I develop college textbooks. I know...I thought I'd be smarter too. Look, the Internet is a weird place, full of weird stuff. This is some of it. Mostly comic books that I've read recently and music...and sometimes the periodic existential yearning for...
This is Lucy. She is the Gateway chapter of Team in Training’s honored hero for 2016. Less than a month ago she had a bone marrow transplant after a very rough year of two experimental t-cell treatments for her leukemia. Today she’s kicking ass, starting cycling training before her TNT teammates. My friends (including Lucy’s aunt) are training to ride a century around Lake Tahoe and raise $100,000 to get a research portfolio in Lucy’s name.
Last week you put down $2 for Powerball. How about $5 this week for PowerLucy?
Look, if you don’t want me to have Captain Marvel take over Asgard, then don’t package Odin’s head with her. So much more fun than actually working at my desk.
In the “living a dream I never knew I had” department, my friend Mike Pongracz, who is a voice over artist (and voice of Air Hogs), did the VO for this Star Wars toy commercial. That lucky Canadian son of a bitch.
Tiny Voices ranks as one of, if not my absolute, favorite albums (go buy the physical disc, as it is music that seems to year to take physical form). According to AllMusic, the sessions for this album started thirteen years ago today and lasted for a mere five days. When you look at the roster of musicians on the album, it’s not hard to imagine. You have Joe Henry’s songs as a core, with his vision as producer, leading a group of performers who would likely be able to perform a symphony with only a matchbook and rubber bands. But when you *feel* the album’s lushness, when you close your eyes and just listen to how much is going on, it’s hard to imagine this didn’t take a decade to assemble. It’s no more a reflection of 2003, when it was released, than it is of a jazz bar in 1956 or an indie rock festival from last month. Its sound exists entirely outside of time or place. It is every genre and no genre simultaneously. Each song is like walking down a street with exotic sounds drifting in and out of your hearing from the open doorways of dark, unseen music halls while your step keeps time. Sometimes atonal, not quite in rhythm with what you thought you were hearing. It’s the spirits of American music sitting down and jamming to a mysterious beat, surging, throbbing and receding like a frantic crowd. It is, in fact, a crowd. The vocal tells you the story while the saxophone whispers the truth and the piano tells you a different tale. The drums insist it’s all lies while the horns try to pull you away, until they all come together in a thunderous, deep, soul shaking chord. It may have taken five days to record, but I’ve spent more than a decade trying to unravel Tiny Voices’ mysteries. I hope I never succeed.
Annual Halloween bike ride. This year I rode 50 miles in the rain as Dorothy. My friends driving SAG obviously enjoyed it. Thanks to my wife and daughter for helping make it cycling friendly
It’s been a hell of a great year on the bike. I’ve helped my friend Mary climb a mountain and complete a century (100 miles). I’ve become a coach for Team in Training and helped train 16 people for 16 weeks to finish a century. My kickass wife was one of those people who completed her first century. As a lifelong flat-lander I’ve put in more than 100,000 vertical feet of climbing in over 3600 miles. I’ve been part of teams that raised over $130,000 for blood cancer research and I’ve ridden in memory of three kids.I’ll top 4,000 miles for the year and probably 120,000 feet. I hope. I don’t want to stop. Not bad for not being so fucking young anymore.
Neil dressed startorially for the NYC premier of the Martian, too! Thanks to Michele Banks & Prof. Karin Sandstrom for alerting us to the post on GoFugYourself.
The fabric on Neil’s vest sure looks familiar… Check it out as Rachael’s dress and Keri’s dress, or buy it yourself!
And, might those be stars on his lapels?
Either that or Neil was chowing one some glitter donuts before strutting down the red carpet… I’m not sure which explanation amuses me more!
ETA: The vest is by Curious Cat Clothing (thanks to slythgeek for the tip!). There are no vests listed in their shop, but lots of other cool custom clothing!
–Emily
P.S. The Fug Girls helped get me through grad school, figuratively at least - they didn’t, like, help me with quantum mechanics problem sets. Or did they?!?!?
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Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-'God damn it, you've got to be kind.'
Thank you again Tumblr comics fans. You helped my team do something truly great for not just one family, but potentially thousands of families in the future. My daughter will help me select the winners of the comics and emails will go out by Friday. Everyone who donated publicly will be getting a gift in the mail later this month as well. Thank you again, kellysue, mattfractionblog and Cory Doctorow.
We just returned from America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride. 100 miles around Lake Tahoe, through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, up switchbacks at Emerald Bay and a grueling seven-mile climb starting at mile 80 to Spooner Summit, which is 1000 vertical feet of climbing. Once you catch your breath at the top, you still have 13 miles to go. I rode with a stuffed Chewbaca wearing Mickey ears on my bike in memory of my friend’s son Sam, who died ten years ago. I wore a tiara on my helmet and had painted my nails with the official Princess Margo Pink in honor of our Princess Warrior. Little did I know that Tumblr’s own kateordie was one of the inspirations behind Margo’s Princess Warrior moniker.
Below the fold you can find out more about what we did and how the ride went.
