Remember that “professional” photographer who took a polaroid of you on the beach without asking? Then he had the nerve to ask you for five bucks (when the dollar was the international currency)?
Well, today he’s been replaced by the MySpace musician who has emailed you a link to his song. You listen to it, and find a little box asking for a five pound donation.
Personally, I’d rather drop a coin at some guy playing live music in the subway, or drawing a charicature of me in Paris.
I’m sure the tax man disagrees. It’s much easier to freeze a Youtube filmmaker’s PayPal account than it is to follow around some fire breather with an open guitar case. But really, most of these artists don’t make enough to pay taxes, do they?
Unfortunately, graffiti is still around (and terrible graffiti at that). We still see panhandlers and con artists (online and off). But whatever happened to the big city “honest beggar”? Where is the street artist now?
Am I a dinosaur here? Has the Internet destroyed the street artist?
