K&W at Brea -- 25Aug2007

Brea's never been a favorite of mine, 'cuz it's really far, and the setup is *really* lame, (and, I suppose, my solo near-bomb last month) but this one went really well. The half of my brain that I get to devote to playing the guitar was unusually lucid -- things that are usually "the hard part" seemed somehow really easy. That can't have anything to do with the spider bite on my hand, can it?

Anyway, there were some pretty friendly people out there, and that always helps me "give it up" more on the singing side. And, on top of the guitar clarity, I was singing higher than I've ever been able to. There are "high notes" in several of the songs that I mostly hit, but am straining to do so. This time, I just hit 'em -- no strain, and no strained tone. That was kind of amazing, though obviously only to me.

After the gig, we drove over to "Brea Downtown", a recently dandy-fied sort of outdoor mall/street with two movie theaters, ginchy shops and restaurants, and, significantly, a local band playing on the corner for tips. It was pretty late (10:30ish), so the crowds were down from when Daleen and I were there a few weeks ago at 9:30. Warren's sent in the Application and a CD, so we'll see if we can get "in" there sometime. They warned us that the next open spot, if we get in, is November 9th, so it won't be soon. Nor swarming with summer crowds, but it still looks fun, and, at least, different.

Keith at Yorba Linda -- 18Aug2007

Nice. Kinda quiet at first, but I slowly built up some rapport with the audience, and we were all pals by the end. It was actually kind of rewarding, because at first people were afraid to clap. Then some folks were clapping visibly, but not audibly. As we went on, they got braver and started clapping loud enough to be heard, which encouraged other people...

I didn't go too far out on a limb, but I did play "Still Crazy", (which I love to do (it's got great chords), though it doesn't seem to get much reaction), and some others. I've been playing "The Weight" a lot lately ('cuz it's good practice for strumming), so I thought I'd try that one out, but I ignored my marking of "capo 2" on the page, at my own peril. I wish Present Keith would trust Past Keith on this kind of thing, but I'd been playing and singing it all week with no capo, so I thought I knew what I was doing.

Unfortunately, I didn't, and I also forgot that my voice is just about exactly a whole-step higher when I'm in the café than when I'm at home. That includes being a whole-step "less low", and I was pretty bottomed out trying to sing that thing without the capo. *Now* do I believe me?!?

I also ended the night with "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye", an underrated, oft-neglected classic that I think really works for me, though Warren seems bored to tears by it.

Towards the end, a little four-flock of Hispanic ladies -- all moms, daughters, and sisters -- came in and piled into the comfy chairs up close. They thought this/I was Pretty Cool, and were asking for whatever songs they recognized, mostly Willie Nelson and James Taylor. That was fun.

I usually put the tip jar kind of off and away from us/myself, to avoid making people uncomfortable coming up to it. Lately, though, it seems like maybe that "they can see me doing this" effect is helpful, not intimidating, so I put it right out front -- and made $23, a pretty good take for that place.

I hadn't even bothered to put the CD display out, 'cuz we haven't been selling any lately, and there's this controversy about the stores getting a cut, and I don't have many in "inventory" anyway. But as I was packing up, a guy asked me outright if I had any CDs with me, so I gave him one and he put some money in the jar for it. I don't think he put a ton of money in for it, though -- and I like it when the big tip totals seem to be summed from many small amounts, rather than a few people putting in big bills. Though big bills are nice, too...

K&W at Borders Tustin -- 5Aug2007

They're building a new shopping center on the now-closed Marine base in Tustin, and there's a huge new Borders. We campaigned for, and got, scheduled to play for the Grand Opening, which is the only Borders gig that pays money.

It's a nice store, huge, but the designated "Band Area" is really narrow -- shoehorned in between the side-exit "airlock" glass box, and a big square post in the café itself. This leaves about a 10-foot space for the band, which would be fine for one guy, but for the two of us, it was too narrow. We kind of cheated the configuration diagonally and got away with it, except...

My amp, to my left, was right up against the side door with its merchandise-control radar posts, which radiated out into the amp's circuitry, making a loud "whuh-whuh-whuh" noise. We had to quickly rebuild the setup, putting the amp on the right and the slave speaker on the left, which is fine except we're really used to what goes where when we build it the other way, and this was plenty confusing.

