K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- Fri, 15Apr2011

We had the usual uninterested group of studying college kids for most of the night. After many frustrating gigs' worth of trying to reach them, this time I just decided that I'd forego that and just play what I wanted to play since it gets the same (non)reaction either way.

And that made it a pretty fun time. We ran through some obscure stuff (e.g. "Waiting"), and some neglected old tunes (e.g. "Down On Yourself"), and some "experimental" stuff (notably Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing", which I've been poking at to see if there might be some way to pull it off in "my style", with so-far limited success). That one really gives Warren something to sink his teeth into.

We did have a guy come right up front with his little daughter (22 months old), who he claimed "loves music". After a song or two, he asked if we knew "I'm Yours", "her favorite song". You could have fooled me, since her china-doll-cute but accusingly baffled expression didn't change a bit, before or after the song. Still, they gave us a reason to be there for a while.

I've had reason to believe that people can't find the little table with the tip jar on it when I put it over to the side, so this time I put it right in the middle of the room. Unfortunately, that appears to have had no effect whatsoever, since we made exactly two dollars. Made the split-math pretty easy, though.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sun, 10Apr2011

Nicer weather than last Sunday afternoon, but fewer people. Maybe it was *too* nice, and they were all at the beach.

Started off really well, with a bunch of Persian kids, led by brash and bold 8-year-old ("I'm the oldest one here!") Samantha and her twin-brother cousins, jumping right in. She had lots of requests right off, which is nice, for a while, but she ended up trying to hijack the whole show. After a while, she was requesting songs she'd never heard of, just to be the one in charge. Pretty young to be such a control freak already -- I'd give this one a wide berth, 8-year-old boys.

I did assemble a pretty good group of young dancers, and a few moms camped out right in front on blankets -- glad to have their kids distracted so they could get into some serious mom-talk. Samantha, not being a dancer herself, kept trying to steer me into some non-dance tunes (chosen at random), but her feminine wiles were wasted on me.

After it cooled down and the Sunday Afternoon Family Outing crowd left, it was pretty empty, except for the occasional group passing through and getting caught up in one of my songs and hanging out for a while. Ended up with $50 and some change in the jar, but that was only because a guy came through with two small daughters and dropped a twenty in, before I had even really gotten started. They didn't even stay long enough to hear a song, much less request one, or pick up a CD. Thanks, dude, but what was that about?

As I was packing up, a young woman came up and told me that I had "sounded really good", and then asked if I took checks, or only cash. Um, what? Then it occurred to me that she wanted to buy a CD, not leave a tip, so I told her to just take one. She did, and a card, and then asked me how much I charge for a gig. Taken by surprise (again), and wondering if she meant "this one" or if she intended to hire me, I decided the latter and managed to say "about two hundred", and she said she'd "shoot me an email". That probably won't happen of course, but it's flattering anyway.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Sun, 03Apr2011

Turns out that there's a Sunday evening shift available at Spectrum that I didn't even know about until recently, and since I couldn't get in on Friday or Saturday, and the Springtime weather has been bringing lots of people out, I thought I'd give it a try.

And it was pretty good. Lots of people out, but it seemed like they were more "busy" and less "cruising" than the usual Saturday night crowd. It was a little tougher to drag people in, but I did OK. Less groups of teens, too. I thought I'd get more young families on a Sunday afternoon (I played 4-8, when the shops close), but didn't really. But it was the first weekend of Spring Break, so maybe that had an effect.

Inspired by Acacia's "Just Dance" game, I decided to learn "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", due to its almost universal "get up and bounce around" appeal. I figure that a lot of parents of young kids would have been teens in the 80's, and this song will go over with them. And I had a chance to try it out when a young girl wanted to dance (aka "get swung around in a circle") with her mom and aunt, and kept saying "Play another one!" after every dance song I'd play for her. Unfortunately, I completely choked, and played it worse than I've ever played any song in public, ever. I guess it's actually trickier than one day's worth of poking at it qualified me for.

Daleen came by with the dogs and stayed almost the whole night. Her parents showed up, too, and my brother with wife. I just wish I'd'a had a chance to run through a couple of the new songs the day before, but couldn't with all the birthday party setup and teardown. I botched the first half of "Amie" pretty much, but mostly pulled off "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes".

It was interesting playing in the beating down sun, after freezing for so many gigs in a row. But then the sun went down and it got pretty cold up there, as usual. Who says we don't have "weather"?

Anyway, it was fun, and a definite "better than nothing" on weekends when I can't do a Friday or Saturday night. Apparently no one signs up for Sundays (or knows about 'em), so I can probably get in almost anytime. And I made $79, on top of the fun of it, so, yeah, I'll definitely do it again.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Mar2011

More fun at Spectrum! It had gotten kind of dreary, so there weren't as many people out as last week, but still, lots. Played for lots of dancing kids in the first half, and lots of dating couples in the last.

