One afternoon at the Brompton Road Octavia shop my colleague was helping a customer who was trying on expensive winter coats. He was very indecisive and it was obvious that he wanted to pay much less than the items were priced which is against the shop policy. Suddenly a different man rushed in straight to the counter and asked the same colleague about men's coats. He needed one urgently. He tried on the one the first man rejected and stayed in it. We only needed to cut off the price tag. He completed the payment and dashed off to The Royal Albert Hall to play there that night: Film Music by Danny Elfman.
...
One December evening I found myself in The Treadwell's, a small Bloomsbury bookshop where I heard about Austin Osman Spare, an English artist and occultist. Based on his theories of the relationship between conscious and unconscious self, Spare developed some magical techniques including automatic writing and drawing, and sigilization (Tell me, Dear Reader, did you know the meaning of this word: 'sigilization'?)
...
At the end of summer it was when I met some of Yousif Naser's drawing students at a barbecue in his place. One of them, Ania, told me about a 1970s singer I'm now listening to: Judee Sill. Sadly, she was one of those highly talented people whose life was ruined by addiction to drugs.So many people fall into the trap of this disease. It is in their own and the society's interest to help them out, especially the young people. I know of a place in Lodz which offers help to young people who want to become clean, stop destroying themselves and those around them. They can go into a residential treatment or become outpatients. The rehabs offer support to their family members as well. Patients don't need to pay for the treatment. However, the rehabs need sponsorship to function, and the expenses are high. I learnt today that the outpatient clinic, having recently been moved to a new location, conveniently across the road from the residential clinic, has been badly affected by the recent heavy rains. They have no money to repair the damage and the situation is really bad. For several years everybody in the rehab has been involved in the massive restoration project of the derelict building opposite, the original premises of the Tuszynska Street MONAR Centre.
No comments:
Post a Comment