VISITORS People come for most diverse reasons. Anne Marie Bodreau is a musician who plays music to dying people and sick people(http://www.annmarieboudreau.com ) She passed by just to get acquinted and to inquire about possible usage of space in case she would need it.
O'Conney is an orchetra conductor. His friend bought him a guitar as a gift in a music shop across the road and they decided to inaugurate the instrument at the Serendipity Space.All of a sudden we had an inprovised concert. O'Conney played us his songs which he composes just for fun.
Tony liked the songs so much that he promiced O'Conney to get him a piano if he will come to play for us next time.
Some come in to simply observe.Geet is an engeneer from India. He comes by often, to sit in the window and tell me stories.
Marcus is a Math teacher with a passion for philosophy and chess. He rarelly speaks, simply comes in to observe or to read his books while seated in the window.
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My friend Mike likes to make and receive business phone calls in the shop window.
The lady in a black coat works in some office where"rules are very rigid". For now she is just watching, fashinated by the "vibe".
Paul is my favorite source of information about local news, people whom we both know, China and Russia. He is a classical Chinese "wise man".
Valera is a businessman who used to work as an engineer in Russia. He dreams of buying an airplane to explore the Canadian wilderness. Naturally, his attention was drawn to a broken toy helicopter. He looked at it with interest, but then put it back, preferring to observe others. He felt out of place at Serendipity, where nothing promises profit of any sort.
He was mistaken. There is a buyer for every product. A few hours after it rejected by Valerij, a helicopter has been adopted by a baby girl from Northern Europe, libeating space for new toys.
A homeless man who usually walks up and down the street stops in for a cup of coffee, or a warm coat left by someone to pass on to to someone who needs it. To express his appreciation homeless man has improvised a small concert to the best of his ability.
Sometimes European filmakers meet at Serendipity to "touch base" and discuss their projects.
Some come in just to share their happiness, as it is the case with this filmaker, who had just married, and is leaving for Israel with his wife.
Dan is a film student who passes by to share news about young "alternative"ways of travelling across country and about "living off the grid".
We had even such an unprobable visitor as Rabbi Zalzman. He came all the way from uptown to place properly the Mesusa, which I keep as a memory of my grandmother. He walked around observing everything with curiosity, and declared it all "Cute."
So now we are not only politically correct, but also kosher.
So far so good.
Allan comes in to tell stories about his 25 years spent in prison.
Each time he came with his bike carrying National Geographic magazines. We now have a collection of 700.
Besides observing the art work, he was also interested in taking a good look at his bike.
Pedro drops in to read his thoughts on art, because he has no one to share it with. PEDRO DANIEL PFAFF'S ESSAY ON ART
People need a place where they will be able to share their joy, sadness, interests, concers. They need a friendly person who will listen to them with attention without trying to "sell" a product or a religion or ideology of any sort. Modern Drop in Centers, Cultural Centers and Churches obviously do not fill in that need. They either should be drastically reformed or eliminated alltogether so as to give space to entirelly new places for communication."Serendipity Space" is both a research into what is truly needed as well as an attempt to establish a new model on the basis of what I have seen.
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