FIRST ENTRY: One of my first nights busking (playing in public—usually outdoors—for tips). I had been thinking for a while (years, actually) that I would like to busk. There were many reasons for this desire: 1) It beats sitting at home practicing, 2) It's real-life experience playing a wide range of songs in front of all kinds of people: old, young, really young, homeless, affluent, parents, teenagers, rowdies, couples, singles, families, you name it, 3) You can make money, 4) You can take risks and expand your guitar playing and singing because even if you mess up, it's no big deal since the crowd is in motion for the most part, on their way to their movie or their restaurant, as opposed to sitting inside a club, fixed on the performer and 5) I had always admired people I had seen who had the courage go out and do it.
Of course, it seemed easier to not do it. I think we have ways of "forgetting" about doing the things we want to do that are risky, where we could "fail" (the reason I put that in quotation marks is that I don't believe we ever fail, as long as we keep going toward the goal). The first night I went out to busk, I had my guitar on my back, my amp in my hand and a music stand and microphone stand under my arm—heavy load! I hadn't played a note of music and I was already covered in sweat—on a spring evening! I arrived just across the street from where I intended to play and I nearly "forgot" why I was there. Suddenly ANYTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD seemed far more important. I just had to "grab the remote" away from whatever internal force was trying to get me to turn back, hit the bypass switch and just make my body go across the street, set up and start playing, which I did. This video is from a few weeks later, when I first started video'ing, on my brother Pete's recommendation (thanks, Bro).
