NEWSNIGHT: Matthew Perry debates drug courts and addiction with Peter Hitchens and Baroness Meacher

NEWSNIGHT: Matthew Perry debates drug courts and addiction with Peter Hitchens and Baroness Meacher – Think-tank Policy Exchange is calling for more drugs courts – on which former addicts might sit as magistrates – in the UK and has met Justice Secretary Chri…

Del Barber
Event on 2014-06-05 21:30:00
I am the son of a draft dodger.  I grew up in southern Manitoba, balanced on the line that separates town from country.  My heroes yielded hockey sticks and fishing rods.  I was and still am reckless in everything that I pursue.

I woke up one morning at 19-years-old and I began to run. Any train, bus, road or trail, fuelled my desire to see more at whatever cost.  I traded my athletic heroes for writers that died young.  I chased Jack Kerouac’s ghost across the continent, working dozens of jobs to get there.  I planted trees in northern B.C., I served coffee and breakfast in Georgia, and I drove drug addicts to their court dates in Winnipeg.  I’ve worked as mountain guide, a janitor, a construction worker, a groundskeeper, a landscaper, a farmer, a counsellor, an ice-maker, a teacher’s assistant, a driver, a roofer, a fisherman and more.  I’ve worked in 15 states and 8 Provinces.

I chased after grandeur, found it fleeting. I tried to be a Buddhist, I tried to follow Jesus. I grew tired of rambling, I turned 23 and sought shelter in one of Chicago’s north side neighbourhoods.  I became addicted to open mic nights, embarrassing myself in front of strangers, singing half-cut versions of John Prine and Townes Van Zandt songs until way past last call.

I would leave the bars feeling free and hopeful, clutching my guitar and my suitcase, smelling of cheap beer and stale smoke.  It was always late and the streets were always vacant as I made my way, too late to catch a bus or train and too broke to call a cab.

On one particularly long walk home in late October, I was bombarded by a smell and a feeling from my childhood, one that brought back memories that had been stowed away somewhere on the back pages of my subconscious.  The wind came in hard off Lake Michigan and snow began to tumble out of the Chicago sky.  The nostalgic tinge of home hit my gut and birthed in me a realization that I was somewhere I didn’t belong. I knew at that very moment, all at once, that I would never be able to do anything but write songs and sing them from stage. I had charted a course and without any thought of consequence I drew the first draft of a dream.   It was a hunger that ran so deep that I would do anything to make it happen, and that nothing would stand in my way.

I left Chicago in a hurry, desperate to lean into home and the familiarness it brings.  I began to remember who I was, and thus, began to write.  I wrote hundreds of songs, I wrote with fever, urgency and naivete, as if no one had ever written a song.  I fell in love so many times, wandering and wondering around small towns trying to live like the characters in my favourite songs, wildly romantic, eager and full of youthful guile.

I became increasingly obsessed with narrative and the cinematic quality of songs, the way they can give a person a definite sense of place, in a world built on alienation.  I settled on twelve songs and in the winter of 2009, with the help of my old friend Jean-Paul Laurendeau and his makeshift basement studio, my first effort Where the City Ends was released.

I hit the road again and was baptized by it. Instead of trying to find meaning, I was trying to give it.  From towns and cities, in churches, bars, lounges, basements and street corners.  I told stories and jokes, I preached and professed, singing songs for anyone who would lend me their ears.

I wrote more songs and better songs.  I went back to my old friend and in June 2010, Love Songs for the Last Twenty was released. I continued to play anywhere I could, for whoever I could. Hundreds of shows were logged, and hundreds of thousands of kilometres were driven. My world turned into a dashboard, a radio, a guitar and a pen.

I began to rub shoulders with my heroes.  I traipsed across the stages of some of the country’s finest music festivals. I’ve warmed up crowds for the likes of James McMurtry, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Taj Mahal, Richard Thompson, and John Hiatt. I found confidence, I began to learn how to captivate crowds, I leaned into the craft.

