Introducing hella frisch

Welcome to my new blog, which was inspired by a brand of bubbly bottled water that I drank in copious amounts one summer at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival in northern Germany. Hella was one of the sponsors of the festival, and one day they brought their mascot/spokesman, Hella Frisch Man, decked out in superhero cape and tights, to spray Hella water at us from a pressurized tank attached to his back. This was a highlight of that summer for me, and I have always felt an odd sort of kinship with Hella Frisch Man, that strong, silent, yet occasionally effervescent superhero. My last name is also Heller, which presents a handy mnemonic device.

In addition to Hella Frisch Man, this blog was inspired by my friend George, a bass trombonist whose blog is called The Transient Trombonist, and by the realization that I was boring and exasperating my friends and family with my daily e-mails about Terri Schiavo. I was hoping to get everyone firing off reactions to the medical, political, moral, and legal dimensions of the case, which I couldn't stop thinking about. I guess it's sort of a Florida thing, though, to obsess about other people's moral and legal dilemmas when we're not obsessing about the weather.

This evening I was donating blood - it was sort of a spontaneous decision, actually, I just walked over to Kinko's to make some copies and there was a bloodmobile parked there, right next to the South Beach movie theater at 9 pm on a Friday night. I thought that was kind of weird, trying to get people to donate blood on their way to clubbing and stuff. I asked how late they normally run their Friday night blood drives, and the guy said 11:30, no later than midnight. I guess that by then most of the people who come in test as blood type Bacardi positive.

While the phlebotomist was disinfecting my elbow, I tried to engage him in a conversation about Terri Schiavo. He was a big Haitian guy who maybe didn't speak much English, but he seemed pretty smart. Rather than telling me his views, he just asked me what I thought about it and kind of nodded in agreement as he stuck a big needle in my arm. I guess it occurred to me that it's always nice to get a reaction to your ideas, even if it kind of hurts and costs you a pint or so of bodily fluids.

I'm not sure yet how much of this blog should be my thoughts about social and political topics like the Schiavo case, and how much about things I'm reading, or about my actual life. It will probably be a combination of all three. Of course, I always welcome comments from anyone who cares to contribute to the blog. Thanks for visiting!