Busking....

What might you ask, does this word mean?

Busking is the practice of performing in public places to receive donations of money. Performers may play music, juggle, perform mime, do magic tricks or a comedy act, or simply stand still as statues (very popular in Europe currently). Those engaging in this practice are called buskers. In the United States, this term is not as widely known; buskers there are called street performers.

What brought this word into my vocabulary?
A movie I had sitting around the apartment that I decided to watch last night.
It is called "On the Q.T." and at first I didn't think I would enjoy it. The movie starts kind of strange, with a little boy playing a violin while he and an older gentleman are standing looking at someone's grave. The movie then fast forwards to the NYC skyline and a young twentysomething man walking along the subway corridors of downtown Manhattan.
From there I started to get interested, as the scenery and the locales were starting to catch my eye as being very familiar. (I had been out in NYC this last fall over Halloween and spent a lot of time riding the subways and walking the streets and underground areas of this massive metropolis.)

So I continued to watch the movie, ended up getting very enthralled in it and this movie ended up being one of the best I have watched (and totally enjoyed) in a very long time.

I kept thinking of all the "Buskers" I encountered while I spent lots of time waiting for the different subway trains while I was out there.....and there were quite a few. There isn't too much to do while you are waiting for the trains to come and go and as you wait, if there isn't the sound of the trains on the tracks (the clunk-a-clunck of the wheels and the swoosh of the wind from the trains shooting down the tunnels) it can get very quiet and rather boring. Thus there is a lot of Quiet Time down in the subway platforms.
And then it hit me!!Thus the name of the movie....On the Quiet Time! I didn't get it till almost a quarter of the way through the movie, though I should have.

At the end of the movie, I thought back to my many hours spent down in that strange and crazy world and fondly remembered the many "buskers" I heard and saw while I was down there (along with alot of other crazy things) and I felt a sense of remorse also.
Why remorse?
Well, I though I totally enjoyed a lot of the different "busker's" music, I only dropped a quarter into one guy's case (he was strumming on a guitar) and another guy who was making some very enchanting music on what could only be described as some kind of "African drum set" ended up getting only a $1.00 Bill from me.

I should have gave them more. The buskers in the movie were doing this to make money to live. It never crossed my mind when I was down there in the subways listening to those people that they were trying to do the very same thing.
I feel awful thinking that there was more I could have done. I had enough money. But I was only thinking of myself and where I was headed next and hopefully not get lost in that massive megatropolis.

So next time I traverse to the Big Apple (or any other bigger city), I will make sure to take care of the "Buskers"...all you buskers reading this have my word!!

A website that gives an overview of this movie that I very much enjoyed:
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=318776

More info on "busking" from Wikepedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busking

And a story about "busking" in NYC from another person:
http://www.writersmonthly.us/pages/wm_library/nonfiction/street_musicians_buskers.html?id=1010