shot down.

i summoned up the courage the call the passage homeless centre this morning. but who'd have thought it, they actually have a waiting list for volunteers and i might have to wait 'til the summer. bugger. fear not though, because i sent an email to the director of the centre, something along the lines of this:

hello captain fantastic im a wanky art student and i want to take advantage of the destitute so i can get onto a degree course next year. hit me back y'all. *

should get a reply tomorrow.
read an interesting article on the guardian website today, apparently theres some sort of cult out there which sees it as enlightening to spend 3 days in the lives of the homeless, queuing at soup kitchens, receiving blankets and even begging. morally questionable fo sho. i have to admit i did consider this approach, spending a night sleeping rough to get a better idea of how it feels but i think this snippet of the article sums up every reason why i shouldnt;

'You must be bonkers,' said Peter, a middle-aged, well-educated former IT specialist who lost his job and then his house after suffering a nervous breakdown. 'I don't see the point of you doing this on any level,' he said with politely contained rage. 'What are you going to learn that you don't know already - that's it's horrible being homeless?' His friend asked why we have come in summer. 'If you really care about sharing our pain,' he pointed out mockingly, 'why didn't you come in the middle of winter?'

however, it did shed some light on something ive already read about; the distribution of food and other aids for the homeless at lincoln's inn fields. and after some brief research i now know that its every day at 7.15pm so i think im going to go there tomorrow. do a little drawing. take a few snaps. would be good to have some imagery to work with because at the moment i havent actually done any work.

stay tuned.

* this is obviously not the email i sent but i do realise that however i word a letter, its probably going to come across that way, cos essentially its true. i will be taking advantage of the homeless, but then again any film made about poverty etc will do so. i wonder if this is necessarily a bad thing?