Joni, jobs and the cardboard guitar

i decided to get a JOB at harbourfront, even a nominally paying foh gig, because i deliberated SO LONG about spending $350 for an intimate (replete with a chance to meet the artist after the show) Joni Mitchell concert. it sounded so great and i wanted to go so bad. but i just didn't have THAT kind of money to spend on entertainment at the time, so i didn't go...

and since then she's retired from the music biz again right? and this one seems to have stuck too.

but, since missing that show, i was glad to be PAID to be on hand to take in many similarly magical and potentially life altering shows... some of which i wouldn't have even known about, if i hadn't shown up for work.

for example, i remember working in the studio during the vegetarian food fair that turned linds and cath vegan for MOST of the school year, and, i came to see the animal cruelty aspects of the issue clearly for the first time.

i had always felt conflicted because of the economics of meat and dairy, and was well aware of the message i wanted to send with my consumer dollar. but such an animal lover still had not noticed the rest of the reality??? t'was the comics that did it.

in response to an audience member that was criticizing him for making light of such terrible truth, i spoke up and complimented his use of the genre, and said that the humour was exactly what made the unbearable truth suddenly visible for me. and he said "quit stealing MY lines" and everybody laughed.

i think that was the first and only time i ever bought something from a performer while i was working. and i am still delighted with the autograph...

he had vowed never to marry again and his whole world changed in 3 months. she is the most altruistic person he has ever met and he helps her run the often illegal animal resuce out of the tiny nyc apt. when he opened the book to sign it, it already had "to pat burke" in it and he was embarrassed. i said, don't worry, i'll take it and so he crossed it out and put to kim, who the hell is pat burke??? and did a self portrait doodle with a vegan for life t-shirt and firecracker. that was the first and only time i bought something from a performer while i was working a show. he was awesome. a cardboard guitar??? c'mon now.
bizaro.


http://www.bizarro.com/vegan/vegan_cartoons.htm

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remember when linds couldn't open the dressing room door for the handsome actor because her hands were shaking so bad, and so he had to do it for her?
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i forget what show it was where the guy said 'all those doors i knocked on over and over? well, i work with those guys now and from time to time they'll say "remember when you first started knocking?"'
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i went out to admire the rockstarness of mr. michael and davey c at hugh's room, at the boys do girls, and they were up to their own par and a part of a whole great line up, including kurt swinghammer, who i have never seen before.

listening, i was reminded that the sunflower sets for the joni mitchell show on city tv were done by him. a fact shared with me by the nice marketing/media guy at harbourfront (who had been at city at the time), and who went out of his way to enlighten me on the fact that the people "working on these shows are usually artist themselves."

it was good to finally actually SEE kurt swinghammer in action - i LOVE the guitar as percussion tool style. and, how i didn't know his covers were carol king songs! i knew them but to me they felt like james taylor tunes, and was glad to be corrected/again reminded of carole king's power (by a man).