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A faster, stinkier, more aural Red Line
By adamg on Tue, 03/20/2007 - 8:53am
The Bachelor in Porter Square reports the Red Line is no longer crawling between Harvard and Porter Squares (he also re-infects our brains with the slogan for a long-gone local furniture chain - what is it about local furniture stores that make their ads so annoying?).
Carmen reports on an unusual pair of stinky panhandlers who got on at Central Square:
... [A]s soon as anyone put a dollar in the drunk man's hat, the sidekick would reach in from behind and remove the dollar. Then the drunk man would miss a few beats and go, "Hey, where did my dollar go?! It's not in my hat anymore." And he'd ask for another one. And so on. I couldn't tell whether this was an orchestrated act, and if it was planned, I couldn't tell who was in on it. It was pretty funny, enough that when the guy sitting across from me caught my eye, we both burst out laughing. Still, I didn't give up a dollar, because performance art annoys me. And so does the smell of cheap whiskey sweat. ...
Down at Park Street, Alyssa Boehm reports on an unusual busker:
... Most days of the week somebody is singing - busking if you will. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're not. On this day it was an older man dressed in spats and a large orange hat. He was singing along with some kind of music - the audio quality was such that it was a little like listening to a German Expressionist painting. All jangly and sharp edges. ...
She adds she hopes his orange hat didn't make anyone feel stabby.
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Comments
more aural Red Line
Oh God! The CANDYMAN busker! He's this middle-aged, perhaps older, black dude with purplish spats, large "Uncle Junior"-ish glasses, and an orange top hat for sure. He's been in Park Street Red Line in the middle platform a lot in the mid-mornings around 10am...and he ALWAYS sings the same songs, usually "Candyman" and "Singin' in the Rain".
It's kinda weird. Not just because the audio quality is terrible...he's got some kind of chorus/echo effect on his mic that makes his mediocre-quality karaoke tapes sound horrible, with a harsh metallic ring. But what's really weird is the guy himself. He's singing these jaunty tunes, but he looks so despondent when he's doing it. Barely moving, head slumped, and somewhat flat-affect singing voice. I mean like he's ready to kill himself at any moment.
Generally I don't care much for buskers because so many of them are terrible musicians, or are playing these really odd pieces/instruments...like the Asian dude on that one-string vaguely-fiddle-like thing that sounds like nails on a chalkboard. I see him at Park Street / Green Line westbound now and then. Frequently I hear people yelling at him to stop playing - it's that unpleasant.
OTOH, I heard a REALLY good violinist several years ago at Hynes. And there's was a skilled guitarist at Park Street / Red Line a few weeks ago; I didn't care for his taste but whatever he was playing, it was complicated and he was playing it with skill.
He's a Sammy Davis Jr.
He's a Sammy Davis Jr. impersonator, and I agree that his presentation is rather bizarre.
The fiddle-like thing is an erhu, just in case you wanted to know that.
This guy?
Couldn't be two of them in Boston, could there?
I'm pretty sure that's the
I'm pretty sure that's the same guy; he's definitely the guy I'm talking about. He has different outfits. I'm never entirely sure if he's singing or lip-synching, although I suspect he is actually singing.