Keith in Laguna Beach -- Sunday, 29Sept2013

Warren's gone on vacation in Italy, but I went down anyway, and it was quite nice. I had nice people sitting on the bench almost the entire time. Indeed, I had gone down expecting to be mostly alone so I could try out some new songs and play with the drum machine (which Warren objects to), but I ended up playing requests almost the whole time, with no time left over to experiment.

I started off with Hotel California like always, but right away a lady on the bench bashfully requested "Kiss the Girl", followed by "A Whole New World", followed by "You'll Be In My Heart". She was clearly a big Disney fan -- and all those Disney songs quickly attracted a crowd of other people, who stayed and requested other songs, which attracted other people...

But unfortunately, basketball player by day / drunk by night Larry and his friend showed up all too soon. Larry was less drunk than usual, but he was still prone to repeatedly shouting out his requests (which I was obliged to ignore in favor of the wonderfully near-constant stream of requests from real "customers"), and trying to start up unwelcome conversations with the people on the bench. I watched him trying to chat up one girl to the point where she got up and moved over to the other side of her boyfriend to get away from him. It was gratifying that her solution wasn't to just gather up her boyfriend and leave, but a shame that she had to be called on to find a solution in the first place.

I finally asked him and his pal to move over and sit on the side bench "because you've heard me before" and to "leave the 'front row' for the tourists". They were pretty offended, but they actually did it, except when someone on the bench asked for "I'm Yours", and Larry slammed around the corner, "dancing" and flinging his long arms and legs in all directions. As the brave remaining people were scanning the list for a next tune, I quietly suggested that possibly a less danceable song would be a less dangerous choice, to knowing smiles from the bench people.

A nice elderly British couple came by with several requests, including "Puff, the Magic Dragon", despite there being no kids around. Then she asked for "Bridge Over Troubled Water" which isn't on the list, but it is in The Book. I don't normally do it 'cuz it's too high, but I was well warmed up and it was late and quiet so I went for it. And it went over quite well -- another group of people stopped dead in their tracks to listen. *That's* what I'm there for.

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K&W in Laguna Beach -- Tuesday, 24Sept2013

The weeknights are definitely getting slow down on The Corner. We had a couple of nice ladies sit and listen and request a bunch of songs right at first, but once they left, it was pretty lonely.

Until Silly Patty and Mikey the Greeter showed up, but they've both heard all our stuff, so they mostly just chatted to each other, ignoring us, but keeping other people from being able to sit down. And as it got later, more and more drunk homeless guys came by, effectively shutting out anyone else.

Except for an elderly couple from Switzerland who were either really brave or immune to crazy behavior. They asked for several songs from the list, but the guy kept asking for "Simon & Garfunkel, 'Bright Eyes'". I'd never heard of such a song, nor could I think of a song of a different title that might have those words in it, so I had to keep declining and offering alternatives.

All of which they liked, but I was curious about this "Bright Eyes" song he was clearly so fond of, so I looked it up the next morning. Turns out it was written for the movie "Watership Down" (the bunny war book), was sung by Art Garfunkel (credited right there on the poster), and the words refer to somebody's "bright eyes" turning pale. It's about the death of the main bunny character.

Now, sometimes I go home and learn songs that someone suggested at a gig. This one was the number one selling single of 1979 in the UK, while in the US, it barely cracked the Billboard 200. Apparently, we don't like songs about dead bunnies here in the States. And I'm pretty sure I don't need one in my act...

One suggested song I *did* learn is "Pure Imagination" from the first "Willy Wonka" movie. It sounds strange and unplayable, but I found some chords that weren't too wrong and fixed 'em up into a version that sounds pretty good. I tried it out in public for the first time, and it seems to work. Patty and Mikey really liked it, anyway...

It was getting pretty late and I was thinking of calling it a night when It's-All-About-Me-Gaby came by again, but when I wouldn't let her shanghai the act, she left in a huff. Again.

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K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 21Sept2013

Lots of people out on a Saturday night, and we had the bench filled with listeners with requests almost the whole time. It was really great, and resulted in $86 in the jar.

