Not too bad, for November. Sparsely attended, of course, but some really nice people came by.
Right at the beginning, two ladies showed up, separately. One was a nice older lady who listened for a few songs and then came up to put a buck in the jar but also to give me "a gift" of her handmade soaps. The other was Wendy, a sometimes-sweet but more-often-drunk burnt-out hippie lifetime Laguna street person.
I was nearly overcome with the scent of eucalyptus and fennel, and presumed that Wendy had somehow come across a bottle of scented oil and had bathed in it. People were avoiding her, since she was drunk and even more disheveled than usual, but it turned out that, of her faults, the stifling aroma wasn't one of them -- it was the soap sitting on the trashcan/merch table beside me. Sorry Wendy, I misjudged you. Though only a little...
But before all that, just as I arrived a guy came by and astutely figured out that I was going to play some music. He asked what kind of stuff I play, and I told him, and he said that he liked that kind of music, and took off from there, literally never stopping talking for the 20 or so minutes it took me to set up. It was really quite amazing -- once I realized that his marble collection was incomplete, and since I couldn't hear or decode half of what he was saying, I stopped responding in any way, but he managed to ramble on, and on, and on. I'm pretty sure it was some kind of Tourette Syndrome deal.
Fortunately, he finally got bored watching me set up and wandered into the ice cream shop, where the girl behind the counter managed to offend him sufficiently to get him yelling at her, but eventually stopping away, flinging curses back at her. I'll have to remember to thank her someday, 'cuz it was gonna be hard to play against his continuous commentary...
But other than those two, everyone else was great. Some kids came by and requested "Pure Imagination" from (the original) "Willy Wonka", and an older lady stopped to gush over how great that was. One nice lady stopped and listened until her husband and kids showed up, and then came back after they'd had their dinner.
Earlier in the week I'd practiced playing some of my rock and roll dance tunes with my iPhone drum machine app, and I'd clocked the actual beats per minute of the original recordings. I pulled several of them out when it was getting late and empty, and virtually all of them seem *way* too slow at the "right" speed. What does that say about my rock and roll sensibilities?
And around midnight, when it was nearly deserted, some high school boys came by and asked if I knew any Justin Bieber. Probably as a joke -- but I did learn his most famous song ("Baby") to play for the teenies that prowl at Spectrum back in 2010, so I busted it out. They freaked out and started dancing and jumping around, and suddenly there were a half-dozen girls there too, dancing to what qualifies as a "classic" for them. Instant party -- but it disappeared just as quickly when the song was over. Oh well.
And just before we quit, the guy who works at Disney showed up. A month ago he had taken my CD and kids' song list and card to try to get me in at Downtown Disney, and I had all but given up on him. But he did deliver the stuff and his enthusiastic recommendation to the Booking Director -- he just hadn't heard anything back. So that's probably dead in the water, but I have the Booking guy's name now, so I might be able to pursue it -- but probably not until after the holidays.
The people who work at this "Senior Daycare" program assure me that nobody remembers my last visit or that they've already heard me play those songs. I guess it's specifically a program for memory-issue people, so that's probably true for many of them.
But I can tell it's not true for all of them, so I tried to do some different songs this time. In particular, I made myself do "Since I Fell For You", which is a real screamer, so I have to really put it out there. But several of them were falling asleep (it's just after lunch, and most of my stuff is pretty mellow, so, understandable), so I knocked it out to try and liven the place up a bit. And it may have worked, too.
But I also did the ones they like to sing along to, "Georgia On My Mind" and "South of the Border", and couldn't resist doing "Cool Water", just 'cuz it's from 1948 so even the oldest ones there should know it, and it sounds *so* cool with the harmony box.
It was apparently our "turn" at The Corner, so I went down at 6:00 just to make sure nobody else snagged it first. I was up and running by 6:20, and had several families with little kids for the first hour, so I played lots of Disney songs, and had one little girl brave enough to get up and sing "Let It Go" with me.
I'd been on vacation for a while and since I hadn't played much guitar for three weeks, I was worried that I'd mess up a lot, but it all came back pretty well. Like riding a bike, I guess. And since it's pretty much winter, the foot and auto traffic is down, so it was quieter than usual and my guitar and vocals sounded pretty good out there.
