a small, happy note

I want to add a small postscript to the dream listener audiobook

(Myspace or Freesound : Movement1 ; Movement2 ; Movement 3 or contact us <crum1(at)sympatico(dot)ca> to donate $10 to the St James Centre in return for a limited edition CD in custom packaging (plus shipping and handling). All proceeds go to the Saint James Drop-In Centre / Le Centre de jour St-James.)

for those of you who have listened and are wondering…

I have seen “dee,” and got to hug him and talk to him and give him a copy of the audiobook. he appears to be well. he went through a detox program and is currently living in a home “not” in the city core…trying to stay away from his old patterns. he actually gave an interview on cbc radio “all in a weekend” on november 26th, (I am sure it was awesome! ) I am very happy to report he is scheming away on his artistic interventions and giving his heart and his time to his fellow passengers on this earth.

dream listener says thank you

so… one year has gone by and 194 cardboard dreams have been scattered around montreal. now I will have to adjust and stop scanning sidewalks for “good” cardboard and scribbling dreams down as soon as I wake up. this project has become such a part of my daily life I feel a kind of void. and relief. and gratitude. gratitude I was given the time and support to take myself into this space and gratitude that so many people have been so kind. many many people. the girl who smiled and gave me the thumbs up, the woman who trudged through the snow to speak with me, the man who told me his worst dream which prompted him to change his life, and all the people who have passed through this blog with your comments: snowchamp, endless, neath, leslie, felicity, jess, peter, the hare, steve, and on and on…
and all the people from the saint james drop-in centre but especially chris (who I saw again at the état d’urgence) anne-marie and bernard, -then there is the forever soft spoken diplomat jean-pierre from dare-dare -and christine and émilie and priscilla and valérie who translated for me, -all the “crummies”: chris, doug, felicity and alex and laurie too, -daniel and marco from homeless nation, -annie and pierre from atsa, -jack and vida from souffles, -dan from white water, -and christine, vince, christopher, nicolas, nicole, louise, sylvie, victoria, sarah, -then there is carl from le lobe and and and and….

thank you

état d’urgence day 3…dream #193

today, I am happy to be able to say, “the barber” was back. as part of my project for atsa I am recording sound to create a portrait of the “état d’urgence,” but today I focused on the visual of “the barber’s” hands as he combed and snipped. I want to capture the transformation he effects–both in terms of the person’s look and in terms of the person’s state of being. “the barber” (that is what he wants me to call him) spent a total of 48 minutes giving attention to this one hair-cut. pretty amazing.

later in the day one of the guys asked me if I had eaten yet and I told him no…not yet, he said, “follow me” and proceeded to escort me into the dining tent where much to my surprise we were served a gourmet meal by a group of young singers who later sang for us and told jokes. It really is incredible how atsa creates this space where others give and connect.

I am experiencing a really strange push-pull of emotions: sadness and anger because a country as rich as canada has three hundred people show up every night to sleep on the floor (the table tops are used to elevate people above the cement) in a tent in a park in downtown montreal in the winter. then I have a rush of “love” as I witness the genuine caring we give to each other. but I think in the end for me the sadness and anger wins out because this poverty is a human to human creation. it is neither an act of nature nor an act of war. we, us good ol canadians, we created this suffering and we tolerate that this suffering exists. and the état proves, makes manifest, that we can do a lot, we have the resources, we have the human power, but the état also proves that we allow this poverty to exist–save for these two individuals (pierre and annie) who have created this temporary structure where we do come together and show what we, us citizens, are capable of.

and irony upon irony this location where the état takes shape, place émilie-gamelin, is named after a woman who ran a soup kitchen all year long…

left at: État D’Urgence at Place Émilie-Gamelin, Sainte Catherine corner of Berri.

I’m currently in north bay, ontario at the white water gallery. will be here for ten days only. strangely disconnected from any sense of place, so I find myself heading to the train tracks and the water front. have posted two dreams so far…but.

feel out of place.

staying with dan, the director of the gallery helps. super nice guy.

roger perras plays the “dream song.”

last night chris, (sound recording expert,) roger (musician) and I went up to the mountain to record roger’s dream song– a beautiful song roger composed using some of my dreams as lyrics. chris wanted to record on the mountain to capture a particular sound quality, but the battery on the dat machine died (no fault of chris’s who had charged the batteries all day.) we ended up going back to roger’s place and recording in the vacant room next to his (thanks to roger’s landlady.)

roger played and sang the song so beautifully. it is quite something for me to hear roger sing my dreams back to me. I think the song (in some version) will be on “crum’s” (see blogroll) c.d. the c.d. will present dreams recorded from the members of the “saint james drop-in centre” (see blogroll as well) and perhaps some of my feelings and thoughts. the c.d. will be launched at “dare-dare” (blogroll) for the nuit des sans abri on october the 19th 2007.

as part of dare-dare’s fund-raising gala my friend jack locke and I did a conceptual performance where we addressed and mailed 306 “nous sommes tous de beaux réveurs” (we are all beautiful dreamers) postcards. one for every member of the canadian parliament. it took us about four and a half hours to write all the names and addresses –which meant we just missed the last metro home. (I only recently became informed that you can send mail to any member of parliament free, no stamp required…kinda cool. and for those of you who follow canadian politics you will have noticed that this little action has had absolutely no effect on our government’s agenda…)

an elderly gentleman wearing an official-looking blue polyester jacket and holding a clipboard came over to me and politely informed me I was on private property.

private property. such an odd concept. we are only here on this earth for a short time, passing through really. like dogs we piss and claim and defend.