I'm starting to think that the way it works is: at 1 year old, the parents park the stroller in front of me and hope the kid is absorbing some of it. At 2, the kid just stands and stares. At 3, they kind of wobble back and forth. At 4, they run around in circles with their arms out like an airplane (or fairy?). At 5 and up, they actually start to put on some "moves" that we would call dancing. But, to each his own, right? I think that even the 2 year olds are "dancing", they just haven't moved it from their minds and into their feet yet.

I made a new sign that hangs from the speaker and encourages people to come up and make requests. I really don't need (though I don't *mind*) a tip for a song, but people either figure that's the unwritten agreement, or really do appreciate the songs. Either way, I made a record $136 in tips, selling 4 CDs. I can't wait for it to really warm up, so more people will be out, and they can hang out later.

I guess the sign really did work in getting more people to request songs. But despite the direct reference to the list, a lot of them were just making stuff up without looking. I had some middle-aged Persian women rearrange the chairs to form a little "front row" (of 4). One of them asked for "It's Now or Never", which, um, no... But I played "I Can't Help Falling In Move With You" instead, which they audibly swooned over. Had a guy ask for some "America", for which "The Last Unicorn" wasn't good enough (of course). I guess I should learn one of their songs, and now that I have the harmony box, I might be able to do justice to one. And another guy seriously wanted some Hendrix -- and not one of the soft ones (I could have pulled off "The Wind Cries Mary" or the coincidentally-in-process "Little Wing", but he wasn't interested in either of those). He settled for, oddly enough, "Peaceful Easy Feeling".

Played several Happy Birthdays -- I should really work up an actual decent arrangement one of these days. One was for a pair of twin high school girls. It was tricky to fit their names into the line: "Happy *birth* day dear Savanna-and-Mackenzie...". They were there with a dozen friends, all dressed to the nines in their micro dresses and 4-inch heels. Not sure why...

When I got there, the table with tablecloth was already out, so I never saw the maintenance guys. I expected them to come get the cloth sometime after 10, but they never appeared. At all. Which was nice, because I got a really nice crowd around 9:30. The cool part is, without a hard stop, I can play forever. The problem is, without a hard stop, I don't know how to quit. So I ended up playing until 11:40 -- I just can't resist a tuned-in audience. Five and a half hours does seem a bit long, but with the afternoon nap, caffeine, and adrenaline, I don't feel it (until I get home and crash).

But since they don't bring out the lights anymore, nor a heater, I have to bring my own. I'm starting to look like Jed Clampett on the move out to Californee, with my guitar on my back, pulling a train of the amp (on a cart), side speaker, two tripod stands bungeed on, tip jar/bowl, dish heater, clamp-on "spotlight", and suitcase with all the cables, etc.

I will have to look for a new tip container, though. The bowl is nice, but the wind-tunnel effect at Spectrum keeps threatening to blow the money away, and with the inexplicable new volumes, the bowl I have isn't cutting it...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 19Mar2011

Wow, what a night! Started out great, went to darn good, and ended terrific.

Before I got started, there was a birthday party going on behind me in the food court -- little Gracie was turning 8. Her friends started yelling for me to sing Happy Birthday to her, which she was adamantly opposed to, but I did it anyway. That served as a pretty good start-up for me, and brought them all over to see the song list and start ordering up their favorites. I did several songs for them, interspersed with grown-up songs as they repeatedly got distracted and came back.

I inexplicably had a huge inventory of CDs in my case, and where I usually put out only a few (because I usually only sell a few, or none), this time I just put 'em all out. On one of Gracie's fly-bys, I told her to take one of the "Waltzing With Bears" CDs, as my birthday present to her. She was gratifyingly thrilled with that, and even more so when I remembered that I had a Sharpie with me, and offered to autograph the CD.

As usual, the group of kids dancing and bouncing around in front of me attracted even more clumps of kids/parents, and Gracie, having figured out that the CDs were available, was hawking them to the other kids, in her party and not. I guess I should have been giving her a commission, 'cuz she sold me out of all 5 "Bears" CDs -- her pitch hyping the included autograph was apparently quite persuasive.

Gracie's party was there for the whole first hour, keeping things interesting. After they left, it was a little calmer, but I always had people to play for. This was my first Spectrum (outside) gig since the time change, and it was strange to be playing in the daytime, but the "Spring is here-ness" brought lots of people out.

The middle section was pretty standard-issue, just playing the Greatest Hits, and some requests when I could coax one out of someone. Daleen showed up with the dogs, and I'd occasionally invite some kids over to pet them.

Later on, I had another batch of dancing kids, including a tiny girl (maybe 2 years old?) whose parents seemed convinced that she would dance, but she just stared at me. I played all my best rock'n'roll (such as they are) songs, but there was just too much distraction, I guess. Finally they gave up, but as they left the mom came up and said "I have something special for you", digging in her wallet and coming up with her business card. "It's a 'Get out of jail free' card, if you're ever in Fresno". Um, hows that again? But her card shows that she's an officer with the Fresno police department. I'm not in Fresno much, and I get arrested there even less often, but it was a nice gesture.

