And so, it is Monday morning.
The weekend, I spent a lot of time stopping to visit with other street performers.
I realise that "busking" for me has to take upon it a certain complexion; and it is truly the person who feels sorry for a musician in the sense of: "...Well, why are you playing way down here?....oh, I guess so people can hear you, eh?" that is going to be my bread and butter until some such point that I put together some kind of high wattage spectacle fit for Royal Street; or become a one-man-band.
Friday night, I ran into Brad and was able to give him the 5 dollars which I have owed him since the night, about a week ago; that we played together and made 10 bucks in about an hour; but then, I left to go find a certain Jamaican, whom I never did find and then, I consequently decided not to walk all the way back to the "red door" spot on Decatur; where Brad was going to move to...
My debts paid, Brad and I played for at least a good hour; stubbornly.
I say "stubbornly" because; for each of our own reasons; we played all spontaneously composed improvisation; with myself following Brads home-spun guitar chords which are evolved from his random way of tuning the instrument.
We split about 8 dollars; which wasn't bad because we basically had 99% of the people walk past; and one guy out of the crowd who hung around and listened for a while and threw us 5 bucks and told us that our music was awesome...
He could have been tripping on acid or a big fan of Sonic Youth (who tuned their guitars to whatever notes they felt like tuning them to and had to switch guitars in between almost every song to the guitar that the song was written on).
I seem to be waking up with around 10 bucks in my pocket every morning lately; just treading water.
At the same time; I have Homeless Court coming up on Wednesday (17th), and will have to see what kind of "help" they may offer me.
Meanwhile, Sunday night, Tanya and Dorise had a crowd of about 100 people around them on Royal Street when I walked up.
There was a young lady singing; who had a very good voice and perfect intonation.
The crowd was overly enthusiastic about the young lady; who was taking the spotlight away from Tanyas violin for that moment in time. I had the suspicion the the girl; who looked to be a mixture of exotic island blood, ir maybe Brazilian, had gone on Twitter and tweeted all of her friends to show up on Royal Street and cheer for her.
It just didn't seem like she had attracted random people to stand around like that.
As I stood there, myself, behind a wall of people; I actually saw and heard tourists stopping there because there was already a crowd and they sensed that something fantastic was going on. "Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd..."
There was a basket passed through the crowd which was designated as being for tips for the young singer which was seperate from the baskets for Tanya and Dorise...
So, I was thinking that; all the money that went into the tip baskets for the hour that the girl sang was going to Tanya and Dorise; and then people who had already donated to the whole group, perhaps thinking that it was to be divided amongst them; were passed the basket which was just for the girl; and might have had the feeling that they were being "double dipped."
I had the feeling that it was just the razor sharp business acumen of Tanya and Dorise which had assured them of making just as much if not more while the girl was singing and then they had nothing to lose through the instrument of the supplemental basket...
I have pretty much learned by now that Tanya makes as much money as a practicing physician in an average city.
I Wonder
Watching her drive up Sunday morning on a scooter with her amplifier in the basket; wearing designer clothing and sunglasses like she stepped off the pages of Vogue; I realised that the black guy who had been hanging out there; holding the spot for them was right when he said "You're talking to a rich lady, did you know that?"
Tanya opened a little purse which was crammed with bills and gave the guy 5 dollars for having watched the spot for a couple hours. I wasn't trying to stare, but 100 dollar bills kind of grab the attention, based upon their unique shade of color or something...
It crossed my mind that Tanya is probably "laughing all the way to the bank" and probably feels kind of patronising of the people who are so easily blown away by her playing such things as "Freebird," on the violin.
I wonder if she goes home and locks the door; disconects her phone; put on classical music; logs on to a website and invests her money in the Chinese stock market; and gives her smile a rest for the night....
The weekend, I spent a lot of time stopping to visit with other street performers.
I realise that "busking" for me has to take upon it a certain complexion; and it is truly the person who feels sorry for a musician in the sense of: "...Well, why are you playing way down here?....oh, I guess so people can hear you, eh?" that is going to be my bread and butter until some such point that I put together some kind of high wattage spectacle fit for Royal Street; or become a one-man-band.
Friday night, I ran into Brad and was able to give him the 5 dollars which I have owed him since the night, about a week ago; that we played together and made 10 bucks in about an hour; but then, I left to go find a certain Jamaican, whom I never did find and then, I consequently decided not to walk all the way back to the "red door" spot on Decatur; where Brad was going to move to...
My debts paid, Brad and I played for at least a good hour; stubbornly.
I say "stubbornly" because; for each of our own reasons; we played all spontaneously composed improvisation; with myself following Brads home-spun guitar chords which are evolved from his random way of tuning the instrument.
We split about 8 dollars; which wasn't bad because we basically had 99% of the people walk past; and one guy out of the crowd who hung around and listened for a while and threw us 5 bucks and told us that our music was awesome...
He could have been tripping on acid or a big fan of Sonic Youth (who tuned their guitars to whatever notes they felt like tuning them to and had to switch guitars in between almost every song to the guitar that the song was written on).
I seem to be waking up with around 10 bucks in my pocket every morning lately; just treading water.
At the same time; I have Homeless Court coming up on Wednesday (17th), and will have to see what kind of "help" they may offer me.
Meanwhile, Sunday night, Tanya and Dorise had a crowd of about 100 people around them on Royal Street when I walked up.
There was a young lady singing; who had a very good voice and perfect intonation.
The crowd was overly enthusiastic about the young lady; who was taking the spotlight away from Tanyas violin for that moment in time. I had the suspicion the the girl; who looked to be a mixture of exotic island blood, ir maybe Brazilian, had gone on Twitter and tweeted all of her friends to show up on Royal Street and cheer for her.
It just didn't seem like she had attracted random people to stand around like that.
As I stood there, myself, behind a wall of people; I actually saw and heard tourists stopping there because there was already a crowd and they sensed that something fantastic was going on. "Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd..."
There was a basket passed through the crowd which was designated as being for tips for the young singer which was seperate from the baskets for Tanya and Dorise...
So, I was thinking that; all the money that went into the tip baskets for the hour that the girl sang was going to Tanya and Dorise; and then people who had already donated to the whole group, perhaps thinking that it was to be divided amongst them; were passed the basket which was just for the girl; and might have had the feeling that they were being "double dipped."
I had the feeling that it was just the razor sharp business acumen of Tanya and Dorise which had assured them of making just as much if not more while the girl was singing and then they had nothing to lose through the instrument of the supplemental basket...
I have pretty much learned by now that Tanya makes as much money as a practicing physician in an average city.
I Wonder
Watching her drive up Sunday morning on a scooter with her amplifier in the basket; wearing designer clothing and sunglasses like she stepped off the pages of Vogue; I realised that the black guy who had been hanging out there; holding the spot for them was right when he said "You're talking to a rich lady, did you know that?"
Tanya opened a little purse which was crammed with bills and gave the guy 5 dollars for having watched the spot for a couple hours. I wasn't trying to stare, but 100 dollar bills kind of grab the attention, based upon their unique shade of color or something...
It crossed my mind that Tanya is probably "laughing all the way to the bank" and probably feels kind of patronising of the people who are so easily blown away by her playing such things as "Freebird," on the violin.
I wonder if she goes home and locks the door; disconects her phone; put on classical music; logs on to a website and invests her money in the Chinese stock market; and gives her smile a rest for the night....
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