Posted on

Music heals the brains of premature babies and me (Blog version)

 

Mike Oliver is an opinion columnist who is using music and his writings to raise awareness to Lewy body dementia on his blog myvinylcountdown.com and AL.com.

As you all may have figured out, I enjoy music. (Understatement).

Not only do I enjoy music, I believe it is therapeutic, as I have pointed out before.

I believe it is therapeutic for anyone, not just those like myself who have a degenerative brain disease.

Now, news out of Switzerland on the effects of music on premature babies adds more substance to my, admittedly anecdotal reports of music’s healing properties

“Among very premature babies, some of whom were almost born four months ahead of schedule, those who were given daily doses of music written just for them had brain functions that appeared to be developing better than those who weren’t exposed to the music, ” according to ScienceAlert.com., citing several studies.

Yes! I knew I was on to something. Tiny babies rocking out, shaking their booties, doing the funky chicken are helping their brains.

Well not so fast.

Turns out they weren’t exactly rocking out.

The music (which the babies had no say in choosing) is basically elevator music.

The preemies received “eight minutes of soothing background musi c (Click to hear it), bells, harp, and the Indian snake charmer’s flute five times a week.

Incidentally, the snake charmer’s flute was the most soothing sound to newborns,” ScienceAlert.com reported.

Bells, flute, snake charmer’s flute? Are they trying to teach them to slither out of the crib?

I have a friend, Jill in California, who suffers great physical and mental pain upon hearing the harp.

Did the researchers consider any Iron Maiden or old school Black Sabbath. I find a little ‘Crazy Train’ gets my blood pumping in the morning. That’s the goal here, right? Get the healing power of blood circulation in the brain.

If the experts believe that hard rock may be too much at this age, or encourage head-banging, maybe they can start them off with a power ballad by the Scorpions. Or going to another genre, how about the soothing tones of Barry White? Or Smokey  Robinson and the Miracles? Or the Rev. Al Green?

I listened to some of the music they  used on these little ones and, frankly, it sounds like what we called New Age music. You know , Kitaro. There were no lyrics. I say get them started on words. Old school hip hop like Run DMC or Kurtis Blow.

May want to avoid the Police doing (De do do do de da da da). That, and Janis Joplin singing ‘Cry Baby.’

I think the babies would enjoy the whole catalog of the ‘The Mamas and Papas.’

While this is fun, I’d like to take serious note that the best way to solve this problem is to reduce the number of premature babies. Unfortunately many women lack access to good neonatal health care, and sex education. AL.com’s Anna Claire Vollers is spending the year investigating these and other serious issues facing moms in Alabama .

Follow Anna Claire Vollers excellent reporting on Motherhood in Alabama.

Sciencealert.com says the music was aimed at different  parts of the babies’ day, such as feeding time or waking: “Headphones were placed on all babies during the trial when they were waking or noticed to be awake.”

I can see it, Lil’ Man, Lil’ Woman with the head phones on, maybe some shades, chillin’ to Bob Marley.

“We jammin’ we jammin,’ babies nodding their heads in unison, “we hope you like jammin’ too.”

 

https://youtu.be/H7knTgdgaSU

Posted on

Daily Journal, June 4, 2019

Tuesday’s not gone yet. In fact it’s only 10:58 a.m. my time (Central). As I said in a previous post, I was going through some fluctuating symptoms the past few days. So much better this morning as I can type.

Fluctuations in symptoms is a hallmark of Lewy body dementia. I see it as the ultimate donut and hole cliche’. In other words I am thankful it is not just one long descent. I am thankful that I have a donut on some days. (No wonder I can’t shake this extra weight).

Describing the symptoms is hard for me to put my finger on it, literally, when I have those symptoms but let’s just say I don’t feel comfortable in my own skin, feel fidgety and fine motor skills like buttoning shirts, typing, and tying my shoes become frustratingly difficult. Coping mechanism? Maybe half a tab of carbidopa/levodopa or get out and walk or both.

I have doctor’s permission to up my dosage slightly during these events. It’s good medicine but it was developed to treat Parkinson’s not Lewy body specifically. I also take a med created for Alzheimer’s patients to help with the cognitive issues. I don’t know how that is working, but somethings going well as I’m three years into this thing and still playing basketball.

In fact at the MikeMadness tournament I am getting excited about seeing who is going to come in second.

Because they may as well go ahead and put my name on the trophy now.

I’ll be wearing my No. 33 Boston Celtics jersey.

Let’s outro with my greatest therapeutic treatment: Music.

I love to listen to the slide guitar intro by Lynyrd Skynyrd for the song Tuesday’s gone — beautiful.

Posted on

Wynton Marsalis, Teo Macero — 342, 341

ALBUMS: Black Codes from the Underground; Acoustical Supension (1985)

\MVC Rating: Black 4.0 $$$; Acoustical 4.0/$$$$.

