Sunday, May 1, 2011

Taxi!: The Walking Tour

How many jobs have you had? Let's see: actress, waitress, performance artist, sound artist, installation artist, teacher, street performance director/creator, volunteer co-ordinator, life guard, writer, blogger, editor, make-up and bodycare product salesperson, museum shop salesperson, arts project administrator, and census taker. I think that's it. Those are the ones I got paid for anyway. Most hated: waitressing. Hated it and I sucked at it.

Reading Helen Potrebenko's novel about a woman taxi driver brings back all those terrible job memories--sexual harassment in the kitchen from hell, dysfunctional co-workers and bosses, stress, fatigue, boredom, lack of training, lack of proper job description, and general feelings of vulnerability and lack of respect.

May 1st is a day set aside for celebrating workers. So why is it so bloody DEPRESSING? Because we still haven't figured out the living wage. And I am sick of hearing two bit businesses whining about the raise in the minimum wage. Take your blinders off and look at the reality of working world! Don't even get me started on what artists are(n't) paid.

Anyway, enough with the rant. Anakana Schofield organized a fantastic walking tour and we had some marvelous readers. I was very chuffed that people on the street gave the thumbs up to my Insecurity Guard shirt.

We were very excited to hear the author talk about her work to make it clear that the main character is not Helen, it is a fictional character even though the customers in the taxis are based on real people.

We competed with the sounds of the street, and we interacted with the spectacle of daily life in downtown Vancouver.

We stopped for a coffee break.

Thanks to everyone who came out and celebrated Taxi!


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