the ladybug and the lion

Michael Traveling.

Listen.

RIP MJ.

Content Life.

Due to concern for pollution (and, admittedly, gas prices) I often take the bus to work.  And while I enjoy being able to converse with the day laborers, gardeners, and housekeepers of Malibu today I had another, more fun, reason to appreciate public transportation: a band.  As I was walking from one bus to another I almost walked past, but then stopped and listened and danced to a band that was playing on Santa Monica Blvd. right by 3rd Street. From the comments on their myspace page they seem to be regulars, but I'm trying to avoid consumer culture these days and am not a regular patron of the Promenade.  Hence, if I'd been driving as opposed to taking the bus I would have completely missed them.  They had a large crowd (probably about fifty people) that had stopped what they were doing and were listening to them and, in some cases, dancing.

The band, John David Rushton's Content Life, is made up of four people: John Rushton on guitar and vocals, a Salvadoran called Mauricio Hernandez playing a djembe and singing backup, and two guys that looked like they were homeless (I apologize if they aren't) and had been pulled off the street to play along: one was wearing chains around his angles that jingled when he stomped and held a chunk of chains in his hands which he used like a less precise shaker, and the other had a tambourine.  I bought their album, which is good, although I think they're better in person.  There's something especially about those chains that adds a unique sound, whereas the album is only John Rushton singing with his guitar. 

But mainly I was just impressed that they drew such a crowd, that they got people to dance, and that people were continuously dropping cash into their jar and buying CDs.  I've never seen a street band be that successful. It was pretty amazing.  And they deserved it.