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My Experience Busking in San Francisco

stevetjoa.com

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Re: My Experience Busking in San Francisco

#31

Post by leonroy »

robertelder wrote: post #15

Here is a video of Joshua Bell ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Bell ) playing a 3.5 million dollar violin in the subway for 45 minutes and making $32: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw

When I was a kid (early 90s) learning to play the violin those Strads cost under a million.

Since then their price has rocketed just like every other tangible which has become a hotly contested investment asset.

It's sad because it makes these things less and less likely to get played and more likely to end up in a vault.

Good to see at least a handful of them in use out there.

Re: My Experience Busking in San Francisco

#32

Post by bigdubs »

cperciva wrote: post #19

From the article: While I'm playing, I'll routinely see a policeman ask a person sleeping on the ground to sit upright. I'm not sure if that's because of the civil sidewalks ordinance or to "prevent obstructions". I don't know about San Francisco specifically, but in some cities police forces use this sort of instruction to identify people who need medical assistance: If you're able to respond to the police, you're p…

In NYC (and I think San Francisco) it's illegal to sleep on the sidewalks. NYPD enforces this pretty consistently, SFPD on the other hand I'm pretty sure they just do it to make sure the person isn't dead.

Re: My Experience Busking in San Francisco

#33

Post by pimlottc »

leonroy wrote: post #31
robertelder wrote: post #15

Here is a video of Joshua Bell ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Bell ) playing a 3.5 million dollar violin in the subway for 45 minutes and making $32: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw

When I was a kid (early 90s) learning to play the violin those Strads cost under a million. Since then their price has rocketed just like every other tangible which has become a hotly contested investment asset. It's sad because it makes these things less and less likely to get played and more likely to end up in a vault. Good to see at least a handful of them in use out there.

There's a list of all known Stradivarius instruments on Wikipedia and it's actually nice to see that quite a good number of them are made available to musicians via loan programs or specific bequests:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stradivarius_instrumen...

Re: My Experience Busking in San Francisco

#35

Post by dang »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #7

Not that I give many to any buskers or beggars, but I'd rather give money to people that are not causing noise pollution rather than to people that are.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11929625 and marked it off-topic.

Re: My Experience Busking in San Francisco

#36

Post by therein »

coldtea wrote: post #25
carapace wrote: post #14

Years ago, there was a man who would stand on Market St. wearing a suit and just kind of dance back and forth singing "Gotta keep smiling". It wasn't a song as such, just a refrain that he would roll around over and over, and he would shuffle and sing and point at passersby and smile, encouraging them to smile. One day my dad stopped and asked him, "You seem sane and well-educated, why do you do this?" (I'm paraphras…

Plus it beats working your ass off in most professions...

Especially given that post-tax you would be making only a little bit more as an entry level software engineer.

Re: My Experience Busking in San Francisco

#37

Post by aab0 »

bsder wrote: post #9
lotsofpulp wrote: post #7

Not that I give many to any buskers or beggars, but I'd rather give money to people that are not causing noise pollution rather than to people that are.

There are numerous subway stops in NYC where the noise is so loud that a death metal band would be an improvement.

Some people say, 'this subway is so noisy it's a problem; I know, I'll drown it out with death metal bands!' Now they have two problems.

Re: My Experience Busking in San Francisco

#38

Post by aioprisan »

therein wrote: post #36
coldtea wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus it beats working your ass off in most professions...

Especially given that post-tax you would be making only a little bit more as an entry level software engineer.

I doubt that very much. $100/day post-tax = $36500, pre-tax is't about $42000. If you're making anywhere close to $42000/year as an entry level software engineer in SF, you're doing it wrong. Even entry level folks should be able to start at double that.

Re: My Experience Busking in San Francisco

#40

Post by bcook »

aioprisan wrote: post #38
therein wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially given that post-tax you would be making only a little bit more as an entry level software engineer.

I doubt that very much. $100/day post-tax = $36500, pre-tax is't about $42000. If you're making anywhere close to $42000/year as an entry level software engineer in SF, you're doing it wrong. Even entry level folks should be able to start at double that.

Commenter therein did not specify the locale of the entry-level software engineer. Busking is much, much more reliant on locale than programming.
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