“I heard it was kind of scary,” she laughs.

Webb says that occasionally, when she first moved she would elicit gasps or shrieks from the passersby watching her.

“People would assume that I’m just a really strange statue. It was one of my all-time favorite things—scaring people. And adults are my very favorite people to scare,” she says.

Webb describes the mysterious appeal of the living statue.

“It’s a mind game. It’s just bizarre,” she says. “The first time you see it is an amazing experience.”

Stage Managing

From behind a desk, CAC director Weeks pulls the strings that control the Cambridge street performer network.

Prospective buskers trek to the 51 Inman St. office to fill out an application and pay $40 for a permit, valid for one calendar year.

Before they leave the CAC, the performers are also given a copy of the City’s street performer ordinance, which offers a definition of performance and regulates against noise levels.

One section discusses the proper way for a performer to collect money during a performance: “contributions may be received in any receptacle, such as an open musical instrument case, box or hat.”

Much of the money from the permit fee goes to pay street performer monitors—three individuals employed by the city from May through October to regulate the sound level and mediate potential disputes between performers. The monitors can also issue citations: a verbal warning for the first time the performer violates a code, then a $25 citation. The performer’s permit will be revoked after three citations.

Acosta describes the position as one that strikes a difficult balance between meter maid and friend to the performers.

“If you’re a monitor, you try to avoid giving tickets—you always talk to the performers first. You get to know them all by names,” Acosta says. “One hard thing was to tell musicians to turn down their music. As a musician myself, it was just hard to go against my values of loud music.”

Acosta says noise complaints about large bands by solo folk singers are the source of most conflict between the performers.

The ordinance requires that drums must be inaudible at a distance of 150 feet and that no performer or group of performers may perform less than 50 feet from another group—rules Palmer says are well-publicized but generally ignored.