ALDAcon Karaoke

The Karaoke party on Saturday night of ALDAcon was scheduled from 8:00 to midnight, but we were having so much fun, it actually ran over!  I honestly had no idea what to expect from this party.  I hadn’t done karaoke in almost a decade, and I admittedly have no rhythm (although I do like to dance, I’m just awful at it!).

Here is the first e-mail I received about the ALDAcon Karaoke, a few weeks before the ’Con:

“Since 1992, ALDA has hosted its Karaoke Party at our annual ALDAcon through the generous support of the Verizon Foundation. Karaoke has become a cherished and fun source of support by reconnecting us to a huge missing part of our social environment—music. While we may not be able to hear or understand music as we remember it, by feeling vibrations, reading familiar lyrics on a screen and dancing with our ALDA family, it recreates those wonderful moments we've missed since losing our hearing.” 

And from the flyer for it:

“Your friends can all hear.  Your family can too!  They laugh and cut up, but you have no clue what's goin’ on.  You wanna sing your heart out and dance yourself crazy, but you are afraid of being off key and you can't hear the rhythm of the song.  Why hold back?? That’s not YOU!!!”   

These really helped me to understand the purpose of karaoke at a conference for deafened people (you have to admit, it sounds strange at first).  It was amazing to watch this group of deaf people singing, signing, and dancing along to all eras and genres of music.  Everyone was having a blast, myself included.  Yes, the singing was mostly off-key; but, mine was too!  I got up to dance to “Walk Like an Egyptian,” “YMCA,” “Stayin’ Alive,” and “Macarena.”  It was a surreal experience, to say the least.

My favorite thing about the karaoke was the balloons.  To “re-discover” music, you can blow up a balloon and hold it on your lap while loud music is playing—it’s incredible!  I’m not sure who first discovered this, but ALDAcon Karaoke prides itself on making the music accessible to everyone, with both the lyrics on the screen, and the balloons that allow deaf people to feel the beat.

I was worried about the loudness of the music, since my mild hearing loss was probably at least aggravated by listening to music too loud over the years.  Luckily, there are special earplugs made for musicians that allow you to still hear all the frequencies of music, but lowers the decibel level just enough that it doesn’t damage your hearing.  I ordered the smaller size of musician earplugs, thinking that the adult size might hurt my ears.  They fit perfectly, and did exactly what they were supposed to!  I could still talk to people, and hear the music just fine; it just wasn’t loud or hurting my ears.  I actually started to wonder if the music was loud at all, until a Hearing lady at my table complained of splitting headache caused by the music. 

For the final song, “Wind Beneath My Wings,” we all stood around in a big circle singing.  Bob and Sarah were to my right and ended up standing right in front of one of the speakers, and I was just to the left of it with my leg pressed against it.  I could feel it shaking, hard, but the sound didn’t bother my ears at all.  After the song ended, Sarah yelled, “WOW, that speaker was LOUD!  I am in PAIN!  My ears are going to be ringing for a while!”  I felt guilty because with my earplugs, I was able to enjoy the music without any of the pain!

And now for some pictures.  Here’s a shot from “Hotel California”; Ken in the middle is signing while he sings.  They had a lot of cute props for people to wear on the stage:

This picture is from “Boot Scootin’ Boogie.”  I didn’t participate because I don’t know this dance, but I did sing along:

1 in 5 Teens has Hearing Loss

In 1994, roughly 1 in 20 American adolescents had some degree of hearing loss.  By 2006, the prevalence jumped to 1 in 5—about 6.5 million children aged 12 to 19, according to a new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.  One of the authors, Dr. Roland Eavey, says,

“What we're seeing is a big jump in the prevalence of hearing loss in a very short period of time, in less than one generation.  That means we're on the front edge of an epidemic.”

The main culprit (probably not too surprisingly) is suspected to be exposure to loud noises, especially music.  Tommie Robinson, president of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, says,

“I believe this is rooted in a cultural paradigm shift in terms of how electronics have become ‘the thing.’  Everyone has something in their ears.”

Recent reports have determined that “not only do teenagers play music at louder volumes, but they are completely unaware they are doing so.” 

