Getting Cheeky - Erica's Story, and why you should be swabbed

There's nothing like a little cancer to put life in perspective. Small word. BIG implications.

I received an email from a woman on the On Your Feet Project board about her friend's roommate, Erica. You guessed it, Erica has cancer. Leukemia, to be exact. She's been fighting it for two years while attending the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Medford, MA, and thought it was in remission. But that's the nasty thing about cancer: It Can Come Back.

Erica and her family are looking for a bone marrow donor. Erica is of mixed race - Asian / Caucasion / I'm Just Guessing - and is encouraging everyone, but especially minorities, to get their cheeks swabbed for inclusion in the bone marrow registry.

Maybe Erica's story hit closer to home because she's around my age, going to a grad school I myself have considered, and she looks like a lot of fun. Even when having cancer. I mean, who sings a modified kareoke cover of [Bare Naked Ladies] [edited...] with her sister - "If I had a real good donor, I'd be alive" - while laughing and enjoying it? I don't even think "awesome sense of humor" even begins to cover it.



You have the potential to save someone's life, and according to the email I received (the interweb is always truthful) and the National Marrow Registry, if you are actually a match for someone, the donation process is fairly painless. You get some shots for about a week in order to build up the "counts" in your blood (and my friend who had it done last year it said all it does is make you feel like you're fighting off a cold) and then you go in for what is like an extended blood donation - they draw blood, strain out what they need from it, and then the blood goes back in.

Now I don't know about all y'all, but I can't remember all that many times where I've saved someone's life. Maybe once, or twice.

So. Go register, and get your cheek swabbed, and bring along a friend of "mixed race." (If you're of "mixed race" already, that will make two of you! If not, this way you'll be increasing the chances of finding Erica a donor.) Now. Do it.

Happy Swabbing. And good luck, Erica. My thoughts are with you.


***Note: Yes, you do have to pay to get your cheek swabbed, unless it's during a special drive where sponsors are covering the cost. Just $52. Think of it as a donation to the world. If you have a flexible spending account, you may be able to expense the cost...
- Upcoming marrow drives in the Boston area

Rock On Your Feet. Boston Charity Benefit Concert.

For more than five years, Glenn Michael has served as the charismatic front man for the Los Angeles based rock band Deepdown. After countless performances on the Sunset Strip and across the Southwest, Glenn Michael is branching off on his own. Glenn Michael is now acoustic, melodic, soulful and completely inspired. He sings from his heart which he proudly wears on his sleeve and he makes memorable music. He's powerful, he's polished and he tells it like it is.

On Thursday, April 10th, at 9pm Glenn Michael will be performing at Church nightclub for OYFP's First Annual Charity Concert: Rock On Your Feet. In addition to Glenn Michael, other performers include The Powers That Be, and The Slap Happies.

John R.: "Thank you Glenn for donating your time and talents to OYFP and our non-profit partners. Have you ever played a charity event before?"

Glenn M.: “Hi John! I am honored to perform at this event. In L.A., I played a show to benefit the homeless, and recently here in Boston, I did a fundraiser concert to benefit First Church Somerville - which is a fine non-conservative church that does a lot of good for the community.”

John R.: "Well, we’re really glad you’re on board. So, can you tell me a little more about your music?"

Glenn M.: “Well, I'm a singer/songwriter. I like to keep my music diverse and not be cornered into one kind of sound. Sometimes it's mellow and peaceful, and at other times it's very intense and wailing. I suppose it's a little more edgy than a lot of today's singer/songwriters.”

John R.: "Nice, what do you think of the Boston music scene?"

Glenn M.: “Since moving here from L.A., it's a breath of fresh air honestly. L.A. used to be a good place for musicians, but it's so saturated these days. I'm glad I relocated to Boston. The fact that being a dedicated musician in any city is very taxing at times, I like Boston, and feel there is a lot of little nooks around here to plant my musical seeds and watch them grow. I've gotten a very warm reception so far, and am blessed to be in such a thriving scene with a lot of local talent.”

John R.: "What artists or bands would you say have influenced you over the years?"

