Oct 21 2009

Random Open

hey ho

I’m exhausted. okay? Wiped. Too tired to explain, and I wouldn’t anyway, so just take my word for it.

I’m really appreciative to all of you who stay on top of the various details of the ongoing battles that involve phonecalling petitions congress white house health care pelosi progressive caucus Whitehouse (the man) bills committees reid rahm axelrod grayson holder slinkerwink obama  health insurance reform wars troops funds wall street terror senators business hedge funds graphs charts pie leahy artic ice and everything else i left out. which is a lot.

i can’t. at least not today.

see? i can’t even work up the energy to capitalize that i.

there is this one thing, though. oh wait, and one other thing too. let me go get it. them.

Political… Here:

Worthington: Justice At Last? Guantánamo Uighurs Ask Supreme Court For Release Into US.

And for the Uighurs, there is Sabin Willett, a Boston-based attorney, and his team, who argue that the Court of Appeals’ ruling made a mockery of the habeas rights extended to the prisoners by the Supreme Court, and transformed Judge Urbina’s ruling into nothing more than an empty gesture. Willett explained that it made courts “powerless to relieve unlawful imprisonment, even when the executive brought the prisoners to our threshold, imprisons them there without legal justification, and – as seven years have so poignantly proved – there is nowhere else to go.”

In a statement issued via the Center for Constitutional Rights, he added, “We now have asked the Supreme Court to hear the Uighur cases, and rule that the writ of habeas corpus guarantees to the innocent not just a judge’s learned essay, but something meaningful – their release.”

and

Personal … here… this is heavy on my mind.

backstory: I don’t even know Tony. He is someone “we” know, however, in the jazz music local scene circles (as my husband is one too).

TonyTony Campise

some reports from last week:

A: Apparantly he was checking into a hotel in Corpus Christi (A 10/10/09?), and fell in the lobby, and hit his head. He got up and was fine, and then a while later, he collapsed and went unconscious ( I guess kind of like Natasha Richardson). He was brought to the hospital, where they performed neuro-surgery, and is still un-conscious, and the left side of his body is not reacting to any stimult, so they think he may have had a stroke along with everything else. My friend that is in Corpus sitting with him, says that it’s not looking good.

B: I was fortunate to be there when his surgeon arrived and gave us Tony’s prognosis. She also showed us the MRI and Cat scans before and after Tony’s surgery, and he’s had significant damage to both frontal lobes of his brain. His condition has been stabilized, but he’s unconscious and under medication.

C:  Tony had to have some of his brain removed in order to control swelling, and the prognosis is, that even if he survives, which isn’t likely, he most likely won’t be able to talk, walk, or play again.

Then this new report today from a person who’s been at his bedside all along:

KRIS, 10/20/09: “At this point, I am going on about 5 hours sleep since Thursday morning. I realize that my understanding of the inner voice that I was “hearing” from Tony’s eyes was at least partially imagined. I am, after all, living almost completely on Dr. Pepper, Marlboro Reds, and an occasional burger…

I begin to move the flute toward his left side and he very purposefully and casually lifts his hand and gently takes the flute. He watches his fingers as he moves them slowly to the absolute EXACT place that they need to be. Once his fingers are on the buttons, he trills very quickly from a G to a G#.

My heart literally skipped a beat.”

Fell. …and hit his head.

There but for fortune…

Open thread… have at it.

11 comments

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  1. in the light.

    Here is a beautiful little blurb from a woman who does know him:

    Tony Campise is a man who has shown me what being a jazz musician is all about.

    When I was a very green freshman at the University of Texas, he insisted that Phil Richey (fellow ‘chet-head,’ trumpeter and lover of a good ballad) and I play at least one tune with him every Sunday night at Chez Fred.

    I was so thrilled to re-connect with him in more recent years (thanks to Robert Wilson) to tell him things like, “you were nuts to let someone who sounded as bad as me to play a tune on your steady gig every week. Thank you for believing in me.”

    Back at that time in the late 80’s, he was immediately and unhesitatingly, fully invested in me as a person. That has never changed.

    He understands the music in a way that affects every decision of his life; and since I was 18 years old, his example has shown me what the music is about.

    I feel distant physically to this current struggle, but always so closely connected in spirit to him and what he has shown me in the music. I feel sadness, great love, but also a compulsion to follow the melody where ever it is leading us right now.

    I love you, Tony Campise. You are human, and you are also magic. I am made a better person by you. As always, I want you to count this off a little slower, so I can hang.

    Carol.

    Photobucket

    • justCal on October 21, 2009 at 19:36
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    and any other chet-heads out there.

    • RiaD on October 21, 2009 at 22:33
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    thinking happy thoughts for him.

    someone who believes in others, whether for music, words or just on faith….

    that person deserves all the happy thoughts i can send!

    ♥~

  4. and thanks Lady L.

  5. She’s not even done with it yet, but I picked it up this evening.  She got it from school Lit Teacher… interesting….

    The Hunger Games

    Grade 7 In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation* of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch.

    When 16-year-old Katniss young sister, Prim (age 12), is selected as the mining district female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.

    Collins characters are completely realistic and sympathetic as they form alliances and friendships in the face of overwhelming odds; the plot is tense, dramatic, and engrossing.

    *Its punishment by the Controllers for when the Districts, in the distant past, attempted an Uprising to overthrow them. :-/

  6. compromise before anything is set in stone and to convince themselves that right to health care can be opted-out of if states so choose.

    Negotiation is a staring contest – and the Dems are a bunch of kids who can’t sit still.

    Dammit! the entire Demcractic party are a bunch of desperate wimps who take the first scrap thrown their way and the first trial balloon floated. To quote an earlier diarist: Dumbfucks.

    Negotiation skills needed as much as a spines for negotiation.

    Now that this off my chest.

    Hope you are all doing well.

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