Dr. Eavy suggests that when giving a child or teenager an iPod (or other MP3 device), to set the maximum volume limit at a lower level.  Apple has detailed instructions on setting the volume limit on its website, as well as a page on “Sound and Hearing.”  Other informative websites are “How Loud is Too Loud?” and “It’s a Noisy Planet,” both by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders,  and “Listen to Your Buds” by ASHA.

The “Listen to Your Buds” website has a number of recommendations for reducing childhood noise exposure, including wearing hearing protectors.  I personally swear by foam earplugs, which block out the sounds of trains and neighborhood dogs when I’m trying to sleep.  And while I love loud bass and spent my teenage years blaring music as loud as it would go, it undoubtedly contributed to the minor-to-mild hearing loss (15 to 25 decibel loss) that I now suffer.  I’ve decided that from now on, I’m going to take a pair of earplugs with me to concerts, wedding receptions, and other loud venues.  Earplugs now come in a variety of colors and styles—even specifically for musicians and concert-goers—and I hope they can become popular among teenagers who don’t want to lose their hearing before the age of 20!

  

Dry & Store & Fiona Apple

Brandt found out on Thursday that his iCom was back from its repairs (I think this is the 5th or 6th repair, but I've honestly lost count), so he had to rush back to the audiology clinic yesterday.  And after waiting over 2 months for the Dry & Store hearing aid dryer, it has finally come in as well (it’s cheaper and readily available on Amazon.com, but his health insurance will only help pay for it if it’s purchased through a doctor’s office).  It was supposed to come in a few weeks ago, but there was some “electrical glitch” in the batch sent out by the company, and they all had to be returned.

He tried out his iPhone and FM system with the new iCom (which was completely rebuilt, again—this time with a stronger neck-loop and updated software) and they worked fine, but music was a different story.  Now, Brandt doesn’t actually like music, but it’s a great way to test his hearing technology because it uses Stereo sound, whereas the other devices use Mono.  His iPhone randomly selected “Across the Universe” from the Pleasantville soundtrack, and his description of what the song sounded like was:

“Finona Apple singing underwater, holding a record player, driving down my parents’ gravel road.”  

I responded, “Wow, that is really specific.”  “It skips,” he explained, “and the sound quality is all messed up.”  The audiologist couldn’t fix it, and Phonak told her that ‘iPhones are the one type of cell phone that don’t handle Stereo sound correctly’ (or something to that effect).  There’s ALWAYS a catch with this technology! 

The reason Brandt got the Dry & Store is because both of his hearing aids have had to be sent back to Phonak and completely replaced in the last few months—and he just got them last July.  His audiologist guessed that maybe they were getting too much moisture in them, and it was shorting out the electrical circuits.  She gave Brandt a ‘passive’ hearing aid dryer last fall, which is simply a little plastic container with a desiccant (drying substance) inside it.  He stored his hearing aids in the container at night, and the desiccant was supposed to dry out the moisture inside the hearing aids.  Then when the white desiccant turned blue, it meant that it was full of moisture and he popped it in the microwave for a few seconds to ‘recharge’ it.  It was easy—and better yet, FREE—but unfortunately it didn’t do enough good.

Brandt’s audiologist follows the “no-pressure salesman” model, which we generally appreciate.  She made sure from the start that Brandt didn’t feel pressured into buying a particular (more expensive) model of hearing aid or other hearing assistive devices, and stressed that she doesn’t make a profit off anything he orders through the clinic.  When our state Vocational Rehabilitation Office offered to pay for Brandt’s FM system, iCom, and the mid-grade model of BTE hearing aids, he wanted to upgrade to the high-end model of hearing aids and pay the difference of $2,000.  His audiologist was very against this and tried to talk him out of it, saying repeatedly that none of her patients had ever been able to tell a difference between the two and that he would just be wasting his money.  He was insistent on the upgrade, and finally she compromised by letting him wear the mid-grade model for a month and then let him try the high-end model for two weeks afterwards.  He ended up preferring the high-end model by leaps and bounds and paid the extra $2,000 to keep them, much to the audiologist’s surprise.

