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More than 5 years ago I made a pledge to write mini-reviews of the 678 vinyl records I accumulated over decades. I just posted my Top 24 records here. Now I’m going to post the top essays/blog posts that are not part of my 678 countdown (which is at 129 now). These posts range in topics, tone and levity, as I progress in age. I am 61 and was diagnosed about 5 years ago. Average life expectancy after diagnosis is 4 to 8 years.

ALBUM: South’s Greatest Hits (1977)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

This Capricorn compilation is a decent but flawed snapshot of what became known as “Southern Rock.” I was listening to the Allman Brothers and those young upstarts Lynyrd Skynyrd before that label was coined.

This record has those two iconic Southern Rock bands and plenty of other top-40 songs from Southern rockers. I have a small quibble with some of the choices: Elvin BIshop (Fooled Around and Fell in Love); Amazing Rhythm Aces (Third Rate Romance); and Dr. John (RIght Place Wrong Time). Bishop and the Aces songs’ don’t feel very Southern to me.

Now Dr.John is cajun-zydeco-rock — but I wouldn’t call it Southern. But I like the song! That would be like calling ZZ Top Southern music — Texas and New Orleans are two different ‘musics’ apart from Southern music is I guess what I’m trying to say.

Remember the founding Southern rock founding fathers the Allmans (represented here with ‘Rambling Man’ and Greg’s solo Midnight Rider. Southern through and through and their proteges in Lynyrd Skynyrd. This was mostly guitar driven blues-based rock with a good dose of country influence.

I need help from a guy I met in college who had a huge huge record collection but it was strictly Southern acts, complete catalogs of the Marshall Tucker band (represented here by ‘Fire on the Mountain, I’d have preferred ‘Can’t You See;): the Outlaws (who are represented by ‘There Goes Another Love Song’); Blackfoot (not here but had a hard Southern rock hit in ‘Train Train’); Charlie Daniels band (represented here by ‘The South’s Going to do it Again’); Wet Willie (represented here with ‘Keep on Smiling’); Barefoot Jerry (not represented here but they get a shout-out from the Charlie Daniels Band song featured here);) and the Atlanta Rhythm Section (Doraville).

ALBUMS: Credit in Heaven (1982); Love is the Law (1983); self-entitled (1986)

MVC Rating: Credit 4.0/$$$$$; Love is the Law 4.0/$$$$; self entitled 3.5/$$$$.

Some of my favorite artists are from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in cold-as-heck Minnesota: Prince, the Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum and Peter Himmelman to name a few.

I used to live there as well from Grades 1 to 3 in the mid-1960s. We lived in Married Student Housing as my father was pursuing a degree at the University of Minnesota. I watched him trudge to school every morning on a well-worn path through the snow. Then I’d trudge to the bus stop to school.

It was so cold the fire department came every year in the winter and hosed down the field out back. The water would freeze , which turned into ice and voila, instant ice rink. I learned to play hockey, sort of.

Our housing complex was right next to the Minnesota state fairgrounds. I and several buddies would sneak into the fair without paying by crawling through the woods and under a chain link fence.

Bad boys, what you going to do.

My three best friends were from other countries: a Pakistani, an Australian and a mischievous Turk.

The hippie family two doors down disappeared in the middle of the night after he was drafted for service in the Vietnam war. We heard they relocated in Canada.

I tell you all this because it doesn’t surprise me that a varied and interesting amount of talent comes out of the Twin CIties in Minnesota.

The Suburbs was one of those, and, for a time in the 1980s, they appeared close to breaking out . They were headlining major venues in the Twin Cities, putting out an alternative vibe that combined funk, electronic, and jazzy rock and roll. They were a little like the Talking Heads with a nod toward the silly like the B-52s

But, alas, there would be no suburban flight.

After four studio albums , they called it quits in around 1988. They re-formed in the 90s and have been putting out some music and playing local venues.

Their albums all have some great music. I think if I had to reccomend one, it would be the Twin Tones double album ‘Credit in Heaven.’

Love is the Law’ was their first major label, (Mercury), and it is quite good, as well.

There were no car chases or bloody shootouts. And some of the most suspenseful scenes had to do with the lead character forgetting things.

But it was as intense and suspenseful as any movie I’ve seen in a long time.

Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of a man with dementia was a wonderful bit of acting,. The technique of seeing the confounding events through the eyes of Hopkins was an excellent way to make the audience glimpse what dementia is like.

As a writer with Lewy body dementia, I have been through most of the symptomatic presentations the film tries to portray.: Forgetting faces, time, and locations. Seeing and interacting with people who are not there.

I wish the film had a scene in it that would have given viewers more context.. I think it could have done easily with a scene at the doctor’s office, with medical staff explaining to Hopkins’ character the type of dementia it was, life expectancy and medications, etc. By leaving those and other elements out, the movie left the audience to figure out the sometimes impressionistic sequences of Hopkins view. of his world. But maybe that was the point.

Did anyone ever use the word Alzheimer’s in the movie? They must have but I didn’t catch it. I’m absolutely certain they didn’t mention Lewy body dementia, the second leading type of degenerative brain disease behind Alzheimer’s.. Frontotemporal, vascular, and Parkinson’s disease with dementia are other forms of dementia. Lewy body patients usually have the most hallucinations.

These are quibbles at most. The movie was excellent and will raise empathetic awareness to an increasing and scary bevy of dementias. We need early, correct diagnosis and more research into the types to improve treatments and increase lifespans.

Read Lewy body patient Mike Oliver’s experience with ‘horrific’ hallucinations here:

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