Shane Levene is a writer, artist, musician, poet. He is, some might argue, a better poet than a musician, a better artist than a poet and a better writer than an artist. However, the role that Shane Levene inhabits most fully is, undoubtedly, that of a semi-functional heroin addict.

The entries in Levene’s blog, “Memoires of a Heroinhead,” are not all about the drug. To be sure, the author often evokes a typical, if uncompromisingly realistic “Trainspotting”-esque literary snapshot– a low-rent French apartment, whitewashed walls decorated with grotesque patterns of dried blood, a man-sized receptacle for used syringes and burnt papers– but he writes about other things too: a future and a past without heroin.

The loosely organized memories, such as they may be, brings forth the most haunting pictures of the author’s life as it is, as it was and, occasionally, as it might be. The son of working class, northern English addicts– one of whom was butchered by notorious serial killer Dennis Nilsen– Levene’s childhood appears to have been almost entirely misspent. Stories of teenage youths dressing up in drag to visit Glam clubs in Soho pepper the blog’s homepage, living side by side with recounted memories of domestic abuse, murder and soul-crushing poverty.

A consummate story teller, Levene is at times brutal and jarring, at others wistful and romantic. The kind of autobiographical self-reflection, typical to the memoir genre, that usually adulterates the graphic immediacy of the narrator’s experiences, is noticeably lacking in these vignettes. Granted, some posts are significantly better than others; Levene’s writing is inconsistent and occasionally contrived. But, particularly in the case of Levene’s most recent offerings, oftentimes they are vividly beautiful and utterly beguiling. Not to mention very, very sad.

In one particularly upsetting post, the raconteur relates how some of his closest friends deliberately attempted to infect him with HIV through shared needles. In another account, Levene poignantly describes an incident in which he overhears a young girl being beaten to death in the apartment above his, but is unable to call the police for fear of them discovering his drug paraphernalia.

The rest of the blog, the parts that aren’t directly about the drugs, is filtered through the creative lens of someone who, honestly and truly, has come to terms with the fact that they are going to die– not in 30 years, but maybe next year, next month, next week, today.

Levene’s portrait of his life as an addict is bleak, his experiences routinely horrific and far removed from the world of the non-junky. Just like Christiane F. before him, Levene faithfully chronicles some of the most harrowing physical and mental consequences of his addiction.

Levene writes, “I choose the needle. We must live and die by our swords. We cannot blame our enemy for us taking up arms. That is a bitter and all consuming road to take.”

It is this stark perspective that defines Levene’s literary persona in his memoirs. Essentially, on the page, a heroin addict is who Levene is, and, as things stand, it appears that Levene’s addiction is also inherent to all he can be. Indeed, as another literary heroinhead, William S. Burroughs once wrote: “Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life.”

Image Courtesy of  Stuart Monk / Shutterstock.com

The article Memoires of a Heroinhead: a Blog, a Man, a Drug appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Amy Winehouse’s family and close friends said their last goodbyes at the private ceremony at Edgwarebury Cemetery. Her father, Mitchell Winehouse said goodbye to his daughter at the private ceremony in North London.

“Goodnight, my angel, sleep tight. Mummy and Daddy love you ever so much,” he said.

Her issues with drugs and alcohol have been well documented. Winehouse died alone in her bed as many addicts are, alone in the dark fighting off demons. It is still unclear whether she took an overdose of drugs or a lethal combination or bad drugs, (or none of the above) but according to rumors, those disastrous habits are probably the cause of her death.

Winehouse never got on top of her disease. It controlled her for the majority of her short life, right up until the very end.

She joined the “27 Club” — also known as the Forever 27 Club or the Curse of 27 — alongside Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Dave Alexander of the Stooges and Kurt Cobain. The 27 Club is the title for a group of influential musicians who all died at the age of 27 and they all are generally considered to have led a “rock and roll” lifestyle.

Unfortunately, she never received the help she so badly needed. Media is full of clips showing her stumbling across the stage during a show and it is well known, Winehouse wasn’t a fan of rehab and wrote a hit song about it.

“They tried to make me go to rehab but I said no, no, no,” she sang.

An article in the Daily Mail said, “Generous Amy Winehouse spent £130,000 sending her friend Alex Foden to rehab, when perhaps she should have spent it curing herself.”

