Blood Money

T

Timshel

New member
If you have not heard before I work at the corner where the cable cars turnaround in SF. Big tourist area and therefore there are many panhandlers and street performers. I use to think the street performers were cool. But I have become sick of those doing music.

You are probably one of the folks that gives them money. The guy playing the sax sounds pretty talented, so you give him a buck, sure. But, what you might not know is that he only knows a few verses of one song, and he plays them over and over, day after freaking day. If you would keep your dollar, he'd find some better craft, or maybe learn some new stuff and all would be well. But noooo.

When I snap and go on a killing spree, the blood will be on your hands.

Right now we have some drunk singing the 12 Days of Christmas.
 
RStringfield said:
If you have not heard before I work at the corner where the cable cars turnaround in SF. Big tourist area and therefore there are many panhandlers and street performers. I use to think the street performers were cool. But I have become sick of those doing music.

You are probably one of the folks that gives them money. The guy playing the sax sounds pretty talented, so you give him a buck, sure. But, what you might not know is that he only knows a few verses of one song, and he plays them over and over, day after freaking day. If you would keep your dollar, he'd find some better craft, or maybe learn some new stuff and all would be well. But noooo.

When I snap and go on a killing spree, the blood will be on your hands.

Right now we have some drunk singing the 12 Days of Christmas.
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LOL! That's awesome! Are you on Market St? I couldn't imagine having to put up with that all day.
 
I apologize for laughing at the source of your distress, but you did express it so well!

Obviously these guys don't do requests! I'm sorry you have to endure that; it would drive me nuts! Then again I'd swap with you, for about a month, the compressor located in the ceiling next to my lab -- on 2/3 of the time, at about 14 min intervals, all damned day! I wear hearing protection. Would it be possible in your sort of work to do that?
 
That's really how most people on the streets learn their stuff. They're not very good, not very creative, and not very talented. But if you can learn one song some talented person created and play it day after, you can do a pretty good imitation. And in our society, imitation is much more valuable for the time you put into it than actual creativity is.

Of course, now you have to play actual "songs". My brother, for instance, has complained before because I freeform a lot and someone wants a "real" song. Holy fuck - I don't want to be one of those guitarists who goes out, memorizes "Seven Nation Army" and one or two other songs, and play that all day long to people and actually acts like he's talented. And for God's sake - if I ever here someone playing the intro to "Smoke on the water" again ... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... I'm going to kill someone too, RS.
 
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Is that talent? Huh?

What's even worse is whenever they don't even play it right, and play it in power chords. Which is actually 90% of the people out there. Go fuck yourself guys - the guitar wasn't made to be reduced into a simple stick in which people play power chords over and over on. There are actually other styles, and real, melodious chords that you could use, instead of plugging a distortion pedal into a distortion petal into the amp (which has built in gain distortion at max) and playing power chords as a replacement for actually making musc.
 
Watermark said:
And for God's sake - if I ever here someone playing the intro to "Smoke on the water" again ... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... I'm going to kill someone too, RS.
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How about the old standard, "Stairway to Heaven"? Everybody on the earth plays that one!
 
cawacko said:
LOL! That's awesome! Are you on Market St? I couldn't imagine having to put up with that all day.
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I used to work at 595 Market -- the (former) Rand McNally building. I loved it: it was the best thing about that job. Long live the Twelve Galaxies Guy!
 
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