"talk to us"

2008 - MAY 27

folk life (with lenny) in seattle, washington, usa

Let me just start off by saying that Folk Life is great. It's the perfect venue for "Talk To Us" sessions. We found a piece of cardboard in the trash (after Lenny gave $1 to this guy who had a sign that said, "I bet you $1 that you will read this sign"). I borrowed a marker from a vendor that Lenny bought a nature photograph from.

But before we start, some observations! First, people our age (21-to-30-ish) tended not to stop and talk to us. Everyone who stopped was pretty much under 18 or over 40. Second, some people think that "Talk To Us (About Anything)" means, "We Have The Answer To Everything" -- which is just silly and weird!

SIGN:
"TALK TO US (ABOUT ANYTHING), WE DON'T WANT MONEY; WE JUST WANT CONVERSATION."

---

The Folk Life Staff Guy
We'd seen this guy talking to another guy at Folk Life. He came and sat down by Lenny, and the two of them talked about what Lenny and I did for a living. His name was Ian, and he said that he was leaving Seattle soon and Folk Life was his "Goodbye Seattle" thing.

The Girl Who We Kept Ignoring (And Friends)
This blonde girl came with two of her friends -- a guy and a gal -- and tried making conversation with us, but we keep getting distracted and kind of ignoring her. She asked what our best conversation with people has been, and I fail to answer because all these other people come by... (see below)

The 14-Year-Old Raver Girl
I saw that this girl was wearing a ton of candy, and I asked her about raving a bit. She said that this was her first time coming to Folk Life sober, and I was like, "WHAT??" and she said that she had just popped an Ecstasy pill, so I was like, "WHAAAAAT??" I asked her how old she was, and she said she was 14. I asked her how many times she'd done it, and she said she'd lost count. I said, "What? Like 100?" and she said, "No, more like 23 or something." I was like, "WTF? That's more than me, and I'm 24!" and yeahhhhh. She's too young for that shit. Her friend was on the phone, refusing to talk to us.

The Group Of 13- And 14-Year-Olds
Initially spurned forth by two of them -- Sam and this other guy whose name I don't know -- these two 13- and 14-year-olds sat down next to us. the Asian kid with glasses asked us what we thought about marijuana. I said it should be legalized. I had forgotten who I was talking to, but that kid said he agreed. Sam was surprised. Then the Asian kid said something about how marijuana was less dangerous than alcohol. I said, "Yes!" but then lenny asked the kid if he'd done those things before. He said that he had not gotten drunk but had tried marijuana. So Lenny asked, "Then how do you know?" and the kid didn't seem to have an answer, really. Meanwhile their group of friends came by, but didn't much say anything.

The Army Guy
This guy came out of nowhere. I didn't see him coming, but he gave his opinion of marijuana. His opinion was that it was not only a gateway drug, but much, much more. He seemed to think that being in the military almost gave him credit to say this or something. He basically talked about how he's seen people's lives ruined by marijuana, and he claimed to formerly be a drug dealer from California but never did it. He talked about how a joint was way worse than a cigarette, and the Asian kid asked if he smoked. He said yes. The Asian kid was like, "You spend $3,000 a month on cigarettes," and the Army dude was like, "I spent $3,000 in the past two days," and we were like, "Wow, on what?" and he was like, "I don't wanna say." Lenny assumed it was hookers. Haha.

The Folk Life Staff Guy, Part 2 Ian interjected by saying that he was 25, and from his personal experience, he felt that people did marijuana but outgrew it. He basically lumped it down to people with addictive personalities, saying that if they weren't addicted to marijuana, they'd be addicted to other stuff.

The Army Guy, Part 2
He got a phone call and left after not really agreeing with Ian. Then he talked about how his job -- being a soldier -- was way more dangerous than smoking. Whatever that's even about.

The Girl Who We Kept Ignoring (And Friends), Part 2
This girl again tried to continue the conversation by asking us what our favorite conversation the other times we did this was. On the spot, I can think of absolutely nothing. In retrospect, I can think of a bunch, but at that time, nothing seemed appropriate or interesting. Suck! They left after a bit. Sorry, gal.

The Hugs Raver Kid
This kid was dressed up totally awesome, raver-style, and kinda femme, with lots of pink and purple mixed with black. He had purple/black hair, I think. Totally E-tarded, I'm pretty sure. He was talking about how he had scammed some "dirka dirkas" into buying his broken iPod and that they owed him $10. And he was totally looking to get that $10 even though he had scammed those guys and sold them a broken ipod that was stuck on the same one song?! Those people hadn't even checked it!!!! And he was asking if we'd seen the Arabs and Iraqis, and we said no. He went to go look for them.

