Float Master, Part 2

Anything Can Happen (See Part 1 here)

If you want to explore what New York City has to offer, you will have to mingle among the people. Unfortunately, this means all the people, regardless of income, hygiene, scrupulousness or sanity. Unless you make an extraordinary effort at insulation, you will encounter the broadest range of haves and have-nots imaginable on the streets, in the subways, shops, restaurants, parks and festivals.

In just the last five years authoring this website, I have encountered: a woman with a rat resting on her shoulder under her matted dreads, a man who pushes the limits of gender and fashion, a woman who eats bugs for a living at the Coney Island Sideshow, Walid Soroor - an Afghani Rock Star, an Alaskan Tlingit Indian musician on the road for 10 years, women who wear rooster feathers as fashion, Jenn - a very gothic woman whose circle of family and friends are subway conductors, Dr. Robert Gurland - a Professorial superstar, Will Galison - an unassuming guitar player who I later learned is legendary with an entire wikipedia entry of credits, Ferris Butler - a man who redefines quirky and is likely the inspiration for the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a man wearing militaristic regalia with a solitary spike of hair, a tattooed and pierced ex-marine sporting plaid shorts who at one time was pursuing a masters in theology, an Albino Burmese Python slithering on the street, Water Sprites, an Urban Wood Nymph and an older man so grotesquely tattooed and pierced that I could not bring myself to photograph him.

On one occasion, I stopped to talk to a homeless man who was collecting bottles, acknowledging how his task of collection and redemption appeared to be rather exhausting. Angrily he replied "Don't patronize me." Gotcha. I was guilty as charged. Here, beware of the homeless, who are often educated, intelligent, astute, sometimes insane and/or angry and frustrated.

A peaceful afternoon in the park or strolling the streets, may or may not be peaceful. If you play chess at the various parks, expect every manner of kibitzing and trash talk. Or, as I once witnessed, someone drawing a gun and firing it at someone previously involved in a drug deal to even the score, with only a momentary break in playing the game - see Chess Monsters here.

If you are going to street perform in New York City, you had better be prepared for every manner of intrusion and disruption including but not limited to verbal abuse, physical assault or being upstaged by a lunatic. During the breakdancing show (see Part 1 here), a man from the crowd became very animated by the music and performers. I have no idea why he was wearing a full length white fur in the middle of April, nor why nearly every article of his wardrobe was white. As he began to dance, the audience egged him on and with little encouragement he did his best at an impromptu performance -



Although some may see the display as an effort to upstage, John Rich and his posse looked on in amusement, realizing that this was just another day in New York City, where Float Master or not, Anything Can Happen :)

Float Master, Part 1

No Smoking


I recall the first time someone referred to one of my products as "bad." Initially insulted, they explained that bad meant good. However, I just could not fully accept that a word could mean the same as its opposite. It took some years before I saw and heard enough examples to really get it - intonation and context is critically important to conveying this meaning. To this day, it is used sparingly and only a certain type of good seems to be bad. It was one of my first forays into urban slang in New York City, the capital of urban culture.

I never stop to see anything resembling b-boying, aka breakdancing. Born in the Bronx and Harlem, it has been done to death on the streets of New York for decades, often by those moderately skilled and certainly eclipsed by serious gymnasts or acrobatic performers. However, the group which meets regularly at the Union Square subway station main platform on Saturdays, is something else. I decided to stop and bring myself up to date on the hardest of the hardcore - acrobatic hip-hop dancers working on concrete in the New York City subway system, risking fines.

This group's leader is "Float Master" John Rich, born in East Harlem where he still lives. He is 46 years old and has been dancing since the age of eight. John has done gigs worldwide and a commercial for Puma. At this time, he prefers working New York City. Although most street performers barely survive or just supplement their incomes, never underestimate what a savvy top street performer can earn in this city - John makes as much as several hundred dollars on a good day and earns a living dancing on the streets, supplemented with occasional party jobs. He is currently attending New York institute of Technology, working towards a bachelor’s degree in computer science.

I was impressed by John's act, the finale of the show, with his skilled dancing and signature routine - manipulation of a lit cigarette with his mouth. At one point, John inverts the cigarette, completely enveloping it and proceeds to blow smoke in tune with his movements. It is best understood live (John's routine is at the end of the clip):



The skill level of the various acts was extraordinary. A standard has been set and only a fool with poor skills would enter the fray.

No brand of New York City street activity would be authentic without attitude and John Rich has plenty of that - cool, confident and exuding that smugness that nothing impresses a New Yorker. Certainly not a group of young men defiant enough to risk ticketing or feature a routine with cigarette smoking in the subway system, often with the police watching. Depending on the size of the audience the performance attracts and any other number of variables, the group is often ticketed and shut down, whereupon they take their show elsewhere.

I met John at the end of the show. He was quite personable, excited that I would be featuring him here and quite amused when I told him that I would be calling the story No Smoking. But after reviewing the photos and video, I recalled how this particular show was punctuated by a surprise impromptu visitor. In Part 2, you will meet the bizarre man who apparently thought that he too, was a Float Master...

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