BEAT OF THE STREET

In the mid-1980s, a girl by the name of Tracy Chapman began performing on the streets of Cambridge and Harvard Square. By 1988, she was a multi-platinum selling pop star with three Grammys.

Today, musicians and entertainers are still using the streets of Harvard Square as their venue to reach the students and ever-abundant tourists who grace the sidewalks.

For some, street performing is a way to make a living. For some, it’s a way to get out a message. And others use it for marketing campaigns.

A CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

A street performance permit from the City of Cambridge costs $40 a year. With the permit, musicians can exhibit their talents to the throngs of students and tourists that pass by day and night in Harvard Square.

“About a year ago, I walked away from [music performance], didn’t know if that’s what I wanted to do still,” says John Gerard, who moved to the United States from Italy and has been performing melancholy singer-songwriter-style music for 24 years. “But then, when I came back, I decided that that’s what I wanted to do, so I had to kind of reactivate all of my old connections and I figured that the streets was the best way to rebuild my fan base and continue where I left off.”

He now shares his music with the Harvard Square community three days a week.

Gerard estimates that he plays about 85 percent of his own material, but also covers Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, and a singer-songwriter named Mary Gauthier, who once played the streets of Cambridge, but now plays in Nashville as a national act.

In choosing a setting for his street performance, Gerard says that he was advised to play at Harvard, and, not knowing of any other suitable locations in the Boston area, decided to give it a try.

“When I looked into playing the streets, I was told to play [in the Square],” he says. “To me, this is just as good as any other gig. You can go play a gig and there might be no one there, versus, if you play on the streets, at least in Cambridge, you’re always playing for someone. There’s always an opportunity to build an audience.

“I guess essentially a venue would be better, because there’s a better sound system, but I just care to play in front of an audience, so however I can obtain that is great,” Gerard says.

He’s trying to develop and maintain a fan base, but he also uses his street acts as a type of workshop for his performance style.

“It’s just the best way to sort of hone your skills,” says Gerard of street performance. “Everything that you can think of that would go against you will go against you—traffic, people not listening, just natural stuff. But I think it makes you a better performer. It’s all good practice for playing, your voice, everything.”

In the winter, Gerard plans on playing in the subway, but would like to play in New York, and hopes to someday make it “all the way.”

“I’ve been told that New York’s a tough place to play. But on the same token, playing over there is the least favorite place that people want to play, because nobody goes,” he says, referring to his performance spot on the island in the middle of Brattle Square between Eastern Mountain Sports and Pyara Spa and Salon. “If I can draw a crowd and people stop doing whatever they’re doing, I’m on the right path, you know?”

‘AMERICAN HAS TALENT!’

Gian Carlo Buscaglia is originally from Puerto Rico and says that when he’s not playing in the Square, he performs with a 15-piece band at various venues in the area.

Singing primarily in Spanish, playing a plugged-in acoustic guitar and settled in front of Hidden Sweets, Buscaglia brings humor to his performance, both through his Latin-beat music and his commentary between songs.

“Thank you! Thank you!” Buscaglia yells after completing a song, arms spread wide, accepting the applause of the two dozen people he has gathered. Then he gives a shout-out to NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.”

“‘American Has Talent,’ I am here!” he declares to the applauding crowd.

“Now for something idiotic,” he says, “like your president.” Playing another song in Spanish, Buscaglia flavors his playing by blowing air through his lips, sounding like a trumpeter, and wildly clicking his tongue.

It is obvious that one of the reasons Buscaglia performs publicly is a love for attention, in addition to a self-proclaimed love for himself.

“I’d like to dedicate this song to the person I love the most,” he says. “Myself. You must love yourself before you can love someone else. And my fiancée lives in Ecuador, so I do a lot of self-loving these days.”

MYSPACE AND THE STREETS

A girl walks by and stops to take Buscaglia’s picture. He enthusiastically poses, and as the girl walks away he shouts, “I’ll see you on MySpace!”

Buscaglia, like other area performers, has tied the Square to cyberspace, establishing a Web site for passers-by to visit long after the sounds from the last chords have floated away.

For those who are trying to make a lasting impression on their audience, a link to the Internet is now almost a necessity. Buscaglia uses MySpace, and Gerard has his own domain name.

‘WORKING BOOGER’

UncleScam.org is another Web site whose owner performs in Harvard Square. But as provocative as his domain name may be, the site’s operator thinks his political message is best witnessed coming from the mouth of a life-sized puppet.

