Recycling Souls
When I arrived at the Music Under New York busking spot at the 14th street subway station Salieu Suso, the kora player from Africa, was there. As he was packing up his busking gear and I was setting up mine, he told me about kora playing in Africa. I saw him taking money out of…
Read MoreNew York Curiosities
How many people do you know whose resume reads: musical saw player, bell ringer, New York State attraction…? Well, my resume doesn’t actually say the last bit, though now it officially can: A new book (available at major book stores) is ‘New York Curiosities’ by Cindy Perman, recommends the most interesting things to see in…
Read MoreWithout Them I Can’t Smile
It was 99 degrees. I was sweating buckets just walking to the subway. A nice guy helped me carry my busking gear all the way up the four flights of stairs to the train platform. He told me that he is a musician, too – he plays guitar, and he knows how hard it is,…
Read MoreHave a Boring Day!
As I was climbing the stairs up to the subway station with my busking gear, a lady, also climbing the stairs, who was disabled (she was limping) offered to help me carry my gear up the stairs. She could barely walk herself, yet she saw I was struggling with my cart and offered to help!…
Read MoreUdderbot
As I was playing at the Music Under New York spot at the Grand Central Station’s Shuttle, a guy named Jacob stop to listen. It turned out that he is a busker himself and he plays…a bottle with a rubber glove attached… It’s called an ‘udderbot’. He told me he just finished playing down the…
Read MoreLike Magic
Like many New Yorkers, I know the exact spot on the subway platform to wait for the train, so that when I get to my destination station I will exit the train exactly where the elevator/stairs out are. I usually wait at that spot, but today was so hot that I decided to wait at…
Read MoreWe don’t see stuff like this in Jersey City
Traveling on the train towards my subway busking spot at the Grand Central Shuttle, I ran into Romero who was preparing to start his busking day, singing on the trains with a friend. The singers held hands and said a prayer before starting their day. Romero told me that he is not singing in the…
Read MoreIt’s a Unicorn
When I got to the Music Under New York spot at the Times Square subway station Salieu Suso, the Kora player from Africa, was playing at the spot. There was a guy with a long beard sitting on the floor, leaning against the other column from the one Suso was by. As I was waiting…
Read MoreSmiling Poles
My father was born in Poland. When he was 17 years old his entire family was murdered. He was the only survivor. At 17 my father left Poland and hasn’t been back since. He is 85 years old. Every now and then I asked him if he wanted to go visit his childhood home, but…
Read MoreThe 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…
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