Larry “Bucketman” Hunt is homeless again but it’s not because he couldn’t afford to pay his rent. It’s because it was becoming increasingly difficult for him and his girlfriend to get a good night’s sleep because of a bedbug infestation that the landlord didn’t care to do enough to eradicate. When one night Larry’s girlfriend got bit, he had just about enough of it. He decided he wasn’t going to spend another dime for that place and decided it was preferable to live on the streets, till he found another home, rather than stay in that place another second.
That decision wasn’t without peril. Some of his buckets and drums were stolen and the winter nights are harder to bear under the bridge out in the cold. On top of that, Larry got dragged to court unfairly by being falsely accused by the Union Square workers and merchants of using an amplifier, a case which he subsequently won and is now going on the offensive by suing the Union Square workers and merchants for unwarranted harassment.
Despite the hardships, Larry and his girlfriend are determined to find a better home that would allow them to at least not have to worry about getting a good night’s sleep. He’s looking for a home in downtown San Francisco where he could live with his girlfriend that would be clean, have its own kitchen, bathroom and shower and would go for not more than 485$. If you know of any such place and are willing to help, please call him at (415) 574 8641.
To help out financially so Larry can buy back the drums that were stolen from him or help him amass enough money for the security deposit that a new landlord would request, please donate using the paypal link below or purchase some of his songs in his myspace page.
Every Thursday through Sunday at approximately 8.30 p.m. at the corner of Geary and Powell in downtown San Francisco, Larry Hunt and Brian Compton electrify the streets with their funky music. I was out there the other day and recorded a part of their concert. I still think these guys need to get a proper recording. If you know anyone who can help them get one, just leave a comment, contact me or give Larry a call directly at: 415-574-8641.
Another thing I thought deserved its own blog post, is the fact that Larry is gives drum lessons for those who are interested in learning. Larry has extensive experience in playing drums not just buckets. Here’s a little bio I picked up from him the other day:
I was born in Leavenwork, Kansas. I started playing drums at the age of 3, and then owned my first drum set at the age of 4. Over the years, I have worked with many top artists and different bands. I also had my own bands, like “Larry Hunt and the Blue Flame band” in the past, and “New Funk Generation” in the present. In 1960, I had my first show with some big name artists such as Brother Jack MacDuff, and Three Sound. In 1966, I played for Senator of Kansas, Senator Reily on television with Christ Unlimited. In 1974, I met Louis Bellson, at the Starlite Theater in Kansas City. Through 1976-79, I played with “The Drifters”, “The Tam’s”, “Round House Band” and “Little Royal” from Georgia, “Pandall” and “Badge” from North Carolina. In 1979, I worked with Larry Sharp and Gregg Lomt trio. In 1983, I drummed in the Black Star Lite Band. In 1986, I joined Intervission from Oakland. In the years between 1989-2002, I met Cool Papa on television with Bay Area Back Roads. I also played with John Lee Hooker, Deacon Jones, Gregg Allmar, Steve Ganna, Al Von Johnson, Rocken Earl Brown, Ron Steward of Blue Society, Lady Margaret and the Gentlemen, Perry Walker, Survival Band and Steppen Stone.
Here is a video of Larry Hunt playing drums on a real drumset:
For more information you could either call him at: 415-574-8641 or meet him personally when he’s out playing with New Funk Generation at Powell and Geary in San Francisco Thursday through Sunday nights at approximately 8.30 p.m.
A lot of things have happened since the last time I wrote about Larry “The Bucketman” Hunt. The myspace page we put up for Larry and his music, had its first success story. Apparently, Larry mentioned that someone from the Jason Roberts Cook Show (a cable program on television) came across the website or blog and offered Larry a gig as a guest star entertainer on the show! This included a free flight to Cleveland where the shooting took place and a fully catered hotel stay for the duration of the shoot, plus a payment of 1500$.
Which brings me to another point that was raised by one commentator of my original blog post about Larry. Here’s the comment I’m referring to, with the title “Really?”:
Really? You thought that somebody trying to earn money on the street needs a website? Give him some money. Why is it acceptable to say that in a city with so many web developers he should have a website but not to say in a city with SO MUCH MONEY he should have some money?