A nice lady came by and was listening and mentioned that it was her birthday. Of course, I gave her a tiara, but a couple of hours later she came back and insisted on giving it back to me. She thanked me for making her feel like a princess for the evening, though.
Warren had wandered off to find a bathroom, and a guy came up a bit *too* close to me while I was playing a song, and suddenly just reached out and plucked a string of my guitar. When he reached out to do it again, I smelled the alcohol, and turned away from him so he couldn't reach the guitar. He gave up and walked away, and fell down in the crosswalk as he left. "Falling down drunk", as they say.
Around 10:00 it got pretty deserted, so I fired up my two new songs. All through my vacation, the Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" was running through my head for some reason, so when I got home to my guitar, I worked it up. And, even weirder, I somehow got the notion that I could pull off the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" that baby Groot dances to at the end of "Guardians of the Galaxy", so I worked up a version of that, too. They both actually play and sing OK for me, they're just really "out of my wheelhouse", and sound weird (to me, anyway) coming out of my mouth. But they might work for the bar-hopping crowd.
Which started to show up around 11:00, so I started playing rock and roll songs, bolstered by how much better the new guitar strums than the old one. The crowds were too thin, though, to get much of anything started, but since getting to play down there at all is so hard to come by, I kept trying until 1am when the battery died.
Still, it was a pretty good night, especially for such a cold and wintery one. The character of the money in the tip jar is starting to change -- we're making as much money as ever, but there's far fewer ones and more "big money" to make up for it. Am I more deserving of bigger tips, or is the economy improving?
When the Activities Committee lady asked me to play the Artisan Faire again, I figured it couldn't be as hot as it was last time -- but it tried. Despite the glowering sky, it was way too hot anyway, and humid.
But the show goes on. A bit more attendance than last time, and the nice ladies in the next booth were friendly -- they even bought a CD.
A very old but still mobile lady came by with her daughter, and they stood nearby listening to the end of a song. I walked out and handed them a song list and said that they could pick one. They looked at the list for a while and then Gramma said, far too loud, "Do I have to give him some money?!?" to much embarrassment for her daughter. I quickly replied, "No, no, I just want to play a song you like!" I guess that made it OK then, and they found something they wanted to hear.
My monthly gig with the seniors, and it went pretty much the same as always. Thankfully, not as much disruption by Sherm the Thigh-Drummer, as usual.
What was nice, though, was that, although the five or six ladies who work there generally come by a couple of times as I'm playing and stand in the doorway, pretending to be "working" but "just stopping by", they all seem to have spontaneously agreed to drop any pretense, and they just set up a small row of folding chairs for themselves and sat in for the whole concert. Kinda flattering...
I had such a great night on Saturday that I thought I'd take a chance and see if (A) the heatwave would bring out some people on a Sunday, and (B) the Tommies would take the whole weekend off. Mostly right on both counts.
I got there at 6:00 just as the sun was setting. Angel and his protégé were taking up the whole bench with their palm frond origami rose workshop, and there was hardly any foot traffic. I stalled a while, wondering if it was even worth setting up. Took the opportunity to talk to Angel and the Kid, who also work downtown Huntington Beach, and knew that you can busk there, but no amplifiers. Good to know. I also finally just came out with it and asked Angel to do me the favor of moving the workshop down the bench so that I could possibly build up a seated audience. I told him that I really didn't come down there to watch people walk by. He laughed, understood, and moved his stuff down. It was worth the trip down there just to come to that understanding with him -- assuming he remembers for next time.
The weird part was that, as the sun was setting, there was nobody walking around. But fortunately I had stalled long enough to see that the second the sun got below the horizon it was like the school bell had rung, and people started flooding the sidewalks. I guess everyone had just stopped to watch and photograph the sunset. Suddenly it was busy enough to be worth setting up, so I did.
Obviously not as many people out as on a Saturday, but it was nice. Now that most of the tourists are gone, "my age" couples from around town come out and they all like my stuff, so I had at least a few people on the bench and standing around making requests all night.
