C~rnegie C N E \i V S LETTER · carnnews@vcn.bc.ca

401 Main St, Van6A 2T7 604-665-2289

the best laid plans ...

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carnnews@shaw.ca www.carnnews.org

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MARCH 15, 2014

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Silver Fox

take back space

I was talking last week with libby davies, member of parliament for the downtown eastside of vancouver, and libby told of a star trek episode she'd seen - a futur istic s ituation in san francisco - an enormous wall had been constructed dividing poor people from every­one else .. and outs ide this wall in super consumerist upscale society there was a lmost no awareness of who was struggling to survive o n the other side of the wall nor how wretched their living conditions were and libby said "that's not our future it's happening right now"

north america's anti-panhandl ing bylaws and other prohibitions against the presence of certain people in what was formerly public space is a central objective in the global and local writ against the poor

to put th is s ituation in perspective I'd like to quote from an excellent book "geographies of exclusion" by david s ibley; he says

"power is expressed in the monopolization of space and the relegation of weaker groups in society to less desirabl e environments .. the boundaries between the consuming and nonconsuming public are strengthening with nonconsumption being construed as a form of deviance at the same time as spaces of consumption e liminate public spaces in city centres, processes of contro l are manifested in the exclusion of those who are judged to be deviant imperfect or marginal -who is felt to belong and not belo ng contributes in an important way to the shaping of social space it is often the case that this hostility to others is articulated as a concern about property values the urge to make separations between c lean and dirty ordered and disordered us and th em that is to expel the abject is encouraged in western cultures creating anxieties because such separations can never finally be achieved th is anxiety is re inforced by the culture of consumption in western societies the success of capital ism depends on it and a necessary feature of the geographies of exclusion the literal mappings of power relations and rejection is the collapse o f categories like publ ic and private and to be diseased or disab led is a mark of imperfect ion the fear of infection leads to erection of the barricades to resist the spread of dis eased polluted others there is a history of imaginary geographies

which cast minorities .. imperfect people .. and a list of others who are seen to pose a threat to the dominant group in society as polluting bodies or fo lk devi ls who are then located elsewhere this elsewhere might be nowhere as when genocide or moral transformation of a minority like prostitutes are advocated the imagery of defi lement which locates people o n the margins or in residual spaces is now more like ly to be applied to the mentally disabled the homeless prostitutes and some racialized minorities" the downtown eastside of vancouver, where I live, is by any statistical measurement of poverty and disease a third world area besieged by upscale developmental greed of truly genocidal proportions the highest rates and numbers of hiv/aids .. suicide .. hepatitis c .. syphilis and tuberculosis in the western world and close to the lowest life expectancy

and the s ingle question I am asked more than any o ther by media and concerned citizens is "where will they go?' where w ill the people go when they are driven from this area by gentrification/displacement?

referring to sibley, I must conclude that the munic ipal provinc ia l and federal governments must have some imaginary geography in mind because there is nowhere for the people to go and in the downtown eastside the public space that has been available for drug addicts, mentally disabled, homeless, prostitutes is being seized from them

shutters and grates cover doorways and stairwells where human beings who have nowhere else to go at least cou ld stand for awhi le awnings are removed from buildings so that cold rain pouts down on very ill people large private security forces

in gastown and chinatown business districts enforce to the limits of their capab ility anti-panhandling bylaws and harass poor and vulnerable people out of the ir areas .. away from tourists and businesses

there is serious talk of establishing what is being cal led the carroll street corridor - a k ind of demilitarized zone between gastown and chinatown so that tourists do not have to walk through the defiled downtown eastside

and in the midst of the downtown eastside the police have established a red zone for prisoners released from jail. meaning you could be arrested simply for being found on a certa in block

and vancouver city counci l has recently invested time and money in an attempt to circumvent the charter of rights and freedoms naming the downtown eastside specifically as the target of this action to loosen even more the search and seizure regulations

there are no-go zones in new westminster several block areas where you can be charged if you are deemed an undesirable just for being there and that is basically in response to drug addicts driven from the downtown eastside to new west by police

