San Francisco

[kennethkahn]

Jim,

Again forgive me if I'm not finding the right place to post on the forum. I just want to say I still remember a qoute you had on a dvd I watched (I'm pretty sure it was you). "It's not what you do, it's how you do it".

Also, I'm running for Mayor of San Francisco. One of my big goals is to give the police better guidelines for enforcing street performing. Fisherman's Wharf, is particularly bad. Do you or any other forum members have any idea's.

[Greycat]

Ha! I just spent seven hours on the SF pitch, it's in a terrible terrible state...not that it isn't ALWAYS in a terrible state, but it's even worse these days.
There used to be a nice pitch, a circle of cobblestone and concrete near Pier 39 that had a nice rotation of Buskers going on. Pete Sweet, Kris Karney, The Late Jonny Massacre, all played there and helped me get a start in Busking. Heck, I even watch Allakazam do his show there.
Now the whole pitch has been taken over by a troupe of Huge, Muscle Bound breakers who sit on pitch, blare music, taunt the crowds, and don't do any rotation what so ever. I have to wait till they have decided they are done for the day before I can start shows. They stay during peak hours and never leave till they have made the dough they want.
It's the most infuriating thing watching them haul in terrible hats during peak times.
In the same day, I watched a Silver Man get into a fist fight with THREE, count em, THREE tourists. It was a literal brawl.
The Silver Men are the same deal, they eat of time in peak places and have to because they don't have a show.
I suggest you have the same deal as in montreal. There is a rep from the city council on pitch checking permits and making sure that the times are slotted and they people keep to thier designated areas.
But at this point, the place is in such chaos that there might be quite an upraor if the city tired to regulate...
Truly sad what is happening at the pitch as it's one of the best in the US....

[Butterfly Man]

Maybe it's time to call the Doctor ...

In San Francisco there is a man ... a good man ... who is very familiar with street acts ... the people up in Hunter's Point call him "Doc" ... if there is a problem, he takes care of things ... I am going to call him ... I've had enough.

[Greycat]

B-Man, if you did that, I would be greatly appreciated. Like I said, three years ago, it was in bad shape, but at least WORKABLE. Right now, it's in a horrible state.
Frank Oliver a wants to sit down and chat about taking the pitch back for the buskers, so a friend of mine tells me today as he just came form his place. I wonder how much I can get done before I get the crap beat out of me...
The saddest thing is that I TAUGHT one of these breakers the in's and out's four years back. They were just three at the time and they were trying to pull off day shows, fighting with the carribean band, squeezed in between the snarling mad Dog Man (who's name I STILL don't know.), and a few peddlers there at the time. Totally blocking the sidewalk and doing a horrible job pounding thier poor wrists into the pavement for little take.
I gave them the basics: Beginning, middle and end for your show. Make a damm hat speech, protect against walk-offs, ect. They were quite grateful for the tips at the time and it certainly did help.
I pulled up two days ago and the guy recognized me, shook my hand the way kids do these days (wassup with dat?) but failed to mention to his mates who I was and just let me sit there for three hours till the crowds thinned and they decided to leave me with the 'off to dinner crowd'.
The rules used to be 5 pm, the pitch is open for buskers. Before that, it's Silver Men and musicians. But these days, since the sun is going down at 8:30, the Breakers (who are now working WITH the Silver Men.) stay till the please, and the less money they make, the longer they stay....
Rant over, I'm done....

[scot]

edited. see above

[Greycat]

Will do on the pronto. Thanks for all the support. Lets keep some good quality shows going on at the Warf!

[Doctor Eric]

I have a broken hand right now, and I'm a shitty typist as it is but...

I quit street here in SF about 8 months ago, for various reasons (actually, the starter of this thread is one of them). Most of those reasons are the things you've posted, Grey, top of the list being captain Jackass with his 16 tables of blinking lights, massive generator powered stereo, and drunk underaged "employees" who latched onto the circle like a !@#?ing lamprey with "Made in China" stamped on it's side.

When there were 4-6 of us, the circle was fine, but the other acts have slowly quit or left town. I worked there alone for the last two years, with an occasional out-of-town act (and Peter paid a short visit last summer, but I hear he's living in a trailer in Austria now) and as it was just me, and the police generally don't give a shit about the wharf, things encroached more and more onto the pitch. After I quit, the breakers started going later and later, hopefully that will be fixed, I'm going to talk to them tomorrow.

