why???

[le pire]

A few years ago I found myself identifying with a Dilbert comic strip. That's when I knew my life was pathetic.

I did have a nice cushy salary job, twice, and both times I ditched them to go back to performing. I don't have wife children or steady girlfriend so I can live the life of a bohemian stray and wander the streets of Paris and go on the prowl with the lost and found.

Maybe one day I'll pour the absinthe down the drain, go get some penecilline and renounce all this foolishness. I won't do that tonight or tomorrow however.

Braveheart moment:


FREEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!! !!!!!!


étienne

[Triona]

Etienne,

I might have joined you once upon a time, but being divorced with a six year old who is developmentally delayed, and an ex who hasn't worked in over 2 years (support, yeah right...), I have to have a steady income.

Perhaps one day when my son is grown, I can set out and try again <sigh>

[le pire]

thanks for the correction Taxi!


é

[Scot Free]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Triona:
[I doubt with your apparent gutter vocabulary you'd make it far in some "conventional" occupations.

Fuck, shit, motherfather! I was woundering why I couldn't get a Goddamn job as a fucking customer service shlep.
pottymouthpottymouthwashyourmouthwithsoapmoma


[This message has been edited by Scot Free (edited 01-02-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Scot Free (edited 01-02-2002).]

[jonnyflash]

Jonny:"well,fuck me in the goat-ass...
THAT's why I got fired from Subspray Subs
and Pizza Slut!"
(scratching head)
I knew it had to be more than the steady barrage of christian soft-rock in the restaraunt!

[jonnyflash]

seriously though,

it's info time boys & girls,
NON-CORPORATE NEWS
with your host,Jonny Flash and co-host his sweet little chihuahua,Lola.

Good evening,
A sobering story tonight,may not be suitable for viewers under 25.
Here's a glimpse of why so many don't get an education on our continent.(Not to say buskers can't have academic educations)

Privilege and exclusion: two sides of the same coin

• The high cost of a university education in the United States has made it one of the nation’s most glorified privileges

BY PETE VALE
HIGHER education in the United States has been converted into a luxury due to its ever-increasing expense, while the exclusion of America’s lower income youth, mainly those from minority backgrounds, grows by the day.

"I went to a state university for a Master’s degree," commented a U.S. citizen presently studying social sciences at the University of Havana. "I was denied both a scholarship and subsidized loans, despite my low income level and high grade point average. There’s just too much competition over the few resources allocated to the educational sector. I went to school part-time and participated in a "work-study" program, making a wage of $4.80 an hour, simply to survive. Upon graduation, I owed $21,000 at 8% interest for my education which, at the very minimum, I will be paying off over the next two decades if I decide to work in the public sector."

This is a typical story of an American youth in debt struggling to pay back educational loans, the most common form of funding available for university students. At the end of Clinton’s first term in office, a large portion of the standard student financial aid package, known as the Stafford Loan, was handed over to the private sector. Major companies such as AFSA Data Corporation presently handle former government loans which quickly became unsubsidized. Forced to pay heavy interest rates, college graduates spend a heavy portion of their monthly paychecks simply trying to keep up with the interest on their loan payments.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, the average yearly cost of a public four-year institution, including tuition, room and board, amounts to $6,340. A semester’s worth of books alone can add up to more than $500. A private education, deemed more prestigious by future employers, typically costs four times that of its public counterpart.

One of 11 U.S. students currently studying medicine at Cuba’s Latin American School, Asian-American Wing Wu, explained to Granma International that she chose to study in Cuba not only for the internationally recognized quality of higher education the island has to offer, but also for financial reasons.

In Cuba, higher education is considered a right, not a privilege, thus free and accessible to the entire population. Wu pointed out that a medical education in the United States costs anywhere from $200,000 to $400,000. In order avoid spending the rest of their lives paying back interest-ridden loans, she noted, most students turn to private medicine. Wu commented that by receiving an exceptional and free education in Havana, she would be able to go back to her mostly Hispanic lower-income neighborhood and give medical care to those desperately in need.

Jonny:"Wow,I learn something every day."
"The Canadian national & provincial public education systems R like the tottering cow in Apocalypse Now,just waiting for that last strategic machete swipe to knock it right out of existence as we know it.Soon the working-class youth of our continent will only be able to dream of affording or even borrowing the $$$ to go to medical or law school.While the banks continue to pay zero tax on record profit.Let's all put that in our brains and let simmer."

[Blake]

Well I suppose I need to add my ten cents worth to the question of why.

Art can function as I see it as cultural criticism.
It has the ability to inform,entertain, enliven,challenge, shock,delight and provoke thought.
I perform on the street because I have an agenda and that is about providing the widest possible audience with the opportunity to experience a live show that I hope is in some way transformative and or thought provoking.
It is a privelige to be able to do what I enjoy and make money from it.
I am in a unique position to be able to put my point to thousands of people a day.
One of the loudest messages that I think people see is that it is possible to do something you love and get paid for it. I know people think this, because they ask so often:Can you make a living from this?

