Today, September 1, kicks off the month-long series of awareness and prevention events that mark the 2009 National Alcohol & Drug Addiction Recovery Month. All month long, various charity walks, open air concert, guest speakers, and festivities will celebrate the value of recovery and rally to spread the message that help is available today for those who suffer from the illness of addiction.

One such rally is the “South Florida Rally for Recovery,” which takes place September 12, 2009, in Downtown Miami, Fl. The rally is a day-long event, sponsored by the recovery social-networking site: intherooms.com, and includes food, charity, sharing, and most of all, the spirit of addiction recovery.

Right now, the South Florida Rally for Recovery is asking for the help of the recovery community to support the event. The idea is to raise money for recovery scholarships that would equal the distance of the charity walk, 5 miles, if quarters were laid down end to end to complete the route.

The event envisions thousands making the cause possible and asks that people in recovery, along with their friends and family members, spread the word about the event. Currently, the charitable walk asks for a donation of $9.00 to participate, which includes entrance to the day long scheduled festivities and speakers, and also includes entrance to the evening concert featuring Eric Burdon and the Animals (House of the Rising Sun).

Regardless of whether you can make the event or not, the South Florida Rally for Recovery encourages people that want to take part of National Recovery Month to donate anything they possibly can, be it a penny or a million dollars; every little bit helps fund the recovery scholarships awarded as part of National Recovery Month, which provide addicts the life-changing treatment they require.

To raise funds for the 2009 South Florida Rally for Recovery, world famous tattoo artist and clothes designer, Ed Hardy, has committed to creating and donating custom T-shirts to InTheRooms.com. Hardy is best known, as of late, for adapting a Japanese-style, tattoo art that he often incorporates into his T-shirt designs.

Although there are few details currently about what the t-shirts will look like, or how much they will sell for, Intherooms has confirmed the donation/fund raising project.

For those unfamiliar with Intherooms.com, it is a social networking site specifically designed to help connect people in the recovery community world-wide. Currently, intherooms has more than 40K members with a combined recovery time of 120,000+ years. Additionally, Intherooms.com is the official host of the 2009 South Florida Rally for Recovery, which takes place Sep. 12th in Miami, FL.

For more information on the event, please click the following link, 2009 Rally for Recovery.

IntheRooms recently announced that their concert, as part of the day-long National Recovery Month event, will be headlined by “Rock N Roll Hall of Famers” Eric Burdon & the Animals.  For those who may not be familiar with the performers, Eric Burdon & the Animals, they are best known for their 60’s super hits, “The House of the Rising Sun” and “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.”

As it stands, the event is scheduled to begin at 8:30am with a 6K walk for charity that will circle the Macarthur Causeway of South Beach.  After that, all participants will return to home base at Bicentennial Park (Downtown Miami) for some early afternoon speakers, children’s activities and food.  Finally, the evening will be capped off with a headlining performance by Eric Burdon & the Animals.

For those interested, the South Florida Rally for Recovery will take place on September 12, 2009.  Participation to the event will cost $9.00 and will include entrance to the concert.  All proceeds raised by the event will go to the Intherooms, not-for-profit, recovery foundation, which raises community awareness on addiction recovery, helps fund treatment programs, and also awards treatment scholarships.

As the guitar wailed like electric wolves in the night, we made our way towards the stage and into the pit. We were small and out numbered, so we chose to stay on the fringes; something we’d do for the next several years of our lives as we entered deeper and deeper into the underworld of drug abuse and crime.

Standing on the edge of the pit with the slews of onlookers, Santos noticed a guy with a Mexico soccer jersey on, and they struck up a convo: “chingalo buey!,” “no mames, buey,” “Oye! Que estas fumando…” They’d struck a common chord, much like Billy Corrigan and the other band members that broken into, “Who want’s candy? Long as there’s some money…” And so the deal went down.

