Two Uncomfortable Encounters with Asian Street Vendors
Today, I was in Queens and a street vendor was selling CDs. She was playing one on a boom box, and I really liked it. Just some piano music. I like piano music, but I don't know enough about it to really shop for it. I picked up the CD, asked for the price, and opened my purse to pay when all the sudden the music on the boom box got really, really cheesy -- like, "theme from Disney cartoon mermaid movie" kind of cheesy.
I didn't really want the CD anymore (I immediately imagined holding a dinner party in which I serve a flourless torte and then the soundtrack turns to "Under the Sea"), so I rifled through my purse and pretended I didn't have enough cash. (Well, what would you have done? "Sorry, this CD sucks now"?)
In the second case, a lady in Herald Square was doing caricatures for $5. I know it's totally touristy to stop on the street and have your portrait drawn, but I was feeling whimsical, and $5 seemed like a bargain (and, quite frankly, I knew I'd get a blog post out of it). In under ten minutes, this was produced:
I don't think it looks like me, but I do think it looks kind of like Elaine from Seinfeld.
I was, however, fine with paying $5 and going my merry way. The artist, however, informed me that charcoal "goes everywhere" and that I really should buy a frame, which she would sell me for $10. She presumptively went about trying to frame the drawing, while I told her (quite assertively, compared to the CD encouter) that I didn't want the frame. She lowered the price, but I held firm and told her she was getting $5 or I was walking away. She rolled the drawing up for me, grumpily.
Charcoal does, in fact, "go everywhere," including on my scanner.
I didn't really want the CD anymore (I immediately imagined holding a dinner party in which I serve a flourless torte and then the soundtrack turns to "Under the Sea"), so I rifled through my purse and pretended I didn't have enough cash. (Well, what would you have done? "Sorry, this CD sucks now"?)
In the second case, a lady in Herald Square was doing caricatures for $5. I know it's totally touristy to stop on the street and have your portrait drawn, but I was feeling whimsical, and $5 seemed like a bargain (and, quite frankly, I knew I'd get a blog post out of it). In under ten minutes, this was produced:
I don't think it looks like me, but I do think it looks kind of like Elaine from Seinfeld.
I was, however, fine with paying $5 and going my merry way. The artist, however, informed me that charcoal "goes everywhere" and that I really should buy a frame, which she would sell me for $10. She presumptively went about trying to frame the drawing, while I told her (quite assertively, compared to the CD encouter) that I didn't want the frame. She lowered the price, but I held firm and told her she was getting $5 or I was walking away. She rolled the drawing up for me, grumpily.
Charcoal does, in fact, "go everywhere," including on my scanner.
posted by JenIsFamous at 9/26/2006 06:32:00 PM
3 Comments:
At only $10 per the frame, that caricature is quite a bargain, Jen. For a mere $15, you could have had a wonderful housegift for whichever of your friends first deigned to invite you and Lord to a party at which she played "Under the Sea"; a likeness so blandly "generic" as to look at once like no one you know, and also like anyone who happens to have longish hair and breasts.
As far as piano music, a really great CD is "Bill Evans & Jim Hall-Undercurrent". It's piano and guitar duets but it's still really piano-ee.
I think the moral of the story is that people are just trying to make a buck, and they'll keep plugging and plugging until they get the sell.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home