"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
This past Summer, there was a national phenomenon involving "fake buskers."
For those unfamiliar with the term 'busker,' here is an efficient, two-sentence description: A 'busker' is a street performer who brings his/her product to The People to a public place. Patronage is immediate: a passer-by might toss the coins from his pocket (..and perhaps some 'folding money' as well) into an open guitar case, etc.
We've all seen these fellow humans, in our day-to-day. Buskers. They have a name.
So... I went to my local Target last Summer to buy something that is already unimportant to me... and this attractive, 20-something young lady, dressed in the latest, coolest 21st c. version of "Sexy 2020's BoHo Chic" style, is dragging out Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria" (don't sweat the title- there's no quiz at the end of this post, and if you've ever been to a wedding, you've prob heard it more than once-).
I go in, make my purchase, pull out of my parking spot, and slow down, as I approach her performance station. I pull into an open space nearby, and place my whip in 'park.' Her current tune was something by Celine Dion.
It took about 5 seconds to see that this fetching young lady knew two essential things:
1. how to operate a loudass public karaoke machine in a parking lot. 2. how to draw a straight bow across an unplugged electric violin.
The entire thing was cheap theatre, designed to separate rubes from their hard-earned. In a department store parking lot. Almost none of her gestures came close to what real music-making looked/sounded like.
I pulled out, without tossing this comely grifter so much as a farthing from my car's coin trough. The internet was right, that day. I witnessed it for myself, in my own back yard. |
______________________
The following example is the exact opposite of that abomination I witnessed last Summer.
This young lady is extensively trained, and plays at a very high level. She prepared this presentation with hundreds of hours of work, and now can take this 'impromptu street show' anywhere she wants, knowing that she can kill it any time, anywhere.
This spring someone was playing in my Kroger parking lot. Pretty big lot and strip here in the Coventry part of the Wayne. Jumped out about 100 yards from where I could hear it but couldn't see through the sea of cars, as it begins to register, "Queen on the Violin?"... I headed into the store. As I'm hitting the door my mind is already racing... "get in and get out, so you can see where this amazing music is coming from!" I'm also wondering why someone so talented is playing in a Kroger parking lot.
I got out of the store and it was gone. I was literally heartbroken. It's not in my DNA to walk by without a smile, thanks, and some coin. It's weird to explain, but it's almost embarrassing to me when someone is playing "in the street" and people walk by with nary a nod of appreciation. Not only that, but I really wanted to hear more. I would be the guy whose wife calls 45 minutes later like "where the hell are you?" "Watching someone play violin in the parking lot, duh."
So I skimmed your post, and went on a mad internet race to find Kirsti. I'm reading her creds and thinking "why would she be playing in a Fort Wayne parking lot?" 🤣
I come back and actually read your post, and hung my head. Is there no sanctity left in the world?? Let the air right out of my balloon. Dissapointed that I probably had some fake-ass musician, in my parking lot, I head back to the Tube.
Yep, I'm just going to convince myself it was him so I can sleep at night. Although I'll still have bad dreams about a generation of kids who will walk by, now with even less respect, as they explain to their friend under their breath that it's "probably fake".
When going to Nashville I see a lot of this. Don't get me wrong, they're certainly not attempting to perform Ave Maria. lol
Some deserving and some just grifters. In Nashville it's just a case of so much talent with only so many venues. So you'll find more gems than one might think here as it pertains to street performers.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Once upon a time, there was a metal/hard rock/sleaze band from Youngstown named WhiteNoise that used to destroy "White Punks", metal style, at Filthy McNasty's in Kent.
Man, I remember McNasty's. I used to go to Heavy Metal Sundays when I worked in Ravenna.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
Daughter and me saw Pop Evil, Fame on Fire, and Lylvc Tuesday at the Bluestone here in Columbus. It’s always nice to get surprised by an opening act:
This past Summer, there was a national phenomenon involving "fake buskers."
For those unfamiliar with the term 'busker,' here is an efficient, two-sentence description: A 'busker' is a street performer who brings his/her product to The People to a public place. Patronage is immediate: a passer-by might toss the coins from his pocket (..and perhaps some 'folding money' as well) into an open guitar case, etc.
We've all seen these fellow humans, in our day-to-day. Buskers. They have a name.
So... I went to my local Target last Summer to buy something that is already unimportant to me... and this attractive, 20-something young lady, dressed in the latest, coolest 21st c. version of "Sexy 2020's BoHo Chic" style, is dragging out Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria" (don't sweat the title- there's no quiz at the end of this post, and if you've ever been to a wedding, you've prob heard it more than once-).
