There’s a man who every now and then on a winter’s evening likes to stop under The Stranger’s windows, pull out his saxophone, and serenade us and the passing traffic with an hour or two of smooth jazz. “You Don’t Know What Love Is” and stuff like that.

Sorry.

Anthony Hecht is The Stranger's Chief Technology Officer. He owns no monkeys.

27 replies on “I’m Trying to Work Here”

  1. You work in a vibrant urban neighborhood this is part of what makes it magical. If you want to work in a sterile silent environment get a job at an office park in Blahview.

  2. Smooth jazz played on the saxophone is a war crime prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. It is NEVER appropriate.

    You need to put some big speakers in the window and blast some Anthony Braxton mid-70s skronk at him. Maybe he’ll play along.

  3. You know, that’s only a few yards from where Muzak used to throw out dumpsters full of their subscription cassettes every week. A little radioactive waste (bar mats from the Comet?) mixed with those things and you may have an actualized saxaphoning supervillian on your hands.

  4. A few weeks ago I was walking past as he started to play “Careless Whisper.” I laughed ’tillI cried. Sadly, he did not remove his shirt.

  5. I love riding past that guy on my way home from work. Sure, it’s a bit tacky. But I love tacky music inturludes in my life: like when some dude played a sad dirge on his bagpipes from the upper deck of the ferry as it left Friday Harbor.

  6. Hey, at least he plays songs. Dude at my tunnel stop is clearly practicing for a class. And he’s asking for money for it? Fuck you, we could have the flute guy or the guitar/pan pipes duo, and instead this fucker is taking up space with his grating fits and starts. Hell, I’d even rather have banging plastic shit on the ground guy. At least HE’s trying to make music.

  7. I heard him playing the Coltrane sax line from Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood” on a rainy evening and it was gorgeous.

  8. I work in Fremont and we’re periodically tortured by a similar guy (also learning/practicing) who mostly plays smooth jazz and R&B on his flute. Hearing a bad busker for a few minutes as you walk by is one thing, but it’s unbearable when you have to listen to it for three hours straight!

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