Sunday, August 20, 2006

Clearly I'm Not Made to Busk in front of Boudin's

One of my favorite bumper stickers ever read: "Visualize Whirled Peas" which resonated with me as much for the pun as for the image and the subsequent conversations it created. I actually took an informal survey when I first saw it, asking people if their peas were whole or mashed or what. What do you peas look like? After primping up my head, we all got on muni and headed downtown to the Powell Street turn around for the cable cars. Despite living in San Francisco for 10 years, I somehow managed to never get on the cable car. I thought it was exhilarating, though Lexi thought, as with just about everything else over the course of the week, it was different. I think that was actually the theme of the week. We took the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf. I was surprised to see the buskers out on the street standing on their boxes doing... nothing. I thought it was an interesting gimmick to get passers by to interact with them -- when you give them money they will do something for you. Most of them simply were not that entertaining when you got them to do something. In deference to their work, I declined to whip out my poi when a drummer was doing some amazing drumming nearby, not wanting to be misperceived as a busker myself, nor wanting to intrude on their income in any way. I was, however, tempted to do so. We walked about by the wharf for a while and then went to the museum at Boudin Bakery while we were waiting to be seated for lunch. I particularly found the information about different traditions that originated in San Francisco interesting, like fortune cookies.