It’s easy for those who are not addicts to judge and make comments about drug addicts or alcoholics because most people are lucky enough to have a mind that knows when to stop.

Things are very different in the minds of addicts. Most people may believe that if she had just checked herself in, she could have walked away from all those poisons. Sadly, things are not as easy as many people think. Rehab can give the tools, but each person has to walk the road alone. Only Amy Winehouse could have helped Amy Winehouse, but she didn’t ask to be an addict in the first place.

Broadcaster Piers Morgan struck out at Winehouse’s record company and promoters in the wake of the singer’s death. He claimed that Winehouse did not receive enough support from “the people making money out of her” as she battled her personal problems.

Morgan said to Access Hollywood,“I do blame people. Where were all the people making money out of her when it mattered? Really, where were they? You know, it’s just not good enough that they’re all going to make millions out of it now she’s dead. You know, the album ’Back To Black’ is number one… but people let her down.”

In her short life, Winehouse won five Grammys and three Ivor Novello awards, among many others. She had sold thousands of records and was popular at the time of her death.

She received her first guitar when she was 13, and began writing music a year later. She began working soon after as a journalist in addition to singing with local group the Bolsha Band. Her special talent couldn’t go unnoticed for long. She became commercially known singing jazz. She seamlessly blended old R&B with the music of jazz crooners and came up with something that sounded simultaneously fresh and classic.

An anonymous source close to Winehouse’s record label has said that the late singer had recorded around 12 new songs which may now see the light of day. She had been in and out of the studio for the last three years, according to the spokesperson. If any new material is released, it would have to be decided on by her parents, as well as her label and management company, reports The Guardian.

Winehouse achieved what she did without compromise. Many singers will come and go having small moments of popularity but there will be one Amy Winehouse.

The fact is that the majority of musicians who made a huge career, from rock bands to individually artists, their careers had something to do with drugs and some sort of addicted habits. Many popular songs were written during drug use and it is difficult to know whether or not the songs would be the same if written under sober conditions.

In one or another way music and drugs are correlated. The true inspiration may only exist when they move from the reality to another place and there you find the great conception. It is not just luck that some of the greatest songs were written during drug use. Probably only in their personal moment of use they had those great inspirations. Fortunately or unfortunately, music would not have been the same without drugs.

dutourdumonde / Shutterstock.com

The article Amy Winehouse: It Was “Stronger Than Her” appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Addiction is not just about a matter of drugs. Nowadays, experts have warned about the group of people who suffer these disorders due to an addiction without a substance. We are talking about the Internet, mobile phones, games of chance, etc.

These kind of addictions have increased during the last years over all those related with the new technologies.  According to the statistics, every ten years the percentage of people affected by this illness could cover five percent.

As the experts have pointed out the only disorder which is consider as a mental illness so far is the compulsive gambling.

However, the addiction without any substance that has increased the most is Internet. This affects to the 15% of the population. In the second place is the mobile phone (10%), in the third place is work (10%), in the fourth place is shopping (5%) and gambling (3%).

Internet´s consequences

‘Facebook’ or ‘Twitter’ have increased the addictions over all in people that are less than 25 years old.

Experts consider an Internet addiction to be when people expend more than three hours a day searching the net just for pleasure. They also identify work addiction when they dedicate more than 50 hours per week. You will also be a shopaholic whenever you feel the need of buying every day, even at a one dollar shop.

As the Spanish doctor Javier García says “Addicted people usually have friendly difficulties or they suffer from low self-esteem”. As a result, a lot of people use the net as a way of looking for those kind of relationships that they won´t get in real life.

Some of the negative consequences are that there are people that need to interrupt their job every 15 or 20 minutes just to have a look to the social networks. There are also others that don´t feel well with themselves when they don´t have new friends every day. Anthropological researches have demonstrated that “the human being can´t have more than 150 friends”.

In fact, experts claim that the Internet addiction leads to the development of others addictions, such as gambling, shopping, or sex. In addition, these can generate a progressively carelessness of their real life, family or friends.

The addiction´s origin

According to the Missouri-Columbian University (EEUU) latest researches called ‘Archives of General Psychiatry’, compulsive gamblers have similar profiles of those with addictive disorders related with alcohol, weeds, or nicotine. According to the research, these matches were similar to the dependency between drugs and alcohol.

