Welcome to
History Street!
The first stop, Fanfare for the American
Busker, is a conversational history of street-performance in
America reaching from a few of my own narratives of the past ten
years to as far back as Colonial Times. There's also some
mention of an actual 15th Century character from a region of what is
now Germany, but he was another kind of street-performer and appears
here only for purposes of analogy.
The last
stop, 2001: A Busker's Odyssey, has it's own
introduction. Suffice to say here that, while Fanfare
covers the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries, Odyssey is
concerned with but the single, immediately following year of the 21st
. If you want to know and how and why, then, an account of one
year turned out twice as long as an account of 300, you'll have to
ask Aaron Copeland, Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick, Homer, and the
Coen Brothers--as well as Bill "Zippy" Griffith, Bruce
Springsteen, Charles Dickens, Charles L. Woodard, William
Shakespeare, and Robert Frost--all of whom have my deepest gratitude
and respect.
Directory:
Fanfare for the American Busker
I Busker's Festival
II To Prepare Oneself
III Survey of Busking in the USA
IV Non-Admission Price
V Having Fun Yet?
IV Flooded by the Sound
A Busker is Born
A Bard Still Heard in Every Direction
2001: A Busker's Odyssey
01. Artful Dodger
02. Conversational Lull
03. American Monday
04. Jury Duty
05. Absent Sound
06. Present Picture
07. Let's Roll
08. In Character
09. With Resolve
10. Ancestral Voices
11. Feathered Target
12. What Stuff
13. Rigged Deck
14. Father's Solstice
15. Taxing Wager
16. Rescue Efforts
17. Street Piper
18. American Canary
PS. Roads Diverged