I go in, make my purchase, pull out of my parking spot, and slow down, as I approach her performance station. I pull into an open space nearby, and place my whip in 'park.' Her current tune was something by Celine Dion.
It took about 5 seconds to see that this fetching young lady knew two essential things:
1. how to operate a loudass public karaoke machine in a parking lot. 2. how to draw a straight bow across an unplugged electric violin.
The entire thing was cheap theatre, designed to separate rubes from their hard-earned. In a department store parking lot. Almost none of her gestures came close to what real music-making looked/sounded like.
I pulled out, without tossing this comely grifter so much as a farthing from my car's coin trough. The internet was right, that day. I witnessed it for myself, in my own back yard. |
______________________
The following example is the exact opposite of that abomination I witnessed last Summer.
This young lady is extensively trained, and plays at a very high level. She prepared this presentation with hundreds of hours of work, and now can take this 'impromptu street show' anywhere she wants, knowing that she can kill it any time, anywhere.
I present to you, The (buskers) Real Deal.
If people don't know who buskers are, they shouldn't be on a music thread. That is the most basic form of music performance on earth.
Every year we have a Busker Festival here in town. It's great. Food trucks, beer and wine vendors and a whole bunch of folks putting out their music. I stuff my pocket with $100 of $5 bills to drop in their instrument case, jar, bucket, whatever. It's a great time.
If everybody had like minds, we would never learn.
Van Morrison is one of my favorites. I've been spending more time looking for new artists these days. We're both far more old school so there isn't as much newer music I like that much but I REALLY like this group!
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
My ex wife was in the concert catering business in Atlanta for many years. Both my son and daughter worked the shows.
If there was a show I wanted to go to. It was not a problem. I reached a point that I quit going.
However, I did go to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They were great. But what happens is to a degree the crowds actually ruin the show. So many drunks and drugs. Behavior and noise gets to be to much. A lot depends on the venue. The open air shows are the worst. The theaters are still good.
At this stage I will only go to see a select few and even then only at small places.
I love live music but I would rather see jazz in a small club than the big stage rock shows.
I certainly stopped going except on rare occasions for pretty much the same reasons as yourself. Tom Petty was at a big arena but the crowd was quite well behaved. I too at this point in life prefer smaller venues. In Nashville we have The Ryman which is a wonderful venue! I'm hoping to see The Tedeschi Trucks Band there the next time they come to town.
I was lucky enough to have a few ticket hook ups during my life. When i was young my mom's cousin ran the ticket office at the #1 concert venue in Dayton at the time, Hara Arena. Then as fortune would have it I was very good friends with not one but two DJ's on local radio so tickets to sold out shows were not only free but very easy for me to get even after the shows were sold out. As much as I love music I consider that a very big blessing in my life. I made sure to let those people know just how much that meant to me. It's not as if I haven't bought concert tickets but in the grand scheme of things it hasn't been that often. I make up for getting free tickets by purchasing merchandise at the shows as well as their records to support the artists.
steely Dan is another band I really like that doesn't get a lot of attention on these threads.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
I love live music but I would rather see jazz in a small club than the big stage rock shows.
The best audience experiences I ever had were in intimate Jazz clubs. When the band takes a break, they routinely sit at a table near the front of the house. They are accessible to their fans.
Must have been early 80's, My boy Byron & I road-tripped to Gilly's Jazz club in Dayton to see Art Blakey's newest Jazz Messengers incarnation. During the break, we local low-level musos chatted with the band over at a table in the corner.
Bro- that night, Byron & I spent 20 minutes with Wynton and Branford Branford Marsalis. Back when they were 20-somethings, just like us.
There is nothing like the intimacy of a Jazz club. Patrons rub shoulders with the music makers. Music lives at the heart of the village.
I use to go La Cave a lot when I was in high school and Cuyahoga Community college.
Blood Sweat and Tears and a band called The Hello People who dress in mime. Bands would play sets and then mingle with the crowd. It was a small place. You could get as close to the stage as you wanted.
The Jazz Temple was another place. https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/811#:~:text=For%20a%20brief%20time%20in,club%20called%20the%20Jazz%20Temple.
I remember seeing Roland Kirk there.
I have not been to a place like that since that time.
I've been listening to Jason Isabell quite a lot. They label his music as Americana but I'm not really sure that he fits into a single category as music genre's are described these days. This tune reminds me of the classic Neil Young style of song and I really like it....
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
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