Australasia

24 bucks on my first busking attempt! Woohoo! It's good to know that I measure success based on how much money I make. This is going to be a rough life.

I suppose I should explain what this blog is all about: I've just moved to NYC from Boston, and am trying to make it as an actor/songwriter. I've always loved performing in subway stations (I play guitar, harmonica, and sing), but feel that the "busking" community (busking=street/subway musicians) is seriously lacking in the -unity part. Most buskers are unaware of other buskers, most subway riders ignore buskers, and most buskers probably struggle to make reasonable money off of their talents. If, however, a website was devised that pointed out busking as an art form (music), that had links to buskers' bios and band pages, that had music available for free downloads (since selling CDs is illegal in the NYC subway), that had reviews of busking performances, and that even had a searchable database of artists and locations so the casual listener could get a better idea of what's happening on the subway lines they travel on, if these things could all be grouped on one website, I think busking could finally get the credit it deserves. Much more than panhandling, busking is real live entertainment from (literally) underground musicians who could benefit from networking with one another. Now I should point out that for elements like the database (in which you could see which artists are playing at what stations, and what they play), I would never want things to get hyper-scheduled or too planned-out...this would destroy the spontaneity of the art, which is so much of what makes it enjoyable. But I do think that if subway travelers were able to search through the database for someone they'd seen perform earlier, it would be to the benefit of them as much as the busker himself, as it could increase awareness of his music.

Anyway. I could seriously have played forever tonight but I had guzzled so much water during the day that I'm glad I left when I did. People were staring at me on the train home because my eyes were filling up with urine. But hey, with 24 bucks a day, I could soon afford to buy myself a chamberpot. Not enough people own those these days. Think about it: you'd spray it down throughout the day, then clip it to your belt when you need to go somewhere. You'd never have to ditch out on movies or make your dad get really close to whuppin' you during a long car trip that he doesn't want to be interrupted.

I'm really excited about this blog, and the future website that may one day host it among sundry other things.