Friday
As luck would have it, I got "my spot" (forever on this means 18th and Castro). As I'm walking down the block I can't tell if it's open until I'm upon it, and when it's taken what usually gives my competition's presence away is a guitar neck. I have thus come to resent guitar necks. Sorry.
Why I should learn French:
A man came up and starting speaking French. I delivered my best "Je ne parlais pas la frances." He spoke more French. "Je voudre parlar la frances." (I know "je voudre" from that time in Valence when I said "Je voudre Espagne.") More French. "Hablo español." "Ah! ¡Gracias por tu música!" "Gracias por escuchandola." Anyway, this reminded me that I simply must learn French. As an accordion player named Sophie everyone thinks I'm French.
Speaking of which:
Another man with a big handlebar mustache came up and asked if I was Polish. I said I wasn't, and he said something like "Well the Polish girls play big accordions at the bar! Polish girls with mustaches like mine." Eek!
Ha, really?:
This night was chilly. Like, lower 50s. People kept commenting on how I must be cold. One guy offered me his jacket. Another guy logically stated that, "If I'm cold, you MUST be cold!" People, I played when it was 25 degrees. This is nothing. Although I am glad I brought my Sophie's Smokin' Squeezebox Not Yet Patented Mostly Grippy, Tight, and Warm Enough Accordion Gloves because my fingertips are still slowed down on chillier nights.
Joan's Recommendation:
I mentioned Joan (like Miró), another busker? Well he told me about being a backup busker at Ghiardelli Square. It's right next to Fisherman's Wharf and thus has ample tourists. You have to sign up for a permit and get scheduled and booked and stuff, but Joan's tight with the woman in charge and she calls him whenever a performer doesn't show up so he can play for free. I might just follow in his footsteps.
Other tidbits:
1. A guy requested Neil Young. What song should I learn?
2. I've been playing Morir Soñando (long boring paragraph about it to come), and I think some Mexicans (well maybe not Mexicans, but it's a Mexican song so it would make sense) recognized it!!
3. In this business I'm no longer surprised when I get lingering smiles or compliments that have nothing to do with my playing, but this one guy made me chuckle. He was stopped at the light and kept catching my eye and raising his eyebrows and making what I assumed he thought were seductive faces. When he finally put money in he gave me a big wink, which amused me because the wink was so unnecessary, I had gotten the message pretty clearly in the last forty seconds. Ah, fans.
Morir Soñando
I am very excited that "Morir Soñando" is now in the starting rotation. This is a song I heard done by Flaco Jimenez, and it's really beautiful. Your typical Mexican waltz. It's on my accordion pump-up playlist and I started transcribing it and learning it (I couldn't find music anywhere) last year. Since I only figured out the first forty seconds, I put off adding it to the set list so far. However, a week ago I realized that forty seconds is fine, that most people only stick around for five seconds, so I've been playing it. I love playing it, as it sounds impressive without being too hard. And I love playing in 3/4 time. I've even working on my bellows shake (accordion vibrato). I'm going to move "finish transcribing it" to the very top of my to-do list now.
Here it is, the link you've been waiting for: Hear the song
(the Flaco version didn't seem to exist on youtube, so I had to add it).
Saturday
Oh no! It rained on Saturday! I was going to play on 24th St. for the Noe Valley farmer's market crowd, and I had even made mini-fliers for babysitting. Too bad. More rain on Sunday.
Tuesday
Tuesday is Farmer's Market day at the Ferry Building, so I headed over there. I was disappointed to see that a group had gotten the good spot in the crosswalk, but they ended up being really cool. When I approached them they said, "Hey, you're the girl who plays the little red accordion!" They had walked by during the previous week's pro-choice rally when I was playing "Don't Stop Me Now," their favorite Queen song. This made me happy because this is my best (and hardest!) of my popular songs, and I looked forward to everyone in the world recognizing it when I started arranging it.
They are a trio that does klezmir sounding stuff on accordion (whoa!!), clarinet, and washboard. They sounded really good, and actually have some gigs booked. The first is on the 5th, so they had to think of a band name by then. It turns out that the two girls are from Rhode Island, and went to high school with my Clark friends Shane and Nader. Crazy! They surrendered their spot after about a half hour, since they had come into the city for free museum day. They live on the East Bay so whenever they come in they bring their gear to pay for their trip. Very cool. They still had to wait for friends, so they actually sat and listened to me for a bit, which I'm not used to. I kind of liked having an audience, especially since two of them got up and danced! They're playing a show in a couple weeks in the Mission, and I'm going to wrack my brain for the name of the bar and go see them.
Stuff that happened:
1. A man came up and told me that I need to play fast, like Mexicans! Noted.
2. I played for a big group of girls on a field trip. Unfortunately I don't really know how to please kids over age five. I asked if they had any favorite showtunes. They asked for Justin Bieber. Or Ke$ha (ugh part of my soul just died actually punching in the dollar sign). Finally we settled for Beyonce, and I did the least soulful version of "Single Ladies" you'll ever hear.
3. A one woman band walked by! She had a ringmaster type costume on, and held a steel guitar. On her back was a big drum. I forget what else. She certainly means business, it was a little unnerving.
4. Unfortunately, the Hot Dog Man wasn't there, so I could neither redeem his certificate for a hot dog nor go meet him. Oh well.
5. Remember the trick bikers/skateboarders who hang out in the crosswalk island and smoke weed? Well this time one skateboarder decided to jump over my box. All day. Pretty cool.
