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Who has come from the farthest reaches of the world (universe)?

Just because I'm curious, I try to keep track of the audience members that have traveled the furthest from Maui to hang out with us...

So far, we've got (Maybe I'll save a few categories - US / World / Solar-system / ...) :


World:

   Tim from Perth, Australia! - 6842 miles (still the winner)


Continental US:

   Renata and Richard, from Huntsville, Alabama - 4312 miles (now, these great folks know how to do 'vacation', congrats on 15th Anniversary, and best wishes for many more!)

   Ken and his gracious wife (didn't get her name!) from Illinois & Kapalua - 4238 miles (you guys made my day)

Ongoing Stories and Insights from my adventure:

Playing for my Mom's 85th birthday!
How cool is it that my brother from the mainland came to visit my mom on the Big-Isle for her 85th birthday, and they both came over to stay with us for her "funderful" event! I was able to play some fun songs, and even do a duet with my amazing daughter, on mom's special day over at Paia Bay Coffee & Bar! What a treat for us all. The family was there as well and some music and a nice brunch made for a wonderful day! That it all came together the way it did was amazing and a gift from the Gods and the Universe.

Passing Thoughts On... Performance Stages:
A stage is an interesting mechanism - a meme of sorts, like a person in medical scrubs implies a doctor- presence on a real performance stage (raised, lights, etc.), even a small one, tends to imply a kind of promise of worthiness and a separation from the observers in the area. To stand on a stage as if to perform, implies a certain level of skill and performance *seriousness*, and, well, that's not really me. "Smiling and a bit Sloppy" would be more a more accurate framing... I guess I like the notion of chilling with folks, rather than performing for folks. or something.

Late-to-the-game, lover of music, but not professionally trained at all, I certainly can't promise anything beyond an amateur's performance, but that doesn't mean we can't have some fun and make some listen-worthy noise out there, right? So, I learn songs, practice a bunch, and say "Let's do this!", and hope y'all will join me with some smiles and maybe some good (or ?) harmonies! Getting up on a stage seems separate and presumptuous, where jamming on the street - literally at that level - seems more engaging, regardless the level of skill involved.

So, when considering the implications of a stage, I'm hesitant to disappoint, by committing to that implied social contract of "Look at me up here, I'm worth looking at.", when my style is "Check this out, hang out and jam or chill with us if you like it!"

The one thing that a pub/cafe stage context does facilitate is continuity, and sound optimization. Being able to present a good sound experience and cater to folks that wish to settle-in for the sharing of the music does offer a different experience for the participants (both players and observers), verses a busy street corner with no seats, moving traffic, noise, weather, etc. That said, if you can compel folks to pause for a moment or two to stop and watch, in spite of the distractions and non-optimal context, you've got it going!

Passing Thoughts On... On Passers-by, on the street:
I've noticed, when busking on the street, that in flow of the street, the folks most likely to stop and take in a moment of my music are parents with kids, and older folks - and notably, both tend to share a bit (it's especially precious when the mom or dad give a wee tot something to trundle over with and drop in the tip jar).

The bulk of the middle-age professionals tend to walk by as if unaware of me or the music at all. It's interesting, and I have some ideas on why, but I'll discuss those later, after more observation. That said, far too often I was 'that guy' too. Wisdom and the-like come slowly to likes of me.

Passing Thoughts On... On Busking, as a 'thing to do':
What is busking, and what is the average person's perception of a practiced street performer?

Obviously, a person with a tip jar, simply attracting attention by being a spectacle of some sort (yelling, singing in an unpracticed manner, flailing around physically with no apparent practiced skill, etc.) isn't what I would call a 'practiced' street performer. I'm talking about folks that can do things that most of us can't; the ones that add novelty and perhaps even some artistic value to our social context and environment.

Is busking, a job? Certainly, for some. There are many who follow the seasonal festival circuits, appearing in crowded venues in multiple cities, plying their trades to the widest possible audience, out of live for their craft, but just as likely to collect tips and donations for their lively-hood. I would guess in Europe, fully 75% of 'professional' street entertainers do so as their only form of income. It's the other 25% that I find interesting and that I relate to. The underlying motivation is a 'want' to be involved, to share something, to impress or at least engage, to gather social status in some art-form that they've worked to become 'out-of-average' in some manner. It's arguably a mix of attention/status-seeking and artistic sharing, the ratio of each depending entirely on the performer.

Is busking a form of begging? I think not. Performing a practiced skill for tips defines the purest sense of a voluntary 'service-for-a-fee' relationship, and is hardly without risk. Any exchage is purely voluntary. In contrast, begging can be described as passively hoping for sympathy with a collection bucket. To my thinking, tips are a reward, donations are a gift to/for a cause, and charity is pure sharing. It's more than semantic that you can tip a street acrobat, but not a beggar.

