MY EASTER PARADE IS MY CHAUCERIAN PARADE: ANOTHER AESOPIAN TALE

FUTURE BUSKER, AUSTIN GARNER

In most my postings I include a segment entitled, MY CHAUCERIAN PARADE, a cast of characters (mostly consumers) who have marched by my buskspot in the particular week of my current blog post.  Of course, being a snappy title guy, my label for such a colubrine metaphor is directly from The Canterbury Tales:  General Prologue, written by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), the Father of English Literature and considered to be the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages.  (Thank you, Geoffrey!)

Over the Easter holidays, even though the weather was not great and even though I’m not the brutto tempo busker I’d like to be, I went guitar busking.  I’ve always believed the cliché, there is never bad weather; there is only bad dress.  This is true for most activities I enjoy, for example running and hiking, but for busking it is false.  The weather can be too cold (hard to strum with fingers that are numb) or too rainy (my guitar is made of maple-wood) or too windy (in the Canadian clime the prairie winds are mild twisters).  I’m not a brutto tempo busker, but I am a busking aficionado.

I went busking in such crappy weather because I love busking!  And here is the skinny why:

• The PEOPLE PARADE ... Keep reading, of course!

• The DAYDREAMS … Maybe you’d be interested in my daydreams but ahhh … hmmm ... mmmm … enough said.  Only truth serum will make me tock (pun intended), and here is a sample of what makes me tick:

THINKING OF MY SONG, '58 CHEVROLET DELRAY ... TICK ... TOCK ,,, TICK ... TOCK

• The PRACTICE … People actually throw money to listen to me scrabble together my new licks and lyrics. See THE HANDSOME STRANGERS pictured below.  Pictured left to right are Mark Wilson, Corby Magnusson, Jay Greenman, and self.  Whenever I go busking I practice and make up new songs as I did for the SHELDON KENNEDY CHAMPION FOR MENTAL HEALTH --- sponsored by the SCHIZOPHRENIA SOCIETY OF SASKATCHEWAN at the Conexus Arts Centre.  Busking over Easter I’ve been practicing for the HANDSOME STRANGERS next show, which happens to be April 20^th, at the BUSHWAKKER BREWPUB in Regina.

THE HANDSOME STRANGERS (AT CONEXUS ARTS CENTRE)

• The PHYSICAL FITNESS … I go for a long-distance run most sunny days, and I lift weights most days sunny or shady.  Standing for 90 minute sets a couple times a day takes stamina, and so does walking up and down the city sidewalks while slinging a guitar.  With my 25 year exercise regimen of running and lifting, I manage to keep in pretty good physical shape, good enough at least for guitar busking. 

• The PERSONA … Whenever I go busking I am in my wannabee Bobby Dylan role.  Cap-a-pie I’m always messy-haired, wearing a tight white t-shirt, faded jeans, and black work boots.  My Dylanesque-self symbolizes to my passers-by an against-the-system statement in the form of a free-spirited minstrel.  I symbolize that person who is his very own Kapellmeister, going wherever he wants and stopping over for only as long as he wants.    

Meanwhile … back to MY CHAUCERIAN EASTER PARADE:

JULIAN, SON OF MY FRIEND, WARREN, AND SELF ON EASTER SUNDAY

EASTER SNOWMAN IN VICTORIA PARK

MY HONKIN' RUN AROUND WASCANA PARK (EASTER MORNING)

BEING A BUSKER MEANS ... 
BEING ABLE TO ENJOY AND APPRECIATE 
A MARCHING-BY-PARADE ON EACH AND EVERY BUSKAPADE!

INKSPOTS AND BLOGSPOTS: A BUSKOLOGIST PROJECTIVE

HERMANN RORSCHACH AND HIS INKBLOTS

A PROJECTIVE TEST is a test which subjects an individual to respond to indistinct stimuli, after which that individual’s interpretations about the stimuli supposedly reveals a few aspects of the individual’s personality.

PROJECT TESTS emerge from the school of psychology that suggests people have unconscious thoughts or urges, and projective tests purportedly uncover these urges.  Taking any projective test, the participant is shown an ambiguous image and then asked to give a first response or meaning that comes to mind.  The RORSCHACH, the most famous of the projectives, created by Swiss Freudian Psychoanalyst, Hermann Rorschach, has individuals describe 10 different ambiguous INKBLOT picture cards.

Subjected to these shadowy inkblots, individuals tested see colorful imaginings of dancing bears and long-necked geese, bats and butterflies.  Some people see images of female breasts and male sexual organs;  while some people see only … shadowy inkblots. (Administratively speaking, the more one sees on the card the more creative the person.  Seeing zeroth on the card indicates neurosis.)

