Playin' in the Parking Lot

We used to have a "Walking Club" in the company that went for two 20-minute walks a day -- some for losing weight, some for keeping their cardiologists happy (ahem), and some just to get out of the building a bit. At one time there were 10 or 12 of us, but it's dwindled down to, well, just me.

To keep myself occupied, I started bringing my cheap electric guitar with me, plugged into a little battery-powered headphone amp. I can hear it fine but it makes almost no noise externally, so I can walk and play and not bother anybody. And not embarrass myself, except of course for the general embarrassment of walking around the block playing an electric guitar like a crazy person. But I've gotten over that, and the extra playing time every day has noticeably improved my playing. Besides, once you're over 50, who cares anymore? When somebody asks, I make a little joke about needing to get me one of those new-fangled iPods so I don't have to do all the work...

Anyway, just before the company shut down for Christmas, I was walking back through the parking lot, and a car pulled up next to me and stopped. It was the ultra-sweet, gramma-like H.R. lady, and she rolled down the passenger window and said "Play me something!"

I'd had to take the headphones off to hear her talking, so they were already in my hand. I mumbled something about it only plays through the headphones, and before I knew it, I had handed them to her. I'd been running through "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas", so I started it up, more as a demonstration of how it worked than anything, but since I had the key in my head already, I started singing it, even though I couldn't hear the guitar anymore. (I *presume* I was singing in the same key as I was playing in.)

I ran through the first verse, and she said, "That was *wonderful*!", and handed me back the headphones. Then, "Merry Christmas", etc., and off she went. I was like, whoa, what just happened? But I put the headphones back on and finished my walk.

Keith at Santa Claus -- 21Dec2008

I got rained out of my officially booked night playing for the line waiting to see Santa Claus, but I had the notion to ask if maybe the act for Sunday wasn't gonna use up the whole time, so I could fill in the rest. The coordinator lady set me up to play from 5 to 6, in-between sets of some classical violinist and/or his classes. Turned out that he was playing in the conference room inside anyway, so I got to stay the whole night (5 to 8).

It was a blast, too. Most fun I've had in a long time, though it was, again, *freezing*. For the last hour, that wasn't vibrato, that was shivering.

But there was a pretty long line all night long, with families where the kids were just the right age, and the parents were very happy to have a distraction for them while they were waiting to get up to see Santa. Which is exactly why I wanted to play there -- it's perfect for me.

I played "Rudolph" and "Frosty" and "Jingle Bells" a few dozen times each, and the others a few times, and over to the regular kids songs for "Lollipop Tree", "You Got a Friend In Me", "Rubber Duckie", etc. I had kids coming over to "help" -- singing along with "Jingle Bells" mostly, but they'd also sing along on some of them from wherever they were standing in line. They all especially like to do the "Like a light bulb!" stuff along with "Rudolph", and a lot of them were Fa-la-la-ing with gusto when I'd do my country-style fingerpicked "Deck the Halls".

Right off the bat I had a little girl, Katherine, who must have been the daughter of one of the Rec Committee people, who was busily passing out the song lists (which I had far too few of, not anticipating having a helper), and collecting requests and bringing them back to me. She also sang along on "Up On the Housetop" and several others, before she came up with this new "job" for herself. Very cute. I miss having little girls around...

I played "Blue Christmas" a few times, too. It's pretty short -- just 3 verses, and no chorus at all, so I have an instrumental verse in it, which Warren normally fills in. But he wasn't there, so I was just playing through that verse anyway, and surprised myself by turning to Katherine's little brother, Gavin, and, while keeping the chords going (which I didn't think I could do -- singing and playing is easy, *talking* and playing is hard!), asking him if he'd brought a harmonica. He said no, so I said, "Saxophone maybe?", which he also didn't have about his person, so I said "Didja bring your electric guitar then, 'cuz this verse really needs some kind of solo", but no luck there either... and it was time to start the next verse. This went over pretty big with the parents waiting in line. As comedy routines go, it was no "Who's On First", but they seemed to enjoy it.

