2011: Best Of

Jordan and me at my annual "Best of" awards ceremony

The Year's Discoveries

(Note: This is a list of my favorite things of 2011, and not limited to things that came out in 2011.)

Music

The Whole Love

Bright Eyes at the Val Air Ballroom (Des Moines)
My sister took me to see Bright Eyes for my birthday. I went as an enthusiast of the band, I liked them but wasn't a huge fan or anything. I left as a huge fan of Bright Eyes and with a lot of respect for Conor Oberst and his artistic vision.


"The Whole Love" -Wilco
Wilco consistently turns out quality albums. While I was slightly disappointed by "Wilco (The Album)" I still found a few songs I really enjoyed. "The Whole Love" is a return to great form by Wilco with a little bit of all the sounds from Wilco's previous albums.

"Hot Sauce Committee Part Two" -Beastie Boys

This is a really fun album bolstered by the fact that the Beastie Boys aren't trying to copy the sound of current rappers. They are who they are and it is glorious.

Matthew and the Atlas at the Soiled Dove (Denver)

Another concert thanks to people in USC with great taste in music. The venue was great, no seat was further than 50 feet from the stage. What made this show really special is that the opening acts were just as fun and great as the main act and all the bands interacted and played   along with each other.

Beirut

Beirut at the Fillmore (Denver)
This is a discovery thanks to some USC friends. I'd heard of Beirut a few times but had never check them out so when people said they were going to see them live I figured that was my chance. They put on a fantastic show and provided a great first outing in Denver



Books

The Dark Knight Returns

"The Dark Knight Returns"-Frank Miller
So I was reading a very intense book with lots of big words and needed something to take a break and get something different while I was reading it. "The Dark Knight Returns" and some other graphic novels were my answer to this. This book is dark, an aging, pessimistic Batman comes out of retirement to once again try to save a crumbling Gotham.

"Lord of the Flies" -William Golding
The first book that I read on my Nook e-reader. A bunch of British kids survive a plane crash only to find themselves trapped on an island. While at first the boys enjoy the freedom of being on their own things soon fall into chaos and disaster. A brutal look at human nature.


"Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields" - Charles Bowden
A non-fiction book that reads like a nightmare. Bowden chronicles the corruption in Juarez, from the military, to the police, to the drug cartels. As he puts it the killings are not from a drug war but from a failure and crumbling of society. I was planning on reading this book last year when I was living 40 minutes from Juarez but didn't get around to it until I moved away.

Che

"Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life"-Jon Lee Anderson
This book sat on my shelf for at least 5 years. I wanted to read about Che after my class trip to Mexico in 2003ish...I saw Che shirts everywhere there, even though he was an Argentine in a Cuban revolution. At 700+ pages it took me some courage to dive in but once I got started I loved the book. Guevara lived a fascinating life and whether you agree with his politics or not he was a man that lived what he believed in and died for it in the end.




Film and Television


Freaks and Geeks
I watched this show a little in college but didn't fall in love with it until now. This show was directed by Judd Apatow before he got famous for movies like "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up". It follows the everyday stresses of high school kids in the early 80's. A lot of the actors ended up with successful careers after the show such as James Franco, Seth Rogan, and Jason Segal.


Community-
This show is fantastic. Everyone start watching it! Like right now! Actually you can't right now because NBC has pulled it out of the lineup for a month or two, which is scary because that could lead to a cancelation. So watch it. It's a great sitcom as well as a great parody of a sitcom.

Community

Philip Seymour Hoffman-
No one gave me the memo on this dude. I watched "Doubt" the other day and thought he was just phenomenal. So then I watched "Capote" and was blown away, it was like watching a completely different actor. This guy is versatile


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two
The end of an era. People in my generation have been reading the books and watching the movies for over a decade now, so naturally this made the list for me. Plus it is an over all great film and ends the series, which has had it's highs and lows, on a quality note.

TNG

Star Trek: The Next Generation
When I was little it was a huge deal for me when my dad would let me stay up late enough to watch this show. I had forgotten about it until I used my free month of Netflix and saw this on my recommendations. When I was little I appreciated the space battles now I'm in love with the humanity of the show and the optimistic look at mankind's future (plus the space battle special effects haven't aged well).
______________________________________

Well, that's my list! What do you think? What would be on your lists? What are some of your favorite things of 2011? Did I leave any categories out? I'd love to take suggestions for more! Happy New  Years everyone!!!

