Cancer is a horrid circumstance.. a outright awful ailment, and a continuous plague that hits without forgiveness or mercy.

I trust that you, the reader, most likely have been faced with a family member of friend succumbing to this affliction.. There are endless tales of horror from children’s hospitals and nursing homes. No one can escape this scourge, so often..

I am writing this brief post tonight to get some emotion off my chest.

Recently, my uncle and godfather passed away after too long of a fight with cancer. He fought to stay alive. Fate would have it another way. When he lost his battle, he left behind a family of people who have yet to stop completely grieving his death.

And now, this night, a close friend of mine finds himself in an unsettling place: A hospital bed with tubes and monitors attached to him.. he beat one form of cancer only to find out it spread to another place. Suddenly, he has taken a major turn for the worse..

I hate cancer.
I hate all disease actually.

I’m 34. Half my audience may think I’m ancient. The other half probably thinks I still have a world of life ahead of me. But as I age, I find myself becoming more serious in my studies of many things.. contemplating morals and justice becomes difficult with time, however. Billy Joel’s ANGRY YOUNG MAN described a person who once believed in causes and had a pointless point of view but life went on no matter who was wrong or right. Those lyrics become truer by the day. By the moment..

As you age, you also say goodbye to many people you loved or befriended.

And often they leave with the help of a disease…
With cancer..
With the ultimate boogeyman of the medical system.

I bet any money that you–the reader–is also dealing with loss, or recently has dealt with it. You have probably even read a self-help book or website explaining how to deal with loss.. maybe you have tried to vacation. Get away from things.. But it never goes away. There is no alternative to the life we have now besides not living it. While we inhabit our temples of the soul, we will be hit with crises and upheaval.. Sometimes smiles. Sometimes frowns. And sometimes, just like those we see dying before our eyes, the same sickness that took them..

I am angry tonight.
Sad..
Accepting of it all, too.
A mixture of emotions.

But that is what life has become.
Either it’s a mixture of emotions or it turns into the final scene of THE MEANING OF LIFE..

So many highs.. so often lows. So many twists and turns and ironic shifts of fate..

x x x

People sometimes become mentally disenfranchised after being drained by loss. The human ruin–one we hardly see..

Everyone has a story. Each and every person who walks too slow in front of you, or who is trying to pass you on the interstate.. the man who glances at you as you walk on a street.. or that elderly woman who vacantly stares out of a window of a dark and dingy nursing home.

Our stories are filled with joy and raw horror.
But we all have a story.

Maybe it’s time we stop just judging everyone else and start accepting our differences, move on and stop caring about those causes that the ANGRY YOUNG MAN couldn’t realize didn’t matter before it was too late.

And find a cure for cancer..
Because that has to go away.



Like this:

A fan in Pahrump

When you're online and you get linked up by someone who you have respected for your entire life, it's a pretty proud moment.. that happened to me tonight when Art Bell posted a link on his Facebook page to my website, not the Coal Speaker but the wider known (sorta) HORRORREPORT.COM .. I wrote an article yesterday about his return to broadcasting. In this case, podcasting.. Tonight, after he shared the site, the HORROR REPORT has been receiving some of the biggest traffic I have ever witnessed.  I am just going to enjoy the moment.. I don't brag, often. But this is cool.

Just the facts. And then some.

Here’s a snapshot of some things that matter and many that probably don’t from sea to sea and beyond..

Why not start the news update with perhaps the most dangerous for humanity: An astronomer is claiming that an asteroid the size of the Statue of Liberty is on a collision course with the planet earth.. Dr Judit Györgyey-Ries, astronomer at the University of Texas’ McDonald Observatory, believes the giant rock could create a huge impact when it reaches earth in around October 2017..


The scary real news doesn’t stop with asteroids lurking beyond the planet’s ozone..REUTERS has an exclusive story running about how the NY branch of the FED, worried about ‘natural’ calamity, is adding staff to its satellite office in Chicago.. I can’t help but think a bit about the story we, and many others, reported last night: WALMARTs around the nation–5 of them–all shutting down suddenly because of ‘plumbing problems.’ Customers are skeptical of that claim. SO are workers. So am I.. And while I am not alleging any connection between the WALMART plumbing claim and the NY FED movements to Chicago, I am stating for the record: Everything seems to be a creepy hair trigger away from disaster as of late.. moments in which we seem to think that our safety is fleeting and chaos is knocking on our safe front doors..