Next thing I knew, we were dashing through the crowd, bumping people over as we made our way to were my brother and his friends were. Santos had his hand cupped, but I knew by his wide-eyed gestures that we had just capped some weed and were headed to get our first taste. Although we had lied about it to other people a 100 times, we were actually about to enter into a new class of cool…In our minds. We were about to be initiated into the drug sub-culture of the hippies in the 60’s, the disco fever attics of the 70’s, the hip-hop underground of the 80’s and now the “too cool” grunge kids of the 90’s.

We finally caught up to that same friend of my brother’s, only this time we were garnishing a hand full of REAL weed. As we asked him to roll a joint for us, he just started again: “Dude, don’t waist my time with your little kid bullshit weed, man.” We assured him, showing him what we possessed and there was automatic respect: “Dude, let me see that…man, where’d you get this from? Bro, you think you can get me some…”

Funny enough, we were initiated into the world of crime before we entered into the world of drugs because we ended up selling him half for roughly a little more than what we paid for it. The trend of selling drugs to feed our addiction would be a common practice in years to come. Anyway, he rolled it up for us and we went and sat far from the crowd, on a hill with all the other shady characters below some giant Banyan trees.

We lit it up. And as the smoke seeped from our noses, we would cough and laugh, and pass the joint. I just remember lying down in the grass with my hands tucked behind my head…looking up at the stars…listening to Smashing Pumpkins playing a melody: “Today is, today is, the greatest…day I’ve ever known…” Some how in my mind I felt the same, lost in the illusion of euphoria. I’d caught my first glimpse of a drug induced escape and it was love at first sight…

Ernesto Here — Read all the Addiction Testimonials from our categories section:
http://recoveryarts.com/category/addiction-testimonials/

On May 1st, the non-profit organization, Road Recovery, will be presenting an event at the Nokia Theatre (Time Square) that will include performances by: Iggy Pop, Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains), and many more. The show will be hosted by Matt Pinfield and will honor Wayne Kramer. Plenty of affordable tickets are still available, as General Admission is only $25.00.

Road Recovery was officially established in 1998 by Gene Bowen and co-founder, Jack Bookbinder, along with the support of Sony Music Entertainment, Dreamworks Records, and several mental health/substance abuse specialists. According to the website’s mission statement, “Road Recovery is dedicated to helping young people battle addiction and other adversities by harnessing the influence of entertainment industry professionals who have confronted similar crises and now wish to share their experience and knowledge.”

Throughout the years, Road Recovery has worked alongside the music industry to raise money for peer counseling programs and prevention education for youths. One such event to place in 2008 to celebrate Road Recovery’s 10 Anniversary and included performances from Slash (Guns n Roses), comedian Denis Leary, Jakob Dylan, Sen Dog, Joseph Arthur, Ours, The Miggs, and many others.

Thus far, Road Recovery has been able to extend itself into the community to encompass its vision by working closely with local support groups, treatment centers, youth centers, schools, teachers, and parents, in order to help teens with hands-on apprenticeships, educational workshops, peer-support networking, and collaborative efforts to plan and present live concerts and other events.

Last night (April 23), the winners of the 2009 Prism Awards were officially announced at 13th annual ceremony, which was presented by The Entertainment Industry Council and took place at the Beverly Hill Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Winners included Anne Hathaway for her performance in “Rachel Getting Married,” Benjamin Bratt for his role in “The Cleaner,” and A & E’s “Intervention.”

In the category for “Music Recording,” Richie Supa took the award for his single, “In the Rooms,” which was especially written for the new social networking website, www.intherooms.com, which is dedicated to connecting those in the addiction recovery community throughout the globe using cutting edge technology. In actuality, both Richie and Selfish Steam received Prism Awards in what was considered a tie for the category. Supa performed the “In the Rooms” song, live last night before those in attendance at the 2009 Prism awards.

Richie Supa has written and recorded music for nearly 30 years now and has collaborated in the past with Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora and was even an official member of Areosmith in the late 70’s. Since its inception earlier this year, Richie Supa, as an admitted recovering attic, has openly endorsed and advocated for In the Rooms.

