May 7th, 2013

Back to busking in Vancouver again, I have yet to renew any of my permits so I had to spend the day playing in the sparse and not particularly lucrative "no-permit" zones. I have really been wracking my brain for a good stand out moment or story from today since this is my first time busking here and writing about it in nearly a year. Truth be told though, it was kind of a crummy day. I made next to no money, got a serious sunburn, was accosted by an old man (something I am more used to dealing with in Montreal where I can just pretend I don't speak French), and had two teenagers in suits take a good ten minute chunk out of my rush hour set at the Oakridge Canada Line station to talk to me about Jesus. So all in all today was not one of those magic busking days, but you know what? I still can't wait to get back out there tomorrow and do it all over again.

June 27th, 2012

I played for a few hours in Gastown last Thursday, there was some kind of music festival going on, but I managed to snag a relatively quiet spot with good foot traffic while the performers were on their lunch breaks. One of the photographers hired for the event mistook me for a performer and took a few pictures of me while I was playing, they can be found here (I show up in pictures 48-51).
http://www.florianhossfeld.com/Music/Make-Music-Vancouver-2012/23653677_wfNVzV#!i=1921468670&k=cTjbWgw
I'm just getting over a nasty cold, but as soon as my singing voice is up to my usual standards I'll be sure to get some videos up.

June 17th, 2012

Played a couple of tunes at the Main Street car free festival today, very fun indeed, decent weather and very good people watching. One woman, who had clearly sampled the wares of the ample beer gardens  lining the streets, stopped by for a few minutes to back me up with some absolutely wild dancing and sporadic snapping and hollering. She was soon joined by the world's best breakdancer under five, who had yet to gain the spatial awareness that eventually rids children of their ability to fling their bodies around in a beautifully careless way. He was hardly phased when the woman enthusiastically proclaimed him "the coolest kid EVER!" He either knew already, or was simply too cool to care. The woman danced her way back into the crowd, and the little boy showed off another move or two before joining his parents at the neighbouring gelato tent. I finished the song I was playing, Jolene, if I remember correctly, then took a moment, before beginning the next one, to think about how much I love what I do.

June 13th, 2012

Played for just barely an hour in my usual spot by the tour busses in Gastown yesterday, it's been so darned rainy lately that's usually about all I can manage. As I was walking back towards the train station, a man I thought I recognized approached me and said he was glad my leg was doing better (I've recently been freed from the cumbersome confines of the ludicrously oversized leg brace that had been holding my kneecap in place since I got back to the city). I smiled and thanked him, still unable to place him. It wasn't until I was riding the train back home that I realized he was the security guard for the touristy boutique across the street from where I play, I guess I hadn't been able recognize him without his uniform on.

May 30th, 2012

I was reminded yesterday of one of my favourite Montreal busking stories. It was mid April, I think I had gone down to the Place Des Arts Metro station to take a bit of a break from studying for finals or writing a paper or some such nonsense. I was about halfway through my rendition of Portishead's "Glorybox" when a woman joined in with what sounded to me like a kind of guttural beat boxing, it was unlike anything I've ever heard. Before leaving to catch her train, she explained that it was actually Inuit throat singing. Now don't that just beat all?

May 27th, 2012

Thought I'd try out a little new repertoire at the market yesterday evening, I'm worried that I'm starting to bore the merchants. I pulled off "Your Cheatin' Heart" with only a few bumps and blips, and received the best possible kind feedback. Two older women stopped to toss me a few coins, telling me that their mother, who worked for the CBC, loved Hank Williams and played his music on air all the time. That is about all the convincing I need to add that one to my permanent set list.

May 19th, 2012

I was payed a visit by my dear cousin K. on Granville Island today. She sat through my full half hour set in front of the Blue Parrot and shot a few short videos which I should be uploading shortly.
Earlier in the day, when I was playing next to the pizza place, an old man threw some jingle in my case and proclaimed (in a heavy Italian accent) "you are amazing! Standing here and doing this..." Y'know, sometimes on a Sunny Saturday, that's all a girl needs to hear.