The Buskersbench in
Bloomington, Indiana,
sat in front of a small
camera/foto shop,
between Nick's English Hut, a tavern, and Jiffy
Treet,
a local ice cream
parlor.
|  Several years back, some fan of Arlo Guthrie stenciled in black paint - GROUP W BENCH! I Jesse Slokum, have been busking on this bench with my Gibson guitar for years.
I regret to inform you, the bench you see was removed during a major modernization project...the steps by the photo shop door were removed also, and replaced by a graded access ramp to the store, which IS a welcome change...So now this picture memorializes the bench!
Now, not only the bench, but the building behind it is gone...the stone sided house - where I had a room from 1991 to 1992 - plus the ground-level store front was demolished in the fall of 2006, to make ready for new construction.
Visit
then, and I will regale you with tales of super nights and lonely bluesy
nights on the Group W Bench! All up and down four blocks of Kirkwood are stone
planters that offer numerous replacements for the wooden bench...the four blocks
around this one have already been host to much busking activity
Although
the Famous "group w bench" of Bloomington is history, there are
places I would go to when I wanted to play for myself, or give a guitar
lesson, commune with the redbirds which would seem to cock an ear as I sat
still and sang to them...A special friend, who took the picture of the
Cat in the HAT, called the plank between 2 pines
the PORTAL...
I intend Buskersbench to be a WEB resource site for
buskers of all kinds and all ages...drummers, sax players, fiddle and string combos,
limberjack toy masters, kazoo duets, ukelele quartets! Jugglers, crystal ball
"rollers" (I have a friend who does this, rolls the 2-3inch sphere up one arm,
across his back and down the other arm...), pantomimists...this is the homesite
of P.E.S.T. - Publick Enigma Street Theatre. Watch for these features as they
appear.
Please
note: There are a series of questions about whether visitors are buskers
(street busker performers) are not - filling these out will help this site serve
the busking "community" - HOPEFULLY making life a little more easy for many...We
will build the bulletin board based on needs and suggestions given in the guest
book.
Jesse "honeybee" Slokum
AKA - Laughing Cactus
Nobody Special
Pierre, LE Lapin Blanc
*****All materials copyrighted 1998-9 Jesse
Slokum*****
email - click here!
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