Home
Buy Book
Blog/Wall
Press
Calendar
Gallery
Heidi Kole
Music
Videos
Mailing List
Bio
Film/TV
Contact

Posts tagged: Musician

Aug 12 2014

Busking is not a crime …

http://gothamist.com/2014/08/12/subway_performers_nypd.php

 

In New York City, it’s perfectly legal, in most cases, for buskers to perform on station platforms—a fact of which many NYPD officers are apparently unaware. BuskNY, a coalition of freelance performers, have grown pretty tired of being arrested, jailed and slammed with pricey summonses for an activity they know to be legal under the MTA’s guidelines, and today they gathered on the steps of City Hall to call for it to stop.

Matthew Christian, a classically trained violinist who was arrested last year for playing a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach on the 68th Street-Hunter College station platform, read from the MTA’s own “Rules of Conduct” the portion that specifically states that “artistic performances, including the acceptance of donations” are permitted “provided they do not impede transit activities.”

The habit of arresting subway performers is not only harmful to the performers, but the NYPD’s credibility, Christian said. It’s also expensive—as many as 15 performers are in the process of suing the NYPD for wrongful arrest, which means the city could potentially owe up to $100,000 in settlements.

Christian argued that the mistreatment by cops is largely to blame for sending performers onto the trains—which is, in fact, illegal. Arrest of on-train buskers has rocketed in the last year, but performers say the punishment for getting caught is extreme.

“If they were safe on the platform, which means if they weren’t at risk of being wrongfully arrested, and if the MTA supported and facilitated freelance and made sure that there weren’t arrests, then I don’t think they would be in the train,” Christian said.

Zenon Laguerre, 34, said he was the first performer to take dancing to the train more than 20 years ago. He and other performers are aware that what they’re doing is illegal, but he doesn’t think the punishment fits the crime.

“We dance because we love doing it—it pays the bills and keeps us out of trouble,” he said. “We dance. We sing. We’re not criminals.”

Several performers said they were optimistic that the wrongful treatment of buskers would diminish with the arrival of Bill de Blasio, and were disappointed to see that bullying by cops has only increased thanks to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and his “broken windows” police tactics, in which the NYPD aggressively cracks down on minor offenses.

If a dancer receives six violations, it becomes a misdemeanor—five misdemeanors becomes a felony. Laguerre argue that to be charged so extremely for dancing is absurd.

“You’re locking me up for dancing while there’s criminals on the street,” he said.

081214busking

Aug 11 2014

Tomorrow !

SubwayPerformersFlyer

Jun 29 2014

When I’m not underground busking…

When I’m not underground busking…

I’m above ground growing amazing green friends 🙂

Below is Sunday’s Harvest

#IndoorSustainableGarden

2014-06-28 16.22.17

2014-06-29 12.50.32

Apr 15 2014

Busker Sketcher Extraordinaire!

A series of Sketches gifted to me by the amazing artist/ graphic designer, Hardy Wilms 

http://www.cd-kiel.de

Hardy Wilms Busker Sketch

Hardy Wilms Busker Sketch

Hardy Wilms Busker SketchHardy Wilms Busker Sketch

Mar 16 2014

Busking Love & Lipgloss

So I was busking the “R” tonight & this girl laden down with tons of shopping bags looked at me as I approached the door after my tune: “I don’t have any cash, but I have lip gloss…” she said with a mini question mark at the end of her offer. “Oh it’s ok, I don’t want to take your lip gloss” I said to shopper-girl. “No, no I have tons of other stuff, really it’s brand new, it’s Clarins. Take it, really – your singing was so lovely I want you to have it” #buskinglove
2014-03-16 18.38.53
Jul 27 2012

NBC Universal just bought my Subway Storm Footage for the 2012 London Olympic Games!

And the ‘Subway Storm Footage’ adventure continues…just finished signing contracts w/NBC Universal as they’ve asked to use it in their NBC Olympic Promo Coverage for the duration of the 2012 Olympic Games – wild-n-crazy times : ) More to come ♥

Jul 26 2012

Storm clouds over Manhattan

Tonight we had a tornado watch out for all of NYC – the skies were ominous

Jul 20 2012

Chatting w/ Greg Mocker on NYC’s PIX 11 News on Rain Music Busking & The NYC Subways

Underground fun w/ PIX 11 News – Greg Mocker & I chat, sing, banter on music, busing, subways and … of course rain 🙂
Greg Mocker: “Here comes the rain again… i talked to the musician behind the subway rain video. Good to finally meet ya, Heidi Kole!”