But even with this background knowledge that she didn’t like to ‘pressure’ patients into paying for extra things, we still find it strange that she didn’t recommend Brandt get the Dry & Store much earlier (and even when she recommended it, she still phrased it as more of a suggestion, and apologized profusely that he would have to pay $150 for the machine).  When Brandt opened the box and read all the features, he said, “I should have gotten this when I first got the hearing aids!”  It’s a powerful dryer that pulls the moisture out of the hearing aids, and uses a ‘desiccant brick’ to trap the moisture; they last about 2 months each.  It also has a “UV germicidal lamp” that sanitizes the hearing aids.  The other claims on the box are:

• Removes destructive moisture.
• Hearing aids sound better, last longer.
• Dries ear wax that can interfere with hearing aid function.
• Reduces or eliminates itching and irritated ears.
• Hearing aids operate more efficiently so batteries can last longer.

I’m relieved that the Dry & Store arrived when it did, because the humidity around here is so intense, I was getting worried that Brandt’s hearing aids would short out again from all the moisture.  We can’t say with real certainty that it’s working, but when he took the hearing aids out this morning, all the moisture in the tubes was gone.  So that’s a good sign, at least! 

  

Sean Forbes: Deaf Rapper

What could be more ironic than a Deaf rapper?

28-year-old Sean Forbes has been profoundly deaf since he was a baby.  His parents are musicians, and he grew up loving the low-frequency bass of drums and hip-hop music.  In 2006, Sean co-founded the Deaf Professional Arts Network (D-PAN), which remakes music videos of popular songs using ASL, including Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” and John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change”.  (Unfortunately these videos aren’t captioned, but subtitles are available on D-PAN’s DVD of these and more music videos.)

Sean recently signed a contract with the recording label Web Entertainment, which launched the career of rapper Eminem.  His first single, “I’m Deaf,” features Sean singing in English while simultaneously signing in ASL.  It is available for digital download on iTunes, and the CD (and t-shirts) can be purchased on Sean’s website.  The video for “I’m Deaf” is below, and I personally think it’s awesome.  Even Brandt, who usually hates music, said it was “very interesting”—which is high praise coming from him!

If you’d like to see more about Sean, there is a great captioned news report about him (although they should have said “Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing” instead of “Hearing-Impaired”!)

  

Letters to Juliet

Brandt survived the semester!  He’s now just one year (2 classes and the dissertation) away from being DOCTOR Brandt. 

So to celebrate, he took me out to see a chick-flick last night.  The reason we saw a chick-flick was because our local movie theater chain only shows one movie per week in Rear Window Captioning, usually the biggest opening movie, and this weekend it was Letters to Juliet.  I told him we didn’t have to see it, because I knew it would be really sappy and he’d probably fall asleep halfway through, but he insisted.

The large group of teenage girls in front of us couldn’t figure out what our RWC viewer panels were, and asked each other, “Do we need to get those?  What are they for??”  Finally the leader of the group asked me, and I told her it was for the captioning that was projected from the back of the theater.  I pointed to the big LED screen in the back.  They all looked at it, tried to read the backwards letters, and were still confused.  One of the girls whispered, “I think it’s for Deaf people…”  They all nodded, then looked back at me, puzzled.  I know they were thinking something like, ‘But they’re talking, how are they Deaf?’  I didn’t elaborate and they didn’t ask anything else; it was more fun to keep them confused (I was a teenager once, too—sometimes they need to be reminded that they don’t know everything!)

The theme song to Letters to Juliet, “Love Story” by Taylor Swift, was the first song I ever saw translated into ASL on YouTube (see below).  The signer is Ally, a Deaf Education student.  She says:

“I strongly believe that music should be widely accessible to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, just as it is to Hearing.  For this to be possible, it is essential that the music and lyrics are both signed using accurate ASL structure and features.”

This was about a year and a half ago, when I had first become interested in learning Sign.  Watching the video was extremely overwhelming, because the signs were flying by so fast and I didn’t know any of them.  I knew I’d never be able to sign like Ally, but I worried that I’d never even be able to understand what she was signing.  Happily, I can now watch this video and know most of the signs.  Keep in mind when you watch Ally’s videos, she is interpreting in ASL—it is not word-for-word English, it is a different grammar and syntax, and often the words/signs themselves are different.  (Unfortunately she does not provide captioning to show what the song’s lyrics are versus what she is signing, but on some of her videos she provides an explanation of how to sign the song, such as “Just to See You Smile”.)

