The Tommies are pretty much a fixture, but Warren went down early to forestall any incursion by the two little ukulele girls. That meant that we got to start at 9:00, which isn't ideal by any means, but we haven't figured out a way to do any better.
Fortunately, the weather was nice, so there were lots of people out, even after 9:00. My laryngitis was almost completely gone, and by the end of the night I was warmed up enough to do even the songs with high notes.
Before I even got a chance to play my customary "Hotel California" opening number, a lady came up and flaunted a twenty dollar bill at me if I could/would play "House at Pooh Corner", which I totally can, and did, along with "Landslide", which she and her friend danced to. She was crazy thrilled, and it made for a great start. Because of her enthusiasm and antics, we gathered a crowd right from the beginning. And kept it all night long, too.
A few songs later, my 4-year-old superfan Natalia showed up with her family. They've come by 3 or 4 times now, and clearly live nearby and come down every Saturday looking for me. She has my CD, so she knows all my kid songs. Her favorite is clearly "You'll Be In My Heart" from "Tarzan", which she and her (very pregnant) mom like to dance to. She also asked for "Do You Want To Build a Snowman" which she claimed was "for my little brother", and "Puff, the Magic Dragon" which, although most adults claim to dislike it, a lot of them sing along.
A nice couple was there for a while, with the lady singing along on every song. She asked me for a few, and, detecting an accent, I asked where they were from: Wales. And another of my CDs is on its way to Europe. After a while they got up and said that they needed to go see some more sights, but they were back surprisingly soon, and stayed a long time -- nice to think that my music outweighed the sights of Laguna Beach. While they were gone, a couple of ladies from London had stopped in for some songs, and we had a bit of "Who gets the next request" competition. Fortunately, a street fight didn't break out...
Later on, a couple of guys came by, and the one with the blonde dreads was trying to sing some harmony, but kept being confused that the part he was trying to add was already there (by the harmony box). He told us the story of how his guitar got stolen at a photoshoot, and Jackson Browne bought him a "custom Gibson" to replace it. Nice.
He asked for "Old Man" 'cuz he wanted to rap to it (???), but there was no openings in it to do so (obviously). So I fired up a few of its chords in a loop, and he started "rapping", but it wasn't the usual urban rap, it was that reggae style stream of consciousness gibberish kind. I couldn't hear or understand most of it, nor parse even less, but it was something about the Cherokee man telling the story of feeding the good wolf. So that was, let's say, unusual...
Anyway, a really great night for my first one back in a while. Lots of people, all night long -- and we played from 9:00 until the batteries gave out at 1:15am. It felt like summer again.
My laryngitis finally subsided enough to let me (try to) sing at my monthly Senior Home gig. I still wasn't convinced that I'd be able to sing well, but I'd already postponed it a week, so I went to give it a try.
And, yes, I was a bit wobbly on the high notes, especially at first, but if anyone could sympathize with wobbly high notes, it was these people. It was a bit embarrassing, but I've played there 3 or 4 times before, and they all like me. And my voice got better as it got warmed up, so by the end, I was fine. To my great relief, since I was starting to wonder if my voice was going to actually come back at all.
Anyway, it went how it usually goes -- me singing my oldest songs, up to about the early 70's, and old folks watching mostly impassively. Except the ones who sing along when they know the songs, and the ones that fall asleep.
Turns out my best sing-along song is "South of the Border" -- the old ladies really like to join in on the "Ay, yi, yi, yi" parts.
One of the ladies who works there popped in from the side door to tell me "You have a beautiful voice!". Naturally, I said, "Thank you!". A few songs later she came back in from the other side door to say the same thing again. And then when I was leaving through their office, she was there and told me a third time. This time I said, "Well, thank you, but you should hear me when I'm not sick!".
When I played at the bar/restaurant in downtown Huntington Beach, a guy came up and asked me to play "Puff" for his daughter, and later came up again to hire me to play his party. The party was to commemorate his graduating from USC dentist school, and was at his house. Turned out there's a tiny private island at the tip of Balboa Island with 8 houses on it -- his is number 6.
