Buskerfest

this city really is the city of festivals. since i have been here there has been the jazz festival, the blues festival, the dragon boat festival, the bbq rib festival, and now the busker festival (and those are just the ones i have attended). yesterday i saw the most sensational group - offbeat. much like stomp, they are a group of uni students that use all sorts of objects to create fantastic percussion music. they used bottles, brooms, basketballs, chairs, sticks, plastic tubing and of course their hands, feet and other parts of their bodies. great work guys, thanks for the show!


something else i wanted to mention that also involves busking.... there are loads of homeless people in ottawa. most of them just sit on the street, outside mcdonalds or the grocery store, and ask for money. it makes me mad. one thing i took from the bloody 'atlas shrugged' that coby gave me to read, was that people who work for their money deserve it. it doesnt matter how rich they become, they have done something for that money (well, most of them -lets not count stupid people like paris hilton). and people who need money for whatever reason, should not expect to be just given money because they need it. it doesnt make any sense to me. i dont have a lot of money. when i am walking home from a shift where i have provided people with a service and they have given me money in return. i dont want to give my hard earned dollars to some guy (and yes, usually a drunk) who thinks he should get money just cos he doesnt have any. i want to stop and ask them why. why should i give you my money? what are you giving me in return? im supposed to feel warm and fuzzy about helping this person buy cigarettes or booze?.

today i gave money to a homeless person for the first time. this guy was playing the guitar and singing on a street corner. he wasnt a typical busker, he was sitting on the ground, he just had his hat in front of him, he was quite obviously homeless. but he was making an effort to do something to earn his money. as i got closer i realised that instead of a left hand he had a stump, on the end of his stump was a coffee mug with the handle broken off, that he was using as a slide on the neck of his guitar.

hello??? when i got a block further down the street and some kid asked me for 'spare change' outside the grocery store, i wanted to scream at him that i had just given my 'spare change' to the guy down the street with only one hand, who was making a real effort.