but there is resistance. I know there is here in victoria and in vancouver not long ago activists protesting the anti-panhand ling bylaw invaded city hall and occupied city council chambers

the sophist ication of the system we are opposing is such that the presence of panhandlers in business areas of vancouver has been greatly reduced without the police having to change a single person yet thus the system is ab le to avoid a public legal challenge and public space continues to be seized

to put this in a theological perspective I'll briefly quote from a book entitled "money and power" written by jacques ellul, who fought in the resistance in france during the second world war and engaged in many social justice struggles throughout the remainder of his life. e llul says "ultimately the rich seek to kill the poor this happens because fine rich are exasperated by constantly being· called into quest ion by god through the poor - and this is the real reason for the amazing prob lem that in all societies the rich have detested the poor and why when precisely the rich are the powerful the superior the strong do they set themselves against the poor? we can find of course all the psychological and sociological reasons we could want but none of these reasons is definitive none really explains but they all relate to the fact that the poor are a temporal reOection of god"

to resist today is to take back space but when we are few in numbers and have no money or political power, what do we do?

the question I finally asked myself is not which cause, which new assault on the poor should I take on? '.3 anti-panhandling bylaws? the health care system? housing? the legal system? racism? unemployment? the theft of children from poor women? welfare? but who are the defiled? the ones who don't belong? - the human beings who are re lentlessly ehumanized? those who are victimized by this social cleansing?

in the downtown eastside as well as throughout the province of british columbia it is the drug addicts who are homeless, diseased who are excluded, marginalized, pushed out, vilified abandoned arid destroyed arid it is the impoverished drug addict on whom the entire system bear's down every institution of law education business health and religion

the degraded s ituation and circumstances of drug addicts is one issue that affects or will affect everyone in b.c. and is the only opening, the only breach in the system I have yet seen during my activism in the downtown eastside the horrendous condition of drug addicts has forced government, the system, to yield resources it never would have otherwise

I believe that in the downtown eastside to defend the entit'e community of poor people the best way to do it is to defend and stand with and for those who are most defi led and excluded the drug addicts

a year ago several downtown eastside activists involved with the drug situation held a protest we blocked the corner of main and hastings and distributed a pamphlet describing the horrendous situation of overdose deaths and disease we planted 1200 crosses in oppenheimer park to commemorate the number of people who have died as a result of drug overdoses in the past 4 years

and then as a member of the vancouver/richmond health board representing the downtown eastside '" I introduced a motion which passed declaring the hiv/aids infection rate among injection drug users vancouver's first pub! ic health emergency

these events brought international media attention to the predicament in the downtown eastside and since drug addiction and its consequences affects

all areas of our live including massive health care costs the media has the story from one perspective or another ever since, in such a w idespread and ongoing manner, that libby davies said she has never in all her years of activism seen anything like it

at approx imately the same time as these events ann I iv ingston and myself held meetings with drug addicts in the downtom! eastside hundreds of ad d icts and listened to them say over and over that what they most needed was a p lace to go a p lace. some space to be safe and rest and have the use of a te lephone and a shower and a restroom common amenities denied them for even the commun ity centre in the area is off limits

from these meetings a campaign developed for a 24-hour resource centre for drug users and that coinc ided with the federal government the libera ls conning forth wi th a mi ll ion dollars to deal w ith the public health emergency and it's been decided that the federa l government will initia lly fund this resource centre for addicts

a commitment which wo uld have seemed impossible unthinkable and absurd a year ago

the re's currently a batt le over where this facility will be and there are those ins isting it be located anywhere elsewhere nowhere but it w ill be in the downtown eastside: and it is space taken back because if anything can be said to be an anti-gentrification project, it is this o ne and the health board in cooperation (of a ll things) with other ministries and b.c housing put together mo ney not marked for any other hous ing ventu re and purchased 2 hotels in the dark heart of the emergency - the block where the red zone is located the block most people in business w ish was gentri fied and the addicts expelled as soon as possible and these 2 hotels w ill house menta lly disabled drug ddicts. many of whom are infected w ith hiv/a ids this initia tive is an important signal that a commitment has been made to house "undesirables" in the downtown eastside