I played on the back patio toward the water, and had a dozen or so of his friends at a time out listening to me. Along with several boats full of curious neighbors that came by to listen in.
Problem was, I was catching a cold, and was pretty scratchy at first. But I've played sick before, and usually get away with it. But this time is was a true throat infection, not just stuffy sinuses that I can treat with medicine. I got better as I get warmed up, but then it turned around and by the end of the three hours, I was barely able to sing at all. I started doing my songs a whole step lower by leaving off the capo, but I still couldn't hit the high notes.
So, although I always play way past "quitting time", this time I had to stop, just because I was embarrassing myself. Or so I thought -- people were all, "Oh, are you quitting?!?" Considering I can barely muster enough voice to answer the question, yes, sorry, I'm quitting.
But apparently they liked me anyway. The guy's wife came up to hand me a wad of bills as my payment, and they'd overpaid me by $50 (which I *presume* was deliberate - guy lives in a $2M house). I didn't even bring my tip jar, but the guy found one and put it out for me, and I collected another $32 from the party people.
Unfortunately, on the way home, I could barely swallow, and the day after, couldn't speak at all. I have some gigs coming up in the next week -- so I hope my throat heals fast.
Anyway, it was fun, and *finally* an example of what I've been hoping would happen for the last 13 years -- somebody hears me playing at a place, and hires me to play at another place. That's how it ought to work, right?
I saw an announcement on Facebook of a guy looking for bands. I sent him a message and he was actually looking for a band to play a Mother's Day event in Huntington Beach. I told him that mothers love my stuff, so he booked me.
Turns out it was a "Mother's Day Boutique", the weekend *before* Mother's Day, and I was the opening shift from 12:30-1:30. So I ended up playing the whole time to the six or eight ladies that were there selling scarves, jewelry, and vintage clothes -- and nobody else. Epic fail. I guess I'm lucky it was only one hour...
And to make it worse, the "act" after me was the owner's teenage son, singing his Sinatra imitation to iPod backing tracks. If that's not humiliating, I don't know what is.
But when the booking guy told me that the Mother's Day Boutique gig was only an hour long, I said that I preferred to play longer if/when I drag my stuff out. So he offered to let me play at a restaurant/bar in downtown Huntington Beach called "25 Degrees" afterwards and I leapt at the chance.
It's a trendy little place with fancy burgers, fancy appetizers, and fancy drinks. I was scheduled to play their "Happy Hour", from 3 to 6. It holds about 75 people, and was only about one-quarter full when I got there, but by 4:30 or so, it was so jammed up that people were coming in the door and leaving again 'cuz there was nowhere to sit.
Because it's small and people are there to hang with their friends, it was really, really noisy. I was worried that I was just going to be treated as background music, but people started clapping -- just a few at first (which usually fizzles out), but gaining in strength after every song.
This encouraged me, so I passed out a few song lists to the people that were closest, and started taking requests. I had taken a cue from the music on the house system as I was setting up (and remembered what had probably been the problem at my Tommy Bahama's audition), so I was playing my up-tempo stuff, and a couple of people started dancing! This is pretty unusual at 3:30 in the afternoon.
It was tough, with so much noise, especially since I was playing through the house sound system, and was apparently the only one who couldn't hear it, back in my little corner. But I kept stepping out to hear what it was like for everyone else, and it was pretty reasonable. I just had to play on faith, which, after all this time, I can pretty much do.
A guy came in with his wife and little kids, and after a while he came over to request "Puff" for his daughter. A while later he came back over and asked if he could hire me to play at his party in two weeks. Absolutely!
So, despite not being able to hear myself over the din, I had a great time. And I guess when you're paying $8 for a burger and $4 for fries, you can afford to tip well, so I almost doubled what they paid me in tips.
The real problem was the parking -- the meters wanted $3 for the two hour max, so I had to keep running out and dumping more quarters in. People were having so much fun making requests that they wouldn't let me go and I ended up staying 45 minutes over -- only finally forcefully quitting to hurriedly pack my stuff up to barely get back to the meter in time.
