Art Therapist Needed in Vietnam For One Little Boy

Today I have a very serious request for all the readers of the Wild Wild East Dailies. I would like you to help a friend of mine, a certain Dr. Vinh in Vietnam. Dr. Vinh has a young boy who is a full man, a big man, and a man who knows all, but he can't speak all or behave as all, like other children. He has a disability. And Dr. Vinh's son needs your help. And so do Dr. Vinh and his wife. He has asked me to help him explore the science of art therapy and find an art and music therapist to help his son communicate with the world around him, and in Vietnam, that can be a very complicated world for sure. Should you know of an educational therapist who can help Dr. Vinh's son find his way in this world, please do contact him at camnangykhoa@gmail.com. I would like very much for us to help him work this out. This boy needs to rock. Let's make that happen. Thank you all.

From Eno to Rotten: Stream of subconciousness V

And which artist was normal? Recently I was told by two people that they were "normal" people and I was something other than normal - seemingly because I choose an artistic path from which to do business in life and they did not. I found the whole perspective odd. Do I think other people are abnormal because they are not like me? That's what I was being told. @ I read the characteristics of a person who is prone to emotional and physical abuse of others and realized I had been affected by two such people recently. It made me wonder what kind of signals I am giving off if people feel they can abuse me @ I was called a spoiled brat, a brilliant writer, a consummate professional, a visionary, a poor speller and a marketing has-been, all by different people and for different reasons. @ I am having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at 3am. @ Due to a leg injury I have been in my house most of the week, only going out briefly and painfully. It reminded me of the liner notes on a Brian Eno album where he composed ambient music because he was bedridden - the notes also had some instructions as to how to wire up a third speaker to a standard stereo that would give you a third, sort of bass channel in the room. I don't remember exactly. I also thought about Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" with Jimmy Stewart where he thinks he witnesses a murder in another apartment across the courtyard from his, when he is kept in with a broken leg. Count how many light switches Grace Kelley turns on each time she enters his apartment. There's a clue as to how Hitch built suspense in his films by setting up patterns and then altering them at key moments. @ This last week saw me write 700 words on a charity program in Vietnam, 500 more revised for a story on Internet privacy and then 3000 on Art Therapy. I knew least about Art Therapy and must have put more than 10 hours in it. @ Reminded this week that I have a complete stereo system and over 5000 CDs, LPs and tapes in a storage building in Seoul and need to sort out what to do with them. @ Someone from New York asked if I could meet them in Beirut to "do some damage" meaning have fun. Sadly I couldn't. @ An old business colleague writes: "Wow. Doing your own thing sounds wonderfully exhilarating and free. I'd love to try something like that. I haven't got the faintest idea how to start (or perhaps just not the balls)." He was on the board at a top ten agency and then President of another. @ So many people seem to envy my choices in life and as many more are mad at me or jealous of those choices in some way. I am not rich. I don't recall people saying much when I had a lot more money, so maybe I'm doing something right. @ I have no idea what is normal these days. That's the kind of week I'm having. @ Cooking class tomorrow. @ Johnny (Rotten) Lydon closes out the podcast today.

Post Script: Having finished this post, I received this note from another old colleague and friend:

"I’ve been dipping in and out of your blog over the last few months and find nuggets with each venture. You really are out there and I like it. Brilliant. Would anybody who has ever known you expect anything else? I’ve been sharing it with some of the creatives here. I’m still a production guy but I’m always seeking out brain food to feed the creative animal in and around me. Hence, I think a few associates might have sought you out as a link—in case you’re wondering.

As our magazine business here creeps toward iPad and ePub and the like I find this new social media fascinating and mysterious. Even at this point in my career I find it necessary to develop the new tools and mindset for survival in this industry. Some of your blog feeds my education.

Thanks old pal."