Student Visionary of the Year


Floyd's Student Visionary of the Year Campaign benefitting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has come to a close. His team, "Cancer's Collapse," took first place in the Golden Gate chapter. Thank you to everyone who contributed. You can read about the gala and more in this blog post.


None Is Yours And Far Less Mine

Friday April 22, 2022 - Day +127

Blogging Tunes: Phish - MSG - 04/21/2022

It's been more than two weeks so I wanted to provide a quick update lest anyone forget that no news is good news.

My UCSF appointments are down to every two weeks now, and yesterday I saw the big guy himself, Dr. Damon.  And, in two words: everything's right (so hold on tight.)  My counts are as good as they can be with Hemoglobin above 16 (which translates to more energy), all red/white counts solid, and even platelets are at 120 (that's higher than they were most of last decade.)

More good news... we continue to taper the Tacrolimus by 1 pill (or 7%) every week which also leads to more energy.  Next week I'll be down to 7 pills (once per evening.)  Only a few months ago, I was at 14 pills -- twice a day.  Amazing.  Once again, I'm the poster child for a AML recovery.  Let's hope it lasts more than 10 years this time.

This big share for this post is the Chum gig from last Friday.  (And you thought it was all gonna be about Embiid's buzzer beater.)

Last Friday, Chum, my Phish tribute band, played a show in San Francisco.  When we booked it, I had no idea whether I'd even be leaving the house by April -- let alone being healthy enough to play a show -- so we got Jordan to sit in.  Turns out I probably could have done the whole show (minus all the load in/out, setup, etc.) but we didn't know that at the time.  So, as the gig got closer, we decided that I would play on three songs.  Strange Design, Squirming Coil -> David Bowie.


* * * pausing to drive Floyd into town and then watch the 4/22 Phish webcast * * *


Saturday April 23, 2022 - Day +2^7 🤓

Blogging Tunes: Phish - MSG - 04/21/2022 cont'd and Sixers@Raptors Game 4

Before I get to the Chum gig, I gotta say, the Phish (make up) New Year's Eve show last night was incredible and the webcast really did it justice.  Here are some videos of it.  Really amazing.

Anyway, back to last Friday.  It was such a great feeling to be back on stage with Chad, Eric, and Alex.  Strange Design (song lyrics) was really emotional for me, Heather -- it's kind-of "our song" -- the rest of the guys, and the crowd.

Here's a wide-angle of the stage and room (with Jordan playing keys) before I got up there:


And here I am singing Strange Design:


A fan sent a really sweet email earlier this week (snippet pasted with permission):

"I was at the show last Friday, and I was very moved by John’s return to the stage and the Strange Design that he sang and how it was so perfect and obviously moving to the other members of the band. It was a very poignant moment that was very heart opening… I’m so happy that he’s on the road to recovery, I was grateful to get to boogie down to the wonderful music..."

 Here's the video -- thank you Ted!  Not bad for phone job:

Chum: Strange Design - San Francisco, CA - 4/15/22

The two songs that followed -- both old school Phish staples -- The Squirming Coil -> Dave Bowie were really, really fun.  The crowd's response after the Bowie really echoed how it felt for me.  I think everyone felt the energy in the room.  Here's the Coil -> Bowie video:

Chum: The Squirming Coil -> David Bowie - San Francisco, CA - 4/15/22

One weird thing with this video: the actual start of Coil is at 03:42.  Then, once you get to the end of the video, you need to go to the very beginning to hear the final 3.5 minutes of Bowie.  No clue how this is even possible.  :D 

Favorite moments: Nailing the hard part of Bowie, Eric teasing Skin in Back in Bowie, the crowd recognizing the Terrapin tease in the Coil piano solo 🐢, and the crowd response after Bowie ends.

Also, more from the email from that fan:

I’m a Bay Area kid so was lucky to catch a lot of dead shows starting in ‘88 till we lost Jerry. And Terrapin is my soul song! So to hear you weave that Terrapin lick into the Coil outro was 🤯😭😍…Plus that Bowie! Y’all crushed it!  It was a special night. 🤍

So good to read this!  Thank you for sending.  You know who you are.  :)

Also, huge thanks to everyone who came out to make the gig special.  We will definitely be playing again soon.  Stay tuned.

Last thing...  exactly one week from today, I'll be participating in The Big Climb at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.  While I've been biking (Peloton) quite a bit, I haven't been walking much.  That changed this morning when I went on a nice neighborhood stroll.  I'm going to keep walking -- and hopefully find some actual steps -- this week in preparation.  Here's a nice pic from my walk:


If you want to Climb with us, it's not too late!  You can sign up here.  Also, the Kezar Pub (my Philly crew's home away from home for 10 years) is doing the post-walk beer garden at the event!  Eric (from Chum) and I had lunch there after my UCSF appointment Thursday -- it was nuts in the city for "4/20" -- and Cyril hooked me up with an awesome hoodie!  Thanks, Cyril!

iwkia...a


Comments

  1. Great to see you back on the scene and doing well! :)

    One critique of your keyboard setup: it needs more soup cans.

    Thanks for the wonderful update!!!

    (P.S. I wasn't able to comment on mobile)

    ReplyDelete

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