Thoughts and Q&A with the blogger

Soundtrack for this post: Wilco "The Whole Love"

Location: Hanson Farm, Mingo, Iowa

What caused a momentary delay in continuing to write this post: Spilled water

I know that I am a few months early to call it the middle of my USC year and a few days early to reflect on the past year but what the heck right? It's hard not to start thinking of the past few months and future plans on the day after Christmas as I sit at home and try to figure out how I'm going to actually make money some day. Volunteering is great but there is a rumor going around that we live in a capitalistic country and that I will end up visiting a homeless shelter myself as a client if I don't make some hard cold cash come August.

USC has been...good. I struggle doing a second year in community and intentionality about discussing so many things with community. I'm quite looking forward to my own place with my own rules and a nice job while I figure out my next big plans.

The Harm Reduction Action Center, my work placement, has been great but hectic. We are finishing up moving this month. We scored a nice place in the Santa Fe Art District where we can finally become a syringe exchange, one of only two in the city of Denver. While the space is smaller and we will be losing services such as lunch, showers, and laundry, it is a huge move forward to be able to provide clean syringes to people to help them avoid diseases on the streets. My past month at HRAC has involved a lot of painting of the new place, Craigslisting for items we need, and packing up the little red house. When I return to Denver I will be going to the new work place and to a new job description.

Here is my Q&A section of questions I often get pummeled with:

Q: Will you stay in Denver when the year is up?
A: Prospects are looking good right now, all I have to do is find a job in town if I want to remain.

Q: Have you thought about grad school?
A: Yup, but only in a not very productive or serious way. I have no clue what I would go for yet. Social Work come to mind but I'm not sure if I'm ready for a tough major that results in little pay. Also, I'm trying to figure out if I can shoulder years of social work without becoming a very grumpy pessimistic man. The world is rough, I'm not sure I can do years of seeing how rough people's lives are. On the same note, I'm not sure if I can not not help people who need it. (enjoy the double negative, it is my Christmas gift to you)

Q: Are you like a crazy person or something?
A: I am quite sure they will say so.

Q: Will you please do a "best of 2011" list for your readers? So we can know what was awesome thanks to your great taste in movies and music?
A: Sure, I suppose I can find the time...

Coming up next: Travis' "Best of 2011" list!

USC, etc.

I discovered Urban Servant Corps while on a retreat with the program I was in last year, Border Servant Corps. While I was in Denver I really fell in love with the city and the USC people seemed wonderful. After thinking it over I decided that another volunteer year didn’t sound so bad, I mean, I’ve done one already so another should be a walk in the park, right? Not quite it turns out, but I’ll get back to that.

USC Logo

The interview process with USC went great and soon I was faced with choosing a job site. Did I want to work at a homeless day shelter, as I did in Las Cruces? Or perhaps running immersion trips for youngsters, teaching them about the facts of homelessness? How about working with people who actively inject drugs such as meth and heroin and supplying them with clean tools to shoot with?

Naturally the last one stood out the most for me. Injection drug users (IDUs) are a population that I had never knowingly interacted with and knew nothing about. Plus kids are terrifying to work with, give me a homeless junkie any day.

I won’t go into further detail about the actual job site and interviewing process there as I cover it fairly well in my last post.

There were moments in between my BSC and USC year, that month of being back in Iowa, where I thought I had gone crazy. Why would I work for free for another year? Why would I put myself through the stresses of living with so many people again? I would go hang out with my friends and see their lives and go home to my parents and sit in the living room watching satellite on the big screen and think to myself, “do I really want to continue being poor on purpose?” My consumerist self was waking out of its slumber and wanting to run wild at a local GameStop or Barnes and Noble.

Yet obviously I did it, I drove to Denver. I admit that there were a few times I almost turned around. Even when I moved into my new room there were more than a few nights where I was on the verge of leaving.

But I’ve learned that roughing the tough part is usually worth it.

