Introducing ME/CFS

It's always tough to create a 25-minute set list. So many tunes, so little time. But when we were choosing songs for last weekend's Tucson Folk Festival, one had an automatic in: Everybody Knows About Me, the closest thing we've got to a protest song. We figured folkies would respond well to it.

I introduced the song with my standard rap:

"I wrote this next song about someone living with undiagnosed myalgic encephalomyelitis. If you've never heard of that, it's probably because most people refer to it as as 'chronic fatigue syndrome,' which is a STUPID name for a very serious disease."

One neat perk of playing the Folk Festival is that the people running sound record everyone's sets. They handed us a CD of ourselves right after we finished. So, first chance I got, I played the CD for the person who inspired "Everybody Knows About Me." He couldn't come out to see us because he was too sick. He rarely leaves the house.

He listened. After he complimented us on a job well done, the following conversation ensued (extremely condensed/paraphrased):

Him: "You shouldn't mention 'chronic fatigue syndrome.' It gives people the wrong idea. Just call it myalgic encephalomyelitis."

Me: "How will that help? No one knows what myalgic encephalomyelitis is.* The audience would sympathize with people who have ME, then continue to treat people with chronic fatigue syndrome badly because those people are just tired and lazy."

Him: "They'll make the connection. They'll understand that it's wrong to be prejudiced regardless of what the diagnosis is."

Me: "Eh. I doubt it."

What do you think? Do I shoot our cause in the foot by invoking the very name that promotes the bad stereotypes? Or is it better to bring the stupidity of that name out into the light?

* * *

* For those of you who are reading this from somewhere other than the U.S., the vast majority of Americans have never heard of ME. When I say "myalgic encephalomyelitis," the response is always a blank stare, followed by, "What's that?"

Does music generate votes?

Last week I was interviewed for an Arizona Daily Star article about musicians who "[use] their talents and celebrity to encourage others to vote." The article came out today. It did not, alas, include any of my quotes or mention Cinder Bridge. Gotta spend less time rehearsing, more time perfecting those soundbites.

Anyhow, when we spoke, interviewer Gerald Gay asked me a very perceptive question: did I feel that political events featuring live music actually produced results?

The article touched on this issue briefly.

David Slutes, entertainment director for Hotel Congress ... has always seen music as an effective way to draw people in, especially younger people, to look at the issues. But the jury is still out on whether the tactic actually generates votes, he said.

"What I found last time is that many of these people just didn't vote," he added ...

"They came to the events, did a lot of 'rah rah' and just didn't vote. It was interesting and great to motivate and get the message out. But to actually have them make it into the voting booths this time — the proof will be in the pudding."

That sounds about right to me. What I told Gerald was, bands like ours help draw people to the events, give them something cool to listen to for their donation dollars. The point is not to convince them to vote for a particular candidate. Everyone at Barack 'n' Roll was already rooting for Obama, right? Why else would they be there?

Ron the Drummer didn't entirely agree with my assessment. He pointed out that a few people went to Barack 'n' Roll not to support Obama, but to support us. I see his point. Still, I just can't imagine someone thinking, "Gosh, I was kinda leaning toward McCain, but Cinder Bridge played so well. Maybe Barack Obama IS right about health care and the war in Iraq."

Cynicism aside, we'll be doing an Obama party/silent auction next Wednesday and a half-hour set for another Obama event at Old Town Artisans in late October. Should be fun ... even if our totally apolitical songs don't persuade anyone to change their vote.

Everybody Knows About Me: Released!

*drum roll*

"Everybody Knows About Me" -- the fully arranged, polished version -- is now available:

www.rescindinc.org/everybody.htm

Ron and I are letting RESCIND, a CFIDS/ME awareness site, use our song to help raise money for the cause. The deal is, you can download "Everybody Knows About Me" for free, and if you think the song and/or the cause is worth it, there's a donate button at the bottom of the page. You choose how much you want to donate.

(If you're wondering what on earth CFIDS/ME is, you can find a brief summary here.)

Eventually "Everybody Knows About Me" will also be available on places like iTunes, and hopefully other CFIDS/ME sites will feature it as well. But if you donate here, all proceeds go to RESCIND's "friend raiser."