Serenade on the Red Line

You'll either find this a lovely sign of life in L.A. or another reason to leave. LAist posts a wonderful video of a man and his guitar on board the Red Line Subway:

This totally made my our last Thursday night. If it were only legal to busk on subways. Or at least in stations. Too bad it's not. He made some handsome pay in the 15 minutes we were with him and the guy "booing" offered to sell us drugs. Then there was the guy who busted out "only in LA" as he danced.

The video is here.

Comments

[Donald Stanwood]

What a ruckus! Sixteen posts and counting, increasingly snarky and obtuse, all in response to one poor street musisian on the Red Line. Maybe it's the heat wave. Why don't we all take a Prozac, get off-line and go play with the cat?

[mike]

Jane made a very revealing comment: " ...it could have been my appearance. I do look like the usual suspect to them."

Why do you assume that everybody that interacts with you is being racist? You don't have to answer that because I am sure you have a long winded answer for that to accompany your rant on how only working class poor people are real people and rich people are nothing but souless fools with nothing worthwile to say. By your logic the only way somebody can add something inteligent to the conversation on public transit is if they are forced to only ride the worst lines in LA. You can learn just as much about public transit from riding a good system/line as from riding an awful one (and LA has both but sadly more of the bad ones)

It is people like you who make sure that their are divisions between people.

[cochon.name]

"Seriously, this is another reason to avoid public transit."

tim k. - drunk driving, road rage, people throwing objects from overpasses, wasting your life sitting in traffic, getting shot randomly while driving on certain roads/freeways, gas prices, repairs, parking tickets, insurance, bad air quality and everything else associated with driving automobiles - are these all reasons to avoid public transportation as well? lol.

jane, your bitterness seems to have clouded your idea of what "urban" is. being "uban" has nothing to do with wealth, class or status. upper east side new york is 100x more "urban" than compton and guess what, those folks are super rich. and they get up and 4:30 am too to head downtown to their jobs at smith barney. and the "fake urban" vs. "real urban" bs, please. you definitely sound like someone who has spent your entire life in the suburbs and has some kind of naive and arbitrary view of what it means to live in an urban setting.

[Jane]

" I have seen 2 brawls on the redline in the past week. Is that "urban" enough for you? " JJ

I guess you think urban equal unsafe.

I think you are possibly referring to the artless interpretation of urban.

Jane

[Jane]

"Play urban without really being urban?" Jane

"so according to your logic-
safe = not urban
and
unsafe = urban" JJ

I don't understand why you think anyone that says anything against the MTA is with the BRU. Pigs will fly the day that I wear a t-shirt and chant for some rich guy with a hobby to "help."

The Red Line is given more creative flexibility. I have an idea how about you go down to Wilmington/Imperial (where the Blue Line and Green Line Intersect) and play an instrument on the platform, see how the about one dozen Sheriff will react. I tried to take pictures, so I could have a video like the people who take the Red Line do and was told by the Sheriff:

"You can't do that. You can't take pictures on the train. This belongs to the MTA and without permission from the MTA you are not allowed to take pictures."

Though of course, it could have been my appearance. I do look like the usual suspect to them.

To me urban is getting up at 4:30am to catch the bus to get on the blue line to go to work, where the Sheriff asks you for your pass no less than 2 times. That's urban. That's reality on the bus. Urban is real life.

Fake urban is getting up at 7am to casually leave outside of your 2000 a month apartment (or loft) from Hollywood or Downtown LA to take three stops and then have the nerve to actually comment on the state of public transport for working class LA. Actually not only do you have the audacity to comment, you minimize what the average person who takes the bus has to say. For some reason you think what you believe is more relevant. Even though the vast majority of people who take the train are working class and take the bus, which bites.

Fake urban is not even taking public transit to work, but taking it to some bar or some art event or so you can write some interesting on a blog, but not really taking it out of your comfort zone. No need to go too far south or too far east, that hasn't been gentrified yet.

Fake urban is going to Paris and getting a hotel and taking a tour of the Eiffel Tour and the Louvre, you bought it with this package that you got from your travel agent and then you come back and with no irony tell people that you've been to Paris.

Fake urban are people who like to pretend to do exciting things, without risk of harm or disappointment. They sort of do a Citiwalk, state sanctioned version of urban.

The funny thing about fake urban people is that they think they are more real than suburban people, but that goes along with the whole "not in touch with reality."

I sort of hope urban would equal unsafe, because I don't really want to live in Disneyland or a TV show of what NY life is like, but only in LA with Craft Services and my mommy to hold my had.