Anyway, the gig went pretty well after that. Lots of pretty nice people, and many of them left small tips, which is gratifying. I think maybe the tip jar itself was in a more-obvious-than-usual place, but it's hard to tell. I may have to experiment with that.

The General Manager, a late-20's, slightly punk kinda guy, sent over another guy to request "Mrs. Robinson" -- apparently after hearing other Simon and Garfunkel tunes. That was plenty unexpected, but I happen to have been poking at that song lately because of a Paul Simon TV special last month, so I dredged up what I could of it, and I thought it was a pretty acceptable job for a song I don't know. That was pretty fun, actually.

Then, at the very end, while I was making the "thanks for coming" announcement, a guy sent his little (grand?) son up to put some money in the jar, which was kinda up high for a 3-year-old, so his arm got caught in the jar and he pulled it right off the table, shattering it, and leaving a stack of crumpled money in a pile of broken glass. I just kept talking, and segued into "so we'll get a new tip jar and see you next time."

K&W at Bar Mitzvah Breakfast Party -- 5Aug2007

Two gigs in one day -- and both of them for actual money! (See next post.)

The first one was an after-bar-mitzvah breakfast party. A lady heard us playing at the Mission Viejo Borders in 2005, and asked us afterwards if we played parties, and when we said we'd love to, she said she needed a band in August of 2007. We thought she was a little crazy, booking two years in advance, so we said that maybe she ought to wait until it was a bit closer, and talk to us then.

And sure enough, a couple of months ago, she emailed me and was ready to book a date. Now that we understand that it was combined with her son's bar mitzvah, it makes sense that she knew the date so far in advance...

Anyway, she just wanted live background music, which is usually really annoying for me, but, for $75 each, we agreed anyway. Turned out to not be so bad -- there were 30 or so people, and they weren't being rude exactly, they were just having a family reunion with lots of talking and laughing, and we just played. It's actually a little tough, 'cuz it's hard to play when you can't hear yourself, but we managed.

Unfortunately, while putting the amp up on the stand, it pinched my fretting-hand big finger and raised a nasty blood blister. Luckily, I play with the tips of my fingers, so it didn't hit the string very often. When it did, though, I was mostly afraid that it would pop while I was playing and get blood all over the fretboard...

The people mostly just talked and laughed, but they were clearly listening also -- I caught the lady who hired us (Suzy) singing along from time to time, and after "Desperado" there was a little spontaneous round of applause. Suzy was suddenly conscious that clapping for that one meant that there *hadn't* been any clapping for the previous 15 songs, and said something about "they were *all* good, not just this one!" People were mostly appreciative, and several came up and said nice things at the end. We played two more James Taylor songs after most everyone had left, just so Suzy could sing, as she was clearly rearin' to do.

That may have accounted for the oversized $200 check she wrote us, $50 over the agreed-on price. Nice.

Keith solo at Yorba Linda -- 28July2007

Another fun night. There were lots of people in the comfy chairs already when I got there, and I was able to get them involved right off the bat. I got lots of requests from around the room, and a lady right up front asked for "Something in the Way She Moves", and yes, the James Taylor version. I gladly started playing it, and her little round husband took her hand, and they stood up and started slow dancing! Right there in the bookstore. It's not even exactly a "slow" song, but they faked it. Other than little kids, I think that's the first time I've gotten dancing...

After I got set up, I went and found the manager, and asked her if she had any special instructions for me. She asked me to stop playing around 10, and I tried to get that extended by telling her that it only takes me 20 minutes to tear down the stuff, but she wanted to be able to make the "we're closing" announcements without having to blast over me, which I suppose makes sense. I also asked if she needed me to take a break, but she couldn't imagine why she'd want that, though she said that "most of 'em do". I said that I'd just rather play through, and she was OK with that.

I did *not* ask her if she was sick of my "same songs" repertoire -- a (probably bogus) complaint we've gotten lately. But I did try to play some of the lesser-done ones from the list, when I wasn't playing requests. The requests tend to be the more popular ones, and force the set to be the "same songs", so it's hard to take the complaint seriously. Clearly the ever-changing audience doesn't care -- if there's a real complainer, it must have been either a "regular" or an employee. Neither of whom ought to have a right to complain about that -- what am I supposed to do, learn 30 new songs every month?