A family was over on the side bench with a little girl, so I walked over to give her one of my picture-menu Kids' Music lists. After a while, the lady brought her over, pointing to "Do You Want to Build a Snowman". The lady had an accent, so I asked where they were from, and she said that the little girl was from Russia, but she's from Poland. Not the mom, then?
Anyway, I played the song, but I started thinking that the little girl hadn't been able to read the song name and had probably just chosen it by the image, and that she'd probably actually wanted "Let It Go". I suggested that, and the "mom" liked that idea, as did a couple of extra little girls that had appeared during "...Snowman". One of those agreed to come up and sing along, but I didn't pressure the Russian girl to try.
Oddly, about 9:00 the Tommies appeared. They set up on the other side, and with the new amplification system apparently pointed to reflect off the picture window, I was beset with Tom's unvarying "chunka chunka" strumming for the rest of the night. Up close you can tell the songs apart, but from this distance, they're all the same tempo, and Tom's style never changes, and they all sound alike. But for the casual observer, Tomi's cuteness beats my musicality, and they assemble a bigger and more demonstrative (and undoubtedly more generous) audience than mine, to my continual chagrin. Oh well.
Toward the end, a guy and his wife appeared, and he plays guitar and some of the same songs I do, so I suspect his requests were more about research than entertainment. But that's OK -- I learned most of what I know by watching other guys, and I'm happy to pass it on.
Great night! Despite being October, the temps were in the 90's, so there were lots of people out. I got down there at 6:00 to make sure that our deal with Tom that made it Our Turn didn't get snarfed by somebody else.
There were three ladies on the bench as I got set up, so I gave them songlists to go over. Once I was ready, I started playing "Hotel California" as I always do as my "warm up song", and they gasped in amazement that I had read their minds as to what song they wanted.
But halfway through it, the guitar cut out, as it had been doing two weeks ago at the very end. I attempted to fix it at home, but it worked fine there, so nothing to fix. But since it was presumably the wireless rig that was failing, I brought a cable this time as a backup. So when it died again, I swapped in the cable, and it worked -- for another 30 seconds.
As a test, I hooked up the ukulele and it worked fine, proving that it was the 9-volt battery that powers the pre-amp in the guitar -- which I had no spares for. (But, wow, *so* much better than trying to get the wireless rig repaired!) Fortunately, these days I have a "backup" for the whole guitar, so I played ukulele songs until Warren arrived to loan me a new guitar battery.
I started, of course, with "Over the Rainbow", and then "I'm Yours" and "Hey, Soul Sister". After that, all I have is kids' songs and Hawaiian Novelty Tunes, which I didn't think would work, but quite a lot of people had stopped by then to listen, including a family with a little girl, so I launched "Someone to Lava" from the short before the new Pixar movie. And it worked -- the little girl gave a start of recognition, and excitedly nudged her mom who also "got it". Yay!
We had a pretty good audience all night. It actually seems like "moderate" traffic works better than "heavy" 'cuz people don't feel so "swept along" and can slow down or stop to listen. I basically had requests going all night long -- indeed I was starting to feel like I hadn't had a chance to play some of my best songs only because they hadn't been requested and I couldn't get a song of my own choosing in. Nice problem to have!
Three ladies came by and requested "Kiss the Girl" from "The Little Mermaid" from the kids' list. OK with me -- that song goes over well with all ages. A local guy who I've seen before was there and said, "Hey, I was an animator on that movie!" He asked if I knew "Whole New World" from "Aladdin" (which I do) 'cuz he worked on that one, too. I pointed out that I know lots of Disney songs, indeed, I'd love to play at Downtown Disney 'cuz I'd do great there. He said, "Oh, I can get you in at Downtown Disney". Apparently he still works there, and his dad is "an executive" there.
I gave him a card, a Kids' CD (which has most of my Disney songs on it), and made him take one of my Kids' Song Lists. He seemed sure that he could talk to his boss and get us in. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high since these things seldom pan out, but that would totally be my Dream Job!
We made a deal with Tom that if we didn't come down last week, he wouldn't come down this week. So we had The Corner to ourselves all night for the first time in a long time.
