A Dog With a Health Care Plan

As I was climbing up the stairs at the subway station, an MTA construction worker was climbing down, carrying a ladder. “You still play?” he asked me. It always warms my heart when people recognize me. As the train passed the 59th street subway station I could see Frankie playing his guitar on the platform.…

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Building with Many Numbers

As I got to the turnstile at the subway station near me, I could hear the train pulling into the station. I still had to go through the turnstile and climb up two flights of stairs, with my heavy busking gear. As I rushed up the stairs I could hear the announcement “Stand clear of…

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A Different Bag Every Day

On my way up the subway station’s stairs two guys offered to help me bring my busking gear up. It turned out that they were the two guys I saw at the 14th street subway station last Friday – Guillermo and Martin, who were the ones sitting on a bench and fixing a string on…

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In real life or in his mind?

As I was climbing the stairs up to the subway station a young guy asked me “Do you need help?” Usually people hold the bottom end of my cart while I hold the top and together we lift it up the stairs. But this guy grabbed my cart with ONE HAND and carried it by…

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Recycling Souls

When I arrived at the Music Under New York busking spot at the 14th street subway station Salieu Suso, the kora player from Africa, was there. As he was packing up his busking gear and I was setting up mine, he told me about kora playing in Africa. I saw him taking money out of…

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Udderbot

As I was playing at the Music Under New York spot at the Grand Central Station’s Shuttle, a guy named Jacob stop to listen. It turned out that he is a busker himself and he plays…a bottle with a rubber glove attached… It’s called an ‘udderbot’. He told me he just finished playing down the…

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Like Magic

Like many New Yorkers, I know the exact spot on the subway platform to wait for the train, so that when I get to my destination station I will exit the train exactly where the elevator/stairs out are. I usually wait at that spot, but today was so hot that I decided to wait at…

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It’s a Unicorn

When I got to the Music Under New York spot at the Times Square subway station Salieu Suso, the Kora player from Africa, was playing at the spot. There was a guy with a long beard sitting on the floor, leaning against the other column from the one Suso was by. As I was waiting…

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Missing in Action

As I was playing at the Music Under New York spot at the Union Square subway station, Zina, the painter, brought me a large replica of the caricature she made of me. Painter: © Zina Saunders Arnold, the messenger guy, told me that Albert, the other guy who works as a messenger and who is…

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