Anyway, it was a nice, mellow, fun gig. I was singing and playing well. My newly-repaired amp sounds good, though I should have noted where I had the reverb controls set at -- I have no idea how to adjust those back to sound right. But I tweaked that and the volume levels between songs and eventually got it close enough.

Toward the end, a pair of older couples (you know, my age) came in, clearly in a good mood. They asked for several songs, laughed at my jokes, and took a business card to check the schedule for next time. I wish they'd have gotten there sooner. And almost last, I worked in "Mother Goose", 'cuz there was a guy down front who knew it, and he was properly impressed -- he even came up and said so at the end, and recommended another Tull song, "Moths", which I've never heard of, but should look up.

And as I was out in the parking lot loading the amp into my trunk to leave, a lady pulled past me, rolled down her window, and yelled "Good job tonight!"

K&W at Costa Mesa -- 21July2007

The gig went really well this week. My voice was in much better shape than last week in Brea, and we had lots of friendly faces. One couple came in to buy some coffee, noticed us, and decided to sit and listen. They were very into it (being big James Taylor fans), and even moved from their table to a closer one when it freed up. The big triangular display structure that usually blocks us from the Comfy Chair area was gone, so we had the luxury of playing to both those people and the café itself at the same time.

We got there nice and late -- partially on purpose and partially because of the OC Fair traffic -- and set up slowly, to avoid the "starts too early" no-no. We took the requisite Break, and I ended up talking to some of the Comfy Chair people, who were aghast that this was to be our last time playing there. One guy who's there every time we play immediately got up to talk to the manager. I'm not sure how inclined the manager should be to accommodate the desires of people who essentially use his store as a living room, but maybe it'll help.

We played to 10:00 and quit (despite no sign of the usual watch-tapping Manager Girl), and it occurred to me that maybe the manager had changed, as they do pretty frequently, and if so, this was our best and only chance to try to fix the black-balling. So we found him, a nice guy named Nick, and he said that he had nothing against us, and would call the district manager on Monday, after talking to his staff to see if there was something treacherous about us that he was unaware of. He's supposed to call me with the results of all that, but so far, nothing.

But, with some luck, we may get un-black-balled from there, which would be nice since it's becoming one of our favorite places to play -- and it's a heck of a lot closer than Brea and Yorba Linda. We recently discovered that we've been banned from the Mission Viejo store, too. My gasoline budget can't really afford us getting kicked out of all the close stores so all our $3-in-tips gigs are $10 away.

But, musically and audience-response-wise, it was a great gig. My voice was strong and accommodating, my mind was somehow sharp so my playing was good, and the audience was very friendly. Overall, a great antidote to how badly I felt after the disappointing showing at Brea last week.

I hope I can do as well as a solo at Yorba Linda next Saturday. A lot of it is on me, whether I can connect with some chunk of the audience, but a lot is also on random chance of who's there, and whether they're willing to interrupt what they're there for. If somebody is clearly listening, I get a lot braver to start talking and interacting, and it can be contagious. But I need that one starter...

Keith at Brea -- 14July2007

This was my first time as a solo in Brea. When I got there, it was very quiet, which makes it *so* hard to start up. So I played, and played some more, all to no reaction at all, except one guy in front who'd look up from his reading to clap quietly, most of the time.

It's very intimidating. I guess my insecurity needs the applause just to tell me that they're not resenting my intrusion. When this happens, I just tell myself to treat it like a dress rehearsal and play and sing like it counts. But once that no-applause pattern is set, it's pretty hard to break it.

So I played for a while, and took the Required Break. This kind of helped to break up the "song, song, song, he must be Muzak" pattern, and when I started up again, they seemed to realize that there was a person up there. One nice lady fetched up the list she'd been neglecting and asked me to play, of all things, "Octopus's Garden". And although the coffeeshop was almost entirely full, some new people had arrived and they weren't in on the unspoken agreement to not clap.

I also got to play my trump card: a lady with an 8-year-old boy came in, and after I played "You Got a Friend in Me" for him, I got him up to shake the shaker for "Jenny Dreamed of Trains". That always breaks the ice, at least some.

Then, near the end, amazingly, the guy who'd been quietly clapping two hours ago and had got up to leave, walked over and handed me a cold bottled water. He had bought me a drink! That's sure never happened before. I presume he was just being nice, and not reacting to my not-very-well-behaved voice of the night.