I got the chance to play my new ukulele a few times. It works quite well for "Over the Rainbow", "I'm Yours", and "Hey, Soul Sister", since people have heard those songs, played that way. I also played "Ukulele Lady", but I'm not sure the novelty songs that I've learned will work. Like "Waltzing With Bears", they require some attention from the audience to follow and get the jokes, and people in this situation don't really have the span. Not to mention the audibility challenges from sirens, Harleys, and loud car douchebags.
It was a pretty good night for "off season". My little Superfan Natalia (and family) came down again. As always, I played "You'll Be In My Heart" for her while her dad cuddled her up. I thought she'd like my new "toy guitar", so I played "Tiki Room" with it. Then back to guitar to play "Puff the Magic Dragon" for her little brother, but before I got started, Natalia came up and asked if she could play the Toy Guitar. I said, "Sure" and handed it to her. Her mom came up and held her while we did "Puff", with Natalia pretending to play along as part of the band. Very cute.
Also appearing was Phuong and Christopher, our other Superfans. Phuong is a real sweetie, and makes the most surprising requests. She keeps me on my toes, requesting songs I haven't done in ages, like "When You Wish Upon a Star".
Three Canadian ladies showed up and wanted to hear Canadian songs, so I played Neil Young's "Old Man", and Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind". When they told me it was the middle one's birthday, I sang the song and gave her a tiara so she could look the part.
Later on, I was in the middle of playing "Here Comes the Sun" when a college girl stopped. It was apparently "her jam" 'cuz she came right over to stand in front of me to wiggle-dance and smile. At the end, she said "Oh, thank you!", gave me a kiss on the cheek and Warren a hug, and off she went.
A couple came by and after a few songs the husband came over to buy a CD. I offered to autograph it, and the wife said to sign it to her, and that her name was "Lee". (Or "Leigh"?) I wrote "To Lee", and then my name, but it seems to me now that that was probably inadequate. I've never had anyone ask for a dedication before, so I was taken off guard, but I should probably think of something a bit more clever.
Another couple stopped and the lady asked for "Fire and Rain", saying that she likes that song because her name is "Suzanne". Before I could stop myself I blurted out that the Suzanne in the song had killed herself. This Suzanne probably didn't need/want to know that. What a jerk I am sometimes...
Tom offered us a deal that if we didn't come down this week, he wouldn't come down next week. That seemed like a good deal: not having a bad night (on the "wrong" corner until 11) this week in exchange for a good one next week. But since I hadn't played last weekend, I needed to play someplace, and took the opportunity to give Belmont another try.
There's been some discussion about the confusion of amplifier ordinances in Long Beach (they literally have laws on the books both ways), so it's a little scary about whether or not you'll get busted. So every time a cop came by (and they come by a lot to keep the drunk partiers in check), I got really quiet, and paranoid. But, so far so good -- no hassle this time, at least.
The "usual" busking spot is in front of the Chase bank, which is closed at night, and has a nice wide sidewalk. But there was already a guy playing slide blues kinds of stuff (with no amp) there, so I set up across the street in an alcove of the Bank of America. Unfortunately, that's the "less fun" side of the street, so I didn't get much attention. Quite a few people passing by put money in my jar, but I'd'a preferred that they stop and listen a while...
I did have a family stop and I gave the little girls the Kids' List, and they chose "Do You Want To Build a Snowman?" from "Frozen". I said OK, but somebody needs to feed me the Elsa line, "Go away, Anna!". I thought the big sister would find this fun, but watching her up to that point in the song, she was freaked out by the dread responsibility of being able to hit her cue. But her mom helped and after we got through that part, she relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the song.
Around 10, the slide guy inexplicably moved up the street, so I moved over to where he had been, since that's the "fun side". And it did get a lot more traffic, but still not a lot of people stopping to listen. Except a surfer guy who recognized "Hotel California" as he went by, and came back to plop on the ground to listen. His remarkably scantily-clad girlfriend and other friend had to stop and come back, too. I gave them my song lists, and they stayed for 5 or 6 songs, and helped attract some other people to at least slow down.
But it really only started to get good at 10:30 or 11, when a lot more people came by. But again they were mostly putting money in the jar and moving on. Finally three kids stopped, mostly because the guy like my hat. He wanted to wear it, and get a picture, so I gave my phone to the girl so I'd have a copy, too. Then the other girl wanted to get in on this, so we got another picture, with her in the hat.
