optional buskers?

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

Anyone know if there is a pause button for Davis T buskers? Can I pay them to not play?


(yes, I love the arts, I love music but I don't love being a captive audience to someone with a cheesy amp, a boom box and a volume control that (apparently) goes to 11)

Comments

[anomie666.livejournal.com]

here (http://community.livejournal.com/b0st0n/4835894.html) is an interesting discussion you might be interested in reading.

[spatch]

GROUCHO: What do you get an hour?
CHICO: For playing, we get-a ten dollas an hour.
GROUCHO: I see. What do you get for not playing?
CHICO: Twelve dollas an hour. Now for rehearsing we make special rates. That's-a fifteen dollars an hour.
GROUCHO: And what do you get for not rehearsing?
CHICO: You couldn't afford it.

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

Ladies and gentlemen, WE HAVE A WINNER!

[sly-salkie.livejournal.com]

I kind of remember hearing that there was a newish rule regulating music volume for subway performers.

If a boombox can be considered performance..

[komos.livejournal.com]

Swamp guitar dude will occasionally get pissed if he hasn't gotten a tip and put out a "NO $ NO MUSIC" sign, but he's not often in Davis anymore.

[anomie666.livejournal.com]

And that guy is horrid too. He is one of the most talentless buskers I've seen.

He lives in my neighborhood, and I often see him at the bus stop (for the 88 bus). Whenever I would see him on a Sunday he would ask me and anyone else around if we would let him ride for free as a "guest" on our bus pass.

[komos.livejournal.com]

I actually like most of the buskers I've seen. He bugs me for his attitude, and bad opera lady was just... bad. Otherwise, I mostly enjoy them, and there have been a few who I've thought were pretty amazing - Mary Lou Lord, for instance.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder if bad opera lady was mentally-impaired, in all seriousness.

[komos.livejournal.com]

There was a certain "How can she not know??" quality to her performances.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Yes! Also, she wasn't even really even understandable.

is she still around?

[fenway1912.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder if bad opera lady was mentally-impaired, in all seriousness.

When I used to live in Davis 10 years ago I walked to Porter to avoid hearing her

Don't tell me she is still there

Re: is she still around?

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen her in years, myself.

Re: is she still around?

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

I saw her at Porter the other day. I've also seen her at Central.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Yeah, I used to see that sign as a challenge.

I was there when he went apopleptic one morning because people weren't paying. I never paid again.

[ron_newman]

I've lately been enjoying the lovely Lily Holbrook whom I've seen on the center platform of Park Street station in the early evening. Her web page says she'll be at Sky Bar in Somervile on March 4.

[gothic-ham.livejournal.com]

I miss the old guy who did the Tibetan chanting & moved speakers close to each other to create a distortion affect... he might have annoyed some people, but for some reason I found him absolutely fascinating. I only saw him in Davis a few times and then I never caught sight of him again. But that was years ago - does anyone know what happened to him?

[feoh.livejournal.com]

I rather miss the older man who used to sing 'standards'. He at least knew the songs he was singing, and I rather enjoyed the fact that these were things my mom used to sing around the house when I was a child.

Most people hated him :) I mostly saw him at Park Street Station 6-8 years ago.

[elements.livejournal.com]

I remember that guy! I didn't really like his music, but it had a nice old-time community kind of nostalgic feel, and the guy was at least talented and very nice.

[matthew miller (from livejournal.com)]

I really enjoyed it when Haitian singer/guitarist Gifrants (http://gifrants.com) was playing at Davis. Haven't seen him in a while, though.

On the other hand, a month or so ago I was travelling through Park Street with a little kid I'd just gotten to sleep, and suddenly: Plastic Tub Drummer! Ow!

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

He's been hanging out in Harvard lately. I really like him, although he has one tune that he played so often I could chant the refrain in my sleep, even if I had no idea what it meant!

[anomie666.livejournal.com]

Everyone knows that song...I honestly think he only knows like 4 songs, and he plays that 1 song every other time. I think he is good, but its pretty bad when everyone else knows the words to the song that is in another language because they hear it so freakin much.

[elements.livejournal.com]

I like his music but I hate it when I hear him because then I have at least one of his songs in my head all week because I know all four of them so well by now. I find myself singing them in the shower and stuff. And that just feels odd. And then if I start randomly singing one while I'm walking around outside I wonder how many other people walking nearby will say to themselves, wait, she got the chorus wrong just then, or something, because they all know it so well too. I think he should find another beat for a while so we can forget the words and get to missing him for a bit.

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

Earplugs, motherfucker!

So...

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

So it seems like most people like or at least tolerate the busker music/sound/noise (pick one..).


I don't ride the trains all that much but have been more in recent weeks. I guess everytime I do I am struck by the odd phenomenon of the "busker experience"(include public art in general) and wonder at the bizarre/banal set of public policy decisions and cultural values it embodies.


Art/Music is good for you/we support the arts (you have to listen to it even if you would rather not/even if it is bad or poorly designed)

Re: So...

[watchamacallit.livejournal.com]

I must ride the train to/from the only stops without buskers and I'm very glad for that.

Re: So...

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Personally, I find some buskers terrible and some great, but I'm (almost) always happy to endure talent of whatever level. One thing to remember when you're enduring the less talented sort is that every once in a while, you may be listening to the next Tracy Chapman, or Guster or (fill in blank of famous musician who started out as Boston-area busker). So there's that. I saw Eric McKeown perform in Davis within the past couple of years, and she's the shit.

Re: So...

