I was in downtown Portland a couple weeks ago and I had an otherworldly experience. Maybe not otherworldly. But still beautiful. I’m not sure what exactly the two streets were that intersected on that little street corner where I passively stood, or of course I would let all of you know—my only wish in this world is to help you picture this story as vividly as possible, I’m selfless that way. But I’m standing there on this corner where the streets have no name (Bono would be proud), staring at the bossy red hand signal that’s smugly telling me I’m not allowed to cross the street, when I realize that there’s a man playing a guitar five feet to my right. I take out my headphones and what hits my ears is liquid gold.
That’s pretty much the whole story, I’m sorry if it’s a little anticlimactic. Basically what it made me realize is that I’m a pretty big fan of busking. Just walking the streets, I walked right into a miniature concert. I like how it’s a win-win—we get to listen, and they get to play. It’s spontaneous and casual, and there’s a variety of performers out there. When I found that there’s a district in London (Covent Garden) where buskers have to audition to be able to perform in the area, can only perform at certain times, and only in certain places, I found it pretty interesting…I would love to see how this might change the dynamics of busking, for the performers and the listeners.