Afterwards, I realized that this was exactly what I've been looking for -- a friendly casual place to play (indoors) where people like my stuff -- and I'd only accidentally stumbled into it. Bring on more gigs here, and more places like it!
Tom told Warren that they wouldn't be down on The Corner this time, so I was ready for an early start. But at the last minute Tom's plans changed so he would be there after all, and planned to stay until 8:30, and he thought the Ukulele Girls would be down there, too. So I figured I'd better get there at 8:00 to be Next In Line. Which worked, but mostly because the Uke Girls made the tactical error of setting up across the street so I was on the bench and closer to swoop in when the Tommies quit.
But the now five-piece Uke band was set up aimed right across at us, and especially the enthusiastic, too-loud, and rhythm-challenged new bongo player was pretty disruptive. Fortunately, they only know 4 or 5 songs, and after a few repeats of each, they got bored and went home.
This was the first outing for the new Magic Bag, since the old one got stolen last weekend. All new bag (which slowed down setup and teardown 'cuz I can't find/replace anything in the new pockets), harmony box (which also replaces the guitar interface), and wireless rigs for guitar and mic. And a new mic, of course, but it wants to hang on to only one ear, which doesn't work, and the boom is short so the mic is extra sensitive and picks up the guitar and feeds back from the monitor speaker. In other words, a disaster. Fortunately, I'd suspected it wasn't going to work and had brought along the old, old, mic, which is huge and obtrusive and squeezes my head, but works well.
But after all that, the new sound is pretty great. The new harmony box has a faster processor and new algorithms that sound noticeably (to me, anyway) better. A lot of tweaking needed still (probably too much vocal reverb on all the presets, and although the guitar sounds good (its main issue of "piezo quack" nicely dealt with), it needs a bit more bass), but it was sounding really good for a first try. And mostly better than the old rig already.
Too bad, then, that it was an inexplicably slow night for a summer Saturday. We had some small gatherings, but it was pretty slow until midnight when the Party People started to appear and we got some dancing going. We ended up playing until 1am, 'cuz that last hour was the best of the night.
My monthly gig for the old folks again. Pretty much the same as always. No thigh-drummer, though, so that was nice.
I do feel like I'm playing the same songs over and over for them, but I only know so many songs that are old enough for them to remember. I've been pushing the envelope though, figuring that, even if they were "too old for rock and roll" at the time, surely they've heard "Yesterday" and "Fire and Rain" and such by now.
I knew the Tommies would probably be down on the Ice Cream Corner, so I waited until 7:30 to get there -- and sure enough, there they were. I set up on the Fingerhut side, and did miserably, despite the pretty large crowds. Those crowds kept the Tommies at it until almost 9:30, so those first few hours were mostly a waste.
The Tommies were actually driven away by some young guys that set up in an entryway alcove a few shops down PCH -- two acoustic guitars and a full drum set. You couldn't hear the guitars or vocals, but the drums carried all too well, and made it impossible for the Tommies to continue. Of course, that was pretty late for them anyway.
So when they left, Warren and I moved over in front of the ice cream store, but we couldn't start right away because as we were moving our stuff, two 11-year-old girls had suddenly appeared with a ukulele and were singing songs while the dad was buying ice cream inside. It was very cute, and after maybe 15 minutes, they had $24 in their dad's baseball cap on the ground. They were thrilled to have paid for their ice cream so easily, but quit playing to eat it and listen to a few of my songs, and then wander off.
The rock band noticed that we had moved, so they moved to take over the Fingerhut side. That made the drummer way louder and very distracting for us, and that combined with the reappearance of Drunk Dancing Larry almost made me give up and go home at 10 or so. But we had people listening, despite the interference, so I gritted my teeth and kept at it, and was eventually glad I did.
