Big weekend of busking!! Usually after a big marathon Saturday I'm not up for playing at all on Sunday. I had mixed feelings about going out, because I was exhausted and sore, and I really wanted to catch up on writing. Besides I had band practice at 12:00, and I wasn't going to get there till 10:30. Worth it for so little time? Yes. This was of course the day of the Stockbridge Market, and I really wanted to check it out. Who knew what it would lead to.
Sunday, 26 February 2012.
It was a nice long walk. All the way to Princes St., down Queen St., then down the steep and narrow Gloucester Ln. Accordion wasn't happy with the cobblestones! What was revealed, finally, was an adorable little market, down the hill from the rest of the city. It was set up on a dirt floor; perhaps a former park whose grass was worn down by the market? Or a dog park? It was smaller than the Saturday market, with the stalls set up in narrow quarters. The wares were really nice; olives, pastries, hot pepper jelly. Oxfam had a stand with used CDs and stuff. There was definitely overlap with the Saturday market, and the French Connection crepe truck that usually sits in Grassmarket was there. Artisan Roast, a super hipstery coffeeshop in Bruntsfield was selling coffee out of the boot of an old car. I found Robbie, the porridge guy, and he told me to ask the bread stall for Beth, the market organizer. I did, and they pointed me out to the olive vendor.
Beth is so nice! She's sort of like a Wanda character from "Wishbone," bright dyed red hair, loud apron with a funny pattern (I guess that makes her more of a Ms. Frizzle character) and she was as nice as can be. She said that it was my lucky day; usually buskers email her to book sundays, but no one had for that week. She did say, though, that the neighbors get mad if the music starts before like 11:45 AM. This was just pushing 11, and I had to be home for band practice at noon! No matter though, she let me do it anyway. I promised to play quietly. She suggested I set up by the tables, where people would linger, and also enter the market. This time, I put Flaca on my left, so she'd be more exposed. Everything went really well! And I'm definitely glad I went, because I got a text from Sas saying that band practice was going to be that evening instead. I had no time constraints! Here's what happened:
Part I: Flaca
I started doing bullet points, but most of what I have to say is about Flaca and children, so I'll just consolidate it all!
Generally speaking, there were so many kids. Everywhere. Packs of 'em. And Flaca was a hit! She barely got to sit down, since she kept being passed around! Sebastian was her biggest fan. He was probably around four, and took it upon himself to introduce me to all the children. He was NOT, however, interested in sharing. He decided that certain kids' turns with Flaca were over about 15 seconds in, and that it was his turn again.
He helped distribute her to lots of children, some of whom were vocal about using her, and others who took some coaxing away from their parents' legs to come take a turn. Sebastian was pretty convincing. Her tap shoes were obviously doing nothing on an Earth floor, so at one point I closed my big box so she could dance on top. This was pretty cool, as a stage, but it wasn't obvious that Flaca's box was available for tipping and my babysitting flyers were blocked, so, with Sebastian's blessing and assistance, I opened my box again.
I gave out a bunch of babysitting flyers! Some really seemed interested, asking about my rates and availability and stuff. One works at a local school and offered to hang some flyers for me! I declined hanging this batch, since they need updating. I will definitely go hang flyers in Stockbridge, though! I talked to one family, little Kenna and her dad, who are from Madison but came to Edinburgh for the University. Sebastian told me that it was a girl's birthday, so I played Happy Birthday and no one reacted. Do they use it over here?
A lot of parents were concerned about their kids tangling Flaca's and dirtying her skirt. I obviously don't care, but I should have thought about that when giving her a white dress! When I made Flaca's setup, I had hoped that people would put smaller tips in both of our boxes, but so far no one had done that. Finally, one little girl was given a couple of coins, and put one in each box out of her own volition! The parent was totally surprised. Way to be fair, little girl. Another woman told me she wanted to tip Flaca, but I was the one actually playing. Right, what is Flaca doing to earn money?? Nothing!!
There was a French dad and his little girl, Eloise. He took not a babysitting flyer but a business card, and asked if I might be interested in playing at Eloise's birthday party. Hell yes! He also told me about a French musician, Yves Montand. Anyone know this one?
Part II: Not Flaca, not children.
1. A man recognized "Werewolves of London!" And offered to buy me a coffee. Very nice, but not in my diet.
That's actually all for this section.
Part III: Other Vendors
1. The closest stall to me was the bread stall, where the bread man danced a little! I talked to him after, at the Chocolate Tree stand, and saw that he has one blue eye and one brown eye. He confessed that "[My act] was great, but after a while it was a bit much." Understandable. I was definitely feeling bored and cold at the end, and wasn't playing as well.
2. Beth continued to be so nice! She even tipped me and said it was great to have me there! Hope I can book another Sunday soon.
