Below is a slideshow (click the right arrow at the bottom of the slide) that describes the issues I'm having with my home studio - specifically the firewire driver compatibility between Mac OS 10.5.5, Logic Pro 8 and the Mackie Onyx 1200f. I'd love any tips or suggestions ... and, yes, I'm obsessed with making this work.
October 30, 2008
August 07, 2008
This amp goes to Verellen
I can't write a review about my new Verellen AC30-style guitar amplifier (spoiler alert: it is AWESOME!) without talking a bit about Ben Verellen. I first met Ben at his home/workspace in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood. He was running off to class at UW where he's finishing a degree in electrical engineering. But before he hit the bizooks, we spent a good deal of time communing on the perfect amp that he would build for me. It was one of those rare meetings where I knew this fellow musician / ampsmith / future electrical engineer thought just like I did about everything that makes a tube guitar amp a modern wonder of vintage science. The amp I commissioned from Ben is as simple as the best amps get. It does one range of sound but it does that sound very, very well.
Amp Specs
* 40 watt
* volume knob
* on/off switch
* standby switch
* low, mid, high EQ
* 2 Celestion Vintage 30
G12 (8 ohm) speakers
The volume knob is the key feature of the Verellen amp. With my Telecaster in single-coil bridge position I get a gorgeous full clean tone around 25% volume, warm growl when I'm digging in to the strings at 50% volume, nice chunky classic rock at 75% volume and full-on sustainable single notes at 100% volume with just enough feedback to please but not enough to crash the party. Switching pickup positions and guitars does pretty much what you'd expect - it makes every guitar sound it's best and reveals it's most unique tonal qualities. This is an all tube amp, built entirely from the ground up. It has many of the qualities of the classic Vox AC30 but with it's own signature Verellenian sound. It's simple, solid, aesthetically pleasing ... and it's completely awesome.
If I were a professional amp reviewer (spoiler alert #2: I'M NOT!) I'd get into the detailed minutiae of gain structures, EQ charts and exactly how this thing works. Instead I'll try to get at why I love this amp through a story from my past.
The Brown Amp
When I was growing up in Anchorage, Alaska in the 1980s my mom and dad returned from a trip to the exotic land of Los Angeles, California with a 1976 Fender Lead II - my first guitar! A friend gave me their throw-away amp head and I somehow drummed up a free 2x12 cab. The amp was a 70s Fender Bassman head. I knew nothing about guitars or amps so I quickly tore off the tattered silver grill cloth and painted the amp head and speaker cab with the only paint we had in the garage: exterior brown house paint from our very own split level home.
The only sound I knew was that 70s Bassman amp through a 2x12 cabinet with a Fender guitar, more often than not with amp and guitar volumes dialed to ten. It was a pure and awesome sound. With little knowledge of how an electric guitar or amp should sound, I naively assumed that all guitars and amps sounded this great. The amazingly warm, rounded distortion and growl this amp and guitar produced set me on a lifelong path of tinkering with guitars and amps.
Fast forward to 2008. My new Verellen amp is easily that good and, coincidentally, it's stained brown walnut. It does what I learned at an early age an amp should do: one sound, but one sound very well. The brown amp is back, but this time designed and hand-built by ampsmith Ben Verellen of Seattle, Washington. No need to turn it to eleven, this amp already goes to Verellen.
Contact info
Verellen Amplifiers website
MySpace site
email Ben
A few more pics
July 02, 2008
July 01, 2008
99-ish Fender strat w/ bondo
I try to pay less than $200 for cheap guitars, but this one was around $220 because it’s a proper American made Fender Stratocaster w/ a fancy pickup and hardware. I think it would retail used for about $700? But this looks like a shop project for the last owner. It appears s/he tried to sand off the finish, got into trouble when they started gouging the wood and then applied some bondo to build it back up. The net result is a fugly guitar with bondo, but in great working condition. Sounds great, though.
I kind of like the messed up bondo job so I’m leaving it as is. I believe it’s of the late 90s or early 00s. Anyone know how to tell?