I told them that they could pick a song, and the blue-haired girl said that, since she was having a bad night, she deserved to pick. Fine with me... But then she picked "Let It Go", and I figured, what the heck, nobody else is stopping anyway, and went ahead and played it. And, boom! *Everybody* (guys and girls) passing by jumped in to sing along, run up to get a picture or video next to me, dance through (with castle-making gestures), and, yes, throw money in the jar. Biggest song of the night, by an order of magnitude. I shoulda just played it back to back, all night.
Just after 1am, a fire truck came and parked right in front of me, with the loud diesel engine running. I couldn't play against the noise, so I sat on the bus stop bench and waited. Pretty soon some cops pulled up, and then more, and more, until there were five cop cars lined up. Dunno what the problem was (maybe something about a lost drunk girl?) but I was unwilling to give all these cops an opportunistic "amp law" bust, so I packed up.
A lady who had been playing a ways down the street also decided the sudden cop swarm wasn't conducive to street music, so she packed up and introduced herself on her way past. She was Lisa Stryker, who's a minor celebrity on the "Long Beach Musicians" Facebook group, mostly because of her continuing experiences and complaints about the unclear amp situation. We talked for a while about that, and I was a bit surprised, 'cuz her Facebook posts don't have that Australian accent...
Wow. I didn't play at all last weekend. So getting up there gets a little scary 'cuz it's not immediately familiar. And there's a huge amount of stuff that's not on the song sheet that I have to remember, and after two weeks, you're not sure if it's faded away or not. On the other hand, the vague and scary feeling of unfamiliarity also causes the songs to be "fresher" as routine habit gets replaced with actual attention.
So I was knocking those songs Out. Of. The. Park. It felt great to be playing and singing again, and these old folks know me by now and are a great audience. Also, it's a church (-ish?) kind of building with terrific acoustics and it just sounds great in there. Especially compared to the only other place I play these days: The Corner in Laguna with the Harleys and firetrucks and rude cellphone talkers, etc.
The tricky part was that I had smashed my left thumb in a piano-moving accident three days before (like slamming it in a car door), so the chords where I throw my thumb over the top of the neck were possible, but painful. So, just to add a layer of complexity, I had to try to reformulate those chords to use only fingers, on the fly. I love a challenge...
Anyway, to add some variety for these poor captive folks that have already heard my stuff a half-dozen times, I had a secret weapon that I held back as long as I could stand it: the new ukulele. I've been playing nothing else for the last two weeks at home, and decided that, if there was ever an audience that would like to hear it, it was these guys. Naturally, I've played "Over the Rainbow" for them every time I've been there, and, their possible memory issues aside, it feels like it just has to be getting repetitive for them. So I played it on uke this time. I actually think that both versions sound great, so I'm not really sure which one I should keep in the act. After that, I pulled up a classic 1928 uke tune, "Ukulele Lady", which they seemed to really like, so, although I had planned to just do those two, I went ahead and did "Five Foot Two", which I only learned yesterday. But I mostly got through it, and they loved it.
There's a room in the back corner of the big auditorium, and people kept walking through to get to some kind of meeting that was going on back there. Invariably though, they'd stall a bit and listen to a song or two before going on in. That was flattering.
And after I was done, a guy came up and asked for a card. He runs the "55 Club" that meets there, and wants to hire me to play, maybe monthly, but at least for his Christmas Program in December. He asked me if I knew any Christmas carols, and I said that I don't, but I know lots of Christmas *songs*. He asked what was the difference, and I told him that carols have Jesus in 'em, and only sound good when done by a four-part choir. Christmas "songs", on the other hand, are about snow, Santa, and winter in general. He was OK with that, though I suspect that he thinks that this will be a singalong, which, sorry, I have to arrange the songs to fit my style and abilities, and they're not necessarily the way people singing along will remember them. Oh well, we'll see what happens...
Anyway, that was fun. I wish I got to play longer, but after an hour, it's Senior Snack Time, and I gotta get out of the way for that!
Warren was Back East visiting with family, so I went down alone. I thought Tom would quit at 9, but his curfew has been lifted, so he plays until 10:30 now.
