I drove down at 6:15, fully expecting to find the Tommies on The Corner and to then just drive around to try and find another place to play -- maybe somewhere along the route between the Sawdust Festival and the Pageant of the Masters. But I was shocked to find that The Corner was empty! That left me with the challenge to find parking in this Festival season and get back down there before anyone could snarf it from me.
Which I did. Amazing! Warren couldn't make it, but then again, we figured there wasn't really going to be an "it" to make. But that left me solo, and I played from 6:30 until midnight. The summer seems to be winding down, though -- the crowds were down, and somewhat apathetic somehow. Still, I had nice people there almost all night, including my little superfan Natalia, who wanted to dance with her mom to her favorite, "You'll Be In My Heart" from "Tarzan", and a few others.
I was playing "Hotel California" and looked across the street and saw a 30-ish lady standing on the Fingerhut corner looking at me. She apparently took eye contact as an invitation, and rushed across the street to sing along. She only *kinda* knew the words, but that didn't stop her from just making up what she didn't know, and she sang *loud*. I've never heard anyone able to sing even close to that loud without a microphone. And she decided to sing it standing two feet away from me, right in my face. All the way through. It was kinda awesome.
Another little girl stopped her family from just walking through because she wanted to hear the music. I saw her standing over to the side, smiling at me, so I said, "I have a song for you!", and started "Do You Want To Build a Snowman". She was pretty thrilled. Afterward, she came over and stood in front of me, so I bent down, expecting her to have been sent over by her mom to say "Thank you". But she didn't say anything, until her mom said, "She wants to give you a hug". Well, sure, absolutely! So I slung the guitar around to my back and crouched down for my hug. Definitely the cutest thing of the month, if not the summer.
As they started away I said, "Does she want to get a picture with me?", and they came back to do that, and for once I gave my phone to someone to get a shot for me, too. (She was a lot cuter before the fake Camera Smile.)
A bit of a problem with the bums. One scary/dirty guy was just hanging out almost the whole night, taking up valuable tourist room on the bench, but at least he was quiet and polite. I also had the reappearance of the old guy who likes to get up and dance/contort in slow motion, which amuses some people and scares others. He also insists on shouting out the name of the artist at the end of every song, as if it's some kind of competition or game that nobody else is playing. The challenges of the street corner musician...
What a great night! I went down early to beat the Tommies to The Corner, but they never showed at all. Whatever -- I had the place to myself all night, and it was *way* more fun than getting stuck on the Other Corner on Saturdays has been lately. Not Saturday-sized crowds, but a nice steady stream of listeners all night. I never had any big parties, but I did have 6-10 people around the whole time.
Indeed, our old Laguna friend Silly Patty showed up, and since it was a weeknight, I was expecting a Nobody Listening Lull at any time so I could go out and talk to her, but it never came. She stayed a long time though, and asked for her favorite songs, "Five O'Clock World", "Fields of Gold" and "Bus Stop".
At 6:30 it's still light out, and there are already lots of people around, eating ice cream and hanging out, so I had a built-in audience right away. One guy with a glaring Aussie accent stayed to listen for a long time and told me where he was from when I asked -- Las Vegas. And later on, a little old lady who we often see walking through with her Cavalier King Charles stopped this time, and asked if I know "You Are My Sunshine" and would I play it for the dog. I do, and did.
I passed out the Song Lists, and they basically never came back. People would make their requests, and pass the lists off to any newcomers. That was cool -- it kept the interest and requests coming, and also saved me the trouble of handing them out over and over.
Of course it was a work night, so Warren showed up at 8:30 or 9. That gave me a chance to twiddle with the knobs to try to get my new guitar sounding right without having his guitar in the mix. I got closer, but it's still not working as well as the old one. I'll get there.
It is feeling pretty close to Right, though, playability-wise, now that I adjusted the action. I'm not having any trouble with the neck shrinkage (from 2" to 1-7/8"), but I do still need to rebuild the nut anyway to shift the strings over. I'm very pleased with the "strumming end" difference, though. Strumming is working much better with this guitar, and I can tell the difference even in just the Final Chord endings. And it's a lot easier on my fingers since I took off the fatter-gauge top three strings and replaced them with the gauge I'm used to.
