So here I am. Kinda dropped off the face of the earth for a bit. England is full of free wireless, but for some reason every time I find a spot the network is inconsistent or my laptop is in the van or I don't figure out the "l" in the password is actually a "1" until it's time to go on stage . . . you get the point. But I'm currently in a nice hotel in Hull, England with a wide open wireless network and some time to kill before going to sleep.

The flight over was a breeze . . . mostly. A certain big-haired band leader who shall remain nameless might have overslept a wee bit and given us all heart attacks, but he did make the flight on time. International flights have so much in-flight entertainment now (movies and TV on demand, various basic video games) that even 5 hours manages to pass reasonably quickly. And, once we got to England, customs didn't even give our HUGE bag of merchandise (cleverly disguised as an ordinary duffel bag) a second look, the guy renting us our van was waiting for us at the exit, said van is the perfect size, and we managed to hook up with all of our equipment in short order. In other words, everything went just about as smoothly as it possibly could have, minus the group heart attack.

Our first show was in London at a place called the Camden Barfly, a reasonably large and well known venue, and conveniently located in an awesome neighborhood. Before the show we managed to make a quick touristy jaunt into the middle of London, to at least catch a quick look at a few of the major London landmarks. As much as I hate being a tourist, it was well worth the trip. The show itself had a somewhat small crowd, but they were very responsive. Our publicist was there and she said that most of the audience was press and industry folks, so that is definitely a good thing. We also sold more merch than we were expecting, so overall a good start to our trip. Yesterday was also the first day I tried a "Traditional English Breakfast" at a pub in Camden, and it was excellent. However, subsequent attempts at said breakfast at other places have been not quite so impressive. We also met up with our German driver Maik ("Mike"), who's basically coming along for a very small amount of money plus free food and lodging. Apparently he just likes hanging around musicians and didn't have anything better to do this month. Works out great for all concerned.

A good bit of time today was spent driving to Hull, a smallish city about 4 hours drive north of London. Apparently, Hull is like the New Jersey of England, or at least thought of as such. When people in London heard our next show was in Hull, there was quite a bit of laughter and quite a few wisecracks ("That's like Detroit!"). Overall, we found it to be a reasonably nice town, and the club was excellent. Not so big, and not a big crowd, but the club owner was very nice. He got us a fantastic meal, and put us up in MUCH nicer accommodations than any of us expected. The crowd was also very attentive, and despite being half the size of the London crowd, actually bought more merch. We hung out for a while afterwards, swapping stories with the club owner and getting the lowdown on a good route to take to our next show that will take us through the moors. I'm very excited, to say the least.

At any rate, I don't know when I'll have internet again, but I'll definitely try to keep everyone updated as often as possible.

So I was hoping to be out in the park by now, but it's not even 40 outside yet, so that may not even happen today. So I may as well . . . BLOG!

Since the age of about 15, I have never before had someone else do my laundry. However, the laundromat down the street does it for .75 a pound. There's a first time for everything. So with that out of the way, all that's left to do is to decide which clothes I will take with me and then to put the remainder into storage.

The tour is up to 21 shows. Hopefully we can land some more, which might be possible since our remaining gaps are now somewhat later in the tour. All told we will be playing in 7 countries: England, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. All first time visits for me. Now it's not like we'll have time to stop and do touristy things, but I will at least get a taste.

Yesterday I played at a coffee house in New Jersey with singer/songwriter Laura Maclean. It was a smaller venue than I am used to playing, but the audience was actually quite receptive. It's nice to play for people who actually want to listen. We also made $20 apiece, which I almost never manage here in NYC. Shows just don't really often pay much, if anything here. Plus, any chance to get out of the city, even for just a few hours, is fine by me (although a small town right off the Jersey Turnpike is a grey area, but I'll take what I can get).

Speaking of getting out of the city, my flight leaves in under 48 hours. Only a few more things to take care of between now and then, and I am realizing how fortunate I was that the lease on my old place was up at the end of February. It necessitated my taking care of most of the preparations for Europe about a month ago, leaving me with precious little to actually deal with now. Now admittedly the people actually ORGANIZING the tour are running around like madmen, and apparently we still aren't 100% positive that we'll have gear waiting for us in England, and apparently there are quite a few things that could go drastically wrong. Our drummer, with by far the most touring experience, said he won't be able to relax until we're on stage at our first show, with all the equipment we need. Me, I'm blissfully ignorant of all such things, and thank god for that.

Next time . . .

. . . I'm going to check which music pile I'm putting into storage. And that's all I'm going to say on that subject.

Banks are weird things. I go in for the simple purpose of telling them I'm going to Europe soon, and before I know it they are trying to get me to set up a second bank account. Which, for the record, is a good idea. That way I have a sort of "back up" account if I lose my debit card, or if it gets stolen. However, before I know it there's mentions of some account called a "sole proprietorship" and feature lists and yada yada yada. After a while I finally just decided to go for a no-frills back up without special card with points and whatnot; I just don't really trust banks to have my best interests in mind when trying to convince me to get one account sort or another, so I need time to examine the options. I mean, banks make most of their money by charging their users various fees, mainly overdraft fees but there are plenty of other mostly hidden charges out there. So whenever some bank employee is trying to get me to sign up for this that or the other thing, it makes me anxious. Because bank employees are people and I think a lot of them genuinely want to assist bank customers, but it's hard sometimes to tell where the human being ends and the institution begins.

*Real* first post

So that other first post was more of an introductory note. This will be my actual first post, on the subject of my experience being a street musician in NYC.