Hmmm … I wonder what do people really see when they see a guitar busker?

BUSKING AT THE TEMPLE BAR IN DUBLIN

No matter how gaudily costumed, loads of passers-by tend to see only images of the gray and the grim.  Oftentimes they see someone is most likely homeless, or at best, a sort of a ragtag who they imagine rents a bedbug infested broom closet somewhere downtown. Oftentimes they see someone is most likely unemployed, a ne’er-do-well who represents a rather poor ersatz of any live stage performance.  Perhaps they see an addicted bum strumming only to gather enough coin in a case to buy a bottle or a joint.  Or perhaps they see someone to bully, to heckle or harass, to rebuff and to give flak, an opportune and shining moment to decry a particular busking performance or even decry that beggar-with-a-guitar lifestyle.  

However, sometimes some consumers see someone who represents an imaginary freedom and adventure.  Sometimes they see someone with a piquant life style, someone with whom they could dalliance in quixotic fashion.  Oftentimes they see someone just to toss coin or two for what they actually do and … what they project to be doing.

I'm a believer in PROJECTIVE PSYCHOLOGY.  I believe that the things that people see are projections of their own realities.  I believe the quiddity of buskers draws out the quiddity of their consumers.  And if indeed this is true, then the buskers themselves, are the stimuli for a PROJECTIVE TEST.

Danny Kaye, American actor, singer, and comedian said that “Life is a blank canvas, and you need to throw all the paint on it you can.”  Sadly, some people don’t seem to toss a lot of paint; but rather than living their dreams they scumble year after year living the nightmare of property mortgages and car payments and other middleclass misadventures.

Deafblind author and activist, Helen Keller, said that “Life is either a daring adventure … or nothing.” To those folks who do nothing or not much, I’m sure they would imagine busking to be a daring adventure.

“All great adventures have moments that are really crap,” according to American author, Ellen Potter.  Those who imagine a busker to be a great adventurer likely don’t think about the crappy consumer counter-patterns, those non-consumers who on occasion heckle and harass.

American writer, Elizabeth Bucchianeri has suggested that, “It’s the unknown that draws people, and ‘twas the adventure of the unknown that initially drew me to busking and in turn, I believe, continues to draw my consumers to me.  Just as the inkblots are considered projections, so too then are my buskspots projections.

Whenever you see a busker remember that  … 

what you see (unconsciously) and what you say you see represents both the real you and the person you (unconsciously) really want to be!

STRUMMING ON THE CONEXUS ARTS CENTRE STAGE  (DO I LOOK LIKE A BUSKER?)

TYRO TO VIRTUOSO: THE STRUMSOME JOURNEY

ITALIAN STAR SANDWICH

In my world of social adventures, everyone knows that having the topical KNOWLEDGE, having the hands-on EXPERIENCE, and having the preferred paper DIPLOMA, all contribute to the credentials necessary to being an expert. 

There are many experts in my musical community circle. DUSTIN RITTER, REGAN HINCHCLIFFE, DARREN FORBES, and TRENT LEGGOTT, all of whom, compared to me, are considered guitar experts. I also gig with the likes of MARK WILSON, an expert on fiddle, CORBY MAGNUSSON, an expert on bass, JAY GREENMAN and BARON CHILD, both being expert drummers.  I have done stage gigs with KATIE MILLER and REBECCA LASCUE, very polished performers, experts in their folk fields for sure. 

In my world of working definitions, being an expert is synonymous with being a virtuoso.  Compared to all these above mentioned players … I am quite the opposite of virtuoso; I am but a tyro.

Though a tyro on guitar and harpoon, I am a virtuoso as a busker.  This statement is true only when I compare myself to those other buskers that I know in my locale, is only true when I am displaying my busking ware in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.  

In keeping with topical KNOWLEDGE, the hands-on EXPERIENCE, and having the preferred paper DIPLOMA, my credibility as a busker virtuoso elsewhere on the planet is not even near the truth. Truth in expertise, after all, is really just a matter of familiarity and relativity.

