Two Sleeping Children

Soft Cell-"Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go (poly gore)"

Its on warm nights that this song was pressed for. There is nothing quite like it. Poly Gore's remix brings out the best of Mark Almond's voice as well as the analog synthesizer. 

For the second night in a row the twins were out cold before ten o'clock. Thanks to technology I discovered their father's key to getting them tired enough to sleep. Namely the one day he was on Twitter he had mentioned playing with them and then reading them a story, which they woke him up long enough to complete. Jane and I had been running on fumes since they came home so we figured it wouldn't hurt to play  them to the point of exhaustion. It worked. We were tired, and they were  sleepy. Aces in the hole!

Bronski Beat & Marc Almond-"I Feel Love Melody"

My anxiety has been kicking my butt for the last two days. The good part is that most of the time its still manageable. Switching anti-depressants seemed to have helped. I'm not happy with a couple of the side effects but my doctor is in the middle of the lowering my Lexapro and bringing Impramine back up. With any luck that will reduce side effects from both of them while keeping my depression at bay.

This looks to be a very promising year in music. We started off with Hiem and Phil Oakey's 2AM in February.

Hiem and Phil Oakey-"2AM"

March saw the release of  VCMG (Vince Clark and Martin Gore)'s album Ssss

VCMG-"Single Blip"

May will find us with a new SoulSaver's album The Light The Dead See which is actually a joint project with the duo and Dave Gahan.

SoulSavors-"Longest Day"

Finally, hopefully early next year will see Depeche Mode album and tour. They just moved from Gore's studio here in Santa Barbara to New York City last month. 

All I ask is please, please get someone else besides Emily Lazar to master the CD. As much as I love Playing the Angel, the CD Master is atrocious. 

Compare that to last year when we had the Human League's Credo. As good as that album was, one album does not a musical year make.

The Human League-"Night People"

I know this blog entry is low on information but considering its 3 in the morning and all I wanted to do was crank a few tunes, I think it did the job nicely.

Good morning.

Catch Paul Ware on Facebook or Twitter. I can also be reached via email (delete no spam) but much prefer the Facebook message option. The comments section is fine too.

Want to know when the next blog is coming out or recommend it to a friend? There is an easy Facebook page for that now.

Right Now

I'm half asleep but there are several things that excited me tonight. The first is this new song by Sheffield native Hiem. I like to promote local electronic music so I was honoured when Hiem hit me up in IM to notify me their  new song, which goes on sale today, features Philip Oakey. Here it is for your listening pleasure:

Hiem and Phil Oakey-"2AM"

Also today I was listening to a lot of early Human League and Heaven 17.

The Human League-"Black Hit of Space"

Heaven 17-"Geisha Boys and Temple Girls"

Speaking of Heaven 17, I found a rare clip of the Red Hot Chili Peppers performing a cover of one of their songs. So I twitted it with a link to Heaven 17 member Martyn Ware (formally of Human League) at the end so it would show up in his feed if he hadn't seen it. 

Red Hot Chili Peppers-"We Don't Need No Facist Groove Thang"

I don't know if he'd seen it before but he must have liked it because he twitted the link with a thank you to me. I know its dumb, but I've been a fan of his since I was literally ten years old. To get the digital equivalent of an autograph is still cool, no matter how old I am.

February is Rare Disease Month. Huntington's Disease falls into that catagory so many people are wearing blue on their daily clothes to show support. My wife actually put on blue nail polish. Every time someone asks her about it, there is a chance for Jane to educate them about Huntington's, as well as put a face with the disease.

Joy Division-"Atmosphere"

As part of Grand Round's recognizing Rare Disease Month, I was asked to pick out the best in Medical Blogging on 28 February of this year. I'll be giving you more information the closer we get. This is very important because it will bring more recognition of HD to the general medical community.   

Van Halen-"Right Now"

I went off on a friend's Facebook Wall this morning. I didn't realize how upset I am that there isn't much support for those of us who currently suffer from HD. I blasted the HDSA for lack of support. What is there right now that  helps our quality of life? Nothing except older medicines that treat the symptoms. There is only one drug that is targeted toward HD patients and it only helps chorea symptoms. It does nothing to slow or stop the disease. 

