Old Town Alexandria- Not quite all that...
But at least I tried.
It was The Cold. The cold made it hard to be out, and so it was quiet down there for a Saturday, let alone THAT particular Saturday.
Nonetheless, I did great. It definitely made my top 20, even with the other two recent entries to that list. So I can't complain. But I was hoping for transcendentally great, a perfect storm of in-town partyers at their favorite places, tourists, and new to town workers & appointees.
I was hoping for historic. But I'll take damn good. I could certainly use the cash.
Before I got out tho, there was a brief side adventure:
As I was having breakfast I heard some barking. Not unusual, we have dogs in the neighborhood, who are proud homeowners and announce it regularly. But this barking was much *closer* than I usually hear. Like OUR back yard closer. Sure enough, a look out the window showed me a German Shepherd "teenager" out there barking at one of the other local dogs up the street out back. So I got some extension cord to use as a lead and hoped that this guy would be an easy catch and that they had a tag or some clue where they lived on them. If not, I had work to go to and it wouldn't let it be my problem. But if I could help and it wasn't a big drama I would. So out I went, spotted doggie and called in my most friendly, enthusiastic "Who wants to PLAY?!!" tone of voice and body posture. Tada! The doggie comes bounding right up to me, and leaps up to lick my hands and face and is just the sweetest, friendliest, bounciest thing since
patches023 on chocolate covered espresso beans. So, a quick grab of the collar and attachment of the lead ensued, which only dampened spirits a bit, because a "GOOOOD dog" was being petted and cooed over. She had a tag! Woohoo! Her name was "Xena".
"Oh, Xena. Who's a GOOOD dog? Who's a GOOOOOOD Xena!"
I could see her thought balloon- "OOH. You know my NAME! You're my new best friend! Let'sPLAY!Let'sPLAY!Let'sPLAY!Let'sPLAY!L
Her tag said she lived up the street. So off we went.
The problem was that she was absolutely not being trained with a choke collar, she pulled on the improvised lead so hard, that I almost feared that she'd cut off her own not quite empty little doggie head. And OMG, what a STRONG dog she was. Granted, it was slightly down hill on dry slick grass, but I was digging in and still being dragged. So Xena got carried home.
Her people were very "happy" to see her
"Oh. She jumped the fence. Again. Well, thanks for bringing her back. Say 'hi' to your wife for us."
Those nice people down the street sure have a bundle of love and energy they never bargained for. Fortunately, their little superheroine is a real sweetie.
I must confess, that if I'd the had time, I might have not just brought her right home but played with her awhile first.
That was a fun little diversion.
And now the highlights of Old Town!
SWEET-A couple of the gals from the Silver Parrot are still working there. I was their informal 'neighbor' for a decade, and both of them made a point to say that they had missed me and my music and had hoped I was okay. They were always so nice to me.
SOLD- my first live sale (as opposed to pre-sale) of Crazy Quilt #1. A nice family had stopped, and were digging the music. The Dad saw the CDs, picked up CQ1, read the list, gestured to Mom, showed her something on it, they both nodded vigorously, and cha-ching!
COLD- It was COLD. COLD! I tell ya! I fared mostly ok with that, but there's only so much you can do if you're not hardened to it the way you used to be and are out in it for 14 hours. There was this spot on my lower back that was still cold an hour after I went to bed.
COOL- I was tipped with a fancy pocket knife. There was this group of marines who came up at about 1am, who requested "Heart Of Gold" (which, for no good reason was requested a total of three times yesterday). I'm pretty sure that they had been drinking. (Marines+Old Town= Drinking. Prove me wrong) They were impressed with my fortitude, and my aptitude and after the song, one of them came up to me and hands me this fancy pocket knife with an etched bone handle, and told me that he and the knife were "From Wyoming! REMEMBER THAT!"-over and over.
So I promised him I would never forget that he and his cool little pocket knife were from Wyoming. As he pressed the gift into my hand, I did my best to try and demur, as something like this might be missed. But I also know better than to argue with a drunken marine who's trying to pay me a compliment with a gift.
WAY COOL!- My improvised big-assed battery pack for my laptop gave me 7 HOURS of available use. So I got to pull up stuff I used to play, stuff I hadn't played in a looooong time, and a couple of brand new things too! If it hadn't been so cold, I bet it would have lasted even longer.
NOT SO COOl- My improvised big-assed battery pack was hard to keep together if I had to move it, (like during my partial packup for potty breaks). My crimping tool is worthless and weak, and my crimped connections kept falling apart, necessitating kludges. It needs a dedicated container, and a more secure assembly.
ALSO NOT SO COOL- I brought the WRONG type of mic cable for the Mouse, so I wasn't able to amplify. When it's real crowded or real quiet, a little amplification means that people hear me more clearly, especially the guitar. And I kinda could have used it because, from 9pm on it was both noisy AND quiet. There weren't alot of people out, but there was a very loud DJ and party upstairs in one of the restaurants nearby. It's hard to compete with that when people aren't right by you. Rookie mistake. Dagnabbit!
ALSO ALSO NOT SO COOL, BUT AMUSING- Sometimes, the harmonicas would freeze; especially the double reeded ones. If I played a particular harmonica, switched it out, and then played it again later, sometimes I would have to blow into it a bit to thaw it out. The moisture would get on the reeds and they're metal, and well, you do the math. Fortunately, if I thaw them out gently they're not damaged and they wake right up after a few seconds. I'd forgotten that this happened sometimes.
Overall, I did great, but it wasn't historically great. I blame the cold mostly.
I'm glad I did it. As hard as it was and as hard as it burned me out at the time, I miss this side of my musical self, and I'm glad that I'm able to get a bit of it back.
I'm not gonna do this hard core as I used to, but it'll be a nice indulgence, and good for me on a few levels.
