colleen bennett

2nd May 2012

Link reblogged from Street Performers with 10 notes

How To Street Perform →

streetperformers:

Also known as “busking”, this tradition has existed since the medieval ages but is still practiced today. Mark Goffeney of Big Toe is a well established musician in San Diego that has opened for LeAnn Rimes, was featured on a TLC documentary and is planning to shoot his own reality series. Why does he still street perform? Via phone, Mark laid down the rules and explained that not all street performers are crazy hobos. 

1. Be prepared for your venue. Some places won’t provide you with monitors, amps, cables, lighting, etc, so that means you need to bring your own equipment in addition to your instruments. Mark brings a small battery powered amplifier, a microphone and a mic stand. Some places like Balboa Park don’t allow amplification but Mark was able to convince the city to let him amplify his set. “The guitar being on the ground, was getting drown out by like the saxophones and you know… and people couldn’t really hear me at all. And I think that took away from the integrity of the performance…” 

2. Pick a location accepting of busking. Pacific Beach on the boardwalk, Balboa Park, Santa Monica promenade (“Very competitive, very good access there and I get a good opportunity every time I go up there”), Seaport Village (“It’s a total clusterfuck… they’re all like five feet- THREE feet away from each other. It looks more like pan-handling to me…I don’t play there.”) are all areas with pedestrian traffic, tourists and a history of street performing. “When you’re out on a street corner it looks like you need something. When you’re in a place like [Balboa Park] you become more apart of the scenery- apart of the overall enjoyment of the afternoon…” 

3. Be legal. This means that you need to play in a spot that legally allows street performers. Locations like Balboa Park and Santa Monica legally allow street performers and are very open to them. Mark started playing at Santa Monica for nineteen minutes when a ranger came up to him, not with a ticket but with a registration form. This incident could have resulted differently elsewhere…! 

4. Be competitive. Your spot along Balboa Park and other places is decided on based on a lottery system. Performers pick a spot to perform based on the number drawn. For example, number one picks first. “Some people come and take that spot for a month- they try to eliminate you from the competition, they only play once and never come back again. But because of this lottery system, that spot is their’s for the month… It’s kind of a flawed system right now… sometimes we get bumped for some kid with a guitar that plays for an hour and then never comes back again.” 

5. Engage the audience. Interact with them and make eye contact. “Honestly without sounding vain at all, it’s all about personality. People could be really good at violin or cello, but when they’re just looking down at their sheet music and playing, people don’t really seem as interested. It’s more about performing and engaging your crowd than it is about pure musicianship.” 

6. Be nice to your neighbors. In street performer friendly areas you’re going to have share spaces with other people. Mark has seen his fair share of unruly buskers: “I’ve seen some tarot card readers try to put hexes on other card readers and stuff… It’s kinda wacky…” 

7. Be professional. Many of these legal performers are professional artists. “The people I think really belong out there are- these are good performers, these are people that like myself get paid $200-300 to play at a club for an hour or two. We’re not out there because we don’t have any other place to play. We’re out there because we like it.” 

8. Change your act up. “There’s a juggler guy, he’s about 30 now, but he’s been out there since he was a little kid and he has a pretty good show. But he’s done the same show as long as I’ve known him.” 

9. Expect weird situations. For example, Mark almost got pick pocketed by Elizabeth Smart. “I think the people that abducted her sent her over to pick pocket my case because I noticed this family standing behind the bushes and one of them had a turban on and the other one had a- they were dressed like Quakers you know? The teenager came up and she sort of knelt down and reached in my case and gave me the most intense look that I had ever seen- she looked me right in the eye [as if to say] ‘I’m sorry, can you help me?’ and it really affected me. So I look up at her parents and waved and they waved back!” The story or her abduction broke a few weeks later and Mark confirmed the pick pocket was Elizabeth Smart. 

10. Love it. “I’m there not because I need to but because I like people and I like performing, and if I make a profit, that so be it but I would probably do it for free- just because that’s how much I enjoy it.” Mark loves performing so much that he plans to perform at San Francisco’s Pier 31. Whilst traveling, Mark street performs whenever he gets the chance. For example Holland and Germany. Mark describes street performing as an eye opener into the lives of people. “It’s the absolute epitome of human experience to go street perform”

Reblogged from TheSunshineCanBeOppressive 

Source: thesunshinecanbeoppressive

2nd May 2012

Link reblogged from Squashed with 611 notes

Squashed: On Those "Entitled" Twenty-Somethings →

Apparently people in their 20s are a bunch of entitled whiners. I also hear we’re afraid of hard work. I’m rather sick of hearing it. Of course we have a sense of entitlement—we had an understanding with the older generation. We followed through with our half of the deal. What happened?

The…