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!