In Beaubourg's jungle, family and (new) friends

Welcome. mamí, welcome. And thanks for being here with your little son.

Al ratito arrives big brother,

who'll shoot the picture.

Thanks for walking with me,

along rue de Rivoli,

way down to center-city,

place Beaubourg you and me.

Where all the performers are. I hope there will be some room left for me. For us. Some room, well.

19h30 ... there should be.room enough since the sun is setting and people is leaving ... or not? Mmm mamí, qué pasa aquí? Pues 200 hundreds boys and girls, forming a subtle battle of people in the jungle circle. Why jungle ? Performers jungle well. Many of them. Here and there, up and down, shouting and yelling and passionating people.

Loving people ? Maybe. For sure ... There is lacking some precious white human statue I was enjoying to see, some months ago ... but still many many of them are here.

Where can I set my stage ... near the magician but not than near .... a little bit further ... but if go to far, I will cover the sound of these 2 acoustic cythar players so let's move a bit. A pity, this place was perfect since it was in front of where the people walk ... anyway let's go in this place near the fence. I can see all the esplanade de Beaubourg like this. And I will bother nobody. No fear but mutual respect in this public shared stage.

Let's plug. Tune. And start. Mamí, ven acá, cerca de ton fils. Ahí. Ici.

And let's start with the tuuuu, tuuuu du tuuuuduuu tuuuu du du du du du duuuuuu - (Don't worry). Tu du du du du du duuuuu. (Be happy).

Here we are. One song's over. Let's carry on for the 4 people that are listening. Counting my mamí :) Béeeeesameeeeeee, beaaame muuuuuuuuuchooooo ... oh it seems that the songs in Spanish here are more appreciated than in the metro ... now the double of people are listening. Song's over. Applauses. Smiles. Coins! Voice .... yelling voice .... from below, telling me "Hey, the songs, please can you stop, hey ! Just 20 minutes and you can carry on, thank you!". I turn around. Tightrope walker. 200 people staring at him. 8 ... now .... 6 looking at me. 202 at him. I have to stop.

Or to move. Mamí, help me to move, s'il te plaît. Move the stand ... carry on .... wait for him to end ... carrying on the show ... brother comes. Shoots pictures. One family. 2 girls kissing listening from end to end. And Mexico arriving in the end of the end ....

What happened today :

• Hey my brother has been taking pictures for a couple of weeks and he already shot my best pictures ever!!! Thank you bro! You're talented :)
• My mum as the perfect assistant and the fan number one :)
• What a lovely couple these 2 girls staring and listening for a complete hour.
• Definitely I should tune the songbook according to where I play ... here in a such a touristic place, people who gave money is spanish speaking people, who likes spanish songs! Very different from the metro.
• Given the number of smiles of beautiful girls (and handsome gays)I can get in one hour I think the guitar is definitely the most attractive part of my body :)
• This french family that would stay for 30 minutes.
• Pictures ... why don't guys come and take pictures with me, too?
• What a nice chat I had with the mother and daughter from ... Viva México cabrones!!! Thanks for being so generous and accessible. Maybe we meet in Guadalajara one day !
• Would have been perfect if the white statue had been there performing at my side :) But she was not that day and probably will never see her again ...

PS: the metro girl with the phone number was a total mytho ... she was supposed to send me the contact of a radio to send a demo and she now sends me 5 messages/day to know where I live and with whom ... anyone interested? :p

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A bunch of euros and a phone number

Estado de fluidité, says a friend of mine. She's not from here. Well, better said, she's from here, she's from there, and also a little of bit de acá y un poco de allá. And she mixes idiomas. Puerto rican style but with still some French added. It's nice. Well so estado de fluidité, what is it about? Fluidity state, when everything flows like the river. Well, it depends on what river but I am thinking of the peaceful smooth little river in the swiss mountains ... hearing the cow bells, smelling the cows sh... :) The cows' shadow. Lets's say it like this, shadow: something from us, we cannot live without, and it's like our dark side :) Too much lunch-time philosophy.

Anyway, I am starting to feel this estado de fluidité and it feels nice. It feels nice not to be nervous anymore. To be able to concentrate on feeling, on people, on reactions ... on singing and that's it, I appreciate it. The same way we appreciate the adrenalin of the first timer, body and hands shaking for the first "shows", well the same way, the confidence settling is lovely. This starting point of a routine, is the best at the moment. Let's take care of not letting it flow all down the routine river.

