"Beggars" get buggered by bigots.

The last couple of weeks have seen a strange sight on the streets of Rvk, as about 20 some odd musicians began appearing outside grocery stores and along the main streets playing jolly little songs on accordions and smiling at people.

I liked it.

Rvk as a whole suffers from a horrible lack of busqueing.

I like busqueing. I like music that asks you to support it, but doesn't demand it. I like streets filled with sounds that don't come from over-grown Jeeps and honking horns.

I like people who smile.

In Seattle there is a booming busqueing scene. You've got your blues-singing vets, hippy drummers with flutes, rival Andean bands, even the occasional Chinese classical work played in the Pike Place.

But its never caught on in Rvk.

Partially this has to do with the weather, but it mostly has to do with the sheer mind-boggling bourgeoisie of law-enforcement and the ruling class of this city.

There are a few street performers, true. There's a guy that plays electric guitar and classic rock downtown, a resident juggler in the summers, and the occasional act like the incredibly silly "Indian" group that pounded on drums and Casio keyboards downtown last summer.

But for the most part, if your not part of one of Rvk's endless series of "cultural events", then, in the eyes of the law and most of the muckitymucks, you're "begging".

Its a combination of narrow-minded small-town mentality which labels anyone without a "real job" as a deviant, undesirable criminal, and cultural snobbery that refuses to see something as simple as playing music publicly, without a stage or tickets or anything, as art.

Case in point: Last summer, a group of musicians just assembled on the main drag here, in a little underused park near some of the more Indy bars, and right across from the Tabernacle of Snobbery known as Oliver. They were astonishingly good musicians, and the show they put on was a blast.

Of course, the cops spent the entire time trying to shut them down and ordering everyone to disperse. Seems that the only music allowed in Rvk is played in a bars, where you have to pay for it.

I mean, anything else would be anarchy, right?

Rvk has no problem with people performing in public spaces, but only when they are approved "artists" during one of the cities little festivals. So if you want to play a fire-spouting organ in a public park, no prob. Make giant puppets walk the streets, no prob. As long as you're a sponsored artist the city will pay you to walk around naked except for strategically placed cabbage leafs as long as your bullshit is convincing enough.

But if you want to say, sit on the sidewalk and play music for the passers-bye hoping to make a few coins?

Then they ship you back to Romania.

Which brings to light another issue, namely that Icelanders, like the old guy with the guitar, can busque. Nice pale British guys can attract crowds and cash with juggling. But "swarthy" Eastern Europeans best stick to building houses and dams and digging tunnels and dancing in strip clubs. Undesirables like that the Rvk authorities don't want clogging up their litter-strewn streets*.

Especially when they are being "sent by criminal gangs to beg in Scandinavia".

The park next to where I work has been set on fire three times this winter.

A disabled man recently had to move from his long-term home because a bunch of assholes were smashing his windows and threatening him with retribution for daring to press assault charges against a buddy of theirs. Even after repeated requests for police assistance.

There are literally dozens of unsolved rape and assault cases in Rvk.

But the cops aren't doing anything about that.

They're busy protecting Iceland from demonic dark-skinned foreigners who's evil crime-bosses have sent the to Iceland to *gasp* PLAY MUSIC!!!!!

So Rvk will be quieter this summer. Not safer. Not less scorched. But quieter.

Fuck.

*Here's an idea to "Green" Rvk: How about replacing all these shitty little trash cans, you know, the ones that kids can kick a few times and cause all the trash to drop on the street cause they're elevated? The little green things that fill up after a day even though they don't get emptied more than once a month? How about setting up some good old fashion big-ass covered trash cans?...There's more of this rant coming, trust me. "Green" Rvk is a feel-good bandaid that will cause more shit than it cures.