Merry Christmas and thank you for ruining my day.

[gurdymonkey]

Dear Guy With The Blue Metalflake Guitar:

What sort of inconsiderate, selfish ass must you be to set up your instrument and amplifier as big as your swelled head on a patch of sidewalk ten feet from where you see me without so much as coming over to ask whether I'm going to be there much longer?

What sort of egomaniac can you be to defend your rudeness to me by trying to lecture me about how I am never gonna "Make It (TM)" unless I plug my instrument into a suitcase to cater to the Deaf Generation when I ask why you insist on driving me out of the spot I came out early this morning to claim? If you cared about my "making it" you would not be stealing my audience. If you had any class whatsoever, you would have moved down the block and set up a reasonable distance away.

Not to mention lying to me about that being your spot. Funny, I've never seen you there before and while I'm not there every single weekend, I've been out there a fair few this year. In "your" spot.

How dare you continue to try to lecture me about "making it" when I have said "I'm done with you" very loudly no less than three times. 

Do you feel good about making me pack up in a huff?

Are you happy that you upset me so badly I didn't feel like trying to play anywhere else today?

Oh, and Merry Christmas.

Comments

Amp Dude Has Brothers In NYC...

[minstrlmummr.livejournal.com]

Maybe he can't properly hear the 'gurdy with his head wedged that far...up there...

It's funny. Some of my (male 8P) busker friends talk about this or that other busker approaching them while they worked to ask about sharing the space (sometimes this works) or to find out when they'd be done. I've been busking for four years. While I've had one, count 'em, ONE act ask me when I'd be finished, I've had FOUR or FIVE (male) acts just plop down and start polluting the airwaves WHILE I'M SINGING as if I was never even there. Sometimes I get lucky and the audience is with me so I feel like waiting 'em out (people with cacaphony-induced headaches do not tip, but they don't tip ANYONE). Sometimes after a week of crap related to the day job I simply don't have it in me to fight. I hate it that my willingness to go home gives the assholes what they want, but I get tired of jerks pushing their "greater secret knowledge" or their chauvinism or I know not what, on me in lieu of...oh, I don't know...ENTERTAINMENT for the audience?


One alternative if the law's on your side/if you feel like bothering is to call the cops on him. I don't know the laws out there regarding amps. Here, no matter how loud my unamplified voice is, it's still more legal than Trumpet Dude's boom box (with its endless loop of "Girl From Ipanema" 8P

Wish I could present the chocolate for reals...

BTW,

[minstrlmummr.livejournal.com]

Bonus @$$ points to Amp dude for pretending that pitches don't belong to buskers who show up and work them, first-come first-served unless he's got a permit ("Music Under NY" performers have some kind of permit, but they use amps on the mezzanine levels, those of us without amps work the platforms).

Re: Amp Dude Has Brothers In NYC...

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Actually I use an amp. It's a teeny little 1 watt Chinese job that runs on a 9 volt battery - just enough to boost the gurdy in a noisy venue, but not enough to sound like it's noticeably amplified.

I did post the text of my journal rant to the "Musicians" ads on the local Craigslist. Won't do a damn bit of good, but it made me feel better.