and most dramati cally of any project so far is a drug users' organization a lso funded by the vancouver richmond health board it's ca lled vandu -vancouver area ne twork o f drug users sibley says in his book . "there is a lways the hope thai throug h political action the humanity of th e rejected will be recognized and the images of defi lemenl discarded"

and that is what vandu has most powerfully begun to accompl ish -the de-marginalization of those most marginaliz.ed the most povverless and voiceless are finding their voices and speaking forth at meetings and conferences and on committees where they had never been seen or heard before

it occurs to me regard ing activism in the downtown eastside that out of all ad vocacy efforts and a ll the meetings and demonstrations around housing, while important as acts of res istance, they have not yie lded one square inch of space taken back but the drug emergency has been truly hopeful

a petition campaign was begun by vandu members for safe injection rooms in the downtown easts ide more space for the lowest the least and the last and because of the horrendous number of overdose deaths, th is has become a possibil ity the 24-hour resource centre committee unanimous ly supported this petition and safe inject ion sites and th is committee includes a gastown bus iness leader and an inspector of the vancouver police department and the chief med ical officer of be. john millar, in a report on the public health emergency, urges the government to yield resources with housing mentio ned prominently to he lp save lives of dnJ€ users

out of this suffering of drug addicts and the ir families out of this exclusion, o ut o f this genocide, out of the enormous health care costs now and later out o f the monstrous market of international drug trade against first nations people out of the wi ld fi re consequences o f the prohibition of illicit d rugs

out of the disease, out o f the lives of the most execrated most written-off and hated human beings in our soc iety has come an opening .. a possibility for something new for change for tak ing back space

and the emergency is not going to go away problems associated with drug use w ill only increase and worsen if real changes are not made for social acti vists this is an opportunity that may not ever come again

you can take o n the who le system from the side of a drug add ict this crisis is in victoria, it is in the comox valley it is on reserves throughout the province it is across the world

and so I urge political activists to organize with drug addicts - they are in the biggest mess there is their lives are the biggest messes and the c loser you are to them the more of a mess you get into but this solidarity is the only hope I see for actual concrete change

the downtown eastside is being crushed there are a mill ion battles to fight I have never before realized the width and breadth and power of the system as I have in this advocacy because here is a real threat to the system, trying to save the lives of those others would rather see die

1'11 c lose with another quotation from the best book I know on this whole debacle it's called "the corne r" the comer being the drug comer, the drug scene. the authors david simon and edward bum say

"the corner is everywhere and we have swallowed some disastrous pretensions allowing ourselves a naive s incerity that even now assumes the battle can be restricted to he roin and cocaine limited to a self-conta ined cadre of lawbreakers when all a long the confl ict was r ipe to become a war against tire underclass itse lf we can commit to the peop le of the corner to the notion that they are our own, that the ir future is our future or we can throw the problem back on them empathy demand s that we recognize ourselves in the ir faces, that we acknow ledge the addictive impulse is something more than simple lawlessness that we begin to see the corner as the last refuge of the truly disowned and connected ness admits that between the ir world and ours the distance in human terms at least is never as great as we make it seem"

Bud Osborn

0 mc;cne~aD~e 02 2014 muon art COif'

PACIFIC BLUEGRASS & HERITAGE SOCIETY

A variety of bands playing Bluegrass, Folk

and Country Music! Wednesday

March I9th, 7 · 9 pm Carnegie Theatre

see Wha-t Moves you in 2o1q.

Expressive Arts Workshop for Seniors Movement, pastels, music, poetry ...