Anyway, I didn't get a lot of applause, but I could tell that the kids were fascinated, and everybody seemed to be pleased. The Rec Committee workers went on and on about how nice it was, and even Santa called out "Great music there, Singer!" as he was leaving. I had my table with hat and CDs out again, but they were in a kind of awkward place for the parents to notice. Still, I sold 4 Christmas CDs (one to the Mayor!), and one "Waltzing With Bears" CD, and made $40. The Rec Committee Coordinator was hugely grateful that I could and did stay the whole evening, since she was apparently unaware that the first guy she booked wasn't actually going to be playing for the crowd. I'm sure she'll be contacting me for other city events through the year, now. Turns out that with 36 years of practice and perseverance, you *can* build a career out of playing music for free. Oh, wait.

Keith at "Santa Paws" -- 20Dec2008

The lady that coordinates the "talent" for the Mission Viejo Recreation Committee called me up at the last minute to see if I wanted to play for the annual "Get a picture of your dog on Santa's lap" Animal Shelter fundraiser on Saturday afternoon. Heck, I'll play anywhere, so I said yes.

Not a whole lot of people, but a pretty steady stream of nice folks with their dogs, and the ladies who were working the camera and printer and such were appreciative. I was already booked for the next night, and it made a nice preparatory rehearsal and desensitation for me. Lay of the land and all that.

Daleen came down and took some pictures. I'd expected it to be freezing again, which I guess I'm getting paranoid of after the AC fiasco at Borders the night before, so I started off wearing my red sweater and leather jacket. But it was really hot out there in the sun so I ended up playing in my "Lime in the Coconut" T-shirt, which is a cool shirt and all, but I don't normally perform in such casual dress...

I did have a little table with a hat and some CDs, and I somehow made 20 bucks -- quite good for as few people who were there. Must be some kind of Christmas Spirit thing.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 19Dec2008

Quiet, but fun. We played to a lot of dead silence, but it was nice to get a chance to play the Christmas music indoors. Unfortunately, the air conditioner was apparently stuck on full-blast cold, so my hope of playing, after two weeks outdoors, in a warm place were dashed. We were freezing in there!

Anyway, when it's quiet like that, I take the opportunity to play through my newer stuff, including my *finally* workable arrangement of "The Christmas Song" (aka "Chestnuts Roasting..."). I've been trying to find a set of chords that "work" for me, or my style, or my limitations, or something, for 15 or 20 years now, but I finally crunched some pieces of several kinda-working chord sets into one that I can play, and that sounds mostly like the actual song. And it's pretty much in my singing range, too. I set up my iPod to record the night, and you can check it out here.

I came home the other night and the kids were watching "Across the Universe", a movie that kind of chronicles the 60's and 70's, amid a backdrop of all Beatles songs. The main love-interest girl sings "If I Fell", against a very simple guitar part, and without the vocal harmony that's so prominent in the Beatles' version, which they get away with because the harmony line is cleverly carried by the guitar. I thought, "Hey, I can do that -- maybe". So I worked on it, trying to find a key that I can sing it in, and play it in, and also could work the harmony line into the guitar part in. Found one, too. Wanna hear it? It's not a terribly good recording, and I'm not bringing out the harmony very clearly yet, but click here. Either it wasn't as hard to do as it sounded, or I'm getting pretty good at this...

Anyway, overall, a pretty good night. Even Warren, who normally doesn't much care for the Christmas tunes, didn't seem to mind playing 'em, just this once.

I Finally Get To Play for/at Santa

For years, I've been trying to play my Christmas tunes for the lines of families waiting to talk to Santa Claus at the annual display that the city sets up. It's always been down at "Four Corners", and the line wound down a narrow sidewalk, so I brought my little portable amp and stood in the gutter, playing to only a small section of the line. Far from ideal.

And worse, a few years ago when I tried it, a clearly-former-military member of the MV Recreation Committee came over and asked me, "And who are you supposed to be?" I didn't really think I was in disguise, but I tried to explain that I was just trying to entertain the line a little, but he said that they already had music (a boom box with a Christmas record playing, up at the house itself, barely hear-able back where I was), and made it pretty clear that I wasn't welcome. I haven't tried since then.