3. The lady working the Chocolate Tree stand was super nice, and agreed to give me a hot chocolate for a pound. Awesome.
4. Also close to me was a booth for Yelp. Not sure what they were doing there! Hard to tell if the young woman working was super annoyed or not! She had a nice jacket.
5. It's funny, I've seen Sophie from Australia everywhere. I looked at a flat that already had two Sophies in it, including her. Then I ran into her twice randomly on the streets. Then she was working the Oxfam booth! Crazy.
I quit around 1:00 because I was bored and didn't want to piss off the vendors. I was super hungry, and hadn't brought food since I thought I was going right home. I had the hot chocolate, and sampled an olive from Beth. I was planning on going right home to write before band practice, and my walk takes me by Princes St. I saw the pedi-cabs all lined up, since the rugby game was ending. That reminded me that it was still a big weekend. I wasn't planning on playing more, but I happened upon a perfect pitch. It was right on Princes St., in the mouth of a side street that was closed for construction. This meant I had a really wide pitch, with tons of space and no businesses to get annoyed right there. It had an amazing view of the castle. I thought it couldn't hurt to play through my songs once! Then I ended up staying for two more hours. I hadn't played Princes St. before; fundamentally I wasn't in a hurry because it's all designer shoppers, which aren't usually the tipping types. Additionally, there are a lot of homeless folks and it's a heavy bagpipe area, so the sound space is pretty busy. I'll go back though!
PRINCES ST:
1. A guy recognized the Godfather theme. That is all.
2. Three preteen girls walked by, and one tipped. Sort of in that jokey way that's done to make the friends laugh. Great. But the joke continued; she walked by twice more in the two hours I was there, doing nothing but walking by me and smiling. Somehow this was supposed to amuse the friends?
3. Mom, dad, and kid walked by. Dad was smoking a joint. Come on! Especially disappointing after seeing the wholesome farmer's market scene.
4. A Canadian man talked about loans. And said he liked my skirt, adding "Thanks for cheering me up today." Mission accomplished! (That sounded sarcastic, but wasn't; I really do feel like my work is done if I cheer people up!)
5. I lost Portugal :( Let me elaborate: did I tell you about Flaca's setup? Well she's held up by one of those L-shaped hinged stands for holding decorative plates. I hang her on it by the sweater, and set the whole unit on top of my thick Let's Go Europe 2008 book for elevation. I love this book. I got it on sale in Spain in 2009, and rather than bringing the whole book on my side trips, I cut out the relevant pages, paperclipped them, and brought just them. I've shoved them back in the right spots now, and the book makes me look like a seasoned traveler. This means there are some loose pages, even in the paperclips. The wind kept knocking over Flaca's. That's find. But then one big guest forced the cover open as well and sent pages flying. Some passersby managed to grab the Santiago de Compostela section, which didn't lose its paperclip, but Portugal was sent off. I wanted to go after those pages, but there was no one to watch my stuff. I scurried towards the tram construction anyway, and got a few pages, keeping an eye on my stuff the whole time. When I packed up, an hour later, I walked in the direction that they had blown to try to find at least one page. There were two within the construction, but I couldn't get in there to retrieve them since it was Sunday. I walked pretty far, closely examining every scrap of paper on the ground, but found nothing. It isn't a huge tragedy since the missing pages are theoretically places I've been, but maybe there was some new stuff! And I wanted my badass book to stay intact! Maybe a lonely soul got hit in the face with a Portugal page, took it as a sign, and booked a ticket to Portugal where they have now found love with a Fado musician. I'm going to assume that happened.
Anyway...I had two big ideas, about gloves and Flaca.
I. Gloves: the idea for my accordion gloves, which are always in various stages of being invented, is to tighten the fingertips and make them super grippy. I realized that simply wrapping each [right] fingertip in a rubber band would accomplish both of those. I'll have to test it out.
II. Flaca. Having Flaca's own setup is helping business, but it would undoubtedly help more if I could do both at once. My act works, and I get tips, but I rarely get crowds. I need a gimmick to draw people in during the Festival. Flaca is good, and I've also been thinking of adding ankle percussion to my songs. I realized that I can combine both! All I have to do is make Flaca a stand where she's held upright with a loud surface in the floor for her tap shoes. Then I need to connect her strings to a pulley system, and attach them to some body part of mine. I was thinking my feet, but there are only so many movements my foot can make her do. Robbie the porridge vendor suggested I tie individual strings to my right fingers, thus giving Flaca a greater range of movements. I could make sure her cymbals work and even put bells on her, so she's a dancer AND a percussion device. That would be awesome. I could even consider giving her a little accordion instead of cymbals so she's the entire act and I'm merely the puppeteer and sound-maker. I have to start preliminary sketches!
One more post to go, and then we're caught up! Yeahh!
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