The other day, i took a break from staring at the computer screen and got a coffee and headed to a near by bench to do some sketching while i drank my coffee. I sat down, in my new found area, as my office has just moved im having to discover the new places of population loitering. The picking were somewhat thin. Its Fall in new york which can bring a stiff winds up and down the canyon avenues and can rake east to west along the streets, pushing you along at an unintended pace, or act as crowd control and resting squarely on your chest can push you backwards, urging you as only polite new york can to go back from whence you came. The little leisure area i sit in draws smokers, lunchers and tired pedestrians so the crowd is always shifting and its hard to know whos gonna stick it out for what length so drawing can be a challenge, i have a lot of partial foreheads and hair lines, floating around my pages, filling unseen in-betweens, there is no where someone hasn’t already been and most likely they were just there before you arrived. I started sketching and my subject bounced. There wasn’t a lot of activity, luckily i had enough initial information on the page to keep going on it for a bit, while i waited for a new victim to arrive and find a seat in drawing den.

There I am, jabbing at the page with my pen, like a pig in shit, not a care in the world. When I’m happened upon by some german tourists. A family, mother father and two teenage girls; How sweet. Since they are not from here they were walking in an unorganized pack, there family tethers invisible, but there, would snap and reunite as they each snaked through the other pedestrians. As they had a set safety boundary they would spread out until tethers stressed to there limits would as if elastic pull them back into a huddle where they could remark amongst themselves about they they had seen on their little micro forays through the crowd. Well the limit was reach and they all came colliding back together surrounding me. Frau 1 noticed me drawing, and the the family motion came to a screeching halt. As they had been clamoring to get to specific place and had almost past it in their hurry. But now they were here. I heard other german from Frau 2; she pointed and then looked at dad. HE said something about new york street Kunst. a 5 minute debated ensued, amongst the family. I was not asked to participate, i as it turns out was the subject, and thus needed to focus on subjecting and not confuse the issue with any real facts or person-ness. These people were so close to me they could have been a devoted wait staff, in fact there were a few times when other people walking by, due to the, ‘whats thats crowd doing’ curiosity factor other people paused to see what was what. Is it considered decent etiquette in german to crowd a stranger and talk about him as if he weren’t there? What is the size of generally regarded personal space in germany? If reaching into my pocket from a seated position we touch, and your standing uup, all signs point to a violation in personal space. Remove the possibility of the incident happening on a train or other means of transpiration, take away, the idea of a popular restaurant or coffee bar, youre clearly crowding the plate. Back up off me SON! This is New York City, you dont me like that. I could be that guy that all your friends back home warned you about. That, let me make the trip a memorable one with a smile, No no, all of you should be in the picture. Yes i know how to use this. Stand a little closer, a little closer. And, im doing a runner with your camera FOOLS! Another tourist jacked. Luckily for them, they didnt have any cameras out, and running back inot the office with stolen tourist gear seems a lil foolish, oh and im also not that guy. SO i sat there, and enjoyed the show. They didn’t break the fourth wall nor did they respond to my attempt at it, so be it. Shortly their time was up and, with german efficiency each exhibit regardless of interest was allowed 5 minutes and then to keep the schedule, it was on to the next one for them.