New Material

I'm nearly constantly learning new songs, both to spice up the act, and to keep myself learning, and interested. Frequently, a new song idea will present itself from my environment -- I hear a cool old song on the radio, or in a TV show or something. Sometimes someone will request a song that, they're right, I oughtta know.

We've been watching "Life On Mars", which is set in 1973, which is a great music year for me. They introduced a "free spirit" hippie girl character, and she reminded me of "Ruby Tuesday", which I've always loved, and have tried to play before, but could never get to work. I don't know if I'm that much better now, or if I just forgive more lameness in my results than I used to, but I'm really liking "my version" this time.

Also, oddly enough, the results of the recent election brought, unbidden, a great old song to mind, so I've been learning "Peace Train". I've been struggling to learn how to strum, which is just physically tough on my Ovation because it's really a classical, but I've been getting the hang of it on the old electric guitar, and some of that technique is translating over. So I'm getting the skill together to do it, but I would never have been able to play it in public before, 'cuz the message would have been so out of place anytime during the last eight years. But now, I think it may be a song whose time has come -- again. I'll be trying it out on Saturday at Brea Downtown, and we'll see how it goes over.

Tinker Bell and Disneyland -- 26Oct2008

Because we're Annual Pass Holders, we were offered a chance to see a preview of the new Tinker Bell direct-to-DVD, all computer-graphics, movie, in the Mister Lincoln theater on Main Street. It was kinda cool -- we got Tinker Bell stickers, pins, and collectible tickets.

The movie was actually pretty good. Turns out that fairies all have their sorting-hat style chosen role to play: water fairy, flower fairy, ice fairy, etc., and Bell, to her initial dismay, is chosen to be a "tinker", a maker/fixer of things. It's not as glamorous as her friends' jobs, but, of course, her talent saves the day (and the fairy-initiated coming of Spring) in the end, and she (and we) learns to accept that her talent makes her who she is.

It's weird to me that when J. M. Barrie wrote "Peter Pan", he clearly intended "Tinker" to invoke "tinkle", not "repairman", but these guys have (deliberately, no doubt) misinterpreted that notion, and run with this alternate explanation. But, being a "tinker" myself, I'm OK with it.

After the movie they brought out the director and the screenwriter, who told us some stories about finding the voice talent for Bell and her friends -- you'll recall that Bell has never "spoken" before -- and how fun it was to make, etc. And they also told us that this was just the first of four planned movies, one a year, and one for each season.

Then they brought out one of the Disneyland Attraction Planners, who told us that they'd been rebuilding the area between Tomorrowland and the Matterhorn, where Ariel used to sign autographs. Now it's Pixie Hollow, where you "shrink down" as you walk up the walkway, and get to meet Tinker Bell and two of her new friends. It wasn't officially open yet, but they were having sneak peeks, so we went right over from the movie. It took a while to get in, 'cuz everybody else did, too, but we felt like we ought to get the whole experience while we were there.

Obviously, it would have been more fun for the girls five or eight years ago, but it was still pretty cool.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 07Nov2008

A generally pretty good night. I had that (or another?) voice thing again, where I my voice wasn't doing what I was telling it to, and wouldn't go into "head voice" (I think?) so I was singing pretty poorly for the first hour-and-forty-five -- but then it cleared up. Unfortunately, just because it was blocked somehow, doesn't mean it wasn't getting "used", so by the time it got fixed, it was also tired out. I'm frankly starting to worry.

Anyway, once my voice was working, it was pretty fun. There was hardly anyone left at that point, of course, so I just kind of kicked out the jambs and belted the last batch of tunes. It's really fun when I manage to just let go like that -- it only happens if there's somebody listening, or *nobody* listening. I'll have to try to let 'er rip more often -- it's too fun to let it wait until it happens by itself.