The St. Louis chapter raised over $105,000 and, in total, the 700 TNT riders who participated in this raised over $3 million. Some of that money goes to copay support, transportation assistance and other programs for patients. Most of it, however, goes to research and the $105,000 we raised goes to a research portfolio in memory of Margo Miller, a little girl in St. Louis who died of acute lymphoblastic leukemia on New Year’s Eve. My friend’s son Sam, who I was riding in memory of, and Kailie, who our team is named after, also died of ALL ten years ago. With this grant, Margo’s family will be able to follow research that targets the very cancer that they fought with their daughter. The hope is they will one day find a cure for ALL, or treatments that will drastically change the outcomes. As one of my teammates said, we do this “so there are no more sad stories.” When I passionately talk about a cure, especially for ALL, I include the parents in that group. There is no cure for what my friends Melanie, John, Johnelle, or Margo’s parents have. Their grief will always linger.
We will be presenting Margo’s family with the research portfolio later this month. They are stunned and thrilled by the support of so many people in their daughter’s memory.
For me, this year’s bike ride was something different. I started the day with a group of people who easily finished the century. By mile 40 I dropped back and was riding with a slower group, helping them up the hills, keeping them eating and drinking in the dry air and just talking with them to distract them until they realized they had just reached the top. At mile 80 I found my friend Mary and her brother Mike at the bottom of the Spooner climb. Mary is a slow rider and she started out two hours before the official start. Last year she had to get a ride to the top of Spooner, so this year she was determined to finish it under her own power.
I had been riding with Mike’s girlfriend who was just behind where I found them, so I told him to go ahead and ride with her and I’d ride with Mary to the finish. Mary fought the whole way up. Sometimes we had to stop after a couple hundred feet for her to catch her breath, but those hundred feet started to add up to a mile, then five, then six, until we reached the summit. Her brother Mike, her other brother Russ (who is the cancer survivor she was riding for), her brother in law Scott, our official support driver John, and his assistant for the day Chris (who also happens to be my wife) were standing at the top with horns, cowbells and cheers. All of the LLS staff working the racecourse were standing there with flags and signs. We pulled off the road and Mary threw her arms around me, sobbing, “I did it! I did it!”
We talked about a lot of things in those difficult seven miles, but the one word she never used was “can’t.”
We still had 13 miles to go. She was exhausted. I had to put my hand on her back to give her a shove up the last little hill on the way into the finish, but we made it. We even got to enjoy riding through a tunnel where we both yelled “WEEEEE!” and listened to it echo against the stone walls. We were the last two to cross the line. Mary rode ahead of me, pumping her fist in the air as our entire team, all 25, many who had finished hours before, their families, LLS staff, cheered her. The picture above is us at the finish. Everything was shut down, but for Mary, it was like winning the Tour de France.
I am honored to call Mary a friend and teammate. I am proud I was able to share this accomplishment with her.
Rocking Princess Margo Pink with a TNT purple racing stripe for tomorrow's century. We've raised over $106,000 for the LLS. All that's left is to ride.
It is now time to say thank you to everyone who liked, shared and donated to my LLS fundraising. We have officially reached our goal with 30 days to go.
You helped fund a research grant in Margo Miller’s memory. You didn’t just say “childhood cancer sucks.” You funded specific research that can lead to new treatments, and one day a cure, for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. You let this princess warrior become the superhero she knew she was.
Thank you all for being so generous. I’ll be drawing names for the comics next week after I do the 100 mile ride with my teammates. Each person who donated will be getting a small token of appreciation in the mail later this month.
A special thanks to kellysue, mattfractionblog, kitcox, and Cory Doctorow for their generosity of time, ink and general coolness. Some simple signatures and generously spent time have helped accomplish something enormous. The lesson I’ll take away from this is never doubt the impact of even the smallest act of kindness.
As for me, I’m far from done. I return from this Team in Training event on June 8th and on June 16th I start as a coach for the next Gateway cycling team. From then until October 5th I will be working with a new group of cyclists--some who are first timers--to raise money and get ready to ride 100 miles through our Missouri Ozarks. My teammates will be cancer patients, survivors, and loved ones riding in honor, or in memory, of people with various blood cancers.
For me, this isn’t just about Margo. It’s about my friends’ daughter Kailie, who died of acute lymphoblastic leukemia eleven years ago. It’s about my friend’s son Sam, who died of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, ten years ago. It’s about my teammate last year, Dr. Keith, whose LLS-funded research developed the drug that allowed my friend and teammate Cory to be a lymphoma survivor. Most importantly, it’s about one of Dr. Keith’s patients...my brother. My brother is the reason I joined TNT. He’s one year out from having stem cell transplant for multiple myeloma.
Thank you again, Tumblr. You proved that together we can all be heroes.
In 1851 Olive Oatman was a thirteen-year old pioneer traveling west toward Zion, with her Mormon family. Within a decade, she was a white Indian with a chin tattoo, caught between cultures. Orphaned when her family was brutally killed by Yavapais Indians, Oatman lived as a slave to her captors for a year before being traded to the Mohave, who tattooed her face and raised her as their own. She was fully assimilated and perfectly happy when, at nineteen, she was ransomed back to white society. She became an instant celebrity, but the price of fame was high and the pain of her ruptured childhood lasted a lifetime.
Oatman’s story has since become legend, inspiring artworks, fiction, film, radio plays, and even an episode of Death Valley Days starring Ronald Reagan. Its themes, from the perils of religious utopianism to the permeable border between civilization and savagery, are deeply rooted in the American psyche. Oatman’s blue tattoo was a cultural symbol that evoked both the imprint of her Mohave past and the lingering scars of westward expansion. It also served as a reminder of her deepest secret, she never wanted to go home.
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