I’ve never been a major jazz fan. I give it about 5 to 10 percent of my listening time. Total listening time for the week is between four and seven hours. An hour is about three album sides. So  I still get a fair amount of jazz in

This is about all that, and jazz too. I’m combining these two respected artists because they are close in alphabetical distance and both are playing some late model jazz (1980s).

There is some jazz I really like and listen to, mostly from the old days. John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dixieland Louis Armstrong, Joe Henderson, Cannonball Adderly, Bud Powell, and Sonny Rollins to name most of my repertoire. Oh, and Chet Baker (hipster dude).

So a jazz collecting friend asked why I don’t have any modern jazz, at least someone like Herbie Hancock (who isn’’t all that modern these days.) I dunno, I said. Seems like it takes me too long to warm up to. I do like some fusion as done by the Dixie Dregs and Sea Level, but that’s my Southern roots kicking in

So I asked him who’s the best jazz person right now in the world. He said the best trumpet player is/was (this was 1980s) Wynton Marsalis. So I bought a Marsalis record Black Codes from the Underground. He’s extremely good – won two Grammy’s for this album.  I like it, but am not passionate about it. It’s busy with trumpet runs (as you’d expect) throughout. Makes a good party record that can rise above the background music tag when you want some jazz but not something that rattles the martini olives.

Next up was an album I almost forgot about Teo Macero – and this album would be a notch higher on the in-your-face jazz – in other words with its funky beats, bleating sax and switcheroo time signatures, with splatters of electric guitar, it would not work as well in a background setting demanding low volume. In some ways Marsalis might be pushing it as a dinner time suggestion because of its swings and complexity. Playing Wynton’s album for the first time in years made me realize this album deserves some listening concentration.

Both these guys have great folks working with them and resumes that are about as good as you can get.

Posted on

Another look at words on AL.com

Mike Oliver is an opinion columnist who has Lewy body dementia. For this column, he culls posts from his blog where he is counting down his 678 vinyl records to raise awareness of this deadly, common, but not well known form of dementia.

Singer songwriter Peter Himmelman has a song about visiting a woman named Susan in the hospital. It becomes apparent Susan has no use of her muscles and can only talk by using her eyelids to build words on a special computer screen attached by electrodes.

Though not mentioned in the song, ALS was what she had, a degenerative brain disease that became known as Lou Gehrig’s disease after the world watched in the 1930s the baseball great succumb to it.

Himmelman sings about his visit, a moment that had a profound effect on him:

And the words come ticking out and the words bring us together

And the words come ticking out and the words must keep you sane

Susan I owe you an apology

Susan I owe you an apology

For all the days I just let slide right through my hands

You are the woman with the strength of 10,000 men

More click here.

Posted on

Daily Journal, June 3, 2019 ‘Pass the biscuits’ version.

I spent my weekend looking for my glasses. Or, at least a frustratingly disproportionate part of my weekend. But I found them. My ear buds too.

It’s Monday.. I was feeling especially Lewy over the past few days but it seems to have lifted. I am getting a ringside seat to the part of my disease they call fluctuating.

Musical reference for today, June 3 comes from Bobbie Gentry and her classic Ode to Billy Joe. You might remember the opening:

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin’ cotton, and my brother was balin’ hay

Surprised Gentry didn’t find more success as good as she was on this song. She instead ended up more like Don McLean who wrote the brilliant American Pie. After that, as far as I know, he had minor hit with Vincent and then nada. Gentry put out some material but as I recollect she only had a hit with “Fancy” after Ode.

An example of Gentry’s great songwriting in Ode:

And papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas
Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please
There’s five more acres in the lower forty I’ve got to plow
And mama said it was a shame about Billy Joe, anyhow

Posted on

Daily Journal May 30, 31, 2019

Had lunch Thursday with some friends from the West Coast. Talking about San Francisco made me nostalgic. Good conversation, good lunch at Mile End deli. It was DELIcious. (Sorry).

I’ve been stop-starting on some stories that I need to focus on. There are so many paths for me to go down, that I need a compass.

I really enjoyed the use of the phrase city-savvy in a sentence — as an alternative for streetwise. What sentence you are asking? The one I just wrote. (Sorry again).

Stay tuned for details about an after party for MikeMadness 3X3 basketball tournament. The tournament is Saturday July 20 to raise money for Lewy body research and awareness. We have raised about $25,000 overall in the previous tournaments. This will be the third and I hope we can raise $25,000 altogether this year to bring our total for three years to $50,000.

Here is officia MikeMadness page: https://mikemadness.org/

Posted on

Mr. Big, Mouth and MacNeal, Men without Hats (1-hit wonders in the ‘M’s)-345, 344, 343

Oh this is going to be fun. I have three records here all coming up on the basically alphabetic format I have pioneered (which means they are in alphabetical order except when I decide they are not.)