For the first half-hour or so, we had several people right up front, listening and asking for songs. That made for a great start, even without a cooperating voice. The settings on the amp had been tweaked for the outdoor event last week, and sounded new and cool here in the quiet of that store. And I had the tip jar out more blatantly than usual, which may have helped sell two CDs, and make us $22 overall, which is pretty good for a store, on a Friday.

I got to try out my pretty-new "Ruby Tuesday" and "Sweet Dreams" again -- still working OK for me. And I had my new iPod set up to record the whole thing, with its little $10 mic, and the result is pretty OK. It's sure a lot easier to set up than a whole notebook like we did a couple dozen times to collect the tracks on the "Live" CD. I thought that "Golden Slumbers", which I learned recently, and am using as a closing number nowadays, came out quite well. Listen to it here. If the link doesn't work, type in: http://tinyurl.com/6y5w4j

K&W at Irvine Spectrum -- 01Nov2008

My favorite outing at this venue so far. Not a lot of people, but we fairly consistently had at least somebody Actually Listening. It was kind of cold, and had threatened to rain earlier, so the turnout was as you'd expect, but it wasn't really unpleasant up on the stage. And the sound, after some tweaks, wasn't half bad, so I didn't feel like it was just a mess.

Had one guy ask for "Mister Bojangles", which I've looked at several times over the years. Because I keep poking at it, I happened to have a copy of the song sheet in the book, so I was able to do it for him, with only one major screw up where I just forgot how to read English for a line. This actually happens more often than I'd like to admit...

Towards the end, three 15-16 year-old girls came over and plopped down right in front. They were listening pretty well, and having fun with us, but when I started "With a Little Help From My Friends" they lit up, spun their chairs around, and sang along all the way through it (which is a little tough, cuz I do James Taylor's version which is pretty different from the Beatles one). After the song, I asked then if they were in a choir or something, buy they weren't -- just big Beatles fans, apparently. Their parents had arrived, though, and they had to leave, so I did "All My Lovin'" as they walked away.

We've been considering whether to try playing at the other stage, where you have to pay $50. When I counted up the tips and CD money, we'd made $55, which, as a one night take is probably in the top ten, but in light of the decision, was just cruel. I think that we'd probably better wait until the Spring, and then give it a try, but in the cold and with the economic crisis, it would probably be ill-advised to try it now.

The other weird part is that the maintenance guys that came to take down the stage asked why we don't try the other stage, and said that the guy that was there that night wanted to play the Food Court where we were. Huh? Either he thinks the Food Court is still free, or he's thinking that having a semi-captive audience ('cuz they're eating) would be better than the high volume, but too mobile, crowd he'd gotten. Interesting...

Halloween 2008

We had a fun Halloween this year. The first event was the Trailmates party on the night before Halloween. Costumes are required, even for dads, and I'd already worn my "Space Cowboy" outfit last year, so I had to come up with something new. Which was, "Shaun of the Dead", a romantic-comedy zombie movie about a London electronics-store clerk who ends up killing zombies with his cricket bat, that you've either seen, or you haven't. I think that only one dad recognized it, but he was impressed. (The pose at left is straight off the movie poster.)

Geneva was "Susan" from "Desperately Seeking Susan", a character played by Madonna in her 80's heyday. Geneva's new short haircut curled up really nice, and she customized a jacket to exactly match the iconic one in the movie.

Acacia wore Daleen's last-year home-made "Princess" dress, but added a pair of wings to make her a fairy. With make-up -- the best part.

Daleen was working on a new costume, as a schoolmarm, but got it finally finished about 8:30 on Halloween night, so almost nobody got to see it. In fact, she had it on so briefly that I didn't get a picture of her in it.

I took Halloween day off of work (I had accrued too much vacation time anyway), and we went to Geneva's high school at lunchtime to check out the costumes there. Those "artsy" kids really get into it, and have a lot less inhibition than the normal kids. That was pretty crazy. And about a dozen of the kids recognized my Shaun costume, and were totally and noisily thrilled by it. Made my day.

