I came across this busker in a Times Square subway station surrounded by several battery powered dolls gyrating to his music. Fortunately I had my Sony PCM-D50 along to capture a few minutes of his performance, and a few dollars for his tip bucket. The scene was surreal and difficult to describe, but enchanting never-the-less.
He was an older gentleman wearing an over sized beige trench coat hunched over a Yamaha electric organ playing an uptempo rendition of La Vie En Rose. The dolls were similar to those annoying dancing Santas, but among them there was a gyrating saxophone player and a creepy, blond, female, dancing doll with “sound, moving head, hands and buttocks”, as described on the web and shown here.
Battery Powered Dancing Dolls
This recording from the New York City subway system includes the classic and familiar chimes to indicate that the sliding doors are about to close. Newer cars have a spoken message, “stand clear of the closing doors please”. The doors open and close at a couple of stops. There’s quite a bit of talking going on in the car along with the track noise, electric motor acceleration, and screeching brakes. If you listen carefully you can hear Ray telling an embarrassing story about how he once fell over onto another passenger as the car took off. Sorry, Ray!
Sunday afternoon on February 8, 2009 it was fifty-four degrees Fahrenheit in Manhattan, so we took a stroll through Soho en route to brunch with our gracious hosts Ray and his lovely wife Nicole. Street vendors were out in full force selling paintings, photographs, rugs, pottery, and all sorts of other sundries. Here’s thirty-four seconds of our walk illustrating a variety of activities going on in the area. 
As I was editing this document two dogs came running into my studio. They were very attracted to the squeaky toy sound for obvious reasons. I only have one dog so it might seem a little strange that two dogs came into my studio. 
I got this strange plastic wind up toy at a work event several years ago. I wrapped a rubber band around his neck because he started falling apart and spilling his guts all over the place. A little glue would probably fix that, but after this experiment I suspect that he is likely to get forgotten in a drawer for another few years. He shoots sparks and walks in a not so straight line. His labor intensive stumbling gate also makes quite a racket as you will notice from the recording.