Lyndsey's A God.

Normally I don't like it when musicians change a great song during a live performance. So often it seems like they're only doing it because they're bored and sick of the album version. But Lyndsey seems to be enjoying this whole-heartedly. You can tell by the way he moves that he's really feeling this song. He is an incredible guitar player, his right hand looks like a spider crawling across the strings. Brilliant. He's a smart man and it's a great song.

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Screeched In.

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Since We're At It. (The World's Greatest Tea Room Orchestra).

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Can We?

The looks that Paul and John give each other make this great. Before the tension and turmoil. They were having fun. I've just realized how much the lyrics apply to the later stages of the Beatles. Both of them fighting for control. Sometimes I think it's better to leave out the bitter details.

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Inspiration.

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A Real Life Amelie!

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le fabuleux destin

One Can Dream.

This man claims that in an alternate universe, The Beatles never broke up and are still touring. He even provides a “new” Beatles album for download...

Check it out. Read the story.

It's fascinating (and a little depressing) because I wonder, pretty much on a daily basis, what the Beatles would sound like today.

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//o-o\\  (o>o)  dಠ.ಠb  (◔.◔)

Untitled.

I’ve had too many interesting calls to document them all, but this one always sticks out in my mind. As usual with this job (or anyone’s job I suppose), it might be a case of “you had to be there”. But I’ll try to paint the picture.

Friday night, about 2:30am. Called to a single vehicle ATV accident on the outskirts of the city, down some back roads. All we see as we roll up in the dark are flashing lights from the fire truck and spotlights aimed at the trees lining the road. We see reflective jackets in amongst the trees crouched down on the ground. A red four-wheeler is stopped against a group of pine trees just off the road. A lot of damage to the front fenders and tires. It was obvious he was moving pretty fast, and then came to an abrupt stop against the trees. About 5 feet ahead and to the right is where everyone is gathered. We push through the brush and see a young man in the fetal position with a red helmet on. No face-mask on the helmet. We try to get his attention but there is no response. Great, I’m thinking. My first code and he’s in the middle of a damn jungle wrapped around broken trees and sharp branches. As we call his name he starts to moan. That’s a relief, so we begin planning how to get him out.

He’s on his side so we need to roll him over onto his back to get him on the board. But there’s not enough room for the board because of the trees. So as I hold c-spine we have to drag him towards the edge of the trees. As we start to move him he starts to wake up. It becomes apparent that he’s been drinking, and it’s pretty much downhill for us from there. He begins to struggle out of our grips and yell that he’s going to punch us all “in the fucking face” and “beat the shit” out of us etc. Typical drunk talk. We move him enough to roll him over and as we roll him I begin to see little cuts on his face, and then when I see the other side of his face I see that he’s cut his lip from the bottom right down the right side of his chin, and now his lower lip is basically hanging off of his face. So nothing major, but he’s impaired and we can’t rely on him for assessment. Judging from the facial injuries he could very well have injured his head or neck. So we get the collar on and get him situated on the board and begin to get the straps on. All the while he’s screaming at us to let go and that he’ll punch/kick us.

Once we get him strapped to the board the straps become his main focus. Every time we click a buckle in he pushes the release button. We hold his arms down as best we can and get him into the ambulance. The police try to get some information but it’s useless. They let us get to the hospital. It wasn’t long before I was regretting letting that officer out of the truck.

Did I mention this was my patient? So I’m in the back alone with this guy for about half an hour en route to the hospital. It felt like an eternity, trust me. I’m normally a very patient person, but I was yelling at this guy just as loud as he was at me, and fighting just as hard. He would say that he didn’t want to go to the hospital, that he was fine, he could go home and get cleaned up and get to the party. I would tell him that his chin was hanging off of his face and he would tell me I was wrong. I told him I’d get a mirror for him and he told me to shove it. I told him to stop touching his face and he would pull at his lip. He would unbuckle the straps and I would grab his arms and buckle them again. He would look at me with eyes full of rage and tell me not to ever touch him, or he’d kick my ass. Well, I’m sorry but you're in no shape to decide what’s best for you. I would explain that we’re trying to help and just as he was quieting down, I thought it was sinking in for him, he’d reach up to his head straps, pull them off and start yelling at me again. His girlfriend was up front with my partner so I tried to be polite to this guy, but it just wasn’t working. The trip in pretty much went like this: I would hold him down, he would yell, I would yell back, his girlfriend would cry, my partner would flash a big smile in the rear-view mirror. My partner had to stop the truck no less than three times to come back and help me strap him back in. He also called for a police intercept in the city which I was looking forward to.

After my patient lost interest in the straps I sat back and began to fill in my chart, thinking he had calmed down. He knew I was not paying attention and every few seconds I’d look up to see him grabbing at the IV line hanging from the ceiling. I told him several times to let go. I told him, I swear to God you let go of that right now. This encouraged him. the next time he reached up he pulled the line right out of the bag. Fluid spraying everywhere and I couldn’t get the bag off the ceiling so I ripped it out. I yelled at my partner for the police intercept and he replied that they were no longer meeting us. Grrrreat.

So I did my call in to the hospital, with his screaming voice in the background, I doubt they heard a word I said. When we arrived there were two police officers. In the ER there were about 10 people waiting for us. They hadn’t heard a thing I had said, but they heard my patient alright. I was worried that he would change his tune for all of the female nurses there, he might try to play the nice guy like so many young, drunk patients. But he didn’t. As the nurses leaned over he threw out more threats of punches to the face. I was somewhat glad about that. I feel like no one would have believed just how belligerent this guy was, but he brought the same show to the hospital.

I only realized after just how funny, and how much fun, it actually was. I forgave my partner for laughing, because I was laughing too as we traded impressions of this guy. This is why I love working on weekends. Throw a little alcohol in the mix and you’ll meet some interesting people.

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The Colder Water.

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