Slipstream
Writing the Backwash with R. H. Sheldon
homelessness
Taking to the Streets
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
Last time I was in Vegas, I walked from downtown to the north end of the Strip. I’d been driving for a couple days, and a long stroll seemed the perfect way to shake off my road burn, especially on such a clear and balmy desert night. I left my hotel and headed down Fremont [...]
Tags: addiction, corporate welfare, homelessness, mental illness, substance abuse
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Occupy Portland? Beats the Hell Out of Cable TV
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
When I arrived in Portland last week, I headed toward the south end of Waterfront Park, that area squeezed in between the Willamette River and the sky-scratching high-rises of downtown commerce. Along the way I passed the Occupy Portland encampment and its surplus of tents and tarps and tethers and hand-painted testaments to a belief in [...]
Tags: homeless, homelessness, Occupy movement, Occupy Portland, Occupy Wall Street, Oregon, Portland
Posted in Political & Social | 1 Comment »
United We Stand
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
I finally came out of the closet—the show-tunes closet, that is. I hadn’t set out to expose myself in this way. I was merely looking for cheap drinks and a little entertainment. But there I was, at Marie’s Crisis Café, in the heart of the West Village. Just me and a room full of serenading [...]
Tags: 9/11, Broadway, bullying, health care, homelessness, Marie’s Crisis Café, New York, poverty, sexual assault, show tunes, underinsured, uninsured, West Village, World Trade Center
Posted in Political & Social | 5 Comments »
Wash ’n’ Wear
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
I stand in Guerneville’s only laundromat, in front of one of those front-load washing machines that promises to get my clothes cleaner and whiter than the kind with the lid on top. I toss in my clothes, lock the door, and insert most of my quarters. Fourteen, to be exact—$3.50 to wash one load. I [...]
Tags: California, Guerneville, homelessness, job loss, Russian River, unemployment
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Go with Grace
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
At a small café in San Francisco’s Mission District, wedged between a taqueria and dry cleaner, Grace has been serving eggs and hash browns and coffee for about a hundred years. She stands at five-feet-four, minus a couple inches for her perpetual stoop. When she walks, she never lifts her feet off the floor. It’s [...]
Tags: California, homelessness, mental illness, San Francisco
Posted in Political & Social | 3 Comments »
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