CAPITAL CITY CHORD CHANGES

I love the magic of alchemy - the art of turning an empty guitar case into gold. My first two days in Dublin have certainly been wonderfully lucrative. However, I busk first and foremost because I love it; I get to do my favourite thing - sing - whilst observing all kinds of people passing by, plus I get to be an outside observer into the small windows of their worlds I see on the street. Sometimes I feel like a kind of psychologist and I search my brain for songs to change the energy on the street... 'Welcome to the Machine' by Pink Floyd, definitely one of my favourites right now, is such a song - emotive and moody, whereas 'I Can See Clearly Now' is the perfect song to play on days like today when the sun is shining bright.

I have been avoiding the popular spot of 'Grafton Street' simply because I can't stand to walk down it due to the sheer amount of people hurrying there all day long... there are also a tonne of buskers here fighting for perches, and I have never been about this kind of thing - I prefer to find quieter spots where I don't have to vie for audio space. Having said that, there are some pretty neat buskers down there - a girl decked out in black and white, whiskers painted on her cheeks, and black and white poi's for hands. Whenever someone puts a coin in her box, she unwinds herself into position and does a short poi show for them. I might try the area of 'Temple Bar' tomorrow - I walked there last night and marvelled at its beautiful pubs and music venues - but today I go back to my same spot as yesterday - outside 'Clery's' (some shop - I'm not sure what they sell...) on North Earl Street.

My first busking adventure of the day begins when Michael sits down beside me and plays me some of his self-penned songs about this city he loves. He's a tattoo artist down on Grafton Street and says he only gets to play guitar when he meets a busker that lets him play a few tunes, so I'm happy to oblige. I join in on the choruses; his minimalistic lyrics 'Freeee and easyyyyy' and 'Summertiiiiime' are pretty easy to pick up. Later on, a woman with black hair and intense eyes stops to talk to me and our conversation soon shifts from my music to her four children, how the Irish built America and the dangers of some people on the street... She assures me I'll make enough money to 'get me dinner out of it' and reminds me that this is how Bono started out, after all...

I play on. A family of three young blonde boys, temporarily void of parent, are out for a laugh and thus approach me. They are too innocent to create real mischief though, and I happily answer their questions: 'Do you ever get robbed?' 'Do they speak English in New Zealand?' and 'Wow, did that lady really give you two whole Euro's???' At their request I play a song in te reo Maori on guitar, but they leave before I finish. Ah well...

Later, as I'm packing up and counting over 70 Euros in change, I'm approached by Mike, an ex-Londoner who, like Patrick the day before, shares his European busking tips with me. Sounds like Budapest is definitely a place to go and I make a mental note to find a way there... He has been playing music in South Cyprus recently and I have lunch with him to finish the worldly conversation we have started. We play a few tunes together in practise for his gig tonight at a Backpackers hostel before I go to enjoy this glorious sunshine that I never thought could exist in such longevity in this part of the world... guess I am being pleasantly suprised about a lot of things right now...