ChristyBassman.com

Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness / Prevention

In Memory of Russell Bassman:
Please consider donating to raise awareness of and help prevent Sudden Cardiac Arrest.

Donating through this link is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to support my fundraising efforts.

50% of men over the age of 40 are affected by Coronary Atherosclerosis (coronary artery disease).

For 50% of those men, the first sign that anything is wrong will be sudden death from cardiac arrest. (source: WebMD)

After menopause, women rapidly catch up with men and face the same risk.

Heart disease cannot be reliably detected by stethoscope, EKGs, or blood pressure monitoring. Many people never experience any symptoms. The only reliable way to assess your risk is to talk to your doctor, and have them evaluate your risk with the necessary tests (usually an echocardiogram and cholesterol test). If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for your loved ones.

Sudden cardiac arrest can happen anytime, anywhere. You can be running a marathon, or resting at home. You may be 70 years old, or 25. Once sudden cardiac arrest occurs, the best chance for survival is immediate CPR and use of an AED. Portable AEDs are now becoming more commonplace, but work remains to be done to raise awareness of these lifesaving devices.

Many thanks for your support, and the time you took to read this. Heart disease affects everybody we love in some manner.

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Heart Attack Symptoms

Russell’s symptoms were nausea (dry heaves) and breaking out into a cold sweat.

I assumed, as most of us probably do, that a heart attack’s symptoms are chest pain, chest tightness, shooting pain or numbness down the left arm.  When my husband began throwing up air, and broke out into a clammy sweat, I assumed food poisoning, or a stomach virus.  He was wondering the same.  I never dreamed he was in the process of having a heart attack right then.  If I had, I could have called 911.  It’s something that will be on my mind until I myself die.  I wish I had known.

Please read here at the American Heart Association’s website about the first signs of heart attack.  You don’t have to be old, or unhealthy, or have any previous signs or symptoms.  Please read, and take care of yourself, and keep these in the back of your mind for the future.

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My beloved husband, Russell Bassman

It’s 4 in the morning … I’m really sorry, I can’t sleep.

My beloved husband Russell Bassman, died yesterday, friday morning, at 11 am.  He had an extremely sudden and unexpected heart attack at home.  I don’t think he ever knew what happened, and he never regained consciousness.  It was very fast.  Very fast.  I walked into his studio, and he was in the motion of lighting a cigarette, and made as though to stand up, but fell down on the floor.  I called 911 but he was dead when we got him to the hospital.

I am devastated, and I’m so sorry to tell everybody this.  I loved Russell tremendously, and I tried to tell him often.  He didn’t let many people into his life, and was a very private person, so if you were close to him, please feel honored, for he did not choose his friends lightly.  I feel so honored that he let me into his heart and chose me for his wife.  I feel horrible for him that he did not get the long years of happiness he was due.  I grieve that he died young and so suddenly when he just wanted to enjoy life and be happy for a change.  I hope I gave him a couple of years of goodness and some peace and a lot of love.  That’s all I wanted to give him.  He was such a wonderful man, and he loved me like nobody ever had, and gave me so much that I’m wordless as to how to express it.  He was a fantastically talented man, and was going to play a show at Reggie’s Rock Club this July 26th opening for his friends The Hearers.  Russell recorded and played with several bands of note, including Plush, Epic Soundtracks, Nikki Sudden, the Psychoviolets, Dolomite, and others I’m forgetting right now … he was known as a bassist, (how can you get away from that with a name like Bassman?) but his true love was the pedal steel guitar and he was so talented on guitar, piano, and pedal steel, and recorded under his own monikers of The Russell Bassman Experience, and in the past as Art Space.

I can’t sleep right now, I just got off the phone with my mother, I’ve been on the phone all day with various people trying to let them know what happened in such a sudden circumstance that _I_ don’t even know what happened, and I’m trying to make sense of it.  One minute he was sitting in bed beside me, and the next he was gone.  The doctor said he never suffered.  I pray that is true.  I hope it was fast and he did not suffer or feel any fear or pain.  It was so sudden I can’t even process it, really, so I’m typing this out to all of you.