On Halloween night, Geneva went off to a friends' house in Nellie Gail, 'cuz the rich people give out the best candy. Acacia threw a party for 9 of her girl friends, with pumpkin carving, doughnuts-on-a-string "bobbing"-equivalent, and a round of trick-or-treating in the middle. And some vegetarian chili for dinner (Acacia and half of her friends are vegetarians now). Pretty fun, all around.

Keith at Borders Mission Viejo -- 25Oct2008

Started off pretty awful but got better by the end. For some reason, I couldn't get my throat to kick into high note mode for the first hour and a quarter. It was weird. Some kind of lump or tightness in there. But it finally and suddenly cleared up, and I could sing pretty well again. By then, though, the place was half empty, which is pretty rare for this store. I can't remember seeing it not completely full, ever. I'm trying not to think it was me that emptied the place.

I was hoping/expecting to have my fiddle-playing guest star there again, but she'd had finals the week before and hadn't had time to practice, so she begged off.

Still no sign of sweetie-pie Manager Sally, for several gigs in a row now. Maybe she's on the day shift now, or maybe she got transferred. It was fun to play with her there - she's a huge James Taylor fan, and was on the verge of getting the nerve together to come up and sing something with me. That would have been fun. Oh, well.

K&W at South Coast Plaza -- 17Oct2008

I was hoping for a great night, musically at least, since the last two gigs were out where it's loud and obnoxious. But it takes a decent audience to make a good night, and we were little short in that department.

We did have a young family come by, but the kids were too young to know any songs -- although the little boy had apparently heard some James Taylor, oddly enough. Other than that, nobody was very interested, so we just plugged away for awhile. I did get some decent takes of a few songs on video and posted them to YouTube, so, not a complete loss. Just kind of disappointing.

I guess the other silver lining is that, since nobody was listening, I got to try out some new songs: "Peoples Parties" (might be OK, but very obscure), "Suzanne" (pretty, fun to sing, but I think it's kinda boring to listen to), "We Can Work It Out" (works fine when I play it on electric, but my un-strummable Ovation makes it unlikely), and "Imagine", which I learned specifically because a lady asked for it at this store a few weeks ago. I'm trying, only partially successfully, to imitate the piano part on the guitar, but it's pretty tough. Might work out, though, with more practice.

K&W at Irvine Spectrum -- 10Oct2008

Well, not as good as last time, that's for sure. We had a sudden cold snap, and the turnout was a lot smaller, since this is an outdoor mall. We made about half as much in tips, but it was probably half as many people, so maybe that's OK.

The bigger problem was that I didn't expect it to be quite that cold, and hadn't brought a jacket. I'm usually OK up (down?) to a point, just from the excitement, but towards the end, I was shivering, and my fingers were getting too stiff to play. The upside is that my fingertips were too cold to feel the pain of playing for 3 hours straight, and my stomach muscles were so tight that I had great breath support for singing -- although you could hear the shivering in my voice at times...

When we played at Brea Downtown last November, I brought a space heater -- I'll definitely be sure to do that again when we play on November 1st.

We did have a few people tuned in. A guy from work promised to come by, and actually did. And a nice couple sat down for the last hour or so, requested several songs, and hung out until the bitter (cold) end. The husband even went out to the car and fetched their jackets so they could stay and watch me turn blue. And a couple with a baby girl were there when we got there and stayed for a really long time, until the baby was yawning and clearly needed to get home to bed.

I'd learned a few new songs during the week to try out, and did so with Joni Mitchell's "People's Parties" and The Searchers' "Needles and Pins". But I usually keep untried and imperfectly-learned songs until near the end when there's less people around, but last night my fingers were too frozen to even attempt anything tricky, so I didn't try out "We Can Work It Out" and "Imagine". I guess I'll get to those next week at South Coast Plaza.