Speaking of jars, three Marines came by, only slightly Drunk and Disorderly this early in the evening, and requested a bunch of hard rock songs. None of which I can play, of course, but they eventually settled on "Hey Jude" -- and then wandered off before it was half over.

Michael (a.k.a. "Jax" these days), was playing on the opposite corner, with his profanity-laced "I'm Being Oppressed By The Man" songs and inimitable "catfight" singing style. A guy walked past him and then across the street to walk past us while commenting that "That guy can't sing! And I'm a singer, so I know!" I made some kind of "Agreed" noise, and suddenly he wanted to prove that he really was a singer -- by singing, right here, right now.

I'm not actually a karaoke machine, but I figured, "What the heck", gave him my head-mic (and *then* noticed that he was smoking -- ick, cigarette mic!). He decided on "The Boxer", and did OK, but with a lot more improvised ornamentation than I'm used to. I guess it's the modern style -- you're not really singing unless you're completely screwing up the tune...

Anyway, we had a great time until about ten o'clock when we had collected so many drunk homeless guys, hollering and dancing wildly around, that the "normals" were afraid to be there. This is really starting to become a problem. It's flattering that these guys all like my songs, but they park on the bench, preventing tourists from sitting down to listen, and their antics scare away even the people that are willing to stand.

But what can you do? It's a free country, and I'm pretty sure that if I called the cops on 'em for Public Drunkenness, I'd start a feud that would be much worse than this is...

This blog post. Let me read you it.

Keith at Mission Viejo Farmer's Market -- Saturday, 21Sept2013

I was up really late at Spectrum the night before, but I woke up early to feed the cats and have my own breakfast, and then set an alarm to take a nap before the 11:30 Farmer's Market gig. I slept through the alarm and finally woke up at five 'til eleven. Whoops -- that gave me 5 minutes to pack up and get down the hill to get set up in time.

I didn't quite make it, but I came close. Fortunately, it's pretty quiet (empty) down there since they switched to Saturdays, so nobody noticed.

It was kinda nice, though, as I had a couple of groups come by to listen for a while. Inexplicably, I there were 4 CDs missing, and there was a twenty (and five ones) in the jar. Did someone buy *four* CDs?!?

At the end, the almond guy came over and said he didn't have any cash (he hadn't sold any almonds?!?), but would I like some almonds? Maple Orange -- pretty yummy.

And the lemonade lady came over and offered me a big cup of lemonade -- "We don't want to just throw it out". And it was yummy, too.

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Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Friday, 20Sept2013

The weather was kind of gloomy, so I didn't expect many people to show up, but it was a pretty good turnout. I had three separate kids parties start up, and got a lot of attention for, not the music, but the glowing balls that I lined up at the front of the stage.

Typically, the parents keep the kids from taking my stuff (it's great fun to watch their mortified reactions when the kids snag some money out of the guitar case tips), but I guess there were a lot of largely unsupervised kids this time. Some would just look at the balls, some would touch them but leave them where they were, some would rearrange them into "much better" positions on the stage, and some would just grab one and take off with it. I realize that the balls are what the lawyers call an "attractive nuisance", but that's mainly why I have them.

One pair of sisters couldn't keep their hands off of them, but were also eating ice cream at the time, so everything ended up very sticky...

And, sure enough, my super-fan Gabby from Barcelona showed up again. They either come to Spectrum every night, or they're stalking my schedule webpage, 'cuz this is three in a row. This time she wanted to hear "Lemon Tree", which is on the "Tribute to My Dad" CD, so they must have a copy of all three of my CDs. Right after that one, Gabby wanted "Lollipop Tree", and when I said, "Oh, so *all* the 'tree' songs", only her mom understood enough English to laugh...

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K&W in Laguna Beach -- Tuesday, 17Sept2013

We got down to The Corner at 7:00 to find Spider already there, only slightly drunk, and feeling charitable enough to shut down and let us take over. He hung out for a while, scaring the passers-by away, but left after a while.

