Keith at Laguna Beach -- 24Nov2012

I was anxious to get down to Laguna and sing some Christmas songs, now that it's past Thanksgiving. But too early still, I guess. Although the street was all decorated up with Christmas lights, nobody seemed to be "in the spirit" yet. The only people I got to stop were a couple of young families with little kids, for whom, of course, I played "Frosty", "Rudolph", etc.

Oh, and one other guy -- a drunk and addled homeless guy who sat down on the bench across from me and proceeded to shout, whisper, cry, and rant, to nobody in particular. At first he seemed somewhat reasonable, but he got louder and more crazy as time went on. And, of course, he was scaring away anybody else who might want to stop.

I tried to just overpower him, playing louder than his ranting, but he didn't seem to mind or even notice. Then I thought I might be the reason he was hanging out there, so I "took a break", hoping to bore him into moving on. But, no -- he didn't need a reason to be there, nor anyone to actually be talking to.

Occasionally he'd hit a patch of near-coherency. At one point he was proclaiming his "bottom of my heart" love for Eve -- *the* Eve; you know, Adam's girlfriend. Not sure how he knows her. And later on he was describing his emphatic belief that Ian Anderson (of "Jethro Tull") was the greatest musician that ever lived. And he *is* pretty good, but I think even Ian would agree that he's no Mozart...

Anyway, it was pretty awful. You can't help feeling sorry for the guy, but at the same time, there was nothing I could do for him. And he was certainly ruining my evening, along with his own. Finally one of the "regulars" down on the corner came by, a big guy who does a lot of Tae Kwon Do, and decided to help me out, forcefully telling the crazy guy to move along. Which he just up and did.

But it was too late -- the foot traffic had disappeared, so I played a while more, and gave up. Somehow I made $34, though, which was weird since almost nobody stopped. So I guess I'm considering going again, sometime closer to Christmas. Not sure when I'll be able to, though -- I'm booked pretty solid at Spectrum and lots of Santa Claus Workshop gigs.

Indian Princess Reunion Campout

One of the dads from our original Indian Princess tribe organized a "reunion" campout, at my favorite local campground: San Mateo. Of course, it's hard to get onto people's schedules anymore, but 5 dads and 8 daughters showed up.

Some of the girls hadn't seen each other since they were half the size, and in some cases wouldn't have recognized each other at all, but within minutes they were all "besties" again; climbing trees, exploring the nearby "wilds", and doing whatever it is that kids do on these things when they're out of sight of the dads.

When night fell, we had dinner around the campfire, and the girls surprised us with a short program of nostalgic Princess skits ("School on Fire" and "Candy Shop"), cheers (Watermelon, Roller Coaster), and songs (my "I'm an Indian Princess"). That was pretty cool, and great of the girls to think of it. Warms a daddy's heart.

Of course I had brought my guitar, and played some of the old songs, and the girls started singing along to the kids songs I used to do at Princess campouts, but also to every Disney movie song I know. And also the few recent pop tunes that I've picked up to play at Spectrum. It was really great to have actual Singing Around the Campfire, though Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift are a far cry from "Comin' 'Round the Mountain"...

It sprinkled on us a few times, and finally turned into actual rain so I had to put the guitar away, but it let up after a while and the girls reappeared when the S'mores fixin's came out.

The next day, we walked down to "Trestles" beach (which is one of the big attractions of this campsite). Of course, the water was way too cold to get into, but the girls wandered off to explore, just like they used to do 10 years ago.

It was really great to get together with these guys and girls again. We're planning another one for next Spring, and hope to get even more of the old gang.

Keith at Mission Viejo Farmer's Market -- 16Nov2012

They've added a "Craft Faire" to the usual farmers' booths, so I was expecting (hoping?) that they'd be Christmas-y, so I could play some Christmas songs, even though it's before Thanksgiving. But they were just regular crafts, not Christmas stuff, so that didn't work.

So, a pretty standard, quiet, gig. I guess I'm just background music, since everybody there is either shopping, or selling. Maybe a dozen people come over to the tables out in front of me to eat lunch, but they pretty much ignore me, too. It's a good thing I'm getting paid, 'cuz it's really not a lot of fun to be playing to nobody. I can do that at home.

The bread guy wasn't there, so no free bread this time, but I did run into some ladies (don't know what booth they'd been running) in the parking lot on the way out who told me how pleasant it was to have me there. I said that I was glad they liked it, 'cuz I'll be back in three weeks...

