Posts Tagged ‘musical saw’
NYC Musical Saw Festival 2008
I am the founder and director of the annual NYC Musical Saw Festival. This is the 6th year in which the festival took place in Astoria, NYC. The first festival had 5 musical saw players participating. This year we had 30 musical saw players. My, how the festival grew! Participating saw players came from Germany,…
Read MoreMissing in Action
As I was playing at the Music Under New York spot at the Union Square subway station, Zina, the painter, brought me a large replica of the caricature she made of me. Painter: © Zina Saunders Arnold, the messenger guy, told me that Albert, the other guy who works as a messenger and who is…
Read MoreMadison Square Garden
One of the funnest gigs I recently did was playing the musical saw during one of the breaks at a WNBA game at Madison Square Garden. I had a sports themed day: in the morning I had a recording session in Brooklyn for an album celebrating the centanial of the song ‘Take Me Out to…
Read MoreDon’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…
Read MoreMonkey – Journey to the West
The furthest south I’ve ever been in the USA is Charleston, SC. What brought me there was a fantastic show at the Spoleto Festival, which had a part for the musical saw in the score (The score of the show is by Damon Albarn. Most people might be familiar with Damon from his work with…
Read MoreHe Made Me Laugh
While playing at the Union Square subway station a man with a great sense of humor interviewed me on camera. I have heard many musical saw jokes, but this guy is original and intelligent – he kept making me laugh. Thank you, RenatO!
Read MoreSubway Musician Comic Strip
Every now and then I come across a painting or a poem about a subway musician. But how about a comic strip? copyright Derek Lieu, “Kick in the Head” blog, printed with permission Cartoon artist Derek Lieu says in his “Kick in the Head” blog in the post about this comic strip: “I’m thinking specifically…
Read MoreOde to a Musical Saw
Every now and then I come across interesting poems about either the musical saw or street musicians. Well, imagine my happiness when I discovered a poem about the musical saw which also mentions street musicians! Ode to a Musical Saw/Dave Bonta No longer walking the straight & narrow, no longer restricted to the harsh amens…
Read MorePresidential “Gold” Dollar Coins
I love coins. Whenever anybody puts a unique coin in my donations bucket I am very grateful. I have a collection of the “state” quarters and now I am starting to collect the presidential dollar coins. I already got George Washington, James Monroe and Thomas Jefferson. The oldest coin I ever got is a penny…
Read MoreMusical Saw Lecture/Demonstration at Lincoln Center
I was invited to give a lecture/demonstration about the musical saw at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. My lecture was part of a series about unusual musical instruments (the other instruments in the series were the theremin and the glass armonica). Alexander Calder’s statue ‘Le Guichet’ (The Ticket Window), 1963, sits in…
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