Cool points :

• Definitely cool to say to a friend : "Meet in the biggest metro station of Paris" not having to say anything more. "Just follow the sound" :) Manolo and Julia thanks for coming !!!
• Nice to be in front of the 200m moving walkways of Châtelet's station. You see your audience coming from far away and you hear the applauses going back to the station's depths.
  
• This guy coming one way telling me "You sing badly" ... me like WTF ? And then he coming back saying the same but with a big smile ... we laughing. Irony.
• This other guy -a classy West Indies guy in suit- telling me "Through people like you, Paris keeps its soul." Thanks !
  
• People dancing ... I love you !
• People coming trying to sing at my place ... this is not a karaoke !!!
• I know I have success with gay guys but this one was so in love with me hahaha funny.
  
• Always nice to have some people taking pictures with the artist : I am really thinking of the project I have in mind ... to be continued.
• A girl telling me "Would you take my phone number ?" Yes but who are you ? "Just write it down, I may have a good contact from #### tomorrow for you ..." to be continued ??? Let's hope so.

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Waiting for my guests

Tight timing. They arrive at 19h30 Gare du Nord ... from my prevision they should arrive between 19h45 and 20h15 at Bastille station. All depends on their level of how-do-I-manage-myself-in-an-unknown-city-ness.
It's 19h when I arrive home, just the time to take my shoes and jeans off -such a hot day today, these pants seem to be stuck ... I had never dreamt about having a second skin of denim but at least I know how it feels. So, take my shoes and jeans off, have a tea -actually two teas cos' I had some Baygon falling in my first cup of tea when I shot this fly ... I shot the fly-yyyyffff (and I also shot the cup-of-teaaaa). Iiii shot the sheriff ...

Soooo (maybe one day I end this sentence ...) shoes, jeans, tea, jeans, shoes (on again). Guitar, amp, checked, battery, charged, bag, closed. Here, we, go! Let's rock the Bastille station.

19h40, they can arrive at any moment. 19h50 I start. 19h49, someone would already have thrown a coin ... always the solidarity first.

One song, two songs ... yes ... people is dancing there ... i can see them, here are my guests! Cool way to welcome my 4 couch surfers from Mexico isn't it ? But girls ... too bad : I didn't see no peso there in my case!!! And I played a song in Spanish! My dear Seb and the 2 couch srufers from CZ were more generous! Thank you all for coming!!!

Cool things today:

• Of course seeing my guests arrive !
• And of coooooooourse having my friend Sebdrummer come and see me :)
• And claroooooo having this woman, this man, this girl, this Japanese toursists group ... this lovely people stop and listen. Not many people stopping at the same time, but in the end it's not needed at all.

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Reverse saturday

What does a typical saturday night look like? Well, here are the usual suspects of a saturday night fever!

• You go out ...
• ... with your friends.
  
• You may optionnaly go and see some live music.
• You spend your money more than in any day of the week.
• You eat unhealthy food.
  
• You drink unhealthy liquids.

So why reverse ? Reverse Saturday, back to the Friday ? Is it that I feel like Marty McFly or something? Neeeeeeeeeeee ! Here is the solution of the equation :

• I didn't go out, I went in. Inside Châtelet metro station.
• I was alone. I had some friends that had to come and see me but never showed up.
• I was the one playing live music.
• I didn't spend money: I earnt quite a sweet amount of cash :) Enough to spend in a bar but ...
• ... since my friends never showed up I stayed at home and no junk food : everything was closed so I cooked rice, salmon and veggies ...
  
• ... but I must admit the unhealthy liquid point is the exception that confirms the rule. Yes I am drinking Coke tonight! And no Diet nor Zero: Real men's Coke!

Enjoyable time, alone with myself and with some I-dont-know-how-may-hundreds-of-people during the 3 hours I've been there.

Cool reactions :

• This group or 4 latin girls that would come, dance, sing around me and even take a lot of pictures hugging me while I was singing ... a pity they didn't let their phone for the after party :)
• This chinese family that would film and take many pictures of the Jealous Guy :)
• Seeing familiar faces ... Châtelet is like the center of the world on saturday night ! I had already seen this musician, drunk in the Pont des Arts playing some Jimi H. stuff ...
• 2 guys thay were betting that they could give me five ... stage, even improvised, is intimidating and people would feel nice just hugging you ... while you are just one of them :) Sweet.
  
