Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Busking along, singin' a song....

I have never really done much busking with my sax....and I really don't know why that is, but about 2 months ago, I got the bright idea that my alto student should start practicing some jazzed up Christmas tunes. I half jokingly said, ..."and then we'll go out on the streets and play!"
She (lets call her "Vixen" to keep in the holiday spirit) immediately perked up and said, "Really!? Really!?".
When I saw her response there was no choice- I had to do it.

For the last 2 months worth of lessons she has been plugging away, working on articulation, intonation, synchopated rhythms....and today was the big day (or night, I should say).
We met in the passage of the subway station and donned our Santa caps, set up the boombox and minus one CD, music stand, opened the case and put a "Help feed the reindeer" sign inside the case with a 500 yen coin to start the ball rolling.

Vix was a bit nervous, but soon settled into it and did pretty darned well. I should also mention she is a heck of a lot cuter than me.
We played about one hour before the cold got to be too much and pulled in about $12.00 US (after I withdrew my starter 500 yen).

It beats the hourly wage at McDonalds, right?

And I have to wonder how much I would make without her standing there in her white getup and boots and the cute Santa cap?

Funny experience playing Christmas tunes in Japan. It seemed that only the young and quite old showed much interest. Also there is literally no Christmas spirit here~` Japanese Christmas is celebrated in much the same way Americans celebrate Valentines day, only without the chocolate.
About the only quasi-vestiges of an western-style Christmas are that parents are coerced into shopping at Toys-R-Us for their young children, anorexic Santas standing on every street corner passing out flyers or free tissues, and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" or Wham's "Last Christmas" blasting from every store's sound system. I am convinced that Mariah's song becomes the Japanese national anthem at Christmas time and that Colonel Sanders statues dressed up in red Santa suits beckoning all to come in and get a Christmas chicken are as about as real as it can get.

By the way, most Japanese people think the Colonel is Japanese and that KFC is a Japanese invention.

That's OK....most Americans think Bayer aspirin is an American company.

And that is where I am heading right now, for one of those grand, all-American conforts, the Bayer aspirin bottle.
Six more days until the fat man cometh.

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