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