Another suggested location, this time from a friend of a friend. He recommended playing in a vacant lot on North Williams Avenue, which would put me in direct view of thousands of afternoon bike commuters. Intrigued, I decided to give it a try.

But when I got to the spot, the lot was not exactly vacant, as it was full of hot, sweat-inducing afternoon sunlight. This is certainly a hazard of playing outdoors, but after a week of daily shows, I was not keen on standing in the sun to play music yet again.

So I strolled up and down Williams a little bit, looking for a better spot, and noticed the real estate office on the corner was closing up. I poked my head in the door and asked if they were really closing (yes) and would they mind if I played in the alcove (go right ahead!). So that was a problem averted.

I set up and started playing when a second interesting aspect revealed itself: cyclists on their afternoon commute have little interest in stopping to hear some music on a random street corner. Ironically, it appeared to me, motorists in their rolling cages had more awareness of and curiosity about what I was doing than cyclists, who otherwise seem to enjoy a much more direct relationship to their surroundings. Or maybe they’re just focused on not getting hit by cars, who can really say?

Another largely disinterested group of people is pedestrians headed to the fancy wine shop next to the realtor. If you ever want to feel like you have cooties, be hot and sweaty and in the path of a would-be patron heading to a fancy wine shop.

But it wasn’t all disinterest. An adult and child (mother and son?) stopped and sat down for a little while. After a couple of songs, the woman stepped away, leaving me playing music to a young teenager. (She did come back eventually.)

I try to play more cheerful songs when possibly influencing the youth of today, but he told me his favorite band is Linkin Park, so…does that free me to get dark? I kind of did, but I also devoted some time to talking with him about musical instruments he played, etc.

Turns out he’s a multi-insturmentalist (several horns plus drums) and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him on a street corner of his own someday. Or maybe he’ll aim higher: a whole vacant lot to himself. (And hopefully in the shade.)

Incidentally, this is the first show where I had stickers to give away. If you see me out in the world playing music, ask for a sticker between songs. I will probably be glad to take a break and hand you one!

I asked some friends if they had ideas for new places to play, and one person suggested that I set up in the vicinity of the First Thursday art event in downtown Portland. These can be fun, so I loaded up the car and drove into the neighborhood.

One obstacle I anticipated was that there was virtually no free on-street parking available. I drove around and around, and as the appointed time arrived, I decided I’d have to pay to park in a garage if I wanted to get in any playing before dark. So I coughed up a ghastly $7 for a garage spot, and started carting my stuff the 5 or 6 blocks back to the appointed corner.

It would be too predictably ironic to mention the car departing a parking space right next to the spot I was going to play just as I walked by it, so I’ll skip it.

One obstacle I didn’t anticipate was the entire neighborhood was awash in thumping bass sounds from the EDM party in the TEDx pavilion on the other side of the park. But once I started playing, my own drums (right behind my ears, after all) drowned out all distracting noise.

I played for a few minutes to no one but a friend who lives nearby and who happily took a bench seat. I would say few pedestrians expressed even the slightest interest in what I was doing. I rarely felt like such a nuisance as I did then.

But then my feelings of “nuisanceness” redoubled as a guy walked a full circle around me before telling me to “get this corny ass shit out of here.” Having grown up on the east coast, I’m not unfamiliar with this kind of blunt, if not exactly constructive, criticism. Then again, I have every right to play in this public space, so I asked for some clarification. “You’re playing this corny ass shit and interfering with people’s enjoyment of God’s beautiful creation,” as he pointed toward the EDM party.

Okay, clear now: thumping digital music constructed on computers is a beautiful creation of God’s. My heartfelt original compositions played in real time? “From another dimension.” Apparently I managed to sneak into this dimension while God was rolling at a dance party.

Seriously, if I was exactly at this man’s destination, I’d have stopped. But I asked if he was heading somewhere, and he said yes, so I encouraged him to continue on his way. Which he did, though not until after also harassing my friend. I’ll take him at his word that he’s “brilliant” but in this case, maybe we can agree to disagree?

I continued playing a while. I don’t usually concern myself with money collected on the street, but tonight I kept my eye on that collection bucket. Some shows yield more money than others, often inexplicably, so it’s a cruel yardstick by which to judge yourself. But if I’m going to play a tense show wondering if some kook is going to come back to take his hostility to the next level, I damn well hope to make back that $7 for parking.

But as the park darkened at sundown, I decided to pack it in regardless. I counted the money in the bucket: $8! A slim victory, but I’ll take it!

This was the scene of a pretty successful outing about six weeks ago, so in my quest to play a show every day this week, it was a natural addition to the itinerary. I arrived just before 8pm and got set up and playing in short order. Maybe it’s from playing more shows this week, but I’m lately much faster at getting all the gear set up to play.

It’s an interesting corner to play on because a lot of people stop to check out the Lego models in the window of the light bulb store. Most people who linger aren’t paying much attention to me, because there’s a Star Wars space ship behind me.

But some linger to take in a song or two. Almost as soon as  I started, a friend happened by, and she was finally able to see me perform in real life instead of just watching videos online. But she soon left and I was on my own again.

A man at the bus stop across the street was kind of grooving and applauding between songs, and eventually came over to drop some small coins in the bucket. He apologized that it wasn’t more, but I told him truthfully, I was just happy he was enjoying it, and invited him to grab a bench. But no, he wanted to go back to the bus stop. Commuters!

Sometimes when playing on the street a special moment happens. A couple of people stop, then a couple more, and soon there’s a small crowd. I had just launched into a kind of epic song called “Entropy” as about 15 people watched. They were really with me, through all the stops, tempo changes, right to the conclusive final line. Much applause. A man impressed by the song asked me, “Which artist are you covering with that song?” I told him it was my own song–I am only playing my own songs–and he dropped a couple more dollars in the bucket.

But then the moment ended. I was taking too long to start the next song, what with catching my breath and trying to remember what I hadn’t played yet. The crowd took this lull as an opportunity to disperse, and I was all alone again.

A couple of other folks hung out to take in the last few songs, and I wrapped things up just before 9pm. (I don’t want to become a nuisance to the neighbors who have to go to work the next day.) I played my traditional final song “Used to It” and skedaddled.

I swore off Alberta for a while after the last show there and especially my last show at this spot. So I guess it’s been “a while” because I was back again tonight.

I realized as I was heading out that I wouldn’t have a lot of time to play, because I had someplace to be at 9pm*. I debated not going out at all, but a short show is better than no show…right? So I set up at the old familiar place just before 8pm, and set an alarm for 8:30pm on my phone.

At a recent private engagement I thought I played too fast and kind of ran out of gas a little early. So tonight I focused on songs that are harder to play, and tried to regulate my tempo. It felt like I did a better job keeping my stamina, although that may be due to the temperature’s being 20 degrees cooler than my last outing, rather than keeping my tempo in check.

I was never successful in getting anyone to sit down on the benches. Well, except one young lady who sat for a second and tried to encourage her friends to join her. However, her friends wanted to go get dinner and bring it back. “How long will you be here?” asked her friend. I told him half an hour, and he said, “Perfect.”

The thought crossed my mind that “Perfect” might mean “You’ll be gone before we get back.” And indeed, they never returned.

I left at the appointed time, just after playing a new song. I made it to the 9pm event with 10 minutes to spare.

* – A screening of my friend’s documentary at a nearby bar.