Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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DRAGON SLAYERS: Massachusetts communities fight heroin and opioid addiction
Travis “The Featherhawk” Snyder was chasing the dragon, a euphemism for heroin and opioid addiction, until he had enough. It was three days before Christmas in 2011 and he was sick and tired of being sick and tired. Detoxing in a jail cell in Pennsylvania, Snyder hit rock bottom. He then did the unthinkable. Snyder…
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BIZARRE BOSTON: The Secret North End Tunnels
In H.P. Lovecraft’s classic 1927 horror story Pickman’s Model, the sinister painter Charles Pickman brings one of his fans to his North End basement studio. The basement has an old well in the middle, which connects to a network of tunnels. Pickman says: “Look here, do you know the whole North End once had a…
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VOICES FROM THE STREET: A story about opium
To show how long the opiate wars have been going on, we’d have to go back to the mid 1800s when the East India Company sponsored by the British was forcing ships full to the brim with opium cakes on China. Every year ships would arrive at China’s shores and dispense the opium to the…
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CELEBRATING ALTMAN: Harvard Film Archive spearheads a retrospective of Robert Altman
In an age when multimillionaire matinee idols like Johnny Depp and Christian Bale are trumpeted as Hollywood mavericks, the career of the late director Robert Altman may call for stronger words. Today’s profit-minded artist-moguls might just call him crazy. Even in the ‘70s, that golden age of maverick Hollywood, Altman baffled fans and disturbed the…
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VOICES FROM THE STREET: Celebrating what exactly?
By the time you read this, the Fourth of July will have already passed and we will all be bracing for those dreary dog days of summer. I will do the usual on the fourth: cookouts, partying, blah, blah, blah. It all seems so routine. Going through the motions because we’re taught that we should…
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LAST WORD: Marc D. Goldfinger
This week’s Last Word features an interview with Marc D. Goldfinger, Spare Change News’ resident writer and poet and the newspaper’s poetry editor for the last ten years. With the help of the poet Lee Varon, Goldfinger is currently putting together a poetry anthology featuring work published in Spare Change News over the years. Writing…
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HOPE ON WHEELS: Two students start new mobile shower project
Hope on wheels? Debbie Perez and Kati Moran, students with Boston University’s School of Public Health, have started a new project to provide mobile showers to Boston’s homeless population. Basing their ideas on San Francisco-based charity Lava Mae, the pair have begun the early stages of crafting the initiative. While brainstorming ways to help Boston’s…
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SUPREME DECISION: Worcester’s anti-panhandling ordinance slammed
The Supreme Court struck back at Worcester’s anti-panhandling ordinance, declaring that it was impossible to enforce it and that it should be reconsidered back in federal court. The ordinance—which was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU) in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts in Worcester and was originally upheld on appeal—was…
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MIKE McCOLGAN: Founding member of the Dropkick Murphys talks homelessness
He’s a man who holds various titles such as punk rocker, army veteran, firefighter, EMT and union activist. He’s a man who holds his Dorchester roots near and dear to him. It’s Savin Hill’s own Mike McColgan. You may know McColgan as a founding member of Dropkick Murphys—he leant his voice to their debut album…
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Sleepless in Seattle
When I flew from Boston to Seattle last week as a delegate for the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) summit, I was expecting rain. No showers to report. Not a drop. However, the outpouring of support for Spare Change News from street paper editors and staffers from across the globe was inspiring. We reclaimed…
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