The Farmers' Market today was nothing short of amazing today. The crowd was as friendly as I've ever seen it, I ran into some amazing folk, and I got an incredible take (set a new personal record, as a matter of fact). I got down there reasonably early to when it started (I set up and was playing by 10) and kept on for a good bunch of hours, with one 20 minute break for food around lunchtime. So I was playing for a pretty good stretch, and it was totally worth it. Had a bunch of cool stuff happen, too.

After I had been playing for about an hour, this woman comes up to me, gives me a dollar, and steps back to listen for a while. She's really really nice, and I keep thinking that she looks familiar. After a song or two, I put my violin under my arm and stretch a little bit. She comes a little closer and starts talking with me.

"You know, you sound really good."

"Oh hey, thank you very much. I've just started doing this for a job... trying to get money for school."

"Music school?"

"No, I'm probably not going to study music - I mean, I'm definitely going to keep doing it, don't think I could ever not, but I don't really know what I'm going to study."

"I did this in college, too - supported myself all the way through school as a street musician like you."

Oh yeah? Huh. Well, right on, looks like she definitely knows what she's talking about. And there's still that little nagging thing going on - why does she look so familiar?

"Hey, that's really cool. What do you play?

"Violin."

"Oh! Right on! Well, I gotta be honest here, I'm really learning how to do this as a job as I go along. If you're into that kind of thing, check out my blog at streetviolin.blogspot.com sometime."

I motion at my sign (now with the address of my blog) with my bow. She gives me a wry little half-smile.

"Gotcha. You can check out my website at pinkmartini.com. My name's Paloma, by the way."

Oh. Oh holy crap. I'm talking to Paloma Griffin. Oh yeah do I know who you are. Of course she looked familiar... I try to go to as many Pink Martini shows as I can, and she's one of the best people in the band. Not to mention everything else she's done. I'm a little bit of a fan, to be honest - not like a huge obsessive fan, but she's awesome. And here she is talking to me. That was something else, to be sure... I wasn't quite sure what to say, but she took off at that point, so it was all good. Wow, though. The people you meet.

Later in the afternoon, a bunch of people come running up with a cellphone held out at me.

"Hey, can you play happy birthday for someone? It's my friend's birthday, and we want to do something cool for him."

Right on. I love doing this kind of thing. I wait while they dial and get an answering machine. I think I did a pretty good job on happy birthday; didn't play it totally straight and boring, ended up jazzing it up a little. Really satisfying, and I think I made them happy. They tipped well, too. Just a really cool thing to do, and I hope it's not the last time I play happy birthday for a stranger over a cell phone. There's just something indescribably cool about that.

Wound down about an hour before the market closed, and decided to head home. I probably could have stayed downtown and found another spot, but I think it was just fine to call it a day at that point. Such a good day for being out. This is the kind of day that makes doing what I'm doing totally worth it. Hopefully tomorrow will be as good. I'm playing the Hillsdale Farmers' Market, and they're giving me a dedicated space inside the market with a canopy and everything for 3 hours. This means I get shade and I don't have to worry about competition or getting kicked out. I'm hoping this works out good, and if it works out maybe I get invited back.

Tomorrow: Hillsdale Farmers' Market