Don’t Swipe
I was away from playing in the subway for 3 weeks (on account of playing at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC). As I got to the turnstile at the subway station today, I took out my Metro Card and was about to swipe it to go into the station. An MTA worker wearing an orange apron was standing by the turnstiles. He said to me: “Don’t swipe!” as he opened the gate for me. “It’s OK for the Saw Lady” he said.
Wow! What a nice welcome back to the subway!
On my way to my spot at the Grand Central Station Shuttle I stopped at the record store at the Times Square station. I brought an article from the ‘Village Voice’ about the Fania record label to the owner of the store. He is a huge Fania fan and his store specializes in this genre of music. The store owner was very happy and grateful – he hadn’t known about this article.
As I got to the Music Under New York spot there was an MTA worker near by. “How are you?” I asked. “So far so good” he answered. “I’m waiting for the concert”, he said and went on to tell me that he has heard me before. He suggested that the music of Richie Vale, a guitar player who died in a plane crash, would go good with the musical saw.
Steven Clark, the Michael Jackson dancer, said ‘hi’ as he walked by with his performance gear.
A guy asked me “what made you start playing the saw?”
A blond lady carrying a flower bouquet tore a beautiful pink fox-glove flower off the bouquet with her teeth and put it in my donations box. This was definitely the nicest gesture of the day. Priceless.
Photographer: © Aaron Porter
ah, it’s nice to be loved.
i donate more often to buskers now, because of your blog. there are two in particular i like–a woman who wears theatrical scarves and plays the violin on the nicollet mall (and bows and sways like Josh Bell himself). last week she was singing, too.
and an old black guy who plays the accordian. i love the accordian.