Novels

My turn again already, huh?

I found out about the Novels project earlier today via twitter, it's a new EP from 5 Canadian indie musicians who got together and recorded it over a 24 hour period last January.

The idea is that it's not be sold in-store or online, but to be shared freely, and then photos of the sharing are to be posted on their blog. To quote their site:

NOVELS won't be sold in CD stores, on the internet, or anywhere else. Instead, we'll give them away, or put them places. Maybe you'll find a copy sitting on a park bench. Maybe a masked man will hand you one as he passes you on the street. Maybe none of these things will happen. But we'll make sure that everyone gets a chance to listen if they want to.

So as soon as I heard about it it became my project today to give a copy away to a random stranger. The first person I approached was the mail lady as she was delivering the mail. I think she thought I was creepy, because she wouldn't let me take her photo and she wouldn't take the CD, and she left in a hurry! Oh well, I can get that. It is kind of a weird thing to do.

I walked around the neighborhood for a bit, and I noticed how many people don't walk around here. Lots of cars out and about but almost no pedestrians. I was resigned to leaving the CD sitting on a fence, but as I was taking photos of it sitting there I noticed someone coming up the path behind me.

I asked her if she liked music, the answer of course was yes, so I explained the concept and gave her the disc, and she was happy to have the photo taken. Her name is Naomi. It was actually kind of fun to go way outside of my comfort zone for a bit - I'm not one to randomly talk to strangers, usually, but the Novels idea really inspired me! I think the portrait turned out pretty darn good, too.