Back Into Hiding or On Tour
The next 2 weeks I’m on tour with my regular rock band Led Zeppelin2 (www.LedZeppelin2.com) I made a huge (for me) breakthrough on Monday when I went out to the Embarcadero in front of the Ferry Building in SF and played for an hour. Made $35, highest per hour take in a single setting. This really was the biggest challenge for me, mentally. And I’m not usually mentally challenged. It’s really the bare bones of the busking gig. Can/Will you set up in a highly populated spot and really make it happen? It’s one thing to set up in a park in a moderately populated spot, with easy, free parking and no buildings around. People walk by, but they can walk away if they want. Setting up in the middle of a busy walkway in the middle of the city is the real deal. Found a parking spot. Paid $8 (meaning I went in the hole if I made nothing) for 1 hour 20 min. Jumped out. Ran 1/2 way through the park so I could see the spot was open. It was. Back to the car. Piled the drums on my shitty cart. Bungee strapped them down. Started pushing it through the streets. “I must look crazy to these people” running through your head the whole time. Pulled up to the spot. Started unpacking while hundreds of people walked by. A couple of guys stood there waiting for me to start. Its hard to explain the sensation of having just finished setting up your drums in the street. Because once you’ve come this far, you can’t stop. You have to start the next thing immediately. And that means playing. NOT “warming up” or “sound checking” So I started and I kind of sucked, was tense, couldn’t remember if I ever played the drums before. Seriously weird sensation after probably thousands of gigs played in my life. After a minute I found my sweet spot and relaxed and started rocking it. Whew. So, this week I’m back into the safe zone of sound checks, people paying in advance to see by band. Getting on stage in front of 1000...
Drum Bum Buddies
Me and my new friend Great day in Golden Gate Park again today. Beautiful weather, lots of people. And some new, old friends. The homeless guys. Basically, I view this thing as a social experiment. Watching peoples reaction to some dude playing a massive drum solo in the middle of a park or street is awesome to see. Part of my overall theory is that we’ve become so fixated on our computer technology and gadgets, that we’re growing too isolated as a culture. Nobody communicates anymore. And the sad fact is that it seems to be true. A great many people just walk on by as if nothings happening. Most people, are pretty wrapped up in their own world and ignore the world we all share. There seems to be one exception. Homeless people. The homeless, love to stop and hang out. And it seems they always have some kind of percussion instrument. Friday it was a dude with bongos. Yesterday, a different friend used a 2×4 hunk of wood, banging it on the ground. More or less in time. Now, I’m going to be honest. I’m not a fan of the homeless. Actually, I would probably categorize myself as…unsympathetic. I basically believe that people choose their path. And that people are responsible for their own condition. Ok, that was before I started playing drums in the street. It kind of messes with my preconceived ideas to find that homeless guys are completely unabashed in just walking up to you and participating. Maybe it’s out of necessity. Maybe they are so close to not surviving that they simply communicate. Because if they don’t (ask you for some change usually), they’ll just die from starvation. So they communicate. But what makes this odd is that I’m comparing this fact to the “normal” members of our world. “The normal” are kind of wrapped up in their own cocoon. Maybe we think we know so much, that we don’t think we need to interact any more. Wrong kind of lesson. There is one other group that will communicate because they don’t “know better” Kids. The majorette of people who put cash in the can are kids. They bug their parents as they walk by and then their parents give em a buck and they walk up and gently put it in the case. I made friends with one today. He walked up with a branch in his hand like it was a drumstick. I traded him for one of my sticks and let him smash away while I kept time on the kick drum. He was elated. Maybe thats the lesson....
