Image by mattedesign via Flickr
(Reposted from my music site)
There’s a Far Side cartoon I love – a group of cowboys are sitting around a campfire, one of whom has an entire baby grand piano sticking out of his back pocket. The caption reads something like “Hey, Gus, why don’t you pull that thing out and play us a couple of tunes?” I always flash back to that image when playing at open mics and other venues where acoustic guitarists are plentiful. I’m often jealous of buskers who are able to simply set up on a streetcorner, open a case, and start filling the air with sound. They make me wonder what it would be like to not need an amp, a stand, or electricity to make music anywhere.
Colin Huggins does not need to wonder about such things.
He’s a classicaly-trained pianist who calls himself “the crazy piano guy.” He lugs one of four different pianos into the streets and subways of New York City to play for passers-by on a regular basis. I just found out about him from a brief mention on a podcast I was listening to on my commute. I have never met the man (or even heard his music yet), but he’s already my new idol.
I am a fan of audacity. No, not the open-source audio recording software (although that’s pretty cool, too – even if I am having trouble using it with my newest home studio equipment, but I digress…), but the seemingly crazy stunt that shows the world how you’re living life to its fullest. What the Vlogbrothers might refer to as “decreasing worldsuck,” or just being awesome. What Colin Huggins does definitely fits there, in my opinion.
I have referred to some things I’ve done as being “crazy,” but it occurs to me that I’ve experienced only the tip of the iceberg of audacity.
How have you embraced your crazy lately?
