This guy is awesome! The double-pedal set-up with a Hello Kitty kiddie kit is hilarious. And he plays way better than some drummers I've been stuck with.
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This guy is awesome! The double-pedal set-up with a Hello Kitty kiddie kit is hilarious. And he plays way better than some drummers I've been stuck with.
Dang I just fell for this scam the day before yesterday in Phoenix. He looked exactly like the guys in those pictures, he had a wife who dressed and looked just like that and a daughter who looked just like that and a sign that just looks like LOL. I was focused on avoiding Christmas traffic so I knew the guy was using a backtrack but I just naturally assumed he was at least trying to play along. It never even occurred to me that someone would fake that. I gave the guy money because I completely support somebody at least trying to make music to a backtrack. But I certainly feel a little scammed finding out that he wasn't even trying to play. That's just lame.
"Will also consider a MIM P Bass or a good quality acoustic. Let me know what you have."
+1. I had just bought some bagels and a guy comes up to me asking for money. I gave him a bagel. He still wanted money. There just happen to be a liquor store and a beer store in the shopping complex...
You know that isn’t true. I know that isn’t true. I’ve shared meals with these folks before.
That’s quite an assertion, brother. I don’t think we can make too many assumptions or assertions based upon that condition. Lots of times, people who really need help don’t have anywhere else to be. They sometimes can’t travel too far and just wind up where they are.
The scary part is that we’re all on this tiny Blue dot together, and anything could happen. I hope I never wind up in need, but it’s possible. I hope people don’t judge me harshly.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
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perfect!
and then there's this: how many of us log into TB every day pretending to be musicians or bass players?
The two are mutually exclusive in your worldview?
My man!
All fair points. Perhaps my brush was a bit too broad. I can only go by my own experiences. I've traveled all over the Mid Atlantic for both music and electrical construction. I've personally offered jobs to quite a few sign holders. Once I even offered one a job as a "fire watch". All he had to do (for $17 an hour) was stand still and blow a horn if he saw a fire to alert construction workers around him (loud environment). He turned me down flat. I offered to pick him up and drop him off. The more I offered the madder he got. He even accused me of intentionally distracting him from "his business".
Once an alder lady had a TODDLER out at about 2a.m. beside a gas station. She gave me a story about a broken down car about a mile away and needing money to get it fixed. I offered to put her in a hotel. I offered to get a tow truck to get her car and drop it at a repair shop owned by a friend. I offered to pay for the repairs. Basically, I offered her well over a thousand dollars I'm goods and services....everything but cash. She turned me down. I went into a 24 hour Walmart nearby and got the little girl a coat and some food. The lady became angry and tried to turn that down. I told her she had two choices. Either put the coat on the kid and hand her the food, or explain why to the police. I sat in my car and watches as the child just about choked eating. That's how hungry she was.
So.... perhaps I'm a bit jaded (although I try hard not to be). And, you are correct. I should not assume the same from every beggar in a parking lot.
That said, there is a LONG list of things I would do for them. Hand them cash is not on the list.
But what if the fake busker is a budding performance artist with considerable violin and technology chops?
"Marina Abramovic first heard about Laurie Anderson in 1975. Abramovic was living in Europe at the time, hand-to-mouth, sleeping in her car, traveling from one country to the next to do the performance pieces that would eventually make her reputation. She and her partner, Ulay, would braid their hair together and sit back to back in a gallery for 17 hours, or they would get naked and run across the room and repeatedly slam into each other and fall over. In the midst of all this, Abramovic heard about something wild happening down in Italy: A young American woman was doing street performances in Genoa. Every day she would pick a different spot in the city and stand there playing some kind of cyborg violin — it had tape loops and speakers inside of it, so the violin would play prerecorded violin music, and the American would stand there and play the violin along with itself. A “self-playing violin,” she called it. But that wasn’t even the best part. The best part was that this young American was playing her experimental violin while standing on ice skates, and the blades of the skates were frozen into two huge blocks of ice — so as she played her cyborg violin, as crowds of baffled Italians gathered to watch, the ice blocks she was standing on would slowly melt, and eventually the skates would clunk down onto the pavement, and that would be the end of the performance. Anderson would stop playing and walk off. She called the piece “Duets on Ice".
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"Marina Abramovic first heard about Laurie Anderson in 1975. Abramovic was living in Europe at the time, hand-to-mouth, sleeping in her car, traveling from one country to the next to do the performance pieces that would eventually make her reputation. She and her partner, Ulay, would braid their hair together and sit back to back in a gallery for 17 hours, or they would get naked and run across the room and repeatedly slam into each other and fall over. In the midst of all this, Abramovic heard about something wild happening down in Italy: A young American woman was doing street performances in Genoa. Every day she would pick a different spot in the city and stand there playing some kind of cyborg violin — it had tape loops and speakers inside of it, so the violin would play prerecorded violin music, and the American would stand there and play the violin along with itself. A “self-playing violin,” she called it. But that wasn’t even the best part. The best part was that this young American was playing her experimental violin while standing on ice skates, and the blades of the skates were frozen into two huge blocks of ice — so as she played her cyborg violin, as crowds of baffled Italians gathered to watch, the ice blocks she was standing on would slowly melt, and eventually the skates would clunk down onto the pavement, and that would be the end of the performance. Anderson would stop playing and walk off. She called the piece “Duets on Ice".
”Invalid Link Removed
If busking guitarists keep their guitar cases open to collect tips in, what do busking vocalists use? Their denture boxes?
In that case he should ask people who are exiting the beer store, not the bagel shop!The problem is that you think he should want a bagel. I don't want a bagel when I want beer
I want to help people, but I also don't want to be scammed. With donations to organizations, I can check their 990 returns. People on the street, I have to assume the worst, especially in my area where there are tons and tons of charities and programs available.
We have a voluntary homeless guy in my town. Parents bought him a house and offered him money but he chose to live under a bridge with his German Shepard. The dog scratched somebody that was working the drive through at a local fast food restaurant. Cops took the dog and had it tested for rabies. Now he stands at Wal-Mart holding signs talking smack about the cops and screaming at people. Lots of people felt sorry for him and gave him money. I felt sorry for him until I was at a sports bar, which wasn't cheap, with my kid and his girlfriend and saw him come in and order a bunch of food. I then caught him snorting up a bunch of cocaine in the bathroom. I have no sympathy for scumbags like this.
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Leave Britney Alone!!!!
Faking it is part of the music business. Superb Owl, Top Of The Pops, Awards shows, major tours, etc.
Faking it is part of the music business. Superb Owl, Top Of The Pops, Awards shows, major tours, etc.