The week before, we had a birthday party stagger through, and had me sing Happy Birthday. I considered giving the birthday girl a fingerlight, but figured that, although those are very popular with the little kids, probably not so much for adults. That led me to wonder what might work for adults, and I came up with, found, and bought a "Fancy Princess" tiara set, just to have on-hand.
I didn't really expect to need it right away, but when a bachelorette party came through, I said, "Oh, I got you a present!", and handed the bride-to-be the tiara set. 'Cuz, c'mon, a bride-to-be *needs* a tiara. They were all completely thrilled, and the bride was overwhelmed, and gave me a big hug. For some reason they were all big Billy Joel fans, so while I sang "Piano Man" they installed the tiara and necklace on the bride.
The dance party had begun, and as more and more people assembled to watch, they asked for "Sweet Caroline", which went over well, and then "Jenny Jenny", which I learned almost as a joke, but works great if the crowd is receptive to it, which they were. That dance party alone, and one of the girls' comment that we had "made the party", made the previous three miserable hours worth it.
Even after the bachelorettes left, the dance party kept going for a while, and when the rock band across the street finally gave up, we started having some good interactions with the late-night crowd (and ended up playing until after 1am).
A group of high school girls came by and they got all excited to tell me that their friend was a "really great singer". So I got out the spare mic and had her sing "Part of Your World" from "The Little Mermaid". I'd say that her friends were a bit generous in their assessment, but she was game, and that's half the battle.
We had a group of three young men from Germany, two of which bought CDs, and three people from Mexico who didn't seem sleepy at all, despite it coming on midnight. The guy was probably kidding when he mentioned "La Bamba", but I fired up my "Twist and Shout/La Bamba" medley and they hooted and hollered.
And when a slightly drunk lady came by and asked for "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", I dug up my partly-working version of it and played it anyway. My "blue eyed soul" voice is passable, and the harmony box does a good job with the Righteous Brothers sound, but imitating a full orchestra with just my guitar is pretty much impossible...
The thing you fantasize will happen, finally actually did: Standing on the corner playing in Laguna, a lady comes up and asks if I play parties. I said yes and gave her a card, and she actually called. And actually hired me.
It was the party/dinner after a women's golf tournament at the fancy schmancy Mission Viejo Country Club. She had decided on a "Mission: Impossible" theme, complete with movie poster and Tom Cruise cardboard standup. Many of the ladies in attendance were dressed as "spies". The coordinator had asked me to learn the Mission: Impossible theme song, but it can't be played on solo guitar, so I downloaded the MP3 instead, and they were very pleased when I played it as background music while they were announcing the winners of the tournament.
Mostly I was just background music for the 100 or so rich ladies at this dinner party, except occasionally one of the ladies would suddenly applaud for a particular song. And sometimes one of them would walk up and whisper that, although it didn't seem like they were listening, they really loved my songs.
And toward the end when the place had emptied out to about 20 ladies, they noticed that I had song lists and I started playing requests and it got to be actual fun.
I don't really like being background music, but I did get paid, so I left a flyer and business card with the Event Manager there at the Country Club, and hopefully she'll call me when someone needs music at another event.
I went down on the off chance that the Tommies wouldn't be there, but they were. I figured I'd play on the Fingerhut side until they left, but the cops were out in force busting the crazy Hawaiian guy (Tom says he gets like this when he goes off his meds), so I thought better of it and just sat on the bench, talking with Tomi's little brother and big sister. I gave them a couple of the white fingerlights which none of the little kids want, but they're useful as pocket flashlights for these kids who are perpetually "camping".
They left at 8:30 so I fired up, but it was very slow. Last day of Spring Break. I did have an elderly couple sit and listen for a long while and buy a CD. The lady said that she'd "enjoy playing it by the fireplace and listening to my soothing voice". That was sweet.
I also had a family from Kentucky. I gave the kids some (colored) fingerlights, and the mom asked for "Puff, the Magic Dragon" 'cuz she "knew all the words". A lot of people think they know "all the words" but it turns out they only really know the chorus, but this lady really did.