More fear and loathing in Vegas. And everywhere else.. Scientists at the European Science Foundation are warning every person on earth that a volcanic eruption could destroy humanity.. that we will be back to a time when we existed during pre-civilization days.. and that the human race will be devastated by the natural occurrences..

More news from the information superhighway about the highway to hell..
Large scale WMD drills hosted throughout Iowa…
Realistic Military Training in California, Arizona…
Marine unit drills at sports park…
Pentagon drafting thousands of ‘cyber forces’ in prep for cyber emergency

With evil and darkness looming, religious people seemingly are gearing up for battle, too. Take for instance these headlines: Most British dioceses now have an exorcist at the ready.. From the city of Rome: A high profile exorcist is claiming that ISIS is Satan. Father Gabriele Amorth says that the Holy Spirit exists. And now is in a spiritual battle with the true evil, ISIS. The UK TELEGRAPH says that the Pope Francis effect is the reason that the exorcism boom has occurred. Perhaps it goes deeper.. perhaps it can be chalked up to the fact that people are truly feeling that the earth has been suddenly shrouded in spiritual darkness.


With all of the negativity, it may be hard to believe there is hope that someone,someone alive today as a matter of fact, may be the first person on Earth to live until 1000. Can you imagine living to 1000? Would you want to? Most people I asked today said no. . . until I mentioned that it could be a healthy life and that their family may also be able to live as well.. Suddenly their answers shifted towards the affirmative. And they accepted the new possibilities of a long life..

Let me quickly talk about a few things that really don’t matter. But they are most likely things being talked about by talking heads on talk shows that have endless talk.. Things like this: Hillary Clinton faked a photo op .. made a staged Iowa event look like a real campaign stop. People who lived through the 90s shouldn’t see this as any amazing feat. Just another day in Clintonland. Speaking of Hill’s hill of beans, BUZZFEED is splashing headlines on its site about how, according to their reporting, Hillary Clinton flat out lied about having immigrant grandparents.. But as life goes, every normal event–politics and scandal–has some weird and often paranormal aspect to it. Such as this: Hillary Clinton’s father’s tombstone has been topped.. I fear whoever may have performed of vandalism doesn’t realize that, just plain out, you don’t mess with the dead.. unless someone didn’t do it..

And now the rest of the story….

NETFLIX released information today showing that they are doing well. More subscribers.. more profit.. But a deeper look into the numbers may reveal a bit of a different fact.. Content costs are skyrocketing, and some analysts say that the financial picture at NETFLIX continues to falter.. Rosy Scenario? Or Blight and Plight..?

Things going downhill since the roast: Justin Bieber was put into a chokehold and thrown out of an event with DRAKE..

From movies to music.. now FURIOUS 7 soundtrack is Billboard number 1..

WONDER WOMAN has a new director..

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK gets another NETFLIX season..

GUITAR HERO coming back!

Losing your head over a head transplant ..
Headline:

Russian man volunteers to undergo controversial 36-hour head transplant procedure

The story is causing concern. Fear. Anger.  

But if you were Valery Spiridinov, wouldn't you want this to work, too?

THE 'PLUMBING OF WALMART' CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Six Walmarts closing all at the same time in different cities. For six months.
And 'plumbing issues' were blamed..

Employees given no warnings.. shelves were completely stocked. Just five hours notice was given at a California location..

And as you can imagine, countless conspiracy theories are abounding all across the Internet..
This video summarizes things quite well:




This is a little creepy if I saw so myself..

A few news articles, mostly local, are picking this story up at this point.
One article posted on Tulsa's CHANNEL 8 about how the closing has come as a surprise.. they sum it up this way:

The Walmart on Admiral and Memorial Drive closed for repairs Monday night. Tuesday afternoon, customers were still trying to get in.
The message about the repairs may not have made it to all the customers, but for employees like Dane Humphreys, it was loud and clear.
"There are a lot of things that don't seem right to me," said Humphreys.

No it does not seem right.

The summer of Art Bell

Art Bell and Keith Rowland have made it official: There will be July fireworks in 2015 .. the talk show legend is going to go his own way.. A podcasting style as opposed to the terrestrial or even satellite radio he did previously. This time he is greeting the 21st century with open arms, working out private deals to play music, hoping that fans sign up in big numbers to help his return, and beaming himself to every smart phone that wants him.

The show will be called MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT.

