Busking
Busking is a beautiful thing, and a different experience entirely every time I go again. For those who might not know what busking is, it's just another word for performing in public for donations from passersby. I play my acoustic guitar and sing, but some people mime, dance, juggle, or whatever sort of "useless talents" they might have. It can be really fun and sometimes I can wrangle up enough money for a few drinks and a pack of smokes (about $20). It can also be exhausting and fruitless; I play for an hour without getting a dollar some days. Yesterday was a perfect example of both of these extremes - I made $5 in my first 30 minutes, and continued to do fairly well for maybe an hour after that. I decided to take a break and get some beers down the street. When I went out to play again, I made $0 in 45 minutes. Disappointing, yes, but this is the name of the game. It's what I get for making money off of good samaritans, and ultimately, luck.
Busking has its perks besides just getting a few extra bucks from strangers, however. There's lots of people downtown that might just stop by for a listen or drop a compliment, and that's really nice. Lots of lovely and sketchy homeless people alike will stop by to smoke a bowl on the street corner and bullshit. I met a couple of guys yesterday that hung out with me for an hour or so, smoking weed and making song requests. One of them even ran off down the alleyway to find some trash to use as drums to jam with. Really fun and funny guys, I'm sure I'll see them down there again.
If you read my blog from the very beginning (which I highly, highly doubt), you might already know that I'm a big fan of smiles. Nothing makes busking worth it like the smiles I get from strangers. I had the good fortune of receiving a smile yesterday that I might remember forever - a cute girl about my age, maybe a few years older, gave me the warmest smile I've felt in a long while. Full of love, nothing more, nothing less. One of the guys standing near me that I mentioned in the previous paragraph started loudly jesting: "Man did you see that? She was eye-fuckin' you hard, man!"
I just smiled and kept on with my song, but he was right, in a crude sense, and it felt good. Her lovely smile is in my head and heart just as it was yesterday and as it will likely be tomorrow.
I'll probably head downtown to do it all over again any day I can this week - I need all the spare change I can gather right now.
Speaking of gathering spare change, there's a minnow uprising happening - click here for more info!
@k0wsk1 Thank you for not using bidbots on this post and also using the #nobidbot tag!