Word on the Street

The Word on the Street balloon arch

I was invited to go to Word on the Street to meet up with Marta, the girl that hired me to shoot "Peace of Diversity". It was at this book festival that I was to give her the CD of photos of the band. The festival was pretty packed and I couldn't find her anywhere. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. To make matters slightly worse I had forgotten her cell phone number at home. That wasn't too bright on my part.

Since she had my phone number and I told her to call me if we didn't meet at the specified time of 6pm I ended up wandering around weaving through crowds of bargain hunter book buyers and looking at various books and magazines on sale. One book that stood out was "The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. Why did it stand out you ask? Because it explores religion and spirituality? The book had cool art work or graphics on the cover (maybe a naked girl)? Was there a large FOR SALE sign over it? The answer to all these questions would be "No".

The only reason this book stood out for me was that I was watching an episode of Corner Gas a few nights before and the main characters were reading it as part of a book club. The brainwashing of TV really does work. But wait there's more...


Guess who I bumped into today?

In the end I actually impulse bought two books and really it was only to get one book. The price was three for $20 and I could only find one other person that wanted one book. I had to buy two to get the deal or buy the one book alone for $18.00 US. Did I have to buy the book? No. It was just on a whim. The book was a smallish sized soft cover detailing naval battles with sailing ships. "War at sea in the age of sail 1650-1850" by Andrew Lambert seemed kind of interesting and because the book was smallish didn't look too intimidating. I figured it'd be an interesting read on the trip home.

Just as I sat down on the curb to start reading the book my cell phone rang. It was Marta. We managed to meet up, do the CD exchange, and go our separate ways. Just as I was saying "good bye". I noticed two bikers zip by. They seemed familiar (see photo).