In The Stream: Queen's Park

In the language of recording technicians, the sound of Queen's Park would be "wet".

The busking area is located at the bottom of an escalator well, at a junction-point of two tiled corridors. The twenty-five foot vaulted ceiling, combined with the tiled walls, causes sound to reverberate unlike it does anywhere else on the subway system. It's the opposite of a "dry" sound, which doesn't echo at all.

It's simply wonderful. It makes you feel as if you're singing in your own private cathedral.

I'm writing this entry while sitting on the bleachers at an after-school swimming class. I'm breathing in moist, chlorinated air while watching children splash happily in the water. At the far end of the pool, a teenage girl practices synchronized swimming--alone--to the song "One" from "A Chorus Line" ("One!! Singular sensation! Every little step she takes...etc.")

After a few days spent agonizing, mostly unproductively, over career paths and finances, splashing back down into the stream of life at Queen's Park station felt cleansing and energizing, much like a good swim.

Recently I wrote that busking is like fishing...today I'm reminded how much the fisher is also in the stream.

When I'm singing for people, I am immersed in moment-by-moment experience, responding to the ripples of smiles on people's faces, riding the occasional waves of self-confidence that arise and then recede, as regularly as the tides.

At a brief time in my life, I swam every day, and I remember the feeling of relief and exhilaration each time I slipped back into the pool.

That same feeling supports me now. As I swim in these sound waves, I am carried along and I become stronger and more alive.