• Applauses ... people dancing .... smiles .... thumbs up ...
  

Lessons learnt :

• People would give money at the beginning of the set, even before the music starts. When they see the basket is emplty, they give. Once they see that there is quite a lot of coins in the basket, they would just stare at it -like a "He doesn't need more!" glance. So lesson if you want more: make a pit stop and take the money after one hour, to regenerate :)
• On Saturday night ... 10 pm to 1 am : people are drunk and you have to take much care when they feel like singing with you or even when they start a fight with the boyfriend because they want to sing in the mike and that the boyfriend wouldn't let do ... happened twice tonight ...
  
• Even if there are some dangerous drunk people, having people dancing with your songs after 2 glasses of wine is VERY enjoyable :)
• Singing without microphone, lyric-style, is pretty cool and appreciated. Next time, I should try without the amp and just bringing the acoustic guitar with the natural reverb.
  
• Definitely the more known are the songs, the better: Don't Worry Be Happy, Imagine, Jealous Guy, Bésame Mucho. I could loop with these 4 songs ...
  

Now I have to have my plutonium can and call Doc Brown :)

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Place des Vosges with the guy next door

On Monday my friend from UK was here so I would better meet him than go busking. I didn't go.
On Tuesday I forgot to check the material so when about to start the show I had to unplug and go. I didn't show.
On Wednesday I was, amp and axe in my gig bag, when my best friend -can a friend be best of worst ... let's say she is one of the people I consider as part of my closest frienship circle but man ... easier to say she's my best friend isn't it? Well she called me to announce me some great news! She would have been accepted for a master in business and finance so ... so my friend let's go to party (to the insane hamburgers round the corner)!!! So I went no busk.
Today ... noiseless cable in hand, I was about to rock Bastille's station before I meet my friends to go to the open air cinema in Place des Vosges and .... I remembered my couch surfer was an awesome musician ! So ... let's go busking you and I friend!




Sitting on Place des Vosges, waaasting tiiiime :)

Funny guy,
Funny people,
Funny their way to stare shily,
Funny how women are more sensible,
Funny guy, let's jam again tomorrow !

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100% yield

Signs signs signs ... once again! But this time in a way they won :) They were too many :

• Came back late at home.


• Desperately wanted to watch this n x 100EUR TV I bought 1 year ago and that I had not turned on for 2 whole months.


• Received my n x 1,000 EUR income tax letter.


• Still problems with the E string ...

And even like this I wanted to go, to play with the amp I had just bought, the Fender Can. 15W, battery powered. Actually you will get more details on there.

Buuuut maaaaaaaaan why don't you check the whole gig before going to play ? Why do you think that all the microphones plugs are the same and that the XLR will adapt BY ITSELF to this tiny little plug ???

Today's results :

• Now I know I have to check everything as for a concert, even if I am "only" busking. A stage is a stage.
• I confirmed that there is no big deal in cancelling a subway-concert :) Next time will be tomorrow. Busking stays busking.
• Fender Can is much cheaper than the Roland Cube Street and much easier to carry ... I look forward to testing it and to make the comparison in one of the next entries.
• I'll have to play many times in this over-crowded Châtelet station (metro station, RER one is not allowed) to be able to pay this royal income tax!!! The 0 EUR income from today's gig is desastrous :)
• Bad mathematics and an unconditional optimism demonstrate me about the fact I had a perfect yield, look : (0 minutes of plpaying ) x (100% yield) = 0 EUR !!!

See you for the next post !

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Nation ambition

Today ... let's use the silent guitar for the first time !!! And let's meet my dearest friends Alinka and David inside Nation's metro station. Nation is big as the nation at least.

But ... f**king desert on a sunday evening! Bad sign ... do you believe in signs? What about this string that just breaks right before starting? What about this ground noise from the cable? What about ... this feeling of not being in the right place?

To the hell all these pseudo-signs ! Let's change the string and here we are. We'll surely have to tune it between each song, but we are not in a concert hall. Here we give love, not virtuosity. Not yet, at least.

