December 19, 2013

What you see isn’t always…

There’s this violin player on the 7 who is always happy & always cheerily fiddlin’ away despite his accompanying sign that pleads for help for his wife who, apparently needs a liver transplant & has for a very long time… He’s there every afternoon as I hop on & off the 7 train while busking. Today he motioned me over as he was counting bills, big bills, $20’s $50’s etc & in English/Italian said; “You know how much I make?”
“Ummm, no” I said
“$300-$500 in 2-3 hours”
“omg!!!” I exclaimed wondering if the sick wife thing was real or merely the ‘lucrative part of the act’ at which point he grabbed my hands and flipped them both over saying; “No ring?”
“Oh no, no, no, no…” I heard myself repeat many times (another story) Then he looked straight at me & pointed to himself & to me & back to himself again & asked: “You? Me? Italia? Marry?”
Well that mystery got solved super fast! And I’ve obviously been workin’ this Subway thing totally wrong #humanpsychology101

December 18, 2013

Busking Love ~

Email from my dear friend & rockin’ photographer – Ester Jové Soligue – www.esterjovesoligue.com

“Today i took the subway after a couple of weeks. I thought about you and yes Heidi, I could figure out all the strength it needs to busk down there. With all these faces of people. Very grey. I can not be more proud of you – you are making a better world with your music, your voice and being yourself. Thank you.”

December 14, 2013

Busking …

Busking fixes well…almost everything 🙂

December 11, 2013

SIng From Your Heart <3

December 11, 2013

Awesome day underground :)

Woman to me on 1st car of the day as she handed me a dollar: “Oh, please stay & sing another would you?” #SubwayLove

Conductor today on leaning out of his window as I hopped off the “N” train: “Hey, when do I get to hear a tune?”

As I walked through Port Authority on my way home, these two soldiers stepped out, leaned over & asked in a whispered tone: “Could you play us a tune please?” Which, after a lot of bargaining to make sure they’d have my back if the NYPD got all weird on me me, I did & they were so grateful! Then, the three of us proceeded to talk for an hour about, well, basically everything – from Government to Religion, ‘Education’ to the Illuminati, Vibrational Healing to Bloodlines, even up to & including Shape Shifting Reptilians, after which one turned to the other & said “Man, she knows everything”
“Yeah” I said, it’s my last time around. And for some reason I see it all” : )#Awesomedayunderground

December 7, 2013

Blows me away ~

Blows me away when out of all the people on those platforms, it’s the homeless guy wearing everything he owns who smiles when I make eye contact, grooves to the tunes & drops one of his hard fought for, crumpled dollars into my case. Moves me every time

December 3, 2013

Stuff to ponder …

As a busker, to make my job work – I mean really work, I must consistently move myself to a place where I have love for every single person surrounding me in the NYC subways, no matter the anger, resentment or hatred their faces & body language display. I often wonder what our world would look like right now if everyone had to, without question, be in that place of unconditional love to actually make their job work… <3 ‪#‎stufftoponder‬

December 3, 2013

Underground tryin’ to mix things up ~

Tonight I hit the platforms as I needed to mix things up musically from my train car routine which involves basically one song, plus it was crazy beautiful warm! So I get onto the Uptown A,C,E & a girl sitting on the bench shouted; “Sing that song you sing on the trains! I heard you on the cars and you got a standing ovation. Sing that song please?!” So much for mixing things up 🙂

November 30, 2013

Ooops …

I ended up with this hidden in a fist-full of coins last night. I fear I may have totally messed up some guy’s trip to Home Depot … #oops

November 29, 2013

Creative Courageous Gypsies

I have yet to find anything in this city that compares to the gift of busking the NYC Subways. The ability to give and receive love & smiles hour after hour in an environment usually filled with the exact opposite is rare. I hold such love for the privilege & freedom all of us performing down there hold onto literally at this point, by our fingertips. As most of humanity is silently allowing their freedoms to be stripped from them, one by one – buskers continue to struggle daily against obstacles most of humanity has yet to experience, just to have a voice. That struggle, is & has always been inherent in our work. As long as we are down there & continuing to fight for our first amendment, our right to make art, to entertain & spread happiness, I am proud & blessed to be part of this community of creative, courageous gypsies. <3