Category Archives: Death

This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours

June 20, 2016Death, EU Referendum, Mindfulness, Politics, StrokeEU Referendum, gun control, Jo Cox, Truthricky

Urgh. What a horrible week or so it’s been. I survived a massive haemorrhagic stroke for this?!

At around 2am on the morning of Sunday 12 June, a man walked into the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. By the time two hours had passed, 49 people who had been in the club had been killed, and 43 injured. To highlight the disproportionate risk of violence people in the LGBT community face, it’s worth mentioning that Pulse is one of Orlando’s most popular gay clubs.

When even a Mail on Sunday commentator is saying this, it’s hard to imagine that America’s incredible rates of gun violence will ease any time soon:

In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) June 19, 2015

No further comment req'd — 1,600 kids aged 0-17 killed in gun violence so far this year

Continue reading This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours →

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Something Changed

May 9, 2016Death, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Relationships, Stroke, UncategorizedDan Savage, marriage, Pulp, Thinking Allowed, weddingsricky

Hi.

If you’ve been here before, you may have noticed that Mrs Stroke Bloke recently made me Mr Mrs Stroke Bloke. (You’ve made that “gag” before – Ed.)

The happy couple respond to the gag — Is that much testosterone in a marriage healthy? Yes, apparently. (Photo credit: @chrisdonia)

Now we’ve been married for as long as the three-and-a-half weeks I was in Brooklyn’s Methodist Hospital before my transfer to the Rusk Institute, I thought it might be time to scribble down some thoughts about what just happened – figure out what it was all about….

[Interact some more with Mr Mrs Stroke Bloke and read the Apoplexy Tiny Letter here.] Continue reading Something Changed →

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Sign o’ the Times

April 25, 2016Birds Fate, Death, Mindfulness, Nerd Bait, Pop MusicBilly Paul, Birds Fate, David Bowie, Prince, The Smiths, Thunderclap Newmanricky

Sutekh the Destroyer‘s been at it again this week. Victoria Wood died on April 20. And then of course, Prince died on April 21.

Not the worst misstep in his cover art history, by a long way — Dude. You’ve got your dates waaaay off.

If you want to skip straight to the peaches and cream,
there’s a cover of Prince’s When Doves Cry
by early-nineties indie stumblebums Bird’s Fate
at the bottom of the page…. Continue reading Sign o’ the Times →

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Reflektor Reduks

September 28, 2015Art, Brooklyn, Death, Edinburgh, Movies, Pop MusicArcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Orpheus and Eurydice, The Reflektor Tapesricky

[Long-Suffering Girlfriend of the Blog Beth and I went to see Kahlil Joseph and Arcade Fire’s The Reflektor Tapes this past weekend. So, today seemed like a good day to repost some reflektions on the album Reflektor and… other stuff.]

And it just got spacier from there — Weirdly, the entire movie theatre lobby was an Italian restaurant

One of the many rubbish things about having a massive haemorrhagic stroke is that the ever-present factor of fatigue, and the whole brain lesions thing, militate against a quick return to the traditional, full-time workforce. Continue reading Reflektor Reduks →

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Lovelace

September 21, 2015Comics, Death, Poetry, Science, UncategorizedAda Lovelace, George Eliot, Jane Austen, Lord Byronricky

In the wake of last week’s post about Post-Capitalism and cyberpunk (and sure, strokes) BBC Radio 4 embarked on its Digital Week. It seemed Britain’s talk station was forever teetering on the edge of a discussion about what the next generation of roboticisation would mean for us humans. But they never quite got there while I was listening. A bit like today’s news stories.

A good day to bury this one — AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

A good job, too. Because I don’t know about you, Dear Reader, but I’m not up to another socio-economic post today. However, Digital Week did throw up some gems….

[As always, you can catch the lighter flip-side of apoplectic.me in the apoplexy Tiny Letter here.]

Continue reading Lovelace →

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The Jazz Singer

July 20, 2015Death, Movies, Reviews, Strokericky

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that “sometime this week, Beth and I are going to see Asif Kapadia’s documentary, Amy.” I saw his movie about the late Brazilian Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna on a plane last year, and thought it was very powerful.

Compelling. Forceful. Potent. — More adjectives

Well, it turns out I was lying. Or, I didn’t have the full facts to hand. We went to see Amy last night.

[Sign up for the Apoplexy Tiny Letter here, for more words to while away the day.]

Continue reading The Jazz Singer →

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Mermaids

July 6, 2015Death, Movies, Nerd Bait, Pop MusicAmy, Mermaids, Nick Cavericky

Sometime this week, Longsufferinggirlfriendoftheblogbeth and I are going to see Amy, Asif Kapadia’s five-star-reviewed documentary of Amy Winehouse’s life. I saw Senna, his similar movie about the late Brazilian Formula 1, last year and thought it was very powerful. Given the interest in death often expressed on the blog, that’s maybe not surprising. Even if that interest itself is. To me at least.

There never were such devoted Sisters — Stroke Bloke and L-SGotBB prepare next week’s blog

[“A particularly apposite week to sign up for the Apoplexy Tiny Letter.” – Stroke Bloke.]

Continue reading Mermaids →

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Savaged by a Dead Sheep

June 16, 2015Books, Death, Mindfulness, RelationshipsEddie Mair, Julian Barnes, Robert Pestonricky

During the past couple of weeks, for no particular reason, I’ve found myself relating to a number of different people – independently – the experience that Longsufferinggirlfriendoftheblogeth and I had at Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief’s death cafe not long after we moved to Edinburgh.

Scott Norwood relives Superbowl XXV — Oh, good grief.

Continue reading Savaged by a Dead Sheep →

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But Serially, Folks

December 22, 2014Death, Mindfulness, Podcasts, ScienceIn Our Time, Philosophy, Serial, writingricky

Longsufferinggirlfriendoftheblogbeth has this great trick for helping a person suffering a bout of hiccups.

No, that was a Diet Irn Bru. — Surprise!

‘What did you have for lunch yesterday?’ she’ll ask.
Then, ‘What about the day before that?’
‘And the day before that?’

It really works. Although, I’m told, it loses efficacy with multiple treatments.

Go on. Try it. You don’t have to be suffering from hiccups.

[Another brilliant anti-hiccup strategy? Signing up for the apoplectic Tiny Letter here.]

Continue reading But Serially, Folks →

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Hello to Jason Isaacs!

November 10, 2014Death, Edinburgh, Great British Strokes, Movies, StrokeEdwyn Collins, John Fowles, Mark Kermode, Tony Bennricky

One of the first things you’ll notice strolling around Edinburgh is the collection of private schools that seem to have dropped out of context and out of the sky. Pudgily gothic Fettes. The ersatz Red Square on the Thames of Stewart’s-Melville.

Not Tommy Connery: the *real* one. — Fettes: James Bond’s alma mater after getting kicked out of Eton

Last week, I was wandering along Lauriston Place, heading in a roundabout sort of way towards Cockburn Street to see if the t-shirt shop had replenished its stock of John and Yokos. Heading east along the street, I was distracted from George Heriot’s School looming from an Edinburghian distance by the sounds of Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review on BBC Radio Five Live.

[The apoplectic.me Tiny Letter distribution usually riffs off in a different direction from the week’s post. Check it out here.]

Continue reading Hello to Jason Isaacs! →

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Apoplectic Me

the scribblings of a bloke who had a stroke…

Category Archives: Death

This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours

Something Changed

Sign o’ the Times

Reflektor Reduks

Lovelace

The Jazz Singer

Mermaids

Savaged by a Dead Sheep

But Serially, Folks

Hello to Jason Isaacs!