Motion Occupies Music: Michael J. Fox

Ashley,

I want to try to keep writing for you.  As you already know it is hard for me to put things into works.  I often have to close my eyes, and just let the words try to flow through my fingertips.   It doesn’t always work.  It’s like choking on my own thoughts.

I thought of a great phrase yesterday, and I have already forgotten it.  I am sorry I did not write it down.  I hope you keep writing.  I hope you may be the keeper of many good memories.

Here is the Michael J Fox experience:

'Always Looking Up', his book based on optimism.

ABC produced a one-hour mini documentary loosely based on the theme of his book.

I was simply asked to mix the show.

As many people my age, I grew up with MJF, remembering him as a smart alec young man on Family Ties to Back to the Future.  Here was an amazing young actor with a sharp mind and sense of humor.  He had it all going on.  Then the news came of his diagnosis with Parkinson Disease.

This struck a chord, we are about the same age.  How does this happen to someone so vibrant, so young?

I was happy to be asked to participate on the production of this show.  I met MJF briefly as we had to record some narration lines.  Because of the extreme deadline we were facing I had the studio preset and ready to role as soon as Michael was ready to record.  There was a slight hitch due to a communication gap, and I was somewhat taken aback as to how this particular concern was not thought of or addressed prior to recording.  Michael’s Parkinson’s is accompanied with uncontrollable movement.  Therefore, when in a recording booth, this movement is unfortunately picked up by the microphone.  I had not been made aware of his preference to sit on a stool.  Had I known that I would have found one that did not squeak.  A total snafu on our end.   But the professionalism of Michael and the production team, including great editors enabled us to continue unencumbered by a squeaky stool.  I was not thrilled, but happy that the performance was captured without upsetting the talent or affecting the outcome of the production.

What stood out the most was how incredibly smart and down to earth he was.  Above and beyond all, was his optimism.  After working with him and working on the show, and meeting he and his wife at the post gathering, I came away with the feeling that I should never waste time on looking back, but spend more time looking forward, and looking up.  Keeping the good things in mind and pushing away the negative.  I doesn’t always come easy, but I will tell you that right now, as I am writing these words to you, it is working for me.

MJF is a fine example of a person who is not giving up on life.  One who seems to embrace each and every moment.   A man who is proactive in finding a cure for the disease that has so affected his life and that of those who surround him with profound love and support.

Once again, I have been lucky to come into contact, however briefly, with a special talent.  One of many who have inspired me throughout the years. 

Voodoo on it

New Orleans. 

Music festival.

Southern comfort food.

Pink and gold beads.

Halloween weekend. 

Voodoo Experience

Click here for the complete lineup

This is Voodoo Experience's 10th Anniversary, 

and who turns a reason away to celebrate?

Nominated twice by Pollstar for Music Festival of the Year, 

Voodoo Experience has brought over 1 million fans to the south, 

as well as over 450 artists to the stage.

Check out the map of the festival grounds

Who's in?

It's only 20 hrs and 15 mins from NYC.

A cappella

We laid there with a sense of bewilderment and enchantment.  Two immobile quads mushed together, forming lethargic shapes from an underneath point of view.  Time was an unknown fact, entry bracelets replaced watches and phones and burning neon.  The essential numbers - like a mother, father and brother - were silenced by the beauty between the trees.  Backs rested and massaged, we walked without purpose in a seemingly OK manor.  Front of calves were burnt, back of calves were cold.  Two-faced.  Pretty lights engulfed our heads and laughter spoke languages we couldn't remember.  Fireworks debated points of homeostasis and levels of crazy.  Two was easier than one, yeah way!  Spitting in straws.  Splitting.  Paper plates ignited with fury, the sparks caught our laughter and burned in the sounds of madness, happiness, lochness, and animated voice.  His ingeniously loud vibrato lured nomads out from behind shadows, looking to play, looking to wonder.  The wicked witch melted twelve times.  The green became even greener as technology played with fun.  We stared.  I stared for a while - maybe days - and it felt like Christmas.  Four o'clock chocolate donuts, gonuts.  Wayne O. got arrested and no one knew what to do with his sneakers or 10,000 claims.  His absence was filled with Savannah nights and her teddy bear husband.  All the ducks swam in the water, and woke up old legends from sleeping bags of warmth.  LCD Soundsystem started the last day with Bob and the mess felt normal, just as my dirty hands felt clean. 

It's like this: pretend you're a Google satellite.  Zoom in past the oceans, past the metropolis', past the highways, houses, pools, convention centers, past the trees, and focus on the little flicker of light.  That is a world, right around a campfire.  Soaking, brewing, heating - a full circle of bending minds and crooked smiles.  People are living within the tiniest dot on the biggest scale.  They decorate their dot with pink and green glow sticks, and maybe some empty cans.  Surrounded by thousands, do they ever look around?  Me?  I didn't find the need to, as our neighbors were mirror images.  Through the looking glass, we all screamed at peaks.  

See you next year Stickman. 

In tents

It's a great experience to go to bed in a tent listening to "All the ducks are swimming in the water fal da ral da ral da"

Going to bed with 15

"Everyone was there."  

"Oh you mean the desert.  Of course that's what you mean - the place where you desire, no?  Tell me about 'everyone'."

"Well, everyone at least that has been on my mind lately.  And yes, the desert.  Is it desired?  I can't be too confident about desire within the dry world both fake and real, but the dust formed wisps around us and rolled along the 20 mile stretch as silent as a bubble with the speed of a panther.  The stretch of desert was as far as my eyes could reach, and I have 20/20 vision you know.  I had never witnessed such an expansive line of flatness.  I remember thinking of the lyric 'cause every place I go, I'll take another place with me'.  The past was all present, and everyone, well my everyone, seemed confused."  

Thinking with a head tilt

"It was some sort of treasure hunt.  A wicked game.  They carried me home."

"Whose 'they'?"

  

"Two boys, I knew them both.  They carried what used to be my 16-year-old-self.  Limp and distraught, I came-to with minimum memory.  It was like the same experience on New Years when I came-to in a blanket with my hands choking a coffee mug.  One of the boys, my particular favorite, had lost a bright salmon and purple Nye sneaker.  He wasn't aware that he lost a shoe, or maybe he didn't care to notice.  I reminded him it was there, sticking out like a sore thumb amidst the linear brown paths. 

We pinpricked and molded our way through the crowd.  I recall encountering a mafia family in the living room - glued to the TV and silent.  There sofas were crimson while their still shadows vibrated on the dim walls.  Our presence was unknown.  It reminded me of Pleasantville."

Sits down in a quiet upper west side pre-war building.  There's dust on the bathroom floor and cream cheese stains on both desks.  The desks are adjacent to the window.  The window muffles sounds of construction workers and big machines.  Golden Jesus in three ways stares at the computer, and she never looks up.  Buddha is there too, as well as a solar calculator, blue post-its , a Brasilian magazine, and a blinking voicemail contraption. 

"So what happened next, where did you travel to?"

"I can't be too sure as I might be making it up.  All I know is that I went to bed contemplating solace and Wisconsin, and then I wound up in a desert and feeling wanted but still sick."