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Mike Oliver’s offbeat Lewy body dementia book is now for sale on Amazon.com

Click here: Amazon.com : the lewy chronicles paperback

It’s called The Lewy Chronicles: One man’s battle for his brain and his sanity.

It is a compilation of my blog postings as found in myvinylcountdown.com. The MVC website has nearly half-a-million pageviews. And that doesn’t include some of the pageviews when MVC shared columns or posts with AL.com.

So, if you’ve been an avid reader of my blog these past few years, many of the postings may be familiar. (Funny thing, though, I don’t remember some of these and I wrote them!)

It’s an unusual book, in that it contains essays, poems, random thoughts and recollection of some very scary times.

But, it’s been fun going back and listening to the music and remembering how a specific song or album can bring you back to the past. I made the vow to review in print all of my 678 vinyl records. I started in 2016 with two King Sun Ade discs and and finished with ZZ Top. Obviously, I was working the alphabetical method and using the albums as vehicles to to tell my story (I had 3 Cars albums by the way speaking of vehicles.) This book focuses more on the essays and other content and less on the album reviews, although there are a number of album reviews in here.

The book may not be the most memorable (oh stop it)!) book you read all year, but it is short. At least compared to War and Peace. So go to Amazon right now and order your copy.

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Songs are sign posts of our past

Everyone has certain songs that take you back to another place and time, songs that trigger physiological changes in your body. These songs may conjure up ghosts, pleasures, anguish, and broken-hearted pain.

They may be sad songs; they may be bad songs. They cast a spell on you. (Insert ‘Screamin’ Jay Hawkins here.) They may be classics. But when they come on, you turn that radio up. (Insert Van Morrison song here.)

My song for this episode of Signpost Songs is a song you probably never heard of. It’s called ‘Down South’ and it’s an original song by the two-person band (duo?) called A Brief View of the Hudson.)

I heard this song as I was driving home from work one night across the Richmond Bridge sometime around 2005,

Anyway, I called the Berkeley public radio show which had broadcast the song. He said something ‘like what song we talking about here?’ I said that’s why I am calling. I ended up having to hum a few bars with words that I remember. I’m singing “And we drive down south and we drive down south. OK, he says, that’s ‘Drive Down South’ (no? really?) by ‘A Brief View of the Hudson.’ He knew nothing about the song and he was busy, kept me on hold for 15 minutes.

So I put in a lot of effort to get this song. It remains one of my favorites, melancholy, laid back vocals that make you believe they knew heartache and then, the refrain.

And then we roll down south

And you try to figure out what you just could not figure out.

Relocating from California to Alabama was a big decision and the song provided the soundtrack.

And we drove down s

SOUTH VIDEO HERE:

. f

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‘Mac Daddy’ McClung and Me

(This is an opinion article.)

I was going to write this sooner but I didn’t.

In case you missed it, Matthew ‘Mac’ McClung didn’t either. Miss, that is.

The newly signed Philadelphia 76ers guard soared to victory at the NBA’s AT&T All Star Slam Dunk Contest last month, making perfect scores on four of five dunks, hitting all of them on the first try, and bringing down the house in Salt Lake City.

Three weeks before the Feb. 18 dunk contest I met McClung in Birmingham after his Delaware Blue Coats beat the Birmingham Squadron of the NBA’s developmental league called the G-League.

Actually, I literally just bumped into him as I was beginning to exit. Being a little shaky due to my Lewy body dementia, I said excuse me before I knew it was him.

‘Mac McClung,’ I said, as I reached out my hand. ‘I’m a big fan. Ever since the mixtapes.’

It’s fair to say that neither one of us at that time knew how utterly big and famous Mac would be in three weeks.

Just winning the dunk contest doesn’t mean McClung will succeed in the NBA. But it does mean there will be more eyes on him, millions more. So, it’s his time to shine.

Speaking of eyes, I was eye-to-eye with him, and he didn’t seem to be the advertised 6’2.” I am 6′ and one-half inch. I felt like I had an inch on him. And I think I’ve shrunk a little bit. But it was close. Could have just been how we were standing.

Besides he can just grab an inch or two extra from his vertical and add it to his height. I think I’d need four-foot arms to start thinking about dunking like Big Mac.

I told him that I was a big fan and used to do some of those moves you showed tonight about 40 years ago. (I could never dunk.) He said something nice back like ‘I bet you can still do some.’ (Or something like that).

McClung’s was more or less in the minors playing for the Delaware Blue Coats when he got the call-up from NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. The Sixers are the Blue Coats’ affiliated team. He was signed to a two-way contract which allows him to play for both the 76ers in the NBA and the Blue Coats, depending on a team’s need at any given time.

