Bizarre-O Singing Guy...

I have been feeling rather beaten down lately - had a whirlwind weekend with two visitors in my tiny apartment, a fantastic birthday celebration, much walking around, and the beginnings of a sickness which has only begun to abate today. Hence the lack of posts, and also a lack of attention to detail, which sadly made my adventursome weekend a blur and didn't allow for me remembering any of the funny, quirky bits I saw around the city as I walked ALL over it.

So today, now that I'm feeling better, I was very excited on my lunch break to head over to Lee's Art Shop on 57th between 7th and 8th. I love this store because it is a very full-service, 4 story, serious art store where one can find all manner of supplies for virtually any art project, but it is also a trap for little old ladies and middle-aged housewives with too much time on their hands and a penchant for shiny things. I am, apparently, both an artist (heh!) and a middle-aged lady at heart, because I can be walking by that place with my sights set on the Duane Reade down the block for, like, nail files or something, and get drawn into Lee's without even noticing it's happening, while my brain chants "Sparkly stuff, sparkly stuff, sparkly stuff," and suddenly I'm buying $50 worth of Mod Podge and a fridge magnet with a Roald Dahl quote on it...

Anyway.

So today I was on my way over there to look for invitation cards and standing outside, as he usually is, was Bizarre-O Singing Guy. I suddenly realized I've never written about him on this blog, and that is a damn shame, because as far as strange New York specific people go, he is right up there with the best of them. Bizarre-O Singing Guy is a middle-aged to elderly gentlemen of uncertain ethnicity and nationality who stands outside Lee's every weekday and sings to himself and/or passersby. His ethnicity and nationality are uncertain because his song does not seem to be comprised of words, or if they ARE words, the language he's singing them in is so alien to me that I can't even venture a guess as to what it could be. I have a feeling it's a "speaking in tongues" kind of thing, musical style. He actually has quite a powerful voice, if not an operatic one, and could probably do a mean Indian restaurant zitar theme if he wanted to, but he doesn't seem interested in making money. He's not out there singing for change. He's giving out pamphlets. And here's where he gets sneaky: those pamphlets have a picture of a gift-wrapped box on them, and they say "A Gift For You." So of course I eagerly snatched one up one day, equally charmed by his bizarre-o singing and eager to see what kind of valuable present lay in store for me inside the folded piece of paper.

Well, let me tell you, there was no gift in there, friends. Just really badly written drivel about accepting Jesus Christ into my heart and such. Not that I have anything against the idea of Jesus in my heart, exactly, I just can't stand badly reasoned and even more badly written proselityzing. If you're going to write it down, at least make sure it makes sense. The only gift I got was Bizarre-O Singing Guy's song.

But despite his crafty pamphlet passing, I have a soft place in my heart for this dude. He's fun and he seems to be enjoying himself and he's not even particularly pushy. So more power to him. So today as I passed him I realized that I had to write a blog entry about him, and encourage my readers to go check him out sometime. If you ever happen to be in midtown, near the Brooklyn Diner, you should be able to find him during normal business hours.