Does busking indicate the best one can do in this world? Perhaps for some, but I think not for most... I theorize that the biggest appeal of busking is the freedom it *represents*, even if that's more than the real freedom it may actually offer. That a street performer can go anywhere people are gathered and instantly simply entertain them in a manner that suits the performer's own style, defines the notion of anti-bureaucracy at its purest. Kind of a "Sidewalk art vs the Louvre" thing. Which art form is really 'better' and which is more likely to be seen and shared?

I see busking (at least most busking) as a noble and intentional avocation, done by choice, by folks that simply don't have an interest, or the ability, to participate within the constraints of the zillions of more efficient employer/employee relationships that define the usual workplace. Street performers have to show up too. They do it mostly on their terms, but they usually have to be in place when the people are milling. The big difference is whether they are showing up at the factory assembly-line at 7:30AM, or on the crowded town square at 3:30PM... rain or shine...

As goes with the farmer and the gypsy, each having its own dispositional forces at work - I don't believe it's as much of a choice as most folks would likely assume.

History/Notes About Me (danno):

If you are still reading this page (!), here are a few details I jotted down when asked for a  bio' once, and it seemed like a good place to put it together...

In real life, I'm simply 'Dan' these days, but 'Danno' is a throwback to me being from the Islands when I went to college on the mainland (from Oahu to Rochester, New York - brrr) for photography and computer science. (that's where "book'm danno" happened, heh - you don't get to pick your nickname...)

As I considered the idea of playing music for folks, I thought I'd help myself get into 'musician mode', with a magic hat and a (semi-)new persona - hence 'Danno' was (re)born. It's silly, but kinda fun, and somehow gives me 'permission' to get out of myself and give this performing thing more of my all.

I can't hit a nail or golf-ball the same twice, but it seems I can generally hold a tune and usually get relevant and recognizable guitar chords down - mostly in the right order and in rough time... Most folks seem to recognized the songs I'm beating up - Like, it's always a good sign when people sing along and it's actually the same song you're playing, right?

I've been plunking at the guitar and ukelele since I was a wee lad - I was around 10 when I found an old "buss-up" tenor ukelele near some trash cans on the way home from school one day, and with some Elmer's Glue-All, rubber-bands, and fishing line (100lb test) for strings, we were off! "In the jungle" was my first song (aweeem-awep aweeem-awep...)! But, much as I've always loved playing, I never did much with it - always assuming I'd "get to that later"...

Well... let me tell you... "later" happens much faster than you'd think, so a few months before my 60th birthday I had some form of reality-check 'ah-ha' - mid(?)-life crisis thing in my head, insisting that I best understand that life ain't gonna wait! ("oh dear", says my lovely and tolerant wife... I'm so lucky!!!)

Anyway, I decided to consolidate and refine my life's scattered song-learnings, and decided to get at least 100 complete, perform-able songs - with guitar *and* lyrics - into my brain (!) before I hit that Big Six-Oh (60). And, man, I am not a lyrics memorizing guy, so this was a big deal for my aging cranial mass. Well, damn if I didn't get about 60 of 'em in there (!) - hey, look at me go! (and I'm still slowly adding to that list too! About 25 more in 'almost ready' mode, and I'm trying to get a new song in some form of "up-to-snuff" and added to the list and into my brain about every (two) week(s)...)

Add to that, I have always been one of those folks who can't walk by a compelling street musician and not stop... They aren't ever the same - never predictable! Too Cool! It's like that wonderful sidewalk chalk art, but with sound. And either you happen to be there for it, or... it's gone! Precious moments. And I don't see it as solicitation as much as performing in the most brutally honest of markets - the street! Nobody has to stop, nobody has to tip... If they do, there's no doubt that the player *earned* it. Solid!

All of this inspiration recently converged to somehow expose, somewhere deep in me, a latent obsession with doing that - yeah, me, busking on the street (a bucket-list kind of thing? Oh, and "what will the neighbors think?", etc.). But, I just wanted to, no, needed to... do that... So, I did it - I went out and played for passers-by on a busy street-corner in Paia, Maui. It went well. Folks seemed to like it. It was fun. I want to do it more.

Folks smile and occasionally drop a few bucks and these generous tips go to  the Seabury Hall Chorus Department teacher (Molly Schad) for anything she wants to do with it, for her classes and/or students, refreshing my guitar strings, a an occasional periodic cold beer after a session (just one), at the Paia Bay Coffee & Bar.

What next - directions/themes/???:

Right now, I see myself as a street busker at heart - a "honky-tonk-guitarist" kinda thing rather than something more accomplished or serious. Casual chillin' seems more natural and fun... no stress, or something.

One fun mostly-recurring event happens at a local Paia cafe/bar (Paia Bay Coffee & Bar) where I've been able to play to great results:
All-the-while filling a gap in their quiet mid-day lineup. This is a work-in-progress, but currently I'm playing on most Saturdays between 11:00 and 1:00pm - see the main page to confirm any all sessions, then come check it out!


more to come!

--danno - "You've Heard Verse!"