Getting Destuckified

It took a Holodeck chat (my first-ever!) in the Starship Craftybiz to make me realize that yes, I can go ahead. (The holodeck is where we get together once a week or so to go over ideas, stumbling blocks, and to get pretty silly. I didn’t join in for a long time because it was a scary, new social situation…but it turned out to be very helpful, and unscary. I’ve biggified myself, and I feel a lot better for it; working at home, self-employed, can be a very isolating experience. The Holodeck also helped me get destuckified; I was in stuckifcation for an extremely long time – almost 2 years! – before realizing that I needed to just do it. Do something about it. Destuckifcation doesn’t happen overnight, but the process feels so good.

Talking to Monsters 

I had…still have…a lot of monsters about this. Not the spinning, but the allowing myself to do it.

So, today I took the plunge and got:

-a book by Abby Franquemort
-an apron (to keep the fuzzy bits off my clothes)

And I’m still deciding on the colour of fiber and the actual spindle (rakestraw – the type that works horizontally). I’ve also created a playlist to get me started.

I’m leaning towards one of these:

Wow! Bright, eh?

A softer pink.

Yeowza - this one will glow in the dark.

Comments are welcome!

I think my monster has quietened down a little – I don;t want to ignore him, but it’s good that he’s not making me feel like dirt anymore.

I did just one thing yesterday, and I’m proud of myself.

(Thanks to Havi Brooks for all her monster-talking, destuckification and biggifcation awesomeness for getting me through the dark.)

Recently I bought the DVD of the 25th anniversary performance at the Royal Albert Hall. Be prepared for this review not to be all a-twitter with adoration.

I do not like the Raoul of the 25th anniversary – he always seems to be angry about something, and is completely dismissive of Christine’s fears, more so than I heard in Patrick Wilson or Steve Barton.

For vocals, I like Barton’s Raoul the most. Sierra Boggess during “The Point of No Return” and “Think of Me” displayed exceptional emotions and vocals, but I got the distinct impression that she has only a single, default facial expression.

The lack of the chandelier rising and falling in the Royal Albert Hall was incredibly disappointing, but the building doesn’t have the architecture necessary to employ the necessary rigging. The Phantom’s disfigurement makeup seemed a little toned-down.

To borrow a phrase from a different reviewer:

“Ramin [Karimloo] might make a good Phantom…when he grows up.”

I could have done without the mutual stroke-fest at the end, when Andrew Lloyd Webber came onstage. “Five Phantoms” was decent, except for the presence of Sarah Brightman. Twenty-five years ago, in 1986, when she played Christine, she was very good – the most perfect Christine of that era, to my ears. She’s now past her prime, trying to play a character she’s too old for, and doesn’t seem to understand that waving her arms about as she sings distracts from her vocal performance.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. One of those stars is awarded simply for finally putting the original stage show into an affordable format.

This could so easily become a rallying cry against doctors and “the medical establishment”. But I’ll try not to let it. I’m not going to give you platitudes about “dying with dignity” because I’m not certain there is such a thing.

Pain control isn’t perfect. You seem to have few choices:

-you’re unconscious from medication,

-you’re more lucid, but in agony,

-or you’re somewhere in between and unable to be awake enough to enjoy the useful and productive time you have with your friends and family even though your pain may, for the moment or a few hours, be under control (Hey, I can think straight! How much can I get done before this wears off! Should I work or play?)

You start measuring time by “when can I have my next dose of painkiller?”

The excerpt from this article speaks for itself:

Almost all medical professionals have seen what we call “futile care” being performed on people. That’s when doctors bring the cutting edge of technology to bear on a grievously ill person near the end of life. The patient will get cut open, perforated with tubes, hooked up to machines, and assaulted with drugs. All of this occurs in the Intensive Care Unit at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars a day. What it buys is misery we would not inflict on a terrorist. I cannot count the number of times fellow physicians have told me, in words that vary only slightly, “Promise me if you find me like this that you’ll kill me.” They mean it. Some medical personnel wear medallions stamped “NO CODE” to tell physicians not to perform CPR on them. I have even seen it as a tattoo.

Even when the right preparations have been made, the system can still swallow people up. One of my patients was a man named Jack, a 78-year-old who had been ill for years and undergone about 15 major surgical procedures. He explained to me that he never, under any circumstances, wanted to be placed on life support machines again. One Saturday, however, Jack suffered a massive stroke and got admitted to the emergency room unconscious, without his wife. Doctors did everything possible to resuscitate him and put him on life support in the ICU. This was Jack’s worst nightmare. When I arrived at the hospital and took over Jack’s care, I spoke to his wife and to hospital staff, bringing in my office notes with his care preferences. Then I turned off the life support machines and sat with him. He died two hours later.