See more progress on: buy a cheap guitar
May 10, 2008
I never knew I liked walnuts this much
That’s what I learned yesterday making a couple loaves of banana bread with my mom (she’s visiting). If you toast good walnuts just right and chop them up a bit (I don’t like them too big in the bread), they taste wonderful.
I used the Cook’s Illustrated recipe and it worked nicely.
See more progress on: make banana bread
April 02, 2008
March 28, 2008
Quackery?
Before this week I’d never been to a chiropractor and quite frankly I felt there was a strong likliehood it was a bunch of bullshit. But late last week I pinched a nerve in my neck, it got all tight and was hard to sleep comfortably. I’ve had worse in the past, but my days were filled with robotic full-torso head turning when people called my name. I bumped into a chiropractor while at the gym and he said “come on down, I’ll have you in and out in 15 minutes”. Well, it took about 45 with paperwork but I had my first neck-cracking session two days ago with an x-ray followed yesterday by an x-ray review and 2nd neck cracking. The popping of the joints , particularly the neck, freaked me out. But I exhaled and let him do his thing.
So, I have to say that it worked. I wanted to be a disbeliever (and I don’t know that I’m a convert) but it really did seem to alleviate the pinching altogether. It’s a bit tender as the area of my left shoulder was pretty well seized up and it may take a couple days to come down. But the pinching is effectively gone and everything feels loosened up. Is this coincidence (would my body have arrived here on it’s own these past 3 days) or did it really work? It feels like the adjustments really did the trick but I don’t fully understand what’s going on.
This wikipedia article is an interesting read on the history of chiropractic care. I didn’t realize until reading it that it’s largely a Canadian/US form of health care. I’m thankful I’m out of pain and the gent I went to is suggesting 2 months of adjustments to fully address the curve of my neck (I’ll give him credit for a low pressure pitch). I’m probably like most people—the pain is gone and I’m fine going about my business without further adjustments but who knows.
Has anybody had any good or bad experiences with chiropractic care in the past? Is it a bunch of hooey or do you think it’s the real deal? Has anyone done a full set of adjustments like the 2 months I’m being offered?
See more progress on: go to a chiropractor
January 15, 2008
what a day
Robot Laurel called my bluff on this one and we drove early this morning to Snoqualmie pass and went on a nice climb up the mountain on skis. Eventually we had to come down which was interesting on rental skis. My legs are tingly and devastated from all the snowplowing down.
A beautiful winter day.
See more progress on: cross country ski
July 06, 2007
Bald Women Do Lunch
Thought I’d pass along a link to Bald Girls Do Lunch, a non-profit for women with alopecia based in the NY area.
Bald Girls Do Lunch provides new and valuable opportunities for women with alopecia areata – an auto-immune skin condition which causes the partial or total loss of hair on the scalp, brows, lashes and body. We are a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the self-confidence of women who share the challenges of this condition.
Go BGDL!
See more progress on: Find other people with Alopecia Universalis
May 30, 2007
January 10, 2007
my 8th loaf
Today I baked a round loaf of rustic breadh. I feel like I’ve finally worked out a few of the kinks with Jim Lahey’s Sullivan Street Bakery no-knead recipe. Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks. I gave it to Josh for his family dinner tonight. My 7th loaf was delicious so I’m predicting good times for the Petersens tonight.
I plan to bake a couple more loafs tonight to give to people.
See more progress on: learn to bake bread
December 12, 2006
I give it 60/40 odds working out
That’s a 60% chance that we can revive this vending machine found abandoned in a parking lot down the street. Eric is going to help out. Our goal is to get it cleaned up and working so we can donate it to McLeod for the member’s room.
Buster is giving us until New Years Eve to get it going. If anyone else is interested in helping and knows something about refrigeration or old vending machines jump on in. It’s currently in my garage.
See more progress on: attempt to fix up the old soda machine for McLeod
October 20, 2006
Fender Rhodes tour rig
I put 9 pictures on Flickr as it’s best described in pictures. The greatest part about this Rhodes is it’s been overhauled by David Ell one of the prominent Rhodes technicians living today.
