BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS: LIFE DOES NOT GET BETTER THAN THIS!

 

My blog title today, BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS, is inspired (stolen rather) from Kurt Vonnegut’s 1973 novel of the same name. Factoid: Back in my English Literature university daze, I also read Vonnegut’s WELCOME TO THE MONKEY HOUSE (1968) and SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE (1969). SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE was later made into a Hollywood movie, SCI-FI Comedy-Drama, which I saw at the theatre in 1972.)

That was a lifetime ago, when I was in my ‘20s. Note, dear reader, now as a 74-year-old I have yet to master my life, never mind master my life in the BIGGER-THAN-ME sense. Intellectually, I have managed only to age into a perpetual thirty-something! How could I possibly know my darkly Vonnegut comedy-drama days would adumbrate themes for my future septuagenarian self!  One such example being that I believe that no one yet on this planet has mastered life – for all us whoever were and whoever are, are all beginners at being human.

Back to my blog title, BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS. It just so happens, that my first name, NEIL, is derived from the Irish Gaelic name, NIALL, which means “CHAMPION.” Ah, PHENOMENOLOGY! Such a perfect blog title, right?! To live up to my Gaelic moniker, I am a champion in at least a couple of regards. A pusillanimous person I am not, and just as important, a quaggy person I am not.

MY SIGNATURE BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

Here is what I know about breakfast and me. Never do I crave bacon and eggs or ham and eggs or steak and eggs for my morning meal. I am long past devouring the “most important meal of the day.” Factoid: For me, breakfast is the least important meal of the day. Another factoid: I have issues about my weight. In my undergraduate days I swam one mile every morning before classes, and after each swim I would weight myself on the Toledo Scale in the change room. One hundred and sixty-seven pounds. This was my weight throughout the four years of my first degree. And now 50 years later I weigh two pounds lighter at 165 pounds! I weigh myself every day and if I am even just one pound over 165, I starve until I make weight. Like I said, I have issues about my weight! And yet another factoid: I am delusional. I believe that if I can control what I eat or drink, I can control EVERYTHING else!

Right after my signature breakfast of champions this past Sunday, I went for my daily run and two scenes stopped me in my tracks. This is the first one, from the north shore on Wascana Lake.

"Nature is not a place to visit. It is home" (Gary Snyder).

Life does not get better than this!

These two ducks on the water reminded me of the white chickens amid the vivid imagery expressed in The Red Wheelbarrow, a poem by William Carlos Williams.

"so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens."

And this is the second one, Willow Island in Wascana.

"I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it" (William Shakespeare).

Autumn running in Wascana. Life does not get better than this!

SQUIRREL! 

Caricatures, caricatures, caricatures have been on my brain since last June. It seems I cannot practice enough!

SQUIRREL!

Busking, busking, busking has been my raison d’etre for writing this blog! Keeping in harmony with my coterie of guitar slingers, I still love to thrum and strum at every opportunity. Any sunny and windless day I am looking for a buskspot! Last Saturday was one such day for my son, Baron, and self.

BUSKING AT THE EMF MARKET MALL IN REGINA

LIFE DOES NOT GET BETTER THAN THIS!

MY LIFE AS A BONA FIDE CARICATURIST: EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE!

 

MY LATEST BUSINESS CARDS

“EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE” seems an apt descriptor for my latest avocation, that being a bona fide caricature busker. From many directions in a random fashion, my life as a caricaturist is getting wind and taking sail. As noted on my brand-new business cards (see picture atop this paragraph) I’m up for drawing caricatures practically anywhere for any type of event. From wedding receptions to gender reveals to pet portraitures, playing Paladin, HAVE SHARPIE – WILL TRAVEL!

Following a summer of drawing caricatures at several rural festivals and street fairs, I’ve spent this past couple Saturdays setting up to draw at the EMF MARKET MALL in Regina, SK. At the EMF Market is where I met the neatest kid, Archit, who happened to be selling his acrylic paintings just a few vendors down the aisle from my caricature station.

ARCHIT'S STORY

Here are a few more of my customers at the EMF MARKET MALL:

Back to every which way but loose, a few weekends ago, I was invited to a Sunday brunch party to draw the attendees’ caricatures:

For the chef at THE CURE (a downtown bar), who was turning 40, I drew his caricature:

This next caricature is one of the most popular celebrities in Regina, TRISTAN OREMBA:

At the beginning of summer, one of my other job administrators had been transferred. For my farewell present, I drew her caricature:

And at the close of summer, one of my colleagues insisted I draw his best friend!

Factoid: It has been the perfect summer for me drawing caricatures. My caricature busking began at the MANITOU BEACH BUSKERS FESTIVAL, followed by a caricature stint at the OLD WIVES LAKE SUMMER FESTIVAL. From there I was invited to draw caricatures at the LIMERICK ANNUAL FARMERS’ MARKET and then invited back to MANITOU BEACH to draw caricatures at RELICS ANTIQUE SHOP.

Yes. This summer I have learned lots about being a caricaturist. In fact, three personal epiphanies have jumped out at me from these summertime adventures. First, I now realize that I am accursed with a busking addiction. This began with a guitar busking addiction (throughout Western Canada, Western Europe, and even Africa), continued into a banjo busking addiction (mainly Regina), then to a didgeridoo busking addiction (also mainly in Regina), a pencil-portrait busking addiction (Western Europe and Africa), and now caricature busking (so far only in Saskatchewan and British Columbia)!