Glenn M.: “My influences are vast. Anything that moves me emotionally, or inspires me in one way or another. I'm a big fan of Bright Eyes, KT Tunstall, Sun Kil Moon, Richard Ashcroft, Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Janes Addiction, Ray LaMontagne, PJ Harvey, Bloc Party, Fionn Regan. I like folk music. I like rock music. I like alternative music, whatever that means? I live my life as an artist. Everything I experience is influential, in some way or any another.”

John R.: “What's on tap for Glenn Michael? Any upcoming tours in the near future?”

Glenn M.: “I've been doing a lot of performances all over New England to support my new CD, and that will continue. My Spring/Summer 08' tour schedule right now is pretty thriving. I'll be doing some touring until the fall, at which time I'll be going back in the studio to start recording my 3rd CD. In this business, you've got to have stamina to survive. I'm prepared for the battle.”

John R.: “Ha! Thanks man. I’m looking forward to the show.”

Glenn Michael is currently living in Boston, MA and just released his 2nd full-length CD entitled Reflections. His debut CD entitled Heart On My Sleeve is currently for sale on ITUNES.

Come see Glenn Michael and the other bands Thursday, April 10th, at 9pm at Church nightclub for OYFP's First Annual Charity Concert: Rock On Your Feet. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online, 100% of proceeds go to non-profit charities in our community.

glenn michael
intense.melodic.emotional.acoustic.
www.glennmichael.net

Spring Cleaning: An investigation?

Krystle, I hope you did your spring cleaning this weekend... all of Boston knows that you were planning on it! Hopefully they won't be stopping by to investigate.

Krystle's spring cleaning article in today's BostonNOW:

How you doin?

Spring is here. Time to get started on that spring cleaning and it's time to get your general affairs in order.

Hey, by the way, how are you doing on your New Year resolutions four months into the year? Are you spending more time with family? Did you finally quit smoking? Are you sticking to your workout routine? Are you saving more money? And, are you volunteering and helping others?

At the start of this year I wrote I don’t do resolutions. Where I shared my view that “when something is labeled a resolution it isn’t really a main priority.” If it was a main concern then why wait until the last day of the year to face it?

Hopefully, you’ve kept your new affirmations. But, no worries if you’ve fallen off keeping those resolutions, start now! Why wait? I’ll check back in August.

Photograph from http://www.wickedgood.info

Want Real Answers? Real Fast?

This piece isn’t about the political fallout over Hillary Clintons admitted misstatement about running from sniper fire during her visit to Tuzla, Bosnia, in 1996 as first lady. "I remember landing under sniper fire," she said. “There was no greeting ceremony and we were basically told to run to our cars. That is what happened.”

This article is not about the fact that she repeated this misstatement for nearly three months, well after the media had exposed it. Moreover, I won't comment on statements made by Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor, who said Clinton's Bosnia sniper fire tale "joins a growing list of instances in which Senator Clinton has exaggerated her role in foreign and domestic policymaking.” Because that’s not what this article is about.

This article is about AnswerTips from Answers.com that I discovered while reading Hillary’s St. Patrick’s Day Massacre.

AnswerTips is a very useful tool that is integrated into web pages and allows users to look up any word or phrase for the best explanation or definition on the Web. When a user double-clicks any word on a participating site, a small pop-up window appears with an AnswerTip, which is simply an explanation of the word or phrase.

For bloggers, this is great because its keeps your visitors from wandering off your page onto outbound links when looking for information. To learn how to use AnswerTips and to enable it for your blog check out their Blogger Portal.

Earth Hour: Keeping us in the dark

This Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 8 PM, you can celebrate the World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour with hundreds of thousands of people across the world. [Earth Hour 2009 info here.]

Well, actually, they'll all be celebrating at 8 PM their time, but you can celebrate knowing that other people are going to do it, or have done it, at 8 PM their time.

What is Earth Hour? It's an hour, once a year, when you turn off all lights to make a statement about global climate change. ALL the lights. So it's dark in your house. You could try burning soy candles for a few rays... but the dark can be fun. You could play "hide 'n' seek in the dark," or make a fort out of blankets and camp under it.

Earth Hour started in Sydney, Australia last year, where their combined efforts turning off lights resulted in the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road. Whoa. The whole city participated - governments, businesses, and more.

While Boston's not officially participating, you can still practice what I'm preaching - turn off those lights!

Related Posts: Earth Hour in Boston 2009
Event notice courtesy of the Ideal Bite.