21 August 2004 Parliament Square, Edinburgh Scotland for the Fringe Festival.
The show from Hell! It had been raining for days and if buskers don't work they
don't get paid. The day before it rained so hard I drilled holes in my road cases
to let the water out.

There is a reason no other Aerial street shows routinely work the world of busking.
People think 'who would do so much work for 'free'?' The shear scale of my rig gives
the impression it's been paid for already... I performed to about five hundred people
- I gave it my 'ALL', they all watched the entire show, then they all walked away!
without even saying 'hi... thanks for the show', with out even giving me a smile
which everyone can afford - right? then I cried. (This is not the standard Edinburgh
audience and maybe on this day I was just crap! It happens. When a performer has a
bad day at work every one is there to witness it. On days like that I thank god I'm
not a surgeon!)

I felt like I had performed to a bunch of vampires... a group of 'takers' or a
condition I have come to call 'the big suck syndrome'! Seems to be the dominate
mentality of people on the planet; take it, eat it, have it.. want it...

Where has all the giving gone? The third and second worlds certainly give more than
their fair share. Contemporary poverty in the first world is mental and emotional.
So
In a way I try to reboot the 'give' mode via busking. People feel good when they
have a choice to give, then do. Feelings are infectious, they travel through a
community. If you can 'spike' a crowd with positive ideas, with laughter, with awe,
this filters into a 'common sense'. It's like a mussel - It must be exercised in
order to get strong. Street performance is loaded with socioeconomic implication and
social politics.

So....... no 'returns' for this show, or so I thought in my 'woe is me mode'....
but two days later Mr Andy Brown Photographer extrordinare... turns up with a
serious of photos which made me cry again... but with joy. Andy had captured a break
in the weather. He caught the sun and it warmed my idealist little soul! These photos
reconfirmed to me that I wasn't crazy for being a busker. They were my pay check!

As an artist I choose to be accessible... I need to perform to everyone, not just
the lucky people who can afford corporate circus and theater events. As a visual
artist I observed that people who need art are not the ones who go to theaters and
art galleries. I have the privilege to be the first trapeze artist many kids see
and I love performing to entire families who live on low incomes, who in return are
standing next to 'well off' individuals. They all feel similar emotions. I aspire
for the aRTy Ms show to be snack food for the soul; thus Andy Brown the
photographer provided me with some health food for my head.