Using movement and the Arts playfully to create New Year Opportunities and Learning

Wednesday, Mar 24th 2-4pm Carnegie Centre in Classroom 2

Facilitated by Jill Nowak For Info, Contact MARY ELLEN : 604-665-3005

Greetings Frotn the librarY Hello! My name is Elizabeth, and I work as the Car­negie Librarian every Monday and on alternate Sat­urday afternoons. I've had the pleasure of working at Carnegie Library several times before, helping to plan the annual Alley Health Fair in 20 II and again in 2013. I've really been enjoying having regularly scheduled days at Carnegie and getting to see the same friendly faces from week to week. When I' m not at Carnegie, I work as a Children's Librarian across the Vancouver Public Library sys-

tem. l also regularly volunteer just down the street with the Saint James Music Academy, an after-school music program for children living in the DTES. Looking forward to seeing you in the library! Also, we have another new face at the library this month, Devin Egan. Devin will be acting for James as the Carnegie Library Supervisor. James has been asked to help out downtown at the Central Library for about 3 months, so Devin will be with us during that time. Please stop in to say hello and give a warm Carnegie welcome to Devin!

'Dear ]ewe{

My darling. Do you miss me like I miss vou? Don't lie, you need me like I need yo u. ' . Remember when we first met? It was your first time out. I was sitting with your fri ends across the fire from you. We flirted a little, stole hidden glances here and there. I could feel your excitement along with your innocence and purity; I couldn' t wait to be your first. It was magical, wasn't it? Remember how it felt when I first touched your lips? I cascaded down your throat and enveloped your lungs in a warm embrace. You couldn't believe it - it was pure ecstasy. I swear you felt it right down to your knees. I held you close. You didn ' t notice but I watched as you sat there with that euphoric smile on your face, and I knew you'd grow to love my savage grace.

those were such great times we had, so why are yo s~ mad? You should be glad! I waited patiently every t1me you turned your back. who was there for you when alex died? who held you when you cried? who took the pain away? who helped you pick up the pieces and put on a brave face at the end of the day? Sure we had a few rough patches : when we stole from your parents, when we lied to your sisters and cheated your friend, ~a got a bit hopeless, ang ry, maybe a little de pressed ... in the end just remember we both had one goal, love, so don't be sad, you did not have to sell your soul ...

Cheyenne Maya Stevens

BROKEN HEART BROKEN HEART An Exhibition on Trauma

"The Thin Veneer of the Lost Limbic" Does The Male Have a Psyche?"

By Montana King

OPENING NIGHT AT THE CARNEGIE CENTRE

401 Main St. 3rd floor FRIDAY APRIL 4111 5:30-8:00 pm.

WHAT WILL THE DTES LOOK LIKE IN THE FUTURE? Right now, the city is making a plan for the DTES for the next 30 years. The plan is called the Local Area Plan (LAP). The plan will decide who will be able to live here in the future and who will be comfortable in the neighbourhood. Will the DTES be like Yaletown? Or will low income people be able to keep living here?

Daisy Moe, what's all

this talk about 60- 40? That would keep condos out. so

hotel rents won't go up so fast

So far we only have a draft plan from the city. There's one good recommendation: To make sure that 60°/o of all new buildings are social housing and 400/o are market rentals in the Oppenheimer area. This would keep condos out of the area and help keep rents in the hotel rooms down. But there is no plan to replace all the SROS with good housing or house all the homeless people.

Wh~rt d~ea the ~~w mneC)nt)(e e~ucus w~ni ~n ~ pl~n t~r ih~ DTEI?

1. End the DTES housing crisis. Designate land for social housing. Build 5000 units of self-contained housing for DTES residents who are homeless or live in hotel rooms. Make a plan do this within 10 years using city, provincial and federal funds.

2. Define Social Housing. Make sure that people on welfare, with a shelter allowanc-e of$375/month, pensioners and people who can't afford market rents can afford social housing.

3. Change zoning laws. Support city staff's plan to require 60% of new buildings in the Oppenheimer area to be social housing, and 40% to be market rentals (no condos allowed). Require one third of all new housing in Thornton Park and the Hastings Corridor to be social housing available to people on welfare and basic pension, and one­third to be social housing available to the working poor.

Curioser and curioser! All those planning

meetings, and I'm still stuck in this skuzzy SRO!

4.1mprove the housing we have. Hold • landlords accountable for bad conditions. Stop renovictions and bring in real rent control.

5. Control business gentrification. Create a process directed by low-income people to approve or deny new business (restaurant, liquor, boutique) applications.

