January 30, 2011

Day 3 ???

















"I guess -- what may happen is what keeps us alive. We want to see tomorrow"
-- John Steinbeck 1902-68: Letter to Carlton Shefield, 16 October 1952

Top to bottom - Cartier Bresson, Arbus Twins, Aaron Huey, Taryn Wilson, Matt Eich


























January 29, 2011

Day 1: About Interferon & Ribavirin

"The best sentence in the English language is not 'I love you' but 'It's benign'."
-- Woody Allen 1935-- : "Deconstructing Harry" (1998 film)

Took the shot last night, pills this morning, and I feel fine. Cool

INTERFERON

The interferons have been synthesized using recombinant DNA technology.

The goal of interferon therapy is to eradicate a virus from an infected person. Using interferon, for example, to eradicate the hepatitis B or C virus will, it is hoped, prevent the future development of cirrhosis and cancer of the liver. This may require months and even years of interferon treatment and may not be effective in many patients.

In therapeutic doses, interferon can be hard to tolerate because of the side-effects, with flu-like symptoms such as fatigue, headache and aches and, less regularly, low thyroid activity, arthritis, low platelet count and depression which can attain suicidal proportions.

Interferon was discovered in 1957 by the Alick Isaacs and Jean Lindenmann (who did not receive the Nobel Prize for their discovery). Interferon is so named because of its ability to interfere with virus reproduction.

Ribavirin

Ribavirin is used with another medication called an interferon to treat hepatitis C. Ribavirin is in a class of antiviral medications called nucleoside analogues. It works by stopping the virus that causes hepatitis C from spreading inside the body. Ribavirin is also sometimes used to treat viral hemorrhagic fevers (viruses that can cause bleeding inside and outside of the body, problems with many organs, and death). In the event of biological warfare, ribavirin may be used to treat viral hemorrhagic fever that has been spread deliberately. Ribavirin is also sometimes used to treat severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS; a virus that may cause breathing problems, pneumonia, and death).

A naturally occurring substance that interferes with the ability of viruses to reproduce. Interferon also boosts the immune system.

There are a number of different interferons. They fall into three main classes : alpha, beta, and gamma. All are proteins (lymphokines) normally produced by the body in response to infection. The interferons have been synthesized using recombinant DNA technology.

The goal of interferon therapy is to eradicate a virus from an infected person. Using interferon, for example, to eradicate the hepatitis B or C virus will, it is hoped, prevent the future development of cirrhosis and cancer of the liver. This may require months and even years of interferon treatment and may not be effective in many patients.

In therapeutic doses, interferon can be hard to tolerate because of the side-effects, with flu-like symptoms such as fatigue, headache and aches and, less regularly, low thyroid activity, arthritis, low platelet count and depression which can attain suicidal proportions.

Interferon was discovered in 1957 by the Alick Isaacs and Jean Lindenmann (who did not receive the Nobel Prize for their discovery). Interferon is so named because of its ability to interfere with virus reproduction.

Best - Randy Tessier

January 28, 2011

(peginterferon alfa-2a) & COPEGUS® (ribavirin, USP) for Hepatitis C Treatment






“An illness in stages, a very long flight of steps that led assuredly to death, but whose every step represented a unique apprenticeship. It was a disease that gave death time to live and its victims time to die, time to discover time, and in the end to discover life.”

-- Herve Guibert 1955-91: “To the Friend who did not Save my Life” (1991)

DAY 1

HEPATITIS C

“Current treatment is a combination of pegylated interferon-alpha-2a or pegylated interferon-alpha-2b (brand names Pegasys or PEG-Intron) and the antiviral drug ribavirin for a period of 24 or 48 weeks, depending on the hepatitis C virus genotype.”

Journey or adventure? We shall see. Tonight I begin the treatment for the Hep C I’ve carried since the 70s.

I started this blog in 2007 when I was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma. Then, as now, I had no idea what to expect. Rather than certainty -- a persistent myth of being we are both hard-wired and culturally trained to buy into -- there were only questions. What would the chemo be like? Would it work? Was I going to die?

Realistically speaking, I suppose one’s fate is less a journey or adventure than simply what is. But we live rather than simply exist via narratives: the stories we tell ourselves and others that make life make sense. Then, as now, I can only adopt that cavalier attitude which belies the fear and insecurity at the heart of our mortality.

“The treatment may be physically demanding, particularly for those with a prior history of drug or alcohol abuse. It can qualify for temporary disability in some cases. A substantial proportion of patients will experience a panoply of side effects ranging from a 'flu-like' syndrome (the most common, experienced for a few days after the weekly injection of interferon) to severe adverse events including anemia, cardiovascular events and psychiatric problems such as suicide or suicidal ideation. The latter are exacerbated by the general physiological stress experienced by the patient.”

Then, as now, I will keep you posted.

Love - Randy

IMAGES: Top painting: Dana Schutz "Death Comes To All"; Lower right, Wangechi Mutu


January 26, 2011

aMeRiKa

"The organization of American society is an interlocking system of semi-monopolies notoriously venal, an electorate notoriously unenlightened, misled by mass media notoriously phony."
-- Paul Goodman "The Community of Scholars" (1962)



Bravo to the The New York Times for publishing Adam Hochschild's January 17 op-ed, An Assassination's Long Shadow. The piece marked the 50th anniversary of an event long forgotten in the United States: the U.S.-sponsored removal and murder of a democratically elected leader in Africa. Three days after the murder, our own democratically elected leader--one who would meet a similar fate--was sworn in as the 35th President of the United States.




Sarah Louise Palin; née Heath; born February 11, 1964) i

s an American politician, author, speaker, and political news commentator who was the youngest person and the first woman elected Governor of Alaska.

