DAY 8 March 12th, 2014 - 26 days, $1495, And Pulling Out Of The Worse Winter - Ever
Bills: Rent 350, Internet 15, Phone 30, Food 120, Fun 60, CTA 232, Grace 20, Nathan 60, Misc Debt 687
Current Funds: (Not Counted Toward Goal) 53.00 - Allocated 20 for Fun, and bought 33 CTA pass
Need: 1262.00
Below Goal: 71.00
Above Goal:
Day 8 of 26
Goal: Make 65 dollars by any means possible.
Actual:
71
TIME:
4.5
WHERE:
Monroe, Chicago
CD's Sold:
1
Temp: High 39, Low 36, feels like 30
I love that this - is now beautiful weather.
All in one post today. I woke up too late and had to run to the bank before I left, so - Catchin up with yall now. :)
Pretty sensational day - If I don't say so myself -
Woke up late, quick shower, ran to the bank, set up a new checking account at Chase - Then I spent 2 or 3 hours at the Contemporary Art Museum of Chicago with Molly Bunder - Then hit the subway.
The real magic today happened with a Woman named Tampico - I'll get to her in a little bit.
First I want to talk about CD's. I MUST get more of them tomorrow - I ran out two days ago and have lost at least 40 dollars since then. I give people the bandcamp site to go to - but so far - no one I've given that site to, who wanted a CD, has bought one - So - note to self - Do NOT leave the house tomorrow without 10 more CD's.
Some of the sensational things that happened today -
- Steve - Who I've seen at Monroe for several months now - said he want's not ONE CD - BUT TWO.
Today he came up and said, "You just keep getting better every time I see you"
- That's the idea. The whole Idea. Get paid to practice - get paid to work. Thanks for making it work Steve
- A woman dropped me her last bit of change in the world today. I had just finished playing Love, Love - which you can find.... HERE!
ryanwestwood.bandcamp.com - And she dropped a handful of change saying, "This is my last bit of money until I get paid tomorrow - Thank you for playing"
Things like that remind me just how lucky I am to have the job I have - and make me entirely proud of my choices.
- The CD I sold today was not a CD - it was a CD on Credit - the guy just dropped 5 bucks and I said I'd be back tomorrow from 3-6pm
- Maureen, who I met at the Chicago stop said "The mark of a true musician is when the audience can feel what the performer is feeling. Your passion does that. Everyone on this platform was engrossed in that song."
- after the anthem. :) So good. Just the best song ever.
Enter Tampico
Check out this incredible woman. She plays a 12 string guitar, violin, hand chimes, whistles, and tap dances at the same time - - - - -
It gets better -
Tampico greeted me with a genuine greeting. An old fashioned hello so full of heart it damn near knocked me over. Just a hello. A touch of the hands, a smile, a hard look in the eyes, another smile, and a God bless you. People don't do that anymore. It just doesn't happen.
I gave her my spot about 40 minutes later. Intrigued by her tap shoes, I decided to stick around and hear her play for a few minutes... a FEW minutes turned into 50.
I gave her two dollars, told her she was incredible - And she told me her life story. And as she talked - that nagging feeling of time slipping away kept creeping up. I had to remind myself over and over, to just stay open, love her, and listen - and that time would take care of itself. And I'm so glad I did.
Tampico grew up playing in the streets - she learned from her mom - from her brothers. At age 3 she said she was whistling as her brothers sang - on Maxwell street. She told me her mother was the person to started the Act, that eventually would make street performing Legal in Chicago - She died before it was finished, and Tampico finished it after her mother passed.
Its thanks to her - and her mother - That I can play on the streets in this wonderful town.
After her mother died - she had to take care of her older brother, who had some sort of intense metal handicap. She said he spoke his first words at 62 - and they were "Thank you". Her brother passed away soon after that.
Tampico dropped out of college after her 2nd year to take care of the family, and she did. She's the last one left. Now she's in her 50's and no one will hire her, because of her age. She lives in the projects, with just a cat. She asks for food as she performs, because, that's the food she eats.
It sounds like a sad story until you hear the woman talk. She's one of those people who can just talk and talk for hours. We talked for 50 minutes and I think I said six words. And everything is Gods work, and Gods plan. No ifs, and's, or buts about it. That's just how it is.
She said, "Back when I was younger, Before this was legal, I used to perform on roller skates, because if the cops came, I could get away that way. The one time i was caught, it was because the followed me all the way to Roosevelt, and there was no where else I could go. But I still had 10 minutes on them." And she laughs.
She said - "coming down here and playing - It just feels so good. I get to practice. Because in my family, if we didn't practice, we didn't eat. Those were the rules. And now, when I practice, I'm not alone. I feel my mother right here, and my brothers here. And it feels so good. And that feeling lasts after I get done playing. I'm not alone."
All I could think to say was, "No, no you're not."
I took this video of her with her permission - and as I left, I took her hands, I looked her hard in the eye and said, "Tampico, thank you. It's been such a pleasure speaking with you." I said I was sure I'd see her around - and - like a sage she said - "If it's meant to be - then we will" I just said, "It is", nodding as I walked away.
People ask me what's the real treasure behind playing in the subway. Actually no one asks that - they ask why I play down there. And at the base - its because that's how I make my living -
But Tampico - and so many other folks like her - Those are the real gems. That's the real treasure. 3 or 4 times a year something like this happens. I meet someone like this and I never forget it.
I can't imagine doing anything but this, for all my life. - Lyrics from The Anthem.
I can imagine playing for 10's of thousands of people - But when I am - I'll still come back to these subways and streets. I'll still come back to ground level - with the hope that I'll meet someone else like Tampico. Because I don't meet them anywhere else, and if I do, I don't recognize them.
There's magic in the subway. You just have to stay down there long enough to find it.
All my love - every last stitch
Ryan
PS. Ever really had to go to the bathroom and had a drain that looked like this, right next to you dripping incessantly for hours?
Makes for a hellovan evening.
NIGHT!