So many people have gone to the so-called "Centers of Excellence". Some get good treatment but there are so many like me who don't. We are treated by doctor's not familiar with HD, who only count the physical symptoms. There is nothing for us NOW. Its time to do something, and thank goodness there are people starting to do that, like We Have a Face

I think that is it, so I'm going back to the BBC to keep an ear on Syria. 

Catch Paul Ware on Facebook or Twitter. I can also be reached via email (delete no spam) but much prefer the Facebook message option. The comments section is fine too.

Want to know when the next blog is coming out or recommend it to a friend? There is an easy Facebook page for that now.

HD Family

I'm off the Lyrica. That was making me so sick yesterday. I couldn't read or do much of anything. Today I feel a little edgy but that is to be expected. Originally the doctor was going to put me on another mood stabilizer but he called me late last night and asked me if I'd taken it yet. When I told him I was waiting until this morning he asked me to hold off on taking it for a while and we're going to see how I'm doing without it. I've expressed to him my frustration on being on so many drugs and he understands where I come from on that issue. So for now that drug is out of the picture as well. I wish all of them were out of the picture but I understand his concerns. What I want isn't always what's best for me, and I know that. I don't have to happy about it, but that is reality. So for the day I'm not going to be taking any stabilizer and we'll see if I start getting really jumpy. I feel a lot more "with it" than I did a week ago. 

Giorgio Moroder's Oscar Winning Soundtrack "Midnight Express"

I was looking at my Facebook this morning and a post by HappyPlace.com caught my eye. Seeing is believing and I laughed so hard I almost bust my gut. 

This has been an extremely exhausting month for me. Not only did I have the holidays but I started off in the hospital. When I came home I read that a fellow blogger had chosen to be tested for the Huntington's Gene. So was waiting for her results. Another fellow Facebooker was also waiting for her tests. I was waiting with anticipation for their results as much as I had waited for mine. Its as I once told a friend of mine on Facebook, when you are dealing with HD you already know so much about a person. I know you are going to have bad days,  and those bad days are going to suck threefold because its combined with the built in depression that comes with HD. So your bad days will seem twice as bad as they really are. I know that you came from a family of some dysfunction. When you have a disease that has been perceived as a mental illness society told us to hide it away. This naturally causes a dysfunction of the family unit. So I know that you are used to hiding things, just as I was. I also know that you come from a family where you have experienced death. Its not the unknown factor when you have lost a parent to HD. You've learned already how to grieve. I know all of this about you before our computer keyboards met.

Giorgio Moroder & Philip Oakey - "Electric Dreams"

Both of my friends are free of this nasty genetic illness. That's what I call it, and my brother always tries to correct me when I use it in his presence. He always tells me "I'm not truly free."  but he is. He is free to have as many kids as he wants and to save his life insurance for old age. He is free to go and do whatever he feels like as long as its reasonable.  I don't have these options. Never did, and never would.

Am I jealous of my brother and HD-negative friends? Of course, if I said I wasn't I'd be lying through my teeth. At the end of the day I count my blessings and I get ready for the next morning before I go to sleep. That's all I can do.  I've never lived in his shoes so I don't know what its like, just as he's never been in mine.

This is my only escape from it all

Watching a film or a face on a wall

Robert DeNiro's Waiting...Talking Italian

Bananarama

Off I go tonight on my totally artificial mood cloud.  Sometimes I wonder what emotions would exist if I stopped all medications. I'd probably be depressed but what else? I do know I get very agitated at times, in fact that's always the one thing that I recognize and will bring me in for mental help. That's what brought me in when I was drinking and what I felt when in the hospital when I finally decided I might trust the shrink. So I'd be an agitated depressed guy. There are enough of those around, I think I'll trust the medication for now.

Tina Turner-"Better Be Good to Me"

G'night all, and sleep well.

Catch Paul Ware on Facebook or Twitter. I can also be reached via email (delete no spam) but much prefer the Facebook message option.