North Beach Festival

The family and I spend Saturday at the North Beach Festival. Parking was not too bad. We found parking about a few blocks away. Thank you Parking God...you knew we are with a kid. So as we are walking towards the heart of the gathering, we hear this ongoing chant: "Less gas, more ass!" At first, I didn't know what was going on until this litany of nude cyclists started pasting me by. As quick as I can, I busted out the Iphone...here is the naked truth, dear readers! It was mostly dicks on the drag strip (pun intended). A few ladies were there...I counted maybe about 5 or so in a pack of 30. A gal on the street was utterly revolted. She turned to her s.o. and said, "This is too much information." As more of the cyclist went by, she remarked that the whole scene was "disgusting!" Too bad for her, I'm all for public nudity. Now, don't I feel smug for being so liberal about things...haha. Anyways, I think live and let live is the philosophy to adbide by in my book. So as the cyclists zoomed by, we randomly came across some guy that I work with it. I recognize him facial but not by name or rank. We said our hellos and we went on our way. The last time we were out to this festival was maybe 2-3 years ago. It didn't seem as big or as crowded as this time. It was a fun time. As we got to leave, we passed by a dude who was playing the nyckelharpa. Wifey really liked the soothing sound and she let Patchy listen as the dude plyed his trade. The nyckelharpa (pronounced nickel harpa) is pretty funky looking. It's sorta like a homemade violin thing but plays like a harp. It's a traditional Swedish instrument from what I've briefly read. Anyways, a customer says to the n.h. dude that he liked his playing and inquired if he does events. The n.h. dude looks up from his seat and understatedly responded, "I don't do events anymore...I'm solely a recording artist now." The inquiring guy said, "That's not the right response!" The inquiring guy seemed nice and asked again about doing events, specifically for a wedding. The n.h. dude said something to the effect that he made most of his money from his cd sales ($15 bucks a pop!). After a bit more prodding, the n.h. dude said he charged about $800-900 per event. That's not too bad, I thought. Pretty reasonable. But can you believe the cahones this dude has? We are in a bad economy and music is one thing we can do without (for most people) and he's all up in here spraying attitude? Uh, hello, you're playing in a street festival; trying to hawk your wares?! The capper was that the inquiring dude said he may contact him. The n.h. dude smugly replied, "That's fine...I'm much nicer on the phone." Can you believe that? A funny thing to observe. The n.h. dude was conversation fodder me and wifey the rest of the weekend. We later hit up Chestnut Street and Wifey went to Miette for their macaroons. According to her, they are the best in the City.