Anyway, it was a really nice evening. The lower foot and auto traffic made it quieter and nicer to play, and it was great to have a constant moderate-sized audience to play for. A far more pleasant evening than standing on the Fingerhut side feeling frustrated...
Somebody had managed to beat Tom to The Corner (probably Fiddle Girl), so he texted Warren and said that he'd be playing late. So we went anyway to get the no-longer-Fingerhut side at 8:30, since it hadn't been too bad last week.
But, as the stock traders say, "Past performance is not indicative of future results", and it was pretty terrible this week. We moved over when Tom quit, and had some good interaction for a while, but then it died. Is summer over?
But for some reason, there was a lot of dancing. One couple danced to several different songs, and then the guy came up and secretively asked if I knew "Yellow Bird". I do, so I played it, and they slow danced. Must have been "Their Song".
We also had several random Woo Girls dancing, and then a couple that did some amazing, "Think You Can Dance", zooming around, clutchy, jumpy, tango-style dancing. Mikey the Greeter was there, and when the guy went into the ice cream store, he said to the lady, "You guys make a great couple!", and she said, "Oh, we're not a couple." Excuse me?!?
Anyway, that short spell of Good after so much Bad didn't really make the evening worthwhile, so Warren and I are going to investigate maybe finding a spot up between the Pageant of the Masters and the Sawdust Festival, since most folks park somewhere and then go to both, walking between them. Maybe we can find us a better Second Choice...
When they offered me fifty bucks to play for the Artisan Faire again, I said "Sure!", 'cuz I like to stay in the loop for City sponsored events so I do this one almost pro bono. But then I thought, wait, August 15th, in the middle of a parking lot?!? And then I thought, Oh well, maybe it won't be too bad...
And then it arrived and it's even worse than I thought 'cuz we're in the middle of a heat wave. Temps up to 99 degrees, and I'm playing the middle of the day, 11-2. They put me under an Easy-Up, and it's nice to have the shade, but I think the cloth actually acts as a radiator and sends heat down. It's hard to tell if it's actually cooler under the thing or not.
Anyway, the vendors sweltering in their booths clapped a little at first, but then even that became too much effort. And it was what you'd call "sparsely attended". I made a little in tips, and sold one CD, but it was pretty lonely out there. And hot. And yes, for the first time, I availed myself of the chair they set out for me, and actually played the last 45 minutes Sitting Down, which I Never Do.
I drank through two cans of Mountain Dew, and about 20 minutes before the end a nice lady vendor came over and offered me two (?) bottles of water. I guess she didn't see the Dew that was sitting there, still not quite empty. But to be polite I opened a bottle and took a couple of big swigs, only to find that it was "room temperature", and this "room" was 99 degrees. Thanks?
My monthly gig for the old folks. I was worried about the new guitar because of all the feedback problems I've been having in Laguna, so I spent the morning building a soundhole plug, which Taylor says I don't need, but I think maybe I really do and figured better safe than sorry.
But I got there and set up while the old folks were out, and didn't have any trouble with feedback at all. I even took the plug out, and it was still fine. I'm starting to think that the trouble in Laguna is only when I'm on the Fingerhut side, and the amp is pointing directly at the low wall, 8 feet away. Whatever it is, having at least one example of it working really well makes me feel a lot better about the whole New Guitar thing.
Anyway, I played a few songs and then started John Denver's "Country Roads" when a very old guy got up and started chugging across the middle of the room. People do that from time to time at these gigs, and a caretaker always jumps up to intercept them and find out where they're going. One of them ran over to him, and he took her hands and started dancing with her -- which was pretty amazing considering he could hardly walk. In fact, when she started towards him, I thought she was at least going to get his walker and put it in front of him before it was too late and he'd fallen. The power of music, huh?
Later on, I asked if anyone had any requests, maybe from songs that they've heard me play before. Some guy called out "Johnny Cash!", which wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but, hey, I'm all about playing what people want to hear, so I dug up "Folsom Prison Blues" in The Book and had the caretaker ladies boogy-ing in the aisles.