Julia Margaret Cameron (11 June 1815 – 26 January 1879) was a British photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for photographs with Arthurian and other legendary themes.






Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (
August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will), a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party. In the 1970s Riefenstahl published her still photography of the Nuba tribes in Sudan in several books such as The Last of the Nuba.

George Condo (b. 1957 in Concord, New Hampshire, USA) is an American contemporary visual artist.

January 23, 2011

Winter Threads

“I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”

-- Blaise Pascal 1623-62 “Lettres Provincials” (1657)

We're of like minds on the liability of being the world policeman. As for Obama being a dove, not so. As is becoming more and more apparent, he is a politician whose number one priority is getting reelected. Also, why defer to him?... Privy to what? For better or for worse, Assange has wikileaked much of the "detailed analysis" you speak of, which offers no good reasons for O.'s insane troop surge. His reasoning had nothing to do with strategic or tactical success, and everything to do with the fact no Dove has ever one a second term. Finally, yes, the "misery here at home" is on its way. But the "cuts in virtually all other areas," which I assume means social services" are what will hasten it, not forestall it. The repressed hostility of a middle and working class bound for the bottom (we're already seeing this with the Tea Party and various Libertarian movements) aren't going to passively suffer and bear while the corporate fat cats feast and debauch. Something will give.

The issue in all of this should be about Gun Control. It wouldn't hurt any of us to revisit Michael Moore's Oscar winning documentary, "Bowling For Columbine." As I write this (my desk is next to my closet), my trusty Remington 300, 12 gauge, semi-automatic, 5 shot (one slug, one buckshot, one birdshot and two goose loads) shotgun stands loaded next to me, as it has for the last 35 years. My point is not that I'm against guns, but who needs a 30 shot banana clip Glock? What hunter needs this, and what homeowner wouldn't favor his 12 gauge over a pistol in a confrontation with an intruder. Lastly, think about the human beings, with all of their foibles, that we meet as we walk through life. Would we really want everyone to be walking around with a loaded weapon on them. I, for one, think not.

Given the Machiavellian notions of war cycles being inevitable, as you say Mr. X, "the destiny of things," what country would possibly say we'll give up on developing nuclear weapons, especially to a country (us) that has tens-of-thou...sands of them. Also, the nonchalant tone that we're "long overdue" for some "bad stuff" belies a certain assumption that America always comes out on top. The worm is turning, my friend, and every empire has its twilight. As Marx noted long ago, and as a look at history affirms, commerce and market forces always dictate who wins and who loses. There is a New World Order coalescing, a bad storm on the horizon, a new paradigm. What Bush failed to do was put us in a global position where the forces that are now displacing the United States as the ultimate world power might look kindly on us, where the countries we're at the mercy of won't hate us and our high tech cruelties (unmanned drones) and our low tech immoralities (human torture). But he didn't, and our children will reap the whirlwind.

The 2nd amendment, hmmmm? That's the one by the FOUNDING FATHERS, right? Aren't they the ones who wrote "We hold these truths to be self evident , that all men are created equal." Damn, they forgot to put the word "white" between the "all" and "men" (forget women). after all, the reason they could party in Philly, and attend the Constitutional Congress, is because their slaves were back home tending to their plantations. Sincerely - Sally Hemmings

I think you folks are around my age, 50-60ish -- old enough to remember the most boring topics when we were younger. I'm talking about those stories when the dude relates a long-winded tale about how high he got (snore). Also sex stories (snore). Don't get me wrong, I like to get high, and fuck, sometimes together. But talking about these subjects is downright BORING. I see discussions about gun types and kill ratios as fitting the category of just do it don't talk about it: The politics of gun ownership and its social ramifications, yes; but my guns bigger than your gun, no. I noticed not a peep about my FOUNDING FATHERS post. Chikinshitz!

Irrelevant? Sounds like a Tea Bagger. I agree the Founder's ideas must be taken in context. What's scary is when you have people in influential positions, like Supreme Court Justice's Antonio Scalia and Clarence white, that see the Constitution as something to be taken literally. Nothing wrong with being rich, Bob, there are just some things money can' buy, like talent. In that regard, it's really too bad that some rich folks, like Rush, Palin, and Glenn can't use their money to buy a personality. Now get to work.

True. But time should in no way inform our aesthetic judgment. Whether it takes a second or a decade has nothing to do with beauty or sublimity (the difference between those concepts has a long tradition). Some would say painting is less mi...metic than photography. One of the assumptions made about photography is that it is less subjective than painting. I disagree with this for the very reason you mention: the camera is directed by the hand, just as the brush is. To me, being a good painter requires more skill than being a good photographer, although they can both be artistically beautiful.

re: the ideology/science dichotomy. I too grappled with this in my response. The big question here is how do we define IDEOLOGY? I see them (science & religion) as polarities, also. The conundrum that pops up, then, is how d...o we explain the aspects of consciousness and human experience that science can't explain? In ruminating on this, consider my positions: I AM AN AVOWED AND UNAPOLOGETIC ATHEIST!!! The godz and god-systems man has constructed have inevitably been used to justify the very worst atrocities the human race has historically perpetrated on itself (the Crusades, Inquisitions, early European Missionaries, Irish Catholics and Protestants, and fanatic Jihadists). SO! Please provide your definition of an ideology, does it have to do with the suffix, ...ism, does it have to do with all isms?
Peace, brother.

Science requires imagination; religion requires faith. I suppose faith could be defined as a kind of imagination, but, unlike science, it is an imagination derived from received concepts that require absolutely NO ORIGINAL THOUGHT. We accept religious beliefs and take them as faith, or gospel, if you prefer, because we have been told to.

Images, Top to Bottom: Schorr, Picasso, Bendickson, and Meyer