something about subway musicians just fascinates me, and i mean the real musicians-- not the homeless guy with the boombox who sits in the center of the Jackson underground tunnel, which stinks like urine (wonder why).
in the Lake red line station, where i get off for work, there is an old chinese (?) woman (?) who plays this bizarre cello-eqsue instrument, it's more like a broomstick with one string on it that sings this sickly, off-key song (I looked it up and found that its a
erhu). She plays the same song over and over, i only wish that i could figure out what it is.
there's also a native american-looking woman in sunglasses who plays the guitar, violin, castanets, tap-dances, and whistles all at the same time, with a tin measuring cup tied to the head of her guitar begging for spare change.
a threesome of old crooners harmonize to stevie wonder, and a hendrix lookalike jams on an acoustic guitar. a wanderer sings amazing grace a cappella. a drugged out man playing african drums dedicated all his songs to the Jonas Brothers, who, according to him, died in a tragic plane crash in south america.
Once i saw a young guy playing some pop punk acoustic serenades in the Washington Blue Line station. as soon as he started playing, a crazy at the other end of the stop started howling unintelligibly. the boy stopped, and the howler would too. start again, and the howling started up. it was a competition, and i think the homeless scraggler won because the boy eventually gave up in frustration, whining to himself as pop-punks do.
yesterday i saw the icing on the subway musician cake. a man holding a plush tiger, both in matching red sweaters, gold chains and sunglasses. his boombox was playing a karaoke song. The plush tiger was freestyle rapping to "Eye of the Tiger". he was all "yo, imma tiger, gonna eatchu, hear me roar" it was probably the best thing i've ever seen occur in a subway.
so don't even bother asking, corner homeless. my spare change is going to help keep music alive.
*edit: found this youtube
video of the tiger guy, but it's from two years ago when the tiger was just a baby. it's pretty big now. poor quality, but at least it's proof!