The Man in the Subway With the Two-String Violin

10/25/2016

I look and listen for this man whenever I change subway lines at Roosevelt Ave. in Queens.

I often find him midway on the Manhattan-bound platform, facing the E and F trains.

In quiet moments I hear the melancholy strains of the erhu, a two-stringed Chinese violin.

The chords convey the vastness of China, the long history, the pain, the hope.

His own story, I do not know.

He keeps his head down, plays to the beat from a mobile speaker.
He puts a modest cardboard box between his sneakers.

I stand up close. His China is not the neon-and-skyscraper China I encountered at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, after they bulldozed most of the hutongs, the old neighborhoods.

I take a few photos on my iPhone. He does not seem to notice.

I drop $5 in the box and say “Xie Xie” -- thanks, in Mandarin.

He says, “Thank you.”
Then my train arrives.

(With homage to Joni Mitchell's "For Free" 1970)

Joshua Rubin

10/26/2016 09:55:21 am

There are quite a few erhu players amongst the subway buskers in our vast system. There used to be a guy who teamed up with a Dominican accordianist, and they played each other's traditional songs and some American standards. Very sweet. There is an [erhuist?] regularly at the Jay Street stop in Brooklyn who plays Jingle Bells all year long, except that he plays "oh what fun it is to ride" as an F# and gets stuck there for three extra bars. Drives me crazy. I give him money anyway. Can any of you Chinese linguistic scholars teach me how to say "I will pay you double if you can fix that F sharp?"

George Vecsey

10/26/2016 12:00:48 pm

Josh: There is a more formal way, but I thought I would try to keep it simple. (Ummm, actually, I used Google Translate This is nothing if not a full-service web site. GV.)

“我会付你双倍，如果你能修复F锋利？
“Wǒ huì fù nǐ shuāng bèi, rúguǒ nǐ néng xiūfù F fēnglì?

Joshua Rubin

10/26/2016 03:05:33 pm

Thanks, George, but I would be afraid to actually say it. One wrong intonation and I'd be punched in the nose.

I once had to serve papers on a corporation with its HQ in Quebec and,per Canada's rules under the Hague convention, I had to have the papers translated into French and served via the Quebec Ministry of Justice. The clerk at the ministry advised me, emphatically, to engage professional translation services and not to use Google translate. "We can tell," she said.

George Vecsey

10/26/2016 04:17:34 pm

Josh: I'm sure they can.
And Chinese, with all its tones, is much harder. I once had a very polite and friendly family in California (from Taiwan) giggling about my pronunciation of Xie Xie. Just the slightest tailing of a note could turn things 180 degrees, I gather. Good luck with your local erhu player.
GV

Alan Rubin link

10/26/2016 04:25:21 pm

Subway musicians are great. The IRT 2 & 3 always had a variety of cultures and skill levels.

One violinist actually had an audition with the Philharmonic through a passenger.

Subway musicians, as well as those in Central Park on weekends, are one of the few things that I miss having moved to the Berkshires.

Tanglewood is great, but it lacks the subway noise and is subject to rain for us lawn sitter

George Vecsey

10/27/2016 09:27:29 am

Alan, no buskers in the Berkshires?
I know a guy who came to NY with credentials...and for a a time played a classical instrument in public..and is now in a very good professional group.
Among the great places for buskers are the long passageways in London (called subways). You can hear an entire movement walking under one of those huge intersections.
See you both soon,
G

Brian Savin

10/27/2016 09:02:06 pm

I played a lot of Erhu music on Apple Music today, with a lot of enjoyment. Once again, George, you taught me something worthwhile. Thanks.

George Vecsey

10/28/2016 10:28:31 am

Brian, You're the guy who got me reading the Theodore Roosevelt biography, so thank you.
So have you heard the Silk Road group with Yo Yo Ma, one of the really nice people. He was honored the same time Stan Musial was, at the White House. I saw him borrow the cello from a member of a military ensemble.....his pal the President listened over his shoulder...
The erhu is on several cuts on the Silk Road CD...

GV

Alan Rubin link

10/31/2016 05:42:29 pm

Yo Yo Ma is an amazing person.For all his fame, he is a regular down to earth guy.

When Sandi was at the Jerusalem Foundation, she arranged for a 3000th year birthday concert at Lincoln Center in 1966. Yo Yo was one of many performers who donated their time. He played Max Bruch's Shlomo.

At a post concert reception in the back room of a nearby restaurant, Yo Yo had his jacket off, sleeves rolled up enjoying himself with a bottle of bea
er in hand. So accessible to talk to.

He also did the Silk Road at Tanglewood this summer in Seiji Ozawa Hall. He was part of a wonderful Ensemble.

https://www.bso.org/Performance/Detail/77829/

He played along as one of a group enjoying themselves, never taking the spotlight.

We went to many of his Silk Road variations which were held in small venues. One had a tango theme where he teamed up with a classical guitarist.