After that one, one of the caretaker ladies called out, "Do some Elvis! It's 'Elvis Week'!" Um, OK. So I did "Can't Help Falling In Love" and most of the room sang along. Then a young caretaker dude called out "Sinatra?" Well, not really, but I do "The Way You Look Tonight", and so did Sinatra, though his version is 60's cool, finger-poppin' jazzy, and mine is based on James Taylor's pretty ballad version. Close enough I guess, and the old ladies loved it.
I also did "Cool Water", which I always do at this gig 'cuz I figure it's the only audience I get that remembers it, and it sounds *so* cool with the harmony box. One of the office ladies came rushing in to hear that one. And I ended with "Bridge Over Troubled Water", 'cuz the acoustics in that place are amazing, and it knocks their socks off.
All in all, a great time.
I figured that since it's summer, there may be enough traffic on a Sunday to make it worth my while. Or, since I'd had a lot of trouble getting my new guitar dialed in the night before, maybe I'd get a chance to see what I could figure out when nobody's there to annoy with all the fiddling. The Taylor website said that the pickups should be immune to feedback -- let's just say that that hasn't been my experience.
But I never got the chance. More people out than expected, and even though I was on the Fingerhut corner, I had people there the whole time. Indeed, my wife had come along with the dogs (who frequently got more attention than I did), and although she was ready to go home by 9:00 or so, there was always someone there listening, so I couldn't just up and quit until almost 10:30. I never thought it would run so late on a Sunday or I'd'a never suckered her into coming along.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten my iPad (sitting on the charger back home, "getting ready for the gig"), so I had to play the whole time from memory, at which I suck. Usually the audience turns over fast enough that you could get away with 5 songs in a loop, but a family came by that knows me from Spectrum and stayed a long time, so I had to dig pretty deep. They also already own my CDs, so the kids were asking for songs that are on it that I had to turn down 'cuz I can't do them from memory. I did manage "Do You Want to Build a Showman?", "Puff", and most of "Kiss the Girl", though. And of course "Over the Rainbow". They apparently have Version 1 of the Kids' CD 'cuz they bought two more once they discovered that there are several new songs on Version 2 (and another copy of the "Favorites" CD). Big fans, apparently.
Anyway, I made do with the dozen songs I can mostly play from memory, and managed to play for three hours. Some middle-aged guys came through and one of them decided to join in on the act, singing along on "Fire and Rain". He wanted to do more, so I fired up "Hotel California", and he let out all the stops. Fortunately he had no microphone, but people passing by gave me sympathetic looks anyway.
I never did solve the feedback problem, though I got rid of it temporarily by turning the bass all the way down. The guitar sounded pretty bad, but at least no feedback. Definitely have to work on that before next weekend.
My new guitar finally came in! It's really pretty and plays pretty great (now that I've lowered the action a bit). When I picked it up, I asked them what strings Taylor had put on it (so I could, you know, replace them with the same kind eventually, assuming I like them). But the shop guys not only didn't know, they didn't know there was two kinds that Taylor uses. I suspect that they're what Taylor calls "HD Light", which is really just Medium top three strings, and Light bottom three. The result is that the high strings feel really tight, and hurt more. And some sound difference too, I guess...
Anyway, Tom wasn't supposed to be down there, so I was really looking forward to playing the whole night on the ice cream corner, with my new guitar. But Tom's plans changed at the last minute and he was going to be there after all.
Well, I had to go down anyway, and play someplace, anyplace, 'cuz, new guitar! I noticed that the alley was empty as I drove past it, but I was aiming at playing by the green swirly artwork bench-thing. But there was already a guy there, so I decided to head for the alley. As I went through the Fingerhut corner, Rasta Ross jumped up and said, "Oh! You can play here! I give you this corner!", which was great of him.
Fingerhut is actually closed, so I could play right in front of the papered-over display window without fear that the ladies would come and tell me to quit blocking it. Facing that way, people can use the low wall as a bench.
Problem was, the window's just a bit too narrow for the both of us, so I was too close to Warren's amp and hearing his guitar too much, and getting feedback from my guitar, and it being unfamiliar and not sounding right all made for an uncomfortable first try.
Still, somehow, we did all right -- I sold five CDs even before Tom quit and we started up on the ice cream side, at 11:20. It sounded better there, since I'm farther from Warren's amp, and there's no little wall directly across from me, to which I attribute the feedback problem.
