Hi All – Chris has had a meeting with his therapy team today. He’s getting more words back & can now stand unassisted albeit very briefly. Chris is in a good mood and his current favourite gags are pretending to be either catatonic or bursting into tears – still the attention seeker! He’s also getting quite good at drawing with his left hand.

We chatted with Chris about the MGMT show last night – their manager David said that they were still going to pay Chris the money he would have earned from the Tall Dwarfs support slot. It’s a beautiful thing that so many people have helped Chris – other people have donated to Chris’ future so a huge thanks to all from Barbara, the kids, and me.

And the iPod is back safe and sound with it’s owner!

Roy

Hi All – MGMT’s manager David has contacted me saying that someone stole one of the band’s iPods on Monday night. I can’t believe how uncool this is! MGMT put on a show to help Chris out at a really terrible time in his life – they took no profits, organisied the show in a rush, & are great guys to boot.

We all get pissed and do dumb things occasionally (well at least I do) – the best thing is just to front up the next day and apologise, you usually get forgiven.

If anyone out there can help locate the iPod we’d be really grateful. If it could be returned to the Bacco Room or Toto restaurant there’ll be no questions asked & we won’t press any charges.

Thanks

Roy

Hi All

Thanks to MGMT for last night’s DJ at the Bacco Room set & thanks to everyone who came – we’re sorry about the late start time but it just had to be that way due to the gig upstairs. Hope you had fun.

Thanks also to Kerre for the poker set! It’s had a ton of use & it’s added to the enjoyment of the time we’re spending with Chris.

Rob Mirkin

Press release for Friday 17th July 2009
“Barbara Ward and the Ward-Knox family would like to thank everyone that has assisted them over the 5 weeks since Chris’ stroke – from cards & letters, to gifts, dinners, lawn-mowing, and much more. There are so many individual people that we simply can’t get back to everyone to express our gratitude at this time, but your efforts have made a difficult period in our lives much easier.
“We’d particularly like to thank MGMT & Sony for organizing the upcoming show on Monday night at the Bacco Room. It’s a very kind offer from MGMT who the Tall Dwarfs were about to play two shows with next week.
“We are currently organising an album of cover versions of Chris’ songs which will be called ‘Stroke’. We are thrilled by the line-up, which includes such people as David Kilgour, The Mint Chicks, Lou Barlow, Graeme Downs, Guided By Voices, The Mountain Goats, Jay Clarkson, Martin Phillips, Jay Reatard, Yo La Tengo, Lambchop, Shane Carter, Pumice, Alec Bathgate, Will Oldham, Jeff Mangum, and Bill Callahan.  It’s an exciting project, which will also give Chris’ friends and well-wishers an opportunity to contribute to Chris’ future.
“Chris is re-learning the skills that have been affected by the stroke. The stroke has affected the speech & language centers of Chris’ brain & the right side of his body. It looks like it could be a long recovery process, but Chris is still Chris with the same sense of humour & joy & love & taste & smarts & appreciation of the absurdity of life that he has always had.  Chris’ attitude to life remains positive, and he is currently a big fan of electric toothbrushes, iPods & poker. He also still delivers a good tune.
“We appreciate that people remain interested in Chris’ recovery and ask that the media continue to respect his privacy. ”

Roy Martyn

Hi All – Cool news! MGMT, who the Tall Dwarfs were about to support next week, are doing an all ages  DJ set on Monday night at the Bacco Room at 53 Nelson St with all proceeds going to Chris. Doors open at 8.30pm and tickets are only $20. It’s an amazing thing that MGMT have offered to do this for Chris and I’d like to thank them and their management team on behalf of Chris & his family. We look forward to meeting you guys next week.

Thanks also to all those in NZ who have brought this show together quickly over the last few days – in particular Kim at Sony & Jon at the Bacco Room. It’s fantastic that so many people are giving so generously of their time & resources for Chris. Again – thanks so much folks!

Hi All – We took Chris out to Cornwallis Beach on Saturday and sat in the car as it was pissing down. We had to start the windscreen wipers every few minutes so we could see out – the patheticness of the situation was not lost on Chris.