Her daughter had ordered three scoops (!) of Cookies and Cream ice cream, but she could only get through two of them. They offered the final one to me, and I asked the little girl, "How did you know my favorite flavor?" She smiled and said that it was hers, too.
And another of my superfans came by. This time I got to talk to him a while (since there was nobody else around). He lives in the San Fernando Valley, and drives down for the atmosphere, the beach, and my music. I hope it's mainly the first two, 'cuz I'd hate to think he drives down just hoping that I'll be playing.
I played his favorite song ("Fields of Gold") for him and one other, and then a couple showed up, looked through the list, and asked for "Fields of Gold". I'm glad it's his favorite, 'cuz he got/had to hear it twice.
I went down to Laguna to talk to the guys at the Guitar Shoppe about ordering a guitar, so I got the ice cream corner really early at 5:30. Warren joined me about 6:30, and we played until 10:30 when the batteries died.
Lots of people out. We had one group whose requests were in a very strange accent so I asked where they were from -- Iceland. And we had a group of guys from Italy that bought a CD to take home. A couple of times we had people dancing, and that's always fun. A couple of teenaged girls were standing off to the side asking for "The Boxer" and "Homeward Bound" and other classic songs. Their parents are clearly raising them right.
And my favorite superfan Vietnamese couple came by. It's been a while since I've seen them, and it was great to get to play for their warm enthusiasm. Unfortunately, they got there pretty late, and my battery died after only a half dozen songs.
I wouldn't normally go down on a Monday night, but I thought maybe, since it was Spring Break. But no, not many people, maybe because of the cold snap.
Right at first there were some teenage boys, and one of them asked me if I was setting up or tearing down. When I said that I was setting up, he called to the other 3 or 4 guys, "Hey guys, let's stay. This guy's good!" That was flattering, especially coming from a teenager.
But probably part of the reason I couldn't gather an audience was that the street lady who usually quietly camps out at the farthest bench was up in arms about something. She was yelling at invisible people, explaining her grievances, but she'd only really shout while I was in the middle of a song. When I wasn't playing, she'd quiet down, so I couldn't really tell what she was on about.
I think maybe it was that she wasn't being able to get a taxi. Several of them came by and she'd go talk to the driver without getting in, and then they'd leave without her. I don't know why they wouldn't take her -- maybe she had no money. Or maybe she wanted to be taken to, I don't know, Kentucky. Or Venus. Unfortunately, getting belligerent with people who weren't there wasn't really solving the issue. It took a while, but she did eventually find a taxi that would have her, but while she was ranting, anyone who might have stopped, didn't.
Later on, a tiny little street lady I'd never seen before came by. She didn't quite have both oars in the water, and was rambling on about something, even though I couldn't hear her since, you know, I was singing. But she dropped a Chapstick in my tip jar and wandered off before the song was over. A while later, she came back, and this time she produced a shopping bag from a pocket of her pack, and put that in my jar. Again I was singing so I couldn't hear (or decipher) what she was on about, but my guess at the time was that there was a Pavilions coupon in the bag, and she was giving it to me as a tip.
But when I got home and opened it, it turned out to be a bag of "treasures": a bottle cap, a quartz rock, a backless earring, some kind of seed pod, a blank nametag, and a little wad of clear plastic. It's so sweet that she liked my music enough to part with her precious things.
What's that thing about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? I was hoping that Easter would draw some crowds down to Laguna, but I was wrong. Again. Make a note: Holidays never work. Any holiday. All the holidays.
I played on the Fingerhut side from 6:30-8:30 when the Tommies gave up. But traffic was light on either side, so it didn't make much difference. I did have a few groups gathered; a big group of young kids from Chile, and a little family from Sweden. The Swedish girl came up and requested a song from the list -- Surprise! "Let It Go".
And at the end, a guy and his wife listened for a while, then he got up and bought a CD. They listened for a while more, then as they got up to leave, he came over and kind of showed me the CD and said "This will be played in Peru." Cool.
Somebody recommended I play at Bogart's Coffee Shop in Seal Beach, so I emailed them and got an immediate response and invitation to play! Apparently, they have music all the time, so anybody's welcome to come down.