PIX 11 Interview below

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4monjo3m_I&list=UU2OFzhDdTbsG9a9yhYZSNQA&index=1&feature=plcp[/youtube]
Jul 19 2012

WNBC posts my footage of today’s storm !

Yay my footage & website up on WNBC – “Subway riders deal with flooded subways after storm”

http://bit.ly/MtnLZZ

The storm that passed through New York City Wednesday evening dumped so much water that stations across the system were springing leaks. Katy Tur has more. (Viewer video of water at Penn Station courtesy of subway busker Heidi Kole at <a href=

The storm that passed through New York City Wednesday evening dumped so much water that stations across the system were springing leaks. Katy Tur has more. (Viewer video of water at Penn Station courtesy of subway busker Heidi Kole at thesubwaydiaries.com.

Severe thunderstorms gusted through the area Wednesday afternoon, bringing heavy rain, strong winds, spectacular lightning displays and quarter-sized hail as it knocked out power to thousands of homes and wreaked havoc across the region.

New Yorkers faced a messy commute home, in many cases dealing with flooding on subway platforms and even inside train cars.

The 1/2/3 train platform at Penn Station saw particularly heavy flooding, with rainwater pouring in from above ground and water spouting from walls. There were no major train delays.

“Problems occur when there is a large amount of rain in a short amount of time,” the MTA said in a statement. “Sometimes when the gutters are full on the street level, water flows into the system. We are working to clear areas of our stations where water has accumulated.”

New Jersey PATH service was suspended briefly due to signal failure. It has since been restored.

At least one injury is already being blamed on the storm, in the Long Island city of Glen Cove. Trees were halved and a gazebo destroyed in the community’s historic Morgan’s Park. One of four fishermen inside or near the gazebo has been taken to the hospital with a possible leg injury, said Glen Cove Mayor Ralph Suozzi.

“For a few minutes, it was sheer chaos,” said park worker Vinny Bertin.

In Brookville, classes were canceled at Long Island University’s CW Post after power was knocked out.

Trees also fell and power lines snapped in Rockland County. In the village of Spring Valley, lightning hit the roof of one house, triggering an attic fire. No one was hurt.

A Sayreville, N.J. resident is thankful he wasn’t in his 18-foot pool when an oak tree crashed into it.

“Thank God we weren’t swimming,” said Chris White. “Everybody would’ve been dead.”

The storms were blamed for long delays at area airports, by an average of more than two hours at JFK Airport and La Guardia and more than an hour and a half at Newark.

By Wednesday night, Con Edison had restored electricity to more than 85 percent of the 14,300 customers who lost power during the heat and passing thunderstorms.For the second day in a row, Con Ed’s 3.2 million customers in New York City and Westchester set a record for 2012 peak electricity demand, topping out at 12,836 megawatts at 1p.m. Wednesday.

On Long Island, LIPA said 9,208 customers lost power, as did about 4,000 customers in Rockland and Orange counties. By late Wednesday night, those numbers were reduced to 7,000 on Long Island and less than 300 in Rockland. More than 10,000 outages were reported across New Jersey at its peak, but the number was down to 3,000 by nighttime.

Earlier, temperatures hit a record 104 degrees in Newark, with a heat index of a blistering 108. LaGuardia also a record high of 101, and JFK of 96. Central Park reached a high of 100, but it was not a record.

The storms brought double-digit relief from record temperatures after three days of blazing heat and stifling humidity. In Central Park, the temperature plunged to 74 degrees after the storm passed through.

There were areas of street and highway flooding after the storm. In Newark, cars got stuck under a flooded overpass, surprising drivers on their way home.

“I’m coming out of work, and I’m not expecting my car to turn off and it just shuts off on me,” said Jonathan Cortes of Elizabeth. “I saw like three or four cars shut down right there.”

Though the heat has broken, the humidity is expected to linger. Expect more clouds than sun with a few showers possible Thursday. Cooler air will eventually push south into the area Friday, when temperatures aren’t expected to exceed the 70s. The last time Central Park recorded a high in the 70s was June 26.

The weekend weather is expected to be pleasant, with mostly sunny skies and highs in the low- to-mid 80s.

Get the latest from NBC 4 New York’s weather team anytime, anywhere. Follow us on Twitter,Facebook and Google+. Get our apps here and sign up for email newsletters here. Get breaking news delivered right to your phone — just text NYBREAKING to 639710. For more info, text HELP. To end, text STOP. Message and data rates may apply.

Jul 18 2012

Pug T-Modelling extraordinaire :)

My California friend Kelly Moses's oh so stylish Pug, Pat - modelling The Subway Diaries "T" 🙂