Until now, the people who had heard of him, if at all, were because of viral videos of McClung’s dramatic dunks during games at high school in Gate City, a very small town in Virginia.

He broke Allen Iverson’s statewide scoring record in high school and played three years of steady but not spectacular college ball: Two seasons at Georgetown and one at Texas Tech, before declaring for the NBA draft. He averaged 14.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists for his college career.

I believe Mac McClung is an NBA player,” said Warriors Coach Steve Kerr, addressing media after Summer League.

But Kerr went on to explain that he was not taking him at Golden State because the team was looking for the stretch guard/forward position.

At 6’2” and a relatively short wingspan, McClung didn’t fit the bill. Others have questioned his defensive game. There were concerns McClung couldn’t guard the long 6-foot-7-inch athletes that teams are lining up with in the shooting guard and, even point guard, positions.

But McClung appears to be continuing to progress in harnessing his extreme athleticism. He’s tearing it up with the Blue Coats, averaging 19 points, 2.5 assists and 4.1 rebounds, hitting 57 percent of his shots.

At 43.5 inches, his vertical leap is among the top 10 in draft G League combine history, including the NBA.

But alas, following moderately successful college stints at Georgetown, and Texas Tech, he went undrafted in the 2021 draft. He certainly didn’t fit the usual mold of an NBA player at 6-feet-2-inches tall and 185 pounds. And yes, if you haven’t figured it out by now, he is white.

He now becomes the second white man to win the decades old NBA Dunk Contest. Brent Berry won it in 1991.

It was almost as if McClung has had to work harder to prove himself because scouts, coaches, and general managers can’t believe their eyes. McClung’s game and appearance don’t show up on the metrics being used to evaluate a player. McClung doesn’t meet the ‘eye test.’

In size and to a degree — basketball ability — he reminds me of Allen Iverson, mentioned elsewhere in this article. He won a dunk contest at an event hosted by Iverson in 2118, showcasing a between the legs dunk called an East Bay.

It didn’t take viewers of the latest slam dunk contest in Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City to know they were in for a special night. On his first dunk, McClung, soared over two people — one on the shoulders of the other — grabbed the ball from the top of the head of the highest individual, tapped the backboard with the ball and then reverse dunked.

That’s a lot of hang time.

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Is it time to raise the rim in the NBA?

Last week’s record-setting flurry of 40-point-plus games by individual players made me wonder. What if the rim, through which you must shoot to score a basket, was higher by 12 inches?

This move would make it harder to dunk and also, one would suspect, make it more difficult to score from outside, especially from the ever popular 3- point shot line, located 23.75 feet from the basket at its longest point.

Let’s face it, athletes are getting stronger, faster and bigger. Dunking at one time was a rarity, not the norm. Now, everybody on the team including the towel boy can throw it down.

Of course, it’s all part of the show. Something about slamming the ball through the hoop with emphasis makes the crowd go wild.

There are no style points, ladies and gentlemen. A dunk is worth two points, just like a simple lay-up.

It’s obvious that the dunk is the most popular play in the game. Hence the flexing, the primal screams and human electricity that ensues. My argument is now is the time to get ahead of the curve. Future ball players can start practicing on 11-foot hoops.

Adding 12 inches may not deter young dunkers like Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies, who looks like he’s been shot out of a cannon on his moves to the net.

Even older dunkmeisters like LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers probably wouldn’t have many problems. At 38, LeBron, may be old by pro basketball standards, but anyone who has watched him lately can see the 6-foot-9 inch superstar still has enough hops, it appears, to put his chin on the rim.

How would Golden State Warriors guard, Stephen Curry, who is one of the game’s top scorers, fare trying to dunk at 11 feet? It would change his offensive approach for sure. I suspect Curry would adjust; he’s going to get his.

Some may argue the 10-foot dunk has stood the test of time. Unlike other rules in the game. My argument is now is the time to get ahead of the curve. There are basketball players in other parts of the world who are 8-feet-tall who can grab the rim while standing.

Damian Lillard, with the Portland Trail Blazers, and Curry have been known to be logo shooters — that is, shooting and making shots from the logo painted in the middle of the court. It is a ridiculous shot from 35 feet or more. But Curry and Lillard make it enough to keep doing it.

Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers, rained in 71 points this week on dunks, 3-pointers, foul shots, you name it.