It turns out to be a tiny shop, across the street from the beach and the Seal Beach pier, and just a few shops down from their Main Street. (Which I drove down while looking for parking, and saw a three piece band out on the sidewalk, with banjo, acoustic, and electric (with an amp!) guitars, in plain view of some cops across the street. Good sign -- maybe I'll give that a try someday.)
Anyway, the place was full most of the night, but that's not saying too much since there are probably 10 chairs in there. But friendly, and lots of requests, including the two baristas who wanted "I See the Light" (from "Tangled") and "Mrs. Robinson", respectively.
And there were apparently two ladies sitting on a bench just outside, listening to the music and enjoying the view. They came in to buy a CD each and recommend that I try another coffee shop in Long Beach called "Portfolio", but they had to go back outside 'cuz it was warm in there and they were too bundled up to sit inside.
And the lady who wanted to come hear me at CALB for her husband's birthday but never showed, finally did make it, and they stayed the whole time. Very sweet.
One of the coffee girls set up an iPhone and sent the night out as a Live Stream. At the end she said that 10 people had watched (at least a little), including the shop owner. Internet Famous.
I guess I'd play there again, but it's an awful long drive for such a small, mostly fixed, crowd. I don't mind playing for a dozen people, but on the street corner, I get a constantly revolving set of a dozen, not just one. And the parking was *terrible*!
When I was done, I drove down Main Street to check it out. Bars, restaurants, a psychic, souvenir shops, ice cream, pizza. A lot like Laguna or Santa Barbara, really, but no art galleries. A lady was out singing and playing an autoharp, so I parked (easy at 10, impossible at 7) and listened a bit. I put a buck in her can and asked for Joni Mitchell, so she launched into "Clouds", with mostly wrong chords. But she was sincere, and just being out there is half the battle, so good for her.
I've sworn off Art Walk several times now, but I was hoping that it would be different, here in Spring Break. I was wrong.
I'd hoped that Sanchez would be on the Fingerhut side, but he had taken the ice cream side. I decided to go on over to Fingerhut, but as I walked past him, Sanchez growled, "Two guys playing on the same block doesn't work." I said, "Oh, well" and kept on going. To which he threatened, "OK, I'll see you on Saturday! And I'll bring the *big* amp!" And here I thought that when I grew up, there wouldn't be any more bullies on the playground.
I walked across the street to where Warren was and told him what Sanchez had said. We agreed that it wasn't worth the risk, so we went up the street to find that the Tunnel was empty and set up there. It's amazing that Sanchez can threaten and intimidate and prevent us from playing. But he just simply can.
It was already late, and the traffic was poor, so it was pretty awful. Definitely the last Art Walk for me.
But in our brief time playing, the high and low point was a black lady with her teenage sons walking by, but she stopped and said, "I want to hear these guys play something." I gave her the list, and she skimmed through it and said, "What's that song about the house of the rising sun?" Hmmm, lemme think. That would be "House of the Rising Sun", but I told her that I don't know it. (Sure, I can play it, but I can't (won't?) scream-sing like Eric Burdon.) So she checked the list again and said that there were no good songs on it. Wow -- first time anyone's ever said that.
So she walked away, and I started up "Bridge Over Troubled Water". She stopped, came back, pulled out her phone, and took a video of the entire song. Apparently there is at least *one* good song on the list...
Pretty great! Spring Break makes every day almost like a Saturday. Lots of people to play for, tourists and locals. Lots of small families, which is great for me, with my inventory of kids' songs. And for some reason, it seemed like "Ladies' Night" 'cuz there were lots of groups of partying ladies out, too.
We had people around all night long, with lots of requests. One guy came up and told me that he'd been living in Laguna Beach for 45 years, and we were the best street band he'd ever heard. That was certainly flattering...