G. Quality, living wage jobs far law-income residents. Create job training programs for anyone who wants them. Require local business to hire local residents.

7. Safety for all. Stop criminalizing survival work like sex work and vending. Stop abuse by police and security guards. Create a special office directed by low income and Indigenous residents to receive complaints and direct investigations.

8. Create an Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Centre. Fund a centre designed and operated by Indigenous people, with the consent of people from the local nations. Include resident-run intergenerational housing in the building for Elders, children, youth, young parents and adults.

9. Fund peer run mental health services. Fund and enable mental health services run by people who experience mental health issues themselves and have experience in the system.

10. Fund harm reduction services, detox, and treatment on demand. Empower people who use drugs to design and implement harm reduction services. Make sure that anyone who wants detox or treatment can get it right away.

11. Fund social services that provide safety and choices. Make sure that people with mental illness are given choices that include non pharmaceutical and non institutional options, choices about what kind of support they need and who provides it.

12. End discrimination so everyone_can get the services they need. Make sure Indigenous residents, people with disabilities, queer and trans people, women, and people who speak Chinese and Spanish can use services and feet welcome there. Fund services that make the relationship between settlers and Indigenous people equal. Make the DTES a sanctuary zone where all have equal access to health, housing and social services regardless of citizenship status.

Rents are going up in the hotels and

What's the LAPP?

Some of you may have heard of the LAPP, which

stands for the Local Area Planning Process.

The LAPP is the process that the city created to

make the plan. Most low income caucus members

are LAPP committee members.

Who is the low income caucus? The low income caucus is made up of people like Tracey Morrison of Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society, Dave Hamm ofVANDU, Phoenix Winter of the Carnegie Community Centre Association, Karen Ward of Gallery Gachet, Colleen Boudreau representing sex workers, anti-oppression organizer Tami Starlight, and Victoria Bull, an aboriginal grandmother raising her grandchildren. They are joined by volunteers Harold Lavender, Ian McRae and Herb Varley. CCAP organizes the meetings.

Merciful Minerva!

Can't t hey read at Cit y

Hall? Thousands of

people signed this

petition!

What has the Caucus been doing? The caucus has been holding Town Hall Meetings and other events to hear what low income residents want in the plan. The caucus has been telling the city what it hears. In June, the Caucus organized a petition drive and a rally for a Social Justice Zone in the DTES. Over 3000 DTES residents signed the Social Justice Zone petition.

Are some people fighting for more condos and less social housing? Yes. Some business groups and developers don't like the 60 I 40 plan for the Oppenheimer area. Many are meeting and writing to the City to argue for more condos and less social housing .

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The Carnegie Community Rction f1roject (CCRJ1) is a Jlroject of the Carnegie Communitg Centre Rssociation. Visit us at the CRRNt~E COMMUN\TY CEN'T'RE. 2NO flOOR. 401 MR\N STKEET (@HRSTIN~S). VRNCOUVER. UNCEOEO CORST SRUSH TERRITORIES hHJ>:I/ccaJ>vancouver.wordJ>ress.com * tamaraccap@ gmail.com * 604.729.2380

Not all Advertising LOOKSiike an Ad

'Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.· A little homily to deal with reality. The one that makes more sense to me is 'Subjective approach with objective adjustment.' This keeps the wide spectrum of possi­bilities in perspective and allows conscious intell igent and intuitive responses.

It also helps one keep their wits about them when anger or other difficult emotions strive to colour and muddy a s ituation. A prime example is the poor-bash­ing diatribe/ad that's on Page 2 of a recent Vancouver Sun. As ofthis writing 121 people are signed up to speak at City Hall on the controversial Local Area Plan set to decide the developments to be permitted in the Downtown Eastside for the next 30 years.