It was The Cold. The cold made it hard to be out, and so it was quiet down there for a Saturday, let alone THAT particular Saturday.
Nonetheless, I did great. It definitely made my top 20, even with the other two recent entries to that list. So I can't complain. But I was hoping for transcendentally great, a perfect storm of in-town partyers at their favorite places, tourists, and new to town workers & appointees.
I was hoping for historic. But I'll take damn good. I could certainly use the cash.
Before I got out tho, there was a brief side adventure:
As I was having breakfast I heard some barking. Not unusual, we have dogs in the neighborhood, who are proud homeowners and announce it regularly. But this barking was much *closer* than I usually hear. Like OUR back yard closer. Sure enough, a look out the window showed me a German Shepherd "teenager" out there barking at one of the other local dogs up the street out back. So I got some extension cord to use as a lead and hoped that this guy would be an easy catch and that they had a tag or some clue where they lived on them. If not, I had work to go to and it wouldn't let it be my problem. But if I could help and it wasn't a big drama I would. So out I went, spotted doggie and called in my most friendly, enthusiastic "Who wants to PLAY?!!" tone of voice and body posture. Tada! The doggie comes bounding right up to me, and leaps up to lick my hands and face and is just the sweetest, friendliest, bounciest thing since
patches023 on chocolate covered espresso beans. So, a quick grab of the collar and attachment of the lead ensued, which only dampened spirits a bit, because a "GOOOOD dog" was being petted and cooed over. She had a tag! Woohoo! Her name was "Xena"."Oh, Xena. Who's a GOOOD dog? Who's a GOOOOOOD Xena!"
I could see her thought balloon- "OOH. You know my NAME! You're my new best friend! Let'sPLAY!Let'sPLAY!Let'sPLAY!Let'sPLAY!L
Her tag said she lived up the street. So off we went.
The problem was that she was absolutely not being trained with a choke collar, she pulled on the improvised lead so hard, that I almost feared that she'd cut off her own not quite empty little doggie head. And OMG, what a STRONG dog she was. Granted, it was slightly down hill on dry slick grass, but I was digging in and still being dragged. So Xena got carried home.
Her people were very "happy" to see her
"Oh. She jumped the fence. Again. Well, thanks for bringing her back. Say 'hi' to your wife for us."
Those nice people down the street sure have a bundle of love and energy they never bargained for. Fortunately, their little superheroine is a real sweetie.
I must confess, that if I'd the had time, I might have not just brought her right home but played with her awhile first.
That was a fun little diversion.
And now the highlights of Old Town!
SWEET-A couple of the gals from the Silver Parrot are still working there. I was their informal 'neighbor' for a decade, and both of them made a point to say that they had missed me and my music and had hoped I was okay. They were always so nice to me.
SOLD- my first live sale (as opposed to pre-sale) of Crazy Quilt #1. A nice family had stopped, and were digging the music. The Dad saw the CDs, picked up CQ1, read the list, gestured to Mom, showed her something on it, they both nodded vigorously, and cha-ching!
COLD- It was COLD. COLD! I tell ya! I fared mostly ok with that, but there's only so much you can do if you're not hardened to it the way you used to be and are out in it for 14 hours. There was this spot on my lower back that was still cold an hour after I went to bed.
COOL- I was tipped with a fancy pocket knife. There was this group of marines who came up at about 1am, who requested "Heart Of Gold" (which, for no good reason was requested a total of three times yesterday). I'm pretty sure that they had been drinking. (Marines+Old Town= Drinking. Prove me wrong) They were impressed with my fortitude, and my aptitude and after the song, one of them came up to me and hands me this fancy pocket knife with an etched bone handle, and told me that he and the knife were "From Wyoming! REMEMBER THAT!"-over and over.
So I promised him I would never forget that he and his cool little pocket knife were from Wyoming. As he pressed the gift into my hand, I did my best to try and demur, as something like this might be missed. But I also know better than to argue with a drunken marine who's trying to pay me a compliment with a gift.
WAY COOL!- My improvised big-assed battery pack for my laptop gave me 7 HOURS of available use. So I got to pull up stuff I used to play, stuff I hadn't played in a looooong time, and a couple of brand new things too! If it hadn't been so cold, I bet it would have lasted even longer.
NOT SO COOl- My improvised big-assed battery pack was hard to keep together if I had to move it, (like during my partial packup for potty breaks). My crimping tool is worthless and weak, and my crimped connections kept falling apart, necessitating kludges. It needs a dedicated container, and a more secure assembly.
ALSO NOT SO COOL- I brought the WRONG type of mic cable for the Mouse, so I wasn't able to amplify. When it's real crowded or real quiet, a little amplification means that people hear me more clearly, especially the guitar. And I kinda could have used it because, from 9pm on it was both noisy AND quiet. There weren't alot of people out, but there was a very loud DJ and party upstairs in one of the restaurants nearby. It's hard to compete with that when people aren't right by you. Rookie mistake. Dagnabbit!
ALSO ALSO NOT SO COOL, BUT AMUSING- Sometimes, the harmonicas would freeze; especially the double reeded ones. If I played a particular harmonica, switched it out, and then played it again later, sometimes I would have to blow into it a bit to thaw it out. The moisture would get on the reeds and they're metal, and well, you do the math. Fortunately, if I thaw them out gently they're not damaged and they wake right up after a few seconds. I'd forgotten that this happened sometimes.
Overall, I did great, but it wasn't historically great. I blame the cold mostly.
I'm glad I did it. As hard as it was and as hard as it burned me out at the time, I miss this side of my musical self, and I'm glad that I'm able to get a bit of it back.
I'm not gonna do this hard core as I used to, but it'll be a nice indulgence, and good for me on a few levels.