We had the ice cream corner, and Rasta Ross stayed on the Fingerhut side, so we only had one homeless guy and his backpack on the bench. I was hoping he'd get bored and move on, but no such luck, and he never did catch on that maybe he could make a little more room on the bench for other people. I shoulda said something, but I'm not that guy. The one-legged (and drunk) guy came by for a while, but he demanded some Pink Floyd and when I told him I don't know any Pink Floyd songs, he got mad, threw me an insult, and stormed off. You just can't please all the people all the time.
Spring Break! We can go down on a Monday and have a pretty great crowd. Happily, no Sanchez, and no Tommies! We did have Rastaman Ross on the bench the whole night, but he wasn't taking up too much of it.
Lots of families, so lots of kids. I must have played "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" half a dozen times. A little girl from Chicago came up to sing "Let It Go" with me, but she didn't actually know the words. Cute anyway.
I was playing "I'm Yours" for some teenagers when a kooky face-painted hippie/gypsy lady came running across the street to yell "I love this song!" and crazily dance to it. Never seen her before, and she was a little too much for the tourists, but she was fun to have around for a while.
Later on, a huge group of vacationers came by -- must have been 25 people. Two of the girls were having birthdays, so we sang the song, and tried to shoehorn both names in. It got confusing because there were so many conflicting requests coming in at once. It turned into a dance party with "Brown Eyed Girl" and some of the teens wanted to sing along with "Part of Your World" from "The Little Mermaid". After 6 or 8 songs, a little girl wanted to hear "Beauty and the Beast", which is a pretty song and all, but it just completely brought the party to a halt, and all but the little girl and her mom decided it was time to move on. I'm going to have to be more judicious when asked to do a song that I know isn't conducive to the existing vibe.
Around 8:00, the kids from the ice cream shop came out and offered us some ice cream. I shouldn't really have any because dairy kludges up your singing parts, but it's yummy and free and sometimes I think it actually helps to coat my throat a little. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself as I eat it.
Later on, the kid came out again with a clear cup with some caramel-colored stuff in it with white foam on top. I didn't know what it was, and didn't have a chance to even try it until I was all done and packing up. Turns out it was some kind of coffee drink -- I don't really know 'cuz I don't drink anything coffee related. Sure surprised me, though -- they're not a coffee shop, so I had expected something caramel-ish, from the color. But thanks for the thought, guys...
Anyway, it was a great night. I love being able to be a part of the tourists' vacation memories, especially if there are kids to make it more special.
It's officially Spring Break, so we went down to see if the tourists had arrived. And they had.
I had to set up on the Fingerhut side, since the Tommies were on the ice cream side, of course. Even before I was entirely set up, a little girl who I know from my Santa Claus gigs showed up with her family. She's quite the firecracker, so I played a bunch of kids' songs for her, and she did her lyrics-miming dance moves. That attracted a lot of smiles from the passers-by, and I couldn't help but feel like I was finally competing with the Tommies' cute with some cute of my own.
Warren got there an hour later, and a friend of his with her friend from Romania came by. The Romanian friend wanted to hear "Pure Imagination", even though she'd never heard it, nor seen the movie. She just liked the name.
Pretty quick, the Tommies packed up, so we happily moved over to "the good side". It wasn't like a Saturday, but plenty of happy Spring Breakers came by to ask for songs. My super friendly Middle Eastern superfan came by and stayed for a long time, as he always does. He drives all the way down from The Valley just to hear me play. Wow.
Toward the end, the owner of the ice cream store came out with some visiting (from Iran, maybe?) relatives -- an older guy and a pretty young lady, maybe his niece. She wanted to hear "Hotel California", "Hey There, Delilah", and "Over the Rainbow". She was appreciative, and the ice cream guy was beaming, like a proud papa -- he loves having me there. I like to be on his good side, too, so I brought my last CD over to the lady and told her it was a present. I'm pretty sure ice cream guy snuck a twenty into my jar though, despite my insistence.
After we were all packed up and just chatting, a (pretty tipsy) couple came by and the guy said, "Hey, play me a song!" So I just fired up "Hotel California", since I have it memorized, and it was late enough to be quiet enough that they could hear me without the amp. They listened appreciatively, and he dug a bill out of his wallet and kind of balanced it on my gear. After they'd left, I discovered that it was a ten dollar bill -- a pretty good tip for one song.