And when I played my last song and made my "gotta pack up now" announcement, there was a general (but quiet) round of applause (which has happened only a few times), and several people leaped up to put money in the jar! Apparently, despite my gloomy feelings about the night as it was happening, they were actually an appreciative bunch, just not a very demonstrative one...

Geneva, Driving!

Yes, it's hard to believe, but Geneva turned 15-and-a-half in June, so we signed her up for a 4-day Driver Ed class, and she passed the test, and she now has her Learner's Permit.

On Sunday, I needed some stuff at Home Depot, so I let her drive me there -- first time. The class included some post-test driving instruction, so she'd had 2 hours with her teacher, and claimed she was doing really well. And she is doing OK, with a few exceptions. She as a little trouble staying in the middle of her lane, but she'll get that, I’m sure.

Her worst mistake was that she had apparently heard the part about being able to turn right on red lights, but missed the part about stopping first. We pulled up to an intersection to make a right turn, and the light was red, and she slowed down, apparently (to me) to go ahead and stop. I was about to launch into the "Look this way, now look that way" speech, but she just rolled right on around the corner!

I was so shocked that it took me a while to realize that she was just gonna go on around. Then, to make matters worse, when I recovered my senses and started yelling "Stop! Stop! Stop!", she just *didn't*! So we had a *very* stern talk about "When I say 'Stop!', you *stop*!", and went on to Home Depot.

Then, on the way home, she rolled on around another red-light right-turn! This time I realized that she just didn't know she was *supposed* to stop at red lights, so I made that part perfectly clear. Very, very, clear.

It occurred to me that the basic implied contract that I, the dad, have with Society is that I'll sit next to her, and I won't let her hurt anybody. That seems simple enough, but it assumes that she'll do what I tell her to do, when I tell her to do it. Apparently, Society has leaped to a untenable conclusion on that one, 'cuz she appears to be as capable of ignoring me yelling "Stop!" as she is when I tell her to clean up her room...

But she's pretty aware of what she's into, and I'm sure she'll be fine. I was basically proud of her, and a little sad, 'cuz it's certainly one of those "They grow up so fast" moments...

K&W at South Coast Plaza -- 06July2007

Nice. SCP is definitely my favorite place to play these days. It's the only one where we commonly get that "shoppers going by, hearing the music, and joining in for a while" effect that we're looking for. It tends to start out with a lot of Studying Kids, but as the evening goes on, some older people come by and some of 'em like our stuff, and they stop to listen. We had a couple of sets of those this time -- friendly, appreciative, involved people.

And that helps me two ways. I sing and play better when I know somebody cares, and if somebody's listening, I can talk between the songs. Or, possibly more accurately, if nobody's listening, I can't. And, of course, if somebody's listening and I'm talking, it tends to better involve other people, and it all snowballs into a fun night for us, and, hopefully, them too.

What was really surprising was three Asian kids that were there when we got there, with their notebook computers, working away on something. They never really looked up or joined in at all, but after probably 2 hours, they got up to leave, and they bought a pair of CDs on their way out! I sure didn't expect *that*.

Keith @ Yorba Linda -- 30June2007

A bit better than last week when Warren and I played this one together. The audience was a little more responsive, and I had some kids to play for, which always helps. When I first got there, there was a young family with two boys, one reading comic books, and the younger one (4 or 5?) pretty bored. I let him come up and shake the shaker while I played "House at Pooh Corner", and although he never caught the actual rhythm, he had fun and his mom appreciated it.

And later on, I had a Latino family come in and their little girl Marisela (8 or 9) was totally into it. She danced, applauded loudly, jumping out of her chair in what I came to believe was what she understood to be a "standing ovation". I got her up to shake the shaker, too, on "Jenny Dreamed of Trains", so she could try to do the train sound. She really got into "Love Potion Number Nine" and "Lollipop Tree", and was "dancing" to a lot of songs. Her dancing consisted of bouncing around, trying to mime the specific words of each line as they went by. For instance, she was "rocking the baby" when I sang "Here Comes My Baby" which was literally applicable, but not exactly right...

I was obliged to play with a fake fingernail again, but I explained to the audience that the curse of playing fingerstyle guitar is that you have to have those three particular fingernails intact all the time, and that I had shattered my middle finger's nail a few days ago, doing something that I can't recall but I'm sure it was very manly, and so I had to go buy some stick-on nails, which, unfortunately, the closest they had to "natural" color was Pink Pearl, which is not very close at all. I'm sure this explanation was well received by everyone, and nobody thought I was weird at all...