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 11Nov2012

I had gone down to Dana Point to eavesdrop on new music-acquaintance Joe Cannon's party (though I didn't want to be seen, nor pay the $15 (!) to get in). I only heard the first verse of "Teenager in Love" and decided that that was enough.

From there, though, I stopped by Forest St. and nabbed a parking spot across from Acoustic Alley. There were some guys parked on the bench at The Corner -- one was idly thumping a djembe, and the other seemed to be sketching. I got there at 5:00, and there was some pretty decent foot traffic, so I played in the Alley for a while, just me and my guitar, which made it easy to just walk down to The Corner every 20 minutes or so to see if they'd gone away yet. But they never did.

Playing "au natural" was interesting: no mic, no amp, no harmony box, no tip jar, and no music book. I got the chance to see not only what songs on my list I know how to play without the song sheet, but what songs on my list I can even remember are *on* the list. I hit the top 5 Obvious ones ("Hotel California", "You've Got a Friend", "The Boxer", "Over the Rainbow", "Let it Be"), and then, um, what other songs do I know, again? Oh yeah, "Sweet Baby James", "Crying", and um, "Wonderful Tonight". And then, um, "Over the Rainbow" again.

Anyway, at 6:00 I resolved to walk by the guys on The Corner, carrying my guitar, and see if they'd volunteer to be done, or maybe back off on the drumming and let me play anyway. But loony Mr. Frequency was there, regaling and/or berating them, and I'd had plenty of that last time, so I spun around and went on home. I guess I broke even for the evening, though, tips versus parking, since I happened to be playing "Sweet Baby James" when a family came by, and the newborn strapped to the lady's tummy was named "James", so the dad sent the 4-year-old big sister skipping back to hand me a dollar.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 07Nov2012

We thought we'd give it one more go down in Laguna, especially considering the little warm snap we had. (Originally, we meant to go down on our usual Tuesday night, but bumped it a day when Warren's wife pointed out that it was election night. D'oh!) By Wednesday, the warm snap was over though, and almost nobody was out.

We did have fun for a while, playing for a three-year-old boy and his mom, who had come out to get some groceries. He was quite a dancer, and Mom had a hard time dragging him away. And I didn't help matters much when I deliberately broke out the kids' Christmas songs...

And we attracted the attention of a new homeless guy, who seemed quite lucid at first, but was, shall we say, riding a different bus than the rest of us. He decided that we "sounded really good", so he settled in on the bench to add some harmony. Unfortunately, his definition of "harmony" is somewhat different than usual, and he'd just start sing/chanting a kind of "rhythm track" of something like "ticka-bit-a-tick", over and over, without any particular pitch, nor any rhythmic relation to the sing I was singing. But he was totally committed to it, and kept it going, essentially at random, whether I was in a song yet or not. It was terribly distracting, of course, but I just kept on playing, presuming/hoping that the amp was louder than he was.

He stayed for far too long, but suddenly stood up and gave us a parting lecture on "the *freq*uency", and how he "*was* music", and a lot of other stuff that was delivered in completely authentically composed sentences that were nonetheless, absolutely unparseable. It was actually kind of amazing, because it was *so close* to making sense, but just didn't, quite. I wish I'd'a had a recorder...

Later on, we had another "Laguna Only" moment when a homeless burnout surfer type guy wandered through, carrying a box, and with a live crow perched on his wooly stocking cap. The crow seemed reasonably comfortable up there, but the feathers on his tail and one wing were pretty trashed, so he probably couldn't fly and been rescued by the surfer, who will hopefully keep him fed until the feathers grow back and he can fly away.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 31Oct2012

When I got home and told my wife how deserted it had been down in Laguna on the night before, she said, "You should go down *tomorrow* night", meaning, on Halloween itself. This sounded like a terrific idea, so, although I don't normally do (or have the stamina to do) two nights in a row, I went down.

Great theory, but, nope, nobody out. None of the hoped-for crowds of costumed revelers; no photo opps with crazy party people (and I'd brought my camera). The city of Laguna Beach is really missing a bet, not hyping up a big downtown party like New York does.

Oh well. There were a few of the homeless guys out, and a nice couple stood on the opposite street corner and listened for a while -- not sure why they were so shy. Afraid of the homeless guys? And later on, a couple pulled to a stop 'cuz the guy was impressed that I was playing "Scarborough Fair" correctly. Their appreciation 3 bucks and 2 more made up the lowest tip-jar count in recent memory.