[ron_newman]

Amelia White used to perform in T stations before she moved to Nashville. She still returns to Boston a few times a year to play at Toad or Lizard Lounge or Club Passim, and she may even busk in the subway occasionally during her visits.

[revolution724.livejournal.com]

See, this is why I love my iPod and its volume control.

[adaptively.livejournal.com]

Seriously...the teary "grrl-folk" chick I've run into a few times is neatly drowned out by Finnish death metal. :D

I love this guy

[fenway1912.livejournal.com]

This man always makes me smile

Harvard Square subway banjo player (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoRIJt-bpHM)

Re: I love this guy

[edmokeski.livejournal.com]

"This train will be standing by for a few minutes."
Even bad news is good news when you're listening to the banjo, am I right?

http://clipland.com/Fun/Item/348-alaska-air-commercial-banjo.html
Just had to share. :-)

Re: I love this guy

[fenway1912.livejournal.com]

as long as it is played well

Now if only someone could teach the guy in front of the Harvard Coop how to play the Chinese fiddle (The Erhu)

It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful and haunting sounds in Chinese music but all that guy does it make chalk on a blackboard sound good.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

They almost instituted a ban on amps a year or two ago, but got shouted down (so to speak). Still, there is a rule that it can't be too loud. If you don't like it I would (first) ask the performer if he'd turn it down. They really shouldn't be playing loudly. They can't exactly get all huffy about it because they need a permit to busk in the T and I'm sure the T can refuse them if they get too many complaints.

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

A ban on amps would be great. I would think that it would draw the people who want to hear closer and let those of use who are content with the noise in our heads free to listen to that... ;-)

[elements.livejournal.com]

I'm no musician, but I think some instruments just don't function without an amp. So the key is a reasonable maximum volume. I don't know how you'd enforce it tho - an amp could be modded so it's "5" would still sound like 11 :). And asking T staff to carry decibel meters sounds a little nuts. But I am with you on the sanity/commonsense aspect of there being a volume limit. I like the noise-or-lack-of in my head more than music a lot of the time - or the quiet observation of daily life and humanity, which wearing earplugs or headphones cuts you off from.

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

I feel guilty now that I didn't speak out in support of the ban then. I got a bunch of forwards from friends circulating petitions to protest it, but I thought it was a great idea.

[ron_newman]

Some history of busking on the T, from 1977 to the present, by Stephen Baird of Community Arts Advocates. Links to an even longer page about the 2003 battle between the T and buskers.

[madfilkentist]

I generally throw buskers some change, but not if they're annoying, for instance by playing too loud.

[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

The only two who actively irritate me these days are that:

-That guy who sings in French, and has the most repetitive, non-melodic acoustic guitar style I've ever heard. I want to take an electric drill to my ears when he's there. But he DOES have more talent than......

-Swamp Guitar Guy! That guy is so bad it defies description. I remember him yelling at some people for not giving him money (at Park Street, I think), and I wanted to just yell out that he needed at least two years worth of lessons before he should be legally allowed to play guitar in public.

But neither of these two are as obnoxious as that tall dirty guy with the cap who wanders around the platform asking people to buy Spare Change. Or the guy who hangs out between the escalators and asks people for change by the College Ave side. Of the homeless guys who are always sleeping and smoking in the station. Davis is kind of a hotbed of annoyance that way.

[ron_newman]

if someone's really obnoxiously and loudly bad and doesn't have the required license badge from the T, you could try to have him removed...

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Tall dirty guy was wandering around the Davis T this morning. Ever since I read in this journal about his scheme to "sell" copies of Spare Change, but then not actually give you what he claims is his last copy after he takes your dollar, I give him the stink eye hard and he keeps his distance.

I've seen Swamp Guitar throw pennies at people and spit in their general direction. He's a menace.

[ron_newman]

If you see that guy again, fill out the form at Spare Change News. I just did.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

Tall Dirty Guy actually had something of a breakdown one morning when I was on the T. He was snapping a medical glove and muttering to himself, and occasionally glancing at me. He got off at Porter, then jerked a bit, turned around, screamed, and bull-charged at me.

Thankfully, the T doors closed, and he was left to bang on them until we pulled out of the station.

I am happy to support Spare Change, or even the odd pan-handler. However, I recognize that this sort of thing could be quite frightening to someone who does not have a social services background, and lament that there is -nothing- to be done about it within the stations themselves. Much like the occasionally faulty train, the occasionally faulty human underscores the need for in-station MBTA officials who are ensuring that things are relatively safe and smooth.

[ron_newman]

I talked to a real, legitimate Spare Change News vendor at Davis last night. They are trying their best to find this guy and have him thrown out. All legitimate vendors now have both badges and clearly-marked aprons, precisely to discourage this behavior.

[left-unsaid.livejournal.com]

He's often there between 5 and 5:30pm on weekdays, approaching people as they wait for trains (downstairs). I filled out the form at Spare Change News per your link above. I think he irritates me the most just for the fact that he calls every woman he approaches "Miss" grrrrr

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

Drunks, pan handlers and bad buskers out of Davis Sq T stations please. While I'm at it and off topic, can the people who stuck those arab/jewish posters (with never remove glue) all over the square take them down?
Oh and that guy who had his laptop stolen -dude, take your posters down.

[ron_newman]

The "arabs & jews" poster folk have a letter in this week's Jewish Advocate. Their names are:

Emmaia Gelman
Nikki Morse
Mary Jirmanus
Tahnit Sakekeeny
Sa’ed Atshan
Marjorie Dove
Katherine Toukhy