And has been, for the most part.

Thanksgiving with fellow USCers who
stayed in Denver for the holiday.

I am still trying to stop myself from trying to make USC a Denver version of BSC. I often catch myself fighting rules or community dates simply because it isn’t what or how BSC would do it. USC is a more religious organization with much more time commitments and I am still learning to adjust and accept that.

My housemates are wonderful but it is tough being in intentional community for a second year. Getting used to a new set of personalities and habits has been a process as well as getting used to a new house atmosphere. This year’s house has been much more laid back and content with just hanging out than last years. Not that it’s a good or bad thing, just an observation. I know many times I would be begging for a quiet weekend in Las Cruces last year.

USC is different that BSC but it could be just what I needed to get out of my rut that I was in last year.

As a reader you have probably noticed by now that I have started to lose track of where this is heading, a weakness of my resistance to outlines.  Hopefully you got something enjoyable out of reading this, if you didn’t you should probably pitch me a few topic ideas.

One final thought.

I got a Denver library card. Therefore I am legit.

Peace,

Travis HP

Winter visits Denver early...

... And one of my clients made a snowman. Note the cigarette and stylish tobacco leaf tie.

My Job

Well this is long overdue, as are most of my blog posts. I could pretend I do this to try to build the anticipation, to make you all wonder what's going on. When I last left you all I talked about leaving good friends and followed with a sloppy post of photos of the new place in Denver. It's thrilling right?

The Harm Reduction Action Center- "The Little Red House"

Sadly that's not the truth, the truth is my absence is a mixture of being super busy getting used to a new job/ a new city/ new friends/ new roommates and a bit of me just being a bit lazy.

I'm pretty fascinated by my new job so this post shall be concerning where I work.

This year I am working as a full time volunteer at the Harm Reduction Action Center (HRAC). This agency, located in a tiny red house on the west side of Denver, is truly a magical place for clients and staff alike. We have a community of people working together to improve their lives and lives of others. We share tears, meals (most of which are prepared by me), and a great amount of joy. The HRAC provides a community to a population of people that often do not have one, who have been cast out of their old communities and left on their own.

"So is this another gig at a homeless shelter?", you may be asking yourselves.

Nope.

The HRAC serves active injection drug users (IDU's) and works towards educating them on how to lead healthier lifestyles. We don't push people to get clean, we follow the strategy of Harm Reduction, which is meeting people where they are at. While we function as a day shelter by providing showers, laundry, and lunch to our clients; we are, at our core, a health agency. HRAC teaches classes on how to be safe while shooting drugs (not sharing syringes, using clean supplies) and how to avoid teaching this addictive habit to others. While we are conditionally approved to be a syringe exchange we are not yet able to give away needles but we have the other basic supplies that an IDU needs in order to be safe.

I admit that the concept of Harm Reduction was tough to understand at first, I mean, why not just push people to get clean? Tough love, right? Right?

HRAC memorial to clients who have died of overdose over the years.

But I see my clients and I understand it. A lot of them lead tough lives, many of them are homeless. They have been pushed aside and already left for dead by this country. But just because they are addicted to drugs doesn't mean they should not have a  home, that they should not have a job, that they should be without a voice. These are beautiful people who are flawed just like the rest of us, it is just that when you are homeless and suffering a painful addiction it is a lot harder for them to hide their rougher side.

I've only been at the HRAC for two months but I already feel that I am part of a family. A crazy household where all the relatives are always stopping by. To sum it up, it's like the show "Full House", if everyone was shooting up heroin. People's faces light up when they walk in and see my coworker's smiling faces.

We hold classes and have lunch in this small space.

I'm sure that some of you think I have an intimidating job or that I must be brave to do this. It really isn't that scary, people are people and everyone deserves a helping hand. Clients help me prepare meals and clean the dishes and I savor the moments where I can just sit back with them and enjoy a good chat.

One of the clients always says to me "You'll meet some real characters around here. Some of them are just plain crazy. I'm one of them."

I love my job. I love helping these people. I love being in this unique community that has formed in the little red house on the corner of 8th and Lipan.

Click here to visit the Harm Reduction Action Center's website (And donate money, perhaps?)