Folk singer and songwriter, Mary Gauthier, admittedly struggled with addiction for years, and in a recent interview with canoe.ca, said thanks to her recovery process, she was able to pursue her real love in life, “Folk Music.” Mary Gauthier was born an orphan in New Orleans, went through adoption homes, and by 15 had spent most of her time between rehab centers, friend’s homes and brief stays in jail, including the night of her 18th birthday.

Still, she some how managed to make it out of the negative environment and move to Boston, where she studied at a cooking school and eventually opened her own successful Cajun restaurant. Unfortunately, her addiction had also followed her and was choking her dream of music over the entire 11 years she was in Boston.

However, Mary Gauthier was able to begin her recovery from her addiction and finally begin to seriously pursue her art. Gauthier said the canoe.ca interview that although some people think drugs aid in the artistic process, for her it was only after she was able to “get my head on straight first” that she was able to shine.

Since, she has recorded several albums including her 1997 debut album, Dixie Kitchen, inspired by those many hard years she left behind. Her latest album, Between Daylight and Dark explores the concept of home and is about being homesick. Mary Gauthier’s accomplishments as a musician have awarded her the praise of critics who compare her to Bob Dylan. Aside from playing music, Gauthier’s style of storytelling through her folk lyrics have led her to the literary venture of publishing short-fiction stories in an anthology called Amplified, which comes out in May.

Although the reports have mentioned that the information is tentative, several sources are reporting that DJ AM (Adam Goldstein) will be starring in an addiction-intervention, reality TV show that is to appear on MTV. So far, the sources are saying that the title of the to be series will be “Gone Too Far,” but no has confirmed the titled officially with MTV yet. Reportedly, the show will feature DJ AM (Adam Goldstein) as the host, and he will act to council fellow rehabbing addicts through their recovery.

In the past, DJ AM has been no stranger to battles with addiction and the immediacy of death. He admittedly struggled with a cocaine addiction and rehab centers for years, and also nearly died in a plane crash last year in September. The crash also involved close friend and collaborator to DJ AM, former Blink 182 drummer Travis Baker. Both crew members and two other passengers were killed in the accident. Luckily, DJ AM and Travis Baker were able to escape death and overcome their critical injuries.

On Friday, May 8, Club Nokia in Los Angeles will be hosting the 5th annual MusiCares MAP Fund benefit concert, which will be honoring Red Hot Chili Peppers’ lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, with the prestigious Stevie Ray Vaughan Award for aiding fellow recovering addicts in their recovery process. In the past, Anthony Kiedis fought hard to overcome his heroin addiction. Unfortunately, fellow band mate and original guitarist Hillel Slovak wasn’t as lucky as Kiedis and died of a heroin overdose in 1988.

Comedian Greg Behrendt will be hosting this year’s event. Scheduled performances are to include the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mars Volta, Iggy Pop and DJ AM. All funds raised by the charity dinner-event will go the MusiCares MAP Fund, which amongst other things, provides addiction treatment to musicians no matter there financial status. The foundation was established in 1989 by The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, who is host to the annual GRAMMY awards in Los Angles.

Recovery Music: A Couple Songs from the U.K.

Hey all, Ernesto here. Recovery Arts is proud to announce our first “Recovery Music” contribution. The submission was sent by David from the UK, who has over six years in recovery. Thanks a lot for sharing, David; this is a true inspiration to any and all artists out there, struggling in recovery, to keep pushing on. Please find the two “Recovery Music Songs” below, along with David’s thoughts on his recovery experiences and how they relate to his art:

“As an ol’ timer in these parts put it, ‘If you had problems before you picked up the drugs, you’ll probably find they haven’t gone away when you put them down’.

Some of us may in some part used to cover these problems and repressed them to such an extent that they are still difficult if not impossible to become vulnerable and intimate with. This is where I believe the arts can play a really important role. What we have in our unconscious no one can say – words can’t express it. Art can! The interpretation remains the domain of the artist themselves.”

Love and HUGS from Ye Olde Merrie England

Click here for Recovery Music Song #1

Click here for Recovery Music Song #2