Ally has a lot of videos, and I recommend them as a great way to see ASL in action.  If you would like to see ASL songs with the lyrics and actual signs (the “gloss”) captioned, check out “CaptainValor” on YouTube.  His video for Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA” is very well done (although the song will probably be stuck in your head for the next week!) and provides both the lyrics and the gloss (the signs he is performing) underneath in ALL CAPS.  My favorite video of his is “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas (another one that will get stuck in your head).  This one doesn’t have captioning, but if you expand the description under the video, he has the lyrics and gloss written out.

  

What’s ‘Utterly Absurd’ and Gets in the Way?

The answer is: MUSIC!  Brandt hates music.  He doesn’t understand music.  He’s annoyed by music.  He can’t hear over background music.  Really, he just plain hates it.

It was hard for me to fully understand this hatred of music when he first told me.  I thought he was being sarcastic, or at least a little over-dramatic.  Nope, he really really hates it.  This was hard for me to comprehend, because music has always been a big part of my life.  Isn’t a big part of most people’s lives?  If you hear your favorite songs from elementary school (New Kids on the Block) or from your Prom (Goo Goo Dolls), it takes you back.  It gives you a way to connect or reconnect with people.  I played '90s music at our wedding reception in honor of my bridesmaids (friends since high school).  I never would have survived Comprehensive Exams without listening to Linkin Park over and over.  I have great memories of attending Aerosmith and Third Day concerts.  So it’s difficult to imagine hating music in any and all forms.

Brandt initially explained his dislike of music simply: “It gets in my way!”  That I could understand.  If there is loud, annoying music in the background, he can’t hear over it.  So I stopped listening to it in the car unless I was alone, and I learned to ask others to turn off the music playing during their dinner parties.  But it’s hard to escape all music all the time.  We were in Kroger the other day, and “Hungry Eyes” was playing on the speakers overhead.  Without even thinking, I started singing along (while wearing the FM system).  Finally, poor annoyed Brandt asked me to stop singing and I apologized, saying I was singing along with the music and didn’t realize I was doing it.  He asked, puzzled, “There’s music playing? I thought that was just random loud noise.  I don’t understand how you Hearing people can like music…”

He commented once, a few years ago, that he wondered what kind of music he would like if he could actually understand it.  It was a very sad moment for me.  How do you answer that? 

I was surprised when we went to the HLAA convention last year that just about everyone else there LOVED music.  At the opening-night social, they set up karaoke.  LOUD karaoke.  I could barely hear anything over the booming music, and finally asked Louise, “how can anyone hear each other?  It’s SO LOUD!”  “Is it?” she asked me.  “I think it’s wonderful!”  Brandt and I finally had to leave; he couldn’t talk to anyone, and my ears were ringing.  We both though it bizarre that a roomful of deaf and hard-of-hearing people were having so much fun singing.  I knew that Louise had always loved music, and played the piano and clarinet before losing her hearing.  She even directed the children’s choir at her church for many many years, after becoming deaf.  Josie, also, enjoys music and has an extensive collection of CDs and iTunes playlists.  I find this fascinating.  Brandt finds it annoying.

This past weekend, we had Saturday Night Live playing in the background while Brandt was writing a paper and I was reading a book during the commercials.  I muted the musical guest, MGMT, because I could tell just by looking that Brandt would hate them.  To my surprise, he looked up and started reading the captioning for their song “Brian Eno.”  He read silently for a minute, then said, “You know, when you can’t hear the music and you just read the words, it’s utterly absurd.”  I laughed, then started reading myself; and I quickly agreed with him.  “Um, yeah, this is absurd.”  He continued, “They’re trying to make themselves out as philosophical sages, but they’re really just spouting stuff.”

You be the judge*:

All the space left for you
If the sky was synthesized
You’d probably know
He taught me many things
The wisdom of bleak stratagems
The prophet of a sapphire soul
Presented through creative freedoms
…He promised pretty worlds
And all the silence I could dream of
Brian Peter George St. John
When I tried to humanize by ambient light
Dipping swords in met force yeah,
But what does he know
He’s going to the whole world behind him
Here’s Brian Eno

* this is what our Closed Captioning said the lyrics are.  And when I actually listened to the song later, it was rather catchy; just reading the words is an entirely different experience though.