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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 22 of 22. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Phil on March 20, 2013, at 10:13:39
http://www.clickbipolarblog.com/2013/03/my-first-mania-2004.html
Posted by Meatwood_Flack on March 20, 2013, at 18:04:59
In reply to My first mania 2004, posted by Phil on March 20, 2013, at 10:13:39
Very interesting, and descriptive look at the experience of mania. Not being bipolar, depressive only, it helped me parse the difference between mania and mere high energy behavior, which seems to be easier to control. Being a musician since starting piano lessons 35 years ago, the Jesse Taylor reference was especially interesting, though I had never heard of him (but I've always loved obscure musicians who devote their lives to their art without the need for fleeting fame and fortune.) Checked him out on YouTube and am quite impressed. I'll be sharing the link on Facebook. Good stuff, as usual, sir. Good stuff, indeed.
Posted by sigismund on March 20, 2013, at 18:26:12
In reply to My first mania 2004, posted by Phil on March 20, 2013, at 10:13:39
So there is the whipper snipper with which, I think you said, you felt like a machine.
Sounded wonderful to me.
Was that longer ago than 2004?
Posted by Phillipa on March 20, 2013, at 18:31:35
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004, posted by sigismund on March 20, 2013, at 18:26:12
Now I know what my ex father in law felt twice a year. Chopped down all the trees at the Florida home he was renting for the winter. Bike riding all over town, hiding guns in our basement we had no idea were there. Unfortunately he didn't listen to his doc and predictably this happened twice a year. Phillipa
Posted by Phil on March 20, 2013, at 19:50:05
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004, posted by Meatwood_Flack on March 20, 2013, at 18:04:59
I'm a musician too. Drummer. Jesse played for Joe Ely for about 15 years. Joe Ely is big but not everywhere, but close. He's friends with Springsteen because Ely has the same style and energy, it's just Austin style.
They opened for the Stones in Arizona. Jesse told me the story about turning in to a hallway and at the end, sitting there, were the Stones less Mick. Ronnie and Keith played his custom guitar he had made in Lubbock. Yeah, I touched that guitar.
I was watching Jesse at an outdoor patio club gig. The guy at the table with me was nervous and a bit jumpy. He said I flew from Germany to sit in with Jesse. Really?!! Jesse was getting pretty sick and sat on a bar stool to play. He was made to be a musician. The guy got his shot. Jesse got off the bar stool to face him, "let him in", it was epic. You can probably tell how I felt about him. :)
Posted by Phil on March 20, 2013, at 19:53:42
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004, posted by sigismund on March 20, 2013, at 18:26:12
I think it may have been. I have no memory, it's bad. Not sure about the whipper snipper. :)
Imagine feeling 100 times better than when you were 18.
It was something else.
Posted by Phil on March 20, 2013, at 19:54:39
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004, posted by Phillipa on March 20, 2013, at 18:31:35
Strange disorder.
Posted by Meatwood_Flack on March 20, 2013, at 21:29:53
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004 » Meatwood_Flack, posted by Phil on March 20, 2013, at 19:50:05
I've heard Joe Ely, probably back in my college radio days. If I caught Keef and Ronnie playing my guitar I think I would just pass out on the spot. Of the different instruments I play, I'm least proficient on drums, but I probably have the most fun playing them.
Posted by Phil on March 21, 2013, at 7:51:06
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004, posted by Meatwood_Flack on March 20, 2013, at 21:29:53
Drums are good. Kept me sane before I knew I wasn't. Jesse had that guitar made in the early 80s and it cost over $2K then.
He had it a while then it was stolen. He went to all the Lubbock pawn shops and asked them to watch for it.
A year or two later he got a call from his sister in Lubbock.."Guess what I have."
A kid came in trying to pawn it. Not smart..
Never wanted to play guitar but if I could play bass like Larry Graham I'd take that.Sly's rhythm section was amazing. I love the bass line in this song. Graham invented slapping, rest is history.
Posted by Phil on March 21, 2013, at 8:09:29
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004, posted by Meatwood_Flack on March 20, 2013, at 21:29:53
What all do you play, Meat? I played trumpet for six years in school. First chair for 3 of those but I didn't have much competition.
This vid shows Graham briefly and Sly is an all time fav.
Do you like Fleetwood Mack?
Posted by Meatwood_Flack on March 21, 2013, at 22:45:41
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004 » Meatwood_Flack, posted by Phil on March 21, 2013, at 7:51:06
Anyone who can play funk well on bass has to be a beast. I was always just an occasional bassist. I loved playing blues jams with a good lead guitarist, because I could more or less just sit back and listen while holding down the groove.
Posted by Meatwood_Flack on March 21, 2013, at 23:08:55
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004 » Meatwood_Flack, posted by Phil on March 21, 2013, at 8:09:29
I played trumpet for four years in school, until I had to have surgery on an eardrum (swimmer's ear) and had to move to percussion, which was a very happy accident. Years later I worked on building my lip back up and would sometimes sit on my porch at night and play slow, bluesy type stuff. I play piano, synth, organ, could still play trumpet if my lip were built back up, baritone, tuba (though I haven't played either since junior high), bass, guitar, drums. I think I was 10 when Rumours came out and I was an instant fan and liked everything they did until the late 80's. Then I found out the Mac used to be a blues band, so I checked out some of the older stuff and liked it even better.
Posted by Phil on March 21, 2013, at 23:27:16
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004 » Phil, posted by Meatwood_Flack on March 21, 2013, at 23:08:55
Rumours was huge. I blew my embrasure out in 8th grade trying to show off and hit high notes real loud in a practice room at the band hall. I couldn't even play a scale after that, just some low C or something.