I never did spot anyone that I thought might be the manager for the night, so I couldn't ask about stopping time or the Mandatory Break. Out of new-found fear, though, I took my first Break, ever. It was kind of strange, but nobody else seemed to think it was odd, and nobody was particularly listening, or so I thought.

I wandered out to the Info desk and talked to the girl there, who couldn't guess why "they" want me to take a break, but she took the opportunity to ask if I knew how to play "Leaving On a Jet Plane", which, of course, I *could* play, but don't. A customer was over using the computer, and after a while walked over and said "Linda Ronstadt", which was apparently the answer to his unasked question about who originally recorded "Long, Long Time", which I had just done. I usually announce that song, but didn't this time, and it was apparently killing him to know who it was, so he used the store's computer to look it up. Coulda just asked me, but whatever. He also said that he thought I played really well, and did I know "City of New Orleans", another song I can play, and have played, but it's not in the book anymore, sorry.

Later on, when I was playing "Old Man" at some guy's "Neil Young" request, a college-age kid was watching me intently, and when it was over I looked over at him and he did the two-thumbs-up sign, with a kind of knowing look. That was cool, and as I was leaving, he happened to be in his car next to mine, and he opened up the passenger window, called out, "You did a really good job in there, sir!", and wanted to shake my hand. That was odd, and nice.

K&W at Yorba Linda -- 23Jun2007

Kind of disappointing. I was never able to really connect with anybody -- they were almost all otherwise engaged. Or unimpressed...

We had one small funny incident: one of two seriously studying young ladies asked me to play "You've Got a Friend", so I did. But as soon as I started the intro, I could tell by their reaction that that's not the song she meant. Of course, I couldn't stop once I'd gotten started, but when I got to the end, I said "But that's not the song you wanted, is it?" The one she meant was "You've Got a Friend In Me" (from "Toy Story"), so I chided her a bit about hoping that she was being more accurate in her homework there, and played that one, too.

One of my sometimes-successful tricks for getting some kind of attention from a non-attentive audience is to play a noticeably-difficult or impressive song. This tends, at this point, to be "Scarborough Fair" -- people know it, and can somehow tell that it's tricky to play, and once I've played it, I get the (probably imaginary) feeling that there's a bit more respect in the room. This makes the subsequent simple songs go over better, presumably because they now know that I *can* play more impressively, but don't happen to be doing so.

Anyway, the only problem with that is that I (have to) play that one solo -- it's so concentration-intensive that if Warren plays along, the distraction is enough to completely derail me. Last week when our guest-harmony singer sang along, I got screwed up several times (though I was able to recover, astonishing myself in the process). Warren once told me that he didn't mind sitting a few songs out, but it still bothers me to do it, 'cuz he has to put his guitar down and walk away, and it's plenty awkward.

And this time, I played it early on in desperation, trying to get some reaction from these brick-like people. Then later in the night, I solicited requests from Tiffany the coffee-girl, and she wanted to hear, oops, "Scarborough Fair". I guess she can't hear us very well way over there behind the counter (or maybe she's just too preoccupied) and didn't hear it the first time. Of course, I can't refuse a direct request, especially from a store staff-person who we'll be seeing again. But doing that to Warren once a night is bad enough -- twice felt really uncool.

K&W at Brea -- 16June07

This was only the second time I've played at the Brea store, though Warren's been there a couple more times with Jim. It's got a terrible layout for playing -- there's no decent place to set up and play, but we figured something out, kind of in a too-narrow aisle, back to the store. We end up pretty far away from the people back in the corner of the café, and I remembered that from last time, so I made sure to personally interact with them right from the start ("Can you hear us back there?" kind of stuff), to make sure that they were "in" the show.

While we were setting up a guy came over and asked when we were going to play, and what kind of stuff. I gave him a list, which he got pretty excited about, and when he saw "Bus Stop" he said that he'd come over and sing harmony, if I had a spare mic. I did, and told him he'd be welcome. He introduced himself (Dave) and wandered off, but came back over once we'd started, and, sure enough, after listening for a while, asked us to do "Bus Stop" and I fetched out the other mic, and we went to town. He knew the words, and sings really well, so we started hunting the list for more songs that had harmony in 'em.