It was pretty slow at first, as expected, but then two local ladies came by and pulled up short when they heard that we weren't half bad. They sat and asked for a few songs, and then four guys from Detroit on a business trip came by. The boisterous one, who turned out to be the CEO, looked at the list and chose "Carolina in My Mind". I think he plays a little guitar himself 'cuz he was hugely impressed with my James Taylor abilities, and seemed to know how good/hard his guitar playing is. That roped the guys in pretty well, and they stayed for a long time, asking for more songs, and the CEO loudly praising us between and during the songs, and dancing with the local ladies. He hooted and hollered at Warren through his guitar solos, and tried to involve other people as they came by. Must be a great guy to work for!

And of course, once there was a party started on the corner, more people were automatically pulled in. The CEO put a twenty in the jar after a few songs, and after half-a-dozen more, added another twenty. One of his guys did likewise. And one of the ladies who got caught up in the party wanted to buy a CD, and asked me if the twenty she was holding was OK. I told her it was way too much and to go ahead and make herself some change out of the jar, but she said she'd just take "three of whatever is in there", which turned out to be three ones. I'm not sure I meant for this to be some kind of rigged carnival game...

After the party had wandered off, at about 9:30, I decided it was time to go home ("school night" and all), and I had just started to shut stuff down when there was a sudden wave of new people. We played a few songs for them, and up came Gaby the dancer. She swayed a bit, but decided she really wanted to sing "Scarborough Faire", so I fired it up, after warning her that it was unlikely to be in her range. And I was right, 'cuz she had to switch octaves back and forth to stay with the melody, but at least she stayed in key.

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K&W in Laguna Beach - Tuesday, 10Sept2013

It's much quieter now that the summer is over, but on the other hand, it's a whole lot easier to get the ice cream corner, since nobody else is out there.

So it was a pretty quiet evening, until a lady came by and went to the ATM, and came back to put a twenty in the jar. She loved all the songs on the list, and chose quite a few, since she was basically the only one there. After a while she noticed the CDs and asked me how much they were. I told her she'd already paid for one (or 4!) and should just take one. Then she dug through her purse until she'd found a pen to have us autograph it.

She listened to some more songs, and then decided that we needed even *more* money, and came up to put *another* twenty in the jar. Some kind of Super Fan! As she finally left, we told her that we were there most Tuesdays, and she promised to come back and see us again -- and she really ought to; she's paid up for a dozen or so gigs...

But it was a kind of "big tip" night, since we got three five-dollar bills as well (for a total of $64). One of the fivers was from a nice Chinese lady who put it in the jar along with a fancy little cookie. Which was quite yummy on the way home, starving...

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Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Saturday, 07Sept2013

I had to zoom over directly from the Homeless Benefit in Laguna, and try not to be too late starting. But when I got there right at 6:00, the fountain was still on full blast. When I called them to say so, the (new) guy said that he didn't have anybody on the schedule, and I said that I did and it's me, but he said he'd have to talk to "the lady". I still had all my stuff to set up, so he was giving me an excuse to be late, but hurry it up, buddy.

Luckily, another maintenance guy that knows me showed up and decided to believe me, so with that all straightened out and my stuff set up, I started at 6:30. Not too bad, and I had a not-my-fault excuse...

I had a decent night, but for some reason, although there were people watching me and listening, it had settled into a "no applause" night. This happens sometimes, and I don't know how to break that spell.

My biggest fan family showed up again, the ones with the little girl who insists on dancing (or playing with her fingerlights) while standing on the drain grate, and whose accent I can't understand. She came up and asked for a song that sounded like "Buh, buh-bu-buh BUH-buh", which I managed to decipher into "Puff, the Magic Dragon" entirely by the rhythm of the phrase and not by any actually detectible phonemes therein.

After a while she came up to tell me that they were going to dinner, but they'd be back. That was nice to know, I guess. And they did come back, but this time, as they said goodbye, I asked her mom what her name is (Gaby), and where they were from: "Barthelona". That explains the outrageous accents, but doesn't explain why they're out to see me every month.