A Walk In The Park
So yesterday I made $24 in about 2 hours. Finally got the cops called….Ok, he was a park ranger. Found a sweet (or so I thought) spot at an intersection in Golden Gate Park. Lots of double decker tour busses cheering as they drove by. Right about the time I was physically running out of steam, up rolled the cops. I shouldn’t even call this guy a cop. He was super nice. Like a park ranger should be. He politely walked up to me and said “You can’t accept tips” At this time I had about 10 people gathered around, who all came to my defense. One guy said “just wait until he leaves” Sound advice. So, now I know that Section 310 of the California Parks and Recreation Department Code of Acceptable Parking In The Park says you can play your ass off, but if anyone throws money at you, you can’t take it. Makes me wonder about the people who actually make laws. Governments and businesses get lots of money for lots of interesting things. Many are questionable at best. Someone wrote a “law” that says people are not allowed to give money to something they view as worthy. Seems to me that people who write laws should get behind a drum kit in a park and set up a sign which states their proposed law, and let the people decide if it should be passed into “law” Power To The People!...
Lesson: The Greater Good. Hate in Height Revised
After a day on the streets yesterday, I was walking home with my girl. We were going over the events of the day as this was the first day she actually came with me “to work” and watched. She made some amazing observations and brought a new perspective to the whole project. While I’m playing, I don’t watch every person who walks by. Where I was set up, I couldn’t see people behind me and the line of cars slowing down to take video out their windows. Sarah pointed out that over 90% of the people walking by me were smiling. She told me “I was waiting for someone to mess with you. I was going to tell them I was listening to you” She pointed out, off hand, that so many people were smiling that I shouldn’t stop for one person. I was blown away. A simple truth is that sane conduct is conduct that takes into account all the factors and does the most good for all involved. This is why people get upset with big business who pollute the environment, or who take advantage of financial markets to the advantage of a few. It violates the greatest good for the greatest number, and to that degree their conduct is insane. It made me reflect on my response to the pissed off guy in the Height. Not to be overly self important, I should have said “look dude, I’m sorry you’re pissed. But all these people walking by are enjoying what I’m bringing to the world right now and I think it wouldn’t be fair to them to stop just because you don’t like it.” It’s funny that the upsets and angry interactions we have tend to stick out in our minds. I think more about the old lady grumbling at me for being loud and covering her ears than I do the people who smile and put $ in the case. Its interesting that our concept of “minorities” never encompasses the grumpy people who spread upset. Come to think of it, the majority of people are good. Lesson of the day: Ignore the grumpy minorities in your...
Hate In The Height
I retagged this blog with the tag line from my other site www.TheBestDrummerInTheWorld.com….Tag line, Lessons In Drumming And Confidence. Today, it was I who learned some lessons. This blog is really becoming that. Lessons I learned. And my confidence was shaken. After much debate (all in my mind), I decided that I am going to really go for making this what I do.I’m in San Francisco. My favorite city. Much different than Phoenix. Did you know that 14 million people a year visit Fishermans Wharf?So I started my experiment by taking a kick and snare down to the center of what I thought was hippie, peace love and understanding central. Corner of Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco. I started out at 9 am, went to Home Depot and made myself a drum rug. Packed the car and went about scouting spots in my new home town.When a rare parking spot opened up 3 spaces from the famed corner, I thought I’d struck gold. I unpacked the car, put my kick/snare on the cart and wheeled my little kit across the street. Realized I forgot my hi hat stand, but willed my way to set up and play.Its an experiment after all.Layed down a groove, passers by, stopped and stared. Within 10 minutes I had $2 and probably 20 photos taken.Then it all came crashing down. Some dude, carrying a laundry basket, but not a homeless dude, comes up, obviously pissed. “Do you live here?” (Motions to the building next to me) “no” “Well, why dont you go do this in front of your fuckin house!!!! Its too fuckin loud!!!” “sorry” I mumbled. “you dont give a fuck, you’ll propbably just keep going because you you dont give a fuck” “I give a fuck. You dont have to be a dick about it.” “You wont stop” “I said I’d stop. Because I do care. You just dont have to be a fuckin asshole about it” I started packing up my stuff. The guy stormed off. I was devastated. It struck me that my belief is that drumming is good communication. And communication solves everything. With all the Facebook, email, texting, tweeting, people are strangers to their neighbors. So, it really hit me at a very basic level that this guy just freaked out that I was playing a good groove in his world. I was invading his “personal space” and really upsetting him. And the worst part was he accused me of not caring. The practical lesson learned is that you have to pick the right spot. And you have to take into account the greater surroundings. I was...
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