Bell posted two messages on Facebook tonight:

Midnight in the Desert is on the way! It is official now, Starting in late July we will begin streaming a full show from Mon-Fri 9PM- 12AM P.T. It will come to you Worldwide on the Internet in 64Kbps Stereo on Tune In which has a free app available for download right now.
Keith and myself have come to a agreement and the main Studio gear has been ordered. There is a great deal of work ahead and all of you who are friends and fans will have to help out when the time comes by spreading the word far and wide.
Wanna Take a Ride?
Art Bell

And the next:

From Keith: The Final Results, Art Bell IS Coming Back!
POSTED ON APRIL 14, 2015 IN BUMPER MUSIC, RADIO SHOW | 1 VIEW | LEAVE A RESPONSE
After extensive analysis and elongated negotiations with several suiters, we have decided that we can go ahead on the planned launch of “Midnight in the Desert” in late July, using a business model that will allow us to manage the entire operation on our own.
As was hinted by Art via his Facebook feed, we thought about it, compared the numbers and decided we could pay for bandwidth, pay the commercial licensing fees, pay our own overhead and still be financially viable, assuming the following conditions:

1. We have a considerable number of fans subscribe to a membership service that allows you to access the archived shows anytime via the website for a reasonable $5 / month.
2. We can sell advertising to be played during the breaks during the show. Not a lot, but enough to help pay for the music licensing during the LIVE FREE stream.
3. We can successfully curb pirated posts of our content to the Internet.
We’ll be operating under a certain specific licensing model that will allow us to ramp up from a “small webcaster” status into a large broadcaster in the future. It is imperitive that we earn enough through subscribers and ads sales to pay the bandwidth costs and music licensing fees. We believe that we can ramp up successfully using the current models in place at this time.
However, this happens to be the year (2015) that music industry participants are negotiating the next 5 years (2016-2020) rates for music licensing on the Internet. It is a wide open arena, and some license models may not survive. But we believe that we can operate under the current 2015 model for 6 months, and eventually fit into a 2016 model that is still cost effective.
We hope to recoup all of our investments within the first 6 months, so we can better endure the cost increases that will inevitably happen in 2016. If the fans support us with memberships and the advertisers are satisfied, we should be good for a long while.
Keep watching here for the launch date announcement and further updates as we can pass along. We’ll let you know when it’s time to promote the show.
— Keith and Art

A copy of the text was also placed on ARTBELL.COM to inform readers there of the return..

I do have a few critical thoughts regarding this. While on one hand I am celebrating the return, there's a little part of the 20th century boy in me that will miss the radio aspect. There are only about 2 shows I still actually listen to on radio. I have accepted the podcast world. I love it, as a matter of fact.. I think Art will be best, only though, on live radio. I am happy he is giving a free live stream with downloadable content afterwards...

As for the pirates? I don't know if there will be an efficient way to stop them. Recently Art Bell has posted on BELLGAB asking for users there to become his deputies around the NET this summer, scouring the sites of the hinterlands of HTML for any and all pirate streams. And then threatening legal action. But that is plugging a leaky hole in a flooding dam.. it's not just that easy. 

As for the six month window, that is going to be a risky gamble. 

And there are some, even on the ART BELL website, who are shaky on the return. After the quick SIRIUS XM quit--when fans were left trying to return hundreds of dollars in merchandise to the satellite company after DARK MATTER suddenly ended after Halloween--some fans have expressed hesitation to sign up for a monthly fee in return to hear Bell.  The other side of that coin, however, presents a much different picture of the situation at Sirius. Coast to Coast AM quickly showed up on the INDIE station after Bell left. Along with that, there seemingly were other things happening behind the scenes that perhaps even Bell will address this summer on MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT..

I think I'll make a prediction: Those fans that are hesitant today will be signing up tomorrow. The talent that Bell has will be hard to pass up, especially when compared to the monotone moronfest that Coast to Coast AM has turned into over the past several years since Bell's 2010 final departure from the 'hot air' of that show.

Summer is set.

Barbecues.

Fourth of July fireworks.
As the long and hot summer nights fill the air with heat and murky humidity, Art Bell will once again be broadcasting from the high desert for the world to hear. This time in a new century style..

The hot air will remain on the terrestrial side.

A stop at Chipolte to escape a campaign trail?

This is bizarre.. Hillary Clinton went to Chipotle but no one knew she was there.. even odder, when CNN contacted the restaurant, the manager gad to actually review the surveillance video to see if Hillary really ate there..

So was it a campaign event gone wrong? Or just a moment Hillary wanted to herself as (of all places) Chipolte?