At one point, some teenage girls came up and wanted to give me a pizza that had been mistakenly double-served to them, and they didn't know what to do with. I've never gotten a whole pizza as a tip before...

I had people listening the whole night, and it was especially nice after 11:00 when the fountain finally went completely off. So I ended up playing until midnight when a guy carrying a "backpack guitar" wanted to hear (see) me play a few songs, which I don't mind a bit -- almost everything I know I learned by watching other guys' hands, and I'm happy to "give back". I ended with his request of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", where I got so into the strumming that I caught the back edge of my plastic nail on a string and almost split it in two. Yeowch. Glad that wasn't my *real* nail.

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K&W at Homeless Benefit Concert -- Saturday, 07Sept2013

Kooky Mikey the Greeter and his pastor had this idea to put on a concert of the street musicians to benefit the homeless and some children in Haiti. Naturally, I volunteered right away, and although I already had a gig scheduled at Spectrum that evening, Mikey assured me that it would start at 4:00, and I could go first.

Turns out it really started at 5:00 (and Spectrum starts at 6), but I did it anyway. I had expected to go on solo, so Warren could play with Jim, but Jim had something else going on, so I invited Warren to go on with me.

As far as we could tell, there was no publicity at all, but a few people wandered in on their way back to their cars from the beach when they heard the music. The local radio station guys showed up, but just to sell some T-shirts, not to broadcast or even record the event. And a Orange County Register photographer was there, though not a reporter, so there were only a few pictures and a brief blurb on their website the next day.

Pastor Don said that we could do "4 or 5 songs", but since we were first, we got up to do a "sound check" with the provided equipment, got the levels as close as we could (which was *terrible*, but, oh well), and cheated in few songs for the folks wandering in early and the artists in some booths along the side, and then started playing my Best Stuff after the official start at 5:00.

After three songs, I asked Pastor Don how many more I had time for, and he said "one". So I fired up "Over the Rainbow" to go out on my most well-received song. After the big ovation (well, big for a dozen people), Don ran over and asked "Do you want to do one more?", and I said, "Nope!" and started unplugging stuff. I was out of time anyway to make it to Spectrum, and he'd fooled me into doing my Final Number already, so, too late! Besides, the sound was so screwed up (from where I was, though apparently not so bad Out There), that I couldn't really tell what I was doing, and Warren's amp had turned into a Feedback Machine that had completely drowned out my intro to "Rainbow" (though they'd apparently gotten it back under control), so I was ready to Be Done.

Warren stayed for the rest of the evening, and said that most of the acts got to play 4 songs, and that for most of them, that was 4 too many, but there were a few that were good. Pastor Don's guys said that it was a "great success", though we don't know what that means, and that they'd probably do it again next year. I guess you can count me in, but try to avoid a night where I'm already booked.

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K&W in Laguna Beach -- Monday, 02Sept2013

It was Labor Day, and stiflingly hot, so we were hoping for a decent turnout at the beach. And thus the ice cream shop, and thus the corner.

We got there at 4:00, but it was already occupied by Michael, who apparently doesn't care overmuch about honoring the "paid to *not* play" money the ice cream store owner gave him. (Michael does all self-written songs about how abused he's been by The Man and various girls, and he plays guitar well enough, but it's hard to tell what the songs are about 'cuz his cat-fight-yowl of a singing voice is mostly unintelligible, and certainly doesn't win him many fans.)

But he assured Warren that he was going to quit at 5:00, so we just hovered nearby to discourage any other bands from trying to move in, and to see if he was any more sensitive to glaring than he was to payoff money. (He wasn't.)

But he finally cleared out, and we did pretty well, though the 5:00 hour is pretty slow. Worth it to slog through to the more-fun evening hours, though. And our friend Daniel came by with his big-lens camera and took a few decent shots as the sun was going down.