At least, having learned a lesson the night before, I gave up at the early hour of 8:00, and got enough sleep for a change.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 30Oct2012

Well, street-corner playing is definitely all over, at least for weeknights. And at least until the Christmas shopping season. It was pretty much a ghost town. Not only that, but a couple of guys had gotten to The Corner before I got there at 6:30. So I strolled around and talked to the bored restaurant hostesses and the girl who works at the nearby T-shirt store who frequently comes out to listen when she's bored. It was actually kind of nice to look around the area, since I normally have to bee-line to The Corner and don't get to sight-see.

Warren got there at 7:00, and the guys hadn't give up yet, so we went and played in the Alley for a while. I just played and sang acoustically, since there wasn't anybody there anyway, and it gave us a chance to play through some new, as-yet-unlearned songs.

After a while, the Other Guys walked by, having abandoned The Corner, so we relocated and I deployed the amp and all, but it didn't get much better. We somehow pulled in 18 bucks, but even the homeless guys weren't out. Maybe everybody was at home, working on their costumes...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 26Oct2012

Maybe I was just tired. I had a tough time getting "into it". There were a couple of people, here and there, that would stop to listen, but I couldn't get much interaction going until very late.

Except for a batch of little kids who just *had* to be up on the stage. At first there were three fairly well-behaved little girls, and it was nice. Then more, and more, until there were eight of them, only occasionally in danger of knocking the music stand over. But their presence made the older boys in the crowd bolder, and pretty soon I had strafing runs of unruly boys zooming across the stage, coming very close to tripping on the wires and/or knocking down the iPad. I let it all go, but it put a crimp in my performance to have to worry about all this stuff while trying to sing the songs. I probably shouldn't have given them that inch...

After a while, I was down to just one little 2-year-old, who really just wanted to be on the stage. She was too young to really care about the songs, but she liked being up there with me. And since I had no one else to sing to, I sang to her for a while.

I also had two teen-age girls come by who remembered me from when they turned cartwheels in front of the Fountain Stage at my gig in February. They were quite thrilled that I'd learned songs by Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber in the interim.

Finally, very late, some couples showed up who were really listening, and asking for songs. One of the couples wanted to dance, and the guy bribed me to play "Brown Eyed Girl", which is in the book, but I rarely do 'cuz I don't think I pull it off at all. But they stayed and stayed, and I ended up playing until 11:30, when we'd all had enough. I guess that last half-hour partially made up for the previous five. I did bring home $82, so I guess it wasn't quite as awful as it felt. Maybe I was just tired.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 23Oct2012

No rain this time, but it's starting to get a bit cold out there already. Not a lot of normal people out, but I had a full contingent of the Regular Crowd. I suppose that "homeless" also means "TV-less", so these people don't have much else to do. None of them are particularly bad off -- there's a pretty good structure for them with the Shelter to sleep at (though most of the guys don't), and local restaurant employees and patrons coming out and handing them food. They have cell phones, and reasonably nice (and clean) clothes. But no TVs, and nowhere else to go. And though they've all seen me a dozen times, they really do seem to appreciate the distraction.

The good part is that there's always somebody there to play for, and people tend to pay more attention if *other* people are paying attention. On the other hand, if the regulars are acting boisterous or erratic, I sometimes think that the regular people passing by are reticent to stop and be too close to some of these "sketchy characters"...

Anyway, I did manage to get a few "other" people to stop. One young couple started dancing to some love songs, and caused a lot laughter when their dog tried to join in on the dancing, the only way an un-neutered male knows how to. And later I had a couple that really needed to get back to their hotel in Anaheim so they could get some sleep before their early flight back to Florida, but I kept playing my best stuff and keeping them there. I'm so mean...

The first tip of the night was from a lady who breezed through the corner and, without slowing down, stuffed a five and three ones into the jar on her way through. I get fives, and I get lots of ones, and an occasional ten or twenty, and even, once, a fifty, but exactly eight dollars? That was either incredibly and inexplicably specific, or absolutely random, but I guess I'll never know which.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 20Oct2012

Warren was gone to Hawaii for a week, which meant that he and Jim wouldn't be on The Corner on their usual Saturday, so I went down. It was way better than the usual Tuesdays we've been playing, naturally, but I was surprised by how *much* better.

