Mary McCaslin's Roundup

May 29, 2003

A TRIP TO L.A.

Playing music for a living has taken me to every U.S. state but Hawaii. A couple of weeks ago two bookings took me back down to the L.A. / Orange County area where I grew up. Every time I have to go back to that part of California, I thank my lucky stars that I no longer have to live there.

In spite of decades of laws, regulations and anti-smog devices under almost every car's hood, Los Angeles still has an outrageous amount of pollution in the skies overhead. One shudders to think what it would be like in that basin if no efforts had been made to reduce the thick grey-brown haze that causes lung, eye and throat irritations in thousands of people. Then there is the visability issue. The San Gabriel Mountains are not more than two miles from the little club I played in Altadena, but all we could see was a vague outline.

The sad thing is that on the rare clear days (usually brought about by a Santana wind condition) one sees how stunningly beautiful the Los Angeles basin and San Fernando Valley can be. But with all the people and the traffic, ah the traffic, sightings of the mountains from any distance are increasingly seldom.

When I lived around the L.A. area I knew to avoid driving the freeways during the morning or afternoon rush hours. Now it's rush hour almost 24 / 7. We left my sister's house at 3:15 in the afternoon to drive to Altadena, which should be a half hour drive at the most. We wanted to find the Backstage Coffee Gallery, where I was playing that night, and have plenty of time for a leisurely dinner before the sound check. One very tense hour later we finally got to the Lake Ave. exit.

Los Angeles has one of the finest freeway systems anywhere, but it is still woefully inadequate. Some of the freeways have five lanes going each way and they're still jammed. A lot of the road construction and maintainance is done at night. We were amazed to see the 605 freeway jammed with traffic almost at a dead stop at 10 pm because they had closed the connector road to I 10 east to do some work. During the day all it takes is a small fender bender and you can forget about getting to your destination on time. No wonder so many people are moving to places like Santa Cruz.

The night after the Altadena show I played in Anaheim. Our old friend, and former Santa Cruz resident Lee Quarnstrom came to the show with his wife Chris. I'm sure many readers remember his columns in the San Jose Mercury News and his earlier pieces for the Register Pajaronian. He and Chris married a few years ago. He sold his beautiful Santa Cruz house and they moved to her house in La Habra, a suburb on the east side of L.A. Strangely, Lee likes it down there. He told me that he takes "surface" streets rather than getting on the freeways whenever possible. This is a great idea, but too many people work too far from home to not use the freeways.

A person after my own heart, Lee told us about all the wonderful restaurants they've found. Places serving all kinds of ethnic foods abound and he and Chris have taken it upon themselves to seek them out. We have plans to spend time with Lee and Chris the next time we have occasion to visit L.A. and I'm sure we will find our way to a fine ethnic eatery.

CHILDREN IN THE AUDIENCE

The shows in Altadena and Anaheim were very pleasant experiences with great audiences. We saw some other old friends and made some new ones. In Anaheim I shared the bill with singer / songwriter Rick Shay and his musical partner fiddler Brantley Kearns, who is also an excellent singer. Brantley used to play in the David Bromberg band. It was a real treat to share the evening with these wonderful musicians.

Unfortunately, each night there was a restless toddler in the audience. At the Backstage Coffee Gallery in Altadena, the child and her mother sat about three feet to the right of the stage. The little girl became more cranky as my first set progressed, piercing the air with loud wails as her mother finally removed her just before the end of the set.

At the concert hall in Anaheim, another little girl was seated with her parents in the front row. At least it did not take them as long as it took the woman the night before to realize that the child was not going to sit quietly and listen to the music. They took her out.

A few months ago Rosalie Sorrels gave an evening performance at the McHenry Library at U.C. Santa Cruz. Her performance was in celebration of having her papers and her beautiful peace quilt placed in the Special Collections section of the library. The peace quilt was made by a group of people in Idaho and depicts many scenes from Rosalie's life.

This was a quiet, sit-down event and Rosalie was in fine form that night. However, there was a small boy present who hummed and fidgeted throughout the evening, to the annoyance of many in the room. He and his mother were in aisle seats about four rows from the front and the mother did remove him for a brief time, only to return. He continued with the humming and fidgeting for the rest of Rosalie's performance.

In all three incidents the noise made by the children was incredibly distracting. Each of these times, audience members turned and glowered in the direction of the noise. At least the parents in southern California had the courtesy to do the right thing and remove the child. The woman at the McHenry Library sat there in seeming oblivion.

I started playing music professionally at the age of eighteen and now, almost forty years later, I still cannot fathom what is in the mind of adults who bring toddlers to quiet sit-down performances. Very often they sit in the front row or in the middle of the audience, instead of in the back or at least in aisle seats so they can take the child outside when he or she gets restless. It's not the fault of the child. It's the lack of thought on the part of the parent.

When the babysitter cancels, it's infuriating. But it's unfare to expect a young child to sit quietly for what must seem to be an interminable length of time so mom and dad won't miss the show.

HAWAIIAN MUSIC ON THE AIRWAVES

On the way home from southern California we received a pleasant surprise. Driving up Hwy. 101 near Salinas we discovered a Hawaiian music radio show that airs Sundays from 2 to 8 pm on KHDC - 90.9 FM. This is a mostly Mexican music radio station that also carries Blues and Rock, Filipino, Jazz and Reggae music. The station calls itself "Radio Bilingual" and serves its diverse listening audience with a variety of fine programs.

Hawaiian music fans in Santa Cruz will be pleased to know that KHDC's signal comes in loud and clear even though the station is located in the Salinas / Chular area. Not only can one hear six hours of Hawaiian music every Sunday, but a "Hawaiian Happenings" calendar is a regular feature of the program. How cool is that?

That's all for this time. Please keep in touch. Happy trails.

Mary McCaslin will be teaching a Fingerstyle Guitar class at the Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center in Ben Lomond in June. Contact her at roundup@marymccaslin.com.