MedWorm.com provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest items from the 'Donna Trussell' source. Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:43:52 +0100 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/11/14/your-song-will-fill-the-air/ Alison Krauss’s cover of the Beatles song I Will is pretty, but a little too mechanized for my taste. What I really wanted Maura O’Connell’s haunting version on her 1994 CD Just in Time, but that wasn’t on YouTube. And a while back, when I went looking for “Wild Mountain Thyme,” it was a gentle amateur’s version that blew away the pros. Not surprisingly, many of the “I Will” covers by unknowns were off-key. But of the singers that weren’t, I thought each had a unique beauty. (For the record Ross Copperman is apparently not an unknown. I’m just out of the loop.) Here are seven very different covers of Paul McCartney’s “I Will” by fans and fellow musicians. Janice Commerce: JenSquare: Sungha Jung: Olivia G... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1962646 Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:02:20 +0100 1962646 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/11/14/his-own-route-66/ If it’s a gloomy November day where you are, this clip from a 1986 performance by Steve Earle ought to warm you up: From a review on Amazon: This DVD is the fleshed-out version of Earle’s first ever appearance on “Austin City Limits,” originally edited down to 30 minutes for television broadcast, and it showcases a guy giddy with the thrill of using guitar, drums, and amps to make a beautiful noise without worrying about the global implications of making rock and roll music. And at the risk of causing some people heartburn, make no mistake about it; this is rock and roll, not country (or at least not your daddy’s country). The spark in Earle’s eye, like the Great Wall of China, was probably visible from space that night. I feel a little sad when I think... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1962647 Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:16:50 +0100 1962647 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/11/13/an-act-of-witness/ Peter Davison conducted an interview with poet William Matthews for The Atlantic. In the excerpt below, Matthews describes how he came to write the poem “Dire Cure.” I was married to a woman who got a disastrous cancer. It took her over a year of treatment to know whether she was going to be able to fend it off. It took her a couple of years after that to begin to think that it might stay away. She is, I’m happy to report, still in good health, and the cancer, a particularly aggressive one, has shown no signs of coming back. Blues for Bill: A Tribute (2005) Almost everybody invites you to think about your experience in terms that are not helpful. People describe you as the Caregiver or the Helpmeet. None of the categories make any sense. People aren’t imposing dopey... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1956575 Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:17:16 +0100 1956575 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/11/12/think-purple/ November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. Walk a mile in their shoes: Your doctor says you have a 25 percent chance of living one year. One, not five. One year. And even then, it’s just a one in four chance. Most pancreatic cancer patients die six to nine months after diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer research is where breast cancer research was in the 1930s. Why is this tolerated? And where are the purple fountains? I haven’t seen a single one in my town. Posted in Cancer   Tagged: awareness, pancreatic, randy pausch    (Source: Donna Trussell) Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1953347 Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:02:57 +0100 1953347 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/11/11/veterans-day/ My father Norman Weldon Read (1924-2000) When I was little I’d ask my father what he did in the war, but he was tight-lipped on the subject. Eventually I found out he was in China, India and Burma. That struck me as odd. His brothers were in the Pacific. What was my father doing in India? “Not much,” he once told me. “I just sat around and got radio messages in code. Then I’d translate them into code and send them somewhere else.” Not very exciting to my young ears. After my father died in 2000, I found out he served in the OSS—Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor of today’s CIA—and worked with the Flying Tigers. His younger brother Glen Read survived several years in a Japanese prison camp. His older brother Louis Read, of the 31st In... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1953348 Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:07:57 +0100 1953348 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/11/09/pssssstim-on-postsecret/ Look quick. He puts new ones up every Sunday. (Must have been the steroids.) PostSecret is an “ongoing community art project” started by Frank Warren in 2005. This card was my first submission. Posted in Cancer, Writing   Tagged: art, chemo, postsecret    (Source: Donna Trussell) Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1945683 Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:06:11 +0100 1945683 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/11/08/fighting-cancer-still-fabulous/ Shopping for an inexpensive gift for the afflicted loved one in your life? Consider these. Many colors and styles available. Most designs come in note cards. pins and coffee mugs as well as shirts. [Ed. note: I have no connection to the companies/organizations involved and receive no compensation for clicks or purchases.] More cancer/fabulous here. More newsboy/cancer here. More nurses/cancer here. More new/cancer-free here. More oncologist/homeboy here. More work/cancer here. More foxtrot/cancer here. Posted in Cancer, Humor   Tagged: cancer patient, cancer survivor, gift, holiday, shopping    (Source: Donna Trussell) Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1944381 Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:36:31 +0100 1944381 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/11/07/looking-for-america/ Looking for America (2002) Hej studerende i Danmark! Hello students in Denmark! Thank you for writing to me about my short story Fishbone (see comments). “Fishbone” was first published in 1989 in the literary magazine TriQuarterly. The story has since appeared in several anthologies, but I especially like the version in the Danish textbook Looking for America (edited by Bjorn Christensen) because of the glossary in the margins: “Trailer court: camping plads til campingvogne (ofte permanent).” I don’t know what it means, but I like the sound of it. I wrote the story in the mid-1980s, not long after taking a poetry writing class. “Fishbone” began as a love poem to my grandmother, and it just kept going and became a story. Unlike the main character Wa... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1944382 Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:50:44 +0100 1944382 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/11/05/a-night-to-remember/ Viewers in Australia react to Obama's election to the presidency of the United States Congratulations and thanks to many groups and individuals who gave body and soul to this campaign, but especially to first-time voters and determined underage teens. Welcome to the corridors of power! Still, there’s a lot of work ahead, as noted by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert. Says a commenter from Maine: Education, education, education. Without a wholesome regard for the life of the mind, we are doomed to become a second rate society. Senator Obama is only a man, just one individual who cannot do it all by himself. We need to participate in democracy to help him succeed. Make that President Obama. But otherwise, damn straight. May the universe give Americans the strength and courage t... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1941070 Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:35:40 +0100 1941070 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/11/03/make-history/ The PC Committee said it’s OK to laugh at Mad TV’s blaxploitation parody “Funkenstein Vs. Queen Nefertiti Plus Starring Some White Stewardesses and a Special Appearance by Bruce Lee’s Cousin” as long as you vote for OBAMA. Everyone have a great day! Posted in Humor, TV / Film   Tagged: blaxploitation, funkenstein, mad tv, obama    (Source: Donna Trussell) Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1931498 Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:24:07 +0100 1931498 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/11/03/nothing-can-stop-it/ Yesterday my mother asked me what I wanted for Christmas. This t-shirt, I said: Posted in Humor, TV / Film, Writing   Tagged: blog, blogging    (Source: Donna Trussell) Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1928244 Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:48:03 +0100 1928244 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/11/02/write-or-die/ Review of my book in The Kansas City Star. By someone I don’t know, I swear! (And there’s a review by someone else here.) Cover photo of Namibia Sand House by Richard Ehrlich. More photos here. This ghost town was built in the 1920s. Every day the winds continue to shape the sand within the houses. I discovered Ehrlich in Harper’s Magazine, which published the beautiful lavender/teal sand house #23. However, my publisher and I ended up choosing #17 for my book cover. The title poem first appeared in Poetry Kanto. The other poems were written over a period of 25 years and published in various magazines. At the end of the book is a list of people I thank. The list is long because this volume is the first I’ve published and will probably be the last. Gotta get everyone... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1928245 Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:02:48 +0100 1928245 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/22/bob-barker-is-the-devil/ Originally published in slightly different form in the Sunday magazine of The Kansas City Star in 2005. By Robert Trussell Bob Barker is the devil. You know it’s true. You’ve watched him on television your entire life. He never goes away. He’s always there, smiling, intoning, seducing, inviting us into a world of naked materialism. Maybe this seems self-evident, but my conclusion was not reached lightly. It began when I drove my wife to the emergency room. There was no way we could know it at the time, but that was the prelude to our passage into cancer world. Hospital waiting rooms and oncology clinics are never very happy places, of course. Patients and their loved ones gathered there devote their psychic energy to a set of basic goals: Don’t bolt from your chair ... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1897110 Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:25:36 +0100 1897110 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/21/cancer-doesnt-care/ It’s not fun to be a contrarian. You get accused of things. You get blamed for things. Last week on The Larry King Show, Bill Maher said that although he supports Obama, he has no problem with the “angry” McCain that others abhor. I don’t mind an angry politician. I’ve often wondered why American people aren’t angrier. So I think we need a guy who’s angry in there. That doesn’t bother me at all. But it bothers Americans. I’ve never understood that, considering how much we’re poisoned, lied to and ripped off, especially with what’s going on now. I don’t understand why they’re not in the streets with pitch forks. I really don’t. Now, here’s a guy who thinks anger can be an appropriate reaction. Who wil... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1892646 Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:39:38 +0100 1892646 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/17/i-have-colitisuh-i-mean-cancer/ I was already a fan of Kathy Bates. Now that she’s YouTubed this account of her 2003 ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment, she’s not just one of my favorite actresses. She’s my hero. [Ed. note: Headline will be understood by Six Feet Under fans. However, Misery is still the executive summary for Kathy Bates. Tip o' the hat to Diane for the YouTube link.] Posted in Cancer, TV / Film   Tagged: kathy bates, ovarian cancer survivor, ovarian cancer symptoms    (Source: Donna Trussell) Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1887457 Sat, 18 Oct 2008 16:41:52 +0100 1887457 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/15/love-death-in-the-lost-found/ It was with some trepidation that I began blogging. I was discouraged by the makeshift tone of blogs. There would be a few breathless entries. Then the entries would grow farther apart in time. Sometimes there were apologies for not keeping current. Then a short goodbye. Or, more often, an abrupt cessation. Scott Swaner (1968-2006) “People move on to other things, other projects,” a friend explained. “But we still have their words.” One blogger’s name was Scott Swaner. I found him the way one usually does in the post-millenium world. You do a search, or someone sends you a link. Somehow I became aware of a man who was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer and died in 2006 at the age of 38. I must confess: I have a thing for pancreatic cancer patients. W... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1877274 Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:11:46 +0100 1877274 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/13/goodbye-for-now/ In loving memory of Sherri Eberhart. Posted in Cancer, Friends, Kansas City, Music   Tagged: breast cancer, goodbye for now, robert coleman trussell, sherri eberhart    (Source: Donna Trussell) Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1871500 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:07:57 +0100 1871500 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/12/sherri-the-stereotype/ When I started blogging a few months ago, I wasn’t sure what theme would emerge. But one day I tried out a tag cloud and the word cancer screamed in 48-point type. (I decided the tag-cloud widget was not for me.) My irresistible topic turned out to be the stereotypes that are laid on patients like a big glop of mayonnaise. The brave, sunny cancer survivor. The trooper. The fighter. The optimist. Glass half full? Hell, the glass is spilling over with blessings and platitudes and concern for others and a bag of candy corn. A veritable positive-thinking forcefield. Such a point of view is difficult to pull off even in the best of times. Try doing it with the anvil of cancer hanging around your neck. I got lots of mileage out of that theme. The fly in the ointment for me was not anonymou... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1871501 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:18:31 +0100 1871501 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/09/only-yesterday/ Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s is an excellent book by former editor of Harper’s magazine. Author Frederick Lewis Allen shows such insight into this era you’d think it was published decades later instead of in 1931. The website contains the whole book for you to read — free! (I bought a used book, but it’s so old it’s literally crumbling.) Chapters:  1. Prelude: May, 1919. 