我是一座个体经营的、名为“8英尺新娘”的活雕像，我喜欢告诉别人这是我的工作。因为大家都想知道，这些怪人在真实生活中到底是什么样的？

I was a self-employed living statue called the Eight-Foot Bride, and I love telling people I did this for a job, because everybody always wants to know, who are these freaks in real life.

我曾整天把自己涂白，站在一个盒子上，在脚边放一顶帽子或者一个罐子，如果有路过的人向里面投钱，我递给他们一朵花，并且和他们进行强烈的眼神交流。如果他们没有收下花，我就表现出悲伤和充满渴望的样子，看着他们慢慢走远。

I painted myself white one day, stood on a box, put a hat or a can at my feet, and when someone came by and dropped in money, I handed them a flower -- and some intense eye contact. And if they didn't take the flower, I threw in a gesture of sadness and longing -- as they walked away.

我与人有着最深层次的接触，尤其是那些看起来好几个星期都没有与人交流的孤独者。我们共享一个美好的时刻，城市街道上可以发生的一次漫长眼神交流，我们都感觉好像有点爱上对方。我的眼睛会说，“谢谢，我看到你了。”他们的眼睛则会说，“从来没有人在意我的存在，谢谢你。”

So I had the most profound encounters with people, especially lonely people who looked like they hadn't talked to anyone in weeks, and we would get this beautiful moment of prolonged eye contact being allowed in a city street, and we would sort of fall in love a little bit. And my eyes would say -- "Thank you, I see you." And their eyes would say --"Nobody ever sees me. Thank you."

有时候我会被骚扰。开车路过的人从车里对我大喊。“找份工作去！”我的反应是“这就是我的工作。”但是这让我很伤心，因为这让我感觉我的工作不正经，不公平和可耻。我没想到站在这个盒子上以音乐谋生的经历竟会有如此深刻的教育意义。

I would get harassed sometimes. People would yell at me from their passing cars, "Get a job! " And I'd be, like, "This is my job." But it hurt, because it made me fear that I was somehow doing something un-job like and unfair, shameful. I had no idea how perfect a real education I was getting for the music business on this box.

我依然不想失去这种与人直接交流的感觉，因为我喜欢这种感觉。所以我们在表演结束之后一定会签名，拥抱我们的歌迷，和人交流互动，我们将请求他人给予帮助或加入我们的过程变成了一门艺术。

I really didn't want to lose this sense of direct connection with people, because I love it. So after all of our shows, we would sign autographs and hug fans and hang out and talk to people, and we made an art out of asking people to help us and join us.

我喜欢这样幸运的、随机的亲近感觉，因为我常常做沙发客。

And I love this kind of random closeness, which is lucky, because I do a lot of couchsurfing.

所以我常常做沙发客，也经常人群冲浪（从舞台上跳下，被观众接住）。我认为做沙发客和人群冲浪其实是一个概念。落入人群中和信任他人。

So I couchsurf a lot. I also crowdsurf a lot. I maintain couchsurfing and crowdsurfing are basically the same thing. You're falling into the audience and you're trusting each other.

通过请求他人帮助，我与他们建立了联系。情感相通之后，人们就愿意帮助你。对于很多艺术家来说，这似乎不合逻辑。他们不愿意请求帮助。不过这并不容易。开口提出请求是一件不容易的事情。很多艺术家都不愿这样做。请求帮助可能会让你很脆弱。

And through the very act of asking people, I'd connected with them, and when you connect with them, people want to help you. It's kind of counter-intuitive for a lot of artists. They don't want to ask for things. But it's not easy. It's not easy to ask. And a lot of artists have a problem with this. Asking makes you vulnerable.

成为名人意味着有很多人从远方爱你，然而因特网和我们在网络上自由共享的内容拉近了名人和支持者的距离。

Celebrity is about a lot of people loving you from a distance, but the internet and the content that we're freely able to share on it are taking us back.

现在，网络工具让这种交流像在街头请求帮助一样简单和自然，它们即将实现这种转变。然而如果我们无法直面彼此，无所畏惧地给予和接受，完美的工具也无法帮助我们，然而，更重要的是，不因请求帮助而感到羞愧。

Now, the online tools to make the exchange as easy and as instinctive as the street, they're getting there. But the perfect tools aren't going to help us if we can't face each other and give and receive fearlessly, but, more important -- to ask without shame.

我认为人们花了大量的精力试图解决错误地问题，也就是“我们如何强迫人们付钱购买音乐？”我们应该问一个新的问题，“我们如何让人们主动为音乐慷慨解囊？”

I think people have been obsessed with the wrong question, which is, "How do we make people pay for music?" What if we started asking, "How do we let people pay for music?"