After playing, I met up with Anthony the sax player again. Our new song this week was "Stand by Me," and he proposed we take our show on the road down to the wharf. He says that we can't get busted if we keep moving. We walked along the Embarcadero toward the piers. I kept my accordion strapped on so we could play whenever. We discovered that we could play while walking, both of us playing with just our left hands while our right hands pulled our respective wheeled apparati. "Brown Eyed Girl" thus emerged.
This will be the last time that I play with Anthony on his turf, because I felt uncomfortable with his busking style. He keeps moving, and goes up to groups of people and asks (/pressures them) if they want to hear a song. They usually feel obligated to say yes, and then to tip him. In my opinion, it's moves like this that make many people dislike street musicians, and put them in the same category as panhandlers. I know that I am lucky to do better than most street musicians, due to my instrument of choice, sex, and age (and non-homeless appearance), and thus don't have to resort to this tactic.
However, I did learn from Anthony where exactly you need a permit on the wharf. I was going to avoid it completely due to its complicated application/scheduling procedure, but I might actually go in the surrounding area, because on weekdays during the day it's really the only place with enough foot traffic. This does mean taking the bus home that goes through Chinatown, which isn't the best place for a big wooden box as it knocks over the hundreds of ancient Chinese women with their entire bamboo plants that board at rush hour. Oops.
That's all for Tuesday! I was in the sun so I'm really freckly now.
Oh and I forgot to include that last Tuesday I saw a woman with a Wired Puppy t-shirt, a coffeeshop in Provincetown! Yeahhh!
Wednesday
Again, not too much to report. Yesterday was actually one of my worst days yet.
Reasons why it may have been bad:
1. I've been growing my hair so I can do two braids, and yesterday was the first day I did them. I was very excited about them, but I fear they may be bad luck.
2. I chose a bad time of day to play, 3:00-6:00 in the Castro. I thought that people would be getting off work and having tea/shopping or whatever, but it was too early. As I was packing up it was getting busier for dinner, so I learned the lesson that there's really no point in going before dinner time unless there's a daytime event.
3. I didn't have my spot all along. When I got there this cello player had it. I regret the fact that I haven't talked to him yet, I've seen him a few times and we're clearly in competition for the good spots, so I might as well charm him (or lie and say you need a permit for my spot. That'll get him!!!) Also someone needs to tell him to SMILE while he plays. And probably get a funny hat. Anyway, I went up a couple blocks to the Castro BART stop (aka the Harvey Milk Plaza) which was real bad. There's a stoplight which is good, but there's no bus traffic, and it was too early for a lot of BART commuters.
4. I was also just playing poorly. I had had a long practice session that morning, and usually I don't do both in the same day. My wrists weren't hurting or anything, but maybe my brain has an accordion limit (I know most people's souls do).
By the time I gave up and packed up, grumpy cello guy was gone, so I took over my spot. Location really does make a difference, in the brief time that I had my spot, I got three five dollar bills that prevented yesterday from being literally the least money-making day ever (one guy even flashed his five to make sure I saw it and knew how generous he was). Love those fives, they mean I make 400% more than I otherwise would in a given 20-second period (is that right math? Caffeine's wearing off).
Today's Tales:
1. A crazy guy was wandering around loudly pondering the fact that the dragons are going to take over the world. Excuse me, the fucking dragons.
2. I ran into one of Katina's friends that I had met at her party!
3. A guy with a wicked old camera loitered. It's from the '30s and looks really cool. He just got it and is figuring out. He'll send me pics if they come out, I'm excited about that.
4. Finally, finally, finally I got pizza. I was feeling really left out that every other busker in history has gotten pizza from a passerby. Aborto has, Cady the statue lady has, everyone but me. But wait! A guy with a huge red and black mohawk walked by with a pizza box. When I finished a song, he proffered me the opened box. No pizza has ever tasted sweeter. I bet cello guy didn't get any pizza. However this pizza high wore off when I realized that I had no plate or napkins. I sacrificed the recently printed "I Want You Back" sheet music (oops, spoiler alert!!) and continued playing until I could procure napkins. A teenager took a couple pictures so I asked if she had a napkin. She said she didn't. A few minutes later, she came back with a stack. Definitely the MVP of the day. I could eat pizza, and my accordion survived my greasy fingers.
5. On the way home, I ran into a guy who had walked by earlier. I'm pretty sure he was drunk. We had the strangest conversation ever:
Man: I know you! Christina!
Sophie: No, you saw me playing accordion a little while ago!
Man: Oh yeah. What do you do for a living?
Sophie: I play accordion on the streets.
Man: And you pay rent doing that?
Sophie: Well I'm not paying rent at the moment, but when I have to I do other work too.
Man: Like....work with energy?
Sophie: Sure.
Man: Or study teach?
Sophie: Closer.
Man: You know, my [something] is from Beijing and does acupuncture. You should take the L train and get off at the zoo, stop for a burrito if
you want, then go get acupuncture. If you do that it means you're a smart person.
Hm, I do want to be a smart person so maybe I'll do that. As long as I can also go to the zoo.
The very exciting news is that I'm learning the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back." I'm getting ready for a Valentine's Day that I hope is comparable to New Year's Eve, and I'm learning some new songs. I googled "classic love songs" and this was on the list. I have the intro down (as can be seen on my dad's facebook wall) but still have to practice a lot. I'm super pumped to have it in my repertoire.
Oh, I saw two Red Sox hats!!! Yayy! Boooo Giants!
That is all.
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