The author Shelley Fralic went on and on about how much of a money pit the area has been for decades, how undeserving residents are for their anti-social & anti-goodness lives. According to the stereotypes she is flaunting, every addict has chosen to be one and should rot in hell ; every disabled or mentally ill bozo has nobody to blame but him or herself and should stop sucking on the tit of governments that idiotically keeps them alive. Every crime, undesirable result of poor people driving all the decent people away, every family having to Jock up their kids to keep them from being ravaged by contact with or even knowing about the cesspool the Downtown Eastside has become are all due to her and all the decent people allowing it. But it's just the spectre of low- income people getting anything that brings out the poor-bashing in force and vehemence.

Fralic writes as tl1ough she is speaking directly to the prejudices, the bigotry and the cultivated igno­rance ofMr & Mrs John Q Taxpayer. There is no room or even need for further argument: all these undesirable, indecent, dishonest, criminal activities and the people responsible for same (I guess that's us!) must go ' ·somewhere else."

Sound familiar? It was exactly the same when the Chinatown Merchants Association made statements in the press, right after a front page quip in the same Vancouver Sun about how there were at least 7000 addicts living in the hell of the Downtown Eastside, and the CMA said, "We love drug addicts. They should go into treatment.. somewhere else" (with one

saying off-record that an island somewhere would be ideal (where 'they' could get clean (or die?!)))

Such people, and this kind of thinking is certainly shared throughout the business & development ranks everywhere, are most firm in expressing their views

in_ terms that completely deny any common humanity With anyone beneath their own fantasy-status or class.

That's how it's done: if you want something some­one else has got, you first dehumanise them, hold them up for ridicule and scom, then make them your enemy threatening the (your) purity of purpose and hop~ fo_r the _world embodied by your kind. Then you ar~ JUStified 111 your own mind to scapegoat, lock up, dnve away or just kill all these sub-human creatures. . Back to the beginning: hoping for the best, prepar­mg for the worst gives a lot of power to those happy to crush you. The first impulse is to react, and that c~n fit you into more of their stereotyping. Be pas­Sionate about your rights and your stance. Never give up and find friends. The power of those who think ~he~selves over you is a paper tiger, only intimidat­~ng 1f you let it overwhelm you .. only overwhelming 1fyou let it intimidate you.

By PAULR TAYLOR

A Canadian Anthem

Oh, Carnegie, Our nearby living room. Your dome just seems A dark smiling mushroom.

The library, the round staircase The cafeteria. The poolroom and the Learning place, The auditorium.

Oh, Carnegie, Almost nearly free. Wish that I could now walk back To the Carnegie.

Oh, Carnegie; the best place In Beee Ceee!

Garry Gust

my addiction

So my sweet darling I see your pain I am on the corner o f Hastings and Main

Oh I will lie to you And make you my slave Soon you will be addicted I am everything you' ll crave

Growing up I never thought I would be an add ict But in my addiction l"ve been caught I've stolen, cheated and lied All the thi ngs I. said I'd never do I watched my best fri end die Along with her pati of me seemed to die

· The streets bring me comfort I have nowhere to lay my head each n ight l have become a s lave to dru as

0

But I won' t g ive up this fi ght

Diane Neufeld

Achievements

Legacies

To their children, my parents left a legacy of lies a legacy of pain a legacy of hate

To my children. I will leave a legacy of truth a legacy of heali ng a legacy of love

Angharad Giles

You' ll sleep with my men And work for my fri ends You must obey my orders O r your life sadly ends

I be lieve in people who put all the ir effotis In whatever endeavours they gain

I promise this though If you do all I say I ' II feed your addiction And you' ll love what you crave

So poor vulnerable girl I've corrupted your mind So fa r beyond lost No one could really find

But the drugs and the money Oh and the man in the street Countless nights hiding O nly to get beat

You' ll run and yoti' ll hide Only to crawl back to me You say you' re not addicted But I saved you, can' t you see

So my secret darling How has the ride been with m e You a re my precious slave Simply a prisoner never set free

Diane Neufe ld

I salute people with all talents -music, art, poetry & w rit ing

If you believe in yourself You will succeed in everything. 1 be lieve in myself, I be lieve I can do whatever is best DrugStOre Window

