How's it Going?

My year in college began on the 4th of September and my busking in Limerick got off to a very slow start, mainly for two reasons.  Firstly, finding suitable places for me to play - quiet streets with a reasonable footfall and a good acoustic, and with parking not too far away - takes a bit of research.  I don’t mind walking but nowadays Clara’s hip problem is much worse and anything more than a few hundred yards is out of the question.  Secondly, while September in Ireland is often among the best months of the year weather-wise, somebody must have forgotten to remind it this year and we’ve had a phenomenal amount of rain. I’m hoping that October through to next July will be better.

Today was one of the sunniest days since I arrived and around noon, I went to a small shopping centre where, since finding it - only about a kilometre out from my Limerick accommodation - I’ve been welcomed by the shop-keepers and their customers, with smiles, positive comments as well as a fair amount of coins - and bones for Clara Dogherty too.  This morning however, I learned that Saturday morning is about the quietest time there and that most people head into the city.  My ninety minutes or so, covered the cost of having some laundry done and a beard trim - both at businesses in the same mall - but that was about it.

Apart from the fact that busking for me is my voice gymnasium and also in a way, time out from other cares, for various reasons, which I’ll expand on in another post, this week I had lots of them and also needed to earn a little bit and so in the afternoon, I drove the 15 miles or so out to Killaloe for a second busk.  I’d played there on a Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago and was doing Ok, till it began to rain in earnest.

While my start in college hasn’t been exactly smooth, I am planning on doing a study in what makes some people respond so positively to a busker while to a larger percent it would appear the same busker is somewhere between being an object of disdain and being totally invisible.  In an ideal world, I would don a miniature camera that would record everything just as I’m seeing it - something like a GoPro, edit the highlights and the lowlights, and do a commentary over it.  Not so simple I’m afraid.  It seems that for video recording, the college ethics stance would not allow unless every passer-by gave detailed permission for their appearance to be used in the video.  Not at all practical, perhaps the work of years.  This, even if the video were totally for internal college use.  Pity.

Plan B.  Reflect on and recall encounters from my busking history that stand out and do some interviews which will represent what my particular street performance means to people, both from those reacting positively and those who chose to keep me off their radar, even while passing a few feet away.  Even this requires a quite extensive form to be filled out, submitted and given the green light before I can begin.  

Today though, I did speak about my study to a lady who’d passed by with a couple of children, both going into and coming out from the supermarket and, having loaded her shopping, and the kids, into the car, made took the trouble to come back from the far side of the carpark to put some coins into my case and say thanks for the music.  We talked briefly and, when I mentioned what I was planning to do she said she’d be happy to do an interview.  Great.  I have a phone number and, once my permissions are in place, my first interview.

I do envisage obtaining interviews from people who, for whatever reason, ‘prefer not to get involved’ is even acknowledging the presence of someone busking, might be a little more difficult but…..

….on my second busk today, I think I might have found the perfect subject.  If I’m right, I will post about it sometime soon but for now at least, I’ll proceed with caution.