For the last hour, which turned into two, I had that really great "Don't want the date to be over" crowd. Somehow, it gets quieter and I can hear (and perform) much better. My throat kludge was cleared out, so I was singing pretty well, and the date people want the pretty love songs, which I'm pretty good at.

A couple in the comfy chairs way back by the theaters were clapping loudly after every song, and the man eventually came up and asked if I knew any James Taylor. Dude, you just said the magic words. I did several James songs, branched off to some Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel, and after a while they moved over to the not-quite-so-far-away comfy chairs to my right.

A young man came up and was pretty excited by the list and the CDs. He put a fiver in the bowl and asked for two songs, including "Moon River" which he'd seen on the "Try to Remember, a tribute to my dad" CD, though it's not really on The List. But it's still in The Book, so I gave it a shot, and managed to get through it fairly well. He said that these were songs that his mom used to sing to him to put him to sleep. Before he left, he dumped some more money in the bowl and took one of each CD.

By this time, I was way over the 10:00 stopping time, but the only thing that the maintenance guys needed to take away was the table cloth, so I cleared off the table, gave it to them, and kept playing. It was getting pretty cold, but the James Taylor fan couple held out all the way until 11:00. By then, they were pretty much the only ones left, so they came up and thanked me, the lady told me I was "a serendipity" (that's a good thing, right?) and I started packing up.

When we first started playing in coffeeshops, a friend from Toshiba came out and told us that the jelly jar that I was using for tips was too small. She was convinced that a big bowl would attract more money. That may or may not be true, but I have plenty of stuff to drag out there, and a big bowl seemed like unnecessary extra trouble. But recently I found a medium-sized crystal-looking plastic bowl at the Dollar Store, and have been trying that out. I don't know if it was the bowl or not, but I made $117. That included selling a record number of CDs -- I think 13 were missing, including all the "Bears" ones, and 3 of the 4 "Dad" ones, and 5 regular ones. Maybe having lots of CDs out makes it look like there "needs to be", 'cuz they're popular?

Or maybe I was just connecting with folks better than usual. Hard to say.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 18Mar2011

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 18Mar2011 Pretty standard quiet night at Borders. One older guy asked for a few songs, and stared at me intently while I played 'em. He wasn't all that enthusiastic, though -- I suspect he was a guitar player and just wanted to see how I played 'em. Or maybe just shy.

And there was another guy who was pretty enthusiastic, but started his requests with "Music of the Night" from "Phantom of the Opera". Not exactly my style, though I suppose it *could* work on guitar. Still, weirdest request of the month, if not the year.

Anyway, we played on through with not much recognition, but it still beats watching TV. When we got to the last song, Warren suggested "Waiting", which is just an amazing song. Too bad it's so obscure.

Ended up with $7 in tips, 5 of which came from Mr. Music of the Night, who apparently liked my non-Phantom tunes well enough, as well.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Feb2011

Lots of fun. The weatherman had been predicting another rainout, but the storm apparently got here a day early, and it was dry most of the day. On the other hand, it was getting desperately cold, but I decided that it wasn't any worse than back in December, and I'd toughed that out...

When I got there, the maintenance guys had apparently given up on me and were about to cover the stage with a plastic tarp, but when they saw me, they consented to let me give it a go. I told them to forego the usual light tree and table cloth, which, it turned out, allowed me to go way past the usual shutoff time, 'cuz they had no stuff to come take away. I had my own heater and "spotlight", and the table they bring is just stored flattened up under the stage, so I could "put it away" myself.

But it was frightfully cold. I had my "going to the snow" clothes and my heater so I did OK, except for my fingers, which have been worse. It did keep the "crowds" down a lot, of course, but there was almost always somebody listening in, and the usual intermittent group of teens wanting to hear my 3 or 4 "less than 5 years old" songs. Had one group of very young teens, all decked out in lenses-poked-out 3D "geek glasses", who insisted that I play some Justin Bieber songs. I promised that I'd learn some for next time (but my fingers were crossed).

Just after 8:00, it started to hail. Yes, hail. I had been worrying about rain, but surely didn't expect hail. Of course, hail isn't exactly "wet", so it was actually OK, but after a few minutes, it dissolved into light rain, so I had to unplug the electronics and take cover (with my guitar) under the awning in front of the Starbucks. It was polite enough to rain lightly, and straight down, so I figured the amp and speaker would be OK, and I hastily slid the shouldn't-get-wet stuff up underneath the table.

It rained for 25 minutes or so, and I used the time under the awning to work out a passable version of the Beatles' "Rain", which, when it finally tapered off and convincingly stopped, I played at length to the wry smiles of the people hustling by. It took a while for people to decide that it was safe to stay and hang out, and I'd almost decided to call it a night after my empty-plaza Rain Medley ("Rain", "Rhythm of the Rain" and "Shower the People" (which I hadn't actually "thought" of, but fatefully accidentally flipped to in the book)). But I'm glad I stayed, 'cuz when the crowds started to reform, they were the most appreciative of the night. And since I had no forced shutdown time, I kept on playing 'til after 11. The last hour is always the best, so why not stretch it to two?

