(Scene: Harvard Square, in front of Au Bon Pain. A white-haired man playing hurdy-gurdy stands facing the street. Another man, younger but scruffier, is sitting with his back to the street ten feet further up the sidewalk, with a guitar plugged into amps and CDs on racks around him. The hurdy-gurdy man is playing vigorously, while the guitar player plays softly, with a distant expression on his face.)
Guitar player: Hey, spread the love a little!
Hurdy-gurdy man: (stops playing, perturbed) What?
Guitar player: You heard me! Let a guy play a little!
Hurdy-gurdy man: Look, we talked about this, and I told you that you could set up there. Doesn’t mean I have to stop playing for you!
Guitar player: (now on his feet, walking toward the other man aggressively, talking over him) I sit down in a place to play, people need to be able to hear me!
Hurdy-gurdy man: What, you own the sidewalk? Peter here owns the sidewalk!
Guitar player: I don’t–
Hurdy-gurdy man: Y’know what Peter means? It means “lion” in Russian. Are you a lion?
Guitar player: (returns to seat, still perturbed. Starts playing Katyusha, a Russian folk song.)
Hurdy-gurdy man: …It means “lion” in Russian. (recognizes tune and starts playing as well.)
(The two men are now both angrily playing the same song. It sounds quite nice.)