Anyway, it was pretty dead at 11, but it was fun to be playing the new guitar, so we kept playing until the Changing-Bars people started coming through. They all thought we should keep playing until 1:20 when the batteries disagreed.
Warren always sends a text to Tom to see if he's going to be there, and Tom usually doesn't reply, so we have to assume he will be, 'cuz he usually is. This time Tom actually replied that he would be there, and that his State Program (whatever that is) imposed curfew was over, so instead of staying until 9pm, he'd be playing until 10:30.
Leaving us to start at 9:30 was already pretty bad, but stuck starting at 11:00 is ridiculous. But because he has a legion of kids to do supply runs and take turns going to the bathroom, he can and does spend the whole day on the corner, playing only occasionally, and keeping anyone else from setting up. And I can't think of a way to overcome that.
Warren went down to scope it out, and texted me all of this, also revealing that Rasta Ross was set up noodling with his tabla on the Fingerhut corner, Fiddle Guy was across the street, some guy with an acoustic guitar was in a closed gallery's alcove down the way, and further down, a Chinese lady was singing in Mandarin to a karaoke machine. This is really getting out of hand...
But I went down anyway to try to think of something. Warren thought that the alcove that the acoustic guy had just vacated looked promising, but I thought it was too far from the Corner to siphon off any traffic. I proposed the half-circular alcove between Fingerhut and Chico's, which is usually off-limits when those stores are open, but at 9:05, should be OK since they were both closed. (And Fingerhut is Really Closed, out of business, and there were painters in there, preparing for whoever's next.)
Warren objected that our amplifiers would be pointing directly at the Tommies from there, but I countered that that was a Good Thing, since Warren's supposed friendship with Tom hadn't caused him to do anything to accommodate us, so why should I accommodate him? I was hoping that, at least, some people who were done with the cuteness of the Tommies Show would hear some Real Music coming from across the way, and trade up.
And indeed, right after I started, I had gathered a pretty big crowd, even with no place to sit. Not knowing how this was going to go, I hadn't bothered to deploy all my stuff, so I was playing from memory. But after four songs there were so many people there that it seemed rude to not give them the chance to pick their favorite songs, so I got the song lists out, handed them around, and fetched the music stand and iPad out.
About 10:30, Tom's older daughter Tessa came over to tell us that they were going to play two more songs and then go, so I packed up quickly and rolled over there. We did OK, but obviously, starting at 11:00, the real crowds were long gone. It's not about the money, but as a barometer of how much interaction and appreciation we gathered, the "take" was the worst since the colds of the middle of January.
I'm apparently really going to have to come up with another plan for Saturdays.
I went down at 8:00 just to get in line to take over from the Tommies, and was completely surprised to find the corner empty. Wish I'd'a known sooner, but still, yay!
Warren had another event to go to so I played solo until he got there at 9:30, and had pretty great crowds. I had requests three deep at one point, and sold a couple of CDs. There were long lines out the door of the ice cream shop, and the owner gave me a big smile and wave like it was all my doing. Nice of him to think so.
My little super-fan Natalia came by with her family again. A little boy was there ahead of her and he wanted to hear and sing "Let It Go". Natalia was not to be outdone and she and her pregnant mom came up to (kinda almost) sing "Over the Rainbow".
Angel, the guy who makes the palm frond roses arrived a little after I started. Fortunately, he didn't take over the whole bench like he used to, so he didn't impede the tourists' ability to use the bench much.
Lots of Brazilian people this week. Maybe it's some kind of holiday week down there. Anyway, they're quite the partiers, and one lady wanted me to play a Brazilian song for her to sing. I told her I didn't know any Brazilian songs (though I used to know "Girl from Ipanema" a little), so she just told me to "play along" as she launched into one. Um, I'm pretty good, but not that good, to just guess the chords of a song I've never heard...
Had another wedding party, I guess, by the clothes. I wish they'd'a said something, but by the time I figured it out, they were on their way. I’m all out of tiaras anyway.
There was a pretty big slump at 10 or so, but then it picked back up big time as the late-night bar crowds started to emerge. I played lots of up tempo songs and got some enthusiasm in return.
When it started to die back down again at 2am, I was still caffeined out, so I had fun running through some songs I don't usually get to: "Peace Train", "Behind Blue Eyes", "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", "4 and 20", and some others. It was nice to break out of the Top Twenty for a while.