Russell often said, “Less fighting, more hugging!”  and I say that to all of you … let the daily petty stuff slide by and hug the one you are with and cherish them.  Do that for us.  Please.  His favorite band was the Polyphonic Spree, and he had just seen them in Milwaukee for the 9th time this last weekend.  Their message is LOVE, and HOPE.  and I know Russell rejoiced in that.  Please put your arms around somebody and just love them and think of Russell when you do.  It would honor him, in my mind, to have love extended to the ones you love and need.  It’s so hard in this life.  It’s not easy.  You gotta be good, you gotta be strong, you gotta be 2000 places at once.  and we’re all trying.  He was trying. I’m trying.  I know you’re trying.

Be good, Russell, I pray to almighty god above that you are in heaven with Epic right now, and don’t worry about me.  I will hold down the fort here.  I love you so much and I only wish you the inner peace that you wished for me — all of that, and so much more, and joy, and beauty, and heaven above, and the friends you had loved and lost ahead of you — be there, and be good, I love you so much, bb.  I’ll never stop telling you how much I love you, or saying goodbye, because there is no end to it.  You are the most important part of me.  You made my life what it was and is.  And I will honor you in every way that I know how, I will do my best.  You deserve nothing less.

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Megabus - minibucks

You may have seen Megabus. The blue and orange buses look like they are lost en route from England, right down to the cheery dude with the orange derby on the back of the bus. Megabus.com — as it is technically called — is a subsidiary of Coach USA, a UK-based Stagecoach Group company.

Note:  We did not take Megabus service to Summerfest [detailed review on our awesome Milwaukee sojourn coming soon — no zombies this time!], but that was solely due to the fact that we needed to leave and arrive back home at very specific times due to Russell’s work schedule, and the Megabus schedule didn’t jive with those times.  However, I’m psyched to use this service for commutes to other closeby cities when I don’t feel like paying so much for Amtrak or a rented car.

Read the entire article here.

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Something That Doesn’t Suck

This article, by Keith.

Excerpt:

 If you’re sitting in a studio, trying to record a guitar part, and you botch up take 7 and say “that sucked”, that’s fine. But if you swing the word “sucks” around like a machine gun to wipe out entire songs, albums, and artists who actually put some effort into their work, without you putting any effort into explaining why, or even having the humility to acknowledge that your opinion is subjective, it only makes your armchair righteousness look all the more pathetic.

Read more.

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I am the Black Widow of Powerbooks

So, in the “funny” category, and by “funny” I mean “funny” and not “funny ha-ha”, or perhaps several months from now it will have fallen back into the “tragically comedic funny” — my aluminum Powerbook is officially narcoleptic. It won’t stay awake for more than 2 seconds at a time without falling back into sleep mode. For those with a taste for the “funny ha-ha”, you could try dialing back in time and plant yourself in our living room while Russell was commanding me to “set the energy saver settings to never sleep!” while I was shouting “Shut up!  I’m trying!” and frustratedly rushing to try to change my energy saver settings in the 2-second increments in between the laptop waking back up and then promptly falling back asleep.

No, “frustratedly” is likely not a proper adverb. Sorry.

Admitting defeat on ye olde Albook, as the bottom RAM slot on it is *also* dead, I decided to pull ye older Pismo out from under the coffee table and dust it off and power it on as a backup solution. Ha ha! It all but gave me the finger, and that only because it has no fingers. The Pismo is dead. Not just narcoleptic, but stone-cold, far gone, fuck-you dead.

The Albook is at the Apple day spa down the street racking up a bill and getting taken care of. The Pismo is sitting around the house as a sort of morbid paperweight reminder. In the meantime, I just ordered a new Macbook.

May it live long and not take any field trips to the floor.

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What John McCain Doesn’t Know About AIDS.

Not only does McCain not seem to know whether condoms help prevent the transmission of AIDS, but he doesn’t even know what his position is on it — or what his position has been in the past; just that he surely has had a position in the past. Somebody else will need to look it up for him.

It frightens me that this is the best that the Republican Party could come up with for a “reasonable” candidate. My husband and I have been saying for a while now that at least McCain isn’t a sociopath or insane (like some current presidents, cough). But this is truly pathetic. An eighth-grader should know more about AIDS, its transmission, and its prevention than this man does. A high-schooler would be better equipped to develop policy on education and prevention.

