Starbucks Wisdom #267*

Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, top speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity.

- Oliver Sacks
Neurologist and author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain




**Dedicated to my brother-in-law, Michael, who has been in the hospital for a month after a serious car accident, and who only recently opened his eyes for the first time. Maybe we should pipe in some 50 cent... if that isn't enough motivation to get out of that hospital then nothing is.

Comments

  1. DJRainDogJuly 07, 2007 6:50 PM

    It seems only appropriate that as I read this entry, I am sitting in Starbucks, and on the shop's sound system is playing, "What the World Needs Now (Is Love, Sweet Love)". Maybe Fitty would do the trick for kick-starting your brother-in-law's spirits; maybe one of those "pretty song[s]" by Ms. Sills would speed his healing. In any case, I love to think that what we musicians do might provide more than merely ephemeral pleasure, or respite, or inspiration, or healing for the listener(s). I don't know if he's in a hospital near you, but even if he's not, perhaps you could put together a mix CD of tunes you think might inspire him to keep going or soothe him, to be played at his bedside? I don't know the man, but I'd be happy to consult...(Probably so would Andy, for that matter). Anyway, I figure it's worth a shot (and obviously, my best wishes to you, him, and the family).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Trickish KnaveJuly 08, 2007 10:58 AM

    I didn't know you were a musician; I learned to play guitar a few years ago and find it very relaxing as I pick through a song.

    Thank you for your kind words and I know my family will appreciate th em also. They usually pop by here every once in a while.

    ReplyDelete
  3. NotClauswitzJuly 09, 2007 11:23 AM

    Good luck and God-bless to your BIL, we just got news yesterday that a friend (I was Best-Man at his wedding) was in the Hospital after a car-accident while on vacation in Britain. No other details. [sigh]

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJuly 22, 2007 9:43 AM

    Hi, Greg - I finally got Lindsay to help me figure out how to get to your blog - I've missed reading it.

    I think the idea of your putting together a CD of tunes you find comforting, and maybe even a few of you strumming your own guitar is a great one. Just for the record, 'KORN' is one of Michael's favorite groups, and the accident happened when they were coming back from a 'Social Distortion' concert. Somehow I don't think too many of them are on your list of favorites... but I could be wrong :-) We got him a little CD player, and he's got a KORN unplugged CD and I snuck a Carrie Underwood CD in, so I could listen to it.

    Can't wait to see you all next week -

    Love,

    Mom/Val

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Commanding Officer sacked

It seems that men in high places still haven't learned to keep their dorks zipped up. Capt. Scott Bawden, Commodore of Submarine Squadron 17 in Bangor, WA, was relieved of commnad after having "lost the confidence" of his boss. If you follow submarine news you will remember that Bawden was the Commodore who axed some of the crew of the USS Columbia after a hazing incident. /hat tip The Stupid Shall be Punished What comes around goes around? It has been quoted by a Chief who knew Bawden that morale will probably get better now that Bawden has been shitcanned. Sounds like a few Commodores I know. But there is more to this story than a guy who perhaps can't do his job anymore. Bawden was busted sleeping with someone elses wife, a Chief's wife, no less, IN HIS OWN command. Will the top brass save a onetime fair-haired boy's career, or will he end up "walking the plank?" What a jackass. It's bad enough that the Officers screw the enlisted, but ...
Read more

wtf, over....

Bernie Mac died at age 50 the other day, Isaac Hayes died today at 65. I guess show business can be rough. Only the good die young. - Billy Joel I didn't listen to Bernie Mac's stand up except for maybe a few minutes as I was channel surfing. He was playing in Vegas a few weeks ago when I went for the weekend with my wife. I have posted about Isaac Hayes when he decided to leave South Park after the creators dogged the stupidity that is Scientology. Hayes didn't seem to have a problem when Matt Stone and Trey Parker made fun of all the other world religions. I didn't read the story about Hayes but I can only guess he didn't die by falling off a suspended bridge while on fire, only to fall off and become impaled on a pointy rock, and then mauled apart by a hungry bear and mountain lion- then ending in a violent release of his bowels. Cosmically ironic if it did though. On top of these weekend deaths, visitors to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing have been murdered. The fa...
Read more

Superstitions

I have been entertaining my parents who flew in from the mainland and I have been extremely busy playing tour guide. I took them to the Big Island for a day trip in hopes to see the lava flow I photographed in July. Note to self: Check with the Volcanoes National Park website to find out if the lava is flowing at the last place you saw it 3 months earlier. That would have saved us a trip to the trail. Madam Pele (the Hawaiian goddess of fire) is very unpredictable. Since I arrived on this island 13 years ago I have heard of superstitions that range from believable (if I had enough shots of Jack Daniels) to downright stupid. AAMOF, at dinner with my parents the day before we left for the Big Island a waitress cautioned my mother against taking some of the sand from Black Sand Beach home with her. The bad luck that would accompany my mother sounded more like factual consequence than a “step-on-a-crack-break-your-mother’s-back” nursery rhyme. I rolled my eyes. In fact, at Volcanoe...
Read more