Since the Long Beach gig was a fiasco, but mercifully over at 8:00, I drove down the coast to Laguna to see if I could salvage any of the night. The Tommies were just packing up, so I started about 9:30, and Warren joined in at 10. It was quite a bit better than the night before -- lots of people stopped, and less of a bum problem, too.
Only problem was my left (chording) hand started to cramp up really bad around 10:30. Every time I'd lay it out straight to do a barre chord, it would freeze that way, and I couldn't bend it for the next chord. I was trying to adjust my chord fingerings to use the next three fingers (since most non-barre chords only need three), but that was tricky to do on the fly while I was also having to, you know, keep singing and all.
Toward the end, a guy I call "Singalong Chris" came by. He really, really appreciates my guitar playing, but mostly because I play songs he likes to sing. And he does. I'm sure he'd love it if I'd just shut up, but it's *my* show.
There were two other guys from "back East" there, and hearing Chris sing, they decided that this was just a big singalong session, and joined in. I guess all we were lacking was a campfire...
Well, another nightmare gig at the Shoreline Village annex of the Cultural Alliance of Long Beach. There's a stage down on the actual boardwalk, and the CALB guys talked the landlord into booking me there, instead of trying, again, to play upstairs in their gallery. Or so they thought.
When I got there, someone else was already half set up, and wasn't going anywhere. The CALB guy, Tom, didn't know how the double booking happened, but we had no choice to just try again upstairs.
And it was as bad as usual -- only a few couples came up, though my brother and his wife came, so that was better than nothing. And the last hour or so, for some reason, a couple of families came by to play with the Legos, so I got to play a bunch of kids' songs.
But all that was after the parking nightmare. As usual, the Village parking lot was full, so I had to park a half mile away in the city lot, and pay a fortune for the two hour max.
And since I thought I was playing an outdoor stage, I had to haul the whole "Big Rig" in. Tom said that all you have to do is circle a few times, and when we went down, there was a space right out front, so he stood in it and waited for me to go get the van.
I half-jogged back and drove to the gate, but the ticket machine was jammed and wouldn't let anybody in. After getting everyone in line to back out, I got in the even longer line at the "far gate". Tom must have stood in that spot waving people away for half an hour, but at least I didn't have so far to haul the stuff back out at the end.
But that was pretty much the Third Strike for that place. Oh well.
We presume that Sanchez is blasting away every Thursday and Friday, but it's been quite a while since I've verified that. And yes; yes he is.
When he's there, the Tommies move down to the Tunnel where it's quiet enough that they can be heard. That left the ice cream corner empty, since, for some reason, Sanchez usually prefers the Fingerhut side. And he wasn't *all* that loud, so I went for it.
Problem was, a lot of bums were out. One guy was sleeping on the bench, and woke up to drunkenly tell me how great I am: "I love you, man"; "That's beautiful, man"; "That's not just music, that's *art*!"
And after a while, Rasta Ross decided to come over and work on his crocheted Jamaican hats, bracelets, etc. on my side, since, presumably, even he can't stand to listen to Sanchez for very long. With his backpack and craft supply bag, he takes up 3/4 of the bench, and when another homeless guy showed up, the entire bench was full.
But it seemed like, although this was the start of Spring Break week for some people, it being only Friday night, the anticipated crowd of tourists were all apparently on their way to the airport and not here yet. Everyone looked to be locals, and on their way somewhere, so nobody seemed to be ready to stop and sit down anyway.
There was a nouveau hippie guy and girl there, too, but they were polite enough to move to the side bench when they realized I was fixing to play. They had a sign out, but weren't directly hassling anyone for money. They were nicely appreciative of the music, and when I played "Rocky Mountain High", the guy came over to tell me that he didn't have any money, but he wanted to at least high-five me for making a pair of Colorado hippies' day.