Finally gave up at 2:30, when there was nobody left at all, except Angel, who'd missed the last bus home. I think he was hoping that one of us would offer him a ride, but although he thinks we're friends, I think he's a nuisance (both with the crowd annoying, and the smoking while I'm trying to sing), so, no, I didn't offer.
It rained all day, but was predicted to stop around 7pm. That apparently and happily scared the Tommies off, and surprisingly, didn't really keep everyone away -- the traffic was only a bit lighter than usual. We had plenty of people to play for, although it was tough to get anyone to stay very long because of one homeless guy and his luggage occupying most of the bench. Sigh.
We had a few families come by, including a little Asian girl who volunteered to stand next to me to sing "Let It Go", but didn't actually make a sound. Bravely held her position, though...
The new harmony box, being bigger and smarter than the old one, draws more juice and has been responsible for the accessories going dead before the amp does for the last few gigs. So I got a new, almost twice as powerful, battery for the accessories. Apparently the amp batteries saw the writing on the wall, so they stepped up too, and we played until almost 2am before they cut out.
The late-night crowd is more affable, more demonstrative, and more generous, probably by virtue of being frequently more tipsy. I was hoping that playing dance tunes would capture some of the Woo Girls zooming through, which has worked in the past, but this time I never could get a critical mass to get a party started. I even learned the Chuck Berry song that Uma Thurman and John Travolta twist to for the dance contest scene in "Pulp Fiction" ("C'est La Vie"), but never got a chance to see if the Girls would recognize it as such. Maybe next week.
Around 1am a wedding party came through and the newlyweds stood in the middle of the corner looking like they wanted to dance. I immediately fired up "Wonderful Tonight", and they, and the rest of the party, just melted. The bride even had long blonde hair, as specified in the song. I had a feeling that I'd just created their "Our Song". (And who'd'a thought that Eric Clapton would write the most romantic song of our generation?)
Seeing how pleased the newlyweds were, the maid of honor ran over to the tip jar with a twenty, where it joined several others. Counting the jar out later, it was pretty obvious that the bigger bills were higher up, i.e., later at night. I'm starting to think that going on after the Tommies, starting at 9-ish, might not be such a bad thing. And 9-2 would be a much easier shift than 7-2 on my fingers, voice, knees, etc.
Since I forgot last time and got rescheduled almost two weeks later, it seemed like I'd just been there. Everyone says that the old folks won't care (or remember), but I still feel like they have to be getting tired of the same old stuff every time.
But they never show it, of course. They clap politely at any and every song I play. It's tough though because I can't tell which songs they like more than others. Of course, I try to play older songs that they'll know, but even if it's way after "your time", how can you not know, say, "Yesterday"?
So I've kind of given up trying to stick to songs that they'll definitely know, and am just doing songs that are Big Hits, even if they're not from the 50's or older.
Which has allowed me to loosen up, along with just getting accustomed to the place and people. I'm also trying to mix in more up (or at least medium) tempo songs. Not sure it worked, though -- I still had a half-dozen people fast asleep in their chairs before the third song. (Can't say I blame 'em -- I like me a little afternoon nap these days too, and I'm quite a bit younger than most of these folks.)
Anyway, I felt like this was my best, and most fun, gig there so far. I started off with crowd-pleaser "Country Roads", knocked 'em dead with "Georgia On My Mind", got to play "Cool Water" (which sounds amazing with the harmony box, but I never get to play it anywhere else), and finished with a big, flashy, "Bridge Over Trouble Water". Big fun.
Quite a night! We started on the Fingerhut corner at 8, moved to the ice cream corner when the Tommies left at 10, and played until 2am.
As I was setting up, I realized that I had cleverly decided to pack the iPad music book somewhere other than the guitar case, and then promptly cleverly forgot all about it and left it behind. Fortunately, I have a backup three-ring binder copy that lives in the van, but I played the whole first two hours from memory. Which, since I suck at memorizing songs, meant maybe 10 songs, and some heavy repetition.