In addition, I’d love to sell off the entire tour rig that supports this rhodes. Namely …- road case for Rhodes
- effects pedals (delay, tremolo, phaser)
- Quiklok stand
- rhodes sustain pedal and rod
- road case for holding effects, stand, sustain pedal and cords
See more progress on: sell off my excess music gear
goodbye pigeons
It’s been one week and the pigeons have not returned. The hole they were accessing has been closed up with chicken wire. The attic is still full of pigeon shit and feathers, but at least they’re gone. It was driving me completely nuts.
A big clean-up job awaits.
See more progress on: get the pigeons out of my attic
September 23, 2006
I'm torn
I’ve had my 88 key Rhodes suitcase model (bottom pic) for many years. I don’t even know where I originally purchased it. Maybe the Trading Musician? But I didn’t pay much. However, over the years I’ve had a lot of restorative work done on it. And the restoration and tuning holds a lot of meaning for me.
Let me back up. A while back I went on a major purge of gear. I kept everything that I thought was essential or at least highly enjoyable and pleasing. I have a thing for fixing up old instruments—in the past I’ve owned as many as 5 Fender Rhodes at one time, not to mention 2 Hammond B3s, 3 Leslie speakers, lots of synths, guitars, etc. I’m done with that game, but I do like having a few nice instruments that I use.
That’s kind of where this Rhodes teeters: between something I use less and less but enjoy as a physical object—and something that I think might just be taking up space in my house.
The first major overhaul on this Rhodes was performed by a locally-famous piano tuner named Bill Nye (not to be confused with Bill Nye the Science Guy). He was meticulous beyond measure and went to the trouble of counterbalancing every one of the 88 keys with keyleads so they were properly balanced and weighted. Nobody ever does this to a Rhodes. This impressive feat was performed out of love—because Bill hated the Rhodes as a “crude” instrument but loved me and my brother. So, we struck a deal and traded him 1,100 bottles of Diet Peach Snapple to counterbalance, regulate and generally overhaul the guts of this Rhodes. Why? Because that summer Bill drank 2 or 3 Diet Peach Snapples a day—OCD. We didn’t have much money, but Greg (my bro) was working on a Snapple campaign handing out free samples of Snapple around Seattle. Which means that “free” Snapple samples paid for a big part of my Rhodes overhaul.
A few years later I met who I consider to be one of the premier Rhodes technicians in the world today, David Ell. David was kind enough to refinish the tolex and regulate my 88-key Rhodes in Kennewick, WA. He gave me a hell of a deal as we were both kind of kick-starting each other’s music careers. He was helping repair and enhance all my Fender Rhodes for tour and studio use while I spread the word about Dave’s incredible Rhodes technician prowess. Honestly, this guy is a bit of a genius as it relates to understanding the physics and repair of the Rhodes mechanism.
And here I am today seriously considering selling off this Rhodes with all my memories attached. From Snapple to Kennewick and back—rooming with my brother in Wallingford and dragging my crazy gear around to find crazy people to work on it for next to nothing. But loving all the bartering and comraderie involved.
I think it’s time to let go of the Rhodes, but I had to type through it.
P.S. RIP Bill Nye (death by spider bite of all things). I truly hope you enjoyed the Diet Peach Snapple. Your workmanship lives on in this Rhodes.
See more progress on: consider selling my Fender Rhodes 88-key electric piano
June 07, 2006
One thing you probably didn't know about marge
My mother was the first Jesuit Volunteer …
Modest beginning in the Last Frontier: Five women came to Alaska in 1956 as volunteer teachers. Fifty years later, their work here is seen as the beginning of an international Catholic service organization.
