Thursday, May 22, 2008

Randomissimo - Annoying street performers.

Is it wrong that I want to cause bodily harm to a mime and a young kid?

I was having aperitivo with a friend of a friend last week. The horrible mime my friend G warned me about was "performing." One of her friends lives in the area and said the mine gets indignant when people don't give him money. He came over to our table. She spoke so quickly in Italian I didn't understand what she said but he glared at her as if he was freaking Dexter Gordon and she called him Kenny G.

If you are going to perform on the street and ask for money please have some darn talent. There is a guy who plays the violin near the Pantheon. I like his music and the effort. I always give him money.

I love children. I really do. Wish I had some of my own but my eggs have expired and I have no man. As Curtis Blow would say, "these are the breaks." Anyway, there's a young boy who sings in Campo de Fiori. I live a few BLOCKS from the piazza and yet I can hear him. He sings very loudly and off key. He is horrible. He sings the same damn songs a few times a day. His pitch is really bad when he hits his "crescendo" I want to cry. I don't know who is giving him or the mime with the stank attitude money. It must be tourists.

Maybe the boy is really nice, I don't know. Yesterday I was working and could hear him yelling (it's not singing) through closed windows. I wanted to grab my Macbook, walk over to the piazza and knock him out. Every day the same songs, he's drive me crazy.

Okay back to work. Hope you have nice day.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Harden your heart to those street performers and little gypsy children. The former need to learn the meaning of *offerta* and the latter will rob you blind and laugh while the do it!
Having said that I still laugh when I remember that a little gypsy child outran Ben Johnson in Rome a few years ago!

Korie said...

Look up some new songs on your MacBook, walk over to the piazza and show them to him?

Beatriz Macias said...

I guess this is like second-hand, tourist fed, inconviniences of living in such a beautiful city! I feel for you, as I do not tolerate noise very well. The mime, being a mime, should not say a word!

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

joanna - I didn't even get into the little girl who is always asking for money. One day I asked her where her mom was.

lilacspecs - He has a routine so I don't think he's open to suggestions. :)

beatriz - seriously you had to see this mime gave this woman. lol. If he was talented I would give him money.

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

Oh that's annoying. Earplugs?

Anonymous said...

You are a cruel and unusual woman. Ha! Just kidding!! Mimes have been the object of hate and persecution since time immemorial. And I'm sure you've found out the reason why. ;)
As for the kid, I guess it's better than listening to cats in heat, which was what I had the pleasure to listen to last night.
Buon lavoro!

erin said...

I like to give money to the accordion players around our block. Somedays out our window we can hear them across the courtyard...and it still feels so Italian (and makes me smile).

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

bleeding espresso - either that or I need play my music louder when I write.

linda - I feel sorry for artists who are not appreciated but bad mimes with bad attitudes get no love from me (to quote a Faith Evans song). Cats in heat...oh poverina I feel for you. That is truly an awful sound.

erin - Now that is a sound I would like. :)

Romerican said...

I'm with you- I HATE them.... I'd gladly pay them to stop performing!

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

romamerican - ouch! haha.

Lisa Johnson said...

I totally agree with you! When I'm waiting for the train, there are often people performing. A few times I've been tempted to pay them to STOP what they were doing, because they were so awful. That would have been kind of mean though. : )

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

anali - yes that might have been a little mean. ha.
There are some who are bad but are trying. This kid really thinks he's good. I wish he would go on American Idol so someone could tell him the truth. Let me stop. I might have to bust out an instrument if the dollar keeps dropping.

Anonymous said...

Hi there,
I just came across your blog and I really like it :)
I just moved to Italy a few months ago from Australia.
Take care and keep writing :)
Monika

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

monika - ciao and grazie! Good luck with your move to the Bel Paese.

fail_safe said...

that kid must be causing the property values in your area to plummet. uhm, does this kid do this all day? doesn't he go to school? excuse my ignorance regarding this.

oh quick note, just recently came across your blog and i really enjoy it. i've never been to italy but am hoping to go someday but in the mean time, i'll live vicariously through you (if you don't mind). but, my boyfriend is half-Italian and i've hung out in little italy in nyc a number of times. does that count?

Anonymous said...

Your posts always make me laugh out loud.
On another note about expired eggs - I tell people that my eggs are now powdered.

'A Tuscan view.....from Umbria' said...

If you will excuse me I would like to leave my comment using the medium of mime.








Thank you.

dmarie said...

I honestly can't remember ever seeing a bad street performer. How on earth do you make money if you're terrible and annoying? I'm so sorry you have to suffer with that daily.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

ninety9 - grazie. I think school might be out. He's not Italian maybe he is home schooled. Not sure. I live in the historic center of Rome so property values and rents are not going down any time soon. This is great news for my landlord. For me not so much. Does your boyfriend have family here? What parts of Italy would you like to visit. For such a small country there is a lot to see.

ms. violetta - that is funny! I don't feel so bad about my eggs expiring here. The birth rate in Italy is the lowest in Europe. No one thinks it's weird that I don't have kids. America has the highest birthrate in the Western world.

A tuscan - haha!!!

dmarie - I think the kid gets over because he young. The mime is really aggressive. The Italians curse him out but I see tourist giving him money all the time.

Leanne was in Italy now in Australia said...

If you live by Campo dei Fiori then surely you have seen the 'Guarda' man. He does a little funny act but all he says os 'guarda, guarda' over and over again. He is funny the first time, but when you often go there for a drink and you are seeing him do the SAME thing for the 100th time it is not so funny. He forgets it is not just tourists here in Rome, but us who live here who want a bit of busking variety!

Jen said...

That sounds like torture. I guess, quite literally.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

leanne - are you serious? that is his thing? no I have not had the "pleasure" of seeing or hearing the "guarda man". ha.

jen - maybe at some point I will get so used to it that I won't notice it.

maxbjr said...

That mime is one of the worst street performers in Rome and the most offensive. He asked us why we never donated and we told him! He came back the next time as if nothing had been said. May be only performer in Rome I didn't take picture of.

maxbjr said...

Missed the magician "Garda me" comment. He ranks highly on "no not again" list. Believe that he is saying look at me in Italian.The poor people that work in the bars, etc have no choice...night after night of the same schlock! Guitarist TaRaz a real treat, particularly in early PM with Campo mostly empty.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

max - I have finally seen the Guarda man. someone told me he's actually loaded. Own a few shops somewhere in Rome.

Unfortunately that mime is still around. I haven't heard the kid in a while. I saw him by the Pantheon. Maybe the restaurants owners in Campo told him to move along.