I’m home and recovering. It’s been a strange few days and will sum up thusly:

Good News: It wasn’t appendicitis although I no longer have my appendix.
Bad News: It was lymphoma — you know… the cancer. (You have to pronounced that in a whisper like they do on Lifetime movies.)
Good News: It turns out it’s boring everyday Diffuse Large B-Cell lymphoma (click on the link to download a PDF about it). It’s the type that simply everyone is getting.

That really is good news. When it comes to cancer, you must strive for mediocrity ergo you can get treatment that many, many before you have received. I will be starting chemo in a few weeks. So far my doctors are optimistic: it seems localized and it seems unrelated to HIV (yes, I’ve been positive since 1996 and quite healthy, thank you). I have a PET scan scheduled Monday to make sure it’s not located anywhere else and will have a bone marrow biopsy scheduled a week from Saturday to make sure I don’t have it there either.

As for the week that has transpired. I had started feeling a dull pain in the area of my appendix last Monday and went to see my doctor Wednesday afternoon. That night around 3 in the morning the pain had increased greatly and when it didn’t subside after an hour decided it was time to get myself to a hospital. I fed the dog and drove myself to the emergency room — don’t get mad! Rose Medical Center is literally five blocks away. Then it was lots of probing and injecting, the news that I was going to surgery, and then waking up in recovery feeling much less pain.

I can’t thank enough the doctor and nurse staff at Rose. Everyone was so nice, helpful and actually fun to be around. Plus my Denver family has been concerned and very supportive. As for my mom, well, she’s handling things as best she can. The “C” word sends that side of the family into fits. I even heard from my dad several times and both brothers. ‘Twas very cool.

One more thing, I promise this blog won’t become a cancer one. This thing is about anything and will continue to be so; however, I will keep you updated and maybe occasionally vent. In other words, I have a new friend to poke fun at.

P.S. I’m not hurt at all that no one left a comment about the Goldfrapp review. Hmmph.

Listening to: “The Gap” - Thompson Twins

Howard has asked me to post another quick update to let you all know that he is still in the hospital, and is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, and should hopefully be able to write about his experiences by tomorrow night or Wednesday.Then he can get back to bringing the humor that makes us all laugh!Hayes 

Goldfrapp
Seventh Tree
Mute

On occasion a collection of music comes your way that takes you by surprise. You try hard not to gush over it, but when the sounds hit your ears you realize what you are witnessing is a masterpiece of its genre. Goldfrapp’s fourth album is that — a masterpiece of ethereal pop. Seventh Tree truly astonishes in mood. Listening to the ten tracks is like floating on a dreamy sea of melancholy.

Yet the songs aren’t truly sad. The album starts off with “Clowns”. All acoustic guitars, strings, bass and Allison’s breathy instrument that barely articulates anything in the song. Her vocals come and go like a tide due to backward masking and tape hiss effects. With all this atmosphere you would expect the song to be about the loneliness of a clown. Nope. It’s actually about fake boobies, “Only clowns would play with those balloons/What’dya wanna look like Barbie for?/…Titties that live on and on and on…”. Not the typical subject matter for Goldfrapp, yet it prepares you for the ebb and flow of the rest.

Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory work these songs with more than just their typical electronic sound. The addition of live drums and guitars helps lift Seventh Tree above the typical drowning in maudlin that too many Emo bands fall prey to. Take “Happiness” for instance — one of two songs that could actually be considered mid-tempo. The song seems to be about finding happiness in tone, but deeper inspection reveals lyrics to be a commercial for joining a cult: “We can see your troubled soul/Give us all your money/We’ll make it better”. Another amazing thing about the album is its specific and carefully planned out arrangements. In the aforementioned “Happiness” a pan flute plays under the singing evoking a sense of a pied piper leading you to trap.

At Seventh Tree’s heart is the band’s true work of art. “A&E” in a little over three minutes it digs up feelings of loneliness, isolation, psychotic co-dependence, hope, love, confusion, despair and hospitalization. (A&E stands for Accident & Emergency in the U.K.) All this is done with nature sounds, a lone acoustic guitar, swellings of keyboards and an eery choir of Alison’s vocals. In other words, it’ll never be a hit. It conjures up too many complex emotions for the masses; however, the Top 40 crowd will be missing out on what will probably be one of the most beautiful songs of 2008 if not the decade. It’s that good once you’ve explored being in its skin.

And there are so many other great songs. The exploration of human nature in “Some People”, the almost rock song and potential single in “Caravan Girl”, and the enigma that is “Eat Yourself”. It must be pointed out that like their last album Supernature it pays to listen to the end. Much like “Number 1″, “Monster Love” here is a must hear. A twisted, gorgeous song, it uses a big chorus and more backward masking effects which emulate the feeling of experiencing “The folly of a monster love/Like you”. The chorus is especially instantly likable and as Alison fades repeating, “Everything comes around/Bringing us back again/Here is where we start/And where we end,” you are left with a sense of hope that things will turn out just fine and with a strange urge to just start Seventh Tree from the beginning in an attempt to recapture that innocent feeling of discovery before naivety is lost. 

Howard has asked me to post in his absence. This morning at around 3am he had to go to the emergency room. He apparently needs to have his appendix removed.

As I am typing this, he is probably in surgery. He will be held for observation overnight and make sure there is nothing else going on.

Please join me in keeping him in your thoughts for a quick recovery! I will post an update of how things are going as I know.

Hayes from qPlog

UPDATE: The surgeons have successfully evicted the “hot” appendix (as the Dr. referred to it) from Howard. He is being moved to his room so that he can show off his new incision to all.