It's a beautiful day to be at the Lilly Pad in broad daylight, to start the night at the ridiculously early hour of maybe six-thirty, if I leave the Uxi Duxi now...
Last Saturday, I started during the day and made a steady flow of 1 to 3 dollar tips in the hours right after supper, I would imagine they were.
There are too many tourists milling about for any one of them to sit down for a private audition -to exchange life stories and wind up leaving a huge tip, but that can always happen at midnight, if I'm still there. I will try to be still there at midnight, if I get there at six-thirty.
I'm saving for my trip.
I'm thinking of targeting certain cities along the way, buying Megabus tickets for their locations, rather than randomly setting out by hopping a train.
There is a small chance that the cops in Mobile, Alabama, who might remember me from five years ago might arrest me if I try to play there on a Friday night, since they know that I know that they have outlawed any kind of busking there, or they had, five years ago.
The lieutenant, who had been new then, may not still be there.
The one before him shot himself while parked in the driveway of his girlfriend. He had been very cool about promoting Mobile as "kind of a New Orleans," and I had been able to make close to a hundred bucks there, on any given weekend night. That was back when I drank, so that was making a hundred bucks while running to the store for more beer every once in a while, and running into the bushes to urinate every once in a while, and becoming so sloppy that my playing level dropped off towards the end of the night every once in a while.
I might get a Megabus ticket for Charlottesville, Virginia as a first stop. They have a pedestrian mall that featured buskers, at least when I was there right around the turn of the century.
I wasn't a busker yet, then. I worked overnight in a little booth at a gas station, and had a bitchin' homeless pad, underground, and concealed very well in the woods.
I would like to make at least one stop along the way. Colin Mitchell has made me curious about playing in some of these towns where he has been. I figure I can make at least as much as he said he did. He stays at motels and eats at restaurants while he travels.
He does put in closer to an eight hour day than I presently do. But I'm willing to sleep on the grass under a tree somewhere, which will be easy for me to find because I know the city from living there for about 2 years. It's only sleep, and when you're unconscious, you have no idea that you are in a motel room that you are paying dearly for. You might be dreaming that you are asleep on the grass under a tree somewhere, so why pay for that?
As soon as I buy a bunch of food for Harold the cat, I will think about heading out. The trouble is that Harold's appetite has increased in proportion to the "extra" food I have been getting him. I can't buy his normal one can to pour on top of dry food, and set the other one aside, it seems. Maybe he is actually smart enough to catch a glimpse of the extra can while I am "hiding" it and then develops a voracious appetite, knowing it is there...
I probably won't contact anyone up there until I am en-route, because I have been talking about doing this for at least every one of the past seven years, but never made it.
I waited too long into the summer and it slowed down here so much that just scraping by took precedent over saving for any trip.
The key is to leave upon the faith that you will be able to make money wherever you go, and to go out flat broke if that is the case. Having a "traveling" sign might be enough to make things work out.
Last Saturday, I started during the day and made a steady flow of 1 to 3 dollar tips in the hours right after supper, I would imagine they were.
There are too many tourists milling about for any one of them to sit down for a private audition -to exchange life stories and wind up leaving a huge tip, but that can always happen at midnight, if I'm still there. I will try to be still there at midnight, if I get there at six-thirty.
I'm saving for my trip.
I'm thinking of targeting certain cities along the way, buying Megabus tickets for their locations, rather than randomly setting out by hopping a train.
There is a small chance that the cops in Mobile, Alabama, who might remember me from five years ago might arrest me if I try to play there on a Friday night, since they know that I know that they have outlawed any kind of busking there, or they had, five years ago.
The lieutenant, who had been new then, may not still be there.
The one before him shot himself while parked in the driveway of his girlfriend. He had been very cool about promoting Mobile as "kind of a New Orleans," and I had been able to make close to a hundred bucks there, on any given weekend night. That was back when I drank, so that was making a hundred bucks while running to the store for more beer every once in a while, and running into the bushes to urinate every once in a while, and becoming so sloppy that my playing level dropped off towards the end of the night every once in a while.
I might get a Megabus ticket for Charlottesville, Virginia as a first stop. They have a pedestrian mall that featured buskers, at least when I was there right around the turn of the century.
I wasn't a busker yet, then. I worked overnight in a little booth at a gas station, and had a bitchin' homeless pad, underground, and concealed very well in the woods.
I would like to make at least one stop along the way. Colin Mitchell has made me curious about playing in some of these towns where he has been. I figure I can make at least as much as he said he did. He stays at motels and eats at restaurants while he travels.
He does put in closer to an eight hour day than I presently do. But I'm willing to sleep on the grass under a tree somewhere, which will be easy for me to find because I know the city from living there for about 2 years. It's only sleep, and when you're unconscious, you have no idea that you are in a motel room that you are paying dearly for. You might be dreaming that you are asleep on the grass under a tree somewhere, so why pay for that?
As soon as I buy a bunch of food for Harold the cat, I will think about heading out. The trouble is that Harold's appetite has increased in proportion to the "extra" food I have been getting him. I can't buy his normal one can to pour on top of dry food, and set the other one aside, it seems. Maybe he is actually smart enough to catch a glimpse of the extra can while I am "hiding" it and then develops a voracious appetite, knowing it is there...
I probably won't contact anyone up there until I am en-route, because I have been talking about doing this for at least every one of the past seven years, but never made it.
I waited too long into the summer and it slowed down here so much that just scraping by took precedent over saving for any trip.
The key is to leave upon the faith that you will be able to make money wherever you go, and to go out flat broke if that is the case. Having a "traveling" sign might be enough to make things work out.
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