The Group Of 13- And 14-Year-Olds, Part 2
They leave and promise to come back. I make sure to tell them that if they ever do drugs, to definitely not do meth, crack cocaine, or heroine.

The Lesbians With A Kid From Kazakhstan
Or at least I thought they were lesbian. It didn't really get confirmed or anything. They were nice and middle-aged, with a cute Asian-ish looking kid who they had gotten from Kazakhstan. One was saying that she was talking to her partner about the trip to Kazakhstan and how vacations like that were so relaxing and nothing much mattered on vacation. She said that what we were doing with our sign was probably like a mini-vacation. The other woman had other thoughts to add. She said that as she was getting older, she felt like she was talking to people less and less because she had no real interest in speaking with them, and that perhaps she should do something like this, too. They tried getting the kid to say hi to us, but he had just awoken from a nappy nap.

The People From Redmond
This mom, with her two kids and… boyfriend (?) stop by. She's the only one who talks, but she loves the idea. There's some generic talk. We talk about the delicious-looking donuts her youngest son has. They're from redmond, as the younger son's baseball t-shirt says ("Redmond West").

The Poetry Girls
Some girls were walking by and told us to contribute one line to their poem. I told the main chick that she should go contribute to the paper that I posted up (a community art experiment), and she said, "Oh? that was you?" and it's pretty cool that she'd seen it! I gave her my card and told her to send me the poems she got. The line I wrote in her poem was, "They then searched in vain for the fuse". Lenny's line after mine said something like, "Penguins marching in line to the ______" Here's a picture of one of the poems:

I am going to pocket your wallet.
Run away and buy some rabbits.
It's always nice to start new habits
I need uh, three dollars?
I wish it would rain or shine
Yeah where is the sun??
I saw it on yestermoon
Glowing blood red
It made me want to go to bed
My bed was made of nails you see
Bleeding brains through barriers
Rhythm, rhythm + rhythm
Rhythm of people, rhythm of Folk Life

The Shortest Poem In The World Guy
This guy waited until the group left, and then approached Lenny and apologized if he talked funny. I guess he'd suffered a stroke before. He then said he used to know the guy who wrote the shortest poem in the world and recited the poem. It was, "I yawn until dawn," and Lenny said, "That's a very straight-forward poem."

The Fly-By Konichiwa Man
Some elderly man walked by and was like, "Konichiwa," and I said, "I'm not Japanese, but okay." I don't think he heard, though, cause it seems he'd said "Konichiwa" without really caring if we responded.

The Crazy Lady With The Sunflower Seeds
This partially crazy lady with a bag of sunflower seeds came by. Her first question to us was, "How come orientals don't talk to people?" and we were like, "Whaaa?" Cause how the fuck do you answer that? Lenny said something about how it was probably cultural. She would sit there listening to his answer and not saying anything, just picking at her bag of sunflower seeds. And then lenny would offer forth some other idea, and she would continue doing the same. No real answer-giving. And then because it was so awkward, Lenny would keep saying stuff about how he thought it was cultural that Asians don't talk to people as much, and he also mixed in a lot of, "I don't know"'s because, well, she wasn't responding and made everyone feel uncomfortable. Finally, she spoke and said that she thought it was all a front that Asians don't talk to other people and that there was nothing cultural about it. She said how Asian people dance with no feeling and are robotic, and that she doesn't like that people blame it on culture. She was weird. And ignant. She walked away. Lenny and I were giving funny looks to the air as she walked away and I guess she kept turning around and seeing those. I didn't see her reaction, but Lenny said she looked like she wanted to kill.

The Two Other Asian Kids
Some Asian kids -- one mixed, one not -- were around during the time crazy lady was there. We filled them in on the convo, and they said that Asian kids were some of the most talkative in their classes. As soon as the crazy lady left, the mixed one said, "I wasn't talking because she was there."

The Hugs Raver Kid, Part 2
Our favorite comes back to tell us he found the Iraqi guy he was looking for, and that the guy gave him his $10. Shady! Then he saw some guy walking by with a "Free Hugs" sign and ran after the dude and was like growl-screaming, "GIVE ME A HUGGGG!" (I so wish I'd gotten it on video.) After he'd hugged that group of people, he came back, and I saw another, and I was like, "ZOMG FREE HUG!! GO GO GO!" and again, he was growl-screaming, "GIVE ME A HUGGGGGG" and went flying after those people. Ahhahaha. Man. Shoulda definitely taken a video after setting him up like that. Damn. One of those two asian kids complemented raver kid on his totally flaming outfit. Awesome. See below for visual (the one with the arms raised is our growling hug friend):


The Spoken Word Guy
This one guy, Raajni, stopped by, and he was a spoken word artist. He had a buncha CDs with him and had sold eight today. Lenny bought one from him for $7, although the suggested price was $10. He liked what we were doing, and said that he was trying to spread dialogue just like we were. He gave us a little taste of his spoken word / rap, and it was basically along the lines of how there is no more democracy in America and that everything is a lie. I said, "I agree," and he said, "She concurs," and gave me a pound (fist pound). There was a lot of fist pounding, and he was pretty much awesome. And in all honesty, his spoken word was not at all bad!

The Two Girls? They don't get a better description, unfortunately. One just asked me about my lip ring and said she was thinking about getting one later today. I said it just felt like getting your ear pierced. I don't even know if they were old enough to get that shit; she didn't look 18... (don't you have to be 18?)

The Psychologist Girl
So, people with signs are DEFINITELY attracted to other people with signs. This lady stopped by and she had a "Psychiatric Help, 5 Cents (Suggested Donation)" sign. she was with a guy who didn't really say a damned thing. She talked about how she had earned $1.25 or so from four people, but that only one of those people had actually talked to her about an actual problem and that everyone else just wanted a diagnosis but didn't want to share a problem. They were from Portland. Apparently, a lot of people were asking her what her qualifications were, and she said, "Look, I'm offering help for a nickel! Do I need qualifications?"

The Salmon Guy
I don't know if this guy came by because the psychologist girl was there, but he said something like, "What do you think about this problem? No more salmon fishing for this year!" We were surprised, both by the idea of it and by his statement, I guess, since it was so random! Haha. Chinook salmon season was cancelled, but silver salmon season was still on. Yay? Or boo?

The Hip-Hop Teacher
An African-American lady came by and Lenny talked to her a bit about the marijuana convo we'd had with the kids. I didn't listen to that entire conversation but did catch that she worked at a middle school for a rotation program. Those schools had hip-hop dance programs, not squaredancing like we used to! She said she saw a few of the kids she saw at the middle schools and that they would stop swearing as soon as she walked by. She seemed cool, but she mostly talked to Lenny. She asked us what star signs we were and was surprised that we were Sagittarius and Cancer. She thought that we'd be aquarius and gemini. Then she asked us if we knew where we could pick up a program. We weren't so helpful in answering that one.

The Old Guy With The Hat And Glasses
He was a cute older guy who sat next to lenny. I forget what he talked about, though T__T

The Asian Ladies With The Animals
A couple of asian ladies came by and one was silent while the other one asked us questions like, "What animal would you be?" I answered that I would be a sloth. (I wanted to insert the awesome fact that sloths could swim, but I didn't.) Lenny said he'd be a flying squirrel. As she was leaving, she told me that next time she thought of a sloth she'd think of me. LOL? Cute old guy thought that was hilarious.

The Medical Marijuana Guy
Just passing out flyers and moving on.

The Pot-Wanting Guy
He was a total bum and talked briefly about how he likes making signs too, and that once he made a sign saying, "Potless." Then he asked us if we had pot. Haha. Funny that he came after the Medical Marijuana guy.

The Guy Who Worked At UW
This man and his wife -- who had funky fake teeth -- stopped by. He worked at UW for Biostatistics, and we talked about how the building was far away and stuff for a while. Along with tons of other people, they asked us if it was a school project. It's funny; people are searching for reasons, and after i say that I was a Sociology major, everyone is like, AAAH. As if all the pieces finally come together, and it actually makes sense now. Haha.

The Lady And Son In Red
Both of them were in red, yes. I was talking to someone else when they came by but the lady seemed really cool and nice. She liked the idea. The son didn't say much. We talked to the lady about the scary lady who was kind of racist and she said, "It seems like she is the one who didn't really like talking," since scary lady would say stuff and then like not really respond to our answers.

The Japan-Living Guy, Michael
I didn't talk to this guy much, but he had a blonde mustache with one tip (right side) that was white hair. It was quite interesting. Quite interesting indeed. This guy had lived in Japan for a while when he was 18 and was pretty fluent in Japanese, I think. he said he'd been the only white guy there so everyone knew his name was Michael but he didn't really ever know what most of their names were. Haha. He'd spent a recent year in China and picked up some Chinese. I put him on the spot and had him try to speak some, but I think he was a bit bashful about it. Lenny talked to him mostly, and he was in Seattle for a few months only before he went back to Japan and two other countries. Apparently, what Lenny and Michael did was talk about the people I was talking to.

The Welsh Accent Guy
This guy had some musical wooden sticks. He sat down and he said, "Nihon-jin desuka? (Are you Japanese?)" I said, "No," as I always do when people ask that question haha. Lenny said, "Iie, chugoku-jin desu. (No, Chinese.)" People always ask that shit, and i always try not to humor them haha. I always answer with a blunt, "No". It's almost weird that they say that right away because they're expecting that you're Japanese and asking you in Japanese -- probably to show off their limited shitty Japanese skills -- but if you're not Japanese... and you didn't know any Japanese... then you'd just be like, "What on earth are you saying?" and it's just a bit odd to ask that in another language, I think. Just my opinion because it happens to me so much, though, I guess. I talked to him for a while as Lenny was talking to Michael. I mentioned that he had an accent and asked him if he was Irish, and he said no, but i had a keen ear, and that Irish accents are similar to Welsh accents, and maybe that's why.

He told me this joke... something about how people who speak three languages are tri-lingual, people who speak two are bi-lingual, and people who speak one are American. We then talked about how it sucked that in America you learn another language when you're in middle school and high school, and not in elementary school, and by then, you can't learn languages as easily. he said he used to tutor Vietnamese kids and that the older kid would learn English fine but never could really get rid of his accent, whereas the younger kids learned the same amount of English over the same amount of time but were able to get rid of their accents. Interesting point.

The Best Idea Guy
This guy asked us what we would do when we were out of good ideas. I think lenny said something about how we wouldn't run out of good ideas, and I said something about how we'd just keep using this idea. I don't know. Then he asked us if this was our best idea, and Lenny said SushiMonsters was his best idea.

The Tit Guy
This guy was the only one to come over out of his group of four. He was baked, I guess. He came over and lifted up his shirt and said, "Tit?" and then said, "Talk to you about anything, huh?" and I said, "Yeah, anything, but I don't want to talk about your tit." Then he said, "Do you want anything?" and looked at me, and I was like, "Uhh no," and he's like, "Don't get shy on me, now; you don't seem shy!" and I was like, yeahhhhhhhh. It felt a little awkward after the tit thing and intense look. He just bumbled on a little and then apologized for being really high.

The 14-Year-Old "Free Hugs" Girl
This younger girl had a "Free Hugs" sign, so I called her over and gave her a hug. I pretty much gave a hug to everyone who I saw with that sign that looked our way. She was wearing a Tegan And Sara shirt, and I mentioned that REDEFINE recently did a Tegan And Sarah interview, and she said, "Oh, no way!" I wrote down the address of the website for her, along with the REDEFINE MySpace site. She told me some story about how she went to go see Tegan And Sara in Bellingham and almost passed out because she was anxious since they were four hours late getting there or something. i don't really know. She also said that her friends and her were starting up a screenprinting clothing site and was going to launch into something about how we should work together but then caught herself and said nevermind. She asked me what my lip ring felt like and I told her just like a ear piercing, really.

The Group Of 13- And 14-Year-Olds, Part 3
As promised, our young friends came back. Sam was first and said that he kept his promise. I said something about how he loved us and was like, "Right?" and he was like, "Yeah." haha. He was this cute little black (?) maybe mixed (?) kid with basketball shorts on. They had a crew of like 8 kids, guys and girls, their age. I don't know the names of any of the rest, but we talked to them for a good freaking while. This time we talked about a lot of things.

For starters, MySpace, and how their parents wouldn't let most of them have them. Apparently those kids had taken sexual predator classes in school! I said, "We never had those," and Lenny said, "Because it wasn't a problem when we were kids," and I guess that's true. Sam asked if we'd watched To Catch A Predator before and I said, yeah, and that he should be able to have a MySpace because don't predators usually target girls? And this taller boy with massive calves (I guess he "had hops" hahaha) and a basketball t-shirt on said that he had been approached by older men before. The first story was that he was at a basketball court playing basketball and some guy approached him and asked if he wanted to play, and he said okay, and played with the guy for twenty minutes. And he got really sweaty, and the guy said that they should go to his house to shower. This kid told him to fuck off, and he said that it was easy because these predators who had approached him were way shorter and smaller than him (he was pretty tall). This other predator came up jogging behind him when he was running around Greenlake. Again, the kid was sweaty, and the guy said that later they should go skinny-dipping in the lake at midnight. The kid again told this guy to fuck off. Lenny told him, "Maybe you should stop getting sweaty, then," and he said that he got sweaty from doing nothing. SO FUNNY. We continued talking to the kids about what they termed as chimo's (child molestors), and four of the kids (two being brother and sister) had a sex offender living in their neighborhood. This chubbyish kid said that there was one living two houses down from him and that that guy would always be staring at him. Haha. That kid was cute, too. Quite rotund.

This one girl had a really cool necklace with legos on it, and I guess all four of the girls there had one of those. They'd made them together. They looked DOPE. I want one. Anyway, one girl (after being asked by Lenny) suggested that we talk about how young kids have cellphones. She said she was 14 and had just gotten hers and thought it was ridiculous that some 8-year-olds were walking around text-messaging on their cellphones. Interesting stuff... I got my cell when i was 16, so it's not too far off. The generation gap is fascinating!

We asked them if they had people in their school that smoked pot. One girl said only one kid did. Her friend said, "Yeah, but there's only 19 people in our class," and she said, "True."

After that we got to talking about the rules they have at their Catholic school, since all of them went to Catholic school. Girls weren't allowed to wear nail polish, and we talked about uniforms and all that. They said they got into trouble more than we could ever imagine. I went to Catholic school; I don't remember it being that strict since I was third grade and under, but as a high schooler or middle schooler, I'm sure it can be a bitch.

At some point, talking to all these kids got overwhelming. There were just SO MANY of them, and all of them had something to say, which was really kinda cute. They were really open and cool kids.

The Preacher Lady
As we were talking to this group of kids, a lady came by and handed us this piece of paper. She said, "This is a good discussion topic." The paper said on it something like "Make peace with god." Further inspection made us realize that it was some advertisement for Billy Graham! I said, "No, we are not talking about this," and stashed it away. The kid who had been approached by elderly men said something negatory about those Christian evangelists (of which there were a LOT LOT LOT at Folk Life).

The Cool-Looking Kids
Again, some emo-ish looking kids. Four of them, to be exact -- one with a banged up hand drum. Talked to them briefly about how -- and this is kinda weird of me -- they were the coolest-looking people to stop by and that other people who "looked cool" didn't really stop and talk. One of the kids said, "Guess they aren't really that cool, then." Touche. His other friends were rather silent, however.

The Old Chinese Man
Lenny talked to this guy a little and then told me to speak to him in Chinese. Getting put on the spot! Noooo! I spoke to him a little about what we were doing there, and he asked if we were practicing English, and I said no, we were born here in America. He got a bit uninterested at that point. I asked him if he was playing his instrument, since he was carrying a case, and he said he was taking a break, and then said bye and left.

The Spanish-Speaking Guy
Some guy came by and said, "Hablas espanol? (Do you speak Spanish?)" and I said, "Poco (little)," and he said something really fast, and I said, "Lentamente, por favor (Slowly, please)." He then said, "Yo quiero ir al bano? (I want to go to the bathroom?)" and I said, "No," -- not that that even makes sense. But he left, and as he was leaving, he said to his friend, "They said to talk to them about anything."

The Rainbow Camp People
Two unique folks came by to give us some flyers for an event in Wyoming that is like a FREE Burning Man. It sounded interesting and I was interested. welcomehome.org was one of its websites, and I don't remember the other one. One of the ladies said we'd love it and that it was for weeks or months at a time. Ummmm! I don't think I'm that much of a hippie. She said it would involve just going into the woods, having giant bonfires, playing music, and doing drugs. She kept stressing that we didn't need to do drugs but that we could. Sounds like a jolly good time, I'd say. They were getting there a week early so they could get the best hallucinogens, but again stressed that we didn't need to do drugs if we went. They also said that if we went they would for sure see us. The lady was crouched talking to us, and three guys threw water down her pants and said, "It was getting hot down there," and she stepped up and smiled, and they were like, "Ohhh, she likes it!" I don't know if they knew her, but it was fairly amusing.

The Instrument Kids
There were three kids with various stringed instruments in their cases. I asked them what kinda music they played, and they said, "Kinda like folk." I said, "Oh yeah. Duh. It's Folk Life," and they said, "Yeah." We asked them how much money they'd made over the weekend, and they'd made like $120 or so. Not bad, not bad. They were young. Again, probably 16 or under. Cute kids. One was silent. The other two kinda talked.

The Camera Girls
We were walking to Sushiland and had to walk through Fun Forest, and I saw some emo kid with a "Free Hugs" sign, so I went to go hug him. He asked me what my sign said, and I showed him, and his two female friends started talking to me about my camera. One had just gotten a film Minolta camera from her grandma and wanted to invest in a digital Rebel next. Ah yes, more 16-and-under-year-olds who are friendly.

The Factory Music Guys
At nearly every local Seattle event... or maybe even Washington events... there are these "Peruvian pan flute" guys who play music. They were at all the days of folk life, of course. One of the guys saw our sign and started talking to us after we said hi to him. We just asked him if they'd sold a lotta cds, and they said today was slow, but Sunday went very well.