It also meant that the obscure songs that are in the 300+ electronic version were unavailable in the 150-ish paper one. Like the Johnny Cash songs that a guy came up and requested (with lavish tip) to sing. We faked "Folsom Prison Blues" anyway ('cuz, let's face it, Johnny Cash wasn't the world's most sophisticated songwriter), and the guy was pretty good. Just hitting those Cash low notes was impressive. He was back a while later to sing "Sweet Caroline" (also not in the book), and "Piano Man". His big personality and bigger gestures gathered the crowd that had been eluding me at that hour.
Same as the birthday girl who asked to play my guitar and sing "Dock of the Bay" earlier on. Maybe I should consider changing the act to all-karaoke -- it seems to attract bigger crowds than just me all the time...
Anyway, I was feeling annoyed that we're apparently eternally consigned to the "late shift" after Tom decides to go home, but although we did OK from 8-10 on the Fingerhut side, we did pretty well from 10-2 on the ice cream side. Of course, we'd do way better yet if we could play the whole time on the ice cream side...
Fourth of July fell on a Saturday, so we thought there would be lots of people down at Laguna to see the firework show. And there were. But they were all preoccupied with their beach trip and, after the fireworks, getting home, so it was actually one of the worst nights in a long time. I keep falling for the idea that holidays will be good nights, but so far, every time I play a holiday: New Year's, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, etc., it's been terrible. Maybe I'll finally divest myself of that delusion...
The Tommies were there as usual when we arrived at 8:00, but they packed up in time to watch the fireworks at 9:00. We played on the Fingerhut side until then, and moved over when they left. And when the fireworks were over, there was a tsunami of people swarming off of the beach and streaming past us, but almost nobody stopped. Big hurry to get out there and sit in the traffic trying to get back up the canyon, I guess.
I just kept trying to find something that would slow somebody down, and kept playing to no reaction at all. Finally it paid off -- when the Fourth people were all gone at 10:30 or 11, we were finally playing for the usual Saturday night bar traffic, which works pretty well for me.
I snagged a few couples with the Everly Brothers' "Dream", which I'm going to have to remember to do more often, 'cuz it went over big. The girls captured by that one asked for "Mister Postman" from the list, which also did well, since they danced and even the people walking through had to do it dancing. So for the last couple of hours (we quit at 1am when the battery died) we did OK.
Unfortunately, our old friend Angel has reappeared for the summer. He makes origami roses from palm fronds and "gives" them to girls and kids. Of course, most people "tip" him for them, and he said that he'd made $350 that day, in 12 hours of hanging around the corner. That's pretty close to our hourly rate, but he can keep it up longer, requires a lot less equipment, and doesn't get blocked if someone else already has The Corner. Maybe I need to switch occupations...
This was my monthly session with the old folks at the Senior Day Care. Of course, I try to play the oldest songs I know, but there aren't that many of them, and I keep thinking that they'll get tired of me. But the people who work there always semi-jokingly say that nobody there can remember what happened last month.
I was supposed to play two weeks earlier, but I completely forgot since I don't have to look at my calendar very often these days. The lady, Nancy, graciously re-booked me, but I never wanted to become one of those "flakey musicians".
To make sure that she didn't have to fret about my not showing up again, I arrived way early. I couldn't set up that soon though, because the room was being used for Bingo. So I had to just awkwardly hang out in the office. Turned out Nancy had nothing to do either, because her computer was "broken". I took a look at it, did a hard shutdown, and it powered back up just fine. She was thrilled and had/got to call and cancel the tech that was coming. That made up, a little, for my no-show, I think.
And to make it up to the old folks, I learned a new song from my Dad's recently discovered Guitar Music binder. It's "Today" (while the blossoms still cling to the vine...), and it went over pretty well. I need to clarify where and what kind of harmony to use, though -- I just kind of faked it.
Right after I finished playing at the private party in Irvine, Warren gave me a call and was down on The Corner, watching the Tommies pack up. So I pulled through and got a burger, and drove straight down there. The party was only two hours of playing, so with the teardown, driving, and setup time, I got an hour break and was ready for lots more.
The weather was weird and cloudy and distinctly non-summer-like, so I didn't expect many people, but there were lots of tourists out anyway, so we had people there listening the whole time. There was a girl having her 21st birthday so I played the song for her, and lots of families with kids so I gave out a passle of fingerlights. Seemed like a preponderance of nice Asian families on vacation -- must have been some kind of break week in China or Japan or somewhere. I just played lots of "Country Roads" ("The Song Known 'Round The World") and "Let It Be". I reckon maybe a lot of those fingerlights were going back to China where they came from.
