Summer classes are great; getting to and from them is horrible. green line to red line to shuttle--often an hour and a half. summer classes that get out at rush hour on days when there's a baseball game at fenway park are pure misery, even when i take the green line in the wrong direction so i can get a seat before the mobs at park street get in. that trick sometimes works, sometimes not. and the government center station is mobbed in any case. i get home drained and bitchy.
so today i got to govt center, loathing my fellow humans, and especially the ones on their way to fenway park [you can always tell them; they wear red sox hats or red sox t shirts or both, and they have little children wearing little red sox hats or little red sox shirts and sometimes even little red sox shoes. and then.....
i think she was a teenager. she was thin, elegant, and simply an amazing violinist. i didn't know the piece she was playing, and didn't have to. even some of the sox fiends were listening to her.
i let 3 trains go by, and just listened and watched. her whole body moved with her music; she might have been a ballet dancer. and to her, we weren't even there. a few people put dollar bills in her violin case; she didn't look at any of us. she was her violin, she was the music.
when she finished, i applauded. then she looked at me, smiled shyly. i got onto the next crowded train; i think i smiled at someone with a red sox t shirt. in a world with such musicians, even baseball fans on the green line are bearable.
so today i got to govt center, loathing my fellow humans, and especially the ones on their way to fenway park [you can always tell them; they wear red sox hats or red sox t shirts or both, and they have little children wearing little red sox hats or little red sox shirts and sometimes even little red sox shoes. and then.....
i think she was a teenager. she was thin, elegant, and simply an amazing violinist. i didn't know the piece she was playing, and didn't have to. even some of the sox fiends were listening to her.
i let 3 trains go by, and just listened and watched. her whole body moved with her music; she might have been a ballet dancer. and to her, we weren't even there. a few people put dollar bills in her violin case; she didn't look at any of us. she was her violin, she was the music.
when she finished, i applauded. then she looked at me, smiled shyly. i got onto the next crowded train; i think i smiled at someone with a red sox t shirt. in a world with such musicians, even baseball fans on the green line are bearable.
2 comments:
Red Sox fans have one thing and only one thing going for them: they despise the New York Yankees. That's a reason for their existence. And some of them appreciate music as you have pointed out.
Lovely, Karen!
I've had some wonderful experiences with buskers in New York and elsewhere. One, a college student and a violinist playing Irish fiddle music, became a friend of mine and has since won a Grammy.
Post a Comment