First of all to generalize someone out of his individuality by making him just “somebody trying to earn money on the street”, is not only undignified, but also erases Larry’s particular situation. Larry is not just “somebody trying to earn money on the street”, he’s a talented musician and entertainer [1], and in the times we’re living, having a website is essential for a variety of reasons. It keeps you in touch with your fans, makes it easy for people to find you, enables you to sell your music online with literally no cost, and provides unexpected professional opportunities as the Jason Roberts case showed – which, as it was demonstrated, culminated in 1500$. Not bad, for a website it took me a couple of hours to build and cost no money. So in response to this comment I reply: Yes. I do think that a talented musician like Larry “The Bucketman” Hunt needs a website. It’s a vehicle for him to put out something that’s valuable (his music) and give people the chance to reward him for it, and allow him to continue doing it. To me it’s like that Chinese proverb which says: “Give someone a fish and you feed him for one day, teach him how to fish and he can feed on his own for a lifetime.” I’d rather help someone make his own money than give him some cash and walk away. That way he earns the self-respect that comes from being self-sufficient. I even met him a couple of days ago to ask him about the importance of money and the website and here’s what he had to say:
As for the second part of the comment,
Why is it acceptable to say that in a city with so many web developers he should have a website but not to say in a city with SO MUCH MONEY he should have some money?
I don’t see why being in a city that has lots of money automatically entitles you to any of it just because you’re physically in it. Sure, when there’s a lot of something going around, be it money or whatnot, it is good if it’s shared with people that need it. But I don’t think San Francisco has such a bad reputation when it comes to sharing and helping people that it warrants that comment. In fact, it has a solid reputation for the opposite. Also, if you read my original blog you’ll see that the word “should” is not present in it even once. I don’t like forcing people with guilt-trips to do what’s right. In fact, I think such an approach can be counter-productive. Give people an opportunity to be good by doing something constructive and they might surprise you. For example, look at the success of Wikipedia. Nobody paid them.
By the way, there is a PayPal donate button on the original blog post for people to donate money. Nobody has donated any – not even the person who made the comment. But people did volunteer to help in building the website. It gives you a little hint about the merits of the two approaches: Giving people the opportunity to help in constructive ways vs. asking them for money. In the former case they can actively participate, in the latter they are just passive contributors. It doesn’t touch people the same way.
Some additional news:
Larry “The Bucketman” Hunt, appeared in First Sunday.
He also got a job as a teacher of drums at the Miraloma Elementary School (175 Omar Way) every other Friday under the San Francisco Arts Education Program I think that’s a great job for him since children are especially captivated by his music and personality:
On the 23rd of September, he’s going to be appearing on a show about street musicians on channel 11 in CA.
In closing, here’s a video of him playing with his drumsticks on fire on Geary & Powell a couple of days ago:
Notes:
[1] Incidentally, the adjective “entertainer” is not my addition. Larry himself insists on the role of entertainer in addition to that of musician. He doesn’t believe the adjective as denoting something that an artist ought to look down on. He likes entertaining people and he thinks in order for you to be able to do that, you need to put *more* of yourself in your performance rather than less. Which is a view worth thinking about given that it comes in direct opposition with what most artists think, when they think of art as “entertainment”.
I decided, with the helpful reminder of Jacinta , to create a myspace music site for the Bucketman, Larry Hunt, (http://www.myspace.com/thebucketman) which means that now you can hear a sample of his music online! So till we have the web designers design a better site than a myspace profile, I have redirected bucketmanmusic.com to the bucketman’s myspace music account.
The developments of the Bucketman Campaign have been many. We had 5,000+ unique visitors to this article just for May. Volunteers offered to design a site for us, bought us a domain and gave us hosting.
I went to work and started creating some multimedia for the site. I took a lot of photos and filmed quite a bit (I can’t upload the videos yet because I don’t have a DV cable but I will get one soon). I also gave a VHS tape Larry gave me which contains footage of an old concert to a fellow Bucketeer (Ed Summerfield) to convert it to DVD format so we can start editing it. I also have a CD which I converted to mp3’s so we can include it in the site we are building. All this material will be made available to the web designers so they can start working.
We convinced Larry it’s time he opens a bank account because the money from the online sales and any donations must be able to go somewhere. If I’m not mistaken this goal was accomplished a couple of days ago with Ed’s assistance.
