The Elf Life

Being an elf is not all it's cut out to be, especially in a city like Boston. Last year I made enough money and had enough crazy comments to make it worth it, but this year was quite disappointing.

1. Appearance:
To be a proper elf, one must bundle up. It was warm this week, so I wore the minimum: warm socks, wooly tights, and long johns, a t-shirt, thermal shirt, under-armor ski shirt, fleece vest, and super warm sweater dress. I have many more layers I could add if need be. As a result, I can't wiggle my toes, bend my knees or elbows very far, and my hips are bruised by all the layers of elastic. All of this goes under my homemade elf jacket, skirt, shoes, and hat, and striped red and white tights. Jingle bell earrings complete the ensemble.

Half the fun is just walking around/riding the T as an elf. Sometimes people will smile, sometimes I'll get a thumbs up, often I'll be ignored. Some people even talk to me, either curiously asking if I'm in a show, or telling me messages for Santa. Kids are enthralled, and I try to seek them out. Last year they were even more into it, asking if I'm a real elf, and such. This year they just waved.

Oh, any my accordion wore a reindeer costume.

2. Songs:
To be a musical elf, one must learn holiday songs on their instrument of choice. My family has always had this nice piano book of Christmas Carols, so I chose some of those and wrote the chords out on notecards. I obviously don't practice these as much as my usual songs, so it took a while to sound decent. This year I've written out a set list with more songs, but my best ones are "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "The First Noel," "Angels We Have Heard on High," and "Deck the Halls." I was glad that I was able to remember them pretty quickly this year.

Another new thing I'm doing this year is Klezmer versions of Christmas songs. Years ago I discovered The Klezmonauts . This year I figured out Klezmer (mostly just minor) versions of Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, and Joy to the World as a medley for my performance at Yule for Fuel. Over the past couple days I've added "Feliz Navidad," and "The Twelve Days of Christmas." They didn't get any reaction in Boston, but hopefully they will this weekend in Northampton.

3. Location:
This is always the hard part, finding a good place to play. My research indicated that one needs a permit for Fanueil Hall, the subways, and Cambridge. Here are the places I played:
a. Newbury St. at Exeter. I liked this corner because there are two restaurants. I set up right in front of a tree with lights on it. There are pedestrian lights so people came in waves. Bad because the people there are rich snobs.

b. Downtown Crossing, outside of Borders. Good because you can set up opposite benches, it's a busy shopping area, but bad because a lot of the people are businessmen and -women who are going about their day, and they're not into stopping.

c. Copley Square. Good because I was right outside the T. Bad because, well, it's Boston.

d. Park St. Same as above.

These places were all extremely bad. I was making very little money, and most people ignored me completely. Every once in a while someone with a kid in a stroller would stop, which was my best business. I did okay on the weekend nights there, but not well enough to call it a good spot. I found around the Downtown Crossing area that the people around either had executive office jobs or no jobs, and these aren't the types that care about bohemian gypsies/have money to tip, respectively. The best patrons are artsy types that you typically find in the Pioneer Valley, and these people don't hang out in Downtown Crossing on random weekdays.

e. Davis Square and Harvard Square.
This time around, I added these two squares to my list. Davis wasn't great, but I think I was just early and people weren't around. Harvard Square, on the other hand, was perfect. You need a permit which I didn't have, and I didn't want to pay $40 for just a couple days. I thought I would try it anyway and see if I got caught. This was Wednesday night. I set up a little ways down, by the Harvard Bookstore, so a cop in the Square proper might not hear me. I made good money, and got a lot of nice smiles and compliments! I had my student loan sign out then, which always helps. I was just struck by how nice people were here, and how many smiled and tipped and complimented me. Boston and Cambridge are night and day. If I busk there again I'll spring for the Cambridge permit.

I decided to go home a little early. I got to Boston Tuesday night and I was going to leave Saturday morning to be home for some things this weekend. Playing was so discouraging, and I didn't know if I'd be able to play in Harvard Square again without getting caught. It was supposed to rain all day Thursday anyway, so I came home. I'm excited to play in Northampton this weekend, where I know I can make money.

4. Random assessment:
2010 was a bigger year for Elf busking, but it was exhausting. I was staying with my cousins in Concord, MA which was super cozy, but a ways out of town. My aunt works at Harvard, so I had the option of driving in with her really early, at like 6:30 am. The other option was for my teenage cousins to drive me to the commuter rain station on their way to school, closer to 8:00. That was good, but either way I was getting into Boston very early in the day. Sometimes my aunt's amazing friend Jody would come pick me up and bring me to the commuter rail at like 11:00 am. Whatever happened, my uncle Alex packed four lunches each morning, for his three kids and his elfniece.
These days were grueling. It was COLD. In the mid twenties. I avoided warm drinks because I wanted to avoid bathrooms all day since I had eight layers of tights on. My arms were sore because I was playing a lot and also pulling my accordion around and carrying it up and down stairs in the subways. Sometimes I would take breaks, sitting in comfy chairs in Borders reading my book; once I ate my lunch in an H&M fitting room. Some places were too hot in my full attire. I loved the feeling of jingling my way back to my aunt's office at Harvard to drive home with her. I got to strip off many layers and regain mobility, thaw my extremities, eat a snack, and SIT.
Some days I stayed later and took the commuter rail back, where I got comments from this one woman who collected tickets, in addition to other riders whom I most likely smacked with my box. North Station was always interesting too. On occasion I'd give out business cards to people looking for entertainment for their office parties, but none of those panned out.
I was having glove troubles. I hadn't busked in the cold before, so I had some fingerless gloves. These didn't work, my fingertips froze. That was no good. I tried many combinations, but they were either not warm enough, too slippery so my fingers flew off the keys, or too loose so I hit several keys at once. With one pair, my left palm kept slipping, so I couldn't hold the instrument. This was the era of Silly Bands, so I wound the ones I had around my left hand making a rubbery web to grip the instrument. That helped a lot!!