Yes. I am an accursed BUSKING ADDICT. (Hmmm. But I suppose one could do worse than being addicted to busking!)

My second epiphany is that I am flummoxed by the simple fact that people DO NOT KNOW what they look like! This, of course, is a general statement and inductive reasoning need not necessarily apply, but this epiphany has been confirmed and shared amongst all those that I know in the portrait artist community!

And my third epiphany is that, for me, there is more money to be made busking as a caricaturist than busking in every other regard. When I am drawing caricatures, there is usually a lineup of people ready to pungle up and pay me $10.00 a pop! This works out to $10.00 per 10-minute caricatures, which approximates to $60.00 per hour. (I’ll not want to mislead, dear readers. At times I have made lots of money guitar busking, my record being over $600.00 in one day. But that was just one time. Most times whilst strumming I’ll take in $50 to $100 bucks in a two-hour stand. Drawing caricatures is physically easier and mentally more fun, as I’m always in conversation with my consumers.

It is said that talk is cheap, but this is not so when guitar busking. In fact, when guitar busking talk is expensive because it costs losing most of those passersby customers! Chatting, rather than thrumming and blowing my harp, halts both the music and the money!

Of those mercenary events listed on the back of my card (pictured above), I’ve yet to experience only a few to date. Regarding drawing caricatures at wedding receptions and birthday parties, I’ve been invited to none. Regarding corporate events and gender reveals, I’ve been invited to none. The same goes for retirement parties. But regarding festivals and street fairs and pet portraitures, I’ve been very busy!

My strategy to keep busy this autumn is to spend as many hours as practical in my favorite park, WASCANA CENTRE, caricature busking for practice and for profit!

 

 

BUSKER ALERT: BEWARE OR BE WARY OF THE KAMLOOPS FARMERS' MARKET!

For my summertime travels I had BIG PLANS for my caricature busking, my first buskspot being at the farmers’ market in Kamloops, British Columbia. (See the picture and words posted above!)

I LOVE KAMLOOPS! And I love Kamloops for a couple of reasons. Firstly, every summer I drive to Kamloops to hike and hang out with my daughter and granddaughter who reside there, and secondly, my early memories of Kamloops are most certainly hazed through romantic nostalgia.

In 1972, the summer of the BIG FLOOD of the North and South Thompson rivers, my cousin and I hitch-hiked from Regina to Kamloops to work in the sawmill. And what a summer that was! But that is another story for another time …

Anyway, back to the KAMLOOPS FARMERS’ MARKET. The website for such proves that the Kamloops Farmers’ Market is not acephalous and it states that it loves having buskers. 

Factoid: These words that are posted on the Kamloops Farmers' Market website are just glib -- they sound great, but they are not sincere.

A few days before the day of the market and following the directions as presented on the website (shown above), I called and left a voice message, I typed an email, and sent a text. One day passed and it was crickets for a reply to any of the three messages I had left. Two days passed and still crickets. In the early morning on the day of the market, I sent another text directly to Greg, the market manager, to which he did reply. In summary, he stated that as a caricaturist, I would be listed as a “crafter” rather than as a “busker.” As a “crafter” I would have to formally apply four months in advance to sell my wares at the market, because, the acceptance of such "is quite a process.” But it did not matter anyway, since my place of residence was outside 100-mile radius of Kamloops, I would not qualify. The Kamloops Farmers’ Market is for locals only. To say the least, I was certainly addlepated!

From my experiences as a street caricaturist everywhere elsewhere from Kamloops, as a caricaturist, I have been a busker in Dublin, Ireland, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in Marrakech, Morocco, and several cities in Canada.

Hmmm. I googled the question: “Are Street caricaturists considered to be buskers?” And the answer, according to AI, “Yes, Street caricaturists are considered buskers. Busking encompasses a wide range of performance arts in public spaces, including drawing caricaturists.”

Hmmm. And then I wondered, if Manager Greg had ever been to other summer fairs and markets? Including the iconic and same-province Inner Harbor in Victoria, British Columbia, where the caricaturists are significant members of the buskerhood, performing for masses of tourists walking along the legendary boardwalk each summer day?! Hmmm. Only at the KAMLOOPS FARMERS’ MARKET, it seems, that CARICATURISTS ARE NOT CONSIDERED TO BE BUSKERS!

Yes. This may be petty, but I shall continue, nonetheless. Now back in my home province of Saskatchewan, I have been very busy drawing caricatures, as a busker, at several farmers’ markets.

Here are some of my portraits from just last week from farmers’ markets in MOSSBANK and LIMERICK, two small resort towns in Saskatchewan, and my home city, REGINA:

And because I was dismissed from the KAMLOOPS FARMERS’ MARKET, I headed for RIVERSIDE PARK, right in the heart of Kamloops and drew these fine people who were working the BIKE VALET:

Posing in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week:

In this blog post I want to send kudos to all those “other” farmers’ market managers who have and continue to warmly welcome me as a CARICATURIST-BUSKER, and have embraced me with a heartfelt smile and handshake, and without having the complications of a written application of any sort.

And to close, my point for writing this post was to hoist by his own petard, the KAMLOOPS FARMERS’ MARKET manager. And I believe I have done just that!