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Dunk or die trying: a 58-year-old man with a potentially fatal disease will dunk y’all (blog version)

It occurred to me the other day that I’ve always wanted to dunk a basketball.

So I’ve decided that by mid-July, about the time of our next Mike Madness basketball tournament to raise money for Lewy body disease awareness, I will dunk.

Bucket list item.

That’s right, I will throw it down on a 10-foot goal. This 58-year-old white man with a brain disease who has never dunked in his life, will SLAM.

Hah!

Colleague John Archibald heard me thinking out loud about this scheme and said, No, you can’t dunk. He laughed. Then he put his money where his mouth is: He said he will donate $1,000 toward  Lewy body research and awareness.

$1,000. Wow.

This man who plays basketball with me –and has half of my 4-inch vertical leap– must have some inside information. Oh yeah, he’s seen me play. My philosophy as I’ve aged is playing basketball without jumping because too much can go wrong when you’re in the air. But this won’t  be in a game.

There’ll be no big players ready to swat it away. I just rise up and BAM. I can visualize it. I can do it if I try hard and believe in myself. You can tell I just saw the Mr. Rogers bio-pic. Can you see Fred Rogers on the court? Soft blue sweater. He might be good. Never judge a book by the cover he used to say.

Despite Mr. Rogers’ well-intentioned philosophy, I have doubts bigger than Shaquille O’Neal,

This is where I need help.

I have several questions:

Does anybody know of anyone over 55 years old who can dunk?

Does anybody know of anyone who trained to dunk, especially later in life and accomplished it?

Does anyone know of someone with Parkinson’s or Lewy body dementia who can dunk. The muscles in my arms are getting weaker from the disease, I can tell. My outside shot has diminished some. But I still have bad days and good days. My legs, I don’t think have been affected strength-wise.

I hear there are machines today that target specific muscles that can help. I don’t want to buy a super expensive machine though especially if it has dubious outcomes. I always have the Y.

I want to dunk. I want to rise u p 8 inches above the rim palming the ball and slam it through.

Dear readers please respond but remember it’s not official yet, until I do a little more research.

Archibald Googled ‘who is the oldest dunker?’ The first answer was 63-year-old Julius Dr. J Erviing can still dunk.

Not sure that gives me much comfort. The best dunker in NBA history can still dunk.

Here’s how I break it down:

Against me: Disease and age.

Favorable to me: I used to be able to grab the rim (about 30 years ago). I am 6 feet and one-half inch tall.

I weigh about 185, having gained about 20 pounds over the course of a year.

I think I need to drop about 15 pounds or more to get to my old playing weight.

I know the odds are long, but if nothing else I’ll get in shape and it will give me another deadline – like counting down my 678 vinyl records at MyVinylCountdown.com .

Speaking of records, it should be a record of some type if I do indeed dunk.

Onward to research. (Typing, typing Into Google.):  ‘Was Mr. Rogers ever able to dunk.’

Slightly different AL.com version here.

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David Gilmour — 452

ALBUMS: David Gilmour (1978)

MVC Rating: 4.5/$$$$$

Man, this music sounds like it came out of the same sessions as ‘Wish You Were Here.’ It was around that time period that the Pink Floyd guitarist put out this restrained but so so nice recording.

With it’s slow building solos and fluid note extensions, it sounds like it would fit right in on ”Wish You were Here’ next to ‘Shine on You Crazy Diamond.’And ‘Wish’ is my favorite Pink Floyd record, so I love this, almost like a sequel.

Don’t think this record sold all that well despite its quality and Floyd’s soaring popularity at the time. It’s Gilmour without Floyd  himself putting out some very pretty but powerful guitar meditations without the Big Theme histrionics of Floyd.

As one of the commenters on a YouTube video of this album said this shows how big a role Gilmour played in the sound the Pink Floyd. This is fantastic album for Floyd fans and even not-so-much fans.

I got this for $3 at my excellent downtown books/records/cultural curios store: Reed Books.

Near mint condition. Nice!

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Lowell George — 453

ALBUM:  Thanks I’ll Eat it Here

MVC Rating: 4.5/$$$$

Here’s another bargain bin find. One takeaway I am having doing this blog and going one-by-one through my 678  albums is that I was not a bad ‘picker’ of records. I could find some good ones for a couple of bucks.

Lowell George, the lead singer of Little Feat, put this one out in 1979 just before he died of a drug overdose in a Virginia hotel room while on tour for this record.