It was the highest scoring outburst since Kobe Bryant’s 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in 2006. Wilt Chamberlin, the 7-footer from the 1960’s and 1970’s still holds the all time record, an astonishing 100-point game. Wilt also holds the highest average record, averaging 50 points a game for the year.

Mitchell’s 71-point performance this past week came on the heels of a 60-point, 21-rebound, 10- assist night from Luka Doncic, of Slovenia, a rising star in the NBA.

The next day Luka dropped 51 points on the San Antonio Spurs. Coach Gregg Popovich joked before the game that his team’s strategy would be to hold Doncic to 50.

Maybe if they had raised the rims.

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The future of drug sniffing dogs and other random thoughts

Be patient. It takes a while to wile away the hours. (Actually, it only takes an ‘h’.)

To be honest, I’m tired of Lewy body dementia. Thinking about it. Talking about it. Writing about it. Living with it.

And what have I learned in the six years? That it’s good to have a few pairs of stretch pants with an elastic waist band. Constipation and bloating are some of Lewy’s most uncomfortable symptoms, and you will be more comfortable with pants that stretch nicely at the waist. You know, the kind pregnant women wear. Two of my daughters have just had babies and I remember thinking at one point that golly gee I look more pregnant than they do.

A reminder tip to stay attuned to the affects of low blood pressure, hypotension, to avoid passing out.

I believe I’ve warned about this before in this space, but it’s important. That dizzy feeling you get when you stand up too quick. Over the years, I’ve learned to catch myself. In one fall I wasn’t so lucky. I got stitches after hitting the first couple of stairs. I’ve lived and learned to take deep breaths now when I go up the stairs and beforehand. Also, before your journey, put your head between your legs and kiss … oops, that was an adolescent intrusion into my brain.

Seriously, put your head down and feel the blood come back to your brain before you stand up. w

Or while doing stand-up comedy even. Take my brain, here literally take my brain. It’s got a lot of wear and tear on it, so go head and take it.

Another tip, while we are on tips: Increase salt intake. But please, consult your doctor first. High salt levels increase the chances of stroke.

What else is there? Oh right this is a random thoughts column so I can go anywhere I want. How about Maine. About six weeks ago I went there for some R&R with my wife, Catherine. We saw gorgeous fall colors, and ate delicious lobster.

Did you know that Maine is the only state in the U.S. with a one-syllable name. And those who make Maine their home are called Mainers.

‘Mainers’ are looking forward to great weather this weekend. chirped the weather woman on a local channel.

We stayed in the Bar Harbor area close to Arcadia National Forest. One observation: the roads were incredibly smooth, an indication that Mainers are on top of the quality road thing. Only downside is that we had to single-lane it and slow down several times due to road construction and repair.

You get what you pay for I suppose. Except for when it come to lobster. We bought two freshly steamed lobsters for a total of just over $25. Total! We got the lobsters in a grocery story, steaming while we waited. One and half pounds of meat is on each lobster they told us.

Speaking of animals. I said speaking of animals, what about drug sniffing dogs. Are they going to be unemployed as more and more states legalize marijuana, which is by far the main substance that has led trained dogs to turn a traffic stop into a crime scene.

Guess the dogs can put in a transfer to the tracking lost humans department.

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From the Archives: My Top 5 Christmas albums

I know it’s getting a little late in the season. But in 2017, I published on Christmas Day, a list of my Top 5 Christmas albums.

In the interest of saving our environment, I am going to recycle and give you the same ones. Stop, don’t hit that button that sends you away from what you are reading, (namely this).

I didn’t get caught up in the Christmas music thing as much this year. There are several reasons for that. My big old honking iPod with more than 600 holiday oriented songs is dead.

Actually it has been dead for a long time. It also has several thousand non-Christmas songs on it

Below is a listing of my Top 5 Christmas albums. Click here to get the full story.

No. 1: ‘Blue Yule.’  (1991) The holiday as a joyful time can be force fed so as to render you blue.

No. 2 Sufjan Stevens ‘Songs for Christmas (2006)

Five ep cd’s in one package, from this indie rock genius.

No. 3  The Roches “We Three Kings.” (1990)

These three sisters from New Jersey kill it with harmonies.

No. 4  Phil Spector ‘A Christmas Gift for You’ or reissue “Phil Spector’s Christmas Album’ (1963, Original date)

Phil Spector’s records featuring girl groups and happy/sad songs.

No. 5 George Winston – December (1982)

The soft touch on piano never fails to induce sleep. And that’s a good thing at this stage in my life.

