are no pictures (in the movie) of the sub from the top or bottom, so we just got to (had to) fake the plan view shape.

I whittled the periscopes while she sanded and painted, and we made the handrail around the top out of some 1/8-inch solder I had, super-glued together and painted red.

The painting was a lot harder than the all-gray whale, but we didn't have to make perfect lines 'cuz they got covered up by the red vinyl pinstripe tape. We did the hatches with masking tape, and the windows (with the little Beatles in them) and main "flower(?)" decoration were printed to scale on CD label sticker stock. The clear lacquer overcoat gives the flat acrylic paint, and everything else, the same shininess, and hopefully will keep the stickers safe.

The base is the original car block, cut off short, and covered with a printed piece of paper. I found a picture of an original cel from the movie showing the Sea of Holes, and PhotoShopped the Beatles out of it. Acacia pointed out that one of the holes should be green, 'cuz they went through that one to get to the Sea of Green. The clear shaft that connects them together is a piece of a mini-blind control rod.

There was no race or design competition this year (to save both the dads and daughters the worry of trying to compete in everything), so it was just for fun, and for show. Of course, we got lots of impressed people, but we also have a fun decoration on permanent display in her room, and lots of memories.

Idea for Borders

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

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

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

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

K&W at South Coast Plaza again - 07Apr2007

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

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

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

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

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

K&W at South Coast Plaza - 30Mar2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

K&W at Costa Mesa - 23Mar2007

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

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

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

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

Me and Daleen at California Adventure

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

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

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

KC at Costa Mesa - 16Feb2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

K&W at Costa Mesa -- 10Feb2007

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

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

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

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

Father/Daughter Girl Scout Bowling

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

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

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

K&W at Yorba Linda -- 20Jan2007

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

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

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

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

K&W at Mission Viejo -- 13Jan07

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

K&W at SCP -- 05Jan07

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

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

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

K&W at Yorba Linda -- 15Dec2006

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

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

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

I played a Christmas Party!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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