So I set up on the other corner, but ended up talking to a pair of "regulars", Wendy and Tom, most of the time. Tom says he prefers me to the Tommies' because my music makes him cry. I thought he was kidding, but when I started playing he asked for a Beatles song so I played "Let It Be". He tried to hide under his baseball cap, but he really was crying. "Let It Be" doesn't seem all that sad, but there you go.
I moved to the ice cream corner when the Tommies left at 10:30, but of course most of the people were gone. And that, coupled with Homeless Willy pestering anybody who dared to slow down, made for a pretty poor night. Willy was trying to sell some rubber-band launched light-up whirligigs to passing tourists. But since his pitch was to demo that, every time he launched one it ended up in the middle of the street, I'm not sure how he convinced anyone.
He also resumed his annoying routine of shouting out the artist at the end of every song. I finally had to tell him that, since I had gone to the trouble of learning these songs, I was pretty familiar with them and knew, and had noted on each song sheet, the artists, thanks anyway.
I did get a little attention around midnight as the bar-hoppers appeared. And there were a pair of cops "walking the beat", and they marched by the first time, but on their way back I was in the middle of "Over the Rainbow" and one of them stopped the other one so he could listen. That's never happened before -- they're usually "all business".
But a big part of why I even stayed was to try out my new ukulele. My old one doesn't have a pickup, so I couldn't use it in the act, but this one does. I waited until it was really late, and started with "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz. Although I thought nobody was around, suddenly there were people zooming by, and lots of them put money in the jar. Novelty, I guess -- but it seemed weird to be making a better impression with the silly uke than I had been with my guitar.
Definitely nice to have the change of pace in the act, so I'll keep at it, but I wonder what Warren will do while I'm playing it. A big part of the beauty of it is how plain and simple it is, so it won't really work to have him playing electric lead over the top of it.
But that may be a moot point if we can't get the ice cream corner until 10:30 every time. It's just not worth going down there that late.
It was the annual Comer Brothers Show-Off Event, where we gather in my brother's driveway for him to show off his cooking, and me to show off my playing. Maybe because I had just played (and had a good time of it) the night before, or maybe because I'm getting more comfortable with my brother's friends, but I felt very much at ease this time, and just "let 'er fly". And I always have a great time when that attitude kicks in.
The sound was good, there's no traffic noise, and I wasn't having any trouble with feedback on the new guitar, so I felt good about the music. And with people actually listening on purpose, I feel like I can tell some stories, and I did. But maybe that's the exact opposite of what I ought to do -- if they're listening, probably I should shut up and play...
We both assumed that the odds of us playing tonight were near zero, but out of the blue, Tom texted Warren to tell him that they were out of town and wouldn't be there. Wow!
It's been really hot, and there were lots of people out. Unfortunately, that included some undesirables. Like the meth casualty who loudly proclaims his opinions of the songs, right in the middle of them; street-person aging-hippie/beach chick, Wendy; and the literally crazy cat-lady who only speaks in meows and licked Warren's cheek ("kitty kisses!"), while he was trying to play.
It came down to just Wendy for most of the night, and although Warren valiantly tried to keep her subdued or at least at a distance, she was a thorn in my side all night, keeping me from being able to really get into my playing. I kept thinking that I'd pull her aside and give her the hard truth that I'm just not down there to play for her, but she was half drunk and I didn't know how she'd react, so I held my tongue.
Otherwise, a pretty good night. I hadn't seen my little superfan Natalia for a few weeks, and when they showed up, I knew why -- the formerly very-pregnant mom was toting a two-week-old baby sister. On the outside, this time.
Later on, a couple of college kids came by and listened for a while before looking at the list and requesting "Pure Imagination" from (the original) "Willy Wonka". People sometimes ask for that one by its title, even though they don't really know it, and I lead them to a different song. But these kids knew exactly what they were asking for, so I did it. And pretty well, considering how strange the chords are and how infrequently I play it.
After that, they asked for a dancing song, so I did my favorite, "Please, Mister Postman", and they got up and did some very impressive "American Bandstand" style, hyperkinetic, skirt-twirling, rock 'n' roll dancing. That was pretty great.