By Effie Caldarola
Anchor Writer
Marge Spils didn’t know she was making history when she headed north in 1956 to teach as a volunteer at Copper Valley School near Glennallen. The young Massachusetts college graduate — then Marge Mannix — just believed that it was another adventure, and for a good cause. She was joined by four other young women from Catholic colleges in Massachusetts, all of them persuaded by a warm-hearted Sister of St. Ann to come north to the missions. For the first couple of months, the women had to cross a stream to use an outhouse, and they learned how to plaster walls and glaze windows before the classrooms were ready for them to start their work of teaching. A friendly lodge owner let them take a weekly shower.
Fifty years later, that small group of women is heralded as the beginning of what was to become the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, now a national and international organization celebrating its 50th year.
The funny thing, Jesuit Father Tom Gallagher told the Anchor last week, is that even though the corps bears the name “Jesuit” now, a St. Ann Sister really came up with the whole idea. Sister George Edmond traveled to the East Coast to Catholic women’s schools who had lay apostolate programs, Father Gallagher explained. With slide shows and lectures, she recruited young women for Copper Valley, a boarding school serving mostly Native students that was operated jointly by the Jesuits and St. Ann Sisters. The Jesuits, who brought young men from Jesuit universities to help out during the summers at the school, knew a good thing when they saw it, and by the 1960s, they too were inviting young college graduates to join the newly named “Jesuit Volunteer Corps.”
The JFK connection
Anniversaries are a good time to ask some questions. Was the Jesuit Volunteer Corps really the model for President John F. Kennedy’s Peace Corps, as rumor has it? And what exactly does it mean to be, as the corps’ informal motto promises, “ruined for life?”. Spils, now a member of Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage, said President Kennedy definitely paid a visit to her alma mater, Regis College, and asked the sister who directed the lay apostolate program, ” ‘If people will do this for the church, do you think they’d do it for the country?’”. As for being “ruined for life,” ask a former volunteer about it and they’ll probably smile and proceed to tell you how the corps changed everything. Marti Pausback was part of Anchorage’s first Jesuit Volunteer Corps community in 1985. A Colorado State University graduate, Pausback grew up in Aspen — a place she describes, along with her parish, as “rich, happy and white.” The Jesuit Volunteer Corps showed her “things I wouldn’t have seen”. “It shaped how I feel about the church,” Pausback said, giving her a “new image of the church which included social justice” as well as inclusiveness — “a join-us-at-the-table kind of thing”. Cathy Miller of Anchorage, a teacher, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parishioner and mother of five grown children, was a Jesuit Volunteer in St. Marys, Alaska, from 1971 to ’73. “It set my life going in a new direction,” said Miller, a native of San Francisco. “I thought it would be a good adventure, but I never thought I’d be so influenced to live a life of service”. Like many Jesuit volunteers, Miller found her life partner, Tom, in the corps.
The Millers emphasized social justice in their family, Cathy said; their daughter Colleen, 24, became a second-generation Jesuit Volunteer in Birmingham, Ala., last year. Another daughter served in the Peace Corps. Jesuit Volunteers continue to serve in Alaska.
Heather Coulehan spent 1992-93 as a Jesuit Volunteer in Anchorage at Abused Women’s Aid in Crisis (AWAIC) and later spent two years, 2002 and 2003, teaching with Jesuit Volunteer International in South Africa. She remembers longingly the liturgies in South Africa: Masses full of rhythm and movement. Even the gifts were “danced” to the altar, she said. Retreats were also an important part of her corps life, she said. Volunteers are provided with three or four spiritual retreats during their volunteer year.
Ruined
So what is this “ruined for life” business? It’s a value thing, Cathy Miller said. Most former volunteers she knows are not wealthy — they don’t value “success” in the classic American way.
Coulehan agrees that the corps produces a counter-cultural effect in people, a way of looking at materialism, spirituality and the vulnerable that’s different from the norm. “I think it’s all about connections,” she said. “Connecting with people and your community on a different level. You see connections on a spiritual basis.”
