busking and the pitfalls of dutch rap

first european busking attempt today! after riding across town on "gypsy," (the rickety yellow casa robino bike) in an on-off-and-on drizzle with the chain falling off every 5 minutes, standing up b/c the seat is too high, i found a spot near one of the entrances to the central train station. i felt pretty pessimistic as people flowed by in both directions paying no attention in their rush. but by the third song, a few people began throwing small coins into my case, and soon i had a string of eager listners, a few 2 euro coins, 2 ten euro notes (!) and even 5 pounds. i played for about an hour before heading back to meet up with pax and sky, and raked in a grand total of just over 40 euros! very gratifying.

one guy asked where i'm from, and then "which state?" "virginia" "ah, a swing state!"

tonight, sky and i went to a squat for a hip hop and reggae show, a pretty friendly scene with plates of falafal and hoummous for 4 euro, lots of dreddy, punky, and just plain old dorky folks and some very very silly dutch rappers. just a bit too bouncy, and the language really is unavoidably inherently silly sounding. some awesome graffiti there, photos to come....