But that was real clever of you to try to turn it around like that.

Jane

[mike]

Jane why don't you like the people that live near the red line and the people that ride it. Is it because we are not poor or urban enough for you? Your pointless comments do nothing but to bring down the conversation on top of the fact that they are offense. We all live here together! Thank you for being part of the problem!

[JJ]

"Play urban without really being urban?"

so according to your logic-
safe = not urban
and
unsafe = urban

I don't know what cities you have been to, but most great urban areas are considered among the safest because of the number of people and activities going on. They become unsafe when there are few people/eyes on the streets.

Regardless of any of that, I have seen 2 brawls on the redline in the past week. Is that "urban" enough for you?

[Dan W.]

"Surely assigning some socioeconomic/racial caste system to the varied Lines on Metrorail is utterly pointless and unproductive. This is a variant of BRU logic, yes?"

"Logic" and the "BRU" are two words that have nothing to do with one another and don't belong together.

[Dan W.]

"How come all of the proponents of public transport claim that one advantage is being able to relax and read their own paper/listen to their iPod while on the bus?

And then this obnoxious joker comes on demands your attention?

Seriously, this is another reason to avoid public transit. While he's serenading you, his pick-pocket accomplice is busy stealing your valuables."

---------

Dude, you need to get out more and watch less television about city life.

"Busking" in the subways is a time honored tradition in most urban cities. In fact, New York and London grant licenses allowing musicians, in fact some really good musicians, to play.

I remember once a hip hop dancing troupe came into the subway car and entertained everyone and even did backflips in the subway car. If you don't like an entertainer, feel free to ignore them.

But if you don't want to interact with anyone else or receive any outside stimulus, you can continue to sit in ever-worsening congestion in your single-occupancy vehilce or move out to the ex-urban areas. Or, why not move out to the country where you won't have any stimulus at all?

And in all the years I lived in New York, I never even once got pickpocketed. However, in the years I lived in Los Angeles, I did have my car broken into several times.

And you might want to see a psychiatrist about your paranoia.

[Jane]

"Surely assigning some socioeconomic/racial caste system to the varied Lines on Metrorail is utterly pointless and unproductive. This is a variant of BRU logic, yes?" Donald Stanwood

So on there is no caste system in LA? South Central is viewed as the same as Beverly Hills? SFV is the same as Santa Monica. I'm sorry I was mistaken. I apologize for assuming that the Red Line is viewed as the cool line in comparison to the Green/Blue line at Imperial and Wilmington or the MTA 2 going down Cesar Chavez. It's all the same. We're a communist state. Everyone is equal and there are no class divisions. I think you'll have to talk to the real estate agents and let them know that it's completely ridiculous for a house in Malibu to be ten million dollars. There are no class or racial divisions in L.A., so who would pay more to live in certain neighborhoods when there are perfectly good neighbors that are cheap by the projects.
Jane

[Jean-Luc Turbo]

Tim K....show us the crime statistics of said as well as declare whether or not you actually use L.A.'s public transportation...instead of making Rev. Phelps-esque drive by commentary...

¡Thanks!

[Marcotico]

Tim K. ladies and gentleman! The Ugly American. Get out of your suburban hell-hole once in awhile and see the world. Trust me it does wonders for your paranoia.

[Marcotico]

Tim K. ladies and gentleman! The Ugly American. Get out of your suburban hell-hole once in awhile and see the world. Trust me it does wonders for your paranoia.

[Donald Stanwood]

Surely assigning some socioeconomic/racial caste system to the varied Lines on Metrorail is utterly pointless and unproductive. This is a variant of BRU logic, yes?

[Tim K.]

How come all of the proponents of public transport claim that one advantage is being able to relax and read their own paper/listen to their iPod while on the bus?

And then this obnoxious joker comes on demands your attention?

Seriously, this is another reason to avoid public transit. While he's serenading you, his pick-pocket accomplice is busy stealing your valuables.

[Jane]

Of course they were on the Red Line, that's the safe train. For the pretty people who want to play urban, without really being urban. Jane

[greg]

what? no pole dancing?

[Jean-Luc Turbo]

"You'll either find this a lovely sign of life in L.A. or another reason to leave."

"ANOTHER REASON TO LEAVE"??!!!!

This IS a lovely sign of life in L.A., there's a million of them everyday when we leave behind the starlet culture that the media considers the dominant here. I'd be saddened to think anyone would consider this man anything less than a lovely sign of L.A. life...

[LAofAnaheim]

Now that is city culture. Let's go LA!