Our classical piece for this afternoon is Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. There's a bit of laughter in there if you listen to the oboe.(think that's the instrument)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QxWxsK8_3s
Did not know the man died in this manner, y'all.
Hollywood and early death
Early in 1937, Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and a recurring impression that he was smelling burned rubber. Doctors discovered he had developed a type of cystic malignant brain tumor known as glioblastoma multiforme. Although some tried to trace his disease to a blow on the head from a golf ball, the cause of this type of cancer is still unknown. This type of cancer occurs most often in males, accounts for 52% of all brain cancers, and is nearly always fatal.
The diagnosis of glioblastoma multiforme has been questioned.The surgeon's description of Gershwin's tumor as a right temporal lobe cyst with a mural nodule is much more consistent with a pilocytic astrocytoma, a very low-grade of brain tumor. Further, Gershwin's initial olfactory hallucination (the unpleasant smell of burning rubber) was in 1934. It is highly unlikely that a glioblastoma multiforme would cause symptoms of that duration prior to causing death. Pilocytic astrocytomas may cause symptoms for twenty or more years prior to diagnosis. Thus, it is possible that Gershwin's prominent chronic gastrointestinal symptoms (which he called his "composer's stomach") were a manifestation of temporal lobe epilepsy caused by his tumor. If this is correct, then Gershwin was not "a notorious hypochondriac," as suggested by his biographer Edward Jablonski. The possibility of a long-standing brain tumor in Gershwin's case has been doubted because of the erroneous belief that a temporal lobe tumor would inevitably cause motor symptoms such as impaired piano playing. This is not true because the temporal lobe contains association cortex, not motor cortex.
and that's our medical report for today.
