The Three ‘H’s
As I was playing at the Music Under New York spot at the 59th street & Lex subway station, Bob from the Historical Society stopped to tell me of a cool fund raiser the Historical Society is doing: there is a pizza place where every time someone buys a pizza there, the place donates a dollar to the Historical Society.
Carl, a web-designer, was on his way to a doctor’s appointment and also stopped to say ‘hi’.
Romero was singing on the trains with an acapella group. They stepped off the train to say ‘hi’ to me:
Romero: “You’re everywhere!”
Saw Lady: “So are you:)”
A lady said to me: “I know you from somewhere…I saw you in Astoria”.
Three Nortenos, 2 playing guitars and one playing acordion, wearing black hats and red shirts, nodded ‘hello’ as they walked by me.
Arnold, the messenger guy, told me that Albert, the other messenger guy, is still missing. He told me that the messenger company that Albert used to work for closed down, so Arnold got Albert a new job at the messenger company he works for. But it has been more than a week now that Albert has not showed up for work, and he is not answering his phone, either. Albert used to spend a couple of hours in the subway every day, listening to me play, but I haven’t seen him this week, either.
Photographer: © Aaron Porter
Brother Muhammad, dressed all in white (tunic & pants) greeted me. He used to do drugs but now he is clean. He runs a food pantry for the homeless and he walks the trains asking for donations for his mission.
A lady asked me: “How long did it take you to learn to play the saw?”
Saw Lady: “I’ve been playing for 14 years”.
A guy who sits in a wheel chair and advances himself by pushing with his feet wheeled by and gave me the thumbs up. I remember seeing him at 14th street last week.
Today is very humid. It rained a bit, too. I hardly had to use any rosin on my bow today. Maybe the humidity is making the friction between the bow and the musical saw better.
Waiting for the train to take me home the guy with curly black hair who always stands at the bottom of the stairs with a cup in his hands was there, as usual. The sign hanging on his neck says ‘Hungry, HIV Positive, Homeless’.
The three ‘H’s.
