A Simple Plan

29 March - Its very difficult to drag one's self out of bed when one has made no concrete plans to do anything but I managed nonetheless and performed by garbage bag assisted ablutions before wandering out to the bookstore and JJ Beans where I found myself consuming a very delicious but completely inappropiate blueberry muffin and engaging with Jim, a homeless guy who’s in some real dire straights. one thing led to another and he asked what I did and upon learning that I was a bike courier asked me if anyone was looking for employees. certainly there is a pretty big demand for messengers in downtown at the moment but I’m very hesitant about suggesting that anyone should do it - Novex's policy of hiringpeople who are desperate tfor a job certainly hasn’t worked out for them and it hasn’t worked out for a fair number of the guys who've tried it. Its not difficult work but to make anything of it the amount of effort and fitness required is substantial. I suggested he ask some of the couriers downtown if he was really keen to do it but warned him that its a lot more than just casually riding around - in any event, I’ve a sneaking supicion that he won’t be seeking it out regardless. Still, interesting guy if somewhat tragic.
In the afternoon I went looking for some travel guides and was rather bemused by the fact that the budget versions of the travel guides are usually more expensive than the standard ones. Considered working that observation into a standup comedy bit but realised that one joke does not an act make - which is a lesson that could have been adopted by the comedians who we saw at a local stand up comedy act on the Drive. Certainly not the worst stand up act i've ever seen but far from the best. The MC had a very amusing video introduction whhe'd pasted his face over the intro credit scene from the seminal 80s sitcom 'Perfect Strangers' but that was pretty much where the amusement stopped. I've never seen so many stand up acts spend so much time referring to their crib notes whilkst on stage. One of them did it very discreetly by keeping his water glass on top of them and would surrepitiously steal glances while he wetted his parched throat but for the most part the show just stopped while they would refresh their memories with the next joke. There were certainly moments of pure gold but the comedians either had okay jokes and terrible delivery or great delivery and awful jokes. Such is to be expected from an open mic night but glad to be supporting the local scene regardless.