From the New York Times:

A transcript of the encounter follows. (Weaver is John Weaver, his senior adviser, and Brian is Mr. Jones, his press secretary):

Reporter: “Should U.S. taxpayer money go to places like Africa to fund contraception to prevent AIDS?”

Mr. McCain: “Well I think it’s a combination. The guy I really respect on this is Dr. Coburn. He believes – and I was just reading the thing he wrote– that you should do what you can to encourage abstinence where there is going to be sexual activity. Where that doesn’t succeed, than he thinks that we should employ contraceptives as well. But I agree with him that the first priority is on abstinence. I look to people like Dr. Coburn. I’m not very wise on it.”

(Mr. McCain turns to take a question on Iraq, but a moment later looks back to the reporter who asked him about AIDS.)

Mr. McCain: “I haven’t thought about it. Before I give you an answer, let me think about. Let me think about it a little bit because I never got a question about it before. I don’t know if I would use taxpayers’ money for it.”

Q: “What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush’s policy, which is just abstinence?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy.”

Q: “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “You’ve stumped me.”

Q: “I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?”

Mr. McCain: (Laughs) “Are we on the Straight Talk express? I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception – I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.”

Q: “But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: ‘No, we’re not going to distribute them,’ knowing that?”

Mr. McCain: (Twelve-second pause) “Get me Coburn’s thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn’s paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I’ve never gotten into these issues before.”

This went on for a few more moments until a reporter from the Chicago Tribune broke in and asked Mr. McCain about the weight of a pig that he saw at the Iowa State Fair last year.

America, we need to try harder. A lot harder. We come off as ignorant, insulated, and unaware of even our own convictions.

Just get a clue. Please, I beg you.

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Fun With Mad Libs

Think different

Heres to the puny ones, the rats, the toes, the tongues.
The slimy pegs in the char-broiled holes.
The ones who slap things differently.
Theyre not fond of cappucinos, and they have no train for the status quo.
You can photoshop them, stomp with them, slide them, push or swallow them.
About the only thing you cant do is honk them.
Because they kill eyes.
They slurp. They bitch. They kiss.
They kill. They screw. They tease.
They brush the tattoo forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you shred at an empty cat and see a work of elephant?
Or sit in car and write a website thats never been flooded?
Or ski at a red nostril and see a shoe on wheels?
We make ponies for these kinds of people.
While some may see them as the guitars, we see uterus.
Because the ones who are subjective enough to change the dollar, are the ones who fret.

Created with the Mad Libs widget for Mac OS X.

Posted in Apple, Humor, Writing | No Comments »

Visit from Santa

I heard him ease our back screen door open, and fiddle with the doorknob. Then the screen door closed and I heard him quickly shuffling back down the back stairwell. I stood still in my kitchen, holding my breath, and finally dashed into the living room to hiss at Russell that some weirdo was playing with our back door.

Santa had left a bag of fragrant masala chai tea on our back door, and a Christmas ornament. Russell ran after him, but saw the headlights of Santa’s getaway truck taking off down the street.

Thanks, Santa! Next time come in to thaw out for a bit.

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Announcing the launch of the Liam Hayes and Plush Official Website

I am so pleased to announce the launch of the new Liam Hayes and Plush website at www.liamhayesandplush.com. Liam & Co. are in the process of recording a new album, releasing a new video/single, and many more exciting things to come in 2008!

What’s more, Fed is now available for purchase online and download in high-quality mp3 format for the first time since its release in 2002. Fans may remember that Fed was released in limited quantities in Japan, and released in the U.S. as “Underfed” with different/earlier versions of the songs. Click here to purchase Fed online now for only 10 dollars!

And last but not least, on the website you can listen to streaming mp3s of songs, preview the upcoming single “Take A Chance” from Bright Penny (coming 2008), watch the new video for “Take A Chance” (this is exciting new first-time stuff for longtime Plush fans!!!), view the photo gallery, and engage in the fun, frivolity, and soul-fortifying vitamin packed joy that is the music of Liam Hayes and Plush.

Liam Hayes and Plush Official Website is coded in compliant XHTML and CSS, with no artificial flavors or preservatives. Much thanks to Liam, Lawrie, and Russell for all their hard work and encouragement while collaborating on this project. I’m a huge fan as well as the webmaster, so this is exciting for me from two perspectives. I hope everybody else enjoys the site as well.

Posted in Music, Web | No Comments »