TOMMYZ

Glad to hear you're doing well, Seth. My dad got treated for that back in the 80's and he's still going strong. We can't prove it but our family suspects it's due to the fact that when he had shore leave ( he was on a mine sweeper off of Japan after WW2 had just ended ) he decided to go take a look around Hiroshima. He later said "it looked like any other bombed out city."

Hope it was a great one !

Hey Waysider, I'm listening to this cool collection right now called "A Rough Guide To Zydeco". Who ever thought an accordion could sound funky!

Newlife, I'm going through my own challenge. After leaving the group I felt like I lost my drive. And the attempted reunion just made things worse. I wish I were still in my own home town back in New York. I have plenty of friends that I played with in high school who still live in the area and I could get together with them and get my creativity flowing. Out here the only musicians I know are from the group and I don't think it would work playing with any of them.

One problem here I feel is that because everything is so tightly controlled there is no encouragement. I thought the church is the place where you're supposed to grow. It's like if you don't fit within the mold forget it. The funny thing is that we got to finally play my song three years after it was rejected. I had given my notice and they knew it was my last time with the band so I guess they figured they'd "throw me a bone" or something. In September I raised the idea of doing a concert where we did all originals and at first the idea was received well but when I insisted on singing some of my songs ( while I'm not a "front person" I've always taken a few lead vocals in every other group before I played at this church ) I was met with "well if your idea of fun includes you singing lead you need to do your own thing." So that killed that. I guess from now on I won't work with "Way believers", only Christians.

I think I found the perfect analogy after I had my colonoscopy. The anesthesia person described the drug they were giving me as something that would put me under but would leave my subconcious working so that if they told me to move my arm or something I would. In other words, "turn off my brain but leave enough working so I would do what I was told." That's what the band experience there ended up becoming to me.

About a year ago I walked away from this band I started in our "offshoot." While I wanted to come up with good songs that would touch people today the way those old Way songs touched hearts years ago there were others in the band whose main priority was doing whatever the leadership wanted and I got tired of the whole thing. At one point we were going to play a song I wrote and it got vetoed by the leadership because they said "I had an ego problem." Apparently this was something they got from Dr. Wierwille. Another ex-corp person said they remembered Dr. Wierwille talking about musicians and egos. So was the official policy "all musicians have egos and need to be kept in their place because the most important thing in music is leadership controlling everything." Have any others of you run up against this?

TGN, I'll keep you in my prayers. For me Christmas was rough because I had just gotten the diagnosis and it was the first Christmas since my sister's husband had died from cancer. The one thing that was funny was when we were about to leave. I apologized to me sister for being so low key and she told me that if there was anything she could do she'd be there for me. To emphasize her point she started poking my arm right on the stitches ! I jumped away and she felt bad but I told her not to worry because it felt like something right out of "Airplane" or some other comedy.

I guess in a warped way I was lucky. I was too busy hurting from the kidney stone to think about the cancer except for the first few days after the diagnosis.

I was thinking Bo Diddley but Zydeco would work too!

Actually Leafy I have a cat so the best I could come up with on short notice would be something like; "I have a cat and his name is Bob, He's a real neat cat, ain't no slob. I'm jealous of this cat and I'll tell you why. He has fun all day, I work 9 to 5." Actually I have this melody that I feel God gave me but I'm having trouble coming with good words to go with the tune. Probably I should just write "filler lyrics" to go with the melody and then fix them up and make them better.

I'm 51 and fair skinned so I guess I was a good candidate. I had been wanting to get back into songwriting. I'll have to sit down with the guitar and see if I can break though the "writer's block."