Had one young lady, while reading through the Song List, give an audible squeal of delight at some song-discovery. I had to wait until the end of the song in progress to find out it was "To Make You Feel My Love", which I haven't played in probably two years. It's not even on the list anymore, but it was on the ancient version that I happened to have a few plastic-protected copies of and dug out after the current ones got soaked. Fortunately, the chord sheet is still in The Book, so I played it reasonably well, despite barely remembering how the tune even goes. Great song -- maybe I'll put it back on the List...

First time out for the newly-resurrected "Wonderful World", which sounds great now, thanks to the Harmony Box. There's also been a sudden and inexplicable resurgence in the popularity of "Blackbird". I had started out the evening with a cruddy throat, but by the third time through, I was cleared out, singing quite well, and hitting even the way-too-high notes in it.

I had brought a new "big salad bowl" tip jar that I got at the dollar store. When it started to rain, I figured that the money would be fine, but I'd failed to realize that the bowl would collect lots of water, and the $41 "take" was a soggy lump when I went to collect it. When I got home, I laid it out on the floor to dry, and next morning the cat was making sure it was well protected (and killed). Thanks, Zadi.

Keith at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 18Feb2011

Usually this is a K&W gig, but Warren had a better offer, so I went in solo. As usual, mostly apathetic people there, but occasionally I managed to pique someone's interest. Got a big smile from a little 8-year-old girl and her dad when I fired up "A Whole New World" from Aladdin.

A storm was coming in (the one that would rain out my scheduled gig at Spectrum the next night), so I played and sang, and watched the outdoor shade umbrellas getting tossed. I managed to alert the store guys to go get them before they got too damaged, I hope.

The wind came up pretty hard, and one of the windows behind me was loudly rattling in the frame or something, and sounding like someone was knocking to come in. Spooky, and distracting.

But not as much as the guy who was there the whole evening, sitting in the very corner chair almost next to me, who clearly had the nasty cold that I'm still recovering from. He hacked and coughed and horked all night long, while staring at his iPad screen, and occasionally commenting on a song I'd played. I wasn't really worried about catching it myself, since I've already got it, but there were other people there, and, Dude, I'm tryin' to play here! Some people...

K&W at Borders Mission Viejo -- 12Feb2011

Pretty typical quiet evening at Borders. As usual, most of the people were there to read/study, not to listen to some local musicians, so it was tough to get anything going.

I pulled out all the usual crowd-pleasers, but couldn't make a dent, so I decided to have some fun for myself by trying some more unusual (and, admittedly, ill-advised) numbers (i.e., "The Air That I Breathe" and Heart's "Alone"). That, obviously, didn't work either.

Finally though, near the end of the evening, some people came in who were tuned in a bit, and requested some songs. One of their requests was "I Want To Hold Your Hand", and I'm sure they were expecting "the usual way", but I've been doing it in the "Across the Universe" / "Glee" way, which is much slower and makes it astonishingly deep. Sometimes I feel a little embarrassed and self-conscious doing it that way, and sometimes (like this time) it rips my guts out. Took me a while to recover enough to play the next song...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 11Feb2011

What a great night! Most pure *fun* I've had in ages. At the risk of besmirching my 56-year zero-drugs policy / record / reputation, I think I was a bit high on cold medicine and Mountain Dew, and feeling completely uninhibited -- or as uninhibited as an old suburban white boy gets.

Now, I've been playing almost every weekend for nine years now, and I'm completely over the whole stage fright thing (except to just get that first song started). It doesn't even phase me to make mistakes anymore -- for one thing, "Hey, nobody's perfect", and for another, "It's too late now!" But I still have enough pride to want to do the best job I can with each song, so there's always the self-induced pressure to get it right.

But this time, even that seemed to be out the window. Not that I was playing sloppy and screwing up a lot -- but apparently, after all this time, I can play those songs more on automatic pilot than I think I can. And being able to just let it go and "let 'er fly", is, well, exhilarating.

I felt like I was connecting with the songs more than ever, and really giving them more oomph in the singing. And, of course, it becomes a feedback loop -- the more I gave the songs, the more people were tuning in, which makes me give it even more. And actually (hopefully?) it may have been entirely that audience feedback, and not the pseudoephedrine/caffeine cocktail.

It was a nice night, and I had the feeling that there were people really listening, basically all the time. It's odd -- the audience is kinda far away. This time, I got two opposite feelings about it: 1) They're so far away that it doesn't really matter what I do, and 2) They're so far away, I can't tell, but they might be really into it. Either way, I was swingin' for the fence.

And lots of people responded. I had groups come stand up close, so I *knew* they were listening. A big clump of 8th graders came and requested songs, and then were requesting the next song even before the previous one was half over. Uh, guys, I can only sing one song at a time. Lots of families with little kids dancing, so I flipped to my new "dance tunes" section in the book and went for it.

