![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Busking Out All Over
Jul. 6th, 2008 06:42 pmI was a good girl this weekend 8P
Meaning I did not spend money I don't have, no matter how much I would have loved NRWC (I generally do 8). I took advantage of the holiday and busked on Friday and today, so not only am I not in the hole (more), I netted some travel and supply money. I stayed hydrated and there were no "blood sugar crashes".
The economic crunch has trickled down to the busking community, in that spaces which in the past were sometimes already occupied when I was scouting are now ALWAYS occupied. I've gotten a bit better about leaving the house early enough to scout, a skill I seem to have acquired not a moment too soon. I worked in two spots for a total of three hours today. The first platform (Penn Sta. "A") was more of a trainspotting nightmare than usual with the trains perfectly timed to continuously flow in and out of the station in a sequential fashion which made it mostly impossible to get through a whole (2-minute) song. The last straw for me was hearing another guitarist playing in the same space, who was NOT there when I started. (Dammit, I saw people make eye contact and some even applauded -- I $#%$#!!ing KNOW I'm not invisible...)
The second spot was MUCH BETTER 8)
How the crunch has NOT affected my busking:
People still like teh funny.
People still tip using bills.
People still react to high energy, even when I have to be energetic sitting down because of the humidity.
Otherwise, the weekend was pretty quiet. Chores were done, food was consumed, fireworks were watched on the tube (my sleep cycle on Friday went all wonky for a bit).
Must replace my "1776" VHS with a DVD. I did miss playing that over the holiday--it's a family custom.
"WAKE UP, FRANKLIN!! YOU'RE GOING TO NEW BRUNSWICK!"
Meaning I did not spend money I don't have, no matter how much I would have loved NRWC (I generally do 8). I took advantage of the holiday and busked on Friday and today, so not only am I not in the hole (more), I netted some travel and supply money. I stayed hydrated and there were no "blood sugar crashes".
The economic crunch has trickled down to the busking community, in that spaces which in the past were sometimes already occupied when I was scouting are now ALWAYS occupied. I've gotten a bit better about leaving the house early enough to scout, a skill I seem to have acquired not a moment too soon. I worked in two spots for a total of three hours today. The first platform (Penn Sta. "A") was more of a trainspotting nightmare than usual with the trains perfectly timed to continuously flow in and out of the station in a sequential fashion which made it mostly impossible to get through a whole (2-minute) song. The last straw for me was hearing another guitarist playing in the same space, who was NOT there when I started. (Dammit, I saw people make eye contact and some even applauded -- I $#%$#!!ing KNOW I'm not invisible...)
The second spot was MUCH BETTER 8)
How the crunch has NOT affected my busking:
People still like teh funny.
People still tip using bills.
People still react to high energy, even when I have to be energetic sitting down because of the humidity.
Otherwise, the weekend was pretty quiet. Chores were done, food was consumed, fireworks were watched on the tube (my sleep cycle on Friday went all wonky for a bit).
Must replace my "1776" VHS with a DVD. I did miss playing that over the holiday--it's a family custom.
"WAKE UP, FRANKLIN!! YOU'RE GOING TO NEW BRUNSWICK!"