People always ask, "don't you need a license/permit to do that?" And the answer is mixed. For many spots in the subway system, you do. For some parks, you do. For many spots in the subway you don't, and, most importantly, for Central Park you don't. Given that the lion's share of my experience has been as a regular player in Central Park, that's what this post will focus on.

This laissez-faire system (especially with regard to Central Park) creates a very interesting state of affairs. Those of us who play the park regularly basically exist in the Hobbesian "state of nature", at least with regard to such things as street performing. Basically what this means is that we won't kill each other (there are laws against that), but there's nothing stopping us from setting up six feet away from another musician and simply playing louder, or making them so fed up that they simply move on (no regulations whatsoever against this). Fortunately, most Central Park musicians are decent folks who are only too happy to help a newbie learn the ropes, so long as you don't infringe on their territory. From what I can figure out, seniority seems to be the order of the day, with the people who have been in the park the longest pretty much having things their own way, and the rest of us putting up with it. The simple fact is that if we don't get along, nobody makes any money; you point out to me someone who doesn't mind hearing "Summertime" played on top of Bach's Prelude in G major, and I'd be willing to bet you my entire savings account, small as it is, that that person is deaf.

I experienced this firsthand over the weekend. My regular spot is Bethesda Fountain (almost directly in the middle of the park width-wise, at 72nd street length-wise), a rather picturesque spot where people tend to be found in large numbers, and just as importantly a place where people tend to linger (I like my listeners to stick around for more than one movement). The fountain is surrounded by benches, so some times I will sit on the fountain itself, and sometimes I will sit on a bench across from the fountain. Depends, sometimes the fountain is so crowded when I get there that I can't find a place, and I am unwilling to ask people to move.

At any rate, on this particular day I was seated on a bench across from the fountain, playing from 12:30-3. At around 2:15, a rather large man carrying a guitar sits down on the edge of the fountain, not directly across from where I was sitting but not terribly far off the mark. He then proceeds to belt out Jimmy Buffett songs at the top of his lungs strumming as hard as he can, with his friend sitting next to him clapping and cheering loudly.

He could have chosen a dozen other spots on or around the fountain. There were just as many people on the other side of the fountain to listen to him, and that would have in no way interfered with what I was doing. But instead this monster insisted on stepping all over me. I can't remember anything in the recent past that made me so angry. I mean yeah terrible stuff happens around the globe all the time but this is how I pay my RENT, for fuck's sake. But the reality was that there was nothing I could do. There are no licenses required to play in the park, so I could threaten him with no legal sanction of any sort. I just had to put up with it. And that's exactly what I did.

Thankfully, by sheer luck (or perhaps the benign will of whatever powers that be), he broke a string about 10 minutes into his "performance", which gave me a nice reprieve. After replacing it, another 10 minutes passed and he must have broken another string, since he stopped yet again for a while, adjusting something with his guitar.

All in all, I suppose the situation could have been worse. He could have played a louder instrument. He could have insisted on sitting directly across from me. Still, I have never witnessed a musician do anything so rude to another musician in Central Park, and I hope such occurrences do not become more common as summer sets in.

At any rate, social restrictions and considerations that I've noticed musicians placing upon themselves in Central Park generally work quite well; if someone is in a spot, it is theirs, unless a much more senior player comes along who has claimed that spot since time immemorial. And you NEVER set up in close proximity to another musician, and always do your best to minimize potential interference. And when everyone follows those rules, everyone makes enough money to live on (some quite a bit more), and tourists get treated to a ton of great music and live performance. And when such rules get stepped on, well . . . you end up with J. S. Buffett.

First Post

So here I am, back in the blogosphere for the first time since . . . well it's been a while. I suppose that until now I didn't really feel like I had anything I wanted to write about. However, I recently came to the realization that life is quite a bit more interesting and varied now than it ever was when I was in school. Although I suppose that's because I often combine the terms "interesting" and "difficult", so there you have it.

For anyone who might stumble across this blog, or for anyone who hasn't talked to me for quite some time, a bit about me:

Currently I would say I am primarily a street musician; at least, that's how I earn the lion's share of my income. I play at various places in Central Park on days when the weather is agreeable, and am managing to make a decent living doing so, perhaps not by New York standards but I have no complaints.

However, my dream is to become a rock musician, which is why I am a street musician. I have no concrete attachments, no students to abandon, no job to lose, and I can take pretty much any gig that happens to come my way. This has worked quite well considering that in 6 days I will be leaving for a month-long tour of Europe with the band Emanuel and the Fear, a project with which I have been associated for over two-and-a-half years now.

This brings me to the primary reason for this blog: various family members have requested a tour blog so that they can keep up with the goings on of my first ever rock and roll tour, as well as my first ever visit "across the pond". So for at least the first month of its existence, that will be what this space will be used for. That being said, I also hope to leave a small record of life as a freelancer in NYC, and maybe even leave some valuable insights into the business once in a while. Being a classical, rock, and street musician, I've been learning so many things that you never learn in school (such as: ALWAYS bring a stand light to a rock gig. Lighting at such gigs tends to vary for different places on the stage, and I've had the occasional gig marred by a near complete inability to see the music. Also, don't take the spot that another street musician has been playing for 40 years; it will not ingratiate you with them, and it's never wise to piss off a guy with a sax. In all likelihood he can play louder than you can).

So there you have it, my first post on the new blog, hopefully the first of many. Whenever I first start a new blog (this would be my 3rd attempt, I believe) I usually write fairly regularly, then less regularly, then abandon the blog to rot in cyberspace. Hopefully this one has perhaps a longer life-span than my previous attempts, but no promises will be made.