One of the most basic human rights is, all too often, staved off by medicine: the right to die. Hopefully this article makes you think about some of the issues you may face if you’re ever diagnosed with a terminal illness.

I grew up in Winnipeg, and actually saw Finley and Graham in person at “Phantompalooza I” in 2005. I remember asking them about a favourite scene where Beef says, “Whaddya mean, you just pass the stuff out – I take it! I know drug-real from real-real!”, whether it was off the cuff, or scripted. (It was scripted.)

When I stood up in Q&A, I told them how much my late father had loved the movie, and passed that strange love onto me, Beef grinned, and Winslow went, “Oh!” and smiled. Boy did I feel like an idiot asking something like that and just blurting it out, but now it seems bittersweet.)

I remember thinking how thin and frail Finley looked at the time, but he came back the next year, along with more cast members (including Paul Williams, Jessica Harper – in person that time – and the trio of The Juicy Fruits). Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend Phantompalooza II because I got stuck in the ER that afternoon with a kidney stone.

William Finley, “We’ll remember you forever”! Long live Winslow Leach.

“Beauty and the Beast” from Phantom of the Paradise

Winnipeg Free Press - Finley’s Obituary

Mom and I attended the first Phantompalooza, the 30th anniversary celebration of the film in 2005, but couldn’t attend the second and final one the year after that because I was in the ER with a kidney stone.

Both of them were held at the Garrick Movie Theatre. In attendance were:

The Phantom/Winslow Leach

and Gerritt Graham (Beef).

Jessica Harper/Phoenix wanted to attend, but due to other engagements, was only able to send a recorded video message, during which she pretended that she took live questions from the audience.

So, there I was, over the moon with a newly-acquired Death Records t-shirt (tried to find a pic of me wearing it, but no luck yet; I’ll keep looking).

************

The next year, (Phantompalooza II), because the first one had been so successful, the organizers were able to persuade to attend:

Paul Williams (Swan)

Jessica Harper (Phoenix) – who is now a successful children’s author, composer and cook.

William Finley (Winslow Leach/The Phantom)

and Harold Oblong (one of the singers from the Juicy Fruits/Beach Bums/Undead groups in the film).

*******

A friend of mine designed the mock-up of the Phantom’s helmet that was put on a life-size mannequin in the entrance (holding a toilet plunger). It was a great experience. Those who do not like the film, as my mom said to the news cameras, “have no taste!”

claps three times…

The movie ran for 52 weeks straight when it came out, at the Garrick Theatre. If my dad was alive, he’d have attended both Phantompaloozas too, because he loved the movie as well. (“Don’t try to tell me you didn’t hear that shriek! That was something trying to get out of its premature grave, and I don’t wanna be here when it does!”)

‎”Didn’t you read your contract closely??? Can you READ what it says?”

Was I the only 8-year old girl/boy/it doesn’t really matter because that scene is hot…. who got aroused when Phoenix makes love to Swan? I doubt it, because I’m not the first person to have asked this question.

Stay tuned to this website for all things related to the phenomenon of Phantom of the Paradise in Winnipeg.

Trust me…

Swan

******

A Sad Postscript:

William Finley, who played the Phantom/Winslow Leach, died on April 14, 2012. Here’s a moving obituary from a fan who emailed Mr Finley only hours before he died.

And here is a super-neat video of the man himself promoting the Phantom action figure – it speaks, and comes with a toilet plunger!

Finley loved his time in Winnipeg; he was treated like a rock star. Rest in peace, Winslow. No contract required.

One of the blogs I read frequently is The Skeptical OB, a site run by a now-retired OB-GYN named Dr Amy Tuteur. She blogs about science, childbirth, and the craziness of homebirth and even crazier Natural Childbirth Advocates (NCBs).

NCBs are people who think it’s fine and dandy to risk the lives of mothers and babies just to uphold antiquated and often sexist views about how and where women should give birth. They’re not shy about telling complete strangers how they think things should be done (no drugs, no interventions – which often lead to dead babies. But apparently dead babies are irrelevant, as we’ll see).

Background: Up until I stumbled across the “SOB” (a fitting self-styled acronym for the feisty Tuteur), I was mostly unaware that people even considered having their kids anywhere but hospitals if they could help it. Unfortunately that’s not always the case. Some people choose to risk their lives and that of their babies by having them at home, with little more than a high-school graduate attending.