We got started about 8, and Warren had to get up early so he left at 11, but I played an extra half hour, mostly for a nice tourist couple who must have just arrived and weren't sleepy 'cuz they were still on "South Florida" time and wouldn't let me quit.
The wife of a friend of my brother's was planning a surprise birthday party for her husband and they are frequent guests at my brother's house when I do the concerts on his front driveway, so she knew her husband would love my music at his party. It was at a small park in Irvine, and she had it catered and invited about 75 people.
Most of the time, everyone was eating at the big round tables, so I was basically background music again, but most everyone who walked past me to get to the food would give me a smile or thumbs-up, so I could tell that they were liking it, even without any clapping.
One lady liked my repertoire so much that she was about to take pictures of the list (to reference, she later told me, at her frequent campfire sing-alongs). I stopped her and gave her one of the paper copies that I carry in the Magic Bag -- saved her the trouble.
Anyway, it was mostly uneventful, but the lady who hired me must have been happy with it, since we'd agreed on my usual $200 fee, but when she handed me a check, it was for $300.
A nice lady on Facebook wanted to promote her store by having buskers out front. Cheaper than renting one of those blow-up tube guys, I guess.
It's a store full of locally made groovy stuff: bags, jewelry, soap, jelly, coffee blends, re-purposed thrift store clothes, etc. It's in downtown Long Beach, but I was told that there was $5 all day parking nearby, which I couldn't find. So I ended up in a "2 Hours Free!" parking structure and figured I'd go back and drive out and back in at the two hour mark, as also advised by the nice but devious lady.
Anyway, nice wide sidewalk out front, but it's on the east side of the street so it's in broad sunlight, starting at 2pm in the middle of June. I thought, well, at least I have a hat...
So I played. And boiled. A few people walked by, and even fewer put a buck in the jar, though I suspect it was more out of pity for my sweat than respect for the music. Nobody stopped to hear a whole song, but one guy with his little girl promised to come back for one. And didn't.
So, at 4:00 I decided to cut my losses and get into some air conditioning before I passed out and broke my guitar. I went into the store to tell the guy Thanks but No Thanks, and got roped into posing for the professional photographer that was taking pictures of people going "Shhhh" for their upcoming "Secret Art Show" promotional material. And they couldn't wait to get some shots of the guy in the funny hat...
That delay put me just over the two FREE! hours, so I probably didn't even break even, but, you know, new and different experiences...
I did message the nice lady, telling her that it wasn't *that* bad, and that I'd love to come back sometime in the evening when the storefront would be in shade, at least. Or even play, like, inside. No reply. Probably embarrassed about nearly killing me...
I don't know why I keep signing up for this thing (this is my fourth one). I suppose it's flattering to be asked to play (even for free) in a big "Festival", but it's actually a pretty bad gig. Play for four hours to make about a third as much in tips as I would on any Saturday night, for people who run right on by to get to or from the beach. And anybody who came down specifically for the music has 35 more bands to get to, so they don't stick around (or tip, 'cuz who can afford to tip 35 bands) either. Even if you're the best band there, they don't know that until they've walked the whole city.
But the upside this year was that I played at the night-before party and made yet more rich old lady friends, 'cuz, you know, I'm right in their wheelhouse. One of the organizers insisted that I show up, this time, at the After-Fete party (it's all about the parties for these people) at the "C'est La Vie" restaurant that's just a few doors down and across the street from the corner I play at.
They have live music in there sometimes, so I asked the organizer lady to introduce and recommend me to the owner, and she did, telling him that if he had me in there, she and all her Committee friends would be there. So, hopefully, she'll follow through with that idea and I'll get at least one night in there, which will hopefully parlay into more.
She had thought that I was going to bring her a CD to the restaurant, but I don't know how she got that idea, and I didn't. So I went back to my car and fetched a stack of 'em and handed 'em out like candy to all the Committee ladies, the owner, his sister the manager, and a Kids' CD for his 10-year-old daughter. Hopefully, all of those were a good investment...