According to a recent survey conducted by Fairfield University, the corps is acknowledged by most volunteers to be a touchstone experience of their lives. The survey of 5,000 former volunteers found that 98 percent feel that volunteer activity is important to citizenship, versus 74 percent of other Americans. It also found that 96 percent to 98 percent of former Jesuit volunteers donate to charity, regardless of income, and donate 25 percent more money than the average American household. The survey also found that of the four core values of the corps — spirituality, community, simple living and social justice — all remained important to the majority of respondents, with 86 percent saying social justice was important or very important in their current lives.
James Noonan, 24, is a Jesuit Volunteer this year at Covenant House in Anchorage. He graduated from a Jesuit school, Boston College, where he said he learned about “putting social justice talk into action” through a program called “Four Boston” — four hours of community service a week plus one hour of group reflection.
He joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps hoping “to root myself” in the Ignatian concept of “contemplation in action,” and he hopes to carry that value on to a career in medicine (St. Ignatius of Loyola was the founder of the Jesuits). Pausback, who spent two years at McAuley Manor, a home for girls operated by Catholic Social Services, was a biology major in college. But she’s continued in the social service field — not unusual, according to the Fairfield University survey, which found 18 percent of former Jesuit volunteers work in the nonprofit sector, versus 7.4 percent of the general population. According to Jeanne Haster, executive director of Jesuit Volunteer Corps: Northwest, about 350 Jesuit Volunteers serve nationally each year, with about 40 international placements.
More than 85 volunteers will serve in the Northwest region next year, a larger number than the previous year but considerably lower than earlier years. The growing debt burden on college graduates is a factor, said Haster. Also, she said, in a sense the corps has been a victim of its own success. Volunteer organizations, both secular and religious, have mushroomed in the 50 years since five women made history at an isolated boarding school in Alaska.
May 24, 2006
magical, rainy visit this past weekend
I walked here with friends after a pancake breakfast. Overwhelmed by carbs and the design of this place, I had one of those “moments” where I just loved every minute of being in the new de Young museum. The observation tower offers stunning, unobstructed views of the city and park. The rain started while we were in the tower and we walked out to the damp smell of concrete and eucalyptus trees. Amazing.
See more progress on: M.H. de Young Museum
December 22, 2005
Reminder to self
This wet poster on Pike Street reminded me that simply having dinner with Davis (drummer) or talking on the phone a couple times a week with Kevin (bass) or Reggie (vocals) does not a rehearsal make! Time to pull out the axes and get ready for New Years Eve. If there's one thing we're good at it's pulling a show together with limited rehearsals -- sometimes we even play better because of it.
Anyone want on the guest list for New Years? Let me know.
(note to self: don't forget to call Thaddeus)
December 07, 2005
August 16, 2005
Slow Blog Movement
A nice surprise to have Cameron stop by the Co-op yesterday for a visit, some over-the-powerbook-screen chatter during the 80F+ day in the office followed by an unexpected presentation of his thesis over beers at the Elysian. Hearing his results on frequency of post makes me think I should formalize my emerging Slow Blog Movement. That, or just join Slow Food and call it a day.
Pictured left to right: Josh Petersen, Michael Buffington, Lee LeFever, Cameron Marlow, Lilia Efimova, Erik Benson
August 02, 2005
Best sandwich on the West Coast?
I biked to the Baguette Box today. It’d been a while since my last visit (a week?) and I was jonesing for their flagship entree. The drunken chicken sandwich is arguably one of the best sandwiches on the West Coast … perhaps even the continental US. Deep-fried glazed chicken on a fresh baguette with carmelized onions. I was won over the first time I tried the drunken chicken but have noticed recently that the balance of perfect ingredients has evolved in the past year and today was nothing short of remarkable.
Normally I get truffle fries as a side (delicious fries lightly doused with truffle oil) but broke with tradition today and opted for the beet salad ($3). Unbelievable! Sliced beets dressed in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice with a sprinkle of salt.
Eric Banh (owner of Vietnamese restaurant, Monsoon) deserves big props for opening an adverturous sandwich joint overlooking Seattle’s downtown. I’m already planning my next trip to Baguette Box later this week!