I agree with AllMusic.com that at first this record seems slight, and it didn’t follow in the jazz-fusion direction that Little Feat was heading (part of the reason he did the solo thing.) But back to being ‘slight’ or not so slight. Some really good renditions  of songs here. “What Do You Want that Girl to Do,’ an Allen Toussaint – penned song, is excellent.   The Ann Peebles song ‘I Can’t Stand the Rain,’ though oft-covered, is done well by George.

“20 Million Things,’ a George original, is  gorgeous and should be a classic. George was a multi-instrumentalist prodigy from childhood. Born in Hollywood, Calif., he was a binge eater, binge alcohol consumer and then, of course the drugs. He weighed more than 300 pounds when he died. Sad we only have this one solo album from him. But there’s a lot of good Little Feat music, which I’ll review when I get to the ‘L’s.”

If you do find this record you get the bonus of having a very cool cover by Neon Park that apparently has several pop culture references including Bob Dylan in there.

I’m including a live video of George with Little Feat backed by Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris to show you just how good that George and Little Feat were.

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Tear-jerkers and Lewy

Quick catch-up here on some of the things happening in MyVinylCountdown – land.

I’m firing blogs off left and right lately so keep checking this site for updates.

You can get new post alerts via email by going to the comment section. Here’s how to do that: ‘click on the title of the post, for example, Bobby Goldsboro’. 

Then scroll down to bottom of post and you’ll see an email box. Click inside the box and a check-box asking if you want notifications.

The Bobby Goldsboro post, where ‘Honey the’ song is deconstructed by me makes me think of putting together a  Top 10 list of tear-jerking songs.

  1. Honey by ‘Bobby Goldsboro’

There I started. Now go. to the comments and add your challenger song or songs to ‘Honey.’ Or, you can email me your selection at moliver@al.com

(Maybe we’ll actually do it like we did on Top Train Songs.

In recent weeks my most popular posts have been:

Rub your dog behind the ears while you still can 

Robin Williams was killed by Lewy, the brain disease that won’t be named 

New song about Alabama could be next great state song 

 

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People with dementia, chronic diseases and their doctors benefit from ‘progress report’

 

 

 

 

 

 

As many know I have dementia with Lewy bodies, a brain disease that has symptoms similar to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Another person with Lewy shared with me something I think that will be highly beneficial, not just for folks with Lewy but for those with other chronic diseases as well.

Let’s call it a “Report Card for your Doctor,’ or ‘Progress Report for Doctors and other caregivers.

{To see full report click here and scroll down}

 

This running document is something you update between doctor visits.

Thanks to a fellow ‘Lewy’ person and his wife, caregiver,  I am able to share an example of how this works right here.  It’s pretty self-explanatory. I have taken out the names  for privacy’s sake.

I think this could be a life prolonger or at least a life comfortor, especially  for those with memory issues as changes in symptoms are so important for the doctor to know about. Everyone in this situation has gone to those hard-to-get appointments with a neurologist only to remember that you forgot to say something about something. This puts it all in black and white and would serve as a patient-doctor conversation.

I think publishing this is helpful information on two levels: 1) For everyone with a chronic disease to  use to improve diagnosis and treatment, and 2) More specifically for those living with Dementia with Lewy bodies to see the chronicling of the disease in a real person.

To see the full report (if you missed the link above click here.

 

 

 

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Salt of the Earth

It was the ‘children’s’ message at First Presbyterian Birmingham on Labor Day weekend.

This is where the children are given a kid-friendly explanation of the upcoming sermon.

It was a holiday weekend so not many children were in attendance, but one of the kids made up for it with a barrage of questions and stories.

The little girl had something to say about almost every sentence uttered by Director of  Christian Education  Patti Winter,  a veteran children’s educator, who has mad skills at handling children eruptions diplomatically.

Patti waited patiently through each anecdote coming from the child before she gently steered the conversation back to her message.

The message on this day was the ‘salt of the earth’ passage, Matthew 5-13:

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.’

Patti talked about how salt is helpful to make food taste better.  She said salt is also used in  dyes to make colors brighter and, if that wasn’t enough, she said salt goes into plastics to make the plastics better. She did a little more talking about the virtues of salt and the meaning behind the passage before getting ready to go. The children’s program had by now taken on a little extra length.

But wait, the girl’s hand was in the air again

OK, last question, Patti said.

In a sincere voice, the girl asked:

“What about pepper?”

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David Gates — 458

ALBUM: First  (1973)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

This is soft rock AKA as Adult Contemporary.  I bought this used recently for loose change after reviewing the Best of Bread for MyVinylCountdown.com.

