Re: OT: Busking--it's hard for everyone

[Jeff Shirkey <jcshirke@midway.uchicago.edu>]

>
> I, on the other hand, interpret it as a bunch of very busy people  
> going to a place where they will do something important to them and  
> they don't want to be to be bothered with some guy jamming on a  
> violin no matter how good he is. How presumptuous and narcissistic  
> it is of us musicians to think that people actually want to hear  
> music on the way to work anyway.

Amen.

> There's the rare occasion that a busker is doing something I'm  
> remotely interested in like playing a chinese violin or using  
> puppets. That I'll take off my headphones for... but a virtuoso  
> classical violinist playing Schubert or a bebop guitarist playing  
> standards? forget it. I don't care if it's Joe Pass himself, I'd  
> rather have holes punched in my ears with toothpicks. but... of  
> course, that's just me.

Pardon my ignorance, but what makes a Chinese violin different from a  
'regular' (?) one? And puppets?? What's up with that?

Well, I know I'd stop for Joe Pass. Hell, I'd skip work altogether.  
But to each his own.

Jeff