msb-0071 Sucks to be me? Nah. Well, maybe a little.

msb-0071 Sucks to be me? Nah. Well, maybe a little.

I'm feeling in a classical mood today so you're going to be subjected to a heavy dose of it.

The usual five pieces of music but l-o-n-g-e-r.

I'm changing for format, the frequency and the duration of the show.

Sit back, have your breakfast, lunch, dinner or a late night snack (I have no idea when you're listening to this,) drink a glass of whatever's handy, OJ or brandy, and lets get on with the show.

Feedback come first so...

Carlo Magno is almost ready to get back on the road.

And what a road it is. Across the northern portion of the United States, raising money for MS.

Hope to see you for an interview before you get home.

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I'm still enjoying blogging and reading/writing on other's people's blogs.

One Crazy Chick, aka Miss Chris, has been leaving some nice comments on my blog.

Yes mdmhvonpa, of the "White Lightning Axiom: Redux", I had indeed looked up Pennsyltucky.

Like I said, I loved the description I'd found about it.

Mullet wearing husbands of their own sisters leads to a family tree which does not fork.

You don't write like that is your problem.

MS yes, inbreeding, nope.

I got more feed back which is going to influence this show, or at least the production I apply to this show. (Isn't nice to be able to infuence people and make a difference? More and more of you are coming at this show the web and not using iTunes.)

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I guess this next bit is "feed bag" instead of "feed back."

I went to the Chefs For MS (they are no longer on the links because this year's event is over.)

It was a great big event (definitely well attended,) on a great big ship (the "Cornucopia,") on a great big river (well two actually, the Hudson and the East rivers,) for a great big city (the 'Big Apple",) and the food was delicious.

The chefs had stations all around the perimeter of the boat, on two of the three levels) and people went all over the place gathering and grazing. (Which I must admit was a bit of a challenge of me as I only had one hand free while the other of course was being used for my cane.)

It was a beautiful night out and the air was crisp with the chill that announces fall.

As for the wine < sigh > I only had one glass of red. I didn't stray from the straight and narrow.

They had divvied up the dozen bottles and made up baskets with donatted items. I didn't bid on any of the items but MBPodcast.com was mentionned on a placard and I was able to place some cards and handouts on a table.

The cruise ended off with a passage in front of the Status of Liberty. It looks very inspirational when its all lit up.

Next year, I hope to attend again, but, failing that, MSBPodcast.com will definitely be a sponsor and donor.

But it was an evening of grazing on "Amuse Geules" rather than actually chowing down on something substantial.

For that I waited until Wednesday when "She Who Must Be Obeyed" proceeded to make me the most fan-ta-bulous lamb chops I had ever eaten.

They were perfect.

She made them with a rosemary and a touch of lime marinade and then broiled them until the meat was just past pink.

They were accompanied with broccoli cauliflower, carrots and delicious bread and washed down with a bottle of Boggle Merlot red wine.

Damn, I've got it good.

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I bought a nice black T-Shirt from Brad Sucks.

He is somebody who's songs I really like, specially "Making me Nervous," and he's from Ottawa, a town that I called home for almost ten years. (Point your browsers at http://www.bradsucks.net and support him.)

I've been in touch "Ultravox" ( http://www.ultravox.org.uk/ ) I love Midge Ure's voice. They're still around and I'm trying to turn them onto the PMN (Podsafe Music Network.)

I still need for some you to drop me a line. I know you're out there. My download stats haven't cratered yet. In fact, I've picked a few people since I started posting on other people's blogs.

But I got some good feedback this week.

As a result, I'd going back to a weekly format.

It'll be hard for me because this show provides me with a means of expression and I really like that.

I'm hoping to take the time and make the effort to improve the production on this show.

I think I'm going to go to a radio school (http://www.radioconnection.com/) and check out what I can take.

I simply have to slow down and enunciate.

Getting a metronome with a blinking light to pace myself is one technique. Its also helping me with my breath control.

As my friend Eugene pointed out to me over a beer, (or three, :-) my show has almost no actual MS content.

I don't feature the latest and greatest from the labs or have interviews with great and learned doctors.

Well, I'm actually of two minds about giving you that kind of show.