And toward the end, when I'm playing for the "don't want the date to end" crowd, I got into a set of sentimental stuff and was really laying it on thick, and they were eating it up. I was really cranking, and it was really working.

Or maybe that's the cough medicine talking. But, like a drunk who thinks he's funny -- please don't tell me different.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 28Jan2011

Weird, crazy, fun, but somewhat disappointing (and cold) night.

When I first got there, there were some people messing with equipment on the stage. Oh no, not double booked again! But, they were tearing down, not setting up, so no problem except for the heart attack...

So I set up my stuff, and then noticed that the "house music" was even louder than usual, so I called the Maintenance guys to get them to turn it down. Their response: "It's a new system, we can't turn it down." Really?

Unbelievable. Seems like every time this gig starts to get reasonable, they come up with a new way to screw it up. Move the stage to someplace stupid, shut off the power unexpectedly in the middle of the show, and now, loud 80's rock playing almost as loud as I am. And this on top of them telling me that "due to the new layout and increased interest", they're going to start charging $50 to play on this stage, like they do for the other one. I don't think they'll get many takers if they can't figure out how to turn the music down...

It was doubly annoying because I had set up a bunch of video cameras to record with, but the recordings would be useless with the "second sound track" running through them, so there was no point in starting them up (except to catch the images here).

But there was nothing I could do about it, so I just powered through. While I was playing, of course, I was way louder than the house music (at least where I was standing), but as soon as I'd end a song, there it was again. Not sure how it sounded to people who were standing halfway between the house speakers and mine, though -- but I didn't see anyone edging away from the wall with the speakers on it, so it apparently wasn't as bad "out there" as it was on the stage.

Anyway, for some reason, it turned into "Guest Star Night". Early on, a girl came up and asked if her friend could sing. This seemed more joke than serious offer, and this idea seldom works out since all my songs are transposed into my vocal key, so I said, "Sure, but I only have one mic". Oddly, that seemed OK with them, so she came up on stage and wanted to sing "Time After Time". This was an even worse plan than almost any other song I do, because my arrangement of it is quite a bit different than the recording that she's used to, but we plowed through it, and since nobody but me could hear her when her version diverged from mine, it was no problem, and she seemed pleased to get to try. Go figure.

Later on, a kid carrying a guitar broke loose from his pack of friends, came up and asked if he could play a song. Nobody happened to be listening just then, and I was freezing, and getting not inconsiderably annoyed with the house music, so I said, "Sure". His guitar didn't have a pickup in it, so I gave him mine, and strapped the mic to his head, and stepped off the stage.

He started up a song I've never heard before (I decided later that he probably wrote it himself), stopped and fetched a lyric sheet out of his pocket, and finally managed to get through it. Couldn't hear a word of it, and his singing wasn't the greatest, but it took guts. As I was getting the guitar back, his friend asked if he could play one, too, and I couldn't see any reason not to let him, so he fired up a kind of speed-metal superfast strummy thing, did about half of it and quit. Thanks guys, that'll be plenty.

And then, almost at quitting time, a young Persian lady marched straight up to me from way across the quad. I said, "You look like somebody on a mission!", and she said that her husband had dared her to sing a song. Probably they had seen the proceedings earlier on, and decided that this was OK. She came up and I strapped the mic on her, and asked what song she wanted to do: "Let it Be". I strummed a little of it, and she decided that it was a bad key for her, so I mentally transposed it back to the original key, and fired it up. She wasn't bad, though a bit matter-of-fact, but I was mostly pleased to be able to play it through in the "wrong" key -- looking at one set of chords, but playing another, without completely crashing her.

Ended up with $44 in the jar, which is low for this place, but not bad, and understandable considering how cold it was. I did *not* split it with my co-stars...

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 21Jan2011

I think this was the emptiest I've ever seen this place -- maybe it's Winter Break at UCI, so we didn't have the usual contingency of Calculus, Bio, and Engineering studiers. Not that those kids, with their permanently-embedded iPods are much of an audience anyway...

So it was a pretty quiet night. I had an unusual amount of trouble getting the sound right -- the settings for "outdoors" and "recording at home" apparently aren't conducive for the acoustics of this place.

But I eventually got it worked out, and later in the night some people showed up who seemed to like us. One particular guy asked for lots of "classic rock" songs, including "Southern Cross", but I convinced him to take "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" instead, 'cuz I think I manage it better. He actually stopped his car to get out and shout something encouraging to us as we were talking later in the parking lot. That was nice.

I did set up a bunch of video cameras, but I was never particularly inspired, so nothing much to glean from the footage.

Some girls way in the back had circled six songs, mostly Beatles, on the Song List and brought it up. I played most of those, and then later, they brought up another List, with six more songs, mostly Beatles again, "written in". I don't know if they were just suggestions of songs I ought to go learn, or if they somehow expected me to just play them. Amusingly, they had written them on the List in the approximate places they'd have to be inserted. Thanks for the alphabetization help, girls!