“No one is useless in the world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.”                 
                         
                                                                     -Charles Dickens

The new digs...

Here's just a quick blog to show you a little of where I am living in Denver. This is the front of our house. It's an old duplex with the middle wall knocked out so that all 8 of us can live together:

The view from my room window:

Our unfortunately Green Bay Packer looking living room:
My room:
Another look at my room:
It's all still a work in progress. I hope to paint my walls once I get a little more settled in.

Final Border Servant Corps Retreat

This past weekend I went on my final retreat with the BSC crew. I’ve known for some time now that the year is winding down but it took this weekend for it to finally hit me. In just 2 weeks the 12 of us will be dispersing across the country. Some are heading for home, some of us are heading into another volunteer year, and some are taking on the daunting task of looking for jobs in the “real world”.

We left late Friday afternoon for Ruidoso, NM. New Mexico is always surprising me with its variety of its landscapes. Ruidoso is a quaint little town up in the mountains, tucked away in the Lincoln national forest. I think all of us felt relaxed and cheered when we got out of our vehicles to the smell of pine trees and the cool crisp air. Las Cruces and El Paso has been hot and dry for most of our year down here so a scenery change was much welcomed.

A Lutheran church had agreed to let us stay the 2 nights of our retreat there so we spent our time doing some reflections and meditations on the year as well as just hanging out, going on walks, and exploring the Ruidoso downtown. It was all incredibly relaxing, though, for those who are interested in what downtown Ruidoso is like, all the stores were cutesy shops best for being perused by rich retired folk who love carvings of bears.

BSC on our fall retreat in Cloudcroft, NM.

Saturday night we began writing letters of affirmation to each other. Basically letters to each other talking about the year and the memories we’ve created together. I went to the sanctuary, sat in a pew, and pulled up John Coltrane on my iPod. Writing those letters was rougher than I anticipated and I suddenly realized how close the end was. Over the course of the year I have gotten incredibly close with these 11 people, people who were strangers not even a year ago. As I wrote I started remembering the special memories I’ve shared with each of them; from Lisa and I standing at the airport not realizing we were both waiting for the same person to some of the more ridiculous conversations I’ve shared with Brian and Nate. I feel so close with everyone and know that I have 11 wonderful friends to stay in touch with.

Saturday night was ended with a group reflection led by our director, Ryan. We read passages from several books, sang songs, and meditated on questions that Ryan presented us with. It was incredibly sobering and I think we all really felt it. We ended with a passing of the peace and all hugged each other. I think we all intentionally looked for things to get our minds off of leaving each other by finding ridiculous things to do in the church. We explored the attic and watched some poorly made Christian kid’s videos from the 90’s and all cheered up immensely.

Sunday morning we had to wake up early to get out of the way for church services. I woke up earlier than usual to pack up and get my makeshift bed back into where it was supposed to be. I had been sleeping on the cushions that were used for kneeling during communion and wasn’t sure what level of sacrilegious-ness I was committing but knew I didn’t want to be told by the pastor. A few people joined the church in their service while others of us read and went for walks.

We drove to a park and had a quiet reflection and wrote letters to ourselves that BSC will send us next year. I’m curious to see what my 24 year old, Denver dwelling self will think of my questions and if he will have any answers. He will probably be irked by his past self trying to mother him.

Then there it was, the end of our last retreat. It was nice to get home and crash into my own bed, a little recharged mentally but drained from sleeping on communion cushions.

That is all I have for now, I know these 2 weeks will fly by and I plan to enjoy them as much as possible.

BSC crew as we finish up our service year.

In hindsite...

...having the web address of my blog being hpinnewmexico was a little short sited...I shall be continuing my task of working with those less fortunate next year in a new location.

Travis HP will return..
In Denver!

Posts to look forward to:

What I am doing in Denver next year

A year end summary of my New Mexico experience

New photos

And more!!!

We've been having a fire on the Organ Mountains the past few days. It started on the East side from White Sands Missile Range doing some tests. An Abrams tank fired off a live round and started a fire. It's been working its way up the east side the past few days. The winds here have been 30+ miles per hour the last few days so there was little they could do to put it out. The fire reached the peak yesterday as far as I can tell since that's when I started seeing it. Luckily today has been very calm so we've seen lots of big fire fighting helicopters going back and forth with loads of water. So far about 8000 acres have burned.





