A busker in the wind
Another day, another late start.
I performed in a new spot today- under the big fisherman's wharf sign. Evidently, there is a new public art project on display all over town, and this spot is not one to be spared from it. There are big heart sculptures placed hither and yon all along the Embarcadero all the way up to the wharf.
They are all painted differently, and this one is very aptly painted in splatters of paint. I say aptly because one finds that when the seagulls that perch on the top of the sign let loose with the fishy sewage from their nether regions, it hits the heart at just the right angle to splatter in all directions, raining down upon whatever is in the immediate vicinity- in this case, my stuff. Luckily, I caught on to this straight away.
Throughout the day, the old dictum "Famous last words" kept flashing through my mind. Remember how I made mention of the computer behaving like a champ? Well- today was a colossal pain in my ass. I ate up somewhere around two hours by just putting the rig on and having to immediately take it back off again in order to troubleshoot. The first time this happened, I went through this process at least five times: Hook everything up to make sure it's running. Plug it and unplug to make sure that process doesn't much anything up. Then, throw on the pack, then fasten the cockpit. Plug it all in, test the joystick, and......nothing. Just that part of the process takes maybe six to ten minutes. then i have to disconnect the cockpit form the back, unhook the cockpit from my body, take off the pack, lay it down, unplug all of the crap from the computer, see if everything is running properly, plug it all back in, test it, and repeat. The second time around, I finally just gave up and went home, since it had gotten so late.
The entire day, the wind was blowing in a wonderfully irritating way, while repeatedly knocking over the vessel in which happy and satisfied tourists can relieve themselves of their pecuniary excesses.
I had one family who came back to see the second show, and waited for forty minutes, as i tried and tried to get things up and running. The matriarch was very friendly, and supportive. She said that I had inspired her son to get a puppet. Heh... sucker!
Another benefit of this process is the ride on the way home.
Tonight, I stopped for a bit and looked at the city and the bay for a bit, as I brainstormed new material. The view from there is amazing- especially at dusk. It's good to get out and enjoy parts of the city in a way that I haven't before.
On my way home, i thought of a new bit for the act that I think will go over rather well.
I made better money today (which means i made the same money- just with less shows), though it's hard to say whether it was due to the spot, or my new outfit, or a combination of both. I think that I'll set up there for a while and see how it goes. Evidently, there is a guy who does music there from 3:30 on, so I'll have to get out there earlyish in order to get my time in. I do like being away from the other performers.
I had another flashback moment today: when I was a night guard, drawing every night for my portfolio, I would occasionally get a guy who would come into the building with a friend and say: "Dood, you gotta see this guy's drawings. He draws grim reapers and skull and shit!". at eh time, i had nothing in my portfolio that was a skull or a grim repair. I think that the only grim reaper that I have ever drawn was in junior high. Anyway- today, i overheard a guy say to his buddy: "Dood that guy has this monkey that controls him and makes him walk around and shit". Smutter. Monkey. Hmm...
The big, fat words of eeno at June 23, 2004 02:29 AM