You'd kind of expect that each Saturday leading up and to summer would be better than the last. But the last three Saturdays have each been worse than the one before it. Maybe it was the gloomy weather that kept people at home this time, but it was pretty empty.
Warren had gotten there at 7:20 to wait out the Tommies, but he discovered that they hadn't come at all, so he called me and I got down there as fast as I could. We had a three-generation family on the bench even before we started, but they must have liked the music 'cuz they stayed for about an hour. And bought CDs, too.
Later on a guy came up to buy a CD, but he only had a twenty. I told him to go ahead and make change out of the jar, but it was early and there wasn't much big money so he had to count out a bunch of ones. And 5 minutes later he came up to buy a second one, for some reason. At least this time he had exact change...
And I did have a "Let It Go" singalong, except the three kids didn't actually sing at all. Unclear on the concept, apparently.
Anyway, oddly slow night, and the people who were there were strangely apathetic. Maybe it was me...
The Tommies texted Warren to let him know that they were quitting earlier than usual, so we jumped in our cars and got started playing around 8:15. But it was kind of chilly, so there weren't many people willing to stop -- which may explain Tom's early retreat. We did gather some crowds, but not as constantly as last week.
But the fun started even before I got down there. I was stopped on my way to The Corner by a lady shouting, "I love your hat! Marry me!!!" I had to walk through her little group, so I stopped to talk, though I was in a hurry to join up with Warren and get started. It's all pretty fuzzy now, but there was talk about a birthday, and what a great hat, and I showed off the bunny inside, and tried to convince them to follow me down to The Corner and hear me sing, so I could do "Happy Birthday" for them, etc.
But first they needed a picture, and the older lady (you know, my age) had her phone out, and I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow I ended up locked in a kiss with the "Marry me" girl, waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the mom (?) to signal that she'd gotten the pic. It was like those dolls with the magnets in their lips, puckered up and barely touching. But Mom apparently didn't really know how to work her phone, so after what seemed like ages (but was probably 10 seconds), I broke the kiss to ask "Did you get it?", but she hadn't, so we had to go again, but this time the younger dude had his phone out, so eventually somebody got the pic.
But that wasn't enough! Now the mom was complaining, "Hey, it's *my* birthday, where's *my* kiss?!?" So I gave her a peck, too, but didn't wait for the cameras this time. After a bit more trying to convince them to come hear me play (they never did), I went on my way, thinking, "How did *that* happen?!?"
Anyway, it was pretty slow at first, but started to pick up after 9:00 or so -- maybe starting later isn't such a bad thing. My little superfan (whose name is Natalia) came down with her family again. Her mom is noticeably pregnant, which probably accounts for Natalia's having a baby doll stuffed up under her sweater. Nevertheless, she asked for "Mister Postman", which was a big hit with her and her mom, but also the other people standing around.
A guy came up to tell us that he'd just moved to Laguna. We asked "from where", and he said, "Newport Beach". Not too terribly exotic, then. But he was really thrilled with my stuff, and when I played "Blackbird", he jumped off the bench to do some "We're not worthy!" bows. Crazy.
And later on, a couple came by and mentioned that it was their anniversary. I quickly gave the lady a tiara, which looked good on her. I told her that now she'd get the respect at work that she deserved, and she liked that idea.
But we also got our first taste of trouble in the form of drunken bums -- in particular a woman (we're pretty sure), who kept hanging around and harassing our "customers", singing along, making rude comments, and generally scaring people away. And little Mexican Walt, whose shtick is to "make friends" with tourists before asking for money, was also there.
Warren made some heroic efforts to get them to move to the furthest bench (or go away), but they were pretty persistent. At one point, I just "took a break", since nobody could stop anyway, in hopes that the woman would go away. And she did go sit on the far bench, but as soon as I started playing again, she wandered back over.
So, about 1:15, since there were almost no people left, and the ones that came by couldn't stop anyway, I gave up. Naturally, as soon as we started tearing down, she left -- so maybe I need to use that as a strategy.
Anyway, not as good a night as last week, but pretty good, and inexplicably more lucrative -- there were four twenties in the jar, and 8 or 10 fives, along with the usual stack of ones. My voice isn't completely back to normal, but I can sing the high notes pretty well, and the remaining "gravel" actually seems to make the low notes stronger.