The photos above are from the Las Cruces Sun News.



A view from work. It helps to enlarge it to see all the smoke.

Homeless Chess Board

The homeless guys on campus got bored it seems, and then really creative! Coolest chess set I've seen. Note that every rock has symbols marking what piece they are.

George, a client of MVCH, and I before he left for a construction job in Iowa.

It's (Not) Always Sunny in Las Cruces

(In fact sometimes it's cloudy and frigid with chances of snow)

I write this post finding that I have reached the point of my volunteer year when I am thinking more about the future than the present. While my time down here in Las Cruces has been educational and my job has been eye opening I am ready to move on to something else. As Red, one of the homeless clients, would say I have “itchy feet”.

As to what I will do when August rolls around I am not yet sure. For now I will probably move home and find a job, start saving up some cash (something that is very hard to do when you are working on a volunteer stipend)

We recently had some cold weather down here. The week before there were record highs being set and only days later record lows. It seems to be that New Mexico as a whole is sorely unprepared for such weather with rolling black outs being held to conserve energy as well as the government and schools remaining shut down for three days. I made the discovery during all of this that I must live in an area where there is cold and regular snow in the winter. The beauty of fresh snow on the ground is something that can’t be surpassed for me and the sharp bite of frozen air when stepping outside makes me feel alive.

Work at the Community of Hope continues to be an up and down adventure. There are days where I am rushing back and forth, trying to juggle several tasks of completely different nature; while on other days I find that really all I have to do is organize books and research homelessness online. I am continuing to see the severe highs and lows of people in the clients I work with.

Examples.


Low:
One of the homeless has been drinking mouthwash for years to get drunk. Bottles and bottles of it every day. Last week I was afraid would be his last as he lay there barely conscious. He has been to the hospital so many times that many of the staff there recognize him. He has an expressed desire to die and he is working on a slow and painful death for himself.


High:
When all my NMSU volunteers achieved their necessary hours for class and left all at the same time I quickly found that my job had become working full time at the front desk. A couple of weeks of this ensued before we finally placed one of our homeless guys up there. It’s not something we usually do but this guy was perfect for it. He camped out every night until he got sick and started staying in the Gospel Rescue Mission across the street to fight it off. He was at the front desk basically working 40 hour work weeks for no pay. I was beginning to feel bad for him since he was working the desk so much he had no time to volunteer for our paying weekly jobs like janitorial duties. Yesterday this man finally was paid back for all of his hard work. He submitted his resume to be considered for a position in one of our transitional housing units, as a resident manager. At lunch time our director informed him that he now has a new job and a new place to live. I was overjoyed at the news, as were other employees. I could tell he was happy but true to himself he only allowed himself a little smile and a polite thank you.

Everyday is something new. New faces and problems, new defeats and victories, new personal outlook and growth.

If I haven’t lost your attention yet I am shocked you do not have better things to do.

On a closing note the city of Las Cruces this week did the annual Homeless Point in Time Count. Community of Hope was a key player putting the count to work. What we were trying to find out is where people were staying on the night of January 30th. With this data we can have a better picture of what numbers we need to be able to serve and can use the data for requesting grants. An intern and I went out driving around looking for potential and reported hotspots for homeless camp sites. What resulted was 3 hours of driving around, looking in bushes, and awkwardly asking people at truck stops if they were homeless.

We found no one. Because it is cold outside. The coldness is rare here and was just unfortunate timing for our survey. On the plus side we were able to survey some people that rarely leave their campsites but had come to MVCH to get warm. On the downside is the fact that this is a national survey to determine home much money will go towards homeless services. The timing of it, in the dead of winter for much of the country, seems ridiculous and a move likely made to get smaller numbers. Smaller numbers means less money the federal government has to shell out to solve the homeless problem.

But of course, we don’t have a homeless problem, do we?



A client with his newly adopted kitten, "Scooby". While the client's nickname was previously "Slow N' Easy" he now prefers to go by "Shaggy".