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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 2011)
street roots 13 Feb. 4, 2011 STAG E, fro m page 1 What Weaver enjoys most about busking is getting to strike up conversations with passersby about music. When they have kids, it’s really exciting to let them touch the harp,” Weaver says. “It’s a unique experience for them ? Timothy Horner, 40, also enjoys the reaction his , Violin playing elicits from children, especially when they start dancing to his music. “Their enthusiasm is contagious,” he says, smiling. Horner has busked on Portland’s streets far longer than Weaver — for 12 years. He has played the violin and studied music at a music conservatory. Homer can be seen often standing on the corner of SW 9th Avenue and SW Yamhill, near the Real Mother Goose and the Galleria MAX stop. He plays classical music, world music and old-time American fiddle tunes. He is a skinny man dressed in skinny jeans and fingerless gloves. He ties his long, brown hair back in a ponytail and wears a hat. He bobs his head arid sways back and forth gently as he plays. He thinks of his work as a public service. Music, he believes, has a healing power, and is an important part of society’s culture that people of all walks of life should have access to without paying money and getting dressed up to hear i t “(Portland) needs it. People don’t have anything cultural to experience day to day,” he says. When he first started busking, Homer did so out of economic necessity — he was unemployed. Now, he teaches violin lessons to students and plays numerous gigs. He has noticed, since the recession started, that “the bottom has fallen out” in terms of how much buskers make. At the same time, he has noticed that more and "TO B» A t right, Halley Weaver sets up her equipment. Below, Caroline Doctor performs a t S W P a rk an d Yamhill streets. more of Portland’s street musicians have professional backgrounds in music. “Rather than street musicians being a rag tag bunch of hoboes, you see professional musicians falling onto the edge of hard times trying to sustain themselves,” he says. Regardless of the agreement between downtown businesses and buskers, the buskers clearly feel that the business community, with the enforcement arm of Clean & Safe, is not always in support of the buskers’ performances. “Right now, there is an uneasiness between the PBA and their interests, and the buskers,” Weaver says. She would not go into many detail. PBA spokesperson Mirabai Vogt said that the PBA did not have any specific concerns regarding street musicians. Horner had not heard of the public forum before being asked about it by Street Roots, but hopes that* enforcement issues can be addressed. He thinks the most important.concern for street musicians right now is whether it will become more advantageous economically for street musicians to perform on Portland’s streets. “The measure of any town is the art it is willing to subsidize,” Homer thinks. “Having that on the street corner is one of the most democratic institutions that still exists.” lill '' s i * ’ ' ' • - '-B 9 t W v S S a o iiS iB a iM M K l I lÈllt w®- «llfellìl KT' S >i*.'**Y *' ■11 a f f o r d a b l e place to r en t ? Your online housing search just got easier. Thousands o f listings • Free service Includes special needs_h° ^ ' n9 Call 2-1-1 o r 503-802-8562 3035 S.E. Division • Portland, OR 97202 503.234.7499
