Sunday, May 22, 2011

Boston, May 2011

A couple of weekends ago I went to Boston. I met Liz for lunch, then had a few hours to kill before meeting someone else. Naturally, I brought my smokin' squeezebox and killed said time by returning to my elf roots and busking a bit. It was great! It was a gorgeous day, unlike any from my elf past, and people were leisurely strolling about. I set up in front of Borders at Downtown Crossing, one of my elf spots, and played for about an hour and a half.

I was wearing my red and white polka-dot dress which got as many if not more compliments than did my music. On this particular day, my biggest donors were moms. Possibly because it was graduation weekend at lots of colleges and my student loan sign gave their hearts a pang?

-A group of teenagers asked if they could take my photo. They did, then filled out a clipboard. Some sort of school thing/scavenger hunt? I wonder what category I filled. Homeless person, perhaps? They gave me a ton of coins and left. Then I started playing the popular song "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz, and they ran back to sing along.

-A man walked by and just said, "That works."

-Matthew asked me out:
"So what do you do when you're not playing accordion?"
"I'm always playing accordion!"
"Do you ever see movies, eat food, or hang out?"
"Yeah, but I'm usually in California." -->Uh-oh, lying!
"Oh if you lived here I was going to ask you out."
"Aw, sorry!"
"Oh well. The Sox will be sure to beat the Giants this year!"
[Caught in lie, through gritted teeth] "Just you wait!"

-A young guy walked by with a Brandeis VoiceMale sweatshirt. They're an a cappella group that sang with my group last year! I stopped him and told him that. Cool story, Hansel.

-I chatted with two middle aged men. One said he had an old accordion that he didn't even think he could sell because it's in bad shape. His friend suggested I might want it, which I confirmed. I gave him my card to email about it, but alas, like most of these transactions, I haven't heard back. But they said they vacation with their families in Wellfleet every year! Whoa!

-This spot is across the street from a site on the freedom trail tour, so there were tour groups coming through with Paul Revere-dressed tour guides. This always made me laugh, them trying to talk over my playing but still maintain their rapport.

-That's pretty much all there is to report! Why is "I Want You Back" sooo hard to learn?? It's been months now, and I still suck at it. Ah, well.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

What Happened Since San Francisco

Answer: a lot.

Squeezebox and I went to Mexico! Not to play, so we won't write about the trip. However, I did start to play for Liz one Sunday morning int he hostel. We quickly heard a knock on the door, and it was an employee asking me to stop since there was a Quaker service going on. Quaker services are silent. Oops.

Then we went to North Carolina. We went on a ton of planes, and thus had a lot of comments on the box. Mexican security workers loved it. When I left Ashville (jumping ahead a little here), I got stopped at security. A man opened the box and said aloud, "Ah, just as I expected." Not sure if he meant the accordion or the Mexican doll that was hiding in the box, but everything got tested for drugs. Is there an accordion stereotype I don't know about?

Anyway, I played in Asheville! Pretty much once. It was a hot sunday, and I slathered up with sunscreen and headed into town.

I went first to Pritchard Park and saw a guy playing drums. I set up
across the intersection from him where we could still hear each other,
but it wasn't too bad. There was not much foot traffic and I made
very little money.

- One strange thing: a middle aged woman gave me money and said "At least you're honest!" regarding my student loan sign. This struck is as strange; it's not like a homeless person with an "I just want beer" sign that requires honesty. Who would conceal the fact that they're in debt?

-The drummer came over and introduced himself and exposed his pink Muppet baseball
hat. He suggested we play together, since he thought he must come
off as "the asshole who's drowning [me] out."

-I packed up then and went for a walk around town. There was a duo playing in Pack Square, violin and guitar and vocals. I sat on a bench and talked to them.
There were some other girls also there who asked about my box. We
talked a bit, and I ended up following them to Pack Park where they
lounged in the shade and I sat in the sun and read a little.

-I walked back into town and saw that the folks playing in Pack Square were packing up, so I took their spot. A young man walked by with a "Large Marge Sent Me" shirt that I loved.

-There were a couple of kids that paid me attention, but business was
slim. There was a little boy in a "Return of the Jedi" shirt so I
attempted the Star Wars theme song. It was not very good and he didn't even notice.

-I played Lady Gaga while some teenage girls passed. One of them ran back, but then just gave me a sugar packet. Thanksss

-In the greatest contribution yet, the girls I had followed to the park came back, and one put a folded paper in my box. I saw that it was a pencil sketch of me and my
accordion sitting in the park. Nice!

-A young hooligan came with a guitar and drum to sit on the bench and listen. He introduced himself as Dylan and insisted that he was in no hurry to play, but wanted to listen. He requested a Yann, so I played La Noyée. I gave him my card and proposed we play together before handing the spot over.

-I went to Pritchard Park to sit for a bit, maybe to play somewhere else. I was enjoying my snack bag when a man asked if he could sit with me. He introduced himself as Elvin, better known as E-man the Drummer. He said that everyone knows him and suggested I stick with him for safety's sake. He also suggested I take the
greyhound and plane tags off my accordion so folks couldn't see my name and wouldn't know that I just got to town. He also suggested that I don't smile very much. And that I don't accept pot from strangers because it could be laced. But if I need to hide pot I should put it in my shoe. I excused myself and went back to Pack Square to listen to Dylan play. He's really talented and has a great voice, and just makes up songs on the spot. He had a friend named Phoenix playing the drum.