My voice was pretty ragged most of the night for some reason, but the acoustics are terrible anyway, so I'm not sure it mattered. Having to play so loud makes it impossible to really put any finesse into the songs, though I'm not sure why. It would seem like you could just play and sing like always, but have the Master volume knob up higher, but there's just so much background noise, the people and the fountain and all, that it's more like a shouting match than a song.

But that's OK, it's fun in a different way than the gigs where I get to feel like I'm really making music. And, especially at this place, I keep flashing on the wonder of what a shy boy like me is doing in such a public place, making such an amount of noise, in front of all these people.

I took some video, but there's nowhere to put the camera, so I hung it from the amp itself, and the audio was blown out. But I had also recorded the audio with my new iPod, as an experiment, so I laid the iPod's not-bad audio track onto the not-very-good video that my little camera grabs, and made a barely-passable movie of "Peaceful Easy Feeling", which is available here. (That's http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_mi2wZEMLzA if the link doesn't work.)

K&W at Spectrum Center -- 27Sept2008

More fun at the Spectrum. Lots of curious people, some of whom stayed around for a while. Little Jessica from Indian princesses, no longer little, stopped for a while, but was too involved with her friends to stick around until the end of the song, so I didn't get to talk to her. Old computer buddy Doug Wolfgram wandered up late in the evening -- he was just coincidentally there to pick up his daughter from the movies across the way, and heard the music. That was cool.

The night went pretty much how it usually goes, until a bunch of people (5 or 6, mostly ladies) came screaming up, clearly pre-lubed, rockin' out to the song we happened to be playing at the time. They whooped and hollered and half-danced, and perched on a bench/planterbox, waiting for more. I obliged with what passes for rock-n-roll in my repertoire: "Here Comes My Baby", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", etc., some of which they chose off the list.

It was great fun to have somebody actually actively rockin' with us, and they even went so far as to encourage the other people to "get with it". Wow. Unfortunately, they were bound for other destinations, and left too soon. They got the show kicked into high gear for a while there, though. Even after they'd left, other people were energized and asking for songs, 4 deep at one point. It's amazing how the same songs, played the same way, can be completely different depending on how the audience reacts. Those girls certainly made our night.

We made $78 plus a $5 check made out to "Keith and Warren" which I haven't tried to cash yet. Sold a handful of CDs in there, too. We've consistently made more than $50 there, so it's conceivable that we could pay the $50 "setup fee" to play the more public, heavier trafficked, location in the middle of the shopping center, and still come out ahead. It might be worth a try, just for fun -- we'd probably go home with less than if we'd played at the Food Court for free, but it'd be a different experience.

But, bad news, we got permission to play again on 10/10 and 11/01, but after that, they're gonna start charging $50 for the Food Court gigs, too. So we can either quit playing there entirely, or go ahead with the mid-mall location, since it's 50 bucks either way. I suppose we should give it a try -- once, at least.

It's an interesting trick on their part, though I doubt that they mean it to be: charging the band $50 is a clever way to weed out bands that people don't like. The management doesn't even have to audition the bands -- any band that is likeable enough to cover the $50 will play. Bad bands won't (unless they're desperate enough that they're willing to go negative for the night). I guess we're just barely good enough...

Keith at Borders Costa Mesa -- 26Sept2008

Worst. Gig. Ever. That I can recall, anyway. Only a few old men there, reading intently. Nobody even remotely listening. I tried to carry on anyway, but it was just too depressing. Not even any crazy people to play for. Before I even stated a lady asked me when I was starting, and said that she had top go to a meeting, but that pull she'd be back at 8:30 ('cuz she'd heard us/ me before, and liked it. But by 8:45 she wasn't there and I couldn't take it anymore.

So I packed up left. First time I remember bailing early on a gig. Usually playing for quiet people is still better that being home doing nothing, but this was just humiliating.

Of course, I find out later that my brother came by at 9:00, and must have missed me by only a few minutes. That only made it worse...

