I ended up on Hawthorne this morning and at Last Thursday on Alberta this evening. Hawthorne was basically a bust, but a big part of that is probably just that I was really impatient and didn't stick around for very long, and I just got there too early. There is really nobody on Hawthorne in the morning. I played for an hour and made a dollar. That's just a little bit frustrating, but at least I got warmed up a little that way. I'm going to have to try it again around lunchtime. If I go sometime that people are actually there, I might have more luck, yeah?

Last Thursday, in stark contrast with Hawthorne was an amazing scene. I've been a bunch of Last Thursdays, but this is the first time that I've had a chance to just stay in one spot and take in all of the people. I know that I'm repeating myself, but that place is really just a scene, and it's really my kind of scene. There is so much life, it's such a vibrant atmosphere. I mean, there is a lot of shitty art and a handful of scary people (I find the Clown House to be genuinely disturbing - there's just something wrong with people getting really drunk, putting on clown makeup, and mud-wrestling) but that's just part of the charm. Talk about exposure, too... there were so many people there. Didn't get a huge take tonight, but it was worth it just to be part of that thing.

Got tossed a few show flyers, but they were all 21+. Also got an invite to a performing arts group. Don't know if I'm going to do it yet.

I saw and chatted with so many people tonight that it's hard to pick out any specific interesting stuff that happened, but there were a few things that stood out, for whatever reason. The guy I was set up next to, selling what I think was custom rug art or something along those lines, was way nice, although his friend was a little bit offputting. She just comes up and stares at my sign for a second before asking:

"So anything at all helps?"

My sign is basically to the effect that I'm trying to get some money for college, and that anything helps.

"Well, yeah."

"Does cocaine help?"

Blink. Blink. Don't quite know what to say to that. I mean, what the hell kind of a question is that? I mean, if she was offering me cocaine, that's... nice? Maybe? But why would she? And what a big assumption to make, too. Of course, I could just have been reading too much into this, but it was still a freaky thing to have come at you. I finally think of something to say.

"Actually, no, it doesn't."

Which makes me sound like I know from experience. Whatever. They can take whatever they want from that, but for the record I don't do that shit. Anyways.

At another point this little kid comes up to me with his dad, and the kid pulls out this little tiny paper cutout violin with a twig for a bow and starts mimicking me, playing air violin right in front of me. It was almost that little bit surreal, but I'm sure he was having a good time, so I'm not going to take that away from him. Maybe he wasn't a little kid. Maybe he was a mimic elf; his sole purpose in life is to find people who are doing interesting things and pretend to be them. There could be thousands of mimic elves running around, pretending to do things, sometimes even replacing the people they're copying. Don't really want to think about that, actually.

I also ran into the band who took my spot at the Farmers' Market yesterday. They got down to Last Thursday later and were looking around for someplace to play. I just happened to be sitting on a spot that they wanted. Ah, sweet irony. You take my space, I take yours. Next time get down here a little earlier, and maybe you get a reasonably prime spot like me. No, I have absolutely no hard feelings, no resentment towards them. They're cool, I'm just not going to give up my spot for them. Unless for whatever reason I have to, or I'm being really nice.

I finally had to stop playing when a drum circle set up right across the street from me. It'd be nice if I could play over that kind of thing, but those drums are just way too loud for me to compete. It was getting late, anyway, so I decided to call it a night. When I got home and counted my take, it was a little less that I had expected or hoped for, but that's cool. I got some good stuff lined up in the next while, and I'm pretty sure that at least some of it is a sure thing for business. We'll just have to see.

Tomorrow: Not sure yet.

Today I worked the Farmers' Market in the Park Blocks downtown. The Wednesday market is usually a little bit harder to work, just because space is tight enough that I can't really work inside the market, and so I have to stay out on the sidewalk or on the grass, which is cool if I can find some place to lean my case up against, but not so cool if I can't. I love the downtown Farmers' Market because people there are always really friendly - even when they don't flip you any change (which is most of the time) they at least give you a smile (which pretty much makes up for it). The manager of the market (at least I think she's the manager) and I have had a few minor run-ins about where and when I play, but she's basically pretty cool. I sometimes forget that when I'm playing around other groups, even when I'm a ways off, that the sounds can clash a little bit. I'm always really agreeable, though, and I move just as soon as I'm asked. Best to avoid trouble that way, right?