So let's start. But this time let's stand up and use the strap that has been offered with this beautiful silent guitar. Let's warm voice. Let's hit strings, and why not let's move hips while doing all that. Let's give !

And here we are, now it starts looking like a show. Now I am starting to look at people, to feel what I sing and to make people feel it.

Today's reactions :

• A desert place !!!
• Some of the few people that came, would stay and listen for a while :)
• I felt pressure from the guy that would sit, and listen for 30 minutes !!! Great !!!
• I broke this f**king string again, gosh! Thanks power chords :)
• What about this show-off guy that would be almost ashamed of throwing a coin ... and would run right after throwing it.
• What more valuable than this beautiful black young lady giving 1 euro while I was singing Couleur Café ... a hymn to black women's beauty and sex appeal !
  
• Once again, my dearest friends had put half of the income :) Thank you so much for coming Alinka and David !!!

Am loving it !!! Standing and singing closing the eyes ... starting to forget the fretboard and the chords sheet ... I love it.

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New gear : Aria Sinsonido AS-100C/SPL Sat 08/09/2009

Coolest traveler guitar !!! Bought it today !!!
http://www.ariausa.com/guitars/as100cspl.html

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Back in front of an important audience ! Thu, 06/08/2009

I am an obsessed guy. Once I start something I like, I do it more and more.
And more, and more ... and more ...
And more.
And more.

Until I am fed up, as you may be while reading :)
So today, after my debut yesterday, I decided to go back to Bastille, but changing place for my little stage. The aim : to settle where I wanted to go at the first time.

Today it seems to be free ... before sitting, I send a message to my friends and to my bro. I switch the cell phone off.

I plug. I sit. I play.

My dear Alejandra comes and listens. Sits and stares. Smiles and applauses. Thank you my dearest fan :)

Then my brother and his girlf ... ups, his wife since one month ago :) Come and listen. Stand and watch. Laugh and applause. And throw a coin every 5 minutes : I guess you put half of today's income. Thank you :)

Funny reactions :

• A girl putting a coin while I was still plugging everything saying "I am the first".
  
• Those 3 african girls ... who would sing perfect gospel-style along while I was singing Don't Worry, Be Happy. Dancing, singing, almost praying the lord. Awesome.
• These 2 caribbean guys that would stay and thank me when I was singing Jealous Guy.
• A tattoed guy, hard core heavy metal trash death style ... smiling and throwing a coin.
• Some girls smiling ... always enjoyable :)
• Some guys smiling ... always enjoyable :)

Today a little bit more than the double of euros than yestedray and I think from there, 50% from my brother.
This is not that much money for 1h30 ... I think I have to learn the songs by heart. To stand up when I play. To buy a ligther guitar so that I can go to other stations and touch more people.

For the moment ... awesome experience ... my world wonderfully cheerful ... I am learning a lot and I love it !

First day : Wed 05/08/2009

Welcome to my busking blog !

After getting my Musicien du métro license in April, I finally decided to move my little pretty ... to go to the metro station and start busking.

Yesterday I put my batteries to load for the whole night. Having worked from home, I took advantage of the lunch break to go to the nearest metro station, Bastille. Just before, I bought my foldable chair at Monoprix for 10.90 euros.

After having seen that the place where I planned to sit, was already occupied by another busker, I went throught the whole station and settled down in front of the Bonne Journée.

My hands shaked at the very first moments, I plugged all that had to be plugged. Sat all that had to be sat. Played all that had to be played.

I am discovering how wasy it is : why was I that afraid of people's reaction ? The biggest risk is that people would not care and pass their way ... but definitely much to win !

Result :

• 1h30 playing
  
• 7 euros
• 1 coffee offered by the Bonne Journée guy
• 13 smiles
• 3 applauses
• 1 video taken by a couple of tourists
  
• And an eclosion from my egg that was so hard to break !

Some cool reactions from the people today :

• On the very first moment, this woman that would sing along with me "La Vie en Rose".
  
• This old man that would listen, pass his way, go up stairs to take the metro ... then come back and throw a coin in my guitar box.
• This old woman that had problems to walk and that would last one whole song to arrive to me.
  
• All the kids love music and would dance even on the saddest song.

I am still looking much at my tabs and this is bad for the show !!!