But this year, they moved Santa's house to the plaza between City Hall and the Library, which is bigger, safer (no traffic), quieter, and nicer. And they put up a stage next to the house for "local performers". Unfortunately, this was a last-minute idea, so the info about how to go about becoming one of those performers was hard to come by.

But we went down for the big to-do on Santa's first night, and there were little-kid dance studios, and a *terrible* local band of high school kids (when we got there, the two guitar players were theoretically playing "Winter Wonderland", but the chords didn't fit the tune, and the girl singer, not being able to tell what was going on, was singing in some random different key. Ouch.), and a poster with the phone number of who to call.

So I did, and got booked for last Wednesday, but the rain came and canceled that. I asked the coordinator if maybe the Sunday act wasn't planning to use the whole time, and she set me up for the violin player's "break from 5-6. That'll be tricky, 'cuz it takes me 20 minutes to set up, and another 20 to tear down, so I don't know how I'll work that.

But then, a while ago, she emailed me asking if I'd like to play on Saturday mid-day, when they have the annual "Dogs on Santa's lap" picture-taking event. I reckon there'll be a line of people waiting for that, same as when it's the kids' turn, so I'm in. Never played for dogs before, but we'll see how it goes!

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 13Dec2008

It was pretty darn cold, and a pretty low turnout, but I had a great time. With the economy and the temperatures so down, there were few people there at all, and the even fewer that were eating at the Food Court were sitting indoors, of course. But, I still had a few small families come by, and they get roped in pretty good when I launch into "Rudolph" and the kids light up.

I had one extended family stop while their 6 and 3-year-old sons watched and danced. The smaller one had downs, and was really into the dancing (with her gramma's encouragement), but instantly broke into crying when the songs stopped. I had to flip through the pages as fast as I could to get another song started. It started to feel like I (and the rest of the family) were puppets to this kid's whims, but he started to understand that there were gaps, but more songs would come, and settled down some. (The family may have partially understood this, and kept adding to the tip jar, again and again.) But they eventually ran me out of danceable kids' Christmas tunes after 6 or 8 of 'em, and wandered off.

I played to empty tables for a while, but dang it, just having all that volume behind you is fun, all by itself, even if nobody's there listening. Sure, I can go home (where it's warm) and play to nobody, but I can't CRANK IT UP! I don't really get that *power* effect at the indoor venues, but out there, it has to be loud to carry any distance, and to compete with that fountain. Of course, there were occasional passers-by and packs of high-school kids out, too. And I knew I had some scheduled visitors a'coming.

My brother came by, as promised, and braved the cold for quite a while. Since there was near-nobody else there, I could talk to him, and played a bunch of Christmas songs, plus all my recent songlist additions for him. He makes a good judge of what's working and not, so it's valuable to me for him to come by.

After he left, a pair of ladies from work (Kristy and Tammy) finally made it, just as I had decided that it wasn't the first, nor the last, time I'd been stood up by pretty girls. I was starting to get a bit cold and stiff-fingered by then (the little heater I'd brought from home had given up at the hour mark, for no apparent reason), but with a real audience, I kept going. Of course, I had to play all my Bestest Tunes for 'em. They stayed a long time, but at 9:00 or so they decided that they really had to find some dinner, and left.

But not before asking me if I'd give them guitar lessons during lunchtime at work. I said that I could give that a try, sure. Might be fun to see if I can teach them something useful. After 20 years or so of guitar playing, I realized that I'd learned a whole bunch of stuff that I don't, or only rarely, need. I think I can filter out what they'll really need to know, and get that much into them pretty quickly. There's *way* more mechanical skill (which you can only get by practice) than there is intellectual facts to know, anyway.

