Disability Blog Carnival #82 is UP NOW!

Visit I'm Not My Disease for the latest link roundup, this time with the theme "Firsts." New bloggers, longtime bloggers, all have a first post, so this is a well-attended carnival edition--go check it out.

April's edition of the Disability Blog Carnival will be hosted at disability.dreamwidth.org--stay tuned for details on that, as they become available. (Avendya hosted Disability Blog Carnival #63 there in February 2010, so this is a return engagement of sorts.)

Thanks to all hosts, contributors, linkers, commenters, and readers who make the Disability Blog Carnival work!

Call for links, March edition of the Disability Blog Carnival: "Firsts"

The call is up at I'm Not My Disease for the March edition of the Disability Blog Carnival:

I wanted to make this easy to join in. We are such a diverse group. What we all have in common is blogging so I would love everyone to connect in this Disability Carnival with their first blog post.

If for any reason that option doesn't appeal or work for you, you're invited to spin an entry from some of the other meanings of "first," helpfully offered at the call. Closing date is March 10! So make this first on your list of wonderful things to do soon.

Disability Blog Carnival #81 is up NOW!

And it's "all about the love"---as fits the date (it's still Valentine's Day here in California). Dave Hingsburger hosted the February edition, about loving the stuff that makes life work--accessibility symbols, service dogs, a power chair, big jackets with pockets...and then veers into ruminations on cyborgs, gratitude, and friendship. I love when a host highlights the connections between many diverse posts, and Dave certainly does that.

How would you like to give it a try? We're currently needing hosts for several months in 2012, including March... and April.... so if you don't want to see the carnival go quarterly for a while, now's the time to volunteer! Or if you'd like to gather your wits for later in the year, that's cool too, you can reserve a month in the fall or winter right now and have plenty of time to plan and dream about your edition.

Disability Blog Carnival #80 is up NOW!

Emma at Writer in a Wheelchair put the latest Carnival edition up on Wednesday--my fault that it's not getting announced here sooner. Go check out her collection of recent links around the theme "Words."

One of the contributions to the 80th Disability Blog Carnival comes from Dave Hingsburger, who is hosting the 81st edition this month at his blog, Rolling Around in my Head. Here's his call for links:

I'd like the Blog Carnival to focus on the love we have for the things that make the world accessible for us.

Like the Blue Wheelchair Guy ... the little hottie all sexy in his chair ... or like ... your hot pink hearing aids or your flashing yellow crutch or you princess pink wheelchair. Or even something like my plain old black hospital style wheelchair. Sometimes I smile when I wake up and see my chair waiting patiently beside the bed to welcome me into my day and into my world. I feel, in those moments, real affection for the thing. More than that when I'm in it it becomes part of me, a real amazing part of me.

So, that's the challenge. Send me blog posts to daveandjoe@hotmail.com with 'Blog Carnival' in the re line. Or post the link here in the comments section. I'd like to have these in by February 10. Thanks!

That's right, you have just a week to declare your love.

Want to host an edition of the Carnival in 2012? There are still slots available!

Have you ever....?

So I've seen this idea twice recently, in other contexts... a tire with text or art carved into the treads. Here it is at the blog Letterology, in a detail from an illustration from 19c. Paris. The rider has a tank of ink attached to the back of his three-wheeled cycle, to continuously coat the tires and print words on the pavement as he rides... Ink would probably make this an illegal device in a lot of cities; but that post also links to a vimeo video, called "Tricycle Calligraphy," where Nicholas Hanna is doing a very similar thing in China, but with water as his "ink"--the lettering is only visible until it dries.

I also saw some pretty carved tires on Pinterest--by this artist, though I see from google image search that there are several folks carving used automobile tires:

So maybe you're getting the idea of my question. Has anyone ever carved images or words into wheelchair tires, so as to leave a legible or at least artistic trail when the tires are wet (with water, with ink, with paint, etc.)? I don't imagine it would be an everyday thing--wheelchair tires have to be working tires, and these don't look like they'd be very functional or durable in the longterm. But maybe for an occasion? A protest? A celebration? Might need to be a more concise message than an automobile tire's, given the smaller surface. (Note, however, that the two tires in the upper image above have different slogans, to make a longer overall text.) Certainly folks have worn shoes with custom treads for various purposes (here are some flipflops with custom soles, for leaving sand imprints); I'm wondering if anyone has made or used a custom-treaded wheelchair tire, similar to the ideas above.

January 17: John Stanley (1712-1786)

[visual description: a portrait of composer John Stanley, apparently in middle age, wearing a white powdered wig and a brass-buttoned coat; his eyes are noticeably scarred]

Born on this date 300 years ago today, in London, English composer John Stanley (best click that link before or after Wikipedia goes dark on 18 January). Stanley was blind after a fall in early childhood. The boy turned out to be a musical prodigy while studying with the organist at St. Paul's Cathedral, and, at age 11, was appointed organist at All Hallows Church in Bread Street, a paid position. At fourteen he became organist at St. Andrews in Holborn, and at age 17 he completed a Bachelor of Music degree at Oxford.

Stanley married his copyist's sister, Sarah, a sea captain's daughter. He spent most of his career as organist to the Society of the Inner Temple. Handel was a frequent visitor to the church, to hear Stanley play. The admiration was returned: Stanley directed many Handel oratorios. Stanley's own baroque compositions were many and varied, from an opera to three volumes of organ music. (There are audio files of several Stanley compositions for organ at this site.) He was also elected governor of a Foundling Hospital, which mostly involved his advising the staff on hiring music teachers, and organizing fund-raising concerts.

Stanley's auditory memory and sensitivity were much remarked upon: it was reported that he never forgot a voice, and that he could judge the size of a room by sound. He also, apparently, had an adapted set of playing cards, with tactile markings at the corners, so that he could play whist with guests. Unfortunately for historians of such things, his family auctioned off all his possessions within weeks after he died, including his manuscripts and instruments.

Here's a YouTube video (which is really only a still image of an album cover) of John Stanley's Allegro (V) from Concerto op.2 no.1 in D Major:


I haven't discovered if there are any events marking his 300th birthday, but now we've marked it at DS,TU, anyway. And this early music editor blogger plans to produce some editions of Stanley's concertos this year.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

In comments, Sue Schweik added the very exciting news that a UC-Berkeley musicology student, John Prescott, recently completed a dissertation about John Stanley.

Sighing again

So let me get this straight...

If parents walk into a children's hospital and ask for a highly unconventional series of surgeries to remove healthy tissue and organs, limiting their daughter's growth... a series of surgeries that would never be performed on a nondisabled child... the answer is, fine, because she's developmentally disabled?

BUT, if parents walk into a children's hospital and ask for a very standard surgery to treat an organ that isn't functioning properly, a surgery that will improve their daughter's health and very probably prevent an early death... a surgery that is routinely performed on nondisabled children... the answer is no way, because she's developmentally disabled?

Got it.

(Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome is caused by a partial chromosomal deletion--just like my son's (unnamed) diagnosis, only it involves chromosome 4 instead of chromosome 7. Chromosomal anomalies can cause a whole array of anatomical and physiological differences that would complicate a surgery, or make it riskier, and I'd certainly expect those particular complications and risks to be explained to me in the planning stages of a surgery. But that's not why Amelia is being disqualified, according to her mother's story.)

Barriers Bridges and Books has a compilation of links about this story. Stephen Drake is also on the case.