See more progress on: Baguette Box
July 11, 2005
Synth Clubbin'
Synth Club is a musical experiment. As lovers of synthesizers and synthesized music, the four of us originally came together to realize a lifelong dream: making 100% synthesizer music in real time. Sean plays "drums" on his apple laptop. Steve, Reggie and I play synthesizers (aka keyboards), trading off bass lines, lead lines, pads and various blips and noise scapes. Reggie also throws in vocals when so inspired. The end result is often dance music in nature, but we also allow room for ambient, pop, glitch -- whatever tickles the plastic ivories.
The past three days were spent recording Synth Club in Sean's living room using many of the same principles of our live peformances. Armed with beats he'd constructed prior to the sessions, Sean acted as engineer and producer. Reggie, Steve and I improvised on the beats and quickly whittled our way to core ideas which we then refined and committed to midi information. I'm pretty darn excited about these tracks.
April 23, 2005
The Rhodes Man
Dave Ell has released The Rhodes Man website. I can't recommend Dave's work highly enough. He's an exceptionally talented Rhodes technician and maven.
March 24, 2005
March 15, 2005
January 13, 2005
Selling off 1 of my 4 Fender Rhodes pianos
I currently own 4 Fender Rhodes electric pianos. One eighty-eight model with a speakercab, 2 Mark 1 stage models that I use for gigging and one really nice Mark II suitcase (with rare and LOUD 300W amp speakercab). The Mark II is in excellent mechanical condition and has a few of the expected bumps and wear spots in the tolex. It was recently serviced by David Ell of Kennewick, WA. Dave is one of the top Rhodes technicians in the world today -- perhaps the most talented.
I'd like this to go to someone who will appreciate it and take care of it -- the buyer may even consider having Dave Ell refinish the tolex to make it a near-mint instrument in supreme working order. I could deliver it to him for after-purchase work as part of the deal. Let me know if you may be interested.
December 07, 2004
Seventh Avenue Service
Patrick Abe has owned and run Seventh Avenue Service at 7th & Jackson in Seattle's International District for 20+ years (could be 30+ years ... not sure). SAS is one of my all-time favorite places in Seattle. Pat, his son David and the other 7th Ave mechanics have worked on my vehicles for about 15 years. My brother Greg recently bought an '84 GMC S-15 pickup from Pat. Pat had given the truck to his nephew who neglected to change the oil. The truck's exterior is pretty beat up but has a new engine that Pat and David installed before selling it to the Spils brothers. David sold me the tires off his wrecked Cadillac a couple years later as the truck tires were wearing out. He didn't tell his dad -- but he threw in a set of used rims that had been sitting in the back of the shop for a while.
They've never updated the garage structure so you're likely to dismiss it as a deserted, rusted shack if you drive by. Pat will offer you a donut from the brown cardboard box that I imagine he picks up every morning on his way to work. But the best parts about SAS are the customers (lots of older people who won't trust anyone else with their car repairs) and the folks who work there. Pat scratches on a piece of paper what needs repair, puts it under your car's windshield wiper and calls you later in the day telling you "Hey Spill, your truck is ready ... come pick it up!". He tells me that he lives in West Seattle now but grew up in Seattle's International District when it was actually a neighborhood with houses and family residents. His family owned the market across the street and at some point he purchased the garage where SAS now resides.
You can stop by early (Pat's there at 7:30am) -- it's better than calling first as he may tell he's too busy, but he'll always make time if you show up at the garage with your car.
Seventh Avenue Service
701 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 622-6511
November 18, 2004
A Fisher of Goals
Today the Robots and I launched Twinkler, the predecessor to 43things.com. Twinkler acts like a fish wheel randomly gathering wet, flopping goal statements from the big murky river of human aspiration. My favorite goal today, "finally get comfortable with my life partner (ie me)". Whoever wrote that one deserves a gold star.
In 43 days we'll release 43things.com in it's entirety and hopefully people will find it useful. In the meantime I'm enjoying the Twinkler current.