Of course, I choose songs specifically that sound OK *without* harmony, but there were plenty that sure don't mind having the harmony in 'em -- and we played 'em all. It was pretty big fun. He was a little freaked about the fact that almost all of them had been transposed down, but it didn't seem to actually throw him in practice.

Then a group of high school girls came in and were *very* enthusiastic about us playing. One of 'em plopped down on the ground right in front, so I handed her a list, and when she saw "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", she 'bout wet her pants. Turns out she's a *huge* Harrison fan, so of course we played that one for her. I'm pretty sure that she and her friends were literally screaming (quietly) at the end of the songs. Unfortunately, they could only stay for a few, but they made the night even more fun.

Though he clearly didn't intend to stay there all night, Dave kept singing, and thanking us for letting him, until the very end. He sang along on most everything, and was gracious when there wasn't a part for him. We met up with him and his friend in the parking lot afterwards, and it turns out that he's a part of the local musician scene, and has been for a while. He and Warren knew a bunch of people in common. It could turn into some alternate playing opportunities.

So, overall, a great night. Certainly different, and that's a good thing.

Princess Campout at Campland San Diego, June 2007 -- Part 2

This campout also always includes the initiation/hazing of the incoming tribe chiefs. This is frequently a semi-disaster, 'cuz the idea is to embarrass/humiliate the guys, which is supposed to be fun, but it sometimes just comes out as mean. I remember once when Geneva started crying watching them turn a guy into an ice cream sundae, and it wasn't even me.

This time, my buddy Todd proposed that we "test their bravery" by making them sing in public. And, rather than bring in a karaoke machine (which was a disaster 2 or 3 years ago), I would be the musical accompaniment. Like the TV show "So You Think You Can Dance", but it was "So You Think You Can Sing Like Keith". This was genius because (a) my songs are already transposed into a more-singable by normal (non-tenor) guys key, (b) unlike a tape, I could (try to) follow where they were going, timing-wise, and (c) if they got really lost, I could help out over my head mic.

And it did work out really well. We had 2 or 3 essentially tone-deaf guys, but I helped them out so nobody completely crashed and burned, and some of the guys were pretty OK on their own. None of them were really ready to step up and take my now-vacant position as Nation Music Guy, but it was fun for everybody, and no permanent damage to any of the chiefs.

There was also a nice graduation ceremony for the girls (like Acacia) that are leaving Princesses. Since she's moving up to Trailmates, we aren't really leaving the program exactly, but we are leaving a lot of friends behind, and I won't be along to play at the Princess campfires anymore, except...

I'd really hate to lose those campfire times -- they all seem to love having me, and I surely love playing for all those appreciative little girls. So, I made it clear that I'd be happy to come back and play at future campfires, as long as they're at reasonably close-by campsites, and my calendar permits. I really just meant that I would drive out and play, and go home again, but I talked to one of the chiefs and he thinks that they could/should pay my way to the event, and have me (and Acacia) there the whole time. That's pretty generous, especially since he was talking about the expensive snow camp type events. We'll see what happens.

On Sunday morning we have the more serious ceremony, "graduating" the old chiefs, where the nation chief talks about what a great job each guy did in planning an event, or doing his Council job. I'm on the Council as the Web Guy, and he hit on that briefly, but mostly talked about the music job I do. This was met by a standing ovation from the nation, which was pretty nice. I stepped up to the mic and made a little speech, thanking them (or, more likely, their predecessors) for helping instill the courage in me to get up and sing, which led to my "career" in the coffee shops.

I also confessed that I had never bought the "required" leather Princess Vest, on which the event patches are sewn. The girls each have one, but I just kind of collected the patches, with nothing to do with them. So, earlier in the week, I bought a 20-foot piece of rope, which was just long enough to hot-glue the patches to, in chronological order, with a small space between them. I folded the "garland" up and wrapped it in some paper, and while I was talking, I had the girls grab one end each, and walk apart, stretching the rope across the front of the stage. The effect was pretty stunning -- I heard a lot of "amazement" noises as I talked about this being what 10 years' worth of patches looks like.

It really is quite sad for me to have to leave the Princess program -- even though we're moving up to Trailmates which is almost the same thing. It's been a really good device for keeping me from letting the girls' childhoods slip by even more than they have anyway. But, hey, they grow up -- there's no stopping it.