Keith at a Pool Party in Tustin -- 21Sept2008

For my third gig this weekend, I played a pool (birthday) party in a backyard in Tustin. This was the gig that we auctioned off as our "donation" to Geneva's high school last year. The minimum bid was $75, and this lady bid that on the first day, and no one bid against her. One bid -- the minimum. Sigh. At least that's better than no bids at all, I guess.

Anyway, it was a little strange, but OK. There were maybe 8-10 adults there, family, gramma, some friends, and half a dozen kids of varying ages, one of which was the birthday boy, turning 4, I'd guess. One of the adults was also celebrating her birthday, too.

The mom that "won" me knew about the auction in the first place because her daughter also goes to OCHSA, in the Opera conservatory. She was there too, of course, and I could see her quietly singing along with some of the songs, so I invited her up to sing one for real. I strapped my head mic onto her, had to clip the cable to her bathing suit bottoms, but she totally went for it, and knocked "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" out of the park. It was a little odd, because she has this opera-trained su-per ac-cu-rate e-nun-ci-a-tion, and I'm used to hearing it in a more casual pop style. Later on, I asked her to come up again, and we did "When You Wish Upon a Star". On "Will come to you", she practically trilled the L's. Pretty cool. Her dad was apparently traveling or something, 'cuz while she was singing, her gramma came forward, holding a phone out like a microphone, with dad on the other end.

It's kind of odd singing to a dozen or so people who were trying to have their own party, with visiting and swimming and kids running around playing. But I've gotten used to being ignored, I guess, and just carried on. After a spell, we all got comfortable with the situation, and they got brave enough to talk to me, and start asking for songs, and it got more fun as it went along. The lady seemed very pleased to have me -- certainly not your normal backyard birthday party.

I guess Daleen intends to auction me off again this year. We'll see if anybody wants me this time.

Keith at Borders Mission Viejo -- 20Sept2008

Back again at my "local" store, with a promise from part-time fiddler Melina to step up and play again. I had my little camera set up taking movies, but I don't think she was aware of it -- and since she's kinda nervous anyway, I didn't mention it for fear of spooking her even worse.

Like last time, I played solo for a while, and then she showed up and played along for a few songs. She had learned the "real" classical intro line from "Whiter Shade of Pale" and that worked out really cool. She had learned, or already knew, "Ashokan Farewell", but she does the rhythm differently (wrong), so it was pretty baffling for me, trying to follow her. We'll have to have a look at that, and agree on something. We did a couple more songs that I can't remember, and she also played along with "Don't Think Twice" this time, which worked pretty well. I've posted the video, and will try embedding it here.

Overall, pretty fun, but not as magically connected as last time. I had a bit of a fright when the Regulars arrived and, lacking anywhere else to sit, settled into the only empty table there -- the one right in front of me. I was sure it would get ugly and I'd have to fake an emergency phone call from home or a heart attack or something, but they were somewhat well-behaved -- only one woman was talking with her outside voice. It didn't completely derail me, but it's still too distracting to get any magic going. Oh well, still a pretty good night, altogether.

Keith at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 19Sep2008

Started off slow, as usual, but got pretty good at the end. I played to dead silence for most of the evening, with a few smiles to keep me going, but there was that "Library" vibe to contend with. But near the end, some families came in, and some other friendly folks, and I started getting some back-and-forth going.

For some reason, there were two big, old, trashed, "school tables" out in the room, taking up space 'cuz nobody wanted to sit at them. The probably had had some kind of event earlier. Anyway, I went ahead and put the CDs, cards, songlists, and tip jar on one of them, which made the setup far more prominent than usual. I was a little afraid to do that, 'cuz this is the one store that's ever enforced the "no CDs, no tip jar" rule, but I didn't see that particular picky manager this time, so I chanced it.

But that apparently made a big difference, because when I finally got some friendly people, lots of them saw the CDs, sign, and jar, and I sold 5 CDs (usually, none), and made $34 in tips and CD payments. Not a record or anything, but not bad.