I also made Larry some cool “Moo” business cards (http://www.moo.com) using the photos I had taken of him in Flickr. I’m expecting them next week.
I don’t know if you guys read the comments but Brian bought us a domain that is going to be hosted on his dedicated server with a lot of bandwith so hurray for that!
Where do we go from here? Well, I’m going to give to the multimedia to Sully and Kyle who seem to have some professional experience in designing sites and put them to work.
I have already scouted the net for some services that would allow Larry to sell his music online. Songcast for example allows him to sell his music on iTunes. If you have any other suggestions shoot an email or leave a comment.
I think the site should allow people to: 1) Hear and Buy Bucketman’s music 2) See where he’s performing next 3) Give them the option of hiring him or his band for private/public events 4) Give visitors the option to donate 5) Give visitors a rich gallery filled with photos, video and music. 6) Give visitors the story behind the man and his music, a bio of Larry. 7) And obviously give them contact information in case they want to get in touch with him.
I also think it’s better for Larry to tell us some of his concrete needs and have people donate towards concrete things rather than abstract charities. For instance, if Larry needs a new drum set, have a button that says: “Buy Larry a new drum set” and has the model and the price of the drum set he wants to buy and say that whoever contributes towards this purchase is going to have his name written on the big drum. Or stuff like that.
I also told Larry that he could start advertising on his buckets with big stickers. Why not? He could always choose which advertisements to display, and reject ones he doesn’t like.
UPDATE: Bucketads now a reality! We just launched this idea so here are the details for advertising on the Bucketman’s buckets:
Before I mention the current prices think of the following benefits of advertising on the Bucketman’s buckets:
1) Bucketman is a hot tourist attraction: A lot of people take photos or video the Bucketman and his buckets, so your ads are going to be traveling around the world in digital media.
2) By advertising on his buckets you show how creative your company is in its marketing policy
3) You show your company’s humanitarian aspect by helping out a San Francisco landmark in his pursuit of happiness.
4) Only the other day Bucketman was interviewed (plus filmed) by the NBC, so that’s extra big time exposure for your ads. In fact, in the future we might be making a special price slot for ads that we know are going to be on TV.
5) Finally, putting ads on the buckets it’s not as if you’re putting it on some passive dead billboard. The billboard doesn’t “do” anything, so it might catch your attention for a couple of seconds max. But the Bucketman plays music so you’re inclined to stay there and watch him – and his ads – longer than if they were just placed on a billboard.
So considering the above benefits here is the current price list for placing ads on the Bucketman’s buckets:
Note: All the prices are per month and for a single bucket. There are four categories which are on a sliding scale starting with the two front buckets and going outwards. So we have 4 pairs as we can see in the following picture. You can also be creative and place an ad that continues from one bucket to the other.
To advertise on one bucket from the front pair: 250$
To advertise on one bucket from the second pair: 200$
To advertise on one bucket from the third pair: 150$
To advertise on one bucket from the fourth pair: 100$
So, if you’re interested in advertising on Bucketman’s buckets send me an email using the “Contact” link on the top bar of the page with the subject “Bucketads”.
By the way, I just put a Paypal Donate button at the end of my original posting so if you guys feel like donating you can. For now the money goes to my account but when Larry gets his bank account approved etc, I’ll redirect it to his.
By the way, Larry just got interviewed by the NBC! They told us it might air as early as Wednesday.
That’s about it for now. Suggestions, comments are always welcome.
Bucketman Campaign Co-ordinator, Alexander Pagidas.
I’ve only been living in San Francisco for a couple of months but there’s one guy who seems to be one of the undisputed trademarks of downtown Market street: The Bucketman, Larry Hunt.
He sets the rhythm of the city
uniting our iPodlated lives in a common beat
and knows how to make people smile
A couple of days ago was his birthday
I asked him if he has a website where people can buy his music and learn more about him. He said he didn’t. I thought, in a city where techies and web designers abound, perhaps one of them can build him one for free. Perhaps another one has a laptop he can spare. Another might show him how to setup and operate email and administrate the sales of his music. And maybe that way, we’ll help him a bit in his pursuit of happiness
For it is one of the only pursuits where by helping others in it you do not stay behind but advance further.
If you want to join in helping Larry “Bucketman” Hunt, please contact me or leave a comment. Alternatively you can make a donation through Paypal by clicking on the button below:
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