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 15Jan2011

Big fun! It was pretty warm outside, so lots of people came out. And the thumpa-thumpa-cart was nowhere to be seen (nor heard!).

Maybe it's the season, or maybe it's this "big space in front" layout, but I'm beginning to notice that the nature of the gig has changed. At the old food court, I was playing to people who were seated, and usually eating -- and whether they wanted to hear me or not. Now, there are people (sometimes *lots* of people!) out on the sofas and around the planterbox bench, but I'm also roping in people who are "strolling". I guess they're there to just cruise around, and stopping for a while to hear some tunes is OK -- they weren't going anywhere in particular anyway.

These fall into two main groups: teenagers, and young families. The clumps of teens stop to see if I know any songs that they're interested in, and end up requesting the few "new" songs I know, and maybe some Beatles, too. The young families stop to let the kids have a gander at the man making music. The stroller-bound ones just stare, but the mobile ones dance, either spontaneously, or led by the moms. Either way, neither group would have been inclined to sit down, especially at "picnic tables", so the big open space suits them fine, and is working out far better than I'd expected.

The teens are surprisingly civil. They ask for the songs they recognize from my list, and frequently sing along, if their group is big and rowdy enough. And I seldom get any smart remarks. I definitely need to learn some more songs from within the decade, but I'm actually surprised that they want to hear me play "their songs". Seems like, when I was seventeen, if some Old Guy was up playing "my songs", I'd'a been disdainful, but these kids ask me for 'em, listen, and even tip me (sometimes with "all the change in my pocket", which is actually pretty endearing).

As are the little kids dancing. Some of them just shuffle back and forth, some stand and stare, some run around with their hands out, airplane-style, and some older ones actually aim at some "moves". I have to quickly dig out the more danceable tunes in the book (which I also need to learn more of). And as other parents wander by and see the Little Kids Dance Party going on, they stop, too. This happened twice on Saturday -- the first one breaking up only because the power timers went off again, at 7:30 exactly. I definitely need to have a word with the Management about that. It sure saps the momentum out of the show to get cut off mid-song...

This time I immediately rewired everything to run directly from the battery-powered amp, but even those two minutes broke the spell. Not the end of the world, I eventually got a second batch of dancing kids, but not very professional, at minimum. And, wow, does it sound different without the Harmony Box in-line, even when I'm not using the harmonies. The Box adds "vocal effects" (compression, reverb, etc.), and apparently does a great job, 'cuz it sounded suddenly pretty sad without all that. Fortunately, they got the power back on pretty quickly this time, and I re-re-wired everything to get "my sound" back.

They had also failed to bring out the table, tablecloth, and lights. I thought they were just late (and I had already found the table, tucked up underneath the stage), but I called them when it was time to start and they still weren't there. They guy said that I wasn't on *his* schedule, but he'd bring out the lights. A long while later, they brought out the tablecloth, but the lights never showed up. But the upside of that is that they didn't have to come to take them away either, so I was able to play way past the 10:00 "deadline".

So, big fun, interesting evolution of the gig itself, and 59 bucks in the jar. I may be getting the hang of this...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 08Jan2011

It was my first time back at the rebuilt Food Court area since the terrible experience 6 weeks ago. It's definitely much improved! They moved the stage out into the plaza some, and brought the outdoor sofas a third-again closer. And they moved the thumpa-thumpa (animated T-shirts) cart way back to the corner.

So the audience is only "far away", not "stupid-far". Most of the night, I had people camped out in the sofas and along the planterbox bench, just listening. To me. Wow. They're a bit far away to want to shout out requests, but some were brave enough to. And quite a few young families were out, and would let their little kids dance with (or stare at) me from the "dance floor" in between.

Early on, a birthday party of 20 or so 15-year-old girls came by, in costumes. Chicken, clown, cheerleader, superman, cone-head, etc. There was also a couple of young guys hanging out with me, one of whom had his Christmas-present ukulele with him, so I had just fired up "I'm Yours". The girls heard that and had to come over and sing/shout along, and then ask for a few songs before moving on into the food court for dinner. That was fun.

My brother came by, and heard a few songs before the thumpa-cart guy started up his break dancing show, which he apparently does once a night. This meant that his music got twice as loud, and that it was apparently time for me to take a break. I'm not sure if I "own" the sonic space there, but since he had drawn a much bigger crowd than I had, I guess he's somewhat entitled -- though I'll have to send a message to the management asking what the deal is there.

After he was finished, I started to play my new "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" for my brother, got through the first line, and the power went out. I had just bought a new parabolic heater that day, specifically to try to keep warm out there, but it had apparently been too much for the circuit. I called Maintenance, and they poked around for half an hour before discovering that it wasn't a circuit breaker at all -- they had put that outlet on a timer, since it used to be powering some tree lights or something. My brother gave up and went home before they got it fixed, and I took the chance to go talk to the thumpa-cart girl to ask, when/if they got my power back on, could they maybe keep the thumpa-music down a bit. She was really nice about it, and it worked, for a while, most of the time.