Meanwhile back at the ranch … In the city of Regina I am a busker virtuoso because I know I have the topical KNOWLEDGE.  I have enough skill on the guitar to thrum a pleasant melody (I only play originals) and to blow respectable winds from my harpoon. (Factoid: Without a guitar I cannot play a harmonica.)  My excuse for not formally and conscientiously studying more musical theory and strum patterns is a simple one.  I’ve always stated that for every 100 people passing by my buskspot, 85% of them will consider me a rather gifted guitar and harp player, because these particular people do not play either guitar or harp.  For those same 100 people passing my buskspot, I’m guessing approximately only 10% of them know how to play guitar and will instantly recognize the level of my musical skills, which will be similar to their strumming skills.  And last, for these same 100 passers-by, only 5% will possess musical talents that are better than mine.  I mean, really, the ilk of Jack Semple (google him) will strut by just one time in a pedestrian hundred.   

Also I’ve the knowledge on the people traffic patterns.  For example, when I busk at Mike’s Independent, I know only to perform between 4:30 and 6:00 P.M., the time when most people do their grocery shopping.  At Shoppers on Broad, I busk anytime between 4:00 and 8:00 P.M., the hours of a continual consumer line.  At the Italian Star Deli, I only busk over the noon hour, because on any given noon hour, Carlo and his family sell over 200 delicious Italian sandwiches.

ITALIAN STAR DELI IN REGINA

 At Value Village I busk Saturday afternoons (sometimes Sunday afternoons), because that is when the heaviest flow of people traffic arrives.  Busking downtown, I only do Saturdays in either the Frederick Hill Mall or right next door on the Plaza.  And sometimes I busk in Victoria Park, also downtown.  Whenever I busk at the downtown Regina Farmers’ Market, I do so only during the prescribed hours.

REGINA DOWNTOWN PLAZA

VICTORIA PARK

For the hands-on EXPERIENCE, I’ve logged the requisite 10 years times 50 days times 3 hours, for a total of 1500 hours.  My theory has always been, once a person has a committed experience of 100 times, that repeated action becomes very ordinary and perfunctory.  For me, slinging my guitar and setting up a buskspot has become second nature to my summer being.  I’ve been on buskations to Alberta and British Columbia, from Medicine Hat to Salmon Arm to Kamloops to Prince George to Victoria.  I’ve been on buskation to the Netherlands and to Ireland.  My entire summer is practically one long buskation.    

My preferred paper DIPLOMA was easy peasy.  Having the basic guitar and harp skills, having the experience, publicly posting the self-described label of BUSKOLOGIST, was simply a matter of gumption.  Because I busk and have a busking blog, I felt entitled to self-proclaim this snappy title.  A BUSKOLOGIST is a pundit of Buskology.  BUSKOLOGY is the qualitative study of street busking.  Other related terms are BUSKINGDOM, a frequent buskspot, and BUSKATION, a road trip that involves busking.  (Google A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BUSKOLOGIST, published February 23^rd, 2014.)

Being a professional buskologist I’ve naturally learned a few tricks of the trade.  Firstly, most potential consumers suffer from lookism.  If a busker appears to be a bum with a guitar, the passers-by will treat that busker as such.  Though by design I give the appearance of a free spirit lolling on the sidewalk, strumming and chatting, I am really the consummate martinet.  Cap-a-pie I am in summertime, hatless, always wearing a white shirt and faded blue jeans, standing in polished black work boots.  Always I have an 81/2 x 11 size paper of originals tucked inside my guitar case (so as to not repeat myself in any given set), a bottle of water, and my PSYCHOLOGYBUSKING a la WORDSWORDS blog sign on display.

FROM TYRO TO VIRTUOSO IS MOST CERTAINLY A CONTINUAL JOURNEY … 

RESULTING IN A MEGILLAH OF TALES STRETCHED OVER MANY MILES OF SIDEWALK.   

Those marching in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week, while busking at VALUE VILLAGE:

NELSON … has been a Saturday consumer of mine for many years at Value Village.  Today Nelson asked me if I had change for a loonie, as he only wanted to toss a quarter into my guitar case.  He was joking of course.

HANKS POTATOES … is an octogenarian guitar-slinger who used to sell potatoes out of his van that he parked in the Value Village parking lot.  Hank is a chatterer, whose latest news is that he sold his house and is now residing in a retirement community, which he hates.

THE SOLDIER … from Winnipeg, MB was describing a time in the 80’s when he mailed a recording of his girlfriend playing classical guitar to the still-famous Liona Boyd.  In response, Leona Boyd, when she performed in Winnipeg later that same year, had a limo pick up the soldier and girlfriend, escorted them into the concert, and met with them backstage at the close.

THE CANCER RESEARCHER … kept insisting that I google, on the internet, the many, many cures for schizophrenia. This guy went on to suggest that cancer, too, could be cured, if the doctors would not discard the valuable studies published on the internet.  He stated that he’s been doing such internet research for years.