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/04/13/cnns-king-hillary-is-no-bill-didnt-talk-to-anyone-at-chipotle/

Who are the real demons

Today's a day to imagine no religion, especially in light of news that churchgoers in Texas not only starved and tried to perform an exorcism on a two year old, but also the fact he died during this tragic craziness.  Before the peklle fled to mexicio, realizing their crime, they apparently tried to raise the buy from the dead.

THE COOL SCIENCE OF THE DAY: THE MYSTERY OF CERES' BRIGHT LIGHTS ONLY GETS WEIRDER

This from Alexandra Witze from  NATURE:

Not all of the puzzling bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres are alike. The closest-yet images of the gleams, taken from 45,000 kilometres away, suggest that at least two of the spots look different from one another when seen in infrared wavelengths.
The Hubble Space Telescope spied many of the bright spots from afar years ago, but the observations from NASA's Dawn spacecraft — which began looping around Ceres on 6 March — are the first at close range. The images were released on 13 April in Vienna, Austria, at a meeting of the European Geosciences Union.
Scientists say that the bright spots may be related to ice exposed at the bottom of impact craters or from some kind of active geology. They glimmer tantalizingly in a new full-colour map of Ceres, obtained in February but released at the conference. The map uses false colours to tease out slight differences on the otherwise dark surface of Ceres.

Even more interesting, and thought provoking:

Spot 1 appears darker in images from Dawn's infrared spectrometer, said Federico Tosi, a Dawn scientist at the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome. That suggests that the area is cooler than the rest of the dwarf planet's surface, supporting the idea that the spot is made of ice.
But for some reason Spot 5 — the brightest feature seen on Dawn — does not show up in infrared images. “One possibility is that we still don’t have enough resolution to see it in the proper way,” said Tosi.

Space is fun.
And some truly fun theories exist about these bright spots on Ceres..

Ceres is one little amazing dwarf.. As we learn more, perhaps we'll discover a distant icy plume. Or maybe even a little city of space aliens with bright lights.

Letterman show announces final guests

The AP reports,

CBS announced Monday that his guests will include Bill Murray, George Clooney, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld, Robert Downey Jr., Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Don Rickles, Julia Roberts, Ray Romano, Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey, Martin Short, John Travolta, Michael J. Fox and Alec Baldwin.
And there will be others who haven't been announced yet. Musical guests will include Elvis Costello, Dave Matthews Band, Mumford and Sons, Norah Jones, Amos Lee and Tracy Chapman.

Good set of people--all of those who made the show what it was over the past 30+ years..

A case of the Mondays.. A new car from St. Jude before the thunder strikes again

The weekend was rough. Car problems. But today a new CHEVROLET SONIC is in my life, after too many problems were stacking up from the beast 2010 Jeep Patriot. It saw it days and got my family through a number of winters.. But as cars go, so does luck.
Not only were there transmission issues--big ones--but also wheel bearings.. ball joints .. brakes.. Oh, and a cracked windshield that mysteriously happened last night.
So .. a decision seemingly was made by Saint Jude, the patron saint of lost and hopeless cases, who I have been trying to contact now for about a week.

Maybe he came through, smashed my windshield, and gave me the sign to get rid of one beast for the new gray Sonic the hedgehog.

Can't wait to pick my son up at day care in a new car. And then tell him NO MORE ICE CREAM WITH SPRINKLES in his car seat.. The mess I found underneath his area in the Jeep probably cost me about $500 in trade in money..

Bad weeks.
Good weeks.
All weeks.
There are all weeks--fleeting sets of seven days that come and go as quick as rain on a summer afternoon.

Car problems and house issues, all of those things don't matter when you're on your death bed asking to see your family for the final time.

Perspective.
Of course when you're asking St. Jude for help, you don't maintain that affinity of perspective as much as when the storm begins to pass.

But another storm lurks. It always does.
You just need to reestablish your safety zone before the thunder strikes.

LIFE.

Earthquakes in LA

3.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Baldwin Hills area Sunday night, hours after a 2.5-magnitude temblor jolted the same area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey..

Nerves are rattled. The quakes both originated from the same fault..

There are lots of people beginning to worry that the dry state of California is also overdue for a major quake..that has been a fear for a few years. And we ain't getting younger..

LA on edge this morning. .

More:

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Earthquake-Strikes-Baldwin-Hills-Area-Sunday-299509711.html#

CHILDHOOD'S END looks like an amazing three night event on SYFY in December

Arthur C. Clarke's famous CHILDHOOD'S END is going to get an adaptation on SYFY. If done right, it could be good.