josh pincus is crying

…Capgras delusion.

Capgras delusion (or Capgras syndrome) is a rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that an acquaintance, usually a spouse or other close family member, has been replaced by an identical looking impostor. The Capgras delusion is classed as a delusional misidentification syndrome, a class of delusional beliefs that involves the misidentification of people, places or objects. It can occur in acute, transient, or chronic forms.
The delusion is most common in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, although it can occur in a number of conditions including after brain injury and dementia.

The challenge word this week on Monday Artday is “sleep”.

Sleep… Oh! how I loathe those little slices of death….

In the summer of 1961, eighteen-year-old Richard Manuel joined Ronnie Hawkins’ backing group, The Hawks, along with Levon Helm on drums, Robbie Robertson on guitar and Rick Danko on bass. Garth Hudson joined the band around Christmas time. After two years, Manuel along with Helm, Robertson, Danko, Hudson and saxophonist Jerry Penfound left Hawkins and became Levon Helm Sextet, then later changed to the Canadian Squires, and eventually to Levon and the Hawks. They came to the attention of Bob Dylan. The group of musicians became Dylan’s backing band and Albert Grossman, Dylan’s manager, became their manager.
In 1968, they signed a 10 album deal with Capitol Records. Their first album was released under the name “The Band”, the name they would go by for the rest of their career.
The shy and insecure Manuel was the first of the group to succumb to the temptations of the 1960s lifestyle. Already considered by most friends and associates to be an alcoholic, it was not long before Manuel added Tuinal, Valium, heroin, and cocaine to his addictions. Through the 60s and 70s, Manuel’s drug abuse grew worse. He routinely drank and drugged himself into a blank stupor. At the peak of his alcoholism, Manuel was polishing off eight bottles of Grand Marnier a day. By 1976, he had been divorced and had become a shadow of his former self, usually too drunk to play. In The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese’s documentary of The Band’s last concert, Manuel looks older than his age of 33, and even sits out of some of the songs. It was clear that he was shy, insecure, and inebriated.
In 1978, Manuel moved to Garth Hudson’s ranch outside Malibu, drying out and eventually remarrying. In 1983, The Band reformed without Robertson. They were relegated to B-List venues and became a “play-your-hits” band, usually opening for bands with far less performing experience. Manuel sank into a deep depression immediately following the 1986 death of manager and friend Albert Grossman.
On March 4, 1986, after a gig at the Cheek to Cheek Lounge outside Orlando, in Winter Park, Florida, Manuel seemed to be in relatively good spirits. Ominously, after the show, he thanked Hudson for “twenty-five years of incredible music”. The Band returned to the Quality Inn, down the block from the Cheek to Cheek Lounge, and Manuel talked with Levon Helm in Helm’s room. Around 2:30 in the morning Manuel returned to his room where his wife was already asleep. Sometime during the night, Manuel finished a bottle of Grand Marnier and a vial of cocaine, looped his belt around his neck and secured the other end to the shower-curtain rod, and hanged himself.

The illustrationfriday.com challenge word this week is “seed”.

John Chapman was an American pioneer nurseryman. He picked apple seeds from the discarded remains from cider mills in Pennsylvania and travelled across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, planting apple trees. He became an American legend because of his kind and generous ways, his great leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance of apples. He came to be known as “Johnny Appleseed”.
He was also a missionary for the Church of the New Jerusalem,(also known as the Swedenborgian Church), teaching the theological doctrines contained in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Swedenborgian Church counted Walt Whitman, Helen Keller, Andrew Carnegie and Stephen King among its members.
The popular image of Johnny Appleseed had him spreading apple seeds randomly. However, he planted nurseries rather than orchards, built fences around them to protect them from livestock, left the nurseries in the care of a neighbor who sold trees on shares. Appleseed’s “caretakers” were asked to sell trees on credit, if at all possible, but he would accept corn meal, cash or used clothing in barter. Johnny Appleseed dressed in the worst of the used clothing he received, giving away the better clothing he received in barter. He wore no shoes, even in the snowy winter. There was always someone in need he could help out, for he did not have a house to maintain. He spent a good portion of his time traveling from home to home on the frontier. He would tell stories to children, spread the Swedenborgian gospel (“news right fresh from heaven”) to the adults, receiving a floor to sleep on for the night, sometimes supper in return. He would often tear a few pages from one of Swedenborg’s books and leave them with his hosts. He made several trips back east, both to visit his sister and to replenish his supply of Swedenborgian literature. He typically would visit his orchards every year or two and collect his earnings.
Johnny Appleseed’s beliefs made him care deeply about animals. His concern extended even to insects. One cool autumn night, while lying by his campfire in the woods, he observed that the mosquitoes flew into the fire and were burnt. Johnny, who wore a tin pot on his head, which served as both as a hat and a cooking vessel, filled it with water and quenched the fire. He remarked, “God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of destroying any of His creatures.”
It has been suggested that Johnny may have had Marfan Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. One of the primary characteristics of Marfan Syndrome is extra-long and slim limbs. All sources seem to agree that Johnny Appleseed was slim, but while other accounts suggest that he was tall, Harper’s Magazine described him as “small and wiry.”
Those who propose the Marfan theory suggest that his compromised health may have made him feel the cold less intensely. His long life, however, suggests he did not have Marfan’s, and while Marfan’s is closely associated with death from cardiovascular complications, Johnny Appleseed died in his sleep, most likely from pneumonia.
Despite his charity, Johnny Appleseed left an estate of over 1,200 acres of valuable nurseries to his sister, worth millions even then, and far more now. He could have left more if he had been diligent in his bookkeeping.

In addition to my illustration, I have included my original inked pencil sketch, before I added color.