I got there just after 5:00, and it was kind of cloudy but not cold, and lots of people were out, especially later on after dinnertime. But around 8:00 it started to mist. No problem. That faded out, then came back, and then turned into a sprinkle. I was using my iPad as the music book, and those are obviously not supposed to get wet, but it wasn't really *raining* yet...

And, naturally, just as it got worse, a crowd formed. I was starting to worry about the iPad, so I took one of my pass-out song lists out of its plastic "sheet protector" and put the iPad in it. It was hard to read through the water drops, but at least it was safe. And I had to keep wiping the guitar neck off with my sleeve between songs, but it was kind of fun.

Still, I began to feel like I was some kind of idiot who didn't know to come in out of the rain, but I guess it came off as romantic, 'cuz I started getting several couples who were standing in the sprinkles -- cuddling, slow dancing, and making out. I was thinking, "What is this, Paris?!?", but I started playing lots of love songs, and apparently made some people happy.

But after a while as it started to be an actual "rain", the crowd disappeared, so I could half-pack up and roll over to stand underneath the little awnings out in front of the ice cream store. That got me out of the ever-increasing rain, but made me pretty nervous when folks would rush by on the narrow sidewalk, just barely avoiding snagging the music stand and sending my iPad crashing to the sidewalk.

So I played a while longer and then figured it wasn't gonna stop, and obviously nobody else was going to show up in the rain, so I went on home about 10:30.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 15Oct2012

Just another quiet night in Laguna, playing for Silly Patty and some of the usual homeless guys. The bad part is that not many people are out anymore -- the good part is that it gets nice and quiet, so it's fun to play and sing (especially with my new not-really-stealth rig that uses my "real" amp, instead of the smaller, bad-sounding, practice amp).

The only problem (OK, one of the problems) with these street corner gigs is that there are no rules. People can do whatever they want, within social and legal constraints, which, in Laguna, are pretty lax. For instance, if a guy shows up with a loud drum and wants to play along, off beat, there's not much I can do. If a drunk shows up and wants to sing along off key, same thing.

With homeless Matthew, who I can't tell if he's always slightly drunk or just partly spun-out, it's singing, and stomp-dancing, along. He's harmless, and kinda sweet, if tone deaf, and goes on and on (and on and on) about how great we are, and how we (?) sing like angels, and how amazing every song we play is. He's just kind of erratic, and scares the normal people away.

Lately, he's become enamored of the LED "Glow Ball" that I put in my tip jar to make it findable in the dark. I finally fished it out and let him "hold" it, and when he disappeared with it, I figured the three bucks it cost me was well spent to be rid of him for a while. But he brought it back eventually. I ordered a bunch more from Hong Kong, and I think I'll just give him one when they arrive -- though I'm not sure if making an even better "friend" of him is a good idea or a bad one...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 13Oct2012

There were *way* more people out than I'd expected, but maybe I was just projecting the fall-off that we've had down in Laguna. Still, it was strangely hard to get through to anybody, at least for the first few hours. I'm used to people zooming by, obviously, but usually I can snag at least a few. But until about 8:00, hardly anybody stopped. Strange. And disconcerting...

But eventually that wore off and I had the benches filled, and some folks standing around, and requests a couple deep. And over to the side, a pretty college girl, scribbling furiously in her notebook. I assumed she was writing up a journal entry or something, but it turned out that she was drawing. Me. And then she threw the picture in my guitar case and disappeared without a word, mid song. It's quite good, though it makes me look old. Or at least older than I think I look... [Click to enlarge the picture.]

I finally remembered to bring the "foot tambourine" that my daughter got me for my birthday. It straps onto your foot, and rings when you tap. Theoretically. The good part is that it doesn't ring unless you really mean it, so you can wear it all the time. The bad part is that it doesn't ring unless you really mean it, meaning, stomp pretty hard. I was wearing my boots, so it was kind of hard to get it to ring with my heel already 3 inches high. Maybe I need to move it out towards my toes more, like the guy in the picture, but then I'm afraid for the elastic. Needs experimentation, and practice, I suppose.

Anyway, it was pretty fun for the second half, and I played on through until 10:45. Went home with $101 in the jar, and some artwork to boot.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 09Oct2012

A very slow night, as I'd expected to come even earlier, but made bearable and even fun by the presence of Silly Patty, who somehow manages to maintain her enthusiasm all night even though she's heard almost every song I know by now.