But the new location is much more prominently "just outside the theaters", and after 9:00 or so, lots of people on dates come wandering out, so I started doing the softer more romantic stuff, and drew in a lot of people. And when the thumpa-music was down (or later, off), I could really hear myself pretty well, so I was able to really get into it, and felt like I was giving some pretty good performances. I guess the difference is that I'm finally far enough away from the turtle fountain that I don't even notice it. Yay!

I guess some other people noticed that I was "on", too, 'cuz I made $82 in tips and a few CD sales. Part of that was a twenty dollar bill, which was, presumably, for a CD (or 2? I keep forgetting to count how many I'm putting out.)

Naturally, since I was doing so well, I didn't have any cameras set up. Or is it that I was doing well because I didn't have any cameras intimidating me? Either way, a really really good night. I felt good, was singing strong and playing well, I didn't get too cold, and just had a blast. After last time, I was beginning to think that they'd "ruined" the place, and that I wasn't going to want to play there anymore. Now, I can't wait to go back.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum, Myrtle Court-- 23Dec2010

I got to play the Main Stage at Spectrum again, coincidentally exactly a year from the famous hat-stealing gig of 2009. This year I swore to play facing *away* from the fountain, which is also away from any potential audience sitting at the tables along its sides, but at least it doesn't leave my "six" unprotected.

At first it seemed like a huge mistake -- it felt weird to deliberately turn my back on the people at the tables, but after I got started, I was able to almost continuously attract at least a small (and sometimes satisfyingly large) group in the standing-space in (my new) "front", and some lingerers sitting on the bench/planter boxes at either side. I guess that's the way it works -- once you're playing, you attract the attention of the tide of people coming down the corridor. Most go on by, but the ones that like what they hear can stop for a while.

I got lots of families with small kids, many of whom stop to let their kids see what Live Music looks like. I must have played "Rudolph", "Frosty", "Jingle Bells" and "Up On the Housetop" a dozen times each. Of course, having little kids gives me the excuse to play those, but the teenagers who come by while they're playing always join in, either on the main part, or with the "...like a light bulb!" descant on "Rudolph". I guess once you learn it, it's irresistible.

I made $49 in tips -- I'm sure it would have been more, but the arrangement forces people to split into two "streams" around me, so half the people didn't happen to walk by the tip jar. Next year, *two* tip jars.

Fortunately, I'd convinced the Booking Girl that, although her Original Material bands can probably sell enough CDs to cover the $50 Setup Fee, poor widdle me, playing well-liked but "cover" material, entertains the crowd, but doesn't sell enough CDs to afford to pay for the privilege. So she waived the fee, or I'd'a been a buck in the hole for the night.

So it all worked out -- I had a great time, played for a lot of people, made some Christmas money, and I still have my hat.

K&W at Borders South Coast Plaza -- 17Dec2010

A pretty good night -- unusually many people were tuned in. Was it the Christmas season, the Christmas music, or just the luck of the draw? No way to tell, I guess.

We did pretty well, tips-wise, but most of it was a twenty dollar bill that was ostentatiously left by a bearded guy we've seen before, who sat up front in the comfy chairs (*too* comfy?), asked for a few requests, and then fell loudly asleep. Not sure whether the $20 was an apology, or a thank you -- apparently he needed the sleep.

Thoughts on The Hat

I've been thinking about the response I had at the Santa's Workshop line the other day, and I think it was at least partially the effect of The Hat. At 6-foot-2, I'm a somewhat scary Big Man, and any given kid is in a foreign place (mall or Civic Center park), confronted with a Stranger, and is bound to be a little apprehensive in interacting with me. Mom seems to be OK with it, and the Big Man is playing and singing My Kinda Songs, but still...

But when I put on The Hat, I'm suddenly Something Else. With The Hat on, I'm not a Big Scary Man anymore -- I'm a Character; a Clown maybe; or something from TV. Kids are suddenly completely confortable talking to me, telling me their stories/concerns, asking for songs (sometimes while I'm in the middle of singing other songs!), screaming demands at me ("Play it again!"), etc.

It's magical, and quite wonderful. I'm thinking of wearing it year-round. Or at least whenever I'm likely to be playing for little kids.

Keith at Santa's Workshop - 15Dec2010

What a great night! They re-routed the line to see Santa so that it's on the sidewalk, putting the people too far away if I set up on the lawn like usual, so I moved to the in-between "rest area". I set up so that I could play to the head of the line, but that coincidentally put me right in front of some (anchored-down) park furniture -- a bench, two chairs, and a "coffee table". I didn't realize that parents would allow their kids to come and sit there, right near me, but they did, and what an audience!

And a huge turn-out. It's supposed to go from 6-8, but they obviously can't turn people away, so I was playing until 9 when the line finally played out. It moves quite slowly, so I had some of those kids for 2 hours. I played and played, and they danced and sang along and requested songs, some real, some made-up. Sometimes I'd do a song, and they'd all scream, "Do it again!" Even with several "greatest hits" non-Xmas kids' songs mixed in, it was tough not to be too repetitive, with 3 hours to fill, but nobody seemed to mind.