-They invited me to join them, and I finally did. Mainly, Dylan played his songs and I followed the chords. We were joined by Adi, a saxophone player, who was really annoying. He insisted on singing despite having a saxophone and us clearly already having a singer, and made dumb suggestions. We attempted Stand by Me, My girl, Man of Constant Sorrow, Angel Band, and Take Me Home Country Roads. Dylan pulled out his copy of Rise Up Singing. Over the course of the evening the band grew to involve Phoenix on throat singing and didgeridoo, Brandon on melodica,
Andrew on guitar and another Andrew on harps, and Laura on vocals for Swing
Low, Sweet Chariot. It was fun but disorganized. Once the other folks came it was less about playing easy songs as a group but more about folks showing off.

-I went after this to a local bar that was having an Irish session night, hoping to participate, but it was lame and ending. It was there that I met my couchsurfing host for the night, Collin, and his roommate Ari. Ari is from Northampton! Collin introduced me to a game called "Pass the Pigs." You have these two litle rubber pigs that you roll, and you get points based on how they land. Excellent ice-breaker. Ari went to a concert and Collin and I went home.

Collin is a native North Carolinaite with a strong accent. He didn't
reveal what he does for work, but in his spare time he works in the
garden and does construction. He designed a nursing home wheelchair
accessible gardening table of which he had the prototype along with a
wheelchair in the house. He also built the loft that I slept in. The
loft is above the stairs, and it's hard to reach the light switch so
he rigged up a string pulley system to do just that. They live in an
old wooden house that a family used to inhabit. There's a nice
backyard with landscaped rock walls and a lily pond complete with
frogs and koi. There's also a cabin that Collin stays in. And a
chicken coop with three red chickens and a white one. They haven't
started laying yet so Collin was thinking of killing the white
chicken. The house came with two cats, Elvis and Burt, who are white
and orange. There was also a dog, Kai. We got there and immediately sat out in the wicker chairs facing the pond and petted the cats. Collin uses the word "Bop" for everything. "I'll just bop into town and pick you up;" "I'll bop you around the pantry;" "We'll just be boppin around the house all day" etc. Is that a southern thing?

I spent the next couple nights with Dylan and his roommate Eli, who ended up being 18. Eek! They were super nice and hospitable, and totally into music. Eli is a poispinner. I guess "poi" are these cubes on chains that you soak in gas then ignite, then spin around your body when they're on fire. Cool! I guess he goes to events and does that. He also has "crystal poi" that he practices with so he doesn't light himself on fire. They have LED lights inside them. He used them while Dylan and I played in town. Only in Asheville would people see them and ask, "Are those crystal poi??" He has long dreadlocks and looks a bit like Captain Jack Sparrow. Dylan is a young Bob Dylan. He actually looks kind of like him, and has the curly hair. He works at a Jamaican restaurant when he's not busking. He had recently come back from a tour around Colorado involving busking and couch surfing, so we had lots to talk about.

On Wednesday it was nice out again so we played together again in Pack Square. An old black saxophone player named Bobby Sanchez came up and said he wanted the spot when we were done. In the meantime, he sat and listened. It was actually infuriating, because he had so many compliments for Dylan, and none for me. He said it was "So cool what [Dylan] does with changes and improvisation." After one song that's in my repertoire that we did, where I mostly took the lead, Bobby complimented Dylan again and said that I was a good follower. Argh. Dylan tried telling him that it was my song, but he would hear none of it. When I left, Bobby said, "You'd better keep in touch with this one!" meaning Dylan. It's times like these when I'm reminded why I'm a solo act. But I did like playing with Dylan.

We walked around town after, looking for a new spot, and came across a bluegrass band playing. They were really good, and we stopped to listen. After they finished the song we arrived on, they began to pack up. I protested, and one explained, "But we're going clogging!" They proceeded to have a strange coversation:

Topher: I think we made enough to buy a mango lassi. Dan can stay, you can get lassis, and I'll get the truck.

Emmelyn: Okay, what flavor? [Topher answers.] But if we each made $4 we'll have too much for a lassi!

Dan: Where are you going?

Emmelyn: To get lassis.

Dan: What's a lassi?

[End scene. This made me giggle a little.]

The next day I left North Carolina. I was going to play in DC for a day, but decided not to.

Then I went home. I actually do have something to report from home!

TGWR
There's a really awesome band of former Clarkies called "The Great Whiskey Rebellion." They do mostly Irish stuff, with the occasional sea shanty and cover of "psycho killer." I saw them a couple times at Clark, and I was excited to see a facebook event invitation for a show they were doing in Northampton. I enthusiastically replied that I was coming. That evening, I got a call from Nick, the guitarist, who I knew through mutual friends but had never known that well. It turned out that Amy and Geo, the fiddle and bass players, were going to be late. Nick and Emma, the drummer were there, and needed someone to open. He knew that I was going to be coming and that I play the accordion, so he called Kristen and got my number. I jumped in the car and headed to The Basement bar, formerly Bishop's Lounge, in Hamp.

We played together the few songs I have with repetitive chord progressions: Elephant Gun (Beirut), La Noyee from Amelie, Ring of Fire, and the Godfather theme song. There wasn't really anyone there, just two older couples drinking wine. Finally some young people showed up: Duk, a friend from Clark and TGWR's biggest fan, and some of his friends. I played a bunch of songs (Queen, Gaga, Michael Jackson, and the standards) along with Emma. It was great playing with a drummer, since I can't keep my own beat to save my life. Amy and Geo arrived, and they took over, but they invited me to play one song with them! It was amazing actually being on stage with these guys, since they're pretty much celebrities to me. I couldn't hear myself that well so I had to really watch my right hand. It's so fun being part of that energy and blending with other instruments.

Now I know the band personally and I hope to see them play a lot and maybe even join in more.

I played a lot while I was home for a couple weeks, and came out with "La Vie en Rose," "La Donna e Mobile," and "Santa Lucia," an Italian favorite.

Now, we're back on the Cape. There aren't tourists yet, but we'll be staking out spots in Ptown pretty soon. Let the adventures continue!