As I walked up to the market from my bus stop, I heard shouting. "Okay," I thought, "I'll just figure out where that's coming from and try to keep away." When I get up to the market, I see the source of the shouting: a youngish street preacher, all fire and brimstone. I see him around a lot, and he's never gone after me personally, so I've never had any real problem with him. Other people, including a bunch of the sellers in the market, are getting a little bit more impatient with this guy. Actually, they've had to deal with him for at least an hour (I got downtown later than I wanted, but that's more or less not a problem since most traffic doesn't really get by me until around the lunch hour) and by the time I showed up they were just pissed off. Religious tolerance is a good thing; a crazed man screaming that everyone around him is covered in sin is a little bit harder to deal with.

In any case, I decide to just avoid this guy. I set up on the opposite corner of the block, near where I usually play. I tune up and run through a few little things, when my good friend the manager in her red apron shows up. I wind down, put my violin under my arm, and flash her my most charming smile, showing teeth.

"Hi there. What can I do for you today?"

She smiles back, disarming me a little bit. Doesn't look like she's got a problem with me today.

"Oh, don't worry. You're fine playing there. I mean, you sound good. I was just wondering if you could... help us out. You know, do us a favor."

She looks over at the street preacher meaningfully. His face is starting to go red, and he stops yelling for a moment to take a swig of water from the gallon jug he holds in his non-bible hand. I'm getting an idea of what she wants, but I decide to let her spell it out for me.

"Sure. How can I help?"

"Would you mind going head-to-head with that guy? You don't have to talk to him or anything, just play opposite him. Loud."

The baker in the stall behind me, a young guy, pipes up.

"You do that and you can get a cookie, no charge."

Rad. I let my smile get just a little bit wider, show some more teeth. I'm starting to like this idea, and I don't turn down free food. So I pack up my case and carry it over to the tree opposite the preacher. And then I just pull out all the stops. This guy could definitely get his voice way up. I mean, he was loud. Luckily for me, I can play just as loud when I want. Get up in that high register, and it starts to get a lot harder to drown me out. More than just the satisfaction of trying to cut this guy off a little bit (I really don't appreciate value judgements being made on me or other people around me, and being called a sinner is a pretty big value judgement in my book) I also started to pull in customers. Not only were people giving me money for just playing, like they usually do, they were actually more likely to give me money because I was competing with Mr. Shouty across the walkway. After close to an hour of this, my red-aproned manager pal came over to give me the move-along. Turns out there was another group that wanted my spot, and the way she saw it, they'd be even louder. This is probably true, but that doesn't mean that I wanted to give up a prime space like the one I had. I'm nice, though, so I let it slide. I started to pack up my stuff, when all of a sudden I start to hear something behind me. It's someone clapping, a few people clapping, and then honest-to-god applause. This is the first time that I've actually gotten a crowd to clap for me when I'm playing. So I walk away from this (to another corner on the other side of the market for a few more hours) with a decent take, a job offer for the next weekend (some manager for another market wanting me to play there, in a dedicated spot. You here that? No more fighting for prime space!), and some genuine appreciation for what I'm doing. Feels good, you know? Never did get that cookie, though.

Tomorrow: Hawthorne, maybe? Last Thursday on Alberta for sure.

I just graduated from high school and I tried to get a job for the summer. Turns out I didn't look hard enough, and I realized that there weren't a whole lot of places left for me to apply to, and I decided that this summer I was not going to get a traditional job. I didn't need to get a "real" job, I figured, because I have skills. Marketable ones, at that. So every day, or at least most days, I go out with my violin, set my case down on some corner, and play for a few hours. I didn't know what to expect (and, to be honest, still don't), but what I've found so far has been an amazing experience. The pay is unpredictable at best, but at least I can get some sun and do what I love, and maybe even make people happy. Plus, I'm basically advertising that I'm a musician looking for work, and I can maybe get some jobs out of it.

Every so often, somebody will give me a suggestion for improving my playing (or improving how I do my "business"). Today, I got a few pieces of advice: slow down, savor the notes, play what people know. I've heard all of this before, but it's always nice to get feedback from people. One person, though, told me to do something that I had never even thought of, that had never been suggested to me. Her advice was to start a blog. "Everyone loves to hear about how other people's lives are going - start a blog! Maybe you'll even get more money that way!"

Maybe.

So here I am. There are niche blogs for just about everything, but this is the first time that I've ever seen a blog dedicated to talking about playing music out on the street. It makes sense, though; every day, something interesting happens. I'll meet interesting people, or see something happen, or just notice something that I hadn't noticed before. I can't make any promises about how often or well I'll keep this thing up, but I'll try. We'll just have to see what happens.