081510

I've spent the past week, solid, in a hospital. Nurses were nice, which is saying a lot compared to my last experience as an in-patient. Soon into it, I had a large catheter stuck into my jugular vein, with stitches. No going anywhere. I was there for the long haul. My MS doc hoodwinked me, saying just go onto the emergency room. He didn't say it was going to take a week! Couple of days I could understand; not a week. Other than not being able to get around (no more than half a block), speech impairment, hand tremors, etc., there's really nothing to write home about. I had the Tysabri flushed from my system; not that it was building up in my body, just that it was starting to have unknown consequences. The speech is better. Onto better things. I really don't know what exactly. As long as it's not Rebif, I don't care. I'll find out the deal on Monday.

*Writing*

Two weeks ago, I mentioned writing plays. I have a good deal of experience writing plays; one of them has been produced, one I had a group of actors read (full cast), one I had another group read (different group), one we (Erin Leary and I)

attempted to have produced, to no avail (it was in Bellingham, and we were stuck in Portland), etc. As I said, the one thing I look forward to is cast parties, more than having books published. If I could look forward to cast parties, as a playwright, life would be extremely good. It will take me a while to get to that point, but for me, it's plays or nothing. This feeling is totally to do with with having seen, from a young age, Broadway plays; the buzz of a new play gets me going every time. It will be a long haul, but if there's anything that excites me, it's the idea of going to a new play as the playwright. It may take the rest of my life, but if there's anything that I can dream of, it's going to be opening night.

*Japan*

I've talked of the lascivious nature of my comrades in Taiwan. I met a German guy in Tokyo who was close to that obsession. He was nuts to find someone to go meet women with. The one time we went out, we went to Karaoke. That's a very Japanese tradition. Not sure where it comes from, but it's a very Japanese thing to do. (They say it started in the '60s with Sing Along with Mitch, hosted by Mitch Miller. It's even more common in China and Japan than it is here.) In any case, in Japan, it boils down to making a fool of yourself in front of friends. Humbling is what it is; no hiding from anyone.

In Japan, one rents a room just for friends. You retire to that spot and sing away. You can order drinks, food, cigarettes, etc. The Karaoke spots in Tokyo are extensive, with full buildings just for Karaoke. This is very unlike China, where it's about making a fool of yourself in front of _everyone_. In truth, I think the Karaoke tradition is much more common in Japan than anywhere else. If you're lucky, the Karaoke place is in a spot with lots of shopping, so that you can go off and shop when you're through. A solid cultural tradition is this.

*Adam's-Index*

Ways being in a hospital is similar to jail: no bars, but the effect is the same (I say from first-hand experience)

Differences from being in jail: every little noise you make is under the microscope of nurses and doctors

Similarities: sitting in one spot for days on end

Differences: everyone in a hospital wants you to feel better

Similarities: staring at the same walls can drive you crazy

Differences: health is the point of hospitals

Similarities: suffering, one way or another, is the end result of extended stays

Differences: in hospitals, it doesn't matter how ridiculous it is; if it's not under the purview of hospitals, it doesn't matter how ludicrous it is, it's not allowed. I take 4AP, which helps me walk; without it, I can't walk to save my life. Because 4AP is not common, interestingly it's not allowed. If you told a nurse about it, she wouldn't believe you.

Similarities: all you can do is watch TV (or read)

Differences: you really have to want to better yourself, and that's a lot harder in a hospital

*Quotations*

Man, if you have to ask what it is, you'll never know.

--Louis Armstrong

[I've long held that jazz is American music; whether you play rock, blues, jazz, etc., it always boils down to how well you can make jazz.]

Jazz is rhythm and meaning.

--Henri Matisse

[Trenchant critique from Matisse. Rhythm married to meaning I would say.]

By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with.

--Duke Ellington

[And I've always been that kind of man.]

To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.

--Nina Simone

[The _word_ from the high priestess. It's black classical music for sure.]

Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning.

--BB King

[My feelings exactly.]

Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

--Percy Bysshe Shelley

[I've long heard tell of this "legislation" aspect to being a poet, but I have yet to see any of it. Perhaps if my poetry were more mainstream....]

What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women--not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.

--JFK

[It seems very obvious....]

Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid.

--Tao Te Ching

[One of those great wisdoms.]

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.

--Malcolm S Forbes

[Difficult to get yourself thinking this way.]

Do not look where you fell but where you slipped.

--African proverb

[There's nothing quite like a proverb to make you stop and double check yourself.]

Peace love and ATOM jazz