I feel I have a responsibility to the world to do my part to raise awareness. I feel bringing people together as a group and causing them to open themselves even a little bit and god forbid give something of themselves is in a small way helping the world to grow wiser and less self obsessed.

We all have a gift that most people would give anything for. There are many ways to make a buck on this earth most of them harder than street performing in my experience.

I feel we create our own realities and that everything we experience in life is a product of our choices. I personally stand for responsibility and honesty.
As far as "Why" is concerend I only have to look at the smiles and the question becomes "Why not?"

I also tried working in an office and that many people don't really deserve to die

[Triona]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by jonnyflash:


BY PETE VALE
HIGHER education in the United States has been converted into a luxury due to its ever-increasing expense, while the exclusion of America’s lower income youth, mainly those from minority backgrounds, grows by the day.

"I went to a state university for a Master’s degree," commented a U.S. citizen presently studying social sciences at the University of Havana. "I was denied both a scholarship and subsidized loans, despite my low income level and high grade point average. There’s just too much competition over the few resources allocated to the educational sector. I went to school part-time and participated in a "work-study" program, making a wage of $4.80 an hour, simply to survive. Upon graduation, I owed $21,000 at 8% interest for my education which, at the very minimum, I will be paying off over the next two decades if I decide to work in the public sector."


Jonny:"Wow,I learn something every day."
"The Canadian national & provincial public education systems R like the tottering cow in Apocalypse Now,just waiting for that last strategic machete swipe to knock it right out of existence as we know it.Soon the working-class youth of our continent will only be able to dream of affording or even borrowing the $$$ to go to medical or law school.While the banks continue to pay zero tax on record profit.Let's all put that in our brains and let simmer."

Okay, and how many of you out there with children have started some sort of college savings plan for them? It doesn't require great gobs of money if you start early and invest well.

Any US performer who is interested can E-mail me privately and I can send you some info. Maybe you won't be able to pay for the whole thing, but you can at least help them out.

My parents didn't put away money. I only managed two years of college before I couldn't afford the loans. They also didn't plan for retirement and just had to sell their home of almost 50 years because they couldn't afford to keep it.

We can't expect the government to pay for everything. Yes in Cuba they get their college paid for. They also are a communist country that people have been fleeing for years, and they have a lot smaller population than the US. There are costs associated with freedom.

[jonnyflash]

"My parents didn't put away money. I only managed two years of college before I couldn't afford the loans. They also didn't plan for retirement and just had to sell their home of almost 50 years because they couldn't afford to keep it."


Triona,
I absolutely believe that freedom is a precious right.
For myself freedom means guaranteed access to the fullest resources your nation has to offer,among other things.I'd say these include a home,food,efficient transportation,education,and health care.
My parents are on the verge of being economically forced to sell their home too.
Spending our lives scratching around for these basics leaves most of us unfree to pursue greater goals than the provision of these necessities alone.Freedom means more than that to me.

"We can't expect the government to pay for everything."
I agree wholeheartedly.I just wish I had the ability to enforce current Canadian tax law.Bank CEO's and a few billionaires are pocketing the public service budget of my nation.There are tital waves of money cascading around in the pockets of less than 1% of the population.This continues while syncophants calling themselves patriots(actually anti-patriots)editorialize in the papers that we just can't afford to take care of retarded Canadians anymore.

I'll respond to the other points made later on,I'm going to decorate for a monocolor-(orange)party.
Chow

[worldwidese]

For anyone with parents being forced to sell their home, tell them to check out Reverse Mortgages, where they get to keep the house and live off the equity.

[Triona]

Thanks World, unfortunately they go to closing in two weeks. It really bugs me that someone else will be living in the house I grew up in. A stranger in my bedroom kind of thing....

[Triona]

Sorry to hear that Johnny. My point is (and we're getting way off topic here), is that we should start doing something ourselves so we don't wind up in the same situation, or in the case of college and the kids, they don't have to drown in college loans the way some of us are.

Maybe we should take this to a different thread...

[jonnyflash]

"My point is (and we're getting way off topic here), is that we should start doing something ourselves so we don't wind up in the same situation, or in the case of college and the kids, they don't have to drown in college loans the way some of us are."

Once again my friend,we have a point of agreement.
What that "something" is,depends on the world view of the suggester.We can all agree,however, that this state of affairs is not just,and that something needs to change(for the better).

[jonnyflash]

Hey Johnny,
Great post! Do you have any sources to back up Street performance and political Revolution? Especially big stuff like the correspondances between the Bolsheviks and Russian Circus / Gymnastics? Wow! What a neat concept! That's a topic for your PHD thesis!

O.K..I've dug up more facts on this;

1.Lenin nationalized circus in 1924
2.Soviet Russia had 70 huge "strictly for circus" stadiums in which 70 million citizens attended circus shows yearly.Tickets were the equivalent of $5 per person.
3.The USSR had 6000 performers working at any given time, with a total of 18000 employed in the circus in some fashion.
4.All circus performers were given a contract:20 years of performances,after which they could retire with full pension whether they continued to perform or not.
5.Popov, believed by many to be the world's greatest clown,came out of this set-up.