I set up my little camera to take some movies, but I haven't had a chance to look through the results yet. With the dead silence, and the great acoustics there, I might have gotten some good stuff -- I'm just too busy to find out...

K&W at Spectrum Center -- 13Sept2008

Our second try at this place, which is outdoors, noisy, scattered, but fun. Bill and Mary Jane Wiley were there already when we got there, and sat through a good part of it. Partway through, Jim from Trailmates came by with his wife and daughter, and though they wandered off pretty quickly, Jim stayed and listened for a long while.

It's a strange place to play, with some people coming by just to eat dinner, and some people coming by on purpose, drawn by the music. Lots of youngsters, some too cool to acknowledge us at all, some bent on being smart-alecs, and some who seem to recognize that we're pretty good, really.

It was kinda surreal -- playing and singing while watching the big full moon rise up over the Edwards 21 marquee...

K&W at Borders Costa Mesa -- 12Sept2008

Pretty dead most of the night, as expected at this one. Some niceness near the beginning when the one nice employee lady (who had liked us enough to buy a CD a year or so ago) came to the café to have her dinner break. Since she has the CD, she asked for some of our K&W Classics, which was fun.

Near the end, though, a pair of Asian women (a mother and her 20-something daughter) came in, and while they were in line for coffee, the mother was totally getting into the song, which happened to be "People Get Ready", the only overtly religious song I do, requested by a guy who was genuinely listening and getting interested. When the song was over, she said, loudly, "Play that one again!" Huh?!? That's a new one! I said, "But everybody's already heard it!", and she said, to the room in general, "Oh, they won't mind. Will you?" Of course, nobody wanted to answer, or even acknowledge the crazy lady, so they all got really busy with their books and/or coffee all of a sudden, so I said, "How about I do the last two verses over again?", and started them before she could object.

She and her daughter sat down in the table that's right in front of us that's generally empty because it's right in front of us. They were wearing the same bright green T-shirt dress, though the mom had a pink sweater over it. Turns out the daughter is slightly retarded, and the mom is doting over everything she see, touches, or says -- she's also holding her hands across the table and singing along with the song, right into her face. Really odd, but super (over?) friendly, and loving the music.

She asked for some songs, and some more, threatening to hijack the evening, but I tried to let the other guy get in some requests, too. Then she asked for "You've Got a Friend", so I started it up, but she was singing along, as loud as me, at her daughter, but doing the Carole King version, not the James Taylor one, so she was singing sometimes way different stuff than I was, and it was *really* throwing me off. I was ignoring her as hard as I could, but she was too loud, and too wrong.

She was reminding me of a lady that used to work at Toshiba who was similarly Asian, and loopy. We used to call her "Crazy Jean", and a lot of people avoided her, but she was great fun to talk to. I used to go up and talk to her sometimes, just to get a dose of surrealism, 'cuz she had this amazing talent for unexpected tangents and connections -- and her own way of looking at the world. I miss her.

So it was getting close to time to quit, and who should come walking in? Speak of the devil: it's Crazy Jean! She's unmarried, but she had a 12-year old girl (her neighbor's daughter) with her -- they were on their way home from the beach. We happened to be in the middle of "Love Potion Number Nine" when they came in, so she started "bop-walking" to the rockin' beat, and came right up to the front of us. The *other* crazy lady, also right in front of us, jumped up and grabbed Jean's little friend's hands, and started dancing, too. Jean was a bit taken aback, but it looked safe enough, if weird, so she let it go. We just kept playing...

So the other crazy lady starts talking to Jean's friend, gets her name (Alyssa), has her sit on her lap (!), and Jean kinda goes along with it all. Turns out she's a teacher, "owns a school" in San Louis Obispo, and, as she told us while we were packing up, wants us to come up and play sometime. I said that it's kinda far, and she said, "Oh, you just sit down... on a train! You don't even need any baggage..." (a reference to a line in "People Get Ready"). What. Ever.

