The Cruelty of Meningitis

Meningitis is one of the worst things that can happen to you.  It’s an inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and the spinal cord and is caused mainly by bacteria and viruses. 

If not treated quickly, it can result in disabilities or death.  Johnny Lydon, he of the Sex Pistols, had meningitis as a kid. It was a four-year ordeal that put him in a coma and kept him out of school. 

At one point he was so delirious that he couldn’t remember his own name and couldn’t recognize his parents.  He recovered, but the effects are quite visible. 

You know that particularly intimidating stare?  That’s the result of his meningitis as a kid.

Life After Rock: Jim Martin of Faith No More

Faith No More remains a most-beloved band for many people who grew up in the 90s. 

Their combination of metal, funk and rap set the stage for a lot of the stuff that we’d end up hearing later in the decade. 

After a reunion tour, Faith No More once again no exists and its members have gone on to other things.  “Like what?” you may ask. 

Guitarist Jim Martin parted ways with the band in 1992 after some personality issues within the group.  Jim hung around doing not much of anything for a year–but then he discovered a package of pumpkin seeds at his local hardware story. 

It turns out that Jim had discovered his real calling: growing giant pumpkins.  By 2000, he had turned pro, regularly entering competitions with pumpkins that tipped the scales at 600 pounds or better.

Jim Martin–ex-guitarist of Faith No More–was eventually ranked as one of the top five best giant pumpkin growers in America.  And who says there isn’t life after rock?

The Story Behind U2’s Under a Blood Red Sky

U2’s first live album was Under the Blood Red Sky, a recording they made at the Red Rock Amphitheare just outside Denver on June 5, 1983. 

What most people don’t know is that the whole thing has almost a complete disaster.  First of all, U2 couldn’t find anyone to pay for the project.  Even their record company was cool to the idea, so they had to scrape together $25,000 of their own money to make it happen. 

Then, on the day of the concert, a very strong cold front moved through the area, dropping the temperature and dumping a ton of rain.  The promoter–who was convinced that no one was going to show up–wanted U2 to cancel. 

The band refused, knowing that if they did, that 25 grand would disappear forever–which, at the time, was a huge, HUGE amount of money for the group. 

But U2 insisted that things go ahead and the result was an album and a video for “Sunday Bloody Sunday” that helped the band breakthrough in North America.

The 3-inch CD

How big is a compact disc?  The standard CD is 4.7 inches or just under 12 centimeters in diameter.  But have you ever heard of the mini Compact Disc? 

They were just like regular CDs but only 8 centimeters across.  That’s just over 3 inches.  They first started appearing in 1988 in Japan and Germany and did make their way into North America for a while. 

With a maximum capacity of about 24 minutes, U2, Garbage, Joy Division, the Cure, Nine Inch Nails and a ton of others used them as CD singles and EPs.   The problem is that not all CD players can play these things.  If you have a drawer-style CD player, that’s no problem. 

That’s the story behind the smaller space in the tray.  But if you have a slot-fed CD player, it’s not so good.  You need an adapter that fits around the mini CD to make it the same size as a regular one. 

Three-inch CDs still exist, but they’re becoming exceedingly rare.

Weird Facts About Bad Hearing

You don’t need me to tell you that loud music can be very bad for you hearing. 

However, scientists have discovered that like the rest of your body, your ears near a physical workout if they’re going to function properly. 

In 2004, New Scientist magazine reported that people who live in noisy cities often have better hearing than those who live in quiet rural settings.   

Gerald Fleischer and his scientific boffins at the University of Giesen, Germany, studied 10,000 sets of ears.  They found that while people like construction workers had bad hearing due to exposure to loud noise at work, people in quiet villages had hearing that was just as bad, mainly because their ears never got any kind of workout. 

There’s an argument that you can use in favor of loud music.