A quick plug before we move onto Britishness, strokes, and pile-driving Aussie rock:
Nerd Bait will be premiering their latest short-form musical, Wrong Word Write Time (the fictional life story of a pilot suffering from aphasia) as part of Illicit Ink’s Underground night at Edinburgh’s Bongo Club on Sunday, 4 May.
Please come, tell your friends, and please share and tweet these links: 1, 2. Thanks!
Continue reading Kinky Kricket
Have your ever found yourself suffering from a medical condition that you’d never given much thought before, and suddenly found that it’s everywhere?
-My dog’s got no nose. -How does it smell? -Like burnt toast. -You’re having a stroke. -Oh.
— Matt Kirshen (@mattkirshen) October 14, 2013
I’ve been heartened by the response to Thursday’s post about how Jackie Ashley and Andrew Marr have responded to Marr’s stroke in January. There’s a real sadness underlying the story, I think. But you don’t have to read between the lines too much to find the melacholia in the story of today’s subject.
Continue reading Great British Strokes #5 — Vini Reilly
apoplectic.me isn’t a forum for me to vent my political spleen, and one thing I’ll say for having a massive cerebral hemorrhage is that it helps you lose weight gives you an extra dose of compassion, but I couldn’t let this historic day pass without comment.
Continue reading Towering British Figure Suffers Stroke…
People love lists, right? Well, according to Rob Fleming, Nick Hornby’s representative in High Fidelity, a certain type of bloke does, anyway. So much so, that Hornby himself was able to get 31 Songs published. That’s a list of 31 songs, natch, with each chapter being a fairly lengthy entry about one of the songs; either why it’s good, its personal resonance, or some other facet of the particular song. It’s pretty good.
These days, list shows are ubiquitous. For example, consider the cheap-o, low-brow filler populated by talking heads with no particular knowledge of their subject, like BBC America’s execrable The Brit List. We saw their 20 sexiest Brits show. Which, as Beth pointed out, had to be filled out by a car. And a candy bar. Amusing middle-aged yet skinny men with good hair from the ’90s didn’t get a look-in, oddly enough. I’m talking about the Guardian’s head music writer, Alexis Petridis, of course. (See blogs passim.)
Continue reading Great Scottish Strokes #3
[N.B.: This post discusses post-stroke depression and crying, as well as the inspiration to be received from the music of Edwyn Collins. Depression is very common in both stroke survivors and their carers. (Post-stroke depression (PSD) has been reported in not less than 30% and up to 50% of all stroke survivors (Robinson, 1998; DH, 2007a). The prevalence of PSD peaks at six months after stroke.) If you think you or your family/carer may be affected by this issue, please help your recovery by going to your doctor. The National Stroke Association has also published an excellent fact sheet on coping with emotions after stroke, which I’d also suggest you look at if this is an issue for you.] Continue reading Rip It Up