On the other hand, a recent research lead by Dalhousie University (USA) experts that has been published at the ‘Alcoholism: Clinical y Experimental Research’ magazine, claims that the triumphant feeling gambling increases the need of the alcohol consumption more than when you are losing. This could explain why addiction problems are always related with alcohol ones. According to this research, you need to treat both pathologies at the same time to leave compulsive gambling.

The article When an Addiction Becomes an Illness appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers, well-known actor and model, was rushed to the hospital Tuesday June 28^th when he was rumored to have attempted to take his own life. Meyers was found at his home in Maida Vale, London where authorities believe that he had taken a large amount of pills.

More recently, a source has told US Weekly magazine that he was not suicidal, but rather just intoxicated.

Paramedics tried to help him for a half hour when they found him before calling the police when the actor refused to cooperate or accept any treatment. When sent to the hospital, Meyers was treated in the urgent care. Police also confirmed their role in the intervention at the actor’s home. Meyers, however, had no comment for the press.

Whether or not Jonathan Rhys Meyers tried to take his own life might remain a mystery, but it is confirmed that he has struggled with alcohol abuse for years. Just one month ago he checked into rehab for the fifth time at a five-star center in South Africa. It is rumored that the actor uses alcohol to suppress his pain, especially following the death of his mother in 2007.

The actor, who owns homes in Los Angeles, Dublin, London, and Monaco, was born in Dublin and lived in Ireland with his parents and three younger brothers until his parents’ separation when he moved in with his mother.

Rumors are circulating that this recent episode is connected with his struggling seven-year relationship with heiress Reena Hammer, daughter to the owner of the Urban Retreat spa in Harrods department store.

Meyers has even spoken about his addiction in the past admitting, “When I do drink…I’m all over the place like a 16-year-old kid.” He has also been arrested twice for drinking-related incidents. The first arrest was made in Dublin Airport in November 2007, but the charges were dropped.  The second arrest occurred at the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris in June 2009 where he allegedly assaulted a bar staff member.

It was reported in May 2010 that United Airlines banned the actor from flying their airline after an alcohol related incident at John F. Kennedy airport. He was reportedly behaving in a “belligerent” and “disruptive” manner.

Meyers is most known for his role as Henry VIII in the BBC series “The Tudors”. He also starred in “Mission Impossible III,” “Alexander,” “Bend it Like Beckham,” Woody Allen’s “Matchpoint,” and “August Rush” where he showed off his musical talents. In 2005 he received an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe win for his role as rock king Elvis Presley in the four-hour CBS mini-series “Elvis”.

Signed with London’s agency Independent Models, Meyers has had a successful career working with some very big names. He was chosen to be the face of Versace men’s collection in 2006 and 2007. He has also remained the face of the Hugo Boss fragrance since 2005.

Meyers has also been the celebrity ambassador for the charity The Hope Foundation since February 2008.

Currently, Meyers is preparing to check into rehab for the sixth time to finally get the help he needs for his addiction.

Rena Schild / Shutterstock.com

The article Jonathan Rhys Meyers Attempted Suicide – An Accident? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The 27 year-old talented-troubled singer Amy Winehouse, booed off stage during her last week’s Belgrade concert due to her “non-performance” on the stage. Her Istanbul and Athens concerts has been cancelled after this incident.

Winehouse is suffering from addiction of drugs and alcohol for a long time, and her manager Raye Cosbert recently declared that she’s going to be away, even perhaps for many years.

Winehouse has two albums, Frank (2003), and Back to Black (2006) which won five Grammys. She made a huge impact on music world, despite her addiction problems. She has not released an album since 2006, yet her Europe comeback concerts has received a huge interest, until her disastrous Belgrade concert.

Serbian press, and even Serbian defence minister Dragan Sutanovac, described her gig as the worst concert ever in Serbia.

Some videos have been uploaded to Youtube regarding her Belgrade concert, and it seems that Winehouse was having a hard time to sing and even to stand.

Yet music authorities discuss whether her Belgrade performance was that bad, but mainly questioning the responsibility of the people around Winehouse who let her to be on stage. Either way it is clear that talented Amy Winehouse needs a proper rehab, perhaps in return to be away from stages for a while.

Her fans hope that her music career is not at stake.

The article The Comeback of Amy Winehouse Turns Out to Be a Bust appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.