If only Doug Morris knew how to use a computer.<\/p>\n
I’m still reading the responses to my "Leukemia" missive.\u00c2\u00a0 I appreciate the good will.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’m reading slowly not only because the missives are all personal, directed specifically to me, but because I’m learning so much.<\/p>\n
I heard from Steven Page, formerly of the Barenaked Ladies.\u00c2\u00a0 Did I know that Kevin Hearn from BNL had leukemia? Steven copied him on the e-mail.<\/p>\n
Turns out Kevin had CML too.\u00c2\u00a0 Before Gleevec.\u00c2\u00a0 He had a bone marrow transplant, and it worked.<\/p>\n
Fat cat copyright-holders may decry the Internet, but it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.\u00c2\u00a0 I can reach many more people.<\/p>\n
And they can reach me.<\/p>\n
And not only have I learned that so many are living with the Big C, or have relatives who are fighting it, but I’ve been educated on the person who is saving my life, Brian J. Druker, M.D.<\/p>\n
From those who had him as a mentor to those at the T.J. Martell Foundation who funneled money to him so he could complete his research.\u00c2\u00a0 Hematologist number two had referenced him, said he was probably going to win a Nobel Prize for his efforts.\u00c2\u00a0 For now, he’s just received a Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.<\/p>\n
One reader sent me the press release.<\/p>\n
Another just sent me an article from the Science "Times".\u00c2\u00a0 You know, that thin section at the back of Tuesday’s paper.\u00c2\u00a0 I read it.\u00c2\u00a0 But this article meant nothing to me back in November.<\/p>\n
It means everything to me now.<\/p>\n
Especially when Dr. Druker says: <\/p>\n
\n"C.M.L. patients were always difficult to see because both of us knew that the clock was ticking and there was virtually nothing that we could do about it."<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nThat could have been me.<\/p>\n
But it’s not.\u00c2\u00a0 Because some guy who wasn’t in it for the money, who was willing to sacrifice everything for his passion, put together the pieces to come up with a breakthrough drug that allows me to live.<\/p>\n
Kind of like Tom Scholz.<\/p>\n
Oh, decry Boston.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s one phenomenal record.\u00c2\u00a0 It stands the test of time.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, just listen to "Foreplay\/Long Time" and get back to me.\u00c2\u00a0 Or the sweetness of "Hitch A Ride".<\/p>\n
Tom Scholz did not go to music business school.\u00c2\u00a0 Did not study engineering in some extension class.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather he got a traditional education at M.I.T. and then worked as an engineer at Polaroid.\u00c2\u00a0 Making music at night.\u00c2\u00a0 In his basement. For years.<\/p>\n
Tom Scholz came from essentially nowhere to owning the largest selling debut album of all time.\u00c2\u00a0 Because he didn’t believe in rules, he was on his own journey.<\/p>\n
Isn’t that why we revered the rock stars of yore?\u00c2\u00a0 Because they did it their way, beholden to absolutely nobody?<\/p>\n
When you’re in bed with Coke, when you’re shilling for the Fortune 500, do you really think we can believe in you? Don’t you wonder why your career has no legs?<\/p>\n
But the real reason I’m writing this is because the word on Gleevec was spread online.\u00c2\u00a0 Read the below article.\u00c2\u00a0 Dr. Druker gave it to patients and then went home to see what they were saying about it in chat rooms.\u00c2\u00a0 The Internet broke Gleevec.\u00c2\u00a0 Patients, more educated than physicians, demanded it!<\/p>\n
While fat cat businessmen are creating lowest common denominator music, fans are desirous of something different, cutting edge, uncompromised, that will touch their hearts.<\/p>\n
And if we ever hear it, we tell everybody we know.\u00c2\u00a0 Not because we’re being paid, but because of the sheer joy of listening and turning others on to great new music.<\/p>\n
I about cried when I read this article in the "New York Times".\u00c2\u00a0 This guy, who I don’t know, saved my life.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like those records I used to play in my bedroom in the dark.<\/p>\n
This business is saved by the Peter Gabriels, not the flashes in the pan.\u00c2\u00a0 Took Peter four albums to make it, after years in Genesis.\u00c2\u00a0 Now he still has fans willing to fork over cash when those much younger than him with Top Forty success must work day jobs.<\/p>\n
Stop fighting the future.\u00c2\u00a0 Embrace it.<\/p>\n
Know that the Net allows everybody to have all the music at their fingertips.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a good thing!\u00c2\u00a0 Figure out how to get people to pay for it, not how to stop them from having it!<\/p>\n
Maybe you won’t read this story.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it just doesn’t apply to you.<\/p>\n
But one day one of these out of the box thinkers is going to save you too.<\/p>\n
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