People Showed Me Their Hands

As I was setting up to play on the platform at 59th street, a guy asked me how much it costs to get a permit to play in the subway. He said he busks in Boston, playing guitar and singing, and that its very different the way busking works over there. Buskers don’t have to pass an audition, for one thing.

A lady by the name of Daisy invited me to play at her grandson’s baptism. She showed me her hand which has a bump. She told me that she fell and now her union pays for her therapy. She can’t play piano any more, but playing organ doesn’t cause her pain.

Somebody put a Bulgarian coin of 1 Stotinka in my donations box. This is probably their equivalent of 1 cent. It’s going straight into my coin collection.

Rafael, a musical saw player from Mexico visiting NYC came to see me with his wife. He told me that he played by the Metropolitan Museum on Saturday. He plans to return to NYC for the Musical Saw Festival I am organizing. He told me that while he was busking by the Met a Japanese and an Italian men both told him that they play the musical saw, too. I wondered who they were and I was sorry Rafael didn’t ask for their names. Later on, my Japanese friend Kazu, who plays the musical saw, told me that he saw a guy playing the musical saw by the Met… Well, at least half the mystery is solved 🙂 The musical saw world is very small…

A guy on bike told me he’s been seeing lots of musical saw players lately. When I asked where he saw them, he said: “Saturday, by the Met and also some guy on Avenue A who wasn’t so good”.

A guy told me he’s a retired cop. He showed me his hand and told me how he busted his hand punching three guys whom he caught robbing his house in Long Island.

Photographer: © Brian Roche

I saw a gentleman I usually see at the 14th street subway station.

The homeless guy who stands downstairs on the N/R platform, with a sign on his neck, walked by and smiled my way.