Buskers

[candyleonard.livejournal.com]

Just wondering what other Davis Square area residents think abuot the buskers that play out between JP Licks and hte theater? There are several that play quite frequently - I'm sure we all know who they are - and then some new ones from time to time. Any thoughts about this?

Comments

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

That feels oddly like a leading question. I'm sure not all of them are fabulous singers or performers, but I've always smiled when I went through and there was live music there. It is nice to live in a neighborhood that encourages that sort of art and performance.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I like 'em. They're not too loud, some of them are quite talented, and it beats the heck out of the plaza's usual "Goddacigarette, honey?" soundtrack.

[teratomarty.livejournal.com]

I've always thought all buskers should be required by law to have two tip jars- one for "play," one for "stop." A quarter in the "stop" jar gets you 25 seconds of silence.

[ron_newman]

I love having them and hope they will continue.

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

The one guy who plays Simon and Garfunkel and Neil Young and etc. covers all day every weekend for weeks on end isn't my favorite.

[abilouise.livejournal.com]

Amen to that.

[jodi.livejournal.com]

double, no , triple amen to that.
i love having live music in the square but that particular musician makes us take the long way home to avoid the square.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

yeah, fourthed... he doesn't even know all the words/correct words, which is funny when he only plays like four songs!

I actually like this guy

[shana-lyons.livejournal.com]

He did a decent cover of Harvest Moon one evening while I was eating my crepe from Mr. Crepe. . Made my day.

Re: I actually like this guy

[lefauxfrog.livejournal.com]

I heard that cover of Harvest Moon as well while sitting at Mike's. I have no opinion about the rest of his music. I think he may have summoned rain with his cover of Jimmy Cliff's "I Can See Clearly Now".

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

This dude drives me out of the square and it seems like he's there all the time. It's one of the things I do not look forward to about the nice weather.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

agreed, we have often chosen to not eat our take out in the square on evenings he's performing.

that being said, I do generally like performers out in the square!

I too have avoided Davis Square because of the tacky music

[rozhinka.livejournal.com]

I'm embarrassed by the cheesy, obvious, folk-shlock. Isn't Davis Square supposed to be (snark alert) "hip"? Is this the best we can do?

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

This is the same guy who murders Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage".

Send him to Ogunquit.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I've always considered them kind of a key part of why I like living near Davis Square so much.

I also consider the generally high overall quality of Boston's busker musicians to be one of the drawing factors of this area. The fact that we have not-one-but-two world famous music schools around here seems to help a lot. :-)

Buskers, follow-up

[candyleonard.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean it as a leading comment - just wondering what other's think about them. I agree that live music in the square is a good thing, for many reasons.

[haptotrope.livejournal.com]

I find them lovely and I am pleased to also have some other distractions/enjoyments to look at than those very creepy concrete sculptures.

[nalz.livejournal.com]

+1! Those sculptures are so odd.

[haptotrope.livejournal.com]

also, it looks like they ran out of bronze. so they chose poor excecution, and mixed materials, for added weird.

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

Originally, the statues, which are actually based on real people who lived around Davis Square, were all placed in the brick plaza in front of J.P. Licks and Store 24. However, around 1996, the City and the Somerville Arts Council decided to space out the statues in order to increase their influence around the square, thus placing them in their locations today. Also, have you ever noticed how the faces of the statues are darker than the rest of their bodies, as if they’re wearing some kind of Halloween masks? As stated by Steven Post, “the statues were meant to be ‘temporary’ in that they were not made of bronze. Vandals destroyed some of the faces of the statues over the years, so the artist and the City decided to replace the faces with the bronze ‘mask’ that the statues all now ‘wear’.”

Source:
http://www.somervillema.gov/cos_content/documents/HP;20%20The%20Statues%20of%20Davis%20Squares.pdf

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

that doesn't explain the mime/angry man scowling at cowering mime statue.... anyone have any idea what that's about?

[zmook.livejournal.com]

I call that particular set "Satan and the Pleading Mime".

But +1 for buskers. I always give them whatever change I've got in my pocket, even if I'm not stopping to listen.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

People hate mimes. That's why the guy is angry--mimes suck!

The flower guy used to have a t-shirt that said "I am not a Moonie" but I suppose people from the Unification Church thought that shouldn't be memorialized in a statue. The real guy used to wear different t-shirts and buttons that said "I am not a Moonie," because back in the day the Unification Church members used to sell flowers on the street and there was a lot of controversy about same.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

James Tyler is the sculptor who created them
http://www.tylersculpture.com/

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

What is interesting is that the statues on this page: http://www.tylersculpture.com/pages/tyler%20public%20b.htm
but the mime ones and the flower guy are not shown. They're just behind 'fishman and fishwoman" but that's it. I will say that the faces did look better when you could see they were all one medium.

[rozasharn.livejournal.com]

I like them. Gives local color.

[anomie666.livejournal.com]

I don't mind them. To be honest, I prefer them out in the open in the square than in the subway (outside you can move away if it is annoying you, in the subway, you are trapped).

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the subway musician who really gets on my nerves is even a good musician (he plays a hollow-body electric guitar and sings in some language I don't recognize - the guitar's at a reasonable level, but he cranks the vocals up too loud). I think he's more often at Harvard now. And the woman who butchered hymns and Broadway by singing off key a capella appears to have graduated and moved away, huzzah!

There's indoor voice, outdoor voice, and go take lessons.

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

Gifrants, I bet -- http://gifrants.com/ . I like when he sings in Creole because the lyrics are often horribly cheesy so it's best when it's in a language I don't recognize. :)

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

I've never heard him sing in English. He has a great voice, and his tunes are catchy, but his amp is at concert (for younger people than me, and rowdier music than his) level rather than subway station level.

[cos]

As a general concept, I really like it.

Specific opinions depend on the specific performer, of course. Some I love, some I'm indifferent about, some I pay no attention to, some I find mildly pleasant... can't recall any that I've actively disliked recently, but that probably happens from time to time too.

I also appreciate the occasional living statue or other unusual non-music busker.

Don't mind them...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

It's not like that location is exactly quiet. Beats the traffic noise...

[midorionna.livejournal.com]

i like them, but i agree with the other posters re: simon/garfunkel guy- so repetitive!

one guy invited me to join him on his mic in the summer when i was messing around on the uke. i thought that was pretty damn nice of him.

[makoshark.livejournal.com]

I'd love to have a variety in any case but any busker, in my opinion, is better than none.

The buskers and the whole environment they create is part of what attracted me to Davis in the first place.