Sunday afternoon, drinking coffee opposite the Basement Discs. Dan Parsons will play on Friday the 30th. The record store hosts Friday lunch concerts regularly.
I am reading a Big Issue magazine with Bon Jovi on its cover. His music has never been my favourite. However, I love the sound of Living On A Prayer. I cannot help but imagine some dinosaurs stomping out of the woods when I hear the riff.
Reading the article about him gives me another dimension to him. He talks about his charity work.
I got this magazine from a man on the street. He sells it on the corner Elisabeth/Collins. The vendor’s tall frame is towering above us. However, I also notice his white eyes which do not see me, or anybody else. I was passing him on the way to the ATM. $20 for the weekend, for a newspaper, a coffee or other small luxuries. The Big Issue, $7, will take a considerable bite of the red note. However, I know that the magazine is always worth the read. In fact, every fortnightly issue is of a quality I rarely find printed here. So, it is not just charity. Although, half of the money goes to the vendor, and the enterprise helps in many ways marginalised people.
He takes my plastic note and asks me about the value. “Twenty”, I tell him It takes some time for him to find the change, and he asks me about my day, as I wonder where he will sleep tonight. He has a small flat near the QV market. After exchanging a few pleasantries we go our ways.
I wonder whether he gets cheated at times. I hope not. It is hard to imagine such behaviour. But unfortunately the mean spirits are out there, from government hassling and threatening unemployed and people in need in many ways, to students who killed a homeless man, a year or two ago.
Here a few words by Jon Bon Jovi: Believe me ladies and gentlemen, nobody woke up and said: “I’ve got a great career path; I want to be a homeless guy in the street.” No, who the fuck wants to do that? Whatever led them to that despair, it wasn’t their first choice growing up.