During the summer, we get people from all over the world (somebody snuck a United Arab Emirates 10 dirham note (worth $2.72) into the tip jar). I tried to hand a song list to a lady and her friends and she waved me off and said in Boris and Natasha's accent, "No, ve're foreigners! Just play wot you vere playink!" I asked "Where are you from?", and she replied, "Carlsbad". I couldn't stop myself from saying, "Um, Carlsbad isn't a foreign country..." She just smiled and didn't say anything, so apparently where she's really from is Top Secret. I don't think her "Carlsbad" cover story is going to hold a lot of water, though.
But despite the implication that she didn't know any American songs, after a while she came over and put a twenty in the jar. I don't know if it was a tip or if she was buying my silence...
I got to The Corner at 6 o'clock to be (almost) sure to beat the Tommies, and did. I texted Warren to tell him he could come by and join me after work, but he decided he needed to stay home and practice because he and Jim have a gig at the Sawdust Festival on Thursday. So I played from 6 to 10 by myself again.
Now that school has started around here, the only traffic out is childless locals, families with young children, and foreigners. I had people from each category, but only enough to make a good night, not a great one.
Early on, a middle-aged guy came and sat on the bench eating some ice cream. He listened to two or three songs, nodding appreciatively at the end of each (he couldn't clap 'cuz his hands were full -- a common problem, playing in front of the ice cream store). After a few more, he said, "I'm gonna go home and burn my guitar..."
A few more after that (he was waiting for his companions), he finally succumbed and dug through his pockets for enough paper money and change to buy a CD.
When his three lady friends showed up, they were impressed as well, and requested another dozen songs before having to leave.
A young couple came up wet from the beach and stopped to hear some songs. She requested a few in her cute British accent, so I asked where they were from: London, and Canada. I wonder how that happened...
A family came by with two little girls in strollers. They looked too young to decide, so I handed the Kids' List to the mom, but she gave it right to the older sister. I was expecting some strife, but she leaned right over to show it to her little sister, and they calmly discussed which song they'd request. "How about this Ariel song?" "Well, what about this one?" I was surprised and charmed.
I took a chance that since the Tommies weren't there on Saturday, they wouldn't be there on Sunday either, and the bet paid off. And it actually turned out to be a better night than Saturday had been, too -- lots of families out, and just more interaction and enthusiasm.
Lots of kids this time -- I must have played "Twinkle Twinkle" half a dozen times. At one point I was playing "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" for a little girl, and that attracted the attention of three little girls over on the far bench. I asked them if they wanted to sing along to "Let It Go". They did, and stood up by me to sing, but didn't actually sing at all. Fun for them anyway, I think.
Later on, a guy came by who made sure that anyone within earshot knew that he was "in a band" back home in Minnesota. I guess he figured that that gave him license to sing along loudly on every song. Unfortunately, I'm not a Karaoke machine and many of my songs aren't exactly like the original recordings that he was singing from, so he was off whack a lot. He asked about my harmony box, but then kept trying to sing harmony anyway, though he knew I already had the harmonies covered. It was pretty annoying to me, but maybe the people in front of my speaker were hearing me a lot louder than him. Let's go with that...
A young couple came by and danced to anything and everything. Then an older Latino couple came up and asked me if I knew anything with a Calypso beat. Not really sure -- I don't catalog them that way, so she settled for "Time After Time", which I'm pretty sure doesn't qualify as Calypso, but whatever, and they danced some pretty fancy dance school stuff to that and everything that came after. And then another couple joined in so I had quite a dance party going -- probably the longest one ever.
A Mexican family came by and I gave the little boy my "picture menu" of Kids' Songs, and he pointed at the Lion King picture. I had a feeling that he couldn't read English, and wasn't really asking for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", but was expecting "Hakuna Matata" or "Just Can't Wait To Be King". I've had people ask for "... Love Tonight" before, and it's a pretty song and I do it well enough, but unless the mood is right, it tends to "clear the room". So this time, I ignored the kid and played "Kiss the Girl", "A Whole New World", and "Please, Mister Postman" which seemed OK with him and kept my crowd intact, thankyouverymuch.
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.