Weird night...

K&W at Borders Yorba Linda -- 30Aug2008

We've alerted the guy who books the Borders gigs that we don't want to play at Yorba Linda anymore -- it's a great place to play, but it's just too far to go for a free gig at today's gas prices, and the generally six to ten bucks in the tip jar.

But it went really well. The acoustics there are nice, and the people are friendly. I think we literally made $4 (to split) in tips, but it's still nice to play to nice people.

I'll miss that place. But not the drive.

Keith at Borders Mission Viejo -- 23Aug2008

Wow, what a night! I drove over there wondering, as I often do, why I was still doing this. Clearly it's not about the money, but there's usually not much appreciation either...

Anyway, I went over to the Info desk to get somebody to fetch the store's equipment, and as the guy went off to get it, the college girl behind the counter suddenly asks, "Are you Keith?". I said yes, and she asks, "Are you ever looking for a violin player?" Huh?!? That's pretty out of the blue, and strangely worded, but I recover and say, "Sure! But we don't get paid or anything." She's aware of that, but wants to sit in anyway, and says that she's "classically trained, but I can improv". I'm thinking that anybody with the guts to ask, probably knows what they're doing, or thinks they do -- and if not, what have I got to lose? Anything to shake it up.

So I start setting up, but thinking about it, I realize that since I only play there once a month, and it's 50/50 whether Warren will be there too (which would complicate the issue, with two "lead" players), that tonight's a pretty good chance for her to do it, if she's gonna. I found her at the cash registers and told her as much, but she said that she's working until 10:30 (a half hour past closing time). I presumed she'd get a dinner break sometime, and suggested that she go home and fetch the violin then. She said she'd think about it.

Well, she must have decided to go for it, 'cuz an hour or so in, she showed up with her case. I asked her what songs she thought she could handle, and she started with Paul Simon's "America", to my surprise -- not really an "easy one". But she kept up, and played around in the right key, and it sounded good to me. Then she chose Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight", which has a signature Stratocaster riff, and I thought she meant to play it on the violin, and she said, no. Huh? Then why this song? But I played it anyway, and she did better, 'cuz it's a more obvious chord progression, and slower.

Then she asked for "Whiter Shade of Pale". Cool! It's got a signature Hammond organ line that's based on a tune by Bach -- she can play that line, and it'll sound great! But, again, nope. And again, why'd you pick it, then? But she played some stuff that was similar, and it sounded OK anyway -- though the official line would have been more impressive.

She said she'd have to get back to work after one more, so I suggested "Let It Be", 'cuz it's pretty straightforward, and she's bound to know it. And it did work out well.

Between the songs, I tried to impress upon the audience how cool this was, but I guess it was just "some people playing" to them, and nobody seemed as excited as I was to have her there. Oh well. I had to ask her name so I could introduce her -- it's Melina. I talked to her at the end of the night, and she had fun, and I told her that she's welcome any time. I don't know if she'll be wanting to come to any gigs that aren't in the store she works in, but we'll see what happens.

Of course, Daleen thinks that if I want a violin player, I should recruit Geneva. And I love that, but she just doesn't have the time, nor inclination. I guess I should have been working on her, and with her, over the summer...

Anyway, after Melina left, I kept playing, and after a while, some new people filtered in that, for some reason, were really enjoying the music. I had 3 or 4 people around the room that were really into it, and asking for songs, and clapping -- for real, not that "polite" stuff. Their interest seemed to be contagious, and for the last half hour or more I was more connected to an audience than I've ever been. By far. It was amazing. And of course, it's a loop where I play better and better, and people start listening more, and around we go. Exhilarating.

And, for a while at least, I knew why I keep doing this...

K&W at Brea Downtown -- 22Aug2008

Pretty fun. We started off strong due to the crowd of teens who watched us finish setting up, waiting to hear some tunes, and were then very appreciative once we started up. It's always nice to have somebody to start playing for, right off the bat.