Late in the evening a guy came by, sat on the bench, and way too enthusiastically proclaimed how great we were, after -- and during -- the songs. He was, for some reason, dying to hear "Lyin' Eyes", which I seldom play, but did. He got up and went to the ATM next to the ice cream store, and when he came back, tried to get the guy next to him on the bench to break a twenty. The guy couldn't/wouldn't, so, let's just call him Drunk Guy, decided to go ahead and put a twenty in the jar.

He was loudly singing along on every song I did, even after I started trying to play "chick songs" and then obscure stuff he wouldn't know. Finally Warren couldn't take it anymore, and went over to ask him to sing more quietly. He took, as only drunk people can, huge offense at this, said that he was singing as loudly as his twenty entitled him to, but got up and indignantly stormed off. Works for me. (And his twenty contributed to the $107 we pulled in.)

Weirdly enough, later on a (much more polite) guy came by and asked me if I knew any Eagles. I read him off the list of 6 or so Eagles songs I know, and he decided on "Lyin' Eyes". Hadn't played it in six months, and then twice in one night.

A few weeks ago a guy asked for "Tiny Dancer", and when I said I didn't know it, he said, "You should learn it". So, OK, I did, and it works out moderately well, arranged for guitar and transposed down for my vocal range. I fired it up for the first time, and I think it may be a keeper. I've also been working up "Daniel" which is working OK too, and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", which, not so much.

Two nights before had inexplicably become "Karaoke Night". This time, it was "Adults asking for Kids' Songs Night", and we did "Puff, the Magic Dragon", Kermit the Frog's "Rainbow Connection", and "House at Pooh Corner" -- all of which got a huge response. Musta been something in the water...

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K&W in Laguna Beach -- Saturday, 31Aug2013

I took over for Jim again, at about 6:30, and since it was Saturday, we had great people until almost midnight. That meant that I played over 5 hours, but Warren played for almost 8, with only a few breaks for PB&J.

Right off the bat we had a girl come up who wanted to sing along. Let's just say that she was extremely enthusiastic, though I think that "drunk" would be a more accurate term. Anyway, I usually let people sing if they want to (and are doing it for fun, and not to be disruptive), but since they don't have a mic and I do, nobody can really hear them over me. She had a friend -- or instantly made one the way that only drunk people can -- who wanted to do the wiggle dance, so we really had some fun crazy on display, right away.

Later on, we had a nice couple who stopped to listen for a while, and turned out to be from Liverpool. I thought she might like "Ruby Tuesday", but discovered that Liverpudlians are offended by offers of Stones songs...

But apparently it was Karaoke Night (though nobody told *me*), 'cuz she eventually came over, not to request a song to hear, but to request one to *sing*. She chose "The First Cut is the Deepest", which I very seldom play, and played way too fast, but she had a huge voice and belted it out without need of a microphone. Impressive.

Toward the end, a guy came up and asked me if I knew any songs in the key of G. Strange question, but, yes, I guess a few of them are... Turns out, in keeping with the inexplicable Karaoke theme, he wanted to play harmonica along with us, but he only had one that played in G. I don't exactly have an index of my songs listed by key, and the ones I could think of weren't exactly harmonica blues tunes, so it didn't really work out, but he fumbled around a bit on "Georgia on my Mind".

There was also a group of ladies that were in the midst of a Bachelorette Party, and some random guy from the crowd grabbed her (recognizable by the tiara), and danced her around for a song, causing her friends to whoop and squeal. That was fun.

So it was a long night, but we made $145, and had lots of fun with lots of nice people.

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Wednesday, 28Aug2013

Jim & Warren had procured The Corner, so I went down to "spell" Jim at 8:30 or so. When I got there, they had 5 or 6 people spellbound and glued to the bench for their Beatles set. But when that was over and Jim packed up to go home, the people evaporated, leaving me to start up with a completely empty bench.

But, within a half-hour or so, we'd managed to refill it, and had nice responsive people to play for most of the night. And at around ten o'clock, a girl named Gabrielle came by that Warren knows from some memorable appearances at the Full Moon Drum Circles. She wanted to sing, and/or dance, but mostly dance, and stood out in front of us doing her vaguely hula-like wiggle-dance, regardless of the tempo of the song I was playing.