Winter rolled into Winnipeg like a freight train. Brimming with the confidence of a child, I put my trust in a young producer from Maine named Sam Kassirer.  I put pen to paper and I put the hammer down.   I recorded rough takes of 30 plus songs and with Kassirer’s help I whittled the list down to 10.  It was an exercise in carefulness and intentionality.  It needed to be traditional, contemporary, fresh and urgent in its scope.  I sharpened the songs, I honed the narratives and the vision of the record became clear.  We assembled a brilliant group of musicians and we pressed “record.”  The process was raw, honest, electric and pure fun.  I put my faith in everyone at the table with me and revelled in the process.

At its core Headwaters is about searching for the source of our desires, and the freedom that comes from understanding the ways in which the sources influence our directions. Rivers can’t change where they begin, or where they run, neither can we change our histories or escape their influence on us.  Headwaters is a collection of parables, hymns and manifestos, stories of love and loss, sadness and joy, threaded together by the search for an ultimate source. Headwaters is my third record in four years, and I’m as excited about music and song-writing as I’ve ever been.

I’m 28-years-old, I’m a guitar player and a songwriter.  Sometimes I preach, sometimes I rhyme. I know that I will never do anything but this.  My world has turned into managers, agents, airports, festivals and promoters, but her source is still just a dashboard, a radio, a guitar and a pen.

Visit Del Barbers Website

at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
2425 Norfolk Street
Houston, United States
2nd Annual North Texas Recovery Film Festival
Event on 2014-09-18 10:00:00
Recovery Month 2014 is a paramount time of year in Texas. Following the successes of the First Annual Recovery Film Festival in the North Texas Region, collaboration between NAADAC, SAMHSA, TAAP (Dallas and Fort Worth), Eagle Peer Recovery, and Young People in Recovery TX has formed to make the now annual film festival a much larger success. This 3 day event plans to educate local students and communities, retain and recruit addictions professionals, and reduce stigma in the community, utilizing films that follow the 2014 theme: "Recovery for Life". The 2nd Annual Recovery Film Festival at UNT is a multi-day exhibition event showcasing first-time filmmakers and experienced professionals who make films about addiction, treatment, and long-term recovery, both from substance use and mental health disorders. Our audience is treatment professionals, persons in recovery, members of the entertainment industry, media representatives, educated moviegoers, the general public, and the student body, many of whom will encounter addiction before the end of their college career. Certain television shows have brought individuals' incomprehensible demoralizing moments (i.e., "bottoms") to viewers everywhere. We honor the men and women who have passed through the eye of the needle and exemplify the gifts of a valuable and productive sobriety and recovery. This yearly festival is unique in its focus on drug addiction, alcoholism, depression, anxiety, and long-term recovery. The realistic portrayal of these issues in cinema can be a catalyst for honest conversation and personal transformation. This dialogue is used to get those in need on the path to recovery. The Recovery Film Festival contains the following types of films: shorts, features, documentaries, music videos, educational features, and all other films/videos of any length that deal with the subjects of addiction, alcoholism, mental health, treatment, or recovery. Films are editorially diverse, portraying a wide range of ideologies, experiences, cultural backgrounds, opinions and identities. The 2nd Annual Recovery Film Festival at the University of North Texas will be held September 18th, 19th, and 20th. The three-day film festival will include 12 films that highlight not only the battle of the disease of addiction, but also the history of the field as a profession. Films will include: The Anonymous People, Unguarded, Methadonia, NAADAC's 3 part recovery month video series, Bob The Monster and others. Throughout the three days, panels and individual speakers from the recovery community and the addictions field will also be providing workshops and presentations for our guests. Keeping in line with last year's model, partners and community hosts will be invited to host an exhibition table outside in the foyer of the auditorium where the film festival will be held. Last years festival, with the diversity of film, saw high engagement both with the collegiate aged youth, and also 15-18 year olds, directly and on social media platforms. We will continue these trends and continue to engage youth through film and education. By promoting the theme of "Recovery for Life" we plan to be the catalyst for a conversation among young adults of what recovery in their life looks like personally. In addition, with this year's new format, CEU's will be provided to professionals in attendance.

at University of North Texas
1401 W Prairie St
Denton, United States