Finally I sewed together a few pairs, which are making do. I sewed the fingers to be super tight at the tips, and sewed grippy fabric on each fingertip. They were topped with a fingerless layer, mostly to provide two layers so I could slip a handwarmer between them. On the left hand I sewed more grippy fabric. They work okay, but could be better. I'm going to sew a new pair...today.

In 2011, I put in less work and got less out of it. People were just not feeling the outfit. I got the occasional complement, and one ditzy runner saw me and literally squealed, but it was a waste of time. I can remember clearly this woman on Newbury St. who gave me this look of disgust. I did notice, though, that since everyone already thought I was a crazy person I could get away with singing out loud as much as I wanted.

Another good thing about this year was that I didn't have to put in full days since I was staying with friends right by Porter Square. I could come and go whenever I wanted. It was also a lot warmer, which helped. The best part was just seeing friends who live in greater boston, although I didn't get to see all the ones I wanted to. I think I'd have better luck as an elf in the future if I didn't busk, if it was just a study of walking around as an elf. Maybe in New York? I also planned to go to Children's Hospitals or something, but I didn't organize it in time.

Now...for the fun part.

RANDOM THINGS THAT HAPPENED:

2010:
1. One time when I was walking around Harvard to go to my aunt's, I was chased down by some students. It turns out they had seen me from their dorm window, and ran down to get a picture. Not bad for twenty degrees out!

2. My favorite story: the red line was down at one point, and we couldn't go past Central Square. There was a bus from Harvard to Alewife. Beside me on the T was a mother with two kids who had come into the city to see The Nutcracker. They weren't sure what I do. I ended up walking with them to Harvard Square so they could catch the bus. On the walk, I asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas, and they agreed that they wanted a hamster. They had a dog, however, so they were concerned that the dog would eat it. "And then the dog will get a hairball." The tragedy here was not the demise of the hamster, but rather the dog's hairball.

3. A reoccurring character from 2010 was a man I call "Scott the Not Pretzel Man." Scott works in Downtown Crossing outside of Macy's vending something that isn't pretzels. I walked over there, where there's a "holiday market" with Santa photos and everything. He said he'd try to get me a gig there. I passed him a lot, and we'd always check in.

4. On my first day I was wandering around, trying to figure out where to go, and this guy talked to me and ended up walking me back to the Borders I think. I guess he's an undercover FBI agent, he had some strange stuff to say. At the end it came out that he had a gun. I wasn't sad to part ways with him.

5. One of the first places I played was in Copley Square. I met Joe the Piano Mover. He was between moving pianos and came to talk. I wanted to put my chord cards on my accordion stand, and he luckily had some tape that he gave me. Awesome.

6. I saw a few people I knew on Newbury St., which resulted in hugging. But when you hug someone with an accordion on, it makes a crazy sound. Sort of funny.

7. One day I was on the Red Line back to Harvard, and there was an a cappella group singing Christmas songs. I asked who they were, since I had likely heard of them since I was in charge of contacting guest groups to sing with my own college a cappella group. I hadn't hear of them. I joined them for a few rounds of carols, which was lots of fun. It turned out at the end that they're the Tufts Christian a cappella group. You can't really tell at Christmas time!

8. Speaking of singing, I sang with the Sounds of Concord, a men's barbershop choir. There was a special holiday shopping night in Concord, and I went, hoping to make money. I would have, except I only played for a few minutes until I saw the group doing their caroling rounds. I decided to ditch my accordion and sing with them. Besides being the only female in the group, I was also the only elf. This was a lot of fun. I actually saw one of them just a few days ago (2011), and it took a long time to place him.

9. When I was playing on Newbury St. one night I met an artist. He set up right by me to paint the intersection in all the Christmas lights. I ran into him in Ptown last summer, and he reminded me how we had met. Small world.

2011:
1. When I played in Harvard Square, these two young folks came over and said they're doing a scavenger hunt. I didn't expect "accordion playing elf" to be on there, so I was not surprised when they said they had to hug a stranger. It wasn't the first time I hugged a stranger for a photo in an elf costume, but at least they tipped!

2. A stranger on the subway fed me my favorite question: "Is [my costume] something for work?" "Yes," I answer. "What do you do for work?" "I'm one of Santa's elves, of course." Although no one asked where I'm from this year, so I can't say "the North Pole!"

3. A man in a store asked if I'm from Greece. I said no, with a puzzled expression. He pointed to my elf shoes and said they look like traditional Greek shoes. Hm.

4. I always look at the cars who are stopped in front of me at the light on Newbury St. Sometimes they roll down their windows to listen. Behind one window was Jody, my aunt Laura's friend who drove me around last year! So nice to see her, albeit brief and far!

5. This has nothing to do with busking, but between sets I met my bff Liz for coffee. I was fiddling with a pen, and dropped it. I was up on a stool with my accordion in the way, so I couldn't go get it. This kind lady got up and picked it up for me! She said, "I was in the position to get up, you weren't." I played with it more carefully after that.

That's all I can think of. I'll be playing in Northampton alll weekend, starting around 4:00 today. I'm excited to give this one last push, then just enjoy my holidays with my family.

Happy holidays, and please give your local buskers their holiday bonus!!