I'm just getting philosophical and I wonder if anyone else has been there. In December, on the advice of my doctor, I saw a dermatologist to have a suspicious mole removed. I left the office with three stitches on my arm. The dermatologist told me it looked like a basal cell carcinoma, which was common and no big deal. He would send it off for tests and I would come back in two weeks to get the stitches removed and get the tests results. I went back in two weeks, which was Christmas eve. He told me the tests showed it was melanoma, skin cancer. Needless to say I was shook. He took another piece out of my arm and I left the office with seven stitches. When I got home I called my sister. We always spend Christmas at her house. Her husband had died of cancer this past Easter so I wanted her to have time to process the news instead of Christmas Day saying "hey guess what's new." Needless to say, I was in a down mood that Christmas. The next day at work I found myself thinking a lot about my own mortality. On the 27th I had to have a friend of my wife drive me to the emergency room because I was in extreme pain. The cat scan showed I had a blockage due to a kidney stone (as well as having a larger stone that required a lithotripsy three weeks later.) So for the next week I was too busy being in pain from the kidney stone to worry about the skin cancer. Two days after the stone passed I got the news from the dermatologist that he had gotten everything out and I was clear, though he would still be checking me from time to time and after five years I would be considered "cured" if nothing else showed up. This whole experience has made me very reflective. I feel I spent most of '08 "existing, not living". After thinking about my own mortality a lot I'm reminded how precious and how short life is and how I need to make the most of it. I plan to work on several projects that I let fall by the side and enjoy my life instead of just "existing." On the other hand, there's a part of me that's thinking "you're making too much of this. You only had a piece of your arm cut out and it's not like you went through chemo or anything." It would be very easy to just fall back in my old routine and forget about the whole thing. So does this experience qualify me as a "cancer survivor" or am I making too much of it ?

Hap, I'll have to check out "American Zombie." I always thought they should have done a "Return Of The Living Dead" movie that took place right before election day that dealt with politicians pandering to get the "undead vote". Here in the Chicago area the whole "dead vote" is a running joke.

I read it opened in 1969.

Operabuff, did you ever go to the Monroeville Mall, where they filmed "Dawn Of The Dead" ? I have a friend who has family in the Pittsburgh area and a few years ago she brought me back a directory from the mall. I was thrilled to get it.

Hey Hap, in the interest of equal time, is there a Cindy Sheehan picture ? When I read Zombie from Crawford that's what came to my mind. Have any of you guys seen George Romero's "Dead" movies or read Max Brooks books ? (Zombie Survival Guide & World War Z ) Maybe if you had you'd find "Zombies Ahead" more amusing in it's own right instead of turning it into another "Hate Bush"thing.

I'm glad Texas is ready. I saw this article about how Pittsburgh wasn't ready. (That's George Romero's home base) http://www.theonion.com/content/node/41676 Maybe this should have gone in Doctrinal since it shows how the dead are alive now.

It's nice to know that we as a nation are prepared for an attack by the undead. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,484326,00.html

.."cancer is a devil spirit".. ...said one eyed Vic...ouch! Considering I was treated for cancer last month (malignant melanoma, they got it all ) that better not be true or my troubles aren't over.

I've enjoyed reading Martin Luther's books on "Romans." There's also a great book called "What Luther Wrote" that's comments from his writings organized topically. Instead of some ancient figure he definitely comes across as a man who lived life to the fullest.

The only other Greasespotter I see outside of here is Rottiegirl ocasionally. She's a fellow suburbanite like me.

A quick response to two comments; Rush is in Florida but the guy he was talking to in the link was from Chicago and obviously knows how things work in the city. I got an "oh yeah, that's how it is" from a co-worker from Chicago when I repeated that "cut me in or cut it out". That's why I wish we could get some Chicago Greasespots to add their point of view. Also, Daley has not been implicated but the go-between who works for Blago has been. We'll see if he starts talking. I'm also amused that Rezko's sentencing has been pushed back. I bet he's trading information for a better deal. It's going to be interesting to see how this unfolds. I lived in Cook County for ten years and I'm glad I went over the border into Kane County.

Mstar, I think there is enough corruption in Chicago to keep Fitzgerald busy the rest of his life ! I don't know how the Illinois House Speaker from Chicago Mike Madigan has kept out of trouble and let's not get started on Mayor Daley ! I'm hoping one of our Chicago Greasespots can put in their two cents. Here's one Chicagoan's point of view. We'll see if this pans out. http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/sit...5111.guest.html

This may end up in politics but I'll start it here. As an Illinois taxpayer I'm glad to see him getting his due. The guy's done a lot of damage to the state and it would be nice if he had the decency to resign but I'm not holding my breath.