street performers and work

Went to the street performers at the Fringe the other night. The Mrs had been asking me again and again about what shows I wanted to see at the Fringe but honestly I couldnt get into it. All the synopsis (synopsi? plural..synopsises?) about the plays always seem to be like 'an exhilirating experience of..' or 'a wild and wonderful ride of..' or even 'an intellectual roller coaster of experiences when...' about the play. However, when you go and see it is usually kind of lame. Like last year when we went to the Rocky Horror Picture Show play which was supposed to be a wild and exhilarating story on stage. Turned out to be a huge bomb since the acting was average and all but the worst part was when the narrator kept berating people for participating. So not really much of one for the actual plays. However, I am a huge fan of street performers. My favorite time of year is the street performers festival except I was usually in camp when they were out so I missed a lot of the acts and seasons, but the ones I saw I really enjoyed.

So we went to the Fringe street performers and all and I have to say that I was, on average, 'decent'. I mean there was one performer that we saw that was really really great. In the span of 45 minutes he did about 3 tricks that were really cool (dislocated his shoulders to manipulate a broom handle around, juggled fire sticks, juggled balls with the help of a young girl that was really adorable). There was one performer that was really bad as in the span of 45 minutes all he did was have volunteers handcuff him and tie him up with a long chain, put himself in a bag and in 1 minute get out of the bag and chains by basically peeling off the clothes he had on to reveal himself in a white under shirt, spandex bike shorts and a pink two-two. All the while he was insulting and taking jabs at people walking by. There were a couple others that we just looked at while walking past. The worst part about it all was the amount that they are asking for these days. Before at the festivals the performers always had the end wrap up of "thanks for watching, pay what you think it is worth, we appreciate anything that you can give and if you give me $5 you are my new best friend". Figured $2 for a decent act for the 20 minutes or so and $4 for a really awesome act was quite good and reasonable. However, the new wrap up is "$5 for a single person, $10 for a couple, $20 for a family and $50 I will be your new best friend". I guess I am branding myself a cheap skate here but I think that is kind of steep, especially when the act is nothing more than a guy insulting passers by. When I first heard that they were asking for $5 I laughed thinking it was part of the comedy routine but when the 2nd and 3rd said it I was thinking "wow, they are serious!" Guess I will just have to re-evaluate my entertainment practice. Figure either I can forgo going to the festivals cause I am too cheap to pay the $5 OR I become a 'free rider', which according to my game chaos philosophy is the best way to live in a society. Not the nicest way to live but the best and more economical.

Also work is going pretty good. Training is going well and I think I am slowly getting the hang of it all. The people I work with are all great with helping me out and showing me the ropes as well as I can not get over how polite everyone is. I do find it interesting how the other day I was looking at the office and it reminded me a lot like working in a kitchen. For instance, in the kitchen we had obstacles like cutting tables, deep fryers, grills, steamers and places to put things in like drawers, cabinets and hooks. In the office we have obstacles like cabinets, desks, fax machines, photo copiers, phones and computers as well as places to put things like counter tops, filing cabinets and shelves. In the kitchen there are usually 4 people crammed into a small little area that everyone has to work in. The camps were not too bad but by seeing where a friend of mine (who is a kitchen manager in a city restaurant) as well as seeing many cooking shows of restaurant cooks, you can see that everyone pretty much works with their backs up against each other and has to run around people or dodge people walking around with hot items in their hands. In the kitchen the only thing that seems to be yelled out is "HOT" for when someone is walking behind you opening something hot or a warning like "spill behind you" to tell you either to wipe it up now or becareful in the next 5 minutes while it is wiped up behind you. In the office everyone is so polite that if I am walking from the fax machine and have to wait while someone walks by me to get to the filing cabinet they always say "sorry, excuse me". It is so nice now to come to a place to work that is polite instead of people cutting you off and barking orders around.