Chris is getting into his iPod & his reading seems to be improving. On Sunday a bunch of us sat around & watched ‘Dracula’ with Chris but I think the general chattiness of the room, and smart-alec interjections, annoyed him – he does take his film watching seriously y’know.

So far I’ve received recordings from Lambchop, Lou Barlow, and The Magnetic Fields & am waiting on tracks from David Kilgour, Will Oldham, The Bats, AC Newman, The Mint Chicks, Martin Phillips, Mountain Goats, Jeff Mangum, Olivia Tremor Control, Guided By Voices, Yo La Tengo, Shane Carter, Jay Clarkson, Bill Callahan, Pumice, Alec Bathgate, Jay Reatard, Sky Green Leopards, Graeme Downs, Superchunk, David Pine, Scott Kannenburg, The Able Tasmans, The Tokey Tones, and Psychatrone Rhonedakk  ….. and there are still some people who we’re trying to contact or who we are waiting for confirmation from.

All the beets.

Roy

Hi All – We’ve had meetings with health care specialists this week. Chris is making progress but he has had a major stroke and the recovery process will continue to be slow. It’s tempting to try and guess the future but it is still pretty unclear. Chris’ days are spent working intensively on his recovery and the evenings are for hanging-out with family & friends. Poker is still the game of the moment. Chris is usually in a good mood &, although frustrated at times, is enjoying a reasonable quality of life.

We’re working to bring together the album of Chris’ songs – I had a song arrive on my desk from Nashville this morning. It’s a neat feeling knowing that people through-out NZ and around the world are working away on a track for Chris as I write.The cover is going to be a combination of Alec & Chris’ art. Hopefully in the next post I’ll be able to confirm some of the artists we’ve got lined up.

Hiya – Yesterday we took Chris out to Murawai Beach – it was raining as we left town all bundled up in the station wagon. A friend was over from the States and as we talked the conversation veered from record production to discussing a voluntary euthanasia society in the US she works with called “Compassion & Choices” (Google will get you there until I can work out a link) who sound like they’re doing  brilliant work. Chris, like myself, has strong views on the right to die with dignity (not that we’re thinking anything like that at the moment of course!)

When we got to the beach it was a beautful, if blustery, afternoon – the only downside being that some fool (namely me) had forgotten Chris’ jacket so he got kinda chilly as we went up to the ganet colony – sorry Chris. We enjoyed a good falafel on the way home.

Chris’ evenings still consist of a vegetarian meal followed by thrashing us at poker – it has become our routine (has it really only been three weeks since the stroke??) and so we are planning more trips to give more variation.

See ya.

Hi everyone – Chris is doing well. He’s looking more alert each day and words are slowly beginning to come to him – I think I got an ‘hello’ when I walked in yesterday. He’s finding the weeks hard work at the moment, focusing on his recovery, so hopefully this weekend will turn out to be a more relaxing affair.

Some of you have asked for an address to send things to Chris and a friend of ours has lent us the use of a box (thanks Paul – a whiskey on me) – so if ya wanna send stuff ……

Attn: Chris Knox PO BOX 8453 Symonds St. Auckland 1150, New Zealand

We’re currently putting together an album of artists covering Chris’ songs. We’ve got a rather wonderful line-up of Chris’ friends, fans & cohorts from around the world recording such tracks as ‘Nothing’s Going To Happen’, ‘ My Only Friend’ & ‘The Slide’ (one of my all time faves).  Everyone is donating their work at no charge and all proceeds are going to help Chris.

Hi All – We’ve decided to slow the rate of blog entries down a bit as the phase Chris is now in means a slower rate of progress hence there is less to write about. That said, Chris IS making really good progress & we see daily improvements. He’s active & working hard on his recovery. He seems to acknowledge where he is at in life with amazing acceptance & a sense of (albeit understandably dark) humour which are traits I’ve always liked in Chris.

He’s enjoying soundly thrashing all-comers at poker but sucks at Connect Four. We’ve  decorated his room with all the art & posters & bits & pieces that have rolled in from around the world. Thanks to everyone from Chris & family for all the generosity, warmth and goodwill – it’s quite something for a mere mortal like myself to behold. Whodda thunk 30 odd years of obscurity and obknoxiousness would reap such rewards!