Thank you so much fellow NYC busker, Ghsts N Guitars for helping me relocate my courage today to brave the trains again. I ventured back under & miraculously got to sing uninterrupted! So many happy, smiling faces – moms, kiddies & flowers everywhere. Even had Cynthia Nixon run after me in the train car to give me a very kind tip #buskinglovefrommoviestars 

A series of Sketches gifted to me by the amazing artist/ graphic designer, Hardy Wilms 

http://www.cd-kiel.de

Bye Bye Busking Boots. We’ve sure had some rockin’ adventures 🙂 

Tonight on one of my last runs on the “R” train there was a young couple sitting next to each other. The guy had his arm on the girl’s lap wearing a worried, helpless look on his face. The girl, she had a cap on her head & her head bowed and so I could only catch a glimpse of her face now & again. When I did it was obviously she had been crying a lot & was still in the throws of being very upset, in that place we’ve all been in where it feels there’s absolutely no way out.

I could tell the young man next to her wanted nothing more than for his girlfriend to be happy & smile again.  He appeared so powerless.Then I started to sing & she looked up for a second, surprised, & suddenly she caught herself not being able to help herself from grinning a huge grin. Just as soon as the grin overtook her face she remembered she was supposed to be sad and bowed her head once again, hiding beneath her cap. Despite the tears, her smile, that grin that appeared to have a mind of it’s own, kept popping out uncontrollably in response to the music. And her increasingly unsuccessful attempts at stifling it were akin to watching a cat dance with a ball of yarn, never quite being able to tame it.

By the end of the 2 minutes that it took for me to finish my tune, her smile had won. She had, in those 120 seconds, at least temporarily, lost track of why she’d been crying, why she’d been hiding. She was trying to remember but both her boyfriend & I watched as she struggled to recall the depth of the pain & rather failed. Right as I headed out the door to the next car I leaned down & whispered: “It’s going to be ok. Trust me.” She smiled.

~ It’s a busking thing ~

Danny to me at rehearsal tonight: “I got my subway shoes on”
Me: (looking down at his black sneakers) “How come you call them your subway shoes?”
Danny: “Cause I cut off the back part here to make ’em more comfortable & not look so fancy as when I got ’em you know. You know you can’t look too fancy down there in the trains or else people’ll think you got too much money & won’t give you none of that green. I could wear a different silk suit every day down there but I wouldn’t make no money you know. You gotta have that little bit of a homeless thing goin’ on down there in the trains. That’s how you make all them dead presidents.”
Me: “Somehow, Danny, I kinda think you could wear a solid gold plated suit & you’d still clean up underground.” : )

Sometimes it’s $20’s, sometimes it’s Pennies, sometimes it’s a smile or a dance, other times a nod…it’s all equal – it’s always love ♥ #buskerbits

This week Danny & I got a special invitation from Casting Associate, Emma from, America’s Got Talent to audition over the weekend…#Quiteanadventure 🙂

Hello Heidi
I work for America’s Got Talent and we are holding auditions for Season 8 of our show this Friday & Saturday, I would love for you to audition for our show if you are interested. I can offer you a VIP Pass as well so you don’t have to wait in line. I am also looking for Danny Smalls, he was featured in your Subway Diaries. Any chance you have information on him?

Best
Emma Green
Casting Associate
NBC’s America’s Got Talent Season 8

Pretty nice day in the neighborhood today – even warm in the subways. Plus…was recorded by these guys while busking www.livefromthestreets.com & they’re gonna add hiphop to my tunes from the underground. Thee guys are my definition of ‘Urban Street Genius’ @ it’s finest -Check out their work. Stay tuned for what they do w/ my sounds. I’m still mad in love love w/ that crazy world under NYC, even after all this time ♥

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeX1M32pcps[/youtube]

And the ‘Subway Storm Footage’ adventure continues…just finished signing contracts w/NBC Universal as they’ve asked to use it in their NBC Olympic Promo Coverage for the duration of the 2012 Olympic Games – wild-n-crazy times : ) More to come ♥