Category: AIDS/HIV
-
Types
Today was Steve's wake: of the 'eldest set' (and no, we don't have a term for ourselves – we are simply the members of the local HIV patient group who have lived the longest – generally from fifteen to twenty-odd years since diagnosis), he is actually the first, or perhaps the second, to die in…
-
Angels
In a few days I go to Zürich for another three-week study period at the Jung-Institut. This is also the time when I finally do entrance interviews – six interviews with three analysts – to see if I can become a fully matriculated student, not just a part of the 'further education' program. Exciting, a…
-
Others
And the memory of Ted brings me back to memories of others, I don't know why… First should be Paul P., partly because he would have put himself first. A brilliant composer who hadn't written many pieces, an especially intelligent student who intended to have a great future – I still have his complex, beautiful…
-
Hiccups
This evening, for some reason, I had the hiccups for a while – too much salt on the salmon for dinner, I don't know; something. A bit bothersome; they took a while to go away – and while I had them I flashed back on a strange, affectionate but excruciating memory. Ted used to have…
-
Sweats
A recurrent annoyance for the HIV+ is the 'night sweat' – it's a sort of peculiar demi-symptom of nothing in particular, where you suddenly wake up in the middle of the night soaked in a cold sweat. I can't remember the details, but I think it happens literally over about ten to fifteen minutes –…
-
Globes
Working tonight on a program note for an old piece of mine – as it happens the final composition I ever wrote, in 1986 – Seven Last Haiku, which will have its premiere by the students in late March this year. One or two pianists are looking at it, and we have a cellist (Bennett…
-
Overlapping
World AIDS Day. The past few days snowy, quiet. Feeling fairly well actually, few or no side effects – a big improvement over the five days of low-level fever last week. Thus less distracted, less incoherent. Tonight was a masked ball – a fundraiser, a chaos of music and people (about 130, which is quite…
-
Time/lines
The snow muffles everything, but reflects some light, so that though it is long after midnight I keep moving restlessly around the apartment in a sort of glowing silence, without lights. My sister bought me some Heian literature for Christmas, among other books; it is giving everything a strange resonance – there are three time frames:…
-
WAD
Sorry I didn't comment on World AIDS Day, or attach a speech as I have for the past five years. My reasons: it was a very long day – successful but long – and I ended up not using the speech I'd prepared; what I did say wasn't written down. An all-day conference, largely organized…
-
Heroes
[Speech for World AIDS Day March and Celebration, Newcastle. It was held on December 6, not December 1, this year.] Welcome to our second March and Celebration, and thank you for coming to the Sage Gateshead for World AIDS Day. I’d like to thank our local percussion groups for accompanying us through town and across…
Paul Attinello 