tales of the city

[metaphortunate]

The train station I get off at downtown frequently features a homeless man torturing a broken violin for money. I don't know if this guy has been deaf since birth and never learned the concept of music, or if he has simply achieved transcendent levels of not giving a shit, or what, but what it looks like is cargo cult behavior: like he noticed that some other bums had instruments that they messed around with and then they got more money, so somewhere he got a beat-up violin and a bow with one or two unbroken strings left on it, and now he rubs one against the other to fill the escalator with deranged nightmarish noise and puts a hat out. It's hideous and pathetic. He doesn't seem to collect very much.

But today he wasn't there. Instead, a totally different guy was there, a white guy wearing clean clothes, playing smooth beautiful music on a violin, and for extra cough-up-the-goddamn-money, the violin case with the money in it was being guarded by an adorable small fluffy tail-wagging dog.

I know it's just a different guy who is 5,000,000% better at his job. But my very first thought was "OMG, he finally found the Blue Fairy and she turned him into a real busker!"

Comments

[jrtom]

:)

I feel bad for both you and the homeless man. I mean, it would torment me to walk through the noise every day, and I suspect that he has his own troubles even if he actually gets a perverse enjoyment out of the noise he's making.

(I suppose he might put the hat out on the "pay me to stop" basis. If so, he may need better advertising. :/ )

I have to wonder whether the second guy showed up because he couldn't stand it any more...but I like your theory better. :)

(Also, hey! I should crawl out from under the kids and respond to your posts more often. :) )

[metaphortunate]

You have a lot of kids! I could see how it's hard to shift the pile. :)

How old are they all now? It's hard to even imagine.

I have frequently thought that the first dude needs a WILL STOP PLAYING FOR $$$ sign.

[jrtom]

Kids are now 7, 5, 5, and 2. I still outweigh them all, but it's only a matter of time. :)

(Any chance of you traveling up to Seattle anytime soon? I have tentative plans to go to the Bay sometime within the next few months, but I won't be bringing the kids with me. :) )

[metaphortunate]

To be totally honest I am hoping not to travel anywhere for like a year. :P So tired of it!

[jrtom]

I can totally sympathize. We're just now getting to the point again of feeling a bit more like traveling. :)

[kore]

//DIES

[(Anonymous)]

A few years back one of the Sydney papers ran an article titled "Is This Man Sydney's Worst Busker?"

I'd heard the guy and would've only rated him as mediocre, but he was playing Chinese violin, and I suspect the Telegraph wasn't having with that furrin rubbish.

[lederhosen]

oops, that was me - forgot to log in.

[snippy]

The Blue Fairy makes perfect sense to me. The puppy is obviously his Jiminy Cricket.