When Opportunity Meets Lack Of Preparation...

Thursday's Gone With The Wind 

Oh, Yeah, THAT Hailstorm band

It is Friday morning, and I woke up at around the same time (7:30 a.m.) that I always seem to without the aid of an alarm clock. 
The cops in Baton Rouge made my alarm clock disappear, along with everything else that they might have assumed was stolen from somewhere.  

Officer Chutz may have seen the alarm clock as a mechanism by which I could sleep in certain forbidden spots under the cover of darkness but would have to be up and out before dawn. 

His plan may be to catch me oversleeping at such a spot and "trespass" me right back into jail. Hey, that's his job; right?
This meant that I missed the window of opportunity that had been open the previous Friday morning when I made 18 bucks in 50 minutes. I felt like a bad busker for not having gotten an alarm clock.
I was a bad busker last night. There was plenty of activity, with The Three Tenors appearing at the Saenger Theater, and a band called Hailstorm appearing at The Soul Kitchen.
I basically got too drunk for my own good, end of story...but...
I was debating over the wisdom of plopping myself down outside the Saenger to play as the people walked by, fresh from being aria-ed and sonata-ed to death by the three bags of hot air, or whatever they go by.
Would the stark contrast between "Pavarotti" and Dylan work in my favor, or would I get the same treatment as I did when I stood by a stream of mostly well dressed black people on their way in, wanting to ask what was going on inside the theater. I couldn't even get one of them to make eye contact or slow their pace. I was finally able to get "The Three Tenors" out of one man.
I wondered why there were no posters advertising the show (was it sold out way in advance? were the people who bought up the tickets snobbish and not wanting any low class types off the streets sitting by them?) and I wondered why everyone seemed to think that dressing in three-piece suits and fine dresses was the way to go to hear three men singing.
I also wondered if any or all of the tenors were black.

Seeing so many African Americans in attendance exposes a prejudice that I admittedly have in that regard. I suppose its a carry-over from watching the black men at the jail flipping channels on Sunday afternoon between one game in which a black quarterback was playing to another game in which a black quarterback was playing, to see how they were doing.

I Googled It, And...

My hunch is that one of the tenors is black and thereby drew support from the local black community. I can't get online here, but I will Google it when I get to the park....
Then, I saw long lines of young people waiting to go in The Soul Kitchen to see Hailstorm, the band.
I couldn't draw any conclusions about that band by looking at those people, except maybe that there were probably no black players in Hailstorm.

So, I balked at sitting myself down somewhere along the line of people and just playing anything. This was in violation of Daniel's Busking Axiom #8 which states, among other things that wherever an effort is made, there will be a reward.

I instead went and consumed a 24 oz. Steel Reserve and then decided to compromise by not playing right by either the tenors or Hailstorm, but rather to play at the acoustically superior spot and take whatever came my way, which turned into about 10 singles.

The Windows On The Left: All The Football You Can Watch...

Then, after checking upon the Thursday Night Football game through the window at the swank hotel (The Battle House Inn, for those trivia buffs) I went and got another Steel Reserve which hit me hard enough that I chose not to play any more, thinking that I had probably left about 5 bucks or so out there on the street.

Thursday nights usually don't promise much more than the 10 bucks that I made; but this one had more potential. I guess I dropped the ball on that one. 

Then, this morning I was reminded of the guy who told me that he would get me a new guitar case. I was walking to this coffee shop to drink this coffee in front of me and blog away at a corner table when one of the workers who was laying hay around one of the cities many flower beds said "Let me hear something" as he made an air guitar gesture. 

I really hate to untie the cord which holds the body of the guitar in my present case and then to undo the bungie cord which holds the neck and to tune up and play first thing in the morning for "nothing,", so I told the guy that I would play him something, but that I had the guitar all tied up and it wasn't tuned. 

I walked away feeling like I had left even more money out there as, it being Friday, and him being employed as a hay spreader, he may have thrown me a 5 spot, or more. 

But, what I did take away from the experience was two-fold. 

As I walked on, I had to ask myself what WOULD I have played for the young black guy who worked for the city? 

I perhaps should have "situational" songs ready...or not.
If the person thinks that the busker is patronizing them in their choice of songs (...Oh, he thinks I'm gonna like that song because I'm black, and that's not how Stevie Wonder did that jam at ALL!) then they might take some small offense.

What would the Three Tenors crowd "expect" a busker to be playing outside the theater, a guitar version of Pachobel's Canon? 

How would the Hailstorm fans react to a busker whom they thought was trying to pander to them by playing "She Blinded Me With Science," by Thomas Dolby because he heard that Hailstorm was "kind of a techno band." *OK, I just Youtubed Hailstorm and they are "Nickelback replaces lead singer with Patty Smyth" (I think I dodged a bullet by not breaking out "My Friend Sue" upon them; but, you never know...
Just do your best stuff, because that's what got you there in the first place, buskers!
So that decides it. I've convinced myself.

The black people, dressed as if going to a funeral who walked past me with Puccini still ringing in their ears would have heard "Eyes Of The World," by the Grateful Dead and may have even appreciated me for "sticking to my guns." 

So, I'm a little disappointed, a little disgusted with myself and, gosh I could go for a Steel Reserve right now...
Re-dedication

Instead, I have decided to rededicate myself to my craft.

I will again make signs with my sharpie that say things like:

• Free Music 40-60% off, Tonight Only (all songs must go)
• Street Musician Stimulus Package (arrow towards case)
• Special Rates To Make Me Stop Playing

I will note the birthdays of artists and do things like "Jim Morrisons Birthday" night when I will play all 4 Doors songs that I know, repeatedly.

I will learn more "morning songs," like Daybreak, by Barry Manilow (that's NOT a mis-print -Barry kicks ass)

And, I will check ahead for the shows coming to both the Saenger and The Soul Kitchen and Youtube the bands and learn three (3) songs by those bands and will plop myself down along the line of waiting patrons and play them.

There is no reason that I couldn't have been playing "I'm No Angel" by Hailstorm, simple as it is; and had myself a payday.