And no sandals please!It just aggravates the situation even more.

Not the meaning behind it. Right up their alley, so to speak.

yes, but they are too retarded for that.

Even for the not-so-good ones, there is an interesting quality in raw, semi-crappy music. Especially when played by strange, mysterious, potentially homeless people. They're very much like Kurt Cobain.

But not on my way to work.

Reynols used to busk.Playing air instruments just wind the argentinian authorities up.How cool is that?

Breathing statues are sometimes worse than buskers because they are smug and arrogant street artists who corrupt children and families.

Oh yeah, violinists who play something other than depressing shit are okay, it's just that so many of them do go for the "depress your audience" angle. Ed Alleyne-Johnson, who used to play with New Model Army, is a splendid example of shit hotness in a busking violinist.

there is a guy in england who paints himself yellow and just stands there staring at stupid american tourists who just get out their wallets and give up their money. thats all he does. painted yellow and waves.

I've always seen busking as degrading.

having said that. marc orleans from the sunburned hand of the man used to play on the subway in new york.

Wich brings us to........

ive never seen any decent buskers in london, but ive never spent a whole lot of time there. theres usualy some shit one at piccadily cirsus tube.
i saw a maniac playing shamisen in prague that was really good.
theres a guy who sometimes busks in birmingham with a tiny little gtr and a kick drum and kazoo who is fantastic.
nyc buskers are better than most of the live music i ever see in brum. the tuplewear drummers, the breakdancers on the subway beatboxing and the guys on the platforms playing instruments ive never seen before.
there are alot of shit buskers where i live now. its a famous place for them. theres one guy who is off his head, looks the spitting image of EYE and he charges ¥100 then reads manga books of your choice from his massive collection in hilarious voices.
my mate has a few screws loose and he takes his battered old acoustic everywhere and starts playing and singing on the bus in london or on the street, in the chippy or in the pub. he has a certian syd barrett like lunatic charm and no shame.
its the same as going to see a band. half the time you take the risk and see a band you dont know, they will likely be shite, now and then you find something good. its the same on the streets. england isnt the best place for interesting busking though.

Does anyone else wanna hurt them?

hmmm.....

look at him.
http://nora.embl-heidelberg.de/galle...serialNumber=2

god help.

Get a real job instead of standing there being a retard!

You seemed to have forgotten to type 'Ani Difranco' after the word 'retard' in that statement. Please amend accordingly.

Rather witty of you - but rather inappropriate.

What about Buskers on a plane?

I already came up with that one, Daycare.

I see. Congrats.

Great minds think alike.

;-)

sorry for digging this up again but i saw one today i really liked.. a guy with a rather old piano (a real big one, on wheels) and a dog playing on the street. people were standing everywhere and listening, it was very good.. he was playing jazzy songs and you could hear him sing at the other end of the street :D

There were three girls playing in Liverpool today: chamber quartet type stuff, but with just three of them. They were fantastic. Nice people, too.

"Spare change for a dollar."

Been hearing this daily when I walk down the street near work this summer from this young lady squatting on the corner sidewalk. Yesterday I answered, politely, "Sorry, I don't have any change." I really didn't. She said, "A dollar will do, then." I stopped and looked at her and asked sincerely, "You're asking for a dollar and you'll give me a dollar? A dollar for a dollar? I don't get it." She became irate and started yelling at me, "No! Spare change OR a dollar. Spare change OR a dollar." I walked away embarassed.

I could swear all this time she's been saying, "Spare change for a dollar."

Why did you not set fire to her?

I saw them too. I had to buy a suit today.

I thought I saw you in Speke today. You were driving a white car.

They were really good weren't they?

I wasn't in Speke though, and I don't drive.

This is a popular spot for busking here in my city (and only two blocks from my home). There is one fellow who likes to drink in the bar located right there, and then sing. Awfulness. There is another guy who plays these african drums sometimes too, he is very good, and very freindly too...though, I'm not giving anymore smokes to him.

The police here like to hassel them.

There was a pretty cool group of guys playing some kind of North African or Klezmer type stuff at the foot of the Jubiee Bridge, near the London Eye, yesterday evening. Fantastic stuff, it was, but I didn't have the time to hang around.

I love buskers. The more the better. There are much worse things people could be doing with their spare time.

I'm sure I'd get bored of them if I had to deal with them all the time. But I think it's kind of a nice thing, having music in the city.

there's one guy in antwerp who stops playing and gives you a piece of chocolate or a present if you give him something.

some time ago in brussels i saw a band called babylon circus play in the middle of the street. they were supposed to play in a cafe but decided the place was too small and warm, so just grabbed a megaphone and took the thing outdoors. pretty damn great.

beggars/tramps: arcade fire

buskers at tube stations always depress me. especially the bloke at london bridge. it's nothing against him or what he does. he just always reminds me of going to work.

The report from Asheville is that 90 percent of them here are lost 60s-generation acid casualties or 20-something hippie-wanna-be burnouts trying to make enough cash for their daily pack of cigarettes. They all play the same Dylan, Simon and Garfunkle, and Dead songs on 20-dollar guitars and have no singing voice, just a lot of bravado. The streets are full of them. The other 10 percent are mediocre folksinger-songwriter types who go on and on about the mountains.

There's one of those painted-white-statue guys around these parts who wears a white plastic mask!!! So the main element of skill - ie looking like a statue - is removed totally. And yet people throw money into the hat. Unbelievable, and yet, somehow, true.