You could not script it in your wildest dreams the real life stories of the street. Things happen that you just don’t understand. Like the guy on the pushbike who does a wheelstand riding full speed down Queen St block after block. He does this often. Why? Who knows?
Or the guy who forever checks out the bins going about his quest in the manner of a professional he is retrieving left over drinks to top up the paper cup he carries. So many characters that come up to you asking for particular things and you kinda have to give in sometimes.
Like one guy who looked like THE most unhappy person I ever ever saw in my life. I couldn’t help staring at him. He noticed this and said “I suppose you think I’m a fuckwit”. I told him that I had no way of knowing where he was at. I asked him what he wanted.
He replied in the most heart wrenching tone I ever heard “I want to be happy”. I asked him what would make him happy. “A burger and chips” was his reply. Not knowing if this was his true desire I asked him to go get his burger and chips and make sure he brought me the receipt so we could be sure he wasn’t gonna spend the money on alcopops.
He came back some time later literally shaking with fear and held out a receipt and said that they didn’t have a burger and chips so he bought chicken and chips instead.” Is that ok” he said in a voice trembling with fear.
He was convinced I would get angry with him for not doing exactly as instructed. Never forget his trembling hand holding out a receipt and his forlorn face like someone reaching out from the depths of hell. He didn’t ask for much and he didn’t even expect to be allowed to have it. OMG he was the saddest guy ever. So locked in the shame of his own imaginings
As you can see from this video that was made by Hayden Booth
“The street is a great place to make a record and thats what I am in the process of doing.”
Don’t worry I have new material it’s just that he requested I do this one for BFM…its on their site now.
Much to tell but there is so little feedback from these blogs…perhaps everyone is on stalkbook all the time these days. Who knows.
Social and media are two things that mix like oil and water. It seems that for media to be successful it has to behave in a way that is antisocial.
What do you think friendly blog reader? Can you buy me a burger and chips? I wanna be happy.
Hey Luke
Yes. Musicians of the street experience the magic of life in a very immediate and intimate way. We are there for the pain and the joy. We address the missing dimension. The aural. Healing and captivating, available to those with open hearts. Children. Elderly. Infirm. Insane. Lonely. Broken. We are healers and lovers of living. Now.
arohanui
karena
Thanks Karena,
Have you see the movie “this ain’t no mouse music”? about a label that got big and didn’t record in studios but more or less at live events and in the street its a real eye opener Chris Strachwitz AARHOOLIE records 50 years in the biz
hiya lukey. Always good to hear what u have to say. Don’t get to do that living far away.
Stalk book . Lol
Thanks Siobhan,
It’s all about advantage for FB and a whole lot of running around and no rights for the dumb subscribers. The CONvenience of it. Ha ha! See you soon my friend
Nice rendition of Mona Lisa, nice sound quality too. 🙂 Hope you can do more like this.
Dying to know what happened next in your tale? Did you learn anything more about the crushed soul inhabiting a body?
Thanks Don,
He was under a weight of shame ……. he just needed to dump it in God’s dropbox and get on with his fragile life.
Luke is one of my formative experiences/influences….mt erebus, the mona lisa…the 80s, and Luke, inseparable, and now in the 21stc,, a mere 30 years later, still a formative influence/experience…now thats consistent and reliable!
xx
respect
Thanks Miles,
real good to know that there are people out there who remember. i have some new sounds to offer too so watch this space bro
Nice words, Luke – and, yes, you dragged me here from Stalkbook.
All the random acts of kindness I’ve done have done me good, as I’ve tried to help others – I know that’s not the endgame, but once you start to make those small acts, you develop a fresh perspective on so many things.
lol
Everybody has a story to tell but many people never find their voice. Or their voice is lost in the endless din of the modern day, drowned out by “progress”. The stories you must have heard.
Hey Luke good to see you are happy in the video. Yes we all want different things in life. Some things we deem regular might be luxury for others, and vice visa. We all want our own burger and chips, but in different sizes and flavors and sometimes we still end up with fish and chips instead. I think we all have the fear like that unhappy guy. Just our burger and chips might be a ideal job/contract/project instead.
Oh btw Mark the Aikido master from Helensville mentioned you last time when we were training. He missed your regular Saturday concert, and so did I.
See you on the streets.
Hi Luke. Fantastic blog. My job for the past decade had me perched on Queen St for most of the day and observing the wonderful characters that passed me by. For me, some of the most tragic characters were not the beggars. I always felt sorry for ‘the suits’. At least the homeless have an appreciation for life, lived in the moment and highly valued the simple pleasures of life. ‘The suits’ walked by them, cold and indifferent. Cradled in comfort, lacking empathy or connection with those they passed on the street. I would pity these shark-eyed suited slaves, shackled by their schedules and blinded by their quest for achievement.
In many ways the people on the bottom are the ones with all the real riches in Queen St. Those that exhibit qualities of humility, respect, kindness…. those that had the ability to live in the moment and acknowledge those around them with love, these were the people that I always admired. I can honestly say my dear friend that YOU are one of those people. Music has the power to heal, inspire and unite. Keep up the good work! The New Zealand I love is best represented in the misfits and in the artists of our society.
Times are tough that’s for sure and we all want to get ahead on a personal level but I believe that we, as individuals, should focus on contributing more of our energy to fostering a more supportive and community based philosophy that seeks to embrace our outcasts rather than exclusively following a ruthlessly selfish dogma.
In other words, please be nice to people you meet on the street. It could be a smile or a nod or having a laugh at a shared experience like just seeing a guy go past on his bike doing an extended wheel stand for a block…. or maybe even asking a stranger what makes them happy and then giving them a small amount of money for a burger and chips which they then spend on chicken and chips but it really doesn’t matter, because in the end what’s most important?….. is that you showed someone else in this world that you genuinely care about them and that’s super cool in my book…arohanui…Jase 🙂
Thanks for your esteemed email bro Yes! One has to bear in mind that “the suits” are hostages of the same machine and I have been in that position myself once when trying to be “successful”. I was offsider to someone who was playing the game and found myself trying to be helpful and fit in and so on. What I soon discovered is that the market system has no time for emotion or “niceties”. The way it works is that its so functional that there is no place for the human touch. If there was then those streeties would be some kind of use by way of their emotional insights.
Have you seen the movie “Naked” by Mike Leigh? This movie proves that the super bright can fall into the trap too.
The problem with the market system is that its like a pressure cooker with no pressure release valve. It needs pressure release in the form of a percentage of turnover dedicated to cultivating emotionally intelligent initiatives of the most immediate kind.
There needs to be those little tea rooms for the elderly and places for kids to play right in the middle of town where such is most needed
Google allowed its workers 20% of worktime to dedicate to pet projects. The market should do that for us also. Allow a percentage of corporate revenue be used for direct and immediate alleviation of social problems caused by the problems associated with market economics.
But in the end its the punters who have to do this in their own time and with their own money. Everybody needs love but the system only sells lust. Its pretty tragic and we just gotta face up to the task out of our own resources…slender as they may be.
The Mission feeds people with food to keep their bodies alive.They also need i the spirit of human goodwill to keep their souls healthy. Thats where we come in.The things we do for out of human goodwill without any desire to be repaid…..those things are worth more than gold