She's quite a character -- she does "plus-sized" modeling, writes self-published travel books, "must" swim in the ocean at least once a day, and talks to (and gets answers from) the trees (and expects that we, as musicians, must do the same), and generally seems to make an industry out of just being herself.

She attracted a lot of attention, and a few tips went in the jar while she was swaying. A few songs in, a guy showed up with a movie camera and an idea for a "Spirit of Laguna Beach" documentary, so he shot her, us, and the attentive people around us, with some enthusiasm. He makes these movies and tries to sell them to TV stations or whomever, and asked us for our (verbal on cam) releases in case this one goes anywhere. He took my card and I hope he'll let me know if anything happens.

Around 10:45 Gaby decided that she needed to get down to the Hare Krishna temple and join in on the chanting, and the movie guy was thrilled to go along, so they left, and we packed up, but not before I gave Gaby a fiver (out of the $29) for her help with the act...

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Wednesday, 21Aug2013

With the tourist season palpably winding down, I wanted to have at least one last go at it before they were all gone. More evidence that the other bands have given up already, 'cuz there was no one else out. That made it easy to get The Corner, and nice to not have any sonic competition from across the street.

We did get a moderate stream of friendly people, and brought in $68 for our trouble. Only sold one CD, but that's because I only had one -- I sold 5 the last time, and forgot to restock.

Anyway, it's actually not so bad when there are a bit fewer people out. They seem to feel less pressure to move on by. When there are huge crowds, they steam on by us, and when there's nobody, there's nobody. But the middle ground lets people pause to see if they want to settle in for a bit. That's when I can reel 'em in with some great old song...

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Monday, 19Aug2013

We don't normally play on a Monday, but Warren wanted to go see some friends of his play and I wanted to go to the last Full Moon Drum Circle of the summer on Tuesday, so we made an exception. I guess all the other bands have given up for the season, 'cuz there was nobody else out, but although the tourist traffic was diminished, it wasn't altogether gone (and we made $106 and sold 5 CDs).

I asked one couple that looked like tourists where they were from and they had come form Norway. Then I asked another, and they were from far-flung Pasadena. You never can tell...

A guy came by and was taking a video of us with his iPhone, which happens fairly often these days. But this guy runs a website called "Alert the Globe" that apparently just puts up random videos of bands playing, anywhere around the world. Sure enough, he posted the video the next day, right there on the World Wide Web. He had come at a particularly opportune moment, 'cuz there was a family there and the two sisters had gotten up to dance while I played "Kiss the Girl" (far too fast). I snagged a few frames from the video to create the panoramic shot above.

Keith in Laguna Beach -- Sunday, 18Aug2013

I got a drum machine app for my iPhone, and was playing around with it, trying to figure out how to start and stop it cleanly, and which beat patterns at what speeds went with some of my songs. It was working out better than I'd expected, so I decided to take what I'd worked up and see how it sounded in public.

When I got there at 3:30, Tom and Tommie were hanging out on the Ice Cream Shop corner, not actually playing, but "taking a break", and preventing anyone else from setting up there. So I went over to the Fingerhut Gallery corner and set up there, where I could watch to see if the Tommies packed up. Which they never did, though they took several long breaks. It bugs me when they hog the corner but aren't actually playing. Uncool.

Anyway, I was just there to experiment with the drum machine, which actually works quite well, though it's a bit of a production to get a song queued up. Before every song, I now have to: get the right capo setting and get tuned up on the guitar, find (or check for) the right harmony box preset and make sure it's in the right starting condition, get the drum app up on the iPhone, find the right tempo, find the right pattern, make sure it's Stopped ('cuz choosing a pattern also starts it playing), get the wire to the amp plugged in, hit Start, and quickly start playing, on the cue, at the right tempo.