NOTES: I have a Jimi Hendrix CD where he does Little Drummer Boy, among other songs and, of course, he could not restrain himself from using four dimensions of feedback. I also have a red hot CD of a punky group  called the Fleshtones  playing Christmas music. Other discs that deserve honorable mention include Festival of Lights (various), Best of  Cool Yule (various) j Before and After Christmas (Love Tractor), Go Tell it on the Mountain (The Blind Boys of Alabama), The Best of Cool Yule (various), Christmas in Swing Time (Harry Allen), Christmas, Christmas (Bruce Cockburn) and  Caravan (Squirrel Nut Zippers).

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New days ahead

It’s one of those slowed down beautiful Fall days. Yellow leaves fall and float against a cloudless blue sky.

It’s about room temperature. Except you get a little leftover summer breeze if you sit outside.

The day is idyllic but I can’t settle my mind. A news alert warned of a wreck that shut down two lanes of I-65. My middle daughter, Emily, went to a wedding in North Carolina over the weekend and would be driving back. Worried mind, I called her. She was fine. She’s in her early-30s for goodness sakes but worries take hold.

No matter how old, you worry.

This is all a long way of telling you I had another grand child this week. Eloise Mae Archibald, a beautiful baby girl. The sweet petite baby was 6-pounds 3-ounces, birthed by my daughter Claire. Ramsay Archibald, son of my friend and colleague John Archibald, is the father.

Her Wednesday. Oct. 28, birth, comes on the heels of Isaac Michael Turner born April 13 in Korea where mother, Hannah and father, Tom Turner live. We were blessed to have been able to see Isaac thanks to my sister, Julie, who bankrolled a surprise visit to see us and other friend and relatives.

Seeing the babies and watching them and holding them did something to me. It reinforced my commitment to fight this disease Lewy body dementia, which I have had now for six years. Life expectancy after diagnosis is on average 5 to 8 years.

The grandchildren reminded me of the fragility and perpetual nature of life’s cycle, death and rebirth. It also showed me to be wary of another cycle, the spin cycle of worry.

Everything is going to be OK.

There won’t always be blue skies, but when there are, you appreciate them with every fiber in your being.

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RIP Gus

Gus is dead.

The rust-colored family dog, a poodle mix, breathed his last breath Monday morning, moments after a veterinarian injected him with a lethal drug.

He was 17.

I wasn’t there at the time of death. I couldn’t bear adding anything to the trauma it brought to me. As someone living with Lewy body dementia, things like this give me a double- wallop.

My wife, Catherine, who was at the clinic in Avondale, said Gus died peacefully about 8:30 a.m.

I’ve been through this before. My father is a retired veterinarian. Molly, my yellow Labrador, was euthanized in 2012. I was stroking Molly when the injection was made, and Molly’s eyes went from deep pools of consciousness to click and fixed.

I wrote about my experience with Molly and then later wrote about Gus’ health declining . Euthanizing Molly was an easier call to make than Gus. Molly went from walking to not walking in just a couple days. She lie sprawled on the kitchen floor wheezing, likely due to heart failure. We carried her literally to the car to go to the vet.

Gus’ situation made it more difficult to make a call. At 17 Gus was already well beyond life expectancy but he was not senile and he was fairly mobile. He had a tumor larger than a golf ball on one side of his chest. It was benign. His back legs were in various stages of paralysis and climbing the stairs at night to come sleep on his dog bed was becoming more arduous. More than once he slipped and rolled down those steps. Only to pop up and try it again.

The newest deficit was incontinence. Unable to make it to somebody who would let him out, Gus ended up leaving ‘surprises’ for us nearly every morning. His eyes were clouded with cataracts, and as far as I could tell he was about 90 percent deaf. To hear you, Gus had to see your face, kind of like a lip reader.

Counting family pets growing up, I’ve had more than a half-dozen dogs during my life. Gus was probably the second smartest one I’ve had. Maggie, a dog we had in the 1980s, rescued from the Etowah County dog shelter near Gadsden, was a mixed border collie and literally could understand everything you said. Catherine rescued Gus from a shelter in San Francisco. Gus’ nickname was psychodoodle for his frenetic energy driven behavior in earlier years.

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Dunk brings it home for Lewy body fight

The game was knotted at 18. It had been getting a little intense, some might even say ‘chippy.’

The next bucket would win.

Every  shot was fiercely contested. Most shots brought shouts of ‘Foul,’ and the ensuing usual arguments. 
“You’re holding.” “He traveled.” That’s to be expected when the two best teams in a field of 17 are duking it out.

It was the finals Saturday morning, Aug. 20, for the 2022 MikeMadness’ basketball fundraising event. Lives were on the line.