They are essentially one-hit wonders, this trio of bands I’m lumping together. And their names start with’M.’ And they are sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes silly as heck. Bargain bin material for sure.

Men Without Hats –343

ALBUM: Rhythm of Youth (1982)

MVC Rating: 2.0/$

Canadian group hit it big with the Safety Dance featuring a bubbly 1980’s synth dance beat:

‘We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind, because your friends don’t dance, and if they don’t dance, they ain’t no friends of mine.”

Probably everybody in the world has danced to this song. And probably everybody in the world has this record which sits and never gets played unless you put it on a 1980’s synth-dance music playlist. The only other song that captured my attention was
‘I Got the Message.‘

Mr Big — 344

ALBUM: Photographic Smile (1976)

MVC Rating: 2.5/$$

This is a strange group and album. Not to be confused with the LA-based Mr. Big which was even bigger. This UK-based Big’s only significant hit was ‘Romeo although ‘Feel Like Calling Home sounds like a single for the radio. The singer sounds and looks like the bad gang member leader who set the Warriors up in the Walter Hill movie The Warriors. ‘Warriors come out and Plaa-ay, clink clink go the bottles on his fingertips. i checked the liner to see if this cat “Dicken” was listed as playing bottles. Nope. Dicken (just DIcken) is the vocalists name and he seems to be a known entity in some corners of the UK music scene or at least was at one time.

The album ‘Photographic Smile’ is all over the place from hard heavy rock with Brian May-like guitar solos to lilting folk ballads to songs with a sprinkling of Chinese pentatonic  musical touches. The title song sounds like 10cc.

There’s talent with songwriting musical hooks and musicianship, but it’s somewhat negated by the wild swing in the music and mediocre to poor lyrics. Still, some of these songs have hooks that catch and stick.

Mouth and MacNeal — 345

ALBUM: How Do You Do

MVC Rating: 2.5/$

Well ‘How Do You Do’. Talking about hooks that catch and stick. The one hit from this group is one of those earworms. Now we had a little fun with Mouth and MacNeal earlier in this blog, naming the song ‘How Do you Do’ the Best Worst song of All Time.” I have to say we were heavily influenced by an old black and white video that was so amateurish, it was hilarious.

On record M&M sound OK. The Mouth, a big bear of a man, has a voice that could make beams fall at a construction site. They put their spin on “Heard it Through the Grapevine,” which is inferior to CCR’s or Marvin Gaye’s version — but not altogether bad.

Try this Mouth and MacNeal for something different::

Posted on

Daily Journal, May 28, 29, 2019,

Tuesday/Wednesday post-holiday edition. We had good fun over the Memorial Day weekend at my parents’ in Athens, Ga. I bought a short stack of bargain bin records at a cool little thrift store . We ate hot dogs walked quite a bit and some of us swam.

ICYMI

Over the weekend I this posted on AL.com:

https://www.al.com/opinion/2019/05/the-top-15-my-vinyl-countdown-posts-at-the-half-way-mark.html

And Tuesday this posted.

https://www.al.com/life/2019/05/thank-you-judy-buckner-for-telling-us-how-bill-died.html

I used to think that when people use the term World War III, they are being hyperbolic. Not so sure now.

Reading this worries me:

https://www.al.com/opinion/2019/05/give-peace-a-chance-stay-out-of-middle-east.html

Posted on

Jerry Lee Lewis — 347

ALBUM: Another Place, Another Time (1968)

MVC Rating: 4/$$$

I just got this in a bargain bin and it will be, i think, my last ‘L.’ Short review but it was inexpensive and I was becoming more curious after reading Rick Bragg’s excellent book on JLL.

This album I”m reviewing here was billed as a comeback from his rock and roll success in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It features Lewis doing ‘hard country.’

He had a great soulful voice for country as well as R&B and rockabilly. But for the sake of clarity, this album is a pure old school country music — as Bragg wrote it was not the goopy high production sound popular on the radio. It was Hank Williams country.

That’s my favorite although I do also like alt-country, a newer genre, and even some of that overproduced stuff when it is purveyed by artists like Glen Campbell.

Posted on

Daily Summary May 21, 2019

Ever think about the calendar? Man if somebody hadn’t invented a calendar it would be tough sledding.

And to break it down into 12 months was genius. Otherwise we’d be dealing with one long sequential number.

“What’s the date today honey,” asking my wife.

“It’s January 2,321,300,” she smiles looking at her smart phone. “Maybe this 2.3 million weather will let up. Can’t wait for some cooler weather in the 2.4 millions.”

“And is it Monday?” I ask.

“Honey, it’s always Monday,” she said.

HEALTH: Feeling so much better today than Monday. Fluctuating going on. Muscle soreness and some odd sensations like heat on my neck and wobbly legs every now and then. But all minor invisible ailments that don’t affect me too much — except for the right hand problems.