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Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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I think buskers add to the city. Americans tend to call them street performers, well, sure, but it really isn't the same. I believe that when I walk without my ipod on, the buskers provide the soundtrack of the city. Depending on where I am, it can be Chinese insturments to sitars, diggerdoos to bagpipes. It's rather diverse and amazing.
Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com
Quote:
Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he's really bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment?
On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an unusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?
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you can listen to the performance here, it's amazingly beautiful.
but this isn't about buskers, this is about people asking for spare change.
I recently got a free book, called Push Comes to Shove by Concord Free Press, who gives their books away for free. In exchange they want the recipient of the book to donate the proceeds to anyone, anything and pay it backward. When done give the book to someone else to do the same thing.
So, in doing so, I've been giving $.50 to some guy sitting in the same spot on Spring Street for the past few months. Each time I see him, I give him $.50.
Otherwise, no, do not give spare change to someone. I know that "homeless" people in NYC can make hundreds of dollars a day. It's not just NYC, it's everywhere.
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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.
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