I went to do a bit of Christmas shopping in London today. I’m normally only there for work, so it was kinda nice not to have to carry a laptop with me. I don’t normally like big cities that much, I don’t think I’d like to live in one. I do, however, really like underground train systems, even at 26, they still seem exciting. They’re all slightly different. I like how the New York one is always steaming hot and noisy and that it has slow and express trains. It’s typical of being in New York, everything comes with a choice. I like how London’s tube trains are really far under the ground. Some of the deep lines, are over 200ft down.
The underground also has really good buskers, they’re actually allowed to be there and beer companies sponsor the sites where they play. I was going down towards Waterloo station and I was thinking they must have started playing music over the PA system. A few escalators later and I realised the music was coming from this guy at the bottom playing his keyboard. He was doing a really nice version of Coldplay’s Clocks. When he finished he got a massive round of applause from the couple of hundred people stood on the escalators. People were putting £5 and £10 notes in his hat and standing waiting for the next song. He was great!
I managed to do some shopping along Oxford street, it was pretty cold and wet, but it did feel a little Christmasy once it went dark with the festive lights. With all the security in London, I was a bit surprised by a tannoy annoucement they made in Selfridges, “Attention! All shoppers are entitled to a free KNIFE, no purchase necessary. Oh, Errrrr knifes only available to those over 21″. It turned out it was some new fangled kitchen knife, still seems a bit of a strange thing to hand out to everyone in the shop. I made a quick exit before it all got a bit nasty.
I had to look up “buskers” to find out what it meant. Here in the States, we call those people “beggars”. Or just street musicians. Last week I was in San Francisco and there was a teenage busker outside of Macy’s in Union Square. He was TERRIBLE! It was kind of sad and embarrassing but I guess I salute the kid’s gusto. He was playing an electric violin, which was kind of cool because usually buskers play beat up old instruments that they probably inherited or found in a garbage can, but this kid had a fancy black electric thing and an amplifier too. I don’t know if he made that much money, I guess people would probably look and see a poor kid standing in the street and give him money regardless of what he was doing, but I felt so turned off by the terrible music. Maybe I’m just a music snob.
Comment by Over in the States — December 4, 2005 @ 12:19 amAn electric violin sounds pretty cool, I looked for him on this site, but it doesn’t look like he made it. I wonder how much money these people make? You never seem to see one man bands any more either. Maybe they’d have to be called one person bands now, but anyways, where’d they all go?
Comment by Darren — December 4, 2005 @ 8:53 pmI love the buskers. I love coming home from stupid work in stupid CT and hearing someone playing the flute with a violinist in grand central. I like walking through a dank dark gross subway underground connection and hearing music wafting through the corridors. I like being surrounded by music everywhere I step. I even like the crazy blind homeless dude singing some old ass blues offkey. It’s just different and I dig it.
Comment by beav — December 6, 2005 @ 4:14 pm