Life full of mania with a dash of humor and a slice of normality (those are the secret ingredients) Vol 5 Issue 4

Lights come up slowly to reveal the Lombardi living room where Michael and Lombardi are found.

Michael: “An abnormal psychology professor stands in front of his classroom and lectures about mental health symptoms to his class. Sensing a lack of engagement in the material he tests the class with a question. A subject is pacing furiously back and forth while screaming at their top of their lungs one minute and then sits stoically and solemnly alone without muttering a sound the next. What is this person? A few seconds past when a hand appears in the back and exclaims: A football coach!”

A moment passes with Michael and Lombardi frozen in anticipation when suddenly.

Lombardi: “Hahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahah hahahahahahahahaha.”

The entire playhouse erupts in laughter, it was the biggest and best punch line in the entire play. Well I thought watching two fairly feminine actors play football players that get in a brawl with each other in the locker-room was pretty funny. I seriously just wanted them to kiss each other as they went toe-to-toe, the sexual tension in the place was out of control.

Ok, that’s a little harsh on my end, I’m just venting from the mental health joke. I mean seriously we had to go to coaches being crazy to be funny? That’s not played out or anything. The good thing is they didn’t try to go back to the well with that joke or anything. Oh except the very next scene when Lombardi is butchering the joke (I took liberties as well but the joke is still coherent) while “retelling” it to his alcoholic wife. By the way Vince, if you were crazy you would have probably remembered the joke, we tend to have higher intellects.

I know that’s enough cheap shots at Lombardi, he can’t defend himself now and plus he was a devout catholic that went to Mass every day and said God Damn only 40 times in the 96 minute play. That was the last one I promise. I actually did enjoy the play of Lombardi and that’s not only because it’s the only one I’ve ever been to. Unless you count that one high school play I attended but I was only there because my buddy was dating a palm tree in it or something. Actually I think it was Oklahoma so she was a wagon wheel.

To be honest I didn’t learn much about Lombardi because I had already seen a HBO special over him and they usually bring the heat with those things. It doesn’t matter how far into the “The Rivalry: Michigan vs. Ohio State” I still watch that son of bitch to this day. There was a little bit of an evil side (I’m so deep ya know) though to me during the play in that I kind of wanted see someone screw up. I just wanted to see what would happened if one of the football players like tackled the wrong person or better yet fell down. I just like to watch people’s reactions to screwing up I guess, life ain’t perfect and it’s fun to be there when people are reminded of that.

Don’t worry no one dropped the ball and if they did they all covered so well I couldn’t tell. Overall I really enjoyed the show though, I mean aside from the crazy joke. I don’t why but it just pissed me off that they even included the joke in the play, it really didn’t have anything to do with anything. Other than I guess making me go off of this God Damn (shout out Lombardi) tangent right now and it’s actually been kind of fun.

Since many of my manic experiences involve music I’ve decided to add random music videos to the blog for my enjoyment and your inconvenience. Enjoy!

Coming Correct,

d01roK

Life full of mania with a dash of humor and a slice of humanity (those are the secret ingredients) Vol 5 Issue 3

So I spent about a week or so in January working on a piece for Witt’s website around a first person perspective on the current conversation around mental health and the need to change it. I thought it was a pretty solid effort on my end and here’s some of the highlights:

·         I don’t think there’s one right or wrong way to try and live with a severe mental health issue like bipolar disorder, but I do think there is a way. That may not sound like much of a breakthrough to you but dammit that’s like a huge revelation for me.

·         I know it’s crazy to think that these mental health stereotypes and stigma will ever cease to exist and I’ve obviously made peace with that per the previous really bad word play.  

·         It’s all around us so go be a hipster and check out Daniel Johnston’s documentary on VHS, how about being even more ironic and listening to a Beethoven  hit or two just for pleasure, or maybe just stare at a Catherine Zeta-Jones picture for a few minutes, not to mention Van Gogh’s aren’t too hard on the eyes either. Oh I don’t know, like say, I’m really getting into Demi Lovato’s sound right now and you should too.  Actually, just ignore that last one but you all get the point.  I hope I have persuaded you to help and try and change the current conversation out there about mental health; I think we all need that. 

I’m not sure if you’d call those highlights but they were my jokes that were cut out of the final edit of my op-ed piece (is it still in my voice if nearly 25% of it is removed during edits?). Look I know my humor isn’t for everyone and that was made obvious by an early critic who believed the only person who could benefit from my book was a recently frat boy diagnosed with bipolar disorder (harsh, right). But I kind of feel like that’s who I am and the whole point of the article.

I should be fair and say it wasn’t a terrible article afterwards and I definitely could have gave the OK to the article (and did for like an hour) to let it run. I mean overall it was still a pretty good article aside from it not really sounding like me. I think there still was a valid message in the article about the need to get away from stereotypes and stigma currently in the mental health conversation but it just didn’t sound like me.

Let’s be honest, I don’t have a lot in my life right now that’s purely mine. Not money or job, nor career, no house, nein girlfriend and the list could go on but who doesn’t have problems (hell Russia is already stockpiling snow for the Olympics next year by making orphans shovel it instead of being adopted in the US-now I see how some don’t get my humor). Right now though my voice is one of the few things that I believe is truly mine and I’d like to hang on to it.

You know being an indie writer with literally tens of books sold I should jump at any opportunity for some press. But my whole point of the article was to have people look at mental health differently. Looking through a creative lens rather than one that seems to be only filled with stigma. So it just didn’t feel right putting something out there that wasn’t really me, in fact, that sounds exactly like what I was trying to change.

Since many of my manic experiences involve music I’ve decided to add random music videos to the blog for my enjoyment and your inconvenience. Enjoy!

Coming Correct,

d01roK