Princess Campout at Campland San Diego, June 2007, Part 1

Well, we had our last Princess event over the weekend; the annual end-of-the-year Family campout at Campland in San Diego. It's a "resort" campground, and we rent a pop-up tent-trailer for the weekend, and there's real bathrooms with hot showers, so the moms (and specifically, Daleen) will come.

Every year on Saturday morning, there's the Sand Sculpture "contest", where each tribe builds something, and is given some lame design-specific award for it. There seems to be an unwritten rule that those awards be as lame as possible, so even the youngest kids can see through the ruse. I've always wished that the chief/judges would at least try to make the awards less lame-jokey and more something the kids could be proud of: biggest, most creative, funniest, most realistic -- anything that could be taken as possibly referring to more than one entry. But I guess I'm done after 10 years, and I should just get over it...

For our first entry, 10 years ago, the guys (or should I say "boys"?) wanted to do a mermaid. This came out as you might expect, and I was feeling like it wasn't terribly appropriate, nor any fun for the kids, so I added a cartoon-ey octopus next to it. The cool part about the octopus design is that you can farm out each tentacle to 8 people or small teams, and everybody gets to contribute. They all look to me to do the finishing touches, but they get pretty close with just some guidance.

This time, I went for a more realistic style, and did more with the twists and curls of the tentacles than before. I had lots of help right at first, when I need a lot of sand moved into the main pile, so we had more finishing-touches time to do the eyes and get some variety in the tentacles.

It was an eventful weekend -- more tomorrow!

KC at Yorba Linda -- 01June2007

Playing solo is always twice as scary at first, but I settle into it OK after a while. It went pretty well -- there were lots more studying kids this time than we normally find at Yorba Linda, but it's the end of school, so maybe it was cramming for finals time. Still, I had several people listening and requesting, pretty much right from the start, so it was fine.

Side story: Back in the 70's, there was an arcade video game called "Tail Gunner". It was terribly primitive by today's standards, of course, but it was the only game that I ever put any of my hard-earned quarters into. It was a "sit-down" game, and you were the tail gunner of a spaceship, where your job was to shoot, using the between-the-legs joystick, three incoming bad guys that would fly in from the sides, dance around a bit, and try to "pass" you. If you let three past, you were out.

One time I was playing it, and a young kid came and parked outside, watching. This made me nervous, and I started playing pretty badly. He watched for a while, and said, "You're trying too hard." This was nail-on-the-head absolutely true -- he could tell just by looking. The cool part about this game was that you had to shoot those guys on pure instinct. You didn't have time to think, aim, and shoot -- you had to give up thinking. It was a "Zone generator" -- it required, and caused, you to go into the Zone to play it. When he was watching me, I couldn't zone out, and had to resort to "trying", which didn't work. I've never seen a game, before or since, that was such a direct path to that "use the Force" feeling.

Playing music is a lot like that -- for me anyway. At first, when I'm working on a new song, it's all mechanical, just getting the notes. But when I can relax, zone out, and let it flow, I'm so much better. And it's so much more fun.

Which leads (finally) to my mistake on Friday. I brought the video camera and set it up, pointing at myself. The good part is that it's possible to grab stills from the video where you aren't looking like a dork. The bad part is that I play badly. I want to have good, mistake-free takes for the movie, and I end up "trying too hard". I can't just let go and play, so I play worse, not better.

The temptation to bring the camera (or an audio recorder) is that, sometimes, it all goes magic. When it does, you think, "Dang! I wish I had a recording going!" What I finally realize is that the recorder is never gonna capture the magic -- the recorder *prevents* the magic.

So, yeah, I'm not that proud of the songs on the video. There might be one or two that are presentable -- hardly worth the trouble to convert them off of the tape. I'm gonna have to learn to ignore the temptation to try to record this stuff.

But I did have fun. It's one of the "open 'til 11" ones, but for the first time, people were actually leaving before they got kicked out. By 10:20 or so, there were only 3 or 4 people left in there (and the battery was dead on the vidcam), so I thought it'd be a good time to try out some of the new songs I've been practicing: "Still Crazy", "American Tune", "Girl", and even "Mexico". They all went OK, except "Girl" seems kind of uninteresting when I do it. It sounds much better in my head. Maybe with Warren playing along it won't be so dull.

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...