I wasn't really sure if I was going to like playing First Thursday. I go down there every so often, and while I definitely like being part of that scene, I also worried that people would be uptight art crowd wannabes who would only look down at me. I didn't want some overzealous cop bent on keeping the Pearl District completely shiny and free of street musicians to hassle me. It turns out that playing First Thursday, as long as you get a good spot, is just like any other high traffic space. This is a good thing. I got a ton of exposure today, and it worked out really well in terms of take, recognition, and offers. I got 3 job offers, a new record for me for a single night. I really don't know if I'm going to take them (or if I'll even be able to take them) but it's real good to get my name out there.

I originally planned to play at that one park with the foutain and all the totem poles. I can never remember the name of it, but it's right in the middle of the Pearl. There was a band there. A really loud band. Playing really bad dance music. I didn't stick around to see who it was, but I'm thinking that that park could be a good call in the future. It's in a nice area, way populated, tons of families (that is, parents wanting to expose their kids to music, and maybe throwing a tip my way), and right off the streetcar. Good place to think about in the future. Only problem is no shade... I'll take a look, though.

I saw the woman who suggested the I start a blog. She was with some family ("like herding cats," as she put it) so didn't stick around for too long. Remembered who I was, though, and where I was going to school, all that. She seemed genuinely excited that I had used her idea and started a blog, and promised to check it out. Blog lady, if you're reading this, please feel free to leave a comment.

It looks like about 5 seconds of me might appear on Cita con Nelly. The cameraman shot about that much of me at a cool little artistic angle. Again, looks like I'm famous. At least as far as Cita con Nelly is concerned.

The woman next to me was selling laminated paper snowflakes from a little table as fine art. I kept going back and forth about whether or not she was actually serious about this, or whether this was some kind of elaborate performing arts joke. She seemed pretty earnest about selling these thing (at $4 - $7 a pop), and some of them were actually a little bit nice and fancy looking, but still... snowflakes seem like a pretty weird little niche. Although if she's doing what she loves, can't really blame her. I don't see a huge future in cut snowflakes, but you really never do know about that kind of thing. I mean, I didn't think I would do this well playing violin, but so far so good. I hate to say it, but I think there just might be more of a market for violin than snowflakes. Just saying.

Did another Happy Birthday for some girl out with her friends. No tip this time, but I really love playing happy birthday for people. I mean, it's a song everybody knows, it's a song you play for a reason, and it's one that people really want to hear. Plus, now I've got it down with doublestops and chords all the way through, so it actually sounds pretty good. All the practice I've been getting doing this kind of thing helps too, of course.

I ran into the people I chatted with on the streetcar later on in the evening. Nice folk. One of them in from out of town, very polite, very interested in what I was doing. Right on. I like talking to people like that. All in all, the whole evening was a lot like that - just very nice, lots of people I've seen around, and a good time had by all.

Tomorrow: I have a class all day, so probably nowhere. Saturday I'll be at the Farmers' Market.