And after all that, it's a bit tricky just to play along with it because I'm not really used to being held to a rigid tempo. It's even worse when the motorcycles come by and drown out the drums and I unexpectedly have to keep the pace by myself and hope I'm at the right spot when the drums become audible again.

But I'll probably only end up using it on the fast songs, which can use the drums to improve their dance-ability, and won't suffer too much from the rigidity of the robot drummer. Though I found a really nice pattern for "You've Got a Friend"...

Anyway, right after I got started, some college-age kids came over and were totally thrilled with my stuff, and were telling me "You're great!" in some strange accent. I asked, and they were from Kazakhstan. Quite a distance to come just to hear me! I also had a guy take my picture, and then explain, "Memories to Brazil." Indeed.

Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Friday, 16Aug2013

Wow! It was a big night for kids. Right at first I had this tiny baby that was really intrigued by the music guy. She couldn't even talk yet, but her parents are teaching her sign language, and she knows the sign for "more". And she used it at the end of every song to ask for more and more and more until her parents dragged her away. Very cute.

I've been carrying around a small tambourine for a year or two, but haven't really managed to figure out how/when to deploy it. But this time, I had some little girls kind of hanging around, but not dancing -- just sitting on the front of the stage, and for some reason it occurred to me that they might like to play the tambourine. And they *really* did...

But of course, they weren't exactly experts with rhythm yet, so to try to help them catch on, I was stomping my big heavy boot on the stage, so they could feel the beat through their bottoms. And of course, once I'd started the tambourine-ready fast songs, I couldn't stop. I'm clearly way out of shape, 'cuz after 3 or 4 songs, I was exhausted! And it's hard to sing when you're panting (and vice versa)! Anyway, it turned into a big party, and I was having a blast and ended up playing just about every fast song I know. I'm gonna have to bring that thing out more often!

Later on, there was a family that had seen me before and already owned my Kid's CD. They're clearly Not From Around Here, and the little girl came up and asked, in her incomprehensible accent, for something about a princess. Since I couldn't figure it out, her dad jumped up and, in *his* incomprehensible accent, clarified that she wanted "The Indian Princess Song" -- the one I'd written for the Princess campouts, to the tune of "Puff, the Magic Dragon". I was baffled by that because she was clearly not old enough to be one of my Princess fans (they're all teenagers by now), but it's still on the CD, and she knows it from there, so I played the first verse and chorus and then switched to the "Puff" lyrics. It's embarrassing enough to sing the words "I'm an Indian Princess!" at a campout -- at the mall it's mortifying...

Keith at the Sawdust Festival -- Wednesday, 14Aug2013

My third and final Sawdust gig for this year, and at their third and final stage. This one's called "The Tavern", where there's some fast food, desserts, and yes, alcohol. It's a nice little stage back in a kind of grotto, with some tables up front, and a bunch more farther back.

It was a lot quieter than the other two - I guess because summer's winding down, and it was a Wednesday night. But I had people to play for the whole time, and it's a nice, quiet, and friendly place to play. Still not fond of that half-hour on, half-hour off schedule, but I guess when you're getting paid, you do what you're told.

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Tuesday, 13Aug2013

After the amazing evening we had last Tuesday, I was really looking forward to this one. But it turned out to be an almost total disaster.

When I got there at 5:25, there was a girl playing classical violin on The Corner, but Warren had already talked to her and her parking meter was set to expire at 6:00, so we just hung out so that nobody else could snag it. And while I was waiting, a guy with a big professional camera took some (great!) pictures of me (and actually emailed them). So far so good!

There was a homeless guy there listening to Violin Girl, and he stuck around to listen to us, too. He seemed to like her stuff, but was totally enthralled with ours. Indeed, he was trying to get passers-by to stop and listen, and seemed amazed that anyone would just walk on by. I can't help but agree with his assessment, but because of his scruffy appearance, his only success at stopping people was with other scruffy homeless guys.

So, almost immediately, we had a bench full of scary homeless guys, and a flow of tourists speeding by even faster than usual. Only a few were brave enough to stop at the tip jar. Several of them ended up sitting on the benches across the street, where the sound carries well enough, but not the scary.

