Back to Broadview

When Pape Station was occupied, I thought at first that I should hit Osgoode or Bay, stations I knew well.

I didn't automatically think of Broadview, maybe because throughout last year (when I was busking more regularly) it was perpetually under construction: dusty, cold and generally inhospitable. I knew I should (dangerous word) go there because I'd just named a CD after it, but I generally found an excuse to avoid Broadview.

Today I was on my way westbound when something propelled me out the doors at Broadview, just before they closed. Why was I getting off here? Oh well, I thought, might as well check it out at least.

The new Broadview station has two busking locations, one of which is strategically located near the gleaming new elevator (which people do use). The busking rectangle (at the top of the stairs to the westbound tracks) also has an inviting bench right beside it, which also serves as a guitar case propper-upper. The space is bright and clean.

The TTC maintenance man said hello to me cheerfully and said he was glad to have real music here. The Gateway newsstand staff smiled and waved.

Most regular people didn't stop or take notice, so as usual I considered packing up several times in the first hour.

Not coincidentally, over the past month or so, I've thought "I'm leaving this whole business" more often than usual. Is it because I've been busking less? After three hours, five personal conversations with strangers, 21 original songs (I just counted...most of them were repeated more than once) and $38.00 (including one CD sold at a discount), I tend to think so.

I come home with new resolve, not to "make it in the music business"...but to keep making music. To find ways of earning income and creating security for myself and my family...and of recognizing the value of "enough".

Today, the smile and nod of the maintenance guy, it is enough. The handful of coins from the elderly woman, it is enough. The admiration of a younger musician, it is enough.

Not enough to live on, no. But enough to keep me playing.