Have you ever seen something so visually and aesthetically pleasing that you want to preserve it as it is, forever? I have. That's why I like to keep a camera handy. Lately however, I haven't kept a camera in reach and my photo productivity has declined. Sometimes I attribute this to the fact that the random happenings in my life are presenting themselves less often as things become more ordered and systematic. Other times I think that the memorable moments are becoming fewer and further between as I near the doldrums of middle age. One thing is for sure: I don't do as many different, exciting or memorable things as I used to and I'm certainly not exposed to as many things worthy of photographic documentation as I used to be. I think I'm okay with all of this though. Just about everybody goes to school, gets a job, works for awhile, retires and then cools out before dying. Maybe if I make a heap of loot soon, I can break the cycle and still do fun things while I'm young enough to enjoy them. That's the ticket! Who knows? Maybe retirement will be the best years of my life!
You'll notice the title of this entry is "street musicians." That's what I initially intended to write about before my mind took a little walkabout back there. So--back to the original topic. I've been meaning to take photos of a few street musicians that I see on a fairly regular basis. There are three in particular that always stand out to me. But alas, no pictures will accompany their descriptions.
The first one is a slight Latino man who plays the trumpet. He's often posted up on the corner of Fourth and Main. Sometimes you can be lucky enough to catch him at Third and Yamhill even though that's another guy's territory (more on him later). I once saw him all the way up on NW 23rd near Music Millenium. He plays the trumpet with one hand and waves to people with the other. Taking care not to blast a note into anybody's ear and quieting down when need be, he's pretty unobtrusive. In between rousing renditions of 'take me out to the ballgame' and 'la cucaracha,' he smiles wide and beams as he shouts "happy today!" to passing, um...passersby. I spotted him the other day in a pint-sized Santa suit and, to coincide with the change in season, he switched up his catalog and played 'jingle bells' and 'we wish you a merry Christmas.' I like this guy because he's polite and gracious. Plus, he's always smiling and waving; he's just a happy lil guy with a trumpet.
Another guy I see every now and then usually hangs out around the MAX lines on Yamhill and Morrison between Fourth and Fifth. He's a very thin, old black man with a pointy beard. He sits on a parked motorized scooter and plays either a small keyboard or this crazy little medieval stringed instrument. Maybe it's a lute? Anyway, he plugs into an amplifier and plays pretty loudly. This might be considered a nuisance if it weren't right next to the MAX, which is fairly noisy in its own right. He plays a few different songs but the one I hear the most is the theme from The Godfather. This guy doesn't engage anybody walking past or even look up from his instrument. He just sits there and plays. I saw him playing on Monday wearing an elf hat. He had a microphone this time and, with a bowed head, he held it to his mouth while playing the keyboard. Singing traditional Christmas classics, his voice was as I had expected it to be. It was soft and quiet and lacked any real sense of pitch. I like to think that he's just a bored old guy who likes to play music and earn a little scratch. I really hope he's not ill in some way or down on his luck like the next guy I'm gonna describe.
Okay, this guy creeps me out. It's highly likely that he creeps lots of other people out too. He is a meth-fried zombie-looking dude in a soiled hoodie and sandals who makes horrible noises on a neon toy guitar with a built-in speaker. The thing probably runs on two D batteries but he rocks it like there's no tomorrow, cranked to the max. The tiny tinny speaker doesn't make much noise to speak of, but the sounds that come out of it are probably only discernible as music to his ears. I've only seen him in one place: outside the Nordstrom on Sixth and Morrison. This guy is alone in his own weird world. He doesn't even attempt chords, he just solos like a cracked-out Jimmy Page, staring into another dimension. He's got it bad, and that ain't good.
You'll notice the title of this entry is "street musicians." That's what I initially intended to write about before my mind took a little walkabout back there. So--back to the original topic. I've been meaning to take photos of a few street musicians that I see on a fairly regular basis. There are three in particular that always stand out to me. But alas, no pictures will accompany their descriptions.
The first one is a slight Latino man who plays the trumpet. He's often posted up on the corner of Fourth and Main. Sometimes you can be lucky enough to catch him at Third and Yamhill even though that's another guy's territory (more on him later). I once saw him all the way up on NW 23rd near Music Millenium. He plays the trumpet with one hand and waves to people with the other. Taking care not to blast a note into anybody's ear and quieting down when need be, he's pretty unobtrusive. In between rousing renditions of 'take me out to the ballgame' and 'la cucaracha,' he smiles wide and beams as he shouts "happy today!" to passing, um...passersby. I spotted him the other day in a pint-sized Santa suit and, to coincide with the change in season, he switched up his catalog and played 'jingle bells' and 'we wish you a merry Christmas.' I like this guy because he's polite and gracious. Plus, he's always smiling and waving; he's just a happy lil guy with a trumpet.
Another guy I see every now and then usually hangs out around the MAX lines on Yamhill and Morrison between Fourth and Fifth. He's a very thin, old black man with a pointy beard. He sits on a parked motorized scooter and plays either a small keyboard or this crazy little medieval stringed instrument. Maybe it's a lute? Anyway, he plugs into an amplifier and plays pretty loudly. This might be considered a nuisance if it weren't right next to the MAX, which is fairly noisy in its own right. He plays a few different songs but the one I hear the most is the theme from The Godfather. This guy doesn't engage anybody walking past or even look up from his instrument. He just sits there and plays. I saw him playing on Monday wearing an elf hat. He had a microphone this time and, with a bowed head, he held it to his mouth while playing the keyboard. Singing traditional Christmas classics, his voice was as I had expected it to be. It was soft and quiet and lacked any real sense of pitch. I like to think that he's just a bored old guy who likes to play music and earn a little scratch. I really hope he's not ill in some way or down on his luck like the next guy I'm gonna describe.
Okay, this guy creeps me out. It's highly likely that he creeps lots of other people out too. He is a meth-fried zombie-looking dude in a soiled hoodie and sandals who makes horrible noises on a neon toy guitar with a built-in speaker. The thing probably runs on two D batteries but he rocks it like there's no tomorrow, cranked to the max. The tiny tinny speaker doesn't make much noise to speak of, but the sounds that come out of it are probably only discernible as music to his ears. I've only seen him in one place: outside the Nordstrom on Sixth and Morrison. This guy is alone in his own weird world. He doesn't even attempt chords, he just solos like a cracked-out Jimmy Page, staring into another dimension. He's got it bad, and that ain't good.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment