"talk to us"

2008 - NOVEMBER 6

pioneer square (with micah) in portland, oregon, usa

This trip with Micah was something we had been planning for a bit. I was living in Portland for practically the whole month of November (or was it October?) and we had decided to go downtown to Pioneer Square to chat with people. Portland is an interesting place. As one person once told me, "Portland has so many bums that the bums ask other bums for money." If you went to Pioneer Square and did this, you would definitely think this statement true. There are some records with people asking us for change which I didn't write down.

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The Lady In The Wheelchair
She wanted to stop, but she was being pushed by someone else and didn't have much to say. Kind of an awkward conversation, but her heart was in the right place anyway.

The Food Stamps Guy
Young dude named Kyle who was living off of food stamps, yet probably perfectly capable of getting a job. Must have been around 18-24. Forget the rest.

The Young Dude Walking In Circles
This guy told us he had been walking around in circles, for two and a half hours, trying to scrounge money from people. Through panhandling, he discovered that $0.75 is the magic number that will get people to give you money more often than if you asked for any other amount.

The Threesome
Three kids. One had a jawharp, which is some kind of Thai instrument that sounds kinda bizarre, like a mini harp, only you play it with your jaw?!! They talked about going to Austin together in their van and kept trying to convince Micah to join them on the adventure. Eventually, these people doing a cell phone / text-messaging-while-driving study came by and asked them if they would take a survey. They say yes, but they put handkerchiefs on so that they're covering up their faces completely, and then proceeded to give what seemed like bullshit answers about how text-messaging and driving are bad. Their names are Zipper, Icarus, and Band-Aid. Zipper is a girl with a lip piercing and gap between her teeth; at 21 or so, she is the oldest. Icarus is the only male, and he is very goofy, young (at around 17), and seems to love Micah. Band-Aid is a larger blonde girl with dyed hair, and I think she's probably 16 or 17. I don't know how these kids are out on their own when they're so young, but whatever. Not my problem. They talk about how they will be in Pioneer Square the next day, giving out free haircuts, and I briefly entertain the thought.

The Spare-A-Handshake Guy
An Africa-American dude who rather likes our idea, because he's a bit of social experimenter himself. He likes to ask people if they can, "Spare a handshake," just to hear their reactions, simply because people hear, "Spare a..." and automatically say no, with little concern as to what words the sentence finishes with.

The Guy From Eugene
There is a guy from Eugene, Oregon, who wants to start a project in Eugene which basically combines music and art there. I gave him my business card, and he e-mailed me later on.