--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tuesday - 4/04/06 
11:33 am
Los Angeles, CA
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and now

What we've all been waiting for...

I FOUND SILVER DUDE!!

If you follow the arrow and look real close you
can see him there badgering innocent bystanders

This is a much better picture of him-

Though I didn't dare go near him. This was taken with a telephoto lens from a thatched blind erected for safety as if I were photographing a savage lion. From what I can tell of him he merely paints himself silver and dances around forcefully asking for donations though he doesn't speak...nor is he a mime. His rather odd language consists of waving cans and shaking various coin collecting apparati at you (notice I've switched to my ranting and greedy silver text)

This guy waits for you to come within range and starts tooting silver horns and approaching you in a belligerent manner. He is quite relentless. I'm not sure what his "act" is really, he dances about and grabs all the girls and tries to get them to dance, then he gets you to take pictures, and ohhh boy, if that happens, especially if you have a camcorder... it's payup time. You may as well sign your bank account right over to him if you get him on video. I saw him maul a guy once...actually I didn't. Silverado basically gets in your face, gets you all excited to no end, except to wind up with your wallet, and then shoots off down the alley like a speeding silver bullet.

The real reason I saw silver dude today is because I did
some street performing in the Promenade for the first time.

The guy standing to my left, highlighted by the arrow, is my new biggest fan. He stood there nearly the whole time I played.

Let me just start the story from the beginning.

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the

Zen finally woke up and graciously agreed to drive me in to the Promenade to do a test run street performing with the VSO. Before I go any further this happened this past Sunday and am just getting around to posting it now, as usual. We left around 2:30pm on Sunday. Zen had a couple computer errands to run in Santa Monica so it worked out pretty well. We did his errands for a half hour or so and then proceeded in to the Promenade. We went down Santa Monica Ave which was on the southern end of the Promenade, which is an outdoor mall which allows street performers. The mall turns 3rd street into a long walkway on which cars and even bicycles are prohibited. I opted for the spot just off Arizona Ave. as it was pretty much the middle of the Promenade. I proceeded to set up my equipment about 25 feet from the street, well within the guidelines specified in the rule manual I had received when I applied for the permit.

I got my batteries and power inverter going and the system was up and running. When I grabbed my guitar for sound check I realized I wasn't getting any sound. I fumbled around with it for a minute and this guy comes up and says "hey are you playing here?"..."because if you are, you can't play here." My jaw dropped as I had just finished, and I mean just finished setting up my incredibly agg-rig-gating to set up VSO system.

The guy turned out to be one of the coordinators they had to supervise the street performing in the Promenade, which was a lot stricter than I thought. I had read the rules, or at least I thought I did, but I didn't see the zones on the map which is now more than clearly visible...so of course I didn't read the part that you could only play in certain zones, which I was not in. I mean who do they think they are? Making this rulebook which I seemingly ignored and had to break my %^$*&^$(ing equipment down and set it up again. Yet another learning experience...me learning not to be so inobservant. &^%&. It wasn't that bad really. I packed up the stuff and rolled it into a prime spot behind this guy playing saxaphone.

the event coordinator was a really nice guy, and said that there were certain spots that performers rotate through every 2 hours that are 120 feet apart. There were two guitarists that were really good who were waiting to play at this spot at 8pm so I was able to play in the spot from 6-8. This was as convenient as it could be as it was only about 50 yards down the road. I broke the VSO down into two piles basically and put it on the wheeled dollies and rolled it down to wait about 15 minutes for the guy playing sax to finish, then I could play.

I had to make an extra trip for the speakers that wouldn't fit on the dolly's. As we know I hate to leave my stuff unattended but thankfully Zen was there to watch the stuff as I ran around. This rotating every two hours rule has made me really want to make the VSO more portable, and rollable. I will go to home depot tomorrow and buy a convertible hand truck similar to the one (or exactly like the one) I had to sell when I moved as it wouldn't fit in my truck. This will allow me to easily roll the VSO rig around during the spot rotation and will allow me to set up better as well. Allow me to explain- When I moved into place behind the guy playing sax I started setting up about 10 feet from him. During one of his tunes he politely leaned over and asked me not to set up while he was performing. I let out a resounding "yo beeatch" but suddenly realized he was right. I was taking away from his performance by whipping satan's tentacles around and flailing footpedals and juggling guitars through the air, leaving everyone to wonder "what the hell is this guy doing??", upstaging the sax fiend as I indulged in setting up my indulgent stage in a literal and belligerent manner. I seem to have wandered a bit so let's just say for now that I politely gave the sax player his scissors back, sat down, and enjoyed the rest of his performance. All the while thinking to myself "I could be setting up my stuff right now.", and, "I could play that backing music he's playing with my feet, and make my guitar sound like a saxaphone." I do totally understand his point, but I understand my own point as well...the point is this- I could have sounded like a xylophone too, and I need to make the VSO even more portable and easily moveable which isn't that hard really and I will set about the task tomorrow. If I had been able to roll the VSO around I could have set it up a ways down and just roll it into place, partially for the ease of it, but also to keep the crowd gathered as much as possible as that is key when street performing. I also heard it's best to wear orange or yellow as people tend to give more tips to performers wearing said colors. I think this is interesting and am eager to try it. All that aside I played a strictly instrumental set.

I did some improvised orchestral score chord family variations

and some jazz impov to "boot" if I could speak literally again

I did some heavy rock romps too, just to test the waters

I was really just making a dry run today and didn't even bring my microphones.

I'm glad I traveled light as I ended up having to set up twice due to my own ignorance

Along with the guy pictured in nearly all the shots, the guy on the left outlined with the red square was pretty intent on hanging around to watch. The VSO always gathers one or two true believers who are mesmerized by the VSO as I am. I plan to corral all these people into a tangible audience, or members of my VSO commune, and hopefully one day Mediterranean Island. At my peak on Sunday I gathered a crowd of about 20 people not including the involuntary participants seated in the outdoor diners. I noticed a lot of them were paying attention, but not paying me. I didn't collect any money or even have a pail to toss said coinage. I need lessons from silver dude. Actually, collecting money was the furthest thing from my mind as this was indeed a test run. There are a few methods for persuading folks to start tipping, aside from straight out asking for the cash. One being the aforementioned bright yellow shirt which I have yet to try. It also helps to "prime the pot" so to speak with a handful of your own cash, both coins and bills, to inspire contributions, but now I'm giving all my secrets away. I'm convinced if I dare venture back with the microphones, and backup vocal processor, light show, fog and bubble machines I'm not sure what the heck will happen exactly as people seemed pretty into it when I got going, even though I was just messing around jamming in different styles. I would have to say the orchestra seemed to intrigue people quite a bit. I will have to dabble in that a bit more.

Like I haven't dabbled in it enough.

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