Denver 4

It’s getting hotter. Busking season is almost over, unless you get creative or start working the morning transit crunch. If you are already sweaty by the time you get to your spot, you are going to need a new spot by the summer solstice.

Use your cardinal directions. If you choose well you will be in the sun for only ten minutes, your case for only another ten.  The earth is turning in an eastward direction, so use this to your advantage.

Zack from Children International agrees to let you share his spot in front of Barnes & Noble, where you are both banking on some sort of stereotype about book store customers. You will both be wrong, although you fare better than Zack in the first five minutes. A quarter lands in your case during the first verse of Wilder Than Her. It always seems like people know that song, but you’re not conversing with the coin-givers, so you wouldn’t know. You know only to keep singing.

The free mall shuttle stops right in front of you every two and a half minutes. The doors stay open for approximately ten seconds, during which time you might catch someone’s eye or ear. People deboarding generally turn one direction or the other, but don’t be surprised if someone gets right off and comes forward with a dollar. It may be a child, and she will very carefully place the dollar—enormous in her hand—beneath the rock in your case. Luckily, you are at a break after the second verse of that Dylan song, so you can thank her.

But when a filmmaker comes and drops his card in your case, and is trying to explain what he does, you are full throttle in the chorus of Middle of the Night. You feel lucky that on its first time out busking this song has already garnered some change, a few glances, and Big Jon Ian’s card, but you’ve forgotten the lyrics. Keep playing, the words will come soon.