We had lots of people stop for a while, all through the evening, and pretty good feedback, generally. But I felt sort of "out of it" for some reason -- like I wasn't really running the show, but that it was running me. Hard to describe, but it just didn't feel right, a lot of the time.

Daleen, Acacia, and all three dogs came along, which made for a pretty tightly packed van, but they walked around the area a lot, and then spent some time near us, attracting more people than the music was, it seemed.

There were a lot more very loud cars and motorcycles going by, and sometimes stopping for far too long right in front of us, due to the crosswalk there. Loud mufflers, and cars with very loud music coming through open windows. Probably more of a Summer thing.

Anyway, it was fun, and different. Don't know why I couldn't get "into it", but I guess there are good nights, and bad nights. Still, I was playing and singing well enough -- that wasn't it. We made pretty good tips, though -- $63 (we'd thought it was $70, but Acacia (who, for some reason, just *loves* to count the money) neglected to subtract the $7 "seed money" that I'd put in). We were thinking that we ought to make a bunch more in the Summer than we had last November, but it's not materializing. Maybe it's the economy...

Huntington Gardens & Griffith Observatory -- 20Aug2008

For another of our day-trip "vacation" days, we combined a trip to the Huntington Gardens and Museum, with a stop at the Griffith Park Observatory. With the gas prices these days, we didn't want to drive up there twice...

Huntington Gardens is Daleen's "favorite place" -- they have more plants than you can shake a stick at. Not exactly *my* idea of a good time, but we walked through a few hundred miles of paths through plants, and Daleen and the kids loved it. Must be a Girl Thing.

They have a big Desert Plants section, and some nice Japanese Gardens. Recently, the Chinese, not to be outdone (especially by the Japanese), put in a section of their own, which is even more elaborate.

After the plants, we went into the museums to look at the paintings, which are more interesting to me -- to a point. They really mostly have portraits, and they all start to look alike after a while with the rosy cheeks and lipstick and mile-high wigs and frilly satin and lace -- and that's just the men...

So after the obligatory half-hour in the gift shop, and the obligatory droppage of 75 bucks, we were off to lunch on the way to the Griffith Park Observatory. It was famously recently expensively renovated, and looks exactly the same. They wanted to leave the iconic building alone, so they jacked it up and added an underground "second story", with more exhibit space and another little theater.

I was kind of disappointed that it's still all at elementary school level -- I was hoping that they'd get beyond the "how much you weigh on Jupiter" stage, but I guess schoolkids are their target audience. The planetarium show (with the new comfy seats), on the other hand, despite being "for beginners", was excellent. They really put it together to illustrate the concepts perfectly. "How to explain stuff" is kind of my "thing", and this was simply amazing. Brilliant, even. And well presented too, with a live Actor Guy doing the narration.

So that was pretty fun, too. We had arranged to meet the Spencers there, so the kids had friends to hang with, and from there we went into Hollywood to have dinner, which was a special time, too. A great, if long, day.

K&W at Costa Mesa -- 15Aug2008

A pretty typical outing for Costa Mesa -- some people listening, and some people completely indifferent. I felt good though, singing and playing well, and feeling loose.

But we were cut pretty short, because the store's hours changed and, of course, nobody told us. So we arrived at 7:30 thinking that we were playing 8-10 (or 10:30) for an 11:00 closing time, but the coffee girls told us that they now close at 10, so we only really had from 8-9:30, and even at that we were pushing this cranky crew by cutting close to their "get out of here" time.

It wasn't so bad -- it would have been nice to have been told beforehand, but it wasn't the end of the world. But I could have done without that particularly unpleasant coffee girl's "nyah nyah" attitude. She seemed evilly delighted that we had gotten screwed out of our play time, and that was uncalled for. I get it that we offend her hard-core punkette sensibilities, but she doesn't have to be a jerk about it.