I want to say happy birthday -- email, call him, but I can't. He's suffering terribly, I'm told, with dementia. This is what I learned Sunday night:
The 1995 bicycle injury (and subsequent brain injury) likely triggered an early onset of Alzheimer’s disease; some symptoms were immediate, while others revealed themselves in tragic slow motion: fading powers of memory, then of comprehension and speech. In 2008, unable to continue caring for Paul while also taking care of their eight year-old son, Cindy began to arrange for Paul to live in managed care outside the home.
Managed Care!! His voice is silenced? His family is pleading for donations since Paul has no insurance. He was always a free lancer -- a FREE man. His 45 year writing career was supported by sales and patrons. When I first learned of this, two nights ago (and after getting over the immediate shock), I thought, "thank god he wrote and published." At least the world has all his amazing insights about music, other writers (like Phil and Theodore Sturgeon), his own thoughts on Eastern philosophy, and the 20th Century's "Greatest Hits." That book was not just about music, but art and everything important, in Paul's eyes. His eyes. Are they cloudy now? Not the bright, intuitive flashing eyes I saw? Would he know me? Probably not. Does he still know his 8 yr old son? I hope so. He had the boy (with Cindy) after I left Encinitas -- sometime in 2001. Here is the famous Moonlight Beach and in the upper right corner, one of those buildings is his house.
I remember a phone call in 2002. By then I had Izzi (my dog), was engaged, and he just had a son. We laughed and I told him he had a bigger job raising a human. OMG! That was probably the last phone call. He said to call him when I "set the date" for the wedding (of course, I broke the engagement in 2003.) We've had a few emails since then.
He finished one more Dylan book -- "Mind Out of Time" (a play on the Grammy winning "Time Out of Mind" blues-ish CD/album by Dylan.) After coming here (to ABQ) for the July 2000 Dylan concert and seeing all my Madonnas, Paul added the Introduction/Chapter Zero -- "Visions of Madonna." The book was published in 2004. After that he sent a couple of clippings and articles about PKD -- one where he was interviewed again.
I knew he had brain damage, but contrary to what the site says, he did quite a bit of writing after that accident. He wrote the 20th Century's Greatest Hits (which I reviewed on Amazon, and it's still posted there) and the final Dylan book, did an extensive interview for a San Diego newspaper (which he signed and sent to me) and was in continuous contact with international film crews and fans about Phil's movies and books. He was still very productive and writing at least into 2005. So this incredible turn for the worse must have happened in the last couple of years.
I stayed up til 3 am (Monday morning) reading "Pushing Upward" (one of Paul's early books.) It was before he even met Phil (PKD, but he discusses Phil as a writer. Paul not only published about 30 books of his own, and many issues of Crawdaddy! and the PKD Society Newsletter, but he published one of Phil's mainstream novels (Crap Artist) -- a book no one else would publish at the time, and he offered to publish my novel. I just couldn't get it ready for his extreme scrutiny. Now, if this is true (which I'm still in denial) he never will see it, or realize he has.
Live every day like it's your last. And, if you can spare a few dollars, please donate for Paul's health care.
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