2. Back to Normalcy 3. The Big Red Scare 4. America Convalescent 5. The Revolution in Manners and Morals 6. Harding and the Scandals 7. Coolidge Prosperity 8. The Ballyhoo Years 9. The Revolt of the Highbrows 10. Alcohol and Al Capone 11. Home, Sweet Florida 12. The Big Bull Market 13. Crash! 14. Aftermath: 1930-31 Excerpt from the chapter on Florida land speculation of th... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1866506 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:09:05 +0100 1866506 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/09/wishing-and-hoping/ Wouldn’t it be jolly if only the people we disliked got sick and people we liked stayed healthy? Maybe not. Such a scenario would mean spending days, weeks or months in close quarters with (or paying for the care of) someone we don’t like. Unless we planned to throw the sick to the wolves for dinner, and most people could not do that. Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, the “negative thinking” = cancer myth persists (see comment # 8). You’d be surprised how many believe the fiction that “nice” people don’t get cancer, and “negative” people do. Santa Claus? Remember when you believed in him? But you were just a child. Now you’re grown, and you rightly demand proof for wild stories and fairy tales. Recently a friend ... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1866507 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:00:06 +0100 1866507 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/06/it-sucks-to-be-me/ I know only too well the interior monologue of the cancer patient, but I wonder how accurately I can depict the mind of the friend or caregiver. I’ll start with the patient’s semi-coherent, conscious or subconscious cry of pain: Noooooooooooooo! Get me out of here! Save me! Don’t let the bad man come in my room! I don’t want to die! I’ll do anything! Give cancer to someone else, anyone but me! I’d rather die than go through this! Easy for you to stay positive — you don’t have cancer! I’m sick of you all! Go away!!!! Hey, where’d you go??!! Help me! I don’t have the strength for this! God, pick on someone else, why doncha? I’m falling apart! Oh so you have a microwave on the blink — try a broken microwave and c... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1857432 Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:41:42 +0100 1857432 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/05/teal-we-hardly-knew-ye/ Journalist Gwen Ifill It’s October. Also known as Pink Nausea to Matthew Zachary and his merry band of upstarts at I’m Too Young for This and The Stupid Cancer Blog. Breast Cancer Action says Think Before you Pink!  But don’t think before clicking on Greetings from Cancerland columns by poet and breast-cancer survivor Alysa Cummings. Specifically In the Name of Pinkness. PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK What happened to teal? Ovarian? The only teal I saw in September was the Caribbean shoreline in my glossy, unsolicited, can’t-be-cancelled magazine Islands. At least we had Gwen Ifill’s knock-out jacket during the veep debate. Posted in Cancer, Poets, Writing   Tagged: alysa cummings, breast cancer, breast cancer action, breast cancer a... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1854149 Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:11:56 +0100 1854149 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/05/the-sweet-lif/ Once a month a group of friends and I get together to discuss one of life’s big questions. Last month the question was: What is happiness? As the discussion progressed, two more questions emerged. At what point does happiness bleed over into ignorance and idiocy? At what point does anger become destructive instead of instructive? These days it’s all too common to pick up the paper and discover that a dozen people were shot, and the killer’s neighbors say he was a quiet man, a good neighbor, and they can’t believe he did this. The killer was that adept at disguising his rage. Till now. In the Ken Burns series The War, Sascha Weinzheimer told the story of how she nearly starved to death in a prison camp in the Philippines. After the war ended and Weinzheimer return... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1854150 Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:05:16 +0100 1854150 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/05/silent-and-indefinable/ I wish I could shed a bit more light on this interview with the late poet A.R. Ammons. All I know for certain is that the interviewer was a woman and the last question asked was: What advice would you give to aspiring young writers. Ammons said [paraphrasing] If you can possibly not write, do that. Why sit in your room picking at your own liver forever? Why not play tennis, have a few friends? Indeed. Ha! I will update this post with more details if I find them. In the meantime, here’s the portion of the interview that I do have: Q: I’ve always wanted to ask you if you believe in things that are mysterious and inexplicable, because of your interest in science. Do you believe in things that can’t be explained … can’t be explained by our senses, and can’t ... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1852822 Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:59:09 +0100 1852822 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/10/03/thinking-positive-think-again/ If you google positive and cancer, you get over nine million hits. How did the positive-thinking mantra become the default position for cancer prevention? That question has been on my mind ever since my own negative-thinking drumbeat found both an audience (Newsweek, blogosphere) and, naturally, its fair share of criticism. For those who can remain upbeat throughout their diagnosis, treatment and aftermath, I say: Good for them. Some people are blessed with an optimistic outlook, either because of genetic predisposition or a happy childhood, or both. While cancer might give these lucky souls a bad day now and then, for the most part they stay steady even if their cancer progresses. But the above model of coping is of no use to other cancer patients. They’re in shock. The life they k... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1849030 Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:23:40 +0100 1849030 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/09/29/the-stupid-cancer-show/ Tonight I appeared on The Stupid Cancer Show, the weekly broadcast from Matthew Zachary, the founder of I’m Too Young for This. (For the record, I am in no way young, but I slipped in under the radar.) Files are available for listening anytime. Below is my script. I’m going to talk about cancer and lies. First you lie to yourself The fatigue/pain/lumps were always there. It’s not cancer! It can’t be. I’m too special to get cancer. Cancer is for other people. I’ve never been the disease type. I’m too hip for cancer. Cancer is so conformist, so dreary. All those unflattering turbans and sad smiles. Why would anyone choose cancer? Then again, some women go back to wife-beaters. But not me! Then the cancer establishment lies to you You’re gonn... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1838708 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:53:26 +0100 1838708 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/09/21/a-busy-day-for-life-and-death/ Jeff McCallum is the author of Somebody’s Bright Balloon, a collection of poems about and for cancer patients, caregivers and health professionals. McCallum lives in Minneapolis, where he works as a commercial building contractor. In his free time he’s involved in theater, activism and writing as therapy. Ed. Note: Not to hijack my own post, but regarding writing as therapy, I just gotta add: About a year ago I was approached by the founder of a new arts organization about teaching writing. Basically a volunteer position, but that alone didn’t stop me. I told the woman I’d be interested in teaching a class in cancer poetry or cancer memoir. She turned me down. She said cancer is so “negative” and her organization was new and she wanted to start things ... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1811688 Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:32:57 +0100 1811688 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/09/21/cancer-is-so-limited-i-beg-to-differ/ If you’ve ever googled cancer poems, you’ve come across this: What Cancer Can Not Do by Anonymous Cancer is so limited… It cannot cripple love It cannot shatter hope It cannot corrode faith It cannot destroy peace It cannot kill friendship(s) It cannot suppress memories It cannot silence courage It cannot invade the soul It cannot steal eternal life It cannot conquer the spirit.   Ya gotta love the attention to detail on “friendship(s).” A copyeditor must have shown up somewhere on the Internet daisy-chain. Cancer is so limited? What bullshit! Miss Anonymous, I want to have cancer on your planet. On my planet, cancer acts like a serial killer who’s got plenty of ammo and is just getting started. It cannot cripple love. Tell that to the woman whose boyfr... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1811689 Sun, 21 Sep 2008 05:29:29 +0100 1811689 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/09/20/the-oncologist-and-her-ghosts/                     The Oncologist and Her Ghosts by Donna Trussell Her nightmares are blizzards. Wind swallows words, and faces freeze beneath ice and snow. She wakes with a start. She rises, lies down, comforts herself with memories of another time before cities, before textbooks before patients who smiled and joked and died. No matter what she did, they died. She recalls a night on her father’s farm. Southern gusts swayed the moon-tipped trees and above her were the only gods she knew. She made a pact: The stars would protect her and she would save lives. She was just a child then, and even in Nebraska summer seemed endless and full of promise. First published in Chance of a Ghost Included in What’s Right About What’s Wrong   Note: My poems are often just as... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1811690 Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:54:41 +0100 1811690 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/09/20/the-writers-must-be-crazy/ Wonderful New York Times essay by writer/professor David Gessner (on the sanity required by academia versus the madness of creativity) got me thinking about one of my favorite songs. In an interview John Hiatt revealed how he came to write the offbeat love song “Ethylene.” I saw the name on a road sign in Missouri. There was this two mile stretch of road, and Ethylene was the name of the wife of the couple who had adopted this stretch of highway. I remember going to a gas station, and this guy was asking me questions, and running me through the wringer. In this gas station there were a bunch of stuffed heads of hunting trophies, and he mentioned that he and his wife bowhunt. He says, `Oh, my wife’s a better bowhunter than I am. She can bag her limit.’ I thought it... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1810568 Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:02:49 +0100 1810568 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/08/23/its-cancer-now-what/ Your first and most fervent wish — for the biopsy to be negative — did not come true. Life goes on. Schadenfreude is your new best friend You may think you’ll take advantage of your “down time” during treatment to catch up on classics you’ve always wanted to read.  Mr. Personality, hosted by Monica Lewinsky Au contraire! The brain-fog of chemo will prevent you from understanding anything more complicated than a menu.  My guilty pleasure of reality TV was just the ticket. For the record, only the first seasons of reality shows are worth watching. That’s where the biggest train wrecks are.  If a show becomes a hit, sponsors start meddling with the casting and scripting to make the show palatable to a mainstream audience.  Gone are the religiou... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1728300 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:56:16 +0100 1728300 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/08/21/poetry-reading-at-the-writers-place/ Poetry reading at the Writers Place in Kansas City on Friday, September 5 at 7:00. Authors Phyllis Becker and Donna Trussell will read from their books, just published by Helicon Nine. The Writers Place in Kansas City Of How I Came to Love Jazz by Phyllis Becker, Bruce Ricker wrote: In using jazz to animate her poetry, [she] joins Big Joe Turner, Mary Lou Williams, Charlie “Bird” Parker and Ralph Ellison as part of the orchestra of important cultural sounds springing forth from Kansas City. Of What’s Right About What’s Wrong by Donna Trussell, David Ray wrote: Every poem in this collection is a five star, worthy of the explicator’s science and the sensitive reader’s tears. Her poems of grief unavoidable, sustained, or in progress, join those of ... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1728301 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:37:38 +0100 1728301 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/08/19/im-too-special-to-get-cancer/ First comes the shock. In the (tongue-in-cheek) words of my friend, teacher and mentor the late James Tankard: Cancer? Me? But I’m too special to get cancer. People told me I was lucky — great doctors, good insurance, look at the bright side. People expected me to be positive and that’s when a disconnect happened. Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) Why didn’t I feel lucky? Why didn’t I feel positive? Who was I now, anyway?  I used to be someone’s wife, but I didn’t feel like a woman anymore. I didn’t even feel human. I pictured myself as some strange creature dragging around the house. I’d stare out the windows for a while, and then go back to bed. No one warned me of the horror of cancer. I felt like I was watching a movie, only... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1728302 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:24:48 +0100 1728302 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/08/18/mad-as-hell/ Journalist and cancer patient Leroy Sievers is dead. He was 53 years old. Many National Public Radio fans know his name, as do former viewers of the TV news show Nightline. I became aware of Sievers on a subliminal level in April 2004 when I watched the controversial Nightline program “The Fallen,” which Sievers initiated. At that time I was almost paralyzed with fear of recurrence, and I saw myself in every solder’s face that passed across the TV screen. I became aware of Sievers in a more direct way after he responded to a comment made by Mitt Romney’s wife. From Sievers’ blog entry Cancer Is Not the Lesser of Evils dated July 27, 2007: I was reading the current issue of People magazine. Yes, I’m a subscriber. One of the articles is about Ann Romne... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1728303 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:12:06 +0100 1728303 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/08/07/dateline-our-town-1938/ Jerry Orbach (left) in The Fantasticks (1960) New York City, 1960. That’s where I would go if I had a time machine. At the off-Broadway Sullivan Street Playhouse I would buy a ticket to see a young, charistmatic Jerry Orbach play El Gallo and, of course, sing “Try to Remember.” I’d go back again in 1943. The world is at war, but at the St. James Theatre, men are performing a ballet in cowboy boots. The play is Oklahoma! and it would make theater history, running a record 2,212 performances. Imagine seeing Agnes de Mille’s brilliant choreography in the context of 1943, before Oklahoma! had become canned corn. No matter who does the directing and acting, Oklahoma! can’t resonate today. It’s a joke. A beloved joke, but still a joke. In my time mac... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1728304 Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:16:11 +0100 1728304 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/08/05/the-war-within/ I just finished watching the final episode of The War, the 15-hour Ken Burns documentary on World War II that premiered almost a year ago. Last night I watched episode five, “FUBAR,” which seemed long and padded. The show swung wildly from prosaic observations that did nothing to deepen my understanding of war to monologues that just about broke my heart. And then back to the kind of “meh” narration that gives documentaries a bad name. Tonight I had the fast forward button at the ready. Didn’t use it. The finale, “A World Without War,” was packed: The fall of Berlin, the Holocaust, the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, Okinawa, the dropping of the atomic bomb, the liberation of prisoners of war in Japan. And the journey back to civilian life. Men ... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1728305 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:41:07 +0100 1728305 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/08/03/i-am-cuba/ I Am Cuba (1964, remastered 2007) I just watched the restored edition of the 1964 film I Am Cuba. Sure, it’s propaganda, but a poet co-wrote the script, and the cinematography alone qualifies the film as a masterpiece. One Amazon critic called the film ”a fever dream, a plunging rollercoaster ride, a cinematographer’s hallucination, a love song to the power of cinema.” It’s all that and more. A.V. Club site with May 1, 2008 review by Scott Tobias and clips from the film. When Mikhail Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba — a long-lost, phantasmagoric Cuban-Soviet propaganda film from 1964-was rediscovered and reissued in late 1995 by Milestone (with the prominent support of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola), critic Terrence Rafferty wrote the following in... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1728306 Sun, 03 Aug 2008 07:14:39 +0100 1728306 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/08/01/in-memory/ Randy Pausch, 1960-2008 I’ve been out of the loop. I just found out that 47-year-old professor Randy Pausch died of pancreatic cancer on July 25. I did not know him. On YouTube I watched his “last lecture,” and on March 13, I sent him this email: I thought about people like you after I was diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer in 2001. I thought: Why is everything breast and prostate? What about ovarian? What about pancreatic???  The idea of lethal “orphan” cancers — where the survivors don’t live long enough to make a fuss — continues to haunt me.  Like you, I went to Washington DC to lobby. The American Cancer Society happened to be holding a rally on Capitol Hill the same day. Survivors were marching and wearing banners that read: &#8... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1728307 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 04:08:09 +0100 1728307 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/07/31/overheard-in-kansas-city/ The changes you’re suggesting would take leadership. And vision. Telling management would be like throwing spitballs at an elephant. And a dead elephant at that. (Source: Donna Trussell) Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1728308 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:19:33 +0100 1728308 http://donnatrussell.com/2008/07/29/mfa-pyramid-ponzi-or-paradise/ Are Master of Fine Arts programs pyramids that enrich a few at the top and embitter those at the bottom?  Are they Ponzi schemes that ultimately collapse on themselves? Or are they heavens on earth for those who practice the secular religion of writing? This debate has been raging for decades. Years ago I read an article — I believe it was in Poets & Writers. (Edited to add: I think it’s this article, “Why Is American Fiction in Its Current Dismal State,” by Anis Shivani. Thank you conepuppet.) Open up any current leading journal, and the typical story starts off with these phrasal bits: “My mother…my father…I was in the sixth grade…my friend Ellie…in the backseat of my parents’ car…” The author’s point... Donna Trussell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1728309 Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:20:46 +0100 1728309