Tag: Film Reviews
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My Spare Change News story
It was March, 1993. I don’t remember the precise date. My wife and I were homeless and strung out on heroin, getting sick (withdrawal), and out of money. I was at Porter Square shaking a cup and trying to come up with an idea so we could get fix money to, “get well.” My wife,…
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One Morning At The Mall
The Chestnut Hill Mall was a comfortable temperature, I noted, as three women passed me, power-walking the length of the mall. They’d reach the end, turn about, and come back, over and over again. As I watched them I noticed a man carrying two battered plastic garbage bags enter the mall. His clothing was somewhat…
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Letting In The New Year
It was 11 degrees on the outside thermometer this morning. It is two days after my 65th birthday, December 8th. If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself. I’m actually not complaining. I’m really lucky to be here. It’s Grace, my friends, Grace. I…
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Q&A with Allan Clear, Executive Director of the Harm Reduction Coalition
This past November, Spare Change News participated in a collaborative article with the Street News Service on harm reduction. For part of the article, which was written by Katie Hyslop, Spare Change interviewed Allan Clear, Executive Director of the Harm Reduction Coalition. The Hrc is a national organization that provides education and training in harm…
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Holiday Bliss, Not Holiday Stress
Most of us take the holiday season w-a-a-a-a-y too seriously. Watching people as they go about the business of observing this necessary tradition, putting up that particular tree, sending out politically correct cards and selecting the perfect gift, all while staying on a budget, observing ship-by dates and trying to remain holiday cheerful, often seems…
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‘Tis the Season to be Jolly
We have been through a lot this year: celebrating the second year of Barak Obama’s presidency and some wondering if they made the right choice; the announcement of the impending end of the war in Iraq; and last but not least, the floundering economy, which had some losing their jobs and homes and those who…
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Begin With The End In Mind
A guy named Vince gave me his old skateboard when I showed him that I knew how to use it. I had learned back in college, when it was how I got from the dorm to my classes. Almost two years after graduating, I found myself at 23 years old with a new reason to…
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New York Homebase Program: 7 Questions Which Need to be Addressed
Social research programs have been conducted for centuries. Basic data collection procedures such as taking the census were reported in religious documents like The New Testament over two thousand years ago. By the nineteenth century, research questions had became so subtle and detailed that increasingly complex analysis strategies were developed to process the data. John…
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For Jack Powers: This Should Have Been An Elegy
Go mad. Commit suicide. There will be nothing left. After you die or go mad. But the calmness of poetry. —from A Poem Without A Single Bird In It by Jack Spicer. My wife, Mary Esther, is a devout Catholic who goes to Mass regularly even though she hates the patriarchy of the church. When…
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Mental Illness and Stigma: How Far Have We Come?
Mental illness was once, and to some extent still is, a taboo subject that most people feel uncomfortable talking about within familial or societal spheres. However, because of the superfluity of media coverage and cinematic portrayals of people afflicted with mental illness, it has gone from private whispers behind closed doors to public dialogues. However,…