-and so can you

All my re lations, Bonnie E Stevens

We are all normal Here inside this place We are all normally Locked up for many days We were once normal Now we Jay locked inside Just an average person Whose soul has s lowly died In this place we call home We are a ll pretty much the same As hours fade And days pass us by We see and hear horrid things that make us want to die So welcome to the funny farm

Tara's a big gi rl the mean ones call her M iniVan ~ut we shush 'em up 'fore she hears might be big but as sensitive as deer got a big heart, that girl what e lse matters?

seen a cowboy come out a drugstore draggin' the bars out front I guess the big scary woman dancing couldn't come and eat ·em whole they just couldn't pass up te chance hurtin' her feeli ngs

no-one noticed the wince of pain. but I saw, 1 saw .. . another case of cruel and unusual stupidity. hope you're proud big man

A I

Where we all are insanely sane Welcome to the place we call home Where we all are pretty much the same

Diane Neufeld

Pinochio Knows or Gepetto was a Pervert (this week'sfahytale update from thefairytale continuum's continuity department. "Hi there'")

Yeah 1 told you guys I'd be gettin' around to this one so if you don't like it. or prefer it in rid iculous leprechaun patois please drop me a note via the fairytale continuum ... Wherever that is.

Actually it's just down your street up the second to last laneway, back of the last warehouse on the left, or the righ1 if the wind is coming from the south. Remember that one. Otherwise you're better off waiting till th ings are in print before running around looking like a brainwashed chicken repeating humour as fo wl fact... Actually, and again. tha last comment was for the bozo who just burst through the continuums door dressed as Sancho Panza claiming he'd been abducted by a group of weird psychics who specialize in fucking up polygraph readings. Took a while to get that freak out of the fairytales too.

But where was I again? Right, Pinocchio, the sapling son who never existed in the first place. There are some who say that Pinocchio is the original template for "Sonny" in the new 1 Robot movie, but to tell

the truth 1 think those people need a refresher course something like you'd see on Sesame Street (one of these things is not like the other, etc. etc.) concerning the differences between artificial intelligence that will never actually be intelligent (because it's artificial), a chunk of wood a delusional old geezer has long heartfelt conversations with while he hacks away at it with objects sure to get him on every no=fly list on the planet, and the differences between subjective verses objective when dealing with mysterious things like fairytales, and the bozos who pretend not to know what they are.

Don't ask Gepetto. Somebody left the door ajar and now he's over there in the corner of the continuum we nor­mally reserve for visiting spirits from way way out there pretending to everyone who will listen that -we work an alchemy of common sense into lead bricks for imagination- as being the only hope for Gepetto's obsession; Pinoc­chio #1313.

So could we all keep on lying to Pinocchio to keep Gepetto's beliefs about the things he has created but doesn't want to take responsibility for from getting out ofthe bag. The bag he keeps his new and improved but only half finished Pinocchio in.

Yeah kiddies, Gepetto's a freak 'cause Pinocchio ... remember Pinocchio? There's a story or five about Pinocchio, yeah Pinocchio's a piece of wood. A piece of wood on puppet stri ngs to be exact. And we all know what happens when Pinocchio goes off the stage, right? Yeah, right back into the box Gepetto keeps all his self portraits in .

Does Gepetto have a secret wish to be a piece of wood like Pinocchio? Or does he just want to have a piece of wood to talk to and take to the park on Sundays like a page out of a collection ofNorman Rockwell sumpthin-or­others . And could someone please tell me why Gepetto's favourite piece of wood gets longer every time Gepetto lies? Remember, Pinocchio's a piece of wood, not an artificial intelligence (that has to be programmed to respond) called Sonny. No sir, old fashioned puppets have to be manipulated by puppeteers, which in this case is Gepetto.

That's a good question; Why does Gepetto's favourite piece of wood -that he keeps re-shaping with lethal objects­grow longer when Gepetto uses Pinocchio to lie to everyone? Does Gepetto suffer from Munchausens Syndrome b' Proxy? (That's a transferrence based mental illness usually suffered by control freaks in order for the control freak t get attention.)

Poor Pinocchio the proxy puppet. A critter Gepetto won't allow the dream of growing up. No, Gepetto insists his proxy piece of wood must be a real live little boy.