I couldn't play for several months and I never told the band director and he never said anything to me.
I still wonder about that.
Posted by Meatwood_Flack on March 22, 2013, at 7:37:26
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004, posted by Phil on March 21, 2013, at 23:27:16
I never had the lung power for the really high squeals, it always felt like my head was going to cave in. Luckily, I had a decent ear. Perfect pitch never extended beyond recognizing E (thanks to my guitar playing) and C, but my relative pitch was something I was proud of. So my way of showing off would be to figure out songs nobody else knew, like the University of Oklahoma fight song (I was born in Norman, so OU is actually home team for me, unlike most their fans who only like them for their history as a college football powerhouse.... Fair weather fans.) My other trick was to play the trumpet and piano (chords only) at the same time. Rumours was huge. I was just a kid when it dropped, but if I were going to pick three albums that captured the 70's, they would be Rumours, Hotel California and the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever.
Posted by Phil on March 22, 2013, at 17:00:32
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004 » Phil, posted by Meatwood_Flack on March 22, 2013, at 7:37:26
Good album choices. I think I was maybe 24 when Rumours was released. You would go to friends houses everyone was playing it. That time period was good for me. Lots of stuff happening.
Me and a friend saw Jethro Tull then Fleetwood Mac then Alice Cooper in a short span of time at the San Antonio Convention Center.
About 5 years ago were like always talking music. I said you know man I wish I had gotten the chance to see Alice Cooper. He said, you did, two weeks after Fleetwood Mac. Still can't remember anything about it.
My friends memory has to be close to photographic memory. I've always liked Mick Fleetwoods drumming and I remember walking around the arena the whole Tull show. From the side I had a good view of his drummer, a beast. I'll have to look up who it was.
My favorite Alice tune, he always has smokin' bands.
Posted by sigismund on March 22, 2013, at 21:55:48
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004 » sigismund, posted by Phil on March 20, 2013, at 19:53:42
> Not sure about the whipper snipper. :)
Do you call them whipper snippers?
Anyway, you did at least one neighbour's yard without being asked, or something similar.
>Imagine feeling 100 times better than when you were 18.It is a challenge, getting older, to retain any of that feeling of being 18. Goodness knows I try, but things being what they are........
Posted by Phil on March 22, 2013, at 22:12:33
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004 » Phil, posted by sigismund on March 22, 2013, at 21:55:48
I just remembered cutting down dozens of bamboo plants that were growing wild. Traffic buzzing by and I'm walking into a huge clump of them with my knife.
Cut down a dozen or so and tried to stick them in the ground at strategic places for optimum effect. Didn't work.This was definitely hypomania. It doesn't reach the criteria of full blown mania.
Posted by sigismund on March 22, 2013, at 22:54:33
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004 » sigismund, posted by Phil on March 22, 2013, at 22:12:33
How long does the good bit last?
I mean if you are unmedicated.
How come they can't bottle it?
Some of us could do with a little hypomania.
I have all these things to do and I get too discouraged to start, and then I worry about not having started.
Recently I got hold of some coca leaves (and I do mean leaves, not coke) and they made such a difference. Instead of worrying about it I just started, and then when I saw what I had done I felt better. No doubt half a Dex would do the same.
Posted by Phillipa on March 22, 2013, at 23:07:12
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004 » Phil, posted by sigismund on March 22, 2013, at 22:54:33
Hi Sigi PJ
Posted by Phil on March 23, 2013, at 16:00:45
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004 » Phil, posted by sigismund on March 22, 2013, at 22:54:33
> How long does the good bit last?
>
> I mean if you are unmedicated.
>
> How come they can't bottle it?
>
> Some of us could do with a little hypomania.
>
> I have all these things to do and I get too discouraged to start, and then I worry about not having started.
>
> Recently I got hold of some coca leaves (and I do mean leaves, not coke) and they made such a difference. Instead of worrying about it I just started, and then when I saw what I had done I felt better. No doubt half a Dex would do the same.With me the whole thirty days I never stopped. Constant movement and action. Always saw the next thing to do before I was finished with what I was doing. Total happiness, quick on your feet in conversations, very quick. You smile a lot and are sometimes over-friendly. My endurance knew no bounds, I could do anything I wanted to. Get a drink out of the water hose, get my hair soaked and go back at it. I never thought, well I'm a little tired, just leave this till tomorrow. I was never tired and I was in a magic forest.
And the weirdest thing of all??? You have no clue that you're hypo-manic. I asked my doc how she diagnosed mw, I didn't know.(A lot of emphasis on this) Phil you worked night and day! You used muscles you haven't used in ten years!(9 but who's counting) etc. I said aren't most bipolars really bad about spending? Phil, you lived at Lowes buy schrubs, weedeaters gardening supplies...Phil, it's a rent house!!!
This doc YELLED at me more than once. She needed therapy. But she was a damn good psychiatrist
If you could sell mania by the jar it would outsell every drug combined 10/1. More than that.
I have to move soon and I wish I could just start it on demand.
Posted by Meatwood_Flack on March 23, 2013, at 19:26:01
In reply to Re: My first mania 2004 » Meatwood_Flack, posted by Phil on March 22, 2013, at 17:00:32
My step-grandad (19 years younger than my grandmother) introduced me to both Tull and Black Sabbath when I was about 12 or so. Liked Sabbath a lot better but also liked Locomotive Breath a lot. My uncle gave me Alice's Schools Out album around the same time. Liked some of his songs, but I think Alice was meant to be experienced live.
Posted by sleepygirl2 on March 24, 2013, at 19:39:32
In reply to My first mania 2004, posted by Phil on March 20, 2013, at 10:13:39
Nice writing :-)
This is the end of the thread.
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