Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Metropolis

When we were in downtown Portland last week on our vacation, we got to see all kinds of cool things. That's what I love about downtowns, especially big ones. There is so much diversity. We saw homeless people, homeless people with dogs, and one homeless lady with a pet raven. We saw people doing all kinds of cool street tricks: a guy dressed all in gold, including his hands and face painted gold, who stood as still as a statue but then moved occasionally like a robot. He held out candy to kids and made my 3 year old cry when he tried to give her smarties instead of the sucker in his other hand. We saw a guy playing several instruments at once, strapped all over his body. But my favorite was this guying playing buckets and vodka bottles.



I also loved this little homeless girl playing the violin. This poor, teenage runaway trying to earn her bread by playing her heart out to the downtown crowds.



Wait, what is that on her arm? Is that a pair of jeans, carefully cut into rags and pinned on with safety pins???

Dang! That little "street urchin" probably lives in a posh suburb and got dropped off downtown by her lawyer/doctor parents in a BMW. And I just threw $5 in her case! I'm such a sucker.

7 comments:

Devri said...

Man, I was feeling all August Rush on this one, till I seen the evidence... scandals

Christie said...

LOL - that's so true. I've heard stories of supposedly "homeless" people pulling in more a year than I do. Its all a sham!

Mindi said...

i would have done the same thing. i'm a sucker for any street performer that has an ounce of talent.

tiburon said...

Sucker indeed.

This is one of the reasons I miss Seattle. I loved the characters downtown.

Shannon said...

I think we were both down town at the same time! Did you got to "A Bite of Portland?" I love People watching!

Misty said...

Wow, all she needs now is to Bedazzle it! The safety pins are not quite over-the-top enough!

Omgirl said...

No, we missed it. We were too early. They were setting up, but we left before there was any food.