Anyway, I made an astronomical $68, but that's only because my brother threw in a twenty, even though I told him not to, and Kristy did the same thing, even though I told her not to. Discounting them, I guess $28 from the very few people that were there was pretty good.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 6Dec2008

I remember playing/singing at Tully's with a cold, but I've managed to avoid getting one for the last few years -- until now. The sore throat started Monday, and I was hoping to get over it (and I held off canceling), by Saturday night, but no such luck, but I forged ahead with lots of pseudo-ephedrine, couch syrup, and lemonade. I figured I would be able to sing at least for a while, and just quit whenever I fell apart.

I got there kinda late, stalling for the drugs to kick in, but there weren't many people there anyway. In fact, it was by far the smallest crowd we've had there yet, all night -- despite it being a fairly mild night for December. That was kinda bad for me, but bodes even worse for the retail industry...

But there were several friendly happy families out, and I played my Christmas tunes for them, and got some good response. Sold a Kid CD, even. In my delirium, I hadn't even remembered to burn any of my Christmas CDs, but it didn't really seem like anybody would have bought one, anyway. (I'll bring some next week, though.)

Later on, I had some uppity teenagers who vacillated between wanting me to play some songs they'd like, and being Too Cool hecklers. I think I managed to mostly win them over, ultimately, despite not really being in any mood to suffer idiots.

I guess I'm not really sure what the official schedule is -- I think they give us 4-hour blocks, but we've never figured we could/should fill it all. I thought I was supposed to start at 6, but I really started at 6:30, and by 9:30, I was getting pretty raspy, and announced that I was gonna do one more song. I thought I had done pretty well to survive that long, but a friendly college-age kid came bouncing along just as I was announcing that, and was begging for more -- especially Beatles. Well, since my last song *is* Beatles ("Golden Slumbers"), I figured, OK, I'd do a different Beatles song, then that one, so I did "Something" first, then "Golden Slumbers", and by then his friends had shown up, so I did *one* more, "All My Lovin'". It was nice to close with some people still "wanting more", as they say.

And I came home with $46 in tips, plus a free movie pass, tossed in by a kid who said he "didn't have any cash, but here's a movie". Seems like that's about the same (in cash) as last time, but with far fewer people, so, pretty good.

But I'm glad I decided not to bail out, as I was tempted to do. Even to empty tables, I had real fun playing those Christmas songs, though a lot of those are only sellable with a best-as-you-can Bing-it-up vocal. Maybe next week I'll be well enough to do them half-justice. But I also got to try out my new-this-year "Christmas Waltz". I've always liked the Hofstadterian self-reference in the lyrics where it informs you that it itself is in "three-quarter time", but upon learning to play it, I'm also impressed that it's an almost-constant (boringly overused standard) 4-chord loop, all through the song, until almost the end where it throws in one extra chord and a fermata... and finishes out with the lines being one half-loop out of phase to the lyrics. Accident, or genius?

K&W at Borders Mission Viejo -- 22Nov2008

Pretty good. We had a reasonably attentive crowd, featuring several people who we've seen before (and they, us). They *could*, actually, be coming out specially to see us. A boy can dream, can't he?

"Special Guest Star" Melina joined in again, but this was the first time that she's played when Warren was there. It was a little awkward, since she does essentially what Warren does (play little figures and licks over the top of me), but they worked it out quickly. We had meant to try "Ashokan Farewell" again, but somehow I managed to accidentally take my sheet out of the book in my last clean-out (it was about to break the stand!), so that didn't happen.

There was a period late in the evening, the last 45 minutes or so, when we were hitting on all cylinders, and had a lot of people along. That was really great. I also, inexplicably, learned a Jimi Hendrix song, "The Wind Cries Mary", during the week. It's not exactly up my alley, sound-wise, so I didn't think I'd actually try it in public, but it was feeling good, so I went for it. There wasn't a huge response to it, but no tomatoes, either, so maybe I'll keep it in for a few more tries, anyway.

I also tried out my new "Peace Train", which I had worked up for the (canceled) Brea Downtown gig, and which pretty much bombed here. I didn't play it *that* poorly, but I think it needs a more "loose" crowd/location -- and a bookstore ain't it.

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.