He lives in the Berkshires and is active in many local issues, including the revitalization of the local newspaper, The Berkshire Eagle.

bruce

10/30/2016 07:59:31 pm

George,

your violinist story reminded me of a blind man who used to play a violin with a tin cup attached to the end of it in downtown Hamilton when I was a kid.

I used to wonder what his story was.

your success with google translate is better than mine. I used to try it with Japanese. i'd enter English to get the Japanese and then translate that back into eigo (Japanese for English) and it was a rare thing that it worked in any acceptable way.

your mention of yo yo ma brought back a memory of the kennedy center honors one year when they inducted a rock group or rock musician....forgotten which one. could've been led zeppelin or the who or...the showed him in the audience and he was rockin'

which teddy Roosevelt bio--doris kearns Goodwin's?

bruce

George Vecsey

10/31/2016 10:53:37 am

Bruce: It was "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt," by Edmund Morris, the first of three. It takes him to being out in the woods and being told that President McKinley had died. I met Roosevelt's daughter Ethel Derby, around 1973. We live half an hour from his home in Sagamore Hill, and my friends Brian and Janet Savin invited us for a tour of the home. I wrote about it on this site:

http://www.georgevecsey.com/home/the-day-theodore-roosevelts-daughter-bawled-me-out

bruce

10/31/2016 12:57:08 pm

George,

I remember when the morris book came out and the piece you did about alice Roosevelt.

thanks.

bruce

Alan Rubin link

10/31/2016 06:38:31 pm

“The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism” by Doris Kearns Goodwin is an interesting book on many levels. It not only covers the man, but also the age in which he lived.

The book covers most of what I admire about TR- the environmentalist, trust buster, champion of the little guy, etc. But it is also an insight to the mudrakers, McClure’s magazine, Ida Tarbell and more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/books/review/doris-kearns-goodwins-bully-pulpit.html

It is Teddy’s other side that I find very disturbing. He basically ascribed to the Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon beliefs that were popular at the time. Many of his actions and policies were consistent with the superiority of the white race theory.

https://books.google.com/books?id=OGvFWIq1d3UC&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=teddy+roosevelt%27s+teutonic+origins&source=bl&ots=aRWs6pamR-&sig=FFcn3wssPcFZCEiTiO0lFGtqgRg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiAzNPsiobQAhVL9IMKHXcvAp0Q6AEIHzAA#v=onepage&q=teddy%20roosevelt's%20teutonic%20origins&f=false

“The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst and the Rush to Empire.1898” by Thomas Evan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043001091.html

The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War
by James D. Bradley.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/books/19book.html

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6452811-the-imperial-cruise

Teddy was a very complex and talented person who accomplished much, most of it good.

bruce

10/31/2016 07:12:50 pm

it's hard to escape your time, innit? I loved Churchill, but some of his beliefs--white man's burden for example--don't fit very well today, do they? I enjoyed kearns Goodwin's bio. have a few of her books....

Alan Rubin

11/1/2016 11:21:58 am

I agree that “Trader” Lane was not a true baseball man.

Although Branch Rickey was knowledgeable, innovative and progressive, he is also on my list of baseball “bad guys”.

A reissue of “Dollar Sign on the Muscle” by Kevin Kerrane is a must read about scouting.

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/63440290

Branch Rickey would release prospects on the road so that he would not have to pay to the fare home.

A year that Ralph Kiner won the NL batting title, Rickey offered him a new contract with a $6,000 pay cut rather than the $6,000 raise that was requested. Rickey said the Pirates finished last and completely ignored Kiner’s draw at the gate.

bruce

11/1/2016 01:15:33 pm

alan,

owners/GMs were a pretty nasty bunch in the old days in all four main north American sports. when gordie howe was in his prime all six teams colluded to keep salaries down by taking advance of howe's naivete to keep his salary down. then when any of the 119 or so players went in and asked for more money, they'd be asked if they were better than howe. of course, they weren't so they got screwed. baseball owners got caught colluding again not so long ago. players make crazy amounts of money, but the owners get no sympathy from me when they whine about it. they try to hold up cities, states and provinces for more money for stadia. free enterprise poseurs who are really, gasp, socialists.

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11/30/2016 05:03:33 am

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QUOTES
“I don’t think people understand how Covid affects older Americans,” Mr. Caretti said with frustration. “In 2020, there was this all-in-this-together vibe, and it’s been annihilated. People just need to care about other people, man. That’s my soapbox.”
---Vic Caretti, 47, whose father recently died of Covid at 85.
---From an article by Paula Span, who covers old age for the NYT, which currently has 2646 comments, the majority criticizing the American public – and public officials – for acting as if the pandemic is “over.”
Classic wishful thinking, at a lethal level.
Please see:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/11/health/covid-pandemic-seniors.html

The Man in the Subway With the Two-String Violin

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