Actually, that's not quite true. She came by when I was standing on the lonely Tuvalu corner during Art Walk last week, and I showed her the "Everything" page of my iPad song book, which has (currently) 238 songs on it (as opposed to the 104 songs on the printed handout list). The balance are songs that I don't play very well (but will muddle through if asked), and obscure songs that I don't think many people know. The "B List", if you will.

Patty immediately spotted a few songs that she liked, so I guess I ought to print that list up and let her go through it, since she's sweet enough to overlook the mistakes I'm bound to make on these seldom-practiced songs. So I played quite a few half-remembered songs, not too terribly, and that's kind of fun.

Other than Patty, we had a scant few tourists come by, and went home with $15. Maybe it'll pick up again when "Holiday Season" comes around.

Keith at Laguna Beach "Art Walk" -- 04Oct2012

[Pic is me, as seen from the lousy camera in my iPad on the music stand]

I almost forgot about this, again, but it came up on my calendar so I decided to go on down. Jim & Warren always play on Thursdays, especially on Art Walk Thursdays, so I knew I'd have to find somewhere else to set up, but I've been eyeing the far corner, and wanted to give that a try anyway.

I got there and was set up at 7:30. I decided to add the monitor speaker to the rig, because although the big amp sounds *way* better to the audience, I'm beside it and get a very muffled version. It took a while to get it all figured out, but it did sound way better to me, so that's a keeper, as long as I can figure out a more elegant way of transporting and situating the thing.

Unfortunately, it was almost a moot point, because nobody stopped to listen anyway. Everybody has a map to all the galleries that are participating, and they're all in a big hurry to get to the next one, presumably before the wine and cheese runs out. It's disheartening when people toss, "Oh! I love this song!" over their shoulder as they rush by. I want to shout out, "Then why don't you stop and listen to it?", but it's too late anyway.

I kept on playing, though, 'cuz it sounded really good, and I'm eternally optimistic that someone will notice. But mostly they'd stop on my corner to say "I think it's down this way!", hunting for their cars. So about 9:00 I gave up and walked down to see how Jim & Warren were doing.

And as deserted as my corner was, theirs was a *party*. Lots of people were still out, though they were mostly zooming by there, too. Jim and Warren had just finished packing up, so I figured I'd just settle in and take over -- at least there were potential listeners here.

And I managed to snag quite a few of them, and more and more as it got later, more relaxed, and the galleries (and their free wine bars) closed. It's really gratifying when some people are breezing by and pull up short, apparently realizing, "Hey, this guy's pretty good!". And if I can get them to stay until the end of a song, I can point out the list, and maybe get them to pick a favorite, and stay even longer.

Anyway, I probably made 3 or 5 bucks down the street, but by the time I quit at 10:30, I was up to $40. But still, I'm starting to wonder if Art Walk is the best time to go down, as generally believed, or actually the worst.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 02Oct2012

It was a nice warm Indian Summer evening, but still not a lot of traffic. Fortunately, we had a lot of "regulars" ("fans"?) to play for: Silly Patty, Janelle, taxi driver Sid, and some other drop-bys. I had the big amp, and the later it got, the quieter the road traffic, and the better I sounded/felt.

It turns out that the problem with starting at 7 (instead of 5) is that it doesn't seem like I've played nearly long enough until it's really late. The good part is that the quiet part of the evening comes sooner. The great part was having an attentive audience, willing and happy to hear some of the lesser-known or infrequently-attempted songs in The Book, like "The Water is Wide", "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water".

Patty, on finding out that it was Warren's birthday and that mine was the day before, went off and got us some amazing cookies at the bakery down the street, which came in handy at 10:30 when I finally decided to get home to bed. I'm always starving at the end of a gig.

Though it didn't seem like very many people stopped to listen, somehow 35 bucks showed up in the jar. I do remember one guy buying a CD. It was kinda funny though -- he had already put in a buck as a tip, then decided to buy a CD, so he put in a fiver, but also fished out his original dollar. Technically correct, sure, but it seemed a bit petty.

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 28Sept2012

Since I didn't have any other gigs this weekend and Tuesday had worked out pretty well, I decided to give Friday a try. I also wanted to try out the "arrive at 7" idea, saving me the two dead hours leading up to the "sweet spot".

