WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE (SAY NO MORE SAY NO MORE): HYPNOSIS, HOCKEY, HOOPLA, AND HARRY

CHRIS (HYPNO-GIRL) AND SELF

”WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE, SAY NO MORE, SAY NO MORE” is a statement popularized by Eric Idle in his MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS days of the early 70’s.  This idiom, wink wink nudge nudge, is often added to the end of a sentence to hint that the speaker is really referring to something else, something else that is sexual in nature.  Wink wink nudge nudge is the verbal explication of gestures people make when they want to pass on something sly, instead of an actual winking of the eye or the actual nudge of an elbow.

I quite like wink wink nudge nudge because … I do find it particularly funny; though, please keep in mind I was a consumer of Monty Python television series!

I quite like wink wink nudge nudge, too, because NUDGE also refers to a psychological manipulation which is tolerable, along the lines of Love Bombing, Praise, Good Cop Bad Cop, and Carrot and Stick.

Love Bombing was the psychological tactic employed by the Moonies, followers of Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church of the United States.  In its heyday during the 70’s, the Moonie method of recruiting emerging adults, literally luring newbies into their cult, was through smiles and smiles and more smiles.

Praise, as a psychological tactic (yes, a tactic), was especially important to B. F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning.  In order to effect positive behaviors, for example as those ideally between parent and child, or coach and player, or teacher and student, Skinner academically declared that offering praise was the way to go to achieve any positive ends.  (Whoda thunk it, huh?)

Good Cop Bad Cop is that stereotypical television police routine of joint questioning used in negotiation and interrogation … hmmm …

Carrot and Stick is in literal reference to a cart driver dangling a carrot in front of a mule, whilst holding stick near its rear end, to pull the cart.  (I want you to note that the obvious ASS pun would have been most appropriate here, but being the disciplined writer that I am …)  Metaphorically, Carrot and Stick is often referenced to the Christian tactic of Heaven or Hell, as a means of saving one’s soul from eternal fire and brimstone.

For my best example of the Nudge as a psychological manipulation, is the imprint of a fly in men’s urinals.  Apparently men don’t pee straight, so in order not to have males peeing all over the wall and floor in the pub washroom, images of flies are imprinted smack in the middle of the urinals and … men being men (I suppose) … aim their spray to hit the fly.

Media manipulation through advertising, mind games for seduction, especially religious recruitment (as in my first and last example), and straight shooting into urinals, are all, part and parcel, parts of the psychological NUDGE.

Whenever I go busking, my buskspot begins with a nudge.  Here is what it looks like:

SOMEONE ADDED THE CARROTS (A CHRISTIAN PERHAPS?)

I never start strumming without seed money in my guitar case.  Out of ritual or superstition, I allows toss in two five dollar bills weighted down with four toonies and two loonies, twenty dollars in total.  I have this notion that potential consumers do not like to feel like they want to be the first sucker to toss money into my case.  I have this notion that potential consumers like to feel included in the mainstream, and specifically in my busking case (pun intended), people like to toss coins to causes that have been noted and appreciated by others.  People love to follow suit, so to speak.

In my usual self-aggrandizement style of writing, my snappy title suggests that today I am going to scribble about HYPNOSIS, HOCKEY, HOOPLA, and HARRY.  And, indeed, I am going to do just that with a Shaggy-dog essay filled with pointless wink wink nudge nudge tales of yesterweek, each of which having unexpected change (pun, again, intended).

• HYPNOSIS

I am really hoping to up my game of Guitar Busking to that of Street Hypnosis.  Guitar Busking is rather commonplace, and Street Hypnosis, in bigger cities, is rather commonplace and pedestrian in summer.  But … Street Hypnosis having Guitar Busking as a prop … well … I think this combo to be a rather Promethean busking adventure … a much needed personal sea change.

I fancy myself as a bit of a shill, the perfect pitchman who represents the wander lusting wayfarer.  Because I much prefer vis-à-vis over texting, busking has been the ideal Walter Mitty escape from my day-to-day realities, and because of my face-to-face preference, I am hoping to inch-meal my daydreams into my behaviors.

I would need to have a HYPNO-GIRL for a NUDGE.  Pictured above in my header is my friend, CHRIS FRANK.  A girl such as CHRIS would be the perfect hypno-nudge, a girl with a bright and extroverted nature, and never mind knock-out looks, would for sure be a crowd-getter.  In my Walter Mitty moments, I am the wordy humorist and someone like Chris could very well be the gorgeous hypno-girl plant.  (The above picture above, sadly, is the reality.  Look at her ... the perfect nudge girl.  Then look at me ... the addelpated, aged busker ... only one decade away from decrepitude.)

• HOCKEY

Of course anyone who reads this blog knows one of my best friends is BRAD HORNUNG, NHL Scout, (GOOGLE him), and that my very best friend is COLBY WILLIAMS, CAPTAIN OF THE REGINA PATS (GOOGLE him, too).  Hanging with Brad over the last twenty years I've watched close to a thousand WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE games and … have listened to the professional insights of Brad and his ilk.  (Did you know that NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE scouts are always present at WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE games?  Did you know that oftentimes I’ve met these professional hockey analysts and as a result … am oftentimes delusional into thinking that I actually know stuff about hockey?)

BRAD SURROUNDED BY EX-NHL'ERS

COLBY WILLIAMS, DRAFT PICK OF THE WASHINGTON CAPITALS is my VERY BEST FRIEND.  When Colby is not in his skates at any given home game ( he was on the injury list for most of this season), he often stops by for a quick chat.  Also … Colby gave to me … his very first set of PATS Skates … CCM CL’S (CRAZY LIGHTS) … worth $850 without tax.  I mean, really, this is the behavior of best friends … not?

COLBY WITH THE WASHINGTON CAPITALS

THESE ARE SOME OF COLBY'S FANS -- BUT I'M HIS BEST FRIEND!

• HOOPLA

My work partner, NATALIE AGECOUTAY-SWEET, sent me some great pictures of the FIRST NATIONS UNIVERSITY SPRING POW WOW.

WOW

 

TERRANCE LITTLETENT -- WORLD RENOWN HOOP DANCER

RICK STECIUK, SUPERINTENDENT OF REGINA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

•  HARRY

And, dear reader, if you follow my blog, you also know that I am a portrait street artist/busker.  Summer is coming fast and I need to hone my pencil skills.  My consumers know that my pencil never lies.  But until I get my eyes and fingers in sync, my pencil will fib a bit.  My first consumer for Spring portrait busking is my nephew, HARRY BARRETT (aka Hollywood Harry by me; Mister Vancouver by his mom and dad).  HARRY is a future movie maker/editor/producer/actor.  HARRY has the gift.  Harry is a cinema savant.

Here is the making of Harry, as drawn by moi:

 

MISTER VANCOUVER (IN THE FLESH)

 I do believe I captured the quiddity of Harry.

To conclude, please be aware, dear reader ... that ... 

I AM THE QUINTESSENTIAL BUSKER …

I WILL ALWAYS GET MORE OUT OF YOU … 

THAN YOU WILL GET OUT OF ME …

(WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE … 

SAY NO MORE, SAY NO MORE!)

          

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.