I admired Bread’s songcraft and was impressed with Gate’s guitar and vocals. It was pretty but that’s about it. A little like the Carpenters, a little like America.

In fact some of us debated which one was best (or worst) Bread vs. America. Think that dispute is still ongoing. One colleague said  he would pick America but only if they never do ‘Muskrat Love’ again.

So I bought this Gates’ solo album and it is pretty much a Bread album, pretty, but that’s about it.

But maybe that’s  enough.

Song picks: ‘Ann’ shows off his voice. ‘SIght and Sound’ shows some guitar  skills. Suite Clouds and Rain shows his piano chops. ‘Do you Believe He’s Comin’ shows his aforementioned guitar skills as well as religious faith. In fact for a guy who seems so partial to soft rock, Gates can play a mean guitar as he does here in the “Do  You Believe He’s Comin’ and with Bread the song ‘Guitar Man.’

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Marvin Gaye — 459

ALBUM: Every Great Motown Hit of Marvin Gaye

MVC RATING: 5.0/$$$

What’s going on? I mean What’s Going On?

War is the not the answer.

Got to find a way to bring some love in here today.

Marvin Gaye is smooth and soulfully cool. For good solid soul, Gaye knew no peer. He was the male counterpoint to Aretha Franklin.

I’m not counting out Otis Redding, Wilson Picket, Al Green or any of the other pioneers in this realm. Gaye was a little less of a soul belter than  Aretha. His sound was seductive, jazzy soul — sometimes with a social message (What’s Going On.’)

I’m not saying he couldn’t belt either, on ‘Grapevine’ he belts.

Marvin’s life ended too soon, in 1984, tragically at the hands of his father.

I’ve written this elsewhere on the blog: His version of the National Anthem at the NBA All-Star game in 1983 brought tears to my eyes as I was hearing it in real time on live  television. He did a soulful, and controversial take, on our National Anthem. I thought it was a touching rendition in the style Mr. Gaye sings. Jose Feliciano did a Spanish-tinged version, more than a decade earlier. He took some flak, as well.

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Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers Band — 460

ALBUM:  Greatest Hits (1980)

The Gatlin Bros. are a little out of my realm. But I remember why I got this. Someone or someones were saying how much I looked like Larry Gatlin. I didn’t really follow the Gatlins but I knew they were wildly popular in the 70s and 9.  So with every one calling me Larry I better figure out who he was. Used records, don’t know where. but I picked up “Greatest Hits.” My hair has long ago left me  so I  don’t think  I look like Gatlin unless he  has a large  hair deficit.

This is the type of country I didn’t like a  bunch–county-politan — or something like that.  (It’s all right with Dolly).

But I did enjoy  some of the songs here: Broken Lady and ‘Statues Without Hearts stand out.

I am also a sucker for good falsetto singing and Larry’s pretty good.

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Peter Gabriel — 462, 461

ALBUMS: Peter Gabriel (1977); Peter Gabriel (1980).

MVC Rating:  1st self-titled: 4.5/$$$

2nd self-titled: 4.0/$$$

Hope everybody has had enough time with ‘The Gaugin Years’ The History of Music and Dance in Tahiti.  (Scroll down if you haven’t). That was the start of my G-music section and up now is Peter Gabriel, a political, intelligent, supporter of world music. We’ll see more of him in this blog soon as his longtime band, Genesis, comes up on my alphabetical course.

I have the first and third Gabriel albums. Oddly, he didn’t name his first four albums. They are called Peter Gabriel. To ID them people add a descriptor like ‘melt’ for the third  one because it has a face appearing to melt on the cover.

I fell out of Gabriel’s thing about when “Shock the Monkey’ and then ‘Sledgehammer’  — MTV’s all time favorite video – propelled Gabriel from cult status to star. One thing I didn’t like, and others feel free to chime in, is that he seemed to employ an echo effect on his voice, especially in the “So’ era. Am I correctly hearing that? It is almost as if he didn’t have confidence in his natural sound. But the songwriting on Solsbury Hill,  about a spiritual experience the Gabriel had, is about as good as it gets.

Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city light
Wind was blowing, time stood still
Eagle flew out of the night
He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing, stretching every nerve
Had to listen, had no choice
I did not believe the information
Just had to trust imagination
My heart going boom, boom, boom
“Son”, he said, “grab your things, I’ve come to take you home”

Biko’ on the second album is also a favorite of mine. It’s a powerful song with African rhythms lamenting the death at the hands of police of Steve Biko, an anti-apartheid protester.

September ’77
Port Elizabeth weather fine
It was business as usual
In police room 619
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
The man is dead
The man is dead