His real name is Thomas Newell, but he’s known as “Blue,” founder of the Blue Puppet Theater. For the past 15 years, it has operated four days a week in front of the Calliope children’s clothing store—well, as long as the weather’s good.

The cast of the show has evolved during its existence and now consists of a life-sized human puppet, which Blue stands behind and speaks through, singing his own versions of popular songs and commenting about onlookers as they chance by.

“No, I’m not your God,” Newell says to a passer-by who reacted to the sight of the speaking man-sized creation with a shocked “my God!” “I’m lots of things, but your God is not one of them.”

Two smaller puppets, fitted with their own microphones and transparent, moving arms, allow audience members to accompany Newell in what he calls “Hippie Karaoke.”

A white, bearded, male puppet known as “Uncle Scam” adorns the tip box and a smaller puppet face attached to the main puppet is known as “Nostrildamus”—“the only working booger in America today,” according to Newell.

“I know, it’s a little bit strange,” says Newell through the puppet. “But this is Booger Appreciation Year and we are thanking our boogers for filtering the air that we breathe. Think about it now. We started burning corn oil in our automobiles. Did you know that corn oil is worse for your brain than lead? Corn oil is worse than lead for your brain. Can you imagine that? And they’re not going to even tell us about it. Oh no, no, no, no. You can just run your SUVs on corn oil all day long.”

Rants like this are common in Newell’s show, which runs for approximately 45 minutes every hour, from noon until midnight, Thursday through Sunday.

At 10 p.m., Newell begins his “Big Hemp Show.”

“Would you like to sing your favorite marijuana song?” Newell asks, and then begins to sing: “Roll, roll, roll your joint. Twist it at the end…” His puppet is holding a large marijuana spliff, which glows when he brings it to his mouth.

Two audience members decide that they want to sing along, and stand behind the additional three-foot-tall puppets. When they find the microphones to be too short, Newell says, “Take that taxpayer position. That’s right: bend over.”

When he’s not performing a show, Newell is willing to talk about the American penal system or “slave labor” in America with anyone who wants to listen. The topic of American injustices has kept him in Harvard Square for almost two decades, he says.

Despite the issues of governmental schemes and illegal drug use that run through Newell’s show, he has still managed to win over his juvenile viewers, who, according to Newell, have sometimes asked to hear the show on their birthdays. After all, he does seem to have their best interests in mind.

“Are you endorsing Midol or hemp?” he asks a child’s parent during a show. “We want to know. Midol or hemp? Petrochemical or natural substance? What are you putting into your daughter’s body today?”

TIMES GONE BY

Elsewhere in the Square, performers are worrying less about national issues and more about local worries—such as an ideal spot to set up their equipment.

Since Cambridge requires that performers be separated by at least 50 feet, there are only a handful of ideal locations for musicians wanting to make a few dollars.

For example, Peter Podobry likes to play his brand of world music on his acoustic guitar in front of Au Bon Pain. He is typically there four days a week, but occasionally loses his spot to another performer who plays Beatles covers.

While arguments between performers are rare, it can be difficult to be left with a low-traffic piece of sidewalk, and performers will arrive earlier to get their position of choice, or instead go elsewhere.

According to these performers, there was a time when the area surrounding Harvard was the place to be for the young and hip, and, therefore, for street musicians. For these people, the present-day Harvard Square pales in comparison to its past self.

Manny Mederos, a Portuguese guitarist who enjoys covering the likes of Simon and Garfunkel and Neil Young, recalls the overcrowding of Harvard Square in years gone by.

“I used to play here a lot, before, when it used to be really busy, but I stopped coming down here, because it’s not as busy anymore,” he says. “I’ve played Harvard Square for almost 20 years now, but in the last few years, it’s really changed a lot. It used to be really busy here. Saturday night you couldn’t walk down the sidewalk. It used to be really funky, with really funky cafes and stuff, but I think that the rents got so high, so all these stores moved in. You wouldn’t believe this place ten years ago.”

Nevertheless, Harvard Square on warm autumn nights radiates a festival-like climate that’s hard to resist. It remains a prime performance location.

“There are nice people,” says Podobry. “There are nice girls walking by. It’s a good atmosphere for performing.”

—Staff writer Beryl C.D. Lipton can be reached at blipton@fas.harvard.edu.