Over The Edge Page 10

ARTS

October 19, 1999

Poets’
Corner

If you compose a poem while in
class, we will publish it. Please
include your name (but it won’t be
printed)

Love Poem to an
Ex

Enamored with myth

I discovered a Siren

But rather than sing out
Enchanting melodies
She won’t even

return phone calls

near the rock where she suns
foreign sailors .
upstop their ears

but the only sound
is waves
lapping the shore
for miles

the shrill cry

of hungry

gulls

swooping on indiscriminate currents

and her bottled sighs

buoying toward the distant horizon.

Word for the Weel

Leave some change, or create it

By Lindsay Bloemink

WINDSOR, ON (CUP)
- The age-old task of
stepping out of confor-
mity and leading life by
your own rules has
often been looked down
upon, with the majority
preferring to lead what
they call a “sensible” life.

This is a pattern that
has been all too evident
throughout our social
history. Those who
choose to wear the cor-
porate mask have left
behind the divine power
of individualism that
street performers, or
buskers, have indis-
creetly manifested for
centuries. We all share
a need for harmony and
escape from the every-
day.

One form of busking
that is popular the world
over is musical perfor-
mance. But busking is a
form of performance

that also has
to relate to its environ-
ment. “Location is
everything, you don’t
just randomly select a
place to perform,’
explained Kevin
Buchanan, a first-year
Creative Writing student
at the University of
Windsor. “About a week
ago, | was playing guitar
and heard some clap-
ping coming from a
fourth floor window. A
guy had been listening
the whole time, and
immediately asked if he
could make a request.
To get a response like
that first-hand is really
encouraging.”
Although artists
exclaim, “Free at last,
free at last, thank God
almighty we're free at

last’, regulators, in
Edgar Allan  Poe’s
words, are shouting

Quotes to Live by.

It is unwise to go to bed early to save on
candles if it results in twins

-Chinese Proverb

“Nevermore”. Street
performancing without a
licence is illegal in many
cities the world over,
including Hamilton,
Ontario, and London,
England. This puts pres-
sure on an increasing
number of buskers to
get a permit or skip
town.

Locally and interna-
tionally, regulations rule
and are continually
decreasing diversity by
prohibiting creative
artists from expressing
themselves freely and
leaving us_ culturally
bare. But Jimi Borsaw, a
Drama in
Education/Psychology
student at the University
of Windsor, has nothing
but positive things to

say about busking
abroad. “In London,
England, | got 20
pounds [$50 Can] in
one sitting, but in

Windsor, Ontario, I’ve
heard of some people
getting something as

small as a nacho chip in
one sitting,” he said. “It
all depends where you
go and what the people
are willing to give.”

“In Quebec, a buddy
and | got enough cash
playing guitar to stay at
a hostel for a night and
eat at McDonald’s,” he
added. “All for doing
what we love. It can’t get
any better than that.”

Busking can also be a
way for opening doors
and providing a time
and place to try out new
material, says Puddy, a
first-year
Creative Writing student
in Windsor. “I wrote a
song called ‘Love Song
[1 Remember You]’ for
this girl, and when |
played it busking one
night, | made a whole
string of girls cry and
begging for an encore,”

said Puddy. “l was
shocked at the impact it
had on them.”

Walt Whitman

“Song of Myself”
“Leaves of Grass”
ae froformed by

Micha rormstrong
On Thursday, October 21, 1999
_. At 1:00-2:20pm
In Room 7-158 of The Agora Building
| Admission is Free

croupier (n): An attendant at a
gaming table who collects and pays
bets. Ex. | lost all of my money and
he croupier took it from me.