10 Dollar Monday
I left the apartment around midnight, last (Monday) night.
I, at least, needed to get cat food, and to be near Rouses Market when my food card would be loaded at midnight.
The card had run out 10 days short of the end of last month. There were a couple of "make money busking or don't eat" days; maybe those helped to make the 10 days seem to have flown by.
I have a $5 Subway gift card as a buffer against starvation, and have had it for about a year.
I wound up playing at the Lilly Pad from precisely 1 AM until precisely 2:30 AM, and making 10 bucks.
I got my first tip ($3) ever, when playing the newest addition to my set list "Isn't She Lovely," the Stevie Wonder classic.
Stevland most likely switches between different harmonicas on the classic solo, or plays a chromatic one. Just the chord progression with any reasonably in key harmonica gives a good sound, I think; although the reaction from black people has been lukewarm.
During the Essence Festival, I debuted the song, and I think I encountered a bit of resistance from some of the 90% African American attendees.
There seems to be a consensus among a lot of black people, that either A: Stevie is such an original that one shouldn't even try to imitate him, or B: Stevie's music conjures up associations and memories and feelings that are so rooted in black pride and a part of their identity, that they just can't accept it coming from a Caucasian.
A similar feeling exists about Prince.
Niles is an original also, but you are allowed to try to imitate him given the caveat: If you do Prince; "You have to nail it."
Your Subway card is probably expired. That's the core of the gift-card scam; the cards expire and the company has gotten the $X dollars without having to deliver any product. This is also why it's a good policy to spend any gift cards you get ASAP.
ReplyDeleteBTW I guess I'd run into the same problems if I played Hawaiian music. Even though except for chants, "Hawaiian" music is mostly Tin Pan Alley. I grew up in Hawaii and heard enough Hawaiian music to be pretty sick of it, but if I decided I wanted to be a Hawaiian music fanatic I'd get all kinds of flack from Hawaiians and self-appointed "Hawaiians".
ReplyDeleteHowever unlike Hawaiian music, Stevie Wonder's music is supercool and excellent and well, put any dozen superlatives in here. The only problems I see with playing Stevie Wonder stuff is, it's more sophisticated than most pop and you've got to really nail it or it's gonna sound awful. And like an insult to Mr. Wonder, whom we should all be grateful for. So maybe that's it.