Lots of cute, cute kids to play for. Most of them dressed up for Santa (and the pictures) -- red velvet with white fur trimmed dresses, sequins, sparkly shoes. And it's so fun to say, "I'm gonna play a song now about a dragon -- a magic dragon..." and have some kids shout, "Oooh! 'Puff the Magic Dragon'!" They're so excited to have guessed it! And I got to enlist kids to "help out" with the "...like a lightbulb!" descant for "Rudolph". Everybody sang along on "Jingle Bells". And there are lots of kids who know a full hand-gesture routine for "Up on the Housetop", miming the words "up", "reindeer", "Santa Claus", etc. I love audience participation!

I did work up the guts to put out the card table with the basket of candy and business cards on it, despite being pretty sure that Mister Cranky-Pants was there. All the candy was gone, though nobody seemed to have gotten the implied, stealth, "tip jar" aspect. But I didn't mind at all -- I had a blast. There was a pretty thick cloud cover that might have meant rain, but really only served to keep it merely cold, not freezing, so I didn't even have to play with frozen fingers. What a great night!

And a good thing, too, since the weather report is for rain all the way through the weekend, probably killing my Spectrum gig on Saturday, and the last Santa night on Sunday. Bummer. Now that I got this great setup (accidentally) figured out, I want to do it again!

K&W at Borders Mission Viejo -- 11Dec2010

That was pretty fun. Due to various complications, I haven't played at the Mission Viejo Borders since May. When I got there, I was reminded of one of the downsides of playing in these no-stage bookshop venues: a lady was completely camped out in the corner where we need to set up, and was steadfastly impervious to my setting up of amps, stands, cables, etc. all around her. We get the same situation at South Coast Plaza, too, where someone is parked there, and we have to gently dislodge them. Awkward.

Anyway, we managed to get going eventually, but I had a lot of trouble getting the sound right. I guess the adjustments that get it working outdoors don't work so well indoors. And it's complicated since there's a tone knob in the guitar, on the pre-amp on the ground, and on the amp itself, all fighting/enhancing each other.

We did get some decent response, and I managed to goad several people into requesting songs. The good part was that, due to the "holiday hours", the store was open an hour longer than usual, so we had time to do more stuff. I sprinkled in several of my more pop-like Christmas songs, and Warren didn't complain too much about it. And, later in the evening, when the requests tapered off, I played through some unusual stuff: "Waiting", "People's Parties", "Landslide", and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", which I've recently figured out how to use the harmony box on, and worked far better than I'd expected/hoped. Demands a bit of fancy footwork, but I guess I'm getting the hang of it. Next up: "The Weight", which requires some really complicated foot-button pressing but sounds great, if I hit it.

We pulled in $19 in tips, which is pretty good for this place. I have a busy week coming up -- The Mission Viejo Santa Claus line on Wednesday and Sunday, Spectrum on Saturday, and the South Coast Plaza Borders on Friday with Warren again. 'Tis the season, I guess...

Keith at Santa's Workshop -- 01Dec2010

This is my third year playing for the families waiting in line to see Santa Claus at the Mission Viejo Civic Center. This year it's a little different -- they took out the stage (which was too far away from the "audience" anyway) and replaced it with Other Activities: cookie decorating and a projected loop of animated Christmas specials (Charley Brown, Frosty, Chipmunks, etc.) with (fortunately), the sound quite low. This was pretty smart, but it turns the lawn behind me into a Destination. It's a little odd to have people milling around behind me while I'm trying to play.

But it wasn't a problem -- this time anyway. The turnout was very small, here on December 1st, and a Wednesday. In fact, I always set up to play to the "middle" of the line, but the line was so short all night that it never even reached back to where I was playing. Everyone could hear me, but nobody was "in front" to see me (and I, them).

So mostly I seemed to be playing for the middle-school girl volunteers that pass out the hot chocolate and wear the Rudolph and Frosty suits. And that's OK. It was almost like a dress rehearsal for the rest of the nights.

I am pretty thrilled to be on the bill with such eminences as Suzanne's Dance Factory and Brownie Troop 367. I'm definitely on my way to the big time now...

There was some email discussion about whether or not I could put out my card table with CDs and a hat. Someone on the Committee doesn't like that because this is supposed to be a "free event". I'm not actually forcing anyone to buy one, but whatever. I have more of a problem that they won't even allow a tip jar. I don't need the money (though it's nice to feel appreciated), but it turns out that if I don't put out a jar/hat, people walk up and try to hand me money. Even in the middle of a song.

So the (possible) stealth solution we came up with was to put a low basket on the card table, filled with mixed peppermint candy and my business cards (which they specifically said I was allowed to put out). We figure that if anyone decides to leave a dollar in the basket in exchange for a mint, I can't stop 'em.

But, since the line never came back that far, that scheme didn't get tested. We'll see how it goes next Sunday.