Excursion #3 “Sensation(al)” 1.02.09

On New Years Day at the Times Square subway station I passed a fellow busker, a wild-haired 80 year old man, the type of fellow with a twinkle in his eye and ever loose dentures jiggling inside his mouth, who sat cloaked in a turtle neck and warm black jacket in front of a small electric piano. He had the “demo” setting ablast with high energy polka drum beats and his left hand controlled the droning chord changes while he played extremely fast winding melodies with his right hand. When people dropped in a dollar he would forego the chord changes and give them a nice wave. On the small electric piano stood two electronic dolls—one doll (male) played saxophone and had the title “Jazz Man” written on his pedestal; the other doll (female) danced a lovely hula in her grass skirt. In front of the piano an army of dancing dolls paraded by the man’s tip bucket, including a dancing Santa, an army man, and a bunny rabbit. The whole spectacle was intoxicating, and I as well as dozens of others were immediately taken in with this man’s charisma and obvious joy of life and polka. The dollars flew into his two (!) tip buckets and during the minute or so that we stopped to watch he made at least $15. The whole experience got me thinking about spectacle and how/if I should spice up my own act with spectacular dancing dolls or something similar—after all, $15/min is a pretty sensational rate.

My mind wandered to other sensational acts I’ve seen around New York. There is, of course, the famous little person who dresses up as Michael Jackson & moonwalks to “I’m Bad.” There’s Chicken Delicious, the man who dresses up in a different costume (usually equipped with blinking lights) for each song he plays. There are the puppeteers—I’ve never seen them but I have heard amazing legends of their witty hilarity. I also thought of Gene Weingarten’s experiment with Joshua Bell in the Washington Post, which evoked the question, “Are we really too busy to appreciate profound beauty in an unexpected circumstance?” Perhaps buskers resort to dancing dolls and flashing lights and sensation in general not because their music isn’t beautiful and profound enough, but rather because a flashing light or dancing doll can shake a determined walker from their eyes-forward-gotta-keep-moving path and attract them to the deeper beauty behind the dolls and the lights. Would I have seen the polka playing man reveling in his speedy, finger-blurring renditions; could I have experienced the profound beauty of his performance had he not been surrounded by dancing dolls?

As I played this time in the subway, the atmosphere seemed different than the last few times. People seemed more relaxed (perhaps because the holiday season had just ended and many people may have been on vacation). It was also absolutely freezing, which tends to send people huddling in corners with their hands in their pockets. The platform was quiet with no competition from other buskers, though wafts of the Peruvian flutes in the mezzanine above drifted down the staircase every so often. I refrained from sensation and spectacle, thinking that perhaps the vibraphone is spectacle enough, since it is such an interesting looking instrument. I kept thinking, though, especially during those times when the dollars weren’t flowing, “I wish I had a dancing doll!”

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Things people said to me:

*”Yeah, that’s a xylophone!”
*”That’s a marimba…… that’s a marimba”
*”Bing bingy bing bing! Yeah! I know that!”
*(As we packed up the vibes, Mika, Joe & I stood by the resonators. The resonators are several large metal tubes attached together and when set beneath the keys they amplify the sound. A man saw the resonators and thought they were giant Peruvian flutes—the kind Yani plays.)
“Wow, man, how do you play that? I’ve seen those other Peruvian guys but I’ve never seen one this big!”
I told him, “It takes all three of us!”

Unfortunately, I didn’t get anything unusual or interesting in the tip bucket.