For these street-corner gigs, I've been using the "little amp", "stealthily" hidden in a plastic roller-crate. But it's frustrating because I have to turn it up literally all the way to be heard, and it tends to distort and sound terrible. So I decided to take a chance and bring the "big amp", which also happens to be battery power-able, since it was bought specifically to take to Indian Princess campouts in the woods.

Laguna Beach does have an "amplifier permit" ordinance, but the cops hardly ever come by, and when they do they turn a blind eye as long as you're not bothering anyone with excessive volume. So the theory goes, anyway, and I have had a lot of cops walk or drive by when I'm there with an all-too-visible head-mic, a big black wire coming out of my guitar, and a harmony box on the ground, blinking its myriad red lights. It's not hard to tell I'm not strictly acoustic...

The big amp is already on a roller cart thing, so I packed all the rest of the stuff into a big backpack, stacked it on top, and went on down there to test my luck. Because of the shorter hours, I even convinced my wife to come along with the dogs. It was kinda great to have people already coming by, right at the start, and the big amp setup sounded *so* much better. And of course, as always, when I can hear myself, I perform way better, too.

So I was having a pretty good time, and as always, the dogs were attracting a lot of attention, too. If they'd'a had a tip jar out, I'm sure they'd'a been doing better than I was...

But after an hour or so, just when it was getting really good, a cop car whipped around the corner, lights flashing (though no siren), and screamed to a stop right there next to me. I quietly had a heart attack, but somehow continued and finished the song, singing and playing half as loudly as before, and mentally preparing to be rousted.

But it turned out that the cop was there to take a report from a guy who had apparently been harassed by somebody, so while they were talking I quietly unplugged the guitar, grabbed the iPad and slinked away. The good part was, I didn't get busted. The bad part was, they stood there talking for what seemed like an hour, and destroyed the "prime time" section of the evening.

I actually had a lady come up and tell me that they wanted to hear me play, and I had to tell her that I really couldn't fire up with the cop standing right there, so they reluctantly wandered off. And another lady -- there with her cute little 14-month-old, the dad, and the grandparents -- told me that she *loves* James Taylor (though the song she'd heard just before the cop showed up was John Denver), and always cries when she hears "Carolina in my Mind". They stalled as long as they could, but they had to leave before the cop did, so I didn't get to see/make that happen.

The cop finally left, so I fired up again, but the wind was out of my sails, and the crowds were nearly gone, so I gave up after a while and packed it in. We were there far later than I'd meant to be, and I'd gotten to play far less, but I still pulled in 25 bucks, and it was a success as far as testing out the big amp rig (and not getting busted for it), and for showing up later and still getting to be on The Corner. I've had better gigs, but it was still more interesting than sitting at home...

Keith at Laguna Beach -- 25Sept2012

Warren meant to meet me down there, but he was detained by a sudden work emergency, so I was solo. There was, of course, almost nobody out anyway, especially early on, except some locals zooming by. But hey, once the stuff's all set up, it's fun to just play.

The dilemma, when nobody's listening, is whether to play instantly-recognizable stuff to try to drag in the passers-by, or whether to just have fun playing new and/or obscure stuff for my own entertainment. I chose the latter, for a while, but when more people started to appear (after dinner, I guess), I started playing my more popular stuff.

The last hour or so was actually pretty great -- I had one *very* appreciative guy (who left a $10), and a nice couple of ladies who clearly had somewhere else to get to, but who I detained by playing some of their favorites. They even bought a CD. And I had a lady come up and tell me that it was her 31st anniversary, and could I play "their song", which was James Taylor's "Up on the Roof", which I do happen to know, so that was pretty sweet. I followed it with some more love songs and they stayed and cuddled for a while.

Had a few odd requests: One guy asked me if I knew the theme from "Love Story" ("Where do I begin, to tell the story..."), which, yeah no. Another lady asked me if I knew "that song from 'Ghost'", which is "Unchained Melody". I've looked into that song, actually, and considered it, though it's so "showy" that I'm afraid that I'll never have the chutzpah to do it in public -- kind of like "Bridge Over Troubled Waters", which I have in the book, but seldom perform. And a little foreign dude asked for "Moonshadow" (which I've poked at, but is hard for me because of the odd guitar style), but he settled for "Wild World".

I was surprised to find $50 in the jar, most of which had to have appeared in that last hour. Now that there's nobody else trying to play down there, I'm thinking that I could still "get" The Corner and do almost as well, audience-wise, even if I show up at 7 or 7:30, and just play that "sweet spot".

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 18Sept2012

I keep thinking that the traffic down in Laguna will be so thin that it won't be worth going down there, eventually. But we had fun last week, so I agreed to go again. And it was pretty desolate, but that gave us the chance to play some of the fun but obscure ones, and try out some new stuff that's not ready for an audience yet. So that was fun.

And some people do come by, and I noticed a couple of fivers getting dropped in the jar, so I figured it was at least gonna pay back the gas and parking meter money...

I noticed this tall lady watching from across the street with her teen-age daughter. She kind of smiled and waved at the end of the song, and walked on. Later on, they were on our side of the street, but up the sidewalk a ways. And later still, they finally came over, and I pulled out my most popular tune, "Over the Rainbow". They clearly loved it, and it was an inadvertent bull's eye 'cuz the mom told us that the daughter had sung that song in a fifth-grade talent show. And the daughter said that she hears that song a lot in the Hawaiian BBQ place where she works. The mom wanted to take a picture of us with the daughter, which we did, and she wanted to know our names, and shook our hands and left something in the jar before leaving. Sweet.

We played some more, and I decided that I was warmed up enough to chance "Piano Man" again, and it went quite well this time. I'm not sure anybody could hear the low notes, but I was at least not screaming on the high ones.

Around 8:30 there was nobody left in sight except the homeless guys, so I decided to break off "early" (only 3.5 hours) for once. Counting the tips on site so I could split the take with Warren, I found 4 ones, 4 fives, and - What the heck?!? - a *fifty*, right there on top. I'm pretty sure it was from that tall lady, and I guess that makes us professional photography models, 'cuz it surely couldn't have been for that one song...

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 14Sept2012

For some reason, they put the stage up at the opposite end of the fountain. It didn't make much difference, except a change of scenery for me as I stood there staring at Oakley instead of Old Navy. But the cool part was when the maintenance guys came to turn the fountain down, they opened up a trapdoor right there in the sidewalk, and went down a ladder to the tunnels that are apparently beneath the whole shopping center. The fountain's "volume" is definitely not on a timer, but the fact that the valve is underground explains why it comes up at random, whether I'm playing or not -- they just don't know what's happening up above. So they turn it back up to full volume when they assume I must be done, and shut it off at 11 before they go home.

Anyway, it went pretty well for the hottest Friday on record. I didn't expect anybody to come out in such heat, but it wasn't really that bad after the sun went down, and there were plenty of people. I had several little kids, but never enough at once to get a dance party started. One cute little girl who stayed a long time, and dragged her mom back later on for seconds, had only one dance step -- straight up and down pogo bouncing -- for any and every song.

I sold lots of CDs at the new fixed $5 price (for a total of $127 in the jar), and managed to give out some bubbles and lights. I even got rid of one of the not-coveted white fingerlights by giving it to a kid in a play SWAT outfit, and telling him that this would help him fight crime. He proceeded to thoroughly investigate the various planter boxes, turning up nothing suspicious, so I guess we can all sleep soundly.

K&W at Laguna Beach -- 11Sept2012

Last Tuesday went better than expected, despite the end of Summer, so I figured I'd give it another try. It was pretty dead, but fun anyway, due to the eventual arrival of Silly Patty, who is about my age, and therefore loves all the same songs as I do, and appreciates my versions of them. And it only takes one appreciative listener to bring out the best in me, which brings in other people as they pass, too.

People sometimes ask me to play some Billy Joel, or specifically for "Piano Man", which is the same thing. I usually say, "Does this *look* like a piano?!?", but mainly I don't play it because I've tried before, and it's really hard to sing, due to the incredibly wide range it requires (because half of it is sung quite low, and the rest is up a whole octave from there).

But my voice is getting stronger and higher after all this exercise it's getting, so I took another stab at it, and found a way to play it on guitar that works for me, and transposed it to center on my presumed "well warmed-up" range. I meant to try it out on Saturday, but I put it off over and over until I just never got to it. This time I just made myself play it, and, well, I definitely played it. The low parts were definitely low, but maybe the mic helped pick up those notes. And I was able to sing the high parts, but I sure felt like I was screaming more than singing.

But, during the song, several people stopped in their tracks to listen. I'm just not sure if they stopped because it was great, or because it was a train wreck...