There was a meeting with the port commission today about a permit system, I have a few problems with the semantics, but mostly, it's a good thing. The system will hopefully be implemented by halloween, and tweaked from there. So things are happening.

The officer who used to work the wharf when I first moved here has been posted down there again. He's been gone for a few years, but now that he's back, things are quite a bit better, he declared war on the illegal vendors, and the nights that he's out, the wharf is gorgeous.

So things are getting better, and I'll keep everyone posted about what's going on here, I'd like it if this city were good for circle shows again, and apparently I'll be meeting up with Grey on thursday.

Feel free to give your friend a call robert, did I meet him the last time you dropped by for a visit?

cheers, cash out

[Greycat]

Very cool. I worked the circle pitch three years ago when Kris Kanrney, Pete Sweet, and Jonny Massacre were all there. One of the breaker boys from the current gang was there during the day and we gave him pointers for all his mates to make a decent show and all. Thats the most sad thing, watching him take the small amount of knowledge that he gleaned and not respecting where it came from.
I'll give you a call tomorrow Eric, and we'll try to figure this out. I'm hot blooded, and hate any sort of injustice. So to see these KIDS pulling poor hats from the thickest crowds I've seen this side of Sidney hurts my heart...not to mention my wallet.
We'll either sort it out, or I'll be demolished by a bunch of thugs...

Always wanted to go out with a bang...

[Doctor Eric]

alright dude, relax, number one, you're preaching to the !@#?ing choir, number two, it'll be fine, give me a call, the rest of you, keep sf on your calendars

[Jim]

Eric, When you're done cleaning up over there, can you come over to Boston?

[Doctor Eric]

hahahaha

it's not me, the whole thing has gotten so bad that every one knows something needs to be done, I'm just the only voice for circle acts right now.

[scot]

hero

[Doctor Eric]

I just spit hot coffee out of my nose.

You should have put a cast on the right hand

[jimmy talksalot]

i've had nothing but bad from there and i've heard nothing but bad from everybody about it.

i got set up on by a spray paint "artist" when i asked him if he "could just wait till my show was over and stop throwing my stuff around" he got mad and threw me through some tables. the owner of which blamed me for makin his friend mad...when he came over to finish me off, i finally took a few swings at him and he ran off like a scared little girl....he was twice my size.

he came back later mad that a little guy stood up to him he wanted to kill me, thats when kenny stopped em.

i found out later he's hurt other people bad and for some reason the cops arn't takin him to jail.

anyway.

thanks kenny.

seen break dancers stab people in the face. i also saw them bogarting the circle pitch....i'd be carefull of them instead of throwing you around they try and stab or kick the @#$%! out of you.

seen statues working on a circle pitch and dominating it all day also when they have no show half the time they're not even statueing....while circle show performers wait all day before they can do one show.

thankfully i only was doin small sidewalk shows at the time and didn't need it, but my gad i felt sorry for those circle show guys that waited all day.


people set up on me and tell me i can't work there all the time and threatin with violence [where ever].

me, jord, and jason escape saw this almost every day.

when we talked to the cops their attitude was they didn't want us there and were hoping the violence would ecalate so they could shut us down or we'd kill each other off.

the first step would be to have that circle pitch for performers instead of statues, that might be good.

theres little to no talent there thats why they have to fight over pitches they couldn't survive on a bad one.

i'm from new orleans you know land of the crack head statues and even they are more civilized then the trash i saw there.

i'm still a little bitter.

[Doctor Eric]

which painter was it? What did he look like? The guy with the tables must have been mario, the illegal vendor I was talking about earlier, he's a big fat guy, but he's a total coward, he'll sic his "employees" on you, but he won't do a damn thing himself, that's just the way he works.

And no offense Jimmy, but when did you see one of the breakers stab someone in the face? That's something I would have heard about.

Here's the thing Jimmy, if you'd like to come back here someday and work in a nice environment, help me out and write me a letter, explaining your experiences, that goes for anyone else that's had problems here. I'm the only circle act speaking in this whole thing, so no matter how well I speak at meetings, I'm still outnumbered. And a REAL letter, not a printed out email, a real, solid letter with a stamp and everything carries a lot more weight, you can pm me for my address.

I'll keep my comments about Kenny's contributions to the problem to myself for now