iPhone Phund Now Phulfilled. Thanks Rich!

And boy, am I glad that's over - and I'm sure you are too. Throughout it all (muggings, etc.) I had people with iPhones complaining that I didn't need one for work - but somehow they did. Funny how some people think their jobs are more important than mine. And people who didn't have iPhones, but should have, complaining too - some even in the advertising and design business who didn't know what QR codes were or how to read them with a smartphone. In any case, too many people complaining that I was asking for a seemingly high-end product. But in the end, the greater number of friends and supporters who sent positive messages, financial help and general good vibes won out. Thank you Freya, Pete, Sylvia, Kim, John, Mary and Rich for all your care and spirit. Mission accomplished.

Occupy Wall Street Returns to Union Square

Photo: Julia Reinhart

Welcome drummers and clowns and street performers of all varieties - and yes, real activists and protesters too. And with the six month anniversary for OWS on March 17th at Zuccotti park, Occupy was back in business - until the cops kicked them out again on that Saturday night. The Raw Story covers things here with police violence marking the otherwise peaceful protests and bringing back to mind the government oppression of the last days at Zuccotti Park. And so after a full day on the 17th I left at midnight, only to see the protesters physically removed later on TimCast's livestream and an OWS move to Union Square. 

Capt. Ray Lewis

Monday I arrived at Union Square to a more than festive atmosphere. It was like the police had given OWS a gift - a new park to haunt. Befuddled park rangers and police tried their best to deal with a morning crowd, much more spirited than they might have been used to, but somehow in their eyes, you could see they were just waiting for word from above to drop the hammer yet one more time on the Occupy movement. Captain Ray Lewis, a retired Philadelphia police officer was there, just as he had been at Zuccotti, and a whole new generation of New Yorkers seemed to delight in the idea that the fun had finally reached their neighborhood. Occupy was back. At least in spirit.

Throughout the week, police presence had increased and on Tuesday night, the ritual of barricading the place, a Zuccotti staple of American freedom, had returned. But this time, it was the police barricading themselves into a small portion of the park and forcing the protesters onto the sidewalk, a legal sleeping area in NYC, to look back on the cops and taunt them from the outside. A video of protesters "Cop fishing" with a donut shows the Occupy movement has still not lost its sense of humour. Later in the week, I designed the logo above, based on the idea that people were trying to Trademark the Occupy Wall Street concept but didn't have a logo. I thought this solved the problem nicely - to sort of occupy the legal concept of owning intellectual property. It seems things will just get more interesting as this American spring gets under way.

SXSWi: Homeless Hotspots - All The Rage Until the Geeks Go Home

Well, the media have weighed in on the Homeless Hotspots program at SXSWi, so now it's my turn - and I have two problems with this program, after having read a great deal of the both negative and positive press on the initiative and also having substantial experience in the advertising business. I know the work of agency Bartle Bogle Heggarty (BBH) well and they are amongst the most creatively respected agencies in the world, but this effort generated far more negative press than it needed to for two reasons:

#1) Objectifying the Homeless 

Why call it 'Homeless Hotspots' unless you're trying to 'guilt' people into participating? Why not 'Human Hotspots' or 'Helpful Hotspots' or anything that doesn't make a homeless person wear a t-shirt that calls attention to their disadvantage? Would we have paraplegics wear shirts with the website address if the alliteration works? Simply branding it differently would have taken the negative aspect away and then made it an actual pleasant surprise when you found out it was really staffed by out of home participants who were making a buck in a way that they might not have otherwise. 


#2) Lack of Homeless Creative/Management

On LinkedIn we have a nice LMSW with Social Service provider Front Steps defending the program who certainly doesn't look homeless. She's actually paid, a lot in homeless terms, to work with the homeless. She goes to an office everyday and has a computer and a phone and gets a paycheck every two weeks - even though she works for a 'non-profit' funded by grants and public monies . And then there's BBH. If you've watched Mad Men or know anything about the advertising business you know their business environs can be funky but far from homeless. But what you don't see is any homeless person in the management or creation of the program. As described, it was cooked up by the agency, presented to Front Steps and then administered by Ms. Fowler there. But it's like the days before we had any black quarterbacks. I don't see any homeless people on the front lines, the directing lines, the throwing lines. Why not? We'll they're homeless, right?

What is missed in virtually all the programs to 'help the homeless' is that the problem in America is, that it is impossible to afford housing if you work a minimum wage job and in Texas, a 'Right to Work' (intentional misnomer) state, the minimum wage is just $7.25 . Poor Mr. Clarence, a Homeless Hotspots participant, lost his home to hurricane Katrina but it doesn't seem the government has been able to help him regain his home after a natural disaster aided by ill-maintained national infrastructure took it away. And FEMA? Who knows how they didn't help him. Instead, he's moved to Austin to do this, for a week.

Instead of programs to 'rehabilitate' or otherwise 'cure' or 'help' the homeless it might be more helpful to involve people affected by the syndrome and ask them what they want and how they think they might get there. I doubt that wearing propeller beanies and selling rides at the fair will be on their list. They might think that having an actual job and being able to afford a home are the most important things to them.

iPhone Phund Now Up $450. Thanks Mary

And so we're almost there. Thank you Mary for $100. Mary and I made our first television commercial together in 1984, or rather, we both worked for an advertising agency that made commercials for clients. We were not in the actual spot. Thank God. But we had this wild gay client who wanted us to spend a lot of agency money, arguably his money, on making him happy in LA. And so we did. We also did a complete survey of local convenience stores and hot tubs and spent some time riding a conveyor belt, upstairs and down  in one, searching for the toilet. Are these the kind of stories you want to hear homeless people telling - about their exploits in LA not being homeless? Of course not. But fuck you. What you would know about being homeless or fucking about in LA could fill a thimble. And that's not the point here anyway. The point here is that the face of homeless has changed. Changed drastically. And although you may believe that TV commercial making/conveyor belt riding people should, simply by their virtue of being complete twats, be homeless, then so be it. We have lives too you know. We are you. You just don't know it yet.

How much does it cost to be homeless?

"You have $400 USD coming so you can adjust your thermometer and perhaps get to work...book references that prove the thesis. I dont agree that you need an I phone to get a job and I really dont want to debate this...I really dont care what you do with the 400...none of my business..."

And so began last week, the promise of some small work, a contract to write a book, and a promised retainer that never showed up. By Wednesday, I had not heard that the money had been sent and so, sent a follow-up note. In response, I was told that the job had been cancelled and would never happen - a book the supposed author had already registered a website for and sent me an outline, contract and several detailed notes about.  "So what happened?" you ask? Well, quite simply, he reneged. Or more, quite possibly, didn't have his head screwed on properly in the first place. (Continued...)

This blog. aHBiNYC is now available as an eBook. It covers the writer's homeless experiences in New York City from September 11, 2011 through January 2013 in 245 pages and 50 chapters. To order simply use the PayPal button in the sidebar, send $10, and include your email address in the PayPal memo form. Thank you.