Two high school girls stopped and I brought them a list of songs and played "Over the Rainbow" while they looked it over. When the song was done, they walked over and gave back the list, saying "We'd like to stay, but that guy keeps trying to talk to us".

Now, I get that "homeless" also means "TV-less" and these guys have nowhere else to go, and nothing else to do. And it's very sweet that they love my music so much. But it's all a little much (one guy was so overcome with emotion (and the pass-around gin) that he came up and prostrated himself in front of me). But they stayed all night, and even the tourists that aren't scared of them can't find a seat, so they don't stop.

I tried to bore them away by taking 10 minutes to tune, and playing the same couple of songs again and again. But it didn't work. These are guys who are bored for a living.

But I guess that's part of the anarchy of street-playing -- you get what you get, and can't do much about it. In contrast to last Tuesday's record-breaking $167, we made $28 by the time I gave up at 8:30. Bottom line: as everyone knows, you learn to play guitar to attract pretty girls, not a bench full of ugly old men...

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Wednesday, 07Aug2013

We did so well on Tuesday night that I was tempted to go down again right away. Wednesdays are the usual Jim & Warren nights, but Jim is a recent (re)newlywed and likes to go home kind of early, so I showed up to take his place around 8:30.

And it was a great night. Nice weather, lots of tourists out. Four blonde college-aged kids stopped for a while, and I thought they were locals until I asked one of the girls for a request and she replied with her heavy accent that they were from Russia and didn't know any of these songs... (But I played some Beatles, and they really did.)

Later on we had a family from Arizona, and the little girls were unable to believe that I didn't know their favorite song, "Thrift Shop". Do I *look* hip-hop? Maybe it looked to them like my hat and vest must have come from Goodwill...

We had some unpleasantness when one of the local homeless guys, who is usually a nice guy, had gotten quite drunk and was shouting obscenities at us from across the street. Seems he felt like our being there was precluding his ability to make enough money to buy beer. I couldn't help but conclude that he'd had plenty already, so I tried to just ignore him and keep playing. The people on the bench looked uncomfortable, but stayed around, so I guess the music was loud enough to drown him out. Warren finally went over and talked him down a little, and he eventually gave up and went away.

Towards the end, we had some people from Iowa who were out visiting their very gay Laguna Beach friend. He danced around, and actually stood out in front, lip synching me -- never had that before. So I gave him my hat, which he loved, and he danced around some more and tried to get people to put money in the hat -- and managed to get a buck, too.

So we had a pretty fun time, ignoring the unpleasantness with Gus, played until 11:30 (on a work night!), and ended up with $75 in the jar. When it's good, it's great.

K&W in Laguna Beach -- Tuesday, 06Aug2013

Wow! Not huge crowds, but lots of people, almost all the time. And apparently generous ones, because we crashed through the previous tip record to the tune of $167. That's more than I'd made the previous Saturday at Spectrum!

It started fun, right off the bat. I was playing the first song, which is always "Hotel California", and I walked out in front of the amp while I was playing to check the levels (since I'm entirely wireless now). There was nobody around yet, so I just went ahead and sat down on the bench to finish the last verse. Out of nowhere this crazy neo-hippie college girl appears and sits down right next to me. Well, hi! If you're gonna sit so close, you're gonna have to take over the fretboard duties.

Her friends wandered up, too, but she was busy telling me what song to do next, and dancing around, and generally being a "free spirit". I should have broken out "Ruby Tuesday"...

Much later, a guy came over and held up a twenty dollar bill, and asked me if I knew any George Strait. I told him, no, but I know some Willie Nelson. He made a face that meant no thanks, and asked about Garth Brooks. The only Garth song I know is "To Make You Feel My Love", which is really a Bob Dylan song, sung by Garth in a movie, but apparently not actually a hit for him, 'cuz the guy'd never heard it.

But he put the twenty in the jar anyway, to hear a song he'd never heard of, by an artist he didn't want. And then he missed it anyway 'cuz his phone rang...