Sumpthin' tells me the fairytale continuum's continuity department should retain the Insane Louse Posse' to hand! critters like Gepetto and keep his personal fantasies outta the fairytales. But I'm just the fairytale continuum's mas­cot so no one really listens to me. Though it is a nice perk offairytale life to be able to tell critters like that freak Gepetto to "F-off" from fairytale to fairytale. Even though Gepetto usually has no idea we're insulting him.

Hang in there Pinocchio! Help's on the way. Skippy the tye-dyed mascot

Don't Get Me Started Saint Minus tells me people who do not guzzle booze are to be now classified mentally ill - right arm I mut­ter under the falling snow, like forest smokers aiming their butt at a 2 hundred yearold tree I walk by Keefer and Main and see selfi shist lunacy as condos for the rich continue to grow, pipelines already cracking, pot is a no-no how someone e lse can tell what and what not 1 can do I do not think so you catchy me or kill us the poor the many the enraged, sinister-handed in a right-of-way world you try to fight back then your character and rent and the city you loved arc attacked when Main and Hastings becomes the epicenter of West Van. Two .... where will we be Hey god I think your trident-shaped global leach phone is letting you know you're being paged, like4 an isolationist popularity contest or a fish and chip­pendale-themed restaurant kind of makes you think of how the poor will be ordered to dress, will the Minis­ter of gods please tell us what plans bad or worse will be enforced in nuclear terms what the hell is next. .. So many hands so little time are we fu lfilling futility so bent on destruction it's as if by design but not just yet there are some who still care, it's open season for the land of us sitting ducks every block you kill I'll key your expens1ve suv - Sel fishist Ultra Violent- truck Unfortunately the sum of my hopes and dreams could not buy a one-zone 90-minute busfare, like c rashing your karma reality seems to be the one and only lux­ury you can afford a blip on the bottom of page e lev­enteen thus your 15 seconds are crushed between a missing cat and another missing girl so much for no­toriety jump abourd the SSAnonymously Anonymous classes begin whenever you want any vacant lot will do; like the dirt fore all to see in your hands like the pin drops only pove1iy and depression real people under­stand, like the better part of a bitter life there are no more commands for me and you, Skid Row is now in escrow as more buildings and streets get to die and we look at ourselves some will scream some juist cry I hate those rich bastards for trying to make us look

like the stumbling blocks and the bad guys all this evil on our streets why? The time we don't have is the only time we have got it's the Gregors and Clarks and Furlongs, Williams and you to Diane Watts you deserve nothing but being chained together and thrown into the sea to rot, but instead of wrecking the ocean we shall condemn you to just one room & the public' II be witness to your equal opportunity doom. Have Fun see ya no maybe not.

By ROBERT McGILLIVRAY P.S. Russia screw off,

with love the Ukraine!

Spring Flamenco Series at the Carnegie Join us for our spring series of flamenco workshops, where you will be immersed in the music, rhythm, and dance of southern Spain. From the gypsy camps and Moorish m_edinas of Sevi lie, Granada & Jerez, Flamenco embodies the passion, pride, suffering, and joy ofthe people. Learn dance technique, rhythmic hand clapping or palm as, and how to listen and re­spond to the music. No dance experience necessary. Open to all genders. Ole! Instructor: Kelty McKerracher

Saturday March 22, 4 pm - 6 pm Fridays in April and May (except April18) 3 pm - 5 pm *Special Event* Flamenco Movie Night with Oscar Nieto Respected Vancouver maestro Oscar Nieto will take us on a journey through the evolution of flamenco in the 20th century with 'the medium of film. Be wowed by footage of the some of the great dancers including the legendary Carmen Amaya. Oscar has a wealth of knowledge having worked directly with many of the artists and will give historical commentary after each clip - this is an event not to be missed!

Saturday March 29, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

1)oN'-r1"ouc.l-/ ME,

I/

L\Jel'..'/ ~ CH~RM5~

Carnegie (~ ]'!_ E _j_V S LETTER u~-~c· x ca

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