How Do I Measure Success?

• Worst Busking Weekend In History?
• My Fren, Ben
• Tim The Violinist
• Collaboration With Niko Considered

Moneywise, yes, the weekend yielded less than 50 bucks on about 6 hours of playing.

I am starting to look forward to the visit from my friend, Ben Lambie, who is in Easthampton, Mass. and who, I think has already bought his plane tickets to come down here, first week of July..

To the left is a recent photo of Ben meeting a famous guitar player, whom I can't recognize in the photo.
[I looked it up; it's Robin Trower]

There might not be a whole lot of excitement around here during that "slow" month when Tanya and Dorise take off for other pastures.

I am going to try to time the purchase of a laptop to replace mine, which is on the blink, for the week of Ben's arrival.

Not that he probably won't have some kind of tablet or "i" thing already on him; but, if he doesn't; the apartment can get pretty boring to the modern man. Luckily Ben is my age or a year older and can remember when people used to just sit and talk.

Tim Todd, violinist

Tim, the violinist, whom I sold the Roland Micro Cube amp that Johnny B. had given me in exchange for letting him crash at my place for 10 days to, paid me another 30 bucks toward it on Friday night.
That was good because I then went out and made only 14 more dollars.

Last (Saturday) night, he sat across the way and listened to me play for about and hour, along with his girlfriend, Rhea, who happens to work at the Nola Po' Boy place about 200 feet from where I play.

He told me that he liked my sound.

The laptop savings jar is at about $70 right now.

I am thinking of starting the "23%" jar off with maybe the 30 bucks that Tim gave me and, using some money to get the 2,000 piece jigsaw puzzle, which will keep me busy while the jar is hopefully filling.

I am thinking that, by the time I get at all the music which is on the dead laptop, I will have evolved musically and it will provide like a stark contrast to how I sound now...

Tim is a Tanya Huang skill level violinist. He leans more towards loops and electronics but can get a hellacious "electric" violin sound. Between him and Tanya it is just a matter of preference.
He is lighter on cover tunes, more jam oriented, but I have been surprised when walking up Royal Street in the evening to find that it is Tim playing on the corner of St. Louis, when I had already prepared myself emotionally and psychologically and spiritually to have encountered Tanya and Dorise.
Niko
I jammed with this girl named Niko at the Lilly Pad about 3 weeks ago.
It went off pretty well, but after she kind of avoided me the next 3 weeks, I thought that I might have offended her with one of my songs that lash out at bums or the mentally ill or are sexist.
But, last night I ran into her on Royal Street and she assured me that she had enjoyed our jam and wants to jam again.
She seemed nervous about playing on Royal Street, being a lone female. I told her that she could always play at the Lily Pad, even then, as I was going home, and that there were web cameras everywhere and that the street hustlers who have staked that area as their turf after having met the approval of the residents (yes, Lilly has standards for bums, too) are actually a protective influence; due to the ironic philosophy of "If anyone's gonna rob em (me or Niko) it'll be us; this is our block. Ain't gonna let someone just come in here and take something!"

Niko Lorraine

As if to punctuate my point, Lynda and Brian, who live at the 2 o' clock position from my angle at the Lilly Pad walked past and greeted me warmly.
Maybe upon seeing me talking to Niko, who also had her guitar on her back, they were trying to communicate to her that they knew me and that I was alright and not to hesitate to collaborate with me. They might see that as being greener pastures for me than sitting on the stoop 5 nights a week.
Niko is from Texas and grew up 7 miles from the nearest store, and then moved around, being thrown in with rich black kids that she didn't understand and attending an all white except for her school at another point.
Her voice is very strong; Tracy Chapman style strong...
She seemed to really want someone to talk to last night and was acting kind of insecure and uncertain.
She said that she will only be here for another couple weeks before going back to Houston...