Yes, I could record all kinds of stuff and track down various doctors and other kinds of health care providers.

But as someone from the care givers confab pointed out, they already know all about MS.

They don't want to hear about it any more.

They don't wan't to hear more suff which possibly scares them even more, depresses them even more or gives them news that might, and I say might, maybe, give them some hope ... in ten years.

And frankly that's not what I had in mind when I started doing this show.

I was bitching about how you never hear a peep in the media about what you can do for yourself today, and how you never see or hear about products you can use today.

Not some worst case scenario. (The aproach used by most fundraisers.)

Not at some nebulous point in the future. (The approach used by most researchers.)

But something that you can use right now to help you over life's little bumps right now.

And legally, I am severely ham-strung.

I am not a doctor (and I don't even want to play one on TV. :-)

I'm not a nurse.

I am not a therapist.

I am not a medical technician.

Face it, I'm not much of anything else that would be useful in any kind of emergency.

What I am though is an MSer.

I know what you're going through, and, at a meta level, I can make sense of it all. (With my looks, I 'd better be bright. Otherwise I'd have nothing going for me. :-)

I've figured how we can keep advertising out of out faces unless we need to see something at some point in time.

Then I can help the advertisers by cutting the cost of delivering their message down to a fraction of any other medium.

Now, just like a pusher, 'the first one's always free.' After that they gotta pay.

I'm going to be putting these shows up for anybody with anything related to MS. One show per ad and one ad per show.

That way we don't have to download them except when we need them. (Of course the show notes will become filled with references to these ads/shows and I'll be organizing them and reciting them at the end of the shows.)

Give me some feed back about that. How do you feel about advertising this way?

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I'm still a bit pissed off at my mom for getting rid of all my old LPs. Some of that stuff was really choice. Really "get your ass out of that chair and shake your bootie" fine music.

But mom's birthday came up so I did the obligatory bunch of flowers type thing. (I live over a day's drive away, so don't give me crap about not being a good son and never visiting, okay?)

I had all kinds of music by Jimy Hendrix, Johnny Winter, early Alice Cooper, (though I still think "Flush The Fashion," which came out in 1980, was one of the most grossly under-rated and media ignored albums.)

Now I'm not blaming my mother for all of my losses since I was already married to my first wife and living my a bungalow with an attached granny flat on 40th avenue in Lachine, Quebec Canada, Canada by that time. (I hate the burbs, but its because I've done my time there.)

The entire granny-flat type extension was dedicated to my collection by then.

And I had an enormous stereo system to go along with it. A honkin' big Elextrovox Circa series. It could pump out 180 watts RMS per channel through two enormous wooofer cabinets and a pair of sattelite tweeters.

Man, I loved that thing.

When I played "Sky Pilot" by, uh, I'm having a senior moment here, (Eric Burdon & The Aminals maybe?) a Scotsman who lived across the backyard came to tell me he "liked the bagpipes, but could ye turn it down a wee bit."

And then I started making a list of all of the stuff I'd lost whenever I'd moved from place to place. Gawd... What a little tragedy.

Did you know that, in insurace terms, three moves equals a fire? Between one thing and another, breakage, outright losses, abandoning stuff before you leave, not bothering to unpack boxes when you finally get to your new house, you can lose everything you originally owned and get all new stuff in three moves.

I've lived a peripatetic lifestyle, must have moved from one end of the continent and back again at least twice, with stops along the way, and I must be a friggin' turtle because I still have alot of my stuff. But some of course was lost.

Still, I've managed to hang onto about 800+ CDs and 400+ albums.

And I've managed to hand onto a lot of my old books too. :-)

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Having MS and having it take over my life sucks.

Sucks to be me? Nah. Well,maybe a little.

Right now Lee is in my office. She should know better but she's going away for the week-end and wants it tidy.

Damn. I've got Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science" running as a background.

Specially the passage:
"I -I don't believe it!
There she goes again!
She's tidied up, and I can't find anything!
All my tubes and wires.
And careful notes.
And antiquated notions."

Like my notion that a man's office is sacrosanct.

Hey I've noticed that this show is less about "moi" and its becoming about the people I run into. This is "Grr-rr-eat!"

'Til next week then.