Episode 134 – Downtown Salisbury 3rd Friday | Happy Hour Todcast
The Second Most Dangerous Game
What’s better than getting something in the mail? Getting something pointless and horribly sublime or sublimely horrible in the mail. In this week’s #Todcast, we announced a game the show will be running and the fabulous prizes it will include.
The game, which you are more than welcome to help name, is to collect the best suggestions about local tourist culture. It springs from my obsession with Tourist Police in parts of Asia and the Pacific Islands. To a greater or lesser degree, towns or countries with Tourist Police have them there, not just to keep an eye out for gypsy cabs and shady vendors, but also to help guests with directions and suggestions, kind of a concierge with a gun.
The best part of the Tourist Police as an institution is that, in countries with radically different social and cultural expectations, they also tell tourists what is and is not, really, appropriate behavior. This includes petty crimes, and, in those countries with state-enforced religious taboos, state enforced religious norms. Where a local might have a cop show up and fine or arrest them, a tourist has a brightly-uniformed man explain the rules for, say, engaging a Thai prostitute.
We at the Todcast came up with a similar game, the rules are here as well as on the audio.
GCFL Featured Event
In last week’s Todcast we spoke about Shell Shocked at Fagers, this week, GCFL put out a video of the event. Also, there is still time (if it is not yet Saturday, Nov. 9) to go to the Cambridge Belgian Beer Festival.
There also is plenty of time to go to 3rd Friday in Salisbury, which is out featured event this week. We spoke with Jaime Heater, who has been among the lead volunteers in getting 3rd Friday the traction it has had over the past two(ish) years.
This week’s show contains an interview with Jaime (if you wanna skip to it, it comes on at about 26 minutes in) as well as some fund stories about the evolution of 3rd Friday, which has been suffering from a decade’s worth (at least) of false starts and lukewarm town support.
But the town has hired a professional economic director, just like they have in them big cities like Berlin and Cambridge and Pocomoke. If you listen through, you’ll get some of the historical background on the firehouse sale and a great discussion on what separates and (probably) elevates (sorry for the rhyme) the Salisbury shows.
West Main recording and Natalee DeHart will be among the featured artists at the Nov. 15 event, so check it out.
Ignite Salisbury featuring Jessie Campbell from ViZion Creative takes place the Thursday, Nov. 14. Follow the link for more info. Also check out the GCFL events calendar.
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