That brings me to the reason for this post, and the new link on the right side of my pages that you may have noticed:

StillBirthday.com

For parents who have lost a pregnancy - a place to find support and to grieve.

The relevant post from the Skeptical OB is here.

The gist of what’s happened is that an NCB advocate named Gina doesn’t like the fact that some people who read her blog (The Feminist Breeder) also go to StillBirthday.com in search of support. StillBirthday is run by a woman named Heidi.

Excerpt from the Skeptical OB post: 

“What did a sweet, caring, devout woman like Heidi do to warrant the Narcissist Breeder’s ire? Nothing, of course. But in classic mean girl fashion, Gina is trying to punish others through Heidi. Since Heidi is friendly toward everyone in the world, it is inevitable that she is friendly with women who refuse to praise Gina (a veritable maw of approval seeking desperation). If Gina can’t hurt those women, she’ll hurt Heidi instead.”

The Skeptical OB post ends with this request:

I know a secret, though. It really doesn’t matter whether Gina supports Stillbirthday. Everyone else does. I’d like to suggest that in a show of solidarity, anyone who has a blog or website put up a link to Stillbirthday. Let’s boost the popularity of a site that does an amazing job of providing support for an extremely vulnerable group. And let’s show mean girls like Gina that we’ll be friends with whomever we like … and there are very few people more worthy of our friendship than Heidi Faith.

Even though I’m not religiously-minded (which the StillBirthday site leans towards), I’ve never lost a child, and initially when I heard about it, the name of the StillBirthday site creeped me out, I had a look-see around it. The title now makes a little more sense to me. It’s not for everyone, but I do think that the Feminist Breeder bashing StillBirthday is a nasty, silly and immature thing to do, especially since Heidi is trying to do is help devastated, grieving parents deal with the death of their child.

Religion or atheism is irrelevant: the death of a child not something any parent should live to deal with. Good sites like StillBirthday should be supported.

I got to know Heidi and many other sensible women through Fed up with Natural Childbirth, the Facebook group that was founded as a result of the SOB. Dr Tuteur also created a website to bring attention to the dangers of homebirth, which contains stories of families who have been Hurt by Homebirth – ending up with a severely compromised infant, or, more often, a dead baby.

That doesn’t deter people like The Feminist Breeder from being assholes.

Image Copyright to Photobucket (see original post for link)

“Which notes do you think are the “raindrops” that Chopin refers to in the title of this prelude?”

Possible answers were:

a) the treble clef? (i.e. the melody, the higher notes)

b) the bass clef? (i.e. the lower notes)

 THE CORRECT ANSWER IS: 

b) the bass clef (i.e. the lower notes) 

Was that fun?

Did you learn something new?

Want another music quiz question?

Tell me in the comments section! Thanks for playing! 

Fredrich Chopin’s Raindrops is a lovely prelude that I’ve been working on, on and off, for many years. My piano teacher asked me a quiz question, so I’m going to put it to you, my readers.

Without looking it up ANYWHERE, not even in the comments of this video (because this is just for fun!)…

Which notes do you think are the “raindrops” that Chopin refers to in the title? 

Choose your answer:

a) the treble clef? (i.e. the melody, the higher notes)

b) the bass clef? (i.e. the lower notes)

Post your answers in the comments section! Good luck!

I’ll post the correct answer next Wednesday, 11 April 2012!

The Department of Russian and Slavic Studies at the University of Arizona is excited to announce a 100% online offering of RSSS 315: “Werewolves and Vampires: Slavic Folklore in Our Culture”. The course is being offered this Spring and is available to anyone, regardless of location. Registration will continue through the course’s start date of February 20th. Students will earn three upper-division units/credits that are easily transferable through the University of Arizona’s Outreach College. The course potentially satisfies two General Education requirements; Diversity Emphasis and Individuals and Societies.

For more information please visit vampirecourse.com and feel free to contact the instructor (Andrew Gunn) directly.

Here’s what Dogster has to say about them:

Excerpt:

…Consumer Product Safety Commission statistics of 16,564 hospital-treated injuries associated with leashes in the previous year. Nearly a quarter were finger injuries. The leashes aren’t broken down by type, but as the article states, such amputations were likely the result of retractable leashes.

From personal experience, I trust canvas leashes more; if the dog pulls and gets away, you have a millisecond in which to step on the end of the leash to reel him in. With a retractable lead, you’re screwed, possibly with a few fewer digits.

If your dog is not well-trained to obey verbal commands, I’d stay away from retractable leashes.