October 28, 2004
Metric & Miser
I witnessed Metric on Monday at Neumo's in Seattle. Great band; even greater live show. Lead singer Emily Haines may be the most impressive and vital rock star I've seen in years.
Pete Miser has a new album out this week. Pete is a Portland, OR transplant to Brooklyn a few years back. I love Pete -- and appreciate him writing Scent Of A Robot.
October 17, 2004
Disconnecting Daniel
Do you dream of disconnecting like I do? I wonder how much more walking, talking and coherent reading I'd get in if I didn't spend so many precious hours online. I love this drug, but some day I plan to give it up for a long period. Which is scary ... sadly. When was the last time you were disconnected from the internet for more than 3 days?
October 15, 2004
The Art of Sucking
There's nothing worse than musicians being off ... which is what's happening tonight. Why does this happen? In the case of me, Reggie, Steve and Sean (Synth Club) it's due to not playing simple. It takes a lot of collective focus to play simple. The key to sucking, though, is getting over it.
Growing up in Alaska we had two rabbits -- grey rabbit and white rabbit named after their fur color. One spring day they chewed their way out of the cage in our backyard and went exploring. We spent a couple days scouring the neighborhood and adjoining woods looking for our two rabbits. We eventually gave up. One evening my dad was biking by our neighbor's log cabin and saw white rabbit hiding under a bush -- frightened, but in good health. Our neighbor had three german shepards that ran free in the yard but white rabbit had somehow managed to successfully avoid them for a several long days and nights.
A couple days before this we found the bones of grey rabbit in our backyard just a few feet from his cage. Killed by dogs.
It's 12:23am and time for the second set.
October 12, 2004
Every Superman Dies
St. Pattrick's Day (March 17) 1995 my father broke his neck while cross country skiing down a hill just a few hundred feet from our family home in Anchorage, Alaska. In May of the same year I remember sitting by my dad's bed on the 9th floor at University of Washington Medical Center watching TV reports of the actor Christopher Reeve's deabilitating spinal cord injury. At the time they (perhaps Reeve himself) were saying that he would surely walk again. I remember saying to my mom -- that poor bastard will have to come to terms with what's happened (exactly what my family was dealing with at the time). In 1995 my dad and Mr. Reeve experienced almost identical injuries -- fracture of the C4/C5 vertebrae that pinched their spinal cords and rendered them quadrapalegic (completely paralyzed from the neck down). I watched my dad decline in health over the course of 10 months. One day we sat in physical therapy together and he looked down at the body which had months ago been the picture of perfect health for a man in his 60s but which he no longer controlled. The once slender, muscular build from a lifetime of daily two hour workouts was now wasting away with muscular atrophy.
The final 10 months of my dad's life were anything but poetic or pretty. I saw him check out mentally. I saw the body I had always admired detriorate. I saw my family torn apart by the loss of my father and the financial and emotional prospect of sustaining him in a paralyzed physical state for an unspecified period of time. But I was also able to spend precious time together talking about his fear of death, his desire to have it come sooner than later, his love of my mom and all of us kids. He was able to visit with a lot of old friends which was nice. That was definitely worth some of the pain of seeing him suffer over time.
Richard William Spils died on January 3, 1996. My brother Greg called me today when news of Christopher Reeve's death surfaced (about 8 years after Dad). I don't think Greg even knew why he was necessarily calling me, but over the years we've all silently watched Christopher Reeve and his family and understood from a distance what they must be going through. Mr. Reeve's death seemed sudden like my father's - and related to the peculiar ailments of paralysis. One of the last bits of news I remember hearing about Christopher Reeve was that he had developed Alopecia. I developed Alopecia Universalis 6 years ago but seeing Reeve with alopecia made me realize what an insignificant ailment it really is.
Christopher Reeve made larger leaps than I would have imagined for anyone with an injury as severe as his. He and his family deserve big props for their perserverance. I wish them the best as they deal with the related sense of loss and relief that my family felt when my dad died.
Goodbye Christopher Reeve. Goodbye Richard Spils.
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