Say what? MikeMadness raised a Madness record, about $16,000 for research and awareness of Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disease that is always fatal.

I have the disease. So they were playing for me and the other 1.4 million affected by the disease in the U.S.


Jim Bakken/UAB

The event brought 100’s of family members, friends, and curious spectators and thousands of dollars (we are still awaiting official tallies.)

So it all came to down to this, 18-18. Nineteen wins it.

Jim Bakken, chief communications officer at UAB, had the ball in his hands at the top of the key.

“You have no idea how much I look forward to Mike Madness,” Bakken said later. ” Getting to play in it this year with my son and showing him why the day is so special was really meaningful to me.”

His son, Jack Bakken, a 16-year-old hoopster at Mount Brook High School, was on dad’s team. And he was a chip off the old block: long and lanky, only a few inches shorter than his 6′ -foot-6-inch father.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham and the UAB Student Rec Center have hosted Mike Madness for four of the last six years since 2017. COVID thwarted attempts in 2020 and 2021.

MikeMadness has raised a total of more than $55,000 with the the four tournaments.

“So much of what UAB is about – like health and wellness, research and serving the greater good – is embodied in the tournament, and we are honored to join Mike in his fight.” 

Jim Bakken splits the double-team at MikeMadness, a fundraiser to find a cure for Lewy Body dementia. The3X3 basketball event at UAB Rec Center was all tied up and at game point when Bakken drove the lane and slammed down a vicious dunk. (Photo: Trisha Powell Crain)

But what about the game? The UAB team and the Power Ballers have met before in Mike Madness finals. They are usually hard fought games, and this was no exception as it came down to the wire.

”It is a bit of a blur,” Bakken remembers.”I was actually planning to pass to a younger teammate but saw an opening to go left and create some separation. I decided to drive hard and see what happened. As a 44-year-old weekend warrior, my athleticism and ability to drive hard can be pretty inconsistent, but luckily I caught a little burst of adrenaline. ”Without that, I’m pretty sure it would have been a boring but fundamentally sound left handed lay-up.”

Instead it was a slam dunk amid three defenders. The crowd went wild.

NOTE: Early post of this story had the wrong date for the tournament. Correct date was Aug. 20, 2022. Also corrected to say 17 teams participated. For more information see www.myvinylcountdown.com and the Lewy body dementia association LBDA.org.

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Basketball and me

Basketball has long been my measuring stick for how my disease was affecting my game.

And no, I don’t mean that I make up a little game and say to myself if I can make 5, 3-pointers in a row I am cured.

But I did keep close tabs on how Lewy was affecting the various skills that basketball requires. Eye-hand coordination, stamina, and lateral movement. Could I still hit from long distance without too much overcompensation for lost strength? Could I still dribble drive around someone?

Notice how I am writing this, in the past tense. I ‘did’ keep tabs: That’s because sometime in April I made the call to take me out of the game — to quit my Old Man Hoops league playing in a full court run in a church gym in Irondale.

Since the 2016 diagnosis of Lewy body dementia, it was a slow but steady ride down. I could have easily discounted the changes to age — I was the oldest player out there. I am currently 62. I so want to dunk on Lewy.

But Lewy is a master of defense. There is no cure.

In the early years post diagnosis, 2016-2018, I noticed little deterioration in my game. In the middle years 2019-2020 I found my shot was short. and I got winded easier. I sucked it up and created a slogan “Step Up” to remind myself to take a step or two closer than 3-point land. It worked well enough to make me think I could still contribute.

But, alas, as the leaves turned colors and died at winter’s entrance late last year, it was abundantly clear I could no longer play.

I think I tried playing in March or April, and it firmed up my decision.

Now I’m into new challenges like buttoning a shirt, writing on the computer, tying my shoes.

The disease is similar to Parkinson’s disease in which proteins produced by the body form in the brain. The proteins over time kill off enough of the 100 billion brain cells (or neurons) in the average human brain as to be debilitating and ultimately fatal.

This brings me to really the most important reason for writing this. We are having our Lewy body fund-raising 3X3 MikeMadness basketball tournament this coming Saturday (Aug. 20) at UAB Recreation Center starting at 9 a.m. To find out how to register and about the after party at Cahaba Brewing go to MikeMadness.org

This will be our fourth MikeMadness since 2017; Covid knocked us out for 2020 and 2021. We’ve raised about $40,000 for research at UAB and and the Lewy Body Dementia Association, (LDBA.org) Also, see www.myvinylcountdown.com